Gaming Football Manager 2021 (FM21)

sebsheep said:
That's a very good 1st season to be honest. Italy is a fun league as long as you don't fall in love with South American wonder kids.

How high is your back line pushing up?
Click to expand...

Yeah, I am not that fussed about the restrictions and actually quite like that you can’t just fill your team with Brazilians and be done with it. I think I may have messed up by bringing in 3 for next season without realizing!

I think the defensive line is the issue so going to try and solve it by pushing back a bit and playing a cover defender with good pace. Hopefully that will allow us to actually play a bit


Lay said:
I manage Roma a lot because I quite like them. Zainolo was immense for me as a right inside forward. 20+ goals almost every season. Under also was brilliant on the wings.

For a right back, try to get Singo from
Torino I think it is. Can be cheap and free if you’re lucky after a couple of seasons
Click to expand...

I can’t get Zaniolo to play well for me, but it’s possibly the restrictive formation and anti football and his long layoff. I’m hoping I can get him going on the second season because I really like him too and want Italians to stay in the team!
 
NoLogo said:
Jeez 113 goals? What tactic are you using? I don't think I ever got him to score more than 60 goals in all competitions. 113 seems insane.
Click to expand...
4-2-3-1 Gegenpress. Bruno/Ødegaard as an advanced playmaker support in the CAM slot, Rashford/Sancho and Greenwood/Moukoko as attacking inside forwards on the wings and Pogba/Moriba/Hannibal as advanced playmaker support in the left midfield spot and Camavinga/McTom as a defending DLP in the right midfield slot. Haaland plays as an advanced forward up front, and I also have him on penalty duty to maximize goals. I could probably squeeze a few more goals out by switching my wide players to wingers or inverted wingers, but they're not as suited to those roles. Greenwood has been banging in goals for fun as well. He ended up with over 40 in the season Haaland scored 113. As I said, easiest FM ever.

I sold Pogba (£60m) after the second season and bought Moriba, while Moukoko came on a free on extremely low wages. Sancho, Haaland and Ødegaard are my only big outlays apart from that, mostly funded by the sales of Martial (£75m), Andreas (£22m), James (£25m), Maguire (£46m), Telles (£45m), Lindelöf (£45m), Fred (£30m) and DvdB (£40m). Lingard, Matic, Chong and Jones also sold for scraps. I also picked up Depay on a free after the first season and sold him for £55m a year later. I've revamped the central defence with Luiz Felipe and Pau Torres, as well as a young Bosnian guy called Ahmedhodzic who does the job as a squad player along with Bailly. They were quite cheap, costing about £65m in total. Shaw, AWB, Williams and Dalot are still going strong at full back and I can't find any improvements on them at a reasonable price at the moment. I tried picking up Alaba for free, but he went to Liverpool instead, so he's dead to me forever.
 
Maluco said:
Yeah, I am not that fussed about the restrictions and actually quite like that you can’t just fill your team with Brazilians and be done with it. I think I may have messed up by bringing in 3 for next season without realizing!

I think the defensive line is the issue so going to try and solve it by pushing back a bit and playing a cover defender with good pace. Hopefully that will allow us to actually play a bit
Click to expand...
I'm currently able to free up an extra spot when a non-eu player leaves so you can bring 2 into your squad each season, can probably just loan young players out anyway.
 
I think FM has become a little too easy now, which is unfortunate. There should be a lot more roadblocks between turning non league sides into CL winners, or even taking a small PL club to the title. It's become too easy to just cruise through the leagues at this point, getting promoted most seasons. It's only the PL and Championship that feel a bit of a challenge for a newly promoted outfit because the money gets silly and that takes time to adjust the club to.

I think even a small amount of experience with the game and logical decision making with transfers and tactics seems to result in pretty immediate success. It's as if the match engine has a small margin built in that favours the human player, and then the natural advantages the human player has over AI outside matches also helps.

I'd at least like some option for greater difficulty within the match engine.
 
