FM19 - Returning Everton to Glory

[Joey Numbaz]

First time I'm documenting a career, should be fun!

Only a one-year contract. Need to get this thing off to a good start. Expectations are just top half finish and the 5th round of the FA Cup. No initial transfer budgets when I play. I also play with every possible active league and a database of around 200,000 players. And I have the full match engine sim everything it can, including youth matches from all around the world.

Not pictured, 18 Technical/Mental and 20 WWY.

The goal here is to return Everton to glory! We are going to build with youth. We'll do our best to generate kids from the academy at Finch Farm and when we can't we'll buy them. I don't plan on bringing in any transfers older than age 23-25 or so.

At the initial team meeting I set the goal as qualifying for the Europa League. The players thought that was too ambitious. Sorry guys there is a new sheriff in town.

I have made offers to 38 staff members. Some of the key additions. Remember I can only sign unemployed staff.

Director of Football

I am going to do nearly everything myself, but he'll be a useful final scout.

Head of Youth Development

I'd like higher JPA, but he's also a great youth coach, and a Model Professional.

Assistant Manager

João Pedro Sousa is the assistant.

He's ok, but he's going to be replaced when I can find a good one. I want as close to 20/20 JPA/JPP as possible. But he'll do for now.

World Knowledge for Scouting is 27% currently. I've upgraded the packages to World for both Seniors and Youth.

I've sacked the entire scouting department except for the Chief Scout Martin Glover.

He's probably going to have to go as well. The 17/17 is good enough for him to stay. But 2 Man Management for a Chief Scout? That's not going to work.

Eric Gerets will get the gig instead.

I have filled out the entire staff, added a bunch of coaches too. Once there are all in the fold, I'll post a screenshot of their attributes. I'll have at least a 4-star coach everywhere.

The Tactic

I basically took dafuge's 442 Wide Diamond from FM18 and tweaked it for FM19. Here's the projected starting lineup.

Some position retraining will be required, things like Bernard and Richarlison learning to play not as far up the pitch, but nothing too major.

The only PIs are for fullback to run wide with the ball and the poacher shoots more.

Finances

We are currently at -£46 million in the bank. But in the beta I got a pretty quick cash injection from the board so I think we'll be fine. I am planning to sell Yannick Bolasie, Kevin Mirallas, Mo Besic, Cuco Martina, and Shani Tarashaj as soon as I can. They are worth £58.25 million, we'll see what I can get for them.

We are currently spending £2.033 million per week. I can reduce that some as well.

Facilities

Need to improve the facilities, junior coaching, and youth recruitment as soon as possible. I'll wait for the cash injection to ask.

Squad Building

I try to maintain small squads. In FM18 that meant 18 players per squad (Senior, U23, U18), when possible.

2 GK

3 CD

2 DM

3 FBR/MR

3 FBL/ML

3 Deep-Lying Forwards/Advanced Playmakers (AMC)

2 Poachers

However in FM19 I need to move some players I would have had in the U23 squad in previous versions to the senior squad for mentoring/training purposes.

I try to play everyone. I always get the media question, "You've played XX players this year, most in the Premier League ..." with XX typically being around 30 by the end of the season. The kids get a chance when squad rotation is required, as injury cover, etc.

Club DNA

I like numbers. I have spreadsheets for everything. So one thing I do to figure out what my club DNA is, based on the tactic and moreso the roles and duties in it is to make a spreadsheet:

Basically for each role/duty, I give 2.33 points for major attributes and 1.33 for minor. Tally it up and you get the attributes that tend to be most important in your system.

Deal-breaker DNA attributes

Anticipation - passing into space, lots of crossing, countering.

Composure - important to both attacks and defense.

Off the Ball - people need to be moving and getting into the right positions

Decisions - no idiots allowed here.

Technique - players need to be comfortable with the ball

Important DNA attributes

Teamwork, First Touch, Passing, Tackling, Positioning

The Squad

As I said, I am a numbers guy. If you've seen Moneyball, I am like the Jonah Hill guy.

One formula I like to use when initially going through the squad is to take the harmonic mean of all of the game recommended attributes for each role. I weigh the major attributes 2x and the minor attributes 1x. I prefer the harmonic mean to the normal average because it weighs the lower numbers more. So if a player has a major hole for the role, that's going to bring him down more using the harmonic mean. For example two attributes both 10, have a harmonic mean of 10 and an average of 10, of course. But if the player has a 5 and 15, while the average is still 10, the harmonic mean is only 7.5. I want well rounded players who can do everything well. So I'll take a 10/10 over a 5/15, all other things equal. Also, take note what the game calls major/minor attributes at each role has changed for FM19.

