optimusprimal82
-
Posts
520 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
1
Content Type
Forums
Articles
FAQs
Online Manual
Support: Blocks
Support: Games
Bug Tracker
SIGames Manual (beta)
Profiles
Posts posted by optimusprimal82
-
-
Almost poetic for those still disaffected by the patch/game - wouldn't normally link something like this but the timing is too perfect/coincidental not to - hope it helps anyone who may still be struggling/upset/angry; It's ok to stop playing...
0 -
Wow, what a few in-game weeks it's been since my last update - so much has happened it's (almost) scary! Some good, some bad, some of it yet to be fully assessed for overall impact but I'll try and break it down! Following the initial run of 6 wins from 6, our amazing form carried on into the next three games which - Solihull game aside - we pretty comfortable;
I'd mentioned above that at some point I expected things may get a little hairy and sure enough, the FM gods decided they'd seen enough from plucky Hyde and it was time to act...!
The 'Knock-on' effect...
Nope, don't worry, I haven't decided to give up football for 'Egg Chasing'; knock-ons here are a reference to how one seemingly insignificant event in the world of FM can have the potential to wreak havoc if you're not careful! It all started with John McCombe coming to see me to ask why he hasn't started more games; you may (or may not) remember me mentioning that - on paper and in my staff's eyes at least - he's the best player at the club in terms of ability so is quite entitled to ask the question, but you may also recall I had some serious reservations;
At the age of 34, sadly his physical stats have declined to such a point that I'd consider him a liability in most games due to the oppositions love of a quick and direct counter with a ball over the top of our defence, and I don't want to change my entire tactical philosophy to accommodate a single player, especially when he'll likely be retiring in the near future (if he was a young lad with huge potential I may be more willing). I managed to talk him down more by luck than judgement as he rejected my initial suggestion that the guy playing in his place was in good form (averaging 7.18 rating at the time);
Thankfully he backed down after that and decided that as an influential player I'd at least better try and keep him onside so saw the forthcoming cup game against lower league opposition as a good chance to give him some minutes and see how he fared. Naturally this decision backfired with a very defence minded Marine team showing up at Ewen Fields with a young pacy 21 year old striker in their starting XI who'd go on to pick up the PotM award. A quick glance at the high level stats suggests we were the (slightly more) dominant side;
But as ever with these things, scratch beneath the surface and you'll likely find a different tale;
Yes 20 shots looks fancy but we've all been playing the game long enough now to know that a goal kick that goes too long may be tacked onto that quite meaningless of stats! More importantly is the low percentage we got on target which illustrates how we struggled for penetration. We did (frustratingly) hit the post twice (which seems to be an FA cup habit if my teams) but take a quick squizz at the oppositions CCC count and you can see quite why overall I was a little relieved to get through the game; all three chances came in McCombe's area of the pitch (hard to say he was completely at fault for all but the goal) but it was clear he was a weak link in an incredibly shaky backline so I was left with little option but to sub him off, after which our performance stabilised and we restricted them to very few shots after that.
I was a bit torn heading into this game as to whether I should even bother with the cup or if it was just better to field an entirely second string and relieve the fixture list a little - games come thick and fast down in this division and realistically what could we possibly hope for? I decided to still field a strong team with memories of a decent cup run in my FC United save affording us an away trip to Man City (I have a magnet for City in the cups on FM19 for some reason); we were still in the Vanarama at the time - same as now with Hyde - but we managed to pocket 1.5 million in gate receipts which was monumental at the time. It's an absolute long shot that we make it through to the premier league rounds and get one of the big dogs but any potential windfall/chance to improve facilities has to be considered when looking at the current state of our facilities? In the end my indecision had a big impact as my 50-50 team could only get a 50-50 result and we drew 1-1;
The draw meant that we were still in the cup, but also that we were now at the mercy of the ' FM scheduling computer' which - let's face it - has been in need of an upgrade for a fair while now? We'd played the FA cup fixture on the Saturday and had league fixtures scheduled for Monday and then Saturday again, with a free week following afterwards. Naturally common sense was ignored and the replay was scheduled for the Thursday between the Tuesday/Saturday fixture;
This had the effect of (finally) forcing me to make a decision & prioritise - the league is 100% more important so I knew full well that the Marine game would have to be played by an entirely second string XI, what I'd forgotten to take into consideration was the lack of match sharpness, potential for injury and the subsequent chain of events that would unfold! With 65 minutes of the replay gone we were winning 2-1 but starting to look very tired so I made a couple of substitutions to try and shore things up - these worked to great effect as we added a third shortly after with an injury time 4th a fair reflection of our overall dominance - sadly the joy and pats on the back evaporated after the game as fairly serious injuries to both Sutherland (MR) & Daly (MC) weakened our First XI considerably;
Ordinarily Daly doesn't make the first XI, however he is first change for our regular MC's along with Platt, but Platt prioritises DMC first so Daly is first reserve in all but name. Where this becomes an issue is the fact that the other guy injured is Sutherland and we struggle with any sort of depth out side;
With Sutherland out for a while I either need to play Harrison - my first choice RB who can only play there in a pinch and has very young/average understudies unless I steal Fagbola from DC (which means playing McCombe) - or Roberts, who is my standout player overall and is not easily replaced. We have the bodies to cover their loss, but the drop off ability wise is significant and it costs us, going out of the very cup that I let get us into this mess and then losing at home to a poor Warrington team that got promoted this year alongside Hyde and who just came to defend; all of a sudden we lack creativity and were content to take poor long shots or hit hopeful crosses (which our strikers are not genetically blessed enough to take advantage of!), something I was/we were able to rectify in our next game out against Nuneaton;
So October hasn't got off to the best of starts, but hopefully that last win has injected some much needed morale and life back into the guys and we can pick up a few more points before we play our closest challengers next month (had to be FC United didn't it?!), sadly we have the small matter of both first choice MC's (or first choice MR whilst Roberts deputises for Sutherland) being banned for the same game for 5 yellow cards;
Still. to be in the position we're in after 13 games and have a six point lead, I probably should stop complaining and enjoy it all a little more!
