retired_korkkiruv

I've been playing FM for about 8 years now and have usually been able to build successful tactics, but I just cannot work out what to do on FM08. I've been watching the full game (as I always do when creating tactics) and no matter what settings I use, I cannot seem to solve the problems that I keep having, which are:

- my forwards and wingers never seem to get the ball. No matter what I do with width/mentality etc, I'm lucky if these players make 5 passes in a game. And because my wingers never get the ball, they therefore never run with it either. All the short passes from midfield go sideways or backwards. It means there is no incisiveness in the play.

- my defenders insist on hoofing the ball long to strikers who are no good in the air

- desopite the quality of players I have, they cannot seem to keep possession. My players seem to panic in the opponents half and lose the ball, so rather than playing nice attacking, short passing, creative football as on previous versions, my team look completely incompetent with the ball at their feet.

I'm playing as Man Utd, using a 4-4-2 or a 4-4-1-1 and build my tactics from these instructions:

Team:
Mentality 14
Creative freedom 5
Passing - short
Width - 6
Tempo - 6
No playmaker or target man
Passing focus - mixed
defensive line 12


full back: mentality 14, forward runs often, cross ball often, closing down -6

centre back: mentality 8, forward runs medium, closing down 4

Wingers (with arrows to FL/R): mentality 18, forward runs often, passing short, closing down 4, long shots and through balls rarely, crossing mixed, run with ball often (Ronaldo gets a free role)

Defensive mid: mentality 8, forward runs, through balls mixed, run with ball never, closing down 10

Attacking mid: Mentality 13, forward runs mixed, passing mixed, creative freedom 14, through balls long shots and run with ball mixed, closing down 6

Strikers: Mentality 6, forward runs mixed, creative freedom 14 (Rooney and Tevez both get high creative freedom, Saha doesn't), run with ball often, through balls mixed, cross ball mixed (Rooney gets a free role)

Away from home, it's similar, but I drop the mentality for every player by 4, change the full backs to mixed forward runs, and play with mixed passing, medium tempo and medium width with counter attacking.

I'm aiming to get my strikers to come deep but it doesn't happen, regardless of their PPM's and what settings I use, and my wingers to be a goalscoring threat, but they get isolated too easily.

Any help/suggestions would be appreciated.