Football Manager Series Catch-All

Prederick wrote:

There's no Peter Lim/Oyston Family/Mike Ashley in FM, which I understand, because that might be a little too realistic.

Yes, SI Games takes care not to denigrate real people in the game, etc., so a lot of the shenanigans you could put in via events would have to occur with newgens or fictional databases.

We're a few weeks in now, and this is still my favorite FM.

I think the only tweak I would make, at this point, is that FM could afford to take a look at things like FIFA's dynamic potential for their players. I don't think it should be a regular occurrence that you can take a Conference National squad and through good results and training make them into Real Madrid, but simultaneously, even after his great 2011-2012 season for Fleetwood Town, would anyone have bought Jamie Vardy, much less expected him to turn into Jamie Vardy?

I know his case is exceedingly rare these days, clubs don't just whiff on big-time talents anymore, there's too much scouting, but it still can sometimes happen.

I don't know how hard of a cap on development a player's Potential Ability puts on them in FM, but there should be the chance for players, some players, to grow well beyond what scouts may have originally thought they were capable of. It'd add in even more importance to mentality and training, while giving scouting some much-needed fudgery, as right now, a good scout is frankly too good at telling you not only how good a player is, but how good he's going to be.

IMAGE(https://i.ibb.co/pbHRyHg/Perfect.png)

god I love this game

Somewhere a Sun journalist's brain (sic) is working overtime.

I'd heard a few streamers mention that ManU was overpowered in FM 21, and I just checked where they are in my current save...

They're 26-1-0 with a +51 GD.

So.... yeah! A little overpowered!

Gosh, the player ratings bug is frustrating. I was really loving this edition until the last update. I'm usually one to shake off bugs, but this one is disappointing.

What is the player ratings bug?

Mr Bismarck wrote:

What is the player ratings bug?

All player ratings are significantly too low. More so defenders than others, and more so fullbacks than other defenders. It's something they messed up the tracking of in the latest update.

It might not seem like much, but it's connected to value, development, morale, manager evaluation, etc., and it makes it hard to know how your players are performing.

Yippee! Patch in the Steam queue to address the player ratings things (and maybe a few other things).

Prederick wrote:

We're a few weeks in now, and this is still my favorite FM.

Is it much better than FM 20? I got into FM 20 a bit recently (taking Leyton Orient to Premier League, thank you for asking) after I realised I had a free copy from Epic, now contemplating if I should check out FM 21. And, mind you, my last long FM game before that was 2014, I think.

(Also, hey all, it's been a while!)

It's genuinely the on-field stuff. The difference between FM 20 and this feels so vast.

UCRC wrote:
Prederick wrote:

We're a few weeks in now, and this is still my favorite FM.

Is it much better than FM 20? I got into FM 20 a bit recently (taking Leyton Orient to Premier League, thank you for asking) after I realised I had a free copy from Epic, now contemplating if I should check out FM 21. And, mind you, my last long FM game before that was 2014, I think.

(Also, hey all, it's been a while!)

Dude, how have you been?! So good to see you!

I've been dabbling in FM2020 too, at my usual glacial pace (26h in, on Matchday 9 of season 1) with Anderlecht. I really missed having 12 shots on goal against 2, and drawing 1-1

Hey, I've been great! We should catch up over a Civ game at some point.

I think I discovered the easiest way to break the game in FM20 LLM: dumping all points into Motivating. (I also cheated and went for a manager experience lvl with a lot of skill points.) Seems like you can boost squad morale so high that tactics and ability become a bit less relevant. Three seasons in a row I went on runs where I won 10+ games in a row. The only issue is that when the bubble bursts it's hard to turn it around.

Not sure if I'm ready for FM21 yet, there's still lots of basics I'm learning about FM20. So many new systems.

Nice to see you again, UCRC !

I think that SI have fixed the ratings bug, particularly around the full backs which seemed to be the main issue. In my latest game, my RB was man of the match for 3 games in succession - which may mean he was great or the other players weren't...

