El Payaso

I actually agree with you both (you and @Cloud9). While it is legit from Cloud9 to say that people should not complain when they are knowingly doing things that the game can't handle. On the other hand FM should be a game offering balance no matter what style of play you are using. Even though I had many years off from the game, I still know that people have raised many repetitive inbalances (pace and physical attributes in general and top-heavy and overly aggressive systems for example) for years now and those haven't been able to be fixed. Obviously it is logical in that sense that SI have probably known for a long time that FM 2025 will be a big game changer and this of course means that there hasn't been 100% focus on for example FM 2024. Anyway, in general, I do feel that this version is the best FM I have played so far and it gives me a good reason also to continue with FM 2025.

I partially agree but at least in my opinion the amount of goals were kept within realistic numbers with artificial ways such as excessive amount of offsides and even unrealistically bad quality of finishing. I remember for example in FM 2015 when I got promoted with Real Oviedo to La Liga and had to start the season with two away games against Barcelona and Real Madrid and managed to draw against both of them while facing about 60-70 shots in total. In real life they would have scored multiple goals from the chances that they got but in the game I only conceded once in those two games. Finishing in general is miles sharper nowadays on FM and the statistics in general are more realistic. I think SI have done a fantastic job in many areas of the ME during the last couple of years. It's way more football-like than the ones about ten years ago.

With a low-block, cautious mentality and pure counter-attacking playing style, I am practically never in control of the games based on stats but end up doing well more often than not. The stats rarely look like that but in general I am more than happy to let the opposition have the control and pass the ball around and then hit them 1-3 times from high quality chances that are easier to convert than miss. Stats, especially the xG is not at telling you the true story. @Svenc pfff, checked your examples from the previous page. Luckily the game doesn't create these 30-40 shots on goal per game (per team) matches that often anymore.

Could you please start putting these current and potential ability numbers behind spoilers? Not everyone wants to see them.

But this is still not the same thing as actually being able to create style of plays with the editor. You are able to make guidelines with these options but not actually able to control how certain AI managers set up their tactics.

All this talk about AI's tactical choices even strengthens my desire to have the possibility to edit the AI managers' tactics through the editors in a way that you could actually determine what kind of tactics they would use, from role selection to team instructions. There are plenty of threads where players are replicating real-life style of plays and it would be fantastic if we would be able to feed these tactics to the data and thereby make the game both more realistic and challenging.

I was also thinking about starting with them when I started my short career with Palermo. The better thing about Parma is that the team is probably closer to Serie A level which means that you'll be probably just fine with the starting team when you get to the top flight.

Been really happy with the fact that the team is able to make it difficult for all the opponents. Inter were the only one who we weren't able to keep up with in the first half of the season. The midfield is a bit tricky thing. I want the main creator, who would be Ilic, to be productive but on the other hand I don't want our style of play to become too attacking and on the other hand sacrifice the defensive stability. Three centre-backs do create a good base but basically still I want all of our players to do their defensive job and the DMs are obviously one the most important players and roles in this. Regista could be a good hybrid role between deep-lying and roaming playmakers.

Thank you! Yeah, I create them myself. I nowadays use Canva's free version to do them. It's really easy when you get the templates and styles done. Of course FM's own skinning adds some limitations but I'm fairly happy with the overall look.

If you haven't seen I already, I'm having my own career with Torino. It's an interesting save as I have found a clear house rules for the save which really satisfy me.

