In possession (settled possession and more...)

[Dedwunn]

Match Engine and Tactics:

1 one 1 dribbles:

Things are improving in this regard, however I think the game still has a ways to go in this department. Having more dribbles occur in the middle of the pitch would be great, and such a good tool for unlocking defences, but you rarely see it happen in the game. Also, having wide players constantly run to the byline, just to do a pirouette on the ball and pass it backwards, is so frustrating, particularly when they are inverted wingers, there has been some improvement here, but having more lateral dribbles from wide players where they drive into the centre of the field to shoot, or play killer balls would be great.

Crossing from the half-spaces:

Another thing I don't see a lot, even from mezzalas, also on that note, I don't understand why inverted wing-backs have cross less often hard locked, when this could be such a good weapon, having iwb's crossing from the half spaces (think TAA). Sure you can tell midfielders to cross more often now, but that usually happens when they get pulled out wide as opposed to in the half space, you almost never see those dinked crosses from those areas that we see a lot of irl.

Settled Possession (and Wingers):

I would love to see more recycling of the ball, as well as much, much more off the ball movement and rotations from players. These might even be instructions to add (e.g., Freedom to rotate - Fluid/Structured could even repurpose the team fluidity for this). This would work very well If in possession formations (e.g., 235, 325, etc.) were added to the game, as you could have lots of rotation within a set structure. You would then be able to implement very popular real world tactical ideas like total football and positional play into the game, as opposed to what we have now where such ideas are very difficult if not impossible to really truly implement.

Wingers:

For me, every position on the pitch in football manager could do with additional depth to their player instructions, (same with the TI's as well) but the position I think needs it the most are wingers. Here are some additions I think we could make:

- Add a blank role (like CM in midfield) and allow for more precise customisation within a tactic

- Add "move into channels" instruction -> this one would be the most important for me, because it would allow for much better distinction between the IW and IF roles. For IF, the moves into channels instruction would be hard locked green, but for IW, it would be left blank, meaning you could choose. If I wanted my inverted wingers to hold the width (like a regular winger), but also cut inside from wide positions, then this would be a great way to do it.

- Another way to implement the last point, would be to change the "hugs touchline" trait, to a player instruction. Take a player like Jack Grealish for example, at Villa, he did play out wide, but naturally drifted inside a lot more often than he does at Man City, where Pep Guardiola tells his wingers to "hug the touchline" a lot of the time. When Grealish has the ball though, he loves coming inside on his right foot, as opposed to taking a player on down to the byline. Having more depth in these instructions would add so much to the winger position in the game.

- The last way to do it would be to take the winger role and remove some of the hard locked instructions. This would require tweaking to the role description for sure, and it would be very similar to just having a blank role in this position, but I really strongly believe that this area of the game needs far more customisation.

- Add more PI's, that really just encompasses it all, just more instructions would be nice.

Tricks and Flicks:

This might seem trivial but I really believe that it is extremely important. It would actually give meaning to the flair attribute and the "tries tricks" trait, which in turn would dramatically increase the variety you see in the game. Players with high flair should be trying far more back heels, trivelas, etc. than we see in the game right now, then a winger with 19 flair and a CM with 10 flair will look drastically different in game (as they should). Furthermore, and to build on the 1 on 1 dribbling point, but we seriously need skill moves in the game, really doesn't have to be crazy ones, but a la croqueta, a ball roll, a roulette could be a great foundation, even a fake shot could be great, but as the game improves in the touches department with more precision being added, these would be welcome additions and greatly add to the immersion. This is unrelated but celebrations after goals should definitely be improved as well, longer knee slides, more team mates running over as opposed to the awkward one man celebrations you see. These are less important, but to me, the match engine is such an important part of the game and sometimes the immersion that can be felt in other parts of the game is lacking, because there could be so much more depth here than there is.

Edited May 21, 2023 by Dedwunn

[Zachary Whyte]

Thank you for the detailed suggestion. The developers will put this under further consideration for a future FM.