Additional in possession instructions (team and player)

[Dedwunn]

I think there needs to be far more depth to the in possession instructions in the game, and I'll provide a few examples of those I think could be useful to have in the game as well as an explanation for some of the less obvious ones, but there could be many more than these that could be added to the game.

 

Player:

"Hug the touchline" - an additional option to stay wider, this instruction would allow you to instruct your wide players to hold the maximum width of the pitch even in the final third. I suggest that it could be available to roles like winger, inverted winger, but not available for roles like inside forward or advanced playmaker. While those roles can still be instructed to be "wider", this would mostly affect their width before the final third. Having this width held in the final third could allow you to isolate good wide dribblers against wingbacks, or stretch a back line for midfielders to make runs into channels, in the final third where it would be most effective. Right now, the wider instruction doesn't really allow for wingers to hold maximum width in the final third, and so an inverted winger and a mezzala would get in each others way in the final third of the pitch (or a CM-AT, AP-AT). This would be perfect for stretching teams in the final third and could be an additional option to unlocking defences.

"Look for cutback" - an addition to the "aim crosses at" instruction, perhaps you play with a false 9 or midfielders who make late runs into the box, I think this would be such a good instruction to add (perhaps just under the target forward location) to cater to such ways of playing. 

"Cross from half-space/channel" - addition to "cross from" instructions (this would likely be available for iwb, central midfield roles, and certain winger roles like iw, or ap)

 

Team:

"Keep ball on the ground vs Look to play lofted balls" - if my team is rather diminutive, then I would want to tell my team to keep the ball on the ground as much as possible, if I have loads of tall players, I could ask them to look for more lofted passes that we can win and knock down. In FM23, so many of the passes are these loopy, lofted passes that make very little sense, and it is especially bad when you put "pass into space" on. It would be great to pass into space, but have these passes be on the ground, in the same way you can instruct low crosses. Now this would add certain elements in where, you would need better decision making attributes on players, and better vision if you want to instruct "keep ball on the ground", whereas you would need players with better technique to play those lofted passes (alternatively, the ball physics in the game could be improved so every lofted pass isn't some awkward looping ball that only works if the opposition defender makes a mistake, how about more dinks, driven passes, etc.)

 

[Zachary Whyte]

Thank you for the detailed suggestions. We'll put this under consideration for a future FM.