-Jef-

If it's my holding mid then I don't take him out unless he is 6.4 or below because I know his job is to stand still and recycle the ball. Not to make assists or create chances, score goals etc That being said I do take out most tired players first I make subs in 60th min, 65th, 70th and after 80th if need be. There is a study that says subs that 15 mins at least before making some sort of impact IRL in Prem so that's what I am basing my logic on.

Combination of full matches (only when struggling or playing important games) and comprehensive. I finished one and a half season

Hopefully they don't have ad blocker if they viewed your video

Undisputed? You're joking right? Game came out completely unplayable that it's probably the only game I've requested a refund for. Clunky controls, graphics are underwhelming, missing boxers etc.

And I have to agree with @RDF Tactics. Unrealistic tactics work because FM is still a game and it will never be perfect because players/users always find a way to create something even remotely broken. 4231 gegenpressing is OP, but Diablo from quite literally 20 years ago was game breaking so the game has become a lot better in that aspect. I got relegated first season, had to sell few of my most important players and replace them with either loans or u17 youth intake players. So I've tried to create a tactic that would be solid defensively but also creative and fun going forward. Nothing extreme or crazy since I do use daveincid's mods and don't want to deal with 15 injuries come March. I am also using Statman skin and generally try to use attributes as last crutch when making a decision. I use stars, scouting report, pros, cons, fbref stats to make a decision when buying a player and only as last check do I look at the attributes. Which is something that is closer to real life decision making. Also, when deciding on starting 11 I use last 5 match av rating and training rating above all. If a backup player performs one or two games better than first choice player I will have confidence in the backup and push him to play in starting 11 in the next match regardless of who the opponent is. Even though I dominated the league (still 4 games to play) I had to fend off mighty Sesvete who put in a historic season for them in terms of performance. You can see in the team overview stats that I was dominant in every facet except in most tackles won which is to be expected due to having 61% of the ball. This is the tactic tactic is pretty simple, honestly fullbacks providing width despite narrow team instruction which has more to do with where I want to focus the play whilst not disregarding wide play. Case in point my first choice right back Sigur is top assist in the league with 9 and Šušnjar, left winger, has 18 g+a in 26 games/ 21 nineties. Rigth back also has take fewer risks because wb-s is adventurous role (Positive mentality) that takes relatively a lot of risks and KTC and Niko Sigur are not the best playmakers. Good crossing, bad traditional playmaking. Left back is more of a traditional attacking fullback whose main role is to provide width, overlap and cross to far post to IF-A Defensive mid is not a flashy role but with More direct passing he sort of becomes an incognito playmaker from the deep. And this PI does exactly that. He has cautious mentality as DM-D so he will only try to unlock the defense with a through or over the top ball when the player deems it is sort of safe to do so. He still plays lots of short passes Solid decisions, passing, okay-ish defensively and this was the perfect role for this player. And at 186cm he can win headers and be an outlet. Basically, I wanted to replicate Busquets as best as I could. RPM is the star of the team, attracts the ball and is all over the pitch. Scoring, assisting, defending...RPM is probably the most demanding role in the game and I had the perfect player for it. 68 mpg because he is still 19 and don't want to ruin him by playing him too much. But passing, chance creation is off the charts. IF-A is basically my Mo Salah...except I don't have that type of player so I just use whoever but don't change he role because I want the type of movement and runs that IF-A provides. F9 is a special role (move into channels, roam PIs) and will have a special place in my heart forever. And it is perfect for the team. I primarily chose it because I have 2 dribblers at the striker role who are not top tier, relatively speaking, at finishing chances attributes wise. F9 presses defensive mids (which is perfect because I am playing mid block). I played AF here and was not happy defensively how AF acted. He also drops deep connecting the team as a whole and opening the space for runners - IW-s, RPM and IF-A. But also F9 makes runs behind the oppo lines and this is why I adore this role Two strikers I played in the role. The second striker is a newcomer and still has to settle in the team but has already been immense in the role I gave him. Assman thinks second striker is 2.5* SILVER in F9. I am not kidding I decided not to have high press with all 10 players I made a mid block tactic that counter presses when the ball is lost because the area of play in opponents 3rd is compressed both vertically and horizontally and it is easier to make 3-5 second concerted effort after losing the ball to regain it than to have 90 min full pitch pressing. Drop off more is used because I conceded goals in my penalty area which has since stopped/reduced to bare minimum when I introduced that TI. Sorry for the long rant by RDFs post in tactics forum and the discussion here about OP tactics has prompted me to make this post that you can make a dominant tactic on both sides of the play without exploiting the game engine. As he has also shown in his latest vid with the 4222 box setup.

Untick the option in focuses that recycles the players.

