Football Manager Touch 2021 - How's your save coming along?

[RTHerringbone]

Thought I'd start a thread where people can drop in and provide updates on their current Football Manager 2021 game. Can be a War and Peace tome if you want, or just a screen grab with a couple of bulleted comments.

I've stuck to my guns and started up with Argentinos Juniors in Argentina. General plan has been to offload any non-Argentine  players and to promote all 4*+PA players from the Reserve squad to see how they fare.

I'm at the end of August 2020 and sitting pretty in the Premier League, and still in the cups. I don't face Boca until November or River until February. My fixtures are only scheduled until the 1st March so it looks like I play everyone once and then something weird happens in the league…..

So far I've been Instant Resulting all the way, flipping between a 4-3-3 and a 4-2-3-1. General principle is that I'll go 4-3-3 in trickier games and 4-2-3-1 if I'm feeling confident.

[Joedw]

The season is only 23 games (I believe) as you play each team once. AFA have said there are no promotion/relegation until 2022 but am unsure if that’s replicated in game.

This season was cancelled in real life and is replaced by a cup competition instead, Copa Diego Maradona.

SI have decided to carry on with their normal season. So over the next few years teams will be relegated until there are 20 teams in the league. The mini cup competition at the end of the season only lasted one year but I’m guessing it’s in FM this year?

I’m looking at doing a save with Gimnasia, taking the reigns from El Diego.

[RTHerringbone]

Still smashing up Argentina quite nicely. Half way through the season and left it somewhat late to beat Boca. Ourselves and River have both won all 14 of our first matches.

Training facilities and youth facilities are both being upgraded at my request.

[RTHerringbone]

Won a cup! £15k the prize 

Beat River though which is the big deal. Fairly comfortable too so that bodes well for what may be a title showdown in a couple of months.

 

[Sc0ttzilla]

Running the Canadian league, is the season really that short?!

 

Made a few decent signings that have powered me into the 'final'

[tyro]

I started my FMT save yesterday and until the last moment I thought it would be another club but then I decided to play with VFB Stuttgart. 

I had started a save on full FM during beta and right away noticed that they updated the players since then. Position familiarity and stats were more in line how they play at the moment, which is great.

It took me a long time to settle on my formation and tactic since they are so versatile but ended up with a 3-2-2-2-1 (WB and Wingers). After several friendly games against weak opponents, however, I changed it. We were dominant but were unable to convert the chances. Usually, if I don't see my team dominate those small teams during pre-season, it will be a disaster when the real season starts. 

So, I switched it to a 3-2-2-1-2 (WB) something similar to what I used in my Eintracht Frankfurt Beta save but with an attacking midfielder instead of 3 center mids. I want to use Didavi in his most natural positon. 

                                GK

                   CDd       La       CDd

         WBs                                        WBa

                        DLPs        CAR

                               AMa

                       AF              DLFs

 

I played the remaining friendlies with that formation and we won by several goals which is at least a good sign. 

Played the first cup game and won (barely) because they had 10 goalkeepers. Their 1 outfield player managed 1 shot at our goal all game. We had 20 with an xG of 2.09 (not that great really) and won 1-0. 

Looking forward to the rest. 

Really not missing anything from the full game - maybe a bit the training part as I started diving into it a bit during beta but in the end it is a lot of micro-management. 

All the rest, the press conferences, dynamics, player talks, etc. are not really a miss at all. 

 

[RTHerringbone]

Nice @tyro I used 3/5 at the back in the full game while waiting for FMT. It works very, very well this season. 

[Sc0ttzilla]

I'm having a lot of joy with my usual favourite Gegenpress 433 again this year, although I've only played as one of the better teams in my league 

[tyro]

Really have to pay attention this year (or at least I do).

I almost prefer to score late because once you score they will go aggressive and get a goal. You have to really guard and decide if it's too early to keep pressing or shut down. 

Had a very entertaining game against Leverkusen winning 3-2 at the end and missing a penalty whole they converted theirs. 

[RTHerringbone]

My youth-heavy squad cleaned up at the Young Player of the Year awards. Have promoted a couple more into the First Team during a mid-season break.

[RTHerringbone]

Libertadores group looks manageable.

[Muttley84]

While waiting for my mistery jersey to arrive and reveal my main save I have fired up a save in my native Romania. Started in the 2nd league with CSM Resita. Loving how fast the game moves and experimenting with different formations now (mostly 4 at the back and then 3 or 2-1 in the middle). Hoping for some more time this weekend so I can finally progress a bit more.

[Maw74]

I have started in Denmark with...............

