Too safe in possession

[GonzaloFlores]

I've attempted to recreate Pep's tactics (as many do) and feel I've got pretty close with the setup and the way we control the ball but I feel we are too safe in possession which ends up with us not creating enough chances. In the league, we had three 0-0 draws in a row followed by a 1-0 loss with a combined xG of 2.6 across those 4 games.

I decided to watch 2 games on full highlights to get an idea of what the problem is. I watched against Arsenal (were 4th at the time) and Sunderland (18th) to see if there were any common themes.

1. The 2 holding midfielders (DLP and LIB) regularly took the safe option of passing to the back 3 rather than trying to feed the ball into the forward 4.

2. The BBM doesn't really contribute anything. 1 goal and 2 assists in 24 league games is a lot less than I would expect from that role. Rigg is still quite young and developing so I might be expecting too much but I think that role should provide more.

3. Both wide players struggle to get involved with much of the play. I've chopped and changed roles on the wings between W/IW/IF and switching the left footer and right footer around but not found any success so far.

Overall I think the first issue is the biggest one. If I can get those 2 to provide the ball for the creative 4 more often then that may solve the other 2 issues.

If it helps I'm 4 years into my save and am now an established mid table prem side.

[CARRERA]

There is almost no support from deeper areas, as both midfielders are on support and both wide defenders are on defend. Your team is most likely heavily outnumbered in attack. Also every single instruction in possession is about taking low risks and slowing down the play.

e.g. you ask your whole team to dribble less, but all of your attacking players are natural dribbling roles. Why is that? 

You also ask your team to play very disciplined in the final third, for what reason? 

Those are just two examples. What im trying to say is, that you need to allow your players taking some risk at one point to actually break down a defensive block. Especially in the final third. 

[NineCloudNine]

In my experience BBM’s need coaxing to get forward. Give them that PI and ideally train Gets Forward Whenever Possible PPM.

I’d also take off Be More Disciplined as although it feels right for a Pep team, in FM it seems to greatly reduce attacking verve.

Your GK distribution is also highly restrictive. Altogether your collection of TIs is quite the straightjacket. You can give your players - at least the creative ones - a lot more permission to play football IMO 

[GonzaloFlores]

On 02/01/2024 at 04:31, CARRERA said:

There is almost no support from deeper areas, as both midfielders are on support and both wide defenders are on defend. Your team is most likely heavily outnumbered in attack. Also every single instruction in possession is about taking low risks and slowing down the play.

e.g. you ask your whole team to dribble less, but all of your attacking players are natural dribbling roles. Why is that? 

You also ask your team to play very disciplined in the final third, for what reason? 

Those are just two examples. What im trying to say is, that you need to allow your players taking some risk at one point to actually break down a defensive block. Especially in the final third. 

Thanks for the advice. I took off Be More Disciplined and Work Ball Into Box and saw almost instant results. We still have the control from the defence and midfield but the forward line are a lot more creative now that they have the freedom to do what they can do. I've kept the dribble less instruction on though. I found the defenders would attempt to dribble past players if I took that off and that's not what I wanted from this tactic.

On 02/01/2024 at 07:11, NineCloudNine said:

In my experience BBM’s need coaxing to get forward. Give them that PI and ideally train Gets Forward Whenever Possible PPM.

I’d also take off Be More Disciplined as although it feels right for a Pep team, in FM it seems to greatly reduce attacking verve.

Your GK distribution is also highly restrictive. Altogether your collection of TIs is quite the straightjacket. You can give your players - at least the creative ones - a lot more permission to play football IMO 

I've started training Rigg to get further forward so will hopefully see an improvement from him. He is still young enough to be moulded into what I want from that position which is good. None of my forward line are particularly big so I didn't want the GK wasting possession by hitting it long but I could probably give him more freedom to make their own decision on when to go short and when to hit it long.

 

[dankrzyz]

On 02/01/2024 at 00:11, NineCloudNine said:

In my experience BBM’s need coaxing to get forward. Give them that PI and ideally train Gets Forward Whenever Possible PPM.

Agreed with the GFF instruction. Also, consider his contribution in other ways, besides goals & assists.

[khodder]

On 02/01/2024 at 11:05, GonzaloFlores said:

I've attempted to recreate Pep's tactics (as many do) and feel I've got pretty close with the setup and the way we control the ball but I feel we are too safe in possession which ends up with us not creating enough chances. In the league, we had three 0-0 draws in a row followed by a 1-0 loss with a combined xG of 2.6 across those 4 games.

I decided to watch 2 games on full highlights to get an idea of what the problem is. I watched against Arsenal (were 4th at the time) and Sunderland (18th) to see if there were any common themes.

1. The 2 holding midfielders (DLP and LIB) regularly took the safe option of passing to the back 3 rather than trying to feed the ball into the forward 4.

2. The BBM doesn't really contribute anything. 1 goal and 2 assists in 24 league games is a lot less than I would expect from that role. Rigg is still quite young and developing so I might be expecting too much but I think that role should provide more.

3. Both wide players struggle to get involved with much of the play. I've chopped and changed roles on the wings between W/IW/IF and switching the left footer and right footer around but not found any success so far.

Overall I think the first issue is the biggest one. If I can get those 2 to provide the ball for the creative 4 more often then that may solve the other 2 issues.

If it helps I'm 4 years into my save and am now an established mid table prem side.

Just spitballing here;

You're trying to create what looks like a 3-2 in build up; but with the two players in the CM spot on support you might be seeing more of a 3-4 in build up, with no easy access through to the players on the wing. You've also got a player who is going to attract the ball on a defensive role, a player who is going to cycle possession, but not split defenses. I'd perhaps try the playmaker higher up the pitch (RPM or DLP in the CM strata) and ask your CM's to be a touch more aggressive (BBM to CM(A).

Given you're very narrow at the bottom, you have to play wingers for mine. Let the people player those spots settle into a W(A) and W(S) role before judging them. Maybe look to see how something like this goes.