Gaming Football Manager 2016

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Any impressions from people who played a good deal of it (like more than a season)? Still enjoying an FM14 save but if the match engine is sufficiently improved I'd consider a switch.
The match engine is better than 2015 but IMO nowhere near as good as 2014 as it still doesn't allow you to implement different styles of play effectively and IMO is still too heavily geared toward attacking football. That said I'm commenting on the Beta version and I don't start the game as a top 4 side as that would remove any challenge from the game so my experiences may be different from others. I still believe that 2014 is the best match engine they have produced recently.
I played a season with Madrid and ended up 2nd, 2 points behind Barca. I found that my FM15 tactics file worked. Only for a bit. Keep having to tweak tactics every now and again. I've started a non league save with Nuneaton and hopefully this will be my long term save. Just need a non league tactic. The one I used for the Madrid save is not really suited for non league (played 4 lost 4 so far).

Match engine is better than FM15 but not as good as FM14 and the AI teams are really making some cracking signings. Southampton for example have signed Correa on loan from Ath Madrid as well as Berrardi from Sassuolo.
Yeah am still stuck on FM14 - I bought FM15 and everything but just couldn't get into it.
Might have to try FM16 by the sounds of it?
 

bosnian_red

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Have Reus, Griezmann, Memphis, Pjanic, Rooney, Wilson and Smalling injured currently (going into November 2017). Martial just came back from injury so isn't match fit... Going to be a tough month or 2.
 

Solius

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We're more boring on this than we are in real life. I've tried changing so many things around and it's always dull as f*ck. I just closed the game down 70 mins into a 0 - 0 with Everton because I was so bored. It's shite.
 

TakeMeHome

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We're more boring on this than we are in real life. I've tried changing so many things around and it's always dull as f*ck. I just closed the game down 70 mins into a 0 - 0 with Everton because I was so bored. It's shite.
I swear I thought I was the only one with this issue! :lol:
 

NoLogo

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For me at the minute 4-4-2 seems to way to go. My 4-2-3-1 worked reasonably well in my first season but after losing both super cups to City and Real without standing any chance in both games and getting trashed 4-0 by Tottenham in the opening match of season I decided to go for a Simeone style of approach. Hard tackling, creative players on the wings and two strikers while playing more on the counter with pressing at the midline. Has done the trick so far as I beat Chelsea and Arsenal quite comfortably in the next league games. I decided to buy Harry Kane on deadline day as my only two strikers were Martial and Rooney. got him for 35M € + addons for 50 league games and 20 goals, for a total max of 50M € which I think is a fair deal.

My CM duo atm is either Schweinsteiger & Kondogbia or for the lesser games Ajer & Schneiderlin. Sadly though I'm not finding any space for Herrera in this team atm since he just isn't strong enough defensively and I want to play two defensively strong CMs, well like Simeone does.

The wingers are also still a problem since I have to retrain a lot of my players but I have Januzaj back and he is doing fairly well on the left and Óliver on the right has shown some promise for the two games he had since returning from injury. Depay so far is the backup while Zivkovic is the backup on my left wing but I think about retraining Depay as a striker, maybe he does better there than on the wings.

current first team:

De Gea
Darmian -- Smalling -- Rojo -- Shaw
Óliver -- Schweini -- Kondogbia -- Januzaj
Kane -- Martial
backup players:
Johnstone, Zivkovic, Young, Depay, Rooney, Herrera, Schneiderlin, Ajer, Blind, Jones, McNair
 
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ottosec

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So, I got bored with United and moved to Villa. I'm third with 8 games left, 2 in hand, then I've done an Arsenal. I win one, draw 2, lose 5 and finish 6th, I also lose the Euro semifinal in between, with being 3-1 up after the home tie.
 