 

 

  FREDERIKSBERG ALLIANCEN 2000 - SEASON 2020/21

Defeat in our first game but unbeaten since, didn't realise before but relegation is a bit different here.
We could drop down two levels if we finish in bottom four.

Promotion & Relegation

[Sc0ttzilla]

1 hour ago, Muttley84 said:

While waiting for my mistery jersey to arrive and reveal my main save I have fired up a save in my native Romania. Started in the 2nd league with CSM Resita. Loving how fast the game moves and experimenting with different formations now (mostly 4 at the back and then 3 or 2-1 in the middle). Hoping for some more time this weekend so I can finally progress a bit more.

I love this mystery Jersey idea, where did you get the random jersey from?

[syemo]

Ive bought the Xbox version due to laptop not being able to run full FM 21 anymore.

Liking the first impression of it first time playing touch for a good few years. 

It's nice to see the games in 3d. Even though I love the 2d as that's all I'm use to

Decided to try one of the challenges first to get familiar with the game and the touch platform etc. Starting with United bottom of the league and I know it's a team that should really beat a lot of the teams got me to look around the game and see what stuff does. Saved them from relegation now to see what main save I shall under take. I probably play full fm20 as well to do some of the other saves I try every year aka youth only 

[Ey3d3fy]

Mine was going great until now. My game crashes on june 3rd 2024 and keeps happening. Any suggestions to fix this

[Maw74]

  FREDERIKSBERG ALLIANCEN 2000 - SEASON 2020/21

 

Well this hasn't gone well 

So we were 10th after 19 games.

Made my first and last signing for FA.

This happened after the HIK game, a game where we conceded goals
in the 88th and 89th minutes to lose.

So my first sacking didn't take long, I am sure I have many more to come.

[minigod]

Playing on Xbox as Derby. Board want to avoid relegation, 25 games into the league and we are sat 10th on 35pts. 6th is on 42pts, 7th through 16th covered by 5pts!

Having a lot of trouble with injuries, lots of little niggles so no consistency in lineup, don't have a high intensity training. Lost Bielik to an ACL injury in October.

Having lots of possession and shots and goal but not converting many.

[Alejandro_FM]

I've been playing as Cordoba CF in the Spanish Segunda B. Going very well with a 4-2-3-1 possession tactic. 

One change I've noticed relative to prior Touch versions -- I got the youth intake mid-season on April 4th? Has that happened in your saves as well? 

[Footix]

Doing the "avoid relegation" challenge with Benfica, to familiarise myself with this year's editon. Needless to say we are wiping the floor with most opponents, but unfortunately we could only draw 0-0 with arch rivals FCP. 

The tactic I've put together seems to do pretty well. Next step will be the mandatory Newcastle save. 

[RTHerringbone]

Life in Argentina is still rosy, though my wandering eye strayed into a quick save with Chelsea to see how I could get on with a 3-4-1-2. I've tweaked my approach to a sort of wonky 4-4-2 and it's working pretty well so far. We're now competing in a 12 team Superleague and sit top after 5 games. Also top of our Libertadores group after 3 games so all in all, it's looking good. £9m in the bank but only a £1m transfer budget available (spending £197k of our £210k weekly wage budget.

[RTHerringbone]

Season one was a success: won every competition we competed in (still have the Libertadores vs. Boca in the Second Round and we're in the Sixth Round of the Copa Argentina - but both "restart" in what feels like season two).

Financially we've eroded down from £9m to just £4m just as a result of no outgoing transfer activity. Commercially we earn a huge £10k a year compare to River who rake in £19.75m. The TV deal earns us just £800k in the whole season.

Chinese and Italian clubs are eyeing up seven first team players so it's likely that we'll have to make a few sales to balance the books before long. I've already moved the best of the Reserve team into the First team picture so I'm keeping my fingers crossed for some sort of magic with my youth intake, whenever that may be. I'm stuck also in that weird loop when the Youth and Training facilities seem to be getting perpetually upgraded. I have six months to wait for them to complete still even though they should originally have been finished either two months ago (first upgrade) or in one month (second upgrade).

[rp1966]

At the end of November 2020 with Saint-Etienne. Currently in between getting thumped by Olympic Lyon and PSG. and sitting 9th (in line with media predictions) before the first transfer window, where hopefully I can strengthen and start to push up towards the European places or have a good cup run.

Have struggled with consistency and have been missing two key players, 

Timothée Kolodziejczak and Yvann Maçon

 

Recently pulling Edmilson Correia out of the second team was a good move; he's become my top scorer within a few first team starts.

Home to PSG next - hoping we don't get thumped too badly.

