SI, this is why I'm done with FM after 11 years

[Dagenham_Dave]

9 minutes ago, MHovel said:

 

IRL, you don't see managers talking to the players about their conduct and praising their conduct every few days.

How do you know this? 

[bestbrother]

Not sure about at smaller teams, but at the top end, morale is not important at all.

First season at Marseille I had players kicking off all the time, I dont even read the responses I have to give and in most cases just decline to comment and just leave the players to it.

Still won both French Cups, the Europa League and came 2nd to PSG, losing just 3 league games.

Maybe lower down it has more of an effect?

This season even more are kicking off as ive a massive squad and still the same, infact better.

[MHovel]

  42 minutes ago, MHovel said:

 

IRL, you don't see managers talking to the players about their conduct and praising their conduct every few days.

 

42 minutes ago, Dagenham_Dave said:

How do you know this? 

The way I describe it might be wrong, but according to your posts in the forums, I assume you are intelligent enough to understand what I mean so don't pretend being stupid (because it's not the 1st time you are doing this, putting forums users in the corner with your posts).

I know that from my own experience IRL as a former player. things might have change, but i don't believe the way the game reflect it in the current conversation system is right.

Regarding the game, I also talking about when the conduct conversations in game is repetetive.

[craigd84]

WOW I never knew the conduct thing... i have only used the conduct thing once or twice due to my captain convincing a player to do something ie Stay.

 

 

[grade]

3 hours ago, shirajzl said:

What would you use the editor for? 

From the top of my head: 

• Fifa like Champions League (like Dallan's)
• Fantasy USA with Pro/Rel with 256 clubs or more (still undecided, including the format of the pyramid)
• English like pyramid for the Portuguese Clubs
• Probably a Iberian Cup
• Fifa World Cup 48 teams or probably includes all nations in a straight knockout around.

 

[shirajzl]

40 minutes ago, grade said:

From the top of my head: 

• Fifa like Champions League (like Dallan's)
• Fantasy USA with Pro/Rel with 256 clubs or more (still undecided, including the format of the pyramid)
• English like pyramid for the Portuguese Clubs
• Probably a Iberian Cup
• Fifa World Cup 48 teams or probably includes all nations in a straight knockout around.

 

And you play all that stuff in full FM? Do you make it or download it from somewhere?

[Jimbokav1971]

14 hours ago, JordanMillward_1 said:

I'm not entirely sure what issues people are having with morale. I'm hardly a pro at the game, yet I've not once had a dressing room revolt or someone demand to go on the transfer list, or lost the confidence of the squad. I've had fewer issues with morale in FM18 than I had in FM17, because the added features have made it that much easier for me to know what might be making a player upset and deal with it ahead of time.

What badges and past playing experience are you starting with in comparison to what level of club you are managing?

[17Gonzo]

I have sympathy with the opening post in all honesty as I have a similar view on Dynamics, however I do have FM18 and am playing it. I can completely understand why dynamics has been put in the game. Like any sport or business, the successful interaction of the staff is going to have an impact on the productivity of the team, whether that be sales or points in the Premier League. But does this really belong in a sports management title? Much like the opening post I feel that it goes against the core game play areas that FM has been built upon over the last 25 years or so.

I do also have a great deal of sympathy with SI as well, however. As somebody who checks in to the forums occasionally, I know that there are always lots of threads bemoaning the lack of new features within the game each year (if there isn't anything major being added). The player interaction/dynamics did represent an obvious area to explore or exploit going forward. The problem with it is, that it conflicts with the other group of players who are relatively happy with overall FM experience the way it is (or was) and are just looking for incremental gains (such as ME, AI transfer policy, scouting etc). Many of my peers who used to play FM religious slowly got turned off by the changes that have taken place since FM10. Naturally, real life does account for several of those, but a few have said to me that game has gone away from what it was and was successfully built upon.

I have not tried FM Touch either, in all honesty. I did try FM Classic in one of the first few years that it came out, however, I didn't get on with it. Whilst I liked the basic premise, I actually wanted more control than the basics of game offered to me. In the full fat version of FM you can set your assistant to do most of the things that you are not overly interested in doing (for me this is typically training), which is a great strength of the main game. The problem with the dynamics is that where they are woven into the fabric of the game there is no way to avoid the interactions or the repercussions from them. You have to embrace that element, whether it's something you wish to or not. Therein lies the problem for me, as I don't feel the dynamics is a fundamental part of the game play. For me the best solution would be to have one version of FM, but to be able to select the modules that apply to the game experience. If I could turn the Dynamics off in FM18 and go back to the FM17 system for dealing with players, I would do so in a heart beat (I'm sure some players would wish to go to a system from even earlier version if possible too). 

