[The Ultimate Football Manager Challenge]

Ah. Kaizer Chiefs have just offered me the managers job but they didn't qualify for CAF Champions League.

 

 

 

 

 

[The Ultimate Football Manager Challenge]

Season 2021/22

Cape Town Spurs

A superb first season in the Premier League saw us finish second and qualify for Continental competition.

 

 

 

 

Season          Team                              Division                                       Position          Notes & Achievements

2020/21         Cape Town Spurs         GladAfrica Championship         1st                     Gained promotion to Premier League. Lost in quarter final of NedBank Cup.

2021/22         Cape Town Spurs         DSTV Premiership                       2nd                   Qualified for CAF Champions League. Lost in quarter final of NedBank Cup.

 

Challenge Progress

Club

0/10 top domestic leagues (Insert nations)

0/10 domestic cups ()

0/5 club continental championships ()

0/1 club world championship

International

0/5 continental tournaments ()

0/1 world tournaments ()

[The Ultimate Football Manager Challenge]

Season 2020/21

Cape Town Spurs

My first season in management was a roaring success. We won the First Division Championship and put in a strong showing on the Cup. The clubs financial position is precarious to say the least and we have had to trim the squad accordingly.

 

 

We move into next season with a certain amount of optimism although a few free transfers will be needed to bolster the numbers. The bigger Premiership clubs have already had their fill of my squad so a small rebuild is required.

 

 

 

Season          Team                              Division                                       Position          Notes & Achievements

2020/21         Cape Town Spurs         GladAfrica Championship         1st                     Gained promotion to Premier League. Lost in Quarter Final of Nedbank Cup.

 

Challenge Progress

Club

0/10 top domestic leagues (Insert nations)

0/10 domestic cups ()

0/5 club continental championships ()

0/1 club world championship

International

0/5 continental tournaments ()

0/1 world tournaments ()

[The Ultimate Football Manager Challenge]

Career update:

After starting my game in early pre season 21/09/2020 i reviewed the jobs on offer and decided to apply for the Cape Town Spurs job.

 

I got an immediate interview so i dusted down my best suit and headed for the owners office.

 

 

After a chat with the owner and some smoke blown up backsides i was offered the job which i immediately accepted.

 

 

With promotion by winning the league a minimum and a decent showing in the cup the standard, i'm hopeful of a good debut season in management.

 

We are currently spending £30,138 on wages so i'll be looking to reduce this as a priority but with a country leading academy i'm hoping to utilize the kids to fill in the gaps. 

[The Ultimate Football Manager Challenge]

I've taken the plunge.

Hopefully get job in South Africa then who knows.

 

 

[The Ultimate Football Manager Challenge]

I've gone large database customised as below:

Asia - Current international players and players from top division clubs.

Africa - Current international players and players from top division clubs.

 

Chinese and South African leagues loaded.

[The Ultimate Football Manager Challenge]

7 hours ago, vikeologist said:

Starting with the largest possible database your computer can comfortably deal with is obviously best. I'm not talking about leagues here. I'd suggest starting with very few leagues. Why not just make a decision which nation you want to start in? Th thing to bear in mind though is that you might win the league in our first year. So, if you load Malaysia for instance and win the league in year one, you need to have a second nation loaded so you can get that second job. Obviously if you start in for instance the S African second division, you have your progression available in bigger S African clubs.

 

 

But the database size can come into play, especially with Asia, and that's why you want to have as many Asian players in your game as possible. Again, look at the third post in the thread. But I'll repost a sentence here.

If you have a powerful computer, I'd add even more players from Asia, and probably current international footballers from Africa, but the above should be just about enough for you to not run out of nations to manage. This isn't so you can get an international job straight away, and I'll give you a spoiler, I don;t think you should go for an international job straight away. But 50 years into the challenge, if you still need the Asian Cup, you need there to be an Asian nation that's manageable. 

Again, database size = very important. Number of nations loaded at the start = completely different thing and utterly unimportant. 

