FM17

[Madejski]

Really enjoying FM so far this year. Doing a journeyman save which I think has helped, was getting bored of being Reading every season and doing the same thing over and over again.

After a month or so unemployed, I got the job at Drogheda (Irish First Division) towards the end of their 2016 season.

2016: W4 D1 of my 5 games, but couldn't get them into the playoffs
2017: Slow start but once I settled on a 4-4-2 we began to make moves and finished 2nd, promoted via the playoffs
2018: First season back in the Prem, finished a comfortable 6th (11 points behind 5th, 8 points clear of 7th) with a young squad. Somehow managed to win the Irish Challenge Cup in the 121st minute against Shamrock, meaning Europa League 1st Qualifying next season

Despite being a journeyman save, I can see myself being at Drogheda a little while yet, hope to get them into a European group stage one day. Need to get myself professional soon to be able to attract half decent players. Currently have an almost 35 year old Glenn Whelan on trial, who even at that age will comfortably be the best CM in the league, just hope I can afford him.

 

[epic73]

Really enjoying FM so far this year. Doing a journeyman save which I think has helped, was getting bored of being Reading every season and doing the same thing over and over again.

After a month or so unemployed, I got the job at Drogheda (Irish First Division) towards the end of their 2016 season.

2016: W4 D1 of my 5 games, but couldn't get them into the playoffs
2017: Slow start but once I settled on a 4-4-2 we began to make moves and finished 2nd, promoted via the playoffs
2018: First season back in the Prem, finished a comfortable 6th (11 points behind 5th, 8 points clear of 7th) with a young squad. Somehow managed to win the Irish Challenge Cup in the 121st minute against Shamrock, meaning Europa League 1st Qualifying next season

Despite being a journeyman save, I can see myself being at Drogheda a little while yet, hope to get them into a European group stage one day. Need to get myself professional soon to be able to attract half decent players. Currently have an almost 35 year old Glenn Whelan on trial, who even at that age will comfortably be the best CM in the league, just hope I can afford him.

How are Cork City doing?

 

[Madejski]

How are Cork City doing?

4th, 5th, 3rd in the league with Munster Cup wins in all seasons.

 

[JaseTheVillain]

I've just got this, has anyone else done the facial recognition thing? Mine turned out utterly hilarious, so now I've made him look as ridiculous as possible from there.

 

[JaseTheVillain]

Well that's fucking annoying. Taken over at Duisburg (started unemployed), and I've just lost my first match, W2 D2 L1 (in that order too), lost 3-2 and 2/3 of their goals were offside. Rather annoying.

 

[BCFC Jordan]

Just completed my first season on FM17 with City. It's actually my first completed season on FM in two years as I only played about ten hours of FM16, wasn't a fan at all. Enjoying FM17 so far though. I wasn't sure how I was going to do as I'm not the best FM player. I surprised myself though and we finished 6th. Went on a really good run of form in the second half of the season, only losing three games from December onwards.

I faced Norwich in the Play-Offs so it was always going to be a tough ask. Flint gave away a penalty 15 minutes into the first leg at home and we were 2-0 down at HT. Turned the game around in the second half and the 1st leg finished 2-2 in the end. The second leg we unfortunately lost 2-0, having the more chances but not being as clinical as Norwich. It was always a tough ask and if we'd won, we would have faced Huddersfield in the final who hammered me 8-2 earlier in the season (although we did beat them in the return fixture!).

Not sure if I'll be able to replicate it in the 2nd season without Abraham though. Taylor Moore did brilliantly for me at CB, despite his marking stat only being 8.

Tactics (tempo was usually normal).

Got the FM bug again now. I tend to do this. Play FM a lot one year, then barely play it the year after. A cycle of two years on repeat.

 

[GFCSludge]

I cracked and bought the disc copy of FM 2017 today. First new FM for me since 2014 which I never got into.

 

[GFCSludge]

It arrived, instantly loaded down to the County Leagues and started my managerial career at Sheppey United (sort of my second team). No players in the squad at all, so a blank canvas to play with.

