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Anyone tried Schalke? Is that the worst run club in the game?

Thursday 24th July 2031 Ryste Unhappy Coaching Not Improved -- Okay, so here it comes... I'm still unsure how I ended up making this promise to Anders Hartveit Ryste. After we agreed a fee with Odd, I definitely excluded it from the contract negotiations with Anders and his agent but, before we approached Odd, I did ask his agent about availability and "improve the coaching staff" was on the list he came back with. I did say his list was acceptable so can only assume that's where this promise came from? -- -- -- -- -- --

“I’ve done the same thing ten times and it always went wrong. Why do you make me do this to myself?”

Personally I think there are too many attacking duties in your tactic, this naturally increases the level of risk these players will take. You've also got 2 BPD's and a DLP who are hard coded to play more risky passes. I'd change the IWB's to Su and change the CB's to normal CD's rather than BPD's. This should reduce the risk the players take and help increase control of the game.

Season 3 Update – Standard Liege Pre Season Board Objectives Jupiler Pro League: Top Half Finish UECL: Reach UECL proper Croky Cup: Reach Latter Stages Media Prediction: 7th Transfers After emphasizing how important this Summer window was to bring the club up another level to start challenging for the top 6, although at times it was a frustrating window, ultimately by the end of it all I was able to conjure up a squad I was really happy with. Realistically it was probably the best I could hope for and I believe it has moved us up a level. Rayan – High Hopes Taking the approach of only investing in Bosmans, there was one exception where I found a Brazilian from VDG Rayan that should really good potential to play in the AMR spot in our system. Last year I was having to train / make do with Price playing there, and although not naturally suited to it he did a sterling job. But this fella has the attributes to play it well, and has potential to become a really important player for us. Rayan, costing GBP 3.7mil and recently turned 19 A Strong XI and good depth I was able to pretty much overhaul many areas of our squad, that has resulted in a strong first XI that has a few young kids with great potential, a few players more experienced and I was able to late on find someone with the ability to lead the team well. I was also able to get relatively good depth, one where if we are able to get into the UECL knockouts, I should be able to field a fairly competitive side that will provide our secondary side and other youngsters with some much needed experience – without compromising our attempts to perform strongly in the league. Aerial Issues Sorted And also importantly I now have CBs that aren’t weak aerially. Benkovic and Jakel were tasked to improve us here. They aren't top standard, but they can do a solid job, until I can try find someone of real quality to play here. The aspect perhaps that will take time to really fulfill is the re-training of Price and Ngoy my short CB into the midfield position. Once I can get these two guys competently playing in this role, then I’m absolutely certain we’ll make the Championship group this year and hopefully start to build up our club reputation in the process. Retraining x2 players to be backup midfielders On the negative side, is we are of course over our wage budget. And after deciding to part with our striker Perica who ate up some quite high wages and also OOC end of year, I brought Delap from City in on loan – really hoping I can make it permanent, because I doubt he’ll ask for much wage wise and he's the perfect long-term squad player at this level too. Final Touches If I’m able to bring him on a permanent in January for next year then I’m in a place where I can focus on maximizing our facilities, and trying to improve / continually tweak the squad where I see fit. The only tricky aspect is ensuring we have 4 players trained at our club for European requirements, and also 8 homegrown players for domestic league ones. At the moment, I’m at the bare minimum with the later as I really wanted to form a strong squad. But going forward, there needs to be a greater focus on scouting Belgium talent, or spending money on those already proven And finally, clearing those minimum fee release clauses. A number of players wouldn’t sign with us without one, which of course if they were to leave would be devastating. So at the earliest opportunity I have to try and renew these contracts excluding them. On the staff front, this is pretty much as good as I can get it. Really happy with my backroom team and they'll play an important role to get the most out of our players. -- My Aims Looking at the rules, it seems top 4 would be guaranteed European football at the end of the Championship group phase. I was actually a bit lost with how that functioned last year, where quite oddly I faced the team 5th for a Euro spot rather than 6th in that playoff final. Something odd happens if you end 5th or 6th it seems, so I don’t want to finish in either of them spots. So my aim has to be a top 4 by the end of the playoffs. That will show significant progress being made with guaranteed European football, and will have reached a point where it’s fine tuning everything to take us closer to the big boys in Belgium. That I believe, will be finding a a couple more key players in our first XI, being a top class striker, a top class centre-back that is commanding aerially, and ideally another one or two players that will fill our homegrown spots to provide quality depth. Could do with a better LB too. I feel Doyle who came in from City to be our main man in midfield and captain hits those requirements in the centre of the park. He was a great free signing who is probably our most important player both skill wise and being able to lead our team. I’m also happy with the two keeper’s we have, both with great potential and already very able that I hope with competition for places will bring the best out of them. Upgrading our training facilities to get the most out of our kids is imperative. I already asked the board a couple of times and they refused, so I’ll need to keep demanding this because I do not want to see our young talent go to waste. Our Captain and an Integral part of the side

