***The Official Football Manager Thread***

[Kobalt]

Re: ***The Official Football Manager Thread***

Barca activated my wonderkid's release clause so...



City didn't want him so I brought him back.

[jasontoddwhitt]

Re: ***The Official Football Manager Thread***

My first full season at Schalke was a great success. Met or exceeded all board goals and garnered an interview with Manchester City. They fired Pellegrini after finishing sixth in the Premier League a year after winning the league. What have you done for me lately, I guess. Curious if they'll offer me the job, as I balked at the idea of being forced to sign high-profile players.

EDIT: And they balked at me wanting to play possession football and not wanting to sign high-profile players. The day I come to the League, I will destroy you.

EDIT: Liverpool also approached me, but then decided to hire Pellegrini. After owning Gladbach since I arrived, they threw some money at me to entice me come coach them, but finally...a club willing to hang on to its talented head coach. I decided to re-up with Schalke.

[rsnomar05]

Re: ***The Official Football Manager Thread***

I am running away with the league at the midway point:

[Jazzman1522]

Re: ***The Official Football Manager Thread***

After years of exploring Operation Sports, I only just now found this thread. I'm so glad, because I've been wanting to share my current FM save with someone and my wife doesn't exactly care.

So I've played 2 versions of Football Manager: 2012 and 2014. I've found 2014 to be much more difficult and frustrating. I realize now that a large reason for that was that I would pick a team, usually in a lower league, decide on a formation, and try to cram them into it. Worked alright in 12, not so much now. So I decided to start a new save and approach things a little differently. See what players I had and figure out a tactic that worked with them. I started up a save and set it up so I could make a run at the Pentagon Challenge.

I ended up getting hired by Kuala Lumpur in the Malaysian Premier League (Malaysia's 2nd Division). This, in hindsight, was not a wise place to start. I sort of recognized this when I saw under the club's info that its estimated value was a grand total of $2. Then I was told in my interview that my goal would be to avoid relegation and that I would have no transfer budget and wage budget that we were already $1.5K over. It sounded pretty daunting but, after checking out the structure of the leagues and cups, I really wanted to manage a team in Malaysia and they were the only ones hiring. So I took the job.

Oh, and the day I was hired was January 2nd. The season started January 7th. Awesome.

So, I immediately looked at the team. I figured that our best bet was gonna be to play some good ol' fashioned American counter-attacking soccer. Based on the players I had, I set up a 4-2-3-1 with a balanced, counter-attacking mentality. I turned on short passing and work the ball into the box because that's what I always do. We set up a friendly with our U20 team and lost 1-0. Great start guys.

The short passing didn't work so I told them to be more direct. I eventually decided that, with only one striker up top, trying to work the ball into the box wasn't gonna work either, so I told them to pump it in. After a couple of games where scoring opportunities were rare, I switched to Fluid in the hopes that my midfielders would start getting in the attack more.

I just finished the first month of the season. After 6 games, Kuala Lumpur has dumbfounded its critics and sits top of the table with 13 points. I also won my first ever Manager of the Month award. Along the way, I stormed out of a press conference when a reporter asked me the same dumb question I didn't want to answer 3 times in a row and I started a war of words with Sime Darby's manager and got him added to my "Least Favorable Opinion of You" List before our FA Cup tie (Which we lost dramatically 3-2). Shockingly, there's more press interaction in this league than any other I've played in. This is the most fun I've had playing this game.

I'm still waiting for the other shoe to drop and my team to go on a really bad run, but there's only 22 games in the MPL season, so we're in 1st a quarter of the way through. Not bad. And, for some crazy reason, in January, we had league games every Monday and Friday, so I had to rotate the squad a ton. That's no longer the case so I should be able to run my best XI out there from now on.

My only fear is that if by some miracle we should get promoted, it would be too soon. My players aren't supposed to survive the Premier League, let alone the Super League and we don't have the money to make this team any better. Oh well. The money's someone else's problem. My job is to dominate the world.

[jasontoddwhitt]

Re: ***The Official Football Manager Thread***

So this was the transfer period that I could no longer keep the giants from poaching my guys...

Draxler....gone.
Nastasic....gone. (Not as concerned with as 18 year old Sebastian Witt seemed to play well the times I used him).
European Golden Boy winner Zivkovic....gone.

With their sales, I have over $100 million to play with. Let's see who I can bring in.

