Gundo's FM08 Small club from a small nation European adventure challenge

[Gundo]

Originally posted by cookie15:

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Jimbokav1971:

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Gundo:

Good Luck in Northern Irelend Jimbo. What are your boards long term expectations forthe club? I guessing but I wouldn't think they'd be too ambitious, am I wrong?

Gundo. The board wants the team to establish itself in the Second Division by the end of the 2 year plan.

At this very moment I am on the opening day of the new season.

The board are very pleased that the team accomplished the long term goals ahead of schedule and wants the team to continue in this manner. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

KUTGW Jimbo, you're bound to do well </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I'm tying to think of what I'd prefer in terms expectations. To be under pressure to do well or being under pressure at the other end of the table and trying to avoid relegation. I think relegation battles are much more fun imo.

[Gundo]

Unlucky CoachFlu, there's no shame finishing second behind Club Brugge, especially since they went unbeaten for the whole season aswel!

[CoachFlu]

Originally posted by Gundo:

Unlucky CoachFlu, there's no shame finishing second behind Club Brugge, especially since they went unbeaten for the whole season aswel!

Indeed, and their wage budget was still about 4x mine as well, so I'm not too worried.

One disadvantage to "only" qualifying for the UEFA Cup is that, for some reason, I have to start in the First Qualifying Round this time. Which means we'll have an important match in mid-July already, when everyone's still fat and lazy. The opponent should be rather poor (some team from Malta, I think), but they'll be grey and fit, so I'm not fully confident.

[Jimbokav1971]

Originally posted by Gilbster:

I just feel that the Islanders I keep finding and trialling are far better than the same 4 players my scouts keep finding in Northern Ireland, despite them probably not being good enough for Europe. Without being able to scout anywhere else at the moment, I just cant make any progress at the moment without my islander band!

I'll probably make a decision in the next few days about how much longer I can continue happily in Northern Ireland before getting itchy feet.

Gilbster. I know from your next post that you do feel now that you are making some progress, (congratulations on your little bit of success in Europe by the way), but keep the faith with the scouts. I feel that it has improved dramatically.

Season 1. No scouts for first 3-4 months, then the same player being put forward again and again.

Season 2. 3 new scouts signed, and all 3 returned reports stating that they couldn't find anyone, but the very next report, (requested immediately) returned info on 8 different players, (3 of whom I have some interest in at least).

I have NEVER signed and islander, and never will until my carp scouts find them on their own.

Good luck .

[Gilbster]

Originally posted by Jimbokav1971:

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Gilbster:

I just feel that the Islanders I keep finding and trialling are far better than the same 4 players my scouts keep finding in Northern Ireland, despite them probably not being good enough for Europe. Without being able to scout anywhere else at the moment, I just cant make any progress at the moment without my islander band!

I'll probably make a decision in the next few days about how much longer I can continue happily in Northern Ireland before getting itchy feet.

Gilbster. I know from your next post that you do feel now that you are making some progress, (congratulations on your little bit of success in Europe by the way), but keep the faith with the scouts. I feel that it has improved dramatically.

Season 1. No scouts for first 3-4 months, then the same player being put forward again and again.

Season 2. 3 new scouts signed, and all 3 returned reports stating that they couldn't find anyone, but the very next report, (requested immediately) returned info on 8 different players, (3 of whom I have some interest in at least).

I have NEVER signed and islander, and never will until my carp scouts find them on their own.

Good luck . </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Thanks Jimbo. My scouts are occasionally finding the odd promising player. It has just occurred to me that my transfer kitty is so high that I may be able to afford better staff all around at the moment!

I am marginally fed up of scouts finding me 6 decent - good goalkeepers when I had what I considered to be a brilliant goalkeeper at the time.

I do use my scouts as well as my islanders, but at least I can make lots of money from the islanders, I think some are being targeted by non British clubs already.

At least one of my scout found purchases from the summer has been played a bit however despite him scoring goals, my fans think he is a poor signing.

