Was a long day waiting for the kids bedtime!
The lads
EDIT:
The Akehurst Arena is underway!
Was a long day waiting for the kids bedtime!
The lads
EDIT:
The Akehurst Arena is underway!
Last edited by Mike; 29-12-2023 at 09:55 PM.
Rant incoming.
I decided to start a new Park to Prem type save, holidaying for the first season and taking over a newly promoted side. Bradford Park Avenue came up and seemed an obvious choice - fairly local and I've even played at their ground in real life.
Here's how we're doing after 33 games:
A walk in the park, and promotion will be confirmed in a few games time. This is a team predicted to be in a relegation scrap. Here's my tactic:
A fairly standard 4-3-3 tactic afaic, with a mixture of gegenpressing and controlling possession. My only real rule was that I needed to be defensively solid - I'd much rather win 2-0 than 5-2, and that my shape should be realistic - none of this 3 advanced forward nonsense or essentially four strikers with two advanced forwards and two inside forwards.
The problem is it's just so easy. I can't imagine this is news to anyone, but any sort of gegenpress style just completely overpowers the opposition, to the point of being quite dull. It's been like this for years, and it's a shame because the gegenpress/controlling possession in the opposition half would be a style of football I'd want my teams to play in real life, but it just isn't sustainable in FM if you want a challenge. Especially when you factor in having plenty of attack-minded duties in your roles, it becomes like gegenpress on drugs.
I've been looking on the SI forums a bit and tactic sites such as FM Arena to see what people are doing about it, and I've (they've) got a few ideas which I'm going to try. Someone posted that to make it more realistic you should think of your players in pairs, and try to have five runners and five sitters, and if you have too many runners then you're effectively exploiting the game. So for the tactic above, I would pair up the two centre backs, wing back and winger on each flank, the two central midfielders, and then the DM and striker as they don't have partners as such and are the only two players left. The BPD is on dribble more so he can be the runner, with the CD(d) as my sitter. On the flanks, the wing backs are clearly runners, which would make the inverted wingers sitters. In CM the CMa is clearly a runner, making the BBM a sitter, and then the DMd is clearly a sitter and and AFa a runner.
This would give me a 5-5 combination, but I'm finding it hard to justify the IWs and BBM as sitters, particularly as they're scoring most of my goals.
So I'm after something different. Someone else suggested that you should just use the preset tactics, and not touch the team instructions at all. I like the idea of this, along with not touching player instructions. The only thing I'll have free reign of is the shape and roles/duties, but even then I'll try to stick with the 5-5 rule outlined above.
I'm still using the Python coding for player recruitment but I'm finding this cuts down on a lot of the 'noise' and gives me a much clearer structure in terms of overall recruitment, so I'll be sticking to that. I am mindful though that it is heavily weighted towards the attributes acceleration, pace, stamina and work rate which in theory would end up giving me players suited to a gegenpress style of football.
13 games left in the season. I'm going to change now and see how it goes.
Rant over.
Okay sure but can you upload your tactic?
I'm a twit
What's a python coding?
I find the problem with the game its ease too. Problem for us here is we're clearly enthusiasts. I mean this(or the previous board) was originally a place for all things FM so we are all or were at one point. For that reason, playing the game just feels like a matter of time until you do the same kind of cycle you know you need to do to win.
The 4-3-3 gegenpress style has borked the match engine for years now. They seem to have thrown plenty of 'off pitch issues' at you to deal with, to try and slow you down. For example your backup right back trying(successfully) to cause a squad mutiny because he's not getting played in the exact role you specified on signing him, in your quadruple winning, record breaking team. It just feels quite false.
Have a look at Squirrel plays FM on YouTube.Originally Posted by Yevrah
Baz, does my tactic not show?
4-2-3-1 with DMs now allowed to 'get further forward' seems to be the meta this year. A 4-2-3-1 Gegenpress with both full backs and both DMs attacking pretty much destroys the AI opponent.
Dynamics and squad rotation are the only other things you need to keep an eye on, really.
