Rullom
-
Posts
28 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Forums
Articles
FAQs
Online Manual
Support: Blocks
Support: Games
Bug Tracker
SIGames Manual (beta)
Profiles
Posts posted by Rullom
-
-
Hornchurch
Season 8 | 2031/32
Back to back champions
League / Cup / Trophy
SpoilerLeague One: As always, predicted last by the media. The early season started horrendously, and I thought it would end up as a battle against relegation, or at best a mid-table slumber season. But a few changes to the tactic, and some consistent wins going into the mid-season, and all of a sudden we looked like title, or maybe promotion contenders. With one game to play, we won the promotion, now the question was, who would win the title, as both us and Charlton were sitting on 87 points, though we had the better goal score. With a 3-0 over Peterborough, we took EFL by surprise, and won back to back titles.
FA Cup: An early direct red card, stopped us in the third round against Bolton. Funny thing is, though we seem to always manage to find some of the hardest/worst draws, round for round, we still get to the third or fourth round often, to generate some money, without it being the big pay day.
Carabao Cup: Knocked out in the third round by Brighton.
EFL Trophy: We were knocked out already after two games in the group stages. Very disappointing, just like most of the early stages of the season.
Schedule Results
Spoiler
Squad Overview
SpoilerFirst team
Fan's Player of the Season: Pedro Roxo - Also Young player of the season, the highest average rating of 7.1, top goal score with 26 goals and most PoM with 5.
Signing of the season: Leo Shahar
Most assists: Josh Ginnelly with 10
Tactics
Spoiler4-2-3-1 DMBalanced V12 - After the poor run at the start of the season, I decided to try to do underlap runs instead, and that worked like a charm as both the WB’s and DM’s made good use of this creating a lot of overloads in the half spaces. I also played 1 RPM in the midfield, for most of the season, but which side, dependent on who was playing. For once, I did not really play any other tactics.
Manager Profile
Spoiler
Awards
Club details
SpoilerBoard: I think a takeover might happen in the summer.
Supporters:
Transfers: 600k from selling Paw Nielsen, paid for 16 months worth of wages. Love it.
Released:
Finances: Still positive, but that will only stay that way, as long we sell players. We do not have the sponsors, ticket sales, competition income, etc etc, to keep up with the wages in the long run. We are going to depend heavily on selling players over the next couple of years.
Staff: I mentioned that we would be getting U21 and U18 staff, that plan have changed, as I sort of forgot about the very strict rules with Brexit, making any EU players foreigners. So, we are going to focus more on our first team, and bring in the best 18 to 23-year-old players we can find for money, develop them a bit, and turn a profit when the big teams come knocking instead.
The board gave us 4 new coach slots, and 3 more scout slots after we won the league, which we might look to use in the summer. I would also love to upgrade the facilities again, but that is dependent on selling players for big profit.
Goals & predictions:
Spoiler8th season goal - I believe a lot of the success, is down to understanding the ME and creating a somewhat broken tactic. Though, that also come from playing the game for 1000 of hours each year, and most of us, that play that much, know that the in transition and out possession stuff, is almost a default choice in reason years. Anyhow, I’m very happy with how the season went in the end, though I’m starting to get salty when it comes to our luck, or lack of, in the FA Cup.
8th season prediction - No, no, big no. Clearly, both I and the media is very far from predicting anything correct.
9th Season goal: - Finish in the mid-table … yes I know, history tell us, we will likely do better, but this is the biggest step up in quality when it comes to the English divisions.
9th Season prediction - I don’t even know what to predict anymore. I’ll go with us ending up in 10th to the 12th spot area, as I think any team beyond that position will have 11 players on the pitch, which each equal our entire wage budget.
0 -
Hornchurch
Season 7 | 2030/31
Happy days
League / Cup / Trophy
SpoilerLeague Two: Again, dead last in the prediction from the media. It started a bit worrying in the early stages of the season, but the mid-season was fantastic, and when we got our 1st spot, we never looked back, and won the league with 3 games left.
FA Cup: An interesting run, came to the end, after a replay against Nottingham Forrest. Not quite lucky with the draws (yet again), but in the end, this FA run did generate a good amount of money, estimating around 350k.
Carabao Cup: Fulham in the first match … Yeah, not ideal.
EFL Trophy: https://i.imgur.com/2saIKaV.jpg Lost in the quarter-final to Wigan on penalties. A good run, and I could see us win this trophy in the near future with a bit more luck.
Schedule Results
SpoilerAugust to November
December to February
March to April
Squad Overview
SpoilerFirst team
Fan's Player of the Season: Also signing of the season, Young player of the season, Top goal score with 25 goals, Most PoM with 6, and highest average rating of 7.2.
Most assists:
Tactics
Spoiler4-2-3-1 DMBalanced V10 - Same same, but decided to pull it back to CD’s rather BPD’s and also a bit fewer overall personal instructions.
5-2-1-2 Balanced V1 - More or less the same as the 5-2-2-1 from last season, just with two strikers instead.
Manager Profile
Spoiler
Club details
SpoilerBoard:
Here we go, training facilities getting upgraded two times in the same season. (some inside the club say that we are underpaying our staff and players), to finance such things, to that, I’ll just laugh and release them if they ask again.
We also upgraded for higher wages allowed, as I think there is a bug with staff. After we became professional, all staff in the game want higher wages then what we are allowed to give.