How are you enjoying life at Mosside? They are one of my feeder clubs, but my players have never wanted to go there!

Good luck too Jimbo, especially following LLM rules

[Gilbster]

Downpatrick, Northern Ireland - Premier Division - 2017/18 End of Season Update

Each season I am getting an upgrade to stadium capacity and also to training and youth facilities. I dont seem to have any loans to deal with yet either, so I quite like my board. They are saying that we have some of the best facilities in the league but still are agreeing to upgrade to better things.

Europe as you will see from my update (bottom of previous page) was an improvement, and we narrowly went out of the 2nd qualifying round to OB a Danish side.

Domestically it was same old, same old. Still 4 trophies are mine (including league title for 6th season running). Only difference is this year I hit the maximum of 90 points, and a goal difference of 99!

All-Ireland Cup I won the first 3 group games, and then needed another win against the other Northern Irish side Limavady to go through to the semis. The semis saw us paired with Drogheda who had beaten us in last years final, and this time it took them til extra time to manage to get the 2-0 win they were expected to get.

Updated Profile - I'm now World Class apparently

Table

Transfers

Coefficients for Gundo

477th Downpatrick 0.495

43rd Northern Ireland 1.500

[Joshisapoolie]

Hey everyone Holidaying in Belarus as I type!

Looking forward to starting this years challenge which thankfully won't be cut short by my useless comp. My new laptop seems to process the game alot faster

Surprised the Belarusian leagues havent been very popular, the reputation is low but the structure and rules seem pretty cool.

[mocko666]

Just thought id share one of my greatest moments in Football manager 08 showing that the true beauty of the game is still there on matter how hard it is to find, imagine how ecstatic i was when Jelsic poked home the first and Hrubina put the game to bed in the 86th minute

The magic is still there

Life is good, but how long will it last???

[Barca4ever]

I dont know Guando they work for me and seem to be working for everyone else. I gotta question for you guys. How long does it take to clear a lona like that? What can I do not to make it any bigger? Or to speed it's clearence? By your comments it sounds like this will make the challenge very hard in the long term? Why is that so?

[Annihilator666]

Annihilator666 - Nortel - Season 12/13 - Northern Irish Premier Division

Manager Profile - Manager Profile

Table - League Table | Position Graph

Results - Results #1 | Results #2

Transfers - Transfers Summary

Finances - Finance Summary

Other Info - Club Information | Manager Information

Top Scorer - Kenny Neilly

Fans' Player of the Year - Kenny Neilly

Records - Team Overall Records | Team Season Records

Premier Division:

An improvement over last season, finishing one place higher in 3rd, and with 9 more points. A couple of soft defeats cost us 2nd position and a UEFA Cup spot, but we did qualify for the Intertoto Cup again by finishing in 3rd.

The Cups:

The season started with the team's first appearance in Europe, against Nistru Otaci of Moldova in the Intertoto Cup. After a couple of battling performances, we finally succumbed 2-1 on agg.

In the domestic cups, we were carp. Got to a couple of Quarter Finals, and lost in the 5th round of the Irish Cup.

All-Ireland Cup:

I guess I qualified for this by finishing runner-up in the Irish Cup the season before, as the winners of the Cup qualified via the League. Anyways, I suffered the same problems as Gilbster - the all-grey Irish teams of doom. I beat Linfield home and away, but couldn't get anything from Derry City or Cork and I was eliminated. However, the money from the tournament is totally awesome - got like £250,000 for being carp.

The Board, finances, etc.:

Still no upgrades to the stadium, training or youth facilities. Probably need a bit more than £400k in the bank though.

[Annihilator666]

Gundo, some coefficients for your table.