@RDF Tactics have you tried OIs on fullbacks as that seems to be an issue? I'd maybe suggest tight marking - never, trigger press on always and show wide (rb to right foot, lb to left foot) That might fix the issue with wide midfielders man marking full backs Also, good shout by @Cloud9 on using Lakaka as PF which has basically the same movement as AF offensively and moving CM to DM strata. I've found OIs to be extremely powerful when used in moderation and in line with tactic overall.

What's your width whilst attacking? edit- i just saw that you're using Sanches as your BWM and his 64% is bringing the average down. He has (according to fminside, I don't have him scouted in my game) 11 tackling, 11 anticipation, 11 decisions, 9 positioning which is bad for a BWM, at least Serie A type player.Pellegrini is better defensively but still nowhere near good enough, imo, for a true defensive player. Baldanzi also has over a tackle a game but 50% tackle %. All of this might due to your team being wide apart on both sides. I would also try to compress the field defensively. Having the field as small as possible when defending is the ultimate goal to winning the ball quickly and effectively

Just one example of the mantra "Use width to have depth" Šego was extra wide, like how Henry explained what Pep wants. And then in final third he makes that darting run into open space between left back and left center back and would give us a penalty if only VAR didn't overrule it. Just now realising that this thread will be a collection of my thoughts and ramblings..

Recall from loan These are the stats for tier below ours for a winger. And since I only have one option on the right in Michele Šego I have decided to recall Nick Ocvirek from loan, but not in time for first game v Gorica

Disaster His save ratio % is very good and his backup Silić is not nearly as good. I am tempted to give injections but I don't want to cause harm to his career. We will have to do without Oliver for the next month. edit - note that I'm not gonna post everything in this thread, this is just at the start and only for most important news.

Same thing happened with Elezi, who made a jump to Bundesliga in real life. A 22 year old North Macedonian deep lying playmaker should be one of key players in my squad.

I was appointed manager Jan 31st at 9pm. At 9am the next day I receive and offer from 10th placed Serie A team Frosinone about one of my few HNL capable players Luka Jelenić Initial offer was received and of course Jelenić would be unsettled if I rejected an offer I managed to talk with Luka and told him that Frosinone are a bit short on the offer and he said he understands and will expect to be sold if 625k offer is received. I happily obliged and promised him such To show why I'm scared to lose Luka it's enough to read his Coach Report Decent HNL player with potential to become a best center back in the league. Even though his stats are lacking and he is injured for 3 more weeks (missing 4 further games) I did not want to let him go.

Recruitment 23/24 Season Considering I can only offer 8k/yr or about 150€/weekly I will focus recruitment for the summer break. I have set responsibilities as follows I will assign scouts and handle the meetings. And I want my scouts to scout a player for 3 matches so I can take a really good look on him. I also have 120k in scouting budget which means I can scout Europe for approximately 4-5 months considering that Scouting Package for Europe is 23.5k monthly. Both of my scouts have the same knowledge And considering I have all of those countries playable I will split scouting responsibilities for my two scouts initially. This is what I call Scouting Phase 1 Trying to acquire knowledge of as many players as I can approximately 1 month until transfer window opens. Then get into Phase 2 a month before transfer window opens. Recruitment focus for Phase 1 looks like such Which results in two recruitment focuses at the moment One for Austria, Bosnia and Croatia and the other for North Macedonia, Serbia and Slovenia.

Tactical direction I am very much someone who loves watching players play the ball on the pitch, no hoofing up the pitch, having my players be expressive in their movements and actions - to a certain degree. As Henry once famously said about Guardiola's plan "My plan is to bring you up until the last third, your job is to finish it" and that's exactly my philosophy. He did not want Thierry (top 5 players at the time) roam around the pitch in first 2 thirds of the pitch. He wanted him to stretch the pitch as wide as possible to open up the space for central striker and for his 6 and 8 who were none other than Xavi and Iniesta. Formation is still up in the air but 433 DM looks like a top candidate so far. Risk taking Or as SI likes to call it "mentality". It's just a measure of how much risk do you want your players to take in all areas of the play. Offensively how many risky, through passes do you want. Do you want to shoot from all angles or wait for a better opportunity etc Gives me freedom to choose players in the team that can play with more freedom and those who will be bound to staying cautious and patient. "Use width to have depth" A quote I used to hear daily for about 6-7-8 years from my coach when I was playing in the youth systems. And it makes sense. You need to have width to open up half spaces for runs from behind, for midfielders or that special player that is allowed to roam (but has to be 2 steps above everyone else like Leo was). With that being said our attacking width will be wide. Playing from the back For the first time in ages I will not use TI Play from the back but instead pass to defenders and quick counters. Idea is to not hoof the ball from goal kick but instead pass our way into opposition half quickly Final third Since I want to play wide the team will want to cross as much as possible. This will lower the crossing, there will still be crosses (depending on the roles), but will look to create much higher shot xG chances for Fran Brodić. And as I said, I want my players to be as free in final third as possible. Out of Possession Due to Varaždin, apparently, being the worst team in the league I will look to play mid block with slightly higher defensive line which I can afford due to pace of Pellumbi. I don't expect to change my TIs drastically as that's the broader framework I want my team to operate in. Formation and roles will change depending on players I have.

