Football Manager 2020

[JasonM]

2 hours ago, Malenko said:

That's a bunch of 0-0s

My goalie was second in the league in clean sheets. Or since he's named Alex Crean, I call them Crean Sheets because i'm terrible...

10 0-0 draws
12 1-0/2-0 wins
22 clean sheets for Mr. Crean.

At least my goalie's the happiest lad in the world. Raking in the money on those clean sheet bonuses.

[Szumi]

League 2 was the easiest league I faced. Completely thrashed it, and won the league with 3 games to spare. I hit a patchy run of form in the Spring after the squad started to get fatigued from the great FA Cup run, but bringing in some loan players helped me, especially a Regen CDM from West Ham and Joseph Dadoo from Leicester. Grabbed Will Hughes on loan from Chelsea, but he was hurt most of the time.

Jamil Adam was my POTY with 23g & 15a in 44 appearances. The knee injury my young N. Irish striker I poached for £5K from Ballinamallard Utd finished with 24g & 7a in 33 apps. No one has bid for him yet in mid-July, so I'm hoping I can keep him this season because with him I'm confident I'll have no problems beating the drop. My winger Nathan Porritt won the POTY for League Two after ending up with 7g & 22a in 37 apps. Vast improvement from the 6&13 in 43 playing in the Conference. It's funny too, because after both the Conference and League Two season, my assistant said he's declined as a player.

We ended up making a profit of £520k for the season, which has meant the board has given me starting budgets of like £175k for transfers and 20k p/w for salaries, a huge boost from last season's 0 & 6k p/w. It's been needed too because I've badly needed to upgrade my staffing, and a lot of the players want more money to sign new contracts &/or bring new talent in.

Former Arsenal youth Chuks Aneke is back on a free, as is Utd youth product Sam Johnstone, in terms of people you might know. 

 

-----

Oh, and for anyone curious. Argentina just won the 2014 World Cup, beating Switzerland (!?) in the Finals 2-1. Messi was hurt in the SF so they won without him. He scored a ridiculous 11 goals in the World Cup. Roberto Mancini's England finished 2nd in their group to Bosnia and went out to Spain in the Second Round. Germany crashed out in the group stage to the Swiss and Chile, Wales qualified but lost at the group stages, and France didn't even qualify for the World Cup.

Man United won the Prem in 11-12, Chelsea won in 12-13 after City sold them Aguero in the January window and hired David Moyes as their manager in February '13 after Carlo decided to go to City, and Man City finally won the league in 13/14. 

Arsenal are managed by Rafa starting this summer, who took over for the retired Louis van Gaal, who took over in Summer 12 after Wenger took the Barca job vacated by Pep taking the Spain job. Chelsea are managed by Moyes, and Everton are now managed by Paul Lambert, taking over this summer. He's the 3rd manager in 15 months since Moyes left for Chelsea. Liverpool are still managed by King Kenny, and won the FA Cup and Europa League in 2013 and lost in the finals of UCL in 14 to Lyon(!). City are managed by Carlo, who took over Feb 13 when Mancini took the England job when Capello retired. Marcelo Biesla took Fergie's job in Summer 13 when Fergie retired. Spurs are managed by Chris Hughton, who took over Summer 13 when 'Arry retired.

Barca beat Real in 11/12 for the Champions League, Barca beat Valencia the next year in Arsene's final match before retiring, and then Lyon beat Liverpool in 13/14 2-1 in extra time off a 119th minute winner by Lisandro Lopez. 

Rubin beat Spurs in 11/12 Europa League on pens, Liverpool beat PSG next year, and PSG beat Benfica. PSG are yet to win Ligue 1 yet, but finished 2nd last year. Stuttgart and Leverkusen have each won a Bundesliga, while Klopp has been sacked by both Dortmund and PSV. Juve, Napoli, and now Inter have taken Serie A, while Barca have dominated La Liga, winning every season. Real are managed by Carlos Queiroz since Nov 13 after Jose got sacked (still unemployed). Queiroz left 17th placed Stoke to take the job 😂😂😂

Other fun things: Fulham were just relegated in 13/14, but have been in a free fall since a Fans Trust took over in January 13. They only have 17 players in their senior squad - one is Ale Bedoya who is about to be sold it looks like, another is 34 year old Robbie Keane - and I could easily see them doing a real life Sunderland. Reading were promoted in 12/13 and finished 9th last season, while Ipswich and Boro are newly promoted. Huddersfield are now in League 2, while Bournemouth are newly promoted to the Championship along with Swindon and Doncaster. Leeds are doing a second season in League 1 after losing in the Playoff Semis. It got Pardew sacked. It means his 3 seasons ended with getting Swansea relegated from the Prem and sacked, getting Leeds relegated from the Championship, and then finishing 3rd but immediately losing in the Playoffs.

