FM too easy threads? Tell me how you make it so easy!

[djpdavey]

I've seen numerous "Is FM too easy" threads and I was wondering, from tier 6 to winning Prem and CL what you're doing that im not?

[Impacto]

Get good players on loan. Get free agents and sell players constantly to make money for facilities improvements and a decent wage bill. Focus on the cups as a tie against the big dogs brings a lot of money if you're below the Championship. Avoid crap players - poor personalities with low determination, low natural fitness, low work rate. Try and get players with professional, resolute or perfectionist personalities and have them mentor the young players. Get coaches with the same good personalities, it rubs off to the squad. Don't hesitate to sell youngsters for a a lot of profit with 40-50% sell on clauses. You can later sell those clauses for a lot of money. 

That's the basic strategy. For this FM all you need to is pick gegenpressing and constantly shout in matches 'Demand More' and 'Get creative'. And wait. The results will come(for the most part). On FM 20 Wing backs and very strong. Use them well. 

Also, perfect your team talks. 'Prove a point', 'pick up where you left off' or 'for the fans' when playing a rival. 'Don't get complacent' when winning by 1 or 2 goals at HT. 'Dissapointing' when drawing or losing(with cautious tone if you were the underdog).

Praise good training, criticize bad. Praise good form, criticize bad. When somebody is unhappy send the captain. If that fails, tell the player 'you're very influential and I value your presense bla bla' or something and most times he backs down(unless he hates you). If a player hates you - sell him as quick as possible. Keep an eye on Dynamics.

That's what I can think of, but there is probably more. It's a complex game, but when you learn it, it's not a challenge at all. All will come with experience. 

[Impacto]

I forgot something before you start a game - If you want easy mode - disable player attribute masking. Then you can see the players perfectly without much need for scouting. The scouts will only tell you some hidden stuff from time to time, but when you see all the attributes it makes transfers really easy. 

 

[enigmatic]

Mainly just use an overpowered tactic. 

Then instruct your manager to use your overpowered tactic, then go on holiday for a season and come back to a squad with some players very angry youve ignored their requests... and a league title

The other stuff is fun... but it's more effort.

[Mars_Blackmon]

34 minutes ago, Impacto said:

Get good players on loan. Get free agents and sell players constantly to make money for facilities improvements and a decent wage bill. Focus on the cups as a tie against the big dogs brings a lot of money if you're below the Championship. Avoid crap players - poor personalities with low determination, low natural fitness, low work rate. Try and get players with professional, resolute or perfectionist personalities and have them mentor the young players. Get coaches with the same good personalities, it rubs off to the squad. Don't hesitate to sell youngsters for a a lot of profit with 40-50% sell on clauses. You can later sell those clauses for a lot of money. 

That's the basic strategy. For this FM all you need to is pick gegenpressing and constantly shout in matches 'Demand More' and 'Get creative'. And wait. The results will come(for the most part). On FM 20 Wing backs and very strong. Use them well. 

Also, perfect your team talks. 'Prove a point', 'pick up where you left off' or 'for the fans' when playing a rival. 'Don't get complacent' when winning by 1 or 2 goals at HT. 'Dissapointing' when drawing or losing(with cautious tone if you were the underdog).

Praise good training, criticize bad. Praise good form, criticize bad. When somebody is unhappy send the captain. If that fails, tell the player 'you're very influential and I value your presense bla bla' or something and most times he backs down(unless he hates you). If a player hates you - sell him as quick as possible. Keep an eye on Dynamics.

That's what I can think of, but there is probably more. It's a complex game, but when you learn it, it's not a challenge at all. All will come with experience. 

Yes the game became very formalistic instead of feel.

[fivetwelvepony]

3 hours ago, Impacto said:

Get good players on loan. Get free agents and sell players constantly to make money for facilities improvements and a decent wage bill. Focus on the cups as a tie against the big dogs brings a lot of money if you're below the Championship. Avoid crap players - poor personalities with low determination, low natural fitness, low work rate. Try and get players with professional, resolute or perfectionist personalities and have them mentor the young players. Get coaches with the same good personalities, it rubs off to the squad. Don't hesitate to sell youngsters for a a lot of profit with 40-50% sell on clauses. You can later sell those clauses for a lot of money. 

