[vasilli07]

What are the pros and cons between these 2 defensive pairing?

[Millie]

Having one as a cover and one as a stopper allows you to play two different types of defender to combat different types of threat. A big bulky guy to head the ball away (and take the forwards with him) as a stopper and a more mobile "sweeping" type defender to guard against through balls.

The difficulty with such a system is that there's the opportunity to pull the players out of position and exploit the fact that they may be on different wave lengths.

On the other hand, having both as defend means they'll both do their jobs, doing what they feel best in the situation. But there will be no formal differentiation between their roles. At least with the split defenders, each knows what they are expected to do primarily.

I think it depends on who you are playing and the skills of your players in what you decide to do with this one. I haven't experimented enough with it to favour one system over the other quite yet.

[cagiva]

Very vague question. Both pairing will do good job if the players are capable of playing/executes such as role.

May be the stoper/cover pairing would be more tactical mobile and flexible,bust still has negative thing - the both player plays "far" from each other ( ie not in one line ) and the space between them could be easily exposed by fast and technical attackers.

In other way two central defender,which playing in one line ( ie playing as central defender/limited defender/ball-playing defenders with defend duty both of them ) will be vulnureable to strikers,who can beat the offside trap and gets behind them.

So everything depends both of players skills and what they can and can't do, and also of your overall tactical approach. Bear in mind that opposition's players and tactical approach should be also taka in cosideretitaion.

[adcampbe]

I've actually had success with a regular central defender on defend combined with CB on cover. This creates almost a "faux-sweeper" effect and by having his partner on defend they have been pulled out of position much less often as with a stopper.

On a side note, I have yet to really be happy with the way the stopper role functions. There's a fine line between stepping up and getting stuck in a tackle and chasing the bloke all the way back to the center circle.

[chrisormie]

Totally depends on the players imho.

Ferdinand = ball-playing cover
Vidic = limited stopper
Terry = defender defend
Carragher = defender cover

Choose whatever roles and styles suit the players and don't worry about it too much. If your trying to play a certain way and don't have the right players for it then the team may playhow you want but not be too good at it. Try people out in a few roles until you get good ratings, feedback, and a happy player - then you'll know you have their perfect roles and styles.

(the above roles are what I would guess each player as from real life and not game stats)

[themadsheep2001]

i play a defend cover partnership. as with adcambpe, i've had limited success with stoppers, they get drawn out too easily for me, maybe im implementing them wrong, but i personally dont like them in FM

[ontopoftheworld]

I manage a weaker team and use the players attributes to decide , but I basically play my more skilled defender as a cntral defender (defend), and my less skilled defender as a limited defender (defend). I found that a stopper/cover pairing was opened up far too easily by a striker with any pace.

[JWP21]

Hey guys, posted this is a seperate thread but Millie pointed me in the direction of this one.
My query regarding stopper/cover is:

Quote

I have Gallas, Vermaelen, Fazio and Materazzi on loan to cover the injured Djourou. I have started setting my centre backs up as cover (Gallas/Vermaelen) and stopper (Fazio/Materazzi). It works well when the opposition is attacking close to my area, but when I'm attacking and my team take up positions towards the half way line my cover CB is often deeper than my stopper CB. He's only just deeper than the stopper CB but its enough for opposition strikers to expose this. Any player with decent off the ball and pace can get in behind with alarming regularity. I have my team philosophy on balanced and both centre backs are pretty much the standard set up the game recommends.
So does playing cover/stopper automatically lead to less offsides as one CB is taking up a deeper position than the other?
Does playing cover/stopper work better when integrated in a certain type of tactic (ie attacking, defending)

PS: I have been playing offside trap initially, but have tested the tactic with offside trap off and there is no conceivable difference. Defensive line is normal.

[Levo]

Quote

Having one as a cover and one as a stopper allows you to play two different types of defender to combat different types of threat. A big bulky guy to head the ball away (and take the forwards with him) as a stopper and a more mobile "sweeping" type defender to guard against through balls.

