[FM20] Glory Glory Tottenham Hotspur

[SwedenYid]

What position are you all using Dele Alli in? He's still injured in my save since I've only played two league games so far (3-1 win at home to Burnley and 1-5 win away at Villa) but I'm quite unsure where he will fit in. 

I'm using a 4-1-4-1 DM vertical tiki taka formation and as my midfield is really stacked with Ndombele, Lo Celso, Bruno Fernandes (what a beast), Sissoko, Winks, Dier and Skipp, Dele will most likely have to play IF (A) on the left wing. It will be interesting to see how that pans out.

Also, I bought David Brooks as I needed cover on the right wing. Lamela got injured of course in the last pre-season game so it looks like Brooks will be given a lot of game time in the nearest future. So far he's not disappointed though, he even scored on his debut. Nice to have a young left footed winger that's also home grown.

[Burty76]

Cracking first season in the league, winning it comfortably. Less good in the cups, going out of the Carabao to WBA and the FA Cup to Arsenal (I fielded weakened teams in both though). More disappointing was a damp squib of a Champs League QF exit to Athletico, losing 1-0 in both legs. 
 

Made some big purchases in the first summer, Fernandes and Zaniolo are a brilliant midfield. From now on I’ll be prioritising young players rather than marquee signings - although I did just sign Vinicius Junior for 65M! (However he is a direct replacement for Son who went to Chelsea for 60M)

First season transfers were :

[Soomwehs]

So I accidentally have Sunday league reputation on and none of my players seem to respect me or my in game speeches. How much does this affect in game performances? Should I restart my save? 

[Sherkey]

38 minutes ago, Soomwehs said:

So I accidentally have Sunday league reputation on and none of my players seem to respect me or my in game speeches. How much does this affect in game performances? Should I restart my save? 

Yep. If you want full control immediately, yeah//

[plcarlos]

So, this just happened - I was hoping not to get thumped.... Pretty sure this is a partial Fluke result, we were just dealy on the counter.

This was the Tacitic in the end:

Tactical Adapatations:

I started at Control possesion, but after just playing keep-ball, It evolved to this:

Defence\Out of Possesion:

We don't have the quickest Defence, so High Line is not the best idea.  We also got caught on the counter a bit, hence lowering to standared line. Pressing got us Yellow cards, so the back 4 have reduced pressing.

Prevent Keeper highlighted a bug - I beat Man City with a David Silva own Goal as I pressed him. Against Arsenal, This limited them to 1 Shot on goal (That was also massively helped by closing the break away options via Berge\Zanilo\Meunier - All taller players that didn't get caught out over the top, so recycled the ball for fun..)

Transition:

Counter won me the above match, amounst others - I wish my upload to youtube worked so I could upload them, but it never works for me.

Lloris has single digit Distribution\Vision.....

In Possesion:

Shorter and High Tempo met the Boards enterntaining Vfootball vision. Pass into space - Also won me the above match

Levy got me a few of those singings, so I'm gonna see if he can do it again for me... Zanilo was cheap, and I rasied £125M in sales - Toby, Jan, Eriksen, Wanyama

 

Next is Post\Pre-Season - Looking at Aarons, Godfrey, and Cheisa has just gon on the list for £49M....

 

 

[Dustman2015]

On 23/11/2019 at 03:09, Burty76 said:

Cracking first season in the league, winning it comfortably. Less good in the cups, going out of the Carabao to WBA and the FA Cup to Arsenal (I fielded weakened teams in both though). More disappointing was a damp squib of a Champs League QF exit to Athletico, losing 1-0 in both legs. 
 

Made some big purchases in the first summer, Fernandes and Zaniolo are a brilliant midfield. From now on I’ll be prioritising young players rather than marquee signings - although I did just sign Vinicius Junior for 65M! (However he is a direct replacement for Son who went to Chelsea for 60M)

First season transfers were :

How did your sell most of your players??? When I offer them out with unspecified prices (usual strategy) I can only get bids on Jan, Toby and Eriksen. 

[Burty76]

I set their playing time to Not Needed, transfer listed them and offered them out at unspecified. I’m playing on Touch on iPad, not sure if transfers work differently between that and the full game?

[Sisamom]

Am 21.11.2019 um 10:53 schrieb Sisamom:

I started my first season with Tottenham and after 13 games in the league we are 2nd, 3 Points behind Manchester City. In the Carabao Cup we are in the 3rd round.

 

In CL we are on top of our group with 10 points after 5 games. Barcelona is runner up also with 10 points (but we've beaten them in our direct confrontation) and Inter Milano is 3rd with 8 points. In the last game we play versus Inter at home and Barca faces Lille - so everything can happen in the last game.

 

This is my squad after many transfers in the first window:

Gk: Lloris, Gazzaniga, Vorm

DC: Dier, Ruben Dias, Davinson Sanchez

LB: Rose, Sessegnon

RB: Aurier, Max Aarons

MC: Pogba, Milinkovic-Savic, Ndombele, Bruno Fernandes, lo Celso, Winks, Skipp

AMR: Federico Chiesa, Son

AML: Jadon Sancho, Dele Alli

ST: Kane, Erling Haaland, Parrot

 

Finished my first season. In the end I won the league easily and also the FA Cup and the CL (4-0 vs Barca)

I'm now close to the beginning of the second season and after a once more busy transfer window this is my squad for the second season:

Gk: Meret, Butland

DC: Ruben Dias, Jose Gimenez, Dayot Upamecano, Eric Dier, Marco Kana

LB: Luca Pellegrini, Sessegnon

RB: Aurier, Aarons

MC: Milinkovic-Savic, Pogba, Bruno Fernandes, Dele Alli, Winks

MR: Dani Olmo, Chiesa

ML: Sancho, Everton

ST: Kane, Haaland, Parrot, Sebastian Esposito

[davierich]

On the verge of the sack in mid-November in my save with Spurs. Really struggled with creating chances despite controlling possession. The entire unit are pretty toothless but I'm guessing I was prioritising keeping the ball rather than penetrating the defence. Kane, Alli, Son all struggling to trouble the scorers so looking for a set up that will save my job.

