I thought I was going nuts, or had just changed from being a pretty damn good manager on CM/FM over the years to being completely rubbish in one fell swoop! Having checked on the forums though, it seems as though a lot of people are having problems with the match engine and tactics working, just as I am.

I'm not a novice at CM/FM - been playing the series for a long time. I'm also au fait with a lot of the good quality theories out there on everything from tactics, formations, training and team talks/media handling.

Since loading up 8.0.1, the games have been so weird and random that, like some others on these forum pages, I started mucking about with really extreme tactics and instructions just to see if the match engine was even working at all!

My take on the whole issue is that some people on the forums are over-exaggerating somewhat, but there are definitely serious problems. It's still a playable game, but some very basic instructions given to players are very often ignored/don't work and there are some really odd anomalies in game play.

My favourite recent one was last night, with my 6ft 4in target man failing to win a single, solitary header despite his two markers being considerably worse players and much shorter than him. he went up for 27 headers and won non of them!

The one on one thing has been well documented, but if the strikers at my sunday league club hit their shots straight at the keeper so many times in a match they'd be hauled off the field, never mind premiership players!

I can't get the target man instruction to work like it did in '07, my corners takers can have 20 for corner taking and still hit them straight at the near post every time and often straight off the field, no matter what instruction they are given. my keeper refuses to play the ball short!

last night my pretty talented premier league team managed a creditable 1-1 draw at stamford bridge with a 4231 defensive tactic, but got destroyed by blackburn 3-0 in the first half at ewood park, with my defenders looking like they were all absolutely finished from a tough night out! managed to turn it round to just a 3-2 defeat after half time but seems odd that results should be so wildly different. this was also the game in which my target man failed in every one of his 27 leaps for the ball!

all i want is for my players to DO WHAT I ASK THEM TO DO, and not turn up ****ed for matches and let the opposition casually stroll by! and for my target man to win a header now and again. and for my keeper to understand the value of the short ball for possession!

there are many more weird things going on in this version, but it hasn't stopped me playing. i'm quite looking forward to seeing what 8.0.2 will offer and how much it fixes. would love some comment from someone at si about why the game is so strange in 8.0.1 and what 8.0.2 will do, but guess that they are sick of hearing about it now!

my corner takers tend to hit it to the penalty spot most of the time.
i find getting a good free kick taker makes all the difference for free kicks.
pander the left back scored loads.

I play for a very low quality sunday league team (hope none of them are one here else I'm in trouble!) and I take all the corners from the left. If I can put the ball pretty much over the penalty spot with some pace on it most of the time, I'd expect a player in FM with a 20 corner taker rating to get it right 9 times out of ten! It's literally every other corner that is messed up! It's like watching Charles N'Zogbia take free kicks and corners for Newcastle - every one is rubbish!

Off the subject, but if King Kev happens to be a FM fan and reads this (yeah, right!) then PLEASE tell Charlie to give the ball to someone else from now on. PLEASE!!!

There are problems, no one can deny that. Agree, the target man thing never works properly, but in FM07 I thought it worked far too well - Eddie Johnson 40-50 goals a season? - so I guess they need to work on it a lot more.

Re corners - get rid of anyone either loitering on the near post and have no one set to "flick on". You start to score plenty but the AI still knocks it out

I set the following:

ST: Challenge GK
AMC: Attack from deep
MC: Outside area
MC: Outside area
Winger: short option
Winger: stand on far post (swap with ST if finishing is poor)
DC: Attack near post
DC: Attack far post
DR: Back
DL: Back

Have set my corner takers so one of these options will disappear depending on who that is, but am scoring 1 in 3 games from corners - Christoper Samba has 5 for the season 2011/12.

Tactics don't counter the statistic problems but can still win you games.

That's true actually. I remember buying Darko Kovacevic for Newcastle in FM07 to replace Shearer (not that Shearer can ever actually be replace, Geordie God that he is) and he scored about 35 goals, most of which were near post headers!

The way you set up corners is pretty much how I have mine in FM08 though, so dunno what's going on there. All the players I have attacking corners are good in the air as well. It's odd...

oh yeah, and players demanding transfers, then getting upset when i transfer list them, then asking to be removed, then moaning to the media again as soon as i've removed them?!!!

what's that all about!! last one to do this was some bloke called bogdan stancu who was a right weirdo. completely schizophrenic!!