(FM19) Blackpool first season, need tactical advices.

[Digis]

Newbie here, started a LLM  with Blackpool last week. Thing is, I'm currently 2/5/7 in the league and I feel like the team is not playing like I want it. Not only I concede a crapton of goals (23 in 14 games) but my attacking is totally clueless, either my players launch the ball long to nowhere upfront or I keep useless possession until one of my wingers cross from the byline only for my strikers to waste it anyway and I'm dead on transition. I have an idea of building a team around intensity, quickness, pace and transition, but right now I need to SURVIVE so any suggestions are appreciated. About the squad:

-My wingers are pretty nice, with good pace crossing and dribbling (amongst highest in the league)

 -my CBs are meh, I also concede a lot from set pieces.

-my left back is pretty good, the one on the right is useless apart from tackling and heading.

-the midfield consists of a good DM in Guy and my key player Spearing is the CM with good passing along with the marking. Little to no depth in this department tho ( 2 subpar BWM/BBM, only one CAM, which is an 18 year old).

- my main forward is Delfouneso which does what I ask fairly, consistenly runs into space behind opposition although weak on 1v1s, but he's injured. The others have similar stats, but none seem to work.

- There's always a void in midfield and I basically have less 2 players since my forwards help in utterly nothing. From what I've read my squad roles fit the counter tactic but all I see is launching balls ahead to no one until I concede from a set piece . 

Be as honest as you wish in the comments and please give some explanations, I'm fairly new to this game. 

Edited February 7, 2020 by Digis

[Experienced Defender]

4 hours ago, Digis said:

First off, I don't understand why you use 2 so different tactics (including even different formations). 

 

4 hours ago, Digis said:

I'm fairly new to this game

Then I'll focus on the first tactic and ignore the other one (424), because the 4141dm wide as a formation is far easier for a tactical novice to set up than 424 or 4231.

But I have to ask you a couple of questions first:

1. what's the idea with focusing play down the flanks (and do you know what the instruction does besides encouraging more active play in wider areas)? 

2. the same question goes for the overlap and underlap?

3. also for wide attacking width?

4. ditto for all your out-of-possession instructions - higher DL/LOE, extreme pressing, get stuck in, tight marking - why so extreme ??? And the counter-press on top of all that ??? 

4 hours ago, Digis said:

I have an idea of building a team around intensity, quickness, pace and transition

So you actually want to play some sort of fast, direct and simple counter-attacking football built around tight, compact and hard-to-break-down defense, right?

How fast is your striker? And how technically gifted is he?

[Digis]

Thanks for the response, let´s go.

1 hour ago, Experienced Defender said:

First off, I don't understand why you use 2 so different tactics (including even different formations). 

Oh nevermind, it´s just I´ve been trying 2 different ones due to injuries or simply to have more or less in the midfield, but no big deal. My long term plan doesn´t involve 2 strikers anyway so we´re good with the 4-1-4-1.

 

1 hour ago, Experienced Defender said:

But I have to ask you a couple of questions first:

I´ll give my thought process behind it and If those instructions are somewhat contradicting my game idea feel free to explain it. 

1- my idea is to utilize my wingers to the fullest due to their good pace, acceleration and crossing so I can reach the attack quickly.

2 - my idea with the overlap was to make use of my left back to go up the field help the winger since he is very athletic. Don´t really know why I put the underlap on the right since my RB is supposed to stay deep.

3- Again, point is to utilize the flanks since that´s a strong department in my team, so on transition they move to the line to receive the ball against an exposed fullback or maybe even behind it, or to deliver through balls quickly to my forward.

4- I selected all those because in my head my team must fight hard for the ball with intensity so I can recover the ball quickly, I started the save with the idea of an ''intense'' team but one that puts pressure on the opposition all the time. 15 games in and now I think I need to change my approach since the team apparently can´t pull it off as of now.

 

1 hour ago, Experienced Defender said:

So you actually want to play some sort of fast, direct and simple counter-attacking football built around tight, compact and hard-to-break-down defense, right?

Yea, at least for now that´s the approach I´m looking for. Gegenpressing is one that also appealed to me at first glance but let´s keep it simple for now. 

 

1 hour ago, Experienced Defender said:

How fast is your striker? And how technically gifted is he?

My top goalscorer has 15 acceleration and pace, 13 in technique agility and dribbling. Only 11 at finishing but it´s the one that worked most so far. Buut he´s injured so we have: 

Cullen with 14 acceleration and finishing, 13 pace but only 9 technique. Meanwhile Dodoo has 16 acceleration and 15 pace, along with a technique of 12 and 13 in finishing.

I have also a target man and a DLF but they lack in speed and so right now they´re only as options on the bench.

