[FM20][FM21][FM22][FM23] Calcio

[quee]

1 minute ago, john1 said:

He retired in 2024 and is currently U's23 coach at the club.

Then no idea why you're selling less season tickets 

Tbf, I haven't really read all your updates lately 

[Pallepop]

 

 

Hellas Verona Just got a new coach!

On a crazy wet sommerday a danish coach got his life change and got the Calcio job!

1st Season board expectations  -   Fight bravely against relegation
1st Season media expectation  -   19th!

I did meet the press and had a long take about the club and players. To the press i tell its a good sqaud and we will hav no problems to stay in the Serie A!   On the inside i scream over over the dept in the sqaud, But most off all, How the F... did Borini manage to get a £77k a week contract!!!!!!!!

Club Captain - Giampaolo Pazzini
Vice Captain - Miguel Veloso
Key Player - Sofyan Amrabat
Hot Prospect  - Marash Kumbulla

Very week areas is LB, LW and RW

First day at the office i teel the players i think we can surrive, half belive me, rest says Hell no! most are loan players and not in for the long run!

Look at the good loan players:

Amrabat has a very low buy out, around 3 mil euro! a deal that hav to happen in the spring!
Adjapong has buy out around 7 mil euro! if he hits the ground good, we will try to get him.
Pessina is a 50/50, 5 mil euro, will be on the day deal if he is doing good.

This is a long term journey, will try to build a team that can bring back the legendary days from 1985!  A serie a title! 

Will start the Journey with a 4-4-2/4-4-1-1 tactic.... the goal is to play 4-2-3-1 like Ajax did before.

TRANSFER:

Nicoló Armini from lazio, on a sign on deal! Very happy that he choise Verona future parther to Kumbulla
Lovro Majer from Zagreb, took alot of the budget, but he will be a gold cow i hope.
P. De la Vega from Lanús, a kid that can play on both wings, a big NEED. less then 2 mil euro´s, but 30% future sale of profit....
Kishna from lazio on loan..... A decent wing, the best choise that where willing to go Verona.
Alex Martinez from Granada, left back.... needed some cover/rotaion for the spot. 1 mil euro, some over time.

 

Goodbyes!
Bogdan Jocic and Matteo Lovato did go cheep, Benevento and Chievo pick them up. less the a millon euro in all. Did get some future sale %
Checchin, Danzi, Martello and Empereur did go out on loan.
The big sale. Di Carmine did go for 3.5 mil euro to Lecce.... a very big thank you!

The player with higheste value is out on loan at GOI...... and it is for 18 month....... STUPID! Bessa is the name almost 14 mil euro value...

 

 

Welcome back to Serie A...  The schedule says

Lazio A
Genoa H
Doria A
Juventus H
Torino A
Inter H
Milan A
Atalanta H

Holy F... not many points in that start..... Hope the Boards can see that.....

 

[sedge11]

On 27/08/2020 at 00:50, RLC said:

Some nice transfers, but yeah always hard in the begining to change tactic and style but you have some pretty good players so shouldn’t be too big of a transition. Hope you’ve turned it around by now. 
 

A question about wages, I saw that your new RB regen has 100k/w, how have you been managing the rest of the squads wages? I find that players are demanding way to high wages on fm20. Even young unproven squad players demand 80-90k/w. Makes it hard to maintain sensible wages over time. 

Yea we have turned a corner, and we haven't lost a game since that picture, 15 unbeaten in the league and chasing down Inter who just haven't stopped winning.

I have been managing the wages with luck and hopefully some skill . They can  be demanding especially as alot of the big clubs are constantly sniffing round, sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and negotiate the best deal, Tonali is my only player on 200k or more. Alot of the time I can hold off on contracts by telling them how influential they are, which has worked, or get Tonali my captain to talk to them which has worked a treat, though this doesn't always work with captains, Tonali just must have that special touch.

[sedge11]

A small update on season 7, Zanre just got in world team of the year.

However he was completely robbed and wasn't even in the top 3 for world player of the year, I mean 58 goals in 51 games the man is a machine yet not even in the top 3. Mbappe won it.

[Pallepop]

The Journey at Verona

Season starts on away turf. Lazio are waiting to destroy us!

Kick off!
2 min Correa with a great goal! Not the start we hope on!
24 min Bocchetti, the 33 old defender is takning a dump and destroys Correa in the box! Penalty!!! OFC GOAL Immobile..... Hope we can hang on to half now!
Eysseric is done(at the 39th min), a broken leg on opening day! Kishna is going on! a Big BUUUUHHHH from the stands......
2nd Half, the lads got a cup off tee and a big word speach!
alot off chancen in both ends.... but no goals! 
Kishna goes past Radu and put in the corner 2-1!  at the 82th min!!!!
Lazio seems weak and Big paycheck Borini kicks in from ½ meter! 2-2!!!!!!! 88th min!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What a comeback...
8 yellows in the half. 5 min injury time! Keep it tight boys!

