Need help understanding problems with tactic

[Zolero]

Hi!

I have a reocurring problem where I try out my tactic during friendlies and with som tweaks try to make it work as I have visualized it and **** up totally during the season. My main problem is that, while I usually end up seeing what I want during friendlies, my team seem to fail totally when trying to pull it of in league games, even though the opposition seem to be of the same quality. 

So, this time I went with Swansea and tried the following:

The supporting forward was sometimes a DLF. My plan was to let the DLP spread balls to the winger and the fullback and then get crosses in to the forwards, BBM and sometimes the IW. When attacking more on the counter I expect my IW to take the ball into the pitch and then pass it to the DLF to set the fullback in play or playing a through ball to the winger on the other side. In the example my fullback passed the ball to the IW who brought it upfield and combined with the DLF to get a through ball to the winger who scored. In friendlies this seemed to work well but as you can something happened when the league started even though friendlies against nice and genoa seemed promising:

 

So now to the burning questions. Are friendlies not to trust? Is there a major issue with my tactic? I've tried focusing play via the wings as well to no success. Just to provide some more info most of my chances come via the IW coming into the pitch for a shot or a throughball to the winger. Or he lets go of the ball to the DLP or DLF/TM who passes it back to the wing where the fullback overlaps. But the suddenly during league games I have no possession and seem no to handle getting pressure at all, just kicking the ball out to a throw in almost every time. I'm happy to rework my tactic. I just need to figure out whether spending time in friendlies working something out is worth it since I always see the same pattern of success in friendlies and then failure in league games!

 

Thanks for reading!

EDIT: Realized the arrows disappeared from the image. 

[Experienced Defender]

1 hour ago, Zolero said:

Are friendlies not to trust?

Friendless are certainly less important than official games, but can still be a good indicator of whether something is wrong with a tactic. Btw, I've noticed you've had better results away (2 draws) than at home (both defeats). 

1 hour ago, Zolero said:

Is there a major issue with my tactic?

I'd rather say there are a couple of minor issues. What I like is that you (unlike many) do not use too many team instructions (just for the sake of using them). What I don't like though is that some of those you are using might be causing at least some of the problems you are facing. In that regard, I would suggest removing both the "pass into space" and "overlap left" TIs. And maybe you could try with "Get Stuck In", just to add a bit more aggression to your defending. 

Roles and duties are for the most part set up decently and I would make just a couple of tweaks (in addition to what I already suggested above regarding TIs) that would not change your tactic a lot, but should make it a bit more balanced. So I'd change the RM to WM on support, LM would remain an IW but on attack, whereas the LB would be a WB on support. That way the WM on the right could provide both occasional through balls for the AF on his side and crosses for the TM, depending on what's the better choice at the moment. IW on attack would provide more close support to the TM, in addition to being a constant attacking threat himself. Finally, the supporting WB on the left would serve as a sort of cover for the IWatt and the main ball-crosser on that flank, plus provide an additional passing option out wide for the DLPd.

Now, my question for you is do you know which exact style of football you want to implement. You are using a TM, which can be useful for a wing play or the so-called "hoofball". But if you want a more possession-based style, than a more logical choice would be a more mobile role (DLF or CF) on support duty (and would also require some tweaks to team instructions).

[robot_skeleton]

3 hours ago, Zolero said:

Is there a major issue with my tactic?

I think you have quite sensible roles and duties, but regarding the team instruction, there might be one or two issues. Or not, what was your thinking behind using what you decided to use?

[Zolero]

Thanks for the input! I've tried setting up with a more compact and a little bit lower block, using a IWa and a Ws. So far it looks better in game!