After a narrow win, I celebrate the positive dressing room reaction to my warm-down words almost as heartily as the goal that secured it. Seeing your lads equalise from a whipped cross minutes after you specifically demand that type of delivery is fists-to-the-skies joyous. That might sound like a negative to anyone who’s skipped a few editions, but it’s not once comfortably embedded.

There’s no breezing through weeks of the season in an evening anymore. Matchdays, too, are wonderfully elaborate, with press conferences, team talks and intricate tactical options creating the sense that each is a unique occasion. Do you start a star player returning from injury, despite your physio warning he’ll only last 30 minutes? Do you bollock an underperforming full-back at half-time, or calmly reassure him he can turn it round? At a press conference, do you fancy QPR or Cardiff to win at the weekend-and if you choose one, will the other use that as dressing room bulletin-board material next time you meet? Back then, transfers and matches were the big time sink now it’s the tiny decisions made every few seconds which tax the grey matter and cause whole weekends to disappear. They perform these roles satisfactorily, but it’s not ideal.Īfter mastering the menus-this year it took me two hours, novices are looking at 4-5-you see why ardent fans back ‘their’ game so lustily, and praise the deeper features that weren’t there in the supposed golden years. The only way for novices to bed in is by initially palming key tasks, such as training and scouting, off to AI-controlled staff members.

Where once player searches, team selection and vital stats were a cursor-click away, now every screen is a spaghetti junction of words and digits and pie charts, constructed upon a foundation of assumed knowledge, from which all roads seem to reach dead ends. The main interface is certainly overwhelming for new or lapsed players. Let’s kick off with those repeated criticisms-or are they compliments?-then.

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