Gaming Football Manager 2021 (FM21)

FM still hasn't removed the "ease past" headline? It was a personal pet peeve of mine for years when I still played these games - a 3-2 win is not "easing past" by any means.

I realise this is humongously, almost unprecedentedly irrelevant but it still annoys me.
:lol:
 
One of the ones I hated was that it always said I'd got "handed an easy CL group" even though it would have fecking Barca, PSG and Leipzig in it. Every damn time.
 
Players wanting to leave because they're not getting enough playing time is driving me mental. Bruno is the latest to complain he didn't play in a Champions League fixture that was utterly meaningless when we had Liverpool 48 hours after.
 
Players wanting to leave because they're not getting enough playing time is driving me mental. Bruno is the latest to complain he didn't play in a Champions League fixture that was utterly meaningless when we had Liverpool 48 hours after.

Is this on the full version?
 
Downloading this as I type, the first one I have played since 2014. I have stopped myself from downloading previous versions as they can get a bit addictive and very time consuming but this pandemic is giving me plenty of time to kill so I took the plunge. Going to be United for a couple of seasons until I get my bearings then will opt for a proper challenge.
I couldn’t resist buying the editor as well, as I like to check some players stats and it can be fun to make transfers for other teams, sometimes a player you like ends up at the wrong club or gets a terrible injury or you want to strengthen a club you like or weaken a rival. It can make it more fun if you can resist the urge not to cheat and help your own club too much.
 
Started a new game and went for League Two. Closed my eyes and picked Barrow :lol:

I plan to try and move up the leagues whether with that club or kind of journeymanning to the top. Will see how it goes.
 
Downloading this as I type, the first one I have played since 2014. I have stopped myself from downloading previous versions as they can get a bit addictive and very time consuming but this pandemic is giving me plenty of time to kill so I took the plunge. Going to be United for a couple of seasons until I get my bearings then will opt for a proper challenge.
I couldn’t resist buying the editor as well, as I like to check some players stats and it can be fun to make transfers for other teams, sometimes a player you like ends up at the wrong club or gets a terrible injury or you want to strengthen a club you like or weaken a rival. It can make it more fun if you can resist the urge not to cheat and help your own club too much.
The editor is necessary for me & not for the reasons you might think. I never cheat, but I always edit certain players who the game has got very wrong. More often than not players who aren’t even on my team. Gnabry was a player I edited last year as he was criminally underrated. Lamptey was another, FM had him as a decent league 1 player stuck in Brighton’s under 23s,, crazy. I also made John Stones worse as FM had him at beast level. The only changes I made to United (me) was slightly downgrading Lingard, making Shaw competent at centre back & Williams natural at right back.
 
Started a new game and went for League Two. Closed my eyes and picked Barrow :lol:

I plan to try and move up the leagues whether with that club or kind of journeymanning to the top. Will see how it goes.
Really interesting club in real life. Played tiki taka in the semi-pro leagues, now managed by David Dunn, and have Callum Gribbin in their ranks.
 
Really interesting club in real life. Played tiki taka in the semi-pro leagues, now managed by David Dunn, and have Callum Gribbin in their ranks.

This was the first thing I noticed! They seem to have a decent well balanced squad but they’re predicted to finish 23rd.
 
tips for non-league management

1. don’t bother hiring scouts, they have to be paid weekly & it costs money to send them out anyway, offer trials instead & let your assistant judge them (make sure your assistant has 10+ judging player ability, potential isn’t important because you’ll be upgrading your team every year as you get promoted anyway)

2. Get a senior affiliate, they’ll loan you players without you having to pay wages

3. Don’t buy anyone until you get to at least League One. There’s plenty of free transfers out there who are far better than what you have

4. play home games against higher rep teams in pre season. Helps the finances

5. when searching for players, look at unattached players homegrown status & search trained at big clubs with great academies United, Liverpool, Chelsea etc.

I got Curzon Ashton promoted 4 years in a row on FM20 without spending a penny on transfer fees or scouts.
 
tips for non-league management

1. don’t bother hiring scouts, they have to be paid weekly & it costs money to send them out anyway, offer trials instead & let your assistant judge them (make sure your assistant has 10+ judging player ability, potential isn’t important because you’ll be upgrading your team every year as you get promoted anyway)

2. Get a senior affiliate, they’ll loan you players without you having to pay wages

3. Don’t buy anyone until you get to at least League One. There’s plenty of free transfers out there who are far better than what you have

4. play home games against higher rep teams in pre season. Helps the finances

5. when searching for players, look at unattached players homegrown status & search trained at big clubs with great academies United, Liverpool, Chelsea etc.

