SaintEtienne

I agree that it can be annoying when a player, not long into their contract and with plenty of time left, seeks an improved contract. But is it unrealistic? Reality can sometimes be annoying. I suspect that football, as in other professions, contains individuals who "like to try it on", or are mercenary, or are just a pain in the neck. It would be unrealistic if this type of request for a new contract happened routinely; it would be equally unrealistic if it never happened at all.

I think you are mischaracterizing (and/or misunderstanding) what is happening in the game. This is my interpretation of what FM is trying to reflect: Player A wants a new contract. Manager says no (or says yes, but talks break down because agreement cannot be reached). Player A is understandably unhappy about this. Various things could happen at this point. Player A might keep matters to himself and simply get his agent onto the case. Or he might start complaining to some of his teammates (particularly those he feels closest to, or those he thinks are influential) about the situation. If he complains, again various things might happen. If Player A is popular or influential, or if he is regarded as an important member of the team (and just because a manager might not regard him as important doesn’t mean some of his teammates share that managerial view) then those players might agree with him. Things might then escalate a little, especially if those players are influential, and it might result in a little solidarity among a group of players, such that they will raise the issue with management. Management might deal with this well and resolve the situation, or management might deal with it poorly and things will escalate further. There is nothing strange about this scenario; indeed, it’s fairly humdrum. Various factors will influence the direction things might take: (1) the personalities of the players; (2) the popularity and/or influence of the players in question; and (3) how well management deals with the situation. Your point about other players not negotiating the contract is a straw man argument. I never said they do, and this does not happen in the game (at least, not in mine). It’s just a general complaint that a player should be given a new contract. At no point are any players negotiating the contract. You also raise the point about length of time left on the contract. But that is irrelevant. A player is either being paid what they think they deserve, or they are not. If they believe they are undervalued (and their belief might be justified or it might not, but it’s still their belief), the fact that they have several years left on their contract is neither here nor there. The question of agents has been raised a few times in this thread, but I think there is some misunderstanding of the role of agents. If you engage an estate agent when buying a house, does that mean you sit back and take no role in the process? Of course not. An agent is just someone who works on your behalf. It doesn’t mean that players won’t have any involvement in their contract negotiations or financial affairs. I imagine footballers are like the rest of us: some will show barely any interest in their own financial affairs and leave everything to others; some will be checking their bank accounts and investment portfolios every day and be all over their own finances; most will be somewhere in between. I don’t understand your point about the media. The media are not reporting every single player interaction at every single club. That would be absurd (and very dull news). Do you really think that the media or the rest of us are really that interested in every single professional footballer’s contract status that we want to read a detailed blow-by-blow account of the daily goings-on at a club? Are you really saying that, unless the media are reporting every single routine interaction at a club, then we should assume that none of those interactions ever occur? Furthermore, the game quite clearly makes a distinction between matters that are internal or public. Sometimes (albeit rarely) a player goes to the media with his complaint. But most of the situations in the game are quite clearly indicated as “internal”. Finally, is this situation really that common? In my current save (11 seasons and counting) I’ve yet to encounter it (I’ve had a few players unhappy about their contract situation, but this has never escalated beyond that individual player’s unhappiness). And across the last five versions of FM, I estimate that I’ve encountered this situation (a group of players wanting a meeting about another player’s contract unhappiness) no more than four or five times. I’m almost certainly not a tactical genius, but I do know how to manage dynamics. It’s not that difficult: don’t overpromise, treat players fairly, and keep a close eye on personalities, influence, and social groups, because if you understand what’s going on with those then you should be able to avoid most issues – and if you do have a difficult player who is always stirring things up at the club (and there are always such difficult people in every walk of life), then get rid of him.

