Jack Joyce

The point is, that unless you provide relevant evidence of matches where teams aren't using subs, or aren't rotating when they should, then you haven't really given us any information to go by other than anecdotes. None of the data you've provided shows that AI teams aren't using subs. If you have evidence of this then it should be reported as a bug with clear PKM examples of situations where they should be doing so. Second point - again, none of the info or data you've provided shows that this is the case. The number of 190+CA players in the actual starting DB is extremely low to start with, but regardless, you've not provided any actual evidence to back up your claims. Saying "just fix it" doesn't really help anyone, you need to provide specific examples that showcase the issue you're describing in a bug report.

I assume we're talking about this In which case I agree, there's not enough information here to really draw a conclusion that AI teams are catastrophically bad at giving young players a chance. Even in their data here: Average age in 2023: 27.0 - in 2033: 27.3 Median age: 2023: 27.1 - in 2033: 27.4. Median U25 players in squad: 9 to 9 Median U25 players in first team: 5 to 4 Doesn't seem wildly off? Unless I'm missing something. They're also guessing at the CA of players by just eyeballing their profile, which is sketchy at best. No mention of detail level either which is huge. However they do make one or two interesting points, and I'm not saying that we can't improve things further by any means. However we do have extensive data on how many games young players are getting and it is better than 23, even if not perfect. As always please do make bug reports with ideas and thoughts! We're talking about an extremely complicated and delicate simulation of a huge amount of data, so there's always ways to make things better and better, and we're always open to seeing the bug reports to identify how we can do just that.

As I've already said, if you only set left footed takers then you should only be seeing the left footed takers you've assigned taking corners during the match. IF that's not the case then you should report it as a bug with a save game and PKM file.

The AI don't use the Libero role unless it's set as a preferred role on the manager by a researcher. Last time I checked there were less than 4 managers in the entire DB with this, so I'd need to see evidence of what you're saying here in a bug report. IFB and IWBs are more likely to be used by high level managers who like to play a possession style of football. You should have full control to do whatever you like. If you're making in-match changes then you'll just need to make sure you have responsibility for whichever aspect of set pieces you're trying to change before the match.

Your categories should always have everybody who's currently in your first team squad - Definitely worth logging a bug for this and letting us know how that player was added to your first team squad (if you remember how).

You'll need to look at your rankings to work it out. Assuming you haven't changed the RHS 'priority list', aerial threats is the top priority ranking and gets picked first. If there's a player who you think should be picked there, that isn't, it's because they're not high enough in the rankings.

Again, same applies to the Premier League. If you believe there's a genuine issue here you're going to have to show us some detailed information and comparisons against real life in the bugs forums. Teams can and do get over 90% pass completion in real life. I just went to Wyscout and according to them, Burnley have 88.3% pass completion so far this season in the league cup, and 82.6% in the Premier League. Very close to the average you're saying is a problem? I'm not saying that it's impossible for there to be an issue, but so far we've not had any sort of detailed bug report highlighting a major problem. Stats being different between FM23 and FM24 doesn't really mean much as long as the numbers are within realistic means.

If i'm understanding your setup correctly - you should be able to just set left footed takers, no right footed takers in the list. This way as long as one of your left foot takers are on the pitch, they'll take the set piece regardless. If it's not working this way for you, then it's a bug that should be reported in the bugs forums.

We're going to need to see a PKM of this match please. I believe that when a red card happens, any previously received yellow cards no longer count towards the yellow card accumulation. It happened recently with Bissouma for Spurs. But we'd need to see the match to be sure of what happened.

Hey! The way the picking works for long throws is - it only picks someone if they're a proper long throw specialist (15 or higher). If you have no player with 15 or higher long throws, your assistant won't pick any as they don't feel anyone is good enough to make effective use of long throws. The preview shows someone basically because it's being forced to generate a long throw, so it has to pick someone.

XaW is bang on here - one way to look at 'inswingers from one side and outswingers from the other' is - you only want right footers or left footers taking corners. So all you need to do is make an outswing and inswing routine, then only set left or right footers in your takers list. Or use the 'default set piece taker' toggle. The set piece system is radically different to the old one, so we absolutely expect a bit of a learning curve. But once you get used to it we're convinced that it's a much better and more flexible system that better reflects how real-life coaches set up routines.

Thanks for all the feedback so far, the team have worked so hard this year to put out a ME that people really enjoy and it's been great reading your comments. A few things based on general comments so far: Number of penalties - based on our stats, the total number of pens is actually a little bit lower than real life at the moment. But if you're seeing a large amount over a prolonged period of time, start a bug report with as much info as possible on your tactics and league played in etc. Shot speeds - if you're seeing examples where you think a ball is moving unnaturally fast, then please do start a bug thread with specific PKM examples for us to look at. The last one is about pass completion in the lower leagues: Passing is an incredibly risky/delicate aspect of the ME to change, one small change to passing can drastically impact the overall feel of all matches at all levels. We don't use any cheats or 'magic numbers' to balance our stats, so everything we do is played out kick-by-kick, and with the number of leagues we cover, sometimes the stats can be a little bit different to real life, but hopefully not drastically in a way that ruins the experience. We wouldn't want to make a change just for the sake of the stats coming out 100% bang on in every context, since that might not create an engine that actually feels fun to play. We need to find the right balance between the two, and stats don't always tell us the full picture in football as well as in FM. The way we define passes can differ slightly to real life sometimes, for example when a clearance is made in FM we know it's a clearance because we know the AI intention, whereas in real life a lot of clearances can be counted as a failed pass, where we might call it a hopeful clearance to an area. The feel of the matches is most important, how do these lower league matches feel to play? Is there that chaos factor? Are there turnovers? etc. But just as an example, Notts County hit 90+% pass completion last season in the national league 3 times in their last 8 matches, and their overall pass completion was 86.9% on average. So if a team is really set out to play a passing style of football, even at the lower levels hitting over 90% completion is possible in real life. Thanks for everything so far, we're reading all the feedback and bug reports carefully. But just hope you're enjoying it despite any issues you may encounter. Jack