Wipe that mud from your eyes...!
As mentioned previously I've been swapping out some staff members where possible to good effect, the best news being that I've managed to (significantly) improve my judging CA/PA stats overall which should help going forward - after re-analysing my guys it seems that the left side of midfield and strikers are indeed the areas most in need of an ability injection come the youth intake!
You don't know what you're doing...!
I'm sure a lot of you do this too; when first starting out at a new team I'll often use the Ass Man for team selection just as a rough guide to who he picks each game, often overruling him as I go. What I hadn't really witnessed prior to this save is how frequently (and determinedly) he'll swap sides of my MC's & DC's - for certain games he insists in playing them in the opposite configuration to my norm and I've determined it's not a random thing and is being done specifically, so can only make assumptions as to what he's basing that on, namely opposition lineup and CA/speed matchups?
Be the best you that you can be...?
We're not the most gifted team in the world financially (which worries me in terms of getting facility improvements) but the board did acquiesce to my request for a coaching course - I'd already learnt to dial back my team talks a little from my last save, realising that whilst my current squads poor mental stats likely aren't helping, neither is my abysmal reputation/overall manager stats considering I started the game as a - presumably poor seeing as I've gone into management at 25* - Sunday League manager?
(NB: Sadly not my real age or birthday)
Dirty Trainers...
No doubt we've all got these in our squad, the guys who regularly sit 'in the red' each week on the training report? Having been in charge of my guys for a long time last save out, I'd managed to shape them into an ultra professional, ultra determined bunch in which poor training scores were incredibly rare - not so with this bunch of jokers with the 'wooden training spoon' maybe having some financial incentive the way in which they all jostle for it! One thing that struck me as odd was the fact that Nicky Platt regularly seems to be 'the worst of the worst';
Now ignoring the fact that criticising/kicking him up the arse does precisely nothing (and he's 31 anyway so even if these 'productive' chats could make a change there'd be little point);
What piqued my interest is that looking at my initial squad analysis I'd marked him down as being 'Professional';
Now obviously I have no visibility of his actual stat, but whilst his personality type is just Balanced, his Media handling style is Level Headed which suggests he should at least have a reasonable level of professionalism;
It's long been my understanding - mostly through experience but obviously some of this is also 'forum hearsay' so you have to take with a pinch of salt - that both Determination & Professionalism are key for players developing well and reaching PA, but I was - apparently foolishly - led to believe that it was Professionalism that had the biggest impact on training performance which doesn't seem to be the case here at all, his abysmal '2' for Determination going some way to back that up.
If we contrast it to Grant Doran - our trainer of the week who also (quite helpfully) has the same media handling type - who I've also listed as professional but has an excellent Determination score of 18 then I think that goes some way to proving that it's still definitely a combination of the two that will help these kids become the next
Carlton PalmerLeo Messi!NB: I've got a soft spot for Doran due to his excellent mental stats and see him as a potential first teamer/captain of the side if we don't get promoted past his level. Since getting better staff, his PA has actually increased slightly to 4 stars; he's still considered a long way off first team readiness but I'll be playing him as often as possible as I doubt he'll improve much otherwise due to our appalling training facilities!
A 1-man team...?
I highlighted in a previous update how important midfielder Morgan James had been to our early season form (with 6 goals in 6 games) so it should be no surprise that coincidentally as our form took a wobble, so did his goalscoring, failing to find the net in his next 4 appearances. He did score in our last outing, netting the fifth in a landslide so let's hope that spurs him on for the next few games - but this is a worry that I expect to return over the season given his highlighted inconsistency and relatively young age (20).
9 points from safety...?
With 34 points from 13 games it'd take a drop off of miraculous proportions now for us to get relegated I think - pre-season predictions I made were ~43 points for safety and we're just 9 away so I think it's safe to say we're safe, just don't tell my guys yet! Definitely going to be interesting to see how we go from here - will our form pick back up and let us go on another great run, or will the wobble continue with a bit of see-sawing results wise? What this little patch has definitely proved is that the coaches are at least right about one thing, that our ability levels drop significantly outside of our first 11 so we're in definite need of quality fresh blood...