Every day of the week, up and down the country, workers are raising issues with management. Issues can be anything from minor ones (“we requested a new coffee machine three months ago, but this has still not happened”) to major ones (“X is a vital member of our team, but we’re really concerned that she will be leaving for another company at the end of her contract”). This most obviously manifests itself when unions decide on collective action (frequently over the issue of pay), but plenty of non-union workers take an interest in their own and their colleagues’ work conditions and contractual status, as well as more generally in the performance of the company for which they are working. I doubt footballers are any different to the broad spectrum of humanity. Some will be motivated purely by self-interest and won’t give a damn about their colleagues or club (in FM terms, probably personalities like the “mercenary”). Others will realise that their own wellbeing depends on the collective wellbeing, so they will become concerned if certain valued colleagues are unhappy or might leave the club (in FM, probably personalities like “professional”, who will expect management and the club to share their own professionalism and values). Your argument seems to be that footballers are a special breed of humanity who care nothing for their colleagues or the organization for which they work, who will not give a damn if their fellow players are unhappy or are treated unfairly, and who are too self-interested (or cowardly) ever to complain to management. Respectfully, I think this view is both a wild generalization and utterly implausible. Where I am in some agreement with you (and it’s a point I made briefly in my first reply) is that the game doesn’t model this type of interaction very well. IRL managers won’t be so closely involved in contract decisions or negotiations (I’m sure the manager is often consulted, but ultimately these are decisions taken higher up the organization). And interactions in general are very clunky and simplistic in the game – which is understandable, because it is not an easy thing even to get close to capturing the vast complexity of RL human interactions (and personalities). But criticizing the game for how interactions are implemented is not the same as arguing that there should be no such interactions because (as I interpret what you are saying) RL players do not interact with or even take any interest in the company for whom they work. I’ve never worked for a football club, but I have spent a lot of time around humans (and, within my work, to studying humans), and the only thing I find unrealistic here is your sweeping characterization of footballers.

It’s entirely realistic that a group of employees will talk about their employment, will form friendships and connections with fellow employees, will support and stick up for them, and will often raise concerns with management. It’s also entirely realistic that most or all of a squad might get unhappy if they think fellow employees are being treated unfairly or unreasonably. The amount of control managers have over contracts in the game might be unrealistic, and some of the triggering issues might be better implemented, but long may player and squad complaints continue in FM. I don’t want a world in which workers are expected to shut up and get on with their jobs, and in which they never feel able to support their teammates or complain about management.

After four seasons on FM24, I finally saw one, and in the exact way you described: Kai Havertz curling in a perfect 20-yarder for my Borussia Dortmund side against Hamburg. This demonstrates two things: (1) they can still happen in the game; and (2) Havertz gets to become a very good footballer by the age of 34.

You say it’s a “problem”, but it’s not. All your “rules” can easily be applied in the game as it is, so why is there a need for a special button for them? It’s almost as if you fear (based on experience?) that you lack the willpower to follow your own rules… Rather than creating buttons and modes to accommodate the countless ways in which players play the game, maybe SI are better sticking to what they already do really well: creating a vast football universe for players to interact and engage with. And then leave it to us, the players, to use our imagination and creativity to enjoy that universe, applying whatever “rules” (backed up by willpower) suit us.

I know recent matches, and the Galatasaray result in particular, have been tough for you, but seriously, Erik, you need to pull yourself together.

If you don't want them to play in the U18 match, just don't do anything and move on. Currently, they WON'T be playing in the U18 match (your assistant is simply suggesting that maybe they should). So, just leave the screen as it is and you'll be fine.

I also spend a lot of time on the tactical side of the game, trying to get my tactical plans and in-game decisions right. But tactics, while important, are only one factor in determining the outcome of a match. Mentality is a big part. So too is luck. In your match, you're away to Celtic, which is a tough match in any circumstances. It's an important game in a title race. It's entirely plausible that Celtic were just really up for it, had the crowd behind them, and your players couldn't cope mentally. Maybe Celtic had better 'big match' players. Plus, throw in the possibility that it was match in which almost every bit of luck went the way of Celtic, and you faced a perfect storm. Your players, individually and collectively, quickly got mentally frazzled and never recovered.

