I'm fighting for my life! I need to win some trophies with my super-team - 4-4-1-1

[Dj-Voodoo]

Hi everyone, It's June 2027 in my save and I've built up Hertha Berlin into a rich and free-spending side. We've only won a pair of German Cups but we're definitely a Big Team that splashes cash. I'm currently at work but please take my word for it. This past season was meant to be our "coming out party" in terms of competitiveness but everything went wrong in the league and despite sputtering to the CL semi-finals it was a disaster; we finished in the Europa League qualifying spot (6th) behind even Augsburg who spend less than a third of us on wages.

I've taken this chance to churn through some expensive players: Rodri (10m/year), Dani Olmo (9.8m/year), Federico Chiesa (6.7m/year), and Declan Rice(10m/year) have been sold with more movement to come. There needs to be consequences and I sure as hell won't be paying for their failures! (lol) We still have plenty of young and newgen talent and loads of cash.

For the first ~four seasons I played a disciplined counter-attacking 4-4-2 which got the best of league leaders Dortmund and Bayern plenty of times and allowed me to finish top4 easily. I've since struggled to shift into a team that can dominate games and go toe-to-toe against big clubs and I've dropped too many points against ultra-defensive teams which pip me on the counter. As such, I don't have much attachment to any overlying philosophy as much as I just want to be LETHAL like a sharp knife and take advantage of the god-given player talents I've accrued.

That said, I haven't felt the FM21 Match Engine can work very well with a higher tempo attacking side... but maybe someone can review my proposed set-up and give some advice:

Theoretical Set Up:

AF(a)

AM(a)

W(a) CM(s) CM(d) IW(a)

FB(a) CB(c) NCB(d) WB(s)

SK(s)

Positive Philosophy -- to be adjusted to Attacking against weaker sides, Balanced/Cautious as necessary

In Possession

• Shorter Passing 
• Lower Tempo
• Waste Time Sometimes
• Fairly Narrow

I find myself a bit confused between Shorter Passing, Work Ball In Box, Dribble Less, Play out of defense, and Waste Time Sometimes.

Question 1: My current understanding is as follows: Shorter Passing convinces players to pass-and-move (if they have forward movements on); WBIB confuses me to no end but I feel it has to do with when I'm in attacking form and "set-up" against the opponent; Dribble Less I don't understand; Play out of defense seems to be just like shorter passing; and Waste Time Sometimes seems to encourage back-passes and 'recycling the ball'. Can someone clarify how these work together or clash?

Fairly Narrow because I want to encourage the shorter passing, Lower Tempo because my players have flair and good movement.

In Transition

• Counter
• Regroup
• Distribute to FBs

I tend to like the counter because it means if we win the ball in our own half the players that are going up aren't going to wait to shape up. With our speed and talent, it's a worthwhile instruction. 

I like the Regroup setting because I don't want my attacking four players to drift around hoping their teammates win back the ball, we have a lot of players in adventurous poses so it's important to keep some team discipline. Question 2: Any thoughts on this one?

Distribution, my GK has given the ball away too many times; I switch it around during matches between Distribution to FBs, CBs, or no instruction depending on how the opponent presses.

Out of Possession

• More Urgent
• Higher Defensive Line

Question 3:  More Urgent pressing or... Less Urgent pressing? I feel Less Urgent pressing is more focused on team shape and solidity, but it can backfire against the big teams with skill and flair. More Urgent pressing seems, to me, to harass opposing players and keep them off-tempo. What do you think?

Higher Defensive Line because, well, I want to compact the space and every good team plays with a higher defensive line.

As for intended player instructions, I want the AMa to be a goal threat and the AFa to constantly be a threat against the defenders; the NCB used to be a BPD but I've since decided to sell an expensive ball-playing CB (who was getting skinned) and replace with a massive hard-man with bad technique but good agility and speed; the CMd is a de facto deep playmaker, I've got More Risky Passes on for him.

