Home vs Away

Hi all ive got a pretty big form problem with Bristol City. I'm currently in my third season after getting beat in the playoffs two years in a row (after the second time i swore i was never gonna play again i actually took a day off college as I was in no fit state!). Out of 56 home games I have only lost 4, but out of 55 away games ive lost 25 times! Obviously a big difference and has definately cost me automatic promotion i think. I play attacking in every game as i have some very good strikers (leigh griffiths has bagged 79 goals in 100 games!) and i think an attacking formation suits my players more. obviously this has worked very well at home but away ive tried adapting it to be more defensive - but even so last year i went somehting like only winning one away game in 20. During this spell especially it seemed that every game was the same; it was very frustrating i had a load of chances but would concede sloppy goals and be 1-0 behind really early on - which would then lead to me just going on overload and going all out for it which probably isnt the best tactic! Im pretty desperate now to change it up as the club is in debt and really need to go up this year! Any advice please?!

My number one tip would be dont assume that FM2011 is a '1 tactic suits all' game. It was possible to have 1 tactic and be very sucessful with it in previous editions.

You need to be more pro active in changing your is tactic away from home. If your losing games away, play defensive. A common mis-conception about the 'defensive' strategy is that you should only employ it when you want to avoid defeat, this is wrong. Play it away from home, it will help your possesion, frustrate the oponents and take the edge away from them and give it to you, the longer your opponents go without scoring it will play more into your hands. You will create chances using defensive strategies and with strikers like leigh griffiths, likely take them.

Adjust your match preperation also. In away games set it to defensive positioning.

Be strict with your players in terms of creative freedom and syle of play. Balanced away from home is good. I would not recommend anything more fancy.

Hope this helps,

Good luck

cheers mate the match preperation is a good tip i actually forgot about that! its been on attacking movement for 3 years i think! I just got battered 5-1 away at Leeds after jsut beating Sheff U 4-1 at home just to show how extreme it can be. Its very consistent as well as it has been like this for 2 and a half seasons. Ill try to adapt it now though and i think your right about the chances that will becreated regardless of how aggressive i play - im just wondering if becuase this has become so routine now the players actually automatically find it tougher maybe to do with morale or just simply because it is away i dunno if the game goes that deep (which i would rather it do tbh its more realistic). In my second season from January to March i was in terrible form and dropped from 1st to 9th and with 7 games left i actually did adjust my tactic to 4-2-3-1 and the lone striker really worked and i managed to get back to the playoffs. I might give that formation another go as i can play cole skuse and marvin elliot as holding midfielders. ill keep you posted anyway!

Keep us up to date if you will, foggy. I'm having similar troubles and it would be nice to know if you resolve them.

i might be wrong but if i had a strong attacking team, i would play the counter away from home.

Agree with dontask - switching on counter attacking is often enough away from home.

The other possibility is that your problem stems from players being of nervous dispositions and thus underperforming away from home. So check the player's motivation in game and adjust your team talks if necessary if they don't like being under pressure.

ive had a big improvement in the last few games by changing my formation to 4-2-3-1. Leigh Griffiths is playing up top on his own and is still banging them in for fun(45 in 37 now!!). I think this is still attacking as i have three attacking mids (tshabalala, luis jiminez/jordi gomez and stephen naismith/michael kightly) and they are getting involved more getting more goals and assists. If i wasnt as confident as i am in marvin elliot and cole skuse as holding midfielders i would maybe play 4-5-1 with three in the centre. What im doing now though is starting off with a standard mentality with is helping me avoid conceding early on and after 20 minutes or so if im doing well i will go to attacking. I think your right SJM as after a couple of good away results morale improved massively and helped me go on a bit of a good run and with about ten games left push for promotion. What's probably helped most though is changing my match preperation to defensive positioning i had totally forgot about that tbh!

Anyway i have won 4 out of my last 6 away games and thankfully my home form hasnt suffered as a result of this i think maybe because I play the same way at home now to try and get some consistency. i did lose a couple of away games in a row and i thought here we go again but morale is high so i dont think it had any long term effects