'Lessons in Calcio' - Crouchy, Facci Sognare!

[crouchaldinho]

'If he wins he is a combination of Einstein, Leonardo, Saint Francis, Plato and Dante. If he loses he is a sewer rat' - Gian Paolo Ormezzano.

Welcome to 'Lessons in Calcio'!

I have been threatening to get an FM12 career going for some time now and I think I'm finally going to get around to it at last! Thanks in particular to Iacovone and SnakeXe for taking the time to offer some advice in terms of setting up this save.

Some of you will remember some of my past endevours on older versions of FM. My last major career thread was my long-term St. Albans City game on FM10. I pretty much skipped FM11 despite owning it and continued to play my Saints save instead of starting the new game. Therefore, I have been away from the series and I think this is why I have found it difficult to pick up the new game and plunge straight in.

Many of you will know that I am a creature of habit and that I usually play a long-term save with St. Albans City (otherwise known as the 'mighty' Saints). However, there will be no 'Crouchy's Mighty Saints Save' this time around. The FM10 save is still too fresh and it wouldn't be much fun to start exactly the same save again on FM12. Plus, I still have the intention to one day revisit my St. Albans City side and to get a stadium named after me plus continue the latter part of the legendary Michel Vermeer's career!

After recently getting a new computer, I decided that a journeyman career game would be my next adventure in FM but this journeyman career save will have a twist. Many of you will know that I have a fascination with Italy and with Italian football. I've had a number of good saves in Italy over the years and I decided that I simply had to make Italy the centre and focus of my new career.

The title of this thread pretty much gives away the intentions I have in starting my career. I have decided that I will begin my 'apprenticeship' in football management in the world of Calcio! The bottom division of the Italian leagues will be my starting point and it is here that I will learn my trade. Hopefully, these 'Lessons in Calcio' will stand me in good stead for a future career in which I intend, eventually, to broaden my horizons and to head abroad to try out some new experiences in different leagues.

So, to sum things up, I should let you know that my main intention with this save is to start at the bottom of Italian football and work my way up in the world of calcio. I have loaded leagues from a number of countries as I hope to move abroad once I've made some kind of name in Italy.

I've started off as an unproven (Sunday League reputation) English manager who is unemployed (so I'm basically playing as myself). I'm an Englishman who is going to serve his apprenticeship in the Italian lower leagues and I'll be taking whatever job comes up first at Serie C2 level. Each club I manage will become a new short-term 'project' for me and, once I feel that I have taken the club as far as I can, I will be looking for a new 'project' to take on. If/when I move abroad, the projects will become 'lessons in calcio applied to.....' as I seek to apply all that I have learnt in Italy in countries other than my adopted 'home' country.

So here it is: Crouchy's Lessons in Calcio thread!


This game is played on FM12 and started with patch 12.1 with no edits made to the database. Leagues loaded are: Mexico, US, England, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Argentina and Uruguay. I am playing with a Medium database.

I forgot to add my Twitter details.

Twitter for FM - http://twitter.com/Crouchy_SACFC

Twitter primarily for St. Albans City, Non-League and general football tweets - http://twitter.com/Daedalus1882

Steam profile - http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198046026468

YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/user/CrouchyLP

Some of my old FM Career Update threads:

When The Saints Go Marching In - Crouchy's Mighty Saints Save!

Fabio Crouchello - Taking England to South Africa 2010

Crouchy's Calcio Journeyman Save

[crouchaldinho]

Returning to the world of Football Manager

Rumour has it that Crouchaldinho has recently been trapped in a strange parallel dimension in which everything is made of blocks and green monsters shaped like giant penises chase after you and explode. Unfortunately, there were some complications upon his return to this dimension. It is suggested that Crouchaldinho had to face an extremely dangerous process of transmogrification in order to return to the world we all know and love as the world of Football Manager. This process is briefly detailed below.

*Iacovone & SnakeXe drag Crouchaldinho into their lab and hook him up to a strange and futuristic looking machine*

'It's for your own good Crouchy,' says SnakeXe, as he starts tapping away at a keyboard, seemingly pressing keys at random.

The computer whirs into action.

*Processing physical form*



*Minecraft profile detected - illogical - this physical form does not compute*

Flamers enters the room. 'Don't worry Crouchy, I have over 105 games just on Steam. I've had to go through this process hundreds of times. It's never done me any harm'. Suddenly Flamers pulls a grotesque face and begins to twitch unnaturally. Flamers starts talking nonsense, 'Hihi-hidi-hidi-whurdidjid. Two and one-half badgers, please! Hi-yi-yi-yi-yi! Whap! An-dingling! Wha-hoo-hoo! An-da-an-shoo-an-shoo. Maybe now I can WIN SELF-DETERMINATION FOR THE SOUTH MOLDAVIAN PEOPLE! Nick-noo-nick-noo-nick-ank'.

Iacovone tuts and says, 'get him out of here', pressing a large red button on the control panel. An enormous security guard wearing a Sunderland shirt enters. 'Acidburn, take this man away,' says SnakeXe and the guard struggles but finally manages to drag away the wildly gesticulating Flamers.

'Thanks AB. We're nearly there Crouchy,' says Iacovone. The computer whirs even louder and a high pitch noise is emitted from the control panel.

*Transmogrification sequence initiated*

Crouchaldinho speaks for the first time in tones of bewilderment. 'Transmogrifi- what!' he stutters.

*Physical form accepted and cloned. Please key in new physical structure.*

Both SnakeXe and Iacovone begin wildly tapping at the keyboards.

*New physical form and structure accepted. Metamorphosis in ten seconds and counting...*

*The COMPUTER starts to mark off the countdown in steady, impassive beeps.*

*Beep*

*Beep*

*Beep*

*Beep*

*Beep*

*Metamorphosis complete.*

*New physical form displayed below*



Crouchy sits up. SnakeXe hands him a well thumbed copy of John Foot's Calcio and a Hellas Verona scarf.

'I'm back!' he says, staring wildly into the distance. 'I'm finally back!'




Just a bit of silly fun. If you recognise any of the text as being a bit familiar then you are very cool. Details of my first appointment in Italy to follow!

[AcidBurn]

Love it, looking forward to reading you new adventures Crouchy.

[SnakeXe]

Haha that's got to be the best start to a thread I've read thus far! Can't wait to see where Crouchaldinho 2.0 ends up

[crouchaldinho]

Objectives:

Stealing from Iacovone, I'd like to make myself a modest list of objectives for this career.

- To stick this out, at least until FM2013

- To gradually learn the new game and to learn the new features

- To be a success in Italy first and foremost

- To manage my favourite Italian club, Hellas Verona, at some point

- Eventually to travel a little and to try out some different countries and leagues along the way

- To be fairly informal and casual with my updates (you may have noticed that I have a tendency to type and type and type so I really want to do a bit more playing and a bit less updating this time around without impacting on the quality of the thread, of course)

- To gradually build things up as I go along on FM, which I guess sounds kind of strange, but I have a tendency to make the game a bit dull for myself by focusing heavily on details like tactics and training all at once instead of playing and adjusting as I go along and this tends to have an effect on my enjoyment of the game at times

- Be patient with FM12 and be open-minded - give it a real chance!

- Play in a realistic manner and with no cheats/exploits (should go without saying) and always think carefully about career decisions I make in order to keep things as fair and as realistic as I can

- Most importantly, to ENJOY FM12!

Some might say that I have been fairly modest with the leagues that I have loaded and I think I probably could have loaded more. But I feel that I have a good starting basis here and some countries that I really want to try managing in. Once I get a feel of how my computer runs with this setup, and a better idea of what it can handle, I may well add some more leagues. I guess the beauty of this year's game is that we can add and remove leagues so I intend to take advantage of that in the future.

