steviemay17

Apologies I meant that I often see it in my favour, I think as a more dominant team I will get more attacking set pieces, but I often have this advantage with a player wide open on the "ball" side of the box as everyone will congregate to the far away post for a potential cross, but I really don't recall any occasions where my players have had the "intelligence" to exploit it, I'm aware I can play shorter or some kind of short option but then a player will come short and have markers goalside so it's not productive, it's just time after time there's someone left wide open and we'll shoot. I could also get on to my seven seasons I've seen six total goals from direct free kicks (both for an against) and they've all been absolute pingers from distance, the whole direct set piece thing is just really poorly done for me, too rigid to the instructions and no fluidity at all. I also meant to add I don't think the bug comes with my instructions per say, but just the lack of fluidity, there's zero chance a high level team won't react to this and adapt depending on the situation, but there is no adaptability in this, just set instructions which the players will stick to no matter what.

The set pieces have somehow been made worse in this version for me, defenders just some hard-coded into a certain situation and don't react in any kind of normal way. Lost a UCL semi on this moment here, my team stuck in "defensive free kick, shooting range" mode and they just waltzed through the middle with three unmarked players for an easy finish: My biggest gripe is I see this being open usually at least once a game and it's ignored, usually if the free kick is on one side there will be a mass of players in the box, my wall and then two attacking players behind the wall who could just step to the side and take an easy pass and be in on goal if the players were able to show any kind of real world intelligence. How this was somehow seen as an upgrade and got past testing is a genuine bewilderment to me

I'm getting so bored of this kind of crap, maybe it's on me for stockpiling young players to then sell or loan out, but regularly getting these loan offers with a mandatory buy out clause for less than £1m when the value is 4x that at least, but this is a new low it must be said, years left on the contract, he's not transfer listed or unhappy and just a mandatory buy out of £0, every window getting so many of these stupid offers, yet if I'm a lesser team and try to loan anyone it's always clubs looking for full wages and stupid loan fees as well

yes and no, the top and the bottom teams are similar, but there's quite a big leap from most off the other teams in the bottom half being in the 50's or low 60's girl to then being in the mid 70's in game, that's 5 teams conceding an extra 15-20 goals each, irl the numbers are inflated by taking a hiding off the old firm teams 2 or three times a season, in my game everyone seems to be scoring a lot more and that's why most games are having so many goals, it just feels way too much for me. Not sure if it's a league style thing though, also played a season in Portugal and the numbers outside of porto and benfica seemed much less so will need to play on a bit more and see I guess

Havent played much since release so giving it a go now, is it normal to have an unholy amount of goals going on in the division?

Some more awesome stuff, signing of the season indeed, 17 year old free transfer who bagged 27 in 34 sounds like an absolute dream... But ah, zero first team appearances in there, Premiership signing of the season for scoring tons in the 5th tier, magnificent

Do any teams actually deploy the chode pitch in real life where it's wider than it is long or just in FM?

Apologies for the absolute noob question here, but what do I do with the fmf file to install the skin?

Is the mad behaviour of the players and squad depth somewhat tied to the questionable squad building that the AI uses as well? for instance do we know if the AI managers have to put up with similar revolts behind the scenes? I can understand how that may result in a lot of the problems where we see a "high-reputation" player signed for a lot of money but getting limited game time. The 4 CB's would be a good example of this if the AI then combats this by adding a 5th player with the reputation to quell the outburst from the squad, but as a likely 5th choice for 2 positions then it just looks nonsensical to anyone with logic because it shouldn't be a priority position. Extend this to all positions in the squad and it would explain the stockpiling and limited development for younger players because it feels like the only way to shut this kind of thing down is to keep signing players who won't get to play and aren't really needed?

Thankyou for the explanation, it's interesting to know how it's figured under the hood so to speak Ithink part of me was starting to wonder if I wanted to watch this youth team that was just so talented but would make insane decisions all the time, it did sound somewhat enticing!

thankyou, looking at my comment history it seems it was 3/4 years ago so apologies on that! I also wasn't sure if it's one of those attributes that perhaps levels out over time but even the first team squad seems a little low on it as well. Thanks again!

Something that has irritated me for years with Nordsjaelland, have asked about this in the past in the Danish data section but didn't get a response. There are over 30 players in their U19s team, majority have really good talent levels, but every single year they have dreadful decision making, the best rating here is 6 and plenty have 2/3 or I presume that's Sunday League levels of decision making from almost every single player in a well-established youth system at a very good level: Have tried looking at the youth sides for various teams to see if it's perhaps a data issue where young players are just automatically being given a bad mental rating for decisions specifically, but it's not, I just really fail to believe that Nordsjaelland every year have this super talented youth side who just make honking decisions every single time, and it has been this way with them for years: St Johnstone: Scottish Prem: Mansfield Town, League Two: AAB - Danish side in second tier for comparison, good but not world beating youth system, markedly better with decisions

Has anyone said that "it'll be out when it's ready" yet?

Going off a small sample size, but it appears that game management might be more important than ever. Played five games, and I've now blown a 3 goal lead and 3x 2 goal leads in the later stages, once they get one goal it's like it all just goes to hell and the equaliser is inevitable, but I'm also not really changing anything to see the game out so a lot of that is on me

Also just a general question for people doing this save - How do we all feel about buying non-basque players who are 16 or younger? I can't really decide if it's against the spirit of the save or not

Your last point does actually make a lot of sense, I think I've just kept trying to change things to see if anything clicks but I've then lost sight of what I'm trying to do. I do find a lot of the time the back four is very, very isolated from the midfield, there's plenty of protection with the DLP but also a massive gap and the opposition has all the time in the world to keep the ball and pick up all the loose balls 30 yards from goal or so. Will try to be brave with a higher line to be slightly more compact and see if that fixes one of the bigger issues I'm having.

