Tactic help!

[teammfmjamie]

Can someone take a look at this tactic and help me improve it? (4-3-3) Struggling a bit with the team instructions and wondering if I've selected the player roles correctly, too.

Attacking/fluid... I've tried changing to control and even standard but attacking just seems to work the best.

Formation: http://i.imgur.com/OvXbqcT.png

I had a bit of trouble with the roles to begin with, but I found DLP (d) to work fantastically to prevent opposition goals and still provide support higher up as opposed to a standard DM (d/s).

The wingbacks Ive struggled a bit with, I have inside forwards so I chose wingbacks to compensate on the flanks a bit, but then choosing the role that still provided some defensive cover but overall being attack-minded, I went with (s), not sure if that was the correct decision tho.

The box to box role is probably racking up the most goals and assists in the midfield, and just helping everywhere, absolutely amazing.

The playmaker is doing his job and scoring/assisting, too, I found (s) better than (a) tho, just seemed to contribute more overall.
Same with the inside forwards, on (a) they just seemed to shoot all the time when passing could've been the better option, so I switched them to (s) and my right inside forward is absolutely amazing, my left one is assisting but not scoring, so I might test out him as a winger.

I went with a false nine up top, I tried the treq and complete forward but didn't really get any better results and not much team contribution.

Team instructions: http://i.imgur.com/rzOGcZq.png

I've really struggled with this and got a lot of better results with less instructions chosen, Ive tried retain possession and its helped a little bit, but other games I just blanked at 0-0, work ball into the box just screwed over the entire tactic when I tried it, play out of defence seemed to slow the entire game down...

Defensively I'm trying out tighter marking and using the offside trap with a bit of success with the latter, prevent short GK distribution didn't seem to do much tbh.

Tempo wise I've tried both higher/lower but standard seems to work pretty good atm, altho higher tempo worked just as well, but with the players more knackered at the end.

I've also tried player instructions like roam from position, fewer/more risky passes, shoot less/more often...

Any advice on this would be greatly appreciated.

 

[WJ]

The main thing that stands out is that you have no one making runs ahead of play. No one threatens to break the offside trap, receiving through balls or even just stretching the defence. Everyone is on support, which means they all hold their position mostly, to support the ball carrier.

You're comparing a DLP/D to a DM/S where they're not even close to doing the same job. A defend duty stays back; a support duty doesn't.

Overall, it just seems like you're 'trying' instructions without a plan of what you actually want to do. Get the plan first and the roles and instructions will be much easier.

 

[teammfmjamie]

Ive never seen the point of tika taka tbh, a lot of it seems to be passing for passing sake.

If I had to compare to a side - Id say Luis's Barca, free flowing team oriented attacking football.

 

[Igneos79]

Ive never seen the point of tika taka tbh, a lot of it seems to be passing for passing sake.

If I had to compare to a side - Id say Luis's Barca, free flowing team oriented attacking football.

Well, as you can see, I use 2 IFa an F9, and all three of them feature vision and finishing, meaning they are supposed to create chances for themselves and others, making this a lethal system if you have proper players. Not that Luis's Barca is any different. Any well designed system can work, and I think you can even play very fluid attacking or total football if you want, with any kind of team, if you have players for it and know how to design the system.

 

[WJ]

That's why you don't just guess-build tactics. It doesn't fit their vision at all. Help him create how HE wants to play.

 

[teammfmjamie]

I tried inside forwards on attack and they just seemed less team oriented, when on support they played more as a unit and still scored and/or assisted about once a game or more.

Would a roaming playmaker instead of an AP (s) help do you think?

 

[WJ]

You haven't even mentioned what the issues are?

 

[Conflictinbanno]

All you would find with a Roaming Playmaker over Advanced is that he will not always be looking for space in the final third, I'd imagine the roaming playmaker will almost literally just try to find space anywhere on the pitch to dictate from, so you'd probably find him dropping even deeper. With everyone on Support though I'd imagine your team will try to constantly keep the ball and only shoot when absolutely possible, which is probably why on the Attacking mentality a few people are possibly getting forward a bit more rather than all sitting in a position to receive it.

On support you would see them work as a unit as everyone is trying to help each other. On the attack duty they will be more inclined to cut in and carve out a shot or late pass in the box. They may try more longer shots due to a PPM though and I'm not sure of this but the IF/A duty may have Shoot More Often automatically selected.

I'll be honest though, when reading that, I originally thought you were trying to play the Pep/Barca way as everyone is on Support. Then again to play that way, you're going to need extremely talented players!

 

[teammfmjamie]

I much prefer the current Barca atm tbh, Neymar staying on the flanks, Messi cutting in, Suarez tracking back and providing assists...

My main issue Im having is Im having 25+ shots a game but mostly coming from outside of the box/long shots, even with stuff like work ball into the box and testing out shoot less often player instructions.

 

[Conflictinbanno]

It's hard to say without seeing the matches but it could be the AI are getting people all behind the ball and defending on the edge of the area so they have no choice but to shoot from distance. If you had say one of your Inside Forwards on Attack then they will try to cut inside and make a run beyond that defender and into the box. While if you have a Winger on Attack he should try to beat his man and get to the byline. They should still work as a unit though, they are just more likely to run beyond the striker then, on support they will all be in a line with each other. So your False 9 won't have that pass into the area to assist someone.

 

[WJ]

I much prefer the current Barca atm tbh, Neymar staying on the flanks, Messi cutting in, Suarez tracking back and providing assists...

My main issue Im having is Im having 25+ shots a game but mostly coming from outside of the box/long shots, even with stuff like work ball into the box and testing out shoot less often player instructions.

It's because of what I said in the first post. Your entire team is static. There's not much movement, so players tend to shoot as they don't have passing options ahead of them.

 

[teammfmjamie]

It's because of what I said in the first post. Your entire team is static. There's not much movement, so players tend to shoot as they don't have passing options ahead of them.

So changing the AP and left inside forward (in response to the other post - left winger...?) to attack then?

 

[WJ]

It depends how you want to play, but you need Attack duties.

More importantly, you need to figure out how you want to play. Where and how you're going to create space, who's running into it, etc. Have you read through my Starting at a new Club thread? In there I created a vision of how I wanted to play and I kept mentioning space and runners. You need something similar, imo of course.

 

[JohnR55]

I would personally change the left inside forward to winger (a) , the advanced playmaker to central midfielder (a), and the right wing back from (s) to (a). However as WJ says it depends on your style of play and how you see your team playing