FM 25 DEVELOPMENT UPDATE

[WizbaII]

On 31/08/2024 at 02:22, jmlima said:

I mean, to be fair they are doing far more than that, including code conversion but... the only actual fact we have is that they are removing features that don't work as intended because they cannot make them any better in time for the release. And that's  a fact as stated in the only update we had to the game.

The Development Update blog was specifically to address changes to the UI. Part of that design overhaul is figuring out where the bloat is and removing it.

Why would they announce all the changes to the game in June? That wouldn't make sense.

Edited September 1 by WizbaII

[jcafcwbb]

In real life football the teams at the top who constantly win things playing the high-press, counterpress system. So why should the game be any different.

If you want a real life example I saw my team AFC Wimbledon beat Ipswich in the week. Both teams made changes from their first eleven. In the first 15 minutes we played a low block and they dominated and were 1-0 up. We then changed to a higher press, long ball tactic. We equalised in the first half, went ahead in the second and they only took it to penalties from a keeper error. Ipswich had more of the ball but the fact we pressed them high made it difficult for them to create chances.

The truth is that in modern football the low block does not bring success on a consistent level and that is represented in the game. Managers like Mourinho are no longer being given the top jobs as he cannot adapt to the modern game.

Name me a team that has consistently won stuff playing low/mid block. 

 

[grade]

47 minutes ago, WizbaII said:

The Development Update blog was specifically to address changes to the UI. Part of that design overhaul is figuring out where the bloat is and removing it.

Why would they announce all the changes to the game in June? That wouldn't make sense.

Sure, you have a point, but if other developers announce their games 6 or more months before release, why do SI games have to be released closer to their release date?

I bring Frontier as it's a game they are releasing around the same time as FM, they already have a trailer video, 2 deep dive videos and 1 gameplay video. Another example is Firaxis with Civ 7 which has 3 trailers and a gameplay showcase video and their game only is going to be released in February, next year... in 6 months. Yet, from Sigames... Theory mockup of UI, a feature announced probably years ago or more (women's game) and the removal of a few features, that according to Miles were never on the level they wanted (if it wasn't on the level they wanted... why it was in the game for several editions in the first place?).

The game is more well-guarded than the gold in Fort Nox. This is without any proper competition. But hey, they do what they like... I in the end will vote with my wallet.

Edited September 1 by grade

[jmlima]

1 hour ago, WizbaII said:

The Development Update blog was specifically to address changes to the UI. Part of that design overhaul is figuring out where the bloat is and removing it.

Why would they announce all the changes to the game in June? That wouldn't make sense.

To be precise and since this is in response to my post:

a) I never mentioned 'announcing all of the changes in June'.

b) Re the update blog. Yes and no. Yes, because it did indeed cover the UI, no, because that wasn't the sole purpose of it, as per the following quote from the blog post itself (bold emphasis my own).

Quote

'In this update, we giving you a first look at the brand-new User Interface [UI] that gives a flavour of what Unity enables us to do. There’s also transparency over a few tough decisions we’ve had to make affecting some of the ways a minority of our managers play the game. '

To be clear, there is no correlation between the features removed and the UI. They are not being removed because of 'bloat'.

Quote

Shouts have been in the series for many years and, to be frank, I’ve never been happy with them. A “shout” should happen instantly, but they only came into effect after the ball had gone out of play. It also wasn’t clear to players how long the shout lasted for. So, for the time being, touchline shouts are gone from the game. 

And with regards to the entire theme of the update, in the 3rd paragraph we can already see the post was not 'specifically to address changes to the UI':

Quote

I’m continuing that theme of transparency with a promised Q2 update on Football Manager 25, summing up the last few months of the development cycle and pulling back the curtain on the exciting period to come. 

 

[WizbaII]

I've given you the reason why they haven't released all the announcements yet. If you don't want to accept it, that's up to you. But you are still not going to hear anything more until September or so.

[jcafcwbb]

To the surprise of absolutely no-one Liverpool has won 3-0 at Old Trafford playing the high counter-press. It is almost as if it is the meta in football.

[dℍaisa]

2 hours ago, jcafcwbb said:

To the surprise of absolutely no-one Liverpool has won 3-0 at Old Trafford playing the high counter-press. It is almost as if it is the meta in football.

 

5 hours ago, jcafcwbb said:

In real life football the teams at the top who constantly win things playing the high-press, counterpress system. So why should the game be any different.

