Decent team, run of the mill tactic... 0 shots to 30

[OBONGO]

I am always happy to learn. But right now I have absolutely zero idea what I am supposed to learn from the following game:

Opposition goals: 1. from a corner. 2. ball rolls to my goalkeeper, he does nothing, opposition striker just comes and scores. 3. ball gets kicked about the area and in it, someone in a bunch of players in the box kicks it. But it is not even the loss or the manner of conceding which I am concerned about.

I think we can all agree that having zero shots while the opposition have 30 (15 on goal) is very bad. Before someone counters with the real life example of Arsenal at Barcelona, let me say this is not the first time this has happened (it does not happen often, but every now and then the opposition get double digits and I absolutely nothing), and that the opposition was nowhere near real life Barcelona levels of quality.

Anyway, with such lopsided stats, you will probably also agree that there is a fundamental tactical error somewhere. But where?

In the match in question I have played a 4-2-3-1. Balanced, balanced. Fairly good morale at worst across the whole team. No team instructions. Full familiarity. Wingers set to play more narrow, fullbacks to cross more, DMs to play more direct passes. Switching to another mentality did not do anything noticeable. Maybe not a massively cunning tactical approach but one I hope no one would call particularly broken so as to result in zero shots. Especially when these were my players.

CB, CB, FBs, FBa, DLP, DM, IFa, AP, IFs, CF

My team had an extremely small number of passes in the final third and one (1) cross. The opposition played a flat 4-4-2. Their players are, let's say comparable in terms of abilities. There is no gulf in quality, they are by no means great individually, even if the result says otherwise. I can screencap them but it's all a bunch of 14s and 15s really.

I realize that a support DM will move about a lot. Then again that in theory might help link the lines better, and defensively there is the DLP to help out, especially with no opposition AM to bother them.

Also since the AM wingers do not really track back, the opposition exploited the wide areas and got a lot of crosses. Except they did not score from a single wing play. And if anything, should not these defensive deficiencies in turn make for a better attack? By virtue of my players being focused more on attacking/the opposition leaving space as they themselves attack down the wings. I thought they would. They didn't.

And I'm aware of the perils of a lone striker, even though I think he is pretty good as are the players that should support him. Well, good enough to at least create something. Especially if the opponent has only one defensively minded midfielder in a flat four with my two playmakers presumably both in between the lines.

But 30 shots to 0. Zero.

[Chao Yang]

Mind posting a screenshot of the side-by-side tactics (match preview) as well as your tactical instructions+shouts page? That might give us a better look at it.

And on another note, they had 2 CCCs. Can you also see how many of those 15 'on-target' shots were long-range attempts?

[OBONGO]

All the instructions and shouts are listed in the post. There are few - no team, and only a handful of individual (IFs narrow, FBs cross more, DMs pass more direct).

Most of their shots were inside the area with about a third from right on its edge.

[Chao Yang]

Off the bat, most of their inside area shots seem to be diagonals which most keepers will catch pretty handily provided it isn't too much of a belter.

The only thing that I can think of is that the four in their midfield just absolutely crushed your DM and DLP and stifled your forward distribution... Do you have a match save or pre-game save handy to see if we can see how the game went and try to see if we can replicate the result?

Just asking since there's always the possibility that this is one of 'those' games where everything seems to go wrong for you and your players.

[OBONGO]

No save I'm afraid. And sure it could be one of those games but it feels like they happen too often. Not "often" but I have had two or three this season. Same story, opposition gets a ton of shots, I get single digits or none. No massive changes to my team in those games either.

To be perfectly honest it is not even the defensive part of the game which I am concerned about, you are going to win some and lose some, but the zero shots.

[difran8]

I believe that when those extremes occur , the problem can be traced to incorrect mentality-creative freedom settings for that particular game. I suspect there is a correct setting of those two very important parameters that make your team click, but is not the same for each game. Getting them right is much more important than setting the correct individual roles

Also, the formation you are using is quite difficult to get right. You essentially attack with 4 players that are far from each other and cannot use available space properly

[Cleon]

I find it a bit odd that there's no mention of a team and all the screenshots have been done so we can't see who you are, who the players are etc. It's all a bit cloak and daggers tbh.

