Football Manager - Your Career

[Techno Natch]

It took me over a year to get another job but for the 19/20 season I will be in charge of Whitehawk.

I had to completely revamp the team during pre season and I ended up bringing in 11 players. I am keeping it totally simple with a direct 4-4-2.

A mixed start to the season has seen me P: 6 W:3 L:3.

I am currently sat in 9th place, we have had a couple of shockers 4-1 and 3-0 defeats to Wealdstone and Dartford standing out. Hard to say where we will finish but the aim is for mid table to consolidate the club and my own reputation after my relegation last season.

My striker Ian Greaves has scored 7 goals in 6 games but my defence has been poor so far. No goals yet for 32 year old Rene Howe but he has provided good fodder for Greaves.

 

[smat]

Sounds like the players don't respect you, Smat.!

I think you're right. In which case I need new players... if I survive the season. My plan is to get Bolton promoted and then go abroad for a few seasons (somewhere dumb like Hungary).

The ringleader of the rebels is centre-forward Simon Steel, who is coincidentally my top scorer and best player, and is out of contract in the summer. Bye bye transfer fee :'(

 

[Techno Natch]

My main problem at the moment seems to be holding on to a lead. I burst into a 2-3 goal lead and then end up letting the other team back in. Very annoying.

 

[smat]

Do you make any changes when they start to come back into it? I struggle with this too and can't really figure out one sure-fire way of stopping it from happening. Trying to hit them on the counter sometimes works, but not always.

 

[Paddy]

My main problem at the moment seems to be holding on to a lead. I burst into a 2-3 goal lead and then end up letting the other team back in. Very annoying.

The 2nd half of my promotion season with Dover was exactly the same... completely cost me the title & had to go up via play offs.

Found the problem was I left 'heavy fitness training' on all season & all my players were knackered!

 

[Luke Imp]

Not sure what's happening here but I've conceded 1 in my last 9 in L2 with Portsmouth.

 

[Madejski]

If you're winning by a couple and it's getting later in the game, I normally lower the tempo right down. Get the game playing at a slower pace and hopefully less drama before the final whistle.

Also if you're seeing the game out perfectly fine on say Control, don't bother going Counter unless something changes. Read into the possession stats and shots taken even outside of highlights to see if the opposition is actually gaining any momentum. This is so that you can be reactive to their changes, but not reacting when it's too late (after they have scored). If the opposition aren't doing much, don't change anything (if it ain't broke don't fix it).

Certainly not fool-proof, but works most of the time for me. I would consider myself a 1-0 master on FM... seems to be a very common score in my games.

 

[Techno Natch]

Smat and Paddy - I've tried a couple of methods such as dropping a modfielder back, changing tempo etc or even doing nothing but by then they seem well on top and it is hard to stop the drive from then. I think once I'm two in front I might just try my ultra defensive 5-4-1 which is normally saved for the last ten minutes.

My fitness training is non existent so that probably doesn't help.

Good advice Madejski, I will keep that in mind.

 

[Paddy]

​

It's no longer going so well.

 

[Paddy]

​

like, seriously not so well...

 

[Techno Natch]

Ouch sacked in September!

 

[Paddy]

Yeah. That wasn't great... they say bad things come in three, so, after I got sacked Aldershot Town (top of the Conference South, weirdly sacked their manager) offered me an interview without me even applying for it... I thought they seemed pretty keen & were in a decent place so I went for the interview. After being the yes man, saying I could get promotion & was happier to work with less then the £14K budget on offer (which was more then I had at Dover!) they decided to chose Richard Wilkins over me. I now hate this guy. Well anyway, on to the third & final piece of FM buggery... I'm now back in the Conference South with a 16th placed broke-ass Welling United on a £4K per week wage budget that they were heavily exceeding when I joined. The board want play offs & I want to slit my wrists.