The difficulty with such a system is that there's the opportunity to pull the players out of position and exploit the fact that they may be on different wave lengths.

On the other hand, having both as defend means they'll both do their jobs, doing what they feel best in the situation. But there will be no formal differentiation between their roles. At least with the split defenders, each knows what they are expected to do primarily.

I think it depends on who you are playing and the skills of your players in what you decide to do with this one. I haven't experimented enough with it to favour one system over the other quite yet.

I havent done much experimenting but I would have thought that alot would depend on the decision making and off the ball skills of these players. When I look for my defenders this and concentration are two important attributes that I want in my players.

This would in theory mean that the split defense will be less likely to be pulled out of position at the wrong times and if they are caught short, the other defender will be on hand to help out. I have found great success in having a split defences often finding that much of the danger is cut out well, even if one defender is caught out.

[Levo]

Ok after playing around 10 games with this system with Spurs, as suggested in the TT10 appendix. I have noticed that my cover Woodgate just really doesn't do well in this position. 90% of the goals I have conceded have been because he has been unable to stop the strikers who are sitting high up the field.

But this has mainly been against teams such as Arsenal and Manchester United who have great technical strikers. I wonder if these defenders need to be better in the tackling and I would have though much more intellegent then a normal central defender in order to do this role much better?

Against other sides it doesnt seem to be too bad although this might have to do alot with me keeping hold of the ball much better against smaller sides and doing all the pressuring. With Spurs I am playing short passing football.

[cagiva]

For me the problem is that Woodgate is not pacey,nor agile player. Of course he will have problem against highly pacey and techical players.
He is good on anticipationg the situation and position himself,but lacking mobility will hinder him in many situation.

If one player is excellent in tackling - doesnt' matter,if he is slow to position himself in place to attempt a tackling.

I know my explanation is bad,but that's the best I can express myself. Sorry about that.

[Levo]

That makes perfect sense cagiva and in my up coming FM Britain article I do talk a little bit about this. I was hoping that his intellengence and position might make up for his lack of pace. He wants to leave the club anyway, so I will look for a more suitable replacement either in the side or in the transfer market and see how that works for the side.

[Haruri]

I also encounter the same problem where I have Mertesacker and Simon Kaer as defenders. Both of them have high anticipation, reasonable tackling but low pace and agility. I would rather set their roles as defend roles and they could make an offside trap rather than setting for 1 cover and stopper. Players with low pace just could not keep up with the pace and techical players such as Robinho even though they have anticipate them.

[Death Ball]

I have used a cover/stopper (both central defender) pairing in my first season with a Tercera Divisi�n team (I enabled it with editor). The first had good speed and average aerial play while the second was slow and strong on the air.

During preseason I found out that with the 4-4-2 I intended to make my standard tactic, the stopper went out of position quite a lot, costing me several goals that otherwise shouldn't have been received. It happened regardless of the overall team tactic: control, standard, counter, play wider or narrower...

What I found was that with the players, which were good for a fourth level division (Adr�an Medrano and Fernando Colina or Gustavo at Burgos CF), I had, the cover/stopper pairing needed an anchor in front of them. They performed brilliantly the first preseason match with the V shaped 4-5-1 (aka 4-3-3 in FM09), so I took the 4-4-2, moved the Mcl to DMC as anchorman, moved forward the MR to AMR, moved back the FCl to AMCl to keep the distance between him and his corresponding midfielder now in DM line, and just with that the couple worked wonderfully. The anchorman would be the one marking that deep forward when still ahead of the area, so my stopper would not run off position to mark him and would only move out when really needed. Never again I received goals because of him getting out of position and went to dominate the division being by far the team that conceded less goals.

Eventually, the next season with the player changes, I abandoned the stopper/cover and went to the classical defend/defend and later I've gone to a 4-4-2 as I went up to Second B and there the 4-2-3-1 assymetric didn't work as well. Currently I don't feel my players are up to retaking the cover/stopper given the overabundance of lightning fast players populating 2B group I forward lines; but I would consider testing if in a 4-4-2 having a ball winning midfielder set to defend in front of the stopper would provide the marking needed to keep the stopper in line.

