Cloud9

If you don't have goal scorers capable of attacking the space in behind then playing higher up the pitch will allow you to be a goal threat still. However, you will concede a lot of goals by coming out to play as a weaker team and you won't take advantage of opposition teams underestimating you...a lot will just depend on the players at your disposal. Based on that screenshot I would focus on squad rotation and morale management over tactics!

Looks like a great start Having a top tier goalkeeper like Urbig will go a long way in the season for you I think! On the AF, none of those guys look adequate. Jovanovic is more of a TF and the other two lack the pace to threaten to the opposition out of possession. Jovanovic + an AF in a 4-4-2 will get you plenty of goals to stay up with. If you have 23m left I'd go splash the cash on someone with Pace/Acceleration (really you want 15-16 minimum for a counter attack at this level) + good off the ball (some anticipation) and a consistent player. Adequate height as well if you're looking to play them as a solo 9 at times. The pace is the top speed where as the acceleration is how quickly they reach it...so if they've got a dose of one and not the other then they aren't too helpful for you in your current tactical setup.

I wouldn't use the focus instructions all the time, they will tire the players out in that area. Work on the ball into the box you could add if you see your players wasting a lot of chances shooting low % chances. It's a final third instruction so take a look at the decision making of the players in that area. As an underdog counter attack I would use it situationally; but most of the time moving quickly and taking the chances available will be more important. On the 4-4-2, that looks good. If you want both wingers on attack then a double fb(s) might work well for you. I would want the SV(s) directly behind the PF(s) for some additional link up play when the ball is held up. On the AF, you mentioned you had 50m and I see a lot of your squad is quite young. Spending 15m or so to pick up a senior reliable pro from a relegated side might be nice (especially in the CB and AF slots). That's what I did in my own save with a Colombian striker from Almeria. Over reliance (especially in key positions) on young players is a common trap that can see you relegated in your survival fight. The wonder kids are great (for the future), but CA/PA is largely unimportant for success...players just need the right attributes in the right places for your system. Looking at what a player is now instead of what he can become will be important. A player like Vedat Muriqi is a great example of this in FM24 (in key attribute distribution over CA/PA). I usually look to bring in a handful of senior pros who strengthen the starting 11 with positive personalities upon promotion like this...they can then mentor the young players and form the core of your squad while you fit the young kids in w/out overplaying them.

4-2-3-1 is very strong, but I would just retrain them in pre-season to fit a 4-4-2. A 4-2-3-1 like that you've linked will serve you very well though. You can always have two of your tactics be the 4-4-2 and the third be a 4-2-3-1...this will give you some flexibility throughout the season (just don't over tinker). Schedule some friendlies and they'll be up to speed in no time. You've got young players and some of them look already half trained for those spots. A striker partnership can help you get enough goals to stay up as well, it's a formation I would recommend for anyone struggling to survive a relegation fight. More importantly, I think if you don't run it then Gutierrez will be pretty unimpactful on the field which I'm not sure you can afford from a key player w/relegation on the line. If you go w/the 4-2-3-1 you'll need an exceptional and reliable AF who can score multiple goals a game as he'll be your only main goal threat. On the two players you've linked my only concern is that they're inconsistent. That won't impact their physical attributes so it's not the end of the world for that wide position where you mostly are looking at their ability to attack the space. Castro is a perfectionist and can dribble so I would say he's ready to start. Pavas could be an issue... you'd need to check his media handling to see if there are any red flags in there. He's cheap though! Bringing him on as a rotation option for his physical profile alone would likely be an okay choice. You can only sign six u21 foreign players in your save per year so that's why I would be more selective on the six you bring in. Usually I just won't sign inconsistent players in my own saves if at all possible.

I would recommend a 4-4-2 then! Gutierrez has a great skillset to become a DLF but he will need to be put on a regime to improve his passing first. I wouldn't want him playing the role with 11 passing despite his great profile. Playing him as a PF(s) will distill his role down to holding up the ball + providing a long ball option which he will excel at and put to use some of the strengths he has now (rather than the player he can become). Passing is a technical ability so you want to get him on that ASAP so he doesn't miss the window. You can improve his work rate fairly easily with a little individual man management. And yea double DM will do nicely w/an SV, that translates to a 4-4-2 as well BWM(s) or DM(S) + SV(s). On the wingbacks having a FB(a) or WB(s) on one side + a FB(S) will give you a stable backline. Goalkeeper looks like a superstar, more than enough and will do especially well in a block. You can take him all the way to winning the Champions League in your save On wide roles in a 4-4-2 block I would look at a Winger(a) for profiles with speed + dribbling, either on their true or off foot. WM/DW/W(s) are all solid options in these slots as well. Here are two good threads to reference over the course of your season:

