Breaking Down 4-1-4-1?

I'm going along just fine playing against most formations - even those 4-1-3-1 which I think seem harder to play against, although when I meet 4-1-4-1 - I just can't break it down.

Is anyone else suffering from this or have a small tip? I play on full match mode and change my tactics to man mark anyone I see causing a threat to me, just letting you know incase all the intense man marking has something to do with my team finding there own space to play in.

Not only that, I seem to get caught on the counter with that one striker even though I'm marking him out the game!

What is your formation? Does your assistant have any pre match advices?

What formation do you play?

If it's 4-1-4-1 as in 1 DMC and 1 FC, then I think your marking could have something to do with it. Imagine this irl - you're suffocated in the midfield and the wide midfielders are tracking back, allowing the FBs to cover the channels. The moment the opposition get the ball, your players mark their men and are pulled into your opposing team's shape. Against a 4-1-4-1 I would concentrate on playing a staggered CB pairing and marking the FC tightly so that there's no outlet for long balls, and then exploiting the flanks and patiently trying to control the game. If you're worried about the break down the middle (i.e. if they've got a good attacking MC), play with a DMC (this will also stop their FC from dropping deeper to hold up the ball), if they're strong on the wings play with defensive FBs. If you can, tell your FBs to come up and support the attack, it will allow your wide mids / wingers to push in and support the midfield and keep the pressure on. I would put the attacking mentality on Std, with Work Ball Into Box and Pass to Feet.

And zonal rather than man marking.

play 10-0-0 on contain. and play for the draw. thatl teach them for being boring !

take the risk, go man for man so basically 4-2-3-1, press all over the pitch....use wing backs not full backs and just have a high line, quick tempo, plenty of width and attack, attack, attack.

The main thing to exploit is your own full-back areas - there is a lot of space there now that there is only one forward and two deep side-midfielders, so a staggered centre-back pairing is a good idea. You can also get away with playing deep because you isolate the opposition centre-forward even further, so you can promote more movement by playing narrow and deep with more runs between the 4 midfielders.

Also, be sure to take the wingers out of the game - the last thing you need is a good cross into the lone striker, which is about as efficient as you can get (two players against 4 defenders and maybe a midfielder).

The main thing to exploit is your own full-back areas - there is a lot of space there now that there is only one forward and two deep side-midfielders, so a staggered centre-back pairing is a good idea. You can also get away with playing deep because you isolate the opposition centre-back even further, so you can promote more movement by playing narrow and deep with more runs between the 4 midfielders.

Also, be sure to take the wingers out of the game - the last thing you need is a good cross into the lone striker, which is about as efficient as you can get (two players against 4 defenders and maybe a midfielder).

I had thought about playing deeper to draw them out, playing slow and short, thanks for all the advice so far. I\m waiting on the patch before starting a new game