Football Manager Series Catch-All

Mr Bismarck wrote:

Well then.

I only won the home fixture 6-3.

ONLY 6-3 ??

Hope you bollocked them for the 3

Saw this on Football Manager Reddit today (the first time I've been on.) Remember, no matter how much you think the game has it in for you, it hates this person more.

IMAGE(https://i.redd.it/s2ryjh8muhz11.png)

davet010 wrote:
Mr Bismarck wrote:

Well then.

I only won the home fixture 6-3.

ONLY 6-3 ??

Hope you bollocked them for the 3

Two of their four shots on target in the ten-nil came in the last minute when we were already ten ahead and I was shouting at the tiny pixel men that I was going to be furious if they let in a goal. Like Manuel Neuer-levels of angry when he let in a goal in the 7-1 over Brazil.

I'm a hard taskmaster.

Downloaded a Facepack, and noticed that according to the player pictures, Danny Rose...

IMAGE(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bd/Danny_Rose_2018-06-28_1.jpg/200px-Danny_Rose_2018-06-28_1.jpg)

...was a striker at Mansfield Town. Except Danny Rose is a left-back, and doesn't look quite like Danny Rose.

IMAGE(https://www.mansfieldtown.net/api/image/cropandgreyscale/492c6f94-ea52-48ab-a7c6-396f25660a84/?preset=square&greyscale=false)

Nevertheless, he's leading League 2 in scoring!

Just noticed, in my FM game, ManU sacked Mourinho by December 5. After that game against Palace that they should've lost, I wonder if it'll prove prophetic?

Jose lasted until March 19 in my game, replaced by Pellegrini (!?). They finished 6th last year and are 6th again after 10 games, so Peller's tenure is uncertain.

Pep got fired after the end of the 18/19 season - bit harsh, they finished 4th but got to the CL final, losing to Atletico Madrid in extra time. Oddly enough, Simeone and Pep have now exchanged places.

Getting promoted is a bad idea and I advise against it.

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/ToBOhy8.jpg)
Click for larger version.

After opening the season with three straight losses (2-1, 1-4, 1-0), my Captain came to me with six or seven other players and complained about the atmosphere in the dressing room and how miserable everyone was.

I clicked the "assertive" button so hard I almost broke my mouse and then selected "have you morons considered actually winning a game of football?"

Then we beat Halifax 3-1 and everyone cheered up.

I am the new Pep.

I've had to abandon my 4-1-2-2-1 pressing nonsense and move to a really stodgy 4-4-2, with most of the players set to defensive outlooks to survive in the Vanarama National, because it turns out there are some real football teams in this division whose players are actual professionals and stuff.

Tranmere even have a diamond screen. Those haute bourgeoisie f*ckers.

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/SLuTrlp.jpg)
Even the imgur url says "slut"

Our first dour win was 2-1 away to Hartlepool before we completed the screenshotted 1-0 win in exotic Tranmere.

For the game against 'Pool I had decided to bring back an out-of-favour Forward, Jamie Lucas, and play him as a Poacher. I was rewarded when he scored twice inside the opening seven minutes, which meant the next 83 minutes were interminable, as the Monkey Hangers went all out to get back into the game.

They were smashing shots on goal, flying into tackles and had something like 70% possession in the second half, but the only goal we conceded was on a quick break from one of our corners. So I quickly put everyone on "stay back" for those.

Hartlepool identified Lucas as our one real threat and beat him to a pulp, forcing him off in the second half with a badly gashed leg, meaning that I had to go back to pairing my lumbering redwood Target Men for the game against Tranmere.

I decided to leave one as a "Poacher" though and it was funny watching a man with 8 pace try to play on the shoulder of the last defender.

Appropriately, our goal came from a corner swung in toward those magnificent giants. They all missed it and it was tucked in by our 5'8" Central midfielder.

So I'm in the nose-bleeding ear-popping position of 16th with a massive two-game winning streak.

