FM Official Thread All Fantasy Football Manager talk here please

Discussion in 'Taylor's Tittle-Tattle - General Banter' started by WoodyWfc, Nov 5, 2010.

  1. reids

    reids First Team

    November 4th is apparently the release date, so 2 weeks before would be the 21st October with any luck! I reckon I can do an update a week with my philosophy/scouting/coaching laid out.
     
  2. reids

    reids First Team

  3. reids

    reids First Team

  4. reids

    reids First Team

    Anyone played the beta yet? Liverpool came in for Cathcart in pre-season!
     
  5. StuBoy

    StuBoy Forum Cad and Bounder

    I have brought FM17 after a 2 year absence. I just thought I'd give it a go again, even though in reality I don't have the time. Started the game unemployed and have pitched up at Scottish League 2 team Stirling Albion. Currently sitting 2nd in my first season with about 10 games to go. It's between ourselves and Clyde for that all important one automatic promotion place.

    We'll see how it goes, but so far so good. I'm pretty sure I'll eventually get bored/fed up as usual, but thought after not buying the game (FM16) last year for the first time since the CM2 days, I'd maybe give it one more go. FM17 seems a decent upgrade to FM15, but I'm not so sure about all the social media stuff. It feels a bit pointless really.
     
  6. reids

    reids First Team

    Agreed. Finding it quite hard myself. Sitting in 5th position after 10 or so games in the Belgian 2nd division (out of 9 teams when we were predicted to finish 1st)!
     
  7. StuBoy

    StuBoy Forum Cad and Bounder

    So, I have been playing this for a while now with little or no success, and have become a bit of a journeyman manager! First job at Stirling I guided them to second in the Scottish league 2, and we lost out in the promotion playoffs. Then the next season proceeded somehow to lose the first six games so jumped before I was pushed!

    I moved onto Maidstone in the Conference South (they had just been relegated from the Conference Prem), and managed to drag them up from the bottom of the league to just outside the playoffs, but missed out after a traditional FM late season slump (some things never change). The next season I just could not get out of mid-table despite the board and media expecting me to take the league by storm. Again, I eventually jumped before I was pushed out the job, I'm a quitter!

    Amazingly, Southend, who were struggling at the bottom of League Two then offered me a job. Also, rather surprisingly they were awash with money. I joined in about October and set about buying a few decent players for January. However, despite this I again struggled badly losing game after game. I then kept with tradition and quit!

    Finally (now in my fourth season) I have another job at Eastleigh. Newly promoted to the football league I took over in pre-season. Their finances are very insecure and we got off to an awful start; however, we then picked up and my morale grew. We then lost a tough Checkatrade trophy game to Southampton U23's (despite us being favourites for some reason), and the teams morale was crushed. As is usual in FM this sent us on a spiral of despair and a slump ensued. Unlike my tales above, this time I have not quit, but I got close to doing so, and subsequently not playing this game again. I went online and found a new tactic that is based on Klopp's Gegenpress which seemed to be quite successful. I've implemented this now and have resolutely stuck with it so my players can familiarise themselves. This did result in a couple of heavy defeats but the board expect us to struggle so I got away with it. Slowly but surely though, results have started to turn for the better, and I think the high work rate of my players helps in this regard. I did lose the last game I played yesterday, but will continue this evening to see if this tactic can really turn around my fortunes. It's last chance saloon for this game now. I'm just finding it so much harder than when playing games like CM3 and CM4 back in the glory days, and even games like FM2005/6/7 etc..

    Link to the Gegenpress tactic below for info:

    http://www.fm-base.co.uk/forum/shar...hampionship-efl-cup-double-record-points.html
     
  8. reids

    reids First Team

    I'm actually doing surprisingly well on my Coca Cola game, I went balls out attacking: http://i.imgur.com/Zz9Mzl6.png - Teams don't know how to cope with it and it's surprisingly resilient in defence. I pissed the league by 22 points (!) http://i.imgur.com/yk1afeQ.png . I'm now sitting top of the Belgian Pro League halfway through my first season there using the same tactic! I introduced a new team and i'm playing a sort of gegenpress 4-2-1-2-1 (that's a 4231 with a centre mid instead of an attacking mid) that's working really well.
     
