Harpoon76

Just told a player we can't afford to offer him a new contract right now...

Tyreece wants more game time: Tyreece attends the player meeting and speaks about himself in the 3rd person

FM21 - spotted this recently:

A really interesting thread - thanks to everyone that has contributed so far. My current FM21 save is a(nother) Dafuge challenge with Tamworth. Somehow, we got promoted to the VNL via the playoffs in our first season. I started the second season with the same 4-3-3 DM but we had a terrible run, so I decided to try a 4-4-2 based around this FM blog post. February was a great month for us. March was just terrible, though in the two matches we lost 3-2, we were 2-0 down but levelled things up before conceding again (Chesterfield's winner was a 90th minute penalty). We survived so the task now is to improve. My concerns are: FBs consistently get match ratings of 6.3 or lower. Looking at the stat's, they generally get ~50% pass completion, even if I add the Take Less Risks PI. I wonder if having a CM(D) or CM(S) with the Hold Position PI might help give the left FB a better passing option - could the BWM be getting too far away? I think I need to go back and look at their worst games to see if they are just smacking it up the pitch to nobody (obviously a weakness when trying to play direct in general though). The two wingers don't contribute enough assists (or goals). I started with the IW on A and the W on S but that did wasn't great, so swapped the mentalities over. My starting IW contributed 4 assists and 4 goals in 45 league matches. Of the two right wingers, the "better" one managed 3 goals and 1 assist in 31 games, the other 3 goals and 2 assists. They really seem to struggle to get the ball past the first defender (though this is a general gripe I have with FM21, even when using Hit Early Crosses). I do wonder if this is just a symptom of poor player quality? This means we become dependant on executing a good counter-attack or a lucky ball over the top which a defender misses and my Poacher can use his pace to get 1-on-1.

Excellent knowledge of players, shocking knowledge of mathematics.

Thanks - will review his stats again and have a think.

I don't buy every FM. In FM17, the PPM of "Likes to beat the offside trap" was a nightmare IMHO. A striker (IIRC, Harry Kane had it) with it would rack up 100+ offsides in a PL season. In FM21 I'm interested in a regen but he has that PPM. Is it any better in recent versions? I don't want to spank the transfer budget on him and find I just tear my hair out...

Thanks @eXistenZ - nice to know not just me frustrated with crossing. My problems are solved and all is fine. Well, not quite but we won a match, beating Newcastle 3-0. They did have a man sent off at the end of the first half and we got the third goal just after, so the second half was comfortable (though Newcastle did spurn a 1-on-1 late on). Ironically, having said I want to avoid crossing, our first goal was a Campo header directly from a corner (miracles do happen!) and the second was goal was a follow up cross from a blocked corner (Van Burik heading in). The third was much closer to what I want. Van Burik dribbled across from the MR slot, a defender dived in to tackle him but only sent the ball to my left WM(S) who slipped in the AM for the goal: https://gyazo.com/c5d1230aac4f6f479755c77af1856bb7 We had a couple of other similar moments of nice play combining a cross-field VB dribble and the WM(S) putting nice through balls into the box. So this is my updated tactic. I went back to a CM(D) as looking back after the change to BWM(S), we didn't have somebody in the middle to offer a deeper option to recycle play or pickup clearances. I can't remember if I changed the poacher back to an AF or not during the game - a role still under review. Likewise, will keep an eye on the FB/WB to make sure we're not getting overexposed at the back. VB only gets a 1 silver star playing at MR and the pre-game screen says he's miffed at playing out of position but his cross-field dribbles looked way more effective coming in on his left foot.

