WHAT IS GOING ON WITH FM THIS YEAR?

No matter what i do and tactics i try i can't keep a clean sheet or put a run together or do anythin of merit on the pitch.

Is anyone else finding this years edition a tad difficult and extremely frustrating?

It's a simulation game. Last year it was far too easy.

I would'nt say so. This year it seems nigh on impossible to get a team promoted or a favourite to win the title. Destined for mid-table

Same here - bluddy awful - ive adapted umpteen of my tactics to no avail - im constantly on the chopping block because of it.

I hear you. I'm not one of the bug conspiracy theorists, or from the 'SI have made it rubbish and stabbed us all in the back' school. There's logic at play, I always approach it like a puzzle to be solved and work out some sort of formula. I'm not talking killer tactics or anything like that, but I can work out that if I do A then B and C more likely than not will follow.

This year I'm clueless. I really can't find a way in. I can't get a consistent run, players form is all over the place, an instruction that will reap great benefits in one match will be disastrous in the next. I appreciate that things won't always work all the time, but I just don't see how a player can go from world class to toe curlingly piss poor to world class and back again in consecutive matches.

I try to fit the system to the players, the players to the system, a combination of both, I'll adjust the roles and def/sup/att bias, none of it seems to have any discernible logical outcome. It is now winding me right up. I don't understand how I can take a solid performing unit like Everton, play a side like Man City off the park, and I mean lay waste to them, and then in the next match have these titans of players reduced to the school playground and get an absolute tonking at the hands of Southampton.

I'm convinced the problem is with me, rather than the game, but I just can't find the key.

My real concern is the training, which I just don't get. It seems very superficial to me, and I can't see Ferguson strolling onto the training pitch and tell Rooney and co, 'well lads this week we're working on defending', it's just not credible, and I don't see how the training module effects the team.

What's especially galling is that in a multiplayer game with a mate, he's just stuck training on balanced, delegated match prep to his asst and just uses the preset 442 - he's doing quite well. But I don't want that, I like the challenge of analysing the squad, building a system that suits their qualities and minimises their weaknesses.

But this, It's got me completely stumped. Has anyone managed to get a handle on this?

[/lecture]

You do realise most teams don't play the exact same way every match in real life? It's called adaptation.

This is a very good point.

I do understand a lot of the frustrations with the game but as I've said before I am starting to see a lot of people who assume they can bung in a tactic, sign some players and win the world. The game in my eyes is more reflective of actual football, there are so many factors that come into this now. Along with the usuals of tactics and players, morale, fitness and expectations all play a big part this year and I think it's brilliant. Even weather and pitch conditions seem to effect how my players perform (a warm night in Madrid saw a 1-0 win in the Champions League where as we fell 2-0 in a wet and windy Stoke)

I don't want a game that's a walk in the park, I want a game where when I win something I think 'how on earth have I managed that?'

These are all valid and logical points.

However, we must remember that this is a GAME. I believe this year that SI have made the dangerous moved and tipped the scale far too much in the favour of realism. It's a tight rope to walk in a football simulation last years iteration of FM was a joy to behold and the perfect mix of a challenege to get a relegation battling side out of its rut. To having your favoured tactic, assembling your squad and see them rise to the top of their respected league.

I feel like this years gme has too many moving parts. what i meen by that is do we realy have to go into a match and taylor every tactic to every team we come up against all the time. Iknow what most of you will say and that is "there is FM Classic there for a reason" and "you can have your Director of Fotball do certain things for you like take training" but this undermines the unbridled joy of managing your team to the vary top because if you take up either of those options i just mentioned your're not really "managing" your team at all.

SI team please hear our cries of tactical woe!

Also, i'de like to see someone post a successful tactic on this friend and a screen grab of the success it has brought them.

I've had my Venezia team promoted 3 times in 5 seasons.

It seems to play much the same as usual to me.

Yes, I realise teams adapt, and I don't believe in killer tactics. I like the puzzle, I like trying to find out how it works, how I can adapt and react too.

Think of it like a jigsaw where the picture changes every now and then but you have an idea of what the picture sort of looks like. You know the picture is of a cow in the field, sometimes he is lying down, sometimes he's stood under a tree, sometimes he's taking a huge dump and the fun comes in working out what the cow is doing and where he is. At the moment, I don't know if there is a cow. It's driving me up the wall.

It's not impossible to get results and my Liverpool side isn't some world beater with the best players ever either, my only additions have been Cabaye, Falcao and Chandler.

