Gaming Football Manager 2024

[Chipper]

Slight moral dilemma here even though it's only a game. My PC froze this morning just after we'd lost the CL final and having completed a domestic treble.

Got to go back and replay the FA Cup final, the 2nd leg of the CL semi, and from the point the league table looked like this:

Winning the league again will be no problem. Should be able to replicate at least making the CL final as we're 3-0 up from the first leg with a visit to the Etihad looming. Originally drew that 2nd leg 1-1.

Would feel like savescumming if we did the quad, but I don't like the thought of possible having to replay the 2 cup finals a few times to emulate what happened if it came to that either. Can't be arsed.

Think I'll just replay everything once and take whatever happens, even if we lose both cups.

Right, about to play the FA Cup final again.

I don't know what's happened but my player recovery rates have dropped off massively, similar to when you're managing a national team in the world cup/euros etc. I noticed that first time around. It's to the degree where it doesn't seem normal, players barely being fit enough to play again with 1 week of no matches.

Previously I played my best XI in the FA Cup final (Wednesday) and then had to rotate a lot for the CL final (Saturday). I'm going to play a completely rotated first XI in the FA Cup this time instead. Only won 1-0 in the FA Cup vs Spurs on the first go so I could well lose this and then who knows when it comes to the CL final (Barcelona).

 

[Chipper]

So the second XI did better than the first XI in the FA Cup final, winning 4-1 instead of 1-0.

No idea what's going on with player fitness though. Had some players not being able to start the CL final with 10 days rest on around 85% fitness. Had to switch to our secondary formation of 4-3-3 instead of the the usual 4-2-4 as we had more midfielders fit than wingers/forwards.

Lost to Barcelona again 2-1, exactly the same as the first try before the game crashed so no feeling like it was savescumming.

Domestic treble plus European Super Cup, I'll take it!

 

[Flying Fox]

So the second XI did better than the first XI in the FA Cup final, winning 4-1 instead of 1-0.

No idea what's going on with player fitness though. Had some players not being able to start the CL final with 10 days rest on around 85% fitness. Had to switch to our secondary formation of 4-3-3 instead of the the usual 4-2-4 as we had more midfielders fit than wingers/forwards.

Lost to Barcelona again 2-1, exactly the same as the first try before the game crashed so no feeling like it was savescumming.

Domestic treble plus European Super Cup, I'll take it!

I've found that as well, even when rotating well, the odd player will still decline in fitness far too quickly.

Still, a very good effort!

About to begin my second season with FFK in Norway. My DoF spreading the cash around like no ones business. Pivk of the bunch so far might be Simen Hestnes or Niklas Castro

 

[Berbaclass]

Tweet

— Twitter API (@user) date

 

[SilentWitness]

Started another Journeyman save.

Started off by getting the job at Orebro SK in the Swedish First division. Finished 4th. Another season. Finished 1st. Finished 7th in our first season in the Swedish Premier Division.

Left and took the IF Brommapojkarna job. Won Swedish Premier Division. Left.

Joined AaB in Danish Superliga. Finished 5th in first season. Just won the cup and league double in the second season and got to the QF of the ECL. Will try see if I can do another league and european adventure and then move on again.

 

[Flying Fox]

This looks interesting

Tweet

— Twitter API (@user) date

 

[Zebs]

Well, the island-of-Ireland-eligible-only Shamrock Rovers are English Premier League and Champions League double winners in just their third year in the country's top division. My first crop of academy graduates all hit 20 years old this season and, with three years of regular first-team football behind them, they all reached the upper echelons of their ability, leaving us with a team of eight regens plus Jobe Bellingham, Liam Delap and Evan Ferguson. Alas, Bellingham was capped by England in the March of the most recent season so I'll have to sell him now. The bench featured a number of real-life players including Andrew Moran, Jamie Donley, Conor Coventry, Liam Scales and Gavin Kilkenny.

It's 2029 so I've just missed out on qualifying for this year's World Club Championship, and I'm not sure if I have it in me to play another four seasons so that I can complete a sweep of all the trophies available from League Two onwards. I still need the Europa Conference League and the FA Cup to properly fill the cabinet. I was offered the Ireland job in my second season and took it on top of the Rovers job but decided that was too much effort and resigned a day later, so I'm not sure the FAI are going to come knocking any time soon, as much as I'd love to lead a team of what are essentially all my own players to international glory.

I haven't done a starting out unemployed with minimal reputation save before so I think that might be my last save before I start thinking about FM25.