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/FK7LdqT.jpg)

Notice Hartlepool and Tranmere's one red mark each.

Most annoying thing in the division thus far is Solihull's 3-0 away win at Dagenham and Redbridge. I'd started referring to them as "The Roadies" as they were on a streak of four games that all finished 1-2.

Three wins in your last four matches, nice! Climbing the table!

Oh Belgium.

dejanzie wrote:

Which team did you pick?

Oh my God, how did I miss this twice? I'm sorry dejanzie, I totally wasn't ignoring you, I just literally did not see your questions!

Anyway, I selected R White Star AC Daring Molenbeek. French wikipedia has them down as simply Racing White Daring de Molenbeek, because there is very little information about them in English, as is probably reasonable when talking about a Belgian lower-league side.

Regarding that picture of Prenton Park, Mr Bismarck - that nouveau riche TV screen looks like someone's error, as the real ground only has some sort of commentator's hut there

IMAGE(https://www.footballgroundguide.com/images/image/product/property/prenton-park-tranmere-rovers-fc-main-stand-1420020549.jpg)

So our season is going...

Well, we started out GREAT, as I mentioned. But that 11 point lead started getting whittled away as we couldn't keep our form going in the New Year. 11 points became 6, and suddenly became two in March as our closest competition just would Not. Stop. Winning. and I was, admittedly, beginning to panic tactically. My strikers couldn't hit the broad side of a barn, and my 35-year-old CB's pace had dropped just enough that he had officially become a liability on defense. Unfortunately, he was also a Team Leader and considered a Key Player, and I was afraid dropping him outright would cause a revolt I could little afford.

Nevertheless, I made some slight tweaks to my original tactic and we managed to finish the season 2-3-1, which kept us in first place by a single point, thanks to our competition deciding that was the time to stop winning every freaking game on earth.

I was going to celebrate, except this is Belgium, and Belgium likes to keep its playoffs interesting. At the end of the season, the Top 4 teams go into a Promotion Playoff, where you get 50% of your points from the season and then you play the other three teams twice. And I'm a bit scared, because I have a serious problem in the FM games with repeat games against the AI. So we'll see how the actual season goes.

Question for our Liverpool fans:

If Klopp won the League/Champions League double this year, he becomes a legend forever at Liverpool, right?

I mention this because he just did that in my game. Take a look at the PL...

IMAGE(https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/947341929959898750/7AAB017FC11D2DD016FBA9A00E177FC89124694B/)

ManU entered the relegation places in October and didn't escape for good until December, which explains how Jose got fiyiyiyired. Never got higher than 9th.

Meanwhile, Man City exchanged 1st place with Liverpool 5 times throughout the season but went 7-6-6 in the second half of the season and got knocked out of the CL by Porto in an insane tie (Porto won the first leg 4-0, City won the second leg 6-2 but went out on away goals). So that got Pep fired.

Prederick wrote:

Oh Belgium.

dejanzie wrote:

Which team did you pick?

Oh my God, how did I miss this twice? I'm sorry dejanzie, I totally wasn't ignoring you, I just literally did not see your questions!

Anyway, I selected R White Star AC Daring Molenbeek. French wikipedia has them down as simply Racing White Daring de Molenbeek, because there is very little information about them in English, as is probably reasonable when talking about a Belgian lower-league side.

Don't sweat it

You couldn't have picked a team with a more convoluted history. In the last twenty years alone, the club (or what the fans would identify as their club) went through two or three - depends on who's counting - mergers with lower tier clubs to avoid bankruptcy.

Fans will always refer to their club as RWDM - Racing White Daring Molenbeek. This club has its own complicated merger history, with Daring Club being the most prominent 'part'. Daring Club won 5 titles and a Cup before WWII. RWDM won a title in 1974/75 and reached the UEFA Cup semi-finals a few years later.