Still not going well. Observations Opposition GKs are rating very highly against me. Tottenham: 7.6; Man Utd: 7.8; Lyon: 7.3; Aston Villa: 7.3; Man City: 7.4 So am I just unlucky to keep finding the opposition GK having a blinder? Vila draw hurt - they had one shot on target, we had 9 on target. Our crossing is simply terrible (to put it politely). At half-time against Man City we hadn't completed a single cross. End of match stat was 2 of 32 completed. We got 10 corners - wide men are completely unable to beat a defender to make space. Lots of our corners come from a crossing attempt just bouncing off the defender who is covering (doesn't even get into the box) Therefore wingers seem pointless as crosses go nowhere and we ultimately give possession away AF with "Move into Channels" is a problem. See screen grab below - Hamadi (AM) has driven forward from midfield but the AF has moved into channels and ended up right on top on him. I want him to stay central and make a problem for the two CDs. In this case below we've now given the defenders an easy time and we have five players covering my two Why do so many of the central attacker roles have MiC hard coded? Only choice without is a TM (which I don't have) or a Poacher. Will a poacher be too isolated in a 4-4-1-1? Van Burik is a left footed player (right foot is rated as weak). Though untrained at M(R), I've moved him to M(R) as WP(A) so it's more natural to cut inside on his strong foot. Player details for him below - perhaps I should move into CM as a RPM or MEZ? I wonder about changing to a 4-3-3 with a DM but I'd really like to understand why we could finish 4th last year with a 4-4-1-1 but are woeful now

Thank you for the suggestions which I put in. They did seem to help as we managed to win two league matches, though I'm not sure how we won against Wolves as they battered us (xG 2.72 vs xG0.64). Spurs and Man Utd were horrible - the first goal in each was a penalty. Rashford and Greenwood in FM21 are unstoppable. We still struggle to create changes. This is the form of Campo - the number of matches with 0 or 1 shots probably explains the low rating but I'm stuffed if I can figure out what I'm missing to cure it.

FM21 Previous season we finished 4th and qualified for the CL for the first time, so it felt like things were coming together. We started the season pretty well: Then things have stopped working The West Brom draw was one of those matches. Our xG was 3.05 (25 shots / 11 OT), WB xG 0.59 (6 shots, 5 OT). The loses against Man City, Chelsea & Southampton all saw us score an own goal. We are currently winless in 9 matches and sit just above the relegation zone. Here's our current tactic: Van Burik is my best player, a regen with 18 pace, 18 acceleration, 17 dribbling, 18 passing, 16 vision, 18 teamwork, 18 work rate... I've tried him as a Winger but I don't have a good (big) striker to target for crosses. I felt the hard coded PIs for a WP(A) fitted his skills well - get him running at defenders Campo (AF) was the PL golden boot two seasons ago, so can score lots but has been very poor this season with lots of 6.4 or lower ratings. My alternative player in that space hasn't scored when playing as the AF hasn't scored in 4 matches only has a marginally better rating. FBs are on are support but moving the right side to attack to overlap is something I usually end up doing. Both FBs have sit wider as PIs to add more width. AM should support the striker with assists but also score as well I think the poor rating for my striker(s) is we have stopped creating good chances for him to put away. He's not massive (180cm, 9 jumping reach, 11 strength) so just lobbing in crosses against taller / stronger CDs isn't going to work. I want to make good use of the pace / dribbling of my wide-men to create space to exploit and hopefully find the AF with time & space to finish from. Any suggestions / thoughts are welcome!

I can answer my question now I've got into the regular season and past the close of the transfer window. It's a "bug" as I can play all three of the loaned player (all on season long loans) in the same match as they are U21 and thus don't need registering in the squad list.

Thanks Fraz. One further complication - all three players are classed as U21, so don't have to specifically registered when submitting the squad list...

I've managed to win the Championship and we are now in pre-season in the PL. I was looking at a domestic loan player and saw this message: I went and checked the PL rules: So I've managed to break the rules... Once I knew I was being promoted (I think we had a couple of games still to play), I extended the loan of 3 key players, two from Leeds and one from Manchester United. That was obviously allowed last season but not now. Does anyone know if I'll be able to play all 3 in PL matches? If I can't, I'll need to re-think my line-up as all three would be first choice players. Might I get fined or something by the PL (I don't know if this logic is in the game)? Thanks!