Once I get home from work I'm firing up FM 21 and going into the pre-season so I'd love to hear your thoughts and input. Help me save my job.

 

 

[Johnny Ace]

Just a quick reply because I'm knackered after being up at 4am for the boxing 

Your line up looks a bit too attack heavy, 5 attacking roles is too many IMO, like you have two attack roles on the left flank with a supporting midfielder on that side, you're better off with a midfielder on defend on that side to cover that side of the pitch, then you have a WB(S) on the right side too, that sort of FB setup to me needs a DM with less than conservative fullbacks. Then you've got both wide midfielders on attack & as well as your front two

Don't always think Attacking vs a weak side, especially with that setup as you're just asking to be countered 

Q1) Not sure I follow, what clash? Shorter passing has your team look to pass shorter than what's set on the team mentality. WBIB reduces crosses & long shots. Lower tempo has your team looking to move the ball on slower than the team mentality default. Time wasting looks to waste more time at set pieces. Play out of defence does just that. None of those clash but they're all fairly negative instructions

Q2) You can regroup if you want, but it's a fairly negative TI too. Like something a team not wanting to lose would do 

Q3) There's loads of questions here. You're AM & AF with cause a central overload which isn't always the best choice as the centre is heavily defended, it can work great if you're much better than the opposition. On the Pressing, yeah, you're right. DL too, yeah, right thinking . NCB & playing out from the back doesn't make sense, POOD is for when your defenders are good on the ball, the keeper passes to him & he'll hoof it so you may as well have your keeper hoof it 

[Dj-Voodoo]

46 minutes ago, Johnny Ace said:

Just a quick reply because I'm knackered after being up at 4am for the boxing 

Your line up looks a bit too attack heavy, 5 attacking roles is too many IMO, like you have two attack roles on the left flank with a supporting midfielder on that side, you're better off with a midfielder on defend on that side to cover that side of the pitch, then you have a WB(S) on the right side too, that sort of FB setup to me needs a DM with less than conservative fullbacks. Then you've got both wide midfielders on attack & as well as your front two

Don't always think Attacking vs a weak side, especially with that setup as you're just asking to be countered 

Q1) Not sure I follow, what clash? Shorter passing has your team look to pass shorter than what's set on the team mentality. WBIB reduces crosses & long shots. Lower tempo has your team looking to move the ball on slower than the team mentality default. Time wasting looks to waste more time at set pieces. Play out of defence does just that. None of those clash but they're all fairly negative instructions

Q2) You can regroup if you want, but it's a fairly negative TI too. Like something a team not wanting to lose would do 

Q3) There's loads of questions here. You're AM & AF with cause a central overload which isn't always the best choice as the centre is heavily defended, it can work great if you're much better than the opposition. On the Pressing, yeah, you're right. DL too, yeah, right thinking . NCB & playing out from the back doesn't make sense, POOD is for when your defenders are good on the ball, the keeper passes to him & he'll hoof it so you may as well have your keeper hoof it 

Johnny you're my FM Guardian Angel. I missed the bout but Fury was lethal, kind of how I want my team to be.

I think five attacking roles might be too heavy, maybe I'll change the AMC to a AM(s) with get further forward? The trouble is, I've learned that if I don't put pressure on the flanking defenders, the defense just collapses to the very middle and makes it impossible to get a shot off (a bit like how Kovac's Bayern and Low's Germany struggled). My analysts tell me league-dominating Dortmund play with a WB and CWB; I got crushed by a 5-2-3 Bayern who,it seemed, had every  player but the three CBs and one CM attacking down my throat. I want to leverage my superior players into taking more attacking risks.

Topic 1) In Possession, I can try getting rid of all of the instructions (in fact, I'd prefer to) and retain only WBIB to reduce crossing. Not a bad idea. 

Topic 2) I can disable Regroup as well, and see how I get on. 

