A Decade in The Sun - The Very Best of A New Roman Empire

[zlatanera]

(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction

The above goal is just perfect in terms of players doing exactly what they’ve been instructed to:

• Play Out Of Defence gives us that nice shape with Tonali dropping deep, then it combines with Distribute To Centre-Backs to make Lafont kick it short to Upamecano.

• Upamecano's trait ‘Brings Ball Out Of Defence’ combined with my Dribble More instruction sees him drive forwards making their striker a non-entity defensively before he lays it off to a playmaker (which is the purpose of playmakers).

• Lorenzo Pellegrini's role has Take More Risks hard-coded and combines with his traits of ‘Tries Killer Balls Often’, ‘Tries Long Range Passes’ to see him take out 4 men with a quick, direct pass for Ünder (Get Further Forward, ‘Likes To Try To Beat Offside Trap’).

• Ünder then beats his man - Cut Inside With Ball, 'Cuts Inside From Right Wing' before pulling it back for our striker, Campanella, to do what he does best! (I'm also training Campanella 'Tries First Time Shots' but so far his only trait is 'Places Shots' and this is at such close range I don't think it necessarily applies, although you argue for it given how he puts it into the far side of the goal).

Edited June 7, 2021 by zlatanera

[zlatanera]

2024/25 - Episode VI

• Luka Jovic missed this one through suspension, but Campanella sure stepped up! Campanella is actually incredibly similar attribute-wise to Jovic, only 4cm shorter, weak at Penalties (I devoted too much time to training his Free Kick Taking in his youth) and not two-footed, otherwise he would have been my main striker this season. 
• One issue with winning the league so insanely early (2nd April 2025) is that a few players - including Campanella - didn't reach the requisite 10 appearances. It doesn't matter if they they pass the threshold afterwards (Campanella was on 9), they won't get a medal. I don't like that when I look back at player histories. Still, in real life I think we would get guard of honour in our next match...the Derby della Capitale! So I'll reconcile myself with the imaginary tears of Lazio ultras.

• Returning to the team for the derby, Luka Jovic scored our 4th goal - his 30th of the season - and broke Rodolfo Volk's near century-old record of 29 league goals from 1931/32!
• Volk's record is actually 1930/31 according to Wikipedia, but either way it was in a 34-game league. As Jovic would only play 32 games by the end of the season, I'm still counting this one.
• Hertha have quietly built a decent enough, newgen-heavy team and they put up a good fight initially in the first leg, until Ünder turned on Messi mode, not only scoring a screamer in the 87th minute but then assisting Kluivert to really kill the tie...
• ...or so I thought! At Olympiastadion they shocked us by scoring twice in 5 minutes which had me genuinely concerned. Jovic grabbed an away goal and after that the game calmed down. That was his 40th in all competitions, breaking Edin Dzeko's record of 39 in 2016/17! It was also our first loss since May 2025, an incredible 285 games!! 
• The Manchester United tie (its bizarre how I've faced my favourite club in the later stages for 4 consecutive seasons - surely we should be considered rivals by now?) was very tight, some outstanding saves from Lafont keeping us in it. He's not a headline-grabber but I really miss Nicolò Zaniolo in games such as that, his aggressive approach would have helped us break their Pogba - Milinkovic-Savic double pivot.
• Dante Lopez made his debut at Pescara, 20 days shy of his 16th birthday. He didn't score or assist but got a deserved 7.3 rating. I started him against Palermo too and he grabbed his first goal for the club - again, 15 years old - chesting down a header in the area and placing a volley into the far corner with his weak foot!

Edited May 23, 2021 by zlatanera
Luka Jovic scored his 40th - not 50th - goal in Berlin; Grammar

[04texag]

16 minutes ago, zlatanera said:

2024/25 - Episode VI

• Luka Jovic missed this one through suspension, but Campanella sure stepped up! Campanella is actually incredibly similar attribute-wise to Jovic, only 4cm shorter, weak at Penalties (I devoted too much time to training his Free Kick Taking in his youth) and not two-footed, otherwise he would have been my main striker this season. 
• One issue with winning the league so insanely early (2nd April 2025) is that a few players - including Campanella - didn't reach the requisite 10 appearances. It doesn't matter if they they pass the threshold afterwards (Campanella was on 9), they won't get a medal. I don't like that when I look back at player histories. Still, in real life I think we would get guard of honour in our next match...the Derby della Capitale! So I'll reconcile myself with the imaginary tears of Lazio ultras.

• Returning to the team for the derby, Luka Jovic scored our 4th goal - his 30th of the season - and broke Rodolfo Volk's near century-old record of 29 league goals from 1931/32!
• Hertha have quietly built a decent enough, newgen-heavy team and they put up a good fight initially in the first leg, until Ünder turned on Messi mode, not only scoring a screamer in the 87th minute but then assisting Kluivert to really kill the tie...
• ...or so I thought! At Olympiastadion they shocked us by scoring twice in 5 minutes which had me genuinely concerned. Jovic grabbed an away goal and after that the game calmed down. That was his 50th in all competitions, breaking Edin Dzeko's record of 39 in 2016/17! It was also our first loss since May 2025, an incredible 285 games!! 
• The Manchester United tie (its bizarre how I've faced my favourite club in the later stages for 4 consecutive seasons - surely we should be considered rivals by now?) was very tight, some outstanding saves from Lafont keeping us in it. He's not a headline-grabber but I really miss Nicolò Zaniolo in games such as that, his aggressive approach would have helped us break their Pogba - Milinkovic-Savic double pivot.
• Dante Lopez made his debut at Pescara, 20 days shy of his 16th birthday. He didn't score or assist but got a deserved 7.3 rating. I started him against Palermo too and he grabbed his first goal for the club - again, 15 years old - cheating down a header in the area and placing a volley into the far corner with his weak foot!

So crazy seeing that red up on the screen, but kind of nice to see your human.

You definitely have faced United a lot. Do you ever play as them? I'm funny and never have done a save as my favorite team, City.

[zlatanera]

@04texag I actually forgot I'd even lost, because they scored so early on, Jovic got yet another goal, and we won the tie. I thought United were the first team to beat us! Its kinda gutting in hindsight as I could have reach 300 by the end of August, but also relieving as its just such an incredible streak I don't care about trying to beat it. 

Yes, Manchester United are usually my first team in every FM. 19 was an exception as I wanted to have another go at River Plate, having only started playing outside of Europe on 18. But after a beta save with them, United were my first proper one. This was just as Ole first took over, and I got three consecutive 30-goal seasons out of Martial using him as Mbappé in the Monaco recreation. If I use FM20 at all before jumping to FM21 when I finally bore of this, it will be to have a go with that small squad they had last season (with the January update so I have Bruno of course). 

I'm surprised given your attempts at Juego de Posicion that you haven't attempted it on easy mode yet, their squad in FM18 and 19 was pretty much perfect (haven't seen him on 21, but I'm not so keen on Rodrigo as a Sané replacement).

Edited November 29, 2020 by zlatanera

[04texag]

Ya, they have a wonderful squad for it. I'd take last year's squad, as I'm a huge David Silva fan. I think this year's could be just as good. I'm actually a very big anti sterling, he is just not a good player for pep's style, he is sloppy in possession, and very inconsistent. I would move him and get an older veteran to mentor and go along side Ferran Torres and Phil Foden. Plus, I like Ruben Dias a lot.

I've never done outside of Europe except my very first save which was with my MLS Houston Dynamo. My god the MLS is terrible.

River Plate would be a fun one.

[zlatanera]

26 minutes ago, 04texag said:

Ya, they have a wonderful squad for it. I'd take last year's squad, as I'm a huge David Silva fan. I think this year's could be just as good. I'm actually a very big anti sterling, he is just not a good player for pep's style, he is sloppy in possession, and very inconsistent. I would move him and get an older veteran to mentor and go along side Ferran Torres and Phil Foden. Plus, I like Ruben Dias a lot.

I've never done outside of Europe except my very first save which was with my MLS Houston Dynamo. My god the MLS is terrible.

River Plate would be a fun one.

Mmm, I was frustrated when Dias signed as I would have loved to see him at United.

I tried MLS with Atlanta United on FM19 (2018 season) just after Almirón signed for Newcastle. It didn't stick. I think I made it through a season with Toronto on an earlier version though, somehow managed to loan all the Boca Juniors wonder kids like Bentancur.

Yeah, the Argentine league is insane, it keeps changing structure as they work back towards a 38-game 20-team system. They introduced a new cup competition for 2018-19 because there weren't enough fixtures to keep the clubs in the black, then changed its structure after just one season too. I think I had a 15-game month once on FM18.

[zlatanera]

Finale di Champions League 2025

No more minute-by-minute commentary. I know my team are brilliant, I'm much more concerned with youth development now.

It seems appropriate that in a stadium named after Ferenc Puskás we not only had a striker scoring at a rate higher than 1 goal per game, but an absolute goal-fest final with the losing side scoring a goal that could compete for the eponymous award (Jovic's bicycle kick from earlier in the season would take it). That's our 5th in a row, equalling Real Madrid's record too!

That shot count is misleading, in all the key statistics this was a very even game. When Sané did pull a goal back with 3 minutes plus 5 minutes of added time remaining I actually adjusted my tactics to keep the ball, something I have rarely ever done with this side.

Edited November 29, 2020 by zlatanera

[04texag]

3 minutes ago, zlatanera said:

Yeah, the Argentine league is insane,

I actually simmed some of a Brazil Santos team now that I think about it. Brazil is insane with the numbers of games. 

[zlatanera]

2 minutes ago, 04texag said:

I actually simmed some of a Brazil Santos team now that I think about it. Brazil is insane with the numbers of games. 

Yeah, would be really good for my style of play actually, the way I tend to have two First XIs rather than a squad. At least in the case of Brazil its for historic reasons though, whereas Argentina is just administrative chaos.

[zlatanera]

On 07/11/2020 at 21:53, zlatanera said:

Campo d'Allenamento

As promised, my youth training overhaul! I've drawn inspiration from my previous routines, Guido's FM20 routines, and the default schedules in the game to - I hope - mould players more to my liking.

I decided upon four sets of routines each with variations for 0, 1, and 2 matches in the week: Attacking, Defending, Transition, and Possession. Rather than just drilling the same individual focusses over and over and over again, I'll now mix things up for the players to keep it interesting. Having said that, I did generally get 8.0+ training ratings across the board with the old system so perhaps players are just robots! 

 

Spoiler

 

This is sort of the 'core' routine from which the others are all built around. I knew I needed some physical sessions as this is the time where the biggest gains can be made, the default schedules have two so I just imitated them. Individual role training hasn't exactly failed me, its more that I'm a perfectionist, so an entire day is dedicated to this with an equal split between the Attacking and Defensive units. Then given I play a possession-based style of football, there are two Possession sessions to ensure my entire outfield are capable with the ball at their feet.

This would be a very image-heavy post, so I'll utilise spoilers to show the variants of each focus. 

Attacking

  Reveal hidden contents

The first to go is the second day of match preparation, replaced by an actual match. Then for a week with two fixtures I also remove the Physical sessions as the players should be getting enough of a work out, particularly given I will still be instructing the players to train their individual focus at Double Intensity.