20 hours ago, XaW said:For what it's worth, I enjoy posts like the one above this. It gives me a bit of insight into how you think about the game itself, and in some parts it differs from my approach. And that is the best way to keep learning and improving. I also use spreadsheets quite a bit, and use them a lot in my games. I think @Braumiller made an excellent spreadsheet for FM14 or 15 that I still got that I use to determine how good youngsters are at each role, and I still use that to decide what position to develop them in. I'll follow your career for sure.
Awesome - thanks! Maybe I'll post every alternate update in here just to keep my hand in and avoid upsetting others too much - I'm far from precious so if it's annoying anyone then by all means speak up and I can just throw up a season-end update etc?
As you allude, learning what other people do/how they play is one of the most fascinating parts of the game for me - I've been helping people out a lot over on a Discord channel but even then, it's far from one way traffic as people will often throw up ideas/tactics/suggestions you hadn't considered and after all, how dull would the game be if there was only one way to win?!
I can get a bit lazy with spreadsheets, but it often depends on what I perceive as the 'current difficulty' level of my save - I doubt I'll go into quite as much detail when/if I make it to the premier league, but when a squad is so new and players so terrible (so, so bad!) then every little helps when comparing quickly across the board! The other thing is of course that when I buy players I pay close attention to stats & personalities so I know they'll all be within certain parameters, this time I can't do that so to easily spot someone high potential who'll never work out due to being an ass is super handy!
4 -
It's taken about 3 days on and off reading through this to get completely caught up, but the fact I was happy to is testament to how enjoyable & interesting it was - great stuff and good luck for the rest of the season(s) ahead!
0 -
Realise I probably post a little too often and with a lamentable verbosity, so much so I've started up a careers thread that follows my attempt at this challenge to save spamming you all & where I can go into more detail without irritating anyone as I inevitably obsess about things that are
probablydefinitely not that important! Will (obviously) still be keeping up to date in here so please keep the stories coming, love them!
1 -
Initial squad and tactical analysis
Ok, so I lied when I said the next update would be after a few games into the season; realised when looking at my squad that there are so many unfamiliar names and faces again that it's back to full note taking so made sense to jot some of this down here too!
Before I even look at my squad, tactics have been largely on my mind. I usually go with the time honoured FM approach of deciding how I want to play and recruiting to fit that rough template - obviously in an academy challenge that's a little trickier so I'm going to try and leave the comfort zone, flip that idea on it's head and fit the formation to the guys available. One bug bear for me is the 442 - often seen as synonymous with the English lower tier, I want to avoid playing to that stereotype, particularly as it seems to be an especially strong formation this year. I'm not sure with the quality of players at my disposal I want to go 'full Cleon' and try a 'W-M' as I did with my FC United guys but - as player availability/quality allows - I'd like to at least play a little more adventurously.
In my previous career, I got a lot of lower league success utilising a flat 4411 to great success, but noticed that it struggled a little more as I climbed the divisions and my reputation rose - teams were more frequently deploying DM's which seemed to counter the AMC a little too much, so my strategy evolved until in the Premier League I was rocking an array of situational alternatives, all following the methodology as defined in my 'Mentality Matters' approach. Whilst I believe that roles are useful for helping highlight to players what attributes to focus on or help them blend a team together, I'm not ultimately a fan of them and pay little attention to the games assessment of how well they may play in that position - as proven time and again, if a player has the right attributes, he can perform in a role he's 'red rated' for perfectly well (although it's at least worth considering the ratings when first setting up - if you have a team with only Inside Forwards, is it better to create a winger focused tactic or play to the strengths already at your disposal?). Along with my expansive 451/433, I also used a 4141 for game control and management, and a few other 'out of the box' creations in order to overcome some of the incredibly defensive sides my all conquering side were starting to come up against (all of these were actual tactics used in-game successfully!) so it's my hope at least to have something a little creative to keep me entertained - it may be a little harder to experiment like this in the lower leagues but I reckon it's far from impossible;
Anyone taking part in the beta may have spotted me highlighting an array of (perceived) issues with the attacking wingers in this year's edition, so I'm tempted to actually make a concerted effort to use them here in order to prove that they can actually be effective, but there seems to something of a mild stigma about the 4321 (which would be the most logical setup with wingers) and it's apparent ability to exploit the Match Engine? Not sure where that's come from, but I know it's not an opinion shared by the download tactic guru's - irrespective, I could debate what could and couldn't work all day, the only way to find out is to see what my guys are actually capable of and take it from there!
Let's meet our contestants...!
Ok so I know already that my coaches opinions are next to useless based on their attributes so anything they say
may be taken in evidencemust be taken with a huge pinch of salt;
With that being said, a quick look at our team report shows that the situation isn't terrible;
Again, this is the coaches ratings so it's likely far from truly accurate, but there are still more 'Great' options than I was expecting. My general rule of thumb in FM19 has been that if you've got 7-8 'Great' players that are consistent, with good mental stats & that you can keep fit, you'll usually be up near the top of the division. We're not at that stage yet, but we've definitely got a few decent players judging by this first screen at least, with my key positions of GK, DC & MC looking well catered for. The left side is a little worrying and the striker situation clearly needs some improvement, but at first glance it could be much worse, but let's go a little bit deeper and take a proper look!
