tTackles per game

When I play with 'normal tackling', none of my players can be somewhere high on the 'tackles per game' list of the league, no matter how high their tackling attribute is. On the other hand when i chose 'hard tackling' for my DMC or fullbacks for example, this time they end up being in top ten, even if they are not particularly talented.

Also, if I play with normal tackling in an entire match, the total number of tackles made by my players is always less than the AI, and if I play with 'hard tackling' it is always higher than the AI. Too bad there is nothing in between. I guess AI achieves something in between by keeping switching between normal-hard tackling during a match.

A little annoying tbh. I wish this depended more on players' tackling, positioning, etc. attributes.

Do you all observe the same, or am I missing something?

You're missing something.

A player's high tackling attribute won't increase the number of tackles that he attempts per game. It just means that he tackles more effectively - so he is more likely to win the tackles that he does go for.

Take Man Utd: Rio Ferdinand has a high tackling attribute, but he's not very aggressive (an attribute you didn't mention) and prefers to play as more of a cover defender - he uses his good positioning and anticipation to make timely interceptions and shut down passing options, rather than charging in. On the other hand, charging in is Vidic's raison d'etre.

In some games, it looks like Vidic is doing all the defending, because you'll see him diving about the place, crunching through the backs of strikers and all sorts. The fact that you don't even notice Rio's side of the pitch in fact just means he's doing a really good job of defending - just in a different way.

If you want players, in spite of their attributes, to be more aggressive in their ball-winning, then you need to raise their closing down setting, so that they don't sit back and mark, but charge forward to close down the space; and you can also raise their tackling level, as you have seen, so that when they do harry a player in possession, they dive in at the first sight of the ball.

Of course what you won't see on the "tackles per game" list, is the twenty tackles a game that a bad tackler will miss - leaving his team exposed at the back - if given very high closing down and hard tackling. And you won't see the fouls in crucial areas that they gave away.

Tackles per game is not a stat that should be used for measuring the talent of most defenders. Certainly not in isolation from the tackling success %.

It's useful with ball-winning Darren Fletcher types, who you want running about the place getting you the ball whenever possible, and play too far forward to leave you overly exposed, but a good CB or FB will often not need to chase tackles to have a good game. Especially if your midfield are doing their job.

Thanks for the input.

I didn't actually want to say that a player with higher tackling should definitely have more tackles per game. My problem is more with instructions having too much control over the statistics. Like you mentioned, a player's aggresiveness for example should have more effect on total number of attempted tackles, and tackling and positioning should have more effect on the number of 'successfull' tackles. When I look at the list of players with most tackles (and only the succesfull tackles count on that list afaik), I see all kinds of players. A defender wit 8 aggresiveness and 9 tackling can very well be in top 10 on that list, just because his instructions are probably set on hard tackling and high closing down. Shouldn't be. Or maybe te problem is that AI is not smart enough to not to give him those instructions.

But still, players shouldn't act like robots in the ME in my opinion. I can easily manipulate the stats in the game with some simple instructions.

I just did some experiments on this, and confirmed that in order to increase your players' number of tackles to the similar levels with AI players, you have to put them on 'hard tackling'. If not, even if you increase the closing down all the way up, they just press more but do not tackle the ball. If I set everybody at normal tackling, I average 15 tackles per game, if I set it at hard for all, this goes to above 30-35 easily, and there is nothing in between.

I wish there was a slider (with 20 values) for this, and not just easy-normal-hard, because the jump between them is too much.