Football Manager 2023

[The Lusophone]

On 02/01/2023 at 08:03, 9 to 5 said:

Really struggling for a team to play as that would be interesting to me. 

Old post but trying a game where you start using the Brazil december start date but have like the usual European/British leagues loaded, and look at what might be interesting?

[FLiam]

Finished first season of an Arsenal save. 

Managed to grab 4th on the final day of the season, finishing two points ahead of Chelsea in the end. 

Got to the final of the league cup, lost to Norwich 4-2 (they’ve bagged themselves a season in the Europa Conference League despite being in the Championship). Got to the final of the FA Cup, lost 2-1 to Manchester United and got to the final of the Europa League and lost 2-0 to AC Milan after extra-time. 

Got our summer business underway, flogged all the deadweight, notable departures were Maitland-Niles and Holding to Southampton for £20m combined and Pepe joined Barcelona for £30m. 

In terms of incomings, I brought in Albon Lafont as a replacement for Matt Turner as a backup for Ramsdale. Danilo was signed for £16m to push Thomas Partey for a starting place. Manu Koné joined for £36m from Monchengladbach with a view to taking over from Granit Xhaka in midfield. Evan N’Dicka joined for £18m to replace Rob Holding in defence whilst Mykhalo Mudryk joined for about £65m.

I feel like I’ve built a solid squad for a push at the league next season.

GK: Ramsdale, Lafont, Okwonkwo

DR: White, Tomiyasu, Norton-Cuffy

DL: Zinchenko, Tierney

DC: Saliba, Gabriel, N’Dicka, Awe

DM: Partey, Elneny, Danilo

MC: Odegaard, Xhaka, Koné, Smith Rowe, Patino

AMR: Saka, Vieira

AML: Martinelli, Mudryk

FC: Jesus, Nketiah, Balogun

[Twist]

On 02/01/2023 at 08:08, Twist said:

Made my 4th Carabao Cup final in 6 years with Middlesbrough (and 3rd in a row). Against Liverpool this time (all the previous 3 coming against Man Utd). Won on penalties to add to my two losses and lone win in previous finals.

Still in the FA Cup and Europa League, which remains my only hope of the Champion’s League. I’ve been in the CL once (on a 5th placed finish after we got a bonus spot in the new format) but managed to make the semi finals before Chelsea put us out.

The league has been a shit show this year but I’ve gradually scraped my way back into the top 10 but far enough of the top 6 that what European competition I’m in next year fully depends on whether I can upgrade on the Conference League by winning the other cup competitions.

Ended up in the Conference League, which we won! But then missed out on the Champion’s League (via 5th) after Man City scored an equaliser against us on the last day in added time.

Four trophies (five with the Championship), and a further two unsuccessful finals, in seven years feels like a good return over 7 seasons for Boro though.

Sold Endrick for £200m and a regen for £130m, both to City.

[Szumi]

On 07/01/2023 at 14:34, Meacon Keaton said:

When you all take over a squad half-way through a season, what do you do in regard to staff? I usually come in and keep the staff together until the end of that season and then start making changes, but I'm wondering if I'm losing out on better development or cohesiveness by not bringing in my own crew immediately.

I just took the Hull City job in mid-February and I hired a new coach to assist with trainings, but was going to let the rest of the staff stick it out for now. 

I gut right away. If I'm managing in the Premier League, I try to get all my coaches to have at least a 12 for all the mental ratings (discipline, determination, motivation) and a 15+ for the specific attribute I'm hiring them for. It's definitely always been helpful I've found, just immediately going through the process of searching out for my own crew.

[JasonM]

Also on the topic of hiring staff. I am probably an absolute dingus for not realizing it sooner, but I found out late in FM22's cycle that Fitness and Goalkeeping coaches work for all squads when they're signed on a first team deal. So having a few really great Fit/GK coaches can lift up the entire club whilst still allowing you to fill out the U23/U18 with top notch youth-focused coaches (or in my case, using the U23 to build up talented coaches to a Seniors/U18 level.

[Meacon Keaton]

Was there a patch recently? There are multiple matches each week in the Prem League that are 6-4 or 5-4 now. Maybe I wasn't paying before. But the scoring seems to be ice hockey levels all of a sudden.

