StatboySpurs

Under 18, training is much more important than playing. Once a player turns 18, playing becomes more important, and the level of importance increases as he gets older. Once a player hits 24, training doesn't matter nearly as much anymore. I believe that's how it works. I would say keep him until he's 18, and then send him to Crewe (if he's good enough for their league at that point).

I look forward to trying this database, thanks for the hard work. Does anyone know if it would be compatible with the Increase Realism megapack by Daveincid?

Love this skin, thanks a lot.

I just wanted to stop by and say thanks for bringing this to our attention. I started using it last night on my save, and it's great.

Hey guys, great skin, I've been wanting to play with an attributeless skin for awhile and this one is great. You may already know this, but occasionally we get emails about player training that show us their attributes. Example included below...

Trying to set my tactic for my reserve team while managing Dortmund. The option for all three of my formations comes up, but the tactics show up as clean slate tactics with no team instructions. See the picture below. My senior team tactics of course have team instructions, but for whatever reason they aren't translating to my reserve team tactics page. No issues at all with my U-19 team. My senior team is in first, my U-19 team is in first, but my reserve team is bottom of the table. I'm trying to get them some wins so they don't get relegated. The board already sacked the reserve manager, and I just hired a new one. Any advice on why the team instructions aren't showing up with the reserve team?

I haven't. Not quite sure I consider it a bug per se, I just think it's something that's probably very difficult to balance for those who work on the match engine. It will never be perfect, but I would like to see improvements. At any rate, bug or not, I think enough people have talked about it that SI is aware of the situation. How much they can manage to fix it is the big question.

The Ivory Coast has a whole bunch of them.

Lol...that's awesome. Good catch. I find the whole full detail/no detail interesting. I normally don't have the patience to playtest (so God bless people like you!) but for some reason I got addicted to that whole thing. So much so that I ended up taking a break from FM for a few weeks, haha.

Haha, good pull on Bonifacio. Yeah, on my latest save Conte got sacked and was replaced by Joachim Löw, and Spurs are doing better . And the sentence that I just typed makes absolutely no sense at all, lol. I had England on full details, and Conte got sacked when Spurs were 13th in December. They finished 7th (though I turned off full match details for all countries at that point because I wanted to speed up my save).

Interesting stuff, and yeah, that's probably the case. Son doesn't score much from what I can tell, and with Kane being played deep, it means goals will be limited. Ironically, it's Moura in my saves who always seems to score more than he does in real life.

For sure. I totally get the work they put in, and I know they rely on their team-specific researchers. But in this case I think it's more about the system/style of play that is affecting the outcome, so it's more of a match engine thing rather than a rating thing. When I simulate with no match engine detail, Conte's teams do a lot better, but when I use full detail he is always sacked by Christmas. That's the point I'm making...I just changed the player ratings to try and prove my point...that Conte's style of play doesn't work in the game. It's not his ratings, they are great. It's just the style of play.

