I win every home game...and lose every away game.

Why?????

Just...why?

Its your tactics.

Both completely useless posts there, tbh.

Gerodie, care to explain a little more in detail about your game? Are you only 2 games in and have 1 win 1 loss, is this based over 1 season, half a season, 30 seasons? Do you have actual proof that this is the case, or did you just beat top of the table and home, and lose to bottom of the table away?

Frazza - come on dood, there was a reason people 'picked on you' in the CSE forum....

Im at the start of January point and I don't think I have won a game away and have won 90% of home games....

Should I be more cautious when I play away or adapt to the pitch im playing on or what?

Because i'm ready to give this piece of **** called a game to my friend cause its more frustrating than it is fun I could be on Xbox Live instead of wasting my time.

Geordie - You don't "think" you've won an away game? You either have, or you haven't and its not hard to figure out. You're not helping us help you, really, because the info you offer us is sparse, and may or may not be a problem.

I've won one away game against blackburn at the start of the season and thats it. I seem to let in alot of goals aswell no matter what tactics I apply to the back four. My defense btw is...

DR: Rafinha

DL: Jose Enrique

DC: Christopher Samba

DC: Naldo

Should I be more cautious when I play away or adapt to the pitch im playing on or what?

I think you know the answer surely? What do teams do in real life? Do they go gung ho home and away, or play attacking at home and counter attacking away?

I think that mihgt be the key to your problem. At a minimum, come up with two sets of tactics, one more cautious for playing away, and see how you get on.

I think you know the answer surely? What do teams do in real life? Do they go gung ho home and away, or play attacking at home and counter attacking away?

I think that mihgt be the key to your problem. At a minimum, come up with two sets of tactics, one more cautious for playing away, and see how you get on.

If I knew the answer I wouldn't have made the topic.....

And how am I meant to know what they do in real life? I don't see what the manager says to them in the changing rooms for all you know some teams take the cautious approach and some prefer to go at the opposition so that they can't get comfortable on their home turf.

Gosh...

But thanks for your help I will be making a new tactic for away games to test it out. Do you recommend radically changing it or just slightly modifying the pressure to pressing in my own area and the mentality to a bit more defensive?

Do you recommend radically changing it or just slightly modifying the pressure to pressing in my own area and the mentality to a bit more defensive?

Personally, I would keep a similar tactic to the one you play at home with and just tweak it to make it a little more defensive and maybe push up more to put more pressure on the other team, it may take a few games to get the balance just right, but keep fiddling and you will get there, best of luck mate

If I knew the answer I wouldn't have made the topic.....

And how am I meant to know what they do in real life? I don't see what the manager says to them in the changing rooms for all you know some teams take the cautious approach and some prefer to go at the opposition so that they can't get comfortable on their home turf.

Gosh...

But thanks for your help I will be making a new tactic for away games to test it out. Do you recommend radically changing it or just slightly modifying the pressure to pressing in my own area and the mentality to a bit more defensive?

I meant to the specific question. If you watch European games, especially (where the home/away advantage is imo most obvious) in most cases teams will play it very tight away from home. You will occasionally see away sides go hell for leather to unsettle the home side sure, but if that's the game you play every time, it would be seen through very quickly, and the home side would nearly always destroy you.

Anyway, what I would say is start out by making it very defensive mentality, maybe playing a holding midfielder/'anchorman' and seeing how that helps. Pressing in your own half and playing more narrow may also help.

I'm no tactical expert though, I sometime come up with suff that works but if you want more detailed theories, you might want to check out the tactical guide forum.

Hope that helps a bit.

I assume you're using the same tactics home and away? (i second Nep's comments - more info would be helpful)

In which case, for your away fmt - play with a slightly more defensive mentality (i usually go halfway between defensive and normal) Barrow a CM to the DM position, tick counter attacking, limit forward runs for FBs and wingers, decrease width and increase closing down.

Your first goal should be to prevent the opposition scoring - when you've found this, then progressively go more attacking until you can win 1-0 or 2-0 safely.

In the future, can i suggest that you ask questions like this in the tactics forum? You will get better help there

I assume you're using the same tactics home and away? (i second Nep's comments - more info would be helpful)

In which case, for your away fmt - play with a slightly more defensive mentality (i usually go halfway between defensive and normal) Barrow a CM to the DM position, tick counter attacking, limit forward runs for FBs and wingers, decrease width and increase closing down.

Your first goal should be to prevent the opposition scoring - when you've found this, then progressively go more attacking until you can win 1-0 or 2-0 safely.

