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

[pigfacemonkeyman]

No I usually don't buy these players and it's not always the same player that get's tackled out of the game. Usually it's my attacking midfielders or strikers that get injured because they are met with hard tackling throughout the game.

The problem is that it is seldom punished by the refs. I also thought about playing with more time wasting to provoke more cards but it also seams to destroy the effectiveness of my attacking game.

Neither do I, but bear in mind a player's Injury Proneness (hidden stat) can increase.

[Flohrinho]

If your players have lower physicals (particularly strength & balance) then they can often get injured from hard tackling opponents. The same is true if they have low technical ability as they are either stretching to complete a pass or control the ball or they struggle to move it away from a contact area quickly enough - either way they'll end up being off balance and getting clattered, hence, injuries.

Increasing the tempo or passing length might help but will likely completely alter your tactical set-up.

I'd look more at the conditioning of your players. Are they going into games at 99-100%? Whilst I'll happily play a player with 96-98% this actually represents a fairly significant drop from peak condition and usually mean they will tire quicker than other players (all other things being equal of course).

Also, what's your training like? Intensive training with players that lack the stamina, natural fitness, work rate & professionalism to pull it off can often mean your players become more susceptible to injury.

Sometimes injuries are purely bad luck and it seems these things often come in clumps where a whole group of players get injured in a short space of time.

I think you're on the right track here. Seeing that it always happens to my physical weaker players like wingers and fast strikers it really could be connected to balance and strength. The interesting thing here is that my only winger who has good attributes in those areas, especially strenght, never get's injured during games.

Großkreutz hasn't missed single game in two seasons and as far as I can remember rarely ever takes a knock on the field.

While my weaker AMs like Götze, Kagawa and Douglas Costa who all have strength ratings below 10 constantly take turns being injured.

I think I have to set them all on strength focus training to at least get their strength levels above 10.

Btw all my players are happy with their training workload and I have never injuries in training, happens maybe twice a season to reserve players as I train them a little harder but all Injuries occur on the field as results of hard tackling form opposition players.

[Gordon Comstock]

anyone have any tips for having inside forwards (aml/amr-type players) track back apart from lowering mentality?

would some sort of closing down adjustment work?

[NakS]

I'd suggest a different marking system. For example, you could try a specific man marking setting on opposition fullbacks to make your inside forwards to track back. Look for players with high workrate, teamwork and stamina as well.

[pigfacemonkeyman]

I know it's not T & T but rather than start a thread I thought I'd ask here.

I get this when taking a screenshot during a match using Alt+F9:

Am I doing something wrong or is it not possible to take a screenshot of the pitch using Alt+F9? (tried it with all menus closed, still no pitch)

Cheers

xxx

[furiousuk]

Sorry I can't help solve the problem but I've taken loads of screenshots of the game pitch using Alt+F9, both 2D and 3D.

Are you playing full-screen? I would imagine that playing windowed might cause a problem, sounds like a long shot though.

[pigfacemonkeyman]

Yeah, full screen, thanks anyway furiousuk.

[pigfacemonkeyman]

Can FM10 Tactics be imported directly into FM11? (still on FM10)

Cheers

xxx

[furiousuk]

Any way to stop a player from diving?

My model professional VC got sent off (2 yellows) within 30 mins for 2 dives, served his ban, then got sent off within 40 mins for 2 more ridiculous dives! I found it quite funny at first but it's getting a little old already. He is the only player I've ever seen get pinged for a dive. I've saved nearly 400K in fines and not paying appearance fees which is handy but he doesn't understand why I'm fining him as 2 yellows doesn't hold much weight although I'm desperate to stop this ridiculous behaviour, he's got bloomin 18+ for all physicals and he's 6'2 for crying out loud and he's a model pro, diving just doesn't suit him!

[Shake Appeal]

I think diving is affected by either Dirtiness and Sportsmanship (or both), neither of which you can see. I think the only thing that would fix this is tutoring, as what affects hidden attributes in general is mystifying to me. It's possible issuing a warning helps, but I honestly don't know. I've only seen a player of mine manage to get himself sent off by diving once, and like you I found it kinda funny.

