I've really had a mixed time with FM this year. I first started playing like I always do and it started out quite well, but then it became stupidly frustrating. It seemed like some of the logic was taken out of the game. So I finished my only season after finishing 4th by the skin of my teeth with Arsenal. I gave up playing for a while, tried to go in and play again, was having same problems, tried some different teams still nothing. I uninstalled the game and deleted all the graphic packs and stuff I had downloaded, I gave up with the game basically. It felt scripted, and I don't mean just to make me lose, but when the same teams buy the same players on completely different games, it just looks damn fishy.
But regardless after having read the "What to do when you just can't win" thread that is pinned in this forum. I thought you know what, that sounds like something that makes sense and that I'd enjoy doing. Re-Installed and re downloaded all the graphic packs. Start one up with Arsenal. Before even clicking continue I went over the whole team and looking at whats needs tweaking, improving and focusing on and set out about changing it.
I probably spent 2 hours before clicking the first continue scouting players, adjusting staff, setting training for team and individual, setting tactics, set piece instructions and basically sorting out everything.
I then replaced the staff who just weren't good enough and I now have 4 stars across all levels on that staff thing and I have some of the best scouts on the game. This was all before I had even attempted to sign anyone.
I changed the squad role of each player if I didn't think it was correct. So basically I just spent ages in order to create a great starting platform in order to scout my first buys. I has happy with everything.
I only sold a couple of players, Mannone, Arshavin and Squillaci my only casualties. Coquelin went out on loan. I looked at my squad and the £26M I was given and went about signing players I felt were needed, which were basically just midfielders.
My "big money" transfer was Mkhitaryan from Shakhtar for £12.5 rising to £16M after 30 games played. I also picked up Gonalons on loan for the season as was in need of DM cover. I also got Praet from Anderlecht for around £5M, wanted an up and coming AM to possibly learn from Cazorla or just play his own game. And I also signed Scheniderlin for Southampton as further DM cover, he was home-grown and my scouts rated him better than Coquelin, which is why I let him go on loan.
So I got the players I wanted and felt were needed, all of which my scouts said were must buys. With 20,20 on player judgement they can't be that wrong.
But anyway start the first few pre-season games with the tactics that I sat and spent 30 minutes tweaking rather than just setting one and thinking it should do the job. I fine tuned it for the players I had and the roles they are best at.
Now pre-season is one that always bugs me, cause I either smash every team like 7-0 and then when it comes to the first league game I get battered, or my players who are miles better than the teams I'm playing only just manage a win, or draw or even lose. Yep I lost to some team I've never heard of 2-1..
Anyway, I thought, doesn't matter, I'll just adjust the tactics, it must be something I missed. Paying attention to my assistants messages and well as the stats of the games.
So I have a problem, Play Direct and I get "Our long passes just aren't working, we should play a shorter style", fine I'll use shorter passing "Our players are misplacing a lot of short passes today" and "We should try a more direct style" So after that I'm just like, FINE DEFAULT. "Our players are misplacing a lot of passes today, maybe we should focus on one style". Are you fing kidding me. I'm playing with some top passers here and none of them can damn pass properly?
I somehow get passed off the pitch by a bunch of randomers and my players can't seem to either get the ball near the goal to shoot or when they do miss completely.
Anyway after more frustrations in pre season, my final pre season game went quite well, 3-0 win, dominated the game and Gnabry grabbed a goal. All 3 tactics I have are very close to being fully learnt and training has been going well, according to the coaches.
So first game of the season, Villa away. I scouted their team, looked at who was injured and their weak spots. They played a narrow 41212, so I thought, cool, use the wings to my advantage, set the tactic to play down the flanks more. Did that help? Nope wingers played terrible and were my two lowest rated players for the first half, even though statistically they were playing against much weaker and slower full backs.
While they had an extra man over me in the midfield, my 3 players were statistically and positionally better than theirs were, yet it was their players who were passing to each other, while mine were passing to them.
Was 1-0 down in the first half, Darren Bent scored after my CB played the ball to my midfielder who thought it would be a brilliant idea to pass the ball to Darren Bent for a 1 on 1. Anyway, adjusted the tactics a little at half time, took away the flanks play, wasn't working. Took off Arteta as he was getting tired. Early in the second half got a corner, scored. Setting up those set pieces worked, as a couple minutes later had another one and it hit the bar! But it was working so I was happy with that.