One of the great things about football, and something that FM captures really well, is that it has far more surprising, and sometimes downright freakish, results than most other sports. And that’s all your 8-1 defeat is. Be thankful you have a great story. In your universe, that match will spoken about for years to come (particularly by Hibs and Celtic fans). Finally, use the frustration positively. Back on FM21, I was Cliftonville manager and went into a final day title decider away at Linfield. Win the game, and we were league champions; any other result, and Linfield were champions. Tough match and I wasn’t hugely optimistic. But we led 2-0 after 60 minutes. Then one of my CMs got sent off, we conceded, tried to cling on, but let in the equaliser in the 85th minute. And that’s how it finished: 2-2. I was gutted, and sure a little part of me raged at the game, thinking it was rigged against me. But, after half an hour of staring dead-eyed at my screen, I just resolved that I never wanted this to happen again, and that I was going to use the summer transfer window to smash Linfield next season. I went on to claim back-to-back league titles and turn Cliftonville into the most dominant side in Northern Ireland. And that single 2-2 result against Linfield, which was so frustrating and annoying at the time, now sits in my memory as the single most memorable match from that save (just ahead of a 0-0 draw at home to Inter Milan to claim my single point across 12 CL group stage matches).

One of the most astonishing matches I have ever watched: the 2014 World Cup semi final between Brazil and Germany. Brazil: host nation, crowd behind them, momentum, positivity. But the occasion got to them. Their decision making and composure fell apart once they went behind, and had the Germans not decided at half-time to ease off in the second half, it would have been worse than 7-1. A few days later, Brazil then got absolutely hammered 3-0 by the Netherlands in the 3rd/4th place play off. It doesn't happen often, but sometimes things can fall apart very quickly even for a good side in good form.

Maybe the game should have two modes: Normal mode, and Difficult (Full Realism) mode. The latter doesn't take you to the game itself; it takes you to a template letter to be used to apply to whatever managerial vacancies currently exist in the real world.

A long time ago, I bought a guitar. I found it very difficult to play. A few years later, I bought a new guitar. I found it much easier to play. Was that because guitars had been made easier? Or was it because I’d practised and played guitar for hundreds of hours and had got a lot better at it? I’ve played every FM version since FM19, and back in the day I also played CM2 and CM01/02. I have amassed thousands of hours playing this game over many years of my life. The game play principles of recent FMs don’t vary hugely from version to version, so, yes, I’m very experienced at it and tend to know some good strategic and tactical principles to be successful. FM is unlike most other games. Most FM players play this game for many years. With many other games, one plays them to completion once. I played Breath of the Wild earlier this year. It was my first Zelda game and I found it pretty tough going early on (I died a lot!). But a few hundred hours later I’d completed it. I bet if I pick it up again next year, and again the year after that, I’ll find it much easier than I did the first time. And I bet that when I start Tears of the Kingdom, my experience of Breath of the Wild will make it easier than if this was my first Zelda game (which is kind of why I’m delaying starting it, so I can “forget” some of what I learned on BotW). In short: how much of the apparent “easiness” of FM has nothing to do with the game and a lot to do with experienced players who have accumulated, in many cases, thousands of hours of FM gameplay?

It might be luck (and I do feel lucky, because high scores would ruin it for me too). My sample size of three full seasons in one save is tiny. There can be quite marked fluctuations in goalscoring. The second season of my save (which was played on FM23) had a crazy number of goals in my division at the time (Vanarama South): I think all 24 teams scored 60+ goals. Things returned to normal in the next season (Vanarama National). A couple of seasons later I was playing in League Two and I had a season where goals were hard to come by (only a handful of teams scored more than 60; IIRC my Notts County side totally dominated the league but scored only about 70 goals). In other words, there can be variation across seasons (which I rather like: I think FM should allow for interesting, unusual seasons, just as IRL there are occasional strange seasons). And might it have anything to do with my save being imported from FM23 (the first seven seasons were on FM23, so I began FM24 in 2029/30 season)? I’m not sure I understand why that would be the case. But, at the same time, I don’t understand why I’m not seeing any of the problems with the ME or with number of goals scored being raised by several people here. There are lots of issues with FM24 (mostly ones that have been in the game for several years and simply haven’t been addressed), but my experience so far is that the ME is great and I’m having a lot of fun. FM24 is certainly not “polished”, but (as I’ve said before) overall I’m finding FM24 to be the best version of FM I’ve played (and so much better than FM23, which I found to be a huge disappointment).

