retired_randman

Also, I've noticed that since the full patch, altering the defensive line doesn't seem to make a difference for me, which could be a by-product of the positional awareness issue. No matter how deep I instruct the defensive line to go, they always seem too far up, nowhere near deep.

That and pointless long balls resulting in lost possession when instructing the entire team to play slow short passes.

Uknowmehfo

Jimbo:

I'm sure you'll finally reach the sweet spot. Meanwhile, have a look at your fullbacks positioning and anticipation.

I've sure started noticing differences in their behaviour depending to these and other attributes.

retired_britterfitter

I'm talking about anticipation. I'm talking about the ball is kicked forward..THEN the defender sets off in the wrong direction, the attacker runs to where ball is going to land, hence he's clean through. If it were not a bug surely sometimes the attacker would make this mistake as well as the defender?

I'm still loving the game because the AI teams do it just as often as my own so it evens itself out but I'm convinced it's not right. I'd be happy to send anyone a game of mine and tell them the exact minute it happens so they can comment for themselves.

retired_britterfitter

Sorry, I'm NOT talking about anticipation....

retired_v_meenucancer

i've just experienced two horrific instances of this problem within ten minutes of each other, which led to a 2-1 lead turning into a 3-2 defeat

twice after the opposing side cleared their lines following my team having a corner, the counter attack that followed saw my defenders behave suicidally. on both occasions my defender followed the striker who was running into space anticipating a pass, only to turn round for no reason and run away from the striker. as soon as the pass reaches the striker the defender promptly turns and runs back again, trying to catch up, but of course by then it's too late

it seems that the defenders are too hasty to get back into what would be their ideal positions on the pitch, ignoring the fact that there's a striker free. given that i've got my centre backs set to tight man marking, i'm not really sure what else i can do - that in itself should be enough to ensure that they don't just run away from strikers, surely?

and my defenders are serie a standard: not world class, but they should at least be capable of basic marking. i have a similar problem with fullbacks not knowing the basics of dealing with wingers - i've had matches against the bigger sides in serie a where they've spent the entire game terrorising me down the wings, only to check the stats at the end and find that my full backs didn't attempt a tackle all game.

one time saw me reduced to ten men and needing a win, so i played without a player at right back - there was barely a difference between before and after the sending off, due to full backs having such little effect on the defensive side of the game.

i've seen a number of occasions when the ai defence has done similar things, so it's not a case of tactics - i'd hate to benefit from a flaw in the match engine almost as much as i hate losing to it. it would be nice to see a patch addressing all this before february.

retired_dellydoolittle

hmmmm...I'm was writing on this metter on ONLY BUG IN FM08 oR smth thread. I don't know where to write anymore. SI shoul make a special thread for us who are tring more then just complainig and grumbling here I've been playing CM/FM since very begginigs, like many of you. I also wanted such match engine and now when we have it, we're just demending another patch, but this thing goes a little deeper then we think.- I WOULD LIKE TO BE WARNED IF I'M WRONG

hmmmm...I'm was writing on this metter on "ONLY BUG IN FM08..." oR smth thread. in my opinoum whole defence system is a little weard. that's why so many 1/1 situations happen and also so many off-sides. human players have advanteage over AI. but the thing on new match engine is, as the guys from SI said a little more complecated, 1 little tweak can make big impact on whole match engine.

I want to help, but at this moment I'm totally confused as, where to write and..... hell... who am I to preach here...

but anyway back to what I wanted to say. I'm comparing match engine to real life situations. I play my matches on "2 notches to left of the midle" which should be a time that suites real time. but it isn't, it's a little slower then real time. "1 notch to left" is a little faster then real time???? so there is no real time at all. I don't understand it, but I measured it on every FM. why is that important?

the next thing about time and space is ball speed. at the moment I'm still observing some facts and I will write about details, but I came to conclusion that BALL IS TOO SLOW compared to real life. but it's hard to say becouse there is no real time.

the point of all this has to do with match engine is simple. if the ball would be faster, things would happen diffrently on the pitch. in my opinoum there are too many situations where players are just waiting for the ball (couse it's too slow). if the ball was faster we would witnes more (bad) passes, more examples of poor technique, more through balls going nowhere... the game would be more unpredictable and as such, it would look even more like a real one.

retired_jon2508

I'm having problems with my midfielders refusing to track back far enough in the match engine, which looks likely to lead me into ditching 4-4-2 for now.

