Hi All,
First of all I must say that I'm not a RL football fan so beware, I might ask stupid things or do things totally wrong. The game is interesting tho, and I am doing OK, the tactical side is the most difficult for me (management is fine I think). I have a little experience with fm 2008 / 2010, played some seasons. I know it isn't nice but I also use genie scout sometimes to look for new players, but also scout in game and look for Asst Mgr recommendations. When I am trying some tactic it happens that I reload, don't do it extensively to "fix" matches but I compensate my lack of skill a bit and try to learn by comparing results (for ex. finding a new working formation). I know it's cheating and hope it isn't against forum rules, if you're disgusted by it don't read further.
I played some Romanian team but I wanted a more competitive league so looked at England. Also I wanted a challenge, looking for a long game (very long) to go up some leagues, so chose Blue Square North team Farsley (media prediction - last). Maybe one day I'll be in premier winning international cups
First season looked bad, I managed to get quite a few new signings (free of course), so managed to avoid relegation. Second season managed a respectable pos. 11 while working on tactics and strengthening squad. Initially I used a 4-4-2 formation, tried different things to keep possession at least etc. Not many goals, but I survived. It seemed to me that everyone and their dog plays 4-4-2 and they're experienced against 4-4-2 so I tried a 3-5-2 and 5-3-2 and sticked with the 5-3-2 for 2 seasons. Using my 4-4-2 my 2 strikers hardly ever shoot, with the new tactic they shoot more (ofc it can also be because the team glues together etc).
Lately there are 2 things I am looking at. While last season I dropped out of the playoffs for BSP, this season I should have a pretty decent chance to get promoted, got 3-4 new (hopefully better) signings but want to improve tactics too (this is season '12/'13). I think it would be good if I could 1) improve possession and 2) involve my strikers more. My tries do not look consistent though so I figured I ask you.
1) possession
Formation is 5-3-2 as shown below.
Actually usually quick tempo is "hard"-ticked mostly unlike here (but I don't usually change the starting strategy anyway).
It - sort of - works sometimes. Other times I have like 42-45% possession, usually get my behind whipped in these games.
As a different approach I also tested some with same 5-3-2 but with defensive or counter instruction, short passes, slow tempo so they find each other comfortably, maybe overall aggressive tackling if I get stormed too much (I don't like aggressive setting normally, it causes a rain of cards). Tried a few small variations of these against same opponent, looking at numbers not much better than me, or roughly same (overall I think I have better individual players than most) but they were playing good for some reason in this game (that's fine, I like good games/bad games, would just prefer to win most of them ). For this second style I improved possession to maybe 46-48% but they were usually attacking the same way and with same success (you know, with a little exagerration if the other half of the pitch was missing no one noticed kind of game).
Are there more, or better ways to improve possession in general? Am I doing something wrong? I am reading these forums and google a lot, and I can find explanations for every single attribute of a player but frankly I am still getting lost after reading the same thing 10 times. Are there simpler rules of thumb to select style of play (like not more than 2-3 key attributes of players to look at to select specialized training or instruction)?
I didn't tweak defenders and midfielders at all, it's all default, not sure what to tell them.
2) Shooting
This is the area that was terribly disappointing with the (nearly default) 4-4-2. Sometimes in a game a striker would have 0-2 shots _towards_ the right direction, including **** misses). I think that is terrible, correct me if I am wrong.
Now this improved, maybe because of new tactic or maybe strikers start to be more comfortable with team, role, tactic etc. Still my midfielders are the most active, always (they tire earlier than strikers which is weird, in my different game strikers were tired earliest). Beginning to think to sign more midfielders because they can't "regenerate" properly sometimes between matches.
Don't get me wrong, I like them working their arses off but if they shoot same or more than strikers it looks fishy to me.
What I tried so far:
- tried a lot of combinations for attackers (you know, their personal roles like complete forward, poacher etc. with attack/support roles). Tried to assign target man role for one striker, the one my Asst Mgr says it's good for it and also set him as target man for overall team instructions. I also tried to make one midfielder (a better one) as playmaker just to spice up things but basically seen no effect to these whatsoever (or just couldn't see because I'm **** at it ).