No real gaping holes. Generally players rated 14-15 by this system tend to be really good. 13+ is playable. 15.5+ are stars.

I will need better players up front. When I have the right player, the DLFs will become a CFs. In FM18 Pietro Pellegri became a superstar CF for me in this tactic. He's the first player I've sent my scouts to look at. I am going to recall Sandro from loan as soon as I can also. He's an excellent poacher and would be good for this system.

I am retraining Leighton Baines to be cover as the APs. His ratings seem perfect for it.

The Academy

Here is the full depth chart. Players in bold are on the senior team for training/mentoring purposes.

Brazilian Pedro Neves is the best U18 prospect. He'll be a citizen in 705 days, Brexit won't be an issue.

The rest of it is pretty thin by my standards. We'll see how development goes. I imagine we'll be reloading through transfers come January.

Here are the U23s - not terrible.

Gibson and Hornby are rated 3.5-4.5* by my assistant. Evans, Bowler, and Kenny are rated 3-4*. I like Galloway, he's done well for me over the years in other Everton saves. We'll see what happens. I also want to cut 8 players (not shown here) from the U23s, but the lack of transfer budget means I can't. Small squads, allow the coaches to pay more attention to the players that are worth trying to develop.

Training

The CD/DM comprise the defending unit. The fullbacks will train with the attacking unit.

Here's the plan for the first 4 weeks. Boot camp for the first 3.5 weeks. We'll see who survives. There is a training camp from July 9-July 18 in Singapore.

And here are the mentoring groups.

I guess that's enough for the opening post. I've used my max image upload allotment, so this is a good place to break.

 

 

 

[Joey Numbaz]

Two weeks in, only two minor training injuries so far. I guess they can handle my boot camp.

Well, the first friendly is in the books, as FC Bayern came to Goodison Park July 7.

I am pretty happy with the performance. Bayern's only goal and CC came off of a parried free kick.

Key switch at halftime. Moved Richarlison to Poacher and Lookman to the Left Wing.

When we are at full strength, Cenk Tosun will poach and Gylfi Sigurðsson (World Cup vacation) will be the DLF. So that forces Richarlison to the wing. But I wanted to win this game! Lookman had a great shot even though he missed it after the switch. The team played much better.

Keiran Dowell launching the winning assist above. Theo Walcott (WRa) was on the receiving end one-on-one with the goalie for the tying goal on 90'. The crowd of 33,683 erupted.

Bayern never really threatened. They outshot us 19-10, but only 8-7 on target.

We do take a lot of long passes. With both pass into space and more direct passing, as well as counter on transitions, we bomb it forward a lot. It's fun to watch when it connects.

Off to training camp in Singapore. I plan on meeting up with Rashidi for beers while we are out there.

[Joey Numbaz]

Scout Team

We started with 10 scouts, I begged and the board gave me 3 more.

My world knowledge plummeted to 10%! I don't understand this. For example, I have 100% knowledge of Italy. As do several of my scouts.

On the knowledge screen we only have 50% though. I don't understand.

Here are the scout assignments. For now I am going manual.

I've got Europe, South America and the UK covered pretty well for now. Once I get more scouts I'll have them focus in on specific countries.

Director of Football Frank McParland (17/19) and Luigi Porchia (17/18) will be the cross checkers. They'll do follow up scouting on the players others find. If they can't keep up with the pace, Perico Campos will help out too.

[Joey Numbaz]

Coaching wise, I've brought in Carlos Valderrama to handle the tactical briefings and opposition instructions. He's a 17 Tactical Knowledge and likes the 442, plays direct and cautious with balanced pressing. I like that. Even though my tactic mentality is positive, I'm fine with some cautious advice.

He's also 20 motivating, which I was hoping I could use for team talk advice, but I guess only the Assistant Manager can give that advice now. I'll set him to do it for the next friendly, hopefully it won't just do it automatically and use him for the recommendations. I like doing the team talks myself, but having a good recommendation never hurts.

[Joey Numbaz]

The kids also played well. The U18s and U23s both won 3-0 in their first friendlies. Neither team gave up even a half chance.

[Joey Numbaz]

Something interesting. My squad is "Fairly Determined". But not a single U18 player has determination over 9. Every single U18 has a balanced personality.

One of my better prospects, DC Ryan Astley just had his determination drop from 8 to 7 and the training report said squad characteristics had a detrimental effect or some such.

