Boed123

I think what perfectly encapsulates how stagnant this game has been is how if you are someone who would want to replicate how City play and you wanted the Kyle Walker role (a full back role that behaves like a wide centre back in possession but defends as a full back out of possession) this role doesn't exist despite City having used this for the past 3 seasons. Not only that but recently they've moved away from this now and are using Stones in what I can only describe in FM terms as maybe a libero in attack if you were to play it in the DCR spot...Something you again physically cannot do in the game. That's two huge tactical shifts in the past 3 years that cannot be replicated in this pathetic excuse of a game. Incredible honestly.

Not even a little bit no. Mostly I just find it funny and a little bit embarrassing how a game series with this much experience can release a game this poor in 2023. Still plagued with issues that have been present for years. Imagine having an offside mechanic that is so broken people literally routinely have 4,5,6 disallowed goals in a game regularly but then having the audacity to say “well this is our best match engine yet”. Pathetic. If there was a viable alternative I bet all the issues would be promptly fixed

Yeah this is the last FM I will be buying until things change with the direction of this game. I have tried really really hard to like this year's version and I just can't do it I give up. Tactically it is a shambles, certain roles are just unusable which makes attempts for certain player movements that are possible in real life just impossible. For example I find the inverted wingback to be an entirely broken role in the game in the sense it is hardcoded to invert far too late. This then effectively means if you're playing a 433 and want to replicate widely used positional play concepts guess what? One half of your team is entirely useless in build up because you used an iwb on the side with the thought process that it would invert quite early and would provide a passing option in midfield, allowing you to push that midfielder much much further up. Doesn't happen. So that side is useless you get pressed concede a goal so now you have to use a role in cm on that side that drops deeper...which effectively renders the iwb redundant almost immediately. Don't even get me started on the nonsense defending errors. The "midfield chaos" gimmick which just results in extra long stupid highlights which can effectively boil down to either you have a long spell of possession you lose the ball they clear it then you just play some ridiculous long ball that gets you immediately back into the attacking position you were in when you lost the ball and immediately score or its ping pong football but the chance always goes to the team who had won the ball back first. Then there's the VAR offside goals where you just have stretches of games with multiple dissalowed offside goals a game. The number of penalties are flat out ridiculous and my god PATCH HEADERS. And of course the dreaded AI 442 overpowered LOLs for absolutely no reason. Literally no tactical pattern or weakness that can be identified just overpowered because it is. Pass into space and wide play overpowered again no reason. Oh did I mention the first shot on target or goal straight from kick off that seems to just occur over and over? Then there's the just god awful regen development and for yet another year high press extremely high tempo short passing with 6 attack roles is the heavily favoured meta. Another year of gimmicky upgrades no one asked for, a nonsensical ME that doesn't represent real football at all and tactical limitations that are just pathetic for a game that is being released in 2023. The worst and least enjoyable FM I have ever played by far and my absolute last purchase of this video game series unless something drastically changes.