Poor development of attacking capabilities was a real inspiration for the new schedules as I was at risk of constructing a club of guys who are great at passing it around the back but incapable of beating their man one on one or getting past the goalkeeper. So here we have all three Attacking sessions used twice in the week, along with the two most relevant technical sessions: Chance Conversion and Chance Creation. Shadow Play hits the players' mental faculties separately with a much lower physical strain than other sessions. I had too much week to fill so added in a second match prep day, then to fill one final slot in a match-free week I added Ball Distribution as it hits relevant attributes (Dribbling, Passing, Decisions, Vision, Teamwork).

I will look to rotate my full backs into the Attacking training unit every three months in order to improve their technical capabilities. In particular Crossing, Dribbling, and Vision should be improved as this is an area where the majority of newgen full backs are found wanting.

Defending

  Reveal hidden contents

The main focus of these sessions is still on the Defensive unit which is why the goalkeeping sessions (confusingly the same colour as defensive sessions in this skin, although I see the logic) are the first to go when we have matches.

There are five Defending sessions in total so firstly I made sure they were all used. Similar to the Attacking schedules I add in Shadow Play to work on players' intelligence. There was no real logic to choosing Ground Defence and Aerial Defence as the sessions that don't get repeated. I knew I needed to get some goalkeeper training in somewhere each month so given they are the last line of the defence, I chose to devote Sunday to goalkeeping sessions instead of more match preparation.

Transition

  Reveal hidden contents

I was in two minds about whether or not this warranted a dedicated week. There are two technical sessions titled Transition - which affect the Attacking and Defensive units equally, but Transition - Restrict would see me training Marking and Positioning onto my forward line. So we have four Transition - Press sessions (First Touch, Passing, Tackling, Anticipation, Aggression, Decisions, Teamwork, Work Rate). These are beneficial in hitting areas I find harder to get for defenders in general (First Touch, Passing), centre backs (Teamwork, Work Rate) and forwards (Aggression, Teamwork). Then I threw in some more Shadow Play as mental attributes are essential for an effective press too, and Goalkeeping sessions so that ideally we'll see our goalkeepers get the equivalent of 2 days' exclusive training each month between the Defensive and Transition schedules. 

Possession

  Reveal hidden contents

Initially I just filled this week with Ball Distribution, Ball Retention, and Chance Creation sessions. However I then looked closer and realised that they only develop the technical attributes of the Attacking unit. So there are many extra general Possession sessions to cover the Defensive unit. There are also Distribution sessions for the goalkeepers.

 

 

A quick update on this: after two years, I'm seeing absolutely no difference in the - generally positive, with some exemptions - development of my players. Personality appears to be the primary factor influencing the speed of development (although some players do - perhaps as part of the added realism in development from FM19 onwards - just seem to pause for a year or so, whilst others are like old fashioned newgens turning into top class talents by age 18). Individual role training is the primary driver in focussing attribute development (except for Alen Miletic weirdly improving his Crossing attribute by 2 despite it never being part of his role training, whilst many players who were training it showed no improvement).

Set piece attribute development has stayed steady despite my removing the sessions from the schedules, which confirms what I belatedly realised - that without fully controlling the youth teams and thus being able to specify set piece takers, those were wasted sessions. 

I've actually come to the conclusion that delegating youth training would probably see no noticeable drop-off in player development, but I'm a control freak. So I'll be reverting to my match prep-heavy schedules that train individual roles instead. The only significant changes from those I posted in my Les Gones thread are the removal of all set piece training and the addition of a few rest sessions as with my small youth squads I did find a two-game week to be almost a guarantee of at least one 1-2 month injury.

Edited June 15, 2021 by zlatanera

[zlatanera]

Die Meister, Die Besten, Les grandes équipes, The Naatiooons Leeeague!

The 2025 edition of the Nations League is hosted by England Brighton, with all fixtures taking place at Amex Stadium. Despite our successes with the 4-4-2 DM in our early World Cup Qualifiers, I picked a squad primarily to play 4-3-3 / 4-2-3-1. 8 Roma players (Busti, Campanella, Chiesa, D'Ambrosio, Lo. Pellegrini, Lu. Pellegrini, Tonali, and Zaniolo) and 3 ex-Roma (Corbo, Cristante, and Varnier) made up the core of the squad, with Milan's Gianluigi Donnarumma and Juve's Federico Bernardeschi the only nailed-on starters not to have previously worked with me.

I initially sent out the blues in my trusty 4-3-3, and although we quickly pegged back the Dutch after a lightning start,  I wasn't happy. A 35-year old Daley Blind at left back should have been an open invitation for the former-Fiorentina Chiesa-Bernardeschi right flank to run riot, but the defensive triad of de Ligt, van Dijk, and de Jong were immune to our press. Switching to the 4-4-2 DM with Zaniolo on the right and Bernardeschi on the left at half time saw us become much more threatening, although the disconnect between the largely Roma midfield and Andrea Belotti was terrible. Still, Kenny Tete was forced into a professional foul to stop Amad Traore running clear and finishing it inside 90 minutes, so it was no surprise when the same player surged down the left and set up Campanella to win it soon after the extra time kick-off!

Germany are man-to-man better than us, so I started out with the 4-4-2, with Giovanni D'Ambrosio (fresh off a 32-goal debut professional season in Switzerland) partnering Campanella up top. Havertz' early goal on the counter had me fearing a Brazil 2014-esque demolition, but we rallied and arguably should have put the game to bed before Goretzka's equaliser dragged this one out too. I expected Bernardeschi to be MotM if I'm being honest, he ran himself into a month-long injury playing two positions and provided the pre-assist for Cristante's winner. 

So, not the Italian Total Football I was hoping to develop, but a trophy is a trophy!

[zlatanera]

Premi del Club e Statistiche della Squadra

No surprises here with Jovic as Fans' Player of the Season given his incredible form. Campanella hit double figures again despite reduced minutes, including the title-sealing hat-trick. Attribute-wise he's actually about equal with Jovic, a much better dribbler but not two-footed. The only surprises in that Team of the Season are Rossini > Chiesa and Tonali > Grall.

Four players aren't pictured on this screenshot: Filippo Favero: 3 apps, 1 assist, 7.30; Jan Böhler: 1 app, 6.40; Dante Lopez: 2 apps, 1 goal, 1 assist, 7.75; Alen Miletic: 1 app, 1 goal, 6.90. Alessandro Florenzi's strange appearances is because I kept subbing him on at 90 minutes to a) get him a league winners' medal and b) see that he finishes his career with an "even" number of appearances at the club (345). None after January though, as I've basically pushed him into retirement. Luca Busti's high average rating was a pleasant surprise given he has played all across the back line. Javier Ospitaleche wasn't expected to move up to the first team this season but performed well when van Maanen was injured. Justin Kluviert couldn't match last season's production, which is unsurprising given he's not really a goalscorer anyway. King Kyle's goal tally dropped for the 3rd consecutive season as newer, shinier things have taken some of his opportunities. But given the well-documented struggles to get AMC to be productive on FM19/20, I'm quite pleased with 9 goals and 9 assists (although he can take set pieces, he rarely did due to Pellegrini, Ünder and/or Marcello being ahead of him depending which team he appeared with. A glance at Alberto Fenu's history page doesn't look great, as only 4 of those goals came in the league, but hitting double figures and scoring an International hat-trick (admittedly in that demolition of Faroe Islands) age 16 (now 17) is a pretty impressive start!

I'm actually devoting a separate post to Jovic's exploits so for now I'll end with Cengiz Ünder. Possibly my favourite real player of this save - although Jovic comes close, I think I prefer the guy assisting all those Champions League Final goals - his consistency is amazing: his seasons under me are as follows: 14G 7A; 23G 17A; 25G 13A; 14G 11A; 22G 12A; 21G 12A; 22G 12A. Other than the first season, 2021/22 was the only time he didn't hit 20 goals and that can be easily explained by him missing the entire month of March with injury, as he normally turns up in the big games. 

[zlatanera]

The Serbian Supremacy

Something I alluded to throughout the season  is that Luka Jovic hit - and maintained - the form of his life. The raw numbers are in the post above, but I'll restate them here as those stats screens confirm the allegation that FM is a "glorified spreadsheet".

Its not unusual - particularly for me, when I give a youngster a start in an easy game - to see a player with more goals than games...but over a full season, with 42 starts? Those 49 goals exactly equal Jovic's tally over the previous two seasons when he made 65 starts, and work out at an average of 1.17 goals per 90 minutes!

The league was, unsurprisingly, where most of those goals came with 38 in 32. Luka had the most MotM awards (8 - 1/4 of his appearances), the highest average rating (7.90), grabbed those 38 goals in 76 shots on target (exactly 1 in 2) out of 124 total, for a conversion rate of 30% (highest in the league), although admittedly took more penalties than the next five players combined (15 penalties, 15 goals), whilst not even ranking top for offsides such was the quality of his movement. 

He scored in the UEFA Super Cup (1), Club World Cup Final (5), Supercoppa Italiana (1), Coppa Italia Final (1), and Champions League Final (1), in his first league game of the season (a hat-trick against Cagliari) and the last (a brace against Empoli). Those two goals in UEFA finals were the team's first and last games too. 

He beat or equalled a couple of my personal FM records:

• 49 goals far eclipses my FM19 record of 33 goals from Anthony Martial (who also scored the winner in the Champions League that season). 
• 49 goals equals André Silva's 49 for my Milan side on FM18. He scored more penalties, and 1 fewer in the league but that squad were continental also-rans whereas Jovic lives for the Champions League Final.

He also beat real life records:

• Despite what the screenshot above says, the Serie A goalscoring record is 36 goals. Gonzalo Higuain first achieved it in 2015/16, and Ciro Immobile equalled it in 2019/20. 
• Also in 2019/20 Immobile set a record for the most penalties in a season with 14. Jovic took 16 with a 100% conversion rate.
• The highest-scoring season by a Roma player was Edin Dzeko's 39 goals in 2016/17, which Jovic matched then added another 10 to!

On 23/10/2020 at 23:17, zlatanera said:

I decided to look up club records in real life and see how they compare. Of particular interest was this table of players who scored 50+ goals for the club:

 

• In reality I'd expect Dzeko to nab 3rd this season barring something calamitous, but in the world of my save he's already there with 125 goals!
• Cengiz Ünder is 9th with 84.
• Patrik Schick would then slot in at 10th with 83.
• Daniele De Rossi would be joint-15th alongside Agostino Di Bartolomei with 69.
• Luka Jovic, with one of the best Goals/match ratios on the list, would already be 24th with 51 goals in two season so far!

Given my new focus Jovic most likely will be sold in 2-3 years, but were he to continue scoring at the same rate it would take him 10-11 seasons to overhaul Totti at #1, a testament to the legend's consistency as well as his longevity. 

3 seasons ago, I predicted Jovic would take 10-11 years to overhaul Totti. He's now up to 2nd with 149 goals in 191 appearances. 0.78 Goals/match makes him by far the most productive in that ranking. If he maintained his current rate he would match Totti in 123 games, or about 3 years, for a total of 7 seasons. As much as I would find it an aberration, I'm sorely tempted to forgo some youth development and chase it down!

