FM21: The English Football League thread

[warlock]

3 hours ago, CityAndColour said:

Are you just playing a lower league, direct 4-4-2 or something more subtle?

Simple 442, but it's not particularly direct. Haven't got FM running at the mo', but I can post an image later if you like. Essentially, it's a simple 442 - FBsup and Watt on one side; FBatt and Wsup on the other; DLP and B2B in the middle; targetman and poacher up front.

We use PoD to restrict the direct balls, tempo down a notch to give us a bit of control. I think the key thing is to watch the LoD and LoE - if you push up you're liable to balls over the top; if you sit deep I find we give up too much time and space just outside our area and we're vulnerable to long shots. So that gets tweaked a lot, depending on the sides we're facing and how they play, but I always want the LoE one notch down from the LoD - so standard LoD, lower LoE, or higher LoD and standard LoE - so we're not stretched vertically. Closing down is one notch higher than standard because we don't want to be too passive, but I hate maxed out pressing with players chasing all over the pitch and ruining our defensive shape.

But, as I said in my last update post above, it's more the quality of the players than tactical genius on my part . We had a handful of top quality players when I took over, and I brought in dozens of free trialists - anyone rated 2* or 3* current abiiity and 4* or 5* potential was signed, almost all of them on amateur status. And yeah, I was amazed that some agreed to that! After filling the squad I continued with the trials and have replaced a few of my initial signings when upgrades became available. That's the upside of non-contract players... ruthless, I am .

[Brads-Wigan]

On 31/01/2021 at 14:58, nyg said:

Short update from Wigan this time;

 

Fantastic, just caught up on your save progress. Great to see after the terrible time Wigan are having. Im very tempted to do a Wigan save, ive seen a few successful ones on here and youtube. Defiantly seems a challenge, especially financially! Will see how my Sunderland save goes and decide..

Good luck in the Championship. Where have you got your skin from? With the stadium in background? 

[TottenhamBoi90]

Hi everyone, really want to post about my Salford save as I'm currently battling out at the top of the championship in my third season using a 433 gegenpress and 4231 gegenpress using united u23 loanees however I'm currently at work so will post later eieieio up the football league we go 

[Ronaldo Beckham]

@Jogo Bonito I just heard your boy Adebayo has just joined Luton in real life. Fair play to him. I hope he does well there. I fancied doing a Luton save only signing players from London so will see how he does at some point soon.

[hasdgfas]

My success at Blyth has started to get me headhunted by higher-division clubs. I've just gotten approached by Northampton in L2, Rochdale in L1, and Sheff Wed in the Championship(!). Too bad for them, I'm building something long-term here. And that something continues to go pretty well!

Still right on the edge of the playoff positions, but a 4-match winless run pushed us outside them, even though we were sitting at 4th after 13 matches played.

[Jogo Bonito]

3 hours ago, Ronaldo Beckham said:

@Jogo Bonito I just heard your boy Adebayo has just joined Luton in real life. Fair play to him. I hope he does well there. I fancied doing a Luton save only signing players from London so will see how he does at some point soon.

Pleased somebody took a punt on him (and it's a better move than Hearts). Reading should have considered him (and Dike). It will be interesting to see how the pair do. Adebayo was one I was going to take to Millwall for my London challenge (if I ever get to it) but I'll let you test him out at Luton first.

[Ronaldo Beckham]

2 hours ago, Jogo Bonito said:

Pleased somebody took a punt on him (and it's a better move than Hearts). Reading should have considered him (and Dike). It will be interesting to see how the pair do. Adebayo was one I was going to take to Millwall for my London challenge (if I ever get to it) but I'll let you test him out at Luton first.

It might not be for a while. I am currently doing a Sporting Lisbon save so feel free to crack on with your Millwall save if you are bored of your Reading save.

[Jogo Bonito]

27 minutes ago, Ronaldo Beckham said:

It might not be for a while. I am currently doing a Sporting Lisbon save so feel free to crack on with your Millwall save if you are bored of your Reading save.

