Hit Early Crosses / Cross More Often

[Cultured Left Foot]

Hello All, 

Before I log this as a potential bug, I wanted to canvas opinion (and maybe get some other to run some games)...

I've been utilising a target man (a proper old school, big lump target man) in my FM24 save.  Now, to maximise this, I've been chucking (or trying to) the ball into the box with as many crosses as possible.  What I've noticed is that my players actually cross MORE when I don't have anything to di with crosses selected. 

This is pretty consistent across all the games I've been looking into, but examples in the images with this post.... 

The first image is against bottom of the table team Furth (Crosses are dark blue dots in the image). A total of 28 crosses attempted in 90 minutes (this was with cross more often on both full backs and both wingers (they also had cross aim for target forward) and hit early crosses.

The second image is against second bottom Braunschweig (Crosses are white in the image). A total of 37 crosses attempted in 90 minutes (this was without cross more often and without hit early crosses). 

I've used these as an example as they are two opposition teams that play the same formation, were similar positions in the league and I played the same starting line up against. But this is a consistent find across a number of games I've looked at. when "Hit Early Crosses" and "Cross More Often" are selected, the teams puts less crosses into the box.....

Overall, it averages out to be 8-10 more crosses a match when the instructions ARE NOT selected. This just seems counter-intuitive. 

Thoughts?

And would anyone else be happy to test this for me (without holidaying games as I don't trust holiday stats haha). 

Cheers,

CLF.

Edited November 21, 2023 by Cultured Left Foot
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[Dagenham_Dave]

It's a hugely difficult metric to try and quantify as there are so many variables involved. For example, you may have the given the team/players instructions to cross the ball more often, but if there are less opportunities to do this in-game, then there will be less crosses. And the opposite is also true. Due to the fact that all matches play out differently, regardless of what the opposition tactics are. You then also have to consider how the opposing manager has set up his players, they are maybe marking tighter in one game rather than another. Perhaps they have a team instruction to filter your play through the middle more. 

No harm logging it as a bug, but it must be a nightmare trying to ascertain if there is anything wrong. 

[Cultured Left Foot]

That's my worry. I'm not sure how to show it in a constructive manner to log it as a bug other than "I'm seeing less crosses when I have the cross more often instruction selected". Which certainly isn't constructive haha. 

 

I'll keep thinking, tracking and see what else I can show. 

[Dadecane]

I’ll def keep an eye on it during my next few games and play around with those instructions but like Dave said so many variables involved.
 

However I will add that my personal experience when I chuck balls into the area (admittedly not often, not my style, only when im down late in the game) is that instructing them to play the crosses into the area/box works better than “target forward”. 

[dankrzyz]

On 21/11/2023 at 06:12, Cultured Left Foot said:

I've used these as an example as they are two opposition teams that play the same formation, were similar positions in the league and I played the same starting line up against. But this is a consistent find across a number of games I've looked at. when "Hit Early Crosses" and "Cross More Often" are selected, the teams puts less crosses into the box.....

Just to confirm, when you’ve turned off HEC and CMO, have you also done anything to limit passing directness?

I find that none of these TI/PI work as well if I’m using short(er) passing for the team or players. Dial passing directness up a notch might help?

[themadsheep2001]

Tagging in @Jack Joyce or @Nic Madden. Appreciate you're both very busy, but how would CLF go about trying to offer useful info on this? Thanks

[Jack Joyce]

As has been said above, there's so many variables at play, even when playing two teams who are using the same formation.

The best thing you could do is a large series of matches against the exact same team with the exact same lineup and conditions, only changing the instructions in question. This way any statistics you collect are about as consistent as you can make it, and with a sufficient enough sample size to rule out... just bad luck.

 

[Cultured Left Foot]

Thanks all. I'll keep plugging away at it and see if I can run some tests. 

All other PI/TIs do seem to make a difference when selecting/de-selecting them. Really only seems to be crosses that causes issues. But as mentioned, its so tough due to variables. 

When I get some time, I'll run a test over 50 games, picking the same line up, same system and against an opposition that I manage that are consistently picking the same team and tactic etc. 25 games with TIs/PIs selected and 25 without and report back. Its not the best, but its a start and we can go form there. 

Cheers,

CLF

[Cultured Left Foot]

20 hours ago, dankrzyz said:

Just to confirm, when you’ve turned off HEC and CMO, have you also done anything to limit passing directness?

I find that none of these TI/PI work as well if I’m using short(er) passing for the team or players. Dial passing directness up a notch might help?

Nope. Nothing else changed. I ran the same tactic just selected or de selected the crossing options. I'll run more tests though and see where we get to.