Football Manager 2017

[Benji]

10 hours ago, MDK said:

How can a player have 1 for aggression? Like he is constantly saying "Sorry!" during a game. If he has 1 for aggression and 20 for tackling does that mean he is passive-aggressive? 

No, no, if he has 20 in aggression and 20 in passing, then he's passive aggressive.

[Lineker]

Have your like and get out.

[MDK]

5 minutes ago, Benji said:

No, no, if he has 20 in aggression and 20 in passing, then he's passive aggressive.

[stokeriño]

Am utterly bemused by what's required of me to fulfill a promise to "strengthen the first team squad".

(I didn't think anything of the promise when I made it, since we had only just finished the season and I figured I'd be 'strengthening the squad' after getting promoted anyway and it'd therefore be fulfilled by default.)

Since making that promise I've brought in six signings, which only ups the senior squad numbers by one or two from last season but the quality/age of them is much better. In the process I spent a net £74k which was the most of all League 2 clubs apparently. It's early November and we are doing staggeringly well in the league (to the surprise of myself as much as anybody), so it's not like the squad is showing massive signs of weakness in practice either.

And yet the player in question still "Feels time is running out for Tim Stoker to strengthen the squad".

Like, honestly, I don't even know what metric I'm being judged on. Is it numbers in the squad? Some calculation of their average quality? Name value of a big signing? What?!

[Baddar]

I was reading about promises on the SI forums a week or so ago. People are adamant they're broken. 

[stokeriño]

I googled it earlier and found posts about versions as far back as FM10 where people were adamant they're broken. I can therefore only presume that SI think they're not.

[Baddar]

They just seem to be having very mixed results with it - and the "logic" that they're using (as you've basically used yourself above) doesn't work. I know now to steer clear of such promises when it comes to signing players/renewing contracts.

I did finally get around to picking this up yesterday. Interested to play around with a very strong "on paper" United side. Used the start of season start date (when did this become a thing? I last played 2015 and don't recall seeing this option) and have transfers turned off in the first window. Slumped to a 1-0 loss to Leicester in the Community Shield, but I kinda anticipated mixed results early on due to the new manager, new tactics to learn thing. I actually would have been fine if Chris Smalling hadn't fluffed a back-pass to allow Okazaki to score, but oh well.

First up in the league was a comfortable 2-0 success over Hull at home. Ibra scored the first and his replacement, Rashford, got the 2nd. Rooney picked up an injury that would keep him sidelined for 2-3 weeks, meaning Mata slotted in nicely.

I then played Everton, my FM bogey side, but ran out 3-1 winners at Goodison which was a nice bonus. Juan, Juan, Juan with the first, Ibra with the second and Martial scored a third before Gueye pulled one back on 78mins which for a moment made me think "here we fucking go!".

And before I came off last night, I played a back and forth match with Arsenal at home, which ended with 17 shots each on goal (they edged the on target stat) but an Ibra hat-trick, the last of which he scored from 25 yards in the 86th minute to win us the game, means it's 9pts out of a possible 9 so far!

Sunderland up next at the SoL. Don't want to be fucking that one up. I've been drawn alongside PAOK, Spartak Moscow and Sassuolo in the Europa League, so should progress without too many problems. You know you're into FM when you're pissed off about a trip to Russia in a game.

[DavidMarrio]

So I got the Spain job on my Liverpool save after the World Cup and I had the pointless international games after the first 3 games in the Prem. Sergio Ramos was injured so he wasn't in the squad but the game made my confirm my captains...but I could only use the people in my squad. So I've been forced essentially into stripping Ramos as Spain captain which has subsequently pissed him off and a few of the other players.... 

Oh I also got Real Betis as my feeder club in which is described as a "Local partnership".

Silly FM  

[stokeriño]

Somehow I am in contention for a promotion spot (which I'm not 100% sure would be a good thing as I'm sure we'd get mullered in League 1), battling it out with Accrington Stanley and Cheltenham, but this has suffered a bit on account of a striker crisis. Of my four senior strikers...

- James Norwood has either developed a new "prone to injury" trait or is just getting back into the groove of an existing one, because he's on the shelf for 75% of the time and has poor match fitness the rest of the time.
- Jordan White has eyes for a move to the Scottish Premiership via the likes of Hibs or Kilmarnock. I agreed to sell him if anyone bid, but then he injured his groin anyway so lol (not that this helps my squad).
- Darren Bent was so shit even by my own unbelievably-low expectations that he's been sent out on loan to York for the remaining six months of his contract.
- Andy Cook isn't good enough for this league but I keep him around because he accepts a relatively-low salary. But even he has a back strain at the moment, so balls.