Nortel - 472nd, 0.715

Northern Ireland - 45th, 1.833

[Gilbster]

Originally posted by Annihilator666:

Annihilator666 - Nortel - Season 12/13 - Northern Irish Premier Division

All-Ireland Cup:

I guess I qualified for this by finishing runner-up in the Irish Cup the season before, as the winners of the Cup qualified via the League. Anyways, I suffered the same problems as Gilbster - the all-grey Irish teams of doom. I beat Linfield home and away, but couldn't get anything from Derry City or Cork and I was eliminated. However, the money from the tournament is totally awesome - got like £250,000 for being carp.

The Board, finances, etc.:

Still no upgrades to the stadium, training or youth facilities. Probably need a bit more than £400k in the bank though.

I love the money from that All-Ireland cup. Even if I wasnt doing stupid amounts of business from my islanders (none of whom even spawned this season), the money from All Ireland Cup and losing in Champion's league qualifiers is enough for me profit most seasons.

Are Glentoran the team to beat then in your game, because Portadown had been dominating until I started to?

Looks like some nice progress so KUTGW

[cookie15]

Originally posted by Joshisapoolie:

Hey everyone Holidaying in Belarus as I type!

Looking forward to starting this years challenge which thankfully won't be cut short by my useless comp. My new laptop seems to process the game alot faster

Surprised the Belarusian leagues havent been very popular, the reputation is low but the structure and rules seem pretty cool.

Best of luck

[Annihilator666]

Originally posted by Gilbster:

Are Glentoran the team to beat then in your game, because Portadown had been dominating until I started to?

Looks like some nice progress so KUTGW

Yep, Glentoran have won the league almost every season: Linfield have won it once.

Last season I had enough money to start signing most of my players on full time contracts, and all my coaching staff are on full-time deals so I'm hoping for some improvement this season.

I've been following your updates, hopefully you can get into the 3rd qualifying round and beyond soon!

[mocko666]

How do i beat a team with 10 men because ive played ten men about half a dozen times and i have a record of 0-1-5 i think its quite poor, ive even lost when in winning positons by two goals.

Help needed fast

[mocko666]

How do i beat a team with 10 men because ive played ten men about half a dozen times and i have a record of 0-1-5 i think its quite poor, ive even lost when in winning positons by two goals.

Help needed fast

Make that 0-1-6

[migwar]

mocko666

Hey there, i didn't realise you were managing Puchov. Good luck

Keep an eye on those finances. At last check I was £650k in the red

[mocko666]

Well im currently 80k in the red and i have drawn my last 6 games cant seem to get a result or a good goal scorer.

Howl ong did it take you to get out of the league my form has been so inconsistent that one game im 2nd and two later im 6th but im enjoying it sorta so thats the main thing.

Any advice on beating ten men cos i jsut cannot win against them.

Im currently at the winter break and its possibly the most irritating part of the game so far 2 months without a game and had about 3 players getl ong term injuries in that time.

[rlipscombe]

just a quick update to say that not going too well so far as Baia Mare in Romania. record so far is 0-4-5. thorwn away too many winning positions, it's intrue. and why do we have injury time??? i'd be top of the legue if we finished on 90 minutes!! i'm currently 17th of 18, and already 6 points off getting out of the drop zone... a long battle awaits!! Achim keeps banging them in though!!

[Jimbokav1971]

Originally posted by Annihilator666:

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Gilbster:

Are Glentoran the team to beat then in your game, because Portadown had been dominating until I started to?

Looks like some nice progress so KUTGW

Yep, Glentoran have won the league almost every season: Linfield have won it once.

Last season I had enough money to start signing most of my players on full time contracts, and all my coaching staff are on full-time deals so I'm hoping for some improvement this season.

I've been following your updates, hopefully you can get into the 3rd qualifying round and beyond soon! </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Most of my players have been on full time contracts since half way through the first season.

Although I'm stull under budget, I'm leaking money like a big sievey thing with lots of holes in .

[cookie15]

Originally posted by Jimbokav1971:

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Annihilator666:

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Gilbster:

Are Glentoran the team to beat then in your game, because Portadown had been dominating until I started to?

