Away from home...

(to those of you that watch a lot of matches in full).

Do your players kick the ball out for a throw-in far more than they would at home? Have had a week away from the game due to sheer frustration, come back to it, nice 4-0 win at home, good play, lots of passing, away, losing 3-0 to a team that I can't see is any better than me (and 8 places lower in the league - yeah, thanks, I know it happens in RL too)...

.. but my team are just constantly kicking the ball out for a throw and as a result I'm barely ever stringing 2 passes together.

I'm not sure if this has ever been mentioned, but after a week away from the game, just over these 2 matches, this has really stood out for me. Is this one of the ways that FM ensures home advantage? This is so bloody unrealistic and frustrating it's untrue - as the manager I have no control over this whatsoever (unless there is something clever I can do tactically, but I've tried making my midfielders more available to no noticeable effect).

I just wondered if anyone else had noticed this booting of the ball out for a throw, happening more often away from home?

No only in defensive clearences and missed passes.

It's your Tactics

I'm talking about defensive clearances. I never see that many hoofed out when at home, it was ridiculous watching that game how many were hoofed out when there was patently no need. It just struck me that more of them are hoofed down the wing or through the middle when at home, or there is more composure and a defender will take a little more time to turn on the ball and clear / pass sensibly.

I wondered if there was something going on here whereby 'away from home' = 'under pressure' = '****ing my pants' = 'hoof it NOW', as opposed to 'at home' = 'feeling more confident' = 'take some more time' = 'turn... pass / clear down the wing'.

It certainly seemed, in that one game where I noticed it heavily, to go a long way to ensuring domination for the home team and thus home advantage.

Just wondering if others have likewise noticed this happening more away than at home...

How is your mentality slider set for your defenders?

Yea sorry bout that.

Maybe it's the pressure factor as said It could also be how close the attacker is!

about a quarter to a 1/3rd to the left for full backs, almost all the way to the left for CBs, i.e. defensive. Certainly at the start of the game. Might change it to more attacking later in the game for full-backs if I'm chasing the game.

I always have it set like that, tough, so I don't think anything in my tactics should make me see a difference between home and away in this respect. But I suspect there might be something in the game as I've suggested above..

Yea sorry bout that.

Maybe it's the pressure factor as said It could also be how close the attacker is!

As I said, on many occasions they were 'needless' hoofs into touch - i.e. where the attacker really wasn't that close and there was time to deal with it.

Anyway, I'll stop explaining myself and my tactics, was wondering if anyone else had noticed a difference in this aspect of the game between home and away matches.

To say it in one word - No

Might be a hidden stat somewhere

No. Haven't noticed a difference there.

If you have the defenders set to really defensive, and more so if they have low composure, then they'll probably hoof for touch a lot.

You may be noticing it a lot more away from home because you come under a lot more pressure away from home.

Another thing that might help - don't put your defenders on RWB rarely: it makes them hoof the ball when they don't need to, because they're paralysed with fear of taking a step whilst in possession (especially, I think, because they tend to have low CF).

If they have defensive mentality then they're not going to go on dribbles up the pitch anyway, so give them RWB mixed and when balls go over their heads they'll go and collect them, bring them back up the pitch and then pass or clear.

Try not to give your DC's with HUB which will make him delaying the pass to other players. Although he may have time to make a better pass, he is not given enough creative freedom so a simple pass from them to DRL or MC would be prefered and better.

You may increase your DC's mentalities as well so that they can link well with midfield players. For your fullbacks, ditto.

You may have at least one MC's with rare or mixed forward run so that your DC's have someone to pass the ball to.

Opponents will attack more if they play at home, so linking up your players together is essential. Hope this help.

Update your progress here so that we can share and solve the problem here. No doubt the problem you have mentioned is true.