MBarbaric

try to delete cache in your preferences.

epl has standardized pitches across the league except few teams that can't meet the dimensions due to space restrictions. even those (i think) will need to comply within some time frame.

defending and fluid/very fluid can work perfectly well within the game. the problem is that naming SI chose is rather unfortunate as fluid is usually connected with attacking and rigid with defensive approach. it has nothing to do with how the game actually interprets these labels though.

amazing LewisQ! Didn't expect so many good news. Wish I could go and visit the place. Love ground hopping and going to the terraces of Terecuda full of happy dockers would be quite a trip. And we dominated elections that is good, but i se no sport secretary. They should invest in free pitches and playgrounds all over the city to help the grass roots soccer. I would suggest paid coaches at grass roots level. That would ensure long term success of Terecuda City. Any way my proposal could get into the city council?

to make more challenge of the game you could try this: - show attributes as bars (no 1-20 numbers but a bar length so you don't have exact idea if the player has 16 or 14 for finishing) - find a skin to replace 10 star player rating system with only 5 stars or get rid of it completely. makes more difficult signing best players and dominating the league.

because it is gibraltar? non professional teams?

hey Lewis, how is Terecuda doing in the league? are workers in Southern province being paid and do they have health insurance? Do they go to matches, fire pyro and organize non league tournaments? is there an ultras group?

there's nothing wrong with being sacked. just pick your bags and try at different club. it happened to virtually all managers in the world so just move on and you will learn much more as you face different teams, players, styles... than by restarting.

well, there are engineers and programmers who should think about how to do that over certain time span. nobody thinks it could be done in a year or two. but there should be some road map that slowly moves FM logic towards football logic. some basic plan which things need to move first and what is to follow. separate defense and offense in TC check coaching manuals and see how defense works in football -implement basic positioning -introduce zones -implement pressing check coaching manuals and see how offense works in football ... ahh, and get rid of team shape. that absolutely makes no sense in football terms and confuses the hell out of people. team shape is formation in any football context and nobody knows what it actually means in FM.

i think all the confusion starts with people not grasping that in defensive phase all players become defenders while on attack they are attackers ;D to clear the confusion TC should be divided into defensive and offensive phases as minimum. defensive shapes and attacking shapes, team instructions, individual instructions, team philosophies... instead of current one shape fits all approach.

That's why i stopped playing with full backs on FM16 some things will always be on disposition to human player as I don't think anyone can take into account all the possibilities. however, it is important the ME is capable of replicating basic football behaviour as that alone would already prevent (or at least minimize) crossing exploit in FM 16 and central overload in FM17.

it would be interesting to see an analysis how many chances Liverpool created due to their counterpress and how many they conceded. However, we talk about two different phases in defense here. While some teams don't engage in it at all, liverpool defends from front and use counterpress in attacking third. this is risk they take as you say. However, on opposition positional attacks they, as everyone else in general, do get back. i don't know which bournemouth match you were talking about as the first one (this season) in December Bou scored once on counter attack, penalty, free kick and scramble in the box after long shot. The second played in April Bou scored after backpass to GK was intercepted in the box and, again, after a scramble in the box following the long shot. I just picked random screenshot of Liverpool in their half when Bournemouth is in positional attack and again... it seems to me we speak about different phases of defence in different zones. positional attacks of opposition show defensive shape of defending team in their half, i.e. the above screenshot of liverpool against Bournemouth. Different principles apply for different zones (attacking, middle and defensive third). FM fails largely in all of them but the base for defending is defence inside own half. It has some strict rules that one can see in all screenshots i've pasted wheter it is within 4-1-4-1/4-4-2/or whichever defensive shape. in general it is short and narrow and then managers, as you rightly pointed out with Mourinho, adapt to opposition if they have the squad, time and ability to do. What bugs me about FM is that this basic principles aren't implemented and they create problems within ME for AI and human player although human can do much more. I don't think I've even touched the defending from front (attacking third and high middle third) as that is whole new debate that is useless to talk about until the basics aren't sorted out. I hate being pain in the arse but I have an impression whoever does the tactical side of the ME has either little clue how that works in real or has serious problems implementing it in the game. either way it is not good for a product that markets itself as most realistic football simulation. It is to an extent, but it involves deeper understanding of tactics from user and AI doesn't benefit while in real, it should be default in the ME so AI can benefit from it. Until then, user will be able to somewhat replicate that, but the AI will never be able to do it. As westychimp says, the whole premisse od defensive formation - player natural positions, show this confusion that spills over into match engine with defensive organization being out of place as well.

defending from front, defending in the middle third and defensive third are all different and teams have different approaches to each of these zones. not liverpool nor barcelona defend without wingers dropping off when opposition is in attacking zone by default. LIVERPOOL DEFENSIVE THIRD ORGANIZATION: plain zonal against Chelsea with medium block how could liverpool cope with Chelsea attacking with 8 men without wingers dropping? they'd be overrun. BARCELONA DEFENSIVE ORGANIZATION IN MIDDLE THIRD: zonal with high block Same with Barcelona, how coul they cope with 8 opposition players if Suarez/Messi/Neymar simply shut off when Sevilla had the ball? I really encourage you to take a look in the next game you watch. don't look at the ball but concentrate on what happens around the ball, how players withuot the ball move. distingusih between zones on the pitch and observe how different team works defensively in different zones. liverpool employs counterpressing in offensive third but they don't always get the ball back. in fact, most of the time they don't. once the opposition is able to evade the press, they do come back in defensive shape with minimum 8 players to defend positional attacks. to say neymar or suarez don't come back is plain wrong. only messi in that team has some slack but even he is either coming back to cover the pasisng lanes or has someone else covering for him. neymar and suarez make great defensive work. west ham did great against tottenham defending high up the pitch in order to disrupt ball distribution and impede tottenham from developing their game. but most of the time they defended deep with man oriented pressing and certainly in numbers. WEST HAM DEF ORG IN DEFENSIVE THIRD: Man oriented zonal marking, medium/deep block there simply aren't teams that leave more than two players (more likely one if teams are equal) without defensive duty in top football as a continuous strategy. that might be so in lower leagues or 30,40 years ago and in football manager.

that is always an option and it should be in the game. a team that is expected to win and faces all opponents that sit deep rarely arriving to positional attack game in game out . however, when two similar teams meet and opposition is regularly in middle/attacking third with seven players i don't think that would work long term and don't remember seeing a team playing that way by default certainly not for whole season or even match. could you give an example where you've seen it, who did it? how does that setup mitigate for three players who "stay out of the way"?

only TI in real that would make him stand so wide would be to mark the full back/winger, otherwise by default he+d be inside together with the rest of the defensive unit. in FM that is the other way around. the formation in fm might really be the defensive positioning but that makes the whole thing worse as there is no 4-2-3-1 defensive shape in defensive phase unless you are high up the pitch trying to press high. in own half nobody defends within 4-2-3-1 shape. some players might be excluded from defensive duties and occupy higher position but that is an exception. it is specific instruction that overrides the default defensive behaviour and normally teams offset that with other players making up for it. otherwise you'd have constant overload in that area. what i am trying to say is that defending concepts in the game are very vaguely represented to a point that they don't only look unnatural but hurt the gameplay as it allows varius exploits and unrealistic behaviour that should be aknowledged and worked on. you, or anyone else doesn't need to believe me and that is perfectly fine. but try to find some person who knows tactis from something more than just watching football. or google FA textbooks. i don't know where SI gets their advice on defensive positioning but this is plain wrong and it is random 30 seconds of a random match. it repeats over and over on AI and human side which suggests it is hard coded and intended, not a bug. lets make FM great again