El Payaso

Thank you so much. The youth intake is always an interesting one when you don't even get a clear idea of the attributes. Seems that none of them will be knocking on the doors of the first team any time soon though.

SEASONAL GOALS As the youth intake turned out to be a success with at least three talented players, we achieved all our seasonal goals in season 1. Our defensive record deteriorated in the second half of the season but 33 goals conceded is a decent number as we were aiming to get below 40. Qualifying to Europe was a clear overachievement as was the youth intake with our original Head of Youth Development Ruggero Ludergnani. Our board was also very generous in terms of both staff recruitment and facilities which saw us upgrading both our training and youth facilities as well as youth recruitment. We were also given almost free hands in terms of coaching staff recruitment as our board allowed us to expand the number of coaches twice this season, which meant that we now have 18 first-team coaches in total instead of 9 where we started the season. WHAT WENT WRONG? There were a few things that went wrong in terms of performances last season. I already mentioned how much worse we were in set-pieces during the second half of the season. Conceding 8 goals more from corner kicks was a big kick in the teeth and this of course shows in results. The second clear change in terms of performances happened down the flanks where we had big trouble defending, especially against formations with both a winger and a full-back. Mërgim Vojvoda was able to keep up with the pace down the left-hand side but Raoul Bellanova’s right wing was a clear area of trouble. Our third big problem was winning the ball back. Alessandro Buongiorno was the fair play player of the year and Torino was the fair play team of the year. What is stunning in terms of Buongiorno is the fact that he appeared in all 38 games without getting a single booking as a centre-back! These stats tell you that we weren’t trying to win the ball back as effectively as we should. Some individual performances also changed. Vanja Milinkovic-Savic was the second best goalkeeper after Mike Maignan for the first half of the season and boasted a 90% save percentage which fell to 81% towards the end of the season. Vanja still had +5,17 for prevented xG but his performances did drop in the second half of the season. Raoul Bellanova was the second individual underperforming. He was both ineffective going forward as well as winning the ball back in defense. Down the left-hand side, Mërgim Vojvoda outperformed him in almost every metric. In terms of performances, we also lacked a player who could give us the final pass which also shows in the stats as Ivan Ilic and Toni Sanabria were our best assisters with 5 for each of them. It is going to be interesting to see how Stefano Sensi can change this in the advanced playmaker role. THE POSITIVES The main positive individual was Pietro Pellegri, who was elected as both our young player of the season and player of the season. The previously injury-prone striker scored 0,69 goals for every 90 minutes that he played which means 12 Serie A goals in total. This is a great number for a player who only started 15 games in the league. Mërgim Vojvoda is a player, I have already mentioned a couple of times, which moves me to Nikola Vlasic who had a superb end to the season. The former West Ham midfielders scored 10 goals in total (0,38 for every 90 minutes) and was thereby one of the most lethal attacking midfielders in the league. THE FUTURE A board takeover for a team in a questionable financial state is the thing that has been looming around us lately. I have no idea what this would mean in practice, so I am not worrying about it too much. We have all our summer transfers already made, which means that we are ready for the upcoming season which we will start with a training camp in Austria. The main goal for the upcoming summer is to keep hold of our key players who have of course created plenty of interest both in Europe and Saudi Arabia. Here is the current list of wanted players. Pietro Pellegri & Raoul Bellanova (Dortmund) Antonio Sanabria (Al-Ain) Nikola Vlasic (Everton) Ivan Ilic and Gvidas Gineidis (Porto) Ricardo Rodriguez (Al-Ain, Al-Arabi & Al-Grahafa) Koffi Djidji (Lyon & Marseille) Saba Sazonov (Real Betis) Alessandro Buongiorno (Manchester United, Al-Hilal & Newcastle) Samuele Ricci (Porto & Dortmund) Along with the new signing, I will be adding at least Demba Seck and Emirhan İlkhan to the team next season. Ilkhan had a strong season in his home country as he appeared in 34 games in total, scoring 6 and assisting 4. Demba Seck was lacking goals with Frosinone but still featured in 28 games for them. I am also going to assess our under-20s team as we are a bit short on players, especially in the centre-back and wing-back areas where we will be losing Adam Masina and Matteo Lovato who would have been excellent additions to our Conference League squad.

