Football Manager 2014 - Update 14.2.2 - Feedback Thread

[Challenger]

You took the time to upload the incident to YouTube, then post it on this thread. In that time, you could have reported it as a bug.

You know best though.

Uploading it to YouTube requires 1 click.

Posting it here requires about 5.

Going on a manhunt for some third party tool takes slightly longer.

[jc1]

You took the time to upload the incident to YouTube, then post it on this thread. In that time, you could have reported it as a bug.

You know best though.

[ceefax the cat]

Goalkeepers dithering is generally tactical with a dose of player attributes. Its usually caused by him trying to follow your orders but not being able to because of other orders, an example would be trying to pass the ball out but not being able to find a passing option within the range and risk level you have assigned to him.

I can see a case for more general balls forward being hit towards a target man rather than just cleared although it would need further investigation as I do see a lot of balls aimed towards my ST already.

Overall though you need to understand that errors happen all the time IRL, Arsene Wenger once said every goal scored is the result of a mistake at some point.

1. The keeper who dithered and got robbed (twice in a few games) had been instructed to 'hit more direct passes', as had the whole team. There was a target man with a support duty at the other end. He had nothing to think about whatsoever, other than launching it as quickly as possible towards that man, particularly given the extreme lack of creative freedom he'd been given. So his dithering and being robbed was nothing to do with my instructions, and nothing to do with my tactics whatsoever. Ditto his decision to lob the ball delicately onto the head of his centre-back a few yards away, when all he'd been asked to do is hump it to the big man, or at least as far forward as possible. For the umpteenth time, we are not seeing tactical errors, or forgiveable technical ones. We are seeing incompetence and irrationality on such a basic level that tactics have not even come into it yet.

2. Yes errors happen all the time but what we are seeing are gross, unforced ones - the kind you might not expect to see even in a game played by small children. Don't try to draw a parallel between mistakes made under pressure at the top level, and the kind of madness exhibited on a constant basis by players in this version of FM, because there is none.

[Dagenham_Dave]

Is there a full moon just now?

[Cougar2010]

1. The keeper who dithered and got robbed (twice in a few games) had been instructed to 'hit more direct passes', as had the whole team. There was a target man with a support duty at the other end. He had nothing to think about whatsoever, other than launching it as quickly as possible towards that man, particularly given the extreme lack of creative freedom he'd been given. So his dithering and being robbed was nothing to do with my instructions, and nothing to do with my tactics whatsoever. Ditto his decision to lob the ball delicately onto the head of his centre-back a few yards away, when all he'd been asked to do is hump it to the big man, or at least as far forward as possible. For the umpteenth time, we are not seeing tactical errors, or forgiveable technical ones. We are seeing incompetence and irrationality on such a basic level that tactics have not even come into it yet.

Thats in your opinion unfortunately in terms of FM thats not the case.

While you say he had nothing to think about he actually had, the duty you selected for him gives him instructions as to passing range, risk level of passes etc etc. In that case he didn't see passing the ball forward to your target man as a "safe" pass leading him to look for other options. Before he could safely boot it away (Influenced by his mental attributes such as decisions) he got tackled and lost the ball.

2. Yes errors happen all the time but what we are seeing are gross, unforced ones - the kind you might not expect to see even in a game played by small children. Don't try to draw a parallel between mistakes made under pressure at the top level, and the kind of madness exhibited on a constant basis by players in this version of FM, because there is none.

Unrealistic expectations, there is a parallel between mistakes you see in FM and those made by professional players.

If you can't accept that you'll never be happy with FM and they'll be nothing SI or other forum users can do to help you.

[themadsheep2001]

Is there a full moon just now?

No, just the same person with an alias.

[Guest El Payaso]

I'm really getting more and more frustrated with this match engine. It just repeats itself and is really predictable.

- Long balls. Either from opponent's keeper or defender, my centre backs are basically always going to win the first ball but my midfielders just keep on walking towards my defense line and opponent's midfielders are able to collect the ball and get the possession.

- Long through balls are coming from random players, for example in my team by my full-backs who haven't got the intelligence or passing ability or even instructed to play them. On the other hand I've seen only 2-3 creative through balls from my midfielders even though they are more intelligent and instructed to play those balls.

