CARRERA

Well, you have to re-evaluate your performance on the pitch. You may need more people to make runs, or play more positional in general. Properbly changes to tempo are nessecary. Thats why I said „more control“ doesn’t mean better results per se. It’s a different play style and there are many ways to success.

I would start with removing „Counter“. When activated, players will immediately look for aggressive movement after winning back possession and quick transitions. That’s usually counterintuitive if you are looking to control the match. But controlling the match doesn’t mean better results per se. You may need to make further adjustments.

A weakness usually remains a weakness, it’s part of the players DNA. Though you can still help to get better to some extend in that area by training.

What do you think where it’s lacking?

You are playing with an attack duty, the base intend of that mentality is to take high risiks and progress quickly. Your team right now has 4 players on defend and one additional DLP with hold position. That’s way too conservative in my opinion. I would look for 3 defend and 4-5 attack duty players to actually follow the philosophy of an attacking mentality. Probably switch the IF on the left side to an attack duty, the WB to a support duty (or even an attack duty against weak opponents) and make the WB on the right side an attack duty. Also make sure to maximize tactical familiarity.

If you play a superior opposition I would consider to remove play out of Defense to avoid constant pressure and open up play by playing through the lines more often. Don’t worry, your defenders won’t just hoof the ball, the will still make well considered decisions to move the ball forward. If you feel like your team doesn’t really manage to play through the opposition, try to be a bit more direct and ask your team for more ball progression instead of recycling possession. If you are looking for more defensive stability, you could consider making the AM a DM to add additional defensive balance. Also lowering the lines to standard and lower the pressing triggers can help your team to patiently cut off passing lanes to hit the opposition on the break. Those are very common and easy to make changes during a match. Figure out what works best for you.

Slow down and play more patient. Clearly assign duties to your players to encourage a more structured approach. Increase the number of players who participate in the attack.

You cannot expect your players to perform certain roles perfectly, if they aren’t familiar with what you ask them to do. Increasing tactical familiarity will properbly solve your problem.

If you want to concede less, add more defensive balance. I would start making the DM a defend duty. Additionally you could switch one of your CMs into a Ball Winner

Sometimes it’s just a matter of time, especially if you overhauled your squad almost entirely. Players need time to adapt to their new club and may underperform at first. Also don’t change up everything tactically, that worked before. Rather go with small adjustments. Think about what you are trying to achieve with a change.

Yes, that could work or a DLP-d and a DM-s. Someone whos making runs comes into play if you need more bodies up front.

RPM is a mobile role, that runs with the ball and driving play forward. That type of player usually is best if used in an environment that fits his strength. If you build up more slowly, a role that dictates the match from behind or sits right in front of the box, might fit better. However, that doesn't mean you can't use that role in a creative way.

Start with both on support. If you feel like you need more aggressive players, start with an attack duty on the right side. If you really struggle to score you can use both with an attack duty at the cost of defensive solidity. Yes, that could work. Even though I would suggest starting out with a more conservative role like BMW or a Playmaker. Remember, you already have an AM making runs into the box. Making another central player doing the same thing would fit best, if you want to overload central attack areas.

Personally, I would use more aggressive Fullbacks. 4-2-3-1 is particular strong in allowing fullbacks to support the attack due to their double pivot in the center. It's also important to create width with your fullbacks, as both wide attackers move inside. In FM23 they made changes to many formations and how they work. There might be issues this year with playing the 4-2-3-1 with 2x CM. The default setup would be using 2x DM in this year's iteration of the Game. I would also suggest maximizing tactical familiarity, as it helps your players to play to their full potential.

If you want to build up through a specific area of the pitch, then ask your team to do so by playing through the left wing. Also ask yourself if the player really is that key man you want him to be. If he is just an average player within your squad, you will properbly fail. I mean, he still is a wide player. If you want him to be primarily a central player, then you may want to assign him in a more central position. Ive noticed, that at least some of your players are not familiar with their role and your tactic. Make sure tactical familiarity is maxed out to have everyone exactly knowing what their role asks them to. On the tactical side, if you are looking for runs und quick transitions, I would play around with tempo, passing directness, counter instruction and mentality. The intensity of your team is quite low which indicates that your team is building up quite conservatively.

Your team is trying to play in a fluid shape which requires them to play more compact. If you want a more structured positioning you have to assign more attack / defend duties. You could make one of your DM an defend duty and one of your AM an attack duty to remain the overall balance of your team.

