I feel good. I only have 4.

...on a team that only fields 1 central mid. :)

for me it's DMC's.

I'm that way with Strikers, I always end up with 6 and I only use a 3 Striker rotation on the first team, with a fourth on the squad in case of injury. So invariably I end up with 2 Strikers on the reserve squad pissed off at me because they thought they were going to be important first team players.

yeah, there's that thing of fielding damn near a whole new team, but then again, being sooooo much overbudget on your wages cause, well you know those free transfers in seemed sooooo tempting back in March...

FM

I tend to overstock on wingers. And central defenders.

After going from 4-0 to 4-4 in a Champion's League match with Ajax, I think my current crop of defenders should fear that tendency.

Well, he plays the MC and MR and I dont feature a CM so he'll be playing on the right by the time he's ready. My current captain plays at that position but he also plays the WB(R) so he'll move back to that spot. My current WB playing there will probably be pushing 31 so he'll likely be transferred out.

I've never seen a kid ranked that high, I often get the kid is one of the better players to come through our system, but never one with such high praise. I'm just glad he wasn't a goalie. :)

When I look at him in the best 11 feature via my AM, he isn't my highest rated kid though, but when I look at the coaches report, he's thought of higher then that and rated as a 5 star future talent on the highest level. Hopefully everything will work out well. Not sure whether to work him in spot playing time or loan him out. (I'm Crystal Palace and arguably the top club in 2028 Europe)

I *have* to overstock on wingers. My tactics run those bitches ragged.

And you know, after all the money I blew in the offseason, we still don't have a go-to striker. The crop I have is good, one is potentially going to be lethal when he gets older, but there's not my usual guy I feel who can just come out and rock.

Talk about a tank job.

1st season in SD1 so I am trying not to be too down about this. We had been playing well all season and sat in 3rd. The top 5 teams all pretty close though. After 4 straight league wins heading into February, my team has just collapsed. It drives me nuts because I have no idea why, and I haven't been able to fix it. I am now hanging onto 5th place when 6th place had been a ways away from this top group.

When March 20th came around I had not won it 8 matches, with only 3 draws. :( My last victory had been a SC 5th round match against SD1 team Dunfermline, and my Quarter Final matchup came in this winless streak of course. The on March 20th Stirling comes to town, a team who sits in 10th with 7 points in 30 matches. Yes, they are 0-7-23 coming into the game. I only manage a 1-0 win, but I am more then happy to take it.

My scoring seems to have dropped dead, my goalies playing like crap. I am pretty much a lock for a second season at SD1, which isn't the worst thing in the world. It's just that my team has gotten so much better (via training) over the season and now they are sucking it....? Asses.

Leeds United has asked me to take their job. They are 17th in the Champ. League when expected to be 8th. They want me to be Champ League champions in two years. Typing this whole thing has helped me decide not to jump to Leeds. Pretty training facilities will have to wait.....

Dola- ANd my tank job doesn't have anything to do with bringing in a whole new squad in Jan. :) Since that is the topic on hand right now. I actually behaved, being very happy with my team and only brought in one DM/MC.

Before my SD2 season I did bring in almost a whole new squad.

i'd loan him out for a year to a decent club where he'll be first team (ie not a shit club), and then try to work him in here and there second year. depends on your squad and how comfortable you are making those kind of changes you just mentioned in mid-game. (ie: "i'm up by 2-3 goals in the 2nd half, time to bring the kid in and push the MR back to WB and take the WB out)

why oh why. there are some things that just bug the crap out of me. perhaps there is an explanation. no mattter what, If I set a player to stand on the near post of a corner, the kick 75% of the time is sent at him wherein he inevitably head's it to nowhere and directly out of bounds. Not to mention the 3X a game that the kick never actually makes it inbounds and hits the side of the net. These things I dont think would happen in pro soccer this often. any ideas?

Happens to me a bunch too.

That happened to me a TON in Second Division Northern Ireland, but much less often in England Conference North. I just figure it's really hard to direct a header off a corner kick -- you usually have to be right in front of the goal to head it in easily.

