Ranked play is very hard and to get to the top, you will need a smart defend strategy to neutralize your opponents offenses. The reason is: no matter how strong your offense is, if your defense is weak, then you can still lose at anytime.
This article will show you how to make a good defense in FO4 by using CDM in the most effective way.
Defense in FO4 – How to use CDM?
A sound advice if you think your defense is not good is to play with two CDMs. One CDM with good defensive skill, while the other is good at attacking. You can use one slow CDM with great strength and height to counter high passes or take one-on-one situation. The other CDM should be someone with high speed to be able to join the attack quickly and cover for the slower player if necessary.
Besides strength and speed, pass accuracy and long range shoot accuracy are also crucial for a CDM. Pass accuracy will help you advance the ball to the opponent side. Shoot accuracy can give flexible choices when attacking with one or both CDM.
Some recommended CDM you should have in your formation:
- “First tier”: E.Pettit TT/NHD, P.Vieira TT/NHD, Gullit TT/NHD, L. Matthäus TT, N.Kante TOTY, R.Nainggolan TT…
- “Second tier”: N.Kante TB, A.Vidal TT, L.Goretzka TB, Ramires TT…
- “Third tier” (+5): L. Matthäus NHD, Ramires NHD, R.Nainggolan 17, L.Goretzka 17, Kante 17, Matic 17…
If you want so further strengthen your defense, you can set 2 CDMs like this:
Change controllable player to CDM when the opponent attack
There is a common mistake that many player make when defending. When the opponent counterattack, you often change the controllable player to defenders immediately. In this case, many midfielders will not be able to go back as fast to follow your opponent’s advancing attackers.
In a situation like that, you should really change the controllable player to a CDM instead of a defender, and bring him to a defense position.
RB joined the attack before, and now CDM must cover his position
Even if the ball already passed your CDM, you still control him to move back so that you will have more players to block the opponent attack. Your defenders will follow their attackers automatically.
The fedenders will take good position and follow opponent attackers when you only control CDM
If they are not in a wrong position, your CB (Central Back) often chase and take the ball well. So if you control your CB, they often don’t play so well because most of the time, they are pretty slow.
Minimize the spaces between CDMs and Defenders
Defending in FO4 will become easier if you remove the open spaces between your Midfielders and Defenders. Especially, if you use CDM, you should place him at lower position instead of lowering position of four Defenders.
These open spaces will make you very vulnerable to your opponent’s counterattacks
If you are gonna use 4-3-3 formation of some sorts, then this is even more important, because your left/right fullback often join your offense. When there are too much spaces among your defenders and midfielders, they will have to move a lot to defense and quickly drain out their stamina, make it even hard to defense.
Set your CDM at lower postion, close to your defenders
Obviously, set CDM at lower position will have certain disadvantages when you can prepare a counterattack. So keep a balance between attack and defend.
Use (Space) if they get pass you
You can still pressure the opponent’s attackers even if they pass you. Turn around and chase them, and use SPACE to contain and slow down the attacker. Even if you can’t really get the ball with this, you make more time for others defenders to get back and cover.
The important thing about this technique is timing. If you do it too early, you will miss and the attacker will leave you behind. So, use this with caution.
Another important note: don’t use this technique in the goal area because the referee may call a penalty kick, along with a yellow card/ even red card.
The most crucial thing when defending in FO4 is strategy, and to get a good strategy, apart from reading guides, you need to play a lot of games to really understand and come up with the best strategy that works, you may lose, but it doesn’t matter, as long as you learn!