It’s properbly best if you post a screenshot of your tactic. However, I would take a look at your offensive play at first. Is there actually space for your striker to make runs into? Or is the opposition primarily camping inside their own box? If the latter is the case, you properbly need to take a look at your own transitions. You may want to allow for more tempo and a higher passing risk. You can also consider a different role that’s more into being available and creating things, if you don’t want to make adjustments to your playstyle. //edit: also ask yourself what you actually require your striker to do. It’s not nessecarily the best for every playstyle to have a striker that’s making the most runs and always covering a high distance

Stepping Up or Dropping down is about how your defensive line behaves in critical situation where a potential opportunity comes up to play a ball behind your line. They either step up to further compress the space and support the pressing of your midfield, or they drop-off to protect the space behind them at the cost of loosing link to your midfield and allowing space in front of them. As you may have noticed, the old defensive width slider has been removed in FM23. They've basically split up the instruction to allow you to differentiate between the middle/attacking third and the defensive third. Pressing Traps do determin how your players behave in the middle & attacking third. You can either ask them to funnel play through the middle which has a lower chance to actually win back the ball but allows for better break / attacking opportunities, or you can ask them to use the wider areas to win back the ball more reliable at the cost of transition opportunites. You should defenitly take your teams strenght and the oppositions weakness into account when making a decision. As already mentioned, this is the other split of the old defensive width slider. invite or deny crosses only applys in the defensive third and instructs your players to either shut down the central area of the pitch at the risk of inviteing crosses or to defend wider and deny crosses from overlapping fullbacks or wingers at the risk of leaving space an more central areas. That depends on your personal preference and your teams capabilities. Trigger the press more often will allow your players to take all kind of opportunites to win back the ball, which sounds great in the first place does also come at the cost of players fitness and a disrupted shaped as players do also take low percentage opportunites, Lower pressing triggers will focus on only applying pressure when there is a high chance of winning back the ball. This can be beneficial if you want your team to stay in shape and restrict space. However, it comes at the cost of allowing the opposition more time on the ball. There was also a great article with insight into these Topics at the release of FM23. https://www.footballmanager.com/features/match-ai-and-animation I hope that could clear up a few things for you.

Remove them. Remove them and try out different mentalities to learn how your teams willingness to take risks in each phase of play changes. Learn about how different roles affect how your team is playing. It will help you to understand, that making changes to the instructions will not define your style of play, it will just refine what you’ve already set up in terms of Roles and Team Mentality. If you are trying to refine your style by adding certain team or player instructions, ask yourself the following and find a proper answer: What do you dislike about your style? What are you trying to achieve with possible changes? Why do you want to make the change? Which side effects may occurs and do you like them? Which Instruction does have the highest influence on what you are trying to change? Then go to work on that specific instruction and repeat the process if you are still not happy with how your team plays. But I also want to give you some actual input to think about your current tactic. Instructions you added to promote ball progression: Direct passing -> higher risk passing promotes vertical ball progression and passes into space. higher tempo -> asks your players to carry out their on the ball actions more quickly which indirectly supports the ball progression in your circumstance. Run at Defence -> Asks your players to run more often with the ball and take on defenders in 1:1 situations. Play through the middle -> fastest route towards the goal. Throw it long -> helps your team to beat the press and skip the lines. Instructions you added to promote a more considered build up: Play out of Defence -> Ask your defensive players to delay the build up by only playing safe passes out from the back. Work ball into box -> asks your team to play more considered and take their time to create higher quality opportunities. distribute to fullbacks -> helps your goalie to find a safe passing option. What I am trying to tell you is that some of your instructions are very contradicting and there is no clear direction of how you are trying to set up your team. I understand, that every instruction does sound like you want to make an adjustment, but in reality they all come with a trade off. There is no good or bad instruction. There are just some that suit your style of play and some that don’t. Try to move through the process I’ve described above and if you are not 100% sure of how certain instructions do affect your play, then just try them out. Make an extreme adjustment and see what changes.

I don’t think so, unless you tell him to actually sign that player.

Your team is playing out from the back, building up slowly in general. That isn’t particular the best environment for a RPM. You might be doing better with someone as a DLP or an AP Role in one of the three midfield slots. You could also try playing without a playmaker and use him as a CM(a).

The RPM is a roaming role. To really make him shine and utilize his mobility it’s important to create space for him to operate in. You can achieve this by having players creating depth behind and ahead of him. That said, I would pair him with a holding defend duty in a two man midfield and at least one central player with an attack duty.

Why did you make those changes? To give you any advice it’s important to understand what you think why your team is doing bad in away games. There is no general rule of thumb for possible changes.

BBM isn’t a creative role. If you are really looking for a second playmaker, that is also making late runs, then a RPM could suit you well. That role can be even deployed in the DM strata. If you are looking for an aggressive runner into the box, I’d pick a SV, maybe even on an attack duty.

There is a sticky thread that might help you.