Help I need help with my squad

[harry67]

Hey guys I need alot of help with my squad.  

 I'm currently playing as man united and my team just isn't performing well. I switched the system recently and I've gotten 4 wins and 3 draws and 3 losses. In those 3 draws I always conceded the first goal and then scored a late equalizer. I lost 4-0 to Liverpool and I don't know what to change. I'd really appreciate how to fix the team. One main issue is in the opponent's final third (my defensive area) the opponent consistently plays around with the ball and plays it closer to my goal and always manages to find a close open space and shoots. My backline is easily explored and they manage to have a long ball counter attack work against me easily.

[DanEnglish]

Yeah there’s a couple of defensive issues here:

• Pressing - you have an ‘all over’ press, BUT you’re using 2x Poachers (who don’t really press) - this puts a lot of pressure on your midfielders to push up, which creates space behind them. Tip = 2x AFs would be better.   
   
• Central Midfield - with only 2x DM/M/AMCs, you are outnumbered in central midfield against most opposition tactics. Tip = get works class midfielders, or add an extra midfielder (a DMC or an AMC), or just accept they’ll struggle
   
• Defensive Midfielder - currently you have no DMC, nor a BWM / Anchor in the MC position. This means that an opposition AMC / attacking midfielder can sit inbetween your central midfield (who are pressing ‘all over’) and your center backs. If their AMC gets the ball, then one of your DCs steps forward, suddenly a through ball gives them an easy chance. Or they can just shoot from a central position 🤷 Tip = play with a defensive midfielder - either any DMC, or a BWM / Anchor as an MC.   
   
• Defensive Pace - 3x of your defenders are fast, but Maguire is slow for the EPL. Tip = either replace Maguire, or play Sanchez as a sweeper. 

Personally I’d recommend either the Black Hawk 4123 with a mid-defensive line, or my ‘attacking 4213’ (both available on this site) - both of which solve most of these problems 👍 or the ‘updated and great again’ welcome to Wrexham 442 is a great option which is similar to yours (but is more effective)

Thoughts?

PS. 7th is decent for Man Utd nowadays 😉 

 

Edited October 28 by DanEnglish

[harry67]

Hey Dan, 

 

Thanks for the help. I've restarted the career mode just for my own sake and used your advice. I'm seeing worse form than before. I won 1 game which was an ugly lucky set piece win but my team is just not performing at all.

 

Is there an issue with the players? Most of them are 3.5+ stars.

[DanEnglish]

Argh!

Defensively
So defensively you have improved:

• before: 1.5 goals conceded per game (league only)
• now: 1.0 goals conceded per game (as two of them were away at City)

Offensively
This is why your recent form is so bad - you’ve sacrificed your attack.

• before: almost 2 goals scored per game
• now: almost ZERO goals scored per game 😱

Problems - you only have one goal-scorer (the AF), you have no attacking midfielders, you’re relying on wide crosses from your DWs / WBs into a low/mid-aerial striker (Martial / Rashford). That’s not great.

You are Man Utd. You still have a good (but not world class) squad. You can be more attacking than this! 🙂 

I have already shared 3x tactics which have a better balance between attack + defense than what you have now. Take a look, learn from them, use them or create your own 🔥 good luck

Edited October 29 by DanEnglish

[harry67]

I tried to use one of your tactics (4231) and it's been giving me mixed results. I lost 3 in a row, all to big 6 teams and I've conceded really sloppy goals which I definetly shouldn't have (twice in a game a striker from a counter ran from halfway on the wing and ran by himself into the box and scored). Having the attacking midfielder playing the AP role has worked really well for me though.

 

Any suggestions how to tweak this?

[gorp]

4 hours ago, harry67 said:

I tried to use one of your tactics (4231) and it's been giving me mixed results. I lost 3 in a row, all to big 6 teams and I've conceded really sloppy goals which I definetly shouldn't have (twice in a game a striker from a counter ran from halfway on the wing and ran by himself into the box and scored). Having the attacking midfielder playing the AP role has worked really well for me though.

 

Any suggestions how to tweak this?

honestly get a good keeper 😂(Man United in real life got a keeper who can catch simple cross and they praise him like he's the reincarnation of Peter Schmeichel) 

but tactically probably dropping the IFs to AMR/AML or at least one of them would help defensively on the wing because they will track back (not as aggressive as DW tho).

