CJ_Randell

You have to remember that what you're dealing with is a game, it can't replicate real life and there are always going to be tactics that favour the match engine. I've tried a lot of times to translate things from real life into FM without success. You have to lean into what the match engine prefers a little bit, high pressing, counter pressing and counter attacking should give you a solid base and aligns with the style you wanted to play. From there on its a case of finding a happy medium between how you want to play with the ball and how the match engine wants you to play.

I'd go with a CWB-At on the left, he'll be hard coded to hold his width on the left, and you need a player on each flank doing that. Add roam to the IF, and CM-At, I think the DLF will already have it hard coded, this encourages them to find pockets of space which will benefit the Positional Play style. I'd also switch the BWM to a role that is hard coded to hold position, at the moment you run the risk of having only your 2 centre backs as your rest defence.

I'd maybe be tempted to push the wing backs into the wingback position further up the pitch and change the DM to a Half Back.. Create a 3421 in possession.

You'd have to make sure the tactic is built for them to be the main goalscoring outlet. Playing a 433 for example, have the striker vacate the space by dropping into midfield, have the fullback overlap to force the IF more central and the CM behind them needs to hold position as not to get in his way.

I found this to be useful to help build a platform, he also provides 2 example tactics. Personally, I've found possession football to be too passive in recent FM's and have much more success with transitional tactics.

Maybe add some team instructions to encourage a different stlye of play, for example, he's quick so try pass into space, whipped crosses and dribble more. Get the team to play to his strengths.

His goal return is pretty solid for a wide player in a supporting role. Perhaps changing him to an Attacking duty would see him more involved in the box and dropping deep less often. Or you could play him in the ST position? His pace, movement and finishing are elite, having him out wide or in deeper positions doesn't make sense, especially when his long shots aren't great, which as an IF-Su he probably finds himself outside the box more often than not.

I'm beginning to think it's a back 3 issue in general. This time I have a 3 CB system, CD-De BPD-De and WCB-su My CD-De (Number 30) is so far up the field for no reason with 2 players ready to counter behind him. Again, he has no instructions or player traits to account for this.

But that's the 2 IFB's situation where you're probably playing with a Libero stepping into midfield. The poster's tactic, and from my experience, is where you only use 1 IFB and the opposite full back joins the midfield or attack. This is where I've had issues, players like Pascal Struijk who have no player traits and is selected as a CB-De often ends up in the left half space outside the oppositions box. Edit: I've very quickly thrown together a tactic and 7 minutes into the highlights found 2 notable examples. Again, Struijk is a CB-De with no traits to encourage him to get forward. He's number 21. I both instances of the ball is tured over there's a very real possibility of a 2v2 situation on the counter. The whole point of playing with a rest defence of a back 3 is to prevent this.

Personally I don't think the match engine deals well with the IFB forming a back 3. Always find my IFB and the CB on the other side wandering up field, so rather than having a back 3 you're left with a back 1.

Yeah, attributes like Aggression and Acceleration are useful in a Gegenpressing system, but depending on some of the roles or positions they may not be necessary. I'd say the 4 I mentioned are vital across all outfield positions.

Teamwork, Work Rate, Stamina and Natural Fitness I would say are absolutely key.

If you went with a 3CB's and 2 Wing Backs, have one of the Wing Backs on Defend and the other on Attack, then have the CB who's on the same side as the attacking Wing Back be a Wide CB on Support, he should push into a LB slot to form a back 4 in possession.

I've been tinkering with a Sarri system myself over the last couple of days, simulated a season with Man Utd who I felt were in a similar place ability wise to what Sarri inhereted at Chelsea. Found that I was extremely close to his Chelsea team in terms of Points, Goals Scored, Goals Conceded, Shots Per Game, Passes Per Game. Even my leading scorers had similar amounts of goals. It's not too different to yours.

If you have Google Books this is a pretty good book to refer to. The System he explains in there is more a 4231 with one of the CB's stepping up to form the base of the diamond.

I think it's FM Console's Skin.

Unfortunately with a player like Abeid he's probably not going to get a good rating unless he scores. He has poor work rate and team work, he can't pass. So hes limited to only really being able to positively impact the game if he's scored. I personally have a lot of joy playing a SS behind an Advanced Forward in a 4231 with a Gegenpressing style. Di Nicola should be pretty well suited to this role given his work rate and stamina, his finishing might be a little low for a top side in that role, but at 13 it's not bad.

I haven't really noticed any issues with my current set up. With the much higher tempo my DLP doesn't tend to take long before the ball is moved on to someone else.

The preset Gegenpress instructions are a really solid base to start from. I use something very close to these. What I will say is the RPM will venture forward a lot, and with 2 wing backs and 4 attackers you're likely to be left with only 3 players back when you're attacking, leaving you open to a counter. My DM pairing is usually DLP-De BWM-Su to provide a bit more stability. But I also play with a 10 so you might want some who's going to break into that open space in the attacking midfield area. Maybe something to consider against tougher sides though.

Try leaving the counter instruction completely blank. That way players have the choice to counter attack or to hold their positions. If you select 'counter' they're always going to be looking for it even if it's not necessarily the best decision.

Baffling that they had this feature in previous versions and someone thought it would be a good idea to remove it 😂

I'd be reluctant to have 3 play making roles in midfield. It's common to break the midfield roles into a Sitter, a Runner and a Creator. So maybe the DM-De, CM-Su and AP-Su/At You may want to consider have a BPD at the back if you have a capable player, so there are more players on the pitch who can't break the lines with passes, you don't need possession for the sake of it.

Surprisingly my defence is usually pretty strong. I think the high press is the most effective form of defence on FM, and the back 4 and 2 holding players ensure we're never overly committed.

This is actually the style I use, based on his Leeds side, but it works in FM. Try this. 4231 DM Wide. Sk-Su WB- Su CD-De CD-De WB-Su BWM-Su DLP-De IF-Su SS-At IF-Su AF-At Positive Pass Into Space, Play Out of Defence, Higest Tempo Counter-Press, Counter, Distribute to CB's High Block, Higher DL, Much More Pressing, Get Stuck In I don't use any PI's or OI's

I'm not exaggerating though. I've literally never had a red card in FM Console that was apparently a bad decision. It appears hard coded.