Gaming Football Manager 2021 (FM21)

Rolandofgilead

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Cheers mate. I can get to documents but 'sports interactive' isn't there.

I'll reinstall the game and check again. Maybe it'll update. I won't get charged again though will I?
No mate, once you've bought the game from the play store, it's linked to your account
 

Chipper

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Do improved training facilities and better coaching staff decrease fatigue/make player recovery time faster?

Might be coincidence, or even due to signing players with better natural fitness (I haven't checked), but my players seem fitter this season. Means I'm rotating less often but now I'm getting annoyed players unhappy about game time when previously I'd found it easier to keep everyone happy.

Picking who I think is the best player for each position as long as he's either at Peak (any) or Excellent (any besides tired) and there's not many opportunities for squaddies now. Seemed to have more Excellent but tired occurrences before this season. We bulked up the coaching staff and the training ground was improved recently.
 
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SilentWitness

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fecking Brighton. They are my bogey team on this version. Anytime I play against them they will find a way to win. I score 4, they'll score 5. I have an xG of 3.24 and they have an xG of 0.44, they'll win 2-0. cnuts.
 

Lay

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What actually happens if you have a bad relationship with the press?

I'm guessing they start twisting your words and printing headlines which could affect player morale, is that it?

Always had a good one but just lately when I give neutral answers they've started the whole "We really need to press you for an answer on this question" kind of thing and they get pissed off if I repeat my answer. I don't care if they don't like me, but I don't want it affecting my team.

I don't really like the whole press thing and see it as a bit of a chore but still do them myself in case the assistant says something stupid, like we're going batter Bayern 8-0 or get hammered by a non-league side. Also think it's a bit weird how it's framed, sometimes it's from the point of view of the journo so when they ask a question that sounds negative and you answer negatively to it, it's actually positive towards your team in a way. It's just disagreeing with the premise/framing of the question so you're answering in the negative. As my mind is always on my team and trying to answer in a way I think would be good for them it just seems a bit strange that at times saying something that I think will boost their confidence is called negative.
I've always left it to the assistant unless its a big game and I want a bit more immersion. I even had an assistant that would constantly 'blow his top' but it didn't affect anything that I can recall.
 

YAMS49

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Do improved training facilities and better coaching staff decrease fatigue/make player recovery time faster?

Might be coincidence, or even due to signing players with better natural fitness (I haven't checked), but my players seem fitter this season. Means I'm rotating less often but now I'm getting annoyed players unhappy about game time when previously I'd found it easier to keep everyone happy.

Picking who I think is the best player for each position as long as he's either at Peak (any) or Excellent (any besides tired) and there's not many opportunities for squaddies now. Seemed to have more Excellent but tired occurrences before this season. We bulked up the coaching staff and the training ground was improved recently.
Natural fitness attribute will be their recovery ability post game to the next game, so they will recover their fitness at a certain rate. From memory it isn't linked to CA or PA & naturally fluctuates over a players career. I'm pretty sure training doesn't effect it at all.
 

SilentWitness

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Excellent first season in the PL. A lot of games where we rode our luck (We beat Spurs and City in true FM style) but a number of promising games results too.



New stadium in a few seasons too. Just in time for European football I hope!

EDIT: Being unable to sign no more than 6 foreign players u-21 ruins long term planning as I need to wait all summer before I can try and sign players I'm interested in ffs.
 
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Chipper

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I've always left it to the assistant unless its a big game and I want a bit more immersion. I even had an assistant that would constantly 'blow his top' but it didn't affect anything that I can recall.
Yes, think I'll do the same from next season on, put my assistant on it. I did try it one day last week but seemed to have a dip in results. It was almost certainly not related to that but you know how superstitious FM players can be!

My assistant's contract is up at the end at the end of the season, the same with quite a few staff members. Was thinking of possibly bringing in someone else anyway so will look at it then and hand over duties to the new guy if it happens. Would look for someone with high man management. My current one is ok, he's got 12 for that and is one of those assistants who is a good all-rounder. I needed someone like that when we didn't have many staff so he could do a bit of everything including coaching but now we're a bigger, richer club you tend to bring in more specialists.

This is him:


This is his 5th season with us so maybe it's time for him to move on anyway. It's not like Fergie didn't change his assistant from time to time in the real world. Might have missed one but I think he had Archie Knox, Brian Kidd, Walter Smith, Steve McLaren, Carlos Queroz, Rene Meulensteen and Mike Phelan.
 

