I think everything we play is way too quick, I know this is an issue that has been raised numerous times, and we fix it for a few games after and then more often that not we (myself included) return to previous. But, Apon observation I have noticed that it isnt just that we go from defense to attack in 2 or 3 passes (il get to this in a second), Its also our defending.
I remember a game a few days ago where there was one guy who would fake shot past like 6 people on the wing and then scored and we were all furious, I noticed similarities with how we defend in general with what happened in that particular situation. Basically, I think our defending is also too rushed, When seeing us defend against someone running at us, Usually there is someone charging headlong for them for a murderous slide tackle, which is all well and fine but 1. with fifa refereeing we usually give away fouls, and secondly, If we miss, which it is quite easy to do against such a challenge (we exploit it to some extent in the same situation), We are left one defender down, but then you see another person going for the same challenge and then our whole defense unfolds around us because too many are behind the ball or are pulled away from marking one person or another. I personally think that is how we often get ripped apart in defense as once these people get past a first challenge then they have space and time to do something before someone else comes in, and they have a space to pass into which was vacated by who he just passed and/or the person who will now need to challenge them.
Now I accept that since I am either on the wing or up front in fifa this year, some peoples perception may be different, But I would think if instead of diving into every challenge, we can simply hold them up or just stay infront of them, this would let us keep our shape since we arent commiting 3 people to getting the ball off someone and leaving ourselves exposed if it doesnt work out.
To the attacking, I believe we arent really doing that much wrong considering we do actually score quite a fair bit of goals, We could score more of course but cant really go much more into that without trying to change peoples mentalities for fifa (fenton)
But, I have noticed this, even from the fifa 13 days, And it kinda rejogged my memory when people like sam and ellis complain of not having the ball most of the game, but when they are in CAM. Typically I have noticed when opposition do well against us it is because they distribute alot from the middle, they have one good player who always picks people out or takes the ball forward, or simply keeps possession. I find our main problem as usual is that we simply dont use the central midfield positions.
The old thing with going from defense to attack in 2 passes kinda falls into this too along with the passing accuracy and the possession thing that we have began to pick up on recently, I find that whenever we do get the ball in our box/half of the pitch, it always goes to someone on either the wing, or a striker (or whoever happens to be furthest up at that point), It seems to be as soon as we get the ball the eye is straight to their backline waiting for someone to make a run, and i feel that since we just skip the central midfield, we stand a high chance of losing possession with these wonder passes and it is why i believed our passing accuracy was so low.
To illustrate this think of how much an effect some great CDM's or CAM's of the past few years actually affect the games of which they play in (Xavi/Iniesta, Yaya Toure, Schwiensteiger etc) yet, if teams play the way we play, these players would hardly be used, To those who dont notice it, I again would highlight that people who play in CAM always seem to get the least touches of the ball.
I know this is a hell of a post, and I was hesitating to make it as I dont want people (myself included) taking clubs way too seriously, But I do think we can do better without tryharding too much