Building from the back
About the ‘back ten’ and the ‘attacking 7’

The unusual sub-title points out at a problem that many players seem to ignore when building a tactic. It is not the often stressed ‘back four’ that makes up the defence: in fact, an effective defence has to begin with the settings of your attacking players alongside the midfield set-up. Conversely, the settings of the defensive players can be a major factor in supporting the attacking efforts and give you some additional players contributing to the attack.

If you are using a very tight formation, you can clearly defend with up to 10 men tracking back (e.g. 4-2-3-1, 4-5-1/4-3-3s), but even if you play with two or three strikers, reasonable settings can increase their support for your defence. On the other hand, give the right instructions to your fullbacks and you can turn them into additional attacking players who will initialise and support your attacking moves effectively. This can lead to superiority of numbers on almost every area of the pitch.

The minimum requirement: ‘the back six’:
When looking into defensive problems, regardless of whether you are using an attacking or defensive tactic, these six players should be looked at (first) as they are the backbone of any solid defence. These are the famous ‘back four’, and maybe less obviously the keeper and the defensive midfielder (DM or MCd). Your defensive performance as a whole will be dependent on the settings these six players have as a unit, and they should not be viewed in isolation.

The keeper
There are three ways to set up a keeper:

• Include him in your mentality system (e.g. mentality 14 in an attacking RoO mindset)
• Exclude him from your mentality system and play him defensively (more or less keeper preset settings)
• Play him as a sweeping keeper (neutral mentality and closing down both ca. 11)

Playing with a sweeper keeper has huge benefits. He will actively try and intercept many trough balls, which is very helpful, primarily for top teams but also for teams that are playing a high or medium line. A good number of dangerous through balls will be intercepted and this can be a massive help for the defence. The downside? Keepers with bad rushing out stats and low anticipation, positioning and decisions will be very error prone.

The key outfield player:
The DMC or MCd. He will win or lose games for you; on his support both defence and attack rely. He should be the first man to look at if things go wrong.

Since the release of FM 07, there have been few tactics working successfully (if any) without a defensive anchor in midfield. Whether he acts as classical DMC in front of the defence or as holding man in an MCd position, getting his instructions right is sometimes half of a successful tactic.

MCd: FWR rarely, crosses mixed or rarely, closing down mixed, CF low
DMC: FWR mixed/rarely, crosses mixed rarely, closing down higher, CF low

Attacking fullback or fullback combos:
If a tactic uses DMs or if you are playing an extremely attacking home game, they can be your attacking players number 6 and 7.

Forward runs: often
RWB: mixed/often
Cross from: mixed

Alternatives: The mixed fullback combo. One attacking, one mixed/staying back. Very good option against difficult opposition.

An example of how to set up and attacking/defending fullback combo by thegooner:

This will work with the same mentality and adjusted FWR settings as well (then offside trap should be possible too). Alternately you could use mixed tackling and set the tackling against wingers via opposition instructions.

Midfield and attack:
This is where defence begins as soon as you lose the ball. These settings determine if your defence is supported strongly by a hard working midfield and attack or being bombed with crosses and runs from the opposition midfield. You will find more detailed suggestions for midfield set-ups in the tactic building approaches articles.

Closing down
To quote wwfan in TT&F 07:

Also these settings can be supported strongly with the right opposition instructions (see the topic).

As we all know, this system of closing down, combined with RoO, is highly effective for gaining a large amount of possession in midfield and a massive help for the defence. But we also should note there is a different approach: applying less closing down combined with a good defensive set up, forcing the opposition to come at you and try to hit them on the counter. In both cases it is crucial to have the highest closing down setting for the wingers.

Marking:
Tight marking or even man marking in midfield can have massive effects on the defensive performance. Wingers that man mark or tight mark will track back very often and work as additional defensive players if needed, often double-teaming the opposition wingers.

Tackling:
There is a big debate about tackling concerning possession, foul ratios and injuries. However, if your team struggles to keep possession, especially in away games, hard tackling can help. Be it with individual instructions or opposition instructions on certain players.

Forward runs:
Important tweak for setting up a defensive supporting midfield, especially concerning the wingers and DMCs. They can be a very powerful way to adjust the defensive support of the the midfield.

Forwards:
If you set up your target striker (strong or quick) according according to our target men article with a mentality gap to the supporting striker, you will notice that he will drop very deep without possession, almost playing ‘in the hole’, while the other striker will often close down higher up the pitch. This can support your defence strongly as he will close down the space between opposition defenders and midfield and always be free for picking up cleared balls from your own defence.

More detailed suggestions for possible set-ups will be published in the tactic building approaches articles.

Tactical Bible Credits:
Millie, thegooner, wwfan, The Next Diaby. Editor: TND, Millie