This game is too difficult. I can't win games and it's starting to **** me off.

[BiggusD]

I'm also one of these guys who played this game from the very beginning and after being dissappointed a bit last year, it seems that this year is a turning point for a lot of players. I've always had good fortune in the earlier versions (league wins, CL, you name it), but now things have certainly changed for the worse. I've already put countless hours into this years version and i regret every second of it. Deleted the game several times, only to come back for one more try, it just might work if i put in even more time and try even harder with those darn tactics from hell. Read up on a lot of threads here, but frankly it's all been useless (read the bible, people complain about bible, reaction=bible is not foulproof...green reactions to teamtalk are not always good, sometimes red can be good as well...) <-- why do i feel that splitting atoms is easier.

Luckily the game made it easy for me today. Still had my savegame stored somewhere, loaded up my first match, spend too much time with tactics, players, OI, teamtalks and the like and started. Absolutely abysmal first half, but we take the lead just before halftime. Right before the ref blows his whistle they get a freekick...(oh yeah) wham...1-1. I motivate my players and they get a lot of green responses (but were these good greens or bad ones ?) I knew the answer after the break...46th minute, CORNER (need i say more ?) 2-1, 49th minute FREE KICK...3-1, 50th minute, CORNER...4-1. 51th minute...delete game again.

I rarely post here as i much rather try and try again instead of complaining...but this has become ridiculous. The only time the game gave me an even more direct middle finger was when my striker got three goals disallowed in 20 minutes and after that my opponent got 2 corners in 5 minutes and sealed the deal.

"Just one more game"...it used to be, and before you know it it's 5 in the morning and you have to get ready for work I want that feeling back, but the way these series is going i fear the worst.

A green response to a team talk means that he got a little boost to his confidence. Thus, a green response saying "looked relaxed, motivated" or something like that might not be the best idea if his morale is already very good and his confidence already sky-high. That might make him enter the pitch believing that the team could just turn up and win, which in-game is called complacency. In such a situation, you're supposed to tell them that you expect that they bleed for the club and only their very best is acceptable, however in FM13 many players reacted negatively to such team talks for some strange reason, turning red and saying "looked angered". In many cases, that anger turned into exactly the kind of performance you wanted from him, probably because complacency was reduced.

At face value, if you look at only the body language feedback, it is perhaps sensible to assume that the descriptions are of an on/off nature. A nervous player is nervous, a complacent player is complacent and the other descriptions indicted various states of motivation. The fact is (I believe this is confirmed) that beneath the hood all players are nervous and complacent all the time, but to varying degrees. The feedback only "kicks in" at a certain threshold. In addition there are hidden attributes that are very important, namely Important Matches and Consistency, that affects performances in the same way.

The result of trying to please your team all the time is very likely that you get form fluctuations like this: WWWDWDDLLLLDLWDWWWWWLDDLL etc. So you go helplessly from confidence to overconfidence to loss of confidence to the pits below... and then you actually do the right thing by supporting and soothing your team's frayed nerves and start winning again. Rinse repeat.

Your job as a manager is to ground your players when they are flying high, and to lift them up when they are low. Green responses (of the "happy/pleased" kind) only cover half of that.

[tieio]

Anyone use this site? http://www.guidetofootballmanager.com

Yes, it is very useful. Right around the time I accepted that finding help on these forums is a crap shoot I went looking and found that site, I come here a lot less now.

[jujigatame]

And a 2 goal lead is blown at Tottenham because of:

1) Koscielny blasting a corner into his own goal as if he were an attacker.

2) Balanta taking an absurd first touch on a simple distribution from the keeper, serving up a completely empty goal for Lamela.

Hate is a strong word, but I really think I might hate this game.

[endtime]

Why even play the game if you hate it? There's plenty of data updates for previous versions of FM if you felt they were the better games.

[Dagenham_Dave]

Hate is a strong word, but I really think I might hate this game.

Why on earth are you still playing this? Seriously, if a computer game annoyed me as much as it seems to be annoying you, I'd have shelved it aeons ago. There's a million other things you could be doing, isn't there?

