SimonHoddle

I think you’re right. Wish SI were honest about the modifiers. It would calm a great deal of frustration. We know it’s a game. We get it needs artificial tweaks. Clarity is better than opaque

It’s a commitment they’ve made and I believe they should honour it. I hear everything you’re saying and it was fair and not in anyway negative about the woman’s football. But you have to consider that women’s football is the fastest growing part of the game. Its participation levels are through the roof and is becoming an increasingly important part of football. FM (obviously ) is instrically about football, do you not think it’s sensible that they’re in the party and not late to the party? yes it probably means resources are diverted but the final product success is determined by consumer choice. If we all dislike the game we won’t buy it. Yet we all still do. And I’ve been one of the biggest moaners. But it’s still light years ahead of the competition and, despite all its many faults, is a world class game. Of course it would be nice if it was perfect or near perfect but it never will be, that’s impossible. Keep on giving constructive feedback, remind the developers where the faults are but don’t aim you ire at the development of the women’s FM game.

Cheers! All interesting stuff I’ll implement. I agree on the DL issue. I dont mind conceding with a deep DL but it should be through crosses or long shots not balls over the top into acres of space. I guess you mean stick a player on their most dangerous player. Interesting one that. with 5 subs the chance to switch to defence should be easier but often you get the message they’re struggling to meet pace of the game haha

Cheers both. It definitely needs consideration as the late AI goal a ‘thing’ now. It would be great to get better visibility of AI tactics. But yes I agree with you both. Subtle changes not park the bus. I think it would help if I had more confidence in TIs but dropping deep does seem to invite ridiculous over the top of defence passes. That makes me reluctant to back off even when defending a lead late on.

Nothing more annoying than dominating a match then seeing a 90 + 2 goal from the AI opposition! I actually quite like it because it makes things more difficult. but are these last min AI goals simply because they’re switching to Very Attacking in the 80th min or is there something deeper going on. And is the best way to stop it by going to Catenaccio and Shouting Focus at your team? any other solutions?

I believe this to be a flaw not a bug. Bug would suggest small programming error. I would suggest this is a massive anomaly which SI cannot possibly be unaware of but still choose to lead their marketing with the data hub as a wonderful source of gaming statistics. Instead it’s full of utterly unbelievable stats which suggest my team and players are massive outliers in every metric. Some of the time several hundred per cent more than a very narrow band of rivals. It’s laughable tbh. Please @Desmond Richardson @neilbrockcan I have acknowledgment this is being investigated and fixed or advice is passed on to the gamer that data hub in Touch is plain wrong. It should be a massive part of the game (next opponent advice etc) but cannot be remotely trusted.

Absolutely spot on. My Spurs team is doing well (2nd in league after 19 games, 2 defeats). The two defeats have been ridiculous results. Both to my title rivals. V Chelsea we were 4-0 down at half time. We had zero shots they had 25. V Man City we lost 7-0. They had 40 shots to our 3. Both direct rivals. Both completely outplayed us to a ridiculous degree. And it’s these lack of logic results that really irk. If I could see why ridiculous results happen I wouldn’t complain. But there is definitely a rebalancing or an unfair advantage with the AI as, by definition it knows and understands every metric, and the human player doesn’t. So the game is either a little bit fake or the human player needs a lot more info. Either way change is required.

SI - it’s a good game FM (I play Touch). Ok the ME throws up some ridiculous moments and I’ve signed Pedri and Musiala for Spurs in 2023 for combined £100m but it’s v playable. But let’s not BS here. The data is jokes. So my advice is ignore. Made up numbers to make data hub part of game. ESP annoying when you use data hub for match prep. according to these. Lloris (sweeper keeper on defend duty in my save) attempts 40% more passes than any other keeper. Eat that Ederson. The 6 players with highest sprints and distance covered all play for my team. We came 8th in the league. we made 50% fewer clearances than our nearest rivals. I don’t have play out of defence as a TI And finally our cross completion over a season is 700% better than our nearest rival. Hahaha. If only I had a world class predator to score from those crosses. somehow Kane managed 8 goals all season. Don’t trust the stats. Don’t use the stats. Soz.

Just a couple. Maybe after the last update is released. not a forum to moan about losing when your xG is 10! But an opportunity to hear from the developers about the unique dynamics of the latest version. Chance for players to ask how different tactics work and give feedback on what they’re experiencing. Might help dismantle the occasional feeling of remoteness from SI. Just an idea.

Yh I will try that cheers. Im not sure it explains why are three world class defenders completely ignoring one striker? With the drop off instructions and a covering CB? I think that’s a serious problem with the ME. And one that is routinely flagged.

Ah I do get what you’re saying more now. Although I have 3 midfielders (Musiala, Bentancur and Savic) who are v comfortable on the ball and 2 wing backs so loads of options for defence to do short passes. thing is, according to your ideas, if you’re cautious you can get countered and if your attacking you will surely be open to counters. So the game gives no safe options? I really appreciate your advice. The real issue here is SI are really not transparent about what each tactic does and the impact of instructions.

Exactly. Appreciate the reply @janrzmbut it does beg questions. If you don’t trigger press and have low DL a lot of people say that gives too much time for creative opponents. I don’t mind conceding goals with a low DL…..but not 3 over the top of a high line totally opposite to my instructions . 3 CBs and one theoretically covering (they rarely do). and lol. Come on! Now we shouldn’t play cautious because that increases counter attack possibilities. That goes against the whole theory of safe play. look at this. Against Leicester again! They’re down to 10 men. We are 2-1 up. I’ve got 3 CBs, middle on cover,mid DL and drop back TI. they completely ignore the ball over the top and the opponent. Joke. Absolute joke.