Edited December 17, 2020 by zlatanera

[zlatanera]

On 23/10/2020 at 23:17, zlatanera said:

Categorizzazione

Secondly is that as players from my first European title start to retire, I decided to look up club records in real life and see how they compare. Of particular interest was this table of players who scored 50+ goals for the club:

 

• In reality I'd expect Dzeko to nab 3rd this season barring something calamitous, but in the world of my save he's already there with 125 goals!
• Cengiz Ünder is 9th with 84.
• Patrik Schick would then slot in at 10th with 83.
• Daniele De Rossi would be joint-15th alongside Agostino Di Bartolomei with 69.
• Luka Jovic, with one of the best Goals/match ratios on the list, would already be 24th with 51 goals in two season so far!

Given my new focus Jovic most likely will be sold in 2-3 years, but were he to continue scoring at the same rate it would take him 10-11 seasons to overhaul Totti at #1, a testament to the legend's consistency as well as his longevity. 

• As previously stated, Luka Jovic is up in 2nd with 149 goals.
• He would actually share this position with Cengiz Ünder, who also has 149 goals!!
• Apologies to Stephan El Shaarawy - missed off the previous ranking - who would rank 13th with 76 goals.
• Justin Kluivert and Lorenzo Pellegrini would be joint-16th alongside Agostino Di Bartolomei (and in-game Daniele De Rossi) with 69.
• Nicolò Zaniolo would be 18th its 65 goals.
• Amad Traore would be 25th with 50 goals - 0.5 Goals/match is bettered by only Jovic, Rodolofo Volk, and Pedro Manfredini.

Marco Campanella and King Kyle are both on the precipice of the rankings with 48 goals apiece, although I think only the former will get the chance.

[zlatanera]

Premi

• UEFA

Spoiler

That's the best goalscoring season of anyone in this save, or any player in Europe IRL in their domestic league since Messi's 37 goals in 2016/17!

• Serie A

Spoiler

Absolutely no surprises here!

Lafont coming in 2nd in Goalkeeper of the Year can probably be attributed to the fact that although the number of goals conceded has remained pretty constant over the last four seasons (11, 12, 10, 14) they came over more games - 31 clean sheets last season became 25 this time around, still incredible but meaning those 14 goals conceded came in 13 games. Xavier Sanchez coming in 2nd in Striker of the Year is not something I would have guessed at the start of the season when I sold him to Empoli, but he scored 19 goals and assisted a further 3, so about 1/3 of their total output.

There hasn't been any surprise about the destination of this award since about November. Fábio Silva's 24 goals and 2 assists mean he contributed to 43% of Fiorentina's total. He's on loan from player-hoarders Manchester United - Matías Vargas, Bruno Fernandes, Romelu Lukaku, Mason Greenwood, and Silva are a world class attack yet they're all loaned out for pennies, such is their depth. 

• Champions League

Spoiler

My heavy rotation is what lets us down here, the most appearances any of my players can make are 9 if they featured in every knockout game. 

• Croatia

Spoiler

• French Youth Invitational

Spoiler

• Swiss Super League

Spoiler

D'Ambrosio has had a brilliant season. Perhaps due to my own bias as one of my players, he is the only man to feature for my Italy squad not playing in the top five leagues. 

 

[zlatanera]

Serie A, Champions League, e Curiosità Internazionali Casuali

We finally accomplished it, a 38-win season! When we started out by conceding in 7 of our first 9 games I did wonder if by the time we got to the new year we'd at least see an end to our year-on-year improvement, or perhaps even get "FM'd" and finally lose, but a clean sheet against Sampdoria in October proved to be a turning point - we didn't concede in our next 11 and started smashing 5 and 6 past teams again. There's a sort of - symmetry? - in our GF column dropping by 4 and our GA column increasing by the same amount from last season.

Milan are the only other team who kept their place in the top four - and have done for 3 seasons - as Fiorentina and Lazio dropped 7 and 4 places, respectively. Empoli are the real surprise package: since Michel Preud'homme took over in January 2022 they've finished 17th, 12th, 11th, and now 6th, which I believe is their best ever placing!

Only 1 of 3 promoted teams went down, and surprisingly Perugia weren't last - Parma didn't have a points deduction or anything, they were just terrible. Our only Serie A loanee was Vasco Leitão, who contributed 12 goals to Inter's revival - they hadn't qualified for Europe since 2020/21, or the Champions League since 2018/19 when they also made the final to face us. I honestly think if an Italian team is going to beat us, it will be them (so it will probably be one of Atalanta, Frosinone, or Torino who took the promotion spots from Serie B).

No repeat heroics from Dinamo Zagreb, who finished 4th in their group. Hertha Berlin were the main surprise this season, with their first Champions League campaign in this millennium only coming to an end after they'd achieved the incredible feat of beating this Roma side over 90 minutes (but gladly for us, not over 180). The semi-final draw had no possible combination that didn't feature at least one fierce rivalry, as both Manchester clubs and Liverpool obviously loathe each other, but Man Utd are my main rivals of this save. The only finals not to feature a northern English club in this save are 2018/19 (Roma-Inter) and 2022/23 (Roma-Dortmund).

The Europa League saw Atlético triumph in the final over Bournemouth - still managed by Eddie Howe!

Around the "World":

• Clarence Seedorf's Sturm Graz - with 3 loan players from Roma - finished in 2nd place behind Red Bull Salzburg, having come in 7th the previous season.
• Dinamo Zagreb maintained their domestic hegemony, but this time with 5 Roma players: 3/4 of their defence, a winger, and a striker.
• Stéphan Causse and Christophe Bosc - both initially purchased from Toulouse - helped keep our affiliate in Ligue 1 without the need for a play-off (17th).
• Francisco PInto, our goalkeeper loaned to Leverkusen for two seasons, is now a world class G-De. They actually improved their points total from their title win the previous season but lost out to Bayern.
• Giovanni D'Ambrosio's 32 goals in all competitions carried Grasshopper Zürich to 2nd in their league (with 30 more goals than the previous season) and to the Europa League knockout stages. 

Edited December 10, 2020 by zlatanera
grammar

[zlatanera]

Coda?

Much as I could probably gain some satisfaction from continuing this save ad infinitum - in particular as a clean sweep next season would see me beat Juventus' Serie A and Real Madrid's Champions League streaks, with a World Cup at the end - I'm feeling the pull of other challenges, possibly including FM20 (FM21 would perhaps be an option when its available at a reduced price in 2021). So, I'll just leave the one noteworthy event of the post-season before I created my 'final' save point.

Yes, despite being only 22 (21?) years old and possessing a very unique skillset among newgens of having 14+ for pretty much every attribute you would want for a Complete Forward - including Corners and Free Kick Taking - I decided to cash in on 'King' Kyle Belford. If I had been under any pressure at all to sell more established stars he would have been capable of hitting a 30-goal season for me, but as it was he found himself shunted around to accommodate youngsters such as Alberto Fenu, whilst being unable to displace my stellar Ünder-Jovic-Kluivert attack (although were I to continue, Campanella may get ahead of Kluivert). So even though our debt is manageable and I don't need to raise transfer funds, the possibility of a club and national record sale was too good to pass up. 

Edited December 17, 2020 by zlatanera

[04texag]

16 minutes ago, zlatanera said:

Coda?

Much as I could probably gain some satisfaction from continuing this save ad infinitum - in particular as a clean sweep next season would see me beat Juventus' Serie A and Real Madrid's Champions League streaks, with a World Cup at the end - I'm feeling the pull of other challenges, possibly including FM20 (FM21 would perhaps be an option when its available at a reduced price in 2021). So, I'll just leave the one noteworthy event of the post-season before I created my 'final' save point.

Yes, despite being only 22 (21?) years old and possessing a very unique skillset among newgens of having 14+ for pretty much every attribute you would want for a Complete Forward - including Corners and Free Kick Taking - I decided to cash in on 'King' Kyle Belford. If I had been under any pressure at all to sell more established stars he would have been capable of hitting a 30-goal season for me, but as it was he found himself shunted around to accommodate youngsters such as Alberto Fenu, whilst being unable to displace my stellar Ünder-Jovic-Kluivert attack (although were I to continue, Campanella may get ahead of Kluivert). So even though our debt is manageable and I don't need to raise transfer funds, the possibility of a club and national record sale was too good to pass up. 

That is an insane offer, hard to pass those type of offers up. It's what I did after season 1 in my Lazio save when Man U offered 110 million for Sergej.

You should really get 21 if you are at all interested. It plays more like 18 to me, which I think is a good thing, yet builds on some of the improvements and QoL changes from 19&20. 

[zlatanera]

2 hours ago, 04texag said:

That is an insane offer, hard to pass those type of offers up. It's what I did after season 1 in my Lazio save when Man U offered 110 million for Sergej.

You should really get 21 if you are at all interested. It plays more like 18 to me, which I think is a good thing, yet builds on some of the improvements and QoL changes from 19&20. 

Well...only if there's a way of replacing the player. I'd sell Jovic given Campanella is almost equal to him in every regard except two-footedness, but now Cristiano Ronaldo has retired in my save there is nobody out there who can match Ünder's combination of Dribbling, Finishing, Free Kick Taking, and Long Shots (not to mention Crossing and Corners) so he would only be sold when he's about to decline. 

Oh I intend to, and will use Dortmund first when I do so, but there are just so many ideas still appealing to me:

• Benfica's golden generation, which in the two years since FM19's release has been dismantled. Possibly with the added challenge of actually using Felix as an AMC which everyone claimed was impossible on FM19/20.
• Another go at Lyon (Nabil Fekir not kicking on into the stratosphere has been a real disappointment for me, in 2018 he looked ready to become a top, top player).
• A Brazilian save, most likely with Grêmio (my poor laptop struggling with the requisite leagues to have a full Copa Libertadores and enough active European leagues is preventing this so far)
• My favourite club, Manchester United, are arguably more appealing in FM20 (which I do own) than in any FM I own, with a very lean squad. 
• Going back to an earlier FM and getting insane numbers similar to real life out of Messi / Ronaldo.

I'm basically running up against the fact that there are only 24 hours in a day, work consumes 10 of them, sleep 9, leaving only 5 to spare and I also really love films. First World problems!

Edited December 17, 2020 by zlatanera

[zlatanera]

The absurd lengths Bayern went to to finally get 'Lewy' his 41st goal (my personal favourite is where he tries to get a touch onto a header that is already going in on the line for the 1st, or maybe 2nd goal) reminded me that there is fun to be had in being so dominant (a 285-game all-comps unbeaten streak ended in the Champions League, but still 191 and counting in Serie A!). 41 in 29 puts Luka Jovic's 38 in 31 in perspective too.

