Why is it so easy to win the Premiere League?

[Eccentric_Ed]

Hey guys.

I have been experiencing this problem on Football Manager over the last 2 years, and it's extremely annoying. Basically, the problem is every time I develop and improve a team in the Premiere League to the point where we're good enough to challenge for the title, the other top teams like Liverpool and Man City just start dropping off drastically and they basically let me win the league. For example, if I'm a mid-table team, the league simulates perfectly normally, and teams like Liverpool and Man City would finish on 90+ points. However, every time I start challenging the top teams for the title, teams like Man City would often drop points against very weak teams in the league and it won't even matter if I win my matches or not, the top teams will just let me take the lead and stay in the lead. And at the end of the season, if my team has 82 points, Man City and Liverpool would finish somewhere around 79 points. 

I just wanted to reach out to you guys in the community to see if this is a common problem. I wasn't sure where I was supposed to even make this post, because I don't know if this is a bug/glitch, or if SI has intentionally programmed the game like this. And if this is by design, then why have SI made it so easy to win the league title? Nowadays I find that I'm only enjoying the game if I'm managing a smaller and weaker team, because once I become a very strong team the game becomes far too easy. 

[FourFiveOne]

I believe this will be improved in FM24 from what i read as AI managers/teams will be smarter when it comes to tactics and transfers. They will also play their best young talents instead of letting them rot on the bench and reserves. Correct me if im wrong tho

[busngabb]

This is all related to the AI's inability to build and develop squads and act properly in the transfer market. Basically the top teams in the Premier League will sign the best players available, even if they don't fit into their squad or system. I.e you'd see Spurs playing one up front with Harry Kane spending £80m on a striker then never playing him as he's not as good as Harry Kane, then not signing any centre backs and playing an 18 year old left back there. You'd also see the top sides buy the players with the best potential in the game, but then never play them as their PA is less than their existing, ageing players. So you'd eventually end up in three or four years with City having Bernardo Silva up front on his own as his CA is better than other options, or Ruben Dias at left back at 36. Or City having Fati, Haaland, Mbappe, Endrick and Vlahovic in their squad and playing one up front and it always being Haaland.

They also don't rotate the squad properly either. The AI will tend to pick their best team regardless of the oppositions quality and the competition involved.

[nico_france]

With all the money available in PL

It’s kind of easy to build a legacy even with an underdog team 

Your transfers will always be smarter (so far) than AI

And most of the players in the world will join a PL side even if you’re not a top club yet

[Dagenham_Dave]

On 23/09/2023 at 21:24, busngabb said:

They also don't rotate the squad properly either. The AI will tend to pick their best team regardless of the oppositions quality and the competition involved.

Not entirely true, I've seen almost full rotation from PL sides in the early rounds of the League Cup in the past. 

[Eccentric_Ed]

Thanks for the replies guys. The main problem that I have is not with how the AI plays against me, but it's with the other matches that are being simulated on match days. Every time I start challenging for the title it's like the game just breaks and the other results on match days become so unrealistic. Have any of you guys experienced or seen a situation in the game where one season the top teams would get 90+ points, and the next season they get 70+ points, and you can effectively win the league with 80 points or so? That is a massive drop off!

[Alejandro_FM]

It does happen in the game, sure. But it's not always the case. I've lost the title plenty of times to teams that had 90+ points in both the EPL and La Liga. 

My feeling is that while the strength of the "big 6" is more even in FM (as opposed to City's dominance IRL), you can still get quite believable tables and point spreads most seasons in FM. 

Btw - didn't Leicester win the EPL with 81 points in 2016? A more recent example of the league table in the image below: 

[SPE3D]

Think many of us sympathise with the OP. AI is meant to finally be improved in FM24 but then again they have been saying that for years. I really hope they finally crack it because as the OP said the game is far too easy.

[enigmatic]

Liverpool dropped off massively on both occasions they got 90 points IRL. 90 point seasons are very rare and drop-offs happen at least as often. And getting 90 points every season in a league like the Premier League is likely more a sign of bad decision-making from smaller teams than good decision-making by the top team.

The unrealistic bit is being able to develop a team to get 82 points within a few years - if it was that easy, everyone else would be doing it IRL!

