[FM 14] 4-1-2-1-2 (Control)

[saiyaman]

Hi guys,

I've noticed that there are quite a number of bugs in this version but I want to go in a different way and learn what does cause what. I'm a complete newbie in terms of looking at the Analysis tab and would appreciate any little help you can give on where I should look for something which is turning the match over.

Now I have three tactics in my save (Liverpool) and this is one of them. I have tried to keep this as a main tactic but even when I dominate matches through possession I simply can't win till I go to my second tactic (4-2-3-1 Attack). My third tactic (5-3-2 Standard) doesn't seem be that good either but I want to concentrate on one tactic here. I guess I'll come back later.

The problems:

(EDIT: With the wonderful replies below, I have managed to cut some problems out. I hope this helps others)

1. Full backs are not as bad as everyone makes them out but they do become bodyguards for all strikers and wingers many times!

(Now converted to a Wingback and they are slightly better now and help with great crosses)

2. Too many long shots

(This has reduced but needs to reduce a bit more. I suppose SI are right now trying to fix it)

3. Strikers refusing to score properly

(One of the mysteries. Maybe I'm not creating much chances or proper chances)

4. Defenders sipping tea while the opposition greet them and wish them a good day

(Right now they have evolved into Newbies trying to do something and do stick to their positions instead of wandering around like a bunch of toddlers. I'm happy now)

5. Opposition keepers mentally prepared to perform and win the Ballan'dor if possible

(Still frustrating here but linked to the 3rd point. Hope I could get some more on this)

The media is flattering me with "OMG Your team has best EVER passes in the league. BEST EVAR pass completion rate". Tell that to the board if I'm about to be sacked. :rolleyes:

Here's my tactic stuff:

FORMATION

Mentality: CONTROL (Fluid)

TEAM INSTRUCTIONS

PLAYER INSTRUCTIONS

GK

D© (Both)

D(L)

D®

DM

MC(L)

MC®

AM©

ST(CL)

ST(CR)

Do tell me what should be improved.

[saiyaman]

Please help me kmprove this guys! I cannot believe that this tactic is so perfect to baffle you fm gurus!

[Ifail]

tried playing coutinho in EG not working he keeps going forward i tihnk best relly is aps or ams for cou

[saiyaman]

tried playing coutinho in EG not working he keeps going forward i tihnk best relly is aps or ams for cou

I use Advanced Playmaker attack. He is decent.

[NRH]

One small thing could be to move Sturridge to the left of your attack and use him as poacher. Why on the left? Because he is left footed. I find that using a poacher is very useful when deploying the diamond formation. It streches the oppositions defence.

From your settings it would seem that you are trying to push everything through the middle and when you cannot get trough there the players might fancy firing off from range.

[kazm]

Maybe use wingbacks instead of fb's to have more attacking threats.

[Auqakuh]

Use either Retain Possession or Short Passing. Not both. One is a more extreme version of the other, so both of them together is the same as setting the sliders furthest to short a year ago.

Also, with a BBM and BWM, you might think about not using hassle opponents, and instead setting closing down per player in the OI or player instructions. Else you risk your midfield being woefully out of position nearly constantly. Perhaps all that possession is because of the amount of passes it takes for you to transition from attack to defence.

[alinp]

IMO, there are some contradictions in your Team Instructions. It looks like you want to play a possession based game with the ball and a high press without it? It has already been said that you don't need "Retail Possession" with the other possession based shouts you already have, to which I'd agree + add that I'd also remove "Lower Tempo" which condradicts the high press.

You have a narrow formation already and you're asking them to play narrower - your FB's will therefore have acres to cover and I wouldn't be surprised if you're finding yourself over-run down the flanks. Try "Play Wider" instead which should encourage your CM's to cover the flanks better.

With your roles & duties...

- if you're playing a high line, a stopper/cover CB pairing isn't going to help you compress space. I'd keep it simple and play them both as Defend.

- as you have no wide men, agree with the earlier suggestion of making your FB's into WB's.

- as you want to play "Fluid", there's no point in having both your CM's on specified roles. I'd be inclined to change at least 1 (if not both) to CM - and make one of them Attack to support the front 3.

