Official Football Manager 2015 Feedback Thread 15.3.0

[Hauler]

In fairness, if you go to the player's info screen when he has taken a knock, it'll say if it's a potential leg, shin, head injury etc, but is never more specific than that. In the case of my example above, it purely said, 'potential leg injury'. Players and coaches know straight away if it's a hamstring injury, so that was a bit misleading.

Well why can't my physio tell me with a stoppage to properly advise me. Seems a bit of a pain in the ass for me to stop the game press on the player go to his info and see what is wrong. I think it would be better if they made some sort of attempt at using your physios in ingame scenarios.

[Äktsjon Männ]

Well why can't my physio tell me with a stoppage to properly advise me. Seems a bit of a pain in the ass for me to stop the game press on the player go to his info and see what is wrong. I think it would be better if they made some sort of attempt at using your physios in ingame scenarios.

It would make sense if the injuries themselves made sense, which, as Tony Fallows confirmed on the last page, they do not at the moment. The info is hidden from view because it's not accurate.

[themadsheep2001]

It would make sense if the injuries themselves made sense, which, as Tony Fallows confirmed on the last page, they do not at the moment. The info is hidden from view because it's not accurate.

Should clarify that at no point did he say injuries dont make sense.

Originally Posted by Tony Fallows View Post

Currently the calculation for what exact injury has occured takes place after the match. Therefore it's always possible that a disparity can occur. However, in future we're hoping to get this calculated as-live for much more realistic results.

It's also not hidden. Even if it calculated real time, it would still currently only appear on the player info screen. Adding it to appear in real time in match (as a pop up of some sort) would need to be an additional feature.

[Äktsjon Männ]

Should clarify that at no point did he say injuries dont make sense.

It's also not hidden. Even if it calculated real time, it would still currently only appear on the player info screen. Adding it to appear in real time in match (as a pop up of some sort) would need to be an additional feature.

If there's a disparity then it doesn't make sense. If it tells you it's a leg injury which then ends up being a pulled hamstring then that info is of no use. Sure, a hamstring is technically a leg but pulled hamstring is a muscle injury. I'm sure if they'd already coded it in a way which would allow accurate real time injury evaluation then it would be more 'in the view' rather than being hidden away in a location no one would think to check during a match.

[themadsheep2001]

If there's a disparity then it doesn't make sense. If it tells you it's a leg injury which then ends up being a pulled hamstring then that info is of no use. I'm sure if they'd already coded it in a way which would allow accurate real time injury evaluation then it would be more 'in the view' rather than being hidden away in a location no one would think to check during a match.

There can be a disparity =/= it does not make sense. I't s difficult enough passing information without having the accuracy lost in paraphrasing, so let's leave it at that, it wasn't a point of debate. It's exactly as how Tony put it, nothing more, nothing less. You might be sure, but you wouldn't neccessarily be correct.

[Cougar2010]

Doesn't it only calculate that it's a leg, arm etc injury during the match, and then the game randomly picks an injury type after the match?

This and I don't think some people are quite understanding how injuries work atm.

All that happens is that the ME calculates an injury which seems to be collision/non collision and then an area of the body.

After the match if it is deemed an injury one is randomly selected from a database which involves a length of time out.

Each option in the database has a length of time out & a description, the description bears no relevance to what happens on the pitch and is only there to add some depth to the game. The injuries could be called Bill & Ted rather than pulled hamstring & gashed leg if you wanted and they would still do the same job and serve the same purpose.

[brawla123]

Does it only show the potential injury in the players info if the injury forced him to come off? My player just picked up a yellow knock and there's nothing in his info.

[El Presidente]

Good to have Cardiff back in blue!

Not a Cardiff fan but no chairman should ever change a club's home colours or Club name or Stadium name in my view.

[hluraven]

no chairman should ever change a club's home colours or Club name or Stadium name in my view.

If that was true, many teams would be unrecognisable today. Cardiff themselves would not be called Cardiff for example but Riverside, and have a chocolate brown/gold coloured kit.

[Whytecliffe]

Does the hotfix fix existing games, or do you need to start a new game for it to take effect?

