vrig

Space mostly. I look at their roles and try to see where space will naturally be available after a turnover. Like if they've got an IWB on one flank, I'll fancy a go at that with a touchline hugging winger, because their guy will have a lot of ground to make up to cover them. Conversely if they've got a wingback who's likely to get up the pitch and leave his CB by his lonesome, I'll want to be attacking that CB directly. Works the other way too, and if they've got a BWM somewhere, I'm keeping my playmakers away from them.

You can find comments from Klopp and Salah at the time where it's stated that his job was to play as close to the opposition CBs as possible. That tells you straight off the bat that playing him as an AF would be a good starting point. If I remember correctly, they also saw their system as more of a 442/4411 than the 433 people commonly put it down as. Personally I always thought it was a diamond, given how deep Firmino played and how narrow the 'wide' forwards always were. The point is that if you can't emulate a winger scoring 44 goals in a season, it might be because they were never really a winger in the first place.

I trust them far more than I should and have to get around to downloading a skin that removes them altogether or something. I know they're meaningless, but all those gold stars make me feel complete.

I thought they were great right at the start and now I avoid them like the plague. It just seems like a way for the game to drag you into the promise feature. I had a load of players miss their targets and then blame me for it at the end, so it just doesn't feel like a worthwhile trade off. I've never seen it have any impact on attributes either but to be honest I wouldn't really expect it to.

The first video isn't an example I see very often, but the second one obviously is. In my experience, the defending team really struggles with the second phase after the initial ball. In theory setting up zonally should somewhat limit this, but it still looks confused to me, and I basically start my commiserations the moment I see an unmarked opponent on the edge of the box for a corner. It's actually quite difficult to stick it in the top bins through a crowd of 20 players, but FM footballers are just built different I suppose. Fortunately I support Manchester United, so I'm quite used to being despondent every time the other team gets a corner. At least we can give as good as we get in FM. As to your closing question, don't give up too many set pieces. One of the numerous reasons a high press is easier to be successful with in the game is that your fouls and blocks are happening further from your goal. But more than that is just keeping the ball so that your team is the one getting fouled and blocked. Your "score more" strategy is also pretty sound.

A lot of teams have used it in the odd scenario. Funnily enough it can be a bit of a counter to possession heavy 433s that like to build through the middle. Ajax under Ten Hag used it a fair bit in the CL and I think pretty much everyone in the PL used it against Brighton after their strong start to this season. They've won something like 5 in 22 since. More teams doing positional play type things makes it a bit less appealing as a plan A though. I would say that, to my eye, Liverpool with the Salah/Mane/Firmino 3 were basically playing a diamond all the time, although I've yet to meet anyone who really agrees with me on that one!

Just keep the ball. Your old fuddy duddies ought to have the mentals to manage that if you set up narrow (so they have less running to do), passing short, and at a lower tempo. Experience often comes to the fore in wars of attrition, and if you set them up so that they're always close together, you might find you can still get away with counter pressing situationally. Have 4 or probably 5 players sitting back so that you aren't in immediate danger every time you lose the ball, but Plan A should just be not losing it. In terms of specific roles, I'd avoid too many that have roaming hard coded or that encourage positional rotations, especially deep. The RPM would be an absolute no-no as they partake in 3 tiers, and I'd avoid the IWB role like the plague if the player has poor acceleration, as every quick winger they face will have the freedom of the flank on the counter while your guy is still dawdling about in midfield. Some nice roles for older players could include the poacher, the shadow striker, or the ramdeuter, since they're all big on clever movement. Hell, bang em all around a DLF and you might have some fun. In midfield, the DLP has "old man role" written all over it - you just wanna be careful of teams siccing a ball winner or a player with high aggression and acceleration near them.

I think Pat Rice was his assistant for something like 15 years. Steve Bould followed him and that was about it. Less of a series of yes men and more of a failure to introduce any new ideas in any form.

This is a cool idea and immediately reminded me of another exchange SAF had at United. When Carlos Queiroz turned up at Carrington, he went to see what the gaffer wanted doing for training. Fergie responded "If you don't know that, then why the hell did I hire you?" Queiroz was from the same tactical school as Jose Mourinho, who had taken England by storm over the preceding couple of years, and Ferguson later said that he was as close as you could get to being the Man United manager without actually having the title. The point of this little interlude is that what you could do is take a look at some of the in-game attributes of a coach whose approach you appreciate and then filter staff with similar strengths and tactical styles. The best and worst they'll do should be around the same as the AI.

