Can anybody advise me on why my team have suddenly turned to crap?

I haven't felt the need to make a post like this before, but I'm utterly baffled. I'm very much willing to accept criticism for things I'm doing wrong in my game and hopefully somebody can help me sort out what's going on... although I don't know quite what has happened.

Basically, my team who have finished 5th, 7th, and 5th in previous seasons are suddenly the worst team in the premiership. That's not an exagerration, we are truly diabolical. In every match, home or away, we have at least 15 shots levelled at us by the opposition and usually get around 3 or 4 shots in at them at best. We've shipped 3 - 5 goals regularly in all of our matches thus far and no matter what team/formation I play it always happens.

Problem is, I don't see how it could have. I have not sold any players from last year, I've bought a couple to strengthen the squad who were better than my previous players, none of my current players are old enough to be losing form (oldest is 29), and no matter what tactic I play I always get destroyed (I've reset the game a few times, trying over ten different tactics that I use in various games, and every time I get battered).

I could take it if my team was losing despite putting in half decent performance, but this is not the case. The squad has been playing together for 2/3 seasons, morale is superb, the players have no personal problems and no teams in the league have significantly strengthened to leave us behind... despite this, we've gone from playing tightly contested games or being slightly better than the opposition, to getting our arses whipped from first to last whistle. Players that have been regularly getting 7+ ratings beforehand are suddenly regularly getting 5 ratings or less.

So, what is going on? I'm at my wits end, and don't want what had been a good game to be ruined by the fact my team appear to have forgotten how to play football? It seems no matter what formation or squad I use, I always, always get hammered! It's not realistic, but whatever, FM09 is far from realistic anyhow, but I still enjoy it and want to know any ways I can help the lads remember their profession before we get relegated with a squad of class players!

Any help appreciated...

Obviously without seeing the game i cant really judge properly but as far as the tactics go - try giving a new tactic a run for a few games and not just the 1 match. Your players will take a few games to adjust to the new style of play before you see it to full effect. Pick a solid, simple and defensive minded tactic and try and scrape a few wins & draws together then build on it.

Hope it works out for ya. We've all been there. (even though some will deny it)

I have tried this, and we're still getting bloody battered... I know of various solutions I could try (and have tried), but, should this be happening in the first place? As I said, I can understand my team losing, I've never had an issue with that, but how could a team with good quality, balance and stability suddenly be so bad? Surely, there would have been tell tale signs in the past 3 seasons ?

I suppose you could compare it to the situation at Blackburn this season (and I am also Blackburn in the game), but, they changed boss, had dressing room unrest and sold two of their best players. I'm still manager, my team are in very good spirits and I've sold none of my players. Struggling to think of another real life example where something like this has happened! It's amusing in a way, but, it's also sort of ruined the game for me, which sucks, and in my nearly 10 years of playing FM I've never seen a team decline like this before... for what it's worth, my current squad lines up as:

Kirkland

Wayne Bridge (who is now actually 30)

Tomas Sivok

Henrique

Ilsinho

Lautaro Acosta

Willians Santana

Sergio Mota

Jaime Gavilan

Roque Santa Cruz

Marquinhos

Admittedly, on paper they are not perhaps world beaters, but they have been consistant for me every season until now (players such as Razvan Rat and Olic have been a part of this also, but are currently subs). If they were a bad team, should it not have been recognised in the 2nd or 3rd seasons when most of them were assembled? Not sure why it would take two seasons for the game to realise they are useless :-/

how far into the season are you? they may start getting better after this run of bad form. They probably also have v. low morale which will be a factor. Make sure you give good team talks and maybe try a tactic which is based on a solid defence. It sounds strange to me. Possibly very unlucky

Morale is 'superb' on most players, and has been so far all season. I'm 13 games into the season atm. We've been terrible since game 1... very confused.

Unfortunately I can't offer you any helpful advise, I can however, offer you my support, I had spent 5 seasons with Wolves, getting promoted in the first season to the premiership, then finished 16th, 14, 11th and 8th (qualifying for Europe due to cup winners) had built a reasonably good team by this point was all fired up for the new season and looking forward to the prospect of my Wolves team playing in Europe, about a third of the way into the season the exact same thing happened to me.