[Beestonite]

I think the title of this thread, suggesting that the game is too hard had created good debate - debate which has highighted something to me.

There certainly seems to be two camps when it comes to opinions on whether that is correct or not. However, one thing which stands out to me is people saying FM12 was 'ridiculously easy' as were other earlier versions. These same people also argue that FM14 is as tough as it gets. Now, if we take into account the 'it's your tactics' theory, which I am a subscriber, as an explanation given for the amount of problems people have on here I have to look at that and say I think it's clear that tactics are very important.

If that's the case and tactics are very important (which they clearly are), then we move on to the 'sliders are horrific' and 'TC is much better' which again, I agree with. If this is the case and it's easier to control your team and tactics using the TC (which I believe it is, I can easily control my team now I've switched to the TC - finally), how can the game be sooooo much harder than previous versions? For me it's easier by far!

I think the problem we are seeing with this release is the removal of the sliders. A lot used to use them and they are now forced to use the TC, there is no other choice. It's taken me about 6 weeks to master it and now the media are drooling over my football and I can't lose! Quite disappointing really. It clicked two nights ago. I made a couple of slight tweaks to my tactic and hey presto, I'm Barcelona, untouchable. For me, the argument that FM14 is the hardest is ludicrous. The TC makes it so easy (if you put the effort in to analysis). I find the AI can't keep up, the press are hailing me a tactical genius for god's sake! I've never seen some screen shots like that before, was quite nice to see although in another way, a little disappointing that I have finally cracked one of the FM's.

Edit: Despite the fact I have mastered this version, I'm still not satisfied with how the game looks. It doesn't give me pleasure watching my team. This part of the game needs serious work.

[Sussex Hammer]

I'm obviously trying my best to get the hand of the TC but I find that one of the problems with it is that there are quite a few basic football options, strategy's, movements - whatever you want to call them that are missing from the game and if you are making it a sim you need to give the gamer the tools to try and recreate something lifelike.

Examples :

***You now have the option to get players to cross to near post, far post, centre, etc. That's great but as far as I can see and that includes PPM's I can't see anyway of getting your striker to attack the above. You can ask your striker to attack near post on a corner but not from open play. What is the point in asking your crosser to aim somewhere but not being allowed to ask your receivers to aim their runs at the area where the ball is being aimed?

***With and without ball. For years this has been needed. Some sort of way that you can instruct your team to say play as a 433 when going forward but dropping back to a 451 when they defend.

***Attack wide but defend narrow. I read somewhere on FM13 that you defend narrow anyway and width only affects attacking. If true fair enough but I would still like an option to allow narrower defending. In this version you can instruct your wingers to stay wide but it's not the same thing and I have to be honest when using it I haven't seen any difference.

***When I coached football I used to give the kids the analogy in defending of all four being attached to a rope. IE when one full back bombs forward the other gets pulled in by the imaginary rope and tucks in so you always have a back three as a compact unit. There isn't a way in the game to do this.

***Getting strikers to bend their runs. A basic part of forward play. Have you ever seen it in the ME?! I know you can ask a player to stop being offside so often but I don't think that means a player will bend his runs.

***Simple lay offs. On a strikers instructions there are no options for them to be instructed to play a cushioned simple lay off to a player behind him with a foot, chest or head. A vital part of a lone forwards job and yet you cannot instruct him to do that. Ok there is HUB but what does he do with it once he gets it? It's such a valuable instruction yet it's not an option. The amount of times I have seen my lone striker just flick the ball on to no one because he is furthest forward even with HUB setting on is ridiculous. Extremely difficult in this version to use a target man effectively. Great example a few weeks ago IRL. Cross comes in Andy Carroll cushions a header back to Kevin Nolan on the edge of the box who controls it and shoots home. Seen that in the game? Never...

***Following on from above "if" your striker just flicks it on at least allow an option for wide players to get beyond him to receive that flick on. I have tried everything from asking wingers to get further forward, roam from position, playing a DLF, TM, F9, playing narrower, a host of options and cannot get the wide men beyond the striker. Even playing a SS behind a DLF I have never seen him get beyond unless it's to receive a rare pass.

Just a few examples of basic football play that you cannot seem to implement in the game,. I am more than happy to be corrected!!!!