- Intelligence generally is really bad. The wing play is always the same, full-backs allow wingers to dribble to byline and they just keep hitting the ball to full-backs and getting corners. This happens in both ends and even though I'm instructing my players to cross less and from deep and even playing wingers as inside forwards. AI teams are having exactly same problems...

Often in the games you see things that would never happen in real football and I keep asking myself things like what is he doing and why is he doing that; no-one really is that stupid that he would just gift the ball away straight to opposition or give corners away even though under no pressure. Clearances are often so stupid, players seem to be making the one decision that is completely wrong when clearing the ball.

Still ain't seeing any creativity in the game even though football should be more like pass and move and intelligence game instead of running with the ball game.

[howhigh1337]

Much decreased number of people playing this game must to drive developers to work even harder. I remember FM14 was 3rd at steam most played titles, and now it's 10th...

[Dagenham_Dave]

Much decreased number of people playing this game must to drive developers to work even harder. I remember FM14 was 3rd at steam most played titles, and now it's 10th...

Off topic here, but where do you find this information?

[themadsheep2001]

Much decreased number of people playing this game must to drive developers to work even harder. I remember FM14 was 3rd at steam most played titles, and now it's 10th...

You know the figures fluctuates during the day right? Your figure is from 7:58 uk time, with about 22,320 playing. There are now 65,523 playing.

[themadsheep2001]

Off topic here, but where do you find this information?

http://store.steampowered.com/stats/?l=english

[Caesarius]

You know the figures fluctuates during the day right? Your figure is from 7:58 uk time, with about 22,320 playing. There are now 65,523 playing.

It looks like a few mins later number went back to what howhigh1337 posted:

Current Players Peak Today Game

279,192 279,192 Dota 2

76,750 76,750 Left 4 Dead 2

57,272 57,272 Team Fortress 2

47,390 47,390 Sid Meier's Civilization V

47,318 47,318 The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

39,852 39,852 Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

31,212 31,212 Garry's Mod

26,453 26,453 DayZ

26,435 26,435 Starbound

22,320 22,320 Football Manager 2014

Edit: The timestamp you see on that Steams page uses/shows US Pacific Time

[themadsheep2001]

It looks like a few mins later number went back to what howhigh1337 posted:

Current Players Peak Today Game

279,192 279,192 Dota 2

76,750 76,750 Left 4 Dead 2

57,272 57,272 Team Fortress 2

47,390 47,390 Sid Meier's Civilization V

47,318 47,318 The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

39,852 39,852 Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

31,212 31,212 Garry's Mod

26,453 26,453 DayZ

26,435 26,435 Starbound

22,320 22,320 Football Manager 2014

If you look at the top of that page it says last updated 8:43am

Screenshot just taken now

[Fabregas_04]

So many apologists in here it's actually quite funny. It's all tactics, because I clearly tell Ozil to miscontrol simple passes many times in every game.... I think not.

[forameuss]

Serious question - is Ozil under some kind of hex in game? He always seems to get mentioned like he's king of the first touches.

[Caesarius]

If you look at the top of that page it says last updated 8:43am

Screenshot just taken now

And now says 9:08 AM because Steam uses US Pacific Time.

It shows different numbers tho.

Back to CiV, about to complete Hubble

[whilewolf2]

Regarding the overpowered corners I think one big reason that corners are so powerful is that almost 100% get past the near post. Neither the player nor the AI have the option to station a man outside the near post to clear anything low enough to get his head to. IRL even at the highest level a good percentage of corners get cleared before the ball reaches the goal. In FM the only corners I have seen cleared before they get to the near post have come from players marking guys attacking or standing on the near post and as their running towards goal most of them have resulted in corners.

On a related note when a corner or cross goes beyond the back post players try and squeeze a header in to that corner far too often. They should be heading back across goal giving their team mates a chance to grab a tap in.

[themadsheep2001]

And now says 9:08 AM because Steam uses US Pacific Time.

It shows different numbers tho.

Back to CiV, about to complete Hubble

Numbers are identical still.

So it's not updating, whereas the steam in game one is (66,742 right now)

Whilewolf, I'm not entirely sure corners themselves are overpowered (could still be a debate as to whether the ratio of goals is right, but actually there are just too many corners in general). But I agree we need to have a lot more options in future for set pieces. Though that's something for FM15 and beyond I suspect. In the mean time, I still think the delivery needs to be looked at, but that could just be my perception, will have to take a number of pkms before I could be more sure.

Agree on the second though.

