Football Manager 2021 Official Feedback Thread

[leandro]

Just a mini rant: so I'm Barcelona and for the second season I have 40 million to spend in transfers, seems nice. Meanwhille Madrid can pay 320 million between Mbappe and Salah, perfection. I load the save before the transfers and add a new manager to Madrid to check the finances and seems that I only have 80 million to spend with a human manager. Feels balanced

[Gah Rii]

3 minutes ago, JordanMillward_1 said:

Not for me - Reus got 6 man of the match's for me since full release at AM(C) and got the award for fan favourite because of it.

What role are you playing him in? Just curious, if you don't mind me asking.

[JordanMilly]

Just now, Gah Rii said:

What role are you playing him in? Just curious, if you don't mind me asking.

Just an Attacking Midfielder on support. He's constantly roaming outside the box and keeping open for a pass and has managed about half a dozen absolute howitzer shots from the edge of the box.

[rdbayly]

Absolute scenes in my Norwich save. Impossible to analyse any of this (because in-game match stats have been stolen from me and the analytical tools are broken)

I got promotion and won the league cup whilst in the championship, and this screenshot shows my results in the Premier League since the full release:

 

Lacazette scored 8 goals against me in three days...

[FrazT]

1 hour ago, Bakiano said:

Maybe not a question for this thread, but is there any modded skins with old widgets?

Look/ask in the Skinning Hideout forum

[bcereus]

I feel cheated. The beta ME, (although Abit too easy and high scoreline) was the best representation of football I've seen so far in this series.

I don't care what they say, I know what my eyes tell me, they've changed something again because I'm seeing the same dumb **** that players used to do in FM 20. Long passes out wide even if I tell them to pass through the middle. Work the ball into the box is completely ignored. 

Low tempo is also a no go again, my dumb players will now play the long ball time and again when specifically instructed to play short passes balanced, through the middle.

I don't know why they did this, but I'm honestly fuming. Felt like I was lured in with some great football but now the stupid constant long shots are back and the dumb long ball out wide that I specifically told the players not to do. It worked in the Beta, infact it worked too well at times and that's a valid bug, too many through balls from poor players.

Players do not give two ***** about your instructions again. 

They saw the high scorelines and then nuked the central play again ,my best playmakers refuse to pick out good passes like they used to. Now it's a long punt to the winger again. Not asking for constant through balls, but It feels like you nuked center through balls again or at least reduced it way too much.

So all the play now, outside to your wingers, long shots and set pieces are back again. Feel like Im playing a slightly patched version of FM 20.

Honestly feel cheated out of my money.

If you had a feature to rollback to the Beta ME, I'd take that in a heart beat instead of playing a slightly better FM 20 engine again. Was looking forward to my long save. 

 

[JordanMilly]

Just now, bcereus said:

I feel cheated. The beta ME, (although Abit too easy and high scoreline) was the best representation of football I've seen so far in this series.

I don't care what they say, I know what my eyes tell me, they've changed something again because I'm seeing the same dumb **** that players used to do in FM 20. Long passes out wide even if I tell them to pass through the middle. Work the ball into the box is completely ignored. 

Low tempo is also a no go again, my dumb players will now play the long ball time and again when specifically instructed to play short passes balanced, through the middle.

I don't know why they did this, but I'm honestly fuming. Felt like I was lured in with some great football but now the stupid constant long shots are back and the dumb long ball out wide that I specifically told the players not to do. It worked in the Beta, infact it worked too well at times and that's a valid bug, too many through balls from poor players.

Players do not give two ***** about your instructions again. 

They saw the high scorelines and then nuked the central play again ,my best playmakers refuse to pick out good passes like they used to. Now it's a long punt to the winger again. Not asking for constant through balls, but It feels like you nuked center through balls again or at least reduced it way too much.

So all the play now, outside to your wingers, long shots and set pieces are back again. Feel like Im playing a slightly patched version of FM 20.

Honestly feel cheated out of my money.

If you had a feature to rollback to the Beta ME, I'd take that in a heart beat instead of playing a slightly better FM 20 engine again. Was looking forward to my long save. 

 

 

I know you've said that you don't care what SI say, but when the guy who runs development for the match engine says nothing was changed within the match engine bar referee/VAR/goalkeeper errors, and defenders playing slightly more narrower against 3 striker formations, that's all he changed.

If you're honestly at the point of not believing the guy who develops the ME, you might as well refund, to be perfectly honest, because you're not going to trust anything any of us say, making any further discussion pointless and you're just going to get angry at us telling you that things weren't changed.

