Warning signs?
Season 9 is here. It’s my second season in Division 1. And could it turn out to be the nightmare that I was dreading last season? I say this because I’ve played 5 matches: LLDLL. Wretched form, wretched games.
I was thrown off-kilter in pre-season by some very surprising news. Last season I finished 9th, a couple of places beneath what I thought were all of the European qualifying places. But now I’m told that I have qualified to play in the Europa League. Eh? How did that happen? Anyone got any ideas?
I suppose I should be happy, and I am really. I over-performed last season. This is a sweet little reward for that effort. The inevitable fixture pile-up won’t be welcome, but the additional cash and experience will be. I’m looking at it this way: even if I win just one group match and crash out before the knockout stage, it’ll still be money in the bank that I otherwise wouldn’t have had.
And a quick look at the calendar showed me that the Europa League games get underway a good bit later in the season, not at the start. So I suppose that’s something. ‘Our priority is the League’ has become a cliche of modern football, but it’s so true for me.
I changed both my kits again. For the home kit I decided to go back to basics. The traditional home strip of Coventry City is a plain sky blue. For the away strip I decided to go for something different: a very fetching dark yellow colour that borders on gold. It falls somewhere between Romania and Wolverhampton Wanderers. Next season I’ve got plans to go for something very different on both counts.
I made a few key new signings in the transfer window. And I also sold a few players—notably my star young goalkeeper, Jacobs. I’ve had him since he was a puppy in the Youth Team, so it took a lot of thinking and agonising.
Every player has his price, and Jacobs’s price was £4.5m. Sentimentality is all very well, but I looked at the realistic option that was there on the table in front of me. I could sell Jacobs, and get an equivalently rated young keeper (in the mid-70s) from the Free Agent list for next to nothing. Then I’d have over £4m left to spend on other players—better players than my current crop—who might actually contribute to my team going places this season, instead of treading water. When I thought about it like that, it was a no-brainer.
With the cash in hand, I raided the Free Agents list for an equivalently good young keeper. JAN KUN MU is a year younger than Jacobs, and only a point lower in OVR rating (74). I also picked up a very good WF/SS/CF called SILANOK (76 OVR). In the proper transfer market, I splurged £1.2m on a CF called ITZHAKI (81 OVR). This is my most expensive purchase in my ML career to date. I also paid good money—a token few thousand—for a 21-year-old left-sided SB named FILEKOVIC (62 OVR). I need cover for Ruskin, who is sadly starting to show his age. His OVR rating has slipped down to 60 in the past few seasons. He’s just not the player he was in the early seasons. I think Ruskin will soon have to go, and it will make me sad.
I had a few million left over. I spent some of it on a single staff upgrade (Head Coach, level 3>level 4). I saved the rest—around £1.4m—for a rainy day.
And so the season got going. I’d had a good pre-season, I thought. A good few transfers. I was full of hopeful feelings.
But this feeling was not borne out by results. My first five matches were five very poor games. I was lucky to get that solitary draw. It feels like a different game from the one I was playing at the end of last season.
The new signings have probably diluted my teamwork pool. Possibly my modest success last season was due in large part to the teamwork built up in a fairly stable squad over the previous two seasons in Division 2.
Thumped by Man Utd, and then Man City. Breakaway goals are so hard to stop. When my attacks break down I almost always have to deal with what feels like a mandatory counter-attack that I can’t do anything about. Next-gen FIFA has often given me the same impression when it comes to AI counter-attacks. I do hope that Seabass isn’t copying next-gen FIFA’s bad ideas…
And now for the latest in my mini-series of amusing little clips. During my second leg Cup match against Manchester City, with the tie pretty much already lost, this happened (Man City are the team in black):
Link: 
I was more amused than outraged by this. I had already lost the cup tie, so the goal wasn’t decisive. That fact helped my smile:seethe ratio to stay in the 90:10 zone. I was tickled by the way the ball goes into my net off the Man City player’s raised hand, but, in the finest tradition of PES collision (non-)detection, doesn’t actually touch his hand…
I’ve scored no goals of any note in these opening 5 matches. I’m out of the D1 Cup. I’m 3rd from bottom in the table. I know it’s only been 5 matches, but I’m a little worried. Could this season turn out to be the season of struggle that I thought last season might be?
Been keeping up with your ML since day one and it’s good to see a possible relegation battle on the horizon (your probably 3 days ahead and top 3 or something). Haven’t played FIFA in months as I got bored of its career mode again, and now I have finally purchased PES today. Better late than never to try it out. I’ll be a lot less demanding than I was last year, as I haven’t had the will to game much these last few months.
