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
Following my initial post which outlined the rebuilding work at US Triestina in Serie C, this follow-up article will describe the systems I used in my first season. Suffice to say, performances were excellent and after an inauspicious start, I was delighted with the results.
My target for the season as determined by the Board was to achieve a play-off spot in Serie C, which required a top ten finish. I was very confident that I could deliver this, and more.
In this post I will evaluate the existing squad members and explain how I put it all together into three different systems.
You’ve probably opened this post wondering “when are we getting some actual football” which is fair comment, given the four posts of build up you’ve had so far. Good news; we’re diving into the season right now (well, once we’ve walked through our transfer business)
For some reason I always associate the month of December with playing Football Manager. Maybe it was because I started my first ever save on FM14 in December 2013, the glorious campaign of promoting Manisaspor out of the gloomy depth of Turkish 2nd division. Maybe by pure luck or some fluke of the plug and play tactics, which back then I was almost exclusively using because I did not know better, I was actually able to win the league and promote my first ever club. I got it then, that feeling of dopamine rushing to my head, firing up the neurons in the glorious exploding chain reaction of joy that all managers, both real and virtual, experience at one point or another. It was the first shot of that most addictive of drugs that gets you hooked, the feeling that we all strive to experience with our virtual hobby again and again. The rest as they say is history, but the memory remains. In my mind, December will always be associated with the fuzzy feeling of winning in football manager, or if not winning then at least the next best thing, discovering that future homegrown superstar on intake day, and visualising all the future records and trophies he will achieve. Continue reading
Around every October, FM fanatics turn their thoughts to their next FM save, with the new game just around the corner. I had always fancied the idea of turning a minnow into a European superpower; on previous versions I had a very enjoyable save in Germany with Bayer Leverkusen and in the UK, with Oxford United. I gave some thought to managing overseas and settled for a career in lowly Serie C in Italy. I prefer to begin as an unknown manager in the lower leagues, working my way up and building a reputation.
With the race for the golden boot tighter than ever, I decided to crunch some numbers to see who is the best goalscorer in the Premier League. In this post I’ll outline the stats I used, who is best in each category of my analysis and then try to predict what the final goals tally will look like. I took the 13 top scoring players in the PL this season as the sample. First let’s look at a number of stats comparing players performance this season to last.
With the new installment of Football Manager, everybody wants to become the best manager of all time. That will naturally take time in game and requires lots of effort from players. These guides will help you to accelerate this process whilst we do the leg-work for you and give you the best tips for 2019.
These guides on Youth Development will cover all areas of the game regarding producing young players. I plan to make a few of these articles as covering all the information in one article might be a bit overwhelming! I plan to make guides on the following topics and will link them as I complete them:
Ipswich Town. One of the biggest clubs in Europe during the 70s. Sir Bobby Robson and Sir Alf Ramsey are the names that you think of when Ipswich Town is mentioned… After 16 seasons in the championship, that run could be about to end – sadly not in the way Town fans wanted. Continue reading
Despite the positive start to the season, we had to contend with a bit of a crisis. Within a space of a month I’ve had 4 of my first team players receive long-term multi-months injuries. I could be bitter, blaming it on the fact that I was playing with an earlier patch at time that made injuries a tad too common. But realistically, I am using a high intensity high pressing system that demands a lot from my players’ stamina and natural fitness. Injuries were bound to happen sooner or later. So instead of reloading or restarting my save I decided to use it as a theoretical experiment and a proper challenge to test the depth of this squad. As I intend this article to showcase, there are some positives to losing your important squad players for a few months. It does not necessarily spell the end of a successful season, since sometimes a few long-term injuries is just the catalyst that a team needs to bring it to the next level. Continue reading
José Mourinho is now well known for his anti-football approach, and his mentality that if you don’t have the ball, you can’t make mistakes. Manchester United haven’t exactly been successful so far this season, sitting 7th in the table after winning only 6 of their opening 13 games. United have come under scrutiny for their defensive, lacklustre performances. Despite always being a pragmatist, Mourinho was not always this negative.
Following the back of England’s most successful World Cup since 1990, we have to now turn to the future and ultimately where the current crop of England stars will be strutting their stuff next year.
Southgate and the English Media team managed to create a feel good vibe with this young cohort of players. This was backed up through stellar performances, before and after the World Cup. Recent highlights include a 3-2 win over Spain and the 2-1 win over Croatia last week. But can we go all the way in the inaugural Nations League final?
