Need some advice on my tactic

[Antauri]

Hello.

In my RC Lens game i've been running into some issues recently. Defensively we're the worst team in the league. This season my goalkeeper has conceded as much in as much in 13 games as he did in 24 games last year.

I usually take a rather simplistic approach to my tactical instructions, and I mostly focus on player roles.  I've put on 'play narrower' in an attempt to concede less, but it hasn't been particularly effective. Here's my current set-up:

And here's the attributes of my players:

Right back, Lamine Gassama
Centre back, Filippo Romagna
Centre back, Loick Landre
Left back, Rogerio

BWM, Alberto Grassi
BWM, Mamadou Igiebor

IF, Anastasios Donis
AP, Oceano Bochet
Winger, Mamadou Traore

Target man, Alberto Cerri

Subs:
Marco Crimi
Kermit Erasmus
Davide Petrucci
Stipe Perica
Thomas Vasseur
Ahmed Zaoui

Not too much planning went into this, i'll be honest. It's not my preferred tactic, Ideally i'd be playing either a 4-4-2/4-2-4 or a 4-3-3, but i've tried making room for some of my extremely talented academy players. The general idea was to have a more direct playstyle, with Cerri the target man playing with his back to goal which hopefully enabled Donis, Traore and Bochet. For the most part it's worked, although Bochet hasn't been as effective as i'd hoped. 

The main issue lies in my defence. I'm assuming the issue is that I have too many attacking players on the pitch. The question is, how do I fit my academy players into the team in any other formation?

[vasilli07]

Your 2 CMs are not giving enough protection to your defence. When your CWBs move up to support your attacking players, you need your 2 CMs to give them defensive cover. The more appropriate roles are DLP/CM(D) as they have the hold position PI. When you choose BWMs, they will close down early and leave your defence exposed.

[summatsupeer]

1. Balance your central midfield with your FB's, currently there's no where near enough cover.   In a 4231 Wide I think the FB-MC should mirror each other in duties ie.  FB-A + CM-D, WB-S + CM-S etc but at least one of the CM should be defend.
2. Think about the combinations your creating.  What do a W-S + CWB-A offer different from each other?
3. You have a TM who will attract the ball, do you need to encourage direct passing?  The TM is on support but who is looking to get beyond him?  You have a AP-S but who is making runs for him?

I would get rid of the Team Instructions and focus on balancing the roles + duties.

[Antauri]

Thanks. 

[Antauri]

It's going a lot better, but we're still conceding quite a lot.

Here's the current set-up.

Not quite sure where it's going wrong. Nearly half of goals conceded are from crosses, but none of them headers. Primarily their assists come from (their) left wing. I've noticed Gassama has quite poor decision making, so i'll change him to defensive full back and hopefully that'll make a difference.

 

[summatsupeer]

31 minutes ago, Antauri said:

i'll change him to defensive full back and hopefully that'll make a difference.

 

Changing what you ask players to do won't change what they are capable of doing.  Your just changing where and what they should try to do not how well they do it.  Yes the fewer things he has to do the less decision he has to make but thats mostly with the ball as far as instructions go, it won't make him mark/position better etc.

Watch some of them and see if there's a common pattern such as exploiting space between your defence and midfield, especially between your wide players.  Then you might want to push your D-Line up or drop your advanced wide players to provide more support defensively to the deeper wide players.

[Chip]

Check your defenders' pace and acceleration. Since you're on control your d line will be pushed up and this could lead to balls over the top, especially since you use 2 WBs - the opposition will exploit these wide spaces. If your defenders and full backs are slow then they will get caught out with balls over the top and your CBs might not be quick enough to cover for the WBs. It's hard for WBs to get up and down the field so quickly so make sure your CBs or CMs are anticipating the counter from the opposition and covering the WBs

[Antauri]

All of my defenders are quick. They're all 15/15 pace/acceleration. I don't believe that's the issue.

Here are some samples of the goals we're frequently conceding: 

http://streamable.com/2dude

http://streamable.com/hzi5t

The recurring theme seems to be counter-attacks, through balls or my fullbacks being beaten one on one. There's a few things i've suggested to myself to fix this:

1) Instruct my forward players to press more, and/or to mark tighter.

