Taipan

What do you do if you get a goal scored against you? You immediately go more on the offensive and try and get that goal back. AI is no different. If you score, the AI will want to peg one back. I always drop my defensive line a notch, and pull any fullbacks on (a) back to (s). Make sure you do that while the replay is on as you then don't waste any time waiting for the instructions to be confirmed. then see if their formation has been become more attacking via the opposition formation widget which should always be up on screen. Observe the game, and make further slight changes if necessary. . The length of the attacking storm of AI varies, but by doing above you make your defence stronger, and you also have a better chance of catching the opposition on a counter as they press forward. I revert back to my original defensive line and formation once things settle down. My rule of thumb on reverting back is 10 minutes game time.

Most excellent. That saves me a bit of time doing some trial and error, and loosing games while I do

Thanks Cleon Just so I have this right in my head, if two players have the same Passing/Teamwork /Decision/Vision stats, Player 1 has one only individual instruction say "Fewer Risky Passes" , while Player 2 has two individual instructions, say "Fewer Risky Passes" & "Dribble less", they both will have the same reduced chance of passing a risky pass. Correct?

I'm just trying to work out why certain players are doing certain things consistently in my tactic which is contrary to how I want them to play. If someone in the know can answer these couple of questions it would be appreciated: Does the stats "Decisions" effect the number of individual player instructions the player will follow effectively? For example if a player has a decision stat of 10, and one individual player instruction, will he be more effective in carrying out the one instruction than if he had four different individual player instructions? Also, am I right in the following? Player Traits will override Player Instructions which in turn overrides Team Instructions. Where does Overall Instructions fit in? From memory it's additional, but just want that confirmed.

Bit late to the party, but I'd love to see this role. I was only thinking about this the other day when I had taken over a new club and was trying to make a reliable two man striker combo with the players I had. Midfield has the option, so why not the forwards and the backs? I don't care this role is called. Good old "Striker" sounds as a good as a name as any. I love just have more tactical options in setting up positions and instructing players to play how I want them to play right across the park and not be forced to use the cookie cutter system we have now. To expand on this I play mostly LL, where I take the average pass mark on any stat to be 9. The majority of forwards at this level are below (or very below) this mark in tackling and/or passing which leaves me with the Poacher & AF positions as the really only forward position that isn't hard coded with at least one of those stats. AF can be also hit and miss also with the more dribbling being hard coded. I do find most LL Forwards with "hold up the ball" gets tackled off said ball well before his low decisions making has set off the light bulb in his head to pass the ball using his low passing skill to another player. Having the instruction "more Risky Passing" just doesn't cut the mustard with a large majority of LL players, forwards especially. DLF , TM, CF, DF, TQ & F9 all fall into this category where you have HUB, Tackling and or Passing hard-coded. So a lot of times I am left with the two attacking (only) viable positional options in the forward line (P/AF), which then kinda forces me to have a AMC as the "link" to the midfield or play the old boot up the field bypass midfield and hope game where I have played many a time successfully with two Poachers feeding off the incoming bombs. Of course there are tactical work-arounds, and I'm not complaining about my lot in life. I chose to play LL with all it's challenges of no money, shallow and poor player depth, and a host of other restrictions, but an option for a STC without any pre-defined roles would be a welcome addition to FM.

Always did like your insight into FM Loversleap. Very good read.

Thanks Michael...Appreciated I'll give this a go

As per title, this is the FM17 version of the game. I've been making my own Ad boards for a while now for any teams that I manage just to give my LL side a bit of local flavour on the pitch. What does bug me is the actual match day dugout which shows the SI & SEGA logos which seem so out of place once I have done my Ad boards. Can you create a XML file and replace these logos with something of your own choosing? Screen shot blow of what I am talking about, and what I would like if possible to change these logos to. Can anyone throw me a bone if this can in fact be done, and if so, where do I place the XML file

Move on...Nothing to see here

The ideal formation is the one that utilises the best out of your squad. Presently I'm playing an asymmetric 4-3-3 using a wide AM as as IF, as none of my wingers can cross, my wide midfield options are limited anyhow, and the best player in the side is a AML. When you start a LL game (or any FM game for that matter) the cards that you are dealt will determine the formation that you use. I've used 4-4-2, 4-1-4-1, 3-4-3, 4-1-2-2-1 and god knows what else over the years in LLM. Yes you might have a "favourite" formation but trying to shoe-horn LL players into certain roles just wont work. They just lack the vision and positing to do so. If anything try and squeeze a DM into your formation but that isn't always possible.

ahh, the 4-2-3-1 !! Still my favourite formation after the 4-4-2 Always nice reading one of your thread's Cleon. Love reading the diamonds you and Rash keep churning out year after year.

Thinking along the same lines, there is nothing stopping a very patient individual (or group) with a LOT of spare time to use the Mega Face pack from Sortitoutsi and split & rename those faces that suit into the different Afro/Asia/Euro/Hispanic/Mixed_race & short/long/medium categories. The pictures are already there, there are the correct size and it would only () mean changing the file name and adding the re-named picture to the Config files. Maybe some batch file would even make it a quick process to rename the pictures? Yes that would mean maybe somewhere in the world, a regen would look like Messi/Ronaldo/Neymar, but that would be a very very small price to pay as the regen diversity would be enormous. The current German file has nearly 3000 pictures which is means you will get eventually get double ups at some stage. Can you imagine a similar file with 100,000 + different faces. Ahh, I can dream, but anything is better than these new Regen pics that we are now stuck with. Even with the fix in the latest patch the faces are not very diverse and most of them have those haunting eyes that look more at home in a Zombie Apocalypse game that a Foot ball one.

hehe, 16+ years with this handle. I should be a 1999 vintage, but the forum had a hissy fit at once stage and my account got removed in error. Must say it's what I love about this game. Always a question to ask, and always someone here to answer it.

Hey Doc! As you can see I'm still around kicking cans. Thanks, yeah you just confirmed what I thought. Just logical stuff. This guy is "ok" in this position, and his other defensive stats give him a pass mark, so he can keep the PPM. I find PPM's to be a liability in LLM than a help in most cases and don't even bother training any up unless the player ticks the large majority of the stats required to preform the move.