How to beat 10 men?

I'll set the scene. You're Inter Milan. You need a victory at home to the lowly Messina to keep up the title race on those ruddy Romans. Only a win will suffice. Your home form is decent. Nothing special, but decent. You should beat this Serie B bound Messina team. Then, 5 minutes into the game, they get a player sent off. Your head drops, and you accept defeat, knowing, that the game will finish 0-0. You watch on, as if watching a car crash in slow motion. The clock ticks faster than it's ever ticked before. You urge the pitch to appear. Even a corner. You never score corners, but you will accept a corner. You will even accept their defender accidently kicking it out for a corner. You just want acknowledgement that their is actually a football match going on. In the end, you draw 0-0.

But why? Why must I accept a 0-0 draw against 10 men Messina? I'm a humble man, with humble expectations. I expect the sky to be blue, I expect my carton of milk to contain milk, and I expect my 2nd place team to be able to score against 10 men. Or at least create a worthwhile chance.

Sometimes I like to imagine what the AI's possible teamtalk's are.

* For the fans!

* I expect a win

* Someone take one for the team and get sent off, whilst I watch one, giggling at ruining the chances of this superior Inter team

*Result not important

If anyone knows why my team refuses to beat 10 men then please enlighten me. I posted a similar topic on the tactics board, but that board seems too high brow for me. I imagine most of them are also giggling at me.

And apologies if anyone else has raised the topic. And I empathise with any person who has had similar problems.

play with more width to open up the gaps. give one of your midfielders much more creative freedom. dont put too much pressure on the team with your team talks becuase they panic and waste the numerical advantage. increase the mentality slider bar to more attacking.

if this doesnt work, in the last 10 mins add a striker for a defender and go mega attacking.

this works for me.

if all else fails, buy some better players....

I had a similar situation in League One yesterday. I was playing a team who got a player sent off but then proceeded to stifle my team's attacks for the rest of the game.

You'd think they would become slightly more tired by having to do more chasing even if they are playng 4-4-1. Did you throw any more men forward after the sending off?

I find that the more attacking I go, the less chances I create. Sliding the attack bar forward/ throwing more players up top seems to make it worse.

The worst is when their player gets sent off, you're resigned to a 0-0 draw, and then the pitch appears and they have a free kick right on the edge of the area, and their player with free kicks 8 curls one home.

Persoanlly, I think there is a scam going on between Football Manager and the laptop industry. I'd love to see the statistics on the number of laptops thrown out of windows per opposition player sent off. Very high, I would imagine.

Attacking wingers is the way I usually go in this situation. If I'm not winning by half-time I go to slow, short passing. My patient buildup usually gives me a couple of goals by the 60-min mark. Then I go to attacking wingers again, usually completing the rout.

A tactic I found excellent in the Championship and below was to have fast strikers and wingers and go long ball-attacking. Had the 10-man teams running around like Billy-O. Not so effective in the top flight though.

Of course, there's no 100% accurate formula, but this approach often works for me.