If any of my posts smacked of condescension I'll apologize for that right now.
I think you'd agree that a game that allowed build up play and detection of weaknesses actually was 08. It wasn't perfect but it was certainly headed in the direction. That game that you say you'd love to play, was already about until they kind of took it a completely different (and arcadey) extreme.
On the issue of form, I think they're actually implementing that for MM this year. But that's one of the few changes to the mode because I guess they were too busy creating practice mode and the set-piece creator, along with 360 dribbling.
As for that last part, I don't really agree with the argument that I have to actually get to the game frequently (when I live on the other side of the pond) to be considered a true fan. If that's in fact what you mean't, excuse me for jumping the gun if you weren't as I get that far too often from anyone I talk to from the UK. It's bad enough being an American to some of them, but being a fan of "soccer" and a fan of Man Utd, lol, I'm really in trouble then.
I agree that soccer as a sport allows for a ton of different combinations and possibilities on the pitch but can you really explain why EA don't seem to be trying to replicate any of that. It's pretty clear that your techincal players like Scholes/Pirlo/Iniesta don't matter in the midfield. Hell, your midfield doesn't even matter as you can't hold the ball up without getting rammed off of it. The aspect of soccer that we see in FIFA is what happened in precisely two games in the whole of last season's EPL campaign, end-to-end matches that ended in 4-4 and featured some pretty mind-boggling mistakes for both teams in the 'Pool/Spurs and 'Pool/Gunners matches. That's NOT how every game plays all the time. It's not even how games go most of the time. That's my gripe.
It just gets annoying when people praise the game so much because it's FUN. I like a fun game as much as the next person but on some level ignoring all of FIFA's shortcomings, or writing previews (not just on this site) that praise the game to no end when it hasn't become apparent that they're actually tweaking the game in the manner that they should, simply because it's, as one guy put it "the most fun you've ever had playing a sports videogame," kind of shows that you don't really know what the sport is about.
That's not me trying to be a jerk, I'm just saying that if you look at soccer in this game, it should become apparent that this isn't how the sport is always played yet it's praised to no end because it's so much fun. Imagine if Madden reverted back to the "take a fast QB and just run, run, run" era. Every sports game developer, including EA and Rutter, are preaching realism. Like someone said, the games only really realistic because of the authentic kits, stadia, and teams but I don't think the dev crew believe that. I think they seriously believe, or at least know that the casual crowd who don't know the sport will hear that "most realistic game" line and eat it up because they don't know how it should play.
I'd certainly welcome some sliders but that probably won't help with online. Thing is all the talk from the devs at other sites seem to point towards them actually wanting to make the game sim, but then impressions from a number of guys who got to play the game early at playtests and what not, seem to say otherwise (for instance techincal midfielder are still not very effective and the run at a guy and ram him off the ball technique is still in the game).
Are you on the 360 or PS3? I'd be interested to go against you to see how you play the game.