FM22: The English Football League thread

[Mr_Demus]

A tremendous start at QPR.

 

 

 

Lyndon Dykas has been in top form with 11 goals from 15 matches

[Mr_Demus]

Is anyone else experiencing players demanding very high wages? My GK Seny Dieng, who is decent and have performed well, wants a contract that more than triples his wages. 

[Mardy]

Managed to scrape my way into league two with Weymouth, with loanee Kargbo scoring 41 goals! (Joining on a free) 

League 2 is going to be tough, I can’t interest any players above national league level at the moment. First signing was this giant though! 


 

Wish me luck….

[Spedding]

Swindon end of october first season

Since last update have only lost one more game.

table

 

squad 

 

[Rollin93]

On 01/12/2021 at 22:05, Jogo Bonito said:

Great update @Dong21 Fabio doing great stuff at Charlton partly due to illogical tactics - well done  What happened with your Ugandan trialist, not worth signing or not able to? My pick of the FM22 free transfers and is in my Panathinaikos side. 

@warlock Still right on track with Crewe and even if my FM21 stalwart Ellis Simms hasn't yet convinced, I think that's a great move. Give him time & hopefully he will do as well for yu as he did for me at Ipswich.

Very well done @Brutalyouth quite an achievement with The Gills. As was said above, you'll definitely have enough to survive even if signings don't appear to be earth shattering.

P.S. I had a go at making some Plymouth kits for my EFL effort. What do you think? I haven't mastered changing the default colours yet so working with the original colour scheme at the moment. They should work on 3D if I include the config file correctly.

 

These are sick how easy is it to put kits into the game? I’ve never done it before but always wanted to 

[Jogo Bonito]

11 minutes ago, Rollin93 said:

These are sick how easy is it to put kits into the game? I’ve never done it before but always wanted to 

I've only just discovered a way of doing it last week. I'm only able to do from templates rather than 'freestyle from scratch' and I've not yet mastered changing the default colours. Do you have a kitpack installed or just use default kits?

[Jogo Bonito]

Great results at QPR, Weymouth & Swindon. Well done all.

[Rollin93]

21 minutes ago, Jogo Bonito said:

I've only just discovered a way of doing it last week. I'm only able to do from templates rather than 'freestyle from scratch' and I've not yet mastered changing the default colours. Do you have a kitpack installed or just use default kits?

I only use default kits but I’ve always wanted to use concept kits in game but never known how to do it is it easy 

[Rollin93]

22 minutes ago, Jogo Bonito said:

I've only just discovered a way of doing it last week. I'm only able to do from templates rather than 'freestyle from scratch' and I've not yet mastered changing the default colours. Do you have a kitpack installed or just use default kits?

Where is best to download kit packs?

[Jogo Bonito]

2 hours ago, Rollin93 said:

Where is best to download kit packs?

I'm not sure if I'm allowed to say on the forum so will send by PM. Licenced leagues have correct default kits, such as Newport if that's where you are managing?

I wouldn't say it's easy to make them, but I'm new to it and not great at files and things. But if they're made, they're quite easy to be installed. Let me know who you're managing and I may be able to have a go for you as long as you are happy with default colour scheme. The best way to help is if you show me a copy of the club profile page where it shows their 2 or 3 standard kits and colours.

Here you go, your three new Dulwich Hamlet kits as discussed on our messages. Glad you like them.

Sorry @warlock for brief thread hijack. My kit work is definitely done here now 

Edited December 5, 2021 by Jogo Bonito

[warlock]

2 hours ago, Jogo Bonito said:

Sorry @warlock for brief thread hijack. My kit work is definitely done here now 

No problem - I've not spent much time looking into kits, but I get a sense that they're harder to find for non-elite clubs. So, a useful diversion, I think 

[warlock]

4 hours ago, Mardy said:

Managed to scrape my way into league two with Weymouth, with loanee Kargbo scoring 41 goals!

