retired_sweborg

Nice post, Amaroq. I do feel that the cycle is a little to easy to get into and to hard to break out of at the highest level, however. I'm also not sure that a striker would constantly take poor first time strikes because he's got too much creative freedom and has been told to play quickly. Surely if he has good 'decisions' and high creative freedom, he'll ignore the speedy style of play for the time being and take his time over it?

I had no idea confidence was built into the match engine so much, but I have to admit that if I'm in goal (don't really play anymore), I'm begging for an easy first shot so it makes sense.

retired_sweborg

Actually a good point. Up to a certain limit, surely a strikers first few shots could go some way towards calming the nerves? Obviously if a striker is playing rubbish it's going to put them under pressure and make them suffer, but it does seem a bit odd that a world-class striker would miss one or two chances and think 'Oh, God, I'm having such a crap game!' and get stressed over it.
If Luca Toni had a shot from 20 yards and missed I'd imagine he'd put it out of his mind and get on with the game. If he missed 5 more, he might feel under pressure, but a single early shot? Not really going to play on his mind.

Do all strikers/keepers react the same way? Some could buckle easily whereas others would redouble their efforts to get it right the next time. Some keepers might take a goal as a personal affront, others might be liable to let in another two or three. Seems odd that the same solution that would apply to say, a 17 year old on a sub as they would to a 34 year old veteran. Amaroq's advice isn't in doubt, but maybe it does need looking at.

My_Evo

Look at it another way and the better player would be more likely to be affected.
The player that thinks he might not be that hot can write off a miss or two. The player that expects to score may be more likely to get down over a couple of misses.

Of course, it's all ultimately down to individual personality and natural confidence.

retired_dego72

The third thing its been linked with is high Creative Freedom; if you think of that as "how likely my players are to ignore my instructions", then it follows that giving a guy '20' creative freedom and 'seldom long shoot', he'll ignore the latter if he thinks the long shot is his best option.

Also, if you're not encouraging your players to pass, then shooting is their next best option (no matter where they are.)

Why wouldn't they be passing?

If Through Balls is set low, they don't try "passes into space" .

Also, if you have your front-most players on Direct or Long passing (or you have that as a teamwide setup, and haven't given them an override), then they're looking to hurry the ball up the pitch, not look for options near to or behind themselves (especially when coupled with the sort of Attacking mentality most people give their strikers).

So you can "fix" that by, for example, setting your strikers down to Short passing.

How does that prevent your problem?

If he has a pass that is a better option than his shot, he'll take it .. and if he doesn't, he'll still shoot. But now you've encouraged him to increase his perception of what is a good pass, so he's less likely to take a low-percentage shot.

As you've already done, slowing down the tempo helps - it doesn't have to be as extreme as from Quick to Slow, try just getting away from the extreme "Quick" settings, e.g., take what you think is a natural "Quick" setting, and drop it by two ticks.

Same with the Attacking mentality that you're giving your strikers. Drop it by two from wherever you are.

How does that help?

It encourages them to take one touch to settle. We all, as fans, love seeing a one-touch shot .. but the truth is, a two-touch shot is much more likely to be well-placed to the corners, and therefore to trouble a good goalkeeper.

WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?

Because of the way SI have built "Confidence" into performance.

When your striker takes a 20-yard shot in the fourth minute, and misses, it damages his confidence.

If, by the 30th minute, he's missed six shots, his confidence is very low. His lack of confidence becomes a factor when he gets that "sitter" from ten yards in the 60th minute - and contributes to him missing again, in a vicious cycle.

The opposite is true for the goalkeeper.

Every shot a goalkeeper faces and stops increases his confidence. So, if your guys take three or four half-chances in the first 20 minutes, congratulations, you've just made the goalkeeper more confident.

Now, when your striker finally sends a blinding shot at him, the goalie, "in the zone", has a much better chance of making the save - and if he does, his confidence goes through the roof, and your striker's confidence is sitting there going "Gah! What do I have to do?!"

By forcing your guys to play more patiently, you prevent both of those cycles from taking hold.

You might not have 30 shots in a game .. but you should be scoring more.

Now, if you're in this boat already, you have another problem:

For strikers, that lack of confidence carries over from match to match - Shevchenko disease. So the fact that he struggled to score in one game, means he's likely to struggle again in the next game even if you fix the tactical problem at the root of it.

So make the tactical fixes - and TRUST them. Stick with them for three months. </BLOCKQUOTE>

Great post- sadly it just shows how FM lives in its own little world that has very little to do with real football.

Why? Well all your points make sense in the FM context, but if I applied this to real life then it doesnt work.

For example the two touches for shots- irl if a player takes a touch before shooting then it gives the keeper time to "set" himself for the shot and also read the strikers body as to where the ball is likely to go.

Same goes for slow tempo- irl this will not tend to create better chances as the slower tempo means the defending team are able to get men behind the ball and organise their shape as they are quite simply not on the back foot.

Spurs under Martin Jol are a good example- we played some lovely football but were actually very easy to defend against as our slow buildup meant we didnt make teams work enough.

retired_dego72

Oops- also with a second touch the striker is more likely to be closed down, meaning the shot is going to be under pressure at best or blocked at worst.

Of course these examples dont happen all the time- but I really think the match engines idea of what a game of football should be is at times very skewed.