Really want to keep the 4231 as brought in James Maddison as a replacement for Erikson. Going to abandon the high press for now as the lack of pace at the back was proving an issue against better teams.

Still want to keep a nice short passing game, so how do I go actually creating good chances and not just keeping the ball for the sake of it?

[davierich]

17 hours ago, plcarlos said:

So, this just happened - I was hoping not to get thumped.... Pretty sure this is a partial Fluke result, we were just dealy on the counter.

This was the Tacitic in the end:

Tactical Adapatations:

I started at Control possesion, but after just playing keep-ball, It evolved to this:

Defence\Out of Possesion:

We don't have the quickest Defence, so High Line is not the best idea.  We also got caught on the counter a bit, hence lowering to standared line. Pressing got us Yellow cards, so the back 4 have reduced pressing.

Prevent Keeper highlighted a bug - I beat Man City with a David Silva own Goal as I pressed him. Against Arsenal, This limited them to 1 Shot on goal (That was also massively helped by closing the break away options via Berge\Zanilo\Meunier - All taller players that didn't get caught out over the top, so recycled the ball for fun..)

Transition:

Counter won me the above match, amounst others - I wish my upload to youtube worked so I could upload them, but it never works for me.

Lloris has single digit Distribution\Vision.....

In Possesion:

Shorter and High Tempo met the Boards enterntaining Vfootball vision. Pass into space - Also won me the above match

Levy got me a few of those singings, so I'm gonna see if he can do it again for me... Zanilo was cheap, and I rasied £125M in sales - Toby, Jan, Eriksen, Wanyama

 

Next is Post\Pre-Season - Looking at Aarons, Godfrey, and Cheisa has just gon on the list for £49M....

 

 

Do you have any player instructions here? Also how do you adapt the set up for big away matches. The tough Champions League games for example and the trips to Man City and Liverpool etc?

[plcarlos]

25 minutes ago, davierich said:

Do you have any player instructions here? Also how do you adapt the set up for big away matches. The tough Champions League games for example and the trips to Man City and Liverpool etc?

The main is the split Press:   The front 4 are all told to press more. This is to gain possesion higher. The back 4 press less, This is done to keep defensive shapes.

As for big games - What you see is the same tacitic I used vs Real, which was just a fingers crossed match! I'll Happily admit it has flaws:

I'd switch WB-S to a FB-S, and FB-A, to FB-S\D on left and Right full backs, and re-group vs bigger teams - It's not been tested as much, as My Knockout rounds were vs Shacktar, and Bayer 04, so it still needs a lot of work.

vs Bigger teams in general, I'll watch in detail and try to cut off at source, via Line\PI's - So I may compress the space and press higher vs  a big team with slower forwards, lower vs quicker. For the latter, I'll maybe switch to Balanced, and switch some of the front 4 to an attack role. I'll will also switch the MC combo's to sit more via CM-D and DLP-D\S. For PI's, I ask the AML\AMR to mark the opposition full backs, to track back and help out, Kane would also go toa DLP-S to drop in to help a touch and to be a target for the counter. Vs most Big teams, I'm aiming to counter vs outright attack.

Olmo has been fantastic in that he can break past players and expose the spaces left by attacking teams.

I've avoided a LOT of big teams in season 1, so I'll struggle a bit more this season, Champions League Knockout, I avoided Bayern, Juve, PSG, Liverpool, Man City... I got Shaktar, Then I got Bayer 04, which was a hard match, but we got through.

I can't quite work out stopping Liverpool yet, they are crazy good. I'm starting season 2 soon, and a Lot of transfers have changed a few things, so the tactic may evolve with those players. I've added height and Pace in Defence, More movement up Front (Chiesa, Son, Almo all have OTB 17....), and added a new Keeper (Livakovic £12.5M), Although Liverpool will be crazy hard again as they singed Dybala, and Bruno Fernandes!

[Spike]

So I completed my first season on the Beta and during the course of the season there was much transfer activity, with a net spend of just over £46m. Eriksen & Alderweireld were both sold in January after refusing to sign new contracts;

This was the tactic I decided on, although I intend to mess around with this for next season as I know from experience on another save that the updates have destroyed it;

The season went way better than I could have imagined with an unprecedented quadruple;

Premier League table;

Champions League Group table & knock-out stages;

Finally the squad stats for the season;

Not sure how I follow that up, but we'll give it a go!

[Soomwehs]

On 25/11/2019 at 05:45, Sisamom said:

Finished my first season. In the end I won the league easily and also the FA Cup and the CL (4-0 vs Barca)

I'm now close to the beginning of the second season and after a once more busy transfer window this is my squad for the second season:

Gk: Meret, Butland

DC: Ruben Dias, Jose Gimenez, Dayot Upamecano, Eric Dier, Marco Kana

LB: Luca Pellegrini, Sessegnon

RB: Aurier, Aarons

MC: Milinkovic-Savic, Pogba, Bruno Fernandes, Dele Alli, Winks

MR: Dani Olmo, Chiesa

ML: Sancho, Everton

ST: Kane, Haaland, Parrot, Sebastian Esposito

@Sisamom how has Sancho been for you? I can’t seem to get him going at all in my save. 

[RageMaster]

So I've taken a break from my save that I started on the BETA. I will be starting again shortly now the full version of the game is out and we've had a couple of hot fixes although I'm also tempted to start with AS Roma. Decisions Decisions!

Anyone else still playing with Spurs and how is it going?

[TottenhamBoi90]

Hi Guys, Hopefully i have attached screenshots correctly. 

I am a Tottenham fan but have struggled to get into a good save with them on FM in recent years.