But again, going forward my players were just dreadful. Misplacing passes everywhere, not making smart decisions, doing nothing good at all. And to rub it in even more at about 80 minutes, Bent scored again. But this goal was worse than the first. For some reason one of my players decided to just hoof the ball up into the air back into my own box, keeper came out for some reason, defender missed his header? Ball then bounced and Bent just tapped it in.
So yeah. What the f? I get told time and time again "Oh it's realistic, you have to pay more attention to this and this and do this and this and this". Do all of that and I still get beaten, by a weaker team and my team plays like a bunch of morons. This is not realism, this is a joke.
My line-up for those interested:
I played Jenkison as Sagna starts off injured. Didn't buy a replacement, but he hasn't been an issue at all so far. I also tried 4231 like so:
I had the same results with this, except I was more vulnerable to counter attacks.
My main setup usually consists of:
Fluid
Control
Shorter
More expressive
Press more
Default tackling
Zonal
Default crossing (Tried both the others, never works with Arsenal)
Stick to position (I used to use more roaming, but players were always out of position, so I change this)
With that setup and that line up teams like Villa shouldn't even be a problem in my opinion. I cannot for the life of me see what is going wrong now. I done all the training properly, I think the tactics to play vs Villa are pretty spot on, my morale is fairly high (New manager and all that) but then they play like a bunch of league 1 players.
I took my time with this and it's still not working. I get that it's different this year, but it's just not making sense as to why I am not at least playing well. Heck if the team came off at 60% possession and just had one of them days, it wouldn't bother me that much. It's just that they aren't even performing, even when in their preferred positions and roles.
I've tried FMC before, I don't like it. Not enough depth. That is not the answer. Please help.
But regardless after having read the "What to do when you just can't win" thread that is pinned in this forum. I thought you know what, that sounds like something that makes sense and that I'd enjoy doing. Re-Installed and re downloaded all the graphic packs. Start one up with Arsenal. Before even clicking continue I went over the whole team and looking at whats needs tweaking, improving and focusing on and set out about changing it.
I probably spent 2 hours before clicking the first continue scouting players, adjusting staff, setting training for team and individual, setting tactics, set piece instructions and basically sorting out everything.
I then replaced the staff who just weren't good enough and I now have 4 stars across all levels on that staff thing and I have some of the best scouts on the game. This was all before I had even attempted to sign anyone.
I changed the squad role of each player if I didn't think it was correct. So basically I just spent ages in order to create a great starting platform in order to scout my first buys. I has happy with everything.
I only sold a couple of players, Mannone, Arshavin and Squillaci my only casualties. Coquelin went out on loan. I looked at my squad and the £26M I was given and went about signing players I felt were needed, which were basically just midfielders.
My "big money" transfer was Mkhitaryan from Shakhtar for £12.5 rising to £16M after 30 games played. I also picked up Gonalons on loan for the season as was in need of DM cover. I also got Praet from Anderlecht for around £5M, wanted an up and coming AM to possibly learn from Cazorla or just play his own game. And I also signed Scheniderlin for Southampton as further DM cover, he was home-grown and my scouts rated him better than Coquelin, which is why I let him go on loan.
So I got the players I wanted and felt were needed, all of which my scouts said were must buys. With 20,20 on player judgement they can't be that wrong.
But anyway start the first few pre-season games with the tactics that I sat and spent 30 minutes tweaking rather than just setting one and thinking it should do the job. I fine tuned it for the players I had and the roles they are best at.
Now pre-season is one that always bugs me, cause I either smash every team like 7-0 and then when it comes to the first league game I get battered, or my players who are miles better than the teams I'm playing only just manage a win, or draw or even lose. Yep I lost to some team I've never heard of 2-1..
Anyway, I thought, doesn't matter, I'll just adjust the tactics, it must be something I missed. Paying attention to my assistants messages and well as the stats of the games.
So I have a problem, Play Direct and I get "Our long passes just aren't working, we should play a shorter style", fine I'll use shorter passing "Our players are misplacing a lot of short passes today" and "We should try a more direct style" So after that I'm just like, FINE DEFAULT. "Our players are misplacing a lot of passes today, maybe we should focus on one style". Are you fing kidding me. I'm playing with some top passers here and none of them can damn pass properly?
I somehow get passed off the pitch by a bunch of randomers and my players can't seem to either get the ball near the goal to shoot or when they do miss completely.
