Gaming Football Manager 2021 (FM21)

Restarted my Feyenoord save as it was the most fun I have had playing FM in years.
--Word of advice again that I learned the hard way: DO NOT ADD LEAGUES TO YOUR SAVE AFTER BEGINING IT!!!! It completely unbalanced my save by adding dozens of high end players to a single nation.--

Anyways, I received a midseason a 7.5 million pound offer for 31 yo Toornstra, so of course I snapped their hand off. My captain, Berghuis, complained and my response was that I wanted to play youth in the midfield. Fast forward to the end of the season where 19 yo Kokcu has started every game since, has 9G and 16A, and has been name the league player of the year......and Berghuis is now leading a player revolt because I did not honor my promise to play youth in the MF.

Don't ever change FM AI, don't ever change.

(and we know you won't)
:lol: I kinda have to do that as I move around the world. I'll be adding multiple leagues though so hopefully it should even out.

Player interactions are pretty daft, I've had players asking for a certain position to be strengthened but then complain it hasn't happened when I've signed 2-3 players in that area.
 
22 games through the league season now and sitting top with a game in hand, club still won't let me do a training course so I'm not sure I'll stick around even if we do get promoted. Will have to see what jobs come up.



The finances are mess at this club, we've sold 900k worth of players this season and only spent 34k. It probably doesn't help that we get less than 300 supporters attending our games. :lol:

 
Restarted my Feyenoord save as it was the most fun I have had playing FM in years.
--Word of advice again that I learned the hard way: DO NOT ADD LEAGUES TO YOUR SAVE AFTER BEGINING IT!!!! It completely unbalanced my save by adding dozens of high end players to a single nation.--

Anyways, I received a midseason a 7.5 million pound offer for 31 yo Toornstra, so of course I snapped their hand off. My captain, Berghuis, complained and my response was that I wanted to play youth in the midfield. Fast forward to the end of the season where 19 yo Kokcu has started every game since, has 9G and 16A, and has been name the league player of the year......and Berghuis is now leading a player revolt because I did not honor my promise to play youth in the MF.

Don't ever change FM AI, don't ever change.

(and we know you won't)

I now categorically refuse to state those kinda promises "Strengthen the midfield" "invest in more coaching" or "play youth" as they can never detect when it actually occurs.

I hired 5 new coaches and still failed that promise somehow. I bought 4 midfielders but somehow that didn't count cause they weren't the first choice or something.


22 games through the league season now and sitting top with a game in hand, club still won't let me do a training course so I'm not sure I'll stick around even if we do get promoted. Will have to see what jobs come up.



The finances are mess at this club, we've sold 900k worth of players this season and only spent 34k. It probably doesn't help that we get less than 300 supporters attending our games. :lol:



It's 100% about the current funds, they almost never approve training courses if the club is in debt, you're always better off requesting them when transfer budgets are handed out. I find getting promoted from the lower leagues, the only jobs you get offered are from the league you just left.
 
In part 7384 of “how bad can the player interactions be”...signed a younger player, who made me promise to loan him out. When I offered him (for free) on loan, the clubs came back and said he didn’t have sufficient interest. Plus he didn’t want to move to my affiliate.

On a side note, what role do you guys use on your strikers this year? I’ve always used an advanced forward, but this year he seems to be isolated, even though my two midfielders are supposed to be set in pretty attacking roles (with a defensive midfielder behind them). To add to this my wide players seems to be horrendously inconsistent.

I’ve tried tinkering around with individual instructions, but it felt like it just made it worse. Not that I’m struggling, won two league titles in a row and got to the champions league group stages (with a Slovenian team). Just feel like I’m not doing as well as I could be.
 
In part 7384 of “how bad can the player interactions be”...signed a younger player, who made me promise to loan him out. When I offered him (for free) on loan, the clubs came back and said he didn’t have sufficient interest. Plus he didn’t want to move to my affiliate.

