Problems with offsides

Is anyone else out there finding their players keep getting called offside? I am, and I can't really see any way in game by which to try and change it.

I play a very expansive game and my poacher is constatly drifting offside needlessly. Is this merely a positioning issue that will take time and effort to change or is there some match change I could make? I don't know that my team is good enough to try and keep the ball, which is the reason I have them playing expansive football; getting the ball forward.

This tactic did me great in my first season, winning the Northern Irish Second tier almost comfortably and scoring a lot of goals. Now I'm in the Premiership we're really struggling, and a lot of it is to do with players constantly finding themselves offside.

It's damn frustrating. I'm not saying we'll start doing fantasticly better without the offsides, but it'd be a start.

Part and parcel of the role he plays tbh.

Just like you expect aggressive tackling BWMs to pick up cards you should expect a poacher who plays on the shoulder of the last man to pick up offsides.

If he is doing it more than the average poacher then its the mental side of his game that needs work but given the standard of the league you are playing in you can't expect him to be good at everything.

Poachers will naturally hang around the last defender looking to get in behind. Does he have the "likes to beat the offside trap" PPM? I have found that strikers with this are much more likely to get caught offside.

Part and parcel of the role he plays tbh.

Just like you expect aggressive tackling BWMs to pick up cards you should expect a poacher who plays on the shoulder of the last man to pick up offsides.

If he is doing it more than the average poacher then its the mental side of his game that needs work but given the standard of the league you are playing in you can't expect him to be good at everything.

This.

In theory a player with a good rating for "off the ball" would be better at avoiding being offside, though. Maybe OP's poacher isn't that good at it.

This.

In theory a player with a good rating for "off the ball" would be better at avoiding being offside, though. Maybe OP's poacher isn't that good at it.

I find it almost impossible to just look at the attributes and say attribute X is causing it. I tend to look at the player on the field and judge him from an overall perspective.

Whilst OFB will probably play a role you could also consider things like:

Workrate - Doesn't work to get back onside.

Team work - Isn't in sync with the players around him.

Anticipation - Maybe its too good, he makes the runs but the midfielders aren't good enough to spot the runs/play the balls early enough.

As Dave has said as well the offside PPM won't help either if he has it.

Good points from both of you, thanks. I'll try him on a bit of positioning and mental training to see if I can't reduce the offsides.

His mental stats aren't the greatest and he has no PPMs. I picked him up because he impressed me in trial matches. He then had a fantastic start in our first match of the season. He's done sod all since, unless you count egtting caught offside. He appears to be optimistic, so I'll try the training and see.

Tempted to try in a more generic role of advanced forward in our next match at home. Got to be worth a try.

This.

In theory a player with a good rating for "off the ball" would be better at avoiding being offside, though. Maybe OP's poacher isn't that good at it.

Other than flair it's actually his strongest mental stat.

Combining this with what Cougar says, below, there is definitely some correlation as all three of those stats are average.

I'll just keep plugging away and see if things improve. I knew thinbgs would be tough this season.

Thanks for the contribution.

ME issue.

Someone mentioned in the bug forum.

http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/442122-Offsides-Ridiculous-Amounts

Note that Adam Mingay said the offside count is "slightly high", it is not a major issue and certain tactical approaches will obviously exacerbate the offside count.

ME issue.

Someone mentioned in the bug forum.

http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/442122-Offsides-Ridiculous-Amounts

Yeah, that is something I discussed in beta. I spent quite a bit of time watching it and decided it wasn't as bad as first thought. These offsides are correct.

Note that Adam Mingay said the offside count is "slightly high", it is not a major issue and certain tactical approaches will obviously exacerbate the offside count.

Ahh ok. I might have to get used to things then.

I might try and get the team to keep the ball a bit better. My long balls forward aren't anywhere near as effective in the top division anyway.

Thanks.

Good points from both of you, thanks. I'll try him on a bit of positioning and mental training to see if I can't reduce the offsides.

His mental stats aren't the greatest and he has no PPMs. I picked him up because he impressed me in trial matches. He then had a fantastic start in our first match of the season. He's done sod all since, unless you count egtting caught offside. He appears to be optimistic, so I'll try the training and see.

Tempted to try in a more generic role of advanced forward in our next match at home. Got to be worth a try.

Don't know about positioning, that attribute supposedly is only about defending and has no bearing on attacking movement. I think Cougar might be right and it might be all about the rest of his other attributes, but I think positioning training is unlikely to do anything.

Could possibly be worth allowing your midfielders a greater passing range. If they're getting the ball, he's making a run but they look for shorter passing options first then by the time they choose to pass to him he'll be offside. If you give them more freedom when it comes to playing longer passes there's a chance that you'll see them making passes to him earlier, before he gets into an offside position.

For me it's not the amount of offsides (actually, in some games IRL there are a lot of offside calls, so it depends on your tactics and players etc.), but I feel that there are too many stupid offsides. For example - indirect free kick, player roaming way behind last defender and free kick taker tries to pass him. Offside is called. There's no offside trap or any movement of the player, just ridiculously poor positioning of the player.

Note that Adam Mingay said the offside count is "slightly high", it is not a major issue and certain tactical approaches will obviously exacerbate the offside count.

I think it's definitely an issue with the ME - I set-up a defensive counter-attacking 4-4-2 diamond and was getting a dozen or more offsides per game (with a few different Advanced Forwards). Some tweaks to tactics have made it much better - but it's definitely happening too much in *some* circumstances.

I'm surprised nobody mentioned Decisions yet.

but it's definitely happening too much in *some* circumstances.

If you have examples of specific setups that does this, the ME team would be glad to have a look.