Football Manager 2020 & FM Touch

[Dan2501]

Hertha have a decent little squad. How's Cunha? Was a pretty big signing for them and has been a decent prospect on previous FM games. I've always liked Ascacibar on FM as well, really solid defensive midfielder. You get Lucas Tousart back from his loan after season 1 as well, who has been my favourite ball-winning DM on FM for a couple of years now.

Managed to keep hold of my squad in January. Had a few outgoings with Unnerstall, Doan and Boscagli leaving, but they had to go to free up space in the squad for the two guys joining in the summer and so I could make my only January signing - Emanuel Vignato who I picked up for £9m. Another very talented wonderkid who will step into the RW spot when Minamino's season long loan comes to an end.

 

[Orikoru]

Hertha have a decent little squad. How's Cunha? Was a pretty big signing for them and has been a decent prospect on previous FM games. I've always liked Ascacibar on FM as well, really solid defensive midfielder. You get Lucas Tousart back from his loan after season 1 as well, who has been my favourite ball-winning DM on FM for a couple of years now.

Managed to keep hold of my squad in January. Had a few outgoings with Unnerstall, Doan and Boscagli leaving, but they had to go to free up space in the squad for the two guys joining in the summer and so I could make my only January signing - Emanuel Vignato who I picked up for £9m. Another very talented wonderkid who will step into the RW spot when Minamino's season long loan comes to an end.

Cunha potential is alright, but not massively high. Playing him as the DLF at the moment, but I'm trying to bring Arp in on loan there as well. Board are hampering my effort by not even letting me pay the wages of loaned players though so I'll probably end up with nobody coming in. Ascacibar will get plenty of games but we have Grujic on loan from Liverpool as well. We have a couple of ball-winning midfielders but it's not a role I really use now as they run around like headless chickens.

 

[Dan2501]

https://fmdataba.com/20/p/149396/matheus-cunha/ Check out screenshot 3 here - Cunha's at RM aged 26 with very tidy stats and a value up at 70m, give him some game time and you should be able to cash in big time!

The half-back role has been a revelation for me after not really using defensive midfielders at all this year. It's a role I've only used on very rare occasion in past saves but since building the City tactic it's become one of my favourite roles. When teams attack us the DM just drops back and effectively forms a back 5, but then as I've got lads in there who can pass, the keeper will roll the ball out to them and they'll then start all of our counters. It's fantastic. This set-up is now my go-to:

----------------SK(S)-----------------
WB(S)---BPD(D)--BPD(D)--WB(S)--
----------------HB(D)------------------
------------AP(A)---MEZ(S)------------
--IF(S)--------------------------IF(S)-----
----------------AF(A)----------------------

Only thing that frustrates me is that there's no option to turn on "Shoot More" for the AP(A) as a CM, so might need to experiment a bit more with CM(A) or other roles that allow me to turn on shoot more so I can get a few more goals from Ihattaren/Gomez. Other than that I'm loving it, by far the most effective system I've built on this years' game.

 

[Orikoru]

https://fmdataba.com/20/p/149396/matheus-cunha/ Check out screenshot 3 here - Cunha's at RM aged 26 with very tidy stats and a value up at 70m, give him some game time and you should be able to cash in big time!

The half-back role has been a revelation for me after not really using defensive midfielders at all this year. It's a role I've only used on very rare occasion in past saves but since building the City tactic it's become one of my favourite roles. When teams attack us the DM just drops back and effectively forms a back 5, but then as I've got lads in there who can pass, the keeper will roll the ball out to them and they'll then start all of our counters. It's fantastic. This set-up is now my go-to:

----------------SK(S)-----------------
WB(S)---BPD(D)--BPD(D)--WB(S)--
----------------HB(D)------------------
------------AP(A)---MEZ(S)------------
--IF(S)--------------------------IF(S)-----
----------------AF(A)----------------------

Only thing that frustrates me is that there's no option to turn on "Shoot More" for the AP(A) as a CM, so might need to experiment a bit more with CM(A) or other roles that allow me to turn on shoot more so I can get a few more goals from Ihattaren/Gomez. Other than that I'm loving it, by far the most effective system I've built on this years' game.

Cunha will definitely be playing plenty of games, it's not like I have anyone else. That suggests he'll do well though, ta.

Decent system, I think I'll be sticking with two strikers for now though. I seem to have done better generally with two strikers. In my one striker systems we never score enough goals for the chances & possession we have. I am also liking the W(a)-FB(s) down one side and IW(s)-FB(a) down the other side approach, it seems to balance well for me and they link up well, plus the attacking full back links with the opposite attacking winger with long diagonal crosses.

 

[Dan2501]

https://www.youtube.com/user/FMBaseOfficial/videos

This guys videos kept appearing in my Youtube recommended so decided to give some of his content a watch and honestly, it's great. He's pretty new to youtube but his videos on finances, negotiation, set pieces, building tactics are all great, and even as someone who has played FM for years I picked up a few really handy little tips. Worth a watch if you're bored and want some decent FM content to listen to/watch.

 

[Orikoru]

Cheers, I'll have a watch.

