dcu4life
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Posts posted by dcu4life
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7 hours ago, Toin said:
Wow, what an incredible achievement! Did you get any decent players from Liechtenstein come through? How is the Swiss league doing in terms of reputation and European success?
I'll add some more info on that after work today. Despite upgrading all our facilities and having a great HOYD, we were awful at producing quality players. There was only one player we produced that ended up being good enough to play in the first team (we ended up selling him to Schalke while he was still young, now he's a starter for Real Sociedad). Our best regens from FC Balzers are squad players on bottom-half SuperLeague teams.
We got some good regens from other Swiss teams, and (unexpectedly) one AMAZING regen from a second division team in France (Red Star).
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Tactics and Current Starting XI (Liechtenstein National Team)
I think the national team success is primarily due to tactics. I tried this tactic at club level for a bit but success was mixed; I've always found that the tactics that work in the international game don't quite align with what works well in the club game. This tactic is based off of Ancelotti's 4-4-2 while he was at Napoli, but with some tweaks. I don't use any other tactics, I'll just tweak this one in game (such as changing the defensive line, moving the CMs to DM, etc.)
Current Starting XI
GK - Basil Hartmann (Vancouver Whitecaps / MLS)
RB - Moritz Müller (FC Wil / Swiss Challenge League)
DRC - Oliver Altwasser (FC Wil / Swiss Challenge League)
DCL - Saer Hepperle (Hapoel Be'er-Sheva / Israeli Premier League)
LB - Uwe Finsterer (FC Vaduz / Swiss Super League) - Note: Finsterer won the World Cup Best Young Player in 2034
MR - Christian Bolten (Real Sociedad / La Liga)
MCR - Daniel Gauer (Lokomotiv Moscow / Russian Premier League)
MCL - Lucas Figueredo (Shakhtar Donetsk / Ukrainian Premier League)
ML - Jakob Altwicker (FC Balzers / Swiss Super League)
STCR - Jose Miguel Gallego (FC Vaduz / Swiss Super League)
STCL - Moritz Hartmann (Adelaide United / A-League)
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Notable Players (Liechtenstein National Team)
Bas Drechsel - The best national team player of all time, Drechsel was a complete center forward (in fact that's also the role I used him in). He scored an incredible 82 goals in 171 caps. Sadly he retired at 34 even though he was still a key player for the National Team and could have really helped us at Euro 2040. He was also a thorn in my side at the club level for a while when Young Boys were are closest title challengers.
Maximilian Göppel - This is the only non-regen on this list, but he was our starting left back and one of our best players for 15 years. He was our record cap holder until Drechsel broke his record, with 7 goals in 156 caps. He scored the goal against Georgia to secure qualification for Euro 2024.
Gilbert Feustel - This regen GK showed up at Lausanne Sport, and was our starting GK for a long long time. Bounced around Europe for a while as a career backup, including Lazio, Rennes, and AC Milan. He also seemed to be a penalty-saving specialist for the national team.
Lucas Figueredo - This is the only significant naturalized player (at least from FC Balzers, we've gotten a bunch from Vaduz and a couple from Eschen/Mauren), Figueredo is a classy CM who starred for Tottenham for a while after we sold him. Still a key player for the National Team at 33, he's playing at Shakhtar currently.
Christian Bolten - This was the first Liechtensteiner player to be dubbed as "one of world soccer's global superstars", Bolten is by far the best player that came out of the FC Balzers academy and is currently the nations key attacking player.
Daniel Gauer - This all action midfielder came through the Basel academy. Despite getting some caps for Italy U21 we were able to convince him to play for us before the age of 20.
Jakob Altwicker - Altwicker is the great hope for the future. At just 18 he is already Liechtenstein's best player, and currently a squad player for FC Balzers. Despite having been born in Balzers, Altwicker came through Red Star FC in France's second tier. Also eligible for France, Altwicker would have likely been good enough to feature for them. We managed to convince him to play for us prior to Euro 2040, and he became the youngest player to feature at the Euros at the age of 16.
