Football Manager 2014 - Update 14.2.2 - Feedback Thread

[BiggusD]

Useful post.

In reality, the average number of corners per match is relatively consistent across leagues, being roughly 10-11, so FM isn't far out. The average number of free kicks is wide, from 24-37, depending on the league. Again, FM does well. If anything, it's slightly on the low side, which suggests that tackling success rates are too high.

Throw ins are the obvious anomaly. They should be at circa 10-12 in a match. Currently, they are at 40-60! Basically, if anybody wants to help improve the ME, they need to look at passes out of play and report any unrealistic ones as bugs.

By my observation, most of those throw-ins come from wild clearances (it certainly feels like it). I think a boost to Composure would be in order. The unfortunate knock-on effect would be higher shot/goal conversion, but I think this could be alleviated by massively boosting the keeper's ability on shots from medium-to-long distance; those that are based on Technique/Flair/Long Shots rather than Finishing/Composure.

I think that it is more realistic that shots from expert finishers from within the 5-meter box should be almost certainties, but rather rare, while most shots come from 10-15 meters out and the keeper is rather good at saving those. As it is now, it is the other way around!

[Dagenham_Dave]

Throw ins are the obvious anomaly. They should be at circa 10-12 in a match. Currently, they are at 40-60!

The real life average of throw ins per game is over 40 apparently

From footballspeak.com

Let’s look at some stats: during the average football match, the ball will be sent out of play around 90 times: 45 throws, 23 free kicks (inc. offsides), 11 corners, and 11 goal kicks. These 90 outages account for, on average, 35 minutes of the 90. Of 90 dead ball situations, around 50% are throws. 45 throw-ins per game, 22-23 per team. O’Driscoll claims that the danger comes from switching off due to ‘innocuousness’ of the set piece. Similarly, teams do not tend to run attacking-minded drills in training for throw-ins the same way they do for corners, free kicks or any other set piece.

[Rob4590]

Quite a few of the 'extra' throw ins come from clearances from corners which go relatively close to the corner-taker - who simply allows them out - whereas in real life, he would definitely keep it in play and send in another cross if possible.

[wwfan]

The real life average of throw ins per game is over 40 apparently

From footballspeak.com

You could be right. Read back the reference I used and I'm not sure if it refers to long throws or throws in total.

[wwfan]

You could be right. Read back the reference I used and I'm not sure if it refers to long throws or throws in total.

Yup. I was wrong. 30-50 seems to be the total match range of throw ins. So, basically, the set piece match stats are pretty much accurate across the board.

[Dagenham_Dave]

Quite a few of the 'extra' throw ins come from clearances from corners which go relatively close to the corner-taker - who simply allows them out - whereas in real life, he would definitely keep it in play and send in another cross if possible.

That's not strictly true all the time, a lot of players leave the ball to go out for a throw, particularly if another player is a good long-throw taker. Can also give the attackers the chance to re-organise in the box. Seen that happen quite often in games I go to.

[Lord Rowell]

Yup. I was wrong. 30-50 seems to be the total match range of throw ins. So, basically, the set piece match stats are pretty much accurate across the board.

Its a few pages back but I did a little survey of the number of corners per game in comparison to real-life and, in FM14.2, a conservative estimate is 20% too many corners, possibly higher - which of course is at least a partial explanation for the excessive number of goals from corners, which I also demonstrated using real-life and in-game data.

http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/378442-Football-Manager-2014-Update-14.2.0-Feedback-Thread?p=9302224#post9302224

^^^ here's a link to my post about number of corners

http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/378442-Football-Manager-2014-Update-14.2.0-Feedback-Thread?p=9301136#post9301136

^^^ here's a link to some stuff I posted about goals from corners

[BiggusD]

Yup. I was wrong. 30-50 seems to be the total match range of throw ins. So, basically, the set piece match stats are pretty much accurate across the board.

Could be that Extended shows too many of them, then, and too little midfield battle.

[Sammuthegreat]

I haven't read through the whole thread so apologies if this has already come up, but anyway. My $0.02 on 14.2.

I'm getting on much better with the new engine after tweaking my tactics a bit since immediately post-patch things went a bit wobbly - mostly down to player instructions being inexplicably swapped around. Annoyingly re-assigning my player instructions to the correct players dropped my tactical familiarity an absolute mile and I didn't reach 100% familiarity again all season.

