In the report for my last game in medium ticker (Mallorca):

http://www.rubysoccer.com/game/match_report/184551

It is reported that I used a 3-4-3 setup, which is what I did set up. But the positions listed for the players in the match show I have 2 d, 4 mid, 4 attackers! And I lost this game 6-0. I’ve never lost a game like that before. So… I’m wondering if something went wrong?

The reason for that is the position displayed alongside the player names is the position where the player ended the match, not the one he started it. Maybe we should change that to avoid confusion :)

well… that’s weird… I didn’t setup my players to change positions during the game, and I didn;t have any injuries during the game… so they all should have ended in the same positions they started. ???

and in my last game I have my 3-4-3 again… and the players end up in a 4-3-3? I have NO formation strategies in this game. No players got injured. But one of my midfielders ends up playing D?

And maybe it’s just me… but my results are not coming out as they were before… and the game feels “not quite right” to me this season.

We have been receiving some comments regarding that. We are both completing other new stuff right now, but we are going to “attack” the match again just after that – that won´t take long, hang on guys. Thanks and keep the feedback coming!
cheers!

Dave, do you have any individual tactics set up where a midfielder would move back for instance?

Yeah, regarding results… I had two very close games looking at the statistics, I even had more ball possession in both those games and more or less the same number of shots, yet I ended up losing 4-1. My goalkeeper isn’t THAT bad :P

Maybe its not really related to the topic but i lost a game against a team playing 0-3-7 formation without any defenders. Its kinda annoying :p

We’ll probably have to do something more aggressive against such formations, it’s completely unrealistic but sometimes it does work here.

In my point of view, when a team plays with no defender means that his goalkeeper will be face-to-face against attackers most of the time. In this situation it would be reasonable that this goalkeeper has some kind of penalty, like a 50% drop in his keeping skills and also the team had a penalty on its defensive points.

This kind of penalty might be a reasonable approach. We can start with something like that and see what happens. I will discuss with Gabriel.

Sorry… wasn’t checking back here…

YES, I have a M -1 and he “moves back” when we don’t have the ball. And he is the one that keeps ending up listed as a D in the game summary.

Also, I am the one playing the 0-3-7 formation in fast ticker!!! I AGREE it is completely ridiculous! But my usual 4-4-2 was not getting ANY results at all for me… and so I just tried something crazy… and it seemed to work better.

I normally play a style and setup that allows me to dominate possesion, and usually shots, and hence, the game. This season I am breaking in a lot of younger players, so I expected a little drop off in finishing (scoring) and in goalkeeping… but this group of younger players seems well suited to playing my possession game… even better than some of my olders players… so I expected to keep that part going. But the game “plays” differently somehow now. And what I used to do, doesn’t seem to work now. So, meanwhile… I play a 037… seems idiotic, but I really don’t know what else to do right now. and hey, it works (sometimes).

To me… it all comes back to how the matches play… and that it feels “different” now.

I don’t know what in particular has changed, but something has. I’m OK with it changing… and that it might take time for me to “figure it out” in a way that lets me improve my team’s results.

I know I can’t compete with the highly built up teams on straight “main categories”… they have all the best tacklers, passers, and shooters. So, I focus on tackling as a team, speed, and dribbling. And try to unearth a goalie with 90+ keeper (which I lack presently!) And just tried to get players that are “good enough” in the passing and shooting and other skills. This let me get the ball, and keep it, more than most other teams. So, I could often beat “better” teams… simply because I would keep the ball most of the game!

This system doesn’t work well now. I don’t dominate possession now (despite having better tackling and dribbling now)… and even when I do have the possession edge, it doesn’t seem to translate into a significant edge in shots. Everything feels a bit more “random” in the way the game stats work out now… including scoring.

I am NOT saying anything is broken. I’m just saying it feels different… and it feels like my management of my team and players is less important now… less direct. My control is less. And I need to work out a new way of getting better results.

Maybe that’s good! :)

In my last fast ticker game:
http://www.rubysoccer.com/game/match_report/186514

I have 80% tackling success… he has 44%.
My passing % is higher also: 63% to 59%.

So, how does he get 52% possession to my 48% ????

And yet I have a 35 to 15 shot advantage…

and we end up tied 2-2.

In the past, I would have CRUSHED him on possession advantage… killed him on shots like 40-4… and won 2-0.

Seriously… if you are being out-tackled AND out-passed… how can you have a possession advantage??? Especially if I have better dribblers (and I didn’t check, but I bet I do!). It just doesn’t make sense.

And if you have a possession advantage… and the other team has no defenders… how do you get out-shot 35-15?

And if you get out shot 35-15… how do you get a 2-2- tie score?

hey… I know “things happen”… but this has been going on all season.