I quite like it so far, although the layout will take a little getting used to.

 

[Look Out There Are Llamas]

Season Four Ctnd: Jumped ship at the first available opportunity to mid table National side Dagenham & Redbridge. Went on an excellent and improbable run into the play off positions on matchday 45 only to undo all the hard work with a final day draw v FC Halifax and a 91st minute Morecambe goal. Brought a couple of promising players from N Ireland and another from Salford. End of the season the centre back from Ballinamallard Utd and the AM from Salford were sold for a combined £1.3million...

Season Five: Pissing it. Literally. P.22 W.15 D.6 L.1. Already 10 points clear of second place Morecambe. Number of key signings, Christian Doidge and Billy Bingham return, Sam Corne, Arran Racine, Ryan Sweeney, Jack Munns, Sam Deering plus a left wing newgen from Dungannon Swifts and a left back newgen from Ards. They're going to sell for a lot of money eventually... Northern Ireland U-21s are my feeder team.

2020/21 (Season Five) continued: P.46 W.28 D.13 L.5 - 97 points. Comfortable winners.

2021/22: Crashed out of every cup early. P.46 W.18 D.11. L.17 - 65 points. Finished tenth however only two points off of the play offs, faced Barnet on the last day, a win would have seen us in the play offs... Got two points from my final five games # choked

2022: Defending Irish champions Cork City ditched their boss, they were fourth and languishing 9 points behind leaders Dundalk and in the group behind with Galway, St. Pat's and Sligo. Only lost one league game to go on and in the end finished 10 points clear of Galway, Dundalk had their own choke at the end. Came in mid season, P.33 W.18. D.9 L.6 - 63 points (any other season wouldn't have been enough...)

Real story came though with a Champions League run up to the play offs, beat Elfsborg and Basel before being humiliated by Olympiakos. Had a Europa League group of Chelsea, Fiorentina and Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk. Should have been humped, came away with 7 points. Finished bottom, but we were only two points behind Dnipro who qualified in second.

2023: With the European run there was a ton of money to strengthen, pissed the league and finished 20 points clear of Dundalk P.33 W.27 D.6 L.0 - 87 points. Went one step further in Europe, knocked out Linfield, Basel (again) and then Celtic on away goal to qualify for the Champions League proper. I was in a group with Barcelona, Inter and Fenerbahce. We were humped, only the 26 goals against...

2023/24: Jumped ship to Hannover 96 in the Bundesliga as I'd taken Cork as far as I could. Improved them from just outside the relegation zone to lower mid table and an 11th place finish. P.34 W.12. D.6 L.16 - 42 points.

 

[epic73]

Defending Irish champions Cork City

 

[JaseTheVillain]

I'll do an update on my game then, not got as far as LOTAL, but here we go...

2016/17 - Started off unemployed before taking over at 3 Fuball Liga Duisburg in September, already out of the cup and sat in mid table. Eventually won the league quite comfortably with 70 points. Was offered the Fulham job about a month before the season ended, I told them I'd take over at the end of the season, they accepted. Ended at Duisburg with a league title. P38 W21 D7 L10

2017/18 - So, onto relegated Fulham, everyone wanted to leave pretty much, so I took the opportunity to sell them off and build my own team with 24 leaving for a total of £39.5million over the season, and the board left most of it to me, so I signed 34 players (a lot of youth also) for a total of £14.25million. That kind of spend should see you slaughter League One, and oh my it did. Comfortable champions with 110 points in the end. Got to the 2nd round of the League Cup losing 2-1 away to Premier League Middlesbrough and the 4th round replay of the FA Cup going down 3-1 to Southampton, unfortunate really, as we battered them at Craven Cottage to somehow draw 0-0. Won the Paint Pot with ease (reserves all the way through) eventually beating Man City U23's in the final, so a good season. P46 W33 D11 L2 in the league, only Sheff Utd (early on, team hadn't gelled) and Oxford (finished 6th and it was 2nd last game, when we were already very comfortable champions) toppling us. 110 points, next closest were Peterborough on 88.