That's the basic strategy. For this FM all you need to is pick gegenpressing and constantly shout in matches 'Demand More' and 'Get creative'. And wait. The results will come(for the most part). On FM 20 Wing backs and very strong. Use them well. 

Also, perfect your team talks. 'Prove a point', 'pick up where you left off' or 'for the fans' when playing a rival. 'Don't get complacent' when winning by 1 or 2 goals at HT. 'Dissapointing' when drawing or losing(with cautious tone if you were the underdog).

Praise good training, criticize bad. Praise good form, criticize bad. When somebody is unhappy send the captain. If that fails, tell the player 'you're very influential and I value your presense bla bla' or something and most times he backs down(unless he hates you). If a player hates you - sell him as quick as possible. Keep an eye on Dynamics.

That's what I can think of, but there is probably more. It's a complex game, but when you learn it, it's not a challenge at all. All will come with experience. 

I agree with everything you said except for the "do it for the fans" team talk. Maybe my players are jerks, but I don't think this has every worked for me. "Listened keenly" was about the best reaction I think I ever got.

[fivetwelvepony]

The game is easy, in that you can fire the game up for the first time, select one of the pre-made tactics, and do just fine.

But there are aspects of the game that are hard and that will take a lot of experience to get better at. For me as a new player, seeing what is happening on the field and making an in-game tactical adjustment is something I'd like to do better. Having a deeper understanding of roles and duties, how they interact with one another and team mentality. I think with experience I can get better at, but they are difficult to master.

Then there are some aspects of the game I think are impossible to ever understand through just experience and practice. It is difficult to see the effects of things with a low signal-to-noise ratio. There is a lot of noise in the game -- random things that affect injuries, development, and game to game performance. Many choices you make the influence on an outcome is not high enough, or the noise is so great, that you cannot actually know what is going on even with years of experience. If you've been playing a long time and think you understand these things, it is possible that understanding did not come from your experience but rather from a post by a developer or the like.

 

 

 

[zyfon5]

Just get good players and delegate most of the training and team talks to your assistant. Get good staff also if your club can afford it. Good tactics can affect your results for sure but better players will make you win more easily.

[petertr]

11 hours ago, Impacto said:

Get coaches with the same good personalities, it rubs off to the squad.

I asked about that on here, and SI staff said this absolutely does not happen.  Only players can affect other players' personality.

[sthptngomad76]

12 hours ago, enigmatic said:

Mainly just use an overpowered tactic. 

Then instruct your manager to use your overpowered tactic, then go on holiday for a season and come back to a squad with some players very angry youve ignored their requests... and a league title

The other stuff is fun... but it's more effort.

This.

Never before, in my opinion, have the overpowered tactics felt so...overpowered.

I don't subscribe to the "well don't use them" logic. I don't want to try not to win to make it challenging. I don't want to avoid certain strategies incorporated into many downloadable tactics in case I break the game and get Southampton 3rd in April with no signings, no team talks, no team meetings, and doing nothing but clicking continue and making the odd substitution.  I want to struggle, but not struggle by avoiding things that I know will be successful.

These tactics now have an influence which far outweighs the skill level of your team. And it's killed this version for me.

[zyfon5]

23 minutes ago, sthptngomad76 said:

This.

Never before, in my opinion, have the overpowered tactics felt so...overpowered.

oh you will be surprised i have seen far more overpowered tactics (or game breaking exploits) in previous versions of the game. Also curious what do you think is overpowered? I have tried very different tactics in the game and all of them seems to work just fine for me.

 

24 minutes ago, sthptngomad76 said:

These tactics now have an influence which far outweighs the skill level of your team. And it's killed this version for me.

but this is what the fun is all about no? Taking a non-league team to the Champions league is the appeal of the game and differentiates it from the other football games in the market. If I do not want to mess with tactics I will play FIFA instead.

[Travis Bickle]

There are way less overpowered tactics in FM20 than previous versions, believe me.

 

[Impacto]

11 hours ago, fivetwelvepony said:

I agree with everything you said except for the "do it for the fans" team talk. Maybe my players are jerks, but I don't think this has every worked for me. "Listened keenly" was about the best reaction I think I ever got.