FIRST YOUTH INTAKE The aim for season one was to get at least one promising youngster through our first youth intake. When we received the initial estimation in December, it was showing that the intake could be a decent one, and could include a promising goalkeeper who might be the heir of Vanja Milinkovic-Savic in the long term. The initial report proved to be wrong though. Against all the expectations, the first intake was excellent as it included three promising players from three different positions. Mirco Villani is thought to be the best of the bunch. Still, centre-forward Michele Piazza doesn't seem far away, and based on the star rating, he might even become better than Villani, who might become even better than Alessandro Buongiorno. Giacomo Rossi is the third promising midfielder who could well once play next to Samuele Ricci who has become one of our most important players at 22. THE EXPLANATION OF ATTRIBUTES As you might have noticed, I am using an attributeless skin in all my FM saves. This one is from @GIMN whose Mustermann Skin immediately took my heart after the first try, and I have never looked back after that. Playing without attributes has changed my style of play in FM and I can honestly say that after trying it once means that I would never like to go back to the old way of playing as this one is so much more interesting to me. Anyway, as all the readers might not be familiar with the attributes, I will explain them briefly. Yellow circle = excellent attribute (16-20) Bright red circle = good attribute (11-15) Dark red circle = decent attribute (6-10) Small red circle = poor attribute (1-5) So term short: the brighter the circle is, the better the attribute. PLAYER PROFILES MIRCO VILLANI What I like about Mirco the most are his two mental attributes, bravery, and teamwork, which are already at an excellent level. He is otherwise a bit of a work in hand as he lacks both concentration and determination. He is also still fairly slow, but luckily decent aerially. I have taken control of his individual training and started training him to be a ball-playing defender as I want my centre-backs to be good on the ball. Mirco will be turning 16 next autumn and it might be that he will already get his senior debut either in the Conference League or Coppa Italia. GIACOMO ROSSI Giacomo Rossi is more of an all-rounder which is a good thing in midfield. He is already decent on the ball with his technical abilities and he might be a good fit to a segundo volante role where I am also training him. Despite his rather tall figure, he has a lot of work to do in his aerial ability as well as with some of his mental attributes. MICHELE PIAZZA Michele Piazza is another youngster with a lot of work to do before he is to be ready for the first team. He is decent technically and he has good vision along with decision making which make him a decent link-up forward already. I also like his traits, especially the habit of coming deep to get the ball. With this aerial ability and lack of height, it would be wrong to describe him as a copy of Pietro Pellegri or Toni Sanabria, which is also why I am more in favor of training him as a finisher. Maybe advanced or complete forward?

Thank you very much. What is also good with this approach is the fact that the results are quite close to reality. With another approach, I could have quite easily qualify to the Champions League but that really isn't the idea here. I was first even against the Conference League but then realized that this will allow me to give more game time to the youngsters in the team. So basically Conference League is going to be a tournament where I only play youngsters, rotation and backup options. The problem with set-pieces is that I have delegated them to my dedicated coach and that is also why this person was changed in the latest update. I think in general we still were in the benefiting side in set pieces throughout the season but obviously when you concede almost ten more in the second half, it is going to influence the results. I have high hopes especially for Stefano Sensi. I think a creative advanced midfielder is something that we missed in season one so it is going to be interesting to see what he can do and how this will affect our striking duo which I feel is quite capable for this level. The gaming time that I currently have is mainly during the weekends and even then only at times so the progress is very slow compared to some other FM players, especially as you take into account how much effort I put on small details in the game.

Thank you. The May practically saved it for me and I'm also looking forward to season 2. As the team is now ready, the only job is to keep hold of our key players and thereby not have to dip our feet to the transfer market anymore. More about that in the upcoming posts. I did see something, although instead being dangerous in counters, we were more like a Catenaccio team this season. Luckily the counters started to flow a bit better towards the end which gives me ideas to build on. Even though the second half was poor in terms of numbers, the defense still was quite solid as we didn't give away lots of chances. Set-pieces were the biggest difference as in the first half we only conceded once from corners while in the second we conceded 8 times. For the last post I was a bit lazy as I didn't include any gifs. Should fix this as we did score some beautiful goals despite struggling. I might include some of these either in the previous post or upcoming. The main things here are that I have now a clear idea for the graphics and also that the team found some of the old identity in May. These two make me want to continue. As this first season took me almost 72 hours of time to complete, I might change to a monthly reporting again. This will also be easier in terms of small details and work in terms of graphical design.

