FM16 The Sammarinese Challenge.

[Jimbokav1971]

I had a stadium built in 2026 so I'm not in a position to test things on FM14 and I can't find anything I have mentioned about it, (was sure I had mentioned it somewhere).

[Jimbokav1971]

I'm going to post some pics of the squad ranked by PA and also separated into various positions. Please be aware that some players will appear on more than 1 list and just because they are on a particular list does not mean that they are actually any good at playing in that position.

GK's (ranked by PA).

This area is has obviously seen huge improvement in this intake, not just in PA, but also in personality. The one slight negative is that I actually don't like the overall attribute balance of the new player (21d) Mirko (F.Pro).

DL's (ranked by PA).

Longo has been our 1st choice left-back since the start of the save and is a player I really like, but he only has 15 months left on his contract and is un-willing to enter into negotiations with regards to a new one, so the chances are he will be leaving on a free at the end of next season and I will need to have a replacement lined up by then. My back-up left-back has been 23yo Neri, (who was one of the players I brought back to the club), but new Youth player (21a) Corrado looks like a better player to me and I like his attribute balance.

So while neither our CA nor our PA improves with this intake in this position, it is actually a really vital position to strengthen depth in so that at the end of next season I have someone to either back-up Neri, (or vice versa).

DR's (ranked by PA).

This is next on my list for improvement and if I'm honest I was hoping for something in this position this year. While Corrado can obviously play there, he is actually a left-back, (and is needed there). (19e) Marino is developing well and is just starting to look good enough for the position now, (after initially looking more like a short useless centre-half). (19e) Borelli actually looks really decent already and I have high hopes of him despite the slightly lower CA/PA ratings.

DC's (ranked by PA).

Although (21f) Luca doesn't look great, again he adds depth and I'm very aware that especially in this position we seem to have a bit of a larger gap between the CA of our best players in this position, and their PA. It's all well and good ranking players by PA and saying "this is how good they can be", but if the reality is that they are currently nowhere near that level in terms of CA, well then that's an issue. It might not always be an issue, (and I certainly hope not), but certainly is in this position at the moment.

DM's & MC's (ranked by PA).

This position is my single biggest area of concern. Pennisi is the best player at the club and his contract is about to expire and he will be leaving on a free. We have nobody anywhere near his level of CA and after he goes we will really down to the bare bones with 4 players, (Maggi, Tosi, Rorizzizzo & Di Rosa) covering 3 positions. That;s just enough when you factor in injury, suspension and fatigue. I am properly desperate for a decent DM or MC to come through next season now.

ML's & AML's (ranked by PA).

Another area that needs improvement I'm afraid. Although it looks like we have a few options here, quite a few of them are not best suited to playing wide left. Maggi is better centrally, Ricci is more of an AMC, (but I am trying to change that), Ciacci is better at AMC, Vitaioli is better on the right or up front, and the others are all PA and not much CA.

MR's & AMR's (ranked by PA).

Contrastingly, the right flank is actually a real area of strength. Looking at this now, it probably means that Rosti, (although a righty), will probably feature more often on the left.

AMC's (ranked by PA).

Although this isn't a position that I currently use, with such a shortage of DM's and MC's, we could have to utilise them at some point. Zavoli is the only player really in contentionm though.

SC's (ranked by PA).

We are not scoring enough goals for sure, but I'm not really sure is that because of the strikers or the service that they aren't getting. I suppose that the truth is a bit of both. I'm not overly concerned with the strikers though and I would much rather the best player of next years intake be a centre-half or even a wide left player.

[Wynters]

Hey all, just wondering if there's a file for the Serie D that's been put out yet? If not I'll most likely just go from a 2017 file.

[col_nufc1]

[h=2][/h]

San Marino Calcio 2020/21 Season Review

Serie A Table

Results 1

-

Results 2

Serie A Player Stats

Transfers

The Squad

Season Awards

Player Of The Season

Guido Turano

Top Goalscorer

Mohamed Soumaré

Finances

My Thoughts

We have survived our first season in Serie A but only just, we were sitting quite comfortable in mid table until we went on a really poor run of form and only won one of our last ten games to set up a tense last game of the season. Udinese were away to run away champions Juventus and we were at home to Fiorentina, we both lost us 1-0 and Udinese 4-1 so we will be playing in the Italian top flight again next season.

No surprises that Guido Turano won the player of the season for the fourth year in a row, I don't think any player on any version of Football Manager has ever won four player of the season awards in a row for me. I really wish that players could gain San Marinese nationality after five years like most other countries because I'd love him to play for the national team as he's got no chance of getting capped for Italy.

Mohamed Soumaré was our top goalscorer this year with 11 goals but for some reason I don't really like him, I don't know why either and there's a good chance that he'll be sold if we can get a decent transfer fee for him.

The board announced that a new 15,000 stadium is going to get built and will be completed in December 2023. Why on Earth didn't the board decide to build a bigger stadium

, I just hope that it's got a good expansion for the future.

Youth Candidates

For the first time in this save we have got a player that could turn into a very nice player in

Luca Bacciocchi

but he won't get much game time because he plays the same position as Guido Turano. Unfortunately he has dual nationality and he is rejecting call ups to the San Marino national team

. The other two players that look decent are

Alfredo Foti

and

Mirco Vannucci

.

[dan_lcfc]

Wow, your really flying through the years col_nufc1. Great achievement staying up. The new stadium is good news, although 15,000 does seem on the small side. Have you managed to get any facility upgrades at all?

Turano has been a steal for you! Is there any reason in particular he is getting such good ratings? With no goals and only two assists, he's done very well to average 7.15 with the way that ratings work on FM

[dan_lcfc]

Its a miracle!