Worth bearing in mind that just having 1 recovery defender is not recommended, since if you go against a team that leaves 2 players forward you'll have a 2v1 situation in their favour on the counter. Be careful!

You can only create multiple long throw routines. If you are set to do long throws, then long throws are only used if you have a set long throw taker on the pitch. If there is no player from your long throw takers list on the pitch, then your team will always revert back to doing short throws.

Hey! It's hard to tell 100% from the screenshots, but based on what you've posted it's a matter of ordering here. On 'set priorities', see how it says 1st Aerial Defenders, 2nd Trackers, 3rd Counter-Attackers? This means that when picking the players, we pick all the aerial defenders first, then all the trackers, then counter-attackers get picked last. What's likely happening, is Trent and/or Salah are being picked as an aerial defender or tracker, before you get to the counter attacker picking. An easy fix for this is to lower the ranking for Trent and Salah at both Aerial Defending and Tracking, so then they'll always be the ones left at the end of the picking. Or alternatively, just move counter-attackers to the top of the priority list on the right hand side. Hopefully that makes sense!

We'll keep a close eye on it, but it's a very difficult balance since we cover so many leagues. But its also worth bearing in mind there's more 'football' happening in a lot of leagues now with the new injury time rules to reduce timewasting.

Players are all picked by the priority lists now. It's a bit of an initial learning curve, but it's really powerful and once it 'clicks', I hope you'll agree that it's much better than the old system. But I do recommend that everybody does the tutorial and really reads through it carefully, because it is very different to what the old system was and it can be a bit confusing at first. It's important to remember that you're choosing and swapping instructions, not players. The lists are used to choose the players on a matchday.

Set pieces are now independent from your tactics. So, for example, you could have 3 tactics on the go and you now only need one set of set piece routines to cover them. This makes the throw-in takers a bit tricky.. since although you have one IWB in your current tactic, there's no guarantee your other tactics will. But maybe we could factor in the IWB role into the AI selection for who's most suitable to take a throw - please do start a bug thread for it with some examples. Hope you're enjoying the new set piece system otherwise!

All managers now have an attribute along the lines of "like to delegate set pieces" which tells the game who should be in charge. However by default we assume that if there is a set piece coach at the club, then they're in charge. If there's no set piece coach then either the manager drives it, or they delegate to the most suitable staff member either set in data or based on their attributes. This also helps drive how much AI teams are likely to push the board to hire a set piece coach, and the board gradually get more and more open to the idea over the course of the next 5 years, so in the gameworld set piece coaches gradually get more popular. Youth teams will not follow your set piece instructions, based on our talks with set piece coaches they don't do routines for the youth team, just the senior team. Your U21/18 manager will handle it. You'll have to wait and see on this one

Yes the AI will play to their preferences, and also react to the strengths of their squad and the weaknesses of opponents as well.

Honestly I have no idea I think it might be new, but i've been working on the new system for so long it's hard to remember.

Actually yes there is, it's just not 'super' obvious at first glance. If you've told your team to do long throws, they will only do them if you have a long throw taker from your takers list on the pitch. If one isn't on the pitch, your team will instead revert back to doing a short throw-in routine. So if you have a long throw setup with only one good long throw expert, when you sub him off your team will automatically start doing short throws instead of forcing a bad taker.

The traits are just preferences, so they should be adapting to the strengths of the squad, and the weaknesses of the opposition. I do agree that it could be quite hard to research, but I do also think that preferences do exist in this realm of tactics e.g. Arsenal's coach Jover really loves inswinging deliveries, last season every corner they did was inswinging. It also makes hiring a set piece coach more interesting, because now you have to make sure you're hiring someone that has the preferences you want from your set pieces. But i'm sure over time we'll improve this more and more.

Exactly, that's the idea! If you don't want to do set pieces, you can delegate away as much as you like and your coaches will do all the work for you. You can use the new set piece preferences on coaches to make sure you're hiring one that matches the sort of set pieces you want your team to be using as well. You can have as much or as little input as you like, that's our intention and I won't hold it against you

Every corner and wide free-kick is set with a swing - inswing or outswing. So for example you might just create one in-swinging near post corner routine. Your takers are set by foot - so left foot and right foot takers (either footed players can be set to either or both sides). Then it's quite simple - based on where the set piece is being taken from and the type of swing the routine requires, we then know what 'foot' player to use from the takers list. In cases where a set piece requires a e.g. left footer but you don't have any set in your takers list: We check for a different attacking routine you have set which needs a right footer in this position. If you don't have a different routine, we just use the best taker of the 'wrong' foot, doing whatever swing is natural to them. Using this knowledge you can do things like having only inswingers from the left and outswingers from the right, or vice versa - by creating an attacking inswing and outswing routine, but only setting either left or right footed takers.