Anyway after more frustrations in pre season, my final pre season game went quite well, 3-0 win, dominated the game and Gnabry grabbed a goal. All 3 tactics I have are very close to being fully learnt and training has been going well, according to the coaches.
So first game of the season, Villa away. I scouted their team, looked at who was injured and their weak spots. They played a narrow 41212, so I thought, cool, use the wings to my advantage, set the tactic to play down the flanks more. Did that help? Nope wingers played terrible and were my two lowest rated players for the first half, even though statistically they were playing against much weaker and slower full backs.
While they had an extra man over me in the midfield, my 3 players were statistically and positionally better than theirs were, yet it was their players who were passing to each other, while mine were passing to them.
Was 1-0 down in the first half, Darren Bent scored after my CB played the ball to my midfielder who thought it would be a brilliant idea to pass the ball to Darren Bent for a 1 on 1. Anyway, adjusted the tactics a little at half time, took away the flanks play, wasn't working. Took off Arteta as he was getting tired. Early in the second half got a corner, scored. Setting up those set pieces worked, as a couple minutes later had another one and it hit the bar! But it was working so I was happy with that.
But again, going forward my players were just dreadful. Misplacing passes everywhere, not making smart decisions, doing nothing good at all. And to rub it in even more at about 80 minutes, Bent scored again. But this goal was worse than the first. For some reason one of my players decided to just hoof the ball up into the air back into my own box, keeper came out for some reason, defender missed his header? Ball then bounced and Bent just tapped it in.
So yeah. What the f? I get told time and time again "Oh it's realistic, you have to pay more attention to this and this and do this and this and this". Do all of that and I still get beaten, by a weaker team and my team plays like a bunch of morons. This is not realism, this is a joke.
My line-up for those interested:
Szczesny
Jenkinson -- Koscielny -- Vermaelen -- Monreal
FB (S) CB (C) BPD (D) FB (Auto)
Schneiderlin
DM(D)
Mkhitaryan -- Arteta
DLPM(S) (CM auto)
Walcott ----------------------------------------- Cazorla
Wing ( A )---------------------------------------IF ( A )
Giroud
TM( A )
Jenkinson -- Koscielny -- Vermaelen -- Monreal
FB (S) CB (C) BPD (D) FB (Auto)
Schneiderlin
DM(D)
Mkhitaryan -- Arteta
DLPM(S) (CM auto)
Walcott ----------------------------------------- Cazorla
Wing ( A )---------------------------------------IF ( A )
Giroud
TM( A )
I played Jenkison as Sagna starts off injured. Didn't buy a replacement, but he hasn't been an issue at all so far. I also tried 4231 like so:
Szczesny
Jenkinson -- Koscielny -- Vermaelen -- Monreal
Fb (S) CB (C) BPD (D) FB (Auto)
Arteta -- Mkhitaryan
CM (D) DLPM (S)
Walcott ------------ Cazolra -------- Chamberlain
Wing ( A )------------ AP ( A ) ---------Wing ( A )
Giroud
AF ( A)
Jenkinson -- Koscielny -- Vermaelen -- Monreal
Fb (S) CB (C) BPD (D) FB (Auto)
Arteta -- Mkhitaryan
CM (D) DLPM (S)
Walcott ------------ Cazolra -------- Chamberlain
Wing ( A )------------ AP ( A ) ---------Wing ( A )
Giroud
AF ( A)
I had the same results with this, except I was more vulnerable to counter attacks.
My main setup usually consists of:
Fluid
Control
Shorter
More expressive
Press more
Default tackling
Zonal
Default crossing (Tried both the others, never works with Arsenal)
Stick to position (I used to use more roaming, but players were always out of position, so I change this)
With that setup and that line up teams like Villa shouldn't even be a problem in my opinion. I cannot for the life of me see what is going wrong now. I done all the training properly, I think the tactics to play vs Villa are pretty spot on, my morale is fairly high (New manager and all that) but then they play like a bunch of league 1 players.
I took my time with this and it's still not working. I get that it's different this year, but it's just not making sense as to why I am not at least playing well. Heck if the team came off at 60% possession and just had one of them days, it wouldn't bother me that much. It's just that they aren't even performing, even when in their preferred positions and roles.
I've tried FMC before, I don't like it. Not enough depth. That is not the answer. Please help.