[Haruri]

Quote

I have used a cover/stopper (both central defender) pairing in my first season with a Tercera Divisi�n team (I enabled it with editor). The first had good speed and average aerial play while the second was slow and strong on the air.

During preseason I found out that with the 4-4-2 I intended to make my standard tactic, the stopper went out of position quite a lot, costing me several goals that otherwise shouldn't have been received. It happened regardless of the overall team tactic: control, standard, counter, play wider or narrower...

What I found was that with the players, which were good for a fourth level division (Adr�an Medrano and Fernando Colina or Gustavo at Burgos CF), I had, the cover/stopper pairing needed an anchor in front of them. They performed brilliantly the first preseason match with the V shaped 4-5-1 (aka 4-3-3 in FM09), so I took the 4-4-2, moved the Mcl to DMC as anchorman, moved forward the MR to AMR, moved back the FCl to AMCl to keep the distance between him and his corresponding midfielder now in DM line, and just with that the couple worked wonderfully. The anchorman would be the one marking that deep forward when still ahead of the area, so my stopper would not run off position to mark him and would only move out when really needed. Never again I received goals because of him getting out of position and went to dominate the division being by far the team that conceded less goals.

Eventually, the next season with the player changes, I abandoned the stopper/cover and went to the classical defend/defend and later I've gone to a 4-4-2 as I went up to Second B and there the 4-2-3-1 assymetric didn't work as well. Currently I don't feel my players are up to retaking the cover/stopper given the overabundance of lightning fast players populating 2B group I forward lines; but I would consider testing if in a 4-4-2 having a ball winning midfielder set to defend in front of the stopper would provide the marking needed to keep the stopper in line.

I would think the key balance is to compare your team against your opposition team. If they are stronger than you and looks like they can penetrate your defense I would suggest set to simple defending. Complex ideas for Cover and Stopper is good but it's all up to whether your team is up for it or the opposition is able to break the combo.

[Death Ball]

I just noticed that I've been playing half of past 2B1 season and the current first half of season, with great results using the cover/stopper pairing and a ball winning midfielder defend in front of the stopper and it has worked almost as good as with the anchor man. I say almost as good because despite not receiving goals from one of them getting out of position, the stopper has moved more than with the anchorman.

[supermini]

In my (limited) experience the cover/stopper pair leaks more goals to technically proficient players who expose the hole between them, and the defend/defend pair leaks more goals to offside trap being broken.  However, I don't have any hard data, just my impression from 15 or so seasons.  Currently I switch it around every half-season or so to see if one is better than the other.  My only conclusion is that the split pair need a DM in front of them, otherwise the stopper gets dragged out of position.  That was a painful lesson which cost us a promotion to the Premiership. 

[4-2-3-1]

First of all, I would say that successful defending doesn't depend exclusively upon defenders / CBs. In other words, you can make a choice regarding CB roles & duties that is generally correct, but you will still be conceding goals if your overall tactics isn't set properly. If the CBs are constantly being left exposed owing to an improper setup of the other teammates, they surely won't be able to cope with opposition attacks. Even the best possible CB pair in the world will have really serious troubles if whole defensive job relies merely on them. What I wanna say is that defending is an issue which all the team (including the keeper sometimes, if he is the sweeper-keeper type) are responsible for, as well as the manager who sholud assign them appropriate roles and duties along with a suitable overall strategy (formation, playing style, phylosophy, marking style, pressing, tackling etc...) for a certain match. Just one simple and probably stupid but still useful example: if you are playing against an incomparably stronger team than you are and you nevertheless decide to play offensively, of course they'll completely destroy you regardless of combination of roles and duties you have set to the CBs (both defend or cover/stopper or cover/defend... ball playing / limited / central... ).

P.S: good anchorman can undoubtedly do a great job when backline are too often finding themselves unable to cope with an opponent attacking threat