No need for Match Preparation

OK so i started off as POrtsmouth last week, and just started playing without messing around with match prep. in the first half of the season i was actually second in the league. But as you know, when the matches are played, you read more about how to use match prep and other stuff.

So i started to mess around with match prep, and change tactics during the game etc, then I started to lose every thing, until half way through the next season, I got the sack. LOL

Now funny thing is, i started again with Havant and Waterlooville. This time, I promised myself to keep things simple and not mess around with Match Prep or even training ( no need to train cause players are part timers anwyays) so in match prep i left it as 4-4-2 and left the team blend ticked.

Now half way through the season, all my players are happy, I am on a 8 no lose streak would have been more if it hadn't been for this memory leak crash dump which made me lose an entire season.

I gonna keep continueing with havent and waterlooville, its quite exciting to try to work your way up the league, and not change match prep and just leave it.

See how it goes.

I don't think Match Preparation is at fault for your losses. You see, once you lose a game it becomes excessively difficult to win again, and the more times you lose or don't win in a row, the worse it gets.

At the same time, I see that many good managers in here have come to the conclusion that Match Preparation: Team Blend until Fluent, then 10% workload and None for the rest of the game seems to be the correct way of using Match Preparation.

I don't think Match Preparation is at fault for your losses. You see, once you lose a game it becomes excessively difficult to win again, and the more times you lose or don't win in a row, the worse it gets.

At the same time, I see that many good managers in here have come to the conclusion that Match Preparation: Team Blend until Fluent, then 10% workload and None for the rest of the game seems to be the correct way of using Match Preparation.

Correct on both counts.... match prep looks cool but the mechanics of it are very poorly implemented. It won't be the source of losses because it just plain doesn't do much in the first place.

Surely the attribute bonus from defensive positioning or offensive movement will be beneficial? Even more so when playing in lower leagues, assuming the attribute bonus is not based on percentages.

Surely the attribute bonus from defensive positioning or offensive movement will be beneficial? Even more so when playing in lower leagues, assuming the attribute bonus is not based on percentages.

Attribute Bonus? You know this how?

I used it on the lowest setting just with no particular focus. Seems to make sense from that perspective as its basically the team training with the formation more, sometimes during pre-season I'll have it higher for the players to learn a formation faster but that's it.

Surely the attribute bonus from defensive positioning or offensive movement will be beneficial? Even more so when playing in lower leagues, assuming the attribute bonus is not based on percentages.

Hm, I tested this. ALL the attributes were identical with either very high defensive positioning or no match prep at all, and hadn't changed from the start of the week by the team selection stage.

Either the changes are applied after the match starts, or are applied in another way.

I could post screenies but you'll just have to trust me.

Hm, I tested this. ALL the attributes were identical with either very high defensive positioning or no match prep at all, and hadn't changed from the start of the week by the team selection stage.

Either the changes are applied after the match starts, or are applied in another way.

I could post screenies but you'll just have to trust me.

What makes you think you'd see anything? Or that they are even literally attribute bonuses?

SI did indeed say they give a bonus. But for all we know that bonus is in the background buried deep in the ME and the only way you can see it is breaking apart the code.

But that's beside the point... because it's a drop in the bucket if you screw up your tactics somewhere else or the opposition is just plain better then you.

The real potential of the match prep system would be the formation training... but that has issues of it's own.

Attribute Bonus? You know this how?

Sorry, i don't have the thread link here and now, but SIgames responded to questions about how the match preparation really worked in a thread a little while back. Your search function is as good as mine

But that's beside the point... because it's a drop in the bucket if you screw up your tactics somewhere else or the opposition is just plain better then you.

I believe you can describe most single features that way, yet we do our best to manage them. Why bother with press conferences, team talks, strategy tweaks or re-negotiating contracts? They are all drops in the bucket. From my own personal experience, i feel that especially "attacking movement" makes a significant impact on the match performance. If using attacking movement preparation with "medium" intensity gives +1 to attributes affected (just making up stuff as i go), it should be a significant improvement to my BSN side with an average "off the ball" of 7

I was also under the impression that the match preparation choices give you an 'attribute boost' during the match, but one that is integrated into the ME and not the player attributes that we can see.

