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Football Manager 2021


FestiveJack

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Picked up where I left off with my Glory Hunter save after not touching it since September. Fifth season in, and my third with Bayern Munich - and finally managed to win the Bundesliga and put the team back on top (albeit in unspectacular fashion with six losses).

Got knocked out of the DFB-Pokal by Bayer Leverkusen in a sucker-punch of a match. Old side Manchester United then dumped me out of the Champions League. I still need to win those competitions but the Napoli and Lazio jobs have become available and I am tempted...

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I'm at the winter break in Season Two with Hertha Berlin and am currently in 2nd place and through to the Knockout Stages of Champions League. The Bundesliga has been wild and crazy again. After spending almost all of last year in the bottom 3 before finishing strong, Hoffenheim lead the table by 2 points (only 34 points on 17 matches though), we're on 32, Bayern and Frankfurt and Leverkusen on 31, Gladbach has 30 points, and Schalke and Leipzig have 29 to make a very even Top 8. Dortmund have already fired Allegri (after failing to advance in UCL) and are 12th on 18 points, only 2 points off the relegation playoff.

 

Champions League was wild. Dortmund finished 3rd because after drawing away to AZ on their final match while Celtic - thanks to Jesse fucking Lingard :rofl: - advanced ahead of them on head to head through away goals after beating PSG at home as well. Bayern Munich finished 3rd as well! They split their matches 1-1 with Bilbao, so the Basque side advanced with a better GD (thanks to Bayern losing 3-0 and then somehow 0-4 at home against City). Frankfurt finished last in their group, but they had Chelsea, Milan, and Lyon to contend with. 

 

We had a pretty alright draw, thanks of course to having the top seed via being Champions. We got Barca, Benfica, and PSV. Benfica always were going to be our biggest trouble, but after a draw in Holland, we got a huge upset by winning in Benfica with a laaaate Cordoba stunner in Match day 2. Think it was our only effort on target. After leading Barca at HT, they turned it on and won 3-1 in Germany, then stuffed us 3-0 at Camp Nou. Another late win, home to PSV, meant we just had to avoid defeat to Benfica in the final fixture. My undoubted POTY Piatek put me ahead less than 2 minutes in on our way to a 3-1 victory to give us 2nd place. And then somehow struck lucky with the draw. Monaco topped their group over Porto and Napoli, and we got them in the draw, giving us the best draw possible. Still not convinced we qualify for the QF, but still, huge chance.

 

I had a lot of activity in the transfer market, and not at all by choice. I sold off back up full backs Lukas Klunter and Max Mittelstadt (€10m each) to make room for Reggie Cannon (€2.7m) and Luca Netz (highly rated 18 year old HG). Selke made his loan to Bremen permanent for €12m and wantaway CB/CM Lowen for €7.5m. Forced winger Lukebakio out the door after a falling out, but could only get €9m from Burnley. However, Matheus Cunha did what I expected and handed in a transfer request and wanted a move to a bigger club. I wanted more than the €57 million I got, but that was the most anyone was coming up with, so my best player went to Man City :(.

 

I already had Demarai Gray and Nikola Maksimovic in on free transfers, and the amazing steal of landing Szoboszlai for only €11.25m. Having lost 2 loaned midfielders, signed Manuel Locatelli from relegated Sassulo for €22m, with Arne Maier back in on loan as well. Decided to take a punt on Mesut Ozil as well because well, free transfer and somehow only was asking for €28k p/w. However, a late injury blow (more on that later) forced me back into the transfer market. So €30m was splashed on former Spurs man Marcus Edwards after tearing it up in Portugal, and then another €26m on Sandro Tonali after he didn't make his move to Milan permanent.

 

Meant the squad looked kind of like this by the end of the transfer window:

 

GK: Schwolow, Korber

RB: Zeefuik, Cannon

CB: Stark, Torunarigha, Maksimovic, Boyata, Yanga-Mbiwa

LB: Plattenhardt, Netz

DM: Tousart, Ascacibar

CM: Tonali, Locatelli, Maier

10: Szoboszlai, Ozil

Wingers: Edwards, Dilrosun, Hulk, Gray

ST: Piatek, Cordoba

 

After his hip injury ruled him out for almost half of last season and never being in scintillating form to begin with (8 goals in 20 apps I guess is better than I remember), Piatek is back to his best. 16 goals in 17 league appearances, and another 2 goals in Europe. Been crucial too since Cordoba tore a calf muscle and has missed much of the season. 

