No rhyme or reason....... Or so it appears

[waynethickett]

I was sacked in March in my first save as Arsenal. My second attempt started poorly with a defeat on pens to Man City in the community shield and this was followed by 5 matches without a win. More recently my results have been more on the winning side but there appears little rhyme and reason behind actual results, wins against palace and the hammers are followed by defeats to Hull and Panathanaikos (who I had already beaten 5-0) for example.

i'm around the mid table mark but only 4 or 5 points off third and 10 off top, which as we all know are deficits which can be overturned quite easily, but these inexplicable defeats against weaker teams are killing me. Ozil is leading a small mutiny as he did in my first attempt, I am reluctant to find tactics which people claim to be 'unstoppable' as that kind of removes the point of playing the game but I do have some questions to ask as I am finding this version far trickier to get consistency from players, with no real standout players to shout about either.

1. Does watching the full game/extended highlights benefit you more than just key highlights? Can you actually see enough to alter tactics in order to change a match.
2. Does issuing touch line team talks regularly confuse players, contradict game plans and count against you? For instance if the team was set to an attacking mentality and you shout tighten up, would this have a negative effect?
3. Utilising a lone striker as a target man seemed to work a treat in fm2014, on this version it seems to have no effect, what roles would be best for a lone striker in a team with an attacking mentality?
4. A team which attacks best quickly and together such as Arsenal, would you set them as attacking or counter. I thought it should be attacking, but I don't want them simply all bombing forward, I want them to play in front of the opposition and pick the moment to strike as a team, but then obviously when defending a corner for instance I would like a quick counter attack.

 

[WJ]

1 - Watching more of a match benefits you obviously since you'll be able to see more issues. Seeing those issues and making the necessary changes could change potential loss/draw into a draw/win. Watch as much of a match as you can, imo.

2. It won't confuse the players in FM to issue touchline team talks often. You can only do it once every 10 minutes, IIRC. Not sure why you'd ask them to tighten up when still using an Attacking mentality. That might be disastrous, but for purely tactical reasons.

3. That's a hugely open and simplistic question. Only a Poacher and (IMO) Target Man Attack as a lone striker is a bad idea, imo. Everything else you can make work, but it depends on your style of play and the other player roles too.

4. I'd be interested to know if there is a real life team who plays using an Attacking mentality in FM terms. It's entirely up to you again. Picking the moment to strike sounds very much like a counter mentality. Counter when it's on, otherwise play it fairly safe, waiting for an opening. It still depends a lot on your TIs and player roles and duties.

 

[Sherkey]

3. That's a hugely open and simplistic question. Only a Poacher and (IMO) Target Man Attack as a lone striker is a bad idea, imo. Everything else you can make work, but it depends on your style of play and the other player roles too.

Even Poacher is extremely good to work on as a Single Striker. Depends on the type of poacher, that is.. If you want your Poacher to take the ball and run through defences and try to score, yeah, difficult. But if you want a poacher to stay in the D-Box to finish while you build play and pass for that final finish, I find that a lone Poacher is absolutely lethal (RvP 3 seasons - 75 goals as a lone poacher). I suspect that in certain situations, a TM could be lethal as a lone striker too.

Again, as you said, depends more on style of play and type of player.

 

[waynethickett]

Well I made one tweak to my team instructions, and went on a fantastic run, Welbeck has now got me 25 goals in the target man role and there is still three months-ish to go, Ozil now happy (although always complacent and ratings fairly poor), won 8-0 away to qpr and 5-2 away to Spurs. Eventually hit a group of three fixtures which saw me away to United, Liverpool and Chelsea, lost the first two fixtures by 1 goal and drew the third, this was following 6 straight victories. My team decided that following these results they would forget how to finish with almost every shot and certainly every free kick getting blazed over the bar.

now to find a secondary formation to rotate with as I can only assume the opposition has figured me out

 

[WJ]

Even Poacher is extremely good to work on as a Single Striker. Depends on the type of poacher, that is.. If you want your Poacher to take the ball and run through defences and try to score, yeah, difficult. But if you want a poacher to stay in the D-Box to finish while you build play and pass for that final finish, I find that a lone Poacher is absolutely lethal (RvP 3 seasons - 75 goals as a lone poacher). I suspect that in certain situations, a TM could be lethal as a lone striker too.

Again, as you said, depends more on style of play and type of player.

Oh, sure thing. You'll need good build-up play and good movement to take defenders off the poacher. So I suppose you could make it work, but I definitely wouldn't recommend it.

 

[WJ]

Well I made one tweak to my team instructions, and went on a fantastic run, Welbeck has now got me 25 goals in the target man role and there is still three months-ish to go, Ozil now happy (although always complacent and ratings fairly poor), won 8-0 away to qpr and 5-2 away to Spurs. Eventually hit a group of three fixtures which saw me away to United, Liverpool and Chelsea, lost the first two fixtures by 1 goal and drew the third, this was following 6 straight victories. My team decided that following these results they would forget how to finish with almost every shot and certainly every free kick getting blazed over the bar.

now to find a secondary formation to rotate with as I can only assume the opposition has figured me out

Teams don't figure you out. It could be confidence issues and/or teams lining up a little more defensively because you're doing so well.

 

[Average Joe]

Try a loan striker as a false 9, Been using it the whole 4 years at Man Utd and the striker scores loads and also assists.

Bought Lukaku to replace the aging RVP and was told on here Lukaku wouldn't be much good as false 9... He's been unreal! 22 apps 24 goals 21 assists