Official Football Manager 2015 Feedback Thread 15.2.1

[macca72]

As Norwich manager, I just tried to sign Papastathopolous from Dortmund, as he was transfer listed.

Negotiated a price, and it came to his contract demands. He initially wanted 105K a week, miles ahead of anyone else in my squad. I negotiated it down to 94k a week, which is the ultimate lowest he would go to (and this was with a ton of lucrative clauses). In the end, I pulled out the deal, as it would have crippled me financially, and for a 31-yr old, not really worth it, despite the fact he's a top class player.

A few days later, he signs for Olympiakos. Just look at those wages...

28K. From a team in the Greek league. Even though he wouldn't accept less than 94k a week from a Premier League club. To rub salt in the wounds, Olympiakos also convinced Dortmund to pay around 10k a week of those wages to leave.

I know this issue has been going on for years, but this is the worst one I've seen yet. One day I really hope this will be fixed.

I do sometimes think this is very odd, however I'm not sure you've given enough info to determine that or not.

1. What's the length of contract vs what you offered?

2. What loyalty bonus did you offer (can't compare as you can't see what Olympiakos offered)?

3. Are they in a better European Competition than you?

4. Whats the tax structure in Greece?

5. Are Olympiakos listed in his favourite clubs, or the manager listed in his favourite personnel?

6. What squad status was offered vs Olympiakos?

I think there's much more to it than just money, although if all the above are equal, I'd be interested in the answer from SI as to what drives these decisions.

[Svenc]

Not true.

I played a compact, defensive formation as Sunderland at home to Man City, and beat them 2-0, restricting them to just one shot on goal in the entire match. I had similar success at home to Arsenal with the same side. Of course, it doesn't always work, I got well beat by Chelsea using the same strategy, but they played superbly on the day, so it probably wouldn't have mattered what tactic I played.

It's not so much that on the occasion (and with more luck than previously) you would be able to defend. However teams can penetrate the box with comparable ease at times, and I'm well aware of perception bias that can be at work, which is I why I initially monitored this rather than coming on here ranting. I cannot provide a statistical run down and detailed analysis on this. But this from memory the first ever version I've seen multiple matches in which set piece situations are this dangerous too (for the rest of my run-down see the last page). It's not the best engine iteration for those who want to grind out results FM has ever had, put that way. That is, except if you do it like my Arsenal side did: defending reasonablish high and upon winning the ball back just playing keep ball ad nauseum without commiting forward, which got me a string of 0-0s on the previous patch. (If they don't have the ball they can't score -- and we don't want to).

I haven't actually played that many matches recently, but in my matches alone (on default set piece settings), I've already witnessed sides trailing 0-3 behind 30 minutes in by all three goals being from corners ('twas me in that case), currently I'm trying to get another short-term save going and right in the first match all five goals so far are coming from either throw ins or corners without editing the set piece instructions (four of which went my way in this case). Yesterday I had multiple matches with up to three goals from corners too in the space of half a season, and attacking throw ins that typically see the attacking side overload the final third with players often result in a string of passes in between them unintercepted and eventually goals too. Not much of a deal breaker if you're into spectacles anyway, however for those who try and reasonablish succeed in keeping sides at bay during open play it can appear a tad frustrating -- and for those who go for their attacking strategies by default anyway upon attempting a different route it might appear playing more cautious would be the worse way by default. Purely statistically you don't get to see too many corner goals across a league, however some of the set pieces would be something I'd monitor. As was documented officially by SI staff, those are dynamic situations in which even attributes may be dynamically slighlty modified depending on match preparation and a few other factors, which could fuel into situations in which the conversion rate gets highly inflated.

[shirajzl]

Regarding to what's been said above, in this version I dread "bullet throws" far more than any freekick, even if it's taken by the best freekick taker in the world.

[forameuss]

I know there's never a time limit on these updates, but are looking towards the end of January for the next update or are hoping sooner?