[Cougar2010]

***You now have the option to get players to cross to near post, far post, centre, etc. That's great but as far as I can see and that includes PPM's I can't see anyway of getting your striker to attack the above. You can ask your striker to attack near post on a corner but not from open play. What is the point in asking your crosser to aim somewhere but not being allowed to ask your receivers to aim their runs at the area where the ball is being aimed?

True, could maybe be added.

***With and without ball. For years this has been needed. Some sort of way that you can instruct your team to say play as a 433 when going forward but dropping back to a 451 when they defend.

This is in the game and always has been, its amazing how many people don't understand that.

The formation you choose is your defensive shape along with the defensive instructions you give while your attacking shape is created by the attacking instructions you give. So for a 451/433 shape you should always start from a 451 base formation.

***Attack wide but defend narrow. I read somewhere on FM13 that you defend narrow anyway and width only affects attacking. If true fair enough but I would still like an option to allow narrower defending. In this version you can instruct your wingers to stay wide but it's not the same thing and I have to be honest when using it I haven't seen any difference.

Its affected by team mentality, the lower it is the narrower you defend but obviously this also affects other things as well. I'm not actually sure how much this would add as everyone would select narrow anyway.

***When I coached football I used to give the kids the analogy in defending of all four being attached to a rope. IE when one full back bombs forward the other gets pulled in by the imaginary rope and tucks in so you always have a back three as a compact unit. There isn't a way in the game to do this.

This happens if you watch the games, when one of my fullbacks goes forward the other sits back and my DMC drops in to fill the gap if he gets caught upfield.

***Getting strikers to bend their runs. A basic part of forward play. Have you ever seen it in the ME?! I know you can ask a player to stop being offside so often but I don't think that means a player will bend his runs.

The ME can always be improved and this would be a nice addition.

***Simple lay offs. On a strikers instructions there are no options for them to be instructed to play a cushioned simple lay off to a player behind him with a foot, chest or head. A vital part of a lone forwards job and yet you cannot instruct him to do that. Ok there is HUB but what does he do with it once he gets it? It's such a valuable instruction yet it's not an option. The amount of times I have seen my lone striker just flick the ball on to no one because he is furthest forward even with HUB setting on is ridiculous. Extremely difficult in this version to use a target man effectively. Great example a few weeks ago IRL. Cross comes in Andy Carroll cushions a header back to Kevin Nolan on the edge of the box who controls it and shoots home. Seen that in the game? Never...

I scored a goal last night where my ST held it up in the channel and laid it off for my MC to slot in so it does happen. Does it happen enough with the right instructions? not sure, more investigation required.

***Following on from above "if" your striker just flicks it on at least allow an option for wide players to get beyond him to receive that flick on. I have tried everything from asking wingers to get further forward, roam from position, playing a DLF, TM, F9, playing narrower, a host of options and cannot get the wide men beyond the striker. Even playing a SS behind a DLF I have never seen him get beyond unless it's to receive a rare pass.

With a lone forward my attacking AMR scored 20 goals last season, most from running beyond into the channel. Not from flick on's though mostly from my ST holding the ball up with his back to goal and then playing the AMR in.

With two STs more work could be done on a target man/poacher combo so that they look for flick ons.

[Sussex Hammer]

True, could maybe be added.

This is in the game and always has been, its amazing how many people don't understand that.

The formation you choose is your defensive shape along with the defensive instructions you give while your attacking shape is created by the attacking instructions you give. So for a 451/433 shape you should always start from a 451 base formation.

Its affected by team mentality, the lower it is the narrower you defend but obviously this also affects other things as well. I'm not actually sure how much this would add as everyone would select narrow anyway.

This happens if you watch the games, when one of my fullbacks goes forward the other sits back and my DMC drops in to fill the gap if he gets caught upfield.

The ME can always be improved and this would be a nice addition.

I scored a goal last night where my ST held it up in the channel and laid it off for my MC to slot in so it does happen. Does it happen enough with the right instructions? not sure, more investigation required.

