This Game Is Unfair

Why does it seem like the game forces a certain result on you in a match no matter how well you play? In my Man City game, I played Man Utd at Old Trafford in the Champions League semi final. I dominated the entire game (60% possession, 9 shots on target vs. 3 for them, 3 CCC's for me and 0 for them). However, at the 91st minute Man U scores a fluke goal to win 2-1.

Games like this occur way too often. It completely saps my enthusiasm for the game when, no matter how great my team plays, I am doomed to fail because of fluke goals. It doesn't matter if I have a 20:1 shots advantage, that 1 shot the opponent gets always seems to have a huge likelihood of going in. My stress level actually goes up when I score early in a game, because that sends the opposing AI into "hornet's nest" mode where they all-out attack you relentlessly until they can even things up. There's really no way to counter this -- even the best defense can't stop the occasional fluke goal, and the longer the AI spends in all-out attack mode the more likely that is to happen.

As Man City, obviously I can buy a world-class team, and at this point, I don't have any spots in my starting eleven that need to be upgraded (I can't even come up with an excuse to spend my transfer budget). So I feel like I've done everything I can to build a world-class winner, but the game keeps lobbing grenades at me in an unfair way.

Thats life mate. IRL Sir Alex was happy Norwich left their finishing boots in the changing room.

well for 0 CCC's and Man Utd to still score 2 goals, it's clear you need to fix up your defence + your GK. It could be as easy as swapping them in your lineup or doing other team talks, who knows

Unfortunately that is just life. I have seen a load of matches where the undeserving team wins in the last minute.

Brilliant Zoetermeer, I'm still crying with laughter...LOL

I was used to be cheesed off with players with 4 as Long Shots stats scoring 30 yarders every single game when they couldn't score anyother way but then I deleted my save completed when Gary "flippin" Neville scored a 50 yards bullet to my top corner but in this FM12 I haven't noticed those "jokes".

Wiitastic do you have any advice on how to go about doing that? I thought Joe Hart was pretty good in goal, but maybe I can do better? My back four is Kompany, Phil Jones, Domenico Criscito, and van der Wiel. I don't know how to upgrade that unit.

Who do you use in central midfield? What tempo/strategy (e.g. counter, overload) do you predominantly use in these matches?

Wiitastic do you have any advice on how to go about doing that? I thought Joe Hart was pretty good in goal, but maybe I can do better? My back four is Kompany, Phil Jones, Domenico Criscito, and van der Wiel. I don't know how to upgrade that unit.

Fix your tactics.

Wiitastic do you have any advice on how to go about doing that? I thought Joe Hart was pretty good in goal, but maybe I can do better? My back four is Kompany, Phil Jones, Domenico Criscito, and van der Wiel. I don't know how to upgrade that unit.

I'm about to head out. I will check the games database upon my return.

As i also said, could be a matter of better team talks. Also if any of your defenders are below 80% in fitness late in the game, are you subbing them off ?

If 1 or 2 of the defenders have a poor match rating late in the game or at half time, it might also just be a matter of shifting a couple of players on the field like the 2 dc's. swap them around.

it could be as little as that to give them the spark to improve. It's worked for me many times in the past on FM11

If I need a goal after half time, I have worked out a sneaky tactic/player change. Swap the positions of both mc's.Now bring on your sub MC with your MCL. Swap your ML with a sub ML. Also change the striker who has the lower match average for the game.

at the end of my fm11 save recently, I scored a goal after half time in 13 of my 14 matches.

I play a 4-2-3-1, and my MC's are Nuri Sahin and Yann M'Vila (Sahin is the playmaker, M'Vila is a ball-winner). I play a slow tempo with very short passing for possession (I'm using a classic tactic very similar to the one found in this thread, except with the third MC moved to the AMC slot (Javier Pastore).

Usually in away games or against good teams, I play a much deeper defensive line than is the default in this tactic (the default plays a pretty high defensive line). Usually in away games, the opposing team seems much more aggressive in closing down and tackling, so I might increase the tempo slightly, but I try to keep it on the slower side.

Do you, per chance, play an aggressive, short-passing game? That is the most common cause of 'unfair' losses. You end up compacting your own play in the final third, undermining your own chances of scoring, while increasing the likelihood of being caught on the break.

Yeah, that could very well be it. I do seem to be vulnerable to the counter attack from time to time. The tactic I use is definitely a short-passing game -- by aggressive do you mean how far my defenders are pushing up? How can I alleviate the problem of compacting play in the final third without sacrificing control of possession? My tactic is based on denying the ball to the other team, but it does seem like I get little return given how much I hold onto the ball in the final third.

