Needs some Tactic advice on my team

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Hello everyone, I will start with some background. (Forgive me for poor english)

I played FM for many years but most of the times were playing Man Utd, time-spacing and buy wonderkids.

Recently, I challenged myself and started a new safe as unemployed, with lowest player past experience and coaching qualifications.

I was employed by Chelmsford City, which played in the VNS in England, media preview as potential relegation team.

Here is my profile, National A License now (4th year)

My team was fighting bravely against relegation in the first 3 years, I was so exhausted and really want to get rid of relegation with the minimal players wanted to join us.

In the 4th year, I decided to let my Assistant to take over the matches with current tactics after October, surprisingly he managed it so well and the team ended in 2nd place.

N.B. Sometimes I changed to 4-2-4 with AS(A) and DF(S) as forwards, other players roles remain unchanged

TIs: Play out of Defence; Retain Possession; Work into box;Get stuck in

PIs: Forward: Close down much more; Wingers: Close down more; CM(S): Get Further Forward; GK: Distribute over Opposition Defence

I assume my team has good possession with the mentality and the low risk PI, aim to win back the ball with forward pressing and build up the play slowly.

This works out well as my team has 2nd highest average possession percentage in the league.

However, it backfired us for most of the games ended as a draw.

Fortunately, my team won the promotion final and entered National league ( credit to my assistant)

Therefore, I would like to have some advice how can I improve the tactics in a way that focus more on scoring? Should I un-tick the work ball into box so team can try more pathway to attack?

Besides, I found most of the goals come from crossing which is no doubt because I am playing with wingers and FBs.

However, I cannot find any wingers who are good enough in National League in the coming year and thinking what can I do.

I am going to test this tactic in friendly match, with TIs listed above, plus Exploit the middle, same PIs.

Finally, I would love to ask how can I take advantage of the team report ?

This is my current team report, attributes were compared to the VNS team, not the incoming national league team.

For example, when team weakest is passing (worse than our team), should I press more?

I have never understand how to deals with good/bad team work, good/bad work rate, what should I expect from these statistics?

Feel free to ask for more details if I missed any.

Oh, I have one more question about Youth Development.

He was my previous Head of Youth Development.

He is my current Head of Youth Development.

I chose him because he has excellent personalities, however he has really weak Judging Player Potential.

Would that hurt my team? Because in the latest year Youth Intake, 95% of my candidates have really low determination which I had to find some tutors for them.

Have you thought about having the playmaker as the AMC and using him to feed the striker and possibly two IF's? Or maybe a Raumdeuter. It would increase your initial goal threat and offer you some variety.

Your old HoYD was better btw. The majority of their score is made up from determination, level of discipline and motivation. So you always want all of those as high as possible because they give you 90% of his coaching score. Then you want one of the categories he'll be training to give you the rest of the score. Then you'd want working with youngsters too. You'd want these above all else, then you'd look at improving on him each time you replaced him.

Have you thought about having the playmaker as the AMC and using him to feed the striker and possibly two IF's? Or maybe a Raumdeuter. It would increase your initial goal threat and offer you some variety.

Thanks for the reply! I read a lot of your tutorial but still struggling to make my tactic works and often found myself feel lost when losing matches.

I think 2 IF's is a good idea to reduce my crossing and aim to have more one-twos play into the box, I guess work into the box should be ticked? and what others TIs should I use?

This is one of the future star in my team, assistant recommends him as Wide Target Man.

CA Rating:1 PA Rating: 4-5

Another One, who is Left foot with natural AMR position.

CA Rating:1.5 PA Rating: 3.5-4.5

This guy is the best developed so far

CA Rating: 2.5 PA Rating: 4-5

Any idea how to train them? e.g. attributes,PPMs

Apart from the AMs, here is my two strikers.

They both suggested as DF, However I think Dale can be an AF. If I use two IFs and AP(S), I think AS/Poacher to attract opponent CD and leave spaces behind should be better?

However I read some articles suggested that lone striker should set as Support Duty, thoughts?

Your old HoYD was better btw. The majority of their score is made up from determination, level of discipline and motivation. So you always want all of those as high as possible because they give you 90% of his coaching score. Then you want one of the categories he'll be training to give you the rest of the score. Then you'd want working with youngsters too. You'd want these above all else, then you'd look at improving on him each time you replaced him.

