My team fails to score

[pewp3w]

I have played FM18 and 19 on pc and now started 20, but this time only in the mobile version. I understand that the mobile version is much more arcade-y, but I still think I can influence my team.

I have started as werder bremen. my first season was okay, I failed to qualify for europe with one goal difference. Second season I finished fifth and managed to qualify for Europe. Next season I actually won the europa league and became second in the league. fourth season I again became second and won the dfb-pokal. My team is full of young talented players, so I thought this season I might win the league. Far from it. I was fired after 12 games in the league, although I was on seventh place, first place in the champions league group. I was kicked out in the second round of the dfb-pokal against bayern...

So I reloaded a few weeks ago and hope I can still change the outcome.

 

My original plan was to restore bremen to former glory and play fast, attacking football. I was able to get back to the top of the league, but different from how I planned. I actually won 2/3 of the games, but almost all of them 1:0 or 2:1. It is almost impossible to score more than 2 goals for me in any games. For the first three seasons this was okay, because I was conceding almost no goals (finished 3rd season with 35:12 goals), but for some reason in the current season I am conceding goals left and right, including a 3:0 loss against Fortuna Düsseldorf and 4:1 Loss against Bayern. Playerwise my team is already the best in the league, but for some reason I still struggle to beat most teams, especially teams from the lower third of the table and the top teams.

I read that fm2020 favours defense over offense, but I would still like to follow my plan and win games with 4:3 rather than 1:0.

I will post my players and my tactics so far. Maybe some of you can help me figure out what to do.

These are my players:

https://imgur.com/a/0oG5foP

Gravenberch and Garner are out on loan. Gravenberch seems pretty good, but so far hasn't been very sucessful for me. Maybe he needs a bit more experience.

If I compare my squad to any other team, there are maybe three or four teams left that are better on average than me, Real Madrid, Man City, FC Porto and Juventus.

If I compare it to bayern, my team is - on paper - much better. Their best striker is Arp who -except for shooting 20 - is pretty average. Still he managed to score a hattrick in 25 minutes against me.

 

I've mainly use two different tactics.

I play this with the normal basic settings, the only things I change are control and passing focus centre and width narrow. I experimented with work into box, but that did not help.

 

I play this with through balls and sometimes with run at the defensive. Apart from that I have tried balanced or control, but did not see any differences so far.

 

Am I doing something terribly wrong? And if not, can someone shed some light why this isn't working how I want it to?

I know sometimes you just have bad luck and that is okay, but it sucks to get fired that fast if you have some problems after leading your team to success after success...

[ElliottMS]

The first question that comes to mind is are you creating chances? I.e. are your strikers getting the chances and missing them, or are the chances not even getting made?

It will come down to tactics and the importance of the right player roles cannot be understated, particularly the midfield. I am currently quite wedded to the idea of not having more than one playermaker in the team (i.e. Advanced or Deep Lying Playmakers, also including Liberos but I've never really got to grips with that role tbh). How true this is I'm not sure - from your screenshots you're doing the same but having these problems.

I also find that sometimes going for a more attacking stance does not necessarily result in more goals.

Could just be bad luck though. With my current game I am currently on a barren streak of 1 goal in 6 games, despite previously getting myself to a midtable position with a team I got promoted via the playoffs after sneaking into 6th on the final day. I may have to change my tactic to do something different despite previously getting good results with my current settings. Or maybe my forwards are just in bad form and we've got to ride it out.

[pewp3w]

I try to play with only one playmaker. Doesn't seem to make much sense to play with two. I tried running a dlp and an ap, but that did not help either.

https://imgur.com/a/g4Ohtdm

Here you can see more results, they are all pretty recent. A loss against a weaker team can happen, but I think I have yet to win once against Fortuna Düsseldorf in all five seasons.

I usually start with balanced or control, and if I need a better result, I try attacking from ~70th minute and overload from ~80 minute.
Sadly, in almost all games for the last 10 to 20 minutes I have to throw in the kitchen sink so I can even get a 1:1 or a 1:0...

[pewp3w]

I have been playing on and reinforced my team even more and was now able to (barely) win the league. Still no idea how to at least semi-reliably win against big teams. 

 

Also: there seems to be a massive difference between simulation and managing myself? 

I had three matches, against Frankfurt, Hamburg and Mainz. 

I managed those games myself and was able to get three 1:0 wins. For comparison I went on holiday and the three games were won with 6:0,4:0 and 5:0, although my assistant fielded players that were inferior to others and played them in wrong positions...