Siobri

Hello! I'm having a relatively minor problem with my midfielders and was wondering if anyone can help - or potentially confirm that there is no help required. Basically, no matter how well my team performs, my midfielders don't seem to get decent ratings. In my last game, with a bit of luck my Tottenham side won the league in the second season with a superb league record, as well as progressing well in all the cups. My forwards (a striker, two wide players and occasionally an attacking mid) were excellent and all averaged 7.3 or over, my defence were mostly fantastic and all got good ratings. My goalkeeper got just underneath a 7, but I understand this as the quality of my defence meant he wasn't having to make many important saves. But my deeper midfielders just didn't seem to perform, at least according to the stats. I changed formations reasonably regularly, but generally speaking anyone that played in either DM or MC got ratings of below 7. Not terrible - I think they were all above 6.7 - but significantly below the rest of the team. So my question is, what is the issue here? What is it about my setup that is preventing my CMs from getting good ratings? None of them do particularly badly for goals and assists (though not brilliant either), but generally speaking unless they get a goal or assist they will usually get a 6.7 or 6.8 for a game. The thing is, I watch the game with extended highlights and they were generally doing exactly what I want them to do - win it back when teams counter, move the ball quickly, look for quick balls to the wingers/full backs and generally help us control the game. But that doesn't seem to translate to good match ratings. While asking this, I'm also aware of the other possibilities - that maybe there is nothing wrong with my setup, they're doing fine and the ratings system just doesn't have an adequate way of rating midfielders who don't necessarily have direct impact on games in terms of scoring, assisting or making last ditch tackles or blocks. Or alternatively, maybe my personal expectation of what constitutes a good rating (7.1 or more for me, basically when it turns green!) are too high and I should lower it. But I suspect neither of these is the case, because when I look at other (AI) teams in the game, their midfielders consistently get good ratings. As I mentioned at the start, this isn't a big issue because it's not affecting the overall performance of my team - it's more out of interest than anything, I'd love to know what specific instructions are likely to get midfielders to higher ratings, aside from just pushing them towards more assists and goals. At the moment any player who plays as a DM, or a CM that doesn't have an attacking role, doesn't seem to be appreciated by the ratings system. Cheers!

This game didn't even involve me. Bottling bastards.

I'd be interested to see this too. I get the point that this isn't really comparable to FM because it's not a match engine, but it's definitely interesting to see as a concept of what future FM might look like - the SSN layout is great.

As anyone who ever played PS1 ****-show Libero Grande will attest.

Sorry mate I'll edit them out, they were just an easy way of saying "no, seriously, this actually bloody happened" haha.

Let me set the scene. It was the last game of the season in 2017-18 and a straight shoot-out for the title between me and Chelsea. Level on 80 points each, and my goal difference is 3 better. Chelsea have scored more and so will pip me to the championship if we finish level on goal difference, but assuming I win that would mean they need to win by 4 or more on the last game of the season. They're at home to West Brom, I'm away to Leicester...there's no doubt I've got the tougher match, but it seems simple enough - win the game, and the title is surely mine. The day starts well - Dele Alli nets midway through the first half to put me 1-0 up and, with everything quiet at Stamford Bridge, by half time everything is going in my favour. My boys relax a little, begin playing some nice stuff and, on 67 minutes, Alderweireld heads home from a corner to double our lead. Maybe the cushion sees us slack off a little, I'm not sure - but on 72 minutes Slimani pulls one back. I'm 2-1 up, but with Chelsea still goalless and needing four goals in 18 minutes, I'm still in the box seat - the key is to see out the win. I get some fresh legs on in centre midfielder and bring Zaha on to stretch their defence and ensure we don't get pushed back too much. Then it comes through on the videprinter: 75 minutes, Chelsea 1-0 West Brom. OK, so now the emphasis really is on holding out for the win - one goal conceded and the title is Chelsea's. The minutes tick by; 80, 81, 82...and there's the videprinter again: 83 minutes, Chelsea 2-0 West Brom. Before I have a chance to think, it flickers up again: 84 minutes, Chelsea 3-0 West Brom. Now what? It's the ultimate stick or twist situation. As of right now, with six minutes (plus injury time) of the season left, the league will be mine. But one Chelsea goal and they'll steal it away. The title is both in my hands and out my hands at the same time - do I stick with the plan, dig in to see out the victory and cross my fingers that Chelsea don't grab a championship-winning fourth, or press on and try for a third goal that will surely leave Chelsea with too much to do? I choose to stick to my guns with a counter-attacking setup that keeps me solid defensively but offers a threat going forward. 85...86...87...88...89...90. No updates from Chelsea, and only two minutes of injury time to see out - as long as everything stays the same in both games for these 120 seconds, I've done it. The choice is made - the odds are now in my favour and time is running out for Chelsea to score again, so the smart thing to do is see out the win. 91 minutes and 45 seconds on the clock, and Slimani hits a low drive from distance which Lloris palms away from a corner. Still nothing from Chelsea, so if we see out this corner, the title is ours. It's whipped in and emphatically headed away. The clock ticks over to 92 - I've ****ing done it! As soon as the ref blows the whistle, we're all on the pitch lads! And then. Eleven seconds AFTER the last minute of the last game of the season, Alderweireld smashes a clearance right into Vertonghen's big ****ing face, rebounding it perfectly to Slimani who rifles into the very top corner of Lloris' net from the edge of the box. As soon as we kick off again, the ref blows the final whistle. Blue is the colour. Talk about ****ing Spursy.

Anyone?

Hi lads, Not sure if this is the right place to put this, apologies if it isn't! I recently downloaded the "Daniel's Real Name Fix" file from FM Scout and it's mostly great - but for some reason most English teams now have FC after their name. I tried editing them manually but it doesn't seem to work - does anyone know a way round this, or am I just stuck with it? Cheers!

There are plenty of complaints about the game on this forum, many of them valid. The game simply being too difficult is not one of them, as shown by the many thousands of satisfied customers. Are you completely unwilling to accept the possibility that you're just bad at the game?

Sounds to me like your problem is that you're a bit of a crybaby.

Bearing in mind plenty of other people are enjoying the game and, more importantly, not complaining about the difficulty, maybe you're just terrible at the game.

I'm sure this has probably been mentioned before, but I'd quite like to see a slight overhaul to the way AI managers are selected - increasingly we're seeing top clubs choosing popular ex-players to take the totemic position of 'head coach' rather than manager, regardless of whether or not they have the relevant qualifications, in the hope that their status at the club aligned with a knowledgable, experienced sporting director behind them can bring glory. Zidane is at Madrid, Giggs has been heavily linked with United, Arsenal's next manager could be Henry, Bergkamp or Vieira depending on what day of the week it is. It's quite possible that this has already been looked at and decided against for now - while the papers are always making these links, they don't actually happen that often - but it might be something that's worth looking at.

Am I going mad or has this function been removed from the new game? I want to fine that little slag Son Heung-Min for threatening to 'make my life very difficult' if I don't let him join Bayern, I've already packed him off to the reserves but I don't think that's quite enough.

In the first year of my current save, the top three were 1) Messi 2) Ronaldo 3) Neymar...good work coders!

Cheers Duncan - the game is installed on a work PC which I have limited admin privileges on so I wasn't able to check the hard drive for errors, but moving the Steam folder to an external hard drive has done the trick - hope this is useful for others!