Immediately after the patch, corners seemed to have about a 90-95% success rate, both for the AI and for my team. This seems to have evened out a great deal over time though so it's no longer that big a concern. It may just have been an anomalous run of matches. Either way it was never unfair since corners were just as effective for my own team.

Two very minor niggles though. Firstly, I use the AssMan's Feedback widget on the Full Pitch view during matches. However when I go to view a match my team wasn't involved in - say, for example, I went to watch England play in the World Cup when I'm Stockport manager - obviously the AssMan widget isn't there, since my AssMan isn't involved in the match. The annoying thing is that when I next play a match with my actual team, the AssMan widget has disappeared and has to be reactivated, moved into place and resized all over again. Most annoying.

The second minor complain is even more minor, but still annoying when you're as pedantic as I am. I play a flat 4-4-2 and for some strange reason, the LCM and LB positions have swapped. This means that in friendlies my LCM is #3 and my LB is #8, when they should clearly be the other way round. Also, on the fixtures screen, when I click on a game and the team's ratings pop up on the right hand side, the LB and the LCM are the wrong way round. Very annoying minor niggle. I have tried re-setting the formation entirely by loading a stock 4-4-2, but the problem persists. Hardly game-breaking I know since it has no practical ill effects, but it still bugs me.

Anyway, my general impression of 14.2 is pretty positive (FINALLY "play into space" produces actual through balls!) so keep up the good work!

[Lawlore]

I'm coming from a somewhat different position to a lot of people here- I bought the game at Christmas, so 14.2 is my first serious experience of the FM14 engine. I'd briefly played the demo, but got extremely annoyed by the ice skating effects, as I reported.

However, the game was down to £15, so I figured what the hell. I also didn't buy FM13 at any point- so I am jumping from FM12 to FM14.2 . With that in mind, my considered feedback. I'm playing as Gillingham in League One, and I'm about a dozen league games in.

The ice effect that had previously been my major objection to buying the game is nowhere near as bad in the game as it appears in the demo. I can't explain why or how this is the case, but just from booting up the two, the difference is both observable and obvious. So that was a relief- the players no longer think they're in Riverdance. Sometimes the ball still seems to run farther than you'd expect, but again, this is nowhere near as pervasive as noticed in the demo.

Whilst I've read a lot of this thread and seen many people reporting about corners being overpowered etc., I haven't experienced this. There does seem to be a lot of corners won, but the conversion rate feels reasonably realistic compared with scoring/conceding from open play.

First touches seem to be a bit off- there are quite a few simple passes which you'd expect a player to trap without too much issue that are just running loose. Again, it's not every time, and it's not game-breaking, but I'd expect professional players to have slightly better close control. At first, I felt it may be related to the division, but having observed Premier League games with the same issue, I think it's a question of balancing in the ME.

One thing I will remark upon, non-ME related, is that it seems very easy to bring in free agents who are probably too good for the club and who you'd expect would set their sights a bit higher, even at the end of their careers. But that may just be my expectations of their careers- I suppose Edgar Davids is now really plying his trade in the Conference.

The one that gets me, that needs to be top of the "fix" list is the unemployment bug, which has already been well-documented. Starting unemployed with a lousy rep and not being offered anything is a real wrench to the way I want to play- although I will say that the risk of not ever getting another job if Gillingham sack me does give the added motivation to actually succeed at the club.

Edit: the one thing I missed, which is quite minor, sometimes the box you get when hovering over the "i" button on the tactics page sticks- it's supposed to appear/disappear when you hover/stop hovering. But occasionally it remains, even if you switch to another page altogether, before eventually disappearing. I'll try and get a screenie next time it comes up.

[Dagenham_Dave]

First touches seem to be a bit off- there are quite a few simple passes which you'd expect a player to trap without too much issue that are just running loose. Again, it's not every time, and it's not game-breaking, but I'd expect professional players to have slightly better close control. At first, I felt it may be related to the division, but having observed Premier League games with the same issue, I think it's a question of balancing in the ME.

I'd agree that first touches at the higher levels should be better, but having now watched a number of top level games on this, is what we are seeing always a bad touch, or are they now pushing the ball in front of themselves to run on to? This hasn't really happened in FM before, as it's normally FIFA-esque levels of close control. Whilst there's undoubtedly some horrific touches, perhaps this isn't always the intention .

Edit: the one thing I missed, which is quite minor, sometimes the box you get when hovering over the "i" button on the tactics page sticks- it's supposed to appear/disappear when you hover/stop hovering. But occasionally it remains, even if you switch to another page altogether, before eventually disappearing. I'll try and get a screenie next time it comes up.

