After noticing that some AI managers give barrows for one of his CM and takes it away very 3 minutes or so i started to question if this micromanagement in players instructions is realistic or not.

Reading some posts here i discovered that sometimes FM players and AI managers change their players instructions quite frenetically trying to find a way to win, but is it realistic?

IRL, can a Manager tell a CM to go back and forth every attack while at the same time telling his wingers to assume a free role, his whole team to use more direct passing and his fullbacks to stop running foward and everybody understands it perfectly and doesnt make mistakes?

IMO, only in half-time talks and using substitutions can a manager change the way his team is playing in a more drastically way without completely disrupting the tactical formation of his team.

And most of the time, what changes the look of a game is more of a change of momentum (a goal, a wasted penalty, a argument with the ref etc) than some tactical change that the manager made (except at half-time or when making subs - in these moments the tactical ability of a manager becomes more important).

Actually, I believe that, if IRL some manager tried to tell his players to completely change the way they're playing that would only lead to a collective confusion. But FM now, not only let me and the AI managers change drasticallly the tactical formation, but actually force us to do it.


what you guys think about it?

Do real life managers can micromanage their instructions during the match like we do in FM?

I mostly find it realistic, tbh.

For minor changes, it's the equivalent of shouting at players minor instructions from the bench. Irl, I see that happening all the time.

For major chenges, it's the equivalent of informing the team (through the captain) to use a different tactic that supposingly has been worked in training. If we can do that in the last 10 minutes, we should be able to do it any time we want.

Also, in FM players do make tactical mistakes and I also think that it takes them a few minutes to realise that the tactic has changed.

Having said all that, I really-really-really hate it when the AI keeps swapping its strikers every 2 mins, because there is no automatic way for me to swap my defenders. Sometimes I have to swap my DCs manually 9-10 times during a game (usually, this happens in continental games). But that's a different story, since striker swapping can be automatic.

@the OP: IRL I see managers shouting instructions from the sideline constantly throughout a match, even at the youth level. Presumably those are to impart some form of instruction to the player on the pitch. Why should FM not have changes being made?

@Lyssien: I do wish that the "explicit man-mark" instruction were a bit .. smarter. So for example, if I have my left-centre-back set to man mark X, and my right-centre-back to man mark Y, and the opposition switches X and Y, my two backs swap positions outright as well.

(Speaking of which, have you tried giving them the "swap positions" instruction with each other?)

Amaroq, yes, I 've tried that. So, I put my left DC on marking specifically their right striker, and also gave him the option to swap with my right DC. Unfortunately (but logically), my DCs ended up swapping irrespective of whether the strikers were swapping or not.

Simply put, man mark specific player should mean that. I'm not sure defender intelligence is good enough anyway atm which won't help the situation.

I saw Aberdeen play using 6 different formations, various marking set ups etc etc in one game against Hibs once. I generally bemoan this as why our games are awful though...