91-92-93-94-95..... Come on ref!!!!! 96!!!! wake up ref!!!!!
97! A volley from Marusic goes in the net!!!!! a upcoming murder is on the making......

3-2 Lazio.... What a roller coaster!

The press after the game.... no words, look at the ref!

Next game up Home vs Genoa

1-1..... somehow the got away with it.... the lazio game is still in the mind.... 27 questions about that game..... Like Bill in New England, we are on to Sampdoria!

 

Away Sampdoria

The press is still killing the players about the lazio game..... we are not getting the job done.

1st half.
Veloso on a great freekick! 0-1, 3 min before half, old but still playing PAZZINI GOAL. 0-2 at half. Well done lads!
 2and Half.
we are missing the 3rd goal, wasting to many chance.... Sunderland outcast Borini is not hitting the ball where well.
52th min. Gabbiadini..... goal, a rifle from 23 meters. A great goal.... F...!
70th min Gabbiadini...... goal, slides off 2 defenders and place the ball at the corner.... Man of match....
Final 2-2...... We need to do better!

 

Home vs Juventus.....25.028 in the stands....

0-2, we did not play up to our best. Pjanic and Ramsey played ther best games in years.... Nothing much to say about the game....


Torino away

A very boring game....  a couple of good chance in both ends, old right wing back De Silvestri puts torino upo 1at the 78th min.... we did not make a good comeback after that.

Next game up INTER!

Home, only 17668 fans are show up... the bad results hav had an effect.....

1st Half.
18th min PAZZINI GOAL!!!!  A very nice header, no chance for Handanovic! 1-0!!!!!!!
3 yellows for us rest of the half.
2nd Half.
Inter is pressing on, but our counter attack is hitting them and they collect 2 yellows. Lautaro is injury with a bad ankel, Sanchez is his replacment.
82 min, Sanchez drible past Martinez and put the ball right in to Lukaku´s feds. 1-1
We got the 1-1 in the bag and kill the rest of the game.

 

3 Points in 6 games... we sit at 17th in the table. Long way to go still, but a hard start to the Serie A Season.
 

[s1111]

I'm just about to start my second season with Brescia, we were able to finish 8th in the first season. Balotelli and Donnarumma scored 30 goals between them in a 4-4-2 and obviously Sandro Tonali was incredible, getting 12 assists and an average rating of 7.33. This meant that Liverpool came for him in January 2020, and with his contract running out in 2021 and wage demands over £100k a week I couldn't keep him, but was able to get £55m and a loan back for the rest of the season.

My transfers in so far have been almost all cheap, young and Italian, I'm saving most of the Tonali money for one or two of the various Italian wonderkid strikers for when we need them and they are actually willing to join (Esposito, Pellegri, Borrelli etc.)

The homegrown youngsters at Brescia are coming along nicely. Viviani, Papetti, Cistana, Mangraviti and Ruocco will all have first team roles this season.

Edited August 30, 2020 by s1111

[Stackalee]

6 hours ago, s1111 said:

Sandro Tonali was incredible, getting 12 assists and an average rating of 7.33. This meant that Liverpool came for him in January 2020, and with his contract running out in 2021 and wage demands over £100k a week I couldn't keep him, but was able to get £55m and a loan back for the rest of the season.

Real shame you couldn't keep hold of him (it's doable with early contract offers), but Ugarte in for £1.7m is a great bit of business to cover that loss.

[Weston]

7 hours ago, s1111 said:

Sandro Tonali was incredible, getting 12 assists and an average rating of 7.33. This meant that Liverpool came for him in January 2020, and with his contract running out in 2021 and wage demands over £100k a week I couldn't keep him, but was able to get £55m and a loan back for the rest of the season.

7 hours ago, s1111 said:

My transfers in so far have been almost all cheap, young and Italian, I'm saving most of the Tonali money for one or two of the various Italian wonderkid strikers for when we need them and they are actually willing to join (Esposito

1 hour ago, Stackalee said:

Real shame you couldn't keep hold of him (it's doable with early contract offers), but Ugarte in for £1.7m is a great bit of business to cover that loss.

 

It's interesting to me how Tonali and Esposito seem universally heralded as some of the best players in FM20, yet Tonali is just solid and ended up at Lazio in my save and I loaned Esposito for a few years with good results before he left and stagnated and became pretty mediocre elsewhere. I do like how there is variance between different saves as it makes the game more realistic, and it makes me wonder if either could've developed better in my own save if they had had different career trajectories.

In the same vein, it's kind of crazy there isn't a larger bidding war over Tonali in real life. Right now it seems that Inter have a deal but are stalling and Milan might steal, but Juve haven't really bothered, much less foreign clubs...

 

 

Edited August 30, 2020 by Weston

[Stackalee]

35 minutes ago, Weston said:

It's interesting to me how Tonali and Esposito seem universally heralded as some of the best players in FM20, yet Tonali is just solid and ended up at Lazio in my save and I loaned Esposito for a few years with good results before he left and stagnated and became pretty mediocre elsewhere. I do like how there is variance between different saves as it makes the game more realistic, and it makes me wonder if either could've developed better in my own save if they had had different career trajectories.