Enjoy Lisbon. I'm with Reading & York for now.

[hasdgfas]

SEASON REVIEW: 2025/26

If we're being honest, it was a phenomenal first season in the VNN, even if I can't help but be disappointed:

9th place right after promotion is much better than I had anticipated, especially since we were never even close to the relegation zone. However:

This is just not good enough at the end of the season. Can't afford a 9-match winless run with 12 matches to go. Especially since we were only 9 points off the playoff places. It was there for us but we lost all form late. This has been a consistent enough problem in this save that I don't know if it's something I might be doing wrong in my management to regularly fade at the end of the season.

 

In any case, it's a fantastic platform to build off of for next season. But hoo boy it could have been much more than that.

Edited February 3, 2021 by hasdgfas

[nyg]

9 hours ago, Brads-Wigan said:

Fantastic, just caught up on your save progress. Great to see after the terrible time Wigan are having. Im very tempted to do a Wigan save, ive seen a few successful ones on here and youtube. Defiantly seems a challenge, especially financially! Will see how my Sunderland save goes and decide..

Good luck in the Championship. Where have you got your skin from? With the stadium in background? 

Thanks mate! A big challenge, no doubt. I may have been lucky with new owners, and managing to keep the best players the first season. Good luck with Sunderland! 

I found both the skin and backgrounds in the "Skinning Hideout" part of the forum. Try the FM21 Base (FM20) version, the backgrounds are better there. Links: Skin Backgrounds

[warlock]

2 hours ago, hasdgfas said:

something I might be doing wrong

Hard to say - I've often (but not always) had serious collapses in form towards the end of a season. Sometimes it's a question of whether your players are mentally tough enough, sometimes a question of fitness and stamina towards the end of a hard season. Sometimes it's hard to point at anything other than bad luck. But, as you say, that's not bad at all for a first season in the National division - as I often point out, it's about the hardest division to get out of.

Good luck with the next attempt 

[dastrokes88]

Been following the thread, just want to share my save with Portsmouth here is anyone's interested. With predicted 1st place finish, the board only expect playoff spot, so this should be easy mode for league one side.

Half Season Report

 

Not the best start of the season with two losses, but the current winning streak puts us comforably at the 1st place, 8 points clear of 2nd place Hull City. Since I disabled 1st transfer window, there's not much transfer to talk about.

I signed Andre Green and Matt O'Riley on a free and filled our loan spots with Harvey White, Teden Mengi and Ethan Laird. They've all been amazing additions, especially Ethan Laird filled our only "weak spot" as right wing back.

Still, the orginal squad is still quite OP in league one, John Marquis and Ryan Williams each with 15 and 14 goals.

We also manage to have a good run in FA Cup, beating PL side Fulham in 3rd round, guess who's our next opponent......

 

[Jogo Bonito]

@hasdgfasThat's a good season. Best of luck for more steps forward next year.

Meanwhile at Reading. I play 4231, My main striker is and will remain Lucas Joao. I have signed Jamal Lowe (£3.6m) and have Yakou Meite who can play there if needed. And I have Puscas who I don't like and didn't want last season but cannot sell (sadly highest earner at £36k per week after promotion).

I have a WP agreed for this 23 year old striker who would be capable of starting when required but will be understudying Joao. He scored 14 in 32 in a European top flight in game last season, the fee is an acceptable £7.25 million and wages are breaking the structure at £48k per week. Do I complete and hope I can move Puscas out, or do I keep my 3/4 strikers already at the club and cancel this deal? IRL he hasn't been in good form this season and there are some question marks about his value for money and whether his career in Europe will progress. When signing players I always look at that kind of thing as much as FM stats, so it's clouding my judgment.

 

Edited February 3, 2021 by Jogo Bonito

[Jogo Bonito]

@dastrokes88Definitely a strong squad but you still have to handle the pressure of getting results. Going very well so far.