 

 

If you want a real life example I saw my team AFC Wimbledon beat Ipswich in the week. Both teams made changes from their first eleven. In the first 15 minutes we played a low block and they dominated and were 1-0 up. We then changed to a higher press, long ball tactic. We equalised in the first half, went ahead in the second and they only took it to penalties from a keeper error. Ipswich had more of the ball but the fact we pressed them high made it difficult for them to create chances.

The truth is that in modern football the low block does not bring success on a consistent level and that is represented in the game. Managers like Mourinho are no longer being given the top jobs as he cannot adapt to the modern game.

Name me a team that has consistently won stuff playing low/mid block. 

 

That's not the problem. The problem is bottom of the table level teams able to  finish mid table and mid table finishing in european spots by using simple  high press tactics. You can find various videos where people had finished in top 10 with Luton using such tactics.

Edited September 1 by dℍaisa

[El Payaso]

3 hours ago, jcafcwbb said:

To the surprise of absolutely no-one Liverpool has won 3-0 at Old Trafford playing the high counter-press. It is almost as if it is the meta in football.

What is the point of this?

The problem would be a human manager beating Liverpool with Manchester United by playing counter-press which is a likely thing to happen even in season one where Liverpool are far superior of the two teams. 

Counter-press is a valid approach with a strong team and with suitable players to play it out successfully. 

[lied90]

15 hours ago, jcafcwbb said:

In real life football the teams at the top who constantly win things playing the high-press, counterpress system. So why should the game be any different.

Nobody has a problem with Man City, Liverpool etc winning constantly with a high press. 

The problem in FM is that you can flawlessly do it with Everton season 1 and win the league.  

[herne79]

11 hours ago, dℍaisa said:

 

That's not the problem. The problem is bottom of the table level teams able to  finish mid table and mid table finishing in european spots by using simple  high press tactics. You can find various videos where people had finished in top 10 with Luton using such tactics.

 

11 hours ago, El Payaso said:

What is the point of this?

The problem would be a human manager beating Liverpool with Manchester United by playing counter-press which is a likely thing to happen even in season one where Liverpool are far superior of the two teams. 

Counter-press is a valid approach with a strong team and with suitable players to play it out successfully. 

 

1 hour ago, lied90 said:

Nobody has a problem with Man City, Liverpool etc winning constantly with a high press. 

The problem in FM is that you can flawlessly do it with Everton season 1 and win the league.  

Why is it a problem?

ok sure, SI keep telling us the game is aimed at “realism” therefore we shouldn’t be able to do such things, but if we want to be realistic in the game us managers wouldn’t be using such tactics in the first place.  It’s up to us, as “managers”, to choose how we want to run our clubs.  If we want to play in eezee mode gegenpress we can.  Equally if we want more of a challenge we can do this also.

Further, there are a significant proportion of players who just want to kick back and have some fun by taking their favourite team / relegation candidate to championship glory without waiting lots of seasons to do so.  Good luck to them I say.  In the mean time the rest of us don’t have to follow such strategies and are free to play by whatever means we wish.

The AI managers we come up against don’t follow the principles of this “problem” against us or each other so again, where exactly is the problem?  You are arguing in favour of taking away choice from how we play the game which would not only alienate a significant proportion of the player base but also make this game very one dimensional.

It’s just a game.  Play it as realistically or not as you want - which we can do right now .

[lied90]

1 minute ago, herne79 said:

Why is it a problem?

ok sure, SI keep telling us the game is aimed at “realism” therefore we shouldn’t be able to do such things, but if we want to be realistic in the game us managers wouldn’t be using such tactics in the first place.  It’s up to us, as “managers”, to choose how we want to run our clubs.  If we want to play in eezee mode gegenpress we can.  Equally if we want more of a challenge we can do this also.

There is nothing unrealistic about trying to apply a high press, short passing system to a lower table team. Lots of managers try to do this in real life (with very mixed results), and we should have that option as well without overperforming so much that it feels like we are cheating.

[El Payaso]

6 minutes ago, herne79 said:

 

 

Why is it a problem?

It is a problem because applying a simple team instruction like "press high" leads to a scenario where your team suddenly becomes too successful.

This on the other hand has nothing to do with meta approaches which are a totally different story as pressing high is a valid style of play as much as anything else. 

FM is not the type of game where you should have to limit yourself using valid tactical approaches just because the AI cannot deal with them. 

Even the developers of SI themselves had promised before the 24 version that the time of plug-and-play gegenpress tactics would be over. But that wasn't delivered. 

