Luizinho

This is a consistent occurrence in FM19 I'm afraid and I don' think there's anything you can do to avoid it (unless you tried focusing more of your play through the middle). However I don't think any of us should have to sacrifice wide play in order to do that. It's a known issue that will hopefully get fixed for FM20.

I don't think there's anything massively out of place, although I imagine sometimes you fail to create proper chances? The reason I say this, is that there's a lack of movement between the lines. While I appreciate you're trying to control the game and therefore trying to play patiently, a direct runner from deep can be really effective, in any system. To add to this, if a team is sitting deep using a lone striker on a support duty can help create more space for said runners - otherwise a PF (A) doesn't have a lot of room to attack. Perhaps changing the IF on the left to an attack duty and the PF to a support may help? You'd then have quite a nice balance of duties.

That's exactly why it's a good instruction, if you wanted to play like that. I've used it to great effect in a possession system, with good dribblers. You can always use PIs for individuals to dribble more.

I wanted to avoid starting another thread, so thought I'd hijack this one... Does anyone have any thoughts on how Luis Enrique lined up in terms of roles? I was really impressed with how he used Messi, Suarez and Neymar (MSN) together and was interested to see whether it can be translated into FM? He really got them firing. This is going to be my starting point - I've deliberately kept it quite simple.

I'd never start a game with Work Ball into Box selected, regardless of what style I was playing. I only use it if my team are taking too many 'pop shots' or having a lot shots without creating proper chances. I think it 's good to use it game by game depending on how things are going and reacting accordingly. As for the tactic, I was reading a Career Update, where I think someone just used the counter preset and it worked really well for them. I'll try to find it and link if I can. This is what I'd do, as it will give a good base to build from.

So game time isn't essential for a player under 18? If they're good enough to play for the 1st team, should we avoid it until they're over 18 before being played more regularly?

Might be due to the duties you're using on certain roles. An attack duty in system that uses higher mentalities, become very attacking. Can be useful, but if you do in fact want to play more patiently, changing duties from attack to support could help. That said, I don't know your duty allocation.

This a great post. It shows how simple it can be to make a system flexible and flamboyant in the attacking phase.

Are you referring to mentality here or something behind the UI? Would you be able to elaborate?

Thanks. I've always thought of Pass Into Space as - "Play the ball in behind the opponents defensive line". Always learning with FM

If you'd like to get all those offensive players in the team and play a simple possession game, you could do something along the lines of the following: Mentality: Positive Team Instructions: Shorter Passing, Play Out Of Defence, Be More Expressive and Focus Play Through Middle Transition: Counter Press Out of possession: Higher LOE, Higher Defensive Line and More Urgent Pressing DLP (S)- De Jong AP (A) - Eriksen IF (S) - Countino IF (A) - Messi CF (S) - Griezmann

Is the Pass Into Space TI basically asking your whole team to take more risks with their passing?

I'm looking to do a save with Barcelona when FM20 comes out - so I've been thinking to how I'd like set-up to best utilise their new look side. I guess firstly it comes down to how you want to play - whether that's looking to replicate the 'Barca' way or trying something different and putting your own spin on things. For me it's the former, so I'll looking to play an aggressive system that also retains the ball well. I'll therefore look for inspiration through articles online around Pep's Barca team, his current City team and also Enrque's Barca that famously utilised the MSN (Messi, Neymar and Suarez). Perhaps this is something you could do? This set-up is overly aggressive and unbalanced - it will leave you exposed. You need have players that will protect you against the counter-attack, to which you currently have 1, your central defender. Remember you can play an aggressive, expansive system that's still defensively sound. My main bit of advise would be to keep it simple. The penny dropped for me back in FM17 and I've been far more successful since. I do sometimes get carried away and end having way to many PIs and TIs, so I have always tell my self to simplify things.

Why don't you try it out and let us know? You need to understand that you're relying heavily on your Advanced Playmaker to be the nucleus of your offensive play. Is he up to the task? Also what happens if the opposition nullify him or he's having poor game? I'm not sure that's how these two roles interact. Personally I find they play in the same area (half-space) and get in each others way.

Due to the duties you've used, the front three (DLF & both IFs) are all going to be quite narrow in the final third and will generally look to be playing in the same area of the pitch (central). Not necessarily a bad thing, but just consider this when things aren't working for you during a match. You're also using a balanced mentality, which I find can make support duties fairly passive. Again, not necessarily a bad thing, but as far I can see you don't anyone the team showing a lot of attacking intent in your team. It will result in patient play, which I appreciate is the game plan, but I can imagine at times you're play can be quite toothless? You're worried it about it being one dimensional yet you're using exactly the same roles and duties on both wings. I don't understand that? It all comes down to what you want them to do? It's pointless having varied roles for sake of variation, if they're not contributing to your overall strategy. I've used a system where I've used two generic CM roles with support duties. It worked for me, because I needed them to a certain role for my team. They didn't score, assist or offer any real threat from central midfield, but I didn't need them to as it was provided by positions. -------- As mentioned your front three are all looking to play or attack the space where you'd typically find an AMC ('The Hole'). So for example, if you chose an Advanced Playmaker as on your central midfielders, do you think that would work? Not trying to condescend, just trying to get you to answer your own question*