Topic 3) If I go AF(a) + AM(s) (with Get Forward, Roam, and Channels) that might help diversify the attack, wouldn't it?

As for the formation:

AF(a)

AMs)

W(a) CM(s) CM(d) IW(a)

WB(d) CB(c) NCB(d) WB(s)

SK(s)

Changed the AM(a) to AM(s) and LFB to WB(d)

TIs: Positive, WBIB, Counter, Higher DL, More Urgent Pressing

 

Not satisfied with the left flank tbh but will try.

Edited October 10, 2021 by Dj-Voodoo

[Johnny Ace]

Try and watch a replay if you can, was a great fight!!

You're talking about an AM(S) then you switch to a Shadow Striker  I think an AM(S) would be perfect, just a simple role to link midfield & attack then put on the PI's that suit the player 

[Dj-Voodoo]

4 minutes ago, Johnny Ace said:

Try and watch a replay if you can, was a great fight!!

You're talking about an AM(S) then you switch to a Shadow Striker  I think an AM(S) would be perfect, just a simple role to link midfield & attack then put on the PI's that suit the player 

Ok ok fine, I was led astray by the ratemytactics app

[Johnny Ace]

1 minute ago, Dj-Voodoo said:

Ok ok fine, I was led astray by the ratemytactics app

I've just punched your lineup into it & it agrees with an AM(S) 

[Dj-Voodoo]

Just now, Johnny Ace said:

I've just punched your lineup into it & it agrees with an AM(S) 

What's going to happen this evening is I'll have my team rampaging through all friendlies and then come mid October struggle and panic and chop and change lol

[CARRERA]

2 hours ago, Dj-Voodoo said:

Question 1: My current understanding is as follows: Shorter Passing convinces players to pass-and-move (if they have forward movements on); WBIB confuses me to no end but I feel it has to do with when I'm in attacking form and "set-up" against the opponent; Dribble Less I don't understand; Play out of defense seems to be just like shorter passing; and Waste Time Sometimes seems to encourage back-passes and 'recycling the ball'. Can someone clarify how these work together or clash?

Shorter Passing: There are generally two intentions of playing a pass. Either to maintain possession (shorter passing) which often requires your team to play low risk or sideways / backward passes. Or you want to play the space behind your opponent (more direct passes) which often requires your team to play high risk passes at the risk of loosing possession.

Work Ball into Box: It asks your players to refrain from sh0ts and Crosses unless they are in a very comfortable position to score.

Dribble Less: It does exactly that, asking your players to rather look for a pass instead of running with the ball and trying to beat their defensive counterpart in a 1v1 situation.

Play out of defense: It instructs your defensive players (including DM Strata) to play their way out instead of just clearing the ball. They are asked to do it with shorter passes (see above).

Waste time: does exactly that, your players are trying to beat the clock by just hanging out at set-pieces and playing without any intent to score a goal. 

All those actually don’t really clash and can work together. However, as @Johnny Ace said, they are all rather negative instructions which may lead to a boring, non-scoring playstyle if activated all at once. 
 

2 hours ago, Dj-Voodoo said:

In Transition

• Counter
• Regroup
• Distribute to FBs

I tend to like the counter because it means if we win the ball in our own half the players that are going up aren't going to wait to shape up. With our speed and talent, it's a worthwhile instruction. 

I like the Regroup setting because I don't want my attacking four players to drift around hoping their teammates win back the ball, we have a lot of players in adventurous poses so it's important to keep some team discipline. Question 2: Any thoughts on this one?

You are playing on a positive mentality. In that case your players are already transitioning quickly from defense to offense so do you really want to further encourage that by activating counter TI? For Regroup just keep in mind that Regrouping from a positive mindset into the defensive shape may take some time as most players will end up high up the pitch when loosing possession. Usually a higher mentality does Suite more aggressive defensive styles. 

