Football Manager 2020 & FM Touch

[Deleted member 1740]

It was only because I saw Nkoudou and thought we sacked him ages ago, turns out it was only August we got rid of him anyway.

He was out on loan last year iirc, like the Mother in Law, can’t get rid of him ?

 

[Orikoru]

What are the chances of this? Journalist name is my actual name! Nearly fell off my chair.

 

[Orikoru]

Does it matter if you have two playmakers in the team? I noticed my AM very often seems to have a mediocre game, no matter who I play there, so I changed him from Attacking Midfielder (S) to Advanced Playmaker (S) - even though I have a Deep-Lying Playmaker (D) at MC. It seemed to work in the short-term, Havertz had a couple of better performances. But yeah, I'm wondering if it messes it up to have two playmakers? Might be fine as they are in different parts of the pitch.

With the new players and new season my tactics have evolved slightly to this:

AF(A) or PF(A)
IW(A) - AP(S) - IW(S)
DLP(D) - BBM(S)
WB(S) - BPD(D) - BPD(C) - WB(S)or(A)
​

The 'or' depends on who I'm playing. Against poor teams I'll use advanced forward, so he only needs to focus on scoring goals, and an attacking right wing back as another attacking option. Against good teams I make my striker a pressing forward to win the ball back high for us, and the wing back to support so he isn't bombing forward as much.

We are unbeaten after 11 leagues - but unfortunately we've won 6 and drawn 5 so we're only 5th. Liverpool have won all 11 of theirs, I think I have to wait for Salah and Mane to retire before I get a crack at the league. In the Europa League we got an easy group so my second-string XI has won 4-0, 3-0 and 3-0 so far.

 

[Wolf]

Does it matter if you have two playmakers in the team? I noticed my AM very often seems to have a mediocre game, no matter who I play there, so I changed him from Attacking Midfielder (S) to Advanced Playmaker (S) - even though I have a Deep-Lying Playmaker (D) at MC. It seemed to work in the short-term, Havertz had a couple of better performances. But yeah, I'm wondering if it messes it up to have two playmakers? Might be fine as they are in different parts of the pitch.

With the new players and new season my tactics have evolved slightly to this:

AF(A) or PF(A)
IW(A) - AP(S) - IW(S)
DLP(D) - BBM(S)
WB(S) - BPD(D) - BPD(C) - WB(S)or(A)
​

The 'or' depends on who I'm playing. Against poor teams I'll use advanced forward, so he only needs to focus on scoring goals, and an attacking right wing back as another attacking option. Against good teams I make my striker a pressing forward to win the ball back high for us, and the wing back to support so he isn't bombing forward as much.

We are unbeaten after 11 leagues - but unfortunately we've won 6 and drawn 5 so we're only 5th. Liverpool have won all 11 of theirs, I think I have to wait for Salah and Mane to retire before I get a crack at the league. In the Europa League we got an easy group so my second-string XI has won 4-0, 3-0 and 3-0 so far.

I've noticed the exact same thing with midfielders play as an attacking mid and get mediocre stats and performance, set them as AP get a huge improvement in performance and a few goals thrown in. I've played both DLP and AP with no issues.

I've since moved on from Leicester as got frustrated at expectations, played a full half season was in 6th spot with a game in hand over Chelsea in 5th and only trailing them on goal difference, won Europa league group, decent cup run but after going unbeaten for 9 games we got beat heavily by Liverpool and fans were calling for the sack & board were unconvinced by my style or a abilities. So I flounced put of the club ?

Got offered Valladolid who were in bottom 2 in Spain, made a few changes to their style and finished 10th. Now in my 2nd season with them and am 3rd in League behind Real & Barca. Seems I do better with average teams on a low budget ?

 

[Dan2501]

I play a DLP (D) and an AP in a CAM position pretty often and had no issues.

Top of the league after 7 games in Season 2 but tied on points with Liverpool with City, United and Chelsea only a point behind. Going to be a tough season I think. Might just do 2 seasons as Spurs and then start a bit more of a challenging save, a lower league one or something.

 

[Orikoru]

Liverpool are just annihilating the league in mine, we're right in the mix for top four along with Arsenal, City & Utd, with Wolves not too far behind. Got to January and I signed Leon Bailey from Leverkusen as he seems to be absolutely lethal and can play on either wing comfortably. I've loaned Tammy out to Milan, Arp has done bugger all so I'm tempted to try and pick up another forward, but I don't really need one. Just being greedy.

