MD, can only win on attack, advice please?

Asking advice please. My game is ok i suppose. We’ve just been promoted to Division One and it’s quite a step up in pace and skill.
So I can smash through pretty much anyone. It takes some warming up but it’s there. So my ideal partner (moved to London xD) should attack the net. Either playing a net kill, or setting me up for a smash. Great. I’m equally happy to try to play the net and set up a smash for my partner. I feel stronger from rear court though. And definitely weaker at the front due to reaction speed!

Seems that EVERYONE else is happy to lift from a serve, and then tell me to work on my defense. I am working on it, but mid 40s, and limited reaction speed (slow), tall, I have realistic expectations. Also it’s mostly avoidable, in my mind at least. I’m also finding that if my partner punch clears after my net play I have no time/chance to get back and defend. If I HAVE to lift, i send it into the rafters to play for time.

In a recent match it got so bad that I literally didn’t move to defend any smashes – they were either a direct win, or my partner relifted until eventual loss, or my aggressive counter attack (when I actually bothered to try) is followed by another partner lift, so my effort is wasted. I won’t relift a smash unless trolling or feel its the right shot, this playstyle makes me think I might as well hit up against a wall. I have a clip where my partner plays a high midcourt shuttle, high to the midcourt (!?!?!) and I’m walking off court before the shuttle slams into the ground where I was.

All this defending ruins my attack too, it doesn’t get warmed up. So if opponents do ever lift, I’m still hitting warmup level of smash.

This may be off on a tangent and warrant a separate thread….
Most smash returns come back straight in front of me. So I request my partner to cover the straight block and anything cross court is on me to get, or to not play a weak enough smash that opponent has chance to play this counter. Seems most other people cover the cross, and worse case step back, usually to clear the relift that i was going to smash. I found smashing cross court kinda helped, but this feels as unnatural as rushing the net after a smash and expecting my partner go go full corner to corner to cover me because I’m too slow to change direction.

So is there a way to make my brain happy with this playstyle of safe, stay sides and hope they error first (puke face emoji, at this level there are very few unforced errors), or are there some golden shots I can use? I do think I need to learn to follow in my own smash, but i have a partner for that???

If you got this far, sorry, and thanks. Feels good to rant.