How can I improve my Man Utd tactic?

[afced7]

This is the first year that I haven't downloaded a tactic because, for whatever reason, there just isn't much choice any more. Either people don't want to upload tactics now that the classic slider system is gone, or its just become too easy to create workable tactics using the TC. Anywho, since I couldn't find a tactic I liked, I've been forced to make my own. I read the stickys and tried to follow the advice in them, and I think I've cobbled together something functional, but I would be very grateful if somebody with more experience of creating tactics could run their eye over it and let me know if there are any obvious problems with it or any minor tweaks I could do to improve it before I continue much further into the season.

Results have been quite good so far this season, I won all my pre-season games, including 2-0 vs Bayern, and followed that up with a 3-1 win against Wigan and a 2-1 win against Spurs. Then I got hammered 4-1 by a Demba Ba inspired Chelsea, lost 2-1 against Swansea, then finally won 3-1 against Everton. Overall, I feel that the tactic is useable, but could do with some adjustments, however my problem is that I don't know what those adjustments should be.

Here are the team instructions and my first choice XI, the basic premise of my tactic is to press a lot and try to win the ball high up the pitch, then distribute the ball either to the AM or to one of the wingers who can then play a ball to the striker, but I mostly find that I play a bit of a possession game without really knowing why.

All suggestions are welcome, and I would be very thankful for any help.

PS: I will post individual player instructions if people want/need me to.

[isignedupfornorealreason]

I would probably switch Evra to WB since he's on his own on the left. You have an IF there and he'll cut in.

I'd get rid of looking for the overlap, the wingers are so far up you're really only exposing your defensive weaknesses by potentially leaving the defence to constitute of four men.

Clear balls to flanks, seems counter-intuitive for an attacking set up, and exploit flanks seems a bit strange to me since most of your players are going through the middle.

I wouldn't go with that formation away to teams like Chelsea, it's likely to offer a lot of space for the opposition to take advantage of. You need to consider that Ferdinand and Vidic don't have much pace, anything gets behind them and breaks the offside trap and they're in huge amounts of trouble. De Gea could switch to a Sweeper Keeper to compensate I suppose.

That's all I can think of, I'm sure others can offer better advice though.

[BvB fan]

I have a similar setup in my Dortmund save. I believe that you have too many Team Instructions. You are playing with an Attacking Mentality, so your tempo is already high. Do you want it higher? The same with the width, the pressing and the d-line. You are very vulnerable at the back. My suggestion is to minimize your TI. Look what you really want and choose from there.

[Luizinho]

Been reading a lot about Philosophy recently and I've heard that the 4-2-3-1 tactic with a rigid philosophy is almost suicide. The front 4 (AMC,R,L and ST) don't track back in a Rigid set-up; so I've read anyway. Something to consider maybe.

[bieritarier]

IFs and Wingers rarely track back with any philosophy, and pretty much not at all with an attack duty from experience...

[Luizinho]

IFs and Wingers rarely track back with any philosophy, and pretty much not at all with an attack duty from experience...

Rigid philosophy pretty much implies that the Attackers 'Attack' and the Defenders 'Defend'. Therefore with this formation its very tricky.

[bieritarier]

I agree, just wanted to say that even on very fluid these guys are very likely not tracking back much

[Luizinho]

I agree, just wanted to say that even on very fluid these guys are very likely not tracking back much

Yh I played this on FM13 with Dinamo Moscow. Was really good when I was the favourite; however away from home and in big games I got a bit of a stuffing. Even with Defensive Wingers they still didn't track back enough. Ended up going with either a 4-2-3-1 (Deep) or a 4-4-1-1.

[bieritarier]

same here. Had a ton of success with a 4-1-2-2-1 but being killed by some skilled wingers/teams with aggressive full bacs every now and then was reason enough to go 4-1-4-1.....

I still believe SI needs ot look into the tracking back of players in the AM strata, in particular the wide positions, and/or introduce a specific role for the ML/MR spots that by default makes them track back like the midfielder they are but allows them to play like an IF on offense. You can pretty much emulate that withth ewide midfielder role, but it'S just not quite the same...

[afced7]

Thanks for the help guys, I'm going to get rid of: clear ball to flanks, exploit the flanks, look for the overlap, offside trap and push higher up, and change the fluidity to balanced, then see how I get on with that.

[blackhorns]

The problem with 4-2-3-1 is you'll need winger to track back cause it will leave alot of space on the flank, so I think you'll want Fluid of Very Fluid and then use PI to adjust the player creative freedom. your AML is an IF so you'll want change Evra to WB and have the AML to sit narrower to create overlap. Shinj got great work rate so why don't you try to play him as AP or AM with Roam from position and Run wide with ball, that'll mimic some of the effect of the Treq but offer more defensive mentaly. The last problem is the biggest one, Carrick - Fellani - Vidic - Rio are severly lacking of speed, I think you'll need to try another approach cause you'll need them to cover while other player pushing up but they are lacking of pace to do so.