(sic)

Wingbacks kind of do everything. Sometimes Dalot (more so than AWB I think) sits narrow, in the midfield to form a double pivot, an IWB-S basically. Sometimes he would underlap while the winger stays wide, and lurk around the edge of the box IWB-S/-A. And sometimes, if the winger is narrow, he would overlap like a regular Wingback-S/-A. Similar thing happens on the other side with Shaw/Malacia. Sometimes he would form a back 3 with other 2 CBs, and sometimes Eriksen drops deep to form a back 3, while the WBs push higher. They often do use this 3-1-6 shape, and sometimes they use 3-2-5/2-3-5. Recreating all of that is kinda impossible in this game. Movement and positioning is way too fluid and interchangeable, where players need to occupy certain positions based on where the other teammates are positioned. You could make a very rigid replication, where a RW for example, would always stay wide, and where the RB would always sit narrower and underlap. Or you could do it the other way around where the RW always sits narrow, and WB always overlaps, but I think the first version would be closer to real life. You could also add a overlap to IWB-S to encourage him to make those overlapping runs when there's opportunity to do so. Replicating Eriksen dropping deep in the buildup to form a back 3 with 2 CBs, while the WBs are pushed forward, is simply impossible. It's similar with using one fullback to form a back 3, but at least it does work sometimes. I'm not sure whether I'd use a 4-2-3-1, or a 4-1-2-3 (4-3-3), as those also change often. I really dislike the 4-2-3-1 (both with DMs and CMs) in FM23, as the AM, even on Support duty is often placed right on top of the striker in a lot of situations, and he would often go to the side of the striker to from a front 2. And that's on support duty.

I love it. I don't know why some of the attributes are hidden, and I definitely want to see what the player is really like, but I also feel weird when I view those attributes on a 1-20 scale (feels like cheating). I'd definitely put this in my skin.

If it was for personal use, I'd just say go for whatever looks good to you. But since you asked.. That color just isn't well suited as a background color, its simply way too strong and there isn't enough contrast when looking at other items, mainly the text. Black text doesn't have enough contrast when compared to that orange background, it needs to stand out more. To solve this, you should pick a darker and a more gentle color as a background, and change all text to white, or use a much lighter background and dark/black text (which is much harder to do, as there's probably a ton of text that needs to be changed in a few dozen different xml files). I know most people here probably don't have any knowledge of color theory, other design principles (contrast in this case), or modern design trends, as most of us are just doing this for ourselves, for fun. But I would suggest reading up on it, and learning some of that stuff, as it can greatly help with designing nice color schemes, and good looking skins.

Absolutely. Pressing just doesn't work in any sort of a realistic way. The game overall just doesn't feel fluid, and you can obviously spot some triggers if you watch enough matches. Like players just wouldn't do anything, but as soon as X thing happens (or when the ball reaches the middle or final third), they completely change their behavior, from 0 to 100. The problem is, we can't control those triggers, or at which point we want players to change their behavior. It just happens suddenly after a certain invisible line is crossed. It's hard-coded, and we're at mercy of the devs and the way they see football and deem it should work in-game. Your players often can't really play a high press, as the CBs (and/or fullbacks) will be left with tons of space to recycle the ball, without being closed down (even when they're closed down, they can make pin-point passes under pressure). It was an issue in previous versions as well, where players just don't close down as much, until the ball comes to the middle third, when all hell breaks loose, and they suddenly start closing down the player with the ball. So many players are left open, with tons of space, it's almost like marking is non-existent. It goes without saying that allowing us that much freedom will inevitably lead to game-breaking, exploit tactics (though you could argue they already exist). The other option isn't that much better either, as it would require an even more complicated and complex code, leading to an even more realistic simulation of football, and I doubt that's happening any time soon. Since a realistic representation of football/tactical creator isn't on the table, what they should focus on is making the game feel more like....a game. That means gamifying certain areas, so they don't feel like a chore and a 2nd job. Anyways, it's been a while since I posted feedback in this thread, mostly because I just stopped playing the game. I just got tired of seeing the same old stuff, the same old mistakes and bugs, the same old inability to create and replicate certain real-life tactics, which includes player movement and positioning, etc. The game strives to be as realistic as possible, but it's so far off from being that. Maybe my expectations are high, but after playing this game for 6-7 years, I haven't seen that much progress in that area (not saying there wasn't any, as that would be a lie).

Brilliant work. I hope SI take some inspiration from this, as it can be a real game changer and maybe change up the way the game looks and plays. The UI/UX has been largely the same...forever?

Basically, pressing (and defending in general) just doesn't work properly in FM, and it never has worked before (though it does seem worse this year). I've seen this happen over and over again in all my saves, so trying to make a high press, that actually does work in any realistic way isn't really possible. You'll often see things like that image above, where players have very questionable positioning. They often don't position themselves properly, meaning they wont be there to intercept/mark/press the opponent when needed. If you want to make a high press, it's absolutely doable. Just don't expect it to have any logic to it or for it to work like it does in real-life, because it won't.

