[Football Manager 2020 Feedback Thread]

1 minute ago, 2feet said:

Whats shocking is how many absolutely sitters he missed.

 

Are you telling me that his conversion rate of extreme 1v1s was around 15%?

Of course there are chances missed. I have clearly mentioned what ratio I would expect from world class finishers. Anecdotal evidence like "but XYZ missed N chances" is not exactly on the same topic.

[Football Manager 2020 Feedback Thread]

Hi!

 

First of all, I'd like to point out that as a seasoned developer, I understand how difficult it is to build such a complex system like the new Match Engine. Having said that, I still need to mention a few painful parts of it and where they might come from. I am also aware that they have been mentioned many times and yes, I have read the post by Neil Brock from Wednesday.

 

1v1 conversion ratio

What I have noticed over the 3 seasons of FM2020 I've played so far is that regardless of tactics used and the strength of the opposition, the vast majority of 1v1 chances are squandered.  This affects not just my team but also the opposition team. The usual scenario is that a forward/winger attacks the goal from an angle not bigger than 45 degrees, the ball is on the ground and then he, completely unchallenged by any defenders, takes a shot using his favoured foot. Counting only such situations as 1v1, the average ratio of conversion is only around ~15%, based on a few games I've actually written down the numbers for. Remember: those are unchallenged world class forwards, shooting with their better foot. The key attributes for my strikers/wingers are:
CF: 17 Fin, 16 Tech, 16 Composure, 16 Decisions
LW: 18 Fin, 17 Tech, 17 Composure, 17 Decisions
RW: 14 Fin, 16 Tech, 16 Composure, 14 Decisions

As you can see, my players are from average. In fact, very similar poor 1v1 finishing kept happening also to the opposition, when I had worse players and they were supposed to be the better team. I do not know what is the data in real life, but I would assume that the best teams in the world regularly put away around 40-50% of the easiest chances possible. Please correct me if real-world data is different and my assumptions are wrong.

1v1 additional problems

1. Reasons for squandering a 1v1: What I haven't mentioned yet is that the vast majority of squandered 1v1s are actually saved by goalkeepers. And they are almost never the most common "shot was straight or too close to the keeper and he managed to save it with his legs/arms/body" situations. They're more in the category of "it was going in the top/bottom corner but the GK pulled off a miraculous save from 5 yards away, jumping exactly in the right direction as the striker hit it". All of these saves (often more than 5 of them in 1 game) would easily belong to the "best saves of the season" compilation. I would feel a lot better, if these 1v1s were squandered in a realistic way: shots missing the target, shots straight at the goalkeeper, GK saving shots with his feet etc. Right now it looks a lot more like the goalkeeper always knows where the shot will be and starts jumping/moving in that direction before that shot is even taken.
2. It happens a lot more when playing away: and I mean, unbelievably more. While writing this post I've realised, that my numbers from before (15% conversion ratio) was taken only from away game. At home my players miss some here and there but they're generally taking such chances and the ratio (I'm guessing) is much closer to the 40-50% line I'm expecting. The difference is so huge that I can't unsee it.
3. I'm still scoring BUT: most of my away goals are either great shots from distance, absolute flukes or set-piece headers. In the same game where my striker misses 5 extremely easy 1v1s, my midfielder scores an absolute belter, right into the top corner, at least 20 yards away. I am not complaining about the results then. I am simply focusing my attention on the way these results happen and how unrealistic they feel.

There is one additional issue with headers going always over the bar and almost never being saved by goalkeepers or going wide, but that's a whole different and much less problematic topic.

I hope this summary will be read by developers and the 1v1 problems slightly improved in one of the patches to this version, before FM2021 gets released. All the best and thank you to moderators for keeping a cool head