Trying to develop a counter tactic

[st.cronin]

Just now diving in to 23, first save with Morton in Scottish championship.

Trying to develop a defensively solid, counter attacking tactic. Struggling in preseason friendlies - offense non existent, defense seemy ok but just dealing with too much pressure as we aren't sustaining any kind of attack. 

Please help 🙏

[Johnny Ace]

Okay some good news, don't put too much stock into preseason friendlies, they're basically glorified kick abouts but this is a great time to get your players match fit and familiar with your system, I can see it's about half way there so the quality of football will improve 

Going through your roles, I think you could change a few things for the better. On the left you have a WB and CM on Attack, I think if you going with the WB(A) you'd want the Anchor on his side of the pitch so I would swap over the DM & CM so the Anchor can sit and allow the WB forward

Then, I wouldn't use a CM(A) in a 4-4-2, you want to keep the middle tight and solid but the CM(A) is the most attacking CM role in the game, you could use a BMW/CM/ BBM here or even drop the role down to DM to form a 4-4-2 DM 

The Out of possession instructions,  a low block may not be needed, it'll already be pretty low but you can watch out for that during your games and adjust the DL and LOE as you see fit. I'd remove the Prevent Short GK Distribution too, that's for high pressing teams and doesn't go hand in hand with your other TIs 

If you playing against a weaker team that's not attacking you, you may need a plan B

There's a good ongoing counter tactic thread here you might want to check out:

 

[st.cronin]

Thanks ace for the reply.

I used a lower loe to try and keep things compact, and I've found in prior versions that for sitting deep it works better than a lower line of defense. 

The CM/a is a role I love and suits some of my midfielders, but after thinking about it I normally do use that only in lone striker formations. So I'm changing that to CM/s. May try a mezzala if I think I need more juice.

I'll try swapping the midfield around and also remove the "prevent short gk distro" ti.

Thanks again for the reply.

[Johnny Ace]

34 minutes ago, st.cronin said:

The CM/a is a role I love and suits some of my midfielders, but after thinking about it I normally do use that only in lone striker formations. So I'm changing that to CM/s. May try a mezzala if I think I need more juice.

Totally agree, the CM(A) is awesome, but when you only have a midfield two, it's a wee bit risky, especially with a WB(A) and no central (or left sided) DM