Failing to Shut Up Shop Late Game

[mister.cool40]

I have been facing some problems seeing out games late.Normally when I am leading or drawing the AI goes on Attacking/Very Attacking and inevitably score.

What I used to do was setting mentality to cautious/balanced to try to curb the forward runs so I am not caught in transition.Sometimes I also switched attacking roles to support/defense .I also used to set counter press off and counter instruction off.However shutting up shop has more often than not backfired.There have been instances where the moment I made these changes I conceded.Not necessarily from transitions,but wonder solo goals,set pieces or long range shots.

So sometimes I instead try to  take advantage of the space they leave behind.In this scenario in the last 10 minutes I on average create 1-2 one on one situations with the goalkeeper.However I feel 1v1 situations are way too unreliable and it takes on average 3   1v1 to score 1 goal.So more often than not I end up not scoring and concede in the other end.

So what to do?Do I take the pressure or do I take the gamble?What TIs can be most effective?Is it some player issue (although I do make sure all my defenders have high concentration stat )?

Another thing is I am feeling in this years FM if one team puts other team in significant pressure they score from set piece.As if the ME is simply failing to award the team from open play and so compensates from set pieces.I am not branding this as injustice  as I have scored more these types of goals against AI then they have against me.But I still hate these goals,whether AI scores them or I do.Still,there could be some tactical reasoning behind this but I am not sure.

[zyfon5]

1 hour ago, mister.cool40 said:

I have been facing some problems seeing out games late.Normally when I am leading or drawing the AI goes on Attacking/Very Attacking and inevitably score.

What I used to do was setting mentality to cautious/balanced to try to curb the forward runs so I am not caught in transition.Sometimes I also switched attacking roles to support/defense .I also used to set counter press off and counter instruction off.However shutting up shop has more often than not backfired.There have been instances where the moment I made these changes I conceded.Not necessarily from transitions,but wonder solo goals,set pieces or long range shots.

So sometimes I instead try to  take advantage of the space they leave behind.In this scenario in the last 10 minutes I on average create 1-2 one on one situations with the goalkeeper.However I feel 1v1 situations are way too unreliable and it takes on average 3   1v1 to score 1 goal.So more often than not I end up not scoring and concede in the other end.

So what to do?Do I take the pressure or do I take the gamble?What TIs can be most effective?Is it some player issue (although I do make sure all my defenders have high concentration stat )?

Another thing is I am feeling in this years FM if one team puts other team in significant pressure they score from set piece.As if the ME is simply failing to award the team from open play and so compensates from set pieces.I am not branding this as injustice  as I have scored more these types of goals against AI then they have against me.But I still hate these goals,whether AI scores them or I do.Still,there could be some tactical reasoning behind this but I am not sure.

Sometimes is a tactical reason and sometimes it is a personnel reason why you fail to shut up shop late into the game. You will need to differentiate whether it is a tactical reason or a personnel reason that you concede late into the game. Common personnel reasons that you concede late into the game include fresh players subbed into the game, players getting complacent, underperforming players that did not get subbed off etc.

1) changing your mentality without changing your tactics sometimes make your team play even worse. For example your advanced playmaker is not going to defend well compared to a ball winning midfielder. A team that thrives at playing possession football is not going to do well if they start surrendering possession to the opposing team. So you will need to judge what tactical changes that you need to make. Maybe take away few roles that has dribble more or take more risks? Maybe change the full back on attack to full back on support? 

2) You mentioned about taking advantage of space at the back? Do you have the players to do it? Do you have quick forwards to take advantage of the space?

3) You will really need to look at what the opponents are doing in order to adjust. Sometimes you need to gamble and sometimes you do not need to. For example if the opponents start to play a 433 with 3 strikers up top i sometimes press even higher knowing that they do not have wide players to receive the ball and hence cannot escape my press.

[mister.cool40]

1 hour ago, zyfon5 said:

1) changing your mentality without changing your tactics sometimes make your team play even worse. For example your advanced playmaker is not going to defend well compared to a ball winning midfielder. A team that thrives at playing possession football is not going to do well if they start surrendering possession to the opposing team. So you will need to judge what tactical changes that you need to make. Maybe take away few roles that has dribble more or take more risks? Maybe change the full back on attack to full back on support? 