[pigfacemonkeyman]

Any way to stop a player from diving?

My model professional VC got sent off (2 yellows) within 30 mins for 2 dives, served his ban, then got sent off within 40 mins for 2 more ridiculous dives! I found it quite funny at first but it's getting a little old already. He is the only player I've ever seen get pinged for a dive. I've saved nearly 400K in fines and not paying appearance fees which is handy but he doesn't understand why I'm fining him as 2 yellows doesn't hold much weight although I'm desperate to stop this ridiculous behaviour, he's got bloomin 18+ for all physicals and he's 6'2 for crying out loud and he's a model pro, diving just doesn't suit him!

He may have a very low Sportsmanship rating, it can be as low as 1 for a Model Pro.

[Tyballs]

Or maybee he is just a Model...

[furiousuk]

Will looking at his media handling give me an idea on sportsmanship?

Never considered that (stupidly), tutoring isn't an option unfortunately. Shame you can't be more specific in what you offer a warning for. I'd agree that tutoring really shapes a player's personality but surely the staff would also have an impact, they might well ignore you of course but it makes sense that there should be a mechanism that I could at least try to make this guy more sporting and mould him into a better senior figure in the squad.

[Shake Appeal]

What is his media handling, just out of curiosity? I think those descriptions are influenced by temperament, professionalism, and controversy more than anything else.

[pigfacemonkeyman]

Will looking at his media handling give me an idea on sportsmanship?

Never considered that (stupidly), tutoring isn't an option unfortunately. Shame you can't be more specific in what you offer a warning for. I'd agree that tutoring really shapes a player's personality but surely the staff would also have an impact, they might well ignore you of course but it makes sense that there should be a mechanism that I could at least try to make this guy more sporting and mould him into a better senior figure in the squad.

I agree, but maybe there is a mechanism, the red card/fine might help raise the relative stats and eventually he might stop diving! The thing is, that's a guess, and, can you afford to make this guy a guinea pig to find out?

[furiousuk]

I'm not sure what his media handling is off-hand, I'm not at my PC at the mo. I didn't think there was any way to find out the sportsmanship of a player other than watching them in games but what might constitute a bad sport or a bad temperament is hard to tell and very open to interpretation.

And I can't really afford to guinea pig him but I fined him 1 week for the first red (my standard in-game response) and 2 weeks for the 2nd so not sure what else I can do really and at 110k p/w + bonuses I've at least saved some cash, he's unsettled now but as I'm favoured personel and the club is favoured club he should be fine. Just played him in a CL game (he's still serving his Prem ban) and no hint of diving although I don't think that has anything to do with anything other than coincidence. It's probably coincidence getting 2 red cards for the same thing in consecutive games to be honest but just wondered if anyone had ever *solved* this problem without selling the player in question. Guess I'll just have to accept this guy's a jerk, a professional jerk but still a bit of a card.

Oh, while I'm at it discussing slightly odd player behaviour I've got another Q that I'm curious about: both Adam Lallana and Hulk regularly do the 'wobbly' run which is a series of step-overs, anyone know why? Neither are exceptionally agile or exceptionally technical dribbler, nor do they have any dribbling-related PPM.

[Shake Appeal]

I know players having personality 'Unsporting' or 'Realist' indicates low Sportsmanship. There might be others.

[pigfacemonkeyman]

I know players having personality 'Unsporting' or 'Realist' indicates low Sportsmanship. There might be others.

The following contains Hidden Attribute numbers:

A Media-Friendly, Model Pro. player can have 1 Sportsmanship but won't show as Unsporting or Realist unless his temperament is 9 or less. He becomes Media-Friendly/Confrontational at 7 Temp. and Volatile/Media-Friendly/Confrontational at 6 Temp.

[furiousuk]

Ha, he's just media-friendly!! At least I know his temperament is ok!!

Any ideas on the 'wobbly run'?