  9. StuBoy

    StuBoy Forum Cad and Bounder

    Gegenpress seems to work! After applying this and persevering, I have lead Eastleigh on a march up to 4th in the League Two table. I left it last night with one game of the season remaining. To gain automatic promotion we basically need to go to runaway Champions Doncaster and win and hope Bristol Rovers draw or lose. Quite a tall order, but we shall see. I'm already a hero anyway for making the playoffs despite the 500K of debt the club finds itself in. The debt is not my doing, as I'm about 4K under the wage budget. It just looks like league football is difficult for the club to sustain financially on reasonably low crowds. This being the case, I haven't been offered a new contract yet and Brentford and Wigan in the Championship are interested in my services.

    Gengenpress is interesting, I have scored loads of goals, but concede a lot too! It's like the Kevin Keegan school of 'we'll score one more goal than you'. I think I need to try and get some centre backs in who have high concentration and positioning values, as the majority of the goals I concede come from long punts over the top (probably because we press so much), and crosses. Maybe next season, if I'm still at Eastleigh, I'll need to tweak this formation slightly, and ensure I get players with values very specific for their positions. Additionally, instead of playing with two wingers with my three up top I have one set as an Inside Forward, which I think improves our chances of scoring.
     
    Last edited: Nov 29, 2016
  10. StuBoy

    StuBoy Forum Cad and Bounder

    End of season update. We drew 2-2 at Doncaster which was a pretty creditable result, but disappointing for two reasons. One, we were leading and threw it away, and two, almost unbelievably Bristol Rovers lost 1-3 at home to Ebbsfleet who are bottom and already relegated. So we finished level on points but missed out on automatic promotion by goal difference.

    Into the playoffs we played my old club Southend. The first leg (away) we drew 1-1 and were very lucky. We were down to 10 men and being bombarded by them, until in the 92nd minute their goal keeper screwed up and we scored an easy tap in to get away with the draw. In the return leg I decided to go all-out attack and blitz them from the start. It worked a treat and by half time we were 3-0 up. The second half was a non-event and we ended up 4-1 winners, which took us to Wembley 5-2 on aggregate.

    In the final we faced Mansfield, another in form team. By this time we were unbeaten in 14 games though and I felt pretty confident. However, it was not to be! Despite totally dominating the first half, we went in at the break 0-0. I couldn't believe we weren't winning and had a feeling at that point it wasn't to be our day. Despite this, we scored straight after half time to take the lead. Mansfield then promptly went down the other end and equalised, and then scored again to make it 2-1 to them straight from kick off. These goals were their first two shots of the game. I went even more attacking and eventually equalised in the 77th minute. Mansfield then scored again from kick off to go 3-2 up, and that's how it ended. They had 3 shots on target and scored all 3. To say this result was a travesty would be a gross understatement, but FM has a knack of turning up results like this.

    The end result is we missed out on promotion, which although disappointing must be put into perspective I suppose. In October we were fighting relegation, and the adoption of Gegenpress around November time turned our season around. A few loans will go back now and I'll have to replace them, but if I can get some more decent players in, I'm hoping a whole season of Gegenpress will result in us going up. I can't help but feel if I had done this from day one we would have romped to the league. I've challenged the players to win it next season and they seem to agree with me. We shall see.
     
  11. StuBoy

    StuBoy Forum Cad and Bounder

    I’ll do another update here, if anyone is interested and because I can’t be arsed at work this morning!

    Much to my other half’s annoyance, over Christmas I have rediscovered my addiction to Football Manager after quite some time. It’s not a healthy obsession, especially when you don’t go to uni anymore and can’t spend hours/days/weeks dedicated to the cause. (Luckily I don’t have kids, yet…)

    Since my last update after defeat to Mansfield in the playoff final we have progressed. The following season we went up automatically in second place, much to everyone’s surprise. This was actually my first promotion or real success of any kind in this game despite having managed 3 clubs before Eastleigh. The first season in League One was shaky to start with, we struggled. However, from about the 10th game in we rallied and even flirted with the playoffs briefly before tailing off near the end of the season and finishing 11th which I thought was quite respectable. The highlight was reaching the 5th round of the FA Cup and losing at home to Chelsea 0-2. The annoying thing was we absolutely battered them in the first half and how we went in at half time 0-0 I’ll never know. It’s the usual scenario of me having all the possession and shots, but just not making it count, and then them getting the inevitable penalty and closing the match out. However the cup run (the Chelsea game alone gave us £250K in TV money), helped prop up our awful finances.

