El Payaso

This thread is pure diamond. Would it be possible to see some of the goals that your team has scored and are closely related to the style of play that you are aiming for? Preferably in 2D and as gifs.

Mason Greenwood has been decent for Getafe.

I think this was a decent dribbling goal.

MAY 2025 I know I promised to take the fall if we would drop points against Villarreal but on the other hand: can I? We started the game poorly when Álex Collado's mistake led to a through-on-goal chance for Angel Correa which he buried. We found our rhythm and level of performance in the second half and deservedly scored three good goals to take a comfortable lead. Then something strange happened: This was in the 85th minute and Villarreal also equalized from yet another throw-in build-up that led to a far post cross. I mean, what can you do with these things? Nothing. This team never fails to surprise me with their ability to throw these leads away. What Musso does first, Arnau Tenas seems to follow and this was his way to give Getafe the lead against us in the 12th minute of the game. This time we fought back but were close to throwing the lead away again against 9-men Getafe as Mason Greenwood had two decent chances to make it 2-2 in the last ten minutes of the game. We went back to the basics in our final home game of the season. As Pepe had informed us that he is going to retire at the end of the season, we decided to throw him into the starting lineup once more to give him his farewells. A big mistake led to a Mallorca goal and Pepe's final game lasted for 17 minutes. The game was rather one-sided and we should have won it but this time had to rely on a penalty to get a draw. The season finale was for some reason played the day before the rest of the league. We looked comfortable against Las Palmas and were deservedly 2-0 up for a long time. There were nervy moments in the end though as Sory Kaba scored his first goal for the club from another cross coming from a throw-in buildup. As we had delegated the set pieces to our dedicated coach for the last two months of the season, I think it is time to see him go and try to find someone who can fix these throw-ins for us. Final league table Main statistics Real Betis' team of the season Our goal of the season This goal was scored in a 3-2 victory against Real Sociedad. *** In the next update I will be going through our first youth intake as well as taking a look for the squad analysis for the next season.

APRIL 2025 Conference League Newcastle are third in the Premier League and a really good team so we weren't expecting much in this draw against them. At Benito Villamarín we were slightly the better team and edged the first leg with Havertz's late goal from close range. In the returning fixture, we were quite a bit run over in the midfield and that is where we ultimately lost the tie. The decisive goal once again came from a throw-in as Miguel Almiron escaped to score. We were able to turn the tide in the second half of the game and my opinion, were good value for something but Assane Diao missed 3 decent chances in the last 15 minutes, it was just not meant to be. I was hoping for us to be eliminated earlier but I think the European campaign turned out to be better than we were expecting/hoping. The only real mistake we made was with 'automatic registration' which left both Pablo Barrios and Pablo Torre out of the squad. These two-legged ties would have been a fantastic experience for the young duo who are in our long-term plans. Copa del Rey The strategy was to select all our players who enjoy big matches for the starting lineup. Luckily we have a long list of these players, including the more advanced duo Nabil Fekir and Kai Havertz who ultimately won us the final. For long periods, it looked like we would succumb to errors once again but for once we came lucky in the end. The first Real Madrid goal showed glimpses of how costly it can be to play William Carvalho in these kinds of games. Valverde left the experienced Portuguese standing before breaking into the penalty area and beating Arnau Tenas from a tight angle. The second one was a big error from Juan Miranda who left Rodrygo unmarked and not closed down and the winger was able to play a free through ball for Gnabry to score. We got our first one from a lucky deflection after some nice buildup. The latter two were brilliant through-balls from Nabil Fekir who played his best game of the season. I have criticized the club captain and Kai Havertz on many occasions this season but here the duo was faultless and Havertz was once again showing why he is considered a player who enjoys big occasions. Nacho's early dismissal was a lucky break for us but actually, Real Madrid played better in terms of attacking after the sending-off. La Liga Against Girona, we had a small glimpse of luck as Álex Collado scored a late winner when the visitors had started to edge the game for the last 30 minutes of the game. Xavi's Real Sociedad on the other hand were one or one and half steps ahead of us all the time and the game was decided by Albert Grønbaek who scored a brace against us. This was once again a good example of Carvalho's frailty when the opposition can run towards you. In terms of statistics the game was totally evenly matched but once again we lacked that killer instinct that the opposition showed inside our penalty area. The match against Sporting Gijón on the other hand was a real classic of how things can go wrong: A real sign of mental weakness that the team has been showing in the last couple of months. There isn't a way to explain this. We probably scored the amount of goals that could be expected and were not throwing away any big chances. Then the opposition just attacks you twice and scores on both occasions. When Barrios scored the second one with his first one for the club, there was no way we were expecting that the visitors could still make it even but then there was that odd throw-in which led to German Pezzela's foul inside the penalty area. To look at the brighter side. This was the moment when Nabil Fekir started to wake up again. And the goal that he scored, was one of the best team moves that we have seen from us in the whole season. The idea against Barcelona was to try and use overlaps against their 4-2-2-2 box. I think we did alright for the first 45 minutes. The opener from Lewandowski was yet another throw-in punishment when Diogo Dalot found the experienced Polish striker at the far post with a perfect cross. Pedri's goal on the other hand was a real gift from Arnau Tenas who passed the ball straight to his old team-mate instead of finding Mingueza. Fekir's late goal gave us some hope but the second half was filled with big errors and tactical stupidity when we were thinking that we might just try and attack. Especially Gavi's goal was a shocking one for us as the midfielder ran 40 meters through the middle unchallenged before an easy finish. When going forward, we looked good at times and could have scored 1-2 goals more. League table Player stats May schedule The match against Villarreal is going to be huge for us. Anything else than three points is going to be unacceptable. And if this happens, I will have to take it fully to my own account. This is going to be a match where the manager needs to show up and win his own 1 against 1 battle. I see this also fully so that the first game of the month is going to define the whole month. A victory will create a fantastic platform to build on but anything else is going to make things extremely difficult. What happened to us? Top-4 was looking very likely just some time ago but that is already gone for us. I would like to raise some individuals into play here. These are the players whose recent form has simply been unacceptable. If you remember how for example Rodri performed for us in January: he was one of the best performers in the league and now after a couple of weeks of injury, the midfield dynamo has been a total goner and worst performer of the team. The same applies to midfield duo Lo Celso and Carvalho who haven't been able to carry the team at all. And the list goes on. This whole list is filled with players who are important to us and have not been able to reach the needed level lately. Is this down to me or individuals? Damn hard to say but probably a mix of both. And are any of these players going to start against Villarreal? Probably not. Basically, all of them have been reminded of their recent form and all of them took it well. Now it is time to react to the feedback with the right mentality.

