Football Manager 2023

[FLiam]

Haven’t played in a while, did a season with Arsenal and came third whilst winning the Europa League. 

Went fairly big in the transfer market, mainly signing players we’ve been linked with in real-life. Got rid of Xhaka, Tierney and Nketiah (the latter went to Liverpool for £64m!!). 

Brought in Ivan Fresneda, Declan Rice, Moises Caicedo, Marc Guehi and Ivan Toney. Squad is looking ridiculously good now. 

[DFF]

Decided to start a game where you take a bigger team that's fallen down the rankings a little and try and get them back where they belong.

First attempt was with 1860 Munich, who have fallen to Germany's 3rd tier. Just finished the first season, and won the league on goal difference. Drew my final game (which was the minimum needed) though we threw away a 2-0 lead AND they had a goal disallowed in the 95th minute for offside. Phew! 

What formations are folks using these days? Mine's a sort of 3-1-3-1-2:

---------AF - AF 

-----------SS

W-------------MCR----DW

-------DMCL

-----DC-----DC----DC

[Cymbols]

On 22/03/2023 at 01:07, Cymbols said:

Got promoted to the Premier League, but damn it was undeserved. Won one of my last seven games. Both of my starting CBs picked up three game bans in the 3rd and 4th last games, while my next two best CBs were injured. Assistant manager quit to take the Southampton job in the middle of this run as well.
 

Scraped 2nd place with 0-0 draws against Brentford and Hull, and got outrageously lucky as Cardiff threw away a 2-1 lead in the 88th minute against Blackburn to lose 3-2.

Got so much work to do to even have a chance of surviving in the division above. Gonna be tough I think.

Left Huddersfield after seven and a half seasons.

Got promoted, stayed up, and established them as a top half of the table side. Managed to win the Premier League once, the Europa once, along with two FA Cups and Carabao Cups. Finished 2nd in my final season, losing on final day when a win would’ve won us the title. 
 

Finally decided it was time for a new challenge so I replaced Hansi Flick as Manchester City manager, after they finished 6th. Nine years since their last league win, and still no success in Europe, so the aim is definitely a Champions League win.

Got rid of a load of old and expensive players - Ederson, Laporte, Bernardo Silva and Sterling, with Foden and Dias the only remaining originals. Spent a tonne of money refreshing the squad with younger players with potential and, while we’re going to piss the league at the first time of asking, I’m also probably getting a FFP penalty next season. I’d feel bad, but it feels like the Manchester City way really 👀

[Twist]

47 minutes ago, Cymbols said:

Left Huddersfield after seven and a half seasons.

Got promoted, stayed up, and established them as a top half of the table side. Managed to win the Premier League once, the Europa once, along with two FA Cups and Carabao Cups. Finished 2nd in my final season, losing on final day when a win would’ve won us the title. 
 

Finally decided it was time for a new challenge so I replaced Hansi Flick as Manchester City manager, after they finished 6th. Nine years since their last league win, and still no success in Europe, so the aim is definitely a Champions League win.

Got rid of a load of old and expensive players - Ederson, Laporte, Bernardo Silva and Sterling, with Foden and Dias the only remaining originals. Spent a tonne of money refreshing the squad with younger players with potential and, while we’re going to piss the league at the first time of asking, I’m also probably getting a FFP penalty next season. I’d feel bad, but it feels like the Manchester City way really 👀

With City you’ll avoid the FFP issue. You’ll get a random 1 year sponsorship that’ll get you back in the green. Not sarcasm.

[Cymbols]

On 05/06/2023 at 19:04, Twist said:

With City you’ll avoid the FFP issue. You’ll get a random 1 year sponsorship that’ll get you back in the green. Not sarcasm.

Yeah this is actually exactly what just happened. Wild. 

Proper shithousing this save now. Played my 3rd choice, dreadful goalkeeper on the last day of the season before his contract runs out. Shipped four against Norwich, which keeps them in the division at the expense of Burnley. Did that activate a relegation release clause in a talented Burnley player’s contract? Quite possibly…

[9 to 5]

1 hour ago, Cymbols said:

Yeah this is actually exactly what just happened. Wild. 

Proper shithousing this save now. Played my 3rd choice, dreadful goalkeeper on the last day of the season before his contract runs out. Shipped four against Norwich, which keeps them in the division at the expense of Burnley. Did that activate a relegation release clause in a talented Burnley player’s contract? Quite possibly…

You are doing God's work.

[Captain Kirk]

Has anyone played any of the retro databases? I played the 92/93 one for last years and was a ton of fun. Seemingly the 98/99 one for this seasons has the players coming through at their youth teams too.

[Lineker]

I was all set to give that one a go as Blackburn; got all excited before Niner reminded me that I didn't own FM23...

