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Thread: Football Manager 2022

  1. #1201
    Bookie Sir Andy Mahowry's Avatar
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    Have you tried PMing Bam for help?

  2. #1202
    Senior Member Bam's Avatar
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    I'll pm your fucking sad life, if you like.

  3. #1203
    Senior Member ScousePig's Avatar
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    Ipswich should have some good technical players for League One so you should be able to create a controlling possession type tactic easily enough. McKenna uses quite an expensive 3-4-1-2 IRL.

    Have a read: https://totalfootballanalysis.com/he...alysis-tactics

  4. #1204
    Bookie Sir Andy Mahowry's Avatar
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    Number 3

    Also, one of my CMs that I bought last year is at 16.

  5. #1205
    Senior Member SincereTheRebel's Avatar
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    I like to play youngsters who come from the country im managing. In my Arsenal save, im 10 years in and they are all shit. Regens have yet to make the England squad.

  6. #1206
    Senior Member wullie's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bam View Post
    Anyone know a decent tactic for 22? I'm just about to get started on this but cant be arsed to make one. None of that strikerless BS though.
    https://fm-base.co.uk/threads/stephe...3#post-2556538

    I've had a lot of joy with the 4231 version linked there - took Cov up, back down alarmingly quickly again but then up for keeps and now pushing a European place

  7. #1207
    Senior Member Serj's Avatar
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    Torino 2034/35



    Bit of a write-off, this season. Like two years ago, European football and the rotation that comes with it lead to very inconsistent performances. Our Champions League group of Manchester United, Porto and RB Salzburg proved a bit too challenging, but we qualified for the Europa League in third. Quality-wise, I think we could have gone all the way there, but an evenly-matched quarter final against Tottenham ended up with them scoring late in extra time to kick us out. Getting to the final here is the big aim for next season, plus top three in the league.

    As is tradition, a big club came in with an offer for my best centre-back, and as he threw a fit when I rejected the first bid I let him go for €44M. I immediately spent it on this legend:


    Came in at 18 years old and was immediately one of my best performers. His somewhat below-par heading attributes mean that I'm adapting my tactics a bit to funnel opposition attacks through the center rather than push them out to the flanks where they can cross.

    I need to bin off several players who came in as youngsters but only developed into good but not great players. Should be an interesting transfer window.

  8. #1208
    Senior Member Manc's Avatar
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    Lazio relegated. You love to see it.

  9. #1209
    Senior Member Adramelch's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Serj View Post
    Came in at 18 years old and was immediately one of my best performers. His somewhat below-par heading attributes mean that I'm adapting my tactics a bit to funnel opposition attacks through the center rather than push them out to the flanks where they can cross.
    I've noticed that where heading hurts the most in my case is from long balls over the top rather than crosses so I am not sure how much that'll help. When it comes to crosses it's always the opposite full-back that struggles for me.

  10. #1210
    Senior Member Serj's Avatar
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    Good point. Will probably not be relevant either way, as Leverkusen have come in with a massive bid and the board have accepted it. He's not interested in negotiating a new contract.

  11. #1211
    Senior Member Serj's Avatar
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    On the bright side:



    Should really have been Mexico's, as all our best players are close to retirement. Managed a smash-and-grab 1-0 against them in the quarter final, though. After that the Cup win was almost a foregone conclusion.

  12. #1212
    Bookie Sir Andy Mahowry's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Serj View Post
    Good point. Will probably not be relevant either way, as Leverkusen have come in with a massive bid and the board have accepted it. He's not interested in negotiating a new contract.
    Board's really are shit.

  13. #1213
    Senior Member ScousePig's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Adramelch View Post
    I've noticed that where heading hurts the most in my case is from long balls over the top rather than crosses so I am not sure how much that'll help. When it comes to crosses it's always the opposite full-back that struggles for me.
    Mostly you need excellent jumping reach so your centre halves score loads from corners.

  14. #1214
    Bookie Sir Andy Mahowry's Avatar
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    Pogon Siedlce & Poland 2029/30 Season Update:

    Transfers Out:



    Some big transfers out, the only one there I didn't want to lose was Mularczyk but the board stepped in. Annoyingly they also accepted a 20% of profit clause in the deal and obviously Blackburn got relegated and he has a release clause of £10.25m...

    The mong decided to play a season in the Prem getting 15 points and a relegation when he could have been playing Champions League football this season (and spoilers, next season too). He's interested to come back but not at that price.

