Help me surviving the premier league with my leicester city!

[Flaphead]

Hi guys, I lurk this forums since ages and I never dared to register and post, but now I seriously need your help.
So I got promoted with my Leicester City playing good offensive football ( alternating a 4-2-4 counter with direct passing and quick tempo and a 4-4-2 counter with short passing and slow tempo ), beckford scored 40 goals in 49 matches and he was definetly one of the best poachers I ever had in my gaming experience. For the premier I bought Eardley to replace Pantsil on the right side, Nainggolan ( best player I have in my team ), Rolando Bianchi, Lacazette and some other guys but my team is SOLIDLY ( dunno if this word actually exists ) standing in the relegation zone, with the worst defense of the whole league and losing against every friggin' bad team in the league ( took 5 goals at home by Bolton!! ). So to keep it as short as possible help me find a good tactic to survive ( I already tried and failed also with the 4-1-2-2-1 and took 5 consecutive losses ) as my morale level is always under control so I guess my problem is not with pre/post-match speeches!
here is my team atm:

 

[hembrough747]

Work on morale primarily and I would advise that you keep faith and don't change things too much. I once lost the opening 8 games in a season....then went on the win it lol (was also premierleague.....no idea how!) I've also played with leceister and think you'll be fine. If the tactics worked in the championship then they'll work to a degree in the prem. Keep faith, and praise players were possible to bring up morale...maybe even risk a team meeting (though for me these can easily go either way lol!)

Good luck!

 

[Flaphead]

Official Update:
I did'nt survive!!

 

[Raikan007]

Official Update:
I did'nt survive!!

hahhha, lol, sorry bud! 18 hours, that was quick for a season, along with some sleep I assume!

keep this in mind the next time you get promoted:

1) you are now a small fish in a big pond, not a big fish in a small pond! don't expect to win every game!
2) dont use the same tactic in the Premier League that got you promoted.. make it alot more defensive or counter attacking
3) play 6 at the back if you have to! dont try and attack each game, thinking you will score 4 past United..

spend well and spend smart on new players that will fit into your tactic!

 

[Flaphead]

Ahaha well actually the save was already at the end of january when I first posted, but basically I went wasted to work after sleeping like 5 hours because I wanted to get past this season as quickly as I could. It's ironic though that since mathematics condemned me I was able to draw two consecutive matches against liverpool and man city!

But anyway what I just want to say is that your suggestions seem all very wise when you read it, but still quite contradictory: you say "change your tactic don't play as you were in championship" and hembroug said " If the tactics worked in the championship then they'll work to a degree in the prem" so it can be a bit confusing something!

1) Well of course I was'nt expecting to dominate the league with beckford as a goal-machine but still it sounds pretty alarming when you get crushed by teams you're expected to beat with ease ( took 4 goals from wolves, 5 from bolton, 6 from tottenham!! c'mon... ) and when you invest something like 20 millions on transfers and you get your new players constantly underperforming ( i'm looking at you here, neil eardley.. )
2) thing is I was already defensive when playing in the championship! I always play with counter mentality and defensive central midfielders...so what was I supposed to do? contain from the beginning? ( sorr
3) again I can't believe that if I play counter, stay behind ball, put full-backs mentality to def etc etc. I stall concede late counter-attacking goal no matter how many different half-time speeches I use!

Sry I don't want to sound harsh I really appreciate that you guys bothered to answer the thread...it's just the...you know the usual football manager kind of frustration and sorry if this is confusing to read, i'm not a native speaker!

 

[TheBetterHalf]

Without knowing how you are playing now or where playing in the previous season, I will make the following assumtions

- The 424 you used in the Championship made you overload the opponents defence after playing a direct ball onto the wingers

- The Flat 442 you are using now may seem like a more cautious appraoch but in fact, it might not be for the better. When using the AMR, AML, FC,FC formation, the ball is often hoofed ( when the fbs are under press) up the the wingers/one FC moving into channels. This means that when you are under pressure, you instead gain possession in advanced and dangerous positions. Now, the ball is played straight onto the opponents d-line/defensive mid, making your team getting put under pressure time and time again

As for conceeding 2 more goals when already being 2 or 3 goals down, it has very litrtle to do with the tactic but is down to the players actually giving up.

Does this sound familiar ?

If you want help with the tactic you are using, you have to post some screens or upload it
(If you want to use a uploaded tactic, then have a look at my Deep 442 for underdogs found in my sticked thread or simply post a request in the subforum)

 

[gogogo golem]

The tactic wasn't the only problem, Chris Weale is not a premiership quality goalie and you needed to sign someone, Rene Adler would have been a good choice but that option you have probably missed.

 

[TheBetterHalf]

Judging by the screenshot, that team looks like one that should be relegated. Is it that those are not the ones normally found in the starting eleven ?

 

[Flaphead]

Yes TBH that was not the starting eleven, check the last players on the list ( the injured ones ), those were the regular: bassong with sorensen as DCs, nainggolan ( and he's good, no doubt about it! ) as btb mid and rolando bianchi as my strong/high/good-with-the-head striker, ideal ( or at least I thought ) for a partnership with the more paced beckford/lacazette. On the right side I spent 6.5 millions to buy Eardley from Blackpool but if you look at his stats/age he looked like a very promising DD. Finally, my first choice goalie was K. Schmeichel which is young and good enough for the prem ( or at least not worse than any other keeper I could attract with my rep. ). I also had bentley on the right that was terrible so I sent him straight back to tottenham reserves..
But yeah I guess I had too much hope in players like gallagher, beckford, konchesky or king which I now assume were just average championship players..

 

[Flaphead]

And to be honest I'm not sure what was actually the problem with the 4-4-2 ( whereas about the 4-2-4 you are probably right ) since sometimes I got hints from the assistant saying like "we're dominating, good passing and stuff, we just miss goal etc etc." but still I was'nt able to score but still kept conceding on set-pieces, counter and other frustrating situations
I'm thinking that probably the transfers were not good enough but if you look from my point of view I just took some ( supposedly ) better players for every role, spending almost the same amount for defense, midfield, wingers and strikers..it looked pretty balanced to me and I did'nt really wanted to change all my regulars since the year before they were so brilliant!

 

[Flaphead]

TBH were your tactics made in an older version of FM? I downloaded them but for some reason they don't show you player roles and stuff, noobish question I know, but I take advantage now that I'm sure I got your attention
ps. I also tried for something like 10 matches Raikan's tactic for underdogs: I was able to beat Reading 6-1 but that's it, lost most of the others

 

[TheBetterHalf]

TBH were your tactics made in an older version of FM? I downloaded them but for some reason they don't show you player roles and stuff, noobish question I know, but I take advantage now that I'm sure I got your attention
ps. I also tried for something like 10 matches Raikan's tactic for underdogs: I was able to beat Reading 6-1 but that's it, lost most of the others

They are made with 12.2.2 but most of my uploaded tactics are made in "Classic mode". They work the same way as if one would tweak the sliders using the Tactic Creator. In Classic mode, no roles, duties, strategy etc are visible