The second season issues. Conceding a lot and not as consistent.

I'm in my second season with Newcastle United and my team has been very inconsistent. One game playing beautiful football and beating FCP 5-1 and another losing to Fulham 2-5 and not being able to even pass the ball one meter(at least that's how it felt). This is already my fifth try with Newcastle. Got sacked thrice already.

Tactic:

-----------SK(S)-----------

WB(S)-CD(D)-CD(D)-FB(A)

-----------DM(D)----------

--------AP(A)-BBM(S)-----

IF(A)------------------IF(S)

------------T(A)-----------

TI:Shorter passing, pass into space, much higher defensive line, hassle, play out on defence, work ball into box, drill crosses.

Control and fluid mentality.

PI: WB(S) and FB(A) to run wide with ball, AP(A) roam from position, IF(A) roam sit narrower and dribble more, T(A) dribble more and IF(S) dribble more shoot less often.

Only changes I made from season one were much higher defensive line instead of push higher up, change to control and fluid from standerd/balanced and change Anchorman to DM. The changes were because I wanted to give my players a bit more creativity and control the game more in terms of possession and hopefully create more quality chances rather then quantity. It worked pretty well in the last few games at the end of the first season and preseason.

Issues I'm facing

1. Inconsistent. Won from FCP 5-1 and Man city 2-0 and Galastery 5-1 but lost to Cardiff 3-0, Stoke 0-1, WBA 0-1(94th main goal), Fulham 2-5, Everton 1-2, Liverpool 2-3 and the worst is Sunderland 0-3. All sides who were worser then my side and ones that I had easily beaten last year. I can accept loses but not if we can't create good chances at all and lose against teams full of very poor morale and bad quality players.

2. Defensive not solid as last year. I'm conceding a lot. I brought in Balenta and a faster Wing back so through balls wouldn't be an issue anymore. But they are still an issue. I know it is a flaw of the high d line but I expected it to happen less when I bring in better and faster defenders.

3. Scoring isn't an issue but its not happening when its needed. My strikers can bang in 5 in an important CL match but they seem to fail every chance against a side who is in the regulating zone? I have a striker with 17 off the ball and 15 finishing.

4. How do I deal with players who complain about under achieving? I'm pretty sure I can't reach what I reached last year anymore and half my team is complaining and I'm sure they will complain more at the end of the year if we don't get CL football again. Already one player who wants to leave the club .

I can't seem to open my game and I'll check later if I can post Screenshots.

It would seem you're playing a very high line and only have one midfielder designated to stopping attacks. Personally I can never get 2 IF's to work , and having an attack duty as the sole front man would make it even harder for them to get involved I would think. I would change BBM to CM-S, make the IF(A) a W(A) and the fullback behind him a FB(S), and make the forward a DLF(S). This should help the attack and support roles balance, where you've basically got 4 1/2 attack now, depending on how you see a WB(S), whereas see 3 attack roles as a decent number for fluidity.

I would also clear most of those shouts until you can decide what you need to tweak, setting those Barcelona shouts can be very detrimental, unless you have Barcelona quality.

Isn't the treq a support role despite the game says its attack? What do you consider as Barcelona quality? I've a very capable hard working team with good passing.

Also about the winger I don't have a good striker with high heading attributes so I don't a winger would work for me.

The Trequartista will drop deep - but look at your central midfield - no players making forward runs into the attack line, and only the IF(A) will do so as well - basically you only have an IF(A) offering a real outlet. You need more help from midfield, or a striker role that can lead the line as well as make space.

A winger would be drilling crosses in your set up or hitting them early, to take advantage of good movement rather than heading. I think a Treq is too unruly rather than offering a consistent outlet up front.

Well I based 90% of my tactic on this thread and thought T(A) was fine, he is doing great for me and the only consistent player in my team: http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/385493-An-Insight-into-the-Modern-433

But I see your point and Im considering a midfield with CM(A)-AP(S) having the CM on the side of my IF(S). I think it would be better attacking but defensively? No more BBM who is running back to help and this worries me a bit since my defense is just bad atm.