With a lone forward my attacking AMR scored 20 goals last season, most from running beyond into the channel. Not from flick on's though mostly from my ST holding the ball up with his back to goal and then playing the AMR in.

With two STs more work could be done on a target man/poacher combo so that they look for flick ons.

Good post thanks for that. I stand corrected!!!!!

[jujigatame]

Why on earth are you still playing this? Seriously, if a computer game annoyed me as much as it seems to be annoying you, I'd have shelved it aeons ago. There's a million other things you could be doing, isn't there?

It's a fine question.

Probably for the same reason heroin addicts keep shooting up.

[Mars_Blackmon]

It's a fine question.

Probably for the same reason heroin addicts keep shooting up.

Because you enjoy playing?

[jujigatame]

Because you enjoy playing?

Because I keep chasing that first magical high that hooked me.

[jujigatame]

A 1-1 draw against 18th place Southhampton because Szeczny decides to do some ridiculous diving parry to a long pass instead of just collecting it calmly which he had plenty of time to do.

I mean this is unbelievable. How much insane flukey nonsense is going to happen over the course of a single season.

[Cougar2010]

Do you ever watch real football jujigatame?

It seems like you expect your players to be perfect and never make mistakes which simply doesn't happen IRL.

[jujigatame]

Very next game:

My LB makes a defensive header in the direction of my CB. The CB does not seem to acknowledge the ball is coming to him. Instead, my keeper charges out 20 yards from the goal to try and latch onto it. Of course he has nowhere near enough time to do so. A striker blows right by the CB and puts it into an empty net.

I'm sorry but this is ridiculous. The number of insane errors I'm seeing is beyond the pale. This does not resemble real football. Players seem to lack basic ball awareness.

[jc1]

Am I playing a totally different version from all these moaners that come on here, yes we have a couple of wee bugs like 1st touch, keepers now and then, too many corners and goals from them and striker conversions but I have seen hardly any of these as bad as some are making out. I tested 6 tactics before going with my long save and so far I've managed to get Hibs to group stages of Euro's and undefeated in league with a commanding 2-0 win against Celtic, my team is getting plaudits for their passing and control of games, my 3 strikers are scoring well and my AP is on 7 goals already after only 10 games.

[themadsheep2001]

This thread is about the difficultly. It is not a general moan thread.

[jc1]

This thread is about the difficultly. It is not a general moan thread.

I know but no matter what thread it is, the same people high jack it and moan about all the usual things, they take no heed when advice is given, I'm actually really enjoying the game now that I got my tactics pretty much spot on, it's a huge part of this years game.

[jujigatame]

Here's the thing. I acknowledge the AI doesn't "cheat", and that anything an AI manager can do I can do. I'm still sitting 2nd in the league so obviously when I drop silly points all over the place, the AI is doing the same thing. That doesn't make it any better for me. I don't derive any joy from scoring a goal when an AI defender doesn't seem to know where the ball is and lets my striker blow by him, or the AI keeper does something utterly insane. I don't want to have to worry about crazy motivation swings which are unclear in both their source and their effects.

The game is certainly not "unplayable". It's simply a lot less enjoyable than it could (and should) be.

[themadsheep2001]

Here's the thing. I acknowledge the AI doesn't "cheat", and that anything an AI manager can do I can do. I'm still sitting 2nd in the league so obviously when I drop silly points all over the place, the AI is doing the same thing. That doesn't make it any better for me. I don't derive any joy from scoring a goal when an AI defender doesn't seem to know where the ball is and lets my striker blow by him, or the AI keeper does something utterly insane. I don't want to have to worry about crazy motivation swings which are unclear in both their source and their effects.

The game is certainly not "unplayable". It's simply a lot less enjoyable than it could (and should) be.

Again that's got nothing to do with the difficulty of the game. So lets keep it on the point of the thread.

[jujigatame]

Good to hear. Let's have more of that in this thread.

Jujigatame, care to upload your game save? Maybe others could take a look at your tactics. Maybe post some screens in the Tactics forum? I'd love to see these replays in any case.

I've read many T&T forum posts and have followed much of their advice. I always use a holding midfielder, have one attacking fullback, try to pair 1 creator and 1 scorer when I'm using 2 strikers or a striker and an AMC, etc.

