Football Manager Series Catch-All

Without knowing which things you don't like, all I can say is that you can pretty much delegate most things that you don't want to be involved in - I've palmed off training, interviews and staff contract negotiations before I've had my first brew in my new office. I do always pull back scouting responsibility to me, though.

If there's a demo to download, why not have a go at that ?

Last one I played was 2018 and I tried so hard, like I had a game with Harrogate going, started like a train, my main striker was banging in goals for fun then it's like the game was like "nope, can't have this" and they didn't even look like winning for the next 4 months. That striker went from scoring for fun to not been able to hit a barn door from 2 yards out. And nothing I did seem to have an effect. Morale just plummetted because the strikers cat had died or something and the spiral began.

I don't want one tactic to rule all, I just want drops in form to feel realistic and not feel like the game has decided I needed to lose now.

Just looking at my hours played on stream

FM12 - 175hrs
FM14 - 133hrs
FM16 - 36hrs
FM18 - 30hrs

Kind of reflects where I started to fall out of love with this game.

onewild wrote:

Last one I played was 2018 and I tried so hard, like I had a game with Harrogate going, started like a train, my main striker was banging in goals for fun then it's like the game was like "nope, can't have this" and they didn't even look like winning for the next 4 months. That striker went from scoring for fun to not been able to hit a barn door from 2 yards out. And nothing I did seem to have an effect. Morale just plummetted because the strikers cat had died or something and the spiral began.

I don't want one tactic to rule all, I just want drops in form to feel realistic and not feel like the game has decided I needed to lose now.

Just looking at my hours played on stream

FM12 - 175hrs
FM14 - 133hrs
FM16 - 36hrs
FM18 - 30hrs

Kind of reflects where I started to fall out of love with this game.

I feel like there is an 8- to 12-game window that you have before the AI just slams the door shut on an existing tactic. I've had much better luck developing two tactics with enough similarities so that I'm not confusing my players but with enough differences that the AI can't lock in on anything. I have a sense that player rotation helps too, as I think the game IDs key players to shut down. Every season in FM20 I've had one player start out on fire only to see them drop to almost no production after a month.

I totally get the feature-creep of the game though. I've been micro-managing my seasons for a while, and they are taking me an embarrassing amount of time to play. I'm having fun with it, but I can understand how that becomes too much time for many people.

Really ? I've been basically using the same tactic for 8 seasons, albeit in three different countries. It's a 4-1-4-1 essentially, with a DM shielding the back 4. DLP and Mez in centre mid with 2 wide players and a CF. Runs on gegenpress, but I've converted from WB to FB. To go attacking I just swap out the DM for an AM and turn it into a 4-2-3-1, although I'd consider swapping out the Mez for a BWM.

To echo Godzilla's point, there is a fair amount of rotation, but I run a small squad overall - there's 9 subs in the BL, and I only tend to have 2 or 3 players outside that.

Speed wise, I'm at the start of season 9, and I think the save is at around 95 hours.

davet010 wrote:

To go attacking I just swap out the DM for an AM and turn it into a 4-2-3-1

Yep, this to me would be enough of a change. I'm using a 4-1-2-3 (4-1-4-1 according to the game) defending wide to push attackers to the DM in the middle. My variant is a 4-3-3 that pulls the DM out for a standard midfielder and then defends narrow because of the lack of a DM in the middle. I constantly tinker with roles of the midfielders but I think that's enough variation to mess the AI up.

davet010 wrote:

Speed wise, I'm at the start of season 9, and I think the save is at around 95 hours.

I'm about 400 hours now in 4-5 seasons. I'd guess that more than half of that time is doing video stuff or just with the game open but not playing. Still, I'm probably running about 40 hours per season. I spent about 20 hours on getting from May 30 to August 5 of my current save.

In my defense, there are a crapton of games in the lower leagues of English football. 46 league matches, maybe 8 friendlies, maybe another 10 matches with cups and other stuff.

