_Ben_

My German journey, however, will not be including a visit to Schalke - of which I'd go as far as saying that I've dodged a massive bullet since my interest in their plight:

Germany is coming soon, but I’ve got some thoughts on the locations and the journey I’d want to take - Bremen is not part of that! No. Sadly, the board aren’t interested in engaging with that kind of thing, yet. Maybe our reputation isn’t high enough to allow non-European feeders. The move to Germany would, you’d assume, allow a foothold in both Sweden and Africa - so I expect that to be a key part of the recruitment strategy.

Really good work Shrew - clear to see that this has stuck and you're engaging with it as well as enjoying the success. Will have a deeper dig through stuff over the next day or so but can I get an update on the above lad please. I'd said about a DLF but interested to see what he looks like a year on...

Good luck in Serie A!

Wow. Life, eh? It's felt like I've barely picked up FM for a week or so now but, in realistic terms, I've actually just picked it up, half-focused on a game and then had to turn it off again. Fortunately, even at 50% energy, we're doing pretty well in the league and are well on course to record two league titles in two years. That being said, in between those league games came an - expected - Europa League loss to Chelsea and a pretty shambolic performance, yet again, in the cup final to the hands of Hammarby, who are now back-to-back victors, against us. My policy of small rotations across games is working as we are fresh, not injured and morale is high as we are fighting for places. Seeing players like Okkels, who now has Zsigmond for company on the wings, score a hattrick against Varbergs as well as cameos from Rapp, Kallander and, more recently, a hattrick from Boukama-Kaya, is great and vindicates the 'squad' theory, where I'm using sixteen to seventeen key players who can cover a variety of positions, with the allowances for youngsters to step up where either needed or just wanted. We are still unbeaten in the league since my arrival - a truly fantastic feat. But, given the previous discussion with links to Germany, I do feel that my time here at Elfsborg is coming towards its natural end. I won't jump unless the appropriate thing comes up and, wisely, will not move on when my time is as limited as it is right now - given the huge undertaking of learning the ropes at a new club! --- In transfer business, a Swedish record bid was tabled for Brusberg This, for me, is a fantastic bit of a business. I was getting concerned that, given his great record and international recognition, he'd be getting cold feet - so I used his agent to drum up some interest. Bids, initially, we around €2m - a measly amount for a player of his calibre and a tiny profit on the €1.7m investment on him. Using ultimatums and more and more offering out through negotiating to an acceptable deal then rejecting once a club usurped that meant I was soon looking at a deal of over €10m for a man, who, initially, was concerned at a high asking price at a mere third of that value. I continued, and, eventually, ended with €16m from Werder, where, honestly, I doubt he'll have a huge contribution. For me,that element is a shame but, at the end of the day, football is a business and a cut throat one at that! The other sale was much easier! Mulugeta, despite being a recent signing, had become an absolute nightmare and I was pleased to see him move to Germany. Upon return from a couple of small injuries, he was a little behind in terms of match fitness and form but, for some reason, completely threw his toys out of the pram. Several of those telling interviews followed and his agent played a blinder in stirring up interest from other clubs. After rejecting one offer, trying to remedy the situation, I gave up and fought fire with fire - banishing him from the first team and securing a €2m move to Darmstadt. Whilst not direct replacement, I was able to bring in both Sangaré and Ben-Sha'anan - as evidence of huge growth made in my scouting networks. The young Israeli, now eighteen, moves to pretty much like-for-like replace Mulugeta but, actually, is quite the upgrade on his playmaking and physical ability. I've toyed with using him as a Trequartista, given his good finishing but just felt he lacked a little in his overall ball carrying ability - yet, at such a young age - has the opportunity to grow. The Ivorian, a real coup for us, is the longer term solution to my Libero position, I believe. Whilst I must admit to an element of caution around a defender who lists Heading as a weakness, I think he's tall enough, strong enough and can position himself well enough to get by - maybe at the expense of a little attacking threat from corners. These signings, as I said, mark a nice point in the continued development at looking at undervalued markets. Now I'm not, in any way, about to suggest that the Ivory Coast and, particularly, ASEC Mimosas, are unknown in the FM world, but the value here of the players I've brought in - which excludes Noor Ouma and Mbacke works out at around 3.3% of the income gained from the Brusberg sale. Again, I'm not going to say that these are all as good, nor will all be as good as he is, but - at this level - the conveyor belt of talent is a must. Then, when that can be corroborated with FFP-free players, such as those from the academy, like JBK - below - the potential for profit margins and (of course), sentimental breakthroughs, are even higher. Junior returns from a second loan spell, this time at Osnabruck in the 2.Liga, where he has scored at nearly one in every three and led the line expertly in a team that, despite just earning promotion to the league, were one playoff game away from consecutive promotions. Again, I've toyed with my ideas for the role that he'll play but, given that there is a huge gap in my striker role, I think that's the one he'll fill! A hattrick in his return to the team against GAIS has already pretty much convinced me that this is what he'll do! --- With fifteen games until the end of the season, I hope to be able to dig deeper into the tactical elements that are allowing us to continue our domination and, hopefully, sow some seeds for the next chapter of my career!

