Please Help - Trouble Scoring Goals/Keeping Possession!

[bartnawer]

After getting my Arsenal team dominated 68% possession by West Brom, I figure I'd come here to get some urgent help!

Main problems after watching several games:

-Players stay on the ball too long, dribble aimlessly until they get tackled

-Little shots, most from far away, little to none CCC or shots on target

-Defense is relatively stable

-Low possession 40 or 35% against weaker teams like southampton, west brom, etc

I've read the steps to building a tactic and try to follow the rules

Examples;

-Poor weather = more direct

-More technical than opposition = retain possession shout, control or attack strategy, run at defenders, work into box

-Less gifted, away= retain possession, control or defend, stay on feet, etc

Analyze goals, many scored in oppositions middle = exploit middle

Many goals scored on wings? = exploits wings, look for overlap

So what am I doing wrong? Here is my default tactic, default sliders.

[bartnawer]

Furthermore, I seem to get pass completion of 65-75% while the other teams usually get 80-85%. I have retain posession as a default shout.

[Falahk]

ignore shouts and other such tweaks until you have a functional framework to build on, it sound to me like you are trying overcomplicate things when the basic formula is the problem

so lets get on to the next bit, your tactic, it look to me like you have set it up with the intention of playing Cazorla and Wilshere on the wings, you have tasked your wide players to do link up and Giroud to spearhead your attack, this would make sense if you had technically able and creative players doing the link up, however since you are playing Walcott and Podolski there the end result would probably be a very isolated Giroud, since he is to far forward to get involved in the build up, and you are forcing the wide players to do something they are not very good at (take part in the build up play)

also dont you think that using Arteta as an anchorman is limiting his creative and technical ability a bit?

[bartnawer]

ignore shouts and other such tweaks until you have a functional framework to build on, it sound to me like you are trying overcomplicate things when the basic formula is the problem

so lets get on to the next bit, your tactic, it look to me like you have set it up with the intention of playing Cazorla and Wilshere on the wings, you have tasked your wide players to do link up and Giroud to spearhead your attack, this would make sense if you had technically able and creative players doing the link up, however since you are playing Walcott and Podolski there the end result would probably be a very isolated Giroud, since he is to far forward to get involved in the build up, and you are forcing the wide players to do something they are not very good at (take part in the build up play)

also dont you think that using Arteta as an anchorman is limiting his creative and technical ability a bit?

I recently changed Arteta to DLP with defend and its working better. And what do you recommend for the wings? I played Podolski as IF-A and recently changed it to that IF-S because he was playing very poorly. He seems to be getting a bit more involved in the attack. I do agree with Walcott not suited to play link up though. Might change to winger, att?