Aye, I've noticed this too on occasion. Only on the full game though, it's never happened once on FMC. Perhaps a skin issue.

Good post though.

[inbox]

My 2 friends and I always play the Premier league, since the new update our technical advice can only be seen by the person who plays server, when we want a team conference it shows no options and even if the server gives one there is no responce from the players. Also our team morale seems to sink without even playing, even when winning the team morale slowely sinks. Wich is really annoying because you eventually start losing because of the low morale. for example, my friend is now 1st place and his team morale is in the yellow. At one time he even had all players incl. the non playing players at dramatical morale. Plz fix it quick it really takes the fun out of the game this way.

[Piav86]

I doubt it's related to the patch version but either way...

Playing as WBA, Craig Dawson a promising central defender comes to me to discuss his future.

He is my fourth choice CD so I need him in the squad - I tell him he'll get first team football next season which doesn't do anything for him. I tell he's being unprofessional and he requests a transfer.

Bearing in mind the season is 7 games old it's just a daft scenario.

[Viquitor]

I think there's something wrong, am I right?

[milnerpoint]

Did you start the game with a start date in January?

[Dagenham_Dave]

Have you just started the game at the beginning of 2014? I notice you're managing a Scandinavian team?

If so, there's an issue that other leagues aren't properly simmed throughout the inactive period between summer 2013 and early 2014.

What you're better doing is starting the game in June/July 2013 with a made up manager, holiday until the start of 2014, retire your made up manager, then add yourself in as a proper manager at the team you want, that way the leagues will be properly simmed.

[Viquitor]

Yeah, I started January 2014. I didn't know it was a known (and pretty serious) issue. I'll try what you said, thanks.

[macca72]

I doubt it's related to the patch version but either way...

Playing as WBA, Craig Dawson a promising central defender comes to me to discuss his future.

He is my fourth choice CD so I need him in the squad - I tell him he'll get first team football next season which doesn't do anything for him. I tell he's being unprofessional and he requests a transfer.

Bearing in mind the season is 7 games old it's just a daft scenario.

Don't see much wrong here to be honest mate. You told a 25 year old player 7 games into a 36 game season he's not going to play for a year. Think i'd be pretty annoyed...

EDIT: Apologies, I think he's 23-24

[SuperJackLester]

i hate how if you don't play at least 4 in midfield (not inc wingers) then your assistant keeps bothering you about "struggling to cope with the numbers in midfield". Even if you're wininning 5-0!

[Piav86]

He's only 23 and hasn't played much in real life. He's played in both league cup games and has a squad status of squad rotation. Now he's royally peeved.

[jc1]

He's only 23 and hasn't played much in real life. He's played in both league cup games and has a squad status of squad rotation. Now he's royally peeved.

At 23 he obviously feels it's his time to move up and you're stopping him, at that age, I'd want to play 1st regularly too.

[1882mattspur1882]

sorry if this is wrong thread but is there anyway i can edit the premier league in the editor to be able to sign non eu players before they turn 18?

[dking]

Is it just me or is anybody else experiencing lots of torn ham string injuries?

[PassMaster]

Erm, where is the Loan option? Got Darren Fletcher and Michael Essien all set to go here. Also injuries are mental, started unemployed, got hired by Newcastle and 14 of their first team were out.

[Dagenham_Dave]

Erm, where is the Loan option? Got Darren Fletcher and Michael Essien all set to go here.

Are you still within a transfer window? Perhaps the clubs have made these players unavailable for loan.

Looks like you've joined Newcastle amidst an injury crisis!

[PassMaster]

Are you still within a transfer window? Perhaps the clubs have made these players unavailable for loan.

Looks like you've joined Newcastle amidst an injury crisis!

What it was, I was on JANUARY 1st in game date and thought the transfer window had automatically opened. Clicked continue and the window then kicked in and the loan option is indeed there.

[AIK]

Annoying thing #136542: I dominate the games. I have plenty of chances. My strikers, that have good stats, shoot plenty of shots. Yet, the vast majority of my goals comes from corners. My players can shot 10-20 shots on target (from good positions) and not score once. At least I win the games since my goal scoring machines in the central defence goes up and scores a bunch of goals each game instead. It's boring and unrealistic though.

[Dagenham_Dave]

Annoying thing #136542: I dominate the games. I have plenty of chances. My strikers, that have good stats, shoot plenty of shots. Yet, the vast majority of my goals comes from corners. My players can shot 10-20 shots on target (from good positions) and not score once. At least I win the games since my goal scoring machines in the central defence goes up and scores a bunch of goals each game instead. It's boring and unrealistic though.