Went into this season with a new formation after I kinda fell out with my only quality left back and sold him. We're now playing a 3-4-1-2, which I had considered might've broken the game after we were 6-0 at half time in our first game of the season. It ended 7-1 so I think we're good.
Initially struggled in the CL losing our first 2 games to Arsenal and A Madrid, but fought back with 4 wins on the bounce beating Celtic twice, then Arsenal which set up a must win last game against A Madrid. We went 1-0 after my keeper decided to dive out for a cross and then palm it into his own net, made a few subs and our substitute striker scored 4 goals in 30 mins to give us a 4-1 win and send us through in 2nd place. He might be about to leave club after kicking off over playing time... :nervous:



We've had a few issues playing against quality teams using 4-2-3-1 systems and Inter's 4-4-1-1 but I think I may have found a fix by moving our CMs back to DMs really seems to turn things around. We came back from 1-0 against Arsenal to win 3-2 (they had taken us to pieces in the 1st game as well) and fought back from 2-0 against Inter to win 3-2.
 
Only bad thing about Moukoko is he's dogshit on penalties. Been trying to train him up on them.
 
Red Stone said:
4-2-3-1 Gegenpress. Bruno/Ødegaard as an advanced playmaker support in the CAM slot, Rashford/Sancho and Greenwood/Moukoko as attacking inside forwards on the wings and Pogba/Moriba/Hannibal as advanced playmaker support in the left midfield spot and Camavinga/McTom as a defending DLP in the right midfield slot. Haaland plays as an advanced forward up front, and I also have him on penalty duty to maximize goals. I could probably squeeze a few more goals out by switching my wide players to wingers or inverted wingers, but they're not as suited to those roles. Greenwood has been banging in goals for fun as well. He ended up with over 40 in the season Haaland scored 113. As I said, easiest FM ever.

I sold Pogba (£60m) after the second season and bought Moriba, while Moukoko came on a free on extremely low wages. Sancho, Haaland and Ødegaard are my only big outlays apart from that, mostly funded by the sales of Martial (£75m), Andreas (£22m), James (£25m), Maguire (£46m), Telles (£45m), Lindelöf (£45m), Fred (£30m) and DvdB (£40m). Lingard, Matic, Chong and Jones also sold for scraps. I also picked up Depay on a free after the first season and sold him for £55m a year later. I've revamped the central defence with Luiz Felipe and Pau Torres, as well as a young Bosnian guy called Ahmedhodzic who does the job as a squad player along with Bailly. They were quite cheap, costing about £65m in total. Shaw, AWB, Williams and Dalot are still going strong at full back and I can't find any improvements on them at a reasonable price at the moment. I tried picking up Alaba for free, but he went to Liverpool instead, so he's dead to me forever.
Click to expand...

Interesting. I'm playing a 4231 Gegenpress in my old United save game as well with an insane team and I'm nowhere near those numbers. How many goals do you score in a season? If Haaland and Greenwood get to 153 goals you probably break the 200 goals barrier?

Oh yeah and the Mukoko on a free thing is a nice fecking oversight by the devs, he has a contract running for one year but it only started at the starts so late, that Dortmund has no chance of renewing his contract before other teams can make offers for him.
 
Have no idea how you guys are doing this. I have reorganized and am playing some good football, but they very top teams are beyond me, even with some good players.

Difficult to get the truly great players in on our budget too. Maybe it’s normal to still be a level below at this stage.
 
Hello guys

Bought Football Manager for the first time in years.

The main screen is not working though... Too big for my laptop.

Any idea how to sort this? I am blocked at the start when I have to agree terms because the OK button is too low for my screen.
 
Nani Nana said:
Hello guys

Bought Football Manager for the first time in years.

The main screen is not working though... Too big for my laptop.

Any idea how to sort this? I am blocked at the start when I have to agree terms because the OK button is too low for my screen.
Click to expand...
Are you able to change the resolution anywhere?
 
Maluco said:
Have no idea how you guys are doing this. I have reorganized and am playing some good football, but they very top teams are beyond me, even with some good players.

