Is there an issue with shooting in this game?

The biggest recurring issue I have in FM11 is my players' wayward shooting. I am currently managing Chelsea, playing 4-3-3 with an advanced forward through the centre and inside forwards flanking him. My first game against Blackpool, I had 21 shots on goal, only 1 on target. Blackpool had 2 shots on goal. Game ends 0-0. Next game against Tottenham, I have about 16 shots on goal, 7 on target. No CCC's. Spurs get about 8 shots on goal. I lose 2-0. Next game against Wolves at home. 23 shots on goal, 6 on target, 1 CCC. Wolves get about 5 sots on goal. I draw 1-1. What am I doing wrong? I have a good coach assigned to Shooting, Torres/Drogba/Anelka/Malouda/Lampard are all good finishers. I have them doing plenty of Shooting practice in training. This same thing happens with every game I play. Previously abandoned a 3 season long save with Spurs because the players' inability to hit the target bordered on absolutely absurd. It's so frustrating dominating every game only to fail to win.

Its easy for footballers to hit the target if they wanted to but thats not what they are aiming for. They are aiming to score which means a much smaller target to aim for in general.

You haven't given a lot of information regarding your tactics but the most common issue seems to be that you are rushing your players, high tempo, high mentality, direct play. Football at 100mph results in this type of performance, give your players more time so they have a second to compose themselves before taking the shot.

1. Is long shots turned off?

2. Forget about CCC, watch the game and determine for yourself whether or not the chances they miss are big.

3. How long since your strikers scored? More than 5 games = goal drought and poor morale.Then they certainly will miss a lot of chances - it is a bad circle...

4. Do you put a lot of pressure on your team? (For the fans / expect a win) If you do, the players may not handle it well even though the morale bar doesn't show complacency or nervousness. You may want to reduce pressure when things doesn't go well.

5. Do your strikers have a highly attacking mentality? If it is at maximum attacking, I have found that the player's decisions when it comes to when to shoot and from what angle becomes poorer. You may want to reduce the attacking mentality somewhat. Since the opponents of Chelsea would try to defend, their strikers' defensive mentality may be the reason they are so much more efficient than yours (but that is just speculation of course).

6. I believe that when you start out with semi-pro, sunday league or automatic reputation, your status among the players aren't that great - and so your team talks will have less effect. This is especially so with ambitious squads like Chelsea. You will need to prove yourself to them the hard way - by providing results and building good relationships. When you start with a club like Chelsea and aren't entirely sure that you will succeed immediately, you make it exceptionally hard for yourself by not choosing International Player as a background. I have no evidence for this observation, though.

Playing fluid/control mentality. In midfield, I have an Essien as anchor man in front of back 4. Ramires is Box to Box. Lampard as advanced playmaker. He has long shots set at rarely, but is still blasting shot after shot wide or over. Very wasteful. Team is playing Slightly slow tempo, slightly wide. Long shots off. Short passing. So I don't think it's that I'm trying too hard to force the issue. I want the team to be patient.

As for team talks, I generally go with "for the fans". Went with "You can win" away to tottenham. "I expect a win" at home against Wolves.

Drogba/Torres/Anelka have got a couple of goals between them, so no real drought. Morale is good. My manager rep is international footballer.

Cheers for the suggestions, but none of these issues seem to be the problem.

How far into the season are you? You've described three games there so it's not really a big enough sample and it could just be down to a bad patch of form / morale.

1. Is long shots turned off?

In general this is a bad idea and something I wouldn't recommend.

Long shots are part of football with anything up to a third of goals being scored this way in real life. By trying to limit long shots it makes defending easier for the opposition. They don't have to close you down as much so can hold a better line and close off through ball opportunities. Taking long shots force defenders to make a choice between closing down an attacker or not which opens space for other attackers to make runs creating better chances.

If your team are taking too many long shots turning the instruction down to rarely is simply papering over the faults in your tactics rather than correcting them to improve the flow of your attacks.

Playing fluid/control mentality. In midfield, I have an Essien as anchor man in front of back 4. Ramires is Box to Box. Lampard as advanced playmaker. He has long shots set at rarely, but is still blasting shot after shot wide or over. Very wasteful. Team is playing Slightly slow tempo, slightly wide. Long shots off. Short passing. So I don't think it's that I'm trying too hard to force the issue. I want the team to be patient.

As for team talks, I generally go with "for the fans". Went with "You can win" away to tottenham. "I expect a win" at home against Wolves.

Drogba/Torres/Anelka have got a couple of goals between them, so no real drought. Morale is good. My manager rep is international footballer.

Cheers for the suggestions, but none of these issues seem to be the problem.

Thats much better than what I thought it might be

In terms of advice I would say speed up the tempo a little in games where you are controlling possession and widen your play more.

