I'm TERRIBLE at FM15. Facing my fifth sacking...

[mudweiser]

So I've started several games on FM15 so far; Inter, Newcastle and a start-unemployed career game where I was Hyde and Lowestoft.

I got sacked from all four jobs.

I'm currently playing as Stockport in the Conference North and in my third season. Finished 5th in the first season, lost in the play-offs. Second season we finished 9th, now we're sitting in 12th and the board are unhappy. I clearly have talented players for the division I'm in - I just can't sort them out tactically.

Honestly, it feels like I'm damned if I do, damned if I don't. If I push up, there's gaps behind. If I drop deep, the opposition have free reign inside my area.

Please help me. I'm obviously doing something wrong consistently because I keep getting sacked.

Here's my current Stockport line up;

I think it's the Mentality, Shape and TI's maybe? Current TI's are; Retain Possession and Exploit The Flanks.

Do people change their tactic for away games? Or jut the Mentality/Shape?

Please help before I get sacked... again!

[peleJunior]

Where is the penetration in that tactic? The AF and ?? It's very predictable. The wings are static and there is no holder in midfield. The BWMd will not hold shape for you, he will actively seek to win the ball abandoning position. Mark Tames out of the game and you got very little.

[Johnny Ace]

I'm no tactical expert by a long shot but can instantly see problems with that system

Look at that centre midfield 3, there's no cover there in front of your back four. Your BWM will push up looking to win the ball whilst your AP & BBM won't offer much in front of your back 4 either. I'd suggest changing you BWM to a M(D)

I'd maybe tone down the AP a little to a M (S) as an option for your Left FB to pass to. Which could in turn give you the option of having your left winger as an A role

Control will also push you up field & make back your back line more aggressive in chasing the ball down, running your back line out of shape. I'd change to Standard

You have 3 players in the midfield which will out number most formations & you're exploiting the flanks, you have an advantage there so so I'd drop the instruction to make the most of it

Yes, I have a slightly different tactic to away games where we're not fancied to win, nothing majorly different

That's my input anyway, hope it helps somewhat

[Johnny Ace]

Where is the penetration in that tactic? The AF and ?? It's very predictable. The wings are static and there is no holder in midfield. The BWMd will not hold shape for you, he will actively seek to win the ball abandoning position. Mark Tames out of the game and you got very little.

I think with the AF(A) he wants Tames to spearhead his attack. Any less offensive role & he'll have no one spearheading (if that's a word ) his attack

[alinp]

I think with the AF(A) he wants Tames to spearhead his attack. Any less offensive role & he'll have no one spearheading (if that's a word ) his attack

He could as easily use a CF(A), who would make himself more part of the game, but the biggest issue really is that he has NO other obvious goal scoring options. He could consider an IF(A) on one of the flanks and/or having an Attack duty in central midfield, a CM((A) instead of the BBM perhaps..

[Johnny Ace]

He could as easily use a CF(A), who would make himself more part of the game, but the biggest issue really is that he has NO other obvious goal scoring options. He could consider an IF(A) on one of the flanks and/or having an Attack duty in central midfield, a CM((A) instead of the BBM perhaps..

Yeah, that's why I said maybe the left Winger being changed to Attack could be a good shout as at least he'd get into the box & give the opponent something extra to think about defensively but a CM (A) would be a good shout

I wanna go & put this into practice now

[peleJunior]

I think with the AF(A) he wants Tames to spearhead his attack. Any less offensive role & he'll have no one spearheading (if that's a word ) his attack

Where did I say to play a less offensive role up front :confused:

[Johnny Ace]

Where did I say to play a less offensive role up front :confused:

You didn't, I'd misread trying to do 3 things at once

[Dr. Hook]

Mudweiser- how did you go about selecting those roles for your tactic? As the others have pointed out, there are some real potential issues there, but rather than have you just fix some things, I'd like to see how do you went about picking the roles and why.

[joey7]

The first thing that jumps out at me is BWM-D, just set it to CM-D. and get one of your mids on A.

[peleJunior]

You didn't, I'd misread trying to do 3 things at once

No worries buddy

[Rashidi]

OK lets talk about the system. Overall you are playing a 451, for this formation to do well, there's going to be a lot of movement needed when you have the ball in the opponents half, perhaps you don't really understand that, cos you have set up your system to exploit the flanks and with 2 wingers running wide, I reckon you will often find hopeless punted balls and turnovers cos the midfielders aren't in positions to support yet. Retain Possession and Exploit the flanks are 2 conflicting instructions, one reduces passing, tempo probably width as well to keeping passing possession, another tells flank players to take forward runs and gives players direct passing instructions and tells the team that they are looking at the flanks as outlets...yet you are playing with an AP(S) who surprisingly in spite of these instructions has one of the highest average ratings in the team.

The 451 is really a rock solid formation for LLM sides, its probably my go to for a poor team. It won't score you a lot but it makes u a tough team to beat. Lets worry about the most important zone first and get the others to link up to it...looking at your midfield the AP(S) is fine, the BWM(D) is fine and the BBM on support looks solid. OK so what could be wrong?

Left flank..