Probably mid-February to coincide with the transfer window update if it's ready. I doubt they'd release anything sooner given they probably have that update planned, and they're unlikely to release more than one in such a short space of time.

Bolded text signifies opinion, as there is absolutely no answer to your question with any fact in it.

[Some Guy!]

Still waiting on the save time fix (Mk. II)...

[Dagenham_Dave]

I do sometimes think this is very odd, however I'm not sure you've given enough info to determine that or not.

1. What's the length of contract vs what you offered?

2. What loyalty bonus did you offer (can't compare as you can't see what Olympiakos offered)?

3. Are they in a better European Competition than you?

4. Whats the tax structure in Greece?

5. Are Olympiakos listed in his favourite clubs, or the manager listed in his favourite personnel?

6. What squad status was offered vs Olympiakos?

I think there's much more to it than just money, although if all the above are equal, I'd be interested in the answer from SI as to what drives these decisions.

Thanks for the sensible addition to the discussion.

1 - The contract he signed with Olympiakos is the same length I offered, either 2 or 3 years, can't remember exactly.

2 - I'm not sure of the amount, but it was the amount requested by him/his agent. I didn't decrease it any.

3 - I'd imagine they'll be in the Champs League, although I haven't checked. This is the January transfer window tho, so I'd be surprised if they qualified for the knockout phase, I'd need to check. That is one possible reason for the switch in fairness.

4 - No idea.

5 - Again, no idea. Need to check that.

6 - I offered him key player status, so at best, Olympiakos could only match that.

I do agree that generally, money won't be the only factor, and had we been talking about a difference of up to about 25k a week, then I'd accept it. But to turn down 90k a week (after originally wanting well over 100K) to play in the Premier League (when he'd already said beforehand he was interested in the move), and then sign for another team for 28k a week just doesn't sit right. I'm not sure of any footballer in the world who would forego 62 thousand pounds a week just to play in his own country when he's still at a good level in his career.

There could be another case on the horizon, as I also tried to sign Jovetic from Man City (it's 2020), and his wage demands were astronomical too. He's wanted by Newcastle (same league, in the relegation zone). If he does sign, be interesting to see how much he accepts as a wage there.

[Some Guy!]

Also keep in mind he probably would have preferred to have played in his come country.

...also, football manager.

I still remember a few football managers back, managing in Hungary (with a Champions League winning powerhouse), offering a £12k a week deal, and being curious how much he'd have taken elsewhere. When he signed, I loaded an old game to see what would have happened, and he ended up signing for Real Madrid for ~£50k. Fun times.

[Some Guy!]

I think 15.2.2 will come in 5 day

If they don't fix this save problem soon, I'm genuinely going to have to inquire about their refund policy.

[KingEric07]

https://www.mediafire.com/?8t6d7i68fdarbgo

Gentleman.

[iolodavanki]

Playing as QPR, I signed Winston Reid From West Ham as his contract was expiring. Trouble is, he left a few games into the 15/16 season for international duty and now it says he will return 5/6/2016. So he will miss the whole season due to international duty with New Zeeland.

[macca72]

Thanks for the sensible addition to the discussion. 1 - The contract he signed with Olympiakos is the same length I offered.....

There's 2 things then, 1. Are they in CL and 2. What Olympiakos reputation is

.Just because of the sheer odd looking-ness of it, this is something I'd like to understand more about what contributes to these decisions.

[Sunstrikuuu]

I'm sad to say i'm finding this ME a bit boring.

The only way to play seems to be attacking, high line, high pressing which results in a kind of dominating performance resembling an attack vs defence training game, you create 30 shots and generally score a couple unless one of your strikers is 'hot' and you bag a few.

Its awful to watch when you've seen this pattern hundreds of time before. ... Strong teams should have the flexibility to play a number of ways, including countering but at the moment there is no reward for anything other than full on attacking football, high line, high press etc.

I'm pretty disappointed with the tactical side of things at the moment.

