Round 20: Tactics and Statistics (29/06/2008 06:11)

So it took 20 rounds, but I've finally figured out one small, but seemingly very vital aspect of tactics. That is, the decision of whether to go longball, mixed, or continental. It seems that in div 6, my mid-field is a force to be reckoned with, so continental yields some amazing results (basically, I have a lot of chances, and the other team has next to none). I'm assuming that someday, when my mid-field is garbage compared to my opposition, I might want to shift to longball. Basically, weak midfield = longball, strong= continental, and if the playing field is pretty level, stick with mixed. I'm sure there's other factors that influence this, but give me time, I'm still learning.

Now some of you may be thinking- "Hey, that's pretty obvious, all you have to do is read the fine print at the bottom of the tactics page to realise that". Yeah? Well I'm not good with details... also my eyes probably hurt or something like that. At any rate I didn't read it alright?

Now I've gotten some strange results out of my team recently, not from the team as a whole, as we've yet to lose a game since a defeat sometime in the early rounds, but from individual players. As I may have mentioned in an earlier blog I'm playing your standard 4-4-2 formation, and my two attackers up front are decent. Both are young, one is of Q73 (or something around that) and one was Q68, but has since improved dramatically. The one that is Q73 also had far superior stats in all departments, bar heading. However, he didn't score goals! The Q68 guy has got 12 goals out of 17 matches while Mr. Q73 has got only 7 in 15 (I get a lot of help from my midfield players as far as goal-scoring is concerned don't worry ;-)).

Is there some sort of hidden stat that is affecting this? Is heading really such a big part of my team-play? Why is it that one guy is supposed to be better but yet, kind of sucks?

As for the bookings I complained about last week, they've eased up when I changed to soft tackles, and just as claimed, it made no impact on my defensive performance, as I haven't conceded a goal 7 games in a row now, though, to be fair, I only conceded 4 prior to this anyway. At any rate I recommend soft tackles to anyone having problems with players sent off. I recently found out (after some light reading) that soft tackles also reduce the amount of fitness lost by your players, which is a nice added perk.

I've already begun looking forward to next season in div. 5, seeing as how, bar some major reversal of fortune, my 14 point lead at the top should hold out. My first move will surely be to buy another midfielder, as the weakest link in my team is a Q63-er who, although has had a couple of assists, isn't really anything special. Some sort of speed-demon is the sort I'm looking for.