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

[bosque]

14 minutes ago, Rummy said:

Questions about width. 

As far as I know, the "Play Wider" and "Play Narrower" TI's affect only The attacking phase, is that correct? 

And does "Play Wider" tell the players to focus their passing on the flanks, and "Play Narrower" tell them to focus passing in the middle? Because in the game loading screen I remember that it says something like "Play Narrower tells your team to play in central areas of the pitch" something like that. 

This will help

On 17/11/2015 at 13:30, THOG said:

One more big change:

The Play Wider and Play Narrower TIs now only affect player positioning, not passing focus. Thus, you can now tell your team to try to stretch play without worrying about the ball getting glued to the touchline. Similarly, Playing Narrower doesn't mean your overlapping fullbacks will get ignored.

[Pivot]

Is counterattacking with much more closing down and high defensive line a good idea?

[herne79]

49 minutes ago, Pivot said:

Is counterattacking with much more closing down and high defensive line a good idea?

If you are talking about the counter attack mentality, then that is just a level of risk.  Adding more closing down and a higher def line is a good idea to add to that starting risk level if that's the style of play you are looking for.

On the other hand, if you are talking about playing with a counter attacking style of football, then no they are not a good idea as with that style you want to be sitting deep, letting opponents over extend themselves before you hit them on the break with a swift counter attack.

[Pivot]

I mean counterattack mentality because i want to play fast, direct and vertical football.

[herne79]

2 hours ago, Pivot said:

I mean counterattack mentality because i want to play fast, direct and vertical football.

If that is what you want you are better off starting with the control or attack mentality as the counter mentality is none of those things.

[oakesypvfc]

Hey guys, I solved some problems with my tactic a bit in this thread  after your help and had a pretty good season last year, losing in the playoff final when expected to finish 20th.

What I want now is to make small tweaks so that the opponent won't find me out. I don't want to change much but I want to change enough so that they don't set up thinking I set up the same year after year.

Advice please?

[Pivot]

Fast or normal tempo? Mixed, short or more direct passes?

[herne79]

34 minutes ago, oakesypvfc said:

Hey guys, I solved some problems with my tactic a bit in this thread  after your help and had a pretty good season last year, losing in the playoff final when expected to finish 20th.

What I want now is to make small tweaks so that the opponent won't find me out. I don't want to change much but I want to change enough so that they don't set up thinking I set up the same year after year.

Advice please?

Opponents don't find you out.  They don't set up thinking you set up the same year after year.  It's simply not how the game works.  Opponents can adapt how they play depending on how successful you are, so if you at top of the league you may find some opponents play more conservatively against you (for example).

31 minutes ago, Pivot said:

Fast or normal tempo? Mixed, short or more direct passes?

If you select Mentality you will notice how the default team instructions change.  Select the Attack mentality (for example) and watch what happens to tempo and passing length (and other TIs).

[oakesypvfc]

8 minutes ago, herne79 said:

Opponents don't find you out.  They don't set up thinking you set up the same year after year.  It's simply not how the game works.  Opponents can adapt how they play depending on how successful you are, so if you at top of the league you may find some opponents play more conservatively against you (for example).

If you select Mentality you will notice how the default team instructions change.  Select the Attack mentality (for example) and watch what happens to tempo and passing length (and other TIs).

That is interesting, thanks. I reckon I will set up the same and hope for similar results to last season. Fingers crossed.

[Medmax]

Hey, I was wondering: does your play style can affect the probability of the players injuries?

I guess a very aggressive play can increase the chance of getting injured in real life, but is it actually reflected in game? I have no points to back it up but I assume a high pressing/hard tackles Atletico style is physically more demanding than a slow tempo/high possession based tactic Barcelona style...

Let's say hard tackles on quite a numerous players, does it increase:

- the chance of your players getting injured? And obviously, the numbers of players out of your squad...

- the severity of the injury? Or this point has no correlation whatsoever with the hard tacles instructions?

Edited March 21, 2017 by Medmax

[ppl_unicode]

I would like to create a defensive scheme, independent of tactics, that closely marks all opposition players in the center, starting from the DMs , and never closes them down. Also, I'd like the opposite to occur when defending against flank players - never mark and always close down.

