Subject: How to have a good defence in Sokker

There have been a few people talking about defensive tactics recently, so I thought if I shared what I've learned we could get a discussion going on things to do and not to do when putting together a defence.

The biggest thing I've learned is that the default tactics aren't any good, especilly in defence. The back fours leave the centre backs isolated with the full backs too far forward and too near the sidelines. The back threes are worse with only one centre back left alone against two strikers.

I've found over time that a flat back four works best, making it as compact as possible and with a holding midfielder screening in front of the back four. Having it compact means, like in real life, players aren't left isolated against a striker and more importantly there are no huge gaps for a striker to wriggle through. When set up it looks like you're leaving too much room on the wings but that usually isn't a problem. If an attack does come down the wing a full back will come out from the centre to cover leaving three players in the centre to cover the middle, again much the same as real football.

Another importan thing to consider is when to move the backline up the field. Some teams, especially against superior opponents will just leave the defence along the penalty area making sure there's no chance of a counter attack. Personally I think that leaves a big gap between your mids and defs so I try to push up as far as possible, pushing the full backs forward into midfield to receive any wild clearances and press any attempt at a counter. You can also benefit from offsides here when your opponent leaves his strikers too far forward. There is a very fine line between offsides working and through balls splitting your defence though.

That's about it - I didn't realise how much I'd written :)
(edited)

Thing with playing for offsides is you need good pace and defending skill to cover any mistakes that are made. Especially against high tech and or high pace strikers.

Without giving too much away, i set them up to always have a covering defender and to defend the position against all passing options. We attack and defend as a team.
It's worked pretty well so far but next week will be the big test it the system and my faith in it.

nice. will use that against u this season so ;)

I forgot to say that no defence can stop my strikers ;)