2020

Weekly Help Thread - Ask your help requests here | Week Commencing 23/02/2020
"Who should I manage?" Megathread
when I shout “get creative” and my centre-back immediately scores an own goal
Also resembles a 15 year old regen.
Every save ever
Just got into the board by managing the club for 10 years
Me: "Congratulations on scoring your first goal in international football". My player:
Winning Serie A with Atalanta in the first season, using an Ancelotti-style narrow 4-4-2, a season recap and tactical analysis!
I just wanted to congratulate you for scoring your first international goal
PSA: You can right-click on the tabs on the left side of the screen and access the options for each tab more quickly
The most pointless attempted save ever...
My former U23 coach Phil Skyes (starts off at Portsmouth) had one of the best careers I've seen from any AI staff that doesn't start as an elite level manager
Keuken Kampioen (Eerste Divisie (Second Division of The Netherlands)) in the Hexa Pack!
I had no idea these numbers would be possible, 23 out of 9
Invincible with 94 points and I still can't win the league. I am a broken man.
Burnley is a physical team
Longest+Worst injury ever?
PSG kept consecutively 20 clean sheets in the league.
When you get your semi pro club promoted to the national league but they refuse to go professional so you take a job interview and now I'm going from national league to league 1!
it sucks when you might have to rebuild the team midseason
Congratulating a 16 year old on his Barbados debut.. ��
Ronaldo breaks -100 years playing record
he's been skipping training five times in a row and i just gave him a warning all the time, then he stayed up so late in a bar so he can't go to the match in the next day (this time i fined him for 1 week salary & drop him to u23 squad). AND HE SAID IM UNFAIR TO HIM! WTFFF!!
May not seem like a lot however this is my first ever save and I've just taken Atalanta to a CL Final and on track to win their 1st ever Serie A! (2022/23 season)
What's better than a regular Kihwelo?
Glory Hunter Save inspired by DoctoryBenjy (Year 13 of 20)
Sometimes they're so good you're genuinely going to miss them when they're gone...

Weekly Help Thread - Ask your help requests here | Week Commencing 23/02/2020

Posted: 23 Feb 2020 01:22 AM PST

Please use this thread as a place to ask questions that are specific to your save, such as:

"Why is my tactic not working?"
"What role should I play this player in?"
"I have £xxm to spend, who should I buy?"

If you are asking for tactical help/advice, please post an image of your formation and what insutructions/roles you have set.

As a rule of thumb, if you ask a question, answer a question. This is what keeps this thread alive and useful.

submitted by /u/FMG_AutoModerator
[link] [comments]

"Who should I manage?" Megathread

Posted: 09 Feb 2020 12:53 PM PST

If you're looking for a team to manage, a challenge to do, or you yourself have suggestions for teams/challenges for other people to do, use this thread to discuss.

^{This is to seperate these kinds of questions from the Help Thread, which is more for gameplay/tactics questions}

submitted by /u/ApuFromTechSupport
[link] [comments]

when I shout “get creative” and my centre-back immediately scores an own goal

Posted: 23 Feb 2020 09:48 AM PST

submitted by /u/EddyWebb44
[link] [comments]

Also resembles a 15 year old regen.

Posted: 23 Feb 2020 10:25 AM PST

submitted by /u/dcarini090
[link] [comments]

Every save ever

Posted: 23 Feb 2020 03:08 AM PST

submitted by /u/itzztheman
[link] [comments]

Just got into the board by managing the club for 10 years

Posted: 22 Feb 2020 11:58 PM PST

submitted by /u/BastianMobile
[link] [comments]

Me: "Congratulations on scoring your first goal in international football". My player:

Posted: 23 Feb 2020 01:55 PM PST

submitted by /u/wbreid77
[link] [comments]

Winning Serie A with Atalanta in the first season, using an Ancelotti-style narrow 4-4-2, a season recap and tactical analysis!

Posted: 23 Feb 2020 06:57 AM PST

Introduction

Strap in, because it's going to be a long read. As a typical FM hipster, I like to take upper-mid table teams, and try to turn them into something greater by playing attractive football, and as an avid Simeone stan, I'm a sucker for a good old 4-4-2, now, I had a few teams in mind, namely in Spain and Italy, my final three consisted of Lazio, Valencia and Atalanta, I settled on the latter because I felt the other two were a bit too strong already, especially Lazio, who have two of the best players in the game in my opinion in Immobile and SMS, and I like a challenge.

