Football Manager 2024

[Captain Kirk]

8 hours ago, Jam said:

I suspect it's down to my management, but have people had issues with throwing away leads constantly? 3 times in my first season I was 3-0 up at half time and drew 3-3, a fourth time this happened but I did manage to nick a late winner. This season I've had it happen once and also lost a game 5-4 after leading 4-0 at half time. I find regularly though I'm good first half and terrible in second half's. Is that likely a fitness issue, or are AI managers just better at reacting to things on the go whilst I should be more proactive in changing things?

Think the game just decides you’re not winning. I’ve found that shutting up shop usually results in conceding, when I go more attacking than I was I tend to keep my leads.

[Gazz]

23 hours ago, Lineker said:

Interesting, handy 20 minute summary.

That's not even Python in the background.

[Captain Kirk]

15 minutes ago, Gazz said:

That's not even Python in the background.

Can see why he didn’t last as a Computer Science teacher.

[JasonM]

On 19/11/2023 at 12:06, Lineker said:

Interesting, handy 20 minute summary.

Squirrel, the guy who made the Python stuff has now published the first version of the application, which features all the 84 roles, and a quick tutorial on how to export it from game to app.

 

 

[Lineker]

On 20/11/2023 at 10:26, Captain Kirk said:

Can see why he didn’t last as a Computer Science teacher.

[Naitch]

Just broke the Serie A all-time goalscoring record with Francesco Totti at Roma on FM14!

Between 1929 and 1954, Silvio Piola scored 274 Serie A goals whilst playing for Pro Vercelli, Lazio, Juventus, and Novara. He scored a further 16 goals in a post-WW2 season that wasn't a proper Serie A, but I'm not sure Totti's legs will carry him through that many more goals...

In real life, Totti hung up his boots at 250 goals, a tally I was able to surpass two seasons earlier using tactics literally built around racking up the goals. Indeed, we've been the highest-scoring team in all three seasons so far and currently sit 8 points clear atop the Serie A table with the most goals scored so far.

2013/14
Totti was my top goalscorer with 19 goals, primarily playing as a Complete Forward as my only striker. Usually I played a 4-5-1 but occasionally switched to a 4-2-3-1 or weird 4-1-2-1-2 formation with wing backs and a Daniel De Rossi as a half back (so I guess close to a modern 3ATB with two strikers). Totti played in all 38 games.

Roma hadn't qualified for Europe the previous season, so I didn't have to worry about overplaying and Totti was able to get plenty of rest. We finished in 2nd, nine points behind Juventus after conceding quite a lot. I've been using quite attack-focused formations to try and encourage more Totti goals, so this was probably why we were 1st in goals scored but 10th in goals conceded.

2014/15
At 38, Totti was starting to drop off in quality. I decided to drop him back into a CAM position playing Trequartista, with Mattia Destro taking over as the lone striker but Totti's position being set to shoot more often. This worked quite well as it led to 15 goals across the season, despite the fact that Totti missed the tail end of the season through injury and only played in 29 games.

I chose not to include Totti in the Champions League squad so that he could rest up for league games, allowing me to switch to the 4-5-1 formation that had De Rossi playing in his preferred CDM role. Somehow we made it to the semi finals before losing on aggregate to Man Utd.

We finished 2nd to Juventus again, this time falling 13 points behind after they only lost two games and conceded just 17 goals all season! We did manage to win the Super Cup against them though.

2015/16
With Totti's skills dropping off hard I switched the CAM player role to an Enganche. This reduced his goal output to just 11, many of them coming from the penalty spot. Despite this, Totti managed to play in 35 league games.

This year we dropped to 3rd, although only 8 points off winners Juventus this time. Inter pipped us to 2nd by a single point. Despite the hiccup in the league, we were able to win the Italian Cup and the Europa League

2016/17
Now 40, Totti is mostly just sitting on the bench waiting for opportunities to come on and have the odd chance at taking penalties. The CAM role is still set as Enganche whenever I've chosen to start Totti, but I've switched back to the 4-5-1 and 4-2-3-1 formations from the first season now that he isn't featuring often.

He missed out on his 273rd goal during a 6-0 romping at Inter Milan because Lucas Ocampos was on for a hat-trick. That goal finally came from open play against Chievo Verona in a comfortable 3-0 win. Record-tying goal #274 came just a week later when he scored a penalty in a game we eventually won 3-2.

The magic record-setting goal came against Ternana the following weekend, marking goals three consecutive league games for the veteran. Initially, I'd considered leaving Totti on the bench as Ternana went into the game in 6th place, despite yoyo-ing up and down between Series A and B for the last few seasons. But that gamble paid off when Totti put us 3-1 up in the 51st minute!

The record-breaking goal marks three goals scored in seven appearances. Totti might get the occasional run out throughout the remainder of the season but my focus now is on winning the league title, and I'm not sure playing a 0.5 star player regularly is going to help me achieve that.

[Naitch]

[Captain Kirk]

Think this has basically been everyone’s experience of lower league management this season.

[King Ellis]

I've taken to just essentially ignoring them for now. I'll say that I'll sort it, do nothing, someone gets upset and then in a few months they'll drop it. Then the cycle repeats. Granted I'm in a piss easy league so I think I can just tank it, people amongst FM Tube do seem to get wrecked by it due to the power of Morale Simulator 24.

[Baddar]

3 hours ago, Captain Kirk said:

Think this has basically been everyone’s experience of lower league management this season.

Had that pop up earlier, funny. 2nd only to the story about his autistic brother.

[FLiam]

Patch is out.

[Szumi]

Started one of those new types of FM games where it's only transfers as of the start of July in a Bournemouth save. Here's my essay of the game for those who care! 

