Undy
-
Posts
68 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Forums
Articles
FAQs
Online Manual
Support: Blocks
Support: Games
Bug Tracker
SIGames Manual (beta)
Profiles
Posts posted by Undy
-
-
Long time FM player but I took a break last year so the new recruitment focus mechanism is new to me. I've approached it in much the same way as I'd previously have used scouting assignments, but so far over two seasons with 13 scouts, the only good players I've found are ones I've "manually" scouted by requesting reports on specific teams. In fact, looking at player knowledge, it looks like my scouts aren't even watching any games.
As an example, I'm playing as Rangers (so fairly mid-level players in the squad initially) and have had a scout on an ongoing recruitment focus In Paraguay (he already had extensive knowledge of the country) for around 18 months. The filters for the focus are ay position and role, transfer and loan, min CA 1 star, min PA 3 star, age 15-20. In 18 months, he has recommended zero players, and in fact when I search players in range and filter to based in Paraguay, there aren't even any players with scout reports against them. He has literally produced no useful knowledge.
This is replicated across all recruitment focuses. Even the three scouts I have across Brazil and Argentina, which should have no shortage of promising young players, can't produce a single recommendation. I tried a different approach of a high priority assignment to look for a replacement for James Tavernier, and not one of the four scouts assigned found anyone.
I'm a bit at a loss here and don't really fancy persisting with the gamey approach of requesting team reports on clubs with good youth systems. Can anyone give any pointers on why my scouts aren't finding players (or even generating knowledge), and how the recruitment focus mechanism can be better used?
1 -
13 hours ago, bowieinspace said:
Who are you gonna destroy?? It’s good to take a break sometimes especially if you’re an avid Athletic player, because it’s a very different game with Athletic. I had a lot of fun splintering my save to do a trophy hunter style journeyman adventure. It was nice to rock up at a club and rebuild the team based on the tactical concept I wanted to play. Always get pulled back in after a while though.
I've taken over at Celtic. They continue to dominate the Scottish premiership and while Rangers have been finishing second, a few other teams aren't too far behind them. I reckon if I can pay inflated fees to the other clubs in the league I can boost their competitiveness so that if Celtic do get "destroyed", it won't just be Rangers running away with it every season. I'll just need to do well enough in the cups that the board don't sack me as we slip down the league.
My "destruction" of Celtic has started with an 8-0 away win over Tobol Kostanay in the conference league - our biggest ever win! I'm playing a modified version of my Athletic Club tactic with a 3-1-2-3-1. DM is an anchor, two wide midfielders, then a narrow three behind the striker - an AP with two treq's either side of him. I'm curious to see how the tactic works with a heavy attacking focus... Hopefully not too well!
0 -
After six seasons, I'm going to save a break point and move away from Athletic Club for a while. My intention is to move to a "destroy a club" save for a few seasons, see if I can take a giant and hold on to my job while underperforming for long enough to maybe even get them relegated. Something I've never done before, but I'm feeling a bit sadistic.
As far as Athletic Club goes, we were nowhere near defending the La Liga title we won in 2025/26 - an awful start to the season led to press rumours about me getting sacked, but form gradually improved as the season went on. We spent most of the season just outside the top four, but eventually finished a distant third, 17 points behind Real Madrid in second and 19 behind champions Barcelona. Age has caught up with Muniain and Inaki, with both registering average ratings of below 7 for the season (all the while Inaki is asking for a big pay rise...), and Nico Williams wasn't able to reproduce the previous season's form ever. I feel like this was the first season of a transitional period for the club as the old guard fade away and the newgens take over. I do plan on coming back to see out that transition at some point.
0 -
I never really got the best out of Muniain but six seasons in and he's still a regular for me. Not first choice in any position now, but his ability to play the AM role and both wide midfield positions means even if he's not starting he comes on as a sub. He'll see out his career with us.
0 -
In a nice bonus extra at the end of my 25/26 season, Basconia were finally promoted to the fourth tier. I don't think there's terribly much between the squad there and the B team who held their own in the upper half of LaLiga 2 so hopefully another promotion will take them up to the third tier next season and we'll finally have a good through-the-leagues pathway to the first team.
0 -
Don't worry too much if players aren't developing quickly. If they go a full year with no real progress you'll want to reexamine their playing time and level, but if they're just ticking along it's fine. I thought Julen Jon might have been a wasted investment for me after limited progress, but in the fifth season in his stats rocketed up. Same with the two Nicos. It's refreshing not having all players maxed out before they're 20 to be honest.
0 -
17 hours ago, ernemann said:
They normally do or I change it when you get that message you Want any player in the next reserve match. Or try look at preferences maybe you Can choose it there maybe
I've never been able to get Basconia to play with my first team tactic, which is pretty frustrating as the B team use it no problem. I'm considering giving up on Basconia as any sort of serious development team as I just can't seem to get them promoted into the simulated leagues despite the players in the team showing individual ratings and performance stats that suggest they should easily be getting promoted. In the future I'd probably not play an Athletic Club save again unless I could get the lower leagues loaded in.
5 hours ago, MattyC78 said:Season's greetings to all
Great opening posts as usual and I've been enjoying catching up with how you all have been doing. I only ever get FM at Christmas so I have been finishing a few seasons with my Athletic FM21 save after a failed experiment operating as a Director of Football I've been enjoying getting back into it and I'm excited about getting FM22 and getting going with Athletic again.