Unexplainable, I had been rotating 2 tactics throughout the 5 season period with progressive success and then all of a sudden I can't win a single game no matter what I do, I had bought players based around my 442 variations that had served me so well all this time so had little room for drastic change as far as formations went. In the end I had to resign, I was keeping my team around mid-table even without a win in over 12 games (thanks to quite a lot of draws) but there was just no way out of the slump for me.

After my resignation; Gary McCalister took over as manager, went on to reach the heights of 4th place with my Wolves team before finishing the season in around 7th, he didnt seem to have any of my problems though, formation he used for the rest of the season was 442 also.

To an extent it had ruined my game, the team I had built was now being controlled by someone else, I have ended up taking a job with Bosnia despite my reputation being 'continental'. I thought a lower pressure job was the order of the day and am doing ok there, problem is I don't have bosnian players loaded so do not have a great selection of players to choose from.

This is definately something that needs to be sorted out asap.

You should try changing your tactics and taking a closer look at your players. I am Barcelona and from some strange reason Carles Puyol turned into a madman at the age of 32. He started getting red and yellow cards all over the place, even though his attributes were the same. I'm guessing because he was getting older/slower he decided to go in for rash tackles rather than let his man go past him.

Unfortunately I can't offer you any helpful advise, I can however, offer you my support, I had spent 5 seasons with Wolves, getting promoted in the first season to the premiership, then finished 16th, 14, 11th and 8th (qualifying for Europe due to cup winners) had built a reasonably good team by this point was all fired up for the new season and looking forward to the prospect of my Wolves team playing in Europe, about a third of the way into the season the exact same thing happened to me.

Unexplainable, I had been rotating 2 tactics throughout the 5 season period with progressive success and then all of a sudden I can't win a single game no matter what I do, I had bought players based around my 442 variations that had served me so well all this time so had little room for drastic change as far as formations went. In the end I had to resign, I was keeping my team around mid-table even without a win in over 12 games (thanks to quite a lot of draws) but there was just no way out of the slump for me.

After my resignation; Gary McCalister took over as manager, went on to reach the heights of 4th place with my Wolves team before finishing the season in around 7th, he didnt seem to have any of my problems though, formation he used for the rest of the season was 442 also.

To an extent it had ruined my game, the team I had built was now being controlled by someone else, I have ended up taking a job with Bosnia despite my reputation being 'continental'. I thought a lower pressure job was the order of the day and am doing ok there, problem is I don't have bosnian players loaded so do not have a great selection of players to choose from.

This is definately something that needs to be sorted out asap.

Gutting mate, sounds similar to my own situation.

You should try changing your tactics and taking a closer look at your players. I am Barcelona and from some strange reason Carles Puyol turned into a madman at the age of 32. He started getting red and yellow cards all over the place, even though his attributes were the same. I'm guessing because he was getting older/slower he decided to go in for rash tackles rather than let his man go past him.

I am looking closely at my tactics, but it is odd that after 3 seasons of playing similar tactics with some rotation for away games/big clubs they suddenly just don't work. Even if the AI had worked out how to play against my tactics, quality of players should count for something, right? And, surely it wouldn't have taken the AI 3 seasons to work it out?

As far as players go, they are just all playing badly. Literally, all of them. Currently everybody except Kirkland is on lower than 6.5 av rating over 13/14 games. Usually around 5.5 - 6.0. It's quite drastic! Plus, the oldest players in my squad are Bridge and Cruz (both of whom are 30, I admittedly thought they were 29 but still, players usually don't start getting terrible until 32/33, do they?)

Me to mate, just dont understand it. Been liverpool since start, had 2nd 3rd 2nd 3rd and finally 1st but then in the title defense even though i have used the same two systems( one for home and one for away) and made some signings (all young and good for the future) my whole team has declined.

Average age of 24 and just dont know what to do. Most players average mid 7s some 8s now hitting 5/6s. This including torres who has been class all the way through.

Doesnt matter what i do, i have never been one to cheat. What the game throws i have gone with but eventually i got so fed up i saved a game against Watford in the premiership and tried over 15 different tactics and players and the best i could get was a 1-1. Felt like a fraud for doing this but i then thought what is going on.

I have followed this game since its start as championship manager on the amiga and feel that this one (even thought it has the most total managerial control) is some how now what is cracked up to be. Again dont mind getting beat, all part and parcel but felt in some games the game play seemed pre deterimined no matter my team or tactics, you are destined for defeat.

please advise if i am wrong bit tempted to buy an amiga off ebay and championship manager 1998 as i feel this was gaming perfection.

