Guide to realistic football experience in FIFA 09!

[Katarinaccio]

Awesome post m8. Here's my 2 cents. The game is definitely has the throughball 1 vs 1 that leads to goals a bit too much. It was the same in FIFA 08 quite a bit actually. I played the game in Legendary, it was how I scored all my goals, Gotta myself some speedy forwards 1-2 through-ball. 1-on-1 tap. But I just did that to get wins. I've realised in 09, goals are becoming much more rewarding in the ways they are set up. These examples are from online play 10 vs 10 but i've scored similiarly offline.

Playing as Arsenal, my m8 playing as Fabregas lays off an outswinging throughball that looked to be going out of bounds at the goal line, because of the rain the ball just stopped short of the line allowing our left wing to swoop in and chip it in one time to adebayor who reached for the header, but only managed to tap it out of a defenders reach where it bounced out right in front of me (Van Persie) and I one time a beautiful half-volley into the top right.

Another game as Arsenal, Fabregas, passes out to Walcott, who opts to cut in for a shot, fakes the shot lays it back to Fabregas about 20m out, He one times a brilliant shot, that the keeper had covered but it took a deflection off a defender and curled into the opposite side of the goal. In that same match we won a free kick about 36m out. Had never scored a freekick in the game, but I figured I might as well try it, God knows driven freekicks never worked for me in 08, but I managed to hit a straight dipping driven shot with Van Persie, went between the wall, defenders heads, of the bottom of the crossbar and in to the top left corner. Ridiculous goal considering no one was expecting it.


Now back to what you were saying, its very interesting that you suggest changing the tactics. I just play exhibitions on all the difficulties till I find one thats utterly impossible and play on that one. In 09 Legendary is that way for me, I discovered after playing so many games in 08 on Legendary, winning games 3-0 with 38% possession, scoring the throughpass 1on1 that the player is responsible for part of the realism in the game. So I transferred that to 09 and its definitely made the game much much more rewarding, especially with all the little game features that have been added, little heel flicks and such on short passes. I'm quite happy that possession play is actually possible now. The passing actually makes a difference and who you have making the pass can make a difference meaning attacks become constructed differently and who you use changes things. What I'm struggling to do however is play, with the ball outside the 18. setting up long shots, they end up getting rushed. What I recently discovered about that is its because my centre midfielders, like to get in the box once the balls been put on the wing. switching a wing attack into a central attack requires a bit more time and movement to allow them to shift back. I was almost convinced that this year they had eliminated what I call the formula goal. in 07 it was the corner of the 18 finesse shot, 35 yarder.
in 08, cutback, low cross, thruball 1on1, roller. 08 was actually pretty bad when it came to that but 09 has definitely cut down on that, if you're playing someone who can defend those simple through balls. You've got a real game on your hands.

[Brendan76]

Another killer post. Great Stuff!
Just played on Pro against Athletico Madrid, they put 3 past me (one was a bad mistake on my part), but I wasn't all that happy with the 3 goals that I scored on breakaways. So this proves that the AI on Pro is good for build up and chance creation, but too risky in defense.
Your post will help me enjoy the game where I'm at- 10 games in. I played FIFA 08 on Pro, EURO 08 on World Class, and I'm still getting used to 09, maybe I'll step up later but this will help either way. 09 is definitely a big leap forward in gameplay.
Thanks. Keep it up. Awesome!

[danielrh]

Originally Posted by bluchampblogger

I love this game. As I get better I realise that very often the scoring happens to be from a throughball that results in on one-on-one situation, which you can finish with a finesse shot. Nowadays, it is happening too very often. This is what people complain as 'route one football' of FIFA 09. This is not a bug or a glitch. I'll explain you why this happens and I'll also suggest you a solution which would make your game lot more tactical and lateral. If you haven't experienced this one-on-one thingy, you are not spoilt yet.

See this game plays so beautifully that you can almost score a goal anyway you want. You can build up to the goal to your heart's content. When there is an easy way out, you can exploit it. You don't want to exploit that because you want realism and simulation as much as possible. When you're playing a league or a cup competition, when you badly need a goal, you'd get it cheaply but wouldn't really enjoy it. Am I right? This "throughball + one on one" happens to be one such quick way of scoring. I don't want route one football and I don't need a readymade way of scoring a goal.