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Yearly Summary (Liechtenstein National Team)
Euro 2020 Qualifying: We began our journey in June 2019, and lost every game we played to finish bottom of our group (Italy, Finland, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Greece, Armenia)
2020 Uefa Nations League, League D: Won every game against Faeroe Islands and Gibraltar, promoted to League C
World Cup 2022 Qualifying: We didn't finish last! Picked up home wins against Montenegro and Luxembourg, drew away to Luxembourg, lost every other game to England, Poland, and Bosnia
2022 Uefa Nations League, League C: Finished first in a group with Czech Republic, Armenia, and Estonia (included 2 100% lucky wins against the Czechs), promoted to League B
Euro 2024 Qualifying: Beat Armenia home and away, but lost every other game. However we qualified via the playoffs, clinging on for dear life against Hungary (winning in penalties), followed by a deserved 1-0 win against Georgia
Euro 2024: Lost every game by the same scoreline (1-0) against the Netherlands, Norway, and Denmark
2024 Uefa Nations League, League B: Unfortunately we were relegated to League C, with our only points coming in a 2-1 home victory against Ireland
World Cup 2026 Qualifying: Finished fourth in a group behind Germany, Sweden, Iceland, and ahead of Montenegro and Moldova
2026 Uefa Nations League, League C: A very poor performance from us, finishing 3rd behind Albania and Cyprus, yet ahead of Moldova.
Euro 2028 Qualifying: Finished 3rd behind Portugal and Austria (we weren't close to second), but ahead of Bosnia and Armenia
2028 Uefa Nations League, League C: Finished first ahead of Kosovo, Slovakia, and Estonia. Promoted to League B
World Cup 2030 Qualifying: Finished fourth behind Serbia, Scotland, and Romania
2030 Uefa Nations League, League B: Despite picking up 5 points against Wales, Sweden, and Bulgaria, we were relegated to League C
2032 Euro Qualifying: Finished 3rd behind Belgium and Ireland, qualified via playoffs after comfortable wins against Azerbaijan (3-0) and Israel (4-1)
Euro 2032: Finished 3rd in a group with Denmark, Germany, and Belgium, including a dramatic 3-2 victory against the Danes. Lost in a heartbreaker 2-1 to Turkey in the second round, conceding a 119th minute winner.
2032 Uefa Nations League, League C: Finished 2nd behind Hungary, despite finishing with 15 points. Hungary also finished with 15, but they had the head-to-head as they beat us 2-0 while we only beat them 1-0.
2034 World Cup Qualifying: Finished 2nd behind Turkey, but ahead of Ukraine, Greece, Luxembourg, and Faeroe Islands. We qualified for the 2034 World Cup, squeaking in as one of the 6 best second-placed teams. We needed some help after we finished our qualifying campaign with a home draw against Turkey (IIRC we needed Hungary to get a result at home against Poland), but we luckily got the help we needed.
World Cup 2034: Lost in the Quarterfinals against eventual winners Argentina. An amazing run that far exceeded my expectations, albeit slightly aided by a kind draw. In the group stage we beat hosts South Korea in an even affair, then drew with Ghana despite having the better run of the play. Finishing top of our group allowed us to rest players in the second round against Honduras, which was followed up by a fantastic performance to upset Uruguay 2-0. In the QF, we were totally overrun by Argentina and lost 4-1.
2034 Uefa Nations League, League C: Finished first ahead of Kosovo, Albania, and Armenia. Promoted to League B
2036 Euro Qualifying: Finished first in our group, including an amazing 3-2 win away to Turkey, which was probably the best performance we've put on as a national team as we completely deserved the victory and created so many chances.
Euro 2036: Finished fourth in a group with Italy, Poland, and Iceland. This was incredibly disappointing. Probably the strongest NT squad we've ever had, we deservedly beat Poland in the first game and then lost convincingly against Italy. In the final match against Iceland we definitely got FMed. Our best player got sent off in the first 10 minutes, but we dominated the game anyways, creating 5 clear cut chances. I was so mad I almost started another save.
2036 Uefa Nations League, League B: I had thought we'd done enough to get promoted. We went into the final matchday needing to win by 3 goals against Wales and have Norway lose to Iceland. We did our part, but Norway scored a late equalizer after the final whistle in our game had finished. So we ended up finishing second.
