[Is Mezzala the best midfield role for ensuring rotations out to maintain width?]

I have had thousands of hours watching full matches on FM and I can assure you that there is no perfect solution to this until they name a new role that attacks as winger while defends as a central player. I have been wanting things like this for years. Right now the AP, Carrilero, or Mezzala would be your best option if you want a solid defensive shape and an effective high-press. Otherwise you can use all kinds of asymmetrical/weird-looking shapes.

[Tactical recreation : 'Ringhio' Gattuso's at Olympique de Marseille]

My impression of him as a manager came from the Valencia Barça match last year, when he utilised Foulquier to allow the team to switch to a 5212 system defensively. He might be doing things ‘modern’ coaches all do, but he definitely tries Italian ways of achieving defensive solidity.

[RB Salzburg 4312 vs deep blocks]

3 hours ago, craiigman said:

 

Interestingly I saw my wide cm’s in the wide areas often before, AM not as much. But since restarting my save I don’t see it anywhere near as much.

Very strange since the ME is the same

Generally APs have a bigger area to roam than Mezzala or carillero, yet still nothing near the expected Valverde movement. If you use a WM instead, he won’t come narrow enough, also the defensive shape is nasty. My alternative is to always use asymmetrical formations. Actually I never used symmetrical formations these years. This is never going to change if SI doesn’t kill the barrier between MC and ML/R, AMC and AML/R.

[RB Salzburg 4312 vs deep blocks]

2 hours ago, Poison said:

If you instruct the no 10 to roam he will go to the flanks, same for the other midfielders with stay wider instruction.

No, they just don’t. It’s absolutely necessary for the No.10 player or the mezzala to support/overlap/overload the flanks during build ups. Sitting in the half spaces is different from actively supporting the flanks. Think about how Kaka or Valverde plays. Currently you only see the striker on the same side come offer support on the flanks very reluctantly, before moving to central areas again. And yes, the striker is not moving enough either.

[FM 24 Route One Tactical Workshop]

8 hours ago, clayts said:

Yes mate I have, not giving up though will keep trying to get it working 

Player traits are often overlooked. You might want to bestow traits like Crosses Early or Tries Long Passes with IGE on your fullbacks.

[FM 24 Route One Tactical Workshop]

5 hours ago, ceefax the cat said:

It's quite difficult to convince the fullbacks to launch that diagonal ball to the big man with any great regularity isn't it. In theory a very attacking mentality and maxed out passing focused down the middle should probably do it but no.

Very true. Long ball needs an overhaul in this game. When using a long ball tactic, player behaviour should be more distinctive, how the target man signals for a long ball, how players move in clusters to compete for header and loose ball, etc.

[RB Salzburg 4312 vs deep blocks]

4312 or any narrow systems are intrinsically flawed in this game. I am a fan of Italian football legacies. These asymmetrical narrow formations have been the pearls of football tactics. No winger means everyone can appear on the flanks, especially the number 10 player. In this game, however, a narrow formation means that wingbacks take care of everything on the flanks, which is ugly.

[confusion about impact of team mentality on passing directness]

That's why I am never a fan of the mentalities in this game. Yes they have reworked mentalities this year but it doesn’t make it less confusing and counterintuitive.
 

And I don’t think mentalities relate to risk/reward that well this game, because it’s more of a style of play or football philosophy type of thing. If you want to play the Barcelona style you use the positive; if you want to play like Ancelotti you use the cautious; Like Mourinho probably use the defensive and like Klopp or some German-influenced football you use attacking. I really want to see the mentalities as the ‘risk gauge’ but it’s not. Because in real life the risk is at least divided into two parts: offensive and defensive risks. Risks in football is never a single package. Coaches should be able to set their own offensive and defensive risks. For example, if I want my team to go as aggressive in the attack and as conservative defensively, I should be able to do that. But in this game it’s more like I need to use attacking when I attack and defensive when I defend, which is not possible. The separation of offensive and defensive mentalities might be the least SI could do to make this game more ‘realistic’ if the separation of offensive and defensive formations is too complex technically to achieve.

[Does 'Pass into space' work with much shorter passing?]

If you just want more possession, you should probably look at things like your attacking width, tempo, having more support duties, the way your team wins the ball back.

[4-4-2 Diamond wide or narrow?]

I don’t know too much about the FM logic of wide and narrow. I will just relate it with real life: Valencia 02/03 plays that wide 4-1-2-1-2 diamond with Aimar playing that No.10 and two wingers on the flanks against Arsenal in Champions League. It basically operates upon Aimar’s ability to link the four attacking players. It’s a tactic relies heavily on player strength so if you’re not sure if your players are capable maybe you should stick with the narrow. Especially when fm23 has improved player movement for narrow formations.

[*Official* Football Manager 2023 Feedback Thread]

On 08/11/2022 at 08:06, Jack Joyce said:

With the full version of FM23 now available, we thought it might be helpful if we gave you a quick update on our short-term plans for the match engine.

While the current match engine is the same one that featured in the Early Access Beta, this doesn't mean that we’re not working on improvements. In fact, we're currently in the process of taking on board the feedback we received from Beta players and looking to incorporate this in a forthcoming major update. We have however, included some animation tweaks with the aim of improving immersion, which as an example, means you'll be less likely to see keepers making odd looking saves with their feet. 

Making changes to the match engine is a delicate and complex business. Changes that we make often result in unforeseen knock-ons that we need to chase down and fix... and those fixes then often have their own knock-on effects as well. In a recent internal update we had an engine that ‘felt’ really good and played really nicely… except that central defenders were racking up 200+ passes in some matches, which is unrealistically high. As soon as we discovered that we had to 'go back in' to address that issue without, of course, losing the parts we liked.

Although we're happy with the engine in the current game, we’re confident that we can improve on it with the right update, but we need a bit more time to make sure we balance things out. Thanks for all of your feedback so far, it’s been and continues to be incredibly useful.

The Match Team

Hello Match Team,

Do we have a thread for reporting match engine related issues or offering suggestions?

Thanks.

[The Formation On Tactics Screen Is Your Defensive Shape; I Have A Problem With This]

This exact issue haunts me still since I started watching full match like six years back. Trust me I had tried countless ‘ridiculous’ or asymmetrical shaped formations to replicate real life tactics with no perfect solutions whatsoever. You probably just have to admit the game is flawed and a full-match player like me just can’t do anything with it. A player like Neymar in FM would never play like in real life no matter what roles, PIs or preferred moves you gave him with IGE. And you want to replicate the Italian Zona Mista? The man marking and communicating between defenders in FM have been awful. I think the best thing they could do (which is highly unlikely) is to have two separate formations for defensive and offensive phases. So my take on this is that you do whatever you see fit regardless of shapes, roles, instructions etc., if you watch full match.