Difficult to get the truly great players in on our budget too. Maybe it’s normal to still be a level below at this stage.
Click to expand...
Your team is doing well so wouldn't worry about it. The finances and transfer restrictions in Italy means it can take a little longer.

Don't think I've ever scored close to 200 goals in a season anyway. :lol:
 
sebsheep said:
Your team is doing well so wouldn't worry about it. The finances and transfer restrictions in Italy means it can take a little longer.

Don't think I've ever scored close to 200 goals in a season anyway. :lol:
Click to expand...

I can’t remember coming close on any version to be honest!

I was able to bring in Malen for the left hand side and Castagne at right back at a cost. Have also brought in Pedro from Flamengo to put some pressure on Belotti. Zaniolo has resigned and I have talked him round but his form is still patchy.

Pellegrini and Veretout are playing out of their skin at the moment, and Ibanez is turning into a monster. We squeaked through our CL group and you can tell we are a level off the big teams.

We might have to go big and go home on transfers. We have Gabriel Menino coming in next season, so he could potentially make a difference to the level of the first team.

I am going to go big on free transfers to try and get a boost in quality. We still depend on loans to make up the numbers and it would be great just for the value alone to get in a few big names.

I still can’t seem to get the balance right against the big teams, but as I said, it’s maybe a case of just not having the players at this stage.

We have Inter in the semi-final of the Italian Cup, Liverpool (disaster as they are OP) on the last 16 of the CL and sit 3 points behind a rampant Juve in mid-January.

We are working on a massive signing in this window, but two players need to leave to make it happen....and they won’t budge!! Fingers crossed!
 
Maluco said:
I can’t remember coming close on any version to be honest!

I was able to bring in Malen for the left hand side and Castagne at right back at a cost. Have also brought in Pedro from Flamengo to put some pressure on Belotti. Zaniolo has resigned and I have talked him round but his form is still patchy.

Pellegrini and Veretout are playing out of their skin at the moment, and Ibanez is turning into a monster. We squeaked through our CL group and you can tell we are a level off the big teams.

We might have to go big and go home on transfers. We have Gabriel Menino coming in next season, so he could potentially make a difference to the level of the first team.

I am going to go big on free transfers to try and get a boost in quality. We still depend on loans to make up the numbers and it would be great just for the value alone to get in a few big names.

I still can’t seem to get the balance right against the big teams, but as I said, it’s maybe a case of just not having the players at this stage.

We have Inter in the semi-final of the Italian Cup, Liverpool (disaster as they are OP) on the last 16 of the CL and sit 3 points behind a rampant Juve in mid-January.

We are working on a massive signing in this window, but two players need to leave to make it happen....and they won’t budge!! Fingers crossed!
Click to expand...

You're doing well. Where do you play Zainolo?
 
Is there a harder match in this game than Watford away? :mad:
 
Lay said:
You're doing well. Where do you play Zainolo?
Click to expand...

Playing him on the right now as an inside forward. It’s slow but he is starting to have some good games there and is happy again, so tied him down to a contract while I could.

Hopefully he kicks on in second half of the season as we are out of the Italian Cup now and have Liverpool next!
 
JB08 said:
Is there a harder match in this game than Watford away? :mad:
Click to expand...

For me it’s always Lazio. Only team that consistently beats me on every fm. The days of Felipe Anderson tearing me apart still annoy me.
 
I’ve worked out I’m on a 41 match unbeaten streak in the Prem. 9 away from the record but that includes trips to Anfield and OT.
 
Solius said:
I’ve worked out I’m on a 41 match unbeaten streak in the Prem. 9 away from the record but that includes trips to Anfield and OT.
Click to expand...

I’ve gotten to a point with my Feyenoord save that I only personally manage Ajax and PSV away games and my knockout CL games. I am gradually raising the leagues rep (we are now 5), and should hopefully pass France in the next couple years. I cheer harder for Ajax in the CL than for my own team! Can’t remember the last league game I lost.
 
Think Madrid are keen.