Finding a way to appease both types of fans is probably an impossible task. If SI only make incremental changes they get accused of charging full price for a data update, and if they make large changes you get people like me bemoaning them. I suppose that with all game series you get a churn of players over time - perhaps my time is coming in the not too distant future!

[grade]

24 minutes ago, shirajzl said:

And you play all that stuff in full FM? Do you make it or download it from somewhere?

It depends really. Normally I do it, unless I find something that works for me, like Dallan's World Champions League.

[JordanMilly]

33 minutes ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

What badges and past playing experience are you starting with in comparison to what level of club you are managing?

I'm using the recommended levels.

[Jimbokav1971]

56 minutes ago, JordanMillward_1 said:

I'm using the recommended levels.

Try with slightly lower than the recommended levels and it might give you an insight into what the op is finding frustrating. 

[Andrew_Goats_Gruff]

3 hours ago, MHovel said:

IRL, you don't see managers talking to the players about their conduct and praising their conduct every few days. I don't know such of thing happen IRL, and even if it does, it's very rare

Is this a joke? 

 

Each Manager does it their way, wether you do this or not, S.I give you the option.

[MHovel]

2 minutes ago, Andrew_Goats_Gruff said:

Is this a joke? 

 

Each Manager does it their way, wether you do this or not, S.I give you the option.

I'm not talking about the option being there, i'm talkin about the feature being an exploit to increase the morale.

Edit: by the way in 90% it works. (praising conduct and training performance).

 

[Andrew_Goats_Gruff]

14 minutes ago, MHovel said:

I'm not talking about the option being there, i'm talkin about the feature being an exploit to increase the morale.

Edit: by the way in 90% it works. (praising conduct and training performance).

 

Morale doesn’t effect results as much as you nust think. I very rarely praise performances apart from team talks, only do training praise after monthly updates. To me morale is an illusion aslong as it’s not abysmal and so on.

[MHovel]

12 minutes ago, Andrew_Goats_Gruff said:

Morale doesn’t effect results as much as you nust think. I very rarely praise performances apart from team talks, only do training praise after monthly updates. To me morale is an illusion aslong as it’s not abysmal and so on.

I believe that you are wrong in this one, but, let's assume you are right and in game morale doesn't affect player performance... What about player confidence which is maybe 90% of how the players perform IRL (abilities aside).

I can be the most talented player in the world, but without confidence I'm simply nothing.

Assuming what you said is true, where is "confidece" in the game ? (My assumption always was that morale is also player confidence, and I think I'm not wrong in this one).

[themadsheep2001]

1 minute ago, MHovel said:

I believe that you are wrong in this one, but, let's assume you are right and in game morale doesn't affect player performance... What about player confidence which is maybe 90% of how the players perform IRL (abilities aside).

I can be the most talented player in the world, but without confidence I'm simply nothing.

Assuming what you said is true, where is "confidece" in the game ? (My assumption always was that morale is also player confidence, and I think I'm not wrong in this one).

He's actually right. Morale is important, as is everything. But it really isn't the overriding factor in the game. And it's impact on player performance is not linear 

[Andrew_Goats_Gruff]

6 minutes ago, MHovel said:

I believe that you are wrong in this one, but, let's assume you are right and in game morale doesn't affect player performance... What about player confidence which is maybe 90% of how the players perform IRL (abilities aside).

I can be the most talented player in the world, but without confidence I'm simply nothing.

Assuming what you said is true, where is "confidece" in the game ? (My assumption always was that morale is also player confidence, and I think I'm not wrong in this one).

Momentum beats any sort of morale (confidence if you want).

 

Hence why getting back on track is difficult. 

Pick your team, look at players, buy, sell, sort your tactical vision out. Let it play out.

Morale, press conferences, player chats, are very minor things, these are options and illusions to fit the game (Football Manager). 

 

Don’t overthink.

[Cougar2010]

9 minutes ago, MHovel said:

I believe that you are wrong in this one, but, let's assume you are right and in game morale doesn't affect player performance... What about player confidence which is maybe 90% of how the players perform IRL (abilities aside).

I can be the most talented player in the world, but without confidence I'm simply nothing.