EDIT: Scrap that, I remember I tried it before without much succes. New idea: Regista in the DM. DLP(D) and CM(A) in front of him. I have Stefan Johansen with the PPMs comes deep to get ball and tries killer balls often. He should be a good regista. Cabaye as DLP(D) and Sisokko/Anita CM(A)

The TQ is an odd role , it seems to vary how it performs. Sometimes the player seems to be really advanced most of the game, then others they drop deep, I am guessing that with the players instruction to basically find space, it largely depends on where space is appearing. PPM,s have a huge effect also.

Well my treq has the PPM likes to beat offside trap. I have also thought that he would stay up too much and not dropping deep. But with 17 off the ball he is intelligent enough to drop deep. I'm not sure if he does I haven't watched him a lot but he is scoring a lot and I don't bother.I have my backs to run wide with Ball so I hoped there would be more space between the defenders for my IF(A) to run into.

So I changed my tactic to this: http://postimg.org/image/443yb08ql/ No big changes yet I wanted to start small.

And we dominated the whole game and were able to win with a small 1-0. Marten Stekenlenberg had an excellent day so I dont blame my players for that.

http://postimg.org/image/usgqfrmyx/

Bad thing is I don't have any DM's anymore for 2 months+ since both are injured and I don't have someone to replace Cabaye in upcoming matches so this doesn't look good. My T(A) seems to struggle now too. Not doing much but Ill see how it goes. Going fine to far.

Ok lost both my left backs too. Silva out of 3-4 months and Haidara picked up a red card. Well this is gonna be a struggle.

OK so I'm still struggling. After small losses to City, Liverpool and Tottenham, Chelsea. (All by one goal)

I couldn't win from Elfsborg, Southampton, Sunderland, Hull, WHA(3-4 in a really weird game). So I didn't have my hopes high against Chelsea in the capital one final. Played with tired players and won 3-2 somehow. Played much better and won convincingly.

Problems I now have is that I'm conceding even more. No clean sheets whatsoever and my players seem to forget what marking means. Everyone is closing down one player and leaves space behind them. If I tell them to closes down less my ass man complains and of course a lot of chances are being created.

Using something very similar to your formation myself with Newcastle and having great success:

In the first season we won the FA Cup and came second in the league.

Won the domestic treble and reached the quarter finals of the Champions League in the second season.

Now into season three and the league table looks like this:

And my defence is rock solid - my domestic games all season:

Stick with the tactic, the players might take a while to get familiar with it but stick with it mate

Double0Seven - you could do with getting Tavernier overlapping Ben Arfa on the right side more, maybe to a WB(S) so he stays deeper, then overlaps late in the move.

It does look like a solid tactic. I have some small questions

Counter with shorter passing and lower tempo? The games description would suggest something else. Higher tempo and more direct passing I think. Also you have your CM(A) on the same side as the IF(A). I think this would cause some congestion when you are attacking or do you have any PI to avoid this? And what are you experiences with a winger instead of a IF(S)?

@llama3 Yeah I had WB but Tavernier lacks defensive quality so I thought FB would suit him more. I'll get a better RB soon and might consider the change.

Well it seems to be working for me. The IF(a) plays as a second striker, with the CM(a) getting into the box quite often. So although it seems they'd get in each others way, they actually don't.

The IF(s) on the left depends on who I play there. If I play Ince/Shaw, they'll generally play a bit wider due to being left footed and put in more crosses than if I play someone like Barkley or Ward-Prowse who will come inside and almost play as a no.10. Another option I use is Sissoko as a DW(s) in the tougher away games.

I made some changes and noticed a lot of improvements. Defensively was a bit more solid. Conceding less so far. Managed to win Capital one cup and the champions league(yes really). Beated Dortmund 8-2 home and Barca 4-1 and won in the final 3-1 to Man United. But the league had just been disappointing. Lost 0-3 to Hull and 3-5 to Swansea. No where near the CL form. Draws and a few wins here and there.

I think we were just unlucky since it didn't went very bad I'll post my tactic tomorrow and hopefully third season will be better with some signings.