Always find it funny when people take winning in a computer game so seriously. How about growing up and stop being man-children? And this is not directed to the op in specific but a general statement.

Interesting stuff. Actually makes in interested in managing in Italy which I have only done twice since FM 2007, I think. Nicely written up and the amount of informational screenshots really lighten up the content. Any particular reason for not using logo and face packs?

Doesn't work like that as far as I know. The thread would have a status 'under review', 'information provided' or 'open' if it wouldn't have been already identified as something with an issue. And like I mentioned before: it's not about how many goals you score or concede, it's about how these scenarios (throw-ins in this case) generally work. I for example am not claiming that the statistics are showing that too many goals are scored for them and never said anything like that. I don't care either about me conceding, I also count the ones that I am scoring.

@herne79 even SI have marked this as a known issue. This was my first visit to the bugs forum so hadn't noticed it before.

Not really. Based on stats we were actually performing above average in set pieces before this month. Now there are basically two options: to actually put an effort in planning or delegate the set pieces to the set pieces coach.

I think I have done my part trying to help SI to improve the match engine in the past. My work nowadays comes with a price tag.

With all due respect: then you are in denial. Because in general a large parts of build-ups do start from throw-ins and they do create a lot of chances. This is a fact, not a claim. I could challenge you also: post some comprehensive highlights of your games and show us that significant amount of build-ups don't start from throw-ins. I never said anything about too many goals being scored from set pieces. I would also think that I am actually scoring more than I am conceding. But the way that throw-ins work has been the same for about ten years and this is once again a fact. I have clocked so many hundreds of hours as a beta tester and posted so many examples of this issue in the past that I remember it quite well. Also checked my hard drive and had tens of examples from FM 2015 at least still saved.

Like I told you in the general feedback discussion: especially the throw-in issue is something that has been in the game for ten years already. I bet it would hand been fixed if it would be possible with the current match engine. Someone who has FM 2013 could check if they were already there.

