Raicu Alin Daniel wrote :
Really trying to understand the match engine but lately I fail in doing so. Lots of unrealistic formations that shouldn't make sense in the real world seem to work in the f4football world. Been playing for a few good seasons and I consider the ME the main problem here; How can I be absolutely dominated by a team with no central defenders, rating and experience lower than mine? https://www.f4football.com/matches/report/42877
I find this match to be a little outrageous to be honest in terms of dominance of the opponent team and the fact that he frickin' used 2 WB as their only defenders. Think ME would really need a rework, but that's just me. But these kind of matches happening too often will make users leave the game, that's my oppinion.
I really think we should restrict the number of players used in a position or on a side( where do we see teams playing with ML, AML and FL?); you could make some restrictions for some particular cases in wich you can't be allowed to save tactics where at least 3 defenders aren't on the field, a maximum of 3 players per side (DL/WBL;ML/AML; FL) etc; with a little effort these kind of absurd formations can be avoided. Cheers!
With that kind of morale, the result is not at all unexpected. But I seriously do not understand how your morale can go so low in just 10 rounds of the season. Are you not playing any friendlies? If not, you should start playing one every round, to remove any morale loss from losing matches. After every loss, play the next friendly with your first team (use all 3 subs to give them morale boost too). Disable xp gains from such friendlies if the youth that you are training are not part of your first team, you can afford to play 30 friendlies without xp gains since only 30 friendlies give you xp.
Now coming back to the match, if you were at a higher morale even in the 90s, you could have easily won it. But lower morale must have taken your player's effective ratings much lower than their real rating. Opponent also had the advantage of playing at home. All these combined obviously made you the weaker team in the matchup. You still managed to get shots on target, which shows the weakness was there in the opposition's defense. First shot @ 1 min- easily gathered by the GK. Second one @39 min - saved by the GK.
If you read through the report, you can see how many times the final ball given away by your team easily. It was not tackles that gave them back possession, it was your passes being intercepted too easily - another effect of low morale. One critical tackle by Xavi Russo, and two key interceptions by Barnabas Gimpel - shows how much experienced players can contribute to the game. They both got back to defend when needed and it proved crucial.
Gabriele Nichols, Rashid Cross and Inness Etxebarria were passing the ball around in that triangle. They kept the ball within themselves easily, and your players didn't press - since you asked your players to press in own half only. Even if you forget about the low morale issue here, not pressing is an easy way to giving up control of the game against weaker opposition especially if they play smart and opt for possession play style. Against stronger opposition, it a different story altoghether. In this match your morale made you the weaker team and the early goal gave your opponent total domination by just keeping the ball. And when you did get the ball, your players gave it back to them again cheaply.
And my final point is - yes I agree there is a lot of improvement to be done in the match engine. Not just punishing irregular tactics, but improving effect of stamina, better simulation of width vs no width -offensively and defensively, defensive tactics conceding too many goals etc. But this match is definitely not an example of a match engine issue, there were plenty of reasons why your players were terrible on the pitch.