I always find it a bit depressing when you have to limit, or challenge what the game offers to create a form of difficulty. Not just FM, but all games. Its hugely a fault of the devs in that regard. From the day they incorporated gegenpress its been broken, and they clearly can't fix it.
I have my TIs set to regroup rather than press, but then I have PIs and OIs saying to press. The formation is fucking stupid (3 players on defensive duty, 3 on support, 5 attack), but I found a save with United 18th in the table at January a few seasons in. They had lost 8 on the bounce. I took over and had 5 wins and a draw in 6 just plugging it in. Morale, atmosphere, all fucked when I joined. After that streak they're buzzing and we look like world beaters. My players just pressed them into oblivion.
Essentially the AI is still way way too passive. It has been for many versions. I watched a streamer play a full match once - 90% of AI passes where along the back 4_5. They're shit scared mate, unless it's say a City or Real. To practically have to nerf your own tactic to imitate what they do and form some form of challenge is utterly fucking stupid imo (not a slant at you, but the devs).
And I genuinely believe FM25, and probably 26 will be an absolute broken mess. I still buy it every year. I still pump hundreds of hours into it. But it's a background noise kind of game now. Winning a league, or CL just gives an 'oh nice' reaction and onto the next season.
I honestly don't think they care enough to fix anything, really. See Miles wanking himself off at record numbers of sales and players rather than address years old issues. Every game in existence has a meta, its just in FM anything but the meta is hugely frustrating.
Something that is pissing me off right now is the fact that teams keep making shit loan offers.
0% of their wages and you'll only offer them fringe playing time? Fuck off.
Manc, I read that, and DS, I agree with everything you said.
I completed the season with preset tactics as I said, making no changes to either team or player instructions. Unsurprisingly, my assistant manager recommend I went with the gegenpress still as my squad is built for pressing, as well as the fluid counter attack as we have a lot of pace. I dabbled a bit with the vertical tiki taka preset but my players weren't really good enough to keep the ball. I switched shape a bit too but found the 4-3-3 the most suited still and it allowed me to control games better.
13 games (from Kidderminster onwards), Won 8, drawn 3, lost 2. 27 points, which extrapolated over the season would have got me 96 points and still won the league. All in theory of course, but surprisingly decent.
Despite the league already being wrapped up, I found it much more immersive as I did need to fiddle with roles, duties and shapes (and mentalities, the one thing in the overall instructions I'll continue to amend) and I'm looking forward to next season's challenge. It should be a challenge too, what with the new rules I've put in place and us presumably being one of the weakest in the league.
Started a network game with my mate after years of him mithering. Problem is he doesn’t have kids or grown up responsibilities so he messages every morning ‘are you playing all day?’ with absolute sincerity. Of course not.
As it is I got sacked from Stoke, and then relegated with Rotherham in the same season. Luckily maxed out rep at the start and now linked with Newcastle.
Meanwhile my mate lost the playoff final with Leicester, and Mike lost the semis with Southampton.
All in all, a roaring failure. I played a grand total of two games and won both though.
I'm a twit
The quintessential FM experience: We just won a game 4-0, I missclicked on "not happy" in the post-match team talk and every single player was happy with the feedback.
I log in around transfer windows, so some deals and leave again. Perfect!Started a network game with my mate after years of him mithering. Problem is he doesn’t have kids or grown up responsibilities so he messages every morning ‘are you playing all day?’ with absolute sincerity. Of course not.
As it is I got sacked from Stoke, and then relegated with Rotherham in the same season. Luckily maxed out rep at the start and now linked with Newcastle.
Meanwhile my mate lost the playoff final with Leicester, and Mike lost the semis with Southampton.
All in all, a roaring failure. I played a grand total of two games and won both though.