In the future, can i suggest that you ask questions like this in the tactics forum? You will get better help there

Thank you

and yes

Too late to edit last post sorry.

Well for my away tactic i've move the mentality cursor two clicks to the left towards defensive from the middle. Done the same for creativity, done the same for passing style and tempo. I've moved the cursor 4 clicks to the left from the middle for my width and defensive line so that my team are more narrow and compact with the defenders sitting closer to the goal. I've also moved the cursor 4 clicks to the right for closing down so that my team pressures the home opposition pretty much every time they have it.

Just wanting to make sure all of those directions are ok and that I haven't done the opposite of what I should be doing.

Thanks.

Too late to edit last post sorry.

Well for my away tactic i've move the mentality cursor two clicks to the left towards defensive from the middle. Done the same for creativity, done the same for passing style and tempo. I've moved the cursor 4 clicks to the left from the middle for my width and defensive line so that my team are more narrow and compact with the defenders sitting closer to the goal. I've also moved the cursor 4 clicks to the right for closing down so that my team pressures the home opposition pretty much every time they have it.

Just wanting to make sure all of those directions are ok and that I haven't done the opposite of what I should be doing.

Thanks.

Sounds like a step in the right direction - obviously how large the change needs to be depends on what players you have and what players you're playing against, but as a starting point it sounds fine.

Well i play with a 4 4 2 diamond..

GK - Given

RB - Rafinha

CB - Samba

CB - Naldo

LB - Enrique

DM - Ropotan

LM - N'Zogbia

RM - Milner

AM - Van Der Vaart

ST - Owen

ST - Martins

What impact does adapting your play to the pitch you are playing on and applying opposition instructions have on performance?

Just thought I should throw some caution to you if you're combining what people said plus what you posted:-

The AI in a 442 generally splits their central midfield partnership with one getting forward more often. If they are at home and favourites they'll push up and have higher mentality so this more advanced MC will get deeper into the gap between your midfield and defence.

If you add a back arrow to the DM C position for your central midfielder who is directly opposite this forward running midfielder and push your defensive line up and have your centre back's closing down too high and your mentalities/width aren't set up to compliment this set up, it will lead to problems.

An example scenario:-

The opposition's more defensive MC dribbles past your non back arrowed MC. If your closing down/mentalities aren't set up right for your team as a whole what will happen is your MC barrowed to the DMC position will get dragged out to close down. This in turn will leave their forward running attacking MC in a lot of space. If he gets picked out with a pass he'll run at your back line. If in doing so your closing down settings/mentalities of your back four aren't right then one of your centre halfs will get dragged out to close down the wide open forward running MC now in possession (defensive line will impact on this also). This leaves the striker unmarked in the 442 for a nice easy through ball and a one on one.

Alternatively the same thing may occur because the back arrowed MC to DMC alongside the more forward opposition MC position means the back arrowed to DMC MC has too much ground to make up to close down. Again this makes it easy for the forward running opposition MC to get beyond your midfield and draw out one of your centre halfs leaving an unmarked striker behind him. Even if he doesn't draw the CB out he will still have a high quality long shot opportunity due to him being under little pressure and having a good sight of goal.

So if you are going to use a back arrowed MC to DMC then you need to make sure he's positioned in such a way that he can get to the forward running opposition MC before the CB gets drawn out or that he is positioned in such a way that he has the opportunity to cut out the pass before it gets there. Alternatively to that you can use mentality to get one of your strikers to drop back as an extra midfielder when you loose possession, but again his closing down/position relative to the winger on his side's closing down/position will impact on whether or not he does drop back or if he never gets there because he is too busy chasing down whichever defender happens to be in possession.

With high closing down to pressurise the opposition if it is done to compliment the other tactical settings that affect position and you have the players to pull it off (work rate, determination, acceleration, pace) it can work a treat. But if you get it wrong, your players are idiots and the opposition is of sufficient quality you'll see your players getting dragged out of position all over the pitch leaving opposition players unmarked in a lot of space. With lower quality opposition they may get 'panicked' more easily and you'll see them hoof it anywhere more readily when they see your players running at them to close down (especially defenders with lower passing/creativity attributes), but even with these players it only takes one moment of the right decision (pick the pass instead of hoofing) to take advantage of the holes your hyper closing down players are leaving behind. This will generally lead to a high quality chance.

Also Rafinha isn't top class in terms of his defensive attributes but I am just basing that off his profile rather than ever actually using him myself. Great to have when the opposition sits back and you need the attacking support from your full back but I'd say he's abit iffy when it comes to keeping an opposition winger in check.