Thanks for replying.Although I slightly disagree with you 1st point.It's not that my fullback on attack duty was caught on the opposition half and the the opposition scored from the space he vacated.As I said,I am not worried about the TRANSITION goals.The ones that worry me are where all my back 4 are in front of my goal yet the opposition striker/winger dribbles through all of them to score a wonder goal.Surely it would have been nice if the midfield dealt with him.But still having all of my back 4 in place should be enough against 1 player.If it this happened once in a blue moon that would have been acceptable.But this happens way too often .As if the ME won't accept defeat for the home team and just lets them score wonder goal/solo goal/set piece goal when they crank up their mentality.

Having all 11 behind ball also doesn't  help.The ai just ping pongs ball at incredible speed and scores.I was defending pretty well against Man CIty and leading 1-0 at Etihad.Their right back popped with an incredible long range goal at the 93rd minute.This happens way too often and I just feel helpless in this matches.All out defending almost never works.Trying to gamble and to lose feels even bitter.And if somehow I miraculously win there is no sense of achievement,as it feels that I have just been lucky because losing points is the norm.

As for your 2nd point,yes I do have good players but 1v1 are not reliable ways to score in this game 😪 And your 3rd point is very interesting.Choosing to press/shut up shop depending on the formation the AI chooses.Would give a try but will probably fail nonetheless 😥

 

Edited July 11, 2020 by mister.cool40

[zyfon5]

2 hours ago, mister.cool40 said:

Thanks for replying.Although I slightly disagree with you 1st point.It's not that my fullback on attack duty was caught on the opposition half and the the opposition scored from the space he vacated.As I said,I am not worried about the TRANSITION goals.The ones that worry me are where all my back 4 are in front of my goal yet the opposition striker/winger dribbles through all of them to score a wonder goal.Surely it would have been nice if the midfield dealt with him.But still having all of my back 4 in place should be enough against 1 player.If it this happened once in a blue moon that would have been acceptable.But this happens way too often .As if the ME won't accept defeat for the home team and just lets them score wonder goal/solo goal/set piece goal when they crank up their mentality.

The full back example is just one of many examples. The full back on attack has 'cross more often' instructions and will take more risk. Hence it is more likely that he will move the ball forward or cross the ball which could give the opposition the chance to recover the ball and dominate possession for the next 5 minutes. Contrast this with a full back on support he is more likely to pass the ball backwards to recycle possession hence you can kill more time with the ball. Meanwhile if you use the FB(a) you are more likely to give possession to them and give them the chance to look for a goal. Since you are leading you do not need to take such risks.

 

2 hours ago, mister.cool40 said:

Having all 11 behind ball also doesn't  help.The ai just ping pongs ball at incredible speed and scores.I was defending pretty well against Man CIty and leading 1-0 at Etihad.Their right back popped with an incredible long range goal at the 93rd minute.This happens way too often and I just feel helpless in this matches.All out defending almost never works.Trying to gamble and to lose feels even bitter.And if somehow I miraculously win there is no sense of achievement,as it feels that I have just been lucky because losing points is the norm.

As I have said earlier if your team is not used or suited to defending for long periods of time, eventually they will concede under pressure. If you have let's say a more defensive midfielder there, he might have a better chance of covering the right back there and prevent that goal. However this is all just hypothetical whether it will change the outcome no one knows. This reminds me of a match where I faced Chelsea leading half time 2-1. In the second half I noticed that Chelsea's right back were moving inside constantly like an inverted wing back and caused marking issues in the midfield. Perhaps I was being too confident I did not do too much about it and the right back eventually received the ball unmarked and scored from long range. Looking back into the match I could have put my left winger to constantly mark the right back but that is a lesson I learnt from the match.

Learn to observe what changes the AI has made and think of ways that you can counter it. Once you are good at it not only you can protect leads easily you can also overturn deficits.