[Alejandro_FM]

19 hours ago, SPE3D said:

Think many of us sympathise with the OP. AI is meant to finally be improved in FM24 but then again they have been saying that for years. I really hope they finally crack it because as the OP said the game is far too easy.

 I do agree with your point and I do symphathize with the OP too ... my view is just that there's no real issue with the point spread or league parity... I'd like to see all AI teams, super clubs and smaller clubs pose a bit more of a challenge to us human players, and it does sound like they've made an effort to improve that for FM24.

[wazzaflow10]

22 hours ago, Alejandro_FM said:

It does happen in the game, sure. But it's not always the case. I've lost the title plenty of times to teams that had 90+ points in both the EPL and La Liga. 

My feeling is that while the strength of the "big 6" is more even in FM (as opposed to City's dominance IRL), you can still get quite believable tables and point spreads most seasons in FM. 

Btw - didn't Leicester win the EPL with 81 points in 2016? A more recent example of the league table in the image below: 

Away goals are down significantly for every team in FM23 compared to real life. It causes issues for the lower half of the table and in particular relegation candidates simply not scoring enough and not getting the correct amount of points. That's why you'll see the bottom team with points totals in the teens regularly. They are too passive away from home against everyone especially if the reputation is hugely different.

[Eccentric_Ed]

This problem is the main reason why I will be skipping FM24. I just really hope that in FM25 they make winning a league title challenging, so that after you win the league it feels like you've done something quite impressive. Because at the moment most very good and experienced players say that they can win league titles in their sleep, but that shouldn't be the case. It's supposed to be a title CHALLENGE, not a walk in the park. 

[dannyfc]

10 minutes ago, Eccentric_Ed said:

This problem is the main reason why I will be skipping FM24. I just really hope that in FM25 they make winning a league title challenging, so that after you win the league it feels like you've done something quite impressive. Because at the moment most very good and experienced players say that they can win league titles in their sleep, but that shouldn't be the case. It's supposed to be a title CHALLENGE, not a walk in the park. 

Why do you assume it's not improved in FM 24?

[SwPnX]

On 04.10.2023 at 17:38, dannyfc said:

Why do you assume it's not improved in FM 24?

There is no guarantee that winning a title will be an actual challenge in FM25 either as OPs argument based on. Challenge has been long gone since Championship Manager ended. 

[grasu]

Every time this topic comes up many people get extremely defensive, for reasons that are not clear at all. The last few FMs have been extremely easy, and this is one of the reasons I'm skeptical about the proposed changes in FM 24 and why I also skipped 23.

Waaaaaaaay back in the days of FM 07 and FM 08, even smaller leagues, let alone big leagues, would pose a challenge well beyond the first 2-3 seasons of the game. The challenge slowly started "eroding" with the years, but I remember still fighting bitter battles for the Serie A with my Milan team back in FM 18. 

However, since at least FM 20, disrupting the "natural" flow of things in any league, like the OP said, seems to "break" the game. If you take a PL minnow or mid-tier team and start challenging for the title all of the other teams seem to be incapable of winning their matches anymore, let alone the direct matches against your team.

In FM 21 I did a journeyman career and ended up managing Tottenham in them mid 2030s. The team was a mid-level team when I took over, I won the title in the first year and then the year after that as well, which almost completely broke the league. Man Ciy and Liverpool became mid-tier teams and Arsenal became a title challenger. I quit Tottenham and managed Liverpool, easily winning the title 2 years in a row, while Tottenham sunk and Man City was a lower half team. I then managed Man City, won the title two times, and, guess what? Liverpool was a already steadily going down, and the "revelation" Arsenal was now a lower half team as well. I then ended up managing Arsenal, winning the league a few times and quit and went to Spain where I won the title with 9th place Valencia and made Barcelona skip out on Europe. Literally every time I managed an "outsider" and challenged for the title the other title challengers broke and couldn't recover for seasons on end. And let me tell you that, in the late 2030s-early 2040s, these were some of the best teams in the game. I easily won the CL every time I got to participate in it. 

