I Cant Win Away :-S

Hello everyone

I am a very long term player of this game, so I feel I'm pretty good at it...however in this version there doesn't appear to be any way whatsoever to consistently win away games.

All the goals scored against me are either half way line wonder goals specials, or a convenient splitting of my defence to grab the goal before me going back to dominating.

My home form is very good and is consistently in the top 5 or so in the league.

I like keeping things simple, so play 4-4-2 so I'm not using any super tactics (and I'm NOT looking for them either), however it seems as though to play this game I need two seperate squads who play 2 completely different formations. The gulf between home and away is ridiculous.

I write this coming off the back of going 2-0 up away against Portsmouth, and then their centre midfielder getting sent off, my midfielder being carried off injured, my centre forward becoming conveniently injured and having to be subbed and then Portsmouth getting 4 goals in the second half. Its quite frankly ridiculous cheating from the AI.

I'm seriously thinking of giving this game up, as I now find it unplayable!

Playing away from home, you'll need different tactics to when playing at home. You certainly won't need a whole different team though, just a few tweaks. Look to play slightly more defensive, containing football, etc. If you stick to one set of tactics all the time, then you're not going to get anywhere.

Check out the Tactics & Training Tips forum, not for super tactics, but for helpful pointers.

Also, the AI doesn't cheat.

i had this proplem before but with my devolep to my tactic i'm now manage standard and playing 4-2-3-1

with my 2 central defender i have control in the middle which give my team control in the whole match and then apply ur attack on the other side

-note:my 2 central defender their mentality is full defend

this is my tactic :

Im going to bump this...

...mainly because I feel there is a problem with my game. This comes after a few 'choice' results. I dominate to 2-0 a lot - to four different teams at least recently, and then....the whole side stops playing football and just stands there. No tackling, no movement, nothing. No amount of tinkering, team talks or substitutions fix anything.

Recently, I've had games ending 2-2 after being 2 up, 5-2 after being 2 up, 4-4 after being 3 up, and just a complete 3-0 battering with absolutely no explanation. Funnily enough theyre all away games, and a good majority of draws or losses end with a goal during the final moments.

I know how to play this game, and I know about football and all the rest of it. Im *not* looking for tactics, or cheats or bugs to exploit I would just like some advice.

BTW, The game is patched to the most recent, but to me this game is unplayable because no matter what I do to tactics, squad, or team talks it always ends the same.

I also had a strange unconnected issue where I never had a loan player return, with his value going to £0 yet he remained at his loan club and the game struck all record of him going on loan. I had to release him, and then re-sign him.

Help, please!!

I used to lose leads all the time, now I'm a 1-0 win specialist. One of my problems was fatigue.

Are your players getting tired? Are they all <60% condition at the end of a match?

Slow pace, short passing are great for conserving energy and killing the clock. In fact, it works so well I often use it for 90 mins.

Fullbacks changed to Support for away games would be a start, otherwise you're going to be exploited alot by opposition wingers

That's my tactic with spurs, for some reason allot of the times I play allot better against the bigger teams away than at home, and some reason go on long unbeaten runs and they always end from hull

So am I right in assuming your main problem is defending away leads??? If so the following usually works for me after taking the lead:

- stand-off more (this stops players working too hard top protect the lead, which can result in injuries/cards)

- play narrow (stops defence-splitting passes)

- some time-wasting (say first notch of often, give possession away less)

- focus through the middle (maybe)

i dont have that problem iv gone all season in the premier league with man utd and only lost twice, what i do is away games i play the wingers as support and 1 striker as a deep lying striker and the full backs as support aswell so basically less attacking so maybe try that, what team are you?

Ok...the fitness issue that robertcornell68 is valid, however the pre-season advice tells me my squad is one of the fittest in the league. And this doesn't seem to be a problem at home. And I don't really use any attacking tactics per se, so I too use low tempos for the full 90. It's worth noting that I'm very defensive when away from home, usually leaving my defenders to purely defend. And I've tweaked and tested beyond belief!