THE LAST QUARTER We step into the final three months of the season battling for our place in Europe for next season along with six other teams, including our bitter rivals Juventus. The schedule is quite clear for us. We need good months in March and April to secure a place in Europe. The end of the season in May will be tough, but I couldn’t imagine a better way to end the season than a home game against Juve. MARCH 2024 SASSUOLO (A) We made a bright start to the away game once again and controlled the events until their first goal which came from a marking error from Raoul Bellanova. The match reminded me of Rocky Balboa’s first match against Clubber Lang where the heart just wasn’t in there. Sassuolo were the better team and ended our misery from the penalty spot in the second half. This was the first game in a long time where the feeling of lack of depth was evident. As Batman and Robin cannot play 90 minutes in every game, there isn’t anyone on the bench who could make an impact. MONZA (H) When bad things pile up, the process is often difficult to stop. The 1-1 draw against Monza quite much summarizes this. The visitors were happy to see the first half draw to a close without any real events to mention. But then we conceded a goal from an indirect free kick where we lost the first ball and made a huge marking error for the second. Despite our man advantage for 50 minutes, we only managed to score once through Pietro Pellegri after a nice team move from a quick counter. We should have been able to score more but our attacks constantly were guided towards Raoul Bellanova whose crosses were nullified by the Monza defense time after time. CAGLIARI (A) The five-game streak without a victory finally ended against the whipping boys from Cagliari. For the first ten minutes or so, we looked fantastic, but after an early goal through Pietro Pellegri, we conceded again from a big error from Mërgim Vojvoda this time. This also meant we hadn’t had a clean sheet in seven games. Two early goals in the second half were enough to see us through and end the ongoing nightmare. Still, there is a lot of work to do to bring back the team's confidence. LAZIO (H) The away victory against Cagliari was a small relief as we lost again at home versus Lazio who are battling for the same positions. This was probably our worst performance of the season. We did limit the visitors to 8 shots in total but could not deal with their wide-play threat even when trying to double on their AM-FB combination. Both goals came from wide areas where we have been struggling a lot lately. Perr Schuurs got us the only one from a direct free-kick which was already his second this season. Another defender, Ricardo Rodriguez, has recently been showing signs of his best times being over. It might be a good idea for us to rely more on Saza Sabonov for the rest of the season. Juve’s Massimiliano Allegri was the next unfortunate manager to face sacking, and I think I am starting to be quite close to being the next one. LEAGUE TABLE & PLAYER STATS APRIL 2024 In April, we have a difficult away encounter against Milan, who are now top of the table. This is a game where it is impossible to expect anything else than a brave performance. Otherwise, we need to start winning games. MILAN (A) We did limit Milan to 8 shots in total but set pieces once again undid us as Malik Thiaw headed in one early on from a corner kick. The hosts also got a penalty kick from a push in a corner kick which Olivier Giroud sent high and wide. It wasn’t a brave performance from us as we only got one shot towards Mike Maignan’s goal. What was good though was Vanja Milinkovic-Savic’s performance which included four saves in total. It was the first good game from the tall keeper in ages. HELLAS VERONA (H) The good old Torino seemed to be back for the first half of the game, which we almost dominated and where we were able to score twice. Based on the first 45 minutes, I saw no signs that we would be able to drop points here, but somehow we did. It was set pieces once again that undid us as we conceded twice from corner kicks. Those were also the visitors’ only two shots on target. It was a bit of a decision out of passion, but our set-pieces coach Paolo Maiorino was sacked after the game with an immediate effect. The 34-year-old had only joined the club in August, and based on his performances in the first half of the season I would have given him a raise. But as we have now lost so many points thanks to our poor performance in dead-ball situations, it was time for him to go. EMPOLI (H) The clear victory doesn’t give you a full picture of the reality. We were the better side but not as convincing as the numbers suggest. As Pietro Pellegri was injured, we had to go back to a 3-4-2-1 formation which worked well partially as all of the top three scored a goal and Nikola Vlasic played his best game of the season, also scoring two beautiful goals. We were undone immediately from the kick-off after the second goal which saw Antonio Sanabria ending his +10 hour goal drought. For the first half of the season Torino, this would have probably been a piece of cake but the team didn’t look convincing at any point. Even though we didn’t concede from set pieces, all the deliveries