Los_Culés

Guys, when I set OIs for certain positions (eg. DR/L, MR/L...) where I can visually confirm during the match that these are applied?

Well, I play in 2D so maybe he has . On a serious note I am just interested in what can be the cause (teamtalks, gelling, bad luck). After 7 matches I have currently the lowest amount of shots on goal received in the league (13) but conceded 10 goals.

I have played 6 matches in Peruvian Second Division and from 12 shots on goal I conceded 10 goals. Is this normal? AI conversion rate is immense .

@RodrigogcAgree with you, especially the second paragraph, but I think we also have to keep in mind that nobody wants FM to become a full time job. I mean the amount of work/preparation that real life managers do is something we FM players want to imagine that we do it too but in reality we don't want to do it as we have our jobs .

@Fox-7-Thanks, exactly my thinking. AMs, maybe moving him to AMC (instead of AMCR), Winger instead of Defensive Winger, low crosses?....well a lot testing needed . I do not mind if he does not contribute defensively too much as in theory he should be then a bigger counter attacking threat. Anyway it is not my choice to deploy a Poacher, rather a necessity in some games to adapt to players at disposal.

So after a bit of further testing in Chile (Deportes Copiapó) your tactic worked very well (I won 6 from 8 games , lost 5-0 vs. top CHI team Colo Colo but this was rather a teamtalk/mental problem as half of my team was nervous going into this match ). TM (T. Figueroa) was really good and I plan to sign him after starting some proper save(s). Anyway I started a couple of new saves (in South America) for further testing purposes and so far I added some PIs (Stay Wider for DL and removing Hold Position for ML + removing Gets Further Forward for SV , this seems to better replicate what I want from them ie. MCL + ML floding the centre and attacking fullback providing width, also thinking of adding shorter passing to IFB). Given the players I currently have (towering TMs are quite hard to get when relying on free agents/loans), how would you modify your defense first tactic should you have a Poacher (Inzaghi type, not strong, not quick, good movement & finishing) at your disposal?

@Fox-7-As I have stated I am new to FM24 (played old CMs, FM11/12/13, FM 16 also a bit but I did not like it). In order to make things simple for me I pretty much shamelessly copied your tactic (I like the combination of strong defensive play and a bit of controlling element, I like watching Barca IRL but as a FM manager I rather prefer to be Ó. Tabárez/Cholo Simeone type of guy ) and also my starting team (Deportes Copiapó, relegation candidates, IRL currently last in the Chilean First League after 5 matches, 0 points, last year they barely managed to escape the relegation) suits your tactic based on TM (I have two good TMs in my squad). So far I have played a couple of easy friendlies to gain morale and one difficult friendly match vs Belgrano (from ARG First League, which is a higher standard league). I lost vs. Belgrano (0-1) and they quite dominated but this is ok as it is expected. On the other hand I won my first two league matches vs. good CHI teams (H- vs. O'Higgins and A - vs. Everton). My TM scored in both of these matches so I am really excited. I really like what I see on the pitch and as I am slowly getting grips with the game I am starting to experiment with PIs (as the overall standard of my players is not very high). Anyway next game away vs. Colo Colo will be tough. Thank you mate

@Fox-7-Thanks, I did that. The reason why I am asking is that my players (especially Fullbacks) seem to prefer to cross the ball to wide players on the opposite side instead of TM.

Do I need to somewhere specifically select a Target Man or just assign the TM role and the team will automatically send crosses to him?

Thanks for the PIs, I will experiment with them in the coming days. My Left-Footed WM does not really suit this defence first style but he is my most and practically only creative/technical player (M. Medel). He is also old and rather slow, I will try to deploy him as a creator/crosser on the left side (like D. Beckham role :)). Meanwhile I will try to retrain one of my fullbacks/central midfielders for this role. I like your thinking, sometimes I also do not morph. Eg. in FM11 I was managing a modest Uruguayan club (El Tanque Sisley) and after a few years practically all my players had AGG, BRA, DET, TEA, WOR > 14. I also teached a lot of my players PPM "Dives Into Tackles" and coupled with Hard Tackling Instruction my team was really intense (the match engine captured this well enough). I was also specifically looking for players with high hidden attribute "Dirtiness". Cholo Simeone/good old Uruguayan style. On the other hand I also admire managers like M. Pellegrini/R. Gareca so I am naturally inclined to morph . I am looking forward to get some FM matches soon, so I will then report how am I doing.

@Fox-7- awesome post. I have just started playing FM24 and thinking of doing something similar for a few seasons until my team gets better (this is my favourite FM approach, start managing some obscure team, focus on defence and then gradually progress to something more possessional). Do you use any specific player instructions? Also I suppose your WM - SU is right footed correct? Would left footed player also work?

Great thread. FM 05 . Also very nice to see these Player Profiles .

Riquelme was not staying "in the hole", he was constantly moving out from it to dictate the play. He was also one of the most pressing resistant players ever, capable of having several opponents on his back (this ability also made Xavi the best Spanish player ever). I agree with the passenger, though you can have one exceptional player free from defensive duties in modern football (Messi). It depends on how you tactically set up the rest of team.

I have recently installed FM13 and I can see the effect of collision detection but not in a good way. Players with ball look dumber (as it seems to have a big effect on their decision making) and therefore it is actually quite easy to make defensive systems over effective (poor teams defending like 2014 Atlético). Also yesterday I played FM24 and hate it. It is basically a crossing simulator where central players practically always prefer to play the ball wide and the crossing accuracy even from bad players sometimes reminds me D. Beckham. EDIT: Well, after playing some more I am actually starting to like/enjoy FM24. Some of the crossing accuracy still bothers me but generally the engine looks very nice. It just needs a bit of patience which is not my greatest virtue.

I think that there is generally a big misconception on how somebody like Juan Román Riquelme really played. A lot of people describes him as a "static" Enganche, but it is actually far from truth. He was constantly moving into channels horizontally to receive passes (favouring left hand channel), even finding himself sometimes quite wide near the touchline. He certainly was not as mobile/nimble as eg. somebody like Pablo Aimar/Ariel Ortega, but he was far from "static" off the ball movement wise. I also do not believe that in nowadays football he would be easily marked out of the game. Even the likes of Makelele/Cambiasso were not able to keep him under control. Anyway, I would like to ask (N10 fans ) how do you rate central play in FM24? I was reading that the central play is lacking because even top players are not inclined to play many through balls. Could you provide some clips of brilliant through balls? I am still playing FM11/12 and do not want to give up my N10 .