It's good to see the approach that others have taken and I'm just weighing up the type of save I want; Basque only or Lezama only players. I shall update as I get into the game. Bring on Christmas.
I've been playing Basque only but with the quality of newgens I've had through I could probably have got away with Lezama only - Karrikaburu being the only signing that's made any significant impact in the five seasons I've played so far. The only thing that may force your hand is if you just can't get a good successor for Unai Simon through your own youth system.
0 -
4 hours ago, Trevomac said:
Cheers. I just seen a few get Karrikaburu in the first window but i've never had more than 4M budget
You should have started the game with about a £20m transfer budget? I got him and Julen Jon Guerrero with my first season's transfer budget without making any major sales, but I think their release clauses can vary at the start of the game. Certainly I got Julen Jon a lot cheaper than some others did. The next season or two though most of my transfer budget came from sales. My advice if you're short of money for Karrikaburu is to sell Inigo Martinez (you may have picked up that I really bloody hate him) to free up funds. It's not a disaster if you don't get him though, Villalibre has been more than serviceable for me, and Serrano can easily develop into a top striker. Inaki can move up top too if you need.
0 -
23 minutes ago, Trevomac said:
Just curious what is the state of others finances at the end of the first season.
I won the league first season and had the budgets turned off for first window. I sold €1.6M worth of players in January and we are spending €1.3M p/w on wages.
We are €20M in the red and got a transfer budget of €4M. I know the TV money has to come in but the finances aren't great
You'll run at a fairly big deficit month to month but once TV and competition money comes in you'll be fine. Don't expect much increase in transfer budget for the second or third seasons though. It does pick up, especially if you can get the champions league money. In 2025/26 we bought the stadium just so I had something to spend money on. You're unlikely to spend big sums on transfers after the initial squad building period if you're just hoovering up the best newgens from other Basque clubs every year.
1 -
I know I said I wouldn't update any more, but... We only bloody did it, and in what style!
A really hard fought title battle. Around February we were nine points clear, before a 4-2 loss away to Valencia at the end of February cut it to six. A 3-2 away defeat to Real Madrid a month later cut it to three points, and with us having won the home game 1-0 it would be down to goal difference if it finished level, and they easily had the beating of us there. The objective was simple - win. every. game.
They were coming thick and fast though. A tough April started off in the worst way with a season-ending injury to midfield mainstay Vencedor, and with not much depth in this area of the field we were reliant in the 20-year old Junior Bita in his first full season in the first team, partnered by the aging Mikel Vesga and a barely adequate Beñat Gerenabarrena. Nonetheless, home wins against Sociedad and Mallorca came alongside a Champions League quarter final against Sevilla which we just edged out, drawing Arsenal in the semis, and a comprehensive 3-0 victory over Atletico Madrid in the Copa del Rey final - then things got really nervy. A tetchy and evenly matched game against Levante ended 0-0, cutting our lead at the top to just one point. Real Madrid were demolishing all that crossed their path. We saw off Getafe in the next league game, before a 2-0 humbling at home against Arsenal made progression in the Champions League very unlikely. A tough 2-1 away win over Villarreal kept our title hopes alive, but with the squad creaking I was forced to make a big call, and something I'm not sure I've ever done in FM.
I threw a game.
The odds of beating Arsenal away by three goals were tiny, and my focus was on the daunting away game against Betis just a few days later. With our last game of the season against rock-bottom Las Palmas I knew if we got the win against Betis the league would be all but ours, so I threw the kids in against Arsenal and hoped for mercy. They battered us 1-0 with 28 shots against our one (which wasn't even on target). Who cares though? Eyes on the prize! The first team were back for the game against Betis, and an early Yeray header from a Nico Williams free kick put us in the lead. It was an evenly matched game and they fought hard (11 shots vs our 10, 1.06 xG vs our 1.00), but we held on for the win. The rest, as they say, is history.
This was such a satisfying season. After my previous complaints about burned out players, I made a slight but, as it turned out, very significant and rewarding tactical tweak. While I stuck with my preferred formation in the early part of the season and in general most of the time when I only had one game in a week, I switched to a new tactic for the gruelling periods when I would have two or even three games in a week.
In terms of player roles there were three main changes. Firstly, the WCBs were both set to defend, allowing them to pick and choose their moments to rampage up the pitch but more often than not hold back and conserve energy. Secondly, the wide midfielders were switched from hard-running IWs who were expected to be a main goal threat to a less energetic WM role where they were expected to pick up the opposition wide players defensively and feed the AMs offensively rather than storm forward themselves. Lastly, our false nine was dropped into the AM role to give us more control of possession in the middle of the park, with the pressing forward switched to an AF. The team tactic was inspired by the Barcelona of Iniesta and Xavi in their prime - a high and hard press to win the ball back quick, followed by beautifully tedious play when we're on the ball to conserve energy and force the opposition to do the running.
It worked a treat. We were the kind of team I hate playing against. The three CBs racked up insane passing stats, with the DMs and Unai Simon taking the next highest numbers. Opposition forwards would run themselves ragged chasing them down, but we always had the numbers to just keep the ball at the back until eventually they left a gap for us to exploit. Almost inevitably we would wear them down eventually. When we did finally work an opening, we became even more horrible to play against. The tempo and passing range dropped as low as they could go, and it wasn't unheard of for the time wasting to begin in the first half. Possession stats in the 60s were the norm - 70s not uncommon.
