Gaming Football Manager 2021 (FM21)

[Rolandofgilead]

Well, I got over the line and won League 1 with 99 points. Lost away to Walsall in final game otherwise if have broken 100 points.

5 season to get out of the national league and then 3 to get to the Championship. This is the biggest step up yet. I've been given £6m transfer budget. Feels weird as I've spent -350k net to get this far.

 

[V.O.]

Halfway through the season after promotion and sitting more comfortably in the 2. Bundesliga midtable than I have any right to be with most of the goals coming from goalmouth scrambles from long throws, sending the big 'uns for set pieces, and good old fashioned hoofs down the pitch to the 6'4" lump up front plucked from the Brazilian lower leagues. The shameless transformation into Stokemotive Leipzig is coming along very nicely.

The continuing mission to shithouse our way to the top has been typified beautifully by my CB prospect who is going to be an absolute butcher when he fills out:

Spoiler

Sent off on his debut for hacking someone down on the halfway line for no apparent reason on our way to a scruffy odd goal win against the worst side in the league. I couldn't be any more proud.

 

[Chipper]

Can skins break game functionality? Noticed something not working and don't know if it's because of the skin or if something is broken. Suppose I could remove the skin and test but that's a bit of an effort.

The problem:

I get regular inbox messages asking which players I want to make available for the reserves and pick the ones I think could do with a game to boost fitness. If I pick them from that inbox message it works fine. If instead I go to my main squad list (below) and right click on player or group of players making them available for the next reserves match for 90 minutes they never actually play in the game even though they have the little "Res" tag next to their name in the squad list. If I go back to the inbox message after selecting them from the squad list it says I've made them available there too, just as it would if I directly picked them from the inbox message but for whatever reason they don't play in the match.

"Just select them from the inbox message". I can but it takes me longer to do what I want to do. I'm running this skin that shows condition and sharpness as percentages from the squad screen instead of the heart symbols and like to base my selection decisions for the reserves based on how sharp they are as a percentage:

It would be ideal if I could pick reserves from that screen and for them to actually play. In this skin the inbox message about the reserves still has hearts so what I've had to do is remember the names of the players I want to play in the reserves from that main squad screen based off those percentages then go to the inbox message and select the players one at a time over there. Sometimes if it's a lot of players I want to make available for the reserves I have to jump between the screens 2 or 3 times to remember all the names and it's a bit of a pain.

Edit:

So I've got to go to that screen to pick the players if I actually want them to play in the reserves. Picking them from the first screenshot doesn't work for me even though it says I've selected them. As you can see we're back to heart symbols and arrows which I don't like as they're not as detailed as the numbers from the first screen and I have to jump between the two.

 

[NoLogo]

So I recently started my first full game which was not on FM touch and we had a pretty great season, beyond my expectations. Won the league by 8 points (92) ahead of City (84) and Liverpool (82) but of course the thing that fecked me up the most already is the whole interaction stuff. In February, I had a pretty bad run of form with 1 loss and 4 draws in a row and my at that time 12 point lead had shrunk down to like 4 points so I held a meeting with the lads and was like "Common guys, we are in the process of undoing all our great work if we don't get our shit together." Of course their reaction was like "What are you talking about we are playing marvelous gorgeous football and haven't lost in 4 games." Of course I don't have the option replying "Dude we had a 12 point lead, now it's 4, notice something?" or "Yeah but you haven't won in 5 games either, ye muppet." No instead you get 5 different answers who all don't even remotely fit what I would have said in that situation and the conversation is over and the moral is fecked.

 

[paulscholes18]

Halfway through the season after promotion and sitting more comfortably in the 2. Bundesliga midtable than I have any right to be with most of the goals coming from goalmouth scrambles from long throws, sending the big 'uns for set pieces, and good old fashioned hoofs down the pitch to the 6'4" lump up front plucked from the Brazilian lower leagues. The shameless transformation into Stokemotive Leipzig is coming along very nicely.