seemed to cause us a lot of problems. What was positive though was the fact that the first 7 shots that Empoli recorded did not hit the target as we were forcing them to difficult angles and also blocking many of their efforts in front of Luca Gemello. Sadly the first and only shot on target found its way through to our net. FROSINONE (A) We have come to a moment where I don’t recognize the team anymore. We had a couple of injuries which saw Ricardo Rodríguez’s season ending early on. Nikola Vlasic was still in the starting lineup even though he had suffered a knock against Empoli. The team seemed to be all over the place with a 3-man defense which forced me to change the formation twice inside the game. A deep 4-4-2 seemed to do the job for us and we looked fairly comfortable after Alessandro Buongiorno had scored his first of the season from 30 yards out. I was hopeful for a clean sheet but in the end, it was the goalscorer Buongiorno running to Perr Schuurs with the ball, and losing it to our own man Demba Seck to give the visitors their equalizer after they had created almost nothing against us. Could this season already be over? CHANGES IN THE TEAM It took us a long time to find a backup for Vanja Milinkovic-Savic, but we finally did. Jacopo Sassi is the Italy U-21 national team’s starting goalkeeper currently on loan at Pro Vercelli in Serie C from Atalanta. The young man has played 31 games so far this season, conceding 29 goals and having 12 clean sheets. He doesn’t look like much in terms of our scout reports, but he fits the criteria that I wanted: With his height of 194 centimeters, he has a good aerial ability. He has good long distribution with his feet. He is willing to be a backup and continue his development at Torino. The new set-pieces coach Our new set-pieces coach will be Beninese Yacinthe Oinsou who stood out of the applicants we received. The new man gets immediately thrown into the deep end as we finish the season against AS Roma, Internazionale, and Juventus. MAY 2024 AS ROMA (H) I got back to some aspects that had worked out well for us earlier this season, such as bringing in the ball-winning midfielder role and more active closing down combined with a low block. This team looked more like the one we were used to in the first half of the season as we blew Roma away. Nikola Vlasic was once again in top form, recording his second 9.9 rating with two goals and an assist which saw the Croatian’s tally grow to ten goals this season. The new set-pieces coach also had a good start with us as we managed to keep Romelu Lukaku quiet in corner kicks and indirect free-kicks. INTER (A) It would have probably been a bit much to ask for anything from San Siro. Especially as the hosts scored from their first attack and first shot of the game. We kept the underachieving giants at bay for about 70 minutes where they only had recorded 4 shots in total. We ran out of gas though and Inter battered us heavily in the last twenty minutes, also earning a deserved second goal from a low cross. It was a significant loss to us as Vanja Milinkovic-Savic stated that promises had been broken right after the game and that he would be looking for options in the upcoming summer transfer window. JUVENTUS (H) And then there was the big derby where the winner would be in the UEFA Conference League. Small injuries kept pouring on us as we now also had Raoul Bellanova missing the big game. Pietro Pellegri was finally fully fit to play, albeit starting from the bench. Xabi Alonso’s men had come to the game mainly to protect their clean sheet, which made the game fairly uneventful for the first 60 minutes. Both of the more significant chances fell to our centre-back Perr Schuurs, who troubled Wojciech Szczęsny twice with his direct free-kicks, also hitting the bar in the 54th minute. One man made the difference again as Pietro Pellegri stepped in after the 60-minute mark. Just minutes later, the young Italian got his foot to a low cross, where the ball deflected to Antonio Sanabria, who had an easy tap-in from close range. Juventus then changed their game plan and took control of the match for the rest of the game. The second goal fell to us though as Antonio Sanabria fought the ball to our team close to the halfway line before launching a precise through ball to Pellegri, who finished this time with confidence after being close to offside. Juventus’s best chance came in the 85th minute when Adrien Rabiot escaped behind our defensive line before guiding his effort to the side net from a narrow angle. It was a fantastic derby between the two clubs where both teams defended well. This time we managed to get through Wojciech Szczęsny who once again took a couple of big saves for the hosts. Vanja Milinkovic-Savic might have played his last game of the club, which he did in style by making 5 saves in total while recording a 7.7 rating. MAIN STATS Shots: 7-10 On-target: 4-6 Possession: 36-64 xG: 1.31-0.92 FINAL LEAGUE TABLE AND PLAYER STATS BRIEF SEASON SUMMARY In the next post, I will be going through our first youth intake. I will then also write a bit more about the season in general, and especially why I think the team was so much weaker, especially in terms of defending in the second half of the season.