Just re-asking my question from yesterday, nobody responded. Any help please, thanks?

[Cougar2010]

Just re-asking my question from yesterday, nobody responded. Any help please, thanks?

My educated guess would be new save only but I could be wrong.

[Dagenham_Dave]

All that happens is that the ME calculates an injury which seems to be collision/non collision and then an area of the body.

After the match if it is deemed an injury one is randomly selected from a database which involves a length of time out.

Each option in the database has a length of time out & a description, the description bears no relevance to what happens on the pitch and is only there to add some depth to the game

The fly in that ointment is the info on the player performance tab in-game. There are a range of responses there from 'injured but feels he can continue', to 'unaffected' to 'playing on but is injured'. If what you and the devs say is correct, and the actual injury (and length of time out) is only calculated at the end of the match, then what is the point of this feature? I regularly check that to guage how potentially serious the injury might be. It can be a test of your management whether you risk continuing to play a key player when the tab says he's clearly injured. If there's no cause and effect of this if the actual injury and time out is randomly generated after the game, what on earth is the point of the tab telling you his condition?

[hluraven]

The fly in that ointment is the info on the player performance tab in-game. There are a range of responses there from 'injured but feels he can continue', to 'unaffected' to 'playing on but is injured'. If what you and the devs say is correct, and the actual injury (and length of time out) is only calculated at the end of the match, then what is the point of this feature? I regularly check that to guage how potentially serious the injury might be. It can be a test of your management whether you risk continuing to play a key player when the tab says he's clearly injured. If there's no cause and effect of this if the actual injury and time out is randomly generated after the game, what on earth is the point of the tab telling you his condition?

I always treat that as how well he can play if he continues, so if it is unaffected then his performance is normal, if feels he can continue then he is a bit impaired and if it's injured then he is severely impaired. But only for that game, not for the after-effects.

[Tony Fallows]

Just re-asking my question from yesterday, nobody responded. Any help please, thanks?

The hotfix will fix existing games as well as new ones.

[Dagenham_Dave]

I always treat that as how well he can play if he continues, so if it is unaffected then his performance is normal, if feels he can continue then he is a bit impaired and if it's injured then he is severely impaired. But only for that game, not for the after-effects.

Yeah, I can see how that would work.

It's still annoying that an orange injury could be serious when you take the player straight off, or it could be no injury at all if you keep him on for the whole 90mins. I would like to see there being some sort of direct correlation between the two, depending on injury. Which of course, isn't calculated until the end. That's not a flaw in the game, it's just plain wrong I'm afraid. I'm willing to bet the majority of users who play this game are completely unaware of how that works.

[Mecz]

Moderators are asking us to be constructive, and that's ok. I now ask you to carefully read what I write to.Many players complain about the high number of injuries . With this problem you have to deal with in the future FM.I personally have no problems with injuries, but that does not mean that the problem does not exist.For me , the main problem is match engine.And above all , the GOALKEEPERS.Goalkeepers are terrible. In FM14 , goalies were much, much better. First of all , there is a difference between a bad , good , superior and young goalkeeper with potential.But in FM15 , all goalkeepers are the same.Regardless of whether the goal keep player who is worth several thousand pounds , or is the goalkeepe De Hea , Noier , Curtoa. The end result is the same. Strange goals , goalkeepers do not get up fast enough after a shot , bad positioning....etcAnother problem is that the players are going right to the opposing players , neither left nor right, streight at him.Dribbling are very rare , so it's a pan players really big problem.Third , it does not mean smaller problem is defense. All defensive players , regardless of position , have very bad start to oposition player. Instead of starting , defenders just running next opponent. The defense was much better in FM14. I think it would be great if you use that part of the ME from FM14.Finally, I would repeat once again GOALKEEPERS! That would certainly solve the problem with high-scoring games...

[Dagenham_Dave]

De Hea , Noier , Curtoa.

Fine effort to get them all wrong!

[skipping pig]

An instruction to tell players to prevent the ball going out for a throw when we're attacking in the oppositions final 3rd.

So many great crossing opportunities go to waste.

