4 urgent improvements i hope to see in FM10

1/ Opposition Instructions. I'm sick and tired of having to click-scroll-click over 10 times per game. Something has to be done in order to save my poor wrists and fingers. It'd be barely tolerable if i had a mouse but having to do it on a laptop is tiresome

2/ Wingers dribbling/running behind defenders. This happens far too much, seeing a player run with the ball from wide, never crossing, and usually firing the ball into the back of the next from close range. And yes, it happens even when i have set the instructions to cross often.

3/ Corner Bug. I love it as it get's me so many goals, but it does make me feel like a cheat.

4/ Pre/Post match conferences. Does anyone ever use this function? I've always let my assistant bore himself with the endless supply of identical questions. Just doesn't strike me as being fun whatsoever.

4 major yet easily fixable issues i hope to see addressed, anyone else have any to add?

Still, FM09 is and always will be a great game, roll on FM10

1/ Some overhaul to make it easier could well be used

2/ Are you talking about wingers running to the short post all the time? True, that should be sorted. However that's far from game-breaking

3/ I'm happy to score a few

4/ A horrible feature which I only use to prevent my crappy assman from screwing things up. But even then I cannot be arsed to attend them before easy games.

1/ Opposition Instructions. I'm sick and tired of having to click-scroll-click over 10 times per game. Something has to be done in order to save my poor wrists and fingers. It'd be barely tolerable if i had a mouse but having to do it on a laptop is tiresome

I agree totally!

It would be ok if you had the possibility pre-choose how you want your players to defend against a right winger or attacking midfielder, and not having to do the same thing before every game.

1/ Some overhaul to make it easier could well be used

2/ Are you talking about wingers running to the short post all the time? True, that should be sorted. However that's far from game-breaking

3/ I'm happy to score a few

4/ A horrible feature which I only use to prevent my crappy assman from screwing things up. But even then I cannot be arsed to attend them before easy games.

2/ yeap

4/ Well pointed out. I forgot to add, if conferences are still present in the game, I'd love to have the option to turn them off. It's horrid when you have a crap ass man who just seems bent on f'in up morale.

1] the fact it hasn't been mentioned yet in the blogs makes me think they won't be making it easier to use, I pray this is not the case though, as it has already been mentioned on here several times with suggestions of templates and so on. I find it all pretty taxing anyway.

2] should be sorted with the match engine tweaks this year, it is so glaringly obvious and well documented on here that i can't see how they wouldn't have fixed this.

3] not personally a problem for me, if you don't like it so much then don't use it. Anyway I may be wrong but I think I recall Paul C saying it was being worked on.

4] In the blogs in the last day or two Miles revealed that there's an addition to be able to tell whether your assman is actually any good at teamtalks. This should help those that don't want to do them themselves.

1/ Some overhaul to make it easier could well be used

2/ Are you talking about wingers running to the short post all the time? True, that should be sorted. However that's far from game-breaking

3/ I'm happy to score a few

4/ A horrible feature which I only use to prevent my crappy assman from screwing things up. But even then I cannot be arsed to attend them before easy games.

1] the fact it hasn't been mentioned yet in the blogs makes me think they won't be making it easier to use, I pray this is not the case though, as it has already been mentioned on here several times with suggestions of templates and so on. I find it all pretty taxing anyway.

2] should be sorted with the match engine tweaks this year, it is so glaringly obvious and well documented on here that i can't see how they wouldn't have fixed this.

3] not personally a problem for me, if you don't like it so much then don't use it. Anyway I may be wrong but I think I recall Paul C saying it was being worked on.

4] In the blogs in the last day or two Miles revealed that there's an addition to be able to tell whether your assman is actually any good at teamtalks. This should help those that don't want to do them themselves.

3/ Thing is though, unless i'm missing something, we have to use it in order to stop our Ass Man fudging it up (always more prevalent at a lower division club with poor staff). This is why I'd love to have the option to turn off pre/post match conferences

4/ I'm fine with TeamTalks, it's the conferences that send me to sleep.

Regarding point 4 I do think that there will be changes\improvements this year. Keep reading the blogs this week and I think some changes should be mentioned.

I hate doing opposition instructions every match. My idea which I've said a few times is a simple button which automatically follows your assistant managers suggestions.

1 and 4 that the OP listed are very much an issue and any change would be welcome. 2 and 3 I don't care much for, but they don't ruin my enjoyment.

All well suggested and are things that need improving....Like Trekman said though i'm sure one or more will be implemented.

