Watching 90 minute matches...

[SlayerX]

I've played Football Manager since it was "Championship Manager". I vividly remember buying the first Championship Manager for the Amiga, in '92 or '93.

Ever since the introduction of the 2D match engine I've watched the full 90 minutes of all of my matches. Even friendlies. Yes, it was time consuming, but the reasoning behind it is it's far easier to judge players if you watch them in 90 minute matches than watching them in highlights. 

Plus, it's more realistic. I mean, you don't get Sir Alex Ferguson (back in the day) or Guardiola only being attendance of 5 minutes of their matches.

Yes. A season took a while, but it was worth it.

I have taken a break from Football Manager for a while. The most recent one that I've played is the '13 edition.

Does anyone else watch 100% of their matches?

[FrazT]

Given the limited amount of time that I can give to playing the game, I watch all my matches in highlights mode only- I have never considered watching the full 90 minutes and I go back as far as you do with the franchise.

[SlayerX]

4 minutes ago, FrazT said:

Given the limited amount of time that I can give to playing the game, I watch all my matches in highlights mode only- I have never considered watching the full 90 minutes and I go back as far as you do with the franchise.

Yeah. Even at my peak I could only fit about one or two matches in per day.

Life has gotten in the way for the past decade or so.

 

[HUNT3R]

Not anymore but I did for most of FM14 and some of FM15. It helped me understand the concept of space - where it is and how to use it.

[Chesters86]

I always watched matches with Only Commentary and Key highlights, maybe back in the days I would watch the whole Cup Final but it was very rare for me to do so.

[Brother Ben]

There was a thread about this very thing on here recently.  You are very much not alone there are a lot of people who do just that

I know @Platinum does

Edited July 1, 2022 by Brother Ben

[DementedHammer]

I'm the same. It makes progress very slow, but it's the only way I can play, or I feel like I'm missing out. I'm currently three games into my first season on FM22, after a couple of hundred hours of play time! 

One unexpected side effect is that I get more out of the rest of the game, as if I've got a spare half an hour, I might focus on some area of the game like tweaking training schedules, organising mentoring groups, going through the medical centre, and so on. 

Edited July 1, 2022 by DementedHammer

[TokyoWanderer]

I've always watched all competitive matches in full and in 2D mode. I do move up the speed slider to one notch below the maximum, and with that each match takes 15-25 minutes. You can't do that in 3D (it looks extremely weird) but for some reason the high speed works well with the 2D game representation.

[\'Appy \'Ammer]

18 hours ago, DementedHammer said:

I'm the same. It makes progress very slow, but it's the only way I can play, or I feel like I'm missing out. I'm currently three games into my first season on FM22, after a couple of hundred hours of play time! 

One unexpected side effect is that I get more out of the rest of the game, as if I've got a spare half an hour, I might focus on some area of the game like tweaking training schedules, organising mentoring groups, going through the medical centre, and so on. 

What speed do you watch matches at? How long does it take to watch the full match? I have been known to play this way in previous fm's. It can be immersive. I added the more realistic sounds / chants pack that was out at the time and it made the experience so much better. 

[Platinum]

Yep I watch my matches on Full Match and in 3D. For me match day is the main event of being a manager, it's what you're preparing the players for during the week and for realism reasons it just feels right to watch the full match and its immersive. Also I actually think its actually quite entertaining and you really have a feel of what's going on in the match. Also it allows you to have a real tactical battle in a match, as you better understand and can react to what's happening in the match.

I play all league matches on Full Match. A cup match that's against a much lower league team will usually be on Comprehensive unless theres a few players I want to pay close attention to. I play most friendlies on Full Match but might change to comprehensive if we are easily winning.

I put the speed on 2 notches above medium and it takes me around 50 minutes to finish a match.

@Brother Ben thanks for tagging me

Edited July 3, 2022 by Platinum

[Draakon]

I have done it on occasion (poor weather/winter season outside, plenty of time and nothing planned for the day except playing FM), but I have to admit that after a while I get too bored. I usually watch with comprehensive highlights, so I get enough information from there, so I don't feel that watching full match gives me significantly anything extra in that regard. But I agree with the notion that it's the main event of being a manager and in concept I understand that you could make an even out of it.

 

I've toyed with an idea in my head to start a "real life save" with FM. It means that you play the game up to the real date and then continue day-to-day basis, not pressing 'continue' further than the current date IRL. That would give you one or maximum two games per week and that is something to look forward to - you might feel like the actual manager, setting your team up for the weekend match and when the day comes, watch full 90 minutes of the action.

 

Edit: the full match usually takes a little less time than 90 minutes, because the game fast forwards every time when there's a stoppage (corner, throw in, free kick etc.) and IIRC the game clock is a little sped up anyway, so I'd say that full match takes between 70-80 minutes.