Before the patch central midfielders appeared to do no defending and a midfielder making forward runs would terrorise any team playing a flat 4-4-2. After the patch the situation has improved, but there are still too many times when I see an opposition midfielder around 5 yards behind my central midfielders (Sometimes on tight marking, sometimes 1 has a barrow, both on forwards runs rarely, and one with a lower mentality than the team mentality), and they're stood there not marking anyone, and completely ignoring him. I'm playing with Leicester and my midfielders are normally Clemence and Wesolowski, 2 defensive midfield players, who also happen to be good players, so the abilities of my players cannot be called into question.

I've also seen this going against the AI when they play 4-4-2. On my Luch game, I decided to play a 4-1-2-1-2 formation, like what Milan play on the game. I had no sarrows on any players and so I was very narrow. My team was predictably exposed down the flanks at times, but was lethal on the break as the AI teams playing 4-4-2 simply couldn't cope with my AMC and one of my MCs making forward runs often. My AMC, who was fast and skillful, set up a lot of goals from open play, despite only having 9 for creativity. He also scored quite a few despite a poor finishing attribute, as he had so many chances due to the lack of marking.

Due to the fast and direct approach we missed a fair few chances, but in terms of chances created we gave a lot of stronger sides a battering at times, including a 5-2 win away at Dinamo Moscow. My experiences with Leicester, and reading this thread does make me think that a lack of midfield tracking back at times contributed to our success (7th place, when predicted 11th, board wanted survival).

retired_dellydoolittle

I know what you mean, Sir Liam. this proble could have been fixed on 07, you gave your MC man mark instruction and he tracked his player all the way back. I've tried this on un patched version, but it didn't work. I don't know if it's working on the new one.

zonal marking system- the player should mark the zone and all those players in it. IRE MC!! is supposed mark and track player who is in his zone. when this player goes out of his he is taken over by his team mate who is responsible for that zone (winger, or full back for example).

retired_dellydoolittle

sometimes it looks like defenders are selfish bastards who don't want to help each other.

it happening that 2 strikers can out-play 4 or even 5 defenders, which IRE happens realy rarely (when olic scored against england, after eduardo pass, but english defence tried to set off-side trap, than). I believe that defence gets just to easily streched, zonal marking is more like man marking now, defenders who could help seem like they are not interested.

what I'm trying to say is that I would like to see, when the ball is near defending box, that the player with the ball, is surrounded with defenders. now we just heve too much 1/1 situations.

Neb

One of my full backs has the PPM, "dives into tackles" and it's not really working for him either which I find strange. Maybe it's because he appears to be showing the attacker the outside, only for the attacker to do him with ease and my full-back never make up the ground.

I'll see what happens with opposition instructions.

It is there for a resaon after all . </BLOCKQUOTE>

I've always considered dives into tackles a terrible PPM, I can't think of a situation where diving into a tackle is a good thing! I'd have thought that you might possible win more 50-50 tackles, but mainly more fouls, more red/yellow cards, more injuries, and most importantly more missed chances to limit the opponents attacking.

The only reason I say this is that it reminds me that often my midfielder, who also has 'dives into tackles' (He's my best player...), who looks like he doesn't close down even though I think he should. A lot of the time I think its because he's sat on his bum regretting that attempted tackle that missed.

I initially though it was the mysterious closing down bug, but you've just reminded me that actually, its the fact that he's diving in at every half chance he has and missing most (he's an attacking midfielder and not very good at tackling anyway!)