At the moment, though, I feel I have a good mix of old favourites and new leagues that I would like to try. England, France, Germany, Spain and Italy are leagues that I have tried and enjoyed in the past. Sweden is a country that I have played in before for a short spell but I have never managed in the top leagues and I would like to try to do so. I've included the Netherlands due to Michel Vermeer and Portugal as I am intending to read a biography written about Jose Mourinho at some point soon. Argentina and Uruguay were added on a bit of whim and what's life without whimsy? Seriously, though, I enjoyed managing the Uruguay national team on FM10 and therefore decided to load it up! Finally, Mexico is a country that I have been wanting to try for ages and the USA represents a potential step outside my comfort zone and a managerial experience on FM that I have been putting off for a long time. All of these countries are definitely places that I would like to manage in.

I wanted also to load some countries from Africa and Asia but decided against doing so initally. Later in my career, I would like to add a few more to try, but I figured right now that I had enough to be starting with. I would quite like to get into international management at some point, should I be successful enough to do so, and therefore this may be my most likely route through to Asia or Africa later in the game. I think I have decided that I will allow myself club and country management at the same time, should I get to that point, but that I would have to manage a club in the country in which I am residing for my international management job. But I'm getting too far ahead of myself. My career begins in Italy at the bottom and there is a long journey before I need to think of such things!

This is the first version for a long time where I genuinely don't know if I will have success or not initially. In previous versions, I felt that I had a certain level of expertise in the game and I felt confident that I could apply my principles and be successful in most jobs. But I've been out of the game for a little while and FM11 and 12 have brought about changes that I don't know much about. So this could be quite a challenge for me. I know not whether failure or success awaits me. Regardless, my main hope is that it is both fun and interesting! And with that, it is time to introduce project 1 of 'Lessons in Calcio'!

[cragswfc]

good luck crouchy

[crouchaldinho]

Love it, looking forward to reading you new adventures Crouchy.

Haha that's got to be the best start to a thread I've read thus far! Can't wait to see where Crouchaldinho 2.0 ends up

Thanks guys!

I thought you two might find it amusing! Hopefully others do too!

[crouchaldinho]

good luck crouchy

Thanks Cragswfc.

[AcidBurn]

I really hope this thread lasts long enough to see you venture out to Mexico, I love managing there so different.

[crouchaldinho]

I hope so too, AB.

It definitely is the long-term plan, although I'm not going to rush towards it. Eventually, though, I would like to apply my lessons in calcio to some different places. As said above, the ones I have loaded are all countries that I really want to try out at some point down the line.

[deltablue]

I loved the beginning as well.

[SRL88]

Good luck Crouchy .

[City2000]

I enjoyed reading your FM10 thread, looking forward to this!

[AcidBurn]

I hope so too, AB.

It definitely is the long-term plan, although I'm not going to rush towards it. Eventually, though, I would like to apply my lessons in calcio to some different places. As said above, the ones I have loaded are all countries that I really want to try out at some point down the line.

I wish I had more patience to put more into the tactical area of the game every TC tactic I make turns out pretty poor. I always end up downloading a tactic and tweaking it.

[crouchaldinho]

Project 1 - A.C. Giacomense

In December 2011, a pensive, dour-faced man stepped off the bus at Masi San Giacomo's bus terminus wearing the Greek fisherman’s cap made famous by John Lennon. It was, of course, a defining characteristic of Osvaldo Bagnoli and his managerial career in Italian football and it was the symbol to accompany the landmark Scudetto he would win with Hellas Verona in 1985. On Crouchaldinho's head, however, it just looked comic and quite frankly ridiculous!

I started as an unemployed manager with Sunday League reputation. I set only Italian teams as manageable and went on holiday mode, leaving it to the FM gods to find my team for me.

My first job offer came from A.C. Giacomense and I accepted immediately. They are located in Masi San Giacomo, a frazione of Masi Torello, Emilia-Romagna. It seems to me that Masi San Giacomo is equivalent to a village or small town in English terms. It is based in the comune of Masi Torello, which itself has a small population of 2,355. Attendances seem to be around 250-300 on average. I'm starting out at a very small club, clearly, who get attendances lower than many clubs at level 7 and 8 of the league pyramid in England!

This is the club badge:



I think the club is probably having one of the better periods of its history right now as they were crowned as Serie D/D winners in 2007–08 and promoted to their current level.

The club nickname is, predictably, the Grigiorossi!

They were predicted to be lower mid-table this season but have had a disastrous start and they currently sit in the 'play-out' zone in Serie C2/A (I'm going to call it that even though the real name is Lega Pro Seconda Divisione Girone A!). I'm short of staff and don't even have an assistant manager so that will be the first priority. It looks as if we ship a lot of goals and that is the main issue to be resolved. We also have a threadbare squad and a large number of loans who don't even look like particularly good players. I'm going to have my work cut out in order to steady the ship and put things right.

I'm taking over just before the winter break, with 18 games gone. We are 19th out of 20 teams in the division with 15 points.

I feel that I have probably made this challenge a little harder on myself by choosing to be English. The media have commented on my lack of Italian language skills and I would have thought the team will take longer to gel as a result. I think it's going to be a tough couple of months as I settle and my team starts to gel and get better. My immediate feelings on taking over at the club are that this is going to be tough and that I am going to have to work hard during the winter break to sort this squad out so that I have a side who are capable of fighting for safety.

My managerial profile is below in case anyone was curious about the details I have picked.





As you can see, rather than putting down St. Albans City (my IRL favourite club) as my favourite club as I usually do, I have selected Hellas Verona, who are the team I have very fond memories of managing in previous versions of FM and possibly even an earlier CM. After reading the Tim Parks book on Verona, and also reading all about their 1985 miracle scudetto triumph, I have always had a fondness for Hellas Verona and therefore I have selected them as my favourite team. I would love to earn the right to manage them on this save.

Back to Giacomense! I have one game to play before the break. I will cobble together a side to play that but I don't expect much from the game. Then the priority will be to work hard on sorting things out at the club, especially in terms of playing personnel and staff. I will need to come up with a strategy in order to fight for survival. This is going to be a very interesting start to my 'Lessons in Calcio' save!

[crouchaldinho]

One of my favourite (and also possibly my first) Italian career was with Cremonese on CM03/04. Cremonese started off in Serie C on that game and I took them over and eventually won Serie A with them, having Toledo and Milan Baros as my favoured forwards in a 4-3-1-2 formation! Can't remember who else I had now, I just remember those guys scoring for fun. I had a very good team by the end of that save but I never did win a Champions League. I kept getting knocked out by English clubs (especially Arsenal and Man Utd). It was a very fun save though and one that I have fond memories of!

As A.C. Giacomense play in the same red and grey stripes as Cremonese, I decided this was a good omen, and this played a part in my acceptance of the job!

[crouchaldinho]

I loved the beginning as well.

Good luck Crouchy .

I enjoyed reading your FM10 thread, looking forward to this!

Thanks guys!

I wish I had more patience to put more into the tactical area of the game every TC tactic I make turns out pretty poor. I always end up downloading a tactic and tweaking it.

Tactics is one of my favourite things. That's the area of the game I like the most really!

You'll get plenty of tactical talk on my thread, that's for sure! And I'll mostly use the TC but I will occasionally make changes 'under the hood' using the advanced options.