    The current season see me 2nd with one game to play! I got knocked out of the cup in the 3rd Round at home to Hull, much the same performance as the Chelsea game mentioned above. In the league we were absolutely flying and essentially with about 8 games to go it looked like being between us and Shrewsbury for the title. However, as is customary the slump randomly began with a weird 1-4 home defeat to rock bottom Bristol Rovers. We then lost three on the bounce allowing Shrewsbury to march to the title with ease. Our poor form brought the chasing pack back in range, and with two games to go we had slumped to 3rd place and the play offs looked likely. Our penultimate game was against Nottingham Forest at home. They were on a 10 game winning run which had seen them move into 2nd place one point above us. To say this game was pivotal would be an understatement. I had literally no hope for this game, so decided to throw caution to the wind and go for it, we had nothing to lose. Incredibly, tiny Eastleigh wiped the floor with mighty Forest winning 4-0! The result of this saw us move back into 2nd place 2 points above Forest with one game to play. We travel to already relegated Burton Albion for this game, needing only a point to go up as our goal difference is far superior. So I’m quietly confidence after battering Forest that we have a chance at least of the greatest moment in Eastleigh’s history! We shall see. Maybe if the other half allows it, I’ll play this game tonight and update! ;)

    Remarkably we’ve had pretty much the same squad since my first season, building on decent free transfers from Premier League clubs. A couple have now developed into solid Championship level players, who I hope, can lead us at a higher level next season. One of our strikers I’ve had on loan from Preston (who are languishing at the bottom of League One) for 4 seasons! Not sure why they keep letting me loan him considering they could do with him! Hopefully I can stay at Eastleigh and keep progressing them (other half and time permitting!). Although I have been offered (and turned down) interviews from quite a few clubs, and it’s tempting to try the Gegenpress style with some higher calibre players.

    Watch this space!
     
  12. reids

    reids First Team

  13. StuBoy

    StuBoy Forum Cad and Bounder

    Nice ones reids. I'll have a read today.
     
  14. Jumbolina

    Jumbolina First Team

    I am in season 15 now and have turned Charlton into a top 4 powerhouse and Champ League winner. I had a weird Brexit where we opted for total free movement so I can sign anyone and don't need a work permit. My U18s are stuffed with crack Brazilian wonder kids that I pick up for 2 million a pop when they are nippers and they turn into megastars for a few years before throwing their toys and joining Man Utd for 60 million who have won the league 12 times in a row under Mourinho. Man City keep pilfering my players as well but keep finishing 9th.
     
  15. Optimistichornet

    Optimistichornet Penguin Assassin

    So Stuboy your posts were something of an inspiration last month to get me back into football manager.

    I started unemployed and like you took over at Stirling, given a two year contract. I couldnt afford to make any signings, loan or permanent so went with what I had. I used a modified Gegenpress (no suitable enganche type players available surprisingly in the scottish league 2). I absolutely romped the league winning with 5 games to go, but got knocked out early in every cup competition which I think helped. Blair Henderson was a standout player for me up front, playing every game and scoring a total of 38 goals, 30 of which set a new league record. He was ably backed up by the widemen, particularly Olenrenjarwu who regularly popped up with a double.

    At the start of the next season the board did not give me any funds to fight relegation, and actually decreased my wage bill? A lot of my players were demanding new contracts, and to be honest without the boards backing I felt I could find better options elsewhere much to the dismay of the Bino's fans. I said as much to the press and its fair to say im now as hated north of the border as Theresa May.

    Anyway I moved pretty much as far South as I could go in the UK taking a job at League 2 Yeovil, who had finished a disappointing 11th in the previous season. They had quite an aging squad, including Watford old guard Darren Ward who I have kept as Captain. Seriously lacking in transfer funds I re-loaned a few of the previous seasons better performers and waited for clubs in england to release players on a free. I signed about 9 premier league youngsters; matthew willock (man utd), ola adeyemo (watford), demetri mitchell (man utd), some chap called Dolan (**** only knows) and set about teaching my players how to use the Gegenpress.