[Mo]

Re: ***The Official Football Manager Thread***

Oh screw you FM, way to reschedule a match so that I now have 4 matches in 8 days. (2 UCL, 2 EPL)

[Mo]

Re: ***The Official Football Manager Thread***

So like, lots of things have happened. So slightly long post(Sorry Tapatalk guys)

First of the League

We dominated.

Spoiler

Awards

Spoiler

Champions League

Spoiler

Awards

Spoiler

Other Stuff


Harry Kane was pretty good

Spoiler

Oh Hello



Hala Madrid



They All love me

[rsnomar05]

Re: ***The Official Football Manager Thread***

Think I can play the B Team in leg 2?

[Mo]

Re: ***The Official Football Manager Thread***

So the summer of 2026 is a world cup year, and luckily for England, I was there to navigate them through the tainted beef tacos of the zocalos of Mexico.

We Got Honduras, Cameroon and Belgium in our group. We got through the friendlies with zero injuries.

Spoiler

Standings

Spoiler

Knockout Stages

Spoiler

Spoiler

[The GIGGAS]

Re: ***The Official Football Manager Thread***

Any thoughts on my chances as a Finnish team in the 2018 Champions League group stage?

I beat BATE, Kobenhavn, and Olympiakos to get here.

[Suntan Superman]

Re: ***The Official Football Manager Thread***


we beat Zenit and PSG at home, drew both games with Leverkusen, lost the away matches to Zenit and PSG. Unexpected success has brought a lot of attention to me and my squad, I'm getting interviews left and right, and players are getting tapped up to move on. Going to be one terrible January, I miss our three seasons of mediocrity.

[rsnomar05]

Re: ***The Official Football Manager Thread***

Any thoughts on my chances as a Finnish team in the 2018 Champions League group stage?

I beat BATE, Kobenhavn, and Olympiakos to get here.

Inter and CSKA Moscow are obviously going to be favorites, but they're beatable. So I could see you taking second if you're team goes on a nice high-morale run.

[rsnomar05]

Re: ***The Official Football Manager Thread***

In the 1st leg (home) of the Champions League knockout stages, I got humiliated 5-2. You would think that I couldn't come back from that, right? Well, if you think that, then I have one word for you: LOLSPURS.

I was pessimistic heading into the second leg in London. Not just because of the deficit, but also because three of my key starters had picked up injuries of 2+ months a piece in the last match. This meant my leading scorer would have to watch from the stands, and it meant Alessandro Florenzi was going to have to play out of position as an AMR.

I was pessimistic, but then again I was playing LOLSPURS. I started the match pushing forward, and LOLSPURS decided the best way to play the match was to clear the ball for 90 minutes. Well, in the 4th minute, one clearance by Nicolas Isimat-Marin was kicked weaker than a middle school GK taking a goal kick. It went all of 15 yards and fell to Florenzi who, finding himself in a 3-on-two with Frederico Bonazzoli and Patrick Roberts, laced a perfect through-ball into the box for Roberts. Roberts slotted the ball home far post and and the score was now 3-5 aggregate.

You would think that LOLSPURS would stop playing "clear the ball for 90 minutes" defense after surrendering that first goal, but alas their "we don't know the meaning of the word possession" style of play continued. I generated chance after chance, and LOLSPURS cleared the ball right back to me each time they gained possession. I was pounding on the door, but Lloris was keeping them in it. My AML Eugene Konoplyanka dribbled past two defenders, cut into the box, and then squared it on the ground for Bonazzoli. I was already pumping my fist at the easy tap-in, but Lloris made a miracle diving save that might be the save of the year. But Lloris turned it into a miraculous double save when he got his fingertips to Bonazzoli's rebound shot. Wow. I was stunned I hadn't scored there. I continued pounding on the door, and through 17 minutes I had 82% possession to LOLSPUR'S 18%. In the 18th minute Lloris fired a goal kick to Younes Belhanda in the middle of the pitch. The second Belhanda trapped the ball my MC Youri Tielemans easily dispossessed, then fired a long ball down the left hand side to an open Jonathan Silva. Silva rounded a defender, cut into the box, and crossed it to an open Patrick Roberts who was denied by another Lloris miracle save. But Silva had continued his run into the box after making the cross and was there to tap in the rebound. WOOO!!!!!! DOWN BY ONE!!!!!! 4-5 aggregate.

