Need tactical help - Pics and info of current players and tactics included!

[cooper795]

I just got promoted to the Premiership with Southampton in 2 seasons, i.e. straight from League 1 to Championship and Championship straight to Premiership, finishing second in both seasons.

I had some pretty good results in those seasons, in League 1 using a controlling 4-5-1 formation and then in the Championship using a controlling 4-4-2.

However, now in in the Premiership I've had 3 terrible results and in particular the last one, a penalty loss in the second round of the League Cup to League 2 Southend, has set the alarm bells ringing.

So basically, I would like someone who knows what they're talking about to have a quick look over my current tactics and players, to see where I'm suddenly going wrong.

Thanks!

Edit: if you need any more info, just ask!

Tactics:

4-4-2 Controlling:

Here are the players and their roles within the team. I would appreciate it if someone could take a quick look at each 1st team player and reccomend better roles for the players or even a whole new set of tactics for me!

GK - Enyeama

DL - Surman

DC - Stoor

DC - Johnson (C)

DR - Brown

ML - Downing

MC - Schneiderlin

MC - Gobbi

MR - Barazite (Playmaker)

FC - Jo (Target Man)

FC - Bojinov

There we are, I hope for some good advice if you read this far !

Regards

 

[loveangel]

Why don't you try going back to 4-5-1? I think 4-5-1 is a very good formation for playing against better teams, which if you've just been promoted, is practically everybody.

Whatever you do, I would try removing the primary playmaker from Barazite and use either none or use Schneiderlin. I also don't like using the "more roaming" instruction very much, especially with players who don't have great mental attributes, you can really just set the players you trust to roam individually.

I would try to use target man/poacher (or advanced forward) combination with your poacher in the position above your more attacking-minded midfielder (Schneiderlin). Try having your winger beside the defensive-duty midfielder (which would be Gobbi?) as support or put Gobbi as support too.

Imagine how your players will spread out when you have possession- the way you have it now, Schneiderlin will go higher up than Gobbi, but Barazite will go higher still with an attack duty. If you put Barazite on support, then Gobbi will more often have two easier pass options ahead of him, and then you have the target man right there. On the left side, Schneiderlin is going a bit higher up the pitch, with the target man to his right and the winger/attack on his left, and the poacher straight ahead, like two "triangles" or a nice little diamond shape on each side. This is still all applicable to 4-5-1 of course, if you want a ball-winning CM with an advanced playmaker beside him, I make the ball-winner's winger on support duty so he is always there for a pass instead of running from deep too often.

 

[Lukeeggy]

Use 41221 with

Gk,Rb,cb,cb,lb
dm, cm(box2box) cm (adv playmaker attk)
amr inside forward attk aml inside attack stk complete forward

with ur inside forwards they need to have opposite foot on side so amr with left foot aml with right foot so they cut inside and use jo upront on own u can find decent 41221 on here

 

[Mike.]

i'd actually play 4-2-3-1. the double pivot is very hard to break down. give me 5 minutes and ill adjust a 4-2-3-1 for you.

also no offence but your side are not good enough to be playing control as a starting mentality in the prem, remember its gives away bit of space to draw out defensive teams, and your actually giving space to teams who actively looking to attack

 

[phil06]

i'd actually play 4-2-3-1. the double pivot is very hard to break down. give me 5 minutes and ill adjust a 4-2-3-1 for you.

also no offence but your side are not good enough to be playing control as a starting mentality in the prem, remember its gives away bit of space to draw out defensive teams, and your actually giving space to teams who actively looking to attack

I sort of agree with that. For that team a more defensive approach seems appropriate and i wouldn't use a roaming play style nor aggressive tackling (the latter is just a personal preference as for me it always ended with a load of yellow/red cards) and as said by themadsheep, control is good against defensive teams, mostly when you're playing at home and when you're favorites.
A bit more info would help, in particular your advanced team instructions. Also Jô plays best as trequartista, from my experience anyway, not sure about the other players as i've never had them before.

 

[cooper795]

Thanks for ther advice, I'll set a 4-5-1 for now, with a more counter attacking mentality, rather than controlling, and see how it goes !