Just had possibly one of the best regens come through on my Crewe save
We just picked up where we left off after our tactical revamp last season really. While my tweaks were mostly aiming at limiting stupid passes that led to opposition counter-attacks, we didn't really do much better defensively (in fact we conceded 66 versus last season's 57). The changes did, however, end up massively boosting our build-up play resulting in a lot more chances and, subsequently, a lot more goals. And I mean A LOT more, as we scored 116 goals as opposed to last season's 73. We got up to 1st place about half-way through the season and never left. We even got a 9-point lead at some point, but we had one too many a game (6 of them to be precise) where we threw 2-goal leads away. Back to back defeats to Huddersfield and Southampton also made things a bit spicy but we kept our cool and won the whole thing. We also did well in cups, eventually going out to Arsenal in the League Cup after a well-fought 2-1 loss at home (them scoring the winner in injury time) and to Crystal Palace in the FA Cup on penalties after dominating both games but getting superkeeped really.
Our squad was largely the same as last season, which was to be expected seeing as we didn't have all that much money to spent. We signed two new full-backs which has been our most problemsome position for years now (albeit the tactical tweaks were looking to fix that), with Kelvin Abrefa joining us on a free from Reading and Sebit Deng joining us for 175k from Tottenham. With Blake leaving, the decision was to have Cundle replace him in the first eleven, while having Kerry Atkinson, who joined for 400k from Hull, as his understudy. Our last notable transfer was Chris Lamb, who joined on a free from Chelsea to add some depth up front.
A lot of people performed admirably with Osmanovic and Peña being the cream of the crop, with the former finishing top goalscorer in the league and the latter being voted Young Player of the Season, breaking the all-time Championship record for assists (with 25) in the process. Kerry Atkinson also made the most of the opportunity he was given when Cundle got injured and has been a starter since then. You might have also noticed that Lo-Tutala only had 3 appearances but obviously that's not accurate. Lyon activated his release clause in January so the game is showing his stats for them. The transfer happened with very little time for me to react, so we had to make do with our backup keeper for the rest of the season (which is none other than Sharman-Lowe, our star keeper from a few seasons back that we resigned last January). That probably resulted in a few dropped points here and there, but in all honesty he did much better than I expected so I can't really fault him. In the end, we had 5 players in the Team of the Season in Hausner, Purcell, Cundle, Peña and Osmanovic.
So the Premier League awaits. The board have given me 37m to spend on transfers, while doubling our current wage budget, to 400k p/w, which will be (unsurprisingly) much lower than everybody else in the league (the current lowest is 1.2m p/w). My intention is not to make big changes, but, as I've said in a previous post, I just can't resist the temptation so don't hold me to that. That said, we will definitely be looking for a new goalkeeper, a central defender and a defensive midfielder, and perhaps even a left back as Deng didn't perform as well as I would have expected. Obviously we will fight to avoid relegation and the ties against Arsenal and Crystal Palace showed me that we can handle the big boys to an extent, but I won't be too disappointed if we get relegated but improve our finances and stature in the process.
Last edited by Adramelch; 02-01-2024 at 01:44 AM.
We only signed 15 players (albeit a handful of them just promising youngsters), with the most important being the following:
We also did decently in our first ever appearance in the Premier League:
We went past the traditional 40-point barrier, but it didn't really matter that much as the bottom few teams were abysmal. We generally play pretty well for our standard, with the occasional upset (home win over Chelsea and draws at Stamford Bridge, Old Trafford and St James' Park), but also the occasional drubbing (7-1 at the Etihad as well as five 3-goal losses). The more surprising thing is that we did pretty badly against the teams that finished below with 17 points in 14 games. On the other hand, we were propped up by the games against the four teams directly above us with no fewer than 19 points in 8 games.
We spent big on transfers, we spent a lot of money upgrading training and youth facilities and we have also started repaying three different loans, yet we ended the season on a 41m profit, despite playing in a 5.6k-seater stadium. So with higher reputation, more money coming in and us moving to a new stadium at almost triple the capacity, I think we can already claim to be an established Premier League side.
Last edited by Adramelch; 03-01-2024 at 07:11 PM.
I watched all of SYC's Treaty United building a nation and the fucker never finished it
Glamour tie in Europe
After a break over Christmas, I'm back on the Youth Academy save with Folkestone. Form has been so patchy throughout but we've done well to pick up a lot of scrappy draws to make sure we weren't falling completely out of touch with safety. And crucially we've just won consecutive matches for the first time since August - a 3-1 win away at bottom club Basingstoke followed by a solid 2-1 win over Maidstone, who are fighting for promotion.
