20 minutes from completing the treble...

Playing Benfica, a team full of super greys, in the CL final. 1-0 up.

Firstly, my striker, the one that put me 1-0 up with a stunning strike from the edge of the box gets through on goal, shoots straight at the keeper, gets the rebound, hits the keeper again, gets another rebound and fails to put it in the empty net but is fouled. Goes to take the penalty himself. Blazes it over the bar.

Two of my players get booked. I set both of them on easy tackling. Straight after the changes are completed one of them gets a second booking and is sent off. Then, in the 80th minute the other one decides to follow suit. I set up an ultra defensive formation without strikers. It holds until the 86th minute when they score a scrappy goal. Then, in the stoppage time they score the winner.

Never have I been more disgusted with this game..

But I guess something like that was actually needed to keep me interested in this save for at least another season.

(Sorry for a pointless thread, just had to let it out.)

Are you patched up mate? Center mids betting booked screams not patched as it was an issue at the start.

Gutting, I've experienced similar when my keeper got sent off and my other keeper was already injured so I didn't have one on the bench, lost 6-3, I was 2-0 up until I lost my keeper

Are you patched up mate? Center mids betting booked screams not patched as it was an issue at the start.

Patched up to 8.0.2. The issue seems to still be there though to some extent as I've always wondered why my midfielders get booked all the time despite not being on hard tackling.

Oh, and one of the idiots was a left back. The other was a midfielder.

The issue seems to still be there though to some extent as I've always wondered why my midfielders get booked all the time despite not being on hard tackling.

I can't explain it' date=' so i'm [b']not [/b]going to say "it's your tactics", but I think this sort of thing is tactical. The reason I think that is; with my original tactic on FM08 my CM's or DM's were getting booked every game, then I changed my tactic and now I average only 0.7 yellow per game. Sorry for not being much help and I can't explain it, but I think it probably is tactical given my experience.

I can't explain it, so i'm going to say "it's your tactics", but I think this sort of thing is tactical. The reason I think that is; with my original tactic on FM08 my CM's or DM's were getting booked every game, then I changed my tactic and now I average only 0.7 yellow per game. Sorry for not being much help and I can't explain it, but I think it probably is tactical given my experience.

Might be, but I've never put too much thought into this as it's never got to that extreme before. Just hoping it won't happen again, was too close to hit the screen with something heavy..

Seems like it was bad management skills that cost you.

An ultra defensive formation without strikers was a big mistake! Never do that! Even if you're two men down, you always need someone up the pitch to hold the ball up and waste you some time. Otherwise you're just kicking the ball back to the oppisition all the time.

You should not blame the game for your amatuerish attempt at management.

Would you like a big hug?

Seems like it was bad management skills that cost you.

An ultra defensive formation without strikers was a big mistake! Never do that! Even if you're two men down, you always need someone up the pitch to hold the ball up and waste you some time. Otherwise you're just kicking the ball back to the oppisition all the time.

You should not blame the game for your amatuerish attempt at management.

Oh sod off will you, I'm not blaming anyone, just letting out steam

There's no use having a striker up front anyway if you can't get the ball to him, it's better to have an AMC which I did. He never got to touch the ball as I the rest of the team couldn't get the ball away from the grey supermen of the opposition.

These things happen.

Playing Benfica, a team full of super greys...

Does it actually mean that if those players are greyed, you do not have Portuguese league on full detail?

I do not want to disgrace anybody who is claiming their success in FM, but IMHO for me it is very, very, very simple to play with only few leagues enabled on full details.

I have all major Eauropean leagues enabled on full playable details and the game is very hard (also the match simulating from whole world is set on full details for better feel of reality).

I used to have only few leagues on full, when I have poor PC, but the game was very easy every time.

For those, who are complaining about difficulty setting (game is too easy for them), just enable lot of leagues on full details and it will be really difficult (better players, better market, better managers, better teams etc.).

Can anybody confirms that?

Hard and easy tackling only affects how aggressive the player is - it doesn't stop inaccurate tackles in stupid places.

Does it actually mean that if those players are greyed, you do not have Portuguese league on full detail?

I do not want to disgrace anybody who is claiming their success in FM, but IMHO for me it is very, very, very simple to play with only few leagues enabled on full details.

I have all major Eauropean leagues enabled on full playable details and the game is very hard (also the match simulating from whole world is set on full details for better feel of reality).

I used to have only few leagues on full, when I have poor PC, but the game was very easy every time.

For those, who are complaining about difficulty setting (game is too easy for them), just enable lot of leagues on full details and it will be really difficult (better players, better market, better managers, better teams etc.).

