Football Manager 2020 & FM Touch

[TheDiablo]

Is that Fabian from Napoli? If so, he was superb in my save as Napoli, had a lot of big clubs after him after season 1!

Nice tactic. How does "fairly narrow" in possession work in the match engine? Do you still get plenty of attacking width from your wing-backs? Feels like it could get quite compact and tight in the final third with 2 inside forwards, the AMC and ST moving into similarish positions at pace.

Yeah the wingbacks basically play as wingers and provide the width, easily 5 goals and 10 on average from each of them a year

The IF would often outscore the STR, especially post-Kane. I signed Ansu Fati on a free and he played IF-L scoring 25+ for years with Asensio and latterly Diego Lainez IF-R (absolute beast) doing the same the other side

I bought Fabian for about £50m, was very good for a number of years and still sold him for a load to United after I'd replaced him with some regens

 

[Papas1982]

608 appearances for Camavinga Tidy save that. I've never been able to do mammoth saves that get that far, I just get bored once I win the major trophies. I did 7 seasons as Everton on last years game and got bored once we'd won the League and Champions League.

If you never do li g sti ts, do you not find it boring effectively signing the a certain amount of the same batch of players each time?

 

[Orikoru]

If you never do li g sti ts, do you not find it boring effectively signing the a certain amount of the same batch of players each time?

Haven't you seen him sign Augustinsson at left back nine times via this thread? I actually think there's enough good young players on the game that you don't need to sign the same ones each time. Even if I know someone is a wonderkid I'll still scout them and several others just to see who my scouts reckon is the best signing, so it could vary. Depending on the role you want to use in your team as well.

 

[Dan2501]

Haven't you seen him sign Augustinsson at left back nine times via this thread? I actually think there's enough good young players on the game that you don't need to sign the same ones each time. Even if I know someone is a wonderkid I'll still scout them and several others just to see who my scouts reckon is the best signing, so it could vary. Depending on the role you want to use in your team as well.

Haha. Augustinsson's probably the only player I'll try and actively sign in most saves where I can afford him. I generally try and see each save as an opportunity to try and sign players I've not used before in the game, but there are occasions where I'll end up buying the same player for multiple teams - guys like Sandro Tonali, Ruben Dias and Sergio Gomez for example I've bought multiple times, but don't think that makes it boring as every save is different and the circumstances and the way you use players is different every time. Also the younger wonderkids tend to have random potentials as well, so blindly buying them in every save wouldn't be wise as you're going to get a different player save-to-save.

 

[TheDiablo]

Went back to the Colchester save today. Total wage bill is 115k, 22nd biggest in the league and 10% of Burnley who are paying Drinkwater £57k!

Pretty unreal first season in champ, slightly lucky I offloaded a young kid for 7.5m to at least get me some kind of budget to use. I have about 14 players to use.

Would ideally like one more season to build a squad before a serious challenge but on the other hand we’re completely skint haha

Turned down Saints and Leicester so going to stick out for a while

 

[Orikoru]

My Norwich side finished 7th in the end with 54 points. Missed out on Europe because 9th placed Brighton and 11th placed Spurs have got Europa somehow (must have got to the cup finals I guess).

Most remarkably we did it with only 37 goals scored. Only two teams in the league scored less than that. We only conceded 42, but that does mean a negative goal difference of -5.

It's probably down to the tactic, but just in case it isn't, I've just bought Josh Zirkzee for £40mil (30 up front). That's pretty much all the budget gone so I hope it works.

 

[Dan2501]

@Orikoru Malen on the left, Zirkzee up top

11 games played as Brentford, 7 wins, 3 draws and a single defeat leaves us 3rd, 2 points behind Reading and 1 behind Blackburn. A 2-1 win over Leeds at Elland Road the highlight so far. Were plagued with injuries early on, especially to the defence, almost mirroring the start to our Manchester City save. Our starting RB is out with a hip injury for 4-6 months but luckily not had any other long term knocks. The loss, away to Forest, was annoying, we dominated the game but went down early to a set piece, got back in it and dominated the 2nd half and should have scored a couple only for them to steal it with a 91st minute corner. Frustrating.

Also just noticed that Bielsa could be on his way out of Leeds already, looks like he's moving to Dortmund who have sacked Lucien Favre after 7 Bundesliga games as they sit 17th, level on points with bottom placed Mainz. They started the season with 3 defeats and a draw, rough.

 

[Dan2501]

Season 1 as Brentford complete. Won the league with 2 games to spare, finishing with 97pts, and joined in the PL by Fulham who secured their spot on the last day of the season ahead of Reading, pretty exciting finish as they went into the last day of the season on the same points and identical goal difference. Was a solid campaign, wasn't as free-scoring as I'd hoped, Ollie Watkins and Said Benrahma really flattered to deceive. Watkins managed 15 league goals, and Benrahma got 8 with 5 assists, so not a great return, so probably need to look to improve our attack before we take on the PL. The season also wasn't perfect from an injury perspective. We had what was a really good result in the FA Cup 5th round beating Watford 1-0 but that win was overshadowed by Rico Henry breaking his leg So depending on how he recovers from that I could be looking for a new LB for next season - LUDWIG ASSEMBLE!

Been given £38m to build for next season but aiming to have a bit of a clear-out before we start buying, quite a bit of deadwood in the squad that needs thinning out, quite a few guys that just won't be good enough for the PL, so they'll have to move on. So if we can shift a few guys we should be looking at upwards of £50m to spend in the summer to set us up for the PL. Let the wonderkid hunt begin!

 

[TheDiablo]

My Colchester save continues as a great one. 1st season in Champ I came 4th, lost in playoff semis. Got bought in summer and with that a £7m kitty but still the 3rd smallest wage budget in the league. Next season 4th again, but won the playoff final Vs West Brom after being 1 down at HT. League 2 to Prem in 4 seasons!

Prem is laughable though, our stadium had to be expanded, they gave me £30m but my wage budget os £250k pw, every other club has £1m+. Ive got nobody on £30k, and a squad seriously short on quality

About half way through, has some enormous tonkings and beginning to get cut adrift, need a run of results very soon. If not, hopefully they won't sack me and I can rebuild with parachute payments next year.

 

[Dan2501]

Brentford's contracts are a joke. As soon as contract renewal date hit half the squad got a 50% promotion pay rise which has put us 30k over the wage budget and we've only signed 1 player - Dennis Man. Trying to sell off Mbuemo and Valencia but no-one seems to be interested, eugh, this is going to be a rough season, can see it coming already.

Ancelotti has gone to Real Madrid though, so the Everton job has become available. I've applied and somehow got an interview, so we'll see how that pans out. If I get offered it then I'll move on and see how we do as Everton, not played as them since the Beta on FM20, so would be fun to go back.

 

[Dan2501]

Somehow Everton actually wanted me to take over, so have left Brentford after 1 successful season and moved to Everton, I'm all about the Steam achievements Early impressions aren't great. In the Summer window £35m has already been spent on:

Sidibe - paying him £72k a week
Matt Ritchie - who thought £10m on him was a good idea?!
Berat Djimsiti - £7.5m and no idea who he is, but looks a reasonable backup CB at least
Diego Rolan - He was free and now valued at £21m so should make some profit on him, probably the best AI signing
Mitchell Dijks - another £7.5m on a player we didn't need, will just be backup to Lucas I guess

Also Carlo took basically the whole coaching staff with him leaving us with just a single goalkeeping coach and 2 fitness coaches, cheers Carlo. So quite the rebuild is going to be taking place. First job was a clear out - transfer listed Walcott, Bolasie, Sandro, Tosun, Besic, Pennington and Prodl. Had a couple of bids already so hopefully clear those guys off the wage bill and free up some transfer cash.

 

[Wolf]

After having a couple weeks off of playing it through frustration, startes a new save yesterday with Ajax. Cracking little team they have even though in my first window I've lost 4 starting players, but made some good incoming signings as well.

Outgoing:
Onana 55m to Liverpool
Neres 50m to Roma
Blind 16m to Leverkusen
Tadic 14m to Atalanta

So 135m in transfers made plus the 45m budget i had.. Made me wonder what I'd want to pick up but the squad was already littered with Wonderkids so instead of wholesale changes I've brought in

Boadu 40m
Ramsdale 17.5m (needed a starting keeper and took a punt)
Lainz 27.5m
Antony 8m

Plus promoting players like Unavar, Gravenbach to first team and tying down some other contracts like ,Van De Beek, Veltman & Promes seems like we have a good nucleus to build a legacy. Already going well won the first 5 league games, the Dutch supercup and qualifying for Champions league proper.

 

[Orikoru]

Selling Onana is bold - surprised Liverpool bought him given they have Allison already! Onana is really good in this game. Still you'd probably have to sell him to a bigger team eventually anyway. There are so many good youngsters in Holland it's mad.

 

[Wolf]

Selling Onana is bold - surprised Liverpool bought him given they have Allison already! Onana is really good in this game. Still you'd probably have to sell him to a bigger team eventually anyway. There are so many good youngsters in Holland it's mad.

Bid came in early and he wanted to go, I'd turned down 45m and figured he'd be off anyway at some point. So let him go whilst I had strong options everywhere else. Ramsdale played 8 conceded 1 so far.

 

[Dan2501]

Antony's a cracking signing, he was superb for Ajax in my PSV save, was so envious they signed him before I managed to. Holland's great fun!

 

[Wolf]

Antony's a cracking signing, he was superb for Ajax in my PSV save, was so envious they signed him before I managed to. Holland's great fun!

Already enjoying it a lot more, able to keep the team play with more attacking freedom and still got 87.5m in the kitty for January if i need additions. May squeeze in a cheeky bid for Camavinga mid season.

 

[Dan2501]

Been an interesting start as Everton. I stupidly agreed in my interview that I wouldn't try to expand the staff members, which I thought meant I wouldn't request extra staff on top of the allowance, but nope, it meant adding no extra staff at all. So I've been able to replace some of the crap staff but still got real bad staff quality compared to the rest of the league.

Transfer wise we spent £45m bringing in Alphonso Davies, Yari Verschaeren and Joshua Zirkzee but then sold £87m worth of players with Sandro, Bolasie, Tosun, Besic, Prodl and then two of the AI's summer signings also leaving making £8m profit on Dijks and £20m profit on Rolan, so that was tidy.

Sat 7th in the league after 5 games. Defeats to City and Chelsea away with wins over West Ham, Villa and Watford. Verschaeren has been great, but we've been dire defensively. Conceded 8 in our last 2 games - 5 against Chelsea before drawing 3-3 with Schalke in our Europa League group. Alphonso Davies probably not the best signing given our weak defence, his 10 tackling, 8 marking, 9 positioning is not ideal, very much an attacking wing back. He can play against the rubbish teams and Digne against the better sides until he improves defensively. Also managed to annoy Jonjoe by offering him out on loan and then upset Kean by not letting him go to Preston on loan deciding to play him in the first-team instead, mental. Doing better than our old boys Brentford though who are yet to win any of their first 5 games. Rough, although they are above QPR who have 0 points, so every cloud.

 

[TheDiablo]

My Colchester Prem season was BRUTAL. 23 points told.

They've never got close to sacking me, and the upshot is we're now well financed. Expanded stadium again, plus a decent kitty. Still trying not to overspend or start paying silly wages. Hopefully foundations in place for a proper effort next time

Now in Champ again and have got quite a poorly balanced squad, absolutely no full backs and can't pick any up. Do have an abundance of good CBs though. Playing a very weird 3-3-2-2 formation with 3CB and 3CM. Seems to be working ok, 2nd halfway through season

 

[Wolf]

Well the game seems to have crapped itself again after the usual good start. Have got Hunterlaar, Boadu, Lainz, Promes & De Beek all out injured long term in 3 consecutive games as a result gone 8 straight without a win, drawing every single one of them. Leaving me languishing in 3rd spot 6pts from top. Only saving grace is I have 2 games in hand over 1st & 2nd thanks to being in champions league. Im 2nd in my group behind Chelsea, but I have them to play to guarantee qualification....

 

[Wolf]

Well after getting Royally hammered by Chelsea dumping me out of Europe bottom of the group and despite my injury hit squad we limped through to January where I needed to make an emergency signing of Pavlidis up front, Lainez returned from injury to which aided a slight turn around in fortunes and picked up another 5 straight wins including my games in hand.

Ended up going all of January, Feb, March & April unbeaten. Got better and better as players returned from injury. Ended up winning the league by 20 clear points & winning the Dutch cup convincingly. Board confidence on the game still makes me chuckle as I have supposedly impressed them with my ability & happy we've won 3 trophies in my first season, yet they think my transfers leave a lot to be desired especially Ramsdale (who conceded the least goals of any keeper all season and saved 3 out of 5 penalties in Cup semi ??‍)

I've now lost my top scorer Ziyech due to a pre agreed transfer to Chelsea from before my taking job, but thankfully it coincides with Antony finally completing his move.