Reading the match engine

[DocSander]

FM10 has been out for almost a month now…

We’ve seen mostly praise, for the 3D graphics, the upgraded lay-out, the game speed and last but not least for the match engine. Now, while the dust begins to settle, one thing starts to stand out. For years and years, true FM success was there, if only you had the skill to download one of the superior tactics out there, be it the Diablo, the RoOmbus or whatever rocked the boat. From the good old days of CM2 until FM08, this 'arcade like' playing mode brought success to a herd of managers out there. And with success came the entertainment we were looking for…
Things started taking a serious turn with the release of FM09. Hardcore slider ideology started to dominate the field, and for those more softcore gamers this translated in extensive tactics sets with detailed instructions on which tactics to apply in what circumstances…

And then FM10 came out, and things were different again.
It seems now that the herds have to walk for themselves. So far a superior tactic’s not been created (thank god for that), and I doubt that with the sophisticated new match engine this will ever be the case. Also, new and on first sight attractive measures of control have been handed out. Without touching a single slider, it’s now possible to create your formation, have your players perform a specific role in that formation and ‘steer the boat’ using the shouts during the match. You’ll get a feel of communicating with your players using real football language! However…

When you are solving a problem, don't worry. Now, after you have solved the problem, then that's the time to worry.    (R.P. Feynman, American physicist)

So now the slider problem has been solved, it’s time to worry!
In order to make effective use of our new tools mentioned above, we’ve got to get a feel for reading the match engine. And that arguably seems to be causing some trouble here and there. ..

So, this long build-up serve to introduce this thread on the topic of ‘reading the match engine’.

I will try to do this by posting a .pkm file (hopefully more to come), screenies or whatever graphical support seems suitable and provide some points on reading opponents behavior, identifying issues with your own team’s tactics, suggestions for improvement and hopefully some ways of showing a chance after implementing tactical adjustments. Quite an extensive list of goals, not? Let’s just try!

Some points to consider before reading on:
-   It’s not the truth out here, it’s a point of view
-   The best things come from discussion, any point thrown here is open for on-topic debate
-   Anyone who wishes to contribute to this thread is more than welcome, be it by showing your own analysis, taking other points from matches presented here or raising issues in your own matches…

Let’s have a constructive and educative topic for both readers and contibutors 

[DocSander]

Example 1

Theme:                      Low pass completion
Match:                       Tottenham away at Fulham
Quote:                       2,63 (Spurs)
Starting formation:    Flat 4-4-2
.pkm file:                   http://www.megaupload.com/?d=PYUIGFNX

A bore 1-1 draw with Fulham having had most chances for a win, but scraping a draw after Tottenham had been lucky to get a late penalty. Playing Spurs we’d expected more from this match. So, what’s the problem?
Here’s the match stats.


 
Chances are even, but the better one’s have perhaps been for Fulham as most of our chances were long shots and many were blocked. Passing’s definitely an issue in this game. If it’s below 70% you’ll stand less than 50% chance of connecting two passes together, a vitality for successful play. And tackling below 50% is not too good either. Let’s pick out the passing issue for now…
 


Where’s the problem? 
Most obviously at the players whose passing is below 50%. This might be their passing settings, but might as well represent the fact that they have few players around them to pass the ball to.


-   Cudicini (GK) : one image says more than a thousand words, no more long balls for him. Set his passing to defender collect or quick throw and you should prevent a lot of possession loosing long balls.


-   Modric (MC): that’s a strange one, he’s supposed to be the playmaker. If even he doesn’t deliver the ball to his teammates than how’s your passing game gonna be? Okay, 7 of his passes are in fact corners (the fact that the corners are not delivered will be reviewed in a separate thread), but this still leaves 7 out of 17 passes going straight to the opposition. More importantly perhaps, not a single key pass from the man who has to provide the assists! What’s the problem?
 
It’s not easily discernable from this picture, so let’s view the passes in play, just click the red, yellow and blue dots and the scenes of Modric in trouble come pass by.  I’ve picked two of them for demonstration.