[dan_lcfc]

I may have found the reason Im not scoring from DFKs. We are not shooting from them when in shooting range. Have I missed an option somewhere to get players to shoot??

[Jimbokav1971]

Hey all, just wondering if there's a file for the Serie D that's been put out yet? If not I'll most likely just go from a 2017 file.

I have just looked on Steam for you.

Charmander has created a "Serie D" file called [h=1]Italian Serie D Lega Nazionale Dilettanti[/h]ItItalian Serie D Lega Nazionale Dilettantialian Serie D Lega Nazionale Dilettanti

vp_silver1 has created a Serie A, B, C, D & E file called ItItalia - Serie A,B,C,D,Ealia - Serie A,B,C,D,E

Be careful though because there seems to be some finance issues mentioned.

[leonavich]

Great job in staying up. If this is anything like past challenges, once you can survive in Serie A the first year, you should get enough financial boost to survive the coming years as the Serie B teams tend to have quite a gap in ability from Serie A sides in the early years.

[leonavich]

FM14 2042 World Cup Pre Tournament

San Marino go into the competition as the reigning holders and second in the world, but the bookies have them at quite low odds, coming in at 20-1 and only being an outside the chance.

Favourites are Both Spain and Italy, followed by the Germans, while hosts Portugal are also considered an outside shot, leaving it an expected all European affair.

We came of a Confederations Cup win, so have experience and the results in Portugal, so our own expectations were high. Our group also looked relatively easy so I was not concerned about progression to the second round, however that is where I was worried, as we would most likely come across one of the heavy hitters in the competition.

Our group was to consist of Bulgaria (24), Costa Rica (15th) and Ivory Coast (29)

To prepare, we decided to challenge teams similar to that of the Ivory Coast and Costa Rica, fully expecting them to be our toughest competition in the group stages and the most toughest to predict.

The matches were a bit tougher than I expected. We struggled to dispatch a resilient Ghana side, While we failed to beat Tunisia, settling for a 2-2 draw in a match we were swarmed in the midfield out wide with wingers.

We started to find our rhythm against Nigeria and with an almost full starting side fielded, I was happy with the result. We went with the rotation squad in the match against Senegal and picked up a good win, which told me a whole lot of good things about our depth.

Though not as strong as other contending sides, we have ability in just the right places to remain competitive. Our bench has always been the weakest of points, but I was confident I could roll out a second team in either the second or third group match to keep our players as fit as possible for the knockout stages.

FM14 2042 World Cup Tournament Squad

The days of Mularoni and a wing based team have gone, and we now need to look at our newer strengths. As a result, we have decided to go with a 4-1-3-1-1 line up, utilising our stronger defensive side and lack of fire power with Mularoni struggling for form at the ripe old age of 35.

The squad is very midfield based, and as a result, there is a large number of the squad that can play across the midfield. We are quite weak on the wings, and have focused our defensive efforts on our central ability as we tend to break through the middle a lot and require our most depth here.

[Wynters]

I have just looked on Steam for you.

Charmander has created a "Serie D" file called [h=1]Italian Serie D Lega Nazionale Dilettanti[/h]ItItalian Serie D Lega Nazionale Dilettantialian Serie D Lega Nazionale Dilettanti

vp_silver1 has created a Serie A, B, C, D & E file called ItItalia - Serie A,B,C,D,Ealia - Serie A,B,C,D,E

Be careful though because there seems to be some finance issues mentioned.

Thanks, I caught both as I went through the workshop first but as you said they both had financial issues so didn't go for either. Think I'll just load up from 2017 and see how it turns out, thanks for looking though

[leonavich]

FM14 2042 World Cup Group Stages

vs. Costa Rica (15)

We expected a fast paced match and were proved right as Costa Rica came out and played a very high line and very quick, short passing game.

They almost got the better of us early, but we managed to steady the ship with some very good defending and tackling from our deep midfielder, Ceccoli. The Inter man tackled his socks off, and we managed to take a counter opportunity after 27 minutes, with one of his tackles and quick balls up field to a pacey Zafferani to beat the Costa Rican high line.

We caught them off guard and the placed shot trickled passed the keeper to give us a 1 goal lead midway through the first half.

We kept an even game for the remainder of the half, and really focused on shutting down their play makers, as they continuously shot wide from long range, unable to penetrate our solid defensive line.

The second half proved a bit of a fiery encounter as Costa Rica looked to break us and we reacted somewhat, taking a few tackles a bit too aggressively, resulting in some unnecessary yellow cards. We took a bit more control in the second half as Costa Rica wore down, our superior fitness playing a telling role as we started to retain possession and knock the ball about. There was no change to scoreline as the whilste sounded, 1-0 a fair result and one we deserved I feel. I was happy with the performance and that put us in a good position for progression should we get a result in our next match verse the Ivory Coast.

Other Results: Bulgaria 1 - 1 Ivory Coast

vs. Ivory Coast (29)

We were out muscled all game to be honest. Ivory Coast came out and dominated us with their strength and pace, and our fitness proved to not stand up well against them in such conditions.

They played cleanly though, which was also all the more frustrating, as their larger players where able to easily disposes us. One such incident occurred just 15 minutes into the game and Diarra was able to easily remove his marker to make space for a comfortable shot on goal. Canini was not able to save it and early on we went down 1-0.

Frustration played out on our side as we started to perform some silly passes and some poor challenges to try and work our way back into the game, but we could not break them as we went into the half down 1-0 and struggling to get a foot into the game.

The second half had a swing of fortune as we started to find a good period of passing after the break, to keep their men away from the ball.

This lead to a nice bit of movement around their box, which resulted in a lazy challenge and a very sloppy penalty being awarded to us. Canini stepped up a struck it away from the keeper, to the left to level the scores.