2018/19 - The board have given me £38.5million to spend to get a top half finish in early August and have spent £17.5million and made back £2.7million. Only played two competitive games so far, but I beat 2 season in a row Play-off bottlers Aston Villa at Villa Park 4-0 (it could have been more...) in Fulham's first game back in the 2nd tier and beat Exeter away with the reserves 1-0 in the cup.

 

[Techno Natch]

Started a game on 16 unemployed. Got a job with Concord Rovers, initially improved them and then bottled it totally and finished bottom 9 points off the next placed team.

 

[JJH]

First game on FM17 I started about a month and a half ago with Forest Green Rovers:

2016/17 - Started with a decent squad but could only sign a few freebies as they were already spending way beyond their means on wages. Target was promotion, and I won the league with relative ease. 99 points, only 36 goals conceded and 92 scored. 30 wins, 9 draws and 7 losses. Keanu Marsh-Brown and Fabien Robert standouts, Rhys Murphy also scored 20+ despite missing the final third of the season due to injury.

2017/18 - Into League Two and under embargo at this point (no fault of my own) which meant I could only bring in loans that didn't require fees or wage contribution. Target was just to survive for this season, but I got lucky with a few decent players I managed to get for the season (Kaiyne Woolery who I had at the end of my conference season as well, Harfield & Olley as well from Bournemouth and Hull "mauled by the" Tigers respectively) and I actually managed to go up again as champions. I'd already received job offers from Brentford & Bristol City who were both mid-table in the Championship so I decided to accept the Bristol City job in January-ish but only to join in the summer, thankfully the assistant kept them up. 23 wins, 12 draws and 11 defeats, 74 scored, 55 conceded, 79 points. Didn't really deserve the title, I only finished 2 points clear of 5th and it all came down to the final day.

2018/19 - Onto bigger and better things at Bristol City after shafting Forest Green by getting them up and leaving them with a lower half league two team on paper, but I started really poorly at City. Only spent £2.5m over the course of the season and received £11m (loads wanted to leave) but got in some quality additions, Mannone, McManaman, Walters and Glen Johnson all on frees, Adam Armstrong on loan with a future fee of £5m (which I bought out at the end of the next season), Mings and Tshibola for £250k and Colback for £1m or so. As said, started really poorly, was loitering in the bottom half of the table and job status was insecure, but went on a ridiculous run of 12 unbeaten (10 wins) from November to January and hoisted myself into the top six. Got a few in January and kept on going, looked as if I was going to get automatics at one points but ironically Brentford beat me to them, they were far too consistent and I fell away at the end and eventually finished 4th, facing Newcastle in the POs.

2-1 down in the first leg away from home, got them back at Ashton Gate and pushed for a goal in the second half. Conceded in the 68th minute, 3-1 down on aggregate so thought it was all over. Chucked on a couple of strikers and went route one, and some of the greatest scenes to ever occur on FM happened. 82nd minute, Engvall and Rodriguez (two of my subs) combine for a decent goal, a lifeline? Yes, and in the 92nd minute the same combination combine for a last gasp equaliser, limbs all over the shop, to extra time we go. Went back to my original approach as was more than happy with penalties, but Engvall scores a magnificent individual goal in the 110th minute and we're through to Wembley.

Unfortunately, the final was less eventful, I beat Blackburn 2-1 and they scored with their only shot on target in the 90th minute. Three promotions in three seasons, wahey. Here's my summer business, just started the 19/20 season and beat Derby in my first PL game.

 

[JaseTheVillain]

Wayne Rooney at Bristol City...

 

[JJH]

Wayne Rooney at Bristol City...

He's shite and all. Doesn't even make the 18 in a league game. Viva Lee Tomlin.

 

[JaseTheVillain]

Bet you're paying him a fortune too?

 

[JJH]

Bet you're paying him a fortune too?