Probably in itself them being teen-agers for whom the worst case scenario is being solid top flight players is pretty telling!

Also leaving young players in the hands of the AI is the best way to see the worst of them.

Edited August 30, 2020 by Stackalee

[RLC]

On 28/08/2020 at 22:53, sedge11 said:

Yea we have turned a corner, and we haven't lost a game since that picture, 15 unbeaten in the league and chasing down Inter who just haven't stopped winning.

Glad to hear it! Chasing your third league title now?

On 28/08/2020 at 22:53, sedge11 said:

I have been managing the wages with luck and hopefully some skill . They can  be demanding especially as alot of the big clubs are constantly sniffing round, sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and negotiate the best deal, Tonali is my only player on 200k or more. Alot of the time I can hold off on contracts by telling them how influential they are, which has worked, or get Tonali my captain to talk to them which has worked a treat, though this doesn't always work with captains, Tonali just must have that special touch.

Yes luck is always important Seems like Tonali will be my main target next year, and probably a LWB. Lulic has been filling in at LWB so far and is pretty decent but need a proper 1st choice for next year.

[RLC]

Several players now being bullied into thinking they should be at "bigger clubs", Scaloni here being a jerk. Correa isn´t even 1st choice in my team, he´ll hardly be 1st choice in a "bigger club".

Haven´t had enough time to play lately so the season is going a bit slow, and so are our results at the moment after a good start. Hoping to turn it around against Lecce and Parma now before some tougher opponents in October/November.

[sedge11]

1 hour ago, RLC said:

On 28/08/2020 at 21:53, sedge11 said:

 

Glad to hear it! Chasing your third league title now?

Chasing the 4th title. I won it 3 years in a row from season 3-5.

51 minutes ago, RLC said:

Scaloni here being a jerk. Correa isn´t even 1st choice in my team, he´ll hardly be 1st choice in a "bigger club".

I had the exact same thing with him, and on mine Correa was playing well for me and he wouldn’t pick him.

He got sacked at some point though so it stopped coming up.

[RLC]

4 hours ago, sedge11 said:

Chasing the 4th title. I won it 3 years in a row from season 3-5.

Ah nice, good work! Hopefully number 4 is on it’s way then. 
Juve has been unstoppable so far on my save, scoring 3,8 goals/game.
 

4 hours ago, sedge11 said:

He got sacked at some point though so it stopped coming up.

Serves him right

[sedge11]

So season 7 is done and what season, full of drama.

Lets start with the easy stuff, so we won the Italian super cup beating Inter.

We then met Inter again in the Italian cup final.

We won, making it 3 Italian cups in a row, beating Inter in all 3.

Now to the league, after our terrible start, we went on a brilliant run only losing 1 game for the rest of the season, this is what the table looked like with 2 games to go.

We then beat Cagliari 3-1, while Inter beat Sampdoria 2-0.

On to the final day we had Fiorentina away, while Inter had Cagliari away.

We got an early pen which Zanre scored, and at the same time Inter went 1-0 down. Fiorentina then scored a quick equaliser. The title was in our hands but we needed a goal.

Inter then scored 2 quick goals in the 2nd half to go 2-1, we really needed a goal, could we get it.......................................

 

No we couldn't, so for the 2nd year in a row we lost the title on the final day to Inter. We really are having a big rivalry with Inter at the moment.

Zanre getting 33 league goals again, he has been insane yet we still couldn't win the title.

We had to re group and recover as our season wasn't over, we had a champs league final to play. We had beat Chelsea, Juventus and A Madrid to get to the final.

We faced Man Utd in the final, who had recently sacked their manager.

We had a great start Broli, my regen cm scored 1-0.

Disaster Broli is sent off and Man Utd score 1-1, we had to push Pulisic and Vinicuis Junior back to make a flat midfield 4.

The game was end to end and tense, then 5 crazy minutes from the 71st min, we scored, they scored straight from kick off, then we got a 3rd, it was now 3-2. 

Man utd scored an own goal 4-2, then Greenwood makes it 4-3 with 5 minutes of added time to go, can we hang on ........

 

We did it, incredible our 2nd champs league title, and what a way to win it with 10 men for most of the game.

It was an incredible season, we only lost 3 games in all comps and they were the league games. My change of formation worked a treat, Pulisic and Vinicius Junior were quality signings, andKonate were brilliant at the back.

I was tempted to end the save at the end of this season if we had won the league and champs league, but as couldn't wrestle the title back from Inter, I am 100% carrying on and getting that Serie A title back. To win 2 champs league has been way more than I expected, but all the more reason why I love this team and love this save.

Interestingly Man Utd offered me the job after the final, but I have mission to finish so I stay at Lazio.