 

 

[Experienced Defender]

15 minutes ago, Digis said:

my idea is to utilize my wingers to the fullest due to their good pace, acceleration and crossing so I can reach the attack quickly

Okay, but then you also need to know that a Focus play instruction increases the mentality of the fullback/wing-back on that flank (which can cause some defensive issues). Especially problematic is the left flank, where your FB is already on attack duty, which means his individual mentality is high enough even without the Focus play TI. 

 

19 minutes ago, Digis said:

my idea with the overlap was to make use of my left back to go up the field help the winger since he is very athletic

Like the focus play, overlaps and underlaps also increase the mentality of the related FB, and slightly decrease that of the wide forward (or wide midfielder, depending on the formation you use). 

So if you want your left FB to be more attack-minded and thus support his winger partner more closely, you can do any of the following:

- change him into WB on support (instead of FB on support), although in that case you should also change the MCL into a more holding/covering type of role (carrilero or BWM on support or DLP on support)

- or keep him as FB on support and use only the Focus play down the left, but without the Overlap left  

27 minutes ago, Digis said:

Don´t really know why I put the underlap on the right since my RB is supposed to stay deep

The problem here is that if he stays too deep, you may lack sufficient support in attack. As a sort of compromise, you can change him into WB on defend duty (because WB as a role is a bit more attack-minded than FB) and either use the Overlap right or Focus play down the right (but not both at the same time). 

Alternatively, you can play him as FB on support but change the DM's duty to defend. 

1 hour ago, Digis said:

I selected all those because in my head my team must fight hard for the ball with intensity so I can recover the ball quickly, I started the save with the idea of an ''intense'' team but one that puts pressure on the opposition all the time

Apart from the fact that such manner of defending can heavily expose you defensively, do you really have the right type of players to execute all these aggressive instructions properly? I guess not. 

Remember, good defending is in the first place intelligent, not aggressive (and especially not overly aggressive). Okay, the Cautious team mentality mitigates this aggressiveness to some degree, but obviously not enough. So you need to strike the right balance taking all factors into account. 

1 hour ago, Digis said:

Yea, at least for now that´s the approach I´m looking for

Well, for such style of football, you need to set up your tactic in a considerably different way. And you do not necessarily need to use a low team mentality (such as cautious or defensive) in order to be defensively solid and/or play counter-attacking football. You can achieve that on more or less any team mentality, provided you set roles, duties and instructions properly (keeping in mind that the mentality affects all other instructions, both in attack and defense). 

 

1 hour ago, Digis said:

My top goalscorer has 15 acceleration and pace, 13 in technique agility and dribbling. Only 11 at finishing but it´s the one that worked most so far. Buut he´s injured so we have: 

Cullen with 14 acceleration and finishing, 13 pace but only 9 technique. Meanwhile Dodoo has 16 acceleration and 15 pace, along with a technique of 12 and 13 in finishing

Okay, these guys can be utilized for a direct counter-attacking style, especially in a lower league. 

Now, following our discussion so far, do you have a more clear idea of how you could set up a more balanced tactic to achieve the desired style of play? Or maybe you would like me to give you some more specific examples?

[Digis]

Yea I got an idea oh how the instructions and roles work a bit, I feel I can tweak some things to get solid defensively (like the instructions and roles on the sides you mentioned for instance). With this setup, is it too risky to leave my wingers that  high up the field or is it fine as long as I tweak the tactics?. Also, what roles should I have in midfield, especifically the two ahead of my DM?

Also, I still have some questions on the tactics in general.

A solid direct counter-attacking style being my main strategy, what would be my defensive and attacking usual state? I´m trying to avoid the scenario of being bombarded, only launching unwinnable balls to a lone striker and they get possession back almost immediately. My thought process (correct me if I´m wrong) would be :

1- Defensively  - a deeper, narrower defensive line with a deeper (not so sure) line of engagement. Pressing intensity I have no idea, my brain simply fails to understand why it shoulnd´t be as urgent as possible, I know it envolves the defensive positioning and players but I feel like I´m letting the opposition do as they please.  Either way I would like to know how urgent should I set it.

2- Transition - would be counter distributed to flanks and regrouping upon losing possession

3- Attacking - wide, focusing on the sides, pass into space with slightly or more direct passing on a higher tempo. Final third I´m confused as well. Should probably be early crosses if I´m looking for through balls and stuff, or is run at defence a better option? Creative freedom I believe should be disciplined.

Having that said, I´m not sure about mentality as well, is there one that is very close to this setup or should I just set it to balanced and adjust based on these settings (with corrections obviously)? Also if you have some practical examples to show instead of explaining everything that would be ok as well.