Supporters:
Transfers:
Released:
Finances:
Staff:
The wages on staff, is starting to add up, now when we’re getting performance analyst, sport scientist and an extra coach. The main problem is that we turned professional and minimum contracts are starting at around 500 p/w now. Basically our budget for staff wages went up with 500% or so, and will likely increase even further moving into League One, as I also look to find youngsters to start to train in the academy, whom also need coaches, physios, etc. (but that is a long term project).
Goals & predictions:
Spoiler7th season goal - I can’t be anything but happy with how this season went. By far the most successful. First league title in the cabinet, and we manage to do so without at all bankrupting the club, actually quite the opposite, as we look very stable, with double upgraded training facilities within one season too.
7th season prediction - Well, we did better than what I could have hoped, and always looked like the team winning promotion, but still a bit surprised by winning the title with such ease.
8th Season goal: - Survive? No, I think we can aim a little higher than that. I would be good with a top 15 spot to make it a consolidating season, before we look for the big push. As always, I hope, we will get lucky in the FA Cup, but our main focus will be the league and make sure that we get enough points to be nowhere near relegation.
8th Season prediction - League one got a lot more quality compared to League two, or there is a bigger gap between top and bottom at least, and I think we will end up in the mid-table somewhere, but hard to tell if it will be 18th or 10th.
0 -
Hornchurch
Season 6 | 2029/30
A fantastic season
League / Cup / Trophy
SpoilerLeague Two: predicted 24th, Obviously a sensational season being top 5 with 83 points.
Playoff semifinal: Against AFC Wimbledon, I expected us to lose as they had proven to be tricky opponents in the past, and over two legs, the chances were maybe even less in our favour - But I did not expect to almost get FM’ed from a second shot of theirs in the 84th minute in the second game, and then get a penalty in the 118th minute to win the match & playoff with a combined 6.06xG vs 1.34xG for them over two matches. Typical FM experience. In the end, happy days as we won 3-2 on aggregate to secure the final playoff spot.
Playoff final: Against Walsall at Wembley. I expected an even match, but to be honest, Walsall was the better team. Though, seeing us going 3-1 up early on in the second half, I thought we would come out victorious. No, a complete collapse ended the dream of triple promotion from playoffs … Still, this was a fantastic season.
FA Cup: Decent effort, as we get to the third round, but unfortunately not getting lucky with the draw, as Bristol Rovers, was one of the worst teams to get, too little of a stadium and fan base to bring us a big payout, and too good to beat.
Carabao Cup: Small surprise run by the rotational options, as we got all the way to the fourth round, where we got beaten by Aston Villa.
EFL Trophy: We got out of the group stages, and lost to Crawley Town in the third round on penalties. Not a bad run, and as I thought, also decent prize money getting this far, at least worth a run, compared to the carabao cup.
Schedule Results
SpoilerAugust to november
December to february
March to May
Squad Overview
SpoilerFirst team
Fans Player of the Season: Also Signing of the season, Young player of the season, most assists, most PoM, and in the EPL team of the season. Maybe one of the players with lowest expectations in the team, bringing him in as 3rd choice WB, he took everyone by surprise.
Top Goal Score: 27 goals, another great season by the big man upfront, but it could be the last as he is now 35 years old.
Squad Comparison
Tactics
Spoiler4-2-3-1 DMBalanced V8 - Couple of changes compared to last season, such as not passing into space, the CD’s changed to BPD’s and also a few other instructions to specific roles. Still the bread and butter tactic of our successes.
3-4-2-1 Balanced V2 - This is my direct counter to 4-3-3 / good Gegenpress teams, and you can see how effectfull it is, if you take a look at the semifinal playoff against Wimbledon.
4-2-4 Balanced2 V8 - Almost the same as last season, and often something I use inside the matches if we have a hard time finding good chances (but in control,) with the 4-2-3-1 and need to spice it up.
Manager Profile
Spoiler
Club details
SpoilerFinances: Fair to say, that now playing in league two, we are financially stable, and can look forward to spending even more on training facilities, players and staff in the future. We are still spending half of what Port Vale on 23rd spot is on player salary, so I think we can easily go a bit further up, seeing we also ended up with over 1.4 mil in the bank.
Another price ticket increase. Love to see it.
Staff: We might consider making an overhaul soon, and spend some more money on areas we haven’t - Such as, set piece coach, performance analyst and sports science staff.
Transfers: We spend, for the first time, a bit of money (kind of mistake,) on Sammy Lilies, 8.5k, but in the bigger scheme of things, it doesn't matter much.
Board: Iv’e been trying a couple of times throughout the season to get the board to upgrade the training facilities, but failed, same goes for the senior affiliate, which I must have been hitting successfully around 100 times now, without the board coming back with any suggestions.
There was a takeover in the summer. Didn’t change much.
Board decided to announce yet another new expansion to the stadium for 1250 extra capacity, for 1.4 mil. Well, hopefully it will be worth it. (unless they decide to build/buy a new stadium this upcoming summer, it is worth it.)
Goals & predictions:
Spoiler6th season goal - Everything went according to plan. It was a fantastic season.
6th season prediction - Funny enough, we were a lot closer to promotion then what I was predicting, a top 5 rather than top 10, and unfortunately it was another unlucky season with the draws in the FA Cup, but we did also do good in the other cups, though without aiming to do so.
7th Season goal: - Top 7 in the league, third round in the FA Cup, and continue to grow the clubs finances even with increasing the wages (which very likely will happen.)
