Something I struggle to understand. When there is a huge bug in the game (which isn't related to the match engine) I fail to see why SI can't release a mini patch.

There are two major flaws in the game currently, that for some reason havn't been addressed in the patch. These are the Spanish registration bug (and other countries) and the ridiculous board confidence bug.

Now these things have nothing to do with the match engine, therefore, fixing them should be *relatively* straight forward to fix. I certainly can't understand why after the game has been released for almost 6 months neither have been addressed.

Are you down on staff numbers SI? Almost every new feature you've put into this game, which wasn't many for FM08, doesn't work at all properly. The best 11 is ridiculous. Players that left my club 6 years ago can suddenly get initiated into my all time best 11, and put into random positions. What?

FM08 is a good game, I have a game in 2014, but it is increasingly hard to play it, and I have to play it sporadically at best, because the bugs just annoy the crap out of you very quickly.

When you get a few years into the game, these are the most annoying things:

1) Just because a player is on my shortlist, it doesn't mean i want to sign him. Secondly, it doesn't mean that there has to be a media report about me trying to sign each and every (seemingly) single player on my shortlist. Do you think the media has access to to Alex Ferguson's personal shortlist? No. When you get to 2014, your shortlist can be substantial, and when it comes to transfer window time, i can get literally 100 news items about me being interested in players.

2) The regens are too poor. When you get to 2014, all of the top clubs are full of 32-35 year old players, with very few good regens.

3) the famous shots straight at the keeper bug. I know the scorelines were too high in the beta patches, but how on earth could someone see tens of shots being passed straight to goalkeepers each game and say, "yes, this is much better".

4) Why do the governing bodies of football suddenly adopt the old fashioned lead balloon footballs? Curling shots anyone? not in FM08.

5) No matter how bad your tactics are, nothing should enable a Blue Square North team to pass the ball like Arsenal.

6) Defenders have no brain. The only goals I concede come from when my defenders stand still for no reason. Or when my defender with 18 pace and acceleration is out paced by a striker with with pace 12.

7) Get your definition of defensive line right. If i want a deep defensive line, this should not only apply to when the ball is in your own half. That is just plain idiotic.

8) There does not have to be a controversial incident every 2 games. Controversial incidents that have nothing to do with the end result should not be made such big deals of. If I win 3-0, but i had a goal disallowed, I don't much care.

9) Player asks to be transfer listed. I transfer list player. 2 weeks later, he decides he wants to stay. I say no, you can stay on the list. Player mounts a one-man mass picketing approach to getting off the transfer list.

10) Managers in FM are nothing like they should be. Since when does Arsene Wenger, season after season, splash out £20 million on a player that are 27+? Why do no ai managers make cheap signings of potential stars? Season after season, the top 4 english clubs make about 5 transfers on average, the cheapest of which for around £9 million.

11) Why do the same clubs keep repeatedly, and repeatedly offer £0 for my young players despite me having a clear asking price set?

12) Why do my board accept offers "in the best interest of the club" for my star youth players that is well below their value?

13) Scout reports are useless. I try to sign players who are DMC's. My stupid scouts always compare him to my MC's, and say "he would be the 7th best MC in the squad" Yes, great, I don't want him to player there! I have the same problem with AMC's.

14) For god's sake fix team talks! Since they were introduced, its always "player x didn't seem to be listening" which is clearly not true because you can tell when your team talk has had an effect.

Thats about it. Very annoyed at this game because it could have been fantastic, but at the moment its like FM2005 for me, too hard to sustain playing it for more than a couple of days at a time.

I think the spanish registration bug is not quite straight forward and the reason they didnt bring out an emergency patch is as once they have found what has caused the bug fixed it and tested to see if it had a knock on effect, fixed anything that caused a knock on effect, tested that, found another bug due to a knock-on effect, fixed that etc. I think SI are taking their time as they want to make sure they can fix as much as possible and make sure any 'major' bugs are fixed as if they do bring out a patch and people complain people will just accuse them of rushing it anyway.

I think the spanish registration bug is not quite straight forward and the reason they didnt bring out an emergency patch is as once they have found what has caused the bug fixed it and tested to see if it had a knock on effect, fixed anything that caused a knock on effect, tested that, found another bug due to a knock-on effect, fixed that etc. I think SI are taking their time as they want to make sure they can fix as much as possible and make sure any 'major' bugs are fixed as if they do bring out a patch and people complain people will just accuse them of rushing it anyway. </BLOCKQUOTE>

Great, but thats clearly not the approach they took to some of the fixes they made in 8.0.1, even in regards to the match engine.

7) Defensive line- please tell me this is not true.........

I can't for the life of me remember in which topic i saw it, but one of the SI guys said it was either that, or it doesn't take effect until the opposition has posession. Either cases are utter rubbish - i want my defenders to stay deep sometimes even when we have position so that we can't get caught out by a long ball - which isn't at all possible in this game.

I agree- no wonder we have a 1v1 issue, as you say even a deepset defensive line can then be caught up the pitch which is an issue I have too.

I also assume that this is why my DR/DLs also never stay back regardless of instructions.

Bloody hell- why on earth would it be like this? We may as well not have the option its that useless.

I agree- no wonder we have a 1v1 issue, as you say even a deepset defensive line can then be caught up the pitch which is an issue I have too.

I also assume that this is why my DR/DLs also never stay back regardless of instructions.

Bloody hell- why on earth would it be like this? We may as well not have the option its that useless. </BLOCKQUOTE>

Yes indeed. It should also be said that using defensive mentality doesn't help this issue either - there's nothing you can do to stop your full backs from going forward.

I agree- no wonder we have a 1v1 issue, as you say even a deepset defensive line can then be caught up the pitch which is an issue I have too.

I also assume that this is why my DR/DLs also never stay back regardless of instructions.

Bloody hell- why on earth would it be like this? We may as well not have the option its that useless. </BLOCKQUOTE>

IIRC it's becuase im FM06 it was to easy to press the opposition into their own half by using a high d-line, so instead of fixing the problem of teams not being able to work the ball around or play one over the top to release a striker/midfielder, they decided to 'break' the defensive line.