Anyone have any suggestions on how i can increase this ball? (See picture)

[allyc31]

Hey guys,

start playing a 4-4-2 in an effort to try and create the fast and aggressive style that Man United used to be associated with. Things are going well but one thing that I'm noticing is that square crosses seem to be few and far between.

Pic mentioned in subject

In the above pic, the winger (Martin Olsson) ran onto a nice through ball and, as opposed to squaring the ball to my striker to tap in, opted to shoot straight at the side netting.

I'm aware that in real football wingers will shoot when a better option is on but i just feel that it's maybe disproportionate in my tactic. In fact, i don't think I've seen the wide man ever cross it in when this type of opportunity occurs.

So basically would like to know how to increase the cross as and decrease the winger shooting.

For the record, i mostly play a Rigid Counter, with Exploit Flanks and my two wide men set to Wingers Attack. Both wingers have zero PI's

Hopefully someone can help as it's frustrating.

Ta lads and ladies

[Chris Anthemum]

I've noticed the same problem myself with various different players, teams and tactics. Sadly I think it's just a problem within the match engine. You could try using 'work ball into box' TI or give the player 'shoot less often' instructions. It helps a bit in my experience but not a whole lot unfortunately. Players with low teamwork/decisions will probably do this more often but as I say ultimately this just seems to be something endemic to the ME. It's really frustrating seeing so many of your attacks break down this way.

[RTHerringbone]

There is an issue with shots from angles where a nice square pass would seem a better option.

I'm pretty sure it is fairly high on SIs improvement radar for FM15.

What Duty does Olsson have? Have you assigned any PIs to him and does he have any PPMs?

[allyc31]

Thanks for the replies guys

RTH, in the above Olsson is set to Winger Attack with zero pi's.

For completeness, here is a screen shot of his attributes as of this moment in time in my game

I realise his decisions are quite low but his team work is quite high.

Plus like i said; this isn't (or at least doesn't feel like) a isolated incident but rather the norm.

Chris, a regen just appeared in my youth team who plays on the left winger and has the pi 'Looks for the pass' so i'll maybe see how he does

[RTHerringbone]

By default, an Attack Duty Winger will have a go at taking shots on himself - as well as acting as a supplier.

It would be interesting to see how he fares on a Support Duty (though doing so might unbalance things elsewhere )

Note also that his Crossing, Decisions, Composure and Passing are all pretty so-so.

[allyc31]

By default, an Attack Duty Winger will have a go at taking shots on himself - as well as acting as a supplier.

It would be interesting to see how he fares on a Support Duty (though doing so might unbalance things elsewhere )

To be honest i never thought about Support Duty. I play Rigid Counter so that the winger will (hopefully) pick the ball up deep and...well, i guess, charge forward and cross from the byline ie be direct (but not in a passing sense).

Do you think i could achieve the same results with the wingers on support? The tool tip/description text for Support suggests that on Support, a winger will beat his man and whack a cross in quickly and that's not necessarily what i want.

[RTHerringbone]

Support Duty should see him create the space and hit an early cross.

I'd assume that if you have a 4-4-2, one of your strikers will be a Poacher, CF or AF on Attack so he'll typically be advanced and in the areas to take advantage of that sort of early delivery. It's worth experimenting. For me, Counter is all about fast, incisive attacking when in possession and the ball moves faster when passed than when dribbled. Support Duty might be the key for you.

[allyc31]

Support Duty should see him create the space and hit an early cross.

I'd assume that if you have a 4-4-2, one of your strikers will be a Poacher, CF or AF on Attack so he'll typically be advanced and in the areas to take advantage of that sort of early delivery. It's worth experimenting. For me, Counter is all about fast, incisive attacking when in possession and the ball moves faster when passed than when dribbled. Support Duty might be the key for you.

Excellent. I'll give it a go.

Ta buddy

[Lord Rowell]

My suspicion, unfortunately, is that there's not much we can do about this.