On the issue of whether too many goals have been scored: It is possible that my experience on FM24 has been an outlier, but the promise to make changes to the match engine to lower overall goals scored worries me a little. In my three (and two-thirds) seasons played on FM24 goalscoring has been entirely normal and in line with RL number of goals. Here are the total number of goals across the three seasons I played in the PL: Season 1: 994 goals (average 2.62 goals per game) Season 2: 1,041 goals (average 2.74 goals per game) Season 3: 1,138 goals (average 2.99 goals per game) Season 3 is a little high (it breaks the RL record for PL goals scored, which is 1,084 from 2022/23). But there is an explanation that has nothing to do with the match engine. Three teams (Nottingham Forest, Crystal Palace and Sheffield United) conceded 110, 110 and 98 goals respectively. Take their contribution to high-scoring matches out of the sample, and total goals scored would be normal. All three had weak squads, played 442, and defended abysmally from the opening day to the final day of the season. But that's not an ME issue; that's an AI issue. IRL the managers would have tried to fix the defensive issues in some way (improving the squad, changing the tactics); in the game, they ploughed on for 38 matches without any significant adjustments or any apparent awareness of the fundamental problems in their approach. Across 200 matches played in FM24, I've still only had five matches with more than six goals (7-1, 4-4, 4-3, and a couple of 5-2 results, one of which was 2-2 after 90 minutes). I see a lot of 0-0, 1-0 and 1-1 scores, both in my own matches and in AI vs AI matches in my league. It is entirely possible that there is a problem and that I have been fortunate in not experiencing it. But I'm a little concerned that if ME changes do reduce the overall goals, the league tables I see will start to resemble Serie A league tables from the 1970s and 1980s.

I asked myself your questions, and to each my answer is a (qualified) yes. And, more generally, I don’t agree that interactions are “completely pointless”. Interactions (and many other things too) are often poorly implemented – in some cases, they are downright awful – and they have less-than-ideal mechanics (this is the qualification to my answers to your questions). But they are an important part of FM because they contribute to the creation of a vast universe that different players can explore and engage with in different ways. And that’s the point: there are different ways to play the game. My son also plays FM. He delegates almost everything apart from transfers, he watches matches on key highlights, and he gets through a season in the time it takes me to get through 6–8 matches. And he wins a lot more trophies than I do. It is entirely possible to be successful at FM without bothering with interactions (or media or training or many other things). I play in a different, much slower, way. I like to explore the wider world in which my character is part. Essentially, I like the role-playing element of the game. I’m not spending all that time on interactions because I’m chasing after a few extra league points. I’m doing it because, in addition to points and on-field success, other objectives are important to me, such as creating a club with a good professional ethos, ensuring the club has a happy atmosphere, developing a great youth set up, and providing the best possible environment for my players to flourish in their careers. A lot of what I do in the game is driven by that. For example, I schedule regular Community Outreach sessions, particularly for the youth players, simply because I think football clubs and their players should engage with and understand the importance of their local communities. And I do these things because, for me (and it is possible I am mad…), a lot of the game is in my head rather than in the numbers on the screen. I play one save per year: I create a plausible backstory for an unemployed managerial wannabe without qualifications and playing experience, set up as many interesting leagues as I can, and then see what story will emerge over the next few months of my real life. So, the way I play is not about figuring out the fastest and most efficient way to accumulate points and win trophies; it’s about playing a character in a story. Interacting with players is part of that story.

Indeed, I am surprised. I saw a fair few during the FM23 portion of my save. I retain faith that I will see one again at some point. Hopefully, it won't require me luring a 44-year-old Aaron Cresswell out of retirement.

In 200 matches on FM24, I've not seen a single goal from a direct free kick. Kai Havertz hit the post with one for me last night. Endrick drew a routine save from my GK in Der Klassiker. On both occasions, the crowd got very excited -- understandably so, because in my universe in 2033 all we have are YouTube videos of Beckham, Cristiano Ronaldo, Messi et al. demonstrating the lost art of scoring from a direct free kick.

