Why I Quit Despite Being Top

I hope its ok to start a new thread, as PaulC closed the previous thread, understandably as it veered massively off topic.

I posted this in a different thread but it was off topic and out of place.

I quit my Everton game despite being top of the table at the time after 12 games in season 4.

Despite previously having come 3rd, 2nd and then somehow 5th? it just felt that i was been "allowed" to win it this time(although as in previous seasons completely dominating matches) add to that that other teams were not strengthening their squads properly, making it just a bit tedious and pointless.

I then spent a whole morning trying to decide who to be next, but knowing what to expect, i could not force myself to go through the rigmarole of setting up a game, buying players, sorting through pre season etc, etc, so i did'nt bother.

As usual the urge struck to start again and the only team i could think to start with(based on not caring if i won or lost?) was Spurs.

Having played 13 EPL games, it is obvious that we are performing just as well as i did in both my Man City game(1st in season 1) and my Everton game(3rd in season 1) the only obvious major difference is my strikers goalscoring averages.

At City my best two strikers were averaging 1 in 5.5 and 1 in 7

With Everton it was 1 in 5 and 1 in 8(Torres at Liverpool averaged almost 1 in 2 this season)

With Spurs i brought in Rossi and Lavezzi on the cheap as i was worried about Spurs lack of firepower.

My best two strikers so far are Rossi 1 in 9 and Pavlyuchenko 1 in 13 with the other 3 strikers in the squad as follows.

Lavezzi 0 in 10 and the only player in the squad who's stats are dropping

Bent 0 in 7 despite his pace he looks clueless and his average rating is just over 6

Campbell 1 in 16

I'm using the same tactic i was using as City and Everton, which creates a lot of easy chances, especially for the left sided striker if pacey?

I can't help but wonder if this is the games way of measuring results to produce realistic results(not games) and League Tables?

Obviously Spurs start out as ungelled so it would explain the difference in stats between them and City/Everton, but the games produced are not of an ungelled squad, but just of strikers who will not put the ball in the back of the net with any consistency.

Defensively and midfiels wise, its pretty much identical, with missed interceptions and players standing still/moving away from the ball, being the main cause of any goals conceded.

I don't agree with the "allowed" part of your statement, but I do 100% agree that once you are top it is too easy to stay there. The other "big" clubs do absolutely jack squat to try and improve themselves. They will sit the same squads until they grow old together and once the only thing that saves them is that the game give them world class regens every once in a while.

No way would ManU ever sit back and watch their team fall behind teams like Everton and Spurs without even attempting to spend some cash and bring him the current world superstars. To me is totally takes away from the game as every year seems to be the same old thing every time.

I disagree with the "allowed" part and "the once your top yove won"

My first season .. I was top for half of the season, then I started dropping points and it ended in a big 4 horse race which involved me droppin to 3rd then 2nd then 4th then 2nd then 1st ect ect.

Its probably a good thing that you were seeing the same things with City, Everton and Spurs, given that you said you've used the same tactic.....

Section 1 - Above the red line are my results when my team gelling was described as "some way short of operating as a unit and "not yet developed a good level of understanding"

Section 2 - Below the red line are my results when my team gelling was described as "current players are blending well together".

Not counting friendlies my obvious ungelled side had the following stats W 9 D 2 L 1 and since starting to gel W 4 D 7 L 2

I'm pointing this out because personally, this has been something that i have noticed in practically every new game i have started and i just cannot help but think that it is just another pointless feature that means nothing?

Going back to my striker stats i noticed that Rossi is now in the top ten EPL scorers, i also noticed that the other 9 players each have a shot/goal ratio between 1 in 4 and 1 in 5.5, whilst Rossi's is 1 in 8.5.

Worse than that, my apparent squads best striker Pavlyuchenko has the following stats.

You may notice his only two goals have both been penalties.

Shocking stats for Pavlyuchenko considering every time he plays against me for the AI Spurs, he runs rings around every player and score literally every time he plays against me. :confused:

There appears to be a disconnect between the ME result and number of chances created by an overachieving tactic. Same issue as generated by proper arrows in FM08.

Shocking stats for Pavlyuchenko considering every time he plays against me for the AI Spurs, he runs rings around every player and score literally every time he plays against me. :confused:

lol very simular to me but uche moved to newcastel and always scores against me. Thinking of getting him just so he cant. His stats arn't that great either to be honest.

lol very simular to me but uche moved to newcastel and always scores against me. Thinking of getting him just so he cant. His stats arn't that great either to be honest.

This starts a train of thought.

I manage at a much humbler level (Scottish Div 3) and, as I am operating to LLM guidelines, the opportunities to sign decent players for this level are very limited. Most of the possibilities are total cr*p to be honest.

Now, pleasantly, I have signed a striker from a non-league outfit (for the enormous sum of £1k as backup I thought) and he is performing way, way above expectations, having now scored 9 goals in 11 games and with an average rating of somewhere around 7.7 to 7.8.

Whilst I would be happy to believe that it is my natural tactical genius which is leading to this, I cannot help wondering whether there are some hidden stats about which explain why certain players always seem to do much better than their obvious stats would suggest and, if so, what these might be?