So I was in desperate need to find a new striker in the last week of the January transfer window. Without a great deal of money to cobble together, I finally plugged for Jordan Bowery, signed from Leyton Orient for £35k. Given all my other strikers' circumstances, I have little option but to immediately make him first-choice.

I don't generally think it's a great idea to rely on Orient's castoffs but I'm optimistic.  

[MDK]

21 minutes ago, stokeriño said:

Somehow I am in contention for a promotion spot (which I'm not 100% sure would be a good thing as I'm sure we'd get mullered in League 1), battling it out with Accrington Stanley and Cheltenham, but this has suffered a bit on account of a striker crisis. Of my four senior strikers...

- James Norwood has either developed a new "prone to injury" trait or is just getting back into the groove of an existing one, because he's on the shelf for 75% of the time and has poor match fitness the rest of the time.
- Jordan White has eyes for a move to the Scottish Premiership via the likes of Hibs or Kilmarnock. I agreed to sell him if anyone bid, but then he injured his groin anyway so lol (not that this helps my squad).
- Darren Bent was so shit even by my own unbelievably-low expectations that he's been sent out on loan to York for the remaining six months of his contract.
- Andy Cook isn't good enough for this league but I keep him around because he accepts a relatively-low salary. But even he has a back strain at the moment, so balls.

So I was in desperate need to find a new striker in the last week of the January transfer window. Without a great deal of money to cobble together, I finally plugged for Jordan Bowery, signed from Leyton Orient for £35k. Given all my other strikers' circumstances, I have little option but to immediately make him first-choice.

I don't generally think it's a great idea to rely on Orient's castoffs but I'm optimistic.  

Now listen mate if you are going to constantly slag off Orient I will strongly tut at you.

[stokeriño]

Don't worry - I'll be in a different league to them before too long and then I'll have no need to talk about them.  

[The Lusophone]

Into the business end of the group stage in my Ajax game. Stole a point I had no right to at Bayern and edged Arsenal 1-0 in Holland. Wasn't looking forward to going to the Emirates but then....

Spoiler

I didn't get this result at all so I did something I don't normally do and looked at the analysis tab. Match stat not shown above is tackles. Arsenal won 14 out of 16, Ajax won 20 out of 29.

The formation and instructions:

Spoiler

They had chance after chance that I expected them to score, but Tim Krul is apparently amazing. We played really compactly and pressed as much as possible - that's why the get stuck in is there, if its not my players just seem to close down without doing anything, allowing teams to just pass around them. Result is this, orange is position without ball, green with:

Spoiler

My wingers getting so far forward definitely helped, as did my teams strength at set pieces - the third goal came from a corner where one centre back headed to another. Arsenal came into it more in the second half - I've never been able to handle Walcott on any Football Manager - but we held on for the win which leaves us:

Spoiler

 

[Adam]

Jordan Bowery's alright. I mean, he never even scored a go for us but he...tried hard?

[Cymbols]

He scored an own goal for us! But that's about all he did.

[Just Joe]

8 hours ago, Adam said:

Jordan Bowery's alright. I mean, he never even scored a go for us but he...tried hard?

That reminds me of someone. 

Spoiler

 

[stokeriño]

On 12/15/2016 at 11:35, Adam said:

Jordan Bowery's alright. I mean, he never even scored a go for us but he...tried hard?

Well so far for me he's got 4 goals and 2 assist in 7 games. Rather pleased with that.

Also, somehow this is my position in League 2 with 10 games to go:

Rather pleased with that too.  

[stokeriño]

I agree with Mr. Myles Buckle. League 1 is going to be extremely troublesome.

These two, however, can fuck right off.

[MDK]

Just had a similar thing. My top striker who has not only broken Clyde records in two different leagues, is also the top scorer for two different leagues, voted fans player of the year twice in a row and his contract was up but I managed to get my captain to convince him to stay. Offer him a contract, he accepts, lovely.

"Eoghan Stokes doesn't strike me as needing a new deal but Clyde have their reasons". Yeah, dickhead, he was out of contract.
"What are we doing?". Giving a new contract to our top striker, you fucking mug.
"Not sure how I feel about this". And you can fuck off as well.

[Noah]

@MDKmaybe your fans are tight gits who think a club legend doesn't need material things like contracts and money and should just play for the love of the club? 

[MDK]

He was about to be since the rules changed about the bosman so he wouldn't be available for a free