Every Friday in game, my heart sinks a little as I know I will be spending the next five minutes praising every player who achieved 8+ in their training rating that week, and criticising anyone who trained below a 6. I do this across all teams (currently, Borussia Dortmund II, the U19s, as well as the first team). In a typical week, probably about 40 players get my praise, and 0–2 get criticised by me. I kind of don’t mind that it’s a chore: I’m putting the effort in, and I don’t think there should always be shortcuts with this sort of thing. I do it partly from a role-playing perspective. Praising and criticising performance is something a manager is likely to do IRL, and it’s certainly what I would do, so it’s something I do in the game. And, true to the DNA of Borussia Dortmund, player development is central to what I want to achieve, and particularly youth development (my first act as BVB manager was to reappoint the legendary Lars Ricken as HOYD, who in 2032 in my universe had amazingly been unemployed for the previous five years). So, I like to be closely involved in developing my players, which means noticing what they do and showing them that I notice it – in other words, making them feel cared about and valued. Now, I typically get through 4–6 weeks of game time each day, which means that in each actual day of my real life I’m spending 20–30 minutes just clicking away to praise/criticise my players’ training. It would be easy to describe me as a loser… BUT across eleven seasons and four clubs (starting as unemployed and without any coaching badges) I have never had any problems with club atmosphere. My relations with my players are almost always excellent (my coaching team often tell me in staff meetings how my “personable” nature means that the players get on well with me), I don’t think I’ve ever had a single squad meltdown (the couple of times where there was a squad issue, I managed to resolve it very quickly), and player and team morale, as well as their development, are always very good. I like to think that the time I spend interacting with players to discuss their training performance contributes in some small part to this – that it does indeed have an effect. So, who’s the loser now…?

To a certain extent, I agree. Gegenpress is rightly a popular tactic, because when it is done well (e.g., by Klopp’s sides) it is a scarily good tactic. But I think the issue you mention is major rather than minor. Gegenpress is a highly risky tactic. It requires superb physical and mental abilities for it to work well, as well as supreme team cohesion and organisation. When it is built on those things, it can be awesome. But when it goes wrong (when the players are suboptimal for it, or when the team has not been drilled to execute it properly), it can be disastrous. The problem in FM is that this risk is just not reflected. In FM, gegenpress is simply a highly effective tactic no matter what. I’ve seen it in my own games. I’ve built fairly successful non-gegenpress tactics, but sometimes when my team is struggling I can just switch to gegenpress and results turn my way. Back on FM22, I built a nice midblock, possession-based tactic without too much pressing and, thanks to having a great squad, was highly successful. But even then, there were many matches in which we’d been thoroughly dominated in the first half, so at half-time I’d push the lines up, set pressing to maximum and watch as we played like a prime Klopp side in the second half. It’s almost like a cheat code. The other issue with gegenpress IRL is that it is very difficult to sustain success over long periods of time: the mental and physical demands of the tactic take their toll (often in the second half of a season, and often too in subsequent seasons). And the extremely high levels of teamwork mean that losing even one or two players (to injury, to poor form) can play havoc with it. This is one reason why I rarely base my tactics around it. But again, this does not seem to be reflected in FM. (As an aside, this is another area where the game does not seem to work in the way it says it does. Preseason advice is to hugely increase fatigue levels, because this will make players better able to cope with fatigue later in the season. But I see no evidence at all in the game that this works as stated. Fatigue is managed very simplistically.) My final issue with gegenpress in the game is that it does not reflect how RL sides execute it. No side can press intensely for 90 minutes. Part of the difficulty in setting up gegenpress is drilling players to manage a match: knowing when to ease off to catch breath, knowing when to press ferociously, and so on. But in FM, it seems that gegenpress just means your players hare around pressing intensely from kick off to final whistle. Gegenpress is a tactic that should require weeks, months, perhaps even a few seasons to get consistently right. It should require very careful squad building to get the right players for such a high-risk-high-reward set up. It should require extensive training ground preparation and match experience over a long period of time to get it working consistently well. But in FM, gegenpress is too simply implemented: it seems that any side, no matter the standard or abilities of the players, can get good results from it almost instantly. In other words, FM reflects the rewards of gegenpress, but very few of the risks.