Much like the tactics, the transition in personnel was subtle but significant. Still no newgens in the first team, and it's 2026! Defence stayed as it has been for a few seasons, but in the DM role Junior Bita got his chance playing as either a regista or segundo volante depending on tactic. He's still only rated at 2.5-star CA, but my coaches have him at 4-5 star PA and he picked up young player of the year for the league. I have high hopes for his progression over the next few seasons. On the wings, Inaki had his worst season yet for me with just 5 goals and 2 assists, though this will mostly be down to the tactical shift preventing him going forward as much. Nico Williams on the other hand had his true breakout season with 6 goals and 12 assists. Sancet pulled his best numbers so far too with 10 goals and 7 assists, with Muniain on an almost identical 9 goals and 7 assists. The tactical shift again getting a tune out of the AM roles. Julen Jon was the third man in that position, but even playing more than half his games as a substitute he contributed 7 goals and 8 assists and is developing nicely. Competition for the lone striker role meant Villalibre saw less playing time this season and, while he did play well when he was on the pitch, he has asked to move on to a new challenge and will leave with all our best wishes if an acceptable offer comes in. Karrikaburu remains our main man up front and hit a career-high 20 league goals this season, though Nico Serrano is also beginning to fulfil his promise with 5 goals and 9 assists floating between the striker and wide midfield positions.
The B team are having a good season as well. I finally lost patience with Alex Padilla and stumped up the £7.5m release clause for a season-one newgen from Real Sociedad who I've had on the shortlist for a few years. He's not got Unai Simon potential, but with no other Basque goalkeeping prospects in sight he falls into the "might have to do" category. He joined in the January window and went straight into the B team, with our defensive performances markedly better. With a few games left to go in their season, the B team are up in 8th with another season in LaLiga 2 to look forward to next season. I moved Sergio Urritia out on loan for some La Liga experience (more on that later), and backfilled with Ander Dominguez, an £11m signing from Osasuna a couple of season ago, and he's currently sitting on 28 goals from 31 appearances. The change in tactic wasn't so kind on our other striking sensation from last season Carlos Bengoetxea, who is currently following up last year's 29 goals and 12 assists in 34 games with 2 goals and no assists in 13, only two of which were starts. I may move him out on loan, but the coaches have dropped his potential right down to 2-3 stars so maybe last season was just an outlier for him.
A few personnel changes expected for next season already. Vesga will be allowed to leave on a free at the end of his contract, with his place in the squad going to Aitor Dominguez who will be my first newgen first-team regular. At 20 years old and just off a season on loan at Mallorca as a regular starter in La Liga, his time is now. If I can shift Villalibre in the summer transfer window then I may replace him in the squad with Sergio Urritia, but his season on loan at Granada has me unconvinced. Again like Dominguez he was a regular starter for a La Liga team, but 5 goals and 4 assists in 33 games doesn't have me excited so I will need to reassess at the start of next season. I am also faced with the uncomfortable question of whether to try cashing in on Inaki Williams. I'd love him to see out his career at the club, but he's no longer the standout star of the squad that he was. He's 31 with two years still left on his £190k/week contract, and is asking for a new one at a whopping £350k, without actually extending the terms. Not a chance mate. It's either sell him now, or let him fade into a squad player. A slightly more difficult decision I'll have to make eventually is about Sancet. He has 3 years left on his £80k/week contract and is wanting £300k/week to extend it. It's a lot of money, but he'd be a hard player to replace and still has his best years ahead of him.
2 -
I feel like I'm really in the minority not going for Moncayola. He's still at Osasuna in my game and while good, I didn't have the money for him in the first season and haven't been able to justify the cost since.
I have now come to the end of the 2024/25 season and what I'm about to say should come as no surprise to anyone who's read my previous posts - we put up a good fight and played some really good football, but ultimately we didn't have the squad depth to really compete. Same story every season - we have the beating of most teams but when it's two or even three games a week non-stop for a month or so we just don't have the legs to keep battling late into games. I'm going to have to be pragmatic and find a lower intensity tactic that works for us during those tough periods.
It really was a good season on balance, even though for the first time in a couple of years we won no silverware. We were rarely out of the top four in the league and eventually finished a comfortable second on 79 points - nowhere near Real Madrid on 92, but never too threatened by Sevilla in third on 74. We progressed out of our group in the CL again but were seen off by Dortmund in the first knockout round, and lost the Supercopa final to Villareal and the Copa del Rey final to Real Madrid. Jon Karrikaburu finally had a true breakout season, scoring 17 in 37 in the league, with Villalibre not far behind on 14 in 28. Karrikaburu had our highest rating but Inaki was arguably our most important attacking player with 13 goals and 13 assists having played every league game - only once as a sub. I've been giving Serrano chances but his attacking numbers so far just aren't up to scratch - 4 goals and 4 assists in 34 games although more than half were as a sub. Nico Williams finally got a sustained run in the first team, but provided only five assists and no goals in 34 games (27 starts). I'm keeping the faith in him though. Contrary to my speculation at the start of the season, I ended up with no newgens making any significant presence, though Junior Bita and Julen Jon were pulled out of the B team midway through the season and have started getting some first-team game time. Another very good youth intake, but of slight concern to me is that I still can't find any good young Basque goalkeepers. At 27 Unai Simon still has a lot of years ahead of him, but I'd like to have at least one youth prospect who I think has a fighting chance of becoming a first pick and I'm increasingly doubtful that Alex Padilla will make the grade. And on that subject...
