Who works on FM, football wise?

I know Ray Houghton is part of the team but are there many others who have worked in/played football at a high leval? Not doubting the developers knowledge or anything but just wondered how much info they get from the real world of football. Also what areas of the game do they have a big say in? Specificly tactics?

Can any of the mods shed any light on this?

Us mods don't work for SI so don't really know who works on what at SI Towers.

In terms of tactics for individual teams it is often down to the researcher to analyse the style of football each each play, common formations etc

I know Ray Houghton is part of the team

Is he really? I didn't know that.

I knew that ex Liverpool player is somehow involved. I think it's with the Match engine.

Doesn't Phil Rolfe have a job at Chelsea?

Is he really? I didn't know that.

I knew that ex Liverpool player is somehow involved. I think it's with the Match engine.

I wonder how much of an input he has in what tactics are available to instruct to your team, as in what real managers say to their teams?

I wonder how much of an input he has in what tactics are available to instruct to your team, as in what real managers say to their teams?

I think he just deals with the match engine and improving it. So he's done a pretty good job this year

ME still needs to improve. I only player FM 8.0.0 and didn't test FML, so i what improvements they made.

Some stats im FM 08 original ME are unrealistic such as ball possesion. I play with Chelsea and my team's ball possesion is most of the time smaller than my opponent even if i play against a lower middle table team, I should at least have of 60% of ball possesion when playing against them.

I'm sorry but... its your tactics. I'm not even joking. No team has a divine right to have 60%+ possession.

FML ME is very good from what I've seen.

I do however believe that Ray Houghton is responsible for the dreaded 4-2-4. I remember reading it one here, but it could well be speculation

OFF TOPIC but what improvements in the ME were noticed in FML tests?

I'm sorry but... its your tactics. I'm not even joking. No team has a divine right to have 60%+ possession.

FML ME is very good from what I've seen.

I do however believe that Ray Houghton is responsible for the dreaded 4-2-4. I remember reading it one here, but it could well be speculation

I deleted that post, but anyway, bigger team always have more than 60% of possesion when playing against small clubs. Sometimes even 70%.

OFF TOPIC but what improvements in the ME were noticed in FML tests?

That the ME now plays a heck of a lot more like real football

It's hard to describe, it's just better in every way.

I deleted that post, but anyway, bigger team always have more than 60% of possesion when playing against small clubs. Sometimes even 70%.

Wrong! Generally, bigger sides sit back against the poorer quality opposition and simply counter-attack. They then get around 40-50% of the overall possession.

Wrong! Generally, bigger sides sit back against the poorer quality opposition and simply counter-attack. They then get around 40-50% of the overall possession.

Maybe 60% of posseion is too much, but the top teams like Arsenal and Man Utd always have more possesion when facing one of the non-top 4 teams.

But Arsenal had 70% of possesion against Bolton last weekend.

And Barça's ball possesion is aways higher than 60%, often bigger than 70% also.

And i remember Flamengo in Libertadores this year. We lost 3-0 to America-Mex, but i heard we had 80% of ball possesion.

I deleted that post, but anyway, bigger team always have more than 60% of possesion when playing against small clubs. Sometimes even 70%.

No they don't.

Maybe 60% of posseion is too much, but the top teams like Arsenal and Man Utd always have more possesion when facing one of the non-top 4 teams.

But Arsenal had 70% of possesion against Bolton last weekend.

And Barça's ball possesion is aways higher than 60%, often bigger than 70% also.

And i remember Flamengo in Libertadores this year. We lost 3-0 to America-Mex, but i heard we had 80% of ball possesion.

Yes but they don't get that possession just by virtue of being a big club or a top team. They're set up tactically in a way that allows them to do it. So if you want your Chelsea side to have 60%+ possession, you have to devise an approach that will make that happen.

Yes but they don't get that possession just by virtue of being a big club or a top team. They're set up tactically in a way that allows them to do it. So if you want your Chelsea side to have 60%+ possession, you have to devise an approach that will make that happen.

Yeah, but if you look at EPL top 4 teams match stats in FM 08, you'll see that they don't always have more than 50% of possesion, that's unrealistic because irl most of the time they have more possesion when playing a smaller team, let's say 1 out of 15 times it doesn't happen, and it's a fact you can look for any website that shows those statistics and you'll see it's true.

For some reason it happens, maybe because smaller teams sit back when playing bigger teams?

But top clubs that play possesion football like Barcelona, they have a ridiculous high amount of ball possesion. In last season of spanish league, Barça had 60% - 69% of possesion in 25 matches. 50% - 59% in 7 matches and 70% or higher in 5 matches. Only when they lost to Real (4-1 at Bernabeu) they had less than 50%.

It's not a NECESSARY thing, but it would help making the ME more realistic.

Possession percentages in FM are a combination of team quality and tactics. If you play as Barca and hit long balls to Messi's head all match, you shouldn't have 60% possession.

I'm not just talking about my team, i'm also talking about the AI teams, they also should have more than 50% of possesion in most of the matches.