enigmatic

Like I said, I like the theory behind what a Mezzala is (a "half-winger") but the description doesn't mention that and suggests he's a CM who defends centrally and not particularly deeply, roams around a bit and attacks the inside channel (like an IF). Like a CM(A) would when played in a wide slot in a midfield three anyway. So either the description or the implementation misses the point I thought the Segundo Volante was a playmaker (in the FM "attracts ball" sense rather than the Kaka sense) by default in the Brazilian system because the defence and anchorman usually pass the ball short to him to bring out of defence as the creative players tend to be much further forward and they don't play long balls. Otherwise you might as well call him a box to box midfielder.... Totally agree that there's a danger when programming lots of subtle variations of midfield roles that some of them are far too effective (which gets picked up by experienced players and forum users but not by the average player or AI) Though if FM17's reaction to the FM16 crossing issues is anything to go by, strikerless systems and overloads of the centre won't be that overpowered in FM18 anyway and it'll be all about wide players, shuttlers and underlaps

Nice looking screens. Hope (but it wasn't made 100% clear) an effect is that training can be turned down or up for individual players, especially when you've got players whose fitness, injury proneness (or attitude) warrants a slightly different training programme. The ability to use sport science to help prolong players' careers would be far more interesting than the information on injuries themselves too. Especially since injuries are turned down to very low levels in FM anyway... I wonder if as part of this overhaul SI will turn injury numbers up? It'll mean more complaints. But they'll get complaints about numbers of injuries in the latest FM regardless of what they've changed at all from the last one or not...

By the looks of it, this could be one of the positive aspects of the "Dynamics" feature: it appears that if your 24 year old centre back has been fitting well into the system and has a strong linkup with his partner the tactics engine highlights this (and presumably the player gets a small boost in the ME), and thus he can probably outperform the slightly more talented 18 year old reserve defender. (There is how fluid the players' understanding of your tactics is in current FMs, but I believe you can train that up by playing reserve matches) The other way this probably ought to show up is "consistency" and "big matches", which I believe does improve as players gain experience but possibly not as much as it could/should do. The "pressure" attribute should probably be the same way.

The Inverted Winger is logical since a lot of players were trying to make their MR/ML play like inside forwards, so making it a formally selectable role accessible to novices and the AI is a no-brainer. Relatively easy for the AI to be programmed to figure out when to use it too. If the Carillero does the lateral movement properly it's a fantastic addition for narrow formations that like their CMs to spread out a little and/or have to deal with opponents who double up on the flanks in some games. I'd like to think the Mezzala might have interesting lateral movement based on my (limited) knowledge of Italian football, but the role description suggests otherwise... it sounds like something which could have been called a B2B(A) for less confusion which probably plays like a vanilla CM(A) with "moves into channels" turned on. Which raises the question of why it needs a funky foreign name.... Similarly is Segundo Volante massively different from a Regista or DM Roaming Playmaker? Fewer risky passes perhaps? It doesn't help that the description compares it with dissimilar roles and makes an unnecessary recommendation to pair it with an anchor man (presumably it'll work just as well paired with the vanilla DM or DLP, or even a CM(s) or two in an attacking side that wouldn't normally use a DM) which is more about explaining how to play a specific Brazilian way than practical advice on what it does. Is there any reason why you'd select this role and not one of the existing ones, possibly slightly customising if you have a natural dribbler or if you wanted risky passes turned off? Is there any reason for the AI to use it other than it being a default preference for Brazilian managers? I guess if there's been a lot of work with midfield positional sense and lateral movement, I trust this is going to be a lot better in general in FM18 than FM17, which had got to be a good thing.

I think the "wonderkid" designation is heavily based on reputation relative to age, and if he's still accepting £5k a week he's probably not that high a reputation for a 20 year old...

The challenge is that it's usually the players who have been released from bottom tier clubs that are most likely to be of interest for a zero budget, relatively low reputation bottom tier club. You wouldn't expect many of these players' attributes to show up but you would expect their names to show up in search when you're looking at possible trial candidates. Same goes for players in different regional leagues at the same level or nearby players at the step below. If you can't find out these available players exist without buying a scouting package or manually scouting the club it's probably not a step forward in terms of realism I'm a little more confident the new scouting system doesn't do ridiculously restrictive stuff like stopping you from scouting youth players from nearby professional clubs

