My tactic - I want opinions

[kurupted]

Hello guys! (sorry for bad english)

So, I started a save with a team from the second league of Portugal, Académico de Viseu

First of all, expectations are mid table. One thing that I found in this league is that, all teams have pretty decent squads, I can't say that 1 particular team has a very very good team, I think every team has strong players and weak players, it's a well balanced league.

I will start to talk about my team.

Both of AML/R, good finishing, the AML has very good pace and the AMR has a little less pace but good mentals and high finishing.

My midfielder is very good too, my DLP-S has very good mentals and technical attributes.

My defensive midfielder is pretty decent too. My left back is a good ofensive fullback very well rounded but the right fullback is a little weak, clearly this is the weak point in my team. 

My other midfielder has very good techicals, not soo much mentals but he is average, I got him from a team from the first league.

 

What I want ? I want a solid tactic, well balanced, that can score goals but be very solid at the back. I don't want to score 20 goals if I suffer 21. I want a tactic that is not as much offensive nor defensive.

So, this is what I tought when I created this tactic.

My AF pretty standard, a well-rounded player, good pace, good finishing.

Both of my wingers have the opposite foot, my left winger has slightly less finishing but he has 17 pace, so I wanted him to carry the counter-attacks, I even let him join the AF in defensive corners. My right wingers has very good technicals and mentals, good finishing, good dribble and off the ball, he is clearly the goal threat.

One thing I was wondering. My left winger is not much of a goal threat like my right winger, so I tried to use my right winger as IF-A to let him close to the goal and sometimes I use my left winger as Inverted Winger, what do you think guys ?

So, my midfielder, I think is pretty standard, a Anchor Man to give cover to the my defence, a DLP-S, the DLP is the best player in my team, he is 32, he has very good technical and mentals, perfect to dictate the game and be a ball-magnet. My CM-A I wanted him to act like a box to box, he can defend but he will also attack the opposite box when chance presents.

My fullbacks. My left fullback is much better than my right fullback, he can play FB-A, WB-A with no problems, but as I said, I want to play a balanced tactic so I used FB-A, so he can provide more defensive help, the same way to the right fullback, he is not very good techincally so I didn't want to be as much further in the pitch.

Talking about instructions. So, I want to play more direct because I think I don't have a very creative team, I didn't want to play a possession game because I don't have the players with high creativity or mentals, I think its not good to play possession if I don't have the players who can pull that amazing pass or discover a mate in a running behind the defence. I wanted to be more disciplined and high tempo because I believe that If I don't have the ball I can't commit mistakes, so I wanted to chase goal as much fast and more incisive than slow tempo.

Remind: I want to create a good solid tatic, with a solid defence but who can score goals.

I will post now the tactic.

What do you guys think ? Anything you would change ?

[Robson 07]

On 23/05/2020 at 20:44, kurupted said:

What do you guys think ? Anything you would change ?

If you literally put arrows on players (like you once could) aren't the right winger and the attacking central mid both headed for the same space?

And a question for you,  Why have you chosen to attack narrow and defend wide?  Plus why have you dropped the line of engagement?

[kurupted]

42 minutos atrás, Robson 07 disse:

If you literally put arrows on players (like you once could) aren't the right winger and the attacking central mid both headed for the same space?

And a question for you,  Why have you chosen to attack narrow and defend wide?  Plus why have you dropped the line of engagement?

What do you suggest ? Change the MC-A to an AP-S maybe ? I wanted the MC to arrive later in the area. Both of the IF's stay on the edge of the opposite box. But If i switch the MC-A to an AP it won't be a problem to use 2 playmakers in this kind of setup ?

I defend wide because my center backs are not very good physically, they don't have good impulsion and most of the crosses that are made into my area I think that my center backs will lose more headers than they should win, thats why I wanted to my fullbacks stay wider and stop that crosses.

I dropped the line of engagement because I want to be compact. I didn't want to change the defensive line because I don't want to be very passive because that can lead to many longshots that will probably hit the back of the net.

What role you suggest to the MC-A ? Both of players that I use in that role they can perform AP-S too.

[Robson 07]

In possession the whole thing just looks too centralised.  A no.9 down the middle, two wide forward cutting in, a central midfielder attacking up the middle and you have narrowed your attacking formation.  It just seems to me that if the opposition defends a little deep, narrow and compact - a habit the AI often has - then your lack of variety will become a frustration.  i realise you have released one full back forward but alone I'm not sure he will be enough.

