Must win

[ponzu]

The forum has been rich with training guides and desktop woes. I mean to catch up, I really do. In the meantime, I have been busy with work and keeping my training bonuses at or close to 10%. The lads are exhausted, but winning league and CL games.So far so good.

At the moment, I do feel the need to ask for tactics advice to avoid the earliest cup exit ever.

In my first (away) cup match, I failed to solve the 3W-1-3W-1-1 formation, same Q opponent. The counter formation table suggested 3W-2(DMC)-3N-1-1 Tower. I had never played it before, but tried it and had little to show for my troubles: 69/31 possession, 89/88 completion, 4/1 shots on target, but 0:0 score.

Now that I sold off one of two DMCs, I can no longer play Tower, and I did not like it anyway. The table suggests 3N-5-2 flat as the alternative counter. I myself came up with 4-1-4-1 because, well, AMC. My wingers can play ML/AML, MR/AMR and my ML/AML is the leading scorer. I do like 4-3N-2W-1, I just don't know if it applies here. It's an offensive formation.

My primary objective is not to allow a goal. But PKs are a crapshoot, so scoring one would be nice, too.

Do you have advice on formation, orders and arrows? The opponent's 3W-1-3W-1-1 does not seem like a strong formation, but the fact that he has a player in every line is throwing off my math.

Thanks in advance!