Tinkered around with the ratings some more and upgraded some players. Some very minor upgrades, a few major ones (such as all the CBs, Kulu, and a couple others who played well under Conte). Adjusted the team morale from 11 to 18. Also gave them the 150 mil cash injection plus an 250k per week to spend during the January transfer window. I ran a couple of tests and here's what happened. No Detail, Top 5 Leagues in Europe Loaded 2nd place finish in the Premier League. Very tight race for spots 2-5. Only six points separated those four spots. Throw in Arsenal at No. 6, and nine points separated five spots. Everton (57 points) was a long way off Arsenal (70). Spurs finished on 79, which is 8 points better than they did in real life. Kane with 21 goals and 9 assists. Kulu with 14 goals and 8 assists. Son with only 9 and 7. They also won the Europa Conference League. City finished on 94 points...in real life they finished with 93. Biggest change is Liverpool in 4th rather than 2nd, and United finished third. Wout Weghorst won the Golden Boot with 23 goals (LOL). So generally speaking, a more accurate finish for Spurs based on the last seven years when compared with what they do in a normal unmodded save. I probably upped some players' ratings a little too much, but I wanted to upgrade them a lot for the later Full Detail test (posted later). As far as transfers go, despite giving them the 150 mil injection, they bought Anselmo Garcia McNulty (6.25 mil), Rasmus Kristensen (8.25 mil), Ismael Casas (5 mil) and Felix Afena-Gyan (5.5 mil) in the January transfer window. Kristensen became the starter at right back, but the other guys didn't play. All seem like signings for the future. I had to look three of those guys up. They spent hardly any of that money. Generally speaking, Spurs have always done better on my saves when I've got England set to No Detail. But what if England is set to Full Detail? Full Detail in England and the English Cups, Full Detail in Champions, Europa and ECL, Top 5 Leagues Loaded, but No Detail in the Other Countries 5th place in the Premier League. Horrible start. Conte sacked on November 20. The interim manager, who was the U18 coach, picks up 7 points from 3 matches. So apparently he's much better than Conte. Then Bielsa comes in and leads Spurs up the table to finish 5th, one point off 4th place. Won the Conference League. Leeds was in a Champions League spot, but dropped and finished 7th after Bielsa left. So far all my tests over multiple saves, both with an unmodded Spurs team and with some pretty substantial player bumps, the same thing keeps happening: with No detail, Spurs do a lot better. With full detail, Conte is sacked in November or December. So it seems to me that with Full Detail, Conte's management style just doesn't work in FM...even after I improved a bunch of their players' ratings. Here's what I did (original CA to modded CA)... Romero: 151 to 158 Kulu: 146 to 155 Kane: 179 to 182 Son: 168 to 172 Lloris: 153 to 155 Bentancur: 147 to 154 Dier: 146 to 157 Davis: 142 to 154 Hojbjerg: 142 to 153 Skipp: 140 to 150 Sanchez: 139 to 149 Doherty: 139 to 144 Sessegnon: 128 to 141 Bergwijn: 140 to 145 Tanganga: 135 to 137 Rodon: 135 to 141 Winks: 140 to 143 So on the whole pretty big improvements to the squad...yet no change to Spurs' results with Full Detail. Whether the originally game ratings, or my fairly substantial boosts, Conte gets sacked before Christmans. It's almost as if player ratings don't matter with his style of play. The point here isn't to argue that Spurs' player ratings are wrong. People will argue all day about the ratings of players on their favorite teams. The main point here I'm trying to make is that with Full Match Engine, Conte sucks. But with No Detail, the results are a lot closer to real life. Contrast that to Leeds. In this particular test, they finished 13th with no detail (which I assume takes into account a team's talent level and their reputation), but they finished 7th with full detail (mostly due to Bielsa being overpowered, IMO). I'm not saying my testing is the be all, end all of FM testing. There are much smarter people than me who I'm sure can do a much better job. However, based on my limited testing, I think my No. 1 wish for FM22 is for certain styles to not be so overpowered (Bielsa) and certain styles shouldn't be so underpowered (Conte). With the right players to fit the system, all different types of strategies should work to a certain extent.

I updated their PA as it changed when I made those attribute changes. I think I did it right...it looked right when I looked at their team during the save. It was my first time using the editor, but as I said it looked right when I loaded up the save. I didn't change any of the mentals or hidden attributes, but just looking through them, none of those should be an issue I don't think. Generally speaking the game rates Spurs players as pretty darn hard working and professional...it just thinks that many of them aren't very good at football despite the real life results, haha. I plan to do a couple of more experiments with it tonight when I get more time, and I'll go over it more carefully to be sure. I

I started a new save, and I actually bumped up the ratings for a lot of Tottenham players. Some big-time increases for some of them, just to see what would happen. To the point where Real Madrid now wants Ben Davies, haha. Also increases for Dier, Bentancourt, Hoijberg, Sessengon, Skipp, Kulu, Lloris, Romero, and Son, and even a minor boost for Kane. So basically the whole starting lineup and some of the backups is a lot better now. The result? 13th on the table on December, and Conte sacked. So even with greatly improved ratings, they still suck. Meanwhile, Leeds sit 3rd on the table. Leeds overperforming seems to be common, and Spurs underperforming seems to be guaranteed. So I assume it basically comes down to what kind of system the manager runs? Conte's system just isn't going to work in Football Manager?

This, absolutely.

