Maldini's Heir

February 6, 2020

2 hours ago, davehanson said:

Haven't played the newest version, not really in a rush to play it to be honest, but will get round to it at the weekend hopefully.

Came back in here to see if there was any feedback on the game and think it is fair to say it is mixed. Hopefully it is better than some of the comments on here.

I still don't get how people can say the majority of people don't come here and post, the majority are enjoying the game. I just don't get where these 'facts' come from as much as I don't know where the facts come from that people say the majority are not enjoying the game.

The thing is that FM20 have a monopoly so I'm sure many are playing it simply because they have no other options.

FM20 is the first game I've ever quit midway through a season. I can usually get to the next version but I could not watch any more misses.

I will check in again to see if the upgrade has improved things. Otherwise I've gone back to FM19.

For 2020 I really don't think this game is good enough though. We should be way past this level by now.

February 3, 2020

This game is just a wind up. Nothing else to say.

My striker, Piatek, has just won striker of the year despite missing endless 1v1s. It was just announced after I had another 0:0 because my team missed all of their chances.

Everything that happens is a wind up. When you lose and the game asks you how well one of your players played. It's all one big wind up.

February 3, 2020

49 minutes ago, Bakiano said:

And oh my God, those beatiful goals from outside the box. Whenever I see, player has a little open space to shoot, I know the result. It is a wonder goal. Players can't score from 1 on 1 chance with the GK, but when there is a volley or half volley shot, that's 99% a goal.

It really takes some talent to kill all joy of wonder goals.

Having seen your striker miss the simplest 1v1 and you then see your midfielder scores a volley from 35 yards for the 6th time of the season.....and you just shrug your shoulders in despair....

February 2, 2020

This has to be the most crushing game I have ever played.

Nearly every thing that happens in the game ends in disappointment. There's just not joy to be found anywhere.

As the ball drops to Chiesa at the back post and there's a goal mouth scramble, will I get a last minute winner?

No chance. I'll hit the post. I knew before it even happened. That would be a joyful moment. Games must end in disappointment.

Losing 2:0 to Lazio break forward and 1 v 1 and......Cutrone hits the post and Lazio counter to break me with a 3:0.

It's your tactics! (that made my player miss an open goal and hit the post).

After a crushing series of games where my team has missed countless chances, drawing 0:0 or losing when I've had more shots, I then play some small team in the Champions League.

36 shots on goal - what could've been an enjoyable 5:0 win (just for the laugh you know, joy) - ends in a frustrating 1:0. I won. But who wants to win 1:0 having had 36 shots on goal?

In fact who wants to spend their time watching their team miss chance after chance. There is another way you know. Just don't have the team create chances. Same outcome. Same difficulty. Hmm question. It must be something to do with my tactics. But there's nothing to learn from missing 35 chances.

Who wants to play a game that always ends in disappointment, even if you win?

I nearly made it through a season without restarts but as I got towards the end of my second season, 10 points clear at the top, the game thought - Do you know what would be a fun thing to experience? The crushing disappointment that Kevin Keegan felt in 95/96. Yes, I'd pay to experience that. So the points just start dropping off. The last minute equalisers, the back to back "one of those days" - until the game had chipped away at my lead and my hope.

REEEEEEEESSSSSTAAAAARRRRTTTT and the pain goes away. If only Keegan could've done that.

Without fail a re-start leads to a different result. I think of the 50 or so games I've re-started, I've won something like 45 immediately after re-starting.

It seems in fact every game I lose it because of "incidents" - the missed open goal, the mistake at the back.....

Actually here's a thing - BTW the first part is a rant that doesn't require any explanation, this is a genuine question....here I'll include a nice sub-heading so people can go straight to this question:

^^^^^^
RANT

˅˅˅˅˅˅

QUESTION

Does anyone notice that the computer team generally has a completely different experience to the human team?

There's all sorts of incidents that occur that only impact the human.