Lot of people have written and said that this game rewards only route one football and does not reward or even facilitate patient build up football with lateral movement. That's primarily because of the number of one-on-ones that people have seen so far in the game. When you keep zipping throughballs to the centre one-on-ones, it's not fun. You are unchallenged. You have one quick way to get out of jail. It subconsciously restricts your creative thinking in building the game up and does not encourage you to play enterprising football. So why does this happen? I'll break the suspense upfront. It's all because of the custom tactics set up of your opponent teams.

I was playing against Real Madrid the other night. Throughball right through the centre, one-on-one to Drogba, goal! I was thinking how this could happen. It can't be that I'm too good at this game. I ruled that out. In reality, they would have floored Drogba instead of watching sprint through 30 yards. The defenders didn't even make a decent attempt to stop Drogba.So I went about investigating further. If you see the custom tactics set up of Real Madrid, you'll understand.

Go to the defence numbers in custom tactics for Real Madrid. Pressure is 65. Aggression is 35. Team width is 65. What does this mean? The 65 for pressure means that the Real Madrid players would start pressurising you quite high on the pitch. When they pressurise, with the kind of responsiveness in FIFA 09, you can quickly exploit the gap created by the pressure with a quick throughpass and boom. But why don't their defenders jockey, tackle and give Drogba a hard time? Because the aggression is set at 35. This means they won't really pounce on you. They would try to contain you but won't tackle you hard. At least they must be blocking Drogba in numbers right? No they won't because the team width is set at 65. That shows that the defence will not narrow down at the back. They would in fact be quite wide and spread, and in case of a quick attack, their full backs will not be able to come to rescue. Goodness me, they also have the defender line as offside trap - good movement or bad movement, they're in it together, the back four.

So now, what settings for Real Madrid here would have challenged Drogba? Pressure is not quite effective without aggression. And I don't want the defender to be activated so high on the pitch. I'd put the pressure in the region of 30-35. Aggression should be between 70 and 80. This way, you won't have it easy. It would be a massive challenge to get through. AI will tackle you, would even foul you and might double the pressure by asking one more defender to help stop you. Your route one football would be effectively over here. The more your 'striker runs' are intercepted by the opposition defence, you'll start thinking of how else to play, build up and score.

So what have I done here. For certain top teams, I have gone and edited the custom tactics set up so that they don't play like absolute idiots. And then I have created certain standard set ups. For instance, relegation battlers. They all mostly play very similarly. So I have personally edited their custom tactics to reflect their deep defending, hard tackling, long balling etc. But I did not want to do this for all of them individually. I started with Stoke City. Edited the custom tactics for them. And then for the similar teams, I just pointed their custom tactics to this saved custom tactics of Stoke City. So simple.

As per the original set up, Stoke had a fast build up play. The players are not as fast as Chelsea players. So when they play fast build up and lose the possession high up on the pitch, they won't even tackle because of the original defence set up in custom tactics and they can't even catch up a monster like Didier Drogba. If they lose the ball in my half, it could be a matter of two or three passes, before you see another one of those Didier Drogba goals. Not anymore. Now they will tackle me, challenge me, double up on me and even crowd in the centre. Lovely isn't it? That's no guarantee for Stoke City that they won't concede, it only improves their defence. Remember, we're not trying to boost any statistics here. If that Stoke defender is rated only 55 in tackling, when you set the their team aggression to 75 or 80, this 55-rated defender would do as much as possible in the framework of his own capabilities.

Apart from the unique tactics I'd like to customise and keep for the champions league teams, I would create more such generalised customised custom tactics for groups like relegation battlers, mid-tablers, euro-aspirants etc. My special concern would be on editing the defence set ups. I'm already half way through this. I love my games now. AI gives me a tough fight through the centre forcing me to come up with new ideas to break it up. With the gameplay of FIFA 09 at my disposal, I love this challenge!

Finally, if you're fine with the game as it is, no worries. Don't tweak anything. Just enjoy your game. Also if you're finding the game already difficult enough, good for you. Keep trying. But just keep checking if your goals are from everywhere and if your goals are produced from varied types of attacks. The moment you realise that all that you do is one-on-ones, use this little tutorial. But remember, one-on-ones are not bad. They are in real football so they must be in FIFA 09 as well. I'm just saying that the proportion should also stay true.

If you think that you're unable to control the game as much as you'd like to, set the passing in chance creation in custom tactics to somewhere around 30 which means safe passing. If you do this alongwith 30 or 40 for passing in build up, there will always be players around you to pass the ball and you can slowly build up and play your game. Having made these tweaks, I'm enjoying this game so much. The quality of my football has really improved and I'm truly enjoying the way I play. Now I have multiple options in mind, I'm trying out new things. Heck, I've strarted to use crossing as a weapon and even putting corners to good use! Let's use the game to its fullest potential!