2038 World Cup Qualifying: Finished 3rd behind Belgium and Sweden.
2038 Uefa Nations League, League B: We picked up 15 points against Albania, Turkey, and Poland, but still managed to finish 2nd as Turkey also picked up 15 points but had the better head to head. (They beat us 5-3, we beat them 3-2).
2040 Euro Qualifying: Finished 2nd behind Germany but ahead of Iceland, Luxembourg, and Malta. This was a really easy group for us. Getting seeded 2nd was key after the strong performance in Nations League.
Euro 2040: Finished 4th behind Spain, Poland, and Turkey. Poland was the most winnable game for us, and we outplayed them, missed a penalty, and then conceded a late winner against the run of play. Very disappointing.
2040 Uefa Nations League, League B: Finished 3rd behind Croatia and Sweden but ahead of Bulgaria.
2042 World Cup Qualifying: Finished first in our qualifying group, qualifying for the 2042 World Cup. The last match was at home against Turkey, which we needed to win to secure qualification, and we got a 95th minute winner from our Wunderkind striker to secure qualification. (As it turns out we would have finished as one of the best placed second teams even with a draw, but we weren't assured of this at the time).
2042 World Cup: We haven't played yet! But we're drawn in a group with Ecuador and South Korea. It won't be easy but at least we avoided Argentina and Brazil.
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Tactics and Current Starting XI (FC Balzers)
I used a couple of different tactics in the lower divisions, but the vast majority of my time in the top-flight I've been fielding a vertical tiki-taka-ish 4-1-4-1 DM wide, which I modeled off of Sarri's Napoli (I'm a Napoli fan) and a direct 3-4-2-1, which has no inspiration.
Current Starting XI
Luckily we had no injuries/suspensions for the Champions League Final, so we were able to field a first choice XI. We played the 4-1-4-1 Sarrismo tactic.
GK (Mathieu Buillot) - signed for $20.5M from Rennes in 2032/33 (SK/Defend)
RB (Lukas Musil) - signed for $1.4M from FC Twente in 2035/36 (WB/Support)
DCR (Andrew Preisner) - signed on an expiring contract from Atletico Paranaense in 2031/32 (BPD/Cover)
DCL (Lucas Piette) - signed for $105M (by far our record transfer) from PSG in January. We probably overspent on him but we have bags of cash and needed another CB with Bartolini in decline. (CD/Defend)
LB (Francisco Mejia) - signed for $4M from America de Cali in 2031/32 (FB/Support)
CDM (Christos Savva) - signed from Heerenveen for $1.7M in 2036/37 (DLP/Defend)
MCR (Justin Pereira) - signed from PSG for $75M in 2035/36 (CM/Attack)
MCL (Song Tae Wook) - signed for $22.5M from Besiktas in 2033/34 (BWM/Support)
AMR (Youssouf Sanali) - signed for $5M from SM Caen in 2037/38 (AP/Attack)
AML (Hernan Yabur) - signed for $1M from America de Cali in 2031/32 (W/Support)
STC (Xabier Saenz) - signed for $27M from Athletic Club in 2033/34 (AF/Attack)
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Notable Players (FC Balzers)
In this reply, I'll go over some of the notable players we've had (real players marked with *). I won't go over all the icons as that would be too much
Martin Satriano* - We signed this Uruguayan striker on loan from Inter while we were still in the second tier. He got off to a slow start but showed enough promise to warrant signing him permanently for $235K. In his first full season we finished top of the Challenge League, gaining promotion to the Super League, and he was our star striker and club captain for a decade. He even managed to pick up a handful of caps for Uruguay.
Gabriel Bares* - We signed this Swiss midfielder on a free before our final season in the Challenge League. A silky smooth deep lying playmaker, Bares was at the hub of our midfield for a decade.
Mateo Kovacic* - I'm sure most folks have heard of this guy :). We managed to sign him for free towards the end of his career after his PSG contract expired. He was so good for two seasons he instantly became a club legend.
Nicolo Bartolini - We signed Bartolini from Serie-B side Livorno for $3.7M, and what a deal it would turn out to be. The center-back ended up winning 76 caps for Italy, including starting in the 2034 World Cup Final. He became our club captain after Martin Satriano left in 2033. As he's now the fourth choice CB, he agreed to sign a deal with Torino after this season as his contract is expiring.