I'd guess though, that 25 of the 40 hours of a season are spent on finding new players because we got promoted. If we were in the same league, that would take a lot less time. Promotion with a small wage budget takes me forever to try to solve.

We did it.

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/ytiJo0C.png)

Managed to beat Celtic with an injury-time winner in my third-to-last match to go top of the table, coasted in the last two matches.

Had a poor run of form beginning in January with a bunch of players unsettled due to transfer interest. I was preparing to sell a bunch of lesser-mentality types this summer (except for Badé, he's just too good) and I still think I'll do a bit of that. Plus I have a few young players on my reserve team who deserve to get into my 2nd XI.

"And they'll be dancing in the streets of Queen's Park tonight..."

davet010 wrote:

"And they'll be dancing in the streets of Queen's Park tonight..."

Yup. There's new, old, top team in Glasgow.

Amusingly , Scotland leapfrogged Germany & France to move from 6th to 4th in the UEFA coefficient table, which means 4 Scottish teams in the group stage of the 2031/32 Champions League. Decent chance Germany will climb back ahead after next season but things are set up well for Scotland after that.

19 of our players were in 2030 World Cup squad (12 from my 1st/2nd XI, the rest from the reserves or my Chelsea-esque Loan Army). England beat Croatia 1-nil in the final to win it.

and finally, just for you Dave, I saw the headline "Lennon makes sensational return to Man City" and thought Aaron Lennon had become their manager (though he was never at City). But nope, it's Neil Lennon taking the job less than a month after he resigned from PSG.

Blimey, that's a bit of a reach. Although in CM2 and similar eras he was the non plus ultra at no 10. I used to have a sheet of paper with my achievements in one of my City saves, think I won the Prem 7 years out of 10, CL 4 times, and I remember that one of my players had a season average rating of 9.35. Lennon was good for probably 15-20 goals per season.

Oh, and top team in Glasgow? Someone(thing) would like a word.

IMAGE(https://media.gettyimages.com/photos/kingsley-the-partick-thistle-mascot-is-seen-during-the-betfred-cup-picture-id1018847684)

Godzilla Blitz wrote:
davet010 wrote:

To go attacking I just swap out the DM for an AM and turn it into a 4-2-3-1

Yep, this to me would be enough of a change. I'm using a 4-1-2-3 (4-1-4-1 according to the game) defending wide to push attackers to the DM in the middle. My variant is a 4-3-3 that pulls the DM out for a standard midfielder and then defends narrow because of the lack of a DM in the middle. I constantly tinker with roles of the midfielders but I think that's enough variation to mess the AI up.

davet010 wrote:

Speed wise, I'm at the start of season 9, and I think the save is at around 95 hours.

I'm about 400 hours now in 4-5 seasons. I'd guess that more than half of that time is doing video stuff or just with the game open but not playing. Still, I'm probably running about 40 hours per season. I spent about 20 hours on getting from May 30 to August 5 of my current save.

In my defense, there are a crapton of games in the lower leagues of English football. 46 league matches, maybe 8 friendlies, maybe another 10 matches with cups and other stuff.

I'd guess though, that 25 of the 40 hours of a season are spent on finding new players because we got promoted. If we were in the same league, that would take a lot less time. Promotion with a small wage budget takes me forever to try to solve.

I can't pinpoint the exact playtime, with the occasional idling and having another aborted game of about 20h. But my last FM18 save would have been around 50 hours after one season, with about 20h of those in pre-season. Then I just didn't feel like going through another pre-season cycle again. I know you theoretically could finish a season in half that time, but that would not be me

I'm almost ready to admit that not finishing in the top-3 of Manager of the Year after winning the title by 19 points (after play-offs, which halves the points up to then) played a rather big part in that decision too

Roke wrote:
davet010 wrote:

"And they'll be dancing in the streets of Queen's Park tonight..."

Yup. There's new, old, top team in Glasgow.