I agree with pretty much all of this. I began my current save back in January. Shortly after, I watched the EBFM videos and they contributed to killing my interest in the game for months. They brought home how cheated I feel about so many aspects of FM. As you say, the game presents the player with the illusion of control and a variety of strategic approaches. But that’s all it is: an illusion. In the case of training, there appears to be a rich menu of options for the player to design any number of schedules that will develop the players, prepare for matches, sharpen tactical styles, etc. So, I would spend quite a lot of time putting together schedules according to what I wanted to achieve tactically, and according to how I wanted to balance development, tactics and match preparation. But EBFM quite convincingly shows that it’s all a waste of time: most of the training options have little to no effect. Even worse, EBFM worked out the best training schedule, and it’s one that IRL would be awful, but in the game it’s optimal. And there’s so much more. EBFM tested the step up/drop off options, and his analysis suggested they do absolutely nothing. They seem to be two buttons that give the illusion of managerial control, but in reality make not an iota of difference. Too much of the game falls into one of two categories. First, there are things that suggest they might do something, but instead do nothing, like many of the training options or some of the tactical options. Second, there are things where a range of options is presented to the player, but only ONE of them actually works. Interactions mostly work like that: the game might present a range of options when dealing with, say, a team talk, but one soon learns that the only way to get a good outcome is to click on one particular option, knowing all the others will have bad outcomes. Shouts are the same: most don’t work; of those that do, it just becomes a case of clicking the right button at the right time to get the same reward (like a lab rat) – scores level after 15 minutes, click Encourage to give your players a morale boost. Too many of the interactions and options just involve basic trial and error to know which button to click to get the desired outcome. While I do praise the ME, and I can see how my tactical decisions impact the game I am watching (and how much fun it can be), I also know that most of my tactical choices are suboptimal. It really shouldn’t be like that: the game should be much richer in offering players a range of tactical and strategic choices, the success or failure of which will depend on context, players, and situation. But right now, it appears that gegenpress just works no matter what, that catenaccio is just suicide, and so on. When I think too deeply about what I am doing, and the time I spend putting together tactics, designing training schedules, building my relationship with the media, interacting with players, etc., I realise how pointless (and often unwittingly self-defeating and suboptimal) all this is. And then I do feel a bit cheated by the game. Now, when I abandoned FM23 for a few months, I turned instead to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Of course, the two games cannot easily be compared… But, wow, the contrast. The open world of Zelda allowed so much variety in gameplay. There were hardly any situations or problems that allowed only one solution. It allowed for imaginative problem-solving. It is a game that can be played in so many different ways: cautiously, recklessly, sneakily, boldly, etc. And that’s what I long for from FM (but which it hasn’t delivered for years): a game that is not about figuring out the single optimal approach to success, but one that rewards any number of imaginative and strategic approaches. Until then, I try not to think too much about the poor mechanics of the game, I’ll carry on blithely ignoring how much of the game is indeed a Potemkin village, and I’ll console myself that at least I am creating a possibly interesting story and having (what I think is) fun along the way. Or I’ll feel so cheated by the illusion of control that I’ll put FM24 aside and start The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom…

