retired_rayrhi

Interesting experiment, Hammer.

Looking forward to your results.

retired_Cat1123

After a few early blips, Chelsea are doing as expected,dominating and winning games to put them top of the Prem with a game in hand.

With just one goal conceded in their last 11 games they look very strong at the back, although up front they continue to struggle putting games to bed.

Arsenal away next and it should be a tough game, i use my usual away tactic that has given me results as West Ham against the big four.



These are the stats against Arsenal.

Fair enough although a little annoying, we gave away an early lead and had to chase for the equaliser. There is nothing much wrong in losing games like this, it happens, i cant win them all right?.

Well it all looks fair enough until you see how the goals come about. Remember i'm Chelsea and we have not been conceding goals so something is off right?.



Above is the prelude to Arsenal's first goal, a big clearance from Toure, but its ok Carvalho beats Henry in the air, no problem.



Carvalho clears no danger right?.



Wait, hang on a minute, Carvalho is continuing forward and leaving Henry unmarked?. Still, no problem, Silva is heading the ball to Fabregas.



Hey, hold on, Carvalho forgets his defensive duties and decides to close down Fabregas?.(the point here is that i'm using Rashidi's tactic and the DCL is the most defensive and has a closing down instruction of just ONE?).

Of course the ball goes straight to Henry and he dinks a beautiful ball through to the advancing Baptista after John Terry also leaves his defensive post to close down Henry?.

Baptista scores.



Believe it or not, Arsenal are about to score their second?.



Borowski gets the ball back from Chiellini, so what will he do with it?. He's "either" footed so a right foot cross into the box is clearly on?.



No, no, lets lump a great big ball all the way back to Cech, oh dear thats a terrible pass is'nt it, straight into the path of Henry.

Yep, it's 2-0.



Here comes goal number 3 thanks to another poor goal kick from Cech.



Again Carvalho clears straight to Silva and instead of abiding by his defensive duties, he yet again stands still whilst Baptista runs through with the ball?.

Things were'nt all bad, Baptista decides to run out wide and Terry is marking Henry. Hang on a minute, Terry leave's his post to help out Carvalho leaving Henry completely unmarked?.



If this is the kind of defending you can expect from players like Terry(one of the best DC's in the game and the World), what chance has anyone else got?.

retired_Cat1123

Here's our very next game against Manure, we held a deserved lead up until this point.



Park Ji Sung with a jumping stat of 7 and heading stat of 8, climbs above Zaccardo(17,19) to head home the equaliser.



He then Hammers home from 30 yards.



Manure's winner then came courtesy of a controversial goal.



For which it was proved to be a bad decision!.

These were the overall stats for the game which look fair enough until like the Arsenal game you look that bit closer.




It also had to be said that every goal was from a set piece, 1st free kick, 2nd Corner, 3rd Free kick.

retired_Cat1123

The 2nd screenshot should look like this...

retired_Cat1123

Surely away to a struggling Reading side we will get things back on track?.

I've dropped those players who's morale has dipped after the last two defeats, so time to get back to winning ways and stop giving cheap goals away right?.

WRONG!.

Winning 1-0 and it should have been more, study the screenshot and i bet you can guess what happened next?.



Yep, there you go, a big hoofed clearance and its headed perfectly for Lita, who for some reason Terry and Carvalho have left alone?.

No problem, we come out on fire 2nd half and by the 70th minute deservedly lead 3-1. Reading go 4-2-4 so i switch to shut up shop on the counter to see out a comfortable win?.

OH NO!.



Again a back pass from a player who can use both feet(the game does'nt acknowledge this at all) and Lita intercepts and runs at goal.



Three defenders get back and one makes the tackle, only the ball deflects beautifully into the path of Convey on the left wing who slots home for fun 3-2.

Well we could easily have scored 1 or 2 more to put the game to rest, but instead a good challenge from Prieto see's the ball go straight to Convey who whips in a cross towards Lita who is being marked closely by Bodmer.

Surely Bodmer will win the challenge?, he's tall and good in the air whilst Lita is short and has poor heading stats.

