Just too much rubbish

I thought that I would give FM 2009 a last go, and that I would follow the manual that accompanies the game DVD.

So I started with OGN Nice Cote d'Azur who have a prediction of 10th in Ligue 1

having read the manual I read about the mentality settings and thought that if the setting is set to normal, then the player will play exactly to that position, so a normal mentality Center-back will play just like a centre back, rather than a defensive mentality Centre-back who will play like a sweeper, I decided to play a 4-4-2, with all players on normall mentality, as I wanted two banks of 4 and 2 freerole strikers, moving the centerbacks around. I wanted to play a containment game as my centre-defenders were on the slow side, with Hognon and Cid. so I reduced the defensive line to the highest deep setting. and I set closing down to the lowest on my centre-backs and two from lowest on my full-backs, I also set my centre-mids to mid to low closing, as with my strikers.

I wanted to play a short passing game, but because I am not a top-quality team, I reduced the tempo to slow as well, only the centre backs had normal passing.

The season started well if a little inconsistent, with plenty of goals, even though my strikers couldn't finish and open goal, half of my goals came from midfield. after 6 games I had scored the most goals in the league, but conceded the most as well, but I had played Bordeaux and Marseille, who I lost 4-3 and won 4-3 against.

as the season continued, my strikers seemed to get even worse at finishing, with one game against Valenciennes giving me 5 CCC and 15 shots, 66% possession and a pass success rate of 76%, compared to there 1 CCC and 3 shots, 34% possession and 54% pass success rate. I lost 1-0!

although this is very dissapointing, what is even more dissapointing is how I conceded, after the first 5 or 6 games, when my defence had learned there instructions, I had only conceded 5 goals in 9 games, but we had only scored 6 in 9, because my strikers like missing one-on-ones.

but in this game, my centre-back, Hognon, ran out about 3 steps, almost like he was playing an offside trap, even though we are not and he is set to man-mark the striker, which I set individually, then the ball goes through and the over-rated Audel fires home.

In my next game, against Stade Rennais, the same this happens, once with Hognon again and also with Cid, and allows Briand and Wiltord to score, both in behind, even though I am playing a containment game, and yes, I did check my settings after the goals, just to see if they had magically changed, but they had not, It was just my defenders ignoring orders.

I can't wait for the new Patch, unless it doesn't change the major errors in the game engine, other than this I have really enjoyed this version of Football Manager and well done to the producers.