The penalty cause the games aggression to rise and Ivory Coast felt it was a soft penalty which may change the tide of the game and let us know it with a few rough tackles and pushes.

The ref was playing all, and let a few of them go until a scuffle around the 60th minute mark led to a yellow for either side, as Stefanelli cleaned up one of their players and they reacted through a poor challenge of their own.

2 more yellows followed and the ref pulled the captains to the side to have a word. Red was looking imminent for someone, and Ceccoli was already missing the third match due to his second yellow in 2 games.

I decided to rest a few players and try to hold the draw as this meant we virtually had progression should results go our way. We finished the game off at a much slower speed and quite deep, so the final 15 minutes were a bore as the game petered out to a 1-1 stalemate.

Other Results: Bulgaria 4 - 0 Costa Rica - Not the result we wanted or expected. This means that we need to win to guarantee progression or hope that Costa Rica get a result against Ivory Coast to confirm progression

vs. Bulgaria (24)

This was a very tactical game, between two teams unsure of their progression, were a draw could be enough for both should results go their way, or it could send them home.

For Bulgaria, their for and against had them safe with a draw, as long as they did not lose. We on the other hand, required a win if Costa Rica lost, giving Ivory Coast 5 points.

With that in mind, we went a little more attacking to open proceedings, but still played a very cautious game. A few times early, Bulgaria countered, but they too kept fairly strict to their formation and didn't commit too much on their attack either.

With both teams chipping away, one eye was kept on the other match being run at the same time between Costa Rica and Ivory Coast.

We had a flutter as we noticed the score tick over... 1-0 to Ivory Coast just 12 minutes into their game. This meant a draw would not be enough should the scores remain the same, so our tactical brains started to shift into second gear as we assessed the situation.

Bulgaria too, noticed the score change and almost instantly stepped a foot on the breaks. We noticed as we got caught off guard but their counter was slow and not committed, resulting in a very timid attempt, to our joy, as it was really a fantastic chance.

We capitalized on their lack of attack, by pushing our DM up and going with 2 attackers. the shifting confused their midfield as we had more men up the pitch and some how, Zafferani found himself open between the defense and midfield. He dribbled it, drawing in the defensive line, and found Mularoni making a wonderful overlap and cutting in down the left side. He whipped it in as a somewhat lofted through ball to catch Mularoni inside the box at the near post, where he slotted home before the keeper could react. 1-0 and the tide swung as Bulgaria realized they now needed to peg one back or they were out themselves!

They changed their own gears and came at more intently, which worked out well for us as a counter attacking gold mine. We sat back and waited for mistakes and one eventuated as Vanucci was gifted a long ball from a cross. One on one and 2-0 it became as the half ended 5 minutes later.

Ivory Coast notched their lead to 2-0 also, which meant Bulgaria had a do or die attitude early in the second. The pressure was easily dissipated and we seemed quite comfortable until we got caught being complacent 10 minutes into the second half. Bulgaria struck with some lazy defending letting them slip through, and despite Canini's best efforts, the deflected save was gotten to first as the defense was just not first to the ball, allowing Bulgaria back in the game.

I made some earlier than usual changes and shifted our gears to better prepare for the mass Bulgaria attack that was expected and though it came in waves, there was nothing more for us to really contend with.

The game got drawn out as Bulgaria tired and by the final 10 minutes, there was not much attack form either side. Bulgaraia made a few ore spiritied shots from deep, but the game closed a thrilling 2-1 win for us as we progressed first on 7 points. Ivory Coast won their match to come through in second place behind us on 5, whilst Buglaria go out unluckily on 4. Costa Rica end up with 0 in what was a disappointing campaign for them.

Other Results: Costa Rica 0 - 2 Ivory Coast - Could of been dangerous had Bulgaria got an equaliser, but the result did not matter to us in the end as we took all 3 points in our crunch game.

[leonavich]

FM14 2042 World Cup 2nd Round Knockout

We knew we would face a daunting challenge, but we did not expect the choices....

The draw had us facing either first or second in group H

This meant either Italy.... Or Germany...

However you see it, it was a very tough game for us to have to play. The draw decided to give us a replay... We got Germany. The media was pitting a rematch of the final, we were pitting a defensive game like never before as revenge was likely to be their primary motive.

vs. Germany (3)

Ranked Third in the World, Germany wanted to 1 up us and it was obvious from the get go. It was obvious after the first 5 minutes that we would be under extreme pressure all game.

I decided to change things a little and put a 4 man backline, with 3 defensive midfielders, one attacking midfielder and 1 striker. The result... Park the bus a hoof it long.

Not pretty but it seemed necessary after having to weather 4 shots in just 5 minutes.

There seems to be a knack to these changes, as right after the changes came in, we had the perfect opportunity to flex the theory. Germany took their 6th shot in just under 10 minutes only for Canini to save it with a palm that led to it going out, wide of the box. The play moved over the right corner of the field and the German passed backward trying to center, only finding a blue shirt in his way. The ball was belted up long finding Vanucci, who held it up enough to thread it through for Cecchetti. 1 chance, 1 shot, 1 GOAL!

This obviously upset The Germans, but not the fans who loved the quickness at which the game turned.

They peppered chances all half, but on each occasion they had to be careful not to let our only two front men break them, as we once again had a fantastic change just before the half to make it 2-0, only for Vanucci to miss an open goal.

The half time stats read a pretty one sided game. 14 shots to 2 and 60% possession to the Germans.

I had no care for that though. I was focusing on keeping the wall solid and the goals out.

Similar to the Bulgaria game however, we had a lapse and it made my heart sink as Germany weaseled their way into the box and blasted home to make it 1-1 only 10 minutes into the second half.

