SebastianRO

October 9, 2022

So I was just browsing the Playstation store and have seen Football Manager 23 Console Edition. This makes me very happy, as these days I am doing all my gaming on my PS5 (except FM), so it would be amazing to be able to play this game over there as well. Do you guys have any information about how it's going to be / features / etc ? I am sure Miles or someone will talk at lenght about this one, but I am just very keen on it I really can't stress how excited I am about this, as long as it's not some dumbed down version of the FM we all know.

October 29, 2021

Does anyone know if the M1 can run the game AT 4k 60 FPS during the match ?

October 27, 2021

8 hours ago, WizbaII said:

It's one thing to leave your feedback, which is perfectly fine. But I'm intrigued by the number of people who expect a beta release of FM 22 to be as good as a game (FM 21) that already had multiple patches applied to it. This is unreasonable, is it not?

These people should take note that the beta period was changed from 2 weeks to 3 weeks. I take that as a sign from SI that they are putting more importance into getting things right before a full release. But that still doesn't mean perfection should be expected right from the get go. Coding the match engine is not like making a tic-tac-toe game, especially when adding one part to it requires you to tweak all the parts that already exist :).

Anyway, I'm actually posting to ask a question, because so many people have said that FM 21 has a good balance of central vs. wide play. As I skipped FM 21 and am still playing FM 20, I'm getting curious about this. Are there people here who acknowledge that FM 21 had better central play, but at the same time believe FM 22 is still (in its current state) the superior engine to be playing with? Because I don't see those people being vocal right now.

People do understand that FM22 is still a beta, but the same people also remember that when FM21 Beta came out, it had none of these massive imbalances between central and wide play. Sure there were a few issues that SI has addressed through multiple patches, but it was balanced 5x better than FM22 straight out of the gate. You are saying that you hven't played FM21, which is the best FM (match engine wise) we've had in a long time and this is probably why you don't understand the concern people have after seeing this ME, even in a beta release. Also, the last time we've seen what we are seeing in FM22 beta it was when FM19 and FM20 came out and all the way thorugh their lifecycles, so it took SI 2 years to "fix" it, not just some patches. You should know, since you skipped FM21 and played through FM20. The good news is that non of us a freaking out, as there is still that hope of "maybe it will get fixed by release" and having a healthy conversation,providing written and statistical feedback can only be good for the betterment of FM22. Let's hope for the best and prepare for the worst, as some warlord would say

October 26, 2021

3 hours ago, RocheBag said:

I haven't played yet but what you've described here is just how football works. If a team defends properly you won't have space for a through ball through the middle, that's the entire point of defending. You wait for the defense to make a mistake then you take advantage with a through ball. Until then you cycle the ball around and make them move side to side to increase the chances of a space opening up. That's football 101.

Maybe my choice of words was not the best, but what I am experiencing is 100% not what we are seeing in a real football match. My players make the decision to run / pass wide before the opposition even manages to close the midfield. That is against any logic. No player in his right mind would pass an oportunity to run centrally if he's given the oportunity. Also, keep in mind that my tests were conducted using top class players because I wanted to exclude the posibility of not having creative enough players, especially in the AMC role. That said, a player like Pedri, De Bruyne, etc would attempt to try a killer ball even when the opposition is defending Mourinho / Simeone style. However, that is not something i expect them to do non-stop. All I want to see is what's expected, and that is penetration through the middle / an attempt at central penetration from my 4-4-2 diamond / 4-3-1-2 / 4-3-2-1 (christmas tree) since that is literally what these systems do, especially the way i set them up. It doesn't matter how good one team defends when you are facing a top class team playing these 3 systems. The fact is that they will always manage to open you up and tear you apart through the middle at least 4-5 times a game, let alone the fact that I couldn't even open up Salernitana without blasting the ball into the wide areas and then back into centre. Again, I understand what you mean as that is a simple ball circulation principle, however that is not my problem. My issue with the game is that it doesn't allow the players in the midfield to showcase their creativity. It almost seems like they have been hardwired to look for the simplest pass in the history of football (back and wide). And before anyone says it, no, I don't mean that this is what happens 100% of the time, but it happens often enough to make this ME look very unorganic too me, to the point I am reminded that this is just a game, just like FM19 and FM20 did. BTW, these problems are not present in FM21, not at all. In FM21 you have an almost perfect balance between a player attempting to use it's flair and making the simplest choice of passing. I really hope SI is looking into it and address the problem, otherwise I will shelve this game, just as I did with 19 and 20.

