Opponents to clinical

I started a new season with Sunderland to see if i could learn or if there is some king of 'overachieving bug' The season started as before, we were flying, mostly around EPL Top 4 then WHAM! It was not quite as drastic as the last time as i managed to sqeeze some wins in between the losses.

I really do believe that there is some sort of bug, maybe it doesn't effect all teams but it effects Sunderland for sure.

I'm going to show the screens from my last 7 defeats, but please bear in mind these screens DO NOT show the full story. In these 7 games i had 9 goals disallowed, 3 in one game! These stats do not show as shots on/off target. In these 7 games we scored one controversial goal, but conceeded 5 controversal goals.

With these screens i aim to show a bias towards the AI effectiveness at scoring. First thing you may say is... must be your tactics, your defence. This is not true as my defence has had great praise in other games.

I HAVE NEVER SELECTED A PLAYER WITH LESS THAN 'OKAY' MORALE BUT MOSTLY IT IS 'SUPERB' so let's rule that option out.

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Not one of my better attempts but, did i deserve to lose this game? Ok it happens.

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Another close call, but again the AI seems more clinical than me.

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Ok so i didn't have many more shots on target as Newcastle, but come on Newcastle were the home team. Stats like that tell me them were pretty poor, yet it didn't effect there confidence as they were quite clinical despite playing poorly. Get the picture?

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A draw would have been a fair result here, had their strikers not been clinical it probably would have been. In this game they scored a controversal goal whilst i had one disallowed.

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People looked at these stats will say that my shots on target is poor, but why? If you watched the game as i did i bombarded the goal but everything seemed to 'hit' the keeper despite what those stats show. Wigan who were 2nd bottom and seemingly low on confidence had no such problems.

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It appears that i deserved to lose, but did i?

I SWEAR TO GOD i had 3 goals disallowed in the first 23 minutes when it was still 0-0, those ststs don't reflect that.

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We all know this stats happen irl but not against the same team FFS!

My problem is i don't believe my tactics are to blame. I tweak before and during every game. Nothing radical just minor tweaks hear and there that have proved successful early season.

People say that this game is to random but nor me! With Sunderland the dice is set, overachieve and we will stop you - by hook or by crook!

Come on SI admit it so i don't need to keep reloading a new season to try and prove myself wrong!

I started a new season with Sunderland to see if i could learn or if there is some king of 'overachieving bug' The season started as before, we were flying, mostly around EPL Top 4 then WHAM! It was not quite as drastic as the last time as i managed to sqeeze some wins in between the losses.

I really do believe that there is some sort of bug, maybe it doesn't effect all teams but it effects Sunderland for sure.

I'm going to show the screens from my last 7 defeats, but please bear in mind these screens DO NOT show the full story. In these 7 games i had 9 goals disallowed, 3 in one game! These stats do not show as shots on/off target. In these 7 games we scored one controversial goal, but conceeded 5 controversal goals.

With these screens i aim to show a bias towards the AI effectiveness at scoring. First thing you may say is... must be your tactics, your defence. This is not true as my defence has had great praise in other games.

I HAVE NEVER SELECTED A PLAYER WITH LESS THAN 'OKAY' MORALE BUT MOSTLY IT IS 'SUPERB' so let's rule that option out.

] [/url]

Not one of my better attempts but, did i deserve to lose this game? Ok it happens.

] [/url]

Another close call, but again the AI seems more clinical than me.

] [/url]

Ok so i didn't have many more shots on target as Newcastle, but come on Newcastle were the home team. Stats like that tell me them were pretty poor, yet it didn't effect there confidence as they were quite clinical despite playing poorly. Get the picture?

] [/url]

A draw would have been a fair result here, had their strikers not been clinical it probably would have been. In this game they scored a controversal goal whilst i had one disallowed.

] [/url]

People looked at these stats will say that my shots on target is poor, but why? If you watched the game as i did i bombarded the goal but everything seemed to 'hit' the keeper despite what those stats show. Wigan who were 2nd bottom and seemingly low on confidence had no such problems.

] [/url]

It appears that i deserved to lose, but did i?

I SWEAR TO GOD i had 3 goals disallowed in the first 23 minutes when it was still 0-0, those ststs don't reflect that.

] [/url]

We all know this stats happen irl but not against the same team FFS!

