CARRERA

I would start with removing "play out of defence". Teams at home tend to press higher up the pitch. The pressure could be simply too high for your defensive line to play out from the back safely, especially if theyre the underdog team.

Maybe its not part of the highlights yet, but if you watch the full match you should see that behaviour. Defenetly use players who can play that role or have the right attributes (so they can get familiar with the role). Also make sure to max out tactical familiarity for the role.

An IWB will support the midfield and stay more narrow if there is a player ahead of him and play like an traditional wing back if there is no wide attacker or one who cuts inside.

IWB‘s do overlap occasionally if other players do occupy the space inside like wide players who cut inside would do. However, if you look for overlaps as a consistent part of your game, then better use a WB or CWB. The IWB Role will always look for an underlap whenever possible.

For me that sounds more like your players are clearing the ball instead of playing direct. With a low mentality players usually tend to clear the ball more often anyway, as its the safest way to avoid the pressure, especially on a highter tempo where their decision making is limited in time. However, one effect of a higher tempo is players taking more (and riskier) opportunities to progress the ball due to their faster decision making. And as certain instructions are more of a tendency, your players might be taking more opportunites to play that direct ball. What me once helped, was to understand, that team mentality basicly is the first and most important layer of your tactical instructions that has the biggest effect on how your team plays as it does affect all phases of play. So after figuring out the basic idea of how i want my team to play, i pick the mentality that is the closest to what im looking for. To keep it simple lets wiggle it down to that: The higher the team mentality, the more progressive your team will play, the more aggressive it will defend and the more they are willing to get involved into attacking play. And the lower the team mentality is, the more safely they will play, the more cautiously your team will defend and the less they are willing to get involved into attacking play. It might be oversmiplified but i think its a good starting point for someone who doesnt really know how to use mentality. What you can now do with team instructions is to refine your style of play. e.g. I want my to team to defend higher up the pitch -> add a high block and higher defensive line. Thats why many people dont have to add many team instructions, because they already set up the correct team mentality for what they want to see on the pitch. Of course the formation, roles and duties do also play a big part in a tactical construct. But thats a different story

It’s always about finding the right balance between creating chances and protecting space for what you are trying to achieve. It may even vary from opposition to opposition. Personally I would want to have at least one player to protect the space in front of the defense, especially if I play with rather aggressive wingbacks.

Just a few quick ideas: Remove all PIs, it’s simply too much for a system which isn’t fully refined yet in its core. You can add them (some) later. PIs generally are the last layer of tactical instructions you should add to really sharpen your idea. Mentality -> Team Instructions -> Player Instructions -> Opposition instruction. They don’t override each other, but following this path will help you to achieve your goals. Define how you want to attack / defend and look for styles that could complement each other. If you are looking for quick transitions (in possession) don’t play out from the back, play more narrow and through the middle. (In transition) look for quick distribution of the GK and fast offensive transitions -> Counter. (Out of possession) Try out a mid-block maybe even use slightly lower pressing triggers, trap inside to catch them off guard re-think some of your roles, all 3 attackers (ST, 2x AM) do attack central areas of the pitch. Maybe think about having one or two of them to move / attack into channels. It will help you to better use the space and increase the variety of your attack. I don’t exactly know your idea of how you want to play, but distributing duties in a way where players make runs from different angles and create depth behind and ahead of the ball could help your game anyway.

No, tempo has no effect on passing directness. Remember tho, that all instructions are more of a tendency, so even with shorter passing your players will occasionally play more vertically if the opportunity is there.

I don’t think it’s particular good to have all strikers on an attack duty. It’s way more effective to have them createing chances and space for each other. In your particular case I would suggest to either have the striker drop off as a support duty or if you want Nunez to lead the line, then properbly make one of the wide players a support duty. I would also advise to re-think the role of your AP, especially if you drop the striker to a support duty. Eventhough he is on an attack duty he will not make the central runs you want from an attack duty player in that case.

I think you need to post a screenshot. I can’t imagine anyone to download a tactic just to give some advice

Maybe share your tactics. It can help people to better understand what might be inefficient in your setup. Usually there is not „one option“ to tick and win. Several things need to complement each other to make a good tactic. And you might not be far off if you are leading the league by quite a margin.

