Community challenge?

[westy8chimp]

Hope we are all coping with the stressful times and lock downs, best wishes to all. 

Like many, the lack of football and working from home is a mind numbing experience. I'm shipping my family off to the in-laws for a couple of weeks.... 

So I have time to finally get stuck into FM20

@herne79 it was your challenges around this time of year that got me into the last couple of FMs. Cmon mate, pull your finger out... Give us some ideas for a save or challenge of some sort. 

Edited March 21, 2020 by westy8chimp

[jc577]

@herne79 Cheeky bump 

[herne79]

@Experienced Defender Tag, you're it .

[Experienced Defender]

1 hour ago, herne79 said:

@Experienced Defender Tag, you're it .

I've never taken part in any challenges nor have I ever followed them in a relevant thread, so really don't know how to help. What's more, I don't even have the time (and "space") to play FM nearly as much as I would love to.

Perhaps @Rashidi could offer some interesting ideas, as it seems to be more of his cup of tea 

[HUNT3R]

 

If anyone has ideas, put them forward. If there is any need for mod assistance, let us know either via this thread or PM.

[crusadertsar]

@westy8chimp Win Premier League while playing 4-1-4-1 Wide formation in your first season with a team that is not one of the Top Six?

[TheEasternWind]

17 minutes ago, crusadertsar said:

@westy8chimp Win Premier League while playing 4-1-4-1 Wide formation in your first season with a team that is not one of the Top Six?

Do you mean the flat 4141 with wingers on the mr/ml strata or the "standard" 4141 formation? Both seem like a nice challenge. 

Edited August 10, 2020 by TheEasternWind

[crusadertsar]

55 minutes ago, TheEasternWind said:

Do you mean the flat 4141 with wingers on the mr/ml strata or the "standard" 4141 formation? Both seem like a nice challenge. 

Standard with AML and AMR wingers. So 4-1-2-3 wide I guess

[herne79]

ok lol.

Some further ideas:

1) Start a save as Brescia.  Their media prediction is 18th (relegation) so a) guide them to safety; b) utilise, develop and don't sell Tonali; c) have Mario Balotelli score you at least 20 goals first season.

2) Pick any team you like, exceed their season expectations while using a formation with 3 central defenders and either a playmaker role at AMC or Defensive Wingers at ML/R (bonus points for both).  No additional players on the flanks are allowed.

3) Using any team you like, exceed their season expectations by using a tactic which uses a non-aggressive Mentality and a low block.

4) Choose a team from English League One or below and build a good old fashioned English 442.

5) Choose a team from any of the top leagues who are expected to finish outside of the continental football qualification places and finish the season unbeaten for the "Invincible" achievement.

[crusadertsar]

5 minutes ago, herne79 said:

 

2) Pick any team you like, exceed their season expectations while using a formation with 3 central defenders and either a playmaker role at AMC or Defensive Wingers at ML/R (bonus points for both).  No additional players on the flanks are allowed.

Wow I like that challenge to try myself actually. Thanks for the idea! 

[TheEasternWind]

13 minutes ago, crusadertsar said:

Wow I like that challenge to try myself actually. Thanks for the idea! 

Seconded

[CaptCanuck]

1 hour ago, crusadertsar said:

Wow I like that challenge to try myself actually. Thanks for the idea! 

Ya I've never got 3 CBs or an AMC to work out to my liking - that sounds like a goer! I also like the Brescia one - a twenty goal scorer out of Mario is going to need some penalties, ha

@herne79 - being new to this, are we allowed to make transfers and the like, or it's a whatever you've got when you start up the Save?

[herne79]

27 minutes ago, CaptCanuck said:

being new to this, are we allowed to make transfers and the like, or it's a whatever you've got when you start up the Save?

Whatever you like.

[FMunderachiever]

2 hours ago, herne79 said:

ok lol.

Some further ideas:

1) Start a save as Brescia.  Their media prediction is 18th (relegation) so a) guide them to safety; b) utilise, develop and don't sell Tonali; c) have Mario Balotelli score you at least 20 goals first season.

2) Pick any team you like, exceed their season expectations while using a formation with 3 central defenders and either a playmaker role at AMC or Defensive Wingers at ML/R (bonus points for both).  No additional players on the flanks are allowed.

3) Using any team you like, exceed their season expectations by using a tactic which uses a non-aggressive Mentality and a low block.

4) Choose a team from English League One or below and build a good old fashioned English 442.

5) Choose a team from any of the top leagues who are expected to finish outside of the continental football qualification places and finish the season unbeaten for the "Invincible" achievement.

Unknowingly, i am on the verge of completing number 2 without knowing it was a challenge.

I am about to win the Serie A as Juventus (ok, thats pretty expected), but im using this formation and its working very nicely:

 

------------------------F9 (s)------------------CF(a)--------------------F9 (s)

----DW(s)-------------------CM(s)------------------------CM(s)-----------------------DW (s)

-------------------------CD (d)----------------L(a)-------------CD(d)

-------------------------------------------------SK (a)

[XuluBak]

Build a juggernaut around a WTM.