Best way to determine whether this is your team's issue or the game's is to check if all the AI teams are doing the same in each match. If you find that their strikers are converting more of their chances, then it's something you can work on yourself.

[AIK]

Best way to determine whether this is your team's issue or the game's is to check if all the AI teams are doing the same in each match. If you find that their strikers are converting more of their chances, then it's something you can work on yourself.

How can I work on something? My players have one-on-ones with the keeper several times each game and can't score. How can that be improved?

[Dagenham_Dave]

How can I work on something? My players have one-on-ones with the keeper several times each game and can't score. How can that be improved?

That's up to you to work out. The point I'm making is that if other teams are converting 1-1 chances with more success then it's clearly possible to do in the game. It can be as simple as changing player personnel, or it can be more tactical surrounding roles and instructions. Or it can simply be that you're just having rotten luck in front of goal, and there's little you can do about that.

The only way the game can be at fault in this scenario is if no teams or players are able to put away those chances. Then there's a problem for SI to fix. Anything else is up to you.

[dking]

Is it just me or is anybody else experiencing lots of torn ham string injuries?

And that's another torn hamstring for one of my players. That's 6 players now in roughly 1 years and 3 in the last month or so (2 in one week), basically since the last patch. Coincidence?

Training is the same as it's ever been and I've not had any issues like this. In fact the training has been pretty much average all round since the 3 torn hamstrings recently.

[HUNT3R]

And that's another torn hamstring for one of my players. That's 6 players now in roughly 1 years and 3 in the last month or so (2 in one week), basically since the last patch. Coincidence?

Training is the same as it's ever been and I've not had any issues like this. In fact the training has been pretty much average all round since the 3 torn hamstrings recently.

More info would be nice. Match injuries? Training injuries?

[Lord Rowell]

And that's another torn hamstring for one of my players. That's 6 players now in roughly 1 years and 3 in the last month or so (2 in one week), basically since the last patch. Coincidence?

Training is the same as it's ever been and I've not had any issues like this. In fact the training has been pretty much average all round since the 3 torn hamstrings recently.

It may just be bad luck - its very very unlikely its the patch.

Some questions for you:

- How high is your training set? If too high this could be causing problems.

- In their report, are these players injury-prone? What's their injury history like?

- Is it the same players getting repeat injuries? Or different players each time?

----- One thing I always do with hamstring injuries is set their training to "strength" for a while when they're back in training as, IRL, I think this helps prevent recurrence.

[alfredho]

Goal keeper is too good

Long shoot is too acurrate

Winger when touch the line never cross to striker back send the ball to outside penalty box to let midfielder long shoot.

[Caesarius]

Feedback of feedback.

I´ve been following this thread from the start and something that surprises me is (and I dont think it happened on earlier versions) many of the people frustrated whit the game or not enjoying it is people registered many years ago.

I have the feeling on past years most of the rant came by new users.

[WayneRomney]

Feedback of feedback.

I´ve been following this thread from the start and something that surprises me is (and I dont think it happened on earlier versions) many of the people frustrated whit the game or not enjoying it is people registered many years ago.

I have the feeling on past years most of the rant came by new users.

I have to say I do not share your view. A lot of new users popped up in this thread, but many posts are deleted. One-liners, hateful messages et al have been removed. The more seasoned posters knows better, and give long and often thoughtful input.

On another note, a lot of the feedback in here I really don't see in my game, like alfredho above here.

[Caesarius]

I have to say I do not share your view. A lot of new users popped up in this thread, but many posts are deleted. One-liners, hateful messages et al have been removed. The more seasoned posters knows better, and give long and often thoughtful input.

On another note, a lot of the feedback in here I really don't see in my game, like alfredho above here.

Cant tell about deleted posts, but ive got surprised by (maybe only a bunch) some oldies stating their "lack of motivation" to play the game.

By oldies I not only mean the ones registered several years ago, but people who really enjoyed the game for a long time, with thousands of posts, useful posts, not like mines or Dagenham_Daves ones.

Sadly I feel the same way and maybe Im just transpolating my feelings.

To me FM13 was bad, this one aint bad, but feels like an alcohol-free old speckled hen on a brand new pink colored plastic bottle.

[Dagenham_Dave]

Has anyone seen a missed penalty (outwith shoot-outs) since the last update? Every one I've seen since, for and against, has been scored.