I finally, finally found a tactic that stopped the slump. We're still not playing well, but at least we're not getting completely dominated in every game. It's also the first time I've used a diamond formation since CM01/02(it's a modification of Razor's Diamond Tactic in the tactics forum).

It seems to be part of a pattern. Another thread mentions a tactical experiment carried out by someone who saved and replayed a match a large number of times with identical tactics, team talks etc. Results varied from 0-4 to 3-0! That's far too close to random for my liking. It looks as though extraneous factors have far too much weight compared with what you do with your tactics.

One can't help suspecting that there is something built into these extraneous factors which causes slumps after a good run no matter what you do. If that is the case, it's quite wrong. Slumps should be caused by recognisable factors (players getting older, injuries, poor tactics, etc, etc) and be capable of being remedied, not by a built-in 'buggeration factor'.

Sames happening to me now .. I am 2nd in the league and I am struggling to draw & win games and I am in Janaury.

Your run of bad form, I would take a look at the full games to see what your players are doing wrong. Could be that your defence line is too high or could be too low. Could also be that your giving your player conflicting things to do, IE: Telling your players to do one thing in team instructions but in player instructions your telling your players to do something else.

Also maybe upload and post up some of your games so maybe others will take a look for you and see where your going wrong. Maybe upload your saved game and ask people who may spot something your missing.

It's your tactics

It's your tactics

This type of reply should get you banned!!

Actually its prob not your tactics. I ONLY EVER use a 4-4-2 and have done for 4seasons now. The only things i tweak home/away are the TEMPO and CREATIVITY and WIDTH and FOCUS BALL.

NOT MY TACTICAL FORMATION!!

Im currently in my 4th season undefeated for 2 seasons now. European champoins 2 years running!!

The only advice i can give is stick to one (balanced) formation and sell players who are not fitting in. I found that ALL my players who had a "hard time fitting into my team" were the ones who played poorest and i sold them a.s.a.p.

This type of reply should get you banned!!

Actually its prob not your tactics. I use a 4-4-2 and have done for 4seasons now. The only things i tweak home/away are the TEMPO and CREATIVITY and WIDTH and FOCUS BALL.

NOT MY TACTICAL FORMATION!!

Im currently in my 4th season undefeated for 2 seasons now. European champoins 2 years running!!

The only advice i can give is stick to one (balanced) formation and sell players who are not fitting in. I found that ALL my players who had a "hard time fitting into my team" were the ones who played poorest and i sold them a.s.a.p.

Just as well you don't run these forums then because if someone got banned for that, That would be a tad harsh. Thats like someone on here saying because you typed some of your post in caps, You should be banned.

Everyone tweaks thier game differently and just because you do something does not mean that will work for someone else the exact same way. It will possibly will be his tactics and most likely will be somehting little that he is missing.

This type of reply should get you banned!!

Actually its prob not your tactics. I ONLY EVER use a 4-4-2 and have done for 4seasons now. The only things i tweak home/away are the TEMPO and CREATIVITY and WIDTH and FOCUS BALL.

NOT MY TACTICAL FORMATION!!

Just as well you don't run these forums then because if someone got banned for that, That would be a tad harsh. Thats like someone on here saying because you typed some of your post in caps, You should be banned.

I actually have work colleagues who have been banned for a week for saying exactly that... "its your tactics".

Also if my entire post was in caps then i would expect some sort of infraction. But as it wasnt i dont see any problem. I was merely emphasising certain points in my post. All perfectly viable!!

Also, try 2 seasons for fun.... 1st season stay with the same formation and change ONLY instructions and see what tactical consistency rating you get on your manager profile.

2nd season stay with the same instructions and change only tcatical formation and see how VERY different the results are...

I actually have work colleagues who have been banned for a week for saying exactly that... "its your tactics".

Also if my entire post was in caps then i would expect some sort of infraction. But as it wasnt i dont see any problem. I was merely emphasising certain points in my post. All perfectly viable!!

Also, try 2 seasons for fun.... 1st season stay with the same formation and change ONLY instructions and see what tactical consistency rating you get on your manager profile.

2nd season stay with the same instructions and change only tcatical formation and see how VERY different the results are...