 

EDIT: Post PSG update.  Didn't go as badly as I had feared. Went a goal down early on; fought back to 1-1 and held them until 70+ mins when they brought Mbappé on - he made the difference allowing Di Maria to get their winner on 80 mins, Thought I was going to get a point.

 

Edited December 5, 2020 by rp1966

[RTHerringbone]

Finally news on my youth intake (17/07/2021). Looks promising…..

There has also been a new chairman appointed who has no intention of making any investment in the club. Terrific.

 

[rp1966]

1 minute ago, RTHerringbone said:

There has also been a new chairman appointed who has no intention of making any investment in the club. Terrific.

 

Never let anyone tell you FM isn't realistic ...

[Maw74]

4 hours ago, RTHerringbone said:

There has also been a new chairman appointed who has no intention of making any investment in the club. Terrific.

Better hope those youths are good then.

Edited December 5, 2020 by Maw74

[Dozman]

Back in the late 70's I became aware of a German team called SV Hamburg when Kevin Keegan left Liverpool to do make an, at the time, unusual decision to move abroad to play football. As an Everton, this was very pleasing and I started to become aware of a whole new level of football. I was only a young kid.

With fm21 touch I wanted to create a save and immerse myself in it rather than  power through like usual. I wanted to take my time, absorb everything, learn a new team by taking time to do this rather than  rush in, sell sell sell then buy buy buy. 

I wanted to pick a team with a challenge and start total immersion. When looking for a team of this nature, I found out that SV Hamburg were now in the German 2nd division, they needed someone to take them back into the bundesliga and the success they enjoyed in the late 70's and early 80's when Keegan transferred to them. That was that then.

 

So I took control of Hamburg in the German 2nd division as an unknown manager. The 5 year vision was very clear,in year 1, they wanted promotion back to the bundesliga by winning the league. Not sure if they will take promotion  without the title but hopefully I won't get to find this outing all goes well.

My first aim was to not hit continue until I was well acquainted with my squad, the club, it's history and the staff. I wanted to know everything. Every little detail about every player, every point from the squad report in order to fully assess my squad. It's weaknesses and it's strengths. 

I wanted to understand the depth of squad to see if there was positions I needed to bolster or improve.

Cash is tight and wage bill pretty much reached.

Squad was not big either and I had injuries.

It took two and half hours before I moved on from my analysis and setting up a tactic, and I loved it. Once moved on I spent time absorbing the world and local news and taking note of the social media posts. Paying attention to those pleased with my appointment and those raging about the board appointing someone unknown in charge of their beloved club. Immersion.

After playing a couple of friendlies, actual time was mounting up and I'm enjoying this way of playing. I picked up a couple more light injuries which with my small squad, and tactic/formation in place, llowed me to realise the area I had no inadequate depth. Attacking midfield.

With little money and limited wages, recruitment was a challenge. I had my scouts out looking but I had to go looking myself and send out scouts to any that filled the bill to get their expert opinion.

I finally found what was a quality signing from a German third division club. I signed him for 800k, he scored a magnificent volley in the next friendly and set up chances for others to score. His value is 3.9M now (signing below)

I played my first game and won 5-1 fantastic, enjoyed reading the social media feeds after that. I'm now preparing for game 2 Padaborn away (screen below). I've had a couple more injuries in training which has now disrupted my prep. One may be back in time but the other out for 4-6 weeks, both key players but this is the challenge and I'm enjoying it.

Last game I had two central defenders on a yellow and none on bench to replace, big risk of a red and further issues. Main cd out for months.

With transfer deadline day approaching, I'll have to look for cover with what I have left. I'll need to spend time with the scouts while preparing for a tough away game.

I'll let you know how I get on.

 

Edited December 6, 2020 by Dozman

[tyro]

I just tried to extend a contract of an important player but I did not get the option to choose the playing time - which affects the wage level you can give. 

Is this not in the game this year or did I confuse it with full FM?

I had to walk away because the opening offer was less than the current contract and I had no options to add much to "sweeten" the deal.  

[minigod]

On 03/12/2020 at 20:13, Alejandro_FM said:

I've been playing as Cordoba CF in the Spanish Segunda B. Going very well with a 4-2-3-1 possession tactic. 

One change I've noticed relative to prior Touch versions -- I got the youth intake mid-season on April 4th? Has that happened in your saves as well? 

I had my youth intake in England at the end of March in season one.

[minigod]

On 03/12/2020 at 19:46, minigod said:

Playing on Xbox as Derby. Board want to avoid relegation, 25 games into the league and we are sat 10th on 35pts. 6th is on 42pts, 7th through 16th covered by 5pts!

