Through balls vs long shots

[yakubu2]

Anyone found a way to get around the latest patch problems and sort this problem out?

Doesn't seem to matter what I do, as soon I as I get anywhere near the box it's long shot long shot long shot. Barely ever see a through ball whatsoever anymore.

I know you're all aware of these bizarre changes to the ME, but has anyone found a way to get around it? My tactics revolve around through balls and used to work a treat before this patch.

The obvious choices, setting rare long shots, through balls often don't make a blind bit of difference. Even cheating and using FMRTE to give my players the PPM of try through balls often and have my strikers often beat the offside trap haven't had any effect.

Has anybody been able to figure out any ways around this or tactical quirks that might sort it out? I fear not, but I'm close to shelving the game until the next update otherwise. I'm cold turkeying after just a few hours here.

Cheers

[lam]

Well... I dont mean for this to sound big headed, but I was practically accused of this in another thread.

I have built, along with Cleon, a very sound tactic. In the latest patch, if I use the shout "work ball into box" OR turn long shots of relevent players, then the way my team players means that I get very few pointless long shots.

BAD longshots has and always will be a symptom of lack of options. Create space, use the space and make creat options for your players and then you will see your longshots reduced.

Failing that, and really..... you shouldnt fail that, then turn LS to rare and TTB to max......... but this really is a poor fix for it.

[Chris2509]

Can't fix it, it's a bug. I stopped playing until SI release their next patch cause it's not football anymore.

[Draigh]

BAD longshots has and always will be a symptom of lack of options. Create space, use the space and make creat options for your players and then you will see your longshots reduced.

This. A throughball needs a lot of things to get right, a good player to play the pass, space and time to do it, a player making a timed run off the ball, unmarked and into space, any of this not going right means no throughball. If you have all your players trying to get forward you'll often see this happening because there's no decent option left. Look at your tactic and make sure you have at all times got at least one, preferrably two, players in space, looking to receive the ball in their feet. Be it a DM/DLP hanging back or a fullback, you need an easy out-ball for your players to recycle possession. If that option isn't there, they'll just hoof it in the general direction of the goal to avoid being caught in possession.

[Althaz]

This is the second thread I've seen of this - and considering this is not even close to being a problem in FM13 it really makes me wonder. Probably about 2/3 of my shots come from inside the box and most of the rest are freekicks or Steven Gerrard.

If your side is having too many long shots you are failing to support the attack. You MUST have an attacker on support (or a lone striker as Treq if they are amazing and you have an AMC and/or a pair of inside forwards to support them) or your strikers will be going it alone. You can have some success with a lone attacker that is a poacher but (as in real football where this has pretty much been abandoned) this will run into problems where if the defence doesn't mess up, you won't break them down and will be forced to shoot from range.

Of course there are exceptions to this rule, but in general too many long-shots is caused by bad tactics (especially tactics where you are just trying to get your star striker to score 60 goals per season). This is a team game and you need to have your attack be a team movement which means somebody up forward dropping deep to receive the ball and others coming up to join the attack. My setup is a Treq or DLF-S (depending on personel), an AMC attacking playmaker (on support, but attacking mid on attack works with DLF-S) and two attacking IFs (at AML and AMR). My central midfielders are on support (DLP) and defend (BWM) so they will be there for recycling possession, as will my RB (support), my left wing-back is on attack because he can't defend for crap anyway but will provide another outlet laterally. Almost all of my goals are from through-balls and cut-backs/squarings of the ball.

Now, if you just stumbled into this thread and don't care about through balls but just about winning, it is perfectly possible to play with something like a Target Man (attack) as the lone striker with a pair of wingers (and little other support), but you'll have to play fairly direct (with probably Standard or Attacking mentality) football and your striker will need to be faster/stronger/bigger (all of those, but not necessarily better technically) for it to work. This tends to not work at higher levels of play (because it's hard to find attackers that can physically bully the better defenders).