I also play a low tempo, short passing possession based 4-2-3-1 formation, using central play and underlaps, and my players play that way in the ME and win me games mostly with through ball assists through the centre, so I know full well from personal experience that those aren't broken. I'm not going to say you're seeing things that aren't there, but I'd definitely suggest reviewing what instructions you're giving your players in the tactics.

[FrazT]

5 minutes ago, bcereus said:

I feel cheated. The beta ME, (although Abit too easy and high scoreline) was the best representation of football I've seen so far in this series.

I don't care what they say, I know what my eyes tell me, they've changed something again because I'm seeing the same dumb **** that players used to do in FM 20. Long passes out wide even if I tell them to pass through the middle. Work the ball into the box is completely ignored. 

Low tempo is also a no go again, my dumb players will now play the long ball time and again when specifically instructed to play short passes balanced, through the middle.

I don't know why they did this, but I'm honestly fuming. Felt like I was lured in with some great football but now the stupid constant long shots are back and the dumb long ball out wide that I specifically told the players not to do. It worked in the Beta, infact it worked too well at times and that's a valid bug, too many through balls from poor players.

Players do not give two ***** about your instructions again. 

They saw the high scorelines and then nuked the central play again ,my best playmakers refuse to pick out good passes like they used to. Now it's a long punt to the winger again. Not asking for constant through balls, but It feels like you nuked center through balls again or at least reduced it way too much.

So all the play now, outside to your wingers, long shots and set pieces are back again. Feel like Im playing a slightly patched version of FM 20.

Honestly feel cheated out of my money.

If you had a feature to rollback to the Beta ME, I'd take that in a heart beat instead of playing a slightly better FM 20 engine again. Was looking forward to my long save. 

 

 

Below is the exact post from one of the ME team leaders which ( along with another post from him 5 or 6 posts below this one) gives the exact position on the minor changes to the ME in the full game- you may interpret what you are seeing differently, but these are the facts

We also appreciate that you are frustrated, but please in future watch our language on these forums

The changes referred to by Neil here were not ME changes, they were external to the ME and filtering through in a way that gave the human player more boosts than the AI. This was changed so human and AI are now equal. Although we did have a match coder investigate the effects of these changes and they said the effects were likely very minor anyway.

In terms of direct AI changes, there was only refereeing + stat fixes, as well as tweaks to clearance decisions and some adaptations to how AI managers organise their defence against 3 striker tactics. That was all. Only other fixes were to one-off bloopers/crashes e.g. goalkeeper carrying the ball over their own line

[bcereus]

Tell my CBs fewer risky passes ,nope, punt it out wide or try an over the top pass.

Short passing? Much shorter passing? Nope, punt it out wide.

Work the ball into the box? Nope play the first long pass you see., no regard for instructions whatsoever. Stupid long shots are back as well. Take a 25 yard shot from a standing position , that's a great idea. 

Shoot less often? Nope, I'll take a shot from where I want.

My eyes and play time told me on the BETA that the ME was so good. I know what I'm seeing now but they will deny it.

 

They didn't fix the constant through balls, they did what they did with FM 19/20, the center is lava. That's why this year better defending came along with the center play. The defenders couldn't handle it so they nuked it for two games straight.

And now they are doing the same because of the high scorelines they saw in the beta.

Guarantee they will magically announce they fixed it again next year. Everyone here will pretend that it was never broken just like the two past versions. And celebrate when they introduce it again. Horrible.

[JordanMilly]

3 minutes ago, bcereus said:

They didn't fix the constant through balls, they did what they did with FM 19/20, the center is lava.

No they didn't 

[bcereus]

3 minutes ago, JordanMillward_1 said:

I know you've said that you don't care what SI say, but when the guy who runs development for the match engine says nothing was changed within the match engine bar referee/VAR/goalkeeper errors, and defenders playing slightly more narrower against 3 striker formations, that's all he changed.

If you're honestly at the point of not believing the guy who develops the ME, you might as well refund, to be perfectly honest, because you're not going to trust anything any of us say, making any further discussion pointless and you're just going to get angry at us telling you that things weren't changed.

I also play a low tempo, short passing possession based 4-2-3-1 formation, using central play and underlaps, and my players play that way in the ME and win me games mostly with through ball assists through the centre, so I know full well from personal experience that those aren't broken. I'm not going to say you're seeing things that aren't there, but I'd definitely suggest reviewing what instructions you're giving your players in the tactics.

Ahh yes the old nothing is broken ,take our word for it approach.

