Argente Posted December 31, 2012 Share Posted December 31, 2012 It's 2021. I'm manager of Oxford City. Now a mid table League 2 side with a very settled squad that is very familiar with it's relatively successful tactics. Into the FA Cup 3rd Round and I'm drawn at home to Vauxhall. Not even in BSN/S, utter rubbish compared to me. Match odds 1/20 in my favour 30/1 for them. I've never been in this situation before! I've always been about level with the opposition or odds were against me. Great thinks I, I'll rest a couple of starters, give some promising Youths a game and I'll still win handy. 0-3. Eh? Players that would normally pass neatly around before threading through balls were suddenly pinging shots 20 yards wide from 40 yards out. It was so foreign to what they usually do that I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Vauxhall had 2 attacks and scored 3 times. Go figure. So I decide I need to have another go at this match. Exit the game and go back to re play it but with a full strength team. 0-2. WTF? Players still pinging shots from everywhere when they would normally pass, Vauxhall pass the ball like 1970s Brazil side and rip me apart twice, score both times. So I decide to have another go at this match. Exit and reload but with a slight alteration to my tactic (play both 18 jumping STs and pump ball into box then look for knockdowns to my AP (A). 0-0. Well at least I didn't concede but I never looked like scoring either. So I decide to have another go. 2-1. Finally. After 60 mins of players pinging it from distance again I shout to 'Look for Overlap'. Bingo. My WBs both get forward, forces their defence to spread out a bit and cover a wider area and now there is space in the middle for me to use. And doesn't it make a difference! Now my players stop shooting from distance and go back to passing through the middle. Score twice before they pull a late one back. lesson learned. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
däkkä Posted December 31, 2012 Share Posted December 31, 2012 1. Replay the match x times until you get a win 2. Do random tactical changes each time 3. ??? 4. Lesson learned Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Argente Posted December 31, 2012 Author Share Posted December 31, 2012 I replayed it so many times because what my players were doing was so far removed from what they usually do I wanted to figure out why. I'd normally average around 8 shots a game but they'd be 'good' shots. Here I was having 30 long range shots. Much like other people are experiencing. I tried a few different ways of playing against it until I found that if I looked for overlap it spread them out enough so I could play my normal game. They weren't 'random tactical changes', it's called experimenting. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lam Posted December 31, 2012 Share Posted December 31, 2012 Hey, look - each to their own and everything and you can play the game the way you want...... but the title of your thread is "Observations..........." I'm not sure what observations you made other than replaying the game numerous times........ in my eyes, based on the little detail you have given us.... you got lazy and underestimated them and it sounds like they caught you on the counter a few times. I could be very wrong..... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cleon Posted December 31, 2012 Share Posted December 31, 2012 Not quite sure what you are trying to get at with this thread but normally we close ones such as this where the game gets replayed over and over until you win because that's not what thus forum is about. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Argente Posted December 31, 2012 Author Share Posted December 31, 2012 Fair enough. I read a lot of threads on here that say 'My players are all taking pot shots from everywhere'. I've never really experienced that problem because my side are so weak I've never had anyone shut up shop and make me play through them. My observation was that if I played wide and looked for overlap I spread them out enough that I could stop my players from just taking pot shots. I know it's not much but if it helps someone who was having that problem then all well and good. Cleon, if you feel the need to close the thread then by all means go ahead. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Draigh Posted December 31, 2012 Share Posted December 31, 2012 Why the hate? First off Argente plays the game the way he wants to, secondly this was the best way for him to learn from the game. He could've just taken the result at face value and blasted his team afterwards (arguably the most realistic thing to do), instead he replayed the game to find out what he can do in such situations, has found the solution to his problem and decided to share that with us. More on topic: indeed, as you just found out when you're favourites you will often face teams who sit back and absorb pressure, as taking you on one-on-one would result in a thrashing. This is a problem a lot of FM players have and they often complain afterwards, having had the lion's share of possession, plenty of shots (from congested areas and mostly from range), while the opposition has three attempts and scores twice, because the player had committed too many players forward and was vulnerable to quick breaks which led to easy one-on-ones with his/her goalkeeper. The best way to solve this is to stretch the playing field, sitting deeper and playing wider to open up space between the defenders. Some creativy from deep (in the form of a good deep-lying playmaker or a ball-playing centreback) is often very useful to unlock tight defences. As a rule of thumb: never throw everyone forward, even when very much on top of a game, as there's no space in areas that are already tightly packed and it only takes one decent counter-attack to expose you and lose the match. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brick_Tamland Posted December 31, 2012 Share Posted December 31, 2012 Thank you Argente ... I agree with the previous poster.... play the game the way you want to play it ...and if replaying helps you understand better then by all means, if its for you, do it. I learned from him little experiment because every single match where I am a heavy favorite I tend to lose and I get frustrated. I have even gone into my recent matches as heavy favorites with a defensive mentality just to see what happens ...same thing .. I lose 2-0 ... seems to be the most common scoreline when I am a heavy favorite ..a 2-0 loss. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Argente Posted January 1, 2013 Author Share Posted January 1, 2013 Funny thing is, this was the first game I replayed in 9 seasons. It's not like I'm doing it every time I lose. It was purely for learning purpose. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeadZone Posted January 1, 2013 Share Posted January 1, 2013 Nothing wrong with replaying a game to work out why things are going tits up I've replayed games I've won to work out why certain things have gone a certain way In your case, you might not play another vastly weaker team for a long time, so it makes sense to use this rare opportunity to work some things out about the ME Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.