It's funny to me how nearly every game nowadays wants your undivided attention, is massively hardcore and has tonnes of scalable difficulty levels or requires you to be an expert at some sort of finger-gymnastics to master it, yet strategy games, FM included, are still a breeze. These are the games that should be hard, because they're made for replayability!

Edited October 6, 2023 by grasu

[diLLa88]

3 hours ago, grasu said:

Every time this topic comes up many people get extremely defensive, for reasons that are not clear at all. The last few FMs have been extremely easy, and this is one of the reasons I'm skeptical about the proposed changes in FM 24 and why I also skipped 23.

Waaaaaaaay back in the days of FM 07 and FM 08, even smaller leagues, let alone big leagues, would pose a challenge well beyond the first 2-3 seasons of the game. The challenge slowly started "eroding" with the years, but I remember still fighting bitter battles for the Serie A with my Milan team back in FM 18. 

However, since at least FM 20, disrupting the "natural" flow of things in any league, like the OP said, seems to "break" the game. If you take a PL minnow or mid-tier team and start challenging for the title all of the other teams seem to be incapable of winning their matches anymore, let alone the direct matches against your team.

In FM 21 I did a journeyman career and ended up managing Tottenham in them mid 2030s. The team was a mid-level team when I took over, I won the title in the first year and then the year after that as well, which almost completely broke the league. Man Ciy and Liverpool became mid-tier teams and Arsenal became a title challenger. I quit Tottenham and managed Liverpool, easily winning the title 2 years in a row, while Tottenham sunk and Man City was a lower half team. I then managed Man City, won the title two times, and, guess what? Liverpool was a already steadily going down, and the "revelation" Arsenal was now a lower half team as well. I then ended up managing Arsenal, winning the league a few times and quit and went to Spain where I won the title with 9th place Valencia and made Barcelona skip out on Europe. Literally every time I managed an "outsider" and challenged for the title the other title challengers broke and couldn't recover for seasons on end. And let me tell you that, in the late 2030s-early 2040s, these were some of the best teams in the game. I easily won the CL every time I got to participate in it. 

It's funny to me how nearly every game nowadays wants your undivided attention, is massively hardcore and has tonnes of scalable difficulty levels or requires you to be an expert at some sort of finger-gymnastics to master it, yet strategy games, FM included, are still a breeze. These are the games that should be hard, because they're made for replayability!

People don't like to lose, so they make everything easy as ****. You earn stuff by just participating in most games nowadays, and everyone always expects to be able to unlock or win everything by simply playing.

I would love to see 2 difficulty settings in FM personally. One where people can breeze through it like they currently do, and one where the AI actually poses a challenge for multiple years on end. I'm hopeful the presented changes in squad building AI will make thing a bit better, but it's highly depending on how they have implemented these changes.

[Dagenham_Dave]

11 minutes ago, diLLa88 said:

I would love to see 2 difficulty settings in FM personally. One where people can breeze through it like they currently do, and one where the AI actually poses a challenge for multiple years on end. I'm hopeful the presented changes in squad building AI will make thing a bit better, but it's highly depending on how they have implemented these changes.

So, I'll ask the question I always do when someone mentions difficulty levels in FM - How exactly would that work? 

[Jonthedon26]

I do have to admit, I find the newer versions of FM a lot easier than the older ones. I am a Birmingham City fan and always play my first save with them. For a decade now we have been rubbish and had no money to spend, however, in game I am ALWAYS promoted to the Premier League at the end of the 2nd season in game at worst. Once I am in the PL I never struggle to stay up, literally ever. I want to be relegated sometimes just so I can have that challenge of trying to stop being a yo-yo team, but I always seem to end up comfortable mid table in the first season in the PL and then build from there. I am no expert at this game either, I play a simple 442 wing play system (don't watch the matches as I use commentary only due to time constraints) and year in year out and it always seems to do the trick. 

Funnily enough I fired up FM09 quite recently, again playing as Birmingham City. We were in the Championship having just been relegated in real-life and had a really strong squad for the league including the likes of Lee Bowyer, Seb Larsson, Kevin Phillips, James McFadden etc, but I really really struggled on that save, almost getting sacked on a few occasions as I sat in midtable. That version had the sliders, so not sure if that is anything to do with it, but it does certainly feel like it has got easier over the years. 