Looks like some nice progress so KUTGW

Yep, Glentoran have won the league almost every season: Linfield have won it once.

Last season I had enough money to start signing most of my players on full time contracts, and all my coaching staff are on full-time deals so I'm hoping for some improvement this season.

I've been following your updates, hopefully you can get into the 3rd qualifying round and beyond soon! </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Most of my players have been on full time contracts since half way through the first season.

Although I'm stull under budget, I'm leaking money like a big sievey thing with lots of holes in . </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Some sort of industrial collander then i presume

[Gilbster]

Originally posted by Jimbokav1971:

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Annihilator666:

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Gilbster:

Are Glentoran the team to beat then in your game, because Portadown had been dominating until I started to?

Looks like some nice progress so KUTGW

Yep, Glentoran have won the league almost every season: Linfield have won it once.

Last season I had enough money to start signing most of my players on full time contracts, and all my coaching staff are on full-time deals so I'm hoping for some improvement this season.

I've been following your updates, hopefully you can get into the 3rd qualifying round and beyond soon! </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Most of my players have been on full time contracts since half way through the first season.

Although I'm stull under budget, I'm leaking money like a big sievey thing with lots of holes in . </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I was leaking money until my 2nd or third season in the Premier Division. At that point I was given a huge grant (no news item) and the board started to expand my stadium.

Before that I never did have any cash injections from the board either despite them complaining constantly about the finances.

[Gilbster]

Downpatrick, Northern Ireland - Premier Division - End of Season Update

Champions League First Qualifying Round vs Flora (Estonia)

Leg 1 (a) 0-3

Leg 2 (h) 3-1

Overall 6-1 to Downpatrick on Aggregate, which saw us set up a tie against Levski Sofia (Bulgaria).

Leg 1 (a) 0-2

Leg 2 (h) 0-0

Such a shame we didnt get past them, but that first leg deficit was too hard to get past.

Domestically we won the same trophies as the past few seasons. Downpatrick has now won the league title for 7 consecutive seasons. The Irish Cup for 7 consecutive seasons (8 in total), the Antrim Cup for 7 consecutive seasons and the League cup 5 times in total.

My reserve team won the Antrim Trophy also this season, which lead to the whole team getting another £55k win bonus.

Downpatrick got past the group stage in the All-Ireland cup, and then beat Derry City 4-0 in the semi final to set up another meeting with my arch nemesis Drogheda Utd.

All-Ireland Cup Final - so close this time

Info Screen - wow my capacity is miles better than when I started, when it was 905!

Table

Transfers

I have £5.8 Million in the bank, so hopefully the club will start considering turning pro soon.

489th Downpatrick 0.605

40th Northern Ireland 1.833

[Gilbster]

Downpatrick Update

Its a proud day for Irish Football, Downpatrick has announced that is has turned professional

I am now able to scout the whole of Europe. Hopefully I will be able to find some good young gems. This game is about to get a lot more interesting.

[Jimbokav1971]

Originally posted by Gilbster:

Downpatrick Update

Its a proud day for Irish Football, Downpatrick has announced that is has turned professional

I am now able to scout the whole of Europe. Hopefully I will be able to find some good young gems. This game is about to get a lot more interesting.

Congratulations .

I know I felt it was a HUGE milestone in FM07 when I reached this point.

Are any of the other N.Ireland teams professional yet?

[Jimbokav1971]

Gilbster. Will you give us a bit of a recap as to where you are at the moment and what you have achieved to date so that I know when I might hope to turn pro. Maybe a finaces overview too.

Cheers.

[Gilbster]

Downpatrick, Northern Ireland - Summary so far

Originally posted by Jimbokav1971:

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Gilbster:

Downpatrick Update

Its a proud day for Irish Football, Downpatrick has announced that is has turned professional

I am now able to scout the whole of Europe. Hopefully I will be able to find some good young gems. This game is about to get a lot more interesting.

Congratulations .

I know I felt it was a HUGE milestone in FM07 when I reached this point.

