Beginning of 2012 = slump

Things have started to go a bit downhill in 2012, I'm not exactly sure why, We're playing a bit less games and I haven't really changed anything major in the team. I supposed we've had a few big injuries but I really don't understand how a few players being injured for a while could all of a sudden make the rest of the team drop in performance. So I've started to look at the game analysis and noticed that my CDs and my goalie have horrendous passing percentages, I'm now wondering if that's just part of the life of a lower league defender or if I should be changing my tactics a bit to make it so they don't try direct passes every time. I'm starting to tinker with that.