Can anybody confirms that?

I do not have Portuguese league enabled yes. It might be harder with more leagues at the beginning, but once the regens take over it gets harder and harder to beat the grey teams as the greys are of much better quality than the regens. The regular appearance of teams such as Spartak Moscow and Benfica in the CL finals goes to prove that quite well.

Hard and easy tackling only affects how aggressive the player is - it doesn't stop inaccurate tackles in stupid places.

Yes, but the point is that whoever plays for me in that position they seem to get booked more often than when they would if they'd be playing in any other position. But as I said it's the first time it's got to that extreme for me so I'm not trying to over-analyze anything. Was just an extremely unfortunate and annoying game and I guess that's that.

Unlucky. It happens all the time to me, i've missed out on countless trebles.

Unlucky on that I presume you have done the double?

I had a similar experience myself, I was on route for the treble and within 3 weeks i was struggling for a champions league position and knocked out of all the cup competitions.

I ended up winning the league by only few points.

Unlucky on that I presume you have done the double?

I had a similar experience myself, I was on route for the treble and within 3 weeks i was struggling for a champions league position and knocked out of all the cup competitions.

I ended up winning the league by only few points.

Did the double three times in a row but it was the first time I actually won the FA cup. A great 4-1 win against Arsenal too. It has pretty much come to the point where I can beat regen teams easily but when it comes to grey teams I tend to struggle.

Actually I had one even more annoying season quite a while back, when my team was still an upcoming force and real players were at their peak. I somehow made it to the CL and FA cup final and were 5th in the league. Had to play Arsenal in both the cups and in the league as well. They had Carlos Vela, Sergio Aguero, Cristiano Ronaldo, Fabregas and Wayne Rooney - how do you beat a monster team like that? Ended up losing both cup finals with their strikers running rings around my defense and to top it off then lost to them in the league as well missing out on CL the following season. Has to be the worst FM 2008 moment for me.

Seems like it was bad management skills that cost you.

An ultra defensive formation without strikers was a big mistake! Never do that! Even if you're two men down, you always need someone up the pitch to hold the ball up and waste you some time. Otherwise you're just kicking the ball back to the oppisition all the time.

You should not blame the game for your amatuerish attempt at management.

No need for the final line - I hope it was tongue-in-cheek and the poster forgot the smilie.

Anyway, other than that I have to agree tactically. A narrow 4-3-1 with an arrow from the MC to DMC position is probably the best formation when you're defending a lead with 9 men; ultra-def, slow short passing. I've scored a couple of times defending with 10 men with a 4-1-3-1 ultra def formation. Not had to defend with 9 men for some time so I can't remember my results. Another 9-man option would be 2 banks of 4 with an arrow from one of the MCs to the ST position.

Maybe others will correct me but I still think slow, short passing and ultra def mentality is best for defending against 4-2-4 or other all-out-attack formations.

And don't tick counter attack - it always loses me a goal.

No need for the final line - I hope it was tongue-in-cheek and the poster forgot the smilie.

Anyway, other than that I have to agree tactically. A narrow 4-3-1 with an arrow from the MC to DMC position is probably the best formation when you're defending a lead with 9 men; ultra-def, slow short passing. I've scored a couple of times defending with 10 men with a 4-1-3-1 ultra def formation. Not had to defend with 9 men for some time so I can't remember my results. Another 9-man option would be 2 banks of 4 with an arrow from one of the MCs to the ST position.

Maybe others will correct me but I still think slow, short passing and ultra def mentality is best for defending against 4-2-4 or other all-out-attack formations.

And don't tick counter attack - it always loses me a goal.

Might be correct, I had never been down to nine man before in 2008 and hope to never be in that situation again. Can you believe the cheek of those two idiots, they both thought that a fine of two weeks wages for getting sent off in a CL final was unfair, the rest of the team was disgusted enough not to agree..

But really, the tactics did not matter much because my team never saw the ball again after going down to nine men. I went by the assumption that I would be better off if the man up front would play in the AMC position as he would be easier to find if someone managed to nick the ball somehow. They never really did so it became quite irrelevant in the end. Both their goals were scrappy as well.

That simply sounds like awful luck - sometimes the random-number-generator hates us.

That simply sounds like awful luck - sometimes the random-number-generator hates us.

It does indeed

But as I said, now i at least have the motivation to keep this save going. Had i done the treble i don't think I'd have any interest in continuing with this which would have been a shame as I have a few youngsters I'd like to see in action some day. I think I've even heard an appropriate saying for these kind of situations, something about clouds and silver linings...