Strikers/Team Can't Seem To Score Goals (Help!)

[bartnawer]

I've been fairly successful at Roma, usually grinding out 1-0, 2-1 wins and rarely getting above 2 goals a game, which saddens me haha. I seem to usually score off corners, free kicks, or individual mistakes (goalie punting it to my forward, defender passing back to slowly, etc).

It's very frustrating as I feel my team should be able to pound out goals with the good passers and finishers we have. I'm not saying every game, but when I continuously tie Verona, Reggina, etc 1-1 it's really annoying to watch. I feel like some part of the lack of creativity is the ME and most of it is my tactics. I rarely see nice through balls, quick touches, etc.

The main problem I have is against weaker teams, home and away.

Here is my tactical set up:

-I have a control strategy with a rigid structure. When playing against weaker teams, I usually retain possession, work ball into box, play out of defence, and short passing. I feel like this is needed to break down deep lying defences.

I then also adjust my defensive line and attacking strategy depending on the oppositions formation and their style of play. For example, if the other team is sitting way deep and defending, I usually increase the tempo to higher and make my defensive line go deeper to open up more space. However, if I'm playing a team with a higher line which is attacking, I usually click look for overlap and pass into space in order to exploit the high line. The same goes for if the opposition has a weak midfield or a weak fullback (exploit the middle or exploit the flanks). If I'm trying to catch a lead, I usually hassle and stay on feet.

When I play bigger teams (Man City, Bayern, etc) I do fairly well and tie almost every game so I feel I know what I'm kinda doing. It's the weaker teams that I cannot break down.

My strikers also cannot score. I've tried multiple positions, roles, etc but they still cannot score. My two strikers are Javier Hernandez and Iago Aspas and I rotate them often.

So overall, I'm looking for advice on how to set up my team for the weaker teams. I am not creating enough CCC's and my strikers are doing very poorly against most teams (which they shouldn't).

[Cleon]

Well you say your strikers don't score and I can see the reason straight away, surely you can? You use a Treq who drops deep, you use a winger on support and an attacking playmaker on attack? Which of these 3 is supposed to be a threat going forward? Out of a front 4 you only have 1 attacking player getting beyond defences and looking to do something. The Treq will drop deep, the AP will play high but is more about creating than scoring and the winger will grab a few goals but he's hardly an attacking threat due to how the rest is set up.

The issue isn't creating the issue is having someone getting beyond the defence to get on the chances that are being created. You have 3 players (Ap, Treq and IF) all fighting for the same space and play in similar areas to each other.

With the squad you have you should be uhappy with the teams you are drawing with not happy, you should be beating them or making the most of it and having a real go. You have a world class squad.

You need to put more effort into thinking about your tactic and learning how it actually works. You need to determine the creative players and then find out who the players are who will be scoring the chances created then work out the role they need to have a chance of doing this. It feels like the current tactic you've just picked random roles with no though into how it all works as a tactic and what the roles actually do.

[bartnawer]

Thanks for the feedback Cleon. The reason I resorted to Treq (A) is because it was a last resort. I tried more logical roles (Poacher, DLF, AF) and none of them worked. Would you recommend setting the IF to a winger, changing Hernandez to a Poacher?

[oneronaldo]

Hernandez really doesn't work in anything else other than a AF/Poacher, his skillset, it pains me to say this as I like the guy alot, is too limited for him to be anything else. He isn't a very good passer, nor is he very strong and able to hold the ball up, the outstanding characteristic of him is his finishing ability and his speed. You need him running in behind defenders, not dropping deep to link play. Pjanjic is more than capable of feeding an endless stream of throughballs to Hernandez.

As for wingers, I assume that is Andre Ayew you have, I suggest using Ayew in his natural position of AML and on W(s) like the AMR. Have them swing crosses in for Hernandez to attack, he is a poacher and thrives when you give him enough service.