FMM19 Ideas Series: Staff

 

FMM18 is now over six months old and if your anything like me you are still enjoying the game but as the weather gets warmer and summer arrives many of us start thinking about what improvements we will see when FMM19 is released. With the new game and the updated database will hopefully be a range of new features and improvements on existing features. So with this in mind I decided a series of articles about possible new features would be fun and start some discussions here on Vibe as we all have our own ideas of what we would like to see in the game. I can’t do this on my own though so I have put together a team to produce these articles.

So who is the team?

@Ashez: I guy who will need no introduction to Vibe as he has been around since pretty much the start of Vibe having joined in October 2010 and is currently top of the Vibe hall of fame. Ashez has played both FMM and before that FMH on both the PSP and mobile devices and so brings a wealth of experience on the game with him. In recent years he has started to lose interest in the game and I think this puts him in a good position to comment on what SI could do to bring that love back.

@NucleusNT: Nucleus isn’t a new member of Vibe but he has come to prominence this year with his excellent careers including three 1KC’s and a TT under his belt. He has been playing the game for a number of years and this has given him a good idea of some of the changes he would like to see brought to next year’s game.

@Foxy: The final member of the team is myself. I have only been playing FMM since April 2017 having played CM/FM on the PC since the late 90’s but it has taken over from the PC game in that time and FMM is now the only version of the game I play. I like to think that this experience of the PC version gives me a good perspective on what features from the full fat game would be good in FMM.

These are the articles we hope to bring you.

Article 1: You are reading this article now and once the introduction is done Nucleus and myself are going to discuss some changes we would like to see to backroom staff in the game.

Article 2: This article will focus on tactics in the game and will be brought to you by Ashez and PriZe. I’m excited about this one as they both have some very good ideas.

Article 3: This article will feature all four of us as we present a selection of ideas that could be brought to the game.

Backroom Staff

A clubs backroom staff are a vital part of any manager being successful, whether that be at the super clubs or down in non-league no manager can go it alone. Many managers take their backroom team with them from club to club as they need guys around them that they can trust to delegate jobs to and in the last couple of weeks we have seen assistant managers make the headlines as both Jürgen Klopp and Jose Mourinho have lost their long time assistants. This has led to comments and speculation as to how these two superstar managers will cope without there trusted right hand men. In FMM of course we do have backroom staff in the shape of coaches, scouts and physios and they do have an impact on players performance and development but could it be done in a better and more realistic way.

So without further ado I am going to hand you over to a man making his featured writing debut here on Vibe @NucleusNT with his ideas on scouting.

 

Scouting

NuceusNT: We are very limited at the moment on what scouts bring to the game. We have the choice of appointing a ‘first team scout’ ‘bargain hunter’ ‘youth scout’ or a ‘tactical analyst’. Each one of these scouts have a different set of skills e.g the bargain hunter searches for players who represent good value for money, and will search the market for players available on free transfers or are transfer listed. 

What would I like to see improved on scouts?

Well first of all I’d love to see a broader criteria when setting assignments

At the moment we can send the scout to a certain region of the world and decide if you want him to search for youth players or not. This can sometimes return a list comprising of over a hundred players for you to choose from. A new filter I’d like to see is to search by country/nationality, a drop down age range menu and the option to scout for a specific role in game e.g I want to search for a Dutch player between 23 and 26 years old with the attributes to play as a box to box midfielder or an inside forward. All this could be done whilst still having their specific skill coming in to play. So the bargain hunter scout would look for players within the criteria that represent good value for money and so on.

Furthermore, a nice feature would be to have more detail in the opposition scout reports.

Before each match we receive this message from our scout. Opening up this message brings us this image

It tells us absolutely nothing, apart from that Marquez is NY Cosmos’s star man and that they play balanced football. 

So what would I like to see improved on this?

First off it’s pretty clear we need more detail in these scout reports, for example why not give us the squad depth report of the opposition?

