How to improve my 5-2-1-2 ?

[Fëanáro Míriel]

My system has been quite good for me, first season 2nd in championship, second season 10th in premier league and 7th in prem last season. My squad isn't as strong as any of the top 6 so i know that anything above 7th would be overachieving. But i have 2 issues right now that i can't figure out. First is that even though we always finished good in the prem, every season more than %55-60 of our goals came from set-pieces, i mean both seasons we led the league in goals from corners(i don't even use any tactic its default) and penalties. Second issue is related to this, teams has started to defend deeper against us now, we were already mediocre at creating chances now we can't create anything. 13 games into the season we scored 15 goals, 6 came from set-pieces and 2 from penalties. I feel like the problem is the roles of the midfield trio, i kept changing them but i couldn't find the balanced way, im not sure about the forward roles either and my wingbacks were amazing in the first seasons but for the last year or so their contribution has really dropped but i guess thats also because teams started to defend deeper. So any ideas how to go from here ? Also i have an amazing regen striker coming next year who should make a great dlf so there is that too. Thanks a lot in advance.

 

[Experienced Defender]

12 hours ago, Fëanáro Míriel said:

 

12 hours ago, Fëanáro Míriel said:

I feel like the problem is the roles of the midfield trio

I think the midfield trio is okay in terms of roles. A bigger problem are the roles of the RWB and the right-hand striker (CF), as well as certain instructions. Because of the following reasons:

- WB on attack duty may be a bit too risky when he has a role such as BBM on his side, and even more so with the overlap instruction you use

- given that you play a trequartista in AMC, you don't need another highly roaming and creative role up front such as CF

- overlap left might make some sense, but I don't think it's really necessary given that your LWB already has an attack duty

- overlap right could be an option if you change the RWB's duty to support

So here is what I would do first:

- change the CFat into AF or PF on attack or poacher

- change the RWB from WB on attack into WB on support

Like this:

TMsu  AF/PO/PFat

TQ

DLPsu    BBM

WBat                                  WBsu

Other potential tweaks I would recommend include:

- standard tempo instead of higher

- default attacking width instead of wide

- remove the overlap left

- default pressing urgency instead of more urgent

For more advice, I would need to know more about your players.

[Fëanáro Míriel]

2 hours ago, Experienced Defender said:

 

I think the midfield trio is okay in terms of roles. A bigger problem are the roles of the RWB and the right-hand striker (CF), as well as certain instructions. Because of the following reasons:

- WB on attack duty may be a bit too risky when he has a role such as BBM on his side, and even more so with the overlap instruction you use

- given that you play a trequartista in AMC, you don't need another highly roaming and creative role up front such as CF

- overlap left might make some sense, but I don't think it's really necessary given that your LWB already has an attack duty

- overlap right could be an option if you change the RWB's duty to support

So here is what I would do first:

- change the CFat into AF or PF on attack or poacher

- change the RWB from WB on attack into WB on support

Like this:

TMsu  AF/PO/PFat

TQ

DLPsu    BBM

WBat                                  WBsu

Other potential tweaks I would recommend include:

- standard tempo instead of higher

- default attacking width instead of wide

- remove the overlap left

- default pressing urgency instead of more urgent

For more advice, I would need to know more about your players.

I made the changes you suggested. Played 5 games, 4 in the league won all 4 of them comfortably and lost to man city in the fa cup 1-0. My CF had 11 goals in 22 games before but he scored 7 in 4 after i made him an AF so looks like that really was the main problem. Thanks a lot for the help. One last question, i was thinking about changing the target man to a deep lying forward but i guess we would run into the same problem as having a TQ and CF next to each other right ? Target mans are hard to find so what other role would you suggest here ?

[Experienced Defender]

1 hour ago, Fëanáro Míriel said:

One last question, i was thinking about changing the target man to a deep lying forward but i guess we would run into the same problem as having a TQ and CF next to each other right ?

Not necessarily. At least not as much as the CF. DLF is not a roaming role, so he would make more sense than CF. After all, it's not bad to have someone holding up the ball until more support arrives from deep  

 

1 hour ago, Fëanáro Míriel said:

Target mans are hard to find so what other role would you suggest here ?

As I said above, DLF on support duty is not a bad idea at all. Another option is PF on support (if you want the role that is most similar to TM in terms of movement and creativity). The best way is to try both DLF and PF and see which one works better for your team, especially because it also depends on the type of the player playing there.