On a side note, what role do you guys use on your strikers this year? I’ve always used an advanced forward, but this year he seems to be isolated, even though my two midfielders are supposed to be set in pretty attacking roles (with a defensive midfielder behind them). To add to this my wide players seems to be horrendously inconsistent.

I’ve tried tinkering around with individual instructions, but it felt like it just made it worse. Not that I’m struggling, won two league titles in a row and got to the champions league group stages (with a Slovenian team). Just feel like I’m not doing as well as I could be.
I'm only really into my 2nd save but I've had good success with pressing forward on attack as a lone striker. I feel that works a bit better than an advanced one if you're not playing an attacking mid.
It probably depends a lot on how your team is set up around them though.
 
I now categorically refuse to state those kinda promises "Strengthen the midfield" "invest in more coaching" or "play youth" as they can never detect when it actually occurs.

I hired 5 new coaches and still failed that promise somehow. I bought 4 midfielders but somehow that didn't count cause they weren't the first choice or something.




It's 100% about the current funds, they almost never approve training courses if the club is in debt, you're always better off requesting them when transfer budgets are handed out. I find getting promoted from the lower leagues, the only jobs you get offered are from the league you just left.
Yeah initially they were turned down because the club thought I would leave, but the last few times it has been funds. Though I'd see older players start training courses. :mad:

Won the league with a few games to go an almost instantly got offered a job with Supersport United in the league above. I'm now working on my coaching badges. Worked out in the end.
 
In part 7384 of “how bad can the player interactions be”...signed a younger player, who made me promise to loan him out. When I offered him (for free) on loan, the clubs came back and said he didn’t have sufficient interest. Plus he didn’t want to move to my affiliate.

On a side note, what role do you guys use on your strikers this year? I’ve always used an advanced forward, but this year he seems to be isolated, even though my two midfielders are supposed to be set in pretty attacking roles (with a defensive midfielder behind them). To add to this my wide players seems to be horrendously inconsistent.

I’ve tried tinkering around with individual instructions, but it felt like it just made it worse. Not that I’m struggling, won two league titles in a row and got to the champions league group stages (with a Slovenian team). Just feel like I’m not doing as well as I could be.
I just use whatever striker role is logical for the system and player. Pressing and Target man are more specialist.

Advanced forward is a pretty good catch all role that will suit most systems. If he's isolated it's because you're not supporting him, because part of the role is to play on the last defender. It's more of a vertical role than pressing forward, for example.

It could be they're not making enough runs from midfield. Or it could be your buildup is too direct and they don't have the chance to get near him, maybe he doesn't suit direct football. Or it could be too slow without the quality of players necessary to make the right decisions, and therefore he's just stood on the defenders because he's playing for short, low tempo football. Advanced forwards in those styles tend to get lower numbers in my experience. So I guess you have to identify the reason rather than just look at the role because it will be related to the tactic. I find that if there is a fundamental flaw in the setup then switching roles is kinda like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.
 
I just use whatever striker role is logical for the system and player. Pressing and Target man are more specialist.

Advanced forward is a pretty good catch all role that will suit most systems. If he's isolated it's because you're not supporting him, because part of the role is to play on the last defender. It's more of a vertical role than pressing forward, for example.

It could be they're not making enough runs from midfield. Or it could be your buildup is too direct and they don't have the chance to get near him, maybe he doesn't suit direct football. Or it could be too slow without the quality of players necessary to make the right decisions, and therefore he's just stood on the defenders because he's playing for short, low tempo football. Advanced forwards in those styles tend to get lower numbers in my experience. So I guess you have to identify the reason rather than just look at the role because it will be related to the tactic. I find that if there is a fundamental flaw in the setup then switching roles is kinda like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.

Thanks. I definitely don’t play direct, but it is high tempo, pressing football. Much easier to do when you’re able to make five subs per game in the league.

Generally the xG is very good, I lost a recent Champions League game to Napoli 4-1, even though I had a higher xG. Maybe I just need to upgrade the striker :lol:
 
So in the category of FM absurdity I just signed Moukoko on a free for Feyenoord b/c Dortmund never offered him a contract. Bought him early for 1.5 million. Oh, and he also chose to play for Cameroon, which is great for Cameroon but not for me during ACN.
 