4 hours ago, Spedding said:

Since last update have only lost one more game

Well done to both. And a strong argument for the power of a prolific striker. Remember when people used to talk about "a 20-goal season striker"? Looks like in FM we need 40 or 50 goals from our frontmen 

[Alejandro1202]

After finally finishing off my exams for this semester, I´ll be starting my usual save with Barnsley on England, but as far as I know the WP rules have changed and I don´t get them, so could anyone please give me a basic explanation on them? I have the doubt because is easier to sign a 21 y/o Uruguayan than a 19 y/o German on a test save I did.

[Mardy]

4 hours ago, Alejandro1202 said:

After finally finishing off my exams for this semester, I´ll be starting my usual save with Barnsley on England, but as far as I know the WP rules have changed and I don´t get them, so could anyone please give me a basic explanation on them? I have the doubt because is easier to sign a 21 y/o Uruguayan than a 19 y/o German on a test save I did.

WPs are done on a points system- you can find more information in your league rules. Basically the higher the club, league and nation reputation the better. There is an option when searching for players that lets you filter out players unlikely to get a WP

Edited December 5, 2021 by Mardy

[Spedding]

Swindon update end of january

only lost 2 more in the league since november but getting a few more draws now.

tyreece simpson had a 2 month barren spell only 1 goal in 13 games but has picked up again in january with 6 in 7 .

 

 

[Spedding]

swindon end of season

form went inconsistent from february and finished 2nd 12 points off 1st.

now to build for league 1

[Rollin93]

Mid october of my dulwich hamlet save  
and I’m happy with where I’m sitting mainly because my main striker missed the first 5 games

 

My aim is to try and stay near top place untill January then hopefully push on from there but already injuries have been a killer

[warlock]

1 hour ago, Spedding said:

form went inconsistent from february and finished 2nd

Ah... one of "those" Februaries . We've all had 'em. But did enough to get the job done, so congrats on the promotion 

 

56 minutes ago, Rollin93 said:

I’m happy with where I’m sitting

Indeed, and win that game in hand and you'll be sitting very pretty 

[Rollin93]

12 minutes ago, warlock said:

Ah... one of "those" Februaries . We've all had 'em. But did enough to get the job done, so congrats on the promotion 

 

Indeed, and win that game in hand and you'll be sitting very pretty 

I got battered in the game in hand 4-1 to St Albans they have a striker who is already on 15 goals in 10 games 

[warlock]

3 minutes ago, Rollin93 said:

got battered in the game in hand 4-1 to St Albans

Oops 

[Jogo Bonito]

@Rollin93 A very good start with Dulwich, despite the loss to St. Albans. Their striker sounds like one you should keep an eye on!

@Spedding Great work to get Swindon promoted, even if the form tailed off a little it was still a fine season. 

[Spiegel]

Just come to the end of the transfer window, so worth posting a quick update. 

Some further additions to the squad; 

• Midfielder Hiram Boateng arrives following his release from MK Dons. A more athletic midfield playmaker, who's racking up assists already.
• @Spedding's man Tyreece Simpson comes in on loan from Ipswich. Not paying a wage, nor a fee. The Ladapo/Richards pairing is making Fondop look rather ordinary, so looking for a better depth option up top. 
• Josh Daniels comes in as a free-agent from Shrewsbury. He can play on both wings as a full-back or winger. I'll mainly be looking to use him as backup for Sterry at RWB.
• Regan Slater also arrives following his release from Sheff Utd. This guy's attribute spread looks ridiculous for this level. He'll be used across the midfield this season.

Also took some time to upgrade the staff. 

• Eddie Howe's right-hand man Jason Tindall comes in as assistant manager. He replaces Clint Hill, who left the club after a month IRL to follow Challinor down the leagues. *boo-hiss*
• Former Hartlepool Manager Colin Cooper comes in as a coach. While associated with our gradual slide down the football league irl, he's good rather good attributes and was willing to come in fairly cheap. 
• Former Celtic Director of Football David Moss comes in as a scout. 17 JPA 15 JPP is not to be sniffed at!
• Another former Celtic man, Jim McGuiness replaces Ian McGuckin as U18s manager. Coming in with some monstrous stats - 18 Mental, 17 Working with Youngsters, 18 Determination, 18 Discipline and 17 Motivating. He's only let down by his tactical knowledge - but I'll be forcing him to use my tactics anyway!