[brawla123]

An instruction to tell players to prevent the ball going out for a throw when we're attacking in the oppositions final 3rd.

So many great crossing opportunities go to waste.

Right ! One of my FM pet peeves.

[Mecz]

Fine effort to get them all wrong!

Completely unimportant thing in the whole text.

I'm interested in the opinion of a less superficial players.

[Dagenham_Dave]

...but to answer, goalkeepers are a lot better in this version than they were in FM14. You still get the odd weird angle when they try and save the ball, but it's a lot less frequent, as is the moments of madness when they simply walk past the ball that you used to see a lot in FM14.

So yeah, keepers aren't perfect, but they're a big improvement on the last game, so that was a bit of a swing and a miss I'm afraid.

[El Presidente]

After being told that FMC now remembers the settings on custom screens I gave it a whirl.

The squad screen most certainly does NOT remember and just goes back to the default setting as usual!!! So for me the game is still unplayable.

It has been roughly 4 years now since customisable columns and screens were introduced and I have pointed out this bug every release.

[Kriss]

After being told that FMC now remembers the settings on custom screens I gave it a whirl.

The squad screen most certainly does NOT remember and just goes back to the default setting as usual!!! So for me the game is still unplayable.

It has been roughly 4 years now since customisable columns and screens were introduced and I have pointed out this bug every release.

Errrmmmm, thing is, my custom screens in FMC stay exactly as I set them up :confused:

[Cleon]

Errrmmmm, thing is, my custom screens in FMC stay exactly as I set them up :confused:

It changes if you then load normal FM though and switch back to FMC or vice versa, you have to add the screen again from the drop down menu. It does remember but you need to reselect it. It's not a bug though, its from swapping game mode and skins. But it does remember custom screen you just have to tick it again that's all.

[Kriss]

It changes if you then load normal FM though and switch back to FMC or vice versa, you have to add the screen again from the drop down menu. It does remember but you need to reselect it. It's not a bug though, its from swapping game mode and skins. But it does remember custom screen you just have to tick it again that's all.

I'm not likely to be loading "normal" FM anytime soon, it ain't normal to me any more so a non issue.

[afailed10]

Is it just me or when a player gets a knock and goes down to the 50s or 60s % he will never go back up much. Unlike FM14 where players would get very close to teammates fitness, maybe 3 or 4% less, not much more.

[Cleon]

I'm not likely to be loading "normal" FM anytime soon, it ain't normal to me any more so a non issue.

Don't get me wrong I agree. Just pointing out that the game breaking bug that has stopped him playing isn't actually a big deal

[Dagenham_Dave]

Can't you delete it yourself?

That's kinda why I was asking...

[AlexJames]

So I have now played 10 games on the latest patch (15.3) taking over a struggling English Conference South side mid-season. My record so far is W3, L2, D3 plus two friendly victories. I watch the games in full match view at regular speed which usually takes around 1h30mins – 2hrs per game, so in total around 20 hours of experience of the latest ME.

While I think on a general level the ME continues to improve, I also feel that for every iteration there are a number of things that can frustrate and make the game quite difficult to enjoy – often leading to certain adaptations having to be made by the user in order to mitigate these frustrations. I am a 10 year Quality Assurance specialist by trade, and my extensive FM experience generally involves lower league management. Naturally I appreciate the standard of football in these leagues will be lower, but at the same time watching these games in full match mode via the ME can be an infuriating and painful experience. I am sure the SI QA team tested the ME in these lower leagues, and would be surprised if they didn’t experience some, if not all of these frustrations.

Anyway, for what it’s worth, here are my observations so far – for obvious reasons most of which revolve around the ME.

- Post-match time - an easy one to start, but on the post-match screen following weekend fixtures, the date/ time displays as 15:15 on the same day. Obviously this is not correct for 3pm fixtures. Not sure how this made it through testing. I can’t be certain, but don’t think this was wrong pre 15.3.

