Football Manager 2020 & FM Touch

[Dan2501]

I feel like the AI must be scaled down or something in the touch version, I've not really felt any of this crazy board pressure or unrealistic expectations in the full game. There are issues with the game but most of my annoyances come with the match engine, rest of the game works basically how I'd expect it to. You guys should upgrade

Looking forward to smashing through some PSV over the bank holiday weekend, has been the one bonuses of lockdown, been able to play a ton of FM, gonna miss that

 

[Papas1982]

I feel like the AI must be scaled down or something in the touch version, I've not really felt any of this crazy board pressure or unrealistic expectations in the full game. There are issues with the game but most of my annoyances come with the match engine, rest of the game works basically how I'd expect it to. You guys should upgrade

Looking forward to smashing through some PSV over the bank holiday weekend, has been the one bonuses of lockdown, been able to play a ton of FM, gonna miss that

5th season at Saints, finished 5th and board were ready to drop me. Won Europa and kept the job.
two years later having won the league. They expect the same every season whilst refusing to let take the philosophy of home grown off the table.

Imo still a little bit of fine tuning to do.

 

[Orikoru]

I feel like the AI must be scaled down or something in the touch version, I've not really felt any of this crazy board pressure or unrealistic expectations in the full game. There are issues with the game but most of my annoyances come with the match engine, rest of the game works basically how I'd expect it to. You guys should upgrade

Looking forward to smashing through some PSV over the bank holiday weekend, has been the one bonuses of lockdown, been able to play a ton of FM, gonna miss that

Mate I struggle with the complexity in Touch, if I tried to play the full game I'd probably have a brain haemorrhage. Yeah my main issue is how to get any tactic to work consistently, but the board expectations and the way the media go on at you need a lot of work too. You could lose 1-0 away on the bounce to Liverpool then Barcelona, and they'll be going on saying you're in shocking form and due for the sack.

 

[Wolf]

Mate I struggle with the complexity in Touch, if I tried to play the full game I'd probably have a brain haemorrhage. Yeah my main issue is how to get any tactic to work consistently, but the board expectations and the way the media go on at you need a lot of work too. You could lose 1-0 away on the bounce to Liverpool then Barcelona, and they'll be going on saying you're in shocking form and due for the sack.

Exactly this for me today just had 4 games on the bounce of REAL, Bayern, Barca, Chelsea. Lost 3 of them 1-0 amd drew the 4th 1-1, fans are revolting, board complaining and put me under pressure of being sacked if I don't get a result soon, next 3 games are Athletico, Napoli & Barca again ?

Leicester just offerered me my old job back with 89m budget but an expectation of CL football as a minimum yet they're currently sat at foot of the table turned it down and what happens board announce unhappiness at me for apparently looking for another job which I didn't apply for or taje.. So just been offered Amiens in French league and tempted to take it.

 

[Dan2501]

Into December now as PSV and having an amazing season. Ajax have slipped up in a big way, losing 3 and drawing 2 of their 16 games so far. We've lost just once to AZ on the 2nd week of the season and currently lead by 7 points after 17 games, and 9 ahead of Ajax, so looking good at the half way stage. Had a few big results in November - beat Ajax away in the league 1-0, a game which followed our best game of the season, a 4-0 hammering of Tottenham in the CL at home. We had 17 shots to 6, 7 on target vs 2, more possession and looked absolutely deadly. It's put us in a pretty strong position in the CL group. As we go into the last game we play Slavia Prague with Spurs taking on PSG. If we win and Spurs fail to beat PSG in Paris we're into the CL knockouts. Considering the expectation was just to make the group stages, it'd be a huge boost for reputation, board confidence but more importantly - financially. We've already got £70m in the bank, so a CL KO run and an Eredivisie win and we should be looking very good financially going into Season 2.

