Wingers and playmakers stop performing.

[AurioDK]

I started with Gateshead and I am now in the Premier and some things are very consistent. My wingers simply stop performing at some point and that includes any decisive player in the middle of the park, could be a playmaker or an attacking midfielder. They often go from 7.4 in the first 10-20 games to just outright being next to useless for the rest of the season. Takes a lot of fiddling to get them to perform at a 6,8 avg rating .... everything from changing instructions to roles such as Inside forward or just individual instructions.

I spent 7 seasons in the Championship and they were all the same, exactly with the only difference being me trying to figure out how to break the deadlock once it arrived. My last season in the Championship a strikerless 4-3-0-3-0 with strikers as "shadow strikers" won me my first 21 games, then the AI finally adjusted and that tactic never worked again. I reverted to a standard 4-0-4-0-2 where my wingers shined for 5 or 6 games and after that every single fullback was capable of handling them, their ratings dropped to 6,3/6,5 and I opted for the rest of the season to play with a narrow 4-2-3-0-1. I struggled but got promoted based on the first half of the season.

I can´t afford the best players so I have to choose and pick between stats and relevance, pace/acc + cross/drib for wingers ... and then if possible other mental and physical stats but even my "on loan" wonderkid stopped performing in his winger role regardless of instructions at some point.

 

The thing is that every single player at a point gets counter instructions and those seem to be extremely effective regardless of opponent, my wonderkid who was extremely good with 18 dribbling, balance and agility to match plus other extremely good stats was a god until they started marking him, after that he couldn´t dribble past a non-league defender.

 

My question is,  have you noticed this and what do you do when they start man marking them?

[Experienced Defender]

Post a screenshot of your tactic, please. Because otherwise we won't be able to offer any meaningful advice. The whole context matters.