Capture.jpg
 
Lay said:
For me it’s always Lazio. Only team that consistently beats me on every fm. The days of Felipe Anderson tearing me apart still annoy me.
Click to expand...
Just came here to post that I'd smashed them 8-1, went onto my schedule and realised that it was a mid-season friendly :lol:
 
My big signing in January went down to the wire, but we pulled it off! Harry Kane joining for 80 milllion after we managed to shift Mancini and Belotti to squeeze it in with 30 million in installments.

He made a difference in the second half of the season and helped us squeeze past Liverpool despite getting absolutely blitzed all game. We then got dumped out in comfortable fashion to Chelsea in the next round.

We won Série A and we have to be happy about that. Inter and Juve have invested heavily and we did well to stay out in front all season. We picked up the Super Cup too. Inter knocked us out of the cup.

We went crazy with free transfers because we really need value in the squad. We have Stones, Dembele, Onana, Isco and Milik all coming in on a free. Wages are decent, but not decent enough that we can’t make a killing in 12 months times. It basically makes up our whole bench and Onana comes in as number one. Massive value into the squad.

Crucially, it’s allows us to sell Romagnoli, Pedro, Livkovic and gets us two decent backups for our wide areas that will net a profit even if they don’t work out. (Isco was brought In specifically to sell in a years time)

With player sales, I plan to go big in the summer to try and close the gap to the top teams. We probably need to say goodbye to players like Veretout, Castagne and Spinazzola who just aren’t quite at that level we want to be. Top class players only this summer!
 
Solius said:
Woah I just had a VAR check for offside on one of my goals and then the goal was actually awarded. Is this new?

I've been almost trained to know it's not a goal as soon as it says it's being checked.
Click to expand...
Holy smokes, this has just happened to me!
 
Maluco said:
My big signing in January went down to the wire, but we pulled it off! Harry Kane joining for 80 milllion after we managed to shift Mancini and Belotti to squeeze it in with 30 million in installments.

He made a difference in the second half of the season and helped us squeeze past Liverpool despite getting absolutely blitzed all game. We then got dumped out in comfortable fashion to Chelsea in the next round.

We won Série A and we have to be happy about that. Inter and Juve have invested heavily and we did well to stay out in front all season. We picked up the Super Cup too. Inter knocked us out of the cup.

We went crazy with free transfers because we really need value in the squad. We have Stones, Dembele, Onana, Isco and Milik all coming in on a free. Wages are decent, but not decent enough that we can’t make a killing in 12 months times. It basically makes up our whole bench and Onana comes in as number one. Massive value into the squad.

Crucially, it’s allows us to sell Romagnoli, Pedro, Livkovic and gets us two decent backups for our wide areas that will net a profit even if they don’t work out. (Isco was brought In specifically to sell in a years time)

With player sales, I plan to go big in the summer to try and close the gap to the top teams. We probably need to say goodbye to players like Veretout, Castagne and Spinazzola who just aren’t quite at that level we want to be. Top class players only this summer!
Click to expand...
Congratulations, That's a good season and some good signings for next year. Haven't played with Kane this year but I imagine he's pretty damn good.
 
Monster summer! Team cohesion is destroyed but we have a MUCH better squad and MUCH better first team than last season.

We already added Dembele, Stones, Isco, Milik and Onana on free transfers and we proceeded to shift all those players that have done well, but have average stats.

Spinazzola (29 million), Castagne (39 million), Veretout (24 million), Romagnoli (55 million), Lafont (15 million), Villar (44 million), Livkovic (15 million) all depart. Some very unhappy at doing so (Veretout was irate at having to go to West Ham!)

That has meant we were able to go out and splash the cash on Camavinga, Valverde, Nuno Mendes and Trincao. Massive upgrades to our first eleven and a summer that took ages to plan and organize.

Inter and Juve have also gone hard on reinforcements and Inter, in particular, have an amazing team.

Now, to try and get that cohesion back!

It’s going to be a big season!
 
