T&T Stupid Questions

[duracell999]

I'm managing Borussia Dortmund in the Bundesliga.
In my first season I finished 5th. In the second season I managed to win the league.
In my third season now I'm struggeling to win any games at all.
Throughout my seasons I've stuck to a short-passing 4-5-1 formation. Only tweaking it a little from season to season (making it narrower or having wingers).
I have a young talented team. Eventhough I've won the league, teams actually seem to be more aggressive than before. I would have expected them to play more defensivley. Should I try to control the games more with patient passing? Or should I have changed my formation and tactics completley before the start of the season?
Thanks in advance

[cagiva]

You should adapt from match to match.
It's useful to have one basic ( major ) tactical setup,but you cannot play with one setup against Bochum and then against Bayern,for example.

[drhay53]

First I want to say that I'm not a huge football fan; but this game is the best sports game I have ever seen and it's not even close. I've missed many meals because of this game.

But I'm having trouble finding players using the in-game search. Do any of you have hints or tips for finding the players you want in the off-season? How do you search for a player you need (especially with lower-league teams)?

[cagiva]

Via our scouts. That's the job of the scout - to find players and make report for them. THen the manager should decide if he wants to buyt the player or not.

[drhay53]

Via our scouts. That's the job of the scout - to find players and make report for them. THen the manager should decide if he wants to buyt the player or not.

For my lower league team I only have 2 scouts, and it takes them along time to scout a nation so in the off-season I find that I can't find good players fast enough using just my scouts.

Unless I am using them wrong?

[cagiva]

In real-life there is some "techical time" for every transfer. Every player has been watched for several months,sometimes years before been approached. So you can't expect every day to have new transfer.

Be patient and wait your scouts. In the meantime you can watch every opposition players,when they play you and make some notes about every player that impressed you. Then follow him in the next few weeks/months and if you decide that he will do the job for you - you can try to buy him.

Act like in the real-life. There is no need to do anything that there is not in the real-life.

[deacondakin]

Along with scouting you should look to hire staff that have good JPA or JCA.  They will give you really good leads through the backroom advice.  I found some really good talent through this feature.  Also, you can refine your search so a scout with good JPA only looks for young players, which speeds up the assignment and gives you more depth in the area they are good at.

[Anchor Man]

What exactly is the effect of a team's 'harmony' on their performance? I've picked up, that obviously a team with a greater understanding will play together better, but in what respect? e.g. does it make passes less likely to come off or other things or something else? And, following up from this, what would be the best way to play with a team that doesn't really know each other?

[deacondakin]

Why is that that at the end of my season I cannot schedule friendlies for the rest of the fixture calendar?  I was hoping to give some new players a go right after they arrived and keep everyones fitness up in the off season.  I'm playing in SP1.  could it be that I need to wait out the playoffs that other teams are in and then these dates will be made available?

[cagiva]

Yes,also bear in mind some Cup finals and etc fixtures.

[DirtyACE]

What exactly is the effect of a team's 'harmony' on their performance? I've picked up, that obviously a team with a greater understanding will play together better, but in what respect? e.g. does it make passes less likely to come off or other things or something else? And, following up from this, what would be the best way to play with a team that doesn't really know each other?

Team harmony is how well all your players are getting along between themselves and with you. How good is the social and mental atmosphere within the club. The more positive it is, the more consistent results will be on the pitch, and I've noticed that the players also tend to respond better to your team talks when harmony is high.

When a team doesn't really know each other, then it's better to keep things simpler and the team talks more positive as a whole. You have to build up some good form and then you can start asking more of your players and being more critical.

[wwolfie]

After looking around, and finding answers for most of my questions, I got my defense mostly  sorted out (playing Ajax).

However, in offense I still have a problem. Basicly, no-one tries to play a pass into the space behind the oppositions defense. As a result, I frequently see 3 or 4 of my players standing at the offensive line, with my defensive midfielder('s) in posession and with some space ahead. What happens: they pass the ball into the field of one of the guys upfront, who dribbels sideways and gets in a long shot.

How to make sure that one of my players with a high passing stat get's the ball, and plays it to someone running at/behind the defense. Of course, getting someone to pass in my targetman, and for him to flick it on to some running guy would be great aswell.

Thanks in advance.

[DirtyACE]

After looking around, and finding answers for most of my questions, I got my defense mostly  sorted out (playing Ajax).

However, in offense I still have a problem. Basicly, no-one tries to play a pass into the space behind the oppositions defense. As a result, I frequently see 3 or 4 of my players standing at the offensive line, with my defensive midfielder('s) in posession and with some space ahead. What happens: they pass the ball into the field of one of the guys upfront, who dribbels sideways and gets in a long shot.