Well thats a shame people being banned for saying, "It's your tactics" in one post. But i have seen people being banned for saying that all the time and have been warned on numerous occassions but still keep doing it, Thats why some have been banned and so without actually seeing exactly what happened cannot comment on that. But i haven't seen anyone being banned for saying it just once. But i could be wrong and no doubt someone will come on now and say they have or seen someone who has.

Secondly, Read the rules. Not supposed to post in caps. It looks as if the poster is shouting and in the past has caused arguments because people just cant post normal text.

Thirdly, Without seeing the guys game or anything how anyone can say what you claim is just daft really. People post up suggesstions which sometimes in the end work with tried and tested means. Someone people only change tactical info and still dont' get consistancy. I have been using the same tactic but change both player and team insturctions for my first two season, Into my third season and i am getting very successful results.

Sometimes you have to change both to get the best out of your team & players and you can see this in the numerous threads in the tactics section so in general different things work for different teams, players and people around here. This is just one of many opinions which have worked for me in the game and if your theory works for you well grat then and i hope it continues to work for you.

Happy FM Gaming.

Secondly, Read the rules. Not supposed to post in caps. It looks as if the poster is shouting and in the past has caused arguments because people just cant post normal text.

Happy FM Gaming.

Ah, my appologies. i honestly thought that caps was only meant to emphasise a point. My bad :o

Just as well you don't run these forums then because if someone got banned for that, That would be a tad harsh. Thats like someone on here saying because you typed some of your post in caps, You should be banned.

Everyone tweaks thier game differently and just because you do something does not mean that will work for someone else the exact same way. It will possibly will be his tactics and most likely will be somehting little that he is missing.

The mods actually made a post a couple of weeks ago that posters simply saying"its your tactics" would either recieve an infraction or possibly a ban.

This was basically because it is very annoying and was getting posted way to often and lead the thread to get a bit derailed ....like this one.

Ah, my appologies. i honestly thought that caps was only meant to emphasise a point. My bad :o

Nah it's cool. Just thought i would point it out b efore a mod does.

On any forums caps lock is like shouting at someone when posting.

@ Daylight: Infraction = Warning. I don't think mods would ban someone who said that for the first time in a thread as the post would most likely be on another page by now. But i suppose they may be in the rules by now so as i said earlier banning someone for saying that for the first time is a bit harsh tp ban them surely, Thats why a infraction would be best first and if they kept on doing it then ban them. But thats for the mods to decide and was only airing my opinion.

Yes I agree a ban for a 1st offense would be harsh but lets be honest here 99% of the posters that say it think in there small minds they are being funny when indeed they are comming across very foolish and do nothing but waste bandwidth.

If a poster has something to add that may help then by all means start with "its your tactics" but then at the very least give an opinion(what forums are for)about what the problem may be.

I also think the posters that are saying "its your tactics" have seen that typed so many times and just post to annoy...no other reason so yes infractions should be given out but I think there comes a time that the mods have to say "ok thats it if you say only "its your tactics" you will spend a week in the sinbin".

I hate to say this but it probably is your tactics. Have a look at the thread at http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php?t=61144 and it should help you figure out whats went wrong.

Yes I agree a ban for a 1st offense would be harsh but lets be honest here 99% of the posters that say it think in there small minds they are being funny when indeed they are comming across very foolish and do nothing but waste bandwidth.

If a poster has something to add that may help then by all means start with "its your tactics" but then at the very least give an opinion(what forums are for)about what the problem may be.

I also think the posters that are saying "its your tactics" have seen that typed so many times and just post to annoy...no other reason so yes infractions should be given out but I think there comes a time that the mods have to say "ok thats it if you say only "its your tactics" you will spend a week in the sinbin".

Exactly mate.

People should post more than just "It's your tactics" and i also gree that it isn't funny at all, If anything it's boring and wastes space on what is a very good forum.

maybe you could try blooding some youngsters. they may not seem as good attribute wise as some of your other players, but i've found that it can help sometimes.

by saying this i don't mean relace all your team with the u18's . although you could try that if you wanted

It's your tactics

Obvious troll is obvious.

Sounds to me like the other teams in the premiership have figured out how to beat your tactics, so you'd best change up your formation. Maybe even just move MR/ML up to AMR/AML or drop a CM back to DM or up to AMC to mix it up a bit and throw off the opposition.

