woolymuffler

Awesome! I tend to play massive saves (like 145 active leagues, although obviously only a few at any time are full simulation), so having differences in injury rates between full simulation and "playable" leagues using the quick match engine would be a concern.

I seem to remember reading that the "Realistic Injuries" changes only apply to the active leagues (those using full simulation), although I couldn't seem to find confirmation of that with some cursory searching of the SI forums or Google. Is this still the case in FM24 (or am I misremembering)?

Ah, the city data records the elevation, that makes sense. I definitely like that the effect is in the game and it's realistic as well; playing away in Bolivia is hard and Bolivian teams overachieve relative to their talent levels due to this in real life, as the major Bolivian clubs all play at close to 4000 meters. I just wish the game gave you advice and made it more obvious when you needed to worry about elevation as the effect is pretty massive when the altitude difference gets high enough.

Even beyond the fact that I'm inexperienced, the fact that I'm American would seem to rule me out for a high-profile country like Argentina; have they even had a foriegn manager before (at least since the late 1800's when football was first starting up there)? I ended up rolling back and declining the job after looking at the international management for the first time since FM2013 or so; it honestly just didn't seem worth the time and effort (in-game I mean).

Yeah, it absolutely wrecks my team from Buenos Aires who are used to playing at sea level. Even with my high-altitude tactic, the players I can't substitute still get completely exhausted, it just takes more than 30 minutes before they are ineffective. Now the game doesn't come right out and tell me why my team is getting exhausted, but it has to be simulating altitude, as I haven't seen my team's condition collapse like that in the first half anywhere other than all my away-matches in Bolivia and some in Ecuador (matches where I confirmed the stadium was high altitude in Wikipedia). I assume the same would be true for some matches in Peru, Columbia and Chile as well, I just haven't played any of those teams in continental competitions yet. It also could theoretically happen in the Argentine league as the Andes are there as well, but none of the 1st Level teams are in the mountains and cup matches in Argentina are played at neutral sites in the major cities so it hasn't come up. I am curious how the game models the home team not being as affected; is there some sort of altitude conditioning rating for players (seems unlikely as that would probably show up in the editor) or is there some sort of code in the match engine where the home team ignores altitude effects? Something in the match engine seems more likely to me, but I'm no coder and that would still leave neutral site matches in question.

I just got offered and accepted the Argentina job. What's weird is that I'm American, started with no badges and Sunday League footballer and haven't won the Argentinian league yet (although I did win Argentianian Manager of the Year for guiding Huracan to 3rd place in my first full season in the Argentinian top league). So the following career (from game start to July 2028) was good enough to get me the Argentina job: Getting relegated from the Chinese 2nd level (not really my fault, I started unemployed, was hired in October 2022, didn't realize their season ended in December and only had 8 games to save them from dead last before relegation was confirmed and they fired me), Winning the Paraguayan 2nd level in my first full season (2023) and winning the Paraguayan 1st Level Apertura in my 3rd year at River Plate (Par) (2025), (resigned early in the 2025 Clausura because they wouldn't let me get my next Coaching Certificate). Saving Huracan from relegation in the Argentinian top level in my first partial season (2025) and finishing 3rd (2026) and then 2nd (2027) with no trophies (domestic or continental), although I did reach the semis of the various domestic cups multiple times. I'm pretty sure (in real-life) the government would get overthrown if they hired someone with that CV to run the Argentinian national team.

Where can we see the match elevation? Admittedly this is a bit of an edge case that isn't usually that important, but it becomes very important in South American continental competitions, especially against Bolivian teams. This seems like the sort of thing that our staff should warn us about, but even accepting I should have thought of this, I can't seem to find any elevation information in the game interface, either in the match preview or stadium details. If I'm not missing it and it's really not included in the interface, that seems like something that should get added. I forgot all about elevation and got annihilated 3-0 away to Club Always Ready in the Copa Libertadores (La Paz Bolivia, stadium elevation close to 4000 meters), when I started the game using my usual high-intensity pressing tactic (I don't like Gegenpress but my board insists on a high-tempo high-pressing tactic). My entire team other than the goalkeeper were exhausted (deep red) by the 30 minute mark; by the end of the game players were literally walking back on defense and the condition hearts were basically empty (just the merest hint of a red sliver at the bottom of the heart). Luckily, that didn't prevent us from advancing out of the group, but the next season my Libertadores group had two high elevation teams; an Ecuadorian team that plays at 2700 meters and Nacional Potosi that plays at just about the highest elevation in the world (over 4000 meters). It did not go well, and the do-or-die final group match was away in Potosi, where we lost 1-0 on a 27 meter rocket from outside of our packed defense (only needing a draw to advance). I now have a 3rd tactic devoted strictly to high elevation matches with minimal pressing and slow tempo and I actually look up the stadiums on Wikipedia to check elevations for any team from Bolivia, Ecuador or Peru. I still lose, but it's at least competitive and my players aren't on the verge of death at 90 minutes. But I shouldn't have to use Google to get the information and it would be nice if the pre-match advice pointed out matches where elevation will be a factor.

