makavali

Decided to give this game another go after finding it broken and most importantly INCREDIBLY easy. Picked a weak team in Latvia (FS Metta, predicted to finish 6th, finished 9th out of 10 in real life) and decided to listen to people who say I need to place restrictions on myself to enjoy the game. So, I started with no badges and decided to use only Latvians who are less than 20 years old. Additionally, I decided not to spend any money on transfers, so I spent 3~ hours revamping my team using only Amateur contracts, loans, and free transfers. 10 games in, I'm 3rd in the league, undefeated, and beat Riga away who has a yearly budget of 16mil in real life. Uninstalled.

No changes to the match engine. I'm speechless. This whole FM24 thing together with the disgusting lack of communication is so bad you can't believe it's real. What a truly sad day.

No, I simply want the difficulty of FM23 to return. My issue is not that the game is easy, my issue is that this game is way easier than the previous ones.

I just hate how easy this game becomes at some points. Accepted Real Madrid's offer in my somewhat of a journeyman save and it's just stupidly easy. Before I start getting the default replies - I'm using a medium-intensity tactic which I've created myself and I'm doing everything I can to not make my experience so dull. Yes, I know that I'm incredibly good at the game and it's my own fault for using Real Madrid. Yes, I know that you need to pick a team in the 33rd Scottish tier, play without attributes, watch full matches, drink an onion smoothie every morning before I load up the game, etc etc blablabla to make this game enjoyable for an experienced player. Even then, it's just stupid how easy you can dominate. It's stupid how often you see huge scorelines. It's stupid how often you see an early goal (before the 3rd min). It literally feels unplayable. Luckily, games on the road against strong teams are still tricky, but it just shows that there's no balance at all. Just look at my results once I got into gear. I don't care if you have MSN on steroids or a front three of Mbappe, prime R9 and Pep's era Messi, you don't win every game away in La Liga with a margin of 2-4 goals. It's just not possible. As a cherry on top of the cake, in this save, I won the treble (league, cup, conference) in my 3rd season with Cercle friggin Brugge. Make it make sense. Also, the more you play, the more you notice how bad the match engine is. You see like 5-7 of the same goals on repeat bar the odd banger or a MessiAgainstGetafe-esque solo run by your winger which, sadly, happens way too often. I mean it's still better than the stupid 5-5 goal fest we had with the 'great' match engine, but it's just so bleh. So, so, so disappointed in this year's game and I've never been disappointed before.

I did an identical save in Latvia this year and last year. The one I did last year is still my favorite save of all time, but this year I abandoned it. Never noticed LLM difficulty being an issue until FM24

Lower league management is stupidly easy this year. I found the Latvian League so easy I almost uninstalled the game. Doing a save in the big leagues now and it's way better in terms of difficulty. I hope it will be somehow addressed, as it's impossible to do a half-enjoyable save outside of the top 7 European leagues. Anyone who's denying it or is trying to find some kind of a logical explanation for the success is delusional

Has anyone actually seen a staff member who's progressing in terms of attributes? I'm pretty sure it was promised as a feature for this year's game. Am I dreaming? I'm in 2030 currently and I can't recall seeing any arrows. Just went through my whole staff (40 members in total) out of curiosity and I didn't see a single one.

Regarding overturned pens, here's one I just got : https://imgur.com/a/GTt8Mxg It's interesting that I see them quite often while nobody else does

Am I dreaming or the 'Give Injection' option has disappeared? I don't recall seeing one and I just noticed it as I'm in an injury crisis lol. Is there a way to do it? I can't seem to find anything regarding them

I see a lot of overturned pens clearly in the box as well. More than the ones where a foul happens on the line. The animations of course are not great and you can't really tell by the replay, but it's nice to have the overturns Maybe I'm just lucky.

I see a ton of overturned pens. I'd say 70% of VAR checks are given, the rest come up as 'No Penalty', which is great and wasn't the case in the previous games. There's actually some suspense when waiting for the outcome. However, the offside VAR checks are still stupid. If the flag is up, the goal won't be given 100% of the time.

I feel like there's a lack of interest from bigger teams for your players. For example, I'm managing Cercle Brugge in Belgium and my best player is Alan Minda, who's a 22-year-old Ecuadorian who has produced 20+ G/A in 3 back-to-back seasons in the Jupiler Pro League. He's valued at 18-24mil and I've had interest from a club playing in a better league once in these 3 years. It was from Bochum. In real life, if there was a 22-year-old that has a value of less than 30mil with such output in the Belgian league and UCL, he would be picked up immediately. Besides Minda being great, I've also won the league and got out of the league stage in the UCL. I get no transfer offers or interest for my players at all. I don't remember noticing such a thing in the previous versions. I wonder if there's an explanation.