Having a lot of trouble with injuries, lots of little niggles so no consistency in lineup, don't have a high intensity training. Lost Bielik to an ACL injury in October.

Having lots of possession and shots and goal but not converting many.

Was a tough first season, was as low as 17th at one point but had a good end of season run to finish 10th.

Found recruitment really difficult in the summer as there was only a handful of players interested in joining that would actually improve the team. Made some good money on Jordon I've who had an average season, think I sold him for £6.5m. Window closed with the owner putting a transfer embargo in place as a new investor was looking at taking over. Going to have to try and keep things ticking over until January and hope that a good cup run turns the eye of a few players.

[rafaelbenitez]

3 hours ago, minigod said:

Was a tough first season, was as low as 17th at one point but had a good end of season run to finish 10th.

Found recruitment really difficult in the summer as there was only a handful of players interested in joining that would actually improve the team. Made some good money on Jordon I've who had an average season, think I sold him for £6.5m. Window closed with the owner putting a transfer embargo in place as a new investor was looking at taking over. Going to have to try and keep things ticking over until January and hope that a good cup run turns the eye of a few players.

That race for promotion must have been something.

[tyro]

Well, I put my Stuttgart save on hold just to try first Lyon (which I didn't feel) then Marseille, which was great but felt too simple, then back to start a save with Frankfurt from the Beta which was great but in the end, as usual, ended up with Wolfsburg. 

Let's see how long that will last but this one definitely feels right :)

 

[Woolly]

Now into the 2022-23 Season with Ipswich after starting with the Savour Cometh Challenge and I'm absolutely destroying the other clubs so far. After managing to finish 19th in the first Challenge which to be honest wasn't brilliant but at least I kept them up. Season two was promotion contenders all the way through however, too many loses to poor opposition lead to 4th place and the play offs. Thankfully the team decided to turn up and Charlton were wiped out in the semis with a 5-0 and 3-1 wins whilst in the final Blackpool who had been league leaders for most of the season fell to a near perfect performance by Lankester who scored all 4 goals in a 4-1 mauling. Now in the Championship and after 7 games my team sits pretty at the top of the tree. Lankester continues to score for fun and his partner Jackson has proven to be the perfect foil. If this roll continues (which to be honest I will be surprised at) back to back promotions will be in the offing. It's been a pleasant change to once more find some sort of interest in the Touch Version after becoming more and more involved with the full game version over the last few years. 

[RTHerringbone]

My spell in Argentina is over. I hadn't played for a week, realised the update was out so downloaded that and ended up winning the Libertadores and £14m in the process. That was enough for me over there so I resigned and I'm now in charge of a Southampton side in the relegation zone in January 2022.

[PAFC_Dugout]

About to finish my second season with Hertha Berlin and win the Bundesliga, but have kept steam on offline mode cause the update will probably ruin my tactic like it did through the constant FM20  updates 

[RTHerringbone]

The Saints period was brief 😅

Started there in 18th place in season two. Ended the season fifth and League Cup Winners. I had Ousame Dembele ready to join on a Free and the Board were expanding the stadium. 

Everything was looking great 😎

So I resigned, applied for the vacant Real Madrid job and was offered it. This is the start of season three. They just finished second but 10+ points adrift of Atletico. Barca were third. 

First job was to trim a mad wage bill. Bale, Marcelo and Modric were all on expiring contracts and releasing them has saved about £1m a week. I've offloaded another £550k in the forms of Benzema (£20m to Inter aged 34) and Veretout (£24m to Napoli). 

I need 2 centre backs, a wingback and a striker. The wage budget exercise means I've got £120m+ to spend and it looks like I can get Gabriel Jesus for maybe £28m, so £90m for 2 or 3 defenders sounds good to me 😎

[shirajzl]

I was enjoying reading this and I had high hopes for this topic, hoping it would resurrect this subforum. Alas...

[jackripper]

So started at my hometown Barry town In wales, stayed for 5 years won the league 3 times got to two Europa league group stages but never won a game. Left them after 5 years and moved to Dortmund who haven’t won the league in years or done anything spectacular however they had a £380 mil transfer budget which I spent on a few players finished runners up in the league and on my 2nd season in 2nd behind bayern.

[jackripper]

Online save just started also with my brother he’s arsenal and I’m Man Utd the teams we support, only in January I have signed camivagga from Rennes and he signed draxler and ndidi. He’s currently 5th with a game in hand over chelsea and only 1 point behind. I’m 2nd 10 points behind Liverpool who are running away with it. Still in champs league he’s in Europa league still, I’m in fa cup he’s not and vice versa in the league cup which I’m not fussed about. We are prepping for the all out war for upacayemo in the summer 

[Malicious Penguin]

I love full fat FM. The league expansions, the tweaks and so on... but there's just something about Touch. The fact I can load all leagues and it run comparable to full FM with 6-8 countries loaded. Waiting for the winter update, and I'm back on board.

