Struggling With FM This Year..

[BeadyRoller]

So me and my mate have decided to do a network game, we both picked top Championship sides, me being Reading and him being Watford, I ended up getting sacked with about 12 games to go. I was lingering just outside the play offs which for a team of Readings strength isn't good enough at all, I have since took the Bristol City job as they are just outside the play offs in League 1 and think it'd look good on my CV if I got them up

Problem is.. the same problem! I'm very much struggling and it doesn't seem to be clicking at all, very frustrating! Here is what I'm working with..

My thinking is in defence I want to keep things simple and try and keep it solid, my two central defenders have individual instructions to pass it shorter in aim to keep the ball rather than booting it forward. My full backs are both set to support as again, I want to keep it solid at the back and not risk getting countered by setting one of them to attack (I have read that it's a good idea to put one on attack though? I just seem to see it as a big risk? Especially in League 1)

Just in front of the defence I have an anchor man, his job should be to break up the play and serve as a protection to the defensive back two and passing it forward to more creative players. In the centre of the park I have Kilkenny on a centre midfield/support role, trying to keep things simple, my thinking is that he will just sit there in the middle and spray balls either to the wing or keeping it simple. Next to him we have Gardner in a Advanced Playemaker role, I want him to get further forward and try to fashion out chances to the forward or put the wingers through.

Then on the wings we have two wingers, one on attack and one on support, reason being Jay Thomas is a much more attacking threat and I could see him scoring a few, they have both have individual instructions to stay wide so we have a lot of width and not to get to crowded in the middle. Up top we have an Advanced Foward with an instruction to hold the ball up, just so he can bring others in to play.

Then you can see what the team instructions are for yourselves. An Attacking mentality as I think I'm one of the strongest in the division and with my roles and formation I think I can afford to push forward a bit more and a Balanced fluidity.

This was my thinking anyway, I tried to keep it simple and it's failing big time. I'm conceding a lot and not scoring very many, where the hell am I going wrong? It's really frustrating me.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, hope I've been clear enough.

Cheers.

[alucasa]

I had a similar issue as yours. Take a look at my thread

http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/370858-Unable-to-keep-clean-sheet.

I basically ditched full backs.

[wwfan]

Biggest issue you will be having is an isolated lone forward. None of your midfield roles will get forward in support that aggressively and your lone forward won't drop deep to pick up passes. You're only really getting one other player up to support him (AML) and he's staying wide.

[mikcheck]

wwfan what do you think of this midfield in terms of connection?

DM - Defensive Midfielder or Anchor Man

MCL - Advanced Playmaker Attack

MCR - Advanced Playmaker Support

AML - Advanced Playmaker Support

AMR - Inside Forward Attack

FC - Complete Forward Attack

[wwfan]

Looks good to me.

[mikcheck]

Good.Thanks.

[clayts]

One thing that stands out to me here is you have "exploit the flanks" set on team instructions if you come up against a team who say play 442 with defensive wingers or even wide midfielders with support roles, you will be prodominantly running into a brick wall.

[BeadyRoller]

Yeah I was thinking that but I played a variation of this with an AM instead of a defensive midfielder and still had rename

Problems?

EDIT - In reply to wwfan, quote reply messed up for some reason.