Football Manager 2020

[Dan LCFC]

I'm convinced I could have Zidane in my team and he'd average about 6.90. No attacking midfielder does anything on this version.

[Finnegan]

10 hours ago, Dan LCFC said:

I'm convinced I could have Zidane in my team and he'd average about 6.90. No attacking midfielder does anything on this version.

 

Not entirely true, you just need to be a bit more thoughtful in how you use them. Post your formation.

[Dan LCFC]

13 hours ago, Finnegan said:

Not entirely true, you just need to be a bit more thoughtful in how you use them. Post your formation.

At the minute I'm playing 4-4-2 and I'm stuck quite rigidly to that, in all honesty I've not played with a number 10 for a good 3 seasons now as a result of what I said. I've had Reinier as an attacking midfielder in a 4-2-3-1, varied him on both AM (A/S), have also tried a system where I play a second striker behind a F9 and complete forward and it appeared to do little.

 

I just don't think they really do a great deal on this save to be honest I'm finding far more success playing 4-4-2 than anything else.

[Fox92]

41212 and 433 is just shit. Thought I'd work on those in the summer because I don't have any decent attacking midfielders or wingers. Opposition just have so much width, even with me setting defensive width to wide. Opposition full back/wing back/winger have so much joy.

[Miquel The Work Geordie]

Started a lovely little save in Scotland after the Gazprom peak in Georgia.

 

Annan Athletic, absolutely dog turd, let's take them to the Ladbrokes Premier. Strolled to the League 2 title in my first season which was relatively easy, just picking up decent free agents. Managed to get promoted a second time via the play offs into the Ladbrokes Championship which is where I started to struggle because the gulf starts to become a bit more obvious.

 

You shed a side every year almost if you just keep going up unless players develop at the same rate, the amount of lads I've had to show no room for sentimentality for is Trudy Roofe. Also that season I have away an unfeasible amount of late goals and penalties which I assume will be due to opponents just being fitter - defensively in the first two seasons you'd put your house on the Galabankies keeping a clean one. Regardless, given we were still part time I did well to stay top 4 or so for the season and ended up shithousing another play off win, got very lucky in that I had to play Raith in the final (a side from the top tier) but they were appalling.

 

Preparations for the top flight went terribly, the board agreed to go pro but the transfer budget was 80k and the most I could offer a star player was about 1.5k pw - nobody wanted to sign and I was fully aware I'd get absolutely caned week in week out so I did the honourable thing and resigned. After 33 games of the premiership season they're bottom, with about -60 GD and 6 points. Allan McGregor took them on the batty sleeve.

 

Midway through that season I got the call from a struggling Aberdeen and took the reigns there, ideally wanted Hibs but they were flying at the time. Managed to turn their form around and finished 4th, ideally in my first full season I wanna break up the old firm and try and snag a top 2. Squads a bit bloated so needs some fat trimming off but the usual matchday lot has a lovely mix of folk comfortable in multiple positions.

 

Got a lad called Dylan Tait from Ross County / Raith and the lad could thread a needle with his right peg, he's absolutely fantastic.

[The Bear]

How much time do you lot spend playing this? 

[Miquel The Work Geordie]

Just lost the Scottish cup final to a last minute pen against Celtic, this is like Deeney day all over again

[moore_94]

11 hours ago, The Bear said:

How much time do you lot spend playing this? 

I am at 1678 hours and I have had it since the Beta

 

Barely played it over the last few weeks though

[RoboFox]

11 hours ago, The Bear said:

How much time do you lot spend playing this? 

This is why I can’t own Football Manager anymore, as much as I love playing it. It’s just such a timesink.

[Dan LCFC]

An absurd amount of time but in fairness I am very bad for leaving the laptop (and FM) on when I go out somewhere.

[Dan LCFC]

After 8 emotional years at Hamburg I've called it a day, was always a bit of a treat of a save following the Andorra grind, I won two Bundesligas, one DFP Pokal and the Europa League. I figured when I beat Bayern 4-0 away that we were simply too good for the league and as much as I want the Champions League I kind of need a challenge in the league to keep me interested - I pissed the league in my final season but went out miserably to an Eddie Howe managed Arsenal in the round of 16, losing 2-1 at their place and even more embarrassingly drawing 0-0 at home, meaning that we actually somehow failed to score past a combination of both Eddie Howe and Arsenal in a crucial game. It's been a blast though. We move east.