The one thing I am kind of dreading with this new FM is the team talks. I've never really liked them and I'm worried that the new tones/moods will make an already ambiguous system worse. I haven't played around with it enough, or indeed played enough FM12 full stop, to judge just yet, so I'll go into it with an open mind.

If I was going to talk about my major weakness in the game, it would be the team talks and motivation probably. That's the area in which I would like to improve during this career.

My strengths, I would like to think, are tactics, finding the right kinds of players for my tactics and also building a good team spirit by focusing on bringing in the 'right' kinds of personalities in my teams.

[AcidBurn]

Team talks are quite easy but can be annoying I just aggressively or assertively tell my team they are rubbish if we are losing and 9 times out of 10 it gets a positive reaction. End of the match if we lost I get angry, if we win I passionately tell them they did well. Trouble I have is at the start of a match, since the new patch team talks have become a bit harder and so has keeping top morale.

[B.W.G]

Fantastic opening,good luck at A.C. Giacomense

[SnakeXe]

I mostly follow what my assistant recommends for team talks, unless he's clearly talking rubbish. Which he does maybe once every four games, so it's not that bad. What I've really noticed through following my assistant's advice for team talks is that their different personalities actually matter. My current assistant is quite harsh and aggressive whilst the assistant I had when I joined Werder Bremen was quite mellow and would coax the players along.

Regarding the "Lessons in Calcio" theme, I've been having a similar sort of thought for how my thread could go after I'm finished with Arsenal. As a bit of a Bielsista in real life I was thinking I could head to South America as a sort of pilgrimage and hone an approach using his principles (always one more defender than the opposition have attackers, constantly looking to attack at a high tempo, un enganche y tres puntas (one playmaker and three runners essentially), using midfielders at centreback, etc), then come back to Europe and try to apply this approach there.

Good luck turning things around with the Grigiorossi

[crouchaldinho]

Team talks are quite easy but can be annoying I just aggressively or assertively tell my team they are rubbish if we are losing and 9 times out of 10 it gets a positive reaction. End of the match if we lost I get angry, if we win I passionately tell them they did well. Trouble I have is at the start of a match, since the new patch team talks have become a bit harder and so has keeping top morale.

Hopefully I enjoy them more than in the past.

I did okay with them on FM10 and had some big successes with them and not too many failures. But I think it was down to the fact that I had developed a system and found a pattern that worked more than anything.

Fantastic opening,good luck at A.C. Giacomense

Thanks!

I mostly follow what my assistant recommends for team talks, unless he's clearly talking rubbish. Which he does maybe once every four games, so it's not that bad. What I've really noticed through following my assistant's advice for team talks is that their different personalities actually matter. My current assistant is quite harsh and aggressive whilst the assistant I had when I joined Werder Bremen was quite mellow and would coax the players along.

Regarding the "Lessons in Calcio" theme, I've been having a similar sort of thought for how my thread could go after I'm finished with Arsenal. As a bit of a Bielsista in real life I was thinking I could head to South America as a sort of pilgrimage and hone an approach using his principles (always one more defender than the opposition have attackers, constantly looking to attack at a high tempo, un enganche y tres puntas (one playmaker and three runners essentially), using midfielders at centreback, etc), then come back to Europe and try to apply this approach there.

Good luck turning things around with the Grigiorossi

Definitely do that SnakeXe! That would be a fascinating twist to your career. I love that idea!

Interesting and also pleasing to know that your assistant's personality makes a difference. I'll be sure to work hard to find the right kind of assistant then!

I'm due to have a big catch up with your thread SnakeXe. In fact, I'm due to catch up with a number of threads really. When you aren't playing a lot of FM, you don't have the same motivation to read about it, although I have still enjoyed looking in occasionally and I always enjoy reading the careers forum even during periods where I don't play. But now I'm playing more, I will definitely catch up on my FMCU reading.

[abulezz]

Awesome stuff! This looks like an epic thread in the making

[roganp]

Love the opening posts. Good luck!

SnakeXe - I'm also a fan of "El Loco" and was thinking of implementing his philosophy into my save, but I think I will leave it for a separate career. It would be interesting to see if his ideas can work in FM.

[SnakeXe]

Definitely do that SnakeXe! That would be a fascinating twist to your career. I love that idea!

The more I think about it the more I can't wait to do it! Almost enough to quit Arsenal on the spot. Almost.

[SnakeXe]

SnakeXe - I'm also a fan of "El Loco" and was thinking of implementing his philosophy into my save, but I think I will leave it for a separate career. It would be interesting to see if his ideas can work in FM.

There's no reason why they shouldn't work, every decent tactic I've ever made on FM has been based on a real-life system. If I can't get it 100% perhaps I'll have to do a watered down version, because ultimately even Bielsa himself can compromise his philosophy (as he is doing at Athletic Bilbao), but I'm pretty confident of getting close.

Anyway, I'll stop thread-jacking!

[crouchaldinho]

Awesome stuff! This looks like an epic thread in the making

Cheers!

Love the opening posts. Good luck!

Thanks Roganp!

There's no reason why they shouldn't work, every decent tactic I've ever made on FM has been based on a real-life system. If I can't get it 100% perhaps I'll have to do a watered down version, because ultimately even Bielsa himself can compromise his philosophy (as he is doing at Athletic Bilbao), but I'm pretty confident of getting close.

Anyway, I'll stop thread-jacking!

You can always thread-jack so long as it's interesting stuff! My career threads usually get quite off topic at times anyway.

BTW, it has thrown me that the tactics creator is suggesting automatic roles for one of my midfielders every time. How long has it been like that? Not sure I agree with that change particularly either.

[SnakeXe]

I think the Automatic MC thing has been there since 2011. I always just change it to support, only ever use Auto for full/wingbacks.

[crouchaldinho]

I think the Automatic MC thing has been there since 2011. I always just change it to support, only ever use Auto for full/wingbacks.

Agreed. I'm going to do the same.

It definitely wasn't in FM10 anyway.

It seems like a strange choice to me but there we go!

Other than that, I'm quickly finding my way around the new FM. Not as much as I thought has actually changed with most stuff.

[HotChocolate]

Hoorah!

Good luck Crouchy, looking forward to this!

[AK22]

Good luck with this

I hope you can finally learn to love FM again. Things have moved on a bit since FM10, but once you've got used to the new stuff (not all of it is for the better though IMO!), it really is the same frustratingly addictive game deep down. It seems like you've got a decent enough plan laid out to keep your interest anyway, but FM12 is definitely worthy of a Crouchy save

[jaycar]

A new Crouchy thread!!!!! I'll be subscribing.

[dburns1993]

Thoroughly enjoyed your FM10 career with St. Alban's.

Hopefully this will be as exciting, albeit in a completely different type of game. Count me in as a follower.

Good luck.

[crouchaldinho]

I forgot to add my Twitter details.

Twitter for FM - http://twitter.com/Crouchy_SACFC

Twitter primarily for St. Albans City, Non-League and general football tweets - http://twitter.com/Daedalus1882

Steam profile - http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198046026468

I'm unsure if I will use YouTube yet. I have an account but I'm not sure if I will get around to posting anything so I'll leave it for now and let you know in the future if I do upload something.

I'll add this to the OP.

[Deisler26]

Hurrah! A new Crouchy thread! I see my time as the main Italian league thread has now passed!

Good luck in Italy!

[crouchaldinho]

Crouchy's 'Lessons in Calcio' Journeyman Save - Project 1: A.C. Giacomense (Season One at Benito Villani 2011/12)



Right, time for my first end of season report and it's not a good one from my point of view! I share my failures as well as my successes in my career threads and I'm afraid this career begins with failure.

