Home Team bias

[mud]

I picked up FM2012 when saw I via the games official facebook page that it was going for £7.99 for a brief period of time. The last FM I owned was FM 2009 having played this game for the past week ive noticed how difficult it is when you play away from home your team can be dominated by a lesser team even though you dominated that team when you played them at home eariler in the season. I am aware that away games are harder than playing at home IRL but not to the extent they are on FM2012 when exactly did the game become like this? Away games were generally harder than home game on FM2009 but not as hard as they are on FM2012

[scott MUFC]

i agree it is, playing a weaker team it is even more noticable, they big clubs will take you apart with 70% possesion, yet struggle at yours.

[mud]

yep its ruined the game for me man

[scott MUFC]

nah, makes thing interesting. but fristrating when every cup game is away

[aderow]

nah, makes thing interesting. but fristrating when every cup game is away

Its amazing how many times I've had City away then Liverpool away then like Stoke away. I still win em though

[mud]

nah there needs to be more of a medium its too overpowered its unrealistic. When did exactly did the game become like this?

[JB23]

Who are you playing as? I rarely struggle to have more than 60% possession. It's a cliche but it probably is your tactics. Just FYI I don't alter them for home or away just play my 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 depending on player rotation.

[Barside]

Playing away is difficult irl, Manchester United's away record was less than stellar last season, even Barcelona & Bayern Munich have a less than 50% win rates in the league when playing away this season.

As for FM the AI has become better at setting up a team to exploit weakness & use your perceived strengths against you, they still struggle to react to changes made during the game but most players get caught in a trap of not making changes.

[ReggaeBwoy]

Playing away is difficult irl, Manchester United's away record was less than stellar last season, even Barcelona & Bayern Munich have a less than 50% win rates in the league when playing away this season.

As for FM the AI has become better at setting up a team to exploit weakness & use your perceived strengths against you, they still struggle to react to changes made during the game but most players get caught in a trap of not making changes.

Very good point indeed, especially as people count Barca 'the best in the world' they have dropped numerous amount of points away from home this season.

[Barside]

Barcelona are a perfect example of what happens in FM, using the AI as the home team they just sit back in a very disciplined manner & soak up the pressure Barcelona (Human managers) put them under while the bide their time for the chance to isolate a defender on the counter attack.

It also explains why we see so many I had 20 shots they only had 2 yet I lost threads, the AI may only get a couple of chances but they tend to be clear cut 1v1's because most human managers have a tendency to over-commit in attack.

[FulhamFC1879]

i have this problem too, winning away is hard, but then again i am fulham and fulham are actually poor away from home in real life, so its quite realistic in that way, i won 1 game away in my first season, kept conceding in the last minutes of the match! so for me this is abit like real life, but i manage to beat man city away 6-1 in the cup and arsenal away.

[mud]

im playing as liverpool I generally use 442 or 451 which work fine at home and I dominate possession but away from home I struggle ive also noticed that the players give the ball away a lot away from home which leads to a lack of possession why is this? What makes ball retention so poor away from home?

[marty78]

I think the balance is about right. Generally teams perform better in front of their own fans IRL mainly due to the fact that very few sets of supporters will tolerate negative football at home week in, week out. Add to this the fact that away sides are more likely to sit back, try to keep things tight and see what happens then it is no surprise away wins are considerably fewer than home wins.

scott MUFC

If that is ongoing every year then report it as a bug otherwise it is just bad luck. Besides which, if you are Man Utd, home/away bias shouldn't really affect you as much as it might perhaps with other users who use weaker sides.

[scott MUFC]

it shouldn't but it does for no good reason, you get outplayed by low morale home teams, when you destroy the likes of chelsea away
and it does have an effect, i cant use players i would like to use because of this effect

[marty78]

You really shouldn't be outplayed in many matches at all as Man Utd. Do you use the same tactics home and away? Do you use shouts to vary your tactic slightly while keeping close to the familiarity of your main tactic? Do you watch matches?

I had a read through a thread in the tactics section by Cleon(stickied) in which she said that she watches the first 15 minutes of every match so as to adjust the tactic slightly. Best piece of advice I have had on these forums.

Obviously even the best sides will have off days but if it happens with any sort of regularity then slight tactical changes may be needed away from home. If it is a couple of matches a season then don't worry about it as it happens. Overall success is more important than individual results and if your happy with your end of season results then who cares about losnig away at a small club now and again.

[scott MUFC]

no i dont get outplayed (last match i did but still won with only 3 shots lol), but home have already beaten liverpool 6-0 and spurs 6-1 so would much prefer a championship side at home then away to blood in some younger players

[PPPPPPPPPPPP10]

Actually when you look at the yearly standings you'll notice that even the top 3 team will barely have 60% win percentage on away games which is about right compare to the real game, I agree sometime away games can be ridiculously hard (my player would be slow to act/re-act which can be a real killer going against lesser team that have fast striker/winger). Playing the game on extended mode will give you a good idea what to do to adjusts though and make it much easier for you to at least go for a tie

[mud]

Have SI commented on this since the game has been out at all?

[Barside]

Have SI commented on this since the game has been out at all?

There is nothing to comment on, with the examples I've provided & comments by other people FM is pretty much mirroring real life.

If you were winning over 75% of your away games season after season then there would be something worth investigating.

[scott MUFC]

true, they won't but nor will a top 4 team be beating title rivals by 5 or 6 goals at home constantly

[Sir_Liam]

In my last season in the 30 game Russian Premier Division, I won 32 points away and 26 points at home, so I don't believe that there's an unrealistic home team bias in the game.

I personally think the balance between home/away form is fine. My season can simply be put down to me getting my away tactics right 90% of the time, and only getting the home tactics right 50-60% of the time.

[vlobben]

There definitely is a home team bias in the game, as it should be. In fact i find the balance better in 2012 than ever before

[mud]

so you guys prefer the increased home bias than say in FM2009? It may well be that im just **** at this game

[scott MUFC]

no i prefer a balanced game, where the team put out is not league 2 standard away from home and world beaters at home

[vlobben]

no i prefer a balanced game, where the team put out is not league 2 standard away from home and world beaters at home

I've never experienced this. If quality drop of the magnitude you describe was hard-coded, surely it would apply to everyone?

[scott MUFC]

i dunno, but outplaying man utd as a newly promoted side at home is crazy, then being destoryed away. every time.