Players This is a quick overview of the players at hand. I have transferred temporarily everyone over 2* CA to first squad. Please not that only 3.5* CA is adequate for current division. 3* and below means they are 2nd tier quality players. Goalkeepers Zelenika is a former Dinamo player and was called up for 2014 World Cup but didn't make a cap. A known commodity in Croatian football so he's here to stay. Defenders Couple of decent players but rest of the listed players will be evaluated harshly in the near future. Midfielders Definitely the stars of the show here are Marin Pilj, Agon Elezi and Igor Postonjski who will carry this club to safety. Postonjski is real life top scorer with 6, Elezi secured a move to Bochum (Bundesliga) just a couple of days ago in real life and Marin Pilj is a midfield maestro. Strikers A couple of the stars in Mitrovski (former Sporting and Magdeburg winger, though without apps) and Fran Brodić. Former biggest striker prodigy after Andrej Kramarić and definitely someone who I expect more out of. 6.44 av rating and only 2 goals in 14 apps. Abysmal. I am singling him out because I expect more. He's got good shot xG and Conversion rate but it seems like he is not getting into many chances with his below average shots per game.

Manager profile National A license which, I believe, is the bare minimum you need to managed in top flight of Croatian football and semi-pro former player which is a stretch of real life truth . Thankfully the contract runs out in June of 2025 which means I have a bit over a season in the club. Finances No money in the bank, lost 20k euros this month and 217k over the wage budget for the year. I need to cut loses. Transfer budget of 99,999€ (what is this, Aldi?) might as well not be there considering we have no money in the bank. At least the projection looks to be positive and especially by Jun2026 so at least that's something to look forward to. Staff Missing staff in all of the departments. I will try and bring in (exclusively via Job Advert feature and backroom meetings) people to fill the void temporarily. If I manage to avoid relegation I will bring in people of my own accord.

A Phoenix Club Date is January 30th, late in the evening. And I have decided to take a look at how a virtual season is going on in my and neighboring countries to try and emulate a Balkan Sir Alex Ferguson. That was my inspiration for this save. I have loaded the following countries and leagues. As you can see I added North Macedonian and Bosnian leagues in the mix. So let's take a gander at how the leagues are shaping up compared to real life and if something pops out at me I will manage that club. Bosnia and Herzegovina Igman is way overperforming real life performances with almost double the points and top of the league. Top half of the real life leagues look almost identical with exception of Borac Banja Luka. They are one of the contenders to take a look at. North Macedonia Again seems realistic, no surprises looking at the relegation. On to the next one Serbia I was hoping Partizan or Crvena Zvezda would choke and be in relegation battle but alas.. Vojvodina and TSC are my favorites here. Slovenia Same situation as in Serbia. FM is too good, it seems like And finally (for a reason...) Croatia Real life situation is as follows... If this was the situation in FM I would take over Dinamo to try and salvage this disastrous season. Or Rudeš which would be a feat to survive 0 (ZERO, yes) wins in 20 games. The worst team in league's history. But FM writes a different story this time. Seems like Rudeš and Varaždin have changed positions One win, 8 points. It's time to take over the Phoenix Club of once great NK Varteks that played and won against Premiership clubs. That gave us amazing players like Davor Vugrinec amongst others. Another big challenge will be to take down Dinamo who is steamrolling through the league, as usual. This will be a one club save with heavy emphasis on sustainability, youth development, DNA insistence and gradual progress. I do not want this save to go as other saves where I basically speedrun through the league and get bored within 2-3 seasons. Next post will showcase current situation in the club and my next steps to save the season.

I've also found that all of staff in smaller part also influence player personalities. I remember @_Ben_ going all out for prof/model citizen type personalities few years back and barely had any bad intake personalities after it settled (there is a settling period, not all changes are immediate)

Fickle isn't a bad personality. Just an annoying one to handle. High ambition, low loyalty and maybe good professionalism (depends on media handling style). Honestly, regens all look decent. Most important aspect for regens, IMO, is good personality and good mentals and at least decent technicals

I've always found physicals can go up to +8 on certain individuals so I wouldn't be too concerned. But might have to wait until they are 18-19 before featuring in first squad team sheet.

So..just add them to dev list with those requirements?

Same person on both screenshots. After doing some digging looks like staff attributes star colors are changed by the Skin color thresholds within FM's own preference settings, and not within xml in your skin files Since few weeks ago I couldn't change player star colors through preferences I tried to change them to 1-2-3 threshold so I can know for certain that it doesn't work and just left them like that After changing both values in xml and within preferences Staff it fixed to proper colors