Recently I am trying to look at the analysis tool regularly, I took these results from there.
Looking at passing my strikers are like, camping somewhere midfield and doing a pass every 5 minutes while midfielders (especially good ones) coloring the whole midfield with 30, 40, 50 passes a game. Other than that the 2 side full backs seem to work on the whole length up, passing through middle fine, central defenders also do not seem to work a lot, not so many passes (but usually more than strikers).
Not sure what else to read from analysis tool. I understand that strikers do not pass a lot but then they should shoot but don't do it as often as I would like to. In theory I have 2-3 strikers that are pretty good in comparison to the rest of the team, interestingly one of most active players is a midfielder that is having a low PA according to genie scout if my strikers would work half as hard as him they'd try and score more. (Young is the hero).
For the customized set pieces, just recently set them according to some forum threads and guides, I don't think they are much relevant to my problems.
I am looking for some expert help here, I would appreciate some feedback regarding to the whole situation, but my emphasis is on the - to me - weird shooting and passing.
I am also attaching my strikers' profile here, maybe it helps.
I am including Lauridsen because he is also supposedly pretty decent but he was out like a half year for broken leg, just returned. I used Osbourne instead, figured he should be decent striker and by the fact he plays other positions I figured he should be great with support-style striker role. Asst Mgr says Miller is good target man.
I noticed that even for players that are considered real good by my Asst Mgr sometimes there's a LOT of bad attributes (lots of red potential attributes in genie scout, like 4-5-6). Is that okay, as long as they have a few decent more relevant attributes?
Check this guy:
OMG! All the respect to the kid in RL (unless he's been generated by the game) but in genie scout he's red all over with the <5 stats.) My Asst Mgr said he's good so I signed him, it's not like I can get much to chose from anyway and I had 1 (one) left full back, the poor guy was already half dead between matches (Dawson in mid field in the tactic pic, he rarely plays there tho).
Sorry for the long post, tried to include important information so maybe a kind soul that has extra time on their hand can look and help me with some tips, recommendations.
Thanks!
edit: thanks for moving, sorry, I must be blind
First of all I must say that I'm not a RL football fan so beware, I might ask stupid things or do things totally wrong. The game is interesting tho, and I am doing OK, the tactical side is the most difficult for me (management is fine I think). I have a little experience with fm 2008 / 2010, played some seasons. I know it isn't nice but I also use genie scout sometimes to look for new players, but also scout in game and look for Asst Mgr recommendations. When I am trying some tactic it happens that I reload, don't do it extensively to "fix" matches but I compensate my lack of skill a bit and try to learn by comparing results (for ex. finding a new working formation). I know it's cheating and hope it isn't against forum rules, if you're disgusted by it don't read further.
I played some Romanian team but I wanted a more competitive league so looked at England. Also I wanted a challenge, looking for a long game (very long) to go up some leagues, so chose Blue Square North team Farsley (media prediction - last
). Maybe one day I'll be in premier winning international cups First season looked bad, I managed to get quite a few new signings (free of course), so managed to avoid relegation. Second season managed a respectable pos. 11 while working on tactics and strengthening squad. Initially I used a 4-4-2 formation, tried different things to keep possession at least etc. Not many goals, but I survived. It seemed to me that everyone and their dog plays 4-4-2 and they're experienced against 4-4-2 so I tried a 3-5-2 and 5-3-2 and sticked with the 5-3-2 for 2 seasons. Using my 4-4-2 my 2 strikers hardly ever shoot, with the new tactic they shoot more (ofc it can also be because the team glues together etc).
Lately there are 2 things I am looking at. While last season I dropped out of the playoffs for BSP, this season I should have a pretty decent chance to get promoted, got 3-4 new (hopefully better) signings but want to improve tactics too (this is season '12/'13). I think it would be good if I could 1) improve possession and 2) involve my strikers more. My tries do not look consistent though so I figured I ask you.
1) possession
Formation is 5-3-2 as shown below.
Actually usually quick tempo is "hard"-ticked mostly unlike here (but I don't usually change the starting strategy anyway).
It - sort of - works sometimes. Other times I have like 42-45% possession, usually get my behind whipped in these games.