[warlock]

37 minutes ago, dastrokes88 said:

Not the best start of the season with two losses, but the current winning streak puts us comforably at the 1st place

Well, it wasn't a bad start, but it looks like you really shifted up a gear in September! Keep it up 

[warlock]

36 minutes ago, Jogo Bonito said:

Do I complete and hope I can move Puscas out

That would be a big gamble wouldn't it? Personally, I don't think I'd do it - I'd have to shift Puscas first, even on loan with a wage contribution; £36k a week for a player who might never get a game seems like too much.

As for your potential signing, I wouldn't let real world performances this season affect the decision. In game, he's the same player as last season, although it often takes a young European prospect a season to settle into life in the PL.

Hope that helped 

[Jogo Bonito]

14 minutes ago, warlock said:

That would be a big gamble wouldn't it? Personally, I don't think I'd do it - I'd have to shift Puscas first, even on loan with a wage contribution; £36k a week for a player who might never get a game seems like too much.

As for your potential signing, I wouldn't let real world performances this season affect the decision. In game, he's the same player as last season, although it often takes a young European prospect a season to settle into life in the PL.

Hope that helped 

Yeah, it would be a gamble. I think I'll run with what I have and keep trying to shift Puscas out. And so I'll probably cancel the new signing. Ironically, Adam Armstrong just became available at £3.6 million after scoring 22 in 42 for Blackburn - now they say he is no longer needed! A great price, but he wouldn't be big enough to play my lone striker role.

[warlock]

Durham City, February 2021

Well, another perfect month in the books - it's almost becoming embarrassing now. Almost . And in better news, the squad remains intact - although I've just realised that since almost all of my players would be free transfers, we're still open to poaching until the end of March!

Otherwise, it's business as usual - Tevahn is as dependable as ever; Charlie Ball continues his prolific campaign (he now has 32 goals from 17 starts in all competitions). In our latest game, against the wonderfully-named West Allotment Celtic (who play somewhere in Newcastle) I thought our perfect season was about to end - it took a bit of brilliance from winger Ellis Hudson to find the winning goal.

Needless to say, we maintain our lead at the top of the division, which now stands at a healthy 22pts. In fact, we top the league in every category except tackling - I can only believe we're so dominant we rarely have a need to make a tackle!

[warlock]

28 minutes ago, Jogo Bonito said:

Adam Armstrong just became available at £3.6 million

Bargain - in my save, Wolves bought him for £12.75m. I think he looks better as an IF coming in off the left. Are you about ready to kick off the new season?

[Balotelli]

Second half of the season

 

So i finished my first season as Crewe Alexandra. The second half of the season turned out even better than the first. Although we still conceded more goals than i wouldve liked we were usually able to outscore our opponents. We finished as champions on 101 points scoring over 100 goals too. My player of the season was charlie kirk who contributed 20 goals and 6 assists out of the right wing. Josh Martin on the other wing had a similarly amazing return with both 13 goals and 13 assists. Our two main strikers Zanzala scored 25 goals and gelhardt scored 24. Absolute goals galore and went way above anything id expected when i started the save.  A few of the lads were wanted by bigger clubs but I refused to budge on most as I believe them to be massively undervalued, even now we're in the championship. Hopefully if we have decent season their values may reflect their performances. The only player I sold was main man charlie kirk who was wanted by Monaco. I wanted five million, then four and three. In the end i managed to get two and a half. I took the money and it more than doubled our bank balance. Leighton clarkson signed from liverpool at the bggining of the seaso,. has come on leaps and bounds and was wanted by a few prem teams. Managed to get him to sign an improved deal which will keep him beyond the end of the 2022 season. 