7th Season prediction - I think we will be title contenders. So second or third spot but close to 1st in points, and getting direct promotion. We will also finally get a big payout in the FA Cup - more wishful thinking.
0 -
Hornchurch
Season 5 | 2028/29
Back To Back
League / Cup / Trophy
SpoilerVanarama National League: predicted 22nd. Absolute crazy campaign, and we have no rights being this good, but we are, as we end up with 87 points, in 5th place.
Honestly, I thought last season's playoff was one in a thousand, but no, we had to top it. First we get incredibly lucky against York, as Robson our goalkeeper saved 3 in the penalty shoot out in the first playoff.
Next up, semi final against Scunthrope, where they score 4 goals within 12 minutes, 4 shoots, 4 goals, and I thought that would be the end … but Harry Smith our Target Forward had other ideas, as we slowly but steadily got yourself into the match, and ended up winning the most crazy comebacks in a long time.
But why not complete it, in the final against Torquay, where to my surprise, we were by far the better team, winning 4-1 without ever looking like losing it at Wembley. Completing the most unlikely of back to back promotions without even directly trying.
FA Cup: Not a bad little run in the FA Cup, unfortunately we did not get lucky pulling one of the big out of the hat in the third round, and an early red in the replay against Fleetwood, proved a tiny bit too challenging. No big payout this year either, but still a healthy £120-130k profit in total.
FA Trophy: Even with a heavily rotated squad, this result and performance was one of the worst in the season, as Hampton & Richmond is also one of the worst teams we have been up against. Disappointing from the backups, but also making sure we could focus on the league and the upcoming FA cup game.
Schedule Results
SpoilerSeptember to november
December to March
April
Squad Overview
SpoilerFirst team
Fans Player of the Season - Surprisingly so. Also taking Young Player of the Season and most player of the match awards too.
Signing of the season - Though he only signed in January, his impact was massive, scoring 19 goals in 17 starts and 4 subs.
Top Goal Score - And league top goal score too.
Squad Comparison
https://i.imgur.com/bQQPOri.png
https://i.imgur.com/bYo5hJ9.png
https://i.imgur.com/JLwK4LQ.png
https://i.imgur.com/k86ktmV.png
https://i.imgur.com/x7MyxZF.png
https://i.imgur.com/nHl3t33.png
https://i.imgur.com/FV7dqI2.png
https://i.imgur.com/u8o6x6A.png
So, I think it is fair to say that our squad is at best average, or even slightly below average, making a promotion an incredible achievement. As of now, we only got 6 players on contracts running beyond the summer, and I think like last summer, there will be plenty of new faces for League two. A lot of the players currently at the club are none contracted, wanting a contract higher then what I want to give them, while other players underperformed or simply not worth keeping around ( I expect to maybe give 1 or 2 contracts to players I’ll like to keep.). I’ll not even worry about our weaknesses or strengths, as I know what I’m looking for in new players for our tactics. Only question is, if those players will be good enough, but I bet they will.Tactics
Spoiler3-3-1-1-2 Balanced Asy (V2) - Unexpectedly using this a lot, something developed after some poor form in the start of the season. Tend to do well against 4-3-3 and other 5-3-2 systems.
4-2-3-1 DMBalanced (V6) - Same as last season, and still performing above what I could expect. Still the most used, and I tend to always start with it as most of the league also use 4-2-3-1 systems and it performs well against similar tactics, so unless I specifically see a 4-3-3 or 5-3-2 this is the starter, and then I often switch it around inside the match if needed.
4-2-4 Balanced2 (V6) - Same as last season, but not used nearly as much, as my players fit the other two systems better.
I've been experimenting in other saves with other tactics and I got some thoughts after 400 hours of play time - Like the last couple of editions of FM, if we want to over perform with our “average” players, we always need a gegenpress, higher line, counter / counter press kind of system. It seems to just outperform any other tactical choices, and that is also what the AI goes for, when I noticed a team of theirs overperform. Thankfully there is room for a lot of nuance within the positions + player role, and also in possession style of play. On the other hand, In transition and out of possession, it seems to be very hard to make anything work without those specific tactical approaches. Mid blocks, low blocks, regroup, and trying to be a defensive minded team, with players that are of lower quality
Manager Profile
Spoiler
Last season we won manager of the season, it was just updated a few weeks after the season was done.
Club details
SpoilerFinances:
With more fans, a better run in the FA cup and also keeping the wages fairly low, we are starting to have a decent profit. And that balance is even after we have paid for stadium expansion, training facilities upgraded to basic, and the youth training in process of being upgraded too, so we are actually looking really good financially.
Nice little update on ticket prices. 20% is actually a big deal.
Staff:
Our former assistant manager, Steve Taylor decided to leave in the summer when his contract ran out, also Laurie Walker was sacked as the GK coach, so we had room for a couple of new faces. Upping the wage bill for staff to around £775 p/w + our contract, which is £625 p/w, so a total of £1400 p/w.
Transfers:
I sort of forget to show the early signings in the summer, which is these:
Following these, after the transfer history resets:
Like predicted, a lot of movement, like I predict a lot of new faces for the next season. Also an interesting transfer out by Dan Casey of £18k, but that could be much higher with a sell on clause of 50% same goes with Afi Adebayo.
