[Issues logging into FMFC]

Is there anywhere that I can raise a ticket towards attempting to access FMFC? I have been unable to do so since at least the start of the 2024 previews and looking in support that seems to only be actual game related issues. I don't know if it's an account issue ut I have tried logging in on several devices and through steam and either get told that the form has expired or that there were too many redirects.

[Personnel management while getting promoted]

In my last save in FM21 I decided that I was going to work my way up the leagues with Sunderland. My first season I had set up with possession in mind because that's the style they wanted, got promoted at a canter. At this point I had been expecting a few years in the Championship and that certainly seemed the case at the start of the season where I was punching above my weight but I had to focus more on making Sunderland hard to beat than playing pretty. I had only been able to sign Sanderson who I had had on loan from Wolves the previous season, I also had the benefit of Wilshere who I had gotten on a free in my first season and managed to stay fit and Dobson who had developed through the playing time into someone who was already considered premiership quality, the two of them formed a neat midfield trio with Power. The change in tactics saw me into the playoff zone and I would have been happy with that except Brentford did a Brentford and fell off from second in the last quarter of the season.

So I found myself in the premiership, made a few purchases but still had about half the team that I started with in League One. I survived that season, again through being hard to beat and matching Sunderland's record of draws in a season, 19, while pinching 1-0's to bring my tally up to a respectable 53 points.

Now this is where I hit the crux of my problem. Firstly, having only made a few transfers in my first premiership season and only having half the wag4es of the team 19th on the wage table, I was running a profit throughout, start of season 4 I have 70 million in the bank and a transfer budget of 35 million. On top of that I had a good batch of youth players as I had pushed for youth improvements from a good starting place to begin with every six months, at least by the standards of the current squad (1 star CA 4-5 star PA, bearing in mind half of my first team were in league one two seasons ago). It is obvious I need to change the team up, even they know they are not up to the needed level (a lot of angry faces when I told them we want to avoid the relegation battle next season same as we had the current one). The old guard had a fairly overinflated sense of where they felt they should be. Wilshere wanted to be named a star player at 2.5 stars CA, welp, contract is up, good bye and god bless. Power on the other hand decided to make, well, a power move on his contract demanding to be considered an important player, I did not want to offer him this as frankly if I did the business I need to he would not be making the first eleven, take into account I have two young midfielders I want to give time to he wouldn't be making it off the bench a bunch of games either. Biggest problem here is his contract runs another year as when I last did a contract renewal with him it was in the mind we were going to be a Championship team for the foreseeable and he is a team leader. I kind of suspect I have a few more requests like this coming but this was the most inconvenient one and his wages mean I can't even sell him. I have the choice of give him what he wants and over time break the promises made in terms of play time or have him unhappy right now with all the trickling down that might cause.

This was more or less a dry run for being my first long term save in the next FM as I don't really support a team, I go for narratives that interest me, two rival clubs having been taken over by rich owners in the last year? Yeah that's the kind of narrative that will draw me. So this is more a question coming from a position of I will be starting in league one again having previously started no lower than the Championship, how do I manage my squad as I am climbing the league structure to avoid this and if I am in this situation again is it better to give the player what he wants now and proceed to build the team I need to to compete despite that or tell him right now he's not getting what he feels he is owed.

[Set piece instructions]

In my current save I am playing a tactic where everyone bar one defender (with the ballplaying defender (cover) role) manmarks a member of the opposing team in order to deny the opposition passing options as opposed to the high press attacking the ball I usually go with. As part of this, since when the opposing team is counterattacking the players will run past a lone opposing player with the ball to find their assignment I make sure that this defender has instructions during free kicks and corners to stay back.

 

He isn't.

 

I have noticed that he might be more likely to stay back on corners if the team mentality is balanced, but going up to and past positive and on free kicks on any mentality someone else with a go forward instruction instead swaps with him to stay back while the defender gets into the box and about as far away from the covering role I have him in as possible.

 

This is pretty much destroying a tactic that is otherwise working quite well for me as most times I get an attacking set piece I am gifting the opposing team a 1v1 with the keeper.

 

Don't mind me, I goofed, this is what I get for not devoting much time to the set piece tab in the last few years.

[VAR decision reactions]

Same issue with me. Opening day of the season, playing as Wolves against Man City so underdogs. We had a penalty given to us due to handball through VAR and they had two goals disallowed due to offside (one of them probably contentious towards Man City, it was an arm offside), finished 2-2 so I did better than expected and going by the question and my options you'd think I'd been robbed. If anyone should have been unhappy with VAR in that situation it should be Guardiola, could have been 3-2, depending on the handball could have been 3-1 before VAR but it seems to have asked me that question because I drew rather than won.