I'm not sure what are the relations between the opposition instructions and other instructions.

for example - will "close down more" as a team instruction or player instruction change the way that the opposition instruction - close down "always" or "easy" works? 

This also goes to marking.

 

[Dr. Hook]

12 hours ago, Medmax said:

Hey, I was wondering: does your play style can affect the probability of the players injuries?

I guess a very aggressive play can increase the chance of getting injured in real life, but is it actually reflected in game? I have no points to back it up but I assume a high pressing/hard tackles Atletico style is physically more demanding than a slow tempo/high possession based tactic Barcelona style...

Let's say hard tackles on quite a numerous players, does it increase:

- the chance of your players getting injured? And obviously, the numbers of players out of your squad...

- the severity of the injury? Or this point has no correlation whatsoever with the hard tacles instructions?

Hard tackling can cause injuries, yes, both to the tackler and the tacklee. High pressing in and of itself, no. What does happen with high tempo, high pressing systems is player condition drops faster, which leads to greater chances of injury.

[Dr. Hook]

17 minutes ago, ppl_unicode said:

I would like to create a defensive scheme, independent of tactics, that closely marks all opposition players in the center, starting from the DMs , and never closes them down. Also, I'd like the opposite to occur when defending against flank players - never mark and always close down.

I'm not sure what are the relations between the opposition instructions and other instructions.

for example - will "close down more" as a team instruction or player instruction change the way that the opposition instruction - close down "always" or "easy" works? 

This also goes to marking.

 

OI operate independently of your tactical settings, and they are player specific- so if you select close down never on a certain player, no one will close him down, but which player stands off depends on whose zone the player is in at the given moment. You can have close down much more as a team instruction but select a specific player to not close down and it works. Same with marking and tackling OI.

[ppl_unicode]

2 hours ago, Dr. Hook said:

OI operate independently of your tactical settings, and they are player specific.

Thank you. 

I should have made it clear that I am using the overall/positional instructions, not the in-match ones. But I'm guessing it works the same way. 

So just to make it clear - when I set a complete OI scheme (general), there's not need basically to use other defensive instructions ( closing down / marking / tackling,  that is ).

Is that correct? 

Edited March 22, 2017 by ppl_unicode

[Tcufrog]

I'm struggling to determine when I should use the TI's "work ball into box", "hit earlier crosses", and "look for overlap." Can someone please explain what team traits or tactical ideas work best with each of these three instructions?

Thank you 

[Liverbird93]

I'm hoping someone on here can help me out. 

 

I currently play in the German Third tier with a 4-1-4-1-0 formation on control with pass into space and higher tempo. The idea is that there is a lot of space in behind for my RM and CM to exploit and it works they go through one on one regularly. However that's where the problems start they very often miss these chances. It's not unusual for them to miss between 3 and 5 one on one chances in a game. When looking at signing players who will be better when they go through one on one, what should I be looking for

 

Finishing?

composure?

something else?

 

thanks in advance 

[Putzibram]

Is there any way to improve the bravery of a player ?

I've got a regen AM with real star potential but abysmal bravery and I have the impression that it really hurts his game.

[Dr. Hook]

5 hours ago, Putzibram said:

Is there any way to improve the bravery of a player ?

I've got a regen AM with real star potential but abysmal bravery and I have the impression that it really hurts his game.

Not really, no. A couple of the roles do train bravery (BWM and CD I believe) but even the it doesn't move much. It can also increase naturally, but again, not very much. All you can probably do with this guy is stick him on BWM training and hope he gets a couple point increase. This is one area where I would like to see some more dynamism in player development. As it stands, you get a regen with low bravery and you have to pretty much accept that it won' really change.

[Putzibram]

Too bad.

But thanks for the reply Dr.

[Dr. Hook]

On ‎3‎/‎21‎/‎2017 at 22:39, Tcufrog said:

I'm struggling to determine when I should use the TI's "work ball into box", "hit earlier crosses", and "look for overlap." Can someone please explain what team traits or tactical ideas work best with each of these three instructions?