October 23, 2021

18 minutes ago, hursty2 said:

Surely there would be no room in the middle of the park for the players to play through, thus going wide to the full backs who are in more space. A narrow formation like that is just easy to defend.

Is that what you are seeing when watching IRL football ? Teams that never even bother penetrating through the middle ? Creative players not even trying a through ball between the CBs into space for a striker ? Aren't there any succesful teams in past and present who predominantly use centrak midfield overloads ? Are these things you never see in football ? Have you yourself never played a diamond system or something similar ? A narrow formation like that with the right players for it, will absolutely anihilate most of it's oponents as it directly exploits the golden central spaces- i.e Real Madrid who won the UCL in 2016. I have tried this formation with top flight teams like Juventus and Barcelona and the result was the same regardless. It's not that there is no space for my players to try and pass through, it's simply a case of them chosing not to. I saw it in every single match. People have posted videos and Gifs about it on this exact same forum ...

October 23, 2021

@craiigman @Alfredo James

I have raised my "experiment" with regards to the lack of central play in the bugs forum and can be seen Here, by those of you who want to keep an eye on how the situation develops.

October 23, 2021

9 minutes ago, Alfredo James said:

@SebastianRO I just wanna start off by saying that i appreciate sebastian taking the time to actually analyze the game and elaborate/clarify on his issues with the FM22 ME. I would also like to state first that i personally did not feel there was a lack of central play from my own experiences playing FM22 so far.

Upon reading his analysis, I had some gripes with the fact that he did not instruct his team to specifically 'Focus play through the middle' and 'look for underlaps'. the attacking formation was also not set to 'very narrow'. Thus, i decided to do my own analysis on whether there is a lack of centre play in FM22 relative to FM21.

I used the vertical tiki taka preset tactic which includes instructions to specifically 'Focus play through the middle' and 'look for underlaps'. The attacking formation was also set to 'very narrow'.

Fm21^

FM22^

With that, i simulated a few games to see what would happen here are the results.

Fm21^

Fm22^

With that , we can analyze that with the same tactic, and specific instructions to play narrow and through the middle. Fm22 was only able to make central final third entries 20% of the time, where as in fm21, it was 60% of the time. Thus, from my short analysis, I can conclude that there is indeed a lack of central play in FM22. I will paste this into the bugs forum and i hope @SebastianRO and others could raise this up too so that it will get looked at and possibly fixed.

Thanks for doing the same experiment as I did. I have tried the Vertical Tiki Taka preset myself, but it was just as unsuccesful in my case, as it was in yours. The reason for why I have set my tactic so "default" in that experiement is because I wanted to see how the match engine behaves in more situations. The more team instructions you have, the more defined your style will be and in this case, I wanted to avoid just this. I didn't want people to come back to me and point out the fact "it's your tactics" I play this game for 14 years and 80%of the time I play narrow systems as I've always been in love with the 4-4-2 diamond. I can spot a lack of central play in a heartbeat without even looking at stats. The only reason I have went through the stats is so that everyone can see.

Again, I really appreciate you taking the time to do what I did and show your results.

October 23, 2021

7 minutes ago, craiigman said:

Good write up, I hope I don't regret my purchase and there are some tweaks to this.

