Vladis

November 24, 2023

3 hours ago, ZeroSens said:

Good luck mate, following this, btw, in what app did you created your manager profile image? It looks neat :).

Thanks, mate.

It`s Stable Diffusion Model AI. Here is the link. It`s free (but with some restrictions).

November 24, 2023

SEASON 2023-2024 | OCTOBER

Match with Arsenal is the brightest performance in this season so far. Absolutely mad end of first half with 3 goals in 5 minutes.

No chances in Birmingham and strong-willed draw at home with Everton. 10 games past and we fight hard for every point, sometimes successfully.

November 23, 2023

SEASON 2023-2024 | SEPTEMBER

We definitely should raise our performance if we want to avoid relegation battle. Calendar gifted us "light mode" start but later we will face all top clubs and strong "best of the rest" teams like Aston Villa, Brentford etc. I still have faith in our tactical approach but maybe it`s time to prepare plan B.

November 23, 2023

SEASON 2023-2024 | AUGUST

Opening day was outstanding, though in the first half of match it looked like we will concede at least 5 goals, we just didn`t cope with Sheffield quick counter attacks. No chances at Anfield, hard win over Brighton and surprising defeat in EFL Cup to Norwich. We made comeback after 0-3 in the first half, but in penalty shootout series lost 9-10 (!).

Tbh defending is nightmare in this FM

p.s. is this image readable enough? I play with some free services like Visma to create graphical content, but may will return to common updates with images directly loaded.

November 22, 2023

SEASON 2023-2024 | PREVIEW

Friendly matches

We had enough time for eight fixtures. I`m glad about results but couldn`t be such positive talking about our performance in defense. Hopefully with rising cohesion we will see better collective defensive actions on the pitch

Tactical set-up and proposed First XI

Idea here is to create 3-1-6 in possession while defending in mid-block 4-4-1-1 (4-4-2). Shorter but more decisive passes and quick counter-attacks. I`m not 100% sure it will work in the season as I want but let`s see. And another small tactical experiment: I decided to retrain Nelson Semedo to winger role in AM strata. As we have defensive-minded role on the right fullback side, dribbling and pace of Semedo could be utilized in attack.

Season odds and board expectations

November 19, 2023

MEET THE SQUAD

Goalkeeping line

José Sá | Daniel Bentley | Tom King

Defensive line

Midfield Line

Attacking line

I have mixed impressions about the squad. We have very creative attacking line, first-class goalkeeper, and good quality on the defensive flanks. But I find our midfield weak in comparison with other teams in the league. And I would like to have higher quality of depth in central defensive area.

Key players

José Sá

Matt Doherty

João Gomes

Pablo Sarabia

Matheus Cunha

Young players to watch

Joe Hodge - I have big hopes for this guy.

Enso González - good potential but he should put a lot of work on improving his physic to match EPL standards.

November 19, 2023

I have no complaints about finances or facilities. They are at a very good level. Actually, I have everything at my disposal to progress the club. Though there is the only one crucial factor of the progress - it`s our performance on the pitch.

Meet the Manager

Knight's career has a lot of parallels to the pathway of legendary Stan Cullis. Being professional footballer, he got a serious injury and quite early decided to hang up his boots. And, as like Stan, he was appointed head coach at the age of 31.

November 18, 2023

Stanley Cullis (25 October 1916 – 28 February 2001).

During his term as manager between 1948 and 1964, Wolves became one of the strongest teams in the English game, winning the league title on three occasions, and playing a series of high-profile friendly matches against top European sides which acted as a precursor to the European Cup.

Honours:

First League Champions: 1953–54, 1957–58, 1958–59

FA Cup Winners: 1949, 1960

FA Charity Shield: 1959

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Welcome to Molineux. I have several goals for this save:

Global: To surpass great achievements of Stan Cullis. We need to win at least 4 EPL titles, at least 3 FA Cups and at least two 2 Community Shield.

Important: Win Champions League.

Additional: 1. "Bull`s Challenge". Our player should score at least 307 goals for Wolves in all competitions. 2. "Parkin`s Challenge". Our player should made at least 610 appearances for Wolves in all competitions.

November 17, 2023

13 hours ago, bestbrother said:

Much money knocking around in Scandinavia?

It depends on which leagues you compare with. But in Denmark at least 4 clubs have very decent money. I could talk about FCM which I`m managing. Their owner is the richest man in Denmark. Starting finances are good (about 40M in balance). But income resources are still limited. If we don`t take into account potential prize money from European competitions and transfer fees we`re projected for the loss about 20M. So you need to properly manage your finances, make transfers profit and challenge for good European campaign each year. I think this is applicable to other teams in this region.

November 16, 2023

5 hours ago, Riven said:

HAMMARBY IF | 2023-24

We had a bit of a mid season slump in July...

...starting with a 0-4 at home against Degerfors. They were bottom of the league at that point, so I knew something bad was happening. We tried our best in UECL but unfortunately got FC Twente instead of some gibraltarian team. Good thing is that we can fully focus on the league.

We got on track again pretty quickly after those bad results and we still on top of the league with 6 games to go.

It's going to be hard because Elfsborg is also winning everything and any loss or draw could cost us the title.

PS: We play Elfsborg on the final day of the season so that could be interesting. I know IRL they lost the title on the last match against Malmo so I hope we do the same.

This boy was on the B team scoring and assisting like crazy so I cancel the loan to give him some serious play time. Looks promesing (and he just turned 17):

He has already scored some goals with us, I hope we can keep him a bit more.

Vural looks incredible for his age. I think you can get really good money for him in the future.

Good luck in title battle!

November 12, 2023

1 hour ago, Brian said:

Helsingborgs IF, April 2023

Moving in the first month, we made two singings. Eremenko and recently Coulibaly. Both way to good for our league and as free transfers, but I'm not complaining.

