[*Official* Football Manager 2022 Feedback Thread]

This is not a rant, I love this game. But I don´t like how the ME shows you what´s happening. Even in the most detailed view without actually watching the whole game, it doesn´t really show you why things happen. Most of you have already realized that  almost everytime a new play is shown it starts in the same positions: a free kick, a side kick, a throw, a corner... And I understand it, it´s a perfect moment for the ME to display that "hey, maybe something happens now" and it starts from zero, while it´s difficult to calculate when a replay starts and when it ends. But, what happened in the game to end in that situation? Do you have a throw cause playing more direct makes the rival defense to clear it? Or it doesn´t have anything to do with all your tactical changes? This way you don´t have many tools to know how your tactical changes affect an specific game. In fact, you only know that you changed things for better or worse depending on how many times a team starts one of this situations as the offensive side. 

But what if I click on "be more expressive"? I won´t see any change based on what the game shows me, cause it´s very difficult to appreciate this subtle changes in situational plays like a long throw or a side kick. Last months I have changed completely the way I see the games. I don´t play full game on comprehensive view cause it has this problems, So everytime I make a tactical change I switch to full game view and that´s where I can see what really happens everytime I change a player role, or change a team instruction. And then, when I´m happy with what´s happening  I change it back. But this is tediously long and every year it happens the same for me. I just only can complete a few seasons every year.

Maybe it´s time that SI work on how the ME shows you what´s happening in the game. This year it has improved a lot in terms of telling you (after the game) whats happening in the grass. But it has to improve in telling you ingame. And I think this can be done, cause something that adds a lot of information to the ME is rewinding 10 seconds in most of replays cause suddenly they have a lot of new context that can be interpreted by the manager to analyze the tactical aspect.

[Football Manager 2021 Official Feedback Thread]

This is a subjective opinion but I feel I don´t like how much the ME is changing from the one we saw at the beta. It is starting to feel a bit like FM20 in terms of attacking fluidity and predictability. I´m still on my first season cause i play slow (and didnt play since a few days before full game release until this week) and gameplay has changed a little bit with the same team and same tactic. Now i see a little bit less central play and too many crosses. In fact, I didn´t changed my attack width and with beta ME my right winger positioned himself very narrow to be a goal threat and now with exactly the same tactic and only a few games later (because as I said i was absent for a month) he plays too wide and the only thing he does is try to dribble the left back and cross, with the croos being obviously blocked.

And most goal chances have changed from central plays where my AMC makes a through pass or my inverted left winger makes a far post cross to the winger to just long shots and bad heades in set pieces, thus if why I say it reminds me too much to FM20.

Again I repeat this is a subjective opinion and please dont take it as a rant. I still have lots of fun with this game and keep thinking this is the best ME I have play. My only wish is they left it untouched unless it is mandatory

[What does play through the middle do and when should I use it]

For the 1st question. It means the player will move the ball more in central areas. The players will search for teammates in the central lane as their first passing option. It also affects on how they move in the pitch. But this doesn´t mean there wont be side plays. It´s more about the construction phase of the game. As the players will look to move the ball in this area during the transition between your own half and their half of the field. What happens in the last third of the pitch is affected by many more instructions.

But, as always, the instruction on itself means little. The roles of your players have a lot of influence in your playstile. 

For the type of tactic, the obvious answer is tactics with a lot of presence on central areas like 4231, 433 both wide and narrow, 442 diamond, 4312... But with certain roles you can make this instruction useful even in tactics that seem conflictive like classic 442 or a 424. And with this i mean if you are using roles like inverted full backs (Im spelling wrong this role in english, im sure), wide midfielders...

And lastly, playing through the flanks means exactly what it says. Players will focus to move more (and i say more, not always) the ball through the specific flank you set, and central players will move a little bit their position to these areas (try setting only one flank and then look at heat maps and average player positions).

[Op Instructions: marking vs. pressing]

hace 3 horas, Egecann dijo:

This year i tend to use OI's they are very effective. There are logical things like press always to player whose composure is low. Hard tackling to low bravery players. Force weak foot if they have lower than reasonable weak foot.There is also more advanced ones like if they are building from the back man mark the BPD or more technical cb so poor one tries to build. If you're forcing the opponent  outside, mark all the central players and heavy pressure on fb's and wingers. For very pacey players you do nothing but pray

This is why i wanted to create this topic. Great insight you gave me there, never thought of pressing players with low composure.

[Do you want the full release to be harder than the beta?]