Another difficult year for the B team, with most of the season spent just above the relegation spots until, after taking one point from seven games, they inexplicably went on a run of 7 wins and 2 draws in their last 9 games, rocketing up the table and finishing the league in 12th place. I'm truly astounded by that because midway through the season I thought this was the year they might go down again. I don't have any explanation for that turnaround, but I like it! I can't let it detract from some of the stats though - they were the league's top scorers with 90 goals, but finished on a negative goal difference by conceding by far the most at 95. Carlos Bengoetxia (I think a season one newgen but maybe a real guy?) was the league's top scorer with 29 in 34 (12 assists), with my man Sergio Urritia finishing on 19 goals and 17 assists in 38 games. They were unsurprisingly the two top rated players in the division. Both are only 18! Sergio is the closest to pushing the first team but with such a strong attack just now I may have to farm him out on loan to a lower top division team. His development has been good in LaLiga 2 though so I'll need to weigh up who can take his place in the team before putting him out. At the other end of the pitch though, Padilla's GK performance has been far below the league average and he's only made slight progress over the season. My coaches still think he has good (3.5 star) potential, but at this rate he'll be pushing 30 before he reaches it. Kevin Rios has been playing for Basconia but on the whole may actually have got worse over the course of the game. With two seasons left on his contract, Simon was asking for a new one on bumper terms and I've not had much choice but to give him it - from £120k p/w up to £215k - but it keeps him tied until he's 33 (the next five years), so we should continue to get the best out of him.
I think I mentioned when I started out that this was my first Athletic Club save (and still my only FM22 save). Four seasons in now and honestly I have no desire to stop playing this save. The massive restrictions on the players I can take on has caused a real shift in my playing style (as has, to an equal extent in a different way, my adoption of the star attributes skin), though I am perhaps still guilty of trying to shoehorn players into a tactic. Not sure how much I'll continue to bore you with my updates, especially as updates regarding newgens become less relevant to other people, but I've found myself genuinely checking up on the team's scores and progress of players in real life and have a developing fondness for the club. I'm Scottish, I understand what it is to hold a strong, proud, national identify within a wider country with more "powerful" constituents. I recognise what Athletic Club do by representing the Basque country in their own unique way, and I love it.
0 -
I'm coming up for January 2025 and some familiar patterns playing out. After signing for £3.3m in season 22/23, Alvaro Fernandez kept complaining about wanting to play games (not a chance with Simon in the team), so I sold him in the summer of 2024 to Sevilla for £11.75m (his release clause), and picked up Aitor Fernandez for £1m to take his place on the bench. Jon Morcillo went to Fenerbahce for £7.5m after a poor showing of zero goals and five assists in 26 appearances across the whole 23/24 campaign. Nico is out of the B team again and has taken his place as a regular starter on the right. Juan Artola also brought up to be an impact sub after an impressive 13 goals and 16 assists across 40 games in LaLiga 2 last season (remember the B team just struggled to avoid relegation!). He's not set the heather alight - zero goal contributions in 15 appearances so far, but I need squad depth and he's it.
Speaking of squad depth, our lack of it is showing again. We got off to a great start to the season, fighting for top spot, but as the games came in thick and fast towards the end of the year we just didn't have the legs to play at full intensity every game. After 18 games we're now 3rd on 35 points, already comfortably behind Real Madrid in top spot on 42. The B team just about struggle to keep their head above water, sitting in 16th in LaLiga 2, two points above the relegation places. Fortunately players seem to be developing well in that team, and with no further departures planned from the first team I may leave a settled team there for a few seasons to try and fight our way up the table - salary cap is our main issue there. Some players currently in the Basconia squad will be in a position to move up too - I'm softening on the idea of trying to get Basconia into the simulated leagues as I just don't think I'll have the squad depth to sustain it - anyone who isn't able to play at least semi-regularly for the B team can go out on loan.
It hadn't really been my intention, but I'll probably play this save without recruiting any non-Basque U-16s. I spend enough time going through scout reports for the Basque intake every year, it would spread the scouts far too thin to try to catch the best Spanish-only players too.
0 -
And so ends the 2023/24 season.
After a poor start of one point from our first three games (the first away to Real Madrid, in my defence!), we gradually found form and worked our way up the table. It seems the damage was done though, as we never mounted a serious title challenge - in fact, our season was defined by a battle to fight our way into the top four for a champions league spot. We spent the bulk of the season floating between fourth and fifth place. Two away defeats to Levante and Atletico Madrid (where we were robbed!) threatened to fatally wound our chances, but a 1-0 home victory over Sociedad followed by a 3-1 dismantling of fallen giants Barcelona kicked us into gear and we took 28 points from the final ten games of the season, moving up into third for the first time after the final game of the season.
Contrary to our poor early season league form, we did manage to follow up a 4-3 win over Real Madrid with a 2-1 defeat of Barcelona to pick up the nobody-cares Supercopa trophy, and we did well to finish second in a tough Champions League group (Liverpool, Milan, and Sporting), until that adventure was swiftly ended by the merciless PSG in the first knockout round.
