For the control tactic, I use:
Retain Possession, Shorter Passing, Work Ball into Box, Float Crosses/Drill Crosses (depending on FW), Lower Tempo
For the Counter, I use:
More Direct Passing, Pump Ball into Box, Exploit the Middle, Play Narrower, Drop Deeper, Hassle Opponents, Use Tighter Marking, Higher Tempo, Be more Disciplined
I got destroyed in the last game by using that 4-1-1-3-1 tactic, so that's gone. I can win some games, but they're usually narrow wins.
First of, when you want to retain posession, best option is to play narrow, which will keep your team closer to each other, your team will keep better shape and be able to contain fast counters of opposition. Further more, if you want to control possesion, you may opt to have player as your main playmaker in more defensive position, such as MC, or DM, since he will have more ball in possesion.
Further more, if you want to play possesion game, real good treath for your playmaker wolud be to switch sides (Likes to switch ball to the other side) and I would recomend to set your fulbacks on stay wider, in order to get some width in your attack and avoid playing on only one side of pitch.
Also, playing possesion game requires all players to be involved in build up play, so it would be good to have your wingers set on INF , since they will sit narrower and be more included in attack build up, and your striker sould not be poacher, since he will not for certanly be usefull in this setting, since he will lack space to exploite, if you play correctly possesion game. So Treq, F9, DLF would be real good choices.
For the Counter, I use:
More Direct Passing, Pump Ball into Box, Exploit the Middle, Play Narrower, Drop Deeper, Hassle Opponents, Use Tighter Marking, Higher Tempo, Be more Disciplined
I got destroyed in the last game by using that 4-1-1-3-1 tactic, so that's gone. I can win some games, but they're usually narrow wins.
Here you have problem.
Setting you choose will stretch your team and create lot of space for your opponenet to exploit. Further more, you will be, for certain, in most of times with very low possesion.There is also problem with choosing your player types, since, for example, Your LCB has been set as CB on cover duty. When you put cb on cover, he will drop deeper and cover any potential mistakes of his teamates. Now, it would be good option to use him as centraly positioned, but not on left or right side. Especially it is not good option since you have set your wb to very attacking role, and if your full back goes forward, and your cm goes also forward, and your cb drop deeper, you leave acres of space for opponent to exploit.
With this being said, my proposal to you wolud be:
When you play counter, you have to force your opponent mistakes, not to create them.You want to have space that you can exploit, not to create one for opponent. So Hassle opponent is not usifull option, becouse it will break your defensive shape and leave space. Also, you do not want to use tighter marking, since your players will follow more closely opponent, and this this will create space for him. Also, it will be problem when you start counter, since your players will be to close to your players and you will have problem to even start counter properly.
Then, regarding playing philosophy-
http://www.guidetofootballmanager.com/tactics/team-instructions/mentality
Read this, it will be usefull to understand what you are supposed to do.
Basecaly, it said (and I can confirm this) that your players will be very attacking individual mentality upon winning the ball. So they will try to exploit possible space that opponent left for you. But if there is nothing to exploit, with direct passing and narrow play and higher tempo, it will be recepie for disaster. Your defensive lines will be broken, since your players will drop in space that is left, your direct passing will not work since You do not have target man (not as rolle, but as option) to start up a counter. Poacher is very good option for this philosophy, but some other options in selectiong roles are not.
So what you want to do is to create several layers of attack when you do have ball, you want to have one flocal point of attack that will make himself available to first pas from defence and you want him to be high up the field when you win the ball. So since you want to play with AMC and STC, you have two option - first, you can leave your STC as main scoring treath, but your AMC should be Treq. He will stay higher up the field and will be in hole by defoult. And he is also creative player that can triger attack start. Other option is TM for your striker and SS or TREQ as your AMC. Either way, here your main scorrer will be AMC and main assist man will be FC.
Now, about creating layers. Sometimes, you will have troubles to use first option pass from amc to fc or vise versa. Now you want to have other options in attack, but you dont want them high up the field to early, since your players may option to use more safe solution before direct pass to your main goalscoring treath. So your fullbacks should not be CWBA, since they will overcomit to offence and basicaly act as winger, ond line of oppoenet defence. So I would suggest to set them on WB with support duty, as they will come from deep and offer width if your main option fo passing trough opponenet deffence does not go trough, so you wold not waste possesion practicaly imidiately.
Now, regarding your defensive work, when you set your line to be deep, and when you set one CB to cover duty, this basecally mean that your opponent will have much more space behind your back three then it supposed to in deep line setting. This is because your cb will dropp slightly deeper then your other two cb-s who will hold defensive line. Now If you want them to be more agressive, you should set them to stoper duty. IF not, I would suggest to set them as CB-def as they tend to hold the line much better and not to drop to deep in your penalty area. You might see that even though you did not chose to play offside, you will cought opponent in offside much more.
If you do not want to keep your defenders in line, then you should go for stoper rather then to cover duty. However, if you do want to have one CB on cover duty, you should not tell your other CB -s to hold line, since you will have situation that only one player is defending while other two are just hold line and do nothing. Also, you may want to change role for your DMC, since Ahncor man role is to cover any empty space between defence and midfield and if you chose not to have your defenders hold line, he will be usless. So If you do want one of your defenders to have cover duty, I would suggest to have him on centraly positioned CB and other two should be stopers, so they can cover wings and stop opponent for using too much space on wing. This way, you will have always two players ready to receive crosses and one that is closing players that crossing. In this setting, you could change your DMC-s rolle in to ball winnging midfielder since he will be more agresive and he will drow opponent further from your penalty area, and as well, he will give your other, more offensive players to drop back in defence.
Now, final remark. You can use direct passing in this setting, but in my expiriance it is not very good option, since most of your counter attack will break down and you will have problems on defence due to lines breakdown. It can work better with better players, but it may never be perfect. Whole philosophy of counter is based on idea of free space that opponent may leave, but if you do not keep enaugh possesion (in my oppinion, 45% is good, anything less is bad), you will have trouble with your player fitness and eventualy your defence will break down. Now, I prefere to play low tempo, short passign game when I am using counter attack. It may sound crazy, but it works. It is however very important to have at least one player that is alowed to send more direct balls forward, and all others should be set on fewer risky passes.
As text I left you here says, upon winning the ball, your players will be more aggressive, so they will look to send quick ball to your target man (not role, but as I said, flocal point of attack), and then get further forward. If this first pass is not trough, you will have option of resting your defence by keeping the ball for while. Also, as your tactic become more fluid, you will see that as you keep ball for longer period, your opponent will be driven to press you more, and this will create space for one or more players that you given permission to send more direct ball, to send ball to your two attacking option and triger another counter, even though you had possesion for while. This is because you drown opponent to stand to high up the field and you have, with your possesion game, created space for new counter.
Hope this will help...