Help! What's this tactic doing wrong?

[BenSammy]

It seems the more I read about this game, the less I understand. While some of the thread on here are extremely well written and put together, I'm struggling to make more than one tactic work. Not too mention the vast amount of contradictory opinions.

So Lazio....I must have started this save going on 7 times now, just going through preseason to find a tactic I like, to see if I can get my team playing the kind of football I like, alas; mixed results. The first few goes round I had never seen any of my teams attack so well and generally pwn opposition defenses, however, that came with the downside of conceding as many as I scored, even against terrible opponents..

So, after much trail and error and not really getting anywhere, I'm here asking for help..

I don't really want to have to revert back to the only 1 or 2 systems that I've made work in this game I need a little variety..

This time I want 2 Strikers..Now, woah nelly, you had a heart attack, a 2 striker system is archaic and redundant, but after seeing Juventus employ it in game, I really want to give it ago..

Besides, I love Miroslave klose, not sure why..

So here's the formation I have opted for..

-----------------------------------------------------------------GK-----------------------------------------------------------------------

---------------------------------------------CD D----------------CD C------------------CD D----------------------------------------------

---------------WB A--------------------------------------------DLP D------------------------------------------------WB A-----------------

---------------------------------------------CM S--------------------------------------AP A-----------------------------------------------

---------------------------------------------AF A--------------------------------------Treq A----------------------------------------------

I hope that you all can understand this..

Team Instructions:

Hassle Opponents

Pass it Shorter

Play Wider

Pass into Space

Work Ball into Box

Push Higher Up

Attacking

Fluid

That's the gist off it and what I've started with..

Obviously my team aren't familiar with the tactic, what I need is general advice..

The first thing I noticed is how far apart the rest of my team are from the front 2 - I played with a DLF but this didn't work..

When on the counter attack there is no support for the strikers.

What obvious and glaring mistakes have I made and how do I go about changing things up..

Thanks

[ModernLefty]

1.) Have you whatched this team play in full match video mode? If so, what are the problems?

2.) The roles of the system are fine. However, Klose really isn't a trequartista, I can see him as a DLF (s), as you have put before.

3.) 2 upfront if done well is not archaic, see Mourinho against Southampton, or Aguero and Negredo at Man City.

4.) Attacking at times is just too attacking, the ball has a tendency to be get pumped up field with no real sense of coherency.

I'd suggest starting matches with a blank canvas.

I'm currently playing a 3-4-1-2. Set up like this.

It doesn't do alot different to that which yours has the potential to do. Except I start each game from as vanilla a perspective as possible, so I can alter to the oppositions strengths and weaknesses. Nothing more than shouts that make it adhere to my overall philosophy.

'Be more disciplined', to further reduce their creative freedom on top of my philosophy being 'rigid' as my teams are set up with lots of players who are pretty rubbish, at anything I don't tell them to do.

'Exploit the middle', this formation is for cutting through the centre of 4-4-2s with the quality of players at my disposal, the wingers may occasionally deliver a cross, but they are mainly holding the flanks.

And 'Get stuck in', because I though my players weren't tackling enough, so I wanted them to be abit more physical.

I also start on standard, because if you win on 'standard' mentality, then there was no need to be any more defensive or attacking. Plan A worked. If they are cowering and you then need to turn up the heat, that's when you start thinking about going to 'control' playing wider, playing a higher line etc...

None of this is clever, its just logic and a little nouse.

[Contexx]

I'm using a very similar set-up woth Brescia and it's yielded very good results. Your shouts seem to look for the perfect goal, with work into the box, shorter passing, and pass into space - not saying it can't work but it seems to expect the oppositon to roll over. I think this shape works really well playing either more directly or with your amc and treq offering more support to your AF. When counterattacking the AF, with his higher position can be more effective - otherwise he runs into blind alleys. A more rigid philosphy may give your team a more layered shape - I personally use rigid or very rigid with slightly different roles and it really helps create better gaps. A lot of Seria A defenses tend to play deep and slowish tempo - I'd imagine your players chasing shadows and getting pinned back in awkward positons.

Finally, I'd be cautious about using a trequartista unless he's got a lot of quality. Klose as a DLF may be much better and find more joy in the spaces your other forward opens up and throughballs your AP sends. I use a trequartista up front with a shadow striker in the amc slot and they're very effective, especially against 4 man defenses that play deep - think mallesani's Torino for example.

It's an enjoyable formation but as always, needs the right players and ways to exploit space.

[Rob4590]

The one bit that looks a little out is that the AP(A) is behind the TQ - the AP will push forward towards the AM strata, while the TQ will drop backwards towards the same area - are they getting in each other's way? If so - just swap one of them over to the other side - so TQ in front of the CM(S) and the AF(A) in front of the AP(A)

Alternatively - swap the duties for the 2 MC's - so CM(A) and AP(S) - this will drop the playmaker a little deeper and the CM(A) will make forward runs past the TQ to link with the AF(A) better

Please note I am no tactical genius however - so this may be totally wrong!

[Contexx]

Well, I thought the same thing before I stumbled upon it in a friendly, especially finally having a top class striker in Junior Moraise. The link up is surprisingly good - tried shadow striker for the Amc role but that led to crowding. What happens here with the AF/TQ/AP combo is plenty of space opened up by one of the strikers going higher up the pitch, with the other almost swapping with the amc. Also, as an advanced playmaker, the amc still gets somewhat invilved defensively, although he is currently my second top scorer.