retired_sissy

I've been reading with great interest both cleon's and kristianhnohr's threads on how they both have achieved success with Sheff Utd and Parma by using scout reports and watching the game and changing accordingly.

I have tried to replicate this but the problem I have is how exactly should I assess what the opposition are doing while watching the match?

For example:
How do I differentiate between them being attacking or defensive?
How do I know they are playing quick or slow tempo?
How do I know if they are playing short or direct?

Are there any give-aways as to what they are trying to do or is it more subtle then I intially thought because this is where i feel i'm failing at the moment.

These may seem like obvious questions that are simple to answer, but when watching the match I just have difficulty making out what the opposition has started out like and what it changes to counter me.

retired_monica90

The 2D engine is inadequate in this respect, and in my opinion is the area of the game that needs the most work. Along with media interaction. And team-talks. It simply doesn't give us enough information. Combine that with the ambiguity fo the sliders and you have a lot of trial and error to experiment with.

retired_sissy

Ya, I thought that might be the case, cos i have no idea while watching what exactly is going on in terms of playing styles.

So this leads to the question, how are you supposed to react to changes when you can't see them happening on the pitch? Is it actually just hours of trial and error *sighs*

retired_eden

I find that keeping an eye on the formation screen helps, apart from the obvious formation changes (ie changing to 424 is clearly an attacking change), the arrows tell a lot. When playing 442 if they have arrows on the wingers half way then change to go all the way to the by line then that suggests theyre playing more attacking. If they remove the arrows that suggests a change to a more defensive mentality.

For in game tweaking I tend to look at how I'm losing the ball rather than what the opposition are doing with it. Eg if i'm giving the ball away through too many long balls play shorter, if I'm getting closed down too quickly and getting caught in posetion play quicker etc.

I also think the match stats screen tells alot eg if you've got loads more position but theyre having a lot of shots on target, that shows that your getting caught on the break too much and you should lower the team mentality. also if your pass completion rate is low you should play shorter, if your not having many shots play more direct.

Usually I just set my tactics to play the opposite of what they are (unless it says they dont play a particular style of passing then i just have it on mixed). Then 10mins in i'll check the match stats n if I have hardly any posetion and the other team have had loads of shots I'll switch my passing and tempo to mixed and then watch for the things I've written above to try and improve things. I'm not the best at this game but things have vastly improved since I started doing these things (have a look at my thread "success at last! thanks cleon!"). Before I had hardly managed to finish a season through frustration!

I hope that helps. I'd also like if what I said is a load of rubbish for people to tell me and I can do even better lol!

retired_sissy

Sounds good. Cheers for that.