See i might use this, because i'm going to be completely honest, the morale and keeping players happy part of the game doesn't really interest me. This allows my focus to stay on training and tactics without negative stuff from that playing time mechanic.
IMO with personalities prioritise professionalism and the ones that impact training results positively, after that how they handle pressure is my priority, but for the most part i never really get to that bit.
We’re now approaching matchday 15 out of 34 in the league, so I thought I’d give you a quick update.
I originally wrote this post at the end of the 2027/28 season. I eventually finished 3rd, behind Cracovia in 2nd and my friend, who won the league for the second year in a row.
During the summer, I decided to be much more aggressive with my squad rebuild.
I sold players who:
Had less than 12 Pace and 12 Acceleratio*. Were tagged with negatives such as “Injury Prone,” “Inconsistent,” or “Doesn’t Enjoy Big Matches,” as well as the different negative variations of those traits.
For my new signings, I looked for players who were considered at least “Good enough for the PKO Ekstraklasa”, while also requiring a minimum of 12 Pace and 12 Acceleration and avoiding the negative traits mentioned above.
As a result, I basically rebuilt the entire squad.
Out of the 22 players I had last season, I only kept 6 former starters/substitutes. I realised that 16 of my 22 players were either too slow, too inconsistent, or uncomfortable in big matches.
### Results so far
We’re now at the beginning of November, and so far the results have been very encouraging.
In Europe, I made it through all three home-and-away Conference League qualifying rounds, knocking out some fairly strong opponents such as Rennes and Oslo along the way.
I’ve started the Conference League league phase with a 0-0-1 record, with the only game so far being an away defeat against Sofia.
Domestically, things are going even better.
I’m currently 1st in the PKO Ekstraklasa with a 4-point lead, although I did lose against my friend at home.
There’s a slightly frustrating story behind that one: the game was level when my PC crashed in the 75th minute, so we had to replay the match… and I lost the replay.
### Conclusion
Obviously, the season is still far from over, so I’ll keep you updated.
For now, though, the results have been very positive and the squad overhaul seems to have made a real difference.
I’m still a little cautious because last season started in a similar way before I went through some terrible runs of defeats and draws later on.
But so far, so good.
Thanks again to everyone who gave me advice and helped me with the start of this season! Expand
Good to hear. Hope you keep us up to date, kind of invested in you battering your friend now lol.
Another thing is really look into some of the previous threads on the site on training. Even with players that aren't all that special, if you do training that distributes their attributes effectively makes a big difference. I won the UCL with AGF from Denmark with a team that had an average CA of 135, by having mostly the meta attributes trained. So basically a full 11 of super athletes that couldn't kick a ball.
I properly have missed a thread about it, but i'm gonna ask anyway.
Does anyone have a save file for testing tactics themselves theyd be willing to share? Ideally something that is setup so you can holiday through a whole season very quickly.
I mean you can add in Specific Goalkeeper modules to your training schedule, but to me it seems mostly pointless. If you have a match practice, your GK will train the attributes of the role, and also you can do the specific training for the most important GK attributes.
Another thing i'd like to mention, is this combination of traits Adama has. They are basically perfect for getting him to just dribble down the line. I've lost count now how many times i've seen him stand just inside the opponents half, wait for the ball into feet, and just turning on the turbo as soon as he gets the ball. Just as i write this he just assisted a goal after running 40 meters with the ball against Chelsea.
ZaZ said: I made a quick test using Spring (lower WBs) and Autumn (higher AWBs), and the results confirm what I said before. When wingbacks are more advanced, players dribble less because they have a passing option closer to them.
Two players with most dribbles per 90 minutes Autumn (AWB): 3.67 and 3.29 Spring (WB lower): 6.26 and 4.71
Autumn / Spring
Those results were with Burnley, so you should expect more dribbles with a better team. Expand
It's funny i decided to try the tactic i've been using with Arsenal at West Ham because i wanted to see Adama. He's basically turned into Gareth Bale.
So the worse teams less dribbles might be not always be true. The thing i'm noticing is because i'm a lesser team, we are more often given space to work with.
ZaZ said: Looking at the input from Julius, it might be that players dribble more when winger and wingbacks are further apart from each other. I guess the problem is that AWBs used in your tactic play too close to IFs, promoting passes instead of dribbles. I will test here a tactic with AWB vs a similar one with WB in the back to see if there is a huge difference. Expand
Make sense in my head aswell. In terms of getting more from a good dribbler. If you have a good dribbler do you want more players close congesting his space? Or do you want him to have space to dribble in. Along with the player in the game not recognising a good passing option so decides to dribble instead.