Sadly, running these guys under my Excel-powered microscope has revealed the ugly truth, with just over half (13/24) of my team being rated as inconsistent, with some very average values for important stats such as Determination and Bravery too. I do have a few professional players (combination of calculated through combination of coach report, media handling style & personality) who may be useful as mentors, but otherwise the majority of the squad are 'balanced' in terms of personality which doesn't bode well (basically a 'catch-all') but unlike my usual saves where most of these guys wouldn't even make it on the pitch, I've not got a lot of choice here - it's cross my fingers time and wait for the youth-based cavalry!
What's in a formation?
Well so much for my grand plans earlier with all that talk of wingers and my daydreaming about expansive or creative asymmetric systems - looking at the positional capabilities of my guys I'm going to be pretty restricted;
Ignoring attributes or quality, we're well covered in central defence and midfield, but away from there we're just about covered for a bog standard 442 or other similar (read: boring) formations. Someone did mention an old classic in the 442 wide diamond the other day and it brought back great memories of CM3 and I'd put it on the list for consideration, but the lack of bodies who can play in AMC rules that out. I've already earmarked a few players for retraining positionally, but that's more for cover than to give us any great tactical edge. Looking at the numbers - specifically the midfield options - one formation stands out above all others, especially given my previous experience/knowledge of it's pros and cons & consequent success on the back of it, and that's the 4-1-4-1. Defensively sound and perfectly capable in an attacking sense, whilst it may not excite me, it seems silly at such a level to fight against it and try to conjure something from nothing just for the sake of it; creativity is a good thing, but knowing when to stop can be equally important - who after all wants to name their tactic set 'The Homer'? We've naturally got some friendlies on the horizon so i'll do a bit of playing around, with the number of DC's I did consider a 352 variant of some kind, but with the fixtures almost non-stop at this level I worry about fatigue in the WB's so may at least test it a little for now and save it for special occasions! Hopefully we'll get to play our first game soon - next update will come some time after that!
2 -
- Popular Post
With another Premier League title and Champions League crown in the bag, I could tell that the sun was beginning to set on my time with FC United of Manchester - an SI patch was on the horizon & with it came the lure & temptation of new challenges and opportunities! For once, the common FM question of "Where to go?" didn't generate the excitement I've come to expect - I guess after all these years it sometimes takes a little more than a change of country code to get the heartbeat quickening! The 'Where?' quickly became 'What?' as I wondered what realistically I had left to try in my FM career, stopping when I felt the age-old twinge of excitement as I recalled a few forum heroes mentioning early in my previous career they were taking on an academy challenge! Loathe to give up when I'd only just begun, I'd initially put the thought of winning something with kids to one side as I continued my quest to overturn the Manchester duopoly, but with that mission safely accomplished the time - as Moloko once sang - is now!
From Manchester to........ Manchester?
Erm, yes. Although I was satisfied with the progress in my last save, it didn't completely 'scratch the itch'; a lot of my last save was spent testing and working on The Mentality Masterplan and there was the small matter of a thing called 'Brexit' - it didn't ruin the experience but it certainly added a layer of frustration that perhaps took away from the fun just a little!? With Brexit having little effect on an academy save, let's call the last save a warm-up for this, the main event!
One thing I always try to do when picking a team is find one that at least resonates a little - could be a location (favourite holiday spot/somewhere I've live or worked), a notable history/event/player (presumably why Bari are so popular this year!) or something so simple as a name (hence a career at Viking FK in FM15!) - irrespective, if I don't feel any sort of bond or affinity for the club I'm managing I usually get bored very quickly and find myself on the jobs board more than the squad screen! With that in mind I spun the 'Holiday Roulette' wheel to see what the FM gods had in store for my first attempt; the Vanarama National League South offered me a choice of Margate & Kingstonian, whilst the Vanarama National League North had a choice of Halesowen, Hyde, Kettering & Warrington. I'm sure by now that your eyes have already glanced below so the cat's out of the bag, yes I chose....
Hyde United Football Club
That's right, from FC United to Hyde - a quick ride around the '62 or a short bus trip if that's your thing! When they showed up in the results who else could it be? I hadn't spotted them originally when scoping the possible teams, thinking Warrington or Stalybridge would be my likely picks (given their geographical allure) but once they came up I jumped at the chance! For anyone who's not aware, they've had a bit of a rollercoaster ride in recent years, with a bizarre sponsorship deal with Manchester City causing them to change their name to Hyde FC (City made it part of the agreement that they had to drop the 'United' from their name so's not to upset their own supporters), not to mention recolour their crest/strip & re-paint their stadium from Red - their traditional (and United's) colour to Blue. The stadium (Ewen Fields) is still blue to this day with the general manager quoted as saying "The ground today is still painted blue because it keeps better than the red, to be quite honest with you" - makes outrage at stadium naming rights seem a little trite in comparison!
