Players ignoring Instruction

[The Instructor]

I'm playing a very narrow formation and have instructed my players to focus through the middle.

Unfortunately no matter what or how I set up my players during the match the focus of attacks are very high in percentage down the wings and hardly anything down the middle.

This im sure is the reason I am not doing particularly well

Is it some kind of bug?

[Experienced Defender]

43 minutes ago, The Instructor said:

I'm playing a very narrow formation and have instructed my players to focus through the middle.

Unfortunately no matter what or how I set up my players during the match the focus of attacks are very high in percentage down the wings and hardly anything down the middle.

This im sure is the reason I am not doing particularly well

Is it some kind of bug?

Can you post a screenshot of the tactic (with all roles, duties, mentality and team instructions), because otherwise we can only speculate. 

Btw, using a narrow formation and focusing play through the middle at the same time can often be a tactical overkill (there are exceptions of course, but generally tends to work poorly).

[The Instructor]

https://imge.to/i/v0wxkY

[Experienced Defender]

1 hour ago, The Instructor said:

https://imge.to/i/v0wxkY

As soon as I see so many instructions in a tactic, I am pretty much sure something's wrong with it.

And not only that there is an overkill of instructions, but the tactic overall looks contradictory. 

3 hours ago, The Instructor said:

I'm playing a very narrow formation and have instructed my players to focus through the middle.

Unfortunately no matter what or how I set up my players during the match the focus of attacks are very high in percentage down the wings and hardly anything down the middle

The most likely reason why your players "ignore your instructions" and play via flanks (much) more than through the middle (despite being told the opposite) is that - there is no space in the middle to play. 

From your tactic it's impossible to understand what style of football you want to play. So that's the first thing you need to define before me or anyone could give you more meaningful advice. And take your team's reputation and players' quality into account when making tactical decisions.

[The Instructor]

On 24/12/2019 at 22:32, Experienced Defender said:

As soon as I see so many instructions in a tactic, I am pretty much sure something's wrong with it.

And not only that there is an overkill of instructions, but the tactic overall looks contradictory. 

The most likely reason why your players "ignore your instructions" and play via flanks (much) more than through the middle (despite being told the opposite) is that - there is no space in the middle to play. 

From your tactic it's impossible to understand what style of football you want to play. So that's the first thing you need to define before me or anyone could give you more meaningful advice. And take your team's reputation and players' quality into account when making tactical decisions.

Thanks for your reply

Originally I tried creating my own tactics without success so i plumped for a default tactic. All those that are highlighted are automatically chosen.

If they are overkill as you say which I fully understand what you are saying, then why does the game make it default?

[The Instructor]

NAh. The game is utter nonsense,

You try and encourage and players get overwhelmed

You take off  most instructions and it makes no difference. Makes no difference what you do with this game

Time to uninstall

[summatsupeer]

7 minutes ago, The Instructor said:

NAh. The game is utter nonsense,

You try and encourage and players get overwhelmed

You take off  most instructions and it makes no difference. Makes no difference what you do with this game

Time to uninstall

Clearly games fault and not yours...

There is another team involved, there tactics aren't irrelevant. Your playing cautious with a ton of possession instructions, giving opponents time to drop back and organized. Typically space is easier to find on flanks and you have a WB-At on each looking to use it. They're asked to take risks due to mentality and PIs, do you honestly see other options than the wingbacks.

Inside you have two players (AP-At) doing same thing, trying to collect and create for someone else, having two do it in same area will reduce options the one with the ball has.

If you decide not to uninstall theres a lot of guides and information on principles of the game to help and of course a bit more info can allow specific suggestions for you.

[Experienced Defender]

9 hours ago, The Instructor said:

If they are overkill as you say which I fully understand what you are saying, then why does the game make it default?

Well, that's exactly the problem with most of the preset tactics - they are full of overkill. Why it is so is primarily the question for SI developers. I personally assume the idea was to force the players to play as literally as possible in accordance with the related tactical style, which - as a side effect - leads to applying too many instructions that basically do the same (or at least very similar) things. Hence, for example, in a tiki-taka you have focus through the middle, very narrow width and underlaps on both flanks used at the same time, even though such an overkill in reality makes very little to no sense.