Gaming Football Manager 2021 (FM21)

Lay

Correctly predicted Italy to win Euro 2020
Joined
Jan 29, 2013
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England
I got Onana and he has been great for me so far! I got in Milik on a free too and he left after 5 months because he “didn’t think he was good enough”.

He must have a strong character in the game.

2nd is great going and really like your use of the legends. They have far more respect for older players in this years version and it’s great.

Anyone 33+ in older versions physicals bombed almost immediately.
Yeah, I am planning to keep signing legends. Getting in wonderkid after wonderkid just becomes boring after awhile.

Anyway, season ended, finished 1st after majority of the top teams shit the bed, Inter especially. It possibly came a season too early as I don't think we are that good yet. I had to change tactics with about ten games to go, I went from a 4-2-3-1 with wingers to now a diamond midfield that cuts out my wingers who I now plan to sell as I won all ten games which led me to the title. Cavani got injured midway and I only won 4 games out of the 12 he missed (including Europa League KO). However he came back to finish on 29 goals for the season, 25 in the league which included a winning goal for the title in a nervy 2-1 win over Spezia.

Europa League, went out in the quarter finals to Sporting Lisbon. I should have learnt from the previous round against Betis when I scrapped through on away goals playing a rotated squad. I thought the same team would be enough but no, got battered 3-0 at home which was my first home defeat. Lost the second leg 5-2. Makes me wonder how strong the team really is for next season in the UCL.

Coppa Italia - I've created my own Coppa Italia as I find the current one a damp squid. I created a 128 team knockout tournament which goes down to the semi pro leagues. I lost in the semi finals to Juventus and a Serie C/D team made it to the semi finals too playing utter dross sides to get there :lol:

Strange FM things:

Buffon left on a free because "The team isn't doing well in the league". We won the league but okay. Haaland (who I never planned on signing but just wanted to test the waters) also had the same complaint when I asked his agent for availability.

Transfer plans:

Out:
Buffon
Lozano (80m bid from Arsenal) Good player but going without wingers for now.
Politano (60m from Dortmund) Another one not needed


In:
Grealish who turned down Barcelona and United for me.
Marcos Antonio from Shakhtar who is rated better than all my midfielders. Only cost £15m.
Belotti 7m - Torino were relegated so I thought I had to get him in for that paltry amount.


Dortmund reportedly will bid £108m for Osimhen. He did well when Cavani was injured, scored goals but the team suffered overall. Looking at Matic as cover for DM for £3m. His physicals are shot but his mental and technical ability is still good.
 

Coxy

Full Member
Joined
Jun 28, 2006
Messages
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Derby
Playing my second season now - loving the game so far!

my team:

Donnarumma
AWB-De Ligt-Skriniar-Mendes
Camavinga-Odegaard
Greenwood-Bruno- Rashford
Haaland

Got Grealish as my main sub - plays great. Haaland is incredible ! Got my wage bill right down even with the signings.
 

Maluco

Last Man Standing 3 champion 2019/20
Joined
Jan 4, 2014
Messages
5,765
I managed to go right through until April without losing a game of football. Was rotating so well and all the risks were coming off. Full team with great morale at home to Inter who we had just beaten 5-1, Italian cup final....and we lost 3-2 with defence having a nightmare of 6.2s. Domestic double in tatters.

Next game is home to Chelsea in the CL, and again...we lose 3-2 as my best CB goes crazy and gifts them the game with an insane red. Tammy Abraham running rampant!

It could be season over now. League has been dominant, but it looks like being so disappointing after such a well managed season. League win is always great though and cups need a bit of luck. But I feel like the season deserved more.

Sometimes you want to hurl the laptop and never play again :mad:...will probably stick it on again later :nervous:
 

Berbaclass

Fallen Muppet. Lest we never forget
Joined
Jan 23, 2010
Messages
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Cooper Station
Been playing my journeyman save again recently. Not played for ages due to work and stuff so was nice to get back into it.

Been managing West Ham for the last two seasons. Took over them in the Championship and won the league and managed to get into 6th in my first PL season. Just didn't really like the club though and I just resigned.

Made a bit of a mistake in taking over at a team before even looking at what they have/need and it's going to be a struggle. Took over Nacional in Uruguay which is a league I have loved to manage in previously. Probably in my top 3 in SA.
 

Ludens the Red

Full Member
Joined
Jul 27, 2009
Messages
17,430
Location
London
Made a summer transfer update if anyone wants it a bit fresh and newish.

https://www.mediafire.com/file/nh5oznmjmgq2etr/June_4th_2021.fmf/file

No attribute changes and no Europa Conference league.