The continuing mission to shithouse our way to the top has been typified beautifully by my CB prospect who is going to be an absolute butcher when he fills out:

Spoiler

Sent off on his debut for hacking someone down on the halfway line for no apparent reason on our way to a scruffy odd goal win against the worst side in the league. I couldn't be any more proud.

Sounds familiar

 

[Lay]

Why are players incapable of knowing we have games in hand. So I’m 7th with Fiorentina after two league titles in a row, we are 7th because of the CWC so we are 2-3 games behind the rest. I’m 7 points off first and 2 points off 4th. Yet the players had a shit fit and asked me to change my tactics!

Why don’t they suggest me one then!?

Maybe they had a point, we finished 5th with 71 points. Napoli won the league with 78. 78 points! I had 94 the two years prior.

 

[Berbaclass]

Oh my god.

So I've had a great season. Dismantled Barca and then United in the CL knockouts. We drew Juventus in the semi-final and I lost the first leg 1-0 a little bit fortunately, should have been more...

Day before the second leg my best RB gets shin splints and is out for 5 weeks! Fantastic!

This is what happened. Possibly the biggest CL semi-final demolition of all time

Build him a fecking statue!

 

[Berbaclass]

Here he is for anyone interested. A newly crowned Austria Wien god.

Spoiler

 

[NoLogo]

Well second season didn't quite go as planned. Finished 2nd with 97 points behind Chelsea (98), got knocked out by Liverpool in the quarter-final of the CL and got FMed by Norwich City in the FA-Cup semi final.

Spoiler: League Table

Kinda crazy that I lost the league to them with 97 points and a goal difference of 84. The late winners fecking Timo Werner scored for Chelsea were pretty crazy.

 

[JTW95]

Going to do a youth only save with Man United. No transfers whatsoever are allowed. I try every year but this is the one

 

[NoLogo]

Going to do a youth only save with Man United. No transfers whatsoever are allowed. I try every year but this is the one

I do one every year and I'm tempted to turn my current game into one as well, since my board has started to block all my other transfers anyway because they are not British and Brexit is a real pain in the arse in that regard. I need another quality CB and preferably a quality DLP but my board is blocking any attempts of me to sign someone unless it's an English player but all the options in those positions aren't really great or an improvement in that regard, or the few that are just aren't interested in joining.

So yeah why the hell actually not.

 

[JTW95]

I do one every year and I'm tempted to turn my current game into one as well, since my board has started to block all my other transfers anyway because they are not British and Brexit is a real pain in the arse in that regard. I need another quality CB and preferably a quality DLP but my board is blocking any attempts of me to sign someone unless it's an English player but all the options in those positions aren't really great or an improvement in that regard, or the few that are just aren't interested in joining.

So yeah why the hell actually not.

I think its too easy with United usually to just buy the best young players and dominate. This always makes it a bit more interesting.

I'm currently in the process of revamping the coaching staff trying to get the best possible coaching possible. Board reject my immediate request to upgrade Junior coaching and Youth recruitment which is no shocker they always make you wait a few months.

 

[NoLogo]

I think its too easy with United usually to just buy the best young players and dominate. This always makes it a bit more interesting.

I'm currently in the process of revamping the coaching staff trying to get the best possible coaching possible. Board reject my immediate request to upgrade Junior coaching and Youth recruitment which is no shocker they always make you wait a few months.

Yeah I'm still looking to overhaul my youth coach setup as well. And funnily enough while looking at coaches I found that Ole is now a coach at Blackburn? Dose anyone else who has taken over United has seen that he moved on to be a coach?

 

[Chipper]

10 games to go, sitting quite nicely in the Scottish Championship.

