Football Manager Series Catch-All

Oh, if only my boss knew that while I was working today, I was also finishing 6th with Motherwell in the SPL.

I've never had more time to play FM. Mixed feelings about that.

I've been playing New Star Manager on the Switch during a couple of those "You insist on taking an hour to explain something that could be summarized in 2 sentences" Skype/Teams calls.

When you know it's time for a new challenge.

P38 W31 D7 L0 F80 A7 (SEVEN!) Pts100

This is my first 3 season session for a while, and I have noticed a few things happening more frequently.

- players converting one-on-ones with the keeper (well, I had two wonderkids who kept doing it)
- players converting shots spilled by the keeper.
- VAR being as annoying as it is in real life, in one game I had 3 goals disallowed.
- managers going back to clubs that they've left.

After my 3rd season at Celtic, the Board decided to sell both my wonderkids, even though we had oodles of cash in the bank. So I quit, and have just taken a job at Wolves (who are 19th, but it is only September).

Celtic actually appointed my reserve team manager to replace me, which I don't think I'd ever seen before. He's changed my 4-1-4-1 to a 3-4-2-1, and lost 3 in a row. No, I'm not coughing to cover up my chuckle.

Oh, and Pred - on the subject of Motherwell, can I just say that I hate Chris Long ? Of the 7 I conceded, 3 were his.

Damn, that's quite a nice season Dave.

Edit: broke down and bought the game. Hope you're all happy.

We ain't got sh*t else to do, might as well try and get Havant and Waterloo to the Champions League Final.

Prederick wrote:

We ain't got sh*t else to do, might as well try and get Havant and Waterloo to the Champions League Final.

This is true, except I've never been great at the game so for me it would be more like "Get sacked after managing H&W for a season and a half." looks like we have a Paradox Game situation where I need to watch a Youtube video to get a handle on the interface again.

Alternative, you can do what I did, buy the editor and start playing lots of fun FM experiments like "What if I gave Anderlecht $500M and a Ronaldo-at-Barcelona equivalent striker?"

(Answer: He scores 20 goals in 16 games and is immediately bought by Manchester City in the first transfer window.)

I had forgotten how good this game is.

You all weren't kidding about the improvements they've made to morale, team talks, and press conferences over the years (FM16 is the last version I played). I'm actually doing all those things instead of delegating them to my AssMan. Did delegate training since that's all new to me and I'll have to do some reading up on that to do it properly.

Didn't actually sell Almiron in my Newcastle save. I got frankly terrified at the size of transfer fees these days and decided spending a bunch of money without having scouting reports would be a bad idea. He's been doing a job out-of-position on the right - not producing much but he works hard at least.

Allan Saint-Maximin has been amazing for me though. Through the 3rd round of the FA Cup he had 10 goals and 5 assists on the season and like real life was basically my entire attack. Just a joy to watch him dribble.

Roke wrote:

You all weren't kidding about the improvements they've made to morale, team talks, and press conferences over the years (FM16 is the last version I played). I'm actually doing all those things instead of delegating them to my AssMan. Did delegate training since that's all new to me and I'll have to do some reading up on that to do it properly.

I'd be curious to hear what you think as you play more. I really like the morale mechanic and I don't think any other game comes close to having it impact play as well as FM does now. However...

I feel like it needs a level up. The press conferences, team talks, and player talks get repetitive fast, and once you know the magic buttons you end up using the same responses to almost everything. Some parts are just tedious. For example, an easy way to boost a player's morale is to praise work ethic every two weeks or so. It's really helpful, I've found, to stall and reorient a team that's starting a bad run of form. You can do these a couple of times per month before players react negatively to them. But to do them, you have to manually select each player on your roster and perform the same series of clicks. It takes maybe 5-10 minutes to go through everyone each time, which is just a silly thing to have to do in a game.

I've no idea how to fix it, other than include more variety. But a lot of the player and press interactions border on morphing into a text-adventure as is, so I'm not sure if more variety is an answer that would provide more fun.

The good thing is that most of the repetitive elements are super fast to plow through, so it only takes a second or two to praise good performances after a match, or give the team an effective pep talk before a match.

I do think it'd be cool to include event cards, like Crusader Kings 2, to bring into the world rarer and unique player and team events. That'd be super fun.

Things you don't want to see in the press the day before your away game at Everton.

"Seaone and Tyrrell to meet in 'El Sackico'"

I'd been at the club for 8 games at the time. Everton were 5th, I'd already faced Man City (who were 1st) and Arsenal (2nd).

2-2 draw and a subsequent 2-0 away win at Bristol C (7th) have seen me climb to the heady heights of 15th - they were 18th when I took over.

