Subject: Stupid Defencemen

hey guys,

my defensive line seems to be worse at decision making than George Bush. They could have the ball and WAY in the clear to do something with it but they turn toward the sideline and punt the ball into the stands. Why do they do this? is this due to bad playmaking, passing or having a poor coach?

That's more about passing than playmaking. My team is the king of sucky passing, so I know what I'm talking about )-: Playmaking would help a bit too, but if you want to keep your defenders from kicking balls around randomly, you need to pick up some players with a bit of passing skill.

I'd say that after the usual suspects (defender, stamina and pace), passing and technique are the most useful skills for a back to have. Probably ranking up there with pace in fact; it doesn't do you much good to get to the ball first only to give away a throw-in.

Both PM & passing are relevant (tactics are part of it too). For me, I've found PM the more important of the two with respect to defenders keeping balls in play.

I'll trust you on this one Seca...my defenders also have sucky PM (-:

If you watch closely, usually you can tell if it was PM or passing that caused the kick-out. If it's PM, then it was a clear decision, and often there is no receiver anywhere near where the ball goes out. If it's passing, you can generally discern for whom the ball was intended.

At the start of the season I had the following 4 defenders playing the flank back positions:

formid PM, weak pass
solid PM, formid pass (X2)
excel PM, outstand pass

All had comparable (horrible) form except for one of the solid-formid guys. The best (by far) at keeping the ball in play was the first, which I found really surprising (I was expecting the 4th - and with a larger sample of games the 4th guy probably would have established himself as the most effective). For me, I put PM ahead of passing on defenders. For wide defenders it's even more important - I'll put PM ahead of passing and tech on those guys.

ok, another question about intellegence... in the last 2 or 3 games ive realized that my guys are doing things that are uncharacteristic of themselves... like my second best forward got the ball and for a second turned and ran the wrong way.... stupid stuff like that, and their shot selection has gotten worse, they hold the ball till they get stripped of it.... so annoying... whats going on? 2 games a week too much for them or is it a coaching thing?

Sounds like random luck. Hopefully they will smarten up next match. :)