When I arrived, I had one goal in mind: push for a CL spot, and play an Ancelotti-inspired 41212. Atalanta has the players for it, since they don't have a lot of natural wingers/wide players in general, so I didn't have to do any real business in the transfer market, electing to save my 12 million budget for when I really needed it.

What is the Ancelotti 442? (roughly)

Carlo Ancelotti's AC Milan powerhouse was built in a Narrow 442, with attacking wingbacks, two ball winners in the midfield protecting a Regista, and a front three consisting of a Trequartista, a classic goalscoring poacher, and either a second attacking midfielder, or a creative striker dropping deeper. The formation almost looks like a 2-1-4-3 in possession, but the ball-winning midfielders make it difficult for teams to hit on the break, by harassing the opposing team as soon as they have the ball, to prevent counterattacks.

The players used to recreate the tactic

Goalkeeper

Pierluigi Gollini: A fairly standard goalkeeper, played on a Sweeper-Keeper supporting role, nothing much to be said about him, he is good enough at what he does, which is saving shots and playing passes to the defenders.

Central Defenders

Mattia Caldara: Academy product, back on loan from AC Milan, ironically. Again, he's no Madini or Nesta, but he is adequate enough, which is the proof that sometimes a good system makes an average player look class. (Danny Drinkwater?) A key thing about him, he has the trait "plays short, simple passes" which is very good since I don't want my centre backs to think they're Bonucci and try to play 80 metre passes all day long, this is early 2000's football lad, stick to defending and passing it to the regista, alright? Central defender - Defend

Jose Luis Palomino: Another very solid central defender, nothing too fancy required, extremely well-rounded, and left-footed as well which is a bonus! Central defender - Defend

Full Backs

Atalanta is blessed with some of the best fullbacks in the game in my opinion, which was one of the big reasons why I wanted to use them. Some top notch lads, who make the tactic work beautifully.

Timothy Castagne: Absolute baller, natural on both sides, fantastic stats, cracking name, literally means "brawl" in French, really really important player, scored five goals and assisted 11, in only 28 league games played. Wing Back - Attack

Robin Gosens The left footed Castagne. Another very well-rounded player, both wingbacks having the "get forward whenever possible" trait makes this work very well. Wing Back - Attack

Midfield

The whole Ancelotti tactic was pretty much built around Andrea Pirlo, regista extraordinaire, and so the player I would use in that role would have to be magnificent, and boy was he just, ladies and gentlemen I give to you:

Ruslan Malinovskyi: An absolute beast, he was immense throughout the entire season, by FAR my player of the season, spraying passes left and right all game long, never missing a beat, always available to attack and even defend sometimes, scored 8 and assisted 11, only playing 30 games! 0.63 goal or assist per game, as a defensive midfielder, absolute madness. Truly the new Андрия Пирло. Regista - Support

Marten de Roon: The Gattuso of the squad, his job was pretty much to man-mark Malinovskyi and bully anyone who got close, giving him space to be free, threatening their families and overall just being a bad guy. He achieved that to perfection, picking up ten yellow cards during the whole season, but no red. (Millwall fans weep) Ball-winning Midfielder - Support

Remo Freuler: The one to complete the midfield triangle. Another extremely well-rounded player, with slightly better attacking attributes than de Roon, so I gave him a little bit more freedom and used him as a Carrilero, to offer some wide cover, and to leave space in the middle for our regista. Only missing one game, he scored four and assisted three goals. Carrilero - Support

Attack

Carlo Ancelotti used variations of his formation, mostly either with one attacking midfielder and two strikers, or two attacking midfielders and one striker. I, being unable to make attacking midfielders work in Football Manager, decided on playing one AM and two strikers, to make things easier for myself, but it still somewhat ended up as a 4-3-2-1, as you'll see.

