Ghost77

Well, it honestly did not, because I have won 1:0, 1:0, 2:0 and 1:0 in the cup. These were very even matches with chances on both sides and in at least two occassions I won thanks to my really well prepared set-pieces. Just to add info: I brought in three centre backs above 190 cm and with heading and jumping reach at least 15. Robert Snodgrass, my deeplying playmaker, has curling corners at 15 too and that gave me slight advantage in these even matches which would otherwise maybe finish as draws. I really put a lot of work and time into this as my board wished. If the scenario was that I won all of them, but Celtic was better team in all of them, I would say it was gamey. Yes.

I see your point. But Arsenal did not lose to Man Utd in their invincible season. As far as I remember the 8:2 trashing came in quite inconsisent times, didn't it? That's where I am getting at. If it was average season for my Hearts team, I would accept it without any hesitance. But that for me just felt gamey. Thanks for the input, though.

Well, there were absolutely clear defensive shortcomings in German defence in that match which were immediately taken into advantage by Brazilians. If you watch the goals there is a clear pattern and Germans just couldn't find it at first. It was not as surprising from a tactical point of view. The next match against Netherlands was the bronze match in which Brazilians absolutely didn't want to play. As they personally said. It was just a formality for them and that's why they lost 0:3. It was embarassing for them to play for the 3rd place. If I had similar defensive shortcomings in my tactic, I would gladly accept it and work on them. But the Celtic goals in my trashing were very random and funny enough from the most average players in their team.

Thanks for the reply. I never said the game was fixed against me. Quite the opposite. I just wanted to know if other players feel the same way. That these results sometimes seem too random. And it just doesn't make sense that the performance drops from 100 to 0 in just one match in almost invincible season. If I lost by 7 goals, but my players at least played or tried, there were some patterns of usual play or some kind of performance existed, maybe it would be different. But it was like different players, different tactics, everything from previous matches just dissappeared. That just doesn't make much football sense to me. I actually am a coach myself and have never expereienced something like this in my coaching career IRL. There was always something wrong when these results suddenly happened. Some explanation, some clear hints. Here, there was nothing. Moral was superb even after the spanking.

Hi model citizens, before I move to the new edition of FM I just wanted to share my feelings regarding my last save in FM23. This post isn't made to imply, that the game is bad, scripted against the user and that we shouldn't play it etc. I just wanted to know if you maybe feel the same way or find anything what I talk about familiar. Or of course, you can disagree. In the save I am managing Heart of Midlothian in Scottish Premiership with obvious goals to win the league and put down Celtic and Rangers. As I invested a lot of time in my preparations I really tuned the tactics (defensively very solid but productive 4-1-2-2-1), planned good set-pieces depending on curled crosses addressed to tall centrebacks with brilliant heading which were brought to the club (productive set-pieces were the boards wish) and the squad itself, because Hearts are playing at least Europa/Conference league in the first season I had to bring in some real quality depth. I started very well, rotated well for the European matches and made plenty of goals from set-pieces. In the end I found myself in the title fight with Celtic with last three matches of the season remaining. In Scottish competitions I only lost twice. Away to Rangers in the Premiership (damn you, Ryan Kent) and in the Scottish cup semifinal to Hibs (0:1 from penalty in 87' minute). Before the last three matches (Celtic, Ross County and Dundee Utd.) my team was fully familiar with the tactic, got superb morale throughout the whole season and for some reason loved me as a manager. I only conceded 11 goals in 35 matches which made my defence the best in the division, but yet had the 2nd best attack. My first choice goalkeeper Lawrence Vigouroux got 22 clean sheets which equalised Fraser Forster division record. And i've got 100% H2H record against Celtic which never scored against me in previous 3 league matches and 1 cup match. I really fought hard against any sign of complanency and bad fitness by team-talks and above mentioned rotation which was well received by all the players. My players (thanks to team depth) always started fresh and mainly fully motivated. Then the Celtic match came. To be honest, I felt I can lose this one, maybe snatch a draw. It's still Celtic at its own stadium with brilliant team and Ante Postecoglu still on the bench. I lost 1:8. The match itself was absolutely out of hand. They were tearing us apart from the scratch and my players were standing at the pitch like immovable objects from the first to the last minute. They looked like they can't move, they don't want to play, just waiting for the death (after I beat them in previous four matches). The best goalkeeper in the division Lawrence Vigouroux did absolutely nothing at the goal. Almost every shot ended in his net. I don't want to sound like sour beaten manager who can't lose. It honestly isn't true. But somehow I felt betrayed by the sudden change in context of the game. In everything that was built well and followed logical paterns until this match. I did not know whether I should continue. But as I saw the morale stayed pretty high, players accepted my criticism and we still got the solid tested tactics, productive set-pieces and generally brilliant season with just two loses to Rangers and Celtic, I went to the next match. At Ross County, club which was at the top-half by accident this season, I was losing 0:3 by the half-time. Which was also the final score. My players were almost as bad as against Celtic. No idea why. No complanency, morale up top, no real reason to stop performing at least at standard level. Draw would do. 1:2 loss would too. So to sum it up. In last two matches I conceded the same ammount of goals asi in the whole season before. My keeper's form suddently went away, my whole team form and concpetion went away. Defensively very well balanced tactics meant nothing anymore. And had not the power to go back to the save until now. Lost focus, lost the interest. Why? I would like to say again that the fact that I lost the games is not that important to me and as I said above I half-expected to lose at Celtic. But the way I lost with 8 goals conceded (4 from really average Spaniard who attribute wise wasn't anywhere near Celtic level) was to hard to take. I don't want to use the word unrealistic as it is too harsh and overused in my eyes. I would prefer to use the word "gamey" or "too random". Like it is kind of further away from realism that I would personally like, but not like "cheating" or "absolutely unrealistic". In any case it really stole my interest for this save as I feel it's not worth the time and the work invested if you know where I am comming from. I don't say freakish results do not happen IRL, but I don't think it happens in similar context. A result and performance like this out of sudden after season that was almost perfect, with so strong and motivated squad. If I lost 1:4, ok a bad day, I could take it. But this just felt wrong and I felt it was decided from the first minute no matter what I do. So that's it. Feel free to add any comment. Any experience you have and what do you think about my super whining post. Cheers

