dafuge's FM18 challenge

[MikaelS]

1 hour ago, Handstar said:

 

To anyone who might have been following I am sacked and to my understanding unless I start totally over am out of challenge too, but I am continuing my save next season with this manager. Anyone who wants to follow me i'll be in dafuges channel ... if they let me after this failure.

You can holiday to the next season and select one of the teams promoted there. As far as I know.

Too bad about the sacking - welcome to my world

[SOULjah]

1 hour ago, MikaelS said:

You can holiday to the next season and select one of the teams promoted there. As far as I know.

oki doke just to keep posted I have applied to the Nantwich Job.

[SOULjah]

Nantwich job application successful!

 

[KVJ92]

I haven't posted my manager profile - But as I'm progressing in the first season, it may not matter at all. 11 games to go. 8 points up to survive... 

Playing as Farsley.

[MikaelS]

2 hours ago, Handstar said:

Nantwich job application successful!

 

Good luck!

[VooDooYouDo]

https://mega.nz/#F!oK4QAYDT!7WphMAxI2xwIpKXP3SZqXA

 

Uploaded a folder with my reloads plus a June 24 save so you can reload yourself if you want. All UK & Ireland loaded. ~30,000 players. Started with the full game. The lowest rep team I got to come up was Sutton Coldfield. Includes: Barwell, Basingstoke, Coalville, Dorchester, Dunstable, Farnborough, Farsley, Folkestone, Harrow, Kettering, Leatherhead, Met Police, Mickleover, Nantwich, Rushall, Folkestone, Stafford, Sutton Coldfield, Thurrock, Weymouth, and Witton. Plus, the usual cast of high rep teams that come up often in reloads.

[makovn]

Makov's Challenge

Billericay Town F.C

Dynamics |   Finances | Schedule- Pt.1    Pt.2     | Squad |   Me

The League:  We just went into this season and we fired on all cylinders, we scored without stopping, even though we lost our best striker in January ( to injury not to transfer). our defense was bad but it led to some thrillers like the 5-4 lose in the penultimate but on the other hand, in some games, we were really clinical like the 6-0 victory over Cambridge in the 3rd game of the season. we were steady all season except a blimp in the end of January/ start of February. our squad was not good enough to win this league so I can only imagine what it would be like next season, but if both our strikers will be fit I reckon we can do some goalscoring magic. 

Transfers : our squad was not good enough for this league so once again i bought 6 starting new players and some more players to increase our quality in depth

FA Cup: good result vs Bradford city. that sums it up.

Season awards : Bassala Sambou was great until he got injured and again I ask how did Smith get into the team of the season while he played fewer games and his statistics were far less impressive.

Key players: 

Bassala Sambou: the ex- Everton man was brilliant for us once again. i can only imagine what could have happened

Dayle Southwell: he took up the job of leading our attack after Sambou's  injury and he smashed every goalscoring or assist record.

Adam Mcdonell: the power in our midfield, powered most of the attacks that came through the center.

Will Nightingale: he is a great CB and he is the reason we only conceded 72 goals in the league  

So Sambou had a wonderful season, playing every league game and by January he had 30 goals and was our top assister and then... he got injured for six months and so we missed on scoring even more goals.

 

Season          League          Position       FA Cup          FA Trophy   Carabao Cup       Top Scorer          Most Assists          Highest Avg Rating
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2018/19         Vanarama South   1st           4th round       3rd round      N/A            Theophanous(21)       Modeste(12)            Theophanous(7.24)
2019/20       Vanarama national  1st          3rd round        3rd rounf      N/A              Sambou (30)        Southwell (11)            Smith (7.29)
2020/21     Sky Bet League Two   1st          2nd round         N/A          1st round        Southwell (35)      Southwell (15)          Sambou (7.55)

 

[Warhawk]

Hey, I forgot to post a screenshot of my manager profile.  Fortunately I remembered to take the screenshot.

Anyway, most of the way through September at this point.  After 9 games we're 5-2-2, in 4th with 17 points, leading a group of 3 teams on goal differential.  After starting 0-2-1 we reeled off 4 straight wins, including 3-0 at FC Halifax and 6-3 at Lowestoft.  After that we lost 4-1 at home to York, heavy preseason favorites and currently leading the league by 3 points at 6-3-0.  Since then we've had a 5-3 win over Chorley and a 4-0 FA cup win over Shaw Lane.  Offense is fantastic, we have 28 goals, team in second has 19, but we've also allowed the most goals with 21 (next worst is 19).  Stats-wise we are middling at possession and passing, terrible at heading, good at crossing, getting shots on target, and tackling.  Low number of fouls and cards, maybe I should try to get them to play a bit more aggressive since we're conceding a stupid amount of goals.