Another thing that really annoys me especiallyin 3d when a winger goes up the line then runs to the post and shoots either hits the goalie and goes in or something stupid like that.

Own-goals are a problem for me, some really stupid ones, e.e ball passed by the keeper, he shoots back into the net - own goal??

I hate doing opposition instructions every match. My idea which I've said a few times is a simple button which automatically follows your assistant managers suggestions.

Definitely needs to be incorporated.

I would definitely get rid of those boring, repetitive, time-wasting and pretty useless press conferences. I would introduce newspaper titles splash screens choosen among a thousand of prepared ones, not a dozen, a thousand at least.

A stagist could prepare them in a couple of days.

Option 1 is easy to fix, lets have the option of saving Opposition Instructions much like a tactic we can just load up for each game, or better still give us the option of pressing a button on one player and apply to all. That'd work for me seeing as I in every game have closing down always, hard tackling and show weaker foot applied to every outfield player in the opposition team.

Option 2 hopefully match engine will be tweaked to sort this. Must admit my only issue with the engine is the number of times an attacking players gets past the last defender and instead of baring down on goal, decides to run to a corner or continue going down the line instead of cutting in.

Option 3, really do hope they alter all the media interaction and team talk stuff. Its tedious having to go through it repeatedly. Can we have an option to turn it off if we don't want it? I get the point where I too just use the Assitant Manager to take care of everything. That way I keep the squad and players happy.

Regarding #2, I hate seeing my fullbacks or wings run from wide positions across the pitch at the top of the box. They run right towards my AMC who was wide open for a pass, but noooooooo, dumbass has to run it to him and then try to pull strings from the center of the pitch. Losing the ball most of the time.

On your suggestions:

1/ Opposition Instructions. Totally agree. Its frustrating being able to save every element of your tactics, but then have to manually set these every time.

2/ Wingers dribbling/running behind defenders. I dont actually agree on this one, its nice to see an odd individual goal and it doesnt happen too often in my saves. What gets my goat with wingers is them constantly hitting the first man with their crosses. Its particularly annoying when they beat the full back, then delay crossing until the full back has had time to get back in the way.

3/ Corner Bug. I dont know if the amount of goals scored from corners is actually too high, but it sure would be nice to see some variety.

4/ Pre/Post match conferences. Couldnt agree more.

To this, I would add my own personal requests for urgent improvements.

5) Board not being so quick to forget past achievements. For example, I just won Liverpool their first league title in 34 years, along with the FA cup, and my job status was very secure as a result. Yet the next season my status had gone back to stable before a game had been played. It's just annoying.

6) Fans not being upset some 16 year old has not played many games. IRL, I think fans would be quite concerned if I gave some 16 year old loads of game time ahead of established first team players.

7) Some clarity on what the 3 tutoring options actually do, and some feedback on what we can expect from pairings etc

8) Better closing down - despite having very high closing down and high defensive line, and closing down on individual instructions, teams can come to my stadium and knock it amongst themselves at the back endlessly. It doesnt happen all the time, to be fair, and it might be my instructions, but it seems to happen too often for my taste.

And its not an urgent request, but it would be nice to see some ability to retrain players perfectly. There are plenty of examples of players changing positions successfully (Henry), or moving back into defence later in their careers (Sammer, Matthaus), but we never really have that option.

Oh well, I live in hope.

1. I've never really thought about this to be honest and I'm happy with how things are currently. SI have already got rid of the OI resetting whenever you change to a different saved tactic which is a relief.

2-4. Agreed on all, although I don't exploit the corner bug.

Robsabbaggio, players can retrain perfectly. I've seen one of my players do it, and the AI on one game retrained Peter Crouch to be a natural centre back.

Really?? I've never seen that.

the most urgent improvement i require is being told when a player on my shortlist has had a bid for them.

annoys me no end when i've been trailling a player for ages only to find out a few weeks later that theyve been nicked by another team.

makes no difference whether they were added to the shortlist indefinetly or for 12 months because i scouted them (and it adds them to the shortlist automatically).

after about the 2nd season it stopped notifying me.

Really?? I've never seen that.

I've only seen it on FM2009, so I guess it was a new feature in it.

As for opposition instructions, there should be macros we can set up

ie, for show onto foot. If player is 1 footed and plays LM, RM or St then show onto weaker foot.

for tackling, If player bravery is less than 10 then go in hard

I dont even bother with it any more as it annoys me so much and I remember it used to reset if you loaded different tactics so you might have to go through it 5 or 6 times a game.