@Zoetermeer, One think I've noticed and have been taking advantage of with my Chile 2010 Bielsas's tactics, beat Chelsea 3-0 away with 10 players quite confortably(WBA), is the use of wingers as FR and FL. It's a nightmare for the Full Backs if your wingers are speedy. I'm enjoying the way they push the ball almost to the byline and wave goodbye to defenders. Had Ashley Cole on the ropes v Landon Donovan, then Alex got sent off with a foul inside the box when Donovan was clear from the wings.

A high mentality and d-line would be aggressive. One of them has to be low. You can play a low mentality system with a high d-line, or deepen the d-line a little if all your players are on a high mentality.

So what's the difference exactly? If I use a high mentality setting with a deep defensive line, won't the defenders still push up when I have the ball? And if I do the inverse, won't the effect be the same? My tactic has attacking mentality for the wing backs (I actually play my left and right defenders in the wing back positions, not just as full backs with 'wing back' roles), but normal for the central defenders and also the defensive MC (M'Vila). My wingers and AMC have an attacking mentality, and the lone striker is set to normal.

It is much easier to find space deep on the pitch. The more players you push forward, the more space compacts high and the less easy it is to break down the opposition. With your FBs in WB positions, that will compress high space even further. Playing them as WBs causes you two problems. One, it increases the risk of being caught on the counter as they are likely to be higher. Two, it further compresses space in the final third, making it difficult to create good chances.

A deep d-line will mean your team tends to win the ball deeper on the pitch, which opens up possession space, with the high mentality players then trying to work it forward quickly. A high d-line with lower mentalities will win the ball higher but be more likely to hold it deeper until space and angles open further up the pitch.

If your mentalities are very different, you are risking a lack of cohesion in the play, which will isolate players from each other and cause moves to break down. If the highest and lowest mentalities are within 6-8 clicks of each other, then this won't be an issue.

also change your short passing to mixed. it would then confuse your opposition instead of the always short passing tactic you currently use. As of now, your opposition know you will only be doing short passing

Surprise! It happened again, this time after making the adjustments talked about here. In the home leg vs. Man Utd, I had 65% possession, 5:0 CCC ratio, and 14 shots on target. 0-0 final score. I didn't realize Man U had Neo as their goalkeeper. You tell me if that isn't BS.

This sort of thing can, and does, happen in real life. What type of chances were your CCCs?

Surprise! It happened again, this time after making the adjustments talked about here. In the home leg vs. Man Utd, I had 65% possession, 5:0 CCC ratio, and 14 shots on target. 0-0 final score. I didn't realize Man U had Neo as their goalkeeper. You tell me if that isn't BS.

Upload your .tac and .pkm files. Much easier to help having seen them.

Surprise! It happened again, this time after making the adjustments talked about here. In the home leg vs. Man Utd, I had 65% possession, 5:0 CCC ratio, and 14 shots on target. 0-0 final score. I didn't realize Man U had Neo as their goalkeeper. You tell me if that isn't BS.

When you tweaked your tactic with the suggestions on here did you re-save the tactic after the tweaks? If you didn't then your players will still be working on the old way of doing things through match prep. If you make a point of saving your tactic after any tweaks are made you'll notice your match prep will take a slight fluidity hit that will fill up again over time as the squad get used to the changes you've made.

It's not going to be the case that just making the changes suggested by wwfan and others on here will result in an instant transformation of your teams form, give them a few matches to get used to your changes, make a point of selecting the appropriate focus area for games and have a high work rate with special focus set to none in between games to get your fluidity to max out as quickly as possible and things should start to improve, over time.

Surprise! It happened again, this time after making the adjustments talked about here. In the home leg vs. Man Utd, I had 65% possession, 5:0 CCC ratio, and 14 shots on target. 0-0 final score. I didn't realize Man U had Neo as their goalkeeper. You tell me if that isn't BS.

Schalke vs Man united. First leg. United would have won by 10 if not for Schalke's keeper.

And then there's barca vs inter that one season...

Shall I keep going?

You cant win them all mate. Sometimes you get lucky and sometimes its your opponents who gets lucky. I wonder if you can remember how many matches you have won by fluke last minute goals. I bet thats happened more times than you remember.

I can tell you in my experience, I have won more games through fluke last minute goals than I have lost.

Is there a way to attach files to a post (oh, and what is a .pkm file)?

No. You have to upload to a file hosting site.

A .pkm file is the file you get when you save a match.

Here's my tactic:

http://www.filedropper.com/4231standard

I don't have the pkm, unfortunately. I got frustrated and reloaded my savegame from just before the match.

