Snaflet

It would be nice to be able to specify which positions you want your youth players to be comfortable playing. Makes no sense getting pure LMs or LWBs when you play without any. Same for styles, should be able to demand a focus on certain attributes from a very young age and produce players in that 'style'

@yonko- I want the all out attack and numbers forward of what seems like an unbalanced front six. Since that screenshot I have swapped BWM and DLPs sides to cover for the bombing left back and have kept several clean sheets and also scored a lot more goals- 74 from 26 league games compared to 71 in total last year (as winners) and conceded 26, which although high, suggests my tinkering has helped make us a little more watertight. I have used SS with F9 when playing much weaker terms and rotated with Palombo (below) and tried doing the logical thing with Sterling and Sturridge and playing them inverted to cut in on their stronger feet, but they oddly seem much happier when playing on their 'natural' sides. It's been quite trial and error so far but settled for a side which attacks in a blitzing fashion and is semi-capable of easing games out with control and possession. For the previous four seasons we've played a more reactive, controlled game, but I felt like experimenting with goal-scoring instead, which has worked very well both home and away. Your PPM suggestions sound what I want, particularly for the STC and AMC- although if both move into channels would they shadow each other's movements too much? My DLP Rossiter, although he appears to have low (for a -9) potential and hit his ceiling has several of the DLP PPMs too Do PPMs take any ability points? If the AMRLs get forward often will they do even less tracking back? Like the idea of lots of one-twos and killer balls The crop I've got coming through are all from the academy except Palombo, who was free when he was 20 and I couldn't pass him up but is very raw after two loan spells Screenshots of players and their records so far this season: Jerome Sinclair, Sean Hughes (ST, places shots, one-twos), Peter Nixon (AMR/ST), Harry Wilson (AML/R), Giuseppe Palombo (AMC, runs with ball often, first time shots) Thanks for any help or info anyone has again

@Draigh- will try rounding keeper with my quickest technical central player and hope it pays off! @leumd and @llama3- what I've seen is that it doesn't stop them attacking vertically, but does help them not get dragged horizontally or diagonally out of position, making it very very helpful in minimising conceding the long ball behind the full-back when he'd otherwise be walkabout and ignoring his winger. Finding my youngsters so efficient without PPMs that I'm wary of adding any but do want to try, does anyone have any good experiences with PPMs in attacking players?

That's a new development to the tactic, he still seems to behave in the same way attacking but doesn't get dragged out of position by Hassle Opponents as much as before, which has made the defensive side a little bit tighter. Very frustrating conceding goals because he's a yard ahead of the opposition right winger played onside by the rest of my defenders. I've found getting a satisfactory press very difficult- players just seem to refuse to press in twos and threes or with any sort of urgency. This might be tied to their work rate as Henderson in the AP slot does so very well, make him far more effective there than I expected. I had Hassle Opponents off and no holding position for either FB but the complete lethargy in the middle of the pitch by everyone except Bender and Lucas (I get this is because of the roles I've given the front four) was leading to an over-reliance of individual defending ability. Since the change I've still attacked very well, but my FB(A) seems more controlled, still getting down the side of the pitch but when defending he doesn't behave quite as oddly. I was considering killer balls for the AP(A) and also the DLP so we could spring quick attack from deep better. I had a youngster with that, now out on loan, who could be quite effective doing that and I might try it. Also- is there any way to stop players heading the ball randomly rather than either controlling it, running onto it, or cushioning it to a team-mate. Very frustrating. Would running with the ball often help players when one-on-one approach the keeper and force him to come out rather than shooting from miles out, as well?

First off, the tactic I want to use for this: Only player instructions are short distribution for Keeper and Hold Position for LB and RB. I've been winning a lot but from 13 games scored 30 and conceded 15 in the league is a little worrying! The issue is teams tend to counter me effectively- I tried to play an offside trap but it was disastrous and the rest of my defence continues to make small mistakes since then. I create, as the formation suggests, tonnes of chances, but I want to maximise the results using PPMS- I have a set of three or four youngsters who are playing fantastically when rotated but are blank slates in terms of PPMs. The movement I want to achieve from the F9 and the IF(A)s is the ball in between the centre-back and full-back, with the opposition defenders unsure who to mark centrally. Does Moves Into Channels work to encourage my IFs to do this more than they already are? One of them has just failed to learn cuts inside but has 9 goals and 10 assists from something like 15 appearances so I'm a bit wary to tamper with him. The idea of both IFs instinctively abusing that space more than they do already is very appealing, though. My young F9 has places shots and plays-one-twos- I wanted him to help break pacy players in behind the lines and it has seemed effective so far, although his appearances have been limited by injury. My final thought was that if my F9 played with back to goal, would it stop him scoring goals from hanging around the box or off the shoulder of the CB? Or help him play in the CMs and AM more for the IFs? My first XI: Reina, Kelly, Sakho, Umtiti, Jonathan Silva, Lucas (DLP) , Sven Bender (BWM) , Sterling, Henderson (AP) , Sturridge, Sinclair The players I'm talking about are the regens (its end 2017) and Sinclair, can provide screens if it makes a huge difference- all are quick players with good finishing and pace Thank you for anyone prepared to read that and help and anyone who can share any PPM ideas or experiences

My youth intake includes a 5 star potential 15 year old (just won Champions League so he should be really good) CB with great key attributes... except he's 5 foot 9 and has 6 for jumping reach. If I have him training jumping on high intensity is he every likely to reach something reasonable for a CB or should I just retrain him to a RB already...? I want him to be my future club captain so I am going to find a way to get him in the first XI!

