How to manage Set-Pieces on Football Manager

Defending Corners

Now that we’ve covered Attacking Corner routines, let’s cover how you can Defend them. I will share with you one general way to defend corners. Of course, there are many different ways to do so but this one covers almost every type that your opponent may use.

Firstly, we have one player on each post. This partially protects those areas and if a corner is whipped into one of those areas, we are not completely exposed if the opposition deliver a good set-piece. The two central defenders mark tall players, as they are the best equipped to handle them. Two more players man mark, so that means four opposition players are being dealt with. Now, I’m a big fan of mixing man marking with zonal marking as they can work well together if your players understand their duties. I like to have three players zonally marking the six yard box, and they will attack the ball if it comes near them. If you count these three players and the two marking the posts, that’s a box of five around your goal, not including your keeper, and you still have four others marking players. This is a safety net for your side.

The striker stays up front to occupy the other team and make sure they don’t send everybody forward. You can easily alter this to stop short corners by removing one of the players zonally marking and have him close down the corner. Or if you feel you need more man marking, remove one of the players zonally marking and have him man mark. There is plenty of space for variety, and there are plenty of different ways of defending corners. This is just a standard one.