The age old tactics+loss of form question

Toronto FC, using a tweaked version of the ultimate domination V2 tactic. I managed a 20 game streak of wins at the start, doing teams by 5-6 goals at most (3 on average). Motivation is superb, no injuries, strikers all pinging goals in left right and centre. Then, we lose 1. Then 2, then 3. We now havent won in 10, 3 draws 7 losses. Motivation is still high, no injuries, just losing left right and centre. Ive tweaked with the tactics based on how we are losing, but there seems to be no way of getting out of this slump. This has happened on save after save of mine (Chelsea, PSG, Leyton Orient, and now Toronto), I start brilliant, then when it comes to 5/6 months in it all goes to pot + I end up sacked or scraping a poor quality top 6 finish (usually conceeding a 9 point leage lead in the process.

How do you guys win anything in that case? Has my computer loaded a version that has an anti me vendetta . This really isnt a complain, more a cry for help, because the drop off in form happens every save. Its not like im being unintelligent about it and just using the same tactics whatever happens, im reading the 3d performances player for player and seeing what is going wrong, but the tweaks I make have little effect.

I cant be bothered with the drama queen ranting of "this game is fixed, shame on SI", cos clearly this is the best version yet and I love it. I also know teams drop in form all the time in real life, so it mirrors real life, I just find it odd that this goes on on all of my saves, yet I read a lot of you guys can do very little in terms of changes, yet still keep the consistency up on a season on season basis.

Any ideas on how to get my Canadians out of the slump and back to winning ways (I still have a 12 point cushion on top of the table so its not all doom and gloom, but I can see the teams in 2+3 breathing down my neck, and my board have gone from delighted to satisfied).

Whats also weird is that during my time of poor league form, I still manaed a 19-0 aggregate win over FC Belize in the NACL competition, so it cant all be wrong? All very weird!

I would personally leave the tactics as they were. Reload the original one. If it worked before it should stil work now. I try not to mess with the tactics when things are going wrong because tinkering here and there seems to extend a losing streak.

I would look to see if its a player problem.

Players, despite the losses, are all on superb/very good motivation, there are no "slt" players, good dressing room harmony so doesnt seem to be coming from there.

Almost always use for the fans team talk. Never seems to demotivate players.

Always use "expect another good performance" individual teamtalk when possible.

coolio, cheers for the advice fellas, keep it coming, tonight could be the night where we rediscover our form. Or I'll get sacked and end up at Chesterfield like usual

Whe I lost 3 games in a row once I started messing about with the tactics after seeing the problems on the 3d match engine and ended up going on a record winless streak for the club. So I Reloaded my original tactic and instantly got back to winning ways.

If I had left the tactics alone in the first place we probably only would of lost those first 3 games.

Yep im going to plug the original tactic back and see what happens. I suppose its natural to change things when it starts going wrong but as has been said, if it was good for 20 games it doesnt instantly become a rubbish tactic. Cheers for the assistance!

Brilliant, switched back to the original tactic with no tweaks. Lost 4 more on the bounce, came off the top of the table, losing my 19 point lead in the process, about to throw things around the place, then we beat bottom of the lot seattle 8-0. HELLO! Then went on a 6 game win streak, back on top of the table, qualified through my nacl group, and have my arch rivals colombus in the semi finals of the mls playoff. My inept players who were so bad under the tweaked tactic have now resumed their form, my 18 yr old polish goalscorer who couldnt score for toffee during my bad times smacked in 10 in those 6 games. Brilliant!!

I suppose its all about perseverance, v chuffed though with the turnaround.

This happens to me in every single save game. Someone will start cying about the lack of harmony then they all jump on the bandwagon. Pummelling teams at the start then out of nowhere, BANG, defeat after defeat, dropped point after dropped point when absolutely NOTHING has changed. It's so frustrating, it seems like the whole game is centred around team talks and press conferences and not player stats and tactics.

Another absolutely heartbreaking flaw is the complete impossibility of winning a game when you are for example 2-0 up at half time, no matter who you are or who you're playing. IT WILL NOT LET YOU WIN, NO MATTER WHAT. I thought I'd start a game with Hamilton where there's less pressure, and here's the story of the opening league game.

Away to Kilmarnock

6 mins - goal disallowed for offside when it clearly wasn't. but predictably 'replays showed the referee made the correct decision.'