@goonergezDo you think that league loading bug hasn't been fixed? I'll be honest. because I'm not doing the challenge, I'd forgot about it. Also, some bugs only affect some managers / computer set ups, so I don't know how widespread it is. I'll put something in the first post for the moment in case.

Is everybody having this problem?

Why do nations disappear?

[The Ultimate Football Manager Challenge]

On 05/03/2021 at 15:34, vikeologist said:

I certainly don't frown on it.

It's a tricky enough challenge without trying to dig yourself out of holes.

Also, bad database choices can make the challenge unachievable.

If you started again with the exact same side, well, that would still be sort of ok, but I don't think that's what you meant anyway.

Worth noting that I was the second person to ever start this challenge, and I soon started again from scratch, having discovered one such self dug hole. (Look at a club / team before you take the first job offered you). I've done this challenge a few times, and I think that first Ultimate Challenge job might still be the worst one I've ever accepted. An utter black hole of inevitable failure. 

I suffered for you.

 

Very briefly.

What are the best database choices? I'm just about to start for the first ever time.

[The Ultimate Football Manager Challenge]

7 hours ago, goonergez said:

Brazil: 2058 World Cup

My early days with AC Milan proved pretty impressive, but quickly attention had to shift to the World Cup. Taking my Brazil side to America brought a lot of hope and expectation and that included from myself. Ranked third in the world we entered as one of the favourites, and hopes were high for a really good showing. Personally I wanted us to go really deep into the tournament, preferably having a real go at trying to win it. At worst I wanted a good enough showing to keep my job though, with the aim of having a shot at the Copa America in a couple of years time. Any disappointment here would probably take that opportunity away from me. The squad I took to the tournament didn’t surprise anybody really. 34-year old PSG winger Joao Luis was probably the most intriguing to travel, although it was the exclusion of striker Vanderson that did send shockwaves. I signed him for AS Monaco back when I was there, but I didn’t see him producing here despite a positive campaign in France.

Prior to the tournament we played two friendly matches as I looked to get the squad gelled and ready for the challenges ahead. Two much changed sides were named, but we picked up two very efficient and useful victories. In all honesty anything other than victory in either game would’ve been an embarrassment, but it was pleasing nonetheless. This had me believing we were in a good place ahead of the tournament kicking off. We went into our group with matches against Poland and Haiti.

Opening against Poland we produced a fantastic performance to see them off 4-0 and kickstart our run. An early goal sent us in our way as we completely outplayed them from the first kick. Next up was Haiti and despite making changes to the side we again picked up a win. A 3-0 score line didn’t flatter us as we booked our place in the knockout stage of the tournament.

The second round was one I was scared of after an early exit once in charge of France. Congo were no match for us though, and an early goal ended up making the game more than comfortable. We couldn’t add a second until a 76th minute penalty, but when that went in the tie was over. Next up was turkey in what should have been our biggest test of the tournament to that stage. In the end after a shaky opening we produced another fantastic performance to book a spot in the quarter finals.  Next up came an all South American quarter final tie against Uruguay and a real big task. We got the win courtesy of a first half penalty, but in truth we struggled through this game. Uruguay caused us all sorts of problems defensively, but somehow we stayed firm to book a semi-final berth against Mexico.

Hardly a surprise, but the semi-final proved to be our toughest test. 3rd versus 4th in the world promised to be tense, and it definitely was. We did well to fight back from a goal down to make extra time, before one of my former club level players gave us the lead. Right on the stroke of extra time half time we conceded a ridiculous own goal though, and then had to sit back and soak up endless pressure. Somehow we held on and it was left to the lottery of a penalty shoot out to separate us. An early Mexican miss left us in charge before centre back Jaderson missed our final kick to take it into sudden death. At 4-5 down Valdeci whacked his kick wide and just like that we were out. A truly gutting end to a pretty good tournament for us. To get that close and miss out on even the final is disappointing though, and sure to bring with it plenty of question marks about my future. We went on to lose 0-2 to Serbia in the third placed play off game in what was an awful performance.
 

