It's your tactics!

[Les Girondins]

Yeah I've been thinking about that A LOT. I don't have so much against the sliders themselves, but I just think they have too many values. 5 different values of mentality e.g. should be enough.

That is _exactly_ what I was thinking tbh. Halve the number of variables, halve the frustration. And players morale and actual abilities need to take precedence over tactics or at least be on a level with them. That way you can specify a style of play, a formation, a system for set pieces etc. and then get the right people in to the right positions to get the job done. It doesnt need to overly compliated to be challenging and rewarding.

As it is, I think the dev team are taking too many prompts from the statto Match Engine Geeks who seem to want to constantly increase the numerical end of things at the detriment of mainstream fun and challenge/reward. Its become too nerdy and there is a niche within a niche forming, which has gone too far the wrong way. Its a game, it can be a very challenging game for sure but right now its heavily bias toward people with strong numerical skills and sadly the majority of us are verbal or practical learners.

[Schotsmannetje]

Yeah, that's why I think the new FIFA system is so good. You have to adjust your tactics to the qualities of your players. At the moment, to me, it seems to be the other way around in FM.

To give an example: I don't think you have to tell Frank Lampard, Juninho and Steven Gerrard that they should shoot from distance a lot. They do that automatically, because it's in their nature and they're good at it.

In FM the players are slaves to the tactics. It should be the other way around.

[Les Girondins]

Yeah, that's why I think the new FIFA system is so good. You have to adjust your tactics to the qualities of your players. At the moment, to me, it seems to be the other way around in FM.

To give an example: I don't think you have to tell Frank Lampard, Juninho and Steven Gerrard that they should shoot from distance a lot. They do that automatically, because it's in their nature and they're good at it.

In FM the players are slaves to the tactics. It should be the other way around.

Get my vote.

[Schotsmannetje]

Exactly. Did you see Manchester United - Sunderland?

What were the tactics behind that? That were just your basic "Attack till you die" -tactics.

There wasn't a lot of thought behind that, let me tell ya. Great match though.

[Avfcmax]

'it's your tactics, it's your tactics'.

How is it my tactics, when I batter teams and suddenly they shoot from the half way line and there only shot of the game goes in. Whereas the keeper always makes an excellant save or the ball hits the bar on my shots.

Face it, it's a bug. It's making the game unplayable for me.

[Schotsmannetje]

I don't call that battering teams. Manchester-Sunderland, now that's battering a team. Or Barcelona, who got a score of 42 shots on target in the Champions League 2 months ago. That's what I call battering a team.

3 shots on target (out of a total of a meager 8 shots), that's hardly battering a team in my opinion. Looks like you're attacking a lot without creating chances, due to a lack of creativity and lethal strikers.

My advice would be: Play less offensive, and more patiently.

[Serpico]

Yeah, that's why I think the new FIFA system is so good. You have to adjust your tactics to the qualities of your players. At the moment, to me, it seems to be the other way around in FM.

To give an example: I don't think you have to tell Frank Lampard, Juninho and Steven Gerrard that they should shoot from distance a lot. They do that automatically, because it's in their nature and they're good at it.

In FM the players are slaves to the tactics. It should be the other way around.

I'm a fan of this too. It makes a lot of sense.

[ToonForever]

I think there is a bit of a misunderstanding. When someone says 'FM is less fun, I want to enjoy it', everyone goes 'ah you just want to win effortlessly'. This may be the case for a few people but it is not always true. To me 'Enjoyment' is being able to understand the game and being able to approach it with the WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) mentality, and achieve things in your own way. If my team plays exactly according to my intended tactic and they go on a 30 game losing streak, that's fine because I'll just be happy and enjoy the type of play my players are making. (but of course I would change my approach to win more).

But at the moment the problem is I am having to tweak all the different aspect of the tactic in the hope that some day I'll get my message across to my team. Does anyone understand where I'm coming from?

