Justified

Interesting topic and one that has me stumped. Having grown up through so many managerial masterclasses I can find admiration through most ranging from Mourinho to Keegan tbh. If I had to pick a few it'd be a quad-brid (ah new word) between Mourinho, Benitez, Klopp and Guardiola. I think they've had the most influence on myself tactically. No matter what club I am at I can draw inspiration from those managers.

Zero goals conceded? How did you manage that?

Aha sorry, misunderstood the frustration. However the attacking side can be contributing to the defensive side too. If you're easy to defend against then the chances of a counter increase. The actual "Out of Possession" instructions look ok to me. I wouldn't have Offside Trap and Prevent GK Distribution but that's just personal preference. The only other thing I would look at is your team shape and try it get it more Flexible/Fluid in my opinion.

I just want to echo ED's point further up. I think the pre-set "styles" in FM have given gamers an overkill on each style of play and should be seen as "you can use these instructions to re-create this style but you don't need all of them". I am slightly worried by the amount of gamers that use Short passing and Lower Tempo combined. I'm assuming it's because they're worried about loosing possession? Or that they're buying a little bit into SI's pre-sets too much (No problem with that but SI were never going to hand out winning instructions on a plate ) Alerion// At this present time you're asking your players to pass Much Shorter (which I take no issue to in fact I do this on attacking mentality with my Liverpool side) however on top of that you're asking the tempo to be lower (bare in mind that altering the passing alters tempo already automatically). So what you're asking them is Retain Possession and pass the ball around. The positive mentality will see them be more adventurous however they're going to most of the time choose to keep the ball. Add work into the box which tries to restrict long shots (although they probably still will due to the low tempo). My advice would be up that tempo! Makes a lot of difference. I would personally also play without working into the box on positive mentality but that's just me.

From memory, Pass Into Space is a universal setting for the whole team to pass more risky. I guess the easiest answer would be if your AF is scoring more with it is because more passes are being played in behind the defence. Without it you're seeing more build up play that benefits the DLF.

Well the CF roams from position so you want a more static position. DLF on support would do the job, or even a PF on support. You could have one IF on attack and one on support to it up a bit to get an out and out scorer. Having both on attack could see you a bit stale in attack.

Ok I've had a look and personally I don't think there is enough penetration there. If it was me, and this is only my opinion. I would remove the focus down the wings but have WB's on Attack on both sides. It will essentially give you the same effect without chanelling balls down the wings. You have the cover in the DMC on defensive role. Remove WBIB, I never use it unless I have a mentality of attacking or higher to reduce long shots. You can add play out of defence to still maintain possession. Good to see you upped tempo but you've got good passers in the team, up it one more notch. Add Pass into Space for penetration. That's what I would do and would be similiar to how my Liverpool team play the game.

What "In Possession" instructions did you use? Did you change the DLF to Support? or did you tweak anything else player role-wise?

TCS 1.6

Few things I would experiement with if I was you - a) Do you need Work Ball Into Box? b) Why not Pass Into Space if you want to utilize Auba's pace? c) Up the tempo one notch to circulate the ball quicker?

I just loaded up your save game because I was curious but just looking at your tactic (I'm assuming it's the one in the third tactics slot?) but in my opinion you've gone way too overkill on the possession instructions. So I've uploaded a screen of said tactic just to explain what I mean. As it stands you're on positive mentality, no issue in that, you think you're the better team or you want to try and boss a better team by being adventurous. I think the issue mainly is in the Possession instructions. You're asking your players to play Shorter Passes (retaining possession), play out of defence (again nothing risky, retaining possession) Work into box (yet again retaining possession) Lower Tempo (Circulate the ball slower). Do you see where I'm heading with this? Again this is just my personal opinion but you're basically asking your players to play controlling football but take no risks. So how are they supposed to create chances if all they do is retain possession? On top of that you're asking your keeper to slow down play... I don't think he possibly can Another question mark I have is the overlap left? Technically he is already overlapping so I don't think that is needed. Be more risky would be my advice. You don't need all those possession instructions. Maybe keep PooD and Shorter passing but maybe remove WiB and either raise the tempo or play Pass into Space. Play around with those and see what works. If you want your DLF to hold up play and feed the IF's then I would experiment with giving him a support role and removing roaming. That'll help your team fluidity and also make him more of a pivot. At the moment you're playing him as your main goal getter by having him on attack and roaming.

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You need to go to the Player Instructions tab and then click on the AML/AMR position and then at the bottom underneath instructions it says "swap positions with",

I managed to find an hour yesterday after work to test some of my theories and the DLF (S) + Mez (S) + WB's (A) on V2.0 made a difference in attack. Striker scored two and 2 assists were from the left back. Didn't try free role on the striker yet but might not be needed. Obviously against bigger opponents the WB's might get found out so need to keep an eye out on that.

Maybe a stupid question, but did you check if the swapping positions instructions is applied in the Player Instructions?