So for example, we would receive this from our scouts along with their predicted starting Xl for the match. This would change the way I personally look at each match. Take this screenshot for example. It tells us that L.A Galaxy have a very weak left hand side, right back and centre back posistions are also very weak. This would allow us to change tactic from the get-go before each match e.g for this match you could maybe decide to play down your right hand side to put their weak left side under pressure, or decide to play long balls centrally to upset their centre backs. Again, all this detail would depend on your scouts badge and aptitude, and would really bring the ‘tactical analyst’ into play.

Another addition I’d like to see added is referees on the opposition scout reports, just a brief description of the referee and how likely/unlikely he is to wave a card about. That could change your approach to tackling style. For example “Today’s referee is Mike Dean, he has a lenient approach to the game so committed tackling is advised” and vice-versa.

I personally feel that with these changes it would change the way we look at the game, and would improve the much needed scouting department.

Foxy: Some excellent ideas from Nucleus but what do you think about scouting in the game do you feel it needs improving or are you happy with how it is, in fact do you even use your scouts? Let us know in the comments below after you have read my ideas on how coaching could be enhanced on the game.

Coaches and Coaching

Foxy: At the moment when we look for coaches we have two things to consider and that is what badge does that coach hold and what is his specialism on the training ground. I have no problem with either of these things as of course in real life coaches do have to have qualifications and many do specialise in a certain aspect of training, these two qualities help us quickly sort the list of coaches into a shortlist of suitable candidates for the job we have in mind. The problem comes when we look through the shortlist as we have a list of names that are all basically the same ability and it makes no difference who we appoint as they are all the same e.g. We search for a gold rated attacking coach and we end up with a list of 14 people interested in the job.

Unless one of these coaches is without a club so he can be signed for free is there any difference in appointing Domenichini, Tamarit or anyone in between? Yes they have an aptitude rating as well but these guys are all gold coaches so that isn’t much of an issue. They will all do a good job in coaching my attacking players as they all have a gold badge and the club has state of the art facilities. I would like to see these coaches made more individual so that we can fine tune a coaching team to our exact requirements.

So what changes would I like to see? Well the players have individual ratings for there attributes so I would like to see the coaches have a rating for training that attribute. So for example an attacking coach would have a high rating in coaching shooting, passing and movement for example or he may only have a good rating in one of those attributes. This would allow us as the manager to identify who the right coach is for what we need and then be able to focus on areas of our players game that need improving. What this would also mean is that all coaches with the same badge and specialism aren’t created equal as they are at the moment. So coach 1 may have a gold coaching badge but he may only be good at coaching shooting with say 20 in that area whereas coach 2 may have a shooting coaching rating of 16 but his passing and movement coaching are much better than coach 1 so he may be better suited as he is a more all round attacking coach.

This adds a whole new dimension to building a coaching team as you may want to make a short term appointment to focus on an individual players attribute such as a young striker who needs to improve his shooting. With this in mind I would also like to be able to focus on an individual attribute on any player in the squad. This could be done in a similar way to training a player in a new position. In my current Atletico Madrid save I have this regen who I can only assume is Messi reincarnated.

  

I would love to be able to focus on his crossing so that I could use him more effectively as a winger and also so that he is more of a threat from set pieces. How successful this focused training is would then depend on the quality of my attacking coach at teaching crossing as well as the clubs facilities and also the players professionalism. It may be that I can only improve it by 1 or 2 points but it would make me feel more in control of the players development. Of course just as with position training the player may not be willing or able to improve in the area you want him to so we couldn’t just pick any attribute and it would improve so with the player above its unlikely as an attacking player that he would have any interest in improving his tackling however good the coaching was. To be realistic some attributes wouldn’t be able to be focused on such as aggression or leadership as these are personality traits and as in real life you either have these traits or you don’t.