Prederick wrote:

Meanwhile, Man City exchanged 1st place with Liverpool 5 times throughout the season but went 7-6-6 in the second half of the season and got knocked out of the CL by Porto in an insane tie (Porto won the first leg 4-0, City won the second leg 6-2 but went out on away goals). So that got Pep fired.

I'm not sure I've seen a game yet where Pep survives the first season at City. OK, he lasted til the end of the season in mine, but only because they got to the CL final.

dejanzie wrote:

Fans will always refer to their club as RWDM - Racing White Daring Molenbeek. This club has its own complicated merger history, with Daring Club being the most prominent 'part'. Daring Club won 5 titles and a Cup before WWII. RWDM won a title in 1974/75 and reached the UEFA Cup semi-finals a few years later.

Well holy turds. Lost on away goals to Athletic Bilbao in 76-77.

I must admit, there's a slight bit of disappointment that I didn't choose a team that had absolutely never tasted top-level glory, but I guess technically, RWDM hasn't. Except they have, because they're a frankenstein club made up of about 15 other clubs at this point.

davet010 wrote:

I'm not sure I've seen a game yet where Pep survives the first season at City. OK, he lasted til the end of the season in mine, but only because they got to the CL final.

Which is weird, because usually FM gives head coaches too much slack compared to real life. In my game, Real Madrid hired Massimiliano Allegri from Juve, and he won the Copa del Rey, UEFA Super Cup and Europa League (after getting KO'd from the CL in the group stage), and by my guess, even that treble would have a RM coach on the hot seat.

In Dec 2019 in my Celtic game, here's a summary of the Big Six

Man City - finished 4th, reached CL final, binned Pep at the end of season, now got Simeone.
Liverpool - finished 1st, Klopp still there.
Spurs - finished 2nd, binned Poch in Dec 19 as didn't get out of CL group, now got Jaap Stam though he's interim only because they've just interviewed me
Arsenal - finished 3rd, Emery still there. Presumably because 3rd is 1st for them
Man U - finished 5th, binned Jose Mar 19, now got Pellegrini (!) Not sure for how much longer, they were in the EL draw as one of the CL dropouts, like me.
Chelsea - finished 6th, Sarri still there surprisingly enough. Abramovich must be too busy trying to sort out a passport to get back into the UK.

The lamentations of various women are nice and all, but what's truly best in life is hearing your supporters whine about your new signing and then this is his debut.

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/VI8laag.jpg)

"Keen to see what [he] had to offer" indeed. That's not what you said when he showed up.

Prederick wrote:

I was going to celebrate, except this is Belgium, and Belgium likes to keep its playoffs interesting. At the end of the season, the Top 4 teams go into a Promotion Playoff, where you get 50% of your points from the season and then you play the other three teams twice. And I'm a bit scared, because I have a serious problem in the FM games with repeat games against the AI. So we'll see how the actual season goes.

Update: We got promoted! We beat the 2nd-place team 2-1/1-0 back to back, and are in the confusingly-named Belgian First Division B! And now we're professional, which means I'm going to need to revamp a lot of contracts.

Congrats!

Nice work Pred! "First Division B" makes Belgium sound like a warm up for Managers who eventually want to fall into the labyrinth of calamity that is the Brazilian lower leagues.

From what I've seen of the latest FM games, your early season league prediction really defines the outcome of your team talks. Am I wrong? I went up with Darlington with very few signings at first. I was basically considered to finished bottom of the league, so now all my team talks have hints of "we are underdog here" about them. Despite the fact I have a number of loan players who are extremely well rated, as well as plenty new signings who are decent enough for the league. I haven't lost in my first 5 games. I sort of feel at this point the team should believe in themselves a bit more.

I wonder if it's anything to do with the relative status of your club and the opposition. If you're new to the division (especially if you went up and weren't predicted to), then your relative stature or whatever it is will probably be lower than everyone else in the new division, hence the 'underdog'. I'm not sure how much that changes during the season.