Spoiler

Forgot that they had only made 2 signings by that point, loan obligation from Hamed Traore and Justin Kluivert (who I didn't really want after looking at him, but alas!). I'm someone who likes to pretty much fire almost all of the staff when I take over and bring in my own, including getting actually good scouts, which definitely made it hard to try and scout my positions of need as quickly as I wanted to since clubs were active right away with transfers, while I'm waiting over a week to start scouting my shortlisted players I load in to start a save. 

Bournemouth start the save with like a £130m transfer budget but while I planned on making a lot of transfers to upgrade the squad, wanted to stick to their model of trying to bring in younger guys, so wasn't going to be dropping huge fees everywhere, and also had multiple guys to offload. Brought in about £65m in player sales offloading Christie to Saudi Arabian for £30m, Brooks to West Ham on a loan obligation for £20m to replace Liverpool bound Bowen, and then another £15m combined on Jamal Lowe, Sirki Dembele, and Ryan Federicks.

Plan was to try and get the talent in to play a 433 Vertical Tiki-Taka meets Control Possession type team where we will press out of a mid block instead of the usual high press, and try to create wide overloads & get players into the box in possession if the counter doesn't work. Knew I needed to upgrade at RB/get a future replacement for Adam Smith, get two LBs since Bournemouth don't have a single proper LB, two DMs because the only one they have is Championship tier Ben Pearson, a playmaking CM, and either 1 of a LW/CM since Traore can play either. Plus potentially a new ST if I could find one/sell Semenyo and/or Keiffer Moore.

 

Bournemouth is not a desirable place I found! Struck out on multiple targets when I did try to land a proper first team caliber signing. Lost out to Spurs on all of Ivan Fresneda (RB), Tyler Adams, and Gyorkes alone! Most other potential splashy targets were not interested in joining, with real life Liverpool target Andre (DM) another who didn't want to play for a team predicted for a relegation battle. 

 

Ended up signing signing Jayden Bogle from Sheffield United as a long term replacement at RB for a £15m fee that could reach £23 after missing on multiple targets and deciding just pay a bit extra for an English HG, Riccardo Calafiori at LB from Basel for £14m with free agent Ryan Bertrand to backup. Shea Daniels from Man City was meant to come in as a DM to slowly develop at 19 y/o and someone who will hopefully be a steal at £15m, but after striking out on multiple starters, he'll compete for the job with 20 y/o Ignacio Miramon who arrived late in the window for only £8m. FM favorite of mine Mohammed Diomande arrived as my playmaking CM for £10m from Denmark. Last signing ended up being Thiago Almada very late in the window, purely because I was aware others made offers for him, and luckily enough landed him for the absolute bargain of £11.5m. Ended up spending around £72m (plus the £30m on Traore and Kluivert for £102m) for a net spend of about £40m. Gives me plenty of money to spend in January if needed. 

Definitely don't need to spend in January though! First half of the season was incredibly easy, and I don't quite understand it because I don't think the squad is still that great. Got upset wins over Spurs, United (well, they're midtable and sacked ETH at the start of January), and Chelsea (well, relegation fight. Sacked Poch in November when they were bottom of the table. They're lower half now but still closer to bottom 3 than top 7). Easily handled by Liverpool and City, but pretty much winning most of the other matches, outside of a loss to Palace. Entered January in 4th place, but 5th currently after 22 matches as we approach the end of the month now that City played their games in hand. Brentford are 6th behind me by 8 points, so feel comfortable I'll finish 5th and get into Champions League with the extra spot...which is madness because I figured the highest I'd get was 7th. 

Saudi Arabia wasn't too wild in the summer window, but Spurs did just sell Harry Kane to them for £112m. They're 2nd and will still finish Top 4 I'm sure. United and Chelsea suck. 

Kluivert has ridiculously over performed as an IW(S) on the right wing with 11g & 4a in 22 matches, while Almada has 2g & 10a in 19 (mainly a Mezzala(A) at LCM). Billing (B2B RCM) has 3g & 9a in 21. Team wise we're 7th in goals, 3rd in xG overperformance, 5th in goals allowed, and still just 16th in salary.

 

Thanks for reading the Bournemouth essay 

 

[Kyle]

After SO many years of playing FM I finally decided to have a real go at a journeyman save.

 

I'm approaching the end of my first season at Llanidloes Town in the second tier of the Welsh leagues, had a decent little cup run (currently waiting for the semis of the Welsh Cup, knocked out in the third round of the other two that I was in), still capable of winning the league as I sit in 3rd at time of writing with 3 games left, only two points in it. 

Only the winners of the league get promoted though, which is a bit of a headache, although if I manage to drop some deadwood and get in some real talent next season, I'll piss the league assuming I don't win it this time around.

[The Lusophone]

Sometimes, the game gives you a perfect reason for why you're taking over the team you're managing:

And as I'm using the 2024 version of my alternative nationality database, this is the core group of players I'll be using to take me through:

Spoiler

 

[Lineker]

This is a lot of free time.

[The Lusophone]

Incredible content though.

[Gazz]

You know it's realistic because Spurs managed to choke a title challenge.

[Gazz]

Apparently there's an exploit/bug where if you offer £0 upfront, six monthly £200 installments and £2.5m after 50 league appearances, the AI will accept the offer on any player.

[Twist]

On 18/02/2024 at 18:39, Gazz said:

Apparently there's an exploit/bug where if you offer £0 upfront, six monthly £200 installments and £2.5m after 50 league appearances, the AI will accept the offer on any player.

It works.

[RazorsEdge]

I dunno if I can bring myself to do it. It will ruin the immersion of my save.