 

I have gone slightly Miquel here and taken over Luch-Energiya Vladivostok of the Russian 2nd tier, the intention is to bring continental football well out of Europe for the shits and giggles. The fume when Arsenal are sent to near Japan on a Thursday night, lose 2-1 and have their excuses for the weekend loss lined up will bring me immense satisfaction. We are some way off it though, these are frankly dreadful and they're pretty skint too. A proper challenge though. After 19 games I sit 9th in the league (20 teams) which I'm happy with given we're predicted to finish 16th and have an abject squad.

 

The only thing that's been bad this year is I've already lost twice at home to our local rivals SKA-Khabarovsk (they were in the top tier recently, you may have seen somebody post something about Zenit having to fly 8 hours for a league game), they're top of the league too annoyingly, the cup loss was absolutely gutting, 2-0 up, threw it away and then lost 12-11 on penalties, they finally missed one in sudden death and we did too  

 

The other point of note is playing Baltika Kaliningrad in a league game. That is surely the furthest league game in world football.

 

Quite enjoying this though. I want a crack at promotion next year, if I can get these 9th with this gang of clowns then god knows what we'll do if we actually buy some footballers. The projected finances tell me we'll get a little money so that's keeping me going, I couldn't play on with absolutely no money for years.

[Miquel The Work Geordie]

On 23/08/2020 at 13:46, Miquel The Work Geordie said:

Just lost the Scottish cup final to a last minute pen against Celtic, this is like Deeney day all over again

 

Still not over this tbh, right now I need two positives

[Miquel The Work Geordie]

Also it's seemingly ****ing harder than me with an incognito tab open to sign foreigners after Brexit, having to apply for work permits for folk who aren't even that exotic. SPANIARDS ffs

[Stinkenzo]

1 hour ago, Dan LCFC said:

After 8 emotional years at Hamburg I've called it a day, was always a bit of a treat of a save following the Andorra grind, I won two Bundesligas, one DFP Pokal and the Europa League. I figured when I beat Bayern 4-0 away that we were simply too good for the league and as much as I want the Champions League I kind of need a challenge in the league to keep me interested - I pissed the league in my final season but went out miserably to an Eddie Howe managed Arsenal in the round of 16, losing 2-1 at their place and even more embarrassingly drawing 0-0 at home, meaning that we actually somehow failed to score past a combination of both Eddie Howe and Arsenal in a crucial game. It's been a blast though. We move east.

 

I have gone slightly Miquel here and taken over Luch-Energiya Vladivostok of the Russian 2nd tier, the intention is to bring continental football well out of Europe for the shits and giggles. The fume when Arsenal are sent to near Japan on a Thursday night, lose 2-1 and have their excuses for the weekend loss lined up will bring me immense satisfaction. We are some way off it though, these are frankly dreadful and they're pretty skint too. A proper challenge though. After 19 games I sit 9th in the league (20 teams) which I'm happy with given we're predicted to finish 16th and have an abject squad.

 

The only thing that's been bad this year is I've already lost twice at home to our local rivals SKA-Khabarovsk (they were in the top tier recently, you may have seen somebody post something about Zenit having to fly 8 hours for a league game), they're top of the league too annoyingly, the cup loss was absolutely gutting, 2-0 up, threw it away and then lost 12-11 on penalties, they finally missed one in sudden death and we did too  

 

The other point of note is playing Baltika Kaliningrad in a league game. That is surely the furthest league game in world football.

 

Quite enjoying this though. I want a crack at promotion next year, if I can get these 9th with this gang of clowns then god knows what we'll do if we actually buy some footballers. The projected finances tell me we'll get a little money so that's keeping me going, I couldn't play on with absolutely no money for years.

Russia is a great league, none of this pissing about with league splits.I took Dinamo Moscow straight back up to the Premier Division and went straight back down Allowed me to blood some really good youngsters we had coming through, went back up and did well IIRC.