It only works when playing a rival. Rivals are listed in the general club menu(just clarifying for newer players). For me it works great and it works every time. 

5 hours ago, zyfon5 said:

Just get good players and delegate most of the training and team talks to your assistant. Get good staff also if your club can afford it. Good tactics can affect your results for sure but better players will make you win more easily.

Nope. Don't ever delagate team talks to the assistant. You can do a far better job. If you don't want to bother, sure leave it to him, but know that it you're harming your chances of success if you do. For training I would have agreed... but a few days ago I found a training schedule that outperforms hugely the general training that the assistant provides. It's just 3 schedules that I pick depending on how many matches I have for a week and players are growing incredibly. I love it. Never leaving it to the ass man again. That being said, training is not that important in FM. I've done very well without ever bothering with it. 

4 hours ago, petertr said:

I asked about that on here, and SI staff said this absolutely does not happen.  Only players can affect other players' personality.

Hm, interesting. I guess I could be wrong on that one, but I know for sure that staff personalities play a part in the newgen generation. And they also play a part in the staff reaching their potential too, just like the players. So in general it's better to have staff with good personalities. 

 

[Mars_Blackmon]

1 hour ago, sthptngomad76 said:

This.

Never before, in my opinion, have the overpowered tactics felt so...overpowered.

I don't subscribe to the "well don't use them" logic. I don't want to try not to win to make it challenging. I don't want to avoid certain strategies incorporated into many downloadable tactics in case I break the game and get Southampton 3rd in April with no signings, no team talks, no team meetings, and doing nothing but clicking continue and making the odd substitution.  I want to struggle, but not struggle by avoiding things that I know will be successful.

These tactics now have an influence which far outweighs the skill level of your team. And it's killed this version for me.

Not to mention that you can completely gut a team, create a brand new tactic and a month later the familiarity is full...No wonder we barely see mistakes made.

[Mars_Blackmon]

1 hour ago, zyfon5 said:

oh you will be surprised i have seen far more overpowered tactics (or game breaking exploits) in previous versions of the game. Also curious what do you think is overpowered? I have tried very different tactics in the game and all of them seems to work just fine for me.

 

but this is what the fun is all about no? Taking a non-league team to the Champions league is the appeal of the game and differentiates it from the other football games in the market. If I do not want to mess with tactics I will play FIFA instead.

The fact that you can take a non league team to the top in 6 years or so with a tactic and completely ignoring the nuances like analysis is a problem. You can do the ultimate limit with a poor team and have a killer tactic.

 

just another many example of FM having a ton of details in the game that means very little. Making them more important autoMagically increases difficulty when it comes to management.

 

AI transfers, match engine is  another conversion thought.

[Erimus1876]

3 hours ago, sthptngomad76 said:

This.

Never before, in my opinion, have the overpowered tactics felt so...overpowered.

I don't subscribe to the "well don't use them" logic. I don't want to try not to win to make it challenging. I don't want to avoid certain strategies incorporated into many downloadable tactics in case I break the game and get Southampton 3rd in April with no signings, no team talks, no team meetings, and doing nothing but clicking continue and making the odd substitution.  I want to struggle, but not struggle by avoiding things that I know will be successful.

These tactics now have an influence which far outweighs the skill level of your team. And it's killed this version for me.

 

Pretty much my sentiments too.

But its not just the overpowered tactics at fault, as others have mentioned morale seems to play a big part now too.

I never used genpress in my games since I've heard it was way overpowered.  And since the FM12 days I've always used a skin that adds some ambiguity when viewing a players strengths and weakness (I really dislike the way the default skin shows you exactly what a players attributes are without any means to add some 'fog-of-war' options - something that was asked for time and again going back to those FM12 days, and probably before that too).  But even with self-imposed handicaps, like the skin I use, its so easy to put a successful squad together in a very short timeframe imo, a fog of war option isn't the sole answer, although it would be a step in the right direction, as long as its optional.