[pigfacemonkeyman]

Can't help there I'm afraid, still on FM10. I did use Southampton on a long, in depth save, but I don't remember a 'Wobbly Run'. Sounds wobbly!

[d2024p]

Hello all, I have a couple of stupid (FM11) questions actually – just one of the areas where I think a better manual or more communication from SI would not go amiss. It would be great if you could help me out with them.

1. The main one is the player role setting. I would like to know if this just assigns a set of slider (advanced) rules which try and tell the player to play a certain way, or does it define a style of play which is independent of these sliders? E.g. let’s say that for argument’s sake I have 2x identical MCs with identical stats and PPMs - If I set their sliders up exactly the same way but I set one to defensive midfielder and the other to advanced playmaker will they try and play those roles differently (because of the roles set) or identically (because the sliders override the ‘role’ set?

2. Forward runs. I have never quite got this. Does this mean that you are telling a player to join in an attack often/sometimes/rarely, as in they could potentially commit fully to an attack and be there, for example, to tap in a pass on the goal line? Or does it just mean to often/sometimes/rarely roam forward of his starting position on the pitch? One reason I ask is that so often I have many of my players take up advanced positions on the opposition’s defensive line as soon as I win possession. This often means I have few options to actually use to move the ball on and send the killer pass through to attacking players. In other words, they player has already made the run I wanted him to make as a response to a potential through ball and he is now being shackled by the opposition defence.

Hope this makes sense!

Cheers

[furiousuk]

1. The roles just define a set of slider positions. If you 'tick' one of the slider instructions and alter it then that will over-ride any role instruction. For example, the mentality is different for a deep-lying playmaker/defend and an advanced playmaker/attack, if you tick it and set the mentality to, say, 10 then it will stay at 10 no matter what role or duty you select.

2. Forward runs often means that as soon as you get the ball the player will be looking to make a forward run, whether he actually does or not is based on his game reading ability (i.e. decisions etc) but by setting often he'll be more likely to move forward. Similarly if Runs From Deep is set to rare he'll be more likely to hold his position on the pitch, he won't drop deep. He might look like he's dropping deep but this is just because other players are moving past him so, effectively, he is deeper than his formational position. If a lot of your players are roaming forward when in possession then check their runs from deep as it is likely that they are set to often, the decision to make the forward run is also affected by the mental ability of the player as well as creative freedom and, to an extent, free role instructions.

[pigfacemonkeyman]

1. The roles just define a set of slider positions. If you 'tick' one of the slider instructions and alter it then that will over-ride any role instruction. For example, the mentality is different for a deep-lying playmaker/defend and an advanced playmaker/attack, if you tick it and set the mentality to, say, 10 then it will stay at 10 no matter what role or duty you select.

I still have a problem with this. Not you personally furiousuk, but that nothing else, except what we can see in the tactics section, is affected by a change of selection.

As with many things FM it is impossible to be absolutely certain about this without SI info. I did ask someone who I thought would know but I got the answer I expected, no answer.

[furiousuk]

Agreed, I can't be 100% sure of course but test it out. Set your team up with on overload so that your poacher with an attack duty has 19-20 mentality and play a game, then replay it but this time tick the mentality and set it to 1. I haven't done this but I'm (reasonably) sure by watching the ME you'll see the difference between the 19-20 mentality chap and the 1 mentality guy.

Although I haven't run any specific tests I've certainly noticed a difference in things like Runs From Deep and Cross Ball instructions when I've ticked them. Of course, these are qualitative judgements so I probably made other changes during the game but I can think of at least 1 example from my save where the other changes were negligible and I saw a difference in the player I ticked instructions for.

[pigfacemonkeyman]

furiousuk, I have a bad memory but I think we've been here before! I set my two central defenders to 'Stopper' and 'Cover' and edit almost all their settings in the tactic, including 'Mentality' and 'Closing Down', the only two settings that make those duties different. I set both of these to equal for both players, and every other setting is the same for both players. When playing a game I see my defenders pretty much sticking to their duties and this is what has me wondering.

