FC Kaiserslazy - The art of passive FM

[Deego619]

For the spirit of this thread I'm not going to bother to make it look nice. I want super lazy FM, the type of plug and play of old. To see how far we can go in the home of hipster football. 

Here's a logo

New save, something cool, maybe a fallen giant yeah people like those saves.

Kaiserslautern, big stadium in the 3rd tier. Something about the river where we used to build the boats.

Let's make a tactic.

 

• I want 4-4-2 because that wins everything. Love me some crosses too.
• Positive because I'm a positive guy
• Let's go for attacking wingers and also attacking full backs because they're cool and full backs are not defensive now.
• DLF and AF because I read that on a guide on here 10 years ago.
• High tempo because Liverpool do that.
• Wider because we play wingers.
• Counter and Counter Press sound cool so I'll select those for no other reason
• Pressing obviously.

 

 

Quick Pick by the ass man I don't what his name is. 

The board is stingy and won't give me money.

 

 

Nice. Predicted 3rd so not totally unexpected, but still good considering the minimal effort.

I didn't change tactic or TIs during the game at all. I only managed subs. 

I guess the message of this thread is that FM isn't really a complicated game, we make it complicated by overthinking tactics with 20 different instructions.

Limit yourself to 5 or so TIs and let the Team Mentality dictate how you want to play.

It's also the position, not the role that defines how your team sets up. 

 

I feel like this year also that tactical and team gelling is more profound than earlier versions. I feel like it would have been tempting to pack things in when I saw the disappointing start to the season. But when the team began to gel and partnerships formed, this was when our run to the top of the table began.

 

Edited July 14, 2020 by JDeeguain

[FMunderachiever]

I love this thread. Ive had more fun when ive subscribed to your style of playing.

Love the minimalism. ive tried micromanaging everything and made things worse.

I love sticking in exotic roles for the hell of it now. Theyre cool and sound eccentric. Who cares. Love using Liberos

Edited July 14, 2020 by FMunderachiever

[crusadertsar]

@JDeeguain Cool experiment. But wish you could try this with a good team in the top league and then see how many draws you get 

Edited July 14, 2020 by crusadertsar

[yourih3]

8 hours ago, JDeeguain said:

• I want 4-4-2 because that wins everything. Love me some crosses too.
• Positive because I'm a positive guy
• Let's go for attacking wingers and also attacking full backs because they're cool and full backs are not defensive now.
• DLF and AF because I read that on a guide on here 10 years ago.
• High tempo because Liverpool do that.
• Wider because we play wingers.
• Counter and Counter Press sound cool so I'll select those for no other reason
• Pressing obviously.

This reasoning is quite brilliant!   

[naufal husain]

The real keep it simple at its best

[coach vahid]

Great OP.

Brilliant !

[Deego619]

13 hours ago, FMunderachiever said:

I love this thread. Ive had more fun when ive subscribed to your style of playing.

Love the minimalism. ive tried micromanaging everything and made things worse.

I love sticking in exotic roles for the hell of it now. Theyre cool and sound eccentric. Who cares. Love using Liberos

I definitely think micromanaging has it's place and I absolutely love all of the in depth threads on here.  My aim is to set expectations about how simple this game can be if you put aside perfectionism. 

I like a good Libero, and I'm playing in Germany. You're stirring me. 

13 hours ago, crusadertsar said:

@JDeeguain Cool experiment. But wish you could try this with a good team in the top league and then see how many draws you get 

You're giving me irresistible, some might say sadistic images of playing Messi in a Stuart Downing role out on the left that I might have to try.

6 hours ago, yourih3 said:

This reasoning is quite brilliant!   

Try it out, feels good.

[Deego619]

A new season dawns and I have decided I want my transfer policy to be Daniel Levy

 

Ass man (I still don't know who is he or any of my staff are) gets back into his cage for this. Passive FM applies to tactics only and not South American wonderkids (well, Bundesliga and Premier League wonderkids on loan is 2. Bundesliga equivalent).

Ass man also wanted to pay Sebastien Polter 25k a week, this has no consideration in my decision to take over transfer policy. Although I will suggest to my boss to allow AI to handle this year's salary discussions.

