[retired_lachina]

Hi, I know FM2007 have been very frustrating for many people. Instead of creating a moaning thread, I decided to create a Ask for Help thread instead.

I shall illustrate 2 scenarios that many players experienced in the game and hopefully some experts can help me.

FIrst of all this is my team:
I'm Aston Villa in season 3. with the help of lerner's cash I have a good squad.
GK- Ochoa
DR- McMahon
DL - Baines
DC- Taylor
DC- Davies
DMC - Lucas
MR- Young
ML - Barry
AMC- Anderson
SC- Owen
SC- Moore

I am using a 442 Diamond formation. Farrows on the wingers when home, no arrows when away. Home i play an attacking mentality, while away its a defensive with counter attacking on.

Scenario 1:
I am away to Boro. Boro are playing a standard 442 formation. I use my away formation and dominate the proceedings. At the 10th minute, Luke Moore scores a goal from a corner. Curtis Davies heads the ball and the keeper parries it, only for Moore to get the rebound.
Boro tactics still remains at 442 and no change. From 10mins to 35th minutes, I still dominate the game and then I see 5 chances being missed, 2 of them is a Michael Owen 1 on 1 with no defenders pressurising him. He takes the ball and dribbles it to the byline and shoots. 1st time is being saved by the keeper, 2nd being saved on the line by a back tracking defender.
The other 3 chances were a cross to the near post only for the keeper to be equal to the shot which I thought should have gone thru as the commentary says "Moore is left with a simple tap-in".

At 38th minute, Martin Petrov, the Boro left winger goes to a mazzy dribble and crosses it in for Yakubu to head it in. 1-1. Before that, there wasn't a change in tactics by Boro and no highlights favouring or showing that Boro were playing better. It just came out of the Blue.

I changed to my more attacking formation at half time and in the 56th minute went in front. 2-1. Owen and Moore ran to the wingers, dragging the defenders along with them and Anderson ran thru unmarked to shoot in. 2-1.
Boro changed to a 442 formation with the wingers running all the way to the FL/R position.
I switched to my 442 diamond tactic and tweak it abit. My fullbacks are on full defensive with them man marking the wingers tightly. I tweak it abit to a high timewasting, normal width, slow tempo and low creative freedom. D-line is already on deep.
I controlled the game and Boro didn't make a single shot. Highlights showed that they make certain cross into the box, only for it to be too high or easy for my GK to collect and this will result in a counter attack which I will miss.
By the 80th minute, I had make 14 shots, 7 of them on target. Boro had 3 shots, with 1 on target. The score was 2-1.

In the 94th minute, Anderson tackled Seb Hines in the box and a penalty was awareded to Boro. Commentary said that it was a harsh penalty and it shouldn't be given. With the last kick of the game, Yakubu scores to tie it at 2-2.
Shots were 15, 7 on target and Boro had 4 shots 2 on target. Possession was 55% to 45%.

So what went wrong? Was I unlucky? Or did the AI outsmart me? Please help.

The 2nd scenario will come soon.

[retired_rayrhi]

Unfortunately, I think this is the way that the AI reacts to level the playing field when it knows it can't beat you. You are not the only one feeling a little bit of a harshly dealt hand. I think this was implemented to ensure that there is no 'super tactic' nonsense. I am not sure there is much you can do really, mate, but wait for it to pass. I've had a team equalise in the 92nd with only 9 men. It's not your tactics, trust me...

[retired_janae55]

Originally posted by arteta is god:
Unfortunately, I think this is the way that the AI reacts to level the playing field when it knows it can't beat you. You are not the only one feeling a little bit of a harshly dealt hand. I think this was implemented to ensure that there is no 'super tactic' nonsense. I am not sure there is much you can do really, mate, but wait for it to pass. I've had a team equalise in the 92nd with only 9 men. It's not your tactics, trust me...

No it isn't. What you're suggesting is still a AI-against-human conspiracy which I don't believe is right. Ok for this case, the topic starter was indeed very unlucky in his failure to put away chances and then concede a injury time harsh penalty, but this is probably a 1 off and won't happen that often because the AI ain't always that lucky.

And I believed that switching to a defensive counter attacking tactic will be beneficial, because my team always score another goal due to a counter attack and won't concede again, so it may be a good idea.

[retired_kellyk]

"wait for it to pass"...???

