Introduction
Hi my name is CrusaderTsar and I’ve been playing Football Manager since 2014 and been a long-time follower of this forum. I finally decided to dip my feet in and write a series following my first long-term save in FM 2019. I plan to start a somewhat open discussion of Dynamo Kiev club and my tactics. I intend to post regular updates on my squad and results as well as welcome feedback on how to improve my tactics and training. Continue reading
I took over at Lazio with the club in a perilous position of 16th in the standings. The club was in an average shape off the field, with a balance of £10m in the red, and the squad required extensive rebuilding.
In this post I will look at:
I love summer break. No, I’m not being nostalgic for those halcyon days in elementary school when we would have three months free from all worries of studying, exams or work, and simply enjoy life. No, unfortunately as much as I would love to, this is not an article about that. Rather, I love the summer preseason break in Football Manager 2019. A great time to take a look at what worked or not in the previous season and start planning for the challenges of the next. For me all tactic building happens in preseason with ideally only a few tweaks needed once Fall rolls around and we get well into the new season.
Continue reading
In my previous post, I outlined how we achieved a very respectable 12th place in our second season in Serie A. The consequence is that we have another season to accumulate finance to develop all aspects of the club.
The Board agreed to improve both the training and youth facilities, which underpins my strategy of developing youth players and improving senior players to sell for large profits. This had already borne fruit last season when we sold Cedric Teuchert for £7.5m and Max Christiansen for £2.7m.
Until the club is established in European competitions, selling to buy for a profit would have to remain a core strategy.
In this post I will look at:
When we think of inside forwards, we might imagine Messi or Neymar showing off with their fancy tricks and blasting shots home from 30 yards out. Our players probably have boots made of bin bags, so what else is this role useful for? Continue reading
Recreating the 2003-2004 Unbeaten Season on FM 19
Hello everyone! There seems to be lul in or lack thereof of tactical replications on FM 19 as compared to past versions. We can maybe attribute that to the ease of use of the tactics set-up screens but I’ll leave that discussion for another time. After my Inter 2009 and Real Madrid 2002 Galacticos recreations from last year, I decided to try my luck at the often duplicated tactic from the Arsenal 2003-2004 undefeated season… but, with a twist. I kept it simple and let it fly! As I write here, I’m simulating the first half of the 2003-2004 season with my system using the AWESOME 2003-2004 database (which you can find in the steam workshop). We’ll see the tactics and results (for better or worse) shortly, but first some background for those of you who don’t know it (courtesy of goal.com).
I’m going to start by making a bold claim that Luka Jovic is the best offensive striker in the world right now. There is a lot of buzz around him lately with the likes of Barcelona, Chelsea and Man City linked with his name. This has as much to do with the undeniable scoring ability as the promise of future potential in this 20 year old from Serbia. His wonderkid status in Football Manager 2019 is greatly merited because simply put no other forward has the same combination of key attributes and potential (especially after the Winter Update). At the start of the game, there are a few better strikers with much bigger names but none have his youth or potential. Naturally when looking for a player to perfectly highlight the archetypal Striker, I turned to Luka. His example will allow me to showcase all the attributes needed by a forward to develop into a goal-machine. In general, if you are interested in getting more goals from your special player, this is the guide for you. Also, I will recreate Frankfurt’s brilliant 3-5-2 with Luca as its main scorer.
The January Window. 31 Days of to-ing and fro-ing in the football world. 31 days which can make or break a club’s season, and 31 days which have us all glued to our phones, waiting to see whether our own clubs will welcome any new faces. It all culminates in the inevitable question being asked of SI: “Where’s the Winter Update?”
Well, 19.3 is finally upon us, bringing some bug fixes (I think?) and the Winter Transfer Update with it. After a hectic January, we’ve picked out 10 players to keep an eye on after the Update, as they try to settle with their new clubs.
In my previous post I reviewed our first season in Serie A, in which we managed to survive by finishing in a respectable 16th place, despite the odds being against us.
My aim for the “difficult second season” was to have a more comfortable campaign, by using the increased funds to bring in better players. Our transfer business was included in that post, with a number of defensive reinforcements arriving, supported by some excellent loan signings in midfield and attack.
In the post I will look at:
Recently I wrote an article showing how to start a new save well, if you missed it you can check it out here. With a strong start in the league, I decided to continue my Brentford save and see where we ended up. After an expected finish of mid table, we won the league, finishing with 88 points.
After the success I’d had, I decided to give it a go in the Premier League, and see if plucky little Brentford could mix it with the big boys. Here is my guide to adjusting to Promotion in FM19.
Continuing with my series highlighting specialist roles in Football Manager, I now turn to a role that I often find misunderstood and misused. As enigmatic as the man who inspired it, the role of Raumdeuter will always be linked with the name of Thomas Muller. Every position has its ideal player, whether it is Pirlo the Regista, Roberto Baggio the Trequartista, or Beckenbauer the Libero, to the point where no modern player can truly call any role his own. None except Thomas Muller. Word “Raumdeuter” translates from German as “space investigator” and it is what Muller called himself when asked to describe his idiosyncratic style of play. Just as left foot is key to Messi’s game, Muller thrives on the half space. I will be deconstructing what makes this role so unique and how it can be used to break down even the greatest defences. Also I will show how you can mould your player into a Raumdeuter to rival even Muller. I will tie all this into a tactic that takes advantage of my own variation of Deep Raumdeuter – MitteRaumdeuter.