So when SI denied that center play was an issue for the past two versions, and then also laughed off claims by users that players taking shots from the touchline was excessive. And now all the things they said weren't that big of an issue magically fixed for this version of the game. Everybody on this forum told me and a number of other users they were crazy to believe that center play was dead the past two versions.

Then SI magically fix it ,or at least partially from my experience, and that's not a contradiction at all.

Listen I'm only the end user, it's entirely possible that something unintended was changed, I'm not the only one complaining about this btw.

And no, I'm not going to believe the ME Dev, they've told users they are crazy for noticing massive ME bugs in the past and then fixing it.

They are a company with a product to protect. 

I know what I see, my center backs are making the same stupid long passes they were in FM 20. it was not happening as much in the beta. Players will also ignore short passing instructions.

 

It's improved from FM 20 , but regressed from the Beta.

 

It's a feedback forum. I'm providing feedback.

 

[johnhughthom]

5 minutes ago, JordanMillward_1 said:

I know you've said that you don't care what SI say, but when the guy who runs development for the match engine says nothing was changed within the match engine bar referee/VAR/goalkeeper errors, and defenders playing slightly more narrower against 3 striker formations, that's all he changed.

If you're honestly at the point of not believing the guy who develops the ME, you might as well refund, to be perfectly honest, because you're not going to trust anything any of us say, making any further discussion pointless and you're just going to get angry at us telling you that things weren't changed.

I also play a low tempo, short passing possession based 4-2-3-1 formation, using central play and underlaps, and my players play that way in the ME and win me games mostly with through ball assists through the centre, so I know full well from personal experience that those aren't broken. I'm not going to say you're seeing things that aren't there, but I'd definitely suggest reviewing what instructions you're giving your players in the tactics.

Jordan, I know you are doing your job, but telling us the match engine hasn't changed is just coming across as disingenuous, and I know you aren't. The game is different from the beta. I loved the beta, it was unrealistic as hell, but it felt like SI were trying to move away from what we've been seeing the last few years. With the full release, it's back to what has turned me off the past few years, I wouldn't even have bought it if it hadn't been so cheap at Shopto.

If SI are saying nothing has changed in the match engine, that is worrying, because something has changed the game completely, and if the developers don't know what it is, it's hard to trust them to fix it.

[bcereus]

4 minutes ago, JordanMillward_1 said:

No they didn't 

Don't take what I said out of context, I praised the center play, it's still there to FEET, but the through balls are much much reduced. I can see it myself.

 

And it would also benefit you to leave the smug attitude from your posts when I didn't interact with you that way. Have some humility for people who bought product.

[Marko1989]

Even though I will not buy or play FM 2021 I am very glad that SI has finally tweaked ME so the people are happy.

I don't remember seeing this many positive comments about ME in years.

Now when we have so many micro-managment things in the game, and good ME, I hope that next big thing is  huge 3D graphics and animations update

After so many years of playing I find it difficult to get immersed and that is the thing that would made me to love FM again. ( since they've ruined 2D )

Edited November 27, 2020 by Marko1989

[FrazT]

@bcereusFine- you have provided your feedback which will be noted, but some of the accusations against the SI team are unacceptable, so lets leave it at that, please

[bcereus]

11 minutes ago, FrazT said:

Below is the exact post from one of the ME team leaders which ( along with another post from him 5 or 6 posts below this one) gives the exact position on the minor changes to the ME in the full game- you may interpret what you are seeing differently, but these are the facts

We also appreciate that you are frustrated, but please in future watch our language on these forums

The changes referred to by Neil here were not ME changes, they were external to the ME and filtering through in a way that gave the human player more boosts than the AI. This was changed so human and AI are now equal. Although we did have a match coder investigate the effects of these changes and they said the effects were likely very minor anyway.

In terms of direct AI changes, there was only refereeing + stat fixes, as well as tweaks to clearance decisions and some adaptations to how AI managers organise their defence against 3 striker tactics. That was all. Only other fixes were to one-off bloopers/crashes e.g. goalkeeper carrying the ball over their own line

I appreciate what you are saying but I'm not seeing things and many other users are not either.

 

I praised the Beta ME because I could see the football made sense, the players did what I told them. It's probably that I'm trying to play a very specific style and it worked in BETA.

But something changed, maybe it was unintended on the Devs point of view. But I, as the end user, can see it with my own eyes.

You will ignore me obviously,I'm just one user and probably role on to the next game no problem, but I had huge hopes for the ME this year, was amazed by the BETA.

