Player development and player decline in long term saves

[Mcfc1894]

Has anyone who done a long term save noticed an insane amount of over 30s still playing regularly especially for the elite clubs and the development of newgens seems very slow?

[Mars_Blackmon]

2 hours ago, Mcfc1894 said:

Has anyone who done a long term save noticed an insane amount of over 30s still playing regularly especially for the elite clubs and the development of newgens seems very slow?

The sharp decline of veterans was slowed down this year. But injuries aren’t at a level that it should be to knock those guys out of games which would then have a need to rely on younger players hence a faster development as they play first team football.

[rp1966]

9 hours ago, Mcfc1894 said:

Has anyone who done a long term save noticed an insane amount of over 30s still playing regularly especially for the elite clubs and the development of newgens seems very slow?

Yes on both counts.  SI have made it so that older players don't decline like in previous editions - it was too fast; now, typically, they've overcompensated and now too many old players hang around for far too long.  As far as newgens are concerned this is a bit of a disaster - a lot of clubs end up clinging to the the older players due to them being very high reputation and maintaining attributes and the newgens end up languishing in the reserves and rarely make a breakthrough.  Basically there's a 'lost generation' of newgens. 

I've found it very noticeable managing England where even in 2030, if I want the best rated players I'm basically still picking the current squad - good younger players just aren't coming through  - they are blocked at club level by the oldies. Basically there won't be a decent newgen generation until the oldies have retired from football.  As I said  - too many of them, still too good.

Also it seems there's an issue with newgens not developing in the youth squads to a point where they break through to the first team. As a human player you can force it - give the newgens a chance in the first team and develop them that way, but at most bigger clubs they aren't displacing older players in sufficient numbers to get a decent turnover of players until the first batch of real players retires.  You also see it in how some clubs surge because they had a good crop of younger players at the start of the save that comes good 7-10 years in and some clubs nosedive as they see almost their whole squad retiring over a season or two because they've never replaced the too high reputation; too high attribute for too long oldies. 

As an example of how bad the situation is - I'm in 2030. The Top 50 best players list has just dropped into my inbox - only 4 are newgens; 28 are 30+ - the rest are real players at the start of the game - basically the well known FM22 wonderkids.

EDIT - One last example: I'm in Nov 2030 - I've just played Barcelona battling for the top of La Liga. Barcelona's right-back was a 36 year old Kurt Zouma.  Two big questions are raised by this - what is Zouma doing at a club like Barcelona in the first place (he went West Ham -> PSG (2028/29) -> Barcelona (2029/30), which is nuts) and how can he possibly be their best right back option when he's a centre back who can also play right back?

 

 

Edited February 18, 2022 by rp1966
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[Nacaw]

Just to echo what has already been said, the things you mention have been changed up this version, and probably needs to be balanced a little bit back towards where it was previously in the next version. 

Still, makes for a bit of a different game world this version, which isn't necessarily a bad thing

[fc.cadoni]

What annoys me is not that players become 33-34 years old and see little decline in physical attributes; but teams come to stole my youngsters - they bought them and then leave it in the dark. What's the point to stole my youngster if you prefer to play players in age 29-34 dear AI? 

[Mars_Blackmon]

A lack of ways for youth player to gain rep is a problem. International play is an afterthought and there aren't many awards or competitions for youth in the vanilla game.

 

I don't think the changes are bad, it just points out the other flaws that the game have.