Sure, I can and will be playing with a mid or low block also in FM 2025 but the game should never be like so that if I happen to apply high press at some point, when chasing a goal for example, that I would be applying some kind of god mode for my team.

[herne79]

44 minutes ago, lied90 said:

There is nothing unrealistic about trying to apply a high press, short passing system to a lower table team. Lots of managers try to do this in real life (with very mixed results), and we should have that option as well without overperforming so much that it feels like we are cheating.

 

35 minutes ago, El Payaso said:

It is a problem because applying a simple team instruction like "press high" leads to a scenario where your team suddenly becomes too successful.

This on the other hand has nothing to do with meta approaches which are a totally different story as pressing high is a valid style of play as much as anything else. 

FM is not the type of game where you should have to limit yourself using valid tactical approaches just because the AI cannot deal with them. 

Even the developers of SI themselves had promised before the 24 version that the time of plug-and-play gegenpress tactics would be over. But that wasn't delivered. 

Sure, I can and will be playing with a mid or low block also in FM 2025 but the game should never be like so that if I happen to apply high press at some point, when chasing a goal for example, that I would be applying some kind of god mode for my team.

Using High Press is not “god mode”, nor will our team suddenly become too successful if used.  Likewise High Press + Short Passing is not necessarily a way to overachieve to the extent it feels like cheating.  Spend 2 minutes in the Tactics forum and you’ll see there are plenty of people who struggle with tactics even though they use those instructions.

I don’t deny there are certain strategies that we are free to use (or not) which may make life easier when it comes to setting up tactics, but what you highlight here are by no means instant win buttons.

[El Payaso]

12 minutes ago, herne79 said:

 

Using High Press is not “god mode”, nor will our team suddenly become too successful if used.  Likewise High Press + Short Passing is not necessarily a way to overachieve to the extent it feels like cheating.  Spend 2 minutes in the Tactics forum and you’ll see there are plenty of people who struggle with tactics even though they use those instructions.

I don’t deny there are certain strategies that we are free to use (or not) which may make life easier when it comes to setting up tactics, but what you highlight here are by no means instant win buttons.

You're almost tempting me to actually try it out. So far I have been too afraid to even activate the high press instruction and this has been down to what I have seen in the careers update and general feedback areas. 

Saying that high press is a god mode-like instructions is probably exaggerating, yes but anyway what I have seen from other users, I simply haven't even wanted to try it out. 

But I would still stand behind my view that high pressing systems are too effective on FM and can (and probably will) lead into unrealistic results for human players, even when not trying to play with a meta system. Even though I haven't tried this myself, I have seen enough evidence to back this view.

And I have no problem at all if you don't agree with me on this. As far as I remember, you didn't see set pieces and especially throw-ins being an issue either. 

[KrvakForLife]

I just want to see some new news tbh, it's not worth criticizing before seeing it.

[lied90]

56 minutes ago, herne79 said:

 

Using High Press is not “god mode”, nor will our team suddenly become too successful if used.  Likewise High Press + Short Passing is not necessarily a way to overachieve to the extent it feels like cheating.  Spend 2 minutes in the Tactics forum and you’ll see there are plenty of people who struggle with tactics even though they use those instructions.

I don’t deny there are certain strategies that we are free to use (or not) which may make life easier when it comes to setting up tactics, but what you highlight here are by no means instant win buttons.

The tactics forums isn't a benchmark for anything imo, and using tactics with high press, short passing, high tempo always feels like cheating to me. I dunno how much people have to **** up other aspects of the game to not massively overachieve with it.

[herne79]

46 minutes ago, El Payaso said:

But I would still stand behind my view that high pressing systems are too effective on FM and can (and probably will) lead into unrealistic results for human players, even when not trying to play with a meta system.

High pressing systems is not the same thing as merely using the High Press instruction and I agree, such systems can be too effective.  Part of that can still come down to someone’s choice of using such a system of course, although I also agree when you say it’d be good to have a more capable AI.

I appreciate I may be arguing semantics here, but people can easily read an exaggeration or take someone else’s experience and translate that into how the game works rather than how it may play out.

55 minutes ago, El Payaso said:

As far as I remember, you didn't see set pieces and especially throw-ins being an issue either.

I don’t recall making comment on this?

9 minutes ago, lied90 said:

The tactics forums isn't a benchmark for anything imo, and using tactics with high press, short passing, high tempo always feels like cheating to me. I dunno how much people have to **** up other aspects of the game to not massively overachieve with it.

