AI Squad Numbers

Okay, firstly, let me just say that I appreciate that getting a computer to assign squad numbers in an entirely realistic way is always going to be very difficult. I happily accept that I, the human player, will always assign numbers in a more realistic way than the AI does. I also accept that squad numbers are pretty superficial and don't really impact gameplay. This is by no means going to be a major rant or anything like that.

However, the random moving of players who have held a certain number for years is starting to bug me. Ashley Cole, locked on as Chelsea's number 3 and likely to hold that shirt until he lives, has been bizarrely shifted to number 4. The number 3 has been allocated to veteran Argentine centre back with no international caps (who Chelsea shouldn't be signing, but that's another issue). The annoying this? This Argentine doesn't even have number 3 as his favoured number! So why the hell do it?! Cole would never be bumped from number three. Even more ridiculous, Petr Cech, still playing week in week out, has been bumped to number 14! WHHHYYYYYYY???!!!!

At Arsenal, Nasri has moved from number 8 to number 7, in order to make Theo Walcott number 8. Yeah, right. As if Nasri would move one single squad number in order to accommodate a player in Walcott who would have been fine with the available number 7 anyway. Not that Walcott is likely to move from number 14. Robin van Persie has also moved one number, from 10 to 9.

On a previous save, Man Utd replaced Michael Owen at number 7 with Park Ji-Sung, moved Rooney to number 13, gave Berbatov number 10 and moved Welbeck to number 9. Madness!

Can we please stop this? It's not majorly affecting my game but it's daft.

It literally makes no difference whatsoever. Why complain about something so meaningless?

Because I don't consider it meaningless? I mean, if it's meaningless, why have squad numbers in the game at all?

I've noticed this too, and I agree with Mike. Even if it's cosmetic, it's ludicrous and should be tweaked.