My problem is i don't believe my tactics are to blame. I tweak before and during every game. Nothing radical just minor tweaks hear and there that have proved successful early season.

People say that this game is to random but nor me! With Sunderland the dice is set, overachieve and we will stop you - by hook or by crook!

Come on SI admit it so i don't need to keep reloading a new season to try and prove myself wrong!

I think theres an error with the screens here, if so redirect towards the bottom of this THREAD to view fully.

I think its true that it does attempt to stop you from overachieving I have thought that for many years with this game, it simply changes the attack angle it uses, the AI knows all the answers. There is of course something you can do to stop it from countering you, but you have to find it!!

I havnt yet myself he he but it must be possible, its a bit like chess in my opinion, the same things will work for a while but then they get wise and you need to try something new

Stevie i know what you mean but looking at those screens i wouldn't say that my opponents found a way to counter me. People talk about morele and confidence being an important factor. So look at the home game v Wigan for example. We were in the Top 8 and morale was between 'Okay and Superb'.

Wigan were away from home and 2nd bottom they got bombarded and yet their morale seemed uneffected as they scorded 3 goals from 3 shots. We had 24 shots and couldn't get a goal.

If the game wants to increase the challenge factor than it must make it's opponents play better. It doesn't it just makes them clinical.

andy, I see it happening almost all the time in my game too. I actually posted a screenie from my game in your thread. I also just another game which was complete dominance on my part yet the other team's striker decides he's now a sniper and score from 30 yards whilst having long shot stat of 11.

It just seems the game is programmed to start throwing in more and more random acts of luck the more you are successful. So the more you win, the more luck the opponents have against you cause otherwise you'd just continue dominating. You may disagree with me but in my opinion SI cut corners to make this game seem realistic.

I don't think the effect you're experiencing is random or down to the AI cheating in any way to make themselves more clinical. What you're experiencing is known by many as 're-ranking' and it is in fact the AI managers constantly assessing how they play against you, and any other team in the league for that matter.

Basically, as you've said in your threads, you over-achieve at the start of the season. So as the season goes on and you carry on doing a lot better than your media prediction the AI managers start looking and thinking 'hold on, this team's a lot better than we first thought, we need to be a little more cautious when playing them'. So suddenly your tactic that worked well against teams that perceived you in a certain way, i.e a fairly straightforward win for them, is no longer as effective as AI managers view you differently, and adjust their tactics accordingly.

As frustrating as this is, it is imo fairly realistic. If Sunderland spent the first half of the season in the top 4 in real life every team would start to play a little differently against them. Many teams would not be quite as attacking and would be looking to stop Sunderland scoring while at the same time hoping to grab themselves a goal. Reading is a good recent example of this.

So I'd guess that as Sunderland you've found a good defensive tactic that gets you some goals on the break. But now teams are playing slightly more defensively against you so your tactic is not as effective and you therefore need to find a more attacking tactic.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">andy, I see it happening almost all the time in my game too. I actually posted a screenie from my game in your thread. I also just another game which was complete dominance on my part yet the other team's striker decides he's now a sniper and score from 30 yards whilst having long shot stat of 11.

It just seems the game is programmed to start throwing in more and more random acts of luck the more you are successful. So the more you win, the more luck the opponents have against you cause otherwise you'd just continue dominating. You may disagree with me but in my opinion SI cut corners to make this game seem realistic. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I don't disagree with you, much the opposite in fact. But if i can go back to that Wigan game, i increased the width, passing, tempo a D/L in order to put them under pressure.

Shots 24 v 3

Score 0 v 3

Show me any realism in that

its the famous AI cracking your tactic thingy.

or so they say..

simple solution i found that works for me.

since i almost always play with the same formation home and away i just slightly adjust a few things. you know tweak around a bit.

i mostly do it again weaker teams i'm pretty sure to beat anyway.

works for me, my record stands by 52 unbeaten games. even won most of them.

I can see your point about realism but similar things do happen, this season utd against blackburn for example, united DOMINATEDthe game and only managed to snatch a goal right at the end, had they not it would have been a similar thing to yours.

Games like the one you said cant be coming along often im sure, if you have that many shots every game you will win a high percentage

I support your thread andy.

I go 2-0 up against the 20th position team in the league, who have trouble scoring goals, and then they score 2 in 2 minutes using a young defender regen as their striker.

Nothing I do can keep a clean sheet nowadays.

Up for SI to reply.