I don't know what level or country you're at, but three guys who've been really reliable for me were Sherjill MacDonald and Craig Beattie at the Coca-Cola Championship level, and Collins John at the Premiership.

If you're anywhere near those levels of play, those are three real good guys to take a look at for your striker.

Happens to me too, way too much, IMHO. Even though I've seen very few professional soccer matches in real life, I just can't imagine it happening that often.

I almost wonder if this is a result of the new FM feature where pitch dimensions are configurable. Perhaps the game thinks the near post player is closer than it is appearing on the 2d pitch. I just gotta believe it's not meant to be this way.

Since I've been playing this game an insane amount lately, I've got a list of things that are bugging me - that just don't seem realistic. The other at the top of the list is the high number of one-on-ones, and the poor striker performance on these one-on-ones. I can't believe a professional player would approach the keeper, then shoot it either (1) over the net (2) far far wide, or (3) right at the keeper 98% of the time. Plus they seem to strike it from way to far out.

It's like in basketball when a player has a fast break does he pull up at the free throw line for a jumper, or does he dunk it? The striker (to me it seems) should be holding on to the ball longer on one-on-ones before shooting and not striking from 25 yards out.

No arguments here. My tactic is BUILT around fast, hard hitting counterattacks, and I see just a shit-ton of 1 on 1's shot straight at the keeper. Thoroughly irritating.

It annoys me as well, but the way I get around it is by saying: "The circle that represents the keeper is much bigger than the Keeper would be, so my strikers aren't hitting it at the keeper, just close enough where he is able to make a save."

Just my rationalization, although I think it does make a bit of sense.

Regarding the near post corners thing, some of the folks over on the SI board seem to think it is a bug being looked at, and I would tend to agree that it is a bug. It certainly wasn't the way it is now in any of the past version.

I think it got tweaked too far the other way. In the beta patch, you could score corners off the near post almost at will.

i believe it was mentioned earlier in the thread that 'near post flick on' is pretty much broken -- switch that guy to 'attack near post' instead. i follow frogger's method of 'challenge keeper' with my centrebacks which seems to work solidly and i keep one of my centre mids at lurk outside area since at least 2-3 corners per game will get punched out there.

huh, I do that? :D Forgot about that one, and I've not done much tweaking on my corners on this career, maybe it's time to do some... :)

FM

dola, and click that thumbnail, look at it carefully and tell me this is not the most freakishly evident offside call you can make?




Walsall are attacking from left to right, kick has just left #27 (Morris) from right inside the penalty box. #9 and #12 at the time of the kick were not only behind the last defender, they were freaking BEHIND THE KEEPER, they are running back towards the kicker!!!!! Damnit, for sure the freaking idiotic assistant referee can't make the freaking call right, he's not even lined up with the freaking last defender.

We were simply holding it together in that game. Started it with the lead early on, then let one in. They scored on that sequence to make 2-1, and we lost our composure, letting another one in a little later to lose the game 1-3. But no, nobody thought that one was even close, nobody complained about it, not chances to complain in the media or anything. Not that it would have meant much, or that I would even have tried to, since I'd already been given a touchline ban a couple weeks before that, and boy did that suck...

/rant over

FM

edit to add that #27 picked up the ball to score...

Passive offside? I hate the rule, but it seems like it was probably the right call?

I'm debating starting over with a new game tonight. Want to turn off real players (I like the facegen way better), get a full game started with the latest patch, and build the team for a different tactic.

Have you seen this implemented well in the game? Because I have started assuming it's not implemented after three or four offsides calls where a CM or mine took a long shot, a winger (literally thirty yards from the play) was offsides, and the whistle was blown.

nah, no way. The two guys are right in the middle of the action and one of them received the pass straight to him, not off a long rebound to the side or something (which I also think should be called as offside). The two guys were blatantly offside, BEHIND my keeper, in the 6 yard box, and they received a pass right there...


yup, agree with that assessment too. Many, many times I've seen passes sent to the one side of the field with a guy borderline offside (but yeah, he was in an offside position) completely on the other wing, and the offside would be called no matter what...