That leaves the table looking like so, with 6 games to play:
The youth intake must be a couple of weeks away, and it's much needed - our RB is only just returning from a lengthy injury and we're missing another player through suspension for the next 2 matches. David Smith is single-handedly doing the business up front with 22 league goals, and he's tied down for next season too (if we make it).
We can't defend a corner to save our lives. Been like that for a few seasons, I make a few tweaks, it works for a handful of games and then back to conceding every other game.
Had a major fallout with my keeper, left me scrambling around for one. Was going to panic buy but think a loan from Chelsea is the answer
6 games left for Folkestone and the save on the line.....
Game 41 - Away at Bath City (12th)
Coming into this match off the back of consecutive victories had pulled us out of the relegation zone as well as dragging Taunton and Chippenham into the fight. It also meant I could sit back and defend deeper at at Bath, happy to settle for a point if need be. The first half was completely devoid of highlights, but we started the 2nd half brightly, and managed to take the lead thanks to a horrendous error from the Bath goalkeeper, palming out a harmless cross to the feet of young central midfielder Preston Woolston, who lashed it into the empty net. This woke up the hosts, with chances falling to Fletcher and Tom Smith but the defence stood firm and held on for an unprecedented 3rd win in a row.
Game 42 - Home to Dartford (1st)
This was always going to be a tough ask, up against the league leaders with the most potent strike force in the division. We were up to 18th after our last victory, but the fixture list saw Welling play Poole (21st vs 22nd) and Chippenham play Taunton (19th vs 20th), so there was a potential for a big swing of points down the bottom. Dartford were dominant early but we held out well until the stroke of half-time when their centre-back thumped in a header from a corner. 30 seconds after the break, we responded through top scorer David Smith, breaking the offside trap before rounding the keeper and slotting in an equaliser. But parity was short-lived, as virtually from the kick off Luke Coulson rifled one in from outside the box and there was no way back from that point. Two quick goals made it 4-1 (one a dubious penalty), before Woolston grabbed a consolation, slotting in from Scott Heard's pass to cut the deficit.
Game 43 - Away at Southend United (6th)
The fixtures were not particularly kind as we now faced a trip to Southend, sitting on the fringes of the play-off spots and looking to secure their place. But for the first half-hour, we were dominant with a whole host of chances falling to Smith, Coker and Woolston. But we didn't take one, and we were made to pay by conceding in the 45th minute once again. Scott Sinclair, 36 years young, drifted in from the right and slotted it in the opener. But after the break, we responded well and kept on the front foot and got a deserved equaliser - Heard breaking down the right before crossing low for Smith to turn home his 25th of the campaign. As the game wore on, fatigue became the issue and it was fresh legs that would eventually be our undoing. Jack Bridge came off the bench for the hosts to win the game late on with a deflected effort, a cruel way to lose after a really impressive performance.
Results elsewhere didn't go our way either - Welling incredibly made it 4 wins in a row, winning 4-2 away at Hampton & Richmond. Chippenham Town snatched a late 1-0 victory over Chelmsford with an 89th minute goal, whilst Taunton travelled to Poole in a huge game for the relegation battle and thumped them 5-2.
We're back in the drop zone...
Last edited by thommo; 05-01-2024 at 08:36 AM.
Game 44 - Home to Maidenhead Town (23rd)
Finally our youth intake came in the day before this match. However, none of the youngsters put pen to paper in time for this absolutely massive game so we'd have to continue with the regular team. It was a scrappy opening to this Good Friday match, but thankfully the first real chance came our way and Scott Heard curled it home wonderfully from the edge of the box after some nice work from Woolston. Maidenhead's keeper kept them in it for the rest of the half with some really good saves from Davies and Penn, but the pressure told early in the 2nd half. Coker got free down the left and lobbed a lovely ball to the back post where the unmarked David Smith nodded home from a couple of yards out. Game over, surely? Of course not - Maidenhead had barely had a sniff but with 15 minutes left, their attacker tumbled over in the box and the ref awarded a very soft penalty which was duly converted. With nerves rising, I dropped back a bit, wasted some time and it looked like we'd survive with no highlights to speak of. Calamity almost struck in stoppage time as my centre-back and goalkeeper both went for the same through ball, leaving Pollock with an open goal from a very tight angle - thankfully he dragged the shot across goal and we held on for a vital 2-1 win.