Could the comeback actually happen? Would LOLSPURS continue to play "clear the ball for 90 minutes" defense? The answer to that second question is no. LOLSPURS finally wisened up and stopped trying to all-out contain. This was fine by me, as for some reason LOLSPURS had switched to an attacking formation, and I was killing them on the counter. I was creating chance after chance. It was only a matter of time before I equalized. But then in the 33rd minute my RB Calum Chambers did a sliding tackle on Dorin Rotariu. This was right at the center line. Rotariu was dispossessed, but the ball rolled all the way down field and out for a corner. "HEY RULLI, HOW'S ABOUT YOU %@#$ING VENTURE ONE YARD OUTSIDE OF YOUR BOX AND COLLECT THE BALL INSTEAD OF STANDING THERE TWIDDLING YOUR MOTHER%@$#ING THUMBS WHILE IT GOES OUT FOR A %@#$ING CORNER?" Rotariu was unmarked during the corner, and he headed the ball into a wide open net. 4-6 aggregate. Spurs back up by two. "Really defense? You forget how to mark? I HAVE HALF A MIND TO TRANSFER ALL OF YOU TO %@#$ING RWANDA! GET IT TOGETHER!"

Back up by two, LOLSPURS decided to revert back to their "clear the ball" defense. Ticked off over the goal I just gave up, I aggressively demanded that my team work even harder. And work harder my team did. Except they had now decided to start working the ball into a perfect shooting position, and then not shoot. I wondered if I had accidentally yelled at my players "Take one touch too many!" There were about five chances where my attackers were in the box with the ball, with a clean shot on goal, but they decided to dribble some more. The halftime whistle blew with me still trailing by two goals. I told my squad to go and get revenge on LOLSPURS, and they channeled their inner Arsenal fan and got fired up. They came out in the second half rolling, and they also stopped refusing to shoot. LOLSPURS came out of the half seriously demotivated, as if they weren't the team that was winning. Their entire defense was nervous. They also inexplicably changed from the 4-4-1-1 they had used in the first half to a 4-4-2 and went into attack mode. This opened up play and the football became up-and-down, free-flowing stuff, with both teams pushing up the pitch and being vulnerable on the counter. In the 63rd minute Youri Tielemans blasted a free kick that Lloris tipped over the bar. Lloris was saving their asses. Tielemans then fired in the corner to the far post, where my CB Alessio Romagnali was ready and waiting. He out-jumped Harry Maguire and rifled a header in the net. WOOO!!!! BACK DOWN BY ONE!!! 5-6 AGGREGATE!!! WE CAN STILL DO THIS!!!!

BOOO!!! BACK DOWN BY TWO!!! NO WE CAN'T STILL DO THIS!!! Romagnali, fresh off scoring a goal, decided to play a terrible backpass to my keeper in the 69th minute. Why was it terrible? Because it was kicked with zero pace. Younes Belhanda easily intercepted, found himself all alone in the box, and slotted it past my keeper. "HEY, ROMAGNALI! DO YOU KNOW WHAT THE WEATHER IS LIKE IN RWANDA? WELL, YOU'RE ABOUT TO, YOU SAD EXCUSE FOR A DEFENDER! %@$#!" 5-7 aggregate.

With 20 minutes left I was now in desperation mode, needing two goals to send the match into extra time. I went into overload, urged my squad to push forward, switched from my normal short passing, possession game to a direct attack. LOLSPURS elected to continue to push forward. I'm no rocket scientist, but maybe with 20 minutes left and a two goal lead, you might want to play defensive? Like, maybe try that "clear the ball" defense you opened the match with? No, not LOLSPURS. They were going to push forward and leave themselves open on the counter no matter what. My squad spent the next 10 minutes easily dispossessing LOLSPUR'S attackers. This lead to counter after counter, and I spent most of those 10 minutes in and around the LOLSPURS box. For some reason, despite the two goal lead, LOLSPURS morale ranged from nervous to furious. My squad was motivated and fired up. But I still needed a miracle. I still needed two goals. And I got one in the 80th minute thanks to Nicolas Isimat-Mirin. **Troy McClure voice** "Hi, I'm Nicolas Isimat Mirin! You may remember me from such past footballing mistakes as my terrible clearance that lead to Roma's first goal. And now, watch as I top that by committing a penalty!" **Troy McClure voice** Mirin fouled Calum Chambers on a corner kick, the ref pointed to the spot, and Mirin's rating fell to a 5.6, which frankly was quite a generous rating giving his level of suckitude in this match. My striker Frederico Bonazzoli confidently stepped up and blasted the ball to the right. Lloris dove left, and I WAS BACK WITHIN A GOAL! SO YOU'RE SAYING THERE'S A CHANCE! 6-7 Aggregate!