- Coutinho is rightly your playmanker, but with the above suggestion, you could make him Support, which will help the link up between midfield & attack.

- change your WB on the CM(S) side into an Attack duty to give some balance.

- Sturridge likes to shoot - discourage this

..... and what have you done to your squad? Where's Lucas, Gerrard, Johnson, Hendo?? I've seen other saves where people seem to be selling - can't see why - these are top, top players

[saiyaman]

@nrh: Good idea ill see how sturridge plays in the left slot.

@kazm: I think i went for fb for a precautionary backline. Will convert and try. Thanks.

@Auquakuh: Now that you point it out i think why did i do that? The media is surely having a field day! Thanks for it will seriously take a look at the midfield. Retain possession is probably what is needed.

@alinp: Wow thats so much stuff there. Makes me think why i did not ask sooner here. That helps so much! Thanks!

Oh and sturridge just failed to unlearn shoots from distance pm. And....worst luck: all the players i mean top top players are injured now

[alinp]

Oh and sturridge just failed to unlearn shoots from distance pm.

Try the Player Instruction to "Shoot less Often"

[saiyaman]

Try the Player Instruction to "Shoot less Often"

I guess ill do that. I fined him when he was horrible in so many games and he has refused to talk to me. Haha what a first season

[Magnakai Haaskivi]

One small thing could be to move Sturridge to the left of your attack and use him as poacher. Why on the left? Because he is left footed. I find that using a poacher is very useful when deploying the diamond formation. It streches the oppositions defence.

From your settings it would seem that you are trying to push everything through the middle and when you cannot get trough there the players might fancy firing off from range.

I'd make Sturridge a poacher, but I'd keep him on the right side, also because of his footedness; I like right footed strikers on the left and left footed strikers on the right.

Personally, this tactic looks like it'd be fantastic at holding possession, but not much else; you've got no width, AND you're playing narrow and through the middle. Sure, you'll bottle up the midfield, but nobody has license to do anything creative. I'd dump the "Exploit the Middle" instruction and instead have the fullbacks (or wingbacks, if you switch it up) look for the overlapping run; this will give you some width, and the DMC will be cover in case there's a problem. I'd also remove the instructions about crossing across the board (Drill Crosses as a team instruction, Cross from Byline for the fullbacks).

Generally, I'd also cut way back on the individual instructions; if the team's told to pass shorter, do you really NEED to tell everyone individually to pass shorter? I'd also dump the "Play Less Risky Passes" shout, since those risky passes are going to be needed to cut through defenses.

[saiyaman]

I'd make Sturridge a poacher, but I'd keep him on the right side, also because of his footedness; I like right footed strikers on the left and left footed strikers on the right.

Personally, this tactic looks like it'd be fantastic at holding possession, but not much else; you've got no width, AND you're playing narrow and through the middle. Sure, you'll bottle up the midfield, but nobody has license to do anything creative. I'd dump the "Exploit the Middle" instruction and instead have the fullbacks (or wingbacks, if you switch it up) look for the overlapping run; this will give you some width, and the DMC will be cover in case there's a problem. I'd also remove the instructions about crossing across the board (Drill Crosses as a team instruction, Cross from Byline for the fullbacks).

Generally, I'd also cut way back on the individual instructions; if the team's told to pass shorter, do you really NEED to tell everyone individually to pass shorter? I'd also dump the "Play Less Risky Passes" shout, since those risky passes are going to be needed to cut through defenses.

You are right. Wise words. I think I went a little too far in telling the team "HAY you better pass short or I'll personally stride on the pitch and do it".

I really wanted drill cross since there are no proper strikers who are tall for the floating crosses. I'll remove the crossing stuff from fullbacks.

[Magnakai Haaskivi]

You are right. Wise words. I think I went a little too far in telling the team "HAY you better pass short or I'll personally stride on the pitch and do it".

I really wanted drill cross since there are no proper strikers who are tall for the floating crosses. I'll remove the crossing stuff from fullbacks.

