All Activity

Absolutely loving the skin and the latest updates that have been made but... Either I am blind and not seeing it but on the original version in the Club info page it used to have a transfer policy section that shows how many ESC Slots you have been given and how many are left. Has this been moved or is it missing from the newer versions?

Fabulous intro and graphical layout. Also a great choice of club and a squad with not many obvious weaknesses. The three attacking men who scored for you at Bologna are all very capable players, so is the back-four (I've followed Kayode's rapid progress after watching him play live for Italy's youth side last year). The midfield also isn't bad, although there is a bizarrely high amount of left-footed players in there. Batistuta was an incredible player and really helped even neutrals of that era 'identify' with the club. I also fondly recall Rui Costa as the midfield maestro of those days. I love this extract below and will enjoy following this.

noted, thank you so much

Sunday 7th September 2031 Eliteserien Results --

@Jamz01 You can if it helps The current optimum settings for a 4231 is attacking but 424 balanced, even when using exactly same squad. I therefore prefer to start with optimum mentality.

Yes it’s like @crusadertsar explained. It’s really fun especially if your opponent has former youth players from the own academy and you can recognise them immediately because of the numbers. I played Oxford recently and the had two strikers, both were long time servants and fan favourites. One of them even leads the goalscorer list. Amazing. yes and it’s Billericay or nothing.

Saturday 6th September 2031 Viking (1st) v Brann (2nd) Eliteserien Best i vest derby -- -- -- -- I caught up with Emre Belözoğlu after the game and shared a glass of wine with him in my office. I thanked him for his kind words and Emre congratulated me and my team on the win. Wow! What a fantastic game that was. I think the occasion got to both teams as there was hardly an attempt on goal in the first half. Brann had a shot wide, Lasse Nordås headed over the bar for us, and that's all I can remember until that late corner when Stelios Andreou headed in to give Brann a half time lead. We knew we had to make changes at the break because, whilst there was very little between the teams, we'd hardly created anything in the first 45 minutes. I made a substitution, we changed our shape, we set-up to take the game to Brann with an Attacking mentality. It worked. We won possession shortly after their kick-off, attacked down the right wing, forced a corner... and then Lasse Nordås hit the bar with his header. We really did take the game to Brann. We created a lot of chances. On 79 minutes, we got the equaliser our second half performance deserved when Jesper Robertsen hit a low cross into the near post and Lasse Nordås's shot deflected past their goalkeeper. Having got back level, with time running out, we debated on the bench whether to stay as we were or go more solid and less Attacking. To be fair, Brann hadn't threatened much in the second half so we stuck. They say fortune favours the brave and Runar Norheim gave us a 2-1 lead with the scrambliest of scrambled goals with 84 minutes on the clock. Jesper Robertsen released Anders Hartveit Ryste down the right, Anders's cross deflected off a defender towards the near post, Lasse Nordås's glancing header was parried by the goalkeeper, Henrik Skogvold, with his back to goal, tried to find a teammate but the ball hit the goalkeeper's back, Henrik then knocked the ball back to the edge of the six yard box at the second attempt, and Runar Norheim won the race, hit the ball as hard as he could, and it flew through a crowd of players into the back of the net. I apologised to Emre Belözoğlu if I was over-the-top but we were off the bench, jumping around like crazy people, and the noise inside the SR-Bank Arena was incredible. We did shut up shop then. I knew I'd only used four substitutes and wanted to make a defensive substitution but the fourth official told me I couldn't as we'd already had three substitute breaks. So we did the best we could, with the players we had out there, to just defend, keep Brann away from our goal, and we did it. This is a massive, MASSIVE, MASSIVE victory for us. --

awesome thank you so much knap, believe i will need to change the mentality (attack, positive, balance etc.) depending on opponent correct, especially on away game?

Reaching the golden heights of Batistuta's era. Good luck.

Unfortunately, I don't have it, I already deleted my save, I played 4231, but I played a bit with different roles as I wrote. I just wanted to give you some advice. I know a bit about tactics, see my posts when I took 5th place in the first season playing Wolves 433. I also plan to start my career in the 3rd Spanish league, I will be playing there 4231, I will share my tactics and results with you soon.

Kelly Caprani Rescues Late Draw With First Spurs Goal!