Our attendance sucks but I've noticed an uptick in the last couple home games of home fans, so hopefully that's good.

[Upside Down]

First win in the league in the tenth game so the record is now 1-1-8, but I also won the first match in the FA Cup previous to this match so it is two wins in a row. Next match against the now bottom team. 

[Warhawk]

Couple of bad road losses later where I allowed a combined 7 goals to Blyth and Leamington and I really need to do something about my defense.  One of my three center backs has been absolutely god-awful, and the other 2, while not too bad on their own, apparently don't play well together.  My left backs have been hot garbage.  One of my right backs is OK I guess.  Bringing in a center back and a left back on loan, hopefully we can get something going.  I'm just watching mistake after mistake on the back end while my midfield and strikers are doing fine.  One of my strikers even just got player of the month for September, 9 goals in 6 games.

EDIT: lost a third straight league game, 2-1 home to AFC Fylde, then was losing 1-0 home against Harrogate despite having 7 shots on goal to their 1, when Jeremiah Dasaolu scored twice in stoppage time to stop our losing streak.  Did win in the FA Cup against Needham Market though.  Woking up next, they're a the bottom of the VNL.

EDIT 2: Smacked Woking 4-1 then had an away game against Darlington where I was 10-1 to win and was allegedly facing "the impossible," scored 17 seconds into the game and ended up winning 3-2.

EDIT 3: Torquay at home next in the FA Cup, and $90,000 of TV MONEY!  (side note: 4 Cup draws and 1 Trophy draw have all put us at home, which is nice)

[Minarin]

I'm going to give this one a shot. Off to Merthyr.

 

Me

Club

Facilities

[TrickyTree91]

2018/19

Manager profile

Once the full game was released I decided to start over and Stafford Rangers popped up straight away so decided to give it a go with them.

League Table

I decided from the word go to play with a 4-3-3 tactic and get the ball forward as quickly as possible. While we competed well in pretty much every game, we just conceded far too many goals. Ended the season in 18th place with just 40 points, avoiding relegation by a single point after a bad end to the season. 

Youth Intake     Reports

Can't argue with the youth intake. Got a few players that I will try and blood into the first team in the coming season, the standout players are

Dylan Gray - A promising CM, good work rate and teamwork and could become a decent ball player.

Troy Powell - A forward whose strong points again are work rate and teamwork.

Keith Bush - The best of the lot i would say, marking, tackling and heading already ok for this level. Started a couple of games at the end of the season and didn't do too bad.

Will try and get these lads some games off the bench and maybe a start now and then.

The board are currently looking to build a new stadium so will see what that brings if it goes ahead.

Not too sure what to expect for the next season but hoping for at least a mid table finish.

 

[BcfcMez]

Late Starter here, but going to have a bash as a bit of motivation. Went for the mighty Buxton. Heres to a good one.

 

 

 

https://imgur.com/a/xWWU4

[XaW]

Picked up a very talented fellow Norwegian...

[Swindon69]

10 hours ago, Handstar said:

Nantwich job application successful!

 

I'm currently in my 5th season with my 5th different club

[Swindon69]

May actually restart with a clean slate  I have a variant of 4-4-2 and 4-2-4 I'm going to test out.

[Warhawk]

The cup run continues for Lancaster, went up 2-0 against Torquay on television and held on for a 2-1 victory.  William Dunne (who scored both goals) will be out about a week with a twisted knee, he's also leading the league in goals.  Did have a rough loss at Stourbridge, sitting in 5th right now.  Blyth (who beat Tamworth) up next in the Cup second round, again at home (that's all 5 games so far at home).  We're two of only 3 teams below the VNL left in the competition (the third, Concord, still has a home replay against Walsall to play in the first round).

Wouldn't exactly say I'm hemorrhaging money since the wage budget I have to work with isn't really high enough for that to happen, but I'm back in the black for the season after the $90,000 in TV money, the $23,000 or so in prize money, and a 1,200+ crowd at the game.