It seemed like Deja vu, only this time we were well and truly clinging on for life. Germany continued to pepper and Madlung should have really scored again had it not been for a questionable offside call (I just want to know how you can be offside with 10 players practically behind the ball!)

We continued to play the counter attack game, and it resulted in us earning a corner from another great chance that was spurned by Cecchetti. I was biting my nails down to the bone, just waiting for the second German goal to come, but the referee had other ideas and game what some would deem a very very soft penalty.

As the cross came in, there was some bustling, but nothing looked out of the ordinary, until the whistle blew. At first, I thought it was just a free kick to Germany, as is the way with penalty box grabbing, but the German players surrounded the referee as i realized the protesting was for a penalty that had been awarded.

Before I had a chance to hand it to a better taker, Canini ran up the pitch and put the ball on the spot. I tried with all my might (and button clicking ability) to change it from Canini to Vanucci, but he wasn't having any of it... so I looked on, praying he wont miss it...

76 minutes in and GOOOOOAAAAAL - Canini struck his second goal of the tournament to give us an unbelievable 2-1 lead with just under 15 minutes left.

The shot went just to left of the keeper, not nearly enough I would of though, but just enough to beat him and ripple the net.

The final 15 minutes was almost entirely in our half and I watched on through closed hands as Germany looked for the goal to take us into extra time. The goal never came, though it really should of as they got into fantastic positions but their shooting just went wayward in the final 5 minutes.

We lifted our arms aloft. It was not the final, but it may very well be the game that gets us there again - But first we likely need to beat Spain, who we are expecting to face in the next round.

In other news, Mexico Beat Spain 3-1! The 17th ranked side has given us a much easier game and one I am confident of winning

[leonavich]

FM14 2042 World Cup Quarter Final

Mexico did us a huge solid by beating Spain. 2 huge upsets and this World Cup was thrown wide open.

We now need to be careful of the player who has been on fire for us at club level, as I face Navarro for the first time on an opposing side.

vs. Mexico (17)

Ariagga struck virtually from the first play from the kick-off and put us on the back foot instantly. We needed to be a lot quicker to the ball, so I packed up the midfield and played shorter passes to speed up the tempo to a pace we were good with.

This worked early in the half, until Mexico figured us out and started to close our channels. While this seemed like a bad thing, it worked out well as Zafferani was forced into dribbling from deep, making a great run and managing to deceive a few players in his wake.

He took a stab from a fair way out, catching the keeper of guard and GOOOOAAAAL, the scored were level at 1-1.

From here, Mexico took the reigns of the half again but lacked the finishing touches as we tried to stack our defense to hold out until the break. We looked pretty solid, but showed some signs of cracking as we tired toward the end of the 45 minutes. as the clocked ticked over, Mexico caught us on the flank and found space behind our defense to whip the ball into the net and make it 2-1 right on the half time whistle.

We were down and I tried to relay my message on to the team, but we struggled to pick our game up, as the second half took off.

Mexico looked far superior as we struggled to keep pace, but as always, we found a way to stay in the match, as Ceccoli won a penalty on the edge of the area. Canini stepped up and struck it well to level the scores at 2-2 after 60 minutes. The match dragged on in the final third of the match as both sides started to tire, though Mexico missed a few golden chances to put the game away.

No one was able to break the dead lock and the 90 minutes passed, taking us into extra time.

As extra time began, we once again got broken early, this time via a through ball to Rendon, and try as we might, we struggled to really create any further chances to level the scores again.

As time ran low, it was our club man Navarro that proved the final blow, scoring right before the final whistle to end the game at 4-2.

We pushed them to extra time, but our luck run out as Mexico went home 4-2 winners

Italy progress 1-0 over Greece, while the host nation Portugal keep their Cup alive. Argentina are the 4th team to progress to the Semi Finals

[Jimbokav1971]

Thanks, I caught both as I went through the workshop first but as you said they both had financial issues so didn't go for either. Think I'll just load up from 2017 and see how it turns out, thanks for looking though

It was 2nd download that seemed to have financial issues. Didn't see anything written negatively about the 2nd one.

[leonavich]

FM14 World Cup 2042 Results

Semi Finals

Italy 2 - 1 Argentina

Portugal (p) 0 - 0 Mexico

Finals

Italy 2 - 0 Portugal

Italy lift their 5th Cup to go level with Brazil as the record holders.

[gameportz]

At work, so can't post any pictures but I've finally managed to finish my second attempt at my first season and I managed to stay up by 1 point

Not bad to say my main striker missed 20% of the season through injury and without him the goals were hard to come by.

Still not managed any sort of result with the NT though. If I resign from the NT, will they take me back on at a later date? Or will it be bridges burnt? It's just I think I'd rather concentrate on the club side for the moment.

[DonBombilla]

Thanks for the earlier advice regarding scouting gents, I took it on board and managed to find a few decent players through trials etc. Unfortunately it was futile in the end as I've just been sacked after 7 winless games to start the season!

I'm determined not to give up but I'm struggling tactically. In the past I have relied on downloaded tactics but I have really enjoyed reading some of the threads on the tactical forum and want to create my own tactic for a change. I took inspiration from Cleon's counter attacking thread and set up a 4141, aiming to sit deep, lure the opposition out and hit them on the counter. Unfortunately my striker often got isolated, and the team rarely seemed to break forward when the counter looked to be on. I was just wondering if people had some general tips for tactical approaches/formations that will give me a fighting chance with the club team in the first season?

[dan_lcfc]

Thanks for the earlier advice regarding scouting gents, I took it on board and managed to find a few decent players through trials etc. Unfortunately it was futile in the end as I've just been sacked after 7 winless games to start the season!

