The pains of overachieving - tactic/style help!

[alanfishead]

Every year on FM I always go for a long term save with Newcastle and always struggle. Thanks to some help from @Experienced Defender a couple of weeks back my most recent season has been a successful one (predicted 12th and finished 5th), qualifying for Europe. I've mainly been playing on the counter which has worked wonders being a lower ranked team and has been the main contributor in being a huge overachiever this last season. I'm now at that awkward stage the most FMers experience at some stage where counter attacking football is no longer an option for the majority of games. 

So I need a plan B but I can't quite get any consistency from it. Now I'm predicted to finish 7th and my board require me to play attacking football. I've never really played all out attacking football for any length of time. It's usually situation dependant, normally when chasing a goal. I'm starting to struggle against almost every opposition. Even against weaker sides it's hard to tell where I'm going wrong. Sometimes I'll get hit on the counter and other times I'll struggle to have more that 5 shots. Against bigger sides, I can still stay in the game and maybe sneak a draw but I never look like threatening a win!

The original tactic that got me to 5th place is this:

The mentality changes throughout the game and I occasionally add Pass into Space and Be More Expressive if I'm struggling to break someone down. In home games against really weak teams, I'll move the ML/R up to AML/R with similar roles & duties.

As mentioned above, what I'd like to do is have a plan B that is a bit more dominant and imposing in order to control games. I've got some good technical players as well as some very good prospects. My starting 11 is as follows:

 

 

 

I fell like I've got a team that can dominate and on paper, they could challenge for Europe again! I've also got a couple of very good prospects who are pushing for the first team this season:

 

Any help and advice would be greatly welcomed! I'm not opposed to changing shape as I've got a few good strikers so could easily go 2 up top if needs be.

Thanks in advance!

 

 

Edited January 29, 2020 by alanfishead

[Experienced Defender]

Having analyzed your starting 11 and taking into account everything you said (including what the board wants/expects from you), I would switch to the 4123 wide formation and set it up like this:

PFat

IWsu                               Wsu

DLPsu   MEZat

DMde

FBat    CDco   BPDde   IWBsu

SKsu

Benkovic would be the BPDde (in DCR), and Onguene the covering CB (in DCL)

DLPsu - Geiger

MEZat - Olmo

AMR/Wsu - Stengs (he is left-footed, so playing him on the right flank would make him a hybrid between a standard winger and IF/IW)

AML/IWsu - Veron (probably the "weakest link" among your attacking players, but still good enough)

Considering both what the board wants in terms of playing style and your players' attributes, these would be my starting team instructions (small occasional tweaks would be added when needed):

Mentality - Positive

In possession - shorter passing, higher tempo, play out of defence, be more expressive

In transition - counter (and occasionally counter-press)

Out of possession - higher DL and standard LOE

Player instructions - split block involving the striker, both wide fwds and mezzala.

You have a very good team, so your previous counter-attacking tactic - which looks really good in and of itself - does not make sense anymore (as you yourself already noted).

If you have any questions and/or want some explanations, feel free to ask 

[alanfishead]

Thanks for this. I'll give this a go. I forgot to include Rayan Cherki who I've just brought in on loan from city who is a lot better than Veron in AML. He's strong on both right and left foot so should be a good option as the IW. 

One question if have is how you'd adapt this against top teams? My next match is United away and this set up doesn't feel comfortable! 

Thanks again.

[Experienced Defender]

44 minutes ago, alanfishead said:

One question if have is how you'd adapt this against top teams? My next match is United away and this set up doesn't feel comfortable! 

Hard to tell you what exactly you should do (tweak), but if the main tactic generally works well, then you should avoid any big changes. 

For example, you can just slightly tweak the roles and duties. Like this:

PFat

IWsu                             Wsu

CAR    APat

Ade

FBat   CDde  BPDde    FBsu

SKsu

Then drop both DL and LOE just a notch - standard DL and lower LOE. Don't use the counter-press. Remove the split block (or use a softer version, with only the striker and APat pressing more).

Consider the Get stuck in as an option. Try and see how it works. 

If you notice they are pressing you aggressively and your defense is (seriously) struggling to build up from the back, remove the Play out of defence.

These are the kind of tweaks that usually work for me. Not in every single case, of course, but more often than not.

[FabianJonsson]

I have had the exact same issue to deal with, and I actually had an almost identical tactical setup.

My setup were as follows:

 

What I did was:

- changed my MR from W/S to WM/S and added sit narrower and roam from position

- changed my MCr from MEZ/A to CM/A (+ move into channels)

- changed my DCl from CD/D to CD/Co

- added overlap right

- changed mentality from Balanced to Positive and pushed up the defensive line, the line of engagement and the closing down setting one tick each

The idea was to achieve two things:

1. The opposition is sitting deeper, so I want to push my defensive line up to engage them higher up the field. But then I also need to change closing down settings to keep pressure on the ball carrier to avoid ball over the top (I also changed one centre back to a covering role in case we fail to put pressure on the ball).

2. Add more options to the lone striker. We tend to build our attacks by passing the ball up to the lone striker, that holds it up until the wide players and the attacking MCr can support. Against lower defences, the lone striker was hopelessly outnumbered, so the changes (positive mentality, MR tucking in, DR pushing up) helped the lone striker having more players to pass to.

I'm also toying with the idea of shifting my ST to STl, to further incentivize my MCr to push forward, but I haven't played with it long enough to say if it works or not.

 

 

 That was basically it, and so far it seems to have worked relatively well. Still fairly new changes though, so I might run into some issues.

Edited January 30, 2020 by FabianJonsson

[permanentquandary]

I think you are possibly overestimating the quality of your players. Don't misunderstand me; they are good. But they are not exceptional yet.

In particular your team is weak on the flanks in defence in terms of raw defensive ability. Aim for 14 and above for marking positioning tackling and also higher decisions and anticipation 14+.

The right back Moyano, I see he has room to grow, but what would concern me is that he has a low work rate. This attribute, plus teamwork and stamina, is of huge importance for any player you expect to contribute heavily to all phases of play, and for me he does not have the endeavour to be effective at that, though he will make up for it to some extent with his immense quickness. I would also be concerned about his passing of just 10. So not only will he struggle to be bothered to put himself in the right positions for the team, when he gets the ball it is likely he will give the ball away.

I'm afraid that is a significant liability.

And when you try to limit his role to a more defensive one, he is not yet strong enough to shine there either.

Train him on endurance, use fines to boost his work rate and get a new right back and bring him off the bench.

Edited February 5, 2020 by permanentquandary