[PS-GamerNeil]

Whitby Town FC - End of Season 19/20

Pre-Season preparation:

After staying up on the final game of last season and only winning two games in the whole of 2019 I decided to try a more defensive setup for coming season 2019/2020. We started our pre-season games with a 4141 (DM Wide) set up and more defensive mentality. A big thing that let us down last season was the amount of injures we suffered to key players, So bringing in a fitness coach and after speaking to the board the agreed that a sports scientist would help us reduce injuries. This cut our injuries by a massive 48% in the coming season. We also managed to pick a data analyst and 2 extra scouts. After our first youth intake last season we decided to appoint a dedicated U18s manager and coach.

New Tactic

Transfers:
Lots more free transfers coming into the club and some more loans. The best signing of the season was picking up Christopher Thorpe on loan from Barnsley. Despite picking him up in January, he went on to become the clubs top goal scorer for the season. Other key players for us this season were: Center Midfielder AJ George, Center Defender Isaac Ward and we brought in the former Stoke defensive midfielder Joel Kaduba.

Season Transfers

Season Report:
The more defensive approach payed of as we managed to finish in a respectable 12th place in the league. We only scored 30 goals in the league season (The lowest in the league) but our defensive record was very impressive as we only conceded 39 goals in the 42 games played (2nd best in the league). This helped us achieve 12th position in the league but struggled to score goals and this saw us draw 15 games (most in the league). I am so happy we managed to finished mid table and the lads have done the club proud after the failure of last season and now we have something to build on. We just need to score more goals!

Final Table

Season Awards

Season 19/20 Summery:
It was a great season for the club as we built on our survival last season. The board give me another one year extension on my contract even though I tried to negotiate a longer deal. I still feel the board don't trust me enough.  The clubs financial situation just keeps getting worse as out bank balance now stands at -£229,000. Because our financial situation is so bad, the board are refusing to pay for my coaching badges.
We managed to increase our backroom team and now starting to see some decent youth prospects coming through the system. A poor showing in the FA Cup as we got knocked out by non-league Bury Town in the 2nd Qualifying round but made it to the 3rd round of the FA Trophy before being knocked out by Harrogate Town. The board did announce that the stadium would be extended at the end of season to comply with league regulations.

Manager Profile

Stadium Expansion

 

Season 21/22 Targets and Expectations:

-Push for a play of finish this season (top 7)
-Get in a striker that can play up to on his own and score goals.
-Tinker with attacking tactics to get more support to the front man.
-Sign a contract extension
 

Career History:

Season       League          Position       FA Cup         FA Trophy       Top Scorer           Most Assists          Highest Rating
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2018/19      Vanarama North    19th       3rd Qual Rd       1st Rd       Mike Fondop (15)     Steven Snaith (12)    Mike Fondop (7.21)
2019/20      Vanarama North    12th       2nd Qual Rd       3rd Rd   Christopher Thorpe (11)  Charlie Mulgrew (5)   Charlie Mulgrew (7.14)

Total Career Stats:

Played  |  W  |  D  |  L  |  For  |  Against  |  Win %  |  Time at club  |  Earnings  |  Trophies  | Total Transfers (£)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  96       28    26    42     98       141        29%        678 days         £36k           0               0

[PS-GamerNeil]

What would be the best role for a lone striker in the formation that I am using? Struggled to get any goals this season.

 

[Scab]

45 minutes ago, PS-GamerNeil said:

What would be the best role for a lone striker in the formation that I am using? Struggled to get any goals this season.

 

I personally like the AF role that you're using but usually try to have someone run into the spaces he opens up, be it an attacking mid or a wide IF. Looking at your tactic screenshot, I'd be tempted to turn the CM(Su) into a BBM and the left side W(Su) into a IF. That should yield two strong runs into the box. But that is, of course, just my preference~.

[Upside Down]

Wilbur Sherard Kenway-Chester managed Barwell to a draw

Such is the depths of the season that a draw is a result worth celebrating.

The record after 15 games is 1 win, 2 draws and 12 losses. 

Goal scoring has not been terrible, especially since my best striker has been missing with injury, but the defence is leaking goals at almost 3 goals per game. 

Struggling to find players I can loan.

[fairsy]

I am doing the youth academy challenge but it is relevant here too, although I think my progress will be far slower! For those who aren't aware of this challenge, it means I am not allowed to sign anyone and am relying totally on my academy to produce players - so any investment goes that way and I try desperately to hang on to any players I have!