 

 

Nope. No changes this is a league winning tactic. Ferguson never changed tactic.

 

 

 

In the promotion hunt at the winter break. 

 

 

Remarkably similar pattern of results to last season. Mediocre start and pushed on as the team gelled.

 

 

Quote

I want 4-4-2 because that wins everything. Love me some crosses too.

 

Edited July 15, 2020 by JDeeguain

[wixxi]

16 hours ago, Deego619 said:

It's also the position, not the role that defines how your team sets up.

A bit confused on what you mean by this. Could you elaborate?

[Deego619]

19 minutes ago, wixxi said:

A bit confused on what you mean by this. Could you elaborate?

Sure thing.

If you notice the roles in my tactic are quite basic and lack any luxurious or exotic roles.

A 4-4-2 is a wide play tactic by it's shape already. I don't really need to select CWB or WB for example to tell my Full Backs to get forward and cross. If you look across this forum, I don't think anyone really uses FB/A.

Or up front I'm using AF and DLF rather than something more exotic like PF and F9, but I still want them both to do the same things pretty much and they do it.

[zZzZzZzZzZzZzZz]

I'm curious about who scores your goals? 

[Deego619]

3 minutes ago, zZzZzZzZzZzZzZz said:

I'm curious about who scores your goals? 

AF out in front as expected followed by DLF. Then a general spread between the wingers, center backs and subs.

[FMunderachiever]

7 hours ago, Deego619 said:

Sure thing.

If you notice the roles in my tactic are quite basic and lack any luxurious or exotic roles.

A 4-4-2 is a wide play tactic by it's shape already. I don't really need to select CWB or WB for example to tell my Full Backs to get forward and cross. If you look across this forum, I don't think anyone really uses FB/A.

Or up front I'm using AF and DLF rather than something more exotic like PF and F9, but I still want them both to do the same things pretty much and they do it.

If you support QPR, i reckon theres a mad idea in my head where i could play 3 centrebacks with a libero and three false 9s up front.

Im gonna try it out. if i get battered so be it.

I want to go with a false nine trident of Eze, Chair and Hugill

[Deego619]

So.

 

We ended up pulling it off, rather comfortably in the end against 16th placed Bundesliga team Frieburg to progress through the play offs.

 

 

Still the same

 

 

If we manage to stay up this tactic is the new diablo. 

I'll give this save another season or so before I move on to a top club.

 

 

Turns out my lads are actually peak bottlers and should have ran away with this league.

No more goals from corners since the winter break and only 3 from both direct and indirect free kicks interested me for a split second.

Edited July 16, 2020 by Deego619

[Djuicer]

Not far from double the amount of chances created from the runner ups. Impressive.

[wixxi]

Just goes to show how far KISS can get you

[mibsweden]

This is amazing. Inspired me to try something similar with Roma. 

[thewire147]

Really enjoying this.

[Hilly1979]

Loving this thread, it just goes to show that you don't have to have a definite idea of how you want to play and go about replicating it which is so often the answer here when anyone asks for help.

 

[Deego619]

 

Most intense FM season I've ever played.

Here was the table during March:

 

 

We looked as good as done. This season was dreadful to watch. We weren't bad, but incredibly wasteful in front of goal. We lost 9 games by a single goal.

I'm also making the assumption that morale means more than tactics. As soon we managed to get a result we began to snowball, we were like a different team. We began to finish our chances:

 

 

Won 6 out of the last 7 in the league, with 2 6 pointers against Gladbach and Bremen thrown in.

 

 

An odd season across the league. Dortmund winning the league with 66 points and Bayern not even qualifying for Europe.

Gladbach were relegated despite also playing in the Champions League.

 

#

 

Doubt me now

 

 

We have yet to spend anything on transfer fees so far this save. I have the worst board ever.

I have the worst squad ever assembled, absolutely thrown together desperately with any half decent youngster our wage budget could afford:

 

 

 

But remaining true to ourselves.

 

 

Our board have finally opened up those coffers. Might be enough to keep me here to see how far I can take this team. Would like to try this approach on an European Elite though.