I am unfortunately, thankfully he's only on a one year deal. Extension if he plays 15 games which I assure you he will not be doing!

 

[HarvSFC]

Dwight Gayle has signed!

 

[JJH]

Dwight Gayle has signed!

 

[G.B]

Playing as Gateshead at the moment, and just got promoted to the PL after 4 promotions in 6 years, finishing 2nd to Burnley in the Championship. Pretty pleased with that considering I've had next to no transfer budget and by far the lowest wage budget in the division with the likes of Watford having more than 10 times my wage budget. I won the Vanarama National and the FA Trophy first season, got promoted from L2 automatically in 3rd place 3rd season, and won the L1 playoffs 4th season. Only spent £2mil on players so far and have brought in about £4mil in sales. Made it this far mainly on free transfers and loans.

The owner has celebrated promotion to the big leagues by selling our 11.8k capacity stadium for a measly £1.1mil in order to meet league regulations. The club needs another 700 seats and under soil heating to meet PL regulations, so rather than spending 23 quid expanding the ground and adding under soil heating to the stadium, which we bought outright exactly 364 days ago btw, we're building a new 12.5k capacity stadium which will cost £14.25mil, take 2 years to complete (by which time it'll probably be too small) and will be named after a mediocre former player rather than the genius who transformed the clubs fortunes, and changed the owners bum life, while rejecting the advances of about 50 bigger clubs.

In the mean time the team will go back to paying stadium rent so we can temporarily relocate to Burnley's Turf Moor, which is roughly 110 fucking miles away.

This game is weird at times.

 

[Luke Imp]

I decided to cap myself on wages on my Lincoln save with £1k/week maximum in the Conference, £1.5k L2 and £2.5k L1. Not capped myself in the Championship, although my highest earner is only £3.5k. Mid-table in the January transfer window.

If I were to start the game I'd not bother causing myself too many issues! On the plus side, I found a few good freebies I've sold on and managed to pretty much overhaul my youth and training facilities and around £5m in the bank.

Trouble brewing this season though because my 4 best players are out of contract and won't sign new deals, so I might have to flog them all in January but no-one wants to join me and I can't loan any better players. Already rejected bids totalling £10m for them (my outlay on them was £26.5k and that was only one player! )

Tbh, this save has been a bit of a waste of time really because it took me ages to build a decent squad in each division. Only 3 promotions in 10 or so years, although I did have 3 or 4 where I ended up outside the PO's by a point or two.

Still don't feel as though I've found a tactic that I'm happy with. I started with my 4-1-3-2 and that was average. Couldn't score many, so I changed to 4-1-2-3 and kept conceding. Then I settled on 4-4-2 narrow diamond and that's done ok, but not as good as tactics on FM15 and earlier.

Not sure whether it needs tonnes more attention than previous years. What's everyone else gone for?

 

[JaseTheVillain]

I alternate between 4-2-3-1, 4-3-2-1 and 5-3-2, works for me. Just crowd the midfield, it's done wonders for me on the game.

 

[G.B]

17 is a lot more focused on a balanced working formation than individual talent I reckon. Narrow formations work best in this years version cos of the match engine. If you play with wingers, watch the games and you'll notice when you don't have the ball they'll just mark the opponents full backs rather than help out defensively, leaving you with your central players always staying central, and outnumbered, and your wide players having no impact defensively. I think you could possibly remedy that by playing narrow with defensive wide players (haven't tested that though) but that sort of defeats the object of the 4-4-2 imo.

I started out with a 4-3-3 with wingers in the conference and just played direct to the front 3 as much as possible cos I'd signed a good striker called Eliot Richards who got me 32 goals, and Zavon Hines and Lee Cook for the wings who are great at that level and my midfield was shit, so it was pointless trying to play through them. Plus conference defenders make loads of mistakes so I wanted to get the ball forward as much as possible. I reckon it's easy enough to get out of that league with pretty much any system if you make some decent signings so it's difficult to judge how effective your tactics are imo.

