I have decent players need help to get them to play

ok i am manager of blackbur rovers i have signed alot of good young players but my team isnt getting any better every season i just about avoid the drop to the championship but do well in league cup's and fa cup untill i play a good team then i get hammered.

anyway can anyone give me some tip on how to get this lot to play?

what i suggest is that you take a look at player roles and see witch of then you should put your players on depending on your players attributes. Also, pic a tactic that fits your players, depending on where your best players play.

This isn't exact science and is very hard to set this up for you since you know the players best since you have played a couple of seasons with them. Their attributes are very important as well on how you play them.

Is much on this around the web, but really its about trial and error and understanding what players will be doing in set position and role.

thanks i have been playing football manager for a long time but im still very poor when it comes to tactics, i have tryed wide tactics etc i think my biggest problem is my cb's and my mid not keeping the ball any tips on lowering cb mistakes and my mid to keep the ball better?

Barry my friend,

CB's let alone can't defend the goal on their own... What are they instructions and who are your starting CB's, what roles do you have for two central midfielders, who are they, what roles your fullbacks play and who are they?

I'm determined to help you perform admirably

First thing that pops in my head is if you have offside trap in your tactic? If you don't have the right defenders for that it could go very wrong against teams with fast players.

I've made a post with different links that can help you some: HERE

ok starting 11

GK Ospina
RB Flanagin fullback support
CB Bonucci CB cover
CB Caulker CB stopper
LB henley fb support
DMC Vass Anchor man defend
CM N'Zonzi deeplying playmaker
CM anderson advance playmaker
AMR nsue winger attack
AML moses winger attack
ST rochina/fierro trequartista

team instructions
philosophy balanced
strategy control
passing direct
creative freedom diciplined
roaming stick to position
def line deep
width normal
tempo normal

Okay you are playing 4-5-1 tactic, defensive oriented it seems to me that while looking to your team instructions, that you like to control them as like they some kind opf robots (no offense
I think that Flanagan isn't quite suitable to go forward and perform his defensive duties like he supposed to. So i would tell him to defend. Also Bonucci and Caulker are set to wrong instructions. if you play with DMC you doesn't need a stopper especially if he got low decisions and anticipation attributes, along with composure and concentration. But decision and anticipation are key. If you have DMC and stopper they will collapse of each other. and you have acomplished nothing. Set them both in line with central defender DEfend duty, but turn off offside traps. And don't be afraid to put your defensive line little bit higher, you have quite many players in midfield and defence, and you have decent pace in the defence, so there will be no problems with that, and Ochoa will thank you greatly for extorting centre of action from his area so that he can goalkeep like a man

Also Adam Henley to be with support role is ludacris. MAn have attribute 1 for crossing at the start of the game...he should be defending too. Also Vass and N'zonzi can't be in the same team together. They are the same players. If you use Anchorman then you should use Advanced not Deep Lying playmaker and Box to box or Defensive midfielder support, or central midfielder support. of the other two central mid's. Personally I would set them like this (don't look at names, or instructions, only positions):

http://i48.tinypic.com/281a73t.jpg

Where Nzonzi or Vass would be in DM area with Defensive Mid. - Support role so that he can roam to fill the blank on the right and behind AMC when needed. AMC would be retrained Rochina, since he got come deep to get the ball ppm, and his role would be Trequartista. You need Nsue to pe the poacher, since he got pretty good off the ball and pace, to lure away defenders aside that Rochina can profit. Also you got three the same players Anderson, Vass and N'zonzi i recommend to get rid of the one you don't like the most and Invest in some Creative First touch passing kind of player. like jack rodwell from everton if want someone long time, or M'villa if you got the money to buy, or Tom Cairney from hull city if you are poor, or Evandro from Red Star if you are poor too. REgarding Wingers both of them shopuld be different Moses to cross not to cut inside, and other one with better finishing stats to be Inside forward.

Then you should be more competitive.

Sorry for taking too long to respond but I wanted to detailedly explain what I mean. If you have something that you are not understanding from my post, feel free to ask me anytime.

Good Luck !