After finding lower league management too easy, started a save in Belgium with Cercle Brugge intending to dethrone Club Brugge. Finished 10th in the first season, but almost fluked a European spot through the playoffs. The second season done, I've won the league. However, it was a struggle and I got insanely lucky numerous times. I had bad results, and a lot of tough patches that required a lot of micromanaging and I'm truly enjoying the save, but I'm starting to think that morale being waaaaay too strong is the reason why the game feels easier than before. Once you get on a tiny good run, it takes a couple of training praises and one correct click in the team meeting, and boom you're almost maxed out in the dressing room atmosphere. Pair that with good cohesion and you can steamroll the league. Also, I've noticed that the better the dynamics, the more close, stingy results will fall your way. Granted, I have a couple of truly good players with a strong leader on top of them. I guess it's realistic as the chemistry and morale are probably the most important things in football irl, but it needs to be toned down. It builds up way too fast. I assume that's also the reason why it's so easy to dominate in Eastern European and other small leagues. The balance between teams and AI is so bad that paired with your team's incredible dynamics you just become unstoppable.

Yeah, I'm aware that the balance between teams in Latvia is not great, but my biggest issue is that I did an identical save last year and it was way, way more challenging. Also, I think there's a huge balance issue between lower European league teams, as some good clubs are woeful in the game. For example, Qarabag is a proper team irl that's currently playing in the Europa League, but they're absolutely useless in the game. The games between two random European champions are a coin-flip although there are basically no upsets in European qualification in reality. Last year, I had to splash all my money to convince somewhat decent foreign players to join so I could qualify for European group stages. Now, I can do it with 17-year-olds without breaking a sweat. Also, I'm not even pressing. My tactics are very simple, slow-tempo, and pragmatic.

Could you please elaborate on the game being more difficult? I'd like to hear what team/save/tactic you're currently doing that makes you think so. Just curious, as I struggle to play due to the amount of success I get.

It's 2026 and I've easily qualified for the Champions League with RFS which consists of 80% terrible Latvian players. I've spent ~2.2mil EUR in these 4 years. Most of these funds went on poaching young talent from my rivals. My best player is valued at 550k. My starting goalkeeper is a 19-year-old with 9 one on ones and 10 positioning. I've lost 5 league games in total during these 4 seasons while playing 17-year-olds. You can't convince me that the game is fine difficulty-wise. It's absolute shambles.

I've been playing religiously since FM17 and I've adored every version. My complaints were always minor and they did not affect my ability to immerse myself in a save. This year, at the beginning of January, I'm tired of the game already and I've decided to not play until the next patch at least. Considering the issues I have with this year's version, I doubt that I will return even after it has been patched. I'm not angry, annoyed or disappointed. I'm simply sad because I love this game so, SO much. Football Manager 2024 feels weird, broken, and plastic. The game plays like a bootleg version you would get from AliExpress. It's stupidly easy, predictable, and dull. The AI has never been dumber. I'm truly baffled and I can't understand how in the world SI managed to make this happen. Taking into consideration how good FM23 was after the last patch, it feels like they had to manually make the game worse, as, otherwise, I just can't wrap my head around such a drastic difference. FM24 does not feel like FM anymore.

I've noticed that something is not right with early European qualification scorelines and the overall balance between the teams. Sheriff Tiraspol, Astana, Sligo Rovers, and HJK's results are absolutely bonkers and completely impossible in real life. It's happening at each stage and in each European competition.

Another half a season done (2025) and I'm certain the game is too easy. Won every game domestically while scoring 59 and conceding 8. I'm playing 18-year-olds most of the time and rotate a lot. My best player's value has a value of a million at best, yet I'm two ice ages ahead of my rivals. An honorable mention goes to last season, when I got to the Europa League play-off round with a squad made up of Latvian players where I lost the tie to Braga in the closing minutes. During the league stage, I drew to Monaco away and beat Freiburg at home. Bleh.

Spot on.