 

[Flying Fox]

And... breathe.

First win in the Eliteserien sealed away from home. Lillestrom came hard at the end.

 

[Chipper]

Tried doing the silly Peterborough United save only using players called Peter, Pedro, Pierre, Pietro etc. but as soon as I started trawling through potential players to sign it instantly bored me. Sounded fun on paper but the reality was very different. Didn't even play a single friendly match before abandoning that.

I asked reddit a couple of weeks ago about ideas for saves featuring players from certain nationalities. Received a suggestion of Bellinzona or Lugano from the Italian-speaking region of Switzerland with a focus on buying Italian players supplemented with Swiss players. The other idea that came through was SFC Opava (Czech 2nd tier) from the historical region of Silesia that incorporates parts of modern-day Czech Republic, Poland and Germany and to only use players from those nations. Might do one of those if nothing else takes my fancy.

Kind of liking my own idea of Turkgucu Munchen as well, a Turkish diaspora club in Germany, signing the obvious kind of players for that team too when it comes to nationality.

 

[Flying Fox]

Tried doing the silly Peterborough United save only using players called Peter, Pedro, Pierre, Pietro etc. but as soon as I started trawling through potential players to sign it instantly bored me. Sounded fun on paper but the reality was very different. Didn't even play a single friendly match before abandoning that.

I asked reddit a couple of weeks ago about ideas for saves featuring players from certain nationalities. Received a suggestion of Bellinzona or Lugano from the Italian-speaking region of Switzerland with a focus on buying Italian players supplemented with Swiss players. The other idea that came through was SFC Opava (Czech 2nd tier) from the historical region of Silesia that incorporates parts of modern-day Czech Republic, Poland and Germany and to only use players from those nations. Might do one of those if nothing else takes my fancy.

Kind of liking my own idea of Turkgucu Munchen as well, a Turkish diaspora club in Germany, signing the obvious kind of players for that team too when it comes to nationality.

There's also clubs like Sudtirol, Victor San Marino, Syrianska.

Clayts did a good one on fm23, fc Melilla in Spain, but only African players

 

[Chipper]

There's also clubs like Sudtirol, Victor San Marino, Syrianska.

Clayts did a good one on fm23, fc Melilla in Spain, but only African players

Cheers! Certainly food for thought, I'll look into those clubs. Taking a little break from the game for a few days, gone way back in time to play the very first Assasin's Creed game the past couple of days as I'd never played it before. Was feeling a bit FM'ed out, but I'm sure I'll get the bug again very soon.

 

[Flying Fox]

I've just got back into that myself after playing it years ago! Certainly a trip

 

[Flying Fox]

into the third season at Frederikstad. 2024 ended up like this. Was in the mixer for the title with three games to go, but dropped points where I shouldn't have. Still, European football is a plus.

Having to do a bit of wage shedding at the moment, as I'm quite deep in the red. Going homegrown/Norwegian only this season has helped bring it down a lot, but my stupid DoF brought in a 31 yo RB on 3800 eur/week, just over 9% of my total wage bill!

 

[NoLogo]

So I recently started a save with a small club from Barcelona Sant Andreu, with a tiny stadium and no financial power to speak off.

The prediction of the media was that I would be fighting relegation.

My salary predicted I would go straight back down to league two.

The final table though told a different story.

Spoiler: Final table la Liga 2027

I don't think I have ever been prouder of a team I assembled on a shoe string budget.

Pushing a Real side that has Mbappe, Vinicuius Jr., Bellingham and Endrick for the title until the final day was really amazing.

And if we look at the xG table we might have even won the league with a bit less luck on Real Madrids side.

Spoiler: xG table 2027

Next season is going to be tougher though I imagine, I'll be playing in the CL and I can't really afford to make any of the high potential loans permanent. A 20 year old Cubarsi who I had on loan for two seasons and who was vital to my team so far would cost me 50m to make the deal permanent. My Budget for next season, despite CL is only €19M. I hope Barca will be dumb enough to loan him to me for another season.

P. S. Thanks for rubbing it in game.

Spoiler: A new record I didn't want.

 

[SilentWitness]

So I recently started a save with a small club from Barcelona Sant Andreu, with a tiny stadium and no financial power to speak off.

The prediction of the media was that I would be fighting relegation.

My salary predicted I would go straight back down to league two.

The final table though told a different story.

Spoiler: Final table la Liga 2027

I don't think I have ever been prouder of a team I assembled on a shoe string budget.