No offense, but that doesn't make sense. If you go on a 30 game losing streak, you'll come here and say that your team isn't executing your tactics, which you figure should have you winning some games. Several people have said the same thing "It's not the losing," but I call BS on that. We all think that if our club is playing to our tactics, that we'll at least pick up points and improve.

If your team were leading the league, neither the OP, nor anyone else would be here whingeing about the "broken match engine." You'd all be in the stories forum bragging about how you won the Champions League with Grimsby, fer cryin' out loud.

The OP and everyone else says it's HARD because they keep losing. Not because they're winning. Not one person would come crawling on here and complain, saying "My stupid striker keeps shooting long shots when I've told him not to. He's scored 36 already with 7 games to go! What's WRONG with him!!"

Oh, it's not the winning. Complete poppycock, EOS...

[Wakers]

Sorry Toon, but no, that's wrong. I've had a good two seasons with Blythe but i've stopped playing because the game forces me to play a certain way in order for me to achieve success, which is just downright wrong.

I haven't been promoted twice because I've been able to set my tactics up so that my team plays a certain way, as one performance is randomly different from the next in lower leagues, but instead because ai defenders are monumentally stupid.

[ToonForever]

The Quote function seems to be broken for me atm. So this is @ToonForever

It is not a matter of HOW well they listen to my instruction.

But it is a matter of WHAT is being told to them through the sliders.

Dood, that's what I said

Now would you say that it is completely realistic to have very ambiguous idea of what it is that you are telling the players to do?

Unless I'm some goofy manager that always goes 'umm yeah... just go play well and score', then maybe yes I am being ambiguous but when I actually have specific instructions that I want to implement in the game but can not because this slider clashes with that slider and another slider cancels out the other slider. And the final message becomes something completely different. This is what frustrates me.

I don't completely disagree with you. I've never found the slider combinations all that tough. As I said I did benefit from the TT&FNAKSDFJ whatever the letters were, but it could be made clearer *what* we're telling the players. My point was, and not just directed at you, if you look at many of the posts in this thread, people want to know how the players are *reacting* to the instructions given, which you can really only tell on the pitch, and it's an aspect of the game that I think SI get mostly right.

But I'm just one guy...

[ToonForever]

'it's your tactics, it's your tactics'.

How is it my tactics, when I batter teams and suddenly they shoot from the half way line and there only shot of the game goes in. Whereas the keeper always makes an excellant save or the ball hits the bar on my shots.

Face it, it's a bug. It's making the game unplayable for me.

Money on the table, you can find games with similar stats in all four leagues and beyond every season, a good number of them. There's no way to look at that score and say it doesn't reflect reality in some games at least.

[Pim1984]

The OP is very reasonable. Every year the game gets more complicated and more time consuming. SI should also take into account the large amount of gamers who think like the OP describes.

[Optimistic Dave]

In real life football, training is more important than the intricate and minute detail of tactics however, for the 3rd or 4th year running, training has been completely neglected and bears no relation to what it is used for in real life.

Do SI give us any sort of discount for the bits they just copy and paste from FM08? I've paid for the exact same piece of training code for 3 years now.

[Wakers]

the stupid thing is they had training schedules much more realistic a few releases ago - remember with the days you could set 5 a side training or what not - and then for some reason they removed it?

Actually, I haven't even bothered looking at training, i just leave it as is - much like the tactics system, there's no explanation of what each area does and what effects your changes are likely to have, so the only way to find out is to mess around, and wait a few game months, which is obviously risky.

[Les Girondins]

Yup. A lot of things have been getting dumbed down due to bugs I suspect. If its simple its one less thing to have to fix. Everyone universally hated the old training with five a side, weights and fitness etc. I bloody loved it and thought it was very realistic ..

Then we just got a totally non interactive process instead and it was hailed as a massive achievement by everyone. Eh? Never did get that.

Come to think of it there have been a lot of good features removed from CM/FM over the years.

