Possesion

How Can I Dominate Possesion?

Is that it?

'how can I dominate possession'?

Take it from me - I am the biggest whinge bag when it comes to possession and FM...

See some of my posts, you'll get the idea.

In THEORY....

Short passing

Slow Tempo

I'm trying all sorts of new tactical shapes etc at the minute because sadly, this game is not working as it should.

The main point being, FORMATIONS dictate POSSESSION...

Annoyingly, if it was down to how good your team was at passing etc, life the Barcelona team in real life that has 60-65% possession IN EVERY MATCH they play, literally, 99% of the time, no matter who the opposition or what formation they play, then the game would reflect true life far more.

It does not do this though.

You can (I have) spend hours setting up a 4-5-1 or 4-3-3 like Barcelona, using their players and doing everything you can think of to get them to dominate possession, and then up pops a team playing a defensive 4-4-2 with two DM's and bang, they have 60% possession to your 40% possession.

It makes no sense.

My Barcelona team should have the possession, not them...

Why is this happening - because the closing down of my team (despite being very high on the slider) is completely in-affective.

So there you have it...

Give up now while you're still sane.

Nice post Really Made Me Laff

So I Shud Just Kill Myself LoL

well i just had 63% of the ball and failed to win against OB i mean WTF

Possession does not equal goals.

The theory behind possession is essentially that if you have the ball and the other team doesn not, they can't score...you can and therefore you should win.

Possession in football is everything.

Cryuff was a master at this, Pep Guardiola is learning - but their Barcelona teams are playing some very similar football.

The principles are the same. Short passing, slow build up. Players make space to recieve balls and only in the attacking third try 'risky' through balls etc.

If there isn't a pass on forwards, they play it back and build up again.

Amazingly, I can see this happening in some of my matches.

But all too often, Mr Alves will stupidly smash a 40 yarder to no one...

I do not instruct him to do this, he has short passing, low mentality, low creativity etc but the game engine shows him doing the exact opposite of how I want him and the entire team to play.

Obviously, him doing that gives possession away...back to square one!

I've managed to get much more consistancy with a recent tactic, it allows my team to dominate around 60-70% of matches I play, home and away.

But all too often, the AI of the game is found wanting...

Lets say I use my tactic which against a 4-4-2 won 60% possession of the last match over the 90 mins.

I'm thinking, "brilliant, the team are plaing short passes and keeping the ball etc"

Next match, same players, same formation but against a 4-4-2 with two DM's, or 1 DM and 1 AM...

Astonishingly, this change can far too radically alter what % possession you get...

You team's own abilities go out the window...no longer are they a great passing team, they are now not Barcelona, they are bloody Blyth Spartans playing against Man Utd.

This is the games biggest flaw (for me), in that you cannot build a decent formation, ask your team to play a certain way and get any sort of HIGH consistancy in terms of getting a team (OBVIOUSLY WITH THE PLAYERS IN IT THAT ARE ABLE TO PASS WELL AND KEEP THE BALL ETC) to dominate other teams in the way the REAL LIFE Barcelona team does.

I am not suggesting for one minute that I would win every game etc, cause Barca don't, I know this because I watch every single match of theirs without fail (and yes, been to the Nou Camp) - but I just wish that the game engine could be 'tweaked' somehow so that it recognises "great" teams with "great" players in of world class abilities, who can CONSISTANTLY keep the ball better than the other team.

*pauses for deep breath*

And lastly, I should also point out that REPUTATION seems to play little, if any part in FM.

Barcelona are feared throughout the footballing world by many managers.

If you watch Barca every week, no matter who they play in Spain, or in Europe, opposing managers will virtually always adopt a defensive, couter-attacking style.

They actively LET Barcelona have the ball and try to hit them on the break (hence (IN PART) Barca's large possession %'s each week).

Barcelona's possession is down to three things...

1 - The team they have is full of great passers of the ball and players have the ability to retain possession.

2. The manager TELLS them to play this type of game

3. Opposing managers generally always accept that Barcelona are a better 'passing' team than theirs and that if they try to out-play Barca at their own game, they'll probably loose...so they then adopt the couter-attacking style...which obviously allows Barcelona MORE of the ball = MORE POSSESSION!

AI Teams DO NOT DO THIS IN FM in my humble opinion. Or at least, not consistantly enough.

Man, I'm a grumpy sod...

(grumpy - but seriously, I hope I do have a genuine point)

Oh, and no - DO NOT KILL YOURSELF...

yuo have a very good point

si really need to work on the tatics part of the game

and i wont kill myself lol

Well, no one from SI has ever responded to anything I've written about the above.

I'd love Paul C or Miles to read this, acknowledge the points raised and either completely prove me wrong or agree that it is something to look at and improve.

In the mean time, I will continue to do a lot of swearing at the screen in front of me (much to the delight of my wife who thinks a grown man of 31, swearing at a screen is almost as much fun as watching the new Beverly Hills 90210 garbage)...

I remain defiant. I will continue with my Barcelona (and now Ajax too) team and plough on, in search of the secret formula.

If it's there, I'll find it...

If not, I reckon I'll be sectioned in the next 4 weeks...max.

Wibble wobble.

Here, here's my latest tactic I'm currently working on...

It's called 'Viper' (someone's probably already named a tactic that but basically, I couldn't be arsed to think of anything else and well, who really cares?)

See what you think and please let me know how you get on.

http://www.savefile.com/files/2044820

I also forgot to mention that through my studies of 'possession' etc, the match engine has a rather curious way of "deciding" who has what possession (again, all based on formations etc, seemingly...rather than team qualities).

If you look at the match action screen, you'll always see that of the play, the vast majority will be in the middle of the pitch...true to life.

HOWEVER...

I've noticed that even I'm dominating possession in the final third because Im the attacking team, what goes on in the middle of the pitch dictates what possession each team has.

Essentially, the action screen is showing false information, or the match engine produces completely in-accurate possession data.

So, if you dominate MIDFIELD, you're guarenteed to have the higher possession stat.

If you dominate your defensive third and your attacking third, but not the midfield, you'll not have had the ball as much, apparently...

With this in mind, in matches where I'm not getting the higher percentage of possession and I'm curious to know why, I will watch the whole match.

What I find is the opposition will almost without fail, be playing VERY deep and have at least one defensive midfielder. The AI simply plays the ball between defenders and the DM - my attackers, despite having very high closing down (I've also tried tight marking etc) will step off by at least two yards, allowing the AI team all the time in the world...

So, is the old closing down bug still apparent?

Most of my players have good or very good determination, team work / work rate etc, plus the instruction to close down...

Despite all of my ranting, I still bloody love the game...so much so, I've put Call Of Duty 5 and the Xbox away for over 2 weeks now - which trust me, is a monumental achievement.

Beautiful.