It all boils down to what you enjoy about football manager. FM22 is a welcomed QoL improvement over FM21 and that's a nice positive. For me and other like me, match engine is everything. I could play this game without media, social aspects, etc. All I care about is the match engine, as that is the only thing that can really keep me immersed for hours. This is the reason for why I spot these things in a heartbeat. If you enjoy more aspects of the game, with not a huge focus on match engine, then you will probably love FM22 and can be more patient than me in waiting for a "fix" to the match engine. I for one, have just loaded up FM21 and play it until an update / full version comes out for FM22.

October 23, 2021

@akkm @TheArsenal63 @FM1000

Going back to the conversation we've had about central play, or shall i say ... the lack it, I want to share a few screenshots with you:

You can see the tactic I am using, I have won Serie A (which is not all the hard to do with Juventus), had the best attack and defence in Serie A, etc. Then you can see a screenshot regarding my team report saying that we have a problem penetrating the central areas, but we are doing great on the left flank. It is very easy to understand why we do well on the left flank, since I have an attacking full-back over there.But why are we doing so poorly in central midfield ? Only 81 out of 359 entries into the final third were made through the centre. For clarity, that is barely 22% central penetration in FM22. With the same system (more or less) I get 58% central penetration in FM21. I have attached the screenshots below, including the one taken from FM21 with Gladbach for comparison.

The cherry on top is the actual stats, as in the through balls according to the stats. And by the way, below you have the reason for why I don't bother with stats much and rather use my eyes and attention to analyze my own tactics for the most part. In FM22 as you see in the screenshot below, aparently the majority of my goals are coming from through balls (even though that is not what I am witnessing on the pitch), but then the feedback says that we are struggling to penetrate central areas .... hmmm Would those so called "through balls" be actual crosses ? my guess is yes. I believe that a lot of crosses are being recorded as through balls. If I actually had as many through balls as the game says I do, I wouldnt bother writing this post. Also, in FM21 stats do confirm what my eyes are seeing, but that's not the case in FM22. Have a look below.

P.S This is also the reason for why I had so many ... let's call them heated conversation when FM19 and FM20 came out. I was explaining this exact same thing and then some people whould just send me to the stats screen and point to the through balls numbers. It all depends on our definition of a through ball and the game's definition of one. But one thing's for sure: the screenshots above actually highlight the problem in no uncertain terms: I have aproblem penetrating through the middle, even my analyst is saying that

I hope this is helpful to anyone running into this "issue" as well as any dev who reads these posts. This is something really really hard (impossible) to report as a bug because I personally don't even know what's causing this and what' even the name of the issue. I hope they do read these threads, even though I appreciate how time consuming it must be.

October 23, 2021

10 minutes ago, akkm said:

Hey...no one is saying central playing isn't existing on this years engine and @SebastianRO post above gives a well balanced view of the current state of the unbalanced engine. It is heavily reliant on wide areas for creativity...overly reliant in reality.

Of course teams block central areas as in real world football but pass decision making in FM isn't up to real world standards and centrally it requires very apparent or large spaces where real world football players and teams CAN and DO operate centrally in tight spaces to thread short along the ground passes into players to try and probe for openings. In FM its much much harder and unrealistically the case to try and pass and probe through middle.

Also notice players aren't actually making themselves available positionally in pockets of space inside and in between the lines much and moving dynamically to react to defensive structures to either make themselves available for either a passing option or to drag opposition out of position.

So at the moment this year spaces are out wide and as team move the ball better out wide and crossing isn't blocked as much as last year creativity for chances and goals is heavily skewed towards the wings and its much more akin to FM19/20 than last year.

Thats not to say there isn't some great play and good build up currently in the engine. Agree as @kiwityke1983 mentioned the ebb and flow of a game has been captured like never before however in terms of creativity in FM its heavily skewed the toward the wings so its essentially the opposite to how the real world works. In real world football teams essentially teams will attack the centre or want to...there's a reason team block the centre of the pitch first and foremost...by blocking there teams will clearly move the ball out wide inside and back and forth buts it's with a view to dragging opposition defensive set up/players out of position to slot them in back inside...of course they'll cross and score that way but in FM teams are too happy to get it wide and cross it from...lazily so in that they take rudimentary option to cross instead of coming back inside to keep probing there...its unrealistic and currently not simulating real world footballing behaviour and decision making.