- Major transfers/managerial changes
- Competition history - 2021 winners updated
- Champions League for next season updated, I've put all Conference League teams into the Europa League.
 
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Berbaclass

Fallen Muppet. Lest we never forget
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Lay

Correctly predicted Italy to win Euro 2020
Joined
Jan 29, 2013
Messages
19,790
Location
England

Maluco

Last Man Standing 3 champion 2019/20
Joined
Jan 4, 2014
Messages
5,765
I’m really enjoying this version. A few people have suggested it is easy, but I think you get out of it what you put into it. Meticulous summer planning and financial scheming and running a good youth team brings rewards and it’s very satisfying when it all comes off.

I spent forever on my transfers and making sure every player was rested and rotated and given time off and it paid dividends, as I overturned my CL semi final result to beat Chelsea and meet Man City in the final. We were victorious and I feel we deserved it because of the team I have built. It doesn’t feel cheap at all and has been the result of many hours of scouting and careful planning. A CL and Série A double!

Kane and CR7 were the stars of the show with Camavinga pulling the strings. The free transfers of Stones, Dembele and Onana were massive difference makers and they will stay rather than be sold for profit. Isco can go to anyone that will take him!

It’s not into the summer and I have two big transfers to make. We need a top CB and one top CM signing so we no longer depend on loans and can keep the same quality on the pitch at all times.

Malen is getting the attention of Real Madrid, so he may have to leave. Gabriel Menino was let go too because he wouldn’t stop complaining. Pedro Porro comes in permanently after a great loan season to replace him.

So hoping for a straight forward summer now with a top CB and all round CM as the only arrivals.
 

mu4c_20le

Full Member
Joined
Jul 7, 2013
Messages
42,729
Arsenal is way too good in this game, they are consistently top 3 and arteta is ridiculous
 

Lay

Correctly predicted Italy to win Euro 2020
Joined
Jan 29, 2013
Messages
19,790
Location
England
Decided to take over Croatia for the 2022 World Cup because I find the two months break boring.

Group consisted of Kosovo, Morocco and Qatar. Easily qualified and faced Norway in the last 16 which I won. Quarter finals was against Angola who were clearly out their depth and I won 6-0. Semi finals and hadn’t faced a decent team until now which is against Germany. France vs Senegal is the other semi final
 

Maluco

Last Man Standing 3 champion 2019/20
Joined
Jan 4, 2014
Messages
5,765
Anyone managed Jadon Sancho in this game? He was my big summer signing and he has been awful all season. Just got into CL quarter finals and he hasn’t turned up for a big game and has 2 goals and 3 assists all season long.

I have seen there is definitely a period of settling in when certain players jump leagues, but the season is reaching its final stages and he is still rubbish no matter the opponent, left/right side.
 

NoLogo

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I can't remember why I joined this war.
So apparently winning the league 5 times in a row makes the AI-Teams completely lose the plot and come at you like a bunch of mad hornets, which resulted in my team so far scoring 47 goals in only 8 games. It's unbelievable how open they all are at the back. If those idiots keep playing like that I might very well beat my own team record of 160 goals in a season, which was already crazy.
 

Lay

Correctly predicted Italy to win Euro 2020
Joined
Jan 29, 2013
Messages
19,790
Location
England
Anyone managed Jadon Sancho in this game? He was my big summer signing and he has been awful all season. Just got into CL quarter finals and he hasn’t turned up for a big game and has 2 goals and 3 assists all season long.

I have seen there is definitely a period of settling in when certain players jump leagues, but the season is reaching its final stages and he is still rubbish no matter the opponent, left/right side.
Yep, managed him once for Roma and he put up similar numbers. Never got going and eventually sold him to Barcelona
 

Maluco

Last Man Standing 3 champion 2019/20
Joined
Jan 4, 2014
Messages
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Thanks lads! Really disappointing, although he did enough to get back in the team for the CL final after Ronaldo finally slowed down! He has announced his retirement at 39 after two seasons with us resulting in two Série A, two CL and an Italian Cup. 60 goals for us to finish off his career!

I just had my best season on any FM I think. We won it all, Italian Super Cup, European Super Cup, Italian Cup, Série A and the Champions League after a killers row of opponents.

We sold Stones (50 million) and Adeyemi (45 million) in January and used that money to pay most of a mega transfer for de Ligt, which was a massive move. The best possible player who wasn’t cup tied in the CL.

