Is Home Field Advantage Too Strong?

Hello,

This is my 1st year with Football Manager as well as being a newbie to the world of Football too.

In my first season with the game I was watching England's League Cup Tournament. In a span of 2 days 5 of the biggest squads of the English Premier League were defeated - Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester City and Tottenham. All teams were playing on the road. Chelsea and Tottenham lost to Championship League teams!!!!

After witnessing this it made me wonder if the home field advantage is too strong in the game.

So my question is - Is the home field advantage too strong in Football Manager or is home field advantage this strong is real life as well?

Thanks for any opinions.

Jeff

maybe the played youth and resevre players always happens in the league cup.. they give youth a chance..

and upsets always happen every year so nothing really strange about it..

maybe the played youth and resevre players always happens in the league cup.. they give youth a chance..

and upsets always happen every year so nothing really strange about it..

Second that.

Big clubs use heavy squad rotation (occasionally) to keep everyone as fit as they can, they playe 50+ games in one season plus the international games and friendly's so it might go over 60 games, which means roughly 1 game every 3 days or so.

Also a youth players development benefits from first team football.

Smaller clubs tend to get extra motivation against big clubs.

I can tell you that last year Real Madrid (i hope you heard of them, if not then tell me your favorite sport and I compare a team for you) was well beaten 4-0 in a cup run by a 4th tier club which was a shocker, these things happen.

home advantage is a big help in real life but i dont think it is any easier than it should be in fm. i didnt lose at home last season but as i won the league thats not a surprise. a lot of teams came to my ground and played defensively in the hope they would get 1 chance and win 1-0. as for the cup, like graham said a lot of bigger teams put youth players out

home advantage is a big help in real life but i dont think it is any easier than it should be in fm. i didnt lose at home last season but as i won the league thats not a surprise. a lot of teams came to my ground and played defensively in the hope they would get 1 chance and win 1-0. as for the cup, like graham said a lot of bigger teams put youth players out

Ok. I can see in real life the bigger teams putting out youth players, but would a computer manager know to do that in this game? Is there a setting for that? How does the computer manager know the difference between a cup game and a league game?

I can tell you that last year Real Madrid (i hope you heard of them, if not then tell me your favorite sport and I compare a team for you) was well beaten 4-0 in a cup run by a 4th tier club which was a shocker, these things happen.

Hehe. I am a newbie to Football Manager and Football in general but I'm a fast learner. When I get into something I really like, I usually get fully absorbed in it. In this case I've purchased FA Cup DVD's, UEFA Champions League DVD's, FIFA World Cup DVD's and The History of Football DVD set. So yes, I've heard of Real Madrid and their fierce rivalry between them and FC Barcelona.

Here's a big testimony for Football Manager and Football. This game and this sport has made me forget about the NHL Playoffs and Baseball. Two sports that I usually follow strongly but since I started playing Football Manager back in April, Football is the only sport I've been watching and Football Manager is the only game I've been playing. Thankfully I get the Fox Soccer Channel here in the U.S.A. It has given me the chance to watch the English Premier League and also the Italian League. I also got to watch the UEFA Champions League Final. GREAT sport!!! I can see why it is the most popular sport in the world.

Jeff

I sort of think it is. I my Ajax save I have to be very careful against smaller Eredivisie sides in away games, as they might play very good there.

But what I've also noticed is, that sometimes AI teams come to Amsterdam Arena with weakened teams, like they are not even hoping for points.

I agree with the OP. I play as AC Milan (ok, strong team ) and I can easily win with my second lines against a mid table team. I noticed I have to struggle a lot more to win a match if I play away even with my first team. I think the home field advantage should be tuned down a little bit

I think what it home ground affects perhaps the most is motivation/mentality of the squad. When at home I have to guard against complacency then away I sometimes find that my players are surprisingly 'playing nervously' and can't perform as well as they should. Even when morale is high and I'm not putting too much pressure to them.

I think one thing I will do when my season is done is do a comparison between Football Manager's English Premier League and the real life English Premier League and see what difference there may be for Home and Away records. That could shed some light.

Jeff

maybe the played youth and resevre players always happens in the league cup.. they give youth a chance..

and upsets always happen every year so nothing really strange about it..

You were right. I checked Chelsea's lineup. Chelsea's League Cup match lineup had only 2 players that normally start in the Premier League. Their goalie (Cech) and one of their strikers (Saurez). Everyone else in the lineup was either a bench player or someone from their reserve squad. Very interesting. I didn't know that the Cup tournaments weren't held in high regard. I thought that teams would go all out to win them.

Does this occur in a tournament like the UEFA Champions League. I hope not. I'll have to check Chelsea's lineup in their upcoming UEFA match.

Jeff

From my own experience with FM2010 I find home advantage stronger that in previous FM versions. Also my team seems to play defensively on away games even when my instructions tell them to attack.

If anyone is interested in doing a comparison of home and away stats between Football Manager's English Premier League and real life, I compiled some stats.

In the 2009-2010 English Premier League there were a total of 1044 points. Of those 1044 points, 675 were awarded to home teams and 369 were awarded to away teams.

65% of the points went to Home Teams.

35% of the points went to Away Teams.

There were a total of 284 wins in the season. Of those 284, 193 were won by home teams and 91 were won by away teams.

68% of wins went to Home Teams.

32% of wins went to Away Teams.

If anyone has completed a season in the English Premier League, maybe this can be used to make a comparison. I will when I finish my season, though it will take some time because I actually enjoy watching full matches being played. Not just my own matches but matches being played in the English Premier League, The FA Cup, UEFA Champions League, Europa League, and the World Cup Qualifying matches. My poor team that I'm coaching is struggling in the Blue Square South League. For my first coaching assignment I decided to try LLaMa.

Jeff

Playing at home can be a huge advantage depending on the team, for Bolton under Megson, playing at home usually wasn't something to look forward to and it wasn't much of a bonus, as the fans would turn quite hostile quite quickly against the team and manager. Then look at a team like Stoke who haven't reached the level of frustration Bolton fans have from a decade or so of ambling around mid-table, and the pitch is shorter the crowd are more behind the team and its a lot harder for teams to come to the ground.

There is a vastly different psychology and unfortunately the game can't emulate that yet, but when a small, lightweight player is going to a ground where he knows too much time on the ball and he'll get clattered, if he tries to run at defenders he'll get clattered and if he challenges on set pieces he'll get clattered it can reduce their effectiveness alot.

My squad of half real/ half regen superstars just lost their home opener to Sevilla 3-1, so I'm gonna say no.

It's your tactics... =p