Thank you 

Work ball into box is useful when you find that your players taking too many shots from outside the area, or if you are putting in too many crosses that are going nowhere. This TI reduces both of those. Hit earlier crosses tells your wide players to put the crosses in before getting deep or to the byline. This can be helpful if you have pacey attackers who like to break forward when you recover possession or can make a quick transition to offense. The idea is to get the ball behind the defense quickly and catch the defense moving or flatfooted. Look for overlap is help your attacking minded fullbacks get space- your midfielders will hold up the ball to allow the fullback to overlap them- can be helpful if your midfield is drawing defenders and leaving space out wide.

[Dr. Hook]

On ‎3‎/‎21‎/‎2017 at 19:58, ppl_unicode said:

Thank you. 

I should have made it clear that I am using the overall/positional instructions, not the in-match ones. But I'm guessing it works the same way. 

So just to make it clear - when I set a complete OI scheme (general), there's not need basically to use other defensive instructions ( closing down / marking / tackling,  that is ).

Is that correct? 

If you have OI set (no matter how you do it) for every player on the pitch then yes, ii would reduce the need for defensive instructions.

[Dr. Hook]

On ‎3‎/‎22‎/‎2017 at 02:57, Liverbird93 said:

I'm hoping someone on here can help me out. 

 

I currently play in the German Third tier with a 4-1-4-1-0 formation on control with pass into space and higher tempo. The idea is that there is a lot of space in behind for my RM and CM to exploit and it works they go through one on one regularly. However that's where the problems start they very often miss these chances. It's not unusual for them to miss between 3 and 5 one on one chances in a game. When looking at signing players who will be better when they go through one on one, what should I be looking for

 

Finishing?

composure?

something else?

 

thanks in advance 

Finishing and composure are the two big ones, but also I would look at decisions, as that will govern when a player shoots and what type of the shot he uses. Technique is also good. It could also be that at a high tempo they are rushing their shots a bit.

[Marabak]

Quick CD training question. I've just started a save as a L1 English team, and I have little money to sign or spend. I have a lack of depth at CD but a plethora of DM/CM options. I have a 39 year old DM who has pretty good CD stats, is it worth/possible retraining someone this old? Obviously game time etc. would factor in, but I have never tried to retrain someone this old and wondered whether it was worth the effort or might even be detrimental to his longevity.

 

[herne79]

6 hours ago, Marabak said:

Quick CD training question. I've just started a save as a L1 English team, and I have little money to sign or spend. I have a lack of depth at CD but a plethora of DM/CM options. I have a 39 year old DM who has pretty good CD stats, is it worth/possible retraining someone this old? Obviously game time etc. would factor in, but I have never tried to retrain someone this old and wondered whether it was worth the effort or might even be detrimental to his longevity.

 

At that age he probably won't retrain very well and you could actually see some of his attributes decline to compensate for position training.

However, if he has the right attributes he'll probably make a decent enough back up central defender as the only real "penalty" for playing a player out of position is a bit of a hit to his Decisions attribute.

[Colorado]

On 3/21/2017 at 08:27, herne79 said:

If that is what you want you are better off starting with the control or attack mentality as the counter mentality is none of those things.

Sorry, but why wouldn't counterattack do that? Playing on the break and getting the ball forward with purpose.

[herne79]

1 hour ago, Colorado said:

Sorry, but why wouldn't counterattack do that? Playing on the break and getting the ball forward with purpose.

Because the person asking the question wanted to play "fast, direct, vertical football".  The default tactical settings which the counter attack mentality uses is pretty much the polar opposite of that.  

The counter mentality aims to pass the ball around patiently waiting for a decent chance to open up.  Whereas the Attack mentality (and to a slightly lesser extent the Control mentality) aims to get the ball forwards much quicker and in a more direct manner, hence my response.

Playing on the break is a different kettle of fish entirely.

[Colorado]

I kinda get what you're saying but how would you suggest playing on the break then?

My understanding is counter retains possession until they can outnumber players/have space to attack and then get bodies forward quickly.

[herne79]

30 minutes ago, Colorado said:

I kinda get what you're saying but how would you suggest playing on the break then?