I'm by no means a tactical wizard. I created a simple 5-1-2-2 tactic that looks good to watch, has a nice blend of defensive and attacking play, and crucially doesn't allow me to dominate matches, because constantly winning 4-0, 5-0, or 6-0 is something I detest more than anything, and if it starts happening on my saves, the boredom sets in shortly after and I give up on that save.  I prefer close scoring games. I prefer defensive games (yeah, I'm in a minority!)  But as the results suggest in the screenshots below, once you get on a run, it becomes increasingly easy to keep things ticking over because the morale plays a big part.   Instead of dominating games and scoring bags of goals, for me its the opposite.. the opposition get enough gameplay but just can't break my team down and I'm constantly setting clean sheet records or least goals against, during the season.  The end result is the same, a relatively quick and easy rise up the leagues with my clubs overachieving.

Fitness is another aspect where the AI can't compete.  I rotate my players a lot, and make sure my full squad get game time, keeping their match sharpness in top notch condition, anyone below 92% is played in the midweek reserves, this keeps them ALL in top condition.  The AI don't do that, you just have to have a look at the other squads in the league, and there's not one that matches mine for fitness and overall match sharpness across the board.

On my last save I started in the Swedish lower leagues, won the league at a canter without the need to build a team,  went to a mid-table St. Mirren halfway through a season, and immediately went on a run that won promotion, took over a Dundee United who the AI struggled to get out of that league, and won the championship at the first try with literally the same squad the AI had built.  Its the same story.   And its not because I'm some FM god.. far from it... its just that once you know a formula that works at the lowest levels, you're pretty much guaranteed it to work at every other level up the pyramid, and its not a hard formula to figure out.  Play the game with a semblance of common sense, keep the squad fit and match sharp, keep morale up, use the same ingame shouts, same team talks (already been mentioned by others)... happy and fit players give you such a massive advantage and constant overachievement, that the need to put a lot of emphasis on team building and bringing the best players to your club, becomes a secondary objective.

SI are in a difficult and almost impossible situation.  I suspect the vast majority of their players want to win things fairly quickly, and be successful, so they can't make the game overly difficult.  But they do need to add options that give players who want a tougher challenge a way to get that challenge, and that's not always by taking over the poorest team in team lowest league, because the advantage the human player has over the AI, just means its a matter of time before you're on the road to inevitable dominance.. and that period of time seems to be getting shorter with every version of FM.

 

The 'fog-of-war' skin I use.  I wish SI would have a proper option for this in the game!

 

1st season at Dundee Untied

 

1st season at St. Mirren

 

1st season at Skovde AIK

[petertr]

1 hour ago, Impacto said:

Hm, interesting. I guess I could be wrong on that one, but I know for sure that staff personalities play a part in the newgen generation. And they also play a part in the staff reaching their potential too, just like the players. So in general it's better to have staff with good personalities. 

Isn't it just the HOYD?

[Viking]

17 hours ago, enigmatic said:

Mainly just use an overpowered tactic. 

Then instruct your manager to use your overpowered tactic, then go on holiday for a season and come back to a squad with some players very angry youve ignored their requests... and a league title

The other stuff is fun... but it's more effort.

If people that download OP tactics are here complaining about the game being too easy they need to get flogged. I can put a PL team in the Championship and fail, and every attempt from SI to make the game more "challenging" to please those who finds the game too easy makes the game more and more unplayable and exhausting for me.

[Mars_Blackmon]

8 minutes ago, Viking said:

If people that download OP tactics are here complaining about the game being too easy they need to get flogged. I can put a PL team in the Championship and fail, and every attempt from SI to make the game more "challenging" to please those who finds the game too easy makes the game more and more unplayable and exhausting for me.

You literally don’t need to download a tactic...

 

Gegenpress is overpowering...

Higher lines and pressing is OP.

[Icy]

Maybe the mods should merge both "game is easy" threads because we are discussing the same in two places.

In my opinion the game is not easy or hard per se,  I'd say it's easy once you find out the formula as it's been said already, the same way than if in an arcade game like FIFA you discover that spot where 99% of the times a shoot goes in. Then you must decide if to use it or not.

I always start with low league teams and get bored once I reach the top leagues or if i win too much too easy so my knowledge is only for these and not about managing top league teams.

Here is my recipe to have success starting from the bottom, don't read it if you don't to be spoiled.

Have on mind that the first season is usually the hardest one if you start with no badges and specially with sunday league reputation so your players don't respect you until mid season.

