FM21 - Gone completely off the boil in attack

[Harpoon76]

FM21

Previous season we finished 4th and qualified for the CL for the first time, so it felt like things were coming together.

We started the season pretty well:

Then things have stopped working

The West Brom draw was one of those matches.  Our xG was 3.05 (25 shots / 11 OT), WB xG 0.59 (6 shots, 5 OT).  The loses against Man City, Chelsea & Southampton all saw us score an own goal.  We are currently winless in 9 matches and sit just above the relegation zone.

Here's our current tactic:

• Van Burik is my best player, a regen with 18 pace,  18 acceleration, 17 dribbling, 18 passing, 16 vision, 18 teamwork, 18 work rate...
  • I've tried him as a Winger but I don't have a good (big) striker to target for crosses.
  • I felt the hard coded PIs for a WP(A) fitted his skills well - get him running at defenders 
• Campo (AF) was the PL golden boot two seasons ago, so can score lots but has been very poor this season with lots of 6.4 or lower ratings.  My alternative player in that space hasn't scored when playing as the AF hasn't scored in 4 matches only has a marginally better rating.
• FBs are on are support but moving the right side to attack to overlap is something I usually end up doing.  Both FBs have sit wider as PIs to add more width.
• AM should support the striker with assists but also score as well

I think the poor rating for my striker(s) is we have stopped creating good chances for him to put away.  He's not massive (180cm, 9 jumping reach, 11 strength) so just lobbing in crosses against taller / stronger CDs isn't going to work.  I want to make good use of the pace / dribbling of my wide-men to create space to exploit and hopefully find the AF with time & space to finish from.

Any suggestions / thoughts are welcome!

[Johnny Ace]

Two things sprung to mind to try just looking at your setup:

1) You could change the keeper to SK just to have him coming off his line a little bit to sweep up 

2) Your BMW could be on Support, your left FB is on Support so won't be overly adventurous so having the Ball Winner on Support, he could help out in attacking play a little more than he's doing now. Alternatively, you could ask a bit more from the Fullback instead and have him on Attack to get further up the pitch and leave the BWM on Defend to help cover that side  

[Harpoon76]

Thank you for the suggestions which I put in.  They did seem to help as we managed to win two league matches, though I'm not sure how we won against Wolves as they battered us (xG 2.72 vs xG0.64).

Spurs and Man Utd were horrible - the first goal in each was a penalty.  Rashford and Greenwood in FM21 are unstoppable.

We still struggle to create changes.  This is the form of Campo - the number of matches with 0 or 1 shots probably explains the low rating but I'm stuffed if I can figure out what I'm missing to cure it.

[Harpoon76]

Still not going well.

Observations

• Opposition GKs are rating very highly against me.  Tottenham: 7.6; Man Utd: 7.8; Lyon: 7.3; Aston Villa: 7.3; Man City: 7.4
  • So am I just unlucky to keep finding the opposition GK having a blinder?
• Vila draw hurt - they had one shot on target, we had 9 on target.
• Our crossing is simply terrible (to put it politely).  At half-time against Man City we hadn't completed a single cross.  End of match stat was 2 of 32 completed.
• We got 10 corners - wide men are completely unable to beat a defender to make space.  Lots of our corners come from a crossing attempt just bouncing off the defender who is covering (doesn't even get into the box)
  • Therefore wingers seem pointless as crosses go nowhere and we ultimately give possession away
• AF with "Move into Channels" is a problem.  See screen grab below - Hamadi (AM) has driven forward from midfield but the AF has moved into channels and ended up right on top on him.  I want him to stay central and make a problem for the two CDs.  In this case below we've now given the defenders an easy time and we have five players covering my two
  • Why do so many of the central attacker roles have MiC hard coded?  Only choice without is a TM (which I don't have) or a Poacher.  Will a poacher be too isolated in a 4-4-1-1?
• Van Burik is a left footed player (right foot is rated as weak).  Though untrained at M(R), I've moved him to M(R) as WP(A) so it's more natural to cut inside on his strong foot.
  • Player details for him below - perhaps I should move into CM as a RPM or MEZ?
• I wonder about changing to a 4-3-3 with a DM but I'd really like to understand why we could finish 4th last year with a 4-4-1-1 but are woeful now

Edited October 6, 2022 by Harpoon76

[eXistenZ]

Cant offer much help as I havent touched FM in months, but yes i confirm crossing in FM21 was terrible (and offcours OP at the start of FM22. Players would just go wide and kick it against a defender, rather than passing it back to an unmarked teammate.

Although given your description of campo, i would put low crosses on. It should increase the amount of cutbacks

[Harpoon76]

Thanks @eXistenZ - nice to know not just me frustrated with crossing.

My problems are solved and all is fine.  Well, not quite but we won a match, beating Newcastle 3-0.  They did have a man sent off at the end of the first half and we got the third goal just after, so the second half was comfortable (though Newcastle did spurn a 1-on-1 late on).  Ironically, having said I want to avoid crossing, our first goal was a Campo header directly from a corner (miracles do happen!) and the second was goal was a follow up cross from a blocked corner (Van Burik heading in).

The third was much closer to what I want.  Van Burik dribbled across from the MR slot, a defender dived in to tackle him but only sent the ball to my left WM(S) who slipped in the AM for the goal:

https://gyazo.com/c5d1230aac4f6f479755c77af1856bb7

We had a couple of other similar moments of nice play combining a cross-field VB dribble and the WM(S) putting nice through balls into the box.

So this is my updated tactic.  I went back to a CM(D) as looking back after the change to BWM(S), we didn't have somebody in the middle to offer a deeper option to recycle play or pickup clearances.   I can't remember if I changed the poacher back to an AF or not during the game - a role still under review.  Likewise, will keep an eye on the FB/WB to make sure we're not getting overexposed at the back. 

VB only gets a 1 silver star playing at MR and the pre-game screen says he's miffed at playing out of position but his cross-field dribbles looked way more effective coming in on his left foot.

 

 

[Robson 07]

• Change to a 4231 (4411 is quite passive)
• Remove Play out of Defence (you don't need it)
• Make the AMC more of a creative role but stop crowding him from all sides with inverted players
• Both central mids can afford to be support
• Remove lower LOE (you don't need it)

Try the above and report back.