[Optimistic Dave]

Training is not realistic, never has been. It has always just been an attribute collecting exercise. There should be some of that (of course) but there should be time you allocate to other forms of training. Example: The offside trap.

Part of your training for defenders should be based on the offside trap. The more time you devote to it then the more effective that tactic becomes in a match. Naturally, the more time you spend on offside then the less time you can use on Set Piece Defending, or Picking Up Midfield Runners, or general fitness training. Opportunity cost is the key as it provides choices that mean something.

At the moment, offside is something that TT&F tells us to use in certain situations parallel with other tactical choices. Its effectiveness should be a function of how much effort your players put into it, not whether you are using it with the right blend of other sliders. The same with everything else.

[wwfan]

There seem to be two totally separate debates about FM09 in relation to the ME/tactics modules. The first one is that tactics should be more intuitive and easier to understand. No disagreement from me on this point. The second is that the ME is fundamentally flawed. Here I do have some major issues. They are not the same debate either, so mixing them into one actually reduces clarity. So, I'll take them one at a time.

1: Tactics and Sliders

The sliders are an unintuitive interface and the recognition of that is why TT&F took its current form. However, the sliders are also vital to the game and all the ME calculations rely on their variables. Arguing that they should be removed or notches taken away is just wasted breath as that will knock-on to the ME and restrict how it operates. It won't happen. What can and should happen is a reworking of the tactical module so a more intuitive system sits on top of the current slider system. People could then choose to access either, depending on their desire to micro-manage. How to do that would be a worthwhile debate.

There is also a popular misconception that slider settings must be magically correct for everything to work and a micro-tweak in the worng direction makes everything fall apart. Nothing could be further from the truth. The only really sensitive slider setting is individual mentality, and here the Assistant Manager explicitly tells you when you have it wrong with the 'gap' complaint. Every other seting has a pretty wide range of acceptable input. We wrote TT&F with as few number settings as possible to reflect that.

Having browsed through many of these type of threads, the major reason people seem to be struggling is their picking the wrong type of tactic for a match (i.e too aggressive for a 50-50 game, or too defensive for a match they should be looking to take by the scruff of the neck) and their inability to keep their players' morale up. Fiddling around is also a problem. Although I am the main author of TT&F, when I actually play FM09, I don't tweak tactics from the beginning of the season to the end. I set them up in pre-season to make the best use of the players I have and then just shift between them depending on the pre-match odds/match situation. From the first game on, my only jobs are to choose what tactic to play when, to do my utmost to keep my players' spirits up and to find replacements for players that aren't performing no matter what I do. Tweaking slider settings simply doesn't come into it. An over focus on perfect tactical settings actually hinders rather than helps.

The final thing that bothers me with this argument is the assumption that everybody has to read TT&F to succeed. Firstly, and obviously, I didnt have to. If you have listened to Jordan's TT&F podcast, you'd know I wrote the guide and designed the tactics prior to ever having played FM09. Millie tested everything out. It was just a logical progression from the FM08 engine to the FM09 one. We actually have hardly changed any fundamentals between FM07 and FM09. The only thing that have changed in the ME is the closing of loopholes and exploits. The people who have always used exploits to win will suffer in FM09. They have never before had to make decisions about which sort of tactic to play when and have just downloaded/designed a tactic that exploited the ME (a work of creative genius in its own right) and clicked play. You can't do that anymore. Those that always tried to play realistically will take to FM09 like a duck to water.

2: The ME

Those that are complaining about huge flaws that make the current ME unplayable are far, far off the mark. Yes, there are flaws. I'll go through the three main ones:

A: The GK long punt assist is a bug. It is annoying and can render good tactical setting impotent. However, using Opposition Instructions to close the GK down always and show him onto wrong foot minimises the problem to a 1-2 times per season problem. Yu will socre yourself this way, which is unfortunate in realism terms, but you can stop it happening against you.

