Can't get my team to work - Man Utd 14.3

[AxlRose]

Hi everybody.I'm new here and as you can see, this is my first post/topic.The first thing thing I want to say is that I NEVER had success in a career at Football Manager 2014.


So, I decided to start at my favorite club, Manchester United and see if I can fix this.How wrong I was ... I'm only in december and the board requested a meeting with me to discuss the poor performances so I'm pretty much sacked.


Here is the initial tactic that I used:

View attachment 368455

Very fluid and control.


Then I noticed that my striker doesn't score so I changed his role into an Advanced Forward.He scored in the first 2 or 3 matches then he stopped scoring again so I changed his role into a Poacher, and also changed the fluidity from very fluid to fluid.


Here is the interesting part.My starting striker was Robin van Persie.His stats don't show that he played bad (21(2)/13g/12a) but don't get fouled by them, I think he scored 13 goals in 5 or 6 matches against poor opposition, with the big guys he was VERY POOR.But, when I replaced him with some of my other strikers (Zivkovic,Fierro,Rooney) they seemed to score, or at least be more involved in the game.So, the problem was the role or was just Van Persie being poor ?


Another problem I had was the IF(S) role.I played Mata there but he never managed to make an impact.I changed his role into an W(S) but never saw an improvement.Then, in the last 2 games I changed his role into AP(S) and he still wasn't performing so I'm out of ideas.


My midfield is another big problem also because for example my DLP(D) isn't involved in the games.My BBM was decent I guess and he scored some goals, but never really stood up.


As you can see, I have problems in all the compartments of the team but I think the biggest one is the defense.I rarely got a clean sheet and in every match the opposition were launching balls over my defense for fun.I changed the defender roles to CD stopper and CD cover because I thought the cover defender will stop that but it didn't.


I used closing down and tight marking on the opposition attacking players, especially the striker but again, he was receiving though balls over my defense and I can't understand why.


The last tactic I used was this:

View attachment 368453

I removed the push higher up because I thought that was the cause for all the through balls but it wasn't, or at least I didn't noticed any change.


And here is a list of my fixtures:

View attachment 368451

As you can see, except from that last patch of bad results they weren't that bad, but the team was VERY INCONSISTENT.

And this is my team:

View attachment 368443



Peace, Axl.

 

[AxlRose]

Can someone please help me?

 

[dave256]

You have DLP (S) in the ss but DLP (D) mentioned in the post. Anyways, your tactic is incredibly vulnerable at the back. You have NO cover in front of your defence and your instructions would force the CD's to close down and leave a lot of space in behind. You need one of your midfielders on more of a defensive duty to try and break up the opp from building up play...maybe a CM (D)? Also, I can imagine that your build up play from the back is virtually non-existent? Your FB's will bomb forward and your midfield is pushed too high up the pitch to offer any outlet for the CD's. There will be no definite answer to bring you succes with this version but your set up is vulnerable and also doesn't allow for effective build up play. My advice would be to have at least 3 players on defensive roles, 3 players on attack roles and the rest on support and build from there as a starting point

 

[AxlRose]

Yeah sorry, my DLP was on Defend by I changed it to support in the last 2 games to try and get him more involved in the plays.

So, should I start with putting one of my midfielders on a CM Defend role ? And to fix the build up play from the back, should I pun one of my defenders on a BPD role ?

 

[dave256]

Yeah sorry, my DLP was on Defend by I changed it to support in the last 2 games to try and get him more involved in the plays.

So, should I start with putting one of my midfielders on a CM Defend role ? And to fix the build up play from the back, should I pun one of my defenders on a BPD role ?

Your defender will still have the same problem if he doesnt have the options to pass out to. Being tht you're using wider attacking players I'd say you don't need your fb's bombing up the wings straight away. Try them on a support role to give the CD's an outlet and help build up play. You could maybe add get forward more if you want them to, welll, get forward more. The most important thing is try things to give more support to your CD's. Try it on plain support first and just see how that works with giving more build up. I can't gaurantee anything will bring you success but its just the obvious problems from your OP is cover in front of your defence and an outlet when they have the ball. You already have an attacking threat on the wings and so it would be an idea to be holding your fb's back a tiny bit