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Barnsley FC Profit Over Points! Well here we go again another year and yet another new challenge for Barnsley in Football Manager, it seems like no two years are the same. 2 years ago I was writing a similar yet (as you will find out), a more positive prologue than this year’s and when you consider we were relegated that season it tells you pretty much all you need to know about the current situation at the Barnsley. So not to bore you with all the Barnsley backstory which some people won't be particularly interested in, I'll keep the reasons why you should manage Barnsley on FM 20 short but sweet, Barnsley have an exceptionally young squad with an average age of 22.6 according to transfermarkt, there is undoubtedly a lot of potential in this young squad but unfortunately you'll only have 2 Championship quality players at your disposal, a distinct lack of experience and leadership will keep your squad dynamics interesting for sure. Profit is the bottom line at Barnsley and any offers you do receive for your players should be considered greatly and the introduction of the new “Club vision” to FM will make your challenge even harder, realistic and more rewarding should you succeed in staving off relegation. If you're looking for a real challenge in the English second division then this is the biggest of them all! A relegation at the end of the 2017/18 season leads us directly to last season. The 2018/19 season began with the appointment of German head coach Daniel Stendel, who became an immediate hit with the fans after a 4-0 opening day win against Oxford United. His passion and high pressing style were akin to Jurgen Klopp, who you’ll all be well aware of. Our early season form left us going into the January transfer window in 4th place, with a huge chance to claim a top two spot by the end of the season. However instead of investment into the team to give us the little push that would surely give us an outstanding chance for promotion what did the board decide was best? Well obviously it was to sell one of our best players in Brad Potts, which I accept had to happen given the interest from Championship Preston and I believe most of the fans accept this is what we are. However the part which was a little confusing was the decision to sell, an impact sub in George Moncur who specialised in turning up for 45 minutes a season namely against Peterborough, to Luton Town who at the time sat in the automatic promotion places themselves, selling to promotion rivals at such a pivotal point in the season was a real indicator for the motivations of the board, which are now more than clear as I write this. January left a somewhat of a sour taste in the mouth, with many fans wondering whether we'd been sold short of promotion by the board, with a string of seemingly odd signings, such as Jordan Green and an even more strange addition in George Miller from Middlesbrough who at the time was having a hapless loan period at Bradford, where he would stay for the rest of the season. These signings added little to nothing to the squad and overall left us in a weaker position than we were before. Fortunately no thanks to any investment from the board, we managed to squeeze over the line with a depleted squad and pip Sunderland and Portsmouth to 2nd spot behind Luton. With promotion back to the Championship secured at the first attempt most fans were happy to give the owners their backing, despite some worrying signs from the January transfer window and support them fully going into the all important summer, ahead of what would surely be a tough Championship campaign. However many people's suspicions about the boards real intentions were realised with the loss of key players such as Adam Davies, Liam Lindsay and Ethan Pinnock. These three players had formed the heart of the best defence in League 1, ripping this defence has turned out to be complete suicide leaving us miles short of quality at the back. Without doubt however the most controversial exit from Oakwell this summer was the sale of last seasons top scorer Kieffer Moore to Wigan for between £2-4 million. Now selling to a potential relegation rival in Wigan is something we have previous in if you remember. There have been various rumours around Moore's departure, with some suggesting he wasn't wanted by then Daniel Stendel or that he'd become a disruptive member of the squad in a bid to pursue his move to Wigan, however the “replacement” for Moore is somewhat of a joke in all honesty. Patrick Schmidt came to Oakwell from Austrian side Admira Wacker for considerably less than was brought in from the sale of Moore. I feel sorry for Schmidt he's barely had a kick for us this season and if he can't get in this side I doubt he's even up to much at League 1 level let alone Championship. There is undoubtedly a massive rift between the board and fans, can you succeed in the Championship, under the new owners model? But enough talking, hopefully I've convinced you Barnsley is the save for you on FM 20 or at least you'll stick around to see how I fair this year. Thanks for reading.

