Tactical help for an FM n00b playing as Tottenham - profligate strikers

[battlescar]

Seven games into my first ever FM season, and as things stand at the moment, my Tottenham side are always being wasteful with their attempts on goal, as most of them appear to be coming in from long range - I think I've had about ten shots in total during these games that have come from inside of the box. My side always have most of the possession though (~55-65%) and the passing has seemed tight in most of the games, except the Everton and Fenerbache games, where for the last 20 minutes, the keeper would punt the ball to a defender, passing it onto a striker who would then lose it and the keeper would have to mop up the resulting shot on target.

Results so far:

Premiership: Tottenham 1, Man City 1 (Total Shots: 20, On Target: 4)

Premiership: Tottenham 1, Everton 0 (Total Shots: 13, On Target: 3)

Premiership: Tottenham 1, Blackburn 5 (Total Shots: 17, On Target: 5)

Euro Champ: Tottenham 2, Fenerbache 1 (Total Shots: 14, On Target 3)

League Cup: Tottenham 1, Bristol City 0 (Total Shots: 19, On target 8)

Euro Champ: Tottenham 0, Fenerbache 1 (Total Shots 12, On target 3)

Premiership: Tottenham 2 West Ham 1 (Total Shots 15, On Target: 2) - Goals were a penalty (van der Vaart) and an O.G. scored by Parker

W: 4, L: 2, D: 1 Goals for: 8 Goals against: 9

League Position: 8th, P:4 Pts: 7

I'm delegating Press Conferences to my AssMan Kevin Bond (since I've read that saying the wrong thing completely messes with your team's confidence), playing the default 4-4-2 formation with the mentality set to either Attacking or Overload. I don't know enough tactically to be able to interpret the pre-match meetings or match preparation screen (even after having read the stickies in this forum), or even what half of the tactical instructions do.

Would someone mind choosing and explaining a decent formation and instruction for the following players, so I can understand the mechanics? Seasoned players will probably also confirm that my new signings, intended for the long-term, show a tactical understanding of Spurs on par with that of a concussed duckling (The money came from a crazy 33.5M Liverpool bid I received for Crouch :confused: , a 3M deal for Cudicini and transfer-listing the reserve team, in addition to Tottenham's existing transfer kitty)

Player Position(s)

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GOALKEEPERS

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Gomes GK

Luis Guilherme (New Signing) GK

De Gea (New Signing) GK

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DEFENDERS

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Kaboul D (RC)

Corluka D (RC)/M ©

Bassong D (LC)

Gallas D ©

Dawson D ©

King D ©

Jack Rodwell (New Signing) D/DM/M©

Phil Jones (New Signing) D/DM/M©

Hutton D/WB®

Assou-Ekotto D/WB(L)

Alex Sandro (New Signing) D/WB(L), DM/M©

Diego Renan (New Signing) D/WB/M®

Bale D/WB/M/AM(L)

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MIDFIELDERS

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Huddlestone DM/M©

Sandro DM/M©

Andrea Poli (New Signing) DM/M©

Jenas DM/M/AM©

Palacios M©

Pienaar M/AM(RLC)

Modric M/AM(RLC)

van der Vaart M/AM(RC)

Lennon M/AM®

Kranjcar M/AM(LC)

Paulo Henrique (New Signing) M/AM©

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FORWARDS

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Neymar (New Signing) AM(LC), ST

Giuseppi Rossi (New Signing) AM©, ST

Defoe ST

Pavlyuchenko ST

Abel Hernandez (New Signing) ST

[Noel Gallagher]

I always find with the attacking mentality that players rush more and waste chances by shooting early or too aggressively. Try lowering your mentality to control or standard and see if this helps any. You should find that your build up play is more measured and that your players waste less chances. Also reduce long shots for your central midfielders as they tend to waste a lot of chances if they're set with the default settings.

[furiousuk]

Some quick observations - your squad is immense. Assuming that they have gelled (use team blend in the match prep screen if not) then almost any formation will see decent results with those guys. Your weakest area appears to be out wide (although I don't know all the players) but you still have talent there and your central positions are absurdly strong (a narrow 41212 possibly, maybe 4222, although 442 is great are usually easier to understand).

Use the shout 'Work Ball Into Box', will eliminate some of the long shots.

Don't use attacking or overload all the time, the tempo will be too high causing snatched shots and tiring out your players leading to further errors. Did Blackburn beat you late on??

Start on standard or control and use shouts to emphasise your strengths. Retain possession will also help you to limit long shots and play narrower which suits your impressive central players. You're a top team so teams probably play very negatively against you so you might want to consider dropping deeper to 'lure' them out, similarly, playing wider will create more space even if you choose a narrow formation and play through the middle.

The TT&F (in the stickies) has a section on interpreting the stats and what shouts might help. Might be useful to you to read through that (the section is near the end if I remember correctly).

[battlescar]

Your weakest area appears to be out wide (although I don't know all the players) but you still have talent there and your central positions are absurdly strong (a narrow 41212 possibly' date=' maybe 4222, although 442 is great are usually easier to understand).

[/quote']

Thanks for explaining the different formations that I could use for my team (I bought my left- and right- sided players for their future potential; most of them supposedly have a future rating of 3.5 stars, but they're about 2.5-3 stars at the moment) and thanks for the tip about the guide - I've downloaded it and I'm currently reading it avidly... I'll let you know how I get on

[KrisL]

the weakest position is out wide???? he has lennon and bale

[ZdlR]

Bale is a decent all-rounder but lacks a bit both mentally and technically in order to be classed as anything but the unfinished article.

Lennon, on the other hand, is a complete one-trick-pony. He has pace and some dribbling ability. His mental attributes are quite woeful.

Therefore, he is weakest out wide (when compared to the players he has through the middle).

[ham_aka_stam]

Make sure Long Shots is on Rarely.

Remove Shoots from Range PPM from anyone who has it

If you can't, simply put their other on-the-ball options onto Often to increase their likelihood of trying them before shooting.

Ensure Tempo isn't too high

Ensure players most to blame have passing options at the point when they're shooting, and have passing setting adequate to reach them.

Avoid excessively high mentalities (my world-beating United squad plays with the equivalent of Standard or Control mentality)

[Steve Odom]

Make sure your players are confident. I'm managing Tottenham at the moment and the first thing I did was firing Bond. He's no good talking to the players. Do it yourself and you will ultimatly gain the most important skill as a manager: man management. Fire up your squad (Keane and Defoe need supporting words in order te be confident enough to finish your atttacking moves) and you will notice the difference.