Congrats! That's got to feel good! Most excellent work. What's next?

dejanzie wrote:

I can't pinpoint the exact playtime, with the occasional idling and having another aborted game of about 20h. But my last FM18 save would have been around 50 hours after one season, with about 20h of those in pre-season. Then I just didn't feel like going through another pre-season cycle again. I know you theoretically could finish a season in half that time, but that would not be me

I'm almost ready to admit that not finishing in the top-3 of Manager of the Year after winning the title by 19 points (after play-offs, which halves the points up to then) played a rather big part in that decision too :-)

Oh, good to hear I'm not alone there. I think my favorite part of FM is the offseason. I love hunting for, finding, and signing players. So I pretty much don't care how long it takes.

That's crazy stuff with Manager of the Year. You so deserved it.

Godzilla Blitz wrote:
Roke wrote:
davet010 wrote:

"And they'll be dancing in the streets of Queen's Park tonight..."

Yup. There's new, old, top team in Glasgow.

Congrats! That's got to feel good! Most excellent work. What's next?

My Cinderella run to the semifinal a few seasons ago has me thinking I might eventually be able to win the Champions League if I hold onto Badé and my star striker and actually use my first XI in all matches in Europe.

After that, I think I'll start a new save. Was thinking of trying the San Marino challenge, that always looked interesting, but the club was dissolved in 2019 so that's no longer an option. I'm thinking either Montréal Impact but only acquiring French-speaking players or a smaller club in southern or eastern Europe.

I am back to vacationing between matches, at least outside the transfer windows. It just saves so much time and for big matches I can just end the vacation a day early to do the press conference.

I haven't played since 2018, having previously played every iteration since the mid-90's. Once it got to 30+ hours a season I just couldn't afford the time along with everything else I wanted to play. I get the most enjoyment out of long (6+ season saves) and they just weren't feasible anymore. Granted, everyone has their own playing style and pace varies as a result.

With all that said, I DO still love the game, and enjoy reading all your stories. It gives me the itch to try again in FM 2021 but I'll probably continue my hiatus. Keep the stories coming!

F*ck Liverpool.

IMAGE(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EYbFvgSWkAMggm6?format=jpg&name=large)

Won the League Cup handily; Won the title with a draw on the last match of the season against Celtic in our last match at Lesser Hampden, overcoming an unjust red card 30 minutes in; Destroyed our bogey team, Hibs, in the Scottish Cup final.

I just needed to win this to complete the quadruple and probably put an end to my save but we never created much.

Not bad considering I had -£292m net spend and had to leave my 2nd-best CB and RB out of my Champions League squad though because you can only register 3 replacements in January. Think I'm going to go all-out in the transfer market this summer to make a push to win the Champions League.

And Germany is once again treated (?) to the sight of a balding Englishman holding aloft the Meisterschale - well, 2 actually as it's a bit heavy so I've roped our captain Tommy Doyle in to help me. We've bored our way through the season, then had some alarums towards the end..we went to 17th placed Dynamo Dresden and were 3-0 down after an hour..I think the 91st minute equaliser was the team's attempt to stop me exploding. An away trip to RBL (4th) in the 3rd last game was looking grim when they scored first, but a scrambled goal from a corner just before half time calmed the nerves. With 65 mins gone, our IR Harvey Elliott beat three men and fired a shot across the area. My shouts of 'WTF??' were stilled by the delightful sight of a white circle with a red no2 neatly sliding the ball into its own net with no one even close.

Things I've noticed this season (number 9 of the save).

- Harry Kane and Dele Ali are still at Spurs. Kane is still in the England squad.
- Man Utd manager Bruno Lage won the CL for the second time. But they haven't won the Prem for 2 years..so they fired him.
- BM sacked their 5th manager in my 5 year stint in Germany. So it's farewell to Mark van Bommel, who's opinion of me as overrated was somewhat nullified by me doing the double and beating them home and away. Still, it probably didn't help him that they finished 5th, got thrashed 3-0 at home by St Pauli, or shipped 7 against Borussia Dortmund. That was typical Bayern, I was slightly rooting for them as Dortmund were 2nd at the time.

I'm now thinking that I've done all I can in Germany - let's see what becomes available over the summer.