The summer is going to be difficult as I'm happy with the team, but if a great player becomes available we will see what we can do. So onwards to season 8.

 

Edited September 1, 2020 by sedge11

[john1]

Congrats on winning Champions League with Lazio! @sedge11  

[quee]

5 minutes ago, john1 said:

Congrats on winning Champions League with Lazio! @sedge11  

Thanks, mate 

[john1]

1 minute ago, quee said:

Thanks, mate 

  How is your Parma save going?

[quee]

Just now, john1 said:

  How is your Parma save going?

What is that? 

Btw, how come I can't see most of your recent screenshots in your post?

[john1]

6 minutes ago, quee said:

What is that? 

Btw, how come I can't see most of your recent screenshots in your post?

No idea? Not even one screenshot?

[quee]

5 minutes ago, john1 said:

No idea? Not even one screenshot?

Maybe 1 or 2 especially in smaller post, but the rest just one blacked out line.

[RLC]

4 hours ago, sedge11 said:

I was tempted to end the save at the end of this season if we had won the league and champs league, but as couldn't wrestle the title back from Inter, I am 100% carrying on and getting that Serie A title back. To win 2 champs league has been way more than I expected, but all the more reason why I love this team and love this save.

Congratulations on your second CL, great job! To bad about the league though but glad to here that means you’ll keep the save going 👍

[Pallepop]

Verona not a love story yet!

After a great 1-1 vs Inter, it is time for a big game vs Milan.....

That was a game that not a single person i the club will think about that game again.

5-1 to Milan and Rebic just killed us from start....  We now hit the buttom, sit 20th in the liga!

The press after the game smells blood.... so do the board! A meeting the next mornings is comming up!

Board: we dont like the milan game!
Me: needer do i! i need a extra coach and 3 games!
Board: Thats a deal, 1 coach and 3 games. if no wins, you are out!
Me: Thx, now pay Ezequiel Carboni to join us!


Next he meet up with us, and the board are paying Catania a fee. Lets go to work

1 Game after board meeting ATALANTA.....

Home 14.023 in the stands and we play a BAD BAD game.... a red card, injury and it was on tv!

1-2 Atalanta won! The board looking like a gun that points to my head!

8 days to next game, calls the lads in! Next game, if we dont win, we are done! FIGHT for the jersey!

Brescia Away

Majer will get his first start in serie a! time to shine!

1 min played, Bisoli gets the ball and shot 1-0! WTF LADS 1 min!!!!

3 min played, Balotelli kills Bocchetti with his speed and put in the corner..... 2-0!!!!!

12 min played, Freekick from 34 meters, MAJER SCORES!!!!!! WE ARE ALIVE! 2-1!
 
33 min played, Kishna shows off some skills and bang 2-2!!!!

HALF. the lads are pleased with the comeback.... im not! We are better then them, hit balo hard and the got nothing up front!

47 min...... a cross hits Balotelli perfect, 3-2! Come on lads!

55 min, Kishna runs deep a get a killer pass from Majer. 3-3!!!!

68 min, Majer find place and hits the ball with great power 3-4!!!!! what a player!

85 min, Pazzini gets first to the ball from a cross. GOAL GOAL GOAL 3-5! WE ARE ON FIRE!

87 min, Balo just do what he dos, 4-5!!!! COME ON GUYS! A HATTICK!!!! DO BETTER!

90 min, 5 min exstra!!!! 91,92,93,94,95 COME ON REF! 96! FINALE SCORE 4-5! WE WON!



The press after the game gets the ice cold hand. we are not wasting time for your headlines!

Cagliari next up.

we DESTROYS them 4-0!




Next 3 games are lecce, Udinese and Fiorentina. We beat lecce and Udinese 2-1, 1-0 and play 1-1 with Fiorentina

Then we play Bologna home and loss 1-3, we did not play good, own goal also.

DECEMBER

TIM Cup! a very easy game we think.... THAT WAS STUPIED! Cremonese won on penalty after a 0-0 game..... Hard traning tommorrow lads!

The cold wether seems to be a great thing for Majer, he kicks off big time with alot off great ass true december.

We win over SPAL(2-0) Napoli (2-0) Sassuolo (2-1). a great winter break come ups for the players. For the board and me, it is time to sell some playes and get some in.



Very happy that we got Borini and Bocchetti out, the where to bad and to overpayed. We took a hit on the borini paycheck and will pay 12k every week. down from 77k, we will take it. (the value is in Danish money)

After the 3 wins in December we really kick it off. 5 more wins in a row!






JUVENTUS AWAY, thats it boys. Enjoy the moment! A miracle just happent!

0-0 Vs torino and now Inter

Hard work pays off!

Milan was send home with a 2-1 defeat. 12 games we have not lost in! 12! we are sitting 4th right now!

Next game Atalanta! the killed us laster time!



We are now clear off the drop.... I HATE when the press come with that.... will it effect the players, yes it will!