I basically agree with the caveat that it's still IMO better than 2014. I'm finding I can't organize my defense properly to seal off the front of the penalty area, basically from around the D to the penalty spot. My entire goal is to force the opposition to take long shots or go wide, yet I'm just as vulnerable to dribbles and little slips through the line seemingly no matter how I play. The only times I've been able to consistently limit opposition scoring are when I've played high tempo, high pressing possession styles, and then my defense is incredibly leaky; the opposition just don't have the ball that often.

[edj]

Feedback on 15.2.1. Just got the game last week, so no experience with previous 15 builds.

- UI improvements are great. 3D matches look beautiful. Awesome!

- Love the responsiveness of positions / roles / PIs. Maybe the best ever? Holding mids hold, target men take up the right position, and you can make an amazing amount of difference to your formation with just one subtle change, like taking off "Get Further Forward" from one of your CMs can change your play from aggressive attack to much more passive.

- Related note: Also really enjoying how there's a huge difference between how active an 18 Work Rate forward is versus a 4... the former gets involved in defense, even with an attacking role, whereas the latter pulls out a lawn chair LOL

- As I see above, I'm not the only one to notice that the current ME seems tuned heavily towards attacking play. Throwing men forward might work a little too well at this point.

- Biggest negative for me right now though is that morale and motivation seem overpowered. Have a save going with Sheffield Wednesday. Second season, won promotion from the Championship in the first. Still playing with a lot of the original roster, haven't made too many signings - Andre-Pierre Gignac on a free and a resurrected Tom Cleverley also on a free being the big ones. So I steeled myself for a serious relegation battle. Instead we're sitting 5th at Christmas and in our current form are tearing through any and all comers. Glenn Loovens is on 6.88 for the season. This is a CB with 9 Acc and 9 Agi. Even on Superb morale and with me assertively telling him how much faith I have in him, he should be a traffic cone out there instead of regularly shutting down the top strikers in the world as he is doing.

[Lawlore]

If they don't fix this save problem soon, I'm genuinely going to have to inquire about their refund policy.

Presumably any refund enquiries will be taken up with whomever you bought the game from, rather than SI.

[moyesout]

the broken fixture list is a pain. am in mid March and now can only see the next 1 match I have. Intermittently you can see whole list or just a few games..shoud be a easy fix this

[Dagenham_Dave]

There's 2 things then, 1. Are they in CL and 2. What Olympiakos reputation is

.Just because of the sheer odd looking-ness of it, this is something I'd like to understand more about what contributes to these decisions.

Ok, just checked. Olympiakos were in the Champions League, but they finished bottom of the group, so no longer in the tournament, and not even in the Europa League now.

The club themselves have a National rep, as does my team.

EDIT - Oh, and Olympiakos isn't one of his favoured clubs, but AEK Athens are, who are listed as 'fierce' rivals to Olympiakos.

So, he's an AEK fan, but has signed for a club who aren't in Europe, and who he probably hates for 60k a week less than he'd get in the English Premier League. Seems legit.

[drbrock]

Quick question regarding the interface options in FM2015... Is there a way to have a Zoom of 105%/110%? The next level above 100% seems to be 125% which is quite a jump although you can go toi 95% zoom!!

Cheers

[Scotty Walds]

If they don't fix this save problem soon, I'm genuinely going to have to inquire about their refund policy.

On what legal grounds?

[Dagenham_Dave]

- Biggest negative for me right now though is that morale and motivation seem overpowered. Have a save going with Sheffield Wednesday. Second season, won promotion from the Championship in the first. Still playing with a lot of the original roster, haven't made too many signings - Andre-Pierre Gignac on a free and a resurrected Tom Cleverley also on a free being the big ones. So I steeled myself for a serious relegation battle. Instead we're sitting 5th at Christmas and in our current form are tearing through any and all comers. Glenn Loovens is on 6.88 for the season. This is a CB with 9 Acc and 9 Agi. Even on Superb morale and with me assertively telling him how much faith I have in him, he should be a traffic cone out there instead of regularly shutting down the top strikers in the world as he is doing.