But something changed, I watch my matches in comprehensive both Beta and after. I can see the changes.

[Cartopis84]

Anyone had a goal stand after VAR was used yet? Its always disallowed for me.

[johnhughthom]

Just now, bcereus said:

But something changed, I watch my matches in comprehensive both Beta and after. I can see the changes.

I often wonder if that's the difference, I also watch in comprehensive, and see a huge difference. I could probably enjoy the game more on key, but I don't feel like I really see how my team plays that way, even more so this year that the statistics are locked in a heavily guarded safe.

[bcereus]

2 minutes ago, FrazT said:

@bcereusFine- you have provided your feedback which will be noted, but some of the accusations against the SI team are unacceptable, so lets leave it at that, please

That's fine, it's your forum, but I'm not going to take condescending people commenting on my post when I bought their game. He answered well the first time and then decided to add that little comment. 

[Citizen Sandman]

Constant byline cross blocks?

[FrazT]

1 minute ago, bcereus said:

That's fine, it's your forum, but I'm not going to take condescending people commenting on my post when I bought their game. He answered well the first time and then decided to add that little comment. 

OK- point noted- all feedback is read regardless of its content

[FrazT]

Just now, Citizen Kane said:

Constant byline cross blocks?

I am sure that this has been raised in the ME Bugs forum and is being reviewed

[Pav_Makarov]

1 hour ago, JordanMillward_1 said:

If you hover your mouse over the "3 Players" bit, it gives you their names

Thanks, idk why but it took eternity to appear, even though laptop is running good.

Nice to know this

[bcereus]

7 minutes ago, johnhughthom said:

I often wonder if that's the difference, I also watch in comprehensive, and see a huge difference. I could probably enjoy the game more on key, but I don't feel like I really see how my team plays that way, even more so this year that the statistics are locked in a heavily guarded safe.

It feels like there is more nonsense in the comprehensive, maybe I should try key but honestly, I can see from comprehensive that players will play the long pass more often that they used to.

Maybe it's possible that instead of patching it so that defence is narrower against 3 man strikers, and therefore stopping the overloads , they somehow, maybe a bug, did it so that's how they defend all  the time.

I don't know, just spit balling here 

Edited November 27, 2020 by bcereus

[LucasBR]

9 minutes ago, Cartopis84 said:

Anyone had a goal stand after VAR was used yet? Its always disallowed for me.

Always disallowed and 95% of the times a penlaty is awarded.

[jeru]

Ok so if nothing major has changed on this ME version then there are bugs affecting decision making and passing bias, what has changed since the beta is the tendancy to smash long shots or crosses directly into the defender, that didn't occur in the beta no where near as much.  Is it maybe the new "slice" thing not working properly, in my opinion decision making has for sure taken a step backwards since the beta everything seems so rushed even at lower tempo's and mentalities.  The other biggest thing is the passing bias, we have heard that play through the center instruction is bugged but even without it on it seems that pass selection is back to FM20 levels of favouring the wide players and the other noticable thing is once the ball goes wide it very rarely comes back inside all that happens is the winger or full back smahes it into a defender for the corner.  We accept that nothing intentially has changed with the ME but nevertheless what we are seeing played out has changed so something must be buggy 

[Mcfc1894]

Speed through days is much better after beta I loaded around 160k Leagues and flying through the season

[Double0Seven]

Don't wanna be an ass, but how are all these people claiming clearly something changed with the ME yet I don't see a single statistic being thrown out for us to see? If the "changes" were so significant and you have played that much in beta, you would have absolutely zero issues giving us some stats from your team (same tactic etc) and compare it to what happens in the current ME. 

If we have to believe you based on your feelings, were getting nowhere.

Also ask yourself this, the ME has gotten a shitton of praise with barely any complains which is a miracle given the most critical FM users are on this form. Why would SI waste their time in a beta to somehow ruin the ME? Makes absolutely no sense even from the evil business wise perspective. 

Edited November 28, 2020 by Double0Seven

[bernas74]

124 Completed Passes (97%)  

Edited November 28, 2020 by bernas74

[Mr Tonio]

1 hour ago, Double0Seven said:

Don't wanna be an ass, but how are all these people claiming clearly something changed with the ME yet I don't see a single statistic being thrown out for us to see? If the "changes" were so significant and you have played that much in beta, you would have absolutely zero issues giving us some stats from your team (same tactic etc) and compare it to what happens in the current ME. 

If we have to believe you based on your feelings, were getting nowhere.

