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I'm playing with a small Serie C2 team. No stars, everyone is mediocre at best, but I'm just trying to coax competent play out of them in their pre-season friendly matches. Here's what I'm seeing:
* DECENT DEFENSE. Defensive line is pretty competent as long as I set tackling to "medium". They will actually get the ball away from an attacker to an extent I find pleasing. But the midfield isn't breaking up attacks, the opposition pretty much gets a free ride until they reach the defensive line, where they usually get stopped. Problem is, occasionally they get too much of a break in the midfield, my defenders haven't found their position yet and that's when they score.
* WEAK OFFENSE. Lots of kicking around the midfield, but little (almost no) penetration. Very few shots on goal, very little possession time on their side of the field. Tried making my strikers target men, doesn't seem to have an effect. My strikers are my only "stars" but it's like they're not even in the game.
* POOR PASS RECEPTION. The stats on completed passes look good, but what I see, especially on offense, is that the pass is completed but the receiver has poor control and the ball gets away from him (or taken away from him) easily. This is usually how my lackluster "attacks" end.
I'm using 4-4-2, medium tempo, medium mentality. Passing range is normal. With only a few exceptions, my team is really terrible on crossing so I've restricted most of them to "rare" -- which probably is a good thing, because when they do try it's usually a farce. One of my strikers is horrible on long shots, so again I've set him to "rare" on that. I've restricted creative freedom to about 1/4 for most of my players because they're just not all that bright -- could that be a problem? But even the ones with medium freedom don't seem to be using it.
The opposition is quick and agile, but is also mediocre is most respects. The bookies rate the match a toss-up.
I don't expect this team to be pretty, I just want to see them perform competently against a semi-pro team. Any suggestions?
The other thing I should mention is that, on offense, my guys seem to take their sweet time like they're on holiday on something. Pass ... look around ... pass back to the same guy ... look around ... pass back to the same guy. In the meantime, the defenders are rapidly getting into position and all openings that once existed are disappearing. By the time they look around the 3rd time, there are two defenders on top of the guy with the ball and he can't even pass it around anymore.
Exactly the opposite happens when I'm defending. The opposition passes fairly swiftly with a clear purpose in mind ... drive the ball in ... and they do this pretty freely in the midfield until they reach my defensive line where they are usually -- but not always -- stopped by a successful challenge.
If I had to analyze it on my own, I'd say my midfield is just not actively engaging. They are leaving the defenders to do the job alone and they are never getting the ball to the strikers, at least not in shooting position.
But I'm not sure what to do about it.
No really, I'm very annoyed at my team because nothing I change seems to do anything. They just won't pass to the strikers, ever. My "action zone" rating in the far side of the field is 1%.
Just Can't Penetrate 
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