    Starting slowly, I soon rose up the league table and nearing the half way point am top by 2 points. Played 18, lost 1, drawn 5, won 12. I seem to be having trouble with strikers putting the ball in the back of the net, and my most reliable goal scorers are adeyemo and willock, the latter is very adept at hammering the ball home on the half volley from 20 yards. A neat trick he has pulled off three times already this season.

    The Gegenpress is a pretty good tactic, but like you I mainly concede goals from long balls over the top. The one game I lost this season was a 3-0 drubbing by Luton. They hit long ball after long ball and my youthful team was constantly outmuscled. Other teams seem to struggling with my high pressing.
     
  16. StuBoy

    StuBoy Forum Cad and Bounder

    My Brexit was pretty much a non-event. Absolutely nothing changed. It occured in 2022, so I had to wait a fair while!
     
  17. StuBoy

    StuBoy Forum Cad and Bounder

    Glad you were inspired! Wish I'd had the gegenpress at Stirling, took me a while to get into the game. I just got promoted to the Championship by the way, we followed up the 4-0 over Forest with a 4-0 over Burton, so now I'm a God!

    I tweaked the Gegenpress slightly. Don't really play with enganche (they are thin on the ground as you suggest!), and I make sure my defence sits really deep, has pace and good concentration. That has actually helped a bit with 'ball over the top' problems. I also forced myself to change to 'park the bus' if I can when I'm 2 or 3 goals up to try and shore thing up. I'm going to create a third formation (even more defence minded) for my Championship season. Think I'll play 4-2(DM's)-1-3(two wingers or inside forwards).
     
  18. StuBoy

    StuBoy Forum Cad and Bounder

    Brief update, I might put up some screenshots this evening.

    Took Eastleigh up from League One in 2nd place and assumed the Championship would be a long old slog. However, after 20 games we find ourselves in 5th position! In fact we've been 2nd/3rd most of the season but are just enduring a mini slump (3 games without a win). We've beaten Leicester in the 3rd round of the cup after a replay too. The most interesting thing to happen though was that Watford sacked Steve Sidwell (don't ask), after he had managed to relegate them and languish about 13th in the Championship. Of course I applied straight away, possibly the only job that would tempt me. After waiting quite some time I finally got an interview with Gino Pozzo. Obviously I laid it on thick to get the job and after the interview the press had me as odds on favourite for the job. I prepared to pack my bags and leave Eastleigh. Only, it never happened. For some reason Pozzo appointed a chap called Paul Cook who managed Huddersfield, bottom of the Premier League by some distance. Was pretty gutted and stopped playing!

    I'll get over it though and look to try and get Eastleigh into the promised land, which would be some achievement. We've had quite a few injuries to key players this season, but somehow are managing to keep in touch. I'd be delighted with the playoffs, watch this space!
     
  19. reids

    reids First Team

    Just hit 15,000 views on my FM series, unbelievable!
     
  20. Optimistichornet

    Optimistichornet Penguin Assassin

    go stick it to that **** pozzo!

    so my first season with Yeovil finished in fine style, romping to league 2. I somehow managed to sign adam le fondre on a free transfer in January and his 15 goals in 9 games made light work of my opposition. he was ably supported by my wide men, most impressively by Demetri Mitchell. I picked him up on a free transfer at the start of the season, after he was released by man utd. initially he came in with the potential of being a good league one winger, by the end of the season he now has the potential to be a high quality championship winger. he bagged 18 assists and a decent number of goals in his debut season for me. his initial contract contained a 500k release clause, however with promotion ive managed to tie him down to a three year deal with no minimum fee clause.

    for league one I have not really strengthened too much, just added a bit of extra quality. Michael kightly has signed on a free, and other than that ive just done what I did previously and signed about 15 free transfers. if just 3 or 4 of them work out it will be worth it. only 5 games into this season and have won 3 and drawn 2, but did get knocked out of the cup.

    overall gegenpress appears to be a very useful and slightly overpowered tactic, particularly in the lower leagues. ive never had such an easy fm save. all in all in two seasons of league football with two different clubs I have only lost about 10 games. I'm considered something of a lower league god.
     