Also ask yourself this, the ME has gotten a shitton of praise with barely any complains which is a miracle given the most critical FM users are on this form. Why would SI waste their time in a beta to somehow ruin the ME? Makes absolutely no sense even from the evil business wise perspective. 

 

I've asked myself your last question and came up with an answer. Short version: they don't exactly know what they're doing. Long version: the ME is so delicate and unstable that minor changes can have larger repercusions that are impossible to anticipate and might not show whithout extensive trials... This explaination doesn't involve a crazy evil business conspiracy whatever and kind of rejoins to some of Miles last year's declarations. So yeah, point is: some of us reckon the ME changes have make it less enjoyable than beta was. We feel a little hard done by. There is nothing crazy saying that, nothing to get mad about. And SI should acknowledge that. But, yeah, we love SI, communication (non-advertising one that is) is not their strongest asset.

[Rashidi]

1 hour ago, Mr Tonio said:

 

I've asked myself your last question and came up with an answer. Short version: they don't exactly know what they're doing. Long version: the ME is so delicate and unstable that minor changes can have larger repercusions that are impossible to anticipate and might not show whithout extensive trials... This explaination doesn't involve a crazy evil business conspiracy whatever and kind of rejoins to some of Miles last year's declarations. So yeah, point is: some of us reckon the ME changes have make it less enjoyable than beta was. We feel a little hard done by. There is nothing crazy saying that, nothing to get mad about. And SI should acknowledge that. But, yeah, we love SI, communication (non-advertising one that is) is not their strongest asset.

Your point is equally valid when I turn it around and point it back at you.  For one thing it’s entirely possible that you don’t know what the team instructions do in combination.  
 

There are some issues of that I have no doubt, and they have acknowledged that but to harp on about it hoping that your POV somehow moves SI to action isn’t going to work.

There are some me included who are enjoying how the focus through the middle instructions unlocks space for my team to go attack.

I also assume that there are some very good players in SI who are able to do things with the game, and when someone in the office claims something can’t be done, they turn around and prove otherwise. 
 

For one thing OIs are certainly playing like a beast in the game, but these are also the easiest to get wrong.  I don’t see people using them as much as me, or at least not how I use them.  
 

There are one or two things I’ve noticed keeper kicking the ball long for no reason, I changed something it stopped. Then he kicked into his own player and we conceded. I laughed hard cos that was the first I’d seen it. Winger goes down the flank, has his cross blocked, I changed another thing and we started putting in around 20 dangerous crosses into the game but the AI tight marked well. Someone said far post corners are going in on my stream, I left the corners on default, we conceded, I tweaked the corner settings and we didn’t concede at the Far post again.

Dont take this personally

1 hour ago, Mr Tonio said:

Short version: they don't exactly know what they're doing.

But I am sure there are some at SI and out there in the community who know exactly what they are doing.

[Mr Tonio]

8 minutes ago, Rashidi said:

Your point is equally valid when I turn it around and point it back at you.  For one thing it’s entirely possible that you don’t know what the team instructions do in combination.  
 

There are some issues of that I have no doubt, and they have acknowledged that but to harp on about it hoping that your POV somehow moves SI to action isn’t going to work.

There are some me included who are enjoying how the focus through the middle instructions unlocks space for my team to go attack.

I also assume that there are some very good players in SI who are able to do things with the game, and when someone in the office claims something can’t be done, they turn around and prove otherwise. 
 

For one thing OIs are certainly playing like a beast in the game, but these are also the easiest to get wrong.  I don’t see people using them as much as me, or at least not how I use them.  
 

There are one or two things I’ve noticed keeper kicking the ball long for no reason, I changed something it stopped. Then he kicked into his own player and we conceded. I laughed hard cos that was the first I’d seen it. Winger goes down the flank, has his cross blocked, I changed another thing and we started putting in around 20 dangerous crosses into the game but the AI tight marked well. Someone said far post corners are going in on my stream, I left the corners on default, we conceded, I tweaked the corner settings and we didn’t concede at the Far post again.

Dont take this personally

But I am sure there are some at SI and out there in the community who know exactly what they are doing.

Well, my only point was: saying that something changed the ME is not a bonkers opinion that should be shreded away. For the rest, i expect nothing and i agree with most of what you say.

 

I was certain that somebody would react on my "short answer" I really really hope they do... But for the moment, i still find this ME version is a step backward.

[kiwityke]

This thread and the BETA feedback thread are hilarious.