Managed to wrap up some contracts for the better players in the squad, tagging on some nice big release clauses for the likes of Ihatteren (£88m), Hendrix (£40m), Teze (£20m) and Rosario (£25m). Did have a bit of a sad injury though - Ibrahim Afellay tore his cruciate ligament, and so at 33 decided to retire in October. Hadn't used a huge amount of him up to that point, but he was a more than handy back-up youth player, and a club legend, so was sad to see him go. Ritsu Doan has stepped up in his absence though and proven himself to be a real asset. Not many quality Japanese players around anymore, but if you can find one they're worth keeping hold of as they offer some real benefits commercially. An FM blogger I follow is doing a PSV save and in the first season Doan was his most popular player in terms of shirt sales, so need to make sure I keep him and then possibly look into Asia to bring in some more potential stars to boost the commercials.

 

[Orikoru]

Don't want to speak too soon because it will obviously go tits up, but my 4-4-2 tactic is actually working early doors. We've won 5 drawn 1 in the league. Sessegnon has been class at left wing, popping up with back post goals. Kane is playing much better as a DLF(S) than he ever did as a lone striker - he's got about 6 assists in all comps already. I managed to get Wijndal in at left back just before the deadline. Had some cracking games - in the last round of Europa qualifying we lost the away leg to Sassuolo 2-0 as I rested my first team (oops), but in the home leg I went pretty attacking and scored three goals by half time! Ended up winning 3-2 agg. And my last league game before I turned it off last night was against Burnley, we were 2-0 down at half time, Kane penalty on the hour got us one back, had to go full attacking again and we scored three goals between the 92nd and 97th minute to win 4-2! Crazy, talk about Fergie time. Normally that happens to me, not for me. We lost a game to Southampton, I was fuming but then later on I realised it was League Cup when I thought it had been a league game, so I was relieved, haha.

It does help having Haaland to be fair. He doesn't miss too many chances. Cengiz Under has been brilliant as well though. The fixtures have been fairly kind so the real tests are still to come.

 

[Dan2501]

Don't want to speak too soon because it will obviously go tits up, but my 4-4-2 tactic is actually working early doors. We've won 5 drawn 1 in the league. Sessegnon has been class at left wing, popping up with back post goals. Kane is playing much better as a DLF(S) than he ever did as a lone striker - he's got about 6 assists in all comps already. I managed to get Wijndal in at left back just before the deadline. Had some cracking games - in the last round of Europa qualifying we lost the away leg to Sassuolo 2-0 as I rested my first team (oops), but in the home leg I went pretty attacking and scored three goals by half time! Ended up winning 3-2 agg. And my last league game before I turned it off last night was against Burnley, we were 2-0 down at half time, Kane penalty on the hour got us one back, had to go full attacking again and we scored three goals between the 92nd and 97th minute to win 4-2! Crazy, talk about Fergie time. Normally that happens to me, not for me. We lost a game to Southampton, I was fuming but then later on I realised it was League Cup when I thought it had been a league game, so I was relieved, haha.

It does help having Haaland to be fair. He doesn't miss too many chances. Cengiz Under has been brilliant as well though. The fixtures have been fairly kind so the real tests are still to come.

Haha nice! What's Haaland's goal record so far?

Had a very productive end to December and beginning of January. I beat Slavia Prague and PSG beat Spurs so qualified for the CL knockouts which should be a tidy boost to the finances, but as we've drawn Barcelona, I think the 1st Knockout round is as far as we're going to make it I go into the January fixtures 7 points clear of AZ and 14 clear of Ajax although they do have 2 games in hand, so in a very strong position.

Our best striker picked up a bad 3 month injury though, so that's a real blow as we're left with some pretty poor backups. Decided then it was a good time to find some decent backup so went to Brazil and picked up 17 year old Kaio Jorge from Santos for £3m up front, £8m in installments. I then also picked up Takumi Minamino on an initial 6 month loan with a £9.5m option to buy as my replacement for Afellay, and noticed Watford were after Wuilker Fariñez so had to move quickly and picked him up for £3m, so he'll be my keeper now for a good few years. Pleased with the Jan business, strengthened in the areas we needed to without breaking the bank, and also managed to get £7.75m for Nick Viergever who was unhappy, over 30 and on >£20k a week, so that was a good deal all around. Building a nice little team here, excited to see what Kaio Jorge can do.

