Can't score, can't win!

[SpartanUTD]

Team: TSG Hoffenheim

Competitions: Budesligua, Champions League, German Cup

Expectations: European qualification, 1st knockout round, Semi-Final

Formations: 4-2-3-1 balanced/attacking and sometimes 4-2-3-1 balanced/control, but now changed to 4-4-2 balanced/attacking and sometimes 4-4-2 balanced/control.

Squad: Highly ambitious, highly determined players but low in teamwork.

Pitch dimensions: 105x68m (from 101x65m)

The only major change that I have done to my quite successful squad/tactics/pitch, is the pitch size, expecting that it would give my wingers more space to stretch the opponents tight defenses. At the moment, it just seems to give my opponents more space to score in the counter-attack

A good example of how things go from the start of this horrendous season, is from the last game, against the 1st in the league Frankfurt:

They scored 2 goals (one from counter-attack) In the first 13 minutes. Frankfurt play a defensive 4-1-3-2, with all the no creative midfielders. The only really creative player was their 1 striker. Then, they sit back and this is how they will win the league, by the looks of it! Whenever I tried to sit back from the 1st minute, I found my team loosing 2 to 4-0 in the 1st half

I pushed the team up, tried play wider to stretch the defense but no good, narrower and run defense, pump ball into the box. When I stick to retain possession, it seems to work better, as kicking the ball forward makes me loose possession easily. In the 2nd half, things improved, by creating more chances, but even when my strikers were at a scoring spot, they didn't seem to have any luck. My team might create more than 10 chances but we just cannot score, no matter if I am using 4-2-3-1 or 4-4-2, with any of the players used

This is more or less what happens with either good or bad teams, or in some other cases, like with last in the league Dusseldorf, we can't even create enough chances to scrap the match 1-0 and go home with a win. Finally, some of my best players are playing the worse season yet, with overall average rate below 6.80

My 4-2-3-1 tactics last season, gave me 3rd position, 3rd best attack, 4th best defense, using aggressive tackling, retain position, play out of defense, pass into space and occasionally push higher up. It also worked well in other seasons, finishing at the top 5 (after your advice, I haven't given a single fine this season)

What on earth happened this season, that I cannot score and win, not even the weakest 3 teams of the league?

1. Are they all playing very defensively, to what is a very strong Hoffenheim side?

2. Have I overvalued my squad?

3. Have I made a major mistake to increase the pitch size?

4. Should I start making major changes in the squad that I have barely changed the past few seasons?

5. Am I getting to old (66yo) to inspire them to play for me?

[robot_skeleton]

Your pitch dimension is fine. Show the tactic!

[SpartanUTD]

It's my favorite 4-2-3-1 attacking or control and the most recent 4-4-2 attacking.

As expected, I am pulling my defense back, I never score and my strikers get a max of 6.7 AR.

For this season, whenever I tried to play wider/control, my defense in the middle looks hollow and I don't seem to get to the opposite penalty area much.

To avoid big holes in my defense, I tried to play attacking, but with my defense deep, which made it even worse goal-scoring wise.

I can't even score against small to average teams in the league and in one case that I did score 3 (Duisburg), I conceded 2 goals at the end.

I tried counter attack and team seems to stick to defending but is not productive in front of goal.