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Cheers Cloud9, your input is always great. I actually am running one CD and one BPD and like you say the build up sees the BPD carry the the ball into midfield with the HB below him. Been after more possession so dropped to balance and things are looking pretty good in this new set up - image below. I get to about the 70th minute and I am 1-0 up then will concede despite having 60%+ possession all game. I then revert back to to my chaotic system of this formation and try nab a win. I have found lifting the tempo and/or passing into space how get more creativity out of the team. Do a QPR save every year and this now my 3rd and longest time I have spent in the championship without being promoted

I'm curious how people are finding Real World mode. I'm undecided whether to do a save in Real World or Original, and, if in Real World, whether to disable the first transfer window. I'm interested to know how people have found Real World with respect to dealing with important players who you know will leave before the end of the window (do you play them at all) and how often you might get one of your new signings completely unfit or injured when they do arrive. Also, if a new signing is a player you really don't need, especially if you're in great form, how do you deal with that if his agreed status is regular starter? Additionally, when disabling the first transfer window, I often find there are no budgets in the winter window either, and I'm interested to know how that affects people's game worlds and realism. I run around 60 leagues and would usually expect to see action during the winter. Any thoughts on whether Real World and in particular combined with disabling the first transfer window makes for a compelling save would be appreciated. I've only ever played Original.

The big change is how it will operate in a pivot in terms of rotations or lack there of, but in a 4-3-3 or a diamond you're going to see it play similarly to previous versions. In a 4-3-3, in possession he's going to drop back between the centerbacks and out of possession he's going to operate as an aggressive sweeper stepping into the space in front of him. The HB will push the CB's wide and your two wingbacks forward. If he plays the ball short to the CBs it will almost always progress down the wings. Roles like the CAR can help cover the aggressive wingback choices. Even a double WB(s) will see fairly aggressive wingback play due to this rotation back. I would suggest the biggest difference to a HB system would be the use of BPD or CD. CD's will see a lot of wing play, good BPD who can carry the ball can see more dynamic build up phases. I see people saying what works and work doesn't work with the HB. I'm not sure if I agree with a lot of those statements. There's no problem having wide attackers in a HB system and players combining in the same space is actually a plus. It's only when players are attempting to move into the same channel or make the same goal scoring run that you can run into redundancies. The role has been a powerful choice with the right profile player over the past few versions and that hasn't changed this FM. You could play it in a direct counter attack or a more progressive system with plenty of success. Again the use of BPD who can carry the ball or CD who will just lay off simple passes will dictate a lot of your 4-3-3 halfback plays out. You could also try utilizing a HB in a 3-4-2-1, if you don't like the 4-2-3-1. If you wanted to try to make something like you mention work I would recommend putting together a tactic, testing it out and having people look at it.

BWM - Champ Target = 71.0 The BWM stats aren't great with our tactic, so I lean towards the match ratings to give additional insights. Blasco started, Edwards was played in league matches to see if he would develop. I started to play Lambert more towards the end of the season when it was clear Edwards wasn't developing. Blasco played well enough as did Edwards and Lambert. Blasco's rating is pretty much at target. Our new project will be Pizarro now that he has had a year of training and is showing good development, so he will get a chance this coming season to show if he can keep growing. Plan - Blasco is the starter and at target. Pizarro to get 20'ish starts - we have El Azzouzi and Lambert/Edwards for depth. DLP - Champ Target = 69.7 El Azzouzi was the starter with Chirivella as the main backup. Junyent got 8 games and Muller filled in on occasion as well, but mostly played ST, so didn't include his stats. Stats wise, they all played pretty well with Juyent's stats skewed from playing mostly at AM. Junyent is the best DLP, but is our starter at AM. El Azzouzi was the primary starter to see if his growth would continue, but he didn't grow much. Too early to give up on him, but I expect there to be options to bring in at or above the target rating. Chirivella has started to decline due to age and won't be back unless he signs on as a fringe player. Interesting to look at El Azzouzi's development. He still had a number of attributes increase by 1, but not the ones that affect the rating much. Further support to the argument to keep him around. Plan - Find an upgrade and start El Azzouzi until then. Winger - Champ Target = 69.6 I am analyzing LW and RW together as all the top players can play both. Vincent and Marek were the starters, Holcroft, Abid and Juninho got a lot of play time as well. All the wingers played very well in the support role, so no action required based on the statistics. Vincent showed a nice development burst last season. Holcroft's growth continued at a bit of a slower rate, so we will give him playtime again to see if the growth returns. Vincent had progression in a lot of attributes last season - maybe he is a late bloomer and will grow again Holcroft's had attribute growth across the board, hope that continues. Plan - start Vincent and Marek with Holcroft to get league time to further his development. Try to find a winger at target rating to replace Marek. Advanced Playmaker - Champ Target = 68.4 Junyent and Merino played most of the matches. Merino had good stats, but Junyent's are outstanding. He is doing it all, scoring, assists. Junyent declined slightly in rating but I think he may have played too much along with injury. Hopefully that trend changes next season. He is above the rating target. Merino is a loan, so won't be back. Plan - Start Junyent and try to find a good backup option. Meireles is proficient here, so can backup ST and AM. Advanced Forward - Champ Target = 68.2 Muller was the starter and scored 42 goals!!!!. Meireles scored 24 goals as well. Both of them have very good stats with Muller better in the air and Meireles better dribbling. Muller had nice growth and if he does it again, he will make it to target. Meireles recovered a bit, but that is just likely the ratings "wobble" from attributes being right at the rounding point. Plan - Start Muller with Meireles as backup.