Kind if feels a bit easy at the moment. Mind you, I'm using the "Phoenix v3 tactics" (google it) as I've never been one who has ever found success trying to play the way I want to play in terms of what I imagine would be good tactics in the real world . These tactics remind me of the 'el diablio' I think it was called from one of the Championship Manager games in the 00's. In that you had an AM running between two forwards that would split, dragging the CBs slightly wider than they'd want to be and the AM would run right into that gap with nobody around them, scoring loads. With this there's two support strikers kind of playing as false 9's effectively, they score plenty as does the CM on attack duties driving right up between them. As there's no genuine forwards it's pretty solid defensively too.

I also use genie scout instead of relying on in-game scouting, makes it quite a lot easier to find players.

Anyway, I suspect we'll go up again, that would be 3 promotions on the bounce if we do but perhaps the SPL will be a whole new ball game when we do? Trying to restrict myself a little by only signing UK and Irish players, secondary nationalities included but even then we're flying through the divisions and because of brexit rules I'm not sure it's too diffferent from what I'd be able to do anyway. Semi-pro clubs with tiny grounds can't exactly sign established internationals on big wages. Might be denying myself the odd Costa Rican or Chinese international assuming they'd want to sign for me anyway which would be debatable.

I suppose the one thing I am strict on is not paying a penny on transfer fees or loan fees. Not done that yet and I won't. Will see where this takes us.

 

[NoLogo]

Great. So the stupid board blocked me from signing de Jong early on in the summer "not enough English players signed, yada yada" of course now he signed for Chelsea for 119M €. Now they will be even harder to beat. Ugh. Oh yeah Foden signed for Liverpool 168M € and City spent the money on Odegard buying him for 107M €, pretty crazy money thrown around here.

 

[Berbaclass]

So, I've signed this guy (after chasing him for years) I genuinely think he might be just about the perfect CB. Probably one of the best I've ever seen on FM. Absolute monster.

Spoiler: Schmitz

 

[Lay]

Passing, flair, dribbling, vision is quite good. Could play in midfield

 

[pascell]

6ft6 with a Jumping Reach of 17, get him on the end of set pieces!

 

[YAMS49]

He'd be an epic Half Back in my system... Jealous.

 

[Berbaclass]

6ft6 with a Jumping Reach of 17, get him on the end of set pieces!

That's the plan

Gonna pair him with my other beast. He's scored 21 in 61 since signing

Spoiler: Hajji

 

[NoLogo]

So, I've signed this guy (after chasing him for years) I genuinely think he might be just about the perfect CB. Probably one of the best I've ever seen on FM. Absolute monster.

Spoiler: Schmitz

Wow. Crazy good defender, only his marking is probably a bit of a weakness but I'd say he makes more than up for it other departments.

In a bid to upgrade my defense and bring in someone better than Maguire I just tired to get de Ligt, agreed a deal with Juve for 109M € which seemed fair but apparently the bastard didn't really want to join, he was asking for 450k pw, which would have been by far my highest payed player at United and on top of that wanted 10% pay rise each year. Needless to say I noped out of the deal, this would have completely destroyed my wage structure but he is a crazy good defender though, pitty.

All in all I had a real Woodward transfer window. Tried to bring in de Jong, got denied by the board, not enough English players signed, brought in Grealish for 52M € to bolster my attacking options, of course by the time I managed to get that deal done de Jong had signed for Chelsea and now the failure with de Ligt. Ugh, I think I now know what it feels like to be Ed.

On the birght side I managed to offload Memphis, who I brought in on a free last season and who was completely awful all season long for 70M € to PSG, those idiots will buy everything that isn't running away fast enough. Well I think Grealish is going to be the better rotation option for my team anyways and the fecking board got their English players, seems like that's at least one tiny win this season.

 

[SilentWitness]

Forgot how congested the lower leagues are with these silly tin pot tournaments like the Papa Johns Trophy. Caught between wanting to sack it off and concentrate on the league but also giving squad players game time. Of course you then have injuries piling up to your first team and that squad player gametime becomes every couple of days and everyone is shattered.