The reason why I changed the HoYD was because I saw the HoYD will bring the similar personality players into club. Player with High Ambitious want to leave and go bigger club, and professional can help them develops.

Moreover, I tends to develops my youths and aim my future first team are all Youth player from same club.

He was my first two years HoYD, bad attributes. However, my first and second year produced the Highers PA player. (Junior Coaching 4)

Third year the best HoYD but produced the worst...(JA 6)

Fourth year, decent players (JA 6)

Now my JA is 10 and still increasing. I hope I can get at least 1 player with >100 PA this year! Should I changed back to 2nd HoYD?

I think 2 IF's is a good idea to reduce my crossing and aim to have more one-twos play into the box, I guess work into the box should be ticked? and what others TIs should I use?

You should use TI's to refine the style you are recreating and not use them just because. It seems like you think you have to use them without any valid reason, so what I'd do is see how your style plays out then add TI's and PI's if you feel the team or players need to do something they currently are.

The potential/current ability the players have has nothing to do with the HOYD, only the personality and the types of players i.e strikers etc he brings into the club.

Youth Recruitment = Increases likelihood of recruiting high PA youth and increasing how far your youth recruitment network will reach (low recruitment means you will probably only get local players who aren't recruited by bigger clubs, high recruitment means you will get top talent from all over the world). Youth recruitment, however, is also affected by your club's reputation.

Youth Facilities = The quality of the training facilities used by the players currently in your youth team. Good youth facilities will help your youth players improve more.

Junior Coaching = The quality of the coaching of the lower levels of your youth system. Basically, this represents coaching of youth players before they're generated as 14/15 year-olds. In terms of game mechanics, high junior coaching will increase the average ability of your youth players when they're first generated.

So in short it's;

Recruitment = Regen PA

Junior Coaching = Regen CA

Youth Facilities = Rate of youth player CA improvement

You should use TI's to refine the style you are recreating and not use them just because. It seems like you think you have to use them without any valid reason, so what I'd do is see how your style plays out then add TI's and PI's if you feel the team or players need to do something they currently are.

So I should start with 0 TIs and PIs and add it gradually? I'm not good at analysis the team so I usually set up a basic border for the team and then change it during the game

The potential/current ability the players have has nothing to do with the HOYD, only the personality and the types of players i.e strikers etc he brings into the club.

If that is the case then personality of HoYD is the most important? since he will brings players who have similar personality.

Does JUDGE A&P of HoYD affect the recruitment?

So in short it's;

Recruitment = Regen PA

Junior Coaching = Regen CA

Youth Facilities = Rate of youth player CA improvement

I read some articles suggest increase JC>Recruitment>Training Facilities, since matches experience is more important for the youth to increase CA.

I love possession, and I want to win base on keeping possession.

My idea on the coming year is

1. Pressing with Forwards, win ball and attack instantly.
   
2. 
   
3. Control the ball, playing it around and build up plays from that.
   
4. 
   
5. Stay on Feet and keep shape.
   

Basic

Mentality: Control.

Since I don't want to lose ball easily, and I want to keep possession.

Shape: Fluid.

Not a fan of Very Fluid, and I want my players to contributed in more phrases, playing as a unit.

Roles Duties w/o any PIs.

Central Defender:

My players are not good enough to be BPD, and LD not fit my style.

Central Midfielder:

CM(D) to hold position for recycling possession,provide little creativity, and maybe long shot if there is a good chance. (10,12,13 Long shots, not bad in my league)

CM(S) to be second creator, I assume he will get forward when there is space in front of him, if not I will set PI to get further forward.

AP(A) The Main creator of my team, he will be in charge of how to start the attack.

Left Wing:

I want my Left back to cover and support when my Left winger get forward, to provide support and defend at the same time.

Left wingers needs to get forward and maybe get into the box to shoot or leave space behind to let CM(S)/AP(A) to take advantage.

Right Wing:

Since my Right Winger is more support duty and slow, I want them to support the attack rather than go forward.

Therefore, I need my Right Back to get forward, overlap to give more chance my Right Winger to pass, or cross.

Forward:

The tricky one, I chose TM(S) because my player is not capable to be a CF(S).

I want him to stand in front.

In defend, use his physical strength to hold ball, wait for other players to get forward and start attack.