(looks at jobs page...Bayern, Liverpool, Man Utd). So, nothing yet then.

davet010 wrote:

(looks at jobs page...Bayern, Liverpool, Man Utd). So, nothing yet then.

Another great season!

I'm hoping you end up France to knock PSG off their tower of cash.

Well, I got through another season at Queen's Park (2031/32). Began the season with a bank balance of £211m, ended with £6m.

Broke the Scottish transfer record three times. In the summer I brought in a wonderkid ML from Man City (£60m) and a bad-ass DC from Getafe (£68m). January brought in a MR from Villareal (£69m). The transfers meant I also blew up my wage structure, beforehand we topped out at £50k/wk but the record trio each got about £100k/wk each. For the first time we topped the SPL in wage salary and were 18th in the Champions League (£1.5m/week, about double the previous season's total).

We coasted to the league title, so much so that a couple of my stars got angry with me not playing them as much as they wanted because I was saving them for the Champions League. Alas we lost on penalties to Liverpool in the semifinal having won the home leg 3-nil before losing at Anfield. My star striker had a one-on-one chance in injury time of regular time but couldn't finish.

With the big boys all circling around my core (average age was apparently 23 last season) I think I'm just going to give the save one more season before moving onto something else. With the league not competitive it's quite boring to sim to the important matches and I admit I did vacation quite a few league games once it was apparent I was coasting to the title.

Roke wrote:

With the league not competitive it's quite boring to sim to the important matches and I admit I did vacation quite a few league games once it was apparent I was coasting to the title.

"And how did you see the match, Mr Roke?"
"Through the azaleas in the garden centre"

Knocking PSG off - no chance. They cantered to another Ligue.1 title by about 20 points. Though they haven't won the CL in all of that time - in my 9 seasons the score is Man Utd 4, Man City 3 and Barca 2. When I took over Borussia in 2023, the other offer I had on the table was Marseilles. They've gone through 7 (SEVEN !!) managers since then.. the guy who took the job when I turned it down lasted a magnificent 74 days.

I quite fancy the Premiership again (but only City), or maybe the Championship, as there are a few teams down there with good facilities, like Southampton. Italy might be an option with a Roma or Torino. I would go to my old German standby of 1860 Munchen, but I didn't set 3.BL as playable at the start and they've not made it to 2.BL yet. I could make it playable, but am unsure as to whether that would interfere with anything else.

Of course, there's always option zero. My chair is comfy, the coffee is better, and my German is improving - not quite to Trappatoni standards, but then my blood pressure is already high enough.

davet010 wrote:

They've gone through 7 (SEVEN !!) managers since then.. the guy who took the job when I turned it down lasted a magnificent 74 days.
.

That sounds realistic to me.

I'm going all-in in an effort to win the Champions League.

IMAGE(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EYvNMCqX0AAk6iY?format=jpg&name=large)

(Don't know why, but if seeing attributes is your sort of thing here you go: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EYvM840W...)

This must be what Harry Redknapp must feel like. Well, except for being at -£151m net spend this season and -£16m over the past two.

Edit: Of course the dude gets a red card in the 2nd leg of the First Knockout Round against Manchester United and we lose 6-4 on aggregate.

"This must be what Harry Redknapp must feel like. Well, except for being at -£151m net spend this season and -£16m over the past two."

Just need to leave a bankrupt smouldering ruin behind you, then you're all set.

Oh eat sh*t ManU.

Of greater consequence to the game’s fanbase than a stoush over a single club’s name, though, is the fact United have told the court that they would also like to go after Football Manager’s ability for fans to import custom crests, kits and loads of other licensed stuff via mods (though a judge is currently deciding whether this later addition to the list of allegations will be allowed to form part of the suit).

The base game ships missing many of the sport’s biggest licenses, but with a few clicks Football Manager makes it easy to have fan-made packs like these imported into the game. It’s a key part of serious Football Manager fandom, because who wouldn’t want to make the experience as realistic and authentic as possible?