We're off to a great start so far; 

We've toppled recently relegated Middlesbrough several times, knocked out Premier League Sheff Utd in the Carabao Cup, and beaten last season's Papa John's winners Man City in the group (Jamie Sterry marking Phil Foden out of the game! The team they put out was disgusting tbh)

 

Edited December 6, 2021 by Spiegel
No Vicente :(

[warlock]

3 hours ago, Spiegel said:

Hiram Boateng arrives

Did well for me at Crewe, and versatile in central midfield - I used him as a DLP, B2B and mezalla and he was equally adept at all roles. 

And  you're right about Premiership u23s in the PJT... shouldn't be allowed 

[Spiegel]

19 minutes ago, warlock said:

Did well for me at Crewe, and versatile in central midfield - I used him as a DLP, B2B and mezalla and he was equally adept at all roles. 

And  you're right about Premiership u23s in the PJT... shouldn't be allowed 

Funnily enough, those are the three roles I use in midfield.  MEZ (A), DLP (D), B2B (S). I'm not quite settled on my starting three, but Boateng always tends to make the squad for his versatility.

PJT is a joke, I beat Everton last season and they were running Godfrey and Davies in their team. The City team I played had Yann Couto, Doyle, Palmer, Harwood-Bellis, Matt Smith - Championship level players all on £10k/w plus, before we even get to Foden! 

Edited December 6, 2021 by Spiegel

[Rollin93]

My season is so up and down my striker come back from injury scored 9 in 9 put me to the top of the league and now his injured AGAIN for 4 months! 
 

only striker I have is a loan striker and a youth player 

 

going to be a long few months 😂

[warlock]

2 hours ago, Rollin93 said:

my striker come back from injury scored 9 in 9 put me to the top of the league and now his injured AGAIN for 4 months! 

Well, that's why it's fun 

[skybluedave]

So start of 4th season managing Coventry and finally feel like I could get promoted.

First 3 seasons I finished 7th, 13th and 5th (lost play off semi final). But this the first summer where I haven't lost key players to bigger clubs and I'm hopeful of building on last seasons play off defeat. Won first 2 league games of the season too. 

This is my squad below

Few recommendations for other players managing in or around Championship.

Adam Lewis and Jack Clarke were released by Liverpool and Spurs end of 2nd season and picked up on frees. Lewis was especially good. Wasn't rated much by my scouts so came in as a Fringe Player but quickly became established. Very versatile. Marcus Forss has been my big summer signing for 2.8mill from Brentford. A lot riding on him to get the goals I need. Louie Sibley left Derby for Villa and this is the 2nd season I've had him on loan. 

Jack Tucker I've seen mentioned a bit on here and is a great centre back. But Robbie Deas was picked up for £500k from Inverness and has won player of the year in both seasons. Highly recommend him if you need a centre back. He's left footed too which is nice. 

And Kun Temenuzhkov is a 5ft 5 Bulgarian with English 2nd nationality. Bought in Jan 3rd season for £160k  purely as back up but went on to score 7 goals in 6 (6) appearances. Has been a great squad signing and becoming a bit cult. Seeing his tiny body racing on to through balls.  

[Ronaldo Beckham]

I am thinking of starting a save with Peterborough and I know they have a history of signing players from the English lower divisions so I was just wondering if any of you guys know of any good players in the Vanarama leagues that could do a good job in the Championship ?

[warlock]

1 hour ago, Ronaldo Beckham said:

any good players in the Vanarama leagues that could do a good job in the Championship ?

Lots of clubs have "sign players from lower divisions" as part of the club vision so it's a bit of a holy grail. I'm sure it's possible, but I think Vanarama to Championship is quite a stretch. I think L2 could be a happy hunting ground - the likes of Exeter, Crewe, Forest Green and Tranmere have quite a few potential targets.