FM

Has anyone had any success in a 3 man backline?

I'm planning on dusting off my quasi 3-4-3 (more accurately a 3-4-1-2) and seeing what I can do with it, just wondering if 3 man backlines are basically the kiss of death.

I've been able to play a 3-4-3 with 3 great strikers and 3 rock defenders. But it's really difficult to put that all together at the lower levels.

Whelp, that's my goal tonight. Think I'm going to start fresh and bring forth the counterattacking 3-4-3 of unending doom.

I play a lot of 5-3-2 attacking, but mix in some 3-4-3, 3-4-1-2, and 3-4-2-1. It works pretty well, I think.

It's a lot of fun when you can make it work. I found 3 young strikers for a League Two team and went with the 3-4-3 system. 4 years later, my team was in the Premier League using those same 3 strikers. I just fell into a gold mine evidently, because all three of those guys ended up developing into multi-million dollar strikers.

I am playing with a very attacking 4-3-2-1 adapted from an idea found on the SI boards. The wingers and attacking mids overlap to basically make it a 4-1-5 when we have the ball. Defense is a bit dodgy, but I have two great CB's and a goalie on loan from Spurs, and it generates at least 15-20 shots per game.

So far, so good. Top of Conference National with Weymouth, who weren't even supposed to be in the top half. Anticipating the February slump and hoping to at least make the playoffs.

I used this for awhile in FM06.

It's basic idea is a fast paced, direct style that pushes long balls from the wings into the box, where you've got 2 strikers and an AMC behind them who can either take a shot himself or push through balls to the strikers.

The two MCs are both back arrowed, and their primary duty is to protect the fullbacks. The wings and the 3 men up front are more important in the attack, the middies are there to break up attacks and get the ball forward. The wings, who I work to death, are also instructed to man mark their counterpart across the entire pitch. You don't survive in this system as a winger if you don't have high stamina.

When it works, it produces some lovely looking attacks.

I'm playing a 2-3-2-2-1 tactic and while getting cleansheets are tough, I can generally score a crazy amount of goals

Do you adjust it for the opposition's winger settings, or do you generally leave it as it is and try to take it to the opposition?

I'm running something very similiar to that.

It is interesting, i usually lose the time of possesion battle lke 44 to 56, but I generate more shots on net then the other team. My passing % like 55 to 60ish which is pretty low, but I get alot of good break away goals and i really hammer them with the physical play.

I start the game and go with a quick tempo counter attack. If I get up on them early, I move the arrows back to a shorter distance with my Wing Backs. I then go more defensive and slow the tempo down.

Mine setup with 2 strikers, one set to play through balls and hold up the ball. My other striker is set for forward runs and no through balls and dribble.

AMC is my playemaker and hits througballs and has a great long shot.

My two Wing Backs, are good defenders. I have them set to basically harras the other team and tackle hard, but I don't bring the ball up the sides. I have them set to hit long passes up the middle.

My one MC is set to offensive and he goes up arrow, my second midfielder is set to a back arrow and I have him man mark and hard tackle.

Then I have 3 solid midfielders, who I have play deep.

One thing, is I lead the league in cards, both yellow and red. I'm currently playing with Barrow in Conference North.

I'm in 9th place and moving up, since I abandoned, my 4-4-2 and changed over to this setup.

I lost my first FA Cup game after getting through the qualifing round. I got hammered like 5 to 0.

I am still going strong in the other two tournaments. FA Trophy and the Supporter Shield or whatever it is called.

My board is kind of pissed off, because I told them I would guarantee a promotion. Their expections going in were a safe mid table. I shouldn't of over promised.