START OF THE SECOND QUARTER The start to the season had been fairly kind in terms of schedule but this is the moment where the tests really begin. We haven’t appeared in those two big games so far but especially the end of the year demands that we start doing it. The end of the year is going to be brutal but on the other hand, there is no better way to end the year than the first Derby della Mole of the season. As the team was finally close to full health, injuries hit us twice again before the match against Cagliari as Ricardo Rodríguez caught a cold and Nikola Vlašić injured his ankle. This meant that we would be once again without the services of our two important players for the next weeks. It also means that it was again time to go back to a two-striker formation. ALL THREE TACTICS IN USE I have changed things around again in terms of team instructions as the team now has a clean slate in their hands. I have only left the counter-attacking option and space into space active. Otherwise, I want things to be simple and counter-attacks to happen naturally. All the changes that will happen from now on are in player instructions and are based on what happens during the matches. The two striker formations allow us to utilize our talent up front in the form of Duván Zapata, Antonio Sanabria, and Pietro Pellergri, who are all good enough players to start games at this level. Secondly, the two-striker formation should allow us to utilize the pass-into-space instruction better than before as more players should be attacking the spaces behind the opposition defense and the channels. Thirdly this allows us to move one of our strikers to an attack duty as he should not be anymore that easily isolated as he has another striker close to him. The deeper striker role is a bit challenging as the idea for the counter-attacking system is to have as many players under the ball as possible and ideally no players slacking from their defensive duties. I ended up using a pressing forward in a support duty instead of a deep-lying forward in the hope of seeing the second striker dropping to the midfield to help in our defensive efforts. The 3-4-1-2 was my first idea here as it doesn’t change things much compared to the 3-4-2-1 but after thinking things over a bit longer, the 3-3-2-2 might even suit the team better. This even though it throws Vlašić out of his natural position. In terms of defending, I did not see reasons to change anything. Whatever works, simply works. NOVEMBER 2023 Two early goals saw us through the 19th-placed Cagliari who controlled the game based on stats. They had 7 shots and 0.54 xG in the first half where we played with our 3-4-1-2 system but we limited them to just two and 0.02 xG in the second half when changing to the system with a DM and two CMs. Duván Zapata was the hero of the day with a beautiful effort from 20 meters out as well as setting up Karol Linety to a free shot at the edge of the penalty area. Ivan Ilić played his best game of the season in Serie A as the sole attacking midfielder (45min) and mezzala (45min). A mixed bag of results during the match-day saw us climbing to the 5th position and just 3 points away from the Scudetto. The match against Lazio was an odd one. During the first half, neither team did practically anything going forward and after the first 30 minutes, both teams only had one shot in total. At the start of the second, we had two good chances early on through Antonio Sanabria and Duván Zapata. We then made two rare errors through our wingbacks losing their players in just minutes. We beat Lazio clearly in terms of xG but it was one of those days where the opposition simply converts their rather low-quality chances and takes the victory. We have done this to the opposition so often this season, that there isn’t too much room for complaining. Errors continued pouring in early on against AC Milan who used their opportunities ruthlessly. Two goals from 0.54 xG meant that Vanja Milinkovic-Savic had at least momentarily lost his hero status at the club. I wasn’t expecting anything to happen in the hope of a comeback as the visitors with now the best defensive record in the league were looking comfortable. Somehow it happened though as substitute Pietro Pellegri was twice able to beat the Milan defenders inside the penalty area twice beating the offside line narrowly. Our defensive record has deteriorated thanks to the last two games, but we are holding the joint best for the least goals conceded along with AC Milan. Lazio’s Mauricio Sarri and Bologna’s Thiago Motta were the first two managers to be sacked this season. Elsewhere in Europe Mauricio Pochettino and Erik ten Hag faced the same fate. DECEMBER 2023 A clean sheet against Hellas Verona was a priority number one which we bottled up with yet another poor defensive effort down the flanks and a goal from a low (0.07) xG opportunity from a narrow angle. While I cannot blame Vanja too much, the same probably doesn’t apply to the opposition manager Marco Baroni who saw their keeper Simone Perilli letting in two long-range shots, directed almost directly toward the middle. We were the better team here and deserved the victory by limiting the opposition to 0.46 xG in total. What was even more delightful was Raoul Bellanova’s return to the lineup from the bench and immediately making an impact when he won the ball close to the halfway line and started the counter-attack that led to our third goal here: I decided to reintroduce the low block back to the system in the match against Empoli. It ended up working like a charm as we limited the home team to four shots and 0.10 xG in total. This, while being our effective selves in attack. Raoul Bellanova was again the man making the impact by winning the ball close to the halfway line before releasing Duván Zapata in our first goal. The other two had a bit of FM 2007 vibes as they were produced with long balls from the keeper to our aerially capable Antonio Sanabria who was then able to bring other players in with good flick-on and hold-up play. This aspect has had much potential for us so far this season and it was nice to see it finally paying off also in terms of goals. I fully expected Frosinone to be a difficult team to beat with a counter-attacking system at home as they were 14th in the league and definitely would settle for a draw. Thanks to some minor injuries and Karol Linetty being one yellow card away from a suspension, I decided to rotate a bit and bring in Sasa Sabonov to the defense and Gvidas Gineitis to the starting lineup. We once again limited the opposition to 0.36 xG, and four shots in total out of which zero troubled Vanja Milinkovic-Savic in his goal. Pietro Pellergri did what he does by scoring the only goal of the game from a scrappy penalty area chaos. A point and a clean sheet were more than enough for me at Stadio Olimpico against in-form AS Roma. We had three decent chances in the game to score but were otherwise the second-best team here. As the home side were playing with a deep 4-2-3-1, they were really able to put our wing-backs to a real test. Raoul Bellanova was the one occupied more against Spinazzola and Nicola Zalewski but luckily we were able to keep Romelu Lukaku quiet inside the penalty area and make blocks to the pull-backs made to their defensive midfielders. A 1.07 xG for the home side, along with 15 shots in total, out of which 3 were