Chipper

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Natural fitness attribute will be their recovery ability post game to the next game, so they will recover their fitness at a certain rate. From memory it isn't linked to CA or PA & naturally fluctuates over a players career. I'm pretty sure training doesn't effect it at all.
Cheers, suppose the way fixtures fall can also impact that kind of thing, perhaps they're just a little kinder this season. Almost certainly will be when I get into and past the winter months. We had some games called off because of a frozen or waterlogged pitch the past 2 season which caused a big backlog , which in turn meant more squad rotation was necessary. We're now in a new stadium with undersoil heating for the first time so should lose fewer games to weather.

Also had one guy that I had on loan for 2 seasons in a row that would get loads of those 1-2 or 2-3 day injuries during matches which would mean he needed a little longer to recover. That would mean more chances for his understudy. Haven't got him this season so little things like that would make a difference too.
 

YAMS49

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Cheers, suppose the way fixtures fall can also impact that kind of thing, perhaps they're just a little kinder this season. Almost certainly will be when I get into and past the winter months. We had some games called off because of a frozen or waterlogged pitch the past 2 season which caused a big backlog , which in turn meant more squad rotation was necessary. We're now in a new stadium with undersoil heating for the first time so should lose fewer games to weather.

Also had one guy that I had on loan for 2 seasons in a row that would get loads of those 1-2 or 2-3 day injuries during matches which would mean he needed a little longer to recover. That would mean more chances for his understudy. Haven't got him this season so little things like that would make a difference too.
Quality of pitch will had a better effect on stamina & thus condition/fitness lost during a match which will in turn effect recovery time. Less soggy pitches or newer surfaces will be better on condition ratings during games. Could well be you are seeing the benefits of the better pitch.
 

diarm

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I've just played Liverpool 4 times in a fortnight. Beat them in the cup and beat them in the league but they've done me at the death in the quarter finals of the CL.

The annoying thing is that I've had to rotate like crazy and still have injuries and fatigued players coming out my ears. They've played the same 11 in all 4 games, plus the league game they had against West Ham in between yet all their players were fresh as daisys.
 

WI_Red

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I've just played Liverpool 4 times in a fortnight. Beat them in the cup and beat them in the league but they've done me at the death in the quarter finals of the CL.

The annoying thing is that I've had to rotate like crazy and still have injuries and fatigued players coming out my ears. They've played the same 11 in all 4 games, plus the league game they had against West Ham in between yet all their players were fresh as daisys.
Not sure what the problem is. FM is supposed to realistic, so obviously they included Klopps "special physio" in the backroom staff. I wonder if "uses PED's" is a new hidden attribute for staff now.
 

NoLogo

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After a bit of a pause and some tactic tinkering and all that and after that post in the football forum I actually decided to start a sporting save instead of a Sevilla save, might do Sevilla later maybe. I'm going to make this a youth only save, which means I can buy players as long as they can become homegrown and I further restricted myself to be only able to buy players from three nations, Brazil, Portugal and Spain to restrict my options a bit more, which still means I'm probably going to be able to recruit from a really awesome talent pool.

I also decided to go with a strikerless tactic since they seem to work quite well again in FM21 and I always really liked them.


The tactic is working fairly well so far bar the occasional complete cluster feck like a 0-2 loss at home to Nicosia in the EL or a 0-3 against mid-table Boavista where I failed to register a single shot on target. I'm not quite sure why the tactic is occasionally so toothless but overall I'm quite happy with it.


When it comes to the squad there sure are some talented players in the team but overall I feel like I lack the right players for my current formation and way I want to play and loads of players have still a lot of developing to do but so far it looks quite encouraging.

EL I'm going up against TSG Hoffenheim in the first knock out round, and I'm still in the Portuguese cup as well so a lot of my players are at the stage where they are getting tired right now.

Oh yeah the only thing that really worries me though is this...

 
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do.ob

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Haaland is game breaking. I've been playing FM for a while, but I've never had a player this dominant and it's not like I would claim to have perfected my tactic either.
 

NoLogo

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Haaland is game breaking. I've been playing FM for a while, but I've never had a player this dominant and it's not like I would claim to have perfected my tactic either.
Yeah he is totally nuts, in my United save he scored 38 and 45 league goals in two seasons and both in only 30 league games played.

Saw someone who played a super attacking tactic where he scored 54 goals in one Bundesliga season, complete nuts.
 

Chipper

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Halfway report, roughly. Winter break but we have a game in hand.