Like I said, I always finish high in the table, so that's not my problem. My problem is just that the games can be downright hideous to watch. I feel like way too much is down to luck and whose players retain motivation and make the least idiotic mistakes. I don't see player quality truly shining through like I want to. And that's the real reason I got hooked on FM in the first place. Because I thought watching the games was so much fun, that you could put a team together and then see them on the screen working together and improving year by year.

[jujigatame]

Again that's got nothing to do with the difficulty of the game. So lets keep it on the point of the thread.

I would say the opaqueness of motivation and the prevalence of errors in the ME does have something to do with difficulty. I mean, "difficulty" in a game like FM is hard to define specifically because of the fact that the AI basically operates just like the player does.

[jc1]

I've read many T&T forum posts and have followed much of their advice. I always use a holding midfielder, have one attacking fullback, try to pair 1 creator and 1 scorer when I'm using 2 strikers or a striker and an AMC, etc.

Like I said, I always finish high in the table, so that's not my problem. My problem is just that the games can be downright hideous to watch. I feel like way too much is down to luck and whose players retain motivation and make the least idiotic mistakes. I don't see player quality truly shining through like I want to. And that's the real reason I got hooked on FM in the first place. Because I thought watching the games was so much fun, that you could put a team together and then see them on the screen working together and improving year by year.

So far in the save I have at the moment, I've seen wonderful 8-10 passing movement for a lovely goal, beautiful through balls into strikers path for a goal, 1v1 goals, wingers crossing for goals and obviously headed goals from corners( they do happen IRL ) Goals from mistakes do happen but that also happens IRL too, ask Traore of Liverpool but I've not seen that many in the 20+ matches so far.

[themadsheep2001]

apart from the fact that this isn't the thread for it, your aim isn't needed as that's what the feedback thread is for and that's what the bugs section is for. That's the last on that and anything that does not stay on the topic of the thread will be deleted.

[Svenc]

The problem with that shift in emphasis is there is already a number of people on this version of the game who are romping through the divisions and winning leagues and cups aplenty. What you're suggesting is essentially turning the game into an exercise in squad building, and as we saw in the last incarnation of the game where that was the emphasis - FM12 - the end result becomes farcical for someone with even the most basic grasp of putting together a team.

Still don't see much of a huge difference, tbh. For instance, what was suggested, that people should do well with having just great squads is absolutely the case. Holiday and you'll see. My argument is still that great players actually make up for leaky tactics by their invidual skills to quite some degree (many successful dribblings causing spaces to open up, long shots resulting goals when player's out of options, etc. etc., which I deliberately tested for FM 2013 at the very least).

There is one thing that is doing less than holidaying, which is picking some random tactics, clicking through, and still doing about right with decent squads at the very very least. Considering that this is at all possible (and it bloody absolutely is http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/384210-The-problem-with-FM?p=9419074&viewfull=1#post9419074 ), I just don't see such a sudden drastic change, sorry. I cannot relate to much though, which doesn't mean necessarily all that much. FM can be approached in so many ways, maybe some are just prone to panicking either mid-match or halfway through a bad spell or whatever, there used to be a guy a couple days ago who claimed he suddenly leaked four goals a match when in previous seasons it used to be about one, what the heck. I once deliberately offloaded Palace's best players and had them conceding no more than 3 per match. Or they're used to a way of playing that abused FM 2012 or before (still have 2012 on my hd also, plus a save), so expectations on results will be skewed by that too. Opinions, opinions.

[jc1]

apart from the fact that this isn't the thread for it, your aim isn't needed as that's what the feedback thread is for and that's what the bugs section is for. That's the last on that and anything that does not stay on the topic of the thread will be deleted.

jujigatame said the games were hideous to watch and most of the goals were down to luck etc, I was just stating that in my experience that is not the case.

[themadsheep2001]

jujigatame said the games were hideous to watch and most of the goals were down to luck etc, I was just stating that in my experience that is not the case.