 

What a journey. 

Can I ask which leagues and set up you started with?

[The Ultimate Football Manager Challenge]

Hello everyone. I'm completely new to the community challenges on FM.

When starting this challenge, which nations/leagues to people use as a base?

I'm guessing we add and remove leagues as we move around the world in search of greatness.

Do people add lower league downloads?

[[FM20][FM21][FM22][FM23] Calcio]

Hello everyone. I've finally taken the plunge into the murky waters of Italian football with the intention of a long term Pro Vercelli save.

Does anyone have any first hand experience down in the lower league and know of any good players that I can take along for the ride?

My knowledge of Italian football peaked when watching Football Italia on CH4 and playing Champ Manager Italia as a youngster.

[FM21 LIVERPOOL - PREMIER LEAGUE CHAMPIONS]

On 14/12/2020 at 16:01, Tullekunstner said:

Just finished my second season, and I think I'll retire the save now. Have started a Palermo save which will probably be something of a long-termer. Won everything and my team is basically as strong as it can be. My next transfers would probably be to replace the two aging wingers (Salah & Mane) despite how good they still are. 

As usual when winning pretty much every game during the season, I hit a rough patch towards the end. I lost like 5 matches in a row (one of which was the CL semi final first leg), so I started worrying a bit, but we pulled ourselves together and pulled through in the end.

I'll leave you with some screenshots showing how my season has been.

  Hide contents

 

I've just started a Napoli save in memory of Diego. The coaches in Italy are a mess. I have 12 U18 coaches at the club but only 2 first team coaches. 

[FM21 LIVERPOOL - PREMIER LEAGUE CHAMPIONS]

Has anyone noticed that the U23 & U18 assistant managers don't get involved in training. By that I mean I can't allocate them a training category. 

[Liverpool - Too easy?]

7 hours ago, samdiatmh said:

guy picks a team that won 32/38 league games last season IRL, and complains that it's "too easy"

coming up in our bulletin, water is found to be wet

I never complained I asked a qestion, and thanks for the input. Now where is the block button.

[Liverpool - Too easy?]

I've conceded just 5 goals in the league.

I beat Man Utd 5-0 in my first game at home and haven't looked back since.

[Liverpool - Too easy?]

Is this years game a little too easy for Liverpool.

 

 

[FM20: Liverpool - Champions of Europe]

First friendly Mane out 5-6 weeks Salah out 2-3 weeks.

[Project Invincible - Recreating the Arsenal Invincibles]

I've scored a couple of wonderful goals. It just seems to be vulnerable from wide areas.

[Project Invincible - Recreating the Arsenal Invincibles]

I forgot to add. When you say you ask your wingbacks to "stay wider", does that apply to both as your left wingback should already have this shout due to his CWB/A role/duty.

[Project Invincible - Recreating the Arsenal Invincibles]

The First 15 Minutes

I’ve been asked a lot of questions recently about how I set up for games and prepare for the opposition that I am facing. So I thought I’d write a bit about how I set up and how I decide what to do. Those of you who have followed my articles might remember a similar topic from years ago but sadly, the screenshots for that no longer exist, so I have decided to revisit it in this article.

What is it about the first 15 minutes?

For me and the way I play the game, the first fifteen minutes of the game is probably the most important period of the entire match. In this time I will have identified the main issues I’m likely to face. In my opinion games are won and lost during this period. By that I don’t mean scoring goals, I mean in the way we’ve set up and the tone of the match. Most of the changes I do are actually done in this period of time, I still change things throughout the game if I feel its need but the actual way I’ll set up and play is done in the first fifteen minutes.

A lot of people like to plan how they’ll play before a game and if that works for them, then fair enough. However for me it’s no good doing all the prep for a game before the actual kick off as all your preparation could be all for nothing as the opposition might not play how you envisaged. Or other factors might play a part. The only way you can tell how you need to play and set up is from viewing the game itself.

