The never ending quest for vertical football

[jc577]

For a while now I've wanted to create a system that's devastating in transition, turning attack to defence in an instant (think Real Madrid under Mourinho). I attempted this for a while in with Southampton, but we didn't really have the players to pull it off consistently and struggled when teams defended deep. I reverted to a more possession-based 4-4-2 diamond, ended up finishing 6th in the league but qualifying for the champions league via winning the Europa. Now i'm anticipating a rather large transfer budget for the upcoming season, so plan on completely overhauling the squad. However, our midfield consists of good passers - technical players who prefer to play with the ball at their feet rather than hassle the opposition for the ball back, so I'm wondering if this style will get the best out of them? In terms of shape I'm thinking fluid to get more players involved in transition, but again unsure if I'm on the right lines. If anyone has had success with the style of football then I would love to know more about the fundamentals of it and the type of players I should look to sign. Thanks. 

[jc577]

Little update: 

Transfers

I've now begun to realise that squad building is a major part of getting teams to play the way you want in fm, and it will take a couple seasons at least before I have the squad that I want. However, despite this I did some decent business in the summer. In Rafa Silva (17 pace & acc) and Malcom (15 pace and acc), I now have two very pacy forwards on the flanks, either side of my star striker Jon Calleri (15 pace & acc). Not only that but all three forwards are immense off-the ball, and can anticipate situations well whilst decisions are fairly decent. In midfield I signed Seri from Nice, who I must admit was not my first choice but can definitely do a job as a CMa for the time being. I also signed Phil Jones on the cheap from Man United who's developed into a real beast of a CB, and seemed to put injury problems behind him. 

Issues

The main issues I have are tactical; pre-season went well (as it always seems to) but we haven't won in 3 in the league, despite all games being winnable. I'm not overly fussed about results at the moment, I'm determined to make this style of football work. We've been playing on standard, flexible, more direct passing and higher tempo, and the front five have been set to close down more. The issue is that I haven't seen much dynamism in attack and ruthlessness in transition. Occasionally when we move the ball quickly up the pitch, some players cannot get up in time which results in the opposition having time to regain their shape and then we are forced to break them down which isn't a strength of this style of play. Part of me is thinking to try different mentality/shape combos, like control/structured or attacking/fluid but I'm still unsure. We haven't been great defensively either which leads me to thinking that going more fluid wouldn't be advisable. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[alanschu14]

What mentality are you using? IIRC, the game engine gives a bonus to counterattacking mentality if you're playing Defensive/Counter (i.e. players will be more willing to push up on the counter attack) which might be a reason why say, control/standard are seeing people taper off on counter attack opportunities. if you like the way that your team is playing otherwise maybe change to counter, try to set passing/width/etc the same it was on your current strategy, and then maybe structured to help keep the mentality of your offensive players more aggressive?