The 'dramatic' comeback

I know this has been covered a few times but it's finally got to me so much that I have to vent my frustrations.

I'm playing as Worcester City, and thanks to a large database and some lucky signing's I've made it to League 2. Struggled last season but stayed up. This season, after a whole load of loans I've made it to just above mid table. However...... I'm getting pretty sick of all these 'dramatic' comebacks. The final straw was just now playing against port vale. 3 - 0 up at half time and sitting pretty. Checked the motivation screen, all good. Checked port vale's motivation, not too bad, not as good as mine...

Second half..... 3-3. Great. Typical. This has happened far too many times for it to be a coincidence and it's really winding me up. I have more draws than anyone in the league!

I've tried the "don't let your performance drop" team talk, I've tried saying nothing, I've tried encouraging but all have the same effect.

Grrr.... annoyed because I love this game.

I can't say whether or not this has come about since the new patch, can't really remember

I know this has been covered a few times but it's finally got to me so much that I have to vent my frustrations.

I'm playing as Worcester City, and thanks to a large database and some lucky signing's I've made it to League 2. Struggled last season but stayed up. This season, after a whole load of loans I've made it to just above mid table. However...... I'm getting pretty sick of all these 'dramatic' comebacks. The final straw was just now playing against port vale. 3 - 0 up at half time and sitting pretty. Checked the motivation screen, all good. Checked port vale's motivation, not too bad, not as good as mine...

Second half..... 3-3. Great. Typical. This has happened far too many times for it to be a coincidence and it's really winding me up. I have more draws than anyone in the league!

I've tried the "don't let your performance drop" team talk, I've tried saying nothing, I've tried encouraging but all have the same effect.

Grrr.... annoyed because I love this game.

I can't say whether or not this has come about since the new patch, can't really remember

Man that's tough luck bud. I usually get draws but not consistently as you do. I usually don't have those dramatic comebacks, I just usually get slammed, or win 1 - 0. But not as dramatic as a 3-3 draw an being 3-0 in the half. :/

try changin your philosophy to counter or defend

I'm sure we all know how you're feeling right now. Even trying to change as many things as possible (mentality to defensive, dropping players back, etc) sometimes seems to not work at all.

Keep plucking away and hope for the best. I know it's not what you were looking for but it's all I've got.

Sorry to hear you're struggling with comebacks. I rarely allow comebacks when I'm 2 or more goals up at half time and I'm hardly an expert manager. I usually say nothing in the half-time teamtalk and it seems to work. I also pull my fullbacks back so the opposition doesn't get many crosses in.

One thing I suspect makes a big difference is your squad personality. Mine is "very determined" and sometimes "highly ambitious". Try to at least have a determined captain as they do effect others around them. Also put the opp. playmaker on hard tackling so he doesn't feel comfortable running with the ball and passing it.

Another thing is to keep your defenders back for attacking setpieces once you have the lead so you don't concede on the counter.

Well, that's all I could think of now. I'm sure people will come up with better suggestions than mine but you could give those a try and see how it goes.

What are you doing tactically?

Are you sure it's not just because you're Worcester City? As a man who watches them on a semi-regular basis, I must say, we always seem to capitulate in the second half no matter what...

I have a bit of a different suggestion. If you're doing well in the first half, don't change a thing. The best defense is a good offense, because when you have the ball, they don't. Sitting back and defending is just begging the other team to score, unless you have serious defensive quality. The only thing I would change would be a defender who is performing poorly, whether reflected in their rating or if it's just what you have noticed. Don't be afraid of pulling the keeper if goals are his fault.

I just had a a CL draw with Arsenal. I won the first leg 2-0, and dominated from start to finish. I figured that I could put in a few more defensive players and things would work out for the next match. The second leg ended 0-2, and with me on the edge of my seat. I won on penalties, but still.

Here it goes again. When you lead and change your tactic to a more defensive one, people will say that you draw because you invited the AI to score. If you don't change a thing, the AI will score because you should have adapted to the situation. I'm really curious where this discussion leads us this time.

However, the only thing I can suggest is to use time wasting. Not sure about anything else.

For your team talk at half time, say 'None'.

There's an excellent thread in the tactics forum on team talks. Worth having a search for, its certainly helped me down the years

Just follow this.

When having a big lead,

change strategy to "contain" or "defensive" depending on how strong their resistence is,

use "retain possession", "pass to feet", "clear ball to flanks", remove all your OIs.

I would advice against going to contain of defensive most of the time, as it just seems to invite the other team on to you more. It only seems to be reliable for me when i have a very solid team that can defend well.

The best advice is the one give about saying nothing at half time, works, and use retain possesion for the last 20 mins or so.

Contain and defensive works well with your opponents desperate to make a comeback, you're retaining possession while going down the flanks to waste more time which serves to frustrate the opponents even more. With space and pace, you can also launch a quick counter attack.

It can work well, depending on how good your team is, but its only something I do during the last 20 mins of games, if at all.

Thanks for the responses.

I've tried the contain and defensive strat in the second half, but as people have been saying it seems to just invite the oppo into my half. Also have tried doing nothing at all, no HT team talk, no tactical changes - same result. My team isn't the most determined bunch but what's weird is their motivation was better than the other team all the way through the match, yet still leaked 3 goals and scored no more.

What annoys me is not losing or drawing, I can deal with that. It's the fact that I know by half time of EVERY match, no matter how well we're playing, the second half we'll definitely play worse. Then, frustratingly, the morale of the team drops and the chances are I'll lose the next match.

Rant over......for now!

Team talks are context dependent. How good are Port Vale in relation to you?

Much better than you = Thrilled

Of similar standard to you = Pleased

Nowhere near as good = None

Don't let your performance drop = You are only just about playing well enough to deserve your lead. Don't let your performance drop in the second half.

Encourage = You are playing well, lads, but it is not over yet. Keep this up and we can make sure of this.

Neither is an appropriate response at 3-0 up.

Team talks are context dependent. How good are Port Vale in relation to you?

Much better than you = Thrilled

Of similar standard to you = Pleased

Nowhere near as good = None

Don't let your performance drop = You are only just about playing well enough to deserve your lead. Don't let your performance drop in the second half.

Encourage = You are playing well, lads, but it is not over yet. Keep this up and we can make sure of this.

Neither is an appropriate response at 3-0 up.

So you say, if your opponent is clearly better than you while you hold a lead, "pleased" doesn't make the players complacent but fired up to repeat their performance in the 2nd half?

Pretty much. Can use it at 0-0 in the right circumstances as well.