Saying I always use the exact same TIs isn't totally true. I do change things up during matches; for instance if I'm getting a lot of shots but none are on target, I will switch to "work ball into box". . If the other team is dropping off and intercepting my passes to my forward line or I'm just not getting any attacking highlights at all, I'll switch to pass into space and more direct to get my players moving away from and past their markers. If i"m trying to see a game out, I'll drop the tempo and defensive lines and go more conservative. But the basic shape I'm using for the team doesn't change much; if I'm using a high pressing, high-tempo system, I keep the defensive line and pressing high regardless of team mentality, at least to begin games and usually for the first 60 minutes, regardless of situation.

1. Yes, there are ratings above that although I'm not sure exactly what the sequence is. "Becoming Fatigued" is the next step beyond "Low" and is the only one I have personally gotten to (and it wasn't my fault, the U-21 international manager did it to one of my players and he came back that way). I had to rest him fully for over a month before he was recovered enough to start playing again as I try to avoid playing anyone with visible fatigue unless I have no choice. As fatigue builds up, a player status will appear that the player needs rest and it can eventually get to the player becoming Jaded. 2. There are several ways to handle fatigue management during the season. One is to go into training and adjust the "Rest" parameters, then switch every player to the Automatic training level. I set mine like this but I think this is a bit lower than many people set it as I really try to avoid fatigue and injuries (I've seen people advise Double intesity for both green hearts, Normal for yellow and Half for the first Red, only going no training for the lowest condition): Also, be sure to have at least a couple of weeks of heavy physical training in pre-season to really work the players hard and build up fatigue. I'm not sure exactly it works, but I think the logic is that fatiguing them in pre-season increases the amount of fatigue they can handle during the season before it becomes a problem (so it takes more fatigue for them to reach "Low" fatigue status, etc.). I just use the "Pre-Season Heavy-Early" training setup for the first week or two, then use the Heavy-Mid and Heavy-Late if the preseason is long enough. Another training tip is to not overtrain during the season, especially if you are having multiple competitive matches a week. This doesn't just mean avoiding physical training or heavy training load per day, it means making sure you have multiple rest sessions per week. Rest sessions reduce fatigue more than any other session type and if you don't have rest sessions, fatigue won't drop without players skipping matches. Even having really light days with 3 sessions (like Team Bonding, Community Outreach and Recovery) won't reduce fatigue that much despite the low workload. This is one I had to learn the hard way; I thought as long as I kept the workload low, I could still use all 3 sessions every day and rarely use Rest sessions. But I found that players could only play every other match (and occasionally had to miss two matches in a row) to keep fatigue from accumulating. My current training with two competitive matches per week looks like this right now (and honestly I wouldn't normally have all 3 sessions on that second Monday but it's the second leg in the Libertadores and I decided I willing to accumulate a bit of fatigue there to get another match bonus):

I agree with that logic for sure, and I didn't used to change the duties, but the game actually advises you to increase the number of attacking duties on higher team mentalities (and reduce them on lower team mentalities). I don't know if it's the best thing to do, but it hasn't seemed to hurt anything, and it stops the Assistant Manager from giving that as advice in the tactical meetings. However, I ignore the AM when they advise more defending duties on lower mentalities as I don't like to have more than 3 dedicated defensive duties other than the most extreme circumstances (like holding a one goal lead as a minnow late in an FA cup match, etc.), so I do pick and choose when to listen to the in-game advice.