Also, long shots should be applied per player and not per position.

If I have a AML/R/C with long shots of 18, I have to reset his long shot instructions every time he moves position, I just want to tell him to have long shots wherever he plays and have the ones who are rubbish as shooting to not have a go. I cant see the logic in having it set per position.

For opp instructions we couldn't go far wrong with a 'AM does opposition instructions' tickbox. Its no less realistic than a box to let the AM do contract renewals or friendly games. And lets face it, alot of people just do what their AM says.

what is this thing about the corner bug? i heard that the thing is to assign a tall player to challenge the keeper and then feed the ball into the 6 yard box. i tried that, just so see if it worked, and over a whole season that player scored 2 goals. doesn't seem like a lot if you consider that all the corners were aimed at his area. but maybe i'm misunderstanding that. or it was fixed in the latest patch.

1) agree

2) don't really see what the issue is

what is this thing about the corner bug? i heard that the thing is to assign a tall player to challenge the keeper and then feed the ball into the 6 yard box. i tried that, just so see if it worked, and over a whole season that player scored 2 goals. doesn't seem like a lot if you consider that all the corners were aimed at his area. but maybe i'm misunderstanding that. or it was fixed in the latest patch.

1) agree

2) don't really see what the issue is

My both my DC's who are 22 and 18 respectively are on double figures in january as far as goals go.

They are competing with my strikers for top scorer of the league.

I get both to challenge the keeper, my fast striker to flick the ball on at the near post, and my target striker to attack the near post.

scored 5 goals in two games against my mate using it.

To be fair hes the one who started using it in our network game.

My both my DC's who are 22 and 18 respectively are on double figures in january as far as goals go.

They are competing with my strikers for top scorer of the league.

I get both to challenge the keeper, my fast striker to flick the ball on at the near post, and my target striker to attack the near post.

scored 5 goals in two games against my mate using it.

To be fair hes the one who started using it in our network game.

well i guess that explains it then. but to be fair, it's hardly a bug when there is such a specific way of overloading the area. just ignore it if it annoys you... at least that's how i feel.

3/ Thing is though, unless i'm missing something, we have to use it in order to stop our Ass Man fudging it up (always more prevalent at a lower division club with poor staff). This is why I'd love to have the option to turn off pre/post match conferences

4/ I'm fine with TeamTalks, it's the conferences that send me to sleep.

my bad, i actually meant press conferences and not team talks

6) Fans not being upset some 16 year old has not played many games. IRL, I think fans would be quite concerned if I gave some 16 year old loads of game time ahead of established first team players.

I definitely agree with this one, the last major confidence tweak sorted most of the problems but this is one of the few that remains, it should take their age into account

what is this thing about the corner bug? i heard that the thing is to assign a tall player to challenge the keeper and then feed the ball into the 6 yard box. i tried that, just so see if it worked, and over a whole season that player scored 2 goals. doesn't seem like a lot if you consider that all the corners were aimed at his area. but maybe i'm misunderstanding that. or it was fixed in the latest patch.

1) agree

2) don't really see what the issue is

you need to set the other players too in ways that it creates space for your centre half who is set to challenge keeper. if his heading and jumping are great then he will score bags of goals.

I hope they fix the injurys. Its so unrealsitic i get 3 players injured every match and use all my subs by half time

I hope they fix the injurys. Its so unrealsitic i get 3 players injured every match and use all my subs by half time

you installed the patch mate?

Interesting topic you guys got here. For starters I'll say I agree with points 1, 3 and 4 but I see no reason to change the way wingers play. Actually I'm certain they need serious improvement on the actual CROSSING they do after taking out fullbacks. Very rarely do you see wingers crossing on "first-touch" after they've taken out the full back, most of the time they'll wait for them to get into position and will only cross then. Either that or they'll wait for strikers or taller players to get into the box, and everyone in their respective attacking positions, before crossing. Even with high creative freedom this is a serious problem. Also I don't think the solution for OI is to have your assman setting them up. I've had numerous occasions when the assistant manager told me to go hard on bravery 18-20 MCs and to always close down the quickest best-dribbling forward they had with my 2 slow as hell defenders.

I would also like to add to the list of complaints, and I do want some of these to be fixed:

- Improved AI, especially for lower league managers. What's the point in playing some lower leagues where the opposing managers will buy players that are completely useless to their setup and winning said league every time without breaking a sweat?

