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Help with losing streak

Started on 11 March 2013 by enf91
Latest Reply on 28 March 2013 by gert78
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I posted a thread about my propensity to hit long losing streaks and have no idea how to get out of them. Someone responded that I should change my tactics. (The other said to repost here.) I already have 3 tactics (or had: I couldn't break the streak and was fired). They were all at maximum fluidity:

4-4-2: everything normal
4-5-1: attacking, more direct, more expressive, press more, zonal marking
4-2-3-1 deep: defending, shorter, more disciplined, stand-off, man marking

It didn't matter which formation or strategy I picked: I couldn't win. So I'm a little confused about "changing tactics": the only way to change tactics to something the computer hadn't prepped against would be to pick a tactic my team was unfamiliar with, which could only be worse.
I'm now with a new team (newly promoted part-times, no less), and I don't want to hit another 10-game losing streak.
Who are you? As in, what team? PM me, so I can very easily keep track maybe.
Well, I was Chieti. As I said, they fired me. Now I'm with Lousada.
Could it have something to do with my not sticking with the tactical instructions? For example, I fielded my defensive formation, but switched to attacking or standard instructions for a game since my team seemed to do well with long passes and an attacking mentality.
Also, the game says how teams fare against certain formations but not against certain tempos, widths, etc. Unless there's someplace I'm not looking...
team talks to boost morale say they were unlucky etc or team meetings

another way if you have days free like international breaks have several friendlies against against poor opposition on make several friendlies with the reserves all within the space of a few day dont move the players to the reserves choose the option to manage them yourself for a bit this way you wont risk upsetting them morale is pretty important i think
Actually you can be perfectly familiar with more than three tactics if you go about it in the right way. I have a mix of 40 different match tactics, 18 of which my team have perfect fluidity with, the others only slightly less than perfect. I've written an article about how to do it, which could help you. Whenever I notice my team are starting to win by fewer goals I switch to a different tactic, and they start winning by more again; this usually happens every season or two for me.
But just any tactic? Against any team? With any strategy? I think I'm just overwhelmed by the sheer number of variables.
Yeah, you can pretty much do anything. I think this is the kind of situation where the depth of this game is truly amazing, it make it so much more involving than something like Fifa or Pro Evo (and that's from someone who just bought PES!).

In my view, the available players should determine the different strategies you set up as options (if you don't have a tall striker who is good in the air, there's not much point going route one, if your midfielders are small with good technique then short fast passes would work well, etc), and out of those you should choose the ones you feel are most effective against the opposition you're facing. As the opposition becomes more familiar with your favoured strategies, you just start using different options.

I tend to have fast, small strikers, and a midfield full of great passers with pace on the wings. The best strategies for the squad are possession football, counter attacking and all out attacking. The best formation depends on which players are available. To begin with, I used 4-2-3-1 possession most of the time. After that became less effective, I switched to 4-4-2 counter. Next, I started using an attacking 4-3-3. Then I switched back to the first strategy.

For specific games I'd sometimes switch to a different formation or strategy to surprise them, which can make a huge difference. Even using the normal strategy there's a lot of little tweaks you can do to improve performance and counter the opposition's strengths. It just depends how deep you want the game to be!
I don't think you have to change the tactics that much less the type of players you have are really not of a high standard .Championship teams and teams of a lower league are better suited to simple formations ...from the formations you have chosen here

4-4-2: everything normal
Change it to attacking not just normal

4-5-1: attacking, more direct, more expressive, press more, zonal marking
Remove press more and keep passing to short or default not direct and change freedom from expressive to default or more disciplined

4-2-3-1 deep: defending, shorter, more disciplined, stand-off, man marking

change defending deep to normal ,discipline is fine ,remove stand off to the default and man marking to zonal

Follow the in games tips as well :
Don't be too harsh on match talks when losing away from home
Try to keep morale up players perform better
If you leaking too many goal set defenders to ultra defensive with no creative freedom

Besides those remember the lower the skill level of your team the higher the fitness level needs to be

sometimes to stop the rot you gotta park the bus

who are you managing anyway
I don't think you have to change the tactics that much less the type of players you have are really not of a high standard .Championship teams and teams of a lower league are better suited to simple formations ...from the formations you have chosen here

4-4-2: everything normal
Change it to attacking not just normal

4-5-1: attacking, more direct, more expressive, press more, zonal marking
Remove press more and keep passing to short or default not direct and change freedom from expressive to default or more disciplined

4-2-3-1 deep: defending, shorter, more disciplined, stand-off, man marking

change defending deep to normal ,discipline is fine ,remove stand off to the default and man marking to zonal

Follow the in games tips as well :
Don't be too harsh on match talks when losing away from home
Try to keep morale up players perform better
If you leaking too many goal set defenders to ultra defensive with no creative freedom

Besides those remember the lower the skill level of your team the higher the fitness level needs to be

sometimes to stop the rot you gotta park the bus

who are you managing anyway
1. defend ultra thight. only short passes, no creative freedom. Set your defenders role to solid defender and not as defender or ball playing defender.
2. use (older) players with higher determination attributes. Workrate is also a must. These players wont give up and keep on fighting.
3. motivate younger players during team talks ("you did good but I know you can do better) and don't be afraid to be harsh against older players (they have much better mental stats)
4. have a private meeting with a player when he's played 3 bad games in a row (recent form was bad or last game game option).
5. if your strikers are having a dry spell play friendlies against lower sides.
6. have enough players in a support subrole to feed the striker(s). Also a ball wining midfielder role with high pressing and defending attributes will keep things tight at the back
7. remember that the stars your assistant gives you for a playerr aren't always 100% correct. Try players with lower ratings. They often surprise you.

These are some of the steps that broke my losing streaks in the past. Hope they do the same for you. Just keep in mind there is no right answer to this. Every team is different just keep experimenting.

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