Long feedback from a long-time lurker… Some context: 1. I’m currently in a (hopefully) long journeyman save. The first seven seasons (starting as unemployed, then rising from Vanarama South to the Premier League via three clubs) were played on FM23. After gaining promotion to the PL with Portsmouth, I imported the save to FM24 and have subsequently played three seasons in PL before getting the job as Borussia Dortmund manager. 2. I’ve played a lot of FM over the past five years, so I have a fair experience to compare FM24 with. 3. I tend to play slowly and micromanage (I do all press conferences, interact with players as much as possible, and take charge of training, player development, and transfers). I’m also a clean-slate tactics player: I design tactics from scratch based on certain ideas that appeal to me, the players I have, my overall squad standard, and particular situations. I don’t generally use intense and high pressing approaches, but occasionally I adopt such ideas. My feedback is a mixed bag… Match engine This is the best ME I’ve ever seen in FM. I use extended highlights as a minimum (and occasionally use comprehensive or full match), and I really like what I see. The animations are great, but more importantly I actually feel (far more than in previous versions) that I can see my tactical ideas and tweaks play out on the pitch. I see plenty of contested possession (not as much ‘chaos’ as on FM23, but it still seems to be there) and a good variety of goals. Set pieces do feature a little too prominently in highlights, and I think the last goal from a direct free kick I’ve seen was on FM23. I’ve even got to the point of hoping to concede one from direct free kick, just so I know that scoring from them is still possible in the game… Player positioning and overall movement are much improved. I have seen no problem with defensive play; certainly, I see defensive mistakes, but even the best defenders make occasional mistakes IRL. What I don’t see is any fundamental issue with defending in the game: in my save, defenders do what I expect them to do (poor defenders make fairly regular mistakes, good defenders make only occasional mistakes). Similarly, goalkeepers appear fine in my save. My GK regularly pulls off important saves and puts in fine performances, and I’ve been denied wins by outstanding opposition GK performances. Of course, I see mistakes, but again I would expect this IRL, and they tend to be in line with the quality of the GK. SI trumpeted improved lighting (and it looked great on one of their marketing videos). I see no evidence that it has actually been implemented (the lighting actually seems worse to me, as if most matches are played in a very light mist). The issue of pre-match and half-time team talks having no effect on body language is strange, but my experience tells me this is a visual issue and that my team talks do have an effect on players’ morale (but clearly this needs fixing). Too many goals? Not in my save (but I don’t dispute that this is an issue some users have encountered). I’ve found the number of goals to be extremely realistic across my three FM24 seasons. In about 160 matches played on FM24, I’ve only been involved in five matches with more than six goals: a wild, rollercoaster 4-4 at Fulham, a 7-1 win against one of the weakest teams in the league, a 4-3 epic win over Man Utd, a 5-2 win over Chelsea in an FA Cup semi-final (but that was after extra time), and a 5-2 win over relegation favourites Bochum in the Bundesliga. I’ve had a fair few 4-2 and 3-2 results, a nice sprinkling of 3-3 and 2-2 draws, but also plenty of low-scoring matches (most of them) and what seems to be the right amount of goalless draws. Similarly, I’m not seeing excessive goals in the divisions I’ve played in. It all looks realistic to me. In my final PL season, there were a lot of high-scoring matches involving Crystal Palace and Nottingham Forest, two of the weakest teams in the league, both playing 442 (as someone else has pointed out, it becomes close to a 406 in transition, so they are horribly exposed on the counter). They each shipped about 100 goals. My issue here is not with the tactic (it works, but it is maybe not the best with a weak team); it is with the AI managers persisting with it for 38 matches. In my current Bundesliga season my results have been: 0-2, 0-1, 3-1, 1-0, 5-2, 2-0, 1-1, 1-0, 1-0. In CL they have been: 3-0, 0-1, 0-4. If anything, given I’m playing a fairly aggressive tactic with BVB and have a strong squad, I’m actually struggling to score goals. And I find it perfectly possible to play defensively. I achieved a good number of fine performances and results playing a low block, cautious, counterattacking style in many PL matches. In my current season, we lost 1-0 at Bayern in a pleasingly drab match of congested midfield (that was my plan – it was undone by one moment of individual brilliance). So, my experience clearly differs from that of some others. That makes me think this is not a universal ‘bug’ (but I have a lot of sympathy with those experiencing it, because I would hate that). Obviously, I hope the ME is improved, but I really would not welcome changes that mean binary