Also i love DFB with attacking mentality and this probably would suit wan-bissaka , since in build up they offer stability with 3 back and with attacking mentality they will still go up as passing option or do early crossess from midfield.

[DanEnglish]

8 hours ago, harry67 said:

I tried to use one of your tactics (4231) and it's been giving me mixed results. I lost 3 in a row, all to big 6 teams and I've conceded really sloppy goals which I definetly shouldn't have (twice in a game a striker from a counter ran from halfway on the wing and ran by himself into the box and scored). Having the attacking midfielder playing the AP role has worked really well for me though.

Yep. I’d say it’s a mistake to play an ‘attacking 4213’ against a better side / top 6 club. The lack of a DMC means your BWM (or anchor) can easily be overloaded by more than one opposition attacking midfielder - which gives them easy chances.

• The Black Hawk 4123 is a much more balanced tactic, as the DMC prevents most of those easy opposition chances through the center - plus it is a plug and play tactic.  
   
• The Attacking 4213 is better used against similar + worse clubs - plus it’s not a plug and play tactic, I tweak it in very specific ways for every match - either swopping around the Anchor / IWB to the other flank (with the B2B / FB swopping over), or moving to one of the 5 variants in my post if the opposition uses a midfield Diamond, or has a dangerous AMC.

PS. Yes a better GK would help a LOT 🙂 

Edited October 29 by DanEnglish

[ManagerFm]

On 28/10/2025 at 07:00, harry67 said:

Hey guys I need alot of help with my squad.  

 I'm currently playing as man united and my team just isn't performing well. I switched the system recently and I've gotten 4 wins and 3 draws and 3 losses. In those 3 draws I always conceded the first goal and then scored a late equalizer. I lost 4-0 to Liverpool and I don't know what to change. I'd really appreciate how to fix the team. One main issue is in the opponent's final third (my defensive area) the opponent consistently plays around with the ball and plays it closer to my goal and always manages to find a close open space and shoots. My backline is easily explored and they manage to have a long ball counter attack work against me easily.

This is so obvious. This is one guy from here and discord, using another profile to ask questions so that he can "proffesorring" others and to share his knowledge of "user preferred" game.

Anyways, literally any formation you would use it would work if you react during the game. Cheers D

[DanEnglish]

3 hours ago, ManagerFm said:

This is so obvious. This is one guy from here and discord, using another profile to ask questions so that he can "proffesorring" others and to share his knowledge of "user preferred" game.

Really Che? Really? I know you don’t like me, but that’s a bit odd. No I didn’t. 
 

3 hours ago, ManagerFm said:

Anyways, literally any formation you would use it would work if you react during the game.

Though I do agree with this. Literally any ‘good’ tactic (e.g. from the Vibe tactics index) should be fine - if you’re willing to tweak / adapt / react during the game. Agreed 👍 

[harry67]

9 hours ago, ManagerFm said:

This is so obvious. This is one guy from here and discord, using another profile to ask questions so that he can "proffesorring" others and to share his knowledge of "user preferred" game.

Anyways, literally any formation you would use it would work if you react during the game. Cheers D

Not sure where you got that information from mate I genuinely needed help and Dan here helped me loads. Thanks for your help dan my side went on a 14 game winning streak and we're currently 2nd in the league and unbeaten as of now.

 

[MegaBoi]

17 hours ago, ManagerFm said:

This is so obvious. This is one guy from here and discord, using another profile to ask questions so that he can "proffesorring" others and to share his knowledge of "user preferred" game.

I don't think a Person with a Job and Family will have that much time to create another account to ask question and then Answer it with another.

Now you're just Overthinking(Or overhating).

[ManagerFm]

22 hours ago, DanEnglish said:

Really Che? Really? I know you don’t like me, but that’s a bit odd. No I didn’t. 
 

Though I do agree with this. Literally any ‘good’ tactic (e.g. from the Vibe tactics index) should be fine - if you’re willing to tweak / adapt / react during the game. Agreed 👍 

Really.

added 0 minutes later

16 hours ago, harry67 said:

Not sure where you got that information from mate I genuinely needed help and Dan here helped me loads. Thanks for your help dan my side went on a 14 game winning streak and we're currently 2nd in the league and unbeaten as of now.

 

From getting all personalities on discord. I don't speak of things I'm not familiar with.