[Deisler26]

Win the Premier League with Norwich without spending more than £1m on any player and only two free signings per season

[crusadertsar]

1 hour ago, FMunderachiever said:

Unknowingly, i am on the verge of completing number 2 without knowing it was a challenge.

I am about to win the Serie A as Juventus (ok, thats pretty expected), but im using this formation and its working very nicely:

 

------------------------F9 (s)------------------CF(a)--------------------F9 (s)

----DW(s)-------------------CM(s)------------------------CM(s)-----------------------DW (s)

-------------------------CD (d)----------------L(a)-------------CD(d)

-------------------------------------------------SK (a)

Nice! But where is your AMC ?

[crusadertsar]

3 hours ago, Deisler26 said:

Win the Premier League with Norwich without spending more than £1m on any player and only two free signings per season

How about I up the ante?

I will try to:

1) Pick any team you like - Norwich

2) And exceed their season expectations (predicted to finish 20th) 

3) While using a formation with 3 central defenders AND a playmaker role at AMC AND Defensive Wingers at ML/R.  No additional players on the flanks are allowed.

4) Win the Premier League with Norwich without spending more than £1m on any player and only two free signings per season

I probably won't win it in our first season haha but win it eventually. And spending £1m limitation shall only mean the money upfront, excluding the money offered in clauses, such as future 50 games later money, ect. No more than 2 Free signings per year as well.

How is that for a challenge? I will try it and report here, hopefully before FM21 comes out 

Edited August 11, 2020 by crusadertsar

[FMunderachiever]

59 minutes ago, crusadertsar said:

Nice! But where is your AMC ?

dont need one? it said use 3 centre backs, and then either 2 defensive wingers or an AMC playmaker?

i like Norwich on the game, they have some quite useful players i think, good luck!

[crusadertsar]

1 hour ago, FMunderachiever said:

dont need one? it said use 3 centre backs, and then either 2 defensive wingers or an AMC playmaker?

i like Norwich on the game, they have some quite useful players i think, good luck!

True! they already have a top trequartista and two young wingbacks whom I think I could easily convert into DWs. 

[Deisler26]

8 hours ago, crusadertsar said:

How about I up the ante?

I will try to:

1) Pick any team you like - Norwich

2) And exceed their season expectations (predicted to finish 20th) 

3) While using a formation with 3 central defenders AND a playmaker role at AMC AND Defensive Wingers at ML/R.  No additional players on the flanks are allowed.

4) Win the Premier League with Norwich without spending more than £1m on any player and only two free signings per season

I probably won't win it in our first season haha but win it eventually. And spending £1m limitation shall only mean the money upfront, excluding the money offered in clauses, such as future 50 games later money, ect. No more than 2 Free signings per year as well.

How is that for a challenge? I will try it and report here, hopefully before FM21 comes out 

It took me 5 seasons to win the Prem under my conditions and it was £1m IN TOTAL PAYMENTS for a player

Plus I couldnt have any loans if they cost other than the wages

[crusadertsar]

1 hour ago, Deisler26 said:

It took me 5 seasons to win the Prem under my conditions and it was £1m IN TOTAL PAYMENTS for a player

Plus I couldnt have any loans if they cost other than the wages

Why not just go all the way, a homegrown challenge and not buy any players at all? Norwich has a decent academy last I checked 

Did you win with Norwich?

Edited August 11, 2020 by crusadertsar

[Tilling]

19 minutes ago, crusadertsar said:

Why not just go all the way, a homegrown challenge and not buy any players at all? Norwich has a decent academy last I checked 

Did you win with Norwich?

For the record, doing a homegrown challenge has comfortably been the best FM experience I think I've ever had in a single player game. I did one this year with Palermo, using only Sicilian players that I found using a custom search filter; took me 12 seasons but I eventually won the Serie A on the final day!

Happy to share that custom search filter if anybody wants a crack at that for themselves. Alternatively I have a database file for doing the same thing but for players from Paris (the Ile de France region), where the locations within IDF have been edited to include an (IDF) tag for easy searching.

[Enzo_Francescoli]

I would love to see someone take up on #3, but I would add that no extremely urgent pressing is allowed, because that's almost a cheat code even in a low block. I've tried, and, sadly, I know I'm not up to it.

[crusadertsar]

2 minutes ago, Enzo_Francescoli said:

I would love to see someone take up on #3, but I would add that no extremely urgent pressing is allowed, because that's almost a cheat code even in a low block. I've tried, and, sadly, I know I'm not up to it.

Good point. I didn't even think about using extreme pressing, as split block has always been enough for me.

Edited August 11, 2020 by crusadertsar

[Deisler26]

42 minutes ago, crusadertsar said:

Why not just go all the way, a homegrown challenge and not buy any players at all? Norwich has a decent academy last I checked 

Did you win with Norwich?

