Mitja

I'm not sure why it matters if such players exist in game? That's why experiments like this exist. It's like comparing a team of fastest NBA players to a all star team of veterans. Yes the test could have been done better and repeated but result is shocking to put it mildly.

Why Messi never hadn't been The Meta Player. He was perfect with that weak righ foot. Remember before Messi couldn't catch his real life numbers?

Are you sure? You think a NBA team (without Yugoslavians of course) could perform better than Messi, Ronaldo, Ronaldo#9, Pirlo, Cafu, Maldini, Zidane, Iniesta... I can be a goalkeeper. I'm not so sure.

They are still Vanarama level team of superb athletes. They can't defend, pass, have no tactical awareness. Practically NBA team. And the other team is all star veteran squad. Who wins league and who gets relegated?

Actually I'm not surprised

I would agree with you but result of that test is shocking. Why? Because it showed a bunch of athletes who never played football (ca90) would dominate league and team full of Luka Modrics (ca180) would be relegated. We know that pace, ACC, strength have been op for decades but if test was repeated x times and results would be similar... You know what ir means right?

How many times this test was repeated?

From what I've read that's not going to happen unfortunately. In FM 19 I reported issue how fullbacks would never step up from defensive line to close down wingers no matter how aggressive the pressing instructions would be just like in FM 17 which had no such issues fullbacks would engage earlier if asked to. I don't know if this has been fixed it wasn't in FM 21. And this issue couldn't be that hard to fix since it worked normally before. What does it tell us? It's either the ME team don't know how to do it which I doubt. The other option is that they don't care.

Actually this is how I imagined FM would look like in 2024 ten fifteen years ago. We would be discussing different football traditions, every league having its own standards and similar stuff but we're stuck on same issues there were before. ME progress is just too slow for me...

Absolutely. But in FM unrealistically attacking/intense style is op. Do we know why? I think we do.

FM offers too many tactical options and styles which then create big differences in long term performance of AI teams since MEs favour attacking/high intensity tactics. For example when was the last time a real life team tried to play defensive possession football with intent to hide the ball from opposition but without desire to score? Any tactic which employs defensive mentality will play out like that in FM. Why is there such an option in first place? Simply put AI managers who are more attacking will outperform more cautious ones. AI Pep underperforming for example. In start there's this huge imbalance which affects whole AI world (actually any more cautious Vs attacking approach). Why?

But it's not like those gegenpress maximum intensity tactics haven't been op for a long time now? And if I'm not mistaken wasn't it promised that op gegenpress will be thing of the past for fm24. And on the other hand tactics that employ mentality below balanced being not only underachieving but display football style completely different than what's bring claimed. All this has been discussed at least since fm17 probably even earlier.

I don't think it lacks variety I'd argue FM offers too many styles. All op tactics use attacking mentality and maximum intensity. On the other hand defensive styles are too lethargic for two reasons. First one is that defending is awful there's no true team effort, compactness, shifting, attributes don't seem to matter much etc. The other thing is that such already passive style is then enhanced with passive mentality that's more suited to very patient possession style than counter attacking which goes with defensive football.

Have in mind all games have some competition but FM doesn't unfortunately. And that's a difference. There is also possibility that ME team lacks staff or vision or even quality. Any pro even semi pro player would understand and execute coach's idea holding up the ball and not floating crosses into box without much problem. That's not micromanaging. Also I don't understand why do you need hardworking winger to understand such simple instructions? And I really doubt Gerrard was incapable of following instructions it was more probably the fact he could play his own game because he was Gerrard.

Yes but you're here long enough to know the game's not worth buying before last patch and there's demo to try too. By doing the opposite you are actually supporting SI policy. I stopped playing the game after fm21, same issues year after year, minimal progress, defending looks like 12 years old play etc.

Shouldn't tempo and time wasting settings be responsible for possession for the sake of possession? What has mentality got to do with it?

Players who should be cutting first passing option stand too far apart but otherwise the pressure doesn't look that bad. But attacking team passing would make Barca jealous.

What I would do with Tis in relation to mentality is I'd limit some instructions in logical way. For example you wouldn't be able to set very high dline on defensive mentality. Or very short passing or hold shape. Again this would help new players as well as AI I guess and limit diablo tactics.

Yes and the other option would be that mentality simply chooses the right duty distribution in combination with fluidity. Such closed system would reduce possibility of diablo tactics a lot.

What I wrote above is example of "possession issue". Geggenpres issue is of course related to mentality a lot. Play that catanaccio tactic on balanced or positive add a little pressing and you'll instantly have better results.

Mentality is probably the only instruction that modifies other instructions. Take passing instructions for example, there are : passing directness, tempo, creative freedom, through balls then transition instructions influence passing decisions. All the above instructions also define risk in passing. But when you switch between different mentalities the above setup of given instructions will play out completely differently. For example a fast tempo direct style on positive mentality will turn into tiki taka on defensive mentality. Add that pressing never really worked well in FM there is scenario where Burnleys of this world (especially when on defensive mentality) would completely out pass Cities without having a single shot. So mentality actually turns a given set of perfectly clear instructions into something totally different. Especially on extreme ends of mentality slider. And risk is already influenced by other instruments. By that mentality should be defined by other instructions and not the other way around.

Small correction risk is already defined by other team and player instructions player roles and duties and having a instruction (mentality) modifying all other brings confusion and imbalance to ME. For example a DLP who takes more risk will behave completely differently on defensive or attacking mentality about taking risk. On some MEs more defensive mentality would mean short passing game which would result in defensive teams out passing much better ones. I used to argue that concept of mentality is holding back advance of ME.