[diLLa88]

1 hour ago, Dagenham_Dave said:

So, I'll ask the question I always do when someone mentions difficulty levels in FM - How exactly would that work? 

I believe there are several ways to make it work, and of course make them optional for whoever wants it:

1. AI uses better tactics and does better transfers in the harder difficulty compared to the normal one. This one is controversial to me, as that would impose that the normal difficulty has to be programmed to make dumber decisions. 
2. Enable the player to tick on some restrictions for the player (like a nuzlocke challenge in pokemon games). For example, only 1 signing per transfer window, no signings at all, only signings from the country you are in, etc.
3. Include cheats for the AI -> for example more sugar daddy takeovers in the world, better sponsor deals for AI clubs. Could be anything really, although im opposed to AI cheating in the match itself. Anything to keep the AI competitive in the long run

 

[Dagenham_Dave]

33 minutes ago, diLLa88 said:

I believe there are several ways to make it work, and of course make them optional for whoever wants it:

1. AI uses better tactics and does better transfers in the harder difficulty compared to the normal one. This one is controversial to me, as that would impose that the normal difficulty has to be programmed to make dumber decisions. 
2. Enable the player to tick on some restrictions for the player (like a nuzlocke challenge in pokemon games). For example, only 1 signing per transfer window, no signings at all, only signings from the country you are in, etc.
3. Include cheats for the AI -> for example more sugar daddy takeovers in the world, better sponsor deals for AI clubs. Could be anything really, although im opposed to AI cheating in the match itself. Anything to keep the AI competitive in the long run

 

1 - Surely that should just be part of any core gameplay improvements? Also, you're then asking SI to effectively make two different games with all the thousands of variable present in each one. Can you even imagine trying to test that? And what constitutes 'dumber decisions'? That opens up a whole subjective can of worms. 

2. You can already impose limitless restrictions on yourself in-game, so that's not required. 

3. Ai cheats? No, just no. 

Difficulty levels simply don't work in a game such as this. There are already dynamic difficulty levels anyway, in terms of where you manage, what coaching badges/attributes you start with. Will good, experienced players still be able to succeed relatively comfortably? Of course, but that's like any other game. Look at the Souls series of games. The best players breeze through these games even though the difficulty is insane for any mere mortal. You never hear them asking for extra difficulty levels, they use mods and challenges (no hit runs, etc) to make the games more challenging for them. 

The difficulty SI have with FM is that they need to balance the overall difficulty of the game, so as not to put off the casual gamer, that will likely make up the majority of the user base. Personally, I think they have the in-game difficulty at a good place, but could still be improved. Will it be easy for an experienced pro at the game to manage Man City or Bayern with all the highest coaching badges? Of course it will, and so it should be. Is it going to be easy for the average player to manage Southend with no money and only 13 signed players? Well, I think you know the answer to that. 

I get the frustration for the people who are really good at the game and want an extra challenge, but really, you are merely victims of your own success. 

[XaW]

If you've played the game for a long time, yes, the game becomes easier. However there are a few things I have to address to those who say it. Note, this does NOT mean everyone does this, nor that I think it's wrong to do these things, but at the same time, doing them and then complaining does not make sense in my mind.

• I've seen many people in here complain the game is too easy, but I've also seen them in the tactic section downloading exploit tactics. I can see a very easy solution there, as that's like playing a mystery game with a walkthrough and then complain about how you solved it so quickly...
• The same goes for using the IGE to spot high potential players, or using online list regarding talents. Of course it will be easier if you hover up all the best talents around the world because you, or someone else, have checked the potential under the hood.
• People taking over the best clubs in the world with unlimited money and dominate. Sure, do you do, but the choice of club will impact how hard the game will be

As I said, doing these things are fine, I won't police how anyone plays their game, but if you set yourself up with an easy or exploitable game, then don't be surprised if it's easy.

