Doing just OK, but very few goals...

[Riven]

I'm happy with my West Ham team (second season), the first season we qualify for Europa League because we was very strong defensively, barely conceding goals (2nd best defence in the league). The point is that the board ask me to play offensive football, and with the new signings, I think we can achieve that. We are playing like this:

 

But we are not scoring just enough, we create few chances and still score a low rate of them. I tried dropping the defence, played the DLF in support and the IF in attack and then changed the role of Mezzalla to support, I tried with a CM(A) for more direct box attacking... but nothing seems to work to create very much chances. I don't care if I concede more goals, just want to play offensively and I think im not doing that well. I tried to counterpress sometimes but nothing, its all the same, we are sterile offensively. 

 

I wanted to ask this here because in all my saves in FM i always become strong defensively but very very very poor in goalscoring. Maybe its the formation? What do you recommend?

[GianniM]

With shorter passing + work ball into box + play out of defense you might be playing too carefully, therefore missing an element of surprise in your attack. Also, these are TIs for teams that have the quality to dominate possession. Are your players capable of doing so in most matches? If so, try 'be more expressive' or perhaps a higher tempo. If not, try a bit more direct play.

Also I think you might lack some width while attacking, with both the wingers cutting inside, DLF staying centrally and a BBM moving forward to the centre as well.

[DimitrisLar]

I found myself taking out work ball into box, more and more frequently.  If i got chances but dont score i take it out and if i continue to create then compare the quality before and after. If you post some PI's you use it might help. Usually they use be more expressive to balance some negatives from the work ball into box.

Also positive's got fairly wide attacking width as a preset, you built from the flanks. If you use it to overload on one flank and exploit the other i dont understand which flank is the one overloaded cause you've spread attack duties i dont understand, but maybe thats me. If you want to build from the middle you can choose narrow attacking width. 

What style do you want to play?

[displaced_seagull]

I'd be tempted to take off the ''Look for Overlap'. On that side you have an inside forward and an attacking wingback - the wingback will overlap naturally, without the instruction to force it. 

[Experienced Defender]

12 hours ago, Riven said:

These are tweaks what I would try first:

- change Rice into a BWM on support (MCL position)

- change Haller to PF on attack (to make him play more simply)

- remove overlap right (both for defensive reasons and to avoid slowing the play down in the final third, especially as WB on support will occasionally naturally overlap the IF anyway)

- remove the work ball into box (or at least pair it with the Be more expressive)

- drop the LOE to standard (to allow a bit more space to your players up front + better compactness)

Maybe you could also consider replacing the Play out of defence with Distribute to CBs and FBs (as an option).