In attack, be a lay off target, or stay inside box to head the cross.

Team Instructions:

Review of my ideas:

1. Pressing with Forwards, win ball and attack instantly.
   
2. 
   
3. Control the ball, playing it around and build up plays from that.
   
4. 
   
5. Stay on Feet and keep shape.
   

[/Quote]

I chose 2 TIs to start:

Stay on Feet to keep shape.

Play out of defence to keep possession and don't rush on attack.

Potential TIs:

Work ball into box. I chose a fluid system, which means they are allowed greater freedom compared to mentality below Fluid. Therefore if they took too many long shots, or long ball to kick off the attack I will limited it by using this TI.

Look for Overlap. If I want to have more control on the matches, or if I found wingers get too much forward and ended up offside.

Retain Possession. This will lower the risk of my team play, and limit the risky passes, only use it when team looking to have a draw.

Shorter Passing. Use it when too many long balls.

Lower Temp. To give more time my players to pass instead of rushing and give away possession.

Players Instructions:

Close Down More: TM(S), AP(A), Left wing, Right Wing

Close Down Less: 2 FBs, 2 CDs

Close Down Much less: CM(D). I have question in here, since CM(D) already have default PI: Close Down More, But I want him to hold position, be the defensive block in front of the CDs. I wonder if I can use this PI to make it works.

GK: Distribute to CDs.

Overall Team ability compared to the rest in National League

My team are very poor in general. Poor and First touch is really bad in National League, might be a problem in keep possession.

My defenders have the lowest marking, heading, and positioning, but with good pace and acceleration.

Higher Defensive Line is a potential TI.

Good vision, teamwork and Decision. Very bad passing and Technique.

Bad in everything, which means we will not score much.

Overall:

My team has really bad attributes, defenders are better than our attackers.

Media Preview is 24th, which means we have a high chance to relegated.

Aiming for draw will be our purpose. By assessing our purpose I want to keep possession for the whole match (Van Gaal?), not parked the bus.

Second Purpose, train the youths by giving them more match experience. National League experience should help them grow a lot compared to National League South.

Third Purpose, develops the youths step by step, hoping this year Youth Intake will give us better player and take them to first team.

This is my first time to do an analysis, please give advice to how to improve if I did anything bad/not good enough.

This match is against Takeley, a nearby team, a relatively weak team, so we should dominated the match.

Transition

This is a counter attack from Defending Corner.

The ball was cleared to the left by CB

It picked up by Left winger.

Everyone was running forward to start the counter attack which is good to see.

He has 2 options, dribble or pass to forward who are running into wide area

Left wing chose to pass the ball to Tunrer, and then walk into middle.

Now Turner has 3 people behind him to give options, or he can keep running forward.

Red Circle is our Strikers, he has 9 acc, 10 pace, so he is left behind.

He chose to run forward, and it is fine because Tucker is running into a wide area to give him option for through ball.

Instead of choosing a through ball, Turner waited and pass a on feet ball to Tucker, and their players were already in position to defend.

Now Tucker have 3 options.

1. Run forward and shoot

2. Run forward and cross to

3. Pass to left instantly which might intercept by their player

Tucker chose to run himself. Now his options were limited to 2.

He can cross to Richards, our Target man.

OR he can shoot himself.

https://i.gyazo.com/0362bf6e2d164f04f20725650febe6e1.jpg

However, he decided to run 1 more and intercepted by their defender.

Discussion:

The transition is good, everyone looking to run forward.

However, since the ball was picked up by left winger, therefore the left open area was not utilized.

Turner kept the ball a bit too long, he could have pass a through ball to Tucker so he can have more spaces.

Tucker (AP/A), has default PIs to dribble more. I think that is the reason why he chose to dribble inside.

Not much to change base on here, will keep looking the performance.

A low cross corner to near post, intercepted by opponent.

Turner has two options, passed to Tucker, or cross.

Turner passed to Tucker, now Tucker can chose either pass back to Turner or cross.

Tucker passed back to Turner. Turner can pass to two players.

He chose to dribble, past off the defender and now he can choose to pass or shoot.

Surprisingly, he chose to cross to Far post, our left wing winger, and he shoot.

It was parried by their GK and Kelly, our CB, run forward to pick up the loose ball and score.

