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I’m in my second season with Oxford Utd after being promoted to lge two. I noticed a lack of quality in wingers so decided to play 5-3-2. I don’t score too many goals because my strikers often lack as much support as they would have if I played with wingers, however my defence is pretty tight and I only conceded 32 goals in the conference. The problem is I’m not satisfied and I feel that my defence should be keeping more clean sheets. I’ve found that the majority of goals conceded are done so by the oppositions forward going straight through the middle of the defence.
My defenders are fairly quick in comparison to the rest of the defenders in the lge with pace and acceleration at an average of 12/13 each. I give them the following instructions:
All other instructions on rarely except through balls on mixed for the RCB and LCB.
For home games the defensive line is 7/8 and away its 5/6, however the opposition’s strikers still get behind me more than id like.
Again at home width is around 12 and away it’s at 8ish.
My wingbacks aren’t particularly attacking and can fairly easily get back and cover attacks on the wing and I always have at least one defence minded centre midfielder so there isn’t a lack of cover between the defence and midfield.
I have my doubts as to how good tight marking really is as too often my defenders are not tight enough. I’ve tried to increase closing down but that just creates big holes in my defence.
I play with quite a deep defensive line because my defenders aren't lightening quick and I was constantly being caught out by even the slowest and fattest strikers the conference had to offer. This is pretty much the same reason why I decided to put mentality at 0 too. However even with a deep defensive line and a defensive mentality I still don’t seem to be playing that deep and as I said at the start of the post the majority of goals I concede are from strikers getting behind my back 3.
Creative Freedom is at a minimum too because obviously being a lower league team my defenders cant be trusted too much.
I would like to hear any views on my back 3 settings and if there’s anything that you can suggest to improve it. It’s certainly been pretty good so far but I still feel that it can get better and that 5-3-2 has a lot of potential in this years FM, more so perhaps than I have found in other versions.
Ive increased the mentality of each defender 2 notches and noticed that they seem to be marking a little tighter.
Im going to drop my wing backs a little too because i feel that the space behind them could be causing problems with the opposition moving into this space which then confuses my defenders leaving other players unmarked. Maybe man marking may be the way forward.
Ok im getting really lonely on my own in this thread Does nobody play with a back three? do i smell? Do you need anymore information? Or is it just a crappy post? :p
Anyway i'll add a bit of an update. I raised the mentalities and its paid off at home but away from home im struggling. Thinking of dropping a midfielder back to DMC to add more support but i dont score many away from home as it is so im undecided.
Maybe i should just give up and play 442, it seems a whole lot easier and stable!
i am playing the same tactic on my chelsea, so far no team as ever outplayed me.. i always attack more than the other team but sometimes i dont win hehe
still testing it tho... i have 1 of the CB
man marking and tight instructions, he has high concentration and high marking skills.
Implementing a successful back 3 
Does nobody play with a back three? do i smell? Do you need anymore information? Or is it just a crappy post? :p
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