Esteban Aguirre - This versatile Argentinean winger, who also started (albeit on the winning side) in that 2034 World Cup Final, is one of the most well-rounded players I've ever seen on FM.
Xabier Saenz - I thought this kid would be a stud ever since we scouted him young. Thank goodness for Spain and their release clauses. We were able to pay the $29M release clause to bring him in while 17. At the time it was the second-highest fee we've ever spent on a player, but boy did it pay off. He's one of the best players I've ever managed on FM, and is now considered as Spain's key player. 51 goals in 52 caps in mental, and he had a couple of ridiculous seasons for us, following up a year of scoring 38 in 26 with a year scoring 43 in 31.
Justin Pereira - This one I'm kind of proud of because I PSG-ed PSG, breaking the back to sign him for a transfer-record-breaking $75M as an 18 year old. An all around central midfielder, he's considered France's key player currently.
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Season-by-season summary (FC Balzers)
(milestones bolded)
2019/20: We finished first in fourth division group 3, promoted via playoffs. Switzerland has 3 fourth divisions, of which the top 3 go into some convoluted playoff system whereby only two get promoted. Interesting enough, both promotions went to Liechtensteiner clubs, with Eschen/Mauren also getting promoted. We lost in the Liechtenstein Cup Semis against Eschen/Mauren
2020/21: First in Promotion League (3rd division), upset second-tier FC Vaduz 2-1 in the cup final, meaning we'd get our first taste of European competition the following year.
2021/22: 3rd in Challenge League (2nd division), beat Vaduz 4-0 in the cup final, lost to Rangers 4-2 on aggregate in the Conference League Third Qualifying Round
2022/23: 4th in Challenge League, beat Vaduz 3-1 in cup final, lost to Lazio 4-1 on aggregate in the Conference League Fourth Qualifying Round
2023/24: 1st in Challenge League, beat Vaduz 2-1 in cup final, lost to Lausanne-Sport on away goals (3-3) in the Conference League Fourth Qualifying Round. That was a heartbreaker - we really outplayed them over the two legs
2024/25: 3rd in Super League, beat Eschen/Mauren 2-0 in cup final, lost to Wolves 3-1 in the Conference League Fourth Qualifying Round
2025/26: 2nd in Super League (by one point!), beat Eschen/Mauren 1-0 in cup final, lost to CSKA Moskva 3-1 in the Conference League Second Knockout Round. This was our first time getting to the group stage, and managed to navigate a group containing the likes of Feyenoord and Espanyol, finishing second, which was a fantastic achievement for us.
2026/27: 1st in Super League, lost 2-1 to Eschen/Mauren in the cup final, lost to Feyenoord 3-2 in the Conference League Semifinals. Losing the cup final to a third division side was one of the worst results I've ever had in FM, meaning there'd be no European football the following season. In subsequent seasons, we won the league every time as well as the cup (except for situations where we intentionally lost when we had a mismatch in an upcoming European final in an attempt to get Vaduz some European football - luckily this never backfired on us).
2027/28: No European football
2028/29: Lost 2-0 to Arsenal in Conference League Quarterfinals
2029/30: Beat Atalanta 2-0 to win the Europa Conference League
2030/31: Lost 2-0 to Arsenal in Europa League Semis (after having beaten Hertha and Marseille)
2031/32: Beat Everton 4-0 to win the Europa Conference League. We were completely dominant here, outscoring our opponents (Valencia, Hajduk, AZ, Everton) by a score of 21-0 in the knockout stages. We beat Valencia 10-0 on aggregate, which led to their newly hired coach to get the sack only 9 days!! after getting hired. I'd never seen something like this before in FM (screenshot below)
2032/33: Lost 3-1 to Hoffenheim in the Europa League Quarters. This was hugely disappointing as we took a 0-0 draw in Germany back to Liechtenstein, but got deservedly beaten by a superior Hoffenheim side
2033/34: Lost in penalties to Real Betis in the Conference League Final (1-1 draw AET)
2034/35: Beat Rennes 2-1 to win the Europa Conference League
2035/36: Beat Benfica 1-0 to win the Europa League
2036/37: Lost to Real Madrid 1-0 (AET) in UEFA Super Cup, Lost to Real Madrid 3-1 in the Champions League Quarterfinals, Lost to Man City 5-3 (AET) in the Club World Cup. I'm not quite sure how we qualified given that it appears the qualifiers go to the past 8 champions league finalists. Maybe it's based off of coefficient in the event that there aren't 8 finalists in the past 4 years?