2) Move my AML and AMR to just ML and MR, so that they contribute more defensively.

3) Move my CM's to DM's so that they offer even more cover for my fullbacks.

Does anyone have some feedback on this?

18 hours ago, summatsupeer said:

Changing what you ask players to do won't change what they are capable of doing.  Your just changing where and what they should try to do not how well they do it.  Yes the fewer things he has to do the less decision he has to make but thats mostly with the ball as far as instructions go, it won't make him mark/position better etc.

Watch some of them and see if there's a common pattern such as exploiting space between your defence and midfield, especially between your wide players.  Then you might want to push your D-Line up or drop your advanced wide players to provide more support defensively to the deeper wide players.

Certainly didn't help to make him a limited full back.

As we're playing on control, our defensive line is already pushed up quite often. Would it really help to push them up even more? Also when i've moved my AMR W(su) to MR W(su) he still seems to slouch defensively. Should I change his role to something else, or perhaps change my tactic/players entierly?

[vasilli07]

The AML/AMR to ML/MR suggestion should be ok. I do that for my 4-2-3-1 too when I feel I just to consolidate the lead that I have.

[summatsupeer]

52 minutes ago, Antauri said:

Certainly didn't help to make him a limited full back.

As we're playing on control, our defensive line is already pushed up quite often. Would it really help to push them up even more? Also when i've moved my AMR W(su) to MR W(su) he still seems to slouch defensively. Should I change his role to something else, or perhaps change my tactic/players entierly?

Decide on your d-line by how often does the ball go over your defences heads?  If its pretty much never then you might want to push up.  If its too often then you might want to drop it.  If its out wide behind a FB/WB who was upfield attacking then you might need to drop the players mentality so he doesn't push up so far and leave the space.

Moving him deeper won't make him mark/tackle/work harder etc, its just making him position deeper, getting another body in the way potentially.  Typically he will be deeper than there FB so should be able to block the passing lane at least rather than standing in the AMR position and just watching your FB get 2v1'd.  Obviously the advantage of leaving him in AMR is if you win the ball he should be in space to counter attack, but you would need to setup to take advantage of this.

Can't tell too much off those two goals, obviously your RB missed his tackle in the first.  In the second it looked like your team got pulled to the right, then ball went central and he had plenty of time to pick the pass out over your d-line, i don't think anything you suggested would of prevented this goal.  The 4231 Wide is very attacking, having 4 players in advanced positions when defending, if your deeper players aren't good defenders then your putting them in a bad position.  If the front 4 don't contribute defensively consider PI's on your advanced players to close down more or telling the AML+AMR to specifically mark opponents attacking fullbacks.  Maybe make both MC's defend duty so they take less risks (a double pivot)?  Maybe go to 4123 DM Wide or 433 Wide to get the AP to drop deeper into midfield to help?

[Dr. Hook]

You fullbacks and wingbacks will push higher than your defensive line, unless it is a fullback on defend duty, so wherever your d-line is set, that is where the centerbacks will hold position, with the FBs pushing on further. I don't think a higher d-line would help you unless you are able to consistently win the ball back in the compressed space and keep the opponent pinned. The problem with conceding wide when you have a single wide man defending, which is what you have in your system, is that you need a CM to come over and cover. What I do is look at the AI formation, or notice which flank the attacks are coming down to see where the AI is targeting. Very often, unless they are parking the bus on you, they will have an overlapping fullback which will give you all sorts of problem on that side with a lone wide defender. What I do is use a BWM on that side OR whatever CM role, set to more or much more closing down. The player should be someone with decent acceleration and workrate at the least, so he will get across to cover. I saw you had the BWM in your originally posted tactic. I would leave it, or make sure your DLP on the side with Gassama is closing down more. If you can use Gassama as a FB(S) rather than a WB(S), he should be positioned a little deeper to get back.

[Antauri]

41 minutes ago, summatsupeer said:

Can't tell too much off those two goals

It's not two goals, it's two games and six goals. 90% of the goals I concede are of a similar to what you saw in the clips. 

I really appreciate all the suggestions. I'll have to experiment a little, but it's going a lot better so far.