I arrived at this central defender setup after many moons of watching full matches and tweaking, and stuck with it as it is has proved the most successful. I realise that changes in other areas during this time could easily have contributed to a better defensive record and I am willing to accept that I could be seeing something because I am expecting it to happen rather than it actually happening, or it's down to the player's attributes or even coincidence.

I've tried different defenders in these roles/duties and I still see them performing their assigned duties, but, I will always set the player according to his attributes, so it could still be down to those. I do get a bit frustrated that there are so few areas of the game where I can say I am 100% certain why 'X' happened.

If you can be bothered, here's one for you to try: Tick every setting of your tactic and start a game on Contain then switch to Overload, and if you must, try switching to suit the scoreline.

[jordypark]

Is there a way to alter the training workload levels in order to allow a player to focus more time on his individual focus? My current training levels are 60% normal training, 30% match preparation and 10% individual focus.

[furiousuk]

jordypark: Pretty sure that there is no way to alter the 10% allotted to individual focus.

pigfacemonkeyman: It's certainly hard to be sure that what you're doing is actually having an effect but that is often the case with real-life coaching or teaching. I'm not sure why SI would make it deliberately misleading though, it seems logical that a ticked instruction over-rides an arbitrary description of a set of slider instructions. Uncertainty is something that SI have got spot on - after nearly 20 years of playing there are still mechanisms in the game that I have nothing more than a rudimentary understanding of which I hope they don't change. If we had it all explained concisely we'd have far less to debate about!!

[virtex]

Don't know if anyone can help with this. I'm starting a game with Everton and obviously I've got a fairly small squad to start with and with the finances the way they are, I'll have to continue with this small squad. As such, is there any sort of guide or anything on how to prepare a small squad and keep them in best condition during a season, such as advice on physio's, coaches, training guides etc?Any help appreciated.

[furiousuk]

Your physios are important as in FM11 they help to keep the squad in peak condition as well as doing their primary job of getting players fit again so they are pretty useful for a small squad. Also, I think pretty liberal use of the 'Rest' feature will probably be quite good although I've little experience of it. Also look to keep your training workload a little lighter than you normally would (I'm normally around the heavy mark so maybe 4-5 clicks lower than that). It's also possible that a heavy match prep workload actually lowers the strain on a player as, logically, match prep training is by nature far lighter than regular training. You'll not see much improvement in players this way but will hopefully help them regain condition quicker.

Also, I'm pretty sure a heavy aerobic/strength pre-season helps players to gain a good fitness base, as you would expect in real life. I've tried different schedules for pre-season and those that really push the players physically (without injuring them) seem to be best for maintaining good condition & staying injury-free. If a player misses pre-season through injury I know that he'll normally be the guy in poor condition or injury prone throughout the season.

I'd also not worry about the league cup and possibly not be too worried about the FA Cup (although you might decide a decent cup run will reap financial rewards). Ideally you want you best players to play 38 league games so they don't need extra cup games too unless the dates fall favourably.

There are some decent free transfers at the start of the game, even for Premiership clubs. I don't think there are any that will push you on to Champions League glory but there will be some cracking squad players. As the game progresses keep an eye out for freebies, I've had a couple of crackers over the years, real top top class players.

[virtex]

Thanks for the detailed reply, much appreciated.

[pigfacemonkeyman]

It could be the hidden PPM

'Tries Tricks'

, in FM10 Lallana has it but Hulk doesn't. (in my saves anyway). Maybe they both have it in FM11, or, it just ain't that.

[vurogj]

Any ideas on the 'wobbly run'?

I think it might be Flair rating. Ozkan in this video has 19 for flair and almost starts disco dancing before he shoots. He does the stepover run constantly in other situations as well.

[furiousuk]

They are both 18 flair players so maybe thats it, that PPM probably comes into it, good spot. I have another 18 flair player who I dont think does the wobbly run though, maybe it is a combination of stats. Hulk has pretty epic levels of everything (he also 'moonwalks' from time to time but I think this is a graphical error!) whereas flair might be combined with Lallana's PPM.

