Football Manager

[Sawyer]

I've played this game since champ manager days 90' or somewhere around there, I love it. The amount of real life hours steam tells me I have played of all these games is so fucking scary.

Anyway full disclosure; I play the early release until the official release properly, 1 career with Inter, 1 with Coventry City. Then when the official release comes out I use the editor and just have fun with it, I just enjoy it that way. I like the study of the game too, seeing players develop and where managers end up etc.

At the minute I've just won a treble with Newcastle United.

 

[wera]

FM knows what's up

 

[Pajo]

I started playing yesterday. In the first season i managed to offload most of the shit, and i was easy too. In the past games I usually had problems selling, but that's not the case now. I also got Semedo on loan + option, Tonali, Riqui Puig on loan and James on loan. Typical Inter

so now I have this squad:

Handa/Padelli
Semedo/DDa - Skriniar/Godin - De Vrij/Bastoni - Asamoah/Biraghi
Brozo/Tonali
Puig/Sensi - Barella/G5
Eriksen/James
Lukaku/Esposito - Lautaro/Alexis

I plan to sign Regulion as LB next season, sign Semedo for RB (use the option), use Radu as backup GK and get another young forward.

Lukaku is boss, already has 10 goals in 9 games. I started great, 6-1-0 in Serie a, 2-0-1 in CL (group with Chelsea, RM and Genk). Eriksen is awful, he even works better as RCM with James as AM.

 

[Materazzi_23]

How is the 2 striker formation working out for you? I always play 4-2-3-1 and having problems in my first season with Inter to try and get some wingers. Sometimes I played a 4-2-4 against crappy teams or when I needed to score but Lukaku-Lautaro didn't work really out.

 

[.h.]

I pretty much do 3 inter games every season. The first one when the demo comes out, converts into main save. Maybe get 10-20 years into it just to see whats up. Then I start over, load more leagues, and do a proper one. Get maybe 40-50-60-70 years in and then get a ltitle bored. A few months later I start a new one


Protip - Lorenzo Pellegrini is an amazing signing. I signed him for the first time ever in my most recent game. Got rid of Eriksen pretty quickly too. 3 CM formation with Sensi, Tonali, Pellegrini, Barella was just icnredible for me. Esposito almost always turns into a god in this game - I've sold him for >£200m once I think. Dont be afraid of accepting a good offer for Lautaro or Lukaku at the end of the first season and then throwing Esposito into a starting role. I think he scored like 36 goals in his first full season for me.

Regulion was a decent LB for me, no complaints there. Tonight I'll dig out my current game and share my early transfers.

Camavinga, if you can sign him, is always incredible. Fati as well. He was like 4 goals away from beating Meazza's record for me, aged only 32, but then fucked his cruciates and went downhill fast.

- - - Updated - - -

How is the 2 striker formation working out for you? I always play 4-2-3-1 and having problems in my first season with Inter to try and get some wingers. Sometimes I played a 4-2-4 against crappy teams or when I needed to score but Lukaku-Lautaro didn't work really out.

I start the first season using Conte's formation, because with those players and the budget its hard to change too much. After the first season you can go 4-3-1-2 more easily, and then if you get a big offer for Lukaku (I swapped him for Gabi Jesus once), or Lautaro (£120m+), you can sell them and rely on Esposito up front.

Once you get a bit more money its easier to change to a 4-2-3-1 or 4-1-2-3. Signings wingers from scratch is quite hard, but you do get in decent money from Nainggolan, Perisic, Icardi, etc. Brozovic if you choose to, too.

You also need to quite urgently replaec Handanovic within a season or two.


Play Bastoni as much as you can, I've sold him for >£100m before, and you can get similar offers with Skriniar too. There's a lot of monetary value in that Inter team - you always get good offers for Bastoni, Lautaro, Esposito, Skriniar, and you often see good money for Barella/Sensi as well. Tonali and Pellegrini are must buys imho.