I got Curzon Ashton promoted 4 years in a row on FM20 without spending a penny on transfer fees or scouts.
Some good stuff. I regularly do these things too. Another on in my experience is to use the DOF suggestion to very quickly identify players that could be useful.

I've found getting senior affiliates to be fairly hard this game so far. Tried twice with my Oxford team and with Brechin City who I managed last.
 
Now that the editor is out, I can see that a number of our players are rated higher than I would personally rate them. But I'll focus on the youngsters because for most people that'll be considered a good thing.

Garner, Chong and Laird are all a bit further ahead than I would have put them. So they might be ready to play a lot earlier than I would think in reality.

While Galbraith, Elanga, Hannibal and Mengi are a bit behind where I'd have them. Joe Hugill way behind too but he's a recent discovery so I'm not too surprised that hes rated as a very ordinary player.
 
Now that the editor is out, I can see that a number of our players are rated higher than I would personally rate them. But I'll focus on the youngsters because for most people that'll be considered a good thing.

Garner, Chong and Laird are all a bit further ahead than I would have put them. So they might be ready to play a lot earlier than I would think in reality.

While Galbraith, Elanga, Hannibal and Mengi are a bit behind where I'd have them. Joe Hugill way behind too but he's a recent discovery so I'm not too surprised that hes rated as a very ordinary player.
Are Jones, Lingard & James still criminally overrated?

From what I remember Mejbri was fantastic on 20.Have they decreased him? Elanga, Mengi & Galbraith were all lower league level on 20.
 
Some good stuff. I regularly do these things too. Another on in my experience is to use the DOF suggestion to very quickly identify players that could be useful.

I've found getting senior affiliates to be fairly hard this game so far. Tried twice with my Oxford team and with Brechin City who I managed last.
Yes that’s very handy too. Even if you don’t want to pay a DOF your owner will still recommended you players who are attainable & almost always an improvement.
 
Now that the editor is out, I can see that a number of our players are rated higher than I would personally rate them. But I'll focus on the youngsters because for most people that'll be considered a good thing.

Garner, Chong and Laird are all a bit further ahead than I would have put them. So they might be ready to play a lot earlier than I would think in reality.

While Galbraith, Elanga, Hannibal and Mengi are a bit behind where I'd have them. Joe Hugill way behind too but he's a recent discovery so I'm not too surprised that hes rated as a very ordinary player.

Does Shoretire have a large range of potential? A lot of people seem to have him at 4-5 stars, but for me he's got a similar potential to Mejbri on the game, which isn't that amazing annoyingly.

Are Jones, Lingard & James still criminally overrated?

From what I remember Mejbri was fantastic on 20.Have they decreased him? Elanga, Mengi & Galbraith were all lower league level on 20.

Jones and Lingard seem quite average, Jones is just deadwood in my squad and Lingard has played one or two matches and done nothing spectacular, although Dan James is only rated 2.5 stars CA, he has bagged 5 goals for me in 11 games or so and seems to get a decent match average.

Mejbri also doesn't look spectacular to me in scout reports, with only 2 solid stars and 1 black star for potential, although his stats are flying up, so hopefully that can change.
 
Apparently they have downgraded Telles and Cavani in the full version. That's just nonsense from ManUtd researcher, he barely watched them, most of the researchers don't touch the players as soon as they are signed, they just retain attributes from previous researchers.
 
Are Jones, Lingard & James still criminally overrated?

From what I remember Mejbri was fantastic on 20.Have they decreased him? Elanga, Mengi & Galbraith were all lower league level on 20.

Lingard I put him down a bit yes. I disagree that Jones is overrated and James isnt very highly rated. This is from current ability ratings though, not looking at the individual stat ratings
 
anyone got a tutorial on how to enable non league. i want to play in Isthmian Premier Division.
 
Playing the demo now. In the intra-squad friendly: "Wan-Bissaka isn't having his best game, consider changing him with De Gea" after I've used all my subs.
 
