Overmars

In summary, you really have to watch the match highlights and see what is and is not working for you. I think your AMR playing as an IW(s) will still stay wider if you give him that instruction. As for your DMs, use the highlights to see how they position. You can afford a bit more aggression if you are keeping three defenders back. If you are using two attacking fullbacks then you will want one defensive duty DM. Schjelderup looks great. If only he had more speed he would be unstoppable, but he will still score plenty for you if you unleash him into the box and have your wide players feeding passes into the middle. WB and IF are great together. Having both on attack duty works in FM. If you only wanted one on attack, I would pick the WB. Then you would have the WB(a) and support duty AML/AMRs feeding an attacking ST/AMC combo in the middle.

Nice post. I agree with the choice of 4-2-3-1 because of how flexible it is. There seem to be endless combinations of player roles that can work in this formation. My comments on your team and choices: Your fullbacks are short. You will be killed by far post crosses in this match engine. I don't think Aarons is good enough. You need height for all defenders in FM24. Maybe you could make an exception for truly amazing attacking fullbacks, but you don't have those. Also, it's nice to have at least three giants for defending set pieces. I like your idea of having one fullback attacking and one more conservative. An IFB(d) role on one side and WB(a) on the other would do that. The IFB(d) also allows you to be a little more bold with the DM on the same side, potentially freeing him up to be a SV. Your attackers are short, and this will be tricky in terms of earning good match ratings. They will get crushed by missed headers, even with "low crosses" chosen. The AF(a) is probably the right role for your striker, given how you want to use at least 1-2 of your other attacking players in purely support roles. For your AMR, I would pick an IW on the right side rather than a winger. The IW role is more flexible, you can customize it with player instructions exactly how you want depending on the game, and your players trained to be IW will always be familiar with the role. For your AML, I would pick an IF(a). I would want a second player seeking to get on the end of attacking moves. Alternatively, if you wanted to change your AMC to a more attacking role (as detailed below), You could pick a support duty AML who focuses on feeding the other three attackers. For your AMC, I find the AM(a) is a great role in FM24. Support duties in this spot can work too, but I find it much harder to get them contributing this way. One of the best patterns of play in FM24 is when the AMC runs into the box and finishes a quick low cross from a wide player. This happens so frequently that I would want to encourage it by using an AM(a). I have seasons where my AMC outscores my ST all because of this move. I love high tempo in FM24. I think it produces far more scoring chances. Lower tempo is fine if you have a game under control, but as soon as you need to score, I would raise the tempo much higher.

A similar thing happened to me. Half of my team wants a <100% wage increase after winning the Europa League. I have regular starters asking for almost 10% of the total wage budget. I can't keep a full squad if I give them that money. I would actually be fine with this scenario if we could react appropriately and avoid a purely adversarial interaction. We should be able to reject the wage increase with the reasoning, "The club cannot afford it." The player should understand but still want to leave the club. You then work on an exit plan (waiting for the end of the contract or pursuing an immediate transfer). Teammates should stay out of it. I feel like FM pushes us into these unavoidable hostile interactions which produce unrealistic outcomes. If the player wants to leave the club, fine, but spare us the vitriol because our hands are tied when it comes to what the Board gives us.

I think 4-3-3 is the right formation for a F9, and you could adapt it to work for a regista by using three DMs: ST = F9(s) AML = IF(a) AMR = IF(a) DMCL = SV(a) DMC = HB(d) DMCR = REG(s) DL = WB(s) DCL = CD(d) DCR = CD(d) DR = WB(a) GK - SW(s) I would play this with shorter passing and higher tempo. I've tried it with lower tempo, but it is far too tame in this match engine. I would use mid-block against an equal or better opponent and high-press against a worse opponent. Either positive or attacking mentality works. The one key issue to using a F9 is that they can run into goalscoring dryspells that affect how FM perceives their form. They do get involved in the action a lot, though, and if they are dribbling wizards then they can make a big impact. I actually find these F9 4-3-3 tactics produce really pleasing football in FM24.

The key issue to me is that it feels unrealistic. What real life team would line up this way on the pitch? It would break immersion for me to use this in-game because the midfield doesn't cover the pitch laterally. The other obvious issue is the use of three advanced playmakers. That seems unbalanced to me. Of course, unbalanced can still work in FM, but it wouldn't feel very realistic either.

My favourites who often ended up on my teams: Martin Odegaard (FM15) Guido Vadala (FM15) Malcom (FM15) Mikael Dorsin (CM3) Kim Kallstrom (CM3) Lorenzo Crisetig (FM11) Matias Kranevitter (FM11) Jack Wilshere (FM11) Jack Rodwell (FM11) Suso (FM11) But Odegaard was the one who I enjoyed the most and then became a big of in real life.