A little bit of further salt in to the wound would just be sadistic of FM but oh there it is in the form of the ironically named £300 a week (100% of his wages) Mr Champion. A defensive midfielder currently at Welling on loan from my former employers Dover for the season, because he was shite & I wanted him off the wage bill. Well sir, you've fucked me again because I can not cancel your waste of a season loan & I'm stuck with paying you an extortionate £300 per week for the services I neither need nor want.

 

[smat]

Anyone get any use out of the pitch-side teamtalks? I use them occasionally but am not sure if they really make a difference.

 

[yellow]

Smat and Paddy - I've tried a couple of methods such as dropping a modfielder back, changing tempo etc or even doing nothing but by then they seem well on top and it is hard to stop the drive from then. I think once I'm two in front I might just try my ultra defensive 5-4-1 which is normally saved for the last ten minutes.

My fitness training is non existent so that probably doesn't help.

Good advice Madejski, I will keep that in mind.

Now I'm not very good at holding on to winning positions, so you might probably want to ignore this BUT I wouldn't go into the 5-4-1 unless you're getting really battered, as it will just invite so much pressure on yourself, and if you're in a crap league (Vanarama leagues I believe?) your players are so shite they will probably make mistakes. Try lowering tempo, retain possession, be more disciplined etc.

Smat, why do you plan on leaving England? Boooo. & re. pitch side team talks, it's quite difficult to tell if they have an effect or not.. I use them a bit so I like to think they do

 

[smat]

How do you use them?

The main reason I want to leave England is so that I can sign players from further afield and play in European competition, which is a bit more exciting and satisfying IMHO, and I'm miles off that with Bolton. I really enjoyed my career with Zlin in the Czech Republic where I signed loads of players for next to nought from Sub-Saharan Africa, sold them for big profits and built the club up (before idiotically moving to Banik Ostrava, who had a billionaire Japanese owner).

I'll come back to England eventually. Plan is to do well enough in Hungary (or wherever) to earn a move to a Premier League club. Is that realistic in a 4-5 year time frame...?

I only just noticed that Bolton have the second lowest wage bill in the division. I'm performing miracles keeping them in mid-table here, and getting no recognition!

 

[yellow]

WHenever I take the lead I usually say either 'concentrate' or 'tighten up' so I don't lose the lead straight away. When I've conceded, I tend to demand more, or push higher up/get forward (whatever it is) if it's quite late on.

If the other team are pressing a lot with lots of set pieces I try and get a concentrate in there aswell. I haven't really delved into the world of individual pitch side team talks - only if a player misses a penno, is having a stinker or something I demand more from them. Like I say, not entirely sure if they actually do anything but I think it may have an impact.

And fair enough - I was quite tempted to go abroad at some point but I only like going to top division clubs…

 

[smat]

WHenever I take the lead I usually say either 'concentrate' or 'tighten up' so I don't lose the lead straight away. When I've conceded, I tend to demand more, or push higher up/get forward (whatever it is) if it's quite late on.

If the other team are pressing a lot with lots of set pieces I try and get a concentrate in there aswell. I haven't really delved into the world of individual pitch side team talks - only if a player misses a penno, is having a stinker or something I demand more from them. Like I say, not entirely sure if they actually do anything but I think it may have an impact.

And fair enough - I was quite tempted to go abroad at some point but I only like going to top division clubs…

All sounds quite sensible. Hadn't thought of doing individual ones when someone's playing crap (usually just wait until after the game to bollock them) but I'll give it a go.

Top division clubs... well yeah, surely I'll get a job in the top division of a quite crap Eastern European league? Won't I?! I would only want to join a fairly big club (in a small league) - someone like Ferencvaros. I don't want to do another build-from-nothing job like Brackley...

Guess it depends on reputation... if I can get Bolton to the Championship (which now seems harder than I expected) then I should get a nice little boost.

 

[smat]

Oh PS Brackley look like they're going down from the Conference. They couldn't deal with losing me.