Maidenhead and Poole have both been relegated, joining bottom club Basingstoke, and it's now 1 from 5 for the remaining spot. Thankfully for us, Welling made it 5 wins a row as they beat Taunton 3-2 in another crucial match, dropping them into 21st spot.
Game 45 - Away at Slough Town (13th)
Some of the youngsters were fully signed up and made bench appearances for this away game, as I didn't want to tinker with a winning side. We edged the first 35 minutes but Slough built pressure towards the end of the half with a series of corners. Johnson forced our Swedish goalkeeper, Patrick Öhman, into 3 sharp saves in quick succession, but finally he was beaten - a lashed cross deflected off of left-back Will Dempsey into the corner of the net to put us 1-0 down. Shortly after the break and their lead was doubled due to a pretty poor error from our right-back Elliott Moore. His clearing header dropped back into the path of unmarked striker Oliver Lynch who made no mistake. It felt like game over when we gave away yet another silly penalty but Öhman was up to the task, standing tall and saving a poor effort. I brought on two youngsters for their league debuts and pushed up the formation and we soon cut the deficit, Andre Coker thumping in a loose ball in the box to give some hope. And there was a late opportunity for 16 year old Rob Hewitt to make himself a hero, but the Slough keeper got down well to palm his effort behind. Late pressure and several corners were unable to bring an equaliser, meaning the fight to stay up would go to the last day.
We host Concord in a huge last match, whilst Taunton travel to 7th-placed Havant & Waterlooville, who have unfortunately already clinched their play-off spot.
Game 46 - Home to Concord Rangers (19th)
A draw would be enough for both us and Concord to stay up, barring a dramatic goal fest from Taunton in their match. We started strongly, on the front foot with a couple of early half-chances. And it was even better news to see Taunton had gone behind to a very early penalty. We then received a penalty of our own when David Smith was bundled over in the box. He dusted himself down and smashed the spot kick down the middle to put us ahead before Scott Heard doubled the lead with a mazy run and finish at the near post just minutes later. It could have been easily 3 or 4 by half-time but the Concord keeper made some solid stops to get in to the break only 2-0 down. Despite Concord pulling one back early in the 2nd half with their first shot on goal, we could almost begin to celebrate as Taunton had gone 2-0 down on the hour. It was still a little frustrating to let our lead fully slip when Evans bundled in a loose ball in the box late on for an equaliser, but honestly it's such an achievement to have stayed up with such a threadbare squad, I could allow a moment of carelessness at the back.
A really tough season overall but thoroughly enjoyable. I've signed up all the youth candidates to fill out our squad and give us options. I'll also look to extend contracts where possible - David Smith especially, 26 goals and 9 assists in the league were so key. I still think survival will be the aim for next year as we start to develop the youngsters, it's going to take time to improve facilities and recruitment and see improvements. Coaching courses and improved staff are also on the agenda.
Loving these lower league escapades. I don't know how you fellas manage in England. The amount of games are sickening.
Ngl, I was rooting for Taunton.
Nicely done! Let’s see those youth intake players.
I have been inspired by Thommo's save and have put 1860 Munich on the backburner and have decided to incorporate the Youth Academy challenge with what I wanted to do on FM24.
I am going to Japan and starting in the 7th tier.
I'm not entirely sure this will work so it might be canned and I'll have to start again. I have no players right now and our facilities page is blank but let's see.
Here is the table:
Restarted but remembered to click the add players button and it's giving me 6 first teamers.
Here is the Key Player:
And the hot prospect:
I've not played FM in years so nice to see they haven't improved the generated heads in that time.