Well no, instead he just fouls Lita and its a penalty for Reading in the dying minutes and Convey slots home 3-3.

Cant believe we have to make do with a draw?.

BUT OH NO!, we are not finished yet!.

In the dying seconds, Bodmer pushes Lita again, to give away a free kick just outside the box.



Yep, up steps Convey again and its 4-3 Reading?.

Suddenly we've let in 10 goals in just 3 games and the defence have looked no better than a non league outfit?.

Remember this is Chelsea and they had previously let in just 1 goal in their last 11 and i have'nt suddenly changed the tactics.

What you are seeing is farcical and why FM07 is a lump of junk, with overall the WORST match engine its EVER had!.

Forget your players, forget your tactics, in fact forget anything that has to do with football. The match engine for this game although cosmetically it can appear sophisticated, is a complete disaster area, the scenarios you see here are part and parcel of almost EVERY game in one way or another, but SI will continue to claim its magnificence.

Remember this when Purchasing 08.

retired_Cat1123

I've no doubt i'll still either win the Prem or come very close, but what exactly is the point when the whole thing is simply based on a decision the game has already made(probably before the season starts) and not because of any management skills i posess or decisions I make?.

Surely thats the whole point of the game, otherwise where is the fun and where do you find the drive to want to carry on?.

retired_Cat1123

Sorry for posting again(can't edit), but i know exactly what this game in its present state cannot give you...

...A SENSE OF ACHIEVEMENT!

You almost feel as if you should thank the game when you actually WIN something, because at the end of the day IT makes the final decision and you yourself have little or no control over it?.

retired_hope

The decision is not made at the start of the season.

Any team can beat another provided they have the players and tactics setup correctly.

Every time you change your tactics and click confirm a message is displayed saying 'Processing'.

This is because the remainder of the game is being calculated based on the differences in tactics. Once this is done, the the match engine replays the match to you.

As so as you change tactics again, the remaining match is recalculated again.

So you do have the ability to change the game and the result.

However, do you have the players or the tactics setup to do it?

This is difficult because we do not know 100% what the slider system does.

Some people like arteta have attempted to observe what visible effects of the slider system are. You can then use this info to build a tactic around the players you have and what you want to achieve.

I think most people agree that the manual needs more content to eplain the effects of the sliders. I don't think the current one is misleading, just that it doesn't have enough content.

This has been promised for FM2008, so we will have to wait and see if this promise is kept. Also I think the match engine commentary will give a lot more indication in FM2008.

Why?, because were 960 defined events in the match engine for FM2006 and not all of them are currently being used. In FM2007 some more were enabled, but their are still events, especially events indicating how teams are performing that have yet to be enabled.

But the main point is the match or the season isn't pre-determined, you always have the option to try and change the outcome. Whether you can pull it off is another matter.

retired_rayrhi

I entirely agree with Leroy here, that the match is re-calculated per your changes, BUT...

my theory is that some matches are pre-determined 'banana skis', meeaning that the probability of a win is significantly shrunk. Thus, whether you change yor tactics or not, that probability number will stay quite constant. With this in mind, control is an illusion, or the very most, minimal.

Luketi

I think the point isn`t whether the result is pre-calculated or not. The point here is that the match engine has several flaws. I find that when I have a good and balanced tactic, and Im doing well in the league, the AI starts to score ridiculous goals, such as Hammers showed in his screenshots. The number of goals that I have conceeded (no matter what tactic I used) in the way that Hammer showed:

-Ridiculous backpasses (40 or 50 yards!!) only to be intercepted by an unmarked oposition striker.
-Defenders closing down (and leaving his position) when they are clearly instructed to not do that.
-Dead ball situations where almost my whole team are joining forward (when they are instructed to stay back), with the last two defenders stood at half pitch, only to see a 50 yard clearance that finds an unmarked oposition striker and the message: "xxx hit xxx on the counter!!!"

Things like these happen more often when the AI doesn`t seem to find a way to beat me, but apart from that it happens all the time though.
So I repeat: I think the match engine has severe flaws and that is one of the worst issues of this game.