[DeepLyingForward]

Playing on the switch, I'm in my 5th season with Kettering. I've taken them to league one and have hit a ceiling, a big jump between league two and one. 

 

Roughly 18 games in and I'm lower mid table. Hull have offered me the job in the championship, with a 14 million transfer budget. It's so tempting... 

[aditya]

Whats everyones favourite plug in tactic so far? Only having success with Possesion mode

[ollie_davis]

I'm in 2030/31 with Boreham Wood.

About to start my 4th year in the Premier League (and first in Europe, EURO II)

My first three, I finished 11th, 10th and 8th (League Cup Finalists too).

 

[The Silence Of The Allams]

I am trying a youth only save for the first time. Njardvik in Iceland are challenging for promotion from 1. Deild during my second season.

[Malicious Penguin]

First season, saved Dalkurd (Sweden) from the drop, but couldn't get a feel for it. Applied for a variety of jobs, and ended up with Southport, bottom of the NLN, and have so far taken them to 12th with a dozen games to go. Feel much more at home! (Other than the crashing...)

[rafaelbenitez]

7 minutes ago, Malicious Penguin said:

First season, saved Dalkurd (Sweden) from the drop, but couldn't get a feel for it. Applied for a variety of jobs, and ended up with Southport, bottom of the NLN, and have so far taken them to 12th with a dozen games to go. Feel much more at home! (Other than the crashing...)

Technical issues?

Haven't started a save yet, going to wait for the final update first.

[Malicious Penguin]

@rafaelbenitezIt was fine until today. Now it crashes whenever I click on instant result/play/try to holiday.

[Junkhead]

Been desperate to play full fat for months but work commitments have really slowed me down. Have played touch on pc before but always end up jumping back on full fat.

However will be giving the Xbox version a go now it's on game pass and playing this alongside my full fat game (I hope)....

[MattTheSkimmer]

Started a save with Birmingham City, to be honest I struggled to pin a decent tactic down and never really took to the club like I normally do in my saves. I finished the season in mid table and duly resigned. I spent the summer looking at various jobs and eventually took the post at Salford City.

What followed has been one of my favourite ever saves, first season I won the League Two title, second season I won the League One title and my third season I gained automatic promotion to the Premier League after finishing 2nd, 1pt behind Watford and 6pts ahead of Crystal Palace. This has given me hope that I can mix it with the Premier League sides next season. I have been picking up loan players and a lot of free agents with minimum release fees in their contract to hopefully raise funds, this has worked out immensely so far with just 2 of my players - total spend £245k - total income £27m.

 

Wish me luck in the Prem!!!

Couple of transfer highlights during my time at Salford:

•Signing Josh Brown from TNS for £245k during my League One campaign, he finished top scorer, had another good season in the championship before West Ham paid me £16m for him during the January transfer window.

•Loaning Louie Barry from Aston Villa for 4 consecutive seasons, his stats have improved dramatically and finished as my top scorer last season in the Championship.

•Picking up James Garner from Manchester United as a free agent before I started the season in the Championship, by the end of the season Norwich just paid the £11m release fee in his contract.

 

 

 

 

[MattTheSkimmer]

Started a save with Birmingham City, to be honest I struggled to pin a decent tactic down and never really took to the club like I normally do in my saves. I finished the season in mid table and duly resigned. I spent the summer looking at various jobs and eventually took the post at Salford City.

What followed has been one of my favourite ever saves, first season I won the League Two title, second season I won the League One title and my third season I gained automatic promotion to the Premier League after finishing 2nd, 1pt behind Watford and 6pts ahead of Crystal Palace. This has given me hope that I can mix it with the Premier League sides next season. I have been picking up loan players and a lot of free agents with minimum release fees in their contract to hopefully raise funds, this has worked out immensely so far with just 2 of my players - total spend £245k - total income £27m.

 

Wish me luck in the Prem!!!

Couple of transfer highlights during my time at Salford:

•Signing Josh Brown from TNS for £245k during my League One campaign, he finished top scorer, had another good season in the championship before West Ham paid me £16m for him during the January transfer window.

•Loaning Louie Barry from Aston Villa for 4 consecutive seasons, his stats have improved dramatically and finished as my top scorer last season in the Championship.

•Picking up James Garner from Manchester United as a free agent before I started the season in the Championship, by the end of the season Norwich just paid the £11m release fee in his contract.