A 3rd of the way through the league season, just about sitting top of the league. Last 2 games have seen me draw against 2nd and lose against 3rd despite being the better team in those matches. Managed to get a win in the super 8, not sure how big of a trophy that is but the board were pleased.


Playing this formation at the moment, had initially been going into the season with a generic 4-3-3 system but then my left winger decided he really need to move on and the back ups I had weren't much use. It's worked out pretty well so far.


The board have been a bit annoyed at my transfer strategy because they want me to sign u-23 players but my scouts weren't showing me anyone decent around that age. They ended up blocking the transfer of a a 24 year old who had been the best player in the league last season :( . Also had to replace my goal keeper as he decided he needed to move on to win the league (his new team are currently 7th and lost to us in the super 8 final :D). I actually got this guy to replace him after he was released from that team. He's a bit old so his physical stats are rubbish but his mental stats are alright and his goalkeeping technical stats are crazy good for this level.
 
What is everyone's best advice for developing promising young players? Get them into first team as soon as possible or focus on their training and individual positions?
 
Finally managed to find a team to have my first proper game with after a couple of trial runs.

Tried out United and Newcastle first, but got bored really quickly and almost decided that I just didn't enjoy it anymore, then started unemployed and took over Leeds mid-season who were rock bottom in the Premier about 10 points off safety, but I lost my last 3 games to go down on goal difference on got myself sacked.

Started afresh with Watford and really enjoying it so far, they've got a few interesting kids in Sara and Joan Pedro along with a solid core of past Premier league players. I disabled the first transfer window to add some realism and I'm coasting the league halfway through January. Just picked up Charly Masonda after he was a 94 recommended signing and I needed some rotation options out wide.

Any suggestions on players capable of playing complete forward as 3 of my 4 strikers drop to 1 star there and are massively ineffective.
 
What is everyone's best advice for developing promising young players? Get them into first team as soon as possible or focus on their training and individual positions?
I think up to about 19 they are better off being around the first team and benefiting from training. Even if their opportunities are extremely limited or non-existent. They don't seem to develop as well at other clubs on loan. However, once this early development is done they are then better off getting match experience so either play them or loan them. I haven't scientifically tested this but anecdotally this seems to be how the development works out.
 
Finally managed to find a team to have my first proper game with after a couple of trial runs.

Tried out United and Newcastle first, but got bored really quickly and almost decided that I just didn't enjoy it anymore, then started unemployed and took over Leeds mid-season who were rock bottom in the Premier about 10 points off safety, but I lost my last 3 games to go down on goal difference on got myself sacked.

Started afresh with Watford and really enjoying it so far, they've got a few interesting kids in Sara and Joan Pedro along with a solid core of past Premier league players. I disabled the first transfer window to add some realism and I'm coasting the league halfway through January. Just picked up Charly Masonda after he was a 94 recommended signing and I needed some rotation options out wide.

Any suggestions on players capable of playing complete forward as 3 of my 4 strikers drop to 1 star there and are massively ineffective.
Complete forward is very player dependent. You should probably play that role if you have the player already at the club - because procuring a complete forward will not be easy for early game Watford. It's probably better to cross that bridge when you can actually scout and find a promising upcoming player suitable for the role rather than trying to find one now as I don't think you'll get the quality needed. Generally you need a much better player for that role than you would for Advanced foward because it is an all-round role with many elements of a striker and many of an attacking midfielder whereas most of the other striker roles just do one thing so the stats can be less diverse. I would say try and scout somebody young with the attributes neccessary for next season.
 