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NoLogo

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So, I got bored with United and moved to Villa. I'm third with 8 games left, 2 in hand, then I've done an Arsenal. I win one, draw 2, lose 5 and finish 6th, I also lose the Euro semifinal in between, with being 3-1 up after the home tie.
It feels like games can turn pretty quickly in FM16 and so far I don't really have developed a plan on how to stop this. The Euro Super Cup for example I went up 1-0 to Real pretty early on and dominated the first 20 minutes or so and after that it was only Real playing and I ended up losing 3-1. I tried to play more on the counter, standing deep and after that failed I tried to press more and play faster to use the space that Real left after chasing the lead, might have been better to just keep trying to counter attack them because somehow Ronaldo got in behind my defence way too often and scored two easy goals against DDG in one on one situations. I have yet to really get a feeling for this match engine on what works in which situation. In FM15 it was pretty straight forward. Control the game until you get the lead, then make the game faster so you can exploit the space your opponents leave and dodge their pressing better. In FM16 the opponents seem to be a fair bit smarter and don't just start mindlessly attacking you once they are a goal down.
 

Jonno

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I've had to switch to 4-4-2 with United, its the only consistent performing tactic. 4-4-1-1 for tough away games on counter.

My line up is

DDG
Darnian Smalling Zouma (£30m) Shaw
Reus (£70m) Bastian Mata Depay
Higuain (£50m) Aboubakar (£30m)


I can't get Higuain to score, he's got a bout 5-6 in the first 25 games, so Martial starts a lot of games in his place.

Currently sitting in 6th place, I just can't match the winning momentum that City, Arsenal, Liverpool, Spurs and Chelsea manage week in week out, too many draws, not enough goals. Too many 0-0 or 1-1. I've noticed that if you can score 2 goals you usually win, but getting more than 1 goal is impossible in most games, I was up against 9 man Sunderland at Old Trafford for 40 minutes with the scores locked at 1-1, I threw everything at them and we couldn't score.
 

ottosec

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It feels like games can turn pretty quickly in FM16 and so far I don't really have developed a plan on how to stop this. The Euro Super Cup for example I went up 1-0 to Real pretty early on and dominated the first 20 minutes or so and after that it was only Real playing and I ended up losing 3-1. I tried to play more on the counter, standing deep and after that failed I tried to press more and play faster to use the space that Real left after chasing the lead, might have been better to just keep trying to counter attack them because somehow Ronaldo got in behind my defence way too often and scored two easy goals against DDG in one on one situations. I have yet to really get a feeling for this match engine on what works in which situation. In FM15 it was pretty straight forward. Control the game until you get the lead, then make the game faster so you can exploit the space your opponents leave and dodge their pressing better. In FM16 the opponents seem to be a fair bit smarter and don't just start mindlessly attacking you once they are a goal down.

I agree, this years AI is the best I've seen in a FM game. It's not only tactics, but also transfers and how they handle you trying to buy their players. I really like it.
 

TakeMeHome

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Whats United's transfer budget in the game?
Is Aboubakar still a beast of a striker like FM15?


I have to agree with the fact that 4-4-2 is a consistent tactic. In my Nuneaton save I switched to that and I havnt lost a single game since losing the first 4
 

NoLogo

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I agree, this years AI is the best I've seen in a FM game. It's not only tactics, but also transfers and how they handle you trying to buy their players. I really like it.
Yeah the AI seems to have improved even in the transfers department as far as I can tell after 3 transfer windows. Especially City is competing for pretty much all the big talents out there. In past versions of FM you could always rely on the AI building a shitty team 3-4 seasons in, it will be interesting to see if this is still the case.

I also noticed that gaining reputation seems to be a lot harder now. Usually I would have expected my reputation to take a good jump up after winning the CL and the FA-Cup and coming second in the league but I remained at about the same level I was before and got even overtaken by some one club, can't quite remember which it was though.
 

