Replacement for Mentality

[Atarin]

This is to build on what on @Rashidi talked about in his latest youtube video.

Basically I am of the opinion that Mentality both team and player is unnecessarily opaque and complicated, especially for newbies. It also takes me out of the realism of the game because there is no real life equivalent.

My suggestion would be to axe mentality altogether. Rely on formation and the team instructions to give a particular style of play and use player roles to distribute mentality throughout the team.

As an addition to the PI's Stays Back & Get Further Forward I would really like to have the option to tell any player to drop deeper (in other words find space by moving deeper), Move Into Space (find space by moving ahead of the ball) or Attack Space (wait until the ball is played into space before getting forward aggressively). I see Attack space being a little different than the current instruction to Get Further Forward because Get Further Forward tells a player to take a higher position earlier in the transition (which to me is almost the definition of an Attacking role) where as I explained Attack Space is about not closing off the space until the ball is played and then and only then aggressively attacking the box or the byline.

I would also add an option within the team view of clicking on a player and having the option to say Tell teammates to hit ball into space for player to run onto or Tell teammates to play into his feet. Letting the rest of the team know that you want your right winger to be running onto a lot of long balls would be extremely helpful. Letting your team know that absolutely do NOT want them overhitting passes to your slow as molasses target man would also be a really useful tool to have.

These instructions are far closer to the sort of instructions that are given to players in real life and would be far more intuitive for players of FM.

It becomes clear using the system I've described who has the attacking mentalities, who has the supporting mentalities and who has the more defensive mentalities but its both more subtle and more powerful.

Using these instructions it would be a lot clearer why a player is where a player is at any given moment, it also be a lot clearer why a player passes in the way that they do.

Why is your winger not receiving the ball in the final third the newbie asks the forum? Simple, you've instructed them to Attack Space instead of Get Further Forward.

Why can no one seem to find your fullback with a pass the new poster asks @Rashidi for the millionth time? Simple, You've selected the option Tell teammates to hit ball into space for player to run onto.

Why is your AM not getting into the box more, the frustrated FMer demands of the game developers? Simple, you've told him to Drop Deeper.

 

The more the game can reflect the way people think about football the more accessible and the more enjoyable it will become. I think Mentality has to be removed at some point. When it is finally removed I think something like the above system would make sure the change is better and not worse. Clearer, not even more unrealistic and unintuitive.

[Abdullah Patel]

Thanks for the suggestion, it's one that we've heard before and is yet to be rejected or accepted. It may with further consideration and design end up in a future FM