 

In other news I see some European leagues have had to change format this year. From memory Czech Republic has gone from a 16 > 18 team league. Serbia has gone to 20 teams from 16, with 6 relegation spots. Curious about Romania who were still playing their relegation group games a week or so ago, Dinamo Bucharest had 4 or 5 games in hand because of COVID. Seems like they've just said **** it and let them stay in despite them having been in the relegation zone.

[Dan LCFC]

1 hour ago, Walkers said:

Russia is a great league, none of this pissing about with league splits.I took Dinamo Moscow straight back up to the Premier Division and went straight back down Allowed me to blood some really good youngsters we had coming through, went back up and did well IIRC.

 

In other news I see some European leagues have had to change format this year. From memory Czech Republic has gone from a 16 > 18 team league. Serbia has gone to 20 teams from 16, with 6 relegation spots. Curious about Romania who were still playing their relegation group games a week or so ago, Dinamo Bucharest had 4 or 5 games in hand because of COVID. Seems like they've just said **** it and let them stay in despite them having been in the relegation zone.

I'm usually quite good at building something from very little but I think if I did by some miracle take these up we would get panned all over the top tier, I'm finding a basic 4-4-2, inverted wingers, both strikers on attacking duty overpowered still.

 

I'm often outside of England but rarely am I outside the obvious league systems. I've never properly done Russia bar one ill-fated attempt to turn Spartak Moscow back into something decent. It's going to be hard with the restrictions but given Belarusians are exempt this'll help matters as it feels like there are a few decent bargains to be had in that league.

 

I've got this forward on loan from the Armenian league - he's hands down their best player and they've loaned him to me for no fee or wages  the **** is that all about?

[Stinkenzo]

2 minutes ago, Dan LCFC said:

I'm usually quite good at building something from very little but I think if I did by some miracle take these up we would get panned all over the top tier, I'm finding a basic 4-4-2, inverted wingers, both strikers on attacking duty overpowered still.

 

I'm often outside of England but rarely am I outside the obvious league systems. I've never properly done Russia bar one ill-fated attempt to turn Spartak Moscow back into something decent. It's going to be hard with the restrictions but given Belarusians are exempt this'll help matters as it feels like there are a few decent bargains to be had in that league.

 

I've got this forward on loan from the Armenian league - he's hands down their best player and they've loaned him to me for no fee or wages  the **** is that all about?

When im clubs that size I like to scour national sides such as Faroe Islands and the like as they'll often have internationals with no club. I think the Russian First division (back in the day atleast) used to be proper strict with its homegrown rules. Something like you must have a minimum of 9 Russian players on the pitch at one time.

[Stinkenzo]

Might give Ukraine a whirl actually. Haven't been there since I discovered Konoplyanka before everybody else did

[Dan LCFC]

20 hours ago, Walkers said:

When im clubs that size I like to scour national sides such as Faroe Islands and the like as they'll often have internationals with no club. I think the Russian First division (back in the day atleast) used to be proper strict with its homegrown rules. Something like you must have a minimum of 9 Russian players on the pitch at one time.

You've got to have 6 in your team in the top tier but 8 in the second I think.

 

We're basically nailed on to finish midtable I think, same story as before, we're too rubbish to ever put together a consistent run but we score enough goals to keep away from any real trouble. Have spotted that I have two 34 year olds, both steady players, but clearly on the decline that are earning £5k a week each - that comes to not far off half of our wage budget on those two alone, and another is on £2k who is pretty crap himself. Letting those three go is probably going to cause a stir but that's going to be my key to actually getting us anywhere. Our finances are definitely looking worse than they did before (which is weird as I've spent nothing since the summer) and we have absolutely nobody we can sell, so we're going to just have to somehow scrape a team together on frees to get us up.

 

Definitely going to be looking a lot at the likes of Belarus, especially given they count as non-foreign.

Edited 25 August 2020 by Dan LCFC

[Dan LCFC]

We've ended up coming 7th after a really decent finish to this season. Definitely found the system, now just to sign the players to make it really work - something I'm sure we'll do given I'm freeing up more than half of my wage budget. I think we're going up next year.

 

Only disappointment is we won a game that promoted bloody Khabarovsk. You've won this battle we will own east Russia before you know it.

