Nice to see my tweets get shared about
I can see both sides of the “discussion” (let’s not call it an argument)
If you play any game for a long time you pick up things that work etc and carry them across yearly releases so there’s a chance the game feels “easy” which is natural.
As for SI needing to make the game harder/add difficulty levels Miles has said before on different podcasts etc that the hardcore are a small % of the market so they need to cater for all.
We do have difficulty levels in the game anyway, when you start at Man United/Liverpool are you starting with full coaching badges and experience? Setting both of these to lowest setting at a high club is supposed to increase the difficulty.
The removal of the attribute bars seems to have caused a bit of an outcry over the past few years of similar threads but after a while you could tell on the bars the attributes anyway, I know some people have started adding stars to the attribute panel
Which could help make it harder in regards to signing players etc.
Ive gone fully attributeless and starless, which you can read about here..
https://www.viewfromthetouchline.com/2022/09/12/a-dan-gear-fm23-save-reveal/
This is my own way of increasing the difficulty plus trusting the staff with signings of players and staff.
In regards to how can I tell a player is quick, scout and coach reports will tell you this plus you can search certain metrics to help. For me personally I feel the attribute scoring is unrealistic and outdated anyway. I hardly doubt the staff at a club are there scoring players Crossing 14 or 15 and in the game does that one attribute score matter?
Also over the years we have all gained better knowledge of the market so whilst saying you won’t sign Endrick unless scouts recommend him, they probably will at some point and due to knowledge you’ll probably sign him over an unknown player.
Some of the best saves I’ve had in recent years are in leagues I have no knowledge of Bolivia, Turkey, Estonia on top of that you could probably play with the option to not use real player names? Maybe this might help.
I have thought for years that FM is too soft with injuries and we don’t get fully fledged injury crisis to manage our way around.
Whilst it’s not the perfect solution for you, there are options out there to make the game harder. Using Mods, making in game rules for yourself. When you start at Liverpool/United maybe self impose a rule of 5/6 so 5 players in starting XI have to be homegrown trained within the club etc.