Thank you! I always appreciate the kind words, especially when people are finding meaning in my ramblings and streams of consciousness about understanding what I've created or what I've found. Sadly, play time has massively been hit lately but still chugging along with my quest!

Please learn to work through the skin yourself. I’m offering bug fixes etc but not ‘where to find’ or ‘how to change’ advice. This is not my job and continues to push me away from actually wanting to create content, hence the slowdown in releases this year.

I am really not sure. I'd start with removing all of the other skins from your file and restarting the game. It's such a strange one that, essentially, the attributes are not there! One is description (Striker - based on the media) and the other is made up from Player Style and Role (Technical Winger - who has, by whoever is in charge of creating that description, been deemed better as a winger).

That's really interesting and one I can't replicate. Can you confirm you've closed the cleared cache and closed the game, restarted it and then took this screenshot?

I've slept on it and considered that I haven't actually yet finished the project I had here and, thus, would be failing to meet my own targets, let alone those of the board. For that reason, I'm no longer going to pursue interest in this job, instead hoping that my work in Sweden can land me - eventually - a job in the Bundesliga. If things - particularly domestically - become stale or too easy and I don't feel that I have the prerequisite of experience and quality, my journey to Germany could then go via a similar level club in Denmark or Norway or, even, the Netherlands.

Thanks @danielgear, @Shrewnaldo and @Hootieleece! It feels like a bit of a gut reaction after being away from the game for a little while (especially given the extended playing time over the Christmas break) and that does often make me feel like a change is needed. I think you've all made very valid points: the most pertinent being about the realism of the drop, despite the reputation holding. I see this akin to me naturally considering Bradford to be a 'big team' for their level, just because they played in the Premier League some time ago. Schalke haven't been back to the top flight since 2023 so they're just there as a name and, presumably, a huge pile of debt, too but it was their name that drew me in. Interestingly, both Brondby and Rosenberg jobs are insecure at the moment - two opportunities that I also believe are big clubs but neither of whom are any more reputable than Elfsborg. I think the move to either of those would just be more of the same - stabilise the club over a season whilst instilling my style and then pushing on for more titles. Yes, winning the Swedish, Norwegian and Danish titles may look good on my CV but doesn't give me that long term goal I want, and, with the speed I now play at, feels unreasonable in the timeframe. I think that looking back at my initial intent was important - I haven't yet achieved it all here (saying that off the back of one of the worst ninety minutes I've had where I made every tactical mistake going!) and I haven't even been here long enough to see through the development of some of the youngster, a cornerstone of my gameplay. However, long term, I'd like a German job without a B Team, currently leaving me with Bundesliga sides Leverkusen, Wolfsburg (which is also insecure), Heidenheim, Leipzig, Union Berlin and 2.Bundesliga sides Osnabrück, Sandhausen, Wehen, Bochum and Darmstadt. I'm a huge fan of the through model of development - where I am solely in charge from 15 to 45 rather than offsetting to a B Team at a level that is probably poor with staff who also are. I am enjoying my time here at Elfsborg and will look to continue to develop styles and players whilst creating a conveyor belt of talent but I would be short sighted not to keep, at least, an eye out for what is happening elsewhere...