[Miquel The Work Geordie]

Brothers and sisters we're five games into the fledgling 23/24  SPFL season and Celtic have already lost twice, and rangers are bottom. Can Everest be scaled?! IM AT BASECAMP BABY, PACK THE OXYGEN

Edited 26 August 2020 by Miquel The Work Geordie

[Stadt]

Won the treble at Guangzhou (the board gave me an A- rating) in my first and only full season because I resigned. Won two CLs at Orlando Pirates, one at Toluca and two in China. Hoping for one of the big lads in Argentina, preferably Boca so I can secure a Libertadores title with a supreme shithouse team. 

[Stadt]

Didn't get a job at one of the giants but did get this gig

 

[Dan LCFC]

After some of my confidence of us launching a promotion bid next season, we started the season with a truly abject showing at home to Spartak-2 and lost 1-2, two late goals but we were completely outplayed all game and the fact we were in the lead with 10 minutes left was simply laughable. You lose games but as long as the performances are OK I've always felt the results will eventually follow. This one was an abject showing, by a mile our worst performance since I've been there.

 

But to be fair I actually thought about it and gave us the benefit of the doubt. The season kicked off on 5th July. Consider that any new signings I get with our empty budget are going to be frees that join on the 1st - they're at the club a whole 4 days before our first competitive game, no friendlies, they're thrown in on the opening day.

 

This is a shambles, and it's a common theme throughout the league.

 

With the exception of Spartak-2. Think about it. They have their squad all together already. They've already gelled, they can actually get some friendlies in. We can't - they're pointless when half of my squad is leaving. Even if you got one done before the 5th it wouldn't change anything significantly. The harsh reality is we just got massively unlucky with our first game, we couldn't have handpicked a worse fixture.

 

I was right. 10 games played and we sit top of the pile. We've taken 23 points from the other 9 games. We're flying and have now won 14 of our last 19 league games stretching back to last year. I expect us to get promoted. We're on a great run.

[Milo]

On 23/08/2020 at 09:15, The Bear said:

How much time do you lot spend playing this? 

I've been playing since 1993 (not continuously!), when I had the game on a number of floppy discs for my Amiga.

 

I've tailed off a bit, what with trying to be a parent/husband/grown up, etc - so my dedicated hours are pretty low these days:

 

2012 - 675 hours

2013 - 681 hours

2014 -  801 hours

2015 -  919 hours

2016 -  357 hours

2017 -  247 hours

2018 - 87 minutes

2019 - 514 hours

2020 - 852 hours

 

Used to be a lot more, with all nighters not uncommon. but now pretty poor by the standards of some on here - Lockdown accounts for the recent upturn in FM20...although I'm quite inspired by @Miquel The Work Geordie's and others posts on taking obscure non-league/semi-pro/Scottish teams and giving them a spin... 

 

Roll on FM21!

[Will1981]

Rudkin Challenge - Season 1

 

I started a new game on FM Touch and put Rudkin in control of all in-coming and out-going transfers.

 

 

Major player signings:

 

K. Ajer for £16m proved to be a very good backup for Evans and Soyuncu.

 

A. Morelos signed for £16m from Rangers in January was a good Backup for Vardy.

 

 

Major player sales:

 

N. Mendy sold for £10m to Salzburg was not getting any game time.

 

K. Schmeichel sold for £21.5m to Guangzhou in February had to make do with Ward & Jakupovic for final 10 games.

 

Competition Results:

 

Premier League:

1st Liverpool 92 pts

2nd Man City 77 pts

3rd Leicester 75 pts

4th Arsenal 74 pts

5th Chelsea 74 pts

6th Man Utd 69 pts

 

FA Cup: lost in 4th round to Sheff Utd

 

Carabao Cup: lost in 3rd round to Liverpool.

 

Player Stats:

 

Fans Player of the Season: Vardy

Young Player of the Season: Tielemans

Top Scorer: Vardy 27

Highest Average Rating: 7.29

Most Assists: Maddison & Ricardo 8

Most MOTM: Maddison & Vardy 5

 

Overall a very successful season with Champions league qualification the board have given Rudkin a transfer budget of £59m.