That's vague. HOW are they going to exploit the flanks? You've now gone from Wide Midfielders to Wingers. Why? What do you actually want/need them to do?
The idea is, we get the ball, we pass it to the creative midfielder who sends the ball to one of the wingers. The winger runs at defence and crosses. Inside the box we'll have a Af/tm/poacher (the role that suites better, i don't care).
This is the first attacking plan, but i want to have another. Here is where my creative striker should be involved. We get the ball, we pass it to creative midfielder linked with my creative striker. Then he can send the ball to the flanks/pass the ball to the other striker or whatever.
Finally, we should have a third plan. Long balls to Af/tm/poacher who is supposed to be able to open space
This is how i've understood simple footbal and didn't explained more because i assumed itl:
1. Try to exploit the flanks
2. Exploit a talented striker
3. Use a big striker with direct football. Depending on how is the match and the specific circumstances, players must choose.
4. Whatever the plan is, pass the ball to the creative midfielder, as soon as posible, who will decide flanks/talented strikter/big man
5. Don't conceed chances

It hasn't. The formation, yes. This way? No. Traditionally, the 442 is attacking down the wings and quite direct. Yours isn't at all. That's not saying it can't work, but you're not direct and you don't have wingers bombing down the line.

Ok. I don't understand why. What roles, duties, TI or whatever i've selected wrong? Attacking down the wings, i have two wings. My passes are not direct, but neither short: combination.
You're setting up as if you want to play a sort of possession style.
What orders i set as if i wanted to play possession?

And the most important: I want solid defence. I don't care if i sacrifice some attacking, but i don't want to conceed chances. 1-0 is ok.

According to this plan, what roles or duties are wrong if i set:

gk,
fb-su cd-de cd-de fb-su
w-su cm-de dlp-su w-su
tm-at false9-su

Let's fix roles and duties first, then we'll talk about TI, PI and OI






 
Attacking wingers, that's what. Traditionally, they have Attack duties in FM terms as they (or at least one does) make aggressive runs forward, get the ball, dribble at the fullback, beat him and cross.

Edit: Actually, in FM terms, there is usually 1 Attack duty per flank.
 
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Attacking wingers, that's what. Traditionally, they have Attack duties in FM terms as they (or at least one does) make aggressive runs forward, get the ball, dribble at the fullback, beat him and cross.

Edit: Actually, in FM terms, there is usually 1 Attack duty per flank.

Yes, but if i set attacking wingers, they don't help enough defense and remember the most important are clean sheets.
My defense is already a disaster so i can't weaken it more.
 
Yes, but if i set attacking wingers, they don't help enough defense and remember the most important are clean sheets.
My defense is already a disaster so i can't weaken it more.
At ML/MR, they defend quite deep? It's only at AML/AMR that they (rightly) stay forward. The formation is largely your defensive shape. Have you looked at how ML/MR midfielders defend?
 
I set this tactic finally:

gk
fb-su cd-de cd-de fb-su
w-at cm-de dlp-su w-at
tm-su false9-su

No TI no OI
PI: to TM hold position. I want him to stay in the middle to be the target of long balls. Move in channels to come deep. Man Marking dm to help midfield (they play 4-1-2-2-1 so we are outnumbered)
GK PI distribute to playmaker.

Issues i found:
- Opponent starts short passing near to my box (mainly in the middle). I don't know how is possible because i have my 2 cd, cm-de and dlp-su. I wonder if i set slighlty higher defense this would improve (maybe less space between defense and midfield altough i don't see this supposed space). I conceed a lot of shots near the box. Not inside (or not usually) because all my players are inside the box, so there is no space.
- My attacking is awful. I said i have 3 plans. The only one the is half working is long balls to tm. I have no passing options, my false9 is wide but not deep, passing is inacurate, my w-at are outnumbered (2 vs 1 all time).
-My stupidness. While watching the game i though:
a) My tm (balotelli. I know it's not the best idea,i want to place there luiz adriano but he is injured) is doing good. Poor guy, he is all isolated, and his teammates are sending long and impossible balls but he is able, sometimes, to control it and pass to a midfielder. Well, his rating was 6.7
b) My w-at are doing nothing, playing very bad. The right one (bonaventura) was really doing bad (6.6) but the left one (suso) had 7.5!!! He was doing NOTHING.
c) My false9(cerci. I know is not the best idea, but bacca is injured) is playing very bad. He is not touching the ball, and when receives he just losses it. Well, he had a 6.8 rating, not very good, but BETTER than my poor tm.