[9 to 5]

1 hour ago, Lineker said:

I was all set to give that one a go as Blackburn; got all excited before Niner reminded me that I didn't own FM23...

I told you that ages ago. Don't blame me!

[King Ellis]

I'm not sure I'd get on with those retro databases. I don't think I'd be able to switch off the min/max part of my brain that would want to spend every off season checking whose rookie year this was and mining through the youth intakes to find Messi, Ronaldo etc.

[METALMAN]

The one alternative database I’d like to see for FM is one that adjusted the ridiculous disparities in prize money and other positive feedback loops - perhaps even implementing some kind of salary cap or something - to restore some competitive balance. The trend towards clubs dominating the league for years is even worse than real life.

[Szumi]

I had the craziest Penalty Shootout yesterday. I couldn't believe what I was watching. 29-28 after 32 rounds!!!

10 straight rounds of goals, with their GK taking Villa's 10th. My keeper then had his penalty saved, but saved Tyrone Mings to keep sudden death going. Everyone scored again on their second kicks, until Round 18. My CB, Hayden, had his saved. My Keeper saved again to keep it alive. Round 21, my on loan CB is denied, but my keeper then makes a diving catch of the Villa's keeper penalty! He scores, we start the third cycle. Everyone scored again all the way to Round 32. My on loan CB scores this time, their GK skies his penalty. Thought the damn thing would never end!

 

[Lineker]

metalman and Niner's favourite...

 

[Lineker]

• New Graphics
• New Animations
• New UI
• Women's football finally introduced
• Save Backwards Compatibility (from FM24)

Quote

"So, to sum everything up…

FM24 – Marking our 20th anniversary of Football Manager by delivering the most complete version in the series' history, across Steam, Epic, Microsoft Store, Game Pass, PS5, Xbox, Apple Arcade, Switch and iOS & Android for mobile.

FM25 – For the first time in decades, a true sequel. The Unity engine will bring a new graphics engine, a fresh user interface and advanced animations, alongside the introduction of women's football (plus lots more, across platforms)."

 

[Bobfoc]

To clarify, those new features, aside from the backwards compatibility for saves, are to be introduced in FM25, not 24. The idea is that 24 will be the final, and most feature complete, version of FM as we currently know it.

[Baddar]

It's good that they've already been working on FM25 for a while. Because of the new engine, I sense that it'll take a few years to nail and get running properly, which could lead to players sticking to 24.

[King Ellis]

Whilst I am a little skeptical that this FM25 talk comes after what must be the most openly hostile receptions to a new release in the entire history of the franchise, even back to the SI produced CM titles, and the pandemic has been a very easy go to excuse over the last few years, I'll happily give them the benefit of the doubt in both cases because I can't imagine a whole new engine etc is something you just start working on 18-24 months out.

I am very skeptical on the idea of backwards compatible saves though, less so between 23 and 24 given they're going to be closer in design than 25 but if they're really changing up so much with that one, it just feels like there's lots that could go wrong. Though, with something like the visuals in match, I suppose the idea has always been that it's just crunching the numbers in the background and then giving an artists representation of the result of those numbers so given that the core numbers aren't likely to change (we'll probably still have the same attributes numbered 1-20) then it's still going to be pulling from the same data.

Will be interesting to see how FM24 fares, there's obviously an overwhelmingy number of people who buy it year in and year out and, whilst there's always a fair assumption that there's just going to be another game the year after, to actually have the FM25 talk out in the open with teases of new graphics etc, will people just skip over 24? Like, I think that's something that happened with SEGA back in the day where people weren't going to spend money on stuff like the SEGA CD or 32X when the Saturn was right around the corner. Potentially there's some goodwill in play here though, if they're being so open about it and saying that they're going to give the people what they've been asking for, maybe people will be happy to buy in to 24 to support SI in developing 25. Plus the whole backwards compatability thing means it's not as if it's wasted time if you can just carry it forward.

I am curious though, how many times would you be able to bring a save forward? Can we take a 23 save into 24 and on again into 25 and so on?

[Cymbols]

Maybe it's just me, but I can't imagine wanting to carry a save over. There's something satisfying about getting to a good end point in a game, retiring that character, and starting from scratch with a whole new challenge. Might just be personal preference though.

[Baddar]

Miles has said that so far, they're only committing to 23>24 in terms of save transfers.

I'm not sure how the Unity engine works, but some were suggesting on Twitter that because of it, it could mean the end of graphic packs which would disappoint a lot of people.

[FLiam]

6 minutes ago, Baddar said:

Miles has said that so far, they're only committing to 23>24 in terms of save transfers.

I'm not sure how the Unity engine works, but some were suggesting on Twitter that because of it, it could mean the end of graphic packs which would disappoint a lot of people.

This would be my concern. Surely they’re aware of this though.

I legitimately could not play without the ability to mod names / graphics.