Is It Just Me??

I started a career save with professional player experience and unemployed. My first job at Hereford didn't go too well and I resigned with them bottom of the table in November. The next November I got offered the Rushden jobs which after a shakey start I went on a 20something run dropping about 8 points and taking them from relegation to the verge of the play-offs before I got effed over by having 2 of my players sent off in a game I was leading which the opposition came back to win. Ruining my chances (on a side note, does anyone else find the refereeing especially crap in fm11. The amount of people that get sent off for being the last man when they clearly arent is horrendous. And that's just the tip of the iceberg!). After this loss, my team started playing s h i t like my Hereford team. Which to sum up was not really scoring and conceeding loads. I found it strange to go on such a run and then for it all to literally disappear after one loss with NO change in tactics. Then in the next season, with this amazing run in mind I said I could get Rushden promoted. Nuh uh. Played awfully. Nothing like the team I had last year even though 9 of the players were the same, and the 2 i'd brought in were far far superior to what went out. 18th after 12 games and I'm fired. Sucks. Another period of unemployment and then I get offered the Gillingham job. With a decent wage budget I could actually bring in some OK players and after an almost complete re-vamp of the playing squad I was ready to hit the next season running. But alas, like before my team were utter balls. And I was fired after 12 games with us bottom of the table. I've now stopped playing it as I feel something may be up.

Heres the basics of it. My defence and goal keeper do not defend by any meaning of the word. They run around and put the odd challenge in but apart from that all they do is stand around and watch the opposition score. My goalkeeper can get beaten by anything that's hit at more than walking pace. My defenders at the post in corners just watch balls go through/next to them. They get beaten in the air week in week out regardless of whos stats are what. They don't close down regardless of what I tell them to do. One of them will almost always play the opposition team on if the other 3 have managed to assemble themselves in what can pass as a line. And it's just so effing frustrating! Apart from that 20 game run with Rushden (when we hardly conceeded at all I might add) my defence are basically not there.

The tactics I play are 442. I have 2 full backs and 2 central defenders, 2 wingers, a box to box mid and a ball winning mid, a target man and an advanced forward. I have used this set-up exclusively up until the last season I played when I tried to change it to get the results I know I should be getting.

My players have always been atleast 3 stars on the team report/scout reports. My training has always been 2.5 stars and higher for all attributes. Oh and I always start off with a Control tactic.

Any help would be much appreciated!

Apologies for the essay!

Matt

basically another person whose team(s) play badly blaming the game! karma for not sticking it out with Hereford

I wasnt really blaming the game Collio, I was just saying what had happened, I was hoping more for advice on what it is I am doing wrong!

I'm now managing Port Vale and my last two games I've played are a case in point.

First up we played Rushden at home, I told them (having given up on them) good luck before they went out, and they promptly went 2-0 up and then I used encourage at half time and they managed to pull off a 3-0 win. Rushden were placed 3 positions below me on a good run of form.

Next up we played Wrexham, just below us in the league and in poor form. I went for You can win tonight as the team talk, thinking with the boost in morale from the win and Wrexham being on a bad run we could get another win in the bag. Not quite, we were 3-0 down by half time and lost 5-1 in the end.

No what I want to know is what is it that Wrexham did that was so different to Rushden and how on earth am I supposed to stop it? They both have equally rubbish teams with only one player out of the lot of them I'd want in my team!

What is it that causes such a difference? You have a choice of about 4 pre-sets when it comes to your defenders. None of them seem to make your players defend no??

do you give your players instructions and roles like for keeper you can put it as sweeper just try giving them different roles and set team instructions too closing down more and tackle hard bare in mind you may get more booking for tackling hard but it does the job.

Well all I would think is thats football. I know morale plays a big part in the game this season but I dont know as I just take the game at face value I dont like looking for problems in the game (like many others!)

do you give your players instructions and roles like for keeper you can put it as sweeper just try giving them different roles and set team instructions too closing down more and tackle hard bare in mind you may get more booking for tackling hard but it does the job.

This is dangerous advice in 11.1 because player instructions (closing down, weaker foot, etc) tend to lead to tons of cards. I still do it because it makes me use more of my squad and it seems more realistic in the bigger picture.

I played around with the roles and setting my 2 central defenders to 'limited defender' and my keeper to sweeper keeper I seemed to have stopped the rut! 4 wins back to back conceding 2 and scoring 10!

But then after that we lost 3 on the trot conceeding 10 and scoring 4 :/ Do you have to constantly adjust your tactics in this game??