Did a little bit at lunch. First game of the league season, away at Bayern. Christ alive, cheers for that. We scored first but lost 5-1, ha. However we won our next game 2-0 against Wolfsburg so it's all good.

 

[Dan2501]

I'm unbeaten in the league in March. Unbeaten and only drawn 4 and Ajax can still get to within a point of me if they win their 2 games in hand. How have they done that? Well, they've conceded 7 goals in 26 games. That's an impressive record, even more impressive when you realise I beat them 4-0, so they've conceded 3 goals in their other 25 games :O Insane defensive record. Not been as good going forward, 3 of their 4 draws have been 0-0s, but what a record. The Eredivisie is competitive. Just a shame AZ aren't really competitive after losing Boadu and Idrissi, they've dropped from level with Ajax and finishing 3rd last year to down in 7th this year. They've spent £11m buying 5 of my trash reserve youth players though, so got to appreciate them for that

 

[Orikoru]

We won a couple of games in October, got up to 10th place, all was going fine. Suddenly, exactly the same as every other save I've done, we're total crap in November and December. Lost six games in a row and got sacked. Why is this game so crap? I've just added a new manager as the same team and I'm carrying on. It's a joke though.

 

[Deleted member 1740]

2nd season with Spurs and I won the league beating Liverpool by a point. Sold loads and brought in a completely new side, think i've only got Kane left with Aurier and Davies though they're my backup full backs.

 

[Dan2501]

We won a couple of games in October, got up to 10th place, all was going fine. Suddenly, exactly the same as every other save I've done, we're total crap in November and December. Lost six games in a row and got sacked. Why is this game so crap? I've just added a new manager as the same team and I'm carrying on. It's a joke though.

Wow. I've not really gone through that on this years' game other than when I first took over West Ham in Jan who were bottom of the league and until we built morale we were utter pants. Other than that, the only other reason I've done poorly in saves is a failing tactic that just gets found out by better teams. I've never been doing great and then all of a sudden had my form fall off a cliff like that.

Won the Dutch cup last night for the first time. We had back to back games against Ajax - lost 4-1 in the league to get them back to 3 points behind but then dominated the cup final winning it 2-0. 3 games left to go in the league, we play AZ, Groningen and Vitesse so on paper we should win all 3. Do that and we're guaranteed the title, same if we win 2 and draw 1, if we lose a game it's still likely we'll win the league as we have the far better goal difference, but it won't be completely in our hands. Should be an exciting finish, and fair play to Ajax, they've had a great season.

Had an epic in the CL as well. 1st KO round got drawn against Benfica. First leg away we got hammered 3-0. I forgot to change my team after the Cup game and the XI was just a mess and we never got going. 2nd leg we were fantastic. Won 3-0 after 90 minutes which took us to extra time and then cruelly lost it as they scored in the 102nd minute from a corner. We managed to get 1 before half-time in ET but couldn't get a 5th. We could have scored 7 or 8 but Mile Svilar in the Benfica goal was in inspired form, made some ridiculous saves. They went through 4-4 on away goals, cruel, but an epic game and a fantastic performance to almost pull it back.

 

[Orikoru]

Wow. I've not really gone through that on this years' game other than when I first took over West Ham in Jan who were bottom of the league and until we built morale we were utter pants. Other than that, the only other reason I've done poorly in saves is a failing tactic that just gets found out by better teams. I've never been doing great and then all of a sudden had my form fall off a cliff like that.

It happens regular as clockwork. Basically I see it as a borderline glitch that the effect of morale is too strong in FM Touch. I'm using a lower-half team, obviously there are going to be times when we lose a few games against better sides, if we have a tough run of fixtures. But I'm finding that as soon as you lose, say, 3 games in a row, the morale on all of your players is at an all time low, and suddenly it's impossible to beat anyone and get yourself out of it. I've even researched this, and since you don't have manual team meetings and player interactions in Touch, the only advice I've seen is to arrange a couple of friendlies against nobodies so you can smash them and that apparently gets morale back up. But that's a bit stupid, that wouldn't happen in real life. Of those six defeats in a row, RBL and Dortmund came in the first three - games I'd probably not expect to get a result from anyway. I don't think it's fair for that to then snowball into save-death.

After adding a new manager to rejoin Hertha, I set up a 4-1-4-1 formation, so a little more defensive. We drew the first game, then we had Bayern Munich and beat them 1-0! Won the next game as well 1-0... then we lost the next 5 in a row again. I changed back to my old 4-4-2 (with one slight change, a BWM in for the BBM) and smashed Werder 3-0. So on this occasion changing the formation somehow broke the spell of morale I guess? Or maybe it was just pure luck that my opponents were on an equally bad run of form, I don't know.

I've posted most of my tactics in this topic, and I don't think they are terrible to be honest, and if they are then it's just too hard to make a decent tactic. I'm just going to keep ploughing through this save for now, every time I get sacked I'll just add a new manager, and if we get relegated then maybe I'll actually enjoy a season in the 2nd tier.

 

[Dan2501]

@Orikoru Could you screenshot your tactic and share it here? Would be curious to see your full tactical set-up as can only learn so much from knowing the formation and roles.

