[TheEssence]

(Original post by DisconcertingWink1)
How do you guys play against teams who deploy three AMCs? It's a formation which always causes me problems, no matter the quality of the opposition. I just can't seem to break up the neat inter-play which occurs in the final third. I don't care about not having the majority of possession so long as I'm creating the better scoring opportunities. But I'm not; I struggle to do so in fact. I play a 4-4-1-1, mainly due to the personnel I have at my disposal. Would it help to play with two strikers, instead of an AMC? And what about pressing and closing down — should I employ a lot of both?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

man city always used to get to me with this formation. What i did was tweaked my 4-2-3-1 and turned my wide AM's into out n out wingers, channelled attacks down the flanks, and worked like wonders ever since

[Angry cucumber]

I need a scout for scouting my next opposition (so I know what tactics the other team will be using mainly) what attributes should I look for?

I have Commoli, even though his judging player potential/ ability are both 20, and tactical knowledge is 16, he's crap! Tells me 0 about the other team!! Also he's leaving at the end of the season..... I'm not paying him £28,000 a week!

[The Rusty Spork]

(Original post by Angry cucumber)
I need a scout for scouting my next opposition (so I know what tactics the other team will be using mainly) what attributes should I look for?

I have Commoli, even though his judging player potential/ ability are both 20, and tactical knowledge is 16, he's crap! Tells me 0 about the other team!! Also he's leaving at the end of the season..... I'm not paying him £28,000 a week!

Watch when he goes to the next team for about £5,000 a week. Always does it

[boumavilla]

(Original post by jackf1337)
My ridiculous start to the season is over. It went something like this...

Chelsea (A) - 1-2 Went 1-0 up in the 74th minute before conceding two goals in the last 10 minutes.
Liverpool (H) - 1-2 Went 1-0 up early on before Liverpool equalised later in the first half. Suarez got a winner in the 81st minute. His match rating was 5.7 prior to that goal.
Everton (A) - 1-1 Went 1-0 up (there's a pattern here isn't there?) just before half time before Mphela equalised in the 84th minute. Yep. Definite pattern. In all fairness we didn't even deserve a draw. This was Everton's first goal of the season.
Man City (H) - 0-2 Played well in the first half but quality of opposition shone through. Van Nistelrooy made debut from the bench but got injured. Did well considering City has scored 14 goals in their first 3 games.
Man Utd (A) - 0-4 Shoddy defending meant the game was beyond us by 60 minutes. Threw on 3 youngsters by that point to get them some game time, didn't disgrace themselves.

We're now 20th.

I had a league cup match v MK Dons after the Liverpool defeat which I won 3-1 with a bunch of youngsters. My assistant, Tony Coton, then said to call a team meeting (which I didn't think was needed but I went with it anyway) and the players didn't react well at all, meaning morale plummeted.
I've now got Barnsley at home in the league cup before having a very favourable run of games until I play Chelsea again on the first of January. Slightly worried I'm going to get the sack if things don't pick up.

My young left back, Enda Stevens, complained (not for the first time) about lack of games, so I start him v MK Dons and he gets a match rating of 5.4 and gives away a penalty o.0 He's my 4th best left back, behind two players who don't even play there normally. Urgh.

I see your season hasn't started too well!
Did you say you were in your second season with Villa?
Did you sign Hazard in the end?

I ended up signing Poulsen, Dzagoev, Welbeck (loan), Alderweireld and Opdal.
Sold: Warnock, Guzan, Heskey and Ireland.

I've just played my first match. I was 3-0 up at West Brom thanks to 3 goals in 5 minutes, Aggy and Welbeck twice! Then the whole second half West Brom piled and piled on me and I ended up walking away winning 3-2!

[Angry cucumber]

(Original post by Mess.)
Watch when he goes to the next team for about £5,000 a week. Always does it

I preparing myself to do this at my computer

[Laertes]

(Original post by Angry cucumber)
I need a scout for scouting my next opposition (so I know what tactics the other team will be using mainly) what attributes should I look for?

I have Commoli, even though his judging player potential/ ability are both 20, and tactical knowledge is 16, he's crap! Tells me 0 about the other team!! Also he's leaving at the end of the season..... I'm not paying him £28,000 a week!

I use a German dude - who I think is - called Thomas Horstner. I'm not sure exactly, either way he has absurd stats for an opposition scout.

[jackf1337]

Okay so I arranged a friendly due to an international break and it just so happened that all of my GK's were on int. duty. Also my U18's had played earlier in the day so I couldn't play any of those. In my team appeared two random keepers I'd never seen before, with relatively low stats and greyed out names. Why is this?

(Original post by boumavilla)
I see your season hasn't started too well!
Did you say you were in your second season with Villa?
Did you sign Hazard in the end?

I ended up signing Poulsen, Dzagoev, Welbeck (loan), Alderweireld and Opdal.
Sold: Warnock, Guzan, Heskey and Ireland.

I've just played my first match. I was 3-0 up at West Brom thanks to 3 goals in 5 minutes, Aggy and Welbeck twice! Then the whole second half West Brom piled and piled on me and I ended up walking away winning 3-2!

Yeah it was a tricky start I beat Barnsley 2-0 AET and I've since played West Brom and Wolves, I beat WBA 3-0 and drew 0-0 with Wolves. The last thing you need after 5 really hard games is two derby matches.

I'm currently playing a friendly during an international break vs a minnow team. Looks like it'll finish 5-1. Should be a good confidence booster.

Yeah I'm in my second season and I did sign Hazard.

Nice bit of transfer business you've done there. Good to see Welbeck has made an impact already.

[TrulyEpicLawls]

(Original post by Angry cucumber)
I need a scout for scouting my next opposition (so I know what tactics the other team will be using mainly) what attributes should I look for?