I did start this game after the patch dropped, so I can't say whether it impacts upon ongoing games.

Dreamt last night about me starting a Spanish 3rd tier FM game. Distinctly remember thinking "UCRC is back" and " I should put all my points into Motivation"

So that's weird.

Oh hey! And actually, I do have a Spanish 3rd tier experience (hmm, maybe I shared this one before) -- in my long-standing FM 2014 game early on I got into role-playing a new Pep Guardiola, trying to get 70% possession in every game etc. My first job was caretaker in France, the second job was Southampton taking a punt. I won the League Cup in first season but got fired in the summer after clashing with the board re low transfer budget. Then Malaga hired me (that was back when Malaga was owned by sheiks). Half a season of tiki-taka and sitting at mid table, got fired. Then I thought, why not try the first club that offers me a job? Three months at a random team in Spanish 3rd division (turns out tiki-taka is not a thing where everyone has Technique < 10) and not only I got fired, but my reputation tanked so badly, that I couldn't get a job with a professional club for another 2 full seasons, until Coventry went bankrupt and they needed a caretaker manager on a low salary who would oversee selling all players. Up till that point I didn't even know that you can tank so badly in FM that no clubs will want to take you.

I gave up on tiki taka after that.

A curious first:

So it's 2023 in my new Red Star Paris game, and we're trying to survive our first season in Ligue 1. We're punching WELL above our weight, but our strikers have been fairly disappointing, and I'm scouring for a new one when I come across....

.......Cristiano Ronaldo? On a free?

Apparently, the now 37-year-old Ronaldo was let go on a free, and hadn't been signed by anyone. There was zero interest in his services!

So I took a punt, he asked for the largest salary at the club, but one I could afford, and lo and behold, my starting striker is now Cristiano f**king Ronaldo.

Ah, yes, Cristiano Ronaldo, a world-famous model proletarian.

What are his stats?

I think within logic of the game it happens quite often. I wonder how much the game factors in the lifestyle in these late game choices: i.e. seems pretty normal that elite players would choose to go to US/China/big European city like Paris once their speed and acceleration tank. But then I remember signing Ronaldinho for Cardiff City, or something like that back in early 2010s, so clearly the underlying model is not great.

I got Leyton Orient into Premier League (with a bit of save scumming in Championship, tbh, as I was getting frustrated). Escaped the relegation on last day of the season, but season 2 is smooth sailing because reputation and extra revenues take a while to catch up. The game does such a good job of illustrating the money aspect of football (esp. in England): my salary budget went up from ~£5M/year to ~50M/year in 12-18 months and players who were 4.5 stars in the old team can't even make the bench.

(Edit: yes, that means I went from a budget 1/50th of Man City's to only 1/8th, progress)

Having jumped to FM 2020 from 2014 I'm a bit disappointed by how little the match engine has changed in terms of general patterns. Maybe I give FM 2021 a go.

So, I'm coming to the end of my first season (Celtic again, in case you were going to ask). 5 games left, 10 pts clear of Rangers etc etc..

My question is - has anyone noticed that yellow and red cards are significantly lower than in previous years ? And I mean really lower. The team is set up in a gegenpress, but not standing off tackles etc.

Celtic have played about 45 competitive matches this season. Thus far, the disciplinary totals are as follows

Yellow cards - 31
Red cards - 0

I've had a large number of games where neither team has had a yellow card. I had a check in week 32 of the disciplinary table for the SPL, and there were zero players suspended.

Is anyone else finding this ?

OH yeah, definitely.

I had a player get sent off for a real legbreaker back in my first few games, but since then, I don't think I've seen any straight reds, and only a few accumulated ones. Yellows, yes, but no reds.

And of course, having mentioned it above..

Match day 33, away to Rangers. A win guarantees us the league.