Are any of the other N.Ireland teams professional yet? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Thank you Jimbo.

No other clubs are professional yet in Northern Ireland. My scouts have already found some good looking new defenders for me. Also been able to scout varying of the international competitions, so if I suddenly have a few signings from outside Europe, its due to scouting competitions.

As requested:

Finance Summary

Competition Summary

Champion's League Summary - had 1 season in UEFA cup, but it was a loss in the first round, back in 2011/12.

Records Screen

Currently have Good Training facilities, and Average Youth Facilities, but an upgrade is in process so I know they will improve again soon.

I turned into a World Class Manager a season or two ago.

Anything else you want to know?

[Annihilator666]

Originally posted by Gilbster:

Downpatrick Update

Its a proud day for Irish Football, Downpatrick has announced that is has turned professional

I am now able to scout the whole of Europe. Hopefully I will be able to find some good young gems. This game is about to get a lot more interesting.

Grats!

Scouting all of Europe should be good, you might get a few gems from Czech Republic, Slovakia, etc.

[iacovone]

Well after a minor break, iacovone and Slavonija are back!!!

[Gilbster]

Originally posted by Annihilator666:

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Gilbster:

Downpatrick Update

Its a proud day for Irish Football, Downpatrick has announced that is has turned professional

I am now able to scout the whole of Europe. Hopefully I will be able to find some good young gems. This game is about to get a lot more interesting.

Grats!

Scouting all of Europe should be good, you might get a few gems from Czech Republic, Slovakia, etc. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Thanks

You mean like him?

[iacovone]

Originally posted by Gilbster:

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Annihilator666:

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Gilbster:

Downpatrick Update

Its a proud day for Irish Football, Downpatrick has announced that is has turned professional

I am now able to scout the whole of Europe. Hopefully I will be able to find some good young gems. This game is about to get a lot more interesting.

Grats!

Scouting all of Europe should be good, you might get a few gems from Czech Republic, Slovakia, etc. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Thanks

You mean like him? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Showoff. Good hair though!

[Annihilator666]

Originally posted by Gilbster:

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Annihilator666:

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Gilbster:

Downpatrick Update

Its a proud day for Irish Football, Downpatrick has announced that is has turned professional

I am now able to scout the whole of Europe. Hopefully I will be able to find some good young gems. This game is about to get a lot more interesting.

Grats!

Scouting all of Europe should be good, you might get a few gems from Czech Republic, Slovakia, etc. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Thanks

You mean like him? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Haha, yep.

[yababo]

Messiniakos End of season update 09/10

Short update

We survived in the superleague finished 9th. Currently battling to sign some better players that my scouts have found. Will compile a more extensive report mid-season.

[Barca4ever]

Nes Zion, Israel - National League - 2008/09

Final Position: League Table |

Cups: Toto Cup Group Stage | Israeli Cup 8th Rnd

Transfers: Players In/Players Out

Stat Leaders: Top Goalscorer and Performer

League:

Fantastic finnish to the season. I expected to fight relegation to the last game. Especially after losing 7 of the first 10 games in all competitions. But at one point it we started to stick and played consistant football all season long. All I need is better finnishers and we can put together a promotion run next year. No joke.

Cups:

Did poorly in the Toto Cup. Which is equivalent to the Carling Cup. Only won 2 games out of 10 in the group stages to finnish dead last. 15 points from qualification to the Semi-Final. Did nothing in the Israeli Cup. Equivalent to the FA Cup. This is the one that leads to Uefa Cup if you win it. Lost very early in the 8th round.

[migwar]

Originally posted by mocko666:

Well im currently 80k in the red and i have drawn my last 6 games cant seem to get a result or a good goal scorer.

Howl ong did it take you to get out of the league my form has been so inconsistent that one game im 2nd and two later im 6th but im enjoying it sorta so thats the main thing.

Any advice on beating ten men cos i jsut cannot win against them.