Pro tip, check your buyouts clauses from time to time. Hot dang, we just made 110k early in the season. Honestly I don't believe they would bring in that much in sales anyhow. Also worth saying, that those transfer money will just get liquidated into better overall balance next season, which in turn will be used to again update facilities hopefully. We are not about to spend them on players.
Board:
Board decided to announce a new expansion to the stadium very early in the pre-season, which was already completed. Actually a good deal, for 1000 extra capacity, and likely already paid for itself.
Also the training facilities were finally getting a facelift. Expensive, but worth it in the long run. Actually, this will be the focus for a lot of our money in the future too.
Youth facilities are cruelty in the process of getting upgraded. Honestly a bit of a “oops,” I clicked the wrong thing kind of mistake. But I guess we could try to make an academy, not by youth intake, but from signing good prospects to sell for profit after a year or two in training (Chealea / Brighton) model.
The board also announced that we turned professional at the end of the season. This could lead to some unfortunate problematic situations when it comes to contract negotiations for the upcoming season, as players tend to want a lot more money from professional clubs. And I do not intend to overspend, and put our club into a rough spot financially, so tricky to say the least.
Goals & predictions
Spoiler5th season goal - Let’s just say all goals were reached, and then some.
5th season prediction - Nope, pretty far from 14th spot, and also completely wrong about a runner up in the trophy, and we got all the way to the third round in the FA Cup.
6th Season goal: - From what I can tell, is the quality not that much higher in League two, so dependent on my transfer skills in the summer, I think we should aim for a mid table season again, while trying to get as far as possible in the FA cup, to hopefully pull a big team out of the hat in the third round to give us a big payout. I believe we are also out of the normal trophy but taking part in the Carabao Cup and something called the EFL Trophy instead. The latter seems to have a good amount of prize money, so we might want to give it a go.
6th Season prediction - Promotion? Nah, but I’ll actually predict us to go top 10, and close to top 7, sitting just outside the playoffs. I hope we will be beaten by Manchester City or Spurs in the third round of FA Cup away from home, earning us 2 million … get in. All the other Cups, don’t really care, but we might do well in that ESL trophy.
0 -
Hornchurch
Season 4 | 2027/28
Light at the end of the bottle job
League / Cup / Trophy
SpoilerVanarama National League South: 13th predicted in the league. We were sitting number 1 in the league for 24 weeks, but completely bottled the title in the last 3 games, making sure that Barnet, running on 19 unbeaten games at the end of the season, catch up and win by 1 point. All we needed was for number 3 in the league, Woking, to score one goal in the final game, but it never materialized. Classic bottle job.
We managed to beat Worthing in the playoff semifinal in a fairly easy fashion, onward to the final …Maybe one of the most crazy and nervy final playoff matches I've experienced. We always looked like the better team, but the ME was having a laugh, making a 10 man Woking side look like Liverpool, as they were better after the red card. We managed to find the net 3 times in offside, before Player of the Season (once more,) Ben Acey found the nets to secure promotion, in the 89th min.
FA Cup: Disastrous loss in the 4th qualifier round against Eastleigh. We had just won 4-1 against them away from home, with the same team, and then we get FM’ed at home in what could be a financial disaster … hitting the crossbar no less than 7 times. Absolutely fuming.
FA Trophy: After the FA Cup disappointment, I was hopeful to get further in the trophy then previous years … Murphy's law in full swing, as we pull one of the biggest opponents we could in the second round, away from home in Worthing, and they win the coin toss after 90 min of play. Cup over, before it began.
Schedule Results
SpoilerSeptember to November
December to April
Squad Overview
SpoilerFirst team: With good performance, come high demands. Unfortunately for our squad … I do run some tight budget control management. The only renewed contract was Ben Acey, while extensions was also automatically triggered for George Quantrell, Brad McGregor and Alfy Whittingham, along with a couple more already on longer contracts, who likely will be the only surviving getting promoted, as we are not about to triple, quadruple, or even in some cases spend 5 times the amount on wages to give new contracts to ridicules player demands.
Fans Player of the Season - Also Young player of the season, most assist, and most POM
Signing of the season - Also top goal score
Squad Comparison
I forgot to take a snapshot of the squad strength from the start of the season. Though, we seem a lot weaker now compared to the competition, compared to start with. There are likely two reasons for this. 1 is that we had 4 players above the age of 33, but secondly and more importantly, the AI seems to do a lot of transfer business throughout the year, where we tend to stick to only doing business in the summer.
Overall, we are overachieving and are overachieving each season, but there is still room for finding holes and weaknesses to improve, even if that is the case.
Tactics
Spoiler4-2-3-1 DMBalanced (V5) - Decided to move over to a more traditional formation, and this one, was by far the most used throughout the season.
4-3-3 DP (V3) - An attacking version of the first tactic, used against bottom 5-6 teams, or when I had to push for the result and felt it was possible to gain something from it.
4-2-4 Balanced2 (V6) - When something “else” was needed. Was fairly good against top teams, who tend to play 4-3-3 wide and gegenpress, sort of taking advantage of their weaknesses with different / asymmetric attacks and two strikers. Often we had the ball only 30% but ended up with much higher match momentum then the opponents, as the counters were more lethal.
I see no reason to make any drastic changes for the upcoming season in terms of tactics.
Manager Profile
SpoilerAnother year, and yet another license. We are also getting approached by liege 1 and 2 teams now.
Also worth a mention, 3 manager awards this season.
