Advice for my 4-1-3-1-1 formation?

[Chabal10]

Hey everyone,

Forgive me if this isn't formatted properly. I am currently in my second season with Crystal Palace. 

GK (Defend)

Left Wing Back (Attack) 

Ball-Playing Center Back (Defend)

Ball-Playing Center Back (Defend)

Right Wing Back (Support)

Defensive Midfielder (Defend)

Deep-Lying Playmaker (Support) - Center Midfield 

Ball-Winning Midfielder (Support) - Center Midfield

Advanced Playmaker (Attack) - Center Midfield

Advanced Playmaker (Support) - Attacking Midfield

Target Man/Complete Forward (Support) - Striker

 

Most important players are Tielemans, Odegaard, Benteke, De lIgt, Scott Daan.

I want my team to play possession, short passing football, while being responsible at the back. Crystal Palace has very good and versatile midfielders, in addition to having very good Target Men. I have Odegaard as my attacking midfielder (AP), Tielemans as my DLP, and Benteke as my Target Man. I chose a narrow formation that focuses on my midfield because that is where my best players are. I want to play to their strengths while also renaming balanced. I play narrow, normal defensive line, play out of defense, short passing, work ball into the box as my main instructions. I put my BWM on the left side of the 3-man center midfield in order to cover for my LWB making forward runs and I put my RWB on Support to cover for my advanced playmaker in midfield making forward runs. My DLP in midfield comes deep to get the ball and my attacking midfielder (AP) is supposed to distribute to my striker/anyone who makes runs into the box. The Target Man/Complete Forward on Support should also be able to lay the ball off to my WB or to anyone making runs into the box.

So far, I have gotten very good results but my strikers don't score enough. This is to be expected, given the roles of my other players, but is there a way I can get them more involved? I tried putting my AP in attacking midfield on attack but it didn't seem to work. Everyone is performing well and my tactic seems to be successful but I fear it may just be the game engine rewarding me for creating a new tactic. Do I have too many playmakers? Should I use a more structured shape because I have so many specialized positions? I seem to only concede on set pieces so I should take a look at that. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance

 

 

 

[jorgvandervloed]

You want to play a possession type of style, but are using a Targetman upfront? It's hard-coded in the game that players will boot it long when using this role. Although, this might differ a bit in your tactic as you're using three playmakers who essentially are ball-magnets as well. 

At the moment, you have zero runners besides your WB's on the flanks. BWM, DLP, DM, and AP (S) all have hold position activated and will stay deeper.  You then have a TM dropping deeper (support duty), usually you want a player like that to hold up the ball, and pass it to one of the players making runs from deep. In your case there are no runners. 

I would start with figuring out what you want from your striker and attacking midfielder behind him. Do you want your striker to come deep and set up the attacking midfielder? Or the attacking midfielder to set up the striker? When you've figured this out you can take a look at your midfield. 

[WhyMe]

4 hours ago, jorgvandervloed said:

You want to play a possession type of style, but are using a Targetman upfront? It's hard-coded in the game that players will boot it long when using this role. Although, this might differ a bit in your tactic as you're using three playmakers who essentially are ball-magnets as well. 

At the moment, you have zero runners besides your WB's on the flanks. BWM, DLP, DM, and AP (S) all have hold position activated and will stay deeper.  You then have a TM dropping deeper (support duty), usually you want a player like that to hold up the ball, and pass it to one of the players making runs from deep. In your case there are no runners. 

I would start with figuring out what you want from your striker and attacking midfielder behind him. Do you want your striker to come deep and set up the attacking midfielder? Or the attacking midfielder to set up the striker? When you've figured this out you can take a look at your midfield. 

Supporting BWM doesn't have hold position hard coded and indeed can have get further forward added as a PI, but even so Jorg is absolutely right on his summation of your problem.  just a single support BWM is not enough of a runner in such a system.