MARCH 2025 Conference League *** We are through to the quarter-finals, just barely. We really should have put this tie to bed in our home fixture where we were in total control of the game and should have scored 2-3 goals more. In France, we again started the game as well as possible when Rodri scored from a quick counter-attack. This was followed by a Lille goal from an indirect free-kick and corner kick. Kai Havertz then did this: The 2-2 goal was again followed by yet another set-piece goal by Lille as they struck their second from an indirect free kick. The hosts continued to be threatening from set-pieces throughout the game and all their dead-ball situations led to at least a dangerous chance. I was hoping that we would not have to go for overtime which happened though. During the extra time, I was thinking how ironic it would be if we got that throw-in goal to get us through and just seconds later, this happened: A disgusting goal to score, and normally I would have even considered pressing the x button but as you get punished three times and are destroyed from set pieces yourself, I though: what the heck. We will be meeting Newcastle in the quarter-finals which is going to be quite an interesting matchup. Copa del Rey *** There wasn't much left to play for in the semi-final as we had beaten our rivals 3-0 in the first leg. Decided to play with our best team though as we had 8 days of rest between the second leg and the important La Liga fixture against Valencia. Sevilla were a good side in our first rivalry of the season in La Liga but since then something has happened and they were tame once again. It was a happy moment when one of our own Dani Pérez scored the opener for us with a good finish. But once again the victory slipped from us when Sevilla scored from a corner-kick through Tanguy Nianzou in the 91st minute. The final will be next month against Real Madrid. La Liga *** A frustrating month definitely, and just for one single reason: set-pieces. Three out of four goals that we conceded were either from corner kicks or indirect free-kicks and this almost took me over the edge. The Espanyol game was as smooth as you can get. We had lost against them at home but hardly gave them a sniff in the returning fixture. Alavés on the other hand was the most frustrating one. The value that we had to pay for a single goal was high level and when we had Assane Diao's goal disallowed in the 87th minute through the narrowest offside, you could predict what would happen next. They didn't even need a real chance to score from their only... well, not even a chance. We had 10-15 better chances during the game than where they scored but this is football sometimes. The matches against Atlético and Valencia were both interesting tactical matchups where we were not really in control of the game but not backfoot either. All the goals that we conceded once again came from set pieces: Atlético scored from a corner and indirect free kick through José Gimenez and César Azpilicueta and Valencia from a shot at the edge of the penalty area after a corner kick. We also got our share as Mingueza's goal was from a corner kick and Sávio's after a throw-in. I have a feeling that we haven't had a single bit of luck in games for about 3-4 months but against Valencia, we could consider ourselves lucky as the home side should have scored 2-3 against us from the chances that they got. If Kai Havertz scored a wonder goal against Lille in Europe, in the league the German is showing his other side as he is constantly missing easy sitters that could have got us so many more points this season. He had 1-2 easy chances against Alavés, Atlético, and Valencia and he missed all of them mainly in the dying minutes. He is a good player but definitely not going to be missing him next season. Sevilla at home seemed to become one of those where we just can't find the way through. This was highlighted by Pablo Fornals' goal in the 87th minute which was ruled out due to an offside call that didn't look like one. Then, out of nowhere our full-backs struck twice to get us vital three points. At the end of the month, we need to think about the set pieces again. Otherwise, we are doing well defensively but cannot afford to give 1-3 goals every game from dead-ball situations. League table The La Liga season has been crazy in terms of managerial movements and soon all of the teams have changed their man in charge at least once. Player stats April schedule

As they have probably almost always been? Check the match engine in general for example on comprehensive highlights and count how big the percentage of buildups at least start from set pieces. The number is big. I have concluded that to create at least something in terms of creating chances, the buildups need to start from deadball situations where the players are positioned in a certain way. This is one of the reasons why for example goal kicks and kick-offs might be a decent source of creating chances. I think with the current positional play this has become a bit better but still: the majority of buildups do start from set pieces. The set piece itself might not have much to do with the goals scored or chances created but the game does need these as platforms. As many things have dragged on in the game for more than ten years even, it is a system limitation and they probably simply cannot be fixed with the current match engine. That is why I am eagerly waiting for FM 2025 to come. This is the version where we can expect to see noticeable changes in the match engine.

Is it any more than previous versions? This throw-in thing is already legendary as it has been in the game for ages. Set pieces in general have been such that you can be effective in them quite easily. Already in games like FM 2007 you had really effective corner kick routines available so this is nothing new.