CBP87 said: I've tried with winger too, sorry I don't want it to come across that I am dismissing what you saying because I genuinely am not. I looked at Brighton and Chelsea's formation and they play a 4231, Mitoma playing on the left as a winger and Neto on the right as a winger, both of them playing on the side of their weakest foot and both have pretty poor weak foots. On watching them though, they weren't cutting inside at all which you would probably expect due to them being on the wrong foot side Expand
I've had some success. So I've straight up nabbed Maresca's formation, not that it's revolutionary. Here are the instructions.
Here are the results after 19 games in the league.
One instruction that seemed to instantly improve the dribbles per 90 numbers, was removing the progress play instruction. When i've had it on balanced it produces more dribbles per 90 than both focus flanks and focus middle did.
CBP87 said: I've tried with winger too, sorry I don't want it to come across that I am dismissing what you saying because I genuinely am not. I looked at Brighton and Chelsea's formation and they play a 4231, Mitoma playing on the left as a winger and Neto on the right as a winger, both of them playing on the side of their weakest foot and both have pretty poor weak foots. On watching them though, they weren't cutting inside at all which you would probably expect due to them being on the wrong foot side Expand
Doesn't sound unreasonable to me that they don't cut inside when they play as wingers, even with the opposite foot side. Also not dismissing me at all, seems like you see the same as i do with wingers.
CBP87 said: I've added that but unfortunately it didn't help when testing. Although its a improvement what you've got, I am still seeing players averaging over 10 dribbles per game. I've watched full games and I literally for the life of me figure out what Mitoma is doing different to Doku. Both are hugging the line, both are pretty much isolated, but Doku passes and Mitoma runs Expand
I know we can see the roles the AI manager uses, is there a way to see instructions somehow? The only thing i can think of is the ingame commentary where you might be able to decipher some instructions.
At least from the season i've run here, every single player in the premier league that finished with a higher dribbles/90 than Martinelli and Madueke were playing as a winger.
So i've done a little experimenting trying to get more dribbles per 90. Here's the tactic nothing special.
First of all i tried to have my players as the role wingers to emphasize the wide positioning. Below are the player instructions.
The idea is keep them wide. Make fewer runs because i want the ball in feet so they can make their dribbles, and fewer risks because i want them to focus on attempting dribbles not passes. Byline to try and get that knock past and just run towards the byline. Also played left footed on the left and right footed on the right to encourage the down the line dribbles. Another thing to keep in mind is, most tactics i see have underlaps on both sides, i've found underlaps again encourages the wide player to pass, which is what i didn't want, so i've on purpose not had that instruction on.
Here's the numbers through 10 games:
Madueke plays on the left and Martinelli on the right. Nwaneri has been subbed on for Madueke.
Here's an example of what i at least think it is you wanted to happen. I replied on the SI forum aswell, there's a GIF of what i assume you are looking for.
dancamp said: Is this the schedule I can use literally every single week across all of my youth and main teams if I'm not trying to 100% min-max and just want to set it and forget it? Like clearly I want to min-max a bit because I'm here but I don't want to have to worry about travel days or schedule tweaks when I have 2 home vs. 1 home and 1 away game, etc. Expand
For the most part yes. The only issue with youth teams specifically is, if you have the setting of matchdays being wednesdays and saturdays, for some reason some youth teams still have games on other days, primarily sundays. I still use it as set and forget, and haven't had any issues for my youth teams, just be aware that it can occure that the games are scheduled on other days-
I agree training definitely needs an update. However it's honestly hard to believe they will ever really bother. Most people will buy the game anyway, and as long as they change something in the tactics making every year, enough people will get the next version of the game.
At this point there's so many things i'd like to see in the training part of the game. The issue also just could be if they make that part of the game too complicated, it becomes hard for new players to get into. Already seems to me that they are making the game more simple and easier to play, not more fun or interesting in my opinion.
We’re now approaching matchday 15 out of 34 in the league, so I thought I’d give you a quick update.
I originally wrote this post at the end of the 2027/28 season. I eventually finished 3rd, behind Cracovia in 2nd and my friend, who won the league for the second year in a row.
During the summer, I decided to be much more aggressive with my squad rebuild.
I sold players who:
Had less than 12 Pace and 12 Acceleratio*.
Were tagged with negatives such as “Injury Prone,” “Inconsistent,” or “Doesn’t Enjoy Big Matches,” as well as the different negative variations of those traits.