[Hit the upright]

I’m amazed that nobody has mentioned the obvious, watch the matches in comprehensive mode there is almost no tackling in the middle third of the pitch unless it results in a foul, no pressing to speak of either.

[themadsheep2001]

I’m amazed that nobody has mentioned the obvious, watch the matches in comprehensive mode there is almost no tackling in the middle third of the pitch unless it results in a foul, no pressing to speak of either.

There are, but (again perception on my part) not as many as you feel there should be.

As an aside, I actually think there are 7 or 8 key bits that could be improved and significantly improve the quality of the ME, almost to the point where you could virtually leave it alone in FM15, but I dont think a single one of them has been mentioned, because people are seemingly tunnelling on things already mentioned. Hopefully i'll have enough time over the next two weeks to post significant evidence before any major update.

[pixie]

Could someone write or repairing patch will come out some bugs in the game?

[Hit the upright]

There are, but (again perception on my part) not as many as you feel there should be.

As an aside, I actually think there are 7 or 8 key bits that could be improved and significantly improve the quality of the ME, almost to the point where you could virtually leave it alone in FM15, but I dont think a single one of them has been mentioned, because people are seemingly tunnelling on things already mentioned. Hopefully i'll have enough time over the next two weeks to post significant evidence before any major update.

I have to say I don’t think it has anything to do with perception, its about the fact that in any match that you watch in full mode there are frequently zero instances of tackling in the middle third. Of course tackling may be happening in the bits you don’t see but that’s not very realistic, looking at the real thing attacks happen generally because of break downs in play, poor touch, bad pass, being tackled, in FM attacks are not coming from the latter in the middle third, watch a highlight show and there are plenty. Another area is runs on the flank, off the ball, you have an attack center left or right the defence is back peddling, the attacking side has men in the box, but wingers and full backs are holding back and not trying to attack the space in behind the opposition full backs, this then tends to lead to all the play being pulled into the center. As for your 7 or 8 I suspect you are right but its very obvious why these are not going to be picked up on.

[Cougar2010]

I have to say I don’t think it has anything to do with perception, its about the fact that in any match that you watch in full mode there are frequently zero instances of tackling in the middle third. Of course tackling may be happening in the bits you don’t see but that’s not very realistic, looking at the real thing attacks happen generally because of break downs in play, poor touch, bad pass, being tackled, in FM attacks are not coming from the latter in the middle third, watch a highlight show and there are plenty. Another area is runs on the flank, off the ball, you have an attack center left or right the defence is back peddling, the attacking side has men in the box, but wingers and full backs are holding back and not trying to attack the space in behind the opposition full backs, this then tends to lead to all the play being pulled into the center. As for your 7 or 8 I suspect you are right but its very obvious why these are not going to be picked up on.

Again the problem is expectation.

Tackling IRL does not happen as often as you think, teams defend by holding their shape and harrassing the opposition not by diving into tackles.

[Hit the upright]

Again the problem is expectation.

Tackling IRL does not happen as often as you think, teams defend by holding their shape and harrassing the opposition not by diving into tackles.

I don’t think I said I expected it often but I do expect it sometimes and yes teams do defend by holding their shape and harassing, trouble is along with zero tackling in the middle third there is also zero harassing, so much so that play through the midfield is only interrupted by poor touch or poor passes.

[Cougar2010]

I don’t think I said I expected it often but I do expect it sometimes and yes teams do defend by holding their shape and harassing, trouble is along with zero tackling in the middle third there is also zero harassing, so much so that play through the midfield is only interrupted by poor touch or poor passes.

I really think I must be playing a different game to a lot of people

My players close down, I see them harrassing the opposition, blocking passes, forcing poor passes etc. I also see the AI teams doing the same thing to my team.

Is it perception? Am I reading the ME/graphics better than others? whereas you just view it as players standing around?

[Caesarius]

Numbers are identical still.

So it's not updating, whereas the steam in game one is (66,742 right now)

You´re right as seen here: http://steamgraph.net/index.php?action=graph&appid=231670&from=1387653397

This site keeps track of steam stats values.

Looking at these graphs jumps out some idle hours where it doesnt update and keep showing the same numbers, like now.

Seems like time spent on this game was declining slowly till a few days ago where it climbed up strongly, maybe for the patch, off-work days or price being halved maybe.

