Season 75 - Are you ready?

[El Pistolero]

I had exactly that sort of thing with Palace Casuals for three seasons before last season's dramatic resurgence... Hopefully your period of decline will be a lot shorter. One question, do you have any players who are in the last season of their contract (i.e. '?' in the contract duration column)? If so, re-sign them and see if that improves things...

No but I do have about 5 players with 1 year left on his contract. Shall I renew theirs? I can't explain it, I had a really good League against some really good opponents and did well. Now I'm playing against good teams in poor form and still losing leads.
I have dropped my GK as he has been really poor.

Tomorrow I play a tough Cup opponent and my confidence has taken a knock. I can't even rely on counter formations anymore. Even my right winger got a 6 today and he's never had a 6 rating before.

Here is our teams in comparison. Any advice would be appreciated.

[talisman]

No but I do have about 5 players with 1 year left on his contract. Shall I renew theirs? I can't explain it, I had a really good League against some really good opponents and did well. Now I'm playing against good teams in poor form and still losing leads.
I have dropped my GK as he has been really poor.

Tomorrow I play a tough Cup opponent and my confidence has taken a knock. I can't even rely on counter formations anymore. Even my right winger got a 6 today and he's never had a 6 rating before.

Here is our teams in comparison. Any advice would be appreciated.

On this screen (or the mobile App equivalent), if you have any with '?' or '1' in the highlighted column, renew their contracts.



Your opponent is playing 4-1-2-1-2 Wide Diamond, my usual counter-formation is 3N-1(DMC)-4-1(AMC)-1, starting Normal/Middle/Short/Counter, changing as circumstances go (Attack/No counter if losing, Defensive if winning). If you keep running into traffic in their defence, change to Mixed focus and/or passing to give your players more latitude.

[El Pistolero]

On this screen (or the mobile App equivalent), if you have any with '?' or '1' in the highlighted column, renew their contracts.



Your opponent is playing 4-1-2-1-2 Wide Diamond, my usual counter-formation is 3N-1(DMC)-4-1(AMC)-1, starting Normal/Middle/Short/Counter, changing as circumstances go (Attack/No counter if losing, Defensive if winning). If you keep running into traffic in their defence, change to Mixed focus and/or passing to give your players more latitude.

Thank you. I took a lot from that which may help me in other games.

One problem, I can't use flat 4 midfield as Escobar my best player is AMR/ST.

Ah I see, 1 year on mobile equals "?" on desktop. Ok, all renewed, hopefully they repay their wages in performances. Thank you.

[talisman]

Thank you. I took a lot from that which may help me in other games.

One problem, I can't use flat 4 midfield as Escobar my best player is AMR/ST.

Ah I see, 1 year on mobile equals "?" on desktop. Ok, all renewed, hopefully they repay their wages in performances. Thank you.

If you really need to play Escobar (I would in your situation), either play him as the ST or instead of the MR in the AMR position, but with a Blue (defensive) arrow so he keeps an eye on the opposition ML. If anything, it will keep the opposing manager wondering what you're up to.

I used to keep the last year contract players hanging on renewing their contracts until the 3rd day of the following season (bearing in mind that I couldn't play them in the first two Cup matches) and it didn't affect their performance. It seems that Nordeus have put in a change that now affects their performance - last year's resurgence for Casuals was the first time for quite a while I've renewed the contracts at the start of the season (as an experiment) instead of letting them hang on. This season did the same and both Casuals and Terriers are playing the same as Casuals did last season.

[El Pistolero]

If you really need to play Escobar (I would in your situation), either play him as the ST or instead of the MR in the AMR position, but with a Blue (defensive) arrow so he keeps an eye on the opposition ML. If anything, it will keep the opposing manager wondering what you're up to.

I used to keep the last year contract players hanging on renewing their contracts until the 3rd day of the following season (bearing in mind that I couldn't play them in the first two Cup matches) and it didn't affect their performance. It seems that Nordeus have put in a change that now affects their performance - last year's resurgence for Casuals was the first time for quite a while I've renewed the contracts at the start of the season (as an experiment) instead of letting them hang on. This season did the same and both Casuals and Terriers are playing the same as Casuals did last season.

Ok, here's how the formations look, just imagine blue arrow on AMR.
I'm nervous but I think I need to take more risks. Would you play low pressing, zonal normal tackling?

[talisman]

Ok, here's how the formations look, just imagine blue arrow on AMR.
I'm nervous but I think I need to take more risks. Would you play low pressing, zonal normal tackling?

From your initial post it looks like overall you're better, Q-wise - I'd start with Low press/Zonal/Normal tackling. If you go attacking for any reason turn off counter and high press on, until they start taking long range shots then turn it off again. I only use hard tackling if I'm in defensive mode and they're still causing me problems - I don't know the difference discipline wise, as I used hard tackling as default for most of a season a few seasons ago and went 13 matches without a card. I've never had any success with man-to-man marking so can't advise from experience there.

[El Pistolero]

From your initial post it looks like overall you're better, Q-wise - I'd start with Low press/Zonal/Normal tackling. If you go attacking for any reason turn off counter and high press on, until they start taking long range shots then turn it off again. I only use hard tackling if I'm in defensive mode and they're still causing me problems - I've don't know the difference discipline wise, as I used hard tackling as default for most of a season a few seasons ago and went 13 matches without a card. I've never had any success with man-to-man marking so can't advise from experience there.

Ok then I'll test in a friendly to get an idea of how the team performs and how they react to changes winning/losing. Thank you for your help. Hopefully it'll turn my season around.