Condition Vs Match Fitness (new feature in FM12?)

Condition seems to be the state of regaining fitness between games (the most important of the two?) and Match Fitness seems to be when returning from injury or when not playing competitive football. So how do they affect the game?

For example, Ross Barkley has Condition 99% but Match Fitness 75% because he was injured for 3 weeks and has since only played one game for me. How should I rate this? Will he play worse because of the 75%? The only way for him to get the Match Fitness up is for him to play games (First team or reserve team). Will he tire more quickly or get injured more easily?

I also noted that my subs usually have low Match Fitness scores (60-80%) because they did not play for the reserves because they were among my subs and they do not play for the First Team. Anyone else who is concerned by this?

So, a few questions arise:

What is Match Fitness?

How does it affect the match engine?

How does Condition affect the match engine?

Do FM12 players generally care about this?

Could Match Fitness be the reason why big clubs let big name players rot in the reserves after picking up long term injuries (David Silva breaks leg 2012 and is out for 5 months but does only play a few more competetive games for Man City up until my current date in 2017)?

I'd like to know everyone's thoughts on these questions as well.

My personal thought is that match fitness is much more important than condition. I could be completely wrong, but MF is the ability for a player to last the full 90mins and also be 'up to speed' with playing in a competitive environment.

I think of condition as a players general state, such as feeling a bit tired or jaded etc. He could have had a knock in the previous game that zapped his condition down. If a player is 100% match fit but is only 80% condition then he's probably capable of playing a full 90 mins but he's just not a fresh and capable as usual, but if you swap it around the other way (80% MF + 100% condition) then he's unlikely to be as sharp or have the stamina to last a full game despite him feeling like he can.

I don't know if that's right but that's how I see it.

Also Match fitness isn't really a new addition, we just now get to see it in percentage terms rather than generic statements such as 'severely lacking match fitness' or 'needs match practice if he's going to be ready for the start of the season'.

As for your subs concern, give the subs 90mins in a competitive game! I know you want to field the strongest side all the time but otherwise they'll indeed rot.

It's not actually new. It's always been there (I think anyway) and we just show it more clearly now. I think it was a text description somewhere before.

So, since I did not care too much about it in previous installments of the FM-series and yet were successful maybe I do not need to worry about it in FM12.

I will try to look out for AI behavior (if AI plays low MF players or not).

I have quite a large squad at the moment, about 20 players available for my first team, and anyone under 90% fitness (on the tactics screen) gets replaced, unless I have limited options/injuries. This seems to be working well, sometimes people don't recover fully to 100% but that's to be expected. I had a few matches rescheduled over xmas and had 4 games within 7 days.. and surprisingly got only 1 injury which was a dead leg from a defender who was a backup anyways..

Very rare to I see people struggling for the full duration of the game, sometimes they get a knock and by half time get a low-ish (50-60%) fitness, I usually replace them at the time/half time.

Yes this is one of the things that has been in the game all along but which is revealed now.

This is the way I see it:

Condition affects the player's physical attributes and some mental attributes (Work rate, Composure, Concentration, Determination). If a player receives a knock and has his condition reduced in the game, I have often seen that he suddenly "plays nervously", so apparently (a low) Condition affects some hidden attributes too. Injury Proneness appears to increase the lower the condition is.

Match Fitness affects the player's team blending (match preparation). I also believe it reduces Natural Fitness and increases Injury Proneness. Players that are Lacking or Severly Lacking Match Fitness will be unaccustomed to the tactic and his teammates. They will also have their condition deteriorate more quickly in a match and regain said condition more slowly after the match.

I have quite a large squad at the moment, about 20 players available for my first team, and anyone under 90% fitness (on the tactics screen) gets replaced, unless I have limited options/injuries. This seems to be working well, sometimes people don't recover fully to 100% but that's to be expected. I had a few matches rescheduled over xmas and had 4 games within 7 days.. and surprisingly got only 1 injury which was a dead leg from a defender who was a backup anyways..

Very rare to I see people struggling for the full duration of the game, sometimes they get a knock and by half time get a low-ish (50-60%) fitness, I usually replace them at the time/half time.

I see what you mean, but you do not seem to distinguish between "Condition" and "Match Fitness". You talk abotu "Fitness", do you mean condition?