Thanks for the replies

[pigfacemonkeyman]

They are both 18 flair players so maybe thats it, that PPM probably comes into it, good spot. I have another 18 flair player who I dont think does the wobbly run though, maybe it is a combination of stats. Hulk has pretty epic levels of everything (he also 'moonwalks' from time to time but I think this is a graphical error!) whereas flair might be combined with Lallana's PPM.

Thanks for the replies

It looks like we could be in for more of this if the GK video in OP is anything to go by. (approx 1:44)

[lenwe]

hi i have genie scout for fm2011 and it loads my game up on genie scout and i do a filter of current ability 60- 70 and i save it but then i cant find it in fm2011. can anyone help me please. it save as a slf file if that helps but it doesnt have any options to change that.

[pigfacemonkeyman]

Is this 15-21 & 0-21 new to FM11? I'm still on FM10 and don't recall seeing these numbers anywhere, if it's a case of me being blind, where might I find them?

Cheers

xxx

^No reply, so asking here. Anyone?^

[Robert the Spud]

Don't know if anyone can help with this. I'm starting a game with Everton and obviously I've got a fairly small squad to start with and with the finances the way they are, I'll have to continue with this small squad. As such, is there any sort of guide or anything on how to prepare a small squad and keep them in best condition during a season, such as advice on physio's, coaches, training guides etc?Any help appreciated.

During pre-season, have the schedule fairly high on strength/aerobic/tactics, and fairly low on everything else. Then when the season starts change it up to a lighter schedule.

Get top physios in, such as Gary Lewin, and top fitness coaches, such as Paul Winsper(both free agents). The other thing is to be religious about rest. I always give my player 1-2 days off after a game, depending on schedule, and as the season progress I will give them up to 3 days off if needed. Toward the end of the season, I will give them 4-7 days off if necessary! I barely get any injuries.

[Long Islander]

How do you know when to take Assman's advice when he suggests to have a player learn a certain move or train at a different position? Some players will say " I'll give it a go" and some just get pissed and their morale goes down. Does this have anything to do with "personality". I'm scared to ever suggest anything to my players now.

[Dr. A]

Probably has been asked before:

How do I change in what order players are listed in the teamtalk screen? Now the are in completely random order, for example:

GK

ML

DCR

AMC

etc.

I want it to be:

GK

DR

DCR

DCL

etc.

[pigfacemonkeyman]

Probably has been asked before:

How do I change in what order players are listed in the teamtalk screen? Now the are in completely random order, for example:

GK

ML

DCR

AMC

etc.

I want it to be:

GK

DR

DCR

DCL

etc.

Still on FM10, but don't you just click on the head of the column?

[furiousuk]

^Originally Posted by pigfacemonkeyman Is this 15-21 & 0-21 new to FM11? I'm still on FM10 and don't recall seeing these numbers anywhere, if it's a case of me being blind, where might I find them?

Cheers

xxx

Don't know if its in FM10 but in FM11 its in the team screen, views->home-grown status. If it is new, it doesn't work. Some of my English chaps born in London or Worksop have 'trained in nation/club (15-21)' whereas I have two 'trained in nation (0-21)', 1 is a regen from Stamford (fair enough) but the other is a Brazilian born in Rio who joined Arsenal at 17 and promptly went on loan to Spain for a while!! Oh, and, even better, my 20 y/o Croatian DL who has been at the club (actually at the club) since he was 16 has no pending home-grown status at all.

[jamez91]

What situations do you change your defensive roles in terms of cover, stopper and defend.

I play defend vs 2 strikers or 1 defend and 1 stopper vs 1 striker?

Am I doing it right, or can anyone think of better ways to evaluate when.

[Flohrinho]

Just a short question about something I see quite often from my defenders. Even if I set them to hard tackling and really aggressive in terms of closing down it just happens that I see my defenders stand of all the time and letting the attackers just run around them in circles until they get past them.

