Justin_Case

Just a brief outline. I'm playing in league 1, so the standard of the other teams is not so high. Having been promoted last season, I seem to be a bit up and down, but I'm not in a mid table rot, so with a few games till the end of the season, I have started watching the full match, to observe why I'm not getting the results I want.

I'm happy with the shape of the team, all the players seem to hold their positions well. I do have trouble going forward - even with a high DL, my players seem to sit back. All have various degrees of Normal mentalities, with one striker set to attacking

So, this is what happens when I look at the full match screen:

- My players never move into space. I have tried many settings with CF, mentality, passing style etc. The opposition players will pass the ball nad then move to pick it up again. My players will pass and then stand in their position, normally resulting in the next ball being a hoof for the forwards to chase!

- When my players do get the ball, they never do anything with it. They will stand for ages, thinking about what to do, and then will play a slack pass, or will get mugged. Tried looking at the player instructions, to see if they conflict, but no joy.

- My passes seem to get closed down alot. Some of my players (DM and wingers) have high closing down and even they will stand and watch as balls whitles around them. This costs me alot of goals, as my team admire the others build up play, and do nothing.

These situations are causing me grief. any discussion or hints would be more than welsome. Or tales of those who suffer the same, and have managed to sort something out.

Many thanks for your time.

Cleon

What CF do the players currently have? I find the problems you mentioned above happen when its set pretty low. By low I mean anything less than the middle so 10 downwards.

What passing style have you adopted? Do you play counter attack? Whats the team settings?

PearlJam

Do you have "forward runs" enabled in individual options?

Justin_Case

I play with a 4-1-3-2, which I play with a DL and mentality of 8.

as I'm sitting deep, I have passing and tempo around 14 and individual closing down. I don't have my individual CF that high, only for one forward and the CM. Width is something that often gets me, I like to play wide and have a couple of good wingers, but this makes me less compact against the better teams.

Cleon - would you suggest CF of ten and above for all my players then, even in CB and FB's?

Cleon

I suggest keeping it on 10 for the players you don't want to be creative yes. Juts my opinion though

Justin_Case

I will give that a try.

With regard to my players giving the ball away easily, I have trained all the players alot on Ball control. Is there anything else I can do

neil123000

QUOTE] - My passes seem to get closed down alot. Some of my players (DM and wingers) have high closing down and even they will stand and watch as balls whitles around them. This costs me alot of goals, as my team admire the others build up play, and do nothing.[ [/QUOTE]

If you go to Opposition instructions before a match and put your opponents most creative players(e.g. Fábregas at arsenal) on tight marking and hard tackling they get less space and rush their passes.

Justin_Case

Updating!

Being a poor team, I found cleon's advice of giving all my players 10 or above in CF was not really working. I have yet to try this with a better team though. I have increased the CF or the wingers AM, and both forwards, and given one of the strikers a free role, which does seem to increase the attacking options that I'm getting, when in possesion.

Neil123000 - while looking through the tactics bible, I stumbled on some advice about opposition instructions, which I must admit, I had been using in an adhoc way. Now I actually look at what I want to achieve

e.g Last home game against Wolves. Scout points out that the right winger is the main threat. I man mark him with my left winger, close him down and push onto weaker foot. Then I close down the FB, to decrease the passing options. After I went 1-0 up in the 20th min, I then played my focus passing down the other flank. Result? I won 2-0 and the player was subbed in the 65 min when it was all too late!

rashidi1

Let's try this:
There are 2 kinds of forward runs in the game, one where they are instructed to do so, via individual instructions and another where they are farrowed.

For players to move around to create more space, cf is needed. That is true, what's more important is their mentality. A mentality of 8 is not entirely fantastic.

What you can try to do is this:

If you are playing with an orthodox 4132:

Set mentality of Fullbacks to 10, DCs to 1 or 3 and make the DM 12. That takes care of your defensive half. What do these settings mean?

A mentality of 10 means that the player will utilise decisions to determine whether to take part in an attacking move or not. Without forward runs all they will do is to look for the next available player and because mentalities are low they will usually look for the safest option. In some cases this will mean they will hoof the ball. If you find that happening a lot. Look at passing:

Set passing of the DCs to short, yes, people may say this is terrible, but actually short passing of 1 is ideal for some inferior teams, they tend to keep possession better. The fullbacks don't need 1 unless they have good support. You have 2 choices, either use the DM to spray passes or use the fullback to do downline passes. Either way requires diff passing set-ups.

For the defensive group, make sure TTB is set to normal. For FM2007, TTB is a useful tool, however if you find too many hoofed balls a problem then reduce it. However I would seriously consider keeping it for the FBs for the following reasons:

The Wingers, long farrow them to the AML/AMR positions and set the mentality to normal, ,have them on FWR often and give them normal CF. These chaps will look to break behind the backline of the defense.

To hold possession, you have an option. Set passing to 1 again. This means that the MC has to have a Short farrow to the AMC position to receive the ball. However if you find that you are having problems doing the passing then increase it. Personally I prefer passing set-ups of 1 for poor teams. They somehow knock the ball about and allow players to move into positions.

As far as mentality is concerned all farrowed players should be on 10. The strikers can be on 10 and another on 15 if you want. CF for all should be normal in the attacking group.

Try this out.

rashidi1

oops...you don't need the whole team on one....the MC can have one the wingers and the DCs..try it for a couple of matches and make sure the formation is normal and not very wide