[RazorsEdge]

14 hours ago, It's Pronounced Zoom-E said:

Oh, and for anyone curious. Argentina just won the 2014 World Cup, beating Switzerland (!?) in the Finals 2-1. Messi was hurt in the SF so they won without him. He scored a ridiculous 11 goals in the World Cup. Roberto Mancini's England finished 2nd in their group to Bosnia and went out to Spain in the Second Round. Germany crashed out in the group stage to the Swiss and Chile, Wales qualified but lost at the group stages, and France didn't even qualify for the World Cup.

I seem to remember in FM12/13 that teams like Switzerland and the Czech Republic would often make the World Cup Finals. I think the Czechs beat France in one of my old games.

[Kyle]

For those interested:

 

[Lineker]

I'll give it a go later in this night shift, probably.

[Naitch]

@It's Pronounced Zoom-E Fulham dropping like that is interesting. In my SAF challenge with Norwich they ended up becoming my main rivals (alongside Man City) for a few years, almost beating me to the league title a couple of times. I know they were managed by Mourinho for a bit and they were paying most of their players ridiculous wages for FM12, like £120-£160k for half their first XI.

[Arjen Robben]

[Arjen Robben]

So, in this online game I've been banging on about being in in here, I think (off the top of my head, might be forgetting someone) this is my current Spurs squad.

1. Ederson
2. Hugo Lloris
3. Milan Skriniar
4. Ruben Dias
5. Jonathan Tah
6. Merih Demiral
7. Nikola Milenkovic
8. Nelson Semedo
9. Alex Grimaldo
10. James Justin
11. Kyle Walker-Peters
12. Florentino Luis
13. Ruben Neves
14. Houssem Aouar
15. Tanguy Ndombele
16. James Maddison
17. Dele Alli
18. Eduardo Camavinga
19. Harry Winks
20. Oliver Skipp
21. Federico Bernardeschi
22. Federico Chiesa
23. Julian Brandt
24. Harry Kane
25. Erling Haaland
26. Troy Parrott

I have about £80m to spend having just sold Son, Dier and Sanchez. I feel like I have a strong squad, but after finishing 4th twice in a row, in losing in the Champions League final, I want to try and really push on this season, I just signed Julian Brandt this summer after trying for ages to sign another winger which found me getting frustrated as fuck dealing with Spanish clubs refusing to negotiate at all and immediately demanding players release fees even if they literally never play. So I tried for Pedri (they demanded the £71m release fee, haha no) I tried for Vinicius Junior (they demanded £145m release fee, no) I tried for Rodrygo who is in Madrid's B team (they demanded £132m release fee, no.) I mostly tried pretty hard to sign Thomas Lemar but Atletico were being absolute cunts about it and still rejecting fees of around £130m for him. I audaciously tried for Neymar, obviously was never going to happen. Then I tried for Diogo Jota from fucking WOLVES and they immediately demanded £245m for him? How about no, and fuck off? So in the end I went for Brandt, after trying earlier in the summer when he wasn't interested, but now he was, so wheeey. 

Problem is I still feel maybe I need another winger? If one thing fucked me over last season it's that I didn't have enough to rotate with, and I think I've solved that in central midfield bringing in Neves and Camavinga, but think maybe another right winger would help. I'm also pretty wary of my backup options at full-back which are almost entirely to fulfil homegrown quotas, there's no other reason I'd still have Walker-Peters and Skipp around. The only player I've really looked at signing next is Kingsley Coman who seems potentially available and is natural on both the left and the right which could be ideal.

Basically lads, ADVISE ME. 

Particularly since the lad playing as Liverpool has just fucking signed Kylian Mbappe.

[Jimmy]

3 hours ago, Arjen Robben said:

So, in this online game I've been banging on about being in in here, I think (off the top of my head, might be forgetting someone) this is my current Spurs squad.

