El Payaso
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Posts posted by El Payaso
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13 hours ago, KingCanary said:
@Cloud9 @wazzaflow10 I do appreciate you taking the time out to give your thoughts. However you're (perhaps inadvertently) somewhat backing up what my biggest issue with the game is and what I was trying to highlight in my initial post- namely that the game itself should be giving me more information to inform the decisions I'm making, rather than me having to come on here and post a tactic.
I'm not asking the game to hold my hand and tell me how I can win each and every game. But I feel like my coaches and assistances should essentially be acting as my eyes and ears and feeding back on where we're struggling in game. Just a couple of lines in the dugout like 'Bastia are sitting deep so we're struggling to find space in behind' or 'Bastia are playing very narrow and letting us have the space out wide.'
Neither of these things are telling me what specific instructions I should change but they are at least helping inform any changes I make. In previous versions you could see heatmaps and other information during the match which was really useful- it could inform if I had a player who was getting too isolated or if the opposition was playing very deep or narrow. Now I have to wait until half time to see that and the general response is 'watch the full match.'
I've no interest in watching full games. The day that becomes essential is the day I stop playing as I just don't have the time or the desire to dedicate that sort of time to a game.
So, you expect that you can just auto pilot through the matches, using key(?) highlights and your backroom staff to do the hard work for you?
I can only see it as a positive thing that the game is nowadays at least at times making us to actually go deeper and troubleshoot when things aren't going your way.
Please don't take this as any kind of attack towards you. I do agree that most of the time the feedback that you receive from your assistant is quite useless, yet at times they also point out valid things like singular players seeing too much of the ball.
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2 hours ago, SteinkelssonFM said:
Shame to see the deal for Lopez fall through, so you think you will continue to scout his performances, with the view to going back in for him? Or are you more than content with Batman and Robin in terms of sharing the goal scoring burden?
You are well in the hunt for the top 6, looking forward to the next update.
I think I must have written the part about Lopez badly. We managed to seal the deal so that he will join us in July, first for a season long loan and after that permanently on a 3.9 million euro deal.
He should be a good addition to the team as I have fallen in love with the good old target-forward mentality lately. Vanja is a strong distributor with his kicking and he quite often opts to Sanabria with a longer approach and as he wins about 45% of his headers, we get quick combinations through that.
The idea is now to have three strikers who can play both the more advanced and link-up striker roles. Actually there is possibly going to be three as Demba Seck is returning from loan from Frosinone.
For the current season, there isn't going to be much help. David Okereke has been playing only 5-30 minutes every now and then hasn't done anything. Nikola Vlasic on the other hand probably could work as a more advanced forward if one of the starting duo is not fit to play.
Pellegri has especially been superb for us. He started the year coming on after 60 minutes and practically always causing a havoc with his presence. I was a bit doubtful whether he would be able yo make the same impact as a starter but so far so good. Sanabria on the other hand shouldn't be judged based on his goalscoring as he is more of a linkup player.
Even though there isn't otherwise much to cheer about in our performances, I am really enjoying the way this duo is doing their stuff.
In terms of league position, I would be happy with 8th or 9th which would see us not qualifying to Europe. Then on the other hand this is probably going to be what is needed if we want to keep Vanja whom I wouldn't like to lose.
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5 hours ago, CAE82 said:
The point is they may have no choice. Using Unity may make it much more difficult/impossible to make the 3rd party mods. Who knows, we'll just have to wait and see.
Still would probably be a bigger bummer for the sales than raising the difficulty level through more competitive AI.
Lots of things would need to happen with the interface for me to be able play with a vanilla version of FM.
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THIRD QUARTER
As the save is progressing quite slowly at the moment, the third quarter is only going to be covering January and February 2024.
START OF THE TRANSFER WINDOW
The assault started early on as Al-Nassr enquired about Karol Linetty, Dortmund came in for Alessandro Buongiorno and Al Attihad made an offer for Vanja Milinkovic-Savic. Buongiorno was just fine with us rejecting the rather laughable offer from Germany but Vanja made me promise that he would be playing in Continental tournaments next season.
