Newbie here. My team can't finish their chances.

[3delmann]

Hey guys, I'm a FM newbie who's having problems with getting my team to finish their chances.

Because I'm new to this game, I decided to pick Shakhtar Donetsk since they're a great team in an easy league. I read up a lot on tactics and what to use and eventually ended up with a 3-6-1 focused on possession and quick passes. While it worked well, I conceded almost every game and ended up drawing when I should have won. So I recently switched to 5-4-1 (also focused on possession and quick passes). For the first couple of matches my team did great. If they conceded, it was only by one goal, which was much better than before. But as time went on my team found it harder to score and my players stopped passing in quick phases like before despite dominating in possession, shots and passes. I have no idea why this is happening but I fear it may harm my team's position in the league if we can't finish. Can anyone help me figure out why this is happening?

The stats from my most recent game
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My current tactic
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Team instructions
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[GodCubed]

Firstly, well done for providing pictures with your question! Goodness knows if most people did it we'd be able to help more often.

The very first thing you need to do is use the 'Analysis' tab after a match to look at where the shots are being taken from. If they're being taken from a long way out, then it could be a systematic problem. Generally with high tempo tactics the players shoot more often, and sometimes from worse position, because asking them to play a higher tempo encourages them to get as many shots off as possible, and also reduces the amount of time they can make a decision in.

If they're not shooting from far out, then it's possible that it's a player problem. Facundo Ferreyra is a good finisher, but if I remember correctly he's relatively selfish (please correct me if I'm wrong) and thus more liable to shoot instead of pass to a better placed player. Or it could well be that he's just not clinical enough. Check, and see.

As an aside, if you want to play possession-based short passing football, it's probably an idea to lower your tempo quite a bit. Higher tempo suits faster, long passing playstyles. Likewise, telling your players to work the ball into the box and retain possession as well as 'run at defence' is slightly confusing to them.