[FM 14.1.3] Man UTD 4231

[Valencia7]

Hi, i've created a tactic using A Twelve Step Guide, and it was succsess. At least during pre-season. Got 5 wins, including 6-1 CS against Wigan.

However, once the season started my first 3 matches was against bottom-half teams (West Ham, West Brom, Sunderland), but i only manage to win once and draw twice.

So i was wondering if there is any ''tactic guru'' that could take a look at my tactic and give me some direction or two

TACTIC:

INDIVIDUAL INSTRUCTIONS

BACKUP TACTIC

This is my backup tactic which i haven't used yet but would also greatly appriciate feedback PS: rooney is DLP

Cheers

[howard moon]

There's a few things that jump out immediately.

1. You are playing a control mentality, but have spread the players out "Play wider" and asking them to play "More direct passing". Control is for short passing, possession based football. You've also got a lot of players on attack roles, meaning they'll constantly be making forward runs, so your midfielders and centre backs won't have easy passing targets.

2. Your midfield is leaving lots of space in front of the back four. A box-to-box midfielder and a ball-winning midfielder will both push up to win the ball back, leaving a big gap for opponents to exploit. You need a Deep lying playmaker or a central midfielder with 'defend' in there to anchor it better. Also, with an Advanced Playmaker, support, ahead of them, they'll all get in each other's way.

3. Some of the player roles look very illogical. Valencia as Inside Forward and Pastore as a Winger are surely the wrong way around. Valencia should be getting down the byeline putting crosses in, and Pastore should be drifting inside. You should probably also put one of these on 'Support' too. Carrick is one of the games best deep-lying playmakers. Not sure I'd put him as a box-to-box midfielder.

You need to decide how you want to play and change the mentality, shouts and player roles accordingly.

[Valencia7]

Thanks for quick feedback, i tried to follow all your instructions and this is what i ended up with:

Will FB/A and W/S get in each other's way?

[bababooey]

Thanks for quick feedback, i tried to follow all your instructions and this is what i ended up with:

Will FB/A and W/S get in each other's way?

No the FB/A combined with the W/S is a very solid choice. llama3 has a great guide on player combinations (widemen, strikers, CD's, CM's) check it out for more info. But that's fine.

If I were you I could change things so that Evra is the attacking fullback, and put Rafa on support. If you want to use Pastore as an IF-A then having Evra as a FB-A (or wing back-A) would be an awesome way to achieve overlap, and create width, as Pastore will tuck inside. So you'd want Evra to get down there and provide the width. Meanwhile on the other side, seeing as having 2 attacking fullbacks in your current set up wouldn't work well (only 1 defending CM), I would put Rafa to S, and Valencia as an attacking winger.

RVP up top looks okay but perhaps there is a role he is better suited to? He's got some ridiculous attributes and you might be better off using him as a complete forward-a. If you do, he's gonna roam about so you'll want to have another way to attack to use the space he leaves behind.

If you find that you're being overrun in central midfield I would get rid of the BBM and change it to a CM-S. A more stable approach for United would be: CM-S + CM-D or DLP-S + CM-D Carrick is a great player but you're asking him to do a lot of work as the lone defensive player in midfield, along with his playmaking duties, you know?

[Valencia7]

Any other suggestions because current tactic still doesn't work as well as it should and i still get overpowerd by weaker teams?

[howard moon]

Control pushes the defensive line quite high, and you're shout pushes it even higher up, but you're not pressing much, so you probably leave a big gap behind your defence, with no pressure on your opponents when they have the ball. I'd guess you're conceding a number of goals on the counter attack. Either remove the push higher up shout, or add 'hassle opponents'.

Rooney is still likely to be too deep to get into goal scoring positions, so I'd change him to an attack duty, or change him to a 'second striker' so he gets closer to Van Persie. And I don't think 'inside forward - attack' suits Pastore. Ideally, he needs to be deepens, making use of his creativity. You could maybe change him to 'support' or change him to 'advanced playmaker' with the instruction 'play narrower' to get him into playmaking positions