I deleted the files need for the Germany fix for my game. It worked initially. After a season and a half it has gone back to not being able to manage Germany and them not picking players. I think it happened after Steam updated. Is there any way to fix this mid game? I deleted the files required in all the folders but that did not work.
 
Name Changed said:
I deleted the files need for the Germany fix for my game. It worked initially. After a season and a half it has gone back to not being able to manage Germany and them not picking players. I think it happened after Steam updated. Is there any way to fix this mid game? I deleted the files required in all the folders but that did not work.
Click to expand...

If we deleted them again, it may sort itself out during the next international break
 
I thought all my incomings were done after my monster summer. I saw Cristiano Ronaldo was let go by Juve and no one wanted him. He accepted talking to me, but wanted 650,000 a week, so I left it and never went back.

At the end of August, I see in the newsfeed that Tottenham have offered him a contract. There was no way Levy was offering him that! So I took a look.

He asks for JUST 28,000 a week to be the new Head of Youth/Player and his stats are still incredible. I sack Bruno Conti and offer him 35.000 a week and he signs the same day.

Sorry Bruno, but once in a lifetime chance and all that!

We are unbeaten up to the World Cup break in November, but have drawn with most quality teams we have faced and look unconvincing in those game. Salzburg gave us real problems in the CL, for example. A tweak to the style and formation over the break and some friendly tests needed!

Gabriel Menino wants a mega contract and Ronaldo is unhappy I haven’t given it to him. Milik, who has done well a few times with Kane rested, has come to me and said he isn’t good enough to be here and wants out and has transfer listed himself. Felipe Luíz has also thrown his toys out of his pram about not playing enough and has made a fuss in the media tanking squad morale.

I was happy with squad, but looks like I will be forced into some minor surgery to get the trouble makers out and get in some decent replacements.
 
Finally got a new laptop with way more space on it. Can get facepacks and graphics updates on FM again. Woo. Past years struggled through FM without faces as the files were way too big and I cheaped out on my laptop in 2016.
 
Started a new save with Napoli. Skipped the first season and took over them after they finished 5th. I gutted majority of the squad and signed some good players. Milan transfer listed Romagnoli for some reason (played all their games pretty much) for £20m, brought back Cavani, signed Phillips from Leeds and got Buffon on a free. I have Onana coming next season on a free.

Midway through the season and I’m second. Cavani has been brilliant and has kept Osimhen out the team.

Milik is out on loan and will go for a free
as he’s refusing to sign a new contract due to the fans hating him. Never seen that before :lol:
 
I've done my four-year tradition of buying this. Have 05, 09, 13, 17 and now 21. A lot seems to have changed. Some actually good changes at that, which hasn't always been the case. Scouting is way more difficult, which is a good thing. Hierarchy and relationships are better.

Still waiting on a DoF/Owner mode though.
 
altodevil said:
I've done my four-year tradition of buying this. Have 05, 09, 13, 17 and now 21. A lot seems to have changed. Some actually good changes at that, which hasn't always been the case. Scouting is way more difficult, which is a good thing. Hierarchy and relationships are better.

Still waiting on a DoF/Owner mode though.
Click to expand...
But it’s Football Manager
 
Lay said:
Started a new save with Napoli. Skipped the first season and took over them after they finished 5th. I gutted majority of the squad and signed some good players. Milan transfer listed Romagnoli for some reason (played all their games pretty much) for £20m, brought back Cavani, signed Phillips from Leeds and got Buffon on a free. I have Onana coming next season on a free.

Midway through the season and I’m second. Cavani has been brilliant and has kept Osimhen out the team.

Milik is out on loan and will go for a free
as he’s refusing to sign a new contract due to the fans hating him. Never seen that before :lol:
Click to expand...

I got Onana and he has been great for me so far! I got in Milik on a free too and he left after 5 months because he “didn’t think he was good enough”.

He must have a strong character in the game.

2nd is great going and really like your use of the legends. They have far more respect for older players in this years version and it’s great.

Anyone 33+ in older versions physicals bombed almost immediately.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.