Edited July 3, 2022 by Draakon

[\'Appy \'Ammer]

2 hours ago, Draakon said:

 

I've toyed with an idea in my head to start a "real life save" with FM. It means that you play the game up to the real date and then continue day-to-day basis, not pressing 'continue' further than the current date IRL. That would give you one or maximum two games per week and that is something to look forward to - you might feel like the actual manager, setting your team up for the weekend match and when the day comes, watch full 90 minutes of the action.

Life is too short for this style of play! 

[SlayerX]

9 hours ago, Draakon said:

I've toyed with an idea in my head to start a "real life save" with FM. It means that you play the game up to the real date and then continue day-to-day basis, not pressing 'continue' further than the current date IRL. That would give you one or maximum two games per week and that is something to look forward to - you might feel like the actual manager, setting your team up for the weekend match and when the day comes, watch full 90 minutes of the action.

That's interesting.

[SlayerX]

8 hours ago, \'Appy \'Ammer said:

Life is too short for this style of play! 

Nah.

I've seen people play 30+ seasons. What's the difference with playing that amount of seasons, at an accelerated speed, than someone playing a career day-by-day, if it takes the same amount of real time?

I see the appeal in playing in on a day by day basis. It would make it more real. As opposed to watching highlights of a match and missing the nuances.

Edited July 4, 2022 by SlayerX

[\'Appy \'Ammer]

5 hours ago, SlayerX said:

Nah.

I've seen people play 30+ seasons. What's the difference with playing that amount of seasons, at an accelerated speed, than someone playing a career day-by-day, if it takes the same amount of real time?

I see the appeal in playing in on a day by day basis. It would make it more real. As opposed to watching highlights of a match and missing the nuances.

However that's not what @Draakonwas saying

He contemplated playing a real life FM, only clicking continue when the real life day clicks over. You'd only ever buy one FM in your whole life, or only play 1 season each year! 

I play 1 game a day usually , or try and fit 1 week into 1 night's play so i can see the appeal of what you have said. 

[Draakon]

1 hour ago, \'Appy \'Ammer said:

However that's not what @Draakonwas saying

He contemplated playing a real life FM, only clicking continue when the real life day clicks over. You'd only ever buy one FM in your whole life, or only play 1 season each year! 

 

Well, technically it could be just one specific long term save that would be played that way.

It wouldn't necessarily mean that you should not buy the next FM or play other saves in different tempo and level of detail if you have enough time.

 

Transfer windows, international breaks and other periods without football would be really slow time in that save. On one hand it's OK, because there's other things to do in Summer than sit in front of your PC and play FM. On the other hand, if you have extra free time in real life, but no games in that save there would be a temptation to speed things up.

[Tony Wright 747]

for 90% of matches I watch full match 3D normal speed, with analysis and housekeeping I get through two to three matches a week

[Brother Ben]

20 hours ago, SlayerX said:

That's interesting.

This guy did it, https://realtimefm.wordpress.com/2012/11/

crazy amount of commitment needed

His save ran 01 Dec 2012 to 30 June 2015.

Edited July 4, 2022 by Brother Ben

[SlayerX]

On 04/07/2022 at 06:31, \'Appy \'Ammer said:

However that's not what @Draakonwas saying

He contemplated playing a real life FM, only clicking continue when the real life day clicks over. You'd only ever buy one FM in your whole life, or only play 1 season each year! 

I play 1 game a day usually , or try and fit 1 week into 1 night's play so i can see the appeal of what you have said. 

No. I know what he was saying 

It's an interesting way of playing Football Manager.

[forameuss]

On 04/07/2022 at 06:31, \'Appy \'Ammer said:

However that's not what @Draakonwas saying

He contemplated playing a real life FM, only clicking continue when the real life day clicks over. You'd only ever buy one FM in your whole life, or only play 1 season each year! 

I play 1 game a day usually , or try and fit 1 week into 1 night's play so i can see the appeal of what you have said. 

You're allowed to have more than one save.  Easily possible to run one save like this in great detail whilst having another for faster play.

Edited July 5, 2022 by forameuss

[Brother Ben]

I could really imagine this kind of thing being a Youtube/social media hit with people invested in the lineups, the game streamed live etc

Or maybe i'm way off  

[\'Appy \'Ammer]

3 hours ago, forameuss said:

You're allowed to have more than one save.  Easily possible to run one save like this in great detail whilst having another for faster play.

Well that's true, yes. I've never thought of it that way. 

[SlayerX]

5 hours ago, Brother Ben said:

I could really imagine this kind of thing being a Youtube/social media hit with people invested in the lineups, the game streamed live etc

Or maybe i'm way off  

I can see that.

Like a reality show for Football Manager/Football fans.

I'd certainly watch it ahead of the real reality shows.