In this first one we can see that Luka Modric has the ball in an attacking play of Tottenham. He’s got easy passing options on the left side of the pitch, to the full back (close to the ref) or the left winger (Kranjcar), who in turn can deliver either a cross or play the ball around back to Modric. Instead, he opts for a hurried cross to the marked forwards. This cross is easily cleared of course.
 

Here’s another example. One of our DC’s just won the header and got the ball to Modric, excellent. Who would you pass to? Right, the left full back, or more daring but very possible, the left winger. Who does Luka pass to? Long and far to the right forward, so long and so far that it goes way over the sideline.
 
What’s the problem in these two examples? Modric seems hurried, so tempo might be too high, passing might be too much on the direct side. Adjust this and keep a close eye in the next match!



Final player in detail, Corluka (DC). His passes fail in 12 of 21 attempts, quite disastrous in building-up an attack. Here’s the detailed view.
 
By now I’d say you can do most of the math yourself. His over 15 yard passes almost never reach another Spurs player! Erase the longer passes and he’s fine! Limit him to a short passing game, either making him a limited defender, or in case you still dare to touch a slider, by adjusting his passing setting to the left side. For the longer term, if the problem doesn’t resolve, you could try the PPM of ‘plays short simple passes’ on him.

That's it for a kick-off...
Hope to bring and see more examples in the future!

[Millie]

Really looking forward to how this develops. Once I've read it through properly and digested it, I'll look to give some more inspired feedback.

[miguel_garcia]

By now I’d say you can do most of the math yourself. His over 15 yard passes almost never reach another Spurs player! Erase the longer passes and he’s fine! Limit him to a short passing game, either making him a limited defender, or in case you still dare to touch a slider, by adjusting his passing setting to the left side. For the longer term, if the problem doesn’t resolve, you could try the PPM of ‘plays short simple passes’ on him.

Looks like an excellent thread...as with Millie will read and absorb but doubt I can offer anything too inspired.

One point relating to quote above...in a *standard* starting strategy limited defender actually sets the player to play very direct passing...just checked my game and even with shorter passing set in team strategy limited defenders are set way over to the right and not the left i.e. very direct and the opposite of short passing.

By their very nature long passes are more likely to go the opposition...the reason limited defenders are set as such is the 'get rid' concept - that being don't lose the ball in defence get it up the pitch where it's less dangerous.

A questionable philosophy and a very English one at that...but no doubt direct passing is the correct default instruction for a limited defender. You could argue (as you are doing) that the overall ball possession gained by setting DC's too short passing will outweigh the negative of occasionally losing the ball in a dangerous position...but the adjustment will have to be via sliders or setting as a standard central defender role.

[Soul]

Excellent work Doc, looking forward to the next lesson! 

[Andrii Sigthorsson]

The right thread at the right time. My plays based on short passes, so accuracy is essential. This is very helpful on examining my team's passing. Thanks and still look forward for updates.

[DomD]

I also find this very interesting.  So far I have been playing without too much analysis as I wasn't sure how to really go about it.  I will try to apply your advice this weekend to see how it works for me.

Looking forward to the next installment.

[The next Diaby]

This thread has the potential to be expanded into a Tactical Bible topic. Keep it up, DocSander. 

[DocSander]

“…actually made it more difficult…, because now you have to be spot on in reading what’s going on in the match engine in order to adapt when the opposition is beating you…”

“…you [no longer] have to ‘think sliders’…”

“…if you don’t have an idea of what’s going wrong first…”

And that’s only a few quotes from another brilliant episode of the most recent FM Tactics Podcast by Millie and The Next Diaby, released only yesterday!
Believe me if I say that if I were allowed to give only one advice in this post it’d be this one: listen to this conversation, listen again and listen again. There’s some words of wisdom in there and it’s hard to grasp all that’s in there at once. Chew on it, work on it and digest the contents of this conversations to its full extent. It’s worth it!
And while it’s good food that’s being offered, we are far from our fear of being ‘spoonfed’…

So this podcast has added to the inspiration for this thread: it’s all about reading the match engine!
This time I’ll demonstrate an example of things going wrong defensively, for it’s the bad times that we can learn the most from. Get over your hard feelings and watch those replays, watch them again, turn on another perspective (like 2D for example) and use your spacebar a lot. Consume these still frames not just by gazing at the screen, but move your mind into the head of the opposing player in possession of the ball.