Im currently at the winter break and its possibly the most irritating part of the game so far 2 months without a game and had about 3 players getl ong term injuries in that time.

ok, so i won the 2nd division in my first season, but it was pretty close. My guys went on a 17 game unbeaten run after the winter break, or something like that. But almost threw it away at the end.

Jelsic was top scorer and fans player of the year in my first year.

I now send my payers on a few week long training breaks over winter, as in real life i'm sure they get a holiday.

Hope that's some help...

[iacovone]

barca4ever good season there, nice to see someone taking on the israeli league!

yababo looking forward to your extensive update,

[ghostwriter]

Decided to have a whirl at this.

Switzerland is my country and my club is UGS (Urania Geneve Sport apparently)

Me

UGS

Principally chosen as they:

a) are from the French speaking part

b) have an easy to spell name

c) have a dreadful stadium (although tbf, looking at these photos it seems to be a nice pleasant clean Swiss stadium, just very very small

d) have no debt (yet!)

e) have a disgusting strip; whatever the colour between Fiorentina and Palermo is

They seem to be quite old as well, their official site indicates that the original football club dates from 1898 and the current incarnation from 1922 following a merger, and that the stadium was built the year before.

[Gundo]

Originally posted by mocko666:

How do i beat a team with 10 men because ive played ten men about half a dozen times and i have a record of 0-1-5 i think its quite poor, ive even lost when in winning positions by two goals.

Help needed fast

Jimbo and anybody else who doesn't want to see tactical discussions, look away now.

What I tend to do against teams who are down to 10 men or indeed teams who play really defensively against me is the following; What you want to try and do is draw them out of their 'comfort zone'. I think trying to break through against 10 men or against teams playing defensively is more differcult than ever before in FM08 8.01.

442 based formation

I don't feel simply getting everyone forward works that much anymore, so what I tend to do is play normal to deep defensive line, move your slider bar up to wide or wider still, put your wide players on forward runs often and slow the tempo down. This will hopefully move the opposition about abit and out of their defensive block. Don't be afraid to put one of your center mids onto forward runs often, he'll fill his boots if he's any good by constantly charging into the box later than everyone else. Give your wingers and one center mid forward arrows and play short passing if your players are up to it.

Just be patient also don't deviate until late on in the game (like the last 5mins), at this point just throw everything at them as conceding another goal late on doesn't really matter because it could of course go the other way and there's a chance you could sneak it, it's worth the risk.

The above is dependent on what sort of players you have at your disposal and is only my opinion I may be wrong of course, but it does seem to work for me.

[mocko666]

Cheers Gundo my problem is porbably that i try and bombard them hopefully trying to break them down eventually only to get caught on the break and i usually play quick so that there chasing shadows and it should in theory give me more space if i were to move the ball quicker.

Will try your suggestions next time the opposition go one man down.

Cheers

[Jimbokav1971]

mocko666. I do it a little differently from Gundo. Let me explain.

If you have a man up then you want to spread the play as much as possible to "make the ball do the work". It makes sense that you would then move the width slider as far to the right as possible, thus encouraging your wide players, (wingers and full-backs) to really hug the touch-line.

I normally play with a quich short passing game, (that's correct, as opposite to last year as is possible), and I would increas/decrease these sliders to the max/min. This would result in the ball fizzing aroound and leaving the opposition getting tired out as we hopefully pulled them out of position as they tried to cover for their missing colleague.

The other thing I do is immediately move the attacking and the creative freedom sliders for both my full backs to the max. These will in all likelyhood become your "spare" players as they will no longer have players to mark as the opposition withdraw into a defensive formation leaving 1 man up front.

The only variable really is depth of the defensive line. If they have a speedster up front, then it would be silly for my 2 old slow centre-backs to sit on the halw-way line waiting for the opposition GK to pump the ball over their heads.

Obviously it's important for your players to have a reasonable ability in passing the ball as that's what they will be doing, and I must admit that I play with a VERY defensive holding defensive midfielder, so it is still really like playing with an inverted sweeper if you know what I mean.

