Mitja

Dribble less+ higher tempo might be too demanding and sterile that's my experience at least. I'd use dribble less only against teams who defend deep. I'm not a fan of how football looks on higher mentalities without playing with dribble less simply because wide players are able to dribble and gain space too easily. At home against some teams you might pull it off. I really like the combo of balanced mentality + much shorter passing + slightly higher tempo. Without DL.

433 is quite defensive formation it's really hard to get it to work well. It can be sterile in attack due to MCs behaviour. And it's hard to apply pressure against teams who play with DM or MCd which means almost all teams. You can play 4231 like 433 without having to deal with these two issues. That being said Real rules world on my save with fluid tiki-taka very similar to yours but with support duty MC instead of attack duty.

Game is punishing you for playing asymmetric perhaps.

Because they were so much better than all other at that age. And then naturally they had potential which they managed to achieve. In FM terms their starting CA was exceptional and that's what separated them not fixed PA which should be universal not fixed. All players at same age can theoretically improve by same margin, of course with many limiting factors determining it's success.

I'm not sure if I understand you well but the only time I would want extra man protecting two centre backs is against two strikers. Attack duty AM or SS can count as second centre forward. So you want your back 3 against their two centre forwards. If they are using AMs or playmaker then the other combination might work better. If it doesn't just flip your centre midfielders. Anyway I agree with you this thing is very important and just flipping MCs can do wonders.

Defensive shift doesn't occur naturally. What's you want is your AMC tracking back into side of opposition DLPd which means that your MCd must also be on DLPd side if you know what I mean. It's simple. Then your AMC is directly responsible for dlp, your support duty MC for their support duty MC and your MCd for their AMC.

Underlap instruction will increase the likelihood of your widest player to look for pass and it works nice with WBIB.

Lower mentality will make you play little more cautious in general and keeping possession much easier. But on standard or lower tempo there won't be much going on and that's where high tempo kicks in. With right players it will produce football which creates nice pressure. But of course it comes with reduced possession stats especially against equal teams. One thing I would turn off in your tactics is hold shape. Let players decide to counter or not.

Play the same tactic on lower mentality balanced or cautious. Also higher tempo will put your opponent under more pressure.

Having plenty of experience with dribble less and I'm pretty sure it will only make things worse. Lower mentality, shorter passing, lower tempo, underlaps or overlaps might help a little but I think wide players generally still run with ball a little too much and are too selfish.

Yes him and your number 16. It looks like Christensen was free free for quite some time. Poor defending or tiredness but it happens unfortunately.

You are playing already narrow formation even narrower in such congested space it's no wonder your central midfielders don't provide more. Nature of your formation is it needs more width. I would expect more problems next season when teams start playing more defensive against you.

Play them as IFs or IWs. Dribble less, WBIB + underlap will help a little too.

It's much more improved especially on lower mentalities interplay on the flanks is quite good. On higher mentalities blocking happens more. I don't know why.

That's because all other things equal with more attacking mentality style is counter attacking and with more defensive it's safer and more possessional. Quite the opposite to what you would expect. It has always been like that unfortunately.