Personally I would love to play it now, and reading the forums usually hooks me up to do it, but got tired of some frustrations and I'm looking forward for some fixes to start a new save.

[Hit the upright]

I really think I must be playing a different game to a lot of people

My players close down, I see them harrassing the opposition, blocking passes, forcing poor passes etc. I also see the AI teams doing the same thing to my team.

Is it perception? Am I reading the ME/graphics better than others? whereas you just view it as players standing around?

I’ve no idea, I see them do it in the final third but what I see in the center is a lot of standing idle, a lot of trying to get back after allowing play to pass by, although I agree with your first statement, lots of people are saying most of the goals they are seeing is from corners, most of the goals I see are from open play.

[RandomGuy.]

So many apologists in here it's actually quite funny. It's all tactics, because I clearly tell Ozil to miscontrol simple passes many times in every game.... I think not.

What role have you given him? Theres plenty of people who have great success with him

[War Eagle 34]

The ONLY quarrel that I have with the ME at this moment is that the wingers just will not cross when they should and even after this update, they still look to hit it off of the defender for a corner. I've jokingly referred to 14 as Set Piece Manager 14.

[RandomGuy.]

The ONLY quarrel that I have with the ME at this moment is that the wingers just will not cross when they should and even after this update, they still look to hit it off of the defender for a corner. I've jokingly referred to 14 as Set Piece Manager 14.

As hilarious as that joke is. Its probably entirely down to your instructions and the ability of your wide players

[stevemc]

I've noticed when getting a scout report on a player, its giving them a star rating that they compare against players that have already left my club.

Anyone noticed this?

[Guest El Payaso]

A bug? Playing with Boreham Wood I have Arsenal as my parent club and the affiliation says that we will host annual friendly match, yet when I try to propose this friendly, they reject it. We have one friendly against their U-21 team which we were forced to accept when they proposed. So is it a bug or is Arsenal just cheating me by proposing the friendly first and by that way not having to play with their first-team squad? Annoying it sure is because I could really use the money that we would get from a friendly against Arsenal...

[Petros7]

The parent club can choose which team to field in the yearly friendly match.

[roy9066]

Personal concerns and future wishes about the match engine.

I don't usually post threads, but I've created forum account just to write this.

I've been a sincere fan of the franchise since CM2002; played every series and I do have a great love for the game.

So please note that these feedbacks are out of my deep concerns and considerations.

It has been a long time since I've been excited from an decent offensive move: The closest I can think of would be FM2012, when lots of creative and fair movements were shown on the pitch.

And I do not mean killer balls on every passes and dribbling through 3~4 players every time. I really think it is lacking varieties of attacking movements on the pitch where we would see from sports highlights of the weeks.

The original FM2014 had some, but many of then felt "artificial." As a spectator's view, many of attacking chances and goals felt generated(or "forced) by the match engine itself, not by teamwork and creative movements by the players.

I feel it became worse in 14.2, where many of goals are not from "natural"plays which you would expect from your players, but out of opponents weird movements and glitch-like mistakes from defenders and GKs.

Only exceptions would be when the opponent is much tougher than you and they play higher defensive line where you can exploit their speace. But that is about it.

Since FM2012~13, I've been really thinking longshots are wasteful and unconvincing, and in 14.2, I am shocked how some of the crosses get into the goals or hit crossbars "unintentionally".

It is welcoming to see unexpected chances, but it happens so often that almost all keepers seem vulnerable to airballs but are exceptionally capable of blocking shots.

Same can be said to freekicks: I feel "freekick chances" are all dissapeared.

Since 14.2, I cant really hope to see real football like movements and plays on the pitch. Sometimes the defenders and GKs seem to be "forced" to make mistakes. Many of times I can't stop feeling "invisible hand" is controlling the game, not either of the oppositions. Of course in real life you get to feel the same way but in almost evey game? I don't think so.

Funny first touch mistakes are very frustraing, even for the players that have First Touch attribute 17+. Since 14.2, many of players seems incapable of controlling the ball, where that is DFs, GKs, MFs, FWs... I feel like almost all players on the pitch forgot how to control the ball.

Well I have not played teams like Barcelona and Real Madrid where they have players like Messi and C.Ronaldo, but surely they are not the only ones who knows how to control the ball?

Because of all these reasons, I am often forced to play certain styles that would exploit & avoid such "chances" generated by the match engine.

