Struggling, does anything wrong stand out with this tactic?

[Danielkirby]

Any help would be appreciated with this.

I’m Arsenal, finished 6th two seasons in a row and I’m struggling to be consistent... the big teams tear me apart, I beat the majority of the weaker teams (apart from the odd shock result)

I want my goals to be coming from my striker mainly but with the Inside forward, winger and cm(a) too.

 

i find that the cm(a) seems to just be running into the same position. As the DLF(a), the IF seems to cut inside and just take long shots which most of the time just go wide, the winger gets a few goals...... the DLF(a) struggles, he got 20 goals last season but 5 or 6 of those were penalties.

 

 

Any pointers in the right direction would be great!
 

 

thank you

[summatsupeer]

8 minutes ago, Danielkirby said:

i find that the cm(a) seems to just be running into the same position. As the DLF(a)

If you've noticed that, thats where I would start.

I love the CM-At but not with a DLF-At who will be pushing defences back so the CM-At can't get up or past him. Advanced early runners need space and fast attacks to use that space, does he have space to attack? Is the ball moved quickly enough to use it? Does the forward have anyone helping make space for him by stretching the defence or are all those support duties too deep?  The CM-At might as well be a BBM type of player who wants to work the deeper area and arrive into the box later.  Maybe a wide forward should try to get forward earlier to help the DLF earlier?

Alternatively changing the duty of the forward could create more fluid movement by not pushing defences deep so quickly and making it easier for the CM-At to get up to combine with him.

Whichever option you take I doubt one or two role+duty changes will fix everything but getting good combinations of roles+duties should give a great base.  Then just have to identify the next issue such as ball movement, transitions or defensive issue and focus on fixing it step by step.

[Danielkirby]

5 minutes ago, summatsupeer said:

If you've noticed that, thats where I would start.

I love the CM-At but not with a DLF-At who will be pushing defences back so the CM-At can't get up or past him. Advanced early runners need space and fast attacks to use that space, does he have space to attack? Is the ball moved quickly enough to use it? Does the forward have anyone helping make space for him by stretching the defence or are all those support duties too deep?  The CM-At might as well be a BBM type of player who wants to work the deeper area and arrive into the box later.  Maybe a wide forward should try to get forward earlier to help the DLF earlier?

Alternatively changing the duty of the forward could create more fluid movement by not pushing defences deep so quickly and making it easier for the CM-At to get up to combine with him.

Whichever option you take I doubt one or two role+duty changes will fix everything but getting good combinations of roles+duties should give a great base.  Then just have to identify the next issue such as ball movement, transitions or defensive issue and focus on fixing it step by step.

Thank you, I thought about using DLF(s) but would he still be a goal scoring threat?
 

I picked support duties for the wide players as they are already high up the pitch by default and thought attacking duties might push them too high?
 

I did have my IF on attack duty but changed it, thinking it would reduce the amount of wasted long shots he was blasting wide.
 

 

 

[summatsupeer]

7 minutes ago, Danielkirby said:

Thank you, I thought about using DLF(s) but would he still be a goal scoring threat?

Depends on the player and the system overall really. If he's good at finding space and has good players around him with decent teamwork willing to create for him rather than for themselves he'll get chances.  Doesn't have to be attack duty to be a threat, attack duty just means he's more focused on playing on the shoulder of the defence and those kind of chances, but even that is no guarantee he'll actually get chances like that. 

7 minutes ago, Danielkirby said:

I picked support duties for the wide players as they are already high up the pitch by default and thought attacking duties might push them too high?

Too high? Why would they be too high?  Yes they would position higher, not help as much defensively and take more risks, but if your asking your lone forward to try to make runs in behind the defence, he will need help.

7 minutes ago, Danielkirby said:

I did have my IF on attack duty but changed it, thinking it would reduce the amount of wasted long shots he was blasting wide.

Depends on two things:

1. What other options did he have? 
2. The players attributes & traits to see other options (assuming there) and to choose to use them.

[Danielkirby]

18 minutes ago, summatsupeer said:

Too high? Why would they be too high?  Yes they would position higher, not help as much defensively and take more risks, but if your asking your lone forward to try to make runs in behind the defence, he will need help.

I thought they might be too high and then too far away from my midfielders to link play... but I suppose by having them on support, maybe they aren’t supporting the striker properly?

[summatsupeer]

18 minutes ago, Danielkirby said:

I thought they might be too high and then too far away from my midfielders to link play... but I suppose by having them on support, maybe they aren’t supporting the striker properly?

Trying and visualize how the ball moves and not just the players.  If you want "safe" transitions for possession reasons by safer passes to feet, then i'd reconsider the ST's job. If you want to take more risks with the ball to make use of early runners like the ST then i'd look at giving him help sooner and transitioning the ball quicker.

I wouldn't say what you have is terrible, just needs a few tweaks but depends what you want.  Think of Roles & Duties as ways of positioning the players and changing what there focus is.  The players traits and attributes then dictate what the player actually does from that position with that focus.  Low teamwork players who like to shoot will always tend to be more selfish but a smart creative team player will look to setup others even if they're the attack duty and others are support. 

For example I have a F9 who's really more a AF, but playing him as F9 fits my team better and his traits and attributes still make him a threat to score in the box himself.  He's my #2 scorer even though theoretically he's meant to be a creator setting up others.  The #1 scorer is my IF-At who has good teamwork but lacks vision, however he doesn't have shoots from distance and instead prefers to dribble, with his quickness and dribbling skill it creates space inside that even he can see the F9 in space in the box.

[TheGoodRebel]

One thing I can tell you regarding your IF in this particular set up is that, even though your team mentality is only set to positive, he actually has an individual mentality of Very Attacking despite only being given a Support duty. Therefore he is going to be very aggressive in the way he plays and his primary focus is going to be on shooting and trying to score goals.

If you changed his role to an Inverted Winger then his individual mentality will reduce to Positive and, while still being aggressive offensively, he should be less inclined to shoot as much and get a bit more involved in the build up.

Here are two screenshots highlighting this;

Inside Forward

Inverted Winger

So it might be worth changing his role and see if this helps at all.

[Danielkirby]

Thanks guys, made some changes but I’m just confusing myself even more now 😩