- First touch – this is the one thing that has caused me the most frustration with the ME so far – SO many times players (both mine and the AI) lose possession through a poor first touch. I understand players in lower leagues are less technically proficient, but my five-a-side team has better close control than most of these guys. Even FM players with what I consider decent stats for this level (between 8-12 first touch, okay balance/ technique/ composure) lose the ball an astonishing number of times. Not only that, but after a poor touch they only seem able to ‘waddle’ up to the ball, before inevitably getting tackled. Interestingly, these same players seem capable of plucking a 40 yard pass out of the air by the touchline, but are unable to control a simple pass in the middle of the pitch – even if they are simply walking on to a relatively stationary ball.

- Tackles/ Strength – one of the biggest issues I had with the previous ME was the number of ‘out of nowhere’ challenges that would prevent my (or the AI, for that matter) strikers getting any kind of space in the penalty area. FAR too many times a nobody centre-back with terrible tackling stats would reach out a telescopic leg and execute the most perfect sliding challenge to stop my skillful, pacey striker from getting a shot away. In an entire season on the previous patch not once was I awarded or did I concede a penalty due to a poorly timed tackle. Given some of the penalties you see week in week out in real life, it is ridiculous what defenders get away with in this game. Whilst so far these incredible tackles seem to have been toned-down slightly in 15.3, for me it is still an issue. It also seems that regardless of the strength/ balance stats of my striker, they will fall over and roly-poly on the floor as soon as they are even touched by an opposition centre-back.

- Decisions – again, I understand these are lower league players with poor stats, but even Sunday league teams know when to let a ball go out for a throw-in/ goal kick. Players will often sprint back to collect a ball from going out of play, only to either thump it clear, or worse still let it go out for an opposition corner/ throw because of a poor first touch.

- Headed flick ons – this was a problem for me on FM13, and seems to be re-occurring. Admittedly this is the first time in FM15 I have played a single-striker system, but too often my forward (good stats for the division) will attempt to flick on a bouncing/ crossed ball to no nobody whatsoever. I understand sometimes he may be isolated and this is the only option, however this can also happen when there is clearly the opportunity to run on to the ball, but for whatever reason he is determined to head the thing at all costs.

- Wrong foot – I seem to recall reading this on the 15.3 fix-list, but it actually seems to be happening to me more on 15.3 than the previous patch – players switching to pass/ cross with their weaker foot, when the opportunity to use their stronger foot is available.

- Player/ team instructions – sadly these don’t seem to have much of an influence on how my team plays (I generally play Standard, occasionally Counter/ Control). ‘Lower/ lowest tempo/ take a breather’ - my players will still bomb forward as if chasing the game. ‘Hit early crosses’ – my wingers take 2, 3, 4 touches before even thinking about crossing the ball, by which time they have either lost possession, or smacked the ball into the defender that has closed them down. Despite ‘pass it shorter’ and ‘fewer risky passes’, my midfielder still regularly attempts Hollywood balls (which of course rarely finds the intended player). My defenders set to ‘pass short’ and ‘play out of defence’ seem insistent on booting it long, despite shorter midfield options being available. The only one that seems to work, which I tend to employ when my forward/ winger has just passed up a relatively straightforward and clear shot from inside the 16-yard box in favour of a backwards pass or dribble is ‘shoot more often’. This of course leads to the same player taking a pot-shot from 30 yards out five minutes later which rolls out for a opposition throw in.

- Player instructions/ PPMs (cont’d) - to make my above issues even more problematic, one of my centre-backs also has the ‘attempts long balls’ PPM, which apparently he is incapable of unlearning. How hard should it be to train that?!? Me: “Please could you stop smacking the ball 60 yards to nobody in particular?” Player: “Sure boss, I can try that.” This shouldn’t have to take 6 months of re-training, that ultimately proves unsuccessful anyway. As I result of this I am exploring abandoning my tactical philosophy and using a 6’5” Target Man in the hope he can make something of these incessant punts forward. I understand that there are a lot of considerations involved in how the ME interprets player stats/ instructions, however I feel my personal instructions should override whatever stats the player has (decisions, vision, even PPMs). I am the manager, after all, so at least please try what I am asking. If you mess up attempting a short pass, then that’s on me. Also, on the same subject my assistant manager continuously suggests that my strikers game will improve if he started attempting overhead kicks. I have never seen an overhead kick in FM, or even rarely a cross that would warrant an overhead kick, so I will politely decline this suggestion….

