retired_b3th

Once every few hours someone on these forums starts a discussion on supergoalies. While time and again zealous know-it-alls would dismiss even the thought of the AI cheating, a lot of anger and frustration remains by the supergoaliemen. This thread is to help them (you) by showing how I’ve found I can Control a match and bypass the supergoalies.

Managing a side to winning their matches isn’t easy, any football manager will tell you. They have to work hard to train their players, analyse their opponents, ward off the media, get the tactics right, and finally to change The Little Things That Matter on match day. While a lot of things of that job take less time or are not simulated all in FM, the basics are all there. And, any gamer who wants his team to win anything at all, will have to _manage_ his squad. You’ll need to get good staff, good players, good tactics, and high morale.

Now, that might seem logical, and it is. But what most seem to forget is that all these factors are part of the reason why one _seems_ to get terrorized by the AI, through supergoalies and the like during the match. Although I have to admit never identifying a true supergoalie on my opponent’s side, I did have serious issues with the AI. I just couldn’t get my squad to perform consistently, and I constantly had the feeling I wasn’t in Control. Being the manager, I don’t like that.

So I went searching for answers. Thanks to the hard work of Tactic gurus like wwfan or Cleon and especially the excellent tacticbuilding strategies of rashidi I slowly started to understand what worked and what didn’t. While I still have problems getting my tactics right, I finally have acquired a feeling of being in Control. And I like that

Below are the steps I would follow against a supergoalie. It is however crucial that you analyse the situation correctly. Lowering tempo while you are losing the midfield will result in fewer chances, but no goals. Widening the game while your strikers are getting outpaced will only work against you. Barking at your players at half time while it’s 0-0 against Chelsea won’t help either. Analysing is absolutely crucial. If you don’t know what to do, tighten width and possibly increase time-wasting, until you do know.

1) Tempo is too high. Lower it so your lads have more time to find an opening. Tempo in my experience only adjusts the quality and the quantity of the chances. Lowering increases quality but decreases quantity, heightening decreases quality but increases quantity.

2) Your width is too compact. Widen it to get more options and better chances. Width in my experience only adjusts the amount of space the players will have and therefore the amount of and quality of chances. Widen it to allow more gameplay (for both sides!!!), narrow it to try and sus out the game. It pretty much adjusts how much risk your team takes: higher risks yield higher rewards and vice versa.

3) Your team isn't creating anything. Make sure the midfield and the defense are winning the ball easily and build up play correctly. If the midfield isn't doing that, up the defence line. Lower the Dline when the defence is in trouble. The technical workings of the Defence line are formulated at length by rashidi. Practically it seems to come down to finding the right balance so that neither your defenders nor your midfielders are under too much pressure. This obviously is different for every opponent. A fast brace of strikers will usually need a lower defence line to take off the pressure from your defenders. A creative mastermind in midfield however might pass round your defence anyway, so your midfielders will need help.

4) Your tactics have some flaw or your players aren't compatible with them. Either buy other players to fit in or change your tactics. Again, this should be obvious. If you are playing Rooney as heading targetman you are doing something wrong. If you are fielding five strikers you will have a hard time creating chances. Getting this right is crucial, and will take some time working out. Luckily there are many threads dealing with tacticbuilding. In my experience, any part of a tactic that isn’t either width, tempo or defence line won’t need fiddling if the tactic is sound.

5) Morale is low or the lads are overconfident. Make sure you get the team talks right or get a good assistant manager to sort them out. This is actually very important. A low morale bunch of players will play awfully, even when they are miles better then their opponents. An excellent guide on team talks can be found in wwfan’s thread on How To Play FM2007.

6) Your team is simply not good enough. Your only hope is to get a lucky goal or a bore draw. Tighten up your width, put time wasting at max and hope for the best. Sometimes it’s that simple. Often teams like Manchester, Chelsea or Arsenal are so immensely tough that whatever you do, they will find a way to beat you. But to be fair, any smaller team in real life needs some luck to beat these big guys.

7) Still getting supergoalies? Your opponent then probably has Cech, Reina or Buffon, or just a lot of luck. Suck it up; better luck next time.

Usually this kind of games comes forth from an extremely passive AI. A certain player/manager at Middlesbrough for example seems to start out against almost anyone in a very narrow 4-4-2 without arrows and with lots of time wasting. Other examples are the 4-5-1 and the 3-3-3-1. They play very conservative and if you let in an early goal (God forbid!) it will get very hard to salvage anything from the match.

Therefore, make sure you don't start out to aggressive, but adjust your tactic while keeping it narrow until you find some way to keep them from your own goal, while getting lots of chances yourself. Then, widen up, adjust tempo, and wait for it. Make sure you sub underperforming players.

Always remember: While it may look like it, more often than not the problem lies not with the quality of your strikers, but rather with the quality of your team (including the goalkeeper!). Any part of it malfunctioning for whatever reason _will_ result in the occurrence supergoalies and the like.

retired_kellyk

My guns were loaded and ready to shoot this thread down till I started reading it LOL

retired_b3th

...Occurence of supergoalies and the like...

heh, I hope that's the only one I missed :cool:

retired_thehpsleb

Look at the opponents Gk stats and find hes weakness.
Low position and/or reflexes - test him with alot of longshots .
Poor jumping and/or Arial ability - set 3-4 players to get into the penalty aera often, attack down both flanks.
Weak "rushing out and/or "one on ones" set run with ball often on 2-3 offensive players is great, and feed them with lots of throughballs.
This is just a few tips..last one is to use the player interaction before the match and choose "weakest link" option to put pressure on him - DONT USE IT if the opponnets Gk got a high value in Determination tho!