How do you get the screenshots if you don't have a save of the match? I'd be interested in seeing the PKM of this match or any other match which this happens in seeing as you claim it happens frequent. The only way someone is going to be able to help you and see the flaws is by watching the actual match and posting about it.

[OBONGO]

Nice paranoia, I'm sure that's healthy. I just crop the pics to make them smaller. I'm Union Berlin, and you can actually see all my players on the screens. Which I took after and during the game, as I can still access the match report and analysis etc. I just don't have a save immediately before the game like Chao asked. And I never said it happens frequently, the opposite actually, that it only happens rarely but that this wasn't the only time this has happened. Which is why I posted here as "one of those games" I would just ignore and move on as those are bound to happen in a computer game.

[DavidPengilley]

It really shouldn't be much of a surprise that they managed to pull away that many shots as those flanks were left unguarded! I find a 4-2-3-1, unless your wide players are tracking back, leaves you exposed to a simple ball over the top on to the flanks and it looks like, due to the number of shots out wide, that the opponent did just that. I'm curious as what they set up with formation wise against you as they may have committed the FBs as well as their wide midfielders forward as a way of overloading your full backs.

Also I'm curious as to if you made any changes during the match itself when you [hopefully] noticed you were getting a battering!

[Cleon]

Nice paranoia, I'm sure that's healthy. I just crop the pics to make them smaller. I'm Union Berlin, and you can actually see all my players on the screens. Which I took after and during the game, as I can still access the match report and analysis etc. I just don't have a save immediately before the game like Chao asked. And I never said it happens frequently, the opposite actually, that it only happens rarely but that this wasn't the only time this has happened. Which is why I posted here as "one of those games" I would just ignore and move on as those are bound to happen in a computer game.

You said its happened 3 times this season already, that's frequent no?

You can go back to the fixture and on the result page you can save the PKM and upload it. No saved game is needed to be uploaded just the PKM which you can go back and access at any time.

[DamianJMcGrath]

Cleon, you know best as a moderator, however, can I give you one small bit of feedback from a long time viewer of these forums (using this thread as an example). Many of us come into the Tactics forum specifically looking for help, and we find a thread that sounds similar to our problem, and we read, looking for the "silver bullet" of advice to turn everything around. More times than not, the threads disintegrate into nothing because the original posters are unable or unwilling (for whatever reasons) to provide necessary details/screenshots/PKMs etc, and as a reader of the thread, it can be frustrating to get to the end having learnt nothing.

Is it possible to:

a) get stricter with people, and require them to provide a few things when posting for advice, otherwise it gets closed. After a few weeks of closures, people will soon learn.

b) implement a new forum feature for people to highlight the "best answer" so people can skip all the inane chatter and get straight to the "useful" stuff?

On point A, I know there's a sticky with the rules, but I could go down the forum now and find 50+ open threads which have completely disregarded the rules. People won't learn if there's no reason to learn.

[Cleon]

Cleon, you know best as a moderator, however, can I give you one small bit of feedback from a long time viewer of these forums (using this thread as an example). Many of us come into the Tactics forum specifically looking for help, and we find a thread that sounds similar to our problem, and we read, looking for the "silver bullet" of advice to turn everything around. More times than not, the threads disintegrate into nothing because the original posters are unable or unwilling (for whatever reasons) to provide necessary details/screenshots/PKMs etc, and as a reader of the thread, it can be frustrating to get to the end having learnt nothing.

Is it possible to:

a) get stricter with people, and require them to provide a few things when posting for advice, otherwise it gets closed. After a few weeks of closures, people will soon learn.

b) implement a new forum feature for people to highlight the "best answer" so people can skip all the inane chatter and get straight to the "useful" stuff?

On point A, I know there's a sticky with the rules, but I could go down the forum now and find 50+ open threads which have completely disregarded the rules. People won't learn if there's no reason to learn.

We are strict enough and threads that don't provide the extra details when asked do get closed. I'd like you to link me the 50+ open threads that haven't provided the details though.

When people don't post info they always get referred to http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/327822-Asking-For-Help-PLEASE-READ-THIS

As for point B not sure how that will work when people already ignore the rules, asking for help, FAQ's and Important links thread already.