BETA - "StRiKerS aRe OvErPoWeReD NeRf cEntRaL pLaY tHe gaMe iS sO eAsY" etc

Now "ThE ME iS RuInEd yOu NeRfEd cEnTrAl pLaY"

Here's the thing neither of those opinions IMO is or was in anyway shape or form valid. 

Strikers weren't overpowered at all with my team and AI teams scoring well below real life totals or barely at what I'd expect in my experience.

I haven't personally seen any massive changes in how central play or goals etc are scored since release either. It still looks and plays fantastically. I constantly see through ball goals.

Its absolute an exercise in why companies shouldn't listen to customers. That being said FM19 and 20s ME were absolute bobbins.

[upthetoon]

5 hours ago, bcereus said:

I feel cheated. The beta ME, (although Abit too easy and high scoreline) was the best representation of football I've seen so far in this series.

I don't care what they say, I know what my eyes tell me, they've changed something again because I'm seeing the same dumb **** that players used to do in FM 20. Long passes out wide even if I tell them to pass through the middle. Work the ball into the box is completely ignored. 

i dont get why many people complain about pass through the middle not working. 

If you watch any match, you will see that all attacking play WILL involve the flanks. That's where the space is. The middle is usually the most congested area of the pitch where there are at least total of 7-8 players there. Just because you 'tick' the 'focus through middle' you are expecting some sort of magic in the middle where half the players on the pitch are located? Unless of course you are having magicians like Keven De Bruyne or Iniesta.

How many through balls do you see a in real life match? The few attempted through balls are usually intercepted or cleared away. The attacking passage of play involving the middle pitch only happens during a transition where the middle opens up with only 4-5 players. Of course it's different if you have Kevin De Bruyne in the middle who is able to SPOT a pass down the middle. how many players in the world will be able to spot that kind of passes?

What the ME does well, is passage of play that goes through via the flanks. 

What it does not do well, is differentiating the quality of midfielders being the elite level and semi-pro players in the middle of the pitch. 

I'm one who advocates the removal of the 'focus play in middle' button. The focus of play should be DEPENDANT on the tactic, formation & player role.
How do you 'focus play in the middle' if you are using 442 when 442 by nature is a heavily wing formation where you try to outnumber and outmaneuver the opposition on the flanks?
How do you 'focus play by flanks' when football by nature always goes through the flanks? 

Focus play should only be available on 1 SIDE of the flank to exploit a particular weakness. You should not be able to click both as it makes no sense.

[kiwityke]

2 hours ago, upthetoon said:

i dont get why many people complain about pass through the middle not working. 

If you watch any match, you will see that all attacking play WILL involve the flanks. That's where the space is. The middle is usually the most congested area of the pitch where there are at least total of 7-8 players there. Just because you 'tick' the 'focus through middle' you are expecting some sort of magic in the middle where half the players on the pitch are located? Unless of course you are having magicians like Keven De Bruyne or Iniesta.

How many through balls do you see a in real life match? The few attempted through balls are usually intercepted or cleared away. The attacking passage of play involving the middle pitch only happens during a transition where the middle opens up with only 4-5 players. Of course it's different if you have Kevin De Bruyne in the middle who is able to SPOT a pass down the middle. how many players in the world will be able to spot that kind of passes?

What the ME does well, is passage of play that goes through via the flanks. 

What it does not do well, is differentiating the quality of midfielders being the elite level and semi-pro players in the middle of the pitch. 

I'm one who advocates the removal of the 'focus play in middle' button. The focus of play should be DEPENDANT on the tactic, formation & player role.
How do you 'focus play in the middle' if you are using 442 when 442 by nature is a heavily wing formation where you try to outnumber and outmaneuver the opposition on the flanks?
How do you 'focus play by flanks' when football by nature always goes through the flanks? 

Focus play should only be available on 1 SIDE of the flank to exploit a particular weakness. You should not be able to click both as it makes no sense.

Football is a game about the creation, control and exploitation of space essentially and the prevention of your opponent doing those things.

In this the ME is pretty good at what it does. Last year it was nigh on impossible to create space down the middle no matter what you did.

This year it is entirely possible. Its also entirely possible to stop that too.

The problem is the AI is so negative and woeful at spotting potential opportunities to exploit. Where as humans are very good at doing that. Hence its fairly easy as it stands to dominate even with average teams.

Edited November 28, 2020 by kiwityke

[Fmfan00]

Purchased the in game editor... usually it appears up in the top right but it is not there in the player profile. I have rebooted steam and everything and nothing...

[FrazT]

7 minutes ago, Fmfan00 said:

Purchased the in game editor... usually it appears up in the top right but it is not there in the player profile. I have rebooted steam and everything and nothing...

