NineCloudNine

I have never had this problem.

I’ve done this and tbh I haven’t noticed an obvious difference. Clubs recruit primarily on current reputation and do so from the pool of players available in the save, which is in turn dictated by what leagues are active. Limiting active leagues to those countries you want clubs to recruit from is by far the most effective way to constrain transfer activity to certain countries/nationalities.

Bumping this reply since it seems some people didn’t read it 👍🏻

Getting around 20% of the players you want would make you a very good DoF in real life. I suspect only the very biggest clubs exceed that.

Louis Van Gaal has had three spells in charge of Netherlands, over a span of 20 years.

I simulate what happens in real life. Shake up your staff, change tactics, refresh the squad. Or accept that the previous success was an over-performance and you have regressed to the mean, in which case look at what you need to change to take a step up. You may well be holding on to players who aren’t quite good enough, or have become too comfortable with a tactic.

There are loads of threads on this with tips on how to avoid / manage it. If you get the ‘needs a rest’ icon then you’ve already messed up. You should be rotating, resting & managing training better. It’s not easy, but it shouldn’t be - managing squad fitness and playing time happiness is an absolutely core part of the manager’s job.

Q1: I always assumed they do the same thing, but PAs do it for your team & opposition and RAs do it for scouting. I am not aware of any advantage or difference from allocating both a PA and a RA to a scout assigment. I would be very surprised if the scouting module is nuanced enough for that to make any difference. Q2: I think this is because he is handling / providing the reports.

Just adding to this...teams will adjust over time as transfers happen and squads are refreshed naturally. AI clubs are aware of registration restrictions when buying players. What does not happen is the AI actively adjusting their current squad to reflect the new rules. They will just leave foreign players out of squads until they get grumpy and demand to leave, which can take a long time at high reputation clubs. Another complication is that non-English players at Premier League clubs who had 'settled status' in FM23 have been given English nationality in FM24. Nationality rules in other countries (notably Portugal and Spain) can also undermine the intention of the restrictions.

Background: my star young players were not being selected for their age-group continental and world championships because they were part of the squad for the age group above. So I have edited the selection rules for U21 and U19 international competitions to prevent players from younger age groups being selected. That works fine. However, non-competition matches are still being scheduled and because they do not have the selection restrictions I have added to the proper competitions, they still select younger players, who then are not available for the proper competitions of their actual age group. I have deleted the offending competitions: 'U21 International', 'U20 International' and 'U19 International'. But they still appear in the game. Nor have I been able to edit them in the same way as I did the proper competitions (adding a nation, going to advaned rules, exporting XML etc) because even when I add a nation, they do not appear in the list of that nation's competitions when I go to advanced rules. So I'm stumped. I hope that long explanation was clear! tl;dr How do I remove those non=competition matches from my game? Thank you!

Thank you. The XML edit worked .

This feels like a question that's been asked a dozen times so please forgive me ... I did search but did not find an answer. I have made some changes to European U21 and U19 championships. No problem. But there's no way to verify because the Test Rules button says 'No division levels found to test'. The method I used was to add a nation to the championships, add that nation's rules, switch to advanced rules, remove the nation's leagues from the list then remove the nation from the championships. What have I missed? Many thanks for your help.

Just as an off-topic aside, this (1-2 questions per press conference) is easily done in the pre-game editor. Takes less than a minute per competition.

You didn’t specify a fee. Just move him back again for £0 then move him again correctly making sure to put the fee in the right box.

Davincid confirmed that the problem was with an old version of the file that I was using. I updated the file and it works fine now. My understanding is that the Copa Federacion is for lower division teams who did not qualify for the Copa Del Rey, which is how it is implemented in FM.

You’re nuts. It’s brilliant! I’ve said for years that FM is one of the best RPGs available and playing out scenarios and characters like you describe here is a lot of fun.