  21. StuBoy

    StuBoy Forum Cad and Bounder

    Good work! Yes the tactic is quite powerful I find, although weirdly the most consistent I've found it so far is in the Championship. Despite getting my biggest list of injuries in a season I have Eastleigh sitting 2nd with 11 games to go, and a lot of my players coming back to full fitness. So I'm keeping everything crossed now! We've had quite a few draws where the opposition have snatched the equaliser in injury time (about 4 games), if we'd hung on we would be well on our way to the Premier League. Below is the table to prove I'm not lying, the year is 2024.

    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
     
  22. Optimistichornet

    Optimistichornet Penguin Assassin

    very nice. ill try and post some screenshots.
     
  23. StuBoy

    StuBoy Forum Cad and Bounder

    Truly gutting. Faded badly towards the end of the season but rallied and beat Villa (the champions) 3-1 and draw with Hull to squeak into the playoffs. Didn't fancy my chances against in form Boro in the semi, but battered them 3-1 at home and then battered them (if you can call a draw a battering) 1-1 at the Riverside. So I played my old adversaries Hull in the final. We went 1 up through our perennial loanee Arnett, but Hull equalised straight from kick off, as you do. They then won it in the 93rd minute with the last kick. I wasn't even angry, I totally expected that!

    Anyway, onto the next season, and I've finally made Arnett a permanent signing for £2 million. We finally seem to have some cash! I'll hopefully stick around now the board are finally investing in the infrastructure of the club, but could be tempted if a decent job presents itself!

    [​IMG]
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    Last edited: Jan 20, 2017
  24. StuBoy

    StuBoy Forum Cad and Bounder

    Another brief update, and some pics may follow!

    Started my next season extremely sluggishly, took me 6 games to win. We were very inconsistent and up until about October hovered around mid to lower mid-table. I suspect this is due to me signing quite a few new players and them taking a while to bed in. Then all of a sudden we started to hit some superb form. The legendary Peter Arnett returned from injury on fire and we won 5/6 on the bounce taking us up to 4th place, but as seems to happen quite a lot injuries started to bite, and I feared a loss of form. However....

    Despite losing my long-time assistant manager Joe Cole to the vacant Boro job, I too had a lot of interested clubs for my services. Wolves and Palace, recently relegated from the Premier League offered me interviews as did Muff, sitting 19th in the Premier League. I was also linked to other jobs left right and centre. I attended the Palace interview, and to all intents and purposes was successful, getting to the contract negotiation stage. At this point, Watford, languishing 17th in the Championship sacked their manager again. I immediately declared my interest and was installed as favourite by the bookies. I asked Palace if I could delay my decision on the job to which they agreed. As I had hoped, Gino Pozzo again invited me for another interview, but this time my open declaration worked in my favour. With a few tweaks to my answers I sealed the deal! I left my game last night having left Eastleigh and just joined Watford, and having negotiated what staff I brought across. Despite being 17th, the Watford budget is large, £27 million to spend on transfers! Taking the job early in January will hopefully work in my favour getting some deals in quickly. We have a bloody good squad compared to Eastleigh though, so I'm hoping if I can impose my style quickly, we might fulfil my optimistic promise of making the playoffs. The Pozzo's certainly won't be a forgiving as the Eastleigh board if I fail in my task.

    So I leave Eastleigh after over 5 years. I think I probably had a chance of taking them up again this season, but the Watford job was the only one that would tempt me, and with so much money to play with it should be interesting!
     
  25. Optimistichornet

    Optimistichornet Penguin Assassin

    haha. can you imagine if you get sacked before the end of the season from your dream job?
     
  26. DrewH

    DrewH Administrator Staff Member

    Surely you've gotta bring Arnett with you too!?
     
  27. Optimistichornet

    Optimistichornet Penguin Assassin

    So I've just completed my second season with Yeovil. As I said before I won League 2 in my first season and was expecting a much tougher challenge in League 1. I bought in a couple of free transfers, my main signing was an 32 year old Michael Kightly on a bosman. Demetri Mitchell continued his fine form terrifying league 1 defences with his pace and dribbling down the left wing. Ogo Obi joined from Watford on loan and along with Le Fondre they fired me to the upper reaches of the table.