Club details
SpoilerFinances: Getting kicked out of the FA cup early, really hurt the finances.
Staff: Still no changes. But Laurie Walker is retiring, so that might leave room for another coach in the summer.
Transfers: Mark White left us, but that left us with 8,5k in the bank. Otherwise, all our transfers were free, and also very successful when we look at wages vs how much they improved our team, gaining a promotion and all.
Board: Not a lot going on, outside of demanding coaching badges. We are not in a financial spot to start getting new training facilities, and I have given up the idea about a senior affiliate. I honestly think it is a broken feature, as I've succeeded with getting the board to agree to find one, over 100 times (not even lying,) in the past 4-5 editions of FM, but they always come back empty handed.
Supporters: Growing rapidly now. Also upping our average attendance each season, which will be very beneficial for the finances.
Goals & predictions:
Spoiler4th season goal - While we did get a top 5, actually top 2 in the league, we failed being competitive in either Cup’s, and that also left us with a small financial minus at the end of the season. But overall, can’t be unhappy with a promotion, which will make up for lost money quickly.
4th season prediction - Very close to hitting the nail here. That late goal in the playoff final, was all that separated the league prediction to be true or not.
5th Season goal: - While I have no idea how well we do in the transfer market, as we need a lot of new players. I feel like we should be fine, and maybe even overachieve once more. So I’ll aim for a top 10 in the national league. I’ll look past the trophy or even completely ignore it playing full rotation, as long as we can get into the first round of the FA cup and get a comfortable mid-table spot in the league.
5th Season prediction - 14th in the league, FA Cup second round, trophy runner-up.
1 -
Hornchurch
Season 3 | 2026/27
League / Cup / Trophy
SpoilerVanarama National League South: 14th predicted in the league. An otherwise good season, us sitting comfortable in 1st and 2nd spot until a terrible run of form at the end, losing 8 out of 10 games. Still enough to secure playoff, where we undeservedly so, beat Bath, but get kicked out by Barnet in the semi final. We honestly never looked like a promotion hunting team near the end.
FA Cup: Kicked out by Mansfield in the first round, after a rematch. Still a fairly successful run, netting us around £70k.
FA Trophy: Got FM’ed extremely hard in this one. Dulwich Hamlet is back to haunt us once more, as they take an underserved win to kick us out in the fourth round.
Schedule Results
SpoilerAugust to November
December to April
Squad Overview
SpoilerSquad Overview
First team
Fans Player of the Season
Signing of the season
Young Player of the Season
Squad Comparison
While we did manage to root out some of our weaknesses from last season, they still persist along with other problematic things.
Top 5 priority for new signings:
1. Better first choice keeper
2. Higher pace, acceleration, first touch and passing for any new Central defenders, while still keeping position, jumping and heading above average.
3. Either switch away from IWB, or get much better quality on these specific spots, as many games are lost or won in our backline capability of playing out of a pressure and getting it out to our wingers or AMC.
4. Better overall midfielders, especially the passing, decisions, first touch and marking need to go above average on both the B2B and BWM.
5. We lack leaders
Tactics
Spoiler4-3-2-1 ControlWideHorn (RasyV11)
4-3-2-1 ControlNarrowHorn (LasyV11)
4-4-1-1 CounterCounter (V3) -
Manager profile
SpoilerWe managed to bag the Continental B License this season.
Club details
SpoilerFinances: Took a chance on the wages, as we knew it would bleed red, but also knew we needed to push for playoff spots. Afterall, we ended in the season in white, but it will be hard to keep the finances under control if we are to keep the best players, while also pushing for better.
Staff: We still have the same staff, with around £500 p/w in wages. No current plans to find new, unless we lose anyone.
Transfers: Sold Lorent Talla mid season, for a nice little profit.
Goals & predictions:
Spoiler3rd season goal - We managed a top 7, earned around 70k from the FA Cup, but failed to be competitive in the FA Trophy. I will still call that a goal reached, though I think we could have done better.
3rd season prediction - Well, my prediction was wrong once more.
4th Season goal: - Top 5 finish. Earn another 100k or more in a FA cup run, and be competitive in the Trophy once more.
4th Season prediction - 2nd in the league (losing in the playoff final,) FA Cup run will like previously come to an end in the first round against a 2. Liege team.
0 -
Hornchurch
Season 2 | 2025/26
Recap: We were predicted 14th by the media to win the league. Our hopes & goals were high with a good transfer window, with better fitting players for our tactics (I thought.) But things never went according to plan, as we ended up on 10th spot at the end of the season, 12 points lower than 1st season.
Vanarama National League South: Slightly unlucky, as we are statistically supposed to be a top 3 team judged on XG and many other statistics and performance tell us, that we do well, but somehow drop to many points. Though, also at least 2-3 managerial mistakes dropped us points to be fair.
FA Cup: A decent FA Cup run earning us around 100k overall with away ticket sales, when we lost to Peterborough in the first round.
FA Trophy: We had 2 draws in a row against midtable national league teams, and on top of that, against 1st spot Solihull Moors in the Quater Final, who finally got the better of us. Very successful run, looking at the draws.
Squad Overview: Only 8-10 of the boys will be around for the 3rd season, unless someone makes an offer to good to refuse.
Fan's Player of the Season: Deon Moore
Signing of the Season: Lorent Talla
Key Player: George Quantrell
Key Player: Dennis Kelmendi
Manager profile: From National C to National A coaching badge within one season. Happy days.