on-target, also meant that Vanja was doing a lot of work to earn his salary here. Inter on the other hand were the first team to really take us to the school so far this season. We managed to punish them twice for their errors but were otherwise just trying to survive. Markus Thuram probably should have scored at least two or three here but luckily didn’t have his shooting boots on. The first local derby between the two Turin sides was really a game to remember even though it ended in a 1-1 draw. The team responded really well after going 1-0 down early on from a poorly cleared corner kick. We equalized before the half-hour mark through Antonio Sanabria’s only second goal of the season so far and should have been 2-1 through man of the match Ivan Ilic whose goal was overturned with the slightest of offside which was caused by Duván Zapata who had zero influence in the whole chance. Juventus piled up more shots during the game but we had the better chances and 2.29 xG in total. Sadly we ran into an in-form Wojciech Szczęsny who made three real game-savers for his team. Juve mainly threatened us from corner kicks where Federico Gatti seemed to be in the end of every single cross. Key stats Shots: 18 - 14 On-target: 7 - 4 xG: 1.59 - 2.26 Possession: 56-44 Fouls: 12 - 14 Avoiding a defeat meant we would finish the year in a 7-game unbeaten run and above our rivals in the league table. The managerial game has already gone crazy this season: In terms of Torino, you can see that low-block has been the one for us to go. Mid-block (3 games): Goals scored: 5 Goals conceded: 5 Games won: 1 Games drawn: 1 Games lost: 1 Low-block (16 games): Goals scored: 16 Goals conceded: 8 Games won: 7 Games drawn: 7 Games lost: 2 A FEW THOUGHTS ABOUT THE MIDFIELD As the two-striker formation with a double pivot has lately become our first choice of tactics, I have had a few thoughts about the midfield roles. Especially in games where we are narrowly leading at the end of the game, I have noticed that the attacking mentality of the opposition has opened us many chances to counter but players like Karol Linety and Adrian Tameza have not been able to pick the progressive pass that would lead to a counter-attack and a likely scoring chance. In the game against Frosinone, Tameze alone had three good chances to start a counter, which he failed to deliver. This has made me think about moving Ivan Ilić permanently to the defensive midfielder position and try maybe the Regista role with him. In my opinion, this could be executed in both of the midfield triangle systems as we have hard-working midfielders and strikers ahead of him and three centre-backs to make sure that we have enough men behind the ball. I think having a creative midfielder in a defensive midfielder position would help us in both building up slowly as well as starting the quick counters when the opportunity arises. Even though Regista is a highly creative role with a certain type of forward aggression too, he doesn’t come without any defensive responsibility. What I like about the Regista too is the fact that this is an Italian role which would definitely fit us like a glove. Along with already mentioned Ivan Ilić, we also have Samuele Ricci, usually deployed as a segunda volante, capable of mastering this role. The Regista should have a high amount of passing options available for him to feed as we would practically always have at least a few (3-5) more advanced players ahead of him. Other small changes I have ditched the inverted wing-back and we now have a defensive minded wing-back on the left and a supporting complete wing-back on the right. The striker roles are now defensive forward on support duty and attack duty. This purely down to the fact that these roles do not slack in defense and they do link-up and attack as well. We have got rid of the libero and are now using wide centre-back, ball-playing defender, and a stopper centre-back roles in our defensive trio. SEASONAL AIMS We had clear season aims set up, and at the halfway mark, it is good to see how we are doing. I think we have done well in terms of all of these. The upcoming youth intake is looking decent and if this prediction is true, we might be getting at least one good prospect who seems to be a goalkeeper. Our defensive record is excellent and that has also influenced in our league position which is two notches above our predicted finish. We have also managed to tie up many key contracts as Ricardo Rodríguez, Samuele Ricci, Perr Schuurs and Alessandro Buongiorno have all decided to extend their stays in Turin. PLAYER PERFORMANCE See the full performance data from this link. It’s really not a big surprise that none of our players is really standing out in terms of stats and average rating. Vanja Milinkovic-Savic has been the standout so far. The big Serbian is not a fancy sweeper keeper that someone like Pep Guardiola favors but his style of play is perfect for our team. He makes no hassle making the saves and is excellent at collecting the crosses. None of our defenders in performing well compared to others in the league. Actually, all of them have been poor in basically all of the metrics but I would like to think that this is down to the team effort. When every player in the team does their share, the defenders have to do less individual work. JANUARY ASSAULT? As our defense has been performing really well, especially in terms of numbers, it’s not a big surprise that our defenders have generated plenty of interest from other clubs. Vanja Milinkovic-Savic has drawn interest from Saudi Arabian clubs. Alessandro Buongiorno has an interest from Inter Milan. Perr Schuurs has been targeted by Dortmund and Wolfsburg. Ricardo Rodríguez is on the shortlist of three different Saudi Arabian clubs. Mërgim Vojvoda could receive an offer from Lyon or Al-Ain. The strange thing about these are the fact that for example Schuur’s value has dropped like a stone during the first half of the season, which could lead to fairly low bids for the former Ajax centre-back. Combine this with the possible unsettling factor, and we could be in trouble. Out of these players, I would only be willing to sell the latter two. They have both been playing a lot for us but especially Saba Sazonov has shown that he would be ready to step in for the centre-back position if the opportunity arises. We also have plenty of depth for this area and a few capable players who haven’t practically featured at all so far. Our 19-year-old centre-back Alessandro Dellavalle and midfielder Gvidas Gineidis could well be players who we are looking to loan out for the rest of the season. If we manage to keep the bigger and richer clubs at bay and keep hold of our starting players, there is really no need to bring anyone in during the winter transfer window. I am happy with the squad and they have so far shown to be capable of getting us the results. I did have a bid accepted for Inter's Stefano Sensi for just 750 thousand euros but our Director of Football was unable to agree terms with the 28-year-old. The former Italy international would have been an ideal player to fill in the small void that we have in the midfield as he is able to play multiple roles and even strengthen the starting 11. This deal would have also definitely allowed us to send the young Lithuanian Gineidis for a loan. It still might be that we will try to get this deal done again.