You have a AP(S) who will make moves up and you have a fullback who is on support yet defensively you have a LD and a CD (D)...what I would do immediatley would be to play a CD(cover) and CD(defend) combo, that AP position will leave vacant positions which needs a covering CD to step into when a ball goes behind your midfield. In terms of PI you want your BWM to always play less risky football and play it shorter. He should also get drop deeper, or the ppm that always keeps him back...That BWM is key to your system. If he's having a bad day u lose, and atm he has the worse average rating in your team, hence your bad run.

Now you could take a chance to make your formation more offensive since you are playing a CD(cover)(defend) combo, its also more risky, but i certainly would getting the right players in the positions is going to be impt, what you could do is get the FB to go (A) and leave the AM(S) and tell him to do inside runs as a PI or you could give him the IF(S) role. Now you can set your side to attack down left flank. instead of exploit flanks, which to me is a "desperate shout".n Oh and the single forward up front? why not false 9 or tQ? a lone forward up front like that in a formation like yours atm...thats way too static

It just one thing you can do...there're more but i am sure others will give good ideas as well.

[mudweiser]

Mudweiser- how did you go about selecting those roles for your tactic? As the others have pointed out, there are some real potential issues there, but rather than have you just fix some things, I'd like to see how do you went about picking the roles and why.

Erm, to be honest they sounded like what I needed.

I thought the wingers would hassle the wings and get balls in for the advanced forward, and I picked an advance forward to utilise the expected wing play - anyone deeper (false 9, deep lying forward) might not be in the box for the wingers.

The midfielder's roles were picked to again, expectantly compliment each other.

See... that all makes sense in my head but obviously not to the match engine?

[Johnny Ace]

Think in the terms of those roles, how much space they leave & create. You basically want to have the whole pitch covered when picking your roles without 2 players taking that area up

[rootfm]

Erm, to be honest they sounded like what I needed.

I thought the wingers would hassle the wings (do they hassle? if not, get them to press) and get balls in for the advanced forward, and I picked an advance forward to utilise the expected wing play - anyone deeper (false 9, deep lying forward) might not be in the box for the wingers (does he get in to the box? if not, change it and see if another player or role does better).

The midfielder's roles were picked to again, expectantly compliment each other.

See... that all makes sense in my head but obviously not to the match engine?

The single best way to solve your problem is to watch a match or two in comprehensive mode. You will see where your team is struggling to cope with the opposition and equally why you don't score enough goals. For e.g. do your CDs get caught 2 on 2 at the back regularly, do your FBs get caught underneath the ball, are your three midfielders playing as a unit (do they have someone to pass to), are your players positioned correctly to pick up 2nd balls? etc

It can also be as simple as certain players not having the right attributes for their position as well. Don't necessarily trust the star/circle ratings. Give each player a chance and see how they get on. For e.g. I have a 2* CD who outperforms a 4* CD - no idea why, I just keep more clean sheets when he's in the team.

Don't just keep picking the same players/formation and hoping it will work. Give others a chance and tweak the roles of each player based on what you see on the pitch - see my comments in your quote. A good rating is higher than the team average for the match, so even if you're losing you can generally [not always] see who is performing ok.

[Overmars]

You have just one attack duty in your lineup. Like others have suggested, I think you need to employ a CM(a) and/or a couple of attacking wide players in order to unsettle your opponents some more. A lack of attack duty players not only slows down your own attack but it frees up your opponents to move forward with attacks of their own.

One common problem for me is a lack of team cohesion. If you have a habit of turning over a healthy portion of your squad each season then you may want to scale back that churn. Doing so has helped me tremendously.

[Dr. Hook]

Erm, to be honest they sounded like what I needed.

I thought the wingers would hassle the wings and get balls in for the advanced forward, and I picked an advance forward to utilise the expected wing play - anyone deeper (false 9, deep lying forward) might not be in the box for the wingers.

The midfielder's roles were picked to again, expectantly compliment each other.

See... that all makes sense in my head but obviously not to the match engine?

It makes a certain sense, but then, what if your AF is marked out of the game? It is pretty much all directed at getting him the ball with that setup and it's very one dimensional. Every team you face will have 2 or 3 at the back to mark your one forward. That is what I was getting at, really. Your support wingers are not going to do a great deal for the attack, and neither is your midfield (meaning there won't be any variety to how you try to score). I would suggest you need at least one winger on attack, and one of your CMs ideally would be too. You have to get the defense unpacked and you won't as long as they only have to worry about your lone striker and maybe your BBM arriving in the box from time to time.

So you can see how your setup could fail you offensively. There's been a great deal of good advice given here for you, and it all revolves around having multiple options on attack, and also having a good understanding of how the roles perform on the pitch.

[Fredric Drum]

Yes, you need more than the lone striker trying to score goals. I play a lone advanced striker with IF(A) wingers + CM(A) and CM(D), and the wingers are bucketing in the goals even with so-so Finishing (typically 11-12 Finishing in my Bolton team in EPL). You need them in the box, not just on the byline with crosses. It makes for some great attacking movements and combinations. The wingers will cut in diagonally to receive passes from the striker or midfielders.

If you're going for crosses, I''d use 2 strikers or striker + AMC.

I've completely abandoned my Defensive possession tactic (originally intended for use in difficult away games and to close down a 1-goal lead ) and my Standard tactic and go all out with 6 attacking roles in my team constantly now. Trying to sneak a goal and defend that lead is a hopeless project in my experience. People with better defense may have more luck with that.