Titanium Steel

Final update, just to share some experiences and ideas with everyone... I've modified and perfected the tactics, until it looks like this. I decided to completely move away from an AP and start using a Mezzala on both sides of the midfield since I discovered my RPM was also very good at creating chances, so I basically had two creative masterminds in my squad. In the middle is a BWM, whom I set to Defend duty so that he can pass it to one of the MEZs right after getting the ball. I changed my AF to a CF because he was much more dangerous that way, sacrificing scoring one goal for himself to help his IWs score two. The tactic didn't really give as much of a gigantic boost as last time, but it did improve the amount of key passes I was seeing. I was able to beat Inter Milan to go through to the semi finals of the UCL.

Thanks everyone for your help! Now my AP is getting more assists (from 3 assists before to 15 assists after I changed the tactics) and additionally his RPM buddy is assisting him to make assists and making a few good passes himself! On the way to win Ligue 1 unbeaten and agg. 9-2 thrashing of Real Madrid after finding them deep in an injury crisis. The tactics seemed to fail against Monaco who beat me on penalty shootout but to be fair all of their goals were penalties. I really wanted a creative creator of my own in my tactics as a love letter to the classic No. 10, which had many players I admired like Zidane, Pele, and Maradona. It's a shame it was less effective when played the traditional way, but just a bit of adapting it to today's tactics managed to revive the position to its glory days.

Don't worry, you're 100% not harping on, I appreciate and take into account every piece of advice I see, so you're helping me a lot by giving me some of your own data. I'm still new to this game so I don't really know the tactics fully, yet. Nice thing to know if the opponent has a strong plug on the middle. My AP is two-footed, so he wouldn't have any issues with going wide on either side. But I do wonder how you would "overload" a specific side? Is it turning on "Focus Play Down The Right" and "Overlap Right" in the TI?

Really shows how space is so important for playmakers. Sorry if this a bit of a noob question, but how do you see that xG chain and also get that map view instead of a view of the game?

Thanks for the advices, I applied them all and plus some of my own... First, I placed an Roaming Playmaker next to him so he can always be a passing option and contribute a few assists himself. I put the Inside Forwards on Support too, and finally I moved my playmaker down to a CM so he can be closer to his fellow midfielders and make a triangle of passing options. The instructions was also changed. I decided to make things simple by not setting too many instructions to allow my players to have some freedom, but I did lower down the tempo to give the AP and RPM some time to create passes. I also set him to roam around so he can find space which seemed to work really well. He seemed to roam around where space was, and almost every time I saw the ball played to him, there was either no opposition players around him or just one. I tested it out, and the results was very good. It was just one match, but it was against AS Monaco which was the strongest opponent I had in Ligue 1. It ended in 6-1, with a perfect hattrick by the Advanced Forward. The AP had himself a hattrick of assists, two for the AF and one for the left IF. The RPM himself also had a good day, with an assist to his name. The AP made 11 key passes while the RPM made 9 key passes. The AP would've gotten Player of the Match (9.7 rating) if it wasn't for the AF. (9.9 rating) I'll come back later after a few more matches, but just from this one match this tactic is clearly working extremely well and harnesses the full potential of both of my best players.

One last thing, the thing I'm trying to achieve with this tactic is to have my poacher who isn't really good at dribbling to wait in front to score while the IFs either keeps the opposition full backs occupied or become passing options so they themselves can cross to the poacher or score themselves. Ultimately, the AP is supposed to be the guy to pass to one of these three and wait for them to score from that pass and get him an assist, but in games the AP rarely makes assists nor passes to the poacher which was the whole aim.

I'm also open to changing my tactics to optimize my team's tactics, I'm still new to the game so I'd appreciate any advice, thanks!

Just got the free Football Manager 2024, and already unbeaten on Ligue 1 so far and just beaten Real Madrid. The issue is that my AP who has very good stats (17 Pass, 19 Vision, and 17 Decisions) can't get assists. (He gets plenty in his international team which I manage) I also have a Poacher who is currently top scorer, but most of the goals are from the IFs' crosses which he heads in easily with his height. How do I take full advantage of the AP's stats and make him hace de Bruyne or Messi level assists?