2 hours ago, Dj-Voodoo said:

Question 3:  More Urgent pressing or... Less Urgent pressing? I feel Less Urgent pressing is more focused on team shape and solidity, but it can backfire against the big teams with skill and flair. More Urgent pressing seems, to me, to harass opposing players and keep them off-tempo. What do you think?

Higher Defensive Line because, well, I want to compact the space and every good team plays with a higher defensive line.

More urgent pressing: Providing pressure to the first attack by attacking him early with one or more players to force him to make quick decisions and play on a higher tempo, which can lead him into a mistake but comes at the risk of being out of position. You usually want to press more urgent high up the pitch as it allows your team to make up for mistakes and close the gaps left behind.

Less Urgent Pressing: Does exactly the opposite and ask your players to provide pressure to the first attacker less urgently to keep the position and rather look to cut-off passing lanes. However, this will leave more time to the attacker to make a good decision. You usually want to use that if you are looking to defend with a low block to remain solidity.

defensive line: It determines the position to which your defensive players are willing to retreat before they start to provide pressure. generally spoken, a higher line does fit a high pressing style as it compresses the pitch and therefore helps your team to remain compact while moving around and pressuring the opposition. It comes at the risk of leaving more space behind your defensive line.

Edited October 10, 2021 by CARRERA

[VinceLombardi]

On 10/10/2021 at 04:52, Dj-Voodoo said:

For the first ~four seasons I played a disciplined counter-attacking 4-4-2 which got the best of league leaders Dortmund and Bayern plenty of times and allowed me to finish top4 easily. I've since struggled to shift into a team that can dominate games and go toe-to-toe against big clubs and I've dropped too many points against ultra-defensive teams which pip me on the counter. As such, I don't have much attachment to any overlying philosophy as much as I just want to be LETHAL like a sharp knife and take advantage of the god-given player talents I've accrued.

That said, I haven't felt the FM21 Match Engine can work very well with a higher tempo attacking side... but maybe someone can review my proposed set-up and give some advice:

As you transition from the underdog to the dominate team your tactics need to make the tactical transition to counter the more defensive formation you will face. You can still play the counterattacking or direct, high tempo systems but they require a bit more fine tuning to get right and you need to increase the risk taking to take advantage of your better players. This match engine works better at high tempo attacks than many in the past (eg. FM 18 was terrible for play up the middle) and the Match engine should not be holding you back from succeeding in this mission. 

To develop a successful tactic for the transition, you need to identify the major differences that the opposition will be doing against you as the dominate team as compared to the underdog and have a plan to deal with them.

1) The teams are going to reduce their pressing and give you more time on the ball. This is going to give you more time on the ball, particularly in your own half. This will enable you to have a more steady buildup out of your end and make it easier to retain possession when your defense recovers the ball.

2) They are going to play deeper defensive lines and a lower mentality which is going to cause their backline defenders to fall back into their own half quicker -- often without you directly challenging them. This means that they are often protecting the space behind the defensive line more than they are protecting the space in front of the defensive line. This is a huge shift from when you are the underdog and they try to trap you in your own half with a high defensive line and is likely the source of most of your problems.

3) The opposition is likely bring less bodies forward (and leaving more on defense) and their players may be coming up from a deeper strata (eg. MR instead of AMR or DMC instead of MC). This can make it harder for your players to identify the threats and if you continue to play defensive, it may give those guys that are starting their attack from deeper positions more time on the ball to make a play. Plus the additional defenders allow for more bodies to potentially recycle possession and keep the ball away from you.

The first two generally can be dealt with by some combination of lower tempo (to take advantage of your additional time on the ball), playing out of defense (same reason), and work ball into the box (to discourage speculative efforts and take advantage of the fact that they will let you work the ball around in front of the box). Additionally, you will want to increase your risk taking in a manner that suits the strengths of your team (eg. dribble more for fast teams that have great on the ball skills or pass into space/takes more risks/longer passing for teams that have great passers with vision and scorers that can get to the ball).

