Substitutions: two modest proposals
Is there a reason FCM hasn’t been updated to reflect the move most of the world’s top leagues have made to allow five substitutes (across three substitution windows) instead of the old three? Seems like this is a long overdue change that would better reflect the state of the modern game and enhance the quality of play in late-game scenarios when many squad members have fatigued.
Additionally, could EA please allow users to utilize the time after a goal (when the replay is running) to make substitutions? Currently, we get just a couple of seconds after the goal is scored (and before the replay has begun to run) to queue up changes if we want them to be executed before the ensuing kick-off and this makes it incredibly difficult to make the tactical substitutions that are often necessitated by going up (or down) a goal, particularly in late-match situations. For example, if my opponent gets a goal in the 75th minute to take a lead and I want to bring on a couple of fresh attackers to try and equalize, it’s currently extremely difficult to queue those changes in the few seconds after the goal and before the replay begins, and if I miss that window and the ensuing kick-off occurs then I have to intentionally give away possession to get my subs on. In Manager Mode this isn’t even possible (intentionally kicking the ball out) and in H2H it can be a death blow against a good opponent (because you may never get the ball back), and in either mode the clock runs so quickly that it’s not tenable to wait for the ball to go out on its own, as 15 minutes of clock time can easily elapse without a stoppage in play.
These are both modest proposals that would make gameplay more realistic and more compelling, and they ought to be fairly easy to implement, so I would appreciate EA consider them.