P.S: (a) I'm referring only to the offline games. (b) I play in 'professional' difficulty. (c) I use 'assisted' for pass, cross and through. 'semi' for shots and 'manual' for lob pass.

Thanks mate - as a ex PES player now playing fifa09 you have opened my eyes to a few things....thanks again!!!

[the stench 96]

mate you're a legend,gunna read your other posts next,do you post on operation sports as well???haven't played online yet,but the thought of ping-pong worries me,definately will have to give the custom tactics some tweaking if i'm playing as wolves.
what width would you set the back line to if you play diamond with a DM???
haven't played any gun teams in MM yet,still only champ teams who all play the fast long ball,I have noticed when i switch to counter attack and clear the ball on the break it's really easy,2-3 passes,to get a shot on goal,been having a ball playing BAP tho!!!

[lungfull]

so what settings are gonna be used for the other types of team?

[hybridmiller]

Incredible original post. It's people who have a problem, look into solving it (instead of moaning and complaining) and then post the resulting answer on here that make it a great community!

[couldntfindnick]

ok just to add to realism... this is exactly what happened at West Ham vs Hull:

EA SPORTS™ Football World - EXETER CITY - DARLINGTON 1 - 1

[MrMatt10]

Originally Posted by couldntfindnick

ok just to add to realism... this is exactly what happened at West Ham vs Hull:

EA SPORTS™ Football World - EXETER CITY - DARLINGTON 1 - 1

Lol that was Herita Ilunga yesterday, funny stuff

[nickskep]

You guys have to realize that when for instance you play with a defence
30
40
30
you will not score a lot.

[elbos3000]

Great post blu!

[Goonerinho]

Great post dude, I'm already halfway through my second season in manager mode, will changing the tactics for the other teams change the tactics in my current saved mm or will I have to start a new one?

[lungfull]

would say you'll have to start a new one

[toopgui88]

Good stuff man... any chance of uploading these to the EA locker room???

[Goonerinho]

bump

[abomufc108]

you are a legend a true legend a legend a legend mate

GREAT POST

[bluchampblogger]

Originally Posted by abomufc108

you are a legend a true legend a legend a legend mate

GREAT POST

Wooah! Thanks a lot mate! Does that mean you tried this and it worked out well?! Let us know. I'm all the more curious to see your post-tweak feedbacks!

[jammakane10]

great post mate, but i have an idea:

if someone who has made all these tactics for the correct team, couldnt they put there team management settings onto a file sharing website, so us people who dont have the time to change it could get the advantages of it?

if you dont want to thats fine, but i instantly thought of it as i used to be a PES player, and i downloaded many files with correct kits etc.

thanks anyway
James

[bluchampblogger]

Originally Posted by jammakane10

great post mate, but i have an idea:

if someone who has made all these tactics for the correct team, couldnt they put there team management settings onto a file sharing website, so us people who dont have the time to change it could get the advantages of it?

if you dont want to thats fine, but i instantly thought of it as i used to be a PES player, and i downloaded many files with correct kits etc.

thanks anyway
James

Thanks James. I've put another thread titled "Custom tactics suggestion for realistic gameplay in FIFA 09" where I have given the custom tactics slider values for various categories of teams. May be that should help!

[IvanRJ]

great post !!!

I play two manager mode: one with Arsenal where I am in the semifinal of the Copa
and lead the league (100% job security and fans 62/100) and another with
Barcelona where I can not play well, the Messi and Henry back too. Both
the legendary level.


With the Barça I am trying but still can not set the best tactic.

[jammakane10]

ok, il change them manually tomorrow, il report back what i think. i might start a stoke MM to test it out, and i fancy playing some long balls

[anamenos9]

people read the OP post and stop moaning...

[bluchampblogger]

Originally Posted by anamenos9

people read the OP post and stop moaning...

thanks

[El_indian]

Thanks, Great Post, I think I'll try this out tonight.

[bluchampblogger]

Hey El Indian! I've put another thread titled "Custom tactics suggestion for realistic gameplay in FIFA 09" where I have given the custom tactics slider values for various categories of teams. Try that, it will be much more detailed and helpful!

[Jennings]

This stuff is genius!

but i have one question, if you have started a MM and then change teams tactics in the main menu will it apply in my MM that i have started ?