Early form

The best thing is that we are undefeated in our first month. Although our corner defending could do allot better, because in both 3-2 wins we conceded 2 goals from corners.

League table

We are going strong for a play-off spot, although it's early in the season.. who knows. We could be challenging for the title.

Tactics

Making one change since the beginning as we lacked some striking power. Moving the CM-At to Shadow Striker-At.

Wow, Helsinborgs! Surprising to see them in the 2nd tier and surprising to see Eremenko. I thought he already retired. Very talented player, saw a lot of matches with him when he played for Rubin and CSKA.

Anyway, good start to the season, keep up the good work!

November 12, 2023

After release of full game I needed some time to prepare for the save. Made tweaks to db, mostly improving some known mistakes in FCM data and league at the whole. Finally, we are ready to go!

Meet Thorsten Güntner, young and ambitious German manager who cultivates intensive and organized football. He is always relying on a Team, not individualities, and this is reflected in his coaching and tactical style. His vison is also well harmonized with the club vision "determination and unity can create the impossible".

So, as you can see, we are going for some DNA project here in addition for more common goals like trophies. I still don`t have any clear statement about how we will implement DNA into the club, it`s still WIP. But restrictions will affect squad building, tactics, training and staff recruitment. Possibly later I will share more in-depth information about it.

Club background

Major success came to the club in period between 2015 and 2020 when FCM won 3 league titles and national cup. In 20/21 season for the first time in FCM history they entered UCL group stages.

Stadium and Facilities

Top level facilities, modern and cozy stadium which is going to be expanded to 1/1/2024.

Finances

Finances are good. Very good for Denmark. But we definitely need European money if we want to constantly improve the club.

About the squad in next post a little bit later...

November 7, 2023

56 minutes ago, jyny said:

Hi guys,

I've just tried setting up a new game and the size of the database seems ridiculous. Just the English, Spanish, German, Argentinian, Brazilian and Italian league gives me an estimated 83k on a small database. The Italian leagues alone gives me 22k.

Is this a bug or an actual huge increase in the number of people in the game? It seems a big jump from last year's edition.

You can switch game mode to "Original". DB size will be the same as in previous fm editions.

November 3, 2023

Welcome to the one of the most "atmospheric" FM region. Beautiful and unique places, cosy stadiums, ambitious clubs and great number of local talents. Could you build new European powerhouse on the land of Vikings?

In previous FM editions I had some fun with FC Nordsjælland (FM21), Valerenga (FM14). This time I`m going to start with one of the most progressive Scandinavian clubs of last years - FC Midtjylland. Aim is to become "best of the rest" in Europe with strong emphasis on Nordic talents. Widespread network of affiliated clubs with elite youth recruitment should help me with this goal.

October 24, 2023

@XaW thank you very much, I totally agree with you about subjectiveness of speed. Probably I need to start and test how it goes with possible option of removing some of the leagues later. About immersion I`m not far from your vision, though having leagues playable ads more transfer activity and gives more options for loaning out youth players.

So, as I have already mentioned those playable leagues from 1st post give me: 1. Real competitiveness and challenge in European competitions, 2. Fully active transfer market with neighbouring countries. Think I will go this way.

October 24, 2023

3 minutes ago, Arijit said:

I think your set up is fine. You took a good approach to the DB. Top 5 leagues with 2 divisions are fine, so your wonder-kids may be bought by big clubs. On the other hand rarely a Italian or British player will come and play Denmark, hence neighboring nations will be needed with full details, so you can have access to player pool, who will genuinely come and play in your country. I also follow similar approach when setting up my game.

Thanks for reply. I think loading all big nations gives more challenge in UCL over the years. That`s even more important reason for me than transfers.

October 23, 2023

Hi, mates! I have very average laptop for FM (I would say even very slow If you compare with those one in Benchmark Thread here) (AMD Ryzen 7 4700U, 2 - 4.1 GHz, 16Gb DDR4).

With plan to start save in Denmark as full game releases I have dilemma how to set-up balanced game world for both strong competitive fixtures in Europe for long-term and realistic transfer market with all Northern European countries involved.

This set-up I see ideal for me for full immersion:

1. Top 5 leagues (2 tiers)

2. Netherlands, Portugal, Belgium, Austria, Turkey (1 tier)

3. Denmark (4 tiers), Norway, Sweden, Iceland, Finland (2 tiers).

+ All international players and all players with continental reputation from all continents, all players from clubs in continental competitions (for Europe).

So totally 15 countries, 27 leagues, ~90k players (large database and "original" game world, probably minimum detail level).

For last editions my usual set-up was like 10 countries, 17 leagues, ~80k players and I was pretty satisfied with game speed. But with +10 leagues I have doubts would it be much slower.

So, any thoughts would be helpful: will this set-up be fine and (or) can I make something for optimization without much lose in immersion.

October 21, 2023

Love how your alter-ego becomes younger and younger with each new post Is it aspecial Waalwijk air?

October 21, 2023

4 hours ago, matty2323 said:

Fantastic information - really appreciated and informative.

Im curious, in real life i like my teams to play a narrow 4-4-2 diamond. 1 x DM, 2 x B2B CMs and 1 x AM. Traditionally in these formations the FBs are required to provide the width. However, depending on opposition shape, our 2 x B2Bs had the freedom to pull wide and turn the diamond in a wide 4-4-2 diamond and we would have the FBs stay narrower or even invert into central spots.

Im looking to emulate this in FM but I note that alot of the CM "rotations" involve vertical movements (CM to AM etc) but im curious if any of these roles allow horizontal and vertical rotations for midfielders?

I think you could try mezzalas instead of b2b. There natural tendency to go wide opens more freedom to full-backs, wing-backs to cut inside when it's possible to do.