Assuming what you said is true, where is "confidece" in the game ? (My assumption always was that morale is also player confidence, and I think I'm not wrong in this one).

I believe confidence is one of three mental scales which are used in the ME.

There was a thread(s) in the past discussing it but as I understood it SI confirmed there are three hidden scales that are used in match and change depending on what happens on the pitch.  The best way to get an idea is the body language? widgets which show things like "looking nervous/calm/confident".

[MHovel]

We are talking about football, confidence is one of the most important for proffesional players.

even for players like messi, ronaldo etc... (I took the most extreme example) without confidence they are garbage are garbage.

I hope this is not true. I'm really shocked that confidence is not part of the game.

I always though that morale is related to players confidence, and it felt very unrealistic that it's easier in the game to increase the player morale/confidence.

But how the casual user should know that. I can assure you that maybe 50% if not more (which is alot) of the users would think the same about morale (that is related to confidence).

Edit: after I replied I read your comment.

ok, good to know I'm wrong in this one, thank you for 3 of you.

[Andrew_Goats_Gruff]

I believe morale is happiness, confidence is brought on with momentum. That’s my view anyway, enjoy the game, don’t over think buddy.

[pdjacks]

I agree with the OP here - The social interaction element of the game is by far the worst development of recent versions of FM. (I've been playing since the Championship Manager days on the Amiga) 

It doesn't feel at all realistic, you start the game off guessing blind about what interaction might affect each player in which way, then once you learn the formula for how different players respond and you note it all down, you're then basically making use of an in game exploit in order to boost morale to a level above where it would be otherwise. The number of situations that you encounter is too limited for direct contact with players, team talks, media interaction, and the whole thing very quickly becomes repetitive and boring.

It's not true social interaction with players that you have here, it's essentially a blind multiple choice quiz where you have to 'learn' the answers and then keep repeating them every 5 minutes, there's no skill in it, and the whole thing detracts from what in many other ways is a very good game. Ever since its introduction I've felt like the social interaction elements of FM is a waste of my time, and so like the OP I've stopped buying new versions of FM as a result of it being part of the game. 

(btw I found this thread, because I was checking the forum to see whether there might be any chance of it not being present this time around). 

And whilst player management might be an aspect of modern football (though to be fair, it's always been an aspect of football, all be it in different ways) FM is a game at the end of the day, I wouldn't play a driving sim if the speed of your car was dependant on whether you'd hurt your engineering team's feelings or not, and in a similar vein I'm no longer interested playing a football sim where there's more and more focus on development of 'social interaction features' over the actual quality of the core management of the football matches themselves.

[pdjacks]

Re suggestions to play FM Touch if you don't like social interaction:

Maybe SI should bring out a version called 'FM Social Interaction' which only contains the social interaction elements of the game and drops everything else, there's clearly a market for it...  ;-) 

[bennytee]

50 minutes ago, pdjacks said:

Re suggestions to play FM Touch if you don't like social interaction:

Maybe SI should bring out a version called 'FM Social Interaction' which only contains the social interaction elements of the game and drops everything else, there's clearly a market for it...  ;-) 

Sold! I'm ready to go full Eileen Drewery !

[KUBI]

All the interactions, Dynamics and motivation are really not that complicated to handle in the game. Just make some reasonable decisions. Plus, players forget some recent interfere, when you win two games in a row. It's still far from the complexity of real man management. You need just to ask yourself: is it worth to make a player upset? How will the other react? Some players drop everything after they played three matches in the first team, others not. It depends on their personality. Even if it's just basic, I like how it is. In the past you did just buy good players and used a good tactic. Now you have to handle your players a little like humans. 

[pdjacks]

22 minutes ago, bennytee said:

Sold! I'm ready to go full Eileen Drewery !

If you think that's good, just wait until you get your hands on the FM Paul the Octopus Prediction Game.... 

[pdjacks]

15 minutes ago, KUBI said:

 It's still far from the complexity of real man management. 

For me that's the big problem here - In my day job I man manage people all day long; I do it by getting to know each individual, building rapport, showing empathy, giving respect to them, building their confidence and esteem, finding ways to help them develop their own careers, within a conversion I'm reading body language and facial expression, I listen to what people have to say, and I question them to find out about what really matters to them. At the end of the day I interact with people on a human level which has degrees of complexity far beyond what can be modelled within a computer DB.

In FM I select 1 of 5 pre-generated options and hope for the best... If FM is trying to be realistic in its social interactions, then I'm sorry, but real life social interaction is nothing like that.