Before that however, I also have to figure out what to do with my Italy squad. Unlike in the main inspiration behind most of my later FM-careers I don't have a squad of homegrown world-beaters to build around. The Barzagli-Bonucci-Chiellini era has given way too...Gabriele Corbo, Marco Varnier, Filippo Romagna, and a newgen who marries excellent technique and mental abilities with dismal Heading and Passing. We're top-heavy without any actual wingers too (Federico Bernardeschi is 30 and after Amad Traore, a very good footballer but not World Cup-level, there are just out-of-position strikers and newgens with weird attribute spreads). Switching to a 4-4-2 and picking the big teams off on the counter is all well and good, but we don't have the quality to fill out my 4-3-3 yet (Euro 2028 maybe, when Roma newgens have come on) and with an average-at-best central defensive pairing all-out-attack seems more and more viable. 5 goals in 4 Nations League group stage games was boring too. So, we could go back to my most effective attacking system:

EDIT: Of course, if I go for the old 'Form is temporary...' adage then I can have the experienced centre back pairing of Caldara-Romagnoli, keep the good ol' Tonali-Pellegrini-Zaniolo midfield with Bernardeschi on the right, Campanella on the left and one of the many talented but out-of-form forwards such as Pietro Pellegri up top! Davide Calabria hasn't averaged over a 7.0 at any time during his stay at Man City but is by far the most capable deputy for Chiesa too.

Edited June 18, 2021 by zlatanera
more thoughts

[zlatanera]

Uno Sbriciola Impero?

I hadn't loaned anyone to Legia as they're not in an active league, nor had they produced any newgens of interest...no doubt they'll spawn Poland's next Lewandowski-level talent now!

Dinamo Zagreb are a much bigger loss. Although their best newgens haven't been of interest due to their positions, its been great to be able to loan players to a side regularly playing on the front foot domestically whilst also getting my young players European experience. Last season I loaned them 6 players who racked up 202 appearances between them.

The board weren't in the mood for more affiliates previously, hopefully that changes now. 

 

[zlatanera]

Commercializzazione

I intended to make this post part of my annual summaries as I do find it interesting...alas, the only point of comparison is 2021 - 3 Serie A in a row, 2 non-consecutive Champions League titles. At that time our shareholders took €325k at the end of the season, now? €64million. 

In terms of shirt sales, Jovic was 5th back then too, Ünder 1st and Pellegrini 3rd, but we've sold almost double the amount and €100m more merchandise in total.

The kit sponsorship was also €108m over 4 years, so its disappointing to see that we're not taking in more money in that front given our almost unprecedented European dominance and global pre-eminence. Overall though our sponsorship has doubled, but everything else has only seen minor increases: prize money is obviously capped; broadcast revenues likewise; corporate and hospitalality and match day commercial are linked to the state of the stadium, and although we did average just under 60,000 seats filled last season we're still not at fully capacity in a stadium we don't own. So its a good job at the time of writing I've brought in €1,360,000,000 in transfer revenue!

[zlatanera]

On 17/12/2020 at 01:41, zlatanera said:

Coda?

Yes, despite being only 22 (21?) years old and possessing a very unique skillset among newgens of having 14+ for pretty much every attribute you would want for a Complete Forward - including Corners and Free Kick Taking - I decided to cash in on 'King' Kyle Belford. If I had been under any pressure at all to sell more established stars he would have been capable of hitting a 30-goal season for me, but as it was he found himself shunted around to accommodate youngsters such as Alberto Fenu, whilst being unable to displace my stellar Ünder-Jovic-Kluivert attack (although were I to continue, Campanella may get ahead of Kluivert). So even though our debt is manageable and I don't need to raise transfer funds, the possibility of a club and national record sale was too good to pass up. 

So...I think from the comment I left, December 2020's zlatanera wanted to keep that front three together for yet another year, as the most effective way to beat Real Madrid's Champions League record. However, when restarting I soon realised the number of youngsters coming through - particularly strikers - meant Jovic and Kluivert both needed to go. Then I realised most of those youngsters are left-footed, whilst Kyle Belford - who played his best football in his first season at AML - is right-footed. As it was, Kluivert didn't leave as Barcelona chickened out at pushing their spend on Roma players over €200m. Still though, I may regret this one.

[zlatanera]

Zlatan da Era - The New José Mourinho?

A man who needs no introduction, José Mourinho has famously been repeatedly criticised for both a lack of opportunities for young players, and in certain cases seemingly having a negative impact on their development (Luke Shaw comes to mind). In this save I've generally been very strong on youth development, bringing through the likes of Luca Busti, Marco Campanella, Amad Traore, and Darko Puljic at just the right time to see them really kick on in their development. However, with recent youth intakes providing me seemingly first-team-ready youngsters in Kevin Rossini, Alberto Fenu, and then Dante Lopez, I think I may have blooded them too early.

We all know that FM, being less variable than real life, sticks pretty rigidly to the follow rule that training drives development under 18, game time (at an appropriate level, and with a good rating) after. However with Rossini (about 9 months in the youth ranks) and Fenu (2 months) I quickly fast-tracked them to the first team. Before I put the save on ice I had every intention of doing the same with Dante Lopez. However, a look at the aforementioned youngsters suggests I may be hurting them by keeping them in the first team squad with its  low-intensity training schedules.

Kevin Rossini came through the academy in 2023, made his debut in the bizarre 2023 Champions League Final, spent most of 2023/24 in the Primavera before moving up to the first team in 2024 to be mentored by Florenzi as he declined, making 9 appearances, before another 28 (half of them starts) this past season as an 18-year old. His development has been...non-existent. +1 Long Throws, Anticipation, Off The Ball, Vision, Agility, and Natural Fitness as well as +3 Determination. This despite regular appearances in a top league and the highest level of European football, consistently getting high ratings as he plays in a dominant side. The personality being sorted out through mentoring is great, but Luca Busti had improved 19 different attributes after his first full season in the first team, having been in the youth ranks until age 19, undergoing significant development during that time. Darko Puljic, who similar to Rossini was already at a high level when I signed him, spent a year in the Primavera from age 17 to 19 (July birthday) increased 9 attributes before really kicking on as a first team regular from 19. So all is not lost, but if things don't begin to look up in the next year I'll be very concerned.

Alberto Fenu came through in 2024 and was thrust into the first team pretty soon after, being a member of the squad for the entire 2024/25 season making 28 appearances and scoring 14 goals. Yet he's merely increased 9 attributes. Alen Miletic - in the youth ranks since 2023 but also starting at such a high level he made his Austria debut (and scored) aged just 16 years old, so a very fair comparison - has seen improvements in 29 out of 36 attributes including an incredible +4 Long Shots, Technique, and Agility. Similar to Rossini, we'll have to see if he just explodes next season, but again, not great. 

I do think the lack of training in the first team, rather than any negative effects of their game time, is to blame. In the frequent 2-game weeks there are actually only 3 sessions that develop their all-round play, to accompany 2 Delivery sessions and the Match Preview / Review sessions. By contrast in a similar week for the youth team they would get 11 attribute-focussed sessions.

 

Edited June 15, 2021 by zlatanera

[zlatanera]

Campo d'Allenamento (ancora una volta)

On 14/04/2020 at 15:49, zlatanera said:

Individual Training

My preferred individual training roles hit a wide range of attributes, particularly in the technical and mental categories. However the attributes that don't get trained tend to be shared among the aforementioned roles, namely; Decisions, Teamwork, Work Rate, Balance, Strength, and Stamina. So I've introduced the following quarterly rotations:

• SK-Su - additional focus on Agility & Balance <-> Strength 
• FB-At - additional focus on Long Throws <-> Final Third 
• BPD - additional focus on Agility & Balance <-> Quickness 
• RPM <-> SV / BBM
• IW / IF <-> RMD / SS
• CF <-> PF 

I noticed goalkeeper roles don't train many physical attributes despite most of the top goalkeepers possession good attributes in the likes of Balance, Strength and Stamina. Long Throws is to hopefully reduce the amount of idiotic 'short flat bullet throws' as I'm now calling them, that give away possession whilst Final Third is introduced to boost Vision. Only Libero of the DC roles can train Acceleration, Agility & Balance and even then you have to train undesirable attributes in order to do so, an additional focus is more appropriate. The one blind spot of Complete Forward training is it doesn't hit Concentration, an attribute I've noticed a lot of Poacher-type players such as Klaas-Jan Huntelaar and Bas Dost score highly in, Pressing Forward is the only role that does so, whilst also hitting most of the Advanced Forward attributes.

So, as I tinker yet again with my training system - still primarily based around Guido's FM19 Grêmio System, adapted to lessons learned over my many saves - I made another 'discovery' (like most of my FM 'discoveries', its really a correction of previous inattentiveness).

Below are the highlighted attributes - on the Profile screen - for the role of Complete Forward with each of the two available duties:

Complete Forward (Attack)

Complete Forward (Support)

As you can see, although the same attributes are highlighted, they show up in different shades. This is also the case with default skins, but my skin highlighting the key ones in a yellow-gold coloration really drills it home. Although on the training screen - again, same as with default skins - all the targeted attributes are highlighted in the same shade, it stands to reason that the emphasis would remain. Hence Marco Campanella, whom I believe predominantly trained as CF-At in the youth ranks but also built versatility training roles such as IF-Su, AM-At, and T-At - Passing in gold, Finishing in silver - for well over a year, saw his Finishing increase by 3 points yet his Passing increase by 5.6.

A closer look at some others finds that in some cases my previous rotations were adequate, whereas in others this could be a game-changer. So now my 3-monthly individual training rotations should be like so:

• SK-Su / G-De [Communication has always increased slowly, perhaps as it is emphasised less in Sweeper Keeper training. Not SK-At as I don't value Eccentricity]
• FB-At / CWB-Su [CWB-Su duty has less of a focus on Flair than -At, the rotation is because FB is inherently defence-minded, CWB is not]
• BPD-De [no rotation]
• RPM / BBM [RPM doesn't get Finishing, Tackling, Strength whereas BBM doesn't hit Concentration]
• IW-At [no rotation]
• IF-Su / W-At [IF doesn't train Crossing or Stamina]
• CF-At / CF-Su [as shown above, CF-Su has more key attributes, but CF-At is more likely to increase Finishing, with 92% of our goals coming from situations requiring that attribute]

Obviously if a player has a significant weakness to their game I mix it up. A wide forward with poor Decisions might get Trequartista or Raumdeuter training, whilst I'm inclined to train Alberto Fenu (the player in the images) as a Target Man (Attack) to sort out his Balance. I like to take guys who can play MC and DM and get them trained up at DC too, in which case I'll often use Libero training.

Edited June 15, 2021 by zlatanera
do-over

[zlatanera]

Mercato - Estate 2025

(Again for those who have been paying attention) we have a big transfer window, featuring both my most regrettable sale of recent times and the most difficult decision I've had to make yet. Yet again there are a lot of youth players incoming: my development system is now like so:

• <19 train in the youth ranks, learn traits.
• 19-22 either bring through into the first team or loan - first to one of our feeder clubs in a top 20 European league for an easy start to professional life, then into a top 5 league.
• 22< last chance to join the first team, or be sold.

The last batch of incomings now sees us with at least eleven players each season all the way through to the Class of 2031!

Despite the huge sums brought into the club there is only one change to our starting XI, and only two players moving up who weren't part of the first team last season too. Bayern - managed by Unai Emery - wasted the whole summer trying to poach my scouting team, but about 25% were unflinchingly loyal and the rest took pay rises. They'd have been better off rejecting my advances towards a great newgen of theirs who will join next year.