Players in FM need to have a bump up to their creativity vision and propensity to play threaded passes inside along the ground and through balls along the ground inside and movement needs ehancing as well to give them options. Space inside is too restrictive to passing and moving there...of course it should be hard but in FM its unrealistically hard and it's currently not reflecting how teams and players get around that as they do in the real world in central areas and in the attacking third

If anyone is not seeing that all one has to do is check out the analysis tab in FM to see where key passes are played from and do the same on whoscored website and they'll see FM is HEAVILY skewed towards key passes from out wide which is the OPPOSITE to real world football. Its GLARING the difference between FM and real world and proves current engine is lacking quite a lot.

Should this be addressed then that combined with much improved ebb and flow, better animations, improved wide play then the engine will be a magnificent simulation of football and the best yet...without it then the most basic fundamentals of pass and moving will be missing and it will be far too rudimentary and interpretation of football is played...ie crossing trumps all...which just isn't either good or even realistic football

The only post that literally resonates with my thoughts since the dreaded days of FM19 and FM20. FM21 was very well balanced and a joy to watch / play. This year however seems like SI have improved the match engine in many aspects, but it seems to come at a higher cost than I'm willing to pay, so to speak. I am happy with the ebb and flow of the game, animations and pretty much everything else, but I cannot but notice that I am playing FM20 all over again, just in a much more fluid way. Great post btw, as articulate as it can possibly be.

October 23, 2021

2 minutes ago, XaW said:

This is playing in the Vanarama North, so this is exactly what I expect to see. I don't have De Bruyne or Pedri, but I have Eli Phipps with 7 passing and 8 vision. So that pass looks perfectly good for the level I'm at.

So at a higher level, you could well make an argument for another choice, but for my part, this is a good example of what to expect from very good attacking movement (centrally -> wide) at this level.

You are absolutely corect, given the league you are playing in, but I saw the same exact thing in top flight teams / leagues and that's why I decided to post about this. I intentionally tried the game, playing as teams with the best (creative) AMCs our there and the result was pretty much what you showed over there in the Vanarama League with very few exceptions.

October 23, 2021

9 minutes ago, XaW said:

I had a good variant of this just now.

Play centrally to open space outside and then move it back in for a goal.

This proves both our points For a split second, your player Pippa I believe his name is, had the oportunity to make the killer ball himself, but chose to pass it wider. There is nothing wrong with this, but it is concerning because it seems to me that it's actually a trend. I want my highly creative players to "earn their pay" and separate themselves from the pack. Ultimately, this is why you pay the premium for a player like De Bruyne or Pedri, or their equivalents from other leagues / levels. This is what flair means as far as I know: be the one who does the unexpected even though mathematically there would have been safer options. To me this is what is exciting about football.

October 23, 2021

2 minutes ago, craiigman said:

I haven’t got the game yet but I was very vocal/frustrated about lack of central play in FM19/20. However the way you have written this sounds like real football, no? Move the ball out-wide to try and open up the space, and then when there is space in the middle the killer ball is attempted/made.

Again I’ve not played the game yet so may well be going wide too much. But the way you’ve written sounds fine.

It would have been real football unless the central players won't ignore the strikers even though there is space, especially for high quality creative players. The problem is the fact that they don't even attempt to try a killer ball most of the times, even players with 17 Vision and Flair. This is a problem no matter how you look at it. Like I said, they try it with consistency only when there is so much space available that people like you and me would try on a real pitch. Once you actually play it, it feels exactly like FM19 and FM20 in this specific regard.