 

[Rolandofgilead]

Forgot how congested the lower leagues are with these silly tin pot tournaments like the Papa Johns Trophy. Caught between wanting to sack it off and concentrate on the league but also giving squad players game time. Of course you then have injuries piling up to your first team and that squad player gametime becomes every couple of days and everyone is shattered.

I played fringe players exclusively. If you're a really small side and beat one of the Premier league reserve teams, you tend to have loads of praise thrust upon you. I think the 3rd round was the furthest I went. But while I was losing to league two Colchester, I was busy winning League one so the board didn't give a fig.

 

[WI_Red]

Sometimes this game.....

I am doing a very enjoyable Feyenoord save right now.

However, right now my team can be best summed up by this gif, where the role of the car is being played by my squad and the role of E. Honda is being played by injuries.

I currently have 7 (7!!!!) starters out with long term injuries and 4 other first teamers out with medium to long term injuries. Every game I lose one, without fail. Except for my last game where I lost both first choice CB's. Which was the cherry on top because I drew with Genk 1-1 in the Europa League. Genk had one shot in the game. I had 32 on target including 5 one on ones. Missed them all. The only goal was an OG. My xG was 6.4. Their keeper had an 8.9. I was literally screaming at Zirkzee (on loan from Bayern) as his little icon blew the fifth 1v1. Of course my only attacking option on the bench is 17 yo el Moussaoui, so feck me.

 

[SilentWitness]

I played fringe players exclusively. If you're a really small side and beat one of the Premier league reserve teams, you tend to have loads of praise thrust upon you. I think the 3rd round was the furthest I went. But while I was losing to league two Colchester, I was busy winning League one so the board didn't give a fig.

Yep, it doesn’t seem like a tournament the board give a shit about really as long as you do well in others which I am.

 

[NoLogo]

Holy crap.just decided I would check out and see how Memphis is doing for PSG and their squad is completely nuts.

They have Neymar, Mbappé, Salah, C. Ronaldo, Asensio, die Maria and Memphis Depay. Memphis has played 9 games in about half a season for them. As expected, but my word what a fecking attacking force they have.

And now they made a bid for Havertz... Crazy, crazy AI.

 

[Lay]

I’m contemplating leaving Fiorentina for Monaco until I realised PSG haven’t won the league in 3 seasons! Monaco, Lyon, Monaco. That’s with PSG having a stacked squad like above

 

[NoLogo]

I’m contemplating leaving Fiorentina for Monaco until I realised PSG haven’t won the league in 3 seasons! Monaco, Lyon, Monaco. That’s with PSG having a stacked squad like above

They have won the last two season and are currently 14 wins in 14 games. Always seems to be a bit random how teams tend to do. I had a save game where Bayern haven't won the Bundesliga in like 3 years and now in this save game they have won it twice and currently leading, albeit by not very much.

 

[NoLogo]

I might have made a huge mistake. Barca came in with a bit for Maguire, which was pretty alright and considering that he isn't a first choice CB for me any more I saw a chance to cache in, especially since the scouting report for de Ligt all of a sudden said he was extremely interested in joining. Well I should have payed more attention to what his projected price was because Juve just turned down a 120M€ bid from me.

Which means I have two CBs at the minute and two youth prospects 17 & 18 years old, who look promising but not really like PL players just yet.

 

[SilentWitness]

On track for 3 league wins in a row and back to back to back promotions. 6 points clear with 8 games left in League 2. Relied on loans quite a bit this season so next year might be the first where it gets a bit bumpy. Had a good FA Cup run getting to the 5th round though so that has helped boost the finances. Youth facilities are getting an upgrade too so that should help long term progress.

 

[Chipper]

Wrapped up the Scottish Championship with 4 games left. Picked up a cup too, great season for 100-1 outsiders. The board have asked me if we want to turn pro, obviously said yes. Wage bill up to 10k a week for next season which is paltry, current lowest in the SPL is 42k. Got 445k transfer funds too and as this is a no-spend save I should be able to change budget and put it all into wages, guessing it will boost me to 19k a week if I've done may maths right.

