Suitable shape & mentality

[FatRonaldo]

Please I need help.

I read a lot about the game before, I still cannot understand how to pick shape or what shape is suitable for a specific match.

Meaning, I understand what shape is, but I cannot seem to understand whenever to use it.

In pre season I arranged some friendlies against Sporting Lisbon and we won 2-0, we were dominating in every aspect of the game.

next match another friendly and we won 4-1 against Porto (which obviously are much better team then us and they have better players), we were dominating the match.

Season starts against southamptom away from home (league 1st match - 2017) and we lost 2-1, southhampton controlled the possesion, but they were not a threat in terms of chances or anything we should concerned of (they had 10 shots, 2 on target, 7 of them were long shots).

We also had some long shots, I checked in the analyse screen to see how's southhampton positioning without the ball and they were quite narrow, so i tried to stretch the opposition quite a bit and play wider and it helped in terms of possesion and it dropped to 50-50 - but it's not neccessarly important because possession don't mean a lot.

they scored their 1st goal from a corner, we managed to get back to the game with a great attack on the 2nd half and on the 75 minute they scored a goal from 27 yard - and they closed the game the match ended 2-1.

Team: Bournemouth

I play 4-3-3 DM

mentality: counter

TI: play higher

shape: fluid

                     FB(a) CD(d) CD(d) FB(a)

                                 DM(d)

                          MC(s)  MC(s)

               Winger (a)               IF (a)

                                CF (s)

We weren't the best against southhampton (one of my CD got a low rating, and my CF aswell I noticed his headers won were 15-6 which means I tried to switch his role to DLF but he didn't improved so I subtitute him), but southhampton weren't good either and yet we lost the game 1 goal from a corner and one from 27 yard shot.

So I'm not sure if that's a tactical issue, but my question is: how do I know which shape is suitable for a specific match (combined with mentality)?

 

[Jungztar]

OK, what kind of playing style are you hoping to achieve? Where should the goals be coming from and who is going to supply the passes and the movement? These would be my starting questions Then I would look into my roles and duties and see if I have the right balance. Afterwards you can see if you have the players to perform.

[FatRonaldo]

Sorry, I didn't had the time to response due to real life issues.

Ignore my first post, it seems like there are too many attacking roles.

I change my mind and I want to play structured shape (after watching busthenet recent video).

The style I want is possession football but also want my team to be able to do some counter attacks when we struggle to keep the ball.

I thought about something like this:

Mentality: Defensive or Counter

Shape: Structured

TI: Push higher up, use offside trap, low crosses, prevent short GK distribution.

 

                                               CF(s)

    AML IF (a)                                                   AMR winger (A)

                   LCM(s) or DLP (s)              RCM(s)          

                                               DM(d)

   LFB(a) or LWB(s)         CD(d)           CD(d)           RWB(d)

                                               GK (d)

 

any ideas?