Once this season is finished I'm going to start a new game, now I've hopefully got a better grasp on the tactics and so on. I think with Spurs I never had a deep-lying playmaker of any kind which seems to be pretty key. Next up I fancy picking someone with lower expectations, like Newcastle, where all I really need to do is keep them up, but then it shouldn't be too hard to build on that as well. Or maybe Sheffield Utd, they always play with wing backs in my other saves so will be interesting ripping that up and getting them back to a good old-fashioned flat back four.

 

[Wolf]

Got to admit I've found I enjoy the game more using lower quality sides as there is more emphasis on what you actually do tactically rather than what you can spend and finding a diamond in the rough and wheeler dealing with loan signings. 12 games into my 2nd season with Valladolid now and in 6th spot having only lost to Real, Barca & San Sebastian. Much more fun figuring out how to keep them punching above their weight than relying on the cheque book.

That being said id like to know who sets the post match analysis on this game, I just won a cup game 5-0, but got told my keeper was poor and not enough goal threat from midfield. Yet keeper had a clean sheet and 3 of the 5 goals were from 3 different midfielders ?

 

[Orikoru]

Got to admit I've found I enjoy the game more using lower quality sides as there is more emphasis on what you actually do tactically rather than what you can spend and finding a diamond in the rough and wheeler dealing with loan signings. 12 games into my 2nd season with Valladolid now and in 6th spot having only lost to Real, Barca & San Sebastian. Much more fun figuring out how to keep them punching above their weight than relying on the cheque book.

That being said id like to know who sets the post match analysis on this game, I just won a cup game 5-0, but got told my keeper was poor and not enough goal threat from midfield. Yet keeper had a clean sheet and 3 of the 5 goals were from 3 different midfielders ?

Traditionally I used to like picking a lower division team and taking them all the way up to the Prem, but that was on the old much easier games, haha. On Champ Manager 01/02 it was so easy I used to pick teams in the most debt so I could only sign free transfers. I can't see myself ever find FM20 easy enough to do that, but I won't pick any of the real big clubs again - I get bored of the saves quicker with them.

A lot of the writing in the game is balls to be fair. I hate the guy after the game who's always like "I had this one down as a draw.." etc. And the assistant manager is just playing devil's advocate all game for me. "I think we should try short passing." *switches to short passing* ... "I think we should try some more direct passing." Oh do you now?

 

[Wolf]

Traditionally I used to like picking a lower division team and taking them all the way up to the Prem, but that was on the old much easier games, haha. On Champ Manager 01/02 it was so easy I used to pick teams in the most debt so I could only sign free transfers. I can't see myself ever find FM20 easy enough to do that, but I won't pick any of the real big clubs again - I get bored of the saves quicker with them.

A lot of the writing in the game is balls to be fair. I hate the guy after the game who's always like "I had this one down as a draw.." etc. And the assistant manager is just playing devil's advocate all game for me. "I think we should try short passing." *switches to short passing* ... "I think we should try some more direct passing." Oh do you now?

Absolute balls indeed, get so many post match write ups that totally contradict the results. As for assistant manager his only use is reserves and running friendlies other than that I don't bother ?

 

[Dan2501]

The write-ups aren't great, but the Social Media tab within news can throw up some gems.

I think I just want a save outside England more than anything. I had a decent one in Poland where I got a team from the 3rd tier to the PL in 3 seasons but was a bit easy so got bored. Not sure where to go tbh. Looking at a few leagues and Sociedad could be an option - try and break Real and Barca's dominance. Other options I've looked at are AZ - finally get to manage Boadu on this years game, loads of youth should be a reasonable challenge; Anderlecht - been dreadful IRL but in FM get to use Kompany and will get plenty of gun youth players. I want a bit of transfer cash to spend and be reasonably decent but just a bit bored of the PL. You guys have any suggestions?

 

[Orikoru]

No idea Dan, I tend to stick to England for my first few saves with a new game! Stick with what you know and all that. My mate plays as Andorra FC and has dragged them into the top four of Spain. I think he's won the league with them, not sure. He likes saves like that where the youth products are all Andorran and so on. I think he intended to take over the Andorra national team as well, but then found out International management was an unlockable that he didn't yet have.

Dunno if this sprouts any ideas: https://www.squawka.com/en/football-manager-2020-the-best-and-most-fun-teams-to-manage/

 

[Wolf]

The write-ups aren't great, but the Social Media tab within news can throw up some gems.

