Ran out of ideas

Okay guys,

So I am Sheffield United in my first season UTB.... Anyway I am finding it really difficult to win any games at all. We are predicted to finish second in the league and at this point my intentions are to just meet the board expectations and reach the play-offs. I have put on hands down the best starting eleven I have and I felt that defensively we were so bad. Most of my defenders were out of form so I brought in some new players from loan and they are playing consistent now, but still let stupid goals in. All i seem to do is draw and i find myself pulling my hair out. At this point I don't have a style that I want to play I just want to get my players arses into gear. Here are my current tactics for my last match. Are they balanced? What am I doing wrong, or are my players just having a poor season? Screenshots below:

Welcome to the forum. I moved this into the Tactics forum where you'll get more help.

Umm, crikey. Seven players given an attack duty and just one central defender. Why are you using just one central defender?

Yeah like to echo what Neil said, very unbalanced. I would suggest the only reason you win games is due to having better players, and your underachieving because of this tactic.

You say your defence is terrible. No real surprise there at all with so many players attacking and not many defending.

I kind of get your shape and what you are trying to do, its very similar to a classic Italian tactic. Try this....pull your full backs in and make them ball playing centre backs. Pull your wingers back into the wingback position and have them on either a wing back or complete wing back role. So in effect you will have a 3-3-2-1-1 as opposed to your 1-8-1 tactic now. That will give you a stronger base. Make the defensive midfielder a half back so he drops in to get the ball off your defenders (middle cb on cover would be good since he will drop deeper and give the half back space, and also cover the ball playing defenders if they get out of position). If you have your wing backs on attack, then set both cms to support minimum, maybe even one on defend. Think about this, who is the half back going to pass to? You need someone within 10-15 yards or all he has is a long ball and you wont keep the ball. I would have a dlp support with a ball winner or box to box on support personally. Then set your forwards pair on the best combo possible, play complete forward if you have one, advanced if not, to stretch the play.

Instructions wise, set to very flexible to get your players spread out, anything else and they tend to get in the same spaces as their teammates. Your team will be high rep so the AI will be setting up defensively, so control mentality for me, maybe going attacking if your at home. For a tough away game, counter maybe will work too with this shape. I would also push higher up, you have a cb on cover duty to stop balls over the top, and it will stop your opponent getting too many crosses in. I would also set width to maximum and press look for overlap (I know this shouldn't work with wingbacks as there is no one to overlap, but I find this pushes the wingbacks right up when you have the ball, yet they still drop back when the opponents have it....a valuable ti).

Player instruction wise, if you do go attacking, playing someone as a roaming playmaker might help, if you have anyone who can do that role. Again I have found they will drop deep without the ball, but with the ball they will get up and support the forward. If you have clicked keep possession, use the pi's to take off as many 'tries risky passes' as you can, and use shorter passing as much as you can. If you click pass into space, use the pi's to do the opposite, although I never use this ti apart from when I want to play counter. Like Neil said dont use both together, doesn't work.

The last thing to do is go through player by player and make sure their instructions are suitable for their attributes. E.g. Dont tell someone with high aggression to tackle harder, unless you like 15+ yellow cards a season. If you have midfielders with passing and vision 14+ set them to mixed passing etc etc etc

Hope that helps.

Imagine this...Your team is playing in the Euros, lets say you are managing Ireland, and you are facing Romania. This is whats happening:

Your keeper is going to look at his flanks and pray to God each time the ball moves there, cos he will be hoping the attacking Fullbacks get back in time. He keeps seeing the BWM cover every blade of grass trying to defend, and he notices a whole group of his teammates around the half way line.

The poor goalkeeper knows that if their team faces Bales or Ronaldo, he may just as well, go have a drink. He will be expected to singlehanded keep everyone at bay- welcome to the Suicide Squad

* please don't take offense*

Thats whats happening with your system. Its badly unbalanced. If you want to play with 3 at the back, then don't use a BWM, that role has no discipline. He will cover every blade of grass. He is great if he has a partner not when he is alone. You will need a midfield screen. You need wingbacks or defensive wingers, one holding midfielder and maybe a more supportive midfielder playing as a playmaker.

Your formation is your defensive formation when you don't have the ball, your players will attempt to take up those positions (marking / pressing will affect how it looks ofc). Have you ever seen a team position like that in recent history (excluding last few minutes in cup games when losing )?

Your roles and duties will dictate how your players move from that positioning when you have the ball. More attack duties != better attacking. Just like defend duty doesn't make a player defend better, it just positions and instructs them differently. You need to layer your attacks, get players in different areas to give different passing angles and pull defenders out of position.

I would suggest having a read of the stickies.

Even if the FBs are back in time, never tried this myself but a makeshift back three of left back centre back right back opens channels as wide as the hips of Kim Kardashian as per the game. (This isn't just a "representation", that's what's happening, if anybody gets that dig :-P).

Was sent this by someone who in the first (home) leg of a Cup tie in Italy totally ripped the opposition AI dropping off apart. In the return at home, it would apparently switch to its attacking formation involving three centre forwards. Ten seconds from the AI's kick-off the first shot was applied that was flagged as "CCC" already. The end result was something like 1-8 or 1-9. Those channels were there for the taking for those forwards.

Maybe SI would need to make this more explicit?

Maybe taking someone of your MC/AMC strata and add another DMC would be good to cover your only CD?

My advice mate and trust me I speak as someone who is still learning, head over to Bust The Net, slowly watch the videos and as sad as this seems (not for me I enjoyed it) make notes, I did something simple.

I simply jotted down the video name & then bullet point key things or what I felt were key things then in my own game, if I struggle I consult my notebook to see what Rashidi did when he a) couldn't unlock a team or b) wanted to close shop etc

It's a steep learning curve but it's far more rewarding playing like this

(I am about to host Livorno in my first ever competitive game in the full fat version of FM16)

Hey guys

I have been away all day. Thank you all for your feedback. I did try 4 in defence, however, it seemed that my team were just not doing well in front of goal so I tried that formation and sadly to say I got sacked hahah. I am back this season as Wigan. I haven't started a game yet so I will submit what I feel would be a good formation. It will be unbalanced as I do not have much experience on any FM game, but I will come back stronger. A few people have told me to check out bust the net so I think I should. Cheers guys some really nice feedback