Tactical advice needed

[qaramba]

Hey!

I'm playing with Great Wakering Rovers and the year is 2026.
This is my 4th season in a row where the team is good enough to win PL. But I struggle and I don't know why. Especially away. My strikers won't score and every team seem to have the upper hand against us. At home we are the better team but struggle to finish teams off. We have reached europe the last seasons, but it looks impossible to take the last step up to the top.
Can someone take a look at my tactics and see if there is something I'm doing wrong?

Bildr.no - away
Bildr.no - home

 

[bullybeef73]

I've posted this elsewhere, but I hope it will help here too.


When I try to envisage how to create chances, I came to understand it's all about space - defending it, and in your case, attacking it.


If you have too many players in a small area, you make them easier for your players to be picked up by their opponents, so there's no time for a clinical chances on goal. Try to look at creating space for you player's to exploit, whilst remaining compact and tight at the back (closing down space at the back for the same reasons) in order to prevent potential counter attacks and the dreaded FM sucker punch goal.


You can still have attacking mentalities, just give your players more room to play into. Hope that helps. Good luck!

 

[qaramba]

Thank you for your advice. .
But I'm not sure where you want me to do these changes? Team instructions or player instructions?

 

[bullybeef73]

If you play with 2 strikers, you're best playing 4-4-2 or 3-5-2. Try to work from the default settings, but making sure too many of your players are taking space away from each other, so play with some width. And even if you play deep to close space down defensively, you can still instruct players to have attacking mentalities so they look for a forward pass.


As an example, this is how I line up:

Most of my player instructions are default apart from their mentalities, but it is worth playing around with them to understand player positions (where their starting positions are using different mentalities and their closing down positions):

 

[qaramba]

I see. The only big differences is your philosphy and creative freedom.
Width and tempo have I adjusted from time to time but I have never had as much as you have.
My home tactic works very good, I have maybe lost 5 games the last 3 seasons in total, but I have too many draws.
Playing away is bingo. I just can't find the right solution.
I'll adjust it a bit according to your advice.

 

[bullybeef73]

What I will add is, if you're playing away from home, try dropping one of the CMs into DM, still set to DLPM.