So I think when I go to transfer in some U18s I need to bring in guys with big determination numbers. And basically cut everyone who isn't a real prospect when I do.

None of the training schedules improve determination.

You can't mentor U18 players without moving them up to the first team but you can't do that for your whole team.

I need to keep an eye on this.

 

[Joey Numbaz]

Speaking of scouting, this year you get the report on whether or not he'd get a work permit before 100% scouting. That's great.

Anyway, training camp seems to have gone well enough. I might not be working the guys hard enough as I've had one senior injury - Mason Holgate missed 2 days with a tight groin. I've been taking the Physio recommendations on intensity.

Anyway, Friendly 2, Electric Boogaloo, v. Napoli went incredibly well.

Heckuva goal in transition. Richarlison to Siggy who hit the running Cenk Tosun in stride. 51'

The other goal was scored late off of a corner.

I mean sure they out possessed us 61-39. Out shot us 19-16. But they had 5 on target and 11 long shots. We had 10 on target, only 5 long. They did get a CCC on a ball over the top, but the shot was butchered.

We also had a U23 game where we outshot Burnley 35-2 and lost 2-1. They'll be working on chance conversion this week.

[Joey Numbaz]

The preseason odds came out. The media seem to think it's a big 7, not a big 6 in the EPL, because we are just 9:1 to win the league, though still 7th. That's seems crazy optimistic to me.

We are up to July 27, the first of two testimonials this summer, as we honor Leighton Baines. Next week Phil Jagielka has his day. Against Barcelona. I like playing friendlies against good teams. I need to know where I stand going into the season.

I am going to make sure Jagielka plays in this one, as well as the English guys, Walcott and Davies. And of course the great Seamus Coleman. Who is on a leadership course and should become the next captain.

Digne has the job, but Baines will still get some time as cover for Digne, and maybe a late advanced playmaking sub. We'll see how that training goes.

Theo Walcott comes off on 6' with a tight groin. He maybe could have stayed in, but it's preseason. So on comes promising young winger Ademola Lookman.

Richarlison bruises his knee right before halftime. Ugh. But right after that Davies launches a great pass down the right wing, Lookman dribbles it nearly to the post and finds a charging Cenk Tosun for the easy goal.

We dominated the first half, 10-4 shots, 5-1 on target. Up 1-0 with just 41% possession.

A solid 1-0 victory. Getafe had 1 half chance, we had 5. Baines played ok, and got to play his traditional left-back for the second half. I cannot believe only 13,782 fans showed up for this one on a Saturday afternoon.

Looks like Richarlison should only be out for 1-3 days with his knee. Walcott's pulled groin is going to cost him 5-7 days.

Pickford and Yerry Mina will be back from their World Cup vacations soon too.

Down on the farm Fraser Hornby bagged a hat trick in 60 minutes in a 6-1 friendly win for the U23s over Grays Athletic of the Bostik League Division One North. He's still showing as 3.5-4.5* prospect who can play either forward spot. He's got a ways to go though in terms of development and he turns 19 in September. We'll see how it goes.

 

[Joey Numbaz]

Training

So here is the training as I actually did it. I find I am adjusting training on the fly, often changing it midweek, etc.

For example, my team is slowest to learn marking, pressing, and width in terms of familiarity, so I added in sessions like Defending Engaged/Disengaged/Wide (for Pressing/Marking) and Attacking/Defending Shadow Play which help with width.

That is pretty super cool to be able to fine tune like that. I LOVE the new training setup. It was a little daunting at first, but it's very intuitive once you get in there a little. It also helps that I made a spreadsheet of every session and what is trained so I can see them all side by side and search for thing I want to train, etc.

Another thing I am trying is moving the fullbacks (who have attack duty) between the Attacking and Defending units depending on what is being trained that day. I have no idea if this is good, bad, or ugly. I suppose I should ask on the stupid questions tactics/training thread.

This was the initial plan.

Or before the Napoli match, the scout report said they have excellent free kick and corner takers. So I added sessions for defending corners and defending free kicks before the match. I also threw in a delivery session - and scored from a corner during the match. The ability to focus preparation very specifically before a big match is also a great addition to the training module.

I noticed the goal keepers were turning in crappy training ratings, so I added some sessions for them.

My main method to the madness to look at the preset schedule that is what I want - say mid-preseason tactical heavy. Then I tweak the sessions they suggest, keeping roughly the same type of session. Where they have generic physical I may add resistance, since I want to train work rate. Where they have 'technical' I'll add a specific technical session I want to work on. I think this guardrails me against making things too intense or too easy. Also, if I have a rest day planned and the squad doesn't appear tired, I'll throw sessions in. And if they do seem tired I'll throw in some rest.

We'll see how this shifts once the season starts. But I think I've got the preseason side of it down pretty well at this point.

[Carambau]

You surely must bring in Neville Southall if possible!?!

[Joey Numbaz]

I would love to! But it would be a gift job. He's basically useless in my save :-)

And he won't accept anything less than being the Under 18's AssMan!

He almost scores a 'perfect' 5 on the Manager attributes!

[Joey Numbaz]

Quite the mid-week friendly with Atlético, just 3 days after the Baines Testimonial. We drew double the crowd for this one, which blows my mind.

I added this friendly later in the preseason (about two weeks ago). I felt we need the extra time playing together for partnerships and tactical familiarity. I hate having 3 games in 7 days (Barcelona is Friday night) but it is what it is. After that we have 7 days off before opening the EPL schedule with Fulham. Actually the early fixture list should help us ease into things - Fulham, Watford, Cardiff, League Cup, Southampton, international break, Wolves. We play at Arsenal September 22 as the first big 6 opponent.

Of course we also have a stretch from October 6-November 3 where our four consecutive games are @City, @United, Liverpool and @Chelsea. So it all evens out eventually :-)

We fell behind 2-0 in the first 19 minutes, including a penalty allowed by Kurt Zouma.

But then, Santiago Arias was sent off 15 minutes later. At the time, I think we had been outshot 5-1 or something.

We completely dominated the rest of the game. Outshot them 25-7 overall. Richarlison only played 25 minutes but curled in a brilliant running shot from range to get us on the board at 60'.

We earned penalties at 77' and 90+2', Siggy and after he was subbed, Jagielka knocked them home and we rolled 3-2 to remain undefeated.

However, Seamus Coleman went down with a foot injury 2 minutes after coming on at halftime. Turns out, it's somewhat serious, he'll be out 2-4 weeks with a twisted ankle. That's rough, he's so much better than Jonjoe Kenny (13.7 vs. 12.5 by my system).

What I might do, is just play Gana at FBRa, and play Schneiderlin as the first team DM while Coleman is out. I've had Gana training there anyway, as his attributes fit the position well. So this might get him a trial by fire.

I think that's the answer ...

[Joey Numbaz]

August 3, 2018, the Phil Jagielka Testimonial, vs. Barcelona! Lionel Messi, Sergio of Tea and Busquets fame all come to Historic Goodison Park! Where Apollo Creed's son Adonis Johnson fought Pretty Ricky Conlan back in 2015!

Richarlison is staking his claim to be the poach and not the left wing. What a first half for him.

Here he is blasting home his first goal off the pretty pass across the box from Bernard.

The defense were solid too. Here they are showing Lionel Messi that even when you break the line and receive the pass, we will swarm your arse in the box.

We outshot them 15-2 in the first half taking a 2-0 lead into the break. For some reason, this tactic obliterates Barcelona. In another save when I had really good player by 2020-21 or so on FM18, we racked up like 35 shots and 12 clear cut chances in a game against them.

However, André Gomes showcase against his primary club (he's on loan from Barcelona) did not go well. 3 minutes into the game he went down with sprained ankle ligaments. He will join Seamus Coleman on the shelf for 2-4 weeks.

They did get a penalty at 51' to force us to sweat out the rest of the game. And they stepped up the attack some. But we held on for the well earned 2-1 victory. We outshot them 29-11 and hit the woodwork twice.

So here is my tactical dilemma. When André Gomes is healthy anyway. This version gets the best players on the field, all in roles they can handle, once retrained.

I really want Sigurðsson on the field. He's great with set pieces, penalties, etc. This is the best combination for all of them - I think.

But Richarlison is a poacher man! He's not a left winger. His crossing is 10. His vision is 10, his passing is 12. He can score! He has a nose for the goal.

Bernard is more natural as a LW inside forward/winger. But I don't play with inside wingers. I play with wingers. So I want him on the right.

I could put Gomes on the wing, Siggy as the APs, something like this:

I guess that also works. For now I need to figure what's going to happen while Gomes is out. I could do the top version with Tom Davies as the APs. Or the bottom version with Siggy shifted to the left wing and Davies as APs.

[Joey Numbaz]

I'll take this for pre-season, not too shaby.

We have 7 CCC against higher rated teams, 6 allowed. That's good (they are higher rated teams!). We've also outscored them 9-4.

