displaced_seagull

Again, it's down to personnel really; These three are my best options for a holding midfielder. Thomas; Robson; Rollo; Despite his position suitability, Thomas seems to play best in the DM strata. When I've had to slot him in in the centre of midfield before, the game has always seemed to bypass him, yet when I put him as a DLP in the DM strata, he plays much better - though statistically he only had 5 assists last season, I have often found that he is the one 'assisting the assister' - playing the initial ball (usually out wide) for someone to create the chance. He only has a Yellow rating for a Defensive Midfielder (DM/D) role. Robson (a new signing) isn't the quickest, but is well suited to a holding CM role (again, despite his media description as a Defensive Midfielder, he also has a yellow rating for DM/D). Rollo is one of those oddball players who despite being able to play in the two positions either side, does not seem to have mastered the DM role at all.

@Experienced Defender I made some of the changes you suggested; TI's; Pass into Space Removed LOE ----> Now Standard Roles; Now, here I have made a couple of amendments; Basically, these came down to personnel. I don't have a player comfortable as a DLP in Central Midfield, so I've given a CM Support the 'Hold Position' instruction as a sitting central midfielder, and reverted to a DLP/Defend in the DM position. On the right of midfield, Elliott is too good to leave out and his PPM's of 'Likes Ball Played Into Feet', 'Runs with ball down right' and 'Knocks ball past opponent' are naturally suited to a winger. The Right FB though has been given a Support role. So what's happened? In Scotland the League Cup groups take up most of preseason, and with mass changes over the summer (I had to replace both central defenders after bigger clubs came in for them, as well as my right back, and my goalkeeper needed replacing - Board accepted a bid for my regular 'keeper in January and the hastily-signed replacement on the last day of the window wasn't as good as I'd hoped). With that in mind, I wasn't too worried about it - so to go unbeaten (the two defeats on penalties) was a pleasant surprise. Playing wise, we looked a lot sharper, with more cohesive play in midfield and a better goal threat. So then we come to the first game of the League season. 12 seconds in we take the lead - Raith kick off, ball knocked back to central midfielder, who pings one into the left hand channel. Picked up by debutant right back, immediate ball forward, new centre forward bursts on, brings it down and slots past the advancing 'keeper. By 9 minutes in, we are 3-0 up! - we eventually win 5-1, with three goals from open play. This is only the second time that we have scored more than 4 goals in a competitive game since the start of the game. Certainly a positive start!

'Euan Devenny' at Kilmarnock (ID 61096040 ) is spelt incorrectly - it should be Euan Deveney Sources; Club; https://kilmarnockfc.co.uk/news/five-killie-kids-sign-first-pro-contracts/ Player's twitter; https://twitter.com/euandev1

We won 1-0 in the first leg of the Semi Final, away to Inverness Caley Thistle, but were beaten 2-0 at home in the second leg, so another year of Championship football it is. To be fair, we were predicted to finish 9th, so second (by 10 points) is still a significant over-achievement.

Not tried yet - with four games to go until the end of the season and the playoffs guaranteed, I felt that I would need to give them a proper preseason. I have made a slight alteration to my original setup, adding 'Higher Tempo' as a TI. This has had a reasonable impact, with two wins (1-0 and 4-1), a draw away to champions Partick and a 1-0 defeat to long-term bogie team Morton (who play a 5-3-2 formation and we who we have only beaten once in 14 attempts across the save). Will see what happens in the playoffs, then implement the changes ahead of next season (whatever division we are in).

Cheers, that makes sense. I would clarify that I'm not trying a 'pure' counter tactic here, as per my initial post, I want to control possession as well, rather than inviting opponents on. WBiB used to be the 'go to' instruction to stop players constantly trying million to one shots from everywhere, which used to be a real problem many years ago! - it's continuing presence in my tactics is a hangover from those days.

Thanks, I'll give it a go. This is actually pretty much the same style I played (very successfully) on FM19, with the only change being the DL - on 19 it was higher to match the LOE, but this time I quickly found myself getting caught out so changed it very early in the first season. As per @Dannygreen below, I'm intrigued by your recommendation to lose Pass Into Space? (Work ball into box I agree could probably go, it's been a virtual default for me for years and it's a bad habit I should probably try to break this year!)

It's a little more prosaic than that I'm afraid - I noticed that with both fullbacks on support roles, I was vulnerable to quick counters. Example (conveniently taken from the game I'm playing at the moment!); My left fullback (wingback/S) has got down the line and will cross - but if we lose the ball, I will only have two defenders back to deal with the danger. I've noticed putting the opposite fullback on a defend duty means that he stays a bit deeper, giving a third player to cover a quick break. I've also been known to change him during matches to an IWB/D for opponents I feel are particularly threatening. I also thought that the CM/A would get in the way of the IW/S if they were on the same side.