Despite only dropping to 7th, Everton did subsequently bin their manager.

I had a nice first season with Newcastle. Finished 10th in the league and really only got hided by the Big 6 in 4 of our twelve matches against them. Losing on penalties to Sheffield United in the 5th round of the FA Cup was a bit of a gut-punch. Michy Batshuayi (off the transfer list for £14m and reasonable wages) and Alphonso Davies (£17.25m) were my big January signings and both performed well. Davies had a peach of a goal in the FA Cup in his debut.

Most importantly, we had a takeover in the fall so I went from badmouthing Lee Charnley in the press to saying I'm happy with the directors.

Bit worried I wheeler-dealered too much in the summer window now (7 squad or better players in for £100m, including Adama Traoré to get all the dribbles, and 5 out for £95m, including Hayden for a club record £36m and £33m for Almiron). Hoping to challenge for 7th next season.

Godzilla Blitz wrote:
Roke wrote:

You all weren't kidding about the improvements they've made to morale, team talks, and press conferences over the years (FM16 is the last version I played). I'm actually doing all those things instead of delegating them to my AssMan. Did delegate training since that's all new to me and I'll have to do some reading up on that to do it properly.

I'd be curious to hear what you think as you play more. I really like the morale mechanic and I don't think any other game comes close to having it impact play as well as FM does now. However...

I feel like it needs a level up. The press conferences, team talks, and player talks get repetitive fast, and once you know the magic buttons you end up using the same responses to almost everything. Some parts are just tedious. For example, an easy way to boost a player's morale is to praise work ethic every two weeks or so. It's really helpful, I've found, to stall and reorient a team that's starting a bad run of form. You can do these a couple of times per month before players react negatively to them. But to do them, you have to manually select each player on your roster and perform the same series of clicks. It takes maybe 5-10 minutes to go through everyone each time, which is just a silly thing to have to do in a game.
.

Yeah, they're still repetitive but with the feedback you get and the assistant recommending what he thinks is best I don't feel like I'm flying blind, which I did when they went from just 5 team-talk options to adding the emotions on top. Once I got knocked out of the FA Cup and had nothing to play for I did get my AssMan to handle the rest of the press and team talk duties in the matches but as long as there's something to play for I think I'll keep on doing it.

Is it just me or is the Wonderkid label more prevalent than it was years ago?

Or maybe I just notice it more because it's front-and-centre in the player description in scouting reports now.

Hope you're all well.

It does seem like there are a lot of them - my game is coming to the end of season 4, and assuming I don't get fired, I have 3 signed up for next season at Wolves (1 French DM, 1 German CB, 1 Portuguese AM)

I do get confused by the end of the month Board feedback I'm getting. I got a few B's and the rest C's, and somehow that translates to an E overall ? Apparently me not signing Portuguese players is not fulfilling the vision of the Board. Who are Chinese, I believe, not Portuguese.

Even the wonderkid I've signed for July doesn't count, apparently.

Let me put it this way - I'm not buying a property in the West Midlands any time soon.

"...and a superb last minute winner here for Wolves at Old Trafford sees them finish a strong 10th, after being in 18th when Tyrrell took over..."

Next day, called to a meeting with the directors, who say that I need 11 points in the next 5 games to save my job. Of course, this will be next season, so I could be playing Arsenal, City, United and Liverpool for all I know.

Or, I could just clear my desk and be looking for other jobs over the summer, when they are available. Which is what I'm doing.

davet010 wrote:

I do get confused by the end of the month Board feedback I'm getting. I got a few B's and the rest C's, and somehow that translates to an E overall ? Apparently me not signing Portuguese players is not fulfilling the vision of the Board. Who are Chinese, I believe, not Portuguese.

Even the wonderkid I've signed for July doesn't count, apparently.

Let me put it this way - I'm not buying a property in the West Midlands any time soon.

It really should be "sign more Jorge Mendes clients."

Anywho, 2020/21 Newcastle United season

Premier League Finish: 9th
League Cup: Knocked out in 3rd-round @ Blackburn (2-2; 5-3 on penalties)
FA Cup: Knocked out in 3rd-round @ Millwall (2-1)
Top goal-scorer: 10 (Allan Saint-Maximin, Mich Batshuayi)

Season summary:
IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/Tv6JdRl.png)

Decent season, spent most of it tweaking my tactic to get some decent attacking play and I think I've finally got something. Of course the Cup performances were abysmal, I didn't even rotate for the FA Cup and we went behind 2-nil in the first half.

The summer transfer window was busy again, but I'm keeping 9 of my first XI from last season so hopefully we'll have some cohesion to start the season. My big signing was Jonathan David for £25m. I had a £27.5m deal for him sealed last summer but he failed his physical with some torn knee ligaments.