Championship Transfers

I decided to retain most of my loan players (branthwaite, ben johnson, tommy doyle and gelhardt). Also managed to make the josh martin loan a permanent transfer for a couple of million split over instalments and potential bonuses. Other than that signings have been hard to come by, as i want to stick to a strict wage structure and would rather use any money to improve our facilities. I picked up puigmal for 140k near the end of last season who's contract was up at united, who is a tricky midfielder with potential. I also managed to get Haydon Roberts from newly relegated brighton for 500k which is an absolute steal for such a highly rated youngster. I got harvey ellliot in on loan to replace charlie kirk, he is our top earner with me covering 9.5k of his wages. Kean bryan i got on a free as he can cover a few positions and its relativley experienced compared to most of my squad, I'am currnelty looking at bringing in molumby who is available fairly cheap but wants 7k in wages and iam negotiating with hull over lewie coyle. 

Season outlook

I will be looking to avoid being dragged into a relegation battle, and build from there. We were only predicted to finish 18th last season and massively over achieved, so will look to continue in the same vein. We will play the same style but obviously against a better calibre of player. We will score and concede hopefully win more than we lose. One things for sure we will go down swinging. Hopefully I can get the facilities upgraded both training and youth now we have a fair bit in the bank (relatively speaking). Really enjoyed my first season in league one, which was a massive change from my usual sort of save where id usually manage a foreign team. I watch a lot of English football so like to manage somewhere i konw less about. I only stumbled across crewe when having a look at harry pickering a player my team (Blackburn) were trying to sign ha. I will post again when i get to the new year hopefully we can put up a good fight against some huge clubs currently in the championship. 

Edited February 3, 2021 by Balotelli

[CityAndColour]

Two third of the way through now, and it's been a very frustrating season to date, although we're still in a pretty good position...

After starting the season 10-1-0, we've gone 7-3-7 since to drop right off the top of the table, albeit still comfortably within a playoff position. Most frustrating has been the performances haven't really reflected the results - we're not playing poorly and we create good chances every game, we just go through spells where we can't hit a barn door and then we'll concede a soft one at the other end.

Thankfully we are still picking up wins on a regular enough basis to keep in touching distance of 2nd and home advantage through the playoffs.

Worthing look uncatchable however - they have won 14 of their last 16 league games and conceded only 12 goals in 28 league matches, which is insane really at this level. Frustratingly, they are ten points better off than any of the sides in the other regional premier divisions, meaning I would be in a title race in any of the others but am instead 11 points behind.

[Ronaldo Beckham]

I wont be posting in here for a while as I am doing the Ultimate Manager challenge and that takes ages to complete. I will keep checking in here to see how you guys do. 

[Jogo Bonito]

Great stuff with Durham @warlock and Crewe @Balotelli. Those transfers in and out at Crewe look decent to me. Hard to say anything negative at Yate too @CityAndColour. As you say it just seems unlucky you have to compete against a team who barely drop points.

I'll decide whether to give my initial focus to Reading or York later. Currently flitting between the two (when time permits).

 

[Dave92]

Hello, first time poster here. Got FM21 at Christmas having not played any of the recent editions and really enjoyed it. I'm a slow and relatively infrequent player, so takes me a while to get through a season. I've been reading through your stories with great interest (only at page 13 so far so got more reading to see how things have developed since!).

As I normally do on FM, I started a save with the team I support, Port Vale, who in real life have had a lowly few years struggling at the wrong end of League 2 (and I notice on your games never seem to do particularly well). I'm now into the early stage of season 2, but rather than spoil it and post everything at once, I thought I would spread it out and give you a series of posts over the next couple of weeks taking you from the start up until now (else I'll have one post and nothing to add for weeks). So here goes:

Port Vale Part 1: Taking the Job and Pre-Season

Knowing the Vale squad in real life, it was interesting to see how they compared in Football Manager, the truth was largely quite similar. The initial squad consisted of core of experienced pros in their 30s who could provide a spine to the team (Brown, Legge, Joyce, Pope), some important players such as defenders James Gibbons and Nathan Smith, midfielders Tom Conlon and Manny Oyeleke (if he can stay fit), as well as more experience in David Worrall and David Amoo. The standout player in the squad was full back and Leicester loanee Mitch Clark. 