I'm happy with this if it's done by increasing the aggressiveness of AI Coaches as I'm finding them too cautious and passive. I would be pissed off if they do it by unnecessary ME tweaks or by changing the effectiveness. Everybody will be angry if "suddenly" they see they score half the goals with the same xG 

[Possession literally means nothing 😎]

Wrong. Possession means a lot. What you do with it it's what matters in the result. Besides of that, most of the teams who won you average 44% of possession. So you didn't even dominate them. And seeing xG and the amount of shots it seems that you were using possession as a defensive strategy and they were using it forward. 

[Op Instructions: marking vs. pressing]

Hey guys. In recent years ive felt a little stalled in the game so i have increased the amount of responsability i take as a virtual manager. One of those things is setting by myself the opposition instructions. Something that it´s almost a must do when yo manage in lower leagues where the assman doesn´t set any instructions because "he doesn´t feel tactically comfortable" or whatever it says. So i started by studying the op report with the expected formation and the roles the players will have and begin a journey of trial and error based on logical reasonings like thight marking for target man, forcing weak foot for wingers, etc. But in last years edition i felt a bit frustrating doing this because of the way your players obeyed your instructions and mainly the absolute disaster of aerial duels (1,7m wingers beating their duel against defenders with much better physical+heading attributes but far worse in overall).

Anyways, in this year´s beta i feel that players follow a lot better your instructions so I´m back on setting the instructions but the trial and error always leave me to subjective conclusions based on the result of the game (which it´s a good process but its noisy). So i want to know which are your general procedures in setting the op instructions. Do you focus your pressing on their best players to not let them intervene in the game? Do you set the pressure on their worst players to force more mistakes which you can take advantage of? Is it better pressing or marking?

My general procedure also depends of the lines. Strikers: close marking for very offensive players which don´t intervene in the game a lot like poachers or AF. Don´t do it for strikers who drop deep to not fall on their trap. Setting more pressing on AF, CF and PF. And strong tackles on creative roles. For AMC always close marking as they can be pretty dangerous if you leave them space to make a through ball.

Wide players: Close marking for Inside Forwards and more pressure on bad wingers. For top quality ones, just force weaker foot.

Midfield: i always search for their best creative player and set the instruction depending on quality. If he´s a mezzala or an AP, more pressing and strong tackles. For DLP close marking as theyre the main hub of passing and letting them receive the ball comfortably always ends in you struggling to have better % of possesion. Dont press them because they are technically able to bypass the pressure. Stronger tackles until their marker has yellow card.

Full backs: only press them if they have attacking duties.

That´s generally my main strategy but as always it changes through the game. Overall this year I´m finding this steps very succesfull as I´m wining without conceding barely any chances, but there´s always the feeling that you could do way better and things like this are not making you better, rather stopping you. Let me know what´s your strategy and if you have at hand interesting articles, videos or guides.

[How many leagues do you load? Playable? View only?]

Spain-all playable leagues loaded

England- Till League 2

France,Germany,Portugal, Italy, Belgium- first 2 divisions 

Poland, Netherlands, Denmark, Argentina, México, Russia- first division

Rest of South American first divisions- view only 

And then, depending of the save, i add one or 2 leagues out of this common database, like Austria, Ukraine, Switzerland, Serbia, Sweden... 

All this in medium size

[[Spain] Data Issues]

Hi again mates. I´m coming with useful information about my local team which is wrong ingame. Sorry to be such tiresome zoiberg.

CULTURAL Y DEPORTIVA LEONESA-Segunda B group 1-subgroupB

Eric Montes: The game shows him as a 1,93m centre-back. The correct info is that he´s a 1,77m DMC/CM with a role of ball wining midfielder/box to box. He has played regularly in that position for the last 2 seasons, the CB/RB positions are also correct. (https://www.transfermarkt.es/eric-montes/profil/spieler/293383)

Dioni: His contract info is wrong. It shows his contract expires in 2021 but he renewed a few months ago until 2022 (https://www.leonoticias.com/deportes/cultural/culebron-dioni-queda-20201004112435-nt.html)

Roberto Fernandez: He´s not out on loan to Bolivar, he signed for them. https://www.transfermarkt.es/roberto-fernandez/profil/spieler/598101

Alex Escardo: game shows him on loan from AD Alcorcon and, although he was heavily linked to the club, that signing never happened. He´s now at the B team of Alcorcon https://www.transfermarkt.es/alejandro-escardo/profil/spieler/464899

Pipo: Game shows him as on loan from Santa Eulalia, that´s wrong. He´s on loan from AD Alcorcón. Also, i heavily suggest a big review on his attributes as he was one of the best in his position last season. The fact that a team from second division signed him is a sign of that. Also, his height is completely wrong haha game says he´s 1,94m and i can´t find an official height for him but i swear that´s completely wrong as he is one of the smallest, if not the smallest, of the team. https://www.transfermarkt.es/pipo/profil/spieler/577876

Andy Kawaya: Game shows him as only a AML, and I can swear he plays more as AMR with a role of inversed winger. Don´t worry if you don´t change this, as all the oficial webpages like transfermarkt or sofascore show him as only a winger in left side. My only witness are my own eyes when i see him in that position live on the stadium.

