Game Log | PES 2019 – 002
I have a number of gaming journal entries scattered throughout my bullet journal. I'm going to start a “Gaming Journal” collection page to better organize them, but for now, here are the entries that I've fallen behind on.
07/06/2019 – Saturday
Physical Contact seems to be a very important attribute in Pro Evolution Soccer 2019. For defenders, it allows them to get in front of attackers just before they make a shot. The Center Back K. Manolas exemplifies this attribute a lot.
One of the biggest threats in PES 2019 is the low cross. Typically what would happen is, a low cross comes in and the opposing team's striker will seal off my defenders to allow themselves an easy volley in front of goal. I see this happen a lot when playing against elite level teams. When I finally got K. Manolas on my team, I noticed that he was a lot better at defending against the low cross. He would get in front of strikers to clear the ball away.
07/10/2019 – Wednesday
What a disaster in my Master League campaign. I decided to play my reserve players for the PEU Cup game and I lost 4-2 to a team that wasn't even one of the top teams in my league! I lost because I decided to save my starters for the game against Chelsea. To add insult to injury, I actually got two of my players injured in the game.
One thing I am noticing is that my Left Back, Miguel Lopes, frequently gets beaten in aerial battles. He has good speed and decent defensive stats, but he is a liability in the air.
My Center Back, Congre, has good speed and skills. He has the Interception and Acrobatic Clearance skills, but sometimes I feel that he reacts slower compared to my other Center Back, Kabak. Kabak has at least 80 in both Defensive Prowess and Ball Winning attributes, but has less speed than Congre. – I have since learned that Defensive Prowess determines how quickly a defender will react to a loose ball, or an attacker with the ball, or an attacker running into space that makes them a threat. So it's a toss up really, between a defender who is quick as far as speed goes, but reacts slower in defense, or a defender who is slow but reacts quickly in defense. Ideally, you want a defender who reacts quickly and is fast on his feet.
- On my next game, I'll try starting Kabak again and see if he pairs better with Manolas. – This never happened because I restarted my Master League campaign.
When playing against elite level teams, I seem to have trouble with the Attacking Midfielder position. Basically, my AMF cannot hang on to the ball long enough to facilitate the offense. I think next time I'll try playing a 4-4-2 formation with Lerma and Bero playing as Center Midfielders. – Wasn't much of an improvement. I could defend better, but my offense suffered without an AMF to feed the ball to my strikers.
07/16/2019 – Tuesday
Last night I restarted my Master League campaign. The main reason for doing so was to manage my player's contracts better this time around. I want to see if I can manage to keep Arcas, who will bloom into a superstar, in this play-through. – Arcas is one of the default players in the original Master League lineup. If you groom him well enough, he will develop into a superstar player. Of course this also means that he will demand a much higher salary than anyone else in the team.
I also decided to try an official team this time around. I am playing the Paris FC team, which is a Ligue 2 team in France. – Part of the reason for switching to an official team in my Master League campaign is to get official kits for the teams and the league. Pro Evolution Soccer has always trailed FIFA as far as licensing goes, but they were able to license a number of teams and leagues for their 2019 game.
I'm also experimenting with decreasing the game time in PES 2019, to see if it would lower the amount of goals per game, to make it more like a real world result. – I went from 15 minutes to 10 minutes and it drastically improved the game. I no longer had games where I would score 7 goals in just one match. The number of goals were much more realistic and the game had a much better flow overall.
07/30/2019 – Tuesday
I switched back to a 4-4-2 diamond formation in PES 2019 and it is just so much easier to score goals. – Most French teams run something like a 4-3-3 or 3-4-3 formation. When I started playing with the Paris FC team, I started with a 4-3-3 formation which was their default formation. I never got comfortable with it, which is why I ended up switching back to the 4-4-2 diamond formation mid-season and that was a good improvement.
I've noticed a disadvantage when I have all my defenders (LB, RB, CB) marking specific players on the opposing team: the defender will always chase after his mark, even if his mark is not even posing a threat to score a goal. This in turn opens up spaces for other opposing players to run into. Defenders marking other players will not leave their mark even if an opposing player runs into a space that makes him a significant threat to score. – Some time after, I stopped marking other players in defense and it has significantly improved my overall defense. I no longer conceded stupid goals, like one where my CB decided to stick to the opposing striker running to the wing, while the opposing AMF was dribbling straight in front of goal.
Another thing I noticed is that when I mark opposing Wingers with my Fullbacks, they will almost always run out of stamina before the end of the game. Chasing after the Ronaldos and Neymars from elite teams makes this even worse. Not to mention, non elite Fullbacks will simply get beaten on the wing when faced against an elite Winger. So this is another reason to stop using Man Marking in the game. When I stopped doing it, I noticed that even my slower Fullbacks had a better chance at defending against faster Wingers.
I actually haven't played PES 2019 for a good amount of time now. Writing down these entries makes me want to play it again. I will just have to add it into my rotation of Civilization 6, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and Division 2. This is one of the things where I've found weekly planning to be of good use.