Lazy Players

Something really frustrating keeps happening. My players will be going after a loose ball, they will be much closer than any other player, just about to get it, then just slow right down and get beaten to it. I've ruled out stamina, work rate and speed because it happens with quick, hard working players even early in matches.

Is it something in the tactics/instructions? Though it hasn't happened this often before.

Even happens on the ball sometimes, a defender will retrieve the ball facing goal, then just stop and wait for the attackers to reach him and take it off him, and usually score.

Having managed Swansea to the prem, Tottenham to Euro Cup and FA cup wins, Man City to the prem title, Champions league final and won the league cup, and then Barcelona to winning everything domestically 4 years in a row, and the champions league twice. In all this time it has never occurred anything like this often and has never been an issue.

Any ideas?

the match engine is not a true reflection of the action

I think that the times that a player "slows down" is the match engine recalculating his position in the 3D view to reflect his *actual* position in the match engine. The 3D view isn't 100% accurate, it's a simulation of the match, not the actual match. It's complicated...

yeah it sounds like a glitch in the me to be honest.

On thing I hate about tracking back a few time when I have had an attacking corner and it been cleared my DC will run after the player that picks it in their own half (I'd say halfway in their half) because of the set piece set up my FB are in the centre marking their ST, so their winger now has loads of space to run into, but instead of my DC tracking him back and force him down the flanks, when the opponent gets into my half my DC decides to run away from him and into his centre position even though my FB are marking their ST into the box thus leaving there AMR/L with a free cross.

Yeah there is this thing I call "the loose ball syndrome", where player reactions when a ball goes loose are really glitchy.

However, if you are talking about your fast, strong, technically gifted superstars looking like half-asleep little girlies on the pitch then that is poor motivation, morale or poor team form - something completely different.

Ah okay, in that case it is probably not helped by my below average system enforcing below average graphics settings too then.

They are by no means superstars, just solid championship players, superior or at least equal to the player who magically catches them so it must be the graphical glitch. The total dominance my previous clubs had is probably what hid this from me in the past.

By the way, "The Welsh Lad", I have this problem often too, I put it down to marking, if Zonal, your CB's will go back to the middle, try setting your full backs to zonal too if they're not already, that might make them stay wider, that or go man marking on your CB's. Would be nice to have more control over the tactics for FM2012, like separate tactics for in possession, without possession and set pieces.

Its not a graphical glitch, its a match engine glitch, players used to run away from the ball to let an opponent get there 1st, now it seems they slow down instead.

Didn't they have seperate positioning in one of the CM series.

The 3D seems to be one big "misrepresentation" at times.

I just use to the 2D on extended highlights

the defender not tracking the player down the line extends to the full-backs too... it's definitely something I've seen regularly in FM11, frustratingly, but I've not yet worked out how to fix it. I think it only happens when I play full-backs though, my wing-backs defend higher up the pitch and my current closing down settings are quite extreme too. I don't recall an incidence of it in my current save in any case, but in my Hereford 4-4-2, it happened all the time. The full-back would be tracking the player then, inexplicably, he would run into the penalty area and then go back out to close the player down again, he'd run a big triangle to get to the same place as the winger but, obviously, get there too late most times

the defender not tracking the player down the line extends to the full-backs too... it's definitely something I've seen regularly in FM11, frustratingly, but I've not yet worked out how to fix it. I think it only happens when I play full-backs though, my wing-backs defend higher up the pitch and my current closing down settings are quite extreme too. I don't recall an incidence of it in my current save in any case, but in my Hereford 4-4-2, it happened all the time. The full-back would be tracking the player then, inexplicably, he would run into the penalty area and then go back out to close the player down again, he'd run a big triangle to get to the same place as the winger but, obviously, get there too late most times

I think it's the worst with full backs. One of the constant ones is when a free kick is taken from wide in the own half, and hit down the wing. It ALWAYS goes over the top of the full back to either his direct opponent, or a striker who has pulled out wide.