And I agree the game is too easy, there is a reason I almost only play challenges of various kinds, mostly youth only. I do this for many reasons, including having to either suit my tactic to whatever players I get in, or really focus on retraining positions and attributes to fit my tactic. I've played countless seasons stuck in a league with only mediocre players coming through. Sure it's a slog at times, but oh how rewarding it is when I finally gain that promotion! I've had promotions from the Vanarama regionals that felt a million times better than winning the CL with a Liverpool or Barcelona side. I also realize that many people would not appreciate it, so each to their own. I'm simply saying there are ways of making the game harder without relying on having SI change fundamental stuff in the game.

TL;DR - Play the game as you like to. Wanna make it harder? Impose restrictions on how you play. Wanna rule the world? Take over PSG and use the IGE as you want.

[TokyoWanderer]

hace 4 horas, XaW dijo:

TL;DR - Play the game as you like to. Wanna make it harder? Impose restrictions on how you play. Wanna rule the world? Take over PSG  NEWCASTLE and use the IGE as you want.

I fixed that for you XaW

[XaW]

3 minutes ago, TokyoWanderer said:

I fixed that for you XaW

With Newcastle there is at least some domestic competition.... But either or, whatever floats your boat!  

[Dagenham_Dave]

6 hours ago, SwPnX said:

What angers me is as a minority i'm expected to pay the same price and get a lesser product in return 

You get the exact same game as everyone else. 

[DP]

23 hours ago, XaW said:

If you've played the game for a long time, yes, the game becomes easier. However there are a few things I have to address to those who say it. Note, this does NOT mean everyone does this, nor that I think it's wrong to do these things, but at the same time, doing them and then complaining does not make sense in my mind.

• I've seen many people in here complain the game is too easy, but I've also seen them in the tactic section downloading exploit tactics. I can see a very easy solution there, as that's like playing a mystery game with a walkthrough and then complain about how you solved it so quickly...
• The same goes for using the IGE to spot high potential players, or using online list regarding talents. Of course it will be easier if you hover up all the best talents around the world because you, or someone else, have checked the potential under the hood.
• People taking over the best clubs in the world with unlimited money and dominate. Sure, do you do, but the choice of club will impact how hard the game will be

As I said, doing these things are fine, I won't police how anyone plays their game, but if you set yourself up with an easy or exploitable game, then don't be surprised if it's easy.

And I agree the game is too easy, there is a reason I almost only play challenges of various kinds, mostly youth only. I do this for many reasons, including having to either suit my tactic to whatever players I get in, or really focus on retraining positions and attributes to fit my tactic. I've played countless seasons stuck in a league with only mediocre players coming through. Sure it's a slog at times, but oh how rewarding it is when I finally gain that promotion! I've had promotions from the Vanarama regionals that felt a million times better than winning the CL with a Liverpool or Barcelona side. I also realize that many people would not appreciate it, so each to their own. I'm simply saying there are ways of making the game harder without relying on having SI change fundamental stuff in the game.

TL;DR - Play the game as you like to. Wanna make it harder? Impose restrictions on how you play. Wanna rule the world? Take over PSG and use the IGE as you want.

But PSG are nowhere near taking over the world in real life. 
 

If you holiday for 30 seasons you can clearly see the issue. The teams winning the league and challenging aren’t dominant enough. They win with low points totals and lose too many games. In essence, the entire league evens out more as the AI is basically the same brain. We need the top teams continuing to do well (obviously with teams coming and going in dominance). 

[metal_guitarist]

Removed some posts. Cut the personal attacks out, no need for it.

[XaW]

4 hours ago, DP said:

But PSG are nowhere near taking over the world in real life. 
 

If you holiday for 30 seasons you can clearly see the issue. The teams winning the league and challenging aren’t dominant enough. They win with low points totals and lose too many games. In essence, the entire league evens out more as the AI is basically the same brain. We need the top teams continuing to do well (obviously with teams coming and going in dominance). 

As I said, I agree it should be harder, and with the improved squad selection in FM24, I hope it will be harder too. The thing about FM23 and the earlier ones is that it was essentially a waiting game until the AI destroyed their squad. I hope that will be improved as FM24 rolls out.

[mibsweden]

I think that different difficulty levels would be a bad idea.

[Kickballz]

On 07/10/2023 at 17:54, XaW said:

As I said, I agree it should be harder, and with the improved squad selection in FM24, I hope it will be harder too. The thing about FM23 and the earlier ones is that it was essentially a waiting game until the AI destroyed their squad. I hope that will be improved as FM24 rolls out.