1) Keep morale high but avoid overconfidence. It's easy with team talks, praising players training and form and pre/post game talks and press conferences, can write a quick guide but I guess everybody knows already the answers and there are some good guides around managing team talks and morale.

2) Rotate players so they are all fit and happy with playing time.

3) Hire determined and/or profesional players and use tutoring to spread it out within your team.

4) Setup a basic and balanced 4-2-3-1 or 4-4-2 without many instructions, I don't like the presets, too extreme.

5) Use positive or attacking mentality with High pressing & high defensive line and line of engagement (you will concede some counters but there is little risk of balls over the top after the too many 1on1 nerf).

6) Send your scouts to find young players, after the first season there are a ton of under 22 years old available for free, released by top teams that are awesome for lower divisions plus they can be sold for profit.

7) Hire the best staff, again it's so easy to have always the best staff at your level.

And that is without exploiting the contracts negotiations and transfer market with clauses, like adding always a profit from next sale clause or offering monthly or delayed payments that would be point 8 that I never do as I try to play realistically.

I set myself set pieces routines but don't exploit them, in fact I forbid myself to use anything but "mixed delivery" to not to exploit the short or far post etc, but that would be number 9.

I self impose rules to avoid it, kind of but without being extreme I use the old LLM forum rules, but some are hard to self impose as then you can't do what a good coach would do and then I miss the realism factor. Like for example I refuse to exploit the market with unrealistic contracts, that is easy, but how do I handicap myself to not to hire the best staff available? or why shouldn't I use high or attacking pressing tactics? (I can't win consistently with mentality below balanced) or why shouldn't I praise my players? etc.

Maybe I should try to manage in the top leagues and then maybe I wouldn't be able to win them, or to win a Champions League, that to be honest I haven't ever won in 18 years playing CM/FM because I never manage top teams and leave mines/restart if/when they reach that level.  I don't play with top teams as I think it would be even easier but... maybe I'm wrong and I'm only good at starting from the bottom, will challenge myself in the next save, probably in FM21 with a bad team in a top league and let's see. I'm also sure that I would be crushed by many managers in online leagues, that I have never tried (other than FM live) so it's not that I consider myself a good FM manager, just that I have found a formula to win vs the AI at the lower levels. 

Edited October 8, 2020 by Icy

[Impacto]

2 hours ago, petertr said:

Isn't it just the HOYD?

He has the most influence, but all coaches that work with the youth players play a part(or so I've read). 

[fivetwelvepony]

8 minutes ago, Icy said:

And that is without exploiting the contracts negotiations and transfer market with clauses, like adding always a profit from next sale clause or offering monthly or delayed payments that would be point 7 that I never do as I try to play realistically.

 

But real clubs offer delayed payments and sell on clauses all the time, no? Also, I have found that your negotiating  partner doesn't count $1 in the future the same as a $1 today.

One thing I've noticed about managing a top club is that you feel the pressure to win almost every game. There is no room for error.  

 

[Icy]

Justo ahora, fivetwelvepony dijo:

But real clubs offer delayed payments and sell on clauses all the time, no? Also, I have found that your negotiating  partner doesn't count $1 in the future the same as a $1 today.

One thing I've noticed about managing a top club is that you feel the pressure to win almost every game. There is no room for error.  

 

Yes, to use them is realistic and fine, but you can abuse them in FM20 to go around the team budgets.

[Dagenham_Dave]

20 hours ago, Impacto said:

Get good players on loan. Get free agents and sell players constantly to make money for facilities improvements and a decent wage bill. Focus on the cups as a tie against the big dogs brings a lot of money if you're below the Championship. Avoid crap players - poor personalities with low determination, low natural fitness, low work rate. Try and get players with professional, resolute or perfectionist personalities and have them mentor the young players. Get coaches with the same good personalities, it rubs off to the squad. Don't hesitate to sell youngsters for a a lot of profit with 40-50% sell on clauses. You can later sell those clauses for a lot of money. 

That's the basic strategy. For this FM all you need to is pick gegenpressing and constantly shout in matches 'Demand More' and 'Get creative'. And wait. The results will come(for the most part). On FM 20 Wing backs and very strong. Use them well. 