I'm Dulwich Hamlet, - manager profile to begin with here

I had an excellent first season, despite 2 wobbles (3 defeats in a row after being unbeaten for first 15-20 games) and then 5 games without a win at the end of the season before confirming promotion with an 8-2 win over Wealdstone....scored over 100 goals whilst conceding more than I'd have liked - League Table

Star man was Muhammadu Faal, his pace was key (15/15) and he scored goals in big bursts - he twice went over 10 hours without a goal - and ended the season with 33 goals and 17 assists in the league

I have completed 2 coaching badges and am starting my third, and have managed to have Junior coaching and Youth Recruitment improved 2 or 3 times each and they are at a level I am happy with for a small club. Hopefully I can go professional at some point as finances have held up well with no spending on signings or scouting.

A small Stadium Upgrade is happening

I'm a bit concerned about the VNL, as my senior players got drastically worse over the season, and I can't sign anyone and youth players have a long way to go - but looking forward to the challenge!

Season  |  League   | Pos.  |  FA Cup  |  CL      |   EL       |  Top scorer        |  Top assists        |    Top rating        | Notes
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2018/19 |  Van Sth  |  1    |  4Q      |  n/a     |  n/a       |  Faal (37)         |  Benson/Faal (19)   |    Faal (7.54)       | Promoted
	

[DizzyIzzyB13]

On 10/26/2017 at 21:09, dafuge said:

No external utilities such as scouting programs should be used and the database should be unedited (with the exception of cosmetic changes which cannot be discussed here). Should SI release a data update, this would be allowed but any other data updates are not.

Just for clarification, does this exclude mods that add playable countries (for example, the official SI download for Gibraltar or this San Marino league data update)?

[PS-GamerNeil]

9 hours ago, Scab said:

I personally like the AF role that you're using but usually try to have someone run into the spaces he opens up, be it an attacking mid or a wide IF. Looking at your tactic screenshot, I'd be tempted to turn the CM(Su) into a BBM and the left side W(Su) into a IF. That should yield two strong runs into the box. But that is, of course, just my preference~.

Tried those suggested changes and added a few new instructions.

- Dribble Less
- Be more disciplined
 

Noticing a lot more chances being created in the last few matches and we actually won the last game 4-0 (think that's my biggest win ever at Whitby town)

[jsar]

WEYMOUTH 2019-2020

A change of formation in pre-season seems to have done wonders for our performance. Setting up with a 3-4-3-0 saw us grab 4 wins, 2 draws and a loss from our friendlies, scoring a total of 14 goals and only conceding 6. Moving into the start of the season we won our first 4 games, scoring 8 goals and conceding none! The rest of the season panned out pretty well, with a small dip in form in the middle but overall we managed to stay in the top half of the table. Then in the last 10 games we went on an epic run of 7 wins, 2 draws and a loss to see us end the season in 4th place and a playoff position. The 1st round and Semi final were easy enough affairs winning both 2-0, the final was a lot closer. We started well with a header from Cummings via a corner in the 4th minute. followed by a second in the 16th minute from top scorer Sell, Nabay popped up in the 63rd minute to secure the 3rd goal and Parkhouse left footed strike made it 4 in the 65th. Obviously at this point we thought it was all over, we where set for the National but Maidenhead where not done yet. They played all the way to the end getting three goals back, with the last one coming in in the 94th minute. Sadly for them it wasn't enough, Weymouth are up!

Despite some high scoring goals we finished 10th highest for goals scored but a very healthy 3rd place for goals conceded in the league.

Cup wise we went out in the first round of both the FA Cup and the FA trophy so nothing exciting to report there.

Top Scorer - Jack Sell

Highest Average Rating - James Comley

Signing of the Season - Foday Nabay

Squad

End of Season Confidence

League Table | League Overview

Season review

End of Season Awards

 

 

 

[XaW]

2 hours ago, fairsy said:

I am doing the youth academy challenge but it is relevant here too, although I think my progress will be far slower! For those who aren't aware of this challenge, it means I am not allowed to sign anyone and am relying totally on my academy to produce players - so any investment goes that way and I try desperately to hang on to any players I have!

As one who have a lot of experience with youth challenges, I must say, you must be some sort of masochist!

[jsar]

Well that seems like a pretty good Brexit result?

[fairsy]

21 minutes ago, XaW said:

As one who have a lot of experience with youth challenges, I must say, you must be some sort of masochist!

