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First time posting here, hope you like it! Intro My name is Jacinto Leal and I’m here to tell you my story. I’m Portuguese and born on 04/02/1989. I’ve always played FM, was a professional locally and just got my first professional licence to coach (Continental C Licence). After retiring to injuries, it was my dream to finally start my managerial career. I’ve been given a 1000 €/month contract expiring in 2024 (two seasons) at Sertanense. Sertanense It all started out at Sertanense in 2022. I was beginning my career in the Portuguese 4th tier. There are 4 groups, 14 teams each, top 2 go to the promotion stage, bottom 6 are relegated. Sertanense was founded in 1934, they play their home games at Estádio Municipal Dr. Marques dos Santos in Sertã, Castelo Branco. The stadium has a capacity of 1200 (note: this is on FM; IRL it seems to have around 7600) and was built in 1994. The village has 5500 inhabitants and the municipality has around 14700. The population peaked in 1950 with 28600 inhabitants but it has since been diminishing. I have a small range of scouting, still, when I search for players from Sertã, I only get 4 results (and one is already a newgen). All are quite bad even for this level... I won't be expecting to have many homegrown players (although that's something I would like). All players have part-time contracts with 1-year duration. Biggest wage is 900 €/month. Tactics Tactics-wise: 4-3-3, some possession, don’t hoof the ball. Most important: WIN! Always start the games with a positive mentality. Will try to create chances in any way possible: pass into space so my players try and get behind the defence; wide wing-backs and one inverted winger to cross the ball to the striker and the inside forward on the other side; long-range shooters; set-pieces designed to take advantage of my tall centre-backs, inside forward and striker. I want them to be disciplined so they follow my instructions. Will play a bit narrow so we can use the 3 midfielders and 3 forwards (IW, IF, AF) to create some numerical advantage in the middle. This will be adapted according to opposition. When we recover the ball, will try to play through our centre-backs; be aggressive the moment we recover and try and counter. When we lose possession, counter-press so they can’t play comfortably then retreat to a mid block. Press more often than not when the trigger is active. Since our centre-backs are decently fast I haven’t asked neither to drop off or step up, but they are tall and good in the air so all the team will push the opposition outside and we want them to cross it. Regarding opposition instructions, it’s just a reinforcement of the team instructions: I tell my players to show off-centre players their outside foot, tight mark defensive midfielders (when it’s just one), strikers (also when it’s just one) and trigger the press one the full/wing backs and wingers. Here goes an example of my instructions: In the upcoming updates, I will get into more detail about tactical adaptations to the opposition.

What usually happens to you against "weak" teams? Are they playing bottom-heavy formations? What is a 1-2-2-1-4? Is it backwards and it's a 4-3-3?

If your team is so dominant, get guys in the box. 4-4-2 or similar. They are likely playing Cautious or Defensive mentalities, so there'll be no space for you to exploit either behind the defence or between the lines. Get the ball wide, stretch them; then come inside (cross/pass/dribble). You need the right players to execute this: strikers good in the air (if they are strong and aggressive it'll also help you regain possession), good dribblers and crossers on the wide positions; you can have a more defensive-minded or a deeper positioned midfielder (so making it a 4-1-3-2 Wide, for instance).

Went through my (probably) last season on FM20. Here's my journeyman career: Season Year Team League League Position Cont Cup 1 Cont Cup 2 Cup League Cup Supercup Games Points W D L GF GA Most Goals Qt Most Assists Qt Most Clean Sheets Qt Highest AvRat # Most POM Qt #01 19/20 Pedras Rubras Portugal Championship 4th 2nd Round DNP 34 63 18 9 7 58 37 Tiago Silva 9 Tiago Silva 11 Rui Sacramento 13 Pedro Santos 7,27 César Gomes 5 #02 20/21 Pedras Rubras Portugal Championship 1st 3rd Round DNP 34 84 27 3 4 77 25 Tiago Silva 13 Tiago Silva 18 Alex Verdade 17 César Gomes 7,35 César Gomes 5 #03 21/22 Pedras Rubras Portugal Championship 1st 3rd Round DNP 34 90 29 3 2 83 24 Tiago Silva 12 Gonçalo Costa 14 Alex Verdade 14 Kakuba 7,77 César Gomes 7 #04 22/23 Pedras Rubras Portugal Championship 3rd 2nd Round DNP 34 78 24 6 4 92 32 Pape Mané 19 Cléver 16 Tiago Pereira 7 Cléver 7,76 Pape Mané 5 #05 23/24 Vilafranquense Second League 4th 4th Round 1st Phase 34 58 17 7 10 53 32 Luan 18 Pedro Antunes 7 Matheus Teixeira 11 Pepo 7,27 Luan 6 #06 24/25 Vilafranquense Second League 2nd Semi-Final 3rd Phase 34 64 18 10 6 58 39 P Vieira 12 Pepo 12 Morales 14 Pepo 7,45 Pepo 7 #07 25/26 Famalicão Premier League 1st EC3 Winner Semi-Final 2nd Phase 34 85 27 4 3 80 19 R Leão 31 V Costa 21 C Ramos 22 F Carvalho 7,71 J Castro 10 #08 26/27 Famalicão Premier League 2nd EC1 Gr Stage EC2 Runner-Up 5th Round SF Winner 34 79 24 7 3 76 23 R Leonardo 17 R Seoane 18 C Ramos 9 R Seoane 7,39 J Castro 6 #09 27/28 Famalicão Premier League 3rd EC1 Gr Stage EC2 SF Runner-Up Winner - 34 81 25 6 3 84 31 R Leão 26 J Leal 21 Bruno Luís 16 K Lund 7,24 R Leão 7 Started with Pedras Rubras on the Portuguese third Tier, couldn't manage to get promoted (after the regular season there's a playoff between winners and 2nd places from 4 series). Didn't renew my contract and moved to a team on the second tier - Vilafranquense. Got promoted on the second season. Just after the start of the season received an invitation for an interview at Famalicão which I gladly accepted. Went on to win the league in the first season (benefited from playing an easy European competition and having a quite low reputation). The second and third seasons were harder as teams played very defensively against us. Won Manager of the Year on every tier and Best Portuguese Manager. Won Portuguese Championship Serie B twice, Portuguese Premier League, European Conference League, Portuguese League Cup, and Portuguese Supercup. Sadly never managed to move past the CL Group Stage, but I'm happy with my career. Also, the players I played the most: # Name Position Games Goals Seasons Goals/Game 1 Alexandre Verdade GK 67 0 20-22 0,00 2 Yan Couto RB 84 3 25-26/27-28 0,04 3 Mika Mármol LB/CB 121 7 25-28 0,06 4 Marcos Paulo CB 97 11 25-28 0,11 5 Tiago Palancha CB 85 13 22-25 0,15 6 João Castro CM 137 41 25-28 0,30 8 César Gomes CM 131 38 19-23 0,29 10 Paulo Lourenço CM 104 16 25-28 0,15 7 Rafael Leão RW 133 72 25-28 0,54 11 Tiago Silva LW 136 47 19-23 0,35 9 Ricardo Leonardo ST 76 30 26-27 0,39

I have a tactic for my main eleven and when I rotate players or spot a weakness in the opposition, sometimes I need to mirror my tactic: make my RWB attacking instead of LWB, switch roles on CMs, switch roles on wingers, etc; PIs; positions (if my formation is asymmetric)... Doing this manually for one game and having to redo for the next one might lead to mistakes (and it's just boring).