Hello guys. I have been managing Barnsley for 3 years now. In my first year, I won the English FA Cup and got promoted from Sky Bet Championship to Premier League. I the next season, we somehow managed to stay up and not get relegated but were able to win the UEFA Euro Cup. This season we are in the mid table in Premier League and have reached the quarter finals of UEFA Champions Cup. Now, since my team has been playing above expectations in the Champions cup, I am supposing of my chances to win it. On the other hand, I have got a job offer from Schalke 04 for which I have been declared as the leading candidate with odds as small as 1-2. Schalke 04 is at 14th place in the Bundesliga. To be honest, I want a new challenge so I want this job, but then again, on the other hand, I don't want to leave my club until we are eliminated from Champions Cup. But as far as I know, Schalke 04's offer will force me into joining them immediately. I wanted some suggestions on what would be better for my career in the long term as I believe that Schalke 04 must have finances and players better than Barnsley, so I would have a better chance to prove my abilities.

Currently doing a save with Young Boys in Switzerland. Anyone got any recommendations for young English (cheap) players to buy for my upcoming transfer window in jan/end of season? Maybe hidden championship gems?

I recently resigned from my job as the manager of Bharat FC (A club of Indian national Football League) and pretty soon got the job as the manager of Cameroon's international team. I played my first match against Swaziland in the African Nations Championship qualifying round and won 4-0. Now the problem is that my next match is after 84 days ! Please tell me what should I do in these days

Welcome to the Blackburn Rovers thread (FM18) Club Details Status: Professional Nickname: Rovers Founded: 1875 Owner: Venky's London (loves the club) Current Manager: Tony Mowbray League: League One (England) Captain: Charlie Mulgrew Vice-Captain: Craig Conway Squad Personality: Highly Professional Rivals: Burnley, Bolton, Preston, Blackpool, Manchester United Legends: Alan Shearer, Simon Gamer, Tugay, Bryan Douglas, Ronnie Clayton, Kenny Dalglish, Bob Crompton, Tony Parkes, Jack Walker Favoured Personnel and Icons: Matt Jansen, David Dunn, Brad Friedel, John WIlliams, Mike Newell, Michel Salgade, Tim Sherwood, Derek Fazackerley, Ryan Nelson, Mike England, Tim Flowers, Scott Sellars, Colin Hendry, Jimmy Forest Ground: Ewood Park Capacity: 31,154 Corporate Facilities: Average Training Facilities: Superb Youth Facilities: Great Youth Level: 1 Junior Coaching: Good Youth Recruitment: Established Data Analysis Facilities: Average Finances: Okay Transfer Policy: None Transfer Budget: £350k (can be adjusted to £2.7m) Revenue Made Available From Sales: 10% Wage Budget: £205,150 p/w Media Prediction: 1st