On FM17 I had 2 big saves: 

- an Ipswich Town youth challenge, where I was only allowed to sign players who had come through youth system (Wickham, Rhodes, etc) to supplement but struggled a bit on this one as got into PL in first season and couldn't make breakthrough into CL and then lost my better players after 10 years of finishing between 5th and 10th

- this Dafuge save where I turned Lowestoft Town into the best team in the world - 3 Champions Leagues and 3 PL titles

So I wanted to try something new, but I think I may have gone too far but am enjoying it so far especially as not worrying with scouting which seems to be causing issues!

[XaW]

3 hours ago, fairsy said:

On FM17 I had 2 big saves: 

- an Ipswich Town youth challenge, where I was only allowed to sign players who had come through youth system (Wickham, Rhodes, etc) to supplement but struggled a bit on this one as got into PL in first season and couldn't make breakthrough into CL and then lost my better players after 10 years of finishing between 5th and 10th

- this Dafuge save where I turned Lowestoft Town into the best team in the world - 3 Champions Leagues and 3 PL titles

So I wanted to try something new, but I think I may have gone too far but am enjoying it so far especially as not worrying with scouting which seems to be causing issues!

I've played dafuges challenge since, oh what is it now? FM11? FM12? something like that. I joined the steam group (dafuges challenge 12) when it was the current one, so at least from then on. So I know a bit or two about struggling. However, I've also often played various youth only challenges. I think I got quite far with a youth only in Portugal in FM15 (I think). I was a regular in Champions League, but struggled to get past the first few knockout rounds. I'm having another go at it when I either finish this, fail this, or get tired of it. I'll join the youth challenge thread when I start it.

However, I once tried a youth only challenge in England, but after about 7 years without making much progress I kind of lost interest. There are so many tiers to pass through, and you pretty much lose money every year and have no means of improving your youth intake unless you get lucky and have a good player, and then he probably won't sign a contract and leaves on a free. That was my positive outlook though, but I hope it goes much better for you. I'll follow your progress here!

[XaW]

Wow.....

[dafuge]

7 hours ago, DizzyIzzyB13 said:

Just for clarification, does this exclude mods that add playable countries (for example, the official SI download for Gibraltar or this San Marino league data update)?

That's a difficult one, as the rules have always prohibited the use of the editor.

I don't really see a problem with leagues like that, but you'd need the editor to enable them.

[DizzyIzzyB13]

36 minutes ago, dafuge said:

That's a difficult one, as the rules have always prohibited the use of the editor.

I don't really see a problem with leagues like that, but you'd need the editor to enable them.

Well, since I was still reloading I just remade a compliant save. I'm glad I noticed before I actually started and not after I'd started considering I'm currently 150 hours (minus 3 game set up times forthe beta, release and the new one I did today) into trying to get Brightlingsea or Dorking...

[Thebaker]

1 hour ago, XaW said:

Wow.....

That's an amazing result although i'm more surprised by the number of away fans, you must be doing well.

[XaW]

1 minute ago, Thebaker said:

That's an amazing result although i'm more surprised by the number of away fans, you must be doing well.

Well yes, but I don't have that number in other games. My last league game away (to Yeovil) had 105 fans traveling with us...

[Thebaker]

Just now, XaW said:

Well yes, but I don't have that number in other games. My last league game away (to Yeovil) had 105 fans traveling with us...

Even Marine has fair weather fans who only turn out for the big games

[Warhawk]

I went from having over 1000 away fans in a Cup game at Burnley to having 6 away fans in a Trophy game at Wingate & Finchley 2 weeks later.

[Mushtaq]

@XaW have you kept the same 4-3-3 formation since the start? I’m struggling with tactics and really want to nail one before I start the challenge properly.

[XaW]

4 minutes ago, Mushtaq said:

@XaW have you kept the same 4-3-3 formation since the start? I’m struggling with tactics and really want to nail one before I start the challenge properly.

Well, more or less. The formation is the same, but the tactics and roles change. And I change it frequently during matches as well. I don't always chose the right ones though, as I told those in the Steam-group yesterday, I conceded 15 goals in 3 matches when I tried to "fix my defensive issues". So, yeah, it's still a learning experience. Regarding tactics, I always try to get into the mindset of a real manager. What do I want to do? I often try to emulate a real manager, the first seasons this year I tried to play the Klopp-Liverpool way, but that was not suitable for Vanarama North! So I had to go another way.

