Frustrating experience in FM2009

Hi all,

I am currently managing the local champion in my League, have just won the National Cup, and still, I am whining.

Why?

Simple. The lack of consideration from SI for some crytical aspects of the game. I don't want my team to win, I want it to win in style.

After spending money only in youth in my first two seasons, I find myself with a large and high potential squad alongside some seasoned players.

When I am able to put a very entertaining and watchable game style and tactic, inspired in my master Tele Santana, the manager of the best football National Team I've seen, strange "bad luck" events start to happen, which are utterly unrealistic.

Of course, SI won't pay attention to me, as I am a single customer and they're too busy trying to make us all buy into FM 2010 - I've been a loyal follower of the series since 2007 but based on my frustration and the sense of being requested to pay a lot every year to find incredible errors or "challenging traps" in a game that is supposed to reflect reality I am seriously considering not buying this season's game.

So, down to business we go.

I had a very good and balanced squad, which was requested to play 10 games in 30 days. Is this really possible these days? A full month, playing every 3 days. Any real life case, in any league?

Well, I started this marathon in first place at my league, and I finished it in 4th, with at least two losses that wouldn't be conceivable in normal situations.

Else: I have a team with many highly natural fit guys, with top training grounds and coaches.

Now, let's look at the sequence of injuries my players received (even though I did rotate a lot, before someone asks me if I'm playing people under 90% condition).

This Argentinean left midfielder has a natural fitness of 15. He spent a full season with me with a single injury in-game: a bruised rib that got him out for 5 days. In his next season, he disloucated his shoulder in training at 30+ years old. Why I put the age? Well, usually disloucated shouders are repeated thorought someone's career. Not a single one before. 8 weeks, and this was in training. Then comes my third season with him on the team, and the guy is out again with a broken ankle in training - 3 months out.

To my current season, and my 15 natural fitness Argentinean king of assists that would be the MVP every single season would the game allow him to play, and he's got a broken arm in game at the beggining of the season that takes him out for 6 weeks ("coincidently" just before the marathon starts) and then in his first game back, he has a twisted knee that takes im for a further 3 weeks.

Woah. That's just some whining, isn't it?

To the next.

20 natural fitness midfielder. Strained knee ligaments this season, taking him out for 7 weeks. Oh, and although he's a young gun on rotation, he managed to get himself injured the season before as well.

18 natural fitness left back. Out with a broken foot for 4-5 months (aka the full remainder of my season).

17 natural fitness left midfielder. Out with a torn calf muscle, 4 months.

15 natural fitness forward. Out with broken ribs, for 6 weeks.

13 natural fitness enthusiastic righ winger. In a period of 6 months, he stayed out 4 months with a broken foot. Then he came back, and he got a 2 month long hip injury.

13 natural fitness right defender. In the last 8 months, he had 4 injuries that took him away at least by 3 weeks each.

Now. My fitness coaches are 6 stars. My facilities, as I mentioned, are top. My level of training is general - I don't believe the bug with high workload was really fixed so I quit using DarkStarr or Tug's training and instead placed my team onthe regular general training that comes with the game.

Of course I am excluding a lot of injuries, even serious ones, to players that could be more injury-prone (an exxageration, since most of my players are over 10 in natural fitness).

So my point is, the game has been throwing an unrealistic level of injuries to my side, whereas I have frequently out of 28 1st team members, something like 5-6 injured at least and many, many of them away for months.

I don't play a rough game, on the contrary, an attacking game based on flair. So there's absolutely no explanation why my team is the most injured plagued of my league although my players have better physycal stats than most teams in the same league.

Oh, and there's no explanation, as well, as to why my team was requested to play 10 games in a 30 day period and I need to give many players out to National Teams (U21, U20, U19) and still my matches are not rescheduled.

As I said, if I were a completely obscure team trying to get a footprint in a top league, that would be already shameful. But that's not the case. I am a kind of Atletico Madrid in the country I play meaning I am not the most traditional side, but I'm close.

And yet, no leverage at all when it comes to match scheduling. I think this lack of feature to ask for rescheduling or at least any kind of intelligence from the AI (!) is deeply frustrating, as it is, placed in another post, the situations I faced where two of my players were sent off due to a second booking and ended up being away for a 4-game ban. Utterly ridiculous.

Can't understand why a high composure guy would pick a second yellow with a foul in the sidelines in the last minute of a game we were winning by a 2-goal margin, and why a disciplinary committee would place him out for 4 games based on that. And yes, this was in the middle of the 10-games/30-days nightmare.

Cheers,

Tele

I sympathise with your situation, but was "Of course, SI won't pay attention to me, as I am a single customer and they're too busy trying to make us all buy into FM 2010 " necessary?

They read a lot of these threads and they try to respond to as many as possible. Cut them a little slack there are thousands of people who come on here looking to get noticed, you'll have to cut them some slack if they don't directly reply to you.

The fixture thing is a bug (someone on here had to play 6 games in 10 days or something like that), I'm sure they're trying to sort that out.

The second yellow card might've been picked up by a player who's temperamental (not sure if it has an effect in an actual match), but I'm pretty sure composure has nothing to do with it.

I like you thought that natural fitness indicated how injury prone a player is, but apparently there's a hidden injury prone stat. Can't imagine that every player you have has a high value though. I have been playing this game since December and honestly I haven't had an injury crisis that was too over the top so you might be unlucky.

Anyway good luck with your game.