Sorry, Miyagi Sensei? As in Karate Kid?
I guess so, that's why I when I saw the team name I knew I had to go for them. There were no other clubs in contention.
Following up on the network game with my mate and Mike.
I’m Oldham in national league. Lost in the playoff semi in third season.
Mike recently got sacked from Southampton and just got the Man City job and has £487m transfer budget.
Quite opposite ends of the spectrum. I’ve offered him a player for £10m
I'm a twit
You forgot a 0.
Nothing too special in the intake, but there are definitely a few who I think will make an impact next season.
Gustav Filipovic could be a handy option to have either up front or just sitting in behind the striker - he looks quite good on the ball, but it's a real shame about his woeful physicals. He has a good personality for development though so let's see how he goes with some first-team minutes.
Ryley Brooker is probably the one I have the highest hopes for. I've already stuck him into a mentoring group to try and turn that determination around. His technicals are really well rounded, with good Teamwork and Work Rate - he'll definitely be used in central midfield next season.
I'm not quite sure what position Rob Hewitt is best suited for. His physicals are good enough for his age and he has very good passing and technique for the level. He'll probably fill in in a number of positions, and we'll see where he performs best.
Kieran Douglas doesn't look anything special but he is vastly better than my current back-up centre-back, a youth recruit from the previous season. Good determination again so he should develop with game time, but some poor physicals and short stature means he might be best suited to a DM role instead.
Having followed a handsome opening day win with no wins in an eventual next seven games I went back a little on my plan to stay faithful to my Championship record breakers by signing Tomas Suslov (£12m) and Aliou Balde (£4.7m)
After an unlikely win at Arsenal it picked up quite nicely to sit me in mid-table comfort going into what I can only assume will be a royal battering by Man City
Playing with money is well fun! I never do it, so it's very different.
This is how you do a window in a save you're not bothered about. Back to the slog of Spezia tomorrow.
After already lining up Simone Pafundi after a loan last season, I was given £0 to spend and annoyingly a reduced wage budget. Was a long summer.
Had a falling out with one of my starting centre backs and keeper. Dropped them both to the bench. It's going well (4 games in)
Miyagi Sensei 2023 Season Update:
League:
My first game was the 4-2 loss against Sunny Reserves. I was using a 4-3-3 wing play formation but it wasn't working so I went to the good old 4-2-3-1 (pushed the 2 DM's to CM's as we have no DMs though) Gegenpress and we turned into beasts.
Nice to see we caused Sunny Reserves to drop the title (they were at odds of 1.1 to beat us), especially as they were undefeated before we battered them.
Facilities:
I assumed we'd move into our own stadium as the game probably didn't like that we were homeless. Stunned to see that it was expanded immediately with the council footing the bill.
No intake this year (I assume the game started too late for them to generate) which is shit but it might also be because we have no youth recruitment.
Having a blast. It's a fun little thing away from the hard work (and sheer joy cos it's going well) of my proper save with Spezia.
Our mate is fuming.
Having Man City as an unofficial parent club while I’m in League Two with Oldham (just absolute annihilated National League) is also very fun.
I'm a twit
Miyagi Sensei 2024 Season Update:
I've just realised that I have completed the second season and have started the third season.
This is the weirdest "season" I've had in Football Manager, here are all the games:
We are now in March 2025 and there is still no Youth Academy (we have £180k in the bank and the board are saying we don't have the funds) but we are semi-pro. Fuck knows what I'm going to do.
Three whole cup games and no league games in 2024...
Oh and that is THE Yokohama, former J-League 1 winners. We stood no chance.
Fuck it, I'm going to keep going until we have a Youth Academy or the whole squad is grey players.
Last edited by Sir Andy Mahowry; 08-01-2024 at 08:27 PM.
Europe is fun
£225m for a left back is heinous.Having a blast. It's a fun little thing away from the hard work (and sheer joy cos it's going well) of my proper save with Spezia.
Our mate is fuming.
We really do love a collapse.
I know! Wouldn’t dream of it on a proper save.
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