How do you react to the assistant managers 'pointers' during a match?

As we all know every so often during a match the assistant will inform you on how players are playing, how succesful the teams passing / shooting is etc etc etc.

What exactly do you do to address these (when negative)? Does missing interceptions mean you should increase closing down slightly?...Or should you reduce the tempo of the team if they are misplacing to many passes?

I am in textview (due to the lack of gama-bility of my laptop) and can keep a constant eye over what he is saying. If I can utilise the assistant effectively then it will indeed aid my FM careers!

Cheers in advance

I am not sure in some cases how to respond to his comments. For example, he'll often say "Joe Shmoe looks like he's used to playing a more direct game than he's being asked to do today" and I have no understanding of how to correct that.

Or should you reduce the tempo of the player that is misplacing passes?

You cannot reduce tempo of individuals. Tempo is a team instruction

You cannot reduce tempo of individuals. Tempo is a team instruction

Was just an example (a bad one granted) to get my point across.

Edited

I am not sure in some cases how to respond to his comments. For example, he'll often say "Joe Shmoe looks like he's used to playing a more direct game than he's being asked to do today" and I have no understanding of how to correct that.

Players take a while to adjust to new styles of play. It just means that Joe Schmoe won't really be at his best until he' settled into his new style.

Imagine if you transferred from Bolton to Arsenal - it'd be like an entirely different game.

OP:

I never feel obliged to listen to my AssMan's advice, unless it reinforces what I'm seeing. It sucks that you can't see the matches - I dont think I'd be able to cope if I had to "fly blind" so to speak. Can you not use 2D classic even?

Fixing problems like "X is misplacing most of his passes" is really hard to do unless you can see why he's getting isolated. Sometimes it's just cos they're crap at passing though, or they're generally nervous and playing badly. Sometimes you can solve it by increasing their range of passing, so that they can look to targets a little farther away. Sometimes it's because they don't have the ability to handle a fast-paced short passing game, so lower tempo solves it.

Gaps between the defense and midfield usually need a toggle of the defensive line, or a more defensive mentality/FWR set-up for one of your midfielders - but if the opposition don't have AMs, then you can often get by without filling them - so long as your CBs close down strikers who drop deep into space.

Wingers/FBs who's crosses need to be closed down is a fairly self-explanatory one - closing down always.

If a player is "getting skinned far too often" then you can try lowering his closing down, so he doesn't rush into the challenge - sometimes it's simply because he's outclassed though, and you can't do nowt about it.

That's about all I can think of - can't remember what other comments the AssMan makes.

It would be really useful if the stats, and thus the AssMan, tracked which players were getting caught in possession a lot - if your tempo's too fast and passes go astray as a result, you can figure it out with your AssMan, but if your tempo's too slow and your players are getting closed down and tackled in midfield, you can't tell too clearly - maybe from the action zones, but that's it.

^^^ Good post.

I am not sure in some cases how to respond to his comments. For example, he'll often say "Joe Shmoe looks like he's used to playing a more direct game than he's being asked to do today" and I have no understanding of how to correct that.

You could, of course, direct the player to pass shorter if its costing you.

This was a good thread that's gone quiet:

Guide to Assistant Manager Feedback

http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php?t=125509

Maybe some folks could add to it.

TBH I completely ignore that section. I'm sure I've suffered for it, but I'm too lazy...

My Net has been buggered thus my lack of response but cheers all for the effort. To Dekker a big thanks. It appears the best way to work with the assistants advice is to carry on using common sense rather than search for a calculated system. There is a good feeling to shutting the assistant up (i.e getting the 'our long passing as been awful today' off the report) through tweaking settings yourself and getting the result you want. Better than reading through a seminars worth of bumph about 'clicks this way and that'.

It would be nice to see if anyone else has any more opinions on it though. How you deal with the mid-game comments or if there is in fact a definitive methodology to counter-act the negatives that the assistant report informs you of.

Take it easy