Playing as the 10, the Trequartista/Kaká role we had:

Alejandro "Papu" Gómez: Fan-favourite, club captain, all-round sound lad Papu Gómez led the line for us, linking the regista and the two strikers beautifully. I originally used him as a Trequartista, but felt his contribution was a little underwhelming, so I switched him to an AM-A role where he performed a little better, but still not up to the standard I was expecting from our Argentinian number 10. I might move him up to striker and play with three up top next season to see if it works better. He scored 5 and assisted 9 in 34 league games. Attacking Midfielder - Attack

Josip Iličić: The one whom I didn't know where to put; do I use him as an AM, or a second striker ? I eventually decided to use him as a striker, purely because he has the trait "comes deep to get the ball" so he would functionally play as an attacking midfielder anyway, and I wanted to use his amazing long shots. He was very good in this role, and played a crucial part in our campaign, linking up with his attacking partners very well, scoring 15 goals and assisting 7, in 35 games played. Complete Forward - Support

Duván Zapata: The big boi, the Pippo Inzaghi of the squad, the goal machine. He was put on this earth with one purpose and one purpose only, and that is to terrorise Italian defences. That man is an absolute monster, a complete package, amazing strength packed with great pace and most importantly sublime finishing. Runaway capocannoniere far ahead of Immobile's pathetic tally of 22 goals, the Colombian mastodon ended the campaign with 30 goals in 36 games (and three assists, which were most likely meant as shots but hit someone else on the way) Poacher - Attack

Backups/Honourable mentions

Hans Hateboer: Another top-shelf fullback, played a bit of a lesser role once Castagne recovered from his long-term injury at the start of the season, but was still crucial to our campaign.

Alessio Riccardi: Highly-rated young Italian midfielder, signed for about 6 million euros plus bonuses (Including a 10 million bonus if I won the league in the first season, as if that would happen) He will feature more heavily in the squad in the future, and potentially replace Ukrainian Pirlo eventually.

Mario Pasalic: "Hey someone's injured in the midfield" "Alright, just put Pasalic in his place" The epitome of perfect backup, started three games, was substituted in, in 30 games. Unsure whether or not I will trigger the 15 million option to buy, as it seems a bit much for a rotation player, but we shall see.

James Rodriguez: Transfer listed by Real in January for 0€, and with his deal expiring in the summer, I inquired to have him come in with Real paying his full wages, which they agreed to, only demanding 2.5 million euros for the transfer. Pocket change, for such a quality player, and so the golden boy is now ours. He featured in all 19 games of the second part of the season, starting 8 and coming on as a substitute in the other 11, never finding the back of the net, but assisting 7 goals! Will definitely play a bigger role next season, and then be sold for profit next summer.

The tactic

The main event we've all been waiting for, I give to you, The ultimate Ancelotti re-creation! (not really)

How it works: by playing narrow and focusing play down the middle, we're drawing a lot of players in, especially people trying to close down the AM or the Regista, and that frees up a lot of space for the wingbacks to bomb up the flank and be in a lot of space, to be able to offer an easy cross for the strikers to pounce on. A surprising amount of goals also came from a simple through ball by the regista, to one of the strikers who simply slotted it in as well.

I use the "play out of defence" so my CB's don't kick it long like big dumb-dumbs, no ball-playing defender bullshit here, you defend and that's it. Defenders pass to the regista or the fullbacks and then take a nap until we lose the ball. The goalkeeper does the same, kicks it short to the defenders and then doesn't exist anymore. We use counter and counter-press because I want us to quickly break using the creativity of our regista, to spray a ball wide to a wingback, who runs up and feeds a striker with a long range ball, which happened a lot throughout the season, and counter-press, well, because we have nobody shielding the defenders, so might as well go for broke and try to win the ball back ASAP, because when you have the ball, the other team can't score, duh.

We defend wider to cut off passing lanes, and facilitate winning the ball back as soon as possible, in addition to having a much higher defensive line and higher line of engagement, trying to prevent the keeper from playing it short, and pressing harder.

The only player instructions I used are on the strikers who are instructed to shoot more often and that's it. High risk, high reward shit all across the board.

Season in review

Atalanta, finishing in 4th place in the 2018/19 campaign, were blessed to be directly qualified for the champions league group stages. However, seeing as I wanted to put my focus on the league campaign, I tanked that shit so hard which meant we pretty much had only a game a week for the remainder of the season, allowing us to play our strongest squad every game.