I'm determined not to give up but I'm struggling tactically. In the past I have relied on downloaded tactics but I have really enjoyed reading some of the threads on the tactical forum and want to create my own tactic for a change. I took inspiration from Cleon's counter attacking thread and set up a 4141, aiming to sit deep, lure the opposition out and hit them on the counter. Unfortunately my striker often got isolated, and the team rarely seemed to break forward when the counter looked to be on. I was just wondering if people had some general tips for tactical approaches/formations that will give me a fighting chance with the club team in the first season?

Dont overcomplicate things too much. Look at the guides on the Tactics Section and keep plugging away.

If your struggling, take a look at some of the successful tactics people have posted, start a new save (with anyone) and employ those tactics. Have a look at WHY they are working. Which roles gel together, which instructions help create space. Remove said instructions and see what happens. Take inspiration from them and employ them into your own tactic.

You don't have to use the fancy roles in the TC, I found that there isn't a great deal of difference with some of them.

Also, remember you come up as the favourite to be auto relegated, you are going to struggle in the 1st season so it is important not to panic if things dont go your way straight away. To be sacked after 7 games seems very harsh considering this. Did you set a higher expectation than 'attempt to avoid relegation'?

[dan_lcfc]

At work, so can't post any pictures but I've finally managed to finish my second attempt at my first season and I managed to stay up by 1 point

Not bad to say my main striker missed 20% of the season through injury and without him the goals were hard to come by.

Still not managed any sort of result with the NT though. If I resign from the NT, will they take me back on at a later date? Or will it be bridges burnt? It's just I think I'd rather concentrate on the club side for the moment.

Congrats on staying up :applause:Now with your reputation boost you should be able to sign some better quality players and push up the league!

Regards the NT, you're not going to come close to any real decent results untill the club side start producing players at a better rate! Even then it may take a few years of them maturing before they can be moulded into a decent side. Its a slogbut it will be worth it.

Im not sure what would happen if you resign. When your a world renowned manager I would have thought they would take you back. You could always just holiday over the NT games and just choose the squads. I barely watch the NT games, (except if I think I may have a chance at a result, (Not very often))

[gameportz]

Congrats on staying up :applause:Now with your reputation boost you should be able to sign some better quality players and push up the league!

Thanks. Was touch and go for a bit but my striker managed to get fit with the last few games to go and ended up scoring the goal that saved me from the relegation playoff.

Im not sure what would happen if you resign. When your a world renowned manager I would have thought they would take you back. You could always just holiday over the NT games and just choose the squads. I barely watch the NT games, (except if I think I may have a chance at a result, (Not very often))

Hadn't considered that. May be worth thinking about as then I can (hopefully) stay as the NT manager but give it little thought for the moment. It wouldn't be so bad if I could even just get a reasonable result in a friendly against equally bad teams, but I even find these games a struggle.

[gameportz]

Also, remember you come up as the favourite to be auto relegated, you are going to struggle in the 1st season so it is important not to panic if things dont go your way straight away. To be sacked after 7 games seems very harsh considering this. Did you set a higher expectation than 'attempt to avoid relegation'?

In the save I just managed to stay up in, the board didn't even give me that option. The minimum they wanted was to avoid a relegation fight and the players all wanted more. Glad I didn't listen to the players otherwise I wouldn't have made the season goals.

[Jimbokav1971]

Thanks for the earlier advice regarding scouting gents, I took it on board and managed to find a few decent players through trials etc. Unfortunately it was futile in the end as I've just been sacked after 7 winless games to start the season!

I'm determined not to give up but I'm struggling tactically. In the past I have relied on downloaded tactics but I have really enjoyed reading some of the threads on the tactical forum and want to create my own tactic for a change. I took inspiration from Cleon's counter attacking thread and set up a 4141, aiming to sit deep, lure the opposition out and hit them on the counter. Unfortunately my striker often got isolated, and the team rarely seemed to break forward when the counter looked to be on. I was just wondering if people had some general tips for tactical approaches/formations that will give me a fighting chance with the club team in the first season?

I'm glad you read the Cleon counter thread, (it's brilliant because it's so simple and the way he explains stuff is (almost) idiot-proof for people like me). What I would say is to stick with it and look to maybe experiment with maybe a change of roles/duties up front or even possibly on the flanks. Cleon himself admits that he changed the role depending on how the opposition played, and of course you have to remember that he is playing with a decent Championship team, (can't remember who it was but was it Sheff Utd?), and our early-season San Marino squads are nowhere near the quality of a decent Championship side. As a result it's fairly reasonable that a tactic well suited for one, might not be completely and easily transferable to a team playing against a different level of opposition, with a different level of players themselves.

Despite that, rather than looking at his tactic as a plug in and play fix for you, maybe think about why he did what he did and how it worked, and how you might want things to work slightly differently. If you don't have players well suited to playing as WM's for example, then trying to shoe-horn a player into playing away from his strengths for example is certainly something that might cause an area of concern.

That's an area where, (in my view), you have to look at Cleon's example and then take the thinking from it rather than simply plug and play at our level.

As our quality of player improves, I think the actual Cleon tactic might become more suitable in it's entirety, and I don't suggest for even a nanosecond that I have even a small percentage of Cleon's knowledge, but we need to look at his thinking and learn from it ourselves rather than just copying.

[Reggiana]

Well season 4 has seen me lose the playoff final for the second year in a row, so still stuck in Serie C

Two seasons in a row where we've started like a train, 10 unbeaten at the start of last season, 12 unbeaten at the start of this. I suspect my tactics aren't quite right for breaking down more defensive teams, maybe I need to tinker with the roles slightly when we're heavy favourites.