Thanks pal! Appreciate this as I had actually forgotten the path...

A little 'Do I?! Don't I?!' opportunity as I get to open the game for the first time in nearly a week... Ok. Schalke. What a step up! Let's look at their league position... Ok. Not to worry. The 2.Bundesliga is still on a par with the Allsvenskan. Oh, wait. Relegated from the 2.Bundesliga? The 3.Liga still has Dynamo Dresden, Ingolstadt, 1860 Munich and Arminia Bielefeld in it! Their top earner is on €40k per week and half of their Schalke 04 II team players earn more than my top earner.It feels like a huge step down - Champions League to German third tier but it feels like I get the chance to work at the highest of ceilings. I'd love some thoughts, please.

Primary colour of your team. Landskrona play in black I think.

Thanks Jim! Some praise coming from the man whose Gibraltar save was my first inspiration into a different way of playing FM. I've no regrets at leaving Sundsvall as it opens up a new tier for us to operate at.

Basic league stats are here: However, to split positionally - I calculated by creating an average from a player search of players in this division.

I have never made a post stating that FM mirrors real life and I know that FM uses a different engine to calculate possession and, as such, OPPDA, so haven't calculated it in comparison: OPPDA calculation has nothing to do with my skin design. Secondly, my striker is a Trequartista and not a Target Forward - several posts have discussed his role as part of the third man run, rather than a playmaker who moves the ball forward. Lastly, a Statman v1.4 has been out for the best part of a month - this is not the forum for requests for that. This is created in Microsoft Excel.

I haven't, yet! I ordered both at the same time but the latter was delayed by a day, therefore, it is now sitting on my bookshelf ready for an opportune moment to get into it. Nice to see that it's a recommended read, so should be decent!

I posted then hid this because you can’t actually get a ‘list’ of traits - which I swore you could’ve before.

I have been playing around with seeing what I can extract from within the game of late. There are so many things stored away in different places that can be adapted, including the views available on the Team Squad: This is not something I'd use, in this form, but it's made up pretty much entirely of data that is not normally available to select here. Been working hard trying to get chalkboard stats in a position whereby they are all accessible at the same time and I can export, which is something I'd like to do for some data collection within my own save, but I've not had much luck yet. EDIT: Again, big mess but managed to get all the match stats to show on one page. I can't fathom how to make this 'exportable' as the Print Screen function returns a blank page. Whilst not pretty, this data export is the reason I'd be amending said panel...

I've upped continental competitions to Main Stages from all across the world and have also set the top league of the Big 5 (with the goal that, eventually, I will manage there) to full detail as well as the top tiers of Denmark, Finland and Norway so that Scandinavia feels more 'complete' in terms of statistically gathering. I've also set the top two tiers of Sweden and the U19 league so that I can beef up my appraisals on the youngsters I bring in. Because I already had a lot of players loaded - circa 110,000 - adding the new leagues will likely mean that the game balances itself out at 180/190k players, which is more than I've ever used before, too. I, too, am conscious of the drain that this will have: it has moved it from five stars down to three and a half. I'm not trying to rush through this save and find myself doing other things whilst the game progresses but I don't want it to grind to a halt!

@SixPointer - you're back! Lovely bit of tactical work there. I've never been a fan of the 4231 shape with central midfielders instead of defensive midfielders as I worry about the lack of defensive cover. However, you seem to have it covered!

