Where do I go with these tactics, where am I going wrong/right/misguided?

[danthemanwhocan]

The first tactic is what I started the season with. It gave a suprise 3-1 win against Spurs, was not expecting that. But I did loose to some easy opposition although creamed Leicester 6-2.

I wanted more attacking play and a further impetus on goals. Hence this bad boy! Battered Palace 3-1 with this Benteke hatrick in first half. Used the second half to do some tinkering, backfired as they scored. They just could handle how attacking it was from the get go. Plus in the press conference I told them I was going to focus on being solid at the back. hehehe

There are no individual stats and I am sure that some of those losses could be due to me switching tactics.

I guess I am just looking to see what you all think and what I can do better. Especially defensively, I have scored 19 and conceded 18.

Fixtures and Results.

[RTHerringbone]

The first tactic is pretty well balanced. All I'd consider changing are the Duty of Benteke if he ever appears isolated, and the Duties of your full backs (with a general rule of thumb being stick a Support guy behind an Attack Duty, vice versa on the other flank).

The second is a bit special. I don't consider that it is especially attacking at all, and have doubts about how well your deep six connect with the front four.

Dropping Deeper exacerbates the physical gap that exists there and the Duties preclude any vertical movement.

The only obvious connection is between the Regista and Trequartista. This could well be the source of your defensive woes.

It is so imbalanced that you are probably rarely clearing your lines to a team mate. The absence of a dedicated MC player of any sorts means you have no central outlet to act as a ball recycler and you are probably being overrun centrally. When you watch matches with that set up, how does it play?

[danthemanwhocan]

I updated the tactic last night. I kind of just threw that together and hoped it worked. The revised tactic of that is this:

I thought that having 6 at the back, technically no one in the middle was a bit, silly, also the instructions didnt make sense so i sat up and revised them. After all of my tinkering I had man city. I hoenstly thought we were going to get creamed with this tactic. They were going to eat us up.....

As you can see I have spoiled it a bit as you can see I won one nil. Probably thinking I was wining by the skin of my teeth.

Nothing too special in the sense that I had all these chances but what I was suprised about was how solid it was. They missed a sitter in the first half, and after that I pretty much controlled the game. Kept possession quite well, limited their chances and took mine when I got it. They are a very good team so the fact that I had as many shots as i did is very impressive.

Here are some other stats:

As you can see my players had more passes and more completed.

Action zones:

Probably due to my possession and in their face attitude the game was controlled by us in the middle of the field.

not sure what to infer from this but it looks ok i guess. Do you see any areas of improvement? What am i doing right?

I had a similar experience with Liverpool. I scored in the 20th min with my full back. Delph got sent off then complete capitulation. i lost 3-1 haha

Also i lost 1-0 to Leicester after beating city. Controlled the game just couldn't score!

[danthemanwhocan]

Anybody have any advice how this could be improved for the second season. I finished 9th I think.

[Guest]

Well, you have done well tbh. Against Man City you must have hit them where it hurt which is down their flanks and you countered their 2 strikers by having three in defence. Nothing is glaringly obvious but perhaps you need to individually alter your tactic to counter other tactics, especially the ones away from home.

If you look at Cleons defensive thread you will see what I mean, countering other teams tactics and hitting them where it hurts, you might need more of that.

[deserter]

The 523 of yours offers no central support for the striker (it's a good thing he's a F9 then) and focuses solely on attacking from the flanks. There's nothing wrong with that as such, but it can be fairly one dimensional.

When 523 fails to excite you could perhaps move to 532. There you can offer a central threat with two strikers and two more adventurous midfielders ahead of a holder. The 433 you have can also do this, but it would help to use a more involved striker role to help the central play.

I don't know which one you are primarily using, so I don't know whether I'm helpful or not.

[danthemanwhocan]

i switch between the two. I found that against 4-4-2 i was very vulnerable. But I like to mostly use the 5-3-2 as I keep the ball well even against the big boy teams.

How would you set out against me? and how would I counter teams that play wide, throughinstructions? I try to set Oppo instructions to show onto weaker foot to have them cut inside. But maybe I need to show them wide to them have them cross the ball in to my tall defenders and 16 aerial ability and 17 command of area Keeper?

[deserter]

I would outnumber your two midfielders and deny the space and time for them. I would then use my wide players to break down your defense. They would start from deep so they can receive the ball, attract your midfielder and then play the ball into the hole that was just created. Higher up they would look to challenge your wing backs and drive in with the ball dragging your central defender out and look to play someone in or pull the ball back (not crossing unless it's really on).

I would hopefully be able to pin you back, isolate your midfield and control the game.