Crisis Point.

[Colski]

The most amusing (in hindsight) thing about this post is that it was a lot longer and a lot more detailed before I foolishly attempted to embed a screenshot by dragging and dropping it into the body of the text. If at least one person heeds this warning about the perils of doing that and as a result doesn't lose about 45 minutes of their day re-writing their post, then I've performed my selfless act for the day.

Anyway, my post in a nutshell, explained the frustrations I am currently experiencing with this version of the game that I have restarted with six different clubs of differing reputations now. And that, as a 28 year old who remembers the days of loading up Champ 3 and even the earlier FMs and enjoying the experience without the hassle of having to research every aspect of the game in order to play it, I am gradually reaching the stage where no wealth of albeit greatly appreciated information I read from the likes of Cleon etc on this forum seems to help.

Nevertheless, I'm willing to persevere through the lack of success and through the frustrations of the things I see on the match engine. Like my players dwelling on the ball for so long - pirouetting slowly and eventually stumbling lethargically to the ground when there are blatant passes available to team-mates. Like watching an opposition player's shot clearly about to go high or wide of my goal before my defender decides it necessary to head it behind for a corner. Like my wingers (who are instructed to cross "often") getting into a great position for a cross at the byline before turning round and passing it to a full-back in a much less threatening position.

Anyway, to inadvertently cut a previously detailed story short, I have started a new game as Spurs and already am beginning to notice cracks in the execution of my apparently frail tactics. I went for a delibrately basic set up this time, as I've realised that previously I may have made the mistake of attempting to implement unnecessarily complicated instructions. So I've stuck solely to the Tactics Creator and Team Instructions without changing any sliders in the individual player's instructions apart from reducing long-shots.

However, already I'm noticing things that have previously occurred. Like a distinct lack of chances being created. And massive defensive frailties when playing away. Once I've actually got a stable tactic going I'll slowly tweak it using shouts and maybe test out some changes to the sliders but I feel I'm having real problems with the basics. The annoying thing is that I see other people's tactics that work despite their slider settings set to the extremities and I don't really get how they work as they seem to completely conflict with their other settings. So here are screenshots of my tactics and I would be very grateful for your help and advice.

Home:

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Away:

If all looks good, are there any tips for safely developing and tweaking the tactics?

[RocheBag]

A few things I've noticed from the start:

- Your central midfield roles are bound to let you down. I prefer to have both CMs on defend duty in this formation, but one defend and one support can work. That said, a BWM is never going to shield the back four, which is what you need. BWMs chase the ball around and close down everything in sight, which leaves huge gaps in your midfield, if you insist on using a BWM, he should be paired with a less aggressive role like a DLP - D or a CM - D, however I prefer one of each, and no BWM.

- You have a WB on attack with a W on attack on the right side, and a FB on support with an IF on the left. This would work much better it were the other way round, with a WB overlapping an IF, and a FB supporting an attacking Winger.

- I don't like Poachers in general, but I especially don't like them on their own up front, this one is more a matter of opinion though. I think an AF would work better in linking up with Bale and Holtby.

- You use offside trap with a deeper line, and don't when you push up. This seems counter-productive to me, but I never use it so I could be wrong there.

Those points (the first three especially) should help at least a bit. I'll be interested to see if you try any of it out and let me know if it works!

[Fabian Jonsson]

A few things I've noticed from the start:

- Your central midfield roles are bound to let you down. I prefer to have both CMs on defend duty in this formation, but one defend and one support can work. That said, a BWM is never going to shield the back four, which is what you need. BWMs chase the ball around and close down everything in sight, which leaves huge gaps in your midfield, if you insist on using a BWM, he should be paired with a less aggressive role like a DLP - D or a CM - D, however I prefer one of each, and no BWM.

- You have a WB on attack with a W on attack on the right side, and a FB on support with an IF on the left. This would work much better it were the other way round, with a WB overlapping an IF, and a FB supporting an attacking Winger.

- I don't like Poachers in general, but I especially don't like them on their own up front, this one is more a matter of opinion though. I think an AF would work better in linking up with Bale and Holtby.