I think when social interaction started to appear in FM games around 11-13 SI were saying at the time something along the lines of 'Yes it's simple now, but it's a new feature we'll make it more sophisticated as we develop it' - It's not really getting sophisticated though, it's just becoming more prominent. 

[bennytee]

4 minutes ago, pdjacks said:

If you think that's good, just wait until you get your hands on the FM Paul the Octopus Prediction Game.... 

I can see it now, Paul gets injured and has to see a specialist.

The cost?

£6

i'll get my coat

[SpartyOn]

10 hours ago, shirajzl said:

This is still the same underlying issue that, for some reason, playing FMT is "beneath" a lot of people. I've seen that attitude so many times it's baffling.

Yeah, I've seen that too and I don't get it at all.

People complain that they want the game to just be <all the stuff that's in FMT> and not all the stupid minutiae like <all the stuff that's not in FMT>. Then you suggest FMT, and they react like you're asking them to replace their car with a tricycle.

I think a lot of people would be pleasantly surprised if they gave FMT a shot.

[Butters76]

9 hours ago, pdjacks said:

Re suggestions to play FM Touch if you don't like social interaction:

Maybe SI should bring out a version called 'FM Social Interaction' which only contains the social interaction elements of the game and drops everything else, there's clearly a market for it...  ;-) 

Yeah, call it Dr. Phil's social engineering

[Heywood JaBlowme]

The common response here used to be "It's your tactics". Now, "It's your social interaction"?

[HemHat]

At least interaction is simple..it's easy enough to work out what answer to give a player and not cause an upset once you've seen all the options. Same for press conferences if you can be bothered to do them.

 

[pdjacks]

22 hours ago, SpartyOn said:

Yeah, I've seen that too and I don't get it at all.

People complain that they want the game to just be <all the stuff that's in FMT> and not all the stupid minutiae like <all the stuff that's not in FMT>. Then you suggest FMT, and they react like you're asking them to replace their car with a tricycle.

I think a lot of people would be pleasantly surprised if they gave FMT a shot.

I've tried looking for a decent post or link which gives details of the difference between touch and the full FM game. Is anything like that available to view? 

In the absence of some concrete information I'm working on the assumption that Touch is designed to be played on Tablets, is that right? As such I'd expect it to have cut down features in a number of different areas as compared to the full game. If so then it's not something that I see as being 'beneath' me, but by the same token it's also not the game that I'm interested in playing. I like my strategy games to run deep, I'd imagine that touch has cut down tactics, cut down training, cut down player info, and so on... If the only difference is that social interaction is removed then wow that's great, but given the difference in price tags, I'd expect there to be a lot more that's been cut out. 

[Dagenham_Dave]

1 hour ago, pdjacks said:

I've tried looking for a decent post or link which gives details of the difference between touch and the full FM game. Is anything like that available to view? 

In the absence of some concrete information I'm working on the assumption that Touch is designed to be played on Tablets, is that right? As such I'd expect it to have cut down features in a number of different areas as compared to the full game. If so then it's not something that I see as being 'beneath' me, but by the same token it's also not the game that I'm interested in playing. I like my strategy games to run deep, I'd imagine that touch has cut down tactics, cut down training, cut down player info, and so on... If the only difference is that social interaction is removed then wow that's great, but given the difference in price tags, I'd expect there to be a lot more that's been cut out. 

There isn't a separate price for FM Touch unless you want to buy the tablet version, which is a bit more restricted. Then you've also got Football Manager Mobile which is a very stripped down version of the game. 

The PC version of Touch (used to be called FM Classic) comes free with the main game. It uses the exact same match engine as the main game, the database is by and large the same, the players are the same, the tactics are the same and transfers are the same.  Training is more streamlined, and is actually easier and more satisfying to use. There's also very little player/media interaction. Essentially, FM Touch (for PC) is pretty much like the older games in the series from FM10 back, in that the main focus is on assembling a squad, and picking your team/tactic. 

Quite why SI decided to call it FM Touch is beyond me, as people now simply associate it with the mobile version of the game when they are two very different things. 

Personally, I'll always prefer the main game I think, but I've always had saves on both since the Classic version was first introduced on FM13. 

[SpartyOn]

1 hour ago, Dagenham_Dave said:

There isn't a separate price for FM Touch unless you want to buy the tablet version, which is a bit more restricted.

