Yeboah's Right Foot Posted May 9, 2016 Share Posted May 9, 2016 I'm been really struggling with this year's FM. I've had quite a bit of success playing positive football and being reactive to the AI, e.g. changing mentality, defensive line etc depending on what I saw going on but i find this process of playing to be frustrating and ultimately unenjoyable. When the changes i make don't work I have no idea why and I don't feel like i'm learning anything or getting better. After reading through the 442 diamond thread I thought i'm probably approaching things wrong and should just aim for a style and stick with it, that sounds more enjoyable to me and is how i'd like to play. Presumably you'd need to make the odd adjustment but not the complete stylistic changes I was making before. So, I had a look at my squad and noticed we've got pretty big physical defenders who aren't the quickest and quick strikers who aren't the biggest. In midfield we have hardworking ball winners but a general lack of technical ability. This lead me to think that trying to be hard to beat, defending deep and relying on the pace of our forwards would be a good way to go. I have no wingers so a narrow formation is non negotiable so I came up with this as a start: i'm no expert, and it's early days, so my tactic could be incredibly flawed but it seems a pretty reasonable start to me. Looks defensively sound with runners from deep and a poacher threatening in behind. I played three game without tinkering, despite the overwhelming urge. I got less decent results but less than impressive performances. So a defeat against Maidstone who are 19th in the league and i'm top. Not the best result. A victory against Woking who were 7th which is a good result and a draw against Sutton who are in the relegation zone. Not a big sample size but should be enough for me to start to see where things are going wrong. I say going wrong because even the win and the draw were lucky. These are the stats from all 3 games: There are a few things that stand out to me that look a bit worrying: Crosses - Having to deal with a never ending barrage of balls into the box. Regardless of how good my defenders are in the air, i'm going to concede eventually. 95 in the Maidstone game! That might be a world record. Passing - Completion rate is poor. Judging from my opponents stats the benchmark should be around 80%. Clean Sheets - Not a one. Not ideal for a tactic that is supposed to be about them. I imagine the amount of shots on target going against me doesn't help this. We don't seem defensively sound basically. Lack of Chances to Score - I know i'm playing defensive but i'm looking for 1-0's not 0-0's. Other than the Woking game we were toothless. So this is the bit that I would normally go back to playing how i normally do and getting frustrated with being inconsistent but i'm going to endeavour with trying to make this work and maybe learning something about the game. My main problem at this stage is how overwhelming it seems. I'm going to have a look at the Maidstone game first and basically see myself getting a 90 minute battering off a lesser team. It feels like everything must be wrong but hey maybe it's something simple and it will all fall into place, or maybe not. If anyone has any suggestions, criticism, advise, whatever, i'd be hugely appreciative. I feel a bit out of my depth really. I guess trying to see why the passing is going so wrong should be my first step. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yeboah's Right Foot Posted May 10, 2016 Author Share Posted May 10, 2016 Maidstone 1 - 0 Cambridge City We got such a lesson taught to us in this match that it was difficult to get a good grip of anything other than how we defended. Not well in short but I think I identified an issue: We are incredibly deep. I obviously want to defend deep but we are giving their midfield a free ride. I have 4 centre mids and they have 2 but i'm losing the midfield battle. As the move continues I can see how much of an issue this is... My right back has moved so far forward to pressure the ball that he's in line with my midfield. This causes my DM Bateman to move into the RB position to cover. We give up more space in midfield and a domino effect happens. Our shape is already all over the place and the opposition aren't even passing the ball around. I'd love to have more to say about this match but this says it all really. Lucky to lose 0-1. So losing the drop deeper shout seems a must to me, I might even try push higher up. I'm undecided yet. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seagullfan Posted May 10, 2016 Share Posted May 10, 2016 Nice work and am looking forward to how you develop this thread Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yeboah's Right Foot Posted May 10, 2016 Author Share Posted May 10, 2016 Nice work and am looking forward to how you develop this thread Thanks, I'm just watching through the second match now trying to make notes. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
trajano080 Posted May 23, 2016 Share Posted May 23, 2016 You wont continue it? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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