Looking at the replay of the game… it seems to me that if players were on a “breakaway”… meaning they have the ball… are onside… and have NO defenders between them and the goalie… if they were forbidden to pass backwards in those situations… but instead ran forward and took a shot (or passed FORWARD) for someone else to take a shot… then the “no defenders” setup would be much less useful!

Because MOST of the time, players in that situation make a long BACKWARD pass… which allows the other team to catch up to the play. That would never happen in real life.

First of all I also think there has to be a penalty when you don’t use defenders (or midfielder/strikers). I agree with Fabrizzio Lobba for a penalty: Keeper in keeping and all players for defense when there are no defenders. The same when there are no midfielders or strikers on the field, but then for pass and shooting.
Maybe there has to come a rule that there must be at least 2 (maybe 3) defenders, 2 (maybe 3)midfielders and 1 attacker on the field.

@ Dave: I understand your frustration in the match against CRB but they have a 92 goallie with 100 speed and 80 heading. I guess that’s why you scored only 2 goals. I don’t know what the logic is after ball possession…
I also think that the matches are different right now. More goals are scored, also against stronger teams.
For instance my team, Genoa, scored 81 goals in 14 matches. That’s almost 6 goals each match. I have to say that Italy is not the strongest competition in the game.
But I find it great to see the game developping so fast.

OK…I must admit, I didn’t bother to look at CRB’s team! I have now. Yes, he has a REALLY good goalie… BUT… how does he manage to have a possession advantage against me?

I have an 80% tackle rate. He’s 44%.

I have a 63% passing rate. He’s 59%.

My team is generally as fast as his… and I have MUCH BETTER dribbling.

HOW can he have a possession advantage???

I just don’t see how that works.

I also am not certain about providing a “goalkeeping penalty” just because there are no defenders. There is no such “penalty” in real life… but what DOES happen in real life is that “free” attackers generally do not pass the ball backwards when given a free opportunity at goal. THAT is what I think needs correcting.

Any player on a clear cut “breakaway” will look to shoot first. And only pass to a teammate who is in a better (also unmarked) position… THAT is what we need to put into the game. Not some abstract “penalty” against the keeper.

Dave, I completely agree. That is something we need to do right away. I will talk to Gabriel and I am sure we will get this implemented very soon. And I think you are right: if we do that, the 0-X-Y formations will automatically be in disadvantage and we will probably not need a penalty anymore – lets see.
So let’s summarize the things we already have in mind here:
- Better pass decision making: no stupid backward passes
- Better use of wingers
- Improve foul event

Did I forget anything? Thank you all for your feedback!
cheers

OK… well let me know when you’re gonna do it… so I can stop using my infamous 0-3-7 alignment! :)

Meanwhile… in medium ticker… my Mallorca team had it’s R D player injured in the 4th minute… and a Midfielder was substituted! And that sub, and the M -1 player both show as Dmen in the summary!?!?!

http://www.rubysoccer.com/game/match_report/184661

I dunno. I’m not complaining (honest!!)… but… I dunno. The game feels “off” for now. But it’s OK, I like playing it anyway!

Last time I checked if you have an injury and has not specific rule for it, the game gets the most suitable player for that position. For the computer, the most suitable player to play on D is the one that has the highest tackle.

And it is like Gabriel mentioned, right now the report can be “distorted” by the position the player is in the field, due to individual tactics for example. We better change that to avoid more confusions, we will see.

Well for now the way things are the biggest problem with the game i see is the inconsistency in the game results . You can humiliate the defending champions but then the next game you will get a bad result against a weaker opponent playing with a weird formation. So how can you tell that your tactics are really good or not?

" Maybe there has to come a rule that there must be at least 2 (maybe 3) defenders, 2 (maybe 3)midfielders and 1 attacker on the field."

This is a great suggestion by thorpedo; solves the problem and easy to implement (i think).

Cheers

Couple comments:

1) I believe there is no such thing as long backward passes, the problem is on the replay engine, when you see that kind of “pass” what really happened is that the attacker shot and the keeper caught the ball and passed it to the midfield all in one 10 seconds “turn”, that’s why the replay doesn’t show the details. Please check the match comments when you see this happen so we can confirm that ;)

2) Forcing the number of defenders is not a solution in my opinion, I can setup my defenders and tell them to move forward or creating rules to change their position, playing with 0 defenders during the match anyway. One thing we have planned that may help on this situation is make the keeper’s life harder when there are no defenders between the attacker and the keeper, so even though you may have less shots when playing against a 0 defenders team you’ll score more easily.

Cheers!

More on (1): But anyway we will take some time to investigate the pass decision making.

cheers!