Can I get an assessment and advice for my 4-2-3-1 please?

[red dragon1978]

I'm playing as Wrexham, in the Conference National.

Thanks to a very poor depth of squad, the only 1/2 decent formation I can put together is a 4-2-3-1. I noted that one of the 2 decent strikers 'comes deep to get the ball' and the other only functions well as a 'defensive forward'. Therefore, I reasoned (probably incorrectly) that they wouldn't generally be in the right area at the right time to score, so the burden of scoring would fall on my attacking midfielders. Also, because of a small squad size (well, the squad's a decent size but the number of players good enough for the first team isn't) I decided I wanted to play a tactic based on possession, relying on decent acceleration and pace up front to penetrate without exhausting the team.

So, I'm playing 4-2-3-1, with either an AF, poacher, or defensive forward up front. The '3' are 2 attacking inside forwards and a supporting AM. The '2' are a defensive ball winner and a supporting box-to-box, and at the back I have 2 auto-duty wingbacks, a covering central and a defending central. I play a standard, flexible style, switching up to Control if I want to attack, and Counter if I'm looking to defend.

Only 5 games in, I'm still fiddling with the TI's, but generally go with a balanced width, normal tempo...switching to higher to attack and counter, lower when the game's safe. I opt for 'look for overlaps' and, if looking to score, 'work ball into box'. If I'm looking to rest or see out the game I switch 'work ball into box' for 'Retain Possession. I also instruct the team to 'stay on feet'.

After the first 5 games, I've won 3, drawn 2....should've won one of the draws but I made a mistake, and the second draw was a very dubious penalty equalizer. I've scored 14, conceded 3 (including 2 pens).

However, a couple of things bother me and I'm not sure how to deal with them. My AML and AMR have 9 goals and 2 assists between them in 8 games. The AMC has 3 assists, but no goals..in fact his shot percentage is zero. In terms of my strikers, the best is 1 goal in 3 appearances, 1 goal in 1 start and 1 sub appearances, and 1 goal in 1 full and 3 sub appearances, which aren't brilliant but ok. I know it's not particularly relevant but I also scored heavily in the friendlies, with the same problem. How do I get my AMC in on the action, and if you think I need more goals from the strikers, then how, please?

Also, I need the players to have rest periods during matches. I've tried lowering the tempo, shortening the passing so they're not chasing, putting the defensive line deep and removing all closing down to force the opponent to come to me, but whatever I do the team still plays aggressive, fast and complex passing moves, chase the ball and generally play high energy football. Ideally I would like them to circulate the ball for a while, not expending too much energy, then burst forward when an opening arises. What am I missing, please? Thanks...............and to save anyone kind enough to answer typing time, I've read Lines and Diamonds, Pairs & Combinations and Creating a Tactic and Maintaining it Long Term. The answer could well be in those superb pieces of work, but if it is, I missed it!

[noikeee]

I have the exact same problem on my Control, Flexible 4-2-3-1. The AMC as AM/A doesn't score enough and as AM/S doesn't assist enough. Seems as if the whole play goes by the wings.

What I did was to switch him to a shadow striker and make my striker a DLF/S. This seems to work slightly better but I'm still not happy with the contributions from my AMC. He does seem to make tons of key passes though which make his average rating very high (this happens for 2 different players I play in the role), so I'm guessing it's the rest of the team that isn't giving a good sequence to those passes.

Mind you doing this will probably be a bad idea in your tactic as you've got both wingers on attack role, and both wing backs on auto (which I believe are "support" duty on Control), I'm a little more cautious, and suspect putting your whole AM trio on attack roles might be a very bad idea defensively.

[red dragon1978]

Thanks noikee. Interesting to hear someone else has exactly the same issue. Like you hinted, I found putting the AMC as attack didn't work (I started with him on it and decided to switch). Likewise, giving the wide attackers different roles and/or making them a support duty completely dried up their goals. In fact, it was due to the apparent lack of goals from the strikers that I made them attacking IF's, otherwise I had no attacking threat. I'm now wondering if putting the AM on attack and giving the 'main' striker' a support role might work...