Bahnzo

I don't think it matters really, any tactic I use, if I tell them to not press in the OI's they press. I generally leave my TI's pressing set to normal in the middle position and then use the PI's to tell individual players to press more/less based on how I want them to play. I usually have my forwards set to press as much as the PI allows, but IMO that still shouldn't have them pressing the CD and GK's when I have those set to Never.

Title. I have OI's set to Never Press for the CD's and the GK, yet my forwards will press these players regardless. Is this a bug or am I doing it wrong?

Do you think having coaches that train Attacking are important? Or do you just let anybody handle that? I'm sure there's people who will tell us it's not, but it's in the game for a reason I suspect, so I have one.

Ahhh! Good point. Looks like some wonderkids about to become the newest members of Dresden....Thanks!

I have to admit, I don't know what happens if I don't spend all my transfer funds. Will the board roll them over? Will they take it? They are in the process of building a new stadium, would they use it to pay that off? I know it's a great problem to have.....

I just wanna brag, this is my set piece coach. Yes they are important and I also think you need to make sure you train "Routines" every week. I'd have to go check, but I scored what felt like quite a few set piece goals last season. Not just corners, but actual goals from FK's. I made sure to change my FK routines to go "short" instead of trying to find the best header or the back post, etc. That resulted in some real nice 1-2 pass goals. I also try to make sure I don't use my strikers for the FK's out wide, even if they are considered the best, as I want them being the ones getting the ball passed to.

I think I know what you were talking about, but I wanted to show this, and give an example why I think it's a bad idea to move youngsters to the first team simply for mentoring. You can see this week from the schedule, where the U19 game is on a different day from the first team. And then, you have a midweek champions league game. Any youngsters brought up for mentoring will miss multiple days of training, which isn't worth it. Not only will they miss Tuesday, but the days around it will be setup with recovery and whatnot, which isn't great for the youngster not playing in that champ league game. Then the U19 game on Saturday is offset from the first team game on Sunday, which leads to more missed days. So I really do believe it's never worth it. It might be different if you are a league 2 team where you only play 1 game a week and the U19 games are usually on the same day.

I'm in Germany and I was asked if I wanted to setup a B-team. I thought, sure, great idea! But my save only has the 3 German divisions and this club is not in those, so it doesn't register as playing games. I mean, it technically does play matches, as players on that squad show matches being played, but if I put a player on that squad, it's not affecting their conditioning (they never reach match shape despite showing games played). So how useful is this team? What I'm really worried about is using it with youth players whom are too good for U19, but not ready for first team. Are they going to continue to train and improve as well as they would otherwise, or am I risking the development of that 17yr old with a great potential?

This is a big peeve of mine. I really wish they would remove that hard coding.

Are these crosses made directly to these players? If so, there's a setting to man mark, and I think it's for the "B1" type players. They are positioned on the edge of the area, you just need to have 1 or 2 of them set in the set piece tactics.

This is one point I'm curious about. Is it causing a player to leave his position, or is it a trigger to cause a tackle attempt? As in, how high you set the pressing bar is how sensitive that trigger is? Like how much of a loose touch is required for that trigger to fire? Or does it simply control how far from that player an opposing player will attempt the tackle when the loose touch occurs?

Thanks, that's a good way to think about both I suppose. A DM for an AMC, yes, but not for AM wingers. I want my WB to mark those players. I also don't think using both PI and OI tight marking for a player works to mark them any closer. In fact I think it pulls other players out of position when that player enters their "zone" and causes issues. Which is a big part of why I'm trying to understand how both of these work; I want to better setup my tactics to mark dangerous players w/o losing my defensive shape too much. Containing, I'm thinking would work best if you don't set Tight Mark, but simply mark (or maybe Never Tight Mark on the OI?) and then set a pressing PI. That's where I'm curious. Would you want to press them hard and attempt a tackle on *any* trigger, or press them less and wait for the best chance to dispossess them? My idea is to play off a dangerous winger and have your player try to block passes and crosses from them while trying to win possession when a good opportunity presents.

Right, same for pressing. I question if that actually does make for shorter passing when you already have the TI set for the shortest.

