Fast hard-working team - what style other than counterattacking?

[right_winger]

Going into my second season in Serie A and trying to improve on the successful first one. I won't give away which team I manage as I don't want the discussion to focus around specific players, formation etc.

I'll start with listing best and poorest attributes of my team against the rest of the league:

BEST IN GENERAL (within top 3-4 in the league):
acceleration, pace, off the ball, agility, first touch, passing, decisions, dribbling, composure, balance, crossing, corners, stamina, work rate

POOR:
heading, jumping, strength

GOALIES:
good 1on1, reflexes, handling, agility
poor aerial, kicking & throwing

DEFENCE:
good tackling, marking, pace, acceleration, (strength)

MIDFIELD:
good passing, teamwork, decisions, stamina, (vision, technique)

FORWARDS:
good anticipation, off the ball, (acceleration)
poor heading, jumping

Most teams play very defensively with narrow back five, even the strong ones sometimes so playing on a counter is out of the question, maybe except some away games especially in Champions League.
Although I still use pace and fitness of my team to press intensively with very high LoE and specific players closing down specific positions, mainly FB/WB to prevent crosses. Counter-press added sometimes, according to opposition and how the game plays. It works quite well giving me possession and forcing errors from opposition. I combine that with high DL and one of my two reasonably fast DC's on cover so only from time to time get caught by a through or long ball for one-on-one and all in all I conceded the least goals of all teams.
Having many players good on the ball means I can play possession game but lower tempo seems to be ineffective against much weaker teams. So not sure which way to go: play slower on higher positive/attacking mentality or play faster on balanced mentality?
Good attributes for through balls are redundant because of lack of space behind opposition's deep defence. Same goes for good crossing due to no one to score from them. Well, one of my strikers can and does sometimes but he's usually up against strong aerial presence of two or three DC's. Occasionally a cross above everyone gets to the opposite Wing Back to score a screamer but that's once in a long while.

I won the double first season but that was mainly thanks to numerous slip ups of pretty much all other title contenders, especially towards the end of season. Although I have to give myself some credit for good record against those best teams in both the league and the cup.

For the second season my aims are:

a) win the league or finish second BUT either way in a more confident manner
Generally happy with performance and results against the main rivals but too often disappointed against mid-table teams and relegation battlers. Luckily the board expects battling for, not winning the title so still a little bit less pressure than expected. However that's not to say it's going to be easy with 5-6 strong teams hoping for the same. 

b) win more comfortably against weakest teams
Lots of possession but too many nervous 1-0, 2-1 wins or occasional draws.

c) go further in CL than first knockout stage
Need a plan B for games I can't dominate.

d) get my strikers to perform better and score more
They do score reasonable amount of goals but I feel they should do more really, luckily many others contribute too. For better ratings I thought they should be more involved in the build up so I already played some games with both of them on support with mixed results: it helped one of them a bit in some games (more involved and still scored) but not the other (same poor ratings and usually lack of goals) so not sure if I'm on the right track with this.

Thoughts anyone?

[Mr.FourOneFourOne]

Vertical Tiki Taka would be suitable for a lot of the attributes your players have, as it is based on transitions and quick movements up the pitch once the ball has been won, yet still includes the element of attempting to retain possession of the ball. You should play a vertical tiki taka style, play a high line and instruct your players to both counter and counter press. Also instruct them to attempt to dribble opponents and be expressive with the ball, as they have strong attacking attributes. 

[right_winger]

Thanks.

Do you think this could work well with two strikers? One is small and quite mobile, the other more of a poacher but can play other roles too (PF, DLF, CF).

More dribbles and expressiveness is something I was considering to try and will have a go at it 

However you mention Counter ticked and this is the function I, and many others, struggle to understand properly in FM. Would you say I need some advanced players with attack duty to utilise it better or adding forward runs to couple on support should be enough? In recent games I only had my AP on attack in CM slot plus sometimes FBa when he wasn't WBs.

Edited March 31, 2020 by right_winger

[summatsupeer]

You can have space behind opponents, try a mid block, it needs same sort of attributes as a high block but you just wait for opponents to try to leave there third of the pitch before pressing.

Winning it in this area can be very dangerous if you have players in position to take advantage of it quickly.

Just a Positive/Attacking mentality with a higher line and offside trap is the basis with a formation that isn't too deep such as 451/4411/442/3412/352 etc. Then just have to think about who presses as not everyone should be urgent and chasing the ball, especially not in packs and leaving easy passes open, alternatively who in the opposition formation to press.  Then who marks to remove passing options and who is available to go for 2nd balls or attack quickly.