Our league campaign started off fairly well, picking up two wins in our first two games, disposing of Sampdoria away from home 2-1, Palomino and Muriel getting on the scoresheet, and securing what would prove to be one of the most important wins of the season, a 1-0 win against Roma

We hit a bit of a rough patch after this, picking up two points from the following available nine. Draws away at Lazio and Juventus, which are nothing to be ashamed of, but a home loss to Torino. Thankfully, we ended September on a winning note, by defeating our rivals AC Milan in a close 3-2 game finishing the month of September in 4th place after six games played, on track to be in the CL next season. October started the same way September ended, ~~with Billie Joe Armstrong waking me up~~ with us making a Milan team our bitch. A disappointing home loss to Fiorentina followed, and then, the team started to click. We won eleven out of the next twelve games, and drew one, Zapata scoring 13 goals in 12 games. The game on december 7th against Sassuolo marked the first time we went top of the table, a position we would ultimately never let go of.

The January transfer window saw relatively little activity in terms of bringing players in, with James Rodriguez, Peruvian defender Luis Abram and highly rated young striker Sebastiano Esposito joining the squad. A lot of players went out on loan and I sold some highly-rated prospects, which made some supporters groan, but when you can get 10 million for this guy ; and 13 for him, you say yes. Other departures included Rafael Toloi, who wanted a new contract with a bit too high of a wage demand to my liking, for 17 million euros to Wolves, and Luis Muriel, who is just a player I don't like, for 13 million to Crystal Palace, in order to fund the Esposito transfer.

Our undefeated streak came to a screeching halt, with a 3-0 defeat to AS Roma, and with a February month looking like that, things were looking pretty bleak for the boys in black and blue. Fortunately, they stepped the fuck up, and won every single game! I breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that the biggest hurdle toward getting top 4 was out of the way, and being seven points clear at the top of the table, began to dream "could this really happen?" Well, when your last twelve fixtures look like this, you can dare to dream. A supposedly approachable final batch of games against midtable teams at best, and with a sizeable cushion at the top, things were starting to come together.

Fiorentina swiftly and forcefully dragged us back down to earth though, immediately starting our last 12 games with a 1-0 loss, completing the double over us, the only team in the league to do so. That game acted as a kick up the butt for the team, and ended up being our last loss of the season. Some brilliant performances saw us easily vanquish Parma 2-0, Udinese 3-1, Cagliari 2-1, SPAL 3-0 and finally Lecce 5-1. Roma, refusing to drop points, were still seven points behind me, and I then drew two of the next three games, meaning they were only three points behind us, and seeing as in Italy, head-to-head is preferred over goal differential, their 3-0 win over us meant they had the advantage in case of a tie, and so a loss would see us finish in second place.Only three games remained, against Verona, our last home game of the season, and then two away trips, to Brescia, our fiercest and most bitter rival, and finally to already relegated, dead-last Genoa, the perfect trap.

No complacency from my players, and Robin Gosens, wingback genius, scores a hattrick to help us be within touching distance of the title.

Brescia followed. Their coach tried to unsettle my players in the press, I was having none of it and responded by bidding 0€ for Sandro Tonali, which they inexplicably refused. Ensued an absolute thriller of a game, which kept me on the edge of my seat all throughout, giving me a big scare at the end, with Brescia hitting the crossbar in the 95th minute.

Roma won again, and it came down to the final day, we travelled to Genoa, whose last win came on January 4th against Verona, the same Verona whom Roma were hosting in the final game. All I need is a point, and if I lose, for Roma to not win. Things ended up being fairly anticlimactic, with Zapata scoring an early nerve settler, and Malinovskyi quickly following, fittingly scored our final goal of the season, in a comfortable 2-0 victory. Roma drew at home to Verona, capping off their ridiculous second half of the season. Champions at last, for the very first time. Every fan loves me, the players adore me, the board has employed a dedicated babe to give me daily blowjobs to keep me satisfied just so I never leave the club, and all is well. Here is the final league table, with Juve, sorry, Zebre, not even getting Champions League football (wonder if Ronaldo fancies the Bergamese experience...)