So i decided to go with a simple tactic of custom control possession taking off short passing and adding run at defence and also counter in transition with a focus on team fluidity.

My plan was to get Son running off Kane so that they are the 2 main goals threats with Dele as a 10 getting goals and assists which has and has not worked. Kane was top scorer with 31 in 55, i feel he could get more but i chose not to sign another striker and he had some spells of tiredness through-out the season. He also only got 4 assists. Sonny got 13 goals 9 assists which wasn't great and Dele was even worse with 10 goals 4 assists. The rest of the side i just left on support. I had hoped my right hand side would get more assists but Lucas got 12 assists. Davies got 13 assists from left back though which i liked.

In reviewing my season ill take top 4 with a league cup win but i was so good at times it was a season of what could have been. The alarm bells were ringing in pre-season when my tactical analysis popped up with the opposition final third entries - central. Its an issue i have tried to rectify and have lots of ideas but not really sure how to fix. Do i defend narrow, do i put 1 of the CMs on defend, do i put do a stopper/cover combo at CB or do i be more cautious/defensive. As a result, away from home i have struggled specially in big games but on the positive side i had a run of 12 wins in a row. At this point its worth noting my transfer business as i sold Toby n Jan for 25m each to Liverpool and Eriksen rejected 65m to United so went PSG for 60m, I could have achieved 65m for him if i had waited for Kehrer to sign for 5m from PSG first in hindsight. 

In Game 1 away to Leicester defending centrally was a real problem, I lead through Harry Kane but fell behind on 83 minutes before Dias equalised from a corner in stoppage time. Another positive for my tactic is my set pieces have shone as a goal source. Dias got 9, Sanchez 8, Foyth 4, Kehrer 2, Kane also scored a bunch of his 31 from marking the keeper. in games 2/3 i picked up very easy wins at home to Newcastle and Burnley before being demolished at Anfield as Liverpool hammered me 5-1. I bouced back well with 5 wins in september including 4-1 v Barcelona but october saw 2 more defeats. 3-2 away the San Siro despite mounting a 2-0 comeback and guttingly 3-0 at Chelsea, I also drew at home to arsenal and Lille in the CL before a home draw to liverpool which i went on to win on penalties. November saw 3/3 prem wins including at home to man utd and 2 away draws in the CL. December was largely pleasing but lost away to Man City 3-0 and drew at home to Watford 0-0.

The last game of the year away at Arsenal was pivotal, I was 2 pts off top and leading 1-0 i was going top of the table but arsenal turned it round to win and the first game of 2020 was at Palace which i lost 2-0. Going from 2 pts off top, to top, to being 8 pts off top was gutting but the reaction to this was fantastic picking up 12 straight wins including a 9-0 v Colchester at half time but i told them to prove a point and they just breezed the 2nd half. I also beat Chelsea (H), Bayern (H), Man Utd (Cup Final) and Arsenal (A) on penalties in the FA Cup 5th round. 

The next pivotal blow to my campaign came in march with 2 home defeats back to back to Watford 1-0 and Man City 3-2 because after the brilliant run of wins taking me back to within 5 pts off the title, i ended up now 11 pts off but i think it was actually more because of games in hand.

Then came April where all the goals dried up and tiredness for Kane became an issue again with the international breaks in November/March really draining for him. I lost 4 on the spin and threw my hole season away. Leading 2-1 after the home leg in CL to Barcelona i lost 2-0 at the Nou Camp followed by an extra time defeat to Man City in the FA Cup Semi-Final 1-0, Lost 4-0 at Old Trafford and 3-1 at home to liverpool. May then was a dead rubber but 0-0 away to Burnley, 3-0 win home to norwich and lost 3-0 away to West Ham. 

Next season i have to address the gaps in midfield and try to be more dynamic going forward so would welcome any ideas on that. I was thinking Mezzala support for Ndombele and having Winks DLP as hes comfortable sitting on support or defend. Transfer wise i want to get rid of Vorm, Gazzaniga if i can, KWP if i can, Foyth if i can, Rose, Wanyama and Lamela and bringing in, Max Aarons, Ben Chilwell and Jadon Sancho. I have promoted Skipp and Parrott already. Not sure if i want Lo Celso.

[Farcas80]

Did anyone have a tycoon takeover with Spurs yet? I am in 2023 and there`s been talk of it pretty much since the start,but nothing has happened yet

[Connor]

On 01/12/2019 at 15:48, RageMaster said:

So I've taken a break from my save that I started on the BETA. I will be starting again shortly now the full version of the game is out and we've had a couple of hot fixes although I'm also tempted to start with AS Roma. Decisions Decisions!

Anyone else still playing with Spurs and how is it going?

Started my Spurs save after full release, currently 7th with a game in hand after 9 games.

League: Won 5, Drew 3, Lost 1 (Away at Liverpool)

Champions League - Look set to qualify in 2nd in my group

Carabao Cup - Into Quarter Finals

Playing more direct for me, seems to suit Harry Kane better, but it's a work in progress

Sold - Alderweireld to Liverpool: 34 Million, Erikson to PSG for 70 Million

Bought - Thiago Silva from PSG for 7.5 Million

Stand out player so far - Ndombele in a DLP (S) role

 

[Sisamom]

Am 3.12.2019 um 09:43 schrieb Farcas80:

Did anyone have a tycoon takeover with Spurs yet? I am in 2023 and there`s been talk of it pretty much since the start,but nothing has happened yet

I'm in Nov 2020 now and there is a lot of takeover talking in my save too but nothing has happened until now

[RageMaster]

@TottenhamBoi90 Still a decent season there and some positive stuff to build upon. Hopefully you can get in the players you need. Aarons and Chilwell was both excellent for me. Sancho is a player I wanted to buy but was out of my price range. I'm not very good on tactics really but something that does work for me from time to time is to change it up slightly and have a 2nd formation to use for say 4 or 5 games and then switch back to the previous formation. You could even try maybe playing a much higher tempo if you are playing at home against a bottom half side to see if that makes any differences to your attacking. Maybe deploying Dier as an anchorman or half back and putting Dele into CM as a B2B with n'dombele as a Mezzala could be another option. One thing for sure though, is that there are plenty of different options with this squad and different ways to play rather than being shoe-horned into a specific style.