Burrow

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I might not be the most popular guy at Old Trafford now, only after 4 games as well! Lost 2-1 to Liverpool away, won at WBA, draw against CSKA in the CL Qualifier and then a 8-0 loss away to Arsenal :lol:

Edit: Fair play to my players, they payed back the ticket prices to the supporters... :lol:
 
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villain

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Half way through my first season with Dortmund - i'm top of the league but Bayern are on my heels, they're constantly winning 4-0/5-0 :nervous:
 

Jonno

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Whats United's transfer budget in the game?
Is Aboubakar still a beast of a striker like FM15?


I have to agree with the fact that 4-4-2 is a consistent tactic. In my Nuneaton save I switched to that and I havnt lost a single game since losing the first 4
Yeah he is, I got him in and he has bagged 25 goals, still 10 games to go.

You get between £60m-£70m in the first season, the old 48 month payment option means you can spend well over £250m along with the sales of one or two players
 

NoLogo

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Wont be playable until a few patch away as always. Id probably wait till they got it on sale
I think this actually one of the best out of the box game engines I have seen so far. I don't feel there are any major bugs like there used to be in pretty much any other match engine. It will just, like always, take a while to figure the new match engine out and see what works and what doesn't.
 

Sky1981

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I think this actually one of the best out of the box game engines I have seen so far. I don't feel there are any major bugs like there used to be in pretty much any other match engine. It will just, like always, take a while to figure the new match engine out and see what works and what doesn't.
20 years on ward and they still can't figure out the basic balance of the game, many times in the past they'll have keepers conceding stupid crosses, and other obvious flaws in the game engine (which they should have fixed on the first run, since it's mostly the same algorythm)

My only beef with the game is that beyond year 5 the AI can't keep up with humans and the game goes boring, although admittedly I only play as United.

Looking forward to buying this on steam once it's stable enough, but hearing your input makes an encouraging urge to buy one :D
 

do.ob

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I think this actually one of the best out of the box game engines I have seen so far. I don't feel there are any major bugs like there used to be in pretty much any other match engine. It will just, like always, take a while to figure the new match engine out and see what works and what doesn't.
What about the fact that you can't play possession football. At. All.
 

NoLogo

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20 years on ward and they still can't figure out the basic balance of the game, many times in the past they'll have keepers conceding stupid crosses, and other obvious flaws in the game engine (which they should have fixed on the first run, since it's mostly the same algorythm)

My only beef with the game is that beyond year 5 the AI can't keep up with humans and the game goes boring, although admittedly I only play as United.

Looking forward to buying this on steam once it's stable enough, but hearing your input makes an encouraging urge to buy one :D
Well yeah this season there are no major bugs like keepers conceding crosses or stuff like that. It also looks like they changed the AI approach to transfers and you usually face a lot of competition for the hottest talents in the market. Gaya, the Valencia left fullback was on the market after he decided it was time to leave and pretty much half of Europe was after him for 50M €. He ended up at City who have improved on an already outrageous squad. It's too soon for me to really say how the AI can hold up after 4-5 seasons but so far it looks like the top teams moved away from only buying high reputation players that were in their thirties instead of the next Wunderkind on the market.
 

NoLogo

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What about the fact that you can't play possession football. At. All.
I haven't really tried that yet but I'm sure you can. It's just that opposition teams seem to be a lot more about pressing in FM16 than they were in FM15 which makes it harder but with my 4-2-3-1 I usually got 60-65% possession, even though my passing success rate always seemed a bit on the low side with barely getting above 80% in some games. I feel that this year it's a lot more about changing mentality of your team instead of playing with one mentality for 90 minutes. I usually start with control or standard and than watch how my opponents play. If they are playing through me with short passes I push up and play pressing if they launch long balls all day I drop deeper and try to draw them out a bit more with playing even more patiently. Of course I end up with the occasional game where no matter what I do the opponents just run circles around me, especially Arsenal and Tottenham seem to be a real pain in the ass in that regard this season.
 