11 games left..... we will end with only 3 more wins!



we finished 7th!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



What a season! Pazzini did his job and got us 16 goals in 37 games. He the brok the heart to us. He will not play anymore

Majer did end up with 4 goals and 14 ass, leader in ass for the season in serie a! 7.39 in avr! Feer we will lose him now
 

[sedge11]

So season 8 is upon us, after the champs league win of season 7, and our 2nd final day title loss in a row getting that Serie A title back is the biggest aim for me.

The cups this season are going to take abit of a back seat, as I want that 4th league title.

So to the transfers.

Valente is a left winger, who comes in as back up to Vinicius Junior. Bruno was transfer listed by request and I jumped at the chance of getting him, I know how good he can be from my Man Utd save, and the AI Man Utd had been misusing him really. 

With Bruno coming in, Olmo was the casualty and he hadn't really lived up to the hype. Kubo leaves after 1 year where he barely played, and finally Lazzari he had been an excellent servant for the last 7 seasons and was hard to let him go, but he was in the final year of his deal, 32 and I had a regen rb coming through the ranks who I want to develop.

So fixture release pitted us against Inter and Juventus in the 1st 2 games, some of you may remember my nightmare start to last season where we lost to both of them in the 1st 3 games of season 7. Fixtures had been cruel to us again, but this time we weren't to be denied.

Getting our revenge and beating them both, so we are off to a great start, while defending champs Inter have had a poor start. We also won the euro super cup which was nice.

[Raymond85]

At last, after one hell of a year i managed to pick up my first save on fm2020.

As usual straight to Udinese, and it's been fun these past years, because of the slow decline of the squad.

 

As we have only one big star, Rodrigo de Paul, i decided to build play and tactics around him, with a 3 man defensive line, and with a high press ball to the feet system, which will make good use of the great physical players we have

 

 

The squad has some nice talent in the starting 11, but terribly lacks depth with lots of good but aging backups. Will start with no transfers allowed, as next season 16 players will be back from their loans, and will be able to cash out from some deadwood, and promote some youngsters into the first team.

 

I like small squads, so i can get some first team matches to under 20s and under 18s during the season. But the biggest flaw is the lack of a backup for De Paul. If he gets injured we will have to get creative, either playing a midfielder out of position, or slotting someone in a 3 man central line.

 

Under 20 and under 18 squads are really poor in talent this year, just Gasparini as a goalkeeper looks good, and maybe a couple of centerbacks. Will probabily scrap the lot and rebuild with scouts in the lower leagues and youth intake (team philosophies are signing under 23s for the future and signing from italian lower leagues)

 

Team building during the summer went fantastic, as pre season friendlies show. We surprised a lazy PSG missing some stars with excellent defending and counters, and got cocky later that week against Leicester, suffering their pacy and technical forwards.

So let the season begin, not one of my favourite starting fixture list, as we have some very hard matches ahead. We are aiming for a mid/high table finish, nothing special as we know our limits.

Edited September 6, 2020 by Raymond85

[Ronaldo Beckham]

43 minutes ago, Raymond85 said:

At last, after one hell of a year i managed to pick up my first save on fm2020.

As usual straight to Udinese, and it's been fun these past years, because of the slow decline of the squad.

 

As we have only one big star, Rodrigo de Paul, i decided to build play and tactics around him, with a 3 man defensive line, and with a high press ball to the feet system, which will make good use of the great physical players we have

 

 

The squad has some nice talent in the starting 11, but terribly lacks depth with lots of good but aging backups. Will start with no transfers allowed, as next season 16 players will be back from their loans, and will be able to cash out from some deadwood, and promote some youngsters into the first team.

 

I like small squads, so i can get some first team matches to under 20s and under 18s during the season. But the biggest flaw is the lack of a backup for De Paul. If he gets injured we will have to get creative, either playing a midfielder out of position, or slotting someone in a 3 man central line.

 

Under 20 and under 18 squads are really poor in talent this year, just Gasparini as a goalkeeper looks good, and maybe a couple of centerbacks. Will probabily scrap the lot and rebuild with scouts in the lower leagues and youth intake (team philosophies are signing under 23s for the future and signing from italian lower leagues)

 

Team building during the summer went fantastic, as pre season friendlies show. We surprised a lazy PSG missing some stars with excellent defending and counters, and got cocky later that week against Leicester, suffering their pacy and technical forwards.

So let the season begin, not one of my favourite starting fixture list, as we have some very hard matches ahead. We are aiming for a mid/high table finish, nothing special as we know our limits.

Have you took advantage of your link up with Watford and raided them for their players on free's?

 

[Raymond85]

7 minuti fa, Ronaldo Beckham ha scritto:

Have you took advantage of your link up with Watford and raided them for their players on free's?

 

Will check it out as usual in January and summer. Started with no transfers allowed. If Sema has a good season will try and get him. And might see if Pereyra wants to come back to cover for De Paul

[Weston]

3 hours ago, Raymond85 said:

 

Did you use a different skin to get the players' faces to appear in the tactics screen lineup?

