I am a long time player, been around since FM08. I have finally found the time to sit down with FM23. There are some things that are solid, the agent interactions are cool, and the new data has made for some awesome skinning work for attributeless play.
Other than that...oof. It is just...awful. More than that, it is arbitrary. Other than having good dynamics, very little of what you do matters. I know the game is not scripted, but this is the first version that has felt like it is, and that is a problem. It's almost like the ME was upgraded, but the tools we have to play were not. Football is a game of space and you simply don't have the tools to accurately exploit and protect it. Instructions are counterintuitive, usually doing the opposite of what they say they do. Instructions also have little bearing on what the players do, so eventually I just kind of stopped doing them. Click gegenpress and then click continue. You know the matches you will lose a few weeks before they happen, you know you will be awful in January, you know which highlight is a goal 2 seconds in, it is just kind of bad.
Any who, apologies for the rant, super excited for 25 and who am I kidding, I'll buy and play the heck out of 24 too.