You can buy FM Touch as a stand-alone product for PC for a reduced price compared to the full game.

[Cal585]

4 hours ago, pdjacks said:

I've tried looking for a decent post or link which gives details of the difference between touch and the full FM game. Is anything like that available to view? 

As stated previously, Touch removes most social interactions like press conferences, team talks and dynamics. This can make it harder to arrest a bad run as you're restricted in how you can increase morale.

Otherwise Touch condenses a lot of things. Scouting goes straight to 100% overnight, youth teams are combined into a reserve team, tutoring is auto-assigned, staff are limited to one per area and are presumed to keep their own teams beneath them, there are no home grown rules or FFP, and there is no tactical familiarity which means you can freely change things up over the season (and lots of people use Touch to test tactics for full). Otherwise it's the same I believe. I play it on tablet sometimes as well, but I prefer the PC version with extra leagues and bigger screen (and mouse). I wouldn't necessarily call it easier, just quicker and more streamlined.

Full FM is a far more detailed simulator and the editor allows lots more possibilities. FM Touch takes a step back for improved playability. It's still a great game, it just nitpicks less. I keep finding myself going back to it, just because I can play the game more and get further into a save instead of getting caught up in juggling everything around the club. I tend to do 1 save on full and a couple of different ones on Touch. IMO FMT is definitely the best option for online/network play.

[scott MUFC]

I found it rather annoying, Zlatan got annoyed because I sold Fellaini (its fellaini ffs) because he was in a core group.... then got annoyed because I didn't replace him (I had already bought a midfielder by then was trying to replace Darmian.. who no one cared about... :/), got through 7 league games.. team are all still in yellow for morale... because of ONE freaking deawood sale.

what is more frustrating is some of the horrendous finishing, talking chances that 99/100 are at the very least a shot on target IRL, being either ballooned or going miles wide

 

[oggyx]

I'll just leave this here. Quote by Julian Nagelsmann

 

Quote

“Thirty per cent of coaching is tactics, 70% social competence,” he told Süddeutsche Zeitung in August, “every player is motivated by different things and needs to be addressed accordingly. At this level, the quality of the players at your disposal will ensure that you play well within a good tactical set-up – if the psychological condition is right.”

 

[grade]

8 hours ago, Dagenham_Dave said:

There isn't a separate price for FM Touch unless you want to buy the tablet version, which is a bit more restricted. Then you've also got Football Manager Mobile which is a very stripped down version of the game. 

The PC version of Touch (used to be called FM Classic) comes free with the main game. It uses the exact same match engine as the main game, the database is by and large the same, the players are the same, the tactics are the same and transfers are the same.  Training is more streamlined, and is actually easier and more satisfying to use. There's also very little player/media interaction. Essentially, FM Touch (for PC) is pretty much like the older games in the series from FM10 back, in that the main focus is on assembling a squad, and picking your team/tactic. 

Quite why SI decided to call it FM Touch is beyond me, as people now simply associate it with the mobile version of the game when they are two very different things. 

Personally, I'll always prefer the main game I think, but I've always had saves on both since the Classic version was first introduced on FM13. 

There is one very negative aspect to FM Touch... No editor... 5 years and counting... sigh...

But I agree, that it needed to have name difference between touch Tablet and Desktop versions.

[Dagenham_Dave]

1 minute ago, grade said:

There is one very negative aspect to FM Touch... No editor... 5 years and counting... sigh...

But I agree, that it needed to have name difference between touch Tablet and Desktop versions.

Should simply have kept the PC version known as FM Classic, it was the perfect name for it. 

[grade]

I agree. This also confused the hell out of me.

[Butters76]

5 hours ago, scott MUFC said:

I found it rather annoying, Zlatan got annoyed because I sold Fellaini (its fellaini ffs) because he was in a core group.... then got annoyed because I didn't replace him (I had already bought a midfielder by then was trying to replace Darmian.. who no one cared about... :/), got through 7 league games.. team are all still in yellow for morale... because of ONE freaking deawood sale.

what is more frustrating is some of the horrendous finishing, talking chances that 99/100 are at the very least a shot on target IRL, being either ballooned or going miles wide

 

Yeah, this has been annoying for a few versions of FM now. If you know you want to get rid of a player and you sign his replacement before selling the player, the rest of the squad don't understand that his replacement has already been signed and keep nagging me to sign a replacement.