 

[Experienced Defender]

11 hours ago, Digis said:

Yea I got an idea oh how the instructions and roles work a bit, I feel I can tweak some things to get solid defensively (like the instructions and roles on the sides you mentioned for instance)

Okay. When you create/tweak the tactic, you can post a screenshot again and I'll tell you what it looks like and if some more tweaking might be needed. 

 

11 hours ago, Digis said:

With this setup, is it too risky to leave my wingers that  high up the field or is it fine as long as I tweak the tactics?

What exactly do you mean by "that high up the field" in this particular context? Are you referring to their roles/duties or positions (AML/R), or maybe something else)? 

 

11 hours ago, Digis said:

what roles should I have in midfield, especifically the two ahead of my DM?

Depends on how other roles and duties are set up. Nothing should be viewed in isolation. Basically, these are principles I always follow when it comes to roles and duties:

- who and how is supposed to create space in attack for others

- who and how should then utilize that space

- who should provide defensive cover for the more attack-minded roles, especially those running from deep (e.g. fullbacks and midfielders) 

11 hours ago, Digis said:

A solid direct counter-attacking style being my main strategy, what would be my defensive and attacking usual state? I´m trying to avoid the scenario of being bombarded, only launching unwinnable balls to a lone striker and they get possession back almost immediately. My thought process (correct me if I´m wrong) would be :

1- Defensively  - a deeper, narrower defensive line with a deeper (not so sure) line of engagement. Pressing intensity I have no idea, my brain simply fails to understand why it shoulnd´t be as urgent as possible, I know it envolves the defensive positioning and players but I feel like I´m letting the opposition do as they please.  Either way I would like to know how urgent should I set it

All these heavily depend on the team mentality you select. 

 

11 hours ago, Digis said:

2- Transition - would be counter distributed to flanks and regrouping upon losing possession

You may not necessarily need to use the regroup TI in transition, because - depending on the rest of the tactic - it may make you too passive when defending. Leave both the regroup and counter-press unselected, for starters.

Best tactics are usually very simple - they use pretty few instructions overall. 

11 hours ago, Digis said:

I´m not sure about mentality as well, is there one that is very close to this setup or should I just set it to balanced and adjust based on these settings

Yes, the Balanced is the best choice when you are creating a new tactic and are not sure what to do. Start with the Balanced mentality, try to set up roles and duties in a logical and balanced manner (see the 3 basic principles I listed above) and pick just a few instructions that clearly make sense relative to your desired style of play. You can even start with no instructions at all, then watch the match carefully and gradually make tweaks (one by one) until you get what you want. 

 

11 hours ago, Digis said:

Also if you have some practical examples to show instead of explaining everything that would be ok as well

i have, and I can share them with you, but I would first like to see your attempt to either create a new or tweak your current tactic. Then I can give you some examples 

[Digis]

Okay, so this is the one I came up with, as simple as I could get it, with no individual instructions as of yet. Standard mentality, line of defense is lower and line of engagement is standard, other things such as passing and tempo are on standard as well. The rest of the instructions are on the screen.

[Experienced Defender]

17 hours ago, Digis said:

line of defense is lower and line of engagement is standard

That's a good combo for defensive solidity and counter-attacking intent 

But most of other things unfortunately aren't.

I already explained you what instructions such as Focus play down a flank and/or over/underlap do with the FB's mentality. And you still use it on the left flank even though your LB is set to attack duty. To make this even worse, you did not even put a holding/covering type of CM in MCL, but in MCR, where he is much less needed.

Okay, I'll now give you 2 examples of counter-attacking tactics that look to utilize fast wingers (wide forwards) to good effect. One will be under the Balanced and the other on the Cautious mentality, so that you could compare and note where key differences are in relation to the mentality change.

The tactic on Balanced mentality:

AF/PFat

IWsu                                    Wsu

BWMsu   CMat

A/DMde

FBat     CDde    NCBde    WBde

SKde

Mentality - Balanced

In possession - slightly more direct passing, play wider, focus play down the right (and occasionally/optionally - hit early crosses)

In transition - counter and distribute to flanks

Out of possession - standard DL, lower LOE (and optionally - get stuck in)

Player instructions:

the striker and CM on attack - close down more 

BWMsu - hold position

*

*           *

The tactic on Cautious mentality:

AF/PFat

Wat                                       Wsu

BWMsu    CMat

A/DMde

WBauto   CDde  NCBde    FBsu

SKde

Mentality - Cautious

In possession - more direct passing, higher tempo, play wider, focus play down the right, focus play down the left and early crosses 

In transition - counter and distribute to flanks

Out of possession - standard DL, lower LOE, more urgent pressing (and optionally - get stuck in)

Player instructions - not necessary