Media prediction was for a lower-mid table finish, and one of my prime concerns was the age of the squad which was the oldest in League Two. I typically prefer a squad of youngsters, and although I had some promising talents in the u18s such as Nelson Agho, Reece Robins and Ryan Campbell-Gordon, only Alex Hurst, Devante Rodney and Gibbons (who has been a first team regular for a while) seemed close to the first team squad, with far too many the other side of 30. 

Throughout this I wanted to keep it as realistic as possible. I had no intention of undergoing a major overhaul of the squad and didn't sign or sell anyone in the initial transfer window. I would try and get the most out of what I had at my disposal. Likewise I kept my staff the same, only changes being filling gaps in the u23 / u18 coaching teams which were initially limited.

Tactics wise, I decided to initially follow the advice of my assistant manager and go for a fluid counter attack, based around a cautious mentality. The squad didn't seem blessed with standout attacking players, and I wanted to go for my standard formation of 4-3-3, playing with a defensive midfielder. I wasn't wholly keen on this approach, but thought will give that a chance. My preference was a more positive, high intensity, short passing geggenpress tactic, based around the same formation. I was not convinced that a number of my players were cutout for this though, so left this as a backup one to start training and working on.

Pre-season started with two friendlies against low-level Welsh sides, resulting in 6-0 & 4-0 victories. Mark Cullen bagged a hattrick against Llandrygnog, whilst Tom Conlon scored two beautiful freekicks against Bettws. Next up we had a more realistic fixture at home v league 1 Shrewsbury. We dominated possession, but created very little. Defence was solid and we drew 0-0.

Two fixtures followed against non-league oppositon, firstly Solihull Moors. The squad was rotated and the performance disappointing as we only drew 1-1, Theo Robinson the scorer. We weren't much better v National North side York, trailing 1-0 with 15 minutes to go, before substitutes Devante Rodney and Danny Whitehead scored to secure a 2-1 victory, the latter in the 93rd minute. Pre-season finished with a 1-0 loss v Championship side Coventry, who played 30 mins with 10 men. 

Overall an average start. Defensively we seemed solid, but a lack of creativity and goals going forward with only 3 scored in the 4 more meaningful fixtures, something to work on going into the season. Below was the starting line up v Coventry, which looked likely to be very close to how we would start the season. Lacked a natural left back, Clark prefers right back but want to get both him and Gibbons in the side as two of our better players.  Two wingers likely to rotate with Worrall and Rodney (all right footed so playing an inside forward on the left), the latter an option up front along with Cullen, Robinson and Pope (although he has an initial 6 game ban). That's all for now, will be back with next post later in the week, to let you know how the first month or so of the season went. 

[warlock]

8 minutes ago, Dave92 said:

Hello, first time poster here

Hello Dave  Welcome to the party, and that's a good introductory post. I don't remember anyone taking on the Vale this year but I know we've a couple in previous FMs. Unlucky against Coventry - hopefully, you'll be able to convert that kind of statistical advantage into positive results in the games that matter.

[Jogo Bonito]

@Dave92Welcome and good luck. Nice intro post and don't worry about being a slow player (me too). I like the realism of keeping the squad and staff intact and I'm sure you'll make a Valiant effort with The Val... Port Vale 

[hasdgfas]

Well, we're starting off the season strong at least. Just one match, but hoo boy this was a good way to begin our second campaign in the VNL, especially as we never scored 5 in a single match last season:

[dastrokes88]

My first south coast derby, we put up a respected performance, still very disappointed with the loss. However the performance against the pl side (only missing Danny Ings due to injury) gave me more confidence in our squad.