Tactical Familiarity, compared with when players reported to camp.

We did well with the injury bug early, but the friendlies were a little rougher.

I was hoping match cohesion would be better. We'll work on that some this week in training.

Tom Davies has gone from balanced to resolute in this mentoring group! In just over a month!

[Joey Numbaz]

Opening day is in the books! I won't report on every single match, but this is opening day and my first match.

Saturday August 11, 2018, against newly promoted Fulham.

We went with Richarlison as the poacher, Cenk Tosun as the DLF, Siggy as the APs, Lookman on the left wing and Bernard on the right.

The guy circled is me. As my first match kicks off, in Goodison Park. A sold out Goodison Park with 39,572 in the stands.

Anyway, we got off to a flying start. Richarlison had a great half chance 3 minutes into the game, but hit the woodwork.

We are dominating play! But then, Fulham's Tom Cairney took a throw in, dribbled across the box, passed it off to Luciano Vietto, who passed it back and Cairney blasted it home for an excellent goal from distance. Talk about a sinking feeling.

But oh did we respond. 7 minutes after the Cairney goal ...

Cenk Tosun launches a bomb for Richarlison who runs onto it and blasts it home for the equalizer.

13 minutes later, Kurt Zouma heads in Glyfi's corner and we take the lead. We practiced attacking corners Thursday and delivery Friday. I guess it paid off.

10 minutes after that, Schneiderlin, playing DM chased Tierney back almost to the center circle, stole the ball with a brilliant sliding tackle, then launched a bomb to a running Richarlison who had options but tucked it neatly between keeper Spider Rico and the near post for the 3-1 lead.

We outshot them 16-1 (the Cairney goal) in the first half. Controlled the second half and were outshooting them 24-1 when Theo Walcott (who had only been on the field for 15 minutes) reinjured his ankle at 81' EDIT - the earlier injury was the groin, so this is a new one - I was just assuming it was my fault for sending him back too soon, but this looks like a new injury). I had just used my last sub, so we played down a man to close it out. Which we did.

All in all a very happy debut.

 

 

[RioImmagina]

Il 19/11/2018 in 22:20 , Joey Numbaz ha scritto:

My world knowledge plummeted to 10%! I don't understand this. For example, I have 100% knowledge of Italy. As do several of my scouts.

On the knowledge screen we only have 50% though. I don't understand.

When you sign a scout, he needs 2 weeks to give his knowledge to the team. Nation's knowledge will rise a bit every day

[ITFC_Blue]

Love the attention to detail in your posts. KUTGW.

[ekstromlars]

Very nice. Will follow!

[ElCuriosoJr]

Love your excel Spreadsheets. I’m a fan of them to. Will follow this  

[Joey Numbaz]

Thanks guys! Hopefully I can make this entertaining ...

So my thoughts with training - I try to be super immersive make this like a real universe when I play. This will probably be the only save I do on FM19 (I don't think I've ever done more than one save on an FM version.

I am from the US and I think of American football. I know that in a typical week, the players play Sunday and get Tuesday off. Monday is typically recovery, meetings and a light session.

I searched around for a little more detail on what a typical week is like, and I found this - from the newspaper I grew up with (even though I don't live there anymore) on a quick google search. But I figured this would give a typical idea of what an in-season week is like for a team that plays one game a week in a professional sport.

All of these dates will be one day ahead of a Saturday EPL schedule.

Sunday game

Monday, looks like Recovery early. a light practice session, walk though maybe Attacking or Defensive Shadow Play? Some do weightlifting - so Physical training? I assume NFL players do a lot more weight work than EPL players. Not sure I'd want that in this game setup.. But this could be Endurance, resistance or quickness training if you were so inclined.. Meeting in the afternoon Match Review. In the FM calendar for a road game you'll have to give one of these slots up, which is strange. Travel should happen day of game, after the game. Teams don't sleep over after a game, do they?

Tuesday, players day off. Rest, Rest, Rest

Wednesday, weightlifting early Physical. Then "one of the most critical practice sessions of the week ... the players break into individual units and run warm-up drills specific to their positions. After those drills conclude, the team period commences, where the offense faces the defense to run plays specific to that week's game plan." Sounds a lot like Match Practice to me. Or possibly the Attacking/Defensive choices specific to your tactics/team. Then 2:30-5 is meetings. Maybe Match Tactics  or Rest? This would be that day to go hard. So I could see Physical/Attacking/Defending of your choice for the three sessions.

