Hello Fidel,
Enjoyed the new patch. In some ways it is the best yet and i've had some great moments. What's been most impressive is that scoring goals now requires all different sorts of tactics. I've scored from crosses, open play, rebounds and spectacular long shots.
However it is also one of the must frustrating editions, primarily because it feels like the computer has a few unfair advantages that stack up.
> My main complaint is the computer's speed of thought. It seems that whenever I go to take a pass, take a cross or shoot the computer will somehow get in a touch, interception or block in a way that would be virtually impossible for a human player to replicate. It's immensely frustrating. The AI reaction speed is just that little bit too quick.
> Additionally blocking occurs too often in general, especially by the computer. I remember in 09 I switched down the likelihood of blocking by about 2/3 and the result was a revelation. It's isn't that blocking doesn't happen a fair bit in real life, it's just that it's very hard for the human player to compete with the level of blocking the computer player pulls off.
> Long balls are still far too slow. If you watch them in real life they often zip from end of the pitch to the other, moving pretty fast because often they have to be hit pretty hard to go that far. In this game it takes forever and your players are very vulnerable standing still waiting for the ball to arrive at their chest.
> I personally think the passing speed is too slow. I've had to change my general style to make my passing very short, when it was pretty short to begin with.
> Full back marking is still off. They have serious trouble sticking to wingers and usually simply get bypassed. I keep having to manually tell my full backs to mark the wingers and even then they keep leaving their man and getting cut apart from through balls.
> It's too hard to win headers in the opposition box. It feels like the defenders get a massive advantage when defending headers so that it's difficult to get a look in. This may be partially down to the computer's superior tussling ability. Additionally headers are still generally not accurate enough even when you do every right. I played about two dozen games over the week and only managed to score one header from a corner.
> The computer pushes your players off the ball far too much. I've improved a fair bit in how I hold up the ball, but sometimes the computer keeps getting away with pushing my strikers off in a way that would earn penalties in real life. I find it pretty hard to judge which exact direction to push when i'm also trying to run in on goal, while the computer has the natural sense of it, which becomes frustrating.
> Attacker don't have good enough anticipation off the ball. When rebounds, blocks, post hits or deflections happen the defenders are almost always the quickest to react and the attackers just seem to stand around the box rather than anticipating a chance for a shot or pass.
> As others have mentioned it's perhaps a smidgen little to difficult to take the ball from the CPU with a tackle. At the moment almost all the time I win possesion back is when they miscue or hit long balls.