14.3 match engine seems as unfair as ever, if not more so.
First four matches as Valencia in second season: CCCs and half chances running to double figures and either drawing or losing 1-0 to bog-standard teams. Balls pinging off players whose backs are turned, goalkeepers resembling spider-man, defenders blocking everything, IFs unable to shoot straight, ball and posts appear to be magnetised.
Went out of Champions League in 4th place playoffs to Lorient (yes, the mighty Lorient), on penalties, after rattling all kinds of woodwork and seeing my forward line miss about five sitters. Utterly frustrated and considering uninstalling this game.
Using same tactic in second season as first, when I finished fourth in La Liga, lost four games, and got to the Europa semis..
Anyone else?
Mikon,
But it's not the tactic... the tactic is working fine. My team is tight at the back, creates a lot of chances, retains possession fairly well and passes the ball around for fun. When they get into the final third however their shots go astray, they get blocked, they go out for throws, they hit the woodwork, they get foiled by the superhuman AI keeper (who will only ever post a 6.9 despite performing like The Clown against England 1973, and then some).
It's just not representative of how top footballers play, or how football games develop. IRL, Manchester United have good players but they don't play good football, their tactics are turgid, no one seems to be inspired, and so they lose regularly. Manchester City on the other hand play teams off the park, set up loads of chances, and win consistently as a consequence.
In FM, I regularly beat the living **** out of teams on every stat you can think of, playing them off the park, but my world-class strikers go fuckup-byebye or the AI goalkeeper is made of glue. Every game.
Once in a while, perhaps, but every match I play? The match engine is broken, in my opinion.
So how is match engine in version 14.3.0? Any better? I have one of the best teams in the world with version 14.2.2 but we still struggle to score 80 goals per season. Also it feels like at least HALF of my goals come from set pieces. Of course statistically, it's not true, but it sure feels that way. And of course for some reason my strikers are very, very inaccurate. I still score enough to win, but even against a 14th-15th place side, it feels like I am grinding out 2-1 wins. Because of the heavy weighting of set pieces, my most valuable players are Insigne and Quintero. I mean they are already world class level talents, but their elite set piece abilities put them over the top for me. I mean heck, I was looking at Lionel Messi's stats the other day. He only scores 17-19 goals per season for Barcelona and he is the BEST PLAYER in the world. When the best offensive player in the world can only score at a .5 goal per game pace, doesn't that strike you as odd??