noikeee Posted September 2, 2018 Author Share Posted September 2, 2018 Mid-season update 2025/2026 I think the most relevant deals after the previous update were just two sales, Hungarian international CB Márton Köveshazi was thought not good enough for us anymore so I let him proceed his career at Anderlecht, and Polish midfielder Mateusz Rasmus was let go as well in a deal that could reach 4.7M€. Only Barcelona has beat us this season... and twice. We're now back to a nice long unbeaten run in the league, spanning 59 matches since two seasons ago, my goal would be to surpass our 78-match unbeaten run that was interrupted then. Újpest briefly led the league for a few weeks at the start, but then obviously couldn't keep up. I continue hogging every single young talent in Eastern Europe and have another 4 lined up to arrive in January. None are good enough for the first team yet, but who knows, one day... 18yo Serbian keeper, in for 190K. 19yo Czech CB. 675K deal - might've overpaid. 16yo Hungarian CM, 70K. Speaks volumes of how poor the youth talent is in Hungary that he's one of the very best that aren't coming from our academy... Probably the best signing of these 4, this 18yo Serbian winger should have real first team potential, I splashed 1M€ in him. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted September 2, 2018 Author Share Posted September 2, 2018 Hope that's a lucky 13th boding well for the World Cup. Breaking into the top 10 would be amazing, I hope I can still do that at some stage, but it's really tough to compete with the nations at this level with the players we have. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted September 4, 2018 Author Share Posted September 4, 2018 Tempting, eh? Biggest offer I've received yet, and not conditional on any clauses whatsoever. But it's Róbert, you'd better bring a billion if you wanna hire him. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted September 4, 2018 Author Share Posted September 4, 2018 Up to 54M€ + 36M€ instalments for a total of 90M€... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted September 4, 2018 Author Share Posted September 4, 2018 Youth intake 2026 It's a decent intake I think, Gergo Schmid is likely a real prospect, a future national team level winger, although not quite of the kind I like, his skills are a bit too pace-centric. One or two of the others could be decent but not stars. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted September 4, 2018 Author Share Posted September 4, 2018 UEFA Champions League 1st knockout round In Budapest, we really struggled again against a 4-2-3-1, now used by Man City. Somewhat luckily, we reached half-time winning 1-0 after scoring against the run of play, but the 2nd half would put the score right with City winning 2-1. It looked a grim result to take to England and things got even worse after Vladimir Makarov got sent off by minute 18. A miracle was needed now, and although we put in a pretty good performance considering we were down to 10 away to one of the world's best teams, we'd lose by a slightly harsh 3-1. It's an earlier exit from the CL than last year, we'll have to try harder next year. I think I got it tactically wrong in the 1st leg (tried to dabble with the 5-2-3-0 and the diamond 4-6-0, when later on in the 2nd leg a simple 4-1-4-1 formation seemed to deal with them better, before we were down to 10) and this cost us. Lessons to take for future seasons. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted September 6, 2018 Author Share Posted September 6, 2018 International friendlies An uninspiring 1-0 win over South Korea (although we probably could've scored more), and a pretty poor 3-1 defeat to Serbia away. Not the most exciting preparation for the World Cup. International debuts 3 teenagers got their very early first caps for Hungary in these friendlies: This Hungarian-English keeper with English name generated at West Ham (!) has been on my radar for a while, and my staff rate him extremely high, at the age of 18 being already supposedly the best Hungarian keeper. However I do not quite fancy his attributes spread and he is unexperienced at senior level. The MTK youth product has been rushed into the national team here at the age of 17 before he's really that good, and despite the year and a half older Bence Szakály YP23A being better in a lot of things, but my thinking is that we're very short on depth in CB as a few options age, and he's relatively quick which is a vital attribute. Another MTK teenager getting a cap before he should, but we're also very short on depth at RB and I needed to test him at this level in case one of our regular RBs gets injured ahead of the World Cup. He's not our youth product as we bought him from Videoton for 190K last season. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted September 6, 2018 Author Share Posted September 6, 2018 Always fun to see lots of your youth players (or former youth players, meanwhile sold) scoring everywhere in the Hungarian league. Maybe this is an extreme example but seems to happen almost every week these days... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted September 6, 2018 Author Share Posted September 6, 2018 FIFA World Cup 2026 - preliminary 30-man squad Uh-oh, there's lots of problems here as a handful of players have injuries they should all be recovering from at right about the beginning of the group stage. This is making me very indecisive about which of them I can take and which I can't... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted September 6, 2018 Author Share Posted September 6, 2018 FIFA World Cup 2026 - final 23-men squad The lucky final 23: Goalkeepers Hutvágner arrives at the World Cup firmly as 1st choice despite my staff rating teenager Grant Flynn higher. Former MTK keeper (and homegrown) Zsolt Gyarmati is the 3rd choice, despite him not seeing much of a football in Madeira this season. Fullbacks MTK star Sándor Laczkó is a million miles ahead of the other 3 players in here. The backup right-back is also from MTK as I decided to stick with teenager Dávid Zaicsek over a couple of other options - a key factor is that he can also play left-back. On the left Krisztián Tamás should start if he recovers from his injury in time, with the modest Dániel Molnár as his backup - not our greatest position. Centrebacks Komáromi-Köveshazi should repeat for Hungary a duo that we saw a few times a couple of years ago for MTK, whereas Donát Horgosi, also a former MTK player, will be considered a centerback backup now, although back in the Euros I was expecting him to play more as DM. Ákos Kecskés is probably a wee bit better but is injured at the moment, expected to return in time. Who was not expected to return in time is 33 years old veteran Ádám Lang, if fit he would've been a starter but unfortunately he will miss the World Cup due to injury. Defensive midfielders Nagy is unquestionably first choice for DM with MTK youth product Zsolt Pintér YP19E a backup with nowhere near the same quality; Horgosi and Kecskés can also play here if necessary. Midfielders There's depth here even if Szoboszlai, quite possibly the best player of all, might miss the first group game as he recovers from injury. As such, for now the duo of MCs might be Sallai-Szántó. An interesting note is most of these players double up as wingers and even as strikers in complete emergencies. Wingers Former MTK player Ivan Tejic is the only pure winger to get called up, I'm expecting to use the 4-3-3 wide and 4-1-4-1 shapes a lot so that might look concerning, but almost all of the midfielders and strikers can play wide anyway. Strikers The strongest area in the squad, the depth is such that I decided not to take Norbert Balogh (a surprise perhaps, he's been ever-present during my whole stint as national team manager) or Csaba Gáspár YP25A to the World Cup. Fedor YP20A is Hungary's biggest star at the moment, with Kitl, Szilvási and Csoboth also excellent players. All 4 of them can play wide to some competent extent in both AML and AMR positions. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted September 6, 2018 Author Share Posted September 6, 2018 UEFA Nations League draw Considering our recent defeat to Serbia, I'm not thrilled with having to face them, that's a national team I've been developing a lot of brilliant youth players for! Not an easy group but that's what happens when you get promoted twice in a row to Division B. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted September 6, 2018 Author Share Posted September 6, 2018 Holy ****, Kitl made the bookies' top goalscorer shortlist! Madness. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted September 6, 2018 Author Share Posted September 6, 2018 End of season update 2025/2026 Nothing of note happened in the transfer market, we loaned out players and the 4 kids we had lined up to arrive, surprise, arrived. We do however have a phenomenal player about to arrive which will be announced in due course! It was disappointing to drop out of the CL 2 rounds earlier than in the previous season, which meant that for the final part of the season we were left with just the domestic competitions. Predictably we steamrolled everything and finished the season again unbeaten in domestic matches - came just short of the record points total of last season as we drew 1 match more. We're now 6 matches away from overtaking the 78 matches unbeaten run in the league of a couple of years ago. I think the only thing we're missing in the CL is to nail tactics a bit better specially against the most aggressive AI setups, we've been particularly vulnerable the last couple of seasons against Barcelona and Man City and their 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3 formations whilst doing fine with everyone else, if we can understand how can we limit the threat of these teams we'd be very close to the top. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted September 7, 2018 Author Share Posted September 7, 2018 Squad review 2025/2026 Best 11 GK - Vladimir Denkovic A slight step-up in performance with slightly better ratings compared to last year, from our excellent keeper. DR - Sándor Laczkó There's some challenge for the position as Czech youngster Jiri Michalek puts the Hungarian international under pressure, but Sándor had a magnificent year with one of the team's highest ratings. He has reached a level I've never expected him to and is now genuinely a leading player of the squad. DL - Tomas Hofmann On the other flank Tomas' place in the squad looks under a little more threat. Now youngster Georgi Marinov and even the loaned out Martin Sumberac are both rated higher, and my staff rates him the weakest player in my starting 11. That being said he's not playing badly and does offer us good pace which is always key in my backline. DC - Mykola Spivak After last season in which I kept him in the 2nd 11, for him to adapt to MTK and Hungary, I decided to promote him to the first 11 this year (with Hungarian international Máté Komáromi relegated to the bench) and I think this was a good decision, he did great - although he seems to have maxed out his potential already. DC - Dragoljub Vukajlovic The other CB is still better though, at least on paper as his ratings were slightly lower than Spivak. Vukajlovic has been our highest rated defender for quite a few years now. DM - Vladimir Makarov Not a 100% fully convincing first season for MTK from our club record signing, compared to everyone else in this starting 11, but he's getting there and this is the position where ratings are always slightly lower - putting that into perspective I think a 7.35 average is more than alright! He could easily play almost anywhere else on the pitch with his superb skills, but has to sacrifice himself to play a fairly limited DM role for the team's benefit - and his addition to the squad makes our trio of midfielders a particularly fearsome strong area! MC - Konstantin Gladyshev ...this because the duo of MCs is quite simply a pair of monsters. Gladyshev didn't do particularly outstanding this year neither, but his skills are developing to an incredible level. MC - Tomislav Ilic That I rejected a 70M€ bid for him in the Summer says it all, he is astonishing. This time he could not reach double figures for both goals and assists, but 12G 7A respectively was alright. Bonkers 7.72 average rating in the league, 7.52 overall. AMR - Ivaylo Dimov Highest ratings in the squad again (7.80) and a great 11 goals and 18 assists, but the majority of all this came in the final months of the season when we were already knocked out of the CL, and I could just play my starting 11 most weeks in the weak Hungarian league. He is a player that plays better than he should on paper, but a monster player is about to arrive to challenge his place. AML - Róbert Fedor YP20A He's so good I rejected NINETY millions for him. No clauses, just instalments, straight 90M€ into the bank balance. But our homegrown superstar is irreplaceable, he achieved 21 goals this season which is great but the performances in the Champions League were particularly outstanding, a 7.63 ratings and 6 goals in this competition alone, where the level is so much greater than in the league which skews everyone's ratings, is spectacular. Best player of my national team by now, too. ST - Branimir Sutulovic An incredible transformation from the utter rubbish underperforming forward of last year, into the guy that scored the record goals in a season for me so far in this career - a nice round 30 goals, completed with a cup final goal, plus 11 assists. Granted, most of that was in the league whereas in the CL he was just alright, but this was a great year. He still has quite a bit of potential to reach into, too. Rest of the squad and 3 hottest prospects LB - Georgi Marinov Ready to be promoted into the first 11 now, he might not have been "born" a LB but it's time to replace Tomas Hofmann from next season on. Apart from the freak duo of midfielders Gladyshev-Ilic who are already world class, rated the highest potential in the squad. MC - Michal Mares Any other team in the world he'd be getting loads of games, and of course I'm starting him in the league a lot, but ultimately he's simply unlucky he has Gladyshev and Ilic to compete against for a midfield slot. As far as I know he's currently our only "wonderkid"! AML - Marko Celcic My project in turning this Croatian midfielder into a AML inside forward was cut abruptly shortly by damaged cruciate ligaments that kept him out of the football pitches for 6 months - only just recovered for a very short cameo in the cup final. He had amazing potential, but this setback and a poor personality might prevent him from reaching it. Career progress table Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted September 7, 2018 Author Share Posted September 7, 2018 Time to expand our 2023-built stadium.. again. It's the 2nd expansion since it was built 3 years ago. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodesire Posted September 7, 2018 Share Posted September 7, 2018 Great progress, noikeee! Your whole team is really impressive and given the stadium/league rep constraints, you've done a stellar job. One thing I noticed your current 11 is pretty much maxed out on potential. Where is improvement going to come from? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted September 7, 2018 Author Share Posted September 7, 2018 17 minutes ago, rodesire said: Great progress, noikeee! Your whole team is really impressive and given the stadium/league rep constraints, you've done a stellar job. One thing I noticed your current 11 is pretty much maxed out on potential. Where is improvement going to come from? That's indeed an issue I'm wondering about, where the improvements are going to come from, now that we've reached this level. The way I see it there's still a few avenues open for improvements on the short term: * youth players overtaking the first 11, for example LB is the obvious place, next year Tomas Hofmann might be dropped out completely and sold, as Georgi Marinov and Marin Sumberac (I loaned him out to Leverkusen) are both ready to take over. * signings - it's getting ever harder to spot U21 Eastern Europeans better than my first 11 but they still occasionally exist. I've splashed 22M€ on Gladyshev, 33M€ on Makarov, and am about to splash 32M€ on a monster Croatian winger. * tactics - I think I'm doing something wrong in Europe, the last couple of years we were dominated far too easily by Barcelona and Man City (which both seem to field similar tactics), I'm not sure I'll figure it out but there's scope for improvement. We're not as good as Barça/City, but by now do have the talent to at least make it hard for them. By the way there's a trick here that I'm not sure you spotted or I ever mentioned, and that's the ridiculously low wages we're paying, so effectively we're not THAT constrained by stadium and league rep since we don't actually spend that much money, at least certainly not as much as we should be paying to maintain such a bonkers squad. Some players are starting to wake up, for example I just had to give Makarov 200K€/month for him to renew his contract, but Sutulovic accepted a 35K€/month wage which is just a total rip-off. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
kidthekid Posted September 7, 2018 Share Posted September 7, 2018 7.35 for a DM is quite impressive Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted September 7, 2018 Author Share Posted September 7, 2018 7 hours ago, kidthekid said: 7.35 for a DM is quite impressive It is, but have you seen the ratings of the rest of the team playing in the Hungarian league inflates ratings for everyone. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted September 7, 2018 Author Share Posted September 7, 2018 International friendlies Our pre-World Cup friendlies started with a dreadful performance against the US at home, in which we got an unfair late goal to put us in the lead after being dominated by the US' 4-2-3-1 all game.... then they turned it around in the final 15 minutes anyway. **** poor and not a good sign for the competition. But then... uh, we beat Germany? We rode our luck but managed to put together a 4-1-4-1 on Standard mentality that limited the Germans' attacking 4-4-2 to few real true chances, despite them dominating the game, and then let us shine in occasional breaks. A bit lucky but a great win. However, this also happened: I was not expecting Szilvási to be a starter, as Kitl most likely will play upfront instead, but still a setback, Szilvási's fearsome pace could be a great weapon. I'm thinking he'll probably be back only for the knockout rounds. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted September 8, 2018 Author Share Posted September 8, 2018 The Hungarian league is getting serious, now closing by on the likes of the Belgian, Dutch or Greek leagues. We had already become bigger than the Turkish league last season. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted September 8, 2018 Author Share Posted September 8, 2018 FIFA World Cup 2026 group stage - round 1 An absolutely vital opening match against Iran where we cannot afford not to win. Lining up on the trusted, relatively aggressive 4-3-3 wide. Szboboszlai gets to start after recovering from injury, but his match sharpness is pretty poor. Iran on a slightly unusual narrow 4-2-3-1: When we hit the bar within the very first minute of play, I thought it was a good start, but unfortunately we couldn't develop on it. We largely dominated the match but struggled to create any real chances, with Iran posing a solid block, our forwards nervous, and our crossing atrocious. It's a poor 0-0 to kick off the World Cup. Another 0-0 between France and Mexico further complicates things. Assuming we'll get beat by France in the final round, we absolutely must beat Mexico in the next match to qualify. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted September 8, 2018 Author Share Posted September 8, 2018 FIFA World Cup 2026 group stage - round 2 Despite the fact it didn't work against Iran, I am lining up against Mexico almost exactly the same, just swapping Csoboth and Kitl from wing to striker position. I will however change a few roles here... We're just not having any luck this World Cup. Shocked by an early goal, we improved our performance greatly and started causing problems to Mexico, but missed a penalty kick. After the break however we got the equalizer through Sallai. But, Mexico then started chasing the result and getting increasingly dangerous. We adjusted, went to a backline of 5 dropping the DM to CB after Horgosi had came onto the pitch, and started looking safer... only to concede a late goal in a corner. It's a defeat that pretty much dooms us... Bizarrely, France drew 0-0 again, against Iran. This means we still can go through, but we'd have to beat France (and hope for Iran not to beat Mexico). It's a long shot... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted September 8, 2018 Author Share Posted September 8, 2018 FIFA World Cup 2026 group stage - round 3 Against France there is no other option than a more conservative 4-1-4-1. Szilvási is surprisingly already back from injury and replaces the tired Gábor Kitl. Likewise, goalscorer in the previous match Roland Sallai is tired and swapped by Tamás Szántó. László Kleinheisler also gets into the side at the expense of Kevin Csoboth due to the formational change as Csoboth is unsuitable to playing MR - Szoboszlai will play wide then with Kleinheisler in the middle. The first half was largely like the friendly against Germany pre-WC: we just held them off all day as they kept shooting... from distance. We managed to survive and reach half-time 0-0. And the game kept progressing... still no goals... still no goals... come the final 15 minutes we had to do something and started progressively risking more and more things, and started having chances too, if somewhat vague. Come injury time it was basketball, end-to-end football, but the ball ended up not going in, in neither net. And we dropped out of the World Cup. It's disappointing to get knocked out at the group stage, and by such fine margins! A goal in any of the 3 matches we played, would've done it. The damning thing really was not to beat Iran in the opener. We again, like the Euros, drop out at the hands of France - they somehow qualified with three 0-0s!! Competition stats Hard to pick a standout player from such a dull group stage, but the players to actually have positive (higher than 7.00) ratings are midfielder Roland Sallai who scored our only goal, and MTK centre-back Máté Komáromi. A disappointing tournament for our talented lineup of forwards. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
kidthekid Posted September 8, 2018 Share Posted September 8, 2018 Tough pill to swallow Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted September 8, 2018 Author Share Posted September 8, 2018 So tempting, but I can't find a player as good as him... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted September 8, 2018 Author Share Posted September 8, 2018 4 hours ago, kidthekid said: Tough pill to swallow It wasn't great, but oh well at least we were at the World Cup. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted September 8, 2018 Author Share Posted September 8, 2018 Meanwhile in Canada, in the last 16 of the World Cup... Ouch. edit: oh dear, double ouch! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted September 8, 2018 Author Share Posted September 8, 2018 Um wow, I didn't see this coming, nice job from the kids. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted September 8, 2018 Author Share Posted September 8, 2018 I was too weak and caved in to this. It was just way too bonkers of a transfer fee, and to top things off, it's a position we have depth in (Srecko Spremo will now play in his place, amazing player despite being weaker defensively). A fee that's 10 times larger than our previous record sale!!! 110 million euros unconditional to any clauses. Amazing. Goodbye Konstantin, you sexy beast of a midfielder. Have fun in Manchester. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted September 8, 2018 Author Share Posted September 8, 2018 Still on the Hungarian U19s, this happened: Hungary U19s finished 5th in the Euros essentially, 3rd in their group then beat Finland in the playoff to reach the U20 World Cup. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted September 8, 2018 Author Share Posted September 8, 2018 Pre-season 2026/2027 I decided to do the update at the end of July again, to include the big Gladyshev transfer already. Transfers One deal stands out above anything else and that is the insane 110M€ sale of Konstantin Gladyshev to Man City. That plus the CL money should keep us very wealthy for a while whatever happens. We're also starting to sell some youth players that didn't make it, for example I decided to let Czech forward Dusan Kodes go to Újpest, he was good enough to be kept as a secondary backup but when Hungarian clubs come in for players, I like giving them a hand to strenghten the league. As for signings, there is one huge signing that cost us 32,5M€, then just a bunch of long-term prospects. It's worth also mentioning that I returned to the squad quite a few players that were out on loan last year, namely left-back Marin Sumberac, centre-back Lubos Cerny, defensive midfielder Senad Corovic and midfielder Lukas Prucha. This makes a few settled older players redundant, but I haven't been able to sell them yet for good fees. This is this window's big signing, a monster winger. I had an eye on him for a long time but was unconvinced as he was all pace and nothing else, however in recent seasons he's developed to a point where he already has 13 crossing and dribbling etc. I want to turn him into a AMR inside forward, the question for now until he adapts is do I play him AMR on the Champions League already, or wait for him to adapt and play him on the left for now. 16yo Bosnian ST, 40K. My staff say he's **** but for 40K I think he's worth the gamble. 19yo Macedonian MC, on a free. Unlikely to make it big but on a free there's zero downside. 18yo Belarussian MC, 210K. Mildly promising but not a huge prospect. 19yo Serbian ST, 725K. Has potential but his skills should be better developed by now to be a real top striker. 16yo Hungarian CB, 300K. I always poach the best Hungarian talents so I can develop them for the national side. Some mild promise but unlikely to make it big. 16yo Czech CB, 850K. The best of the long-term signings IMO. Only just turned 16, so his skills look great for his age. A chunk of CA wasted on either-footedness though (why do I want this in a CB?). Remains to be seen whether we'll miss Gladyshev as despite our great strenght in midfield we don't have any real similar player - maybe Makarov but then I'd need a player at DM too; another alternative is moving back Ilic to BBM and then Mares or Spremo would play Mezzala. Whatever happens in midfield, the signing of Zvonimir Grujic is very exciting and really improves our attacking strenght. And with the Gladyshev sale we now have lots of accumulated wealth to poach any other great player that shows in Eastern Europe in the coming years. Meanwhile, I'm hoping we can return to the latter stages of the Champions League this year. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikulec Posted September 8, 2018 Share Posted September 8, 2018 Grujic is a monster, great signing. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted September 8, 2018 Author Share Posted September 8, 2018 Our defence has been doing alright lately. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted September 8, 2018 Author Share Posted September 8, 2018 11 minutes ago, Rikulec said: Grujic is a monster, great signing. So far he's looked great at missing penalty kicks. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
PT-KK Posted September 8, 2018 Share Posted September 8, 2018 Just read this entire thread and kudos for the awesome work. I actually got curious about the tactics you use, mainly the 433, because it appears similar to something I had on a previous save, but the results were nowhere near what you have. Do you have a lot of PI's? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted September 9, 2018 Author Share Posted September 9, 2018 2 hours ago, PT-KK said: Just read this entire thread and kudos for the awesome work. I actually got curious about the tactics you use, mainly the 433, because it appears similar to something I had on a previous save, but the results were nowhere near what you have. Do you have a lot of PI's? Thanks, I've really enjoyed this career so far and I hope my enthusiasm comes off in the writing, think it's been hands down one of my most fun careers ever, and I've had a lot of careers in this forum over the years. The 4-3-3 doesn't have a lot of PIs, but the few I have are fairly important. Basically this isn't even really my own tactic, what happened is that at the beginning I wanted to build a tactic that was robust enough for me to set it and forget it and play on instant result (which I've done in all domestic matches for 6 or 7 seasons). So I went to tactics download forum to have a lookaround at what worked for people, and noticed a 4-3-3 by @knap that was quite similar to one that I'd been working on. So I took my tactic and progressively added Knap's concepts until it clicked really well, ultimately ended up with the exact same roles as him and most TIs but not PIs - the whole reason I wanted to start from my own tactic is that, despite the fact his tactics are great, I don't like how he adds tons of PIs to every single player, this makes it hard to flexibly change things throughout a match. The PIs I currently have in the 4-3-3 is the following: keeper - roll it out, distribute quickly (I've added distribute to fullbacks too recently) FBs (WB/As) - shoot less often DM - shoot less often Mezzala - shoot less often, mark tighter BBM - shoot less often, mark tighter, get further forward left IF/S - shoot less often, mark tighter, get further forward right IF/A - shoot less often, mark tighter striker - shoot less often Basically this is all to limit long shots (very important), to have a relatively high block from my midfielders and wingers tight-marking, and for some players to run forward too despite starting from supporting roles. I also have my set pieces which make a big difference. By "mine" I mean they're ones I nicked most concepts from the strikerless blog back from FM17. The default set pieces on FM18 are ****ing awful and getting the set pieces right, easily adds at least 5 more goals scored and 5 fewer conceded per season - conservative estimate. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted September 9, 2018 Author Share Posted September 9, 2018 Yay, the unbeaten run in the league has finally overtook the one from before. 79 matches! Can we make it to 100? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted September 9, 2018 Author Share Posted September 9, 2018 Champions League group stage draw We were seeded 1st. As national champions of one of the top 8 leagues in European coefficients (Hungary is now 8th in that), I presume. This made for a great draw, I'm confident we can beat at least Bordeaux and Legia - now Liverpool obviously are a different category of opponent. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted September 9, 2018 Author Share Posted September 9, 2018 International friendly and UEFA Nations League Division B The friendly against Australia was just perfect, heavy win, total domination. Against Serbia, now on a competitive match, we continued the level of performance... except the finishing. We dominated Serbia, but conceded in a corner against the run of play, and the best we could do was equalize it in the 2nd half. Nevertheless we set a new record for a sequence of unbeatean matches in the Nations League! Spanning the previous 2 editions in which we were in divisions D and C, of course. Serbia beat Russia and are looking good to top the group ahead of us. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted September 9, 2018 Author Share Posted September 9, 2018 About to play Bordeaux in the CL, expecting easy opposition... and I had totally missed that they have this striker: Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted September 9, 2018 Author Share Posted September 9, 2018 Conceding is for sissies. First time I've ever had anything like this, crazy. This is in all competitions btw. It's late September and we haven't conceded a single goal this season, not even in friendlies. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted September 10, 2018 Author Share Posted September 10, 2018 We're about to play Liverpool away so since this is bound to end, I need to take a screenie of the run so far from the beginning of this season. Beautiful. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
PT-KK Posted September 10, 2018 Share Posted September 10, 2018 On 09/09/2018 at 02:17, noikeee said: The 4-3-3 doesn't have a lot of PIs, but the few I have are fairly important. Basically this isn't even really my own tactic, what happened is that at the beginning I wanted to build a tactic that was robust enough for me to set it and forget it and play on instant result (which I've done in all domestic matches for 6 or 7 seasons). So I went to tactics download forum to have a lookaround at what worked for people, and noticed a 4-3-3 by @knap that was quite similar to one that I'd been working on. So I took my tactic and progressively added Knap's concepts until it clicked really well, ultimately ended up with the exact same roles as him and most TIs but not PIs - the whole reason I wanted