I think wide players in general are nowadays more balanced than they used to be. I remember back in FM 2015-17 just a simple winger with pace was like a freight train when nowadays their performances vary a lot more. I have had great performances but on the other hand at times the wide players just disappear from the picture even for long periods of time. In older versions a decent winger might have been close to a win button but I don't think they are anymore. It's more the attacking minded wing-backs that can be more effective than they should be, especially in terms of dribbling.

Thank you. I'm actually fairly frustrated with the graphical representation as the skin colors, fonts etc. make it a real mess. I'm going to bring in something new in my next update but reporting the matches is still a bit of a pain. Was thinking of creating a match report template myself but it might be a bit too time consuming for a hobby. Thank you. Much appreciated.

So, you expect that you can just auto pilot through the matches, using key(?) highlights and your backroom staff to do the hard work for you? I can only see it as a positive thing that the game is nowadays at least at times making us to actually go deeper and troubleshoot when things aren't going your way. Please don't take this as any kind of attack towards you. I do agree that most of the time the feedback that you receive from your assistant is quite useless, yet at times they also point out valid things like singular players seeing too much of the ball.

I think I must have written the part about Lopez badly. We managed to seal the deal so that he will join us in July, first for a season long loan and after that permanently on a 3.9 million euro deal. He should be a good addition to the team as I have fallen in love with the good old target-forward mentality lately. Vanja is a strong distributor with his kicking and he quite often opts to Sanabria with a longer approach and as he wins about 45% of his headers, we get quick combinations through that. The idea is now to have three strikers who can play both the more advanced and link-up striker roles. Actually there is possibly going to be three as Demba Seck is returning from loan from Frosinone. For the current season, there isn't going to be much help. David Okereke has been playing only 5-30 minutes every now and then hasn't done anything. Nikola Vlasic on the other hand probably could work as a more advanced forward if one of the starting duo is not fit to play. Pellegri has especially been superb for us. He started the year coming on after 60 minutes and practically always causing a havoc with his presence. I was a bit doubtful whether he would be able yo make the same impact as a starter but so far so good. Sanabria on the other hand shouldn't be judged based on his goalscoring as he is more of a linkup player. Even though there isn't otherwise much to cheer about in our performances, I am really enjoying the way this duo is doing their stuff. In terms of league position, I would be happy with 8th or 9th which would see us not qualifying to Europe. Then on the other hand this is probably going to be what is needed if we want to keep Vanja whom I wouldn't like to lose.

Still would probably be a bigger bummer for the sales than raising the difficulty level through more competitive AI. Lots of things would need to happen with the interface for me to be able play with a vanilla version of FM.