This is the usual basic shape, however I think I invite most of my own problems by tinkering way too much, I'm unbeaten at home but away from home is a completely different story, it's like the players forget how to put two passes together and get caught on the ball leaving me wide open at the back so I tried to find a way to make us more compact and hit on the counter. I usually mix it up depending on the opposition, if they sit with a back four and two DM's in front we go after the flanks and the cm/s becomes a mezzala, if there's room through the middle then it's a cm/a when at home or an s when away and I've started to see some success with it. Also going with a lower tempo away from home to try and combat the defenders just humping long balls to noone the entire time, they seem to misplace ever pass and lose 50% of the aerial duels which often leaves them all on 6.4 or lower. I think my biggest issue is I pay too much attention to the demands to play high tempo and direct, while I've also built too much around trying to cover up weaknesses than playing to strengths so I'm not sure what my philosophy really is, it's the thing I struggle most on the game is to get a cohesive unit, I refuse to just go with the preset geggenpress because there's limited joy in that. Should also note that Simon and Villalibre are usually playing in the SWK and PFA roles but are coming back from injuries.

Struggling in my first season to get any kind of consistency out of any of my big players, Munian and Inigo Martinez are the prime suspects for dropping a 6.2 or worse every time the going gets tough. Encouraging youth intake however, hopefully I can finally find a solution to my issues up top, while a potential warrior at the back and a handy full back who can play on either side is also especially welcome. Just need to figure out how to get Ivan Martinez on a leadership course, making of the future club captain right there if he can improve

I've been trying to find a Danish data forum but can't see anything, but I'm just trying to find out if the mental attributes of the Nordsjaelland players is accurate or if it's bad data scouting as it was fairly similar last year. Essentially the issue is that every player who isn't an "established" first team starter going into the save is given an astonishingly low, as in sunday league levels low of decision making ability compared to the rest of their attributes which are all pretty strong. Is this an approach somewhere where we have a data scout who is very harsh, a way of trying to stunt their ability in the ME to prevent them from becoming overpowered or are they just all actually extremely talented players irl but in games they just make the wrong decision every single time?

From playing the Beta and looking at some of the social media output over the past few weeks, I do think it's reasonable to say that both of these things are true: 1) The game is outstanding value for money, I'll rack up hundreds if not thousands of hours for a £35 purchase, it's easily the best value entertainment purchase I'll make each year in terms of what I have to pay vs the escape and general fun/joy I'll get from playing it, and I don't see any other games giving me that just now However also 2) SI aren't pushing any new boundaries and if we're honest, they haven't for a long, long time. If a fair-weather gamer or fan of the franchise was to ask me why should they purchase this version of the game over the previous version, I don't have anything to really stand on the table for and say is amazing, it's really just a continuation of what we all know and love. Can they be proud of the brand that's been built up over years and enjoy the benefits of that? I would certainly hope that they do because this is decades worth of work that continues to stand up, so from a long-term standpoint it's really admirable. In more of a short-term view, should everyone associated with the game be delighted with the innovation and progress in recent years? I would have me doubts. - This part is pure speculation on my part, but I would be fascinated to know if the general FM world has become far more corporate than we really appreciate and actually that's a major obstacle in pushing boundaries. How many people does a change idea have to go through before it's approved? What are the priorities of those who look after the money (I presume sega?) Is it to really improve the existing game to delight the existing fan base? Or is it just to start pushing out the same thing on as many different platforms as possible, with the reality being that you can afford to lose a lot of pc players because it's easily replaced by the consoles and mobile? I'm guessing it's very much the second. Personally I get the impression that's there a frustration somewhere in a lot of the people who work on the game. Only they can answer if it's what some voices are presenting as arrogance and being completely incapable of taking criticism. Again, I wouldn't be shocked at all if it's more of a case where the brand/company has grown to a point where there are too many decision makers who prioritise money over gameplay/art/innovation. The lack of competition is often cited as the root-cause of this and it's probably a fair comment in that we'll all keep buying it regardless until something new comes along, but I would guess that the people who we get to interact with on here or elsewhere in regards to their input into the game are handcuffed by a corporate world that couldn't give two hoots about doing any more than they have to. Love the game as always, will play it a ton. Am I disappointed about the lack of any real progress? Honestly yes, I think I've now played enough games over the years to realise that nobody really innovates or pushes boundaries anymore, it's all just bare-minimum and microtransactions (Thankfully we don't really see that in FM) and that makes me a part of the problem too, but I feel comfortable in saying that the vast majority of the frustration being presented is valid, I just think it's being directed at the wrong people. P.S please fix this issue in the Scottish Leagues where I can't put anyone in the reserves or youth team, the clutter is doing my t*ts in

Has anyone managing in Scotland had any issues moving players to youth teams? It seems I have an U18 team, I can make players available to play for them, but I can't move players up and down between the squads. It means everyone is just dumped into my first team, including players who are 15/16 and a mile away from playing any part for the senior team at this stage

This the same Eagles who partied and had open bus parades through the city with scenes of jubilation after Brady put up record offensive stats in the superbowl?

Perhaps the game has just hard coded Depor to keep getting rid of the manager every year because the club is such a basket case and hasn't quite taken into account that getting promoted is something that could actually happen to them in an alternative world