A bit like James Collins for West Ham in real life this season then. A man with even worse acc and agility than Loovens.

Morale is a huge factor in football in real life, people overlook this all the time.

To be honest, it's more likely to be down to how much easier the game is this year. Countless people are having wild success with average teams right off the bat in this version.

[macca72]

Ok, just checked. Olympiakos were in the Champions League, but they finished bottom of the group, so no longer in the tournament, and not even in the Europa League now.

The club themselves have a National rep, as does my team.

EDIT - Oh, and Olympiakos isn't one of his favoured clubs, but AEK Athens are, who are listed as 'fierce' rivals to Olympiakos.

So, he's an AEK fan, but has signed for a club who aren't in Europe, and who he probably hates for 60k a week less than he'd get in the English Premier League. Seems legit.

I can't think of anything else that would drive the decision. I would love to understand more about how the game works this out then, I can only assume that in terms of the weighting applied, home nation must override all.

Would agree with you this looks very odd.

[Lilah]

I'm sure others have probably noticed this, but the Libero (Attack) role does not function properly. He holds a CM position on attack and never gets involved in the attack or build-up. No shooting or playmaking or anything. He has the lowest movement on my team outside of the CB's which is opposite of his role description. He is supposed to be dynamically involved in all phases of play. I made this fake player called Traian Bercovici who is supposed to be the ultimate Libero to test this out, but even the ultimate stat ratings and get further forward and opposition area PPM do not help:

[vasilli07]

I'm sure others have probably noticed this, but the Libero (Attack) role does not function properly. He holds a CM position on attack and never gets involved in the attack or build-up. No shooting or playmaking or anything. He has the lowest movement on my team outside of the CB's which is opposite of his role description. He is supposed to be dynamically involved in all phases of play. I made this fake player called Traian Bercovici who is supposed to be the ultimate Libero to test this out, but even the ultimate stat ratings and get further forward and opposition area PPM do not help:

I believe this has already been reported as a bug as 1 of the roles that are not really working.

[Sunstrikuuu]

Lilah, for my own edification, how does the Libero you're using behave? Is he getting on the ball and moving it sideways, or is he essentially a passenger in central midfield? What constructive things does he contribute? Have you tried him on Support to see what's different?

I've always wanted to get a formation with a true libero and a goalscoring inverted wingback working, so I'm quite interested to hear the answers.

[Lilah]

Lilah, for my own edification, how does the Libero you're using behave? Is he getting on the ball and moving it sideways, or is he essentially a passenger in central midfield? What constructive things does he contribute? Have you tried him on Support to see what's different?

I've always wanted to get a formation with a true libero and a goalscoring inverted wingback working, so I'm quite interested to hear the answers.

He behaves very similar to a half-back in defense. I have him with player instructions to close down much more, mark tighter, and tackle harder. He zips around super-aggressively and ruins the momentum of attackers before they get to the defensive line. He has by far the most interceptions on the team. In offense, he doesn't really do anything. Hardly moves at all. Usually passes it off as soon as he wins possession. Definitely not a creative player. In that match, you notice that he ran only 7.8 miles while my more involved offensive players were around 9.5 miles and all non-defenders were over 8.5 (one attacking WB 9.3, one supporting WB 8.1).

I've never tried him in a support role.

EDIT: I don't have any interest in experimenting with the role further until SIG fixes it.

[Svenc]

Regarding to what's been said above, in this version I dread "bullet throws" far more than any freekick, even if it's taken by the best freekick taker in the world.