You’re right, it’s not a benchmark.  It’s a help forum.  You’ve found high press etc to be overpowered, I just point out there are plenty who don’t.  If you don’t know how others are not able to massively overachieve you could always head over there and pass on your knowledge .

 

The bottom line is I don’t deny “aggressive” systems (if I can term it that way) can be overpowered.  My only argument is that many other tactical systems can also be overpowered, so such “aggressive” systems are not necessarily the only way to overachieve, which many commenters make it sound like.  The difference with other systems is they tend to be harder to set up and maintain effectively.

[El Payaso]

22 minutes ago, lied90 said:

The tactics forums isn't a benchmark for anything imo, and using tactics with high press, short passing, high tempo always feels like cheating to me. I dunno how much people have to **** up other aspects of the game to not massively overachieve with it.

Yep and if you start looking in general what are the most successful style of plays, excluding the asymmetric meta approaches, high pressing and attacking systems are very well-represented here. I have zero doubt that I would have gotten better results on my saves with more aggressive approach.

For example with my Chelsea save where I used mid-block, going to a positive or even attacking mentality away against Manchester City or Liverpool gave you better outcome than going with cautious or defensive. In real life this would have been a suicide approach against those two but in the game that salvaged us points against both of them. Come to think about it, this mentality change could well have changed my pressing intensity to high also... 

 

[DavutOzkan]

If you use the preset gegenpress tactic and change or do nothing else, you will overachieve. That's just a fact of the game. 

[CountTrapula]

Guessing we get news this week. Last blog post said early September, that together with the epic promo beginning in few days for fm24 to coincide with fm25 preorders starting.

[KrvakForLife]

1 hora atrás, CountTrapula disse:

Guessing we get news this week. Last blog post said early September, that together with the epic promo beginning in few days for fm24 to coincide with fm25 preorders starting.

I don't think so. The best time to show it was yesterday at the FIFAe WC tournament, a large part of the community was watching.

I think we should have news around the 11th - 12th as in previous years.

[ohnonottheshouts]

13 hours ago, KrvakForLife said:

I don't think so. The best time to show it was yesterday at the FIFAe WC tournament, a large part of the community was watching.

I think we should have news around the 11th - 12th as in previous years.

I don’t really think you can call 11-12th ”early september”, but who knows if they’ll stick to their exact wording.

[Costav]

On 01/09/2024 at 16:28, jcafcwbb said:

Name me a team that has consistently won stuff playing low/mid block.

Antonio Conte, Mourinho, Allegri, even Inter Milan sometimes does it...and this is just considering italian clubs (Conte won with Chelsea too).

Repeat with me:

"Real life football is not only what happens in England..."

"Real life football is not only what happens in England..."

"Real life football is not only what happens in England..."

[KrvakForLife]

2 horas atrás, ohnonottheshouts disse:

I don’t really think you can call 11-12th ”early september”, but who knows if they’ll stick to their exact wording.

The early part of the month is the 1sth through the 10th, mid is the 11th though the 20th and the latter part of the month

[forameuss]

Glad we've gone back to the real burning issue of the semantics of vague dates.

[scythian12]

On 01/09/2024 at 16:28, jcafcwbb said:

In real life football the teams at the top who constantly win things playing the high-press, counterpress system. So why should the game be any different.

If you want a real life example I saw my team AFC Wimbledon beat Ipswich in the week. Both teams made changes from their first eleven. In the first 15 minutes we played a low block and they dominated and were 1-0 up. We then changed to a higher press, long ball tactic. We equalised in the first half, went ahead in the second and they only took it to penalties from a keeper error. Ipswich had more of the ball but the fact we pressed them high made it difficult for them to create chances.

The truth is that in modern football the low block does not bring success on a consistent level and that is represented in the game. Managers like Mourinho are no longer being given the top jobs as he cannot adapt to the modern game.

Name me a team that has consistently won stuff playing low/mid block. 

 

Well, I watched my team (low-mid-table, relegation threatened last season) in the Hungarian 3rd division play against a club that got promoted from the 4th tier last year (to put this into perspective, we are talking 4 3rd division groups, and 20 4th division ones, this is the vague boundary between amateur and semi-pro clubs, players rated 50-80 CA at this level). My team played (or rather attempted) an aggressive high press whilst the opponent defended their box with about 8 men and waited for counters and set pieces. They won 2-0. Now this is a single match, but so is your example. High press is not the end-all be-all. I understand SI trying to stay inline with mainstream tactical developments on the top of the game, but I would also like to see a more nuanced and detailed look at the lower levels of football (because playing with ManCity is boooooring for many of us). There is also the wishful hope that at some point the match engine would not just be the servant of the latest trend but would actually allow you to surpass it or develop into a ston-paper-scissors system of sorts.