Even among NPC managers, I feel almost no differences among their styles because no matter how the players play the game, most of goal chances and scores happens in same way.

In future patches, I hope to see improvements on varieties of attacking movements, lots of options to exploit on, and no more glitch-like ball controls please!

Thank you.

[Fabregas_04]

What role have you given him? Theres plenty of people who have great success with him

It doesn't matter what his role is. Mesut Ozil should be able to control short simple passes 99 times out of 100. I'm not saying he doesn't do good stuff either, but the number of times he, and every player around him gives the ball away from poor control is laughable. Also, you do realise I was being sarcastic about tactics right?

[Caesarius]

Regarding first touch issues I do think they need some fine tunning, nothing drastic like 14.1.4, just a bit.

Specially on the direction where the ball goes on.

I accept most of the players are unable to glue the ball at his feet while receiving, but one as a player knows its going to happen so you position your shoe they way you want the ball to rebound, that is: no straight to an opponent or the sideline.

Dont need to be technically gifted to influence the direction of a ball hitting a shoe, at least to certain degrees +/-

[themadsheep2001]

Regarding first touch issues I do think they need some fine tunning, nothing drastic like 14.1.4, just a bit.

Specially on the direction where the ball goes on.

I accept most of the players are unable to glue the ball at his feet while receiving, but one as a player knows its going to happen so you position your shoe they way you want the ball to rebound, that is: no straight to an opponent or the sideline.

Dont need to be technically gifted to influence the direction of a ball hitting a shoe, at least to certain degrees +/-

Definitely worth logging any examples of the worst cases you see, but from what I've seen, might need some fine tuning, particularly on direction of control.

[Hit the upright]

I really think I must be playing a different game to a lot of people

My players close down, I see them harrassing the opposition, blocking passes, forcing poor passes etc. I also see the AI teams doing the same thing to my team.

Is it perception? Am I reading the ME/graphics better than others? whereas you just view it as players standing around?

Just to come back to this now I have a bit more time, if you believe that harassing the opposition, blocking passes, forcing poor passes is actually happening in the middle third but the reason why it doesn’t look like that on screen is just poor graphical representation, which is what I guess you are saying, then why then does the graphical representation look so different for those same actions in the final third, I hope that makes sense. What I see on screen is harassing the opposition, blocking passes, forcing poor passes in the final third no problem, the defending side get tight, block and force attackers into making mistakes but in the middle third they don’t get tight at all except occasionally on the wings.

By the way your last statement Am I reading the ME/graphics better than others? another question may be are you reading into it what you want to believe is happening when that is not actually the case?

[Cougar2010]

By the way your last statement Am I reading the ME/graphics better than others? another question may be are you reading into it what you want to believe is happening when that is not actually the case?

Its a good question but I believe after thousands of hours each version watching extended/comprehensive highlights since 3d was included I read the ME fairly well.

I wish there was an easy way to show people what I can see happening on the pitch and explain it to them

Also as there has been a lot of talk recently about first touches and it kinda links to how you read what is happening on the pitch. I suspect (At least some of the time) people are mistaking a bad first touch for an attempt to move the the ball first time past or away from an approaching opposition player. When you receive a ball you don't always want it at your feet, if you receive a horizontal ball instead of trapping it you often knock it away from you in the direction you want to dribble.

[Petros7]

Also as there has been a lot of talk recently about first touches and it kinda links to how you read what is happening on the pitch. I suspect (At least some of the time) people are mistaking a bad first touch for an attempt to move the the ball first time past or away from an approaching opposition player. When you receive a ball you don't always want it at your feet, if you receive a horizontal ball instead of trapping it you often knock it away from you in the direction you want to dribble.

I'm not sure but I think this is happening when the opposition starts to tight mark one of my players. Where before they were dribbling down the line or cutting inside without any bother then all of a sudden they can't move at all when the ball is passed towards them, so as soon as it happens I treat it as a warning to take action. Maybe it's just my interpretation of what I'm seeing and it is an issue, but it hasn't affected my saves so much so to cause me to worry.

[BiggusD]

Just to come back to this now I have a bit more time, if you believe that harassing the opposition, blocking passes, forcing poor passes is actually happening in the middle third but the reason why it doesn’t look like that on screen is just poor graphical representation, which is what I guess you are saying, then why then does the graphical representation look so different for those same actions in the final third, I hope that makes sense. What I see on screen is harassing the opposition, blocking passes, forcing poor passes in the final third no problem, the defending side get tight, block and force attackers into making mistakes but in the middle third they don’t get tight at all except occasionally on the wings.