I do see myself buying more English players than usual. I'm not sure it's all down to Brexit but there seem to be some decent players available at good prices.

Roke wrote:

Is it just me or is the Wonderkid label more prevalent than it was years ago?

I've now decided this is definitely the case.

Joined Borussia Moenchengladbach after leaving Wolves - BM had finished 6th last season and still binned their boss.

The team and the u-19 squad has FOUR wonderkids, and I was able to pick up another two in summer. Two of them are now out on loan, one is bossing the CM position, and another has taken the AMR spot away from Breel Embolo (who I seem to remember as being a wonderkid in FM16 ? He was certainly highly touted).

And something I don't recall seeing before - one of my wonderkids, levered away from Celtic, joined me and within two weeks I got a message to say that he'd acquired a new trait, Dictating Tempo. Not bad for a 19 year old with 20 SPL games behind him, who's now averaging 7.3 after 10 games for me.

That Celtic signing sounds tasty Dave.

Start of my 2020/21 season in the league:

W @ Arsenal
W vs Man Utd
L @ Burnley
W vs Man City
L @ Bournemouth
D vs Leicester

Yeah, he's currently on the left hand side of a midfield triangle, in a 4-1-4-1 system. Tried him with a wonderkid who was already at the club on the right hand side, but they got a bit overrun, so paired him with a 32 yr old BBM, and put a 26 year old BWM behind them, which is working nicely.

2d highlights have him just picking apart opposing midfields. I'm envisioning him as something like Steve McManaman when he was at City, only this version can pass as well as point. And actually puts in some effort.

He's played 10 games thus far, so I'm keeping an eye out for Bayern Munich scouts. No mentions yet from their Mouths of Sauron (Matthaus is the usual one IRL), but we shall see. Might try negotiating a new contract with a stratospheric release fee.

Maybe it's just because I have the perfect setup with 3 pacy good dribblers, but counterattacking off of opposition corners seems to be almost a cheat code. I know in real life countering off an opposition corner is actually efficient but leaving two up top, my other pacy guy defending the short corner, and a midfielder who can pass outside the area and I'm just getting loads of counterattacks.

I've been stuck in the "just one more match" loop all evening. Things are going pretty well.

Norwich got a takeover and put in a £112m bid for Matty Longstaff. He didn't want to go there but I probably should have accepted that anyway, he's merely a good EPL player. Ultimately I didn't want to screw anything up by having him out the door.

Roke wrote:

Norwich got a takeover and put in a £112m bid for Matty Longstaff. He didn't want to go there but I probably should have accepted that anyway, he's merely a good EPL player. Ultimately I didn't want to screw anything up by having him out the door.

£112m ?? What season are you in ?

I'd have put him in the boot and driven him to Tractor Country myself for that. You could pick up 3-4 very good players for that.

davet010 wrote:
Roke wrote:

Norwich got a takeover and put in a £112m bid for Matty Longstaff. He didn't want to go there but I probably should have accepted that anyway, he's merely a good EPL player. Ultimately I didn't want to screw anything up by having him out the door.

£112m ?? What season are you in ?

I'd have put him in the boot and driven him to Tractor Country myself for that. You could pick up 3-4 very good players for that.

;)

2021/22, so my third season. And yeah, I probably should have accepted it.

Had an unbeaten run since I complained about my losses to Bournemouth & Burnley ended by January fixture congestion.

Managed to get past Manchester United in the 3rd round of the FA Cup (on a replay) but lost the first leg of the League Cup Semis 3-1 to Liverpool, got beaten by Spurs in the league, and lost to bottom-of-the-table Crystal Palace in the league.

Newcastle United 2021/22 - A Tale of Two Halves

League Finish - 6th
League Cup - Semifinal (5-2 agg vs Liverpool)
FA Cup - 5th round (4-1 @ Leicester)

Season summary image:

Spoiler:

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/PScRBBc.png)

We had such a great first half of the season, going 15W 2D 2L which put us in 2nd place in the league. Things unravelled a bit with the fixture congestion in January, in the 2nd-half we went 7W 3D 9L thanks our goal-scoring rate fell by 1/3 and we allowed twice as many goals. On the bright side, our last mathc of the season against Bournemouth was a 6-4 goalfest.

Cataldi, my DM, won the PFA and PWA Player of the Year awards with 3gl, 11ast, an a 7.55AvR in 27 matches. I took home Manager of the Year.