As I'm getting a little paranoid on this (which must be a first), I looked at goals, half chances and clear cuts of three randomly fully simulated EPL match days. I then took a look how many of those were from a) indirect free kicks b) corners and c) throw-ins. I did not count direct free kicks, though there had been two of such being converted from the rebound. The first day involved had six goals being scored from corners, which statistically I considered a one-off (it is obvious from the goals from corner stat it is -- whether there are individual matches or match situations in which the conversation rates gets inflated, see my examples above, only the coders of SI can know).

A couple notes: A half-chance typically is a blocked shot taken inside the box/area, that the CCC stat can be a bit flawed is known I guess, and there's semi-regularly little that separates a half-chance from a clear cut. Also those are the only types of chances FM attempts to classify as such, meaning that this won't cover all scoring attempts/chances of a match. Any chance can be converted naturally likewise. Thus I also didn't count a goal twice (a goal is registered as a goal, no more), as the finish can be either a CCC, a half chance or neither. I tried not to count the same incident twice, that is two or three shots taken from the same set piece seconds from each other (luckily there are time stamps when you hover the cursor over the dots in he analysis). Upon clicking on the dot, play typically kicks in about six seconds from the finish, which means occasionally I had to rewind a couple of seconds to check whether a set piece was involved (a typical telltale sign is a box crowded with players already when play starts).

1. match day:

indirect free kick

goals: 3

half chance: 2

ccc: 3

corner

goals: 0

ccc: 3

half chance: 6

attacking throw-in

goal: 1

half-chance: 9

ccc: 0

2. match day:

indirect free kick:

goals: 2

half chance: 1

ccc: 1

corner

goals: 3

half chance: 3

ccc: 2

throw-in

goals: 7

half-chance: 7

ccc: 4

Naturally it's hard to find statistics on this. The only thing related I could find for now would be this and similar. It'd be too tempting and likely too simplistic to conclude from proper research that inviting pressure and the majority of play to be in your own half would be too risky because of attacking set pieces (or rather throw-ins) without comparing this to real-world data as well as having long-term statistics. The attacking throw-ins appear to look interesting on occasion, and as SI keep track on much more detailed statistics than what we have in the game (PaulC used to post them on occasion), they'd however be likely aware if there were any serious anomalies. If it was all set pieces you wouldn't have any matches in which a team (or both opponents combined) could get 50+ shots going.

http://5addedminutes.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/plchancecreation2.jpg

http://www.soccerbythenumbers.com/2011/06/why-wigan-were-most-unusual-team-of.html

http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/2013/06/19/opta-spotlight-long-throw-ins-are-en-vogue-mls-and-doesnt-figure-slow-down-a

http://footballspeak.com/post/2013/08/23/Truth-About-Throw-in.aspx

http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2012/may/15/season-in-statistics-premier-league

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2011/may/23/premier-league-season-in-numbers

[forameuss]

On what legal grounds?

Probably the always fun "customer is always right" grounds. Which they rarely are of course, but why let that stand in the way? Dey tuk our moneeeeey!

[Gerd545]

Did SI fix the saving times or have I found out how to fix it ??

[forameuss]

Did SI fix the saving times or have I found out how to fix it ??

They fixed it once, and it seemed to be fine for everyone. Then it returned to the old state for some in the most recent update. I saw a slight increase in save times, but nothing too major, whereas others have seen much bigger rises. It varies.

[Matej]

People from SI just dont comment our problems with game anymore. 7-8 years ago sometimes we had different point of view, but at least we talked with them on these forums and i knew that in the end we would find some solution. But now all i see are some moderators who play this game ( if they play at all ) for couple of years, who say we are wrong on every subject we mention. Pretty sad. game is too easy with attacking mentality + 4231 combo. people talk about that on 16 pages and on many other forums , why dont you do something about that ?

and i know they will say they dont write but they are reading our comments, but we want some news, informations , opinions from SI side.