Pushing a Real side that has Mbappe, Vinicuius Jr., Bellingham and Endrick for the title until the final day was really amazing.

And if we look at the xG table we might have even won the league with a bit less luck on Real Madrids side.

Spoiler: xG table 2027

Next season is going to be tougher though I imagine, I'll be playing in the CL and I can't really afford to make any of the high potential loans permanent. A 20 year old Cubarsi who I had on loan for two seasons and who was vital to my team so far would cost me 50m to make the deal permanent. My Budget for next season, despite CL is only €19M. I hope Barca will be dumb enough to loan him to me for another season.

Fun! Any interesting players? What tactic did you use?

 

[Berbaclass]

I've started a pentagon. Wanted something to dip in and out of for the last few months of the game (definitely not when I'm a little bored at work )

Loaded 198 leagues (using the league expansions)

Started in the Cameroonian 3rd division and it's lovely

I get the feeling this will be a long save...

 

[NoLogo]

Fun! Any interesting players? What tactic did you use?

I use a mix of three tactics that are in principle the same, they are all 4231 formations but have different rest defenses that I change depending on the opponents formation.

Setup 1 the WM formation:

This is the main formation, I use it against pretty much all formations that play one central and two wide attackers.


Setup 2 the WW formation:

This setup I use against 442 formations. The IWBs tend to be closer to the wide midfielders than the IFBd would be and I'm not creating a hole at the back when my Libero pushes up.


Setup 3 the classic version with attacking FBs:

This is the rest defense I use against all the narrow 3 or 5 at the back formations. The FBa is supposed to make use of the space in the wide areas and overwhelm the opposition wingbacks while I keep the center basically stacked with a box of 4 defenders.


My key players are certainly Cubarsi, who is on loan from Barca, now for two seasons in a row Federico Redondo who I got fairly cheaply for like €7.5M, my record transfer though. Jarell Quansah is also a loan player from Wolves and has done really well in the IFBd defend role. Overall the team is pretty much average in terms of quality, my striker, who scored 31 goals is pretty much a la liga 2 quality player but for some reason can't stop scoring even in la liga.

Iglesias and Peke are on paper probably my best attackers, I got one on a free and the other for around €5M. Iglesias has been pretty good so far, Peke seems to have consistency problems and either plays world class or like dog shite.

 

[SilentWitness]

I use a mix of three tactics that are in principle the same, they are all 4231 formations but have different rest defenses that I change depending on the opponents formation.

Setup 1 the WM formation:

This is the main formation, I use it against pretty much all formations that play one central and two wide attackers.


Setup 2 the WW formation:

This setup I use against 442 formations. The IWBs tend to be closer to the wide midfielders than the IFBd would be and I'm not creating a hole at the back when my Libero pushes up.


Setup 3 the classic version with attacking FBs:

This is the rest defense I use against all the narrow 3 or 5 at the back formations. The FBa is supposed to make use of the space in the wide areas and overwhelm the opposition wingbacks while I keep the center basically stacked with a box of 4 defenders.


My key players are certainly Cubarsi, who is on loan from Barca, now for two seasons in a row Federico Redondo who I got fairly cheaply for like €7.5M, my record transfer though. Jarell Quansah is also a loan player from Wolves and has done really well in the IFBd defend role. Overall the team is pretty much average in terms of quality, my striker, who scored 31 goals is pretty much a la liga 2 quality player but for some reason can't stop scoring even in la liga.

Iglesias and Peke are on paper probably my best attackers, I got one on a free and the other for around €5M. Iglesias has been pretty good so far, Peke seems to have consistency problems and either plays world class or like dog shite.

Nice one! I fiddled with the IFB and IWB stuff at the start of the game but have ended up going back to traditional WBs. The second tactic is interesting and I wonder how it works in game because you have IWBs but then overlap instructions which feels contradictory in my head.

 

[NoLogo]

Nice one! I fiddled with the IFB and IWB stuff at the start of the game but have ended up going back to traditional WBs. The second tactic is interesting and I wonder how it works in game because you have IWBs but then overlap instructions which feels contradictory in my head.

It is a contradiction. The thing that I wanted to achieve is that they will do it every now and then, like go wide. The majority of the time they will sit in midfield with the DM-DE but if there is a lot of space out wide and they see no other option they make the overlapping run. I first kept it on by accident turned it off and realized that I actually like it if they go wide every now and then. Same goes for the IFB-DE, if they have loads of space out wide they will make the overlapping run but their defensive duty will make certain that they only do it if it's a fairly save bet to do this.