I take charge of Hyde in their centenary year with them having been founded in 1919, although as a further twist in the tale above, they had originally formed as Hyde FC in 1885 before folding in 1917 due to the war. They actually moved into Eden Fields in 1906 as Hyde FC, but kept on using the ground when they rose from the ashes and still play there now!
The Squad
Obviously I'm still learning about these guys, but there at least looks like something to work with ability wise! There are 25 players, 4 of which are youths & 1 an existing loan. My biggest concern was what the squad 'determination' was going to be like as I'm laser focused on mental stats & personality when recruiting - if they're not green then they're not for me - so will be interesting to see how I adjust to that, rest assured I'll be hiring a new Head of Youth Development with a decent personality as soon as I can/finances allow to ensure our new players aren't crippled by an inability to train/handle pressure! A few of my new guys do have high Determination so I at least have a few potential mentors in the group! I'll post a bit more about the squad once I know a bit more about them, but let's just say that the media think we're up against it (and I don't have my beloved loan market to help me out!)!
Facilities
I'm not sure 'Horrific' is an actual in game term, but it should be added next year if not to describe teams like Hyde! Joking aside, they're not great but they could definitely be worse; the stadium (painted blue and in 'Average' condition) has a capacity of 4000, of which 550 are seats (installed by City as part of the sponsorship agreement mentioned above!).
The rest of the facilities are rated as follows;
Stadium: Ewen Fields
Capacity: 4000 (550 Seated)
Stadium owned by: Hyde United FC
Undersoil Heating: No
Roof: No (Although looking at that photo?)
Surface: Synthetic
Pitch condition: Good
Corporate Facilities: Basic
Training Facilities: Poor
Data Analysis Facilities: None
Youth Facilities: Basic
Youth Level: 4
Stadium Sponsor: None
Youth Stadium: Ewen Fields
Junior Coaching: Fairly Basic
Youth Recruitment: Basic
That's all for now - next update after we've
lostplayed our first few games!
12 -
Good stuff noikee! Sure Knap/hope you won't mind me steamrolling in here & tagging this on? Guess he won't so long as I promise not to squat for months like I did in his TIME thread!
If anyone is struggling with setting up a CTRL/SUS tactic like noikee is talking about above, then the datasheet below may help (it even explains what the heck a CTRL/SUS are!);
More info on tweaking mentality/approach can be found here too if it's something that really interests you, always happy to discuss/help out - the whole methodology plays really nicely with all of Knaps tactics, as he knows all too well from me talking/typing his ear off during testing!
1 -
Fired up 17 again this evening to dabble with (& for a lark) whilst I'm testing some tactics guff with 19; immediate impressions are that it feels dated (somehow?) & really, really difficult to go back to having played 19 for so long but nevertheless I persevered. Firing up an old Man Utd save (I'd started but never got very far with), I bashed into a few quick games trying to make sense of the bizarre asymmetrical tactic set I'd got installed. After winning a few I decided to fast forward to such a time that a defensive underdog rolled into town to see how I could best thwart them almost in a direct comparison to some of the 'bus-sy' issues people are facing in the current release.
I'll start by quickly saying that the match experience and general feel of the match engine does - to me at least - feel better/smoother in 19, but what is immediately noticeable in 17 is the overall movement of players & way in which that impacts on the opposition; in some ways it's less realistic and wing play does still seem to be plagued by some of the issues I've noted/written about in 19, but what is tremendously refreshing is being able to instruct my little guys and watch them pull the unfortunate opposition all over the place & it's an amazing antidote to 19's embracing of (at times) 'anti-football'.
I know 17's ME has it's flaws too (believe it's 17 that playing without strikers causes it a huge headache?), but whilst it ultimately may be too easy once you get to grips with it, it just feels fun and refreshing in a way that - despite having a great time (and i've put hours and hours into it) with it - 19 can't.
Very quick (and now I look at it, confusing) example - I spent a very quick 5 minutes setting up a 4231 in order to test the AMR/AML's, obviously United are a decent side and I've obviously been shopping (& can predict the future in one case) as Henrichs/Fred & a few others are here to help the cause. I set the AMR/AML up as wingers and changed the DL/DR to IWB's during the first half to come and support in the middle and more importantly prove as a useful distraction;
Swansea were our
victimsopponents, and they rolled up rocking this little number (nightmares time if it were 19!);
This is how we lined up (useful for visualising in a minute);
This little passage below shows how we were frequently able to pull their irritatingly manned backline all over the shop;Naturally as Swansea are defending for their lives & we're at home, we're playing pretty attacking. Fred is on defensive duties in CM alongside Pogba who (is the wrong way around in the formation but was switched) is given license to maraud wherever the heck he wants to. After receiving possession inside Swanseas half, Fred drives forward and gives the ball to Zlatan who - after briefly holding the ball whilst waiting for support, plays it back to a still quite advanced Fred. As soon as Fred receives the ball, Ceballos (AMC) drops deeper, bringing with him the RB signalling the two wingers and - more importantly - Pogba, come to life and they start to move forward into the vacated space;
Presumably confused by the quick movement and with an RB well out of position the opposition DM's are interesting here because they don't track the AMC and are actually caught a little in no-mans land; Fred is playing the ball to Ceballos which could be considered risky given he is effectively within kicking distance of 3 players, but he also has the two IWB's in support. It also means that if he does take a more ambitious ball on & gets the next pass right - and Pogba/Rashford over on the left have a lot of space - he could take the 3 of the opposition players out of the next phase completely;
No surprise given his stats, role and PI's that Ceballos take the pass on, stupidly shut the game down before taking the next screenshot, but he pings an amazing ball into Rashfords path who runs into the box but is forced slightly wide by the hastily covering DC. Sadly this Marcus is till a few years behind the boy wonder we see today and he pulls the ball back behind Zlatan (but at least it was on the floor as instructed) and the move breaks down (with Fred almost getting to it). Luckily the half-clearance comes straight to my lurking IWB's and off we go again!
