bean feast

Does anyone remember in FM06 how you would painstakingly prepare for the dreaded Man Utd/Chelsea/Arsenal away game? Remember the pride you took in creating a tactic that you felt could hold the opposition to a 0-0 draw? Remember thinking that 'this one has to work'? Remember how in the first minute, all that hard work was obliterated as your defence leaked goals like a straw dam? One of my biggest gripes about the older version was this inability to find a tactic that could actually defend. I think it might just be possible in this version, and I think I may just have found the formula (at least with the 4-1-4-1): Closing down and width.

Okay, so it doesn't take a tactical mastermind to work out that a narrow formation should indeed be harder to break down, but closing down I think is still a bit of a grey area. I decided to try and go with a global closing down and global defensive mentality and it works a bloody treat. I have set my closing down to 4 or 5 so they don't close down often at all. It is worth mentioning at this point that the manual definition is different from the label in game. In game, the progression is labelled the usual from rarely to often. The manual states that the progression reads: close down in own area to close down in opponents half. I tend to think the manual makes more sense. I mean, how can you define close down on a scale? You either close down or you don't; it's pretty black and white. On the other hand, if the scale actually represents the length of the pitch, then the slider could represent at which point on the pitch the close down 'trigger' is released—meaning at which point your players are 'unleashed'. I think this makes much more sense.

Anyway, my 4-1-4-1 formation: I am only going to share with you the results of my observations on the pitch and the final result of the matches in which I used it. I play a fast direct counter too, but I am not going to go into other details, for this is about closing down. I am Everton.

The first thing I noticed is that Andy Johnson drops deep and kind of just sits in the attacking midfield position, where as before he would run after the defenders like a nut.

When the ball goes to their full back, my winger just sits and stays in shape. The whole team is nicely lined up in what looks like a rigid, solid, and narrow formation. My centre midfield 2 (Cahill and Arteta) are nicely marked on the middle 2, and Carsley just sits patiently.

If a winger retrieves the ball and he is making progress, my whole team just drops to the area, and nobody gets pulled out—that rigid structure stays constant. It's not until the opposition reaches about 12 yards from my box that they close down, and it's usually the winger or the full back. My middle 3 stay central.

The teams I play are very limited to long range shots and hardly possess in the middle when they reach a certain point. Also, the teams I have played thus far, never get to the byline. It's just too congested and there is nowhere to go. Since I have Johnson up top I play him as a target man with run on to the ball. Mot of my team are set to through balls. I get a lot of chances.

Vs Chelsea (A) 0-0 d
Vs Man Utd (A) 0-0 d
Vs Arsenal (A) 0-1 w
Vs Koppite (A) 0-0 d

Please feel free to continue the discussion. I must leave this office.

KennyWoo

What kind of offense do you produce while playing like this? I think it's great you haven't conceded a goal, but it would also be nice to have a chance to score every now and then, even if it's just one break a game. Do you have counter attacking checked? What's your mentality/D-line/etc.?

I am intrigued by this and wouldn't mind giving it a go myself, but need either an upload or more specific instructions to do so. I get the feeling you are using all global instructions, nothing player-by-player?

The Lambs

This has promise, I often wondered why the manual contridicts the game, but as i use it as my toilet reading, I don't get to check the labels verse the game too much.

I wonder if, as in your own words its only the last 12 yards where the tackling gets done, could you give your forward 4 seperate instructions and make them more offensive?

How do you cope with the crosses? Obviously your not stopping them coming in, but are your defenders just awsome in the air, or am I missing something?

unleashed

can u post your tactic so we can give it a go and try to tweak it if neccesery?

adonis

This can be done. Pre-patch I had a 4-4-1-1 tactic that was great defensively, I didn't concede a goal in over 30 games playing as barcelona and over a season in the league and I had about twelve 1-0 wins (which I am a great fan of). Even against the rubbish teams I was happy to shut up shop when in the lead. My 2 MC's would just hold there position when defending and attacking, it was left to my ML/MR and the AMC to support my lone striker. Global closing down was notch 5 (rarely) and whenever the opposition had the ball my team would just back off and wait for the rite time to either make a tackle or an intercept. The A1 had no answer to this all they would do is get upto about 35 yards in my half realise they can't make a killer ball (whole team on tight marking) or even have a free team mate to pass it too and pass it back 60 yards back to there GK. But as I am a fan of italian football watching the defending of my players was great.

Benoit2

Back in the days when FM05 hadnt been patched, closing down in the game was called like it is called in the manual. The patch for FM05 changed the names in game; the manual never got updated.

bean feast

I ONLY use this against the top 4 or 5 teams, otherwise I have a patient passing system for away games.

I DO play counter attacking football and my whole team are set to global defensive. I think it is set to about 4 or 5 and it really helps my team play as a unit. To answer your question, mate, I am not really looking to score goals, but I DO get chances believe it or not. I would recommend only playing this if you have a lightning quick striker because Johnson hardly has ANY support. I find that my defenders win the ball and usually play it ahead of Johnson to run on to, which is exactly how I want them to play. Almost everyone is set to through balls often. It's not pretty when I have the ball, but it's pretty when I defend. It's vital that you utilise your free kicks fully too. I would guess that I get a goal from a corner every 3 games. I always use the same instructions for any team: I place my best header of the ball on the near stick and aim there. Tim Cahill constantly bangs them in. It might be worth trying because set-pieces are really important for snatching victories, particularly against the big teams when you're playing away.

ROO123

Have any of you created a 1-0 tactic in 7.0.1?

tyballll

could you upload your tatic so we can test it?

LiverpoolSimplyTheBest

I've only used it for difficult away games in the Champions League but I find 4-4-2 with a diamond midfield, narrow, quick, counter-attacking works a treat.