Whilst we are talking about traits it would be interesting to be able to try and teach player traits in the game as at the moment it can feel like they just gain them at random. So perhaps you have a quick striker with good shooting and you want to teach him to try and beat the offside trap. Each coach could have certain traits they are good at teaching so you could again tailor your staff around the traits you wish your players to learn. Coupled in with that is the personalities of your players but also coaches. We get a list of players that a certain coach works well with but why is that the case. It would be interesting if coaches had personalities as well and again they could have an influence on your players through that personality. So perhaps you have an unselfish attacking coach and because he works well with your young striker he starts to pick up that personality as well leading to an improvement in his teamwork.

It’s great having backroom staff in the game but I really feel these changes would improve the overall feel and depth of having backroom staff, player development and training overall. It would also help us become more attached to our backroom staff and more inclined to take them with us if we change clubs.

How do you feel about backroom staff on the game, would you like to see improvements made or are you happy with the game as it is now?

Thank you for reading.

[Nucleus]

Thanks for the opportunity to express my views. It will be very interesting to hear other people’s opinion on the matter

[Rob]

Really interested read. Thanks guys. Totally agree on the depth of backropm staff. At the moment it almost feels a bit... pointless.

[Cockers2505]

Hi @Foxy apart from the Physio's which I always have 2 Prev and 1 Rehab I don't really get, or care about the Coaches and Scouts basically because do they make any difference? I hardly use the scouts as the reports are pointless and usually overrated in the price and wage demands, plus it's easier to search for a certain player yourself, so scouts to me don't do anything.

As for Coach's, I simply go for anybody with the highest Badge, usually I play from the lowest leagues unless attempting a challenge, so the coach either gets better through passing their exams, or I just get the next highest through Searching For Staff, so does it really make a difference, It depends on what your training type is that makes the difference between creating a average player, or a Star

So in my experience of playing football Managers games since late 80's, the Club Staff has never bothered me, they simply exist, my opinion, and mine alone would be to save the time and effort of worrying about backroom staff and put the efforts to improving other aspects of the game

My last note is that this is the best football simulated game 'period', i've played it since day one, and my only gripe, is not the bugs, the speed, search engine, none of this matters, my only gripe is the constant bitterness about cheats, who cares, are they hurting anybody, if someone wants to cheat, then so be it, they know who they are, and we can all see it, but to use this site to fight over it, well go to Facebook for example

Moan over, thanks for your time and efforts, all of you, its appreciated so much from people like me

Edited June 2, 2018 by Cockers2505

[Harish]

Smashing article guys,you've made some really brilliant points.

Staff for me has been always a bit of a empty shell in the game,just something which can be called a extra feature just for the sake of it,the only thing I can count as improvement on this year's FMM is that last year,I couldn't do a youth search in a specific region and only had the option to do a worldwide youth search, whereas this year I can do a youth search in specific regions but tbf I expected a bit more.The "Tactical Analysts" role which sounds so cool to hear doesn't do anything of note for me and like you guys said,a revamped opposition scout report should be implemented.On the Coaches side,I have nothing to say as you guys have hit the nail on the head,the absence of individual attributes have made the coaches completely lifeless,one of the best things I find in FMM is that feeling when I find one of my former players coming up in the staff search but it's completely nullified by the fact that he's no different from the next coach who has the same badge and aptitude as him.

Despite seeing these shortcomings,i haven't really talked about it because as much as it would be good to see improvements in this department,I always want to see match engine improvements and improvement in the tactics side first before everything else.

FMM 18 was a right step in quite some directions but there's still a lot the game can improve on and I would like to see atleast some of those improvements make it to the upcoming version of the game.

This article series is definitely gonna catch on like wild fire,its the correct discussion  at the correct time and I'm looking forward to learning what everyone's opinions are.

Once again,a brilliant article and I'm looking forward with interest for the next one.

[mulama]

For me I would like an option where I can inform the board I will be quitting at a certain time for example at the end of the season. Then maybe clubs should have a data center because the importance of data is growing day by day in football. More options for scouting should also be made. 