 

[SilentWitness]

Wrapped up the Scottish Championship with 4 games left. Picked up a cup too, great season for 100-1 outsiders. The board have asked me if we want to turn pro, obviously said yes. Wage bill up to 10k a week for next season which is paltry, current lowest in the SPL is 42k. Got 445k transfer funds too and as this is a no-spend save I should be able to change budget and put it all into wages, guessing it will boost me to 19k a week if I've done may maths right.

Well in mate. Great achievement. I managed that in an FM a couple of years ago and it’s a pain in the arse. Patience is strong in these saves!

 

[YAMS49]

Yep, it doesn’t seem like a tournament the board give a shit about really as long as you do well in others which I am.

The two key board measures the game uses are league performance exceeding agreed expectations & FFP/wage budget being ahead/on target. If you win on both of these the cup competition performance is totally insignificant, even in Europe.

 

[Lay]

Wrapped up the Scottish Championship with 4 games left. Picked up a cup too, great season for 100-1 outsiders. The board have asked me if we want to turn pro, obviously said yes. Wage bill up to 10k a week for next season which is paltry, current lowest in the SPL is 42k. Got 445k transfer funds too and as this is a no-spend save I should be able to change budget and put it all into wages, guessing it will boost me to 19k a week if I've done may maths right.

What level of player are you operating with? Is 10 finishing a must have for a striker?

 

[YAMS49]

On track for 3 league wins in a row and back to back to back promotions. 6 points clear with 8 games left in League 2. Relied on loans quite a bit this season so next year might be the first where it gets a bit bumpy. Had a good FA Cup run getting to the 5th round though so that has helped boost the finances. Youth facilities are getting an upgrade too so that should help long term progress.

It will be interesting when you hit a wall with this save. I've taken a few teams from conf to Prem & I've found it pretty comfortable until you get to the Prem itself & then the big boys really take you/your system apart & you have to adapt to get results. I had two seasons in the Championship just to raise the squad level to competitive & then the Prem really hit me/the squad which took 5-6 years to finally win.

The main issue I found was overrating my own players compared to the opposition. On a level players field attributes wise you can beat the AI tactically the problems arise when you are over assessing you own players compared to the opposition whether that be through over familiarity/fondness or just not seeing how good some of the oppo players at your level are. I found myself taking real time comparing my squad to others around me & realized it was my players who often just weren't good enough to compete. The tactic(s) that had got my that far were fine, it was my players who attributes wise couldn't match up.

This is the challenge with multiple promotions. You over achieve & eventually if you don't squad build sufficiently it catches you out & you end up questioning your tactic(s)s rather than seeing the problem is your players.

 

[Chipper]

What level of player are you operating with? Is 10 finishing a must have for a striker?

Was actually strikerless with dual shadow strikers leading the line. 10+ is what I was aiming for though and 3 of my 4 options had that. Might be able to get away with less if composure is ok. Watson, the one I had with 8 for finishing did well when he played although quite a few of his starts were against weak teams.

These were my 4 options, 3 of whom are still here for the SPL although I might try to upgrade on Watson, already have on Lamont.

Spoiler: support strikers

Stats (league appearances / goals
Turner- Cooke 24(3) 17
Burt 22(3) 10
Watson 10(13) 11
Lamont 16 (11) 8

 

[Rolandofgilead]

It will be interesting when you hit a wall with this save. I've taken a few teams from conf to Prem & I've found it pretty comfortable until you get to the Prem itself & then the big boys really take you/your system apart & you have to adapt to get results. I had two seasons in the Championship just to raise the squad level to competitive & then the Prem really hit me/the squad which took 5-6 years to finally win.

The main issue I found was overrating my own players compared to the opposition. On a level players field attributes wise you can beat the AI tactically the problems arise when you are over assessing you own players compared to the opposition whether that be through over familiarity/fondness or just not seeing how good some of the oppo players at your level are. I found myself taking real time comparing my squad to others around me & realized it was my players who often just weren't good enough to compete. The tactic(s) that had got my that far were fine, it was my players who attributes wise couldn't match up.