[Delicate Dave]

On 01/09/2024 at 15:28, jcafcwbb said:

In real life football the teams at the top who constantly win things playing the high-press, counterpress system. So why should the game be any different.

 

 

I've had this said to me recently, It should be different because there are more ways to play the game and more than one way to win. If they want to fix FM25 in a point in time then making it work only for top premiership styles of this time is the best way to do it. What even would be the point in having 90% of the setting if the only way you will be successful is to play one way. The really would be no point in most of the game.
I'm more concerned with the way the general mentality works in the game. What I see if if you start on anything lower then very attacking and change up to more attacking the result is most often you will attack more and score goals. But if you do it the other way starting anything way and turn it down to defending you almost certainly concede goals more than not. This needs attention.

[kevhamster]

4 hours ago, forameuss said:

Glad we've gone back to the real burning issue of the semantics of vague dates.

I think people are just keen to see what the new game is going to look like.  All we've had so far is concept images, not even taken from a build of the game.  Given how significant FM25 is for the franchise, people want to see something real.

[jcafcwbb]

I am going to do an experiment with my AFC Wimbledon save:

I currently am in the Championship. My club vision is to attempt to avoid relegation. My odds are 250-1 and I am predicted the finish 24th.

My team is currently 8th with 21 points, a record of W6 D3 L3 F20 A 15. I am using the Preset Fluid Counter Attack with a 3-5-2.

I am going to keep everything the same but will play with the preset Gegenpress for the next 12 and compare and report back here. 

For reference I beat the division leaders Norwich with that set up.

Let's see how much better the Gegenpress is compared to what I have.

[Preveza]

5 minutes ago, jcafcwbb said:

I am going to do an experiment with my AFC Wimbledon save:

I currently am in the Championship. My club vision is to attempt to avoid relegation. My odds are 250-1 and I am predicted the finish 24th.

My team is currently 8th with 21 points, a record of W6 D3 L3 F20 A 15. I am using the Preset Fluid Counter Attack with a 3-5-2.

I am going to keep everything the same but will play with the preset Gegenpress for the next 12 and compare and report back here. 

For reference I beat the division leaders Norwich with that set up.

Let's see how much better the Gegenpress is compared to what I have.

What does this have to do with FM25 development update?

[DavutOzkan]

4 hours ago, scythian12 said:

Well, I watched my team (low-mid-table, relegation threatened last season) in the Hungarian 3rd division play against a club that got promoted from the 4th tier last year (to put this into perspective, we are talking 4 3rd division groups, and 20 4th division ones, this is the vague boundary between amateur and semi-pro clubs, players rated 50-80 CA at this level). My team played (or rather attempted) an aggressive high press whilst the opponent defended their box with about 8 men and waited for counters and set pieces. They won 2-0. Now this is a single match, but so is your example. High press is not the end-all be-all. I understand SI trying to stay inline with mainstream tactical developments on the top of the game, but I would also like to see a more nuanced and detailed look at the lower levels of football (because playing with ManCity is boooooring for many of us). There is also the wishful hope that at some point the match engine would not just be the servant of the latest trend but would actually allow you to surpass it or develop into a ston-paper-scissors system of sorts.

Which team won? It's not clear from the way this is worded. 

[scythian12]

1 hour ago, DavutOzkan said:

Which team won? It's not clear from the way this is worded. 

They refers not to my team. Aka they played defensively and won against counter-pressing. The team I support had hardly a shot on target.

[jcafcwbb]

3 hours ago, Preveza said:

What does this have to do with FM25 development update?

There has been discussion on this thread about the Gegenpress/High Press being overpowered. That is what it has to with it.

[jcafcwbb]

Well my experiment showed that the Gegenpress can be an absolute disaster and not a magic win button. My feeling is that my 352 is not the right formation for the tactic. I also found in the second set of six matches I was getting a number of muscle injuries probably due to the extra intensity.

The tale of the tape was Pld 12 W2 D4 L6 GF11 GA18 Pts 11.

I think I'll stick with my low block fluid counter as it suits my formation and it is probably formation that decides whether a tactic works.

The high press will not help a smaller side over-perform without the right tactics attached to it.

BTW this was on the console version which while having the same match engine does not use tactical familiarity so that reason in not applicable

Edited September 3 by jcafcwbb
Addition

[XaW]

https://www.footballmanager.com/news/development-update-football-manager-25-0

A new update is out.