Life has never been dull as a Barnsley fan over the last couple of years with a relegation and a promotion coming just 2 years apart. Barnsley haven't hit the heights of the Premier League since the 98/99 season and have spent more time seasons than any other in the second tier of English football 76 years to be precise, the club are also the first club to play 3000 league games in the second tier. The club has undergone huge changes to how it does its business over the last 5 years, from signing the dark days of signing past it journeymen like Jonathan Greening and Emmanuel Frimpong and the Prince of Egypt Mido, to being one of the first sides to invest in young home grown talents like Alfie Mawson and Conor Hourihane (Irish but it still counts) and sell them on for profit a concept very similar to that of “Moneyball”, which I will get onto to in a minute, which is a strategy now being copied by many a club, some with a lot more financial clout than ourselves meaning to survive we must adapt! “Unless?......” An investor with the financial clout to compete against even the biggest of spenders in the Championship, Chien Lee and Paul Conway are in current takeover talks with currently terminally ill owner Patrick Cryne (who doesn't expect to see the end of the season alive), Chien Lee is the co-owner of Nice Football Club and has seen Nice rise to 3rd in Ligue 1 behind only Monaco and PSG a remarkable achievement. Despite the two clubs obvious disparities there are a lot of similarities between the clubs do business. Under the new ownership at Nice a large crop of young players have been brought in and developed to be some of the most sought-after in Europe with the likes of Jean Michel-Seri, Malang Sarr and a prime example of how the “plan” works with Dalbert moving onto Inter Milan this summer for £18,000,000 which is 10x what he was bought for in the summer of 2016 by Nice. The reason I mention “Moneyball”, is because Billy Beane former General Manager of the Oakland Athletics Baseball Team, famous for devising the new stratergy for scouting based on ffinding hidden values in players you might not think are worth anything, is set to be a major part of this proposed takeover, leaving Barnsley with a very interesting narrative going into this years FM. After a successful 2016/17 season, where Barnsley were comfortably stationed above the drop zone in 14th position the Sky Bet Championship, exceeding all expectations, I've decided that it is my turn to try and once again guide my home town club to safety in the 2017/18 season. The 2016/17 season got of to a fantastic start with wins over Derby and QPR in 2 of the first 3 weeks in the season. The Reds went on providing a great style of play which we had continued from the 2015/16 season which had seen the club win promotion from League 1 back to the Championship at the second time of asking, having come from 24th in the league on November the 28th 2015, under our tactical genius of a manager Lee Johnson, who then preceded to leave and join Bristol City and spend millions to finish just above the drop zone single-handedly thanks to Tammy Abraham. Under hometown her and ex-player Paul Heckingbottom we went on to win the last ever Johnstone's Paint Trophy beating Oxford 3-2 thanks to one of many Adam Hammill inspirational moments. The club then went on to win promotion through the play-offs with a last day win at Wigan (who were already champions) 4-1!!! Sailing past Walsall in the semi-finals 6-1 on aggregate, we went on to face Millwall at Wembley for our second visit in 2 months. Thanks to an Ashley Fletcher early goal, an Adam Hammill wonder goal and a Lloyd Isgrove header the Reds went on to win the final 3-1 securing promotion back to the Championship. The start of the 2016/17 season saw a fresh intake of a number of players including Tom Bradshaw from Walsall and George Moncur from Colchester. the season saw the reds rise to 1 point of the play-off positions thanks to star performances from Conor Hourihane, Sam Winnall, Marc Roberts. However in January a mass exodus -of some of the best players the club had seen fro a good number of years- occurred adding to Alfie Mawson who had gone to Swansea late in the summer, with Hourihane, James Bree going to Villa and Sammy the Snake ending up at Swillsborough (Sheffield Wednesday) this meant that coupled with money made from the sales of Mason Holgate to Everton and the sell on fee of 15% of John Stones' move to Man City from Everton the club had taken in around £15,000,000 - £20,000,000 of transfer money in which £500,000 was spent on Alex Mowatt from Leeds who now finds himself on loan at Oxford United with questionable fitness and work rate issues and Matty James was brought in from Leicester on loan to prop up a stuttering end of season, where collected less points than everybody apart from Rotherham, thus we finished in 14th which I would have snapped your hand off for at the start of the season and would do again this season! Following the 2016/17 season a massive rebuild job faced Paul Heckingbottom and the club, this summer has seen Barnsley bring in 13 players to the club 9 permanent and 4 on loan, including Cameron McGeehan from Luton and the very exotic signing of Mamadou Thiam from Dijon, however once again we found ourselves being raided by teams with more brass leading to the departure of Marley Watkins to Norwich, Josh Scowen to QPR and Marc Roberts (along with the whole Brentford squad) to Birmingham City. This season will surely be our biggest challenge in recent years with a 21st place finish being success (for me at least). Hopefully you'll all join me on possibly one of the hardest challenges on FM18!

I have play until seasons 2025/2026 and i find a bug that 3matchs in 3days on 26th,27th and 28th December 2025. Picture attached. You can see the date of Norwich, Aston Villa and Hull.

Welcome to the Sunderland AFC thread (FM18) Club Details Status: Professional Nickname: The Black Cats Founded: 1879 Owner: Ellis Short (willing to listen for offers) Current Manager: Chris Coleman League: Championship (England) Captain: John O'Shea Vice-Captain: Lee Cattermole Squad Personality: Determined Rivals: Newcastle United, Middlesborough Legends: Kevin Phillips, Bobby Kerr, Jim Montgomery, Len Shackleton, Ian Porterfield, Gary Rowell, Charlie Hurley, Bob Stokoe, Nial Quinn Favoured Personnel and Icons: Kevin Ball, Peter Reid, Vic Halom Ground: Stadium of Light Capacity: 48,707 Training Facilities: Excellent Corporate Facilities: Good Youth Facilities: Excellent Youth Level: 1 Junior Coaching: Adequate Youth Recruitment: Above average Data Analysis Facilities: Average Finances: Okay Transfer Policy: None Transfer Budget: £2m (cannot be adjusted higher) Revenue Made Available From Sales: 50% Wage Budget: £538,375 p/w Media Prediction: 7th

