Update has made this tatic defensively poor!

[RPM_01]

Can someone explain to me how through the same season, I'm doing really well with this tactic below and then once the update has been in place I'm being overrun, every long ball seems to fall perfectly and my players seem to make silly mistakes often.

Final straw is when I'm top vs a team that have lost their last 6 games yet they're having more shots and chances than I am...

Defenders all have 14+ pace and strong positioning and it worked well previously. Was this a fluke before?

[zyfon5]

Now teams have started to sit deep against you hence your tactic are no longer as effective before. Coupled with work ball into box you are making defending against you much easier. And there is a lot of space left behind to counter. Also having your LOE one notch higher than your defensive line is suicidal especially with a formation like 4231 where you are guaranteed to leave huge spaces between the midfield and defensive line.

In short your tactic does not become defensively poor because of the update but it is defensively poor in the first place.

[Experienced Defender]

1 hour ago, RPM_01 said:

Can someone explain to me how through the same season, I'm doing really well with this tactic below and then once the update has been in place I'm being overrun, every long ball seems to fall perfectly and my players seem to make silly mistakes often

Possibly because updates serve to fix ME weaknesses that previously allowed tactics that are not optimally designed to work. That also explains why many plug'n'play tactics suddenly stop working after an update. 

While your tactic looks decent overall, it still has one notable weakness and a couple of potential smaller weaknesses. The notable one is your poor level of compactness (DL/LOE distance), which becomes even more pronounced in this kind of formation (top-heavy with no DM). 

You may also consider removing some of your in-possession TIs, because you currently use more than is really necessary. In FM less can often be more 

[sporadicsmiles]

16 hours ago, RPM_01 said:

Can someone explain to me how through the same season, I'm doing really well with this tactic below and then once the update has been in place I'm being overrun, every long ball seems to fall perfectly and my players seem to make silly mistakes often.

 

As far as I know, the only change to the ME in the update was related to GK distribution and to match ratings. That is what the patch notes say (and I did not notice any huge change). 

One thing I immediately notice here is you have a low tactical familiarity. Is that just because you have nobody filled into the positions (I forget how this works). If not, then this could be one reason why your players are making mistakes. 

Another possibility is that your success has made teams be more cautious and play more on the counter against you. This always has a couple of effects. You have to work more to create space to score goals (looks like that should be okay though I think) and teams will counter you more. This tactic can be extremely vulnerable to the counter, especially against 2 man attacks. I would definitely not have two WBs if I played against a team with 2 strikers here, in any situation. You offer teams a lot of space when you are attacking, and if they are starting to use it more, then this can cause problems. And if you are seeing the same thing happen again and again, change something to stop it. So leave an extra player back when you attack, or drop the defensive line, or something else you think might work. Having to slightly adapt to a situation does not mean something does not work, it is good management.