Football Manager 2016 far too difficult

[chestermike]

For me this game is more difficult than the last couple, purely because its been made more complex and more realistic for me. I know there are problems and omissions from the match engine still,but squad building is a lot tougher this year. On fm13/14, all you had to do to rise from the non league abyss to the prem is 5 to 7 years was trawl through the youth departures tab in transfers, ask your staff to recommend signings and keep an eye on transfer rumours and snap them up before your rivals, and you would end up with a team of world beating teenagers, with an average age of 18/19 and a wage bill 1/4 that of the next lowest in the division.

On this version, the recommended players are about the same quality as what you have, and cost a fair bit of wages. There are few youth departures apart from in England in the summer, and they are mostly awful (oh for the days of Sparta Prague and hajduk split releasing prem quality 17 year olds by the bucket load). Scouting is also tougher, as you have to put in a concerted effort to scout a players ppa now, where as even on 15 a report card would tell you in less than a day that the 16 year old released by Jaro had the potential to be a world class player.

Then there is tactics, its a lot easier to see how a tactic will work on this version, and how every decision will affect your team. I really like the new tactic interface, although I do feel it needs more added to it, and the player instructions and set pieces need streamlined. What I have found though is, if you stick with 1 tactic, you will boom and bust results wise. You will go unbeaten for 10 games then not win for 5. However if you prepare 3 different tactics, well thought through, and mix them up, adapting to your players and the opponent as you go, then any results are possible.

Just my opinion, but this is how my game is going. I'm currently in the championship with Chester in season 13, took 3 years go get out of the conference, 4 years to get win the league 2 playoffs, 3 years until I came 2nd in league 1, and now after finishing in 21st in the championship the last 2 years running with 52 and 50 points respectively, I currently sit 19th after 40 games with 46 points, and all my best players want to leave for bigger clubs. This after selling my 2 best players for a combined £7million last summer.

On the plus side I have a regen midfielder called Dave rook who is getting £3-4million bids from the likes of Everton, man city, Norwich etc, and has real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Milan wanting him, as well as a right back youth prospect who has 4 gold star and 5 black star potential.

[fmfan74]

I'll give you some info what i had to look at this season. I use to have the opposition widget formation window open all the time whilst playing to see how the opposition makes changes during the game. Not only that I make sure i read scout reports of the team your playing. As you know there are 4 1/4's in the game where it stops and simulates what will happen. In your scout report it will tell you what times the opposition will be at it's strongest to score goals and when it's vulnerable as well. This is just one aspect.

If the opposition is playing a wide game expect them to be crossing the ball a lot from the wingers. Do you cut the supply line ? I like to be bullish against the opposition so i setup personal instructions a little. Positioning is also crucial, If your full backs leave spaces against the opposition wingers what do you think will happen ?. Heaps of info in tactics forums.

[Overmars]

...squad building is a lot tougher this year....

That was my reaction to FM16. I couldn't get anyone to play to sign with my club (transfer or loan) who was any better than the players I already had. Realistic perhaps, but also not my idea of gaming fun. I migrated back to FM15, which is better aligned to my taste. On FM15, I have to overpay or scout worldwide to find the odd player who can improve my squad, but they do exist.

[swansongs]

Every new FM game each yeah seems to be getting easier for me.

The game mechanics are easy to manage when you understand how they work. But it takes a few years to figure them out because the games don't give new players much advice, and what they do give is often misleading or not actually helpful.

So for some people the games are easy, for others they are brutally hard.