Dr Naysay

You need to stop this bud, from what I have read from you in the last few days you aren't looking at the complete picture with regards to your tactics and you seem to think hitting tactical buttons are magic panaceas to resolving problems. Every single one of my tactics has play out from the back but with a careful analysis of the whole tactic, the players involved in that tactic and the mental side of where the players are both in terms of morale and the cohesiveness of the players. Honestly, it seems to me like you're frustrated(and I am not sure why considering how well you did with Fulham) and spamming threads with your discontent and it doesn't help people who need help.

Such an amazing format, I really like it and will be following.

The whole concept and team you picked is right up my alley. The other thing with Groningen is it's the only city in the entire province so you literally have most of the province supporting you. Keenly following!!!

I don't think those were tactical issues early on, rather more morale and cohesion problems. I really loved your tactical setup you laid out and used it and it was damn good. The only differences I had was a much higher defensive line and if the opposition used a RPM or VOL in DM slot I would take off the tight marking OI as it drags people too far out of their normal slots. For the much higher defensive line instruction I offset it by changing my pitch dimensions to leave less space between the defence and SKA.

No context in your OP, like your tactic or what Club you're managing etc. If you need help we need some context please.

Added to what's already been said I would look at his passing stats and how his winning possesion to losing possesion stats look and how solid he is aerially. Because you play out from the back a lot of traffic will still go through him and it sounds like you want him to keep it simple and progress the ball forward either to wingbacks or you CMs but he will probably also need to be a little press resistant with his mental attributes too. Something like this can give you a quick snapshot of whether he's doing what you want.

Not a fan of the term lower league tactic. What works in the top league will work at the worst league level because the talent level is all relative. If you mean that your team has one of the lowest level of talent levels then sure you need to be more pragmatic in how you set up, but successful tactics will be successful at any level provided you have players suitable to that tactic at that level.

Really enjoying this a lot.

It's just not going to be a sexy role in FM ratings I think, my one is in a similar set-up to OP has and AVG of 7.02 but this was inflated by two assists in one match both of which were bog standard progressive passes to the Mezzala in front of him who took two long shots and scored screamers with both of them. Therein is the problem imo, the Mezzala has twice done something I specifically don't want him to and because he has and it's actually worked, suddenly my IWB is being given credit for it. MY IWB is in the 90th percentile in all top leagues for progressive passes per game but the only time he gets given credit for this in game is here: This pass has gone from a progressive pass to a key pass and if Francho hits the net it becomes an assist(this was one of three long shots and this one missed.) Only one player in that combination above is doing what I want(and he does it every game) and yet the only time he gets credit for it is when the player in front of him does something I don't want. The one thing I have recently taken from Rashidis posts and vids is to look at the XG Chains after matches and when I drill down in to that I can see that my IWB is an unsung hero. These two are from the same match where the IWB ended with a 6.9 rating. Raking through ball that put our striker in behind the defence till he prevaricated and eventually when he shot it was blocked. Interception and then a progressive pass which ended with the shot hitting the post. If I look at my IWB's numbers he's largely doing what I want him to do, I would be critical of how many shots he takes per game and work on that part of the tactical side, but if it weren't for one game where a player took three shots from outside of the box my IWB's rating would probably be 6.8, so drill down and see what's happening but I wouldn't fret too much over it.

Firstly I'd have to ask what you are trying to achieve here with your tactic. Things like underlapping, what is your thought process with how you are trying to play? Straight off the bat you are playing with a formation that is quite press friendly. You are counter pressing, pressing often, trying to prevent teams playing out from the back and playing with a narrow setup yet your defensive line is at standard and you are employing a mid line of engagement which means you're voluntarily ceding space up top and when your players try and close down they have more ground to cover . Added to these facts your one defensive minded midfielder is a BWM who will leave space centrally as he tries to close anyone down whose near him meaning your defence has very little protection when you turn the ball over it's not surprising seeing how much you are losing by in some games. Your defenders aren't the problem, I analyzed your team and you have all the right ingredients for a high pressing team from front to back but it's not being setup properly. One final point is that so many people pay no heed to their pitch dimensions. You have a guranteed nineteen league games per season when you can play on a pitch that suits your tactics and yet people will often cede their pitch dimensions to the opposition by leaving the dimensions as is. If you want t play with a narrow formation, high pressing and a possesion based system you don't want 105m x 68m dimensions because with your dimensions you're gifting them an extra 8 meters in width to hit you with crosses and an extra 5 meters behind you with which to ping long balls for pacey strikers to run on to. I would keep mine at 100x60 which then removes 40 square meters of space for the opposition to work with. These are just some initial thoughts but it would be nice to read how you envision this working?

This is seriously OTT in terms of possesion TIs, any team that sits deep narrow and compact between the lines is going to cause issues for your team. You haven't mentioned what changes you make in game apart from telling them all to shoot more and giving them a half time rollicking? Personally I think you can see quite early on from a mix of scouting reports and the early part of the match if it's going to be one of those days, so I'll change things early if I have to but incrementally. If they are playing narrow and deep then you have to make changes to counter that and maybe stretch the width out. You need more runners from deep like making the DLP a runner, turning the HB in to a roaming playmaker and a CB in to a Libero and depending on the situation perhaps changing the striker role to drop off and hope he takes a defender with him. Then you're not only stretching their defence but now they have more threats to worry about moving between the lines. You have told your team to retain possesion and then recycle the ball waiting patiently for an opening but if the opposition don't give you that opening then you need to start moving them around and start giving them something to think about.