 

[NoLogo]

Starting into season 5 of my Sant Andreu save. So far the off season wasn't a complete success but not a complete failure either. Barca didn't want to extend the loan of Cubarsi, but I didn't thought they would. I ended up bringing Stergiou as a replacement from VfL Wolfsburg for €7.5M and loads of talented youngsters. Quansah loan deal also didn't see an extension because they player wasn't interested. Overall I spent €25M and got €16.5M by selling some players I didn't see a long term future at the club. Oh yeah I also brought in a 36 year old David de Gea, who is still better than both my other GK options.

I have about €14.7M left now that the season kicks off, still looking through the transfer market for some experience. My team on average is very young, so some more experienced players couldn't hurt but getting quality options that don't cost €30M+ seems rather impossible right now. Price for Quansah would have been like €36M, which seems rather steep and not really within my budget. While I would love to get a striker upgrade Sacha has been doing remarkably well scoring 31 goals last season.

First game of the season is against Real Madrid. Who are still managed by Ancelotti. And seem to have a team that is getting more and more ridiculous every season. After last season 2nd place I have gone up a bit in the prediction table being now at 8th place. While I'm optimistic that I can get CL qualification again I think this season will be harder with the additional CL games and still not having great depth, I pretty much have a goodish starting line up but beyond that it's just young players that might get good some day.

 

[Alex99]

Just saw that all the custom start date/real result files are behind a pay wall (or at least the ones I can find), so I'll make some soon if anyone's interested in filling the void between this and FM25.
Won't reflect cup results though, unfortunately.

 

[NoLogo]

I'm actually thinking about a new challenge. When I think about it, the thing that really sets a human manager apart from the AI manager is not just that he can react better to tactical changes but will usually make the better transfer calls, that fit with his tactics much better.

So the idea is now as follows, I will leave the transfers and contract extensions to the AI DoF. I'll only ask for scouting focuses and decide based on them if I want to set a player as a transfer target but I'll stay out of negotiations and I'll not be actively scouting through 1000s of players like I usually do. This might also be a game that would work well with hiding attributes, a skin that maybe only gives a radar chart that shows the approximate distribution of a players attributes.

Anyone tried something like this yet and how did it go?

 

[SilentWitness]

I'm actually thinking about a new challenge. When I think about it, the thing that really sets a human manager apart from the AI manager is not just that he can react better to tactical changes but will usually make the better transfer calls, that fit with his tactics much better.

So the idea is now as follows, I will leave the transfers and contract extensions to the AI DoF. I'll only ask for scouting focuses and decide based on them if I want to set a player as a transfer target but I'll stay out of negotiations and I'll not be actively scouting through 1000s of players like I usually do. This might also be a game that would work well with hiding attributes, a skin that maybe only gives a radar chart that shows the approximate distribution of a players attributes.

Anyone tried something like this yet and how did it go?

Yeah, it sucked because they love to add yearly wage rises to contracts and spend money on absolute guff.

 

[Alex99]

Yeah, it sucked because they love to add yearly wage rises to contracts and spend money on absolute guff.

They also renewed basically everyone, in my experience.

Also, if you give them full control of transfer targets they inevitably sign a load of shit youth players and squad-filler, rather than anyone actually useful.

 

[NoLogo]

Yeah, it sucked because they love to add yearly wage rises to contracts and spend money on absolute guff.

They also renewed basically everyone, in my experience.

Also, if you give them full control of transfer targets they inevitably sign a load of shit youth players and squad-filler, rather than anyone actually useful.

Oh, alright. I feared as much given the fact that the AI teams usually go to shite once the real life teams start to fall apart. Imo that is one of the most awful long term save game fun killers in the game, that at some point the AI has completely dissolved their teams. That being said, didn't SI promise that they improved this aspect in FM24?

 

[Alex99]

Oh, alright. I feared as much given the fact that the AI teams usually go to shite once the real life teams start to fall apart. Imo that is one of the most awful long term save game fun killers in the game, that at some point the AI has completely dissolved their teams. That being said, didn't SI promise that they improved this aspect in FM24?

They promise it every year, although the big changes are apparently coming in FM25 so fingers crossed.

Part of the problem is how much stock the AI puts in "reputation".

 

[SilentWitness]

Oh, alright. I feared as much given the fact that the AI teams usually go to shite once the real life teams start to fall apart. Imo that is one of the most awful long term save game fun killers in the game, that at some point the AI has completely dissolved their teams. That being said, didn't SI promise that they improved this aspect in FM24?