My understanding is counter retains possession until they can outnumber players/have space to attack and then get bodies forward quickly.

With counter attacking football (aka "playing on the break") you're primarily looking to sit deep, standing off the opposition and inviting them forward to attack you.  The idea here is that they over commit numbers forward in their attack before you win the ball back and then hit them at pace with the ball, flooding players forward quickly to overwhelm their now fragile defence before they can reorganise.

To achieve this, it's important to understand how the match engine behaves here.  When the ME recognises a counter attack is on (it follows a set of logical rules), the ME takes control of your players, making them ultra attack minded for the duration of the counter.  Therefore any tactical settings you employ are only used when your team are not counter attacking.

So, if you are looking to play in this manner, it's useful to set your team up in such a way that will encourage this behaviour in the ME.  Your formation is a big part of that - if you have a top heavy formation such as a 4-2-3-1, it's unlikely your opponent will over commit players forward in attack as you have 4 advanced players of your own.  Thus the opponent will likely keep several players deep to mark them all rather than sending them forward.  Therefore deeper formations (such as the 4-1-4-1) can become more useful as you are leaving fewer players forward, so the opposition may become more free in over committing players in attack.

Your chosen mentality can also help here.  The Defensive and Counter mentalities can be useful as those mentalities set your defensive line deep with little closing down, thus encouraging the opposition forward.  That may sound contrary to what I said earlier, but remember this is only to do with when you are defending.  In possession, and when a counter attack is not on (which will be most of the time) you'll be playing in a slow patient manner using those mentalities (ie., not fast, direct, vertical football).  It's only when a counter attack starts, which immediately follows the defensive phase, that the ME takes control and gets things moving quickly.

One other important thing to remember.  The AI managers are more than capable of playing in this manner against you.  Have you ever seen someone on these forums say they've been "FM'd"?  "I had 20 shots on goal, couldn't score yet the AI had 2 shots, scored and we lost".  Sound familiar?  It's usually because the AI team set up in such a way as to play deep and wait for that time they could quickly hit the player with a counter attack.

I've only given you a brief overview here.  If you want to know more (there are some other technical aspects) this thread is the best place to go https://community.sigames.com/topic/362162-the-art-of-counter-attacking/.

[oakesypvfc]

Hey guys, I developed this new tactic in my save for this season and it works okay, and serves as a better attacking impetus than my other two more solid style tactics.

A huge problem I am having however is with long shots. Even with the work into box shout and no players having the shoots from distance PPM, players try long shots rather than wait for their chance. Just wondering if any of you have any ideas why?

https://gyazo.com/6fb71f9d77e88831e67372380031530a 

[herne79]

5 minutes ago, oakesypvfc said:

Hey guys, I developed this new tactic in my save for this season and it works okay, and serves as a better attacking impetus than my other two more solid style tactics.

A huge problem I am having however is with long shots. Even with the work into box shout and no players having the shoots from distance PPM, players try long shots rather than wait for their chance. Just wondering if any of you have any ideas why?

With the counter mentality you are telling your players to play in a slow patient manner when attacking, hoping to create few chances, but good ones.  Work Ball Into Box increases this behaviour.  So, you need movement to create space for players to be available for passes.

But the opposition aren't just going to sit around and let you do it.  With a narrow formation like that, space in the central zone is at a premium and the opposition will do everything they can to deny you that space.

So if your players cant find space to be available for a pass, your player with the ball can end up taking a shot (or getting tackled).  They simply run out of options.

You're probably playing a little too patiently with not enough movement in a packed area.  Someone with great passing at AMC can also help - someone who has the ability (and role) to help find that all important final through ball.

[oakesypvfc]

6 minutes ago, herne79 said:

With the counter mentality you are telling your players to play in a slow patient manner when attacking, hoping to create few chances, but good ones.  Work Ball Into Box increases this behaviour.  So, you need movement to create space for players to be available for passes.

But the opposition aren't just going to sit around and let you do it.  With a narrow formation like that, space in the central zone is at a premium and the opposition will do everything they can to deny you that space.

So if your players cant find space to be available for a pass, your player with the ball can end up taking a shot (or getting tackled).  They simply run out of options.

