enigmatic

Unterhaching So, not being as much of a masochist as you Dutch-league maniacs, I decided to start Markus Berger’s career in Germany, at newly promoted Unterhaching. They might have low expectations for the season but they also have pedigree, having played - briefly - in the Bundesliga within recent memory, and possess a good youth setup and a slightly odd but big-enough stadium. And a world class bobsleigh team. So at least they're better than local rivals Bayern at something! Season #1 The starting squad was oddly imbalanced, with talent up front, no real central midfielders and some horribly slow defenders. And I have no idea how the board managed to lure this Brazilian in on a part-time contract, but non-EU players are ineligible to play in the third tier so instead of building a team around him, I had to pay off the remaining year of his contract to get rid of him. But filling in squad gaps at short notice with very little money is what loan markets are for. Setting up with a back 3, wingbacks and a (usually) strikerless hard-pressing midfield, I was pretty confident I could beat the media’s expectations of relegation, especially as the results started to roll in. The season opened like a dream, with four big wins in a row. Defeat to Magdeburg in the fifth game of the season might have seemed like a reality check, but it soon became clear that they were my main title rivals. A long unbeaten run followed and even a spate of draws couldn’t stop me being top halfway through the season. A surprise defeat at Paderborn left me second at the winter break, but more importantly in an automatic promotion spot with a comfortable lead over third place . After beating Magdeburg they hit a weak run of form, and the title race became a coronation procession. The signing of Palacios Martinez certainly helped my goalscoring form. We clinched the title at Wolfsburg, in front of a grand total of 20 travelling fans. That's not even a full bus! Only a humiliating and unexpected 3-0 defeat in the penultimate game stopped me breaking the division points record. Squad and Signings Klunter came in on the biggest wages, and has the ability to go with me all the way to the Bundesliga, in the unlikely event he wants to stay that long Spikic is a very decent defender for this level, though he hasn’t really kicked on like I thought he might. Vitzhum was something of a panic buy on excessive wages because I didn’t like my left back options, and I don’t rate Friedl as highly as my scouts Mickel came in mid season and made the goalkeeper spot his own But it was the generosity of bigger teams letting me have their promising youngsters for zero wage contribution (and Germany permitting unlimited loans) that let me completely remodel my squad on a tight budget Schreck - is he the next Wayne Rooney? - became a fan favourite and had his loan extended to next season Palacios Martinez came in the winter break to provide more goals, and so I was delighted to be able to sign him permanently on a free at the end of the season Brasnic helped the goal tally too Fritsch was a rock at the back and Geiger provided creativity in midfield. Several more players provided rotation options From the original squad utility Dombrowka was club captain and eventually earned himself a regular spot in midfield, and long-serving Bigalke provided plenty of flair. I let my starting star player Stephan Hain go to Darmstadt for £475k after figuring out I could loan in even better players Youth Ivanov, from last season’s intake, clearly has major potential as he's attracting interest from bigger clubs clubs Feuser was picked as the star of this one, and there were a couple of others that might make it. But I knew my HOYD had to go when he boasted about his influence on some of my players’ awful personalities. Next season I'm pleased to have secured Schreck on a longer term loan as well as Palacios Martinez on a permanent deal, but that defence and midfield is going to need an overhaul to be up to second division standards. Fritsch not agreeing to extend his loan contract was a disappointment

Sometimes its a side effect of them gaining abilities in a new position, which forces the game to re-weight all the player's attributes even though the player's effort levels are fine and their ability is at the same level as before. Communication about how and why players' attributes are changing is something which could and should be a lot better in FM (but I suspect artificially enforced declines like this which can't be logically explained in terms of football are part of the reason there aren't more explanations)

Plus the biggest things which affect development curves IRL is whether they're playing, and who they're playing for - neither of which could or should be set in advance...

I think that would be an improvement. Getting rid of the assumption that any player, ever, would complain about not being instructed to play like a regular defender only with more emphasis on hoofing would be a start. Some players are very keen to be played in their most natural position IRL. A smaller number might be very keen on being a playmaker or target man. I doubt anyone, anywhere, has ever got upset about their manager not insisting they play a role where they do as little with the ball as humanly possible. Getting rid of that promise altogether because it's more often unbelievable than not (and the ability to actually have a proper conversation with players about their skills and your expectations is understandably nonexistant) would be better still...

Have to say my main concern with scouting opposition, other than noting their general strength and shape is how quick and good in the air their strikers are (as this might affect my choice of defenders). Same goes with highlighting if they've got old plodders at centre back. This is especially true at lower league level when I don't even generally see enough of their attributes to see whether they're a sprinter or a target man. I mean, you can do this by scouting strikers individually for a week, but it'd be nice if it was baked into the scouting report to highlight these strengths and weaknesses of the opposition, especially since it's pretty much the first thing a scout would notice IRL

I doubt anyone could tell the difference between a 190CA player (the highest possible under Mbappe's current allocation, which you used as an example of a problem) and a 199CA player without using an editor. IIRC Dybala - considered by most FMers who've signed him to be an unstoppable force of nature - has a PA of 180. To the extent CA is (i) a reasonable approximation of player abilities and (ii) influences other game mechanics it makes a lot more difference when their abilities are a similar level to the rest of the division they play in than when it's over 170 and so they tend to dominate matches regardless, and all the scouting and transfer mechanics rate them as amongst the best in the game Historically there are vastly more players that the PA system has overrated than wrongly prevented from having a PA in the 190s, and most of the examples of players being significantly underrated by PA allocations are late developers at smaller clubs rather than well-known talents FM prevented from having a random chance of being theoretically on the same level as Ronaldo