@Connor Intering choice with Thiago Silva! Most people go for wonderkids straigh off the bat but I like that you've gone for some experience. Should bring in Ibra too! or maybe Cavani ? Decent start for you though and hopefully onwards and upwards.

 

I haven't got round to starting my save yet. Still debating what to do really. I'd like to try and replicate Mourinho's early tactics with Spurs but I'm not to great with tactics on FM and not sure if it's entirely possible with the way the ME is.

[Connor]

16 hours ago, RageMaster said:

@TottenhamBoi90 Still a decent season there and some positive stuff to build upon. Hopefully you can get in the players you need. Aarons and Chilwell was both excellent for me. Sancho is a player I wanted to buy but was out of my price range. I'm not very good on tactics really but something that does work for me from time to time is to change it up slightly and have a 2nd formation to use for say 4 or 5 games and then switch back to the previous formation. You could even try maybe playing a much higher tempo if you are playing at home against a bottom half side to see if that makes any differences to your attacking. Maybe deploying Dier as an anchorman or half back and putting Dele into CM as a B2B with n'dombele as a Mezzala could be another option. One thing for sure though, is that there are plenty of different options with this squad and different ways to play rather than being shoe-horned into a specific style.

@Connor Intering choice with Thiago Silva! Most people go for wonderkids straigh off the bat but I like that you've gone for some experience. Should bring in Ibra too! or maybe Cavani ? Decent start for you though and hopefully onwards and upwards.

 

I haven't got round to starting my save yet. Still debating what to do really. I'd like to try and replicate Mourinho's early tactics with Spurs but I'm not to great with tactics on FM and not sure if it's entirely possible with the way the ME is.

I thought after selling Alderweireld to Liverpool, Thiago Silva for 7.5 Million was a decent experienced replacement for a season or two.

The team report does highlight that the team lacks leadership

His wages of 205K a week, over his 2 year contract, actually make the deal around 28 Million, so not sure if it's a sound buy... we shall see

[trekman]

I'm planning to start a Spurs save today because its a team I've never tried in any version of Championship or Football Manager. I am interested in one thing though and thats why everyone is signing Haaland? I played the beta as Man United and bought him but he was terrible. When the full game got released I started a new game again with Man United and turned off transfers in the first window which is also something I've never done previously. I signed Timo Werner instead of Haaland in the January window and he was just immense. He ended up being top scorer at the club for just half a season which was phenominal I think and as a result I finished the season 2nd and won the Europa league.  I'm starting my spurs save today later and he's the first person I am going to try and get.

[RageMaster]

7 hours ago, Connor said:

I thought after selling Alderweireld to Liverpool, Thiago Silva for 7.5 Million was a decent experienced replacement for a season or two.

The team report does highlight that the team lacks leadership

His wages of 205K a week, over his 2 year contract, actually make the deal around 28 Million, so not sure if it's a sound buy... we shall see

The prize money if you was to go far into the Champions League and finish high enough in the League will no doubt cover those costs though (and more!). I like that you wen't for an experienced pro rather than the next wonderkid off the block though that seems to be most common nowadays on FM.

3 hours ago, trekman said:

I'm planning to start a Spurs save today because its a team I've never tried in any version of Championship or Football Manager. I am interested in one thing though and thats why everyone is signing Haaland? I played the beta as Man United and bought him but he was terrible. When the full game got released I started a new game again with Man United and turned off transfers in the first window which is also something I've never done previously. I signed Timo Werner instead of Haaland in the January window and he was just immense. He ended up being top scorer at the club for just half a season which was phenominal I think and as a result I finished the season 2nd and won the Europa league.  I'm starting my spurs save today later and he's the first person I am going to try and get.

Werner would be a very good signing and would add depth to the forward line which is really lacking if you get unlucky with Kane getting a serious injury.

On that note, has anyone decided to give Parrott game time and is anyone planning on using him as the main man perhaps in a couple of seasons ?

[Connor]

I would be interested to know, who has stood out for other people. as their best performer.. for me Ndombele has easily been the best player?

Also how many has Harry Kane, scored for everyone else? scored 8 in 16 for me

[RageMaster]

Started my new save...finally!

I've decided to ship out some of the old guard straight away with the following outgoings:

Christian Eriksen - PSG - £75m

Jan Vertonghen - Liverpool - £27.5m

Toby Alderweireld - Man Utd - £36m

Danny Rose - Villareal - Season Long Loan 70% wages

Juan Foyth - Marseille - Season Long Loan 10% wages

 

The top 3 outgoings is due to there contracts expiring after season one and this has allowed me to cash in and re-invest to the squad. Tried to sell Rose but he wasn't having any of it until transfer deadline day where he moved to Spain albeit on a loan deal. Was going to keep Foyth but Marseille offered a loan and he should hopefully play more games there than he would've for me this season had he stayed. Incomings was the following:

 

Nathan Ake - Bournmouth - £50m

Ruben Dias - Benfica - £40m

Ben Chilwell - Leicester - £66m

Jadon Sancho - Dortmund - £90m

I've also signed a bunch of youngsters to help fill out the U18's and U23's.

 

Top 4 is an absolute minimum but I'm hoping to challenge for the League this season and try to win one of the cups if we can.

[Kodies]

Just finished first season, ended up with a cracking finish to the league where I staggered over the line to win with 85 points, with Liverpool on 84, Man Utd on 80 and Man City on 77.

Also won the Champions League final beating Chelsea 2-2 on penalties, with a surprising double from Ndombele!