THIRD QUARTER As the save is progressing quite slowly at the moment, the third quarter is only going to be covering January and February 2024. START OF THE TRANSFER WINDOW The assault started early on as Al-Nassr enquired about Karol Linetty, Dortmund came in for Alessandro Buongiorno and Al Attihad made an offer for Vanja Milinkovic-Savic. Buongiorno was just fine with us rejecting the rather laughable offer from Germany but Vanja made me promise that he would be playing in Continental tournaments next season. JANUARY 2024 LECCE (H) We started the year against 8th-placed Lecce. It was a bit of a different kind of game for us as we actually dominated the game by summing up 19 shots in total and 2.56 xG. Both were the highest we had achieved this season. Zapata’s early goal gave us a platform and even though Lecce scared us with a late equalizer, which luckily was a clear offside, we never looked like slipping. The second goal again showed Raoul Bellanova’s lethal ability in our system. Even though this goal came after a free-kick clearance, it shows how important the pacey wing-back is to us. And Pietro Pellegri of course was again there where he has been scoring his goals. FIORENTINA (A) We made it nine without losing against Fiorentina in a game that turned out to be a goal galore. Even though this was our worst defensive performance of the season, after the draw against Inter, it wasn’t really as disastrous as the amount of goals tell you. The first one was Karol Linetty’s mistake where he ran into Alessandro Buongiorno, thereby gifting the ball to Nicolás González. The second one came from a corner kick while the third was really bad as our three centre-backs weren’t able to deal with Belotti who turned in front of Perr Schuurs and got past him before slotting the ball in from 20 yards out. Fiorentina also made errors here in all three goals with some awful marking play. We were clinical though by summing up 5 shots in total and scoring with 3 of our 4 shots on-target. INTER (A) As I knew that we would probably lose against Inter, no matter what we did, I decided to go with a second-choice team at San Siro. The team battled quite well, but two rather early goals made it quite comfortable for the hosts. Our first and only shot of the game came through Anthony Sanabria who headed in the consolation goal from a free chance at the far post. TRANSFER UPDATES Our backup goalkeeper Luca Gemello accepted Bayern Leverkusen’s offer instead of extending his stay in Turin. The departure of the Italian keeper means that one of our summer signings must be a backup keeper for Vanja whose stay here will also be determined based on our league performance during the second half of the season. Luckily we have already identified our number one target. Lucas Cañizares, the son of Santiago, would be an excellent addition to the team as his contract is running out in the upcoming summer, and because his level is already at Serie B level he could probably become a better player than Vanja Milinkovic-Savic is. With his height of 1,88m, he should be the type of keeper that could fill the mold that Vanja has created for us this season. Stefano Sensi is the first signing we have made. The 28-year-old former Italian national team midfielder has been suffering from injuries and lack of game-time the last couple of seasons but his two performances against us and his performances in general made me sure that he would be the ideal candidate to strengthen our attacking midfield next season as we are unlikely to make young Uros Kabic’s spell at Turin permanent. SALERNITANA (A) The matches continued after 11 days of break. Against Salernitana we were again forced to play outside our comfort zone as the home side seemed more than happy with a goalless draw. Almost 70% of possession but just two shots in the first 45 minutes is a real storyteller. A lucky bounce from a corner kick and the super-sub Pietro Pellergri were enough to turn the game for us though. The Italian came in in the 64th minute, scored less than a minute later from his rebound, made two important interceptions late on close to our penalty area, and also won a penalty in the 92nd minute, which Antonio Sanabria decided to miss. Can’t get over how dangerous the young Italian is when unleashed. THE DEADLINE-DAY DRAMA The final day of the winter transfer window started in a dramatic manner as Duván Zapata suffered a knee injury which would likely keep the experienced striker sidelined for the next 2 months. This, on the other hand, allowed us to terminate his expensive loan deal including both monthly fees as well as paying his hefty 89 thousand weekly wages. The departure meant that we were also forced to dip our feet in the transfer market as we would need a third man to fill in for the two striker spots. I have been pointing my focus towards two players throughout the season. Lorenzo Lucca, the former Torino youth product, who is currently on loan at Udinese from Ajax, and Roberto Piccoli who is on loan at Lecce from Atalanta. The problem with both of them was the existing loan deals and with Lucca because he has an optional signing-on fee with Udinese. This forced us to point our focus elsewhere… Palmeiras’ Argentinian José Manuel López looked like an ideal candidate for us. Even though our scouts only had minimal knowledge of him, the stats showed me that he would be exactly what we were looking for: well-rounded, strong aerially, and still developing. Sadly six hours was not enough to get the deal done and this means that we are going to be one good player short in our attack for the rest of the season. The transfer story took another twist though as we placed a loan offer for him which was accepted along with a 3.9 million euro mandatory signing