From what I've read, team blend should be left on between games, with a choice made on the day of each match for a specific focus.

No, actually match preparation is very important for success. Heard from some FM masters, they said that at the beginning of the season, just insert one tactic into the match preparation, because the more you put, the more time the team needs for developing those attributes. About the special area focus, select team blend you have new players joined(but just for preseason, never select it after the official season starts), select attacking movements for all home games and when facing weaker opponents, select defensive positioning only when facing those stronger than you in away games, other than that, offensive and defensive set pieces are rubbishes. About the workload, although FM masters suggest the highest workload first, then decreases it gradually. In my opinion, I just choose average because high workload will interfere the effects of normal training, then choose low until everything becomes accomplished, then very low until fluid.

I was also under the impression that the match preparation choices give you an 'attribute boost' during the match, but one that is integrated into the ME and not the player attributes that we can see.

From what I've read, team blend should be left on between games, with a choice made on the day of each match for a specific focus.

I thought the day or two before a match, surely?

No, actually match preparation is very important for success. Heard from some FM masters, they said that at the beginning of the season, just insert one tactic into the match preparation, because the more you put, the more time the team needs for developing those attributes. About the special area focus, select team blend you have new players joined(but just for preseason, never select it after the official season starts), select attacking movements for all home games and when facing weaker opponents, select defensive positioning only when facing those stronger than you in away games, other than that, offensive and defensive set pieces are rubbishes. About the workload, although FM masters suggest the highest workload first, then decreases it gradually. In my opinion, I just choose average because high workload will interfere the effects of normal training, then choose low until everything becomes accomplished, then very low until fluid.

Why would you not choose team blend during the season? I can't think of any good reason not to have it on team blend in between matches. In your case though, what do you have ticked inbetween matches? Because the specific focuse only serves a short term boost. So having it on attacking positions for a week will not have anymore effect than one day on high.

i personally ignored match prep for the first 8/9 seasons, left it on team blend all the time and didnt notice any problems, but it is easy to dominate in scotland so the effects wouldnt really be noticeable. However i was always losing in Europe to big teams and couldnt adjust my tactics to make something work, so i started changing the match prep to defensive positioning 3 days before each big European game, and i think its made a difference, i am losing less goals against the big teams and beaten a few of them now. It could possible be that my team is older and better but i think it must be linked at least to some extent.

I thought the day or two before a match, surely?

Why would you not choose team blend during the season? I can't think of any good reason not to have it on team blend in between matches. In your case though, what do you have ticked inbetween matches? Because the specific focuse only serves a short term boost. So having it on attacking positions for a week will not have anymore effect than one day on high.

because team blend only helps you to organize the team as a whole in a more sensible way, reduce the possibility of having mistakes during passing or gaining more possession, and that's it. It doesn't really affect the team performance as much as attakcing movements or defensive positioning. About the inbetween matches period, I don't care about it much. Since the scout will provide the information of next opponents few days before the match, and there's a match preparation button to select, so, I adjust at that time rather than intentionally calculate the exact day to adjust(as you said one day before the match).

Somethings confusing me about match prep, wondered if anyone can explain this.

http://img52.imageshack.us/i/matchprepconfusion2.jpg/

http://img706.imageshack.us/i/matchprepconfusion3.jpg/

As you can see from the 1st screen shot Ricky Towlers match prep is 50%

Yet in the 2nd screen shot you can also see that i have set match prep to 'None'

So if match prep is set to none why does it show that Ricky Towler is doing 50% of none.

Hope that makes sense.

It is because the workload is on very high. I'm guessing that selecting no special focus means exactly that, they are still dedicating training time to preparing for the next match and learning the tactics but with no special focus.

I missed such a simple thing, cheers for pointing that out, i feel like a complete donut now.