Can be bad but also can be decent based on my own experiences. Cole Palmer was phenomenal in both providing through balls and ending attacks but I mainly played him as CM(A) at Chelsea so it doesn't count. Isco and Fekir have been awful for me in terms of end product. Isco had tens of times for me to use his vision and passing ability but basically all his through balls went straight to the opposition. Then on the other hand Pablo Torre and Rodri are both brilliant at times as they are more mobile options. Rodri doesn't really play over the top or long through balls but is able to pick the right simple through ball. Torre us the only one that I have really seen playing those long and creative through balls that only some players can pick up.

I hear you @Cloud9. The AI seems a little bit like "give me something and I will sell" at the moment. They are basically just doing transfers for the sake of it instead of trying to actually improve their squads. Also if you look at players' willingness to change clubs, it becomes quite weird. I'm relying just on my scouts to find players but it seems that in same stature clubs like Valencia, Villarreal, Real Sociedad and Athletic Bilbao, almost all their regular starters would be at least somewhat interested in making sideway moves to my Betis. And when the AI is selling their players with very low prices, it basically messes the whole gameplay up. Would love to see a version of FM where the AI would not be so willing to sell their players and players might actually say no to you. With the current transfer and contract negotiation system it's basically like being a kid in a candy store on Saturday. Pick what you want and pay pennies.

As I only play with comprehensive highlights, I tend to switch quite a lot between roles depending on how the matches are panning out. Usually, I play him as a CF(S) but if he happens to play for example with Fekir as an attacking midfielder, I tend to start with F9.

FEBRUARY 2025 Results La Liga It's about the same story as last month. We controlled all of the games but could only win one of them. Athletic Club, who sacked Ernesto Valverde later on during the month, are becoming a real boogey team for us. Iker Muniain scored two almost identical goals from two chances he had and we were not able to capitalize on the man advantage that we got from the 50th minute when Dani Vivian got himself sent off. The visiting team showed much more passion and probably thereby deserved to win. Cádiz at home looked like a match where things finally started to click for us but this was followed by yet another disappointing result against 19th-placed Eibar. We controlled the game but lost the lead twice against cheap goals. Kai Havertz, who only seems to be able to score from easy tap-ins, had one of those in the 87th minute but somehow missed, and then Eibar scored the winner in the 92nd minute. Copa del Rey The same story continued against Celta Vigo where we almost even lost the game. We were in total control of the game but once again conceded two goals from clear errors. The local rivalry against Sevilla gave us something that we deserved. We didn't give our fierce rivals a sniff and for once used our opportunities with high efficiency. We are now really close to the final where we wiould be facing Real Madrid who beat Granada 5-1 in their first leg. Conference League Tirana were no match for us and this draw was effortless. The returning leg saw us recording 41 shots against the opposition with a balanced mentality and 4-4-1-1. Crazy game in terms of going forward and if we had used at least some of our half-chances, we would have probably scored 10-15 goals in the home game. We will face French side Lille next and this should be a way more balanced matchup. Tactical thoughts With the January tactical changes, we have become an even more counter-attacking team while earlier we were relying quite heavily on possession. The goals we score at the moment are very pleasing to watch as they come from us winning the ball back close to the halfway line before releasing one of our three more advanced players with a quick pass or a combination of two or three passes. We also often drop one of the midfielders or even two to the DM position as a half-back and segundo volante if the situation demands that. What are the most pleasing aspects at the moment is how the libero is participating in the build-ups and how well we have gotten the number 10 role to work. When Rodri is playing there, he is both scoring and assisting and when Dani Perez or Pablo Torre is in that position, they work as our main creators. The striker role is now mainly just a goalscorer as I felt that we had too many chefs mixing the soup, stew, or whatever. The main problems here are that Assane Diao still doesn't have the intelligence to time his runs correctly and Havertz on the other hand is really bad with his end product even though he has scored 4 in his last 5. If Diao continues his progress as rapidly as he has so far, he will be really good for us next season. Team instructions I like to keep it simple and only add those that are the main points in the style of play that we are looking for. The team is supposed to hit the opposition hard on the counter, be hard to predict, and solid defensively. So far we have somewhat succeeded in the first two of these areas. In possession Underlap right Overlap left Standard passing Higher tempo Transition Counter-press Counter Out of possession Mid Block Higher defensive line Standard pressing LEAGUE TABLE PLAYER STATS MARCH SCHEDULE

Signing a backup goalkeeper isn't strengthening that area. You are adding depth.

