When i choose a formation, i always make adjustments to player settings. Those are the fine details that make the difference between a successful formation and a bad one

Let's see the choises and their explanation:

• Passing: Chooses the type of passing for each player
• Tackling: Type of tackling for each player separately
• Pressing: Will the player press or not?
• Closing down: How will the player behave when the opposite team is in attack? Will he come back to press?
• Pass to: Will he pass to the left-right-center?
• Set Pieces (A): Will he move to the attack in dead-ball situations?
• Set Pieces (D): Will he move back in dead-ball situations, when in a defensive position?
• Free Role: The player will have a free role in the match? Can be used for attacking midfielders
• Forward Runs: Player will run forward to the attack
  Important for wingers.
• Run with Ball: Player will run with the ball at his feet
  Important for wingers.
• Hold up Ball: Player will keep the ball at his feet
• Long Shots: Player will perform long shots
  Very important attribute. High long shot needed
• Try through-balls: Will he try to pass to the back of the defense?
  Attribute important for AMC: required attribute is passing and mostly creativity
• Cross Ball : Will they use crossing?
  
  This is important for wingbacks and wingers, they shoud have high crossing attribute
• Marking: No comment.
  Important for midfielders, who don't always have high marking. Crucial for your defense

The first thing you should look at is the long shots. I normally set long shots on for as many players as possible. Definitely for the attacking midfielders, and most of the times for the other central midfielders as well, as long as they have long shots of at least 15. Those are the players that are most of the time at a shooting distance during a match, and the more shots you make, the more likely you are to score.

Then i set forward runs and run with ball for my wingers and attacking midfielder and try-through balls for my AMC and any other player with creativity-passing of at least 15, especially the AML,AMRs. Also i set cross ball on for wingers, especially if you have strikers with high heading and jumping.

As regards defense, you should have your midfielders (especially the DMC and the ML-MR) with pressing on. In most case do not put your DCs to press, because there will be "holes" in your defense. If you are using a defense of 3 (3-5-2) generally the left and right DC should be set to man marking, and the central (together with the ML-MR and DMC) to zonal. If you are using 4-4-2 you can have all your defenders and midfielders with zonal on, or you can choose one or two of your DCs to man mark. Remember not to put pressing on to any attacking midfielders or striker if they have a very low stamina. This will make them tired more quickly.

Free role: Use this only in case you are playing a 4-3-1-2 and you have a very good AMC. Free role is a hidden attribute, but in general a player with high creativity, passing and pace might be fit for free role.

As regards set pieces, in attacking mode you can have as many players as you want move forward (keep back your goalkeeper and DL-DR though) .In defensive mode, you can take all your players back, though i generally a striker with high acceleration forward.