If you change the that midfielder to a playmaker you may prevent both players in the same zones but you are still going to be overly reliant on central play.  Thats just my take.

[kurupted]

1 hora atrás, Robson 07 disse:

In possession the whole thing just looks too centralised.  A no.9 down the middle, two wide forward cutting in, a central midfielder attacking up the middle and you have narrowed your attacking formation.  It just seems to me that if the opposition defends a little deep, narrow and compact - a habit the AI often has - then your lack of variety will become a frustration.  i realise you have released one full back forward but alone I'm not sure he will be enough.

If you change the that midfielder to a playmaker you may prevent both players in the same zones but you are still going to be overly reliant on central play.  Thats just my take.

I changed my left wingack into support and the right to a fullback on support. I changed the MC-A into a BBM and I kept the roles for the 2 wingers.

Look, my best players are in the wings, both of my wingers have decent finish and they can be a goal threat, with my fullbacks I think I can do some wing play while a BBM can overcrowd too the central areas.

What more suggestions you can give ?

[Ronaldinho Gaúcho 10]

If you really want your Wingers moving in and you want to play a low line and counter. Maybe try a 4-4-2 DM or similar 2CM formation where One of the strikers operates centrally and the other drags players wide on and off the ball. Give your team more variety of movement when going forward, since you want to play counter fast players/players who can play accurate killer balls will help. 
Just an idea... 

[kurupted]

1 hora atrás, Ronaldinho Gaúcho 10 disse:

If you really want your Wingers moving in and you want to play a low line and counter. Maybe try a 4-4-2 DM or similar 2CM formation where One of the strikers operates centrally and the other drags players wide on and off the ball. Give your team more variety of movement when going forward, since you want to play counter fast players/players who can play accurate killer balls will help. 
Just an idea... 

Yeah, but I don't have strikers who can fit in that style of play. I have only 1 striker and he is not very good, as I said, my main goal threat are my Inside Forwards who have good mentals and technicals. When I created that setup I want to envolve my fullbacks and Wingers since they are good.

I think my setup is not unbalanced at all, some of the games I don't win because my players miss constantly ridiculous 1x1 and some chances that they should hit the back of the net, but this is it, low league has this things.

Since my wingers are going to go inside I didn't want my midfield to get close to them, I changed 1 midfielder to BBM and the other to an AP-A. The left winger is not an IF-S and the left fullback (hes my best fullback) he is a WB-A, on the right side my right winger is an IF-A since he his my best winger and the fullback of that side is a WB-S, since he can go forward but I don't trust him to give him such freedom to go up and down that flank and fullfil his defensive duties.

[Ronaldinho Gaúcho 10]

then it’s a question of improving those players that miss those 1on1s either training or signing/loaning a player who will do it better. are you near a transfer window soon?

[kurupted]

14 minutos atrás, Ronaldinho Gaúcho 10 disse:

then it’s a question of improving those players that miss those 1on1s either training or signing/loaning a player who will do it better. are you near a transfer window soon?

No dolla dolla ahahahah

So, this is my "refined" tactic, what do you think now ?

https://prnt.sc/snl16d

[Ronaldinho Gaúcho 10]

@kurupted how’s it playing out for you? aren’t the BBM and the AP getting in the way of the IFs?

[kurupted]

1 hora atrás, Ronaldinho Gaúcho 10 disse:

@kurupted how’s it playing out for you? aren’t the BBM and the AP getting in the way of the IFs?

In fact there are some games that I can indeed play good football. What I see is, my games is player by my IF's who can go for a shot or pass and my wingbacks who can play wide and go for a cross.

What do you suggest for midfield roles ? 

[Ronaldinho Gaúcho 10]

10 hours ago, kurupted said:

In fact there are some games that I can indeed play good football. What I see is, my games is player by my IF's who can go for a shot or pass and my wingbacks who can play wide and go for a cross. - Are enough players getting on the end of those crosses? Is your Striker good in the air?

What do you suggest for midfield roles ? Depends on your best CMs and their skillset 

 

[kurupted]

23 minutos atrás, Ronaldinho Gaúcho 10 disse:

 

Both of my best wingers are Inside Forwards, so I would expect them to score most of the goals, but I don't want to rely on their long shots to score goals. I want to have a team that his defensively solid and works as a unit. A team that will be incisive.