Out of market signings: with the market closed,the CM Antonio Martinez left the club to a yet unknown arab team (https://www.cydleonesa.com/noticia/la-cultural-y-deportiva-leonesa-y-antonio-martinez-acuerdan-poner-fin-a-su-vinculacion) and instead the club signed the free agent RB Toni Abad (https://www.cydleonesa.com/noticia/la-cultural-y-deportiva-leonesa-incorpora-a-toni-abad)

The former Stoke CIty u23 Soiyir Sanali joined the Youth Team https://www.leonoticias.com/deportes/cultural/sanali-refuerza-ataque-20201021171913-nt.html

 

 

[[Spain] Data Issues]

A lot of teams don´t have some information about them correctly updated. Salamanca CF UDS reached 5700 season ticket holders last season (https://salamancacfuds.es/el-salamanca-uds-supera-la-cifra-de-3-000-abonados-en-menos-de-un-mes-desdse-que-se-lanzo-la-campana-2019-20-y-es-que-esta-temporada-jugamos-todos/#:~:text=De los 3.000 abonados%2C un total de 295 son altas nuevas.) but based on the game they are still on aprox 100 since FM19. 

This season they have at least 1000 season holders according to official sources (https://www.lagacetadesalamanca.es/deportes/futbol-local/el-salamanca-llega-a-los-1000-abonados-y-el-unionistas-supera-los-500-socios-KI4129628)

Same goes for Unionistas, who in this season they goo minimum 1000 season holders (https://www.salamanca24horas.com/texto-diario/mostrar/2067869/unionistas-supera-1000-socios) and past seasons they got more than 2k, something never reflected ingame.

Another issue about this teams which i want to appoint is the fierce rivalry they got between themselves (https://www.elespanol.com/deportes/futbol/20181124/salamanca-batalla-unionistas-salmantino-memoria-historica-uds/355714917_0.html) (https://as.com/futbol/2019/10/31/mas_futbol/1572477811_436010.html). Something that should be included ingame to give more spicy in these games. 

Unionistas changed their stadium, which you succesfully reflected, great news. But it´s a dissapointment that their fans number are not correct cause you see their stadiums empty and managing them is very difficult because the economic problems of no tickets income.

 

I´ll search more unupdated teams in the category.

[xG "disappointment"]

So, I think xG it´s a great new feature. It adds a lot of depth to the game and it´s a fantastic stat to measure your performance during a game. But as I said in the title, I am a bit disappointed cause I´m missing a lot of things related to xG that actually makes it such an useful tool for analysing the game and scout for players. OK, i can see in the league players stats the players with the most expected goals. But why can´t I see this stat individually on players (rather from my team or others)? Why can´t I see a ratio of goals scored/expected goals. Or why can´t i set a filter with xG when scouting players. 

The same goes with team stats, where I can see expected goals from teams, which it´s useful but not as useful as expected points. With this I´m surprised because I´m pretty sure i saw a tweet from OOCFM with an screenshot with xP. 

This is a great feature for this game but at this point, it´s at 60/70% of its potential. 

[End of season slump, every year]

hace 9 horas, epicrecruit dijo:

Should I do this even if they're in good condition before the start of every match (at least 92% condition), and even if I don't get messages about a player being jaded and needing rest?

Yes, you should. Condition and exhaustion are 2 diferent concepts. The second one has a hiden value (although your physios may point it out if it reaches an extreme value). Even the game tells this to us in some of the onscreen tips. As someone above said, rotate and lower the intensity of training on those last months of competition. I know it sounds appealing to do a full 3 sessions 6 days of training after you lose a game you shouldn´t do. But at the end of the season this only make it worse.

[What's your Beta Save going to be??]

My save will be with any team from spanish third tier. I want to see if devs implemented the absolute chaos in that category for this and next season.

[Why am I always so unrealistically successful with my strategy?]

hace 1 hora, Mars_Blackmon dijo:

It is when the tactic he’s using is what he prefer to play. Why play a conservative defensive tactic when you enjoy attacking football? Especially if your team is best suited to play as such? 
 

the fact is pressing is OP in the game and needs to be toned down for FM21.