Some users have reported the purchase taking some time to register in the game- try closing down steam and then login again

[Fmfan00]

6 minutes ago, FrazT said:

Some users have reported the purchase taking some time to register in the game- try closing down steam and then login again

I mean i purchased this at like 4pm Est friday afternoon and now 2:50am saturday morning so not sure how much longer it should take lol... no problem ill give that stream idea a try even though I have already done it once. I closed FM21. Shutdown stream restarted stream. restarted fm21 and still noting

 

Edited November 28, 2020 by Fmfan00

[Jibby123]

8 hours ago, Cartopis84 said:

Anyone had a goal stand after VAR was used yet? Its always disallowed for me.

No and this has always been the case since FM introduced VAR. It's a small annoyance, hating VAR (irl) added to it being a pointless pause with always the same outcome on FM makes it more annoying.  

[Fmfan00]

38 minutes ago, FrazT said:

Some users have reported the purchase taking some time to register in the game- try closing down steam and then login again

someone just mentioned to me that I have to go into preferences and select show the in game editor into the menu bar... i did that and still now showing up... i have no idea now

Edit: Found it that the custom skin i was using was causing it not to show up

Edited November 28, 2020 by Fmfan00

[Luizinho]

Anyone know why there's so little information on my coach report for one of my players? I don't see to have any current/potential ability ratings

[SebastianRO]

18 hours ago, tiotom92 said:

You can enlarge the tablet window across to the left and it will add another panel...

No, I cannot. It doesn't allow for any more enlarging. I can have 1 or 2 panels, but not 3.

[SpecialOne Miko]

Il y a 7 heures, 91427 a dit :

The match stats tab on the left doesn't go away when a highlight happens so I can't see a significant part of the pitch. I've tried relaunching the game, reloading skin, installing a different skin etc but it nothing seems to work. Anyone else getting this?

click on the scoreboard at the top left.

[nikkk]

I play for Real Madrid. The  highligts - team playing in fantastic football. Victory after victory, the team plays well, a combination of goals. Even from young people who are very weak in real life. And this is the current Real Madrid, which has a Crisis. 5-0,7-0, 4-1 in the game. Grades 7.5 and higher. The opponent cannot carry out any attacks. This is not football, this is beating. 40 + -0 hits. This is unrealistic. Began playing my favorite full match. Absolutely the opposite situation, the team cannot score a goal, constant losses. Rodrigo, Vinicius, compared to the highlights, are just no players. scores 6.5 for the whole team, except for the defenders. When counterattacking, the player runs into his own crashes into him and loses the ball, and so on all the time. Awful complete match. Absolute regression. Moreover, the opponent also cannot do anything, both teams do not play. 0-0 best score. The same tactics settings, the same players, completely different non-football. Shame, so many years of development, and the focus on the interface. You have been developing for 30 years, finally make a normal football on screens, double-edged, unpredictable and interesting, as on cm2000-2001 and earlier. Dislike is complete. Player with 30 years of experience

in the last series, he chased away a home match with an equal opponent many times and could not lose. How so? Is everything decided before the match? And to touch on ipad too. The team is in good shape, in a home match, a full match - it cannot lose. Continuous disappointments (

Edited November 28, 2020 by nikkk

[iAlwaysWin]

10 hours ago, Double0Seven said:

Don't wanna be an ass, but how are all these people claiming clearly something changed with the ME yet I don't see a single statistic being thrown out for us to see? If the "changes" were so significant and you have played that much in beta, you would have absolutely zero issues giving us some stats from your team (same tactic etc) and compare it to what happens in the current ME. 

If we have to believe you based on your feelings, were getting nowhere.

Also ask yourself this, the ME has gotten a shitton of praise with barely any complains which is a miracle given the most critical FM users are on this form. Why would SI waste their time in a beta to somehow ruin the ME? Makes absolutely no sense even from the evil business wise perspective. 

Penalty awards have definitely changed, theres way less being awarded, far to low when compared to real life, when in the beta penalties where quite common which they must have seen as an issue.

Also direct free kicks have definitely been changed, since you rarely see them hit the back of the net, again different from the beta.

 

 

Edited November 28, 2020 by iAlwaysWin

[nico_france]

After a little bit more than 2 seasons completed

And after already discussing this subject during Beta

I still have the feeling that my strikers are scoring too much without using any « cheated tactic » 

 

Does anyone feel the same ?

