Manunited_fan

Okay great, thanks for all the advice. Will give it a go and see how I get on. Tresoldi is injured at the moment so hopefully the other two can step up.

Yeah, he's definitely my best and got 22 goals last season, and finished 1 off topscorer in the league despite being injured between mid-March to start of May. The other two are younger so I'm hoping might develop a bit. Would you try a different role when playing other types of opposition? I ask as you mention using Poacher for teams who sit deep (appreciate that might just be because that's the issue I was dealing with).

These are my three STs, as I say they are really just AFs. All three are the same height at 6'0. Not sure if low crosses are needed or if mixed is better. Tresoldi Stepanov Bougrine

Thanks, appreciate that advice. Do you suggest I do that as a regular thing or when I'm in games and not getting luck? Tbh, I think my best ST is capable of doing a decent job as a CF(a) (scored 22 goals last season) but all round my STs are really AFs. Would something like this maybe be more effective?

Struggling to break teams down with this tactic. Passing map shows almost no passes to my ST who is very in and out of games. Can control possession but get outnumbered in the box. Most teams seem to play 4-3-3 against me with an IFB as well, so really congesting the middle. Am a title challenging team so most teams will sit deep. My best players are my ST and my RW and I'd ideally like them being the goalscorers, with the FBs, LW and AM being the providers (LW and AM to chip in with goals regularly too). My strikers are all AFs but my best ST can play as a CF so I do so to try and get him involved more. My RW is probably more suited to being an IF(a) or AM(a) but I worry these could be to conflicting with the already clogged up nature of the front 4, so try to balance it out with being an IW. I find a lot of the time the DMs and CBs get a lot of time and space on the ball, the wide players get doubled up on and the ST gets no service. Any glaring issues that need to be addressed?

Nevermind, Vignali got upset when I didn't let him join PSG so he eventually left for £90m. I've upgraded my rotation DMs and backup ST. Here's hoping the squad can stand the tests of all comps this year

Thanks. So by the end of the season, Endrick had become my star striker (despite the goal drought in the crunch period). Unfortunately, Man Utd came in with a £172m bid. I took the money and sold some other squad players to make a healthy profit. My finances had got a little tight and I'm struggling for Home Grown places in my UCL squad so needed to make some changes. Tresoldi stepped up in Endrick's place, scoring 22 goals in all comps and finishing 1 behind Haaland in the league top goal scorer charts. He did though sprain his knee ligaments in mid-March and was out for 5 weeks, missing the crucial run-in. Wahi couldn't do it in his place... In the 2028-29 season we started off with a bang, dominating the league. We didn't lose a league match until 23rd Dec. We had a 10 point lead at Christmas, but a poor January with 3 more losses, saw us drop to 1 point ahead. A run of two back-to-back draws, two losses (including to title rivals Chelsea) and only two wins in April meant my 1 point lead disappeared and I dropped to second. I ultimately finished second, 2 points back from Chelsea, despite leading the league from GW1 to GW32. I used a very similar tactic to last season, and this worked very well for most of the season. Just need to work out how to get through the crunch parts of January and April. This is probably when fatigue has really set in and squad depth really matters so I'm going to improve the strength of my depth for the 2029-30 season. This season's players with over 10 goals or assists: Nicolo Tresoldi - 27(10) games - 22 goals - 6 assists Franco Vignali - 27(16) games - 19 goals - 1 assist (bit worrying as he's mostly played AM) Roony Bardghji - 32(8) games - 14 goals - 9 assists Elye Wahi - 22(14) games - 11 goals - 1 assist Mykhaylo Mudryk - 32(10) games - 10 goals - 7 assists Tino Livramento - 37(8) games - 0 goals - 14 assists Schjelderup and Olise have really dropped off in terms of output, despite both still being quality players. I also bought a couple of new players to supplement the CAM and LW so these took game time from them as more rotation was needed. None of the four back-ups were consistent enough to warrant more time ahead of the starting guys. I'd really like to get more out of Vignali as he's become a star player but not sure AM(s) is his best role. I'm uncomfortable with him playing CAM at the moment as he's not very creative, but has stepped up massively in terms of goals (a lot of the time important ones!) so a bit torn on what to do with him. Vignali:

