4-4-1-1 Assymmetric stopped working with Winter Update

[Arel]

Hello everyone! I'm managing in the South African Premier League with Chippa Utd I and created a tactic that suited the best player's positions: an asymmetric 4-4-1-1.

The tactic may vary depending on the opposition's tactic. Sometimes I play more narrow and on other occasions, I use my CMs as DMs (BWM(s) - DLP(s) or VOL(s) - DLP(s)) or even use the RM as an IW(a) too.

I was exceeding every expectation with this tactic: 5 consecutive clean sheets, almost 15 games undefeated when the media predicted us to finish in 16th out of 16.

Quote

And then, winter came...

After the Winter Update, nothing makes sense anymore... 8 winless matches: 7 defeats, and 1 draw... Almost like the team lost the will to live. Dynamics are abysmally low and I really don't know what to do... I tried some variations but nothing seems to work...

Some notes:
- low crosses because overall our team is short and does not have decent heading attributes.

What can I do to try and fix this save?

Edited March 7, 2023 by Arel

[Justified]

48 minutes ago, Arel said:

Hello everyone! I'm managing in the South African Premier League with Chippa Utd I and created a tactic that suited the best player's positions: an asymmetric 4-4-1-1.

The tactic may vary depending on the opposition's tactic. Sometimes I play more narrow and on other occasions, I use my CMs as DMs (BWM(s) - DLP(s) or VOL(s) - DLP(s)) or even use the RM as an IW(a) too.

I was exceeding every expectation with this tactic: 5 consecutive clean sheets, almost 15 games undefeated when the media predicted us to finish in 16th out of 16.

After the Winter Update, nothing makes sense anymore... 8 winless matches: 7 defeats, and 1 draw... Almost like the team lost the will to live. Dynamics are abysmally low and I really don't know what to do... I tried some variations but nothing seems to work...

Some notes:
- low crosses because overall our team is short and does not have decent heading attributes.

What can I do to try and fix this save?

At first glance I'd say PIS + WBIB + Counter + Overlaps doesn't really make sense to me. WBIB + Overlaps feels more like a patient possession instruction but PIS and Counter are more fast and direct. Judging by roles and duties I'd say you're looking to be quite fast in transition so I'd potentially lose WBIB + Overlaps and see how that goes. WB's will overlap naturally anyways. I'd keep an eye on PIS and Counter because these I use situationally if there is space to actually attack. Otherwise you just run into a brick wall if the opposition is parking the bus.

Consider maybe a FBsu at right back as well. The Wat keeps the width anyways plus your centre mids could be caught out at times.

[Arel]

37 minutes ago, Justified said:

At first glance I'd say PIS + WBIB + Counter + Overlaps doesn't really make sense to me. WBIB + Overlaps feels more like a patient possession instruction but PIS and Counter are more fast and direct. Judging by roles and duties I'd say you're looking to be quite fast in transition so I'd potentially lose WBIB + Overlaps and see how that goes. WB's will overlap naturally anyways. I'd keep an eye on PIS and Counter because these I use situationally if there is space to actually attack. Otherwise you just run into a brick wall if the opposition is parking the bus.

Consider maybe a FBsu at right back as well. The Wat keeps the width anyways plus your centre mids could be caught out at times.

Okay @Justified, I'm going to try those changes! Just another thing: how do you know when there's space to attack or not? Or even when to play narrow or wider, depending on the opponent.

Edited March 7, 2023 by Arel

[z464]

I would remove all but left pass into space see how it goes . 

Also distribute to all four backs instead of just full backs.  

[Justified]

59 minutes ago, Arel said:

Okay @Justified, I'm going to try those changes! Just another thing: how do you know when there's space to attack or not? Or even when to play narrow or wider, depending on the opponent.

You should be able to tell when you're watching the match. If you're not getting the ball into the space because the opposition are sitting back then it's basically not working. Because you're not "camping" in the opponents half, it could working for you if you have pace up front. I usually use it when I want to exploit a team trying to attack me hard and I can counter using the space they leave in behind. To be honest though, I've not used it a lot recently as I find direct + counter pretty much do the same thing if I'm using that sort of strategy.