Roma frustration

[duca015]

Well, I have been trying to play with Roma for past couple of weeks, and failed miserably. I have no idea how to play them. Neither who to bring in to solve problems I have...

First big problem is goalkeeper. He is just terrible, altough he does not have bad ratings, but he is not playing well. Then my fullbacks. I have Maicon and A.Cole, and you would thought I am well set, but this is not the case, they been constatly out of position and almost always miss tackles. Even if they succeed to win ball, they usualy win it by sliding tackle, and ball then ends up in opposition possesion again. Third problem is that I have four central/defensive midfielders. And this is more of problem since dispite them, I am leaking goals like crazy, no metter if I play deffensive, offensive, control or counter.

Then, there are no wingers, the only striker that actually scores is Totti. Others are just useless.

Now, if enyone have tried to play with Roma, I would appriciate any word of advice. Just any, becouse I am out of ideas.

 

[Logorex]

FB's are almost always out of position in FM 2014, lol.

 

[duca015]

Yes, but you have not seen Maicon and Cole...

But this is complete disaster... I win couple games in raw, I do not concide, and then in one game against Inter, I concide 4 goals from corners and freekicks. And afterwords, my defence (and goalkeeper) keeps on pulling their pants down.

I mean, it is just surreal. I have good defenders, good goalkeeper, good DMC-s, and I should not have this much problem in defence. I mean, I did not have these problems with other clubs I tried.

There are few problems that I have, so i can not play like I would like to. I have a very few att. midfielders. And from them, I would not use half of them. Then, my team is very slow in general. So I know I may have problem with my point of view, since I like to force football with fast tranformation, swift attacks. But I also had succsess with retaining possesion tacktics. Now, I can not do anything. It all falls appart in first 10 games, and afterwords, it is disasster.

 

[Nazqa]

I can give you a few little tips as i had one successful season with Roma.
I'm actually in my second season, sitting first with 19 points in 7 games (6W, 1D). First season was amazing, i won league by 10 points with no signings. I also won the italian cup, mostly thanks to a lucky draw (best team i played against was Sampdoria). I'd like to provide some screenshots, but my laptop drank too much coffee this weekend, thanks to my little sis.
Btw, here's what i found out: Roma has a lot of good players, but it's quite hard to make them play as a team. The best way i found to make them play an efficient football was to limit team instructions, and see what they could do.
I played with a 4-2-3-1 for home games, and a 4-2DM-3-1 away (both counter-fluid). The only team instructions were:
-play out of defense
-drop deeper
-hassle opponents
-use offside trap
-lower tempo

The combo drop deeper/offside trap might sound wrong, but i realized it makes my defenders move like a single unit.

Regarding players roles and duties, i'll focus on those that gave you more trouble.
Both FBs are on Attack duties, while the midfield pair is set as DLP-D/CM-S for home games and DLP-D/DM-S for away. This way i always have a holding midfielder to back up my defense; De Rossi was simply unbelievable as a DLP, with ratings above 7,5 and 12 goals across the whole season (maybe with 1 or 2 penalties).
Player instructions i found useful were:
DLP: mark tighter, tackle harder
CM: mark tighter, tackle harder, close down more
FBs: tackle harder, close down more

Avoid using "hold position" for FBs if you need them to support your attack (if they have good mental stats and stamina, you can use "get further forward").
For the CM/DM role, my first choice was Florenzi. He had a tough start, 'cause of the hard training needed to get the most out of him (new position, individual training as BWM to improve his aggression), but he started shining in december and became an absolute monster in the second half of the season.

For the attacking players... just let them do what they do best!
My top scorer was Totti, who played as a striker with Treq role. Destro was my second choice, but played mostly as a Poacher.
Try to abuse Gervinho's pace: if your opponent has a weak FB, put him on that side, set him as a Winger, and ask your team to exploit that flank.

I hope this will be helpful: as a Roma supporter, i wish you the best of luck in your career.
Please forgive any mistake in my writing, i tried my best.

P.S.: this was my first post ever in this forum. time to say "hello everyone!", even if i've been around reading in the past 4 years...

 

[duca015]

Thanx...

I never tried 4-2-3-1... I was trying diamond 4-1-2-1-2, 4-3-2-1, 4-1-2-2-1 with wingers, 3-5-2, 5-3 -2, and at the and, all was disaster...

I will try this, since I also like Roma very much, and I played with them in every FM untill now... But they never been this tough....

 

[duca015]

Just if anyone faces similar problem...

I have triede everything, and I mean everything. I tried every single formation, and with same result - I got sacked by december.

And then, I tried one last time, and succseeded.

Roma has extremly experienced team, strong willed team. If You start as semi profesional, they will have hard time to motivate themselfs. I managed to motivate them with strong hand. First, I warned them every time they had rating below 6,5. Then, I fine them with 1 week wages when they play below 6,2, and below 6, I take them for two weeks. If anyone raise woice, he goes straight to transfer list. And I mean anyone (for example, I put Ljajic, one of my best players and one of youngest, thing I would not do normally). And it all started when I intentionally let them lose 4-0 against Sassuolo, and then fined bunch of them...

After that, they finaly started playing, and in ten games, I won 8 and only played draw with Juventus in Torino and with Fiorentina in Firenca.

Finally...