Changed to a 4-4-2 in L2 which was rage inducingly inconsistent, then I noticed the problem with wide players, and couldn't fix it, so I sold them all and went 4-3-3 with 3 strikers, played direct to them and kept pretty much everyone else back which got me out of the division just on the amount of chances we created by booting it at John Stead to play the other 2 strikers in. Again, my midfield was crap so I just bypassed them. Changed it up a bit following promotion and the signing of some decent midfielders and have been using this system since L1, dominating possession and crowding the midfield when we don't have the ball, like Jase said.

I was using 2 defensive forwards til my most recent season, one on support to hassle the back 4 and one on defend to hassle their midfield, because pretty much everyone had a better team than me. It was surprisingly effective and resulted in a lot of mistakes from opponents under pressure. The only goals I seem to concede now come from low crosses when we are caught on the break and one of my CB's has to come out wide to help a wingback.

Also think you should load as many leagues as your computer can handle if you start off in a lower division. There's some excellent players to be had on free transfers from the likes of Austria, Croatia, Denmark, Norway, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary etc. Like this chap who scored enough to get me out of L2...

I've got all the highest divisons in Europe loaded up atm, and a few South American leagues. Having the smaller European leagues loaded also helps a lot when you get a bit of money as they sell good players for next to nothing. Another tip for anyone willing to spend ages looking for players is to create a separate shortlist and set a note for the 29th of every month to check youth intake. On the 29th press control + w, click the "all transfers tab" and change it to youth intake. Now you can shift click up to 500 regens at a time, right click to add them to the new shortlist and/or scout them all at once (or just do it with the players from reputable clubs).

tldr; play narrow and sign good players from moneyless leagues

 

[JaseTheVillain]

Forgot, 4-3-2-1 was FM15. The 4-3-3 (2 wide players and a DM) has replaced it on this game.

 

[G.B]

Forgot, 4-3-2-1 was FM15. The 4-4-3 (2 wide players and a DM) has replaced it on this game.

I'd definitely give the 4-4-3 a go if I could find it

 

[JaseTheVillain]

I'd definitely give the 4-4-3 a go if I could find it

I think we all would... Edited.

 

[Luke Imp]

Thanks for the replies.

I also play a direct style for the reasons mentioned above. I'm going to see this season out (at the end of Feb and should have enough to fall over the line) then have a tweak. I'm on 'Flexible' as well but changed to 'Structured' and that seemed to work for a couple of games.

Don't think I'm a million miles off. I'm not completely horrendous at the back or going forward, just pretty average at both, which means I'm inconsistent.

Usually, I'd think the players aren't good enough, which they weren't at times, but then in my promotion season from L1, the squad I put together was very good and should have done better, which made me think it was more the tactic than players. If I had got the tactic right with the L1 squad I'd have pissed the league.

 

[JaseTheVillain]

Hmm, I go flexible, control, short passing. But that's the philosophy I bring into it. Worked for me so far. With the midfield packed, even if your team isn't the most technical, it still works out. But then, when I'm playing Dicko up top on his own, I can't be lumping balls up. Although, it didn't work when I had Vellios up top either.

 

[Luke Imp]

Yeah, I might have to tweak that side of it as well. Always favoured a more direct style because I have my two (or three) strikers as Advanced Forwards.

I'm 5 points ahead of 22nd with 2 to play, so I'm fine this season. The squad's actually worse than the L1 promotion one because, like the last FM, it seems really difficult to attract players that are either average at the level you've been promoted to or top end of the one you've been promoted from.

 

[Look Out There Are Llamas]

I've evolved from a 4-4-2 (first two seasons with Dundela) to a 4-4-1-1 (Glentoran and Dagenham) to a 4-2-3-1 (Cork and Hannover), bringing back the 4-4-1-1 for away games (Hannover) or all European games with Cork. 4-2-3-1 is short passing from the back and ball retention, 4-4-1-1 is balanced between short passing and twatting it up there with more of a counter focus than possession domination.