---------------------- FREIBURG SC | SEASON 2025-2026 BUNDESLIGA Full table | Fixtures As I suspected, this season has turned out to be very challenging for us. As reigning champions, we faced more pressure and a more serious attitude from our opponents. Nevertheless, I can't say that this season was a complete failure, even though we lost CL spot in the very last round after defeat to Eintracht. UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE Our debut in the main continental competition was really good. We promoted to knock out stages where we lost to Borussia only in penalty series. Man City became the champions, Arsenal - runners up. DFB-POKAL This year I couldn`t complain to the draw. Our first Bundesliga level opponents were only in semi-final and this match we suddenly lost. Bayer became title winners. ---------------------- TRANSFERS | SQUAD | YOUTHS Transfers In the summer we broke transfer record signing Swiss attacking midfielder Fabian Rieder for 35M euro from Rennes. And the season has shown that the investment in him has paid off. On the right flank was signed one of the most talented German wingbacks of last years Elias Baum (12M from Frankfurt). Another signings are Lucas Nmecha from Wolfsburg and young Serbian forward Milan Aleksic, who joined for free. Also, we brought back to the club goalkeeper Alexander Schwolow. In January transfer window there was a fairly big swap of forwards. Austrian international Junior Adamu went to Lille. To replace him we signed Jorgen Strand Larsen who was the main forward last 3 seasons in Celta. In addition to Adamu, a number of senior team players left the club earlier in the summer, including Gregoritsch, Amiri and Philipp. Squad click to enlarge Season Stats On the whole, it's hard to say that I was disappointed with any of the players, but no one showed a particularly outstanding performance either. Our wingbacks and Rieder were probably the best. Club Vertical Absolutely brilliant season for our reserve team and youths. Youth Intake Kimura, Behnke and Fuger are most promising ones. ---------------------- NEXT SEASON It`s time to invest some money in the squad If we want to participate in Champions League again.

Thank you to you both. I think a combination of waiting for one of these to drop in price or the specs to be released for the next game it will be. Really appreciate the time and effort, don’t know how people like me cope without guys like you helping out! Cheers

Hopefully this one sticks! At least you have set yourself some clear house rules to keep things interested. Fiorentina was one of the three teams I thought about when starting with Torino. My older brother always was a big fan of Batistuta and he is also a big figure in my life thanks to my wife who is Argentinian. Will be following close, like always!

Preview -- -- -- It was very kind of Emre Belözoğlu to say that. I appreciate it and will have a bottle of wine ready in my office after the game to share with him, irrespective of the result. But the match comes first and I'm not going to let other things, like the Månedens Trener award, distract us from our preparations for this Best i vest derby. There's clearly a lot more riding on this Best i vest derby given our respective league positions and that it's a two-horse race between Brann and us for the Eliteserien title. We go into the match with a five point advantage over Brann but, by the final whistle, that gap could've stretched to eight, been reduced to just two, or it could still be five. Brann will be determined to win the Best i vest derby for their fans just as we want to win it for our de mørkeblå supporters. It's going to be a cracking game, I'm expecting an electric atmosphere in the SR-Bank Arena and, hopefully, we can come out on top. Otto Rosengren remains out injured but, after our brilliant win in Aspmyra against Bodø/Glimt, I don't see any reason to change anything for the Brann match. -- Expected Line-up

Cracking read as always. Can’t wait to follow along!

Tuesday 2nd September 2031 Unhappy Players -- Jan Rune Hansen I would like to give Jan Rune Hansen more playing time but it hasn't been possible so far this season. -- Edvin Austbø -- -- -- I'm not sure how this one with Edvin Austbø is going to play out. This all started with Edvin wanting to start more games but with the stunning form of Lasse Nordås and Anders Hartveit Ryste, plus Edvin's lack of form, I wasn't able to do that and now he wants to leave. I agreed to let Edvin go, we agreed a valuation of £8M, but I haven't been pushing for a sale because I don't really want to lose him. I did offer him out for £8M once, towards the end of the transfer window after we'd signed Henrik Skogvold, but there were no offers. I see Edvin as my third striker right now (well, third or fourth now we've signed Henrik Skogvold) and I don't really want to lose him but, now we've got Henrik, I'd be more willing to listen to offers below £8M. -- Dynamics

Thanks Knap, appreciate it 👍

We will wait for him to respond. But he is doing a youth academy challenge from what I remember. Numbers like that is what some use to keep track of intakes in those kind of saves. I myself use a similar system where I put the year number that the player entered my academy after his name. It's just fun to see all the golden class graduates in the future, seeing how many were in the same year. I find youth development is really the only way I can keep interest in my long term saves. My current one is approaching 2030 mark so I guess it's working. But 2067 is indeed very impressive!