 

[yellow]

Yeh, I don't know if my current history is enough to get me a job somewhere. I mean, I could probably go to TNS or something but I did that for a few seasons last year and it was a bit… boring. I think I had 84% win rate or something daft.

I might add some unique leagues in and see what happens.

 

[Luke Imp]

I've never even used the in-match team talk things.

Started with Portsmouth as my career game. 2nd in L2 in mid-January with the highest wage budget in the league at just over £2m, although I've got about 12 players on silly money in my U21's that I can't shift so that's not a true reflection of my actual squad. Luckily, most are out of contract at the end of the season.

Just signed Dagnell and Milsom (both £20k) from Orient and Rotherham to bolster their respective positions. Managed to blag the first half of the season with only having 5 midfielders (formation needs four).

 

[Madejski]

Always love going abroad, though after years of playing games in England at pretty much every level it does get very samey.

Did a journeyman save on FM14, starting at Luton, got promoted to the Championship, left just before the first Championship season started and then got a job at Genclerbirligi. Finished 7th and 6th in my two seasons there, and was heading for 4th before I finished with FM14. Great fun. Different rules, different competitions, different challenges, and I was able to jump from a club who were likely to get relegated to league 1 straight to a club on the edge of the Europa League.

 

[smat]

*sees Madejski's post about finishing 7th and 6th with Genclerbirligi and starts to type "that sounds like great fun"*

FML

 

[mente captus]

Always love going abroad, though after years of playing games in England at pretty much every level it does get very samey.

Did a journeyman save on FM14, starting at Luton, got promoted to the Championship, left just before the first Championship season started and then got a job at Genclerbirligi. Finished 7th and 6th in my two seasons there, and was heading for 4th before I finished with FM14. Great fun. Different rules, different competitions, different challenges, and I was able to jump from a club who were likely to get relegated to league 1 straight to a club on the edge of the Europa League.

i am in Nigeria at the moment ( Kano Pillars) its easy and hard at the same time. easy to become one of the bigger teams there, hard to win anything. i finished 2nd all three seasons i am there. last season with 94 points from 38 games (Eniyma or something won 103 points) and i will lose my best players at the end of the season for free as they dont want to sign contract extensions, but i wont give up and will stay until we are the number one in Nigeria.

anyway: i have won the african federation cup ( african Europa League) and reached the CAF Champions league final once ( 1:1, 0:3 vs Wydad Casablanca) so some success is already given

 

[smat]

Is Nigeria one of the leagues available by default, or do you have to do something fancy to get it?

 

[Paddy]

Think its a data edit

 

[smat]

Ah okay.

Is South Africa the only playable African league?

 

[yellow]

Not sure

 

[mente captus]

Ah okay.

Is South Africa the only playable African league?

yes.

its pretty easy to edit tbh with some help of wikipedia. i made playable below nations with all original clubs, grounds, cups and a lot of badges

Africa:

Algeria
Angola
Cameroon
Cap Verde
Congo
DR Congo
Egypt
Eq. Guinea
Ethopia
Ghana
Guinea
Guinea-Bissau
Ivory Coast
Kenya
Mali
Morocco
Mozambique
Namibia
Niger
Nigeria
Senegal
Somalia
Swaziland
Tanzania
Togo
Tunisia
Uganda
Zimbawe

Asia:

Japan
Kyrgyztan
Mongolia
North Korea
Saudi Arabia
Vietnam

Europe:

Estonia
latvia
Lithuania

North America:

British Virgin Islands
Costa Rica
Cuba
El Salvador
Guadaloupe
Guatemala
Haiti
Honduras
Jamaica
Nicaragua
Panama
Trinidad and Tobago

Oceania
New Zealand

also all nations in south america are playable but dont know which i had to edit

my file looks like below (still on FM 2012 as it is hard to get the new versions of FM in Germany and i am not interested in hard work)

 

[Paddy]

Think its a data edit

^ what an underwhelming 100th post. To be fair, the 101st isn't much better.

 

[Luke Imp]

Neither were 1-99...