Does the computer learn your tactics and how to beat them?

My first season I did well and finished 6th.

Now I am currently 19th, one win in ten, I have hardly changed my team and kept the same tactics.

The only real change is I sold Bassong, Bale plays left back now, I bought Alexis Sanchez but thats it.

Thanks.

Technically no but it does change its approach depending on a variety of factors.

It looks like you are suffering from second season syndrome which is fairly common. It looks like you overachieved in your first season and now other teams see you as a bigger threat adjusting their tactics.

What Cougar says is probably right, your team's rep probably rose, so now teams don't attack you so much, instead sitting back and soaking up pressure.

Yeah, I'd agree with Cougar and SCIAG, your rep's improved, so teams will be more careful when playing you.

I think teams will learn your tactics though. On my long term game, I had an attacking 442 (wingers as inside forwards, worked a treat), and gradually over 2-3 seasons, I saw a noticable shift in tactics, as teams stopped playing 4-4-2 against me, and went for a 4-3-3. Didn't work, but I think that was their effort to try and stop me.

They don't learn your tactic, but they do adapt to things.

Consider a 4-2-3-1 formation and it so happens that you are doing really well, and your central attacking midfielder is having the form of his life. Eventually your reputation raises to the point where opposition teams may be more cautious, so they are tighter and there's much less space for your team to work with. Your attacking midfielder is singled-out as a dangerman and is promptly tightly-marked, closed-down, shown onto his weaker foot and tackled hard. This didn't happen before because you didn't perform that well for such a prolonged period.

So the AI isn't really learning your formation as-such, but it does adapt to what it sees as a possibly-increasingly-difficult opponent and will withdraw into its shell slightly more as a result, making things more difficult.

What everyone else said basically.

Short answer no with a but.......

You'll need to adjust how you do things.

The AI, as already mentioned, changes the way it plays matches against you.

It will play narrower, more defensively, you will start to see more out & out defensive formations (5-4-1, 3-3-2-1-1 etc), and several other small tactical changes. You need to change & adapt formation/tactics over time yourself to compensate.

I find that if you have a good tactic you can be pretty confident of sticking with it in the long run.

I find that if you have a good tactic you can be pretty confident of sticking with it in the long run.

Yeah Definitly. I've been using the same tactic since fm10 came out.

Only one tactic a year.

this happened to me as well. i has a predicted 12th place with napoli, i ended up 5th and in the second season my defensive counter-attackin tactic didn't work anymore. this is very realistic. that's why teams like hoffenheim or wolfsburg had great seasons but then dropped to "normality" the following year.

Seems no one if IRL has a solution to counter the Stoke long throw into the box yet though

Second season syndrome is completely illogical in the sense that if the status/reputation of your club grows you still can't attract better players.