Rarely isn't a good setting for Lampard as explained above and implies he is struggling to pick out a pass so this is what you need to fix. Ramires will be on support if he is Box to Box so I would probably put Lampard on attack.

I would stick your striker on a supporting role leaving the two wide men on attack. I would also check to make sure your fullbacks are making enough runs forward to support.

Even with this sort of setup though if the wide men don't receive a pass when they initially push forward your attacking flow will break down as the central midfielders struggle to find a pass. If this happens a lot, especially with Lampard I would consider switching him to support and also look to play around with the orders on the wide men so they make themselves more available.

In terms of team talks I never really do well with "For the Fans" and tend to save it for rival matches & cup finals. Judge your team talk on the pre-match odds. If you are heavily favoured "Expect a win" dropping to "You can win" if slightly less favoured. Fairly even odds or slightly unfavoured I use "Good Luck" and "Nothing to lose" when the opposition are heavily favoured. I allow adjustments depending on whether we are home or away - demand more at home, be less harsh away.

Thats much better than what I thought it might be

In terms of advice I would say speed up the tempo a little in games where you are controlling possession and widen your play more.

Rarely isn't a good setting for Lampard as explained above and implies he is struggling to pick out a pass so this is what you need to fix. Ramires will be on support if he is Box to Box so I would probably put Lampard on attack.

I would stick your striker on a supporting role leaving the two wide men on attack. I would also check to make sure your fullbacks are making enough runs forward to support.

Even with this sort of setup though if the wide men don't receive a pass when they initially push forward your attacking flow will break down as the central midfielders struggle to find a pass. If this happens a lot, especially with Lampard I would consider switching him to support and also look to play around with the orders on the wide men so they make themselves more available.

In terms of team talks I never really do well with "For the Fans" and tend to save it for rival matches & cup finals. Judge your team talk on the pre-match odds. If you are heavily favoured "Expect a win" dropping to "You can win" if slightly less favoured. Fairly even odds or slightly unfavoured I use "Good Luck" and "Nothing to lose" when the opposition are heavily favoured. I allow adjustments depending on whether we are home or away - demand more at home, be less harsh away.

Cheers again mate. I've been playing since CM97/98, so I like to think I know what I'm doing! It just seems to be since the 11.3 update that I can't seem to find the target. Def will have to try something radically different I think because tweeking width/tempo/etc isn't yielding any results. Might go for the Ozzie 5-0-5 for a laugh.

In general this is a bad idea and something I wouldn't recommend.

Long shots are part of football with anything up to a third of goals being scored this way in real life. By trying to limit long shots it makes defending easier for the opposition. They don't have to close you down as much so can hold a better line and close off through ball opportunities. Taking long shots force defenders to make a choice between closing down an attacker or not which opens space for other attackers to make runs creating better chances.

If your team are taking too many long shots turning the instruction down to rarely is simply papering over the faults in your tactics rather than correcting them to improve the flow of your attacks.

Well, even with long shots rarely on everyone, they do take long-shots if they have enough flair (and creative freedom) when the chance comes. Setting the long shots to mixed or often only overrides every other option. Have you noticed that the best sign you have full control of a match is when they shoot from distance? The absolute worst thing I see players do both RL and in FM is to shoot when it would be better to pass or dribble, or just wait till the right move comes. In my experience, long shots are -always- wasted unless they actually score on them and that is a rare occasion (so rare that it is more up to flair anyways). I have never had any problems opening up a defense, and the only time I have turned long shots on, is a game where I actually did struggle to break through and wanted some corners as a last resort the last 5 minutes.

Lampard is useless because he has the "shoots from distance often" PPM. He will score a few goals a year because of this, but mostly he will be a liability to the team like all the other Shoots from Distance-guys because he wastes possession and allows the opposition team to calmly use another two minutes of the game for free.

It is better to draw the opposing team out to find space than to have long shots at all. The OP could try clicking on the Counter Attack button against defensive teams and see if that helps.

However, I agree on one thing you said: if Lampard shoots all the time and the OP struggles scoring on 20+ shots every match, it is likely he don't create the right type of chances - the movements up front aren't working. One thing he could try,then, is to set run from deep to rarely on his striker(s) and see if that makes them find space easier. That is what I do anyways, but it is an entirely different tactic!

How does tactics have anything to do with a players inability to convert chances?

If you have tempo set to quick, mentality set to all out attack etc a striker will try to shoot as soon as possible and is more likely to fluff the chance/remain composed and pick a shot.

How does tactics have anything to do with a players inability to convert chances?

Not that much! However, your tactics will likely dictate how many good chances your team create. Since that is the aspect we can affect I suppose that is why previous posters focused on that area. As for the initial question/title I'd have to say no issue as my strikers have mostly done me proud in 11.3.