For me context is everything and this is why watching the first fifteen minutes are vital. You don’t always have to do this but I do this an awful lot. I guess it comes down to how comfortable you are with what you’ve created and how much you actually understand how it really works. People might think this is time-consuming and it can be, but the way I play isn’t and it’s actually fast. You can play it on any speed you like. At first doing it on a slow speed might be better until you become more familiar with the method, then increase the speed to a faster one as you start to become more comfortable.

Before we start it’s always worth remembering you don’t need to rush and can take your time with things. You can pause the game and rewind and also use the stats if needs be. Just find a way that suits you and how you play, that’s the most important thing to remember. My ways might not suit others but it might give you a different view or give you ideas for you yourself to use in your own game.

Widgets

Widgets are probably one of the most important things available to use for relaying what’s going on during a game. How you set these up totally depends on what you are focusing on and why. You should spend some time sorting these out to suit your needs. Here is my current screen.

It looks awful messy doesn’t it? You can minimise the boxes though and don’t always need them open so you can still view the game and see what’s going on.

The most important widget on the screen above is the opposition formation one. Regardless of how you set up your own widgets, this one is a must have because it allows you to see any formation changes the opposition makes. This becomes more vital and allows you to quickly react to changes late in games too as the AI will likely go chasing a game or look to defend a lead at some point. So always keep an eye on this one.

The other ones I use are;

• Team ratings for both sides
  
• Team performances for both sides
  
• Match stats
  

These are the only ones I use as they tell me all I need to know. Other people’s like to use the body language widgets too but I don’t really need that one. But is it a useful one to use because it allows you to see which players are nervous etc.

The widgets I use above allow me to keep an eye on the game’s stats. This means I have a quick overview of how the game might be going and if I’m being aggressive enough or not.

The team ratings let me see who is having a good or bad game. Depending on what type of save I am playing or tactic I use, you can then use this information to your advantage. You can target the players having a bad game and try to overload them by either role changes or by using team instructions. There are many different ways you could do this though, that is just one example.

The performance tab lets me see who is having a good or bad game via descriptions rather than the team ratings above. This allows for better judgement when used with the ratings one above. The performance tab updates every four minutes in-game, so will always be changing based on what’s happened .

So spend a few minutes setting this screen up and configure it, to show you all the information you think you need to know.

*NOTE – For the purpose of the screenshots and to get the information across, I’ll be minimising the widgets just so the screenshots are clear and easy to follow. I do advise though that if you minimise them on your own save, to always leave the opposition formation widget always open. Or you could miss a shape change that could potentially cost you the game.

The Opening 15 Minutes

Now we’ve sorted the widgets out, we can now look at how I approach the actual game. It’s worth pointing out again, that I only focus on what my side is doing and now what the opposition is doing. This simplifies things for me. It doesn’t matter if I concede possession or give shots away. What is important is my team are playing how I’ve instructed them to play, that is the only thing that matters. If I start worrying about the opposition then my side could actually be playing how I want, yet I’d be looking at changing that just because I gave possession or shots away.

As long as my side do the things I need them to do, the rest doesn’t matter. If my side play how I expect them to and how I’ve instructed them, then we will get a result. If I start adapting and changing for the opposition then I love my philosophy that I’ve created at the club. I’m a reactive manager but that doesn’t mean I compromise in my approach. It doesn’t matter if you are the worst team in the world or the best, I’ll set out to play the same way.

Immediately I see my team is lined up and keeping shape how I’d expect. However they seem a bit deep especially the central midfield duo. There are lots of uncovered space in the centre and Manchester City don’t have anyone in this area either. I can leave things how they are or I can try to dominate them by controlling the centre. I’ll need to see if it’s still like this in the next few minutes though, there is no need to make a change based on one isolated screenshot so far. But if I was to change anything these would be the options;

• Use player instructions
  
• Use team instructions
  
• Change roles
  

All three of these would be viable and make a difference if I decided to change things. Which you select though is down to personal preference. Myself I am leaning more towards using a team instruction (pushing the defensive line higher up)because it looks like my defenders can afford to be pushed up. I’m also using a very specific tactic (The Invincibles one) so role changes aren’t really an option for me and neither are adding player instructions. But I just wanted to highlight the other options you could use.