Edited July 19, 2020 by Deego619

[Deego619]

Look at how Bizarre this is

 

 

Dead bottom of the league for 3/4 of the season, couldn't buy a win, and we created more goal scoring chances than everyone bar Frankfurt and more than Dortmund who won the league.

Either my players' finishing is broken or what FM defines as a "Chance" is.

A wild conspiracy theory I've had over the years is that there's a certain level of scripting of the ME based on the average attributes of the division you're playing in. For example, if I have a 12/12/12 finishing/composure/decisions striker playing in the Conference North, chances (pun not intended) are that providing he gets the service, will score 30 goals a season easily.

Put this same striker in the Premier League with the exact same chances, and the ball just won't go in. But I guess there's also variance in the quality of goalkeepers too through the divisions.

Again, nothing of substance to prove this, just one of these thoughts that goes through your head.

Edited July 20, 2020 by Deego619

[wixxi]

That Bayern side really collapsed eh

[scratchmonkey]

Could you do the expanded table so that we can see Goals Scored and Goals Allowed? Since:

On 20/07/2020 at 10:57, Deego619 said:

Either my players' finishing is broken or what FM defines as a "Chance" is.

while I do think the definition of "a chance" is pretty shonky; there's a third option here, which is that you scored a ton of goals...and gave up a ton + 20 goals.

ETA: Otherwise known as "doing a Blackpool".

Edited July 22, 2020 by scratchmonkey

[El Butero]

Hey Deego, thanks for this! It's a great example for me on how to keep things simple and not overcomplicate things. I usually overcomplicate the game for myself and that sucks the joy out of it. I just wanted to let you know that this thread has really opened my eyes, together with this excellent thread by Herne. 

It's threads like this which give me insights in how the game works nowadays and it really gives me much more fun playing the game with this approach. Brings back a bit of the good old feelings I got when playing CM 01/02 back in the days: just put your players where they should be and have some fun.

[Deego619]

9 hours ago, scratchmonkey said:

Could you do the expanded table so that we can see Goals Scored and Goals Allowed? Since:

while I do think the definition of "a chance" is pretty shonky; there's a third option here, which is that you scored a ton of goals...and gave up a ton + 20 goals.

ETA: Otherwise known as "doing a Blackpool".

Good point.

 

We scored 39 goals, which seems to be about par for the teams around us. 39 goals from 108 chances equals a conversion % of 36%. In comparison to the league champions Dortmund who's ratio was 81 chances to 60 goals, a rate of 74%. 

Definitely seems like my team's finishing was off. Our higher tempo style of play could mean that these were half chances though, unsure of FM's exact calculation of this metric.

 

2 hours ago, El Butero said:

Hey Deego, thanks for this! It's a great example for me on how to keep things simple and not overcomplicate things. I usually overcomplicate the game for myself and that sucks the joy out of it. I just wanted to let you know that this thread has really opened my eyes, together with this excellent thread by Herne. 

It's threads like this which give me insights in how the game works nowadays and it really gives me much more fun playing the game with this approach. Brings back a bit of the good old feelings I got when playing CM 01/02 back in the days: just put your players where they should be and have some fun.

 

No problem! I've actually never seen that thread from Herne and it looks amazing. There's another afternoon gone reading FM for me!

Edited July 22, 2020 by Deego619

[scratchmonkey]

Definitely looks like a finishing problem, then, thanks!

The chances stat is a sum of both Clear-Cut Chances and Half-Chances -- I have 60-odd Chances Created from the Team Stats and then going into the Tactic -> Analysis -> Goal Analysis, I've had 20-some Clear-Cut Chances over my last 50 league games.

[zZzZzZzZzZzZzZz]

On 20/07/2020 at 19:57, Deego619 said:

Look at how Bizarre this is

Dead bottom of the league for 3/4 of the season, couldn't buy a win, and we created more goal scoring chances than everyone bar Frankfurt and more than Dortmund who won the league.

Either my players' finishing is broken or what FM defines as a "Chance" is.

A wild conspiracy theory I've had over the years is that there's a certain level of scripting of the ME based on the average attributes of the division you're playing in. For example, if I have a 12/12/12 finishing/composure/decisions striker playing in the Conference North, chances (pun not intended) are that providing he gets the service, will score 30 goals a season easily.