I know some people will criticise this (for example the RB tracking the AMC all that way) for not exactly being realistic (although some of the defending seen in recent years in the PL, maybe it is!), but what is it we all want exactly? Are we playing the game for a truly realistic experience - warts and all - or are we playing it for entertainment and fun? Football is an incredible thing, but it can also be tremendously boring - not every game can be a 4-3 thriller and let's not forget that my own United team bored me to tears earlier in the season (watching them felt like I was going to work)! No doubt we all really want the 'football boot wearing unicorn' of a sweet spot that combines the best of both worlds, but that's another mission impossibility when just gazing across at the small sample of reactions here to 19, even I contradict myself every 10 minutes by bashing the ME despite loving the rest of the game to pieces and racking up my highest FM hours count for quite a while! My take on it is that 19 is unquestionably a better game & it may well be the more realistic ME, but it's 17's representation of the beautiful game that I get more enjoyment out of right now which puts me in a heck of a quandary...
6 -
Pretty much sums up my experience; I do think the forwards movement is slightly better in 19.3 than the respective beta, but both then and now (and I know i've laboured this point to death elsewhere) it often feels like the strikers/wingers are doing the marking as opposed to the other way around - the way the attackers follow the defence when they suddenly go super narrow is a large (at least imo) contributor to a lot of the issues, especially as they do little to move again once there (I go into more detail on exactly this behaviour here for those who don't know what I'm waffling about). The often stubborn refusal to pass backwards/keep the ball when space is at a premium can also be confusing - mentioned before that at times I feel like my players are under the illusion that there's a shot clock like there is in basketball.
The first goal also illustrates to me why so many goals come from set pieces overall; it's hard to pull the super defensive teams out of shape during open play as they set their defensive line so rigidly narrow. You can do it, but it can be haphazard at best against the most defensive sides; with the set pieces the opposition defend them more like you would expect (exploits notwithstanding) which means they track runners, players move and holes/spaces open for people like Ozil etc to thread balls through.
2 -
Quote
Obviously I can only speak to my own experience, but in the Europa League 5 clubs scored 20+ goals in the group stage (which should be a serious rarity) and it almost all came from big clubs demolishing clubs from poorer leagues. I scored 11 goals in 2 matches against Luzern, Dortmund scored 11 in 2 matches against Sturm Graz, and so on. There were 16 matches in the group stage where one team scored 5+ goals.
Ah, sorry you've hit on the one exception in my findings that I should have clarified; cup games - whether European/multi-nation or domestic - are/seem a completely different story; the opposition teams seem to approach them differently for whatever reason (maybe combination of world vs domestic reputation means they don't play as defensively? Also perennially defensive teams seem more inclined to attack in the cup games meaning teams score more goals). I was talking specifically about league fixtures...
0 -
3 hours ago, JEinchy said:
I've logged a lot of hours into FM19 and think that it's not that far away from being a great game. At the same time, I've found FM19 to be dull. It's beatable, and even challenging in some parts, but playing through it has felt like a slog,
>snip<
Was going to write "I felt like I was reading one of my own blurbs given the correlation between findings - great post!" but then realised I'd be inadvertently patting myself on the back at the same time which goes heavily against my "self-praise is no recommendation" mantra!
Instead I'll just add that I agree wholeheartedly & that if you have any examples, I've got a big, ridiculous long-winded post that talks specifically about the issue with AML/AMRs you're more than welcome to add to - just asked if it's still relevant in the beta forum or if I should get it moved/recreate - or if you have a new post/thread active, equally I'll happily throw any findings in there too.
Sadly at this stage in 19's life I doubt we'll see a massive improvement in the wingers as I imagine it's a colossal change; understandable but personally makes me sad as it's always been my favourite position (I have to play with wingers is my mantra!) - if they can't fix this year have asked if we can have a concession until 20 drops with perhaps the PIs removed from the AML/AMR's to see if we can at least try and circumvent the issues (the way they hug the FB's I doubt it but surely worth a try?) in the interim - guys have obviously been rushed off their feet so haven't heard back, but call me an idiot/optimist/optimusist, I'll sit here with my fingers still crossed until I hear none of it is possible!
