Lots of Chances, None on Target

[sarang27]

I have a few issues with my Arsenal save. Hopefully someone can explain to me what I am doing wrong.

1. I have played several different attacking tactics (4-1-2-3, 4-1-3-2) and have my bias on short passing, retain possession and working the ball into the box. Being Arsenal I have lots of quite creative midfielders and attackers. However every match I play, even the few that I win comfortably I tend to have no more than 55% possession.

2. On home games I am strong, winning most with around 25 chances. However on average about 5 of these are on target and I tend to make between 1 and 2 CCC per game. I played a recent game where I had over 40 chances, 10 on target and 3 CCC, scoring twice. My strikers have good finishing (van persie, walcott, cavani, chamakh). Thats terrible finishing!! The Champs League final vs ManCity, I had 35 chances, scored 0 goals and lost on pens!!

3. On away games most of the weakest teams turn me over. I create less than half the chances I do in a home match (even vs lower div teams), concede a goal per every 2-3 chances the opposition get (stoke whipped me 5-0). Players who in a home game average over 8.0, suddenly all produce 6.0 in away games, before going back to 8.0 the next home game.

One problem is that I am yet to settle on a tactic long term as after every few away games I get irritated and change the tactic or roles of players. However tactic familiarity is still high - just off fluid for most elements.

Help please.

 

[mccollio09]

I'll try and help you but on my Liverpool save I have experienced this before and can at least limit your problems (but have to say I'm not in love yet with FM12 like with previous versions).

For possession, checkout Raikans possession thread, will help a lot with the theory on it.
Some basic tips which might help explain where you're going wrong could come down to three things - Hold up ball, runs from deep and stats such as composure and strength of players.

Ticking hold up ball for some of your players should definitely help hold onto possession more - this will mean they will keep hold of the ball and wait to pick out a better pass. To choose the players to do this, you will want to look at where you want your passes to go, making sure that those who you want to pass to are making runs from deep (ie making space for themselves for a pass).

Finally, there are some less obvious yet very important stats for holding onto possession, such as composure and strength. I immediately thought of these two as you said you were Arsenal. The usual stats of creativity, decisions, passing and teamwork are all extremely important for keeping hold of the ball, but I imagine some of your players are lacking strength and composure, both particularly important for not buckling under pressure and shrugging off challenges when being pressed on the ball.

Number 2 I can't help you with, like I said I'm not particularly in love with FM 12 and I'm encountering the same problem with Liverpool, 5 CCCs every game nearly yet the opponents only get 1 and put it away.

Number 3, I have solved this problem (and yes experienced it as well). It's probably just a question of playing more defensively. No real need to change your formation, but just make sure you have the right starting strategy, probs best to go for defensive or counter if you have been losing a lot away. Also having players tightly marked which your formation doesn't naturally cover on opposition instructions is pretty crucial (I play with no wingers and as soon as I started marking the opposition wingers, I started winning games away).

Hope it all helps - I know how infuriating it is to see so many chances squandered by supposedly quality finishers...

 

[TheBetterHalf]

To sum up some Of the important things to get more shots on target:

- use the Width
- make supporting players take runs from deep and actually from deep.
- dont haste the play with counter attacks in these scenarios
- use à holding player further up the field
- make some players move onto channels but not too many
- make sure that you allow some roaming
- make sure that you have ONE FC that does NOT roam so he stays in the box
- focus the play where the space is found
- dont let your central players run with ball if the opponent floods the midfield.



These few hints should see you stretch these deep och compact opponents. When they decide to attack you, its à different tory though.

 

[sarang27]

mccollio : Tks a lot for the detailed explanation. I have recently moved to a wider style of play. Lets see how that works out. But I see your point on strength - they are all a bit on the flimsy side. As Arsenal, I tend to want to rush the play to exploit the speed I have in the forward line (walcott, gervinho, cavani). Wouldn't holding up play just allow the opposition to get back and defend? Aill also try out your suggestion for tighter marking and more defensively minded tactic on away days. Tks.

the betterhalf : 'Making runs from deep' is something I have underestimated it seems. Again the same point I made to mccollio - as Arsenal I want to exploit my fast forwards. Counters and direct play should work here, no? Good point re: central mid being flooded by opposition. Tks

 

[TheBetterHalf]

the betterhalf : 'Making runs from deep' is something I have underestimated it seems. Again the same point I made to mccollio - as Arsenal I want to exploit my fast forwards. Counters and direct play should work here, no? Good point re: central mid being flooded by opposition. Tks

Yes, but there has to be space deep in the opposition half to play the ball into/exploit. I have à save with arsenal and I often score 2 or 3-0 when the opponent pushes up ther fullbacks. The key here is to monitor the game and react to what is happening om the pitch. I always watch the first 10 minutes Of each half in full mode.

 

[sarang27]

I agree with what you have said. However when I read other threads of people running through multiple seasons I have to think that they either have loads of time to dedicate to FM12, or that they dont watch matches (prob just use the old text system). However their results still seem to be stellar, without all the in-game micro-management.

Have you ever played a series of games with just text vs playing the same set of games again and watching it in full mode? I wonder if you get more unrealistic scores with the text version.

 

[TheBetterHalf]

I agree with what you have said. However when I read other threads of people running through multiple seasons I have to think that they either have loads of time to dedicate to FM12, or that they dont watch matches (prob just use the old text system). However their results still seem to be stellar, without all the in-game micro-management.

Have you ever played a series of games with just text vs playing the same set of games again and watching it in full mode? I wonder if you get more unrealistic scores with the text version.

Most of the times, ite because they use a tactic that has an advantage over the ME. These tactics do get results but they dont produce realistic match stats. Sometimes, it produces lots of ccs, sometimes they dont but you score anyway.