[Zanman777]

On 13/11/2017 at 23:33, pdjacks said:

Re suggestions to play FM Touch if you don't like social interaction:

Maybe SI should bring out a version called 'FM Social Interaction' which only contains the social interaction elements of the game and drops everything else, there's clearly a market for it...  ;-) 

:Oprah Winfrey heavy breathing:

Football Manager The Sims crossover!

Football Manager Soap Oprah Edition.

The commercial should be a player closing his locker, turning to another player and going like:

"You won't believe what coachie said yesterday... He calmly said «Nice result»!! I just pretended I wasn't listening..."

"Ohmygod, what a perv..."

"I know, right??"

[Zanman777]

On 14/11/2017 at 13:09, Heywood JaBlowme said:

The common response here used to be "It's your tactics". Now, "It's your social interaction"?

"Post your social interactions so we can help you out and see what's going wrong."  

[Neil_Roberts]

On 11/13/2017 at 14:32, Smurf said:

Why should anyone have to go to a different game model to have fun. Simply put, I shouldn't have to.

SI have shoehorned in a lot of features to make things more real - but they're not fun. First and foremost, it's a game, and secondly it's to simulate football management. 

There's others facets of management - like Training - I'd love to see training days, where you setup a 5 aside matches for 30 minutes. Or have 1 striker against 3 defenders - or 1 one 1 with keeper. 

That's more management of the the team - and overseeing training. 

But that's my vision - drastically different to managing social media feeds.

 

I'd love the training side of the game be expanded  so you could (if you wish) schedule exactly what the players do, to suit your tactics. Lots of 5 a side for a more possession based team, or lots of set piece training for the Tony Pulis management types.

[XaW]

49 minutes ago, Neil_Roberts said:

I'd love the training side of the game be expanded  so you could (if you wish) schedule exactly what the players do, to suit your tactics. Lots of 5 a side for a more possession based team, or lots of set piece training for the Tony Pulis management types.

Do you want to return to this? I sure don't...

[Artin]

SI should NOT *force* drama/tension in this game.

for some reason, SI thinks that ALL teams should have some drama/tension going on in the dressing room every time. you could be having an undefeated season and scoring 10+ goals a game and starting every player every other match etc. and someone would still complain in your team.

why? because SI *forces* drama/tension in this game instead of letting them occur naturally.

[XaW]

1 minute ago, Artin said:

SI should NOT *force* drama/tension in this game.

for some reason, SI thinks that ALL teams should have some drama/tension going on in the dressing room every time. you could be having an undefeated season and scoring 10+ goals a game and starting every player every other match etc. and someone would still complain in your team.

why? because SI *forces* drama/tension in this game instead of letting them occur naturally.

What? No, I'm well into my 6th season and so far I have had 5 players come to me with issues. 1 was a bug and I reported it and it was reviewed. The others are backups or youngsters who want to play more. Some have gotten games and some have been moved on. No issues and no "forced drama".

I see so many complaining about this and I ask myself what on earth you are doing to your players to make them so unhappy? At the moment I'm playing in the lower leagues, but I have also finished a season with Liverpool and all without any major incidents. So either you are doing something wrong or I'm a social genius. I have serious doubts to my own genius, so I guess you must be doing something wrong.

[Tony Wright 747]

30 minutes ago, XaW said:

Do you want to return to this? I sure don't...

Nor me, I let my AM take training, but there are others who would love to.  I would think that it would be good for them to have the choice

[Zanman777]

2 hours ago, XaW said:

Do you want to return to this? I sure don't...

Actually I miss that training screen...

[Zanman777]

2 hours ago, XaW said:

What? No, I'm well into my 6th season and so far I have had 5 players come to me with issues. 1 was a bug and I reported it and it was reviewed. The others are backups or youngsters who want to play more. Some have gotten games and some have been moved on. No issues and no "forced drama".

I see so many complaining about this and I ask myself what on earth you are doing to your players to make them so unhappy? At the moment I'm playing in the lower leagues, but I have also finished a season with Liverpool and all without any major incidents. So either you are doing something wrong or I'm a social genius. I have serious doubts to my own genius, so I guess you must be doing something wrong.

Do you purposefully rotate players to avoid them complaining of lack of match time?

 

I have my preferences in terms of players. Whenever I can choose my "favorite" players, I do. And I don't rotate unless there's an injury, a suspension, a really bad performance run or a tactical idea. 

 

I can tell you every 2-3 months someone is complaining they want to play more. Even players with the "reserve" setting on their squad status.