What do you think i should do?
I post the game.
 
Next match i change:
-slightly higher defense to reduce space between defense and midfield
- Exploit flanks to involve more wings
- DLF-su instead of False9. I set PI move into channels and hold positions for him to be deep and not wide
- short passing. More combination. We had 0 and flanks are supposed to be exploted. Also long balls are guaranteed wiht TM
- Bacca Luiz adriano strikers

Issues:
- wings are more involved but come to the middle. Don't know why.
- Problems defending flanks. Maybe we are too narrow.
- Bacca is deeper but this results in not much.
- Gk never distributes to playmaker
- Inaccurate passes, even easy ones.
- Losing ball all time.
- Combinative passing improved a lot, despite all.
- We also have problems in the middle of the defense. Maybe because my cm-de lor rating 6.8
- We are not exploiting flanks.
 
- Opponent starts short passing near to my box (mainly in the middle). I don't know how is possible because i have my 2 cd, cm-de and dlp-su. I wonder if i set slighlty higher defense this would improve (maybe less space between defense and midfield altough i don't see this supposed space). I conceed a lot of shots near the box. Not inside (or not usually) because all my players are inside the box, so there is no space.

Watch the game and the statistics. Who are their creative force? Put a man on them. Are you wingers cooperating in the defensive positioning. Maybe one of them could tightly mark their creative force?

- My attacking is awful. I said i have 3 plans. The only one the is half working is long balls to tm. I have no passing options, my false9 is wide but not deep, passing is inacurate, my w-at are outnumbered (2 vs 1 all time).

Change something. If your wingers 2 against 1, someone must have space. Exploit it.

-My stupidness. While watching the game i though:
a) My tm (balotelli. I know it's not the best idea,i want to place there luiz adriano but he is injured) is doing good. Poor guy, he is all isolated, and his teammates are sending long and impossible balls but he is able, sometimes, to control it and pass to a midfielder. Well, his rating was 6.7
b) My w-at are doing nothing, playing very bad. The right one (bonaventura) was really doing bad (6.6) but the left one (suso) had 7.5!!! He was doing NOTHING.
c) My false9(cerci. I know is not the best idea, but bacca is injured) is playing very bad. He is not touching the ball, and when receives he just losses it. Well, he had a 6.8 rating, not very good, but BETTER than my poor tm.

I did not watch the game, but one question arises. In my world, a False 9'er is only meant to be played alone in front! I simply cannot see any argument for playing a False 9 to be played together with a static striker such as your TM. The False 9'er i meant to drag the defender away from his line, in order to make space for a Inside Forward to attack this open space. But which open space is there to attack, if Balotelli is already idling his lazy end there already? Try another role for him.
What exactly are you trying to achieve? Room for your wingers to cross it to Balotelli, if he is awake? Then you might want to at least try to attack a little bit more in one of the sides (do both of your fullbacks play Tony Hibbert-style, or could one of them attack in potentially an overlap?).

But then again, I cannot watch the replay right now - so I am only guessing on what could have went wrong.

Best of luck with your game.
 
Thanks for your advice.

The problem is that you are giving me advices for one concret match but i have a general problem. I am consistently losing.

About the 2vs1: yes somebody has space. MY FB who is back and MUST be back i want him there, no counters. I don't want to overlap (at least not usually),this is not part of my plan because it could result in weaken defense and i want clean sheets.

I changed my false9 to dlf and i agree with you: false9 is meant to be played alone. But this is fm world where i don't see connections with real world so anything can happen (for sure this is my fault, connections are supposed to exist).

One final question: Do i need to be tweaking my tactic every match? Are not my players intelligent enough to know how to play most of the matches?
 
From post 86 I played another game and changed:

- From exploting the flanks to clear the ball to flanks. We were not exploiting flanks and playing two much short passing. This order allows us to exploit flanks and provides some directness in passing.

- Width fairly wide. To defend better flanks.

- Cm-de. PI: tackle harder, mark tighter. TO see if he starts defending better.

Issues:

- More or less the same everything.
- Big problems defending flanks (crosses)
- big problems defending in the middle (short passing combinations)
- Exploiting more the flanks attacking.
- Attacking disaster. Only a few crosses.
- Wings to narrow (attacking and defense)
- Defense disaster. Conceeding a lot of chances.