I think I just want a save outside England more than anything. I had a decent one in Poland where I got a team from the 3rd tier to the PL in 3 seasons but was a bit easy so got bored. Not sure where to go tbh. Looking at a few leagues and Sociedad could be an option - try and break Real and Barca's dominance. Other options I've looked at are AZ - finally get to manage Boadu on this years game, loads of youth should be a reasonable challenge; Anderlecht - been dreadful IRL but in FM get to use Kompany and will get plenty of gun youth players. I want a bit of transfer cash to spend and be reasonably decent but just a bit bored of the PL. You guys have any suggestions?

I think that's summed up my frustration with it. So far since I've been at Valladolid I've enjoyed it so much more. First season I took over midway through and had about 5m to spend and was only 3days left in the window so made 3 loan signings ans bought Wiemann from Bristol City for 3.1m. When I took over they were 2nd bottom and well adrif, however strung results together and Managed to finish 10th.

In my 2nd season with them now our record is P19, W10, D5, L4 and we're currently sat in 4th spot. Club gave me 40m to spend as a result of a good end to last season and start of this one. Have just signed N'Dicka for a bargain 12m, Malinovksi for 20m, Clarke-Salter 5m plus the Ox on a free.

Much more enjoyment building them up and moving toward the big 2. Hopefully will break through and sneak a champion league spot.

 

[Orikoru]

Sacked off Chelsea and started a new game as Newcastle. Didn't get much money to start with, but I managed to sign Domingos Quina from Watford (AMC with good potential), Dragovic (reasonably solid CB from Leverkusen), and with a lot of future fees involved, brought Mitrovic back from Fulham! Our attackers are still so thin on the ground but I couldn't afford to do anymore than that. Our front four is pretty decent, but if any of them is out then there's just nothing in reserve at all. Bentaleb and Rose who are both on loan are both excellent. I've got two Longstaffs with near identical stats to rotate for the box-to-box role - I've had to nickname them Longstaff and Shortstaff so stop myself mixing up which is which.

Nine games into the league, we've won 4 lost 4 and drawn the other one, which puts us 7th. Mitrovic has banged 5 goals in 7 games, including a hat-trick of headers against Palace - but he's got injured and I had to chuck Big Andy Carroll in - he's managed 2 in 3! You can probably guess with these forwards my plan is overlap out wide and float crosses in - I even have Saint-Maximin and Almiron playing as traditional wingers rather than inverted. Maximin has been superb at skinning the full back and teeing up Mitrovic.

Just had a takeover occur so Fat Mike is out. The new guy hasn't given me a sackload of cash yet though.

 

[Dan2501]

I started a save as Newcastle with the IRL takeover added and couldn't do it, the squad is an absolute mess. SO many crap players on ludicrous contracts, way too many players, too many loans of players I was never going to use but couldn't terminate. Sacked it off quickly and started the Spurs save.

Holidayed a season last night and took over Sociedad in June 2020, mainly did it so I could start my save with Rulli in goal. Got a reasonably decent team. Not particularly well balanced, but not terrible. Managed to bring a few guys in - signed Hysaj from Napoli as he was transfer listed and needed a RB, picked up Lazaro who's a very talented young Brazilian forward, Ait-Nouri's come in on loan with an option to buy and then the biggest signing money wise was Ontiveros for £13m. Some really talented lads in the squad - Merino looks really good and has had interest from some big sides, Oyarzabal is probably the best player at the club and only 23, Willian Jose is more than decent striker who will likely end up leaving for big money at some point, Januzaj looks very good in this years game, then have Odegaard on a 2 year loan who's a very good backup to Oyarzabal.

Season started with a dreadful performance at Villarreal losing 2-0 but bounced back and hammered Leganes 3-0 at home. Granada next and then we have a nice run of Barca (A), Sampdoria in the EL and Real Madrid (H), rough. Barca incidentally just signed De Bruyne for £205m from City But then because they've sold Coutinho for £74m, Dembele for £116m they've also been able to sign Rafa from Benfica for £58m. Gonna be tough to compete with them. Real have been pretty quiet. Azpilicueta their only signing but have sold Casemiro, Benzema and Marcelo. Barca are going to run the league for a couple of seasons at least I think.