B: Long range shots. Overly high (by circa 15%) and too likely to result in a goal. However, this is the same for both sides. They also only ever go in when the player who takes the shot has time and space on the ball. Good marking/closing down settings can minimise this to perfectly manageable levels.

C: Wingers. They tend to operate in a corridor of uncertainty that stops either the FB or opposing winger closing down their crosses/runs. Use OI closing down/tight marking always on opposition wingers and this will stop.

Other than these two (the former of which materialised very late in Beta testing and hadn't been happening perviously) there are no major bugs. Closing down works fine, as does tight marking. It's incredibly annoying to see someone complain that they are horribly bugged with absolutely no evidence to back it up. Likewise, you can play in a multitude of different styles, all of which the ME rewards. Long ball, direct-ball, possession football, quick counter attacks, 10 men behind the ball to kill off a game. All are possible and all get results. However, it is very difficult to get a team that is not capable of a certain level of football to (re)produce it on a consistent basis. If you are trying to play short-passing, high tempo football with a lower level team, you will get realistically punished. You need a top side with great technical skills to do that. The ME needs to punish poor tactical decisions as much, if not more, that it rewards good ones, or the game ceases to be a challenge. If you keep on losing games that you feel you should be winning, it is for one of three reasons:

A: You are trying to make your team play a type of football of which they are not capable

B: You are failing to make good pre/in-match decisions about how to play

C: You are fidding and tweaking too much, thus focusing on the micro not the macro, which means you can never see the big picture of the match. Without exception, people who do this end up blaming real or imagined ME flaws and tactical ambiguity on their poor performance and never actually learn to manage and play holistically (i.e focus on match strategies, keeping the players happy, working the media, controlling the finance, targetting the correct players to improve the squad). FM is more than just about micro-tweaks on the tactical sliders. Focusing over heavily on tactical sliders and tweaking will make the game no fun.

[mr_pimpnuts]

To give an example: I don't think you have to tell Frank Lampard, Juninho and Steven Gerrard that they should shoot from distance a lot. They do that automatically, because it's in their nature and they're good at it.

In FM the players are slaves to the tactics. It should be the other way around.

Wow. That is an excellent point.

[wwfan]

To give an example: I don't think you have to tell Frank Lampard, Juninho and Steven Gerrard that they should shoot from distance a lot. They do that automatically, because it's in their nature and they're good at it.

In FM the players are slaves to the tactics. It should be the other way around.

Wow. That is an excellent point.

Although, as they will have the PPM shoots from distance, perhaps irrelevant.

[Schotsmannetje]

Although, as they will have the PPM shoots from distance, perhaps irrelevant.

That just proves my point, doesn't it? In real life, if you told Frank Lampard or Steven Gerrard that he CANT shoot from distance (which is possible in the game), they would get frustrated, because it's in their nature and would therefore underperform.

However, in the game IT IS possible to tell Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard not to shoot from distance regularly. And that overwrites the PPM, doesn't it?

Let me give you another example. Let's take a winger like Robben. You put him on as an AML. In real life, and I've seen Robben play hundreds of times, that would mean that he keeps on going over the left flank, trying to get past his man and put in a cross or shoot on goal. That's just how he plays, and is indicated by his PPM's.

However, in FM it is theoretically possible to put him on as an AML, but use "Narrow" for team instructions and put creativity and crosses on low in his player instructions. That would overwrite his PPM's and would therefore make him useless. I can tell by experience that it's impossible to tell Arjen Robben not to try to nutmeg his man, and even if you did, he wouldn't respond to it. This is not reflected by the game at all.

To finalize my point: In the game it's possible to tell Steven Gerrard not to close down his opponents and to tackle easy. And in the game he would respond to that.

How is that realistic? Let's be fair, it isn't. Steven Gerrard will NEVER hold back in tackles, no matter what you do.

The characteristics/natures of players are completely outweighed by the tactics.