    Big moves selling Blaszczykowski (who was no longer playing for me) and Strezysz who wasn't happy at being third choice CB. There were also some free transfers but I've omitted them.

    Transfers In:





    I had to bring him in and he instantly became a starter. Not too many goals in his debut season but he played well. I'm excited and the game has him ranked at 3 on the NxGn list.



    I got rid of some keepers so I bought in someone with a decent amount of potential for nothing.

    Natural at AMR and ST so he can cover two positions in my tactic and he was fairly cheap with bags of potential. I'll have to lock him to Poland soon as he's also German.



    When I bought him it was to form a partnership with Mularczyk but the board quickly ruined that. £750k for a young CB that comes in as a starter is great.



    I wanted to buy him last season but I ran out of money. Not sure he's worth it but he was cheap enough.



    The guy knows how to pass, I doubt he'll ever be a regular in my team as he has holes elsewhere but he's the Polish Xavi.



    For added cover at ST.



    £1.1m is a bit much but I like his physicals and I needed more decent players in defence.



    Not sure why I bought him, I'm sure his potential was higher when I did but he's cheap enough.



    Selling my third choice CB for £7.5m and bringing in Jasinski for £5.75m to be my first choice CB is great business. He also plays a lot for me for Poland.



    My fourth choice striker destroyed his ankle so I went in for Ragnar who I had been thinking of buying for a couple of seasons but never had the money. I'll have to lock him to Poland soon as he's also Faroese and English.

    League:






    I'm not surprised we won but I am surprised we did so well as I was using the youth for a lot of games throughout the season to ensure we had the first team fit for Europe.

    Cups:



    Easy.



    The youth actually got us through the first three rounds before the starters took over and it was only going to end one way when that happened.

    Europe:





    I never want to see Man United again in this save but I'm delighted with that thanks to two huge games against Porto.



    Sadly the European dream didn't last too much longer...

    Squad Stats:



    Trimmed down the squad a lot and I'm happy with it. Not sure what to upgrade now, we've lost Malkowski for next season as PSV aren't accepting another loan deal this time.

    Other Club Shit:

    Youth intake was again listed as excellent but no one stands out, even if there were a few top prospects.



    Interesting that we'll be at Legia's stadium for a few months, could make some decent cash especially if we get to play European games there too.

    I've also been asking the club for upgrades at every possible opportunity and it's been working:



    Training facilities are also being upgraded as we speak too.

    Poland:





    Happy with that, Scotland game was with the reserves too so 3-3 wasn't bad. World Cup group sees us face Australia and The Mighty Gambia.

  15. #1215
    Senior Member SincereTheRebel's Avatar
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    Im trying to sign him for £130m. Yes, I am paying coins for the English premium, but I'm all for regens from the home nation I'm managing. 50 premiere league appearances already with an average rating of 7.01


    image hosting services

  16. #1216
    Senior Member ScousePig's Avatar
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    I'm no longer at Brentford. After guiding them to safety and making a decent start to the next season, my stock had risen sufficiently to go for a slightly bigger job.



    In a possible twist of fate, I'm back at Wolves. In my main career save for FM21 I also managed Brentford before moving to Wolves. We'd done well at Brentford despite three defeats in a row, and only being there around 10 months. Wolves, however, is a different proposition. Their new (?) Chinese owners want them to be the 'best of the rest' within a couple of seasons as well as having the best academy in the country. High expectations, which leads me to believe that this could be a slightly longer term project. As you can see from above, they'd made a nightmare start.



    However, since coming in I'm unbeaten in 12 and really not sure what the last manager was playing at. They have a talented squad, both in terms of technical ability and pace. Below is in order of vision.



    This means I can create a few tactics, all a 4-3-3 in some fashion. My first tactic is a total control one, but with enough penetration to ensure we don't keep possession for the sake of it. I'm hoping this can be my go-to tactic. Then we have the traditional quick, vertical counter attacking tactic which works pretty well with most sides, and one I'll turn to either when we're struggling for form, and/or away to the top teams. I then have a bit of a hybrid which switches the shadow striker to an advanced playmaker, to try and get the best out of the players at Wolves. All three tactics then have an option of switching the deep-lying playmaker to a half back against two striker opponents.

