How do you stop your team taking their foot off the gas??

I have had 3 pretty horrendous results in an otherwise good season with West Ham in the Championship. I use either a 4-4-2 counter or a 4-4-1-1 counter away which apart from the below three games have served me well.

1.. After a run of 6 games unbeaten and only two goals conceded I went to mid table Hull and got battered 4-0.

2.. After three great wins I go to bottom of the table Watford and am 2-0 up and everything is fine. I lose 3-2.

3.. Second placed West Ham away at first placed Southampton. 2-1 up at half time and I should have had more. Get to 3-1 and they then have a man sent off. I get beat by 10 men 4-3. I hadn't conceded in five games before that game.

The thing is I tried different strategies in all games. Against Hull I just stuck with it and didn't change anything. Against Watford when they got back to 2-1 I dropped a bit deeper and got tighter but still lost. Against Southampton I went to a 4-1-4-1 to keep it tight but somehow two long shots flew in. When I went 4-3 down I went back to my starting tactic but to no avail. Tried more attacking and direct but just kept losing the ball.

I therefore deduct that trying to go a bit more defensive to hold a lead is pretty pointless so how do you stop your team taking their foot off the gas? Against Watford and Southampton things didn't start going bad until 15 minutes or so into the second half so I don't think it's team talks. I play classic so don't have the shouts.

Any ideas? Is attack the best form of defence?

Brace yourself for many replies that suggest "its your tactics"!!!!!

It's just luck pretty much, along with the fact that most players won't get 'up' for every game no matter what you do. I get beaten by inferior teams a number of times each season, but it doesn't stop me winning trophies more often than perhaps my teams are expected to do, so I don't worry about it too much - it's just football. I just do the basics - have balanced tactics, select good players, rotate my squad to keep everyone fit, and roll with the punches.

This is not towards the original poster, but in general: Where would be the fun in this game if you were to win every single one of your matches? There is little challange in the game, and a lot of people who post here don't even want to face that bit of a challange. It is football, the stronger team doesn't always win, comebacks happen in real life too.

I am completely against the implementation of 'difficulty levels' in FM, but sometimes I think there should be an 'easy version' just to let these people have fun by winning every game and stop complaining in the forums.

And this one IS towards the OP:

My experience is that when you switch to more defensive tactics, you let your opponent control the ball more, which is what happens in real life too. But the aim is, by doing that, not to give your opponent easy chances, force them to try long shots, crosses, etc. In FM, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but again it is the same in real life. So I would say, it depends on the situation, score and teams' strengths. It is for you to figure out in which situation switching to defensive formation is a good idea. Therein lies the challange. Try to enjoy it

For example, you said in one of your matches you switched to defending deeper, and the opponent scored from two long shots, while down to 10 men.

Just some ideas:

1- If my opponent is 10 men, I'd look to control the ball more, rather than sitting deep and hoofing the ball away.

2- If you still want to go defensive, I'd see which opponent players are good at long shots, and I'd close down on them.

3- I'd apply tight man marking on their playmaker with my quickest DMC.

This is not towards the original poster, but in general: Where would be the fun in this game if you were to win every single one of your matches? There is little challange in the game, and a lot of people who post here don't even want to face that bit of a challange. It is football, the stronger team doesn't always win, comebacks happen in real life too.

I am completely against the implementation of 'difficulty levels' in FM, but sometimes I think there should be an 'easy version' just to let these people have fun by winning every game and stop complaining in the forums.

Totally agree with you. Know (or hope!!) you weren't aiming that me,,, as I am certainly not complaining about the above results because as you say Wigan beat Man United recently and real life certainly does have freak results as does FM. But at the same time when you haven't conceded for 5 games so you think you have tinkered with your tactics to give you a solid base to an extent to then concede 4 against 10 men is a bit strange especially when there is no real rhyme or reason to it. Was it because my two wingers had to come off injured which they did in the game, therefore slower wide men not being able to close down well enough? Was it because Southampton tried something different? Was it complacency? I don't really know that's the issue. All throough that game my Assistant was saying we were unlucky to be losing because we had good possession and it was only a matter of time before we scored so there were no glaring issues that needed changing. If I have a gripe it is that it seems very difficult to close up shop in this game. The only way I have done that is to play 5 at the back cutting out that old gap between your centre halfs.

Maybe a post match meeting with your Assistant is the way forward. If he had said "well, we got complacent in that one" or "they did us down the wings second half" it would help at times.

If it's generally just freak and you can't do anything then why bother with tactics or anything else?

****To the above poster re long shots. The two players who scored them they had long shot stats of below 10!!!!!

Az bleventozturk says, the problem with defensive/counter/contain is that they hand the ball back to the opposition.

For me, the tackling is too light on these settings so I like to use defensive with aggressive tackling to get the ball and then keep it with slow pace and short passing.

Also, if your players get tired you will tend to concede late goals anyway.

Az bleventozturk says, the problem with defensive/counter/contain is that they hand the ball back to the opposition.

In a classical sense, that's sort of the point. You want the opponent to attack you, and in doing so expose themselves and leave themselves vulnerable to the quick counter. You need to concede some possession to do that, and obviously there are risks.

Defensive with a slow tempo/short passing is really just control but deeper and narrower. Which is not a bad strategy really.

Just on the point of long shots, if I was given a ton of time and space from 25-30 yards out to take a pop at goal, I might score 2 out of 10. On the scale of 1-20, I'd say I'm about a 3-4 (I played full back or holding midfield so wasn't often in such a situation to properly let fly). However if I was to be closed down, the chances of me finding the back of the net are pretty minimal. Just because the player doesn't have a great long shot rating doesn't mean that the odd one is going to fly in. At a professional level, such players are going to take their chances from range from time to time if they are given enough space. Sometimes such a player will hit a miracle shot first time and see it hit the net, in which case there is little you could have done to stop it without compromising elsewhere. Personally I don't stop pressing and harrying unless it's against a team that are threatening me anyway, in which case only then will I drop deeper. But I always try to keep the area around 10 yards infront of the box covered at almost all times to prevent long shots from squeaking in. I don't concede often from long shots and when I do it's usually from a bit of the angle and I yell at my keeper. Can't win them all