warlock
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Posts posted by warlock
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1 minute ago, Captain_T said:
I like to know the tactical ideas and why the tactic changed
Before FM18 I played 442 or 4411 almost exclusively, because that's what I grew up with (I'm very, very old
). Since then, I've played 433 more often than not, although in FM21 and FM22 I used a narrow diamond (either 41212, 4132 or 4312) regularly. I like the diamond because you can make quite significant changes by shifting just one player. It also makes squad recruitment and management a lot simpler because you don't have to worry about how wingers vs inside forwards play in the system. At the start of FM23 I struggled to get a diamond to work so I switched back to the 433. However, at some point (don't remember who or why - ) I found myself with a squad that was crying out for the 4231, so I tried it and it worked.
You might guess from this that I'm not particularly "tactically" driven - I'm much more focused on trying to find what works with the squad of players I have.
As for tactical changes, sometimes I change it - as you suspected - because as my team improves, the AI changes in response. But I also sometimes change it on a whim because I think we're becoming predictable, or because we hit a run of bad form and my usual tweaks don't have the desired effect.
Good luck with Vigo - I really enjoyed the three seasons I did there. If I can offer any advice just ask
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I didn't take the question as any kind of accusation, but I do think there's a lot of confusion in the community because any kind of press tends to attract the 'gegenpress' label. And my objection to gegenpressing has nothing to do with whether it's OP or meta or exploitative... I just don't like that kind of football in real life. So I don't play that way in FM, but I wouldn't criticise anyone for doing it. Each to their own
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5 hours ago, Captain_T said:
you described you used Gegenpress/Counter press
Gegenpress is much more than counter-press. We played in a mid-block, standard tempo, pressing 'more often' but never 'much more often'. In my mind, that's a million miles from gegenpressing.
I think if you want to play progressive football, you have to press to a degree - it's no use just sitting back and passively hoping the opposition will give you the ball back. So yes, we counter-pressed, no we didn't gegenpress.
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1 hour ago, SixPointer said:
perhaps a journeyman type save would be a good idea
Yes, I'll have to give that some thought
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Just caught up here... amazing progress, incredible success. Well played, sir
Funny how things play out in FM. I note that you have Marin and Bartesaghi, as did I at Vigo, but your Marin is better than mine, and my Bartesaghi looks better than yours
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I'm afraid it's time to call this one done. Was away for a couple of days earlier in the week and played a bit when I got back. But the engagement has gone, just going through the motions.
I can't summon much enthusiasm for another save right now... might be time to take a break from FM for a week or two.
Thanks to everyone who read, upvoted and commented - much appreciated
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All the best managers do invincible seasons
. Congratulations
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Brilliant opening post
. Will follow with interest.
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End of season, 2028
Three games remained in the LaLiga season, and they weren't the easiest. First up, Athletic of Bilbao - who had knocked us out of the Copa del Rey a few weeks earlier. We wanted revenge, and we got it:
We restricted them to just 3 shots on goal, none on target, in another ruthless performance.
Next came Espanyol, another tricky fixture against a team who were firmly in the European qualification slots and with ambitions to finish as high possible:
At halftime it looked as though we'd done enough to secure the victory, but the home side fought to the end and scored a deserved equaliser 5 minutes from the end.
Finally, we faced lowly Getafe and were grateful we had home advantage for this one. We often seem to struggle against lesser opposition and this match was no exception:
I've noted before that we've played many games where we score early and then fail to push on, and here was another. No matter how dominant you are, there's always the possibility of a late corner or free kick and suddenly you go from a comfortable lead to hanging on for the draw - or worse. Thankfully, this time we were never really under threat and claimed the win with no late drama.
Is FM24 too easy? Maybe, but I can honestly say that it never felt easy and it did require some storming late comebacks to remain undefeated. Perhaps the most remarkable thing is that we have a good squad but not a great one, with few genuine stars. Even at the end of the season we have no-one in the media dream 11, which is made up exclusively of Barcelona and Real Madrid players. Instead, we're all about team performance and we have few weak links.
I was inclined to end the save at this point but now I'm thinking that one more season and another crack at the Champions League might be in order. But it will depend, I think, on the transfer window and whether I can keep the squad together. The board have given me a transfer budget of £40m, which - in terms of players who could improve us - isn't much. We'll see what happens.
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April 2028
A perfect month that saw us recapture some of the sparkling form that carried us to the top of the league back in the autumn. Not a hint of complacency, no end-of-season nerves - we were efficient and ruthless.
And we did it while missing some key players. After his opening goal against Villareal, AML Rego hobbled off with sprained ankle ligaments. Next game against Sociedad, backup AML Prestianni scored... and then hobbled off with a groin strain. Both would miss the next 3 or 4 games, which meant we had to reshuffle the players to cover but we took it all in our stride.
Meanwhile, Barcelona suffered defeat to Sevilla, dropping further behind, and Real Madrid had a disastrous month:
All of which meant that the final match of the month took on increased significance - if we lost it would prise open the door to our rivals but if we won...
Three games to go, then, and the possibility of a consecutive invincible season. Here's hoping the squad can remain focussed and see this through!