La Partenza

Spoiler

• As previously stated, I'm already regretting Kyle Belford's departure. He's truly a wonderfully complete forward player and this was a true mistake. At least we got a club record fee, but even though there is an abundance of forward talent in the youth ranks nobody looks to be as good as him. I think by moving him to AMC to accommodate Alberto Fenu ahead of schedule meant I forgot just how devastating he could be off that left flank, even with a 9 and 9 record from the consistently underperforming AMC position. 

• The aforementioned 'most difficult decision'. At least Alessio Riccardi's peak was evidently below the standard required to be a regular starter, making his €90m fee irresistible. That Jovic went for only €22m more shows just how badly Barcelona overpaid there, 2nd on the club's all-time top scorers list after a mere 5 years, he was on track to break it inside a decade. Despite my heavy rotation his league stats still look incredible, his two-footedness contributing to him being arguably a perfect Poacher (well, unless you want to get into semantics and say a perfect player would have 20 in all relevant attributes). His all-round intelligence meant that pesky Runs With Ball Often trait was never an irritant either. But not only did we have both Marco Campanella and Alberto Fenu waiting in the wings, but also Alen Miletic (made his international debut age 16 and scored) and Giovanni D'Ambrosio. The latter is coming off a 30-goal season with Grasshoppers and - the clincher, given my dual managerial role - is Italian. 

• Elroy van Maanen underwent some truly spectacular development in his time at Roma, in many ways developing exactly as I predicted into a great Ball-Playing Defender. However I was never a fan of a central defender with 9 Bravery, his Passing attribute only increased by 0.8 over 5 years, and an ill-timed injury last season combined with my spectacular strength in depth at full back meant he'd be behind two Italians in the competition to be Milenkovic and Upamecano's backup. He also picked up that pesky Knocks Ball Past Opponent trait, which seems to be wildly contagious to anyone with a respectable physique. Unlike with Riccardi, Barcelona repeatedly pled poverty when negotiating for the transfer-listed Dutchman but I eventually got the deal done for €2m less than his value but with 20% of the next sale. Given how quickly they go through players in this save (just like real life) there will be a next sale.

Spoiler

• As can be seen in the spoiler above, Francisco Pinto developed incredibly well after joining us for a mere €105k despite having already made 70 appearances in Portugal's 2nd tier. In many ways David De Gea's heir as the next best "conventional" (i.e. not Sweeper-) goalkeeper in the world, he is better than Lafont in many ways. However I like a more modern style of player in this save, Lafont and his backup Rubén Blanco both contracted until 2030, so he takes the obvious move for a young Portuguese player to Wolves, again with a 20% of next sale clause.

• If I didn't have such strength in the youth ranks Manolas would still be at the club age 38, that 18 Natural Fitness doing a great job of keeping him mobile - he would probably be even faster were it not for a reasonably big injury a couple of years ago. As it is, doubling our money on a 34-year old after a decade is great business, and he's single-handedly proven to me that central defenders don't need 15 Passing to succeed in systems such as my own. Hopefully he comes back as a coach.

 

• Vasco Leitão was another cheap transfer from Portugal, and in many ways is a poor man's Kyle Belford - pacy, technical, with 16 in Corners, Free Kicks, and Penalties. But we're just so stacked in the forward ranks I elected to blood younger players and move him on. Newly-promoted Atalanta surprised me with such a large bid, blowand yet again we have the 20% clause as I think he's going places.
• Filip Capodaglio and Claudio Giuliano were part of that first youth intake with Luca 'Roman Maldini' Busti (is it possible for the sons of newgens to appear if you play long enough?). Neither developed well enough - Capodaglio will do well in a lower mid-table side as a playmaker in the middle, Giuliano as a defensive-minded full back.
• Manuel Gasparini has been prevented by his poor personality from reaching his true potential, he still has 10 or less for quite a few relevant mental attributes, although a lot of his GK technicals are excellent.

Le Scorta di Talenti

Spoiler

• Another young French forward named Thomas purchased from Lyon. Scores highly in many "unimprovables" as I now refer to them: Dribbling (never had more than +2), Aggression, Bravery, Determination, Flair, Teamwork. As usual I'll aim to have him accomplished all across AM within a couple of years.

• Again, bid on "unimprovables". I was tempted to go for a more physical option from Lyon or Bordeaux, but if he does have a massive growth spurt he can be one of those centre-backs who can really finish, otherwise he'll be Guardiola / Busquets-type at the base of midfield. Great personality too.

• As previously stated I'm not too happy with the idea of a centre-back without decent Bravery. But Esteva is cheap and only concerningly deficient in Heading, so at the very least should bring a good price.

• Flair. Only signed a youth contract. It would have been rude not to.

• Arranged last season, Blin looks an interesting option in the centre. Lack of Aggression and Bravery means he'll never be a true replacement for Lorenzo Pellegrini but he's certainly one of the more complete midfielders I've brought in at this time.

• Cheap, young, versatile, he doesn't look to be a future CWB but at least unlike most of the other full backs I brought in he should be able to cross. Again, arranged last season.

• I may have over-stocked the youth ranks with defensive midfielders now, but what's the point in having these affiliate relationships if you don't poach their best prospects then loan them back once they get homegrown status? I'm aiming to make him Marcello's heir at the base of the midfield - complete enough to do more, but good enough that he doesn't have to.

• Arranged 18 months ago, Pedro Paulo quickly broke into the first team at Vasco da Gama and has developed well, which is always a risk with these Brazilian pre-contracts. A possible heir to Cengiz Ünder, but I'll stick to what worked with Marcello and let him spend a year in the youth ranks acclimatising (plus I need Amad Traore in form for the World Cup!).

• My scouts don't rate Spadaro. But he's two-footed, has no major deficiencies in his game, is Italian, and should do well with the effects of a welcoming period, mentoring by Alessandro Florenzi, and our superior coaching and facilities.

Alcuni per il prossimo futuro

Spoiler

• Clearly a so-called 'freak' newgen, I couldn't believe Bayern were actually willing to part with Andreas Evers. I'll be interested to see if there is much development over the next year before he joins, given his high current ability but also Bayern's excellent setup. 

• An absolute nightmare of a transfer this. It was all agreed for €2m rising to €7.5m with instalments, only for him to pick up a month-long injury leading the board to cancel the transfer at the last minute...he isn't joining for another year, why would they be so idiotic? Anyway this really offended Nantes who were completely unwilling to negotiate. In the end I pulled out the big guns, declaring him my Top Target, watching him in a game, shrugging off the press' laughter at these actions, getting Lafont to speak about him, and making a bunch of desultory non-negotiable bids. Eventually Liverpool bit and made an offer, allowing me to out-bid them and get my man.
• Despite that high Dribbling and Flair making him seemingly an ideal candidate to play as an Inside Forward in my 4-3-3, I've already got Evers coming in at the same age. So given those other high untrainable I've elected to retrain him as a full back  a la Chiesa. As you can see in the highlighted attributes, he's got a lot going for him. Plus I've found most newgen full backs are more appropriate centre backs anyway.

• Good personality, Leadership, Teamwork, Technique, two-footed, can actually put in a cross too. 

• Another my scouts aren't too keen on. However, van Vliet is high on untrainables, already has some great core defensive attributes, is two-footed, and incredibly cheap.

• Two-footed, great personality, Flair, Teamwork. Another bargain price too.

• Mentally excellent, with a great personality, two good feet, and a unique but desirable trait. Only €325k too! A little more growth before he joins and I'll consider retraining him as a centre back permanently rather than just for versatility. It remains to be seen how it will work with too many nEU players in the youth ranks though.

Laureati

Spoiler

• Javier Ospitaleche made the bench for the infamous 2023 Champions League final but only moved permanently out of the youth ranks last season with Elroy van Maanen's injury. His great physicality, Bravery, and Positioning marks him out as a possible heir to Manolas although most likely even if I get that Composure in the green he's never going to have 16 across all the core defensive attributes. As you can see above though, he's developed brilliantly so far. Finding a place for him is a relief, given how many high potential centre backs came through only to disappoint with their development. He'll be Milenkovic's backup, partnering Luca Busti in our 'B' team. 

• Giovanni D'Ambrosio joined us age just 16 but already Atalanta's youngest ever play, no mean feat given their track record. After some incredible development and a 30-goal season at Grasshoppers earned him a scoring debut in my Italy team I couldn't just ignore him. Although his build would seemingly mark him out as a potential Jovic replacement in the centre, and his Runs With Ball Through Centre trait did have me creating mental images of an Italian version of original recipe Ronaldo, I'm instead going to use him as Kluivert's backup on the left. Some work on that Crossing, Passing, and Vision over the next year along with the right traits so set him up well for the future.

• The development screenshot doesn't do him justice, and a quick trial with Roma seems to have messed up his history (he joined in June 2023 yet I can only see 1 year of attribute changes). But Alen Miletic looks to be a force of nature, at one point last season he had a 100% scoring record for both club and country. A quick comparison with the linked screenshot from when he signed shows great gains across the board, with +4 Technique the standout development. He'll technically be Marco Campanella's backup, although our alternate tactics feature two strikers so he'll be in a partnership with Fenu.

 

[zlatanera]

Sugli Specialisti dei Calci Piazzati e sul Cambio di Tattica

My belated apologies to any Italian speakers reading this thread. I capitalise my titles incorrectly because I think it looks better at the top of the post. Mostly I rely on Signore G. Translate as I find it interesting to see where football language differs.

Over the course of my time playing FM, particularly at the later stages with FM18 and FM19, I really began to enjoy set pieces. Seeing a successfully executed routine - whilst not as satisfying as real life examples - is a more joyful experience than failing to imitate the fluidity of real life great footballing sides due to the fact that FM is just a game, and programming the movement of 22 players, and the ball, and the referee, must be insanely difficult.

To this end, I've found myself with 11 separate routines going into this latest season with Roma: 3 Corners, 6 Free Kicks, and 2 Throw-Ins. Now of course when you're just playing the same tactic week in, week out you can just set up all your takers and hit play. However, I want to change my formation game to game, without throwing it all out of shape. This is a problem, as just loading the routines into different formations will mess things up and for some reason on FM19 when I clear the default set piece takers and choose my own it affects all of my loaded tactics. The solution? With my very deep squad, I set up my tactic, like so:

That is my main tactic, with my first choice XI. I didn't set my takers at this point, as they'll just reset each time I load a new tactic, but I set up my routines with my takers noted down. 

I then load this tactic twice more in the empty slots, and carefully mould it into different shapes, such as my asymmetric 4-4-2:

In the above formation, Ünder has just moved down to MR, Pellegrini (a main taker, as is his backup Grall) is in the same position, Marcello has moved up (DM is also a taker of certain routines), and Zaniolo has in effect disappeared. Campanella has moved over to STCR and changed duty, and "Zaniolo" (Fenu) moves forward from MC to STCL. This way its still a similar mould of player - physically dominant, goal threat but not a set piece taker - and my set piece takers remain the same. I repeat this for my other tactic (4-2-4). An added bonus is I could quite easily drop the CF-Su down to AM if I were to use this shape with my first XI and it should still play.