[XaW]

Quick recap:

- Release date is late November
- FM25 will remove international management (to be brought back in FM26)
- Weight will be removed from player profiles
- Those FMFC members who have offered to come to SI Towers and test the game will be contacted shortly, but the times will be a bit later than previously thought.

More info will come late September, that will include more details about the game.

[ForTheLoveOfTheGame]

So they’ve released another update of things they have removed.

 Removing international football from the game…wow 

removing player weights from the game…

Genuinely disappointed so far

 

Edited September 4 by ForTheLoveOfTheGame

[Domoboy23]

7 minutes ago, XaW said:

Quick recap:

- Release date is late November
- FM25 will remove international management (to be brought back in FM26)
- Weight will be removed from player profiles
- Those FMFC members who have offered to come to SI Towers and test the game will be contacted shortly, but the times will be a bit later than previously thought.

More info will come late September, that will include more details about the game.

Good luck with this thread 

[XaW]

1 minute ago, Domoboy23 said:

Good luck with this thread 

[jcw163]

Farcical, and still no talk about whether or not keepers will be allowed to commit a foul for the first time since like 2012.

[KrvakForLife]

12 minutos atrás, XaW disse:

Quick recap:

- Release date is late November
- FM25 will remove international management (to be brought back in FM26)
- Weight will be removed from player profiles
- Those FMFC members who have offered to come to SI Towers and test the game will be contacted shortly, but the times will be a bit later than previously thought.

More info will come late September, that will include more details about the game.

Apparently, Unity is taking more things from us than it is giving us, in exchange for a graphical improvement. Am I happy? No, but if it's the path they want to follow, that's fine.

I would rather stay with the current graphics than lose things from the game day after day.

Edited September 4 by KrvakForLife

[whatsupdoc]

Good call on international management.

Couldn't care less about weights. The explanation does sound silly though. It's hardly rocket science and far more complicated things are calculated in game.

Always prefer a later release to a buggy one.

[El Payaso]

 

Quote

Firstly, we've had to shift the official announcement of FM25 to the end of September. The gameplay focus period will follow soon thereafter. Our target launch date has moved accordingly and is now scheduled for late November, rather than our usual early November slot.

I think these are the main parts of the latest announcement. So basically nothing yet to be excited about as the main announcement will come at the end of the month. If the later release time means that we have a fully working and polished version in our hands, then this is a good thing. 

I don't really know what the FMFC is but I'm hoping that this bunch of people consists of FM players who pay attention to detail and different features of the game instead of casual players who only care about winning. 

Edited September 4 by El Payaso

[fc.cadoni]

Sounds like FM26 is the way to go, because FM25 does not make any sense with all of this announcements.

[Blanch82]

Just now, fc.cadoni said:

Sounds like FM26 is the way to go, because FM25 does not make any sense with all of this announcements.

Needs to be a free of charge 1 year BETA at this stage, let the whole community play test and feedback for a year and then go full price again in FM26.

the sales are gonna be so bad this year

[FlazeepX]

This is very poor from SI. The game is obviously not finished, yet pushing for a release with minimal and removed features to meet their annual game release, most likely sold at the same price point? It’s borderline disgusting.

[XaW]

Just now, jcw163 said:

Farcical, and still no talk about whether or not keepers will be allowed to commit a foul for the first time since like 2012.

This is in the game already....Here is a gif from FM23...

 

[ForTheLoveOfTheGame]

1 minute ago, Blanch82 said:

Needs to be a free of charge 1 year BETA at this stage, let the whole community play test and feedback for a year and then go full price again in FM26.

the sales are gonna be so bad this year

The one thing that can possibly save FM25 is the graphics…but we are yet to see any of it yet

[Zoolok42]

Judging by how tight they are with time, maybe release it as an early access, if possible, to manage expectations about the quality and the features, and then release the full thing in 6 months or so?

[TopToffee]

3 minutes ago, FlazeepX said:

This is very poor from SI. The game is obviously not finished, yet pushing for a release with minimal and removed features to meet their annual game release, most likely sold at the same price point? It’s borderline disgusting.

Here’s a novel idea - if you’re not happy - DON’T BUY IT.

It’s not “borderline disgusting”. It would be if they were putting a gun to your head and forcing you to buy it. 
 

Spoiler: They're not. It has been made abundantly clear that areas of the game will be a step back to enable future leaps forward. You have been provided with the information to make your own decision. And if that info isn’t enough, there’ll be a demo, like every other year.