Finances: Were stabilized, and we ended up with a small plus. A key goal for the season was reached.
Staff: We got a decent staff, while also being dirty cheap. We are spending £500 p/w in total. Surprised by how well this turned out, from only using adverts and staff meeting recommendations.
Hornchurch overview: The Club had a board takeover in the pre-season, one that didn’t matter much in terms of finances, embargoes or structural changes, but they decided, without notice or us asking for it, to give us a National B licence badge the day after the takeover (haven’t ever seen that before - so I like our new board.) Silver lining for the overall status of the club - Keep doing what we do, and we will be successful.
Tactics:
4-3-2-1 SpursyHorn (AsyV4) - 28 starts (A high line, all guns blazing gegenpress. Typically applied against mid table / similar quality opponents sides, where our weakness is not getting exploited directly, and we attack by running with the ball and underlap in the half spaces. Often good against other control based teams, tiki taka, fluid counter attack or route one with 4-4-2, 4-3-3 or other narrow formations with single pivot.)
4-3-2-1 MidHorn (AsyV3) - 18 starts (A mid block counter press with more structured marking, specifically designed to counter top teams and to stop them from exploiting our defensive weaknesses, while we counter more directly with through balls, rather than trying to control or run with it, often with crosses and set pieces being key to success going forward. Often applied against other gegenpress tactics and wing play styles, with 4-2-3-1 or 5-2-3 formations that want to play wide with a double pivot.)
4-3-2-1 ControlHorn (AsyV2) - 6 Starts (Almost the same tactic as TheSpursyHorn, but rather running with it, we try to control the possession more, work the ball into the box, play out of defense, play for set pieces to pin in weaker teams in their own box. Applied against teams we should be dominating, and can easily play through from the back, typically having lower engagement lines, without much threat to our backline.)
4-4-1-1 NarrowMidHorn (AsyV1) - 3 Starts (Late season, the Midhorn developed, and we experimented with it, to improve it for next season to be better against gegenpress / good wing play teams.)
Strength, weaknesses & comparison:
GK’s: I value agility, handling, passing & 1on1 very highly as we play with SK’s. Room for improvements in the transfers as we lost our key GK mid season, leaving us with an old cup keeper, who was not exactly a Sweeper keeper.
Squad Physicals: DNA is Acc, Pac & Sta. (Balance is the outlier, and something of an underrated attribute, one working really well in our transition play on the counter, while also making up for poor attributes in tackling and marking defensively, as we are one of the better teams winning the ball and keeping it. A norther thing to work on, is jumping, which is a weakness.)
Squad Mentals: DNA is Ant, Cmp, Cnt, Dec, Wor. (Decisions are a big outlier, one we got to work on in the transfer window, along with Anticipation, concentration and positioning need to be higher.)
Squad Technicals: No specific club DNA. (While not a DNA, our technicals are overall above what I could have expected from my signings. The high crossing, technique & passing, is surely a key benefactor to a good amount of our goals in tactical approaches we use. Heading is one of our big weaknesses, something leading to points either lost or not won, on both ends of the pitch. Tackling and Marking, also need to slightly go up.
Goals & predictions:
2nd season goal - We stabilized the finances, but delusional far from pushing top 2.
2nd season prediction - Sitting 5 points from the playoff, I was wrong on all accounts.
3rd Season goal: - Top 7 finish. Earn another 100k or more in a FA cup run, and be competitive in the Trophy once more.
3rd Season prediction - 4th in the league, losing a final in the FA Trophy.
2 -
On 22/10/2023 at 21:22, jrobertgordon13 said:
To sign a player, you must be able to scout them, this doesn't mean you have to, just he must be accessible to your scouts. If you have a foreign player on a free transfer who is willing to come on trial, you do not need to be able to scout them, as long as you have them at the club on trial so you can get a coach report on him. If an agent offers you a player, you can sign him without scouting him.
How do we feel about DoF - Transfer targets suggestions?
Technically it is often players outside the scoutable area in none league, though I guess the staff from a "role-playing," perspective, do know the player, as they would otherwise not be able to suggest them, making it sort of a grey area, and not specified in the rules.0 -
Hornchurch
Season 1 | 2024/25
Season recap: Predicted 19th in the league by the media, we successfully & unexpectedly placed 3rd in the league, leading to a loss in the playoff final against Dulwich Hamlet.
Vanarama National League South: 3rd in the league, knocked out in the final playoff.
FA Cup: Knocked out in third qualifier by Dulwich Hamlet.
FA Trophy: Knocked out in second round by Matlock Town.
Fan's Player of the Season: Tyler Blackwood
Signing of the Season: Tyler Blackwood
Other Key players:
3. Bailey Smith
Tactics (top 3 starts)
4-1-4-1 TheSpursyHorn (Asy) - 32 starts
3-3-3-1 TheWideHorn - 7 starts
4-5-1 LowHoldingHorn (Asy) - 5 starts
Manager profile: We managed to secure the first coaching badge for license C.
Finances: Are looking like a problem, and we might need to find some wage cuts in the second season, to stabilize.
1st season goal - was a massive success, by not getting sacked.
1st season prediction - Thankfully, very wrong.
2nd Season goal: Stabilize the club financially by lowering wages on both players and staff, while still pushing for a top 2 position in the league, with better quality & suited players for the tactical approach.
2nd Season prediction: Finishing 3rd in the league, losing in semifinal playoff to a team coming down from the national league.