Also, perfect your team talks. 'Prove a point', 'pick up where you left off' or 'for the fans' when playing a rival. 'Don't get complacent' when winning by 1 or 2 goals at HT. 'Dissapointing' when drawing or losing(with cautious tone if you were the underdog).

Praise good training, criticize bad. Praise good form, criticize bad. When somebody is unhappy send the captain. If that fails, tell the player 'you're very influential and I value your presense bla bla' or something and most times he backs down(unless he hates you). If a player hates you - sell him as quick as possible. Keep an eye on Dynamics.

That's what I can think of, but there is probably more. It's a complex game, but when you learn it, it's not a challenge at all. All will come with experience. 

That's all great advice if you just simply want to 'game' the system. I'm not sure this is what the OP was looking for. Maybe it was. 

FM is a difficult game if you play it 'realistically', but success can be achieved, and with almost any tactic. Personally, hoovering up lots of wonderkids and selling them for insane profits isn't something that appeals to me as it feels cheap and fake. I daresay many of the 'this game is too easy' brigade use this strategy. 

The beauty of FM is there is so many different ways to play it, from gaming the system, using editors, save scumming, or actually trying to play it 'properly'. Whatever works for you, I guess. 

[Mars_Blackmon]

42 minutes ago, Dagenham_Dave said:

That's all great advice if you just simply want to 'game' the system. I'm not sure this is what the OP was looking for. Maybe it was. 

FM is a difficult game if you play it 'realistically', but success can be achieved, and with almost any tactic. Personally, hoovering up lots of wonderkids and selling them for insane profits isn't something that appeals to me as it feels cheap and fake. I daresay many of the 'this game is too easy' brigade use this strategy. 

The beauty of FM is there is so many different ways to play it, from gaming the system, using editors, save scumming, or actually trying to play it 'properly'. Whatever works for you, I guess. 

Whether people exploit those things or not. The idea of the game being easy is that it’s doable in the first place.

 

personally, I don’t do any of those things. I’m at the point of letting my DOF bring in players. next step is letting my assistant handle team talks...I don’t even create tactics anymore. I just picked the default and make adjustments that my assistant points out.

[Icy]

hace 39 minutos, Mars_Blackmon dijo:

Whether people exploit those things or not. The idea of the game being easy is that it’s doable in the first place.

 

personally, I don’t do any of those things. I’m at the point of letting my DOF bring in players. next step is letting my assistant handle team talks...I don’t even create tactics anymore. I just picked the default and make adjustments that my assistant points out.

Yes but then my question is... are you really "playing" FM if you leave most of it to the AI to not to make it easy? What if you want to take care of these tasks yourself but you don't do it to not to have an advantage? what you do is to play it as owner mode, that might be fun, but it's not what most of the user base wants. They want to have all the control but with the minimum amount of house rules.

[Mars_Blackmon]

17 minutes ago, Icy said:

Yes but then my question is... are you really "playing" FM if you leave most of it to the AI to not to make it easy? What if you want to take care of these tasks yourself but you don't do it to not to have an advantage? what you do is to play it as owner mode, that might be fun, but it's not what most of the user base wants. They want to have all the control but with the minimum amount of house rules.

And that’s why i am here saying the game is easy. I don’t want to play this way but this is the only way I could nerf my advantage.

 

I utilize my DOF options by placing guys that I’m interested in on my transfer want list. I put guys on the development list and unwanted list and let my DOF do the rest with negotiations,  contracts, etc. i only pick players through my scout list (not player list) or my DOF suggestion. 

[zindrinho]

5 hours ago, Dagenham_Dave said:

Personally, hoovering up lots of wonderkids and selling them for insane profits isn't something that appeals to me as it feels cheap and fake. I daresay many of the 'this game is too easy' brigade use this strategy.

I love playing like this, I just make sure I control a weak enough team that these wonderkids go straight into the first-11. Sell them down the road, invest in better facilities, get Champ League money, get better talent, win more CL money, etc.

Still, I almost won the eresdivisie in my first season with twente, lot of other people overachieve big first season with weaker teams, I think its because the AI is attacking you more openly since you're a weak team in their view. It always gets harder around new years time when the reputation ratings gets updated.