October 23, 2021

I just want to follow up on my post I made yesterday with regards to the feedback I gave and more specifically my last paragraph from that post, which was the one you see below:

20 hours ago, SebastianRO said:

Overall, the game feels really really good in most of the aspects that I am interested in. I only tried Serie A and Bundesliga so far, so can't really comment on any other leagues. Like many others, I have noticed that some player profiles take a long time to load, but ... it's a beta, so nothing concerning. The one massive downside to me, it's the match engine itself, so I will explain this as clear as I can:

In FM19 and FM20 a lot of the movement on the pitch was "directed" or "orchestrated" on the flanks. Maybe these are not the best terms to describe what what going on, but most of you know exactly what I am talking about. This resulted in many crosses / goals from crosses / blocked crosses, etc. Personally I take issue with this, since I am a big believer and fan of a narrow, central midfield oriented style of football. This style relies heavily on support from the flanks, but support being the key word here. When I play a 4-4-2 diamond narrow I do not attack down the flanks, but rather I use my full-backs as a wide option for passes. I don't want them to cross that ball into the box relentlessly. In FM19 and FM20 this is exactly what they did for the most part regardless of instructions / tactics, etc. If not them, then the wingers, the takeaway is the fact that it was very little to no penetration through the middle. This unfortunatelly is exactly what I am seeing in FM22 beta so far. In FM19 and FM20 the strikers did very little off the ball movement and I believe that was the reason for why the CMs preffered to pass it wide, but I don't think that's the case in FM22. I see my 2 strikers up front quite active and dynamic, so the issue might be coming from a different place. I really hope this is just a "beta" thing and not another FM19 / FM20 trend. In comparison, FM21 seems the perfect balance between central and wide position usage that I have seen from this franchise since FM17.

Since yesterday I have tried different tactics with different teams and I have seen enough to reach a conclusion for the time being or at least until a new patch. There is a lack of central play in the final third and I will also explain why i came to this conclusion. In one of my tactics I went for a patient build up style and noticed that my CB were passig the ball wide but also to the DLP ahead of them depending on where and when the opposition was pressing. So far so good. As soon as the ball reached the DLP being either in the DM or CM position he would then most of the time pass it wide to the FBs or to the wingers if I used any. From there it was a case of either the FB or the winger attacking the flank or recycling posession in the central areas only for the ball to then go straight to the other flank. If you follow these patterns in FM21 I can see that my CMs or AMCs will try and disrupt the oposition through the middle just as much as they will try to do it on the flanks (which makes sense overall). In FM22 there is a huge imbalance between central and wide areas bias. That being said, I have of course noticed beautiful central play and through balls straight down the middle BUT only in situations when the oposition was caught off guard and the space they allowed me in front of their 16 yard box was way too much or in a case when the space between their CBs was too much. That is when my central playmaker(s) were comfortable enough to try a killer through ball. Another occurance when i have consistently seen through balls was when I recovered the ball back around the centre of the pitch and caught the oposition off guard and then my player in control of the ball was just trying a long ball through the middle for my striker. A final occurance of through balls are sometimes from my full backs down the channel between the oposition FB and CB ... but this would happen consistently only if I used a 2 striker system. Everything i've said soo far doesn't mean I literally don't see any other instances of through balls down the middle, because I do from time to time, but these occurances are rather rare and not consistent enough to be identified as a pattern or a staple of my tactics as it should be.

I watch my matches in Extended or sometimes comprehensive mode and this is why I don't really go to the data (stats) screens too often (maybe once every 2 months in game or after a difficult match). I tweak my tactics and try to understand them according to what my eyes see in comprehensive mode until I build the framework of a tactic. All my observations above were made by using a 4-4-2 diamond narrow, 4-3-1-2, 5-2-1-2 and 4-3-3 systems. The patterns I have described above were present in every single one of these systems, to different extents of course. In comparison, in FM21 the same systems / tactics used to work very much differently, as in more balanced between central and wing play. I would go as far as saying it was almost a sweet spot, which is definetely not what I am seeing in FM22 beta so far, unfortunately.