JANUARY 2024
LECCE (H)
We started the year against 8th-placed Lecce. It was a bit of a different kind of game for us as we actually dominated the game by summing up 19 shots in total and 2.56 xG. Both were the highest we had achieved this season. Zapata’s early goal gave us a platform and even though Lecce scared us with a late equalizer, which luckily was a clear offside, we never looked like slipping.
The second goal again showed Raoul Bellanova’s lethal ability in our system. Even though this goal came after a free-kick clearance, it shows how important the pacey wing-back is to us. And Pietro Pellegri of course was again there where he has been scoring his goals.
FIORENTINA (A)
We made it nine without losing against Fiorentina in a game that turned out to be a goal galore. Even though this was our worst defensive performance of the season, after the draw against Inter, it wasn’t really as disastrous as the amount of goals tell you.
The first one was Karol Linetty’s mistake where he ran into Alessandro Buongiorno, thereby gifting the ball to Nicolás González. The second one came from a corner kick while the third was really bad as our three centre-backs weren’t able to deal with Belotti who turned in front of Perr Schuurs and got past him before slotting the ball in from 20 yards out.
Fiorentina also made errors here in all three goals with some awful marking play. We were clinical though by summing up 5 shots in total and scoring with 3 of our 4 shots on-target.
INTER (A)
As I knew that we would probably lose against Inter, no matter what we did, I decided to go with a second-choice team at San Siro. The team battled quite well, but two rather early goals made it quite comfortable for the hosts. Our first and only shot of the game came through Anthony Sanabria who headed in the consolation goal from a free chance at the far post.
TRANSFER UPDATES
Our backup goalkeeper Luca Gemello accepted Bayern Leverkusen’s offer instead of extending his stay in Turin. The departure of the Italian keeper means that one of our summer signings must be a backup keeper for Vanja whose stay here will also be determined based on our league performance during the second half of the season.
Luckily we have already identified our number one target.
Lucas Cañizares, the son of Santiago, would be an excellent addition to the team as his contract is running out in the upcoming summer, and because his level is already at Serie B level he could probably become a better player than Vanja Milinkovic-Savic is. With his height of 1,88m, he should be the type of keeper that could fill the mold that Vanja has created for us this season.
Stefano Sensi is the first signing we have made. The 28-year-old former Italian national team midfielder has been suffering from injuries and lack of game-time the last couple of seasons but his two performances against us and his performances in general made me sure that he would be the ideal candidate to strengthen our attacking midfield next season as we are unlikely to make young Uros Kabic’s spell at Turin permanent.
SALERNITANA (A)
The matches continued after 11 days of break. Against Salernitana we were again forced to play outside our comfort zone as the home side seemed more than happy with a goalless draw. Almost 70% of possession but just two shots in the first 45 minutes is a real storyteller.
A lucky bounce from a corner kick and the super-sub Pietro Pellergri were enough to turn the game for us though. The Italian came in in the 64th minute, scored less than a minute later from his rebound, made two important interceptions late on close to our penalty area, and also won a penalty in the 92nd minute, which Antonio Sanabria decided to miss. Can’t get over how dangerous the young Italian is when unleashed.
THE DEADLINE-DAY DRAMA
The final day of the winter transfer window started in a dramatic manner as Duván Zapata suffered a knee injury which would likely keep the experienced striker sidelined for the next 2 months. This, on the other hand, allowed us to terminate his expensive loan deal including both monthly fees as well as paying his hefty 89 thousand weekly wages.
The departure meant that we were also forced to dip our feet in the transfer market as we would need a third man to fill in for the two striker spots.
I have been pointing my focus towards two players throughout the season. Lorenzo Lucca, the former Torino youth product, who is currently on loan at Udinese from Ajax, and Roberto Piccoli who is on loan at Lecce from Atalanta. The problem with both of them was the existing loan deals and with Lucca because he has an optional signing-on fee with Udinese.
This forced us to point our focus elsewhere…
Palmeiras’ Argentinian José Manuel López looked like an ideal candidate for us. Even though our scouts only had minimal knowledge of him, the stats showed me that he would be exactly what we were looking for: well-rounded, strong aerially, and still developing.
Sadly six hours was not enough to get the deal done and this means that we are going to be one good player short in our attack for the rest of the season.
