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I have "complained" several times about this game and some people seem to get very upset at that. Well, help me understand this game then. I have some basic questions and would appreciate any help in answering them. Here goes:
1. What exactly am I telling my players when I give them an arrow?
2. How is creative freedom best used? Does it have anything to do with the creativity attribute? If I want a player with high creativie stats to do something specific and give him a low creativite freedom setting am I wasting his creativity?
3. When is tight marking best used and how are tight marking and closing down linked?
4. What exactly does the Width setting do? How often I get the ball wide or how far apart my players line up from each other?
5. What exactly does the passing setting do? When I play with the slider am I changing the frequency of short/direct passing or the actual distance of passing?
6. Is there anything to consider when distributing coaches to training other than the star rating? Can one 3 star rating be better than another for instance?
I have more questions but I can't remember them all now. I'll post them as I recall them.
1. What exactly am I telling my players when I give them an arrow?
Farrows: Take that position when we have the ball
Barrows: Take that position when we don't have the ball.
Sarrows: Switch between positions 50-50.
2. How is creative freedom best used? Does it have anything to do with the creativity attribute? If I want a player with high creativie stats to do something specific and give him a low creativite freedom setting am I wasting his creativity?
Creative Freedom is complex. I hope the following helps.
Creative Freedom
Many posts on the forum are of the assumption that the creative freedom slider stops a player from obeying other individual instructions. If it is set high then a player will be more unlikely to do what he is told, if set low then he will adhere to instructions. I believe there are elements of truth to this, but it is not the whole story.
A player on high creative freedom will inevitably look for options in attack as soon as he gets the ball. If he decides that the creative/killer ball is on he will play it. Sometimes it will come off, sometimes it won't. That is the very nature of creativity in all walks of life. If he decides the creative/killer ball is unfeasible, he will play a safe ball and move into position to try again. Hence, decision making is also key to a truly great creative player. A creative player with good decision making will invariably choose the right time to play the right ball. Other factors will influence whether it comes off, such as the defensive stats of the opposition players trying to intercept the ball/tackle the creative player and the off the ball/decision making stats of the player trying to pick up the pass, but on the whole a player with good creativity/decision making will create chances. Alternatively, a player with good creativity/bad decision making will often try to play unfeasibly difficult balls that will result in interceptions and counter attacking moves more often than creating chances for his own team. When setting instructions for such a player, be aware that giving him total freedom will likely result in you losing possession and having to defend quick countering moves as often as getting into scoring positions yourself.
Creativity is not flair and must be managed accordingly. A creative player creates chances for others; a flair player creates chances for himself. Thus, whereas a flair player can be closely marked and looking out of the game, only to do something extraordinary and score out of nothing, a creative player needs time and space in which to operate, so he has more opportunity to spot the creative pass. Thus, when positioning a creative player, make sure he is loosely zonal marking with closing down set to a minimum, so that he is always in the maximum amount of space to receive a pass. If he has excellent decision making/teamwork/workrate/off the ball, he could also be assigned a free role, which would allow him to rove about the pitch looking for space and thus become more useful. Creative players are often low on bravery, so can be marked out of the game by hard-men opponents. Be aware of this if you feel your creative player is not performing, and possibly look to play him deeper which will draw his marker out of position and create space in front of him for others to exploit.
Finally, in terms of creativity for the whole team, be careful setting it too high for too many players. If you do this, too many people will be looking for the killer ball, and your truly creative players will have less opportunity to influence a game. Also, too many passes are likely to be intercepted as they are being hit from unfeasible positions on the pitch, and possession will turn over almost the second you have the ball. Tweak it high for a few players, and let the others focus on more mundane tasks, such as defending or scoring goals.
Off the Ball
I have read a fair number of posts complaining that the FCs refuse to stay in the middle of the pitch and drift wide. The standard response to this is to reduce creative freedom to the lowest notch for the front men. This is nonsensical. Forwards drift wide to find space to get the ball. If they stay in one position all match they are too easy to mark out of the game. Forwards and attacking-minded midfielders need to be encouraged to look for space. In this respect, a high level of creative freedom alongside excellent off the ball stats will be extremely beneficial. If one FC moves wide to pick up the ball it won’t matter as long as other players have the requisite creative freedom and off the ball to move into the space he has created. Higher levels of creative freedom have to be regarded as optimal for forward players in order to create space and move the defence around.
Teamwork
A player with high teamwork attribute will religiously obey the manager’s instructions, whether they are appropriate for the situation he is in or not. Teamwork is great when you have applied the optimum settings for the tactical situation your team is in, but will actually be disadvantageous if you have set inappropriate instructions. For example, if you have set closing down to 20 then a player with good teamwork will constantly close down, no matter what position/situation he finds himself in. This is where the maximum or minimum slider settings begin to fail and why moderation must be applied. If a player with high teamwork is told to close down to 20, then he will do it without fail; if he is told to close down often but not always, his decision making becomes more important, as he then has to decide on the appropriate moment to apply the closing down instruction.