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1 hour ago, Stuniverse said:
this is probably the most significant Best i vest derby in my time at Viking so far
Bit of a weird start to the season - unbeaten but, as you say, too many draws. Having said that, a draw against Brann would be good result in the circumstances
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Good luck
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Anyone looking for a creative central midfielder, I can highly recommend this guy:
This from a recent game against Real Betis. Playing as a carrilero he absolutely bossed the game.
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March 2028
Another disappointment this month. We're out of the Champions League - despite holding Real Madrid to a draw in the away tie, we couldn't get it done at home:
It was a pretty close game but we conceded a penalty in the first half and we couldn't find an equaliser.
For the rest of the month it was business as usual in the league, although the home draw against a struggling Vallecano side was another disappointment:
Whether it was a Champions League hangover I don't know, but we were very poor, especially as they played the last 15 minutes with 10 men and we still couldn't break them down.
We were much better against Levante, especially as backup striker Guiu found the net for the first time since the end of the ice age, and we added another two victories to end the month, retaining our hold on top spot in the league:
Even if Madrid and Barcelona win their games in hand, we'll still hold a 6pt margin. We've also confirmed our spot in next season's Champions League:
Nothing to play for, then, except back-to-back LaLiga titles... and consecutive invincible seasons
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1 hour ago, Stuniverse said:
What am I missing?
Sorry mate... I have no idea. Maybe because you've maxed out the HGC players at two, so you it doesn't count any more than that?
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February 2028
February saw us lose the first game of the season we actually cared about. A defeat to Barcelona in the Supercopa was irrelevant to our hopes for the season, but defeat in the Copa del Rey was a different matter:
We ended January with a less-than-convincing 1-0 win over lowly Almeria and opened February with an even less convincing 1-0 win over L2 cup opponents Huesca. When we lost in the next round of the cup, against Athletic of Bilbao, it wasn't a complete shock. But it was a miserable performance against a team we'd never lost to before in the save.
We did better against Sevilla when we returned to LaLiga duties, but followed that good victory with another poor draw against Cadiz. The real positive from this spell was that second-placed Barcelona were also struggling, dropping four points in this mid-month set of fixtures.
Yet again, we showed bouncebackability with a good victory against Atleti before what could turn out to be a crucial title-decider against Barca. It wasn't our best performance of the season, but it might be the best result:
They had the best of the possession, created the most - and better - chances but the lads showed incredible spirit and fight to take the three points. We did take an unlikely lead through Larsen after 20 minutes, but Barca always looked dangerous and levelled the game before halftime. After the break Barca created a number of chances but squandered the opportunities until Pedri gave them the lead with less than 20 minutes to play. I'd have happily settled for a draw but at that point it looked like a certain defeat. But two substitutes changed the game. First Gonzalez, on for a tiring Allende, found himself free at the back post and swept home the equalizer. Then, miraculously with the clock counting down the final seconds, RB Fresneda picked up the ball on the right wing, drove into the box and fired past Ter Stegen to give us an unlikely victory.
We weren't great, but we were absolutely Sparta!
Real Madrid also took advantage of the result to move up into second place but we remain top of LaLiga... and unbeaten still:
Despite that, our form seems fragile - we're capable of beating the Top 8 sides but often struggle to win = or are forced to share points - against teams in the bottom half of the table, and that seems to be down to individual performances since the turn of the year. Only eight players of the first-team squad of 22 have average ratings above 7.0 for their last 5 appearances, and some are doing much worse - CB Rafa Marin, both AMLs Rego and Prestianni, and both AMRs Allende and Gonzalez are performing well below the required standard this year... and also below the standard they all set in the first half of the season. I'm hoping it's just a temporary loss of form because I'm struggling to identify any other cause.
Better news is that our first-choice fullbacks are performing at an extremely high level. RB Antoine Mendy leads the group for assists with 17 from 28 starts and, perhaps even better, LB Davide Bartesaghi has 14 assists and 9 goals from 25 starts. If only their team-mates were as consistent!
We've been drawn against Real Madrid in the Champions League Round of 16. Our recent record against the giants of Spanish football has been good but we'll need to be at our best to progress. Happily, we have an easier LaLiga schedule in March and I'm hopeful that we'll be able to consolidate our lead at the top.
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1 hour ago, Stuniverse said:
I don't know what to say after that
Ooof! That's a shocker. I honestly didn't see that coming... going out to a 3-0 or 4-1 didn't seem likely but always possible.
I mean, have you ever conceded 8 in a game before? But it's also a horrible situation where you're playing your biggest game of the season in pre-season
Onwards and upwards
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4 hours ago, NineCloudNine said:
I thought the problem was not being able to see which players have been registered
Sorry... we've already exhausted my knowledge of the subject
. At the start of every season I know more or less who I want in the senior squad and, on registration deadline day, I register them. If there are any players I don't think are ready for first-team football, I send them to one of the junior squads based on my estimation of what they're ready for. As far as I know, those players all get registered for those squads by the powers-that-be.