As I mentioned before, I started as an unemployed Sunday League reputation manager and I took over at A.C. Giacomense in December with pretty much half of the season already gone. The team was on awful form in the league with extremely low morale and a threadbare squad. The club were in big trouble with 18 games gone. We were 19th out of 20 teams in the division with a pathetic 15 points on the board.

This was going to be an extremely major challenge but I felt that if I applied my usual principles, I would be successful and keep the club in the league. The main concern that I had was time. I felt that was going to be my major obstacle. It would take time for my vision to come to fruition and I would have to be patient. If there proved to be enough time, I felt that we would stay up.

Broadly speaking, these are my steps when in a relegation dogfight:

- Focus on bringing in experienced players with the right kind of mentality as a priority. In short, I'm looking for leaders on and off the pitch. I'd rather have a professional and experienced 35-year-old in decline than an 18-year-old star in the making who has the potential but not the experience and the consistency.

- Tighten things up at the back and concentrate on being hard to beat. Don't take any unnecessary risks. It may be boring but points are all that matters.

- Pack the midfield with hard working players.

- Never panic and always remain composed and calm, no matter what you might want to say to the players. A defeat isn't the end of the world but not quickly recovering from a poor performance certainly can be!

- Use the media and team talks carefully to take pressure off the players where possible.

- Keep the faith, keep things consistent and don't go changing too much at once.

Unfortunately, that last point is always an issue with me, as I like to immediately stamp my personality on any club that I take over. This can be quite stubborn and usually results in a poor opening period when I join a club, especially if I feel that I have to change a lot all at once, as I did here at Giacomense. It's a risk I like to take though.

Below, I'm posting up an image of the results we recorded after I took over at the club. I'll talk you through the results and my thoughts as we fought this relegation battle.



I had a game to play immediately on the day of my arrival at the club. I relied heavily on my coach (I had no assistant on arriving at the club) and tried to keep things simple tactically. I saw just how much we would have to do in order to improve as we were hammered at home to Bellaria.

During the transfer window in January, I was able to strengthen the team with about 10 signings. I'll detail more about them later on in this post. In terms of signings, it is enough to say here that I focused on improving an absolute shambles of a defence and in strengthening the midfield. It was also important to try to find a goalscorer as we were also lacking on that front. I then adopted a fairly rigid 4-1-3-2 formation with the emphasis on defence to try to get my side through the season. This seemed to be the best plan considering my lack of language skills, the extremely low morale, and the low gelling at the club. I built the tactic around creative striker, Luigi Scotto, who was my main hope in terms of the attack.

It was extremely slow going at first but the draw away to San Marino showed considerable promise straight away. This was the first clean sheet the club had kept for 12 matches. We followed this up with some good performances in which we had absolutely woeful luck in terms of getting the result. Late goals in all three games denied us at least 5 points. Indeed, we were 2-0 up against Alessandria and definitely should have beaten Rimini but luck wasn't with us. I was, however, not panicking just yet!

I was eventually rewarded for my faith with two consecutive 2-0 wins against Renate (home) and Valenzana (away). From this point onwards, we continued to improve and I thought that we had reached a real turning point when we recorded two more victories against Borgo a Buggiano (home) and Savona (away). These were two massive results and I felt that we would continue our climb to safety and attain the goal that I had set out with on joining the club.

A home defeat against Sambonifacese was probably where things went all wrong. We put in an extremely poor performance. But I also think a major factor in this turn in our fortunes was the loss of veteran striker Dani Calvo to injury. He would miss the last couple of months of the season and we didn't perform as well without him spearheading the attack alongside our main talent in Luigi Scotto. Scotto continued to play well but didn't have the partner that he needed and we suffered as a result.

Victory against Mantova along with creditable draws against some of the bigger sides in Pro Patria and Lecco were encouraging but, unfortunately, not enough to save us. Our fate was sealed with defeat against Virtus Entella.


My record with the club wasn't particularly terrible. In 19 games, we won 5 and drew 7. Had we kept up my average points tally over the course of the whole season, we would have finished in safety outside of the relegation play-out places. I did, however, fail in my objective and I'm disappointed that we dropped points on several occasions where a win could have made a massive difference.


Screenshots:

League Table
League Positions Graph

As you can see from above, I took over at the lowest point but didn't manage to steer us enough places back up the table to get to safety.

Italian Cup - did not enter.

Serie C Cup - knocked out before I took over.

Transfers

As you can see from above, I quickly moved to strengthen the team and bring in some quality to help the push for safety. The best signings were Max Tonetto (an experienced fullback who I picked as my new captain), Ludovic Clemente (a talented midfielder who became our most talented man in the middle of the park) and Dani Calvo (a veteran striker who scored a few big goals for us).

Not going to include the full squad details this time as there isn't really much to talk about in terms of taking the squad forward as I'm out of a job!


Key players:

Max Tonno - An experienced fullback with a model professional personality who became my choice for captain. We were unfortunate that he only managed 13 out of the remaining matches due to injury.

Ludovic Clemente - Another signing made by me. He was our best midfield player.

Luigi Scotto - By far the best player at the club both before and after I made new signings. Scored some vital goals but lacked the striker partner that I wanted for him for some of the second half of the season.

Dani Calvo - Experienced striker with an ambitious and professional attitude. Shame he only managed 12 games as he made a different when he did play. Got injured and missed the end of the season. We missed him when it really counted.


Career Overview:

Season    Team			League                   Position    Achievements/outcomes
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2010/11   A.C. Giacomense	Serie C2/A	         18th         (Took over after 18 games) Relegated

Next Season: Find a new job and learn Italian!

[Deisler26]

Aww, sucks Crouchy

At least, you didn't beat Santarcangelo

[crouchaldinho]

My A.C. Giacomense Record (2011 - 2012 [133 days]):

P 	W 	D 	L 	F	A	Win % 		Competitions Won
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
19	5	7	7	17	23	26%		None

[abulezz]

That's a rough start to your career but an awesome start to the thread Fantastic read!

[jackripper]

whooppp a crouchie thread, All we need now is an AB thread

[crouchaldinho]

Aww, sucks Crouchy

At least, you didn't beat Santarcangelo

Indeed! They did quite well.

Do you know what, it actually doesn't suck at all. I had tons of fun despite the outcome!

It does represent my first relegation in a career thread so I will grieve the loss of my excellent record on FMCU! It's also my first relegation on FM since FM08 (which also occurred in Italy's bottom division actually)!

But I really enjoyed the battle despite the disappointment of the ending. The Italian lower leagues are great for a relegation battle with the play-out zone and it being so easy to get trapped down there and so hard to find your way out!

I enjoyed the battle more than a title challenge. I was troubled by the fact that I never did get to apply all of my principles and I didn't make the signings I wanted to in order to build up one of my preferred tactical strategies. I paid the price for my own stubborn nature in trying to change everything at once (totally new staff, a number of new signings, new tactics etc.) but that's the way I usually play it. I do think that had I taken over a month earlier, we would have stayed up, but oh well!

Looking forward to the next challenge. My reputation has taken a slight battering and I'm getting rejected left, right and centre for jobs. I have a feeling that one of the newly promoted sides from Serie D will take me on though! That will represent another new and tough challenge in this difficult start to Lessons in Calcio!

[Deisler26]

Indeed! They did quite well.

Do you know what, it actually doesn't suck at all. I had tons of fun despite the outcome!

It does represent my first relegation in a career thread so I will grieve the loss of my excellent record on FMCU! It's also my first relegation on FM since FM08 (which also occurred in Italy's bottom division actually)!

