Leaky Defence

Hi guys looking for a bit of help.

I've never been too great at making tactics and this year is no different. I'm on my 2nd season as Watford in the premier league and have just hit January. This season and last I have been in the top 3 highest scorers but also the top 3 conceding, last season I conceded the most in the league despite finishing 11th! I've tried myself to fix it but lost hope after I played a league 1 Ipswich and conceeded 5 goals at home, I won 6-5 luckily!

I currently play a 4-2-3-1 formation (attacking and flexible) and before that I played a 4-2-4 formation (Standard and felixble) bot with the same defensive outcomes. I have some good players and my defence is statistically probably the best area of my team. Ill try and explain the formation I am using the best I can below to see if anyone can offer any help.

4-2-3-1

GK

FB x2 (auto. Close down less, sit narrow, tackle harder, show on weaker foot) CB x2 (def. No player instructions)

CM (deep lying playmaker, support) CM (automatic, no player instructions)

LW (Inside forward, support, close down more, tight marking) RW (Inside forward, attack, close down more, tight marking)

CAM (Advanced playmaker, attack. No player instructions)

CF (Advanced forward, attack. No player instructions)

TI.

shorter passing,

work ball into box,

play out of defence,

play wider,

push higher up,

use offside trap,

close down more,

lower tempo,

be more expressive.

This season my strikers have been struggling to score aswell with most of my goals coming from wingers and my cam. Hopefully you guys can offer some advice as it's getting to the point where I am unable to enjoy the game. Thanks for any help offered and I really appreciate it.

Dan.

Auto Duties in an Attacking Mentality become Attack Duties, so your right flank is very aggressive and likely to be problematical.

This use of Auto Duties also affects you centrally; a Support and Attack Duty as the "two" in a 4-2-3-1 is too aggressive - especially if the Automatic Duty guy is on the right where you are already vulnerable.

Your Mentality, coupled with Push Higher Up, Be More Expressive, Use Offside Trap, Close Down More really stretches the team shape. What sort of goals are you conceding?

Didn't know that about the auto roles so I've set my FB's as support and my CM as defend. Cheers for that mate.

The goals I'm conceding are as follows with the assists coming from these locations- 21 & 20 from each flank and 10 outside and 15 inside the box.

Hopefully the change of Duty to full backs will help to reduce the ones from out wide. It's still a very aggressive system in terms of Mentality and TIs, so it could certainly be reeled in some more if you keep leaking like a sieve.

Which of the TI's would you suggest removing/replacing?

Thanks again for the help.

Which of the TI's would you suggest removing/replacing?

Thanks again for the help.

It depends on how it is you want to play.

As a starter, the easiest thing to do is drop Mentality to Control as that will lower your defensive line and make you sit narrower, so you'll be harder to play through.

If you really think you want to play on Attacking, then I'd lose Push Higher Up and probably Use Offside Trap.