The new ML format looks daunting and your video of your teams rise and rise was brilliant. I’m not at the age to know what program it was based on, but it reminded me of those yearly BBC retrospectives and it was very well done. I even linked a few non football fans to it and they loved it too.
Not Given—thank you, the movie was a labour of love, and BBC1′s The Rock ‘n’ Roll Years was a popular show back in the late 1980s/early 1990s, when there were only 5 TV channels, and no Internet. Just about everybody watched TV, and they had usually watched what you’d watched the night before. I remember everyone at work back then talking about it the morning after. And no one had an email address. Strange, weird days they were…
I have mixed feelings at hearing you’ve got PES2010! Mostly because I predict that its ‘adorable’ little ways will actually drive you insane. I remember your disgusted reaction to PES2009′s frequent shenanigans last year. Take that, and multiply it by a hundred… If you go in knowing what to expect, it might not feel so bad. By way of advice, do not underestimate the power of the tactical sliders in setting up your ML team. I’m looking a few posts ahead here, but it pays to tinker.
Sadly, I’m not 3 days ahead (and I’m definitely not 3rd). I started an Open University degree this year and I’ve got a big assignment to finish. It’s eaten into my usual gaming time. In PES, I’m only a day ahead at the moment. The action in today’s post took place yesterday morning. The pace on the blog might slow down over the next week or two as I continue to work on other things. It might take me 6 posts to get through a season instead of 3 posts, etc. A slower pace might be beneficial, actually, and let me talk about those sliders and other things in more detail than I have been doing.
I am actually surprised that it has taken you this long to post about the tactical sliders. They do make a world of difference, as I’ve mentioned many times before. My formation, despite staying a 4-3-3, has changed constantly since the beginning of my ML (moving a players a few clicks up, few clicks down, etc.), and looks nothing like the default setup from long ago. I am constantly tinkering with player support, offense type, etc., trying to find that perfect setup, which, of course, by definition has to change depending on player form, teamwork, aging, etc. Like I said earlier, the tactical elements of this game are an organic experience. What I think is perfect on Monday is complete crap by Friday, and I have to start over again. Perhaps the AI actually adjusts to your style???
Seems decent enough so far, feels slightly less free than the demo though? Ominous start though, 0-3 and 2-0 loss so far, haven’t even created a chance. It’s time to change the sliders and start parking the bus.
Ken—there’s loads I’ve never gone into depth on on the blog. It’s all a matter of time, really. Now I’m 9 seasons in and the rush of getting to D1 is out of the way (finally), and I face a bit of a squeeze on my gaming time in real life, I’ll be covering less time per post and taking longer to get through a season. So there should be time and space to digress a little and cover a few different angles. So rather than it all being ‘I played this match and I’m in X position in the league and here’s a clip, bye’, I’ll be focusing a little more on the sliders etc.. The sliders in particular should be a big topic over the next week of posts.
Not Given—did you start with PES/WE United? And the Defaults? On Top Player?! I’m assuming yes to all three, although I remember you wisely putting the difficulty down for a bit on the PS2/PSP version of PES2008 last summer. (Do you still play that by the way? I do, managing roughly 5 matches a week at very scattered times.)
A key slider for me is the one that governs width. If your wide players are hugging the touchline and leaving one player standing in the middle, it’s too high. Re. parking the bus, get that defensive line back—28 is a good number. Deep, but not crazy deep.
Hi, bringing your new goalie in probably has affected your teamplay, but the fastest way for his teamwork to improve is to keep him playing. I haven’t adjusted any settings at all, still playing default 3-5-2 with the only exception that I play a SS in the right hand striker position. If your not planning to win the league this season you should concentrate on keeping the ball and drawing at home and trying to hit on the break away from home to sneak wins. Your squad’s more than strong enough on paper to finish mid table, although I’m mystified as to why Giersen and Libermann are still there, are you trying to punish yourself?
What a fun opening session, the involvement in the team is already better than FIFA 10 and i’m even enjoying the gameplay. Yes I am using the trusty defaults and PES United and I had started on top player. After those two losses I wimped out and restarted the ML (I wanted to change from those made up teams in D2 anyway). I now have the game on Regular. My house rules are regular in D2, professional in D1 and once I earn a European spot its up to top player. This ensures I can only win a treble on top player- I think this is the least frustrating way to start an ML these days. I lack the patience for 4 seasons of parking the bus on top player and still losing these days.