[2feet]

6 hours ago, Rashidi said:

Your point is equally valid when I turn it around and point it back at you.  For one thing it’s entirely possible that you don’t know what the team instructions do in combination.  
 

There are some issues of that I have no doubt, and they have acknowledged that but to harp on about it hoping that your POV somehow moves SI to action isn’t going to work.

There are some me included who are enjoying how the focus through the middle instructions unlocks space for my team to go attack.

I also assume that there are some very good players in SI who are able to do things with the game, and when someone in the office claims something can’t be done, they turn around and prove otherwise. 
 

For one thing OIs are certainly playing like a beast in the game, but these are also the easiest to get wrong.  I don’t see people using them as much as me, or at least not how I use them.  
 

There are one or two things I’ve noticed keeper kicking the ball long for no reason, I changed something it stopped. Then he kicked into his own player and we conceded. I laughed hard cos that was the first I’d seen it. Winger goes down the flank, has his cross blocked, I changed another thing and we started putting in around 20 dangerous crosses into the game but the AI tight marked well. Someone said far post corners are going in on my stream, I left the corners on default, we conceded, I tweaked the corner settings and we didn’t concede at the Far post again.

Dont take this personally

But I am sure there are some at SI and out there in the community who know exactly what they are doing.

Rashidi

Please share what tweak you made to improve the possibility of getting crosses into the box without being blocked?

Ive been trying to work it out for weeks but no joy.

[Mr U Rosler]

It seems the previous iteration of the Match Engine is always vaunted as being the best in history. 

No doubt when 21.1 is updated, the new thread will lament its loss with the masses proclaiming it the greatest ever, "why did you change it!" 

[zyfon5]

2 hours ago, kiwityke said:

In this the ME is pretty good at what it does. Last year it was nigh on impossible to create space down the middle no matter what you did.

believe it or not last year my top assist type for one of my tactics is through balls despite people saying it is impossible to create space down the middle. Space in the middle does not just appear like that. You need movement from other players to drag defenders around to create that space. And unfortunately most tactics that I have seen from others failed at that.

 

[SebastianRO]

@bcereus @johnhughthom @jeru @Mr Tonio

So, I decided to post some screenshots with regards to what people are claiming about nerfing central play. I personally don't think there is a magical button to nerf central play, but whatever has happened it affected players (even the super creative ones) and they are much more inclined to pass the ball to the easiest target. Now, I am playing a 4-4-2 narrow, so naturally I will have the midfield congested. Yes, the ball will be played out wide in order to keep posession / penetrate, but a significant ammount of key passes should be happening through the middle. This was the case before the full release. I haven't changed a thing (tactically) since the full release, just because I wanted to compare apples for apples. The screenshots you are about to see are for my team's key passes. I know this doesn't tell the "full story", but is a good indication of how my team tries to penetrate the opponent's team. I don't need screenshots / number or other people (no matter who they are) to tell me what I am seeing, but since you are not watching my games, here it is:

This is an album with screenshots for the BETA Matches:

https://imgur.com/a/7bSaefY

This is an album with screenshots for the Full Release:

https://imgur.com/a/LnIVWZ8

And here it is a screenshot of my tactic that I have been using for a few seasons. It's pretty basic and I use only a few individual instructions, mostly related to closing down opposition.

 

Have a look at where the arrow is poining in my screenshot above. I don't have any players that have "shoot from distance" option. That combined with Work Ball into Box team instruction and great decision makers up front / all across the midfield really.

To conclude this post: I am not a computer programmer, so I have no clue what exactly was changed and I am not making my life's mission to speculate. What I do care about is the fact that I am starting to see that dreaded FM20 passing out wide / always going for the easiest option / lack of "balls" from my playmakers in situations I cannot put in numbers, etc. Before beta, my playmakers, especially the advanced one, would try all sorts of passes for the AF. He wouldn't always find him, obviously, but at least he would try enough to make me feel like he is taking his role seriously. After the full release ... not so much. It's not as bad as FM20 was, but now I am only seeing glimpses of what I have seen in the BETA and the norm has become almost what FM20 was. Again, I don't know what changed, knowingly or unknowingly and this is what I am not acusing anyone of doing anything malicious. All I am saying is that I think it's worth a look under the hood and maybe take the feedback on board. Or not ...

P.S

No, I am not upset about not winning / not scoring, since I do win and score accoring to my epectations. Won the league for the past 2 seasons ( I am in 2024/2025 season ) and managed to get as far as the semi-finals in UCL which is what I expected anyway. This post is about the "journey" , not the "destination" if you get what I mean.