And, it's not specifically defending leads either mg539. Sometimes, I can go up say 2-0 within 20 mins, and then the team immediately changes from one that was dominating to one that can't even run in a straight line - and you can see it, and I've even gone as far as correctly predicting who will score the goals. A good example is going 3-0 up with a hat-trick within 30mins, and then their striker scoring a hat-trick before the end of the half, us scoring a 4th, and then a last minute equaliser - they happen far too often for it to be tactics.

Other times, the team will be completely useless until I go 2 down, and then begin playing (but wel enough to win the game!)

This wasn't a problem until I got to the Championship - my game is a long term save so I'm about 8 years in and have worked my way up from the Blue Square.

I'm thinking this could be a patch problem, but I'm unsure really. I only played with 10.2 for about a month before patching again, but can't remember if I was in the Championship by that point.

What changes are you making when going 2-0 ahead?

@Neji Well it depends on how I think I'm playing. Sometimes I won't touch anything until half time, but usually I'm using any of a mixture of dropping deeper, playing narrower, passing to feet and retaining possession (eg maybe just to feet and getting narrower, sometimes just dropping deep).

But then sometimes, depending on how well its working, I'll continue to get balls forward, or maybe clearing the ball (to both flanks, and 'in the box').

Like I said, it all depends on the game itself. Usually though, I'll tend to become more defensive (ie deep, narrow, to feet)

I've had great success away from home just changing from the Control I use at home to Counter, as well as keeping short passing and changing the tempo, defensive line and width depending on the oponent (whether home or away).

The only thing i'll change within a match is personel, as if i tweak the tactics something is bound to go wrong somewhere.

You know, all these suggestions sound like things I already do, which leads me to believe theres a problem with the game itself.

Too many last second equalisers, too many breaks of our defensive line with no challenge, too many instances of teams switching on and off suddenly whenever it feels a goal needs to be scored :-S

I wonder if a change to the previous patch is needed, however, it means re-starting from scratch :-(

Sorry for bumping this, and I know I'm being a nuisance but this is really spoiling the enjoyment of a game I love to play so I'd like some resolution for it.

I look at it as "managing".....finding ways to win.

If it was something "wrong" with the game then you would have thousands of complaints like this.

I will be the first to admit what you experience....I did also.

I find fatigue to be huge and also pay attention to the other teams changes they make during the match.

As a "manager" you need to be able to react to what the other team is doing. So when you see...XX is moving to an attacking formation then you need to make a change also...if you don't...chances are you

will be exploited by the other team.

I use DM's and have found that if they drop to 70% fatigue....I am bound to let in a goal or at least give up more CCC during the last 15 min.

Away from home, and winning, I'll move to control and retain possession. Sometimes I also drop my most defensive minded mifielder to DMC.

To be honest, this isn't necessarily a tactics issue but you may get more help in the tactics forum.

No, I understand its obviously a "management" sim but I'd never experienced the problem before playing the game. Maybe there's a bigger gulf between the top two tiers and the bottom 4 than I thought, especially if they have a different class of manager?

I agree it's probably not a tactics issue also, my tactics are ok I feel seeing as I can do very well at home.

I wonder why then that these things don't matter at home, but are so vital away? Maybe it's down to having to receive most of the pressure rather than give it out?

The wrong team talk can kill your team. Motivation factor in this game is HUGE. Ignore it at your peril.

What do you say to your players during halftime? Do they become complacent or nervous?

If you don't play with the motivation widget on you should start. It can tell you a lot about what your team's mental condition is like.

Yes, I always play with as much info on as possible. Its something I'm constantly monitoring throughout the game. Though it's worth pointing out that the morale of my side is always Superb or near enough - I know this isn't the same thing as well!

I think my problem is that I thought there may have been some kind of problem because my tactics were ok. However, I think that I havent realised the gulf of quality between the upper and lower tiers, and that I have to factor in other things to succeed.

It still doesnt explain the amazing home form and the poor away form though. There really does appear to be a huge difference between the two.