Now obviously this doesn't work if you have either a shallower squad or less like-for-like backups (Zaniolo is the only player who doesn't have one, hence I changed formation and brought in another striker) but I still thought it worth sharing. Or at least noting down in case I forget one day and then struggle!

Edited June 18, 2021 by zlatanera

[zlatanera]

I Mentori - 2025/26

The past couple of seasons the age profile of the squad means there's been very little mentoring and I saw no point in tracking it. With a few younger players in the squad, I'm doing it again. This post is more to help me track it than anything, but explaining my own process also helps.

The Losers

• Alessandro Florenzi is physically shot, so although he retires in November I haven't renewed his contract. He will however stay on the books on a week-to-week basis until he elects to leave. Following confirmation from SI staff that youth mentoring groups are functional, the presence of an old pro (he has at least 15 years on his "team-mates") with over 300 league appearances to his name and a great personality seemed like a good test. Although he's still - perhaps unrealistically, in his individual case - listed as having 'Light' influence over the group, I'm confident it will be more than that.
• This large group is about half of my Under 18s (the Under 20s only has a starting XI for positional training, all of whom have good personalities). I initially only chose the players with 10 or less determination, hence the name 'The Losers' as their personalities are holding them back. However Dante Lopez - Fickle, so not very Loyal apparently - and Filippo Favero - Outspoken media handling style - could both be influenced to be easier to handle.

First Team

• In many ways my Team Leader situation is not ideal for mentoring: Lafont, a goalkeeper, will presumably (although SI haven't confirmed this in my knowledge) struggle to influence outfield players effectively; Lorenzo Pellegrini has an absurd number of traits so its quite risky to actually have him mentoring midfielders; Cengiz Ünder's Balanced personality isn't the best, most of my players have a better one when they sign on at 16. 
• The Attacking Unit was obvious. Pellegrini has a great personality and shouldn't pass on his traits due to differences in position and attribute distribution. Fenu, when taken at face value, doesn't need it but his development has been poor. D'Ambrosio is developing well but can always be improved.
• The Defensive Unit was more of an issue. Of possible Highly Influential players both Nikola Milenkovic and Federico Chiesa are in the wrong social group (friends with Ünder, Upamecano and Blanco) whilst Luca Pellegrini has the trait Knocks Ball Past Opponent which is more contagious than the Black Death. Seriously, it will quickly be trained onto any player with a half-decent physique, the only that is similarly problematic is Runs With Ball Often which is more dependent on Acceleration, Agility, Balance, and Flair than Dribbling. 
• So I've gone for Lafont. There's no reason it shouldn't work, it just doesn't seem right to have a goalkeeper mentoring outfield players. Between his influence, personality, and lack of transmittable traits - Avoids Weaker Foot is the only one of the two that outfield players can train - he is the only candidate.

 

If I was being really fussy I'd try to mentor Dayot Upamecano (Ambitious, but also 26 years old with over 400 games under his belt), Marcello (Fairly Determined), Grall (Fairly Determined), and Traore (Fairly Professional) but the former three are good enough and the latter is most likely leaving next season.

[zlatanera]

UEFA Super Cup 2025

• A surprisingly long-lived tournament, the UEFA Super Cup was first played in 1973/74 when the all-conquering Ajax side - the competition was the brainchild of a Dutch journalist who wanted to unequivocally settle who was the best side in Europe, and put on a further showpiece for Cruyff and Ajax - dispatched Cup Winners' Cup winners Milan. The Italians would then go on to become the most successful side in the tournament's history with 6 wins.
• Vitesse' 25,500-capacity GelreDome seems a bit small, but then again for over a decade Stade Louis II in Monaco was the venue. Hopefully future Roman Jordi van Vliet got in.
• This might have been my youngest line-up since the 2023 Champions League Final, and certainly the youngest selected by choice: excluding 30-year old Rubén Blanco in goal there was an average age of 20.3, with 5 teenagers, facing off against Allegri's Atlético in our new 4-2-4 shape.
• Giovanni D'Ambrosio played a blinder, volleying in after Atlético failed to clear a corner, winning a penalty as Atlético struggled to prevent a duplicate, then rifling in a free kick (something we didn't manage in Serie A once last year).

As a Manchester United fan this still seems like blasphemy...but yeah, I am the greatest. [/modesty] Strangely this prompt that I'm the top manager in Europe comes a significant time after being named the greatest worldwide.

I have to say, and our latest victory confirms it, that if all great sides are remembered for a characteristic: Cruyff and Total Football, Bayern...not remembered for some reason, Sacchi's all-Italian defence, Guardiola's arguable perfection of Cruyffian ideals...then this Roma side would be the greatest set piece side of all time. We average 25-35% of our goals "directly" (Corners, Free Kicks, Indirect Free Kicks, Penalties) from dead ball situations whilst barely conceding any. Which made it extra satisfying that my record-breaking striker was under 6'0"!

[zlatanera]

8 hours ago, zlatanera said:

I have to say, and our latest victory confirms it, that if all great sides are remembered for a characteristic: Cruyff and Total Football, Bayern...not remembered for some reason, Sacchi's all-Italian defence, Guardiola's arguable perfection of Cruyffian ideals...then this Roma side would be the greatest set piece side of all time. We average 25-35% of our goals "directly" (Corners, Free Kicks, Indirect Free Kicks, Penalties) from dead ball situations whilst barely conceding any. Which made it extra satisfying that my record-breaking striker was under 6'0"!

So I've currently played 7 matches in the current season: 5 for Roma and 2 for Italy. We've scored 17 goals and only 1 could even be argued not to have been the result of a set piece, as we took a few passes from a short throw in our last match, in which time our forwards retreated from their area before attacking it again. An Italian defender even got a hat-trick of header from corner, volley from free kick, and penalty! But still, unless we start making some real chances soon we're going to struggle, as its impossible to successfully compete for trophies scoring 95% of your goals from set plays.

[zlatanera]

On 18/06/2021 at 17:12, zlatanera said:

The Losers

• Alessandro Florenzi is physically shot, so although he retires in November I haven't renewed his contract. He will however stay on the books on a week-to-week basis until he elects to leave. Following confirmation from SI staff that youth mentoring groups are functional, the presence of an old pro (he has at least 15 years on his "team-mates") with over 300 league appearances to his name and a great personality seemed like a good test. Although he's still - perhaps unrealistically, in his individual case - listed as having 'Light' influence over the group, I'm confident it will be more than that.
• This large group is about half of my Under 18s (the Under 20s only has a starting XI for positional training, all of whom have good personalities). I initially only chose the players with 10 or less determination, hence the name 'The Losers' as their personalities are holding them back. However Dante Lopez - Fickle, so not very Loyal apparently - and Filippo Favero - Outspoken media handling style - could both be influenced to be easier to handle.

Although he plans to retire on 19th November, Florenzi has elected to leave the club on 22nd October (he was out of contract from June), meaning this trial ran for just 4 months. He wants to be Director of Football but I'm not sure if I want to give him the chance to grow into it when Fabio Paratici is one of the best in the game and has a long contract. Anyway, there has been some change in the youngsters' personalities:

• Gaëtan Blin saw his Determination increase by 1, changing his personality to Ambitious. This was, however, entirely down to the influence of Alban Lafont. The coach comment was "welcoming period has had a positive effect" and he now lists his fellow Frenchman as favoured personnel.
• Abdelaziz Saïdi likewise saw a +1 Determination gain due to a welcoming from Lafont.
• Mariano Barone saw his Determination increase by 1. I don't think a reason was given, so it must have been a mix of the squad's general character and the more targeted approach of the mentoring group.
• Alexis Rondon saw his Determination decrease by 1 and his personality change from the horrible Mercenary to the slightly less problematic Fickle. Again, no reason given so I'll count this as a win for Florenzi'a influence.

Spoiler

Rondon is quite an interesting individual. He's not looking like a first team player due to his potential, although he is in the Sweeper Keeper mould. But:

• Roma supporter
• Swiss-Brazilian born in St. Gallen
• Was poached from Grasshoppers academy (they appear in his history but he came in the youth intake).
• Despite appearing to have been at Grasshoppers in 2024/25 before joining us he's already half-way to becoming a Swiss-Brazilian-Italian triple-national.

• Francesco Amadori is an obvious success. +1 Determination, Unambitious -> Balanced, his media handling style changed too from Unflappable (which matches Florenzi) to Media-friendly (suggesting he's actually been influenced by Dante Lopez). Given he had been at the club an entire season with no change in his dreadful personality previously (one of those players where for some reason I can't have them welcomed), this is very good news.
• Matteo Spadaro, not featured in the screenshot as he was signed towards the end of the transfer window, has been negatively impacted with no blame attributed. He lost 1 point of Determination (despite welcoming from Lorenzo Pellegrini) and changed from Fairly Ambitious to Balanced.

 

Now I'm going for more of a gamble, seeing what effect I can gain from Team Leaders who are also youngsters.

In the Under 20s now, its only really Filippo Favero who needs any work, he still has his 'Outspoken' media handling style. Our only Team Leader has lower Determination but a better personality, and I've added in Francesco Verde too as gaining Determination can't hinder him.

In the Under 18s the squad is pretty equally divided between the two main social groups, with a couple of Swiss players off on their own. So I've kept it simple and divided them like that, putting the loners from Switzerland in the group with 2 mentors. Given both the limited differences in stature within the squad, and the fact that Lopez' personality is not ideal itself, I have no issues with potentially divided influences. The most important thing is just to get Determination up, if I need them in the first team the pros will sort them out.

[zlatanera]

Pietre Miliari

Let's just say the above image wasn't one I expected to see at the end of September. After Hertha Berlin and Manchester United shattered our illusion of invincibility in Europe (whilst still losing on aggregate), I sold my star forward and replaced him with a 22-year old and three teenagers. Although we got off to a winning start, it took us until 21st of September to actually score from open play!

The above screengrab was taken on 1st September in-game, after we'd beaten Lazio. One of those 7 players with 2 goals was Nikola Milenkovic, a game later he'd be our top scorer. 11 players on yellow cards seemed emblematic of our newfound issues - if we couldn't break them on a set piece, opponents would counter at pace and only a combination of tactical fouling and superb goalkeepers was keeping them out. I only made one change to my tactics, reverting from a Half Back to a Deep Lying Playmaker at the base of the 4-3-3. We've since gone on an absolute rampage, now up to 47 goals in 13 games in all competitions - albeit only 14 of them are from open play [my definition of open play for these purposes is that if the teams are still in the shape they were for the set piece, it isn't open play - so a short corner routine that sees us switch it back and forth twice before scoring off a cross is a set piece goal, as is a corner headed away only to be volleyed back in to the top corner. A counter-attack from an opposition set piece is not, however].

As I said in the title: milestones.

This was our 50th consecutive win in Serie A - we last drew in May 2024!

Two games later, we had our 200th game without defeat! The full Roma package this one: never letting them anywhere near our goal, scoring from: a counter-attack, a well-worked team move involving Lafont, a short throw, an 'indirect' free kick (see below), and a direct free kick. One for the untouchables too, Turkish Messi, Zaniolo and Pellegrini have been a part of every single one of our successes. As befits such a milestone, Zaniolo's goal was possibly my favourite set play of them all:

 

 

Ünder had already gotten himself a hat-trick, so I was fully expecting him to shoot - that is officially a Direct Free Kick after all - but that was so much more satisfying!