Also Warwick I don't see a point in uploading my tactic for someone else to use as I constantly have to change minor things depending on the opposition. That might be dropping one striker to an AMC position to control midfield, or change to a counter or using shouts depending on how the opposition are playing against me.

And there we have it

I've found that the less you do with tactics the better you perform which in my opinion is quite the opposite of the game being ultra realistic. In my first season with Arsenal for example I spent ages trying to come up with a tactic that emulates the style Arsenal use in real life, with Cazorla behind the striker, the two wide midfielders/forwards and the two midfielders staying behind, (Mikel being slightly deeper than Wilshere) and adjusting pretty much all of the team settings... Basically the more I tampered the more things would go tits up and I finished fifth behind Spurs.

So in the second season I used the preset 4-5-1 and halfway through the season I am currently top of the league 8 points clear of ManU.

So I suppose a good suggestion would be to stop looking at the Match Engine as a real life simulation, but instead as a piece of software, in which certain aspects work better than others. (e.g. a player in the AMR or AML position told to play as an attacking winger and an attacking Deep Lying Forward seem to notch goals regardless of what you do.)

Its just about analysing the game a bit more. In previous versions you could stick to an un-altered 4-4-2 and still be relatively successful, which is incredibly unrealistic in real life.

I really disagree with that.

I've been playing for a short time (almost an entire season for now) and I took a team that was predicted to finish in 10-12th place to a title challenge, Second place, 2 points behind the first, 7 or 8 matches to go. Also, I won the state championship. (I'm playing in Brazil, with Grêmio). And I can really see when my actions have consequences on the field. I've been playing a kinda tweaked 4-4-2 (really works on the counter attack, away from home, against teams that are either stronger or a bit favourite, since they bring the game to me and get counter-attacked. Got some terrible upsets against weaker teams away from home tho), a very attacking 4-3-3 (most matches at home and sometimes weaker teams away) and still looking for a better third tactic (been thinking of a flat 3-5-2, dominating possession and 3 DCs help against through balls in the counter attack, avoiding upsets away from home)...

I haven't played the 2012 version, and played just a bit of the 2011. However, I played a lot of the 2008, 2009 and 2010 FM, and I'm finding 2013 incredibly fun.

That's it.

Don't touch the sliders, just use shouts which link to your tactic. However I do struggle with going 1-0 early and get pegged back a lot

I find that playing with a deep defensive line and telling my players not to close down works well, I'm in 2032 and have only just entered triple figures in terms of games lost.

Agreed. I've only struggled with tactics which utilise high levels of closing down, so I strongly suspect that's what may be giving some people a little bit of grief this year. The deeper defensive line also helps counteract the ME's issue with throughballs behind the CBs. The game is as easy as ever, it's just a matter of understanding that this new ME, unlike the one before it, doesn't cater quite as much for high pressing, high tempo, direct passing (aside from CBs not being able to deal with balls behind them).

That's what I've been using, I just tailor my formation to counter whatever threats the opposition may have in the line-up.
Those settings have been very successful, I conceded very few goals, Although on the flip side I rarely score more than two goals in game as the forwards can be quite isolated with the defensive line so deep. This can be countered by using the 'pump ball into box' shout if you have forwards who are good at heading.

Getting Countered upon, all the freaking time, when playing Counter attacking style is just lame, letting in like 3 goals every match. 3-3 is a common result when leading 3-1. The ME explodes into a frency if you, say take the lead ,with like 15 min to go. Better just og make dinner, it will take forever. Unless they score, then it suddenly is over. Swansea managed to produce 42 chances on me at Emirate, 21 on target. Only lost 1-5. This have suddenly turned into the most stupid game ever, and belive me, i have patience. Just stopped playing it, and wont start again before these monkey get it right.

I've given up trying to create my own tactics, or even downloading other tactics after getting "schooled" week in, week out!
After reading various posts on various forums, I just use the standard tactics that come with the game!

I started a new game with Millwall and built my team around the 3-5-2 tactic. I left ALL the sliders "as is", and just altered the strategy and style pulldown menu to suit whoever I am playing for that particular game, hardly touch the shouts either. I managed to get Millwall into the premiership in the first season and am currently lying 12th after 6 games. I just disposed of Man City 4-1 in the Capital One Cup as well!!!

Even though my team is based around the 3-5-2 tactic, I do sometimes drop one of the midfielders into the DM position, or move one up to AM. On rare occasions, I'll move my 2 wide midfielders up a notch to support the 2 front men, only if I am very confident of beating the opposition though.