Daguimar_

Hello. It's me again, the guy from Las Palmas save. I'm now in the fifth season in the save and to be fair, things have been going well. I went for Champions League twice and now in this season we have been in Conference doing really good performances dominating the scores (except for a match against Nice which resulted in a draw). In this season I picked a tactic from one FM Youtuber, a narrow 4-3-3 that I'll show you now: Formation (Idk why I can't upload images, sorry) As you can see, it's a higher tempo short passing 4-3-3 that's narrow for allowing the two CWB to overlap their respective Winger, in the left side, the IF and in the Right side, the Winger. In the midfield there's a Mezzala in attack that it's a good combination with the IF on support, with a CM on support that'll go forward and a BWM that'llm try to defend (But I still find that he roams the position a lot for my taste) with two CBs and an AF that often gets isolated but it scores goals. However, I modified a little. This tactic runned a Poacher and I wanted to run an AF as my striker fit better that role. While the tactic is working , I still find it difficult to beat the smaller sides due to the lower block that they often use, resulting in my team never scoring and struggling with them and also they tend to struggle with the stronger sides such as Barça, Madrid, Atletico, Real Sociedad... So, I'd like you to see my squad and form an opinion on it and on the tactic that I should use. As my original tactic come from Youtube, these players have different instructions. GK (SK d) Cañizares Son of Santiago Cañizares, to be fair, he has been class since I've signed him in the second season of the save. He has developed really well into a good first division keeper saving me more than once. RB ( CWB s) https://imgur.com/a/NwAyfRQ First wonderkid that I signed, he also has been really class and I hope he will develop a lot under this team. https://imgur.com/a/eNqggcU Costinha is the older one who has been doing also really well in the past seasons as a good WB and I'll try to keep him as the second option CB (CD d) https://imgur.com/CJR05E0 https://imgur.com/a/BuK07bd These two have been my main CB duo, really young but I'll try to develop as much as I want by playing them. Muller already looks promising and Muniz while he looks worse, he's been performing in a solid way, also, I like that he's left footed and that's why he often occupies the left side. https://imgur.com/a/j6cd2ZA https://imgur.com/a/sq2TF9I One of them is a loanee which looks fantastic and the other is a young centerback that I hope he'll develop by playing first level football. However, I plan on bringing older CBs to bring more experience and security into the team. Instructions Take more Risks LB (CWB s) https://imgur.com/a/nYEFLwl Mokthothu First youngster coming from the academy on the first year, he's real class and a physical monster at that. Needs to develop on the technical side but he's having an amazing season as a CWB (s) https://imgur.com/a/08mwLjQ Axeksson If the Lesotho guy didn't convince you, there you the second LB. Another beast who seems way better in the technique side and it's a speed demon on the field. DM ( BWM (d) Yepes I think he's some of weak link in the team and the role doesn't help him a lot in performing good enough. I think he's balanced though Casadó Not a bad player at all, can perform at BMW but it's the same case as Yepes, I think the role in this tactic is not that benefitial to it. MCR (CM (s) Kyoo Just amazing. That's it Sotelo Good backup for Kyoo, has been solid too and can score from distance, which is great. Instructions Run wide with the ball Shoot less often Get futher forward MCL (Mezzala (a) Pablo Torre Great guy, acting like the captain of the team and has been doing really well this season as the Mezzala of the team thus with the combinatioon of the IF (s) Reinier Came from loan since he was doing good on Brazil, like a lot. He can be a good Mezzala and has the ability to do it perfectly. Instructions that they have Run Wide with the Ball Shoot less often RW (Winger (a)) Eslam Best wonderkid I have, he's not having a good season and I don't know why as he seems like a monster. Specially with his backup having more assists and goals than him. However, I won't give up on him just yet. Ceide He's destroying the league basically, best season since he was here. He has the speed, the dribbling and the technique. Instructions that they have Cut Inside with the Ball Shoot Less Often Roam From Position Tackle Harder LW (IF (s)) Before talking about this role, this have been the worst season for it and has been making less number tha previous seasons maybe because of being in support. But, it has come to a point where they don't even shoot in matches. And this kind of makes me annoyed because we have good inside forwards Sima Had an amazing past season scoring 12 goals and 8 assists in league while being an IF on attack. Now he only has 3 goals in league. As I've said, frustating because he's a good finisher and a speed beast like Axelsson De La Fuente Second season academy product. While he can be a good winger and an assisting machine I prefer him to be an Inside Forward due to his preferred foot. He has the trait "Looks For The Pass Rather Than Score" which i'm trying to delete from him as he's an IF. Still, good product that'll develop with more experience in the field. Instructions Shoot Less Often Roam From Position Sit Narrower ST (AF (A) Pantoja Awesome season, that's it. Good finisher, rather pacy and decent Off The Ball. Pouzek Pacy, has better mentals than Pantoja and still fails a lot. His accuracy is really bad. I'm teaching him the "Places Shots" to see if he improves Instructions that they have Tackle Harder Move into channels (but they do it as an AF) That's the complete breakdown of my tactic with all of the instructions for each role and the players that I use. Now regarding the problems that I often have or the things that frustate me the most: 1.Most goals come from counters. 2.My IF are horrible this season 3. I don't know how well my BWM is performing as the "screen" that protects my defense 4. Having two CWB is too risky for a team like mine I think. My solutions (Atleast for me) are the following: 1. Take off "Take more risks" off the CB and do something about the CWB and the BWM 2.This is related with the first point. I'll turn the IF on attack and get rid of all the instructions. Same for the Winger, get rid off the instructions and put in on support. However, I don't know what am I going to do with the Mezzala mostly because having the two on attack will be a death sentence and I don't know who to put on Attack (Maybe the CM or the Right CWB) 3. I'll put him on DM (D) or any other role such as a HB or an A. 4. I think the best case is either changing the left CWB into a FB on support or an IWB on s, Thanks in advance for reading and watching all of this. I'll be really happy if you recommend or throw in your two cents into this situation.