    A quick look at some of the technically gifted players (I messed up the print screen a bit):







    And a couple of other good players who I am trying to get into the side, but struggling:





    Ramsay has more or less everything I look for, and is versatile. However, for once I've actually been provided with natural inverted wing backs, meaning he misses out as first choice in that position. He'd be an excellent Volante but that doesn't really fit any of our current systems, and he can play comfortably as a Mezzala or attacking central midfielder but again, isn't quite first choice. Saad is another interesting one, as he has all the attributes I would look for, however the positions he is natural in don't lend itself to my tactics. I'm trying to make him a shadow striker, but I already have a more natural player for that role, plus I don't always use that role and there are a couple of other strikers in a similar situation. We don't really have a natural right footed right winger, so again a striker or central midfielder is out there at the moment.

    I am glad at least that I've been left with a really versatile squad, as including the above we have the likes of Brandon Williams, Scott McTominay, Andrea Cambiasso and Noni Madueke. Many of these players are already well into their prime too, so I may be able to build myself a younger, better squad in the next few seasons.

  17. #1217
    Bookie Sir Andy Mahowry's Avatar
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    Poland at the World Cup 2030:

    Group Stage:



    The Gambia up first and I decided to use my second string. Idszak getting sent off after 14 minutes in his debut put us up against it and we were shit up front. Awful opener but oh well, The Gambia also took a point against Australia so we went up against them knowing a win is what we needed.



    I got scared when they equalised but thankfully we destroyed them.

    Second Round:

    We were drawn against Ukraine who were the current holders of the World Cup:



    We weren't amazing but we got the job done.

    Third Round:

    France next and I was quietly confident as we've played them a lot recently and we've done well against them.



    We were not good against them on this day though... I'm surprised that we had as many shots and xG as listed there because the highlights showed fuck all. We were horrendous.

    Tournament Tree:



    Third World Cup in my save and the winners have been Italy, Ukraine and Wales. What a run the sheep shaggers had from the third round onwards. They did get to the Quarter finals four years ago but they failed to beat Scotland in the second round in the Euros 2 years ago so fuck knows how they've managed this.

  18. #1218
    Bookie Sir Andy Mahowry's Avatar
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    Here is the Wales squad btw:



    Surprisingly they're not relying on too many regens.



    This guy is absolutely class, produced by Cardiff in the very first season before being sold to Newcastle for £12.25m in 2025/26.



    He looked absolutely class when he was 19:

    https://i.imgur.com/hZf56nR.png

    But has failed to kick on because he's barely playing at club level. He was loaned out to Barnsley in 2025/26 and made 42 league starts (plus another 4 starts in the cup) but he hasn't gone on loan any other season and has made only 12 league appearances for United (no starts, and he only has another 3 cup games, all of which were starts) over 8 seasons. Bayer Leverkusen are interested in buying him.



    Not amazing but his attributes are in the right areas for his position. He contributed a goal in their World Cup campaign.



    I have no idea how Tyler Roberts is starting ahead of him. He did make 4 starts at the World Cup and he scored 3 goals (all against Iraq in the opening group game) and got 3 assists

  19. #1219
    Senior Member Manc's Avatar
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    Your game world is broken.

  20. #1220
    Bookie Sir Andy Mahowry's Avatar
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    It's not that broken, England haven't won a Euros or World Cup yet.

  21. #1221
    Bookie Sir Andy Mahowry's Avatar
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    Happy with that, no United for once and I think we're fairly nailed on for third with a chance at taking second.

  22. #1222
    Senior Member Dan's Avatar
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    Fiorentina - Introduction to the Save

    So, I haven't played FM in years, but now the NFL season is over I've been doing my usual thing of finding some other sport to fill my weekends, and this year I've found myself watching Serie A a lot. Inevitably, that started the curiosity about FM, but last time I played a trial version I wasn't all that in to it, so as the Xbox version of FM22 is included with GamePass I downloaded that & have been blasting through it on my week off from work.

    I decided to go with Fiorentina as they're one of the teams I always used to like when I was a kid, and they have a nice balance of fun & challenge being a solid team with some promising young players who are hanging around the fringes of the European spots. The Xbox FM22 database is updated to include January transfers, so no Vlahović sadly, but we have enough talent to get by without him.

    I hardly ever post on here outside of a handful of threads, so I figured I may as well stick my head in here now too. Getting screenshots from the Xbox is a bit wonky, but I've dug a few out to help cover the journey.