Maybe being able to set certain parameters for the style of football you want your youth intake to be capable of playing... not having a club focused on passing football and producing kids (even 16 year olds) with 3 for passing and stuff, even if it was just as basic as saying you want to focus on Attacking, Tactics, Defending on whatever as key aspect...

It was a reasonable size bigger than one from a few days earlier- don't worry about it now though, will just chalk it up as one of those things

I'd been using a cycle of three different save files on rotation until I got complacent for this one for ten game days... serve me right I suppose, very frustrating seeing the file there and it just not loading though! Feel convinced it should be able to load if I just do something differently So you think the issue is it started auto-save over the save file and corrupted it? Applied your advice and hope it doesn't happen again thanks for helping

Reached 3 Feb game date, saved, played past it to 4 Feb (no crash dump) and reloaded the new save file fine

Saves since have all been fine, holidayed through the period of the game it crashed and fine, replaying now but holidaying games and approaching the point where save now won't load and that the crash dump happened, will report back on what happens...

Also can't work out how to upload saved game if I need to! Saved the game at 11.39 and on 1 Feb (game day), Crash Dump was two game days later and at 11.42 real time. Why won't the save game load? The file is a normal size... other save games load fine. Particularly annoying as I'd saved post-match to avoid losing a satisfying win due to crash dumps and now I appear to have lost three games. any help much appreciated

Goals from indirect freekicks being disallowed for offside is so frustrating. Don't even celebrate them any more and don't know what I can do to stop it.

Is there anything I can do to fix it? Going to get irritating in a long term save

Why are Liverpool wearing purple (a clash) in the Merseyside derby instead of red (a key part of one of English football's most iconic derbies)?

- less use of away kits for no reason: played a Merseyside derby with Liverpool in purple last season! - fewer disallowed goals for offside from freekicks... But particularly the away kit thing, very frustrating and unrealistic, particularly in the case of such a historic match

Why is this happening? Anything I can do... he rotates real players in sometimes which suggests they aren't ineligible or anything... kind of stulting youth development side of game :/

IS there any way I can stop my U21 manager arranging insane amounts of friendlies- they are in the U19 Champions Cup and the reserve leagues as well, he's not happy unless they're on three games a week, insanity! Can find no way to stop it either... help please anyone .... literally just worked out how to do it, sorry guys, just posted... feel like a proper lemon now

Summer 2014, finished 2nd on 83 points, Semis of FA Cup and all performed well, but can't seem to get anything above pathetic value offers for any of the guys I want to sell- Sturridge, Johnson, Skrtel, Enrique, Reina/Mignolet... including no interest in Sturridge at all even for £5m! Any one experienced similar?

This question seems a lot more stupid than the others... On previous FMs there was a box thing at the bottom of the tactic overview where you could select playmaker, target man and whether to counter or not... has this gone or been moved anywhere? I would like to select what sort of target man I'm playing- although the game seems to automatically- but also turn counter on when not using a counter formation. Cheers guys.

Lost four League Cup Finals in a row once. All to teams like Soton, Burnley, Newcastle etc. and picking up a European Cup and the league twice in that time period.

No Pyro No Party,

Really genuinely hate contract renewals in this game. They are not negotiations. Young players you are lucky if you get yearly increase down by 5%. Seniors if you can get £5k a week off their contract. Already had to sell the bulk of my team because I cannot justify literally doubling or tripling seven players wages and bit bullet to keep two despite misgivings. Removing the large weight of a release clause has made the situation even more farcical. Not least because many of my players who wouldn't look south of £100k with me agree contracts lower than their previous ones at new clubs. I can imagine this would be a particular embuggerance further down the ladder, this rate of contract increase is unsustainable. Do contracts never just get a few years added on to them, like on older FMs was possible? Would also love some form of actual negotiation, or the whole agent module removed. Can't stand playing FM with such huge demands on wages, feels farcical. Fantastic game aside from that, but really really grates. Oh, transfer fees seem fine as well helps to tap players up a bit though- only instant I've found a bit odd is relegated Derby refusing anything less than £20m for a want-away Will Hughes, but even that is fairly realistic considering his well-known potential.

No difficulty levels, but would really like to see an AI that actually builds squads and a proper difference between AI managers. Too much similarity on FM, thrives from different approaches. FM11 as Liverpool, McCarthy ended up at Utd and his direct 4-4-2 team were the best challenge I've ever faced on the game. However, the rest of the league was utter *****. Would like more of the poorer (financially) sides playing above themselves later in the game, but the AI mode of Buying High CA means that these players just get hoarded by the clubs rich enough to do so. Quality is concentrated at City, Arsenal, Chelsea, Spurs, United and the rest of the league has dregs which they fail to use to any effect.

Bocchetti has been excellent for me once settled, can turn in a shift at LB, DM and MC as well! Ideal left sided ball player with a moderately high line