That's a good point, but FM is a simulator, and managing a football team in real life is a very hard task. It's literally defined as a simulation game, meaning, it should resemble real life as precisely as possible and that should ensure that winning UCL in the second season with Partizan Belgrade (!) would basically be an impossible feat. If a person is not ready or capable of indulging in such an experience, they should choose another game instead of SI making this simulator easy and newbie-friendly. There's FIFA, FM Touch, eFootball, and other manager-type football games that are not as in-depth as FM. For comparison, Microsoft Flight Simulator is probably the hardest game out there and it's a part of it. You don't see Euro Truck Simulator removing traffic laws or adding autopilot to accommodate new players. The game should be difficult just like managing a successful football club in real life and if there's a beginner who wants the football management experience, they should choose easier options (a different game or picking a strong team) instead of franchise fans making the game harder for themselves. In case they truly need to make the game easier, there should be a choice between an 'arcade' or 'real FM' mode. I'm aware that I'm ridiculously good at the game, but as I mentioned in one of my previous posts, the game is notably way easier than before. I was just as good last year, but I had to work, plan, and fight for my accolades. There are so many reports of absolutely bonkers achievements during the first seasons which should be an indication that something is not right, even if they're purposely making the game easier for newcomers.

Nobody is whining, there's an obvious issue that wasn't present in the previous games. Of course, you were able to dominate after a couple of seasons if you've done brilliantly, but winning the QUINTUPLE (5) with Brighton in the second season is and should be impossible unless they've used the in-game editor to get Mbappe, Haaland, Bellingham, etc. Sure, you can fluke out a cup/league win, but this is absolute shambles. I've seen the 'you've made your doubters eat their words' team talk more times in these past 2 months than in the previous 5 years I've played together. We should not be making the game harder for ourselves to get a gram of feeling of accomplishment. There's a clear issue with difficulty and nobody is asking for a 'hardcore' mode, we simply need it to be realistic.

Saw this on Reddit today. Second season, managing Brighton, and the guy wins the QUINTUPLE. I don't care if they used an overpowered tactic or bought every OP wonderkid, it should not be possible. Not sure whether we should cry or laugh. Also, I noticed above that someone said that there are a lot of goals being scored at the very beginning of a match and I've noticed as well. If you're a strong favorite, you will be up 2-0 within the first 20 minutes, killing any kind of potential drama. It's so easy and so predictable that I've completely stopped playing the game. I truly truly truly hope that the difficulty question will be looked into within the next patch.

Two seasons in, I agree that this game feels way easier than previous years. Granted, I'm playing in Latvia with a team that's predicted to finish 2nd, but I'm absolutely steamrolling the league, won the cup using my U18s, and qualified for Conference in the first season, almost reaching the knockouts in a tough group. I constantly beat every other title contender away from home with a margin of 3-4 goals. If it's a relegation candidate, I must drop down to the lowest possible tempo and passing, otherwise, I'll put 9 past them. My tactics are pragmatic, simple control possession, low tempo with an average amount of pressing without getting stuck in. I've spent almost 0, as I'm building a full Latvian team and I'm constantly playing woeful 17-year-olds. In the first season, I beat Lille at home and it wasn't a fluke. I'm aware that I might be good at the game. However, the problem is that I did an identical save last year and it was way, way trickier than now. I was able to scrape titles and European group stage entries, but as soon as I got rid of all of the foreign players, I was not able to qualify at all and each season was a tight title race. Yes, I become better each year, but the issue is clear and obvious. The story about Partizan above is absolute shambles. Not to add that my rivals are braindead. For example, the third-best team in the league playing a 17-year-old GK (no injuries, they simply did not sign anyone although their main keeper left for free) with all stats below 10 and the richest team in the country signing free agents on amateur contracts that have been unemployed for the past 2 seasons. Each year some nuances need to be addressed and no FM is perfect, but something feels really off with this year's game. Plus, the goalscoring and set pieces are still ridiculous. EDIT - Right after posting this, absolutely demolished Qarabag in the UCL quals and scored 5 goals in the first 20 minutes. With a team full of Latvians. Realistically, we should've been slapped, but I dominated for 180 minutes and finished 8-2 on aggregate. I think the fact that I was given the 'you made your doubters eat their words' team talk after such demolition, is a sign that something is not right with the general difficulty of the game. My fun and immersion are killed and it truly makes me not want to play. I don't understand what happened

Interestingly, I'm getting tons. I like it though, as I've always felt like there were too few of them previously. In real life, there's a pen/var check in every match lol