 

Injuries have been a huge problem this season. Szoboszlai tore a cruciate in his 2nd league game, although I'll hopefully have him back for most of the 2nd half of the season. Ozil has been limited to only 6 starts with multiple niggles, Boyata has missed the whole campaign as after coming back from a broken leg suffered in March, he almost immediately had a long term hip injury. Marcus Edwards has missed some time as well, which didn't help his bedding in period either.

 

I can't say any of my transfers have been successful, worryingly. Szoboszlai obviously gets a pass. Edwards coming in late and picking up some injuries saw him be my lowest rated player after the first few months, he picked a great time to come good in November with a brace against Bayern as a second half sub to turn a 0-1 loss into a shock 2-1 win away. He's up to 3g and 3a in 14(6) now, with all of those tallies coming in the last month. Ozil has 1g 0a in 9(8) overall, Locatelli 1g 2a in 20(2) but is at least staying fit and durable, and Tonali is starting to come into form with 3g 3a in 15(4). Cannon has been the worst of the lot w/an average rating of 6.67 in all comps, although all new signings have an avg rating of 6.81 or lower. 

 

Second half of the season should be interesting. The Bundesliga is crazy and it's just as likely to finish Champions again versus finishing outside Top 4. However, Szoboszlai is going to play again and will hopefully be the talent I think he is, Cordoba is back to give Piatek some rest since he's played damn near every minute this season it feels like, and I brought in Jonathan Tah to bolster my backline since Stark and Torunarigha are both linked with moves away and he only had a €28m release clause. If Piatek stays in this rich form though, I'm thinking it's title time, again.

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1 hour ago, Dang117 said:

I ordered the game the other day not realising my laptop doesn't have a disc drive, I'm yet to open it but does anyone know if the disc versions also come with digital codes for steam?

The box will have to come with a Steam activation code to install the game, so you'll be fine. Some boxed PC games actually don't even come with a disc at all nowadays.

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10 hours ago, Bobfoc said:

The box will have to come with a Steam activation code to install the game, so you'll be fine. Some boxed PC games actually don't even come with a disc at all nowadays.

So it’s just a big plastic box that contains nothing but a Steam code? How strange 😕

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1 hour ago, metalman said:

So it’s just a big plastic box that contains nothing but a Steam code? How strange 😕

Some people still want a box to put on their shelf, even if it's a PC game. But I know nobody in my general vicinity that uses or even has an optical drive in their system.

Although it's super frustrating for people that don't have super high speed internet, and would have to wait over a day to download a game. They'd like an optical disc, but there's no way to get one for PC unless you go through... unofficial channels.

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After getting Stevenage to a mid-table finish in The Championship, I decided to leave at the end of my contract. I got the job at Everton, who were battling relegation, and we ended up ninth. I got into the Champions League for the next two seasons.

We've now been taken over by an American tycoon. Exciting. I hope it's still fun to play with lots of money.

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So my West Brom save didn't actually save to the cloud for some reason so I've lost it since I've got my new computer but I started a new save as Tottenham since in all my games so far they seem to really struggle despite having a decent squad. Into January and things are looking pretty good with only 2 losses in the league (to Arsenal and Man City), all 6 group matches in the Europa League won and got to the semi final of the Carabao Cup (knocked out by Man City).

It has taken some time to get Son and Kane firing well. Kane seemed to only turn up to Europa League games but seems to have come good now. Of course Real, Barca, Liverpool and Man City want half my squad so I've been proactively searching for replacements should that occur. Board hasn't given me any money for the January transfer window (started with the summer window off) so whole league will be with the original squad except I might be getting Mandzukic in to replace Carlos Vinicius (even though I can't cancel his loan so will probably just leave him unregistered) who is the drizzling shits.

Team is fucked when it comes to Europa League registration. Can barely get a squad together with 8 home grown players so I think I'll be looking at over paying for British players. Maybe bring Marcus Edwards back to the club.

Really enjoying the save so far. My midfield combo of Hojbjerg, Ndombele and Lo Celso are absolutely bossing it in every game they play and Bale has been great except he just got injured for up to 7 weeks which means I'm probably going to have to hold onto Lamela for backup instead of selling him.

Table and A/B team below.

c.png

A Team:

a.png

B Team:

b.png

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