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Lower League Struggles


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I'm playing as Salford this year, and finding it a real struggle to get any kind of consistency. I have no idea why, but whilst I can win games from time to time, even occasionally put short runs together, I have regularly gone 5/6 or even 10 games without a win. My players are decent for the level I'm at (Vanarama National, after a promotion 5 years into my game), so I think it must be tactics that are the issue.

I'm currently playing a fairly simple 4-1-2-3 formation, although the role of the striker is set according to the player - the guy playing in there is best suited to a poacher role, but I have about five strikers who are capable of playing there, I think two are target men and two are advanced forwards. Every other position is consistent no matter who plays there so that our shape doesn't change too much.

My board expect me to be pushing for promotion at the moment; in fact we were predicted to finish 6th in our first season at this level and 2nd every season since. I got very close to the sack last year (perhaps one game away), before finishing 9th.

I've actually just started the season so will post some games up here when things start going badly this year.

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From a quick look at your system, I'd focus first on 2 main areas where your team could be a little disjointed: down the flanks and your striker.

Flanks - both of your "fullbacks" have a defend duty. Both of your "wingers" (generic term, I know one's an IF ;)) are positioned at AML/R. That's a very large gap down your flanks, both when you are in possession (your "fullbacks" won't get forward much in support) and when you are defending (your "wingers" may not track back very far to help out, especially the IF).

Consider changing both "fullbacks" to a support duty. If you feel really confident, you could even change the RFB to attack. That should give your "wingers" better support and an additional passing option to your midfielders. Defensively, think about moving both AML/R players back a notch to ML/R. If you want to keep a player as an Inside Forward (attack), this can be easily done by using the Wide Midfielder (attack) role along with relevant PIs to mirror an IF.

Striker - a Poacher as a lone forward is not always the best option, especially if you have nobody at AMC. He could easily become isolated and thus lose possession. You may find more benefit from using a striker with a support role - somebody who can keep hold of the ball a little longer in order for supporting players to reach him, or somebody who can play in other players (as well as being a goal threat). A DLF or CF may be an option, but you'd need to experiment.

You also don't really have somebody running from midfield to offer support in and around the box. Changing the AP(s) to a CM(A) may work, but again you'd need to experiment.

One final thought. You are using the Control mentality, which is a fairly risky mentality to use. By default it sets a pretty high defensive line, with lots of closing down. Adding in the TI "Close Down Much More" may be overkill and could result in your players getting caught out of position.

Try not to make massive changes all in one go. That can lead to worse problems. Alter one or two things at a time, see how they work. If you are happy, change one or two more, and so on. It sounds like you have the basis of something good, you just need a little more consistency, so small changes.

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When i play FM, i always play lower league. I play slow transitional counter attacking, which ultimately leads to keeping the ball and dominating the match whilst being decent in defense too.

the problem i find with lower league is.. Generally speaking players on attack duty ask for the ball all the time and long balls and very stupid decisions are made by the players that look for them.

i like to play very structured in lower league, literally watch the full match, or at least comprehensive and watch how you deal with transistional play and team shape on counter.

I also play strikerless as i find that it messes up transition on counter

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