You're probably playing a little too patiently with not enough movement in a packed area.  Someone with great passing at AMC can also help - someone who has the ability (and role) to help find that all important final through ball.

Would you advise any changes to make to the tactic then? I do have a decent AMC but players at that level with great passing aren't really at a premium.

[Gee_Simpson]

Is it possible to play a high pressing possession style game with a few players in your starting 11 with low teamwork / work rate? I'm Schalke but if you look at their attacking players, they have quite a few who have low work rate / teamwork. Will I possibly have to compromise 1st season and play a different style?

Edited March 27, 2017 by Gee_Simpson

[Fosse]

Where can you see a description of a payer's weak foot ability?

 

 

 

Ah, it's under the development tab.

Edited March 25, 2017 by Fosse

[Pivot]

On 25.03.2017 at 13:02, herne79 said:

With counter attacking football (aka "playing on the break") you're primarily looking to sit deep, standing off the opposition and inviting them forward to attack you.  The idea here is that they over commit numbers forward in their attack before you win the ball back and then hit them at pace with the ball, flooding players forward quickly to overwhelm their now fragile defence before they can reorganise.

To achieve this, it's important to understand how the match engine behaves here.  When the ME recognises a counter attack is on (it follows a set of logical rules), the ME takes control of your players, making them ultra attack minded for the duration of the counter.  Therefore any tactical settings you employ are only used when your team are not counter attacking.

So, if you are looking to play in this manner, it's useful to set your team up in such a way that will encourage this behaviour in the ME.  Your formation is a big part of that - if you have a top heavy formation such as a 4-2-3-1, it's unlikely your opponent will over commit players forward in attack as you have 4 advanced players of your own.  Thus the opponent will likely keep several players deep to mark them all rather than sending them forward.  Therefore deeper formations (such as the 4-1-4-1) can become more useful as you are leaving fewer players forward, so the opposition may become more free in over committing players in attack.

Your chosen mentality can also help here.  The Defensive and Counter mentalities can be useful as those mentalities set your defensive line deep with little closing down, thus encouraging the opposition forward.  That may sound contrary to what I said earlier, but remember this is only to do with when you are defending.  In possession, and when a counter attack is not on (which will be most of the time) you'll be playing in a slow patient manner using those mentalities (ie., not fast, direct, vertical football).  It's only when a counter attack starts, which immediately follows the defensive phase, that the ME takes control and gets things moving quickly.

One other important thing to remember.  The AI managers are more than capable of playing in this manner against you.  Have you ever seen someone on these forums say they've been "FM'd"?  "I had 20 shots on goal, couldn't score yet the AI had 2 shots, scored and we lost".  Sound familiar?  It's usually because the AI team set up in such a way as to play deep and wait for that time they could quickly hit the player with a counter attack.

I've only given you a brief overview here.  If you want to know more (there are some other technical aspects) this thread is the best place to go https://community.sigames.com/topic/362162-the-art-of-counter-attacking/.

In my opinion, fast, direct and vertical football means rapid counterattack after tackle; high pressing, normal/slightly higher defensive line, normal/higher tempo and counterattack (maybe attack or control) mentality should work. I want to create tactic similar to Mourinho's Real, or Heynckes's Bayern.

More questions:

Who is better option for 4-2-3-1 formation? BBM or DLP (S)?

How to blend possesion and counterattacks? normal tempo, control mentality, short passes?

Edited March 27, 2017 by Pivot

[Colorado]

@herne79 thanks for your reply about the counterattacking. Excellent post.

[Marabak]

Does anyone use "pump ball into box"? I imagine it has the same effect of limiting long shots as "work ball into box", but without the endless passing around a parked defence?

As it appears to encourage long forward passes, does it have any conflict with "cross more/less often". Does it double up if you have a TM? Could you in fact use it instead of a TM if you wanted your strikers to act slightly different?

[Gee_Simpson]

On 25/03/2017 at 20:20, Gee_Simpson said:

Is it possible to play a high pressing possession style game with a few players in your starting 11 with low teamwork / work rate? I'm Schalke but if you look at their attacking players, they have quite a few who have low work rate / teamwork. Will I possibly have to compromise 1st season and play a different style?