Thanks, mate!

No worries, thank you for the screenshot ;-)

Thanks, I meant the hidden specific PA number which you can find in pre-game editor. But I didn't realise, that you maybe don't use it..

Brilliant, thank you very much! Would you be so kind and look at his potential ability? If it doesn't ruin the game for you. I would like to know that too.

Hi model citizens, could someone who already owns FM24 provide me with screenshot and potential ability of Yutaro Oda from Hearts? I just want to see if there is any progress in his attributes and ability after a year. Much appreciated if possible! Thanks

Okay, thanks. Funny thing is that in FM2017 and below the stadiums actually looked better than now. Hopefully Unity engine will help this.

Hi model citizens, I know it was debated a lot in the last years and there are licencing restrictions, but I would like to ask if stadiums in FM24 look better and maybe more similar to real life stadiums? Thanks and cheers!

Yerson Chacón, Venezuelan wonderkid for my Hearts team 😆

Yes, hard tackles and pressing surely affect the players confidence in the match as you both mentioned. I am asking more about the mental side of this matter, though. Does anyone have any findings regarding this outside of physical intimidation?

Hi model citizens, in past years I've read many biographies of different players and almost everyone of them mentioned one or two players he was always intimidated of. Not just during the match itself, but also the day before the match. Maybe in the tunnel. During the warm-up. I am just wondering if something like this also works in FM. I know there are relationships between the players, there is bravery, aggression etc. But is there a possibility that some player "doesn't want" or really isn't looking forward to face a tough defender from the opposition team? In other words I wouldn't be looking forward to play against Stuart Pearce or Roy Keane at their days. I probably wouldn't sleep the night before and it would definitely influence my confidence/performance. Any ideas if there is something like this going under the hood? Cheers!