November That was a good month, turns out we broke a record in the Champions League. This is been my longest FM save ever . Manchester United aren't in brilliant form and we need to take advantage of that. Tremble heading a corner onto the woodwork earlier into the game puts us 1 - 0 up after 17 minutes, heading in a corner with the aid of the woodwork. That's a huge mistake at the back from Man Utd, Hubana steals, play it to Hojlund, he takes on Payton but Payton recovers and takes the ball from Hojlund, he passes across and Hubana says thanks, intercepts and hits in after 61 minutes. That was a deserved win, Man Utd didn't manage a shot on target. Forest are 20th and we're at home, we should be able to win this one easily. Forest take the lead ater 7 minutes, Lele wins the ball but doesn't clear, Forest attack quickly and Fanger strikes it with real venom and it deflects past Robledo. Juliao has missed two absolute sitters but Hojlund equalises in the 19th minute after Biffi hits in the freekick, Lele picks up, dribbles round, plays it across goal where Hojlund has an easy hit in. Oh that was a good hit, we attack, Phillips plays it outwide to Lele, he cuts in and smashes it, it rises above the Forest GK and in after 28 minutes. It's 3 in the 43rd minute, Juliao wins it back, Biffi plays it to Hojlund, he's smart and waits for the run of Hubana, plays it through to him and Hubana hits in. Hojlund makes it 4 after 94 minutes, Abulai plays it to Hubana, he plays through Hojlund who slots low into the corner. 35 shots, 12 on target, 4.95xG and if we our shooting wasn't so wasteful it could have been our biggest ever win, especially Juliao, he missed some absolute sitters! Bitshiabu was injured on international duty but Tremble has been playing in his place. In positive news Joao Neves has returned, Portugal have given him some match fitness where he scored so he starts against West Ham! How did Hubana miss that, he's about 6 yard out, pretty much open net and he hads it onto the bar, he's struggling since his return from injury, even on international duty he struggled. It was a bad pass from Tremble, West Ham countered but thankfully Caron was offside! It's Biffi! Becerra wins it, dribbles into the middle of the pkar, plays it to Biffi, he dribbles into the box and it's a deflection that gives us the lead after 82 minutes! West Ham equalise in the 90th minute!!! Silveira heads in Rovella's corner! We should have probably won but it's a draw. Newcastle thankfully slipped up and drew against Villa so we're still ahead on GD. Carabao Cup Good win, was happy Flores scored just a minute after missing a penalty. Shame we're away but that'll be a good match. Champions League Vilela has scored 4 in 2 in Europe, he's one to watch for sure. This isn't something I was expecting, we do lose in the Champions League but it seems we're on a streak. Robledo was AMAZING. Saved a pen and a clear cut chance before we took the lead, he made even more big saves, put their key striker off late on who looked like he was going to equalise. Proper GK. Prem Player Development We'll top that in the next couple of years. Best 50 Players Finally Becerra is in it! He deserved to be AND we have a winner! I wonder if the likes of Robledo, Tremble and Phillips will make the top 50 list at some point. Next Month This should be a good month, there's enough games we should be winning and we always seem to do well in the winter months. We will need to rotate alot and we have a couple of injuries. This could be a brilliant month like December usually is or we'll see Newcastle take the summit.