0-0, 20 mins to go, Ajer decides that he might as well really bump up our average by collecting 2 yellow cards, and hence a red.

We lost 1-0.

Cheers mate.

Well, we won the league. And the Cup.

But the winner of the Flippin' Hell, That's A Bit Harsh award for 20/21 is...

Steven Gerrard

Rangers finished second. With 95 points (30-5-3). And a GD of 61.

They sacked him the day after the season ended.

Bit harsh.

Nice work, davet! That is one harsh sacking, for sure.

I've had a busy stretch at work the past couple of months, but this game has been my go-to stress reliever. I'm in the middle of my third season of a journeyman save, having a grand old time.

I decided to try something a bit different, too. I've made it a condition in the game that I can only move to a different club in the game if I've walked/exercised the equivalent distance in real life. I've got a few other details attached, but the main result is that for the whole thing to work out right, I have to add an hour of activity to my day. I started a bit more than a month ago and so far so good. Having a lot of fun.

Football Manager players = Kitchen Appliance Enthusiasts.

Checks out.

There are times where I've felt like hitting myself on the head with a rolling pin - does that count ?

There are times where I swear my players are carrying refrigerators on their backs, yes.

Patch out today to version 21.3

CHANGES IN THE 21.3 UPDATE INCLUDE (BUT ARE NOT LIMITED TO):
- Number of stability fixes and improvements
- Further improvements to total player count and number of newgens generated in youth intakes
- Re-enabled option to ask board for Reserve/U23 team
- Improvements to staff given non-playing staff appointment responsibilities
- Further balancing of player ratings across both full and quick match engines
- Number of improvements and fixes to match stats, including key tackles, clear-cut chances and interceptions
- Improved goalkeeper distribution when set tactically via instructions
- Added assist details to the goal caption in matches

There's a longer list in the forums, longer being the operative word.

https://community.sigames.com/forums...

I'm glad the assists made it back. I reloaded the game once it updated just to check all my kits, facepacks etc are still there (they are) and Juventus are still called that (they are).

Right, back to demolishing the SPL.

Started a new game at Notts County. My team captain got pissy that I sold my RB to a League One team (I'd promised hm I'd let him leave if a good deal came in). Said captain then averaged a 6.41 over four matches, and said I was blind when I criticized him for it.

Anyway, he's out of a job now and I likely have a lifelong nemesis.

WORTH IT.

Season 2 of my Celtic season is in the books

SPL - P38 W36 D1 L1 P109 GD +80, Thanks St Johnstone for screwing up my invincible season - I'm sad to say that I laughed when you got relegated (seriously - they won 1-0 with a goal in the 89th minute. A proper FM'ing that was, we'd had 29 shots of which 12 were on target. They had 2.)

Did the treble (again). Knocked out of the EL at the quarters stage by Man Utd (1-1 on away goals).

I was on a two year contract, so just let it lapse and resigned. The club should be in safe hands, they've appointed Vincent Kompany

In other news, Man City did the quadruple (Charity Shield, League Cup, Premiership, Europa League) and Chelsea beat Liverpool 4-3 aet in the Champions League.

Oh, and there was a lady manager in the league, at Carlisle. They finished 10th. I'd not seen that before.

Unlike recent FMs, managers at the top clubs are much more stable this year. City, Utd, Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea all have the same managers as the start of the 20/21 season.

Now to wait for a decent sleeping giant.

So my wait for a sleeping giant was 6 months, and didn't really come up with anyone fitting the bill. I was either offered interviews at struggling Prem teams (Wolves, Soton) or sundry other oddballs (St Pauli).

I am therefore turning to you, my friends, for a selection. I've come up with a few possibilities.

Newcastle (perhaps the non plus ultra)
Portsmouth
Notts Co ( I seem to remember that they are the oldest football club in the world, and their last top-tier trophy was 1894, which probably marks them as being in hibernation rather than sleeping)

Any selections or others ?