You could also try giving them fewer options. For example, if they're passing it to the wingers, make the wingers play higher up away from them, or narrower into traffic. Typically if I want to see fullbacks crossing a lot, I'll go 4-2-2-2 so they have very little alternative. It gives them more room to get their heads up, with the added benefit of having players closer to your strikers so they can contest the second ball.

Is it just me or is the only way to check these bans via the editor? It seems like starting blind at Juve would just leave you guessing when two of your best midfielders might be available.

So how are we looking after this data update then? Swimming in cash with 3 wonderkids and every defender's injury prone attribute dialled up to 20? Or broke, universally downgraded, and every defender's injury prone attribute dialled up to 20?

Can one of you full matchers keep a tally of how many throwing happen in the game? On any other highlight level, they always seem to be the start of a match altering moment, but I have long suspected that there are about 37,000 nothing throwins that even comprehensive doesn't show.

He has more shares than any one Glazer sibling as well as full control of sporting operations, so I imagine he assumes Avram's in-game role as owner. Either that or he goes down as Chairperson, with the Glazers all listed as directors. It'll be interesting to see if Ashworth and a new recruitment head can get in before the update. Might hand them the reigns if they do.

I just assumed the values set were always roughly what the club would sell them to you for, and that those values were heavily influenced by relations between the clubs. Surprise, surprise, your club happens to have fantastic relations with itself, so the ballpark figures are notably lower for your own players.

There's a bunch of stuff they'll do that has no effect on ratings whatsoever. I remember having a winger win 5 penalties in as many games terrorising fullbacks, but his average rating was something like 6.5 over that spell. The pass before the assist doesn't seem to be credited in any way either. Not does general link up play or progressive carries/passes. Basically the ratings often feel like a tally of duels won/lost with a dollop of "did they score or assist?" and a sprinkle of "did they miss a sitter?" This wouldn't matter at all if poor match ratings didn't affect player development and media interactions as they do.

The fake transfer would probably have annoyed me a lot more if not for the behaviour of the Saudi clubs. Thanks to the fees they pay in the game, you get plenty of wiggle room budget-wise, but if that wasn't there I'd have been a bit miffed at being denied the chance of getting a fee for Greenwood, especially when that is quite obviously what Man United are looking to do. If one gets altered and not the other, it could be a bit of a problem. I'm nitpicking here, but the club have not said that. But then, they don't really need to say it, because anyone properly paying attention to the situation can plainly see that he won't play for the club again without some kind of seismic shift beyond the current state of play.

Love a WM(s). It's a great place to put the guy who can just kick the ball really well. JWP in past versions was my go to, but this time round it's been Bruno Fernandes in a 4411. I've been toying with a similar role setup to this as a potential 4231-killer. The positional play rotations with that midfield should - in theory - give you a 3v2 right in front of their defence in possession. A half back wouldn't be my choice for DM though. Surely somebody's gotta maintain the illusion of staying in midfield?

As has been pointed out, you don't really hear from their owners directly at all, which would be reflected with those attributes in game. In direct relation to football matters, they aren't exactly hard-line. The other way of looking at it is that the values accurately reflect their treatment by sports outlets, without SI having to go through the faff of giving every owner an "Ability to keep the media in their pocket" attribute.

Lower tempo is pretty much the first in possession instruction I pick for any tactic in which I want a lot of the ball, especially with a top team.

You've got loads of options and if, as you say, the the tactic is doing well on the whole, you might want to try a softer touch rather than shifting a load of working roles to boost a single player's rating. Maybe he doesn't need the stay wider PI? He'll already be hanging pretty wide without it in that setup. Or maybe you could just add an under/overlap on his side, to encourage him to hold onto the ball and wait for support? Maybe just getting the AM(s) to move into channels and roam would get the IW a bit more support? Personally I'd try one or two less invasive tweaks before throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

In fairness, you might not even really need attacking duties all that much. Roles like the MEZ and CWB that you've added are already pretty good at attacking space even on support, and players like Gouiri will naturally get on the end of chances with their traits. I do love a good extreme possession tactic, although I myself tend to stick an advanced forward or a target up top to give a direct alternative. There's no reason that you would have to do that though.