After taking a bit of a mid-season break, I returned to this save recently to finish the season. I made some tactical tweaks to the setup above, and by turning off some TIs and PIs my tactic just went nuts. I went on a 10 game winning run in the prem between Dec and Feb, with an aggregate of 29-3. This propelled me up the league and I was fighting it out with Chelsea for 1st place. I came back from 1-2 down to beat PSG 5-3 on aggregate in the UCL RO16, then 0-1 down to 3-2 agg vs Barca in the quarters. Unfortunately, my premier league run faltered as I lost to Chelsea and Man Utd 1-0 in quick succession. I also went 1-0 to Roma in the semi finals, before getting back to 2-1 within 6 minutes of the second leg! We ended up giving up a late goal to go to extra time, and despite scoring first we gave up another late goal to go to penalties! We missed all three of our first three penalties and got knocked out. Back to back 1-0 losses to Leeds and Liverpool almost meant we had a sour note at the end, but we finished with a bang winning 6-2 vs Nottm Forest. Overall, we had a great season. Comfortably finished 2nd, 8 points clear of 3rd but 12 points behind 1st. We also made the semi-finals of the UCL in our first season of the comp. In terms of squad, we had a few mid-season transfers. Joao Pedro put in a transfer request to join Chelsea, Max Aarons went to City and Matt O'Riley who I'd only bought in the summer put in a transfer request to join Ajax. Nicolo Tresoldi came in to replace Pedro, while the other two were not replaced as I was tight on squad registrations and figured I had cover already. Pedro left having scored 12 goals, by the end of the season three others matched him but no one managed to fly away in goal outputs. Here are the top stats (anyone who got double digits for goals or assists): Name (Pos) - Games - Goals - Assists Endrick (ST/AMR) - 22(17) - 12 - 4 Schjelderup (AMC/AML) - 33(13) - 12 - 10 Mudryk (AML) - 35(12) - 12 - 18 Bardghji (AMR/AMC) - 26(17) - 11 - 12 Wahi (ST/AML) - 17(31) - 11 - 5 Badiashile (DC) - 38(1) - 10 - 1 Olise (AMR) - 30(17) - 10 -8 Livramento (DR) - 38(4) - 3 - 12 Here is the tactic that I played throughout the second half of the season. As we started to struggle I did use a basic 4-3-3 counter system that I picked up from the 4-3-3 thread. My goal for next season is to add a bit more depth, especially at AM, DM and DR. We really struggled to rotate Gomes, Danilo and Livramento in the big matches. I'm also keen to identify why we struggled for goals so much in the final 2 months. We had six 1-0 losses in April and May, which cost us both competitions. In five of the matches we conceded after the 75th minute and the other was a early second half penalty. My strikers (Endrick, Tresoldi and Wahi) all went on goalless runs. No one could hit the target. We were dominating these matches in terms of shots on goal but had very few shots on target. If anyone has any insights or suggestions, that would be really appreciated. If there's something particular that you recommend doing during title run-ins as well then I'd be really interested to hear how you get your teams over the line.

To me it doesn't look like you have any width in your roles and you also play narrow, so probably have no out ball when the opposition press you. Your full backs stay tucked in, both your AML and AMR want to cut in. I'd consider switching the LB to be a WB(s). This will help open up space for the IF on the left. The IW could maybe be a normal Winger or just told to stay wider to give you width on the left, creating a nice triangle with the FB and DM. This might make you more difficult to confine and push back, help stretch the opposition and then subsequently make space for the AF and AM to get chances. Certainly no expert but this is generally the sort of advice I've received when having similar issues with a very similar line up.

Strong start to my next season, winning the first 4 games with an aggregate of 11-1. Then a bit derailed by a 3-4 loss to Everton (Away). I rotated and tinkered a bit and although we pulled it back from 3-1 to 3-3, they scored late. 5th place last season ended up qualifying for the UCL so I'm about to start my first foray in that competition. I couldn't find a striker I felt suitable to come in that would be an upgrade on Joao Pedro. He looks pretty strong all round. Maybe not the best in the air but at 6'0" and with 12 for both heading and jumping, he should surely be more than serviceable? Therefore, I've decided to just focus on creating better service to him. Here's what I'm currently running (ignore the Gegenpress title): CAM seems more involved now on support. Still getting to grips with what the DM roles should be, and not sure yet if CF(a) is the right ST role or not. Endrick and Wahi, may struggle with this role as their passing/heading isn't as good.