[Dr. Hook]

People from SI just dont comment our problems with game anymore. 7-8 years ago sometimes we had different point of view, but at least we talked with them on these forums and i knew that in the end we would find some solution. But now all i see are some moderators who play this game ( if they play at all ) for couple of years, who say we are wrong on every subject we mention. Pretty sad. game is too easy with attacking mentality + 4231 combo. people talk about that on 16 pages and on many other forums , why dont you do something about that ?

and i know they will say they dont write but they are reading our comments, but we want some news, informations , opinions from SI side.

Even though I don't play FM at all, I do know that SI reads these forums, and they comment too. You just have to look around. I'll tell you though, and I know this for a fact, one of the reasons you don't hear as much from them as in days past is because they get abused when they come on the forum. They are subjected to comments like the ones you just made insulting us moderators as sad and inexperienced or indifferent players. As for you saying the game is too easy with the attacking 4231, that is your experience. Why then do we have forty thousand posts from people complaining that the game is too hard, or rigged against them? What exactly do you want SI to do with this contradictory information? And then to have them visit the forum and read all about how they don't care about their product, are lazy programmers, don't test their game, just program eye-candy features and deliberately ignoreglaring, obvious problems with the game? It's no wonder you don't see them as frequently.

[themadsheep2001]

People from SI just dont comment our problems with game anymore. 7-8 years ago sometimes we had different point of view, but at least we talked with them on these forums and i knew that in the end we would find some solution. But now all i see are some moderators who play this game ( if they play at all ) for couple of years, who say we are wrong on every subject we mention. Pretty sad. game is too easy with attacking mentality + 4231 combo. people talk about that on 16 pages and on many other forums , why dont you do something about that ?

and i know they will say they dont write but they are reading our comments, but we want some news, informations , opinions from SI side.

Maybe if you spent less time having jibes at moderators (most of whom have been playing for a least a decade, a couple of who have done some very close work with SI) and posted more constructively they might be more inclined. As it is they spend their interacting in the bugs thread, where they know their time and efforts go to good use than merely having jibes thrown at them

[Matej]

Even though I don't play FM at all, I do know that SI reads these forums, and they comment too. You just have to look around. I'll tell you though, and I know this for a fact, one of the reasons you don't hear as much from them as in days past is because they get abused when they come on the forum. They are subjected to comments like the ones you just made insulting us moderators as sad and inexperienced or indifferent players. As for you saying the game is too easy with the attacking 4231, that is your experience. Why then do we have forty thousand posts from people complaining that the game is too hard, or rigged against them? What exactly do you want SI to do with this contradictory information? And then to have them visit the forum and read all about how they don't care about their product, are lazy programmers, don't test their game, just program eye-candy features and deliberately ignoreglaring, obvious problems with the game? It's no wonder you don't see them as frequently.

I told them 10 years ago what to do. and i told them that it is wrong perspective that if you are manager of lets say Man Utd, it must be easy game. Every club is hard to manage, top clubs are harder to manage then some club from 2nd div, because top clubs have different goals, difficult goals that puts managers under lot of pressure. i dont want to talk about that anymore. I never said anything against moderators, you are doing your job and thats fine with me. But i noticed that 7-8 years ago we could communicate with PaulC and company. Now its different. Collyer brothers are legends and i never insulted PaulC and company of old SI people, and really dont know why would anyone do that.

I can understand that for someone this game is not easy, but what about us , who are playing this game since 1992 ? Its extra easy for us, because we buy game every single year, there are no many new things to adjust, and sometimes i think its getting worse and worse. And there are many new players who beat the game very , very easy.

It all comes to how much you love this game. If you love this game, it cant be to hard, even if you are inexperienced player. I never go to tactic forums, never read about new wonderkids, but they can if game is hard for them.

[scott MUFC]

just had this one... keeper saves this without it being a goal, and not by it stopping there either, play goes beyond this and he somehow clears it, pretty sure for that to happen the ball would be across the line.