In another close title race, feel like we should be doing a little better as we just hit a slight rocky spell. Last 3 games were a home draw v Celtic, home defeat v Dundee and away draw v Hearts. Performance was still good but the results didn't come.

Euro Cup draw looks tough against Monaco and so was the group phase. Drew twice with Everton, only got 1 point in our encounters with Hamburg but 2 wins against Dinamo Zagreb was enough to take us through with 9 points.

Pleased to retain the Betfred Cup, beat Rangers on pens in the semi, just like we did to win the Scottish Cup final against them last season then beat Celtic 3-2 in the final.
 

do.ob

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Yeah he is totally nuts, in my United save he scored 38 and 45 league goals in two seasons and both in only 30 league games played.

Saw someone who played a super attacking tactic where he scored 54 goals in one Bundesliga season, complete nuts.


Challenge accepted.
 

Chipper

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Quite tempted at this point but am just about able to resist.

Was thinking earlier that if I don't win the SPL either this or next season then I'll relax the self-imposed rules I've put on this save and either allow myself to spend some money in transfer market or stop restricting myself to UK and Irish players only. Maybe getting a little frustrated. As soon as I start thinking about relaxing the rules like that it's as though all bets are off including going elsewhere. Staying, but had to think about it for the first time. To be fair, they're probably the biggest club that have been interested yet so likely to be the most tempting anyway. Villa and Newcastle aren't that far off their stature in my mind and they were in for me too but Everton surpass those.
 

do.ob

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Holy shit. :houllier: :lol:
Unfortunately he had a little drop of form towards the end.



I wouldn't call my tactic particularly exploitative
this is the one I use for about 80% of games
Maybe it's because I play FM Touch, but last I heard the match engine was the same in both games. The team supporting Haaland is of course quite good, but I guess that's true for anyone who plays with a club that can afford him.
 
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NoLogo

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Unfortunately he had a little drop of form towards the end.



I wouldn't call my tactic particularly exploitative
this is the one I use for about 80% of games
Maybe it's because I play FM Touch, but last I heard the match engine was the same in both games. The team supporting Haaland is of course quite good, but I guess that's true for anyone who plays with a club that can afford him.
65 goals. Jesus.

Yeah ME is the same in both games. Also quite funny that the game thinks this is a 4-4-2 narrow diamond. :lol:

I take it you played Reus as the SS and Brandt/Sancho as the AP-at?

I actually quite like that formation, looks pretty much how Dortmund played a lot this season under Favre. How did the tactic do overall, apart from Haaland scoring insane amounts of goals?
 

do.ob

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65 goals. Jesus.

Yeah ME is the same in both games. Also quite funny that the game thinks this is a 4-4-2 narrow diamond. :lol:

I take it you played Reus as the SS and Brandt/Sancho as the AP-at?

I actually quite like that formation, looks pretty much how Dortmund played a lot this season under Favre. How did the tactic do overall, apart from Haaland scoring insane amounts of goals?
The 4-4-2 label is actually, because I previously used a saved tactic in that slot and didn't wipe it before changing to the 3421.

I started this save, because I wanted to see how Moukoko turns out. And Reus is doomed on this game: even more injured than in RL and his stats start deteriorating almost immediately. So I just sacrificed him for Moukoko right away.
Brandt I wasn't to keen on given his RL performances and he's disappointed me in FM before, so I shipped him out to finance Camavinga.

I'm already a few seasons in and I didn't necessarily restrict myself to the most realistic transfer stragegy:
This has been my first team - Guerreiro instead of Firpo, but had to sell him now, since his somehow fell off a cliff right when he turned 30, guess the caf was right all along!

I really like the formation: I wanted to use a 3-1-6 in possession and I struggle to get the balance right with back fours and HBs or IWBs, but with the back three and the wingbacks in the midfield strata, thus high up the pitch - even in buildup, it plays out exactly like I want to. The spacing between players is really nice. Naturally my CBs (the two wide ones in particular) bear huge individual responsiblity, so getting two monsters there was a high priority. Those two positions and the wingbacks are where you have to spend a lot of money imho.

I think I'm at a point where the team is just too strong, so I might just end the save here. But if not I'll probably try out something with a more defensive RCM role (Zaniolo has been disappointing) and a more attacking RM role.