You've identified the issue that your players are being marked out of the game and your GK is left with no options, but you haven't made any changes to resolve this issue. This version of FM is more than ever a version that requires on the fly adaptions and tweaks to counter opposition threats. I don't know your roles, duties and TIs but going from what I can see they have 9 players in that screenshot(one touching the halfway line and one whose legs you can just see) to your 6 outfield players. That leaves 4 of your players up against their 1 defender which is overkill if you can't get the ball to those players through the opposition press but it presents some beautiful opportunities. @Cloud9 has mentioned it but there is a lot of space that can be exploited you just haven't used it optimally. Now you have identified the space how will you use it? You have a lot of ways to do that but it will be dependent on the players you have that decides what you might do but the end goal is to start moving those opposition players around to create space to exploit the real estate they are leaving wide open at the back. SPACE Again I haven't seen this game play out but looking at their shape you want to start using some of the space by taking some of that overkill up top and dropping a player or two in to any or all of these positions so that the opposition suddenly have a lot to think about. If you stagger your CMs in to space and set the correct tempo you can play through their lines sharply if you have technically gifted players, or you can put your most gifted passer in to an area where he has the most time to ping a ball to a pacey striker or winger to take advantage of the space they have left open at the back. If you have switched to a 4132 or a 4312 you might want to focus play down the right and/or left flanks(as counterintuitive as that sounds) which will bring players to work together on one side side of the pitch drawing opposition defenders and creating space for the the far sided midfielder or Wing-Back but again this is all dependent on the players you have available but there are plenty of remedies to resolve this situation. The principles are ostensibly the same.

Sorry but this is plain wrong. Defensive tactics work just fine, remember the shape we choose is the defensive shape so you are using a 4-4-2 which is ideal for pressing and then wondering why it works optimally with pressing. Just looking at that last two screenshots you put up and I am not surprised you're being picked apart. You have holes all over the place coupled with a timid setup and a striker pressing up against your last defender it is just a recipe for exactly what you're experiencing. There are quite a few resources out there including a brilliant thread from @crusadertsar and @Cleonon the principles of defensive football and there was an excellent YouTube video recently on setting up a defensive shape, his example was very extreme but you can't argue with just 5 losses in his first 15 games conceding just 9 goals and taking 4 points from Manchester City and Arsenal with lowly Luton. I am sorry, I don't want to come across as harsh because I understand your frustration having been there myself but it isn't true that you have to press to win, you need the optimal shape and the optimal settings, however just by looking at your screenshots I am not seeing that at all.

@thebreadlady Can i ask what team you are playing with?

It would concern me how their number six just dropped in to that pocket of space unmolested and then played a beautiful ball over the top, sometimes we focus too much on the defenders after a goal and not enough on the root causes. Against two strikers you are already at a disadvantage with just two CBs and their whole tactic was set-up to hit you exactly like they did with their two strikers playing up against your CBs and their midfielders dropping in to those pockets , I am sure your NCB is just not fit for purpose but I think a lot of even more talented CB's would have suffered the same fate. I personally would have a think about the whole tactic. btw if you're the inferior team in the league it wouldn't hurt to have different formations when coming up against two striker tactics.

Just want to chime in here and say that the half-back in a back three behaves differently in FM to a back 4 with fullbacks who push up. In a back three you can still have him acting like a Defensive Midfielder or even a quasi DLPwho will drop deep to replace a WCB who has pushed up, but in a 433 he will tend to sit deeper as your fullbacks push up and if you look at some of the pass maps with a back 4 he is almost level with the two CBs. You can see here how dynamic he is in the back three: Tolisso dropping in to the back three to replace Diomande who has pushed up. But for the most part he sits in front of the defence and a lot of traffic can go through him. Now you look at him in a back four, he basically forms a back three if you use fullbacks who push up, so you will lose some of what makes him great in a back three and will need to compensate for that. It's quite a dynamic role that responds to different setups, if I was using an IFB in a back four he would respond differently too, sorry I don't want to derail or lecture but just share experience.

Just watched both those YouTube clips. Some filthy goals in there and you're getting to that sweetspot. I honestly wish some people were as patient when it came to carrying out their tactical progressions.

I always start of on a lower tempo as my base strategy but if I realise early on we are dominating possesion but not penetrating compact deep blocks I'll switch up the pace to try and move through the lines quicker.

Aghh ok, thanks for the info.

Nicely set out and I am glad to see the winger making a return on a lot of people's tactics. Became very maligned did the winger role with a misconception that they don't score goals. This is how I would set it up too albeit I have heard Odegaard is sitting deeper now and not getting as forward much anymore?

You don't need to buy it. It's free, just type football manager editor in your steam and download the database editor for free. You pay for the in game editor. That list is most of the cities/towns and it is indeed all of the big ones.

I assumed op was talking about a save for himself that he wants to start with Kilmarnock

You can but with the editor and not the in game editor and it can be time consuming at first. Go in to the editor and click on regions and then type in Ayrshire and then go on to cities. Like so. From there note all the cities or villages listed in there. Then go in to your game scouting section set up a scouting search filter like what i have done for Galicia here and you will get all the players from that region. I do wish SI would offer a regional search option in the scouting section that would make this all easier.

Thank you both!!!

Care to share it please?