one central defender...

[psylunne]

i would love to know how so many people can win so much using only one central defender... in real life that´s not suitable, unless u use 3 central defenders on the good old Italian 3-5-2 ... am i missing something?...

[John Grant]

There will be those who will tell you that formations dont matter much or at all in this game and they may be right , I am not sure. I use a defence of DL , DC , DR with a DMC sitting in front mostly with occasionally a second DC if required but this is fairly rare. I have some success with my teams winning some Leagues and never outside the top 4. Other managers have more success than me but formation isnt a major reason for this , there are other things that they do that I dont or wont do and good luck to them.
I have also found that in general teams using 3 AM's with 1 ST usually score more goals than teams using 2 ST with an AMC , not a lot more but more but they also tend to concede more as well in general. I am sure some smartie will get in here and say different concerning only their team. That is the way of it in here.

[adifairus]

i would love to know how so many people can win so much using only one central defender... in real life that´s not suitable, unless u use 3 central defenders on the good old Italian 3-5-2 ... am i missing something?...

either 3W or 3N or 4 or 5 defender, all those have its own advantage and disadvantage or suitability in different situation

by the way, keep in mind that you don't really need many defender when against weaker team

if you want to talk about real life, it's still suitable as below :

i) the lesser the defender is the easier to do offside trap

ii) if you want to play high pressing (full pitch pressing) you need to give extra man at opponent half area to make your high press effective, so you still need to reduce the number of your defender in this situation. in this situation, if you are using man to man marking, it will be very effective especially against weaker opponent, but you have to make sure you have enough number of player at specific zone all the the pitch to mark all opponent player. you may need to use 3W defender (DL DC DR) if opponent use wide attacking and you may need to use 3N defender ( DC DC DC ) if opponent use narrow attacking.

iii) if you want to play low pressing (half pitch pressing), the more the defender you use is the more effective for low pressing tactic as many player will stay at your own half and usually suitable when against stronger opponent. and at the same time, with zonal marking style will make your team behave as park the bus. many players at every zone on your own half. but you don't really need to park the bus when against weaker team right?

like i said, there is no specific single right way for effective defending.

[talisman]

If there's only one ST coming at the defence, do you need more than one DC? Better that other defenders are in positions to counter the other attacking players (DL/DR against AML/AMR, and DMC for AMC)

[Flow]

dmc, mc, dr,dl, or even striker will cover the gap when it comes to a defending situation like in a real football, where dmc and mc or even striker like cr7 do defending stuff. and its works well if you play offside trap.