[Petros7]

Has anyone seen a missed penalty (outwith shoot-outs) since the last update? Every one I've seen since, for and against, has been scored.

Yes, Gerrard missed one for my team in my first season; however it was the only one missed in the whole league for that same season. Second season (end of October) in my games my team has missed two and the opposition one (if I remember correctly); don't know about the rest as I haven't got FM running at the moment.

[RTHerringbone]

Has anyone seen a missed penalty (outwith shoot-outs) since the last update? Every one I've seen since, for and against, has been scored.

I've seen a few saved, but am yet to see one miss the target.

[Dagenham_Dave]

Good stuff, must just be going through a miss-less run at the moment, good to know.

[dking]

It may just be bad luck - its very very unlikely its the patch.

Some questions for you:

- How high is your training set? If too high this could be causing problems.

- In their report, are these players injury-prone? What's their injury history like?

- Is it the same players getting repeat injuries? Or different players each time?

----- One thing I always do with hamstring injuries is set their training to "strength" for a while when they're back in training as, IRL, I think this helps prevent recurrence.

Training is average.

They aren't injury prone.

If nobody else is having issues with it then I guess I've just had some horrendous luck lately.

[gerardpique]

Started a new save and three months and 20 games later with my match prep on tactics, training on tactics/ team cohesion with match prep at high training levels my team is still only competent and accomplished at best, awkward at worst still at the different aspects of my formations on the tactics screen. Since the update and the readjustment of the familiarity algorithms it takes far, far too long for your squad to get used to your tactics. Never mind the fact I still completely do not agree with the massive drop the tactic familiarity takes over the close season. You'd swear players were lobotomized when it comes to the tactical aspect of the game and they've never heard of football let alone played it professionally when learning team formations and styles of play.

[rufcjoe]

The new update has broken the match engine. The stats arent accurate. The player ratings aren't accurate. You assistant turns into a bumbling fool. The match stats aren't accurate, it is impossible to win or build a successful tactic and your players don't listen to your shouts. Poor. I want my money back Or another update but im sure the Jan update won't fix this. Been playing this 13 years and last years changes were some of the bes in the game then since this update it is unplayable. Very poor

[balldoktor81]

guys can somebody elaborate on this:" is it possible that a players "aggress."-atttribute causes him to be too aggressive when trying to body up/tackle an opponent player, and therefore not being successfull in stoping him, despite having good-very good defensive skills???

[Guest El Payaso]

As I started to play my single striker as a false nine I have been getting ~5 one on ones either from my wingers or the striker (combined). I'm really not too annoyed about the amount of these chances missed but the amount of these one on ones. 1 per game would be okay but 5-7 is really really poor from the opponents' defences and also from the AI managers as they don't react to this during the games.

[balldoktor81]

the more i'm watching the games in full-mode the more i'm starting to like this ME version!!!!! well done

[Muzolini8]

I just beat Napoli 7-1 and the headline the next day was "Scrappy win enough to satisfy manager". Wow.

[War Eagle 34]

Something pretty minor that I'm starting to feel is a bit ridiculous are the talks you can have with a player congratulating them for either their first cap or their first international goal. It's amazing how often the player takes my praise the wrong way. I feel like a situation like this irl has very little chance of going wrong, but SI must want us to feel like every situation has a right or wrong, that there are no freebies. But this is taking it a bit too far imo, even though it's pretty funny seeing how highly strung some of my players are.

Honestly, I actually think that player morale is the worst thing broken with the game, even more than corners, wingers not crossing, etc.

The players as a whole act like 12 year old girls, no offense to 12 year old girls. You can win 5 games in a row, have everyone at superb, draw a tough match and you'd think that you just lost 15 matches in a row. OR the minute to minute Looks composed to Looks very nervous. PROFESSIONAL athletes by the nature of the fact that they got THIS far in their career, even at Skrill level are NOT going to be THAT schizophrenic to vary from MINUTE TO MINUTE the way the game represents.

I understand that if you lost a couple in a row, the game can't have EVERYONE at abysmal, but I just wish when I have the BEST team in the league, that when I win 4-5 in a row, but then lose ONE match, that my players wouldn't turn into a bunch of jellyfish.

[jayatsena]

Have anyone mention about the director of football incompetency? I always use them to make a same playing field with AI, unfortunately this year it seems worse than the fm 13 version in term of buying players. They seem can't do a proper negotiations. I hope it will be fixed in the next patch.