I noticed that if I played defensively I didn't score and conceded a lot, but if I played attacking I conceded the same, but scored goals. So I took it from there and decided to go the 4-3-3 way. The defenders are just staying back, though I sometimes let the fullback attack if we need a goal or are playing against a very narrow formation. Of the 3 midfielders, 1 are sitting back and recycling possession and also work as the pivot of the tactic. The other two have more offensive roles while the strikers I usually have the central one hang back and play as the linkup player and the other two make the runs and stretch the defense. This is the main gist of the tactic, and when I noticed it working much better I specifically aimed for players that fit the tactic, and most of the ones I have gotten in are going into one specific role.

I usually look very much at the matches when I'm building the tactic, but when I have found something that kind of work I play on fewer highlights since I know what works and don't. But if things are really going badly I start to look again to see how and why we are struggling. Then I try to remedy it, and if it works I make a mental note (since I can't be bothered to write it down) as to how to fix certain problems and tactical challenges. And after a while I notice it earlier and with fewer highlights, and so I make similar changes and try to fix it before I concede from it. Not that I always make the right changes though, as evident by my 15 conceded in 3 games.

[The_Gato_In_Goal]

Shaw Lane - 2022/23

First year in the Conference was a pretty successful one, but we struggled in the second half of the season to a point where I'm basically going to clear out the entire squad and tactic in the offseason. We shipped goals in the second half and struggled getting the same production from our SSs. 

Vanarama Conference - Leading for the majority of the season, and then threw it away second half and went out in the playoffs.

FA Trophy - Unfortunate loss to Southport as we had the chance of going far in this one.

FA Cup - Knocked out by a much better side.

Transfers - Not many good signings, we had overall a worse squad from last year, since we lost a few loanees and never truly replaced them.

Squad - Not much changes, we weren't able to bring back a couple loanees, which is the same I said last season. Like I said, an overhaul is coming.

Finances - New board cleared our debt as we're starting to sink back into it again.

Key Player Profiles:

Jacob Ramsey - Another quality year.

Felix Nmecha - He really improved this year, easily the best player.

Luke Carey - Took a half a season to get going, but was pretty good when he did.

Career Overview

Season    League            Position    FA Cup       FA Trophy      Training Facilities    Youth Facilities     Junior Coaching     Youth Recruitment   Achievements/Notes        Top Scorer             Most Assists                  Highest Avg Rating 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2018/19   Vanarama North    17th        1st Round    1st Round      Poor                   Basic                Minimal             Limited             N/A                       Chilaka (12)           Walker/Chilaka (6)            Jones (7.01)
2019/20   Vanarama North    7th         4th Q Round  2nd Round      Poor                   Basic                Minimal             Limited             Lost in playoff QF        Hale (21)              Loader (14)                   Raymond (7.23)
2020/21   Vanarama North    2nd         1st Round    2nd Round      Poor                   Basic                Minimal             Limited             Lost in playoff finals    Levitt/Ramsey (16)     Levitt/Ramsey (10)            Levitt (7.26)
2021/22   Vanarama North    1st         2nd Q Round  2nd Round      Poor                   Basic                Minimal             Limited             Champions                 Ramsey (30)            Levitt (15)                   Tibbetts (7.39)
2022/23   Vanarama National 4th         2nd Round    3rd Round      Poor                   Basic                Minimal             Limited             Lost in playoff 1R        Nmecha (22)            Ramsey (21)                   Nmecha (7.34)

 

[tremor]

Back in on this again, determined to see it through for once... i always seem to get to league 1/champ level and then fall away, not this time!

I give you Frankie Knuckles, the new manager of Margate

[jon_mesher]

I have played this challenge every year for the last 10 or so (more than I care to count accurately) - I find it by far the most enjoyable way to play though often quit after 1/2 seasons in the Premier League as I get bored. Very rarely am I organised enough to post on here, but I felt I should share this particularly ludicrous game. My previous home game ended 0-0.

I'm Warrington, 6th game of 1st season, experimenting with a 4-1-3-2 narrow on Counter. Particularly enjoyed my collapse from 6-2 at half-time requiring 94th and 95th minute goals to steal the win.

[Antwebb]

Been lurking for a while now, but I thought I'd give the challenge a try this year. Warrington here I come!

[PS-GamerNeil]

Into January (season 3) and I get this We have just dropped into the relegation zone
 

[PS-GamerNeil]

Just now, PS-GamerNeil said:

Into January (season 3) and I get this We have just dropped into the relegation zone
 

Board wanted 7 points in next 5 games... I got him down to 5 points in 5 games... The pressure is on

[PS-GamerNeil]

So the five games to save my Job..........