[Jogo Bonito]

Part 10

After promotion courtesy of a Play-Off victory over Watford, it was time to see what Veljko could do ahead of the new Premier League season

He decided he should keep the core of the squad together as they deserved a chance to establish themselves as top-flight regulars

And he also decided that he would use the training camp as the major source of preparation, with only three friendlies arranged ahead of the new campaign

The last of those was an encouraging 2-0 win over Italian giants AS Roma - but there were doubts in private over whether this would be a real reflection of their survival chances 

There were 10 players released with Aluko, Walker, Smith, Onen and East the more notable ones in the list

Araruna (£140k) and Azeez (free) both moved to Luton, Holden went to Sheffield Wednesday for £14.75k and McNulty will see out his last year on loan at Doncaster

A few reserve players were sent on loan to continue their development as regular starters (Abbey, Andresson and Melvin-Lambert)

Ricky-Jade Jones, Ethan Bristow, Thierry Nevers and Dejan Tetek (who unfortunately still wants away) will largely be in the Under 23 squad for the new season

They will be playing alongside returning Academy graduate Gabriel Osho, with the defender re-joining after one year at Luton for a fee of £9,000  

Transfer fees were paid for Solly March (£4.5m from Brighton), Harrison Reed (£6.75m from Fulham) and Jamal Lowe (£3.6m from Swansea), 

And midfielder Alfa Semedo arrived for £5.5m as an obligation written in to his loan from Benfica last year (clause automatically activated upon promotion)

Depth was added in the form of loan-men Mark Guehi (£5k per week wages from Chelsea) and Ben Johnson (£7.25k per week wages from West Ham)

None of these six will be preferred starters, but they provide versatility across numerous positions and will be good enough to start or come from the bench at any time  

One of the desired deals that was close but didn't come off was QPR winger Bright Osayi-Samuel (free transfer), but he moved to West Ham instead

Agreed transferred cancelled were Lewis Ferguson (£2.3m from Aberdeen), Claudinho (£5m from RB Bragantino) and David Okereke (£7.25m from Club Brugge)

And that leaves the following 22-man first team squad ahead of the season opener against promoted Bournemouth

As usual with promoted sides, the players chose to forget their promotion increase clauses, and six or seven approached Veljko for new and improved deals

Club captain Liam Moore was asked to intervene and all except Michael Olise and Andy Rinomhota were pacified

However, this pair were part of the long-term plan and both were happy to accept new deals offered

 

 

Edited February 3, 2021 by Jogo Bonito

[robterrace]

Youth intake day..

This guy has my favourite combination.. 20 bravery, and 18 aggression. He's going to snap people in 2.

Robson looks very good for a 16 year old.

This guys name is outstanding.

 

[TottenhamBoi90]

Salford 2020/21

The squad 

GK - Hladky, Hayes, fantastic goalkeeper among best in league 2

DR - Threlkeld, Clarke, Golden, decided to cash in on Threlkeld for 100k to KV Mechelen but didn't like the age of Clarke or current ability of Golden so went for Ethan Laird on loan from man utd 

DC - some good defenders but only Sam fielding fit into the ball playing type I was after so I signed Ed Francis on a free to play alongside Rhys Williams on loan from Liverpool. I kept eastham captain and Turnbull around as cover with fielding as rotation

DL - Ibou Touray only option as left back and I quite liked him but once Reece Devine come in on loan he was first choice

DM - Gibson cover Smith sold for 20k so Ethan Galbraith come in on loan for first team football 

MCR - Alex Denny was the only youthful option so decided to give most the starts to him with Lowe as cover 

MCL - towell as cover Adria bernabe come in from man city for some box to box action

AMR - James Wilson starts slow then racks up double figures for goals with thomas-asante backing him up

AML - Alex Hunter one of the best in the league again with double figure goals with Andrade backing him up

ST - Tom Elliott 20 odd goals, sold Armstrong for 40k and gave dieseruvwe some minutes

So yeah after evaluating the squad and getting good business done in the transfer market we won the league with 91 pts using a bog standard 433 gegenpress with a custom corner added. Knocked out League cup in round 1 to accrington, round 2 of the fa cup to port vale and round 2 of Papa John's to Crewe. Other than that a glorious season with lots of goals and 16 clean sheets. 