I've been reading a lot lately and that is usually a catalyst for thinking about my FM save, with this one being no different. The book in question is The Nowhere Men: The Unknown Story of Football's True Talent Spotters, tales of how scouts work and vast recruitment networks are built across big clubs. What is also interesting, for me, is that this book was written eleven years ago now, with a focus on Damien Comolli and his time at Liverpool. I know just how much technology and styles have moved on but I do feel that it's such an under-represented part of FM, particularly at the very early age group.. I don't want the say but I want to know what goes on at under 15 level and how that shapes the players I've got coming through: is it my local scouts that do that or do we have foreign based youth scouts that are picking up players from hotspots? What hotspots are they? The list goes on. The other thing that I was interested in is the sheer amount of games watched and how that triggers the recruitment drive and not the other way round. I felt that this was something that I could interpret into FM but, to do that, needed a much bigger database. I have a decent laptop and have pushed the boundaries a little more anyway but my new setup gives me the stats, below: The new intended league setup adds basically all of Europe's playable decent leagues so that I can continue to attend matches and push my scouts out there, building that database of players. Furthermore, adding South Africa and improving the detail level of the CAF Champions League means that I may now be able to do more than just guess on African imports, which have been a target of mine lately. My only concerns when doing this are those random over-aged newgens that are added, and a test save confirmed that they'd likely be some; I just find it really unrealistic to be signing a 27 year old who has no career history to date and, as such, no backstory or statistics to work with. With this though, my plan is to really develop hubs in certain countries - either here or further along my journey, where I can instruct my team to watch matches, learn about players and clubs and bring in the best quality. Since this screenshot, I've also increased the detail level, taking the game speed down to three and a half stars, ensuring I'm getting the most accurate statistics from the some of the loaded leagues. In addition to that, and with absolute influence from @Shrewnaldo - I have created a filter that covers the 49 municipalities of Västra Götaland County (Swedish: Västra Götalands län), an area covering the western coast of Sweden. The county is the second most populous of Sweden's counties; Its population of 1,616,000 amounts to 17% of Sweden's population. The formal capital and seat of the governor of Västra Götaland County is Gothenburg. The political capital and seat of the Västra Götaland Regional Council is Vänersborg. With 23 players at the club currently from Vastra Gotaland, excluding loanees JBK, Collins Persson, Rahm and Wigermo, who all hail from Boras or nearby Goteborg, I really want to create a stronghold in our domestic game too - using our 'quicker than planned' league title to push the credentials and assist in the development of Skovde - our ex-feeder team now at our level, third tier Norrby and second tier FC Trollhättan‎, all producers of this local talent. However, before reaching this decision, I'd already made three more moves in the transfer market: Atilla Zsigmund - a product of the Kalmar youth system, who had his breakout in the second tier, scoring five and creating another five in thirty appearances last term - comes in to fill a gap across several areas. I felt, through pre-season, that we were a little light with another runner in midfield but also a fourth or even fifth winger - given that Rapp, Okkels and Bernhardsson can all be utilised elsewhere, and would often need to be the case in my second string XI. Atilla, at just €700k, is a powerful ball progresser who can also finish his chances. Whilst he is a little rough around the edges, and I noticed this when watching back highlights of him: passing and first touch in particular, he represents a player pretty well suited to a number of the roles I use. He'll rotate in and out of the first team setup over the coming months. Asael Ben-Sha’anan is the perfect example of why I want to beef up the game setup and load more leagues. He's plying his trade in Israel but, astoundingly, our scouting team found him before any of the bigger academies across the continent; surely this has something to do with the lack of a modelled Israeli league. The Hapoel Nir Ramat HaSharon man - a second tier club - has the most goals and assists for his side this season but there is very little other data to drive that. Of course, it's then also impossible to watch him play as the club have no schedule and are not willing to even entertain the thought of a friendly. So he was fully scouted and still was considered a top talent, forcing my hand and €240k from my pocket. It's peanuts, in the grand scheme of things, but it's one of those where - if I want to feel realistic - I don't make. The Libyan's I brought into my youth system were different - that's identification for academy purposes and I mould and develop from there but I wouldn't fancy my club signing a player who