2 -
First ever attempt.
Goal for the 1st season - Don't get sacked.
Prediction - I'll get sacked.
0 -
7 minutes ago, Jack Joyce said:
It's correct, you can't.
Opposition instructions are intended to be used on a per-opposition basis, to react to specific strengths/weaknesses of the other team. Because of this they're not designed to be saved per-tactic.
If you don't want your team to press the opposition backline, then that's what line of engagement is for really (mid or low block), and if you want to do a high press, then you can use the high press instruction rather than setting every opposition player to 'trigger press more often'. We'd only recommend using the pressing trigger OI on one/two key players in the opposition that you want to single out in a pressing trap.
That doesn't mean it always needs to work this way though, and if you have good ideas on how to design/structure a new way of doing OIs then please do make a thread in the feature requests forum - but personally I think if there's something you want to tell your team to do, that varies per tactic rather than per opposition, then you want a new team/player instruction more than anything?
Well, how you intend it, and how it used by many, seems to be sort of different.
Opposition instruction, is not different to anything else when we make tactics. With your logic, this could be applied to any of the tactical stuff in the game. The amount of micromanagement would be significantly reduced, if we have pre sets for specific saved tactics, much like how set-pieces currently work.
I have a hard time seeing, how this is not an reasonable request.0 -
I got twenty five years of experience with Football manager games, or equivalent to +20 thousand hours. Does that make me an expert? Absolutely not, but I 100% love playing FM.
butchering English and foreign players names, is my go to content in a nutshell, coated with some poor jokes & silly in game mistakes.
I’m new to content creation, but was encouraged by several people to keep making more, and improve. Therefore I do.
My first “real” & long term save in FM21, is already rolling, with something I call – The realistic experience.
Enjoy the horrible content – Rellom Q
1 -
10 minutes ago, Mars_Blackmon said:
Funny you mentioned OOTP because a lot of the new players want stuff like press and interactions. It’s definitely a balancing act and what the company want for its game.
Seems to mostly be people on this forum, that wants that. This is simply not a fact on a multitude on other forums across the globe. And how about the big silent crowd? What do they want? I just don't see or understand how you come to this conclusion.
0 -
1 minute ago, destmez said:
I feel like the options I would like to push, is not there.
And again, this only represent people on this forum.
2 -
9 minutes ago, forameuss said:
Put it this way, if I was given a choice between them ONLY touching up the ME, or not touching it at all, leaving it as it was in 20, and going after the wider picture like I mentioned above, I'd choose the latter every time.
It should be possible to do both in 2020. I'm on the other side of this, wanting them to only touch the ME and leave the rest, if that is what it would take. From reading all post here, it seems like people are very split about what should actually be changed or not.
This forum is in the minority of people playing. Most are silent, or on some small national forum. I can't really tell what the majority actually wants. Proberbly a mix of it all. Better AI, better UI, better graphics ... I mean, at this point, if FM21 feels like an upgrade in any aspect, I'll take it, but I do worry it wont (to me.) Time will tell.
0 -
Just now, HUNT3R said:
It changes every year, so yes.
True, but not to the better, imo.
3 -
8 minutes ago, Huey Lewis said:
Ah yes, it makes perfect sense to declare a dodgy mod which makes players run faster than should feasibly possible is already confirmed as a better match engine we've all seen about ten seconds of. My hats off to you sir.
SI shouldn't bother releasing a new ME, just plug and play a dodgy mod in instead
You are taking words out of my mouth. I never said any of this.
On the other hand, did I say hundreds of thousand have already downloaded it, and the feedback is 97-99% positive. (if I where to estimate some numbers.)
I would rather have SI focusing on a new engine, and let moders do the (hard) work on the current one, if allowed in FM21. We can change the physics, and we can change the animations too. But only if allowed. And moders are well aware of how hard it is to balance it.
9 minutes ago, HUNT3R said:@Rullom - we know very, very little about the FM21 ME - that was the point. Your comments seem to refer to the FM20 ME and that isn't what is being discussed here.
Fair enough. Do you believe it will change? Personally I don't, but I guess we will have to wait and see before discussing it.
0 -
Quote
What?
Since SI have a habit of deleting post, saying the name of this mod or just mention it, am I not going to say more then that. Their house, their rules.
1 -
10 minutes ago, themadsheep2001 said:
I think there's no way anyone can be talking about how good or bad the me is at this point. Hasn't been really seen yet
Sure we can. That was simply done by moders changing only a small part of the ME. The json file, and the physics. This changed a part of the ME, and for the most part for the better, for most people.
0 -
6 minutes ago, FlorianAlbert9 said:
That's the most important thing about keek low req.
Graphic is not the Key (even if id love to see more tricky animations).
AI is the Key.
Keep low system req bring the game to have poor AI, that at this point, Is what FM missing to be a very food game
YES! This man understand it lol.
AI > animations > graphics
All needs upgrades, but do not confuse the three.
5 -
- Popular Post
You know its bad, when users with plenty of post on this forum is mostly writing negative comments.
The real question is, can anyone actually do anything about current issues with FM? No not really, SI would need a new engine. The current engine is made for 2D, it wont get much better then this. Players are round discs sliding on a flat surface, and made to life with layered graphical animations for 3D. Now don't get me wrong, that is impressive, but also very confusing. They got +200k lines of animation coding, for a 2D based ME. Why?
