Arsenal 4 2 3 1 attacking style play

Hi so one of the admins in the feedback section has asked me to share my tactics and hopefully I can get some help from you guys as they why I can't score any goals

I've done so well on fm 13 won champions league, premier league and league cup but I'm finding this game really difficult to play

my tactics (I would like to play quick & offensive attacking style of play)

my team instructions (as you can tell I need some more help here) is too many instructions good or bad?

My Problem: The only problem that I am having is that whenever my striker is in front of goal and inside the box the goalkeeper always seems to save his shot, this happens so many times even when my left winger is inside the area and has a easy chance to score the keeper manages to save his shot

my other problem that I am having is that even when I instruct some of my players especially those in defensive position to shoot less they still keep shooting from long ranges

There's a lot of responsibility on Giroud's shoulders there. The setup is quite imbalanced with just one Attacking Duty and no real movement from front to back

Giroud is being asked to Hold The Ball Up, bring players into play, but he isn't really getting much support in the box so is possibly looking for options and then having to go alone.

Have you many Player Instructions set?

This guide is very handy as a Starter For Ten, and may give you some food for thought:

http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/366111-How-to-Play-FM14-A-Twelve-Step-Guide

Players shooting when instructed not to will usually be due to a PPM, or because they have no alternative because all passing avenues are blocked.

For what it's worth I wouldn't want to play the offside trap with a slow defender like Mertesacker. Secondly, my experience of a few starts with the beta is that fluid doesn't always work with Arsenal, even if we think it ought! Thirdly I like more control than 'automatic' gives. I set my full backs on support usually and then vary it for the opposition or situation. I am sure RTH is right that Giroud is isolated without help and outnumbered, therefore consider giving at least one of your wingers an attack instruction. There are lots of ways to plat this, but I also find Giroud works well as a deep lying forward as his strengths in bringing others into play are not as isolated as when set as a target man. Hope this helps.

yeah after I read RTH's post I gave my wingers an attacking instructions and that has worked well with podolski a lot more through balls and with Walcott/Chamberlain on the right hand side a lot more crosses

but I'm still having a problem with Giroud he was one on one with a defender, he got past the defender then he took a shot the goalkeeper saved it then the ball goes loose then he picks up the ball open goal, what does he do? he misses. Chamberlain excellent cross, plenty of space great opportunity what does Giroud do? Heads it over the bar

Podolski's got the ball in the area passes to Giroud plenty of space what does Giroud do, he misses.

I honestly don't know what it is with this game when I was playing fm 13 I always felt like my tactics and instructions made a big difference but with this game he just seems like the game has already figured out before the match starts whether your going to lose or not. anyways will take some of your advice hopefully I can make some improvements otherwise this should go into the bug section.

Giroud's confidence may be suffering from the poor form caused by the poor system to start with. Should get better really.

There's a lot of responsibility on Giroud's shoulders there. The setup is quite imbalanced with just one Attacking Duty and no real movement from front to back

Giroud is being asked to Hold The Ball Up, bring players into play, but he isn't really getting much support in the box so is possibly looking for options and then having to go alone.

Not trying to nit-pick, but he has 4 players on attacking duty as far as I can tell. The team is set to attacking duty and he has Giroud on Attack, and Gibbs, Sagna & Arteta on Auto duty's (which will be attacking due to the teams instructions).

However, I think the issue is more where the attacking movement is coming from. Obviously with both wingers set to support, you will have no forward runs from them. However with them both being in the AML/AMR positions and the full-backs on attack duty you will probably find you get the full-backs and the wingers bunch up close together in attacking moves, without any of them actually going beyond the oppositions full-back. I would stagger their instructions by perhaps (for example), having the AML as an IF/A, backed-up by a FB/S, and the AMR as a W/S and the full-back as a CWB.

Also, with Arteta being on an attack duty, do you find you are getting overwhelmed in midfield? Have not really used a 4-2-3-1 on FM14 yet, but I know on FM13 it was better to almost have the 2 central midfielders as 'holding' players (CM/D, DLP/D etc).

Not trying to nit-pick, but he has 4 players on attacking duty as far as I can tell. The team is set to attacking duty and he has Giroud on Attack, and Gibbs, Sagna & Arteta on Auto duty's (which will be attacking due to the teams instructions).

Fair point, well spotted and I agree with the need to stagger that movement

In general, I'm not sure why Giroud's finishing would be so wayward.

There's certainly evidence with the ME that when a shot is wayward, it is properly off the scale of waywardness, but the percentage of shots on target and conversion rates of those shots on target are in the right ball park as a whole.

a quick question guys what would you have the back 3 attacking midfielders doing shooting more often/shooting less often and what about Giroud Shooting less often/shooting more often?

the funny thing is that if you start with Real Madrid you automatically get a 4 2 3 1 formation but when you line Arsenal up with a 4 2 3 1 with wingers it comes up as a 4 3 3? << could this be the problem?

I don't think there's any real need to choose Higher Tempo with an Attacking strategy. The tempo is already fairly high.

I honestly don't believe I'm at fault here because I played 5 friendly games against some top teams and I beat them all with big results

as soon as I started my first premier league game my team were unable to score and I even lost to a smaller Portuguese side for my Champions League qualification

.

I am finding this ME much different in approach than 13.

I would change mentality to counter.

Fluidity to rigid.

Shouts I would use retain possession, shorter passing, work ball into box, and exploit flanks.

I don't think it's a tactical issue because I've tried new tactics and a different sort of set up and nothing seems to be working for me right now and it looks like I'm not the only one experiencing this issue hopefully there will be some sort of update that will address this issue

QUOTE=Sam 2748;9155655]It just seems to be certain games I'm destined to lose. At the moment if I lose or draw to clubs like this I'm replaying them. Not to cheat and win but to get a better understanding of how to counter certain situations and I believe this is the best way to learn but against some teams just nothing I do works at all.

A fluid style + attacking mentality means your attacking half is going to be extremely aggressive. Arteta and Khedira are going to be bombing forward while the attacking midfielders are going to opt to stay forward rather than helping with defence. This is going to leave your defence very isolated and vulnerable to counterattacks. On top of that, you've basically set everyone up to just launch balls forward to Giroud. If a team sits deep, they're not going to have much trouble dealing with this, and you're going to give them an endless series of chances to score on the break.