    Season 1:
    I kept it fairly straightforward in season one as I figured out where we stood, who the core players were etc, plus how the actual game plays. I picked up a few players to add some depth & snagged a decent young players for pennies while clearing out some of the dead weight & veterans who didn't have a long term future.

    We played surprisingly well, with both Krzysztof Piątek (12 goals) & Arthur Cabral (17) notching double figures whilst rotating up front, and Jonathan Ikoné (9), Riccardo Sottil (9) & Nicolás González (7) chipped in from the wings too. In the end Juventus (aka Zebre, apparently) ran away with the league, but we had a great season & managed to pip Milan to third place & an automatic CL spot.

    Season 2:
    We continued our reshuffling of the roster in season two, grabbing a few more young players & some newgens, whilst letting some more veterans go. The league was once again won by Juventus without much effort, but we proved that the first season was no fluke, with Arthur Cabral stepping up to lead the line with 36 goals in all competitions, including 28 in the league to lead us to a second place finish after a we outlasted both Inter & Lazio over the final four games.

    In Europe we got a decent CL draw, and should have made the knockout stages, but we bottled it in the last group game, losing to Porto to finish third & drop to the Europa League. We claimed a few surprising wins there, beating Real Santander & Sevilla, but we threw away a first leg lead to Tottenham to see our run end in the quarter finals.

    -

    I've just hit January in season three, so I'll update on that in a bit, but we've had a much more significant overhaul to the roster this year, so it would be nice if we could show signs of being able to take the next step & actually challenge for the title.

  23. #1223
    Senior Member Manc's Avatar
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    Am I the only person who is bang average at this game? Just shy of 400 games and not a trophy to my name.

  24. #1224
    Senior Member Serj's Avatar
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    I'm also bang average. Way too stubborn with the kind of tactics I want my team to play and the wages I'm willing to spend. Also too lazy to properly analyse my shortcomings.

    That being said, this season it feels like my team is actively plotting against me:



    Wanted top three, now I'm facing the sack in February.

  25. #1225
    Bookie Sir Andy Mahowry's Avatar
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    xFucked.

  26. #1226
    Senior Member Manc's Avatar
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    Serj Potter.

  27. #1227
    Bookie Sir Andy Mahowry's Avatar
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    I've just been offered an interview for the Real Madrid job (their previous manager went to Juventus who also wanted to interview me) and then 24 hours later been offered the job.

    I've never seen a turnaround that quick, especially for a big job.

    Also, I'm not taking it but why aren't the board trying to convince me to stay? Does this not happen any more? I've interviewed for quite a few few jobs now (although I've never directly applied) and have never been offered something by the dickhead chairman to stay.

  28. #1228
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    Is spending $50 to buy FM22 worth it to replace FM2020?

  29. #1229
    Senior Member Manc's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Sir Andy Mahowry View Post
    I've just been offered an interview for the Real Madrid job (their previous manager went to Juventus who also wanted to interview me) and then 24 hours later been offered the job.

    I've never seen a turnaround that quick, especially for a big job.

    Also, I'm not taking it but why aren't the board trying to convince me to stay? Does this not happen any more? I've interviewed for quite a few few jobs now (although I've never directly applied) and have never been offered something by the dickhead chairman to stay.
    He's calling your bluff.

  30. #1230
    Bookie Sir Andy Mahowry's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Manc View Post
    He's calling your bluff.
    He's donned me again

    I have managed to get one over on him though. He started accepting bids again in the Summer (he didn't accept a £9m offer for a backup winger in January but was happily accepting bids over £6m for starters in August) so I set players values to £500k. Teams kept bidding £500k and I kept rejecting.

  31. #1231
    Bookie Sir Andy Mahowry's Avatar
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    Arteta can get fucked.

  32. #1232
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    I've got through the initial stage of the Welsh Premier with Llanelli in my 3rd season, and we've managed to maintain a fairly credible challenge for Europe and even the title. This is the table as the league splits:



    We've got 10 games to go, home and away against the top 6. TNS have hit a wonderful run of form, 14 unbeaten, since an early-season wobble which could probably be put down to fixture congestion thanks to Europe, so I'm willing to concede the title may be tough to take. But Europe is definitely on the cards. We came out of a crucial set of Christmas fixtures (Bangor (H), Haverfordwest (A), Haverfordwest (H)) with 3 wins and we've got a little more squad depth than last season to cope with any injuries or issues we come across.

