Ok this has been going on since 07.

I just cant get a consistent tactic that even looks like winning a trophy.

In recent weeks ive read through this forum and taken on board a lot of ideas from the excellent posts on here.

Ive recently started a game at Verona (seriec1b) they are a fairly big club in a small league basically giving me a chance to work on tactics and player cohesion without worrying too much about the opposition (this is what ive been forced to do!!)

Ive read through wwfan excellent post and set up a home, away and balanced formation all variations of the 4-3-3 formation a la mourinhos chelsea.

The majority of my friendlys have been at home as have my early italian cup games so ive concentrated on my home attacking formation.

All my players bar my gk and dmc are set to attacking even my cb my fullbacks are encouraged to attack my 2 cm are attacking and my wingers an sc are high attacking also.

my fullbacks are set to cross from deep to my target man my wingers go to the byline and my team instructions state high tempo mixed passing and a high defensive line.

Now I dont think I can go anymore attcking than this but do you think I can create a chance?
No the games ive played are all similar 42/43% possession and 1/2 chances created before

I just just cant get anything going
the opposition im playing are poor and I should be battering them especially the way im set up but the amount of chances and possesion i create is very poor and I just cant seem to see this game taking off.

Why is this? Im so frustrated with this game ive loved it since 93 and when I get a game going there is no better feeling but i just cant!!

I feel like all my previos cm/fm knowledge is now useless and I have to set up some sophisticated tactics systems to get any real success on a game where ive always applied good transfer acumen and sensible tactics to get success

anyway rant over if anyone feels like replying to this frustrated old skooler then feel free but I get the feeling the game might be going back in to the box soon.

I feel your pain. I couldn't create a successful tactic. Truth be told you need two at the very least but I nave found you can start very one and create the second as you go.

Dude I'm going to start a game with Verona and post everything I do, to see if that can help you in your game.

Hi again gareth Richards.

I have started my Verona test and this is my squad and tactic so far.



The only changes I have made are
•Picked the house style which is All Out Attacking mentality. Everything else is set to default. As you can see I didn’t even change the formation.
•I needed a goal keeper so I picked up Gianluca Pagluca to be my starting goalkeeper and team captain. With all this gung-ho style I really needed an experienced head in goal and keeping my back four a little bit more organised.
•I also grabbed David Mezzanoti. I can’t remember where I got him from. I will have to check and post it later. He was about £30,000. I had to be careful because I was very close to my wage ceiling.
•I made my pitch longer and wider to suit my attacking style.

The changes I didn’t make:
* I didn’t change anything else. i.e. change the set up for corners or change individual instructions.

I pick my teams based on decision making. If I have two players that are similar I will tend to go for the one with the better decision stat. I go it to make detail on my own thread and I don’t want to get in trouble for writing it twice.

I had a formation and a playing style and I just watched the preseason games. These were a tad unfair because we were playing vastly superior sides but the small positives I did see is that when we had the ball we passed it in to dangerous areas and played like a team. Against the big boys Verona’s weak backline looked very poor especially when combined with their lack of height, pass, positioning, marking and our gung ho style.

On the other hand, on lone striker Altinien(14jmp, 15fin and 16det) and attacking midfielder Da Silva (20jmp and 17hd) were big targets combine that with under 21 international Zeytulaev (15pace, 16off, 16tech and 17sta) and wing back/attacking midfielder Stamilla (15pace, 15acc, 15anti), I knew I would have options. I could have set up my tactic to use these players but the more I play , the more I see players with good decisions and default instructions doing it anyway but in a more unpredictable way. Yes they probably waste more chances but it is harder to stop when you don’t stick to one way of attacking and let the players choose a bit more.

Here are my results so far.



Boy, did my preseason suck! After four defeats I was will to say I was wrong. Losing four games by a combined score of 18-2 does not a good system make. I thought I stick with it for one more game and then post in my sorry results. My team was dejected but still managed to put on a 5-3 thriller that had me on the edge of my keyboard. That’s when I decided to I was going to keep attacking and compensate by getting better defenders. I needed full backs with better decisions and better crossing so the deep crosses where more effective and gave me another attacking option. In came Mezzanotti his 13 crossing immediately made an impact. The 5-5 game at Lecco was like watching Newcastle of old, when Keegan was at his “I love it” best. This Verona is that Newcastle side and it's been cool to watch, if not a bit too nail-biting sometimes.

All I need is one decent centreback.

Tactically if I was going to make any changes I probably would play a more direct, quicker and wider style. 12 on the slider maximum for all but I like the way we are playing as the moment.

I hope this gives you a few ideas.

wow what a response I cant believe you started a game just to help me cheers mate!!

I too identified the players you mentioned and also managed to add to the squad (blasting through my wage ceiling) adding players I feel of a good quality im going to persevere (i still havent been beat yet!!)

Te only thing that made me "snap" was the pathetic way we started the season having said that i have tinkered a lot with tactics and signings so that might make a big difference

thanks again for your help it proves not everyone in here is an idiot!!