to start from my own tactic is that, despite the fact his tactics are great, I don't like how he adds tons of PIs to every single player, this makes it hard to flexibly change things throughout a match. The PIs I currently have in the 4-3-3 is the following: keeper - roll it out, distribute quickly (I've added distribute to fullbacks too recently) FBs (WB/As) - shoot less often DM - shoot less often Mezzala - shoot less often, mark tighter BBM - shoot less often, mark tighter, get further forward left IF/S - shoot less often, mark tighter, get further forward right IF/A - shoot less often, mark tighter striker - shoot less often Yeah, more or less what I have. However, since I'm managing HSV and I have Lasogga upfront, I tend to exploit the flanks, to up the mentality of the wing backs a little bit more and increase the number of crosses. Another thing that "bugs" me is the teams that start the game already with 5 defenders or 4 defenders and 2 DM's that don't move at all. Find quite hard to break sides like that. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted September 10, 2018 Author Share Posted September 10, 2018 15 minutes ago, PT-KK said: Yeah, more or less what I have. However, since I'm managing HSV and I have Lasogga upfront, I tend to exploit the flanks, to up the mentality of the wing backs a little bit more and increase the number of crosses. Another thing that "bugs" me is the teams that start the game already with 5 defenders or 4 defenders and 2 DM's that don't move at all. Find quite hard to break sides like that. Interestingly, whilst I really struggled to break down teams like that in FM17 (amusingly, with HSV!!), I'd say that's the ideal scenario for this tactic IMO, I don't really have problems breaking down parked buses. I believe the secret is having both wingbacks on WB/A, on paper that looks risky but in reality if the opposition isn't going to attack at all, then you can afford them and they add a hell of a lot of width. But I don't have the WBs to cross as that's usually wasteful, I believe their real strenght is to add width and open up lateral space. When you start passing the ball from wing to wing, and keep players rushing into the area anyway, things start happening and these parked buses eventually crumble. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted September 10, 2018 Author Share Posted September 10, 2018 UEFA Nations League Division B In Russia we were playing mildly well when we gave away a penalty kick and then had to fight for it - thankfully we got the goal through MTK centre-back Komáromi in a corner. In Serbia it went worse though. They got a goal before we could understand what was going on, and we were lucky that they didn't add another in a penalty. We improved our balance and made this a tight match from the middle of the 1st half onwards but it was them who added another through MTK striker Sutulovic. At the end I found myself experimenting with reverting to the 4-4-2 from my Derby/Valencia career, a completely different tactic that seemed to be working in this particular match but still gave us no goal. We're now fighting not to get relegated from Division B - we might need to beat Russia in Budapest for that. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted September 10, 2018 Author Share Posted September 10, 2018 This evening in the Hungarian league, the only match none of our youth products score is ours... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted September 10, 2018 Author Share Posted September 10, 2018 UEFA Champions League group stage - rounds 1, 2 and 3 This has been surprisingly rather easy so far! Against Bordeaux we got it done early, against Liverpool although we were largely fortunate, we managed to nick a goal against the run of play and hold on to it; and in Poland, although we let them draw from 2-0 up to 2-2, we solved that situation fairly quickly to win 4-2 with a Fedor YP20A hat-trick. I was just very annoyed that match in Poland ended our non-conceding run this season!! Looking good to top the group now. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted September 10, 2018 Author Share Posted September 10, 2018 Another club record (in all competitions). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted September 10, 2018 Author Share Posted September 10, 2018 UEFA Champions League group stage - round 4 No surprise as we achieve one of our biggest European wins ever, but there's a wild curiosity here: all 7 of our goals were scored by Serbian players! A hat-trick by a midfielder and a brace by a centre-back in corners, too. ... and we're already qualified. A single point against Bordeaux or Liverpool in the remaining 2 matches guarantees our first place in the group. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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