Every year, I love to start my save as the manager of a club and international teams. In years past, I would start a save with my own tactics for my club team; they would stink, and then I would find some meta plug-and-play tactic, which became stale (for VERY OBVIOUS reasons). I would then find players to match my meta tactic for my international team, and usually, the international players would fit to a large degree. This year, I have taken a different approach and am doing everything from scratch, including tactics, scouting, etc. I have searched over the years, and there is very little info on it (or I am a dummy looking in the wrong places). This save, I am managing England, and I decided to list my best attackers in order of importance and tweaked the best I could. We won the Euros with great luck and off of set pieces - a lot of smash-and-grab going on... So, I want to make it better... My question is, how do you go about building tactics for your international management? Do you pick a tactic that is how you want to play and then place the best players in those roles? Do you load in your best 11, let the Assistant Manager tell you their best roles, and then tweak from there? Do you pick their best roles based on their comfort with club tactics? Does role comfort/familiarity even really matter, and am I overthinking it? Where do you start your process, and who gets priority for their preferred playing style? What positions get priority? For example, Declan Rice is far and away the best DM, but he is the second-best CM at the moment. Is it better to get him in the middle, more advanced in a 4-3-3, or keep him as a DM as the single pivot? If roles and duties are overwhelmingly crucial in international management, who changes to complement the tactic? Who plays out of the comfort zone? Are certain positions affected less when tweaking roles than others? For example, I have a very talented bunch of players, but their roles don't jive. My five best attackers, Bellingham, Saka, Foden, Kane, and Rice (if you play him as a CM), all have support duties, with Rice being defensive. Also, Foden and Bellingham are best as AP-S, making matters even stickier with Kane as the DLF-S and Saka as a W-S. Who is best to leave in their favored/most comfortable role and duty? Do you tweak the most adaptable player, the role that would make the tactic come to life, or am I asking dumb questions to begin with? I know these are a lot of questions, and some may not even matter one bit. But I don't see this topic discussed much, and I wanted to throw some things out. I know international management gets a lot of stick, and I know it could be way better, but I wanted to hear your thoughts on this. Thanks for indulging me!

Being Midtable in the Premier League with a youth development team from the Channel Islands is quite the achievement.

Lovely update as usual, @_Ben_! As for relationism: Prime European examples are Henrik Rydstrom's Malmo FF (another example here) and the wonderful The Mutants article on Medium, also by Jamie Hamilton, which goes over relationism and hybrid relationism examples in Europe. I'm glad to be any influence on this save and would be VERY CURIOUS to hear your ideas and approach to relationism in FM. I know I'm still tinkering with it myself, personally. Still waiting for a possible skin release with the DNA bar, even if I have to configure it on a per-save basis :P

I took a job at Portsmouth in my first game of FM23 and they'd already been docked points for failing FFP. I think it was about five seasons in. Rooney was their manager until then and I inherited a complete mess with players constantly complaining about every little thing. The team was bought over by some tycoon sometime before that, and during a press conference, I answered a question about the club's finances without really thinking about it. The board reprimanded me for answering the question and said I should have refused to answer it, and that if I ever did again, I'd be fired. Sketchy as hell.

This is actually very similar to what I was building! Can I ask if what mentality you used? Was it possession based or more direct ?

Cheers Zak. Are there different inputs on body language on the different formats then? I’ve answered 2nd point above. Really don’t think Messi would come nervous playing Forest but I have to remember this isn’t real life and the game will have its own outcomes

Cheers Dan. Clearly IRL Messi is unlikely to be nervous about an away match at the City Ground but this is a game and has its own rules and parameters.

The overall objective is to have fun and enjoy your time while playing the game. That manifests itself in many ways and will depend on what you want from it. There is no right or wrong way and, if you play a single-player game, you don't have to answer to anyone but yourself.

As the others have said there are no objectives in this game. Play it and enjoy it anyway you want to. You'll enjoy the successes and get frustrated at the losses but that is the life of a football manager. Enjoy, it's an awesome game.

If it happens only at game time, that points to a graphics issue. Maybe have a look at the graphics card driver and, if the game was working fine recently, roll the driver back to the previous one and see if that helps. Do this without having any other 3rd party graphics installed.