For example:

the auld throw in leading to counter attack shtick, seems to overwhelmingly favour the CPU - it's always my players throwing the ball to the CPU never the other way round;
the CPU gets by far and way the most "lucky breaks" benefiting from the human hitting the post, having goals cleared off the line, having disallowed goals, conceding last minute goals (v last minute misses from the human), 5 shots = 5 goals/35 shots = 1 goal etc,
twice I have had my GK keeper tackled, but I have never tackled the CPU computer - never experienced that joy (like so many others).

I signed Zaniolo after he scored 12 goals for Roma. Of course he's only scored 1 goal for me! Of course.

My wife asked me why do I bother?

She cuts to the core of me.

January 17, 2020

2 hours ago, FrazT said:

Might be worth logging this over a larger sample of games to see if it is a trend

It's definitely a trend. I'm turning a blind eye to it because they make up for all the missed 1v1s.

I'm half minded to start keeping my own stats where I discount these goals and up the goals for my strikers....

You might think that's bonkers (and it probably is) but one thing I try and do with my strikers is get them to beat records with the big target being Piola's 274 Serie A goals.

(I did this with FIFA and PES when DM's used to burst forward and score headers - I used to allocate the goals to my striker.....(yes I'm weird).

January 17, 2020

2 hours ago, prot651 said:

Seeing an enormous amount of long range goals . 4 in 2 matches from my team and 3 from the opposition all from outside the box . All goals were from 30-40 m away .

Yep. It seems easier to score a 30 yard pile driver than a simple 1 v 1. Kessie has 9 goals in my game, mostly, from outside the box and each a contender for goal of the season. It'd be better if some of those goals could be shifted to Piatek who has missed countless simple 1v1s.

Is anyone finding that the 1v1s that are scored are often when the keeper saves the first poor attempt and the striker taps it into an empty net?

This manages to both ruin the assist stats and kill any joy in the goal.

January 17, 2020

What is wrong with this game?

I've managed to get through a season with Milan without re-starts and finished 2nd, 2 points behind Juve, and made it to the semi-finals of the cup.

Sounds good, right?

I should be really happy with that outcome but I'm not.

Because the game screwed me.

In the two decisive games with Juve, Juve dominated me at home and I dominated them away, and Juve came out with two wins. In the first game they got a last minute winner. I was not even allowed to revel in my fortune. In the return leg I watched as my striker, who had finally started scoring, missed endless 1v1s - it was pretty obvious Juve were going to get a goal on the break and they did.

In the cup, I had drawn 1:1 away to Atalanta so had my away goal. I took the lead and they equalised with Gomez scoring a free kick from about 30 yards out. It went to extra time and I took the lead and they equalised again with Gomez scoring a free kick from 35 yards out. I think they were the only two free kicks I conceded all season. In one game. To knock me out of the cup. On away goals. Without ever experiencing the joys of a comeback. Just the despair of throwing away a lead.

And there other incidents involving Bologna bulldozing me in one game, unlucky incidents here and there, even Leao denied a hat trick by hitting the post and then having a goal disallowed.

All joy was strictly off limits. When I won, I won convincingly without the joy of experiencing those last minute goals or a bit of luck. All of those incidents went the other way.

How do I get anything out of that?

January 15, 2020

9 hours ago, cjhill44 said:

Ok great will try looking at the other leagues that are playable and see if I can get a few names in, just need enough to put a team and subs out. It would be nice to have an intake of academy players as well but I think this happens around March

The really interesting thing I found was that the scouts were not rating players who were actually performing. So you might a player with the highest number of goals or assists or man of the matches, yet the scouts rate him as two star player. Doing this gives you a real sense that you've uncovered some gems.

January 15, 2020

8 hours ago, Rien102 said:

Came "that close" to buy the in-game editor no later than a week ago! (I don't have it btw). Reason I came that close? Rhian Brewster! I'm into my seconth season and I'm in League 1. Sheffield Wednesday were relegated the previous season but, thanks to the way the game manages relegations/promotions, you have about 6 weeks to play the system to your advantage or being penalyzed by it. Well, the Owls were able to get Rhian Brewster from Liverpool, a PL level player according to all my scouts (including HYOD with 14 in CA eval) and valued at 7M pounds to play into League 1! How did they manage that? Easy! They made the offer before the calandar got made and BAM! Of course, everybody getting promoted get smacked because they can'T sign anybody before that calandar date... which means that the very bests of each crops are taken before they have a chance to do anything because they still are "lowly Y level" instead of a "shiny X level"... To be honest, I always had a special... "feeling"... toward the 6 weeks waiting period for the promoted/relegated teams to be tagged/identified as playing in their new level but this time? Well...