- Morale – personally I find morale is too simply tied to win = good, lose = bad. From experience I know how bad a spiral of poor morale can be on a team in this game, so I regularly find myself making like Brendan Rodgers and constantly praising my side despite their overall performance on the pitch (‘unlucky’, ‘don’t worry about the result’, ‘pleased’ etc.). In the games I have played so far, I have mostly dominated in possession and shots, only to be let down by poor finishing and the occasional defensive mistake. For this reason I have stuck to mostly positive team-talks/ praise etc., however the few times I have given negative feedback, morale instantly takes a hit, despite my players either agreeing with my criticism or looking ‘fired up’, ‘determined’ etc. To me, if my feedback has elicited this positive kind of response, it should have a positive effect on morale – or remain the same - not the opposite. Despite this, morale is often ‘low/ fairly low’ after these instances, or following a brief period of lost/ drawn games.

- Payer stats – I’m losing confidence that these make too much of a difference. My reserve forward with pace/ acceleration around 4-5 can regularly be seen bursting past players with better speed stats. My pre-mentioned first-choice forward with good strength/ balance will regularly fall over like Bambi after a 50/50 challenge, likewise my newly acquired 6’5” TM with 17 strength. Wingers with good crossing stats regularly find the stands/ opposition goalkeeper. My left-back with 20 (twenty!) long throws often fails to beat the first man with a long throw. And then of course there’s first touch…

- Exploitative tactics - I have read a lot in the forum recently of users complaining about high scoring matches and unrealistic shot count etc. This seems to have been mostly attributed to unrealistic and overly-attacking tactics that are designed to exploit ME weaknesses. While I accept this to a certain extent, one thing doesn’t sit well with me. If during a game my regular, realistic non-attacking tactic isn’t doing the business, and I happen to go one-nil down and am chasing the game going into the final 10 minutes or so, if I chose to employ an unrealistic and overly attacking strategy (as many a manager would be inclined to do) to try and nick a goal back – is this exploiting the ME? Or is the AI set up to handle overtly attacking strategies differently mid-game, compared to starting a game on the attack?

- Injuries – again, I have read a fair amount of complaints regarding users experiencing too many injuries. Whilst so far I haven’t had too much of an injury crisis (maximum of four players out at the same time, fairly short-term), I have noticed it is often my players that are out on loan that pick up injuries. 4 out of 5 of my loaned out players are currently injured, with just yesterday two players loaned to the same team getting injured in the same training session – one with a lower-back stress fracture, the other with a broken arm (!). What on earth kind of training do they do over in Histon?!?

That’s about it so far. I’m fully aware that some of the above is subjective, and there are probably many ways in which I can mitigate these frustrations, and I will try. It is possible as always that some of them may be attributed to ‘my tactics’, and I will continue to tinker in the hope that some of these annoyances can be resolved that way.

Perhaps I’ll give an update after 10 more matches…

Apologies for the length of this post. I got a little carried away.

[Harpoon76]

<snip>

- Decisions – again, I understand these are lower league players with poor stats, but even Sunday league teams know when to let a ball go out for a throw-in/ goal kick. Players will often sprint back to collect a ball from going out of play, only to either thump it clear, or worse still let it go out for an opposition corner/ throw because of a poor first touch.

Excellent post IMHO.

The decisions from defenders chasing down balls that are destined for a goal kick wind me up as well. The nearest opponent will 10+ yards away and they'll bust a gut to stop the ball going out. They'll hit a pathetic back pass which goes straight out for a corner, so we go from a no danger of conceding to a dangerous set piece. Grrr.

[brawla123]

- Wrong foot – I seem to recall reading this on the 15.3 fix-list, but it actually seems to be happening to me more on 15.3 than the previous patch – players switching to pass/ cross with their weaker foot, when the opportunity to use their stronger foot is available.

I might be wrong but I think what they fixed was players taking free kicks with their wrong foot.

[Maw74]

That's kinda why I was asking...

Strange that you can't as I can delete mine.