Another thing which hasn't been mentioned in any tactics thread yet, is the lack of interaction between the manager and his players about the tactics. I know for a fact that Ferguson talks to his key players about his tactics, that Benitez talks to Gerrard and Carragher about his tactics, not to mention Michael Ballack who's had arguments with both the current Germany coach (Low) and the previous Germany coach (Klinsmann) because he thought they were completely wrong about the tactics they used. This is also not reflected by the game. Players never criticize, or compliment for that matter, the way you let your team play. Take Arsenal for example, who are very proud about the way they play. Or take Ajax, where 3 weeks ago both the players and the supporters accused Marco Van Basten of applying too negative tactics for the match against McClaren's Twente.

I've never seen anything like that in FM.

[wwfan]

The whole point of PPMs is that the player will try them even if you instruct him not to, unless you reduce his creative freedom to minimum. Thus, a Big Sam type manager can instruct Gerrard to stop taking long shots, either through reduced CF and individual instructions or via the player interaction module. However, would he then get the best out of the player? Probably not, but the option is there. However, as soon as Gerrard is allowed any CF, his PPMs will kick in and he will take long shots even if instructed not to. Thus, unless you are a control freak, you have to adapt the tactics around the player.

For players like Gerrard and Robben, you have the option to adapt tactics around their strengths or to force them into following your instructions to the letter. Personally, I would do the former, but, as in real life, there are managers who would do the latter and the option is there.

You do get fan feedback about your tactics in FM. The fans can get on your back for sticking to a formation/tactic that isn't winning or for changing shape too often. However, I'd agree that having a player complain that you aren't using him correctly would be a good addition.

[Chochip]

No offense, but that doesn't make sense. If you go on a 30 game losing streak, you'll come here and say that your team isn't executing your tactics, which you figure should have you winning some games. Several people have said the same thing "It's not the losing," but I call BS on that. We all think that if our club is playing to our tactics, that we'll at least pick up points and improve.

If your team were leading the league, neither the OP, nor anyone else would be here whingeing about the "broken match engine." You'd all be in the stories forum bragging about how you won the Champions League with Grimsby, fer cryin' out loud.

The OP and everyone else says it's HARD because they keep losing. Not because they're winning. Not one person would come crawling on here and complain, saying "My stupid striker keeps shooting long shots when I've told him not to. He's scored 36 already with 7 games to go! What's WRONG with him!!"

Oh, it's not the winning. Complete poppycock, EOS...

Dude your assumptions could not be more wrong.

Just because winning is all that matters to you it doesn't mean everyone is the same.

My Barca team is currently 1st in the league 11 points clear of R. Madrid, with 55 goals in 24 games. Yes it is an easy team but the point is I am doing well in my game. Here's my proof. But then if you were never gonna believe someone you would probably find other stupid reasons to justify yourself.

Yes I went a bit overboard with transfers but I can assure you I only took advantage of the dumb Man City AI, no cheating. Most of my signings are the young promising players anyway.

I never said the game is hard because I keep losing. I suggest you study a bit more before trying to psychologically analyse what I 'really' think.

[wwfan]

Having reread your opening post and looked at your table, the only complaint you seem to be making is that you can't dismantle weaker AI teams with the style and panache you would wish. Having brought in nine players, many of whom won't speak the language and will need time to adapt and gel, and still won nearly every match, I believe you have totally undermined the validity of your original post. You are winning but not as easily as you would wish, or think you should, given the players you have. It takes a good 3-6 months for players to gel (more with language difficulties), before which performances won't be fantastically fluid. Play another season with the same squad and I'm sure you'll start to batter teams in the manner you'd wish.

I find it faintly ridiculous that a player with a 90% win ratio is complaining that the tactical module isn't intuitive enough just because he can't hammer weak sides with a team full of new players. How often to team's capitulate in real life, for Pete's sake. 3-0 and above wins are rare. I had a lot of time for your OP, now I find it fundamentally pointless.

[WoIfsong]

Yes we know it's our tactics. We know the players can do well if we get every single slider in their perfectly correct settings.

