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„Let’s make a mess lads!” – after these words the first whistle was delayed for 10 min. During that time I had to listen to my grandma’s speech about behaviour and language of the modern youth. Everything was worthless anyway because lads didn’t make a mess and I was waiting...again...for another speech after using phrase „holy crap” in a hard version.

You are wondering what caused such a huge consternation? The answer is simple – patch 8.0.2 and another brilliant idea by SI programmers. After „killer” corners in FM 2006, when player was scoring from every position outside penalty area, through FM 2007, when you just needed to play on the near post player with good jumping and heading attributes. And now? They treated us with „killer” corners made by computer opposition. But it is nothing. Now we can concede a goal from corner netted by a player with average jumping and heading attributes, for instance 10. I was fighting with set pieces for 5 days. I even lost 0-6, conceding all goals after corners.

But finally the time has come, I made it! Many conversations with other FM fans and my own experiments helped me to minimize losing goals from corners to minimum.

Defensive corners. The biggest problem – I was losing many goals after crosses on the near and far post and into 5 metre box and it did not matter who was marked by whom. Finally I found solution! Considering connections between game’s engine and defenders’ behaviour (sometimes our sweeper marks the smallest player and vice versa) there were many situations when corners were simply a lottery.

Below I would like to explain my tactic:

Which during the match looks like that:

As you can see marking in my penalty area is very narrow. May be it seems funny for you but this is one of a few ideas how to minimize conceding goals. Right and left backs stand by near and far posts. Central defenders (in theory they are the tallest and have the best heading attributes) mark tall rivals and the others have option “stay back”. This kind of tactic is safe because there is nobody in your penalty area who is not marked. Only two players have option” forward”. Maybe that restricts chances for a counter attack but I prefer to minimize my chances for scoring than giving my rival a chance to be a goal ahead.

Second tactic may seem weird and looks like that:

During match it looks like that:

Madness? “Yet there is method in't” – wrote Shakespeare. Yes, I decided to do it. Have you ever seen players, who cover near and far posts, helping you out in critical situation? Have they ever been effective? Cleared ball off the line? Never! So, what are they for then? If your opponent sends a player to the near post, he will automatically be marked (sometimes by two of your players). One of your footballers should have the short marking option. It will limit crosses on near post. The rest is like in previous tactic.

Offensive corners. I will present 2 tactics for them as well. One of them is well known from FM 2007.

During match:

I set up in team options crosses from corners on the near post, where I set the player with the best jumping and heading abilities for the option “flick on near post”. Rest of the players are set default. I avoid setting up option “attacking near post”, what would cause double marking my player. Both full backs (in theory the quickest in the team), get option “stay back”. One more player gets option “back when needed”. That secures me from possible counter attack.

Tactic 2:

Looks like that:

Second tactic looks similar. However two of my best “headers” attack goalkeeper (two better than one) and the ball is crossed to 5 metre box. Rest of the players make commotion, they are attacking from the outside of the penalty area, at the far post. One of the players should lurk outside the penalty box for an opportunity for a shot. As usual three players secure your half of the pitch.

Thanks to these tactics every team I manage hasn’t got any problems with corners, score frequently, concede rarely. Some statistics: