Search the Community

Welcome to the Football Manager 2018 Liverpool Football Club Thread History Liverpool F.C. was founded following a dispute between the Everton committee and John Houlding, club president and owner of the land at Anfield. After eight years at the stadium, Everton relocated to Goodison Park in 1892 and Houlding founded Liverpool F.C. to play at Anfield. Originally named "Everton F.C. and Athletic Grounds Ltd" (Everton Athletic for short), the club became Liverpool F.C. in March 1892 and gained official recognition three months later, after The Football Association refused to recognise the club as Everton. The team won the Lancashire League in its début season, and joined the Football League Second Division at the start of the 1893–94 season. After finishing in first place the club was promoted to the First Division, which it won in 1901 and again in 1906. Liverpool reached its first FA Cup Final in 1914, losing 1–0 to Burnley. It won consecutive League championships in 1922 and 1923, but did not win another trophy until the 1946–47 season, when the club won the First Division for a fifth time under the control of ex-West Ham Utd centre half George Kay. Liverpool suffered its second Cup Final defeat in 1950, playing against Arsenal. The club was relegated to the Second Division in the 1953–54 season. Soon after Liverpool lost 2–1 to non-league Worcester City in the 1958–59 FA Cup, Bill Shankly was appointed manager. Upon his arrival he released 24 players and converted a boot storage room at Anfield into a room where the coaches could discuss strategy; here, Shankly and other "Boot Room" members Joe Fagan, Reuben Bennett, and Bob Paisley began reshaping the team. The club was promoted back into the First Division in 1962 and won it in 1964, for the first time in 17 years. In 1965, the club won its first FA Cup. In 1966, the club won the First Division but lost to Borussia Dortmund in the European Cup Winners' Cup final. Liverpool won both the League and the UEFA Cup during the 1972–73 season, and the FA Cup again a year later. Shankly retired soon afterwards and was replaced by his assistant, Bob Paisley.In 1976, Paisley's second season as manager, the club won another League and UEFA Cup double. The following season, the club retained the League title and won the European Cup for the first time, but it lost in the 1977 FA Cup Final. Liverpool retained the European Cup in 1978 and regained the First Division title in 1979. During Paisley's nine seasons as manager Liverpool won 21 trophies, including three European Cups, a UEFA Cup, six League titles and three consecutive League Cups; the only domestic trophy he did not win was the FA Cup. Paisley retired in 1983 and was replaced by his assistant, Joe Fagan. Liverpool won the League, League Cup and European Cup in Fagan's first season, becoming the first English side to win three trophies in a season. Liverpool reached the European Cup final again in 1985, against Juventus at the Heysel Stadium. Before kick-off, Liverpool fans breached a fence which separated the two groups of supporters, and charged the Juventus fans. The resulting weight of people caused a retaining wall to collapse, killing 39 fans, mostly Italians. The incident became known as the Heysel Stadium disaster. The match was played in spite of protests by both managers, and Liverpool lost 1–0 to Juventus. As a result of the tragedy, English clubs were banned from participating in European competition for five years; Liverpool received a ten-year ban, which was later reduced to six years. Fourteen Liverpool fans received convictions for involuntary manslaughter. Fagan had announced his retirement just before the disaster and Kenny Dalglish was appointed as player-manager. During his tenure, the club won another three League Championships and two FA Cups, including a League and Cup "Double" in the 1985–86 season. Liverpool's success was overshadowed by the Hillsborough disaster: in an FA Cup semi-final against Nottingham Forest on 15 April 1989, hundreds of Liverpool fans were crushed against perimeter fencing. Ninety-four fans died that day; the 95th victim died in hospital from his injuries four days later and the 96th died nearly four years later, without regaining consciousness. After the Hillsborough disaster there was a government review of stadium safety. The resulting Taylor Report paved the way for legislation that required top-division teams to have all-seater stadiums. The report ruled that the main reason for the disaster was overcrowding due to a failure of police control. Liverpool was involved in the closest finish to a league season during the 1988–89 season. Liverpool finished equal with Arsenal on both points and goal difference, but lost the title on total goals scored when Arsenal scored the final goal in the last minute of the season. Dalglish cited the Hillsborough disaster and its repercussions as the reason for his resignation in 1991; he was replaced by former player Graeme Souness. Under his leadership Liverpool won the 1992 FA Cup Final, but their league performances slumped, with two consecutive sixth-place finishes, eventually resulting in his dismissal in January 1994. Souness was replaced by Roy Evans, and Liverpool went on to win the 1995 Football League Cup Final. While they made some title challenges under Evans, third-place finishes in 1996 and 1998 were the best they could manage, and so Gérard Houllier was appointed co-manager in the 1998–99 season, and became the sole manager in November 1998 after Evans resigned. In 2001, Houllier's second full season in charge, Liverpool won a "Treble": the FA Cup, League Cup and UEFA Cup. Houllier underwent major heart surgery during the 2001–02 season and Liverpool finished second in the League, behind Arsenal. They won a further League Cup in 2003, but failed to mount a title challenge in the two seasons that followed. Houllier was replaced by Rafael Benítez at the end of the 2003–04 season. Despite finishing fifth in Benítez's first season, Liverpool won the 2004–05 UEFA Champions League, beating A.C. Milan 3–2 in a penalty shootout after the match ended with a score of 3–3. The following season, Liverpool finished third in the Premier League and won the 2006 FA Cup Final, beating West Ham United in a penalty shootout after the match finished 3–3. American businessmen George Gillett and Tom Hicks became the owners of the club during the 2006–07 season, in a deal which valued the club and its outstanding debts at £218.9 million. The club reached the 2007 UEFA Champions League Final against Milan, as it had in 2005, but lost 2–1. During the 2008–09 season Liverpool achieved 86 points, its highest Premier League points total, and finished as runners up to Manchester United. In the 2009–10 season, Liverpool finished seventh in the Premier League and failed to qualify for the Champions League. Benítez subsequently left by mutual consent and was replaced by Fulham manager Roy Hodgson. At the start of the 2010–11 season Liverpool was on the verge of bankruptcy and the club's creditors asked the High Court to allow the sale of the club, overruling the wishes of Hicks and Gillett. John W. Henry, owner of the Boston Red Sox and of Fenway Sports Group, bid successfully for the club and took ownership in October 2010. Poor results during the start of that season led to Hodgson leaving the club by mutual consent and former player & manager Kenny Dalglish taking over. Despite a record 8th League Cup success against Cardiff and an FA Cup final defeat to Chelsea, Liverpool finished in eighth position in the 2011–12 season, the worst league finish in 18 years and led to the sacking of Dalglish. He was replaced by Brendan Rodgers. In Rodgers' first season, Liverpool finished in seventh. In the 2013–14 season, Liverpool mounted an unexpected title charge to finish second behind champions Manchester City and subsequently return to the Champions League, scoring 101 goals in the process, the most since the 106 scored in the 1895–96 season. Following a disappointing 2014-15 season, where Liverpool finished sixth in the league, and a poor start to the 2015-16 season, Brendan Rodgers was sacked in October 2015. He was replaced by Jürgen Klopp, who became the third foreign manager in Liverpool's history. In Klopp's first season at Liverpool, he took the club to the finals of both the Football League Cup and UEFA Europa League, finishing as runner-up in both competitions. The Fans In Game Budget

The Fields of Anfield Road - Liverpool F.C. I have decided to create a save with the team I have supported since I attended my first ever game at the age of 4 and still attending games to this day whenever possible, I usually go with Liverpool as my first ever save on every years FM however on this occasion with all the new training features I tried it with different teams to get to terms with the new training, tactics etc before making my yearly save with Liverpool. So let's get down to the reason I chose Liverpool for my career update thread, I was born in '94 so since '98 I have been watching Liverpool go through so many ups and downs, watching us have good years such as 2001 and 2005 and very turbulent years over the past 20 years, watching us through the Hicks & Gillett era which was abysmal after looking so promising at the beginning and would've been much worse if it wasn't for the wonderful man of Rafa Benitez and now watching us under relatively new owners who have transformed the club while under the management of Brendan Rodgers and more notably current manager Jurgen Klopp who have fantastic runs in the League, Europa League and Champions League respectively, however, we've fallen short on the final hurdle. It is my plan in this save to replicate the dominance of Liverpool from back in the Shankly and Paisley days and bring the glory days back to Anfield. These are the finances after doing my expectations, so this season I expect to challenge for the title while making the final of FA Cup & Champions League respectively, hopefully we can do better than that but I want to do this as a minimum. A nice healthy transfer budget and hopefully if we can offload a couple of players that don't feature in my plans that'll go higher and get some main targets in. Liverpool have got a very strong squad but there are a few players which aren't really up to the task of where I want to take this team so there will be changes to be expected. The main spine of the team is littered with stars with the likes of Alisson, Van Dijk, Fabinho, Keita, Mane, Salah, Firmino; A couple more world class players and I believe we won't be too far away from being at Man City's squad level of depth and quality but it remains to be seen if I can offload the players that I believe are hindering our future successes. (There is also Origi, Solanke and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain in the squad too but they are in the U23's due to I'm looking to offload Origi, loan out Solanke and Ox is injured for 11 months). Next update will be the end of pre-season with tactics and transfers.

Welcome to the Football Manager 2017 Liverpool Football Club Thread History Liverpool F.C. was founded following a dispute between the Everton committee and John Houlding, club president and owner of the land at Anfield. After eight years at the stadium, Everton relocated to Goodison Park in 1892 and Houlding founded Liverpool F.C. to play at Anfield. Originally named "Everton F.C. and Athletic Grounds Ltd" (Everton Athletic for short), the club became Liverpool F.C. in March 1892 and gained official recognition three months later, after The Football Association refused to recognise the club as Everton. The team won the Lancashire League in its début season, and joined the Football League Second Division at the start of the 1893–94 season. After finishing in first place the club was promoted to the First Division, which it won in 1901 and again in 1906. Liverpool reached its first FA Cup Final in 1914, losing 1–0 to Burnley. It won consecutive League championships in 1922 and 1923, but did not win another trophy until the 1946–47 season, when the club won the First Division for a fifth time under the control of ex-West Ham Utd centre half George Kay. Liverpool suffered its second Cup Final defeat in 1950, playing against Arsenal. The club was relegated to the Second Division in the 1953–54 season. Soon after Liverpool lost 2–1 to non-league Worcester City in the 1958–59 FA Cup, Bill Shankly was appointed manager. Upon his arrival he released 24 players and converted a boot storage room at Anfield into a room where the coaches could discuss strategy; here, Shankly and other "Boot Room" members Joe Fagan, Reuben Bennett, and Bob Paisley began reshaping the team. The club was promoted back into the First Division in 1962 and won it in 1964, for the first time in 17 years. In 1965, the club won its first FA Cup. In 1966, the club won the First Division but lost to Borussia Dortmund in the European Cup Winners' Cup final. Liverpool won both the League and the UEFA Cup during the 1972–73 season, and the FA Cup again a year later. Shankly retired soon afterwards and was replaced by his assistant, Bob Paisley.In 1976, Paisley's second season as manager, the club won another League and UEFA Cup double. The following season, the club retained the League title and won the European Cup for the first time, but it lost in the 1977 FA Cup Final. Liverpool retained the European Cup in 1978 and regained the First Division title in 1979. During Paisley's nine seasons as manager Liverpool won 21 trophies, including three European Cups, a UEFA Cup, six League titles and three consecutive League Cups; the only domestic trophy he did not win was the FA Cup. Paisley retired in 1983 and was replaced by his assistant, Joe Fagan. Liverpool won the League, League Cup and European Cup in Fagan's first season, becoming the first English side to win three trophies in a season. Liverpool reached the European Cup final again in 1985, against Juventus at the Heysel Stadium. Before kick-off, Liverpool fans breached a fence which separated the two groups of supporters, and charged the Juventus fans. The resulting weight of people caused a retaining wall to collapse, killing 39 fans, mostly Italians. The incident became known as the Heysel Stadium disaster. The match was played in spite of protests by both managers, and Liverpool lost 1–0 to Juventus. As a result of the tragedy, English clubs were banned from participating in European competition for five years; Liverpool received a ten-year ban, which was later reduced to six years. Fourteen Liverpool fans received convictions for involuntary manslaughter. Fagan had announced his retirement just before the disaster and Kenny Dalglish was appointed as player-manager. During his tenure, the club won another three League Championships and two FA Cups, including a League and Cup "Double" in the 1985–86 season. Liverpool's success was overshadowed by the Hillsborough disaster: in an FA Cup semi-final against Nottingham Forest on 15 April 1989, hundreds of Liverpool fans were crushed against perimeter fencing. Ninety-four fans died that day; the 95th victim died in hospital from his injuries four days later and the 96th died nearly four years later, without regaining consciousness. After the Hillsborough disaster there was a government review of stadium safety. The resulting Taylor Report paved the way for legislation that required top-division teams to have all-seater stadiums. The report ruled that the main reason for the disaster was overcrowding due to a failure of police control. Liverpool was involved in the closest finish to a league season during the 1988–89 season. Liverpool finished equal with Arsenal on both points and goal difference, but lost the title on total goals scored when Arsenal scored the final goal in the last minute of the season. Dalglish cited the Hillsborough disaster and its repercussions as the reason for his resignation in 1991; he was replaced by former player Graeme Souness. Under his leadership Liverpool won the 1992 FA Cup Final, but their league performances slumped, with two consecutive sixth-place finishes, eventually resulting in his dismissal in January 1994. Souness was replaced by Roy Evans, and Liverpool went on to win the 1995 Football League Cup Final. While they made some title challenges under Evans, third-place finishes in 1996 and 1998 were the best they could manage, and so Gérard Houllier was appointed co-manager in the 1998–99 season, and became the sole manager in November 1998 after Evans resigned. In 2001, Houllier's second full season in charge, Liverpool won a "Treble": the FA Cup, League Cup and UEFA Cup. Houllier underwent major heart surgery during the 2001–02 season and Liverpool finished second in the League, behind Arsenal. They won a further League Cup in 2003, but failed to mount a title challenge in the two seasons that followed. Houllier was replaced by Rafael Benítez at the end of the 2003–04 season. Despite finishing fifth in Benítez's first season, Liverpool won the 2004–05 UEFA Champions League, beating A.C. Milan 3–2 in a penalty shootout after the match ended with a score of 3–3. The following season, Liverpool finished third in the Premier League and won the 2006 FA Cup Final, beating West Ham United in a penalty shootout after the match finished 3–3. American businessmen George Gillett and Tom Hicks became the owners of the club during the 2006–07 season, in a deal which valued the club and its outstanding debts at £218.9 million. The club reached the 2007 UEFA Champions League Final against Milan, as it had in 2005, but lost 2–1. During the 2008–09 season Liverpool achieved 86 points, its highest Premier League points total, and finished as runners up to Manchester United. In the 2009–10 season, Liverpool finished seventh in the Premier League and failed to qualify for the Champions League. Benítez subsequently left by mutual consent and was replaced by Fulham manager Roy Hodgson. At the start of the 2010–11 season Liverpool was on the verge of bankruptcy and the club's creditors asked the High Court to allow the sale of the club, overruling the wishes of Hicks and Gillett. John W. Henry, owner of the Boston Red Sox and of Fenway Sports Group, bid successfully for the club and took ownership in October 2010. Poor results during the start of that season led to Hodgson leaving the club by mutual consent and former player & manager Kenny Dalglish taking over. Despite a record 8th League Cup success against Cardiff and an FA Cup final defeat to Chelsea, Liverpool finished in eighth position in the 2011–12 season, the worst league finish in 18 years and led to the sacking of Dalglish. He was replaced by Brendan Rodgers. In Rodgers' first season, Liverpool finished in seventh. In the 2013–14 season, Liverpool mounted an unexpected title charge to finish second behind champions Manchester City and subsequently return to the Champions League, scoring 101 goals in the process, the most since the 106 scored in the 1895–96 season. Following a disappointing 2014-15 season, where Liverpool finished sixth in the league, and a poor start to the 2015-16 season, Brendan Rodgers was sacked in October 2015. He was replaced by Jürgen Klopp, who became the third foreign manager in Liverpool's history. In Klopp's first season at Liverpool, he took the club to the finals of both the Football League Cup and UEFA Europa League, finishing as runner-up in both competitions. The Fans In Game

Intro, So I'm currently playing with Liverpool and so far its a successful save, my 4-1-2-2-1 formation is creating goals all over the place for a number of players, I'm currently playing without an out and out striker as Klopp likes to play this way with Firmino (who is in fine form playing as a false 9 btw) and currently having so many good attackers I'm having to rotate between Origi, Sturridge and Firmino. My tactics I feel are very nearly perfect, being 3rd in my first season with only one signing (25m julian Wiegl) and only 2 points off top place, BUT i can't seem to get the best out of Sturridge, and he's kinda playing like he does irl so I'm curious as to how you guys would help him improve and what tips you more experienced players would give me. Brief Summary and pictures below, *Get the best out of Sturridge currently playing as a poacher in a 4-1-2-2-1 formation. Sturridge stats.html Sturridge.html

So I have Arsenal in the FA Cup and I'm very nervous, I've beat every team in the league at least once BUT Arsenal so to have them in a cup final which i really want to win is an issue, they play a 4-2-3-1 with two holding midfielders and 3 attacking midfielders. I've played 4-1-2-3 all season and beat the likes of City, Chelsea and Spurs, with a false 9. Can anyone recommend any tips for me to come out on top, ill post the previous games between me and arsenal for you guys to look at. Thanks in advance.

Hello, my target for this year´s FM is replicate Liverpool FC front three (Salah, Mané, Firmino). In real life the Firmino role is False 9, Mané is something between Inside forward and Winger and Salah role is Poacher in the left halfspace. When I try to replicate it on FM i would go for Inside Forward support for Mané (LW), Salah is raumdeuter (the role description is "poacher in wide areas", what is something that is Salah in real life for LFC - leading goalscorer and most highest player on the pitch). Firmino is biggest problem for me - his role is F9 which is described like "dragging defenders out of position with his movement". But sometimes I am thinking that he is like DLF - hold up ball higher and pass to more advanced players (Mane and especially Salah). But there is still role "Trequarista" - creator in Forward position, but this position isn´t press opponents. Does anyone clue how to replicate this three players like they are playing IRL? Thanks.

I've seen a couple of people start threads looking at some kind of recreation of Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool, but they all seem to die a death due to lack of updates and/or development, so I thought I'd share my thoughts on a version I've put together that I successfully used to win the Premier League on my iPad version of FMT and see if it works on the full fat version. The plan is to show the base tactic and then follow it's progress through the season, how I adapt it for different opponents and (hopefully) repeat my success. I'm more than happy to take any feedback or suggestions for improvements that can make it more successful. So, let's get going. The base formation is a modern 4-3-3 (or 4-1-2-3 DM if you like), roles and duties as per the images below - the eagle eyed amongst you will have noticed a couple of new faces. In addition, the following PI's have been added AML - AP(A) - Coutinho - Roam from Position AMR - W(A) - Mane - Roam from Position MCR - CM(A) - Lallana - Roam from Position, Move into Channels, Dribble More (some may recognise this as an approximation to the "Central Winger") MCL - CM(S) - Can - Hold Position FBL - WB(S) - Moreno - Stay Wider FBR - FB(A) - Clyne - Stay Wider GK - SK(S) - Ryan - Distribute Quickly, Distribute to Playmaker I had played about with 4-1-4-1 versions, which possibly more accurately reflect how they defend, but I felt I wasn't getting the desired attacking movement. What I aimed to recreate was a system that pressed high up the pitch, attacked with fluid movement of the front 4 (the front 3 + the CM(A)) and that maintained high possession rates. With a high line, we expect to be vulnerable to balls over the top, but I expect to mitigate this with quick defenders to chase back plus pressing of opposition playmakers reduce their effectiveness. Pre-season So we managed to win all 8 friendlies and I didn't play around with the tactic at all so that I could maximise familiarity as quickly as possible. Going into the first league game, the tactic is about 60% familiar. The scores are what they are, but I was most interested in the possession figures to see if that was working. Pleasingly enough, possession ranges between 57% & 68% (including the Milan and Roma matches). Transfers No one's left, but in addition to the 2 players in the graphic above, I've also signed Riedewald from Ajax and Schopf from Schalke (or Gelsenkirchen as the game calls it). I also made a database change pre-game to make Michael Edwards DoF. I'm sure I forgotten something, but it's late and I'm getting told to close down. Due to other commitments, it's unlikely I'll get to update until the weekend, but I hope people like the opening.