How to make sure that one of my players with a high passing stat get's the ball, and plays it to someone running at/behind the defense. Of course, getting someone to pass in my targetman, and for him to flick it on to some running guy would be great aswell.

Thanks in advance.

This could be a combination of things. You could have your players set to very low creative freedom setting, or you could also have them do very short passing. The other thing, is that your players are too far apart in terms of mentalities. It could be any one of these things or all three.

When you say that a player receives a pass, then proceeds to try a long shot instead of passing the ball, it could also be that he simply doesn't have an option to pass the ball, or he's not recognizing passing options. Again, it could be due to his low creative freedom, very short passing, or mentalities being too far apart.

I'll give you an example. In my own game, I had my midfielders set initially on very short passing, in order to maintain possession, but all to often, when there was a good opportunity to make a through pass to one of the strikers, they'd simply pass the ball sideways or backwards or try a long shot. So I simply increased their passing to the very middle setting (mixed) and since then, they've pretty much doubled the number of assists they get every season.

[cagiva]

What DirtyAce said is true. It's also worth mentioning that your player,probably,are lacking vision and/or football inteligence to decide what is better/proper to do in certain situations.

[deacondakin]

I play in the Scottish 1st division.  I loaned and recalled a player twice because I didn't like how the loan was going.  Now it gives a message on the transfer offer page that he has been loaned twice and cannot play competitively until a certain date.  What does that really mean?  I know he can play for me because he has, but if I loan him is he just going to sit on their bench?  Why would they want him if this is true?

[Millie]

I've no idea what the loan rules are like in Scotland, sorry. You might want to try asking in the general forum, since this isn't really a tactical question. Some of the other members might have a better idea.

[cagiva]

Just see what are the rules actually. You can see that in the section "Rules" when you are viewing the league table. Then you can read about all the rules in your division.

[deacondakin]

Thanks both.  I wasn't sure if it fell under tactics or not.  And I totally didn't think of looking in the rules section either.  An off day I suppose

[primusx]

Wright I'm trying to make a Target man and Deep Lying Forward combo upfront (Like Slovenia play). The idea is that the Deep Lying forward is playing behind the Target man, the big man.

Has anyone had sucses with this? Or any ideas how to set them up?

[Haruri]

I had tried pairing up Deep Lying Forward (Support) with Targetman before. It works really well if your target man dominates in the air in comparison with the opposition's defenders.

However, I would personally rather had a Advanced Forward/Poacher than having a deep lying forward to pair with target man. Having that combination of DLF and Target man causes your team to rely too much in the aerial challenges. I also do feel that targetman and deeplyingforward are mostly used as supportive role even though they have the attack option

[primusx]

Yes I know it's an odd combination. I'm trying to emulate how Slovenia is lined up, but can't seem get it to work. Ou well back to the TM and Poacher/Advanced forward combo.

[Anchor Man]

In trying to emulate how Fulham played last season, with Gera playing up front off Zamora, I tried playing a front two with a Target Man Attack and Deep Lying Forward Support. The main problem was that I didn't think the DLF was deep enough, so I instead played an Attacking Midfielder with an Attack duty off the Target Man, who still played very high up the pitch, but started deeper than the Target Man and then made runs past him if the Target Man flicked it on. I've found that to be a decent option instead of using a poacher or advanced forward with a TM, especially if you want more men helping out in midfield so you can keep possession more easily. I'd experiment with whether you want the Target Man to be Supporting or Attacking, depending on how closely you want the two players to play together and what sort of style of play you're looking for. Hope that helped.

[Haruri]

Can someone tell me how does the Treq striker role really do? In simple terms please
Also, is it meant for lone striker role, partnership with striker role, or a attacking midfielder role, or a striker role meant to be supported by attacking midfielder?

[deacondakin]

In my experience the TEQ role means that he will roam a bit and try to help out all the attacking fazes.  He will like to move into channels, so he will be anywhere on the top of the pitch as a striker (further back as an AMC).  This means that some times he will be out on the flanks rather than right up front.  Think of him as your creative agent (in the strata he is playing ST vs. AMC) in the attack.  This means he needs to be able to cross and make good trough passes as well as know when to do these.  He will also need to be able to dribble his way out of trouble and hold the ball a bit.

The TEQ works in good partnership will lots of roles.  I prefer to use a poacher next to him so they will be sniffing out a shot that he can provide.  As a striker he works well with wingers because he ends up in spaces close to them.  If using him as a lone striker I would include at least one inside forward on attack so someone is geared to shoot and score goals.

[acarlosc]

rookie question...

do ingame shouts overcome "previous game" instructions? my idea is that they only work in the default settings... am i right?

in real life managers give players instructions before the game, but use shouts to overcome those instructions during the match.