Whilst I have set up a routine its pretty simple: best Off The Ball in the area for rebounds, my DM (Marcello here) at the edge of the box to stop counters with the rest of the defence back. I never expect anyone to actually pass the ball, but we do see that all come together - Marcello in acres of space, Zaniolo coming into play from an offside position, then using his traits to blast it into the bottom corner. Its been that way for 5 years now and that's the first time I've seen anything other than a shot. In a weird coincidence its also one of the first times I haven't trained Set Piece Delivery the day before the game.

EDIT: I now realise that the 'Tactical Genius' moniker is because I keep switching formations: the first XI play the good ol' 4-3-3 whilst the second team play either an asymmetric 4-4-2 or a 4-2-4 (the only role change is an Inverted Winger moving up to Inside Forward).

Another great routine, this time one of our more aesthetic throw-in plays:

Edited June 20, 2021 by zlatanera
in thrall to my own genius

[zlatanera]

Un'altra Pietra Miliare

That is the 100th consecutive Serie A game in which we've scored! Absurdly, the club records section shows our record sequence of matches without scoring is 1. In fact, domestically we're been pretty much the unstoppable object:

• Since 2018/19 no team facing us in Coppa Italia has prevented us from scoring.
• in Coppa Italia the last time we were held to a draw was in the 2020 semi-final first leg against Bologna, although last season Inter did hold us for 90 minutes in the Quarter Final before losing 2-0.
• The shutout 100 games ago in Serie A? A 0-0 draw at Sassuolo in April 2023!

Appropriately for this weird season, the above victory over Fiorentina saw goals go down in 3 ways: Corner headed in at the near post by Upamecano; Corner not cleared allowing Upamecano to take the loose ball, cut in, and curl one off the far post; and Corner flicked on and diverted in by Ospitaleche!

[zlatanera]

Un'icona va in Pensione

I missed the notification so he doesn't get an in-game news item like Daniele De Rossi, but Alessandro Florenzi has retired! The title is incorrect, as he's actually 'favoured personnel' but that doesn't seem news-worthy.

Florenzi, as I previously mentioned, spent the last half-season of his career training and mentoring with the Under 18s. He vastly overplayed his hand, demanding a €77k/week contract as Player / Director of Football, meaning he would be DoF once he retired from playing. However, I'm running a meritocracy here (mostly) and Fabio Paratici, one of the best in the business, is on less than 1/3 of that.

Spoiler

I'll consider bringing Florenzi back in a couple of years when Paratici's contract is up...but I'm not positive about his chances, as I do like to use the role to negotiate staff contracts and provide my final scouting judgement, especially as 70-year old Bruno Conti (19JPA / 20JPP) is surely not far off retirement from work himself.

[zlatanera]

FIFA Club World Cup 2025

An injury to Luca Pellegrini left a slot open in the squad. I decided to gamble, playing the 5'7" Marcello at the back and giving a chance to a homegrown youngster, Enrico Cecere. One of those youth players who were called up to the first team for the 2023 Champions League Final, he's not looking like a world-beater but at 19 is still rated as having 5-star potential despite couple of big injuries. Anyway, he excelled as an Inside Forward in our 4-2-4, scoring our opener then creating Miletic's first soon after.

I don't have a screenshot from when he came through the youth intake, but he was flagged as the 2nd-best prospect in 2023 after Kevin Rossini. Partially due to my not knowing what to do with him, and partly due to his strange starting distribution of attributes (that Flair and Free Kick Taking were already high, the rest were all average) he's developed quite curiously. Not really a dribbler, a decent enough finisher yet not showing much Composure either. I think I trained him as a Raumdeuter quite often as I was pessimistic about the chances of improving Dribbling at the time, whereas I've had a lot more success recently. In theory he should be loaned out next season and will probably never play for Roma again (put possibly get a few Italy caps) yet I am debating having a really shallow squad next season to allow for turbo-charged youth development...

Anyway, we retained the Club World Cup with relative ease, although Boca actually had quite a bit of success of getting in between the lines of the 4-2-4. A welcome, if harmless, reality check before the later stages of the Champions League given our other matches in December had finished 4-0, 6-0, 4-0, 6-0!

These things can get quite boring, so I was quite pleased to see Boca actually had enough 'real' (real + newgen) players (as opposed to greyed out players) to put out a side. In our 5 finals we've beaten opposition from U.S.A., Brazil (twice), Mexico, and now Argentina in the final. Chinese sides have never made it past the semi-finals, which I quite enjoy.

[zlatanera]

Premi Globali, Croatj, Francese e Svizzero

As a national team manager I now vote for this award. Mbappé is by far the best player on the planet now - 37 goals and 9 assists in the calendar year, with 46 and 12 in the 2024/25 season. Dayot Upamecano was surprisingly the 2nd-highest average rating and - even more surprisingly - was nominated despite being a defender. Cengiz Ünder has had four consecutive second-place finishes for the award too, including behind last year’s shock winner Justin Kluivert. So I voted Upamecano, Ünder, Mbappé in the expectation that Mbappé will win. Imagine my surprise that Mohamed Salah took the crown!

FIFA & Ballon d'Or

Spoiler

I think most of the contenders for this award would be at Roma. D’Ambrosio probably is the standout - smashing records In Switzerland with a 32-goal season for Grasshoppers, then seamlessly adjusting to International (Nations League) and club (UEFA Super Cup-winning performance, Club World Cup) success.

5 in a row for Lafont! He’s this decade’s dominant GK talent. Donnarumma has never had a podium finish due to Milan’s poor performances, and everyone else is aging out (no outstanding newgen GK talent has emerged, although a few are of the great sub-elite level.

 

That makes D’Ambrosio our first player to win both Golden Boy and Best U21 player in the same season (in 2023 Belford took the former, Traore the latter).

France

Spoiler

Kylian Mbappé has taken home this award every year of the save except one…2020. So yeah, every time we win the Champions League he’s the best French player! Nice to see some overdue recognition for Upamecano’s quality, and some for the emerging star that is Grall.

Croatia

Spoiler

Switzerland

Spoiler

Swiss awards are annual, rather than seasons. So D'Ambrosio takes this one home despite having been in Italy the past 6 months. Its deserved though, as those 14 goals make up 60% of his total for the entire season.

Giuseppe Coppola was in the same Grasshoppers team as D'Ambrosio.

 

Edited June 26, 2021 by zlatanera

[zlatanera]

On 19/06/2021 at 23:00, zlatanera said:

Now I'm going for more of a gamble, seeing what effect I can gain from Team Leaders who are also youngsters.

In the Under 20s now, its only really Filippo Favero who needs any work, he still has his 'Outspoken' media handling style. Our only Team Leader has lower Determination but a better personality, and I've added in Francesco Verde too as gaining Determination can't hinder him.

This one paid off - at the sacrifice of 1 Determination (his development has been terrible anyway so it won't be missed) - Filippo Favero changed the part of his personality that shows through as media handling style from 'Outspoken' to a far more palatable 'Media-friendly' in almost exactly 2 months.

[zlatanera]

Supercoppa Italian 2026

A final against Juventus - league runners-up last season - could be seen as a 'record' match given we've tied their 8 Supercoppa triumphs. One more and that'll be the second of their domestic records we tumble! (Consecutive Coppa Italia triumphs was the first). Fiorentina's Artemio Franchi hosts for the second time in the save after 2018/19, the only other time the fixture was played in Italy was San Siro in 2022/23. If I had my way, 2025's edition would be the last to be played outside Italy.

A 'B' line-up was nearly embarrassed as Juventus took an early lead and absolutely besieged our goal for the first 15 minutes, before the game settled down and there were few highlights. Dayot Upamecano's header from a corner was pretty much already past the goalkeeper's outstretched hand, but Miletic made sure to level it up.

In extra time I made my 3 changes at once, Luca Pellegrini assisting Cengiz Ünder's first to put us ahead whilst Lorenzo Pellegrini was at the heart of the moves for both goals. That's Roma's 9th Supercoppa Italiana, and my 7th!

[zlatanera]

Has Roberto Mancini been reading this?

Jonathan Wilson's latest article for The Guardian describes an oddly familiar tactical system...

[zlatanera]

Phenomenal Fenu

In the latest derby with Lazio, we absolutely obliterated them with 5 goals. Alberto Fenu, in a rare start at centre forward with the 'A' line-up, nabbed a hat-trick. His final goal (our 5th of the match) was by far the best:

Animation is dodgy even before the export, but I'm counting that as a nutmeg. That's his weak foot he's launching that rocket off of too!

That's not even his first hat-trick this season, let alone the first of his career (I think that was his debut hat-trick for Italy) but I think that's the sort of goal that 'introduces the world to' Alberto Fenu!

 

[zlatanera]

Mercato - Invierno 2026

As usual, a quiet January for me. Two pre-arranged transfers joining the club, another signing on the dotted line ready for summer. 3 players had their loans cancelled so they could be sent out again due to a lack of playing time too.

Le Scorta di Talenti

Spoiler

Two-footed, a great trait, great personality, and will soon outstrip Kevin Rossini in current ability. Rossini had some €50m bids in this window and Paco's arrival did have me considering selling...but I'm going to stick to my guns of generally promoting players to the first team when they're 19, and allowing foreign nationals time to learn the language whilst training with the youth squads.

Un altro per il futuro

Spoiler

Another right-footed right-winger for the fast-assembling Class of 2032. I previously arranged the transfers of Andreas Evers - already a very complete Inside Forward - and Mahamadou Traoré - a winger with very good untrainable attributes, who will be retrained as a CWB - so didn't really need to pull the trigger on this one, but what is the point in having affiliates if you don't use them to your advantage?

 

[zlatanera]

Giovane Lupi 2026

Massimo Tarantino: "Francesco Ceccarelli looks as if he could possibly emerge as one of the best players of his generation"

Zlatan da Era: "He's another ***** defender, isn't he?"

Massimo Tarantino: "..." "..." "I like to think I have had a notable influence in bringing through many of the players, including Francesco Ceccarelli, with my coaching style"

As I immediately guessed, he's a defensive-minded player - Tarantino's biggest influence has clearly been the incredible Milan defences of the 1980s and 1990s - and in theory this means in 4 years I could have an entirely homegrown newgen back four of Rossini-Ospitaleche-Busti-Ceccarelli, if he makes the grade. Four players came from our affiliates: Nicolás López (Vélez Sarsfield), Kinho (Volta Redonda RJ), Per Barland (Ørn-Horten), and Espen Steffenson (Ørn-Horten). Of this I'll only look to sign the young Argentine, who along with Ceccarelli and Brunelli will be one of only three players signed on. I'm not complaining though as given the rarified air we operate in getting one top prospect a year is a lot more valuable to the first team than a 'Golden Generation' of five or six players who just don't quite make the cut.

Before the new youngsters, I just thought I'd share a couple of interesting newgens who aren't mine:

Spoiler

This is the first time I've spotted one of the developers in the game (since knowing that was possible), as part of my mass-trialling of Europe's youth which dramatically slows down my playing speed in the early Spring.