scores are the norm. Is it too easy? Again, not in my experience. I quickly climbed the leagues in FM23 (smashing Leagues One and Two, winning a couple of PJTs on the way, and getting promotion to PL at my first attempt with Portsmouth). In the PL with Portsmouth, I overachieved, but I hardly pulled up any trees: 12th, 12th and 9th were my three finishes (but we did reach three domestic cup finals, and I won the FA Cup in my final match in charge). If anything, I’m actually finding FM24 harder than FMs 21, 22 and 23, but that makes it a particularly satisfying experience trying to work out how to get to the next level. AI managers Despite SI claims, I don’t see any evidence of improvements to the AI. Substitutions: I see the AI managers frequently make substitutions, but usually only very late in the match. I don’t think I’ve ever seen an AI manager (in this or any other FM version) do what I do: routinely make aggressive substitutions from 55 minutes (and half-time sometimes) onwards. Squad building: I haven’t got deep enough to judge this. But my impression is that the terrible AI squad building of previous versions remains terrible. Anyway, I’m conflicted about this. On the one hand, I want realism and a challenge. On the other, I also want to have a realistic chance of some glory during my saves, so I don’t mind that the AI is a long way below Klopp and Pep levels. On balance, I find the current level of AI (in)competency works for me as someone who is pretty good (but not great) at the game, who plays realistically, and who wants to have a reasonable chance of winning things during my save. That said, some lack of logic really needs addressing. Man Utd took my best defender (50m on a release clause) from me and have left him to rot in the reserves for two seasons. PSG beat me to a couple of wonderkids and left them to rot in the reserves. Really good regens are underplayed and ignored by international managers, and hardly any regens appear in any awards. These have been longstanding issues in FM, and it’s really disappointing that nothing appears to have been done to address them for years. Interactions, press conferences, interviews I haven’t had any problems with interactions (no team meltdowns, etc.), but my reputation is now quite high, I’ve long figured out how to navigate most of the exchanges, and I put quite a lot of effort into building good relationships with my players. But I don’t see any evidence that an area of the game that has always been weak has got any better. The logic is still often bizarre. My pet hate is the juvenile wording of many exchanges: would a board really tell me to “stop wasting their” time if I dare to suggest a club improvement? Would a player really tell their manager that they don’t think they can drop my treatment of them (praising their performance)? Some of this stuff is embarrassingly bad; it’s been in the game for years, and it’s still there. Press conferences and job interviews are still rubbish. Dealing with the press is such a big part of a manager’s job, so it is disappointing that this area of the game has been so poor for so long. Every year I hope some improvements are made; every year I’m disappointed. Other things Set-piece creator: I like this a lot, and it’s a vast improvement on anything FM had previously. Injuries: I haven’t noticed anything weird. I have had GK injuries, but nothing unrealistic. I experienced a couple of injury crises with Portsmouth, and I realised I was probably being too intense with my training schedules. I’m not complaining: if anything, the game could have more injuries (I build squads based on likelihood of injuries, and then squad and fringe players don’t get enough playing time because I never get nearly as many injuries as I anticipated). But the balance is probably right as it is. Overall The claims that this is the “most polished” version of FM24 ever and that this version is a “love letter” to FM are ridiculously overblown marketing guff. The bloat of previous years remains, and most issues that have been around for ages (rubbish interactions; terrible press conferences; illogical AI squad building; supporters giving their manager a C+ despite five years of extraordinary success; the board being “devastated” because we haven’t scored enough goals from set pieces; managers threatening to recall a player from loan because I used him as a DF rather than as a PF; terrible stadiums – no Yellow Wall at BVB; and a host of other stupid stuff) are still there. I still love the game, but I long ago abandoned any idea that SI thought such things were worth fixing (as opposed to introducing manager timelines, squad planners, and face paint). My guess is that these are areas that need to be rebuilt from the ground up. However, I’ve been playing FM24 a lot and having a great, fun time with it. This is largely because of the ME. I’d go so far as to say that this is the best version of FM that I have played. Naturally, a patch that fixes bugs and improves the game is desirable, but in general I’m finding the game as it stands to be in good shape, so I’m hoping there aren’t any dramatic changes that mess too much with an ME that seems to me to be extremely good.