But I really enjoyed the battle despite the disappointment of the ending. The Italian lower leagues are great for a relegation battle with the play-out zone and it being so easy to get trapped down there and so hard to find your way out!

I enjoyed the battle more than a title challenge. I was troubled by the fact that I never did get to apply all of my principles and I didn't make the signings I wanted to in order to build up one of my preferred tactical strategies. I paid the price for my own stubborn nature in trying to change everything at once (totally new staff, a number of new signings, new tactics etc.) but that's the way I usually play it. I do think that had I taken over a month earlier, we would have stayed up, but oh well!

Looking forward to the next challenge. My reputation has taken a slight battering and I'm getting rejected left, right and centre for jobs. I have a feeling that one of the newly promoted sides from Serie D will take me on though! That will represent another new and tough challenge in this difficult start to Lessons in Calcio!

Certainly, what I found, was that your starting team rep has a LOT to do with what players you can attract, my team rep didn't rise properly until Serie B, so a lot of the good castoffs from A&B rejected me early on. Next club you have, pump ALL your efforts into increasing your junior coaching. It's what saved my arse for years!

[crouchaldinho]

Project 2 - A.C. Mezzocorona

I jump straight back into management with the first club that'll have me! A.C. Mezzocorona will be my second project and let's hope it is more successful that the first. I will have a whole season here to prove myself and that, I hope, should make all of the difference.

A. C. Mazzocorona is located in Mezzocorona, Trentino, but they apparently play in Trento since the capacity of the stadium in Mezzocorona is less than the minimum required. Their colours are yellow and green.

Mazzocorona is located in northern Italy and has a population of 4,938. We play in the city of Trento, which has a population 115,243. I don't know what attendances to be expect but we have around 200 season ticket holders, so probably not that high! I'm starting out at another small club, clearly, so this will be another challenge to compete with the bigger sides to stay in the division.

This is the club badge:



I think the club is probably having one of the better periods of its history right now as they were crowned as winners at Serie D level in 2007. They were relegated from Serie C2 level in 2010/11 and have bounced straight back. My immediate job is clearly to survive and attempt to consolidate. Let's see how I get on this time!

The club nickname is Rotaliani. Does anyone know what this means in English?

They are predicted to finish in the relegation zone so I will have my work cut out again! But I'm looking forward to the challenge! Once again, I'm short of staff - in fact, I don't have any - so that will be the first priority. It looks as if we ship a lot of goals and that is the main issue to be resolved. We don't have much of a squad and so I'm going to have to do a lot of building to get a decent side together.

I still speak no Italian, apparently, so this challenge will remain a little harder until I develop some Italian language skills! The media have once again commented on my lack of Italian language skills and I would have thought the team will take longer to gel as a result. I think it's going to be a tough couple of months but it should be a good challenge and I feel more confident with a whole season ahead of me.

This time, I will post an initial pre-season update to give an indication of what I have done to prepare the team for a potentially long and arduous season!

[Nobby_McDonald]

Christ, Crouchy has got sacked in Italy! No dominance this time?

[SnakeXe]

Unlucky with Giacomense, should be easier to stamp your authority on the club with a full season to do so. Good start to the thread though, triumph through adversity is always a better tale!

[Romanista1994]

Good luck with Mezzocorona Crouchy, hopefully you'll do better with them than with Giacomense. I agree with SnakeXe that having a full season with a club can make a big difference to you chances.

The club nickname is Rotaliani. Does anyone know what this means in English?

It refers to the region they're based in.

[HotChocolate]

Unlucky with the relegation and sacking but good luck with your new club

[B.W.G]

Relegations is always an unwanted pain but maybe a full season will do you better,good luck with Mezzocorona

[AK22]

Not the best of starts, but you were always going to be facing an uphill battle! Better luck with team two

[crouchaldinho]

Hoorah!

Good luck Crouchy, looking forward to this!

Cheers HC!

[crouchaldinho]

Good luck with this

I hope you can finally learn to love FM again. Things have moved on a bit since FM10, but once you've got used to the new stuff (not all of it is for the better though IMO!), it really is the same frustratingly addictive game deep down. It seems like you've got a decent enough plan laid out to keep your interest anyway, but FM12 is definitely worthy of a Crouchy save

Thanks AK22. Hopefully I will find the love again. I'm enjoying it so far!

A new Crouchy thread!!!!! I'll be subscribing.

Cheers Jaycar.

[crouchaldinho]

Thoroughly enjoyed your FM10 career with St. Alban's.

Hopefully this will be as exciting, albeit in a completely different type of game. Count me in as a follower.

Good luck.

Thanks Dburns!

Hurrah! A new Crouchy thread! I see my time as the main Italian league thread has now passed!

Good luck in Italy!

I doubt that is true Deisler!

[crouchaldinho]

That's a rough start to your career but an awesome start to the thread Fantastic read!

Thanks Abulezz. A rough start indeed but things can only get better!

whooppp a crouchie thread, All we need now is an AB thread

Definitely. Come on AB, step up!

Christ, Crouchy has got sacked in Italy! No dominance this time?

Not sacked Nobby. I resigned!

Unlucky with Giacomense, should be easier to stamp your authority on the club with a full season to do so. Good start to the thread though, triumph through adversity is always a better tale!

Yes, I think so SnakeXe. And I think I'm already seeing the benefit of having a full pre-season with Mezzocorona as I've been able to put more of my vision into place before the season has even started. Hopefully that'll stand me in good stead for this season.

It refers to the region they're based in.

Thanks Romanista!

Maybe one day I'll get to manage Roma? You never know! I would like to!

[crouchaldinho]

Unlucky with the relegation and sacking but good luck with your new club

Cheers HC!

Relegations is always an unwanted pain but maybe a full season will do you better,good luck with Mezzocorona

I'm already feeling more positive with Mezzocorona. It's going to be tough as money is very tight but should be a fun challenge!

Not the best of starts, but you were always going to be facing an uphill battle! Better luck with team two

Cheers AK22!

[Romanista1994]

Maybe one day I'll get to manage Roma? You never know! I would like to!

You know I'd love to see that happen. Just stay away from the neighbours from out of town.

[crouchaldinho]

Project 2 - First season at A.C. Mezzocorona - Season 2012/13 Preview



With thanks to SnakeXe for the format, which I have pretty much shamelessly copied!

Board Expectations:
Lega Pro Seconda Divisione Girone B - Safe mid-table position (surprised by this as we are one of the smallest clubs in the league and predicted to struggle)
Coppa Italia Lega Pro - Learn from the experience

My Expectations:
Lega Pro Seconda Divisione Girone B - Safety and well clear of relegation danger
Coppa Italia Lega Pro - Really don't care and will treat this as if the matches are pre-season friendlies


Budgets:
Transfer - £0
Wages - £7,200/week (£10,000/week currently, will definitely need to cut this!)
Balance: -£170,000 (not good!)

Squad: The squad was threadbare when I joined so I've made a large number of signings without spending a penny. All free transfers with a few loans to fill in the gaps. We have one or two talented players but the rest are pretty average for the division. When trying to sign players, I was shocked by the number of free agents who wouldn't even talk to me due to my lowly reputation in the game. Two types of players would sign and those were either young players lowish on ability but with some potential or older players who were in decline and desperate to find a club for one more season in the game. I concentrated on bringing in the right kind of personalities for my team, looking for ambitious and hungry players or professionals and role models to lead the side.

Key Men:

Stefano Mondini - A strong technical player for this level and a good professional, so I'm hoping he'll be controlling things for us in the centre of the pitch.

Luca Righini - Young midfielder with good technique who I'll be hoping can do a good job for us in the middle of the park.