Doesn’t seem to go too bad as you are already first in the league. Against more defensive opponents you could add an additional attack duty (properbly the Winger). Your team will have an additional body in attack and will create more depth and be more positional.

I hand over all media interactions, team training and all kind of contract / transfer negotiations. My goal is to limit the advantage as a human player against the AI. However, feel free to do whatever you like.

Well, everything is an option as long as it works. I personally don’t like triggering the press aggressively in a low block because I think it’s less effective and more dangerous then in the opposition half. I think it’s more effective to maintain a solid shape and cut off passing lanes. You can look to get stuck in if you want to be more aggressive. It won’t disturb your shape as much as pressing does. A mid block is more flexible in its defensive approach as your team starts to provide pressure around the midline.

Well, its a player that perfectly fits an aggressive defensive style. Whether defending aggressively is a good choice in a low block or not is a different question.

I'd say it heavily depends on how you envision your team to defend against the ball. If you are looking to provide constant pressure aggressively, the BWM is your man, even in a two man midfield. However, if you are primarily looking for someone to protect space, that specific role might not be your first choice, no matter of how many players are in your midfield.

What was your initial intention to make changes at away games? And did you ever try to simply use your home tactic? Im asking because it’s not per se nessecary to make changes for away games and if you do so, you really need to specify what actually causes you problems away from home. Making changes to your standard tactic usually comes with a lower familiarity for your team as a trade off, so it’s really important to make up for that. It’s also important to actually think about what you are trying to achieve in those matches. Do you want to win, or do you just not want to loose? What you could look for during the match: If the opposition is applying a lot of pressure in a high block, it will usually hard for any team to play out from the back unless you really outclass the opposition. So better try to exploit the space in advanced areas of the pitch. Look at your defensive transitions, do you actually have enough players behind the ball to provide sufficient cover against the attackers? Depending on your conclusion, you can add another defend duty to stabilize your defense. If you are outclassed by the opposition and your margins of winning are quite small, maybe re-arrange your defensive settings with a mid or low block and rather conservative pressing settings for transitions and the defensive phase. Use pressing traps inside and play through the middle combined with counter to hit them on the break.

Trap Inside will force play into central areas to create high quality chances on the break. It primarily does affect the positioning of your team in higher areas of the pitch. If you want your defense to be wide or narrow after defensive transition, you need to adopt the cross engagement settings.

To break down a stubborn Defence, you need to stretch the opposition both vertically and horizontally to open up space between the lines. Attacking with enough body’s and from different angles is also very important. properbly post your tactic, so people can give adequate advice

Yes, it is misleading as there is as always no sufficient explanation on how to use the data you get. But its different then you think. The idea is not to create a formation that achieves to highlights all spots in light green. (I mean you can of course, but its not nessecarily important) Its meant to help you to better understand where the strenghth and weaknesses of a certain formations are to further adjust the other settings of your tactic. You can either try to cut off some of the weaknesses, or to further exploit your strenght by picking favourable playing styles.

Your players will still develop as matches are simulated in the background. However, if you are a Bundesliga team, the league your 2nd team will play in will most likely be of too low quality for your youth players. So it usually is better to loan them out.

You have to check that ingame actually. But what might be a negative side effect, is your players tireing out more quickly, as they mark the defenders high up the pitch to then sprint back into the relative conservative defensive shape (which comes with cautious mentality). Thats why prevent short GK distribution is particular good in a high block. Your team has to cover shorter distances. Its easier and more efficiently to execute.

Why would you want to do that if I may ask? Drop off should have no effect, as its a situational instruction, which does only affect the behaviour of your defenisve line under certain circumstances. Lower pressing triggers shouldn't be too bad either. What would really disturb your shape is playing with a low definsive line while marking out defenders with your strikers to prevent short GK distribution. Your team will most likely have to give up their defensive stance or allow space between your attackers and defenders.

Sounds like wrong training schedule in pre-season.

One tactic, then making ingame adjustments