It seems that midway through the life-cycle of every Football Manager game there comes a time for change. It is usually when long-running saves start feeling stale. And a new challenge is needed to keep the game fresh. Sometimes it is a matter of changing up the tactics. The recent major Match Engine update has made me realize that my tactics were not doing what I wanted. We were winning games, but not in the way I wished. So I…
After two seasons playing variations on the Allardyce 4-5-1 (4-3-3) system, I decided it was time for a change. Considering we had grossly overachieved with Red Star Wrexham and gotten into the Championship ahead of schedule, I am faced with the daunting prospect of avoiding relegation. Given that we’ve already mastered the dark arts of defensive, pragmatic, resultism football, where else could we go? How does a team of shithousers get even shithousier? After a few days of reflection, the…
In the past, I have put a lot of emphasis into playing football “the right way”. In my FM18 save, I played Total Football with Ajax, the founders of the Cruyffian way of playing. A year later, I was experimenting with Arrigo Sacchi’s variant of total football in my save with Uniao de Madeira. In my current Moneyball save I have gone with a spin on the Hungarian Golden Team’s fluid style, an attacking 4-2-4. A change was required. I…
It’s that time of year again. Football Manager release their January update and everyone looks for a team to manage. We have 5 teams to manage with FM20’s January Update that might be worth trying out. Due to the release of the updated January database, it would only be right if we gave a few suggestions. Unfortunately, Football Manager already released their own version of this. However, I have decided to go with 5 teams, instead of 10 and…
Podcast History There has been a Dictate the Game podcast kicking around for quite a while. Alongside the articles we write and cover here we also talk nonsense online so you can listen to it as well. For a long time we had been hosting this on youtube at the DTG channel. You can see we have around 20 episodes covering FM19 if they take your fancy. We even had a go at live recording via Twitch. If you follow…
As mentioned in my previous articles in this series, I wanted to achieve success playing pragmatic football. Considering we’ve taken Red Star Wrexham from the VNL to the Championship in just three seasons, pragmatism doesn’t quite cut it as a good description. To use a term attributed to our lord and saviour Big Sam, we can only call it one thing: Resultism. If pragmatism is the acceptance of who you are and making the best of what you’ve got, resultism…
Welcome back to the Football Manager 2020 story ‘Taking on the World’. This FM20 story is a classic journeyman save as we attempt to travel around the world and ticking off as many countries as we can. The aim of this FM20 story is not to stay at the same club for more than one full season. I am not allowed to accept a job offer from another club in the same country if I am already managing a club…
You’re on a roll. You’re winning without having to break sweat. Keep everything the same, you say: you’ve found a winning formula. Except, as every experienced FM campaigner will know, it’s never that easy. Sooner of later, the wheel of fortune will turn. In my experience, the turning point can be undramatic. Just an underwhelming performance or two. Perhaps a draw in a match you should have won. And then it happens. Your team plunges into a terrifying descent. And…
Spring surprises for us & based upon the 2019 seasons final standings, the though of Pacific finishing near the top appears to be a pipe dream. The pre-season was intense & challenging but the players are prepared for what’s ahead. More signings joined the squad with a full squad of 23 players. One huge frustration is being able to bring a squad together when the salary cap is so low.
Learn how to use a Deep Lying Playmaker in your team, using real life examples of players. In history, football has seen many heroes grace the pitch. From Pele to Maradona, mastering the arts of scoring goals. To Lev Yashin and Peter Schmeichel keeping them from hitting the back of the net. But in between these two extremities, between scoring goals and stopping them, what happens in the middle of the pitch? We at Dictate the Game love this role,…