Footix

Sorry to say I've got no advice for you, but I'm just like you! All those player roles.. I feel like I'm trying to solve a puzzle. "This player has the perfect attributes to role X, but would role Y fit better to my tactic even though the player is not that well suited?" I'd almost prefer to tell my players "four at the back, three in the middle and three up front, now go out there and do your thing!"

Let me create your tactic. Everybody's saying this game is so easy. I don't feel that way, at all. One user sent me instructions on how to win, and true enough, when I followed his instructions to the letter I started winning. But that didn't feel like me playing. So I try to build my own tactics and teams - and fail. Over and over and over. Here's something I could come up with: CF W IF BBM CM DLP FB CD CD WB GK Attacking, balanced width, normal tempo, balanced creative freedom Balanced defensive line, own half press, normal tackling, offside trap on Short passing, mixed passing focus, short GK distribution I don't see why this would play like a train wreck, but rest assured, it does.

I just realised it's possible to add a column to the squad view, called "injury risk" or something (don't remember the exact wording and I don't have the game open now). It's great. Whenever I see someone marked as "high" I do a serious re-think "do I really need him for this game?". Helps with squad rotation. My injuries have plummeted after I started taking notice to this.

I'm sure real world managers follow, for example, the World Cup and the Champions League with keen eyes. Looking at big matches, watching players, keeping up to speed. If you get a news item about some match from the group stage in the World Cup, do you take a closer look? Unless I'm involved myself I just click "continue". Perhaps the game would be even more fun if I took the time to dig into stuff like this? But then again the game already takes enough time as it is! Doing a season takes me two weeks already, balancing work, family and the game. And I'm on FM touch!

Topic. I don't care about anyone but my own team. All those news items, match reports, transfer rumours, I just click clickety click and get on with it. But I almost feel bad for SI, they've spent so much time creating this little in-game world and I just don't care at all. How bout you? Do you dig in to it? Do you read other match reports? Do you keep an eye on results in other leagues? Do you care about the rumours about Everton's manager possibly going to Naples?

Glad to see this sparked some debate. 🙂 Many of you defend the current system, and I get it. Roles are labels, they're a bunch of instructions grouped together and it kind of makes sense. But I can't help but feel it's too rigid. There are so many times I can't seem to find the "perfect" role, it either has an instruction locked in which I cannot remove or it has an instruction I cannot select. And returning to the Messi example, he'll be Messi regardless of what "role" you give him. Sure, the coach can ask him to modify his game slightly and take some instructions, but bottom line is he will mainly be doing his game. His traits. Carried out by his skill level (attributes). Which is why I would much prefer blank slates with only one "role" for each position on the pitch, but with all player instructions available at all times. So you could tell *this* player to take more long shots and *that* player to ease off tackles. If you wanted to modify his natural game. The point about the AI being unable to cope is valid tho. I didn't really think of that. However I'm sure it could been worked on, if the devs decided to go down this route.

I think it's confusing because it's so many layers. When I assign a role and duty a certain set of instructions is applied. Then I can modify the role by tinkering the instructions, but some instructions are locked? So, if I want *this* role but without *that* single instruction I can't do that. I can use some of the generic ones, but AFAIK some of the roles have some under-the-hood mechanics too, I can't add those to another role can I? I'd rather not have roles or duties at all, just blank slates I could modify with instructions for each player if I wanted to. Or maybe I just wanted to put Messi on the pitch and let him play his natural game. And by all means, if players would want to create presets and save them for future use, I'm all for it.

I don't know when tactical "roles" were introduced to the series, but I think it's time for them to go. Ball playing defender, mezzala, carrilero, pressing forward... It's nonsense. It's fluff. When Quique Setién selects his Barca squad. He looks at Messi and knows what he'll get. A small guy with dribbling, technique, vision, finishing.. Do you think Setién says to Messi a) I want you to play as a false nine today or b) Go upfront, try to drop a little deeper and pull the defenders out, make yourself visible and link up with the wide attackers We don't need roles. We need favoured position, player traits, we need attributes and we need player instructions. But these labels for sets of pre-defined instructions and under-the-hood behaviour should go. Most players will do their thing and play their style, together with trying to carry out the manager's instructions. Traits and attributes. I'm divided on the "duty". E.g. instead of duty "attack" we could set individual instructions "get further forward" and "take more risks". I don't think we need duty either.. Role- and duty free FM21! Who's with me?

How to end bad streaks on FMT when you don't have the team meetings to raise morale? So I've been playing as Newcastle. We've done alright, was 7th in the league come February, and then we had two tough away fixtures in a row (Liverpool and Man Utd). Naturally we lost both. Since then my team has not really been the same. Morale is dropping, we're playing **** poor and we just scraped a draw with Southampton when we didn't deserve anything. What are one supposed to do?

Was afraid that would be the case.. Oh well, thanks.

So, I just got the news item about Brexit and it seems like no fun. When does the game decide which Brexit you get? If I reload to an earlier save point, can I then get another Brexit? Or is it decided when initially setting up the game / save?

Fifa from ten years ago looks better than this year's FM. But it is what it is. No use banging on about it. But I do think it's a bit odd that the graphic presentation of matches are left so far behind the rest of the game. Don't understand the reasoning behind that, especially when knowing that the devs are on different teams and all (so working on graphics would not affect other areas of the game).

While I'm not going to buy next year's edition because I've given up on tactics. I can't win no matter what. Or, I could probably win a few if I started as PSG or Liverpool but that's not the point. Can't say I've noticed many of the other points, as I tend to get bored with losing after half a season.

Note 10+ is like one of the most powerful phones available. I'd think you shouldn't need to worry too much about background apps etc on a device like that. And certainly not disabling the enhanced match engine! Is it really that hard to optimise a game for Android compared to iOS?

Can confirm this was resolved with the latest update. Thanks SI!