Good subject for discussion, though 

[Ronaldo Beckham]

13 minutes ago, warlock said:

Lots of clubs have "sign players from lower divisions" as part of the club vision so it's a bit of a holy grail. I'm sure it's possible, but I think Vanarama to Championship is quite a stretch. I think L2 could be a happy hunting ground - the likes of Exeter, Crewe, Forest Green and Tranmere have quite a few potential targets.

Good subject for discussion, though 

Yeah I always like to try replicate a club's transfer policy. I will see who I can find in the lower leagues. 

Cheers for the teams suggestions.

 

[Spedding]

swindon update

life in the 1st division hasn't gone to plan took us to october to get our first win in the league.

transfer wise didn't go to plan either ended up with a few panic buys after players signed for other teams. and 1 didn't realise had a fee attached.

 

 

[warlock]

4 hours ago, Spedding said:

took us to october to get our first win in the league

Looking much better since then 

[Spedding]

swindon update 

form has continued to improve

from how unlikely it was in october now 5 points off playoff places 

 

[robterrace]

Just doing a little save in charge of Doncaster Rovers, took over with them bottom of the league at the end of August. Got this in February..

[warlock]

5 minutes ago, robterrace said:

a little save in charge of Doncaster Rovers

That'll make a difference . Fingers crossed for you!

[robterrace]

OK...

[skybluedave]

19 hours ago, skybluedave said:

So start of 4th season managing Coventry and finally feel like I could get promoted.

First 3 seasons I finished 7th, 13th and 5th (lost play off semi final). But this the first summer where I haven't lost key players to bigger clubs and I'm hopeful of building on last seasons play off defeat. Won first 2 league games of the season too. 

This is my squad below

Few recommendations for other players managing in or around Championship.

Adam Lewis and Jack Clarke were released by Liverpool and Spurs end of 2nd season and picked up on frees. Lewis was especially good. Wasn't rated much by my scouts so came in as a Fringe Player but quickly became established. Very versatile. Marcus Forss has been my big summer signing for 2.8mill from Brentford. A lot riding on him to get the goals I need. Louie Sibley left Derby for Villa and this is the 2nd season I've had him on loan. 

Jack Tucker I've seen mentioned a bit on here and is a great centre back. But Robbie Deas was picked up for £500k from Inverness and has won player of the year in both seasons. Highly recommend him if you need a centre back. He's left footed too which is nice. 

And Kun Temenuzhkov is a 5ft 5 Bulgarian with English 2nd nationality. Bought in Jan 3rd season for £160k  purely as back up but went on to score 7 goals in 6 (6) appearances. Has been a great squad signing and becoming a bit cult. Seeing his tiny body racing on to through balls.  

Erm so 4th season optimism... think I'm about to get sacked 

Not sure what has happened here. Teams gone to pot.  

 

[warlock]

12 minutes ago, skybluedave said:

think I'm about to get sacked 

Wow 

I've seen some slumps - endured a few, actually - but that's something else. Six games undefeated, followed by 9 defeats in10 games without a win.

16 minutes ago, skybluedave said:

finally feel like I could get promoted

Hmm... you jinxed it  

[skybluedave]

Really came out of nowhere. The Bournemouth defeat I got an early red card so wrote that game off. Started the season really well too.

Well I've finally ended the rot and won 2 on bounce. Beat Cardiff in a game dubbed El Sackio 

[Spedding]

swindon update 

finished 9th by the end of february it looked like we were going to end up in playoffs but form dropped and next 10 matches won 2 drawn 6 lost 2.

tyreece simpson still on top form and back on loan for the next season.

[Rollin93]

Dorking scored a last minute goal🤦🏼‍♂️ Play offs here I come 

[Jogo Bonito]

Very good seasons at Swindon (9th after promotion is very decent) and Dulwich (good luck in your PO games).

Good player & staff signings at Hartlepool, nice to see some North East links in the recruitment there too.

Sorry to see the struggles at Coventry. Hard to fathom how that went so badly wrong, but glad to see you have started to turn it around again.