- Adaptive league standards, based on club performance. Perhaps they could do this for economic development too... but that's asking a bit too much.

- Take out absurdly bad performances for top clubs. I've had one season where I was offered to take up Man U because Ferguson had been kicked out of CL and was 8th in the EPL... in the first season!

- Update board reactions! Winning Serie A in the first season with Milan and doing the Cup final meant nothing to the board because I didn't qualify for the semifinals in the UEFA Cup?

- Give you the ability to raise ticket prices. If I spend millions of euros on players every season I want my fans to pay more than 0.65 eurocents per match to see them!

That's my rant. I'm sure there's more to it than that, and just about everybody has an opinion on what should be changed but I think those would be pretty decent changes, especially for league managers outside of Europe's top 4-5 leagues.

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Interesting topic you guys got here. For starters I'll say I agree with points 1, 3 and 4 but I see no reason to change the way wingers play. Actually I'm certain they need serious improvement on the actual CROSSING they do after taking out fullbacks. Very rarely do you see wingers crossing on "first-touch" after they've taken out the full back, most of the time they'll wait for them to get into position and will only cross then. Either that or they'll wait for strikers or taller players to get into the box, and everyone in their respective attacking positions, before crossing. Even with high creative freedom this is a serious problem. Also I don't think the solution for OI is to have your assman setting them up. I've had numerous occasions when the assistant manager told me to go hard on bravery 18-20 MCs and to always close down the quickest best-dribbling forward they had with my 2 slow as hell defenders.

I would also like to add to the list of complaints, and I do want some of these to be fixed:

- Improved AI, especially for lower league managers. What's the point in playing some lower leagues where the opposing managers will buy players that are completely useless to their setup and winning said league every time without breaking a sweat?

- Adaptive league standards, based on club performance. Perhaps they could do this for economic development too... but that's asking a bit too much.

- Take out absurdly bad performances for top clubs. I've had one season where I was offered to take up Man U because Ferguson had been kicked out of CL and was 8th in the EPL... in the first season!

- Update board reactions! Winning Serie A in the first season with Milan and doing the Cup final meant nothing to the board because I didn't qualify for the semifinals in the UEFA Cup?

- Give you the ability to raise ticket prices. If I spend millions of euros on players every season I want my fans to pay more than 0.65 eurocents per match to see them!

That's my rant. I'm sure there's more to it than that, and just about everybody has an opinion on what should be changed but I think those would be pretty decent changes, especially for league managers outside of Europe's top 4-5 leagues.

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Agreed and I also agree on the original ideas. I think it would be fun if they included some of the features from the old USM games. I still have USM '98 buried somewhere in my games stack and I thought it great that you could plan training schedules and generally play around with a lot of things that are somehow unavailable in today's games. Hell, you could even bet on matches and bribe opponents! You'd often get caught doing it, though, but it was a funny sort of bonus option

I also liked that you had the ability to plan a lot of stuff outside the pure managing things. You could set ticket prices, season ticket prices, build merchandise stands, food stands and other stuff, all of which you could adjust individual prices for. I'm not saying FM should incorporate all of this because it's hard to balance properly but it would be nice to set prices on stuff like shirts and tickets, so you could be more dependant on people showing up for your matches than simply getting a good CHL placement so you'll end up with transfer budgets in the hundreds of millions.

In the current FM setup, the economy is so broken that if you play a top tier club, you're likely to have a transfer budget of well over 100 million pounds by season 3, as well as the best team in the game. For instance, my Inter team scored over 100 goals in the league every season and any team short of Man U, Barca and Real Madrid were walkovers by season 2. As it is, the economy is simply too broken, and while I realise that the CHL winner IRL gets silly amounts of money, FM might need to curb that a little for the sake of balance. After all, the various European tournaments, while important to big clubs, still only make a relatively small part of the total amount of money the club makes. Ticket sales and merchandise are usually far bigger posts on the budget.

Also! When i sign a top recommended youth player my fans often voice their disapproval, and don't see him as a worthwhile signing. Quite annoying...

Totally agree with the opposition instructions point. It's so tedious having to select them for each player before each and every match and then again when you bring subs on.

Please SI give us the option to save them and load them!

I don't agree about the press conferences. It's not a problem, in my opinion...

Also! When i sign a top recommended youth player my fans often voice their disapproval, and don't see him as a worthwhile signing. Quite annoying...

I agree with this one, my board are really angry that I have signed a guy who's not made any impact at the club. (He is 16 and I have invested in him)