FM17 does provide better goal variety than FM16, but the midfield defensive positioning in some of the most common and most vanilla formations was laughable and the ME is far too easy to beat with narrow, possession oriented football. I can understand how a match engine where wingers sometimes stay too wide like on the videos got green-lighted, but not one where this nearly always happens, even with no players to cover, and the central midfielders compound the error by [in many standard setups] virtually holding hands even when they're supposed to be extremely positionally aware. But yeah, you're never going to impress everyone (as attested by the fact that some people are still upset by goals from the extremely-common-in-real-life route of cross assists despite nearly all the most overperforming FM17 tactical setups eschewing wingers playing their fullbacks narrow/inverted and usually telling them to cross less after the overcompensation from FM16... Observation: FM16's most overperforming formations were essentially 4-4-2, hardworking players stretching opponents and sticking the ball in the box for physical forwards. FM17's involved a back three, possession football and technical AMs making runs into the box, Conte-Chelsea style. At least you can't accuse FM17 of being behind the UK football curve.

Yeah, I'd imagine the rating is loosely based on perceived potential ability but adjusted for personality, versatility, performances homegrown status, good ability for age, languages etc (basically the factors you see listed on scouting report)

See, I agree your interpretation sounds logical, but afaik the keeper basically never collides with his defenders or actually makes a 50/50 challenge, and I've never see a bad passback play the keeper into trouble (as opposed to ones which are hit straight out of play). I guess it could be affecting defensive wall position too, and possibly a generic boost to defender concentration/positioning etc. The positioning one I wouldn't have believed if I hadn't heard on good authority, and does make me wonder what attributes do affect GK positioning for shots (apart from one on ones) - decisions? anticipation? Just wish goalkeeper general behaviour and the types of saves keepers were good at was better represented in the game (even if hidden consistency/mental attributes played a huge role too)

I look for Reflexes as high as possible. I want Handling, Aerial Ability, One on Ones and Command of Area to be at least good (but aren't as bothered about it being excellent) and similarly but slightly less for the obvious mental attributes I've paid less attention to Positioning since an SI employee suggested that despite the logical interpretations and the manual, it had little or no effect on whether they were in a good position to cover their goal or not (more to do with whether they operated in the right general area of the pitch, which might be slightly useful for a sweeper keeper's starting position) So many attributes that sound really crucial for goalkeepers that might actually not do anything much at all. SI gets a 1 for Communication Now there's another goalkeeper attribute where I have no idea what it actually does in the match engine, if anything... I'd care about tendency to punch if goalkeepers actually punched the ball, eccentricity if all goalkeepers weren't a bit eccentric, and then there are attributes like "Agility" which sound really important, but declines very sharply on thirtysomething goalkeepers who supposedly are still top class so probably isn't critical. (I still drop those older players though). And attributes like "Jumping Reach" which guides suggest has zero effect on their goalkeeping (unless they're trying to head the ball) but afaik it's CA-weighted for GKs, so maybe it actually does. In the extreme case, I'm far from sure what affects my player's ability to make a diving save for a shot from 30 yards heading towards the corner, assuming it's possible but not easy to save and the player doesn't have some mental issue delaying his dive. Reflexes (even though strictly it's not a reflex save)? Height (logically helps reach the ball though it's not an attribute and doesn't affect CA? Agility (even though many older keepers have single digit values for it)? So mostly I judge that from watching them...

Tn theory the AI could handle many aspects of the squad management near perfectly (since you can hard code knowledge of how players will react to an action, and players' responses to a particular action must be considerably less complex a simulation than the ME) but then the dreaded "AI Realism" vs AI performance trade off rears its head, and the game ensures that managers with attributes that make them disciplinarians will always take the tough option even if it provokes squad riots, and managers with bad man management attributes will frequently fail to take even basic steps, and then you get the AI screwing up in more ways than it did before. I mean, there's an argument than an AI which usually sees Mourinho fall out with his players and get sacked after two or three seasons is an improvement on one where he seems to stick around for a while, but I'm not sure players finding their title races too easy already will see it that way. If I had to guess at how humans will behave significantly differently to the AI and derive enormous benefit, I'd anticipate that the AI will be programmed to see high influence players just past their prime as fantastic assets to the squad, whereas the experienced human manager will do everything they possibly can to avoid being stuck with players who will make the entire dressing room unhappy when they don't start, and make the team weaker with their lack of pace when they do.

*files bug report*

Can't believe you resigned as Andorra manager just before they got their golden generation Congrats on survival

Mhiki Mouse to powerhouse

Welbeck's technique is OK (he comes across as quite gangly but he's better on the ball than he looks) but his finishing has always been a weakness: not just the high profile misses which often are down to composure, but a high percentage of the goals he's scored have been scuffed or dead straightforward rather than beautifully placed/lashed into the corner