Football Manager 2026

[Tommy Fresh]

On 28/09/2026 at 20:41, Tommy Fresh said:

Probably my final save of 26 (hopefully) Defensor in Uruguay, dabbled with them before on this years but nothing long term.

 

First season and I've won the opening stage comfortably, and the weird little mid season league they have as well. Got 4 games of the closing stage left and don't think I'll win it but I'm top of the overall table by some distance, so even if I lose the opening vs closing stage playoff, I'll be in the final playoff regardless. 

 

Managed to avoid any big sides in the Sudamericana knockouts luckily and managed to get to the final, expect to lose as it's against River Plate, but it'd be nice to win as I expect to be in the Libertadores every year moving forwards, so probably won't get another chance.

Just finished the second season of this, first year ended with us losing to River Plate in the Sudamericana final, but I won the Uruguayan cup and the title playoff.

 

Second season started with winning the Uruguayan super cup, managed to get to the quarters of the Libertadores but lost to Gremio. Won the Uruguayan cup again and managed to shit house the league title, didn't win the opening stage, finished 3rd in the overall table but managed to win the closing stage after a one off match having finished on the same points as MC Torque, then managed to beat Nacional over a few different playoff stages.

Edited 6 hours ago by Tommy Fresh

[Tommy Fresh]

42 minutes ago, Dan said:

New tactic and alternative attacking tactic in place. I know I could probably get us promoted by incorporating the Bochum system but I didn't set this out in the first place to just do the same thing again even if it is fun building a team all over.

 

We needed a system that would cede possession but create chances, and I think we landed on it.

 

It starts off with 6 wins from 6 in the league before a last minute equaliser from Nafta Lendava ends the run. But it doesn't deter us as we go on to win the next two.

 

We're very fortunate to draw at Beltinci away having been largely outplayed, stealing a draw late on. But we're clearly pretty resilient and we're coming through all types of games. Go 1-0 down - likely turn it around and win. Go 1-0 up - just win anyway. A couple of other teams meet fire with fire, seemingly wanting to cede possession themselves, but we come through them as well.

 

Then the biggest test arrives in the 3rd round of the cup. Olimpija Ljubljana. The exact draw I wanted. Lets see how this style of play translates against a team undoubtedly better than we are.

 

They make 11 changes but we end up beating them after extra time. Although as an experiment it is slightly tainted by their rotation, it is still a great win.

 

We don't lose a single game in the first half of the season - going on to win 4 in a row in the league after the Olimpija game. Promotion is looking like a formality.

 

We have our 3/4 month mid-season break (which should serve as the biggest motivation for getting out of this league) and return to some very poor friendlies. We're shipping goals and worryingly, in our first game back at home to struggling Dob, we lose 1-3.

 

We then enter the quarter final of the cup. This has actually become weirdly open as a tournament with only 3 of the 8 being in the top tier. We are sent to third division Tabor Sezana, who had just been relegated in fairness, and are diced up 3-0. What is pretty extraordinary though is that Tabor actually go on to win the whole thing, as a 3rd tier side, beating Celje 3-0 in the final and will be playing in the Europa League next season. Ridiculous.

 

We return to play the hilarious Zavrc - a newly promoted side who are so laughably out of their depth. But showing a wobble ourselves I didn't feel confident. After the game I realise how needless my worry was. Despite picking up a red card in the 22nd minute, at 0-0, we go on to win 0-4. Mustering just 29% of the ball. Our average possession stats are genuinely remarkable.

 

We take 14 points from our next 6 games but are beaten on the road for the first time all season at Krsko in a poor performance. But we respond by all but sealing promotion, beating nearest rivals and perennial pain in the arse Beltinci 4-0 at home. This game very much had a Southampton under Maresca feel to it. Despite then losing again, at Ilirija, beating Brinje Grosuplje at home, we seal promotion with a 2-0 loss at Slovan Ljubljana. I had made a bit of a tweak around 6 games ago and all of a sudden we can't score away. But never mind. We are promoted with 2 games spare.

 

Beltinci, and this is pretty crucial IMO, actually win their play-off against Bravo and will join us in the top tier. So we go into the next season as probably the 2nd weakest side in the division, rather than the weakest.

 

*was going to post the table again here, but it just won't allow me to for some reason*

 

The key stats...

 

We finish 1st with 30 played, 20 wins, 6 draws and 4 defeats. We score 60 (the highest in the division), concede 29 (the 3rd lowest in the division). But the best stat of all is the possession - we average an astonishing 37% possession. We are out possessed in 28 of our 30 games. I've never been that high with possession in general, but this was something else. A team that almost specifically seems to play without the ball.

 

The highlight players were the two new strikers, Ismir Nadarevic and Maj Solaja, who netted 17 and 21 goals respectively - 38 of our 60. Both unfortunately just missed out on the golden boot as a Bistrica striker went on an insane late run to pip both. But they were 2nd and 3rd.

 

For all the style is one you would probably associate with a pretty low scoring side, the numbers didn't really reflect this. We scored in 27 of our 30 games yet only managed 8 clean sheets. We didn't manage a 0-0 draw all season, again, quite surprisingly.

 

I'm fascinated to see how this translates to the top tier - we will have less of the ball almost by default and we've proven we can hurt teams consistently without it. Retain the system, sign more and more players who fit into it. See where it takes us.

Is Benjamin Adrovic still knocking about he's a superb, he's at SD Slovan at the start of the game, same for Samuel Mbengue from Tabor

[Dan]

5 hours ago, Tommy Fresh said:

Is Benjamin Adrovic still knocking about he's a superb, he's at SD Slovan at the start of the game, same for Samuel Mbengue from Tabor

They've both left Slovenia for better leagues. Tabor story is ridiculous. I look through their team and wonder how they went down - upon promotion they must've had a good 4/5 players that I was looking at signing.

 

Adrovic is good but my tactic is too specific and I don't think he'd fit too well.