As a different approach I also tested some with same 5-3-2 but with defensive or counter instruction, short passes, slow tempo so they find each other comfortably, maybe overall aggressive tackling if I get stormed too much (I don't like aggressive setting normally, it causes a rain of cards). Tried a few small variations of these against same opponent, looking at numbers not much better than me, or roughly same (overall I think I have better individual players than most) but they were playing good for some reason in this game (that's fine, I like good games/bad games, would just prefer to win most of them
). For this second style I improved possession to maybe 46-48% but they were usually attacking the same way and with same success (you know, with a little exagerration if the other half of the pitch was missing no one noticed kind of game).Are there more, or better ways to improve possession in general? Am I doing something wrong? I am reading these forums and google a lot, and I can find explanations for every single attribute of a player but frankly I am still getting lost after reading the same thing 10 times. Are there simpler rules of thumb to select style of play (like not more than 2-3 key attributes of players to look at to select specialized training or instruction)?
I didn't tweak defenders and midfielders at all, it's all default, not sure what to tell them.
2) Shooting
This is the area that was terribly disappointing with the (nearly default) 4-4-2. Sometimes in a game a striker would have 0-2 shots _towards_ the right direction, including **** misses). I think that is terrible, correct me if I am wrong.
Now this improved, maybe because of new tactic or maybe strikers start to be more comfortable with team, role, tactic etc. Still my midfielders are the most active, always (they tire earlier than strikers which is weird, in my different game strikers were tired earliest). Beginning to think to sign more midfielders because they can't "regenerate" properly sometimes between matches.
Don't get me wrong, I like them working their arses off but if they shoot same or more than strikers it looks fishy to me.
What I tried so far:
- tried a lot of combinations for attackers (you know, their personal roles like complete forward, poacher etc. with attack/support roles). Tried to assign target man role for one striker, the one my Asst Mgr says it's good for it and also set him as target man for overall team instructions. I also tried to make one midfielder (a better one) as playmaker just to spice up things but basically seen no effect to these whatsoever (or just couldn't see because I'm **** at it
).Recently I am trying to look at the analysis tool regularly, I took these results from there.
Looking at passing my strikers are like, camping somewhere midfield and doing a pass every 5 minutes while midfielders (especially good ones) coloring the whole midfield with 30, 40, 50 passes a game. Other than that the 2 side full backs seem to work on the whole length up, passing through middle fine, central defenders also do not seem to work a lot, not so many passes (but usually more than strikers).
Not sure what else to read from analysis tool. I understand that strikers do not pass a lot but then they should shoot but don't do it as often as I would like to. In theory I have 2-3 strikers that are pretty good in comparison to the rest of the team, interestingly one of most active players is a midfielder that is having a low PA according to genie scout
if my strikers would work half as hard as him they'd try and score more. (Young is the hero).For the customized set pieces, just recently set them according to some forum threads and guides, I don't think they are much relevant to my problems.
I am looking for some expert help here, I would appreciate some feedback regarding to the whole situation, but my emphasis is on the - to me - weird shooting and passing.
I am also attaching my strikers' profile here, maybe it helps.
I am including Lauridsen because he is also supposedly pretty decent but he was out like a half year for broken leg, just returned. I used Osbourne instead, figured he should be decent striker and by the fact he plays other positions I figured he should be great with support-style striker role. Asst Mgr says Miller is good target man.
I noticed that even for players that are considered real good by my Asst Mgr sometimes there's a LOT of bad attributes (lots of red potential attributes in genie scout, like 4-5-6). Is that okay, as long as they have a few decent more relevant attributes?
Check this guy:
OMG! All the respect to the kid in RL (unless he's been generated by the game) but in genie scout he's red all over with the <5 stats.
) My Asst Mgr said he's good so I signed him, it's not like I can get much to chose from anyway and I had 1 (one) left full back, the poor guy was already half dead between matches (Dawson in mid field in the tactic pic, he rarely plays there tho).Sorry for the long post, tried to include important information so maybe a kind soul that has extra time on their hand can look and help me with some tips, recommendations.
Thanks!
edit: thanks for moving, sorry, I must be blind
Last edited: