Football Manager 2020 & FM Touch

[Orikoru]

Game does my head in (again). We were ticking along nicely, just smashed Sassuolo 4-1. All of a sudden it's seven games without a win after that. The 7th being a 3-0 defeat to arch rivals Lazio. I figured the game was trying to tell me something's wrong (even though it wasn't before), so I changed formation to a 4-4-2 - and smashed Juventus 3-0 in the next game, plus we had ten men for most of the second half. What the hell?? Next game smashed Basel 4-0 as well. So yeah, we play 4-4-2 now I guess.

PF(a) - CF(a)
W(a) - DLP(s) - BBM(s) - W(a)
IWB(s) - BPD(d) - BPD(d) - IWB(s)​

Well, the turnaround since I changed to this 4-4-2 has been spectacular. Including that Juventus win it's been 16 wins, 2 draws and 2 defeats in all comps, and neither defeat was in the league so we're on a 13-match unbeaten run there that's seen us go from 10th place in November to 2nd in mid-February! 13 clean sheets from those 20 games as well. Not quite sure how I stumbled on this tactic but it bloody works! (Only minor difference to the above is swapping the strikers the other way around.)

January window was pretty successful as well, we managed to offload Diawara for 25-odd million, brought in Saka from Arsenal for only £6m as his contract was running out, and Gabriel Barbosa who's a really good all round forward, but was only £14m because he was playing in Brazil still. He's knocked in 3 goals from 6 starts. The real man of the hour is Patrik Schick though - he is a class striker! 17 goals in 25(3) apps playing as the CF(A).

2 points behind Atalanta (yeah) but they have a game in hand. Title race is on!

Full tactic :. (although I don't always use short passing, that depends on opposition)

 

[Orikoru]

Our unbeaten run ended at 21 as we slipped up against Fiorentina, but we've had three wins since, and Atalanta finally lost a game too. The title goes down to the last day, they are 2 points ahead but we have the head-to-head record (and GD) over them. We have Napoli away (they're 8th), Atalanta have Lazio away, who are 3rd...

We open the scoring after just 4 minutes, the hero that is Patrik Schick with his 25th of the season. Napoli strike back just 3 minutes later though. Irritating. 38 mins we take the lead again, Mancini from a corner. Sadly though, Atalanta are a goal up. At half time, as it stands, Atalanta are winning the title. Surely our arch rivals can do us a favour?

Big news on 50 minutes, it's all go! Roma have bagged a 3rd through Barbosa and Lazio have equalised simultaneously! Barring any bottlejob here it's all down to Lazio and whether they can hang on! 57 mins, we've added a 4th, Mancini again. It's done and dusted here. LAZIO HAVE TAKEN THE LEAD ON 70 MINS! They're bloody doing it!

5 mins to go, we've smashed in a 5th through Kluivert, it's emphatic. Lazio are still leading! It's all over! We've done it! We were never top the entire season until now, but that's when it counts. My first league win on this game! Unbelievable Jeff!

 

[Dan2501]

Awesome - can't beat a bit of last day drama, the sort of stuff that makes this game amazing! How much cash you got to spend in the summer now?

I started a Barcelona save the other day. In every save whenever the Barca job becomes available I apply but still not managed them on this years' game so thought I'd just start a save as them at last. Not sure if you've heard of him, but this lad Lionel Messi is pretty handy. 13 goals, 15 assists in 17 games to start the season, he's amazing. We're currently top of the league by 3 points despite losing the El Classico at the Bernabeu. We won the Supercopa which for some reason takes place as a 4 team knockout in Saudi Arabia now, and won our CL group which contained Inter, Dortmund and Lille, so doing pretty well.

Transfer wise I sold Turan and Brathwaite which freed up enough budget to pick up Jude Bellingham for £25m who has been really good when he's played and is already developing really quickly. Ansu Fati has started to develop crazy quickly as well. We got injuries to Griezmann and Dembele so had to use Fati for a few weeks and he was exceptional - 8 goals in 8 La Liga starts, 2 goals, 2 assists in 3 CL starts, kid is going to be a superstar. Picked up Everton from Gremio in January as well. Been short on wingers and 1 or two injuries has left us in trouble so bought Everton in for £20m to provide some useful backup. Don't think this save will last many seasons but fun to finally be in charge of Barca, and my Pep-inspired tactic is working a charm in Spain.

 

[Orikoru]

Awesome - can't beat a bit of last day drama, the sort of stuff that makes this game amazing! How much cash you got to spend in the summer now?

£6m. But Lorenzo Pellegrini, who just smashed player of the season getting 20 assists in the process, is muttering that he should maybe be joining a bigger club. So it might come down to it that I sell him for £100m and bring in 3 players that way. Otherwise it's just going to be bringing the youth products in more, or getting one or two loan deals done again. Or I might start a new save if the window goes badly, winning the league unexpectedly almost makes you feel like you've completed it doesn't it?

 

[Dan2501]

£6m. But Lorenzo Pellegrini, who just smashed player of the season getting 20 assists in the process, is muttering that he should maybe be joining a bigger club. So it might come down to it that I sell him for £100m and bring in 3 players that way. Otherwise it's just going to be bringing the youth products in more, or getting one or two loan deals done again. Or I might start a new save if the window goes badly, winning the league unexpectedly almost makes you feel like you've completed it doesn't it?

Ouch. That's a brutal transfer budget given you've won the league. CL revenue next season should help. Also, you've not completed the save yet, not won the CL

5 points clear at the top of La Liga with 4 to play, leading 3-1 over Inter in the CL Semi Finals after leg 1. Knocked Real out in the Quarters, and should we get past Inter which looks likely we'll play either Atleti or Juve and Atleti lead that tie 2-0 after leg 1, so looks like a Barca-Atleti CL Final. Which is lucky as my club vision goals are to win the league and CL, pretty high expectations

 

[Papas1982]

With work picking up somewhat, I've gone back to my old touch game.

Just about to start my 4th (first in europe) season as Saints manager having finished 7th last year. Squad is loaded with youngsters and primed for CL over the next season or two imo. Managed to sign Havertz on a free in the off season. Had watched him all last term and nobody went in for him, He wasn't interested all the while he was under contract so i got in early as soon as he was a free agent and threw money at him!

 

[Orikoru]

With work picking up somewhat, I've gone back to my old touch game.

Just about to start my 4th (first in europe) season as Saints manager having finished 7th last year. Squad is loaded with youngsters and primed for CL over the next season or two imo. Managed to sign Havertz on a free in the off season. Had watched him all last term and nobody went in for him, He wasn't interested all the while he was under contract so i got in early as soon as he was a free agent and threw money at him!

Haha, Havertz on a free, that's crazy. Normally moves for like £60m!

My third season with Roma is highly frustrating. We've had some awesome performances - beat Bayern home and away in the champions league group, 4-1 in the home tie! Battered Lazio and Milan in the league too. But we've also lost six games already, some to the likes of Verona and Torino. We were leading at Juve for 75 minutes, and ended up losing 3-1 with two of the goals coming after 90 mins. Inter are unbeaten and coasting the league while we sit 5th at the half way point. We're into January and I've managed to rustle up £19m with sales, but I still don't think that's enough to buy anyone who actually improves the first team at this point. And our reward for topping the champs group was Real Madrid in the first knock-out round, annoyingly.

 

[Dan2501]

Gone back to the PSV save. God knows what I was thinking in my last transfer window. I remember Militao being an accidental signing (a bloody expensive one at that) but the squad depth is all over the shop, especially in terms of CL registration where I've for some strange reason not registered my backup LB so only have 1 available LB in the CL which is mental, and now both of them are injured for 5 weeks anyway, so that's great. There's some definite quality in the squad but needs thinning out. Need to bin one of the strikers and sell/loan out a CM so I can get 4 full-backs into the CL squad at least. One bit of business I did do that has worked out big style is signing Filip Stevanovic. He's been superb. 6 goals in 8 games. Scored against Bayern, 4 in 5 in the league, £8m very well spent.

CL group is brutal as well. Got Real, Bayern and Anderlecht. So I should come 3rd and get Europa League KO's but looking very unlikely I'll get to the KO rounds of the CL after losing both away games to Real and Bayern. Top of the league though, so hopefully should make it 3 out of 3 league titles, but would like to win the CL before I give end this save. Nice to be back at PSV anyway, would like this to be my first proper long-term save on this years' FM.

 

[Dan2501]

Okay. Filip Stevanovic is the best player on FM20. No question. Just scored an absolutely incredible hat-trick at home against Bayern to lead us to a 4-0 win. He's 19, absolutely unreal. He's going to be crazy good with plenty of game-time.

 

[Wolf]

After a couple weeks of no play, went back to my Ajax save, completed my 3rd straight league & Cup double but its a ball ache having to keep effectively rebuilding the squad each season as still have some players on release clauses from starting the game, but did manage to develop Gravenbach, Antony, Boadu & Bellingham. Problem is it never leaves enough in the tank for a decent crack at Europe.

Got offered the Juve (Zebre) post season, so thought why not see if I can have a punt at the CL proper. I should've looked at the squad first though, it's ageing squad with a massive wage bill. Not really been able to offload anyone which is annoying as I have Higuan, Khedira, Rabiot, Bonucci and a few others on ridiculous contracts which to counter I've had to adjust finances and reduce my transfer budget. But have managed to nab Gravenbach for £44m & Labyad for a mere £6.5m from Ajax.

Perfect timing as opening games have seen injuries due to age of squad. But so far we're 5/5 wins in league & drew with a younger superior Real in CL.

 

[Dan2501]

@Wolf Ajax must be more popular for the teams in Europe to scout than PSV. I've had very few offers for players in my team and the majority of the ones I've sold I've had to offer out to get offers. There's always interest in lads like Ihattaren, Gomez and Gutierrez but when the transfer windows come around it tends to go quiet, except when United came in for Malen, but he's the only lad I've lost that I'd have wanted to keep. Runs in Europe are tough when you're managing in a league like the Eredivise though, going to take a few seasons of building and then going to need the perfect timing to actually win the CL.

Juve tend to be pretty poorly managed by the AI in saves I've had. They win titles for a couple of seasons because the starting squad is so good but they tend to sell their best young players to England - Dybala and Bentacur, and then buy in a load of old boys on massive contracts. In my PSV save in Season 3 they've got obviously Ronaldo on obscene money at 36 but you can forgive that one as he's still one of the top players in the league but then Suarez (34) on £450k a week, Aubameyang (32) on £180k, Bonucci (37) on £170k, Fernandinho (36) and Rakitic (33) on £160k, Higuain (33) on £150k and they've also got Pjanic and Szczesny who are over 30 and on >£200k. Wage bill is insane. Good luck fixing that

 

[Wolf]

@Wolf Ajax must be more popular for the teams in Europe to scout than PSV. I've had very few offers for players in my team and the majority of the ones I've sold I've had to offer out to get offers. There's always interest in lads like Ihattaren, Gomez and Gutierrez but when the transfer windows come around it tends to go quiet, except when United came in for Malen, but he's the only lad I've lost that I'd have wanted to keep. Runs in Europe are tough when you're managing in a league like the Eredivise though, going to take a few seasons of building and then going to need the perfect timing to actually win the CL.

Juve tend to be pretty poorly managed by the AI in saves I've had. They win titles for a couple of seasons because the starting squad is so good but they tend to sell their best young players to England - Dybala and Bentacur, and then buy in a load of old boys on massive contracts. In my PSV save in Season 3 they've got obviously Ronaldo on obscene money at 36 but you can forgive that one as he's still one of the top players in the league but then Suarez (34) on £450k a week, Aubameyang (32) on £180k, Bonucci (37) on £170k, Fernandinho (36) and Rakitic (33) on £160k, Higuain (33) on £150k and they've also got Pjanic and Szczesny who are over 30 and on >£200k. Wage bill is insane. Good luck fixing that

Definitely seems Ajax are the talent pool for clubs to rinse, every player also seems have a release clause as well once triggered you can't turn down meaning in my 3 seasons I'd effectively lost my whole starting 11 but had rebuilt with some good players but it meant squad depth was paper thin.

You're absolutely bang on about Juve got a seriously aging squad in horrendous wages, my wage bill is over £5m a week ?.

The only good thing is there are some decent youngsters, but I've slowly got to weed out the big earners and rebuild around that young core.

 

[Dan2501]

Definitely seems Ajax are the talent pool for clubs to rinse, every player also seems have a release clause as well once triggered you can't turn down meaning in my 3 seasons I'd effectively lost my whole starting 11 but had rebuilt with some good players but it meant squad depth was paper thin.

You're absolutely bang on about Juve got a seriously aging squad in horrendous wages, my wage bill is over £5m a week ?.

The only good thing is there are some decent youngsters, but I've slowly got to weed out the big earners and rebuild around that young core.

Ah, minimum fee release clauses can be killer. I earmarked the lads I wanted to keep long term at the end of season 1 that had release clauses and re-negotiated their deals to either remove the clause or set it stupidly high. Malen's £60m release was one I set but should have been higher, other than that I've done well. I got £40m from Dumfries because of his release clause and then it's staved off bids for the other lads. Ihattaren's release is £95m for example, so if someone comes in and bids that then fair enough, they can have him. Then there are a couple of other guys with clauses but they're all set to £60m or above and I can replace pretty much anyone in my squad with £60m to spend.

Gonna be rough that, can be tough to shift those older guys on mega contracts - might end up having to pay wage contributions to shift them which isn't ideal. £5m wage bill is mental. You still have Ronaldo?

Got a chance of making the CL KOs but I need results to go my way. I'm 3 points behind Bayern but their last game is in Madrid whereas I play Anderlecht. Thanks to smashing Bayern 4-0 at home, if I win and they lose we go through. Fingers crossed!

 

[Wolf]

Ah, minimum fee release clauses can be killer. I earmarked the lads I wanted to keep long term at the end of season 1 that had release clauses and re-negotiated their deals to either remove the clause or set it stupidly high. Malen's £60m release was one I set but should have been higher, other than that I've done well. I got £40m from Dumfries because of his release clause and then it's staved off bids for the other lads. Ihattaren's release is £95m for example, so if someone comes in and bids that then fair enough, they can have him. Then there are a couple of other guys with clauses but they're all set to £60m or above and I can replace pretty much anyone in my squad with £60m to spend.

Gonna be rough that, can be tough to shift those older guys on mega contracts - might end up having to pay wage contributions to shift them which isn't ideal. £5m wage bill is mental. You still have Ronaldo?

Got a chance of making the CL KOs but I need results to go my way. I'm 3 points behind Bayern but their last game is in Madrid whereas I play Anderlecht. Thanks to smashing Bayern 4-0 at home, if I win and they lose we go through. Fingers crossed!

Tell me about it, I've got Khedira sitting in the stands earning 350k a week, last year of his contract about to retire.. Not good enough to get in my match day squad, but release him from his contract wants a 7m payout ??‍
Still got Ronaldo he's 36 and on 475k a week, and still have players like Coquelin & Ramsey in squad on over 250k a week.

Still played 3 more and were 8 straight wins in the league.

 

[Dan2501]

Pretty uneventful January window for my PSV side. Made a couple of sales - Gian-Luca Itter went to Ajax for £26m and Kaio Jorge went to Brighton for £30m. Really good profit from those two, £18.5m profit on Jorge and £25m profit on Itter who I signed for £350k at the start of season 2. Had a couple of bids for Solet which unsettled him but they wouldn't match his release and then Juve activated Sergio Gomez's release but he signed a new contract instead which was nice. Would have made £50m profit on him but I'd rather keep him. Signed Luke Shaw on loan to replace Itter but that was only because I couldn't secure a deal for Owen Wijnal, so got Shaw on loan and will go big for Wijnal in the summer.