United’s barrister Simon Malynicz QC argues however that SI should be stopped from allowing “the practice of supplying ‘patches’ or ‘mods’, essentially downloadable files containing replica trademarks, which consumers then incorporate into the game”, and which benefits Football Manager by “avoiding the need to take any licence and enjoying increased sales of their game”.

If I were FM, I'd take United out of the game (much like Juventus in the base FM20). Instead of renaming them something like 'Zebre', you could rename them 'Greedy Bastards With Tourist Fans FC'. If SI wanted to go the whole hog, they could rename the stadium 'The Swamp' and change their home kit to turd brown with pink stripes. Not that I have done this. Of course.

Seriously though, I know United are losing money because of the current lockdown, but do they think that this makes them look like anything other than sad, money-grabbing gets (well, ok - even more like..). Maybe they should consider the savings that the current cratered interest rates will give them on their $600m plus of debt.

ManU is worth $5b. Sports Interactives total revenue for 2019 was $20m. This is chump change to ManU.

Yeah, this must be a group of lawyers at ManU still stuck in the old-school "protect your IP at all times" mindset. Such a greedy money grab for something that promotes ManU more than ManU helps the game. ManU probably thinks SI will not want to lose them, that they are soooo important to how well the game sells. Pfft.

I doubt SI will want to fight ManU's deep pockets by going to court. I'd expect they'll be a quiet settlement and things will go the Zebre route.

Pretty handy chart or scouting regions a dude made on Reddit:

https://www.reddit.com/r/footballman...

I had always assumed the Balkans were South Europe.

You know that awful sinking feeling you get, when you can see an 'FMing' on the horizon approaching with grim inevitability.

Well, I've had it in reverse, and it's bleeding great.

My BM team is top (heaven knows how, we aren't very good, and the list of players that I've fallen out with is longer than the list of ex-members of The Fall). We are playing SC Freiburg (5th), at home.

First half we hit the woodwork twice and have two goals chalked off. Second half, Freiburg's first chance - goal. Then on 53 mins my best CM gets sent off. I'm so annoyed by this that I put my GK into the Cm spot, and put Erland Haaland in nets (not like he could do any worse than he's doing up front). Freiburg free kick - 2:0.

So I double down and ramp it up to very attacking. And another 2 goals go in.

In added time, my MEZ decides to go for a run on the wing, having received a cross field ball from my keeper, for once cuts it back into the box rather than shooting wide, where my SS slots it under the keeper.

Borussia Moenchengladback 3 SC Freiburg 2.

I haven't laughed so much for ages.

davet010 wrote:

You know that awful sinking feeling you get, when you can see an 'FMing' on the horizon approaching with grim inevitability.

Well, I've had it in reverse, and it's bleeding great.

My BM team is top (heaven knows how, we aren't very good, and the list of players that I've fallen out with is longer than the list of ex-members of The Fall). We are playing SC Freiburg (5th), at home.

First half we hit the woodwork twice and have two goals chalked off. Second half, Freiburg's first chance - goal. Then on 53 mins my best CM gets sent off. I'm so annoyed by this that I put my GK into the Cm spot, and put Erland Haaland in nets (not like he could do any worse than he's doing up front). Freiburg free kick - 2:0.

So I double down and ramp it up to very attacking. And another 2 goals go in.

In added time, my MEZ decides to go for a run on the wing, having received a cross field ball from my keeper, for once cuts it back into the box rather than shooting wide, where my SS slots it under the keeper.

Borussia Moenchengladback 3 SC Freiburg 2.

I haven't laughed so much for ages.

You're just lucky they didn't have Jussi Jääskeläinen in goal

davet010 wrote:

You know that awful sinking feeling you get, when you can see an 'FMing' on the horizon approaching with grim inevitability.

Well, I've had it in reverse, and it's bleeding great.

My BM team is top (heaven knows how, we aren't very good, and the list of players that I've fallen out with is longer than the list of ex-members of The Fall). We are playing SC Freiburg (5th), at home.