Player rotation is a big key to I think, the AI rarely rotates and lets key players start matches with 75-80% condition, its always easier to beat a big team if they are all tired.

[zyfon5]

10 hours ago, Erimus1876 said:

 

Pretty much my sentiments too.

But its not just the overpowered tactics at fault, as others have mentioned morale seems to play a big part now too.

I never used genpress in my games since I've heard it was way overpowered.  And since the FM12 days I've always used a skin that adds some ambiguity when viewing a players strengths and weakness (I really dislike the way the default skin shows you exactly what a players attributes are without any means to add some 'fog-of-war' options - something that was asked for time and again going back to those FM12 days, and probably before that too).  But even with self-imposed handicaps, like the skin I use, its so easy to put a successful squad together in a very short timeframe imo, a fog of war option isn't the sole answer, although it would be a step in the right direction, as long as its optional.

I'm by no means a tactical wizard. I created a simple 5-1-2-2 tactic that looks good to watch, has a nice blend of defensive and attacking play, and crucially doesn't allow me to dominate matches, because constantly winning 4-0, 5-0, or 6-0 is something I detest more than anything, and if it starts happening on my saves, the boredom sets in shortly after and I give up on that save.  I prefer close scoring games. I prefer defensive games (yeah, I'm in a minority!)  But as the results suggest in the screenshots below, once you get on a run, it becomes increasingly easy to keep things ticking over because the morale plays a big part.   Instead of dominating games and scoring bags of goals, for me its the opposite.. the opposition get enough gameplay but just can't break my team down and I'm constantly setting clean sheet records or least goals against, during the season.  The end result is the same, a relatively quick and easy rise up the leagues with my clubs overachieving.

Fitness is another aspect where the AI can't compete.  I rotate my players a lot, and make sure my full squad get game time, keeping their match sharpness in top notch condition, anyone below 92% is played in the midweek reserves, this keeps them ALL in top condition.  The AI don't do that, you just have to have a look at the other squads in the league, and there's not one that matches mine for fitness and overall match sharpness across the board.

On my last save I started in the Swedish lower leagues, won the league at a canter without the need to build a team,  went to a mid-table St. Mirren halfway through a season, and immediately went on a run that won promotion, took over a Dundee United who the AI struggled to get out of that league, and won the championship at the first try with literally the same squad the AI had built.  Its the same story.   And its not because I'm some FM god.. far from it... its just that once you know a formula that works at the lowest levels, you're pretty much guaranteed it to work at every other level up the pyramid, and its not a hard formula to figure out.  Play the game with a semblance of common sense, keep the squad fit and match sharp, keep morale up, use the same ingame shouts, same team talks (already been mentioned by others)... happy and fit players give you such a massive advantage and constant overachievement, that the need to put a lot of emphasis on team building and bringing the best players to your club, becomes a secondary objective.

SI are in a difficult and almost impossible situation.  I suspect the vast majority of their players want to win things fairly quickly, and be successful, so they can't make the game overly difficult.  But they do need to add options that give players who want a tougher challenge a way to get that challenge, and that's not always by taking over the poorest team in team lowest league, because the advantage the human player has over the AI, just means its a matter of time before you're on the road to inevitable dominance.. and that period of time seems to be getting shorter with every version of FM.

 

The 'fog-of-war' skin I use.  I wish SI would have a proper option for this in the game!

 

1st season at Dundee Untied

 

1st season at St. Mirren

 

1st season at Skovde AIK

You will be surprised how many people find the things that you describe as easy difficult to do.

As with any other game there is a meta (most efficient way) to play the game. However I have overachieved playing all kinds of different tactics and without accumulating wonderkids. I just do things in a sensible way. Fit the tactic according to players I have and also invest heavily into scouting. The returns that you can get from good scouting is huge compared to the investment. For transfers, using information from the scouting you can identify undervalued targets. The AI in FM is incredibly poor at doing transfers.