This is the challenge with multiple promotions. You over achieve & eventually if you don't squad build sufficiently it catches you out & you end up questioning your tactic(s)s rather than seeing the problem is your players.

This is the very reason I haven't loaded the game since I won league 1. I don't think we are ready for the Championship yet and I know how much effort I'm going to have to put into pre-season just to even think about trying for the playoffs.

 

[YAMS49]

This is the very reason I haven't loaded the game since I won league 1. I don't think we are ready for the Championship yet and I know how much effort I'm going to have to put into pre-season just to even think about trying for the playoffs.

The higher you go it gets tougher no doubt, as it should. The Championship is difficult for a conf. club but it's nothing to the big boys in the Prem who just destroy you early on. The balance is to tweak your tactics enough to still pose an attacking threat, stopping their threats & all the time realizing your players are inferior attributes wise & this is in fact the main issue. You can only attack or take more risks against bigger teams when your players get closer to the oppo's level. Accepting that it isn't entirely your tactics & you will suffer some defeats (some pretty heavy potentially) is the process.

Morale becomes more important and you value taking draws & being a bit more reserved game to game dependent on the quality of the opposition compared to yours. As your wage budget restraints kick in where you buy from comes more in to focus. South America & Eastern Europe become better options than Western Europe/UK where the fees and wage expectations are too high for the quality you require.

 

[Berbaclass]

It will be interesting when you hit a wall with this save. I've taken a few teams from conf to Prem & I've found it pretty comfortable until you get to the Prem itself & then the big boys really take you/your system apart & you have to adapt to get results. I had two seasons in the Championship just to raise the squad level to competitive & then the Prem really hit me/the squad which took 5-6 years to finally win.

The main issue I found was overrating my own players compared to the opposition. On a level players field attributes wise you can beat the AI tactically the problems arise when you are over assessing you own players compared to the opposition whether that be through over familiarity/fondness or just not seeing how good some of the oppo players at your level are. I found myself taking real time comparing my squad to others around me & realized it was my players who often just weren't good enough to compete. The tactic(s) that had got my that far were fine, it was my players who attributes wise couldn't match up.

This is the challenge with multiple promotions. You over achieve & eventually if you don't squad build sufficiently it catches you out & you end up questioning your tactic(s)s rather than seeing the problem is your players.

Just use the comparison and you can easily see how you compare to the league average.

 

[SilentWitness]

It will be interesting when you hit a wall with this save. I've taken a few teams from conf to Prem & I've found it pretty comfortable until you get to the Prem itself & then the big boys really take you/your system apart & you have to adapt to get results. I had two seasons in the Championship just to raise the squad level to competitive & then the Prem really hit me/the squad which took 5-6 years to finally win.

The main issue I found was overrating my own players compared to the opposition. On a level players field attributes wise you can beat the AI tactically the problems arise when you are over assessing you own players compared to the opposition whether that be through over familiarity/fondness or just not seeing how good some of the oppo players at your level are. I found myself taking real time comparing my squad to others around me & realized it was my players who often just weren't good enough to compete. The tactic(s) that had got my that far were fine, it was my players who attributes wise couldn't match up.

This is the challenge with multiple promotions. You over achieve & eventually if you don't squad build sufficiently it catches you out & you end up questioning your tactic(s)s rather than seeing the problem is your players.

Indeed. I came up against Arsenal when i was in the National League Premier and they completely destroyed me. It was only 4-0 but I don't think i had a single shot. My average squad age is probably around 24 currently. Everytime I sign a player I make sure that their current ability is at least the league I am in with the potential to be a player in at least the league above so I'm always building for the next season and the current at the same time.

It's more fun this way anyway. Playing as a big team always gets too easy, even if you start as a Burnley.