Can't help but feel I've been down this road before. I have no doubt fm24 will improve the AI incrementally, but let's just wait and see. Personally, I'm not very excited about the upcoming release. Of course, I will be delighted to be proven wrong.

[kiwityke1983]

On 06/10/2023 at 18:31, Jonthedon26 said:

That version had the sliders, so not sure if that is anything to do with it, but it does certainly feel like it has got easier over the years. 

The abstraction the sliders provided made creating good tactics very difficult.

Honestly being one notch away on a slider could and did make or break a tactic.

People used to get incredibly frustrated with that entire tactical setup system.

Now it's pretty straightforward if you know anything about football tactics to setup even just a basic tactic that with the correct players will beat most sides.

Hell you can just use the default play styles and be successful that just didn't exist back then.

[Kickballz]

8 minutes ago, kiwityke1983 said:

The abstraction the sliders provided made creating good tactics very difficult.

Honestly being one notch away on a slider could and did make or break a tactic.

People used to get incredibly frustrated with that entire tactical setup system.

Now it's pretty straightforward if you know anything about football tactics to setup even just a basic tactic that with the correct players will beat most sides.

Hell you can just use the default play styles and be successful that just didn't exist back then.

I remember, and at the time it was okay. You would still find a good tactic and stick with it. It was fun but different.

[santy001]

For the majority of players on FM each year you're accruing more and more experience with the games mechanics. Fortunately, SI aren't a developer who reinvent the wheel for the sake of it to have change when a particular element hasn't changed. 

This means that for each subsequent FM that releases you come with your cumulative knowledge of FM + 1 more year. In many cases like my own, its football management games in general. Those core ideas still build up and the reality is that typically by being on these forums there's a chance you're at the top end of FM players by virtue of being here. You're invested enough to have taken the time to create an account to join, post in threads and consume the content available. 

Whether that's good player guides and how to identify them, tactics information from some of the fantastic minds, the training guides that get the most out of player development etc. It's easy to forget that aspect a lot of the times. It does mean the game will inherently come easier. 

[kiwityke1983]

1 hour ago, Kickballz said:

I remember, and at the time it was okay. You would still find a good tactic and stick with it. It was fun but different.

I remember being very apprehensive about the system changing to be honest.

[Dagenham_Dave]

Getting rid of the sliders was the best thing SI ever done with the tactics side of the game. It was a dreadful system. 

[andu1]

I still think there are too few draws in FM compared to IRL.

 

[bigmattb28]

Brexit

[priority76]

3 hours ago, bigmattb28 said:

Brexit

Are the Brits at it again?

[bigmattb28]

Just now, priority76 said:

Are the Brits at it again?

We are

[phd_angel]

Just stop save scumming.

[bigmattb28]

3 hours ago, phd_angel said:

Just stop save scumming.

Are you suggesting OP's Premier League win in the first season with Leeds is tainted?!?

[Brother Ben]

Casual players which make up the bulk of buyers want to win.

If it is too hard to win then they won't buy the game.

It's as simple as that.

 

[Eccentric_Ed]

I read in an earlier post that a user skipped FM23 because they thought that the game had become too easy. So for anyone who has never seen how easy this most recent release of Football Manager is, or anyone who is relatively new to the game, I have actually recently found a video on Zealand's channel that perfectly illustrates the issue. In this stream Zealand was challenging for the title with Taunton, and their closest challengers were Liverpool. But notice how Liverpool only really CHALLENGES Zealand up until match 30 in the season, but for whatever reason they just wither and crumble after that, and in the end Zealand actually strolled to the finishing line. It was not tense at all in the last few matches. I would love to see SI fix this somehow in FM25 and beyond, so that the teams that are challenging you at the top can put up a bit more of a fight, especially towards the end of the season. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_V7nckpvL0

 

[USASoundersFan]

On 13/10/2023 at 13:55, Brother Ben said:

Casual players which make up the bulk of buyers want to win.

If it is too hard to win then they won't buy the game.

It's as simple as that.

 

When I play FM, I want to feel like I'm an actual football manager.

Winning easily doesn't cause that.