I've had reasonable success adjusting starting team mentality based on the match odds, although I never start defensive or attacking. I've been told that match odds are also how the AI determines their starting mentality against you, although obviously no one but SI truly knows that. I start cautious if the underdog (especially away), balanced for evenish odds away or slight underdog at home, positive for roughly equal at home or clearly favored home or away. I do go with gut feeling sometimes if I think the odds don't reflect the actual situation; if I'm playing a bunch of youth players and backups I'll go one mentality down from my normal plan, if I'm confident I'm better than the other team, regardless of what the odds say, I'll go one level up in mentality. I keep the same roles, TIs and PIs, just changing a few duties to reflect the team mentality for the match. I then change team mentality as needed in the match (along with adjusting player duties; 5 attacking duties on attack, 4 on positive, 3 on balanced, 2 on cautious or defensive), always having 3 defensive duties and the remainder support. I have no idea if this is the right way to do it, but the results have been good enough and the team is familiar with the tactics and seems to know what they are supposed to do for the most part. I used to never change team mentality and just adjust player duties and team/player instructions, but it took a lot more clicks and didn't seem to work any better for me than just changing team mentality and a few player duties to go more attacking or defending. In fact, it seemed less effective when I really needed a goal, as a team on balanced, even with aggressive duties and roles just seems to lack urgency. It also seems to be the way the AI plays (they seem to adjust team mentality as needed by the match situation, although again, only SI knows that for sure ).

Cheers, this is good information! It looks like Iron-willed (20 pressure!), Model Citizen (at least 14 pressure) and Resilient (17 to 19 pressure) are the only personalities that indicate a positive pressure attribute. And Low self-belief (Pressure 2-3) and Spineless (Pressure 1) should be avoided at all costs. But the real revelation for me is that Evasive and Unflappable media handling indicate a high pressure attribute (minimum of 15 for either); Unflappable makes sense, but i wouldn't usually consider Evasive to be a positive (and maybe it's not overall, just for pressure). Clearly I need to start paying more attention to media-handling.

I got bitten pretty hard by this attribute in the season run in; my collection of "big match" players suddenly forgot how to play football for an entire month when they could have clinched the title (12 points clear with Huracan, but River and Boca had enough games in hand to make up the difference if I suddenly stopped getting points; which I did). I understand that big matches and pressure are different things, and that it was most likely the pressure attribute causing the players to choke. While it was great to know that they would have done well in cup finals, that didn't seem to help me at all in the cup semi-final (where my GK and best player was nervous and let in 3 of 4 shots to Boca for a 6.1 rating, despite a coaches report of a positive big matches attribute). Or in the penultimate month of the season where we picked up 2 of 15 points to lose our entire cushion and finish third. Form picked up a bit for the final month, but we still were struggling and only got 7 of 12 points, including losing 1-0 to a team 20 places below us (with nothing the play for) that compreshensively out-played us. It's entirely possible I mishandled the motivation aspects as well, and either pushed them too hard or not hard enough for the season run-in. It's difficult to tell with the type of feedback that is presented in game (but that's a whole different issue). My question is: how can I determine via scouting how well a player handles pressure? I know the scouting report won't ever directly tell you this (unlike the "Big Matches" attribute for players at age 22 and over). Are there clues in the player personality and media-handling? Or is watching players' form during the end of season league-runs the only way to get any idea of how well they handle pressure? Or is there something else that can be looked at for clues on this? (Obviously there is the editor, but I'm not interested in directly viewing hidden attributes).

I'm noticing this right now; my team in Paraguay played a deep counter-attacking style and it was a nightmare keeping my CBs fit. I just moved to Argentina and the board/fans require high pressing so I've abruply started using full Gegenpress. Now it's not the CBs that are getting the most tired on the team, but the CMs and Forwards.

I do about 6 weeks of heavy training (with some modifications); 2 weeks each of Heavy-Early, Heavy-Mid and Heavy-Late. Which might be too much heavy training in pre-season, not sure. I do start mixing in friendlies after the first two weeks of heavy training. But the Paraguay league has a pretty long pre-season, almost 3 months in its second division, so I have time for that long a pre-season. If i have the option of a heavy schedule week during the season I have preferred to go with 3 skills training sessions per day or match practices but maybe I should mix in more physical during the season. I always worried about increasing fatigue and injury risk with those.

I was having the same issue in my current save (Paraguay, 44 league matches plus cup and continental matches in about nine months) and based on responses here I started easing up my in-season training. I wasn't doing high intensity physical training after pre-season, but I was filling almost every slot with match prep or set piece training to maximize bonuses in the next match. And the few weeks I had without any matches, I packed with skills and GK training to make up for basically not doing anything but match prep and set pieces most weeks. I started making sure to add rest periods between every match (even at the cost of not having some of the match bonuses) and having a rest period on most days during match-free weeks to reduce fatigue build up. The difference was dramatic. Suddenly my best players could play twice a week for several weeks straight without getting fatigued or being marked as tired on match day. It does just delay the effect, but it went from having to leave out my best players every other match and never having my best eleven playing together (with constant complaints about number of matches played ) to only having to occasionally rotate a player in less important matches. I now largely have my best eleven fit and ready for most matches and have seen a reduction in injuries as well. So for me at least, it really was as simple as I was training too much in-season without allowing my players to rest. Even if the training itself isn't that intense and isn't adding to fatigue per se, if you fill every slot, you don't get the reduction of accumulated match fatigue that rest sessions provide. Just having a recovery session after each match isn't enough (and recovery is really more for injury prevention than fatigue reduction).