  33. #1233
    Senior Member Adramelch's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Sir Andy Mahowry View Post
    I've just been offered an interview for the Real Madrid job (their previous manager went to Juventus who also wanted to interview me) and then 24 hours later been offered the job.

    I've never seen a turnaround that quick, especially for a big job.

    Also, I'm not taking it but why aren't the board trying to convince me to stay? Does this not happen any more? I've interviewed for quite a few few jobs now (although I've never directly applied) and have never been offered something by the dickhead chairman to stay.
    I might be off but I think that only happens when you apply and/or declare interest for the job.

    As for the quick turnaround, in my save I applied at Barcelona, they offered me an interview some 35-40 days later and then offered the job the next day. Never happened to me prior to this version.

  34. #1234
    Bookie Sir Andy Mahowry's Avatar
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    They'll be breaking out the black armbands for the second match.

  35. #1235
    Senior Member Dan's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dan View Post
    I've just hit January in season three, so I'll update on that in a bit, but we've had a much more significant overhaul to the roster this year, so it would be nice if we could show signs of being able to take the next step & actually challenge for the title.
    Err...



    Not entirely sure how it happened, but we managed to do the double this year.

    It's definitely more a reflection of how far Juventus fell than on how far we rose, as they went from 96pts in each of the first two seasons to 84pts this year, whereas we went from 83pts to 85, but we got a few big breaks - Milan had a man sent off early to help us win our last big game of the season, and Spezia did the same in the final game of the year to ensure we took the title.

    Juventus also had a man sent off against us in the Italian Cup final, and we got the easiest possible draws in the groups & first knockout round of the Champions League on our way to the quarter finals, so I suspect there may have been some dodgy dealings by our owner under the hood

    --

    We were busy in the transfer market this season, but the core of our team remains relatively similar to the starting side, so I'll give you a quick look at the key players:

    Goalkeeper:
    We still have Bartłomiej Drągowski in goal, although he's one of the main spots I'm still looking to upgrade, and we've added Marco Carnesecchi following a successful loan spell this season. We also still have some decent young players in the reserves, including a couple of newgens who could be the long term solution.

    Defence:
    Nikola Milenković & Lucas Martínez Quarta have been consistent as our CB pairing, and we added Chris Richards from Hoffenheim for £1.3m after the first season as his deal was running out, which has proved to be an absolute bargain. The real star, however, is club captian, icon & probably the best player on the team, Cristiano Biraghi, who's put together three excellent seasons so far. He's getting to the end of his prime now, so we'll need to find a long term replacement, but I've gone wild on newgen fullbacks this year so we should be able to bring one of them through over the next year or two.

    Midfield:
    This is where we've had the biggest overhaul, with only Riccardo Sottil remaining from the group at the start of the game. We tend to rotate our wingers quite a bit, and the other guys are just solid role players or newgens I'm trying to develop, but we did bring in Reiss Nelson on loan to be the main guy opposite Sottil, and he did a pretty solid job so I'm considering signing him permanently.

    We've got a nice group in the middle, with Florentino Luis being our main ball winner & Facundo Farías being the main creator. Samuele Ricci is the main guy who rounds of the trio, although Riqui Puig has put in some excellent performances when needed, and Fábio Carvalho has shown flashes when he hasn't been injured.

    Attack:
    Arthur Cabral is the main man, putting the ball in the net more than 30 times each of the last two seasons, but this year we had someone else behind him to take the pressure off, and Brenner had an impressive first season at the club, scoring 22 times either off the bench, playing left wing or even playing alongside Arthur Cabral, so we should have no problems getting consistent production up front going forward.

    --

    I definitely don't anticipate having similar results next season, as we're still not really on the level of Juventus or Inter, but we do look set for consistent CL football & maybe we can mount another title challenge if the big two continue to falter. The board are extremely lenient with their targets, so I'm not even really under much pressure to deliver anything more than European football, which should give me the opportunity to bring through a few of the more talented newgens I've been hoarding.

    I'm not planning on making any big moves over the summer, but if a good GK or CB becomes available those would be the most likely areas to see heavy investment. Other than that we'll just keep fine tuning the squad & hopefully we'll avoid a big drop off next season.

