autohoratio

I didn't realise it was a requirement to balance out criticisms with gratuitous praise 🙄🙄🙄 There are aspects of the game that I believe really ought to be improved upon, so that's the feedback I'm giving.

Picking up FM23 after a while away, and I'm reminded that it feels quite out-of-date - like its fundamentals of how the match engine plays out are based on ideas of (English in particular) top flight football from 15/20 years ago, not what the modern game is like today. The same goes for how man management/interactions go - e.g. criticise a full back for poor passing completion or lack of chances created and you'll be met with "I'm a defender not a midfielder", even if you play with inverted wing backs. The game's concept of "The Gaffer" is still the archetype of years gone by - full control over squad/transfers which in real life today (especially in continental Europe) are the responsibility of Sporting/Technical Directors, whereas training sessions in-game have so little depth they might as well be the old school "leave it up to the coaches while the manager smokes cigarettes or goes to the pub". FM24 needs to advance in those regards.

Something that's common in the real world but not so much in FM is you'll often see free agents, or former players (particularly if they came through the club's youth academy) training with their former team, often with the reserve/youth squad. This is a bit different to the Trial system in the game as they often aren't training with the intention of getting a contract with the club, but to keep up their fitness levels or come back to fitness after a long injury layoff while their agent works on getting them a contract elsewhere. I think adding this side of the RL game into FM would be nice - even if only for the sentimentality of maintaining connections years, down the line, with newgens you once released from your U23s for not being good enough; or that 34-year-old top flight veteran training with the youth team of a club he spent a few seasons at a decade ago, mutually benefitting himself as well as imparting his professionalism, workrate and wisdom onto the youngsters while he gets back up to speed after being without a club for a few months.

Submit this as a feature request https://community.sigames.com/forums/forum/353-football-manager-feature-requests-pcmac/

Probably UEFA comps requiring all-seaters so standing tickets can't be sold https://www.transfermarkt.com/eintracht-braunschweig/stadion/verein/23 FM doesn't seem to have implemented upgrading to convertible rail seating yet

That does sound like it might be a bug. Worth reporting it if you haven't already.

The outfield player instantly changing into the goalkeeper kit

It definitely depends on how OP managed the game (tactically and Shouts). The game can easily get away from you if you make the wrong decisions and don't rectify them. Did he sub off the team's leaders at half time? Did he let the players display Complacent/Uninterested body language? Or choose the wrong shouts when the opposition scored? (e.g. Encourage or Praise) Did he change formation/roles/duties/instructions that allowed Vallecano to get in behind the defence more?

At least in some leagues — speaking in particular about Germany but it most likely will apply elsewhere — players report back to preseason training before the transfer window opens. If you make a transfer before that date, it means the player can't join up with their new club until then. However, in real life, players who transfer clubs before the window officially opens will be given dispensation from the selling club to train in preseason with their new club. (Let me know if you need examples of this) Obviously this won't allow the player to play in officially-sanctioned matches, only in friendlies, similar to how taking a player on Trial already works in game. After all, why have an extra player in your own training camp if he isn't going to be with you in three weeks time? Sending them to their new club for preseason frees up a space in the changing room (avoiding the Chelsea scenario of having to get changed in the corridor ) and would reduce coach workload. Adding an "Allow Player to Train with New Team Before Transfer Window Opens" button/checkbox on the inbox message for when the transfer is confirmed would be the best implementation IMO. I can only really forsee a club wanting to refuse to grant dispensation in these situations if there's a rivalry between them.

The closest you can get it using an IWB, but I've found it doesn't behave quite right still, with the issues others have described being impossible to overcome. I made a feature request last week for implementing the box midfield (it would've been nice to be left open for additional comments but SI staff already locked it as reviewed 😆)