So i currently am sitting in the bottom 3 with Ipswich and on most FM games i start with Ipswich and fail but this time I want to seek some help generally. The formations that I've been juggling between 442, 4231 wide and 4231 DM wide and these are the tactics I'm using (below). I have tried dealing with the problems with some loan players due to the inferior budget that I have to the league but its just not working. This is my first time posting on this forums so if ive missed anything out then just say cos I'm a noob and ill try and respond with a screenshot or whatever information as quick as possible. Below is my tactics (link) and an injury crisis (picture) i have had in my first season within the first few weeks of the save. I've just got to the point where the mood in the dressing room with some players is getting worse. (http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1247479767) - My team instructions (http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1247490168) - My tactics page with recent match analysis which has barely changed since start of season

As you could imagine this is not related to Stalin's famous economic plan, it's my FM18 project with PNE, the historical English club well known for their invincible season back in 1888-89, now I'm going to bring back those glory days to Deepdale, I set a quite ambitious goal for this challenge, winning the Champions League in five years from the start of the game. A promotion in 1-2 season would be highly needed, then I'll have 4-3 years to qualify and finally win he UCL, not easy and probably it will take more than five years but if you aim high you won't shoot your foot off... I'm using the last official database to play this. Quick facts Transfer budget: 2.5M euro Wage budget: 11.3 M Deepdale stadium: 23.400 all-seater Great training facilities Average youth facilities and recruitment I started the save some days ago and I'm in February while I'm writing this opening post, so a quick recap regarding our transfers is needed, I only spent 575k, but in January some big offers arrived for two of my players: Jordan Hugill (St) and Ben Pearson (Dmc), I was glad to sell Hugill cause he was only a rotating option in my squad but I refused the money for Pearson, surely one of my best players and a leader in the dressing room as well, unfortunately the board accepted the 20M (could become 26) offer from Leicester and sold him. After that some young players joined PNE on loan, I'm going to test them carefully and see if they could have a future here. Anyway the team is still competitive as we're doing well in the league with my 2-4-4 tactic, our current style of play is mainly focused on scoring more than our opponents and the overall record confirms that: 78 goals scored in 34 games (51 conceded). We're leading the Championship right now even if is still a tough affair with many teams really close, I really hope to avoid playoffs (I hate them...) but everything could happen here. Thanks for reading and feel free to ask if you want to know more, more updates will follow here and on twitter: @Armchair_Gaffer , by the way, the title of this thread is an obvious homage to sir Tom Finney, a true PNE legend.

Hi Guys, Not sure if this should go in here but i was looking for ideas to replace the backroom staff. Leeds don't have the best of staff and i want to concentrate on getting the backroom right. Any ideas?

So i'm here again, i feel like my posts have been disgarded by Sports Interactive. I've been playing this game since 2006, i am an avid gamer and put thousands of hours into each game. The problem now is everytime i post a problem you guys are looking at other petty issues. This is a footballing manager game that follows the real rules of the footballing world and their governing bodies. And i will ask again do you guys even know that the legal requirement of rest between games is 48 hours? Please tell me you know this? Obviously you don't, yes i get it! it is a game. But the problem is i want to feel like a real manager, and as most foreign managers in the premier league and most English leagues do is complain about the christmas period and the amount of fixtures! I like the challenge of this, but when the game schedules 3 games in 3 days is a little ********. I'll post two pics of different saves. please do not just disregard this post again!

