Why have i stopped creating chances and playing well?

[roryc244]

I have played with Peterborough for 5 seasons now, double back to back promotions, 2 years of survival by the skin of my teeth and then finished 4th the next season. Every year has been the same formation (I cannot post screenshots due to administrators as its my first post) - 4-2-3-1. Over the last 15 games or so, my team are nit playing well. We even lost 7-3 to Spurs away. Away form has always been an issue with the tactic, but I'm usually incredible at home. However, even against relegation threatened sides I'm only having 4-8 shots on target out of a potential 20-25 and I'm now starting to have less and less shots, my players are passing it to the opposition for no reason and its very frustrating.

Mentality = attacking Team shape = v. fluid

GK (D) Butland
CWB (A) CD (D) CD (D) CWB (A) Wisdom Regen McNair Obita
CM (D) CM (S) Sydorchuk Samper
IF (A) CAM (AP) IF (A) Moses Lingard Ferreira Carrasco
CF (S) Clough

Instructions: Retain possession, shorter passing, pass into space, work ball into box, play out of defence, hit early crosses, whipped crosses, run at defence, exploit the flanks, play wider, drop deeper, close down more, get stuck in, stay on feet, use tighter marking, prevent short GK distribution, higher tempo, be more expressive

I don't mind being leaky at the back, I'm always the highest scorers in the division, with several 4-4 draws a season and an average home win by 3/4 goals.

PLEASE HELP SAVE MY SEASON. Im in 6th with an aim of top 4 was but 2nd a month and a half ago. I need a tactic to beat teams away from home and also i never beat big teams, even if they're underperforming, e.g. Chelsea in 12th or City in 8th.

 

[roryc244]

The angel emoticons represent attack

 

[NonLeagueHero]

Without looking at your tactic file and stats of the playing squad in great detail it will be difficult to pick out any tactical matters. How are you approaching team talks? As well as tweaking your tactics over the season you need to adjust your team talks. I tend to find that as soon as the team has achieved the target set at the start of the season (or can no longer achieve it) I need to change my approach in the team talks. What you change it to will be dependent on the player personalities. I'd also encourage you to drop any under performing players, lack of form and morale from a key position can have a big impact on the performance of the team.

From a cursory glance at your tactics I would say it is very contradictory. You have very fluid team shape and being more expressive while being totally prescriptive in what you want them to do.

If I was working with this tactic I would make a few tweaks and see how they run. I would remove the play wider instruction as you are using IFs who are more accustomed to narrow play. By the looks of it you are weak defensively so I would adjust your wing backs to full backs on support or defensive instructions - especially against teams with big pitches, fast wingers or away from home. I would also lose either exploiting the flanks & wide play or drop deep - this is making a whole lot of space in the middle of the park where good passing teams will exploit. If the Clough up front is Zac Clough then I would definitely change the wide instructions as he's a right short-ar$e so will be better off receiving the ball from a narrow tactic.

You are also playing with tactics for high tempo, counter attacking wing play while shackling the players to short passing. Unless you've got top top players this won't be hugely effective.

I appreciate you saying that you don't mind being leaky at the back but if you want to get to the next level you will have to address it. My own personal experience has been that a strong defence is key to top level success, I tend to play slow, possession hungry football but with a high defensive line and high pressing to force the opposition into mistakes. But, if I am playing someone very good or with very quick strikers I switch to a higher tempo counter attacking formation with a deep defensive line to negate that threat.

Can't say for certain if any of that will work as you will need to go trial and error on it but that is what I would do if I was in your situation. Hope it helps!