Im not a tactical master, But come on!!!!

I just quit a very frustrating Liverpool game, i was 11th after 19 games my last 5 games were

liverpool 4 - 1 arsenal

wigan 1 - 0 liverpool

stoke 1 - 0 liverpool

liverpool 2 - 2 middlesbourough

man city 4 - 2 liverpool

Right im not a tactical master but beating arsenal 4-1 was great, but then losing 2 in row against wigan and stoke and drawing against borough!!

liverpools best 11 should easily beat stoke and borough even with crap tactics!! so what am i doing wrong its just so frustrating!!

My take on your results are possibly that the AI was playing very counter attacking football and the way your team was set up played directly into their hands, resulting in poor results. You beat Arsenal 4-1, so a different approach may be required against mid to lower ranked teams??

my take on his results was that he was playing 09

liverpools best 11 should easily beat stoke

A supposedly weak Liverpool team beat Manchester United this season. A supposedly stronger Liverpool team hasn't beaten Stoke in either match this season. Might it have something to do with the tactics?

seems pretty realistic...liverpool were lucky to beat pompey today yet they beat chelsea and hadn't won in all of january.

Im managing Liverpool also, and i have no problems.

what tactics are you using?

Liverpool beat Man Utd and Chelsea this season and have drawn against the likes of Stoke and Fulham.

Arsenal have beaten Man Utd and lost to Hull and Man City, drawn with Boro and Sunderland.

Your problem is probably you thinking you should 'easily' beat these teams. Poorer teams will sit back and defend to get something and frustrate you, you need to make sure you can break them down.

Complacency is your problem mate, you go against weaker opponents expecting a win, dont forget that wigan are not a bad side and have come far in the premiership, and another factor in your losses to stoke and wigan was probably home advantage? they may be weaker, but a majority of the fans will be on their side.

Also you might have weakened your team against these lesser sides, a mistake if you are on a bad run of form. In any premiership game you should always send out the strongest squad possible, regardless of your oppositions ability. Save weakening your starting 11 for fa cup and league cup fixtures

I'm certainly no tactical wizard either, but I agree with the poster that made the complacency comment. You can't just leave things the same for year after year without repercussions. The AI as a whole seems to pick up on it. Just like in real life, you need to make subtle changes during a game, not to mention on a match to match basis. Adjustments are required or eventually, you will stagnate. I've gotten my Lincoln City side from L2 up to 3rd in the Championship on the basis of keeping an eye on individual player form, how the players seem to be interacting on the pitch, etc. Now, on to seal the 2nd leg in the playoffs against fierce rival Hull after a 2-0 win at home!

In my opinion the games against weak teams are way overdone, meaning that every time I play against a weak team I have a hard time winning. In all my saves, 99% of the time either I loose or I draw(most of the time I loose), cup games being especially hard. The problem is not my tactics, since I do have large number of chances, the problem seems to be the game engine which tends to generate a large number of surprise results involving the human player team. For example, every time I manage a team in the English league I get knocked out of the League Cup. No matter which team I manage, or the tactic used, I lose a game which I am supposed to win easily.

I do not believe this is a bad thing, since in real life, at the beginning of the season, the better teams did not adjust to changes and they are not playing to their full potential, therefore there is a chance of an upset. Also, I agree that playing a weaker team should not mean an automatic win. However, I get bad results and upsets on a regular basis, so a far as I am concerned it is no longer an upset or a surprise bad result, it is a fact of FM2009 that every time I play a cup game or a team in the relegation zone I will lose. Therefore, if I want a win all I have to do is holiday through the game which results in a win, since the assistant manager usually wins by large margins (3 or so goal difference). I believe this should be changed since it affects the playability of the game. In all team based sports, sometime there are upsets, sometimes a better team will draw against a weaker team, but most of the time they win. This is not the case of FM2009, in my experience most of the time I lose, sometimes I draw and once in a blue moon I manage a win. What I am trying to say is, at this time in FM2009 there are no surprise results since I should be actually surprised when I lose a game that I am supposed to win.