Championship Manager 2001/02

[Dan2501]

Burdisso is the CB I normally go for. Has insane defensive attributes, just need to have enough money to tempt Boca to sell him.

Got some solid transfers coming in at Juve, just not sure I'll survive long enough for them to actually join In the quarter finals of the UEFA Cup and the final of the Italian cup but not sure that'll be enough to save me at this rate. I had a nice run of 8 straight wins but then lost 4-1 to Lecce, this game is weird.

 

[Orikoru]

Burdisso is the CB I normally go for. Has insane defensive attributes, just need to have enough money to tempt Boca to sell him.

Got some solid transfers coming in at Juve, just not sure I'll survive long enough for them to actually join In the quarter finals of the UEFA Cup and the final of the Italian cup but not sure that'll be enough to save me at this rate. I had a nice run of 8 straight wins but then lost 4-1 to Lecce, this game is weird.

It certainly is sometimes. One of my 3 defeats this season was getting done 4-0 at home by Newcastle - but we were down to ten men for the whole second half. Every now and then you come up against a random super-keeper as well. Had one last season where we had about 15 efforts without scoring, their keeper was on a rating of 9. I clicked on him to see who he was, he was their 18-year-old third choice with about 9 for handling.

 

[Dan2501]

It certainly is sometimes. One of my 3 defeats this season was getting done 4-0 at home by Newcastle - but we were down to ten men for the whole second half. Every now and then you come up against a random super-keeper as well. Had one last season where we had about 15 efforts without scoring, their keeper was on a rating of 9. I clicked on him to see who he was, he was their 18-year-old third choice with about 9 for handling.

Game certainly isn't as consistent as the more recent titles. Someone has built a CM03/04 DB for FM19 which has been getting rave reviews, so might jump onto that for my Nostalgia kick instead

 

[Beezerk]

Wow, don't know who Skiladis is but fair play. Did you say you already had Fredrik Risp because I've heard he's a great DC on the game? In all honesty, if you go to Player Search and put in Interested:Yes, pick defence centre, and in the attributes tab put like 17+ for positioning, tackling and maybe marking, then search - scout anyone who comes up that you can afford and if they say 'excellent signing' then go for it. I did this, ended up buying a guy from Colchester for 300k and he's been an absolute machine, averages like 7.6 over the season. Positioning, tackling and marking seem to be the key stats - if they have all of them then go for the one with the most strength & pace. I always make sure they have good determination as well, because apparently that's really important in this game.

Nice one I’ll give that a go tonight.
Google Skiladis, seems he’s a hidden gem, couple him with Moukoko just behind and it’s goals galore although Moukoko does have a few off games but generally my other midfielders contribute with goals.

 

[Orikoru]

Game certainly isn't as consistent as the more recent titles. Someone has built a CM03/04 DB for FM19 which has been getting rave reviews, so might jump onto that for my Nostalgia kick instead

People have done that in reverse as well, i.e. you can get a database for Champ with all current players. I'm not bothered about that though. I just love the simplicity of Champ. My mate downloaded FM19 Touch and that looks pretty good, but I still think I prefer the old school game.

 

[Dan2501]

People have done that in reverse as well, i.e. you can get a database for Champ with all current players. I'm not bothered about that though. I just love the simplicity of Champ. My mate downloaded FM19 Touch and that looks pretty good, but I still think I prefer the old school game.

Yeah, I had a go with one of those DB's that add the modern players to 01/02 and it's just not the same, not the same nostalgia. I bloody love the newer games, I've put so many hours into FM19. It has its flaws but it's still the best FM game for years. It does take a lot longer to get through a season but I much prefer the extra depth in tactics, training and scouting that the older games just don't have. I'd much rather play FM19 than CM01/02 honestly. Touch is a decent bridge between the two, slightly stripped out simpler UI but you're still not going to be able to rinse through season like on 01/02.