Remove the MEZ from your double pivot and let just one of your wingbacks go forward. FB(S) + SV(S) will give you a tactic that can actually defend. Remove Counter-Press too while you're at it. The MEZ is a tactic breaking issue. Switch to a 4-3-3 if you want to use one. I would up the tempo and passing directness as well. You are playing a counter attack with a side that opposition teams will take the game to. Look for quick, direct transitions. Your wide roles are not really set up to be effective in a mid block. Gutierrez is not a good fit for a mid block counter at this stage of his career, despite his potential. IF(A) is almost a free role out of possession and the player is too slow to be a real threat from wide spaces. He also can't pass, has low work rate, and lacks the mobility to get into spaces to score. He could work decently well in a 4-4-2 strike partnership, perhaps as a PF(S), to hold up the ball. If you don't want to play a 4-4-2 I would sell him and reinvest in players who can do a job for you now. Your frontline needs pace and roles capable of exploiting it in a relegation fight. The team is more than good enough to stay up if you recruit well, and 50m is a huge amount. You don't need world class players to stay up! Just players who can do specific jobs and a deep enough squad. I would recommend setting up your scouting networks next time so you can make cheap effective transfers. Find a striker you can rely on to score (and the physical profile to get into goal scoring opportunities) + a half decent goalkeeper (aerial reach + shot stopper) and it will mostly be morale management from there

You could always just add counter press to put pressure on the ball if you wanted lower trigger press. A high line does require that pressure to some extent to avoid being exposed. I tend to leave the counter-press on and the trigger press in the middle of the slider in my own high lines!

Tackling is a technical attribute, which needs to be prioritized early on in development if you want to see results. Mentals improve much more easily over the course of their mid 20's. If they're already at an advanced age then growth will be tricky here. However, you can expect significant growth w/ a decent ceiling, proper training, and starting off at a young age. You can also move the player to the defensive unit. As always player growth is highly dependent on personality; so if you're really looking to get stuck into it...recruiting players with Determination, Professionalism, and Ambition will be essential.

Training sessions that improve tackling + role training will do the trick!

Exactly! The other big issue with that training series is that it doesn't focus on developing attributes to fit a style of play that the manager is looking to implement. This is a huge component on why the variety of sessions available are so useful. I would recommend looking at the attributes that would fit a man for man high pressing system when picking your sessions for a Bielsa system Aside from that, good training IRL is staggered (ie. 1 intense day followed by a day of reduced intensity to recover before ramping up the intensity again). These are the bars at the bottom of the screen ranging from dark green to red. This is exert is from the Athletic, but it gives a nice insight into just how high intensity you'd be looking for your murderball sessions to be. And another, to give some context to how that will translate to the style of play itself. Utilizing a combinations of PIs and OIs will help with the man to man pressing asked for by the Argentine.

I have already specifically mentioned the issues at hand above. All of the falsehoods I mention earlier come from those videos. Here is a link debunking the Step up or Drop Off More video I mentioned, w/a direct answer from SI on how it works. On if you can only play attacking football...this one is quite simple. The answer is that any well put together tactic can work well on FM. I will refer you to this thread:

Just sorting out natural width in your setup will go a long way. Additionally, Eriksen is not really a 6 and Casemiro's legs have gone so your pivot is quite weak, particularly against a counter attack featuring anyone with pace. Much shorter passing + lower tempo is likely a bridge too far for your squad as @crusadertsar mentions. However, if you aren't stretching the opposition defence in possession then slowing the game down isn't going to help you create chances anyways!

Physical profiles in your squad can be a strong indicator, as can your key players, or goal scorers. How do we get the ball into goal scoring positions as a team and how can my striker get into goal scoring positions himself are two important questions to answer.

