tactics match flaw?

just to clear something up, i recently started a game with chelsea to test the tactics.i set a standard 4-5-1 and left the team instructions as default apart from "use target man", "target man supply" to head and set drogba as the target man. i then set every defender to "long passing" and even "cross from deep" and "cross aim" drogba.

i then played a match on extended highlights, sometimes watching pieces of the full match, and honestly the defence did not hit one long pass. i have often wondered just how much long balls work, as in trying to capatalise on ooponents weaknesses and this has proven that.

even in highlight mode you would expect to see a few passes. please don't respond by saying, oh you can't expect palyers to pass every time and drogba may be marked etc because of course there is some truth to that but such basic instructions to your players, even if they are pretty stupid, should be acknowledged more.

just to clear something up, i recently started a game with chelsea to test the tactics.i set a standard 4-5-1 and left the team instructions as default apart from "use target man", "target man supply" to head and set drogba as the target man. i then set every defender to "long passing" and even "cross from deep" and "cross aim" drogba.

i then played a match on extended highlights, sometimes watching pieces of the full match, and honestly the defence did not hit one long pass. i have often wondered just how much long balls work, as in trying to capatalise on ooponents weaknesses and this has proven that.

even in highlight mode you would expect to see a few passes. please don't respond by saying, oh you can't expect palyers to pass every time and drogba may be marked etc because of course there is some truth to that but such basic instructions to your players, even if they are pretty stupid, should be acknowledged more.

If its all set to automatic, then the CF(Creative Freedom) will be in the middle. Try dropping them all down to 0 or 1, then give it a go. They should listen to stupid instructions more, lol.

There are far too many things that need to be taken into account here, for this to be taken seriously. I don't mean that in a rude way.

- You're basing your findings on one match, it would need to be done over a season at least and SI testers have said that it would probably need to be 10 seasons if it was to stand for anything.

- Who were the opposition? Was it a team Chelsea could avoid long passing with? Was it a team that any pro would understand long passing wouldn't work and so they avoided it?

- Did you adjust creative freedom? If you didn't then it is set to mixed and so the defenders have adequate scope to make up their own mind and not necessarily follow your instructions.

I've got to be honest, this quote ruins your post;

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">i then played a match on extended highlights, sometimes watching pieces of the full match, and honestly the defence did not hit one long pass. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

How do you know? If you didn't watch the full match, how do you know they didn't make any long balls? Perhaps the long balls they tried were not highlights and ocurred in the moments you didn't watch.

As I said, for this to be taken seriously and be a constructive test it would have to be carried out over a season and you would have to watch every minute of every match.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Nomis07:

There are far too many things that need to be taken into account here, for this to be taken seriously. I don't mean that in a rude way.

- You're basing your findings on one match, it would need to be done over a season at least and SI testers have said that it would probably need to be 10 seasons if it was to stand for anything.

- Who were the opposition? Was it a team Chelsea could avoid long passing with? Was it a team that any pro would understand long passing wouldn't work and so they avoided it?

- Did you adjust creative freedom? If you didn't then it is set to mixed and so the defenders have adequate scope to make up their own mind and not necessarily follow your instructions.

I've got to be honest, this quote ruins your post;

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">i then played a match on extended highlights, sometimes watching pieces of the full match, and honestly the defence did not hit one long pass. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

How do you know? If you didn't watch the full match, how do you know they didn't make any long balls? Perhaps the long balls they tried were not highlights and ocurred in the moments you didn't watch.

As I said, for this to be taken seriously and be a constructive test it would have to be carried out over a season and you would have to watch every minute of every match. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

im asking my team to have basically one tactic and you're saying if they do it once in a season then they are taken note. are you serious? im not slating the game and i have thought about the other factors that need to be taken into consideration regarding this. your point about a good player overiding the managers instructions is fair but then again if avram grant tells john terry to hit long balls he is going to do it more often then not.

the creative freedom surely means the freedom to play as you feel and use a wide range of passes, dribbles etc. thats not following strict instructions so surely this should not have an effect. alright, i did not watch the whole match but just get the feeling that even if i did it just would not have happened.

No, no, you don't seem to understand what I was saying. I wasn't discounting what you had said, I was just saying that you would need to do a much more in depth test to actually have any sort of analysis.

If they haven't listened to you in one match it doesn't really mean anything, it may just have been an off day. Also it takes 6-7 games for a team to get used to a new tactic so taking the first game doesn't really mean anything.

I'm not saying you're wrong and i'm not having a go, I just think you would need to watch the full match and complete the experiment over a seaosn or half a season for it to really mean anything.

I honestly think your results would be different if you tried everything I suggested.

If it's obvious a long-ball tactic isn't going to work, John Terry wouldn't hit it.

I find long-ball (team setting) works fine when you have a lot of players up front. One of my tactics was a 442 with very fast wingers and their arrows pushed right up to the FL and FR positions. Long balls up there got me in behind a number of defences and basically got Leeds back to back promotions for me. It didn't work in the Prem and very few balls went up there as instructed.

Try setting your team to long-ball rather than individuals. You might get more luck.

And, as other posters have said, do it over a few games while the players get used to you as a manager.