I see what your saying about the crosses. In my experience, I've generally found that what I tend to do is overthink things, and the instructions for some of these are exclusive; in reality, I want my fullback (who hopefully can make good decisions) to decide where the best place to cross the ball in this particular instant is, and I don't like that I've locked him into one decision unless there's a reason for it.

[saiyaman]

I see what your saying about the crosses. In my experience, I've generally found that what I tend to do is overthink things, and the instructions for some of these are exclusive; in reality, I want my fullback (who hopefully can make good decisions) to decide where the best place to cross the ball in this particular instant is, and I don't like that I've locked him into one decision unless there's a reason for it.

I can agree. I sort of went over the top a lot and instructed a LOT of stuff which is really not necessary.

Only problem I have now is to create a better CCC than the current ones. Strikers are so dumb even now.

First post updated.

[Noel Gallagher]

Hi there,

I can see you are using the instructions: Retain Possession, Shorter Passing and Lower Tempo. I would not use these 3 together. Firstly, they ALL decrease the tempo. So you have 3 instructions that have all decreased the tempo meaning you will be playing with as much urgency as a sloth using these three settings together. As previously mentioned drop one of the passing instructions and also remove lower tempo.

You have also instructed them to play the ball out of defence. However, is your goalkeeper set to distribute the ball to your defenders? If he isn't then he will ignore this and kick balls up field instead. Also, Skrtel probably isn't the best at passing the ball out from the back and you have Sakho set as an aggressive blocker so he won't play the ball out from the back either.

A lot of the other issues have been answered but these are just my observations from the things that haven't been picked up.

[saiyaman]

Hi there,

I can see you are using the instructions: Retain Possession, Shorter Passing and Lower Tempo. I would not use these 3 together. Firstly, they ALL decrease the tempo. So you have 3 instructions that have all decreased the tempo meaning you will be playing with as much urgency as a sloth using these three settings together. As previously mentioned drop one of the passing instructions and also remove lower tempo.

You have also instructed them to play the ball out of defence. However, is your goalkeeper set to distribute the ball to your defenders? If he isn't then he will ignore this and kick balls up field instead. Also, Skrtel probably isn't the best at passing the ball out from the back and you have Sakho set as an aggressive blocker so he won't play the ball out from the back either.

A lot of the other issues have been answered but these are just my observations from the things that haven't been picked up.

I've removed shorter passing and of course the over the top "pass shorter or else" instructions on players.

I have set the GK to defender distribution and I see what you mean. I changed the defenders to defend after following the great stuff people told me.

[Magnakai Haaskivi]

I've removed shorter passing and of course the over the top "pass shorter or else" instructions on players.

I have set the GK to defender distribution and I see what you mean. I changed the defenders to defend after following the great stuff people told me.

Is it working better after making those changes?

[saiyaman]

Is it working better after making those changes?

It's a LOT better now. Players are actually trying to attack properly although my strikers are not able to score.

[Steve Odom]

I'd drop the retain posession instruction. How do you expect to create through balls to your poaacher if you instruct your players to keep the ball? They will try to keep it allright by slowing the match down, passing shorter AND not playing through balls..

[Auqakuh]

I'd drop the retain posession instruction. How do you expect to create through balls to your poaacher if you instruct your players to keep the ball? They will try to keep it allright by slowing the match down, passing shorter AND not playing through balls..

What I've found is that actually they will play through balls. There's no "ABSOLUTELY NO THROUGH BALLS!!!!" instruction - just "less". So with retain possession what you have to do is ensure that there's enough movement off the ball and quality of movement off the ball to enable players to play them when they see that they're 100% viable, and have players capable of playing them in the right place to play them.

Just one more way in which the match engine is far more nuanced this year than I recall it being in the past.

[Steve Odom]

It's about the same as previous editions, you limit the number of through balls a lot and you would need a certain number of through balls to feed a poacher. How many attempts does a team need irl, when trying to setup a poacher with a 1 on 1? If you restrict the team to do the one thing a poacher is any good at, makes him a lot less effective.

[Fusion 123]

Thanks guys. This thread helped loads with my similar tactic.