I can't import it for some reason. Sorry.

I have the same problem when trying to import the file after downloading it from the site. This one should work:

http://www.mediafire.com/?733pdzg5n5d17ya

OK. I've had a look and can see some problems. However, rather than just telling you, I'm going to try and get you to work it out for yourself. That way, you'll be able to take the knowledge into better tactics creation in all formations.

How have you conceptualised your chance creation (i.e. how do you want your team to score goals)?

Who are the key providers?

Who is/are the key convertors?

How are you trying to open space for this to happen?

1) Maybe this is part of my problem. I don't know that I've thought this through in a specific enough way, though I'm fairly new to football in general so I'm not sure I'd even know where to start. However, it's important to me to dominate possession and use a slow, controlled buildup. I am a big fan of Barca's style, as many people probably are, and am a big believer in denying the other side the ball. I don't want to overwhelm my opponent with aggressive, attacking play -- rather, I want to force them to exhaust themselves chasing the ball all over the pitch.

2) I think of the left MC being the key player here. He is the one that I envision supplying killer passes to either the wingers cutting inside, or through balls to the AMC or striker. I would love to use a 4-5-1 with two offensively gifted MC's to fill this role along with a DM, but I can't get Pastore to produce effectively as an MC. Sometimes I think that, even if I were able to get him playing well as a precision-passing central mid, I would be wasting his other skills (dribbling, flair, cutting through the defense and scoring).

3) I guess the key converters are the striker, AMC, and the right winger. My left winger is more of a gifted passer than anything else.

4) I'm not sure. I guess I am mostly relying on good passing ability, creativity, and off-the-ball and workrate attributes in the vain hope that my players will be able to fashion chances for themselves. This is probably a big reason why I'm not succeeding as well.

Ok. Good place to start.

1) If you want to move the ball around and make the opposition players chase, what passing focus is the most logical? Also, what width and depth would make sense?

2) If he is the key creator, what two things can you do to encourage him to make killer passes?

3) What two things could you do to encourage the right winger and AMC to find space higher up the pitch? If your left winger is a secondary creator, what could you do on his side of the pitch to give him more passing options?

4) Look at your individual instruction sliders (FWR, RWB, TTB, LS, CB). What type of chance/s is/are their combinations across the team likely to be producing? Do you think they are producing a variety of chance types or limiting the team to one chance type?

1) Maybe a wider width makes more sense, and not focusing passing through the middle? I had this setting because I wanted to funnel everything through the MC. Maybe the same for depth, to spread the ball out as much as possible?

2) More through balls? I'm not sure what else...maybe he shouldn't be limited to short passing?

3) Maybe they need a higher attacking mentality? As far as giving the left winger more options, I'm not sure about this. Maybe the left full back should push up to give him an outlet, but I don't know how to better enable him to supply the attacking players.

4) There is definitely not a whole lot of crossing going on. I can't stand it when wingers dribble all the way down to the end of the pitch and launch a last-minute cross -- it never seems to work. No long shots either, and only one or two players will run with the ball very often. Nobody has FWR set to often -- I'm still not entirely sure what this actually does.

Now you are thinking.

1) Wider and a mixed passing focus will help force the chase. Don't go too wide though as it will result in your players hitting riskier passes. Depth is a little different. A lower mentality system will help you keep the ball deep, which pulls the opposition out and creates space behind them. Combining that with a higher d-line would then ensure your side presses more aggressively when you've lost the ball.

2) More through balls, definitely. Increasing his passing to mixed would also encourage him to make a greater range of passes. Increasing his creative freedom might also help.

3) Mentality might help, but I'd be inclined to increase their forward runs to encourage them to move past the FC and provide the creator with different options. Free roles (roam from position) will also help them find space. You are spot on with pushing the FB up. Increase his forward runs to Often to encourage the overlap. You might also want to reduce the AMLs forward runs so he's more often behind the players you want scoring and thus able to provide the killer pass. Of course, if you do this, you then have the AML and MCL hitting passes from roughly the same spot. You might want to swap the two MC roles around to increase the passing options.

4) Nobody is crossing, which limits your chance creation. I'd expect overlapping FBs to cross often, and wingers at least Mixed (often if they cross well). Likewise, nobody has Long Shots on at all. They might not be scored that often, but you will win corners from them. Think of having at least one of your MCs on Long Shots Mixed. FWRs gets players forward. Mixed encourages them to get level with play. Often ahead of the ball. However, for FCs it works a little differently. Rarely encourages them to drop deeper and allows space for midfielders and wingers to break into.

Thanks -- you've been tremendously helpful! I'm going to try out these changes and see what happens.