I think FM simulates things really well at the moment, especially if you compare it to what it used to be. If you manage for example in Spain, in general it is a relieving fact that teams like Real Madrid, Barcelona, Atlético etc generally do perform well and give you at least some kind of a challenge. Sure, skillful players and exploit users probably will beat them even in season one but an average player and exploit avoider like me can actually have quite nice career there. I generally tend to lose interest when I start to win and clearly over achieve or when I notice that I have totally rebuilt the team. Newgens are luckily nowadays better balanced in terms of attributes which means that they do not destroy the whole gaming universe. I remember back in FM 2018 I think when I had to save the game before every game that Barcelona, Real Madrid or Atlético and reload if they lost at home against the weakest team in the league. So basically manually keep the league somewhat realistic. FM has come a lot forward from those days.

Doesn't apply just to my team. The transfer values in general seem low now if we don't talk about players with high quality and reputation. For example Villarreal sold Juan Foyth to Inter for 10 million euros and this is a price for a really important player who is 27 years old and who was signed for 17 million, I think. Doesn't make any sense to me. I would also have been able to pick multiple good players from my rivals for 3-7 million euros. Players that are 'good' La Liga players and also used at least as rotation options and even regular starters. Before the update I received 8+ million bids for Sabaly and 20+ for Miranda and these have now changed to 800k-1.5m and 5-7m. Doesn't make any sense to me and it might even destroy the whole save game for me.

JANUARY 2025 TRANSFERS OUT Isco was happy for us for a week before kicking off again. This was the final straw for me and I first kicked the former Spanish international to the B-team where he was finally picked up on loan by Sturm Graz. He has a 1.9M buy-out option, which we are hoping the loaning club will use. Otherwise no surprises. Sergiño Dest was given a leave of absence due to his unhappiness during which we luckily managed to seal the deal with Tigre. I would have loved for these two to pan out for us but good riddance. Transfer fees have somehow gone down significantly in this save and that showed both in completed transfers and the offers we received. I'm not going to sell players like Juan Miranda, Rodri, or even the experienced Sabaly for peanuts. Marc Bartra was our next unhappy player and as no one wanted to even loan him, the 33-year-old centre-back was shifted to our B-team who are looking to get promoted to the second level of Spanish football. TRANSFERS IN Igor Zubeldia - When a player of his quality becomes available with this kind of price, signing him is a no-brainer. I wasn't expecting to sign out long-term centre back at this point but that is what we did. I have no idea why Xavi wanted to get rid of him as he has been a decent rotation option for them this season but we take it. Juan Musso - The experienced Argentinian international had fallen out of the pecking order at Atalanta and we needed a backup for Arnau Tenas. He is both slightly better and more expensive than Rui Silva but that is fine. It's even possible that Musso can challenge the younger Tenas for the starting place as the difference in terms of quality is not that significant. RESULTS LA LIGA We could consider this month unlucky. Losing to Real Madrid was much down to the fact that Ez Abde got himself sent off in the 5th minute of the game. The home side didn't create anything significant but they made it 1-0 through Serge Gnabry in the 45th minute which was enough for them. Otherwise, we controlled the games but had huge difficulties in converting our chances as well as keeping our defense flawless. The match against Las Palmas was especially frustrating as we made two big defensive errors, came back from 2-0 behind, and then had Assane Diao's second goal disallowed in the 85th minute. We were also suffering from a large number of injuries throughout the month which meant that we weren't able to rotate as much as we would have liked. As we are struggling to find a striker who can actually score goals for us, Diao has become our number one up-front. The youngster is developing rapidly and is already considered a La Liga-level player. The same applies to Dani Perez who is going to be a really good player for us in the future. The cup run has been smooth for us so far, yet against Sporting our defensive errors blew like a bomb in your face. Whenever we scored, we made a big error to make it even. 4 shots and 3 in total for the visiting side and three goals conceded. That tells you everything. The quarter-final phase will see us travel to Celta Vigo. LEAGUE TABLE *** I'm currently having huge difficulties with all of my custom skins. This suddenly appeared yesterday. Hopefully, I can fix it and make these reports a bit better in future updates.

It's odd because I am seeing an opposite thing. Many good La Liga players are now valued just a couple of millions and they are moving clubs for peanuts. Before the winter update these were more balanced and AI teams often even asked for the release fee clause prices. I used to receive sensible bids for players like Juan Miranda or Youssuf Sabaly but now the AI teams are offering 5 million for Miranda and 1 million for Sabaly. Why on earth would I sell good La Liga level players for that?