How to improve this tactic?

[psimoestr]

 

Hi! I've been using this tactic with Internazionale, but in my last 5 games i had a 0-1 defeat to Udinese, followed by a 0-0 draw with Atalanta and then three 1-1 draws against Crotone, Lazio and Genoa. I was unbeaten for 18 games though, so I think I don't need to revamp the whole tactic. in your opinion, what could I be doing better? Thank you! 

[frukox]

6 hours ago, psimoestr said:

 

Hi! I've been using this tactic with Internazionale, but in my last 5 games i had a 0-1 defeat to Udinese, followed by a 0-0 draw with Atalanta and then three 1-1 draws against Crotone, Lazio and Genoa. I was unbeaten for 18 games though, so I think I don't need to revamp the whole tactic. in your opinion, what could I be doing better? Thank you! 

It looks like a gung-ho high-block system with plenty of extreme TIs, some of which are unnecessary.

Your flanks, your strikers and your midfield mirror each other. That's something you should definitely consider unless you use players with different traits to spice it up a bit.

Who's going to drop deep to link up play with the midfield during build-up from the ST strata?

Which at least two players is planned to cover the areas left by your attacking players because you have zero cover down both flanks and the central channel? Unless you win the ball high and quickly you will be in deep trouble.

Overlap Left and Right+roaming roles in midfield is a nice recipe for disaster. There will be huge gaps between your attack and defenders.

Is playing narrow really needed here because your team may ignore your attacking WBs sometimes and try to channel play through the middle more often than necessary?

Positive mentality already increases your tempo slightly. If you see play too rushed, you should think about reducing this to Higher or leaving it at default.

Edited January 23, 2021 by frukox

[Experienced Defender]

14 hours ago, psimoestr said:

in your opinion, what could I be doing better?

The first thing I would do is remove the vast majority of team instructions, simply because they make the tactic a complete mess and are not needed at all. 

The setup of roles and duties is key, not instructions. When your roles and duties are set up in a balanced and logical way so as to optimally interact with one another in both the attacking and defensive phases of play, then all you need is just a couple of basic instructions to further define your style of play. In some cases you don't even need any instructions at all (partly because much of what players are supposed to do is already defined by their roles and duties).

So when it comes to your setup of roles and duties, here are the major problems/weaknesses IMHO:

- you play both wing-backs in the most attack-minded role without any defensive cover in the midfield

- not only that you don't have a single holding or covering role in the midfield, but all three are roaming roles

- the 2 aforementioned issues mean your defense is totally exposed (and even more so with one of them being a libero)

Extremely aggressive out-of-possession instructions along with less-than-optimal compactness (distance between D-line and LOE) further compound the above.

In short, the tactic needs a real overhaul, but you first need to decide what you want to achieve in terms of playing style. Keep in mind though that your formation (5-3-2) is not optimally suited to aggressive styles of play due to its lack of players in advanced areas (where you have 2 strikers only and nobody else).