 

[Orikoru]

@Orikoru Could you screenshot your tactic and share it here? Would be curious to see your full tactical set-up as can only learn so much from knowing the formation and roles.

As per this post I wasn't using many instructions, just one or two and changing them depending on opposition. Now that I've gone back to it I've sacked off the Poacher for an AF, and the BBM is now a BWM because that Argie guy whose name begins with A is good at that. Piatek was terrible so Cunha took over and he started scoring a few goals even if we weren't winning.

 

[Dan2501]

As per this post I wasn't using many instructions, just one or two and changing them depending on opposition. Now that I've gone back to it I've sacked off the Poacher for an AF, and the BBM is now a BWM because that Argie guy whose name begins with A is good at that. Piatek was terrible so Cunha took over and he started scoring a few goals even if we weren't winning.

I mean, sure, but hard to give any real applicable advice based on that post, it shows your formation, and you mention "only instructions really" so is that all of them? Be nice to see it from the tactic screen, with the analysis turned on so can see any areas of weakness tactically. Also (and hopefully this is on Touch) it will show your recent match analysis at the bottom which should help pinpoint any potential issues.

 

[Orikoru]

I mean, sure, but hard to give any real applicable advice based on that post, it shows your formation, and you mention "only instructions really" so is that all of them? Be nice to see it from the tactic screen, with the analysis turned on so can see any areas of weakness tactically. Also (and hopefully this is on Touch) it will show your recent match analysis at the bottom which should help pinpoint any potential issues.

Yeah it was all of them, haha. With Positive mentality. Other than that I was only adding instructions during the games based on whether we were winning/losing etc so I can't screenshot any of that. I'll get a few screenshots at lunch though anyway, I'm on the work laptop at the moment.

I don't think we have recent match analysis, unless I've just not seen it.

 

[Dan2501]

Yeah it was all of them, haha. With Positive mentality. Other than that I was only adding instructions during the games based on whether we were winning/losing etc so I can't screenshot any of that. I'll get a few screenshots at lunch though anyway, I'm on the work laptop at the moment.

I don't think we have recent match analysis, unless I've just not seen it.

Fair play. I just have a work profile on my personal Mac for working from home, which is good, but makes it way too easy to switch back and forth and sneak in some FM in the quiet periods of the day

 

[Orikoru]

Ok, this was the original 4-4-2 that had us in 10th place before it all went wrong and we lost 6 in a row:




After I got sacked and re-added myself I made this:

Cunha wasn't the Mez though obviously it was someone else. Those instructions changed a lot though, for example I didn't play a high line against Bayern, I think I played lower line of engagement, standard defence and had Counter on in transition.

Finally, this is the system I've put on now:

This got me the 3-0 win against Werder which ended the run of 5 defeats.

I think I will continue to use this for winnable games, and maybe for ones where we're the underdog I change to the 4-1-4-1, defence line back to standard, with a bit of counter attack and whatnot. Although not with the Mez, that didn't work because I just don't think I have anyone who can play it.

 

[Orikoru]

Played for a bit longer, and I can confirm relegation has been achieved.

 

[Dan2501]

I know you'd read on the SI forums that you don't need many instructions, but personally, I don't agree with having that few, you're leaving the AI and the players to decide too much about what they do and how they play. I don't think you need to add many in, but things like...

In Possession:
Play out of Defence, work ball into the box or hit early crosses
- Something to help encourage the style of attacking play you want, at the minute the players are just doing what they want which could change game by game
In Transition:
Distribute Quickly, Counter or Hold Shape, Regroup
- Regroup encourages your team to get back into their defensive positions when you lose the ball, and then depending on if you want to be a possession or fast-counter team then I'd select either Counter or Hold Shape
Out of Possession:
More urgent pressing, get stuck in
- Don't have to use these, but I like to. I like my defenders to pressure opposing attackers, and put in tackles if they need to.

I'd also think about distributing to your wing backs or your centre backs. If you start your attacks by going straight to the wingers they have to wait for other players to join them in attack to really get the attack moving, whereas if you start with the ball with your defenders, your wingers can start to move forward and begin offering options offensively, though I appreciate this could be worrying if your defenders aren't particularly good on the ball, if your centre backs have poor passing use your wing backs - or turn it off all together and trust your keeper to decide how best to start the attack.

I think I've mentioned it before, but the key to building tactics is identifying a style of play you wish to adopt and then putting into place all the necessary instructions to encourage your players to play in that way. If you let the AI decide how they're going to play you're going to get wildly differing results week on week whereas if you've got a style that fits your team, and players in defined roles they're going to know what they should be doing and if you've got the right players, they'll fulfil those roles consistently.

 

[Orikoru]

Before I saw your post I've started a new save as Norwich (I figure go for the lowest expectations possible). I built this below:




Now in response to what you've said - I don't think playing out of defence or work into box are worthwhile as we probably won't see much of the ball. Then again Pukki is not exactly an aerial beast so maybe I do want to work it into the box. I might raise the pressing intensity as well slightly. I had distribute to wingers on because they were decent fast dribblers, and I've got it on again here because Buendia is pretty clearly our best player.