Justified

That's literally what I used (only difference was PFat instead of AFat) with Gloucester in FM19 from Non-League to Premier League. Only time it evolved was when I got bigger in the EPL and needed to break down teams a lot more.

Ah, I was just thinking of that 6.8 game. Nothing malicious intended

Or maybe he just had an average game? They're not robots at the end of the day. Just because you set everything up perfectly, players can still have an off day.

The first (two) tweaks I'd try is switch the MC's around and take off WBIB and see how it looks from there. POOD + Shorter Passing + WBIB would be a big no no from me as would a MEZsu and IFsu on the same side.

Is Ronaldo still playing?

Beta : Liverpool. I always seem to get bored after 2-3 seasons anyways as it's a bit too easy so makes sense that it's a bit of a throw away. Full Game : Journeyman. This year I did the dafuge challenge to take over Hitchin Town (was born there). Previous games I started unemployed and had long term saves with Dulwich Hamlet, Gloucester and Bath. Really enjoyable making smaller teams into big teams and then eventually moving once I feel like the club is self-sustaining. Funny the AI always seems to struggle when they take my seat

A part of me kind of feels that as Zenit, should you be playing in this manner? Obviously if it works then keep going but they're one of the best teams in Russia right? If it was me then I'd trial maybe more horizontal compactness and less vertical and go direct with a double pivot if you're playing on Positive mentality and feel Fomin can run a game. GKde WBsu CDde CDde FBat WMat DLPsu CMde IWsu TMat AFat The above would be quite interesting, just playing on direct. Fomin would have quite a lot of movement around him and your width would come from the FB positions with the security of a double pivot. Dzyuba feels like too much of a threat not to have in the box and would be able to get on the of crosses from the FBat but also be able to lay off to the AFat or the WMat coming from deep. Absolutely nothing wrong with how you've set them up it's just I'd prefer maybe then the IW has an attack duty to get beyond Dzyuba if you're playing him on support.

I think my initial question would be, do you think Den Haag are good enough to play on a positive mentaliyy as it involves more risk? Also I kind of feel like everything is a bit too slow. POoD, Shorter Passing, Lower Tempo seems a bit laboured whilst having roles like APat and DLFat.

Tbh he has the PPM's that get him into the box anyways. I think playing him on support is a good hybrid way of getting him to support the defence as well as attack. But I get your point, he is a lethal attacker on attack.

I'm not an expert on the subject but have you tried maybe and reverse your thinking and thought about where they are defensively positioned first and then work from there? Something along the lines of : SKsu BPDde Lat BPDde WBsu WBsu BBMsu CMsu IWsu SSat IFsu Not something I've played but would be interesting to see how I plays out.

Ok fair enough. Was just curious because I thought a BWM on support allows him to just go and harass players all over the pitch. A BWM on defend I'd expect him to follow the LoE more as he wouldn't venture too far forward. But good to know

You probably actually made it worse in some regards. Sure he'd make your overall defence drop as he drops but then you leave loads of space in front of your defence that your DMC has to mop up but then your team tries to push up higher. It really is a recipe for disaster to play that way against skilful and fast attackers like Liverpools. Let's put it this way, against Liverpool I'd even struggle to contemplate playing a higher D-line because their pace is frightening.

If you read my thread then it's exactly how I set them up. They're ridiculously good in game and I can play quite comfortably on Positive mentality in most games. 1 -> I had Salah as IFat (easily one of the best in the game) and Mane as IWsu. IRL I'd say that Mane is IFsu on average but in FM i find it a bit too one-dimensional having both wingers as the same role. 2 -> TAA could play IWB very well as he has the quality to come in and effect games centrally if you wanted to play him in that role. However, as IRL, if Salah (or Elliott) doesn't hold the width it doesn't work terribly well (Like against Chelsea). You could easily play Firmino in the AMC slot behind Jota. Liverpool have actually done that in game from time to time when needing to score. After season 1 I won CL and PL and actually sold all the deadwood (Shaqiri, Origi, Minamino, Ojo, Grujic, Ox, Woodburn etc) + Firmino (he wanted an outrageous contract to which I said stick it). I brought in Martinez, Son, Aouer and Koopmeiners and still had money to burn but was happy with that. I signed Koopmeiners as a squad player for Fabinho but as a backup centreback as well as I promoted Rhys Williams who'd played well for the Development squad. I was debating a right back but Neco played well season one so was fine going into the 2nd season with him as backup. Martinez took Firmino's place, Son was a welcome squad player who could play on either flank and Aouer was a different beast in an attacking central midfield role. I'd personally say DMC and a squad winger is the positions I targeted first after season 1 as I needed more depth there.

I guess playing him in a role where he has no PI's allows him to use that Flair. Personally flair is nice but it's more of an added cherry for me. Most important is players can do what I want them to do and then flair is secondary. But flairy players is what the fans want to see so it's handy having like one or two in roles where they take more risks as they can pull off the ridiculous if they have the attributes to do so. Funnily enough, two footed wingers with high flair do the most outrageous stuff at times.

Much higher D-Line against Salah and Mane. That's ballsy Add that you're using a defender on cover which essentially makes you loose compactness between defence and midfield where you employ a DMC who's having to run around quite a bit I reckon. I mean, you use a hell of a lot of instructions so no wonder you're confused to what is going on. Is this yours or a so called Plug and Play?