January 29th, 2020
Bundesliga
Gladbach (17th, 2-6-10, 12pt) at 1860 München (13th, 4-6-8, 18pt)
I'm so happy Gladbach is doing badly. Serves you right Kirchhoff.
Starting Lineup
GK Vlachodimos
DL Grasso
DC Moncelli
DC Touré
DR Roberto
DM Stark
DM Cermak
AML Romanenko
AMC Vera
AMR Olivieri
ST Dimitrijevic
Gladbach is playing a 4-2DM-2MC-2ST formation. Looks kinda like a top hat. Will make going down the middle very difficult I think so I tell my team to Exploit the Flanks and to Play Wider.
In the 44th minute they score when they pass into the penalty area and their guy beats my defender (Moncelli). Here's the thing, Moncelli was ahead of him and was easily going to beat him to it, but then suddenly, he slows down for no reason and their player blows by him and gets to it first and scores. That did not look normal on the 3D and looked like some voodoo magic or something. There was no reason for him to slow down when he was chasing a ball at that angle. It's not like he was in front of it and was waiting for it to get to him and someone crossed in front of him, he was still running it down at ~90 degree angle, their player running directly behind him and their player blows by when he inexplicably stopped....(it was similar to rage-quit Madden level absurd looking). When I saw it on 2D first (which is what I watch when watching the match), I was sure it was going to be called a foul...
Stark usually manages to get a good match rating, but he misses on medium to long range passes constantly! It's like a not so good QB getting a good QB rating. The stats say he's good, but when you watch him you just think "This guy can't throw the ball 10 yards down the field, how the hell can he have a career 94.5 QB Rating!?" I'm fucking tired of seeing Stark turn the ball over. "Yannick Stark has misplaced many of his passes straight to the opposition" is becoming a running theme on my Analysis - Feedback screen, yet every game 6.8, 7.0, 7.1 ...
I don't know what happened to Touré. He started off the year well but for the last few months he's been total shit.
They score in the 61st minute. Moncelli stepped up to try to intercept a pass. He didn't and they passed around a few times as my defense reacted to one less DC in the area until they scored. Hard to really get on him, though. He's stopped their offense and helped create offensive chances by doing that (or so says the Feedback page "Davide Moncelli has been making some crucial interceptions for us")
In the 70th minute, Romanenko sends in a cross and Vera puts it in to cut their lead in half.
In the 74th minute, Vera passes to Romanenko on the outside who brings it inside and blasts one by the GK to tie the game up.
Whatever "Bossing the midfield" means, that's what Vera is doing this match.
You know, it kinda annoys me when I see other people (and I'm talking about all games, not FM) constantly complain about "cheating AI" but I really do feel like with that first goal, I lost to "the game" rather than an opposing team. I didn't get any feedback for what happened. Was he grabbed and the foul went all called? Did he just slip? Anything? Nope, the only thing in the Report is "STEPINSKI SCORED FOR GLADBACH!"
After I went down 0-2, I moved Stark and Cermak from DM to MC and switched Vera to a Shadow Striker and put my Team Mentality to Attacking. That seemed to spur my guys into action.
Gladbach 2 - 2 1860 München
9 - Shots - 12
3 - On Target - 6
1 - Clear Cut Chances - 1
0 - Half Chances - 3
17 - Fouls - 11
3 - Yellow Cards - 1
44% - Poss. - 56%
POM: Ruslan Romanenko (1 Goal, 1 Assist)
Player Performances
GK Vlachodimos 6.8 , DL Grasso 6.7 , DC Moncelli 6.7 , DC Touré 6.2 (YC, off 56) , DC Caballero 6.7 (on 56) , DR Roberto 6.6 , DM/MC Stark 6.8 , DM/MC Cermak 6.8 , AML Romanenko 8.5 , AMC Vera 8.3 , AMR Olivieri 6.8 , ST Dimitrijevic 6.8
Goals: Romanenko, Vera
Assists: Vera, Romanenko