The About Average Jake

Open up one of the menu's and you should be able to drag recovery defenders above creators.

For anyone that is interested.

I 100% agree with you. I actually mentioned this in a review I did on YouTube. You might find Lamptey is better as a recovery defender, so try prioritising that above creators.

Fun is being sacrificed for realism. I appreciate the balance is difficult to achieve but at the end of the day it's supposed to be a video game.

I've found this happens by default if you or the A.I is on very attacking mentality

Bayern just sold kimmich for 119m in one of my saves to a Saudi team at 29! I was annoyed because I was going to make an approach. I think his salary is around 3.5m per week. Bayern are yet to replace him.

Completely agree. I would say at least 75% of A.I teams use the IFB. The other 25% line up as a 3-5-2.

Haven't played for a couple of days. Logged back in after the update and this is my form. Something isn't right. I have the same issue as you. My team has forgotten how to defend and takes 4 or 5 chances to score 1 goal.

Earliest save file I have is 15th June, so I don't think it'll be possible unless there's a way to recover an earlier point in the game files that I'm unaware of. I'd bet if you tried to recreate at your office you'd have similar results. Select Man City and holiday until the youth intake. Hopefully you'll get some 4/5 star potential youngsters and you'll probably encounter the same issue. It was present in FM 23 and 22. EDIT: I have actually uploaded the file for another contract issue with 1st team players - Jake Stanley - Man City - Beta (v03).fm I can't remember the dates but if you can find it in your archives then you might be able to use that to re-create the issue. I think its Feb/March time so really close to youth intake day.

I agree. A beta is something that should happen a month or two before release and be by invitation. This will allow time for the creases to be ironed out. 2 weeks before launch is just asking for trouble..

I mentioned this on the bugs forum during early access, someone from S.I got back to me and basically said its down to match tactics (Gegenpress) and training but I refuse to accept that as the sole reason as these men are pro athletes plus I wasn't at the time using gegenpress. I understand that as the season goes on rotation is important, but half my first team were "jaded" by October! I had to send KDB, B.Silva, Haaland, Dias, Stones and Rodri on holiday 3 times during the season (at separate times to avoid losing all my players at once). The amount of football they missed during that time was ridiculous and had a massive impact on the season, I think I'd have been better off just playing them.

Not in FM24. Not yet anyway, but I've had it happen a lot in previous FM's. I never really figured out why.

If I'm trying to defend a narrow lead, then I've found the 4-3-3 DM with the retain possession instructions tend to help. Trap outside/regroup/hold shape/shorter passing

Yeah, I use one along side a RPM. Both get 7 plus ratings.

Ha! And in my save he was out for a month. He missed both legs of the champions league semi final VS Real Madrid and I had Ederson out for 4 months because "GK injuries" but still somehow manged to beat them and then narrowly beat Bayern Munich in the final. To be fair 37 in 37 isn't to far off what he got in my first season either. I hope the following 2 seasons aren't foreshadowing what's yet to come for me....

I feel your pain brother

Just finished my first season with City, Haaland scored 46 in all competitions, but would miss loads in big games when I needed a goal and he would score loads (brace or hattrick) in games that were already won, so yeah I agree with you to a certain extent.

To be fair. I won the Champions League in my 1st season with City, but came runner up to United in the league. I think United are just OP again this year.

Do you have a link? Thx

Just finished my 1st season with City. Some things I've noticed: 1) Wingers or wide players still go for goal regardless of how tight the angles are, rather than square the ball for a tap in. 2) Floated crosses are in general ineffectual, due to the attackers preferring to head the ball towards goal resulting in an easy take for the keeper. I'd prefer to see my striker head the ball down for a on rushing attacking midfielder to blast into the net or an player in a better attacking position, but this never happens. 3) Players are too sensitive and interactions in my opinion haven't been massively improved. I praised Josko Gvardiol for his recent form and he actually fell out with me! This happens a lot actually and doesn't make any sense, everyone appreciates praise. 4) Media still ask irrelevant questions in press conferences and comment on how a player is playing in a new role/position when they've been doing it all season and are natural in that position. 4) Contract demands are out of control, especially for high potential youth players. I've actually got a 15 year old demanding 30k a week. I mean C'mon be real here. IRL Rico Lewis went from 5k to 25k after a season in the 1st team so I expect new gens to be on similar money until they've shown some real potential and featured in the 1st team. 5) As above, but 1st team players demanding double salary. Ederson 300k, Rodri 300k, B.Silva 450K per week!!! 6) As expected Man United are OP, nothing new there though, they have been for years.... not salty or anything :) 7) Average to good player valuations seem excessive. Joelinton for example was valued at 150m. 8) Player fatigue in my opinion needs toning down, not by much but it is a little harsh to have half my team "jaded" by October. Keeper injures are an issue for me too. Ederson damaged his knee in Feb and was out for the rest of the season. This, annoyingly was after he signed his new 300k per week contract. I appreciate this post is quite negative, but I have enjoyed my time with the game and despite the games best efforts to make me cry after breaking Ederson, I did manged to retain the Champions League with Ortega in goal, so yeah, that was nice. So far so good. Onto the next challenge...

Unfortunately, I can't provide the file you need as I'm too far into the future. Best I can do Is Feb 2024. Sorry.

This has been in the game for many years now, For me, It's usually teams like Man City that spend big then don't use the players. It looks like It's Arsenal for you though.