Football Manager 2021

[Gazz]

On 16/03/2021 at 23:03, Charlie Tango said:

So far, my experience of Football Manager 2021 is that it is the easiest game I have ever played. Having started with a created club in Level 10

You will do in a step 10 mod, as all the players in it at worst would be step 6 players and a human player is always going to be better at squadbuilding than the AI.

[Charlie Tango]

Having started with the squad that was already there for the Level 10 side my created club replaced (Atherton LR), I've only ever signed players who either come up on the scouting report or we've played against. Never touched the player search screen. My top players are from L10 sides the Holker Old Boys and AFC Blackpool.

Unbeaten start to the Vanarama North season thus far.

[Hobo]

Still playing FM16, because I haven't bothered wanting to actually play FM properly in years, and continuing to tweak my "What if the League of Ireland, but everyone was wealthy?" data.

An entertaining subplot of this version has been Nikola Zigic's journeyman adventure in Ireland. 3 clubs in 3 years. Nobody wants to keep him. This happens a lot in these saves (I guess because LOI clubs tend to only offer short term contracts).

Also that I am leading an influx of Brazillians to Ireland. Including one guy who I signed just because his name was "Pitbull".

 

[JasonM]

10 hours ago, Charlie Tango said:

Having started with the squad that was already there for the Level 10 side my created club replaced (Atherton LR), I've only ever signed players who either come up on the scouting report or we've played against. Never touched the player search screen. My top players are from L10 sides the Holker Old Boys and AFC Blackpool.

Unbeaten start to the Vanarama North season thus far.

The issue really is that the game database or engine isn't balanced for anything beyond the Vana North/South. Apart from maybe a few naff leagues like Hong Kong, India, or Norn-Iron Division 3 that are included in the game, the 6th level of the English leagues.

Even on the Vana level, the quality is quite dire. And decent squadbuilding + aggressive football will get you dominance.

[distractedrantincoming]

When I did my Edinburgh Utd game in FM20 (Edin Utd into the Vana North), I found the National League to be the hardest challenge of all. And that was mostly because I couldn't sign players from England (They legit felt the travel to Edinburgh was too much).

Once I reached League 2, it went swimmingly again as Edinburgh suddenly became glamorous again.

The thing with the English leagues is that the North/South isn't hard, but the National League IS very hard due to there being only 2 promotions across 24 clubs. One spot from a playoff that is grueling after a 48 game season.

So the National League is VERY top heavy with good teams that are all fighting for only a pair of promotion spots.

Teams that get promoted to League Two often find themselves in the upper table from the get go because they spent so much time building a strong club for the National League and League Two is a tinpot league with many sub-par teams sticking around due to the small amount of relegations.

Honestly, League 1 and the Championship is where it becomes tricky again due to the increase in moneybag teams trying to vie for success.

But the 6-5-4 should be totally doable as long as you build a high quality attacking side where you simply look to outscore your opponent.

[Charlie Tango]

If I was doing it again, I would have created them in the Vanarama North at the very start and cut out anything previous. We do tend to score a bucket load of goals but also concede them, I think in one season I counted something like five clean sheets in the whole league season. Already in the new campaign we've had a 5 - 5 draw.

While I wouldn't say I've done a lot of squadbuilding as I've kept the majority of the players from the very beginning up to this past summer when we got promotion to VNN, I think staffbuilding (if that is a thing) has been massive. I gutted my entire staff before this season, hired people who answered the adverts, and easily have the best staff in the league and even then I didn't think they were that brilliant.

[Lineker]

If you can all drag yourselves away from metalman driving trucks across France for a little bit - the FM Streamer Showdown are drafting again tonight over on their Twitch channel.

[9 to 5]

When are you doing your FM stream @Lineker?

[Lineker]

Me invest in all that kit? Doesn't feel like a sound investment.

[Meacon Keaton]

2 hours ago, Lineker said:

If you can all drag yourselves away from metalman driving trucks across France for a little bit - the FM Streamer Showdown are drafting again tonight over on their Twitch channel.

Why would I watch a bunch of nobodies play video games when I can watch a metal man drive trucks?

[Gazz]

Started a new game unemployed, ended up in the Portuguese third division with Lusitano.

First game, 2-0 up in 79 seconds.

Finished 7-0

Football genius.

[Naitch]

Playing FM09 and just discovered that Jack Rodwell has dual English-Brazilian nationality despite that apparently not being the case IRL. Tempted to start up a new save as Brazil, try to cap him, and make him the new Dunga.

[METALMAN]

It's easy if you know the cheats.

[Hobo]

Hooray! We got into the group stages.

Oh no

[Gazz]

You'll be fine, Spurs will Spurs that group.

[Hobo]

Of course, Barca were our first match of the groups. We had them at 1-1 for 11 mins.

Notably:

Since moving into a new stadium only Wexford and Barcelona have actually beaten us in a home game. Technically IFK Gotenburg too but it was an away goals win for us, so doesn't count.
 

[Hobo]

On 28/03/2021 at 19:03, Gazz said:

You'll be fine, Spurs will Spurs that group.

[Lineker]

 

[Lineker]

Of a similar vein: 

 

[nickhastie2004]

5 hours ago, Lineker said:

Of a similar vein: 

 

I am/was part of the FM Retro Group for last years release. The amount of work and effort that was involved with creating a database was absolutely ridiculous - really opened my eyes how hard it is to put stuff like that out into the world in a full working state. If you have FM20 then the 99/00 database was released last year and is worth a look.

[Lineker]

Lol.