[mitbaster]

Are you guys sure there is nothing wrong with the injuries? Take a look at the pic, and before anybody says its bad luck, i tested it many times and situation like this hapened every tame, every single time...

[HUNT3R]

Are you guys sure there is nothing wrong with the injuries? Take a look at the pic, and before anybody says its bad luck, i tested it many times and situation like this hapened every tame, every single time...

Provide details. Really. Training, matches etc. All that screenshot proves is that you're not managing it well.

[mitbaster]

Provide details. Really. Training, matches etc. All that screenshot proves is that you're not managing it well.

It's an AI team, I dont have problem with injuries, some normal numbers 3-4 at times, but AI in this league is insane, most teams are above 7-8 injuries, one time one time had 16 injuries...

[brawla123]

Are you guys sure there is nothing wrong with the injuries? Take a look at the pic, and before anybody says its bad luck, i tested it many times and situation like this hapened every tame, every single time...

So from all your testing you have one screenshot?

[HUNT3R]

It's an AI team, I dont have problem with injuries, some normal numbers 3-4 at times, but AI in this league is insane, most teams are above 7-8 injuries, one time one time had 16 injuries...

I take it you've reported this in the bugs forum and uploaded saves and details from all these tests? If not, please do.

Edit: I take it that this league was run on full detail?

[hluraven]

In the middle of a run of games, I currently have 44 senior players across my squads, no injuries (red or orange) at all across all squads. This isn't rare. Average across the whole league is under 3 per team.

[mitbaster]

I take it you've reported this in the bugs forum and uploaded saves and details from all these tests? If not, please do.

Can you give me the link to the tread where i should report this particular thing? I can upload the save game again... tnx

[mitbaster]

So from all your testing you have one screenshot?

I have many screenshots...

[HUNT3R]

Can you give me the link to the tread where i should report this particular thing? I can upload the save game again... tnx

Was this league simulated on full detail?

[brawla123]

I have many screenshots...

Okay but based on those shots we don't know how any of those injuries occurred. I thought you had made tests using your own team.

[mitbaster]

Was this league simulated on full detail?

Yes, i'm playing with Red Star and all detail levels are set at full for the league

[wiggoner60]

So I have now played 10 games on the latest patch (15.3) taking over a struggling English Conference South side mid-season. My record so far is W3, L2, D3 plus two friendly victories. I watch the games in full match view at regular speed which usually takes around 1h30mins – 2hrs per game, so in total around 20 hours of experience of the latest ME.

While I think on a general level the ME continues to improve, I also feel that for every iteration there are a number of things that can frustrate and make the game quite difficult to enjoy – often leading to certain adaptations having to be made by the user in order to mitigate these frustrations. I am a 10 year Quality Assurance specialist by trade, and my extensive FM experience generally involves lower league management. Naturally I appreciate the standard of football in these leagues will be lower, but at the same time watching these games in full match mode via the ME can be an infuriating and painful experience. I am sure the SI QA team tested these the ME in these lower leagues, and would be surprised if they didn’t experience some, if not all of these frustrations.

Anyway, for what it’s worth, here are my observations so far – for obvious reasons most of which revolve around the ME.

- Post-match time - an easy one to start, but the post-match screen following weekend fixtures, the date/ time displays as 15:15 on the same day. Obviously this is not correct for 3pm fixtures. Not sure how this made it through testing. I can’t be certain, but don’t think this was wrong pre 15.3.

- First touch – this is the one thing that has caused me the most frustration with the ME so far – SO many times players (both mine and the AI) lose possession through a poor first touch. I understand players in lower leagues are less technically proficient, but my five-a-side team has better close control than most of these guys. Even FM players with what I consider decent stats for this level (between 8-12 first touch, okay balance/ technique/ composure) lose the ball an astonishing number of times. Not only that, but after a poor touch they only seem able to ‘waddle’ up to the ball, before inevitably getting tackled. Interestingly, these same players seem capable of plucking a 40 yard pass out of the air by the touchline, but are unable to control a simple pass in the middle of the pitch – even if they are simply walking on to a relatively stationary ball.