All in all I'm satisfied with this season, though our lack of squad depth was really shown up. I worry about the DM partner for Vencedor, with Dani Garcia leaving at the end of this season and Vesga in a bit of a decline - one of the B team will need dropped in at the deep end next season. Speaking of the B team, after a similarly poor start (and one sacked manager later), the eventually clawed their way out of the relegation spots and survive to play another season in LaLiga 2. One of the real bright spots of their season was the development of Sergio Urritia who was one of two Urritia wonderkids in my first youth intake. Although still only 17, he now has a legitimate argument for breaking into the first team, which may necessitate me moving Nico Serrano back into midfield as Villalibre and Karrikaburu are the current top picks for the two striker roles with Nico the rotation option. I'm not against this, because Berenguer is out of his depth, Jon Morcillo has been disappointing, and Inigo Cordoba could possibly be moved on too as he comes to the last year of his contract. The other wonderkid from that intake, Raul Urritia, is somewhat further behind in his development and is still in the Basconia squad (though Man Utd are interested). I've no idea how they've done this season being outside of the simulated leagues, but fingers crossed they pop up in the third tier next season for some simulated gametime.
Very little transfer activity this season - no sales, and after a mammoth scouting operation where we assessed many hundreds of Basque teenagers only one caught my eye - a newgen from Osasuna who I signed for £11m and who will hopefully fill one of the wide midfield roles once Inaki Williams is in decline. Certainly it seems my concerns about an overabundance of wonderkids was misplaced because 2023 really seemed to be a poor season for Basque newgens. Scouting of the 2024 intake is underway. Thus far no newgens have made more than cameo appearances for me, but next season should see that start to change.
My one major oopsie this season was Raul Garcia - I had wanted to put him into semi-retirement as player/coach at Basconia, but hadn't moved him into the C team before offering him the contract. Player/Basconia coach wasn't available in the contract options so I stupidly offered him player/U19 coach and now I can't move him to Basconia! He's a rubbish coach too. Perhaps the biggest change of this season has been my adoption of the star attributes skin, which has caused quite a shift in my attitude towards player roles and selection. There's something strangely liberating about having less data in this game, and I've been leaning more on the coach feedback which I've traditionally ignored.
0 -
On 28/11/2021 at 15:26, xabiorbaiz said:
Really enjoying playing this season as Athletic. Finished 2nd first season. Started second season in a similar way. One thing that is annoying me though is, why do none of the regens speak Basque? I'd hoped to make Basque the squads first language but unfortunately only few speak it. Must be a bug if no regens ever speak it! Can someone a few seasons in have a look and see if they have any basque speaking regens?
I've had a look, and 2 regen cycles in there are no newgens with Basque as a language. Very few players in the game with it at all actually.
18 hours ago, ernemann said:In my test save it happened in season 2 or 3 but only when my b-team Got promoted to La Liga 2 😏
I noticed midway through season 3 that Basconia are now playing in Spanish Federation 3 Gr 4 - I believe one level lower than the game allows unmodded - having started the first season without a division. This means they should now be a viable option for promotion. I'd love to have the B and C teams in the second and third divisions respectively, would provide a really great pathway for youth. Just a shame I can't see how they're doing relative to the other teams in the league just now.
0 -
22 hours ago, sebastian_starttrbts said:
You'll need to have a look at the player personal details panel.xml again and increase the width of the panel elements. The first value for layout (100) in line 21 is the one you are looking for I assume:
<container class="plain_box" appearance="" red_replacement="primary" default_height="230" priority="1" gap="0"> <layout class="arrange_horizontal_attachment" layout="100,500,15,-1" offset="0" gap="0"/>
Hey there, thank you for your feedback. I'm glad you enjoy StarAttributes.
I am always looking for potential improvements, but they'll need to complement the playing style I would like to support. For example, I feel like an "instant result"-button would be completely wrong in this experience, since it is mostly about watching the players' behaviour on the pitch.
Please feel free to suggest anything and then I will think about it.
Did you follow the instruction on the thread's opening post on how to customise the colour of the attribute stars?
I tried to reproduce the issue you described, but everything seems to be alright:
And concerning your question: I feel like Dani_dots created and own polygon in his skin, therefore it should work, but to be honest I have not even a clue on how to create something like this at the moment.
EDIT: This is Dani_dots awesome approach:
I couldn't get the colours to work for love nor money last night, although for some reason as soon as I start it up today it's working. Definitely got caching disabled so who knows. For the polygons, I'll just wait and see who comes up with what. The stars in place of numbers have already caused a shift in how I view my players for both selection and development so really keen to see how I get on!
1 -
One potential bug I've found in this having just started using it - I set custom colours and attribute thresholds and these show up correctly in some view (such as the training report below)
Switching to the player's overview or attribute view shows the default colours instead (although they do change with changing thresholds), although strangely the training / progress views under the development tab show the custom colours.
I've tried reloading the game but no change.
EDIT: Somewhat related question - is it possible to create custom spider / radar graphs to replace this attributes list entirely? For instance three graphs for Technical, Mental, and Physical attributes, where the Physical graph would consist of, say, Speed (acceleration and pace), Movement (agility and balance), Strength (jumping and strength), and Endurance (natural fitness and stamina)? I know sod all about skinning, just that I'd like to move to a more "natural" means of reporting a player's ability.