October 22, 2021

After trying the beta in the limited ammount of time we've all had since it launched, I can say:

1. Beeter UI / UX. Even though these haven't changed much since last year's itteration, they have changed enough to represend a QoL improvement. The information on most screens is better presented, making it easier for us to spot the things we are interested in.

2. Better Performance. This year, the game feels very very snappy and the 3D match runs with no hiccups even in 4K 60fps constant on my laptop to TV setup. In FM21 I had a framerate issue which was present thought the entire lifecycle of the game, so I am very happy with the improvement in the optimization department.

3. More Fluid Animations. The 3D match animations look better than they ever did, which even though it was expected, it's a big positive nonetheless.

Overall, the game feels really really good in most of the aspects that I am interested in. I only tried Serie A and Bundesliga so far, so can't really comment on any other leagues. Like many others, I have noticed that some player profiles take a long time to load, but ... it's a beta, so nothing concerning. The one massive downside to me, it's the match engine itself, so I will explain this as clear as I can:

In FM19 and FM20 a lot of the movement on the pitch was "directed" or "orchestrated" on the flanks. Maybe these are not the best terms to describe what what going on, but most of you know exactly what I am talking about. This resulted in many crosses / goals from crosses / blocked crosses, etc. Personally I take issue with this, since I am a big believer and fan of a narrow, central midfield oriented style of football. This style relies heavily on support from the flanks, but support being the key word here. When I play a 4-4-2 diamond narrow I do not attack down the flanks, but rather I use my full-backs as a wide option for passes. I don't want them to cross that ball into the box relentlessly. In FM19 and FM20 this is exactly what they did for the most part regardless of instructions / tactics, etc. If not them, then the wingers, the takeaway is the fact that it was very little to no penetration through the middle. This unfortunatelly is exactly what I am seeing in FM22 beta so far. In FM19 and FM20 the strikers did very little off the ball movement and I believe that was the reason for why the CMs preffered to pass it wide, but I don't think that's the case in FM22. I see my 2 strikers up front quite active and dynamic, so the issue might be coming from a different place. I really hope this is just a "beta" thing and not another FM19 / FM20 trend. In comparison, FM21 seems the perfect balance between central and wide position usage that I have seen from this franchise since FM17.

October 22, 2021

2 hours ago, FM1000 said:

Any vids of goals from through balls? Everything posted here was goals from crosses or long shots.

I have played 10 games so far and only scored 2 goals out of 18 from through balls. A little bit concerning to me, as I don't want another FM19 / FM20 experience. Let's hope it's not a trend and more of a tactic / beta "issue". I will be trying a 4-4-2 diamond narrow tactic and create everything around scoring from through balls, so let's hope this changes. FM21 was a great great experience in this regard.

April 14, 2021

There's nothing quite like a time machine

February 16, 2021

I am on my 3rd long term save, around 2030 and I have noticed a pattern in all 3 of them: the lack of quality anchor man, ball winning midfielders and wide midfielders. So let me elaborate a bit:

The game seems to have a tendency of creating a lot of DLP who usually can play in both DM and MC role. The problem is that in my saves there is a huge imbalance between the number of decent and high quality DLP and a proper Anchor Man or Ball Winning Midfielder. I have found myself retraining Center Backs to either play as Anchor Man or in some more extreme cases as a BWM. Of course I am only talking about regens and not the real life players. I know that the traditional Anchor Man is not a highly popular role (profile) in real life anymore, but they still exist and there are some very good ones out there. For me this is quite important as I love this role and it fits perfectly in my tactical setups.

My second gripe is with the Wide Midfielder role, as I face the same situation as the one described above regarding the Anchor Man. There just seem to be ... none or close to none. I am talking about the role of Wide Midfielder, not about a player who can play wide. I see loads and loads of great wingers, inverted wingers, inside forwards, but not a single quality wide midfielder in 10 years. So ... I found myself yet again retraining other players to fit that role i.e Wing Backs, as they seem closest to the actual profile of a Wide Midfielder.