- Tackles/ Strength – one of the biggest issues I had with the previous ME was the number of ‘out of nowhere’ challenges that would prevent my (or the AI, for that matter) strikers getting any kind of space in the penalty area. FAR too many times a nobody centre-back with terrible tackling stats would reach out a telescopic leg and execute the most perfect sliding challenge to stop my skillful, pacey striker from getting a shot away. In an entire season on the previous patch not once was I awarded or did I concede a penalty due to a poorly timed tackle. Given some of the penalties you see week in week out in real life, it is ridiculous what defenders get away with in this game. Whilst so far these incredible tackles seem to have been toned-down slightly in 15.3, for me it is still an issue. It also seems that regardless of the strength/ balance stats of my striker, they will fall over and roly-poly on the floor as soon as they are even touched by an opposition centre-back.

- Decisions – again, I understand these are lower league players with poor stats, but even Sunday league teams know when to let a ball go out for a throw-in/ goal kick. Players will often sprint back to collect a ball from going out of play, only to either thump it clear, or worse still let it go out for an opposition corner/ throw because of a poor first touch.

- Headed flick ons – this was a problem for me on FM13, and seems to be re-occurring. Admittedly this is the first time in FM15 I have played a single-striker system, but too often my forward (good stats for the division) will attempt to flick on a bouncing/ crossed ball to no nobody whatsoever. I understand sometimes he may be isolated and this is the only option, however this can also happen when there is clearly the opportunity to run on to the ball, but for whatever reason he is determined to head the thing at all costs.

- Wrong foot – I seem to recall reading this on the 15.3 fix-list, but it actually seems to be happening to me more on 15.3 than the previous patch – players switching to pass/ cross with their weaker foot, when the opportunity to use their stronger foot is available.

- Player/ team instructions – sadly these don’t seem to have much of an influence on how my team plays (I generally play Standard, occasionally Counter/ Control). ‘Lower/ lowest tempo/ take a breather’ - my players will still bomb forward as if chasing the game. ‘Hit early crosses’ – my wingers take 2, 3, 4 touches before even thinking about crossing the ball, by which time they have either lost possession, or smacked the ball into the defender that has closed them down. Despite ‘pass it shorter’ and ‘fewer risky passes’, my midfielder still regularly attempts Hollywood balls (which of course rarely finds the intended player). My defenders set to ‘pass short’ and ‘play out of defence’ seem insistent on booting it long, despite shorter midfield options being available. The only one that seems to work, which I tend to employ when my forward/ winger has just passed up a relatively straightforward and clear shot from inside the 16-yard box in favour of a backwards pass or dribble is ‘shoot more often’. This of course leads to the same player taking a pot-shot from 30 yards out five minutes later which rolls out for a opposition throw in.

- Player instructions/ PPMs (cont’d) - to make my above issues even more problematic, one of my centre-backs also has the ‘attempts long balls’ PPM, which apparently he is incapable of unlearning. How hard should it be to train that?!? Me: “Please could you stop smacking the ball 60 yards to nobody in particular?” Player: “Sure boss, I can try that.” This shouldn’t have to take 6 months of re-training, that ultimately proves unsuccessful anyway. As I result of this I am exploring abandoning my tactical philosophy and using a 6’5” Target Man in the hope he can make something of these incessant punts forward. I understand that there are a lot of considerations involved in how the ME interprets player stats/ instructions, however I feel my personal instructions should override whatever stats the player has (decisions, vision, even PPMs). I am the manager, after all, so at least please try what I am asking. If you mess up attempting a short pass, then that’s on me. Also, on the same subject my assistant manager continuously suggests that my strikers game will improve if he started attempting overhead kicks. I have never seen an overhead kick in FM, or even rarely a cross that would warrant an overhead kick, so I will politely decline this suggestion….