Spot on from isuckatfm - if you started to skim 'cause it was long, go back and read it again.

My recommendations are to look at specific mentality settings:

Centre backs: low closing down, low mentality, mixed forward runs, attacking corner kicks "Back If Needed"

Fullbacks: mid-low closing down, low mentality, mixed forward runs, no arrows, tight marking, attacking corner kicks "Stay Back"

Wingers: mid closing down, mid-low mentality, mixed forward runs, run with ball often, no arrows

MCd: mid-low closing down, mid-low mentality, rare forward runs, no arrow, attacking corner kicks "Outside Area"

MCa: mid closing down, mid mentality, mixed forward runs, no arrow

Counter-attack ticked, and a pacey striker set as "Target Man - Run Onto Ball".

The idea here is: five guys stay back in most buildups.

The wingers and one centre mid (and your strikers) do most of the closing down, while the others "stay home" to prevent the devastating through balls isuckatfm described.

Even in a corner kick against a sudden 4-2-4, you're going to have four guys stay back, and the MCd sweeping up most hurried clearances. However, there are still five guys (wingers, MCa, and strikers) willing to get forward if the opportunity is on.

Spot on from isuckatfm - if you started to skim 'cause it was long, go back and read it again.

My recommendations are to look at specific mentality settings:

Centre backs: low closing down, low mentality, mixed forward runs, attacking corner kicks "Back If Needed"

Fullbacks: mid-low closing down, low mentality, mixed forward runs, no arrows, tight marking, attacking corner kicks "Stay Back"

Wingers: mid closing down, mid-low mentality, mixed forward runs, run with ball often, no arrows

MCd: mid-low closing down, mid-low mentality, rare forward runs, no arrow, attacking corner kicks "Outside Area"

MCa: mid closing down, mid mentality, mixed forward runs, no arrow

Counter-attack ticked, and a pacey striker set as "Target Man - Run Onto Ball".

The idea here is: five guys stay back in most buildups.

The wingers and one centre mid (and your strikers) do most of the closing down, while the others "stay home" to prevent the devastating through balls isuckatfm described.

Even in a corner kick against a sudden 4-2-4, you're going to have four guys stay back, and the MCd sweeping up most hurried clearances. However, there are still five guys (wingers, MCa, and strikers) willing to get forward if the opportunity is on.

I've always had my DMC on high closing down but reading what you've said it seems most illogical. Why would I want the player who I've put in the side to sit in front of the back four and plug any holes the other teams attackers may find to be dragged up into the opposition half at every time they have the ball?

It very much depends what you want from him. I had a high-closing-down DMC at one point .. who worked very well as a sideline-to-sideline enforcer - often he would join in two-on-one against the guy with the ball, and he would always "fill in" when others got caught out of position.

So that can work, too; it isn't what I'm doing in my current tactical philosophy, which is based more on the line of reasoning that isuckatfm had described above.

Requirements for that type of DMC are: exceptional stamina, tackling, work rate, determination, natural fitness, decisions, and anticipation.

The type I've described in my previous post will get by better with the more generic set of attributes: above-average but not incredible tackling, positioning, and marking.

For my home and away tactics it's been on my mind which passing styles to use...

For the home tactic should I aim to keep possession or just pass direct and quick?

And when i'm away should I be passing it shorter and slower to hold on to the ball?

Thoughts? Thank you.

help?

quite urgent

I tend to play low tempo short passing at home to apply more pressure (with higher back line) and create better chances, moving the tempo up gradually durring the second half if i am having trouble breaking them down. More exansive in terms of width and mentality to pull the opposition about. Also the TM on to feet and maybe a coupel of players with hold up ball.

Away I play more direct and higher tempo to make the most of the counter attack with the deeper back line and lower metality and run onto ball for TM.

This also translates to against beeter/worse opposition so the home tactics i would use against a obviously inferior team even if away and opposite if hoem to much better team.

Thank you.

I will try this

Must add that where I have suggested this I never take things to the extremes prob most i do is half way between middle and min/max on the sliders for each option, would start at a coupel of clicks either way and build things up/experiment with additional changes

Yes thats what I have done.

Ill get back with some results later on.

Also whenever making tactical changes/alterations based on the feedback/suggestions in the forumsn give your team a good dozen games to start showing (hopefully) favourable responses becuase the game is realistic enough that your players will have to learn the new style of play and get used to doing the new things you want them to do.

Yep thats why I said ill check back in after some results.

Any news on how you are doing now Geordie?

Any news on how you are doing now Geordie?

LOL really?

Oh yeh! wow just noticed oops :S