[Match 9: Morocco vs Croatia ITV1 10am GMT LIVE from the Al Bayt Stadium]

Put money on this being a draw (with Germany, Spain and Belgium as a multi). I think Morocco is a decent side and 1-1 is my prediction.

[Match 5: Argentina vs Saudi Arabia - LIVE on ITV1 (10am GMT) from Lusail Iconic Stadium]

Di Maria was average as hell.

[Joe Lycett goes full KLF against David Beckham]

Is it even real money?

[Defence-First Football - Winning Champions League with Club Outside of Europe's Elite (UPDATED on Dec 11, 2022)]

Keen to see how this plays out. I have a similar style myself but use a HB instead of a BWM(s) in the DM position. I trap the opposition inside and try to stop crosses (mainly because my CBs are crap at heading) as I feel with WBs or FBs on support they may get caught out of position and then you're midfielders will be deliberately pushing your opponents outside to empty space, further spreading your team thin on a quick counter.

I say all that but I'm pretty trash at this game, so I'll definitely keep an eye on this

[I can't read the other teams tactics and I'm getting frustrated]

Dived back into FM 21 last weekend having not played one for about five years. I'm getting the grasp of tactics and keeping things balanced throughout my team (not leaving striker stranded up front on their own etc.), but I just cannot read the other teams tactics at all.

I'm playing as Spennymoor and had a tough home fixture against Chorley who my Assistant told me likes to play wide attacking football. Ok cool, so I set my flat 4-4-2 formation to force the players inside, and counter. Works a treat and I'm up 3-0 at half-time with 12 shots to 1 and xG around 1.2-0.2 in my favour. Perfect. Come out the second half and I decide to lower my lines of engagement to try and soak up the pressure a little bit (along with time-wasting, shorter passing etc.) and change my mentality to Cautious in the hopes of getting them on the breakaway. Final score 3-5.

The AI changes their tactics and I watch the games on Comprehensive, but the biggest frustration with this game is I can't read the oppositions tactics to see what they've done. Sometimes it's obvious because they change to 4-2-4 or something, but other times their formation doesn't change so they are obviously pushing up a little higher, or going more direct or whatever but I just cannot see it in the match engine. People suggest watching YouTube and there's some great videos out there that explain tactics, but they are of no help to me because they explain building a balanced tactic or what all the Roles do, not how to read the matches and what is or isn't working.

I'm not expecting a magical answer here because I know I need to watch hours and hours of gameplay and study the analytical data, but I just don't have time to do those sort of things when I only get a few hours a week to play and I don't even understand what I'm looking at in the first place. The heatmaps show me the average positioning of all the players on the field; great, what do I do with that information? My Poacher is sitting higher up the field on average than my DLF, as expected. My WBs are on average a little higher up the field than my CBs, yeah and? As another example, the opposition are also using WBs by the looks of things on the data, so how do I counter that? The only thing I can definitively see is when my GK is hoofing it long and that's causing me to lose possession too much. I'll tell him to throw it out or aim for the Target Man and I *can* see a difference there. Everything else is just impossible to see.

Sorry for the rant, but I try so hard to learn this game and end up turning it off in frustration most of the time for this very reason.

EDIT: I guess I'm asking is there a way to understand the analytical data either in-game or on YouTube so I can better understand what I keep doing wrong. Obviously I got the tactic wrong with the Chorley game, but I don't know what I did wrong other than "getting the tactic wrong". Did they change their approach at all or was it all me etc.?

[Quickfire Questions and Answers Thread (Tactic and Training Questions Only)]

Is this pass combination map normal?

All my games look like that (ultra possession football), yet I feel as though my forwards should be slightly further up the pitch on that graphic. Have I got the front man on the right role?

Any basic suggestions for travelling away to lesser teams? I tend to struggle against Huddersfield/Wolves etc. I don't really tinker too much with the tactic, maybe changing mentality to Balanced and moving the AMC to a DM role to counter the more attacking formation home teams tend to go for.

[Challenges / Sign-Ups / Holiday Games ideas thread.]

Yeah I have one, let somebody else run it.