 

[Orikoru]

Haaland's on about a goal per game at the minute. But as I say, not played against any real top teams yet. Partnership with Kane seems to be working well, with EH as a AF(A) and HK as a DLF(S).

 

[Dan2501]

I just beat Barcelona 5-1 in the 1st leg of the 1st KO Round of the CL. What is happening? That is by far the best performance I have ever managed on FM, not only as a team but individually, Bruma was absolutely exceptional. What a win.

 

[Orikoru]

That settles it, Touch is clearly much harder than the full version.

 

[Dan2501]

That settles it, Touch is clearly much harder than the full version.

Not quite sure about that, lost our next game 2-0 to Heerenveen, classic FM Blatantly going to lose the away leg 4-0 and get knocked out, but what a win. I couldn't believe what I was seeing, Bruma made Sergi Roberto look like Jan Kromkamp, never seen anything like it. We could have scored 7 or 8, missed a few golden opportunities.

January signings have been fantastic. Farinez is a massive upgrade on Unnerstall, Minamino has made it look easy in the Eredivisie - just ghosts past defenders like they're not there and has 3 goals in 5 as a result and then Kaio Jorge has led the line fantastically given he's only 18, 6 goals in 7. The board weren't happy with the finances of the deal but I'm sure he's going to prove them wrong, has been great so far.

 

[Papas1982]

Whats the longest shout out you guys have encountered?

Just drawn the League Cup 3-3 with Chelsea (having been 3 down).

Sealed the victory 23-22

 

[Dan2501]

Whats the longest shout out you guys have encountered?

Just drawn the League Cup 3-3 with Chelsea (having been 3 down).

Sealed the victory 23-22

Wow, that must have been intense. I've had a 12-11 where nobody missed until the last pen, that was a fun one.

Lost 1-0 at the Nou Camp so knocked Barca out 5-2 on aggregate, pretty proud of that. Ended up going out in the Quarters to Real Madrid but put up a good fight again, went down 2-1 in the end. Won the league as well at the first attempt. Ended up 8 points clear of Ajax and AZ. Finished the season 6-2, 3-0 and 7-0 as well which was a nice way to finish. Gakpo ended the season with 3 goals and 3 assists in the 7-0 win. Now have the fun of sitting through the end of season Dutch playoffs that they seem to love. One 4 team playoff for the final European place and one to decide who stays/joins the Eredivisie, and then I'll find out how much I've got to spend next season. With £84m in the bank, I'm optimistic for a decent budget.

 

[Orikoru]

For the first time on this game, my season is going really well! We're top of the league after 10 games. Only by a point though. Just had a mad game with Liverpool, where we were 2-1 down, scored in the 84th and 88th minute to lead, but conceded in the 92nd for 3-3. Had an awesome comeback victory over Chelsea as well, 3-1 down at half time and won 4-3. Dele Alli is weirdly smashing it from left wing where he doesn't even really like playing that much, apparently - 10 goals in 13(5)! Sessegnon was doing well there too but Dele has nicked his place. The attacking right full back Vagnoman has 10 assists in 15(1) games! Mental. His stats are still poor as well, he hasn't even developed that much yet.

 

[Dan2501]

Just started season 2 here. Had a really good transfer window, finished up £5m up in net spend but managed to improve in all the areas we needed to. Also managed to keep hold of all of my key players, had offers for a few but managed to keep hold of them. Ihattaren was the main one I wanted to keep, and we had a £50m bid from Arsenal but rejected as didn't hit his released and signed him to a new deal. I then bought in the following:

