Asunto: National Team U21

Hopefully he is getting enough of a bonus to push him up to 100% training on the weeks he does play for the NT.

I have been a little annoyed. I want Morgan back up front, but since I sold him, his form plummeted.

Zane's form has picked up, but I have received no skill updates to know if he is even getting any better

Same old story, strikers failing to finish. 1 from 12 is disgraceful.

Sounds like my VM team last season.....went on a mid-season run where we would have double figure shots on target, compared to 1-2, yet could not buy a goal....or scored one & the opposition did the same from their only shot. All with me having one of the top rated 27yo strikers (globally) & a keeper rating the equal or above their strikers. Still we survived, just!!

Hopefully they get their shit together for the Asian cup next week.

I have tried old tactics that have been proven to be good, tried changing up strikers and different striker levels, and have tried using higher form (but lower skilled players).

It's definitely getting frustrating, and even more so that we let in with much fewer shots despite having a Divine GK in great form

Aye. GK seems to be an issue. If I recall correctly, not the first game where the better GK (as opposed to opposition strikers) has let in the goals?

Same old story, strikers failing to finish. 1 from 12 is disgraceful.

In Australia's group, I think 3 teams will be fighting for the top 2 spots and they are Israel, Australia and Malaysia. While Israel has a stronger chance of getting that top spot, it can still be anyone. Malaysia is definitely stronger than what their ranking suggests. Their recent matches prove that as they have beaten teams like Letzebuerg, UAE, Panama and have also drawn against Israel this season although I don't think Israel fielded their strongest side there. South Korea (Daehan Minguk) give good average mark but their recent results are not that impressive. If Australia somehow manages to beat or even draw against Israel, you have a strong chance for the top spot. Trajcevski, Marth and Zane have to bring their A game in the match against Israel. I think Australian forwards (Marth was really good in the recent friendly against my club but unlucky) and mids look great, it's only the defence that might have problems.

Haha don't get me started on our Def.
I was going to compile a list, in order, showing the form of our best to worth defenders. It is kind of entertaining.

Last match top 3 defenders were tragic form, 4th was injured, 5th good form, then some more less than poor then finally we got some good and above.

Lucky for us, we have about 20 defenders all with similar levels from about 6th onwards, so I can select on form for them

Unfortunately this week I didn't have time to prepare for the U21 match (due to exams), and the opponents managed to get the result thanks to some nice fumbling from our defenders.

Next week may be the same case, but should be back in action again the following week.

It's a shame this coincided with the Asian cup, but if we can somehow hold on, I can have a proper crack in the finals

Well that was a stressful game to watch.

Generally we dominated the match (with the exception of a couple of breakaways their striker/mid got) but our MIDS couldnt hit the broad side of a barn.

Thankfully everything changed when Zane came on the park with 30minutes to go and he just changed the entire match.

After all this time looking forward to Farmer being our number 1 GK, I reckon he is the worst performing, in form, Divine GK we have ever had, and again today he let an in absolute soft goal for them to go up 0-1. The second goal he let in was 1v1 but again, I'd have liked to have seen an in form, Divine GK, put up more of a fight.

Thankfully we come away with the win, but back to the drawing board I think

Great game!!

Off to harvest for the GK than?!! :)

I've been very tempted to use our reserve keeper, even though he is a toddler comparatively.

So with that draw, we are knocked out of the Asian cup because we were the only team that Daehan Minguk didn't give a walkover too.

Malaysia didn't win a single game, and only drew against us, but beat us on points due to the walkover despite us getting a win and a draw.

Honestly ridiculous that a team can choose who makes it through by choosing to give walkovers instead of it being a fair competition

That's where the mods should come in & take action....but alas. :(

Not much you can do if it's not an intentional thing and even if it is almost impossible to prove. Definitely unfortunate.

I mean results like this happen in real life too. For example if you end up in a world cup and the teams in the top 2 places are playing each other and only need a draw to both progress, watch for that result to happen regardless of whether a particular team should win. Both have an incentive not to go full effort and conserve it for future matches so it's almost a certainty what you'll get. Or if you've already qualified you send in B/C teams etc.

The only thing you can control (and it's pretty hard to even do that here with rng) is your own results.