 

My midfielder in fact are very well rounded. I have one that he is the BBM that he is very good, he can play in almost every midfield role, the others are more attack minded, they can play Mezzala, AP or even CM-A; the other midfielders are good defensive midfielder.

The problem is, I don't feel that my team is solid. Because what often i see is that, when the ball reaches my wingers it's almost like a curtain being closed in the theatre, when the ball reaches them they do what they want, shoot or whatever and the play ends there, almost with a long shot or a bad pass, sometimes they can score great goals, but I wan't more solid play, because I know I have good players to play that style, this team is not the best in the league, In my opinion there are no best teams in this second league, every team has very good players.

[Ronaldinho Gaúcho 10]

On 26/05/2020 at 21:25, kurupted said:

I want to have a team that his defensively solid and works as a unit. A team that will be incisive.

try changing their positions to ML and MR and their roles to be Inverted Wingers. This will solidify your tactic, as they will be starting a bit deeper, put pressure defensively but still make forward runs and create or score, if you're still having issues them shooting too much, lower your mentality or instruct them individually to "Shoot less often" 

[DarJ]

I'll suggest you use a tool like this so you can place the players where you want then to be when attacking and then think about the roles you can give them to achieve the movement.

In the screenshot I'm toying with a possession orientation 4-1-2-2-1 and that is roughly how I want my players to move when we attack and it's not perfect but this allows me to see that the AI can exploit the half space left by my FBs so I will account for that by either using the right FB as an IWB-d and the DM as a HB.

My point is, it helps you see what you're trying to achieve and even shows your potential weaknesses then with the roles and instructions you can customize it further 

[Ronaldinho Gaúcho 10]

4 minutes ago, DarJ said:

the AI can exploit the half space left by my FBs so I will account for that by either using the right FB as an IWB-d and the DM as a HB.

I'm currently doing a similar "fix" with my save, just have to sort out their positions because it created another problem where the fullbacks, the CM and Winger are pretty much colliding with each other.

 

 

7 minutes ago, DarJ said:

what is this app called btw?

[DarJ]

2 minutes ago, Ronaldinho Gaúcho 10 said:

 

what is this app called btw?

This one is called "Football board" but there are a lot of similar apps.

3 minutes ago, Ronaldinho Gaúcho 10 said:

I'm currently doing a similar "fix" with my save, just have to sort out their positions because it created another problem where the fullbacks, the CM and Winger are pretty much colliding with each other.

That's the thing, you fix one thing and another problem pops up.

The team plays how I want now but we have less shots than before and less chances created.

I also forgot to mention that PPM impacts the movement of your players too. The player I was using as an IWB has the PPM "runs down the right flank with the ball" so he doesn't move inside. Either I play someone else, or train him to stop doing that which will take time or maybe play him as a FB and ask him to stay narrower but it's not the same as the IWB

[kurupted]

This is my new setup ? Looks good ?

Still, I don't score that many goals or create many chances altough I have good players in comparison to the other teams

[Ronaldinho Gaúcho 10]

Looks like none of your CMs will provide sufficient support runs on the counter, I’d change the “CAR” role into a MEZ-A or something similar that will help in that regard. If you want to play a counter-attack style you need enough players quickly running forward soon as you get the ball. Hope the next change will help you achieve that. Gl

[kurupted]

3 horas atrás, Ronaldinho Gaúcho 10 disse:

Looks like none of your CMs will provide sufficient support runs on the counter, I’d change the “CAR” role into a MEZ-A or something similar that will help in that regard. If you want to play a counter-attack style you need enough players quickly running forward soon as you get the ball. Hope the next change will help you achieve that. Gl

Hello!

I choosed the Carrilero because I wanted to have some defensive cover. My left fullback will be a thunder lighting in that flank leaving it exposed. I have thought for a Mezzala yes, but on the right side. Instead of player a AP I really tought about playing a Mezzala, but what I think is that if I play a Mezzala in that kind of midfield I will lose what i want most: defensive stability.

Look, my season is going pretty ok, so far no loss, I think my tactic is balanced, I can create goals now, good chances and I have the defensive stability. I think I found the "perfect" setup for my team. What I think is that my right wingback is not very good to play such an agressive role in a positive mentality, but so far I didn't had any problems!

Ty for your help and everyones help

And sorry for my bad english