2037/38: Beat Valencia 4-0 to win the Europa Conference League
2038/39: Lost to Barcelona 1-0 in the Europa League Final. This one was tough - we had the better of the play during the match, but they scored against the run of play in injury time off of a corner.
2039/40: Beat Hoffenheim 1-0 to win the Europa Conference League
2040/41: Beat Bayern 4-0 to win the Europa League. The scoreline flattered us, but this was another case of "win or go home" for myself and this save, so was delighted to have one more shot at champions league glory.
2041/42: Beat Arsenal 1-0 to win the Champions League
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Well, it took me 23 seasons, but I finally won the champions league with FC Balzers. It was the hardest I've ever celebrated in FM, since regardless of the result it would be my last game in charge of the club. So I decided to summarize my journey with the club and the national team. I also have the game set up with the top divisions playable in the Top 5 leagues plus Argentina, Portugal, and the Netherlands to ensure I'd have a realistic challenge.
For those who don't know, getting a Liechtensteiner club to win the Champions League is insanely difficult. No matter how much you change the coefficient, you only get one spot in the Europa Conference League, meaning you need to win the Europa Conference League in one season, then the Europa League in the next season, and then finally the Champions League. One slip up and it's back to square one. This is because Liechtenstein does not have a national league, just a cup. All Liechtensteiner teams compete in the Swiss league.
FC Balzers are in the fourth tier of Switzerland. Shout out to @CTID86 for providing the inspiration for me to take this on.
Attached is the summary of the final, in which we missed a penalty and scored on a set piece in the opening 10 minutes (the rest of the game being rather uneventful) and our run of results.
As far as what's next, I plan on continuing to manage the national team for a bit. I'm definitely interested to see how FC Balzers gets on without my management. They could easily win the CL again - my board expectation was to get to the final.
Subsequent posts will be reserved for summaries of the performances of the club and national team over the past 23 seasons. Thanks for reading
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IMO, people think this is a thing because most people play on saves where they win the majority of their games. In such a scenario, where you are the favorite more often than not, of course it would seem like FM is unfair because you lose more games you should win than win games you should lose.
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Well done! Thoroughly enjoyed this entire experiment!
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You should live stream the final
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Wow crazy drama in both semifinals! If only the real world cups were this good
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It looks pretty good to me. Agree with the previous commenter's point about the right fullback. The other thing that sticks out to me is the lower tempo instruction. The tactic might work great as is, but tiki-taka is very high tempo with quick passes, so if you're looking to recreate a tiki-taka style realistically I think the appropriate instruction is higher tempo or much higher tempo.
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You might want to try changing the WBs to wingers or defensive wingers. I've used a 3-4-2-1 a lot in FM20 (flat 4 across midfield) and I've found that the wingers often chip in with goals and I'm still very solid defensively. I do play a very direct style with that formation though, but I see no reason why the pattern wouldn't hold for a possession-oriented system too.
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I've recently switched to a 3-4-2-1 on my FM20 save with a lot of success. My CMs are a DLP (S) and BWM (S), but then again I have my wingers on support too. Given your wingers are on attack I'd probably go with a CM(D) or BWM(D). Or perhaps change KDB into a different role and use the other midfield role as a DLP (D)
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Oh man bummer about the Champions League. Thanks for keeping us posted with all the updates!
In my save, we got our first taste of Europa League football in our 12th season (2030-31 season), where we lost 2-0 on aggregate to Arsenal in the semifinals. It was the exact same scoreline as 2 years ago in the Conference league, where we also lost both legs to Arsenal 1-0 in the QF. The league has become quite stale, where we've been unchallenged for the past 3-4 seasons. We actually got a scare in the Liechtenstein Cup last season where Vaduz took us all the way to pens. It was an odd one - the original final got rescheduled for a waterlogged pitch, then rescheduled again because Vaduz were in the Pro/Rel playoffs, which meant I had a bunch of players out on international duty.