I had this save in FM23 - and I really recommend the concept! I've always tried to play with very technical or very fast players, so it was a new experience to play with tall, strong players. My rule was to have only players 190 cm < (a bit over 6'2), but in most of the teams I actually allowed myself to sign players who were 185cm <, if there were no real options for the position. Also, I allowed myself to sign all youth players, which brought down the average height quite a bit. My tallest average was 189 with MyPa in the Finnish Veikkausliiga. I chose to start with MyPa as the most well-known Finnish tall player Sami Hyypiä, started his pro career there. After three promotions and winning the top division, I went to Norway and Sweden to win the domestic titles, but I just couldn't find the way to win it in Denmark. After 11 seasons in the top division with FC Fredericia, I kinda lost interest. But still love the concept!! If I would do it again, I would give myself even stricter rules, maybe only players who are 195 cm < and not signing youth players who are not 190 cm or taller.

August 2037. A great start to the season with three wins, but after that the performances and the results started to fluctuate. Avro and Blyth (who IRL just hired a new manager, Nolberto Solano?! What a blast from the past ) are both considered to be our rivals (just by me), so winning them in tight contests felt soooo good! The two draws we got were lucky, but then the losses we had were unlucky. In the Atherton game we were the better team, but just couldn't find the net. The Bedworth game was very even, most just results would've been 1-1, but they somehow won 3-0 - that's football! There were a lot of different goal scorers, which is a positive, but there are also negatives. No striker is having a good streak and we couldn't find the net in three games (where the combined xG was 4<). The defensive side of the game has been much better, conceding more than one just once. Our 1st XI's record from the month is 3-1-1 and 2nd XI's 1-1-1. We're still missing our best player Green 35b through injury, he'll be back around the end of September. Table. A solid, but not amazing start means we find ourselves in 7th place after 8 games. I think we have the potential to be a bit better. Boston United looks like a real deal, they've already 4 clear at the top. Upcoming fixtures. A cup game and three games against opposition above us in the table, this month will really test us. Darlington is not the toughest cup fixture we've had, they play in the Northern Premier, but an away cup game is always an away cup game, if you know what I mean

anyone doing this challenge in 2024 verison if so what roster you using?

Just posted an updated version, hopefully that works.

On the wordpress

What a phenomenal season mate! If it goes unbeaten then it’s truly remarkable at this stage of the save. Unfortunate in champions league but that’s not far away my friend

End of Season 4 - Nearly a Perfect Season and the Ghost of Gyokeres Past While @oliscott completed an unbeaten season in the league and finished with a 37 wins, 1 draw record the unbeaten season nearly extended to all competitions. While my Barcelona side put that to rest in the Champions League final former Real Madrid front-man Viktor Gyokeres put 4 past Real Madrid as part of a 5-3 win. My only trophy this year being the European Super Cup compared to the haul over at Real Madrid of the League, Spanish Cup and Spanish Super Cup my team are falling behind in the overall trophy race. Barcelona Best XI: Real Madrid Best XI:

A domestic treble for La U, Campeonato, Copa Chile and the Super Copa. On the continent a Quarter final appearance in the Copa Libertadores. The league was won by a landslide of 19 points, breaking the league record for number of points total in the process, and the club record for number of wins. Drawing twice and losing twice, both losses came after continental games which shows there's still work to be done on squad depth Scoring 93 goals and only conceding 23, showed our strength at each end of the pitch. 15 Clean sheets for the young Ovalle led the league for player and club, 28 goals from set plays, 20 of them being corners, something Fabricio has become well renowned for. Leading the way on every front...... Copa Chile was a strange run, beating our great city rival Colo-Colo in the third round proved to be the biggest game. As the final pitched us against minnows from the Tercera division, Club de Deportes Rengo. Who were on a fairytale run to the final, while I'm sure everyone would have loved the fairytale ending Colocini’s men ensured it was not, running out 5-0 winners. Rumours have been swirling about the Argentinian, but he's affirmed that regardless of winning everything in Chile he feels settled here and most importantly he feels like the club is building something special. Losing to eventual finalists River Plate in the quarterfinals of the Copa Libertadores is going one better than last year, but more impressive was the opponents overcame to reach such heights. Getting out of a a real tough group, with the current reigning champions of three times Flamengo, champions of Uruguay National and Argentinian champions. The highlight of the group coming from behind at home to beat Boca 4-2. Their manager knows nothing about football claiming it was a fluke?. This is the second time Coloccini has gotten the better of Boca, winning against them in his time in Venezuela. Onto the second and the dismantlement of 2024 champions Fluminense & legendary winger Neymar in the second round showed more progress from the club in Santiago going one round better than last year. The Brazilian club were in a bad patch of form and the Chilean champions heaped more misery on them, especially the second leg smashing them 6-1, it was seen as a shock result but also shows the progress being made by Coloccini and his men. Loz Azules were on the wrong side of hammering in quarter final, at the hands of River Plate. 4-0 over two legs, showing that while there is improvement and big results, there is still a gap to close. 1-0 in a very boring home leg was the major downfall somewhere LA U have turned into a fortress having only not won twice at home all year. River went on to be runners up.