I knew for sure that we would have a decline since we played Champions League and my players would be more tired throughout the season, but I didn't expect that my tactic would become useless as I've said previously, we can't have a relaxed match in which we can control the other team. I've tried everything and there was no result, we kept drawing against the likes of Levante and Mallorca while losing against Alavés in matches in which they have more opportunities. As for the formation, I was tired of losing and tried to let my ass man take control of the team during matches against Real Sociedad, Barcelona and Atletico and... Surprise, we won against Real and against Atletico while losing against Barcelona 2-3. He used some kind of 4-3-3 and I've decided to use the Gegenpress preset as we have been playing like that the whole season as we have players with good work rate and teamwork. I came up with this 4-3-3 that keep familiarity with roles and seems balanced: The only problem that I find is that in the left attacking midfielder position I've used a Winger and I don't know if I can pair that role well with an AP while changing the left back into a fullback on support

Im getting so frustated that I want to give up on the save, 3 draws against teams that should been winnable but the team is useless against them

Update v2: We are now in the third season and we have achieved Champions, which is really good for the money and reputation, which is increasing in a fast way ! But the problem here is that we keep being destroyed by other teams such as Barcelona, Juventus and even Feyernoord. It should be common as it is our first season playing Champions League but sometimes my team feels rather useless against this bigger teams. We are 5th in the league but we are suffering a lot, I think that we are winning because of luck (as we have less xG that the other teams, I know higher xG its not equal to winning every match) and this seems really bad. There are some days in which we can't reach the opponents goal and even trying to play more directly doesn't do us any favour or even decreasing the tempo. Another thing to take into account is that we tend to miss many long shots but turning on "Work Ball into Box" makes the team really slow in the counters and our shots often get blocked. I will put you the xG and the stats of many matches during the season + the tactic (which should work). The other aspect I want to talk about is the Pressing Forward role, they are making goals but not as much as I've expected, I tried them in At but they seem to be rather useless and they work much better on support (atleast is what I am thinking this season). I would also want to know what do you think about the dm pairing, I don't know if they are too defensive, I tried to include a SV but neither of my DM have the finishing attributes to play it well.

Update: I have applied the things that you have recommended in this post and we have been winning and having good results while scoring lots of goals (Kaba is the topscorer in the league with 9 goals in 10 matches which is fantastic) But we have conceded goals too. I noticed that when we are winning the teams formation change to a simple 4-4-2 and they achieve the draw against us which is really frustating. How can I counter it? For example, Celta de Vigo's changed into this formation while trying to have the possesion and I've tried to increase the width of the team and trying a more direct passing style to counter, but seemed kind of useless. This has also happened with Valladolid

Thanks for the message and the recommendation ! I think you are right with the defend duty on the WB side. However, I'm not a big fan of bwm as I've never had sucess with it. I'll probably drop the midfield into the DM position and have the DLP on defense to hold the position and cover the WB and having the sv on s as you have said

Then I would have to drop both to the DM position + increase the width Btw, thanks for the message, I didn't notice it. I also thought of changing one of the FB into a WB in the IF side

I've decided to do some changes to the tactic, still I don't know how can I play with the PF and the AM. The main problem that I think I will have in the second season is due to my 10th place, my reputation has grown a little and this can lead to the teams playing in a more defensive or in a cautious way against me. I'm totally a noob building my own tactics and configuring the roles of my players so I would want some feedback or some recommendations that can lead me to beat these sides that tend to play more defensively and that can lead me to achieve better things with the team. I think we cover completely the width of the team by having a WB(a) on the left with the IF(s) and the W(a) with the FB(s) but I don't know if the PF(a) won't be effectiveand I also don't know if having the duo of a CM(S) and a DLP(d) will be as effective as having both on the DM position.

Any feedback?

Hello everybody, I'm currently managing Las Palmas in the first division of Spain and I've decided to adapt the tactic into a vertical tiki-taka as I've never tried it. I selected the preset and I chose a 4-2-3-1 since it was other popular formation used by many in FM and it could be more motivating as I only have experience with 4-3-3. Media predicts us to finish 18th so I don't expect wonders. However, I feel like we underperform a lot and conceed many goals while also making really difficult to score. As you may have seen in the recent matches, I don't know what happens to our defense that we get destroyed by most of the teams (even the ones that should be in the same page as us, for example Granada) and it is really frustating to lose many matches, I tried setting up friendlies in order to increase motivation but it feels useless as we lose or draw many times in league, same for the team meeting. This is the tactic, as I've said, vertical tiki-taka, the players are good at passing and the things that kind of need to be modified (In my opinion) are the following: - Don't have two playmaker roles - We lack width atleast in defense, instead of having two FB I could change to a WB - I don't know if Counter and Counterpress + Distribute Quickly can work in a tiki-taka - I feel that the AF is not that involved in the game and there are games in which he feels useless Any help is welcome. Also, I would want some feedback on the roles of the tactic and the TI in the Out Of Possesion category