How it would work 1) Co-op enabled checkbox. When checked allows (2) and schedules Senior/U21/U18 games at same time where possible. 2) Add a "Join as Staff" option to the "JOIN ONLINE GAME" screen. 3) Select a staff member from a human-controlled club. You are now playing as that staff member. 4) Assume the responsibilities of that staff member. 5) Senior manager controls [Continue] for team. In-progress U21/U18 games will be simmed as if End Game had been selected. What roles? No specific names for roles would need created, but rather determined by Staff Responsibilities Obvious ones include: U18 Manager: [Match Day (U18), Recruit Staff (U18), Finding and Signing players (U18), Leads General Training (U18) U21 Manager: Similar Director of Football: Finding and Signing players (Senior) With other nitty-gritty jobs like coaching schedules, staff contracts, set piece prep and instructions being delegated to create other staff roles (assistant manager, technical director etc) Chief Scout: Allowing another human player to recruit and assign scouts, maintain shortlists, etc would be an incredible addition to FM. I say this because some players live for transfers and put up with matches and tactics while other are the exact opposite. This would require an additional interface to allow the chief scout to populate and trigger a Scout Feedback event, but I'm confident that the effort would be worth it. Note: This "scouting network" feature would potentially be a headline feature in its own right. Probably for a subsequent FM release. Target audience I think this feature would target two types of FM player: Groups of friends Twitch TV followers Lots of FM content creators try to engage their followers by naming players or staff after them. But inviting followers to handle parts of a save would potentially have a massive boost in FM engagement on social media platforms.

Why Fiorentina? There have been only two Scudetti – league titles – in the Tuscan club’s history, a smattering of Coppa Italias, an Italian Super Cup and a European triumph in the Cup Winners’ Cup which happened so long ago that the tournament no longer exists. And yet their famous purple colours enjoy a notoriety far greater than their trophy cabinet might demand. The above Football Club Elo Ratings shows the success which current coach Vincenzo Italiano is bringing to Florence, with La viola playing their best football in a four year period. The club, at the time of writing find themselves sitting in eighth place of Serie A, and are in the semi-finals of the Europa Conference League. The clubs upward trajectory isn't solely down to the efforts on the pitch, in 2019 Fiorentina was purchased by American billionaire Rocco Commisso, who has invested more than €340m int o the club. In a recent open letter (February 2024) Commisso stated 'Three years after I took over a club that had avoided relegation on the last day of the season, we qualified for Europe. Last season we reached the Conference League final and the Coppa Italia final – a double final that Fiorentina had not managed since 1961'. He also reminded La viola fanbase that 'Atalanta and Bologna are often held up as model clubs and of course I congratulate them on what they are doing, but I would also like to remind people with a short memory that Atalanta took seven years to qualify for Europe following the takeover by the Percassi family, and Bologna is challenging for the European spots for the first time this season, eight years after Joey Saputo's arrival. Whilst the future is looking brighter for Fiorentina, the club are still a long way off the levels of Bruno Pesaola's side of the late 1960's which brought the last Scudetto back to Firenze. Pesaola's masterpiece was created through subtle tactical alterations and minimal recruitment. A team with an average age that comfortably sat under 25, they were tagged with the sobriquet 'Fiorentina Ye-Ye', mimicking the nickname that was bestowed upon the youthful, post-Di Stefano Real Madrid. THE GAME MODEL I have opted to deploy what I feel is an incredibly balanced tactic, one which can simply be described as an asymmetric 4-4-2, of course it is fluid with the use of many support roles. However, you will note I have looked to pair roles which should work in unison, for example the use of the Segundo Volante, who when it departs is replaced by the inverted wing-back. Similarly, on the other flank the inverted forward will be replaced by the complete wing-back, who's duty will be to occupy the wide space. We are in Italy, therefore the Regista has been utilised to become the playmaker who has multiple options in front of him, making efforts to break into the box. Some of the team instructions have been influenced by the teams attribute comparison screen, we are Serie A leaders with regard to crosses, free-kicks, and dribbling. Therefore, we will 'play for set pieces' and 'dribble more' to take full advantage of those attributes. The team also boast the highest acceleration, and great off the ball movement making the pass into space another team instruction which we can look to make a marginal gain. Whilst our mental profile isn't up there with the leading sides in Serie A, it is refreshing to see that we are above average for all attributes and importantly are the leading side when taking into consideration the teams work rate. This will be needed when playing some of those over powered out of possession instructions. THE AIMS Use the academy. The club has superb youth facilities, which has seen the likes of Federico Chiesa, Federico Bernardeschi, Nicolò Zaniolo, and Gianluca Mancini be developed in the recent years. Current first-team players which have also played in the Primavera are Luca Ranieri, Riccardo Sottil, Gaetano Castrovilli and Michael Kayode. Have a young Italian core. Similar to the Scudetto winning side constructed by Pesaola, in which 12 of the core were not over the age of 30, with only three of them beyond 26. Continue to recruit talent from South American. Traditionally, Fiorentina have a few South Americans in their team. Gabriel Batistuta obviously comes to mind. However, the likes of Dunga, Socrates, and Carlos Gringa have all featured for La viola, whilst the best player in the existing squad is another Argentinian, Nico Gonzalez. The Bord have set their expectations for the season (top half finish in Serie A), with the view to securing regular qualification in Europe's second biggest continental competition, the Europa League. There is an expectation to play an entertaining brand of football, I am more than confident that the game model selected will meet the need of both the board and the supporters. PRE SEASON Six wins from six as we build into the new season, given my lack of familiarity with the team I used these matches to get a feel for the playing staff. I will look to provide you all with a bit more detail on the individual playing units, along with any stand out performers from both the Primavera and the U18s as the season takes shape. MATCH DAY ONE - Derby dell’Appennino What are the chances, my very first competitive fixture sees us come up against Thiago Motta's Bologna, a side I know very well from FM23 after replicating his UEFA Pro License Thesis 'The Value of The Ball'. Separated by 100km, the rivalry between the two Serie A clubs is neither one born from the eternal fights for silverware or local disputes, yet the colour and the passion of the Derby dell’Appennino remains a significant date in the Italian football calendar. Despite only racking up 39% possession, we managed to maintain a stronger momentum across the duration of the match. Accumulating 15 shots on goal (2.56xG), and winning the final third passes battle 77 vs 56, shows that possession isn't always everything, it is what you do with it. Our team instruction to trigger press 'much more often', paired with the high line of engagement secured us nine interceptions in the oppositions half, compared to Bologna's zero. Whilst we also covered more km than our opponent, completed more high intensity sprints, and had a lower PPDA (5.09 vs 5.57) than Motta's side. FYI I will be keeping a record of these metrics across all games, I am keen to see which sides outwork us, as this is going to be one of our core pillars of our DNA, more on that to follow. Cristiano Biraghi picked up the MOTM award, the attacking full back completed 95% of his passes, whilst also contributing with three key passes, assisting the goal for Lucas Beltrán (one of the two debutants to score, the other being Andrea Belotti) . Without the ball he made four interceptions, making his presence felt down the left flank, at 30 years of age we will no doubt rely on his experience this season, along with love for the big game (enjoys big matches). RESULTS & UPCOMING FIXTURES Four wind from four to start the save, we are yet to concede in Serie and as we continued the impressive form from the opener against Bologna. September is a busy month which concludes with a game at the San Siro as we face AC Milan. The victory over Football Club Midtjylland seen us secure progress to the Europa Conference League Group Stage where we will play the likes of HNK Hajduk Split, SK Slavia Praha, and Vitória Sport Club. I am going to post regularly, as I feel this format is favourable to save longevity, I actually think I enjoy documenting the save as much as I do playing. Please drop a comment/follow and as always I welcome your engagement. A shout out to @El Payaso for the style inspo.

