Balance Attack and Defence

[CraigF92]

Hey everyone.

I am currently doing a West Ham season and i know it is still early doors but i want to try and sort it out now before its too late. We are sitting 12th after 8 EPL games which i am pretty content with especially after playing Man Utd, Chelsea, Tottenham and Arsenal.

The problem i seem to have is in the title. I play attacking football but we have only kept one clean sheet in the league in 8 games which isn't good enough.

My tactics i play are between 4-5-1/4-3-3, 4-4-1-1 & 4-2-3-1 deep

Here are the positions for each tactic and the instructions(which are the same) below

4-3-3/4-5-1

ADRIAN(GK-D)

O'BRIEN(CWB-A) COLLINS(CB-D) TOMKINS(CB-D) ARMERO(CWB-A)

DIAME(ANC-D)

NOBLE(B2B-S) NOLAN(AP-S)

DOWNING(IF-A) BORRIELLO(P-A) JARVIS(IF-A)

4-4-1-1

ADRIAN(GK-D)

O'BRIEN(CWB-A) COLLINS(CB-D) TOMKINS(CB-D) ARMERO(CWB-A)

DOWNING(W-A) DIAME(BWM-D) NOBLE(DLP-S) JARVIS(W-A)

NOLAN(AP-A)

BORRIELLO(P-A)

4-2-3-1 DEEP

ADRIAN(GK-D)

O'BRIEN(CWB-A) COLLINS(CB-D) TOMKINS(CB-D) ARMERO(CWB-A)

NOBLE(DLP-D) DIAME(BWM-D)

DOWNING(IF-A) NOLAN(AP-S) JARVIS(IF-A)

BORRIELLO(P-A)
​

Team instructions are.....

RETAIN POSSESSION
SHORTER PASSING
PASS INTO SPACE
WORK BALL INTO BOX

EXPLOIT THE FLANKS
LOOK FOR OVERLAP

PLAY WIDER
PUSH HIGHER UP
ROAM FROM POSITIONS

HASSLE OPPONENTS
GET STUCK IN
TIGHTER MARKING

HIGHER TEMPO
MORE EXPRESSIVE

So everyone what do you think is going wrong defensively? Funnily enough the only clean sheet i got was against the hardest team. 1-0 win against Chelsea.

​

 

[iFortunatus]

I think higher tempo in generally for quick direct football, possession football is lower, your team might be trying to pass the ball around to quickly therefor loosing it this happen a lot?

 

[CraigF92]

I changed the tempo to lower and have changed push higher up to drop deeper.

 

[Weldred]

I would experiment with wingbacks. Try those combinations: attacking/support, support/support and defensive/attacking. Just like Guardiola's Barcelona. Alves(attacking) and Abidal(D/S). It works for me.

 

[paetoja]

You are too aggressive down the flanks. Why did you only list formations but not your mentality and or fluidity?
Its hard to play against better teams with an all out attack tactics. Too many ppl are enamored with attacking , you can play counter or defensive and still score 4 5 goals in a match.
My suggestion would be to created 3 tactics, 1 for when you play against better teams, 1 for one similar , 1 for weaker.
For example i play 3 variations of a 4 2 3 1
against weaker its a fluid attacking 4 2mc 3 1 with mostly attacking roles. For similar at home i use a 4 2dmc 3 1 control standard. When i play teams who are better or similar but i play away i play a 4 2dmc 1mc 2 1 rigid counter, sometimes switching it to defense if the opposition is like 2 stars better on average.

 

[dbs86]

dont use complete wingbacks they are way to cavalier, give your best fullback an attacking wingback role and the other one should be a normal fulback with a support duty, then with your wingers the side with the wingback should be an inside forward with either support or attack tho i find support is a bit better defensively, and the other side should be a winger on attack, this setup will give you plenty of variety on attack and should still be defensivly solid, also put your most defensive midfielder on the same side as the attacking wing back so that he will drop deeper and cover when the wingback runs forward. Or you could play a halfback in the DM position who will drop into the defence when you have the ball making you have 3 centre backs which is also good for covering the wingbacks runs

 

[MANUMAD]

Why do you use cwbs behind wingers on attack with a 4411. That looks like its your more conservative tactic/formation but its not actually reflected in what you have your players do!