I thought Miles Jacobson left the SI 😁

Thanks for your feedback, I'll tackle each of your tips. My left full back has a stay wider PI and the width on the left is his job. Have to say he is one of the best performing players in the system. But for sure I can tinker with run wide with the ball instruction. You are absolutely right on this one. Used AF for a few times with good results. Generally AF-A in FM23 works much better than on previous versions. He comes deeper a works more "for the team". This one is hard. I know where are you coming from, but I don't feel I have a striker with attributes for supporting role. So it is AF-A on top, therefore the AM slot should be on support. As far as I observed except the SS all the roles come really deep and have not enough attacking sharpness. SS is also coming deeper and helps with the build-up, but still is a good attacking threat. And in defensive phase he makes our formation defend like 4-4-2, which is desired. Honestly I don't like two attacking roles under each other too, but on the pitch it works better than it looks on the paper. SS is also receiveng a good proportion of longer balls and wins headers for the top striker. Not sure support roles would be in that position. There I am not sure. Full backs are both good runners, dribbling up the pitch on thier respective sides. Central defenders from time to try a longer pass up the pitch. There are some lost balls, but sometimes they acutally find the winger on the right or the SS (as I stated above) and I already scored a few thanks to these long balls. But both CDs have pass it shorter PI to minimase the lost balls. Would you use BPD at one of the slots? Yes, I know BWM are more adventurous, but when Beni Baningime plays, he holds the position, is helping out the CDs very well and I think it works. Cammy Devlin is less reliable in this respect and I usually use CM-D role for him, or push him deeper with DM-S role. Regarding the rotation, I acutally do it almost exactly as you say. With the option to sub 5 players, it's easier. But due to UEFA and Cup games (sometimes three matches in one week) I was in situations where all my subs were on let's say 80% condition and only my starting line-up (backup) was physically ready. After 60-70 mins of the game some of the players started to get tired and I had to put in the subs. That is were they got injured (usually the subs). I already ditched the training for these weeks and gave the players some rest days inbetween the matches. It helped with the condition, but not a huge impact on the injuries. Anything you see regarding the transfers? When you look at the players from outside, would you consider the transfers I made necessary or does it generally make sense to you? (I guess @Gee_Simpson could maybe help me with that?) Thanks!