2 hours ago, Raymond85 said:

Started with no transfers allowed.

Respect. I believe people should play however they want, but this is one the thing that I'm an absolute purist on. Starting with the initial transfer window off is the only way to begin a realistic save - it makes things so much more difficult, and I'm always glad to see when others do it too.

[Raymond85]

1 ora fa, Weston ha scritto:

Did you use a different skin to get the players' faces to appear in the tactics screen lineup?

Respect. I believe people should play however they want, but this is one the thing that I'm an absolute purist on. Starting with the initial transfer window off is the only way to begin a realistic save - it makes things so much more difficult, and I'm always glad to see when others do it too.

I used a skin i found in the skinning hideout, it's called TCS 2020

 

Since they added the option of starting with no allowed transfers, that's always been my only way of playing. Even if i love to micromanage loans and youth squads, i simply play with what i have and get ready for Jan/next season. It makes the game so much fun and immersive for me, and gives me actual problems to work through. First game of the season and De Paul was sent off (little spoiler), so i have to find a solution

[Weston]

4 minutes ago, Raymond85 said:

I used a skin i found in the skinning hideout, it's called TCS 2020

 

Since they added the option of starting with no allowed transfers, that's always been my only way of playing. Even if i love to micromanage loans and youth squads, i simply play with what i have and get ready for Jan/next season. It makes the game so much fun and immersive for me, and gives me actual problems to work through. First game of the season and De Paul was sent off (little spoiler), so i have to find a solution

Totally agreed. The idea of having two successive transfer windows and being able to sell a player who only just joined was always so baffling to me, really this should be the default way with a box to check that says "allow second transfer window"!

I start in the lower leagues where I inherit a disastrous squad and have to survive long enough to January so that I'm in a respectable enough position that all the loans and free agents I bring in can give me a shot at promotion. 

[Raymond85]

August - September Udinese update

 

So we tackled straight away the fact that we are missing a backup for Rodrigo De Paul, and we went on and signed Yoann Gourcuff on a season long contract. While we were at it, we also brought in Fletcher solely for mentoring purpose, and our first youngster, Touré who was let go by Juventus and he goes straight into under 20s

 

 

After a rocky start we got into some great results. Against Roma we switched tactics to something a little more conservative but high intensity system, which i would like to explore more next season, maybe a little more than an alternative. We doubled up oon the system away against Milan, outplaying them too, but we could just not score more than one and were gutted to concede with just 3 minutes to go.

 

The star of the month was De Paul, stepping up after a shaky start. He is going to be one hell of a sale probabily at the end of the year if he keeps going like this, but we already knew that, and we are considering some players out on loan to step up in his place already

 

So this is how it looks after a promising start. Although it's absolutely too early in the season to set goals other than avoiding relegation

Edited September 7, 2020 by Raymond85

[Weston]

We finally did it! We won Serie A 11 years after the club was reformed post-bankruptcy. Not bad!

We were 1 goal short of 100, won the coppa as well, and the mighty Juve sacked Guardiola. Finally the stranglehold has broken, and the tide of the nation has changed.

You can see the trajectory of my/our career:

 

Amazingly, we're now even in the top 10 clubs in the world!

[Raymond85]

Udinese October update

Almost a perfect month, although one made of fairly simple matches.

 

We are muich higher than expected, but we will keep doing what's working: thinking about one match at a time, and seeing where that will take us. It's not like we have a flawless squad, and there will be much stuff to sort out at the end of the season

 

The next 3 months will decide what our goals are for the season: some very complicated matches coming up, especially in December. And we are starting also to scout out some italian players for January

Edited September 8, 2020 by Raymond85

[Raymond85]

6 ore fa, Weston ha scritto:

We finally did it! We won Serie A 11 years after the club was reformed post-bankruptcy. Not bad!

We were 1 goal short of 100, won the coppa as well, and the mighty Juve sacked Guardiola. Finally the stranglehold has broken, and the tide of the nation has changed.

You can see the trajectory of my/our career:

 

Amazingly, we're now even in the top 10 clubs in the world!

Good job, at last, it feels so good when it has been escaping for so long

[Weston]

7 hours ago, Raymond85 said:

Good job, at last, it feels so good when it has been escaping for so long

It has never taken me this long to win the title, and I sometimes switch clubs to make it happen faster, but this time felt more realistic than the others because Juve stayed stronger for longer, which kept me stuck in 2nd for so long despite us being quite good for some time now. We've also lost the CL final and lost 2 coppa finals as well, so we've been hovering on the edge of greatness for some time.

I also have never played this many season before (lockdown is a hell of a drug) and I'm worried I'll run out of passion for the save while there are still so many more months of not being able to do anything to get through...