The above screenshot shows the same issue again but this time it’s moment after the first example. My defence is deep and so is the midfield. Now considering I play counter attacking, the defensive line is naturally deep. So this confirms that I can be more aggressive and push up without any real negative effect for now. I’d like my right back and the central midfielders to be more where the X is on the screenshot. This will allow players to be closer together and this will make it harder for Manchester City and give them less time on the ball as well as reducing the space. With this now showing the first example wasn’t an isolated one, I now decide to make the change and push the defensive line up by using the team instructions.

I don’t feel like the fullbacks are making the most of the space available. I feel they can and should be much more aggressive than this screenshot suggest. Now there are a number of ways I can do this and how I do this again comes down to personal preference. My choices are;

• Use the look for overlap team instructions.
  
• Use the play wider team instructions.
  
• Use individual player instructions and ask them to play wider
  

Those are the options I have and will make the player do what I want. Each option has plus points and negatives. If I use the look for overlap shout this will instruct the wide midfield players to hold up the ball which will allow the fullbacks to overlap. However I’m happy with how my wide players are playing and I don’t really want them to hold the ball up.

If I use the team instruction to play wider, then the team as a whole, when in possession of the ball will be wider. Again I’m not sure I need everyone to be wider, especially as my two wide midfielders are set up to play narrow.

This leaves me with one realistic choice and that’s use individual player instructions. This will make the fullbacks play wider and take up the positions I need them to. Hopefully this will stretch Manchester City and even if it doesn’t, it means the full backs will always be in free space. So it’s a win-win situation.

I’m approaching the first five minutes of the game so far and it’s not really been that eventful, as the stats suggest. They don’t really tell us much at this point as the game is still developing but it’s still worth taking a quick glance at them just for piece of mind.

After almost ten minutes of the match gone so far, things are pretty even and nothing much to note. All the changes I mentioned above have now all been made and I’m happy with how I’m playing and what I’ve seen so far. The widgets haven’t really got much to say yet although one of my centre backs Souza, seems to be losing condition faster than my other players in these early stages of the game. So I know I’ll have to keep monitoring this and if it carries on into the second half, then he might need to be substituted. I also noticed Kevin De Bruyne of Manchester City is also dropping condition fast. So he is a player worth keeping an eye on too.

For the next five minutes I also see much of the same and don’t see any real issues and the side seems to be playing how I instructed them to be. This now means I can revert back to how I watch matches which is key highlights only. You can play and watch in whichever highlights suits you best. It all comes down to experience and how well you know your system though. If you aren’t fully aware of how it works and why then you’ll likely struggle if you don’t pay more attention to begin with. So take that into account. Things do become faster though once you get a better understanding. So while it might seem a pain in the arse in the short-term, long-term it should make things faster for you.

I wrote this as I was actually playing the game, so I might write an additional part explaining what I do for the other 75 minutes of the game at some stage.

Wow what an incredible thread. I'd lost all interest in the game until I read this thread on your blog and have tried to implement it in my Liverpool save. I do have a few questions.

I seem to concede alot of goals. Mostly crosses into the box from out wide, I wonder if find the same issues and how u combat it. I've started using opp TI's so will have to see how that goes.

Also, my players like to pump the ball long alot. It seems there's not many passing options in midfield. Do you sometimes have to play with the tempo or passing TI? We sometimes rush the play and don't let the play build up a rythm.

Don't get me wrong I've had some success, scoring easily the best goal I've scored since FM14. I have it saved its magical and a typical "Invisibles" goal so I want to persist with it.