Piperita

My first finale was Uruguay over USA. I look forward to what my next Cup will bring!

A lot of per 90 minutes versions of the old ones. I think besides offsides and mistakes leading to goal everything can be seen on a per game basis now. Expected assists is something completely new. Now the stats for xG can also be filtered for penalties and key passes can be selected with and without set pieces. Possession win/lost should also be new, at least I didn't have them in my FM22 view.

Some new chunks of experiences: I like the changes to dynamics and happiness. In 22 I got a lot of inbox items from my captain warning me about unhappy players. If I acted, it quickly became tedious and often had not the desired results. If I didn't, the player in question escalated the very next week. Now there is a longer grace period where the player gets the symbol but is willing to wait a bit before asking what's up, giving me time to adjust and get the problem solved the old fashioned way. Plus, they are less likely to fall for the classical "five games in, then bench again" -- They are quicker to restate their complaints. Are there any AI teams that consistently use 2 MC? It seems everyone has gone to the 2DM camp. Which is nice, gives me plenty of reasons to rethink some concepts! Skimming through interviews, there are a lot more answers that go on the aggressive or sassy side. But sadly behind the text they all appear to still be on the "very positive--positive--neutral--negative--very negative" scale with not much further effects. I want to have more behind that! I have to play more seasons to see if I caught an outlier but the amount of goals seems to have fallen dramatically and there are a lot more different scorers. In all three German leagues there wasn't anyone scoring more than 17 goals (Schick did 22 but that also counts his two hattricks against lower league teams in the cup) and I counted five clubs in the Bundesliga where there were at least four players with 10+ goals. Which is doubly weird because there were only three clubs with more than 50 goals total, so I guess Cup and Continental matches inflated the numbers some? "Get Stuck In" and low line is a recipe for lots of penalties. One of the first instructions I removed for my basic counter tactic. CMa is still fun. Thank goodness! Assmans are still ridiculously annoying on the tablet. I know there is a massive hole between midfield and attack. That is deliberate! The first year is a chore. Qatar just was a dumb idea. Thank goodness it will be done in 24 and hopefully there won't be a confirmed Saudi cup by then. I guess once the full game releases I will start a more longterm save and experiment less this year. Or just holiday past the first season and its congestion. Which would be a shame because I quite like and understand a lot of current squad rosters The AI squad planner. I cannot decide whether it is genius or barking mad. A lot of top teams (or at least serious contenders for European places) buy players way below their standards. Nothing unusual, they were known to hoard talent just because or make unnecessary purchases for depth. But now those players actually play a serious role. And mostly it works because those players fit their role to a T or just fill someplace that their new team was missing. I am absolutely in love with all the new stats. Some presets don't look like what they are supposed to be. Fluid counter is mostly long passes from the back after aggressive wins of possession as the Counter-TI trumps the shortness of passes and the low mentality. I guess something similar could be found in others as well... It is a lot harder to get the whole team into one social group or two satisfy everyone at team meetings compared to 22. Which is great because that actually forces players to actually manage their squad or look more closely into personalities when scouting. Hopefully a later update does something similar for fan/board expectations because so far it is pretty easy to navigate the both of them AND the press.

Just out of interest: Who won Qatar in your games? I had to laugh out loud when the finale was USA vs. Uruguay for me and while Uruguay at least struggled, the US went through relatively easy.

In Germany the rules for shirt names are more strict and he plays under the name "Jordan" (example image). /edit: I'll be looking into the Wolfsburg data this weekend. One thing that should definitely be changed though is Max Kruse. In real life he is essentially suspended and listed for release. Without this marking or without some other reason for him not to play (relationship with Kovac? "Considering his options"?) his still rather good stats and playing time promises lead to him playing quite a lot.

Generally 2DM formations. The 3421 (2DM 2WB 2AM) looks to be the absolutely worst to play against so far. So bad in fact that I decided to play it myself on my second beta save just to see just how in the name of sanity it actually works. On the flipside, Pipball might be a valid tactic this year and not just a novelty.

Just had my first player revolution. Because I sold a squad player who is only a natural at AML and AMC. Two position I never used in 22 competitive games and don't plan to use, either. But on a more positive note: Agents are my new best friends, now. Gone are most hard-locked release clauses and those that are there are often logical and pre-announced.

Quick impressions: Squad planner and new recruitment meetings are wonderful and now that I have used them, definitely worth the branding as headline features. I need to play more to see how fan confidence plays out but I like the little overlays and that apparently now fans and boards can have more meaningful differences. Defensive play! Currently playing Union and I can use a low block counter system both as underdog and as favourite and both work quite well. I have already seen goalkeepers outside the box more than in the last years combined. Two-Striker systems have some interesting new movement with one often running wide. Low and fast free kicks. That is all! The transfer AI is still quite aggressive and there are some lowballs here and there but if they really want a player, they are now willing to pay and if not, they now know the meaning of "no". Promises about transfer values seem to be fixed and the players are more willing to negotiate those "fair" values. So many new stats and most of them are exactly those I had been missing. Now I might only need to use my calc-sheets for the season-review instead of every month or so! Tactic generation: Some improved tooltips and a change in defensive instructions. I might need to play a lot more to better gauge how much that changes but it is at least clearer in its effects. I am a bit said the lines got changed from five to three options, though. I quite grew to love my compact formations with LoE -2 relative to the Defensive Line but who knows what new styles I might discover? Like every single beta, journalists begin hating me for no reason. I could bet that once the real game launches, they will all 180 again and love me for no reason. This seems to be a common feature over the years. I already said that I am not a friend of the large symbols at set piece generation. Now it is even less fun than in the previous years. And splitting language options into two menues still seems like a weird choice to me.

Twenty minutes in. So far so good but two things made the start a chore: 1) Set pieces. The player symbols are larger than ever and "feel" harder to move 2) There is a bug in the language files. There are way too many German words left untranslated and that is just immersion-breaking. Once that session is finished, I'll report that properly. /edit: Apparently changing the language now requires two seperate button clicks. I can't speak about speed and fluidity right now because I am on a new system. The most positive aspect right now is the squad planner. It made it a lot easier to identify target positions and "development paths". On to the transfer window proper!

It is a pure FM23 issue. I can download and install other games (including other FMs) just fine. Only #23 times out.

I could also install FM22 right now. Only FM23 times out.

It appears to be an FM23 issue. I could install two other games (one old, one just bought) at the normal rate. Only FM refuses to download.

Apparently I am not the only one...

I realised that a 1gig downstream means nothing if it goes through an old CAT-3 cable. At least now the download will go as fast as it should ^^