Theres a lot of diferent variations of ofensive playstiles. Gegenpress IRL is the most complex of them and requires a type of players and a preparation that is incredibly dificult to find. But in FM you can be succesfull playing gegenpress with a team clearly not capable of playing it 90´2 games a week. 

[Why am I always so unrealistically successful with my strategy?]

hace 6 horas, Citroghost dijo:

I tried others but those weren't so successful. And why would I want to make my team worse intentionally? Of course I will use the strategy that works best for my team. That is not a challenge if I do something different to perform worse. The challenge for me is that I do my best and it is still a challenge.

Let me doubt you are using the strategy that works best for your team, and let me think you are using it cause it´s the "most OP" in the game. You started this thread because you are winning so easily and you ask us for a challenge. Well, there´s our challenge. Beat the game using a different playstyle. Here´s a few more for you: start on a lower league with less financial support like the spanish 2d and 3d tier, or the italian ones (so you can´t easily sign the greatest and well known wonderkids and you have to scout for other options). Let your DoF sign players for the team in an attempt to make it more realistic (although you can ask him to sign specifically the players you desire the most and get excited if he manages to sign them). Get a "secretario técnico" (i don´t know the english name right now im sorry) and let him sign the staff for the club. Sign players realistically, and with this i mean: don´t sign 20 players per season with the idea of selling 18 of them for profit. Start a new save as a manager with no reputation or coaching badges and make yourself valuable in a world who´s just shouting that you don´t know anything about football and nobody respects you. 

There´s a lot of ways of making this game more difficult, more realistic, closer to roleplaying, more original... It´s you the people who always play the same comfortable way. And there´s nothing wrong about it, but don´t brag about it. 

[Which teams are you looking forward to playing as on FM21?]

RC Deportivo La Coruña, Espanyol or Villarreal

[Will new leagues be added to Fm21?]

2 hours ago, Junkhead said:

African leagues for me.

I´m on this boat. Northern African leagues would be great not only for managing, also to load them and having more regens from them.

[Does anyone know why there are so many regens with a certain name?]

I imagine they have a big data base of names classified by nationalities. Regens have one first name, sometimes a second name and then only one surname. This leads to a repetitive and unoriginal (due to lack of nicknames) combination of names for regens. It's very difficult to have the variety of real life names. 

[This only happens in FM]

6 hours ago, Marcusme1981 said:

You are not taking a small thing into consideration, they hate Atletico Madrid as much as Barcelona. It's not as they are playing Betis or Osasuna.

 

 

Not really. Real Madrid fans see Atlético in a condescending way. On the opposite, Atlético fans really see RM as their eternal rival 

[This might have just ruined my save!]

It's as fun as frustrating. I want to see this things happen "more" frequently. As SD says, things similar to this one happen in modern football. 

[This only happens in FM]

1 hour ago, anagain said:

How far behind were Real? Their last game was versus Atletico. Were they pushing to get second? I doubt they're going to throw away a game against their city neighbours. I don't think Liverpool would throw away a game against City of it meant United won the title. They'd want to win anyway.

10 points behind them with the third position secured. It was a meaningless game for them (as meaningless as a derby can be).

[This only happens in FM]

It's the scenario what surprises me. I don't see Liverpool giving away the league for Manchester United, or AS Saint Etienne to OL (or whatever biggest rivalry in a country or a region). Any Spanish fan will understand me. But this is getting to a nonsense point, and my intentions were you to tell what have you seen in the game that would never happen IRL. 

[This only happens in FM]

Real Madrid winning Atlético on purpose to give away the title to FC Barcelona? You don´t seem to be very aware of spanish football.

[This only happens in FM]

I want to show you something that happened in my current FM save which i found hilarious and bizarre. As many of you know, Atlético de Madrid are very solid in this game. In my save they won the first 2 leagues undisputed..and they were on their trail to win it for the third consecutive time. This time was a bit more contested in the second half of the season. And then, this happened:

Real Madrid giving away the league to Barcelona. This is the kind of things that only happens here. So, by the way, I invite you to tell some bizarre stories you have seen in this game which would never happen in real life.

 

[[FM20] - Unofficially Official Spanish Football Thread]

Will FM 21 include the absolute caos in the spanish third tier and beyond for next season? For those who don´t know what i´m talking about, with the coronavirus crisis, the federation made a decision for the segunda B: no relegations and more promotions than ever, rising the teams to 102. The next season will be a temporary one, with the creation (in 2021/2022) of a new division called "Segunda B Pro" in an attempt to emulate leagues like Sky Bet League 1 or Bundesliga 3. The promotion will be incredibly difficult to be coded in a game like this.