The transfer story took another twist though as we placed a loan offer for him which was accepted along with a 3.9 million euro mandatory signing fee. We gladly took this even though the player can only join us in July of 2024.
Even though López only joins the club next season, I will count this as a first-season signing, which means that the deal won’t limit the summer transfer window transfers in any way.
The strange thing that happened on deadline day was Sevilla coming in for our third-choice goalkeeper Mihai Popa for a loan deal. I was happy to accept the Romanian’s move to Spain where he would serve as a backup as well as Sevilla paying 80% of his salary.
LEAGUE TABLE AND PLAYER STATS
FEBRUARY 2024
ATALANTA (H)
We made it 11 in a row against Atalanta who are looking to run away with the title. Both teams had their chances and the visitors were slightly the better team here. We can be a bit bitter here though as we had a couple of good chances in the second half, the last one falling to Toni Sanabria in the 93rd minute which he should have buried.
Gvidas Gineidis was a real surprise here as he replaced Vlasic in the number 10 position. The young Lithuanian was surprisingly involved and had two decent chances to score too. I also have to mention Adam Masina who is a real asset when we need to defend. The loanee is not making any starts for the club but he is constantly able to shut the door at the left flank.
BOLOGNA (A)
The visit to Bologna was one of the best games of football we have witnessed so far this season. It was the first occasion in a long time when we were really in trouble down the flanks against another wing-back formation. This is also where Joshua Zirkree got the low cross for his equalizer.
The hosts were the better team for most of the time but substituting both our starting wing-backs before the hour-mark gave us control of the game.
We also scored two rather beautiful team goals as Ivan Ilić, this time employed as an advanced playmaker, utilized the channels that Bologna left open. The Serbian set up Toni Sanabria for the opener and combined other times with Sanabria and Raoul Bellanova in the second:
Pietro Pellegri had been quiet in his start against Atalanta but the youngster gave us the victory here and in general caused havoc in the second half inside the penalty area, also hitting the crossbar once.
UDINESE (H)
All streaks have to come to an end and sadly this happened in an unexpected way against Udinese. We were in total control of the game for most of the match but were hit twice from set-pieces where we have been rock solid throughout the season.
Perr Schuurs was benched to the game due to a small injury to his knee which seemed to lead to a disaster in terms of commanding the penalty area.
In attack, we should have done better. Pietro Pellegri scored once again after a nice team move but even though Antonio Sanabria’s linkup play was toxic for the visitors, we lacked the players who would bury the chances.
BAD DAY ON THE PITCH - GOOD DAY IN THE OFFICE
A bad day in the office ended nicely as we secured our third summer signing. This time from the Barcelona B team as the 20-year-old Marc Casadó was convinced to join our club on a free transfer.
Quote“Marc Casadó is known for being a defensive central midfielder who provides a lot of balance to the team. He is also a hardworking, intense player, who shows leadership both on and off the pitch, a very positive aspect for the team. He creates attacking opportunities with the ball at his feet, as he can dictate the pace of the game and move the team around accordingly.”
This is a direct quote from the Barcelona website. I think his player profile fits our bill just perfectly and after further scouting, our scout also gave the young Spaniard an A-rating.
Casadó has been impressive for the B-team this season, winning the ball back more than 16 times every 90 minutes. Along with his ball-winning skills, he also possesses the progressive pass that our current two ball-winners Karol Linety and Adrian Tameze are missing. The good performances have also earned him two appearances in La Liga this season.
He might not be the next Sergio Busquets, but I think he is a perfect addition to our midfield and also gives us the option to get rid of one of the two more experienced options if the opportunity arises.
The confirmed transfer means that we are only missing our backup keeper for the upcoming season. The already mentioned Lucas Cañizares is a no-no as the youngster committed his future with Real Madrid by signing a three-year contract extension.
NAPOLI (A)
“A gift that keeps on giving” was my initial thought when we went 1-0 down in less than a minute from another corner-kick goal. The team bounced back though and played one of the best away games so far against José Mourinho’s Napoli.
Napoli took a bit of the control in the second half but in general, we were the better side here, which is something that I didn’t expect. Sadly it was a bad day in the office this time for Pellegri who was not able to get himself going. Sanabria on the other hand continued his productive form with a goal from his own rebound.