13 mins, I go 1-0 up - I think superb.

31 mins, 2-0 up - what a start, but deep down I know for a fact I am not going to win the game.

45+4 mins, 2-1, so predictable, especially when only 2 mins stoppage time was declared.

60 mins, 2-2, I pat myself on the back yet again for accurately predicting what would happen, but again, deep down I am absolutely livid.

62 mins, Killie go down to 10 men, I think let's push on and win this.

66 mins, I go 3-2 up, I think excellent just hold on to this and I'll take the 3 points. I go defensive and tighten up all over the park, there's no way I'm losing this lead, especially against 10 men.

88 mins, Killie go 3-1-5 and score a scrappy equaliser from a corner, again a wry smile moves across my face and I think I'm psychic, but really I'm thinking to myself I am never playing FM again.

I plodded on and got pumped 5-0 away to my beloved Rangers in the next league game, all player instructions ignored as usual. All their goals were from my players doing the opposite of what I instructed.

So I awake from my rage-trance and find myself typing this sentence. Someone please give me some sympathy and say it happens to you as well.

This happens to me in every single save game. Someone will start cying about the lack of harmony then they all jump on the bandwagon. Pummelling teams at the start then out of nowhere, BANG, defeat after defeat, dropped point after dropped point when absolutely NOTHING has changed. It's so frustrating, it seems like the whole game is centred around team talks and press conferences and not player stats and tactics.

Another absolutely heartbreaking flaw is the complete impossibility of winning a game when you are for example 2-0 up at half time, no matter who you are or who you're playing. IT WILL NOT LET YOU WIN, NO MATTER WHAT. I thought I'd start a game with Hamilton where there's less pressure, and here's the story of the opening league game.

Away to Kilmarnock

6 mins - goal disallowed for offside when it clearly wasn't. but predictably 'replays showed the referee made the correct decision.'

13 mins, I go 1-0 up - I think superb.

31 mins, 2-0 up - what a start, but deep down I know for a fact I am not going to win the game.

45+4 mins, 2-1, so predictable, especially when only 2 mins stoppage time was declared.

60 mins, 2-2, I pat myself on the back yet again for accurately predicting what would happen, but again, deep down I am absolutely livid.

62 mins, Killie go down to 10 men, I think let's push on and win this.

66 mins, I go 3-2 up, I think excellent just hold on to this and I'll take the 3 points. I go defensive and tighten up all over the park, there's no way I'm losing this lead, especially against 10 men.

88 mins, Killie go 3-1-5 and score a scrappy equaliser from a corner, again a wry smile moves across my face and I think I'm psychic, but really I'm thinking to myself I am never playing FM again.

I plodded on and got pumped 5-0 away to my beloved Rangers in the next league game, all player instructions ignored as usual. All their goals were from my players doing the opposite of what I instructed.

So I awake from my rage-trance and find myself typing this sentence. Someone please give me some sympathy and say it happens to you as well.

why didnt you sub in another defender on the 75th or 80th minute when you were ahead and make a line of 5? or an extra defensive midfielder if you saw an opportunity for counter attacks when you were still ahead?

when i see the game is getting out of my control and being put under extreme pressure on the last 15 minutes and im ahead thats what i would do -and have been successful holding the score most of the time.

sounds to me you didn't addapt your game to the circumstances here, so what can you expect?

why didnt you sub in another defender on the 75th or 80th minute when you were ahead and make a line of 5? or an extra defensive midfielder if you saw an opportunity for counter attacks when you were still ahead?

when i see the game is getting out of my control and being put under extreme pressure on the last 15 minutes and im ahead thats what i would do -and have been successful holding the score most of the time.

sounds to me you didn't addapt your game to the circumstances here, so what can you expect?

So many times I have put in an extra defender of placed a lidfielder more into DM position and I still lose. Whatever you do tactically seems to make no difference as the ME has already played the game and is simply replaying it. Try the following to see if it works. View a match and exit a few mins after the second half has started, chances are the match will have a FT score exactly the same as when you left. So personally changing things wouldn't have made much difference.

I've yet to avoid the drop in form around December/January on any save. It's like it's programmed in.

I've yet to avoid the drop in form around December/January on any save. It's like it's programmed in.