Dear model citizens, based on my previous discussion with one and only @Cloud9 in quickfire questions thread I will try to present to you my running Hearts save with all my aims, decisions, transfers, tactics and mistakes. If you have any specific tip or something to add regarding my dubious management, feel free to reply. All good and educating tips will be highly appreciated. Sorry for a long reading, but I need to pour out my HEART a little bit (haha, brilliant joke ). Why Hearts? This one is kind of obvious. With sweet memories of my fellow countryman Rudi Skácel and his beautiful strikes in my mind I want to end the Old firm hegemony in Scotland. Make Hearts the best club in the country with possibly the highest number of Scottish internationals at Tynecastle and play in Champions League on regular bases. Eventual offer to manage Scotland national team would be the sweetest candy in the pack, but generally I would like to stay fully commited to the club. Staff: Won't be long here. Staff is important for me and majority of the current coaches left. I brought in some on-the-pitch experience in form of Sol Campbell, Lee Wallace or Mark Chamberlain, international knowledge mediated by scouts Daniel van Buyten and Vicente Rodríguez and some pure beauty as a few ladies joined the medical team. Of course I had to give a ring to the legend of the club Rudi Skácel and offer him an U18 role. His attributes are breathtakingly awful, but hopefully the licence studying will make him better before the board notices. Overall I brought in over 40 people, but we have one of the best coaching teams in the competition, including the youth staff. Lee looks excited! Squad: At first glance I would say the team is good enough to fight for the 3rd place in the first season, which is also the board’s aim. Some well known and experienced Scottish players with a few half-decent Englishmen and Australians in the mix. Craig Gordon will be no. 1 for at least one more season and Zander Clark is probably the best backup GK in the competitition. With young talented Harry Stone in the stock, the goal is more safe than the safe hands of David Seaman. For now. In the attack Lawrence Shankland - backed up by a cheeky loanee Stephen Humphrys - is a quality and with the pace of Josh Ginnelly and creative sparks of Barrie McKay, attacking phase could be working well enough. Liam Boyce, Alan Forrest, Yutaro Oda and ultrafast Garang Kuol will do the job in attacking midfield. Not worried there. Beni Baningime and Cameron Devlin are my personal favourites. Iron-willed fighters in centre of the pitch. Will have to take care of Devlin’s aggressivity, though. He reminds me of Roy Keane more that I or Alf-Inge Haaland would have liked. And there is also 35-year-old Robert Snodgrass, who has a grandad pace but some good teamwork. He will play in a deeper position and hopefully add a quality pass or cross at the right moment. Kiomurtzouglou, Grant and Haring will make a solid backup. Defence has also some good names like Craig Halkett and Kye Rowles. These two will probably be the best choice for starting line-up. Alex Cochrane in the role of attacking full back on the left sounds good. Australian Forrest Gump with poor technicals but amazing running ability Nathaniel Atkinson will do the work on the right. The thing which worries me is the backup here. Lewis Neilson has some potential, but doesn't seem ready for the tougher matches. And while Toby Sibick has no important defensive technicals, Andy Halliday and Michael Smith are ageing and Peter Haring is more of a midfielder. That leaves me with James Hill - 20 year-old guy on loan who is already cutting corners at the training - and Stephen Kingsley who looks generally good and has set-pieces to offer, but lacks the Cochrane acceleration and directness for a full back on attack and he also doesn't have needed attributes for a role in the centre of the defence. Pfff, tough decision. With the view of Europa/Conference League group stage (Hearts are automatically in the EL play-offs, going straight to ECL group stage in case of losing) I will have to dive into transfer market mud, although I didn't want to in the first season. With almost no transfer/wage budget, it will be fun. Transfers out: Ross Stewart (27), GK - Liverpool (150K): Backup of the backup GK, there were no hard feelings as Liverpool surprisingly poped up and snatched up our third choice. Good deal. Michael Smith (33), RB - Wycombe (Loan/100%): Old full back is a fan favourite at Tynecastle with decent mentals. But he couldn't offer much in attacking phase and his contract is expiring in the summer. His wages are gone with the loan and he will leave the club after return. Toby Sibbick (23), CB - Luton Town (Loan/100%): Not sure, if he is able to get better attributes in technicals. I will look at him after he comes back from the loan. For now his wages are gone. Peter Haring (29), CM, CB - Odense (230K): Similar story to Smith. His contract expiring in the summer, won't be any younger and I am probably faster than him. Decent money in, another wages gone. and last player to go out: Stephen Kingsley (27), DC/L - Bristol City (1M): The player I can regret selling, but he made us the best money and I just couldn't find a position for him. His set-pieces will be missed. His face that is disturbingly similar to my own not so much, I guess. Transfers in: Alex Mighten (20), AMR/L - Nottingham (Loan/100%): Quick winger able to play on both sides with some trickery in his pocket. On higher wages but well received by the fans and me as a Forest fan as well. The loan contract has no option to buy him, but I will probably try use my personal charm to make him like me. Last time I tried it, one of the female physios left the club, though. Tom Pearce (24), DL - Wigan (230K): Quite fast and surprisingly tall full back that can make a good backup to Alex Cochrane. And I feel he can get better with more playing time. Personally looking forward to those crosses. Lewie Coyle (26), DR - Hull (115K): Once upon a time a talented player that did not fulfill his potential. On the other hand he looks like a good all-rounder. Solid backup to Nathaniel Atkinson for 115K? I am OK with that. Cameron Burgess (26), DC - Ipswich (125K): Another Scottish Australian with the ability Stephen Kingsley lacked. 194 cm with Heading 16 and Jumping Reach 16, Guess who will be attacking the near post at corners. His mentals are little bit worrying, though. We will see. The rest of the money was invested in new contracts for Harry Stone and some young talents in U18. There is also still something to spend in winter if needed. Tactics: After short and sweet introduction let's get to tactics. As you see I went for 4-2-3-1 and I want to play faster, more direct counter-attacking football, which I feel can have place in Scottish football and goes well with the board demands. I start mojority of the matches on balanced so I was little bit more adventurous with the duties. On the other hand I defend in mid block with more aggressive pressing at my own half. (Honestly I am oversaturated by all the gegenpresses everywhere) This is the base, but of course when needed I tinker with some of the roles. When trailing I usually go on positive and change my PF-A to AF-A. Sometimes the left FB-A is upgraded to WB-A. When leading by two or more I usually tone done the PF-A to PF-S, eventually change the W-A to W-S. The trio under the PF-A has specific man marking applied. They mark opposition full-backs and defensive midfielder. I also tried the popular deeper position of my central midfielders, but not with significant improvement. Also Robert Snodgrass and Jorge Grant are not able to play that deep, but were "deeply hurt" when I played them "out of position" in a friendly match Cute. Snodgrass is playing in CM-S role with the Take more risks PI. Didn't want to use playmaking role as I tried to avoid slowing down the game and attract the opposition to him. When Cammy Devlin comes into the line-up, I have to change his role from BMW-D to CM-D and tell him to ease off the tackles. Otherwise he would get a red card after 2 minutes and would probably bite off a hand of the fourth referee when leaving the pitch. How am I doing? Well, not awful. But definitely not as good as I naively thought I would. I managed to beat Dynamo Kyiv in Europa league play-offs (which I am still not sure was the good news) and got a tough group with Fenerbahce, Rennes and Crvena Zvezda. Drew 0:0 with the Istanbul side and had some good results in the domestic cups. But what bothers me is the league form. Although I am generally praised for a good defence, I am able to lose to Dundee United (missed penalty on my side), FC Livingston (another missed penalty on my side) or Aberdeen (third missed penalty enriched by two sudden free kicks for the Dons on the edge of my area, which are both scored). Than I smash Celtic 4:1 at Tynecastle. Results in the Premiership are deeply inconsistent and my main striker Lawrence Shankland does everything, except scoring. Not lying, Shanks, am I? Fortunately at least my back-up striker Stephen Humphrys is scoring consistently and my decision to move Shankland deeper to the SS-A role in the last matches paid-off with better performances. Pigeons and seagulls sitting on the rooftop of Tynecastle are relieved there will be no more Shankland's inaccurate shots. He finally scored a few from the attacking midfield and is getting better. It didn't solve my bad league form, though, and I am 7th. The board is getting impatient and is thinking about giving me an ultimatum. Fans organized a fundraiser to buy me a clown boots to better represent my managing skills in the technical area. Good days. Why am I doing not so well? That is actually the question which motivated me to make this thread. I have my own ideas where did I go wrong and of course I would like to hear yours. My explanation has a few points: 1) Team cohesion. Although I managed to cram in nine friendlies into pre-season, have a team bonding and match reviews every week, my team cohesion is more red then my face after 3:1 spanking from Ross County. Defenders are making terrible mistakes (yes, Lewie Coyle, talking to you) and are often caught out of position (right, Lewis Neilson, I knew I should send you on loan, sorry Clyde FC). Another visible problem is that the players generally don't pass accurately enough in easy situations and sometimes the runs on the opposition half are absolutely mistimed. Honestly don't know what to do with the cohesion. New arrivals didn't help it for sure. I know it takes time to gel, but the board obviously doesn't care much. 2) Rotation is great. I embrace it. But when you play UEFA games on Thursdays and Premiership games on Sundays (domestic cups inbetween) - at Hearts - it's starts to be a problem. Sooner or later you have to field a pure backup squad, which (after all my transfers) probably still isn't good enough. They lose 1:2 there, draw 0:0 elswhere. Losing large ammounts of points. The funny observation: in literally the same second I only think about puting someone from the first team in the line-up of the Sunday game, he in a flash of flashes ruptures his cruciate ligaments and other three players injure themselves within the first half. Yes, Bobby McLuckie, I know you are still only 16, but you will play against Rangers at Ibrox next Sunday as I don't have anyone else. Looking forward? 3) The tactics. Of course, problem could be also in my tactics. But I generally like what I see. There are moments of brilliance and beautiful build-ups to the goals. Alex Cochrane is immense on the left side. Josh Ginnelly is scoring consistently. I personally feel the low cohesion + high rotation + not the best backup are the main problems. What do you think? It's possible my tactic is average at best. Any critique is welcomed. FINALLY, that's all I wanted to share with you. As I said above, feel free to reply, ask anything you want to know, post any good tips and tell what stupid things I have done and should have done better. I will try to "save this save" (nice), but will probably start again with some new gained knowledge from you. Have to go now, Cammy Devlin tackled a ball boy which was "staring at him stupidly". God, help me. Cheers and thanks for your interest!

