A lack of attacking movement

[sporadicsmiles]

I have been having some issues regarding player movement, and I after reading around and seeing I was not alone, I thought I would get some additional feedback on this. As a disclaimer, I have played a very limited amount of FM19 this far, only the demo, and not the latest patch (which may have fixed this, but I do not know if I will get time to try it before the new year).

The problem I am seeing, across a variety of tactical setups and formations, is a distinct lack of sensible movement from attacking players. Strikers, and to a lesser extend inside forwards, appear to be behaving strangely in the attacking phase. They will end up sat on the shoulder of the last man.. and stay there. Almost irrespective of the role I have assigned to them. Now, clearly this is behaviour I expect in certain situations. For example, if your striker has an attack duty, it can be quite okay for him to do this. That is not the problem. The problem I have is even a DLF(S) is stuck on the shoulder of the last man, and does not move. Now, this is to me a problem. A deep lying forward should do what it says on the tin. He should drop a little deeper to act as a passing option at least as often as looking to get into the box. In fact, exactly how the role played in FM18. For me, this is a severe problem, because it is killing central play (at least, the way I like to play centrally). If the striker does not drop deeper to receive a pass, he cannot draw out defenders. He cannot be in a position to make a through ball to an IF or BBM or CM(A) rushing into the box. He cannot help recycle the ball centrally. What I have seen so far is that this means that the only players who are regularly in a good position are attacking fullbacks. Which means they receive the ball a lot, and a lot of attacking is focused this way (leading to seeing the blocked cross animation a lot). It does not feel right.

Now, I do not have access to FM, or I would post some screenshots to go along with this showing the movement I want. Instead, I will have to try to describe. Imagine the following formation, which was pretty standard for me in FM18 and I have used in FM19.

I only here want to focus on the attacking phase of play. Please also only have a limited amount of time this weekend to play around with suggestions or to actually try to document this properly. Sorry for that, I am still interested in what people think. Lets say standard and structured in FM18. Balanced in FM19 (I think the game also decides it is structured). Minimal TIs, the most relevant of which is work ball into box.

Now, there is clearly a plan here to use the DLF as a fulcrum about which I want to create openings for other players. When the DLF drops in deep, he can open space in the defensive line if a DB comes with him. Even if he does not, he will have two players - one either side - who can get a ball to them as they run into the box. There is also the winger and attacking fullbacks should this option not be open (the striker is advanced, or not open), and the DLP, DM, CM create some nice passing triangles to keep the ball as well. Play this tactic in FM18 and you will see the DLF will very often drop towards the AMC strata, get the ball, and often be deadly. You can create a lot of goals this way. Indeed, he can also be the beneficiary of through balls if he runs from deep. Clearly, this behaviour is not seen on every single attack, but you get the picture.

What I have been seeing in FM19 is that no matter the role I play (of those tried so far), once we enter the attacking phase, the striker will get forward and stay there. He will not drop back to get a pass. He sits on the shoulder of the last defender and waits. This, clearly, eliminates a good portion of what the tactic I describe above is designed to do. I feel this is wrong. A DLF should not behave like an AF at all times. There is no point in having different roles then (although their defensive behaviour is different and is what I expect). I will also note that the only time I have ever gotten by striker involved in build up play is when I specifically aim to get the ball forward quickly so he can receive it during a defensive to offensive transitions. Then I can see more readily the attacking structures I describe.

So, my questions to you are this:

1. Has anyone else seen or experienced this? Or, is this something I have failed to fully comprehend on change between versions, or is this behaviour intended.

2. If this is intended behaviour, can someone explain to me the difference between the different roles in an attacking phase, because I fail to see any.

3. What, if anything, can be done to rectify this situation? If it is tactical, I am all ears (although do note again I cannot try things for a while yet due to work). If it is just the new ME being a bit screwy, so be it.

ps. as a disclaimer, this is not a "lets moan at the ME because I am failing to win" thread. The results I am getting are actually fine, and the new ME looks beautiful (aside from so, so many slide tackles which I think will be toned down at some point). This is purely based on my inability to recreate things I could previously create.

[RTHerringbone]

1. It's a widely acknowledged weakness of the current Match Engine.

2. It isn't so nobody can explain.

3. Nothing tactical. I just remind myself that it's just a game, it is what it is, so we either sit and moan or we just move on and work with what we have. If you're feeling proactive, log a few examples in the bugs forum as all .pkm examples add to SI's arsenal of reference points.

[sporadicsmiles]

Cheers for the reply. I have not been as active as usual for the start of this edition, and have not kept up to date with the feedback threads like I normally would.

As you say, now I know this is not something I am doing wrong, I will happily contribute examples to bug reports. I just wanted to make absolutely sure that it was not just me being dumb before I did so. 

In addition, feel free to close the thread. I have the answers I wanted and it has probably served it's purpose.