@JawZy well at least you are having a realistic career there. Many reasons to keep going. 👍

Remember that more than well. I think it was also a fairly difficult tactic to play against. 0-0 was easily the most likely result. I know there are many moving pieces but in general: if the game treats human players equally compared to the AI, then why are human players able to be get away with totally stupid tactical choices while AI managers struggle even with tactics that seem to make perfect sense? This is something that doesn't add up to me.

This is an interesting claim. Based on what? What do you think the AI is usually doing wrong if they are able to pick a good selection of roles?

These kind of things always make you think that the game doesn't treat the AI the same way it does the human players. I have also seen AI using tactics (or just selection of roles) that have "nothing wrong in them" but still underperforming. And then on the other hand human players are able to use tactics that make no sense at all (like me with Palermo) and still do well. I know that SI have said that the game treats both human players and the AI equally but I don't see this being the case based on my own experience.

Any chance of seeing the changes in practice? Could you provide some screenshots or highlights?

Yep. The generated faces were a decent touch to the game about fifteen years ago when they were introduced (never used them though) but not up to the date. Some things, like the 2D match engine, age well but these faces should have been replaced ages ago. I always find it really odd when I see someone still having them active. This is always the first thing I deactivate when I install the new version of FM.

I have seen it happen. Although during the landing but practically that counts as catching the ball.

I think the face that this player also has is more devaluating here. Both issues easy to fix though: give a nickname to the player and move on and replace the game generated face with a cutout. Five minutes of work and done.

I don't know if something like this already exists. If it does, then the mods can feel free to merge them. The idea of the thread is to concentrate solely on the positives and write about the aspects of the game that you actually enjoy. I would like to praise SI for the mentoring system as it is one if those features that now work like they always should have. For many people it might feel frustratingly slow compared to the old tutoring system but I simply like it and find it one of my favorite features in the game. In real football many things happen slowly and mentoring should definitely be one of these things.

Never managed or followed French football at all. This is thereby going to be a learning trip to me. I know finding a save that is interesting enough to stick to on FM is a bit difficult, especially if you want to do something special instead of just casual gameplay. I hope that this could be the save for you. I think in France it should be quite easy to focus heavily on youth development as PSG really is the only super team in the league.

That's quite odd. I have played probably about five seasons in total with many teams and have had zero difficulties with player interactions or happiness.

I think you need to take into account the fact that Barcelona have better players to throw in for every position. This for me means that you should maybe try and look areas to exploit them. If you want to keep the basic defensive idea the same, I would look into trying to double up the flanks when attacking. This could happen by dropping the AMs to MC position and using double mezzala which would still do their defensive work mainly in the middle but they would occupy the flanks when attacking. Another option could be moving the AMs to AML and AMR positions and possibly instruct them then to man mark the opposition DMs. As neither of these would be asymmetric formations, this approach wouldn't probably be any kind of ME exploit either.

I see it as a bigger problem that you can actually get Messi to come back to Europe when he has quite clearly said that it's not going to happen. His career path should take him to Argentina and Newell's Old Boys.

That's a good question. Have to wait and see. The tactic in general is still pretty muck work-in-process as I keep all the time picking up things that should or could be changed.