I believe that FM has delevoped so that sliders do not matter that much and you do not need to get every single slider in their perfectly correct setting to be able to dominate. FM09 places more emphasis on Opposition Instructions, which is, realistic and simple.

In Fm09 I keep all global sliders at "normal" for the start of every match, later in the match I may tweak defence line and time wasting but they are the only sliders that I pay attention to (plus the 'width' silder when opposition gets players sent off). However I do opposition instructions for almost every player of the opposition team in every match.

I have since took 1860 Muchen from a predicted finish of 15th in Bundesliga 2 to Champion of Bundesliga 2 in 1 season, then next season 3rd in Bundesliga 1 when I had a predicted finish of 16th. Current in 3rd season with a squad of average age 20 the team has finished 1st in Champions league group stage, and is lying at 3rd place in Bundesliga 1 after 17 games, 4 points behind 1st place Bayern Muchen; and I am enjoying the simplicity of the ME.

What many people like to do is to tweak their tactics heavily every match just because in the last match their team underperformed, I strongly recommend against that (as WWfan has done on a number of occassions). I stick with 1 formation and 2 sets of individual mentality setting at all times (home and away, RoO) and my team plays better and better every match as they get used to those settings.

However, I do see that the goal of taking a lower division and weaker team to promotion and top of the league is different to the goal of being able to dominate as Barca against every 'weak' team and play beautiful football every match. As WWfan has pointed out, a team with 9 new senior players need gelling before it can produce beautiful football, in fact I think you have done well there with Barca already , wait till next season when your players "have achieved a strong understanding" to see some domination, provided you do your OI (and get your teamtalks right ).

[Chochip]

Having reread your opening post and looked at your table, the only complaint you seem to be making is that you can't dismantle weaker AI teams with the style and panache you would wish. Having brought in nine players, many of whom won't speak the language and will need time to adapt and gel, and still won nearly every match, I believe you have totally undermined the validity of your original post. You are winning but not as easily as you would wish, or think you should, given the players you have. It takes a good 3-6 months for players to gel (more with language difficulties), before which performances won't be fantastically fluid. Play another season with the same squad and I'm sure you'll start to batter teams in the manner you'd wish.

I find it faintly ridiculous that a player with a 90% win ratio is complaining that the tactical module isn't intuitive enough just because he can't hammer weak sides with a team full of new players. How often to team's capitulate in real life, for Pete's sake. 3-0 and above wins are rare. I had a lot of time for your OP, now I find it fundamentally pointless.

Yes that was my original post but if you read down the thread you will see that I'm not complaining only about not winning by a large margin to every weak side.

But rather I would like to see the players actually playing the passage of plays that I have instructed them to perform in the match. I keep scoring from chances created by crosses but in fact I do not want crosses to be the main form of attacking. And I have the players who are fit for the job I am assigning, yet they still prefer to utilise their less skilled method of attacking.

[Chochip]

And btw, I only use 3 (veloso, chiellini, fernandez) of the new signings as my regular senior players. The others are still just backups as they are not good enough yet.

[wwfan]

Yes that was my original post but if you read down the thread you will see that I'm not complaining only about not winning by a large margin to every weak side.

But rather I would like to see the players actually playing the passage of plays that I have instructed them to perform in the match. I keep scoring from chances created by crosses but in fact I do not want crosses to be the main form of attacking. And I have the players who are fit for the job I am assigning, yet they still prefer to utilise their less skilled method of attacking.

Wouldn't we all. However, I'm sure the opposing manager is trying to stop them doing it. Most managers playing against Barca, especially a Barca team doing so well, are going to pack the middle of the park to reduce space. To break that down you are going to have to spread play, pull the opposition around with quick passing interchanges and overload the flanks. That way, you will pull players wide to cover the danger which will open up gaps in the centre that weren't previously there. Then your centrally based players will start to tear holes in the opposition.

