[FM 2017] How I Understood People Actually Suiting Up For Imaginary Press Meetings

[Pretended]

I have been nihilistly wasting my lifetime on CM/FM for 22 years now.

For almost 10 years of series of FM though, I was a sorry loser. And that was until I fell in love with genius of Antonio Conte at Chelsea and eventually came across with the awesome tactic thread that sought after his game.

For all preferences and variations there, I played/reloaded the same match over and over and noted down which version worked and not, and if the former for how long etc.

In the end after a few tweaks of mine, MrMourinho's tactic seemed to work best - without the seemingly inevitable cracking of the tactic by AI ever happening to it.

With Vitesse, champions in 2nd season, with Auxerre, bursting out of Ligue 2, champions in 3rd season in Ligue 1, the tactic screamed it was time that I gave my homeland favorites, Fenerbahçe, a shot with it - 'Twas the first time it would be tested with a team of high reputation, hence expectations.

Fenerbahçe's RL squad of last season is composed of reputable names, problematic characters, also aging and/or slow. RvP, Emmanuel Emenike, Aatıf Chaecheoue, Martin Skrtel, Volkan Şen, Roman Neustadter, Miroslav Stoch to name a bunch. So first season was hit and miss, mostly trying to hold the team together, get them acquainted with the new tactic and plan the overhaul ahead.

Anyway, Finishing TSL 3rd in my first season, having cut all deadwood mentioned above, I was fielding a team of which only 2 of 3 centrebacks and the goalie were familiar with each other in the next season, all other positions having been revamped.

Following a bumpy first half of the season, with the start of the second half, I guess through team cohesion reaching a certain threshold, the team started to shine. I drew Bordeaux, Lyon and Liverpool respectively following my qualification from the group round of Euro Cup. All dead in the water now. *ahem*

Proudly looking forward to the semi-final against Napoli, first, we needed to come up versus fierce local rivals, Beşiktaş, whom I had not defeated before. The team was able to win although I would swap whole eleven to keep my first choice of batch fresh the prior match to the derby, so I was quite sure that Beşiktaş would like to forget the upcoming match at my home turf as soon as it would be over.

Naïve. How naïve.

Anyway. Lineups:

 

Not long after the first quarter of an hour had passed, the magic left foot of Talisca was in the works:

 

Less than 2 minutes later, Martin Skrtel suddenly developed a deep loathe for Vincent Aboubakar's lean & muscular lower legs and imagined how he'd look like if they were chopped down.  Breaking News - You get a red card faster than the referee himself following such grotesque performances:

I NEVER take out attackers when I am down to ten men - I am even insensible enough to go with 2 centrebacks in a WB formation here and there -  so, relatively more sensibly, I preferred to draw Ali Çamdalı - the BWM in the middle - back into the centre backs trio and left the midfield to Salih Uçan and Kerem Demirbay.

 

Pretty much devastated in front of our fans in no less than 20 minutes, match was in cruise control of Beşiktaş and they were playing as they would like. If you allow Talisca to work his mojo, he does and does that viciously.

OK now. Derby match. Down to 10 men. Trailing by 2 goals. What to expect?

Not much. I keep two types of lone strikers in hand, one Enes Ünal, Tammy Abraham-like, physical guy or as his substitute quick, agile one like Carlos Fierro or Kylian Mbappe (loaned), vica versa. I have figured out that if one scores an average of 6.4/6.5, it means he's the type the rival countered in-game so I should substitute that guy for the opposite type warming the bench. And that was exactly what I did - or could do - following the oblivious feeling of the aftershock. So, since Enes had scored 6.5, I simply kept him by my side for the second half and allowed Fierro onto the pitch.

20 more minutes into the second half and I could not see much change - and to be fair, I did not expect much, maybe a consolation goal in minute 88 - still, I figured that the midfield was being bypassed quite easily and it was time for Kerem Demirbay (CM-A) to come off and somebody who could Orient-Express between two boxes would fit the bill, Andre Horta to act as a BBM in this particular case.

Only a minute later, a glimmer of hope kindles.

 

Ok that might happen. Now Beşiktaş will revert to a bus-parking style or shift gears up to harass me down before I could stick out my neck again but, hey, what is my all-teams-favorite left wing back Charlie Taylor doing behind the li- OOOOH !
 

That's where I scare off my 2-year-old daughter jumping off my chair and grunting like Uruk Hai.

But hey, my baby is a brave girl so it takes another one to ensure she cannot sleep tonigh- WHAT DA- GOOAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRGHHH !!!!11ONEONEONE

Oh boy. OOOOOH BOY. 

I guess you cannot see the names in action so to make sure you get facts right. All 3 assists are half-time hero Carlos Fierro's.

 

***

22 years in and this game still makes me jump around the house like the acne-booming 24/7-masturbating teenager I was back then.

I have left all family and job-related work aside and have been trying to compose this crappy wall of text and video for a couple of hours now and it's all because of the joy this beautiful game brings via "the beautiful game".

I hope I did not waste your time but, heck, even if I did, it was great fun.

Cheers !

[tenthreeleader]

Glad you enjoyed your game. That's why we're here. Thanks also for sharing the story.

Should you want to post more, do please review the House Rules thread, because as fun as this was, it broke more than a few of them.

Cheers right back at you!

 

[Pretended]

Thank you for the tolerance, I doubt I will bother you again here.

\O

[tenthreeleader]

It's all good. We want writers. And congrats on your game experience.