The last part can be dealt with by generally being more aggressive in defense. Even if you want to fall back into your own end, you want your players challenging the opposition each time they look to make a play. As you have the better players, and they aren't going to be throwing everybody forward, you can generally recover from a player stepping up and taking a chance on a tackle or interception. As such your going to want to close down more, mark tighter, and tackle harder so that they take those chances on defense. Note, you may not want all three, again this is just generally the kinds of instructions you should look to incorporate more in your tactic.

On 10/10/2021 at 04:52, Dj-Voodoo said:

 

Positive Philosophy -- to be adjusted to Attacking against weaker sides, Balanced/Cautious as necessary

In Possession

• Shorter Passing 
• Lower Tempo
• Waste Time Sometimes
• Fairly Narrow

I find myself a bit confused between Shorter Passing, Work Ball In Box, Dribble Less, Play out of defense, and Waste Time Sometimes.

Think of team mentality as a starting point, and then the other instructions you give (whether at the team or individual level) to be additive. Team mentality sets the starting point for all sorts of things, including tempo, passing length, lines of engagement, defensive lines, and pressing. You can make a tactic that is generally low risk with a balanced or cautious mentality, but you are going to then layer some higher risk instructions on top of it to bring it back up. As stated above, the better team should be seeking to take more risk as they have the skill advantage to recover when the risk fails but also the skill advantage to succeed more often with those risky actions. This is why most people have more success with a positive or attacking mentality as the stronger team and I would suggest that you use them as the starting point for your tactic. However, if you layer shorter passing/lower tempo back over the top of the positive mentality your taking some of that additional risk back out of the tactic and you may want to start higher. In particular, I would caution you against playing balanced/cautious with a shorter passing and lower tempo. That is going to extremely risk adverse, which may be useful to close out a game, but is not what you want as your primary tactic.

As a special aside in regards to shorter passing instructions, this is an instruction that is way overused and gets a lot of people into trouble. You do not need this instruction to build a strong possession based system or even a system based on short passes. More important to that sort of system is making sure that your spacing of players is such that you have lots of options for a pass nearby. Playing narrow is a great team instruction for that goal, but it also is extremely dependent on individual player roles/duties and your general attacking shape. Playing with a shorter passing instruction artificially limits your players to only looking for short passes, which may cause them to ignore passing options which are longer than instructed that they have the players vision and skill to identify and complete. Further if those short options aren't there, then the player is going to hoof the ball or force a pass that isn't there, turning over possession and actually hurting the possession system they are trying to build. My advice with passing length is to set it one tick higher than what you really want to see on the field. Just because the instructions allow for longer passes it doesn't mean that the players are always going to look to play it long. That is dictated more by tempo, takes more/less risks, and the individual player mentality (which is determined by player duty -- defend, support, attack -- and the team mentality).

On 10/10/2021 at 04:52, Dj-Voodoo said:

Question 1: My current understanding is as follows: Shorter Passing convinces players to pass-and-move (if they have forward movements on); WBIB confuses me to no end but I feel it has to do with when I'm in attacking form and "set-up" against the opponent; Dribble Less I don't understand; Play out of defense seems to be just like shorter passing; and Waste Time Sometimes seems to encourage back-passes and 'recycling the ball'. Can someone clarify how these work together or clash?

Fairly Narrow because I want to encourage the shorter passing, Lower Tempo because my players have flair and good movement.

Shorter passing puts a cap on the length of passes that a player is going to attempt. If there aren't passing options in the designate distance, they will force a pass that is or clear the ball. This does not encourage/discourage pass-and-move playstyle. If you want that style of play, what you want is lower tempo (assuming you have time to pick out the pass) and instructing players to dibble less, the team to not run at the defense, and avoiding players with PPM that have them run with the ball. Note that a lot of wide attacking player roles have dribble more hardcoded and so you will want to avoid those roles.

