I have developed a pretty nice 4-1-4-1 tactic that is pretty good at getting results whilst being defensively sound. The main problem I am having is that I am really struggling to get the best of the striker, whomever it may be playing there. I will try to elaborate on the tactical setup I employ, and I will then discuss the problems I have found with the striker.
The Tactic
The design and roles;
The TIs:
Focusing on the roles first, including PIs and the reasoning behind the choices:
GK(D): none. This is pretty obvious. I have not asked him to build from the back because I found we could be hemmed in and just launch the ball forward to nobody or out of play.
WB(S): Tackle Harder. He is supposed to be an outlet on the left hand side that compensates for the more aggressive winger in front of him, and to act as an outlet out wide when opportunity arises. As with all the defensive players with this PI, I have recently implemented this because my players were not tackling enough and it was causing issues.
CD(D): Tackle Harder. Their job is to defend, and with play out of defense they tend to try to find a short passing option before clearing.
CWB(A): Tackel Harder. The main source of width on the right. He overlaps well, and is not caught out of position often. If I am being killed down the flanks I tone this back though.
DLP(S): Tackle Harder. The pivot. To receive and recycle the ball when in possession and distribute it to the best available player.
W(A): none. Provides width and direct running on the left, and basically this is because Johnson is such an out and out winger.
CM(S): Shoot less often. The deeper lying of my midfielders, he is meant to be an outlet for passing when in possession and to be reasonably defensive when not.
CM(A): Shoot less often. The attacking midfielder. His job is to get forward to support the striker as quickly as possible when in possession and act as a goal risk. I have the shoot less often PI for both these roles since my players seemed to be taking longshots too often (especially Knockaert who has the shoots from distance PPM).
WM(S). None. This guy is supposed to provide a passing outlet deeper in midfield or out wide, and to combine with the CWB to create overlaps.
DLD(S). More Direct Passes, Closes Down More. Ideally, he should receive the ball, look up and pass it to one of the oncoming midfield players before turning up the pitch to attack the penalty area. The closes down more is to make him harry defenders, and the more direct passes was for an experiment to see if I could achieve a better array of passes.
The TIs are all to modify the way I play in possession. I want to keep the ball, and work it around my midfield until we see an opening. This works pretty well, and when coupled to the attacking mentality we score in almost every game I expect to score in.
The Problem
The problem is the striker. As I stated above, if he receives the ball quickly I want him to pick the pass to the oncoming attacking midfield players and then get forward himself to offer an option in the box. Most of the time this is not what happens. He seems to hold the ball up, either with his back to goal not taking chances to pass the ball (perhaps he sees them as covered, risky or not 'short'?) until he is tackled, or he slowly drifts across the pitch (the slow dribble, not the fast one) again neither looking to attack the defense nor pass the ball until he is tackled. I am really at a loss as to how to change this behaviour, because I think if I can get him playing the way I want then this tactic will be excellent. There is also the problem of goal-scoring, and whilst I understand lone strikers are not going to contribute as many goals as strike partnerships, I think that the return of 3 goals in 13 games combined for my 3 strikers is a little poor. This season the majority of my goals have come from the W(A) of the CM(A).
I also have a problem translating the success of this tactic at home to away games, but this is another problem for another time, I will work on it until I come up empty again!
So, I would genuinely welcome any advice on things I can potentially try to get my striker behaving like the striker I want to be, and also any other feedback is welcome!
EDIT. I have just noticed that one of my strikers has Dwells on Ball PPM, which is certainly not going to help with what I describe above. I have started training to try to remove this.
