phnompenhandy

I would certainly like to see more nuanced responses to choose, but having said that, as a LLM who brings the academy kids through, I find it very useful to see the responses of the kids to my criticism. If he's not training well and resents the comment, I know he has no future with me.

I'm glad MBarbaric chipped into the conversation. There's a lot of 'it couldn't be done' posts here, whilst MBarbaric has shown it COULD be done, and very well too. As for professional voice-over, I have very fond and distant memories of the commentary in Sensible World of Soccer - think it was by Johnathon Pearce. If it could be done then, why can't it be done now? The commentary wouldn't have to include names - generic lines like 'great cross by the full back', 'He's talking himself into the referee's book, there' or 'That's the fourth time he's been caught offside' would do very nicely. It would also be very useful to hear "Doghouse Rovers have switched to a more defensive style" as we often aren't looking at the written commentary strip whilst watching the 3D game.

Never seen that actually happen before in FM. Nice one.

At the very least, you need something like a half-back in the DM position to come close and pick up the short pass.

That's just how clubs and agents are (cf Yaya's agent!). The club doesn't want to sell so the onus is on you to make them an offer they can't refuse.

That's right - I have done it like that. You will have to make knock-on changes though. You'll run into massive debt otherwise, and with your given rep you'll mainly attract players who would have joined you for free anyway. What I did was make the club part-time, and added an underwriter sugar daddy. He doesn't give you any money to spend but does keep the debt manageable. The other thing I do is that I don't buy or bring in any players; instead I give all my academy intake youth contracts and build the squad purely internally.

For info about lower league databases - Editors' Hideaway forum. For advice about tactics - Tactics forum.

Doing well in my save - got promoted

Oh, how underwhelming

Surely it's the same as we have in FM16 with the button option, except the FM16 screen is far more aesthetically pleasing.

The match engine graphics look very sweet and maybe worth the upgrade just for that. On the other hand I don't like that green background - hopefully a few fan-made skins will sort that out. Some of the new features seem unnecessarily gimmicky to me, as a lower league manager, e.g. shirt name sales. If the data analysis job is to mean anything, it should affect my role as a LLM. By not being able to afford hiring one, it ought to mean the heat map screens etc etc are unavailable to me. It should also mean scouted players' attribute numbers should be revealed sooner if a data analyst is on the case. It ought, therefore, to make a manger's job who doesn't have one tougher, and I'm happy with that.

Love the "Algerian" kid on Bolton's books!

Yes, it really depends on the personality of the players. I have one who is super-professional and always reacts badly to praise. On the other hand most of the squad are my academy players who do need pats on the back even after heavy defeats.

Simply marvellous

Morale is not that slippery. I often mess up team talks, leaving players stressed and confused and whatnot. They seem to get over it by the next day and are certainly unaffected the next match.