Anyone else just can't win away from home?

The underdog thing is wearing very thin ..

I'm winning home games easily and losing away to teams rated 8-1 against.

Uh?

And no its not my tactics. I've tried em all.

Any ideas? Suggestions? I'm losing the will to play FM.

We attack, they score. We play safe. They score. We push forward, they dominate. We sit back, they score.

have you tried sitting back and then playing on the counter attack?

have you tried sitting back and then playing on the counter attack?

Yup ..

Slightly lower defensive line, counter attack. Fast striker etc.

It doesn't work - they'll score then we collapse.

What team are you and which division are you in, out of curiosity? Do you play one or two up front?

Winning at home is easy. No problems at all there.

I have the 3rd best defense in the league and my strikers are scoring plenty.

The problem is, when we play away teams are coming at us. Teams that are bottom of the damn league and scoring goals.

I can't stop it. If we defend they score, if we attack they score, if we play very slow very low creative freedom football we still lose.

I've been lucky and scored a lot of late goals from freekicks and corners but the 'underdog' thing is really just annoying.

I'm identifying and marking their playmakers ..

I really do feel its just the game. I can't think of anything else to try except playing SUS and I just dont think its realistic to have to defend away against awful teams that play like Arsenal because we're away!

Ok after a long look at this ..

It seems that:

1. Underdog teams just play too well. They are getting hammered by the AI but turn in a world class performance against me - why? Players getting their first goals of the season and average ratings higher than their last games against AI teams. Could be my tactics but extensive replaying matches seems to suggest tactics dont matter much unless they are extremely attacking or extremely defensive?

2. My defense is slow. Which means if we push on and it breaks down we're getting caught out. Thats not the ME. Fair play.

3. My strikers can't score in these defensive formations very well. Usually they have to run a long way and place a shot. Something they dont seem to be good at. They keep hoofing it straight at the keeper - ME gripe by many. Its possibly my tactics, but I have played this way in 9.1 and won the league half a dozen times. So I can't understand why its changed so much.

Ok I just played away 3 times (reloading) and played 'sensible' and lost. Attacked and lost. SUS and won 2 out of the 3 games 1-0.

So it looks like I just have to ignore form, the odds and my superiority and defend like mad and counter attack even though we are a million times the better side.

I wish that wasn't true.

Is it club rep or something? Do the odds lie? Does the AI really play better against you away? Will this change as my rep increases e.g. teams will sit back more and my attacking moves wont suffer so much from counters?

I agree that winning away is hard, but shouldn't it be?

I find stretches of poor away form but that's life you need to stick with it and fix it. Keep trying different players and different team talks.

Well after 2/3rds of the season and a rethink on away tactics I think I have it sussed.

In 09 the 'morale juggernaut' takes a bit longer to get going. I was going too open away from home, too early in the season, despite have won a load of games the players hadn't quite found their confidence soaring yet.

It wasn't until about 20 games in that we really started to pick up the away wins.

Basically you still need to play defensively when appropriate, and sometimes when the odds say you are clear favourites, the AI will still have a go so be prepared to drop to a defensive mentality system ..

It does work. Its just when you go 'on a run' the confidence of the players doesn't automatically kick in! And of course when you have an ungelled squad, any kind of attacking is probably extremely risky. I think this subject has been well covered and I have had to find it out for myself really .. just always remember that you have to open up progressively and a few good results doesn't mean you're there yet.

I also noticed a massive drop off in form when I introduced 2 or more ungelled players into the first team. Best to do it via substitutions for at least 5 games or so.

09 really does seem hyper sensetive to squad changes .. and contrary to my moaning and bitching .. the game places player morale higher than tactical extremes (I think).

I have just tried to play a more direct approach

At home my passing style is - 5

Away it is 8 because of the preasure on the ball

No offense mate but you have a record of played 13,won 9,drawn 2,lost 2.

From that alone we can say you have won at least a couple of games away from home,I mean even if you have lost 2 and drawn 2 away from home I am sure you have not played 9 games at home and only 4 away from home.

I know it can be annoying to lose away from home and even worse at home to a lower team but lets be honest here not many teams go 100% at home and away regardless how good they are and even if they do lose 1 or 2 at home against lower teams there away form should carry them through...

I aint no fanboi but it seems your league position and games played would be an easy night's sleep for any manager.

No offense mate but you have a record of played 13,won 9,drawn 2,lost 2.

From that alone we can say you have won at least a couple of games away from home,I mean even if you have lost 2 and drawn 2 away from home I am sure you have not played 9 games at home and only 4 away from home.

I know it can be annoying to lose away from home and even worse at home to a lower team but lets be honest here not many teams go 100% at home and away regardless how good they are and even if they do lose 1 or 2 at home against lower teams there away form should carry them through...

I aint no fanboi but it seems your league position and games played would be an easy night's sleep for any manager.

Yeah I was finding the amount of goals conceeded troubling not neccessarily the results. I also noticed that the way teams were scoring against me was direct and effective and we were merely capitlising on set pieces and mistakes .. which gives the impression the AI is cheating/owning your tactics.

As I said, its down to my being too bold (even conservative away tactics were too bold) with my players - assuming that because we won four or five games straight we'd hit a 'run' and could express a little more against weaker sides. It just took a while longer to kick in.