And that was the time I felt the most compelled to buy the in-game editor... and I didn't... even if 1 week after the thing, every time I look at the stats of League 1, with Brester dominating everybody and everything, and see the Owls flying over everybody because of it, it still makes my blood boil a little... just a little...

Oh... I cheated once in fact. Ass Man leaves me to go to manage Accrington... for 3k pounds less. At the end of the season, I go look at table in League 1 and saw he have 1 game to play and could be relegated. I actually reloaded that game twice just to be sure he was relegated!

Surely there's a morally* consistent argument you could make that it's only cheating if it couldn't happen in real life?

One challenge I sometimes give myself, which definitely is not cheating, is to undo all of the summer transfers for my team, always Milan, and start as if I could've intervened before Milan did another terrible transfer campaign.

Since about 2003 (when Milan signed Kaka), I've disagreed with nearly every single transfer campaign at Milan and so have used computer games to correct things. In fact, this is probably the thing that draws me to these games most - fixing the awful reality of supporting Milan.

*I'm using the word "morally" in the looses possible sense......

January 15, 2020

14 hours ago, thehig2 said:

You could use pre game editor for that?

As people have said your the judge of your own game.

Yeah your right save scumming is probabily worse, you can force any result with enough restarts.

The great thing about the in-game editor is that you can correct things as you go along.

For example, I will only get to play against a Brazilian side if I qualify for the World Club Cup so I don't need to worry about changing the names until that time.

I just need to exercise self-control with the editor. But when real life events took Cutrone back to Italy I just couldn't resist.

I've decided this Career Mode is going to be about getting the band back together again: I'm going to try and re-sign Locatelli (without cheating), and then build a team around Donnarumma, Calabria, Locatelli and Cutrone!

January 15, 2020

34 minutes ago, thehig2 said:

Resonses here are about right, cheating is what you consider to be cheating.

However if you post career updates gloating about success then a game were the editor has been used or save scumming has been used id consider that cheating.

Personally I loose interest fast in a game I know I've used the editor or save scummed.

I normally start a game with use of editor prevented

Is the editor a bigger cheat than restarts?

Especially when using the editor to adjust for real life.

Cutrone is a completely realistic signing for Milan. I was only prompted to make the signing when he moved in real life.

Meanwhile why would Maldini’s kid want to leave Milan especially when I’ve given him appearances?

Personally the way I see it if I use the editor to fix what I think are flaws in the game or to update for real life then it’s not cheating. If I signed Mbappe or someone that would be cheating.

I’m going to rule - it’s not cheating in MY game!

I’d be interested here other people’s moral dilemmas.

January 15, 2020

On 28/06/2019 at 03:42, herne79 said:

I've been having a little experiment and playing around with using Touchline Shouts with no tactical instructions*.

* No tactical instructions here means no TIs, PIs or OIs used and Mentality left on Balanced.

All I've done is pick a team, a formation and thrown together some player roles & duties. Then during matches I just use touchline shouts, no other changes (apart from subs). I've never done this before so I wanted to see two things:

1) The effect of using no TIs, PIs or OIs. I want to leave things as "vanilla" as possible without bogging players down with tactical instructions. In other words, I give them the framework (Mentality, formation and roles) and then let them get on with things. I have no tactical style in mind (a primary reason for using TIs etc) and want to remove (as far as possible) any outside influence which may distract my players. I want to focus on the players as much as possible.

2) What happens when using the shouts? Does it do anything? It would be even harder to gauge this if I threw a bunch of TIs at my team or made constant tactical changes during the course of a match.

My Setup

Can I ask a question....(great idea by the way, I'm sort of doing the same but with some instructions).....why is your RWB set to Defend when you're playing a Trequartista on the right side of attack?