And it has to be said that even with all that investment into my defensive players things are still a bit dicey against opponents with top wide players. I guess I could have pulled back my wingbacks, but for matches against Leverkusen (Diaby/Bailey), Bayern, Leipzig and CL KO matches I just switched to a defensive 4-4-2


Final table:

85 points isn't that impressive I guess, but I'm quite happy with the GD


after that loss I started to rotate more and simulated a couple of matches, so with more micro management better results should have been possible.
 

NoLogo

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My first season with Sporting has come to an end.


In the end I won the league quite comfortably. It was pretty tight until January which where we got into an insane fixture congestion and I had to play 9 games in one month and because the game is stupid I had one week without a mid week game and instead the fixture got crammed in on a Monday with Games on either side on Saturday and Wednesday but I got through it by rotating my entire starting eleven and it worked pretty well, the competition didn't seem to get through it and I could pull away. I'm very happy with the result and that we managed to win the league so convincingly despite a lot of player still having a lot of developing to do.

The cup competitions were alright but no major success there. I got to the quarter final of the EL where I was soundly beaten by Chelsea (1-1H, 1-3A) and in the cup I got FMed by Guimares in the Sixth round, pretty annoying but hey, shite happens.


Tweaked my tactic a bit more and am pretty happy with it right now, just really annoyed by the fact that we face the least amount of shots but the conversion rate against us is way too high. Also annoying that I am pretty much conceded the second most goals from indirect free kicks but I hope with my young defenders improving this might actually go away.

Squad planning is now in full progress for next season, getting rid of more dead wood is needed and I want to clean up my youth teams. Everyone who isn't at least a 3 1/2 star talent is getting booted, otherwise they'll limit the playing time for my more promising youngsters unnecessarily. I scoured the market for players over the last couple of days and found some really promising youngsters which I managed to get on board and my youth intake wasn't that bad either. Since this is a youth players only save for me I'll get heavily involved squad planning for u23 and u19 teams as well I already have a pretty good core of youngsters lined up but I feel a couple of more spots in my u19 team need to be filled, so I have some rotation option. The aim is to have every team be equipped with 25 players, just like the first team.
 
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roonster09

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4-2-2-2 (2 attacking wingers, not attacking mids) is too OP if you have decent team.

2 Advanced forwards is the way to go, also IWB role is such a brilliant role.
 

NoLogo

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The 4-4-2 label is actually, because I previously used a saved tactic in that slot and didn't wipe it before changing to the 3421.

I started this save, because I wanted to see how Moukoko turns out. And Reus is doomed on this game: even more injured than in RL and his stats start deteriorating almost immediately. So I just sacrificed him for Moukoko right away.
Brandt I wasn't to keen on given his RL performances and he's disappointed me in FM before, so I shipped him out to finance Camavinga.

I'm already a few seasons in and I didn't necessarily restrict myself to the most realistic transfer stragegy:
This has been my first team - Guerreiro instead of Firpo, but had to sell him now, since his somehow fell off a cliff right when he turned 30, guess the caf was right all along!

I really like the formation: I wanted to use a 3-1-6 in possession and I struggle to get the balance right with back fours and HBs or IWBs, but with the back three and the wingbacks in the midfield strata, thus high up the pitch - even in buildup, it plays out exactly like I want to. The spacing between players is really nice. Naturally my CBs (the two wide ones in particular) bear huge individual responsiblity, so getting two monsters there was a high priority. Those two positions and the wingbacks are where you have to spend a lot of money imho.

I think I'm at a point where the team is just too strong, so I might just end the save here. But if not I'll probably try out something with a more defensive RCM role (Zaniolo has been disappointing) and a more attacking RM role.

And it has to be said that even with all that investment into my defensive players things are still a bit dicey against opponents with top wide players. I guess I could have pulled back my wingbacks, but for matches against Leverkusen (Diaby/Bailey), Bayern, Leipzig and CL KO matches I just switched to a defensive 4-4-2


Final table:

85 points isn't that impressive I guess, but I'm quite happy with the GD


after that loss I started to rotate more and simulated a couple of matches, so with more micro management better results should have been possible.
Yeah I'm stupid, totally forgot that this is the name of the saved tactic not what the game thins the formation is.

Okay and I see you are not in your first season anymore but I agree Reus is getting pretty much injured non-stop even if you put him on half intensity training. Generally every time I tried to manage Dortmund the injury trained just smashed my squad to pieces, felt at times like I'm cursed.