This starts a train of thought.

I manage at a much humbler level (Scottish Div 3) and, as I am operating to LLM guidelines, the opportunities to sign decent players for this level are very limited. Most of the possibilities are total cr*p to be honest.

Now, pleasantly, I have signed a striker from a non-league outfit (for the enormous sum of £1k as backup I thought) and he is performing way, way above expectations, having now scored 9 goals in 11 games and with an average rating of somewhere around 7.7 to 7.8.

Whilst I would be happy to believe that it is my natural tactical genius which is leading to this, I cannot help wondering whether there are some hidden stats about which explain why certain players always seem to do much better than their obvious stats would suggest and, if so, what these might be?

Finishing, off the ball, technique, composure, pace, heading......

Nah more seriously probably consistency, professionalism, adaptability, big games etc

Hmm, I suppose that if you have been playing for Arniston Rangers, the dizzy heights of Scotland Div 3 mean that everything is a 'big game' to you.

Anyway, long may he continue to find the back of the net with monotonous regularity!

Just an update on my Spurs game, i have quit and can no longer think of a viable reason to start another game right now.

Here are the results and stats from my last four games, which has been the story of my season so far.

too easy to stay top!

my game must have a huge bug, i was top at the start of the season for the opening 13 games, afterwards, stayed in second throughout the season!

Just cannot find a way to rationalise the performances and stats compared to the results to bother going on?

I WAS going to finish this season and have a season at Villa, but i've quit this game and already know how the Villa save will turn out.

Performance wise i could easily have been challenging for the title with Spurs, it just feels like there is something in the game making sure that is not the case?

Just cannot find a way to rationalise the performances and stats compared to the results to bother going on?

I WAS going to finish this season and have a season at Villa, but i've quit this game and already know how the Villa save will turn out.

Performance wise i could easily have been challenging for the title with Spurs, it just feels like there is something in the game making sure that is not the case?

i am suffering the same type of performances myself. For example: Liverpool are currently top on my game, 30 games in and they have yet to lose. I am 3rd, 1 defeat in 16 league games and next up is Liverpool at my ground. at half time, the game is 1-1 and i think i have a chance. 2nd half gets under way, i create 3 times as many CCC's as them an yet they score a header from a corner then shut up shop with a magical defensive tactic which yields not even so much as a 2d for the last 25mins regardless of how "attacking" i try to get my team to play.

what really bugs me is that the "set pieces" section of the training on FM has absolutely no relation to training your players to defend corners so im basically helpess to prevent my team from conceding from a corner. alls i can do is rely on player stats - which based on other threads ive read recently - are not always relevant. (im referring to the pace issue brought up in one of the threads).

just to make it clear: results are not pre-programmed - PaulC has said this many times but after that game, it feels like they are. after that 90mins i felt like i had tried everything possible but there was just no way i was going to win despite me having statistically superior players in most positions.

personally i cant explain it. the games im losing are because of simply shambolic defending which has sod all to do with my tactics and the games im drawing are because my strikers are obsessed with passing it to the opposition keeper. i swear if they were real life games i was watching, id be seriously suspecting bribery. near all AI strikers have the coolness of an arctic cucumber against me but any world class striker i buy couldnt find water if he fell out of a boat!

im hoping 9.3 has the fixes im after or i might end up just losing interest as right now it feels like im constantly swimming against the tide and its sucking the enjoyment right out of a game that is potentially as addictive as any drug on the market.

apologies if this is seen as a rant, that was not my intention. just got a bit carried away with the keyboard...

Easy solution click

It's never not fun! just go to announcements and downloads.

click

And it's free, yay! I'm tired of waiting for 9.0.X tbh

If you want a challenge then manage an underdog. While I wait for a patch to sort out some issues with my favourite club I've started managing hull, I looked for the team predicted to finish 20th in the premiership and took the job

Do we need a thread every time you quit your game?

worse things happen at sea.

I am finding the same how shall I put this "PROBLEMS" with the AI managers of the bigger teams in it seems to be in most countries on my network game with a friend. They simply dont strengthen their squads with new transfers. Man utd have made one signing in 3 seasons. Thats not realisitic!!! Man city and Newcastle are the only AI teams that seem to be buying. In Man City's case it is the same players every time. Both myself and my friend play a lot of Fm and we are both seeing the same Transfers coming up on our single player saved games that are coming up on our network game with the AI teams.

I will stop rambling now as a whole its a cracking game just needs a few tweaks here and there.

worse things happen at sea.

Classic mate!

Garry, I've read most of your threads over the last few years, both here and at FMB, and can sympathise with you to a certain degree. That's no to say I agree with you, but because I haven't really experienced the same things you have it's hard to pass a proper opinion.

Would you be willing to upload your save game for maybe a few people to take an objective look at it on the whole ? I'd really like to cast an eye over one of your saved games and do some of my own analysis.

I don't want to try and "prove" or "disprove" anything, but I have some free time today and would really like to analyse one of your games in detail.

Thanks