How could this tactic be improved?

[Aizo4576]

Hey all,

Got a game going with Stoke and I'm now in to the 18/19 season. I have been using a tactic for a few seasons now but it's time to move on. I'm not sure why, but it's not effective anymore. My team is horribly inconsistent. We only finished 8th last season, but I believe my squad are definitely capable of top four. This is the tactic I have been using:

And this is the tactic I am thinking of changing to:

That is based off reading a few things on here and looking at tactics other people have used. However, I still have a limited understanding of tactics so if someone could please point out the potential flaws in my tactic(and how they could be resolved), no matter how obvious, that would be greatly appreciated.

For a bit of reference, here are a few screens about my squad as a lot of them are regens.

Any help is much appreciated,

Cheers

[Luizinho]

Regarding your 1st tactic, I'm no genius but you don't seem to have much cover defensively in Midfield. The AP will do close to nothing defensively. Therefore your relying on your other two Central Midfielders to the job (Regista & Ball Winning Midfielder). However their roles are very aggressive. They will both charge around attempting to win the ball back; leaving no-one in front of your back 4. I would sacrifice either the Regista or the BWM. Instead put a more static player in their like a Central Midfielder (D), a Deep-lying Playmaker (D), an Anchorman (D) or a Defensive Midfielder (D). Thats were I felt your went wrong in the 1st place, just my opinion however .

Edit: Regarding your 2nd tactic, nothing seems glaring wrong with it. Perhaps remove shorter passing to start with; I only ever give passing instructions if I'm 100% that it's the right thing to do. Also bear in mind that your Wingers will not track back as much as you'd like; so you will have to keep this in mind when playing against tough opposition.

[Aizo4576]

Regarding your 1st tactic, I'm no genius but you don't seem to have much cover defensively in Midfield. The AP will do close to nothing defensively. Therefore your relying on your other two Central Midfielders to the job (Regista & Ball Winning Midfielder). However their roles are very aggressive. They will both charge around attempting to win the ball back; leaving no-one in front of your back 4. I would sacrifice either the Regista or the BWM. Instead put a more static player in their like a Central Midfielder (D), a Deep-lying Playmaker (D), an Anchorman (D) or a Defensive Midfielder (D). Thats were I felt your went wrong in the 1st place, just my opinion however .

Ah, a great suggestion. What do you think of the second tactic? That has a lot more support in terms of defense I'm just not sure how the attacks of the two will compare. The front 3 were also fairly inconsistent last season and we struggled to score in quite a few games.

[Luizinho]

Ah, a great suggestion. What do you think of the second tactic? That has a lot more support in terms of defense I'm just not sure how the attacks of the two will compare. The front 3 were also fairly inconsistent last season and we struggled to score in quite a few games.

I edited in my response for your 2nd tactic. As a general rule; I only ever give instructions if I can myself explain why I have given it. Trying not to over complicate things until I fully understand the mechanics of the TC.

[Aizo4576]

I edited in my response for your 2nd tactic. As a general rule; I only ever give instructions if I can myself explain why I have given it. Trying not to over complicate things until I fully understand the mechanics of the TC.

Okay, thanks

Just going in to the pre-season now. Hopefully this tactic does decently, under so much pressure from the board

[tennisball]

I don't see any major flaws with your 2nd tactic although I'd propose a few small changes, see if they make a difference for you though:

1. Play your FC with an attacking role.

Probably CF(A) but it depends on his attributes, you could go for AF(A) too if you'd prefer. This is due to your AMC (the AP(S)) being a creator and not much of a goal threat.

Generally you want your FC and AMC pairing to have one attack and one support role, and with your central midfielders in the DM strata a support role for the AMC is ideal so that he links up play better.

2. I would change the right FB to FB(S).

It's only a minor change from FB(auto), but I prefer to not set auto roles as the team mentality affects it and can change it to attack or defence.

The reason I chose FB(S) is because it would provide good balance with the W(A) ahead, and the left hand side has good balance with a FB(A) attacking out wide and the IF(A) cutting inside.

Essentially this is not much of a change at all, it would only affect you if you changed the mentality to an attacking or defensive one.

3. I would swap the DM's around.

I would prefer the defensive role on the left to cover for the left FB who is attacking more than the right FB.

4. I would keep an eye on the team instructions and see if they are all necessary.

Shorter passing may well be fine, but I would keep an eye on it especially due to the large gap between DM and AMC strata, sometimes it can cause a few issues.

Likewise Retain Possession may be exactly what you are looking for, but it may over elaborate the build up play, especially as you seem geared up for some quick attacks with your W(A) and IF(A).

The best thing is just to play a few matches with and without the instructions and see which style of play you prefer.

Let us know how you get on, I'm going to be changing to a very similar setup in the near future with my Sheff Wed save. I'm also playing a 4-DM-2-2-1 (4-3-3) but I have two great youngsters coming through the ranks that are extremely pacy young strikers. Both can play as a IF(A) in the AMR position, but they won't fit the lone striker role too well in my current formation due to the lack of support from midfield (I play a CF(S) or F9 atm).

So I'll be changing to a 4-2-3-1 deep formation like yours (as my alternative formation) with the youngsters eventually filling the AMR and FC positions as IF(A) and AF(A), with a AP(S) behind the FC.