swede Posted November 14, 2016 Share Posted November 14, 2016 So I decided to get back into it with FM17 and Villa, hoping to get back up first time of asking. So far it has been something of a mixed bag. I'm trying to play a 4-2-3-1 Wide since I do have a couple of players that can occupy that winger spot. Now, granted I don't really have the best team in the world to play with here, and I lack passing skill from the looks of it, but I find a couple of issues really holding me back. Firstly, let's take a look at my results so far: The issues I see are: 1) My attacking players seem to lack options as we transition into the attack. Quite often they have to wait for support and dally on the ball until the oppositions gets back into position and dispossesses them. My set up looks like this: In this case I have set up for Standard mentality since I'm up against a fairly evenly matched Derby. De Leat is set to Defend, but usually Motta plays the RB position with an attacking FB role while Awey plays Support on the RW position. 2) The gap in front of my defensive line is often exploited by the opposition and they can oftentimes play some rather neat tiki-taka stuff without my lads getting really stuck in. My boys seems to be pulled out of position quite a bit leading to their attacking players often findiing themselves open in my box leading to goals. As you can see, placed shots in the box is something of an issue: 3) I really seem to struggle to defend against my opponent countering or attacking down the wing. Sure, I see the gap, but what to do? Any ideas as to how to evolve this? Need some more wins. My right side is a bit weak against crosses or through balls: Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
swede Posted November 15, 2016 Author Share Posted November 15, 2016 I would love to get a bit of feedback on this so if any more info is needed, just shout. Or just a discussion around tactics for the Villa in general. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
swede Posted November 15, 2016 Author Share Posted November 15, 2016 Ok, so one thing that seems to help with my second issue is to tell my CD's to close down less often: Looking at Chester instructions above. I have both my defending CD and covering CD set to "Close Down Much Less". Initial feeling after a few games is that there are fewer gaps in my back line to exploit even if there at times is a gap between my mids and defensive line. My central defenders aren't pulled out of position as easily and we look a bit more solid at the back managing, to some extent at least, keep our shape when the opponent is pinging the ball around in the aforementioned gap. What other tweaks would you recommend? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
djhagster Posted November 15, 2016 Share Posted November 15, 2016 You might want to try getting one of CMs to sit and act as a screen to the CDs. CM(D) or DLP (D) has worked for me before with PI 'Hold Position' Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
swede Posted November 15, 2016 Author Share Posted November 15, 2016 32 minutes ago, djhagster said: You might want to try getting one of CMs to sit and act as a screen to the CDs. CM(D) or DLP (D) has worked for me before with PI 'Hold Position' Good shout! I usually try and play Westwood as a DLP (D), but will try and give him 'Hold Position' as well. I made the CD changes after the Nottingham Forrest game, and result have been good. Not only in terms of actual wins, but we now face fewer shots than before and feel a bit less leaky. Also, I fell back to playing a Counter mentality more often than before. My lads seem to like that the best. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
swede Posted November 16, 2016 Author Share Posted November 16, 2016 Well, followed that up with a really poor performance against Wolves. I'm not at all sure about my shape any longer. Maybe I should fill the gap between defence and mids with Anchor Man? We seem to get exploited by long balls up to an opposing player in the hole and then they get a bit of a free reign to pass around outside our are or in our box. Gah... This is hard stuff. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bitner Posted November 16, 2016 Share Posted November 16, 2016 Hey! I personally don't like your LW pair. an WB-S with an W-s will cause both just to trip on each other, because they will actuallybe at the same place, this, with other factors, may cause the lack of options to pass, because you have two player at the same spot. Wing Backs tend to take the wings to them, even on defend, so they don't blend with an winger, an more appropriate pairing would be an FB-A and a Winger, as you will have some overlap, and the FB-A won't treat the wing as his own. That could create some passing options. (you can change the W-S to IF-s, but i'm not sure if you actually want to). About your midfield, maybe you could do with a defensive role at the central pair, it would be helpful to have someone who can recycle posession, maybe would help aswell. And i don't like the CF-A and SS-A pair, i'd rathe have the CF-S, to see him actually bringing more the shadow striker into play. Those are my thoughts, only. Cheers, Bitner Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
swede Posted November 16, 2016 Author Share Posted November 16, 2016 44 minutes ago, Bitner said: Hey! I personally don't like your LW pair. an WB-S with an W-s will cause both just to trip on each other, because they will actuallybe at the same place, this, with other factors, may cause the lack of options to pass, because you have two player at the same spot. Wing Backs tend to take the wings to them, even on defend, so they don't blend with an winger, an more appropriate pairing would be an FB-A and a Winger, as you will have some overlap, and the FB-A won't treat the wing as his own. That could create some passing options. (you can change the W-S to IF-s, but i'm not sure if you actually want to). About your midfield, maybe you could do with a defensive role at the central pair, it would be helpful to have someone who can recycle posession, maybe would help aswell. And i don't like the CF-A and SS-A pair, i'd rathe have the CF-S, to see him actually bringing more the shadow striker into play. Those are my thoughts, only. Cheers, Bitner Some very good thoughts! I will give it a go, thanks! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bitner Posted November 19, 2016 Share Posted November 19, 2016 On 16/11/2016 at 15:51, swede said: Some very good thoughts! I will give it a go, thanks! They worked? Cheers, Bitner Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cfcx.1 Posted November 19, 2016 Share Posted November 19, 2016 Grealish as inside forward or ap with amavi etc giving overlap. Get your str, 3 am's closing down more and have centre halves and Westwood closing less and leave the other guys default closing down Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
swede Posted November 19, 2016 Author Share Posted November 19, 2016 2 hours ago, Bitner said: They worked? Cheers, Bitner Only had time for one game. Lost against Reading 3-0 after 2 own goals and looking decidedly shaky all over the pitch. We ended up with about 41% possession I think. This seems like a mental issue with the squad to be honest. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
swede Posted November 19, 2016 Author Share Posted November 19, 2016 1 hour ago, cfcx.1 said: Grealish as inside forward or ap with amavi etc giving overlap. Get your str, 3 am's closing down more and have centre halves and Westwood closing less and leave the other guys default closing down Ohh, will give this a whirl and report back. Thanks! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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