It’s like chess, always try to think ahead of your opponent’s next move. Let’s illustrate this with example one. My West Ham side face the serious challenge of playing league leaders Chelsea at home, odds are like 4.5 against me. I’m playing a 4-4-2 wide diamond, but the AMC is an MC for this one. Strong points should be counters along the flanks, using quick runners. Starting out on defensive, planning to switch to counter if given the space… Sometimes this is the case if for some reason you see your opponents take their foot off the gas (more spotting that moment in a later edition perhaps).

So, back to reality. The match is barely two minutes old and this is our problem. 



You can see my 4-4-2 diamond shape, nr 32 slightly drawn back, as he’s the support strikers and nr 8 tightly man marking their AMC, also nr 8. Seems like my team’s positioned the way I’d wanted it pre-match. You can also tell that Chelsea is out on attack by the way their full backs behave, they’re even more advanced than one of the MC’s.
 But, I’m not showing this to demonstrate that pre-match instruction are indeed carried out on the pitch! There’s a trick to this picture and this concerns their nr 39 striker. He’s wandered off to the left flank, instructed to move into channels (correct me if I’m wrong on this one).
So far you’re with me, alright?

Try, like I said above, to think for Andy Cole (Blue’s nr 3), Chelsea’s left full back being in possession of the ball.  Anyone who’s ever seen a football game would know that passing to nr 5 (their MCl) would seem both logical and dangerous. This is the case because my nr 20 (right full back) is occupied with the striker on drift, their nr 39. This prevents him from approaching Andy Cole (Blue’s nr 3). So another player has to do that for him and that would be my nr 7 (MR) in this case. And as this draws him away from their nr 5 he’s free as a bird in this picture.
To finish off the story… Ball’s passed to their nr 5, he turns, see’s his shooting opportunity prevented by my nr 16 approaching him, in turn passes to their nr 28 on his right side and he scores the opening goal after some 150 seconds of play.

So, what’s to learn… We’ve seen an example of a striker wandering off (moving into channels if I’m correctly informed) and completely disturbing my defensive system!

And what to change? From this moment on I’ve instructed my MR and ML to man mark their MCl and MCr. While this did not prevent their cross coming in, a dangerous play-round like the one described above did not occur anymore. There’s more and perhaps better options, but that not what it’s about. It’s a fine example of the match engine at work! Respect…

[betterthanburley]

I would have to see how this situation played out, but I don't necessarily see a problem in that picture. 

Red #7 is about where he needs to be.  He is positioned in such a way as to prevent Blue #3 (Ashley Cole?) from cutting inside.  It is true that Blue #5 (Essien?) is open, but Red #7 is also positioned to be able to cut off that pass, or at least pressure Blue #3 into the less dangerous backwards angled pass rather than a square ball across that can be one-timed into the net.

Blue #5 is still in a dangerous position, but Red #15 has him in front of him and is in a position to then step up and pressure.  Red #6 (Mark Noble?) is also in position to stick a leg in there and/or prevent the inside/forward pass.  So between the two they force Blue #5 to either hold the ball, make a backpass or go outside.

Now, you could draw it up so that Red #7 (Dyer or Ashton?) covers Essien and takes away the pass in the first place.  Which is what would happen if you have your wide midfielders man-mark their midfielders.  There is nothing wrong with that, per se.  But the flipside is that pulls your wide midfielder into the middle, giving Ashley Cole space along the flank.

So consider this counter-argument.  If you are West Ham, the guy you should be most worried about is Blue #11,  because Blue #11 is Didier Freaking Drogba.  I might be willing to have my wide MC cut Cole off high on the pitch and force a pass to the semi-defensive-y Essien rather than allowing Cole to get to the byline and play a deep cross to Drogba.  I will zone cover the two less-dangerous players (Cole and Essian) and make sure I have one and hopefully two guys on Drogba the whole time.

And yes, I know Essien is still a danger to beat his man or crack that ball into the net from 30 yards but what are you going to do?  It's Chelsea.  They got a lot of good players.  Sometimes you have to pick your poison.

