Looking for advice on improving my tactic, especially its performance in away matches

[MINTED BLOB]

Hello everyone! As I do every season on FM, I've started out this edition of the game with my beloved Manchester United. After a few failed test runs in friendlies, I decided that my best approach is to keep it simple as far as tactics are concerned. My reasoning is that I've got a talented group of players available to me, and I don't want to restrict them too far with an abundance of team instructions. So with that in mind, here is my tactic: 

As I've said, there's nothing particularly clever going on here. I wanted the side to play a high-pressing game, so the bulk of my team instructions are based around achieving that goal. Beyond that, I've only set two instructions for how I want the team to play in possession of the ball: 

• Distribute to Centre Backs: This is based on the fact that I have centre backs who are good at progressing of the ball and forward players who aren't spectacular in the air, so I'd rather have the ball progressed via these centre backs than kicked long to the forwards. 
• Low Crosses: Again, this is based on the lack of aerial presence in my forward line. I believe they're better placed to score from lower crosses than those aimed at their heads.

Beside these two, I've opted not to set any hard instructions for my team in possession. I'm not particularly adept at the tactical side of the game anyway, so I'd sooner trust that the talent levels of my players will see them use the ball effectively than overload them with team instructions the implications of which I probably don't fully understand. To give a complete picture of roughly what I'm looking for from my tactic, I'll briefly go over the player roles and why I've chosen them: 

Goalkeeeper: I'm not looking for anything fancy from De Gea. As he is in real-life, I mainly need him to be a reliable shot-stopper when the opponents do break through my defensive line. This is why his role is set simply as a Goalkeeper with the Defend duty. 

Centre Backs: Again, I'm not after anything especially complex from my centre backs. I mainly want them to hold the line in defence and play passes through the opposition press to the full backs and midfield. As such, I've picked two Central Defenders with Defend duties for my base tactic. On some occasions, I'll switch this so that one of the defenders (typically Maguire) is a Stopper and the other is a Covering player, and I do this when I notice opposition strikers beating the defensive line consistently. 

Full Backs: On the left, I want my full back to overlap the inside forward and give him passing options without sacrificing his ability to provide cover in defence. I've gone with a Full Back with an Attack duty here, although I am considering whether the Wing Back role could be more suitable for this player. On the right, I mainly want the full back to provide a passing option out wide and balance his attacking and defensive duties. This is why I've gone for a simple Full Back with a Support duty for this player. 

Midfield: The heartbeat of my team. The defensive midfielder is stationed primarily to offer protection to the backline and play simple passes to the more creative midfielders in front of him, although I'm happy for him to play longer passes to the forward line if the opportunity arises. I decided that a Defensive Midfielder role with a Defend duty is best suited to deliver these requirements, although this is another position I've considered changing. The Roaming Playmaker is the creative hub of my side, and essentially I'm looking for a lot of our play to be funneled through him. Rounding off the midfield, the Mezzala with a Support duty is there to provide passing options to my inverted winger and midfielders and providing support around the penalty area. 

Forwards: The Inside Forward with a Support duty is intended to be my creative forward player, providing a passing option for the midfield and looking to play through balls to the striker and cross-field passes to the inverted winger on the opposing flank. The Inverted Winger on the other flank with an Attack duty looks to stretch the opposition defence (hence he has a stay wider player instruction), using his dribbling ability to create panic before other shooting or passing to forward players in space. The Deep Lying Forward on Attack rounds off the team by dropping deep to provide further passing options in the centre before using his acceleration to run beyond the opposition's defensive line. 

And with this summary of what I'm trying to get from my side, here are the results: 

It's hardly spectacular, but also not horrendous. Considering the first transfer window was disabled, I think it's a respectable start to the season with a side that has a pretty great first team but lacks something in the way of squad depth. However, I'm not altogether happy with some of the performances. As the chart below shows, my team is some way off the top two when it comes to chance creation: 

This is reinforced by the fact that there is quite a heavy reliance on goals from corners, with a higher percentage of my team's goals resulting from corners than any other side in the league: 

Perhaps the biggest "problem" for me has been the stark discrepancy between my team's performances at home and away from home. As the two charts show below, whilst I'm yet to drop any points in matches at Old Trafford this season, the side hasn't been as impressive on the road. Whilst our away form is not disastrous, we've dropped a number of points in matches I think were winnable, and even some of the wins came in spite of some pretty average performances:

With all this said, I was wondering if any of the more seasoned tacticians could offer some thoughts on my tactical set-up and any potential improvements that could be made which might improve my performances, particularly away from home. Even writing this up I already have a few thoughts of my own but I'd be curious to here what insights some of you have to offer. I'll also add that I'd rather receive more generic advice (e.g. I don't see who is making runs from midfield) than specific "you should change this player's role". 

Many thanks in advance for any help you have to offer! 

(Should anyone like me to provide more information or graphics to help in this regard, I'd be happy to provide them as and when I can) 

[sonnevillejr]

Perhaps your lack of chance creation comes from the fact that you don't have any pure goalscorer role in your team, everyone is a creator. Plus your CMs may not have much space too operate since your wide players are quite narrow. You could also use your forwards speed a bit more in transition

Otherwise you seem decent defensively, consider being a bit more careful about pressing and counter pressing against stronger teams