Complete forward is very player dependent. You should probably play that role if you have the player already at the club - because procuring a complete forward will not be easy for early game Watford. It's probably better to cross that bridge when you can actually scout and find a promising upcoming player suitable for the role rather than trying to find one now as I don't think you'll get the quality needed. Generally you need a much better player for that role than you would for Advanced foward because it is an all-round role with many elements of a striker and many of an attacking midfielder whereas most of the other striker roles just do one thing so the stats can be less diverse. I would say try and scout somebody young with the attributes neccessary for next season.

Yeah I've got Joao Pedro for now he fits the role well, but I need a back up to him for now as it's too big a drop off to ever rest him. Much like the Musonda deal I did was purely to be able to rest Sarr as again the back ups are terrible or injured (Success has been out from the start and still isn't back in February)
 
I think up to about 19 they are better off being around the first team and benefiting from training. Even if their opportunities are extremely limited or non-existent. They don't seem to develop as well at other clubs on loan. However, once this early development is done they are then better off getting match experience so either play them or loan them. I haven't scientifically tested this but anecdotally this seems to be how the development works out.

Yeah I’d agree. If they are genuinely a good prospect then keep them in the first team squad at all costs, even if you’re only bringing them in for sub appearances. You can always put them in for reserve games too.

I’ve got a 2.5 star rated winger, potential 5 star who has just turned 16. I’m buzzing to get him into the first team squad next season.
 
goddamn motherfecker. I just got Ole'd. Met Utd in the final of CL and dominated. 60% possession, 12 shots on target. Utd had 2 shots total and scored on both. Martial on the counter both times. I now, for the next 5 minutes, hate Utd.
 
Made it to the PL with ease and realised that I had a shed load of players out on loan that were premier league quality and were just out on loan due to wages. Took the plunge and spent most of my budget on Moukoko who joins in January. Picked up Andre Gomes on the cheap for an extra body in midfield and some 16 year old Real Madrid CB whose contract was expiring.

Had extremely mixed results so far losing 5-0 to Liverpool and 3-2 to United who had 10 men for 80 minutes. But the highlight was beating Spurs 4-3 who had Mourinho in charge forcing Harry Kane into playing DM all game :lol:
 
goddamn motherfecker. I just got Ole'd. Met Utd in the final of CL and dominated. 60% possession, 12 shots on target. Utd had 2 shots total and scored on both. Martial on the counter both times. I now, for the next 5 minutes, hate Utd.

At least United won the CL! :D
Made it to the PL with ease and realised that I had a shed load of players out on loan that were premier league quality and were just out on loan due to wages. Took the plunge and spent most of my budget on Moukoko who joins in January. Picked up Andre Gomes on the cheap for an extra body in midfield and some 16 year old Real Madrid CB whose contract was expiring.

Had extremely mixed results so far losing 5-0 to Liverpool and 3-2 to United who had 10 men for 80 minutes. But the highlight was beating Spurs 4-3 who had Mourinho in charge forcing Harry Kane into playing DM all game :lol:
Classic Mourinho :lol:
 
3 league games left and it's tight at the top. Only 1 team qualifies for the African CL as well. :nervous:



Edit: Manged to lose out on the league title by 1 point after a draw and 2 wins in my last 3 games let Sundowns in to snatch the title.



I'd led the league from game week 7 :lol:
To add to that misery, managed to lose the FA cup final on penalties in the middle of those fixtures.

One positive is that there are now 2 CL spots from the league for some reason so we qualified, which is the most important thing.
 
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Won the league with Roma and then the Europa league. I started pretty average, was about 6th with 7 wins, 6 draws and 2 defeats. But since then I only lost one more (to Lazio in injury time ffs) and drew about 2-3 games. Even beat Juventus away.

The club still only expects a top half finish for next season for some reason. This year seems buggier than ever. Lazio sacked their manager for their poor league position.. they were 3rd but predicted 5th.
 
What is everyone's best advice for developing promising young players? Get them into first team as soon as possible or focus on their training and individual positions?

Anyone I rate, I bring them up the first team so I can manage their individual training, but make them available for under 18's, until they are about 17, if they are smashing up the u18s move the avaibility to u23, at 18, cup games and consider loaning (make sure any loan club they are going to give full minutes, if it's not regular starter/star player it's not worth it). At 19 you can start pushing them for starting position.