Our rivalry with Inter is a great one and after them beating us in the Italian Cup final last year, we really got revenge this year. A 1-0 Super Cup win, a 3-0 aggregate win in the Italian Cup semi final and, after losing the CL semi final first leg, we came back to win the home leg 6-1 with ten men! Crazy result!

We also beat Barcelona and PSG on our way to the final against an overpowered Liverpool who were steamrollering everyone with Felix/Haaland/Salah. Got everyone’s morale through the roof and picked just the right team. A Harry Kane hat trick later and we have won the quintuple.

I thought that would be that, but I’m still really enjoying the save. I still feel like there has to be real attention to detail to get things right. I might just do one more season!
 

Maluco

Last Man Standing 3 champion 2019/20
Joined
Jan 4, 2014
Messages
5,765
I have decided to go for a non league to legend type save after my successes at Roma. I have gone for no badges and Sunday league experience. I have also started with leagues where I might get a job! English (right down to Vanarama), Northern Irish, Swedish, Norwegian, Belgian and Portuguese leagues loaded.

To my surprise, I went on holiday and the game came back just one day later with interviews. So I got on my best suit and went to about 7-8 different interviews on the same day!

I thought this would be a formality early on and that I wouldn’t get a job until teams were desperate after terrible starts to the campaign, but I got offered three jobs!

The first was a Norwegian team in the lowest division, so that was discarded straight away. I would have taken it if it were the only option, but the second two were far more attractive.

The second option was a job at a second division Swedish outfit. Their league is ranked 53rd in the world and I was ready to plump for this option until I did some research. They were an amateur outfit in a league with a few heavy hitting professional teams and looked to be dwarfed in spending by the majority. A super job if you could get it right, but it looked impossible.

So, we ended up going for option number three and becoming the new boss at Vanarama outfit Wealdstone FC.

The first step was to try and cut down spending and get in as many trialists as possible to see if we could improve the quality of the team.

My initial idea is to get in some fitness coaches and go for the gegenpress with a big squad full of trialists playing on a pay per game basis, tying down the best ones to deals.

We have done well cutting down on the deadwood, so the next step is trying to fill out a team. We have no transfer cash and little room for wages.

We were able to get in some decent coaches for this level and we are an affiliate of Watford! So I’m hoping we can get two quality free loans off them to improve the quality of the first team.

No stand out players for the division, bar a CB on loan from Arsenal who looks like a cut above the rest. It’s going to be tough from an early look at things…
 

Maluco

Last Man Standing 3 champion 2019/20
Joined
Jan 4, 2014
Messages
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Very passionate fan base round those parts.
I didn’t know anything about them, but a London club with real history and some notable former ex-players like Vinnie Jones, Stuart Pearce and Jermaine Beckford!

It’s a pretty good club to land at, just small considering the league. I have done a save like this on the last few versions after watching Lollujo. I like the mystery of it and the story behind it.

Playing this far more than I should be at the moment :nervous:
 

sebsheep

Correctly predicted Italy to win Euro 2020
Joined
Jun 1, 2014
Messages
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Here
I didn’t know anything about them, but a London club with real history and some notable former ex-players like Vinnie Jones, Stuart Pearce and Jermaine Beckford!

It’s a pretty good club to land at, just small considering the league. I have done a save like this on the last few versions after watching Lollujo. I like the mystery of it and the story behind it.

Playing this far more than I should be at the moment :nervous:
Are you not aware of this legend then?

 

Lay

Correctly predicted Italy to win Euro 2020
Joined
Jan 29, 2013
Messages
19,790
Location
England
Dembele created him own team in Winchester if I recall correctly
 

Lay

Correctly predicted Italy to win Euro 2020
Joined
Jan 29, 2013
Messages
19,790
Location
England
Buffon left to go to Venezia. They were relegated so at the age of 45 I resigned him at Napoli. I hope he plays until 50.

Cavani retired after scoring the winning goal in the UCL final against United. I tried to bring in Brenner as a replacement but after I bid, every club decided to fecking bid and he went to Real Madrid. Trying to get Moise Kean in now as he has the physicals I want in a striker

I signed Belotti last season for £7m after Torino went down and he was a beast. He scored the winner against Bayern in the semi finals of the UCL after slide tackling their defender in the box then powering it in. I loved the determination.
 

bosnian_red

Worst scout to ever exist
Joined
Aug 13, 2011
Messages
57,585
Location
Canada
Found this database called "1990-91 Retro Regens" database. It's a save game file which loads everything to the 1990-91 season, and they somehow made it so that every year you get youngsters breakthrough like in real life. So after a year or 2 I think Beckham will break through, it starts with Giggs and Scholes in the team, Maradona is at Napoli, Zidane at Cannes etc. Pretty cool.
 