 

[Overmars]

On 05/07/2022 at 11:28, Brother Ben said:

I could really imagine this kind of thing being a Youtube/social media hit with people invested in the lineups, the game streamed live etc

Or maybe i'm way off  

Yeah, I think you're way off. I can't see viewers wanting to watch fake football seasons play out in real time. That's what real life football is for.

[Brother Ben]

23 minutes ago, Overmars said:

Yeah, I think you're way off. I can't see viewers wanting to watch fake football seasons play out in real time. That's what real life football is for.

Never underestimate how invested the general public can get in the seemingly mundane  

[Kloppy]

I gave it a go for my pre-season games. It is a good viewing experience watching your team play in more 'detail', one thing I learned even when having the match speed 2 notches to the right is that a 6.6 performance is not always bad. I had my left-back put in a 6.6 and thought personally he was great on the ball, very composed getting me out of trouble compared to his other teammates who scored high ratings. Not sure if I have the commitment for it over the seasons but is worth a shot.

[Brother Ben]

31 minutes ago, Kloppy said:

I gave it a go for my pre-season games. It is a good viewing experience watching your team play in more 'detail', one thing I learned even when having the match speed 2 notches to the right is that a 6.6 performance is not always bad. I had my left-back put in a 6.6 and thought personally he was great on the ball, very composed getting me out of trouble compared to his other teammates who scored high ratings. Not sure if I have the commitment for it over the seasons but is worth a shot.

Yeah things like that happen, i've noticed that one of my centre backs was getting high ratings even though he lost the ball a lot.  Presumably this was because he made quite a few recovery tackles from his own mistakes

[Kloppy]

2 hours ago, Brother Ben said:

Yeah things like that happen, i've noticed that one of my centre backs was getting high ratings even though he lost the ball a lot.  Presumably this was because he made quite a few recovery tackles from his own mistakes

I notice players who win lots of headers score very well on the ratings regardless of other play. 

[USASoundersFan]

I watch every competitive match in full in 2D. The meaningfulness of the match is irrelevant. I do highlights only for friendlies though.

[Draakon]

13 hours ago, Brother Ben said:

Yeah things like that happen, i've noticed that one of my centre backs was getting high ratings even though he lost the ball a lot.  Presumably this was because he made quite a few recovery tackles from his own mistakes

Player ratings are still a bit odd. 6.6 would mean a "quiet game" and that's what it is - when player doesn't do anything special (key passes, key headers). It's 7.0 when he does something good, but mixed with mistakes. 

Defensively, poor marking is not counted as mistake. When defender allows the striker get away from him (lack of pace, poor marking) and score, it doesn't affect his rating. It should. 

[Brother Ben]

8 hours ago, Draakon said:

Player ratings are still a bit odd. 6.6 would mean a "quiet game" and that's what it is - when player doesn't do anything special (key passes, key headers). It's 7.0 when he does something good, but mixed with mistakes. 

Defensively, poor marking is not counted as mistake. When defender allows the striker get away from him (lack of pace, poor marking) and score, it doesn't affect his rating. It should. 

I guess we're making a good argument for why watching 90 minute matches is a good thing

[Overmars]

10 hours ago, Draakon said:

Player ratings are still a bit odd. 6.6 would mean a "quiet game" and that's what it is - when player doesn't do anything special (key passes, key headers). It's 7.0 when he does something good, but mixed with mistakes. 

Defensively, poor marking is not counted as mistake. When defender allows the striker get away from him (lack of pace, poor marking) and score, it doesn't affect his rating. It should. 

Yes, and no matter how much you watch of a match, those ratings matter a lot in terms of player form and development. That fullback who misses all five of his crosses in a match is going to get hammered in the ratings, just as central defenders who rack up uncontested header wins and easy pass completions will get huge ratings and development boosts. I find wide players in general get hit hard unless they are scoring or assisting in a match, so it's easier to keep everyone on high ratings if you play a narrow tactic and overload the middle.

[Draakon]

Perhaps it depends on your tactics, but my centre-backs get usually the highest ratings in all games. I believe it's because they make short simple (accurate) passes (being a BPD is not a requirement in this regard, CBd is just as effective), won most of duels and usually their mistakes (allowing opponent to get away) gets unnoticed by match engine.

As a result my centre-backs are usually with 7.5 or better average rating. Currently my 19 years old CD Olivier Aertssen is rated as 3* CA / 4* PA by my coaches (could be a really good Eredivisie player or play for a decent mid-table Premier League club), but PSG is interested in him and I suspect it's partly because of his rating. For the same reason I managed to sell Perr Schuurs to Real Madrid for £46m which is a ridiculous transfer fee for a player of his caliber.

[Feddo]

I can't watch full matches, I find it extremely boring. Beginning of a season with a new team I might do it to really see what's going on. But after that I watch everything in highlights, I do watch the full highlights though. 

To be fair I can't watched a regular game of football for the same reason.