[FLiam]

3 hours ago, Meacon Keaton said:

Was there a patch recently? There are multiple matches each week in the Prem League that are 6-4 or 5-4 now. Maybe I wasn't paying before. But the scoring seems to be ice hockey levels all of a sudden.

Last patch was beginning of December if I recall.

[Twist]

I’m ten seasons in. Left Boro midway through the 8th as just wasn’t getting anywhere, just stalling out. They went on to win the Europa League under an interim manager before ten Hag joined from Man United in the summer (and was subsequently sacked before Christmas).

I waited until the summer to take a job, joined a relegated Villa. Won the Championship AND the FA Cup. Finished 5th first season back in the Premier League (and got the extra CL spot available at this point in the game). Made the semi finals of the Europa before losing on penalties to Monaco. My fixtures for the CL are decent so hoping I can make a decent run (only other CL run in this game I took Boro to the semi finals in season 4).

Two interesting points. 10 seasons and only TWO English teams have made the CL final, both losing. Given how dominant they normally are in CL on FM this surprised me.

Also Eastleigh have gone from the conference to the championship in 7 seasons without ever spending more than £100k in a season.

[Hobo]

I had my first ever testimonal game in FM with this save. Josef Martinez, who was one of my first signings at the start of the game, reached 10 years with the club. I didn't even know you'd get old players back for the game so it was fun to see that James Tarkowski, Daryl Horgan, Ethan Ebanks-Landell and Brian Lenihan all decided to come back and mostly play kinda badly tbh. Well, except Ebanks-Landell, he was actually kinda good.

There have been repeated wacky oppostion goalkeeper errors in a couple of games so far this season. The Bohemians goalie pretty much threw the ball against his center back resulting in an own goal. There was another game where the keeper and CB just made a mess of something and gave the ball to one of my players.

We played Schalke in the Champions League knock outs and not only was there another CB own goal but Leon Goretzka was sent off in the 95th minute for protesting that our 94th minute goal was offside. It was so bewildering because Jamie Watters scored the goal and was off celebrating and then I saw someone was sent off. I could not figure out at all what happened until I read the match report afterwards. I don't think I have ever seen that before either.

[Lineker]

 

[JasonM]

Tried to get into a save with Wrexham (partly through the encouragement of a close friend who lives in Wrexham), but despite not getting fired I still decided to stop that save because it was more frustration than I wanted. A combination of the players not doing what I wanted and a pressure to play in a certain way kind of put me off massively.

Now decided to give Create-A-Club a try. Haven't ever used it, closest I got was in FM20(?) where I used the pre-game editor to create a Scottish Club starting in the Vana North. Decided I wanted to do a save in Spain because it's probably my least played of the Big Four in recent years.

Created "Sporting A Coruña", a 'friendly' breakaway club looking to put the city back on the map with Deportivo continuing to toil in the third tier in recent years. Replaced the worst team in the Fourth Division Group I (3rd and lower tier in Spain is kinda like the English 6th tier in that it's all regional blocks onwards).

First challenge of course is the fact that there's squad registration windows, with a maximum of 23 players being able to be registered, not counting any U19. But of course, I have no youth or B squads to begin with. Picked up a few old hands to find out about the next rule, that I can have a maximum of 16 O23 registered, which creates a tricky balance where I can't just stock up on experienced lads to carry me up.

Went with a flat 4-1-4-1, Kinda like the classic late 00s Spanish style. Sit behind the ball, and avoid putting myself at risks. Had a very shaky 2-3-1 record in the friendlies, but have started the season with 0-1 and 3-0 wins against better competition to help my mood and hopes that I might be able to use this strategy going forward.

Already I feel a lot more interested in this save than I was the last one, so hopefully I can make this my main going forward. Bring some glory back to Galicia, and see how far I can carry a new club.

[JasonM]

Update: Survived the first year. Second year we're on the cusp of playoff spots at the halfway mark of the season.

Mostly just wondering how on earth anybody is able to run a profit at the fourth tier, because I have the lowest wage budget of all professional clubs (there's 4 semi-pro's who can run lower), I have the 5th highest attendance in the league, yet we're bleeding money like a sieve.

