depressing

[elchshooter]

At first sorry for my mediocre english...
I´m a fm-fan since the championship-manager times.
Most of the time been successful as a manager, always trying to get some nice small club as far upstairs as possible, but now i got to the point i could set my pc on fire, although it itself works great...
To start, i´m from austria. if you watch the euro, you perhaps know the wörtherseestadion in klagenfurt (e.g.:germany-croatia...)
32000 seaters
i manage austria kärnten, the local club playing there in austrian premier league
the thing is, i never saw less than 8000 people in the stadium, i saw every home-match last season(except 1). it was sold out several times.
i start the game, play the first season and there where 350 fans in average (???)
okay, i admit,the team is not very good. almost went down in real-life.
okay, i went down in fm (no chance), which was no problem for me, always had faught hard, and after some years i got up almost every club.
until fm2008.
problem 1: board considered club as semi-professional. scouting trips only in austria (there is almost NOBODY to find)
first thing i always do, is to buy good staff.
3 scouts, send them to "scout austria". get 1 four-star player i can´t afford.(remember 350 average visitors?) the rest: ********.
no problem
after 2 seasons
against all odds i got a team that was competitive.
problem 2: season 2010/11 have winning
streaks over 8 games, don´t lose for 12 games, i dominate the league. tactics changing and working(although i got the feeling i would have won most of the games without changing anything...) then suddenly: my players all no more attack. just stand there, and don´t attack the other player. they shoot in any direction but the goal. players in suberb condition don´t move properly. they just walk around.
7 out of 8 duells are lost. i lose 4 games in a row, although i try really everything (i have 2 players for each position and 4 different previously working tactics). but games says i have to lose. then suddenly it gets better. i play a draw(don´t know why), another lose(but suddenly my soccerios start playing again), then another winning streak. at the end 3rd in 2nd division. okay, must have been bad luck.
next 3 seasons. same thing
at some point of the season my players just stop fighting, lose some games, then win everything after.
next 3 seasons. same thing
i had been 3rd 4 times.
you just CANT get up there.

for better understanding:
first division austria:
12 teams, one(!!!) gets up to premier league.
you can have 3 foreigners (not non-eu, ANY FOREIGNERS) in team.
there is hardly any point in scouting austria, when you are in semi professional state.
you have a ridicoulous budget because of ridiculous fan numbers.
but you manage to get a talented team (with all the skills you got in the last 10 cm/fm years)

but game says you have to extremely over/underperform at some point of the season. and that means you can´t get up.(1 out of 12)

i know they´ll say "whiner", noob, or sth.

but it isn´t training
it isn´t tactics
it isn´t players
it isn´t team talks
it isn´t bad luck

it´s something in the game that says "stop!"

i spent half a year on this game version ,hours every day trying everything.
it´s dead now for me.

fm 2007 was hard, and there were unfair tendencies.
but it was possible to succeed(although at some times it was real WORK) and finaly it was fun.

2008 is frustrating. to much game-made walls.

but thank you for healing my addiction

* cm2 1997
+ fm 2008

rest in piece

[DaveRH]

Originally posted by elchshooter:

but it isn´t training
it isn´t tactics
it isn´t players
it isn´t team talks
it isn´t bad luck

it´s something in the game that says "stop!"

I'll disagree and say it is your tactics.

What's happening is that your performance in the league is causing teams to reevaluate how they play against you. Effectively, they're going more defensive and you're having problems breaking that down.

Try the tactics and training forum for some ideas on how to counter this.

[sirdez24]

Originally posted by DaveRH:

I'll disagree and say it is your tactics.

What's happening is that your performance in the league is causing teams to reevaluate how they play against you. Effectively, they're going more defensive and you're having problems breaking that down.

Try the tactics and training forum for some ideas on how to counter this.

The problem is the match engine often represents this by your players suddenly spraying simple passes, missing straight forward chances and conceding bizarre goals. Hence the frustration.

[Nomis07]

Originally posted by sirdez24:
The problem is the match engine often represents this by your players suddenly spraying simple passes, missing straight forward chances and conceding bizarre goals. Hence the frustration.

I agree with DaveRH and I think your scenarios are based on the oppositions change in tactics to combat you. If I see my players suddenly messing up simple passes I usually associate it with the other teams closing down and pestering of my team, missing straight forward chances because they are having a tougher game and so aren't "in the zone".

[crouchaldinho]

One of the things I have noticed about FM08 is that your current form has a much bigger influence upon how the opposition plays against you.

In my current game, I have been winning and winning with my current side all season. My form is so good, that I have had to start playing a very attacking system away from home against sides who are supposed to finish higher than me in the table.

I think the trouble is that a lot of people have immediate success over, say, 10 games with a counter attacking tactic. Then, suddenly the opposition starts turning up defensively (despite pre-match odds) and the goals start flowing in the wrong end.

Part of the problem is the lower tempo, possession based football that the computer plays. The reason you concede such silly goals is because the defence sit too deep and allow the opposition the chance to have possession in your half of the field, thus the computer can make clinical chances and one of them is bound to go in. At the other end of the pitch, your team aren't creating clinical chances because they aren't playing with enough width or the right attacking mentality. So, you miss chances, and this is exacerbated by the opposition scoring (which they normally do) because your plyer morale drops. Thus, you start getting beaten 2-0 and 3-0 each week and you can't see why.

My advice is, read the scout reports and watch how the opposition plays against you on the 2d screen. As soon as you are winning tons of games, your scout is going to report that each side is playing a defensive tactic and this is the first clue to the fact that you need to become more attacking. You will see it on the 2d screen as the opposition players being more cautious with the ball, playing it more slowly, passing sideways and not committing too many players forward.

What does everyone else think? Does this ring true for your game?

C.

[backpackant]

at some point of the season my players just stop fighting, lose some games, then win everything after.

It's a common complaint. Playing in England I reduce physical training very slightly in the last third of the season. Seems to help.

[Cometdude]

This is one of the reasons that I think a difficulty model should be introduced into the game. I'm not going to discuss it here as I already have and many others have in countless number of threads, but there are quite clearly alot of long term players out there that simply cant get to grips with the new ( and in my opinion improved ) AI.

If I was you I would take the advice of the other posters start taking more risks in matches and you'll soon reap the rewards I only say be careful as some teams will murder you with the counter attack if you get it wrong!