0 -
Season 2 review: Glory to Athletic Club!
We left off in the last post at the start of February, holding second in the league secure without being too close to Real Madrid at the top. At that point we had been humbled in the Champions League, suffering the ignominy of falling into the Europa League as the "good losers" of our group.
February started with a 1-0 loss to Sevilla, ending our progress in the Copa Del Rey at the quarter finals, which was then followed by a 2-2 draw with Levante. After that though, we went on a run of nine straight wins, including two brutal extra time wins away to Sporting and Galatasaray in the Europa League. Those single-leg knockout rounds are awful! With such a focus on maintaining our own winning run, I had taken my eye off the competition and it was a very pleasant surprise to find ourselves top of the league at the end of March. We hit a grueling schedule after that, including a triple-header against Villarreal with a league game sandwiched between two Europa League quarter final ties. We won the league game 1-0 and squeezed through in Europe by following up a 3-0 home win with a 3-1 away defeat. A lack of strength in depth was showing though, and two draws against Leganes and Valencia saw us drop behind Real Madrid again, and a 3-1 defeat away to the league leaders then a 2-2- home draw against Sevilla effectively spelled an end to our title challenge. Things proceeded to get worse as we went into the Europa League semi-final first leg away to Lazio and found ourselves 2-0 down at half time with barely a shot on target to show for ourselves. Some harsh words int the dressing room and a slight tactical tweak saw us regain our sense of self, and goals from Muniain and Karrikaburu saw us claw back to 2-2, before Mikel Vesga's first goal in four years grabbed a dramatic 94th minute winner, and a 1-1 draw in the return leg saw us into the final! Four wins and two draws in the next six league games wasn't enough to reignite our title challenge though, with Real Madrid being crowned champions with a few games to spare. Only the Europa League remained, with an all-Spanish final against Valencia. A 13th minute opener for Valencia was swiftly reversed by a double from Karrikaburu in the 22nd and 27th minutes, and from there we really took control of the game, dominating possession and chances. A rude intermission came in the 73rd minute with a thoroughly undeserved equaliser, but this was again quickly cancelled out by Inigo Cordoba in the 75th minute for what would eventually be the winner. Athletic Club had won the Europa League! On, then, to the last day of the season and a 3-2 loss in a dead rubber away to Levante may have put a dampener on the end of season, were it not for a heroic 2-1 win for the B team (the bizarrely prolific Youssouf Diarra grabbing the winner) which grabbed them the last playoff spot. This led to the most insane game of football I have ever seen - a 10-9 victory for Bilbao Athletic against Lugo in the playoff semi-final! A truly remarkable game where we came back from 4-0 down after 20 minutes and were still 9-7 down in the 88th! Youssouf Diarra scored seven(!) in that game and I almost feel bad that I'm letting him go at the end of the season. This was followed up by a slightly more sanguine 6-3 final win over Alcorcon, with Diarra once again making his point with a hat trick. Sorry Youssouf, but you'll never make it into the first team and the wonderkids need game time! I can see a tough season ahead in LaLiga 2, but hopefully one which will pay off in terms of development.
0 -
14 hours ago, bowieinspace said:
I'm going to come back to my Athletic save at some stage. For now I've decided to splinter the save and turn it into a trophy hunting save. I saved a copy so I can come back to where I left off in the future.
I wanted to explore some tactical concepts having had success for the 3-4-3 variant with two AMC's with Athletic, while chasing trophies! So I resigned from Athletic and took a job at Roma, where I am going to try and win all the competitions available in Italy with a box 4-2-2-, before moving on to Germany, France and England. Goal to win all the major european trophies/leagues with a variety of formations. Should be fun!
Good luck! I did something similar with FM20, left it off in charge of Corinthians playing a one at the back formation with four in the DM line - essentially an extremely high pressing tactic that took advantage of the overpowered gegenpress. Ran out of steam when Red Star continuously knocked me back even after I'd won every league I'd competed in.
0 -
I've come to the end of the January transfer window in season 2 - finally managed to punt Inigo Martinez to Milan on deadline day for £2m after dropping him into the B team for the month. Good riddance to bad news as far as I'm concerned, average player and a terrible attitude. Unai Simon can get his well deserved raise now. Milan also snapped up Julen Jon on loan after our DoF inexplicably accepted and confirmed the deal with a playing time of "future prospect", despite the development list clearly stating he should be a regular starter for any loans. At least they're paying his wage. Ezkieta, Zarraga, and Vicenta all departed as well for a combined £1.25m. Arrivals were Alvaro Fernandez for £3.3m (he wanted the same salary as Ezkieta was asking for and is just generally the better option), and a newgen from San Ignacio with good mentals and personality but pretty poor physical & technical attributes - filler for the youth team basically. Nico Williams was recalled early from a poor loan spell (only 1 appearance) at Elche in around November and is currently splitting his time between the B team and first team again.
There were also some eyebrow-raising offers from top clubs for two of the "filler" newgens I signed on a free in the summer - Imanol Agirre and Eder Iribarren. Agirre didn't want to accept the offer than came in because he wanted to go another club instead (PSG instead of Man City or something like that) so wasn't upset when I turned it down - I immediately signed him to a new contract and upped his release clause from £10m to £150m. Iribarren got upset that I turned down Man City's offer, but he already has an £80m release clause so not too worried there - I've sent him out on loan to Zamora in the third tier instead in the hope that it'll remove his unhappiness and I can sign him to a new contract with at least a longer term and maybe a higher release clause too. Either way, it certainly seems worthwhile mining the non-league Basque clubs for talent! I'm predicted another golden generation this year so maybe FM22 is just a bit too keen at handing out wonderkids at the moment.