I almost always leave it as it needs to be. The most important part is to have a striker who can finish and two imposing DC's. The season before last, I had my ML set up 27 assists so they get the ball up there

This is when this game always starts to drive me nuts. After a 5th place finish in my first SD1 season I head on into season two with hopes of only improving. I let all my scrubs from a couple years ago and were on the reserve team walk away, signing a bunch of 19 year olds to take their place. I also signed a new strike to compete with the two main guys I have had there and brought in another on loan to be "the star." Also coming in was a couple DC's who I had on loan last season, and a DM that I liked enough to sign, and a veteran (36 years old) goalie to compete with the younger guys and teach. Leaving was my ML, who's sissy English ass couldn't take playing with the men on Scotland and wanted to go home to England. I sold him for a nice $500,000.

Next thing I know I am making the national news with Celtic and Rangers because I brought in 12 guys. Oops. :( Even though most of those guys are Reserve guys, I think it must be making it's impact. After a nice 5-0 win on the road against Dumferline, I have gone fallen to a 3-0-4 league record with losses in my first games of both the Challenge Cup and the League Cup.

I really do hope this is just because I brought these guys in and my team will adjust as the year goes on. I have tried a couple different tactics with no improvement. My team should be better. The key starters I brought in were an upgrade. My returning players only keep getting better. It is driving me nuts. I turned down a Championship League job to stay, these bitches better start playing.

Can you post a screen shot of the formation and a quick note about the tactics? I've tried something similar and can't score the goals needed to make up getting rained on all day.

I had a couple questions earlier and now I forget one, so here is the other one...

-For training, should I follow what the arrows are saying on the overall training screen when I am trying to figure out if I guy is still getting something out of that training schedule? I can see arrows slightly pointing up, or 3/4 up and then open the player page and see nothing but an arrow pointing down for one or a couple ratings where he has just dropped, with nothing shown going up. And vice-versa, guys not showing any improvement on the overall screen who show improvement on their individual page. I have never really understood why these views always seem different.

I can't take most of the credit for the tactic as I found the idea on the SI forums. But I did modify it for my own purpose. My ML and MR are almost always AML/R because they generally have the pace to keep up. If you can find WB/AM combo players it gives you different looks. If you are trying to kill time, the more defensive oriented players can be moved up to the MF spot and you can bring in another WB for that spot. Having two shutdown DC's are key. The least key position on the field is actually the DMC IMO as I generally have a simple DC/DMC combo player in that position. It's also the reason why you see so many on my team as I substitute them quite liberally. I rarely buy a F/ST as you dont really need too many on the roster. I have a stud forward with a speedy ST as his backup whose actually ended up quite good. One of my starting AMC's also can play forward and I usually loan a mediocre F/ST as an emergency player.

that's one crazy looking tactic!!!

Ya, but I finished 28 points clear of #2 last season in the premiership. :)

It's terrible in the Cups though, at least the FA and League Cup

Well I was planning on starting again and trying a more attacking formation (I was planning on a narrow 4-3-3) so I'll steal that idea and see how it gets on :)

Looks a good deal different from my standards, do you make adjustments for home and away?

At home it's lethal but on the road it's still very good. If I'm going to rest a starter I always do it at home. The more cohesion you have the better the team plays (naturally) but I started this current season now with back to back 0-0 ties so obviously so things need to be looked at here soon but I also switched my captains so that might have hurt

Dola

I did try it with Braintree down as a LLM and was promoted in the first year. But it wasnt as fun for me so I went back to this team.

Just so it's known as well, I play very hands off and often just sim through the games

Dude, that's sweet - thanks! I'm gonna give it a try in the PLA and see what happens!

If you want the teactic to send to you, shoot me a PM with your email

This guy has a good question. :D

anyone have a good set of training schedules zipped up to share? I only have a set of 3, attack, mid, and D and I think im missing out on something here.

I make one for each group. The difference is usually that I put Strength training higher in one, then Aerobic higher in the other. They also slightly differ in the others.

Example- Defenders1 will have higher Defending and Tactics, Defenders2 will lower those and raise up Set Pieces and Ball Control. Both will have attack and shooting lower then the others and about the same.

I will also take a defender and throw him into a Midfielder tactic once in a while, or Midfielder into a Forward schedule. Mix it up some and see how they react.