[FM22 - Creating a non-hoofball direct attacking team]

I've played 5 more games, lost another, penalty goal away against top 5 team, so not crying rivers over it. Scoring the most goals (28), but only 3rd in xG (22,07), which you can either angle that we're lucky, or congratulate Berg on being ridiculously effective (6,46 xG, 13 goals). Still best defense, both goals and xG. still suprised about this. Still having very fun with this save!

On 31/12/2021 at 16:49, engamohd said:

Thats a nice attempt, glad it is working well so far. Also, am very flattered to see my name in your tactical style name 😅

Haha I hope it's not weird! 😅

On 31/12/2021 at 16:49, engamohd said:

1. Did you instruct your front four to press more? I find this incredibly important to press around any long ball or turnover in possession.

That's a great point! I absolutely did! I haven't really tried any configuration without it 🤔 I don't know if using PI to trigger press means that the pressing is a bit more chaotic? Feel like no10 can run past the striker to press a defender and such. Like they're not that organized in the pressing. Have you tried having a higher LOE and Pressing Trigger and then use PI on defensive players to keep them in place?

On 31/12/2021 at 16:49, engamohd said:

2. I'd instruct the AM to move into channels, to replicate the Mezzala's runs.

It's funny that you say that! That's exactly what I did when I first set it up. I didn't want the Shadow Striker since I wanted the player to remain in the hole and be available, but didn't want the player to be a kind of passing conduit with any playmaker role. Ended up trying AM(A), but found that he still was picking his waiting position a bit too far forward. Switched to AM(S) to have him sit back and pick out passes a little, but still wanted those runs, so turned on the Move Into channels, and haven't really felt the need to fiddle with the AM(C) since then.

He isn't my main scorer at all, as I understand the plan of your Mezalla is, but again, Sana who is playing there isn't that great at banging in the goals. He's topping the assist-table with 8 assists in 15 matches, but that's probably aided by corners and freekicks. He doesn't pass a lot or very accurately, but I guess that's par for the course when every pass tries to create a goal. He's also 2nd on clear chances created.

On 31/12/2021 at 16:49, engamohd said:

3. I started to use default DL and LoE. Sometimes pushing the DL on tick higher. I find this more balanced and gets our defensive block more solid.

That makes sense. I haven't moved the DL any higher, I put it lower sometimes to deal with some of the ridicously fast strikers I come across. Our defenders aren't that quick I'm afraid ( 11 acc, 12/13 pac on the 2 main ones, then I have a veteran who is clearly a lot slower)

 

On 31/12/2021 at 16:49, engamohd said:

4. Take care of Berg, if he is getting isolated on the ball due to his attack duty.

That's not something I have noticed 🤔 It might be something I should look out for in games where our attack isn't working! I've used Attack mostly because he's actually a goal scorer, so I want him to make the runs on goal. I'll keep this in mind when trying to analyze games where we are having trouble creating attacks!

[FM22 - Creating a non-hoofball direct attacking team]

Since I wrote my last reply, I've restarted a save as IFK Gothenburg in Sweden, and played something inspired by this, but based around a 4-2-3-1.



And I have to say this combination has worked very well actually! I've chosen the 4-2-3-1 mostly to fit the personnel I have at hand, and that I don't really have any winger that can effectively cut in from the left. So I formed a 4-2-3-1 with Aiesh as a pretty standard winger on the right. 
I have the RB as a wb(S) right now, but he should probably be a FB(S) as @engamohd suggests, to be more playable to the defense than to the midfield, and also sit deeper to guard against counter attacks. I tried a few different variations of central midfielders, but I found CM(S) was going too much forward in attack, leaving no players to turn back to when players end up in cul-de-sacs. Even with DLP(S) and CM(D), due to the positive mentality, they will provide support in longer attacks, but mostly will remain back so that you have some player to turn to when you get stuck.

I still have a hypothetical personnel issue since neither of the 3 Offensive Midfield players are that good at scoring goals.. It works out because of the number of shots we get off, as well as Berg being in a good run of form, so it's not going badly, but there's an issue there for me.

Another change that I did was to pull LOE back one tick, and enable counter-press. Might be my players, but felt like i was not seeing the fighting for the ball after long balls on the striker that I wanted to see, but we did try to press the defense some times, without causing any real issues for them. Might be the skills of my offensive players, they're not pressing monsters. So I pulled it back one step, but enabled counter-press, and I feel it works somewhat. We try to press when we loose the ball, but don't loose our shape to harass defenders.

I also do have a 4-3-3 to whip out when I want to nullify opponents that play with a number 10, and they're good, as well as a 3-4-2-1 that I've used only a few times to try to negate some teams who play with 3 forwards (2xIF).

I've just lost the first game of the season, game number 10, in a game where the most defensive team in the league managed to run one past me, and then very much parked the bus. I can't remember when I played with positive mentality last, I found myself struggling with what to do when I need a goal, I usually switch cautious➡positive, but I'm already there! 😂

Again, if anything has surprised me, it's how good we've been at defending. We've conceded 5 goals (2nd lowest) in 10 matches, but more impressively, we've only allowed 27 shots on target, 2nd least has allowed 40. That's a positive I did not expect!
 

[FM22 - Creating a non-hoofball direct attacking team]

Great writing @engamohd! I found your articles about your direct attacking 4-4-2 by chance a week ago, so i was excited to see your new project.

I've been struggling with any kind of consistency in my IFK Göteborg, and wanted to play switch to single striker approach, so i copied your current setup. The attacking play has been very fun to see so far. IFs and Mezalla making lots of runs! But we've been leaking chances in the back so far. I've been playing with the lower block, but we're having an awful schedule with all the top teams. 

we have the familiarity now, so I'll try to see what i should try to adjust to be a bit tighter in the back.

i look forward to read your future updates. I'd love to have some writing about how you identify problems. What you look for. 

[[FM22][SKIN][WIP] FME - Zealand v4.00 HOTFIX (08/01/2022)]

This looks amazing! And I'm honestly shocked about the amount of features that can be included in a skin!

I'm curious if it's possible to make the touchline tablet adjustable in height just like it's adjustable in width?

['Exclude' options on player search page do not work.]

On 22/04/2021 at 21:48, calvg said:

My check boxes don't even appear

 

In a previou FM game I broke my exclude by importing a Staff Filter into Player Search. I could fix it by importing a Player Filter again. (If you don't have any saved player filter, create a fresh save, and save a player filter from there)

['Exclude' options on player search page do not work.]

Same here!
Been like this in all of FM21. My current version is

v21.4.0-1525123 (m.e v21.7.0.0)

EDIT: I could also add that the issue is the same on the "Staff Search" page. Opening the popover "Edit Search" and modifying the "Include" checkboxes there will not be saved. On the staff page, there's a workaround since you can open the small "Include"-dropdown from the main view, and the changes there will be saved and affect the search.