The team's final stats

What's next?/Outro

What else? Trying to defend our title, even though I expect it to be very difficult, and this time, try to not look like an amateur team in the CL and the cup. Strengthening the squad, selling the loan army to make bank, and building for the future, as some of our key players are getting on a bit, Papu is 32, Ilicic as well, de Roon and Zapata are 29, plenty of work left to be done! Depending on if I get a lot of feedback or not, I might do a part 2 in the future, bearing in mind this took me about four hours total to write, hoping this was an enjoyable read for you!

submitted by /u/THZHDY
[link] [comments]

I just wanted to congratulate you for scoring your first international goal

Posted: 23 Feb 2020 07:34 AM PST

submitted by /u/Xedro
[link] [comments]

PSA: You can right-click on the tabs on the left side of the screen and access the options for each tab more quickly

Posted: 23 Feb 2020 09:03 AM PST

submitted by /u/On_The_Warpath
[link] [comments]

The most pointless attempted save ever...

Posted: 23 Feb 2020 03:38 PM PST

submitted by /u/DodgeeGamer
[link] [comments]

My former U23 coach Phil Skyes (starts off at Portsmouth) had one of the best careers I've seen from any AI staff that doesn't start as an elite level manager

Posted: 23 Feb 2020 11:02 AM PST

Manager attributes from a couple of years ago

This guy was a quality coach when I brang him in and, as they often do, he eventually went off to manage someone himself. I track these guys on my saves and nine times out of ten they are retired a few years later but he really did better than pretty much anyone. What I love about his career most is how realistic the arc was because often I find the AI just move around constantly.

Started off at League One Notts County who were a mid-table side and after a decent start got the chance to jump up to Sunderland after only six months. Sunderland hadn't been back in the PL since the start of the save at this point and had finished the previous season 11th in their first season back in the Championship for a couple of years. He got them into the playoffs in his first half a season only to get smashed in the semis, then took them back to the playoffs and got promoted the season after. In their first season back in the PL they only get 24 points and went straight back down but he stuck with them. Another playoff defeat the next season is followed by another playoff success but then they get relegated again. Back down in the Championship he wins them the division and you can't blame him for leaving after that. Goes to Forest, PL regulars at this point and gets them a couple of mid table finishes.

Sunderland yo-yoing under Sykes

At this point he's the best English manager other than myself and gets the national team job, does alright but not spectacular. A QF and 2nd round defeat end up with him resigning after one international cycle. Pretty standard stuff so far and at this point I'm thinking he might replace big John Kennedy when he retires from being my ass man or I'm worried he might retire.

Next thing I know he's got the job at Napoli who just finished 4th in Serie A, their worst finish for a while, but are typically seen as the second biggest team in Italy behind a dominant Inter who had won 26 out of the last 27 titles. He gets them straight back into second place and then wins them back to back titles. At this point he's looking a bit special but after a third place finish he decides to move on. Wolfsburg are a massive step up from Napoli, by comparison they'd just lost the CL final whereas Napoli had only got out of the group stages for the first time in a decade that season. They'd won three Bundesliga titles in a row when he arrived but somehow over his three year stay he manages to maintain their dominance whilst increasing the number of goals.

Wolfsburg recon three years before Sykes and his three year reign

Unfortunately for him, he could never win Wolfsburg another CL title to add to the one they'd won in 2050 but he did get them back to the final in his first season only to lose to my Doncaster team 4-1. After three years in Germany he went back to Italy to manage his old rivals Inter who had returned to dominance since his double winning Napoli side had their fun. He won another double but then at the end of the season, he decided to retire at the age of just 65.

I'm likely retiring two seasons after he decided to retire so I'm pretty disappointed he chose to retire as I thought he could be a potential successor and it was a shame he never won the CL. I thought he was still at Inter and just went to check on him as they are in the opposite SF to me and realised he'd retired. Shame really but I reckon he might be worth picking up as a youth coach all the same! Wasn't sacked once throughout his career either which is pretty cool.

Career biography

submitted by /u/likesiamesefish
[link] [comments]

Keuken Kampioen (Eerste Divisie (Second Division of The Netherlands)) in the Hexa Pack!

Posted: 23 Feb 2020 02:55 AM PST