[Sunstrikuuu]

He behaves very similar to a half-back in defense. I have him with player instructions to close down much more, mark tighter, and tackle harder. He zips around super-aggressively and ruins the momentum of attackers before they get to the defensive line. He has by far the most interceptions on the team. In offense, he doesn't really do anything. Hardly moves at all. Usually passes it off as soon as he wins possession. Definitely not a creative player. In that match, you notice that he ran only 7.8 miles while my more involved offensive players were around 9.5 miles and all non-defenders were over 8.5 (one attacking WB 9.3, one supporting WB 8.1).

I've never tried him in a support role.

EDIT: I don't have any interest in experimenting with the role further until SIG fixes it.

Thanks, I appreciate it. Have you gone to a flat back 3, an orthodox sweeper or a flat back 4? If you've moved to a flat back 3, have you tried a BPD, and what are your thoughts there?

[Dr. Hook]

I told them 10 years ago what to do. and i told them that it is wrong perspective that if you are manager of lets say Man Utd, it must be easy game. Every club is hard to manage, top clubs are harder to manage then some club from 2nd div, because top clubs have different goals, difficult goals that puts managers under lot of pressure. i dont want to talk about that anymore. I never said anything against moderators, you are doing your job and thats fine with me. But i noticed that 7-8 years ago we could communicate with PaulC and company. Now its different. Collyer brothers are legends and i never insulted PaulC and company of old SI people, and really dont know why would anyone do that.

I can understand that for someone this game is not easy, but what about us , who are playing this game since 1992 ? Its extra easy for us, because we buy game every single year, there are no many new things to adjust, and sometimes i think its getting worse and worse. And there are many new players who beat the game very , very easy.

It all comes to how much you love this game. If you love this game, it cant be to hard, even if you are inexperienced player. I never go to tactic forums, never read about new wonderkids, but they can if game is hard for them.

Look, I understand where you are coming from, I really do. You mentioned that we don't see much of SI people on the forums as we used to. I remember those days as well, but I was pointing out that they get insulted and slagged off all the time on these forums, and many or most don't even want to come here anymore. Not saying that you did it, necessarily, but it has happened nonetheless.

I would like the game to be harder myself; you are right, and if you've been at this as long as we have, or longer, then you can't help but do well with it. There are a number of things SI can do and I think they are doing it was well as they can while at the same time keeping the game accessible to new players, or casual players. The match engine is getting better and better. The progress there might not be what you have hoped for, and what many of us would want, but it's a complex piece of code, and it is better by miles than it was years ago. AI squad building is also something that needs work to increase the challenge, and it is improving, albeit more slowly than the match engine. So yes, there are things that can be done to make it more challenging. The new scouting system is a step towards that. I feel confident it will get more challenging with time.

As an interesting experiment, fire up CM4, or FM2005, or even older CM3 and some of those versions. You will be shocked and amazed at how easy they are by comparison. If you spend hundreds of hours on each game each year, you won't see the differences so drastically, because it is in steps. But really, the older games don't even compare in many areas, especially the match engine and the tactical interface. Remember Wibble/Wobble? Sliders? Remember that convoluted mess that training was at one time? Piggy in the Middle every Tuesday and Thursday morning? Yikes! Anyway, I appreciate your love for FM and also the frustration that you feel when it isn't progressing as quickly as you will like.

[RTHerringbone]

just had this one... keeper saves this without it being a goal, and not by it stopping there either, play goes beyond this and he somehow clears it, pretty sure for that to happen the ball would be across the line.

Log a bug report please Scott so SI can take a look (with a .pkm rather than a screenshot). It serves zero purpose being posted in this part of the forum.

[Sir James Lancaster]

Wibble/Wobble, Sliders and Piggy in the middle. Are you talking about FM or a fun night at a strip club?

[moodyscc]

Does anyone else experience that they cannot scout the dutch -19's? For example, I can scout the English and Italian u19's competition.

[edj]

A bit like James Collins for West Ham in real life this season then. A man with even worse acc and agility than Loovens.

Morale is a huge factor in football in real life, people overlook this all the time.