Anyone help?

[Coulthard's Jaw]

How do I adjust my tactics to cope with second season syndrome?

[herne79]

23 hours ago, Coulthard's Jaw said:

How do I adjust my tactics to cope with second season syndrome?

I always get a little confused as what this actually is and what people mean by that.

If you mean your tactical system doesn't seem quite so effective as it did first season, that can be (generalisation incoming) to do with your relative success.  The AI is quite capable (it's actually pretty good at it) of adjusting how it plays against you depending on your performance, so if you perform well the AI might tighten up against you for example, or vice versa.

This can happen at any time - from AI changes during individual matches through to changes season on season.

If you notice this sort of thing happening it becomes a case of how you in turn start to adapt.  And that's the million dollar question.  Unfortunately there's no magic win button - sometimes a small change to mentality is all it takes.  Or changing a role.  Or Team Shape.  Or Team Instructions.  Or all/none/some of the above.  And different matches can need different types of change.  It really comes down to experimentation, although mentality can be a decent starting point.

[whoopy]

Is it better to train players on a role that covers more attributes than focusing fewer ones.I mean, I always set my strikers training as "Complete Forward" role so that he develops all those attributes even thouh I use him as "Advanced Forward" in my tactic.I always do this to all my players(Goalkeepers are set to Sweeper Keeper,Midfielders are set to BBM,Forwards are set to CF etc.).Some disagree with this and the less attributes players are focused the more becomes his development quicker.So, what are your opinions about this ?

[Sussex Hammer]

Anyone got any ideas on how to stop your players just running into the opposition?!  Since the last ME update I find that ball turnover is extremely high with even players with excellent dribbling skills seemingly just running in a straight line at an opponent to get tackled rather than any lateral movement to go around that opponent.  In the original ME dribbling seemed far better but as I say now nothing I seem to do stops even the best dribblers just as I say running straight into an opponent.

[Sussex Hammer]

11 minutes ago, D_LO_ said:

Dribble less PI, unselect run with ball TI... move into channels PI encourages runs between the lines and in theory away from opposing players, roam from position PI may have a similar effect enabling players to find space. I'd recommend you test whichever of these you haven't already considered (if any) I would have thought the first two suggestions would be sufficient for this issue but you may want to consider the latter two after if it's really that much of a problem and/or you want to retain any dribbling instructions. 

Yep tried most of that.  Added roam on my wide midfielders because it was happening to them and then even tested "dribble less" on those wide players but they just keep running into full backs.  I notice that this is how the bigger teams like Man United and co score a lot of their goals against me.  Their full back just blocks my wide man who makes no attempt at riding a tackle and their full back hoofs it forward to their wide man who crosses for their striker to score.  So the AI can get a counter attack right!!!  I even took off ~"look for overlap" because I thought the wide men maybe holding on to the ball for too long awaiting the wing back but to no avail.  Thing is my wide men have good dribbling stats so asking them to dribble less is counter productive and yet they lose it anyway. 

One thing it has taught me though after all these years is that "move into channels" must be pull out to the wings because wide men have no option to move into channels so it can't be the space between the centre backs and full backs because your Wide midfielders and Inside Forwards don't have that option.

Thanks for the assistance though I'll see if there is an option I missed.

Edited March 29, 2017 by Sussex Hammer

[Sussex Hammer]

I'll look at tempo I didn't think of that cheers.  I may well try hit early crosses as well although I suspect they will just cannon off the full backs legs as they seem to do now.  Yeah most wingers certainly aren't exactly strong especially the fast paced ones so it's a shame they don't seem to shine really because I don't notice quick players particularly outrunning their slower counter parts in this edition.  Some major changes probably happened in the last patch because first patch my wide men were probably my best players goals and assists wise but they seem to have lost their shine as has crossing since the last patch so I'm definitely struggling to get anything good out of wide play now.  Probably why a lot of people are using narrow tactics this year.