Tomorrow more...
 
A false 9 doesn't have to be alone up front. He's a striker that drops deep (pulling defenders), runs with the ball and either take shots or feeds runners. It doesn't have to be an inside forward, just as long as there are runners to feed. IIRC, he doesn't have Hold Up Ball enabled, so he's not going to wait around. The striker next to him is also on support, so there's no one to feed but the winger on his side. You have 2 wingers now, who will bomb down the line, take on a fullback and cross... to who? Both strikers drop deep?

You don't have to watch the matches to see that the plan doesn't make sense.

I don't see what Mentality you're using, but are you happy with Standard? I use a 442 at times myself and I see that that extra level of risk by going Control or Attacking helps to get the aggressiveness with passes as more often that not you're outnumbered in the middle.
 
I'm not going to set control or attacking because i'm conceeding enough already.

You are giving me advices about attacking and i'm not interested in attacking. I'm scoring enough. I don't want to conceed.
Clean sheets. No conceeding. 0 goals.

My problem is defense. I'm scoring enough. 1-0 is ok. Can i do that with a flat 442? In real life it is possible. In fm?

I am scoring in almost every match. 1 or 2 goals. I'm scoring enough. I don't care if my football is not beatiful. 1-0 target result.

My "standard" result is 1-1. Of course this is not enough. Something is wrong. To fix it you can
a) try to score more so my "standard" result becomes 2-1 or 3-1
b) try to conceed less so my "standard" result becomes 1-0.

I choose b).

Again: what's wrong with my tactic to be conceeding (chances not only goals) so much?
 
You saying that leads me to ask one thing: What is Mentality? Define it.

You're the one who kept on saying it's a "standard" 442. It isn't. That's all I was getting at.

Edit: by the way, 2 matches. 1 ended 1-1, the other 2-0. It's not that bad.
 
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They didn't score because i was very lucky. They had 2 or 3 ccc and lots of shots.

With this stats i will end the season with around 30 goals conceeded. That's too much. I need less than 20. I don't care if i score only 40.

Mentality is standard. I don't mind to change it to counter.

I don't understand: why it is not a standard 442?
 
I don't understand: why it is not a standard 442?
I've told you already (recently too!) and I cba to repeat it all again.

Do you see patterns in how you concede? Certain passages of play? Certain times of the match? etc?
 
No, I said it a lot of times. No pattern. Everywhere, anytime. Flanks, crosses, short combinations, set pieces. No pattern.

I already explained it.

The worst is not conceeding goals. The worst is conceeding chances. I'm not conceeding a lot because the opponents are ****. When i play against a good team i usually conceed at least 3 goals, 4 or 5 ccc, 20-30 shots.

Sorry but we are going on circles and i see no progress.

Edit: OF COURSE, there is one pattern. They score when they need it. I mean, if i play against chievo at home they play very deep and defensive. If i score then they start to attack more (they need to score). That's when i conceed.
If i play against lazio away, they easily score 1 or 2 goals because they start the match attacking. Then they get more defensive so i just conceed another goal (maybe 2) in the other 80 minutes of the match,
 
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As basic as the AI is, even it thinks. Even it will think "dangerous playmaker, let's tight mark and hard tackle" or "don't give this winger space. Close down and show to weaker foot." It thinks and it makes changes. It scores a goal and at some point will protect it. It needs a goal and like Chievo did, they went more attacking in the 60th. You have an okay base tactic. Now start thinking. Adapt.
 
Ok. Then, i must be tweaking my tactic every match and during the match?
 
No? If you see an issue, do something about it? Some of this stuff you can do without even thinking much!?! Get to 65-70-ish minutes and 1-0 up. Switch to a counter attacking tactic that is more stable in defence. Etc.
 
I'm not that stupid. Of course i'm doing this.

We are at the same point than in post 34. Take a look.

My tactic is awful because it is mainly the same than in post 34 and i am consistently losing, consistently conceeding, consistently not scoring and consistently sacked.

I experienced no change. The only problem is that you are talented to play this game and i'm not. You see things that i don't. And maybe i don't want to pay attention to that. I want to play fm the way i used to play it the last 10 years. It is not possible anymore.

Do you feel this change from fm15? Last year i set a 4-2-3-1 and it worked quite easy. I won champions with milan like 10 times.
 
FM15 was far too easy because counter attacking was **** and AI managers far too defensive.
 
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