My biggest tip would be to work on making the squad younger - signing 28-30 year olds emans no re-sell value in 2 or 3 years time. If you buy a bunch of players like Tonali, Camavinga, Todibo, Saliba, Fati, Pedri, etc, each of them can be £100m+ players in 3 or 4 seasons.

 

[Pajo]

How is the 2 striker formation working out for you? I always play 4-2-3-1 and having problems in my first season with Inter to try and get some wingers. Sometimes I played a 4-2-4 against crappy teams or when I needed to score but Lukaku-Lautaro didn't work really out.

So far great. I too prefer 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-2-1, but i didnt have quality inside forwards, so I had to change it to 4-1-2-1-2. Lautaro has 4 goals and 4 assists, Lukaku has 10 goals and 1 assist. So i'd say it works pretty good also that defense has allowed only 5 goals so far.

Protip - Lorenzo Pellegrini is an amazing signing. I signed him for the first time ever in my most recent game. Got rid of Eriksen pretty quickly too.

I was looking at Pellegrini, i want him as my Barella sub. But didnt have the budget needed. If i sell Eriksen after the first season, i might go for him.

You also need to quite urgently replaec Handanovic within a season or two.

Anyone good enough for that? I was planning to replace him in 2 years, with Radu being his backup. I dont see many good young GKs that are available.

 

[wera]

I changed Wolves into a team called Adidas and the only big acquisition was Neuer I started first with 4-diamond-2, but now in November I play 433, with Jota or Traore scoring almost every game. It's ridiculous, their finishing is like 10 at most, but they get the job done. I think I'm second behind City, with only 2 losses (against both Manchester clubs), but I've won against Liverpool and Arsenal

I recommend getting Neves (if you don't play Inter, because Neves and Brozović are probably the same, just that Neves is younger)

 

[.h.]

So far great. I too prefer 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-2-1, but i didnt have quality inside forwards, so I had to change it to 4-1-2-1-2. Lautaro has 4 goals and 4 assists, Lukaku has 10 goals and 1 assist. So i'd say it works pretty good also that defense has allowed only 5 goals so far.




I was looking at Pellegrini, i want him as my Barella sub. But didnt have the budget needed. If i sell Eriksen after the first season, i might go for him.



Anyone good enough for that? I was planning to replace him in 2 years, with Radu being his backup. I dont see many good young GKs that are available.

ensure you ask the board for trasnfer revenue increase btw

you should bea ble to get like 15m for asamoah that opractically covers pellegrini. Between Asamoah, Valero, Gagliardini, Vecino, Candreva, you should be able to get pretty decent revenue tbh. End of the first season you can look at selling Lukaku, you'll get decent money across Icardi, Perisic and Nainggolan too. Godin isnt a bad sale after season 1 either.

ill dig out the save but i think the handa replacement was a mess for me. I think this for the first time ever I got Edersen for like 70mil... sometimes you can get Donnarumma as well, so worth trying to find that.

 

[brehme1989]

Am I the only one who doesn't use the updated January files? I see no point in having Eriksen from July when he's arrived in January. I just set the future transfers.

But because I get bored easily of this game now I add new challenges. I adapted the entire continent to have a maximum of 5 foreigners. This process happens slowly so some leagues start with 10 foreigners or 8 or whatever and within 3 seasons it is locked at 5.

Makes the game so much better. Random teams can win in Europe and you don't get to have the same dominant teams for 20 seasons running.

 

[wera]

What about trying to make a fantasy league where every team gets random players? That can be fun as well.

 

[brehme1989]

What about trying to make a fantasy league where every team gets random players? That can be fun as well.

I used to make super leagues but they're not really that fun after the first season.

My next ambitious plan is to overhaul the European continental competitions.


Fm21 is probably their first game since CM96-97 that I won't be buying honestly so FM20 editor will be in for a ride.

The plan is to only have Champions in the CL. Same setup with groups but will reinstate the 2nd group phase.
Europa League will become a...league. Trying to figure the format stil.
Will reinstate the CWC, cup winners only.
Will add a Uefa Cup that will essentially be the old tournament.

