Destroyed by big teams away

[yaniv297]

Hey,
I'm playing as Southampton in my second year. I'm in a decent position in the league (7th right now, was even 4th for a while), and generally has good results. I play 4-2-3-1 that looks like this:

Shaw - Lovern - Munoz - Clyne
Wanyama - Schneiderlin
Tadic - Ramirez - Douglas Costa
Osvaldo

Usually it works alright.
But the problem is, I can't seem to face big teams, especially away. I played Man United away, I'm 4-0 down by halftime, possesion is 62% for them (and I usually play for possesion), shot count is 28-3 (!!). This happened a few times.
I saved before the game and tried a bunch of tactics, just as experiment (Obviously if I eventually win, I will not save the game, and go back and lose it like it actually happened). I tried lots of stuff - playing my normal formation with possesion/attacking intent, playing on the counter, pumping balls into the box. I tried 4-3-3 with defensive mids, tried 4-4-1-1 with the midfielders as wingers, tried some more stuff. And I just can't get anything decent from this game (my best shot was losing 3-2, but that was probably luck as I was getting battered on the stats as per usual).

I'm on a decent run, after 2 straight wins, United are better than me, but it's only 4th against 7th, my team is still good and should be able at least to put up some kind of a fight.

I'm an experinced player, played regularly since FM11 with similar teams (Fulham, Sociedad) and never encountered this. Usually I'll play more carefully, maybe on the counter, I almost always fought well and managed to grab a win occasionaly. Now it feels like whatever I'm doing, I'm being run over.


I don't know if I'm doing something wrong, or it's just the game. But if you have any suggestions about surviving those games without ruining morals, please share.

Thanks

 

[RajGro]

Not sure why - I guess it may be to do with mental attributes? Also how do you prepare your teams for this game? Whenever I come up against a big team, I'm sure to always downplay our changes (acknowledge it'll be tough in press conference), I'm always sure to tell the players they are underdogs, and I always prepare the match by doing defensive positioning.

I'm currently playing with Villa, and admittedly I am using a very defensive tactic (4-1DM-2-2W-1), with Benteke up top as a target man, inside forwards on the wing, ball winning DM, and B2B/AP midfielders, rigid and counter mentality.

I'm 11th in the league, so ahead of the media predicted 16 and above my targets of avoiding relegation (after 30 games).

My results against the big teams have been:

Arsenal Home - Lost 1-2 (to a 90th minute goal, but was fairly even on CCC's)
Man Utd Away - Lost 0-2 - was pretty dominated in this game.
Tottenham Home - 1-1
Liverpool Home 2-2
Chelsea Home Won 3-1
Man City Away 2-2
Arsenal Away Lost 0-1 (again, 93rd minute goal!)
Man Utd Home 1-1
Liverpool Away Won 3-1

I actually tend to struggle against the "2nd/3rd tier teams" e.g. Newcastle, Fulham, West Brom, and Everton. I think I'm on 6/6 defeats against these sides.

In terms of morale, it's as I mentioned above. Never expect a result, and make sure they know they aren't expected to get a result. Make sure you only use it against the big big teams though. If you use it against a team that you should have a chance of beating (e.g. Newcastle at HOME), they'll be unhappy and demotivated, and put in a terrible performance.

 

[nezza6969]

when you get a report for the opposition ( it should be a little pitch with green on top red on bottom ) look at the numbers located in the mini pitch but mainly look at the red, it will show you how many mistakes they have made in certain areas, then simply exploit those areas to the max.

all big teams have a weakness or Achilles heal, you just have to find it.

but watch out though the opposition will also know your weak points.