I would post some screenshots, but none of them deserve it

On the bright side, with the national team I managed a 1-1 draw in Macedonia and a 3-1 victory in Azerbaijan to give us a fighting chance of not finishing bottom of the World Cup Qualifying group! That's following on from a League of Nations campaign consisting of 2 defeats to Liechtenstein, 2 draws with Andorra and 2 wins against Gibraltar for a second place finish.

[col_nufc1]

Wow, your really flying through the years col_nufc1. Great achievement staying up. The new stadium is good news, although 15,000 does seem on the small side. Have you managed to get any facility upgrades at all?

Turano has been a steal for you! Is there any reason in particular he is getting such good ratings? With no goals and only two assists, he's done very well to average 7.15 with the way that ratings work on FM

Cheers Dan, I don't see the point in building such a small new stadium, the board might as well of waited until we were a mainstay in Serie A and built a bigger stadium in a few years. If there isn't a good expansion available then I'll have to wait about 20 years for them to build a new stadium.

I can't remember what the standard of facilites that we start off with but we currently have average training facilities, below average youth training facilities, good youth coaching and above average youth recruitment so not too good at the moment.

Turano is the heartbeat of the side, he might only have two assists and no goals but most our goals come from his crosses that are either saved by the goalkeeper and one of our players score the rebound or he sets up the player who makes the assist, if that makes any sense.

[col_nufc1]

Its a miracle!

Great result mate , I wish my national team could score a goal never mind win a game . Saying that I don't watch my games or pick the squads because there's no point while we are so poor.

[col_nufc1]

Great job in staying up. If this is anything like past challenges, once you can survive in Serie A the first year, you should get enough financial boost to survive the coming years as the Serie B teams tend to have quite a gap in ability from Serie A sides in the early years.

I am not to confident even though we have been given a £10m transfer budget we only have £250k balance so we are going to back into the red as soon as we sign anyone but we will probably get relegated if we don't strengthen so it's a catch 22 situation.

[dan_lcfc]

Things are getting tight at the bottom of the league with 6 games to go. I've never been so nervous playing FM

Edit: Not the news I needed

[Jimbokav1971]

San Marino club side. End of Season 2020/21 update. Lega Pro B, (Serie C/B).

I am still not managing the NT side yet, (I have enough on my plate).

Season Review.

League Table.

You will see that we started off REALLY poorly and it was a bit of a surprise to me exactly how poor we were in the early games. What actually became the turning point was a game in which we conceded 5 goals, (against eventual Runners Up Virtus Entella), but rather than just conceding 5, what was really the catalyst for change was the fact that we conceded 2 goals from attacking corner situations, (with our GK stranded upfield). We were 14th of 18 teams in the league at that stage and to be honest we were in freefall. I stopped playing and instead started reading, thinking and planning. Normally I would look to sign new players to improve the squad however in this save that isn't an option so I had to do something else. Set-Pieces were something that I had to look at. It's all well and good throwing caution to thew wind and sending my GK upfield, but if it isn't working then we need to acknowledge that and change things or this save will come to an abrupt end in both relegation and the sack.

I knew I had to change things, (with regards to set-pieces), but I was a but stumped as to where to start. I was feeling a little lost. What happened then was that Cleon re-tweeted an interesting tweet from someone @KeysiRensie, (who I have seen re-tweeted before but who'm I didn't follow), and it gave me the inspiration to look at things with fresh eyes. The article in question was actually about throw-ins and with the exception od using long throws with that ppm, it's not an area that I usually put a huge amount of effort/thinking into. Although I didn't use the same instructions/set-up as described, it really focussed my mind on what was possible and allowed me to start with a clean slate. At the same time I looked at other set-pieces and even changed the overall formation to 4141. At the time that I was creating and apadpting the new tactic, Cleon hiself was releasing atricles on both a counter-attacking style of football and also a separate posession based style. I found both of these very interesting, (especially the counter article), and I must admit that not only did it influence my thinking, but it also gave me a sort of foundation to build on in terms of allowing me to have an idea in my head of how I wanted us to set-up and then I was able to develop that in different areas to suit the, (extremely), limited abilities of my squad.

At 1 point we went 7 games without conceding, but this was very much a false dawn as we also failed to score in 4 of these games and the simple reality is that with 3 pints for a win, just not conceding was not enough to see up move up the league. Better to win 1 and then lose the next game rather than draw both of them and remain unbeaten, (something that often holds me back). Contrastingly, at the back-end of the season, we won 7 of our last 10 games as we finally seemed to get the balance between keeping the ball out at one end, and sticking it in ourself at the other end.

League Graph.

League Fixtures 1.

League Fixtures 2.

Although there was 1 period of decent form in the 1st half of the season, there was far more consistency in the 2nd period.

Cup Fixtures.

League History.

Facilities.

There is no change here, (because we have no money), and there will not be any change unless we either get promoted or we get a very ambitious board, (who would probably want a new manager anyway so be careful what you wish for).

Board Confidence.

63% will do nicely for me but I will have to keep an eye on the situation at board level because I am certainly not pulling up any trees.

Finances.

It's all well and good saying that we can just ignore the finances and that we will either get promoted up the league and the finances will improve, or we will get sacked and the finances will be none of our concern, but in my situation, (where progress especially in the early years might be slower), the long-term financial situation is more of a worry where we don't just have the potential to sign these 1 or 2 special players who can fire us into the Playoffs. Although we are £644,000 overdrawn, the board have actually invested just under £2M over the past 2 seasons just to keep our heads slightly below water. Losing approx £1M per year is surely not something that the board will allow to continue.

As a result, this can be of no surprise.

Goal-scoring GK watch.

