Nott'm Forest: Promotion Hunt: Falling Apart

[YLSFM00]

I'm new to FM. Currently, I'm doing a Nottingham Forest save on FM21, and our top target is to get to the play off spots. I am in the play off zone, 4th in the league, not a million miles away from 2nd. But, now I simply can't win. In my last 8 games, my record is P8, W1, D4, L3. I don't know what's going on, but it might have something to do with my tactic, so I came here.
It doesn't let me send a screenshot for some reason, so I figured I'll just put it below:
Positive 4-3-3 DM Wide-  Custom Control Possession
                                                                                                  SK (AT)
                                                                   FB (SU)    CD (DE)             CD (DE)  FB (AT)
                                                                                              DM (DE)
                                                                                  MEZ (AT)              BWM (SU)             
                                                                      LW (SU)                AF (AT)              RW (AT)                                                                                           In possession:
Shorter Passing
Play out of Defence
Work Ball into the Box
Higher Tempo
Wide

In Transition:
Roll It Out
Distribute to Centre Backs 
Counter
Counter Press

Out of possession
High DL
High LOE
More Urgent
Use Tighter Marking
Offside Trap On

I have probably got it wrong in quite a few of areas, any feedback and tweaks would be appreciated 

Edited February 2, 2021 by YLSFM00

[Experienced Defender]

7 hours ago, YLSFM00 said:

don't know what's going on, but it might have something to do with my tactic

It definitely has to do with your tactic. I cannot know if it may also have to do with the quality of your players and/or their suitability to your tactical style, because I don't know them. But the tactic definitely has its weaknesses.

So here they are in my view:

- the left flank is potentially too vulnerable, given 2 attack duties there (I say potentially, because the risk can vary depending on players' quality and abilities)

- also on the left flank, both roles are crossing-heavy, which runs counter to your possession-oriented TIs such as WBiB and short passing in the first place

- by the same token, playing wingers (role) on both flanks also contradicts the possession-minded orientation of the tactic

- an instruction such as tight marking does not make much sense in an attack-minded tactic like yours, including the 433dm wide as a formation (because it's far more suitable for defensive styles and bottom-heavy formations)

- your high pressing urgency also adds a bit of defensive risk, not least because your compactness is lower than optimal + playing with a higher D-line (balls over the top) + high team mentality (which already encourages a proportionally more aggressive behavior in the defensive phase of play)

- wide attacking width can make it harder for your players to successfully implement your intended short-passing/possession-oriented style of play (due to the greater distance between players)

- the attack duty of your SK totally runs counter to your possession-minded tactical style for obvious reasons (in FM21 even SK on support tends to play too many long adventurous passes, let alone on attack)

The above are the most obvious issues IMHO. There are possibly a couple more, but let's first sort out these. 

So you either need to tweak certain roles so as to make them better suited to your (largely) possession-oriented instructions or to tweak some instructions in order to adapt them to the current setup of roles and duties.

[YLSFM00]

37 minutes ago, Experienced Defender said:

It definitely has to do with your tactic. I cannot know if it may also have to do with the quality of your players and/or their suitability to your tactical style, because I don't know them. But the tactic definitely has its weaknesses.

So here they are in my view:

- the left flank is potentially too vulnerable, given 2 attack duties there (I say potentially, because the risk can vary depending on players' quality and abilities)

- also on the left flank, both roles are crossing-heavy, which runs counter to your possession-oriented TIs such as WBiB and short passing in the first place

- by the same token, playing wingers (role) on both flanks also contradicts the possession-minded orientation of the tactic

- an instruction such as tight marking does not make much sense in an attack-minded tactic like yours, including the 433dm wide as a formation (because it's far more suitable for defensive styles and bottom-heavy formations)

- your high pressing urgency also adds a bit of defensive risk, not least because your compactness is lower than optimal + playing with a higher D-line (balls over the top) + high team mentality (which already encourages a proportionally more aggressive behavior in the defensive phase of play)

- wide attacking width can make it harder for your players to successfully implement your intended short-passing/possession-oriented style of play (due to the greater distance between players)

- the attack duty of your SK totally runs counter to your possession-minded tactical style for obvious reasons (in FM21 even SK on support tends to play too many long adventurous passes, let alone on attack)

The above are the most obvious issues IMHO. There are possibly a couple more, but let's first sort out these. 

So you either need to tweak certain roles so as to make them better suited to your (largely) possession-oriented instructions or to tweak some instructions in order to adapt them to the current setup of roles and duties.

thanks for the feedback

Seeing the amount of player role problems there seems to be, i'll definitely be tweaking those first, change the SK to a normal GK and try out Mighten and Lolley  (my wingers) around position wise. Will change formations too, I noticed that with my 4-2-3-1 I used before, even if I wasn't winning the games, we were playing better. 

Will calm down with the attacking intent too cause we lost 4-1 to Brentford 😳 also noticed using the 4-2-3-1 we didn't concede too many

Again, thanks for the help  

Edited February 2, 2021 by YLSFM00

[Experienced Defender]

12 minutes ago, YLSFM00 said:

change the SK to a normal GK

Just switch his duty to defend (or at least support). No need to go from one extreme to the other.