Players ignoring instructions

I am playing as Man City and since my two strikers Robinho and Goran Pandev are both useless in the air, I have set my tactics up to play a short passing game. but no matter how I set the player instructions, even setting crossing to rarely for all players and instructing my goalkeeper not to kick it long, in an average game my strikers lose at least 20 aerial challenges between them. How can I stop my players from hitting these long balls which my strikers are obviously not going to win?

no-one have any idea? :confused:

Keepers kick long no matter what instructions you give them. It's a noted issue that will likely be amended in the next patch.

Not sure about your outfield players, but I have noticed telling them not to shoot from distance doesn't work either. Maybe lower your creative freedom?

Hmm what are your mentality settings for Defenders, midfieldfielders and attackers? If they are too far apart in relation to eachother your players might run out of options and feel pressured into just hurling the ball forward.

What is your time wasting set to?

Creativity settings for players?

How much time have you played and what did you set your past experience to? If you are a "new manager" and have low past experience your players might not hold you in very high regard and basically ignore your bidding

Do you tight mark a lot of OP's? This can well leave your players unavailable since they might not find time to get open, especially in fast tempo games.

There's a lot of things to consider. I suggest you read some of this<- to compose your tactics better. Slight errors in an otherwise fine tactic can ruin everything

Play with a target man to feet?

I am actually using the attacking version of the 5x5 theory from TTF, which is when I found that the main tactical problem remaining was too many long balls up to my strikers. The only changes I have made from the original 5x5 is setting my players not to take long shots or crosses, and for all players to play a short passing game, yet they don't seem to follow these instructions. I've noticed that a lot of the time my defensive midfielder is the culprit, and he's on both low creative freedom and low time wasting. Could the fact that he's set up to hold up the ball have something to do with this?

It could be that I used the wizard to add myself into the game and so am on automatic experience, but I don't want to have to start a new game if it's partly a tactical problem.

Watch the 3D closely - maybe in full highlights for a while. See WHY they pass long - probably it's because they are short of other passing options, the most likely problem being that they are too far apart - ie. mentalities. Spot the flaws in your tactics and follow sockd's advice to get tips from the experts!

Play with a target man to feet?

Hey Pulican should my strong strikers, Andy Johnson and Bobby Zamora (fulham) be made Target men. it seems like when I read the target men description it didn't sound like a striker at all.

Also should my crossing stars and AM's be playmakers?

MM

no-one have any idea? :confused:

Buy lanky strikers? :confused:

Hey Pulican should my strong strikers, Andy Johnson and Bobby Zamora (fulham) be made Target men. it seems like when I read the target men description it didn't sound like a striker at all.

Also should my crossing stars and AM's be playmakers?

MM

Personally I don't like to play with playmakers, since if the opposition shuts your playmaker down, that's your attack pretty much killed.

I only use target men if I can see a specific problem with the supply to my strikers like the OP mentioned.

Types of target men:

To Head of course needs lots of Jumping, Heading, Strength, Balance, Off the Ball, Teamwork, Work Rate, some first touch is nice and of course normal striker stats like finishing and composure. Think your old fashioned big tall guy.

To Feet needs good strength, balance, first touch, technique, passing, creativity, dribbling, teamwork and workrate. Obviously nice striker stats are a bonus as well. This type of targetman needs to drop off the defensive line and take part in link-up play, you can even use an AM in this role. I would say Rooney plays like this a lot of the time. I think the OP should think about trying out Pandev in this role.

Run onto ball needs gallons of acceleration, pace, off the ball, decisions and workrate. Finishing and Composure are a must. So is having people behind him who are good enough to play decent through balls. This seems to be a hard one to get right in 09.

If you have a player who has good enough stats to play either as a 'to head' or a 'to feet', mixed is a perfectly viable option too. Adebayor would fit the bill perfectly here in my view.

Thanks pelican.