That's interesting, I'll take a look at what some of those changes do and report back! I'm using the current positions actually more for defense, as I've found a 4-1-4-1 is often a really effective press- it's essentially a 4-3-3 in practice with specific attack/defense structures. Absolutely love the idea of the SV in the middle, and the change off a PF (that's definitely my usual way of doing things getting in the way).

I took a bit of an extended break from FM, but now I'm back and continuing this save. I'll post a full update of the current season soon, but here is a teaser. Somehow we made it to the Europa League final. Not only that, but it happens to be hosted at the stadium where we've had to play our home games!

Took a deep dive through his fixtures to look to see what teams he has struggled against, not just this season but in previous years too. AC Milan have always fared well against his side and they play a narrow 4-1-2-1-2. Not really suited to my side outright but I gave it a go and while my side faded away (6-2 at full time which took the game to extra time) and it turned up results. Once Oli changed formations mid-match I struggled again and the goals dried up, if Osimhen had his goal in the 68th minute count I'd have gone through 7-6 on aggregate. As that fixture list shows though, I've fallen up short in every other fixture this season. Overcoming the might of the squad @oliscott has assembled is now almost a case of waiting them out to retire rather than being able to identify genuinely better players.

You're welcome, it's a pleasure 🫡

The streak..................Is over! So damn close to an unbeaten season in all competitions and after a 4-0 demolition in the first log I thought I had @santy001 number.

The positional play changes mean you can play a 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3 and have the players rotate forward in possession into a similar shape you have now. Take a read through here: Still looks like a tactic very influenced by Plug and Play ideals. Based on what you're saying you're looking for I'd try using IWB's on support roles in a 4-2-3-1 with a SV(s) in the middle of the park. That will give you a very progressive, possession oriented approach (similar to how Tottenham set up IRL). Other things to consider: If you want to maximize possession consider a Forward who doesn't run the channels like a PF(a). Whenever he makes such a run and is pick out the ball will turn over. A Poacher will chill in the box and let you move the opposition around while you find your moment. The other option would be to play with a Facilitating 9 Pass into Space TI doubles down on these turnovers. Stopper/Cover or double defend duty BPD will leave you high and dry (and conceding) less often. Traditional wingers on attack role can also be counterproductive to possession (although nice here for the width they give). Drop them to support roles and tinker with the PIs on them instead.

If you want to run a double IWB I'd consider using a 4-2-3-1 so you're less exposed on turnovers. IWB(S) + IWB(A) is going to ship a lot of goals in a 4-3-3.

Cheers, Stu. It has, indeed, been a good one

Hi everyone! In advance, sorry for the monologue. I've gotten fairly good at winning in FM, but not with tactics I like. I always end up with really uptempo stuff, or inside forwards running from deep, pressing machines, etc. I'm playing as Spurs in a new playthrough and wanted to do something a bit different. I want to choke the opposition on the edge of their own area for basically the whole game (and score enough for it to not draw or lose to the counter all the time). I've made decent progress, but I'm at a bit of a loss at this point. Against bad teams, we dominate (our avg. possession in our Europa League Group is not where I want it yet, but about 61% on average), although a lot of the goals we score are just "we're better than you" goals (headers from very wide crosses, set pieces, long shots, etc.). Every once in a while we score a maravilloso gol, but not often. Below is the setup I'm currently using, and even against the best teams in the Prem we hold around 50-52% possession with our strange 4-1-4-1, but we create nothing (also, I really want to aim for 70% even in the Prem overall eventually). Here are my concepts: I want my wingers to stretch the opposition, even deep into the final third, my striker to split their centerbacks and push them back, and have my attacking midfielders exploit the gaps in between them. The fullbacks dip into midfield to give me a 2-3-5 formation in attack, and make neat little triangles for circulation. My platonic ideal goal to score is basically (other than the chaos of quick circulation finding a pocket) moving the ball quickly from side to side and then the opposite side winger beating a man and either pulling back to an AM, or finding the ST or W through corridor of uncertainty. Slightly less preferred, and not sure I've seen someone be able to replicate in FM, is the de Bruyne to Sterling goal where a short cross is swung from the edge of the box onto the run of a winger (though in this case, I want my IWB to make this cross). Here is what I don't want, but am getting a lot of: floated crosses from wide, long shots from the edge of the box, a series of really ****** passes that give the opposition the ball. Would love to hear different thoughts/ideas! (Just to be clear, I know I am setting myself a handicap. There are a million easy ways to get this formation to dominate the premier league with worse players, I'm just bored of that. Also, no, the defense is not an issue, though I think it could get better if my players didn't just meander around and then give up and try to chuck a hopeless cross into the box. CBs on stopper to raise their mentality to cautious so they will pass the dreaded halfway line, not sure it's working though.) (Things I've noticed but am not sure are a problem: The striker is always deeper than the other four on average positions, the IWBs still overlap quite a bit which is odd, and often my players will just straight up turn down open passes (specifically to the AMs) who are in the gap between two defenders and could either make a run or draw defensive attention to send another player through)

An absolutely superb season domestically, @warlock. Congratulations