 

[Orikoru]

Yeah, I had a go with one of those DB's that add the modern players to 01/02 and it's just not the same, not the same nostalgia. I bloody love the newer games, I've put so many hours into FM19. It has its flaws but it's still the best FM game for years. It does take a lot longer to get through a season but I much prefer the extra depth in tactics, training and scouting that the older games just don't have. I'd much rather play FM19 than CM01/02 honestly. Touch is a decent bridge between the two, slightly stripped out simpler UI but you're still not going to be able to rinse through season like on 01/02.

Yeah I just found with every new FM that came out they overloaded it with detail until playing it was nearly a full time job, haha. I do love the fact I've been playing CM for about 2 and a half weeks and I've already done over two seasons. On FM two seasons would take me over a month. It's tempting to get FM Touch, but I also have FM05 sitting here for when I get bored of CM so I'm set for a while.

 

[Orikoru]

I just saw an interview with Tonton Zola Moukoko: https://www.planetfootball.com/in-d...is-story-from-champ-man-legend-to-club-owner/

It's quite sad actually. The reason he never lived up to his potential is that his immediate family died and he just gave up football for a bit. It must be quite funny to be the living embodiment of a computer game legend though.

 

[Orikoru]

Having reached the top of the Prem with Wigan after 10 games I decided that save was a bit too easy and started again with Sassuolo. In real life they're established in Serie A now, but back in 2001 they're languishing in Serie C2/B, so I will attempt to replicate their real life achievements, with a budget of £0. I've brought in three free transfers, one 32-year-old French DMC who is too good for that level, and two strikers, one Cyriot lad with good pace and 'off the ball', the other an Israeli feller with 19's for creativity and flair, plus decent finishing. My midfield is really light still so I need a reinforcement there if I can. We've started the league alright with 2 wins and a draw to put us in 2nd early doors. This time I'm using a 4-1-2-2-1 formation that looks something like this:

         O
      ^     ^
      |     |
      O     O
      ^     ^
      |     |
      O     O
         ^
         |
         O
^                 ^
|                 |
O     O     O     O

 

[Dan2501]

I just saw an interview with Tonton Zola Moukoko: https://www.planetfootball.com/in-d...is-story-from-champ-man-legend-to-club-owner/

It's quite sad actually. The reason he never lived up to his potential is that his immediate family died and he just gave up football for a bit. It must be quite funny to be the living embodiment of a computer game legend though.

That is a real sad story, but is so common with these CM legends. Cherno Samba went through a pretty rough depression, been meaning to read his book for a while. In a similar vain - have you seen the Championship Manager documentary - An Alternative Reality? I remember it came free with one of the old FM games, well worth a watch!

Going to start a new FM save today inspired by this Cleon article:

https://teaandbusquets.com/blog/creating-a-tactic-the-paysandu-way-2

Going to start in an obscure lower league with a team that I've not decided on yet and build some weird tactic and a brand of football and see how far we can go. Might just steal Cleon's tactic as it looks really interesting and give that a go, but we'll see. I did it successfully on last years game, building a funky asymmetric 3-ATB formation with an inverted wing-back at RWB as AlbinoLeffe and took them from Serie C to Serie A in 4 seasons. So will decide later what direction we're going to go, might start in South America.

 

[Orikoru]

It's worth selecting your team and seeing what players they have before you decide the formation. For this Sassuolo save I built a slightly asymmetric formation to start with, it was a 4-1-3-1-1 where the AMC moves to one side to allow the middle MC to attack alongside him and so on, but my squad just didn't have enough decent MCs for it to work, hence I just moved to the 4-1-2-2-1 so I could put a forward in one of the AMC slots.

 

[Dan2501]

It's worth selecting your team and seeing what players they have before you decide the formation. For this Sassuolo save I built a slightly asymmetric formation to start with, it was a 4-1-3-1-1 where the AMC moves to one side to allow the middle MC to attack alongside him and so on, but my squad just didn't have enough decent MCs for it to work, hence I just moved to the 4-1-2-2-1 so I could put a forward in one of the AMC slots.