We weren't awarded a single penalty all season, and our GK's didn't manage to even get a shot on target according to the stats, (although I know for a fact that there was a goal-bound shot from a corner that was blocked inside the 6 yard box).

End of Season Awards.

Fans Player of Season.

This was an absolute no-brainer for me. He won Fans Player of the Season, Young Player of the Season and was without doubt our best player. Unfortunately his contract us due to expire at the end of the season and he is not interested in signing.

He is still on his initial Youth Contract and I have been unable to get him even to the table to negotiate with regards to sigining a Pro one. I won't mind so much him leaving just as long as he goes on to play elsewhere and doesn't simply retire from football.

Goal of the season.

[video=youtube;OwzHKXpoNXc]

This is the 1st time that we have actually scored a proper good goal. It was a bit of a sjock when it came in and my intial reaction was "where the hell did that come from?".

Signing of the Season.

There weren't any signings. There was a left winger who had previously been released who I wanted to re-sign, but frustratingly he decided that he would rather retire from football than play for us again.

Young Player of the Season.

Pennisi won this one too. As our squad is so young, I think it likely that for a while the winner of the Fans Player of the Year award will also win the Young Player of the Year award too.

Top Goalscorer.

Most Assists.

Highest Average Rating.

Transfers.

None.

2020 Youth Day.

(21a) Corrado (F.Loyal) (2021).

[dan_lcfc]

Season 2020/2021 Review

League Table - Well I'm glad thats over. We struggled defensively all season, only keeping 3 clean sheets (All coming in the last 6 games) meaning we had to score at least 2 to get a win. We lost 30 points from winning positions. The difference between 17th and 1st. We were the 4th highest scorers in the division so with a bit of tightening up at the back we could be very well set for the years to come.

End of Season Awards - All fair awards, Pere Freixanet was on loan from Atletico Madrid for the year and we have secured his services for the next season as well.

Nicola Fiore was named as the Best Italian Player of the Year

Torsten Freidrich came 3rd in the Best Striker of the Year

Goal of The Season - This was the goal of the month for March

[video=youtube_share;3SYtJtMaLB0]

Fixtures 1

Fixtures 2

Fixtures 3

Shirt Sales - First time this has come up.

Youth Intake - Not brilliant this year Luigi Florini has accepted a call into the NT despite being DN.

Facilities - Both of our Youth and Training facilities are being upgraded

National Team - Much better than previous years. We managed to pick up 7 points (and 2 clean sheets) in the Nations League which propelled us to 168th in the world. This took us out of pot 6 and into pot 5 for the World Cup Qualifiers. We have again been drawn with Andorra so we could get our first qualifier win of my reign!

Marco Bianci still won't accept a call-up, however DN striker Nicolo Marcucci has chosen to represent SM

Fixtures 1

Fixtures 2

Aims for next year

Improve upon a very poor defence

Get that qualifying win

Stay in the Serie A

[dan_lcfc]

Another solid season there Jimbokav. Fairly comfortable in the end. Are you still judged as one of the relegation favourites every year?

[dan_lcfc]

Ive been having a reshuffle of my entire backroom staff and youth staff over the current pre season and checking on the staff screen I noticed this.

It seems strange that Ive basically managed to acquire the best coaching team in the league in a matter of weeks? Most of which were just hanging around on free transfers

[Jimbokav1971]

Another solid season there Jimbokav. Fairly comfortable in the end. Are you still judged as one of the relegation favourites every year?

It was only really comfortable because we hit such good form in the latter part of the season.

We are still usually one of the favourites to go down but to be honest I don't take much notice. I'm not even aware if the board want us to "battle bravely" or actually "avoid relegation". It doesn't make any difference because from this league, relegation still means the sack.

I'm just loading up the game now to have a look at board expectations. Actually I can't find what they were, but this is what the pre-season odds for winning the title were.

I would love to move on a bit and be comfortably mid-table without having to worry about relegation, but especially with us losing our best player for a free at the end of the season just gone, (Penissi), we are probably likely to struggle again.

[gameportz]

End of my second season in charge and just miss out on a playoff spot due to goal difference.

My main striker from last season missed another 25% of this season through injury and didn't hit the heights I expected from him. But on the plus side, I did manage to somehow get Manager of the Year.

And here's the overview from my season:

On a side note, got this message after a humiliating 9-0 defeat for the National Team and thought I'd share as I've never seen it before.

[dan_lcfc]

It was only really comfortable because we hit such good form in the latter part of the season.

We are still usually one of the favourites to go down but to be honest I don't take much notice. I'm not even aware if the board want us to "battle bravely" or actually "avoid relegation". It doesn't make any difference because from this league, relegation still means the sack.

I'm just loading up the game now to have a look at board expectations. Actually I can't find what they were, but this is what the pre-season odds for winning the title were.

I would love to move on a bit and be comfortably mid-table without having to worry about relegation, but especially with us losing our best player for a free at the end of the season just gone, (Penissi), we are probably likely to struggle again.

Judging that you are stuck in a bit of a middle ground where you much better than the Serie D sides but still a way off the mid-table sides. You just need a bit of luck with the intake.

You can find your board expectations by going to Confidence>Competitions and then clicking on details. Like this

[dan_lcfc]

Unlucky there gameportz. A few more in the goals for column next season should see you at least into the playoffs.

Ive also never seen players refund supporters before. It must be a new addition this year. I got thrashed 15-0 by England on FM15 I think and didnt see anything like that

[dan_lcfc]

So this has just come up

Now considering anyone under the age of 19 who is any good goes straight into the senior squad, they won 3 of their 8 games this year and were in a qualifying group that included Portugal, Bulgaria and Scotland it was no real surprise that they didnt make it to the actual qualifying stage or for that matter even get a point

This got me thinking about the NT coaching staff in general. Does anyone make any changes to their NT staff? Does it make much of a difference when you only have the squad for a week?