they've never watched play! That being said... ...when an agent approaches you will a youngster from the Cook Islands, you kind of have to sit up and take notice, right? Harlem Strickland - at just 19 - is the first ever Cook Island international, I believe - to be on a contract that is not amateur and to play outside of Oceania. Their squad is entirely domestic players with a spattering of players who represent teams in the fifth, and lower, tier of New Zealand football, which is hardly the pinnacle of the Oceanic game! I think it goes without saying that I've never managed someone of this nationality before and, should he actually be any good, have no idea how often the international windows are but, credit where it is due, his agent got him in the shop window. He's a bit of a brute, to be honest and lacks in some pretty basic decision making but my staff feel that there is potential there than can be harnessed. He's good in the tackle, tall, two footed and naturally fit and I think something like a ball winning midfielder might allow him to make the most of that skillset. A conveyor belt of talent is what is needed here. Players who can come in, develop for a short whilst and step into the first team. With interest in several first team players (Soderberg, Wester, Rapp, Ilunga, Brusberg, Kallander, Jeng and Ayari at time of writing), I need to accept that - if the likes of Leverkusen make a bid for Brusberg - he'll, realistically, have to go: you 'can't' keep a young Swedish international in Sweden when Germany is calling! That puts further pressure on my recruitment, my early development and my player pathway but that is one of the parts of the game that I love! --- We are through twelve games of the 2028 season now and we are, quite frankly, making a mockery of the majority of our competition at the moment. Solid progress in the Svenska Cup has seen us reach the final, where we look to avenge last year's defeat to Hammarby as well as strong progress in Europe. Successful knockout tie wins over Famalicao and Dunajska Streda - of Slovenia - have seen us creep into the Semi Finals, where, inevitably, our dream will end as we didn't get the rub of the green with Lens or Gladbach and instead drew Chelsea. Our league season has started brightly, too, with eight goals and none conceded from the first three games. It is, however, just the one game that I want to focus on here, rather than fully rounding up the fixture list. I've thought, and posted, a lot about our in-possession shapes - trying to exploit spaces within opposition defences or overload weaker areas. However, I've rarely talked and, for that matter, thought, too much about our defensive organisation - beyond the movement between the 4231 shape that I employed earlier in the save and the 433 that I often use now. However, the screenshot below, in the 6-1 hammering of Malmo, demonstrates something I've been wanting to achieve for some time. I decided on using two inverted wing backs to create 235 shape in transition, taking into account the fact that Malmo employed a double Mezzala in the middle and, as such, there would be significant amounts of space early in the build up. It was, however, not that which really impressed me. Analysing their team, it became obvious that one particular Mezzala - Kyprianou - was almost acting as a false playmaker and was much deeper than the other one. The ball often went through the DM to the Mezzala who looked to drive forward. To counter that, I set a very specific trap, pushing the player instructions for my centre mid - Noor Ouma - on to mark the space that the DM would employ, then asking Soderberg - my own DM - to push on and mark the space that the Mezzala would employ. This allowed a much better ball winner to be near to their danger man, without changing the way that we transitioned and kept my best ball carrier available. Here, Soderberg wins the ball and is higher up than Noor Ouma but, because I've committed an extra man to that, we are able to counter really quickly via the left sided IW and have a 5v5 going. Over the course of the game, he won the ball four times from the Malmo's Cypriot midfielder and was instrumental in the pre-assist pass as we repeatedly punished them on the counter. A small change but a hugely effective one!

He's got deep lying forward written all over him, for me! Not that you necessarily start with them but could be a good option to change the 2-1 into a 1-2 at some point in a game? Seeing attention to detail, such as this, does make me miss numerical attributes at times!

Thanks for the kind words! I am presuming you mean looking at attributes not on the player profile as they are all displayed differently and, instead, are looking at places like here: To change that, you'd need to go into Football Manager 2024\skins\Statman\graphics\tcs\icons\attribute bar, where you'll see this: Currently, the notepad file for '14' is as follows: <properties> <!-- <record id="image_slices" left="25" right="25" top="25" bottom="25"/> --> <colour id="red_replacement" name="good attribute"/> <colour id="blue_replacement" name="bg"/> <colour id="green_replacement" name="bg"/> </properties> If you change the red replacement to name="excellent attribute" that will then show as gold, or whatever you have defined it as in the settings file. Let me know if that helps!