Either that, or have some fun totally reinventing your formation I always try and buy players who can play more than one position so I can swap it all around a bit, so maybe that's worth a go.

Just a thought OP did you get a message saying something along the lines of "the fans believe you should change your 3-5-2 formation to try and end the winless streak"?(I use a 3-5-2 formation with 5 across the middle)

I got this message after I lost 5 games at the end of last season(I had a pretty terrible end to the season).

Luckly for me that was the last game of the season so I didnt bother but I thought if it was maybe midway I would have tinkered with the tactics although I am not a big fan of changing tactics to much,maybe I would have changed the sliders a bit and maybe brought my holding CM back to a defensive midfielder.

I firmly believe that a drastic change to a formation that has been successful could do alot more harm than good,maybe try alittle tinkering while trying to keep the shape of your team's successful formation intact.

If my team suddenly starts getting bad results I just change my formation a little bit e.g. play two strikers instead of one, move a defensive midfielder upto the central position. The best one is to make your full backs go on the attack. Make them run with the ball down the wings and cross the ball into the box often. If the AI has figured out your tactics this will cause all sorts of problems for it.

Using my new diamond tactic things are going well... we don't play as well as we did the first 3 seasons, but we're picking up results, mainly because my players are generally superior to other teams. Guess it was tactics, although, it seems odd that it took the AI three seasons to work out my tactics. I'm seasoned enough on FM not to need to upload my games for analysis, I was just wondering if such silly things had happened to others (and they have, so it's fine, I know I'm not alone in the frustration).

The tactics make the game less realistic at the moment, IMO. I can understand a team falling into a slump where they struggle to win, but how often do you see a top 6 side go from playing well to getting murdered every single game regardless of the opposition for 13 games? For a team to go from being decent to simply getting mullered every game (15+ shots to the opposition, even if they were a newly promoted team? Come on) isn't realistic at all. Maybe something to look at. I think the game is definately tailored to ensured that the player never has it easy, but I suppose that is what makes it a challenge. Guess I'll use this tactic until FM decides to force my team into a slump again and I have to alter things

Just a thought OP did you get a message saying something along the lines of "the fans believe you should change your 3-5-2 formation to try and end the winless streak"?(I use a 3-5-2 formation with 5 across the middle)

I got this message after I lost 5 games at the end of last season(I had a pretty terrible end to the season).

Luckly for me that was the last game of the season so I didnt bother but I thought if it was maybe midway I would have tinkered with the tactics although I am not a big fan of changing tactics to much,maybe I would have changed the sliders a bit and maybe brought my holding CM back to a defensive midfielder.

I firmly believe that a drastic change to a formation that has been successful could do alot more harm than good,maybe try alittle tinkering while trying to keep the shape of your team's successful formation intact.

To answer your question, I did not get this message!

The tactics make the game less realistic at the moment, IMO. I can understand a team falling into a slump where they struggle to win, but how often do you see a top 6 side go from playing well to getting murdered every single game regardless of the opposition for 13 games? For a team to go from being decent to simply getting mullered every game (15+ shots to the opposition, even if they were a newly promoted team? Come on) isn't realistic at all. Maybe something to look at. I think the game is definately tailored to ensured that the player never has it easy, but I suppose that is what makes it a challenge. Guess I'll use this tactic until FM decides to force my team into a slump again and I have to alter things

Not true.

Neither club got completely destroyed in their games, they just failed to win and were either outfought or unlucky.

Have Tottenham been completely dominated in their games? No. They've lost, but they don't play like utter crap. That's the point I'm getting at, as I said, I'm well aware teams lose form, but not in the manner my game has depicted.

Also, Spurs finished 11th last year, and splashed out on a number of new players in the summer who are still trying to gel. I finished 5th and have got basically the same team.

If morale is => good then try "Expect win" and "Angry" team talks.

Oh believe me, I've been angry more times than I care to count with my players I'm not having problems now, anyhow. My problem is solved, it just shouldn't have been a problem in the first place

well this is maybe a bad example as the team are still doing ok in the Premiership but if you look at Chelsea these days teams know how to play against them and they dont have another formation it would seem to fall back on,in recent years they have been unbeatable at home and always did well away from home but now they are really struggling for the wins that they do get.

Yes I know they arent going 13 games without a win and that is maybe a problem with the game going a bit far but it is very possible for other teams to learn how to play against another team that only has 1 way to play.