Surely you need your RWB overlapping?

I've noticed a few people have different attacking levels for their FBs. I just play my both on Support.

There was once a time where I'd look at opposition teams and try and see if there was a weakness down a particular side but it didn't seem to make a difference.

January 15, 2020

I have.....with the the slight help of one or two restarts....but I did win three titles in a row with Milan and, without re-starts, I have finished in the top 3.

I play a Balanced 4123 and choose the roles that are the most suited to the specific players.

Upfront I play a Poacher when I'm using Piatek, Pressing Forward when I use Rebic, Advanced Forward when I use Leao and Deep Lying Forward when I use Ibrahimovic.
The game tells me that Suso's best position is Inside Forward and so I play him in this position on the right with the Support setting.
I'm trying (unsuccessfully) to retrain Leao as an Inside Forward so sometimes play him on the left with the Attack setting. Bonaventura recently has had a run without injuries so I am playing him on the left in an Advanced Play Maker role/Attack;
Generally I'll play Paqueta in an Advanced Play Maker/Attacking role on the left side of centre mid;
Generally I'll play Kessie in a Box to Box Midfielder/Support role or Krunic in a CM/Support role;
Bennacer's best position in the game is a Deep Lying Midfielder so that's the role I give him with a Defensive setting;
In defence I go pretty basic: Two FBs on Support settings and two CBs on Defence settings - defence is my strongest area.

I keep instructions to a minimum - changing tempo, passing directness and discpline/expressivieness as the game progresses.

Working the Ball into the box was not creating any goals (and was constantly being ignored) so I'm now Hitting Early Crosses/Whipped In/Passing Into Space and am starting to score a lot more goals.

I sometimes switch players around so will switch wingers or the two attacking midfielders and with Bonaventura playing on left of the front three I've started switching him with Paqueta. That has all brought some success.

If a team plays a man in the hole I get my DM to man mark that player.

In transition I Counter/Press and all that jazz.

I don't Close Down the keeper (waste of a player).

I don't get Stuck In (poor defending technique generally).

I also have the option to drop back to a Cautious 451 (which seems to work) or an attacking 442 (which is pretty useless). I have also had some success with pushing Paqueta forward into a AM role in 4231 (more success than I have had with 442).

January 15, 2020

2 hours ago, cjhill44 said:

Hi guys, need a bit of advice please.

Starting 2nd season with Man Utd. I was advised not to renew contracts for a lot of the under 23s as they had no potential at the club so I let them go.

The ones that do have potential have been sent on loan so now I barely have enough players to field a team for under 23 matches. I am unable to recall them.

Its still pre-season

I have made a few first team players available but ideally need to get some youngsters in. Can I ask the board to do this?

I play in Serie A but I've loaded up a few extra leagues (Germany, Spain, France and England) and at the end of each season I go through the youth leagues in each of these countries and sign the youth players with the best records.

For example in Germany, which is a really fertile country for youth players, I go to one the of the teams e.g. Bayern, click on their youth team and then click through to the page where I can view the Detailed Player stats. This gives the age of the players. I then try and sign the players with the most goals, assists, clean sheets etc.

I got carried away doing this and ended up signing too many youth team players!

I am now going to limit myself to the three each season so I can properly develop them.

January 14, 2020

5 minutes ago, rinso said:

yep, been there done that lol if you're asking thew question, then you already have doubts so just bin it and start again n don't waste time on it

Ah yeah but having Cutrone back at Milan and Maldini's kid coming through is just too hard to give up!

I'm going to try and keep the demons at bay and hopefully pull through this one.

January 14, 2020

44 minutes ago, bleventozturk said:

True, and not just the morale coming into the match, but the trend of morale/confidence during the match.

Yes. I've discovered the importance of shouts.

Also after a bad defeat I recommend starting with a defensive formation in the next game, even if you're playing against a weaker team, and then slowly re-introducing an attacking formation during the next match.

It helps take the edge of it.