Thanks but no thanks

SEASON 2024/2025 Tottenham Unbeaten But Drop Points To Barnet! King & Donley Win Awards!

Thanks, @Hootieleece Yes, I've already decided that I need to prioritise Eliteserien matches over the UEFA Champions League ones because winning the Eliteserien title guarantees UEFA Champions League the following season whereas 2nd place only guarantees participation in the Qualifying Round(s). So I see winning Eliteserien and the big pay day as a bigger prize than actually progressing in the UEFA Champions League. Rightly or wrongly, that's how I'm seeing it. A lot depends on the result of our next match, at home to Brann. Win and we will be eight points clear of Brann with eight matches to play. Lose and the gap is down to just two points. It's looking very much like a two-horse race now so Viking v Brann is a massive game for both football clubs.

In FM24, clubs simply give up on any development of their players. Not only wonderkids, but generally talented players or those in their prime. They simply buy them and leave them on the bench for 3-4 years and then put them up for sale. There is no pleasure on the transfer market when I manage to buy such great players for worse prices, because thanks to the mistakes in the current edition, they are simply forced into my team. Out of curiosity, I returned to FM22 to compare this aspect of the game and, unfortunately, it is a gulf. I lost any desire to continue playing FM24. A key aspect of the game is just absolutely broken. The whole thing is complemented by absurd market offers offered by clubs from Saudi Arabia, which completely destroys the transfer market.