Fabio Artico - Experienced forward with plenty still to offer the club. He will be club captain and is a natural leader who will bring lots of experience and the right kind of mentality to my team. The one downside is that Artico will definitely need support in the form of another striker up front. I did plan to play one striker and go for my favoured 4-2-3-1 formation but this guy lacks pace and acceleration, so will definitely need a partner alongside him, I feel.

Many of our other players are very average, to be quite honest, so these guys will probably be the main key players for us this season. I do have confidence that we have good enough players to achieve the objective of staying safe this season.

Tactical approach:



I toyed with the idea of 4-2-3-1 but, as I mentioned above, I feel that the ageing Artico will definitely need a partner up front. I also thought of 4-3-1-2 but we don't really have the right kind of player to play in the hole effectively. In the end, I decided to start the season with a no nonsense 4-4-2. Righini will be key in the middle and Artico vital up front with the support of a partner in the shape of Andrea Mandorlini (a player who I also had on loan at Giacomense). It's a fairly basic 4-4-2 set-up with little to analyse but I'm looking for Artico to be the creative influence up front. We'll start with this system and see how things progress as the season gets started.

[Flamers]

How have I only just seen this. I feel like a should go and hide in a corner through shame. I sincerely apologise Mr Crouchy.

[crouchaldinho]

No worries Flamers! You might like to read the second post.

[Flamers]

Oh I have, it was. Umm... epic....

[crouchaldinho]

I'm loving the extra difficulty on FM12 when you start with a lower reputation. This feels different to FM10, anyway, so I'm pretty sure it's new. A lot of players won't talk to me about signing and my own players aren't motivated to play for me. Along with the low team gelling and the lack of Italian language skills, this is proving a great test for my Football Manager skills.

[crouchaldinho]

Oh I have, it was. Umm... epic....

I thought you'd appreciate it.

[Flamers]

Crouchy I can heartedly agree! I am slightly higher up than you but it's still hard to get them to play!

[Pangaea]

Great to see another Crouchy thread. Best of luck with this. See you got off to an excellent start too. Early relegations and sackings are great for any save.

Hope you return to the FM10 save one day too

[AcidBurn]

Not a good start but Mezzocorona have a much better sounding name. Good luck dude.

[Nobby_McDonald]

Not sacked Nobby. I resigned!

Quitter

[crouchaldinho]

We were already relegated so I was going to lose my job anyway, so I decided to resign before I was sacked! Save what little of my reputation I had left.

Anyway, on to brighter and better things now at A.C. Mezzocorona!

[SnakeXe]

You're welcome to ape my format as much as you like, sir

System looks pretty foolproof, perhaps a little lack of support for the strikers through the middle with both central midfielders remaining pretty deep, although that should give you a solid base. Plenty of 1-0s hopefully!

[rancer890]

I think we need to nominate that 2nd post as the 'Best Ever Post on the FMCU Forums' Award.

Good luck Crouchy. Will be following!

[Deisler26]

Something I've learned Crouchy is that is the starting wage for any staff is too high, just keep offering them your max wage without locking and eventually they agree!

[crouchaldinho]

Great to see another Crouchy thread. Best of luck with this. See you got off to an excellent start too. Early relegations and sackings are great for any save.

Hope you return to the FM10 save one day too

Thanks Pangaea. I'm definitely wanting to return to that FM10 save, don't you worry about it! I miss my mighty Saints team and, of course, Michel Vermeer especially!

I'm getting used to FM12 now and quite liking it so far but I must say that I had a quick look at the FM10 user interface the other day whilst I was copying some training schedules over and I think it looks much better in places. I miss the FM10 tactics screen, in particular.

I might have to search the skins part of the forum and see if anyone has produced a retro skin. Anyone recommend any skins for FM12?

Not a good start but Mezzocorona have a much better sounding name. Good luck dude.

Mezzocorona just sounds like some kind of awesome and exotic cigar to me!

You're welcome to ape my format as much as you like, sir

Thanks man. I thought you wouldn't mind.

And I'll probably take you up on that!

I want to do more succinct updates and I like your style in the pre-season report of getting information up so that people can glance over and get most of the main points easily without much effort.

System looks pretty foolproof, perhaps a little lack of support for the strikers through the middle with both central midfielders remaining pretty deep, although that should give you a solid base. Plenty of 1-0s hopefully!

Well - SPOILER ALERT - it's certainly working on the defensive front. If we're being stereotypical about Italian football then the Italian style is definitely working for my team! You'll have to wait for the winter break to see how we've been getting on.

Also, I should say that I do have a couple of options in the middle so I can bring in a more orthodox midfield if necessary.

[crouchaldinho]

I think we need to nominate that 2nd post as the 'Best Ever Post on the FMCU Forums' Award.

Good luck Crouchy. Will be following!

Thanks Rancer!

Something I've learned Crouchy is that is the starting wage for any staff is too high, just keep offering them your max wage without locking and eventually they agree!

Yes, I've found this out for myself and it has helped.

[City2000]

Tough start but good luck with Mezzocorona!

I like the idea of the simple but often effective 442, looks like you have a big squad aswell.

[crouchaldinho]

Tough start but good luck with Mezzocorona!

I like the idea of the simple but often effective 442, looks like you have a big squad aswell.

Yeah, the squad definitely needs trimming and it will be trimmed in January. I just went ahead and signed as many decent players with the right kind of mentality as I could.

I'll need to do some major trimming to cut the wage bill. Shouldn't be much of a problem though as I think I know my squad a lot better now and who is or isn't in my plans etc.

[SazoJohnno]

Good luck! Hope this is going to be a good save!

[crouchaldinho]

WINTER BREAK SUMMARY - Project 2: A.C. Mezzocorona season 2012/13:



As you can see, things have gone well at times and we're certainly quite hard to beat, keeping it tight at the back and recording plenty of clean sheets.

We kicked things off with the Coppa Italia Lega Pro. This took up the first four games of the season and I treated it very much as if it was a pre-season friendly competition. Although we lost three of the matches and only won one, I still felt pretty positive going into the league campaign. We weren't expected to progress in the cup and I wasn't really interested anyway as previously stated.

Our opening league fixture was the 2-0 win at home to Aquanera. A great start to the season. We wobbled a little bit afterwards but then quickly picked up four consecutive wins to push us up the table.

In November, our form began to stutter somewhat, and we began to drop points, losing matches or sometimes grinding out dull draws. It was during this period that we had injuries to the wide players and struggled to find adequate replacements within our squad. I experimented with the playing system, switching to 4-1-3-2, and the result was some inconsistent performances going into December.

Despite some disappointing results in the lead up to the winter break, I think we finished quite strongly and pulled our form back on course. We were able to grind out draws at home to Celano and away to Borgo a Buggiano, which seemed to pick up the confidence, and then we finished the year with a 3-1 win at home to Virtus Entella.

All in all, it has been quite positive and I'm pleased with how we've done. The squad is slowly gelling and I'm gradually rebuilding my reputation despite the fact that some of the squad still aren't motivated to play for me!



There have been a few changes to the squad during this period. I let a few players go in order to bring the wage bill down but also signed one or two players to increase options in the wide positions. The plan now is to go back to the 4-4-2, which seems to get the best out of key player and captain Fabio Artico.

From the current side, defender Errico Altobello has the best average rating and he has been a rock for us at the heart of the defence. He is definitely the main reason that our defensive record has been so good for the majority of the season.

I'm not quite getting what I want from creative midfielder Luca Righini. By that, I mean that I feel there is more to come. He did score one absolutely fabulous goal against Chieti in a 2-2 draw away from home. If I get the hang of the YouTube thing, I may well upload it at some point.