The main issue is that the YouTuber runs tests that are incomplete, or missing key variables, and then declares facts about the game that others spread. It's misinformation and plays into the nonsense you hear frequently; "You can only play attacking football on FM," "Training session X doesn't do anything," or "TI X has no impact" etc etc. I've linked the manual which is a strong source, and an actually accurate one, for anyone looking to learn a specific aspect of the game:

I don't agree with this, the blue sessions are very impactful but this is an oversimplification. To go into detail a little: you don't need two Match Practice training sessions a week. Additionally, the other training sessions are useful, as they will help you target specific attributes you'd like to use in your systems! A lot of the tests by this YouTuber end with proclamations like this that are simply untrue (for example that step up and drop off don't do anything etc etc.); so I would take any of these "conclusions" with a heavy dose of skepticism. Using something like this one week would be fine, but doing it every week certainly would be far from optimal for development. I also do a complete training session the day after matches and manually give the day off to any player who received a match rating. It is more about pushing the squad heavily in pre-season and then moving to a series of training sessions that can develop the attributes you're looking for w/out running the squad into the ground dependent on how many games played. Either overplaying or overtraining (or a combination of both) is one of the surefire ways to plateau a players development. I would highly recommend adding Fatigue, Injury Risk and Match Load into your selection view when deciding how hard to push the players in training that week (past pre-season). Keep in mind that the number one indicator for over 18 players will be sufficient game time. On Fm24, the personality of the player will be particularly impactful for development in the 23-28 range.

I would suggest opening up the width! You have a lot of roles looking to roam and create w/out space to do it in. Work the Ball Into the Box might be a welcome TI as well. There is also a lack of a goal threat in the tactic itself. A simple Shadow Striker instead of the Treq and an IF(s) in place of the AP(s) would go along way in balancing things. If you want to keep the Treq, perhaps a forward who does the running for him would be appropriate? Finding a balance between creative free roles alongside the hardworking will improve the tactic in general. You might also look to roles such as a DLP(s) over the Regista, who will help you control the ball a bit more compared to making line breaking passes. I haven't experimented too much w/a staggered pivot; but I would recommend a more traditional lined up duo when running two really aggressive wingback choices like you have here.

You need to break them down. Find wide players to pin fullbacks wide to deal with the compact nature of their defence. Then utilize overloading runs (see positional play) to exploit these gaps. If you're by far the best team, then try lowering the tempo and look to roles like the Poacher if you're using a spearheading forward (as he won't run the channels). Finally, take a look at your TIs and remove the ones that are resulting in turnovers (such as counter). Roles/a profile like an AP can be very useful in breaking down a block!

Be more expressive might be what you're looking for. Try out some more expansive roles as well. But yes it's very possible, especially on FM24 w/the positional play additions to the game.

Off footed Winger(a) or Raumdeuter + aggressive traits would be my go to for this alongside roles capable of playing him in. You will likely struggle to get a wide player as prolific as you'd see IRL.

Good mentals go a long way in defensive situations! Keep in an eye out for attributes like concentration and anticipation but really any gap in the profile can cause issues. Defenders lacking physical profiles can also fail to react to quicker opposition in time or influence them enough to have an impact. If you're conceding too many goals with a defensive approach: consider that you may be inviting too much pressure w/out appropriate threat to the opposition out of possession.

You may also wish to take into account Jumping Reach on key positions as another way of controlling the pitch (preventing or enabling a long ball) like we see from a modern tall 6 or 9. In most situations width + vertically are important boxes to check. However just take into consideration that there are also plenty of modern approaches that play in alternative manners! For example: Nagelsmann Germany is an almost entirely vertical approach. They will want to play extremely narrow to help force turnovers instead of creating a big pitch where it would be easier to play through the press.

This is not a great way to approach or understand how your tactic will play out imo. I would read through some of these threads instead:

Slow + weak is generally a pretty poor formula for a finisher; and especially so on a solo one. You'll probably want to run a 4-4-2 with incomplete players like this.

You can always try a combination of things! Perhaps you would like the WB(d) role? A FB(s) w/tinkered PIs could work nicely as well, you could ask him to sit wide for example. WM are typically great roles for covering the wide areas; and offer a lot of customization in the PIs. DW are another strong option for an Atletico style approach.

W(a) on an off foot would give you a far more direct player, I usually use them for 1v1 specialists. In the support role you'd have more flexibility with the tinkering of PIs; but it still wouldn't be a role who specializes in keeping possession like the IW(s). The two roles (off foot and IW) behave differently as well. The off footed winger tends to go forward but w/the width around the edge of the penalty area. The IW will participate in buildup play and cut inside. I think this is mentioned in another thread, but since the IW(s) does not provide a ton of flashy numbers (line breaking passes/end product) their number ratings are frequently quite low...even when they are performing great. You need to look at the individual players stats and how he's performing in game to see if you're actually getting what you're looking for.