To be honest, it's more likely to be down to how much easier the game is this year. Countless people are having wild success with average teams right off the bat in this version.

I suspect the two are related. The human player has an edge in getting morale and motivation right; if the two are even a tad overweight in the engine, then you get what I have now. Mid-February, my side is on such a high that I can send out the reserves at Anfield and still win 3-2. A slight damping down in the next build and a few wins become draws, preventing what I guess we might call an 'upward spiral' of winning begetting higher morale begetting more winning.

Just what I can see from this gamer's perspective... cheers -

[Jackson Mourinho]

whats the point in the game whenever you play city your 3-0 down 10 minutes in no matter what tactics

[RTHerringbone]

whats the point in the game whenever you play city your 3-0 down 10 minutes in no matter what tactics

Possible touch of hyperbole here?

[markantony]

Why did you put even more "media interaction" into the game? It's a chore, it adds nothing, it isn't realistic, people have been complaining about it for years and you put Tunnel Interviews in?

[Sunderland AFC]

is there any reason why when i look at live league table during a match it only shows the top and cant be scrolled down?

[Dennis_Ajax]

That's a known issue.

And this was impossible to fix with the hotfix that came out weeks ago? ...

[PitchPosh]

I feel like I just can't settle into this year's game as the tactics are constantly being switched around due to ME changes.

So far under the ME of 15.2 I have found the following issues with the ME

• Players in possession of the ball go to ground far too easily when involved in a tackle.
  
  • Unfortunately I don't have numbers to back this claim up as it would be incredibly time consuming to track this, but I think from watching just about any match at any level it will become apparent that players go down far too easily and often. I understand that players do indeed get dispossessed of the ball and have no problem with that, but players going to ground so often has really seemed to mess with the flow of my tactics.
    

  [*]Players with underwhelming defensive stats perform far above their ability.

  • Last season saw Mesut Ozil average 4.71 tackles won per game, while Sterling has averaged over 2.5 the past two years. I understand that a player of their caliber may make a good tackle now and then, but to perform like that with such consistency seems a bit off to me. I mean, to go against Ozil and have him boss the midfield against the likes of Lucas Romero and Matic is a bit annoying.
    

  [*]There seems to be a high frequency of shots, passes, and crosses being blocked.

  • ​Again, this would be a hard statistic to track, but I feel as though a high number of the aforementioned ball movements are blocked. This is another item that I find to disrupt the flow of the game quite often.
    

I know that given the lack of hard data and statistics on these issues, it may seem like I'm complaining to complain. However, I just wanted to post these here to see if anyone else has been experiencing the same things.

[Scotty Walds]

And this was impossible to fix with the hotfix that came out weeks ago? ...

Yes, they obviously left it just like this to spite people like you

Software fixes are not always easy.

[King Costly]

Defenders and goalkeepers at the top level are still ridiculous at times. Had these two in two consecutive matches. Lost both games by one goal. This isn't the beta anymore, these sort of things aren't really acceptable at this point.

The second I can maybe see happening once in a blue moon (the goalkeeper's unwillingness to move is laughable though). It's getting to the point that at least a tenth of my goals conceded are from botched back-passes.

[fusershift]

Defenders and goalkeepers at the top level are still ridiculous at times. Had these two in two consecutive matches. Lost both games by one goal. This isn't the beta anymore, these sort of things aren't really acceptable at this point.

The second I can maybe see happening once in a blue moon (the goalkeeper's unwillingness to move is laughable though). It's getting to the point that at least a tenth of my goals conceded are from botched back-passes.

Did you see RVP's goal vs Southampton. It does happen in real life as well.

[King Costly]

Did you see RVP's goal vs Southampton. It does happen in real life as well.

Of course it happens in real life. To the extent it happens to me on FM? Nowhere near. They don't even look realistic in FM because the keeper could easily come and claim the ball but gets stuck in FM quicksand.

[Mvdv]

The game is not scripted!