As far as performances go, we're flying - currently in second place on 38 points from 18 games (W12, D2, L4). Real Madrid are up front on 46 points but have played a game more, Villarreal breathing down our necks in third on 36 points. Raul Garcia is fading after a lightening start - after five goals in the first five league games he's now still on five after 11, and becoming more of a bit-part player. Villalibre is our main man up front this season and top scorer with 9 in 16 league games (12 in 22 overall), playing up front with either Inaki Williams or Karrikaburu (who still contributes to the B team too). Imanol and Dani Vivian have filled the gap in defence left by Martinez, and Berenguer is becoming a little more of a bit-part player again. Vesga has had a couple of big injuries and with Dani Garcia ageing I'm starting to look towards a longer-term partner for Vencedor in the DM roles. Another one of the newgens Aitor Dominguez (signed for £9m from Sociedad) is nowhere near LaLiga level but as the best of the prospects has been getting some sub appearances when we're a few goals ahead and a couple of starts against lower league teams in the cup too, but mainly he's a regular starter for the B team and will likely be for the next full season too. Beñat Gerenabarrena is the only other person I think might be a candidate for the DM role; my coaches love Junior Bita and have him as a 4-5-star prospect but I don't think his physicals will ever be there for a defensive role. The "golden generation" coming through is, by the looks of things, going to be 2 CBs and maybe an AMC as far as likely first team prospects go, so I'll see when they come in whether either of the CBs might be a candidate for re-training.
tl;dr Inigo Martinez is my nemesis (and a wage thief) and you should sell him first opportunity you get.
0 -
I've just come to the end of the transfer window at the start of season 2. We've made a flying start, with five wins and a draw from 6 matches (the ageless Raul Garcia has scored five in five and his stats are actually improving, and with three in six Muniain has already bettered his 2 in 36 from last season!) - level on points with Real Madrid who have picked up Mbappe on a free and are hammering sides for fun. They wanted Inaki but I told them to sod off and he wasn't interested anyway. No significant departures - Ander Capa left for £6m but he wasn't anywhere near the team anyway, and nobody wanted Inigo Martinez so he's now in a huff and wanting to consider his options once his contract's expired. I want him off the books so I can give Unai Simon an extension. A fair few signings picked up though, all newgens;
The top three were the pick of the scout's recommendations and, assuming they develop and stay with me should mean I don't need to sign a midfielder for the next ten years! The rest were hoovered up from smaller Basque teams to fill the youth squad - none much above a 3 star potential but all good personalities so hopefully they drag the general team personality up and if one or two become squad players it's a bonus.
0 -
Am I right that there is just no way for Basconia to ever get promoted in this year's game?
0 -
48 minutes ago, bowieinspace said:
My tactical is a through ball fest. Some of the football is beautiful. I'm certainly not having the cross heavy/aerial goals style some are:
PIs:
CBs - Close down less, the outside centre backs are set to stay wider. I found that combo rather than the wide centre back role itself was better.
HB/DLP - Close down more/mark tighter
WMs - Run wide with the ball, sit narrower. Mark AML/R (or MR/L)
AMs - Roam, stay wider
AMa - Close down more, stay wider
Originally I had the defence to force opposition inside, but I wanted the 3 cbs to stay somewhat narrow, with the defensive midfielders and wide midfielders being the ones to close down the flanks if we were becoming stretched. I had issues maintaining that structure with force opposition inside as the centre backs would run wide to close down when I didn't want them to.
Attacking wise the major adjustment I made was to pass into space, play wider and play at a higher tempo. I want to expose the space behind defensive lines with the AF and AMa acting a bit like a shadow striker. We defend in a 5-2-3 or 3-4-3 depending on phase, and attack in a 3-2-1-4 a lot of the time. Counter press works really well because we have a solid first line of defence with a fair few players pushing against their defence, and I've found high pressing in this game to be a bit awkward, so higher line of engagement and prevent short gk distribution work well for what we want to do. We distribute short to draw the opposition onto us, with the 3-2 formation, wide midfielders sitting narrow and the AM's offering an out ball we play through basically any press.Only teams that have really out played us in the last two seasons in a big way are United and Liverpool.
I'm quite surprised to see Karrika in the AF role as that's one I've especially had no luck with as a lone forward (I'd typically go PF). I guess the two AMs will mean he has far more opportunities to get on the ball though. Do you have any issues getting through deep defences (I'm guessing not by the massive goal difference)? I started off with a higher line of engagement then eventually dropped it lower to draw deep defences out otherwise my runners had no space to break into, and through balls were either straight to the keeper or out of play.
0 -
5 minutes ago, bowieinspace said:
2023/24 Season Review - We Are Ridiculous
This was probably one of the most insane seasons I've ever had on FM. I've had good seasons before, but this was just ridiculous due to the level of players we have. We obviously have good players, but nothing that should allow us to achieve the type of performances that we did. Tactically, I am doing something that is causing the match engine some issues, but is not ultimately infallible.
