4-2-3-1 Wide - How to make my IF's produce more goals/assists

[martisikk]

Hi,

I am having trouble making my IF's produce the goals and assists I think they should be doing. I am currently 18 matches into the regular season with Ajax, and my total goal amount is OK. I can see that the offensive play is very fluid and well functioning, but it is lack the penetrating threat that my IF's should provide. At least this is my experience from earlier games. They have only contributed with a total of 4 goals and 4 assists combined. In comparison my AF has 14 goals and 3 assists. From reading the game analysis I can see that the IF's are not getting into the attacking positions they should, and therefor not becoming the threat the should be and this kind of cripple my attacking options.

I use a 4-2-3-1 Wide tactic. My team mentality is control, team shape is set to very fluid. I have also tried to set team mentality to attacking, but with no results regarding this problem.

Player roles is as follow:

GK/d

2xBPD/co
2xWB/su

DLP/s
BBM/s

AP/s
2xIF/a
AF/a

My TI's are:
Lower tempo, balanced width, closing down more, normal defensive line, prevent short GK distribution, use tighter marking, play out of defense, mixed passing, work ball into box, roam from positions

Additional PI's are:
GK - take short kicks, distribute quickly
BBM - shoot less often, mark tighter
DPL - mark tighter
AP - mark tighter
IF's - shoot less often, mark tighter
AF - mark tighter

I have also tried playing with a wider style of play, but that made no difference regarding my problem. Also I have tried unmarking the "shoot less often" PI for my IF's, but that only resulted in them taking a lot of shots from far outside the box (as I expected because I had this problem in FM15).

So if someone of you have any pointers regarding my problem I would be happy to receive them. Also if you see something terrible wrong with my tactic overall do not hesitate to give me a shout
Unfortunately I have little to none experience with sharing screenshots, but if more information is needed I will do my best to provide it.

 

[foals]

Maybe go with a Complete or Deep Lying Forward? IFs are most dangerous when they sneak in between the full back&central defenders. If your striker comes deeper they can either serve them themselves or let some other player do it as they make the CBs drawn out of their position. So you'll need a striker with vision and intellegance and I believe Milik is that kind of a striker.

Also try attacking full backs instead of supporting wing backs. Because wing backs mostly tend to cross the ball which is good for your stiker but attacking full backs just love to overlap and give your opponent real hard times as you are likely to outnumber their defenders which would give the IFs more space obviously. But the down side is you are more exposed in the back so make sure a CM of yours stay in the back to prevent counter-attacks. (DLP or BWM with defensive role maybe)

 

[martisikk]

Thanks for the advice! I switched to fullbacks/a and a complete forward and it almost gave instant results
Still having some problems at the back and with retaining possession, but what is FM without some challenges

Anyways, the help is much appreciated!

 

[von helldorf]

I've had this problem too. I tinkered with my team until I found the right balance. I use a target man support, deep lying forward support or false nine as the striker, with the two inside forwards set to attack.

Have you tried playing with their positioning at all? I think I have mine set to roam from position or sit narrower. That way they'll be finding space in central positions, right where you want them to be. Off the ball will be important if using those.

Best of luck!