I'm not going into this debate cos, like i've said many times on the forum, that some mysterious element in the game somehow contrives to ensure that you are denied success is complete nonsense.

I have tonnes of pkms which show me surviving a so called onslaught from an understrength AI, and I'm one of those who love it when the AI goes all 424 on me.

lyw_85 God I miss Clarke Quay. Well there are several things that could have gone wrong, and without knowing what you did its hard to suggest something. But this is what i've noticed.

Missing one on one chances is annoying and I have to admit I find that extremely frustrating at times, but you are doing something right so. You are dominating proceedings. It helps that you can do that. If you find that your flanks are being overrun then you need to account for several things in your tactic.

How deep are your defenders playing and how high is their closing down? If your defenders are playing very deep and their closing down instructions are normal, they will lose out. The exceptions to this would be when they have better pace and when they have better anticipation.

What are your closing down instructions at the back like vis a vis the mentality of the formation and the players. You need to pay attention to when you lose the ball or on fast breaks. If your defenders are tracking back too much, you're better off adjusting for this.Alternatively you may even need to employ the offside trap.

When you went full defensive after the lead, why did you drop so deep? If your formation has dropped very deep and your closing down instructions haven't changed, then you could be allowing the AI to get the balls to the wings for 50-50 crosses, which we all know is dangerous.

If you are playing a really good side then maybe dropping deep is an option but you do need to make it defend at the same time. How many times have we seen teams sit back on one goal leads against United and seen that lead evaporate? Conversely pushing up too much is also dangerous. What's needed is balance and it does sound to me that your formation was not set up right from the back.

Hope that helps.

[retired_lachina]

Actually this happens to me quite alot of times in the game.
I had 14 matches that I had dominate in the sense but ended up drawing or losing.
This compares to 1 match of winning when I should be losing.

I dun really want to push blames to the AI cos I have seen Cleon's thread on his SheffUtd project so I really want find out whether what I am doing is wrong.

Anyway, just to inform you ubos, the scenario 2 is an even more heartbreaker!

[retired_lachina]

Thanks Rashidi, Clarke Quay is still alive =)

Anyway, my defenders are taylor, baines, davies and mcmahon. Not really the fastest, but taylor and davies are good in the air. I played a deep D-line as Boro had petrov, yakubu and downing. Speedy players.

My fullbacks have 3 clicks of Closing down and my DCs have 5 clicks of closing down, both in the attacking and defending tactic. My D-line is set to 6 clicks. If the opponents are slow, then it is set to 12.

My fullbacks were always caught off position with a normal closing down so I used 3 and I find this very effective in blocking crosses and intercepting passes to the wings.

What do u suggest Rashidi? Glad that I am receiving some help =)

[retired_FaultyFate]

lyw_85,

To be honest, I do not think something went wrong on defense side. I mean, one goal was from cross and header, but boro players are not from nowhere, they can do a thing or two . Penalty... Aside from the fact that your AMC tackling someone in your box... But nothing you could do about it anyway.

On the offense side though it sounds like you have some problems. You said it happens quite often when your team cannot convert domination into win. It is difficult to say what exactly wrong. Maybe you have posession in the middle, but play too slow so AI has time to cover holes. At least from stats you provided it looks like boro played counter-attacking tactic almost entire game - they gave away posession, tried to attack only when they thought they have a good chance (a few shots only). But I would not focus on this game only. What you could do is go back to matches you lost or tied when you dominated, look at action zones, strickers' stats, maybe even match reports to replay missed chances. If there is a pattern, you can find out how to fix the problem. If you do not have time to do it (or do not want spend time), start observing things from now on.

[retired_lachina]

Kolobok,

The reason y i said that the goal was so unexpected was cause Boro did not have a single highlight in their favour until that goal! Just out of the blue, Wham Slam! and I conceded.

I have been observing my shots and miss chances, and the chances that they missed is no different from the chances that they have scored.

I checked the action zones of my matches and my possession rating is only higher than my opponents in the attacking and midfield compartment. It is however lesser in the defence compartment.

I play with a slow tempo as I want to control the game. I also want to increase the quality of the shots that I made. The problem is not that the AI has the holes covered, but more of the chances just dun seem to go in, especially when I am playing away!

From what Rashidi explained, I too think it is not the problem in attack but more in the defending section.

Eagerly anticipating his help on my closing down! =D