Isn't this exactly how negative PAs used to work 15-20 year ago (back when it was -1 or -2, with the latter being a range going all the way up to 200)? Didn't the new system come in because this wasn't a very good way of rating potential? Personally I'd rather see negative PAs replaced by a "max PA" and "min PA" box, so researchers can set narrow or wide ranges depending on their knowledge of the player, the player's maturity, and whether there's anything about the player that justifies a particularly wide range (like being way more technically gifted than his peers but too small to make it unless he has a growth spurt which may or may not happen). But in the mean time, I'm not sure either that (i) the fact that Mbappe's potential cannot be randomly assigned to be 195 is actually a real problem, bearing in mind he'll be one of the best players in the game if it maxes out at 175 or (ii) introducing a non-zero possibility that the game generates an Oliver Shenton with higher potential than the potential generated for Mbappe is actually a realism enhancement.

- The world/transfers screen has useful, worldwide lists like "Released Players" and "Youth Intake" - You can speed the player analysis up by creating a special screen showing "all attributes", showing all the attributes you care about, so you can quickly skim for players with high values (and other relevant criteria)

Drawbacks of shadow strikers? Well the way they play might not suit the strikers you have at your disposal: they don't do the target man thing and need a bit of pace to be effective. And your strikers probably need retraining to play there (they can do a job without, especially if they're a good fast striker for the level, but their movement appears much better once they're accomplished). And some tactical setups benefit from not having your strikers come to help with the defence, such as the direct counter attacking approach that depends on playing long balls to your quick players sitting on the halfway line. In terms of overall performance, they're immense. A Conte-inspired 3-4-3 with three shadow strikers is pretty much the most overachieving formation on the game, judging from the people that mess about with tactic testing leagues and winning the league with West Brom and Watford's original squads.

Newly promoted to German Second Tier. Guaranteed a minimum of £6m prize money even if I finish bottom Financial projections (projections tab on the finances screen), however, suggests I'll make only £3.6m revenue this season (and a similar next season FWIW) and predict me to be deep in the red by the end of the season (whereas it's actually nigh-on impossible for me not to at least quadruple the amount I have in the bank given my tight wage budget. The prize money doesn't appear in next season's wage budget; I'm supposed to be deeper in the red still after that Now I understand the financial projections are intentionally conservative (and projections would be entirely justified in predicting the minimum amount and relegation, even if I wasn't the relegation favourite) but not factoring in the bare minimum amount of prize money I can possibly make this season into the financial projection seems a little questionable. Assume the projection doesn't amortize the prize money over a longer time (which I doubt any accountant would do, and wouldn't make any sense with all my high earners on short term contracts) Normally I wouldn't worry too much about these screens, but I'm wondering whether this an indication of deeper problems with parts of the financial model not factoring in minimum possible prize money that could go well beyond the specific league I'm playing in. What actually made me drill down was finding out that despite expecting at least 10x the prize money I made last season, my wage budget had only gone up a little from the third tier where prize money was tiny, and even promising to finish in mid-table (worth an extra £1-£1.5m plus guaranteeing I make at least another £6m next season) would only stretch that by another £350k. A more general point: it'd be nice if there was the ability to ask for scope to flex wage budgets for individual one-season freebies/loans assumed to be crucial to a side's hopes of staying in a much better paying division. No long term risk to the club's financial security from the contract if relegated, and potentially large returns if not. Naturally the budget would be smaller for players the club expects to have to continue paying after relegation.

Player whinging seems to be much more convincing and less excessive in FM17. Some of the new features like the team overview screens and the inline scouting recommendations are actually pretty nice. On the other hand I prefer FM16's match engine flaws to FM17s (i.e. overpowered but attractive-to-watch wide play is much better than it being easy to control a game by clogging the centre and inverting fullbacks). On the plus side, raw pace seems to be a little less overpowered than it was before.

Combining FM Touch (lose most of the time-consuming and mostly horribly damaging player interaction features and the need to "learn" tactics) and downloading a plug-and-play tactic that consistently overperforms with middle ranking clubs on tactic testing websites is "easy mode"

Some players who've actually played in the CL final are considered useless and worthless. Roque Junior won it one season (even being a sort of hero inasmuch as he limped about the pitch with an obviously glaring injury) and found himself loaned out to no-money Leeds the next (where he couldn't get in the team despite Leeds being desperately short of players and in the process of being relegated) before being offloaded on a free transfer. I think Liverpool actually released Biscan on a freebie shortly after he sat on the bench in Istanbul. If SI ever had specific rules about CL final squads boosting player value, they shouldn't have done...

The whole logic of ineligible players needs looking at. Had a similar situation in which I inherited an ex-Bundesliga Brazilian in my Unterhaching side, freshly promoted from an inactive regional league to the German third tier . According to FM players from outside the EU and selected other countries aren't allowed to play in the German third tier, and thus he can't play any more league games for the remainder of his one year contract, and he's still a very long way from German residency requirements. He should be coming to me asking to be loan or transfer listed when he can't play football rather than demanding an explanation for why he's been put on the loan list. Similarly, if less importantly, the fans shouldn't be angry about me terminating the contract of someone who won't be eligible to play any more games for the club (except maybe a couple of cup ties) (the AI signing 30-year-old ex-Bundesliga imports on 25k a week part time contracts for inactive regional leagues they're a little too good for and may well not be eligible to play in might be a minor issue too)

Nice humblebrag Clogging the centre of the park and counter attacking overperforms in this FM, and it sounds like you pay a lot of attention to detail. Looking at the league table, Las Palmas overperformed nearly as much as you did though...