What to do when falling behind?

[Al Svanberg]

What do you guys do when you fall behind in a game and things aren't going great? (Ie not the situations when you are down 1-0 after 3 mins but have 20% edge on the other team and will dominate her/him)

Being at low lvls I don't have much experience of it, but it seems like it's not working well to push hard forward...

[nikolgiorgos]

the most important and reliable is 1-2 subs.
then if I 'm playing with the new version, the training bonus

then things with hard - attacking/tackling/pressing + arrows
if it doesn't help after few (game) minutes, then nothing you can do
call it a bad day
like today

[Awe Imoleayo Peter]

Well.... I just calm down and see what went wrong, check if it can be savaged and react accordingly..... If I am not calm, I may never recover.

[Al Svanberg]

AForgot about this thread.

For me it almost never works to press forward, go from normal to attacking/hard attacking. And that is also definitely my favorite reaction from an opponent. Like a typical game where you face a better opponent and is pushed back but you manage to take the lead anyway and the opponent tilts and move up players in the pitch and use hard attack. In those games it feels like you often end up scoring 4-5 goals despite being behind 30-40%.

So nowadays I really try to be poised and basically don't do much. I focus on spotting who is doing well for the opponent, if a winger of his is streaking I might pull back an arrow for my D at that side, or pull back an arrow on a MC/DMC to better cover a midfielder doing well. Sometimes I also just shift players on my back line. Like it I face two strikers and one is doing great, I can shift spots of my DCs to get a new match-up. Small stuff like that. Setting hard tackling can help. Offensively I mostly work with focusing passes to different areas, sometimes activating counter attacks.

But it's interesting to hear what moves you guys got. For me less has been more, but I am sure there are alternatives out there!

[HoofDaddy]

i might shift my passing focus if I notice that my opponents CBs are dispossessing my STs often or my wingers are wasting good opportunities with poor crosses, i also look to see if they are playing man marking with trap or zonally. The visual cues in the browser version are quite telling if you know what to look for. i've also been known to flip my strikers/MCs if I am playing two of them, slight changes in arrows can help attackers that are shooting too often wastefully/not enough as well as reduce offsides.

[LeManiaque]

I check which players have a lower than usual rating, or watch which ones fall from the beginning and try to understand if I can change something.

For example, my DR almost always has an attack arrow, but in rare cases his rating will fall, in which case I see if opponent has 2 players pressuring that flank (if they have "clashing" arrows). In that case, switching DR to no arrow, then to back arrow if rating keeps falling. Reading ratings has taken him from dropping below 6 to MoM in the course of 35'.

The 2 other lessons agree with others: 1) Don't panic and stick to a plan. I'm convinced I cost myself the cup this season - I refused to sub in DMC for AMC during a game I was losing even though that was my pre-game plan if losing. On the return leg, I switched formations and trounced the opposition, but lost on aggregate. Would've moved forward with more disciplined response.

2) Some formation match ups really require backing down to normal or defensive to stop giving up opportunities. It's hard to do.

[LeManiaque]

i also look to see if they are playing man marking with trap or zonally. The visual cues in the browser version are quite telling if you know what to look for.

Care to explain your observation? I think we could assemble a little list of possible visual cues.

My guesses: visually defenders get a bit "wiggly" in front of their challenger when they are trying to force counter, especially when high pressing.
Defenders shift more often into open passing lanes and further from defenders, or are more willing to double team when zonal.
I think there are also attack patterns that happen mostly when off-side trap is broken.

[nash123]

@ Al

I think, there's no way, that everytime works. It depends on so many factors... but I'll give you my experience:

I play only new version, because many times I'm not at home, if I have a game.
I usually start with 4-5-1V, defensive, counter. (Other formation only, if I face a formation I know, it doesn't work. F.E. My team can't win vs 4-4-2 classic with 4-5-1V, so there I change).
At minute 20, I go to homescreen and back to game, check the current stats. If the opponent has much more shots on target, I'll turn off counter. I also read the AM-Hints.
1. scenario: Things don't go well, I make some changes, but this depents on: my players rating, opponents player rating. Maybe I make a sub, maybe I set some arrows, maybe I change position.
2. scenario: If things go well, but I conceed a goal, I'll stay the next 10-20'. After that, I'll go out and check stats again.
- If the stats are with me, I'll stay again next 10-20'.
- If not, see scenario 1
3. scenario: Things go well, I take the lead, so I have both eyes on the opponents formation. If he change something, I'll try to guess, what he's doing, to set new tactic or change some position.

F.E. CL-quater finals:
I took the lead at 13'. At 22' his team scored, but he didn't change his formation, so I went on. Last highlight before I wanted to switch out, I conceeded 1:2 (38'), so I checked stats and saw, it didn't work. At halftime, I changed formation, made one sub. Finally I won 4:2.

[Nemer Nser]

first of all
check ur players ratings.. if a play is under 6.0 points(even if its an amazing player)
sometimes u have to let the players in.. even if they are lower than him.
give younger players a chance
then you maybe can ( if you are playing 4 defenders) change to 3 and add an extra striker it might help you score a goal..
but BEWARE going full on attack will leave you defence open to counter attacks. try playing offside on but if the enemy team is playing defensive counter attacks.
you can just count on your free kick takers and call it a bad day.