Salford 2021/22

Transfers in

Dermot mee free, Zidane Iqbal free, Charlie savage free, Max Haygarth free, Harvey Neville free, Arnau Puigmal free, ethan Galbraith loan, Reece Devine loan, Rhys Williams loan, Finley burns loan, Dillon hoogewerf loan, mark helm loan

Transfers out

Ibou Touray 60k, Jordan Turnbull 10k, Ethan Laird end of loan, Adria bernabe end of loan, Gibson Henderson Boyd dieseruvwe all released

January transfers out

Hladky 1m, eastham 10k

The squad 

GK - Mee, Hayes, tried to get more in the summer for hladky but kept falling through to Leeds then Cadiz signed him in December before he was available for approach to sign

DR - golden stepped up for a solid season, Clarke retired end of season 2 Harvey Neville was back up

DC - Williams was teamed with Finley burns with Rhys adding 7 more goals to his 7 from the first season. Burns also got 7. Fielding and Francis back ups 

DL - devine was devine with berkoe promoted to back up

DM - was a bit different Galbraith renewed his loan but I opted for a cam option to go 4231 with helm coming in 10 assists and 5 goals in 25 

MCR - Denny solid as ever with Lowe back up

MCL - Puigmal come in, towell back up with Haygarth and savage also getting some minutes 

AMR - Wilson 15 goals, thomas-asante back up

AML - hunter 8 goals, Andrade back up

ST - Elliot 24 goals with hoogewerf back up

Exceptional season, winning the league 93 pts but on the last day of the season to get ahead of Charlton. Cleared out some dead wood and made some good permanent signings, manager of the year adding to my 3 manager of the months in league 2, living the dream, into the championship 

[hasdgfas]

Still early days, and I have one more game played than pretty much everyone, but:

Safe to say things are going well so far.

[warlock]

1 hour ago, Jogo Bonito said:

it was time to see what Veljko could do ahead of the new Premier League season

Hope the squad is good enough to survive. What was the board expectation - fight bravely against relegation? There must be three clubs worse than Reading 

1 hour ago, robterrace said:

Youth intake day..

I take it you're happy with that. I would be - some very good prospects there!

1 hour ago, TottenhamBoi90 said:

living the dream, into the championship 

Good job 

1 hour ago, hasdgfas said:

Safe to say things are going well so far.

Indeed! Hope you can keep that form going.

[Jogo Bonito]

13 minutes ago, warlock said:

Hope the squad is good enough to survive. What was the board expectation - fight bravely against relegation? There must be three clubs worse than Reading 

I hope too. If the Roma game is anything to judge by it should work out OK. But it's more likely to be a false dawn!

Yes, you nailed it on the board expectations.

Edited February 3, 2021 by Jogo Bonito

[warlock]

2 hours ago, Jogo Bonito said:

it's more likely to be a false dawn!

We learn not to put too much store by pre-season results, but it's better to win them than not 

[hasdgfas]

About halfway through the season now, how's it looking?

Well, it's really tight at the top. Just a point behind the leaders, with a 9-point gap on 4th and 12 points ahead of 8th, we're looking good value for the playoffs if we don't fall off a cliff, and if we hit a really good run, the title is still possible. And I would be a poor Blyth manager to not point out local rivals Gateshead way down in 22nd. They came up with us two seasons ago, but we seem to have gone in different directions since.

[John Joe O'toole]

10 hours ago, dastrokes88 said:

My first south coast derby, we put up a respected performance, still very disappointed with the loss. However the performance against the pl side (only missing Danny Ings due to injury) gave me more confidence in our squad.

I like that skin, what is it? Thanks

[goonergez]

4 hours ago, hasdgfas said:

we're looking good value for the playoffs if we don't fall off a cliff, and if we hit a really good run, the title is still possible.

On this edition of fm I know all about falling off a cliff 😂😂😂 seems to happen every season at every club!

You’re doing well though mate! Hopefully you can keep it going and gain that promotion!