- Morale –personally I find morale is too simply tied to win = good, lose = bad. From experience I know how bad a spiral of poor morale can be on a team in this game, so I regularly find myself making like Brendan Rodgers and constantly praising my side despite their overall performance on the pitch (‘unlucky’, ‘don’t worry about the result’, ‘pleased’ etc.). In the games I have played so far, I have mostly dominated in possession and shots, only to be let down by poor finishing and the occasional defensive mistake. For this reason I have stuck to mostly positive team-talks/ praise etc., however the few times I have given negative feedback, morale instantly takes a hit, despite my players either agreeing with my criticism or looking ‘fired up’, ‘determined’ etc. To me, if my feedback has elicited this positive kind of response, it should have a positive effect on morale – or remain the same - not the opposite. Despite this, morale is often ‘low/ fairly low’ after these instances, or following a brief period of lost/ drawn games.

- Payer stats – I’m losing confidence that these make too much of a difference. My reserve forward with pace/ acceleration around 4-5 can regularly be seen bursting past players with better speed stats. My pre-mentioned first-choice forward with good strength/ balance will regularly fall over like Bambi after a 50/50 challenge, likewise my newly acquired 6’5” TM with 17 strength. Wingers with good crossing stats regularly find the stands/ opposition goalkeeper. My left-back with 20 (twenty!) long throws often fails to beat the first man with a long throw. And then of course there’s first touch…

- Exploitative tactics - I have read a lot in the forum recently of users complaining about high scoring matches and unrealistic shot count etc. This seems to have been mostly attributed to unrealistic and overly-attacking tactics that are designed to exploit ME weaknesses. While I accept this to a certain extent, one thing doesn’t sit well with me. If during a game my regular, realistic non-attacking tactic isn’t doing the business, and I happen to go one-nil down and am chasing the game going into the final 10 minutes or so, if I chose to employ an unrealistic and overly attacking strategy (as many a manager would be inclined to do) to try and nick a goal back – is this exploiting the ME? Or is the AI set up to handle overtly attacking strategies differently mid-game, compared to starting a game on the attack?

Great post. I am in total agreement with every point made, but most especially with the players stats and player instructions.

It is the most frustrating thing I know spending hours and hours studying my squad and developing balanced and effective tactics, only for them

to be 'ignored' so to speak.

I have just started a new save, the only thing I have 'adjusted' on the tactics screen is the formation. Everything else, roles, team instructions, player instructions etc, I have not touched from default. I am seeing very very little difference in their play from when I use my 'highly tuned to them' tactics :-(

Makes me feel like I have wasted a lot of hours.

[HUNT3R]

Yes, i'm playing with Red Star and all detail levels are set at full for the league

Then this (http://community.sigames.com/forumdisplay.php/455-All-Other-Issues) would be the place to post. Upload your save (see FTP Details in the forum header there) and post what you named the save.

[mitbaster]

Okay but based on those shots we don't know how any of those injuries occurred. I thought you had made tests using your own team.

As i sad, i don't have injurie problems with the team i am managing but AI is having too much injuries and that's the reason it is unplayable, it's just ridiculous to play against a team with 5-6 u19 players

[brawla123]

As i sad, i don't have injurie problems with the team i am managing but AI is having too much injuries and that's the reason it is unplayable, it's just ridiculous to play against a team with 5-6 u19 players

Yeah, that's true. Should probably upload your save to the Bugs forum then.

[szp]

Newcastle manager had asked me 2 times for a talk. He is unhappy, because Rolando Aarons, who is loaned to my team "doesn't play as a winger". What can I say? He played 11 games so far and he started all of them as Left Winger Attack :/

[Kriss]

Time to close this now as no more updates are expected and it would be good to let each discussion subject have its own thread so people can follow it more easily.

We would still much appreciate reports in the bugs forum for any problems you find (with supporting evidence where appropriate of course)

Thanks for the immense amount of useful input in this thread and shame on those who just can't follow the rules

I see there's already a decent thread running on the injuries debate and we'll probably find one worth adopting for the dreaded interaction interaction (couldn't resist)

[Mikegenius59]

On 27 February 2015 at 15:16, Bleamer said:

Starting new game as Crystal Palace , I have 3 of my players players unable to be registered ' until transfer embargo is lifted '. Not sure what this is about ?

I too am playing as Crystal Palace and I have this problem with Zeki Fryers. I am into the second season now and I still can't use him. Was this thread by Bleamer updated/resolved? Is there a way I can see when this embargo is due to be lifted?