Team / Strikers aren't scoring enough goals.

[WizardOfOzil]

Hi guys, fairly new to the forums but played the game for around 5 years. I've got a problem with scoring goals or having a prolific goalscorer in this years game. I am into my 4th season with Newcastle and over the 38 games in the season, my league goals have been 64, 68, 65.

I feel like my strikers aren't scoring enough or consistently enough; as in my first season, my striker was Papise Cisse who scored 14 league goals, second season I got Benteke and he scored 15 league goals and 3rd season I signed Kevin Volland for a whopping £41.5 million and he only scored 7 league goals - I've changed the roles around a bit from Deep lying forward to Advanced forward to Complete forward but they score far too inconsistently. Any help would be useful.

Most the time I've been using this formation

and these team instructions with no player instructions as I just let the player roles do their role.

[WizardOfOzil]

anyone? Lol

[Askci]

Your AF seems pretty starved for support, your AP will stay a bit deeper because he's on Support duty, while, unless you have specific instructions, your wingers are probably just throwing crosses and praying it's your AF's head they hit and not the 3+ opposition defenders in the box.

You should be pretty solid at back with Anchorman + 2 CDs, so you could have your BWM be Support, or some other role to help create chances, while pushing your AP to an Attack duty. You can also try overloading the flanks with FBs/WBs + Wingers, or even an IF to give you another goal threat I suppose. Maybe a DLF(A) instead of AF to drop back a bit more and link your midfield better.

[Northernpilgrim]

You state that the striker isn't scoring, but I'd query whether he's getting any opportunities. He's going to be feeding off scraps. I'd set one of your FB's to attack, the winger on that side to support, and your Advanced Playmaker to attack. That way, you'll get more support to the striker, and the quality of balls into the area should improve, as well as giving you more people to actually hit in the area.

[Erith22]

Get rid of retain possession. That's an anti-goal scoring shout.

Like others have said, you need to vary up your mentalities more.

[19MiRkO91]

I would start from the AP(S).

Good choice to put him on a support role, but have you considered his passing options? I'm quite sure that if you looked at the analysis tab of a match, you'll see him either trying long passes forward or backward passing. The reason for this is obviously his passing options. You have 2 W(A) who will rush forward, along with a AF(A) as a lone striker upfront who won't come deep enough.

Like I already said, I would reconsider your attacking options. 2 W(A) are good as long as you have people who are good in the air and, especially, are in the box. Who do you have in the box? the AF(A) and probably at least 4-5 defenders. How are you gonna get the ball, there? Consider putting some more men into the box.

The FB(auto) are useless. Set them to a specific duty, don't let the AI do it for you. I can't imagine Mourinho telling Maicon "Hey, we need to sit deep so defend but you'll have to attack after 30 minutes because we'll change our strategy". Moreover, you're using 2 wingers, so are you sure they're joining the attack and not leaving your wingers alone?

Why isn't your team scoring even though you have a good tactic? You have a fluid philosophy, but have an Anchor man, a BWM and an AP. Like Cleon wrote, you'll need your players to stick to their position in order to get the best out of your playmakers. It's not good at all to see your (let's say) winger protecting your defense, or your FB being your AP (unless, of course, they have the ability to do it like Dutch players had during the 70s.Watch highlights and see who is doing what. Moreover, consider you are playing with a Control strategy. This tells your team to play wider, to play higher, higher tempo, more direct passing and so on. What happens if everybody are rushing forward and not being a good options (especially your attacking players)? You will have even less options. Again, watch highlights and analysis tab to determine why you lose possession.

I wouldn't say retain possession is an anti-goal scoring shout, at least not unless you have the players like Barça does. Their tiki-taka is all about retaining possession (like Guardiola said:"Without the ball, we're an awful team") yet they have Iniesta, Xavi and Fabregas who can play killer balls. You just need to understand what you want from your team and if you can achieve it.

I'll make an example. Most of people think Inter Milan can play a retain possession game, because they're (or they used to be) a top side. Totally, completely wrong. At the beginning of the game, you won't have much creativity in your midfield, which means you'll struggle to break down the opposition. You'll have to rely on their stamina and hard work and physical stats for your match. This doesn't mean you can't play a retain possession game, you'll just have to understand it's not as easy to achieve (this is why wwfan suggests to look at the team comparison report) and that it might take some more time to implement it.

Again, be more expressive. You have already a fluid philosophy (which I suggested you to change) and be more expressive will encourage players to try to be more creative.

I don't understand FM for the greatest part, sometimes, so take everything like a pinch of salt. But logically, I would use different roles and ideas.