Although it is a goal for us, I have no idea why Turner chose to cross to far post when there was one player un-marked in front of him.

Second goal comes from a right wing cross to far post before half time and picked up by Left winger who was unmarked.

From the first half, I noticed that my CBs love to cleared the ball w/o any pressure, they do not have PPMs to try long range pass, they have 2 CMs in front of them, I also have TI play through defence.

Therefore, I used shorter passing TI and wanna see how it affects the play.

I also noticed that we have so many unnecessary crosses, and I want to make more passes in the center of pitch, I have no idea what TI should I use, so I chose work ball into box.

Besides, I made a substitute in half time, changed my forward to Lewis Gill, our top scorer in last few seasons.

We can see that Lewis Gill is more Physical, Speedy, and better vision.

Since our forward is not our main score threat, Gill can participate more in the build-up play.

Nothing happened in the 2nd half.

Post-Match Analysis:

Most of our activity is happen in the central, good to see.

We have so many crosses, and I want to reduce it in the future.

Most of them from right backs, with attack duty, I might need some PI for him to cross less more.

105 passes were intercepted and most of them is from our defenders, even with the shorter passing it did not have much impacts (From 57 to 48)

I am considering to use mixed passing again so it don't limited our plays, and give Defenders PI of shorter passing.

We have 34 key passes out of 518 completed passes. Unfortunately, none of them is inside the box.

The reason might be the forward is TM(S), who often stand outside box and participate to creating play.

On the other hand, I already have a AP(A) behind him, who is differently compared to SS or AM(A), future changed is needed.

I want to use my AP (Tucker) as the main creator since he has the best attributes.

Therefore, I will set my Forward to attack duty. Tucker to Support Duty, he has get forward PPM so I think it is enough. Add PI on CM(S) to get further forward.

I did not concede any goals which we shouldn't be, they have 3 shots but all of them are long shots.

Defend not tested yet until we meet bigger team which is next match, we will play against our parent club, Peterborough.

Really appreciated if anyone can give any advice!

2nd match against Peterborough.

First Half ended as 0-1, conceded a goal from corner. I noticed that TM(A)-AP(S) lack of interaction, so I changed to DF (S) - AP(A). This also helps my team to reduce the long pass, I guess TM has default settings to ask team go long ball to him.

My right back has attack duty which makes him overlapped too much and cross too much, so I changed him to FB(S), while my right wing to WM(A).

Full Time 0-1. Second Half is much better on passing, tho there still some missed pass, but it is due to player attributes.

Team is keeping good shape, try to play the style I want.

I am considering to have shorter passing to ask players not giving away possession, fairly narrow to keep playing in central, change to defense mentality to reduce the risk and aim for draw to avoid relegation.

Next match is first League match, playing against Grimsby Town at home.

Media predicted Grimsby Town ended as 4th, so this will be a tough match for us.

Again, draw is our purpose.

The first matches we lose 1-2. We scored first and they score twice to take the matches for us, I think we can win this matches.

We have good possession and good chance.

However, our CDs keep loosing their attackers, wasted passes, and our Forward wasted so many chances.

We still have so many crosses which I do not like.

2nd matches, away match against Crawley Town. We lose to them in the same place 2 years ago in a cup matches.

I made a few changes here:

Changed my front settings to AF (A) - AP(S).

Added Retain Possession to TI, take away stand on Feet.

Add PIs to both CMs have close down less to keep my shape.

I also made some rotation of who performed bad in last matches.

BOOOM! we won the matches, I can say we controlled the matches, we lose a corner goal (again) at 4 mins, however we scored twice at 10 and 22 mins.

Our AS, Nolan, keep running forward to create space and Tucker always provide some through balls for him.

Our crosses had reduced to a acceptable amount (20), and have good success chance (20%).

Our defend is a rock for them and did not have much trouble.

However, I still feel some players did not make a good forward run even with attack duty, figuring out why.

One of the reasons I think is he did not see any space in front of him, another reason is he lack of ability to make the decision.

Need more matches to find out the reason.

Overall, I got what I want: keep possession, build up play from it, cross less, make play in central, keep good shape.

Further work need to focus on Defending Set Pieces, which will be hard because my players lack of physical strength.

Increase Possession completed rate,I aim to have 75% or more, it is a long term project because my players do not have good technique and mental attributes. (My team is really bad lol)