Game 1 - 3-2 Defeat
Game 2 - 1-1 Draw
Game 3 - 0-0 Draw
Game 4 - 3-3 Draw (vs top of the league.. Typical)

My 5th game was away vs Alfreton Town (14th) This game was postponed due to a waterlogged pitch. This meant that my 5th game would be home against Worcester City who are sitting bottom of the league on 9 points from 29 games.

Game 5 - 4-1 defeat to bottom of the league...... SACKED!

So I managed to last 2 and a half seasons at Whitby Town but I struggled to get any tactic to work. I lost control of the Finances and struggled to get quality players into the club with this new scouting set up.

Attempt 2

I will be restarting the challenge and will properly be going with my other choice of clubs I wanted to manage... Marine. They are a very local club to me so hoping to bring some success.

Any tips on tactics for my second attempt? Any other tips on managing my clubs finances better and how do you go about bringing some talent into your club? Any help would be appreciated before I go again!

Really enjoying the challenge though and I am not giving up!

[Warhawk]

So at this point I've essentially resorted to instructing my players to basically straight-up murder the other team in an effort to get them to stop standing around and watching while the other team casually passes the ball around in the penalty box.  Seems to be working so far, beat 3rd place Blyth at home 2-0, was unlucky to lose 2-0 away to first place York in a game in which we were the better team, then destroyed our rivals Chorley on their own field 4-0.  More fouls and cards, of course, but a marked decrease in me yelling things like "DO SOMETHING!" and "STOP STANDING THERE YOU NUMPTY!"  In fact we beat Chorley so bad that their manager was fired before the post-match press conference and their interim manager showed up to do it (yeah that's probably how it always happens but I just like the idea that we humiliated a rival).

[TheEarl]

1 hour ago, PS-GamerNeil said:

So the five games to save my Job..........

Game 1 - 3-2 Defeat
Game 2 - 1-1 Draw
Game 3 - 0-0 Draw
Game 4 - 3-3 Draw (vs top of the league.. Typical)

My 5th game was away vs Alfreton Town (14th) This game was postponed due to a waterlogged pitch. This meant that my 5th game would be home against Worcester City who are sitting bottom of the league on 9 points from 29 games.

Game 5 - 4-1 defeat to bottom of the league...... SACKED!

So I managed to last 2 and a half seasons at Whitby Town but I struggled to get any tactic to work. I lost control of the Finances and struggled to get quality players into the club with this new scouting set up.

Attempt 2

I will be restarting the challenge and will properly be going with my other choice of clubs I wanted to manage... Marine. They are a very local club to me so hoping to bring some success.

Any tips on tactics for my second attempt? Any other tips on managing my clubs finances better and how do you go about bringing some talent into your club? Any help would be appreciated before I go again!

Really enjoying the challenge though and I am not giving up!

I feel you man, good luck with your next try.

For tactics maybe read some of the post of @XaW

[TheEarl]

TheEarl's Dafuge Quest (Second try)

Billericay Town - Season 2020/21 - Vanarama National League

Media prediction: 11th

Board demands: Top half of the table, 1st round of FA-Cup, 4th round of FA Trophy

Player demands (dynamics): This time around the players had the same expectations as the board.

As I told about earlier, the club who was already rich compared to other clubs in the division, went through a board takeover by a very rich business tycoon from Argentina. I survived the takeover (without any problems) and the club got even richer.

Takeover - Takeover2 - Takeover3

Formation(s): 4-3-3 all season, as I chopped out all wingers. Mostly playing attacking mentality, but changed for Counter Attacks in some games. Short passing, but switched between "Work ball into the box" and "Hit early crosses". Both seemed to work, as we easily had the best team in the league.

Finances: The club could spend nearly 1 million pounds for transfers, and 89k per week for wages. I spent only half of the wages and for transfers just moved some of it to scouting. The club lost money as always, but this season down to just 700k. The chairman then finished the season by putting in 2,1M pounds. What was really good this season was the fact that we could afford sending me to coaching courses. I now hold a Continental C-License and currently study for a Cont. B-License due to be finished in December. The club has also decided to build a new stadium The upgrade in capacity will only be a mere 500 from 4600-5100. But I think the new stadium will boost the club a bit. Still the chairman completely refuses to upgrade training/youth facilities. We are not even categorized in youth level, so thinking of some new gem of a youth player is totally out of the question. I will have to rely on signing new players or loaning some.