So, a few ideas on how the Stones role could work in the game: I think it would have to be a role in the DC position, as formations in FM are that of the out-of-possession phase. How far advanced the player then progresses up the pitch when the team has possession should probably depend on the team Mentality: on Balanced, it would make sense to not advance higher than, say, a DM(d) does. On Positive Mentality, that could become as advanced as a DM(s). On Attacking, the player could advance as much as a VOL(a) or even a BBM(s) and progress into the final third when the opportunity arises. Another option would be to give the role multiple Duties - Three Duty options (d/s/a), whereby Support Duty would be the "standard" one behaving as described with team Mentality, Attack Duty would be "one notch more advanced" when the team is in possession, and Defend Duty would be "one notch less advanced" when the team has possession. Or two Duty options (s/a) where Support would be a slightly more conservative and Attack slightly more advanced. I can imagine these being quite subjective and might not be how others picture the role should behave. How the role behaves in transition is another area of discussion - Pep has/had Stones playing as a midfielder even during transition when the team has lost the ball, only dropping back to form a back four when the opposition entered the final third. I think this behaviour is important to how the role functions, as with a mid block or high press it provides a 3-2-2-3 pressing structure and allows the team to win the ball back high up the pitch. I think the role should only drop back to reform the back four before the final third if the Low Block team instruction is selected. When the team has just won the ball on the other hand, it shouldn't be a role to lead a counter attack - the player should look to lay the ball off to a more advanced player with space to run into. For Player Instructions, Hold Position PI should only be hard-enabled on Defensive Mentality if at all. On Cautious and Balanced, no Freedom of Movement instructions should be enabled. On Positive and Attacking, Get Further Forward would make sense to be hard-enabled. Finally, as for what the role should be called (so I don't just called it "the role" all the time ), may I suggest "Progressive Center Back (PCB)"?

Perhaps the biggest tactical talking point for us armchair analysts these past few months is Pep Guardiola's latest style of play. For the unfamiliar, what starts as a typical 4-3-3/4-4-2 out of possession turns into a 3-2-2-3 in possession, with either the right centre-back (John Stones) or right back (typically either Stones or Rico Lewis) stepping up into defensive midfield (usually alongside Rodri). This article analyses the tactic: https://halfspaces.substack.com/p/manchester-citys-evolution-the-box As far as I'm aware, the utilisation of the centre back becoming a midfielder in possession (like the opposite of the Half Back role) isn't really possible in the current match engine, so this is what I'll focus on in my post. The inverted full back variant is possible in the match engine (some people have tried in this thread) with the Inverted Wing Back role, but I'm not sure how accurate that recreation is to how Man City play. Here's an example of how I picture this working. Typical out-of-possession formation is a 4-3-3 or 4-1-4-1 here (blue team), but it could equally work as a 4-4-2: When in possession, the DCR would then behave like a defensive midfielder - possibly a DM(S), VOL(S), DLP(S) for example - the DMC would shift over to accomodate, and the rest of the back four would now form a back three like so, with the wingers pushing higher up the pitch, creating a "WM" shape: (link to the tactical-board scheme if you want to play around with it: https://tactical-board.com/f8d5647d5c4f39_bfuk) I think it should stand to reason that, to successfully make this tactic work, you need to have good players relative to the opposition, and Pep of course has such a luxury: starting with four central defenders (Tony Pulis eat your heart out). First. a centre back equally as comfortable in the middle of the pitch (DCR/John Stones), and two centre-halves with excellent on-the-ball skills who play as full-backs out of possession (DL/Nathan Ake, DR/Manuel Akanji respectively), and DCL/Ruben Dias in the middle who is excellent all-around. With these players providing cover, the DMC can perhaps be less physical - e.g. Bernardo Silva has played in this role a few times, but on the other hand Rodri, the starting DMC is also tall and very strong. De Bruyne and Gundogan, but also B. Silva and Foden, play the two advanced CM roles. The wingers, who stay high and wide to stretch play, are incredible technically - ML/Grealish and MR/Mahrez - and almost form a front three with the STC/Haaland, who is the main reason Guardiola came up with the system in the first place to extract the best from! There are of course drawbacks: Pep has stated publicly that Kyle Walker (who he previously used to play as an IWB) isn't a good fit for the DR or DCR role in this system. Joao Cancelo as well found himself no longer starting matches as he was unsuited to this new DL role (and was promptly shipped out on loan after complaining). Is it too soon to suggest that this system be implemented into FM? I've marked this as a [Discussion] thread rather than a fully-fleshed-out [Suggestion] Feature Request - feel free to comment on things I've inevitably missed/poorly explained or misinterpreted.

I always get asked a "given that there was considerable refereeing controvsery today..." question, but never am I told what the controversy actually was.