fee. We gladly took this even though the player can only join us in July of 2024. Even though López only joins the club next season, I will count this as a first-season signing, which means that the deal won’t limit the summer transfer window transfers in any way. The strange thing that happened on deadline day was Sevilla coming in for our third-choice goalkeeper Mihai Popa for a loan deal. I was happy to accept the Romanian’s move to Spain where he would serve as a backup as well as Sevilla paying 80% of his salary. LEAGUE TABLE AND PLAYER STATS FEBRUARY 2024 ATALANTA (H) We made it 11 in a row against Atalanta who are looking to run away with the title. Both teams had their chances and the visitors were slightly the better team here. We can be a bit bitter here though as we had a couple of good chances in the second half, the last one falling to Toni Sanabria in the 93rd minute which he should have buried. Gvidas Gineidis was a real surprise here as he replaced Vlasic in the number 10 position. The young Lithuanian was surprisingly involved and had two decent chances to score too. I also have to mention Adam Masina who is a real asset when we need to defend. The loanee is not making any starts for the club but he is constantly able to shut the door at the left flank. BOLOGNA (A) The visit to Bologna was one of the best games of football we have witnessed so far this season. It was the first occasion in a long time when we were really in trouble down the flanks against another wing-back formation. This is also where Joshua Zirkree got the low cross for his equalizer. The hosts were the better team for most of the time but substituting both our starting wing-backs before the hour-mark gave us control of the game. We also scored two rather beautiful team goals as Ivan Ilić, this time employed as an advanced playmaker, utilized the channels that Bologna left open. The Serbian set up Toni Sanabria for the opener and combined other times with Sanabria and Raoul Bellanova in the second: Pietro Pellegri had been quiet in his start against Atalanta but the youngster gave us the victory here and in general caused havoc in the second half inside the penalty area, also hitting the crossbar once. UDINESE (H) All streaks have to come to an end and sadly this happened in an unexpected way against Udinese. We were in total control of the game for most of the match but were hit twice from set-pieces where we have been rock solid throughout the season. Perr Schuurs was benched to the game due to a small injury to his knee which seemed to lead to a disaster in terms of commanding the penalty area. In attack, we should have done better. Pietro Pellegri scored once again after a nice team move but even though Antonio Sanabria’s linkup play was toxic for the visitors, we lacked the players who would bury the chances. BAD DAY ON THE PITCH - GOOD DAY IN THE OFFICE A bad day in the office ended nicely as we secured our third summer signing. This time from the Barcelona B team as the 20-year-old Marc Casadó was convinced to join our club on a free transfer. This is a direct quote from the Barcelona website. I think his player profile fits our bill just perfectly and after further scouting, our scout also gave the young Spaniard an A-rating. Casadó has been impressive for the B-team this season, winning the ball back more than 16 times every 90 minutes. Along with his ball-winning skills, he also possesses the progressive pass that our current two ball-winners Karol Linety and Adrian Tameze are missing. The good performances have also earned him two appearances in La Liga this season. He might not be the next Sergio Busquets, but I think he is a perfect addition to our midfield and also gives us the option to get rid of one of the two more experienced options if the opportunity arises. The confirmed transfer means that we are only missing our backup keeper for the upcoming season. The already mentioned Lucas Cañizares is a no-no as the youngster committed his future with Real Madrid by signing a three-year contract extension. NAPOLI (A) “A gift that keeps on giving” was my initial thought when we went 1-0 down in less than a minute from another corner-kick goal. The team bounced back though and played one of the best away games so far against José Mourinho’s Napoli. Napoli took a bit of the control in the second half but in general, we were the better side here, which is something that I didn’t expect. Sadly it was a bad day in the office this time for Pellegri who was not able to get himself going. Sanabria on the other hand continued his productive form with a goal from his own rebound. GENOA (H) The disappointing run of form continued against Genoa in a game where it was Vanja Milinkovic-Savic’s howler that started our downfall. Pietro Pellergri got us back on level terms just minutes later. In the second half, we lacked the cutting edge to see the 17th-placed team off. I wouldn’t say that we should have scored one or two goals more but this was the third consecutive game where we should have been able to produce a clean sheet. BATMAN AND ROBIN The dynamic duo of Piedmont has been able to answer the call ever since we lost Duván Zapata. Even though the chart shows both players playing 9 games, it is worth mentioning that Pietro Pellegri has only started 6 of those which means his goal contribution has been excellent. LEAGUE TABLE AND PLAYER STATS Atalanta seemed to already be on the run for Scudetto, but as you can see, their form has lately disappeared, allowing both Milan clubs to catch up with them. It wouldn’t be a big surprise to see AC Milan clinching the title eventually as their defense, led by Mike Maignan creates such a good platform for success. The race for the European spots is very much on also.