[frujo]

Really good thread. Keep observations comming.

[Soul]

What would happen if you set opposition instructions to always mark blue #5 (Essien) tightly? Would it be red #16 (Noble) or red #32 that picked him up? Would that do the trick?

[betterthanburley]

In a strict man-marking scheme I think you would man-mark Essien with Noble.  The AMC covering the more rearward MCd is a match up of both position and skills (Noble defensive skills probably a little weak, but matched up against Essien's weaker offensive skills-- at least compared to Lampard).

Although in this exact picture in a zonal scheme with tight marking it could very well be Red #8 (Ashton?) coming out to get Essien.  That gives you a stronger defender in your DMC to cover Essien.  Lampard would then be covered by a Red DC, freeing Noble to look for the ball on a counter.  I do not like that because I greatly fear Drogba and would want both my DC's in front of him at all times if possible. 

[DocSander]

What would happen if you set opposition instructions to always mark blue #5 (Essien) tightly? Would it be red #16 (Noble) or red #32 that picked him up? Would that do the trick?

I don't think this is influenced by tight marking as Essien is not being marked at all in this picture.
Whether an opposition player is marked or not is determined by either man marking or zonal marking.
In a man marking system players are tracked all over by their marker, in a zonal marking system players are picked up upon entering your defender's zone. Once they are marked this tight marking setting comes into play, they are either closely marked or marked with a little distance. Tight marking may be aimed at preventing the opposition player from receiving the ball, while marking with a little distance may be aimed at reducing the threat once the player receives the ball (suitable for quicker players or less technically skilled players).
If you would want your specific defender to always mark tightly then use his individual player instruction, if you would want a specific opposition player to be always marked tightly then use the OI, so regardless of which player is marking him (i.e. whose zone he is in) he's marked tightly.

That's my two cents anyway...

[Soul]

Makes sense. I believe you.

[beardeye]

Good thread- should raise some interesting points and observations.

When you see a striker driting off as per blue 39 (Anelka) in your screenshot above- would you ever consider man marking him with one of your centre backs?

I expect the answer is no, because he would drag your centre back wide, leaving a gaping hole in the centre of your defence (disaster), but i would be interested to know your thougths on the match engine effect of such a strategy.

[Soul]

Another thing to try could perhaps be to always mark Anelka tightly (perhaps you need to change the fullback's marking to tight as well?) so that Cole gets one less good passing option. Would reduce the threat significantly I think.

[Witton]

The problem is caused partly by Anelka's movement, but I think also partly because Chelsea are playing between your lines, in a vertical sense.

Parker is man-marking Lampard while Diamanti should be responsible for dropping in onto Mikel, so let's take them out of the picture.  That leaves you with three midfielders (the #54, 16-Noble and 7-Dyer), supported by the appropriate fullback, to pick up Chelsea's four (3-Cole pushing up the left, 17-Bosingwa on the right, 5-Essien and the #28 in the centre).

West Ham's ML-MC-MR midfield is stretched against Chelsea's RB-MCr-MCl-LB, who operate the spaces outside and between.  In the screenshot we can see that 16-Noble has a problem, he's centrally between both 5-Essien and the Chelsea #28 but 'on' neither.

In my eyes, 16-Noble and WH's #54 are not doing their jobs effectively enough here.  5-Essien shouldn't have that much space to begin with, because once 7-Dyer has (correctly) gone out to close the ball, the other midfielders should (ideally) already be shuffling over to fill the gaps.  At least in this case 16-Noble makes it belatedly across to close 5-Essien down, but once the ball rotates again from 5-Essien to #28, surely West Ham's #54 should be on hand to close that down too?  It would be interesting to see where the #54 was at the time of the goalscoring strike.

The movement of Anelka and Cole has caused problems, but if two square passes result in a goal then I'd be tempted to think that 16-Noble and particularly the #54 are not getting tight enough.  As total guess theories, would narrower width help?  Or maybe your midfield would be more secure as an MCl-MC-MCr setup, perhaps with closing-down OI on Chelsea's fullbacks?