do.ob

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I haven't really tried that yet but I'm sure you can. It's just that opposition teams seem to be a lot more about pressing in FM16 than they were in FM15 which makes it harder but with my 4-2-3-1 I usually got 60-65% possession, even though my passing success rate always seemed a bit on the low side with barely getting above 80% in some games. I feel that this year it's a lot more about changing mentality of your team instead of playing with one mentality for 90 minutes. I usually start with control or standard and than watch how my opponents play. If they are playing through me with short passes I push up and play pressing if they launch long balls all day I drop deeper and try to draw them out a bit more with playing even more patiently. Of course I end up with the occasional game where no matter what I do the opponents just run circles around me, especially Arsenal and Tottenham seem to be a real pain in the ass in that regard this season.
Even with a very heavy possession oriented tactic and an offensive minded top team I only average <55% possession and I have read many posts from people who are in the same spot. I think someone even mentioned that SI acknowledged that there is a problem with possession.
 

Burrow

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I got an average of 54,48% possession after 24 games, which is the highest in the PL. It's sort of realistic, considering the possession stats we are racking up in real life and our season average so far. Having 70+ % in average would've mean the game was broken imo..
 

Jonno

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Loving how United seem to finally be given a huge transfer budget from the off.

£70m in season 1
£180m in season 2

Plus so many players with big values like Blind, Rojo, Fellaini, Young that you can move on to generate more.
 

villain

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Madrid bought Fellaini in my save :wenger:
Had to sell Gundogan to Chelsea because he was so unsettled even though i'm unbeaten in all comps and top of the league

The players seem really eager to express their unhappiness at not being picked to play if they miss one or two games which is really annoying as i'm trying to bed in some wonderkids.
 

JB08

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Managed to win the CL in my 2nd season with United.

Epic game v Tottenham (who have turned into world beaters, for whatever reason.)

They hit the post twice, us once. We had three(!) goals disallowed, them two, including a 92nd minute N'Jie equaliser. Rojo headed in a corner to win it for
us 1-0.

Games like that are why FM is so amazing!
 

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So, is it as good as FM14 then....worth the effort to attempt it?
 

bosnian_red

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What about the fact that you can't play possession football. At. All.
I think possession stats are just flawed.. It works, but occasionally it'll say I have like 20% possession when I have 100 passes more then the opposition and am winning like 4-0.
 

Alex99

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Working on a UEFA Super League custom database for this. Hoping to release it before the Jan transfers update.
 

Art Vandelay

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I got rid of Rooney in the first January window for £40m to Chelsea :D
In that case I think I'll get it. Three seasons I had him, he was lucky if he made the bench he was so dire in the first half a season. I tried selling him in that first window, would he go? Would he feck! No one would make an offer, then after 2 years of trying to sell him, Chelsea offered to take him on loan, I talked them into buying him and he turned them down! Three seasons! He just sat there stealing massive amounts of money every week. I never did sell him, I ended up just not playing it any more.
 

Alex99

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In that case I think I'll get it. Three seasons I had him, he was lucky if he made the bench he was so dire in the first half a season. I tried selling him in that first window, would he go? Would he feck! No one would make an offer, then after 2 years of trying to sell him, Chelsea offered to take him on loan, I talked them into buying him and he turned them down! Three seasons! He just sat there stealing massive amounts of money every week. I never did sell him, I ended up just not playing it any more.
I had to let him go on a free on FM14. I played him for the 13/14 season and he ended up about 4th choice, then when I tried to sell him no one was interested. I only had one club get as far as offering him a contract and that was PSG (who had already bought Cleverley), but he turned them down because he's a bellend. Ended up lobbing him in the U21s until his contract expired and he ended up at Everton.
 

shaggy

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My whole team started crying when I striped Rooney of his captaincy and attempted to sell him. Nobody wanted him of course. Sadly I then lost 8-0 to Spurs and 10-0 to Chelsea, I guess because the team all hated me, so I just started a new game and accepted he was going nowhere.
 

nooshka

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Anyone found a good plug and play tactic with United yet, i've tried to implement my own tactics but always seem to be shit away from home.