Interesting; I tend to actually play a lower line unless I am trailing and unable to get the ball and I'm not using Daveincid's files on my current save. I also haven't noticed it getting any better but I'm admittedly only a couple of years into my current save, so I'll see how it does going forward.

Somewhat unrelated (but still possible issue with center backs), has anyone else been having huge fatigue issues with specifically central defenders? They seem to tire more quickly than any other position on my teams. In previous FMs I almost never had to sub them unless they were playing poorly or injured. Never having them get tired was probably not realistic, but it seems to have gone to the other extreme. It could very well be my tactics though; I hate giving away penalties so I tend to "stay on feet" and "drop off more" which probably makes them work harder than many tactics. Not sure.

Assuming those instructions are the ones you are using and wanting to press high with, you aren't counter-pressing and you are using a mid-block and standard line of defense. So you are not telling your team to press high or immediately try to win the ball back on turnover with those instructions. If you are wanting to do a prime Messi-era Barcelona-type tactic (high immediate press but then hold possession with short passing once the ball is recovered), I would try: 1) High Block (line of engagement); this tells your players to start defending/pressing higher up the field 2) Raise Defensive Line; if you are starting your defense higher up the field, you generally want to raise your defensive line to have your players closer together (front to back). This helps with pressing and reduces the space for the opponents. 3) Turn on Counter-Press; this encourages your players to try to win the ball immediately rather than fall back to their defensive positions. So if you want more immediate pressure on their defenders near their goal, you want this turned on. 4) Personally, I always specifically mark the opponents FBs/WBs (position, not specific player) with my outside midfielders. This will place them closer to the opposing FBs when pressing and this seems to encourage my outside mids to come back on defense more and helps your FBs/WBs not be outnumbered on the flanks as often. It's a trade off though as they won't be as high up the pitch when starting attacks. 5) With a 4-4-2 being weaker in the middle than most modern formations (only 2 CMs and no DM), you could try "trap outside" to encourage the opponent to play to the flanks, where you are at least equal in numbers and can trap the opponent against the sideline. 6) You can also set your players to "Get Stuck In" as this will make them tackle more aggressively when they close down the opponents. It's risky of course (especially with a strict referee), considering your attackers will be the ones pressing high and aren't usually very good at tackling. But if the other team is kicking lumps out of your players without getting carded or giving away a lot of free kicks, it might be worth trying. I would not do this until I had a good feel for how the referee is calling the game and even then i would hesitate unless I'm losing and unable to get the ball back. If they are giving out cards even without getting stuck in, I tend to actually go with "Stand Off More" to avoid cards, especially if I'm winning by one goal or we are tied. 7) (Optional if above doesn't do enough of what you want) Use OIs on opposition FBs and/or CBs and possibly even the GK. Specifically mark the positions/players you don't want to get the ball (plus tight marking OI) and set trigger press always on the players you want to try to steal the ball from. Generally the CBs are the weakest technically, so specifically marking the FBs with your outside mids (plus tight marking) to make them a bad choice to pass to and Trigger pressing "always" on the CBs can be effective. If you would prefer they cleared the ball long, you could turn on "Prevent short GK distribution". However, OIs can get you in a lot of trouble if you aren't sure what you are trying to accomplish so I tend to only use a few at most unless I just can't get going in a match and I'm losing. Don't press all defenders plus the GK, have a specific target or two you want to steal the ball from and try to tight mark the other players so that your target is more likely to get the ball if they are passing short in their defense. Keep in mind a good team will be able to handle the pressure and these settings are going to pull your team out of defensive shape. So if you don't win the ball quickly, you are going to be vulnerable. Also, pressing high will encourage the other team to go more direct; if they have pacy forwards this could be suicidal, especially if your CBs are not very fast. You can help a bit with this by setting "Drop off more", but a high line is just going to be more vulneable to long balls over the top.

Every recruitment focus I have created myself has never returned anything. I know some people say they have created focuses that have returned results for them, but I have had no luck, even setting 1-star CA and 3-star PA. The only way I've gotten any players returned in scouting is letting my Chief Scout handle the assignments. Hopefully someone who has gotten it working will see this and tell us what we are missing.

