vrig

I was planning on using him as a box crasher, but a full blown shadow striker sounds like quite something!

I dunno about perfect, because 0% of the time is anything gonna work 100% of the time, but it tends to aid the counterpress when your players are close together when they lose possession. If you happen to be playing quite wide, it may be that your players aren't getting counterpressing opportunities because there are too few players with access to the ball carrier in transition. Also, yeah - attributes.

Segundo Volante is your friend You can quite easily make a decent 442 diamond with 3 DMs, you'll just want to be sure one or two are consistently breaking forward.

Out of interest, how's his aerial win rate in the matches he gets low scores in? I've often felt that ratings get pretty unfairly decimated by lost aerial duels, and lone strikers can easily fall victim to it.

Finally, someone else who uses lower tempos! It's very satisfying when you have creative players who can flick the switch and turn a settled spell of possession into a direct attack in an instant. Very nice write up.

Me, I'll be stubbornly trying to get the existing squad to work On potential homegrown signings, Alex Scott is one I'll be watching for. Only just moved and currently injured, but he tore up the Championship as a teenager last season. Adam Wharton is looking good for 19 at Blackburn this year too. I don't know how they look in FM24 and they obviously aren't as ready-made as a Rice or Maddison would have been, but they're two players I'll be shortlisting after payday!

Erik? Is that you?

Have all your mids push up with attack duties and use IWBs to form the double pivot?

My guess is that this type of goal is the one you most hate conceding and is therefore the one you remember most when it happens. Nothing tactical about it. Can't see any other reason why it would be the case at every level, with any set of players, and under any instruction. For example, every single goal I concede is a set piece. Or Mo Salah.

Maybe from how it's being marketed, but the inverted fullback has been badly needed for years for those of us interested in recreating Zona Mista styles going back to the 80s. The Half back going to the sides is common among all sides that operate with a double pivot. The Libero should never have been locked to CCB in the first place, and wrong side wingers holding width has been around for a couple of decades at least. These changes are very, very welcome. I guess keeping up the pretense that Pep invented football is just expected to help sell more games?

Aren't they just the highest value the player has ever had across titles? As @Dotsworthy says, I don't think they have any bearing on the actual game.

Now these are the features I want! Very happy with the role interaction changes. The inverted fullback, along with changes to the libero and half back should make build up play a lot more interesting. Changes to wide attackers have been a long time coming, so good to have that too. Judging by the screenshots, the game won't try using star ratings to strong arm me into playing a left footer a right back just because I want them to invert, which is a nice little thing. In the first trailer, it looked as though there would be a visual representation of how the roles would interact with each other. Hopefully that checks out.

I have absolutely no confidence in things like dynamic potential or improved AI squad building - these have been headline features before, and probably will be again. But an inverted fullback, a libero in a back four, and player roles in general taking the context of your overall tactic into account? Now I'm excited!

Against Brentford and United I'd certainly have had them down as a 4-3-3, just with Maddison in a more attacking role and Skipp/Sarr more conservative. Most of Maddison's involvements seemed to come in the left half-space, with the 8 often moving over to the right to cover Emerson/Porro. Bissouma looked like a sole pivot to me on both occasions. I didn't catch them today, so I don't know if he changed it up against Bournemouth. In FM terms, wouldn't it also be basically impossible to get the fullbacks to invert as much as they do with a double pivot? That could be something to consider as well. Them moving into midfield to open lanes from the CBs to the wingers looks to be a pretty big feature of their style of play. Maybe like an AP(a) for Maddison next to a CAR(s) or something? Skipp vs Brentford could even have been a CM(d) with stay wider, since he was covering Emerson a lot, though not very successfully. Bissouma behind as a DM(s) would create a temporary double pivot alongside a defend duty midfielder too., if that's what you're looking for.

Manchester United's setup against Wolves would be interesting. Essentially every role choice and TI decision comes down to the question "How can I make Casemiro's life harder?"

Personally, I don't really bother actively trying to sell anybody in the first season, because you'll get more money for them later if you can get a bit of form out of them first. And with United starting in the Europa league, it's quite easy to get high average ratings from your fringe players.

Well you've got 3 centre backs who all have the beating of all but like 3 Serie A strikers in the air, so I'm not sure why you've got 'Stop Crosses' on? You could potentially be more defensively secure with Matic on a defend duty, especially since he's not gonna be quick enough to get back into position when you lose the ball if he's moving up. Could be worth a try.

Have to disagree on FB(d) being a "poor role". Whatever PI's you add to a FB(s), you won't get the deeper positioning and safe passing. Using one at the moment and they are literally always in bags of space to recycle the ball. Very useful in a possession style for me.

Try and score a goal. That seems to be pretty much the only way to shut the moody nutters up.

I'd be curious to know 2 things. First off, what is your pass completion is like, and secondly is your away form better than your home form? I suspect the Pass Into Space instruction is helping you with away days, but stopping you from working good opportunities when your opponent isn't giving you much room. Could be wrong, but the data might give you an idea

As a general rule of thumb, the assistant is an idiot, so I'd sooner leave OI's blank than let them sort it. The way I see it, there are basically 2 ways of using OIs. You can use them to help with your pressing trap by guiding the opposition to a specific area of the pitch with 'Show onto weaker foot' and the odd bit of marking and then closing down someone in that area. Alternatively you can use them to limit the effectiveness of specific opponents. For example if the player's non-dominant foot is 'weak' or worse, you can show them onto it. If you're up against an Mbappe or an Adama Traore who's lightning quick, you might want to set 'Tight Marking' to 'Never', since they'll only get away. A slow playmaker might be worth marking, however. When doing this, I try to avoid overkill and just focus on 1 or maybe 2 threats, because any more than that and things can get weird, as you allude to yourself.

If you're conceding a lot in transition, possibly use FBs instead of WBs? If you find you're getting dispossessed in you're own third, maybe knock off Play out of defence. And if you've got the players for it, playing for set pieces can be good for a smash and grab, although I can't remember when that instruction was introduced.

A DLP(d) who has 'Comes deep to get the ball' makes it pretty damn box-y. I've used Eriksen in that position for a spell and it worked a treat.

I just have the FB(s)'s sit narrow and get forward, with IW/IF's ahead of the asked to stay wide. Seems to encourage it on occasion without making it a constant move.

I agree. Liverpool always looked more like a a narrow system to me, particularly with how the front 3 press and the dependence on the fullbacks. I'd change up the roles a bit, but a diamond or diamond-ish shape is how I'd go about recreating it personally.