 

[Orikoru]

Yeah as I say with Newcastle Dan, some of the first team is alright now, especially now I've added Mitrovic - Saint-Maximin and Almiron are decent, the Longstaffs are both ok. Bentaleb is really good but he's only on loan for the season. There were zero number 10s though hence why I had to bring in Quina, and the defenders were all rubbish apart from Schar. Dubravka is awful as well but I'm stuck with him for now. I've got them performing ok though as long as no one gets injured. I rested the first team and played the second string in the Carabao - thrashed 3-0 by Brentford. There are quite a few in the reserves squad to ship out too, like Atsu, Colback, etc. Dwight Gayle is still hanging about.

 

[Dan2501]

Started another new save Fancied trying to replicate Pep's tiki-taka tactic as City. Have used primarily gegepress this year and a bit bored of it, so thought I'd give this a go as a little mini-challenge save. Turned first-window transfers off so got to make do with the starting squad and see how we get on. It's going to be a baptism of fire in the league as we play Liverpool in the Community Shield then Spurs, Chelsea, Arsenal and United in our first 7 league games, so that should give a good indication if it's going to work or not. Outside of that I've bought in a couple of staff members - a new Technical Director to look after my staff contracts and identify staff targets, and bolstered the scouting and coaching with a couple of new staff members.

This is what I've come up with tactic wise:

https://i.ibb.co/yWTf8wS/Screenshot-2020-05-01-at-14-29-45.png

So it's a tiki-taka using short passing, working the ball into the box but at good tempo. Fernandinho in a half-back role which should mean he drops into defence to effectively form a back 5 when we're defending like City do IRL. In attack our wing-backs push forward, we've got two attacking central midfield players with De Bruyne given freedom to push on into attack, Sterling and Mahrez both cutting inside on attacking inside forward roles. Looks pretty Pep-like to me, or as close as I think I'm going to get. Just have to see how it goes in-game now. Early signs are promising, last pre-season game we smashed Olympiakos 6-1. We had 57% possession which is fairly unheard of for my teams in FM. My tactics tend to either be 50:50 or slightly lower on possession focusing on counter attacking, but this style is totally different, looking to overwhelm and work our way into the box.

Shouldn't have turned first window off though, forgot how bad City's central defence is In January we'll be going big for a partner for Laporte.

 

[Dan2501]

Just beat Liverpool in the Community Shield 2-1, absolutely dominated the game. Their goal came from a corner but other than that they barely had a chance. That was with a defence of Walker, Stones, Otamendi and a 16 year old LB Tarensi. I had injuries to Laporte, Cancelo, Mendy, Zinchenko and Fernandinho coming in, then Walker got injured during the game so switched Stones to RB and had Eric Garcia come in at centre half, and still dominated Liverpool. This could be a fun save. The 16 year old LB, even though the coaches rate him a 1* current ability player kept Salah in his pocket the whole game, didn't give him a sniff.

Was nice to see the tactic in-game as well. De Bruyne as a Mezzala drifting wide like he does IRL, the half-back dropping into defence when required and then being there to pick up the ball from the keeper to start our attacks, intricate passing plays around the box to set up chances. Lovely stuff.

 

[Orikoru]

I'm no expert clearly, but everything I've read suggests not to have that many attack duties with only one player on support. Maybe with the players City have, almost anything would work though. Not sure. I like the Mezzala role though, Ndombele did ok as that in my failed Spurs games.

 

[Dan2501]

I'm no expert clearly, but everything I've read suggests not to have that many attack duties with only one player on support. Maybe with the players City have, almost anything would work though. Not sure. I like the Mezzala role though, Ndombele did ok as that in my failed Spurs games.

Not sure, the attack duties seem to be working. We're dominating games, creating so many chances and still defending really well, but first 2 games we just couldn't score. Lost 1-0 to Spurs despite having 11 shots on target to 2, Aguero missed a penalty and Sterling missed 2 chances inside the 6 yard box. We've also had SO many injuries. My defence got wiped out early season and now it's my attack. No Sane as he's out long-term on every save, but add to that Aguero out for 2 months and now Jesus out for 5 weeks. I've got Sterling up front and Foden on the left. It's so frustrating. Never had injuries this bad in a save. So a 1-0 loss to Spurs and a 0-0 with Chelsea, but now beating Southampton 5-0, so hopefully this'll be the turning point, although not feeling optimistic without a striker for 5 weeks.

 

[Papas1982]

Damn my laptop.
Finished 2nd to Liverpool 20 points adrift and had the board, players and fans on my back after promises of a title tilt. One game left. CL final against UTD. Spank em 5-0.
All is good In the world.
load laptop this afternoon and file is corrupt!