I've now reached the point where it's difficult to improve a young squad that's growing all the time, so I've taken on a daring project - I dropped 50m on this RB who I plan to turn into a defensive midfielder of some kind, a type that is shockingly difficult to find a world class player for:

Edited September 8, 2020 by Weston

[Raymond85]

55 minuti fa, Weston ha scritto:

Perfectionist personality... i love that. I back up your plan, he would be wasted on full back. And would also be amazing as a center-back.

You should check out o-zil's Caixa thread, it's very inspiring on how to not get fed up with a save if you embark on that kind of project. I've taken inspiration for every save i do in the past years

[Weston]

1 hour ago, Raymond85 said:

Perfectionist personality... i love that. I back up your plan, he would be wasted on full back. And would also be amazing as a center-back.

You should check out o-zil's Caixa thread, it's very inspiring on how to not get fed up with a save if you embark on that kind of project. I've taken inspiration for every save i do in the past years

I've never successfully retrained a player so far out of position like this, and I find it maddening that you can't compare players in different positions (I wanted to compare him to the players I already had at DM but had to take pictures on my phone and hold them up to the screen).

Yeah, I'm hoping his perfectionist personality might help, I don't know what to expect. I'm also worried that adding another position will take up CA points and he'll lose attribute strength, which is silly.

Can you link the thread? I'll check it out. I just build such a beautiful project I don't want to leave, but then it also gets boring staying in the same place.

Edited September 8, 2020 by Weston

[Raymond85]

2 minuti fa, Weston ha scritto:

I've never successfully retrained a player so far out of position like this, and I find it maddening that you can't compare players in different positions (I wanted to compare him to the players I already had at DM but had to take pictures on my phone and hold them up to the screen).

Yeah, I'm hoping his perfectionist personality might help, I don't know what to expect. I'm also worried that adding another position will take up CA points and he'll lose attribute strength, which is silly.

Can you link the thread? I'll check it out. I just build such a beautiful project I don't want to leave, but then it also gets boring staying in the same place.

This is the latest thread, the evolution if his tactical and club philosophy

 

This thread condenses all his previous ones

 

Andf this is the first one, the one that inspired me to start an Ajax save every year, and apply the same gaming method anywhere i go

 

[Raymond85]

Udinese Mid Season Update

It has been a successfull spell up till December, we have exceeded expectations, with just a couple of unlucky losses. We outplayed Sampdoria and conceded a goal with 5 minutes to spare from a huge defensive mistake by Becao. A couple of monster games against Inter and Juventus, we really played well, and have some difficulty against smaller teams.

 

As i said, results are very good, but we're going to keep our eyes open to keep things going this way, and be able to dream of Europe football in Udine once again, even if it's not one of my goals for the season.

 

Tactically speaking i think we've outgrown our 3 man defensive tactic. The alternate 4 men defensive system seems so much solid, yet creative and attractive. So my intention is to get stuck in the transfer market and get some bargains and loans in to change my tactic and improve the squad a little, while shifting a first batch of deadweight. Quality is what it is, so we're working with morale and tactics as much as we can. While asking the board to improve everything that has to do with tyraining and youth.

Speaking of which, for who doesn't speak italian, this year's income will be a bit of a letdown

[Weston]

Football Manager come to life! 

 

[RLC]

6 hours ago, Raymond85 said:

Udinese Mid Season Update

It has been a successfull spell up till December, we have exceeded expectations, with just a couple of unlucky losses. We outplayed Sampdoria and conceded a goal with 5 minutes to spare from a huge defensive mistake by Becao. A couple of monster games against Inter and Juventus, we really played well, and have some difficulty against smaller teams.

Looking good! Udinese has been really great in my save, 3rd in serie A after 12 games (behind my Lazio in 2nd).

[RLC]

Update on my Lazio save, slow progress due to life in general but going well so far 11 games into Serie A. So far we are undefeated but we've struggled against "weaker" teams while beating Inter and Napoli with ease so 2nd in the league so far, behind Juve. And our 12th game is against Juventus, who's been unstoppable so far, with Ronaldo getting 21 goals in 11 games.

4pts behind Juve before the game, and even tough I knew we'd keep our 2nd place even if we lost I'd didn't want them to run away with the league already in november. So was hoping for a draw, but went for a positive approach as I've had in the games against Inter and Napoli. And it went really well!

[john1]

 

[Weston]

One of my favorite things about FM is looking through all the stats once you've been playing for a while. The only place I can find that shows your players' entire appearances and entire goals across all competitions on screen is this one, and it only updates once a year. (It's slightly misleading because a lot of those appearances and goals were in the lower leagues, which shouldn't be weighted the same, so some less-good players have skewed higher ratings from when we crushed Serie B. I wish there was just a top flight version, but oh well.)

The first few seasons when you're climbing up the ranks there is usually a lot of turnover, at least for me, so I love that now I have had Fortuna and Gonzalez up top together for several seasons. They're my own Del Piero and Trezeguet combo! They joined around the same time and they list each other as favorite people, which is nice. (Ignore the fact that Fortuna can also play CM for some reason, and even though he's never played there, the AI puts him there to fit Gouiri into the XI.)

