Why am I losing?

[conradhart]

I’m finding it really difficult to work out why I lose some matches. Can you guys help me out with any tips on what I should be looking for to give me an idea of where I’m struggling.

I’m currently playing a 4231 formation which is proving great against good teams but I’m getting beaten by weaker teams and can’t work out why.

Any help on what I should be looking for to identify why I’m losing certain games would be very much appreciated.

I remember back in the Champ Man days it was best to stick with the same formation as it bred familiarity within your team. However, nowadays real managers tinker quite a bit with tactics and formations from game to game. So can we now set up our teams slightly differently depending upon the opposition without making the players confused by new instructions or should we stick to the same set up every single game? Of course I don’t mean drastic changes in formation but more like dropping an extra man into midfield to combat not getting overrun in the middle when playing against a 451 for example.

[Lambo95]

Can you post the player roles and everything else.

[Marc Vaughan]

If you'd like to post more information (or email me your save - marc.vaughan@sigames.com) then I'd be happy to try and work out whats happening and why.

(in fact if you're brave you could post it on a sharing site and allow others to assist you and see who can come up with the best approach with your side?)

[conradhart]

Thanks guys. I'm afraid I play on ipod so don't know how to take a screenshot so I'll have to do it the old fashioned way. Here's my tactics and player roles below

WB, CTR, BPD, WB

BWM

CM

IF, APM, IF

CmF

Attacking mentality

Mixed passing

Normal tackling

I'm playing as Liverpool so my guess is they're all competent enough to decide on the right pass to play. And Suarez works well as a Cmf and Agger as a BPD. The full backs give me some width and the wingers play as inside forwards to give Suarez support up front. Gerrard fits the APM role well and Lucas is a perfect BWM.

I've beaten all the big teams but come unstuck quite regularly against lesser opposition.

I also can't decide whether it's best to immediately drop to a balanced mentality once going ahead or whether I'd be inviting the opposition back into the game if I don't stick to an attacking mentality. So far neither approach seems to work against the lesser teams.

[Marc Vaughan]

My main concerns defensively (which is where I start with any team) is your reliance on having VERY good wingbacks - simply put you have no wide midfield players who will be able to come back and cover them if they're caught out (your IF's are too far up the pitch most likely) ....

You mention being beaten by smaller teams, I'm wondering if some of that is losing the ball in attack with the wingbacks forward and getting victimised by long balls out to wide attackers to run onto .... with better teams you might not have the same amount of pressure and posession so ironically this will be less of an issue (which might be why you do better against those sides?).

Just a thought from a quick look at things.

[conradhart]

Thanks Marc. What indicators do use during a match to identify problems with your team? The commentary doesn't give too much away so I sometimes struggle to work out what's going wrong so that I can rectify the situation before the 90 minutes are up.

[Marc Vaughan]

If you play the match on slower commentary settings then it will increase the text shown and that will give more pointers, apart from that look on the player stats page for your team and keep an eye on:

* Ratings

* Pass/Completed ratios - especially for players who are playing LOTS of passes, if you're not connecting passes then consider playing deeper (you might be pushing too far up the pitch and running into their attack before support is available for the player with the ball) or switching your passing style.

* Header/Completed ratios - if your defense or central midfield is getting mullered in the air then consider switching people around or dropping deeper to just pick up the lost headers (teams do this a lot against Crouch - he's not great at power headers so they just pick up the knock-ons a lot of the time rather than compete in a losing battle).

[tylerazevedo]

Another thing to help, switch those CBs to Limited defenders and make your 2 midfielders BWM. That helps when the WB's get caught up, but you will still leak some goals, but as long as your CMF is good enough he should get around 40-50 goals if he plays every minute of every game in the EPL.

[WayneRooneysHaircut]

Id suggest looking at The Bugels 4-1-3-2 in the Tactics thread on this forum. You could switch to that with relative ease. Im not sold on that formation you are using. Too much going on, and im not big on using different player roles for the center backs.