Official Sheffield Wednesday Thread Carlos had a Dream Name: Sheffield Wednesday Nickname: The Owls Year Founded: 1867 Chariman: Dejphon Chansiri Current Manager: Carlos Carvalhal Club Captain: Glen Loovens Country: England League: Championship Media Prediction: TBC A bit of history Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a football club in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England who play in the Championship, the second tier of the English leagues. Sheffield Wednesday are one of the oldest professional clubs in the world and the third oldest club in the English football league. "The Wednesday", as they were known until 1929, were founding members of The Football Alliance in 1889 and its first champions. They joined The Football League three years later and were also one of the founding members of the Premier League in 1992. Since joining the Football League in 1892, the club has spent most of its history in the top flight of English football but have not played at this level since being relegated in 2000. The Owls have historically been one of England's more successful clubs, and have won four League titles, three FA Cups and one League Cup. Wednesday have also competed at European level, most notably in the UEFA Cup in 1992-93 where the Owls met German club Kaiserslautern amongst others. The 2014–15 season saw Wednesday welcome a new owner, Thai businessman Dejphon Chansiri, who purchased the club from Milan Mandarić for £37.5m. Chansiri stated his aim to get Wednesday back in the Premier League by 2017, the year of the club's 150th anniversary. Along with replacing existing manager Stuart Gray with Portuguese coach Carlos Carvalhal, he invested heavily in the club's facilities and playing squad, with players such as Fernando Forestieri and Marco Matias arriving for seven-figure sums. The 2015-16 season saw Wednesday reach the Championship play-off finals with a 6th place finish where they played Hull City at Wembley Stadium. Unfortunately Hull were too strong for the Owls on the day and Hull were promoted at the Owls' expense. Hillsborough Since 1899, Sheffield Wednesday have played home matches at Hillsborough Stadium in the north-western suburb of Owlerton, hence their nickname The Owls. Hillsborough is currently an all-seater ground with a capacity of 39,812. The Squad Goalkeepers Kieran Westwood, Joe Wildsmith, Jake Dean, Cameron Dawson Right Backs Jack Hunt, Liam Palmer Left Backs Daniel Pudil, Centre Backs Tom Lees, Glen Loovens, Vincient Sasso, Sam Hutchinson Right Midfielders and Right Wingers Marco Matias, Modou Sougou, Will Buckley (loan) Left Midfielders and Left Wingers Ross Wallace, Urby Emmanuelson, Adam Reach Central Midfielders Kieran Lee Jose Semedo, Felipe Melo, Barry Bannan, Almen Abdi, David Jones Strikers Fernando Forestieri, Lucas Joao, Atdhe Nuhiu, Gary Hooper, Steven Fletcher Why Sheffield Wednesday? As with a lot of teams in the championship, Wednesday are a sleeping giant who have aspirations to be back in the Premier league. With a good sized stadium and a good base of loyal fans, this is a club that should be back in the Premier League (something a lot of clubs believe). The challenge is to get them there and reestablish the Owls as a premier league team. Enjoy managing the Owls!

Hi, I have completed fixtures for: Scottish Premiership. English Premier League I will also be doing: Championship League 1 League 2 I will up date you as an when I have completed these. League & Data & Fixture update_3119A416-0199-4E1E-9F8B-33D7EEA79B79.fmf League & Data Updates (Scotland Fixtures)_C67C4067-6046-479B-8F96-F3A631FAD1BE.fmf

Having played fmm 2017 for months withiut glitch I've come across something incredibly irritating, whenever I use sugar daddy with any team in the championship I agree a transfer fee (as normal), but when I go to negotiate a contract with a player it won't tell me what they expect (it just says player doesn't believe club can meet his demands) I am just left to second guess what they might be looking for, and I have to offer huge wages for them to accept terms, understandable if i was going for a player in a bigger club, but This happens even if I try to sign conference players. it only started recently and only when sugar daddy is active and as far as I'm aware there was no update so I wonder if somehow my game has become corrupted in some way? i can start a game without sugar daddy and it will be working perfectly and then as soon as I activate sugar daddy the trouble starts. p.s if I start game in any other league (I've just taken Truro from the conference south to the Prem thanks to sugar daddy) then this does not happen, only in the championship, (I am a Leeds fan and not being able chuck loads of money at them and get them into the prem is terribly distressing!!!) p.s.s players out of contract will offer terms as normal. many thanks, nathan