You fell for that?

But yeah, the AI is still far from good sadly. I keep saying next year will be my last year of buying the game yearly but it always drags me back as it's the game I plunge most hours in. FM25 with the new engine will engage me a lot more but they drastically need to change how the AI operates. Hopefully AI in real life can help them implement it in the game better as since it's a stats based game, it should be easier to do so than other games.

 

[Flying Fox]

The transfer AI is still borked. Bid 125k for a player rated as 90-120k in value, AI comes back and demand 325k

 

[Alex99]

You fell for that?

But yeah, the AI is still far from good sadly. I keep saying next year will be my last year of buying the game yearly but it always drags me back as it's the game I plunge most hours in. FM25 with the new engine will engage me a lot more but they drastically need to change how the AI operates. Hopefully AI in real life can help them implement it in the game better as since it's a stats based game, it should be easier to do so than other games.

I'm the same, although the past few years I've waited until about March/April to buy it.

 

[NoLogo]

The transfer AI is still borked. Bid 125k for a player rated as 90-120k in value, AI comes back and demand 325k

I had a funny interaction with Mainz who came in bidding €4M for a player that was worth €4M - €7M. I of course wasn't happy with that bid, asked for €6M + addons, their reply offer €400k no addons. wat?

 

[NoLogo]

You fell for that?

But yeah, the AI is still far from good sadly. I keep saying next year will be my last year of buying the game yearly but it always drags me back as it's the game I plunge most hours in. FM25 with the new engine will engage me a lot more but they drastically need to change how the AI operates. Hopefully AI in real life can help them implement it in the game better as since it's a stats based game, it should be easier to do so than other games.

Yeah their "improvements" often don't really turn out improving anything. I think the main problem is that AI still buys by reputation of a player and not if the player actually suites the role they want to fill. What they improved was simply the AI having a completely bloated squad full of shitty players and just spending for the sake of getting rid of the transfer budget. The only thing I have now noticed is that AI teams seem to control the bloat a bit better but the decisions they make on transfers is still sometimes odd.

 

[Flying Fox]

I had a funny interaction with Mainz who came in bidding €4M for a player that was worth €4M - €7M. I of course wasn't happy with that bid, asked for €6M + addons, their reply offer €400k no addons. wat?

And then your player gets mad that you turned an offer down and you can't tell them that it was taking the piss how low it was

 

[NoLogo]

And then your player gets mad that you turned an offer down and you can't tell them that it was taking the piss how low it was

Luckily that didn't happen, but yeah interactions are complete shite in FM and always will be with the system they set up, but I ranted about this too many times and have somehow learned to live with that.

 

[Lay]

You fell for that?

But yeah, the AI is still far from good sadly. I keep saying next year will be my last year of buying the game yearly but it always drags me back as it's the game I plunge most hours in. FM25 with the new engine will engage me a lot more but they drastically need to change how the AI operates. Hopefully AI in real life can help them implement it in the game better as since it's a stats based game, it should be easier to do so than other games.

You know SI will balls it up and ignore all feedback unless its positive. Probably come out with an apology in December and say next year it will be different.

 

[Alex99]

Custom start to 20th May 2024 file is working, and see no reason why I can't change it to a different date.

Real results for England down to Conference North/South completed. Germany down to 3. Liga completed. Working on France now as they've actually finished up. Will do Spain next, then Italy as for some reason Atalanta and Fiorentina are playing in June, after the "last" round of fixtures.

Might do Portugal, Netherlands and Scotland too.

 

[Lay]

Custom start to 20th May 2024 file is working, and see no reason why I can't change it to a different date.

Real results for England down to Conference North/South completed. Germany down to 3. Liga completed. Working on France now as they've actually finished up. Will do Spain next, then Italy as for some reason Atalanta and Fiorentina are playing in June, after the "last" round of fixtures.

Might do Portugal, Netherlands and Scotland too.

They are in real life too, due to Europa Conference and Europa league finals.

 

[Alex99]

They are in real life too, due to Europa Conference and Europa league finals.

Yes, that's what I meant.

Although on Google it says it's rescheduled from matchday 29. Seems odd they haven't managed to find a midweek since then.

 

[Berbaclass]

Could be a really fun save

 

[Solius]

I see SI have rebranded to make themselves look like a generic marketing company.

https://www.sports-interactive.com/

 

[SilentWitness]

Noticed that email come through. Gearing up for the new game I expect...hope it's not a sign of what is to come. All looks and no substance.