Gian-Luca Itter - £350k. Wonderkid attacking LB that was transfer listed for £350k, had to pick him up.
Sergio Gomez - £11m. Was one of my main targets, he's the guy I want to fill in for Ihattaren when he eventually leaves and is an absolute class attacking CM.
Takumi Minamino - Loan. Couldn't secure a permanent deal for Minamino so brought him back on a season long loan.
Marco Kana - £20m. Young back-up to Jorritt Hendrix, should be a real money maker, he develops into a hell of a player and can fill in at CB.
Sekou Koita - £4m. Another young talented striker, stacked in that area now with Malen, Kaio Jorge and Koita.
Marco Varnier - Loan. Needed a backup CB after my Omeragic deal messed up so picked up Varnier.
Klebinho - £1.1m. Young, talented, fast Brazilian RB, will be the perfect fill-in when Dumfries inevitably leaves.

Got everything we wanted to do done, the only deal that went slightly wrong was a £9m for Becir Omeragic. He was my top target for the summer window and the guy I wanted to partner Solet. There was a bit of back and forth negotiation but we managed to get a £9m deal done which I was happy with. Signed him to a contract, confirmed everything but then wondered why he didn't sign straight away, then realised Zurich must have snuck in a transfer date of end of next season which I didn't notice, so annoying. So we've got a deal sorted for him, but he won't join us until the start of Season 3.

Another good thing about the window is the other top sides losing big players. Ajax lost Dest, Ziyech, Neres, Magallan and Veltman and did some decent deals but aside from Antony lost quite a bit of quality. AZ also lost their best players - Boadu went to City for £47m, and then Koopmeiners (looks great if you want a DM), Idrissi and Ouwejan also left, so they lost their 3 best players and didn't remotely replace them. Boadu went on deadline day and they just didn't have time to replace. So all in all, a great window for us.

 

[Orikoru]

My season has been up and down. Just like every save I've done so far, we were terrible in November and December. Don't know why that happens but anyway. Bought Van de Beek in January to play the box-to-box role. At the time my scouts reckoned he was better than everyone we had, but a couple of months later he's been reassessed and he's now rated 3* just like all the others are. He still seems to play decent though. I'm learning that the star ratings are not something to go by religiously - Lo Celso is only 0.5* at right wing for example, but I've played him there as a IW(S) in the Europa League and he performs well because he has good numbers in all of the relevant stats.

Kane went through a shocking run of form where he didn't score for over 12 hours. Dele Alli has been unbelievable, at one point he actually overtook Haaland in goals, he has like 21 for the season now - and he's played in about 4 different positions! I dropped Kane and played Dele as the DLF for a bit, but then Kane came back into form so Dele is back on the left wing. Haaland reclaimed top scorer as I think he has 22 or 23 now. Our dodgy form before Christmas dropped us to 4th for a long time, but with around eight games to go we've just clawed back 2nd place after beating City. Annoyingly, Arsenal are somehow about 12 points clear at the top - really not sure how they've run away with it but there you go. They also thrashed us 5-0 in the FA Cup 5th round, after we got a first half red card to Vagnoman, plus Kane gave away a penalty. Just one of those games.

I think I'm going to the Bundesliga for my next save. I'd like someone lower half of the table where the challenge will be to first keep them top half, then after a year or two become 'best of the rest' behind Bayern. Reckon Hertha Berlin might be a good one as they are pretty mediocre but have a 74k capacity stadium.

 

[Dan2501]

Star ratings are a relative comparison to your current squad, but also reliant on competency/comfort in playing a position and then the quality of the person assessing them at judging ability/potential ability. I tend to ignore them for the most part and look at attributes for roles as opposed to the ratings.

Still loving it in the Eredivisie, such a fun league. Into Jan of Season 2 - tight at the top with Ajax and won our CL group after a dodgy start - we got drawn with Milan, Dortmund and PSG so to win the group was a hell of an effort. Bids have started to come in for some of my big players. Arsenal came in for Ihattaren but wouldn't match his release, and then Liverpool matched Jorrit Hendrix's £40m release clause only for him to reject their contract offer Already sorted a replacement for him for when he eventually leaves, found a superb Brazilian regen with some fantastic stats who looks perfect to share the role with Marco Kana next season. Should make a fortune on him.