Whilst I build this thread, I'll leave you with this tribute to the late, great, Eamonn Dolan. Eamonn Dolan 1967 - 2016

Hello! I'll try to make this as quick as possible to stop anyone from getting bored. I've recently started a save on FM17 with Burton Albion in the English Championship. Now, to be honest, I haven't had much success this year on FM (sacked by Man City thanks to being 13th in the table in February) so I'm not the greatest of players. One thing I'm really bad for is changing my tactic as soon as it loses a game or two but this time has been different. Let me show you my setup... I know there have a lot of topics on 4-4-2 in the forum recently (and for years) which I have read so apologies for the same formation but I thought I would benefit more from some personal advice. Couple of player instructions: FBs - run wide with ball Left WM - dribble more, cut inside with ball Right WM - stay wider So here's what I'm trying to do. Since I'm Burton I don't have the strongest of squads for the Championship and I certainly do not have the budget other teams do. Because of this I'm looking for a quick, direct, counter attacking tactic. Again, I know so many people have asked for help with this recently but I would really like some help specific to my tactic. My thinking is this: Attacking - quick transitions and quick attacks as far as I'm aware, will probably switch between this and control Flexible - did think about choosing fluid instead and I don't really have a reason not to but I'm not exactly sure what shape to go for Deeper D Line - looking to draw teams forward and, hopefully, leave space in behind for us to exploit Exploit Both Flanks - since I'm using 4-4-2 there's obviously a lack of players in the middle so I thought it would make more sense to use the wings as a means of attacking. Would it be better to take these off and allow the team to attack as they wish? Pass Into Space - well I've dropped the d line to create space so it would make sense to pass it into that space, right? Hit Early Crosses - links in with exploiting the flanks, since we're going to be using the wings I thought it would be smart to hit some crosses when the opportunities there! I've messed about with More Direct Passing but to be honest I don't see a huge difference other than we lump it towards the Target Man more. At the moment I'm rock bottom of the league after 10 games so things are not going too well. In my next post I'll upload screenshots of how it plays and what happens during a match. If you have any initial concerns about the setup then please, please let me know. Also if there's anything else you would like to see just let me know and I can upload screenshots. Thanks in advanced!

Hi! With my current save, my MK Dons side has hit form at the perfect time and it looks like we could potentially make the automatic promotion spots to the holy land that is the Premier League (PL). However, the average age of my squad is 24 and solely made up of Championship quality players and youngsters with high potential. In case we get promoted, I need to have a shortlist of experienced PL players to look at to help boost the experience levels for the PL. Is there a way to filter player searches by Competition Appearances? So far all I can find is the option to filter Domestic competition appearances such as FA Cup, League Cup etc... but no Domestic Leagues. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

So it turns out I suck at managing lowly clubs with little money. I couldn't cut it with Birmingham City and the board expect too much. Well not to worry as Newcastle had no hesitation in bringing me to St. James' Park. The club has money and a fair amount of it at Championship level and attracting players shouldn't be too much of an issue, especially when we reach the Premier League. We've got a damn good squad at this level, if not too good. So I won't really need to invest in the first team. I can set my sights on injecting youth prospects into the academy and getting them trained up. Tctically I'm going for a fluid 4-4-1-1 with thanks to @ManUtd1 . Have been reading your posts on the nearly men of Europe and took some inspiration!

So after getting angry in my last BCFC save (we have a pretty bad team with no funds), I gave it a break for a month or so. Now I'm back to take them to the lofty heights of the Premier League. I don't want to play defensive football, nor do I want to counter opponents (unless needed). Attacking, possession based football is needed at St. Andrew's. Do the current players have what it takes to play this style? Last time out, Che Adams and Fabbrini were barely used. I want to bring them into the starting squad this time in creative roles - hopefully, this will spark a change in our fortunes in front of goal. The aim for the season is to finish in the play-offs - of course. Automatic promotion I believe to be out of site as a team like Blues struggle with consistency. Perhaps if we had a few million to spend we could challenge - who could we sell? On to formations, tactics etc...