0 -
51 minutes ago, jujigatame said:
I agree with all of this, especially the uselessness of strikers and the influence of morale and home advantage. I think this is having something to do with the strange goal totals I'm seeing. When a club is in good form and playing a heavy underdog, scores get out of hand far too frequently. City is now on pace for 111 goals in my current season and United was on pace for 130 but now down to about 101 after having a couple of bad results. I managed to score 21 goals in the Europa League group stage with Everton, and Dortmund scored 25 in their group. Three other teams scored 20. In the real-life Europa League this season nobody scored more than 18 in the group stage.
Something is really out of wack. The average goals per game may be correct but the distribution is wrong. It's like there are too many low scoring games with 1 or 2 goals, and too many blowouts with 6-8 goals.
Strangely that's the one part of your post I tend to see the complete inverse of - United/City/Liverpool tend to dispatch the mid-level teams 4/5 goals at a time, and games between them often descend into high goal shootouts, but against the teams at the bottom of the division (Southampton/Brighton/Huddersfield/Newcastle) and a few teams that seem to play very defensively (West Ham/Palace) they tend to scrape through 1/2-0 or end up with a score draw. The results change in the cups when said teams obviously realise that they won't get through with just a draw etc. Running a test right league right now and;
City
United
Liverpool
Chelsea
Arsenal
Also notice how formidable Bournemouth are at the start? They've beaten all of the big teams as above except Liverpool who have yet to play them.
Data above is only from one season so a poor sample, but this trend is one I observed during the beta and seems (there's that word again) to have continued into 19.3 across the numerous tests i've already run. Haven't been capturing any of the data (mainly because it's a hassle with no quick export that I can see etc) but can always take a skim each season I get through and record it I guess. Tbh, I think looking at results like this is a little granular and we have to be careful in deciding what it is exactly we're expecting? The PL is incredibly unpredictable by nature so if the big teams were winning every time they played a lesser side we'd be complaining that they've amassed 105+ pts every season - the only reason I'm even looking at this stuff is because i'm intrigued by how the top sides results (may) have tapered off against the bottom sides since the beta etc, I'd say total goals across the league is up as a rule, but it's hard to get a read on the spread of that because whilst the average may be 2-3 a game, actual results can skew it a fair bit (and would require a much bigger sample and analysis above just raw statistics which tell only part of the tale)
0 -
10 hours ago, Etebaer said:
I feel as if individual quality of Players plays a way bigger role in this ME - destroying weaker sides in Cups but stand no chance against stronger sides which sadly is each Team in my league.
Started from League 6 in Germany and went up to League 4 (Regional Division) making comfortable 49 Points and a 9th Place last Season the same Team for lack of any meaningful Transfers due to a lack of Status and Players not want to hire with my Team therefore plus being unable to pay more but minimal wages for some most desperate Freelancers in the new season i have lost all but one game and have 1 Point after 8 matches.
Things look dire...
11 minutes ago, noikeee said:I agree with this too, player quality is more noticeable now.
This is good, in previous ME there wasn't enough of a distinction between really good players and average ones.
10 hours ago, rp1966 said:If true, that sounds unfortunate for your team, but good news for the game as a whole. It's been a long time complaint that since roles were introduced they often negated the difference in player attribute levels - tactics trumped everything. If SI have rebalanced a bit in favour of player quality that would be very good news - as long as it is player quality as measured by attributes and not reputation.
(FMT player, so still waiting for the latest update)
10 hours ago, Rashidi said:I tend to agree with this, I was smoking all the tiers prior to the update, and i was off to a good start before the patch hit, then for the first time in like 10 years of playing FM i went on a a 10 game run without a win. We are still the worst side in the league, but now its become a game of trying to suss out where another team is weaker in and hoping we can take advantage of one failed attack by them so i can hit them on the break. With my Liverpool side its an entirely different story, if i want to beat a side camping in their half i need to resort to some kind of brute force attack and take chances, hoping that my better quality can create quality chances. And there are even matches where i need to resort to a middle press just to draw defensive sides out so that i can hit them on the transition.
I actually have a friend who is planning a massive challenge that i want to track, he is going to manage some youth players and try and get them promoted from some really low league. I told him that's too much pain for me, but i am very interested in how he gets on. When FM19 first launched he was smoking the league and only having to deal with his players getting poached. Now though, i am itching to find out how he is going to do. If I am right, it's going to be very painful.
This is all sounding very positive to me, especially if clubs start to hang on to their high quality newgens etc better - I would wager that a large proportion of the player base enjoy the squad building/xfer management aspect of the game a lot more than they do the tactical side. Tactics are important of course, but for too long it's been easy to 'game the system' with tactics and a few shrewd loan deals (as back to back promotions to the Prem with FC United proved)!
Have actually been toying for a few weeks with the idea of taking on the academy challenge and this has given me slight pause for thought.
0 -
25 minutes ago, andershs said:
Thank you - legend!
0 -
35 minutes ago, dongjianjian1 said:
Why is Kalidou Koulibaly only 187 centimeters height?
Because apparently that's how tall he is IRL - it's become an object of confusion/something of an internet thing now as to actually how tall he really is, people have been changing the wikipedia page etc.