Not cashing in on Longstaff was a big mistake. We weren't given any more cash to strengthen in January, despite negative net spend this season, and I could have brought in Renato Sanches for about £20m, who would have been an upgrade in the short-term. Hakim Ziyech was the only strengthening done in January, on loan, and he was ineffective with 1gl, 2ast, and a 6.76AvR in 12 appearances.

Looking ahead to the summer I want to bring in one top-class player (preferably at DM) and upgrade at rightback.

47 points at halfway was only good enough for second ? Blimey.

Out of interest, if your DM was the player of the year, why do you want to upgrade him ? And is he a DLP (in which case there are a number of players that I might suggest), or a BWM/DM type (in which case, I'm still looking, although you might be able to pick up Daley Blind relatively cheap by now in your game).

davet010 wrote:

47 points at halfway was only good enough for second ? Blimey.

Out of interest, if your DM was the player of the year, why do you want to upgrade him ? And is he a DLP (in which case there are a number of players that I might suggest), or a BWM/DM type (in which case, I'm still looking, although you might be able to pick up Daley Blind relatively cheap by now in your game).

Liverpool have been unbeatable every season.

And yeah... I guess my DM desires made no sense. I am using DLP in that role and the player of the year still surprises me - my previous DLP DMs and my backup all consistantly have great average ratings (though not the gaudy assist totals, although this dude's my primary set piece taker).

I would love more of a ball-winner back there but those do seem harder to find.

Roke wrote:

Liverpool have been unbeatable every season.

I'm always amazed at how far FM games diverge from each other after the same start point Looking at the Prem in my game (which is now at Oct 2023), the premiership has gone Spurs/City/Arsenal/Arsenal, with City finishing 2nd to Arsenal both times. City won the Cl 3 years on the trot, and Pep is still there (as opposed to FM19, where he rarely lasted more than a year). Klopp left Liverpool in summer 2020 to manage the German national side, and retired in Dec 2022.

davet010 wrote:
Roke wrote:

Liverpool have been unbeatable every season.

I'm always amazed at how far FM games diverge from each other after the same start point Looking at the Prem in my game (which is now at Oct 2023), the premiership has gone Spurs/City/Arsenal/Arsenal, with City finishing 2nd to Arsenal both times. City won the Cl 3 years on the trot, and Pep is still there (as opposed to FM19, where he rarely lasted more than a year). Klopp left Liverpool in summer 2020 to manage the German national side, and retired in Dec 2022.

Oh wow, Klopp retiring is something else.

Liverpool have 3 straight titles with 100, 94, and 85 points and the 2021 Champions League.

Pep didn't fare so well at City, won the 2020 FA Cup and finished runners up that year but was sacked in 2021 after Man City finished 5th. He's now at AC Milan Diego Simeone came in, finished 5th and won the FA Cup and was sacked after his first year replaced by Quique Setién.

Easter weekend and social distancing means I did nothing but play FM. Thus, another update.

Newcastle United 2022/23 - Dubai Congestion

League Finish: 7th
FA Cup: 5th round (1 - 0 @ Spurs)
League Cup: Winner (2-3 vs Manchester United)
Europa League: Semifinal (1 - 3 agg vs Bayer Leverkusen)

Season summary image (New and Improved™ - now with stats tab)

Spoiler:

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/565pdBw.png)

Pretty weird season. We started terribly and I was worried I'd get the sack, but we went on a good run of form from September all the way through February, with the Dubai Break splitting things up a bit. League matches every 3-4 days in February really forced us into more rotation in the league than I like to do and I still lost my best two wingers to injury for 3 weeks at the same time. The cup runs were fantastic, we beat Barcelona in the quarterfinals of the Europa League.

Sold my player-of-the-year DM in January to China for £69m and replaced him with a dude from Chelsea off the transfer list. My average rating leader this season was my backup so outside of set pieces (I now have nobody good at them) we didn't miss him much.

Looking ahead to next year, I need to drop Lascelles down to my 2nd XI as he's not good enough but I don't want to lose his leadership. Integrating three wonderkids who did well on loan (a ST, AMR, and DC) means I'll be selling to make room in my 2nd XI as well to start integrating them, though the DC might get straight into my first XI.

I'm also hoping to get a more clinical winger, on either side, to bump Saint-Maximin or Traoré down to my 2nd XI. I've already brought in a number of good prospects in the summer window but I think it's time for me to spend big on somebody so I can take a step forward. I did have a £43m bid for Pulisic accepted, even though I'd prefer not to buy American, but his wage demands were outrageous.

Roke wrote:

Easter weekend and social distancing means I did nothing but play FM. Thus, another update.

I noticed your time on Steam with this. I'd say you're getting your money's worth!

Seems as if you're close to taking that next step up, nice work!