[How to take my short passing 433 to the next level]

I'm playing on FM23. I'm currently managing Kilmarnock in season 5 and since the start I've improved at a rate of about 1 league place a year and this season I got into Europe (unlucky draw, knocked out in the playoff by Fiorentina). I think I've managed to build a good tactic but I can't shake the feeling there's something missing. I feel like it's very reliant on the AP having a good game, and if the other team sits back I struggle to get in behind and create chances. Most of my goals come from turnovers and transitions as my AF is brilliant with lots of pace and good finishing, and my AP is my best player. Here's the tactic:

GKd

WBs BPDd CDd WBs

DMd

CMs APa

IWa                     IFs

AFa

Instructions:

In:

Balanced (change to positive if we're not creating much)

Shorter passing

Higher tempo

Transition:

Counter Press

GK take short kicks

Out:

Mid block

Lower defensive line

Trigger press much more often

Get stuck in 

PPIs:

Both WBs stay wider

AP, IF, IW, AF more direct passing 

Rationale:

Shorter passing, higher tempo, short kicks, PPIs - we're technically pretty good and our attacking players are short and quick. I want to have more of the ball as my defence isn't reliable enough to let the opposition have the ball for extended periods - we're definitely guilty of lapses in concentration at the back. Stay wider is on to offer more passing avenues going forward. More direct passing on the forward players is to encourage faster play once we get to the strikers so we can take advantage of quick transitions.

Counter press, mid block, lower defensive line, trigger press much more often, get stuck in - We've got the highest work rate in the league so these are really built around that. Our defenders are slow but are great in the air so that's why the line is deeper, and the mid block is because we don't want the rest of the team to drift too far from the defense, but also because we want to win the ball in midfield and break using the more direct passing on the forward players. 

Currently my teams is 6th after 1/3rd of the games, and we were predicted 6th before the season. I'm much closer to the teams ahead than I am to the teams behind but I feel that this tactic has potential to go that extra step and be challenging for 3rd place. Can anyone offer any advice as to how I can improve? My gut is telling me that I can use the CMs better, maybe as a BWMs, but I don't know if this will nuke me when I'm trying to create chances. Thanks. 

[Quickfire Questions and Answers Thread (Tactic and Training Questions Only)]

Can someone explain the basics of DLFs v DLFa v AFa please? I always struggle when choosing between these roles as I don't think I understand the difference between them. I usually end up going for DLFa without really understanding why, as it is a sort of middle ground between them. 

[Quickfire Questions and Answers Thread (Tactic and Training Questions Only)]

What's the best support for an enganche? I've had an incredibly promising one come through my youth system and I'm trying to design a tactic to use in cup games to give him a run out. I was thinking of an AFat, Ifsu, Wat to have multiple avenues of attack, with short passing to maximise the enganches time in the ball. Does this sound reasonable? 

[Adapting to weaker opposition]

I've played about 15 more games or so now and I'm still having a few issues. The first one is continually conceding goals from deep crosses to a player in space behind my full back while playing the counter formation. To try and combat this I've dropped the defensive line to lower, dropped the line of engagement to much lower and set the defensive width to wider. The thought process behind this is that I want to keep the team compact to make us difficult to play through, but I want the full team to drop back slightly to leave less space in behind and I want the full backs to play closer to their wingers. I also thought this may have a negative effect on us going forward so I've set the mentality to positive in the hopes that it will encourage us to take more risks when we recover the ball. I've only played one game with this so far and I won 4-1 away to the team with the worst form in the division, so it might be a bit early to make a judgement.

My 'control' tactic is faring even worse however. I never seem to create any chances while playing with it even when dominating possession, and I'm getting hit on the break far too often. I'm less sure on what to do to alter this one. I'm thinking that I may set the defensive line to standard and the LOE to lower but keep the short passing and play out from the back, which will keep us more solid defensively but I can't see this helping with breaking down the opponents. Another potential solution I'm considering is to drop the wide players back to the wide midfield slots and have them on IWsu and Wsu, and switch the full backs to WBat and FBat to create overloads on the flank. I'd then make the DLP an APat and the CM a BWMsu so the midfield players a bit more positionally but the APat could hopefully bring more creativity further up the pitch. 

To put it more clearly, current control:

Potential control:

Any suggestions are welcome. 

[Adapting to weaker opposition]

32 minutes ago, Experienced Defender said:

 

- higher DL, standard LOE (and a split block via PIs)

 

 

Thanks, very informative and I'm looking forward to testing it out. I've seen the split block mentioned a few times in this forum but haven't came across a definition of what exactly it means. Is it merely giving the forward players (in this case the IF, DLF and W) PIs to close down more often? 

[Adapting to weaker opposition]

Hi, 

Can anyone recommend how to adapt my counter attacking tactic when I'm playing at home against weaker opposition? Currently I have the following instructions:

Balanced

Counter

Lower LOE

Tight marking

Narrow/wide defence depending on opponents strengths

And the following roles

DLFa

IFs Ws

DLPs CMa

DMd

WBs CDd CDd IWBs

GKd

Against weaker teams I've been going with the following, but it has turned me into the master of the 0-0 home draw:

Balanced/positive (depending on level of team) 

More expressive

Higher tempo 

Play wider

DLFs

IFa Ws

DLPs CMa

DMd

WBs CDd CDd IWBs

GKd

I'm struggling to break teams down however. I'm going to try replacing the DLPs with an APs but I'm a bit cautious that will leave me a bit too open. I've also toyed with the idea of replacing the CMa with a MEZa, but my CMa is fairly limited and I don't think he'd perform well as a MEZ. Does anyone have any ideas? 

[Quickfire Questions and Answers Thread (Tactic and Training Questions Only)]

Can anyone recommend how to adapt my counter attacking tactic when I'm playing at home against weaker opposition? Currently I have the following instructions:

Balanced

Counter

Lower LOE

Tight marking

Narrow/wide defence depending on opponents strengths

And the following roles

DLFa

IFs Ws

DLPs CMa

DMd

WBs CDd CDd IWBs

GKd

What I've been doing against weaker teams at home is removing the lower LOE, counter and tight marking and adding more expressive, more tempo and play wider, and turning IFs into IFa and DLPa into DLPs. Sometimes I also switch to positive mentality. I'm struggling to break teams down however. I'm going to try replacing the DLPs with an APs but I'm a bit cautious that will leave me a bit too open. Does anyone have any ideas? 

[Becoming a selling club]

Hi, 

I've got a plan in mind as the manager of a relatively small team to buy in promising talent and sell the players in as soon as their value hits an acceptable amount for me. In doing this I've managed to get a player to be valued at £3.6million (my entire overall balance in the club is less than a million) and I think this a good opportunity to cash in. My question is, how is best to do this? I've tried setting his asking price at his value but that hasn't affected anything, and when I'm scared of transfer listing him as there's a warning about potentially upsetting him. Does anyone have any experience with running a club this way that could help me out? Thanks.