Wow, got a lot of replies (including some heavy-hitters) while I've been away! Thanks all for the responses. It's interesting that Rashidi and Cleon advocated opposite positions, just showing that there is no right/wrong per se, just what works best for you. As for myself, I seem to have answered my own question as I've gone on with this Toulouse season. Pushing for automatic promotion, I suddently couldn't buy a goal using the same techniques that had gotten me to that point (Balanced mentality, only tweaking Duties and TIs for the most part), and my attack just looked lethargic, passing the ball aimlessly, with no dangerous runs by the front line or from deep, players very static and indecisive. It's like they had forgotten that the point of the game was to score goals. My setup on Balanced had never exactly been dynamic or fast paced, but we did score enough and had a great defensive record. But even the defense started getting shaky, with aimless passes getting intercepted and turning into opposing breakaways. After trying my secondary formations (with two strikers) to shake things up by having more forwards on the pitch, plus lots of tweaking duties/TIs, I finally gave in and started changing mentalities based on the match situation at that point instead of only tweaking duties and TIs in Balanced mentality. And voila; suddenly we were dangerous again and no longer looking aimless, despite having the same players in the same roles and duties. And not just on positive and attacking either; if the other team was pressing hard, Cautious mentality produced more dangerous attacks on the counter than Balanced had been producing, while being more solid defensively due to not having as many aimless passes between the defense and the midfield. Suddenly the Attacking FBs were actually bombing up the pitch, the outside attackers were taking on their fullbacks and running at goal and the forwards were actually making dangerous runs instead of standing around offside constantly. I still change up team instructions a bit before the match based on who I am playing (They are 3/5 at the back with WBs? We are going down the flanks. 4-4-2? Attack down the middle where we outnumber them, etc.). And I do still change occassional settings in match as I see things going wrong (Drop Def Line and Invite Crosses if they are killing me with ground through balls, change my creative single striker from AF to DLF(Sup) if he's struggling with offside) but I'm largely letting team mentality do the work. And so far, it not only is easier but seems to produce better results for me. Which probably means I'm not that great at logically tweaking player and team settings, but also that the player mentality levels that are controlled by team mentality are clearly more crucial to how they play then I ever realized before.

So the AI changes mentality but doesn't change instructions? Or does it change any and all settings possible? I realize only SI would know this for sure; have we ever gotten any details beyond the AI has the same tools as we do?

Just curious what the concensus is (and how it's supposed to work if anyone knows). I'm hesitant to change team mentality during a match, instead adjusting duties on individual players (change a FB(Su) to FB(Att) to get more players in attack, etc.) as well as changing team passing, tempo and width settings as seems appropriate. But I rarely change the mentality of the team (from Balanced in my current save) as I get the impression from the tactics creator that it's part of the core team style rather than just how attacking or defending you want to be at the moment. So how do most people do in-game adjustments? Leave the duties/instructions largely the same and change mentality? Or leave the mentality the same most of the time and adjust duties/instructions as needed? Not changing mentality has been working okay for me, but I think my team just out-talents most opponents in my current division (relegated from Ligue 1 previous season and kept team together in Ligue 2), so probably anything remotely logical would work okay. Am I just making things harder and more tweak heavy for myself? Could I get just as good results by adjusting team mentality instead of individual player duties and team instructions? Is leaving team instructions/duties the same and adjusting team mentality actually better? i have tried it a bit and didn't really notice a huge impact one way or the other but I was hardly scientific about it. Does anyone know what the AI does? Do they change mentality during matches? I definitely see them get more attacking/defending as the game goes on, but obviously I don't know if that is team mentality as a whole or tempo/passing directness changes.

Nice, I'm glad that your defense seems to have stiffened up a bit. Hopefully it doesn't reduce your attacking output too much.

I think the biggest issue (without having played your team in your save of course) is that you are trying to use a high press without a high defensive line If your team is good (for your league) with relatively quick defenders then lean into pressing upfield, raise your defensive line and set them to "Drop Off More". That will help your current pressing settings be more effective and help them deal with through balls a bit better because they will turn and chase more often instead of trying for the interception or offisde trap and being caught flat footed. if your team is middle of the pack or even relegation candidates I would stop trying to press upfield, switch to a Standard-line/Low-Block with "Drop Off More" and maybe "Encourage Crosses" and Trigger Press standard. This will compress your team vertically and horizontally, give less space for the other team to work in, reduce the space behind your defense for them to run onto and make the more limited pressing more effective.