As for PES 08 on the psp I play it the odd time, although it is a great version of PES its reached the limit for me. I now find myself using the same patterns of play to score over and over again, and like my experience with PES4 a long time ago, i’m winning every game 8-2, 5-1, 6-3 and then losing the odd (very scripted and necessary) 1-0s. The variety has gone sadly.
The space i’m getting on regular is serving as a good practice for shooting. Scored 1 outside the box with Guitterez, and a few headers.
Change of plan it seems. After nine matches i’m joint top with 21 points, regular is just a little easy unfortunately. We should not be beating Benfica 4-1 with this default team. Feels a little awkward changing the difficulty to professional one quarter of the way through the season, but I am not starting again!
madrab—Giersen and Libermann are still in the squad because they haven’t gone anywhere, I’ve not sold them, and they’re unsellable now. I’ve not released them either, as I don’t want to take the morale hit to the rest of the squad. I know it wears off after a few weeks but I need to have every advantage I can get. Maybe I could release them at the start of a transfer window though.
Not Given—don’t let your expectations of what ‘should’ happen in PES210′s ML be misled by reading about my experience. From the sound of those House difficulty Rules you describe, I think you might be anticipating something like my own experience. I doubt you’ll get that! You might even end up mystified, as so many have been, about why I’ve struggled, and am still struggling. Promotion in season 1, even with the Defaults, and even on Top Player, is pretty common—possibly even the norm. I hope you get more of a challenge on Professional.
I’d have no chance on top player, I knew that in two matches. Professional is indeed the sweet spot, 2 draws and a loss- and each match was tight. The first draw had a final 10 minutes of end to end attack, Ettori had an in range free kick in the 92nd to win it, just missed. The loss was typical pes stuff, 1-0 up at half time, Celtic script their way to a last minute header to win 1-2- great stuff.
Is there a goal keeper glitch? Once every two games my cursor goes to the GK and stays there, and I end up controlling him BAL like until the ball goes out of play. It’s left me in a few tricky positions where I have had to protect the goal as my CPU team defends me. It has yet to cause a goal but I won’t be happy when it does.
Earned a very hard 0-0 draw away to Sporting and the game froze as I went to save. Must be a PS3 problem as it happened all the time in FIFA too. The PS2 really is miles above anything this generation has produced. It’s the age of broken faulty consoles. I put the game on 5 minutes and beginner, and passed out my 0-0 draw.
Finally has anyone noticed that injury time may be preset before the match begins? There was 3 minutes for my first match against Sporting, where I desperately defended it out. But in the 2nd game where I simply passed the ball about with no stoppages there was STILL 3 minutes at the end. Very strange.
Not Given—I’ve never heard of that kind of glitch. You might be triggering it accidentally through button-presses. There’s a command new to PES2010 that does switch to your keeper, BaL-style—have a look in the manual to see what it is, and make sure you’re not doing it inadvertently. If it’s not that, then I can’t think what it could be. What are your cursor settings?
have u seen spooky’s stuff?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrXSYPm_gg0
Hi not Greg, glad to see you have made the First division!! thats great news, i had a similar shaky experience in my second season, it some how got much much harder? but im not sure why, i was bottom until february!!! i got lucky though and ended up in the Europa league by the end of the season! wierd huh.
I was wondering if you or any of your readers had any experience with PES on the PSP as I was thinking of getting one to stave off the hours of boredom travelling to and from work and wondered whether its a worthy endeavour? My PES addiction is massive and i thought this could scratch the itch!! Anyway good luck for the second half, loving the gold away strip!
bigballs—I have seen that series, yes, and it does look good. I played a bit of BaL last year and was impressed for a while, but became disenchanted with many aspects of it. I might get around to trying it again this year, who knows? It all depends how long Master League lasts me. It’s lasting me very well right now.
Lord Stanley—Master League is variable for many people. There’s no one universal type of experience any more (and maybe there never was). This is a very good thing in my view.
I’ve got a lot of experience with the PSP version of PES2008, which is a really great version of PES. You wouldn’t go wrong there and you could probably get it for a few quid now. I think that game alone justifies the whole existence of the much-maligned PSP. Well, that and the Monster Hunter games of course (and maybe Disgaea too!), but you don’t want to hear about all of that…
Naturally PES2009 and PES2010 also have their PSP versions, but I’ve only played the former for about an hour and the latter not at all. Presumably they both do as good a job as the 2008 version in replicating ‘classic’ PES on a handheld, but I can’t vouch for them personally. (In case you’re wondering, 2010′s PSP version does not feature the new Master League. It’s the same older style ML as seen in all the other games too.)