By the way your last statement Am I reading the ME/graphics better than others? another question may be are you reading into it what you want to believe is happening when that is not actually the case?

I think a more precise way to put it is that in transition phases; when one team starts attacking and the other (should) start defending, there is a long delay 10 meters each side of the centre line where the ball carrier seems to be the only active player. The rest are waiting around doing nothing for a few seconds. Then, as the ball carrier crosses an invisible line, everyone starts moving again.

In real life, whenever a team loses the ball, all 10 players are scrambling to get behind the ball, including most strikers. The Poacher type may linger, but they are rare in today's game. This compression is completely necessary to defend as a team, but in this ME even hard-working players in AMC-S roles are behaving as Poachers/Trequartistas neither pressing the ball carrier nor marking defenders or DLP's. It doesn't matter that I have told the team to attack - in order to do so they must work twice as hard to get behind the ball in order to regain possession. "Attack" strategy is not an order to stay up and hope for the best.

[scott MUFC]

getting rather fed up of conceding goals the way I am, seems Every game I concede a goal through stupidity, shot across goal, after left back fails 3 times to tackle, bounces off keeper and in, thier 2nd defender tackles striker, it bounces back off the striker who then tackles the defender...

I'm noticing a pattern and has happened a fair few times this season. opposition shots on target = goal (usualy from stuff i just said above)

this was just now, but out of the last 5 or 6 games I have kept them down to 1 or 2 shots... but they get scored. it isn't tactics, because I'm clearly dominating the game and keeping thier shots to a minimum and the shots are coming off mistakes usually, it is just getting unrealistic when it happens nearly every game, especially as my GK's ratings are below 7 because of it.

my players are doing all the closing down and blocking passes, get the ball to thier box, where it is either cleared, or blocked, or thier keeper somehow saves the ball. (and by somehow I mean, somehow getting a shot behind them, or way past them) i'm working for my victories because either strikers are hitting the corner flag, or it is impossible to score through all the players and then AI score from some supergoal, or a mistake.

[War Eagle 34]

Except for the fact that I've been playing the game for 10+ years, have tried every possible setting in the shouts and instructions, literally, and they will cross as they should MAYBE once per game. I'm not asking to SCORE goals off of crosses, or even to "WIN" but I just want crosses to at least approximate real life.

Right now, they just wait for the defender to kick it off, for a corner.

[CurnRaisin]

So far I've enjoyed the new patch, best bit of form I've had so far and feel the ME is a lot better balanced my SC are actually scoring , but unfortunately me and my friend in our network game have encountered 2 game breaking bugs:

First some times I enter tactics during the match, I stop getting commentary so the match can jump or skip on 20-30 minutes with out me noticing during this time there are no goal flashes. one match I was quickly tinkering my tactics and when I went to confirm, 30mins have past and I had conceded 3 goals.

Second, My friend is getting sacked for not reaching an imaginary points total, right now he is 3rd, a game and 2 points behind 2nd and 4 points of first. His board are pleased with him and he is generally doing well, out of both domestic cups but challenging for the league and though to the knock-out round in the champions league. Yet if he doesn't win a game he gets sacked, This first happened last game, he lost to city(2nd) and he got sacked for not reaching a points total. We loaded it up seeing if he won the match maybe that would be it over, (he agreed to throw a game later on in the season) it worked he won, he didn't get sacked so on to the next game hopeful that was it fixed he just drew with Chelsea(1st) at home conceding a last minute equaliser and boom sacked, the news piece about the sacking says that the chairman terminated his contract due to not reaching the agreed points total. The last time he had a run in with the board was 3rd of December (its currently 29th January) who wanted him to get 10points from his next 5 games, which he won 4 lost one, and then went on a good run of form, yet it now seems that the game has it in for him.

We cant continue this game without him getting the sack, unless we continuously load it up every time he doesn't win, which would be **** as he would no doubt go on to win the league only due to this "cheating". Our only other option is to add a new manager to take over, but then he loses all his history and any good relationships he has built up and it still sours the game.

[Hit the upright]

Its a good question but I believe after thousands of hours each version watching extended/comprehensive highlights since 3d was included I read the ME fairly well.