Oumar Solet has developed amazingly in season 2. Have seen him become a monster a few seasons in but never this quick, shows how much regular first team football in a decent league can do for a player. He's been fantastic for me. Him and Omeragic are going to be one hell of a partnership.

 

[Orikoru]

Star ratings are a relative comparison to your current squad, but also reliant on competency/comfort in playing a position and then the quality of the person assessing them at judging ability/potential ability. I tend to ignore them for the most part and look at attributes for roles as opposed to the ratings.

Still loving it in the Eredivisie, such a fun league. Into Jan of Season 2 - tight at the top with Ajax and won our CL group after a dodgy start - we got drawn with Milan, Dortmund and PSG so to win the group was a hell of an effort. Bids have started to come in for some of my big players. Arsenal came in for Ihattaren but wouldn't match his release, and then Liverpool matched Jorrit Hendrix's £40m release clause only for him to reject their contract offer Already sorted a replacement for him for when he eventually leaves, found a superb Brazilian regen with some fantastic stats who looks perfect to share the role with Marco Kana next season. Should make a fortune on him.

Oumar Solet has developed amazingly in season 2. Have seen him become a monster a few seasons in but never this quick, shows how much regular first team football in a decent league can do for a player. He's been fantastic for me. Him and Omeragic are going to be one hell of a partnership.

Yeah I knew the explanation behind the stars, I'm just saying I was relying far too heavily on them as a way of deciding which player was better. I'm learning to be more flexible and not take it at face value. I think it's easy to rely on that when you first place as it's a simple visual indicator that sort of precludes you looking in any greater depth.

I do find that's an issue with playing as too big a club, even Spurs - you could have some great young talent, but unless they're a full back I'm not really able to play them week in week out. Troy Parrott is a top wonderkid for example, but I can't play him every week in the Premier League as I don't think he'll quite score enough goals. He's playing Europa and cup games, but he's less likely to reach full potential then. I have another lad called Jack Clarke, a winger with good potential, but I've find it hard to give him enough games also.

 

[Dan2501]

I do find that's an issue with playing as too big a club, even Spurs - you could have some great young talent, but unless they're a full back I'm not really able to play them week in week out. Troy Parrott is a top wonderkid for example, but I can't play him every week in the Premier League as I don't think he'll quite score enough goals. He's playing Europa and cup games, but he's less likely to reach full potential then. I have another lad called Jack Clarke, a winger with good potential, but I've find it hard to give him enough games also.

100%, it's probably the main reason I've enjoyed this PSV save so much. I've tended to buy the same players on basically every save but as PSV I'm forced to look for different, cheaper, younger options and then see them develop but then I also have the balance of being a CL club so have reasonable reputation so they're generally interested in joining. It's been great fun, especially in Holland where there are basically zero registration restrictions or work permit worries, I can literally sign or use anyone I want.

 

[Orikoru]

Finished the Spurs season in 3rd with 83 points. Quite happy with that. Only annoying thing is that Arsenal smashed it with 100 points. How the hell? Anyway, I left it there for the time being and created a new save as Hertha Berlin. A nice acceptable board expectation for once, and not too bad on the progression - first season, avoid relegation battle, then the following seasons in order: qualify for Euro Cup, qualify for Champs Cup, become recognised as 'best of the rest'. Quick progression maybe but not impossible.

They've actually got some good young players, like Lukebakio, Dilrosun and Maier - unfortunately the latter two are injured for months! We have some good centre backs though and Piatek up top who should be worth a few goals. £0 budget so it'll have to do anyway.

I've set us up in a flat 4-4-2:
. . . . . . DLF(s) - P(a)
W(a) - BBM(s) - DLP(d) - IW(s)
FB(s) - BPD(d) - CD(c) - FB(a)

Only instructions really are to play out of defence and higher line of defence at the moment. Only had friendlies against awful sides so far, but we won the last one 12-0. Lukebakio scored a hat-trick in the first 8 minutes, and Piatek ended the game with 5.