Anyway Good luck.

Gundo. I don't mind talking tactics in here or the dafuge thread as long as I'm not talking with someone who is an expert if that makes sense. (I'm not knocking you of course). Talking of tactics, I'm only now getting to grips with the positioning of my full backs against attacking wingers. It is my most proud FM08 accomplishment to date.

[mocko666]

In theiry i would have to go with Jimbokav1971's idea as that is the way id expect would work better however thats how ive tried so far (only not quite as extreme) and judging by my record what the hell do i know about playing against ten men.

I will probably try a mxiture of the two to begin with (if i come to facing ten men which with my current form cant hurt me) with my full backs overalpping but playing patiently.

Cheers for the reply Jimbokav1971 and you too Gundo lets hope it works for me.

P.S currently on a ten match unbeaten run but what the media doesnt say is thats ten games drawn but well at least im not losing.

[Gundo]

Jimbo. I always find talking tactics in here really interesting, you've certainly raised some intriguing observations aswell. I have to say though I have missed the effectiveness of Target Men in FM08 compared to last year.

I agree I'm certainly no expert or I would of completed either this or one of dafuge's challenges by now.

[Barca4ever]

Lol! Quit after losing 9 of first 10 games in the second season. Don't don't know what I did wrong. I had better players that the first season. But everyone was unhappy and morale was very low because they were unhappy about the bonuses set to low. But Im not giving up on this challenge. Will restart it soon in a different country. Most likely in Belgium, Greece, or Turkey. Countries with a wider range of talent.

[CoachFlu]

Meldert, Belgium - October 4th 2018

Quarter-season table.

Just a quickie update. We had a hesitant start of the season, with two draws, but pulled it together fast enough - no harm done.

It's a bit too early in the season to draw any big conclusions, but I don't mind that no team has ran away with the league just yet. Perhaps it'll be one of those seasons where everyone takes points from everyone, that'd increase my chances of getting another title.

On the other hand, Club Brugge still hasn't lost and are now 45 league matches unbeaten. If they keep drawing 5 our of every 8 matches though, I can live with that.

Our UEFA Cup campaign is over for the season, as we failed to reach the group stage.

We were seeded for the Qualifying rounds, and had very little trouble getting past Birkirkara from Malta and NK Gorica from Slovenia. But we were unseeded for the First Round, and Manchester United was a bit out of our league.

The result of the first leg, in Manchester, was 4-2, which gave us a little bit of hope on paper. But if I mention that my goalkeeper got a 9-rating in the match, despite allowing 4 goals, it should be clear just how big the difference in quality was. We managed to hold them to a 1-1 draw at home, which was only a little bit flattering for us - an upset was never in the cards.

So this season won't be a financial success - with the hefty loan payments I need to make the group stages to break even. But I still have some cash from last season, so I should be fine for now.

It will be difficult to please the board this season though. They expected us to reach the UEFA Cup group stage, so that's already one strike against me - no matter if we lost to Man Utd, heh. And they also expect us to win the title, and reach the final of the Belgian Cup. Both objectives aren't impossible to reach, but it'll still be easier to fail than to succeed.

I made no major changes to the team. Only three significant signings this summer: a DC and a DM to replace two 30+ players by the start of next season, and an MC to replace my midfielder who's in the last year of his contract and "keeping his options open."

All three are foreigners again though (two more Spaniards, bringing my total to five now). Had no luck finding decent Belgians on a free this season, and the situation isn't dire enough yet to start splashing cash around for them.

I also have enough room in my wage budget now to think a bit further ahead and start filling up my U21 squad with potential talent.

It'll be a few more seasons before my own youth setup will produce anything useful - the facilities are being upgraded for the first time at the moment - but I picked up a threesome of English kids in the meantime, released from Arsenal and Chelsea. They don't look all that special, but at least I have a few half-decent players to send to my feeder clubs now.