  36. #1236
    Bookie Sir Andy Mahowry's Avatar
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    I don't like the Champions League

  37. #1237
    Senior Member Dan's Avatar
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    Did you play Man Utd again?

  38. #1238
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dan View Post
    Did you play Man Utd again?
    I followed up my wins over Lazio and Liverpool by losing twice to Rangers (3-0 and 1-0 despite having a better xG in both games) and in the end instead of going further in the Champions League we dropped down to the Europa.

  39. #1239
    Senior Member Dan's Avatar
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    This won’t make you feel better then. Our CL group this season is Porto, Salzburg & Besiktas

    Just realised we’ve been in the same group as Porto all three seasons We also drew Salzburg in our first year, so no doubt we’ll play Besiktas again in the future.
    Last edited by Dan; 09-03-2022 at 07:46 PM.

  40. #1240
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    Good to see that Spurs are still weak as fuck.

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    That was the most stressful match I've ever played in FM. We missed 3 one-on-ones late in the normal match and ET plus another easy chance or two. I also think Vlahovic's goal was onside.

  42. #1242
    Senior Member Serj's Avatar
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    Torino 2035/36

    Quote Originally Posted by Serj View Post
    I'm also bang average. Way too stubborn with the kind of tactics I want my team to play and the wages I'm willing to spend. Also too lazy to properly analyse my shortcomings.

    That being said, this season it feels like my team is actively plotting against me:



    Wanted top three, now I'm facing the sack in February.
    As expected, the board threatened to sack me if things did not improve significantly.

    Well, we went on to win 11 out of 14 remaining league games and qualified for the Champions League in fourth. Not quite the top three finish I had in mind and we're still underperforming xG-wise, but I'll take it.



    Dampening the mood a bit is a 2-4 defeat in the Cup final to Empoli of all teams, but they were the better team on the day and had also kicked out Inter and Udinese before that, so fair enough, I guess.

    Best performer of the season is Sam Percival, who's completed his third year at the club already but is only now really coming into his own. Great attacking player both when playing behind the striker or cutting inside from the right wing. Unsurprisingly, he's also one of the star players of my US team.



    The more pleasant surprise though is Pavel Kedziorek, something of a hail-mary purchase from the Polish league at the end of the January transfer window. I intended him to be the main backup at centre-back, but we concede a lot less on average when he's on the field so he's become one of the regulars.



    All in all, not the catastrophic failure that it looked like mid-season. Still, it's been six seasons since winning Serie B. If we don't win any silverware in the upcoming year, I'm probably moving on.

  43. #1243
    Senior Member Dan's Avatar
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    Did not see that coming at all. We've been good this season, going unbeaten until January, when we shat the bed all month, but lately Arthur Cabral has ascended to god tier, scoring 10 times in his last 6 games (32 in 32 over the whole season, with 29 in 27 in Serie A), and we're set for a really exciting race to the finish line between us, Juve & Inter.



    We continued our amazing luck with CL draws, getting Porto, Salzburg & Beskitas in the groups & we're now in a good spot going in to the second leg of our first knockout tie against Leverkusen.

  44. #1244
    Senior Member Dan's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Serj View Post
    As expected, the board threatened to sack me if things did not improve significantly.
    Have you been there since the start or did you move around before you got to Torino?

  45. #1245
    Senior Member Serj's Avatar
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    As with most of my saves, I can never decide if I want to do a journeyman save or build a legacy™, and end up doing a bit of both, and neither very well.

    Having said that, I think this is my most trophyless run in years of FM. Still a lot of fun because the focus was more on trying (and stubbornly persisting with) non-standard tactics.
    Last edited by Serj; 12-03-2022 at 07:34 PM.

  46. #1246
    Senior Member Dan's Avatar
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    I'd say that's still pretty successful to have got to that level from where you started, even if you don't have the trophies to show for it.

  47. #1247
    Senior Member Dan's Avatar
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    2024/25 season is over, and it was a dramatic one all the way to the end.

    Transfers:
    We didn't go too crazy this season, trading out goalkeepers with Carnesecchi arriving following his loan spell last season & Dragowski leaving for far more than I expected to get for him. Everyone else that came in was a newgen, with a lot of them having been agreed a season or two ago when they weren't old enough to move. Aside from Dragowski the only other notable departure was Del Prato, who was a utility defender that played a decent amount as a rotational player, but we have decent depth at full back & a few newgens who could take over in the next couple of years, so we took the money whilst it was there.