I had a really bad defeat away to Bologna. Probably the worst I've seen my team play in the game. They absolutely hammered me creating 25 shots or something. I let my players have it after the game and in the next game I was playing relegation threatened Brescia at home. Thinking that my players might be still raw I started with a defensive 451 and then slowly made my team more attacking as the game progressed. I won 2:0. I have no idea if it was because of my approach but a win is a win.

This is something like my 6th attempt at starting a career with Milan all of which have come undone when I got frustrated and re-started games. I've noticed my seasons always come undone in January when my team suddenly stops scoring goals. So this is another reason why I've taken this approach and it's my best January so far.

January 14, 2020

12 minutes ago, rinso said:

It's cheating if it ruins your game... If you are happy with your decisions, then no. You are playing against nobody else, so the only person that can possibly be "cheated" is you

You know that feeling where it eats away at the back of your mind and then in your 4th season in, you say, "Damn it, I need to start again because I cheated that one time."

No?

Ok, it's just me.

January 14, 2020

16 minutes ago, Welshace said:

The answer is the same as every single one of these threads...

It's a single player game so the only person you are cheating is yourself... the question is whether you consider it cheating?

Objectively speaking, i dont see transferring a player to another team like Cutrone as effecting anything other than your own realism ...

The Maldini part, some will consider it dubious because you gave yourself an advantage that isn't allowed under normal play, but again.. who cares? it's your game..

It's more intended as a humorous anecdote than anything.....

I didn't consider it cheating, but then again, I can justify anything to myself....

January 14, 2020

It's my 5th or 6th attempt at starting a career with Milan and.......I've made it to January without one re-start!

But having recently discovered the in-game editor I have cheated.....a little.....so I decided to start a "Is it cheating?" thread.

Like most Milan fans, I was gutted when Cutrone left and now that he has, in real life, returned to Serie A and joined Fiorentina, I figured I was justified in using the in-game editor to transfer Cutrone on the same terms that Fiorentina signed him in real life (same cost and same structure - a loan with option to buy) - is it cheating?

Also Daniel Maldini, Paolo's son who SI has generously made a 5 star prospect, got all shirty with me because I refused to sell him to Arsenal, so I edited out his unhappiness. In my head (which is where we all play the game) I told myself that I had asked dad to intervene - is it cheating?

What cheating dilemmas have others faced?

January 13, 2020

11 hours ago, Tetsuro P12 said:

It has no practical sense too. Just a counterbalancing measure to patch holes. Point is: if the players overdo just make them more tired instead of missing chances, so the manager would not go overly offensive by considering the risk to tire players and end the game with 50% condition. That would be a more fairer measure, like it's actually in reality. In reality most players don't push all the time (actually some can), they slow down from time to time. The 'if you go fast you do wrong' concept is broken at birth. Tell it to Messi or Ronaldo... It should be attribute based.

This is so true.

The issues strengths are never the right strengths and the weaknesses are never the right weaknesses.

For example I set up my opposition instructions to only pressure one CB and I tell my players not to close down the other one or two. I pick the one CB with an obvious weakness e.g. right sided playing on the left, or strength e.g. Bonucci, and then leave the rest so the players can focus on closing down more threatening players.

Anyway the instruction virtually always gets ignored. I see my players closing down the specific players I told them not to, and then the player I did (Bonucci) hits a defence splitting pass. That can happen once, but it would be nice if occasionally I got to see my players doing what they were told.

Similiarly I’ve specifically told my players not to hit long free kicks and they ignore my instruction. I’ve told players to take quick thrown ins and they dither. I now play a direct passing style but before when I told my players to work the ball into the box, they hit long balls over the top for my striker to miss a simple 1v1.

As far as I can gather the only thing that is reflected in my instructions is the formation. For the rest I may as well not be there.

January 13, 2020

1 hour ago, Svenc said:

Because the AI's match Management is different. It doesn't attack 24/7 (and I don't mean the mentality of the same Name). It doesn't even care how many shots it has. It purely cares about the scoreline and adjusts to that. Additionally, if you're generally successful, it will more and more play defensive Football to begin with, which means it can't miss that many chances, hit so many Posts, since focused on defending it won't create as many shots. With fewer shots, there's less opportunity to hit posts, or miss, or disallowed Goals, you get the picture.