1. Ederson
2. Hugo Lloris
3. Milan Skriniar
4. Ruben Dias
5. Jonathan Tah
6. Merih Demiral
7. Nikola Milenkovic
8. Nelson Semedo
9. Alex Grimaldo
10. James Justin
11. Kyle Walker-Peters
12. Florentino Luis
13. Ruben Neves
14. Houssem Aouar
15. Tanguy Ndombele
16. James Maddison
17. Dele Alli
18. Eduardo Camavinga
19. Harry Winks
20. Oliver Skipp
21. Federico Bernardeschi
22. Federico Chiesa
23. Julian Brandt
24. Harry Kane
25. Erling Haaland
26. Troy Parrott

I have about £80m to spend having just sold Son, Dier and Sanchez. I feel like I have a strong squad, but after finishing 4th twice in a row, in losing in the Champions League final, I want to try and really push on this season, I just signed Julian Brandt this summer after trying for ages to sign another winger which found me getting frustrated as fuck dealing with Spanish clubs refusing to negotiate at all and immediately demanding players release fees even if they literally never play. So I tried for Pedri (they demanded the £71m release fee, haha no) I tried for Vinicius Junior (they demanded £145m release fee, no) I tried for Rodrygo who is in Madrid's B team (they demanded £132m release fee, no.) I mostly tried pretty hard to sign Thomas Lemar but Atletico were being absolute cunts about it and still rejecting fees of around £130m for him. I audaciously tried for Neymar, obviously was never going to happen. Then I tried for Diogo Jota from fucking WOLVES and they immediately demanded £245m for him? How about no, and fuck off? So in the end I went for Brandt, after trying earlier in the summer when he wasn't interested, but now he was, so wheeey. 

Problem is I still feel maybe I need another winger? If one thing fucked me over last season it's that I didn't have enough to rotate with, and I think I've solved that in central midfield bringing in Neves and Camavinga, but think maybe another right winger would help. I'm also pretty wary of my backup options at full-back which are almost entirely to fulfil homegrown quotas, there's no other reason I'd still have Walker-Peters and Skipp around. The only player I've really looked at signing next is Kingsley Coman who seems potentially available and is natural on both the left and the right which could be ideal.

Basically lads, ADVISE ME. 

Particularly since the lad playing as Liverpool has just fucking signed Kylian Mbappe.

Re-sign Erik Lamela.

[Arjen Robben]

You are an agent of chaos.

[Szumi]

How hands are you guys with the training in 20? I'm thinking about downloading the demo and giving 20 another go, but man it all just seems so overwhelming compared to what 12 is like with training, tactics, shouts, and pretty much everything! 😂

[Gorka]

I don't think I have ever gone about training regimes and I've been playing since FM 2008.

Just like in FM 20, it's for my assistant to figure out.

[Gazz]

These fucking Champagne Charlie's, don't want to go and get their boots dirty on the training pitch, rather sit in their office watching Youtube highlight videos.

[METALMAN]

why not make the coaches responsible for training? That’s what they’re paid for 😕

[The Lusophone]

Only things I do is take control of individual training and whenever general training changes due to match rescheduling I make sure there's a recovery session after the match.

[Roster Depth Sicko No. 2]

On 16/04/2020 at 11:28, Jericode said:

Genuine limbs in my kitchen, I don't know what the fuck I just witnessed. I don't think I've ever seen two different players score 4 in a game on this before.

A Chelsea loanee giving me the added time win is just *chef's kiss*

Limbs Part 2

 

Thumping top of the table Arsenal 8-3 on the final game of the season whilst Chelsea bottle it against West Ham is just *double chef's kiss*

Love playing Arsenal.

[stokeriño]

Without exaggeration, the last half-hour of this tie might well be the greatest comeback I have ever personally experienced in FM.

[SquareRootOfSi]

what tactics are you lunatics using? I'm struggling to stop my mid season freefall that this damn Coventry team go on EVERY season regardless of what league i'm in.

[stokeriño]

3 minutes ago, SquareRootOfSi said:

what tactics are you lunatics using? I'm struggling to stop my mid season freefall that this damn Coventry team go on EVERY season regardless of what league i'm in.

Probably have to be a high-level team to have the necessary fitness to sustain this Gegenpress Blitzkrieg mode, mind.

[The Lusophone]

6 minutes ago, SquareRootOfSi said:

what tactics are you lunatics using? I'm struggling to stop my mid season freefall that this damn Coventry team go on EVERY season regardless of what league i'm in.

Morale, fitness and just accepting that at some point in the season you're going to play worse than at other points are more important than tactics for reversing/preventing freefalls, but tactics-wise I'm mostly stuck in the 4-2-3-1 paradigm I found myself in in FM19. CAMs are less effective this game but I'll happily take the 2 games good, 2 games bad dynamic I seem to get from my CAMs.