Real did us a huge favour in the CL, came back from 1-0 down at half-time to beat Bayern which meant we somehow qualified for the CL KO's for the 3rd straight season. Drew PSG though so not overly optimistic. The Mbappe-Neymar-Kane front 3 scares me a lot. Smashing it in the league, 6 clear of AZ with a game in hand, 9 clear of Ajax but they've got a game in-hand, so should be 3 straight league titles.

 

[Orikoru]

It doesn't look like there will be back-to-back titles for my Roma team. With 8 or 9 games left in the season, Inter are still unbeaten, and have only conceded 5 or 6 goals all season! Ridiculous. We're about 6 points behind them in 2nd, can't see them bottling it from here. We still don't have much money, but I found a ridiculous Brazilian wonderkid CB who's arriving in summer once he turns 18. The lad has 18 tackling, 17 determination and bravery, 14 positioning, 16 passing, is quick as well - and has 4-5* potential! I also spotted Aaron Ramsey's contract expiring, he still has very good stats at 31, so I've signed him up on a free as well. If we actually get any money in summer I'll be on the look out for a new pair of full backs. Florenzi has been good on the right but he'll be 32 shortly so I'll need another option who's better than Karsdorp and Spinazzola, and on the left I have an academy youngster with great potential, but my two year loan for Luca Pellegrini is coming to an end so I'll need a second option there too. Back at the end of the Jan window I brought in Lassina Traore from Ajax as another striker option, he's done ok so far as back-up to Schick and Barbosa.

While the league may be out of reach, we have at least got the Italian Cup final to look forward - against arch rivals Lazio of course. A repeat of the final in my first season when they beat us! Would be nice to pick up another trophy, and especially get one over on them.

 

[Orikoru]

I can't quite believe what's happened since I wrote that post this morning. I put the game on tonight and Inter have lost to Napoli, Atalanta, scraped a last minute draw with Sassuolo, and then lost again to Sampdoria! They're having an epic bottlejob, while we've picked up three calm 1-0 wins in a row - all of a sudden we're 5 points clear with 5 games to go! Did not expect this at all!

But it's Juve up next...

 

[Wolf]

27 Serie A games played so far still undefeated. We've won Italian Super Cup, annoyingly just been knock out of Italian cup on away goals thanks to going down to 9 men in the 2nd leg. Plus we are in Quarter finals of CL.

Managed to sell Dybala for 160m, Bonucci for 15m(not bad considering how old he was) and Rabiot for 40m.
Used that money to sign Boadu, Camavinga, Ramsdale and Musa Barrow. All been quality signings so far.
The spine on the team is Ramsdale, Mavropanos, Dias, Camavinga, Llorente, Boadu & Barrow. So it's young, strong & creative. But I'm going to need to sign another wide man with Ronaldo retiring and 2 more full backs.

So far so good in Italy though.

 

[Orikoru]

We held our nerve to win our second title in a row. Ended up on 86 points, 6 more than last season. Somehow Napoli snuck into second, 4 points behind us, and Inter came 3rd after their epic bottlejob. Sadly we lost the cup final 1-0 to Lazio, just never turned up, and didn't have much chance after Lorenzo Pellegrini got sent off.

Actually got some decent money for the first time, 50 odd million, so I've signed Ben Chilwell as my new left back, along with the wonderkid Brazilian CB and Ramsey on a free. The game has decided to go full retard though unfortunately. Lost our first two games of the new season against Parma and Genoa (both 1-0), then conceded an injury time equaliser to Fiorentina, and now we're losing to Torino. So obviously the game wants me to sack this save off and start a new one for some reason. I don't understand why the game just screws you over for no reason, it's stupid.

 

[Wolf]

Finished the Season with Juve, we won the league but took it right to penultimate game where we beat Napoli who finished 2nd. Ended up losing 1 league game all season and that was randomly to Perugia.

Lost to bloody Liverpool in CL Semi finals on away goals. But first season in Italy a league and Super cup win isn't to bad a start. Immobile scored 22 goals this season not a bad return, but Musa Barrow scored 15 and I only signed him in January, so I'll be brining him into first team more. Got a mass clear out of retired players to come due to age if squad, now need to sign a new wide man, 2 midfielders and a couple of full backs.