davidbarros2

Well, IMO there are ways to achieve what you want besides changing mentality, cause that will affect other settings aswell. To break up defensive sides you might wanna try simple tweaks such as be more expressive, or upping your defensive line, perhaps changing your MC to a B2B to have more presence in the box... Obviously don't try this all at once, but see if it helps and what changes are you seeing on the pitch that makes you feel you're closer to whant you want to achieve.

If opposition are being more cautious about you, why do you want to lower your mentality?

Loving the thread and its concepts so far! Just wanna make a small observation regarding tactical periodisation: the day after a matchday isn't an off day on the traning cycle or microcycle (theory). That day should be active recovery, what you called a light recovery day. This is according to science and the ideal conditions on theory. What happens in real life is the mental part of the game, where players don't have the appropriate mindset to rest in the night after a matchday and get up early the day after in order to travel to the training ground to do some recovery work... so, real life does not match the theory. In real life most managers nowadays do what you described, swapping the 1st and 2nd day of the training cycle/mycrocicle to accomodate the mental part of the game, letting the players rest the day after matchday, Keep up the good work, and I think you did a good job explaining tatical periodisation in a simple way so everyone can understand it, FM related or not

Have you considered Villareal, Feyenoord or Lille?

Fantastic initiative and great insight into shouts! @herne79 is it possible for you to share some detailed league stats? As in... if you have a low shots on target ratio maybe could be worth a try to add the "Work ball into box" TI, or if your team isn't creating enough chances maybe we could try adding "Be more expressive" or give some players the instruction to take more risks... Don't get me wrong, I love the minimalistic, "vanilla" tactic and it's a fantastic starting point and it works (as you've shown), but I mainly use TI's and PI's to sort out some aspects I detect through seeing the games or analyzing the stats, and with your feedback relying solely on body language doesn't give us the feeling of what's going on on the pitch and what difficulties are you experiencing and how do you stand compared to other teams in the league

Sure! As I said it's based on this thread so it's actualy close to yours after you applied the suggestions given. From right to left: Sweeper Keeper - defend Fullback - support Centreback - defend Ball playing centreback - defend Fullback - attack Box to box - support Centre midfielder - defend Winger - attack Trequartista - attack Inside forward - support Poacher - attack Team instructions are: Shorter passing Play out of defense Work ball into box Be more expressive Overlap right Roll it out Counterpress Counter Higher defensive line Prevent short GK distribution No player instructions given or OI's...

Following my last comment, and don't wanting to hijack the thread but I see many people struggling with getting a 4231 to work, based on possession, and getting the most out of the AMC. Don't mind my team (this isn't how I normally play the game), it's Everton but it's custom made having replaced the likes of Richarlison, Bernard, Sigurdsson for Martial, Kane and Dybala, so yeah, it's better then the default Everton squad (at least in attack). As you can see, using a simple 4231 with no PI's, having based the player roles, duty and TI's solely on the opinions given in this thread, I won the premier league using possession based football and creating a great ammount of quality chances. My striker was the league goalscorer and my AMC was my primary assist (and not from set pieces), topping the relevant statistic charts. I also obtained a good balance between scoring through cross or through ball. Sorry for the images in portuguese - I'm willing to translate something if you need to - I just wanna thank again for the sound advise given here.

Just a lurker here, but I found the need to tell you what a great discussion about the 4231 this is. Having run a similar tactic this thread gave me great insight and I learnt a lot. Thank you @Experienced Defender and @summatsupeer

I wonder if in FM 2019 the playing no players on attack dutty will increase overall mentality is still valid... anyone knows? In FM 2019 I find the CF (S) is not a goal threat if there aren't any attack duties around...

@Experienced Defender can you elaborate more on mentality, TI's and PI's you use? It seems like a good setup to put in the field the best players of united and drain the best out of them!

Can I ask what's your version of the 4231 to accomodate Félix? Of course, if it's somehow based on this thread's principles, otherwise I wouldn't hijack the thread's focus...

I am also intrigued of your interpretation of João Félix as "the ponta de lança". From what I understood your PI's are solely drible more for CB and Get furtwer forward for the 3 players in the AM strata? Regarding training... and again João Félix, do you use complete forward or roaming playmaker?

As a lifelong Porto fan I watch almost all of Benfica games and in fact they play a very good brand of football. Regarding player roles I can make a few observations: André Almeida (right back) - not even close to a complete wing back. I would say FB (S) or WB (D), most adventurous guess would be WB (S) Ruben Dias and Jardel/Ferro (centre backs) - regular centre backs, nothing fancy about them Pizzi (right midfielder) - wide midfielder on support with PI's to mimic a wide playmaker, perhaps with get further forward Rafa (left midfielder) - mostly an atacking inverted winger. I would put him in wide midfielder on attack with PI's to make him act as an inverted winger João Félix (forward) - the player role you assigned him could work (i like it ) but I would put him in AM strata as a Trequartista (just like Foriestieri used to play for Sheffield Wednesday under Carvalhal - Lage's former boss) Seferovic (forward) - he doesn't run with the ball nor does he play very high on the pitch, so I would opt out of advanced forward or poacher. He's not technically very gifted and he's a workhorse, probably DFL on attack or defensive forward on attack

Gotta love that simplicity !!!

@dan_bre_1988 If you want Pogba to shine you gotta give him space to do just that. In my opinion you got some issues such as: IF may occupy some space Pogba could operate TM isn't drawing away the defenders, pushing them next to their goal or give them something to worry about I can't clearly see your TI's so I'll just focus on the player roles There can be many ways to address these issues, and I'm sure you are capable of doing that perhaps even better than me. Anyway, I managed United in a save with default squad and my setup was pretty much like yours so I'll tell you how I lined up (and Pogba did some monster seasons!) GK defend - De Gea CWB support - Dalot (WB attack when I played Young) BPD cover - Lindelof CB defend - Baily FB support - Shaw DLP defend - Matic BBM support - Herrera (but I reckon a carrillero can work just as good) Mezzala attack - Pogba Raumdeuter attack - Lingaard or Sanchez (Lingaard was amazing due to his off the ball and work rate) Winger support - Martial (he will play much life an IF cause he's right footed, but will be closer to the line giving Pogba those sweet spots on the center-left side of the pitch) AF attack - Rashford For strikers it's all about supply and support, and creating variety of routes to goal, which I think you achieved in some way, but a miedfielder (mezzalla), will attack the space constantly, so you gotta give him just that, space! Even a slight modification could have a chain reaction sometimes, for instance, if you set up your right WB to attack instead of support, he will push higher up, deliver more crosses, which would turn your Raumdeuter more centrally, ocuppying more the centre backs, giving them a hard time to look out for your Raumdeuter and Target Man which in its turn will give your mezzala more space or time on the ball, and so on...