The season is over now and I just fell short of top 4. Wahi (my top scorer) got injured a few weeks before the end of the season. Our last 5 games: Win 3-1 vs Norwich (Home) Drew 0-0 vs Southampton (Away) Lost 0-1 vs West Ham (Home) Drew 1-1 vs Wolves (Away) Won 5-0 vs Nottm Forest (Home) I finished 5th on 71 points, 6 points off top 4 and 7 points off 1st (top 3 all finished on 78 points). Here's the final stats for each player. Quite disappointed with Pedro, Schjelderup, and Endrick's outputs. Roony came in to the CAM role towards the end of the season and got 7 goals in his last 8 games. Wahi was our top scorer with 11. Aim for next season is to bring in a new striker who can give us a bit more presence up front. Any other recommendations of areas to improve? I have this regen (Franco Vignali) who's been playing this season. Natural MC/AMC but possibly could do a job upfront?

Yeah, I figured this was the case. Just not sure how to fix it, especially as everyone else is playing well... What metrics do you think I should be looking at? Yeah, I certainly see that at times. I do turn the tempo down and sometimes even remove counter if I think we're trying to force it too much. I think I just used the gegenpress preset, but then changed everything so its more a custom tactic than a gegenpress preset despite what the tactical style suggests. High pressing, dominant possession football is what I said I wanted, with an eye of playing quick with purpose. Just need to then need to find a way to strike the balance of then creating space for the two star players who are playing ST and AM.

Hi all, Firstly, apologies for the frustration in my previous two posts. It was quite annoying going in cycles of making changes and getting no impact, then not knowing what to do about it. I made some slight changes to the tactic and it has now created some consistent performances with some great results. I'm starting to see some great team goals without much impact to the defensive strength. Since the last update I've gone 11 wins, 1 draw and 2 losses, propelling me back in to the Europa League race and into the FA Cup Quarters. I still am not getting consistent output from the ST/AM partnership, but a lot of good stuff from my wide players and midfielders. Have been trying different ST roles in games, but may also need to start trying different AM roles instead. The main change I've made is that the RB has returned to WB(S). What ends up happening is the full backs push up and hold width deep, ready to drive into the wide space late on. The DM sits in the middle in front of the CBs to either cut out counters or be an outlet to recycle play. The SV pushes up to join the front 4 which make a flat 5 across the defence. This tends to lead to an overload on the right hand side so the RW either has a chance on goal or the RB can get a cross in. The IF on the left will either create chances or go for goal himself. I toggle on/off the WBiB and change the tempo depending on how the game is going.

The poor form continued into the next two games, with a 3-0 loss away to rivals Wolves in the Cup (turns out they're doing quite well this season), followed by a 3-2 away loss to Liverpool. After this my form picked up. Drew 1-1 vs Fulham (A) Won 3-0 vs Crystal Palace (H) Won 1-0 vs Norwich (A) Won 2-1 vs Southampton (H) Drew 1-1 vs West Ham (A) This summary from my analysts kind of sums it all up haha. And here are our Team Attacking statistics: When I watch us play, I see a lot of dribbling in to the sidelines and players being doubled up on (especially my wingers). We struggle to maintain possession as we get closed down quickly through the middle. If we do make a good chance, we tend to miss the goal or shoot straight at the keeper. If I make the ST an AF he has no involvement in the game, the AMC on S is the same. If I change their roles, they get more involved but there's still not much penetration and I don't think I really have the type of ST to play much other than an AF unless I'm using Pedro. I've tried various combinations of ST role, LW role, AMC A or S, RW either W or IW. Doesn't seem to be able to generate consistent performances. I've tried watching the games and make tweaks but I think a lot of it is just guessing, try a few things and see what happens. The following game the same things have no impact so back to guessing. Am I just overestimating how capable my squad is? Media prediction has us at 9th, so maybe losing and drawing all these games is expected?

Unfortunately, my form continues to tumble. It's now 5 league games in a row without a goal, with a 0-0 draw vs Leicester, 2-0 loss to Tottenham and a 3-0 drubbing by Man Utd. I think it's safe to say this experiment has been a failure and an overhaul is required.