Took some time off FM and came back with a fresh Man United save in the last couple of days. First season done, and it's gone pretty well. Maybe a bit lucky that City and Liverpool didn't have their usual wrangle around the 90-point mark, but still pretty happy with how we played, especially since it took us til the 4th league match to record our first win! Beat the latter in the Carabao Cup final, and wrapped up the FA Cup against Palace (the only team besides the big two to beat us in the league) to bag three trophies for the first season. We fell at the quarterfinals stage against Real Madrid, although it was a close-run thing. We couldn't capitalise on a good 1-1 at the Bernabau, losing 1-0 in the absence of suspended Casemiro at Old Trafford. Over the course of the season, Hojlund was great up top: 33 goals in all competition certainly isn't bad, but my physios now regard him as an injury prone player owing to a recurring hamstring issue, so I'll be badly needing to get somebody in to rotate with him if I didn't already. As for transfer business, the first window was disabled, but there was some movement in January: Varane left for a good fee, Donny out on loan with a mandatory buy, and Malacia out to Newcastle. I didn't bother replacing Varane in the winter window, as Maguire and Lindelof were both playing pretty well and it was an area we were coping alright with. As you can see, however, Todibo will be joining in the summer. With Andre and Oosterwolde, I wanted to try out a couple of signings I hadn't made before, and they're both pretty interesting profiles. Andre is obviously a pretty good midfield prospect and was able to chip in with some goals and assists from midfield, despite that not really being his game. I can see him being a good midfield partner to Kobbie Mainoo, who himself had a productive season - 32 appearances with 15 of them coming from the start. Oosterwolde was a bit of a wildcard. Basically I wanted the option of playing with an inverted role on the left side of defence, and Malacia isn't really suited to that, so I traded Dutch for Dutch. My scouts didn't really rate him, my coaches don't really rate him, and I'm not even sure if I really rate him as anything more than a filler. But he's quick, strong in the air, and has a great personality at 22, so I thought why not? He's started well, playing mostly as an IWB, although he's probably more suited to IFB. This was probably the first choice XI over the course of the season: The spot next to Casemiro was a bit of a revolving door, with Eriksen picking up a few injuries. Mainoo played most of his matched in that role, but Andre - who I initially had down as more of a long-term replacement for Cas - really did make it his own towards the end of the season. We also got some great results with McTominay in there in big games against tough opposition. Fernandes on the right worked a treat as well by the way. It took a while for me to settle on that tactic, with it starting life as a standard 4231. but after firstly going 4411 and then playing around with Bruno's role a bit, it just kind of clicked. There is now Saudi interest in him though, so we'll have to see how that goes. I don't think I'll be able to get anyone to match the "Beckham" role he plays in the team, so I would have to shuffle things around a bit if he were to leave. One option could be to move Mount out to the right and get a #10 who can dribble, but his crossing is pretty poor. I do still have Antony and Sancho knocking about if I want an actual winger, but I've just enjoyed having an auxiliary midfielder there. Aside from that conundrum, I'm after a striker. Ivan Toney is there as a HG option and Guirassey as a cheap one, but I'm not completely sold on either just yet. I'm also keeping an eye out for another left-footed defender to cover Martinez and/or Shaw. By and large, though, it'll be who goes out that dictates who comes in. I'm really hoping somebody bids for Sancho. He kicked up a fuss halfway through the season and tried to lead a revolt. It was pretty funny when the players complaining about my treatment of Sancho mostly consisted of youngsters I had promoted in order to give them the odd match. I sent a couple of them out for loan, dropped one or two back into the U21s for a bit, and sold Joe Hugill, Mutiny resolved and Sancho has no friends - still bloody stuck with him though!

I've only done a 2-3-5 with the centre backs staying where they are. Never even thought to do it with an IFB, so just chucked it on in the second half of an FA Cup semi final I was losing. Instant goal for the Libero and onto the final we go. Cheers mate

I think if you highlight 'manager' in their staff roles it comes up with all their preferences.