    I spent most of the season in 2nd place about 10 points behind Sheffield Wednesday who appeared to be walking away with the title. However they suffered a massive drop in form whilst I won 4 on the bounce, including thrashing Wednesday 4-1 away from home. I took top spot with 8 games remaining, but Dimi Mitchell got injured for 4 months.

    I lost form and won only 3 of the remaining 8 games. With one game to go Wednesday were top by one point, playing away at Walsall. With 5 minutes to go I was drawing 0-0 with Bury, whilst Wednesday were losing to Walsall. However Wednesday did have a superior goal difference. I had brought Le Fondre on from the bench for Ogo Obi and with 2 minutes to go he headed in the guide us the title.

    I have now won three titles in three successive seasons, and am developing quite a reputation. I think I may have reached the peak of Yeovil's ability though, so if an interesting move comes up I will likely think about it. I have a couple of players though who I would love to take with me if I do move. Mitchell has been probably the best free transfer signing I have made on any football manager game ever.

    With regards to Gegenpress, it is still working very well. I do concede a lot of goals and a lot of cards, but overall it got me through a season in a higher league with a record of P46, W28, D10, L8.
     
  28. StuBoy

    StuBoy Forum Cad and Bounder

    I did! Signed on deadline day for £10.5 million, and he was on fire, but this season he's got a bit more competition so needs to keep it going as technically the other strikers are better stats wise!

    Unfortunately, despite only 2 defeats after I took over we only finished 10th and I was very very close to the sack. Started my first full season now and won one and lost one, so again on a knife edge. Not sure I will survive, but I have managed to keep hold of most of my best players so fingers crossed!

    Notice my goals for and against below, just mental. Defence was so leaky, but managed to improve it with some intensive training by the end of the season. The previous manager was worse than Kevin Keegan!

    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
     
  29. Optimistichornet

    Optimistichornet Penguin Assassin

    What are Arnett's stats like?
     
  30. StuBoy

    StuBoy Forum Cad and Bounder

    Here you go. I've seen better, but he does seem to be doing the business, unlike the rest of my overpaid, lazy team!

    [​IMG]
     
  31. Optimistichornet

    Optimistichornet Penguin Assassin

    decent for a regen. will be interesting to see if he can continue to step up haha. I'm really struggling for signings of a championship level, my Yeovil board are incredibly stingy.
     
  32. Jumbolina

    Jumbolina First Team

    Charlton are finally building me a new stadium so I can upgrade my 40k Valley capacity. Taking them 2 years to build it. Reward for the league title which broke Man Utd winning it 15 seasons in a row!
     
  33. reids

    reids First Team

    Anyone read my series yet? :naughty:
     
  34. wfcwarehouse

    wfcwarehouse First Team Captain

    Yes, very good!
     
  35. StuBoy

    StuBoy Forum Cad and Bounder

    So an update as I have a rare week off between jobs at home with nothing to do, which is allowing me some game time! Since I started this game in November I've apparently invested over 20 hours of my life so far...

    After finishing my first season at Watford in 10th and narrowly avoiding the sack, I realised why I was on the edge. I hadn't signed enough young players for the first team (I have now managed to remove this philosophy). So in the close season I signed some over priced youngsters and the Pozzo's backed off and my job became secure. It became even more secure as we topped the Championship most of the season. However, to cut a long story short, what happened in real life with Bournemouth, happened again this time replace them with Middlesborough. Going into the last game we needed a win for the title, or a draw as long as Boro didn't win by three clear goals. At the start of the second half, we led 0-2 at Burnley and Boro were actually 3-0 up at home to Palace. In the second half Burnley pulled one back; however, we were relatively comfortable until the 93rd minute, then guess what? They equalised. Boro won 3-0 and we lost the title on goal difference by one goal (see the table below). I was fecking gutted!!

    First season back in the Premier has taken the edge off that disappointment slightly. We're sitting pretty in 5th after 13 games. The two defeats we've had have been 0-1 home reverses to Arsenal and Utd respectively and in all honesty we should have battered them both! We've beaten Liverpool and drawn at Spurs, Chelsea and City already, so all in all I'm pretty pleased so far. Even Arnett has scored a couple meaning he has now scored in every division from the Conference up! A true legend.

    [​IMG]
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    Last edited: Feb 13, 2017

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