Adapting my system to the Premier League

[skog]

Hi all, firstly can I say thanks to Cleon, rashidi, wwfan and many others for invaluable advice on these forums - after many years of using plug & play tactics for FM, I've finally taken the plunge into creating my own from scratch.

A little bit of history about my current save: I'm playing as Swindon and am in my 7th season, currently in the Premier Division after winning the Championship by 11 points last season. I spent two years in the top tier, finishing 8th in my first season and winning the FA Cup but suffered badly the following season and finished 18th and was relegated on the final day. After relegation, I consolidated, spent many hours reading threads on here and created a new tactic that suited the squad that I had assembled and was a roaring success.

The system I use is a very direct system that focuses on getting the ball forward quickly to my strongest trio of players:

Player instructions are default, with the exception of setting all players to never attempt long shots, as I don't feel confident changing this. I usually use 'get ball forward' as a shout and attempt to apply others logically as and when required.

Team comparison can be found in the gallery here: http://imgur.com/a/YVGUh#0

Unfortunately, I built my squad without wingers and have nobody capable of playing in those positions to any great success, so am reliant upon my full backs to provide width and crosses into the box to exploit my strengths in the air.

The problem I'm seeing in games is that I am being completely dominated in terms of possession, especially against the top teams - 35% against Man Utd, 39% against Arsenal - and my defence simply isn't strong enough to withstand that much attacking possession. Essentially, I was hoping for some advice on how to play against the teams that are far superior to mine and how to retain possession, is my squad capable of playing a short, low tempo passing game?

Thanks in advance, hopefully I've provided sufficient detail but can provide more if necessary!

[pcmac1980]

Assuming that you are playing in a standard pitch size I can´t see why you shouldn´t play a possession game, you have one of the best midfield in the league (passing 2nd, creativity 4th, tackling 3rd, technique 4th, stamina 5th). The problem is in your passing style. If you want to control the game, you need to play a short passing game. Try to use the shouts retain possession and pass to feet and see if the % improves. I personally untick the target man but if you want to stick to it, better supply him in the air because you are the 1st in heading and jumping attributes.

You may try to play on the counter against bigger teams. Sometimes you can have more possession % sitting deep. I usually have the same shouts and just change the strategy. By using these shouts (hassle opp, play to feet, work ball into box, retain possession, soft tackling, exploit the middle, play wider) I rarely have less than 55% but it´s always a matter of trial and error. You can always test this in your friendly matches.

Cheers!

[skog]

Thanks, that has definitely improved the problem with posession but not improving results much.

The main problems I'm having is that my players are attempting far too many long shots which means I'm creating few, often none, clear cut chances. I've set all players long shots to never, am using 'work ball into box' but finding my players taking ridiculous shots. for instance, I just lost the last game 2-1 against opposition in the league below me. I had 25 shots, 14 of which were long shots. Is there anything I'm missing here?

edit: I should also mention that none of my players have any preferred moves that would encourage shooting from long distance!

[Dr. Hook]

Thanks, that has definitely improved the problem with posession but not improving results much.

The main problems I'm having is that my players are attempting far too many long shots which means I'm creating few, often none, clear cut chances. I've set all players long shots to never, am using 'work ball into box' but finding my players taking ridiculous shots. for instance, I just lost the last game 2-1 against opposition in the league below me. I had 25 shots, 14 of which were long shots. Is there anything I'm missing here?

edit: I should also mention that none of my players have any preferred moves that would encourage shooting from long distance!

Watch the match back and look at the clips of your long shots to see why they might be doing that. Very often (it's allegedly bad in Fm13, but I am on 12 still, and had the issue) the player doesn't have any other good options, especially if the box is crowded. By watching the clips you can pinpoint where passing options might or should have been, and make adjustments based off of that.

[Falahk]

with out knowing your players better its a bit tricky to give specific advice, could you post screens on your full first chose XI?

I wrote a short pice on how to use a narrow diamond in the stupid questions thread, who knows it could might be helpful, so il just quote it here:

the most important thing to get that formation to work is to use the right type of players, and also to understand that the tactic is a disruption formation, you clogg the center and strive to break up the opponents play as fast as they cross the half way line, this means that you should press but not so much that you lose shape and structure (this can be a bit tricky to get right and im not sure which TC setings that would work best on fm13 since I have not used this formation on fm13)

Goalkeepers:

I like to play a slightly extravagant sweeper, but this is all down to personal prefarence and depends on which players you have

Defense:

it is probably most common to play with what is in practice 3 center backs (one of them play as defensive fullback in ether LB or RB position) and one wing back, this offers the team more stability and consistancy at the back....I would advice to stay away from the dual wing back set up unless you have very good and very fast players to use in these roles (compared to the division you play in)

Midfield trio:

the role of these guys is to break up play and keep the ball moving, so they need to be good in defense, decent enough in terms of mental attributes, and they should posses a basic ability to pass the ball

this is purely personal taste but I also like to have one wide MC that is good at long shooting to provide slightly more attacking options (with his strongest foot being deployed in a similar manner to that of an inside forward, so a player on MCl with a strong right foot for example)

Attacking midfielder:

this guy have to be fast (this is the only role along with wing back where this is needed), and ether be physically imposing or have great technical ability or if possible both on the same time, teams today use ether a central winger in a similar mold to Menez or a player like Naingollan etc....this player will be drifting to both flanks and drop into space if gaps show up

Forwards:

most of the time teams play with one goal scorer and one creator (the nr10 playmaker that used to play as attacking midfielder in the past will nowdays play higher up the pitch as an out and out striker if you have one of these players that is), both strikers should play very high up the pitch on the edge of the defense line and look to exploit any gap that they possibly could find, the AMC will provide all link up with the midfield that is needed so there is no point in bringing the strikers deeper, and since you play a narrow formation you will most of the time also have less chances and have a harder time finding them, so your strikers need to be very strong mentaly and very clinical....if you have a goalscorer that could also act as a target player, make sure that he is deployed on the oposit flank compared to your wing back so that the later can float long balls to him