NineCloudNine

I think those review comments are quite funny tbh. Just me?

Train the midfielder to play on the other side as an inverted winger? Or indeed train the WB to play on the other side as an Inverted WB, though that’s a more demanding change and is likely to require other tactical changes. Edit: I may be confused by you describing a ML but referring to your right side…

“Off the ball” isn’t a skill, it’s a number from 1-20 which tells you how good a player is at moving into good positions. Hover your mouse over the number and it will describe what it does. This is a useful thing for any footballer to be good at, but it is especially important for players in roles that ask them to move around the pitch, like a B2B midfielder, which is why the game will highlight that attribute as being important for that role but not for others. The requirements of a role, the instructions you give the team, the instructions you give to individual players, the attributes a player has and the things a player has as preferred moves, all interact to determine what happens on the pitch. What ‘hold position’ does is described in the game - hover your mouse over the words on the tactics screen. Your player will still move, but less so. Giving that instruction to a player with a high Off The Ball attribute would potentially be a waste of his ability, though that alone isn’t a reason not to do it. On the other hand if he has ‘gets forward whenever possible’ as a preferred move then this will clash with the instruction to hold position. What he then does depends on his teamwork, concentration and other characteristics. A lot of this information is available in-game in the form of tooltips, role descriptions, highlighted role attributes and warnings (eg if a role instruction clashes with a player preferred move).

No part of this is correct.

Opposition Instructions, ie specific instructions given before a particular match. 99.86% (approx) of FM players leave this to their Assistant.

This is just flat-out wrong.

You are basically telling them not to! The conditions you have set for them to play are so restrictive it’s almost a surprise they ever shoot at all . I would personally take off ALL those possession TIs and then slowly add some of them back on as absolutely needed.

The halfback positional movement in FM24 is really smooth. In possession, he drops between the CBs, who move out to make a back three (this assumes your FB/WBs have pushed up). Out of possession he steps up and the CBs close up. It’s really quick and seamless. It makes the HB the focus of the team - deep playmaker in possession, defensive focus out of possession. Finally, just as he is close to retirememt, SI have managed to rereate what Sergio Busquets did for 15 years.

VAR reviews don’t take 3-4 minutes in FM either!

Sorry I didn’t come back to you after my initial reply! Yes it is somewhat counter-intuitive that you can choose to start the game in a league and country you have no intention of managing in, but it does offer the flexibility to do what you want here. Glad you’re up and running

I agree. I have no issue with the promising 20yr old being valued at £40m. i’m less clear about why the 26 yr old first choice Italian international who plays alongside him has a stated value of half that, is subject to a £17m bid and gets upset at an asking price above £22m.

IIRC didn't Trent A-A have the most posession conceded and the most chances created for any defender at one point? Those jaw-dropping high-risk passes win games but too many players trying them - especially if they aren't as good as him at it - just means handing the ball over.

Sure it's not that their squad is stronger? That looks like a very good team... Off the top of my head your tactic is very attacking and depends on player movement to pull opponents out of position. If Inter's back 6 just sit tight they can absorb pressure then hit you on the break. They are vulnerable in the middle though, so I might be tempted to move your wingers down a strata. You also have a lot of TIs which are limiting your players' choices. I personally never use PIS, POOD, WBIB, DTFB, PSGKD or GSI. I'd rather let my players decide. That might be too much freedom for you, but certainly try releasing their chains a little maybe?

Triple this. High morale, strong team dynamics, maxed tactical understanding, green lines, players who get on ... you can't lose. I don't think this is unrealistic ... contrast real life Man Utd & Chelsea with Spurs & Man City for example...

This has been a problem for ever. This edition I do feel that positions like CB and DM are getting slightly better ratings and conversely my strikers get 6.5s if they don't score. The Devs have replied in the past that the game 'knows' about this and values non-scoring positions appropriately. So no-one will think your 6.8 CB is under-performing.

I might use it to pick between one of two otherwise equal choices. I also assume that a young player with consistent good training is more likely to develop if I give them playing minutes. These both seem like reasonable reflections of real life. You get asked about this in press conferences sometimes, which I take to be the game giving you a nudge.

The starting date depends on what country you choose to start the game in. You may accidentally have chosen a different country this time. Go through the list of active leagues and pick one with an earlier date. You don’t have to choose a club in that country, you can navigate to wherever you want to manage. Be a little careful though because if there is too big a gap between your start date and the start date of the league you want to manage in, you’ll have to wait some game time first. For example, you can start in Brazil in January 2023, but if you do that you won’t be able to pick a club in Europe to manage as then you’d be in last season with this season’s squads.

You added (or agreed to) a fee to to purchase the player at the end of the loan. This can be either a mandatory fee or a fee conditional on appearences or achievements. Not a bug.

I found that adding match load, injury risk and fatigue to the squad/selection view made it much easier to manage this. You simply must plan rotation and manage playing minutes. I look 4-5 games ahead to see when I need my full best XI and try to ensure that as few of them as possible go into that match off a ‘heavy’ match load.

They do this when they are being told to keep possession but your pressing/structure are preventing them getting the ball any further forward. You have every pressing option turned on/up. Your team are compressing the pitch, harrying their keeper and giving them no space to play. You might actually have more success if you step the LOE back, stop preventing short keeper distribution and allow the opposition out a little. You will then get more transitions from which to counter attack.

There are thousands of clubs in FM so adding that sort of detail would be a monumental effort, especially when club database researchers/editors are volunteers. Even lots of large clubs are lacking accurate records so - nice as it would be - it is hard to imagine top 10s being something we'll ever see. For plenty of clubs this information wouldn't even be readily available.

This can be perplexing. Playing as Roma I just bought a good 20-yr old defender (Valentin Gomez) for £3m plus future incentives. As soon as he joined his value became £40m. At the same time I have been offered £16.5m by Real Madrid for Gianluca Mancini, a first-choice Italy international. I declined this, Mancini got upset and he would only settle for £22m as a reasonable value. I demanded this of Madrid and they cancelled the offer. It is hard to work out what the algorithm is trying to achieve here. Edited to add: oh and then my three team leaders came to me and demanded that Mancini, our best defender, be allowed to leave right before the end of the transfer window.

Carrilero’s are great. They seem to act like a less gung-ho B2B. Nice balance between attack and defence. One thing I have noticed is that PPMs seem to affect how a player acts in those two roles more than for (eg) AP or DLP. I suspect this is because playmakers tend to have PPMs which amplify or emphasise parts of their role whereas B2B and Carrileros are more likely to have more individual traits, like long shots or tackling harder or getting into the box, which significantly affect how they play.

That and recency bias and availability bias and motivated reasoning . All of which we all do. It's just how our brains work.

I think your midfield will get overrun, but I hope not! Good luck!