My logical conclusion was Judging Ability and Tactical Knowledge along with the usual Level of Discipline and Determination.

[FrigidSymphony]

(Original post by jackf1337)
Okay so I arranged a friendly due to an international break and it just so happened that all of my GK's were on int. duty. Also my U18's had played earlier in the day so I couldn't play any of those. In my team appeared two random keepers I'd never seen before, with relatively low stats and greyed out names. Why is this?

The game fills in average-to-mediocre keepers if you've not got any available, as if they were called up from your B team or something.

[FrigidSymphony]

(Original post by boumavilla)
I see your season hasn't started too well!
Did you say you were in your second season with Villa?
Did you sign Hazard in the end?

I ended up signing Poulsen, Dzagoev, Welbeck (loan), Alderweireld and Opdal.
Sold: Warnock, Guzan, Heskey and Ireland.

I've just played my first match. I was 3-0 up at West Brom thanks to 3 goals in 5 minutes, Aggy and Welbeck twice! Then the whole second half West Brom piled and piled on me and I ended up walking away winning 3-2!

Use your half time team talks. If I'm up at half time against a much better team (I'm Aberdeen, say I'm playing Bayern or something in the CL) I tell the team to keep going and that they're doing really well. They need the encouragement. If I'm playing, say, Celtic (who by now are underdogs whenever I play against them) and I'm up by a still overturnable scoreline (1-0, 2-0, 2-1, etc) I always tell them something like "We may be ahead but don't lose focus now, the game isn't over" or "don't get complacent now, the game isn't over". They'll go out and bang in another three goals. If you tell them everything's fine, they can lose themselves up their arses and let a sub-par team pull off an upset.

[jackf1337]

Just had a centre back in my reserve team score a hat trick from centre back XD

[CB91]

(Original post by jackf1337)
Just had a centre back in my reserve team score a hat trick from centre back XD

I was once playing a friend in our network game in the Coppa Italia Semi-Finals, I was 2-0 down from the first leg and my CB scored 4 to help me win 5-1 in the second leg.
Three were headers and one was a brilliant long range drive from 30 yards.

[Kruz]

My Dortmund save basically corrupted, all my hard work undone . It's not allowing me to play Bundesliga games anymore.

[Peachz]

Just played my first Champions League game after winning the league! Beat Porto, seeded first, 5-2 at their ground. Was 2-2 at one point but I ran away with it after half time!


This was posted from The Student Room's iPhone/iPad App

[TrulyEpicLawls]

(Original post by IanLim93)
My united save is corrupt :'(
Time to start the FC United challenge.

(Original post by Kruz)
My Dortmund save basically corrupted, all my hard work undone . It's not allowing me to play Bundesliga games anymore.

So I'm the only one who uses 5 save slots and copies a couple of saves to my flash drive every now and then?

[Dalimyr]

(Original post by TrulyEpicLawls)
So I'm the only one who uses 5 save slots and copies a couple of saves to my flash drive every now and then?

Going quite that far, probably I rotate through three saves for any serious games of mine (spend too long in computing classes, you get the grandfather-father-son backup routine drilled into you). I sometimes just have two, but will only ever have one save for test saves or saves where I'm just screwing around (where it doesn't matter if they get corrupted)

[BlueSmarties]

Currently got a striker whose scored 40 goals in 18 apps, one of which was from the bench. Desperate to see what he's on at the end of the season!

[boumavilla]

(Original post by jackf1337)
Okay so I arranged a friendly due to an international break and it just so happened that all of my GK's were on int. duty. Also my U18's had played earlier in the day so I couldn't play any of those. In my team appeared two random keepers I'd never seen before, with relatively low stats and greyed out names. Why is this?



Yeah it was a tricky start I beat Barnsley 2-0 AET and I've since played West Brom and Wolves, I beat WBA 3-0 and drew 0-0 with Wolves. The last thing you need after 5 really hard games is two derby matches.

I'm currently playing a friendly during an international break vs a minnow team. Looks like it'll finish 5-1. Should be a good confidence booster.

Yeah I'm in my second season and I did sign Hazard.

Nice bit of transfer business you've done there. Good to see Welbeck has made an impact already.

The names of the goalkeepers are greyed out because they're not real players, but you need a goalkeeper so they're made for the time being. I like to imagine them to be something like the thing from the Mars advert where the steward takes the goalie's place whilst there's no replacement!

Thanks, transfer business is usually my thing. Really enjoy it!

I'm sure your luck will turn with yours, you did beat WBA 3-0. If you can try organising a friendly between Villa and a really really weak team at home. Villa will win about 10-0 and the team's confidence will come flooding back!

[boumavilla]

(Original post by FrigidSymphony)
Use your half time team talks. If I'm up at half time against a much better team (I'm Aberdeen, say I'm playing Bayern or something in the CL) I tell the team to keep going and that they're doing really well. They need the encouragement. If I'm playing, say, Celtic (who by now are underdogs whenever I play against them) and I'm up by a still overturnable scoreline (1-0, 2-0, 2-1, etc) I always tell them something like "We may be ahead but don't lose focus now, the game isn't over" or "don't get complacent now, the game isn't over". They'll go out and bang in another three goals. If you tell them everything's fine, they can lose themselves up their arses and let a sub-par team pull off an upset.

Good call, but recently they hadn't been reacting well to team talks and they all seemed motivated from my talk of 'keep it up'. I'll get into them next time. Besides it was my coach Martin Keown's team talk.

[FrigidSymphony]

(Original post by BlueSmarties)
Currently got a striker whose scored 40 goals in 18 apps, one of which was from the bench. Desperate to see what he's on at the end of the season!

How the **** do you score from the bench? You mean he was as far down the pitch as the benches were?