League
103 points, nearly 100 goals scored, best defensive record. One loss all season, to Osasuna in a game that we dominated. Karikkaburu and Serrano scored 43 goals between them alternating our lone forward role.
We also won the Copa Del Rey and the Europa League, beating Barca in both finals. In the Champions League we didn't quite make the knockouts - we were seeded 4th for the draw, and got a pretty decent one - Man United, Benfica and Zagreb. Unfortunately we lost to United at home 2-1 after being 1-0 up with 10 to go, we then lost away to Benfica 4-2 in a game we should have won based on chances. We then beat Benfica at home and overturned the head to head, but Benfica beat Man United to overtake us on the final match day.
Transfers
In - Hugo Guillamon - Ok so a decision was made during the beta period, I'm not sure if this was fixed for the main release. Guillamon was born in San Sebastian and Athletic were interested in signing him (Alkorta confirmed it), but in game his place of birth is wrong and he has no Basque nationality. I decided during the beta that he is a player I was keen to sign, so I scouted him and checked what price I could negotiate. I then waited for the main release to activate this transfer by using the in game editor. I paid the fee I would have paid had I been able to sign him at the moment I could, all the budgets and finances were amended correctly etc so it was a legitimate transfer, and I did it a week before the transfer window so the impacted team could find a replacement. He's been good so far, rotating in central midfield.
Out - Vesga, Zarraga, Nolaskoain for moderate fees, in the 1-4mil range.
I've had another good youth intake, but more exceptional left wingers which is basically all I've had. Not sure entirely what I'm going to do with them all haha.
Congrats, smashing 100 points is always a great milestone! What sort of tactical instructions are you using to get goals out of the lone striker? I tried a similar formation in my tinkering phase with very little success, and in general I can never get lone strikers to be productive.
0 -
Well, my first season is now over. After an inconsistent start defined by endless tinkering by the manager, we finally found tactical consistency with a 3-2-2-1-2 formation with two DMs and two wide midfielders. Having looked a decent outside bet for the title until mid-February, hanging just two to three points behind Barca and Real, a form crash and three points from a possible fifteen to the end of March ended any title hope. In the end Atleti caught us and we finished the season in a "comfortable" fourth place - four behind Atleti and three ahead of Valencia after fielding a team of kids in the final game - a 2-2 draw away to Celtic Vigo. Nine points behind eventual champions Barcelona, which points to how competitive a league it was overall.
Perhaps due to the tactical inconsistency, it was a season defined by the team rather than any standout individuals - the ageless Raul Garcia finished the season on 13 goals; a tally matched by Villalibre mostly in the second half of the season, having done enough in cameo appearances in the early part of the season to force his way into the starting lineup. Another who forced a change of heart from the manager was Alex Berenguer who eventually established himself as first choice on the left of midfield and earned himself a new contract as well. No real breakout stars this season. Nico Williams earned himself 26 appearances but only 8 starts and, with his brother the undisputed first choice on the right of midfield, will probably do well to find himself a loan for 2022/23 to get some more minutes under his belt.
In terms of player turnover, there was little of substance at first-team level. Julen Jon Guerrero was signed from Real Madrid for £1.9m (potentially rising to £2.2m) in the summer, while Jon Karrikaburu's hefty £15.5m release clause was triggered in January to lure him from the enemy. Neither particularly broke ground in the first team this season though, nor were they intended to. Karrikaburu managed 4 goals from 12 appearances (6 starts), while Julen managed a paltry one goal from three substitute appearances. Their time will come though. Moving into the new season, Manex Gibelalde has just signed on with us after his contract at Sociedad expired. My coaches rate him less highly than my scouts did, but for a free transfer and only £2k/week wages there's a decent shout he could become a longer-term partner for Unai Vencedor in the DM roles since Vesga and Dani Garcia aren't getting any younger. Both old hands were handed contract extensions after solid performances through the season anyway.
As far as outgoings go, Oscar de Marcos was quietly moved on to FK Partizan in January for £275k after a mere six appearances through the first half of the season, Balenziaga moved on to Girona for a nominal £245k. On the last day of the transfer window, Yuri was moved out to Porto on loan for the rest of the season, with a mandatory purchase fee of a whopping £15m at the end of the season - daylight robbery for a 32 year old who had managed only six appearances (four starts) with us in the first half of the season, and hardly set the world alight in the eight appearances he made for Porto after that. Martinez complained, naturally, but he can shut the hell up as he's coming into the last year of his contract, wants sold, but nobody wants him due to his insane wage demands. I'm holding out for the £16m we agreed, but I'm at the mercy of Real Madrid getting desperate and making a move. If we keep him for the rest of the season it's no great disaster - he performs well enough, though no better than his defensive partners Yeray and Unai Nunez, but I'd really rather the money.
Onwards to season 2022/23 and, with the manager correcting his oversight of not loading in the third division, some more attention will be paid to B team as a vessel for developing some of our young talents, especially the golden generation who have come through from the academy. Many B & C team players have already been shifted for small sums or released at the end of their contracts to make way for the new generation coming through led by the Urrutia "brothers", and exciting times are ahead.
0
How to get more out of recruitment focuses?
in Football Manager General Discussion
Posted
I'm searching any role and any position, so shouldn't be too restrictive in that sense. I'm also playing with the max database size so there are plenty of players out there who could fit the criteria, they're just not finding them.