The fun part is that Gonzalez has exactly 100 goals in 200 appearances, with Fortuna one season behind with 95 in 188. They each have taken turns breaking the record for Bari's top league goalscorer which was originally 72 I think - Fortuna broke it first and currently has 73, and then Gonzalez broke it after with 75. There's a good chance this season it could go back and forth again - I like to imagine them having a friendly competition over it.

What are some favorite stats you guys have?

Edited September 10, 2020 by Weston

[Raymond85]

17 ore fa, RLC ha scritto:

Update on my Lazio save, slow progress due to life in general but going well so far 11 games into Serie A. So far we are undefeated but we've struggled against "weaker" teams while beating Inter and Napoli with ease so 2nd in the league so far, behind Juve. And our 12th game is against Juventus, who's been unstoppable so far, with Ronaldo getting 21 goals in 11 games.

4pts behind Juve before the game, and even tough I knew we'd keep our 2nd place even if we lost I'd didn't want them to run away with the league already in november. So was hoping for a draw, but went for a positive approach as I've had in the games against Inter and Napoli. And it went really well!

Are you on team no signings in first pre-season too?

[Raymond85]

Udinese winter transfer-market update

First up we needed some depth in midfield with thew tactics switch, and maybe get rid of some aging players. I went with a two season loan of one of my favourite players.

I actually had in mind a Pirlo-esque switch for him, having him as a deep playmaker. And boy did that prove to be something. This is his debut against milan in Italian Cup, an unfortunate penalty defeat (though he scored) after a 0-0 in which he had a stunning man of the match performance. Forcing me to consider him as a starter, moving Mandragora out on the left center midfield. He is just fantastic, a ball magnet and always in the center of the action.

Next up the first of Watford free raids: a 20 year old kid wonder backup for De Paul, he will have lots of time to grow into a great player i hope

 

Another two season loan (i'm hoping to get these players to stay permanently during these spells), another one of my favourite players: plug and play anywhere at the back and in the middle, versatility made player

 

More depht for midfield, a good looking prospect that fulfills all team philosophies, from Serie B on loan with option to buy for 5 mln

 

A season loan for backup, will not see much of the pitch, and i have great young strikers already out on loan, so i needed a cheap backup better than Teodorczyck, that i sent packing home

 

Another extremely cheap 2 season loan (only 72k yearly wage!) and sent out on loan to spal the over 1 mln a year wage of Zegelaar

 

And finally a hot prospect in goal that came in for compensation. As i think it will be hard to keep Musso for many years

 

Here's the overview

 

And some little surprises i managed to bring in on end of contract for next season. Too bad Aleix Garcia chose homecountry Spain over our project

 

With our head deep in the transfer market, and tactical changes ongoing, we had a difficult month, but it went all considered quite ok. A shame for the Italian Cup loss, i would have loved to get some more rotations going now that i have a deeper younger squad

And this is how we're going to end the season, if all goes well

[john1]

@Raymond85 Doing great with Udinese  They tends to struggle on my saves  

[Weston]

Udinese made the Coppa finale in my save last season. Beat them fairly easily, but because I won the double, they get a rematch in the Supercoppa. Played them for the second match of the season and wrecked them 6-0, and I give them at least a player or two every year! I think they could definitely use @Raymond85 at the helm instead of whoever they have instead haha

Edited September 10, 2020 by Weston

[Raymond85]

FM at it's core is a quite simple game actually, and many people overcomplicate it

It's all about some simple rules:

- analizing what you have to work with, strenghts and weaknesses (comes easier if it's a team you support and follow, like my case)

-setting REALISTIC expectations

-come up with a plan, a way to execute it and stick to it, playing to your strenghts

-keep playing according to plan, don't make transfers for the sake of it, and just because you like that player. Always think about what you need, and how it's going to work in your plan. Big names are for pleasing the fans. Functional players for your system are for winning games.

 

Btw, in real life Udinese finally have a manager i like very much in Gotti, who is really good at following these rules (yes, they apply to real football too), after many many years of bad choices following champions league football.

[quee]

36 minutes ago, john1 said:

@Raymond85 Doing great with Udinese  They tends to struggle on my saves  

Cheers, John. 

[Raymond85]

Udinese end of season update

 

 

Well, what can i say. Just spectacular. Our football project worked like a charm, delivering some great performances from our new young players, and quite overachieving, even through a midfielder injury crisis

 

 

 

 

And that means Europa League! We even had a small chance at the 4th spot with 2 matches to go, but it would have meant for Lazio to lose both, and i never even considered that possibility. Too bad we got cocky on the last match, and we missed out on the group stages, but that will be fine,. we'll give it our best shot to get through the knockout round

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now my favourite part of the game, planning carefully how to get the best out of the truckload of players we have, and who to sell on, and also which prospects and bargains we can get to make the team stand up for European football.

 

 

 

Under 20s and under 18s

Edited September 11, 2020 by Raymond85