And will also then add regional tournaments for the lower table teams and give them bunch of money for it as the constant traveling will kill their finances
Winners of regional comps will then face each other for the main event.

Always had difficulties changing the World Cup and Euro so won't be touching them. With Europe I mostly had issues with qualifying for the correct tournament so that's the hurdle I need to get over to implement this.

 

[.h.]

my normal challenge is to start a game unemployed, and take the first job i get offered. Try to build up from there to get to a top club and win the CL etc. I normally try to work my way to Inter where possible.

 

[Sawyer]

Anyone good enough for that? I was planning to replace him in 2 years, with Radu being his backup. I dont see many good young GKs that are available.

Annoyingly enough Fiorentina (Dragowski, Lafont*) and Milan (ShouldDoARunner, Plizzari*) have 4 of the best young goalkeepers, you could try snag the latter of each probably more luck with Lafont if you sign him you're laughing.

I developed Mile Svilar a few times but he was hit and miss, my current game Chelsea just signed Wuilker Farinez he seems decent 21/22 season £1.1m so cheap as well.

 

[.h.]

season 1 - pellegrini in 26m, viktor fischer in 4.9m, angel correra in 49m

brozovic out 39m, vallero 900k, asamoah 17.25m, dambro 11m, vecino 11m, candreva 9.25m, gags 9m, frog 3.9m

then i got reguillion for free, todibo for 22.5m, wague for 17m, sane for 44.5m, tonali 36.5m, almada for 7.5m and sold eriksen 23m, icardi 60m, perisic 11, 9golan 9m, JM for 14, Lukaku for a low 38m



not to go blow by blow, but next seaason highlights were fati for 65m, ruben dias for 81m, camavinga for 38.5, ederson for 60 - sold lautaro for 97m, de vrij 29m, correra for 37.5

 

[junior55]

1st time ever i start a new FM release not playing Inter as 1st save.

Not sure who to blame for disappointing me to this point...

 

[Materazzi_23]

I've taking the afternoon off to play the game, can't wait to be honest. I will start with Inter just so I kick Conte out. Inter has quite a few ''wonderkids'' like Pirola, Agoume, Kinkoue, Oristanio, Salcedo and Esposito. So I'm going to try to get at least 5/6 youth players in the first team with regular playing time within 3 years, oh and finally stop the stupid 3-5-2 formation set up and buy me some wingers so I can play 4-2-3-1.

 

[brehme1989]

First time since the 90s that I won't be buying this game. Maybe will get it on a massive discount next year just to not spoil the streak.

Not an Inter related decision but honestly the game just doesn't feel enjoyable anymore which coincides with my interest in football dropping over time. I spend more time on the editor, if all I need is an "escape", I can live with doing it on a previous game that I've already have spent far too many hours editing it out.

 

[Sawyer]

First time since the 90s that I won't be buying this game. Maybe will get it on a massive discount next year just to not spoil the streak.

Not an Inter related decision but honestly the game just doesn't feel enjoyable anymore which coincides with my interest in football dropping over time. I spend more time on the editor, if all I need is an "escape", I can live with doing it on a previous game that I've already have spent far too many hours editing it out.

I pre-ordered the game the second it was available, due to Valhalla I forgot about it but it isn't out until the 21st or something I think? I always buy the in game editor as I enjoy it that way, I love the games, haven't been able to not buy them since like 1993(ish) when they were championship managers!

My mate always rants about the new games "they haven't changed much" "its the same shit" etc etc .. but he's the type of player who just clicks and go, doesn't dive into the features or make the effort to explore ironically he's been playing it solid the last 4 months and keeps posting screenshots of Aberdeen.

If you can afford it you should buy it Brehme1989, I mean like you say you're going to buy it for the collection anyway and won't get an itch to play it? I'd be clamming to play it if I didn't have it.

