Goals, we want goals

[Harpoon76]

Unfinished business here, so still battering away at FM17 despite having purchased FM19.

Somehow we've managed to win the Championship after a few seasons of blowing a good season in the playoffs.  Huddersfield were 10 points clear at one point IIRC, so we've slugged out some tight wins whilst they fell apart.

It's a been a tough season, with my strikers being woefully poor at times.  Since the start of January, my strikers have contributed a total of four goals to the cause.  My top scorer is Roofe who plays at ML.

• Ben Brereton
• Gabriel Hock
• Ilkka Nuorela

I'll pop their profiles into the next post but I feel they should do better for the chances they have.

Current tactic which I've stuck to since January is:

Counter mentality to play "responsible" football with a lower, but not too low, attitude to risk, I want to win the possession battle but want to score goals.  Assuming after a couple of thousand hours of FM17 I actually semi-understand this - shape is Flexible to be middle of the road.  It gives options to allow more individual freedom if needed to try to break teams down but keep the lines reasonably close together.

WB(A) is the runner from deep, with a FB(S) on the other side to offer a deeper wide option but still be responsible in defence.  The Anchor man is there to screen the CBs, especially as the left one may need to cover if WB(A) is caught up the pitch.

In the midfield, the AP(S) should have runners each side in the CM(A) and WM(A).  The WM(S) on the left should tuck in slightly through PIs (sit narrower), allowing the WB to bomb past on the overlap.  CM(A) and WM(A) all have "Shoot Less Often" - Roofe at WM has a PPM of "Shoots From Distance", so I'm trying to reduce that tendency.  Philips at CM(A) is bang average with 10 for finishing, so I don't want him wasting shots from outside the box.

DLF(S) should hold up the ball, play in the runners or AP, then be heading into the box as he is a forward.

We lost 1-0 to Forest - here I was unhappy that despite being on Counter, players were shooting from distance.

In the recent games I've given the midfield four "More Risky Passes" to try to encourage more through balls into the box which I think has helped.

Looking at the most recent match we had a number of good chances in the box (to me at least) but finishing lets us down with strikers aiming straight at the GK.  By the time Preston got an 88th minute penalty, they should have been 3 or 4-nil down, not hanging in at 2-0.

For instance, somebody should score from here with a 2 on 1 against the keeper

Tactical suggestions are welcome, though I feel some of this is a lack of confidence/form of the strikers and any tips of getting them into form would be useful.  They've all had a run of games to hopefully get them into form but just don't deliver.

[Harpoon76]

One more screenshot from the Preston game to show a chance I believe the striker (Ilkka Nuorela) should convert

Striker profiles:

Hock disappoints the most at 17 finishing, 14 composure and 13 technique but only 33% shots on target.