Hello! I recently began a career on FMT2017 with Fulham FC in the championship and, having been away from the game for some time, I decided to simply follow all the advice provided by my assistant manager. I've been using his suggested tactic, which is 4-1-2-3 DM Wide... I've left both the roles (above) and team instructions (below) as the defaults for said tactic... Beyond that, I've let him recommend the team selection, and take control of training... During games I've responded to his feedback and observations ; if he says we're only hitting shots from distance, I've instructed the team to work the ball into the box etc. Somewhat surprisingly, this has resulted in the team going on a 15 match winning streak and sitting pretty at the top of the league. But like I say, I honestly can't take any credit for this. However, I've now found myself with a few issues that I hope someone (or many people) can help with. First up, I've noticed that in recent matches goals are much harder to come by than earlier in the season - don't let the scores above fool you as most of the recent goals have come from set pieces or mistakes rather than open play as they once were - and stats are down overall for things likes shots, shots on target etc. I'm putting this down to the fact that teams, chiefly from the bottom half (Blackburn, Wigan, QPR) are now playing decidedly more defensive formations against me than teams earlier in the season, especially given we're now often the favourite. The most common have been 4-1-4-1, 4-4-2, and 4-2-3-1 with 2 DMs. These tactics appear to neutralise the majority of my attacking play, and my once trustworthy AM isn't offering any advice of any worth on how to overcome them. I do have a pretty solid team according to the Overview... But I don't really know where to start with regards overcoming these defensive formations. Please help! Next, my AMs feedback has become really poor. Pretty much every game now has the same three observations: a player (not always the same) is getting skinned too much, a player (again, not always the same but usually one of the CMs) is misplacing many of their passes, and the team as a whole is either misplacing long passes or misplacing short passes. Is this common? Do I need to address these before getting any more feedback? How do I go about addressing the "being skinned" item specifically? Finally, and due to the winning streak, for the last 3-4 games the pre-match feedback has always included one or two players who are overconfident and complacent, and the team as a whole expecting to just turn up and win. How do I address this? As this is FMT there is no option of calling a team meeting, or speaking to players individually. I really hope you can help me out, especially with how I can adapt my formation to overcome more defensive opposition, and maybe how I can adapt my selection, roles, and/or training to avoid the common in-game feedback detailed above. Cheers, -Mic

Hi I am playing currently the dafuge challenge and I find myself in the championship atm. I have in my team a fair share of center midfieldes and strikers so I think that the best tactical shape would be a 4 3 3 but I don't have that much experience with that kind of formation. I know that I want my right and left defenders to go up and be an option but I don't know what kind of playstyle I want so any suggestions you have in your head so that I can inspire myself? So far what I want from this tactic: I want both fullbacks to be an option during attacks I want to keep possesion until a clear options presents I want a lot of movement uptop. Everyone defends. Ok so I went up with this formation: Player Role and duties The top 3 close down much more and tackle harder I have left and right striker move into channels when the team has the ball. The midfielders close down more and the goalkeeper tries to not waste the ball so he slows the pace down and sends it to the full backs. The full backs both have the get further forwards and stay wider. Team instructions Stats after first match. I'll keep playing 6 more matches to see if we play like we want.