With their lead down to one, LOLSPURS decided that it was finally time to re-enter "clear the ball" defense mode. With LOLSPURS in contain, I told my squad to go route one. We were winning the aerial battles and were connecting on our long balls. We just weren't putting our shots on target. In the 87th minute, Romangnoli collected a clearance and bombed the ball down the field. Tielemans was fouled going for the header, and we had a freekick just outside the box. This is where some LOLSPURS calamity ensued. LOLSPURS formed a wall. Except the players forming that wall weren't close together. Each player on the wall was separated by about three feet of space. This meant there were gaping holes for Tielemans to shoot through. WTF kind of wall was that? As expected, Tielemans blasted the ball through one of the gaping holes. But Lloris came to the rescue again and made a diving save. Lloris then punted the ball down the field, but he punted it right to Tielemans. Tielemans then fired a long ball down the left hand side to my AML Eugene Konoplyanka. For some reason unknown to man, Konoplyanka was unmarked. This meant that he could freely cut into the box. It also meant that when Nicolas Isimat-Mirin came over to try and steal the ball, Eugene could just tap it across to a wide open Bonazzoli for an easy goal. "OH MY GOD, HE'S GOING TO TRY AND ROUND THE DEFENDER! PASS THE BALL, YOU %@$#ING IDIOT! PASS IT!" Eugene successfully rounded Isimat-Mirin. "OH MAN....PLEASE SCORE....PLEASE SCORE...YES!!!!!!! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!! I TAKE IT BACK! THANK YOU FOR NOT PASSING YOU BEAUTIFUL MAN!!!! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHA LOLSPURS!!!!!!" I was so excited by the equalizer that I forgot that I was playing in a room with a small ceiling. I jumped up in excitement, arms raised, and accidentally punched the ceiling. OW. But 7-7 aggregate, so who cares about the throbbing pain in my left fist.

We went to extra time. With LOLSPURS players looking distraught and my squad fired up like a rocket I decided to stay in attack mode and continue to push forward. That was a good decision as three minutes into extra time Alessandro Florenzi drew a double team outside the box, then slotted a through ball for Bonazzoli who drove the ball far post. OMG!!!!! WOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! NO WAY!!!!!!! 8-7 AGGREGATE!!!!! LOLSPURS HAVE DONE IT AGAIN!!!!!! "HEY GUYS, I WAS TOTALLY JOKING ABOUT RWANDA! UNLESS YOU %@$# THIS UP. IN THAT CASE I WAS TELLING THE TRUTH. SO DON'T %@$# THIS UP!"

**Troy McClure voice** "Hi, I'm Nicolas Isimat Mirin! You may remember me from such past footballing mistakes as my terrible clearance that lead to Roma's first goal, and the penalty that lead to Roma's fifth goal! And now, watch as I ruin my team's chance at a comeback by getting red-carded!" In the 100th minute, Mirin decided it would be a good idea to scissor tackle Youri Tielemans. The referee did not agree with Mirin that it was a good idea, and he pulled out a red card.

Now down to 10 men, I controlled the match and possessed LOLSPURS to death. My team didn't need to score another goal, but they decided to do it anyway in the 118th minute. With Nicolas Isimat Mirin out of the match and thus no longer able to gift me a goal, Davide Santon stepped up to take his place. Lloris played a short goal kick to Santon who elected to square the ball to...uh...I watched the replay several times and have no idea. There was nobody close, and it didn't look like a back-pass. Well, there actually was somebody close. Frederico Bonazzoli who pounced on the ball, took two steps into the box, rounded the keeper, and tapped it in. 9-7 Aggregate. That was the final score of an absolutely epic CL match.

My squad is now dead. Completely drained. All starters except my keeper are below 65% in condition, and I have a match coming up against AC Milan in three days. But hey, at least my players are packing their bags for Italy, and not Rwanda.

[The GIGGAS]

Re: ***The Official Football Manager Thread***

CL update:

1-1 draw with CSKA. Inter beat Man City 3-1.

[Kobalt]

Re: ***The Official Football Manager Thread***

1) Spend 50M on a Striker in January
2) He scores 5 goals in 3 games
3) Gets injured 4 months in training

<3 FM

I'm never getting a Stadium Expansion, still playing in 17K capacity stadium and the option of asking for another stadium doesn't show up.