I think that's true for bigger teams where it's difficult to make wholesale changes because of the cost, but I find it's pretty easy to make quick, wholesale changes in the lower leagues within reason with frees and loans, so you can generally get most tactics to fit the squad with a decent transfer window. I did it with Leyton Orient this year, I decided on a tactic and a style of play and bought the players in I needed to to fit the system and had pretty decent success with it. Obviously it helps if you've got the positions filled to begin with and can just improve the squad, but not a big deal to make a number of changes early in a save, especially as most players that start at teams in lower leagues are generally trash anyway, so you'd want to improve on them anyway.

 

[Orikoru]

I think that's true for bigger teams where it's difficult to make wholesale changes because of the cost, but I find it's pretty easy to make quick, wholesale changes in the lower leagues within reason with frees and loans, so you can generally get most tactics to fit the squad with a decent transfer window. I did it with Leyton Orient this year, I decided on a tactic and a style of play and bought the players in I needed to to fit the system and had pretty decent success with it. Obviously it helps if you've got the positions filled to begin with and can just improve the squad, but not a big deal to make a number of changes early in a save, especially as most players that start at teams in lower leagues are generally trash anyway, so you'd want to improve on them anyway.

You would think, but at Sassuolo I'm struggling to attract any players. Even ones listed for loan, the parent clubs are declining the offers, presumably because the level is too low. Lots of players without clubs are not even interested in joining me. I'm having to work with what I can get at the moment.

 

[Dan2501]

You would think, but at Sassuolo I'm struggling to attract any players. Even ones listed for loan, the parent clubs are declining the offers, presumably because the level is too low. Lots of players without clubs are not even interested in joining me. I'm having to work with what I can get at the moment.

Fair enough, probably different on the older games. There are so many players on the latest game that there are always players you can pick up. Thinking I might even create my own club in an obscure league if I can't find anyone interesting and start from absolute scratch.

 

[Orikoru]

Fair enough, probably different on the older games. There are so many players on the latest game that there are always players you can pick up. Thinking I might even create my own club in an obscure league if I can't find anyone interesting and start from absolute scratch.

I remember on FM 16, Parma had been demoted to non-league, so if you simmed the first year they would come back up and be added to the lowest playable division, but with only about 5 real players. So adding a manager as them was fun, as they had a little bit of cash but you had to stretch it across building basically an entire squad from scratch. I enjoyed that game. I got them to the top 6 in Serie B before being offered and accepting the Roma job.

 

[DeanoMK]

Oh man, I'm going to have to download this. I spent so much time on this game originally, I've fond memories of sitting up until 2/3am battling to get Luton promoted.

 

[Dan2501]

https://www.fmscout.com/a-red-bull-challenge-fm19.html

Just found this which looks pretty interesting. Gonna give this a go I think, see how far we can take them.

 

[Beezerk]

I finally got Tsigalko, I read there’s a glitch where if you offer at least 40k a week wages it always gets the work permit through. Well it worked and he scored a hat trick on his debut in a 4-0 thumping of Man Utd in the Charity Shield 😂
Also signed Klompe as West is unsettled and the board want him out, just waiting for the right offer now.
Had a shuffle and downloaded a 4-1-4-1 tactic so I’ll see how we fare this season.

 

[Orikoru]

I finally got Tsigalko, I read there’s a glitch where if you offer at least 40k a week wages it always gets the work permit through. Well it worked and he scored a hat trick on his debut in a 4-0 thumping of Man Utd in the Charity Shield 😂
Also signed Klompe as West is unsettled and the board want him out, just waiting for the right offer now.
Had a shuffle and downloaded a 4-1-4-1 tactic so I’ll see how we fare this season.

Hmm, I never had that option, my wage budget with Wigan was 13k a week tops!

 

[Beezerk]

Hmm, I never had that option, my wage budget with Wigan was 13k a week tops!

I had that for a while but when my team got more successful it allowed me to offer bigger wages. It was an odd one though, he was only worth 200k iirc but my club allowed me to offer huge wages. I can't remember if I scouted him first which may have helped.