[gameportz]

Unlucky there gameportz. A few more in the goals for column next season should see you at least into the playoffs.

Thanks. If I can just manage a season with my striker staying fit I think it will do wonders for me (only play with 1 up front). I changed my ball winning midfielders to defensive midfielders which made a big difference as I ended up one of the teams with the lowest bookings whereas last season I had the worst by a long way.

Ive also never seen players refund supporters before. It must be a new addition this year. I got thrashed 15-0 by England on FM15 I think and didnt see anything like that

I've got a feeling I may get this message a few more times in my National Team management life.

[gameportz]

This got me thinking about the NT coaching staff in general. Does anyone make any changes to their NT staff? Does it make much of a difference when you only have the squad for a week?

The only change I have made is offering the San Marino all time record goal scorer a coaching position as he had just retired when I took over (can't remember his name though, but he has something like 9 goals haha).

[Reggiana]

This got me thinking about the NT coaching staff in general. Does anyone make any changes to their NT staff? Does it make much of a difference when you only have the squad for a week?

I did on the last game once I was in Serie A, I found that most of my club staff would agree to a National Team job as well, I know I had Jaap Stam as assistant manager of both for about a decade. At the moment this time I'm just replacing anyone who retires and pretty much leaving the staff as it is for the moment.

[dan_lcfc]

Some guys get all the luck

[crofters]

Does anybody know of a youtube play through of the challenge for this years game?

[gameportz]

Does anybody know of a youtube play through of the challenge for this years game?

I don't know about on here, but you could try over on Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/footballmanagergames/

[crofters]

I don't know about on here, but you could try over on Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/footballmanagergames/

I asked on there earlier today and somebody suggested i ask here haha.

[Reggiana]

Thought I best actually get some of this posted. This is my third season 2019-20, but I have actually completed 5 seasons now.

So you can see from the table that we made strides forwards, we were actually neck and neck with Ternana at halfway but they maintained it and we didn't. The playoff final could really have gone either way, unfortunately it went the wrong way.

You can see a trio of San Marino players topping the average ratings, I think at this point it seemed to me that I had assembled a good squad but just not got my tactics right, but looking back I suspect my centre backs weren't quite up to it.

Unsurprisingly with those average ratings we did well on the awards front, including myself:

Of those players we did lose Pregnolato at the end of the season as he was only on loan, everyone else stayed though.

The full squad:

Plenty of good performers really, not too many problems, I always look to mainly just sign youngsters so it was a case of moving a couple on and bringing players on who were ready from my youth team, and this is the point at which I decided to sell my keeper and try a couple of youngsters who would have the honour of penalties, free kicks and going up for corners (Not throw ins after trialling that in a complete disaster of a pre-season game!)

The youth intake wasn't terrible, I would guess about average:

After going so close, we were certainly aiming to go on for promotion the next season.

[Reggiana]

Sorry for the double post but I just want to get everything up to date for where I am.

More playoff disappointment. However this season we actually has decent 5/6 point leads in the league a couple of times and really shouldn't have been in the playoffs. Lost to Modena 5-2 on aggregate in the playoff final, so not close!

Kouadio stepped up from runner up to winner of Player of the Season:

And he is certainly looking good:

I don't seem to have a screenshot of the whole squad from this season, it was pretty similar to the season before though both in make up and in performance. The youth intake was decent again, but a few bad personalities creeping in which surprised me with my HOYD being a Model Pro, I suppose some of it must be random though, not everyone coming through is going to be Professional:

And finally, the summer after the end of the season saw a first qualifying win for San Marino:

[gameportz]

I asked on there earlier today and somebody suggested i ask here haha.

It was me - I couldn't resist. Sorry

[Reggiana]

Last one, I promise! You might have guessed I have been spurred into action by something to celebrate, you would be right:

The term "Smashed it" comes to mind! (So does the term, "it's about time, too")

A 1-2-3 in the POTY for the league, that man Kouadio has been a real star, with Neitzert also winning Young Player:

And for the squad as a whole you will see 4 goals for Nino Falchi in nets taking him to 6 for the club (all pens), my backup has 1 goal to his name but that was from a corner.

A lot of players performing well, Grotti doing the business in terms of goalscoring, club captain Cristian Maldini missed the start of the season with a broken ankle put came roaring back with some strong performances. And Alberto Bugli is the first Sanmarinese youth product who I have had really cement a place in the team.

Another okay youth intake, but two of the best three are unfortunately Italian:

But we have a new HOYD for Serie B, former Real Madrid star Raul, so hopefully he can do the business next year!

With the national team we beat Azerbaijan at home as well but did still finish bottom of the qualifying group. However 7 points from the qualifying campaign has left us hovering just outside the top 100 in the World.

And with that, you're all up to date, I'll try to post slightly smaller updates a little more often now!

Last note, in the new season we have season a first hat trick for the national team in the Nations League:

Fair play to him since he's not even in the starting XI normally, although he might be more often after that. He did also score in that first qualifying win against Azerbaijan too, I wonder if he might be a big match player.

[leonavich]

Well done Reggiana! A few seasons to build a strong core is never a bad thing. You should be able to keep your place with the step up now quite comfortably.

I find that a year or two with a strong side before promotion always makes it easier when you do make that step up. In one of my saves a few years back, I went up far too quickly and I ended up relegated the following year, with a large wage bill burning a hole in my pocket. Needless to say it ended in the sack, but was also the reason I then jumped on the SM challenges, so it had a silver lining

[gameportz]

Congrats Reggiana.

Glad to see the NT making progress with you. What formation are you using? That's the one area where I'm really struggling at the moment.