I wondered which attributes or lack of it would make my players so passive in those situations. Is it missing aggressiveness or decision or determination or what? Because this behavior from my defenders is driving me crazy and I don't know how to get rid of this passiveness.

Oh and another thing is my fullbacks mistime a lot of their tacklings opposition wingers usually have no problems getting past them because my fullbacks go into a tackling to early or to late and the wingers are free to go. Could it be that the PPM dives into tacklings could cause this?

[Jenko_EFC]

Just a short question about something I see quite often from my defenders. Even if I set them to hard tackling and really aggressive in terms of closing down it just happens that I see my defenders stand of all the time and letting the attackers just run around them in circles until they get past them.

I wondered which attributes or lack of it would make my players so passive in those situations. Is it missing aggressiveness or decision or determination or what? Because this behavior from my defenders is driving me crazy and I don't know how to get rid of this passiveness.

Oh and another thing is my fullbacks mistime a lot of their tacklings opposition wingers usually have no problems getting past them because my fullbacks go into a tackling to early or to late and the wingers are free to go. Could it be that the PPM dives into tacklings could cause this?

Maybe you're being Counter Attacked and thus the best thing for your CB's to do it to try and waste time, force them wide and wait for your other players to get back to make the tackle, instead of getting skinned or out-paced and letting them through on goal. It may not be a bad thing. Although I may be wrong, any chance of a screenshot of them?

I think it may be the PPM with your Fullbacks, yes.

[pigfacemonkeyman]

I'm still on FM10 but I would like to know, in FM11, how long after selecting a 'shout' does it take effect? Or, what needs to happen to move the shout from pending to implemented?

Cheers

xxx

[furiousuk]

Duration before the button changes (i.e. before you could change things again) seems to vary, anywhere between 30 seconds and a couple of minutes so pretty quickly. It seems to happen when one phase of play transitions to another but my idea of the end of a phase often contradicts FM's view so it's hard to tell.

[pigfacemonkeyman]

Duration before the button changes (i.e. before you could change things again) seems to vary, anywhere between 30 seconds and a couple of minutes so pretty quickly. It seems to happen when one phase of play transitions to another but my idea of the end of a phase often contradicts FM's view so it's hard to tell.

Thanks furious, so there is none of the infinite pending you get in FM10, only implemented by changing strategy or leaving the match screen and tweaking a tactic setting?

[furiousuk]

Thanks furious, so there is none of the infinite pending you get in FM10, only implemented by changing strategy or leaving the match screen and tweaking a tactic setting?

In nearly 10 seasons I've never encountered that and I use shouts a fair bit.

Sounds like an annoying issue, glad they fixed it!!

[Flohrinho]

So since I'm fairly bored with the game atm I'm currently trying to make some strange formations and recently set myself the aim to get possession and passing % as high as possible with my Barca save game.

So I set up my team in a 3-2-3-2-0 formation and applied settings which I thought would guaranty me a very high possession/pass % rate and this was the result of it. (I'm Barca btw.)

I mean don't get me wrong my finishing has never been better in any game and the fact that I only allowed them three shots from close distance (2 corners) was really pleasing to watch but why the hell is my possession and passing percentage so low?

I set my team to mentality 6, players were set between mentality 6-8, width 6, tempo to 6, time wasting to 12 and gave all my defenders and midfielders hold up ball and no through balls.

I also set my players creative freedom between 3 and 6 for all players but non the less most of the time my team just started to hammer the ball forward every time we got it back.

The strange thing was that even after I was leading with 3 goals I played direct attacking game while Atletico was passing the ball around the back keeping possession and a sensational 91% passes completed.

So maybe anyone can help me see flaw in my tactic to why I'm not able to keep possession?

Somehow this is kind of frustrating every time I think I actually know what I'm doing something like this happens and I somehow start getting the feeling that all my tactical concepts are just lucky to work. Very frustrating.

Edith: alright looks like I have found the reason for my weird play I forgot to untick "target man". Since I switched it off my team plays much more like I was imagining they would.

[pigfacemonkeyman]

Is it possible to download the FM11 manual?

Cheers

xxx