Wasn't to you. Post above you ended up getting deleted

[Curtarc]

I too had the same problem as the OP. I've been playing FM since the Championship Manager games and I've always been a pretty decent player, managing to get good results with my favourite team FC Porto(winning the championship and a cup and reaching the last 16 of the champions league). There was even once when Martin Palermo was still playing and the only addition to the Porto team I did was signing him and I managed to win the Champions League with only having to repeat the final match because I was so frustrated that my team had 2 players sent off and Manchester United scored the winning goal with a penalty.

All was well until I started playing FM14, I got bad results everywhere, lost games against 2nd division teams while playing at home, pretty much any portuguese team was capable of beating me and the odd games that I did manage to win were narrow wins. Oddly enough I didn't do that badly in the Champions League(reached the last 16) and lost against Barcelona 2-3 on aggregate. On the 2nd half of the season I changed a few things here and there in the tactics and my performances improved but it wasn't enough to win the title, I had lost too many games during the September-December period. I also seemed to be hitting the bar/post too often during the games but I supposed it was just bad luck.

I tried then playing a game with the best players in the world(improved with the editor to become even better) and things were going well in terms of results(I was winning every game 3-0/5-0), but there were 3 weird things that happened to me:

- I was averaging around 2 balls hitting the posts per game;

- I lost my very first points against Legia(0-0) after beating Juventus 5-0 and in the Legia match I had over 45 shots(around 20 on goal), 2 balls hitting the posts, 68% possession and the opposite team had 0 shots while the goalkeeper seemed like superman, saving the impossible any chance he had. I had to restart the game 4 times to finally scrap a 2-0 win after drawing 0-0 2 more time and 1-1 once with the keeper giving superman performances every single time;

- I beat Basel 2-1(with Basel scoring on their single shot during the 90 minutes) and restarted the game to see something crazy happen: the game mirrowed exactly the 1st game I had played, the same players saw the yellow card, I scored the exact same goals, at the exact same minute and only when I put my team on the defense to prevent a goal from the opposition(that had 0 shots at the time) did the game change slightly with my team conceding a goal from a penalty. In the end the score was 2-1 again. Repeated a 2nd time and the score was 2-1 AGAIN but this time the game was a bit different with Basel being more offensive and scoring their goal first.

Conclusion: The game surely is more difficult this year as I never had so many problems while playing FC Porto ever since the CM days and there seems to be some kind of bug with the ball hitting posts/bar because averaging 2 per match is weird. Also, sometimes it seems that even if you change your tactics or players for a certain match it won't make a big difference because it's almost as if the game is already scripted and things must happen in a certain way.

[jujigatame]

jujigatame said the games were hideous to watch and most of the goals were down to luck etc, I was just stating that in my experience that is not the case.

I admit I was exaggerating out of frustration. Certainly I can watch the games, and much of the time they are enjoyable and fairly plausible. But there are times that just make me tear my hair out, and those times are far too frequent.

I don't think difficulty levels are a particularly good idea for a game like FM. Better documentation and assman interaction would go along way though.

[hugo_rune]

FM14 seems to be significantly harder than FM13 and FM12. But I'm not sure why this is a bad thing. People got used to having success handed to them, because the AI would make terrible decisions and build substandard squads. Now this isn't so much the case, and you have to work harder to adapt to challenges - or accept that you won't always overachieve.

For people who MUST win the league every year with mediocre teams, there's always cheating such as save/reload. I don't see how that's so different than playing an earlier version of FM for which you knew, and used, an effective tactical exploit.

[BiggusD]

FM14 seems to be significantly harder than FM13 and FM12. But I'm not sure why this is a bad thing. People got used to having success handed to them, because the AI would make terrible decisions and build substandard squads. Now this isn't so much the case, and you have to work harder to adapt to challenges - or accept that you won't always overachieve.

For people who MUST win the league every year with mediocre teams, there's always cheating such as save/reload. I don't see how that's so different than playing an earlier version of FM for which you knew, and used, an effective tactical exploit.

I would be happy having to build an actual stronger squad to win everything. That would be fun.

I won't enjoy tailoring my tactics to the opponent in order to do so, though. That's not what my football philosophy is about, and I rarely see any of it in real life either. I am also very unsure how much the players adapt themselves within the tactical framework and how much the manager has "tweaked" it. I suspect more of the former than the latter.