[Rob]

My big issue on the scouting front is more how the game generates players. I hate evogens/regens. I hate how I know how the game regenerates players and how subconsciously it ruins finding youngsters.

For example, say I scout for a striker in a few years time and find a young solid centre forward, who is Polish. Instantly I know that’s more than likely Lewandowski’s evogen, even though I wasn’t looking for him. I then automatically know that he is going to be good. I’m then left with a dilemma - do I sign him or not? Cos I actually scouted him and found him properly, rather than scouting for ‘Polish’, ‘0-21’, etc, then I don’t mind buying him.

And, no, making their physicals crap does not help with this.

[samhardy]

Staff are simply put just one of many poorly implemented features that was rushed into the game when they could have been much more helpful. They've been a waste of space since they came in, add absolutely nothing to the experience and I think I speak for more than just myself that they'd be better off not in the game at all. Coaches are an absolute joke, bug-filled excuse of a feature and seen as there's no evidence physios actually work that just leaves scouts that haven't changed since the PSP days.

[Woody]

28 minutes ago, samhardy said:

Staff are simply put just one of many poorly implemented features that was rushed into the game when they could have been much more helpful. They've been a waste of space since they came in, add absolutely nothing to the experience and I think I speak for more than just myself that they'd be better off not in the game at all. Coaches are an absolute joke, bug-filled excuse of a feature and seen as there's no evidence physios actually work that just leaves scouts that haven't changed since the PSP days.

With you on this one....i think on ome they defo dont help with fitness what so ever!

Like you said either get rid or a major revamp is in order.

With todays tech, especially tablets i'm sure they could cram more into the game surely.

[Dhxn]

Thank you for being more elaborate on the scouting. i said similar things about the scout function. What i would like to see more player news. Example: Bale's mother has claimed that he is unhappy in RM and would be looking to leave the club. Major clubs are on high alert.

 

Or something for backroom staffs. Example if a coach sees Kuki as injury prone, he recommends sending him for physio therapy to decrease the likelihood of injury. 

 

Or something like press conference. Like news would report they are predicting Tottenham are to finish 3rd in PL. They could interview the manager and then we would have the option to respond back. Stuffs like that seems interesting 

[bestmanager99]

I just want one main thing: a change to how reputation works, 

Then small things like having a club raking, like the leagues one. I would like to see as well the host country for all international tournements (only continents with qualifications the game shows it, continents without don't). I would like to see the draw pots in all competitions, like the World Cup or the Champions League

Edited June 2, 2018 by bestmanager99

[_LoGiC_]

Great articles, wonderful work!👍👍👍

To be honest, of all the features that fmm brings, the backroom staff and the way they work, its one of the things being overlooked by the developers and personally i dont find them being useful other than helping out injuries aswell as coaching...

Now these are probably the tings i wanted most for 2019 and they are :

1) A more revamped scouting system.

For example, like in PES 2018, you have this option of varieting your scouting network to find players specifically for one reason or another, lets just say you want to bolster up weak spots or trying to find midfielders of certain age groups, etc.Having that kind of flexibility adds so much feel and realness to the way scouting 

2) A more realistic board

Another feature from PES 2018 that i'm also referencing, if you play master league, you would see two differing modes, Classic and Challenge. Now in challenge mode, you are given a set of objectives by the club president in which you have to fulfil otherwise you will lose your job. Now i know that kind of feature is already in the game, but felt that it needs a bit of tweaking. Like lets say a much clearer objective, the competitions that the board feels that the club need to win, the style of play that the board wants to play, etc. I think that would be a fun way to play the game because then you have something of an objective to fulfil otherwise you could face the sack if you dont meet what the expects from you

[Rhys Rockley]

I think getting rid of the issue of large aging squads! I have been raising this for years but has never been fixed...when you get about 10 seasons into a save and you move clubs you often find your new club have a very large and aging squad mostly over 30 and with very long contracts! very annoying! Specially when nobody wants an old fart on £50,000 a week with poor stats who still has 3 years left on his contract! The game doesnt seem to have the AI for players to drop down the leagues as they age and their wages drop to match their standard. 