The complication - I think - is that Spain has a general rule that once a player is registered for one squad, they can't be registered for another. So a player registered for the senior team can't be moved to the B- or C-team after registration deadline. They can be moved to the u19s but if they're too old they can't be registered and can't play. It sounds a bit complicated, but in my experience if you're careful at the beginning of the season and move players between squads in good time, they'll be registered appropriately.
Honestly, it's not something I've looked into closely and it's not something I've tried to do with B- and C-team players, apart from looking earlier to see which players were not ineligible for a first-team fixture. But I have, without any problem, played u19s in competitive LaLiga fixtures to cover for injuries or other problems.
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57 minutes ago, DavutOzkan said:
So how does one check which B-team players are registered and thus eligible to come up to the main team
I think there's some confusion here. I'm in the fifth season of my Celta Vigo save and can use players from any of the B-, C- and u19 squads. I just add them to the bench ahead of matches. But you can't register them for the senior squad once they've been registered for another squad.
Re: the salary cap. As I understand it, the cap is calculated at the end of every season on a rolling three-year basis. So a club like Valencia (or Barca) with historic debts at the start of a new save will need at least a couple of seasons of profitability before the cap starts to move significantly. At Vigo I was lucky enough to qualify for the Champions League at the end of season1, so made a lot of money in every subsequent season. My salary cap went from around £500k a week, to £700k a week to around £1m a week.
We're still not on the level of Barca or Real Madrid, but we are rich enough that the board is now building a new stadium without the need to borrow any money.
I'd recommend a Spanish save to anyone, just be aware that the salary cap adds another level of challenge.
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3 hours ago, Stuniverse said:
we still have the second-leg, the away leg
Sure, but a two-goal lead is a good place to start. I have every confidence
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2 hours ago, Stuniverse said:
Feyenoord are a very good team so to win 2-0 was tremendous
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Tough draw against Feyenoord, but I think you can give them a game
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January 2028
A long, tough month to start the new year as we played 8 games in four competitions:
But first, transfer business... there was none. Media gossip about interest in our players came to nothing, no bids were received. And since no players left, we had no need - and no registration room - to bring in anyone else.
On the pitch, we continued our imperious unbeaten run in the league - four games played, four games won, 10 goals scored, two conceded. We came close to an upset in the Supercopa, narrowly losing to Barcelona, and avoided an upset in the Copa del Rey as we crushed Mercia on their own turf.
The Champions League was rather more interesting. A visit from Italian giants Inter had the potential to be a defeat but the visitors seemed only to have the ambition of not losing as they played virtually the whole match in a defensive stance. Fortunately, two goals in four minutes in the final quarter-hour gave us the win we deserved. Despite our excellent form, I fully expected us to return from Liverpool empty-handed but once again the team showed character and twice came from behind to secure a draw. We also had a good chance to win it in the final minutes as we found our DM Barranechea on the edge of the Liverpool box. He controlled it well, took a moment to steady himself, and smashed his shot against the post. Since we had already qualified for the Round of 16, I could afford to be philosophical about the miss.
I've lost track of where our unbeaten run stands but it's probably around 60 games without defeat now, and the loss to Barcelona in the Supercopa is our only defeat of the season in any competition. In Europe we're not quite as convincing, as evidenced by draws against Juventus, Spurs and Liverpool.
We continue to spread the goals around the squad - we've scored 64 goals in 21 league matches, and Strand Larsen is still our top scorer with 9. I have no idea how long we can keep it going, but we'll do our best.
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44 minutes ago, Fantasista10 said:
Bartesaghi’s stats are very intriguing, great to see him grow into a top player!
He's great but, inevitably, the big clubs are circling. Now just into the January transfer window and while no offers have arrived, he's being watched by Liverpool, Man Utd, and PSG among others. It will be a big blow if we lose him, especially as we don't really need the money he'd bring in.
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I see this much less often if I remember to give the 'team talk' before sending on the substitutes. They can still be anxious or complacent but telling them to turn the game or see out the result has meant I don't see 'preferred to stay on the bench' these days.
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). Since then, I've played 433 more often than not, although in FM21 and FM22 I used a narrow diamond (either 41212, 4132 or 4312) regularly. I like the diamond because you can make quite significant changes by shifting just one player. It also makes squad recruitment and management a lot simpler because you don't have to worry about how wingers vs inside forwards play in the system. At the start of FM23 I struggled to get a diamond to work so I switched back to the 433. However, at some point (don't remember who or why - 
. Congratulations 
. At the start of every season I know more or less who I want in the senior squad and, on registration deadline day, I register them. If there are any players I don't think are ready for first-team football, I send them to one of the junior squads based on my estimation of what they're ready for. As far as I know, those players all get registered for those squads by the powers-that-be.
[FM24] Vigo - Rise of the Celts
in FM Career Updates
Posted
Good luck
. I'm sort of thinking about a tactic-driven save... I've (almost?) never played with a back three and it would get me out of my comfort zone. Combined with a "topple PSG" aim in France. Just need to find the right club - thought Rennes might be it but the squad is a bit of a mess and there's not much money to plug the gaps.
Enjoy Sicily (both virtually and literally)!