Edited October 8, 2020 by zyfon5

[Nombre de usuario genérico]

For me, it was understanding of what attributes are important and by this I mean combinations attributes, not just individual ones.  If you have one attribute that is strong and another one weak and they're used together, you fall victim to 'you're only as strong as the weakest link.'  I can't tell you how many times I've changed which attributes I regarded important until I discovered this.  The game gives you this information if you're closely paying attention:

Attacking: Finishing, Composure, Off The Ball

Technical: Dribbling, First Touch, Technique

Aerial: Heading, Jumping Reach

Mental: Anticipation, Bravery, Concentration, Decisions, Determination, Teamwork

Defending: Marking, Tackling, Positioning

Physical: Agility, Balance, Stamina, Strength

Speed: Pace, Acceleration

Vision: Passing, Flair, Vision

Of the individual attributes, I regard Decisions as the most important.  The mental attributes are so important.  This site gives a unique understanding of how attributes work in the match engine that I've never seen describe anywhere else before:

https://fm-base.co.uk/threads/player-attributes-explained.48793/

 

The other thing that helped me was just the basic idea of using player combinations of Support and Attack, whether that's between two strikers, a winger and inside forward, two central midfielders or a winger/inside forward and a fullback.

No matter how good your tactics are, you will have problems winning unless your tactical familiarity is improved.

Edited October 9, 2020 by Nombre de usuario genérico
typo

[fivetwelvepony]

1 hour ago, Nombre de usuario genérico said:

Vision: Passing, Flair, Vision

 

This might not be the thread for this question, but have you ever actually seen flair? I don't mean this to be snarky, it is a serious question. Can I actually see flair if I'm watching the match? What is an example of flair?

[bielsadidnothingwrong]

 I don't buy the "geggenpressing and holiday" argument, it might apply for top leagues where players have the mentals and physicals for it, but in lower leagues you won't easily find it. most of these game breaking tactics are used by players, its not like some AI managers are doing it, you really can avoid the problem entirely by not participating in it. plenty of users on here and youtube provide examples of various tactics working. and honestly most top squads in europe are pressing squads, so its no wonder people trying to just make some tactic work completely out of context of the competition its being used in are finding themselves thinking only geggenpress works. 

On 07/10/2020 at 13:24, Impacto said:

It's a complex game, but when you learn it, it's not a challenge at all. All will come with experience. 

I think this statement can apply to most video games! 

Edited October 9, 2020 by bielsadidnothingwrong

[Nombre de usuario genérico]

2 hours ago, fivetwelvepony said:

This might not be the thread for this question, but have you ever actually seen flair? I don't mean this to be snarky, it is a serious question. Can I actually see flair if I'm watching the match? What is an example of flair?

I wonder the same myself, do you know when Flair occurs?  My understanding is that Flair beats the opponent's Anticipation, so a flair pass would most likely be a key pass that gets behind the defender or perhaps, a cross that goes unblocked.

Edited October 9, 2020 by Nombre de usuario genérico

[zyfon5]

4 hours ago, fivetwelvepony said:

This might not be the thread for this question, but have you ever actually seen flair? I don't mean this to be snarky, it is a serious question. Can I actually see flair if I'm watching the match? What is an example of flair?

Flair is how much will a player try something that is not instructed to do. For example a player that has been instructed to dribble less may sometimes try to dribble past his man if he has like 20 flair. Hence team instructions and player instructions are merely tendencies and not the absolute rule due to the presence of flair attribute.

[fivetwelvepony]

9 hours ago, zyfon5 said:

Flair is how much will a player try something that is not instructed to do. For example a player that has been instructed to dribble less may sometimes try to dribble past his man if he has like 20 flair. Hence team instructions and player instructions are merely tendencies and not the absolute rule due to the presence of flair attribute.

Something about this doesn't make sense to me. The defender doesn't necessarily know that the player has been told not to dribble, so dribbling wouldn't be unanticipated. In fact it might be anticipated if the situation called for it. I would have guessed that what you are describing relates to decisions or player traits -- ie dribbling if the situation calls for it even when told not to.

To me, the unexpected be like one of Reyna's assists to Haaland last weekend. I read an analysis that talked about how he passed the ball with his right foot in stride with his running when the expected pass would be to plant the right foot and pass with the left, so the defender was slow to respond. Or something like that. Anyway, it's just hard to judge in the game, and my impression is you just have to take it on faith that the defender was expecting one thing and the high-flair guy did another. And sorry for the thread diversion.