Advice on which mentality and fluidly will work best for my formation

[swallow1050]

Hi all and Merry Christmas!

I've decided to come to the T&T forums to ask for some advice on how to implement my tactic on FM14:

The only extra player instructions are for the goalkeeper (short passing and distribute to defenders) as I hate losing possession by just hoofing up the pitch.

I've read the stickys here and lurked here over the last few months so hopefully my formation is balanced and I've picked sensible roles but what I'm not 100% sure about it is which mentality will best suit my style of play and what I am trying to achieve:

I am looking to be solid at the back but incisive in attack; I'm not worried about overly controlling the possession but I don't want to just give it away and I want my team to be comfortable in possession.

My team is a best of the rest team so I should beat lower teams but struggle against the better ones. I'm yet to use this tactic and preseason is just about to start so I want to make sure I make the most of it.

Last season I used a formation similar but instead of Wide players in the AM strata I used wingers in the MID Strata and moved the Mid up to the AM Strata on support with the lone strike on a Attacking duty. The issue I had with that formation was that the AM and striker tended to get isolated against the better teams and were easily tackled when in possession. It was relatively successful but it would struggle against the better teams.

So what I am really asking for is some advice on:

1. Am I on the right track?

2. Is counter a sensible mentality to use? what sort of issues may I have with using this mentality?

3. Can I make a difference to this tactic by changing my fluidly? I chose rigid because of the 3 specialised roles, although I could of used balanced, the more I think about it maybe balanced could be better but what do you think?

4. Should I use a DLF instead of a F9?

5. Would having the attacking duty on the left full back to overlap the inside forward be better than balancing out the duties?

Thank you to anyone that takes the time to read this and any help will be very much appreciated.