lostchild

As the title suggested, I've completed my first season on FM08 playing as Notts County (Had the game christmas day). Now i ended up in 17th place so i wouldn't call myself sucessful as the fans and board wanted a respectable league position and the media predicted 11th

I found the following annoying but hopefully it may be cleared up by anyone that reads this and has better ideas or will let me know if its been mentioned already.

Closing Down

Still an issue in my opinion. The players still hesitate when going to close down and that normally means either a clean run on goal or someone scoring from outside the box. So far i've not been able to narrow down why this is still happening. I've looked at the following and still see the same thing happening throughout the season.

Match Fitness - Thought it might be because of the players lack of matches, but players coming in are at least 'match fit' and also at 95 - 98% condition.

Morale - Now i could accept this at certain points when players are only at 'okay' or less but this was also happening when i was on an unbeaten run and morale was at least 'Good' for players in the starting eleven. Also the squad at this time had 'A good understanding' and morale overall was good

Player/Team Settings - I had my team setup using the following settings (These could be the reason i'm thinking )

4-4-2 formation

Central Defenders

Mentality - 5 (Defensive)
Creative Freedom - 5 (Low - Team setting also)
Closing Down - 5 (Own Area)
Tackling - Normal at Home/Normal Away

Full Backs

Mentality - 6 (First Notch of Normal)
Creative Freedom - 5 (Low - Team setting also)
Closing Down - 6 (Own Half - First Notch)
Tackling - Normal at Home/Hard Away

The rest of the team are setup the following the defensive line has been set to 7 when i first created the tactics.

Central Midfielders

Mentality - 7 (Normal)
Creative Freedom - 5 (Low - Team setting also)
Closing Down - 9 (Team setting)
Tackling - Normal at Home/Hard Away

Side Midfielders/Wingers

Mentality - 8 (Normal)
Creative Freedom - 5 (Low - Team setting also)
Closing Down - 9 (Team setting)
Tackling - Normal at Home/Hard Away

Target Man

Mentality - 9 (Normal)
Creative Freedom - 5 (Low - Team setting also)
Closing Down - 9 (Team setting)
Tackling - Normal at Home/Hard Away

Striker

Mentality - 10 (Normal)
Creative Freedom - 5 (Low - Team setting also)
Closing Down - 9 (Team setting)
Tackling - Normal at Home/Hard Away

I have since tried the closing down and defensive line slider using different combinations every 10/12 games as nothing seems to work but i've tried to give time for things to settle. Any ideas here would be great.

Players conditions dropping rapidly

I find that for some reason my players conditions drop quiet suddenly during a match. This happens both home and away. As regards the previous section i've checked match fitness and platers condition and found them both to be fine pre match (Match fit at least and 95-98% condition). All the players i have in the team have at least 12+ for stamina and my tactics are based on a matching passing and tempo. I play mixed passing (1 notch past mid point) and normal tempo (1 notch past mid point). both home and away i play normal width but the settings are different at home (2 notches past mid point going wider if needed) and away (mid point going up or down 2 notches depending on opposition and current scoreline.)

I've always done the following pre season to avoid this and it has worked in the past. I play at least 5+ games to ensure match fitness at the start of the season. I play my strongest team first half and backups/reserves second half to minimise injuries. I also have the whole squad on a pre season training schedule that concentrates on strength and aerobic training and a lesser degree tactics. Any ideas on stopping/improving this i welcome to

Inbetween games doesn't stop as often

When i first started my game the overview said i had nine games before my first friendly. After sacking my poor coaches and finding replacements and doing my other tasks i clicked on continue to go to the next day and was rewarded with the option to confirm one coach. Clicking on continue again the game then proceeded to go right upto the first friendly. So i missed the following:

- No fitness coach appointed. Also the game neglected to tell me. 1 week was wasted and had to find a lesser one
- No confirmation of other coaches appointed until first friendly so i couldn't fine tune my coach setup



To a lesser extent i find the match engine is not as good as Fm07 as the players seem to shutter and the some of the passes played are too wild. Hopefully doesn't sound too much like a rant it may be my settings and also my poor team to any feedback would be much appreciated