Approx. 0.1/10 out of FM Players even toy with such ideas every single release.

Well they’re some of the things that create fun.

I think that’s leading to a lot of complaints. People forgive fun games.

January 13, 2020

5 minutes ago, HUNT3R said:

We do know it's no different to when a human manager is involved as the ME is just there to calculate, not determine which is human or AI. It cannot tell the difference.

Does anyone know why it seems to be mostly my team that has bad luck?

Like I said, it seems mostly my team hitting the post, my team having disallowed goals, my team missing open goals, my keeper getting tackled......

For example my keeper has been tackled twice. I have never tackled the AI computer even though I have set my team to close down the keeper. This is a pretty random, rare event but still surely if such an event exists in the game (twice) then I should get to experience the schadenfreude of the computer keeper being tackled?

I just rarely get to enjoy the computer’s misfortune or even some last minute, unexpected, winning goal from my team. When I win, I do so comfortably, and when I lose, it’s just one big frustrat-a-thon.

January 12, 2020

12 hours ago, Svenc said:

See Maldini's Heir not a shadow of a doubt genuine perception he couldn't score "last Minute Goals". Just as genuine as it is that apparently he cannot beat teams down to ten men. Well, then, here's the Facts: If the AI can, it's becfause their late match switches are better, end of Story. SI have received umpteenth suggestions by their tactical community throughout the years. And the game still is not coded to challenge them exclusively. I don't even engage much there anymore, as what you get to learn there still runs rings around the AI. Get this: Players not engaging too deeply to Keep the game more challenging. Some don't even try (and still generally overperform the AI, oft without realizing…)

I think you misunderstood.

I have consistently outperformed expectations. Obviously there’s always room for improvement but I think I’m doing pretty well.

My issue is that win, lose or draw there’s just constant frustration. It’s mostly my team hitting the post, my team having disallowed goals, my team missing open goals, my keeper getting tackled......

I‘ve moved to a more direct, attack minded formation because I was not scoring enough goals and that has produced some more goals but there’s still so much frustration. I beat Genoa 4:0 but my striker missed numerous 1v1s and 2/4 goals were screamers from outside the box. I’d prefer if the 1v1s had gone in and for less screamers.

The balance is all wrong. And it’s taking the enjoyment away win, lose or draw.

January 12, 2020

5 hours ago, EnigMattic1 said:

I haven't seen a mid season objective negotiation though and I couldn't make any requests when the board approached me to discuss a new contract.

This just about sums up the mentality of this game.

This game is supposed to be about fun and fantasy. You’re pretending to be a football manager.

And then it comes to negotiating a new contract and no dice.

It’s just joyless.

January 11, 2020

On 11/01/2020 at 02:23, tpalan said:

In my tinkering , though I must admit this bug cum flaw almost drove me mad; kept snapping at my missus over the holidays, I had to stop playing for a few days to figure out how to counter this

The combinations that worked for my Barnsley team (predicted to finish 20th, though we are gunning for a UCL place at the moment) are listed below.

What worked

Standard defense line ( this is the most important)

defend narrow

tight marking

Regroup

In addition

More urgent pressing (this hasn't broken my lines in any noticeable way)

Using pressing forward(s) to close down opposition defense instead of counter pressing

Prevent GK short distribution (i use it but i think it is actually in negation to the regroup instruction)

The culprits to avoid till after the next patch

Anything higher than standard for defense line

Counter press

Use offside trap

My Formation : Asymmetric 4-1-4-1

PF(a)

IW (s) AM(s) IW(s)

CM(a)

DLP (d)

WB (s) CD (d) CD (d) WB (s)

I haven’t actually had too many issues with balls over the top from the computer and I think it’s because I‘ve always set up my team the way you suggested with the exception that I do use counter press instead of regroup.

I do acknowledge it’s an issue because my team keep doing balls over the top and my striker keeps missing 1v1s and that’s my main source of frustration.

Generally there doesn’t seem to be enough goals in this game.

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