Chelsea 2015; Conceding way too many goals

[Jay West]

Hey guys,

I'm new here I've been visiting this website for some time now and finding the help quite good. I've got a problem with the current team I'm managing, Chelsea. It's December 2015 and after six seasons of managing Ajax Amsterdam with 6 consecutive titles and even won the Champions League once I decided it was time to embark on a new Challenge and here it was Chelsea. Chelsea had a very old squad and I decided to buy some players here's my starting line up:

----------------------------------Dzeko (Complete Forward Attack)--------------------------------
Zhirkov (Defensive Winger Attack)--------------------------------Luís Suárez (Winger Attack)
----------Gourcuff (Advanced Playmaker Attack)--Essien (Box-To-Box Midfielder Support)--
------------------------------------Mikel (Defensive Midfielder Defend)-----------------------------
DL Bertrand (Full Back Automatic)--------------------------DR Heitinga (Full Back Automatic)
---------------Samba (Central Defender Defend)----------Jagielka (Central Defender Defend)
-------------------------------------------Cech (Goalkeeper)------------------------------------------

My tactics at this moment are:

Balanced
Standard

Passing Style Shorter
Creative Freedom More Expressive
Press More
Tackling Default
Marking Default
Crossing Default
More Roaming

Almost every game I get the message from my Assistant Manager (Bierhoff) that:
"Our forwards are being outnumbered by defence" - Ok pretty straight forward, should I change this? That would be a total overhaul of my tactics
"Our work in the tackle department has been poor" - I get this pretty much every single match, I don't know how to fix this one though

I concede goals at almost every match, having a lot of trouble winning against clubs like Leicester and Hull City. Some games I score 5-6-7 goals in a match and other games I don't score at all there is very little consistency even though I've kept this tactic for half a season now with minor tweaks to concede less goals. What am I doing wrong here? Everything went so well with Ajax, my manager stats are:

Club/ Player Loyalty 15
Domestic Player Bias 6
Financial Control 20
Hands-on Approach 20
Squad Discipline 14
Tactical Consistency 15

I hope to get some tips about why this is happening!

Yours Truly,
Jay West

[Plaman]

You should watch the highlights when you conceded those goals.

You may notice something that was wrong, some area in your defence that must be fixed.

Something like... if you concede goals from crosses, you may have to consider on how to deal with those crosses and wingers.

Did your Fullbacks do his jobs by closing down the opposition wingers to reduce the chances of crossing?

Or it is the problem of your defender who didn't mark the striker tightly.

You may have to figure this out by yourself, but if you need further help.

I recommend posting some more information on your problem.

[Millie]

In addition to what Plaman has said, the tackling issue is possibly due to your positioning. High closing down can leave players out of position, causing them to make more last ditch challenges which can reduce the % of completed tackles.

Do you play standard all the time, or do you change your strategy to suit the match and the opposition? This may cause you problems in breaking down smaller sides (control or attack may be more preferable), and one ahead you might want to try being a little more cautious (standard, counter or even defend, depending on the situation).

As Plaman says, though, what types of goals are you conceding? Look at both how the actual shot goes in but also how the build up could have been avoided.

[sctheng]

To me, you formation is having 4 attack role which is too much to my liking, and only one support role. What is your possession overall? You might want to consider giving support role to your 2 wingers.