It's not the worst preset out there. The shape and team instructions make sense. The player roles are not great, though: W(a) feels like a more direct tactical choice based around dribbles and crosses rather than controlling possession. The only player attacking the box is the striker. A CM(a) or IF could help. I would consider using a F9(s) and inside forwards with proper wingbacks and a halfback. Inverted wingbacks are a good alternative, but then you need to keep the AML/AMR wider or use mezzalas to maintain enough width. But it's a solid base formation and team instructions to start with. You can adust player roles based on the plays you are seeing and players at your disposal. It's not always easy to find technically skilled players who can make a possession-based system work well. Typically, it's easier to find an advantage in lower levels by focusing on physical attributes and playing fast and direct.

Out of curiosity, I counted the number of players within a certain CA range at the start of my England save in 2023 and later in 2029. The results surprised me, as there were more higher-rated players in 2029 than at the beginning of my save.

I agree with your observations. For FM24, the loan market is the least useful it has ever been. You can still find some clubs willing to pay and play your youngsters, but you have to endure the AI spamming you with free loan offers. The biggest change is the difficulty in finding any loans for yourself where you don't have to pay fees on top of wages. I think this has made building a competitive squad with a newly promoted team much tougher than in the past. In fairness, it never felt realistic that I could loan in a dozen quality players for very little cost. That exploit is mostly closed now. There are still free loans available for players who aren't atop the footbally pyramid, which makes sense.

I roleplay being offended/annoyed by my board. Some reasons: They pay me the lowest wage of anyone in the league. This almost always happens after promotion, and it winds me up! They block a transfer or force a sale I don't want. Can't wait to speak to the press about that one. They reject my requests. Don't they know who I am? They set ridiculously low wage and transfer budgets. Their lack of ambition is a waste of my time. I also like taking on financially distressed clubs or clubs deep in a relegation battle and in hopeless form. Scraping a point with a terrible team is a different experience from winning games 5-0 with a team of underpaid wonderkids.

The past versions I most enjoyed at the time were: CM3 -- It was text, but it was still fun. It was a lighter version of the current FM series, but it was still easy to get addicted. FM15 -- Lots of fun. The two broken bits were that there were way too many goals and the loan system was easily abused (ex. perpetual free loans of wonderkids). FM11 -- First version that felt "advanced" to me. The main flaws were the ease at which a poacher on attack could dominate and the excessive amount of near post corner goals.

So much gaslighting in this thread. If people aren't seeing gegenpress/high-press tactics performing better than others then I don't know what game they are playing. And yes, defenders in FM really do struggle to follow dribblers. They are like traffic cones out there, and the game doesn't accurately depict how much clutching and grabbing modern defenders are doing in real life in order to slow attacks.

My suggestions: Give him an IF(a) role and give your central striker a DLF or F9 role. Train him to be an AMC and let him be a SS(a) in a 4-2-3-1 with a support striker ahead of him. Play him as an AF(a) with a support striker in a 2-striker formation.

I love these narrow formations, but they are a struggle in FM24. My thoughts: You need at least one excellent attacking fullback, and preferably more since they will tire out and be injury prone. They need reasonable winger-like attributes or else your attack will be weak. At least one of your strikers should be great in the air. It really helps make the deliveries from the fullbacks more effective. Similarly, your strikers should have good quickness and anticipation to latch onto risky passes. I like using 3 DMs in this formation instead of 3 MCs. That allows me to use segundo volantes, which I find provides an optimal mix of defending and attacking threat. I find an AM(s) gets lost in the shuffle. I would much rather use an attack duty on the AMC and a support duty on one of the strikers. A DLF(s) helps link up everything. Better teams will kill you down the flanks. You might want an alternate formation for those matches. Work ball into the box is going to limit what your fullbacks can do in terms of crosses. They'll probably cycle possession, which isn't ideal for creating chances. In a two-striker formation, I would rather play higher tempo and use counterattacks. Lower tempo cancels out a lot of the advantage to having two guys starting that far forward in the first place.

Remove player role stipulations from loan negotiations. It is unrealistic and unfun to have someone tell you to play a player as a mezzala, as if that's a thing in real life. Make player form less predictable -- or its impact more subtle. Players don't often cycle up and down in form in 5-8 game increments in real life like they do in FM. Match ratings need to better reflect player performance and be more forgiving when playing aginst much better teams. A player's unhappiness about their contract should not impact the rest of the team unless they are a true team leader. Salah shouldn't badger Klopp because Bajcetic wants more money. Scouts should be less lazy on their assignments. Micromanaging scouts should not dramatically improve/increase their report output. Team training time should be allocated on a percentage of weekly training time basis rather than as three daily sessions that you have to micromanage with every schedule change. Improve newgen attribute distributions. Give us more attacking wingbacks and fewer short central defenders. Match engine -- This has improved in recent years, but we still have pass completion percentages that are too high and other deviations from real life that throw off the balance of the game. Add some variety to goal and trophy celebrations.