FM Tactics system

I'm a great fan of the CM/FM-series and I always will be. I do have a couple of questions, or issues if you will, about the current way you adjust your tactics though.

First I must say, to make my opinion more understandable, that I am an apprentice audio-engineer,so I basically work with sliders, faders and knobs all day long. Which gets me to my first point.

I really, really don't understand why we have to tweak our tactics with sliders, which sometimes have 20 different values? In audio for example, you use faders and knobs to adjust scientific/technical things like frequencies, decibels, polar-patterns, stereo-image or even the brightness of a light bulb. Those are all things that can be measured, adjusted and created so to speak.

But when you're tweaking the tactics of a football team, you're dealing with humans. No human can play a match with 20 different types of mentality for example. It should be either all-out-on-attack, offensive, offensive with patience, defensive or all-back. I've played a lot of sports myself (tennis, basketball and volleyball to be precise), but I am yet to meet a coach who gets into more detail when it comes to instructing his team/player than 5 or 6 different "values".

Another thing is, why do we have to adjust things like passing style with a slider? To me that makes it look very inhuman. To me a drop box menu would make it much more as if I'm actually instructing a player.

What I also don't like is the way we setup set pieces at the moment. I think it would be really nice if, especially with corners, we could get an visual vertical overview of the pitch when we're in the tactics screen (both in defense and in attack) and just place our players. Like if we want are full backs to stand at the posts, we would just be able to drag them to the posts. That way you would get a very nice overview of where all your are positioned during set pieces.

My final point is this. I am yet to experience in the game that players want to discuss your tactics with you, which happens in real life all the time. I know for sure that a lot, if not all managers discuss their tactics with the veterans. I know for a fact that Benitez discusses his tactics with Gerrard, Ferguson with Giggs, Neville, Ferdinand and Van Der Sar, Wenger with Gallas and Van Persie, Ancelotti with Maldini and Seedorf, and the list goes on and on. Take also Ballack who's been in discussions with the current (Low) and the previous (Klinsmann) Germany coach about Germany's tactics to such a degree that he refused to play for Germany. Also, Ajax-supporters are protesting a lot lately because Ajax play very defensive lately, against the tradition of the club, but in favour of the players who told manager Van basten that they wanted to play defensively. I'd like to see players that comment on your tactics in FM, and that you get rewarded by the players and fans when you let your team play attractive football.

To make a long story short, I'd like the tactics to be more human (less sliders please!), to have an easier overview when setting up set pieces, and I'd like more interaction with the press, supporters and especially players when it comes to the mentality of my tactics.

What do you guys think?

(I do apologize if my English is a little dodgy at times)

I agree with you on the slider notches - one of my favourite things in Football Manager Live is that I can essentially choose how many slider notches I have - and I find 9 or 11 are optimal for my needs.