Edited March 29, 2017 by Sussex Hammer

[herne79]

8 hours ago, whoopy said:

Is it better to train players on a role that covers more attributes than focusing fewer ones.I mean, I always set my strikers training as "Complete Forward" role so that he develops all those attributes even thouh I use him as "Advanced Forward" in my tactic.I always do this to all my players(Goalkeepers are set to Sweeper Keeper,Midfielders are set to BBM,Forwards are set to CF etc.).Some disagree with this and the less attributes players are focused the more becomes his development quicker.So, what are your opinions about this ?

If that works for you, you find your players develop well and according to how you want them to develop then carry on doing it.

The name of the role that you select for training is irrelevant - it's the attributes that are trained that's the important thing.

[Coulthard's Jaw]

11 hours ago, herne79 said:

I always get a little confused as what this actually is and what people mean by that.

If you mean your tactical system doesn't seem quite so effective as it did first season, that can be (generalisation incoming) to do with your relative success.  The AI is quite capable (it's actually pretty good at it) of adjusting how it plays against you depending on your performance, so if you perform well the AI might tighten up against you for example, or vice versa.

This can happen at any time - from AI changes during individual matches through to changes season on season.

If you notice this sort of thing happening it becomes a case of how you in turn start to adapt.  And that's the million dollar question.  Unfortunately there's no magic win button - sometimes a small change to mentality is all it takes.  Or changing a role.  Or Team Shape.  Or Team Instructions.  Or all/none/some of the above.  And different matches can need different types of change.  It really comes down to experimentation, although mentality can be a decent starting point.

Is the AI reacting specifically to my tactics, or is it a general "that team is performing really well, I'll go more defensive to combat it" type approach?

[Cougar2010]

7 minutes ago, Coulthard's Jaw said:

Is the AI reacting specifically to my tactics, or is it a general "that team is performing really well, I'll go more defensive to combat it" type approach?

It doesn't react specifically to your tactics, its more generic.

As you've said if the AI team are favourites to win they'll play more open & attacking, if they aren't they'll go more defensive.

[Fosse]

I find playing on the control mentality just makes play too aggressive with players starting positions too high, too many forward passes, too much urgency etc etc, this is a daft question is anybody actually achieving success with the control mentality?

[Coulthard's Jaw]

13 hours ago, Cougar2010 said:

It doesn't react specifically to your tactics, its more generic.

As you've said if the AI team are favourites to win they'll play more open & attacking, if they aren't they'll go more defensive.

Any guides you or anyone can recommend to playing against teams who treat you as the favourite? Literally every career game I play I end up having to give up after the second season because this just destroys it and I'm a bit stumped as to what I'm meant to do.

[Cougar2010]

25 minutes ago, Coulthard's Jaw said:

Any guides you or anyone can recommend to playing against teams who treat you as the favourite? Literally every career game I play I end up having to give up after the second season because this just destroys it and I'm a bit stumped as to what I'm meant to do.

I usually work it out myself so don't tend to read many of the threads personally, maybe someone else can recommend some but in general anything by Cleon or Rashidi is normally good.

My advice though if you are the favourites and facing a lot of defences teams I would be looking to play a more possession based game.  Generally start with a lower mentality like defensive and then maybe change a couple of the team instructions so its a little more aggressive but still lower risk.  In terms of roles/duties you also need players moving between the lines to drag the defence out of shape and create space.

Best thing to do is start a thread, include a pic of a tactic you've made which shows shape/roles/duties/instructions and explain what you are trying to do with it.

You also need realistic expectations as well which means you will drop points in around 20%-30% of matches that you dominate.

 

EDIT

Any of the threads linked in this thread are a good start: https://community.sigames.com/topic/373937-tactic-building-and-training-guides-start-here/

Llama's pairs & combinations might be a good read if its the creating space and getting players moving between the lines that you think might be an issue.

 

EDIT 2

Watching is often easier than reading so this is Rashidi's you tube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWUCWx5HNWSuzwGxwVczGPQ/featured

Edited March 29, 2017 by Cougar2010

[Coulthard's Jaw]

Cheers 

Quote

You also need realistic expectations as well which means you will drop points in around 20%-30% of matches that you dominate.

Yeah I don't mind that, it's the death spirals that I'm going into where the club just self destructs that I want to stop