I did. And I usually do youth only, I thought I’d push myself to actually buy players this time

[dekzeh]

On 10/08/2020 at 16:13, herne79 said:

2) Pick any team you like, exceed their season expectations while using a formation with 3 central defenders and either a playmaker role at AMC or Defensive Wingers at ML/R (bonus points for both).  No additional players on the flanks are allowed.

Saw there's a lot of interest in this and having played with a system that's somewhat close to that in the past, I thought I could give it a go. While I don't have the energy for a new save at this point in the game's cycle I thought I could holiday a season. Hope that it counts, and if not, at least it'll give people some ideas.

System I came up with:

 

The UI doesn't show that I'm running a narrower attacking width, because on attacking that setting goes to standard.

PIs to Shoot Less Often on the 5 midfielders to reduce wasteful long range shooting that would come with the mentality, as WBIB would make little sense with the rest of the system that is based on quick transitions. The wingers and the Segundo Volante have 'Get Further Forward' and the DM is told to Hold Position. 

The team I chose for this was Lazio. They had most of the players needed for this system to flourish IMO, only lacking in a few areas. I didn't do a lot of research as they might as well be other teams much more suited, I just wanted to play with Lazio for a while and it was a solid enough pick. No transfers, holiday'd straight from day one. I set a few players to specific positions because I was scared the AI would play them in unfitting positions (Correa at LM, SMS as a Treq, Luis Alberto upfront or in the wings), none of the CBs were particularly good as a libero so I didn't bother to set them up either, the one reason I wanted a Libero was to have someone a little bit ahead of the defensive line when we lost possession, hopefully intercepting long balls ahead of the defense, and not sweeping behind like the role description wants it to.

So I set this up and holiday'd:

 

End of season wrap-up:

 

4 points behind Juve isn't awful, we lost both games vs them and that cost the title. Team was predicted 4th and the board only wanted to qualify for EL, so overall this seems good. Unfortunate early pairing vs Napoli in the Coppa Italia and another early exit in the EL vs Leipzig (who went on to win the whole thing), but a Supercup win over Juve (3-2 after ET, quite the game)

The prefered starting XI by my assistant and their ratings and contributions:

 

The fact that Lulic played most of the games at LM is really annoying. Right footed and old with quickly declining physicals, you can see how poor his contribution was compared to Lazzari on the other side. In hindsight I should've seen this coming and set Jonny or Jordan Lukaku for that role. With human management and some signings (and probably even with none) this would've been an easy league win in my opinion. Also the 50 goals scored by Immobile look nice but keep in mind 13 of those were penalties. Still, very happy with the return from the front three and the wingers, with the Lulic situation in mind. SMS was disappointing, worth exploring the idea of an attack duty there.

 

The Ai is so bad at squad management and picking players I'm mad enough rn I might redo this actually playing the game 

[herne79]

11 hours ago, dekzeh said:

I thought I could holiday a season. Hope that it counts

Not really, no.

The whole point of tactical challenges was to help people learn and experience different tactical ideas, while watching how things play out on the pitch and adapting as needed.  I'm afraid holidaying does none of that.

[jc577]

On 10/08/2020 at 20:13, herne79 said:

2) Pick any team you like, exceed their season expectations while using a formation with 3 central defenders and either a playmaker role at AMC or Defensive Wingers at ML/R (bonus points for both).  No additional players on the flanks are allowed.

3) Using any team you like, exceed their season expectations by using a tactic which uses a non-aggressive Mentality and a low block.

Both of these look exciting  tempted to try #3 as it’s the complete opposite of what’s popular this year, cough *gegenpress* cough 😂 

[dekzeh]

3 hours ago, herne79 said:

Not really, no.

The whole point of tactical challenges was to help people learn and experience different tactical ideas, while watching how things play out on the pitch and adapting as needed.  I'm afraid holidaying does none of that.

Fair enough, makes complete sense. I'm just a little burned out on the game at the moment for all the micromanagement bits, but sitting on the tactics creator whilst attempting to create something with restrictions was interesting to me, just wanted to see more or less how it'd play out and holidaying was the easiest (laziest) way of doing that.

If I give a proper go at it I'll report back 

[Rashidi]

Relegation challenges are fun imho. I still can't save a team from relegation :-) The goal has to be challenging, no signings allowed and it must be down after the winter transfer update concludes with more than half of the games played. I am sure a lot of people are going to find it easy.

[TheEasternWind]

I just had an idea for a Challenge/long term save.

The Quinta del Buitre challenge.

The task is to replicate Real Madrid's domestic achievements during the 80's. Especifically you must win 5 consecutive league titles under the following conditions:

1- You must use a 442.

2- At least five first team players must come from your academy

3- You can have no more than 3 foreign players in the squad at any given point in time (Foreign youth players gaining citizenship are not allowed).