I wasn't expecting either as I did a heavy rebuild to the team and invested in youth, using a 3-2-3-2

Board aren't over the moon about me not signing English talent, next season will focus on that in DMC/MC and maybe upgrade Lloris to Donnarumma

On the fence about getting Lo Celso full time, though 35m does seem a good price for him so will likely go for it

Transfers Out 

Eriksen - 75m to PSG

Alderweireld - 24m to Inter

Vertonghen - 20m to Liverpool

Wanyama - 14m to West Ham

Aurier - 10m to LOSC

Lamela - 30m to OM

Sissoko / Moura / Gazzaniga / Vorm on Loan

 

Transfers In - Summer

Tonali - 33m

Haaland - 30m

Aarons - 20m

Gasparini - 9m

Bella-Kotchap - 7.5m

Vagnoman - 4.5m

Ivan Martinez - 1.2m

Armini - 1m

Wague - Loan

Transfers In - January

Upamecano - 19m 

Malang Sarr - 12.5m

Pellegri - 9m

Team

GK: Lloris / Gasparini

WBL: Rose / Sesegnon / Davies

CB: Dier / Konate

CB: Sanchez / Sarr / Armini

CB: Upamecano / Foyth

WBR: Aarons / KWP / Vagnoman

DLP: Tonali / Winks / Skipp

MC: Alli / Lo Celso

MC: Ndombele / Oakley-Boothe

ST: Kane / Son

ST: Haaland / Parrot

 

[RageMaster]

I've just reached Jan 31st and the window has just slammed shut so it's time for my mid season update.

 

League: 3rd after 24 games. We sit 2 points behind 2nd placed Liverpool and 17 points off Man City in 1st. Chelsea sit 4th level on points with us but then Arsenal are 5th 4 points behind us.

FA Cup: Beat Rochdale and Everton respectively and we will face Man City at home in the 5th round. City have been breathtaking this season so will be difficult to progress.

Carabao Cup: Knocked out Hull, Sheffield Utd and Norwich before Man Utd dumped us out in the Semi Final 5-1 on agg ()

Champions League: Came 2nd in the group that consisted of Juventus, Bayer Leverkusen and Lille. We face Atalanta of Italy in the 1st knockout round so we should be able to progress here.

1st Team transfers:

In: Jarrod Bowen joins from Hull for £17m

Out: Erik Lamela joined Leicester for £20m, Victor Wanyama joined Wolves for £18m.

I've also signed a few young players to help stock my U23's and the intention here is to hopefully make a profit from them over the next few seasons. I did try to sign Zatlan Ibrahimovic on a 6 month deal after he left LA Galaxy to enable me to loan out Parrott but he rejected us and decided to move to a Qatari team.

Looking ahead, i'm unsure as to what I will do with Lo Celso and I am leaning towards sending him back to Betis but he has 4 months to change my mind. I am looking around for 2 right backs as I'm not liking Aurier or Walker-Peters. If any GK's become available then I may look to make a change here. I would love to sign Ndidi from Leicester but they are asking for silly money at the moment.

 

 

 

[gcoard]

In my save, at the end of the second season, Ederson and City had a falling out, so I bought him for $67M.  Expensive, but Lloris has been declining and I was looking for a keeper to take over anyway (was expecting a younger keeper who could take over in a season or two, but I'll take it).  Hopefully we can challenge Liverpool who has won the EPL pretty easily in my first two seasons.

[RageMaster]

End of Season (1) update:

Premier League: 3rd

Champions League: Winners

FA Cup: Winners

League Cup: Semi Final

 

League:

We was actually extremely lucky to even finish in the top 4 let alone to finish 3rd. As you can see here our form after Christmas was really ropey to say the least. After matchday 33, both United and Arsenal could have finished above me had they won all there remaining games. Luckily for me they both reached the Europa League final so they had lots of fatigue in there squads and a pile up of fixtures.

Champions League:

Fixtures here. I very nearly paid the price for rotating the team in the Atalanta 2nd leg but luckily we escaped with the win on penalties. I was literally tearing my hair out after this game! We was lucky against PSG as they battered us in both games but we was able to get past them and faced Athletico in the final (who won La Liga). They didn't trouble us too much in the final and we took our chances.

FA Cup:

We knocked out Rochdale and Everton in rounds 3 and 4. We faced league champions Man City in the 5th round in a game which in all honesty I expected us to lose in. We managed to take the game to the lottery of penalties and once again we counted our lucky stars. Arsenal in the Quarter Final away was a tough ask for my side as we wasn't in the best league form and I had failed to beat Arsenal in both league games, Harry Kane scored a 94th min winner to send us through to the Semi's to face Swansea who we comfortable dispatched of. Liverpool in the final would provide a far sterner test but we overcome them with a Jadon Sancho winner in extra time.

Carabao Cup:

Man Utd absolutely bossed us in both legs of the semi and I really couldn't complain at the 5-1 aggregate loss. United went on to beat Wolves 2-0 in the final.

 

Key Player Stats:

 

Next Season Aims:

Even though we somehow managed to win the Champions League, I really would like to close the gap to City and Liverpool in the league. The below definetly needs to improve:

Possession: We was 14th highest team in terms of average possession. 14% off of Man City in 1st place. Our pass completion saw us at 75% and 15th in the table.

Discipline: We had 86 yellow cards handed out to my players ranking us 6th in the yellow card table. We also had 2 red cards.

Goals conceeded: We conceeded 50 goals in the league (8th least) but this is still 30 goals more than Man City! We really need to tighten up at the back. We had 9 cleansheets compared to City's 20.

Get Dele Alli scoring again. I played Dele far to deep this season as a B2B midfielder but he hasn't scored much. I would like to return to a 4-2-3-1 formation and have him linking up with Kane up front.

 

Transfer Aims:

I've decided not to renew Lo Celso's loan this time. He never became a starting player for me and I decided to bring back Nabil Bentaleb who suits my formation better plus is club home grown. Nabil joins us for £13.75m.