Like I said earlier I would try to "tinker"alittle with the team if I was in that position but I would not change my formation that was successful too much as I dont believe that would work and also very unrealistic,I think the likes of Sammy Lee can be a good manager but he went into the Bolton job and messed around too much and it ended as a nightmare,I think players get used to playing a certain way both ingame and irl.

It is good you got a winning tactic again but it seems you are not to happy with it,me I would have stuck with the tactic and either changed the players around a bit or changed the sliders or maybe even both,I enjoy controling my team but it seems atm you are letting the game control you.

well this is maybe a bad example as the team are still doing ok in the Premiership but if you look at Chelsea these days teams know how to play against them and they dont have another formation it would seem to fall back on,in recent years they have been unbeatable at home and always did well away from home but now they are really struggling for the wins that they do get.

Yes I know they arent going 13 games without a win and that is maybe a problem with the game going a bit far but it is very possible for other teams to learn how to play against another team that only has 1 way to play.

Like I said earlier I would try to "tinker"alittle with the team if I was in that position but I would not change my formation that was successful too much as I dont believe that would work and also very unrealistic,I think the likes of Sammy Lee can be a good manager but he went into the Bolton job and messed around too much and it ended as a nightmare,I think players get used to playing a certain way both ingame and irl.

It is good you got a winning tactic again but it seems you are not to happy with it,me I would have stuck with the tactic and either changed the players around a bit or changed the sliders or maybe even both,I enjoy controling my team but it seems atm you are letting the game control you.

I'll go back to my own tactic eventually, but I can't afford to lose game after game whilst tinkering. I tried so much and just got repeatedly beaten into the ground, no matter what setting I changed. As aforementioned, I have altered Razor's tactic to suit my own players, so it's not like i've just ripped it and applied it. The team I'm sure will get better as they get used to playing this way. I can now, also, play Sivok in defensive midfield and not have to rely on untested players to fill a midfield role.

Happened to me for years. Every version is the same. Do well for half a season, lose 15 straight after that.

I'd always had patches of bad form on previous games that were inevitable, but I'd never gone from having a decent team at the end of one season to having a terrible team at the start of the next, despite all the players basically being the same and of good age. The exact same thing happened to a friend of mine a couple of days back, but not even changing tactics helped him, and his team that finished 4th the previous year finished 19th and were relegated

The dreaded slump is very, very, very frustrating. I experimented with the ME to try to understand the variables that determine the outcome of results via the ME. Here's what I posted on another thread in the Tactics forum.

With the Villa template that I've been using to assess the strength of tactics that I've downloaded from this forum, I decided to run an additional experiment to see what happens with Villa's results if I modify my players' CA to match their PA. That is, to make all the 1st team players at my club play at the top of their game, the peak of their careers.

Additionally, I used FMRTE to give all my players 20 for consistency and Big Games, and to heal them and remove any bans before every match.

And do you know what? They were still wildly inconsistent. Although they started the season very, very well, by November the dreaded slump appeared, causing me to slide down the table faster than the Titanic sank to the bottom of the Atlantic.

And I wasn't using some ordinary tactic that I'd developed - I was using Matt's v4 tactic for 9.2.0, which seems to be the most popular tactic for FM09 on these forums.

I even bought some cracking players at the start of the game and boosted their CA up to their PA and it still didn't matter.

As I said, I think too much weight is given to variables that, although realistic, detract from the fun of the game.

Cheers

ps I'm going to run another two experiments to see if, firstly, making all of my players two-footed (20 for both feet) and increasing their CA to match their PA makes me more consistent, and, secondly, increasing my club's reputation allows me to achieve better, more consistent results.

pps Weather, club reputation, number of supporters, match odds, media interactions, etc - give them less weight in calculating the outcome of matches, SI. Please!

Cheers

Internal program routines prevent the human player from escaping the Matrix.

Until you keep on chasing sentinels your brain will produce electricity enough to feed the Matrix.

Ive had a couple of forwards who I shouted at and they went out in the second half and scored wonder goals within the first 2 minutes (different games)

I usually get goals scored against me at the beginning of the second half - normally between the 45th - 50th minute, no matter how I played in the first half or what team talk I give. Tempted to just chuck all my players back for the first 5 minutes then go back to normal formation, but they'd still probably score