[Overmars]

I was winning games on my current save. Through the first 25 matches of the season I had lost just 3 times. Then, using the same tactics, I lost 8 of 9 matches, conceding the first goal in all of them. I tried to interrupt the slide by playing easy friendlies, holding team meetings, etc., but my team just kept losing.

So I'm left to ponder why my first 25 matches were so different from my last 9 matches. The thing is, I can take losses. I don't enjoy inexplicable losing streaks and massive form slides where I can't score first in any match. It all feels so hopeless sometimes, and that's not fun.

[Mars_Blackmon]

I was winning games on my current save. Through the first 25 matches of the season I had lost just 3 times. Then, using the same tactics, I lost 8 of 9 matches, conceding the first goal in all of them. I tried to interrupt the slide by playing easy friendlies, holding team meetings, etc., but my team just kept losing.

So I'm left to ponder why my first 25 matches were so different from my last 9 matches. The thing is, I can take losses. I don't enjoy inexplicable losing streaks and massive form slides where I can't score first in any match. It all feels so hopeless sometimes, and that's not fun.

If you only use one tactic, this will begin to happen over time especially home vs away or strong opponent vs weaker opponent.

Those match reports and analyzing stats aren't there to look pretty, I'm pretty sure the AI also uses that info to adapt to you over time..Just like the human should be doing.

[forameuss]

I started yet another new save yesterday, as I've struggled to get into FM14 long term thus far. And I tried something new - instead of creating one elaborate tactic with eight million instructions and bespoke roles, I picked three stock formations - 4-1-4-1, 4-4-2 and 4-4-1-1 - and added a handful of instructions, and no role changes. And now I actually look pretty good in-game. Keep things simple if all else fails - the pre-created tactics are there for a reason.

[RTHerringbone]

I started yet another new save yesterday, as I've struggled to get into FM14 long term thus far. And I tried something new - instead of creating one elaborate tactic with eight million instructions and bespoke roles, I picked three stock formations - 4-1-4-1, 4-4-2 and 4-4-1-1 - and added a handful of instructions, and no role changes. And now I actually look pretty good in-game. Keep things simple if all else fails - the pre-created tactics are there for a reason.

Exactly what I do at the moment, with those same three formations.

You can then pick and choose your shape based on the opponents own formation (Do they have a DM? Do they have an AMC? Do they have....)

It''s the easiest way to avoid confusing yourself - having a clear decision making process behind the formation you select.

[y02chs07]

actually, just using simple normal formations (e.g. 4231) with a few shouts and putting in about 5-10 minutes to set up your set pieces and u will do well. Dont even need to spend hours tweaking tactics for each game.

Never understood the whiners.

[Overmars]

If you only use one tactic, this will begin to happen over time especially home vs away or strong opponent vs weaker opponent.

Those match reports and analyzing stats aren't there to look pretty, I'm pretty sure the AI also uses that info to adapt to you over time..Just like the human should be doing.

Well I made a slight change, and it appeared to work. I was on my way to breaking the losing streak, leading lowly (for the Premier League) Watford 3-0 in the 76th minute. You know the rest. I lost 4-3, conceding 4 times in just 12 minutes. I feel like the in game calculator needs to quite overreacting to form and morale.

[Beestonite]

I started yet another new save yesterday, as I've struggled to get into FM14 long term thus far. And I tried something new - instead of creating one elaborate tactic with eight million instructions and bespoke roles, I picked three stock formations - 4-1-4-1, 4-4-2 and 4-4-1-1 - and added a handful of instructions, and no role changes. And now I actually look pretty good in-game. Keep things simple if all else fails - the pre-created tactics are there for a reason.

Same as what I do, although with two tactics and different formations. I very rarely even give the team instructions unless it's obvious that I'm failing in certain departments.

As per my comment on the 'this game is too hard' thread. I think this version of FM is the easiest I've played thanks to the TC and keeping it simple.

[Connor]

The biggest single piece of advice I could give you would be to ensure you that you in pre-season, ensure your teams spend most of their training focus on Tactics and Team Cohesion, really helped me