MarcxD Posted October 27, 2017 Share Posted October 27, 2017 Amsterdamsche Football Club "Those so-called AFC icons, they say they want the best for the club. They don't have one chainsaw in the back of their cars, but three. [...] It's fine to have criticism, but say it directly to my face. [...] I'm getting sick of this hypocritical behaviour. Next game I won't be the manager anymore." That is what the former AFC manager, Ton Du Chatinier, said in real life after their last league game in the third tier of Dutch football. They are currently near the bottom of that league, while they performed really well last year. Time for me to change things up. AFC is an amateur club that plays in the third tier of Dutch football, called the "Tweede Divisie". They are my most local club, and after having success with them last year I want to try that again this year as my first save for FM18. To get them playable I had to holiday two seasons, since the 2017-2018 season of the Jupiler League, the Dutch 2nd tier, does not have relegation. (Don't ask me why, the Dutch FA is run by idiots... the one good thing about this is that SI actually does follow all these stupid things and implements them in the game). The 2018-2019 season in-game does though, and after about 15 times of reloading I got AFC to be promoted again. Oh, and one more thing. I've been successful in my FM17 careers with my scouting and transfers, so for this save I won't be doing any of that. I won't be signing anyone. Youth Only, baby. [Edit: After the first season I've decided to allow myself to sign players that are born in Amsterdam] [Edit 2: After a while I stopped signing any players and went full youth only again.] Have made myself an Andorran manager as a bit of a call-back to the F.C. Andorra save. Almost all players are on amateur deals, and AFC has become a professional club after getting promoted, so at least there's that. Well, this might be an adventure. New features like dynamics should be easier with all the players being Dutch and all... Just a shame that they are so bad. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deisler26 Posted October 27, 2017 Share Posted October 27, 2017 Ah! My fellow Dutch league plower! Will be following and good luck! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
john1 Posted October 27, 2017 Share Posted October 27, 2017 Good luck Will be following this! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
kidthekid Posted October 28, 2017 Share Posted October 28, 2017 Will be following as well. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidBeckham Posted October 28, 2017 Share Posted October 28, 2017 Thought it was Arsenal FC for a moment from the title. Good luck with your save mate! \o/ Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarcxD Posted October 28, 2017 Author Share Posted October 28, 2017 13 hours ago, Deisler26 said: Ah! My fellow Dutch league plower! Will be following and good luck! That's me! Thanks man. 8 hours ago, kidthekid said: Will be following as well. Welcome. 1 hour ago, DavidBeckham said: Thought it was Arsenal FC for a moment from the title. Good luck with your save mate! \o/ Haha hope you weren't too disappointed. Thank you. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarcxD Posted October 28, 2017 Author Share Posted October 28, 2017 Pre-Season 2019 While it is all very recognizably FM, this new version does take some getting used to. The tactics screen for instance. Not sure I'm a big fan but I'll adapt. The tactics I will be using will mostly be like my F.C. Andorra save, with a few changes. This means once again I will have a 4-3-3 (1 DM, 2 MC's, and wingers) where the goal of the football will be a patient possession based football, something that fits in Dutch football well but hopefully better executed than our opponents. I am trying some of the new things, like the carillero player-role and the look for underlap team instruction. The main problem will be the poor level of the squad. I have looked to give full-time contracts to most players, but the 2 best players, Esajas and Van den Houten are so far unwilling to agree to a new deal. Remarkably there are 3 pretty good goalkeepers, could've used that squad depth for the DC or MC positions.. Also 5 strikers at the club. There are also a few players in the reserves and u19 teams, but they are atrociously bad so I will probably not be using them. The friendlies were not a huge success but not terrible either, we beat all lower reputation teams, drew Achilles'29 who are at a similar level (playing in the third tier) and lost against PSV reserves who should be one of the better teams in our division. We are predicted to finish 20th, out of 20, but only the 20th gets relegated so if we can get some points here and there it should be possible to stay up. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarcxD Posted October 28, 2017 Author Share Posted October 28, 2017 August 2019 Amazing start to the season with a win, couldn't do that again but 5 points is a much better return than I had expected. I'm playing on counter mentality and the opposing teams have most of the chances but so far that's not visible in the results. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DazRTaylor Posted October 28, 2017 Share Posted October 28, 2017 My favourite country to manage in, Holland. Will follow with interest. I had some success with Spakenburg in FM17, so I love these formerly amateur clubs going well. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarcxD Posted October 28, 2017 Author Share Posted October 28, 2017 1 hour ago, DazRTaylor said: My favourite country to manage in, Holland. Will follow with interest. I had some success with Spakenburg in FM17, so I love these formerly amateur clubs going well. Welcome! Hope I can be successful here, have never tried anything like this youth only, should be interesting. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarcxD Posted October 28, 2017 Author Share Posted October 28, 2017 September 2019 Wow, some tough games at the start of the month but three wins in a row to end the month! Really remarkable. The 3-0 was incredible, it was the kind of FM game you usually get the other way around, they were dominating and we finished pretty much every chance we got. Mid-table... for now, but still! We're not spending a lot of money on wages and with the tv money we're making money each month so this is easily affordable. The board wasn't willing yet to approve youth recruiment and junior coaching improvements but improving the club has officially started. There's also the ability now to ask for data analysis facilities, haven't really read up on what the advantage of that is. At the moment we don't have those facilities at all. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarcxD Posted October 28, 2017 Author Share Posted October 28, 2017 Not sure about that chant Kenny. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarcxD Posted October 28, 2017 Author Share Posted October 28, 2017 October 2019 Wins have dried up, did manage to get some points in. Out of the cup. Buffer of 7 points remaining. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarcxD Posted October 28, 2017 Author Share Posted October 28, 2017 November 2019 Oh dear. This is not looking good. Haven't won in two months now! A buffer of 5 points left.. Brexit. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarcxD Posted October 28, 2017 Author Share Posted October 28, 2017 December 2019 On the one hand I can't be too mad about 3 points from 4 games I guess, but 3 months without a win is getting more and more worrisome. Am tinkering with tactics a bit. Still a 4 points-gap between us and 20th but we need to get a win in 2020 as soon as possible. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarcxD Posted October 28, 2017 Author Share Posted October 28, 2017 The game crashed... So I had to replay the last game, and then this happened It seems we can still win. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
john1 Posted October 28, 2017 Share Posted October 28, 2017 Finally won a game Not bad start with AFC Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarcxD Posted October 28, 2017 Author Share Posted October 28, 2017 25 minutes ago, john1 said: Finally won a game Not bad start with AFC Haha yeah. Thanks. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarcxD Posted October 28, 2017 Author Share Posted October 28, 2017 January 2020 Only two games, and two tough games at that so not too disappointed with these results. Too bad Volendam won a match! 4 points buffer left, 14 games to go. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
john1 Posted October 28, 2017 Share Posted October 28, 2017 You can still do it! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarcxD Posted October 29, 2017 Author Share Posted October 29, 2017 11 hours ago, john1 said: You can still do it! Appreciate it, it's definitely possible but it's not going to be comfortable. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deisler26 Posted October 29, 2017 Share Posted October 29, 2017 Just now, MarcxD said: Appreciate it, it's definitely possible but it's not going to be comfortable. Best of luck man. I'm really struggling on this year's incarnation. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarcxD Posted October 29, 2017 Author Share Posted October 29, 2017 Just now, Deisler26 said: Best of luck man. I'm really struggling on this year's incarnation. Thank you. Is it RKC you're struggling with? I can imagine them being a tough side from the start of the game. At least you can't get relegated in the first season... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarcxD Posted October 29, 2017 Author Share Posted October 29, 2017 February 2020 I've come to the sudden realization that the players are just not good enough to play anything that looks like football. Or maybe I'm not good enough to bring it out of them. Whatever's the case, the focus is mostly on conceding few goals, if we can keep getting draws and hopefully one or two slight wins here and there... Dropped to 19th since Volendam got 8 points in the last month... that's not what we want to see. At least there's still Telstar. As long as they don't start winning... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarcxD Posted October 29, 2017 Author Share Posted October 29, 2017 A little note on dynamics. At the start of the season there was only one player outside of the Core social group, but now there seems to have grown a secondary social group almost as big as the core social group. No idea how this happened or why, both groups seem to be generally balanced and have been at the club for a few years. I realize that balanced can mean a lot of things, so perhaps this is down to one group being more professional than the other or something like that. No idea to know though, I don't think. They are also both unhappy, so that's great. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deisler26 Posted October 29, 2017 Share Posted October 29, 2017 34 minutes ago, MarcxD said: Thank you. Is it RKC you're struggling with? I can imagine them being a tough side from the start of the game. At least you can't get relegated in the first season... Yes. They have no pace and virtually no central midfield. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarcxD Posted October 29, 2017 Author Share Posted October 29, 2017 March 2020 Oh, classic. I said last month that we were focussed on not conceding so much goals and then we concede 13 goals in 4 matches. To be honest it's kind of a miracle we're not 20th, I'm not really sure what I'm doing. At least we kept Telstar to a draw. Still 5 points between us and Telstar, 5 games left to play. Man, we're poor. I guess Telstar is even worse. Of course March also had the youth intake, the only way to get new players in and improve for next year: Could've been worse I guess, but some of these players are really almost amazingly bad. Oh, you're a winger with 2 crossing and 2 dribbling. Please tell me more.. Anyway, some of them have at least something to like about them so I did sign all of them, some more players in the u19s and reserves can't hurt too much, just hope some of their personalities and low determination won't have too much of an impact. (Not really sure why there's no regen face) Some promising stuff here, big fan of his teamwork and work rate especially, combined with strong technique. Some not so great stuff here as well. That personality and determination most of all, and there's not really any great tutors at the club so it won't be easy for him to overcome those. Same problem here with the determination, but there's a lot to like here. Because of the atrocious level of defenders at the club he's going straight to the first team squad. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deisler26 Posted October 29, 2017 Share Posted October 29, 2017 For the beta, they blocked the regen faces Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarcxD Posted October 29, 2017 Author Share Posted October 29, 2017 6 minutes ago, Deisler26 said: For the beta, they blocked the regen faces Ah right, that makes sense then. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarcxD Posted October 29, 2017 Author Share Posted October 29, 2017 Nice little new feature/news item, Telstar has a tough couple of games left so I think we should make it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deisler26 Posted October 29, 2017 Share Posted October 29, 2017 Ooh. I like that Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarcxD Posted October 29, 2017 Author Share Posted October 29, 2017 April/May 2020 Meh. But it was enough. We will play another year in the Jupiler League. I have the idea of broadening things up a tiny bit by allowing myself to get in players who are born in Amsterdam, so there can be at least a bit more of a steady core to the squad. Youth only might've been a bit too ambitious. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deisler26 Posted October 29, 2017 Share Posted October 29, 2017 Well done on survival! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarcxD Posted October 29, 2017 Author Share Posted October 29, 2017 2 hours ago, Deisler26 said: Well done on survival! Thank you man. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarcxD Posted October 29, 2017 Author Share Posted October 29, 2017 Season Review 2019-2020 Not the most fun season ever. As you can see I've decided to do what I said last post, I will allow myself to get in players from Amsterdam. Hopefully with a bit of a boost in ability next year we'll be able to play a little bit of football, that would be nice. This should help for the future anyway. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarcxD Posted October 30, 2017 Author Share Posted October 30, 2017 Pre-Season 2020 A relative fortune to spend, but I will not be using most of it, if only because the players that are willing to join me are just not that expensive. Or good. Have signed players to bolster all positions pretty much, they're still barely good enough for this league but better than we had before (most players are still here though, I did mutually terminate one or two contracts but that hasn't shown up here). The new players were either signed from lower tier clubs or loaned from Eredivisie clubs. Oh and yes they are all from Amsterdam. Poor pre-season to be honest, let's just hope that's because of the new players needing to gel and all that. Osnabruck as a 3rd Bundesliga team should be quite a bit stronger than us to be fair. We should be able to beat Tweede Divisie teams like HFC though. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarcxD Posted October 30, 2017 Author Share Posted October 30, 2017 August 2020 Pretty happy with the start of the season, some tough games here but only one big loss, 3 clean sheets and an actual win!! For the first time a youth player has been called up! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ITFC_Blue Posted October 30, 2017 Share Posted October 30, 2017 Enjoyable read so far, and good job on staying up in your first season. I'm a massive fan of Dutch football, and thanks for Deisler, I am in the year 2032 with RKC Waalwijk on FM17. I like them so much, that I recently just brought their new home shirt! Anyway, enough rambling from me, massive good luck for your new season! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarcxD Posted October 30, 2017 Author Share Posted October 30, 2017 5 minutes ago, ITFC_Blue said: Enjoyable read so far, and good job on staying up in your first season. I'm a massive fan of Dutch football, and thanks for Deisler, I am in the year 2032 with RKC Waalwijk on FM17. I like them so much, that I recently just brought their new home shirt! Anyway, enough rambling from me, massive good luck for your new season! Thank you man, awesome that you've got the shirt. They're not doing so great IRL so it's up to you and Deisler to do them justice in the game haha. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarcxD Posted October 30, 2017 Author Share Posted October 30, 2017 Another little dynamics update. For the first time there are players who support me!!! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarcxD Posted October 30, 2017 Author Share Posted October 30, 2017 September 2020 Another month to be pleased with, taking our defects into account. Through in the cup after a good win against lower league opposition and a very important win against relegation rivals FC Den Bosch. 1 point per match, it would be great if we could keep that going. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarcxD Posted October 30, 2017 Author Share Posted October 30, 2017 October 2020 Kind of jinxed it with the last post... terrible results even though we didn't play so bad and none of the losses were dramatic. It's clear to see we can be better at playing football this season with the improved squad but the results are lagging behind. Very much in the danger zone again, the opposition seems to do better than last year so this will be another long season of struggle I have a feeling. Upgrades are done, the first one is guaranteed for next season and a junior coaching upgrade. At least here we're making clear improvements. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deisler26 Posted October 30, 2017 Share Posted October 30, 2017 Keep going. It’ll be a long slog. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarcxD Posted October 31, 2017 Author Share Posted October 31, 2017 19 hours ago, Deisler26 said: Keep going. It’ll be a long slog. I will! The new month has been hopeful. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarcxD Posted October 31, 2017 Author Share Posted October 31, 2017 November 2020 Results and play have gone our way! Against Fortuna, while we didn't create a whole lot, we had 60% possession (which means finally the players are able to pass the ball to each other most of the time) and Fortuna had zero chances, not even half chances. Okay, we had 3 half chances and no clear cut chances either, but still. Not that our fan Roel here was impressed though. The other teams have gained points as well, and we're very far from safe but we're in November and we're already at the same amount of wins as last season. It's certainly looking like this season will be way more competitive. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarcxD Posted October 31, 2017 Author Share Posted October 31, 2017 December 2020 Short month with only 3 games until the winter break but there were some more decent to good results. 5 Points buffer between us and lastplaced MVV and a couple of clubs in front of us not doing much better. We need to keep this recent form up. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarcxD Posted October 31, 2017 Author Share Posted October 31, 2017 January 2021 Apart from the friendly we didn't score one goal this month, but we did gain two points. Probably not the most exciting manager ever, me. 3 points left to separate us from last place. I got in two new players and I signed Francis on a permanent deal after having loaned him the first half of the season. There have been no outgoing transfers of note. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarcxD Posted November 1, 2017 Author Share Posted November 1, 2017 February 2021 Awesome month, for the first time ever 3 league wins in a row. We're definitely save now. We could even have gotten a play-off ticket.... but FC Oss was randomly chosen over us! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarcxD Posted November 1, 2017 Author Share Posted November 1, 2017 March 2021 Not quite as good a month obviously, some tough games here though. Should've perhaps beaten Almere City and MVV. 100% secure for another year in the Jupiler League. One player to watch out for and perhaps one of the rest will turn out to not be completely useless. Some of them have some decent attributes at least. A lot to like here, his heading, passing and physical attributes need huge improvements though. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimbokav1971 Posted November 1, 2017 Share Posted November 1, 2017 On 29/10/2017 at 09:31, MarcxD said: February 2020 I've come to the sudden realization that the players are just not good enough to play anything that looks like football. Or maybe I'm not good enough to bring it out of them. Whatever's the case, the focus is mostly on conceding few goals, if we can keep getting draws and hopefully one or two slight wins here and there... Dropped to 19th since Volendam got 8 points in the last month... that's not what we want to see. At least there's still Telstar. As long as they don't start winning... Stop mucking about trying to play football and just Hoofball the life out of everyone. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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