bosnian_red

Worst scout to ever exist
Joined
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Messages
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Canada
Found this database called "1990-91 Retro Regens" database. It's a save game file which loads everything to the 1990-91 season, and they somehow made it so that every year you get youngsters breakthrough like in real life. So after a year or 2 I think Beckham will break through, it starts with Giggs and Scholes in the team, Maradona is at Napoli, Zidane at Cannes etc. Pretty cool.
Signed 18 year old Roy Keane from Forrest and 24 year old Cantona from Marseille, and Schmeichel on a free :drool: Might as well just recreate it. Felt weird replacing Fergie though when I picked United.
 

GueRed

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Oct 14, 2020
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London
alright lads I'm fairly new into this Football Manager game (last Championship manager game I played was in 2003).

can someone direct me to real photo faces and club badges patch/file please?

the game just lacks the razzamatazz with just the generic look.

Cheers
 

altodevil

Odds winner of 'Odds or Evens 2023/2024'
Joined
Oct 16, 2013
Messages
17,350
alright lads I'm fairly new into this Football Manager game (last Championship manager game I played was in 2003).

can someone direct me to real photo faces and club badges patch/file please?

the game just lacks the razzamatazz with just the generic look.

Cheers
https://df11faces.com/

There's links to skins/club badges there as well.
 

Maluco

Last Man Standing 3 champion 2019/20
Joined
Jan 4, 2014
Messages
5,765
We have reached the new year at Wealdstone FC and things are looking really good on the surface. We are top of the league by a good 12 points and have only lost two games all season. We are out of the FA Cup and we lost away at Notts County, who are far too good for this division!

I say it looks good because I have made some bad calls behind the scenes. My idea of getting rid of “deadweight” was a poor one because it has left us woefully short. Out of about 10 trialists who were deemed good enough, about two of them are actually playable. The rest bomb badly and we immediately get worse when they are on the field.

We have an eleven and thats it, and even then, there are some very poor options. Both wingers are 2 and half star and have been awful, and we have no natural left back in the squad.

Our saving grace has been our great spine for this division. Our young keeper and Arsenal CB are top drawer for this division. We also got a young CM, Thomas, on loan from Watford, who is a cut above the rest of the division on his day.

The big shock is that our seemingly average striker, Parish, has banged in some absurd goals and is sitting on 25 at the turn of the year! We need to keep him fit but we have no one else reliable to play.

I had six loan spaces and messed up the other three. The LB I broughot in isn’t good enough to play, the other free watford loan is a disappointment and the young striker looks terrible when he starts. So 3/6 in the loan department, which is poor when it is such a vital component.

Games start to get crazy soon and I am running out of free weeks to rest the 4-5 good players we have.

Looking good, well beyond our expectations, but some bad planning could threaten the second half of the season.
 

bosnian_red

Worst scout to ever exist
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Canada
Found this database called "1990-91 Retro Regens" database. It's a save game file which loads everything to the 1990-91 season, and they somehow made it so that every year you get youngsters breakthrough like in real life. So after a year or 2 I think Beckham will break through, it starts with Giggs and Scholes in the team, Maradona is at Napoli, Zidane at Cannes etc. Pretty cool.
https://www.passion4fm.com/football-manager-1990-91-retro-regens-database/
Here's the link to it. Good fun!
 

NoLogo

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Jun 15, 2009
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I can't remember why I joined this war.
Someone on here recently mentioned that FM could do with a DOF game mode, which I agree with. But I came up with an idea on how to somewhat simulate the experience. I bought the in game editor and set up a save where I was unemployed now what I'm going to do is start buying and selling players for Manchester United and if the Manager doesn't perform good enough in my estimation I'm going to sack him and hire a new one. To watch our matches, I simply spectate them. This way I can still watch the games but have no influence over tactics, subs and everything to do with the match day decisions.

Of course this has a lot of shortcomings, I don't know what the actual transfer budget of Manchester United is every season, so I have to set myself a somewhat realistic amount, which means I'm currently assuming I got €150M before sales every season.

I also can't actually negotiate transfers or see if the player is actually interested in joining Manchester United, so it takes a lot of self-imposed rules and role-playing to keep this somewhat realistic. For example, I have to somewhat impose realistic prices for players and not buy Mbappé for €10M.