As a matter of interest, in reality, a shot immediately following a cross is 39% more likely to result in a goal than a shot from a through ball/dribble from the centre of the park, so for a top side not to want/try to cross will be problematic. To beat park the bus teams, you simply have to, in FM as well as in in reality.

And btw, I only use 3 (veloso, chiellini, fernandez) of the new signings as my regular senior players. The others are still just backups as they are not good enough yet.

That's still 3 ungelled players plus a large number on the subs bench, which will alter the overall chemistry of the first team. Next season should see the world of difference.

[Chochip]

Thanks for your input. More than anything I just wanted to let my thought out hoping it would get myself to think a bit more clearly and ease the frustration a bit. I think this thread has helped my head to arrange things more in order. This game just gets to you when to dig too deep and it's so easy to just get lost and confused in the middle of it all I think. I hope FM2010 or 2011 implements some new smart tactical features to help us dummies to understand better. I Know it is easy to just say that and I guess I am asking quite a lot. But we always gotta look through and criticise the past and the present in order to improve in the future right? Just trying to vaguely contribute to that lol.

[Pim1984]

Great comments from wwfan there. I will pay attention to those factors.

[Wakers]

wwfan, i agree with most of your points, except about the match engine. Defenders in FM are nothing like defenders in real life. There's no covering of team-mates, no combination of super tight marking when the ball is in the air and less tight marking when the ball is on the ground and so on.

[devilish_red2]

There is also a popular misconception that slider settings must be magically correct for everything to work and a micro-tweak in the worng direction makes everything fall apart. Nothing could be further from the truth. The only really sensitive slider setting is individual mentality, and here the Assistant Manager explicitly tells you when you have it wrong with the 'gap' complaint. Every other seting has a pretty wide range of acceptable input. We wrote TT&F with as few number settings as possible to reflect that.

I know you said a more intuitive system is needed but do you feel that if individual mentality is really the most sensitive slider then would it be better to have "instructions" rather than sliders for most other instructions? say for example time wasting, is a slider with around 20 (i think) values required, or would it be more intuitive and easier for the player to chose from a list of very rarely, rarely, average amount, lots or most of the time (for example). in this circumstance is a slider the best way to put your ideas of time wasting into the game, if the difference between two consecutive values for time wasting is not that much and doesn't have a major effect on the match? Or is their a simpler way of inputting the instruction (like the one i suggested)?

The whole point of PPMs is that the player will try them even if you instruct him not to, unless you reduce his creative freedom to minimum. Thus, a Big Sam type manager can instruct Gerrard to stop taking long shots, either through reduced CF and individual instructions or via the player interaction module. However, would he then get the best out of the player? Probably not, but the option is there. However, as soon as Gerrard is allowed any CF, his PPMs will kick in and he will take long shots even if instructed not to. Thus, unless you are a control freak, you have to adapt the tactics around the player.

For players like Gerrard and Robben, you have the option to adapt tactics around their strengths or to force them into following your instructions to the letter. Personally, I would do the former, but, as in real life, there are managers who would do the latter and the option is there.

IRL if Benitez told Gerrard to rarely take long shots, and then told him to follow his instructions by the letter (which if i understand you correctly semms to be what you are saying is the case in fm), would Gerrard still take long shots? he probably would, because it's part of his game and that's what he would do instinctively. So I don't think that any instruction should override a PPM, personally.

Wouldn't we all. However, I'm sure the opposing manager is trying to stop them doing it. Most managers playing against Barca, especially a Barca team doing so well, are going to pack the middle of the park to reduce space. To break that down you are going to have to spread play, pull the opposition around with quick passing interchanges and overload the flanks. That way, you will pull players wide to cover the danger which will open up gaps in the centre that weren't previously there. Then your centrally based players will start to tear holes in the opposition.

just wondering, to help people who only watch highlights in key, should this kind of information be included in the ass man feedback? As this could prove very useful in deciphering what changes need to be made to your sides play.