I picked up Eric Garcia in one game just for him to play two games and then get injured for 4-6 months, fecking brilliant. Added to the fact that Akanji was also out for 3 months so I was left with the slowest defense in the world Hummels & Zagadou, needless to say I had to abandon my plans on playing a high d-line.
 

do.ob

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Yeah I'm stupid, totally forgot that this is the name of the saved tactic not what the game thins the formation is.

Okay and I see you are not in your first season anymore but I agree Reus is getting pretty much injured non-stop even if you put him on half intensity training. Generally every time I tried to manage Dortmund the injury trained just smashed my squad to pieces, felt at times like I'm cursed.

I picked up Eric Garcia in one game just for him to play two games and then get injured for 4-6 months, fecking brilliant. Added to the fact that Akanji was also out for 3 months so I was left with the slowest defense in the world Hummels & Zagadou, needless to say I had to abandon my plans on playing a high d-line.
Akanji is just classic FM. He had an ACL injury 5 years ago, so according to FM logic he has (very) recurring ACL injuries in the game (if I were to guess I'd say like 33% chance per season). In this save he had one each halfway through my first two seasons, before I got rid of him.

I can never really get as much as you'd expect out of Reus, Sancho or Brandt either. But Zagadou is pretty amazing in this game: his pace is actually decent, something like 10 acc, 15 pace at the beginning - but you still improve on that and 18 jumping reach, 18 strength, 18 composure, decent passing stats. He does his job defensively, has solid build up and wins almost every single header.


How does the SS / AP duo behave in the game? I've tried strikerless systems like that quite a few times, but never got it working. I think most of the time the opposition just packs the center and smothers my attacks.
 
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NoLogo

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Akanji is just classic FM. He had an ACL injury 5 years ago, so according to FM logic he has (very) recurring ACL injuries in the game (if I were to guess I'd say like 33% chance per season). In this save he had one each halfway through my first two seasons, before I got rid of him.

I can never really get as much as you'd expect out of Reus, Sancho or Brandt either. But Zagadou is pretty amazing in this game: his pace is actually decent, something like 10 acc, 15 pace at the beginning - but you still improve on that and 18 jumping reach, 18 strength, 18 composure, decent passing stats. He does his job defensively, has solid build up and wins almost every single header.


How does the SS / AP duo behave in the game? I've tried strikerless systems like that quite a few times, but never got it working. I think most of the time the opposition just packs the center and smothers my attacks.
I have to admit I switch the role quite often. Sometimes I just go back to AM if I feel they are man marking him or something. I also played two SS at one point but yeah not 100% sure who I want that role, the original aim here is to have a bit of an overload on the right, that's why I currently chose to use the AP-S role there because it feels like he draws the ball to him even better. The right WB-S, who I also sometimes play as an IWB-S against more narrow tactics, the AP-S and the IW-S actually make for quite a good passing triangle on the right that is great at keeping the ball. My SS and my CM-At are actually the biggest goal threats in this tactic. I think why I can't really settle on the AP-S, despite the role actually doing what I want it to do is that I don't really have the right player for it yet. My attacking-mid options aren't really at all creative and that is why I often feel the need to tinker around with that role since the players I tried there, I think 5 or 6 by now never seem to perform that well, at least ratings wise. I feel like someone like Bernardo Silva would be brilliant in that role tbh but I'm not City so I can't afford someone like him. My finances are a bit fecked and my average wage is like 12.5k pw. I have only 3 players on +20k pw and have only left like 80k pw in my wage budget overall.
 

roonster09

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Akanji is just classic FM. He had an ACL injury 5 years ago, so according to FM logic he has (very) recurring ACL injuries in the game (if I were to guess I'd say like 33% chance per season). In this save he had one each halfway through my first two seasons, before I got rid of him.

I can never really get as much as you'd expect out of Reus, Sancho or Brandt either. But Zagadou is pretty amazing in this game: his pace is actually decent, something like 10 acc, 15 pace at the beginning - but you still improve on that and 18 jumping reach, 18 strength, 18 composure, decent passing stats. He does his job defensively, has solid build up and wins almost every single header.


How does the SS / AP duo behave in the game? I've tried strikerless systems like that quite a few times, but never got it working. I think most of the time the opposition just packs the center and smothers my attacks.
IMO Attacking mid role is the toughest to get it right, for some reasons he always end up not involving in the game. I just go with 3 CMs instead of AM with attack duty so that they always make the runs.

I think it was in 2017 it was game breaking formation, strikerless was huge hit and again in this version it's working good it seems.

Anyways 4-4-2 variant is the way to go. This ME is good with play through the middle, so they alway play through passes to 2 AFs looking to break offside trap. Combine that with OPed Inverted wingback role, it's a win.
 

