Game Log | PES2021 – 004 | Super Star Difficulty Struggles 🎮⚽
Must be noted, these game logs were written back in 2022. So when I say a “few days ago” below, I mean it happened back in 2022 when this was all written down.
After a break (2021) from playing PES 2021, I started playing again a few days ago (2022), and I found myself struggling to get a win. Every game was a struggle to not concede a goal. I was getting really frustrated with the game. I eventually still won the English Premier League. Barely though, just by 1 point. Had some help from the CPU with Liverpool inexplicably not winning against a lesser team. But the biggest surprise to me, was that I was actually playing in Super Star difficulty. No wonder I was struggling so bad. It was bad enough that I took a break from the game. It was a shock to get back and find the CPU playing so well against my team.
I am more than 20 games in while playing in Super Star difficulty. I've finally managed to stop conceding goals. One of the major changes I made is to change my team's formation back to a 4-4-2, where the LMF and RMF are actively involved in defense. In fact, I think they work just as hard as the midfielders do in defense. This helped tremendously in defense as it stopped the opponents from overwhelming the back line and my center midfielders. Most of the time, my LMF and LB/RMF and RB players will work together to stop the opposing players from being able to attack through the flanks. At times, I have my RMF (who is a Box-to-Box) player drift into the center to help with defense. It actually made me realize how hard I work my LMF and RMF players in this formation.
The drawback of course is that I have much less players up the field for attacks. That's because my two wingers (LWF and RWF) were basically converted to LMF and RMF positions respectively. To offset this, I went back to having two strikers up front supported by an AMF. So while in the previous formation I had 4 players on the attack (1 CF, 2 Wingers and 1 AMF), I now have 3 players on the attack, which is only 1 player less. I wouldn't say it has helped me produce as much goals as before, but it is enough that my team can score enough goals to win the game. The biggest benefit though is that my team has stopped conceding goals. So even if we only score 1 goal per game, if the opposing team doesn't score against us, we win. In fact, this is why I'm at the top of the leaderboard in the league, because of conceding so few goals (as of this writing, we only conceded 3 goals).
Also, a few days ago, I learned that you can only have a max of 40 players active in your squad. Which means, if I keep letting players in my youth team go out on loans, which I did, I will run it out of space to sign good players when they become available.
That said, loaning out players seem to be a good way to make transfer money, especially since I'm overflowing in the salary budget department.
Because of the physicality and shielding of the ball in PES 2021, it seems harder to break down the defenders with chipped through passes. What seems to work for me are well timed through passes that go in between defenders. I've already scored a few goals and got behind defenses this way. I'm going to keep using it then since that is what works.
I'm starting to get burned out with PES 2021. I think it has to do with playing in Super Star difficulty. Playing in Super Star difficulty is a taxing way to play, sometimes exhausting. It feels good when I win. But when I lose or concede a goal, most of the time I feel lost. At times, I feel like I cannot stop the CPU from scoring against me no matter how hard I try. Like if the CPU determines it needs to score a goal, it will score a goal regardless of what I do. Even when I play against lower ranking teams, with weaker players, there can be times when I feel like I'm playing against an elite level team. My defenders cannot seem to stop those teams from scoring. It's frustrating because it takes away from the beauty of the game-play. It's annoying when no matter how well you play it, the CPU will simply score when it wants to.
Maybe I need to set the difficulty back down to Top Player, or go back to PES 2019?