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After reading the many very helpful and TBH interesting articles on defending in the bible thread, I set about designing my own tactic based on 4-4-2 with the hope that I would finally be able to defend well and starting winning. I have never had any problems designing tactics that score goals but the amount of goals I was conceding on FM2007 was starting to really p*** me off!
Anyway I thought I'd cracked it, first 6 games no goals conceded and by the halfway stage of the Conference only 16 in 23. I was very pleased - then it all started to go wrong. I'm still winning games - in fact I've just come off the back of a 14 game unbeaten run and I'm top of the conference with 6 games to go. What am I worried about you might say? Well next season if I go up, better teams better strikers = more goals conceded. Not good. Plus the goal conceding frenzy got out of hand when I lost 6-3 to a mid table side to end my 14 game unbeaten run.
Just as background:
playing 4-4-2 - fwdarrows on wingers all the way to top (halfway seems to make little difference).
FBs mentality 8, CB 6, MCd 5, Wingers 14
FBs, CB no CF, MCd v little.
FBs, CB direct passing (14).
Closing down, FB 13, CB 10, MCd 13
All instructions on rarely, except FB crossing on mixed.
Team instructions - mentality, width, passing, tempo all on 13. No boxes ticked and everything else on default.
I thought my "back 5" were set up ok but the shipping of goals is getting worse.
Any ideas/tweaks to improve?
Another quick question, I often concede goals in the second half and late on (often equalisers in 90th+ minutes - v frustrating!). I'm starting to say in team talks at HT if leading "don't let performance drop" but am concerned this will adversely affect morale - anyone had any experience with this? I like to "show encouragement" when leading as I see this as saying - "you're doing great keep doing it" whereas "don't let performance drop" seems more negative. Unfortunately though when leading by 2+ goals at HT it seems "show encouragement" isn't available - saying I'm pleased only produces a poor second half performance.
I also seem to concede goals straight after I've scored if that helps.
Fprgot to add above, my defenders are pretty good (for the conference) - but if you think the tactics about are OK then maybe I'll start looking at them!!
First of all let me be clear by saying that i am not a tactic expert. However remembering some of the tips given out by others in this forum, one mistake that you seem to be doing is regarding the mentality.
FBs mentality 8Wingers 14
In a thread regarding tactics for FM06, i once read that the mentality of a player should be decided on the mentalities of players behind and forward.
Here you have given your fb a mentality of 8, but for wingers it is 14. This leaves a very big gap between your wingers and fbs. So i suggest that you tone down the mentality of your wingers to around 10-11.
Same for the centre of the field. You have given a mentality rating of 6 for cb, but 5 for Mcd :eek:
Put the Mcds to 8 and then see.
Once again, i am not an expert and if some others who are more experienced give you advice then follow it first. But since you are sitting comfortable at the top with 6 games to go, not to mention the friendlies, i think you should give it a try.
Thing that seemed to solve it for me, was to give everybody bar my goalie and centre-backs forward runs often. Maybe a combination of different things, but that was the only thing I hadnt tried before and with which I was very conservative initially.
Your formation plays out like a 424, when you set your wingers with deep farrows. The danger in doing this is exposing your flanks to quick counters, the obvious way of countering this is to give your fullbacks high closing down which it appears you have done, may I suggest you do the same with your wingers, adjust them to match the fullbacks at least.
One of your MCs the more attacking one can have rarely closing down instructions. Another thing some have already pointed out is your mentalities. When you deep farrow, you are already changing the relative positions of your players; when you give such high mentalities for your wingers, you could be making it even more greater, ie the relative distances between defensive and offense. You can reduce the mentalities to the lower end of the normal range and it should work better.
Many thanks for all the above advice guys.
Despite defensive lapses, I got promoted now in league 2 and doing well - not conceding many and have decided to tweak the mentalities wingers especially.
One thing I am seeming to do this season is concede a fair few last minute goals despite adjusting tactics if I'm leading by only 1-2 goals late on. I generally bring on another DM and put both MC to DMs whilst reducing team mentality, width, tempo and passing style by 2 notches - doesn't seem to be greatly effective.
From the above would making the wingers have no Farrows at this stage of the game help.
To counter 4-2-4, I got 4-2-4 as well. Quick, direct tempo. Back four man mark (and tight), no forward runs. Two midfielders are barrowed and have mixed forward runs.
Against 424, I set my FBs with Barrows (although its already set like that as default for the tactic I'm using) and make them very defensive, with high Closing Down. I also focus play down both flanks as they have no one there so plenty of space.
Defensive problems - advice appreciated 
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