I am looking to move on Aurier and I would like Max Aarons or Reece James to replace him. I was considering selling Walker Peters but he did an excellent job for me at the end of the season when Aurier was injured so now I am in 2 minds about giving him another chance. I will need to decide wether to loan out Foyth and Carter-Vickers again or to use one of them as 4th CB as we do lack depth here.

I'm looking at Strikers on the loan and transfer list as I would like to loan out Parrott for a season so he can get regular game time but will have to see what quality is available to me.

Sissoko will probably leave due to age and I will need to find Danny Rose a permanent transfer as he was at Villareal this season on loan. If any goalkeepers become available I may consider cashing in on Lloris.

So far i've been given just over £50m to spend before any sales so will need to spend wisely.

 

[Kodies]

Just sold Winks for 20m to Dortmund because he didn't really fit into my system and I have some incredibly strong options in Midfield so he wasn't really getting any games.

The second he leaves, he is now considered a 'World-class Midfielder' which seems extremely generous... 

Has anyone turned Dermi Lusala from the U18's into anything decent? Coaches seem to rate him, so I've given him afew cup appearances, performances have been good but development is slow.

Lloris is gone now as well, OL came in with an offer of 37m which is mad for a 34 year old so am replacing him with Donnarumma for 44m

[Welshace]

26 minutes ago, Kodies said:

Just sold Winks for 20m to Dortmund because he didn't really fit into my system and I have some incredibly strong options in Midfield so he wasn't really getting any games.

The second he leaves, he is now considered a 'World-class Midfielder' which seems extremely generous... 

Has anyone turned Dermi Lusala from the U18's into anything decent? Coaches seem to rate him, so I've given him afew cup appearances, performances have been good but development is slow.

Lloris is gone now as well, OL came in with an offer of 37m which is mad for a 34 year old so am replacing him with Donnarumma for 44m

Winks would have got a reputation boost from his move, taking into  the world class description.

[TottenhamBoi90]

Can somebody please tell me how to set Tottenham up, im tired of rage quitting!!!

[gcoard]

20 hours ago, TottenhamBoi90 said:

Can somebody please tell me how to set Tottenham up, im tired of rage quitting!!!

Here's my base formation

Finished 3rd last season.  FYI, in my first season, I struggled for the first half of the season (probably had too many transfers) and was on the verge of getting sacked for a few games in Jan.  Stuck it out (since it was a beta save) and been doing pretty well.

[reece1973]

On 14/12/2019 at 15:07, gcoard said:

Here's my base formation

Finished 3rd last season.  FYI, in my first season, I struggled for the first half of the season (probably had too many transfers) and was on the verge of getting sacked for a few games in Jan.  Stuck it out (since it was a beta save) and been doing pretty well.

How on earth did you manage to get a team like that?

[gcoard]

15 hours ago, reece1973 said:

How on earth did you manage to get a team like that?

Surprisingly, Levy has given me a decent amount of money!  I've mentioned elsewhere that in my first summer, I had the board buy Sancho (which depleted my budget), then I sold Eriksen and Toby for like 200M which I used to buy Aarons, Maddison, and Dembele, and Dias.  I've tended to get good values for other players (Rose, KWP, Davies, Sisssoko, etc.) and a good bank balanace (so I get to keep most of the money) plus the money Daniel has given, means I've been able to afford a decent number of players.  Haaland, Butinek, Nacho, and Godfrey were cheap.  I said earlier in the thread that Ederson and City had  a falling out so he **only** cost 67M (which is obviously expensive, but not nearly as expensive as it could be).  The rest are usually fairly backloaded (because it's my beta save, and I was expecting to get fired and/or not continue).  I can provide a more detailed look, if interested, just let me know.

[enders357]

 

20 hours ago, gcoard said:

Surprisingly, Levy has given me a decent amount of money!  I've mentioned elsewhere that in my first summer, I had the board buy Sancho (which depleted my budget), then I sold Eriksen and Toby for like 200M which I used to buy Aarons, Maddison, and Dembele, and Dias.  I've tended to get good values for other players (Rose, KWP, Davies, Sisssoko, etc.) and a good bank balanace (so I get to keep most of the money) plus the money Daniel has given, means I've been able to afford a decent number of players.  Haaland, Butinek, Nacho, and Godfrey were cheap.  I said earlier in the thread that Ederson and City had  a falling out so he **only** cost 67M (which is obviously expensive, but not nearly as expensive as it could be).  The rest are usually fairly backloaded (because it's my beta save, and I was expecting to get fired and/or not continue).  I can provide a more detailed look, if interested, just let me know.

How is Ben Godfrey?

[gcoard]

3 hours ago, enders357 said:

 

How is Ben Godfrey?

He just transferred in right before the screen shot and haven't had a chance to play since.  From what I remember, he was ok - not as good as Todibo or Dias, slightly worse Dier, 3.5 or 4 star potential.  I tend to rotate 3 cbs, so he'll eventually take over for Dier in the rotation (wanted to replace him with an English cb and there isn't a great group to choose from)

[enders357]

On 17/12/2019 at 12:34, gcoard said:

He just transferred in right before the screen shot and haven't had a chance to play since.  From what I remember, he was ok - not as good as Todibo or Dias, slightly worse Dier, 3.5 or 4 star potential.  I tend to rotate 3 cbs, so he'll eventually take over for Dier in the rotation (wanted to replace him with an English cb and there isn't a great group to choose from)

Cool. I'm starting my save later this week when I finish work for xmas, and Godfrey is on my hitlist. Would be interested to know how he performs for you.

[reece1973]

What position are people playing Dele Alli?  10 games in and not 1 assist or goal and really struggling

[Conaldo Chop]

Halfway through my second season as Spurs now and I’m loving my save.

 

1st Season I won the League and CL double, got knocked out of the Carabao Cup in the Semi Final against Liverpool on penalties, FA Cup Liverpool again knocked us out at Anfield in the 5th round on Penalties. Disappointing as the cups are always good ways to stack the trophy cabinet and I didn’t think I’d do as well as I did in the league and champions league.