Just on this point - I said I had never had the problem the OP describes, ie a playing time strop from resting a star player before a big game, or just to maintain their condition. Nor have I ever had to play a star or important player in poor condition for fear of them stropping. I have, of course, had players complain about playing time - when I played them less than I promised. I don’t disagree that the player interaction modules are twitchy and often infuriating. They lack nuance and discussion options, escalate too fast and can be hilariously weird (eg I just had a player react well to a press question in which I had just said I wasn’t worried about squad harmony as a result of refusing him a new contract ). However, I do think that keeping players happy with playing time while managing squad condition for big games SHOULD be hard. It’s a core part of the manager’s job. And there are tools to handle it, not least the advice elsewhere in this thread to be very careful about offering playing time above regular starter.

I’m interested in the idea that older players have more / more serious / longer injuries. Intuitively that makes sense, but on the other hand truly injury-prone players might have been forced out of the game at a younger age. This feels like something that must have been researched by someone. I do find that mods increasing injuries make for a more enjoyable game. It forces rotation, tactical flexibilty, chances for young players. Also reduces the potency of gegenpress (too many injuries) and alleviates some of the challenges of rotation and fatigue.

Clearly scripted.

I’m not sure if this counts as an exploit tactic or Guardiola-level genius! Possibly both!

It was an old file. Thank you .

The Performance Improvements file is having a weird effect: it causes top division teams to be included in the Spanish Federation Cup. This is a Cup for lower-division teams not in the Copa Del Rey. I think what is happening is that the draw for the Federation Cup is happening before the draw for the Copa Del Rey, so at that moment no teams are “in” the Copa Del Rey so the exclusion clause in the Federation Cup settings doesn’t work. I have no idea why this file would cause this odd bug. It’s obviously a weird side-effect of something apparently unrelated. However, I am certain it’s this file - the top division teams only appear in the Federation Cup when this file is active, irrespective of what other combinations of editor files (or none at all) are loaded.

I have tried to force central play, particularly in saves where I want to use an AM and/or a smaller striker. The only way I have made it happen is by not having any wide roles at all, especially not in AML/R. No matter what instructions I gave, play was funnelled through them. Instead I have used FB or WB on defend as part of a back 4, a DM and 3 CMs with the middle being an aggressive playmaker role, then any sort of classic central striker pairing. Your pass maps are a thing of beauty here btw!

As a small addition to the discussion I’d question having the FB on attack. This might lead to overlaps and push Saka inside, or it might lead to White holding on to the ball too long and/or crowding the space you want Saka in. It can be tempting to try to provide as much support as possible, but there is a balance to strike between cluttering the space and isolating the IF. Traits also really help. Cuts inside (which he already has) and gets into box are important. Curls ball and places shots are also very Saka-like. Shoots from distance might encourage more speculative efforts. I’d also train his finishing and composure. My personal view is that Saka’s current FM profile overstates his physical prowess and understates his goal threat. He does have some PA left, but not much, so I’d try to make sure that goes on his current FM weaknesses.

I have a couple of saves where I only use vanilla roles and neutral instructions (so far as possible), relying on player traits to dictate how the team plays. Essentially my only tactic is the team shape and changing mentality during the game. It’s a lot of fun, a throwback to a time of individual character > team tactics. It’s also a reminder that with plain roles and no instructions, players are perfectly capable of playing football without micromanagement. Defenders defend, attackers try to score, wingers dribble and cross. In a more conventional save, I like players having traits that complement how I want them to play. Players notice this, hence “feels team instruction X and trait Y are well matched” on the reaction page before a game. Traits can also very strongly differentiate how two players in the same role play, eg a B2B with gets forward and runs with ball vs one with dives into tackles and winds up opponents. Perhaps worth noting too that some traits are directly related to PIs (eg cuts inside, gets forward, crosses early, runs with ball) whereas others are characteristics not related to tactics (like tries tricks, arrives late in box, winds up opponents, dictates tempo).