- You use offside trap with a deeper line, and don't when you push up. This seems counter-productive to me, but I never use it so I could be wrong there.

Those points (the first three especially) should help at least a bit. I'll be interested to see if you try any of it out and let me know if it works!

Some good points there (basically 3 out of the 4 things that struck me as I read the OP ), but I'd like to add one or two more things.

Firstly, a matter of opinion: I don't see the point of having two formations. I play the same formation at all times, and that feels the most natural (or realistic if you will) to me. Of course, that's up to you.

Secondly, I feel that both tactics to some extent, but the second tactic especially is a little bit too conservative when it comes to committing guys to the attack. You are managing one of the biggest teams in the game (in my long term save Tottenham has been ranked no1 in the world for a decade now), and as such should not be afraid to attack with more than 3 guys. As you have set it up, 2 wingers and a striker are attacking, the rest of the team are supporting or defending. I would allow at least one from the central midfield to join in properly in the attack. Again, might be a matter of opinion and what players you have, but I try to always have 4 players making forward runs (two central, one down each wing).

[jonomagloneo]

Yeah, setting a TM with run onto ball against defensively-minded teams I don't think'll quite do it... sometimes, there just won't be a lot of space to move into

I've actually used a poacher on his own up front with reasonable success, BUT only when the AMC is set to attack (I like AP(a)), in which case one of your wide men should be on support. Indeed, Bale as a DW on support with BAE as an attacking full back could be pretty awesome.

Edit: actually, scrap that, I prefer the one IF/one winger combo.

[Colski]

Cheers for the suggestions, fellas. I initially had some success implementing this advice, particularly playing a less aggressive central-midfield pairing. My results until now are as follows:

So, as you can see, we're currently going through a pretty dire patch in form and if I continue getting smashed against rivals like Chelsea in that last game, the fans are going to start calling for my head. The poor patch began with an injury to Gareth Bale and, although he hasn't been a major threat to the opposition (I think partly due to him being underrated in the game and partly due to me not being able to get the best out of him), I had to play Dempsey on the left wing, which didn't work at all and then decided to switch to this formation, which brought even worse results:

From watching the game, I identified that my players were playing quite close together, limiting the space my attacking players were getting into. I used the "play wider" shout and, when expecting a victory, used an attacking style but this didn't result in any more chances being created.

The positives are that my defence, until recently, were pretty solid. Dawson and Kaboul have been playing their hearts out and I've decided to drop the lacklustre Assou-Ekotto in favour of Vertonghen/Naughton at left-back. But with a team with such talent as Spurs, and having forked out around £20mil for Jovetic, there must be a way to break down the opposition defence but the attacking players just aren't clicking at the moment.

I've taken to watching at least the first 15 minutes of the game and, to be honest, what I see is really frustrating football: often the passes from midfield are massively overhit, most of the attacking play is around - not inside - the penalty area, and my players often dwell on the ball for so long (ignoring obvious passing options and their instructions) before getting caught in possession.

Apart from the recently implemented (and failed) above tactic, these are the two tactics - home and away, respectively - that I have been using since attempting the greatly appreciated advice in this thread:

As you can see, they're very similar due to the reason that I have become conscious that it may be counter-productive to employ vastly different home/away tactics. I realise also that the team's creative freedom will be quite low; this is for a number of reasons: (1) when Vertonghen is at CB I play him as a BPD, so to compensate for this I wanted a more disciplined style to my defence, particularly away (2) I'm playing a specified Advanced Playmaker in Lewis Holtby (3) It reduced the amount of long-shots my team takes.

I know that the amount of goal-scoring chances my team creates will largely depend on service to my front-man, Jovetic, who was intended to be my main scoring threat, but I've tried encouraging wing-play (crosses don't reach their targets), through balls (mostly overhit), and balls to feet (players hang around outside the box before losing the ball), none of which has resulted in any promising attacking football at all.

Hopefully, there is a simple ingredient that I have over-looked and that it will suddenly "click". Admittedly, I'm the sort of player who only really enjoys the game when I'm winning (stereotypical football fan!). Thanks.

[Cleon]

Your bad form also coincides with the months bad weather happens. In the games you have drawn and lost, what was the weather?