Put this same striker in the Premier League with the exact same chances, and the ball just won't go in. But I guess there's also variance in the quality of goalkeepers too through the divisions.

Again, nothing of substance to prove this, just one of these thoughts that goes through your head.

Have you set up custom set-pieces? I find that having a good set-piece routine will skew a lot of statistics, including chances created.

[Deego619]

On 22/07/2020 at 17:45, zZzZzZzZzZzZzZz said:

Have you set up custom set-pieces? I find that having a good set-piece routine will skew a lot of statistics, including chances created.

No we don't threaten from set pieces really either. During that season we scored only 3 corners and less again from indirect free kicks. We did not really have the height or off the ball to challenge here.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

A great season.

 

 

We really should have been much more comfortable than the table suggests, we stumbled over the line.

Bayern reclaim their perch. Dortmund were three points clear going into the final day but lost away to Bremen. Another giant goes down in Schalke. The Bundesliga really throws some surprises on FM.

 

 

Post Qatar 2022 break we really improved in the league, especially with some world class loan deals with Eric Garcia and Walter Pedroni arriving from City and Liverpool respectively.

Going into the Wolfsburg game at the end of April we were only 4 points off Dortmund, we stumbled over the line and gave up wins from winning positions in all of the last 4 games of the season.

 

 

The bookies fancied us not to get relegated which was nice.

 

 

Lots of shrewd free transfers. Was happy especially with Mustafi and Nketiah.

Davie Selke was a revelation for 1.9m, also Carles Alena was a star.

 

 

We have Maric and Araujo joining us permanently in the summer. Both are key to our style of play and recruitment, which is essentially now "are you aggressive, strong and good in the air?".

 

 

Still the same.

 

 

This actually makes sense now considering we were the top scorers in the division.

[wixxi]

5 minutes ago, Deego619 said:

No we don't threaten from set pieces really either. During that season we scored only 3 corners and less again from indirect free kicks. We did not really have the height or off the ball to challenge here.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

A great season.

 

 

We really should have been much more comfortable than the table suggests, we stumbled over the line.

Bayern reclaim their perch. Dortmund were three points clear going into the final day but lost away to Bremen. Another giant goes down in Schalke. The Bundesliga really throws some surprises on FM.

 

 

Post Qatar 2022 break we really improved in the league, especially with some world class loan deals with Eric Garcia and Walter Pedroni arriving from City and Liverpool respectively.

Going into the Wolfsburg game at the end of April we were only 4 points off Dortmund, we stumbled over the line and gave up wins from winning positions in all of the last 4 games of the season.

 

 

The bookies fancied us not to get relegated which was nice.

 

 

Lots of shrewd free transfers. Was happy especially with Mustafi and Nketiah.

Davie Selke was a revelation for 1.9m, also Carles Alena was a star.

 

 

We have Maric and Araujo joining us permanently in the summer. Both are key to our style of play and recruitment, which is essentially now "are you aggressive, strong and good in the air?".

 

 

Still the same.

 

 

This actually makes sense now considering we were the top scorers in the division.

talk about overachieving

[Deego619]

Let's update. In the spirit of this thread I've been playing this save but haven't been bothered to update.

 

We are now 2-in-a-row champions of Germany.

Last season we were involved in a Treble race with Dortmund, whom true to life have build a crazy good young team.

 

 

We won the league against them on the final day in emphatic fashion, however they knocked us out of the CL and beat us in the Cup final.

 

 

I made the first change to the tactic of the save last season. DLF -> AF because he did diddlysquat and was a passenger throughout the save. Now my AFs are much more kinky, linking up and scoring together. Support roles on strikers just don't work for higher tempo play in my experience.

Oh yeah and also changed GK distribution because I want my GK to be Ederson. 

I am a fraud.

I feel myself beginning to lose the will to continue the save. The next couple of seasons will just be a grind to win the CL. I might try to add extra laziness by using insta-result in a minor league somewhere, thinking Ireland.

[craiigman]

Good stuff mate. Can’t believe you made Eddie a right winger lol