POSITIONAL REVIEW (I have highlighted homegrown players in blue in the charts) I have again been messing around with ways to show player progression by position to try and not miss any up and coming youngsters in the lower teams. GK - Champ target = 62.9 Rojas Fedorushchenko is our clear starter. He played all the tough games and did quite well this season. Sidibe played a lot of the domestic games and continues to improve statistically. The worrisome save percentage from previous seasons was much better this season. Santos was a new signing with high potential to develop as contingency in case Rojas leaves. Rojas grew very nicely last season and is close to the target rating, so a bit more growth and he will be there. Fedorushchenko grew nicely with a one point jump in a few attributes. He should now make the target rating and we will see how much he can develop. I have him on GK Reactions training to see if we can boost his reflexes. Sidibe is still growing very well with his scouting report saying he is close to full potential. Interestingly, that is what Rojas' report said last season and then he had a nice development year, so we will see what happens. He has become homegrown now, so will definitely be our backup for a long time as it frees up another spot on the European rosters for an import. Plan - Start Rojas. Give Sidibe playing time to grow and if any playtime is left, give Santos a match or two. CD - Champ Target = 69.2 The numbers from the central defence are getting better. Puljic in particular had a good season statistically. Puljic, David and Albiach were basically a 3 man rotation with Fredricson and Morata getting some filler time. Puljic had the best numbers with David and Albiach close to each other. Puljic is at target with slight growth. David grew nicely and should hit target this coming season. Albiach had a bit of growth and is in a good spot to be the primary backup again. McNeil is ready for the 2 backup role to get some playtime and see if the growth can be encouraged. Plan - Start Puljic and David with Albiach ias primary backup. McNeil is ok as the 4th backup as well. Left FB - Champ Target = 65.8 FB seems to be a position that generates good match ratings in our tactic. Konate was the starter with Leyland and Chiab as the primary backup this past season and all three of them having good stats with Konate having the best. Leyland continued to develop and his scouting report says he could improve significantly, so will definitely keep him playing to see how far he will develop. He plays both right and left FB, and will be the primary backup this coming season. Kept Chiab around as a contingency plan as Leyland is likely to end up as the right FB. Konate is above the target rating, so don't need to upgrade this spot. Loving the growth from Leyland he had 24 starts evenly spaced through the season, which helped him be rested enough to train as well. Plan - start Konate with Chiab as backup and Roman as contingency. Make Leyland the primary backup at RFB. Right FB - Champ Target = 65.8 FB seems to be a position that generates good match ratings in our tactic. Biten Valere was the starter with Leyland and Waidner backing him up. Biten Valere had a good statistical season, so no reason to change. Biten Valere improved slightly and is above target. Waidner declined a bit and Leyland developed a lot. Not much happening with the youngsters. Plan - start Biten Valere with Leyland as the primary backup.

If you want to change the whole match screen you'll have to go through the files panels.fmf/match/comps, and find all the files and replace them in that folder with the default ones from the base skin Just the scoreboards, paste match score area panel in all the folders

If you want to change the whole match screen you'll have to go through the files panels.fmf/match/comps, and find all the files and replace them in that folder with the default ones from the base skin Just the scoreboards, paste match score area panel in all the folders

Great write up, thanks for sharing!

The squad were excited in the build up to Wembley, none of them having been there before, so Peter allowed them time to take photos and have a walk around the ground, which had been the purpose of them getting there early. Eventually, the players, in their suits and as small amounts of fans were filtering in, were ushered into the dressing room they had been assigned. They got themselves ready, before Peter took his place in front of them. They got themselves together before all facing Peter. He put his hands behind his back, and addressed his players "OK lads. This is it. This is the biggest game in this club's history, the biggest game many of you will have played in. I'm not going to stand here and tell you to do anything different than what you've done to get here. All I'll ask is that you go out there and do yourselves proud. Do me proud. And do the fans proud. Now let's go lads, lets get out there and show what we can do" The roar as Peter headed to the dugout was deafening. He had been to Wembley four times as a player, but he never remembered it to be like this. He was also hoping to improve his record of just one win, but up against Claudio Ranieri's Chelsea, he knew it would be a tough ask for his players. He had also realised that tiredness was creeping in, but with promotion wrapped up, he had to decide whether to rest some of his key players towards the end of the season The game started at a fast pace, surprisingly for a cup final, and both 'keepers were forced into a good save, but on seven minutes, Liam Lawrence opened the scoring. The winger picked up the ball on the right, before cutting inside and passing to Moukoko. The Cameroonian slipped it into the path of the continuing run of Lawrence, and he struck it first time into the bottom corner. It was a perfect start, but as was expected, the Chelsea players responded, and within five minutes, they were level, Italian playmaker Andrea Pirlo drilling a low shot from 20 yards, just passing the fingertips of Jose Ros. This turned the game on its head, and the Premier League side took control for the next few minutes. Pirlo fired over, Leon Knight hit the post and Ros was forced into a double save from Melchiot and then Knight again, but eventually they did break the resistance, the resulting corner seeing Marcel Desailly rising highest to head home into the goal. Many expected this to see the more experienced Chelsea players take the game away from Mansfield, but Peter saw his side show their resilience and a little bit of quality, and by the half hour mark, they were level, a lovely ball from Simon Rusk finding Greenacre, the striker turning inside John Terry and guiding the ball into the goal with his left foot. This surprised Chelsea, and before the break, there was no doubt that Peter's side were the better team, Kos and Greenacre both having brilliant opportunities to put them ahead, but the score remained level. The second half was a bit tighter, both sides not wanting the other to get into the game, but the fifth goal came from a mistake, which was unfortunate, as Lee Collins slipped allowing Pirlo in, and the Italian slipped it across for Leon Knight to slot into the unguarded goal, Ros stranded between both players. Peter made a couple of changes, Cesar and Samba making their way onto the pitch, and it was the striker who had the best chance to equalise, the ball falling to him in the box, but he lashed at it and fired over the bar. Moukoko also had a chance, firing wide from just outside the box, but Chelsea's experience saw them through, as they kept the ball for the final few minutes, heading to the corner as much as they could, and eventually Jeff Winter blew the whistle, securing delight for the Londoners but ultimately disappointment for Peter and his side. As the whistle went, he turned round to see Ranieri striding towards him. He held his hand out but was caught in an embrace from the charismatic Italian "Peter, thankyou for fantastic game" "Thankyou Claudio. We'll be after revenge next season though!" He wagged his finger playfully, the Italian smiling in return "I shall be waiting for you. Good luck" With that, they shook hands and Peter headed off to console his players and praise their efforts

