Long Shots - Why it isn't as easy as adjusting a slider.

[LUHG]

A while back, somebody over GD was complaining that his player was taking too many shots, even though he had his long shots set to rarely. I decided to post a response explaining that it’s not as simple as that. I now feel it would be interesting to discuss this is T&TT.

A common question many users on the forums have is this: “Why does my player continue to take excessive long shots, even when I set his long shots too rarely?” Well, the answer to that question doesn’t solely rely on that slider alone. PPM's and Creative Freedom also has an effect on your players’ tendency to shoot.

There are a few things you must consider when it comes to long shots. The first thing is that RARELY doesn’t mean NEVER. I know it sounds stupid but you can't expect your player to not take on a long shot ever. And even if you could, why would you do that? A long shot is a shot from anywhere outside the opponents 18 yard box, which isn’t as long as you first consider. In the case of the striker, most will probably receive the ball on the edge of the area. If they were to shoot from there, it would be classed as a long shot. In my save, I can’t remember how many times Berbatov has got the ball from just outside the area, took a shot and scored. His long shots are set at sometimes if you are wondering.

PPM’s a fairly obvious. If a player has “tries long shots” then he will try long shots. There isn’t much you can do with layers like this. If they are young you can ask them to do other things, like “looks for pass instead of shot”. If they are unwilling, then try some of the points I talk about below.

The next point you must consider is that by giving a player a high dosage of creative freedom, he will ignore the instructions you give him if he feels that he can do something worth-while. If he thinks he's got a good opportunity to shoot, because you told him to do what he likes, he will. That's why I consider decisions are important factor in who you give creative freedom to, and not just solely creativity.

To add to all this, if a player is isolated up front, he may have no option but to take long-speculative shots. By setting long shots too rarely, you are saying “if there is nothing else on, you might as well shoot”. Whenever I play a lone striker at time where I need to defend and need the players back, most of the time the strike gets it he will just shoot because there is no support. Adjust his team-mates mentalities to and soon your striker will look for the pass, instead of the long shot.

[lam]

Another key point and its the next most important for me aside from the actual settings itself and that is midfielders with no passing options - very similar to your last comment.

If a player has the option of losing the ball or taking a shot, what would people rather have them do?

The problem lies in the fact that most managers do not set their team up to support eachother, thus when their Defensive midfielder actualy moves forwards a little to far and runs out of passing options, he WILL shoot.

[LUHG]

Another key point and its the next most important for me aside from the actual settings itself and that is midfielders with no passing options - very similar to your last comment.

If a player has the option of losing the ball or taking a shot, what would people rather have them do?

The problem lies in the fact that most managers do not set their team up to support eachother, thus when their Defensive midfielder actualy moves forwards a little to far and runs out of passing options, he WILL shoot.

My points exactly.

The point of this thread is to show that a) Moving long shots to rarely isn't enough and b) The ME does everything for a reason