Season: We where pretty much unbeatable from the start. Only lost once in the opening half of the season. Port Vale followed us for almost half the season, but in the end we opened up a near 20 points gap. Lost a few games after the league was decided so the margin dropped somewhat after Newport County had a storming end to the season. FA-Cup was great until 3rd round proper when we lost away to Nottingham Forest by 4-2. The most disappointing fact was an attendance of only 9100. FA-Tropy we won after extra time at Wembley to beat Newport County playing extra time with only 10 men.

Final league table

Fixtures part 1 - Fixture part 2 - Fixture part 3

Not even bothering to mention youth intake, all players where scrapped.

Stats:

Highest Attendance: 2859 vs Gateshead Semifinal FA Trophy 

Highest Gate Receipts: 42,4K vs Boston United 2nd round of FA-Cup

Average Attendance: 2093

Top goalscorer: Eoghan Stokes 32 goals - All time: Eoghan Stokes 77 goals

Most assists: Eoghan Stokes 24 assists - All time: Eoghan Stokes 46 assists

Best Av.rat: Eoghan Stokes 7,60 Av.rat (50 matches) 

Most appearances: Eoghan Stokes 50 matches - All time: Eoghan Stokes 132 matches

Most MoM awards: Eoghan Stokes 10 MoM - All time: Eoghan Stokes 17 MoM

Career Overview

2018/19 - 4th in Vanarama South - 3rd QR FA-Cup - 3rd QR FA Trophy - Tom Heardman 18 goals - Ricky Modeste 18 assists - Tom Heardman 7,22 Av.rat - Shaun Rowley 45 matches

2019/20 - 1st in Vanarama South - 1st round FA Cup - 2nd round FA Trophy - Eoghan Stokes 27 goals - Eoghan Stokes 21 assists - Tolaji Bola 7,65 Av.rat - Eoghan Stokes 49 matches

2020/21 - 1st in Vanarama National - 3rd round FA Cup - Winner FA Trophy - Eoghan Stokes 32 goals - Eoghan Stokes 24 assists - Eoghan Stokes 7,60 Av.rat - Eoghan Stokes 50 matches

Career Trophies

1 Vanarama South, 1 Vanarama National, 1 FA Trophy

@HighFlyingDwarf noted for your updates. Having some troubles with screenshots at the moment, will edit them in later.

[cjb1986]

I have been holding out for 18.1.2 but I can resist no longer. Loading my first attempt up now 

[Sn00gle]

 

Season 2018/2019

Squad - League - Transfers - Finances - Manager

First touch with FM18 to be honest I didn't want to make a move to challenge allready but im not sure what or who move me to that but here we go. So basicly I wanted to test how new FM18 works, new scouting, tactical system, dynamic so no high expectation about results or in game so far. Scouting looks very promising (but sure everyone are happy about that), with dynamic I didn't have any problems so far but it's interesting mechanic in game and at the end tactic. I started season with 3-5-2 something like Tottenham is playing now friendlies were very cool wining over 3-0 but with better teams didnt work so well and league gave me right punch very fast. Then I switch to 4-3-3 with one striker in back and one more wide we score a lot of goals but in the same time we lose a lot of possesion and goals in fact. Season I ended with 6th place and tactic 4-1-2-2-1 with 2 wingers playing as striker it work less or more but still I didnt like it. In cup we reach 4th round and in FA we got knockout in 1 round. I couldnt do anything with facilities I only improved  youth budget. If we talk about young my intake was pretty cool I think Cheney is definitly our best prospect. Im probably first Dulwich manager in history of fm18 that didnt get promotion in first season we lost in play-off finals 1-2 unlucky. I should mention 3 best players in this season I guess Faal, Rees and Ferguson. I've got licence but I'ts  seems that bug with determination and youth working skill is still in game idk mby just didn't move with first grade. In the next season I want to ofc be promoted and find my own tactic.

 

Season    League            Position    FA Cup       FA Trophy      Training Facilities    Youth Facilities     Junior Coaching     Youth Recruitment   Achievements/Notes        Top Scorer             Most Assists                  Highest Avg Rating 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2018/19   Vanarama South    6th        4st Round      1st Round        Basic                   Basic                Adequate           Fairly Basic       Play-off Final           Faal (19)              Faal (13)                     Rees (7.61)