I'm bamboozled about people even having second thoughts anymore. You scream about bad changes, but that is not really the biggest problem. It is how SI bamboozled most of their player base, to keep buying reskins and with consistent UI modifications, with absolutely no changes, and calling it "new features." They have done that for a decade now.
How is that possible folk?
There are changes, but they are smaller then what indie developers make in free updates 4 times a year. Also complete irrelevant for most of us. The best thing about FM, is the story we (us as players) make. Not what repetitive media interactions or conversations with players doing absolutely nothing is. Some might find it "realistic." Quite on the contrary. would I call unique situations realistic. There nothing unique, or new about 3 pixel animation body language, or the same cookie cutter answer in a new box. That is not real, that is literally speaking only to a 5 year old ... funny enough, possibly playing a cookie cutter game.
This is insane, and pretty close to complete pathetic to buy. And yeah sure, more "features" from, a well spoken content creator, a flashy twitter post, will try to showcase (something new.) This game have not been up to date with rest of the gaming industry since 2003. I could argue Cycling manager 2005, got a better engine then us. And this game, is gonna cost 40€.
Covid or no Covid, is this getting more and more pathetic each year. Is this even an upgrade? With all that media and conversation madness, does it feel like they want to pull something down my throat that I absolut don't want to play with. Instead, are they missing out on like minded, sitting out for years at a time, waiting for the ME instead of buying a game with facelifts. Since that is what we want, at least the majority do, a new ME that is build for 3D.
Imagine, a small group could upload a json file with minor changes, that got downloaded +100k times in under a week, and made people come back to play, or even buy FM20 just to experience slight physical changes to the ME. How about that?
36
the Official FM24 Dafuge Challenge
in Challenges, Sign-Ups & Experiments
Posted · Edited by Rullom
Hornchurch
Season 9 | 2032/33
Into the promised land
League / Cup / Trophy
Championship: Not entirely sure what Burnley are up to with their finances, (administration and deducted 12 points), but for once, are we NOT predicted dead last by the media. Expect the unexpected, that should be Hornchurch motto, as we win promotion to the promised land with 3 games left in the season, and we also claim the title for a third time in a row, with 1 game left in the season. Surprised? I suppose we shouldn't be anymore.
FA Cup: Big pay day arrived. Not only did we get Man City, who made a big mistake in playing their backup players in the first game, which lead to us taking the biggest scalp in the teams' history, with a draw in the first game, and taking the second game all the way to extended time, before we finally capitulated. Around 1 million from just those two games. That is a win in my book.
Carabao Cup: Defeated by Bournemouth in the second round.
Schedule Results
Squad Overview
First team:
Under 21:
A thing I find hilarious and stupid about FM, is how players who are on 1000 wages p/w, all of a sudden getting promoted to the Premier League, think they are good enough to demand 16k in wages going into contract renewal negotiations. Let’s just say, that is a slight bit unrealistic for a club like ours (highest is 4.7k this season for Beineon Brouder), so there will be no new contracts for any of the players, as this is a similar story for all players having contracts running out in the summer, and any players demanding new contracts, with the same ridiculous demands, will either be sold or loaned out to not have it influence the squad negatively. In other words, these players, are also nowhere near good enough to demand such wages, but we might end up spending such amounts on new and better players, which in return might turn a bigger profit down the line (or just directly improve the squad)
Fan's Player of the Season: Leo Shahar, also most assist with 12.
Signing of the season: James Hill
Young player of the season: Stu Gaughran, also most PoM with 5, and highest rating of 7.29.
Top Goal Score: Pedro Roxo with 18, making him our lead goal score at the club with 62 goals in total, in any league.
Tactics
4-2-3-1 DMBalanced V12 - Only change, is playing with a ragista.
Manager Profile
Club details
Board:
Well, we didn’t get the new stadium in the summer, but instead here at the end of the season, when we gained promotion. But, we don’t know much about it yet, except they are planning to have under-soil heating, or maybe that is in the old stadium? Hard to tell. Still no takeover, which is a bit of a surprise.
Supporters:
1902 supporters, well we are a bit of a joke in the Premier League next season.
Transfers:
So, nothing to big here. Which meant, that getting new training facilities was also going to be tricky. Thankfully, the FA cup game against City, kind of saved us when it came to money coming in.
Transfers in before reset:
Released:
Finances:
Welcome to the promised land. Though, for most of the season we were not turning a profit, up until the City FA cup game, which put us over 1 million, and now with sponsors, winning the league and gaining promotion yet again, we are really pushing the boundaries of what we can do. As you can see, we were spending around 64k in wages on players, and already early on in the summer, that have been pushed to 136k committed with my current transfer business.
Staff:
I did bring in a couple of new faces for the season, but now when we move up yet again, the board automatically gave us room for more staff members. Medical 100% need a facelift, and I could also easily pay for a full coaching team including all the youth (though they are not really needed yet, as we only got a 5-6 youth players, whom are going out on loan most likely.)
Goals & predictions:
9th season goal - Sure, why not. Another title, expect the unexpected is going to be the new motto.
9th season prediction - Like I said, I don’t even know what to predict. I was way off, once more.
10th Season goal: - Establish ourselves in the Premier Division. Which means, earning a ton of money and hopefully survive.
10th Season prediction - Winning the league? Nah, I’m not sure the tactic is that broken, or my skills to make the right in game calls for that matter. So I’m going to predict a top 10.