Training players to cross & corner and defending crosses

Squelchy451

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Hi. Crossing is one thing my team (Fulham) can't do and can't defend against. I play a flat 422 against stronger teams, and the wide midfielders are usually put on 'support' so that they can help with the defensive movements and keeping possession. Against weaker teams, I have a 4-3-3, with a triangular midfield, a forward/poacher, and two wingers.

The wingers usually dribble near the edge of the field, but they never cross. They usually play it back onto any wingbacks or midfielders that are nearby or try to do a ridiculous curling shots that they clearly are not capable of. When they do try to cross, it usually bounces off the defender for a corner.

When the opposing team crosses, what usually happens is that the wingers move in front of my defender so that they're right on the edge of the end of the field, and cross onto the forward, and it usually works to my chagrin. How can I defend against it? I just got owned by Tottenham, thanks to Gareth Donkeykong Bale and his ridiculous speed...my fullbacks got smoked.

Also, how do I improve corners? My players usually get on the ball, but they always send it over the bar, so I think I need to work on the players who are attacking, as the person who's shooting it usually does a good job of connecting the ball to the offense.


Thanks
 
I'm in my first game, three seasons in. I've scored the most goals from corners each season. Nearly all of those were with a defender who got about 22 goals in those seasons, and about 5 in his career before that. He retired aged 41 at the end of the third.

Find who you think will score the most headers (heading, jumping, off the ball).
Pick your best corner takers -- inswinging corners from both sides.
Tell your heading guy to attack the near post, tell your corner takers to target the near post. From my experience he'll get in front of the defenders most times, and either score with a header, control it and shoot or force another chance either from a blocked attempt, save or woodwork. He will miss, of course, but I noticed when I changed tactics and didn't have that set up for corners I never scored.
 
Hi. Crossing is one thing my team (Fulham) can't do and can't defend against. I play a flat 422 against stronger teams, and the wide midfielders are usually put on 'support' so that they can help with the defensive movements and keeping possession. Against weaker teams, I have a 4-3-3, with a triangular midfield, a forward/poacher, and two wingers.

The wingers usually dribble near the edge of the field, but they never cross. They usually play it back onto any wingbacks or midfielders that are nearby or try to do a ridiculous curling shots that they clearly are not capable of. When they do try to cross, it usually bounces off the defender for a corner.

When the opposing team crosses, what usually happens is that the wingers move in front of my defender so that they're right on the edge of the end of the field, and cross onto the forward, and it usually works to my chagrin. How can I defend against it? I just got owned by Tottenham, thanks to Gareth Donkeykong Bale and his ridiculous speed...my fullbacks got smoked.

Also, how do I improve corners? My players usually get on the ball, but they always send it over the bar, so I think I need to work on the players who are attacking, as the person who's shooting it usually does a good job of connecting the ball to the offense.


Thanks

Post above gives a good idea of how to get a good corner tactic going. Personally, it's not too hard, you just need to overload one of the posts with your two biggest players and best heading attributes and you'll score at least ten a season that way.

Concerning your players never crossing, I find that bizarre, check that they have crossing often highlighted and if you see they make too many bizarre shots then change them to long shots rarely (all done via the player instructions tactics screen).

As for defending against crosses, force the opposition winger onto wrong foot will help reduce the amount, playing a wider formation will also mean your fullbacks are in a better position to meet the threat and if all else fails, use hard tackling to crunch the buggers. Combine all these with a deep defensive line and your problems will be more than halved.

Hope that helps.
 
crossing in Fm is extremely hard to get right, it is something that they need to improve on in my opinion! I am busy designing a new TM type winger crossing tactic at the moment, here a few SS of my results:

Crossing completion % is also very low, the best I have gotten is around 44% or so!

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Now, getting the wingers to cross more, set their freedom to 0 so they will follow exactly what you have told them to do in their instructions, run with ball often, run from deep sometimes, no long shots, no through balls, cross often from byline! hug touchline cross aim (near post if the player's crossing stat is less than 12 or so, centre if 13-16 and far post if higher) floating and drilling depend on your wingers crossing stat as well (and the size of your strikers) short - drill, float - tall :)

use shouts like play wider, exploit flanks, pump ball into box and get ball forward, pass into space :)
 
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