    Serie A:
    As mentioned in the last update, we went unbeaten until the turn of the year, and then had a wobble through most of January that saw us fall behind Inter & Juve, and with 11 games to go all three of us were level on points. Inter ended up slipping away, but the battle between us & Juve went to the final day. We won our game against Torino, but we were a point behind Juve, who came from behind to beat Napoli 3-2 & reclaim the title.

    Arthur Cabral destroyed the league this year, breaking the record for goals in a season by averaging a goal a game across the whole season on his way to winning the Player of the Year award. He was also, unsurprisingly, recognised as the best striker, and the other legend of the save, Cristiano Biraghi, won best defender.

    Italian Cup:
    I didn't care about this one very much, and we exited in the quarter finals after beating Torino the round before.

    Italian Super Cup:
    We took on Juventus in a game I didn't realise took place in the middle of the season. Unfortunately for us, it was right in the middle of our slump, and Juve took the trophy.

    Champions League:
    We continued our amazing fortune with group stage draws, being paired with Porto, Salzburg & Besiktas in a group that we easily won, before being drawn against Leverkusen in the knockout round. Having beaten the 2-1 away in the first leg I fancied our chances of progressing, but then we had a wild second leg that went all the way to penalties, where our backup goalkeeper (Carnesecchi was out for the game) proved to be the hero, saving two to send us through - weirdly, every single penalty in the shootout went to the GKs left.

    We drew Juventus in the quarter finals, and after stomping them 5-0 in the league recently, this felt like a winnable tie. We went 3-0 up at home in the first leg, but conceded a late goal & then lost 2-1 away to narrowly sneak through to the semis, where we played Arsenal. Another big home win in the first leg set us up for a huge upset, but once again we tried our hardest to throw the second leg, losing 2-0 & only avoiding extra time because they had a third ruled out in stoppage time.

    So, somehow we made it to the final, where we had to face Man City. They came flying out the blocks & were 2-0 up after 15mins, at which point I thought we were going to get smoked, but we made it to half time & a change in tactics turned the tide. We managed to pull it back to 2-2, only for Frenkie De Jong to steal it straight back with a free-kick that ultimately won them the trophy.

    Brenner won the golden boot, with Cabral second, and they were also the top two in the CL striker of the season award, but they couldn't quite take us all the way.

    --

    Overall it was another successful season, even if we failed to bring home any silverware. We have a shit ton of promising kids that need to start being worked in to the side, so this summer will probably be mostly evaluating which ones should stay & play, and which ones are best going out on loan. There are a few senior players who might have to move on to help create some playing time, but I don't think we'll be overly active in the transfer market again this summer.

    The board are still extremely lenient with their targets, only wanting us to qualify for the Europa League next season, but I'd imagine it'll be us, Inter & Juve battling it out again next year.

  48. #1248
    Senior Member Dan's Avatar
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    It's not going as well as usual half way through the year:



    Arthur Cabral has become a mortal man once more, and we've struggled to make the most of our opportunities because of it. We have a brutal run of Juventus, Roma & Milan to finish our schedule this season, so we need to get some momentum going over the next couple of months if we're to secure an automatic CL spot.

    We finally got a CL group that wasn't a cakewalk, but it didn't end up mattering, and as an added bonus we avenged our loss to Man City in last year's final:



    They were eliminated with a game to spare Our reward for topping the group? PSG

  49. #1249
    Senior Member Serj's Avatar
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    Torino 2036/37



    Much better, even though we still have the annoying habit of crumbling when it matters. As evidenced in the Champions League, where we came third in a group with Real Madrid, Porto and Celtic. Should really have qualified but a tepid 1-1 draw against Celtic on the penultimate matchday left us needing a win against Real in the last match, where we only managed a 0-0. We were then deservedly knocked out of the Europa League by Southampton.

    Just like last year, we made it to the final of the Coppa Italia with relative ease where our opponents were Napoli - slightly below us in the league, but always up for a good performance (having beaten champions Inter in the league, for instance). First half was an evenly matched game with us having a slight edge and finishing better. 2-1 at half-time, scored early in the second half, so I thought I'd go somewhat less attacking and control the rest of the match.

    Naturally, we proceeded to get absolutely battered for the remainder of the game. They scored in injury time to make it 3-3 and should have equalised much earlier, so at this stage I was already coming to terms with resigning, since I said before the season that I'd leave if there was no silverware this year. Somehow we hung on though, and saw them off on penalties.
    Toggle Spoiler


    I'd be fuming were I playing as Napoli.