I get that part of it is selling players, but it's not like I can put together a squad long enough to get to a point where i'd be able to sell them on. Also I look at other teams that are spending more yet draw smaller gates which are somehow making more. Weird stuff.

But still enjoying myself, had a near total overhaul of the playing squad between seasons (due to most players demanding higher wages, and I can literally only give them 300-500/w max to stay within budget.), but a striker and winger combo are carrying us on top of an inordinate amount of players on loan to fill holes cheaply.

Hope I can sneak back into the playoffs before the end of the season, but there's like 5 U21 sides in the league, which makes it tricky because Celta/Sporting/Deportivo/Valladolid B have deeper squads than any of us.

EDIT: Pain

[The Lusophone]

Should be banned for life for this tackle.

 

[Hobo]

Ive decided to resign as Parkvilla manager after 11 years. Won almost every trophy we could in the 2026 season finishing with retaining the World Club Championship beating River Plate 5-0.

I'm going to holiday for a year and see what happens to the club.

Apparently Unai Emery is favourite to replace me.

[Hobo]

On 14/02/2023 at 18:36, Hobo said:

Ive decided to resign as Parkvilla manager after 11 years. Won almost every trophy we could in the 2026 season finishing with retaining the World Club Championship beating River Plate 5-0.

I'm going to holiday for a year and see what happens to the club.

Apparently Unai Emery is favourite to replace me.

Update: ive simmed most of the season.

Unai Emery did get the job.

Little change so far. Although they were 2nd for a while in the league they pulled back.

He won all the domestic cups and Parkvilla retained the champions league again.  Beating Stoke, Real Madrid and Chelsea on the way to beating Schalke in the final. They've now won it 3 times in a row.

Lost the Super Cup to Monaco though cause he played a 2nd string team.

Interestingly, towards the end of my run i let the director of football (Damien Comolli)sign a few players.

Emery has sold one after 6 months. Another has been dropped to the reserves and a third has barely featured (although that might have been injury related).

 

Edit: after a year of unemployment i took a job as manager of Dundalk.

Only then did I realize they'd just been relegated to the First Division.

So 13 years into the game I am back in the first division trying to win promotion.

Because the scenario ive built has most league of Ireland teams having rich owners ive got a 30million euro budget to spend and have been able to bring in ex Parkvilla coaches. As well as a couple of ex players.

[Pogue Mahone]

Anybody else get the November slump where you cant win/score goals? Seems to happen to me on every years FM to the point morales shot and I cant recover/get sacked.

Not sure how to fix it. Tried changing tactics and training.

[Twist]

I always suffer the last 1/2 months. I’ve thrown away leads in the league twice now. First with Middlesbrough, then with Villa. With Villa I was top with 8 games to go and didn’t win a single game in the last 8, finished 6th.

[Pogue Mahone]

Heartbreaking isn’t it. I wasn’t sure if the November slump was something to do with the weather? Because it’s raining I can’t play the same style?

[Twist]

So after I had that title race fuck up with Villa the Boro job came back up and I made my triumphant return. And fuck me, was it triumphant.

Finally won the Premier League (with four games to go). Liverpool were second and we faced them. Win and it was ours. Convinced (based on above experience) that we’d lose and lose all subsequent games. We won 8-1. And we also won the Carabao and FA Cup. Now a Legend at Boro which might be the first time I’ve actually managed that in game.

So that’s 4 Carabao, 2 FA Cups, the Championship twice, the UEFA Conference League, a community shield and finally the Premier League.

Boro also became the 7th unique PL winner in a row along with City, Arsenal, Liverpool, Newcastle, Man United and Chelsea. 
 

And English teams continue to suck in the Champion’s League, still only 2 finalists now in 13 years and no winners. However, they have won 12 of 13 Europa Leagues. Including this year where Brighton won and got relegated, so they will be playing in the Champion’s League as a Championship club.

Meanwhile, South Shields have made it to League One.

[Naitch]

The missus used to complain at me for spending too long playing FM. She's just turned the tables and spent near enough 6 hours playing as Ipswich on FM05 😂