If you haven't already read it, this thread is worth studying for alternatives to the usual 'meta' tactic approach: There's some 433 discussion in there, too.

In Spain? Surely not

Ooft, Jakush is a player and a half. Given you're avoiding a B-team, how are your outgoing loans going? Was it Duisburg that was your 2.Bundesliga affiliate? Will Jakush make his way out on loan or think he's good enough to skip that step?

Thanks for the replies everyone. Good to know people are having success out there. All the tactics I see for 433 use a DM or DLP and usually on support. @cloud9 - Was hoping you would provide your thoughts, I see you are very active in the other 433 threads. @Safe Hands - Interesting take, I hadnt thought of using a more cautious fullback on one side. The rest of your roles are actually very similar to mine. To help with the issue of there being three horizontal lines '343' in build up. I have played with the idea of my RWB being inverted and sits in the hole where the HB drops out of of. This in turn creates space for my winger on the right side. Creating sort of a 3133 in build up. But wanted this to be more situational rather than the go to. Have had some success but only on the attacking mentality and winning games like 4-2. Wanting a less chaotic approach hah. Will try on balance and get back to everyone here.

October We beat Newcastle to give us a point lead only to get FM'd by Chelsea to be back on level points . Hubana was injured on international duty so we're without the World Golden Ball winner, Pitchford starts against Newcastle but I need him to pick up form. That he does! Good attacking down the left, Hojlund to Juliao, he plays though Pitchford who managed to slot in after just 5 minutes! Clem equalises for Newcastle after 28 minutes. Dekker wins the ball back he's too sloppy and Kumagawa takes it back off him, Newcastle pass the ball around quickly and Clem does Biffi and smashes past Robledo. What a strik! Juliao with a 25 yard screamer that hits the post and goes in after 32 minutes to give us back the lead. We have a shout for pen! I thought it was a good tackle but Allgower is deemed to have taken down Hojlund. It's Juliao from the spot! It's saved after 38 minutes, still 2 - 1. We've had a really good first half, continue this is the second and we should win. Juliao gets his brace after finishing off a good move and a good through ball from Becerra after 50 minutes. It's 4 after 52 minutes, Juliao plays it outwide to Kimble, it isn't the best pass but Kimble uses his skill to pick it up and taken on his man, he dribbles down the right, crosses in and Hojlund heads in. What an brillint win! Hubana returns against Chelasea, Becerra has a knock so Tapia starts. We usually do well against Chelsea so let's hope it continues. We've had all the chances but Chelsea take the lead, Chelsea counter, Baidoo plays to Caicedo on the edge of the box who strikes it and it takes a deflection into the corner after 68 minutes. I feel we just got FM'd, our finishing was poor! Trubin was MOTM and Hubana had a game to forget. 15 shots vs 4, 1.72xG vs 0.24xG and we go back to Rotherham pointless. Newcastle aren't giving up. Nottingham Forest This is the first I've seen on the save, not sure what'll happen to them from here apart from relegation. Champions League I massively rotated and played alot of youth so this was a brilliant win. Hubana came off the bench for some match fitness late on. World Players of the Year Finally have a "Golden Ball" winner . England Players This is something I hope to change in the next few years. We could have 4 if MacDonald, Kimble, Tremble and Phillips were all called up. Best Youth Setup Wasn't expecting this, we've not been in the top 10 to being the best in the world. We'll have more star graduates soon as we've had some good intakes. Next Month Some tough games, we need to a good month in the league after the Chelsea loss.