For my new signings, I looked for players who were considered at least “Good enough for the PKO Ekstraklasa”, while also requiring a minimum of 12 Pace and 12 Acceleration and avoiding the negative traits mentioned above.
As a result, I basically rebuilt the entire squad.
Out of the 22 players I had last season, I only kept 6 former starters/substitutes. I realised that 16 of my 22 players were either too slow, too inconsistent, or uncomfortable in big matches.
### Results so far
We’re now at the beginning of November, and so far the results have been very encouraging.
In Europe, I made it through all three home-and-away Conference League qualifying rounds, knocking out some fairly strong opponents such as Rennes and Oslo along the way.
I’ve started the Conference League league phase with a 0-0-1 record, with the only game so far being an away defeat against Sofia.
Domestically, things are going even better.
I’m currently 1st in the PKO Ekstraklasa with a 4-point lead, although I did lose against my friend at home.
There’s a slightly frustrating story behind that one: the game was level when my PC crashed in the 75th minute, so we had to replay the match… and I lost the replay.
### Conclusion
Obviously, the season is still far from over, so I’ll keep you updated.
For now, though, the results have been very positive and the squad overhaul seems to have made a real difference.
I’m still a little cautious because last season started in a similar way before I went through some terrible runs of defeats and draws later on.
But so far, so good.
Thanks again to everyone who gave me advice and helped me with the start of this season!
Good to hear. Hope you keep us up to date, kind of invested in you battering your friend now lol.
Does anyone have a save file for testing tactics themselves theyd be willing to share? Ideally something that is setup so you can holiday through a whole season very quickly.
Thanks in advance
Here is the goal
https://fm-arena.com/thread/19823-wulbol/
Two players with most dribbles per 90 minutes
Autumn (AWB): 3.67 and 3.29
Spring (WB lower): 6.26 and 4.71
Autumn / Spring
Those results were with Burnley, so you should expect more dribbles with a better team.
It's funny i decided to try the tactic i've been using with Arsenal at West Ham because i wanted to see Adama. He's basically turned into Gareth Bale.
So the worse teams less dribbles might be not always be true. The thing i'm noticing is because i'm a lesser team, we are more often given space to work with.
The same that i showed earlier
Make sense in my head aswell. In terms of getting more from a good dribbler. If you have a good dribbler do you want more players close congesting his space? Or do you want him to have space to dribble in. Along with the player in the game not recognising a good passing option so decides to dribble instead.
I've had some success. So I've straight up nabbed Maresca's formation, not that it's revolutionary.
Here are the instructions.
Here are the results after 19 games in the league.
One instruction that seemed to instantly improve the dribbles per 90 numbers, was removing the progress play instruction. When i've had it on balanced it produces more dribbles per 90 than both focus flanks and focus middle did.
Doesn't sound unreasonable to me that they don't cut inside when they play as wingers, even with the opposite foot side. Also not dismissing me at all, seems like you see the same as i do with wingers.
I know we can see the roles the AI manager uses, is there a way to see instructions somehow? The only thing i can think of is the ingame commentary where you might be able to decipher some instructions.
At least from the season i've run here, every single player in the premier league that finished with a higher dribbles/90 than Martinelli and Madueke were playing as a winger.
First of all i tried to have my players as the role wingers to emphasize the wide positioning.
Below are the player instructions.
The idea is keep them wide. Make fewer runs because i want the ball in feet so they can make their dribbles, and fewer risks because i want them to focus on attempting dribbles not passes. Byline to try and get that knock past and just run towards the byline. Also played left footed on the left and right footed on the right to encourage the down the line dribbles.
Another thing to keep in mind is, most tactics i see have underlaps on both sides, i've found underlaps again encourages the wide player to pass, which is what i didn't want, so i've on purpose not had that instruction on.
Here's the numbers through 10 games:
Madueke plays on the left and Martinelli on the right. Nwaneri has been subbed on for Madueke.
Here's an example of what i at least think it is you wanted to happen.
I replied on the SI forum aswell, there's a GIF of what i assume you are looking for.
For the most part yes. The only issue with youth teams specifically is, if you have the setting of matchdays being wednesdays and saturdays, for some reason some youth teams still have games on other days, primarily sundays. I still use it as set and forget, and haven't had any issues for my youth teams, just be aware that it can occure that the games are scheduled on other days-
At this point there's so many things i'd like to see in the training part of the game. The issue also just could be if they make that part of the game too complicated, it becomes hard for new players to get into. Already seems to me that they are making the game more simple and easier to play, not more fun or interesting in my opinion.