In the league we played extremely well, with 10 wins from the final 11 games getting us over the line.

The Champions League we tried to throw in the semi finals against Bayern, the league was my main focus with big injuries to 2 of my key players, and going into the 2nd leg Away to Bayern with a 2-2 draw I assumed there was little hope of going to the final, I put out my second team and came away with a 2-0 win sending us to a CL Final clash with Man City, who we eventually beat 2-1 with my 3rd choice CB coming on in the 20th Minute at RB because of an Injury scoring the winner in extra time.

1st Summer transfers;

 

Out: 

Alderweireld- Liverpool 25m

Wanyama- West Ham 10m

Eriksen- Man Utd 88m

Davies- Fiorentina 15m

KWP- Newcastle 21m

Vorm- Dynamo Kyiv 2m

Vertonghen- OM 28m

Parrott, Skipp, Dier, Lamela, Winks, Sessegnon and Foyth went out on Loan either in the Summer or January

 

In: 

Semedo 29m

Rugani 17m

Ajer 19m

Bruno Fernandes 45m

Telles 30m

Dembele 23m

Chiesa 60m

Jota 50m

January: Olmo 30m, Upamecano 18m (Unsettled him in the summer and only played 3 games in 3 months for Leipzig), Vignato 10m

Second season not much investment into the first team, mostly youth players who got loaned back out or back up players,

 

In: Butland 5m, Depay 17m, Aaron’s 60m, Havertz 92m, Latauro Martinez 68m, other young players coming in at a combined 16.5m

 

Out: Lamela 10m, Dier 31m, Gazzaniga 17m, Son 95m, Aurier 18m, Winks 33m, Foyth 10m and several loans

just got to January and I’m top of the league and finished 1st in my Cl Group.

 

I urge anyone who’s starting at Spurs to sign the following

Telles, Bruno Fernandes, Olmo, Semedo and Ajer

 

My first team as of 03/01/21

4231 Wide, Controlled Possession, Positive

Martinez

Jota Havertz Chiesa

Fernandes Sissoko

Telles Ajer Upamecano Semedo

Lloris

 

The only players I’m disappointed with are

Kane: Scored 5 out of 13 Penalties in the season and a half I’ve played, missed in both the FA Cup and League Cup shoot outs against Liverpool in season 1, the CL Final against Man City and the League cup shoot out against Watford in season 2, he isn’t a machine up front but that seems to be the case every year for some reason.

 

Ndombele: Poor Avg Rating in both seasons, and been out performed by an ageing Sissoko as a BBM, will look to sell in the Summer of ‘21

 

Chiesa: 60m Signing in the first season, 39 League games later only 6 goals and 4 assists to his name, and his Avg Ratings have been 6.97 and 6.85, can’t seem to get the best out of him but will persist as not too many wingers who can play the position I like

Really pleased with my season and a half so far, if anyone has some good youth players who can break into the team around the 21/22 season please let me know 

 

[gcoard]

On 29/12/2019 at 15:26, reece1973 said:

What position are people playing Dele Alli?  10 games in and not 1 assist or goal and really struggling

I played him in the IF-A role.  Like everyone on my team, he was playing really well

[Majick]

Just completed my first season. Sold Vertonghen (23m, Juve) and Eriksen (50m, PSG) in pre-season, brought in Lascelles for 30M and James Rodriguez on a loan as their replacements. The January window saw us move on Alderweireld and Moura (Chinese teams, 70m combined) and bring in Sandor Berge as Dier dropped back into defence.

Couldn't settle on a steady formation during the season - mainly used 4231 but also tried 442 and an asymmetric hybrid to try and get the best out of Sissoko at MR and Dele/Son at AML. Ended up back with 4231 in the end.

No-one really had a good season, aside from Kane and Ndombele. Lots of injuries - Lamela 5 times, Aurier, Davies Son, all 4 times, but the gold medal goes to Ndombele: 6 separate injuries, including 2 in pre-season! Kane survived the season unscathed, but I need to give the guy a rest at some point. He played almost every minute of every match - 30 goals in 52 games was a decent return, but "thanks" to the penalty bug could have been a lot higher.

Real knocked us out of the CL with a ludicrous Isco hat-trick in the quarter-finals. United (3rd round) and Arsenal (4th round) accounted for us in the League and FA Cups, respectively. We ended up 4th, needing a point to finish above Arsenal on the last day after a late-season poor run of form saw us drop from 3rd... Which was all-too familiar. Thankfully we beat Bournemouth, so that was fine - except the European finals feature Chelsea/Real and ManU/Arsenal, and if I understand correctly than wins for both London clubs would drop us into the Europa League, which I don't want at all, not least because having gambled on Moura not being missed to get 50m for him (he wasn't, just!) I don't want my transfer budget getting cut to Europa levels!

So much depends on the outcome of the finals - all-too familiar again! Leicester have been relegated so I'll raid their team if we're in the Europa League next season. Aurier has to go; He's given away too many penalties, and Walker-Peters has been much better. Pereira may suit the role. On the other side Chilwell would make a fine replacement for Rose, regardless.

Oh, and Levy wants to discuss the club vision before the finals, so my goal is to reach the semi-final of the Europa League... I assume that it'll be revised if we're in the CL next season, but it would be a very Spurs thing to sack me for not doing well in a competition we're not actually in...

EDIT: Arsenal had 2 players sent off in the final but somehow held out to penalties and beat ManU. Chelsea, fortunately, stacked it against Real Madrid - Bale with a double and my old friend Isco taking them down and giving us the CL spot. And the club vision has been updated to require us to make the knockout round in the CL, which we really ought to do... draw permitting!