GENOA (H)
The disappointing run of form continued against Genoa in a game where it was Vanja Milinkovic-Savic’s howler that started our downfall. Pietro Pellergri got us back on level terms just minutes later. In the second half, we lacked the cutting edge to see the 17th-placed team off. I wouldn’t say that we should have scored one or two goals more but this was the third consecutive game where we should have been able to produce a clean sheet.
BATMAN AND ROBIN
The dynamic duo of Piedmont has been able to answer the call ever since we lost Duván Zapata. Even though the chart shows both players playing 9 games, it is worth mentioning that Pietro Pellegri has only started 6 of those which means his goal contribution has been excellent.
LEAGUE TABLE AND PLAYER STATS
Atalanta seemed to already be on the run for Scudetto, but as you can see, their form has lately disappeared, allowing both Milan clubs to catch up with them. It wouldn’t be a big surprise to see AC Milan clinching the title eventually as their defense, led by Mike Maignan creates such a good platform for success. The race for the European spots is very much on also.
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35 minutes ago, whatsupdoc said:
Because they mostly stopped reading them months ago. I still have bug reports from November unread.
Been there, done that. I feel you.
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35 minutes ago, whatsupdoc said:
Disagree...
The solution is for the developers to be informed and add it to the list of fixes...
Why don't you report it as a bug then?
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22 minutes ago, CAE82 said:
It’s not too hard and worth spending the time as it’s helps hugely with immersion. There’s nothing worse than getting a promising newgen who looks like a 1980’s Thundercat! Hopefully FM25/Unity increases the quality as they are so far behind the minimum expectations of a computer game in 2024 (and to be fair are probably way more than a decade behind the state-of-the-art).
3D match engine and faces generated by the game are two features of the game that I have never used or probably ever will.
The interface of FM has not been that pretty for a long time but luckily there are easy ways to mod the game.
When I see people not using real bans fix, custom skin, face packs etc. I am practically always asking why on earth.
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6 hours ago, whatsupdoc said:
Also, "team reports" are an OP way of scouting.
This took a few days. Would've taken months otherwise.
Player search is also OP. The solution is to not use the things that are too powerful.
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I'm sure you will do just fine in the big fixtures.
Love the small details in the most recent post. Is there any particular areas that you are looking to strengthen or is the plan to bring along the best possible individual on your list? The Swede looks like an amazing option.
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2 minutes ago, CameronFM said:
Neither had I, but enjoying the league so far!
Finland will be on the cards in FM25 I think, I need a complete break from bigger leagues and I tend to enjoy my saves a whole lot more going off the beaten track, so to speak.
Sadiku is going to be featuring a helluva lot more right now. I’m struggling to get a tune out of Sæter, but unsure if it was rushing him back from a long lay-off. Väänänen certainly is an interesting player, just finding it hard to give him more minutes when the midfield are performing to expectations right now!Väänänen is a former HJK player, so I'm fine with him rotting on the bench.
Are you actively scouting Finland at the moment? No idea about the attributes on FM but at least Topi Keskinen is an interesting player that might make it to the bigger leagues even. He started the season really well in real life but has since faded away a bit as HJK are once again having quite slow start to the season. But definitely a player type that we haven't produced in ages.
Nice to see also Sami Hyypiä having a coaching job with you. His managerial career is probably over already but nice to see him coaching in the game. Jari Litmanen and Mikael Forssell could be good recruits also if they are in the game.
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Never really managed in Norway but I have been quite tempted by the idea, and who knows if I will do it on FM 2025.
Rosenborg has quite legendary reputation here in Finland and it is a common phrase here that some of our local clubs might become the Rosenborg of Finland (which HJK obviously is at the moment).
Good luck with this. Hope to see some Finnish talent, along with Väänänen and Sadiku, in your plans. Sadiku was really good few years ago with Honka.
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I tend to use well-balanced or even defensive systems which means that there isn't much need for changes when playing away from home.
In games against bigger clubs I tend to change one of my wing-backs to a defend duty and use a clear holding midfielder. I also tend to start with a cautious mentality instead of balanced. This in five defender formations.
