[So, I just realised I might be really weird]

Lots of people did this?

...er, I did. I still have the constitution I drafted, too.

[Quickfire Questions and Answers Thread (Tactic and Training Questions Only)]

Yes I have. With all them logical shouts they just hoof pointless long balls all over again.

If you have a defensive mentality set (contain, defend, counter), then your defenders will be by default set to more direct. Give them PIs to pass shorter.

[Quickfire Questions and Answers Thread (Tactic and Training Questions Only)]

At first glance floaty, none and low respectively.

You can also use whipped crosses with a little guy, so long as he has pretty good anticipation, off the ball, agility, decisions, concentration, and acceleration. And probably heading, but eh, he's close in, he'll probably hit roughly the target some of the time.

[Quickfire Questions and Answers Thread (Tactic and Training Questions Only)]

Does anyone else keep losing a first half lead, or at least lose the second half? No matter what tactic I employ in the second half - either changing things or keeping them the same - I nearly always lose the second half. Very frustrating. How can my tactics be so great for the first half, when I often hold a lead, to suddenly be rendered crap in the second?

This happened to anyone else?

I'd guess that your team talks are quite bad?

[Quickfire Questions and Answers Thread (Tactic and Training Questions Only)]

Crossing early may help (its a long chalk though). Playing quick(ish) and direct(ish) could help as you'd want quick crosses in while there is still space in behind. I suspect that your players are getting to the byline, the defenders get into position and so they don't cross because your guy may now be marked.

Yeah, I've tried that. Doesn't work. And he's rarely, if ever, actually being marked. He has the "arrives late in opposition area" PPM (which works amusingly well with the "comes deep to get the ball" one, incidentally), so he tends to burst into the box just before it would be appropriate for a wide player to be putting a cross in...

Which is why occasionally, a cross goes over and he appears next a defender a foot taller than him who just let the cross go because there was no threat (haha! sucks to be you, Mertesacker!), nodding it past the 'keeper. But it's only maybe once every 25 games, and usually all of the crosses on the analysis are from corners/free-kicks.

[Quickfire Questions and Answers Thread (Tactic and Training Questions Only)]

Okay, simple question...

How do I make the most of a little fellow with great movement in terms of crossing? I want the ball played in so that he doesn't challenge with a defender, but runs onto it, since he has great pace and movement.

I can't seem to make it happen, though. I assumed that I'd want to drill crosses to the near post, but it doesn't appear to do anything - they refuse to cross into the box because he's so short. If I play a tall guy in there, they cross far more frequently with exactly the same instructions.

However, he has scored goals - maybe ten or eleven last season - on the rare occasions they get the ball in to him in the right way.

[Quickfire Questions and Answers Thread (Tactic and Training Questions Only)]

Which shouts reduce creative freedom? Obviously, "be more disciplined" does so, but do any of the others?

Also would really like to know why there does not appear to be individual shouts to increase/decrease creative freedom...