Non-league 4-4-2 help!

[rfookes]

TLDR - my tactic was good last season and isn't too good now, what gives?

 

So I'm currently managing Barrow in the Vanarama National League, and last season we performed above expectations, finishing in the playoffs (which we then proceeded to lose on penalties, but that's beside the point).  We set up for the majority of the season with this assymetric 4-4-2:

 

Both of our strikers finished in the top 4/5 scorers, we scored a hatful of goals, but we weren't too convincing defensively and were a bit inconsistent which meant that we didn't finish higher.  However, it was still better than expected, so I was buzzing to start the next campaign and hopefully improve.

 

We didn't improve.  We're around 12 games into this season and really struggling; we seem to have lost the goalscoring threat we had, scoring barely a goal a game, and still leak them in, all of which has resulted in us floating around the bottom half of the table so far.  

 

Is my tactic flawed?  Is the slight lack of quality in the team catching up to us?  If anyone could help I'd be super appreciative!

[bibird.]

1 hour ago, rfookes said:

TLDR - my tactic was good last season and isn't too good now, what gives?

 

So I'm currently managing Barrow in the Vanarama National League, and last season we performed above expectations, finishing in the playoffs (which we then proceeded to lose on penalties, but that's beside the point).  We set up for the majority of the season with this assymetric 4-4-2:

 

Both of our strikers finished in the top 4/5 scorers, we scored a hatful of goals, but we weren't too convincing defensively and were a bit inconsistent which meant that we didn't finish higher.  However, it was still better than expected, so I was buzzing to start the next campaign and hopefully improve.

 

We didn't improve.  We're around 12 games into this season and really struggling; we seem to have lost the goalscoring threat we had, scoring barely a goal a game, and still leak them in, all of which has resulted in us floating around the bottom half of the table so far.  

 

Is my tactic flawed?  Is the slight lack of quality in the team catching up to us?  If anyone could help I'd be super appreciative!

The way I see it is in non-league there are no great players. Anyone who is great will generally leave pretty quickly, so you've always got a pretty even field in terms of competition. This means that anyone really can beat anyone. Therefore, when the AI adapts to your non-league tactic, it'll be easier to beat than if you were a top Premier League side with inherently better players than one fighting relegation.

Your tactic doesn't look too bad and it doesn't have too many TIs to muddy the waters, so that's helpful. I'd look to drop back to a Balanced mentality at least for a couple of games to see if this can tighten up your defence slightly. I'd also ditch the right sided overlap, as your right back is already attacking and will overlap naturally without the increase to his individual mentality the shout causes. I'm not a fan of asymmetric formations as they create gaps in the defensive structure, so I'd consider moving your DM to a CMd (he'll still cover your marauding right back) and see if that helps.

Personally, when I play lower league saves I look to build a rapport with my players as quickly as possible through interactions regarding match and training performances. I nicked this idea (along with many others) from @_Ben_ in this post:

I'd recommend reading his threads if you get a chance, they're all amazing.

Good luck.

 

[3runhomer]

Sometimes FM just throws your team into bad form. Your tactics are already pretty simple, but maybe try using completely basic formation and tactics for a bit? I used this to win a lower league:

This isn’t hugely different from yours except: 1) we used standard depth lines, 2) no asymmetric stuff, 3) one of my central midfielders was on attack to get him to push forward and help the strikers. 
 

Developing those good partnership lines appears to be critical. Once we did that we were unstoppable. Good luck.