Currently starting season 13 (2031-32). We had a pretty tough conference league playoff draw where we drew Gladbach, but went through comfortably 7-3 on aggregate. My hopes of an undefeated season are already over, as Basel did a smash-and-grab 1-0 against us at home. Our squad is strong - we have players who are semi-regulars for Spain, Italy, France's starting goalkeeper (I signed him a couple years back for ~$300K and the next summer he was starting for France in the World Cup - talk about a steal!), Argentina, Switzerland, Colombia, and Uruguay (one of my two remaining non-regens left in the squad who has been with us since the Challenge League).
BTW Vaduz and Eschen/Mauren are doing great in my game. Vaduz has been yo-yoing between the Super League and the Challenge League, and Eschen/Mauren just survived their first season in the Challenge League and is now professional (they actually went up with me to the Promotion League in our first season). Though sadly that hasn't translated into any good regens for the NT, but I have gotten a couple of naturalized players from those clubs. For some reason all of my players who could be naturalized don't see any benefit - I guess I have to invest in non-EU players so they'll make sure to pick up the nationality.
With the national team, we are finally in the top 90. We just got relegated from Nations League Group B (been yo-yoing between C and B), but finished on a respectable 5 points in a group with Wales, Sweden, and Bulgaria. We haven't qualified for any major tournaments since Euro 2024, but we should have another shot in the playoffs this time for Euro 2032. (I have no idea how the playoffs work, but I checked in my game and last time all but one of the teams in League B had at least a shot at the playoffs.) Last season a nice regen popped up at Basel, but he has dual citizenship with Italy. I haven't been able to convince him to play for Liechtenstein yet, but it looks like he will be just not good enough to play for Italy (and good news is that he is not Swiss), so fingers crossed!
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9 hours ago, Timetxu said:
Luckily I'm simulating all games independently, so there will be no AI calculating results
I prefer my narrative approach
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Looks like a draw suits Ghana and Sweden pretty well, and they'll be in a position to know what result is needed. Shades of the Disgrace of Gijon perhaps
. Nigeria will certainly be hoping they go for a victory, though it depends a lot of the Austria - Iran match (assuming Honduras doesn't beat Switzerland).
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Wow what a result! Congrats. My recent update after season 8, which was just a crazy season. Funny enough, it took us just as long to win the challenge league as it did for us to win the super league. (3 years for each)
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We won the league with 2 games to spare, despite having 8 fewer points than the previous season (69). We clinched the title at home to Basel, scoring 2 goals in stoppage time (cue me running around my apartment like a lunatic ). Had we lost that game it would have been a nervy finish, as we would have been only 3 points ahead of Basel, with our final game of the season being against Young Boys (who, for the life of me, we cannot score against. It's probably been about 10 games since we've even managed to score a goal against them. Luckily most of the games have been 0-0). FC Zürich of all teams ended up finishing second.
- We got all the way to the Semis in the Conference League, but lost to Feyenoord 3-2 on aggregate on a crazy own goal.
- Unfathomably, we lost the Liechtenstein cup final against Eschen/Mauren (I played a rotated squad but they scored on one set piece and got a 92nd minute penalty on another set piece). This has got to be one of the worst results I can remember ever playing FM
A poor year with the national team as well. Finished 3rd in our Nations League C group behind Albania and Cyprus (finished ahead of Moldova). Euro Qualifying off to a shaky start: lost 4-2 away to Bosnia and 3-1 away to Portugal, followed by 2 wins against Armenia.
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We won the league with 2 games to spare, despite having 8 fewer points than the previous season (69). We clinched the title at home to Basel, scoring 2 goals in stoppage time (cue me running around my apartment like a lunatic
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This is very cool. Love the idea and updates!
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Yeah. Just finished season 7 and after the aforementioned rocky start we lost the title to Young Boys by a single point. Some fun twists in the title race:
- In the middle of the season we missed a 90th minute penalty against Young Boys (which would have given us the win)
- In the stretch run we played Young Boys at home with 4 games to go (level on points at the time), and we lost 1-0, with this time them scoring a penalty, scored none other than my star NT striker Bas Drechsel (who moved from Basel to Young Boys in January for about $15M)
- The aforementioned Drechsel also scored the title clinching goal, as Young Boys won away to FC Thun on the final matchday
In the conference league, we qualified second from our group with Feyenoord, Espanyol, and Molde. The highlight was a deserved 2-1 away win to Espanyol, and we had a nervy 0-0 draw at home to Espanyol on the final matchday to sneak into the first knockout round. I forget who we drew, but we ended up losing in the second knockout round to FC Krasnodar.