Up front, captain and veteran striker, Fabio Artico, is doing well but tends to fade in games and needs plenty of rest between matches. He is usually partnered by Andrea Mandorlini, who has hit 5 goals. The real surprise package has been super sub Mahammidy Futa Tennerielo, who has managed to hit 8 goals in the league. He has that combination of pace and acceleration, as well as finishing ability, which makes him a constant danger for us. He lacks the right kind of mental attributes so I tend to prefer starting with Mandorlini but Tennerielo has proved to be a good player to come off the bench for sure.



We go into the winter break in 10th place. We are three points off the play-offs and a decent distance from any danger. I'm quite content with this but I'm actually looking for more in the second half of the season. To finish top half is now the aim but if we can get any higher and break into the play-offs, that would be a massive bonus.

The management and the fans appear happy with my performance as manager thus far. We do need to try to play a more entertaining style of football though. The fans have complained about some dull performances and it's true that in some games I've gone out with the team set up to get a 0-0 or nick a 1-0. It's working okay but maybe I need to be a bit more adventurous at home in the second half of the season.

[SnakeXe]

Nicely poised for a playoff push! That run of 8 games where you only conceded 2 in October and the start of November is excellent.

[Deisler26]

Great job of stablising Mezzocorona!

[B.W.G]

Looking solid so far and not far off the playoffs either.

[Jonny-Dean]

Good luck mate (good result for st albans againts weymouth the other week theres only one Ian ridley!)

[HotChocolate]

SHOULD be able to avoid relegation this year

[roganp]

Looking good for a playoff push in the second half of the season. Good luck!

[Julije Cezar]

Nicely one start at Mezzocorona. It`s uberhard to secure newbie in Pro Seconda Divisione. But, you should be able. Non mollare mai, Crouchy. Subscribed.

P.S. If you want to manage in Rome, you should visit the "older" one.

[Shake Appeal]

Something I've learned Crouchy is that is the starting wage for any staff is too high, just keep offering them your max wage without locking and eventually they agree!

I've been having headaches with this. Thank you!

[deltablue]

You're definitely settling down to this.

[crouchaldinho]

Good luck! Hope this is going to be a good save!

Thanks SazoJohnno!

Great job of stablising Mezzocorona!

It's going better than expected so far.

Nicely poised for a playoff push! That run of 8 games where you only conceded 2 in October and the start of November is excellent.

Yes, that was pretty special. Everything seemed to just click nicely for that run. Another one like that in the second half of the season could see us pushing for a play-off place but I'm not going to get too excited as I think where we are now isn't a million miles away from our actual level really.

Looking solid so far and not far off the playoffs either.

Cheers.

Good luck mate (good result for st albans againts weymouth the other week theres only one Ian ridley!)

Grrrrr.

[crouchaldinho]

SHOULD be able to avoid relegation this year

Yeah, cheers for that.

Looking good for a playoff push in the second half of the season. Good luck!

Thanks Roganp. I'll keep pushing the players and we'll see where we end up.

[crouchaldinho]

Nicely one start at Mezzocorona. It`s uberhard to secure newbie in Pro Seconda Divisione. But, you should be able. Non mollare mai, Crouchy. Subscribed.

P.S. If you want to manage in Rome, you should visit the "older" one.

It does seem a tough challenge but I have the benefit of Mezzocorona having been at this level previously. So although they are newly promoted this season, they aren't new to the level, and I think that has made it a bit easier. But certainly, it has been a massive challenge to build pretty much a completely new team and to ride out the gelling period whilst picking up decent results.

I'm more likely to end up in Verona than in Rome but, if I do go to the capital, I'm afraid it might not be to your tastes.

You're definitely settling down to this.

Trying my best Deltablue.

I have mixed feelings about FM12 so far. On the one hand, I'm enjoying quite a lot about it and it's actually nice for me to come to the game without feeling like an 'expert' in all areas as I have with most previous versions. I'm having to learn a little as I play. The increased difficulty when starting at the bottom with a low reputation is something I really like and I have to say that there are some new features and bits and pieces that have been polished that get my approval. On the other hand, there are some minor annoyances. I'm not keen on the match preparation which feels to me a bit 'gamey' and superficial. I'm not really a fan of the new team talk options either. I don't like the UI in areas and can't understand why they changed things so much from FM10, which really worked well as far as I am concerned. Some screens, I'm thinking to myself, 'why is that there' etc. and it's not a matter of just getting used to it as I have been playing on FM12 for quite a while now. The tactics screen is horrible and probably one of the most negative things for me. As a tactical tweaker, it's a screen I want to spend a lot of time on, but the looks and layout put me off.

Enough with the negativity though. I think maybe I'm a little unfair in a way because I am comparing with my favourite version of the series in FM10, which I just thought was fantastic, even though it too has its flaws.

In general, I'm enjoying FM12, and I hope that it'll only get more enjoyable as my career progresses.

[Pangaea]

I have mixed feelings about FM12 so far. On the one hand, I'm enjoying quite a lot about it and it's actually nice for me to come to the game without feeling like an 'expert' in all areas as I have with most previous versions. I'm having to learn a little as I play. The increased difficulty when starting at the bottom with a low reputation is something I really like and I have to say that there are some new features and bits and pieces that have been polished that get my approval. On the other hand, there are some minor annoyances. I'm not keen on the match preparation which feels to me a bit 'gamey' and superficial. I'm not really a fan of the new team talk options either. I don't like the UI in areas and can't understand why they changed things so much from FM10, which really worked well as far as I am concerned. Some screens, I'm thinking to myself, 'why is that there' etc. and it's not a matter of just getting used to it as I have been playing on FM12 for quite a while now. The tactics screen is horrible and probably one of the most negative things for me. As a tactical tweaker, it's a screen I want to spend a lot of time on, but the looks and layout put me off.

Enough with the negativity though. I think maybe I'm a little unfair in a way because I am comparing with my favourite version of the series in FM10, which I just thought was fantastic, even though it too has its flaws.

In general, I'm enjoying FM12, and I hope that it'll only get more enjoyable as my career progresses.

As you have probably figured out by now FM10 is my favourite version of the game too. At least since the perfection (at the time) of CM 01/02.

I have played some FM12 too, however, and the tactic re-shuffle was probably my biggest annoyance with it. I understand why they changed it, but I don't like it. It is much better (for seasoned/pro users) in FM10 because I can do everything I want in one screen, and I can easily compare what is changed by different instructions by having the team instructions on one side and player instructions on the other. I'm not sure, but don't think you can compare like that in FM12.

Out of interest, what don't you like about the new team talks?

I've not played it enough to know for sure, but a worry I had was that it would just be too much micromanagement and at the end of the day won't really mean all that much. Don't know if that's how it panned out, but having to potentially go through those expanding boxes for several players 50 times a season doesn't appeal a great deal to me.

Didn't like the split in the teams either as I preferred to have all the tabs and sub-teams in one place. Overall there is more mouse clicking now, and I really hate that. Then there is the non-working back button which is a rant in itself.

There are some good changes too of course, but being steam exclusive is not the only reason I didn't buy FM12.

[crouchaldinho]

Okay guys, a challenge for you coming up!

Guess the score:

[ManUTactician247]

1-0 to you?

[crouchaldinho]

As you have probably figured out by now FM10 is my favourite version of the game too. At least since the perfection (at the time) of CM 01/02.

FM10 is definitely my favourite version and the one I have probably put the most hours into. CM2, CM01/02, CM03/04, FM07 and FM08 all have special memories associated with them too.