Yeah, the major ME issues seem to have been fixed. It's still not perfect obviously, and it probably never will be, at least not any time soon. But compared to how the game was at launch, it's much, much better right now.

So after looking a bit more through the stats before and after the update, I do indeed notice some changes. Passes completed went from ~500 (+/- 100) to 600+ (often reaching 700-800). Likewise, passes completed for my 2 CBs went from 60-80 to 80+ (often 100+ per game for each CB). That's probably got something to do with long balls being toned down, but again, I'd say the CBs aren't getting pressured correctly most of the time, so they have plenty of time on the ball.

They said it's not the same ME that produced those insane passing numbers. They didn't change the ME just because "a few people on here moaned about long balls". They changed it because a lot of people reported that there were clear issues, that shouldn't be happening. Just because you could put up with those bugs, doesn't mean the rest of us could. I'd rather them fix those issues (that pretty much occurred in almost every game I've played). You've been told to submit bug reports and provide .pkms, yet you continue to bash on other people and the devs, instead of doing that. I'll have to play through the rest of the season in order to draw conclusions. It's possible that the passing numbers are slightly higher for me than before, so I'm going to keep track of it. Pass completion definitely seems to be on a higher side, and that's an issue that's been carried on from FM22 (and probably previous versions). There could be an issue with pressing, and especially the high press, where defenders have a lot of free time on the ball sometimes, without players closing them down.

Maybe I have missed those changes when reading through the patch notes, but right now it doesn't seem to reset anymore. Any changes I make are working, and they don't immediately revert back after a few in-game days... at least so far.

So far, so good. I only have a small sample size of 3-4 games, but it looks like some of the major issues are fixed. There still are some questionable things, though I'd need more games to draw conclusions. One thing that stands out to me right now is how hesitant the goalkeepers are when dealing with crosses/through balls. I did notice it before the patch, and a few times already after the patch. GKs would just go, then stop, then go again, then stop, not really committing to either.

I know ME is the main thing here, but I can't seem to find any changes about the squad planner. I swear it was reported as bugged, it often kept resetting, or not working correctly.

Well I'll be damned Thanks for confirming it so quickly, and proving me wrong. Time to see how this works I guess.

I wouldn't expect any ME changes, just the bugfixes in general (which are also needed).

This is really similar to what I'm using with Sheffield Wednesday. Just got promoted to the PL after winning the Championship using the tactic. As you are a newly promoted side, I'd definitely use a role like AF over DLF-S. Most teams will attack you, so there will be some space for the AF to run into and exploit. Now you can choose to play a more forward thinking role for your LCM (Like Mezzala), or you could bump up the LB to a WB or something.

Amazing finish. Great GK reaction. It's just insane how I could post a few of these gifs every single day. Yet people would still say "doesn't happen to me, the ME is amazing".

I'm not demanding anything. I just said they should release the patch as soon as possible - meaning as soon as ready. I don't want them to "take their time" or "wait" or hold on to it, or whatever. If it's ready, release it right away. Neil has actually just replied and cleared things up, so in fact, the patch isn't ready as FM touch and FM aren't the same games. I'm not demanding they release it right now.

Good for you if you can enjoy the match engine. The problem is, many of us here simply aren't enjoying it. To say that YOU'RE happy with it, and so YOU invite them to take their time, is kinda selfish though. ME is NOT working very well. Many people in this thread have given up on the game due to how horrible some of the things in this ME are. Many can't wait for those issues to be fixed. Many who are still playing are getting annoyed in almost every single match due to dumb decisions and mistakes some players make, due to ME not working properly. Now I'm not trying to rush them into releasing a mess that fixes those issues but creates 10 other issues. But I'm also very much against this narrative that "everything's fine", "this is the best ME ever", etc. It's not, and we should be getting these fixes ASAP.

I don't see any issues here. I'm fairly sure that's how it's supposed to be. The 2nd item is basically your DoF's reaction to you winning the manager of the month. You can already see the win% etc. in the first item, that actually says who won the award.

Far from decent. Would've needed a draw against the Swiss, now we need to actually win the game (if they lose to Brazil that is). Expecting Embolo to score around 5 goals, considering how awful this team is defensively.

Grujic has been pretty good since coming on, takes the ball, makes good passes, even carries it. Where are Jovic and Vlahovic?

I seriously don't know what's going on right now. There's nobody to carry the ball and run with it, nobody's making runs from the midfield - it was a great cutback by Kostic. It's like they don't even care.

I thought so too. I refuse to believe they're not fit to run for 90min.

So our entire team seems to be lazy af. They're not even bothering to actually run, and are instead just standing still and passing around... It's just insane.

So, what's our manager doing? How about making some changes?