Chipper

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Thought I'd no longer have bad fixture congestion. Got undersoil heating and we've lost no games to weather for the first time in a few seasons plus we embarrassingly lost in an early round of the cup away to Greenock Morton. Still happening though, and always involving huge games for the club:
 

Champ

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Won the Prmier League with Bournemouth in my fourth season, have so far won the Championship, FA Cup, Europa League, Euro Super Cup, Premier league and FA Cup double.

Not sure about anyone else, but I am finding this years game so easy! It seems like as long as you play everyone in a comfortable position, press high and shoot on sight, you will win 90% of your games!

Anyone else finding it easy?
 

Berbaclass

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Won the Prmier League with Bournemouth in my fourth season, have so far won the Championship, FA Cup, Europa League, Euro Super Cup, Premier league and FA Cup double.

Not sure about anyone else, but I am finding this years game so easy! It seems like as long as you play everyone in a comfortable position, press high and shoot on sight, you will win 90% of your games!

Anyone else finding it easy? Saying that though, with the amount of money in the PL you should realistically win the league with most teams in 2/3 seasons IMO.
It’s definitely easier with bigger teams.

But to an extent it’s always been “easy” when you have money.
 
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Chipper

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That’s rough going.
When I get these runs I'm never quite sure what to do. Usually decide on prioritising certain games and go full strength in some, 2nd string in others, rotating all the outfield players each game.

Never really been one for mix-and-match during fixture congestion, like playing 1st and 3rd choice CBs in one game then 2nd and 4th in the next etc. I suppose the strength of the side remains more uniform and constant if doing it like that and you never play your absolute weakest team but part of me thinks I'm never actually fielding my best team either. It means playing less than full strength in all 4 games or for however long the run is and I don't like it.

This time I'm going full strength first Roma game, full rotation vs Hearts. Then I'll see, might prioritise Rangers away depending on the result of the first Roma match, might not. That extra day off after the Hearts game is a big plus, means most of the second string could go again against Rangers if I prioritise Roma away. May even do the mid-strength thing for those last 2 games, mixing and matching, even though I rarely do it. Could be forced to if I can't choose which is most important. Hopefully the result of the first Roma match helps me make up my mind.
 

NoLogo

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Joined
Jun 15, 2009
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I can't remember why I joined this war.
Thought I'd no longer have bad fixture congestion. Got undersoil heating and we've lost no games to weather for the first time in a few seasons plus we embarrassingly lost in an early round of the cup away to Greenock Morton. Still happening though, and always involving huge games for the club:
Nah the game is just stupid when it comes to scheduling. I had stuff like this where I was not playing another game in the week and neither was my opponent and we still didn't play, instead it was moved into a week when I already had a game on Saturday and Wednesday.
 

Berbaclass

Fallen Muppet. Lest we never forget
Joined
Jan 23, 2010
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Cooper Station
When I get these runs I'm never quite sure what to do. Usually decide on prioritising certain games and go full strength in some, 2nd string in others, rotating all the outfield players each game.

Never really been one for mix-and-match during fixture congestion, like playing 1st and 3rd choice CBs in one game then 2nd and 4th in the next etc. I suppose the strength of the side remains more uniform and constant if doing it like that and you never play your absolute weakest team but part of me thinks I'm never actually fielding my best team either. It means playing less than full strength in all 4 games or for however long the run is and I don't like it.

This time I'm going full strength first Roma game, full rotation vs Hearts. Then I'll see, might prioritise Rangers away depending on the result of the first Roma match, might not. That extra day off after the Hearts game is a big plus, means most of the second string could go again against Rangers if I prioritise Roma away. May even do the mid-strength thing for those last 2 games, mixing and matching, even though I rarely do it. Could be forced to if I can't choose which is most important. Hopefully the result of the first Roma match helps me make up my mind.
I supose it just depends on how you play the game and how you build your squad.

If that was me I would probably change 8/9 players in between games. I tend to build my squad with at least two players for every position. It also depends on how much you trust the other guys too as obviously those are some major games.

I think if that was me I'd probably prioritise the EL games if you think you can win it. I think I'd get away with the roration against Hearts more than Roma so I would probably do that, possibly play the same team in that Rangers game too. If you know you don't quite have enough I'd probably sacrafice that for the league. I guess I'd just do whatever gave me the best chance at a CL spot which would help the congestion as it's less games and also better days.