Been there, done that. I feel you.

Why don't you report it as a bug then?

3D match engine and faces generated by the game are two features of the game that I have never used or probably ever will. The interface of FM has not been that pretty for a long time but luckily there are easy ways to mod the game. When I see people not using real bans fix, custom skin, face packs etc. I am practically always asking why on earth.

Player search is also OP. The solution is to not use the things that are too powerful.

I'm sure you will do just fine in the big fixtures. Love the small details in the most recent post. Is there any particular areas that you are looking to strengthen or is the plan to bring along the best possible individual on your list? The Swede looks like an amazing option.

Väänänen is a former HJK player, so I'm fine with him rotting on the bench. Are you actively scouting Finland at the moment? No idea about the attributes on FM but at least Topi Keskinen is an interesting player that might make it to the bigger leagues even. He started the season really well in real life but has since faded away a bit as HJK are once again having quite slow start to the season. But definitely a player type that we haven't produced in ages. Nice to see also Sami Hyypiä having a coaching job with you. His managerial career is probably over already but nice to see him coaching in the game. Jari Litmanen and Mikael Forssell could be good recruits also if they are in the game.

Never really managed in Norway but I have been quite tempted by the idea, and who knows if I will do it on FM 2025. Rosenborg has quite legendary reputation here in Finland and it is a common phrase here that some of our local clubs might become the Rosenborg of Finland (which HJK obviously is at the moment). Good luck with this. Hope to see some Finnish talent, along with Väänänen and Sadiku, in your plans. Sadiku was really good few years ago with Honka.

I tend to use well-balanced or even defensive systems which means that there isn't much need for changes when playing away from home. In games against bigger clubs I tend to change one of my wing-backs to a defend duty and use a clear holding midfielder. I also tend to start with a cautious mentality instead of balanced. This in five defender formations. To be able to give you some ideas, we would need to see your tactical approach first.

It is a tactical issue as it is quite simply possible to play defensively solid football, even with multiple styles variating from attacking and high-pressing football to defensive low-block. Going to the tactics forum doesn't mean that you have to use someone else's tactic. It's mainly to ask for ideas and then trying them out. I also like to make my own tactics from the scratch but I do read a lot of the threads related to the style of play I am trying to implement. Those threads often make it easier to spot the errors.

Plenty of them. Obviously you have to have a program to install them but there are instruction videos on YouTube which makes it a ten minute job when you do it the first time and tens of seconds when you know how to do it. I have personally never understood why anyone would use the faces generated by the game. I've always deactivated them as the first thing after installing the game. And back to the topic. Thanks to the beautiful weather that has lasted for weeks here in Finland, marathon practicing, wedding planning and work, I nowadays gave just 2-3 hours max to play FM during a week. For me this is the best possible pace: playing 1-2 games every now and then and slowly progressing. Also with a defensive system and low block the matches are really enjoyable. Tight games decided by the closest margins. I think I have never enjoyed FM this much, not even in 2007 and 2008 which I have played the most.

It's kinda funny or more like sad that the discussions have come to this. I mean, people picking up single team instruction and at least indirectly accusing others using some meta or game breaking tactical systems. Obviously I do apologise if this was not the intention here by @Captain_T which might well be. For me FM is a type of game where the players should not be avoiding certain styles because they are op. It is the responsibility of the developers to create balance no matter what system you play. I haven't really read this thread at all because I mainly enjoy career updates where human players struggle. But great job with Celta. An unbeaten season is always difficult to pull-off and when achieving that, it is a great moment to go for a new challenge.

I think I have seen people also raising this happening in AI vs AI matches, even for example Champions league finals. If it is a thing that mainly happens when the AI is facing a human player, this is again a clear signal to me that the game doesn't treat human players the same way as the AI.

Sorry for the off-topic but I have always wondered about these numerical codes that some players add to the player names. What do they mean?