I have noticed a trend if FM for the past 3 years and that is to replicate real life football statistics and numbers as close as possible. Every action has a reaction though (law of the Universe) and this in turn funnels us to play a very specific type of football in order to get maximum efficiency against the A.I. This happens in multiple ways; Gegenpress OP (or maybe not OP, but defending is definetly underrated), the lack of specific player profiles as years go on also force us to adopt a more specific style of play. I could have a whole conversation about this topic alone, but I will leave it here. I will say though that FM is a game, a beautiful game .... but a game nontheless. With this in mind I would like to not have my tools taken away from me for the sake of realism or replicating statistics / numbers. The whole beauty is to have a game that is not biased towards some IRL trend and let YOU, THE PLAYER explore and create whatever tactical system (even from the past) and not feel like it just doesn't belong in this game.

January 30, 2021

1 hour ago, Novem9 said:

If we talking IRL situation, Russian clubs have a stupid foreign limit, so Russian players have no reason to leave own clubs because they have a good salary (highly overrated for them) and gurantee of time ( + dont forget their tax just 13%, because Russia has multiple tier taxation). Just few high-potential players with an ambitions could try to play in Europe.

Concerning FM, I played in AZ in FM20 and this was the same situation as your. I tried to sell my striker because I have few young players for his position, but he didnt leave my club even for top clubs and HIGHER salary. Feels like players like a 'dynasty' team and stability of this

I haven't played the game in Russia before in any edition of FM, this is why I decided to create a thread about it. Managing here feels so so ... retro. To me it feels exactly like the IRL football in the 90s and 00s especially in Italy. The italian players there would preffer to play for the same club (or in the same league at least) for their entire career. Personally, I very very much like this because it gives the clubs and the league an actual identity.

Regarding ambition, as you mentioned, I just checked the ambition stat for all of my best players and I noticed that it's particularly high regardless of age, even higher than their loyalty stat (on average). The "dynasty" you mentioned, yea ... it feels exactly like that

January 30, 2021

On 21/01/2021 at 15:10, isignedupfornorealreason said:

I'm just wondering if it may be tied to two things?

1. A low adaptability stat - they may not feel they want to move, as they won't settle into the culture?

2. I wonder if they might think they won't get the work permit, so they're not kicking up a fuss?

Just my guesses though.

You made a good point with the low adaptability stat and I actually fired up the in game editor to check this. I have went through my own players, as well as the other best players in the league. I didn't notice a low adaptability issue, in fact I noticed the contrary with players age 25+. I would assume that age has an impact on how adaptable a player is and this is why the older the player, the higher this stat gets on average.

Speaking of work permit, they don't really need one, except for UK. I have just declined an offer for Nail Umyarov from Dortmund worth £ 34M in 23/24 and he didn't even make a squeak. His adaptability is 17 and he doesn't even have Spartak Moscow as his favourite club. We also just knocked out Dortmund out of UCL Quarter - Final, so that might have had an impact on him not kicking up a fuss (but still their reputation exceeds ours).

On 22/01/2021 at 18:34, Vänsterback said:

Isn't the standard narrative on this topic from the real world the following: Because of the squad rules, Russian clubs pay Russian players ridiculously high wages due to the fact that they need Russian key players in their squad. This means that Russian players will not be offered more lucrative contracts from other countries unless we talk about the very biggest clubs in Europe.

That may be represented in the game somehow. Perhaps the template for newgens with Russian nationality is set to have high loyalty and/or low adaptability?

Russian clubs don't pay ridiculously high wages to russian players in my save. Heck, I am massively underpaying them if anything. I have top notch players on an average of £2.2 M / year. My best paid russian player, Nail Umyarov is on £ 2.9M / year and the next best paid is the captain, Georgy Djikia on £ 2.4M / year. I have sold a few russian players over the years, as the interest in them was very high and I had little use for them and they all got much much better contracts elsewhere (and Im talking mid table elsewhere type of club). I conclude that contracts are definetly not a factor, as they can get better contracts almost anywhere else at clubs of similar reputation and stature.