Four years in, and it's time to admit I could do with another pair of eyes looking over my tactics. Since I took over I have been playing a (flat) 4-1-4-1; Shape Results/Analysis This has worked well - first season promoted from League Two via the playoffs, second season finished 3rd in League One, missing out on promotion on penalties in the playoffs, third season won promotion again via the playoffs after finishing second. We are now coming up to the business end of the season in The Championship, second in the table and guaranteed a playoff place for a shot at the big time. A glance at the League table however, reveals the problem... It's goals - or more pertinently, lack of them. We began the season well, but got away with things at times. This cut from the fixture list tells a couple of stories; Firstly, it looks like we had a stellar January. Digging a bit deeper however; Goal v St Johnstone - poked home after a throw by the corner flag Goal v Ayr - Header from Corner Goal v ICT - 90+3 goal poked home after a corner Goal v Raith - Penalty Goal 2 v Airdrie - Poked home from a free kick The only goal from open play in an unbeaten month was the first in the win against Airdrie - a header from just inside the box after the lone striker pulled out to the left and crossed for the right winger. Then you look at February. Woeful. Again, the goal was a header from 2 yards out after a crossed free kick. The 5-0 reverse at St Johnstone was our heaviest defeat in my tenure. Roles & Duties Roles and duties have varied a little over the years - the majority have stayed the same, but the midfield roles have changed slightly. Below is the current iteration. GK/D DR/D (Stay Wider) DC/D DC/D WBL/S (Stay Wider, Cross from Deep) DLP/D (More Direct Passes) W/A (Cross Aim Central) CM/A (Roam from Position, Shoot Less) BWM/S (Dribble Less, Shoot Less) IW/S (Roam from Position) DF/A (Roam from Position) TI's are in the first screenshot Plan/Idea The idea is to hold onto the ball, control the midfield but break quickly especially on the counter, using the DLP and full backs to hit the runners - CM, Wide players and DF. There are a lot of players with 'Roaming' instructions to try and take advantage of this and also to try and cause confusion for the opposition. As you can see, it has been pretty successful over the years - the lone striker does, despite the perceived bias in FM20 against scoring one on ones (mine have never seemed to miss a ridiculous amount), generally take a lot of the chances - last season my Number 9 got 28 goals and this season so far he is again top scorer with 17 to date. His predecessor hit 23 in the first (promotion) season and 19 the year later when we just missed out. The issue has always been that the midfield, particularly the more attacking of the two central midfielders, has never really been - or always looked like being - a consistent goalscorer, which I could do with - various roles, Mez S/A, CM/A, B2B/S with Get Further Forward - have been tried over the years. In the grand scheme of things, I know that I have been successful, but this season in particular we have been inconsistent, and as I mentioned, goals from open play have been worryingly lacking, which has certainly cost us points. On several occasions this season we have been within touching distance of overtaking/pulling away from Partick at the top of the table, but our failure to convert chances and/or score more goals/kill off teams after taking a 1 goal lead has cost us. Thanks in advance.

Hailsham Town (England) and Ynysygerwn should be set as affiliated clubs. We have been sharing our season stories in matchday programmes etc since the start of this season, and If both I and my fellow Secretary at Ynysygerwn have anything to do with it, the annual friendlies start in the summer of 2020!

Absolute star

Are DDT Files still a thing? Now that Hailsham Town have been relegated to Step 6, the usual method of retaining players by selecting 'Southern Combination League' in the custom setup doesn't work, as they are counted as 'Lower Leagues'. Is there an easy way of retaining players without changing the division in the editor? Cheers.

OK, here goes... Before I start my career game I always use the editor to activate the English Feeder Leagues as well as the Welsh Step 2 (Cmyru Alliance/Welsh First Division). I use this guide from years ago; https://fromthemarshes.com/2014/11/09/how-to-add-english-regional-leagues/ Have had to amend it a little this year due to the extra Step 3 League, so hopefully these will work! England: This only includes Step 3 - there is no relegation. 4 Divisional Champions promoted automatically, plus 2 of the 16 teams in the playoffs. That's the theory at least! Wales; Champions of Cmyru Alliance/Welsh First Division promoted. Dates amended as above too. Feel free to download and try - I will leave all the advanced rules, cups etc to the pros, but this usually does the trick for me! WalesStep2.fmf EngStep3.fmf

Actually, I was wrong, he was 28 at the time. Peter Ali' https://www.theargus.co.uk/news/5107381.albion-2-barnet-0-competition-hots-up/