[mikcheck]

Althaz what about AMC as TQ and ST as Complete Forward Support?

[danny_123]

i dont know if its a problem or not but the way my team defend the computer will hit about 10 long shots a game if not more, dosnt bother me as they never go in well very rare for them to

[Althaz]

Althaz what about AMC as TQ and ST as Complete Forward Support?

CF Support can work as can Treq in the AMC slot, but I haven't tried that combination. In theory it might work (although both players might be looking for the same space which may backfire), but only if both players are excellent. Personally I find the CF doesn't drop quite deep enough for me which does make breaking down defences harder (if you are trying to do it with a passing game as I am). When I play 4-3-1-2 I have an Advanced Forward (attack) with a CF (support) and that works quite well (but they are supported by an AMC and usually another central midfielder as well both wing-backs.

[couragewolf101]

I've had some success with through balls with a DLF-A and AF-A

[yakubu2]

thanks for the replies...but it's not tactical, it's an ME problem from the latest patch as I thought was widely known at this point. staggered to see some say it's not even close to being a problem. it's THE biggest problem, just check the ME thread in the other forum. they've screwed up big time with the long shot/through ball ratio. it's a definite issue, to put it mildly. was just enquiring as to whether anyone had found a way around it. i've always been lucky in being able to get my teams playing the type of football i want and this latest patch really does mean long shots instead of through balls nigh on every single time, which is infuriating for me. as i said, i've already got long shots rare for everyone, ttb often for everyone, and zilch creative freedom for everyone as a test to see the effect it would have, and it has done nothing to stem the complete lack of through balls in favour of bizarre long shots.

i've tried several other variations since just to make sure, but they all yield the same results. able to get my creative players to pick the ball in good space and they will always ignore my forwards.

guess i'll just be leaving it until the next patch comes out when they hopefully sort this horror show out. was really enjoying the game and the ME until then.

[Cleon]

thanks for the replies...but it's not tactical, it's an ME problem from the latest patch as I thought was widely known at this point. staggered to see some say it's not even close to being a problem. it's THE biggest problem, just check the ME thread in the other forum. they've screwed up big time with the long shot/through ball ratio. it's a definite issue, to put it mildly. was just enquiring as to whether anyone had found a way around it. i've always been lucky in being able to get my teams playing the type of football i want and this latest patch really does mean long shots instead of through balls nigh on every single time, which is infuriating for me. as i said, i've already got long shots rare for everyone, ttb often for everyone, and zilch creative freedom for everyone as a test to see the effect it would have, and it has done nothing to stem the complete lack of through balls in favour of bizarre long shots.

i've tried several other variations since just to make sure, but they all yield the same results. able to get my creative players to pick the ball in good space and they will always ignore my forwards.

guess i'll just be leaving it until the next patch comes out when they hopefully sort this horror show out. was really enjoying the game and the ME until then.

While it is a ME problem for some it is tactical and they'll still find the same after the next patch that fixes the issues.

[y2k1]

You could try training your strikers to beat the offside trap. By doing so the midfielders will have somebody they can actually pass onto.

[Fabian Jonsson]

I'm struggling a bit with this myself to be honest. Eventhough it's become a lot better now that my tactics are beginning take shape and settling in, it's still true that my players are a bit quick on the trigger, even when there seems to be many other options available. Could it be that it's a bigger problem in lower leagues? I almost never play in the big leagues, and as a result my players rarely have composure and decision ratings above the 10-14 range. Maybe the teamwork attribute is also important?

Edit: on another (but perhaps related) note, I'm not really happy with the lack of forward runs from my strikers. Whenever one of my players get in space on the ball I want to see movement from my other attackers, but they are usually very stationary. I've tried pretty much all possible roles and have strikers with good (for the league) anticipation and off the ball (about 15 each), but they very rarely try to run in behind the opposition defense... Does anyone else experience this, or is it something related to my tactics?