So far season 8 has gotten off to a good start, and we're in October with a 4 point lead at the top of the table. Both Young Boys and FC Basel have had pretty subpar starts to the season. We also have a very easy Conference League group, with Partizan, Lech Poznan, and some Swedish team. Unlike last season I'm playing a heavily rotated squad in that competition.
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Nice progress! Great result in the first leg, hopefully you can go further but there looks like some tough teams still in the tournament.
I'm in the middle of season 7, and have FINALLY made it to the conference league group stages. We've been unlucky in the past 3 season, where twice we've drawn the eventual winners (Lazio in season 4 and last season Wolves) in the fourth qualifying round. We had an easy path this time, beating an Icelandic team 22-0 on aggregate, then easing past FK Partizan and Vorskla. We have a pretty tough group, with Espanyol, Feyenoord, and Molde.
Season 6 was our first in the Super League, where we performed great finishing 3rd, some way behind Young Boys and Basel. Sadly, we lost our best player on a release clause this summer. I had negotiated a deal with PSG to do a two year loanback, but unfortunately my star right winger opted to sign with Real Betis instead, which met the $9M release clause. Off to a rocky start in the league, winning 4 and losing 4 in the first 8 games (though 2 of those losses were away to Basel and Young Boys).The good news, however, is I was finally able to upgrade some facilities with the cash raised from the transfer.
On the National Team front, we got drawn into World Cup 2026 qualifying with Germany, Sweden, Iceland, Montenegro, and Moldova. Results have been decent, and we almost got a draw at home against Germany after Emre Can got sent off in the middle of the second half, but we couldn't find an equalizer and lost 2-1. Lost home and away to Sweden (2-0 and 1-0), won away to Iceland and home to Moldova, and disappointingly only drew Montenegro at home (which we deserved to lose actually).
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12 hours ago, CTID86 said:
Huge congrats on making the Euro's so soon. Even though you lost all 3 games it's still a huge achievement! Good to hear a nice regen has popped up at Basel too! I seem to be getting flooded with Goalkeepers! Had to wait about 10 years for even a semi-decent striker haha!
Keep me updated with how it goes, always like to hear about other peoples Liechtenstein Challenges!
Making the Europa Conference League group stage is a game changer as it bags you a decent sum of money.
I'm also getting tons of Goalkeepers. Currently all my NT goalkeepers are 4.5stars+. Struggling in center mid and center back
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Napoli fan here, so naturally I tried to replicate this tactic also. It works well in the game, but ended up being more control possession and I found it difficult to score goals through quick combination play, so you may want to tweak things but here are some ideas.
4-3-3Goalkeeper (Reina): sweeper keeper (s)
RB (Hysaj): FB (s)
CD (Albiol, Koulibaly): BPD (d)
LB (Ghoulam): WB/FB (A)
CM/CDM (Jorginho): DLP (D) / Regista
CML(Hamsik): Mezzala (S)
CMR(Allan): BWM (S)
LAM (Insigne): AP (A)
RAM (Callejon): W(S) (also possibly Raumdeuter but few players can actually play it)
CF (Mertens): AF (A) (also possibly CF(A) - definitely not false 9 Mertens was in no way a false 9, he's just short)
Mentality - Balanced
Instructions:
Play out of defense
Shorter passing
Low crosses
Higher Tempo
Work Ball into box
Play Narrow
Focus Play down the left
Overlap Left
Take short kicks
Distribute to center backs
Counter Press
Defend Wider
Higher Defensive Line
More Urgent
Use Tighter Marking
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[FM20] Great Liechtenstein Challenge Update/Summary
in FM Career Updates
Posted
Reputation-wise the Swiss Super League is 8th in Europe. Coefficient-wise it's seventh (not including Liechtenstein itself), ahead of Portugal. St Gallen made it out of the Champions League group stages a couple of times in the last decade but nothing more than that.