My laptop died before I could save on this intake - also featuring a high potential DL - as Belgium-Portugal was entertaining towards the end. But I had managed to screenshot someone who absolutely would not live up to his famous namesake!

Frascati-born, Roma-supporting Ceccarelli certainly looks like he could turn out to be a player, the only question is where? Although he's just shy of his 16th birthday, he'll need first team action in 3 seasons. Given all the senior members of my current 8-man defensive rotation have 15+ Natural Fitness and we're so over-stocked for left backs I've already converted Luca Busti to a centre-back, he may have to likewise make the change. It would require significant work on his abysmal 4 Passing attribute, but he's brave, already tall in stature, and quite intelligent so could conceivably turn out as a decent BPD-Co. 

Roman born, Roma-supporting but yet again a midfielder with no Flair or Dribbling ability. Still, Brunelli is two-footed and has a decent personality so should have a career, even if it may not be with me.

Edited June 29, 2021 by zlatanera

[zlatanera]

Velocità, e Potenza

[zlatanera]

Coppa Italia 2026

At face value Napoli gave us a good game, but in actuality we were 3-0 up after 38 minutes and were still 3-0 up at 77 minutes, Napoli's 2nd coming at 90+3'. I played the reserves for all four of these games, so to see Lazio completely unable to handle the university-age attack of Traore (23), Miletic (19), Fenu (18), and D'Ambrosio (20) was fun.

Coppa Italia actually has four preliminary rounds, with lesser Serie A lights such as Fiorentina starting their journey in the summer, whereas our tie against Perugia was in January. So a bit like most other national cup competitions, but with insultingly-named early rounds disparaging the achievements of anyone who doesn't make the Round of 16 / 1st Round.

This isn't really a surprise, is it? Our 7th consecutive Coppa Italia victory and the third time I've beaten Milan in this tie after 2021 and 2023's editions. A classic zlatanera Roma performance in many ways: the own goal came from open play, Lorenzo Pellegrini's from a poorly cleared corner, Upamecano and MIlenkovic's directly from corners, and Luca Pellegrini's from a quick switch of play following a short throw. Still, that saw Lorenzo Pellegrini hit double figures for both goals and assists for the first time in his career! 

[john1]

Great to see you back writing with Roma  Superb win over AC Milan in the final  

[zlatanera]

Serie A 2025/26

Any long-time reader of this thread will not be surprised to see we're top of the table yet again. But that's now our 2nd consecutive 38-0-0 season, a 5-0 obliteration of Pescara on the final day (featuring a hat-trick from Amad Traore!) being our 80th consecutive win...I'm going to try not to just ream of lists of impressive numbers, but that's the stage we're at. We also smashed past our previous record for goals scored to hit that insane 140. Poor Napoli - just like in 2017/18 in real life - reached a 'normal' spectacular points total of 89 but were miles off us. Below that, things get interesting. Udinese (3 Roma loanees) were in the top four for much of the season, but collapsed in May with 4 consecutive losses before Southampton poached their manager. Atalanta, newly-promoted, spent €80m, more than half of it on Roma players (and loaned one from us) and were suitably rewarded with European football off the back of Vasco Leitão's 23 goals. Empoli's continued rise under Michel Preud'homme is a joy to watch, with 3 Roma loanees helping them reach the Champions League for the first time! Only 6 points separating 4th and 9th is juicy too. Oh, Lazio might have set a record points total, but they still conceded 3, 5, 3, and 4 goals in the derby!

Around the continent:

• Manchester United continue their own hegemony with a 5th consecutive Premier League win
• Real Madrid make it 6 in La Liga. I'm pleased to see that Athletic Club (7th, 4th, 6th, 7th, 6th, 3rd, 8th, 5th) and Real Sociedad (12th, 10th, 7th, 8th, 3rd, 4th, 3rd, 6th) are regularly qualifying for Europe.
• Bayern retain the Bundesliga - their 6th of the save, Schalke and Leverkusen each taking home one title. They beat Dortmund on GD having conceded 1 more but scored 6 more.
• PSG retain Ligue 1 - their 5th of the save, Lyon have 2 and Monaco 1 league. 
• Sturm Graz - despite a strong Roma loan contingent - ended up in the relegation play-off when the Austrian Bundesliga split, although they then won it handily.
• Toulouse - yet again loaning back Stéphan Causse and Christophe Bosc from us - comfortably avoided relegation from Ligue 1 under Mark van Bommel.

Olimpico holds 68,530 so we're still some way off persuading the board to build something better (if I even want to), but given we were averaging about 30,000 at the start of the save this is still great news.

Edited July 4, 2021 by zlatanera

[zlatanera]

Champions League 2025/26

A surprise appearance in the knockout rounds for our new affiliate Hajduk meant I could afford to keep my 'B' line-up involved when normally the cavalry would come in at this stage. They were all back involved to face Manchester United yet again in the Quarter Final. Luka Jovic only made it onto the pitch late on in the 2nd leg as they decided to spend over €100m on another striker in July 2025, a newgen from Real Sociedad. We hammered them 4-0 at home, then roared into a 2-0 lead at Old Trafford before Milenkovic saw red and I decided to turn it into a marathon by losing a midfielder and we eventually drew 3-3. Juventus are the first Italians to make the later stages since...Juventus in 2023 (QF). The last semi-finalists were Inter way back in 2018/19. Of course they made it to the final, whereas here we put the hunchbacks in their place with a 6-0 first leg hammering to set up a rematch of the 2023/24 final with Guardiola's Liverpool (I would have enjoyed Leverkusen for a chance, they've held on to Havertz).

A brief scare when confirming my World Cup squad a month before the club season's end (for some reason?) had me fearing a repeat of the 2023 fiasco, but luckily the game worked correctly and both teams had their first team players available: 

Despite my alleged youth focus, only 4 newgens started this game - 2 for each team - Campanella and Marcello having displaced Jovic (from the country) and Tonali (to the 'B' line-up) respectively. It should never have gone to extra time, Ünder somehow contriving to miss early in the second half when 3v1 with Alisson, and Olmo's goal was literally the last kick of the regular game. We got a little bit of luck with Salah hitting the post, but it was a deserved win. Chiesa was on fire - his assist is in the video below - perhaps as a result of me dropping his squad status in preparation for contract negotiations (no idea if it has much of an effect on megastars like him). 

That's our 6th consecutive Champions League win, and 7th overall, so we beat Real Madrid's record sequence from 1956-60 as well as tying AC Milan as the most successful Italian side in the competition!

[zlatanera]

Un passo più vicino agli anni '90...

The only other Italian clubs to make a European final during this save are...nope, there's just the one: Inter followed up losing the Champions League to us with losing the Europa League to Benfica in 2021. Bologna made the Europa League semi-finals in 2021, then Juventus have a semi in each continental competition since. So we have absolutely zero chance of catching up to the Premier League given the likes of Bournemouth are getting into European finals and Premier League clubs make up 7 of the last 14 finalists (6 losing to us).

[zlatanera]

Una leggenda si ritira tranquillamente

Bruno Conti appears - to me, at least - to have been Francesco Totti before Francesco Totti. Nicknamed 'Mayor of Rome' he spent 17 years at the top level (with two loan spells) before joining the backroom team at Roma in varying capacities. He's been Director/Scout for the duration of this save, with his 19 Judging Player Ability and 20 Judging Player Potential making him incredibly valuable for giving me a final judgement on a player and...I had no idea he'd retired until I looked at our staff contracts and he wasn't there. As far as I can tell the game just didn't notify me. 

[zlatanera]

Premi del Club e Statistiche della Squadra

After I sated my obsession with getting a record season from a striker last year, we were much more of a collective in 2025/26, as evinced by a close-run Fans' Player of the Season between a midfield conductor, defensive Swiss Army Knife, and ball-played centre-back. Busti has been - once again - incredible, performing well at right back, centre back, and occasionally even his natural position of left back. The main surprise with that Team of the Season is that Alberto Fenu is the striker ahead of our joint-top scorers Campanella and Miletic. But given I have 22 players and only 4 average less than 7.5, this is a pretty close-run thing.

As I said, much more of a team effort. 9! players hit double figures for goals - Campanella beating 20 for the first time with Miletic matching him in his first full season - with 3 more just 1 goal away, and 7 on double figures for assists with - again - another on 9 assists. Zaniolo and Amad Traore both hit double figures for both goals and assists for the first time in their careers, with Zaniolo matching his best goalscoring season to boot, whilst Giovanni D'Ambrosio has now done it in both of his seasons as a professional (32 and 13 for Grasshoppers last year) whilst Ünder was his usual consistent sub-Messi-level self. Lorenzo Pellegrini's 20 assists beats Ünder's 17 back in 2019/20 for a club record, this season was also his first of hitting double figures for both goals and assists. Despite his consistent production - and Champions League Final goal - in many ways picking up where Jovic left off, I still think Campanella might be better-off on the left wing. Alongside Campanella and Miletic (obviously - his first season) Upamecano, Milenkovic, Tonali, Grall, and Zaniolo (matching his 22/23 total) all had their most prolific goalscoring seasons for Roma. Kevin Rossini increasing his assists year-on-year was a pleasant surprise given he still has only 10 Crossing and 9 Dribbling, whilst Marcello's disappointing numbers are due to him displacing Tonali from the 'A' team: he's just not getting the opportunities on set plays as Pellegrini and Ünder are first choice. A shout out to Chiesa too, his 7.8 average rating is pretty close to José Gayà's record 7.83, and despite Rossini's growth he really is indispensable as an attacking threat from the full back position - he's our 2nd most prolific dribbler after Ünder.

Five players aren't shown on that statistics screen as they spent most of the season in the youth ranks:

• Filippo Favero - 3(0) appearances, 7.03 average rating

• Jan Böhler - 3(0) appearances, 6.70 average rating

• Nicolò Bardini - 2(0) appearances, 3 goals, 9.10 average rating. Took his chance when I decided to have some fun with our 4-2-4 in December to start smashing the goals in, but we just have too many attackers - all in-form - for him to keep his place. He’ll be loaned out next season as of my front three, only Ünder will not be a natural ST as it is.

• Enrico Cecere - 1(1) appearances, 1 goal, 1 assist, 7.60 average rating

• Dante Lopez - 1(0) appearances, 1 goal, 7.20 average rating. Took all of 33 seconds to score against Sampdoria in May - on his 17th birthday!

The aforementioned 4-2-4:

Although I would still rather err to relative caution in big European games with the tried-and-trusted 4-3-3, this system is a lot of fun and also a very useful way of taking advantage of having 5 top striker prospects on the books. The 'B' team used this pretty much all season long, and when an injury gave Bardini a shot with the 'A' line-up in December we scored 20 goals in 4 games with no reply. 

As I explored earlier this season, when you quantify it with greater precision than the game allows, we score a truly incredible amount of set piece goals. Although there was a notable shift towards open play in 2026, most likely as we were playing more teams who might actually attack us, when you break it down its still insane. I would share a detailed breakdown but the numbers don't add up. But in simple terms, we scored well over 200 goals and around 42-45% of them came from dead ball situations (I count one move where we scored with possession from the kick-off as open play).

Edited July 4, 2021 by zlatanera