To be able to give you some ideas, we would need to see your tactical approach first.
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40 minutes ago, SpartanUTD said:
How is it not wrong to concedde goals? Especially that in the first half I might have conceded 2-3 or even 4 goals?
I don't think it's a tactical issue.
If you read m initial post, before any fines, atmosphere was great, 3-5-2, or 4-1-2-2-1, or 4-2-3-1, used and tested before with adjustments to different squads, nothing seems to work.
I think that my team is full of douchebags.
PS: I never go to tactical forums, I want to try to build my own tactic and not copy someone else's, although in this case, it is definitely not the tactic, trust me.
It is a tactical issue as it is quite simply possible to play defensively solid football, even with multiple styles variating from attacking and high-pressing football to defensive low-block.
Going to the tactics forum doesn't mean that you have to use someone else's tactic. It's mainly to ask for ideas and then trying them out. I also like to make my own tactics from the scratch but I do read a lot of the threads related to the style of play I am trying to implement. Those threads often make it easier to spot the errors.
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2 hours ago, Polando said:
Is there any newgen face file? Without any long installations or downloading any programs. Just unpack it in the graphics folder and replace those... splattered faces with any other ones? Every third junior has a huge, black rash on my face, I don't like it
Plenty of them. Obviously you have to have a program to install them but there are instruction videos on YouTube which makes it a ten minute job when you do it the first time and tens of seconds when you know how to do it.
I have personally never understood why anyone would use the faces generated by the game. I've always deactivated them as the first thing after installing the game.
And back to the topic. Thanks to the beautiful weather that has lasted for weeks here in Finland, marathon practicing, wedding planning and work, I nowadays gave just 2-3 hours max to play FM during a week. For me this is the best possible pace: playing 1-2 games every now and then and slowly progressing.
Also with a defensive system and low block the matches are really enjoyable. Tight games decided by the closest margins. I think I have never enjoyed FM this much, not even in 2007 and 2008 which I have played the most.
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56 minutes ago, warlock said:
Gegenpress is much more than counter-press. We played in a mid-block, standard tempo, pressing 'more often' but never 'much more often'. In my mind, that's a million miles from gegenpressing.
I think if you want to play progressive football, you have to press to a degree - it's no use just sitting back and passively hoping the opposition will give you the ball back. So yes, we counter-pressed, no we didn't gegenpress.
It's kinda funny or more like sad that the discussions have come to this. I mean, people picking up single team instruction and at least indirectly accusing others using some meta or game breaking tactical systems. Obviously I do apologise if this was not the intention here by @Captain_T which might well be.
For me FM is a type of game where the players should not be avoiding certain styles because they are op. It is the responsibility of the developers to create balance no matter what system you play.
I haven't really read this thread at all because I mainly enjoy career updates where human players struggle.
But great job with Celta. An unbeaten season is always difficult to pull-off and when achieving that, it is a great moment to go for a new challenge.
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I think I have seen people also raising this happening in AI vs AI matches, even for example Champions league finals.
If it is a thing that mainly happens when the AI is facing a human player, this is again a clear signal to me that the game doesn't treat human players the same way as the AI.
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16 hours ago, XaW said:
Also, I think people too seldom remember when it happens in their favour. I mean, I just had this match.
I'm of course the away team, and we got lucky. We faced a better team, but we took the few chances we got. It also helps when this is how well the opposition took theirs.
Sorry for the off-topic but I have always wondered about these numerical codes that some players add to the player names. What do they mean?
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1 hour ago, Craigus89 said:
Snipped some stuff from your post to keep it brief, and the bold bit is your bold. But I just wanted to highlight this.
Look at that sentence objectively for a moment.
The defensive nature of many people in this community is staggering when people are pointing out legitimate issues with the game, and sums up why I only really come on here for the IRL football chat these days.
I actually agree with you both (you and @Cloud9). While it is legit from Cloud9 to say that people should not complain when they are knowingly doing things that the game can't handle. On the other hand FM should be a game offering balance no matter what style of play you are using. Even though I had many years off from the game, I still know that people have raised many repetitive inbalances (pace and physical attributes in general and top-heavy and overly aggressive systems for example) for years now and those haven't been able to be fixed.