Edited January 12, 2020 by Majick
Update

[ahmed.sg]

Really average first season, not pleased but not devastated. Time for a rebuild. Came fourth (barely), got knocked out the CL first knockout round by RB Leipzig, lost the FA Cup quarter final to Brighton, and can't remember who knocked me out of the League Cup or when because I was trying to lose.

Played a 4-2-3-1 throughout. Kane performed very well with 37 goals in 44 games, KWP and Sessegnon performed well as regular starters at full back. I should have played Winks and Lo Celso more as they both performed very well when played but I stuck with Ndombele and Dele out of stubbornness despite them both being average. Played Sanchez more than either Belgians to get ready for life after them.

Started the game with first window shut (I prefer it for realism) then in the January window I sold Eriksen (whom I barely started) for 65 million pounds to PSG and Wanyama to a Chinese team for 20 million. Bought Eze for 23 million as backup for Son and made the Lo Celso transfer permanent. Sent Lamella out for loan with an option to buy for 21 million to Leicester and brought back Jack Clarke from loan instead of him as backup for Moura but he ended up being a beast actually. Promoted Parrot to the first team as backup for Kane but sent Skipp out on loan (wasn't going to be able to play him enough) and finally sold Rose for 15 million (ugh) but needed to get rid.

Summer 2020 window just ended and I've undertaken an actual rebuild. Sold Aurier, Davies, Sissoko, Lamella (permanently), sent Vertonghen on loan (with a view of his contract running out as I can't get money for him) as well as Carter-Vickers and Foyth (but I plan to later incorporate at least one of them in my first team I just wanted them both to have regular game time) whilst buying Chillwell, Aarons (sad because KWP and Sessegnon actually performed well and this will cut their time) as well as Godfrey (wanted Dias but Chelsea beat me to it). I plan to return Dier to centre back so I also bought Chaudhry in midfield. Promoted Skipp and Whiteman (Vorm retired) to the squad.

So far I am trying to mostly buy English players and supplement them with our own youth. Parrot, Clarke, Eze, Skipp, and Whiteman all in the first team squad for now but I feel like they aren't getting enough game time by January 2021 I might loan some of them out. Chillwell and Aarons were really expensive and I kinda feel like I betrayed KWP and Sessegnon after they actually did their best but we'll see, maybe I can somehow give everyone enough game time.

Plan is to sell Toby next year and incorporate whichever one of Foyth/CCV impresses me most into the squad. Long term once Lloris starts declining I have an eye on Pickford. I also want Sancho and Bailey in for Son and Moura but this is much further down the line.

[Mackem742]

Ive been playing a bit of a European journeyman save, started at Roma but by the January in season 1 I was performing terribly so moved on. Got a job at Sevilla when they were 9th in the league, managed to push them up to 7th. Following season I actually managed a full season with Sevilla and finished 4th. Started the following season terribly again! Ended up quitting in September and ended up at Spurs who were 13th! Just heading into April now and Ive dragged them up to 7th. The board only wanted a top 10 finish. Just won the Carabao Cup by beating Liverpool 5-1 and qualified for the Europa League 2. Still in this seasons Europa League and my next opponent is Sevilla, should be interesting!

[Kodies]

Has anyone been able to remove the 'Sign English Players' request from the board as a vision promise?

I've been struggling with it and the board are sulking over it, there aren't enough high quality English players to satisfy the request for me in 2025.

Do you compromise on talent/quality and just sign token English players for the bench or to develop in the reserves?

[gcoard]

On 17/01/2020 at 16:30, Kodies said:

Has anyone been able to remove the 'Sign English Players' request from the board as a vision promise?

I've been struggling with it and the board are sulking over it, there aren't enough high quality English players to satisfy the request for me in 2025.

Do you compromise on talent/quality and just sign token English players for the bench or to develop in the reserves?

Nope.  I currently have 'Sign English Players' and 'Sign High-Reputation Players' (to go with 'Develop players using club's youth system').  The board is currently "devastated" re: English players because I only signed a backup keeper who was English in the summer of my fourth season (to be fair, I ONLY bought back up players this summer).  Here have been my English transfers:
1) Sancho, Aarons, Karamoko Dembele, Maddison

2) Chilwell, Angel Gomes

3) Godfrey

4) Pope

Dembele has 66 appearances for me, most off the bench.  Once Son declines, he'll start.  Godfrey was intended to be a starter for me, but I picked up a Brazilian wonderkid, so Godfrey is my bench CB.  Gomes has been a loan player who will get some first team action for me.  Pope is just my back up keeper.  The rest are starters for me.

I'll probably try to make an offer for an English player in the winter.  The summer market was SUPER short with the season starting in mid-July.  As of now, it'll just be youth prospects, but if I lose anyone in January, I'll try to replace them with an English player.

[knap]

My best season this year in FMT before the new ME arrives

 

[Dustman2015]

I can't wait to play with this team after the update.... How big of a bump do you think Taganga will get?? He has made two TOTW's in his few starts

[VivaLaBorat]

Is anyone having problems with the board expectation of signing English players? I have signed Jude Bellingham, Jadon Sancho, Max Aarons and have James Maddison coming at the end of the season (along with a couple of young prospects). But outside of hoovering up any half decent youngsters outsifde of the Prem, it costs a fortune to buy English and most of them are either average or impossible to buy (Sterling, TAA, Rashford). I find myself having to spend money on mid-range English youth prospects, just to satisfy them enough to buy someone foreign. They don't even want Scottish/Irish players!

[Ronaldo Beckham]

How is Japhet Tanganga on FM2020, I am tempted to do a youth only Spurs save soon and was just curious how he is rated on FM.

[SD]

7 hours ago, Ronaldo Beckham said:

How is Japhet Tanganga on FM2020, I am tempted to do a youth only Spurs save soon and was just curious how he is rated on FM.

He's rather poor right now, Championship level at best.

Personally I think he should be a -9 this update, he's athletic, composed, comfortable on the ball, tactically versatile, great mentality, he really looks to have a high ceiling.