In this version of FM i.e. FM14, and many previous versions, there has been a problem of poor defending by FBs against wide players/or over-powered wide players, whichever way you look at it.

Hence, after beating their FB, if they then made regular, intelligent decisions, there would be too many goals. I suspect therefore they're programmed to shoot more often than is wise, in order to reduce the number of overall goals.

I certainly remember either FM09 / FM10, or both, where the wide player would slaughter the full back, get nr the by-line and then try and dribble the ball into the net on his own rather than playing the ball into the 6 yard box. I think this might be just another variation on that theme.

It will be fixed when defending by FBs is better.

[Äktsjon Männ]

My suspicion, unfortunately, is that there's not much we can do about this.

In this version of FM i.e. FM14, and many previous versions, there has been a problem of poor defending by FBs against wide players/or over-powered wide players, whichever way you look at it.

Hence, after beating their FB, if they then made regular, intelligent decisions, there would be too many goals. I suspect therefore they're programmed to shoot more often than is wise, in order to reduce the number of overall goals.

I certainly remember either FM09 / FM10, or both, where the wide player would slaughter the full back, get nr the by-line and then try and dribble the ball into the net on his own rather than playing the ball into the 6 yard box. I think this might be just another variation on that theme.

It will be fixed when defending by FBs is better.

It's more likely the other way around and is to do with how passing/crossing is coded in FM. There has to be a recipient in space/making a run. There are no hopeful balls into space/across goal. Take the screenshot for example, the pass for a tap in is obvious but the player is technically marked by that defender appealing for offside (albeit not effectively), therefore a cross isn't considered by the winger.

[RTHerringbone]

Äktsjon is correct. It 100% is not a case that they have been coded to shoot more often in order to reduce the number of goals.

[allyc31]

Äktsjon is correct. It 100% is not a case that they have been coded to shoot more often in order to reduce the number of goals.

It does raise a interesting point though, right?

Not 'SI are cheating us!11! game is scripted rah rah rah' but rather that it's feasible that a limitation in one area of the match engine would result in the need for a fix in another area.

Not because of some nefarious reasons on SI's part but rather a necessity to make the game work.

I mean we see it all the time in other games i.e. in fps when a particular weapon or class is nerfed due to them being overpowered.

Even in this game we see updates released to fix a certain exploit.

Would be interesting to speak to one of the qa guys about this....though, doubt they could tell me much.

[RTHerringbone]

FM is a domino effect sequence of events. SI can't code an area in isolation because fixing x could and would impact y. As a result, updates are nothing to do with fixing "exploits", but are attempts to refine behaviours in certain aspects of play.

However, because everything is so intertwined, there is almost always a knock-on somewhere else. It must be a nightmare to program.

[Chris Anthemum]

Let's just hope they can do something about it for FM15 because it's incredibly frustrating to see

[Os]

I was thinking about this the other day.

The amount of attempted crosses that fly out for a goal kick.

I play the game on full highlights and this always had me cursing.

I look at the wide players crossing and they all have the requisite attributes.

I think its too easy for wide players to get into crossing positions, and this has had to be compensated for.

I remember a beta build where the wide players were finding it difficult to get into these positions and chances were hard to craft full stop.

I believe that Si listened to the cry babies, caved in and sacrificed realism for a more "entertaining" ME

A sad day indeed.

[RTHerringbone]

Os It all still amounts to post #10.

SI have certainly not caved into anybody in an attempt to do this, that or the other.

[Kim Wong]

The strange thing is that winger with support duty has 'cross from byline' active.

[Sussex Hammer]

This has been a bugbear of mine for sometime. In my current game I tried out "retain possession" as a TI along with a play wider in a 433. The AML/AMR still shoot but not as much and if anything the shots are across the keeper which I don't mind so much. I'm scoring as many goals as well if not more and I thought "retain" was a negative shout. I may of course now be giving my players more options hence they wait to shoot but at least they don't shoot into the side netting as much. Could try the "retain possession" shout and see if it works.