[TottenhamBoi90]

Salford 2022/23

Transfers in

Nathan Bishop free, Ethan Laird loan, Rhys Williams loan, Finley burns loan, Reece Devine loan, Joe hugill loan

January transfers in

Jordan Rossiter 100k

Transfers out 

Ethan Galbraith end of loan, dillon hoogewerf end of loan, mark helm end of loan, Ritchie towell released Tom Elliott released

The squad 

GK - Bishop come in with mee as back Hayes became third choice

DR - Ethan Laird comeback on loan, one of our league 2 stand out performers, Neville sub cover with golden back up

DC - same as our league 1 campaign with Williams and Burns backed up by fielding and Francis

DL - devine with berkoe as back up

DM - Galbraith disappointingly got recalled as I had 6 loans in the squad he missed the first 6 so hugill could play and then united recalled him so Denny dropped back and Rossiter arrived in Jan to fill a void 

MCR - was now Puigmal shuttler rather than box to box did okay with Lowe as back up

MCL - savage now first team with Haygarth as back up

AMR - Wilson managed double figure goals and assists but starting to show signs might not be cut out for this level, Andrade back up

AML - hunter was very disappointing, Iqbal I think outperformed him

ST - hugill, 20 goals a great loan signing much needed after Elliott left I needed a 20 goal man and he delivered backed up by Thomas-asante

10th in the championship for us first season is a fantastic achievement I was battling it out at the top till December time, then fell through the play off trap door too with 71 pts. I felt it was a good year, lessons learned in positions I need to strengthen, I wasn't going to spend money but we needed a ball winning combative type with Lowe aging. I love how organicly the weak spots show in this team with this tactic it's just about getting the right players in and we should improve next season

[dastrokes88]

7 hours ago, John Joe O'toole said:

I like that skin, what is it? Thanks

I'm using the mod for match and post-match screen: 

 

[hasdgfas]

well, we aren't catching Chesterfield at the top, but:

We will be in the playoffs this year, so we've got a shot to be promoted still.

[Jogo Bonito]

37 minutes ago, hasdgfas said:

well, we aren't catching Chesterfield at the top, but:

We will be in the playoffs this year, so we've got a shot to be promoted still.

Very nice work with Blyth!

 

Something light-hearted from my Reading save, where I am managing as Veljko Paunović....

 

The current ex-manager being announced by the current previous ex-manager Steve Coppell (new DOF)

And here is how the new staff list would appear...

But it doesn't suit the narrative of me already managing as Veljko, so I saved and then re-loaded

Interesting that he would have come back after one year though (as did ex-manager Mark Bowen)

Edited February 4, 2021 by Jogo Bonito

[warlock]

24 minutes ago, Jogo Bonito said:

The current ex-manager being announced by the current previous ex-manager Steve Coppell

 Confusion abounds. You could give all your staff the "Veljko" nickname...

[Jogo Bonito]

4 minutes ago, warlock said:

 Confusion abounds. You could give all your staff the "Veljko" nickname...

In usual circumstances I would have jumped at the chance to bring him back, but he (me?) is already managing it would be a bit odd 

I cancelled the deal so that the narrative can still make sense 

[hasdgfas]

Well, I got smashed in the playoff final without a sniff at goal but the game crashed and then I IR'd and this happened and I feel dirty about it?

[warlock]

35 minutes ago, hasdgfas said:

I feel dirty about it

It happens... you could play a best of three and replay it again, then live with the result.

[hasdgfas]

2 minutes ago, warlock said:

It happens... you could play a best of three and replay it again, then live with the result.

This is a good idea. I will feel better about the result regardless then

[warlock]

[warlock]

24 minutes ago, hasdgfas said:

I will feel better about the result regardless

Yeah, the team wins twice surely merits the promotion 

[hasdgfas]

Well, the re-rematch was worthy of a Playoff Final:

Unfortunately, not the way we hoped it'd go. A very even match, but a missed penalty by our on-loan midfielder in regular time meant we couldn't finish it off there, and then choking away a lead in the penalty shoot out meant that pre-crash results held. Disappointing, but probably fair.:

We'll have to step up and do it again next season, but slightly better.