Reading the match engine

[footynut]

Your right about the defensive line, teams do start out to defend their own half and CA, but it is a negative way to approach a game and unless your team can break with pace, you will struggle to score. I maintain that tight marking strikers is a no no, your centre backs should always look to stay close to each other and maintain correct pitch position.

Would you want to be giving say a Torres or Drogba time and space in your penalty area?

[B1G_D]

Would you want to be giving say a Torres or Drogba time and space in your penalty area?

By the time the ball gets into the penalty area, your team should have collapsed into the box so much that there is no space, but what is more likely is that your centre backs will attack the ball more and prevent it reaching opp players, because of good positioning.

[drevil1969]

So has anyone given an answer to this fellas original question? Think he was struggling with reading the ME.

Ask myself as i myself struggle with this lol

[SFraser]

So has anyone given an answer to this fellas original question? Think he was struggling with reading the ME.

Ask myself as i myself struggle with this lol

Well how do you mean "read the match engine" because there is no easy "striker has 17 acceleration so set D-Line to 7" formulae to fit all contexts. To read the Match Engine you have to sit watch what is happening, figure out what events and actions correspond to what attributes and then use the tactical options to adapt behaviour. You have to watch, figure out causes and apply solutions.

The easiest way to approach the issue and still play the game would be to start off by applying strong solutions to clear problems which does not require detailed understanding of attributes and sliders. For example:

You play a 4-4-2 at home against a 4-5-1 opponent. Your match statistics show 60% possession for the opponent. If you are watching the full match replay then the problem is obvious from kick-off, the opponent is passing the ball in a midfield triangle around your 2 CM's and occasionally playing it wide and back inside. If you are not watching the full match replay, if you are watching only any kind of other highlight option you will not see this so blatantly. Either way the simple option is to tight man-mark the deepest midfielder with one of your strikers. That is the simple option, it redresses the balance in midfield in a rather brute force way but it does the job to a certain degree.

The second way, and it follows on the first, is to establish precisely what is happening at the mechanical level. 90% of the time you do not need to develop your tactics to this degree but having this knowledge and observing the match at this level at the very least enables you to comprehend your own players in detail.

Example 1.

Your defender is standing alongside the opponents striker inside your half, near the centre circle. You have been attacking the opponent and they now clear the ball downfield with a decent pass from the midfielder.

Your defender turns around first and runs towards the ball, the opponents striker catches up but cannot get past your defender. Your defender plays the ball back to the goalkeeper.

In this example your defender has the higher Anticipation and Concentration. He simply reacts much quicker to the ball than the striker and is "switched on" and ready to make a move when it counts. He has not gone to sleep or started counting the flags in the crowd out of boredom. The striker has much greater acceleration and pace and catches up with the defender, but the defender has greater strength than the striker and the striker cannot get past without going around the defender. The defender reaches the ball first and has relatively high composure enabling him to pick the good choice although under pressure.

Now this particular setup of a High D-Line against much "faster" opponent strikers would be a forum no-no, but your Defenders are quicker of mind and the ball will have to be kicked really far down field for the day-dreaming striker to actually get to it first, assuming the goalkeeper does not get it first.

Example 2.

For some reason your other Centre Back has gone on a run down the wing with the ball and has lost it to the opponent CM. The CM emerges with the ball and runs downfield towards your last CB and the single Striker. It is 2 on 1. The Striker shuffles to the side of your defender staying inline and on-side and pulling him wide, receives the pass from the CM and flicks it first time over the head of the defender back into the path of the CM. The CM continues his run, sprints away from the CM, latches onto the ball perfectly and bombs downfield but is offside.

In this example all players have equivelant Anticipation. The Striker has great off-the-ball, creativity, teamwork but critically he lacks pace. The midfielder has great anticipation, teamwork, pace but critically he lacks off-the-ball movement. The defender has great anticipation and great positioning.

Each player has anticipated each others actions, the striker has the movement to stay on-side and take up dangerous space and play a brilliant pass. The midfielder has the teamwork and anticipation to spot the move, continue the move and the pace to surge past the defender. The defender simply holds a good line and the midfielder poor off-the-ball movement carries him offside.

Example 3.

Later on in the same match the manager decides to sub the CM for a Fast Striker with amazing off-the-ball movement.

The Fast striker emerges with the ball after your CB goes on another dribble, he bombs downfield towards you last CB and the other striker. He plays the ball wide to the other Striker, who flicks the ball over the head of the defender to the on-side striker. The defender checks his lines in horror and observes the new striker being completely onside. The pass bounces off the head of the new striker and out for a throw in.

It is almost identical to the last example apart from a few key things. First both strikers are on-side and in dangerous positions because of their awesome Off-The-Ball movement. In the last example the CM was off-side because of his poor off-the-ball movement. In the last example the CM anticipated the move. In this example the Fast Striker is completely oblivious to the one-two and it simply comes off his head.

Just because you can see all that does not mean you know how to take steps to defend against it or take steps to ensure success of the attacks. Just because you cannot see that in that detail does not mean you do not know how to improve the attack through "common-sense" attribute selection and good tactical ideas.

Either way, that is how you read the match engine. You must watch what is happening, form conclusions as to why it is happening, and then decide upon solutions.

Perhaps I can score against you by using long ball punts and micro-managing 1 point attribute differences for the flick on and the run. Perhaps you do not know the precise details involved in an action but use football knowledge to drag my midfielder out of position and then flood the gaps with talented players in a cunning move. Perhaps you have both, and then you are a really dangerous manager in this game. That is the third way to "read the match engine", to apply knowledge of mechanics and knowledge of tactics to the game being played. To construct excellent tactics that exploit excellent knowledge of the details of actions and attributes.

All of this requires watching the game. The less highlight you use, the less you can see.

[drevil1969]

Thanks for the reply SFaser, i generally try adn use other peoples tactics but really want to develp my own and be able to react to situations, all help is gratefully accepted

[kolobok]

To add a penny to SFaser's comment: if you watch highlights only, you won't be able to catch a systematic pattern . That is even a world class defender may sometimes behave like a conference level player, and even a conference level ST may occasionally score a-la Messi. Highlights may show that occasion but not the fact that 15 times before and after the ST lost ball in very similar situations. However, from a tactical point of view it's extremely important to catch the pattern as early as possible. Because it gives you a clue: AI tries to break you there. If you believe it's a danger, adjust your tactic. If you don't want to break your own game and is sure that one occasion wouldn't make a difference in a specific match - leave it as is. But you have to know the pattern to make a decision.