Work the ball into the box discourages crossing and long shots and is generally a good instruction for a team that can retain possession around the box and has a good means to recycle possession if an attack breaks down. Generally speaking it forces your team to take less shots, but the shots it does take are from better locations. For a better team, playing a standard, balanced tactic, you can expect to be able to support that style of play and I would encourage you to play around with it, particularly if you are trying to develop a "pass-and-move" style.

Dribble less instructs players to avoid running with the ball and instead look to pass it off to a teammate -- particularly if challenged by a defender that closes down on them. Again, this is a good instruction for a "pass-and-move" style.

Play out of defense shortens the passing length instructions and lowers the risk taking for your defensive players (including defensive midfield players). It also alters how you defenders line up when your goalkeeper gets the ball, causing them to play deeper around the keeper in an effort to give him more passing options. This is a good instruction if your defenders aren't great passers, however it requires that your midfield players are near your defenders to offer them a passing outlet. If you do not have the midfield players close enough to the defenders, you are going to run into the issues described above regarding short passing. Additionally, you will likely want more than one such midfield player to prevent the opposition from taking away the midfield link and causing your defenders to force passes/clear the ball. Finally, if you have this instruction on it will effect your ball playing defenders, fullbacks, wingbacks, and defensive midfielders (most notably a DLP). As such, if you have a good passing player in those positions or playing those roles, you will likely want to go into their individual instructions and kick them back up a notch to offset it and get them back to default behavior for their role.

Waste time Sometimes/often does exactly what is described on the tin. It causes your team to take more time during deadball situations and permits players to dwell on the ball if they aren't getting closed down. Generally speaking its more useful for the weaker team in a match, who looking to play more of an "anti-football" style. Additionally its good to close out games you are winning. The dwelling on the ball can be useful to force a defense to step up and challenge the ball carrier in an effort to create some space, but a better option for that result is typically lowering the tempo.

Narrow vs wide dictates the spacing between the players on attack and is most impactful on your wide players. It does cause the off center, central players (eg a MCL or MCR as opposed to an MC right in the middle) to play a little bit wider as well, but its effects are less pronounced. Playing more narrow is going to shorten your passing game as players will have more, closer passing options. Playing wide will require and cause longer passing. Note, playing wide, but with shorter passing instructions, may result in the issues indicated above in regards to passing length causing forced passes/clearances. While you may think that playing narrow is always the better option as it creates shorter passes and thus more possession, note that as your team gets better it likely has the skill and vision to support longer passing and those longer passes can be very useful to work around a stubborn defense. This instruction is a minor tweak, but can have a lot of knock on effects and it is worth experimenting with to determine what works for you. Generally speaking this is an instruction that I save for last while fine tuning a tactic and I may tweak it multiple times before I am satisfied with the result. 

On 10/10/2021 at 04:52, Dj-Voodoo said:

In Transition

• Counter
• Regroup
• Distribute to FBs

I tend to like the counter because it means if we win the ball in our own half the players that are going up aren't going to wait to shape up. With our speed and talent, it's a worthwhile instruction. 

I like the Regroup setting because I don't want my attacking four players to drift around hoping their teammates win back the ball, we have a lot of players in adventurous poses so it's important to keep some team discipline. Question 2: Any thoughts on this one?

Distribution, my GK has given the ball away too many times; I switch it around during matches between Distribution to FBs, CBs, or no instruction depending on how the opponent presses.

Either is a totally viable setting and really determines on how you want to build up your attacks, where you expect to recover possession and how direct you want to play. Note, that this instruction doesn't effect players until they determine that their team is going to get possession of the ball, so you shouldn't get too much "drift hoping their teammates win back the ball". Generally speaking a more possession based system is going to get more mileage out of Regroup as they are going to have a slower, more methodical buildup. This is doubly true if you are playing a bottom heavy formation like the 4-4-1-1 that you are suggesting. This is further true if you are stronger team and the opposing team is playing a deeper defensive line and not pressing as much. Given the rest of what you have said, I would suggest Regroup. Also note: you can also leave this blank and the team will just play as they see fit -- you don't need to set every instruction.