There's an option to (sort of) say this if you criticise his training and he responds negatively - you can say something like "well if you aren't training well then how are you going to play well?" But I think every time I've used it the player was still unhappy with me

Not sure if you need any more examples of this still as it seems to be a different issue to the one OP experienced @Michael Sant I subbed Stević (AMC) off to bring on Patrick Luan, with Luan being moved to STR and the previous STR Slišković being moved to AMC, however the game didn't recognise that switch. I didn't use the "Swap positions" PI at all, just manually dragged the player from one position to the other. Uploaded the following files to the SI owncloud autohoratio - Schaffhausen Sub Issue.fm autohoratio - Schaffhausen v Young Boys - Sub Issue.pkm (save immediately after the match) autohoratio - Schaffhausen Sub Issue Prematch.fm (save immediately before the match) autohoratio - Schaffhausen v Young Boys - Sub Issue match_recording.rec

Here's an example passage of play to show what I mean. Here the WBs have no man/position marking PIs. WBR #2 marks the opposing DL when their DML and DCL are passing between each other, then just drops off despite three players being in a near enough position to cover the opp. AML, which I think would be sufficient to allow the WBR to continue pressing the DL. 2023-04-05 WB example.mp4

I agree that it would be a very risky choice and prone to being exploited by the opposing winger, but when the opposition are playing a 4-2-3-1DM (as in recent matches I played), I have a back 3 and 2 DMs covering 4 attackers - I don't need both wing-backs to stay back as well. What I'd like to see is for my ball-near wing-back to press the opposing full-back (in the match I took the video in, their FB was set to a WB role), allowing the WCB to cover the winger. Currently, I would have 2 CBs doing nothing. To use an analogy, if Gasperini can have Atalanta suicidally pressing man-for-man, why can I not experiment with trying to recreate that system in FM? Even if that experiment goes wrong (and plenty of coaches in real life have tried system tweaks that haven't worked!), I don't feel I can properly attempt it with the current ME - I'd have to push WBs up to the WM strata to start with, which comes with its own drawbacks.

Not sure what my striker is doing here 🤔 2023-04-05 goal kick.mp4 Other observations: I've set my WBL and WBR (WB strata) to man mark their DR and DL respectively. Those instructions are not followed, they stick closer to the AMR and AML instead. 👎 The choice being taken away from the User here is poor game design. Ball-far wing backs are hesitant to get forward and attack the space The game is tennis serve simulator - defender has the ball, defender pings it up to the striker, striker flagged offside, rinse and repeat. Set pieces are awful. Throw-ins make me want to never play a single-striker formation ever again because the striker ALWAYS decides to ignore his set instructions and come short, leaving no-one to lead the line. I have to re-adjust attacking free kicks before every match because of the bug where a random (or at least the wrong) player is set as the taker instead of the greyed out player "Take short kicks" GK instruction apparently means "either kick it to the wing backs or hoof it" Goalkeepers love to try and claim a ball that's going wide and in the process take three steps backwards on the endline to take it into touch and concede a corner. Not something you really see in real life. "Struggling to meet the pace of the match" or "Would've preferred to stay on the bench" is far too common

The wording "However, it is worthy to note that there would be no breach of contract if a player is excluded from training with the first team, and asked to train with the second team; except there is a clause in his contract with the club which forbids it. See the DRC decision of 8 June 2007 (No. 67229) and Dutch KNVB Arbitration Tribunal 29 August 2008, (No.1214.)" makes me think the author just forgot a word here: "except if there is a clause in his contract [...] which forbids it." Reading the DRC decision of 8 June 2007 (No. 67229) backs that up: So it's important to distinguish "banishment" (Refusing the player to train with the club at all) which is not allowed, from "demotion" (Player may not train with the first team squad, but instead individually or with a junior squad) which is allowed.

SI have really fumbled the bag this year tbh Here's my FM22 play time: versus 2023: Have had no desire to pick 23 back up at all

There used to be official merch in days gone by, but in the past 5 years or so I only remember these ones. The "VAR" design in particular is awful, and the few times I checked the merch site it was the only offering available!

March 2nd 👍

If any Scottish reporters happen to be reading this thread, they should embrace the FM journalism and ask Ange ahead of the next Old Firm in April (third from last matchday) "Is there a team that you consider to be favorites to be relegated this season?" or "Ally McCoist has suggested that your team does not have what it takes to stay up this season. Do you agree?", and then a few questions later follow it up with "The public demand to hear a proper answer from you."

You can download individual player face images and use fmXML to make a .config file that the game will read

What about if you change "Last month" in the dropdown to "All time"?