I could be wrong, of course - let us know if it changes after more games to reflect the circumstances a little better.

Mr Bismarck

I've decided to go down the Brazilian Lower Leagues route that you recommended as something different, but when I go to start the game my only options are the first and second tiers. Are they any below that in FM19 - I've looked on the Steam workshop and sortitoutsi, but can't find lower divisions than that.

Were they the only ones available in your game ?

I think it only goes down to the second tier.

If it hasn't changed then in the second tier you get to play in regional and national championships, which means you can be in the First and Second divisions at the same time. Plus one is based on your points finish and the other is based on the average of your last few years.

It's very odd.

Ah right, thanks - I was somewhat confused by there only being two tiers, although there are kit packs for tiers 3 and 4 on Steam.

Anyway, fans of Vila Nova (GO) FC are now in for a treat. Or despair. Certainly the journalists for my first press conference were surprised, nay SHOCKED that I didn't turn up in a suit and bowler hat, don't know the Queen or any of the royal family personally, or that I had made my way to Goiania.

Further despatches from The Spring Capital forthcoming !

Useful video on a changed part of the game I was totally unsure about for a while.

Out of frustration and waywardness I fired up a FM2012 game.

... Sweet Jezus ...

Ever since CM changed to FM and certainly from some F2010 and forth, I always had the feeling the game was two or three steps ahead of me. No matter what I did, I couldn't Tamagochi the way into the players that I wanted.

Going back from a frustrated FM2017 to FM2012 is like a fresh breath of air. Finally it seems my tinkering does matter and players do listen.

I a broader perpective, I experience the same with almost every game. After Sid's Alpha Centauri, the CIV-series almost didn't came through anymore. FPS after Half Life and Unreal were meh... Heroes of Might and Magic IV and later... meh...

Seems I am stuck for the rest of my life with SMAC, Civ III, HOMM III, FM 2012, WoW Vanilla and Baldurs Gate. I think I can live the last 50 years of my life with that Allthoug some nice surprises like Subnautiqa and Rebel Galaxy are always welcome.

back to my Telstar Game in 2012. Wonder who will be World Champion...

There are few things that are quite like a FM game blowing up in your face entirely.

So things have gone REAL BAD WRONG at RWDM. We started the year off quite well, going 2-2-3 in our opening 7 games. But then, my aging DM (a Team Leader, but his physical stats are abysmal now) came to me, angry about his playing time. I tried to explain that he'd simply have to be patient, since his new replacement was playing well.

He threw a strop, which quickly spread through the dressing room. Suddenly, that nice start turned into five straight defeats on the bounce, including a Belgian Cup exit to Rupel Boom in the division beneath us.

I brought in a LOT of new players when we got promoted, as I didn't think the old guard could past muster when we got promoted, but there's a rebellion on in the dressing room now, and even giving the aforementioned DM a runout in the team hasn't changed anything (the defeats, of course, haven't helped).

It's bad. Like, my job isn't in jeopardy yet, but it's bad. I'm trying not to jigger with the tactic too much, but a large chunk of the squad is upset with me now, our results have gone sour, and i'm struggling for answers. It's been a while since I've gotten sh*tcanned in a FM game, but this team was expected to finish mid-table this year and my job security just dropped from "Stable" to "Insecure".

In a weird way, it's kinda fun!

Also, I should note, I think this is my favorite version of FM in years. It feels much more intuitive, more fun, the in-game action feels a whole lot better.

My only gripe is that the sim engine still isn't capable of figuring out the absolute dominance of Messi/Ronaldo. We live in a world where in each of the Big 5 leagues, the top goalscorer is likely to hit 30 goals or something nearby, but in my FM game someone led with Ligue 1 with a mere 19 goals, and no version of FM i've seen during Messi's career has managed to accurately represent how absolutely, insanely destructive Messi is (I suspect, because it'd break their rating system).

Other than that though, I really, really like this version of FM.