    Key performers were the same as last season, Kedziorek in defence and the ever-improving Sam Percival in attacking midfield (Serie A Player of the Year + Goal of the Year).

    I've decided to play around with tactical approaches again after sticking with the same basic line-up for a couple of years now. Mostly I had to deal with frequent injuries to my wide players, which meant that my usual line-up, which is a riff on a 4-2-3-1:
    Toggle Spoiler


    shifted to variants of 4-1-2-1-2 and 3-4-3, like so
    Toggle Spoiler


    The former is especially good in terms of chance creation but the leakiest of the three in defence. That's where the 3-4-3 shines, which was surprising to me as I'd have expected playing a flat front three would leave my flanks exposed.

    All of this should give me a nice bit of flexibility next season.

    I'm also pretty excited about one of the youth players coming through:



    I'm retraining him as a wing-back, as I think that's what his attributes are suited to the most. Should become a great allrounder in midfield as well, though.
    Last edited by Serj; 17-03-2022 at 09:18 AM.

  50. #1250
    Bookie Sir Andy Mahowry's Avatar
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    Pogon Siedlce 2030/31 Season Update:

    Transfers Out:



    I lost 3 starters this season but I was fine with it. £10m for Sawicki was a robbery as we only paid £875k for him and he had never played well consistently well for us. We bought Orzechowski for £750k so selling him on for 10 times that was great and he was beginning to fall out of the team.

    For Aluszyk I think the board (who accepted deals for him) got far too little for him. They accepted offers for around £9m as well so annoying to miss a bit more. My price point would have been around £12m. Although he barely played for Freiburg and didn't do well for them when he did play and they're willing to move him for a loss.

    Transfers In:



    Not too many coming in as I was happy with the squad.



    The pace was a big reason I bought him. I can't see him ever breaking into our side but I do think he'll do well in the league and as such I feel like we can make some money off him.



    Another in the conveyor belt of RB's I've bought. His potential has dropped since buying him so clearly I think it's another swing and a miss. I'll be loaning him out next year and hopefully he kicks on.



    He had been on loan with us for 4 seasons but PSV weren't willing to let him come back on loan so with the money sitting in the bank and no one else I felt would improve our squad I decided to go for it. I was a little hesitant as well as in his final loan season he was out partying about 5/6 times and I thought he'd be downing pints weekly but he kept his head down.



    Another who had been on loan with us although it was only for one year and I believe it was our first in the top division. He is the reason why I was fine with Aluszyk leaving although his wages are a bit mental.

    League:






    I think all bar one draw (the first with Warta Poznan) were with my second team as they were always starting before a European game. Easy though.

    Cup:





    Oh well.

    Europe:



    I was in dreamland after the first two group games. We were top of the group and with two games coming up against Rangers I thought we were going through in second place at a minimum. Then it all turned to shit.

    We went into the final group game needing to not lose by 3 goals and thankfully we did that to send us through to the Europa knockouts.



    That second leg match against Spurs was the most batshit game I've ever played on any FM. We scored almost instantly and I thought we'd easily go through and then Vlahovic decided it wasn't going to be easy and they should have won the tie after 90 minutes. We had chances too but kept fluffing them and ultimately took it to pens where Spurs Spurs'd it.

    Milan were too strong for us in the next round.

    Annoyingly we finished just 0.05 points behind 10th placed Netherlands and 0.75 points behind 9th placed Ukraine in the coefficients list and miss out on an automatic group spot for next season. We do have a shit year about to be struck off compared to good years for them so we'll be easily into 9th and pushing for Portugal in 8th.

    Squad Stats:



    The squad is in a good position with the only glaring weakness being in goal as Bobek can be suspect although he played well this year. I had been thinking of moving on Jasinski and bringing in the guy who plays at RB for the national side (although he is not natural there) but Jasinski decided to drop his unhappiness a couple of days ago.

    Other than that I'm not looking to sell anyone but if someone comes in with a big offer for Jan Jasinski or Walczak I'd be willing to let them walk.

    I've also agreed to sign 3 new players all 3 are 16, there is a snag with one player though. He is not Polish but he's an amazing looking Croatian for cheap so I'm planning to loan him out and nationalise him.

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