You are right on your second point though (half - right) As I replied to @isignedupfornorealreason , I checked their stats with the in game editor and their adapatability is not an issue at all. Umyarov for example has adaptability 17 and most of the players age 25+ have decent adaptability on average. However, you were spot on with the loyalty stat. I have noticed that is quite high on average across all russian players no matter the age. On this stat, age didn't seem to have any sort of impact. I have 2 wonderkids (both lethal strikers, aged 19 and 18) and they have loyalty 14, respectively 16.

All in all, it's very refreshing playing at Spartak Moscow, not having to constantly appease players for declining every single offer that comes their way. I will surely miss this luxury the minute I decide to start again in the top leagues.

January 19, 2021

Hi guys, I just noticed something really really interesting (to me at least) and I want to share it with you guys and get the opinion of those of you who managed in Russia before. So, I am playing as Spartak Moscow and I am not beginning my 3rd season. For those of you who don't know, Spartak has a lot of young talent and a very good team overall, also the academy has been producing some jaw-dropping regens over these 2-3 years. Now that the stage is set, here is what I find interesting:

Over the years, I have received offers for my players from all across the globe, especially the rich chineese clubs but never once had my players became unsettled. Now ... every rule has it's exceptions and this is no different. There was one instance when Inter Milan made an offer for my very talented midfielder Nail Umyarov (see album below), but I flat out rejected it). This caused the player to wanted to "have a chat", but surprisingly he agreed to stay at the club. Because I am trying to build a European powerhouse here, I have rejected all the offers for my best russian players (I need the good ones because of the rules in the league) and they didn't become unsettled, no matter the offer of the value or stature of the club enquiring. I have managed in more than 75% of Europe in my 15 years of FM, but never once have I seen this before. Usually, when a club makes offers relentlesly, even wanting to overpay me, the player eventually wants to be allowed to discuss terms with that club, but not here aparently (except that unique instance I mentioned above). I would like to know what you guys think about this and especially from those of you who have managed in Russia before (I didn't) and let me know what your experience was like. Also, have you had this fortunate thing happen to you at any other club ?

Not related to the topic, but nice to see nontheless, is the academy of this club ... absolutelly stellar. I included a few screenshots below so you can see what talent it can produce. I introduced every single great youngster into the first team as soon as possible because I wanted to give them minutes and mentoring, etc. For those of you who feel that Western Europe has become stale and want a fresh interesting adventure, I recommend you trying this club.

https://imgur.com/a/Nh0rR0R

January 19, 2021

Hi guys, is there any skin / mod that gives us the timeline back during the match ? I still cannot believe they removed it. I am willing to support anyone who has created / creates such a mod.

January 10, 2021

Thanks for the reply guys. Well ... I guess I will play this one hardcore then

January 10, 2021

Right .. so I have done something I haven't done since FM13 and that is: manage a team outside of the top European leagues. I decided to take on Spartak Moscow to a long adventure and oh boy ... what a first season that was, incredible ! I fully recommend you guys to give this team / league a go if you want something new: lots of young players, talented and they play FIRE ! Anyway, the reason I am here is because I do have a question you guys may know the answer:

If I click on any player in the league (except my own players) I am unable to see a single attribute. I need to scout them before I can have an understanding of what sort of player profile I am looking at. The best I got, was seeing the stats like 9-15 or 6-12 ... you get the picture. Even after a full season in the league, the situation is unchanged. I find this very weird, as whenever I am managing in Serie A or Bundesliga, I can see most of the player's attributes (players in those leagues I am managing). I chose my nationality as Russian and I do have 7 scouts at the club as well, so I really don't know why this stuff happens. Please let me know your thoughts and suggestions.

January 6, 2021

8 minutes ago, ViG1980 said:

SI just loves more clicks - never mind the game, they've added more clicks just to get to this forum apparently.

Maye it easy on yourself and bookmark this page or the one you want to land on, that's what I did.

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