I usually find the opposite, my form improves after Christmas.

How is the Domination tactic set up in terms of passing, tempo and width?

why didnt you sub in another defender on the 75th or 80th minute when you were ahead and make a line of 5? or an extra defensive midfielder if you saw an opportunity for counter attacks when you were still ahead?

when i see the game is getting out of my control and being put under extreme pressure on the last 15 minutes and im ahead thats what i would do -and have been successful holding the score most of the time.

sounds to me you didn't addapt your game to the circumstances here, so what can you expect?

I did everything in the manual to close the game up and more. It is impossible. It's the same if you're lucky enough to be 4-0 up at half time, it will not allow you to score another goal no matter what, all you will do is concede 3. I think I'm going to start a conspiracy theory and make a documentary.

So many times I have put in an extra defender of placed a lidfielder more into DM position and I still lose. Whatever you do tactically seems to make no difference as the ME has already played the game and is simply replaying it. Try the following to see if it works. View a match and exit a few mins after the second half has started, chances are the match will have a FT score exactly the same as when you left. So personally changing things wouldn't have made much difference.

I'm with you on this, it's so frustrating. Honestly, sometimes I think FM can see me through my webcam, if I dare to leave the room, come back and sit down, the second I look at the screen again, I concede a goal. Also if I have the cheek to minimise it, I bring it back up and it's flash flash flash 'goal for bla bla against you, you ******'. It's the same any time I pause a game when the oppo is in posession, I unpause it and the move ends in a goal 9 times out of 10. I'm going to give that a try and see what happens. I do get the feeling the match engine is just replaying the game sometimes, like when it shows pointless highlights when I've got it set to key, it will show someone hitting the ball out for a throw in as a highlight. Another thing is throw ins, the amount of times my players just throw the ball straight to the oppo is incredible. No matter what the setting is, short, long or mixed or what the player's throw stats are. Over.

How is the Domination tactic set up in terms of passing, tempo and width?

Narrow width, slow tempo and default passing.

Narrow width, slow tempo and default passing.

That would suggest its collapse in winter is a weather issue. Pitches will be heavy and churned up, especially in the middle, so keeping play central and slowing the game down will cost performance. Passing should become more direct in such conditions too.

I always wondered if weather actually worked like that. If it's raining and I set more players to try long shots, do I have more chance of catching the keeper out with skimmers?

I always wondered if weather actually worked like that. If it's raining and I set more players to try long shots, do I have more chance of catching the keeper out with skimmers?

I think one of the 10.2 changes improved the keeper's overall handling but made it more likely he'd fail to hold shots in the wet.

So, yes, weather is very important.

I usually have this on most games. Doesn't matter if I've just got promoted, after the first 10 or so games, I'm in the top 5 with an average of around 18 points. Then suddenly I'll go on a run of about 5 without a win. My tip, which I think has been mentioned, is NOT to tweak the tactics. It mucks up with the players because one match they're playing one way and another match, they're playing another way. Inconsistency galore. Just hold on for a scrappy 1-0 and then results come flying. With Brentford in the Championship, I played 5 of the top 6 teams, 5 games in a row. A terrible run of matches and I was dreading the worst, but I won 4 and drew 1, even though I was 16th at the time, including a 5-2 win against Leeds. It was mental.

A tweak I did use on the ultimate domination was to change passing from short to direct, seemed to do the trick, certainly during times of poor weather, less pretty to watch, but more results! Even the old long ball seemed to sort us out.

Going into my 3rd season so will wait and see what happens. Glad its not just me though.

Whats also weird is that during my time of poor league form, I still manaed a 19-0 aggregate win over FC Belize in the NACL competition, so it cant all be wrong? All very weird!

I have suffered the same fate 2 seasons in a row, both costing me promotion. Tactics aside (I change mine on a game to game basis depending on match odds, weather and what i see in game) I think the hidden pressure attribute kicks in.

My team is a low reputation side (due to 2 promotions) and most of my players have lower pressure ratings than i would like. As such, once i get within touching distance of promotion they choke horribly and lose easy games that i was previously winning. I havent tested this but i expect buying players with high pressure and professionalism ratings can help stop this rot.

ps the reason you may have won 19-0 in the NACL was because there was no promotion pressures in that competition so your team played to its full potential.