BIRMINGHAM CITY FC - GARY ROWETT'S BLUE ARMY Full name Birmingham City Football Club Nickname(s) Blues Founded 1875 as Small Heath Alliance Ground St Andrew's Capacity 30,016[1] Coordinates 52°28′32″N 1°52′04″WCoordinates: 52°28′32″N 1°52′04″W Owner Trillion Trophy Asia[2] Manager Gary Rowett[3] League Championship 2015–16 Championship, 10th Adam Legzdins Tomasz Kuszczak A solid goalkeeper duo that is well experienced on this level. The Polish keeper Tomasz Kuszczak is our starting keeper and Legzdins the clear backup. In under 18-year-olds we have Adam Siviter who seems to be promising one. No additions needed for the first team. Jonathan Grounds Paul Robinson Ryan Shotton Rhoys Wiggins (6 month loan Bournemouth) Jonathan Spector Michael Morrison Paul Caddis Really experienced department for this level. What we might be lacking is one quality centre back and a permanent solution as a left back. We cannot renew the loan deal with Wiggins with the current financial state and Grounds is only good quality for League 1 level. The centre backs department is wide enough but I see Shotton and Spector more as full backs and Morrison is really the only choice. We will be looking to bring someone in maybe next season. Maikel Kieftenbeld Robert Tesche Stephen Gleeson Reece Brown David Davis The central midfield is filled with hard working qualities but we lack on skill, flair and passing ability. I would like to find a midfield maestro in the future. Maybe bringing back Jon Toral one day is an option. I am also looking to retrain one of my wingers to play in here as an attacking option who drives forward and can score some goals. Diego Fabbrini David Cotterill Che Adams Viv Solomon-Otabor Jacques Maghoma Greg Stewart This is an area that I really like. We have many quality players in form of Cotterill, Fabbrini and Maghoma and on the other hand two bright prospects in form of Adams and Solomon-Otabor. Clayton Donaldson Lukas Jutkiewicz (6 month loan from Burnley) Jack Storer Clayton Donaldson has been the first choice for years but I am looking to replace him in short future. Jutkiewicz again will be here only for six months and we don't have the finances to renew this deal. Storer might be promising, it's hard to say as he isn't really that good quality for his age. I will play him in Cup games and under 23s and see how he develops. Tactically my first creation is a 4-5-1 where I use wingbacks to add some width to our game. In attack I want it to work out as and 4-2-3-1 where the CM(A) is given a free role to do his work behind the striker and David Davis will take his place along with Gleeson and looks to give him one easy passing option more. I don't use attacking roles for my full backs for two reasons: one is that on the left hand side I don't feel that we don't have the quality player to get forward and on the right hand side Caddis would be too slow to get back to defend. Down the flanks I have a classic winger in form of Cotterill and an inside forward that is either Maghoma or young Che Adams. The striker role varies a lot and Stewart will not be an automatic first choice. When we are more defensive I will look and try to use Jutkiewicz as an anchor point for us and when we like to press higher I will use Donaldson as a DF and when we are favorites and controlling the game then Stewart will be my main man that drops deep. We are predicted to finish 14th in the Championship but like Rowett's Birmingham always does: we will overachieve. Clearly there are some great teams in this division with teams like Newcastle, Aston Villa and Norwich relegated. They have basically Premier league level squads so it's going to be hard to reach top 3 but behind these three I think anything is possible. Come on you Blues!

Team Strengths In terms of the squad, it's been well built by Rowett (#thanksRowett) with solid options in all positions. Central midfield is definitely the strongest with four players fighting for the starting places. There will definitely be a mix up in preseason to find the strongest pair for my play style. We're also in a good position with what is expected of the team - 16th place. This means we are destined to over achieve and I'm confident we can do that with a minimum of a play-off place. Team Weaknesses For the squad, a solid centre-back and a potent striker are areas definitely in need of improvement. These will be my priority in the transfer window. Funds are limited (500k with 10k left in the wage budget) so going out and signing a 20 goal a season striker and a premier league defender are out of the window. We'll be looking at abusing the loan window somewhat. We'll also be on the lookout for a left-back as Grounds doesn't quite cut it and Wiggins is unaffordable once his loan ends in January. Tactically I don't think we can set out to dominate possession so my immediate thought is to sit back and counter most teams. Preseason doesn't offer too much of a test so I'll be aiming to get the squad used to this approach as well as getting everyone match fit. My initial thought is 4-4-2 with the full backs being predominantly defensive but occasionally overlapping when the chance arises. To counter these runs, one central midfielder will always sit deep to break up any counter attacks and slow the game down. Wingers will set out to get crosses into the box and be supported by the centre mids by getting the ball out to them. One of the big tall men will then be assigned to put the ball in the net. Che Adams will be the second striker aiming coming short for the ball to dish it out to the wingers. A 4-5-1 will be utilised for a tough opposition. ` Come on you Blues! KRO.

I have noticed on football manager mobile 17 that multiple teams in the championship are missing first team players, I am playing as Reading and noticed that they are missing four or five players, summer transfers like Callumn Harriot and Sandro wieser and academy products Liam Kelly and Dominic Samuel, all who have made multiple appearances with the first team this year. But there are many other teams with thin rosters in the league. I am playing with large database turned on as well.