First half we hit the woodwork twice and have two goals chalked off. Second half, Freiburg's first chance - goal. Then on 53 mins my best CM gets sent off. I'm so annoyed by this that I put my GK into the Cm spot, and put Erland Haaland in nets (not like he could do any worse than he's doing up front). Freiburg free kick - 2:0.

So I double down and ramp it up to very attacking. And another 2 goals go in.

In added time, my MEZ decides to go for a run on the wing, having received a cross field ball from my keeper, for once cuts it back into the box rather than shooting wide, where my SS slots it under the keeper.

Borussia Moenchengladback 3 SC Freiburg 2.

I haven't laughed so much for ages.

Nice!

One of the things that I've been watching is that achievement where you come back and win a game that you're training by 2+ goals at halftime. In 5 seasons in FM19 and 5+ seasons with FM20, I haven't gotten that once.

Part of the issue, I think, is that for probably 8+ seasons of the 10+, I've been managing teams that are at the ends of the table, either top or bottom. Top teams don't fall behind by 2 goals at half very often, and bad teams can't come back from 2-goal deficits. But still, I'd think the chances of overcoming a 2-goal deficit aren't that bad.

Question - has anyone ever got to the point where their team drives them almost to despair? Not just in a single game, but every single one ?? It's a bit First World problems, because we're 8 points clear with 12 games left, but every game seems to be 'batter team - hit woodwork many times - concede to their first attempt - get equaliser via free kick or slaloming solo run - get scuffed last minute winner'. And it's driving me mad.

The only reason I am watching them is because I have to - I'd bring a book if I could get away with it on the bench. The only think I can compare them to is how I, as a City fan, felt about Fergie's Man U teams. Granted some of their games were genuinely like that (that 99 CL final...belms), but they probably played with a lot more swashbuckling than my lot.

Probably the only thing worse would be to be a follower of Dortmund or BM...imagining their delight at that Freiburg result I mentioned before is only compounded by the other games where I've pulled that "you're bleedin' joking, they've WON??" trick.

I am genuinely torn though about whether to walk away after this, my 10th season. As usual, I consider it, then look at the wonderkids I've got coming in, and almost all of my team is under 25, and....

I think the Spanish 3rd Division is worse than the MLS. You have all sorts of B teams in there, there's no automatic promotion spot at all, and if a tie is level after both legs and extra time in the promotion playoffs the higher seeded team goes through (even though you played in completely different parts of the division playing completely different teams).

Rage quit and deleted an FC Andorra save I was early on in after losing out on promotion because of that seeding garbage.

davet010 wrote:

Question - has anyone ever got to the point where their team drives them almost to despair? Not just in a single game, but every single one ?? It's a bit First World problems, because we're 8 points clear with 12 games left, but every game seems to be 'batter team - hit woodwork many times - concede to their first attempt - get equaliser via free kick or slaloming solo run - get scuffed last minute winner'. And it's driving me mad.

Despair no, but I do get bored once I get a team established among the elite because there's not as many suitable players in the transfer market when you're looking for the best of the bset.

At this point, I'm only signing players identified as 'wonderkids' - all of my scouting assignments have a max age of 23.

I am wondering though whether that lack of an experienced player causes some of my issues. Even my first XI only has one player over 25 (Ampadu). I did have an older real life player in my first 2-3 seasons at BM (Christophe Kramer), but let him leave on a free when he got to 34.

Now thinking about my next CM adventure.

England - Port Vale or Leyton Orient...or maybe Chester. Now there's a club that has been royally screwed over by owners more than once.

Scotland - Partick Thistle...can I elbow aside the Big(ot) Two and establish the Third Way of Glasgow football?

Germany - 1860 Munchen. Oooo, how much would I love to supplant FC Arrogant.

Spain - Athetic Bilbao. Basque players only. In Spain. Now THAT's FM hard mode.

Italy - Genoa. Any club who's full name is Genoa Cricket and Football Club deserves to be sitting proudly at the top of Serie A.

Or maybe Holland, where I've never managed...or Austria, or trying out Argentina if I can figure out how the league works...