Really doubting a lot about touch. Just played Brentford as Sours at home. We’re 6th they’re 19th. They won 5-1 and Toney scored early and played like Messi. Played again with different tactics and lost again. Played again with 3rd set of tactics and got lucky draw. I don’t mind losing. I hate illogical matches. Touch tactics seem irrelevant. The stats in Data Hub are wrong so of no assistance and players often ignore TIs and OIs. I think the problem is by replicating full fat ME we are missing all the inputs and outputs of full fat. So the match happens but we are missing huge amounts of information and influence. so nearly great but Touch feels really undercooked to me. and WHY for the love of God remove some managerial shouts? Lessens the managerial influence and the game players feeling of immersion? and another why…..if you’re going to introduce team talks (nice) why not include the most important one at the beginning of a match. and please give us more info on what the opposition are doing. The ME isn’t strong enough to represent changes in tactics, mentality etc. the AI seems to score so many late goals because im unaware of their tactical moves. That also belies the fact that the AI has an inherent advantage as it knows all my moves and tactics all the time.

This drives us crazy, why with tactics below are my defence conceding 3 goals with balls over the top. Central CB on cover duty. We spend time making tactics, analysing the opposition and tweaking OIs and then we concede three absurdities. Leicester in blue. If the ME can’t cope with defensive tactics please tell us. SI need to be more transparent.

In 2nd season of Spurs save I made Kane club captain.so far, in his first 15 games, he has 1 goal and average rating of 6.3. his first season he was +20 goals and +7 average rating

IW support and Inside Forward up front. Supported by two WBs on support duties. my gripe isn’t necessarily with the number of crosses (although I’m not sure that fully adds up). It’s with the accuracy. 10 times better than any other team. I do get that if my team have far fewer crosses their stats may skew but I’m v wary of these stats

Cheers @Neil Brock. My tactics are below. Play fairly wide with 4 wide players. Certainly don’t suppress crossing. @Desmond Richardsonfor time purposes I play Touch. Is the data known to be erratic on the mobile platform? I posted in this forum as I understand the MEs and therefore the stats should be the same. I started this thread with another massive outlier. If analysis is to be a big part of the game (which it should be) the stats should be accurate or the game itself is flawed tbh. Many times I’ve used the analysis to change TIs or OIs and the match itself doesn’t seem to take these into account. I’m concerned it’s a red herring, particularly in Touch… I stand to be corrected. I hope I’m wrong. At its core this is a brilliant game but anomalies are very frustrating.

Cheers 😂 im not positive. That’s why I’m asking SI. Maybe my team are 1000% better at crossing than any other team. Maybe…

Um. Whose acting entitled lol? for reference, no. My team isnt hogging possession like Man City and yes we have to defend a great deal. My league stats this season are W2, D4, L4. Defo not city. I guess I got burned with the absurd stat below which suggests my team crosses with 1000% more accuracy than any other.. very believable….I very much doubt there are any teams IRL with such outlying stats as your Loch Ness (appropriate name given the scarcely believable context) or my Spurs. this was meant to be a direct reply to @phnompenhandy

I have asked SI repeatedly to confirm they have full confidence in the stats the game produces. It is holiday season and they’re v busy but I’d appreciate a reply. take the numbers below. I play a 4231 system with 2 defensive midfielders, 2 top class CBs and a high press. Not only are our numbers below the worst in the league, they are by a vast margin. So that’s either complete BS (see my previous post on joke crossing stats) or my defenders and DMs can’t defend. That’s Bastoni, Romero, Bentancur and Bissouma btw. any advice on how I get my top class players to block and clear???

So when wouldn’t you press intensely?

So the key difference is you keep a high level of pressing. That works in the game and players should try that. But IRL deep and narrow and little pressing won’t give the opponent opportunities by balls over the top. Not enough space. FM has always struggled with this set up IMO. it’s these idiosyncrasies which separate FM from real life football which needs to be explained much better by SI. the only other game I play is Civilization which has a comprehensive manual (access to which doesn’t make the game easy btw). I think we’d all like to know why in this iteration our world class defenders are passing straight to the opposition under zero pressure. It’s clearly been programmed to happen. So rather than everyone tearing their hair out it’s SIs responsibility to explain this may happen and look out for the reasons why (fatigue, poor defensive cohesion, opposition tactics etc) so we can remedy it. Or acknowledge this as a ME problem and please tell the paying punters it’s being investigated.

That’s really interesting. So the entire EPL, apart from my team of Beckhams, can’t cross. Or….the stats are utterly wrong. @si announcementsWould love to hear someone from SI confirm the data hub stats are very reliable and robust. My faith is being tested.

Consistent theme of match randomness coming up. Difficult to analyse and explain matches. Absurd behaviour of players in match etc etc. the developers work bloody hard and FM is so far ahead of the competition it’s in a different universe. but 23 seems wrong. I’m getting bored of watching world class defenders pass straight to an opponent under no pressure because the ME determines it’s time for a goal. It feels contrived and weird this year. I don’t trust the stats, player instructions or ME. that leaves v little to enjoy. Below is my team with 10 players in box ignoring 2 city players near the 6 yard line. City score. It’s silly.