Obviously it is logical in that sense that SI have probably known for a long time that FM 2025 will be a big game changer and this of course means that there hasn't been 100% focus on for example FM 2024.
Anyway, in general, I do feel that this version is the best FM I have played so far and it gives me a good reason also to continue with FM 2025.
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21 minutes ago, Svenc said:
Yeah, and there were a lot of set piece based to boot then, making it appear you would actually penetrate the box successfully (and thus mostly low quality, e.g. headers in packed boxes under severe pressure). I mean, on the occasion you may score loads. That's RNG, baby. But you can't rely on that. Checking every shot takes a lot of time, but stats never told that story. SI naturally also aren't watching "stats". But it's something different to just watch numbers pile up, vs. analysing where those numbers are coming from. Both in assessing a team's performance. And crucially, it is important for making a more realistic / better ME. As it's the kick by kick match play making the stats, not the way around.
Just found a couple of memes I made way back. A few of those were actually based on a player who sent me his save and who'd claim he'd struggle. He didn't actually, he just had a couple additional matches where his opponent scored from few or even first shots, when he never did. However his shot spread looked obviously very different to mine, but he never took the criticism to heart and rather when with his cognitive bias and theory of AI cheating instead.
I partially agree but at least in my opinion the amount of goals were kept within realistic numbers with artificial ways such as excessive amount of offsides and even unrealistically bad quality of finishing.
I remember for example in FM 2015 when I got promoted with Real Oviedo to La Liga and had to start the season with two away games against Barcelona and Real Madrid and managed to draw against both of them while facing about 60-70 shots in total. In real life they would have scored multiple goals from the chances that they got but in the game I only conceded once in those two games.
Finishing in general is miles sharper nowadays on FM and the statistics in general are more realistic. I think SI have done a fantastic job in many areas of the ME during the last couple of years. It's way more football-like than the ones about ten years ago.
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57 minutes ago, Hoffbeck said:
Oh by the way, i am the home team
With a low-block, cautious mentality and pure counter-attacking playing style, I am practically never in control of the games based on stats but end up doing well more often than not.
The stats rarely look like that but in general I am more than happy to let the opposition have the control and pass the ball around and then hit them 1-3 times from high quality chances that are easier to convert than miss.
Stats, especially the xG is not at telling you the true story.
@Svenc pfff, checked your examples from the previous page. Luckily the game doesn't create these 30-40 shots on goal per game (per team) matches that often anymore.
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Could you please start putting these current and potential ability numbers behind spoilers? Not everyone wants to see them.
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40 minutes ago, NineCloudNine said:
You can do this now. Every manager (indeed every non-player) has a large list of preferences, tendencies and personality traits. Clubs and Boards also have playing style preferences. It’s these which difficulty mods like Davincid’s tinker with.
There are clearly going to be limitations on how these work in-game (ME, player type and quality etc) but in theory all the necessary tools exist to do what you describe.
But this is still not the same thing as actually being able to create style of plays with the editor. You are able to make guidelines with these options but not actually able to control how certain AI managers set up their tactics.
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All this talk about AI's tactical choices even strengthens my desire to have the possibility to edit the AI managers' tactics through the editors in a way that you could actually determine what kind of tactics they would use, from role selection to team instructions. There are plenty of threads where players are replicating real-life style of plays and it would be fantastic if we would be able to feed these tactics to the data and thereby make the game both more realistic and challenging.
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2 minutes ago, BadAss88 said:
@AceCream Very inspiring posts! I'm thinking of starting with Parma as well, as Davide Ancelotti!
I was also thinking about starting with them when I started my short career with Palermo. The better thing about Parma is that the team is probably closer to Serie A level which means that you'll be probably just fine with the starting team when you get to the top flight.
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[FM 2024] Torino FC - Sogni di battere la Juve
in FM Career Updates
Posted
Thank you. I'm actually fairly frustrated with the graphical representation as the skin colors, fonts etc. make it a real mess.
I'm going to bring in something new in my next update but reporting the matches is still a bit of a pain.
Was thinking of creating a match report template myself but it might be a bit too time consuming for a hobby.
Thank you. Much appreciated.