 

[brehme1989]

I don't see a reason honestly. I make far too many changes every year on the database and I'd rather try and perfect what I have in mind with FM20 which is pretty solid now. The initial release was the worst I've seen in terms of enjoyability and I've completely lost trust on Sports Interactive. I never criticize miniscule or decorative bugs that appear every now and then. I don't complain either that they refuse to change the market pool system of Champions League groups and you'll see 3 clubs from one country on one day and only 1 on the other.

But the Match Engine in the previous release was unacceptable. No matter what you did, the ball would be crossed over the entire defense for an easy one on one that your striker would miss, no matter his quality. You had 5-15 of these chances, depending on quality discrepancy between the teams, and you'd still barely score. It was the only time that I found the game infuriating and honestly I've got a lot of grievances but I don't really express myself as I understand that it may come down to personal bias or preference rather than a crap product. I don't believe they'll repeat that kind of release, but honestly pre-ordering 3 times in a row feels like rewarding them for this. I mean, I preordered the game even when knowing that they have these gay flags on countries and fanbases that you'd never see this kind of shit and hardly cared about it. I don't care about the whole 'coming out of the closet' thing they had added, but come on, don't give me supporters carrying gay flags in Serbian, Italian, Greek and Argentinean games, let alone derbies. It's really ridiculous in a hilarious way that they are pushing some agendas just because there's no competition. If you want that shit, just display it in stadiums that have done it, like Arsenal or something. Next thing you'll see is players "taking a knee" in every freaking game, even in Polish or Russian lower leagues, just because they started doing it in the Premier League. They have absolutely no reason to take a sociopolitical stance on matters that do not concern them and it just turns people off.

I do see that they make several changes, but honestly they do not really appeal to me. Many of them feel like some attempts to mesmerize younger fans that they're trying to convert to FM fans or minor tweaks to appease a community that's growing older and doesn't play as much anymore. But as I said, there's no real competition here, they keep ignoring some issues only to add silly things that appeal to non-hardcore FM players.

You're an old timer as well so you must remember how fun it was to pick a team, anywhere in the world and just play the game. No micromanaging, no taking 5 years just to start the first pre-season. I get bored before I play an official game when picking a random team these days. They have released the classic version but since they do not let customized database there, there is zero incentive for me to play. I actually went back to FM11 and FM12 recently (couldn't find my CM03-04 and FM5 box, while FM7 won't play on my system) and usually play some CM3 or CM00-01 or CM01-02 every now and then, just a couple of seasons for the sake of fun.

It still remains a great game overall, but I'm losing the appeal to it. And to football in general. Don't want to play a video game where the same teams win over and over again, just like I don't want to watch a sports where money decides that only 5-10 clubs will be at a top level whilst the rest just have to sit and watch them play.


If there's a demo I probably will give it a go, but as I said, I'm not going to pay full price for the game this time. When the season is close to being over they tend to have a 40-50% sale, that's maybe where I'll get it. It's already 55 euros here which is too much, I used to buy it for 25-30 pounds in the UK and even now when it's 35, I'm still going to be overpaying by around 15 euros. That's a 25% premium rate for a game I'm not really incentivized to play. So yeah, don't see a reason to buy it now.

 

[Sawyer]

I have a facepack I have been using for years now, it updates at least once a month, so all faces I have in game which without I would not enjoy the game so much. I also use the editor and change the ages of 80% of footballers back to youth when they hit around 35 because I hate regens, personal preference.

As for the engine etc, you are right I am old school mate, so I don't use it. I use the text base and go off that, I have no interest in watching players running around a pitch as if it was a real game.

As for the micro managing I guess you can do as much or as a little as you want in the game? Assign your staff to do the things you do not want do, they have made amazing improvements year on year, remember only 2 seasons ago you had to individually renew all contracts, I hated that with a passion!!!

I understand your reasonings, you aren't just having a huff like my mate, you actually have good points and made a competent decision.

For some nostalgia for ya mate -> https://www.fmscout.com/a-championship-manager-0102-free-download.html

That was one of the best Champ Managers, top 3 for sure.