Fifa has him at 187 too I believe (haven't got it so cannot confirm).
0 -
Can I quickly double check that these settings are in compliance with the R&R's - think i've got it right - planning to play in England!?
I know the last screen is overkill in terms of selecting all the leagues but best to make sure eh?
Is there a reason it's mandatory to load only the country you play in btw or just down to game speed? I'm thinking long term that if successful i might like to carry on but restricted if just England etc?
If someone can confirm all ok, I'll get rid of the screens from this post to save taking up screen real estate (and bandwidth!).
Can go and search naturally, but does anyone know off the top of their head of where a list of valid teams is located?
Thanks all!
EDIT: All good, andershs was kind enough to give me the green light - mediocrity here I come!
0 -
Thanks, but that's the view I'm using now, ideally i'm looking for somewhere I can view the entire squad status at a glance though like the home-grown one? I can see there isn't a view by default, nor can I see an attribute I can add to a customised one, just wondering if anyone knew/knows of a way - or even a skin - to do it?
I think the ones that don't likely already have a secondary nationality?
0 -
I know this isn't strictly the correct place to ask, but I can't see/don't know of a general 'ask simple questions here' thread and creating a new one seems incredibly overkill;
Does anyone know of a way/screen/view you can customise to see at a glance the progress/time left players in your team have in terms of gaining secondary nationality? The one for homegrown status is right there as default, but I can't find anything for nationality; in a post-brexit UK save it'd be incredibly handy when planning for the coming seasons and having to juggle players around the deceptively restrictive restrictions... Naturally I can look player by player, but with 20-35 players that can get mildly tedious!
0 -
@Cultured Left Foot saw you raise this as a bug post so assuming it hasn't ever gotten anywhere further down the line? Just checking back in with regard to the above - got the to the end of my season and I suspect this is the bit that somehow your game skipped - I was never notified that a site had been found (and forgot to check the facilities page until now) but I just got a mail from the board;
and facilities screen has been updated accordingly;
Bit rubbish that yours didn't work but I guess we can be pretty sure that your just very unlucky and that behaviour isn't the norm?
Still going to take 2 years to build, but I guess that is infinitely better than waiting 6 for nothing...!
0 -
@RBKalle Try turning pressing down by a notch (or two if you have to - but be wary of the potential knock-on!) if you're struggling; counter press will cause your team to concede a lot of fouls and pick up a lot of cards. Combine the extra fouls with hard tackling and it can cause issues. The ref also makes a big difference - on the pre-match mail about odds etc it'll show you how many cards the ref has dished out that season; if he's high on reds (i consider high to be 5+) then consider turning off hard tackling for that game (Ass man will sometimes suggest it in his tactics brief too).
Rule of thumb for me is to keep hard tackling on and always change anyone with a yellow down to ease off. Someone requested that be done automatically as a feature but the response was that players are coded to have intelligence enough not to hard tackle/take risks when on a yellow - been playing the game way too long to trust that though so safety first!
NB: The reason so many people are conceding free kicks this year is because so many people are using counter press and the resultant fouls are just too high - more free kicks = more chance of conceding etc.
Juan Mata the enforcer?
0 -
Does anyone know how to stop the individual positional training for a player changing automagically on it's own? I've got the responsibility for training set as follows;
Yet every few weeks I come back to my training screen, certain players are back set to 'nn - playing position';
I've got a theory (based on the players it keeps happening to) that it's a result of me using a couple of different formations and thus using my MC's in MC/DMC roles and wide players in both AML/R & ML/R positions, but can't understand/see why their training is being changed as part of that, unless it's being overridden by the actual match training/tactics program? If that's the case then i find it a little counter intuitive as I'm trying to train these guys to be able to play both roles effectively and the tactics are all in my 'wheel of three' etc? Is this a known issue/been reported before? Does anyone have a workaround?
>runs off to look at the bug forum/feature requests<
0 -
On 22/02/2019 at 01:56, gunner86 said:
One of the best posts I've seen in a long time.
Certainly given me some new things to think about.
Thank you - glad it may help even if only a little!
0 -
Afraid i have no thoughts, but i'm a very interested observer as I was told a similar story to you at the start of my current season...
If it takes six seasons it'll be a colossal waste of time and money, we're already filling Bolton's stadium (who we're renting off) and the new stadium planned capacity is 'only' 38,000 - great for now but not so in six years time the way wages are rising!
0 -
Thanks all, much appreciated - will await the full 19.3 I think before getting started but my clicking finger is itching (I mean from excitement, not from scratching somewhere dodgy!)
1
Football Manager 2019 Official Feedback Thread
in Football Manager General Discussion
Posted · Edited by optimusprimal82
Not sure what you mean? Is it ok for me to post it? Would have thought so as it's not derogatory or offensive in the slightest... Not my usual sort of news hangout but the author actually makes a good point about games in general and why people/we/you/me get upset and how (perhaps) to deal with it.
Or do you mean NSFW and stuff like that? Yes it's 100% family friendly, SFW and all that - I definitely would not link anything that would potentially land someone in bother!