[Possession issue]

For anyone struggling with this - I am coming back with some workarounds that worked for me after additional testing.

Some context: Looking at the analytics it seems that in most situations the opposing team has a lot of possesion in their own half, particularly around defenders and DMs. In my case it doesn't help that I play a 4-3-3 DM Wide which means that the opposing team will always have superior numbers in their own half. A high pressing style doesn't seem to do much of a difference (I believe this is the issue here and hopefully SI will fix it with the next patch).

Here's what I'm doing:

- I've set everyone from the middle up (so midfielders, wingers and strikers) to "Close down more". If you are already playing a "More urgent" or "Much more urgent" pressing style, drop it down a notch, add the "Close down more" PIs then move it back up to your initial setting

- When I don't have a stable superior possesion by min 30 - I start aplying PIs to man mark most of the opposing players (I use "Mark specific position" and not "Mark specific player"). Depending on the opposition's formation, I usually mark everyone except one of their CDs (the one with weakest passing/control ability if they play with 4 atb) and except their strikers. So basically I end up with everyone except my CD's and my GK to man mark specific position.  This seems to do a world of difference! Now this is extremely tedious and you have to keep close attention to changes in the opposing team's formation otherwise you're in for a bad time. I really do hope that SI fixes pressing so this becomes more of a tool to tactically edge the other manager rather than the norm.

[Possession issue]

I am joining this band wagon - atm it seems impossible to create a team that can consistently dominate possession. I have some of the best midfielders in the world, currently in my 4th season in FM24 and I am still struggling to make that happen. Until reading this I thought it is my tactics so I tried several variants, self made and downloaded tactics and all provide simillar results. You dominate one game 70%-80% possesion only to crap your pants next game with 40%. The interesting part is that it's not always related to how strong the opposition is - it is true it happens more often against stronger teams but sometimes you just end up 40% against the last team in your league which is not even set up to hold the ball. Hope the fix comes soon enough!

[Good players in lower reputable teams needs better transfer AI!]

@Kyle Brown

Apologizes. Yes, where do I upload them? I am currently in April with the save and don't have any backup from January. 4 of the players are back on track after spending 4 months in the reserves. 

[Good players in lower reputable teams needs better transfer AI!]

Update

I ended the January transfer window with 5 players unhappy and 1 unsettled. On top of the three players I mentioned above I now have
- Player 4: 1 season since he arrived - still has 3.5 years left on his contract. He wanted to compromise if I made him an integral part of the team. I was willing to offer him "Regular" or "Important" but no - the chat only has the option to offer him a "Star" which is plain stupid!
- Player 5: Arrived 6 months ago on a 4 year deal. Was unhappy I didn't let him join some mid table russian club because he "doesn't think we can achieve continental football" (was in UCL groups for 4 years in a row WTF is he talking about?) 

- Player 6: Arrived 6 months ago on a 5 year deal. Unsettled because I didn't let him talk to some mid table swiss club. 

My conclusion is that this is definetly a bug or at least a behavior that should not be happening in the game. What is happening is beyond insane at this point. What am I supposed to do, just sell my entire team in one window because they can't stay happy for more than 6 months?

[Good players in lower reputable teams needs better transfer AI!]

One more thing to add - IMO players should be less likely to throw a tantrum during the January transfer window due to how difficult is to replace them mid season. That is what I can observe IRL at least.