Edited December 8, 2021 by Jogo Bonito

[Rollin93]

3 hours ago, Rollin93 said:

Dorking scored a last minute goal🤦🏼‍♂️ Play offs here I come 

So I won’t the play offs on penalties to ebbsfleet! 
few players already coming in one of them being ex Bristol city striker Freddie hinds! 

[warlock]

Forest Green Rovers, September 2021

New game update, new save. Rovers were one of my top picks for an FM22 save so here goes...

It's an odd-looking squad at first sight - a terrifying lack of central defenders and not a lot of creativity in central midfield. However, appearances can be deceptive - Godwin-Malife, Cargill and Sweeney are all excellent CBs, so what looks like a weakness actually provides a tremendous amount of flexibility at the back. Nonetheless, playing Cargill at CB left us without an LB, so I opted to begin training Cadden as an attacking wingback, and brought in Matthew Blake on a free transfer as his understudy; both have been excellent. I also elected to use my favourite 4312 system, which meant I had no use for Opi Edwards at MR so, like Cadden, he is being retrained as a WB.

We also lacked options at AMC - although there are several who can play there, they are better deployed as CMs or strikers. So Flynn Clarke was brought in on a season-long loan from Norwich, while loan signing Jack Aitchison, of Barnsley, looked good in pre-season and bagged a goal in the opening game of the season, he slumped thereafter. I decided to terminate the loan and Blackburn's Daniel Butterworth was bought for peanuts on transfer deadline day. In that amusing way that FM has, between the deal being agreed and his arrival he somehow twisted an ankle and will miss his first two weeks at the club but I have no doubt he'll shine for us.

Early form

You can perhaps see why I love this system. With three up front, backed by a mez on attack and a B2B, with flying wingbacks to stretch a defence, it's a handful for any opposition. Even against a parked bus, we just keep battering away until the defence cracks. Only QPR (top 4 in the Championship when we played them) in the Carabao Cup managed to hold us at bay but a penalty shootout victory gives us a money-spinning visit to West Ham in the next round.

I'm not yet convinced we have a 20-goal striker in the ranks, but we're spreading the goals around and, collectively, we have the best attack in the division:

[Spiegel]

@warlock Nicky Cadden is a monster of a player on FM, I've tried to bring him in a few times. 
The AI Forest Green on my Hartlepool save seem to have had quite a bit of luck with Jamille Matt as the main striker. 20+ goals in League 2, and he's pushing towards double figures in League 1 (Late November).

[warlock]

3 minutes ago, Spiegel said:

The AI Forest Green on my Hartlepool save seem to have had quite a bit of luck with Jamille Matt as the main striker

I did a short exploratory save with FGR in beta and Matt was great - creating and scoring as a TF-sup. In this save he's not doing as much - just one goal and no assists in 6 starts. I can't explain why, and I'm hoping he'll come good in time.

[robterrace]

Quick bit from my first youth intake as manager at Doncaster, the two not on the map are in Antigua, and Italy.

[warlock]

3 hours ago, warlock said:

a money-spinning visit to West Ham in the next round

Wow 

I dared to dream when Matt gave us the lead, and feared the worst when Lanzini equalized 5 minutes later. But the lads done good, and our bank balance was boosted to the tune of around £400k 

[Jogo Bonito]

Great choice of club @warlock and much more likeable than your last team

Cracking start as you would expect with that squad, and massive financial boosts from the excellent Cup wins. I'm going to set you the challenge of 46 games unbeaten in League 2....

[warlock]

1 hour ago, Jogo Bonito said:

I'm going to set you the challenge of 46 games unbeaten in League 2....

Ooh, steady on old boy 

It's probably my one unachieved ambition in FM, an unbeaten season. Closest I've ever managed was one game short with Man Utd a couple of FMs ago - lost to Liverpool in the last 4 games of the season, if I remember correctly. But I think you're right - this FGR team should be close. Challenge accepted, anyway 

On further thought... I think I managed an unbeaten season with Durham AFC last year but at that level I doubt it counts - the AI just can't compete for recruitment and squad management. And I have other unachieved ambitions in FM, not least taking a lower league club to the top of the PL and Europe. It's always that pesky first season in the Premiership... as I know you know