On 10/10/2021 at 04:52, Dj-Voodoo said:

Out of Possession

• More Urgent
• Higher Defensive Line

Question 3:  More Urgent pressing or... Less Urgent pressing? I feel Less Urgent pressing is more focused on team shape and solidity, but it can backfire against the big teams with skill and flair. More Urgent pressing seems, to me, to harass opposing players and keep them off-tempo. What do you think?

Higher Defensive Line because, well, I want to compact the space and every good team plays with a higher defensive line.

Generally speaking pressing is very effective in FM21 and so I would encourage at least a More Urgent pressing system with a higher line of engagement. Additionally, as discussed above, you will want to take some risks on defense and challenge the opposing team when you are the better team and this is the primary means to encourage the team to do that. Most players combine that with a Higher Defensive Line for exactly the reasons you mentioned. There are definitely situations and systems which deviate from that setup, but I would use that as a starting point.

Edited October 13, 2021 by VinceLombardi

[Dj-Voodoo]

Thank you @VinceLombardiand @CARRERA and @Johnny Ace for your detailed feedback.

I went back to the drawing board. Once again, I'm at work so I've transposed the tactic onto Rate My Tactic for visual purposes. Like I said, I don't particularly care for "style" as much as I want to dominate as much as possible, that said I am partial to positive, front-foot football so that precludes some styles by itself.

Here's what I have, two games into the season I'm 1-0-1. Crushed newly promoted Union Berlin with an easy 3-0 and lost a close one to a truly world-dominant Dortmund 3-1 Away (which was actually 2-1 until I went Very Attacking in the dying minutes). Not an ideal start but I feel it is encouraging, also I'm generally into 44-f'n-2s.

First tactic:

Positive, Higher Tempo, Lower Tempo, Higher DL, More Urgent Press

The two beige lines show my defensive bank with the flanking RM and LB in free and forward moving roles. The idea is to have vertical and horizontal movement along those black arrows. some PIs to reflect that, so the LCM and RCB have Stay Wider.

 

An alternative tactic is the following one, with the same instructions

Positive, Lower Tempo, WBIB, Higher DL, Higher LoE, More Urgent Press

 

 

 

Any thoughts? I have the players to basically play any style, I'm mostly top-heavy with some terrific talents on the Wings and Striker

[Johnny Ace]

Both look "interesting" to me  Only one way to find out if they're any good, but they look alright, I'd ditch the Lower Tempo though as it goes against your other instructions, keep it default 

The second formation concerns me a bit, I see the SS(S) as more a provider than an out & out goalscorer, paired with a CF(S) that's two provider/ creator in your front two but give it try  

Keep you eye on the left side when you defend too, wing-backs to me feel like a massive risk without a DM but that's me 

[CARRERA]

33 minutes ago, Dj-Voodoo said:

First tactic:

Positive, Higher Tempo, Lower Tempo, Higher DL, More Urgent Press

The two beige lines show my defensive bank with the flanking RM and LB in free and forward moving roles. The idea is to have vertical and horizontal movement along those black arrows. some PIs to reflect that, so the LCM and RCB have Stay Wider.

 

I would switch DLF and CF. The DLF can then drop into the space that is created by your DLP who is sitting deep. And the CM can make runs into the space that is created my your CF whos stretching the play vertically here and then. Wings Look Fine. Remove all stay wider instructions (I wouldn’t start out with PI for trying a tactic the first time). Also remove lower tempo as it is very easy to defend against a team that is making slow decisions. It’s not only you but also the other team that has more time to reorganize their defense. You need to play with tempo through the lines for breaking down a settled defense. 

[Dj-Voodoo]

Thanks fellas, I left the Tempo as neutral and swapped the FWDs. Let's see how it proceeds.