A player with low teamwork is obviously more difficult to manage as you can never be sure whether he will obey instructions or not. This will be doubly difficult if he has bad decision making, as he will regularly do what he wants, no matter if it is a good decision or not. All a manager can do with this sort of player is try to ensure he is in a position that won't cause huge harm to his own team, but where his unpredictability will sometimes come off and create chances/opportunities to score.
Decision Making
Decision making is hugely important in how you instruct a player. The higher the decision making stat, the more mixed instructions you can give him, as you are sure he will take the right option at the right time. Thus, a central defender with good defensive stats and high decision making can be asked to close down to mixed, as you can trust him to apply the instruction when required. A central defender with bad decision making should be told to close down rarely, which will keep him between the striker and the goal and thus make the attacking player try to go past him, rather than committing himself to a rash challenge. This can be applied right down the line for every position on the pitch. If a player has poor decision making, give him firm instructions to do a job; if he has good decision making, trust him to do the right thing. For a winger, for example, you could tell him to choose between through balls and crossing; with them both set to mixed, as you believe he will invariably pick the right option. I could go on and on about this, but I'm sure it is pretty obvious by now.
3. When is tight marking best used and how are tight marking and closing down linked?
Tight marking limits space so is best used with defensive tactics. If you are tight marking you probably won't have to close down as much as players will be close together anyway.
4. What exactly does the Width setting do? How often I get the ball wide or how far apart my players line up from each other?
Width spreads the formation out and aids attacking. Likewise, narrow keeps it compact and aids defending.
5. What exactly does the passing setting do? When I play with the slider am I changing the frequency of short/direct passing or the actual distance of passing?
A bit of both. You are telling players to prioritise short passing (so the average length goes down), but they won't always do it.
6. Is there anything to consider when distributing coaches to training other than the star rating? Can one 3 star rating be better than another for instance?
7. How important is the "working with youngsters" attribute on coaches? What exactly is a 'youngster' anyway?
8. Why does the customize filter feature when searching for staff never work? If I ever search for coaches with a couple fairly high attributes very few show up. Sometimes none at all even though they do exist. I know because I find them manually.
9. Why can't I play an effective high tempo with short passing? Is the game programmed in such a way that this isn't supposed to work? If so that's not cool because it definitely can work.
7. How important is the "working with youngsters" attribute on coaches? What exactly is a 'youngster' anyway? A youngster is anyone 18 or under, usually the players in the U18 squad but I don't know if players under the age of 18 in your reserves or first team are still counted as being youngsters.
A coach with a low value for this will have the number of stars he gets when assigned to Youth training
8. Why does the customize filter feature when searching for staff never work? If I ever search for coaches with a couple fairly high attributes very few show up. Sometimes none at all even though they do exist. I know because I find them manually. Perhaps your game is using a small database or you are searching for some combination that rarely occurs in game.
9. Why can't I play an effective high tempo with short passing? Is the game programmed in such a way that this isn't supposed to work? If so that's not cool because it definitely can work. That's been explained elsewhere, but basically short passing needs to have little movement from the players to be effective. With a high tempo set the players will run around a lot more and so the short passing game can't work.
Sorry for the double post, but I can't edit my reply.
Quote:
7. How important is the "working with youngsters" attribute on coaches? What exactly is a 'youngster' anyway? A youngster is anyone 18 or under, usually the players in the U18 squad but I don't know if players under the age of 18 in your reserves or first team are still counted as being youngsters.
A coach with a low value for this will have the number of stars he gets when assigned to Youth training reduced.
Originally posted by spankie: A youngster is anyone 18 or under, usually the players in the U18 squad but I don't know if players under the age of 18 in your reserves or first team are still counted as being youngsters.
It's kind of important to know!
Quote:
Originally posted by spankie: Perhaps your game is using a small database or you are searching for some combination that rarely occurs in game.
I am on large database and I just said I can find them manually but they don't show up on the search. So it takes me ages upon ages to find the coaches I want.
Quote:
Originally posted by spankie:That's been explained elsewhere, but basically short passing needs to have little movement from the players to be effective. With a high tempo set the players will run around a lot more and so the short passing game can't work.
I'm sorry but that's poo. Short passing needs to have little movement? No. No no no. You can have your team have lots of movement and play short.
Tell me, how did Arsenal play against CSKA Moscow? How did they play against Reading last week? How did River Plate play against Boca in their last meeting together?
10.How can I have my team play patiently and keep the ball but still create movement when needed (i.e. to get away from markers and closing down) or to exploit space when it becomes available?
Originally posted by gold_sniper:
10.How can I have my team play patiently and keep the ball but still create movement when needed (i.e. to get away from markers and closing down) or to exploit space when it becomes available?
With the new features incorporated in this years release I was really looking forward to buying it. Yet now IMO its getting less and less engrossing due to the fact that the games lost its pick up and play element, only the diehard tacticians really want to splash out on a new game and then spend weeks developing a half decent tactic that theAI cracks after a couple of hours gameplay. I'm impressed by the rest of the game but to be honest find it hard to get hooked on a game that now purely revolve around tactics.
I know the purists would argue that it makes it a more realistic simulation but i can't help but feel that the match engine is now getting that complex that its beginning to alienate the casual users who just don't have the time to sit and continually re develop tactics
Some basic questions 
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