I wish there was an easy way to show people what I can see happening on the pitch and explain it to them

Also as there has been a lot of talk recently about first touches and it kinda links to how you read what is happening on the pitch. I suspect (At least some of the time) people are mistaking a bad first touch for an attempt to move the the ball first time past or away from an approaching opposition player. When you receive a ball you don't always want it at your feet, if you receive a horizontal ball instead of trapping it you often knock it away from you in the direction you want to dribble.

I can say exactly the same, I've been playing the game for years and yes I’ve seen thousands of hours of 3D, you've not explained why it looks the way it does in the middle third and different in the final third, surely the graphical interpretation would be the same, yet players appear to get close in the final third and standoff in the middle third.

[Hit the upright]

I think a more precise way to put it is that in transition phases; when one team starts attacking and the other (should) start defending, there is a long delay 10 meters each side of the centre line where the ball carrier seems to be the only active player. The rest are waiting around doing nothing for a few seconds. Then, as the ball carrier crosses an invisible line, everyone starts moving again.

In real life, whenever a team loses the ball, all 10 players are scrambling to get behind the ball, including most strikers. The Poacher type may linger, but they are rare in today's game. This compression is completely necessary to defend as a team, but in this ME even hard-working players in AMC-S roles are behaving as Poachers/Trequartistas neither pressing the ball carrier nor marking defenders or DLP's. It doesn't matter that I have told the team to attack - in order to do so they must work twice as hard to get behind the ball in order to regain possession. "Attack" strategy is not an order to stay up and hope for the best.

You may well be right, nice to know someone is seeing this the same way.

[Sheppy12]

This will be an unashamed rant im afraid.

I was a little late to the 14.2 party and only updated yesterday and now I wish I could go back in time and tell yesterday me to stop. At the time I was top of the premier league with 7 games to go with my Liverpool team. After the update we lost 5 of the remaining games and finished 5th (we had only lost 3 games before that all season). The new season started and we strengthened in Midfield and the side was looking strong. 11 games in and we have 13 points and i've lost the dressing room.

My tactics are not overly complicated, we create sufficient chances, but Suarez now has the finishing of Jason Lee and the first touch of Emile Heskey. My opponents create maybe 2 or 3 good chances a game and yet they score with all. Better still, when they have a man sent off, they become 1970 Brazil and we are lucky to escape with a draw. We recently drew 1-1 with a team who had 9 men and created one shot all game. We created over 40.

I'm the first to admit that I am tactically inept but the change since the update is stark.

Rant over.

[upthetoon]

Feedback was quiet at 14.1.4. Pretty boring as all those with comments were enjoying the game like me.

14.2 rolls out and its chaos again. A good patch will result in quiet feedback. Pattern.

[Federico]

getting rather fed up of conceding goals the way I am, seems Every game I concede a goal through stupidity, shot across goal, after left back fails 3 times to tackle, bounces off keeper and in, thier 2nd defender tackles striker, it bounces back off the striker who then tackles the defender...

I'm noticing a pattern and has happened a fair few times this season. opposition shots on target = goal (usualy from stuff i just said above)

this was just now, but out of the last 5 or 6 games I have kept them down to 1 or 2 shots... but they get scored. it isn't tactics, because I'm clearly dominating the game and keeping thier shots to a minimum and the shots are coming off mistakes usually, it is just getting unrealistic when it happens nearly every game, especially as my GK's ratings are below 7 because of it.

my players are doing all the closing down and blocking passes, get the ball to thier box, where it is either cleared, or blocked, or thier keeper somehow saves the ball. (and by somehow I mean, somehow getting a shot behind them, or way past them) i'm working for my victories because either strikers are hitting the corner flag, or it is impossible to score through all the players and then AI score from some supergoal, or a mistake.

It's our tactic.

Well.. at least this is what I've been told.

[HUNT3R]

It's our tactic.

Assuming you are Juventus, what exactly is the problem?

Players don't convert 100% of their CCCs.

1st game. Early sending off, which YOU took advantage of by going 2-0 up. They seem to have changed their set-up after half time to hit you on the break. The fact that they had 2 CCCs compared to your 1 speaks volumes to me. You probably committed too many players forward and they counter-attacked. You had half-chances, but couldn't make it count.

2nd game. You won. What's the problem?

3rd game. Wow. They had double the CCCs and scored double the goals that you did. What is wrong?