FM10 is a great game though and one of the best SI have produced in my opinion. I still have it installed and will probably continue to play it in the future. There are so many things that I like about it, although as I said above, I know it isn't without its flaws.

I have played some FM12 too, however, and the tactic re-shuffle was probably my biggest annoyance with it. I understand why they changed it, but I don't like it. It is much better (for seasoned/pro users) in FM10 because I can do everything I want in one screen, and I can easily compare what is changed by different instructions by having the team instructions on one side and player instructions on the other. I'm not sure, but don't think you can compare like that in FM12.

When I load FM10 up now, I'm struck by how much I like how it looks and how everything seems quite intuitive but then I guess that happens with a game when you put so many hours into it!

The tactics screen on FM12 is a pet hate for me. I don't like how it looks, it doesn't seem very intuitive and it's not 'tweak friendly' in my opinion. I used to be able to switch the screens I wanted so easily on the FM10 version but now I can't do it the same way. The different way to switch between team instructions and player instructions, as you mention, is inferior to the FM10 way. That's just my opinion of course but I just don't like it.

Out of interest, what don't you like about the new team talks?

I've never been a big fan of them, to be honest. On FM10, I worked out what the various phrases really meant and I felt pretty confident in saying roughly what I wanted on it. It was a flawed system on FM10 though and an annoyance on that version too, so don't get me wrong. FM12 adds so many more options and, again, some of them don't mean what I think they do! I'm having to learn the phrases and what to associate them with once more. It's not terrible, I suppose, but I've always just found it a 'gamey' part of FM. It seems quite ambiguous half of the time and it has always been that way. I didn't think further ambiguity was needed though! I might be alone on this but those are my thoughts on team talks.

I've not played it enough to know for sure, but a worry I had was that it would just be too much micromanagement and at the end of the day won't really mean all that much. Don't know if that's how it panned out, but having to potentially go through those expanding boxes for several players 50 times a season doesn't appeal a great deal to me.

It's not too bad, to be honest. I'm playing in a similar style to the way that I did on FM10. It's the same game under the hood. I will say that there does seem to be a whole heap of new information in your face on a constant basis and they have added more things to consider and think about. As someone who pretty much skipped a version (I own FM11 but hardly played it), it did feel strange trying FM12. The familiarity wasn't there and there is a whole bunch of information in your face straight from the off. New features are badly explained in the manual and some additions seem to be there for the sake of it. Again, just my opinion on picking up the new game.

Didn't like the split in the teams either as I preferred to have all the tabs and sub-teams in one place. Overall there is more mouse clicking now, and I really hate that. Then there is the non-working back button which is a rant in itself.

Another thing I'm not keen on. I've got used to it now but I still can't honestly see why they thought this was better than what we had on FM10. But that's just me!

I think if someone developed a retro skin or an FM10 style skin, I would download it straight away tbh! Maybe I should check the skinning section!

FM10 was one of the few versions of the game that I never tried a different skin on at all. That dark default skin was pretty much perfect for me.

There are some good changes too of course, but being steam exclusive is not the only reason I didn't buy FM12.

Yeah, there are some good changes and hopefully I've included some of them above. I'm very aware that I'm hugely biased towards FM10 as my favourite version. I'm also very bad with change so I can be quite negative when something that I like gets modified or whatever. So those caveats should always been taken into consideration when reading my opinions, especially on FM, which I am particularly nerdy about.

As I said above, despite some moans I am enjoying FM12, and I hope that it'll only get more enjoyable as my career progresses!

[crouchaldinho]

1-0 to you?

You got it! Great guess!

How did you guess that?

[AcidBurn]

According to GD games like that only happen to us and not the AI. If you believe half the people in there we have 1,456,324 clear cut chances in a match and lose.

Not having a go but why are screenshots so small? my eyes are not good but a full screenshot always looks small to me.

[crouchaldinho]

According to GD games like that only happen to us and not the AI.

Indeed!

I couldn't really believe it. My team were terrible on this occasion and the opposition should have beaten us comfortably. Last few minutes, a wildly deflected shot goes in for an own goal and we hold on to secure the points despite now having a shot on target!

Not having a go but why are screenshots so small? my eyes are not good but a full screenshot always looks small to me.

To be honest, I think the same thing. I'm not sure how to change it, so if you have any knowledge to share, let me know. I'm using Photobucket, if that makes any difference? Just using the standard [img] code tags.

I right-click on the image and go to view to make it a bit bigger. I would rather have bigger screenshots though, so if anyone knows how I can fix it, please let me know guys. Thanks in advance.

[AcidBurn]

I have no idea, I should have been clearer and said all screenshots in all threads are like this for me. I tried resizing and all sorts and it just didn't work.

I didn't notice the 0 on shots on target lol. Surely not many people have that accomplishment.

[crouchaldinho]

I should surely have got a Steam achievement!

Yeah, the screenshot sizes suck. I just right-click and view that way, which gives a slightly bigger image.

[AcidBurn]

I should surely have got a Steam achievement!

Yeah, the screenshot sizes suck. I just right-click and view that way, which gives a slightly bigger image.

That needs to be in for FM13!

[ManUTactician247]

You got it! Great guess!

How did you guess that?

You had no shots on target, so my awesome logic decided that you scored! I was right .

[Pangaea]

I have no idea, I should have been clearer and said all screenshots in all threads are like this for me. I tried resizing and all sorts and it just didn't work.

I didn't notice the 0 on shots on target lol. Surely not many people have that accomplishment.

If you right-click and click View picture info (in firefox) you'll see that the forum resizes images to 800 pixels width. It makes reading some threads easier, but it's annoying for us because it makes all normal FM screenshots fuzzy because even with the smallest windowed size, FM screenshots are 1024x800 pixels.

You can move around this by Photshopping the image a little to make it more narrow (800 pixels or less), that way it will be more focused. I've done that on a few pictures in my thread, but it's a bit of a drag, especially when I need to reshift stuff and not just cut off the right edge.

Don't think anything can be done about it bar manually making the pictures 800 pixels or less unfortunately. It's a forum software setting thing that we can't do anything about on the user-end to my knowledge.

In general I think the FM12 screenshots look more fuzzy though. Maybe because the text is smaller and it then gets relatively worse than the FM10 ones?

[Pangaea]

I will say that there does seem to be a whole heap of new information in your face on a constant basis and they have added more things to consider and think about.

<snip>

As I said above, despite some moans I am enjoying FM12, and I hope that it'll only get more enjoyable as my career progresses!

FM10 is a really wonderful game. Definitely my favourite in the FM series. It's so smooth on the eyes and everything is intuitive as you say. I use the light skin though, but I've never felt a need to change the skin. They really got it spot on

This extra information is great in one way, but as I'm a player that prefer to just whizz through when I've got my team set up the way I like it, all that extra micromanagement is not really to my liking. Team meetings, player talks, assy agents, more advanced team talks. It all takes time, while I just want to get to the next game and the next season. This is one of the reasons I like FM10 so much. You basically have everything you need, but you aren't "forced" to do all these other things to get reasonably successful. It's not possible to go through season like on CM01/02, but now when I play with commentary only seasons are fairly quick. Or they would be if I didn't spend so much time checking statistics, records, other teams, my own players all the time!

I'm sure you'll enjoy the game more as you go along and get more devoted to your club and career. That's one of the great things about FM that it'll be hard to remove, either by accident or intent. The game sucks you in like a moderately sized black hole.

[Flamers]

I think that 1024 is the best width, or close to it. I try and have mine 1000-1024 pixels wide