Ugh, they still have the bug where you inexplicably can't place job ads until you magically can again.
 
Started a new game and went for League Two. Closed my eyes and picked Barrow :lol:

I plan to try and move up the leagues whether with that club or kind of journeymanning to the top. Will see how it goes.
Always like doing that, but league 2 is just too low for me. By the time I make it up to the premier league its like half regens. Ideally would like to make it up in 2 seasons and then go from there, so the player base is still "real". Probably will go for Nottingham Forest, they're usually my go to for slightly lower league journeyman style.
 
Now that the editor is out, I can see that a number of our players are rated higher than I would personally rate them. But I'll focus on the youngsters because for most people that'll be considered a good thing.

Garner, Chong and Laird are all a bit further ahead than I would have put them. So they might be ready to play a lot earlier than I would think in reality.

While Galbraith, Elanga, Hannibal and Mengi are a bit behind where I'd have them. Joe Hugill way behind too but he's a recent discovery so I'm not too surprised that hes rated as a very ordinary player.
So tempted to find out all the ratings but at the same time I feel like it kills it a bit for me once I do find out. Like this I kind of go based on performance, but when I know I tend to force the higher rated players and dump off and ignore anyone below 150 PA basically. We'll see how long I get before I cave...
 
So tempted to find out all the ratings but at the same time I feel like it kills it a bit for me once I do find out. Like this I kind of go based on performance, but when I know I tend to force the higher rated players and dump off and ignore anyone below 150 PA basically. We'll see how long I get before I cave...

I do this as well. This year I'm trying to avoid knowing any players CA/PA or any wonderkids.
 
Always like doing that, but league 2 is just too low for me. By the time I make it up to the premier league its like half regens. Ideally would like to make it up in 2 seasons and then go from there, so the player base is still "real". Probably will go for Nottingham Forest, they're usually my go to for slightly lower league journeyman style.

Yeah my one worry is my reputation won't grow quick enough. In real life a manager's rep can really change over the course of a season (see Wilder, Hassenhuttl). In FM20 I got Bristol City promoted in my first season, then 6th the next season and then top 4 the next. I didn't get a single interview for any job because it seems like only trophies improve your rep.
 
Apparently they have downgraded Telles and Cavani in the full version. That's just nonsense from ManUtd researcher, he barely watched them, most of the researchers don't touch the players as soon as they are signed, they just retain attributes from previous researchers.
To be fair both are obscenely good on FM20. I can understand the Cavani downgrade. Telles seems unfair considering he’s only played twice & has looks decent. Unless he was poor last season?

Telles was probably the best attacking left back on the game on FM20, so even if he has been downgraded he should still be very good.
 
Lingard I put him down a bit yes. I disagree that Jones is overrated and James isnt very highly rated. This is from current ability ratings though, not looking at the individual stat ratings
Jones has excellent stats on FM20. IIRC 16 for heading strength & tackling, and about 13 for passing & pace. Even though the assistant reports had him 4th he was easily the best Centre back at the club on the game.
 
Ffs I've changed my mind again. Compromised between Championship and League Two and gone for Sunderland in League One. I will stick with it and work my way up to a better club.
 
Jones has excellent stats on FM20. IIRC 16 for heading strength & tackling, and about 13 for passing & pace. Even though the assistant reports had him 4th he was easily the best Centre back at the club on the game.

I never used him as he had such a low overall rating. The computer didnt either. Rated below the other cbs
 
Ffs I've changed my mind again. Compromised between Championship and League Two and gone for Sunderland in League One. I will stick with it and work my way up to a better club.
Actually not a bad shout. Should be fun to sort out their mess and work up a few promotions.
 
Is this on the full version?

Yeah, Half the squad are unhappy in 2022. That, and the fact that VAR never allow a goal to stand, or take back a penalty.
 
A couple of tiny little things as well, when zoomed out to 85% text, you can almost see the whole league in your home screen, but not quite.
 
Nuno Mendes is an absolute beast and a must sign to replace Telles.
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I just had a situation where Rashford got tackled in the box by the 'keeper and defender at the same time. The balls rolls into the net, but VAR gives a penalty (which Bruno then misses). So VAR is about as good as in real life.
 
Ohhh, chipped finishes are back. I can't remember seeing one of those in FM20.

Also it seems like I'll score an absolute boat load from set-pieces.