Right, that'll do for now. I'm a bit disappointed that I'm already out of Europe, but considering who we faced, there's not much I could do about it. I'll want either the title or the cup this season though.

Euro Coefficients:

Club: 229th -- 9.822

Nation: 23rd -- 14.625 (1-2-1)

That's another medium-term goal: to keep getting decent results in Europe consistently for the next few seasons, to get the coefficient up a bit. Being seeded to avoid running into teams like Man Utd would be helpful in reaching the group stage.

[Annihilator666]

Annihilator666 - Nortel - Season 13/14 - Northern Irish Premier Division

Manager Profile - Manager Profile

Table - League Table | Position Graph

Results - Results #1 | Results #2

Transfers - Transfers Summary

Finances - Finance Summary

Other Info - Club Information | Manager Information

Top Scorer - Kenny Neilly

Fans' Player of the Year - Kenny Neilly

Records - Team Overall Records | Team Season Records

Premier Division:

Well, it seems this season has propelled Nortel towards domestic domination (similar to Gilbster). Glentoran and Portadown were the only other teams to provide a challenge in the league, but they weren't good enough to stop Nortel winning their first Irish Premier League title. We scored a massive 94 goals in 30 games, while only conceding 20.

The Cups:

First games of the season were against FK Atlantas Klaipeda from Lithuania in the Intertoto Cup. As excepted, their all-grey players totally dominated us and they ran out 6-1 winners on agg.

In the domestic cups, we did a lot better, winning the League and Antrim Cups. However, we were beaten in the QFs of the Irish Cup by an all-grey non-league team.

Didn't make much progress in the All-Ireland Cup again this season. Picked up one win against Linfield, and managed a draw at home to Cork City.

The Board, finances, etc.

At the end of the season, the board announced the first upgrades to the training facilities. However, still no increase to the stadium capacity, but I hope to get that at the end of the next season.

Gundo, info for your table:

1st Domestic League Title

Team Euro Coeff: 477th, 0.715

Nation Euro Coeff: 43rd 2.167

[mocko666]

Draw number 8 in a row has just occurred in the league for my self cannot score and when i do i conceed so close to quitting the game or throwing a game just to get a different scoreline im bored

[Jimbokav1971]

Originally posted by mocko666:

Draw number 8 in a row has just occurred in the league for my self cannot score and when i do i conceed so close to quitting the game or throwing a game just to get a different scoreline im bored

I love draws. I honestly don't care what the score is as long as I don't lose.

I set an unbelievable unbeaten league record in FM07 with something like 357 games, (sounds ridiculous just typing that now). I would rather win 5 games and draw 5 games from 10 giving me 20 points from a possible 30 that win 7 games and lose 3 giving me 21 points.

My advice is split up your team into areas and start at the back. Stop conceding goals and then it doesn't matter how things go at the other end.

[Gilbster]

Congratulations Annihilator666 on your first league title. May it be the first of many

[mocko666]

Finally defeated after11 league games unbeaten didnt win in 10 of them though im pretty bored of the game tbh and Gundo, Jimbo you wont be suprised to know that i lost my "great" unbeaten run to a team with 10 men and yes they came from behind.

Going to see if im enjoying the game come the end of the season and then ill decide whether to start a new game or not

[Jimbokav1971]

mocko. The other thing I would suggest is looking at the set-piece instructions. They can often be the difference between success and failure. maybe you are using an old system that doesn't quite work with the current players. Have you checked that your GK isn't better at taking pens/free-kicks than your existing idiots. My GK is actualy the best free-kick taker in the team, (it's not hard though). One final thing I would say is... try and reduce the attacking/creative sliders of your striker/strikers. It may mean that they are more measured in their approach and might just be the difference.

If you continue as you are though, things will probably remain the same. I would look to fine-tune (and I really do only mean fine-tune), you existing tactic, as 10 games unbeaten is pretty good by anyones standards with the level of clubs that we are managing.

Keep the faith .