Also being able to scout specifics ie. Youth African striker....or south american defender

Also an easy, medium or hard setting!

The ability to arrange your own pre season friendlies and opt in to attend pre season tournaments like fifa whereby you get a cash prize

Also the ability to put a players role within the team in a contract ie first team, back up etc..the game seems to create it automatically and sometimes it causes players to want new contracts 

[bestmanager99]

Oh, and contracts to managers, and managers geting fired more easily. On FMM2018, for example, Pep Guardiola can stay 10 years in City just finishing fourth. The only way for a manager to get fired in a top team it's with a really bad start. This is dumb and unrealistic, and it's a main thing as well to be changed.

[Kennyd100]

There are lots of things now that seem way more unrealistic than in previous versions, like as soon as your two games into a new game 5 players suddenly want a New Challenge or want to move to a bigger club, or getting injured all the time and long spells out, seems to happen way to much now and I know players have a lot of powers now in the modern game, but that's not realistic , Mahrez is a prime example of it he's wanted away from leicester for 2 seasons now and he's still there, so in the game if you persist to do that then you should have the option to say to player if this fee is met you can leave, so you set the transfer fee price which will basically be a release clause for him and he could possibly give you feedback saying yes I'm happy with that or unhappy with that fee, so you can't just put say £100 million on a 25million rated player more realistic to then put say a 35 to 40 million tag on him.

[Ashez]

I really do love that concept as it wouldn't only add much needed depth to coaches it would also make every player you use almost unique to you. While we have limited tactical influence on how a player plays, in theory we could gain some control via this method of influencing the players stats to influence how he plays a role. A simple example would be stamina imo as just imagine how much more we could get out of our players if we could improve that stat? We could turn average joes in to reliable options as well as giving us more options in high demand roles like BBM and WB. Or even getting an aging playmaker to work on his defensive attributes to transition into a DLP. This would be a game changer but one that could also be ignored by casual fans who don't want to dump the time into it. 

One other area I'd love coaches to be improved is I wished they could leave and transition into full blown managers, I'd love to have to deal with a coach I helped develop leave my side and become the opposition, especially if younger coaches for example learn off of you. Perhaps this concept would work better if we had reserve team coaches but look at the media buzz of Gerrard potentially going after Rodgers, that's just amazing! Or LVG and Mourinho's relationship/history. 

My biggest complaint with coaches is they're meaningless, on most saves you pick them day one then never have to touch them again which sucks. Like the former player becoming a coach feature is ace but it's worthless as it means nothing, outside of a nice touch all the feature means is your players will suffer as you're potentially swapping a gold coach to a bronze one you have more attachment to. Sure this idea doesn't fix that issue completely but it would add even more personality and uniqueness to a save. 

[Dhxn]

Hi guys, i was thinking, manager-wise, why not allow us to take a mini test similar to the one coaches take in order to get from bronze to silver to gold badge? I do not find taking up the reins of Scotland or Wales and guiding them to European  championships. Yes, while you may be able to eventually guide them, why not provide an alternative similar to the one coaches use? In real life its possible but time consuming. Why not add more realism by adding this feature? What do you guys think?

[Ashez]

6 minutes ago, Dhxn said:

Hi guys, i was thinking, manager-wise, why not allow us to take a mini test similar to the one coaches take in order to get from bronze to silver to gold badge? I do not find taking up the reins of Scotland or Wales and guiding them to European  championships. Yes, while you may be able to eventually guide them, why not provide an alternative similar to the one coaches use? In real life its possible but time consuming. Why not add more realism by adding this feature? What do you guys think?

That's basically the reputation in game, it's just automatic instead of requesting it but you can select your starting reputation