Not disagreeing with you. I just miss when that wasn't SI's focus.

[The Amazing Dale Watkins]

On 06/10/2023 at 05:52, XaW said:

• I've seen many people in here complain the game is too easy, but I've also seen them in the tactic section downloading exploit tactics. I can see a very easy solution there, as that's like playing a mystery game with a walkthrough and then complain about how you solved it so quickly...

That's the thing, though; these "exploit tactics" shouldn't be that effective. Why isn't SI fixing the engine to either not make these "exploits" (which look like they're mostly down to utilizing extreme pressure and aggression) so effective or, preferably, make the AI adapt better to these tactics, just like it would happen in real life? These tactics haven't even changed much over the past few years - I can still plug in an FM20 tactic and run away with the league. 

[Mst82]

In my recent Palace save, Klopp, Pep and Arteta had all left their respective clubs by the end of season 2. That’s utterly ridiculous too. 

[Brother Ben]

12 hours ago, USASoundersFan said:

When I play FM, I want to feel like I'm an actual football manager.

Winning easily doesn't cause that.

Not disagreeing with you. I just miss when that wasn't SI's focus.

I want it to be harder myself.

I just think we need to acknowledge that success needs to be obtainable for the majority to be happy.

Personally if the above wasn't a consideration i'd have it uber realistic and make success nigh on impossible and thus exceptionally rewarding if you manage it. 

I also think there should be tangable downsides to not doing your own training and attending press conferences (board question your commitment to the club) but maybe thats just me.

I would also make it compulsary to start at the very bottom with a low reputation team and cut your teeth at that level.

Honestly the changes i'd put on the game would have this forum go into meltdown  

Edited October 16, 2023 by Brother Ben

[SPE3D]

15 hours ago, Eccentric_Ed said:

I read in an earlier post that a user skipped FM23 because they thought that the game had become too easy. So for anyone who has never seen how easy this most recent release of Football Manager is, or anyone who is relatively new to the game, I have actually recently found a video on Zealand's channel that perfectly illustrates the issue. In this stream Zealand was challenging for the title with Taunton, and their closest challengers were Liverpool. But notice how Liverpool only really CHALLENGES Zealand up until match 30 in the season, but for whatever reason they just wither and crumble after that, and in the end Zealand actually strolled to the finishing line. It was not tense at all in the last few matches. I would love to see SI fix this somehow in FM25 and beyond, so that the teams that are challenging you at the top can put up a bit more of a fight, especially towards the end of the season. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_V7nckpvL0

 

First of all it should be practically impossible for Taunton to ever be in that position unless they had received some type of sugar daddy investment.

[Dagenham_Dave]

15 hours ago, Eccentric_Ed said:

I read in an earlier post that a user skipped FM23 because they thought that the game had become too easy. So for anyone who has never seen how easy this most recent release of Football Manager is, or anyone who is relatively new to the game, I have actually recently found a video on Zealand's channel that perfectly illustrates the issue. In this stream Zealand was challenging for the title with Taunton, and their closest challengers were Liverpool. But notice how Liverpool only really CHALLENGES Zealand up until match 30 in the season, but for whatever reason they just wither and crumble after that, and in the end Zealand actually strolled to the finishing line. It was not tense at all in the last few matches. I would love to see SI fix this somehow in FM25 and beyond, so that the teams that are challenging you at the top can put up a bit more of a fight, especially towards the end of the season. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_V7nckpvL0

 

Yes, because a team crumbling at the end of a season absolutely NEVER happens in real life. 

[enigmatic]

the difficulty problem with Taunton winning the Premier League is that SI didn't cheese results so that Liverpool stayed in touch with them... 

[DP]

First thing I want to see when the beta is out, is to holiday for 20 seasons and then see how tight it is at the top and if the team in 2nd is consistently putting up a fight with the team in first. 

If the AI team winning the league is doing so losing few games (at the moment if you do this the top teams lose too many games) then the headline AI feature is broadly working as it should be. However if we’re still consistently seeing teams win the league with high 70’s/low 80s and the team in second losing double digit games, it’s not really working. 

It will be a very easy test to get clarity on right away. 

Edited October 16, 2023 by DP