These two are both instructions that frustrate me from time to time. Bear with me, this got long as I typed.... Let's start with marking. You have the option to "Mark Tighter" in the PI. Is this useful if you don't tell the player to mark a specific player/position? Or set a "Always Mark" in the OI's? And then, what does this actually do? Does the player stand closer to the player they are assigned to mark? Or do they just follow them around? An example: I'd like my WB(R) to mark the opposing AM(L). I set him to Mark Tighter and then mark that specific position. But then I often see during buildup play, my WB standing a good distance away from the player I assigned him to mark. Why? I often have "Step Up" set in the defensive TI's, but I still see my WB giving a decent amount of space to the AM I told him to mark. I assume marking attributes have something to do here, but this WB has a decent one, 14. Also: Does marking cause my player to follow their assigned mark everywhere? Because I notice they will sometimes get pulled out of position following their mark, which can be both good and bad depending on the circumstances. Is there something which decides how much my player will chase/follow? I've seen instances where my WB will chase their mark while they dribble across the field, but then arbitrarily stop and return to their defense position. Pressing: I've seen pressing described by @Rashidi and others as something which is governed by a trigger. So when a player with the ball (or receiving the ball) causes a trigger to fire, this causes a player (or players) to attempt a tackle/interception? Is that correct? So what does the pressing setting govern? Is it how far away they will come to attempt the tackle? Or is it how sensitive that trigger is? IE: a higher pressing setting will cause more tackling attempts? Or a combination? And then, how does marking and pressing work together? Will a higher pressing cause tighter marking? Or does that only cause more trigger events? Take the WB example I mentioned above. If I want to try to deny the AM the ball, how does one go about that? Tight Marking? But in another example, if you just want to contain the AM and do your best to keep them from having too much impact, is it better to not TIght Mark, but tell your WB to mark (so they stand close or follow them) with heavy pressing? I know it depends on the skills of the AM as well.

Interesting, I never considered that. I'll remove it and see how it goes. But, of course, all my players are talented! Also, when playing with the lowest passing setting, I don't think you have the option to set those meters any lower, right?

I think Zealand showed last year you are better off scouting counties instead of regions. I've also noticed I don't get many results if the country isn't loaded and playable in my save. I think/feel you need to have 2 scouts to cover a country efficiently. I have 2 for Brazil and it returns a decent amount. If I start adding more countries to that focus, then it seems to slow down. Again, no hard data on that, just "feels".

I would say you don't have to play a high press for a possession game. I don't think you have to play any sort of pressing strategy really. Also, I really like using "Hold Shape" for possession. It forces your players to slow things down and retain possession after getting the ball back. Here's my 442 possession tactic. It's still a work in process and I'm not sure why it works in some instances and not others. What you don't see, is I have almost all my PI's set to "take fewer risks" and "shoot less often" with the idea being it's most important to retain possession. EDIT: oops. I should mention, I no longer play a "Positive" mentality with this. I usually use "Cautious" (which I think is better worded as "patient") as it also takes fewer risks with the goal of retaining possession.

I noticed that Argentinian youngsters aren't allowed to leave their country until they are 18. Does this mean you can't turn them into a home grown player? IE: Since they will always be over 18 when they join, will this mean they will never have the required 3 years before age 21 to be home grown? Or am I'm not understanding how this works?

I was actually fooling around the other day to see if I could do this. It's been my dream for a number of years now to axe the MLS and put in a proper pro/rel system in the USA. There's so much I don't know about how the innards of FM works that it seems like a real daunting task to me. I'll be watching! I'm very curious to see what you come up with.

I think there is actually a checkbox for that, along with the others like U19 and your main squad. But it's never worked for me when I filter by B team as since I'm only part time, nobody it filters will accept. I bet you'll have better luck as your team is actually, you know, a team! Edit: maybe this in your staff search? Is "reserves" for your B team?

Germany here, and my B team doesn't even play matches, so it's certainly different. I mean, they do play matches, but they are those which are simmed somewhere out in the ether somewhere. It's useless for me and if I could fold the team I would. In your case, I can't imagine why you wouldn't be able to find any. Have you tried letting your DoF or Technical director do the hiring? Maybe they would have more luck?

This pretty much sums it up for me too. I read the thread on Reddit before coming here, and the idea that a team of players with no passing or first touch etc can perform well is pretty telling. Everyone can debate about testing methods and whatnot, but I think it's pretty clear there's a problem here, and one which has been here for a long time. I last played in FM22 and this was debated back then I remember. And probably before as well.

I gave up on it. I'm sometimes able to hire a B team manager, but there's not a coach in the game that wants a part-time contract, even if I offer them extravagant wages. I refuse to send any decent potential player to my B team. Instead it's where my useless ones go to see out their contracts.

I'd start by summoning him to my office and criticize his recent form. You mentioned the tackling, I'd certainly put him on "Ease off", but I doubt that's his troubles. Plays ball to feet might be good since he's small. I mean sometimes a player's bad form is not getting the ball much so he doesn't get a chance to perform. In the end, he's still 19 so it might just be growing pains. I think it's certain he'll be world class at some point with some game time.