It doesn't overly speed up development to start playing them at 16 no matter the level really. For my current project I got a bit crazy about developing the pipe line of talent, kind a back fired on me a bit, club is rich AF but can't buy anyone. My 19 year old goalkeeper legit just told me "I don't have time to wait for kids to come good" Mate, I just sold the 26year old starter FOR YOU to come goood.

Any suggestions on players capable of playing complete forward as 3 of my 4 strikers drop to 1 star there and are massively ineffective.

Callum Wilson was pretty good at it for me.
 
Just finished my 2nd season in charge of Supersport United in the South African premier league. After last seasons collapse to lose the title we came back with a different system and extra motivated this time. Used a pretty standard 4-2-3-1 formation and didn't do too much special with the roles. Worked a treat though...




We retained the super 8 trophy early on in the season then went undefeated in the league to finally overthrow Sundowns 6 years on dominance and even better we managed to get to the final of the African CL, where we met Sundowns for an all SA final. It went to extra time after it was 1-1 at the end of 90 minutes, we then took over completely and came out on top 4-1.
Objective completed in Africa I'll be looking to see what jobs open up, I feel I've left the team in a decent position, especially financially where the next managed will enjoy a 1.9 million transfer budget.
 
Ended up at Seoul in South Korea. Took over mid-way through the season when they were in 5th and managed to finish 2nd, qualifying for the Asian CL.
Worked my way through the transfer window and managed to pick up some decent players.

This guy could do with a bit more place as a CB but he's a mountain and should help us in both boxes this season


I think this guy could be a bit special for us


Took this guy in on trial and he was just what we needed as our actual main striker was called up for military service for the next two years.


Was a bit of a struggle to keep within the 5 foreign player rules (you only really get 5 if you have an asian foreign player), luckily South Korea has a decent standard of home grown players
 
Do their stats decrease when on military service?
 
Do their stats decrease when on military service?
Can't say for certain as It's been a while since I stayed around long enough to really care but I think they should be fine. When they go on service they join a military football team who plays in the league system in South Korea.
 
I've invented my own club based on an area in Bristol. Got kits and a badge for it as well. Founded in 2020 and financially backed.

Going to start in the Vanarama South with no players or staff and try to work my way all the way up to the Prem.

clifton-city.jpg

clifton-kits.jpg
 
I've invented my own club based on an area in Bristol. Got kits and a badge for it as well. Founded in 2020 and financially backed.

Going to start in the Vanarama South with no players or staff and try to work my way all the way up to the Prem.

clifton-city.jpg

clifton-kits.jpg
Hopefully that Tesla sponsorship grows with your stature.
What sort of backing did you give the club?
 
Hopefully that Tesla sponsorship grows with your stature.
What sort of backing did you give the club?

100k to spend on players/staff.

Everything is extremely difficult without an Assistant manager. I cant even see what is an unrealistic option so it took me ages to actually find an Assman.
 
100k to spend on players/staff.

Everything is extremely difficult without an Assistant manager. I cant even see what is an unrealistic option so it took me ages to actually find an Assman.
Pretty fair amount of money.

I just place adverts for my roles now, it's nice seeing a list of people every few weeks and eventually having to pick the least worst option. :lol:
 
Just had a player score from near the halfway line by volleying the opposition keeper's goal kick.
 
Finished my first full season with Seoul. Ended up 2nd in the league as Jeonbuk are so sort of unstoppable machine. Did manage to win the Champions League and the South Korean FA Cup, so a very good season overall and 2/5 of the challenge completed.



Dembo Darboe wasn't actually registered for the the league in the end (played the first 5 games) due to me signing a CB with 17 passing I wanted to turn into a DLP. The guy still ended up with 31 goals for the season. :lol:
He scored a hat-trick in each leg of the FA Cup final and then 4 goals across the CL final legs (a 3rd hat-trick in 4 games in the 2nd leg).