Hey may need a runner on his side of the pitch. How willing are you to change your tactic? You could put the two DMs in the central midfield strata. A central midfielder on attack (on the left) should make some good runs on the inside of an that inverted winger. CM on attack is pretty powerful this year with the right role combos. But if you do that, you probably want that left wing back to be a little more defensive. I'd switch him to either support or defend in that scenario.

Try some PIs like sit narrow, roam from position, and take more risks. With the wingback bombing up the flank, he should have some space in the channels.

As an update to this, I went into the pre-game editor and changed the Tottenham team morale from an 11 (one of the lowest in the EPL, and accurate pre-Conte) to a 16 (which is probably a more accurate reflection since Conte was hired). I ran another couple of tests... Test 1: No details Finish: 6th, Conte sacked in early November, Bielsa replaces him, Conference League champions. And this was with Kane missing 15 matches due to injury, so the finish could have been higher. Test 2: Full details Finish: 9th. This one is interesting. Spurs started off well, and were in a pretty good run of form on December 1, when they sacked Conte despite 5 wins and 2 draws in the last seven matches. They hired Low to replace him, and it was a disaster. From the day he was appointed on December 31 they won 7, drew 3 and lost 8 in the Premier League and fell down the table. Interesting stuff. Not sure it proves anything, other than every single time with no details, Spurs finish in a European qualification spot. And every single time with full details, they finish outside the top 7.

Caveat, I'm a Spurs fan so I'm biased, but my experience on all versions of FM since 2017 when I first started playing is that Spurs nearly always finish lower than they do in real life. That seems to the be the case again this year, with Conte nearly always sacked in December. Not sure if that happens to other teams as often, less often or more often, but I'm sure it does to a certain extent. But I decided to do a little text. I simulated the 2021/22 season four times, twice with full details, and twice with no details. Here were the results... Test 1: Full match details Finish: 8th Conte sacked in December as Spurs languished around 15th on the table. Bielsa takes over, leads a charge up the table with his Gegenpress, and they finish 8th and win the Conference League. Kane finishes with 20 Premier League goals. Crazy thing about this year is Leeds finished 3rd and Wolves 4th. Text 2: Full match details Finish: 10th Conte again sacked in December as Spurs are in a relegation battle. Low takes over (LOL), and they end up finishing 10th, and again they won the Conference League. Kane finishes with 7 Premier League goals (LOL) Text 3: No match details Finish: 6th Conte is again sacked, this time on January 1. Except this time they aren't 15 or 16th on the table...they are top half, around 6th or seventh, which is much more Conte-like, though not quite as good as real life. Low is again hired, and there is basically no improvement. Kane finished with 14 Premier League goals. Text 4: No match details Finish: 7th Conte is sacked after not winning a single game in December. Replaced with Ernesto Valverde. Kane scores 12 Premier League goals. So I guess the point I'm making here is that Spurs seem to do better with no match details, or with full match details and Bielsa as manager (which seems to confirm what many people think, that Gegenpress is overpowered.). Also, with no match details, I don't see as many crazy finishes like Leeds or Wolves finishing in Champions League spots (which means that other normal top of the table teams are not performance as well as in real life when I've got it set to full details....so like I said, it's not just a Spurs thing, I'm just using them as an example). So it seems like the full match details takes coaching style and such into consideration moreso than talent, but maybe simulating with no match details takes more into account the pure talent level of a team? Would that be accurate? I don't think I have a real point here, other than to say that I'd love to see some more balance in FM23. Spurs are in a relegation battle with Conte quite often in FM22, and there's pretty much a 0% chance that would happen in real life. Spurs haven't finished lower than 7th on the table since 2009. Over the last seven years, they've finished 3rd, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 6th, 7th and 4th. But on FM it's not only common, but it's pretty much a given that at best they'll get sixth or seventh. Out of about 20 saves I've started on FM22 (generally with full match details set for England) I've only seen them get a Champions League spot once, when in reality they've done it five of the last seven years. But with no match details, it seems to be closer to real life, at least for Spurs. I'm tempted to use the editor and change Conte's style to Gegenpress and take away his preference to use counter-attacking football and then run another test, but I'll probably hold off for now. I'm don't want it to sound like I'm complaining about the game. It's great. Best version yet, IMO. But I would like a little more balance and a little more realistic results, with the full understanding that it's a game, and it's never going to be perfect. Any thoughts?