Thanks for your rich answer, @Cloud9 Although I am quite seasoned player myself I always welcome tips and personal views from amazingly educated players like you. I realized one of my problems in this save could be the fact I managing Hearts in Scotland. They are in 3rd qualifying round of EL, eventually going to ECL, so the group stage is a certainty. The club has in fact no transfer/wage budget to spend, so I had to sell some weaker players to bring in some free transfers and best of the cheaper players to make some depth. But still, when playing UEFA games on Thursday and Premiership on Sundays (cups inbetween) I have to put on heavily rotated squads and my backup team just isn't strong enough to have consistent results. In my case these are usually the league matches, which end in boring draws or 1:2 losses with Motherwells and Livingstons (with missed penalties and three post hits on my side). Got also 4-6 injured players for a few weeks, although I would say my fitness management is half-decent. If you would be interested I can show you my team and tactics in a separate thread as I don't want to spam too much here. (And sorry for my English, I know it's quite confusing sometimes )

Thanks. There are moments of brilliance, but also terrible mistakes and easy passes missed during the matches. It looks like the tactic would work with everything else (cohesion, morale etc.) maxed out. But results are very inconsistent and board is already on verge of giving me ultimatum 🥴

Should I judge my tactic with good familiarity but a poor team cohesion? Will there be a large difference when my team gels better?

Interesting read with some good tips. Thumbs up!

Thanks, I already solved it. It seems that deleting cache and preferences folders helped. Cheers

Hi model citizens, as the title says, I was very unpleasantly surprised that I can't use coaches from my B team for first team training assignments. As the staff numbers are limited in different clubs, it is really hard to fill in every training responsibility with a first team coach. So I usually used coaches from U23 to help and train some categories or at least push down the workload. Now at my Hearts save there is no possibility to use B team coaches I hired. Is it because the B team is more like a separate club? I suppose there is a difference between U23 and B team, but I feel it should still be possible to use the coaches as you share the training facilities and the club ground in general. (?)