 
Left Seoul at the end of the season to look for a job in either North or South America. Applied to Estudiantes from Argentina, who were struggling but had and outside chance at making the Copa Libertadores, but they turned me down and hired Martin Palermo. That opened up a job at his old club Colo Colo in Chile. I ended up getting that job, with a team who had won the league for the last 3 years and had a spot in the CL.
It took me a while to get the scouting system set up so I only came across 1 player (lad called Nico Asencio) worth signing before the season started. About halfway through the season now and we're top of the league and made it into the second round of the CL. We had 2 Brazilian teams in our group, one of them trounced us 4-0 when we visited them which is a bit concerning going into the knock-outs :lol:. We did change out system after that and we seem to have gone up a level, plus there is a restricted transfer window in Chile where you can sign up to 3 players, we have picked up a couple of quality players.



Martin Palermo is currently unemployed :lol:
 
Left Seoul at the end of the season to look for a job in either North or South America. Applied to Estudiantes from Argentina, who were struggling but had and outside chance at making the Copa Libertadores, but they turned me down and hired Martin Palermo. That opened up a job at his old club Colo Colo in Chile. I ended up getting that job, with a team who had won the league for the last 3 years and had a spot in the CL.
It took me a while to get the scouting system set up so I only came across 1 player (lad called Nico Asencio) worth signing before the season started. About halfway through the season now and we're top of the league and made it into the second round of the CL. We had 2 Brazilian teams in our group, one of them trounced us 4-0 when we visited them which is a bit concerning going into the knock-outs :lol:. We did change out system after that and we seem to have gone up a level, plus there is a restricted transfer window in Chile where you can sign up to 3 players, we have picked up a couple of quality players.



Martin Palermo is currently unemployed :lol:


Some serious Champ Manager vibes hearing that name again. Always my second signing behind Cherno Samba.
 
Some serious Champ Manager vibes hearing that name again. Always my second signing behind Cherno Samba.
Yeah, the guy has been around forever. Would pop up every year on scout reports way into his late 30s.

Not sure if many people remember the Columbian player Sherman Cárdenas from 2007, he's now an assistant manager in my game. His stats were too bad to bring him in though.
 


Genuinely felt stressed after that game. We were pretty big underdogs going into the final of the CL against Boca but found ourselves 3-0 up. They they start creeping back into the game 3-1, 3-2, and I'm pulling people back making defensive subs before they score a late equaliser to take it into extra time. They then take the lead with a 20 yard curler and I'm looking at 4-3 loss from 3-0 (not even the 1st time it would've happened in this save :lol:), we managed to nick a goal from a corner and just about saw it out to penalties.
Actually feared us throwing it away again when we missed that penalty. :nervous:
They were the better team really but that's 3/5 and a clean sweep of league, super cup and Chilean cup. This is probably the best prepared team I'll be leaving, wouldn't surprised to see them continue dominating Chile for a while and doing well in the CL.
 


Genuinely felt stressed after that game. We were pretty big underdogs going into the final of the CL against Boca but found ourselves 3-0 up. They they start creeping back into the game 3-1, 3-2, and I'm pulling people back making defensive subs before they score a late equaliser to take it into extra time. They then take the lead with a 20 yard curler and I'm looking at 4-3 loss from 3-0 (not even the 1st time it would've happened in this save :lol:), we managed to nick a goal from a corner and just about saw it out to penalties.
Actually feared us throwing it away again when we missed that penalty. :nervous:
They were the better team really but that's 3/5 and a clean sweep of league, super cup and Chilean cup. This is probably the best prepared team I'll be leaving, wouldn't surprised to see them continue dominating Chile for a while and doing well in the CL.


With the hopeless squad building AI, I wouldn't bet on it. It's always been my complaint of the series.
 
WTF is up with this game?

Two players signed new contracts after the last game of the season with the promise that I will play them in their preferred position.

number of games played since - 0
Number of transfer requests handed in - 2