So let's see if my squad building and manager decision-making is actually good enough to get United back to winning titles. My guess is yes, but never underestimate the incompetence of AI managers to feck up my well hatched plans.
 

Maluco

Last Man Standing 3 champion 2019/20
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Jan 4, 2014
Messages
5,765
Back at Wealdstone FC the gegenpress chickens have finally come home to roost.

Form has gone out the window, Parish has slowed down with his goals after an absurd first half of the season, and our two new wingers we managed to sign in January have not really settled.

We have just lost our third game in a row and our lead, which was 15 points at one stage, is now down to just 4. We were meant to battle against relegation, so I can’t really complain. A part time gegenpress was always going to come back to haunt us.

We should still manage to scrape the playoffs, but Notts County just keep winning, so I fully expect to lose top spot very soon. We need to try and change something to get some form back. We just can’t seem to score.

Surprisingly, despite our issues, we have managed to set up an FA Trophy semi final with Altrincham. I say it’s surprising, but we have only played Vanarama North/South sides up until now and went to extra time in 3 of the games!

It’s now a massive game with us in a massive rut. We desperately need the morale boost of a win and a possible final!
 

Maluco

Last Man Standing 3 champion 2019/20
Joined
Jan 4, 2014
Messages
5,765
An extremely poor game and tense FA Trophy semi final went our way, after three straight defeats in the league. A very tight 1-0 win and we got into the final in that competition.

Approaching the end of the season, our form is patchy but we are picking up enough points to stay in first place.

The road to the end of the season has 5 games, starting with the FA Trophy final against Hartlepool. We went into the game very attacking and won the day 3-0 in our best performance of the season, winning the FA Trophy.

A tired, but happy squad of trophy winners then beat Woking at home before going away to Stockport and holding out for a 0-0 draw. We then proceeded to draw 0-0 at home again to lowly Dover.

Going into the last game, we are two points ahead of Notts County and need a win at home to Altrincham. Our goal difference is inferior, so it’s a must. We are out of gas and the playoffs would be too much for us.

We draw 0-0…but a quick look at the results tells us that Notts Country have lost away to Torquay and we are up as champions!

I am a football league manager after 1 year in management.

I am finishing my National C license and am scouring over every premier league club to see who they are releasing and who we can persuade to come here in order to compete in League 2! We have no budget and a wage limit of 13,000 a week for next season.

What a season!
 

sebsheep

Correctly predicted Italy to win Euro 2020
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Lost my appetite for the game a bit recently but managed to get back on and finish the my 2nd full season with Napoli. Won the league with 100 points, that was only 4 more than Juve though. Went out in the 1/4 finals of the CL to Bayern on away goals, had a few injuries to important players and we were pretty heavily outplayed over both legs so I figured we might need to change system for the next year. Then Dortmund come from out of nowhere and offer me a job interview. I think their squad is probably a little bit better than ours but I don't have all their players scouted. They do still have Moukoko and he is crazy good, the type of striker that could easily take me to that last CL win. I might well end to up taking the job tbh.

Edit: They turned me down :lol:
 
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MattofManchester

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Aug 10, 2018
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Someone on here recently mentioned that FM could do with a DOF game mode, which I agree with. But I came up with an idea on how to somewhat simulate the experience. I bought the in game editor and set up a save where I was unemployed now what I'm going to do is start buying and selling players for Manchester United and if the Manager doesn't perform good enough in my estimation I'm going to sack him and hire a new one. To watch our matches, I simply spectate them. This way I can still watch the games but have no influence over tactics, subs and everything to do with the match day decisions.

Of course this has a lot of shortcomings, I don't know what the actual transfer budget of Manchester United is every season, so I have to set myself a somewhat realistic amount, which means I'm currently assuming I got €150M before sales every season.

I also can't actually negotiate transfers or see if the player is actually interested in joining Manchester United, so it takes a lot of self-imposed rules and role-playing to keep this somewhat realistic. For example, I have to somewhat impose realistic prices for players and not buy Mbappé for €10M.

So let's see if my squad building and manager decision-making is actually good enough to get United back to winning titles. My guess is yes, but never underestimate the incompetence of AI managers to feck up my well hatched plans.
If you're using United, you should remember to panic buy on a big scale when they're out the top 4 and remain frugal when they do. :lol:

Also, I'm sure you can just have a look at the editor for finances in such a case.
 

Zen

Full Member
Joined
Aug 11, 2008
Messages
14,445
Can't you get the DoF or any member of staff to buy players for you already?

Or do you mean the game should allow you to be the DoF? Again, you could probably do this too, just delegate the matches to your assistant more or less.