Thursday, morning is weightlifting and meetings. So Physical or Tactical depending on what you need for that week. Mid-day practice Red Zone (inside the 20 yard line) plays are emphasized. Seems like a good spot to practice Set Pieces of your choice. 3rd session is more meetings and meeting with the media. Again maybe Match Tactics, Rest, Recovery.

Friday, early is light weightlifting. Could call this Recovery if you had a hard week. The midday practice intensity continues to be lower intensity as the game approaches. More red zone work as well. So could choose Technical training during this time. Afternoon is more meetings Match Preparation.

Saturday (home game) - walk through and plays are reviewed. Seems like Shadow Play. Travel if road game follows. Team meeting Match Preview

Sunday - game day!

Here is what this might look like in the FM training module. One more attacking focused, another more defending focused. Both of these are with away games. You could fill those travel slots for home games with team bonding, another light practice session (especially on Sunday), etc. Just ideas:

I was a bit surprised at how little they practice physically  and how much time is dedicated to meetings and match preparation.

 

 

[_Ben_]

This is fantastic @Joey Numbaz - love the depth of your thoughts and writing. One question - the Excel spreadsheet for player role analysis: does it have the option for all of the available roles or is it just the ones that you are using in your system? I think you may have put a download link up last year in a thread in the training area (?) but if not, any chance you could make it available please? I've been looking for something similar and had started to build my own but this clearly trumps that!

Good luck for the rest of the season!

[WillHoward42]

This is a great read. Enjoy the in depth detail and analysis.... a lot of interesting ideas!

[Joey Numbaz]

8 hours ago, _Ben_ said:

This is fantastic @Joey Numbaz - love the depth of your thoughts and writing. One question - the Excel spreadsheet for player role analysis: does it have the option for all of the available roles or is it just the ones that you are using in your system? I think you may have put a download link up last year in a thread in the training area (?) but if not, any chance you could make it available please? I've been looking for something similar and had started to build my own but this clearly trumps that!

Good luck for the rest of the season!

Thanks!

I can post it. One thing though - nearly all (all that I've checked so far) roles/duties have changed in terms of what the game says are major and minor attributes for FM2019. I've only updated some of them so far, so I'll need to update the rest before I post it.

Today is Thanksgiving in the US, so I might not be able to get to it until tomorrow, but I'll get it posted ASAP. I also added columns for the training schedules - there is one for the attributes relating to Defending Engaged, Defending Disengaged, etc.

[GerdMuller]

Am ‎20‎.‎11‎.‎2018 um 21:19 schrieb Joey Numbaz:

 

But Richarlison is a poacher man! He's not a left winger. His crossing is 10. His vision is 10, his passing is 12. He can score! He has a nose for the goal.

 

You should have told me before, i played him 5 seasons as a wing successfully before selling him to Bayern for 60 million plus ;-) And yes he scored a lot but he has to be wing for it, because in this game i never ever got any striker to score, always the wingers and midfileders. I had Vardy, Volland, didnt matter. I could just as well start a shirt on a stick there doesnt matter. I sold Tosun because i thought he sucks, sold Sandro even if i always liked him, they succeeded on other teams always. But the striker position on my Everton team always remains a black hole. BTW loaning out Besic , Vlasic and Lookman again and agian is a godd tactic, then when he still has value you can sell Besic for good money then still, Vlasic and Lookman good for the squad then.

[Joey Numbaz]

 

1 hour ago, GerdMuller said:

You should have told me before, i played him 5 seasons as a wing successfully before selling him to Bayern for 60 million plus ;-) And yes he scored a lot but he has to be wing for it, because in this game i never ever got any striker to score, always the wingers and midfileders. I had Vardy, Volland, didnt matter. I could just as well start a shirt on a stick there doesnt matter. I sold Tosun because i thought he sucks, sold Sandro even if i always liked him, they succeeded on other teams always. But the striker position on my Everton team always remains a black hole. BTW loaning out Besic , Vlasic and Lookman again and agian is a godd tactic, then when he still has value you can sell Besic for good money then still, Vlasic and Lookman good for the squad then.

Awesome, thanks for the tips!

With this tactic, I've never had any trouble getting the strikers to score. Both of them. In FM18 I had Pellegri and he was one of the best players in Europe by the age of 21. But I haven't played it much on FM19 yet.

I love Sandro, I'd like to find a way to keep him. I sold him for £60 million in FM18 after a couple of great seasons.

Once the January window opens I'll have all sorts of transfer market stuff up here. Can't wait to start squad building.

[Joey Numbaz]

We sure got a rude awakening vs. Watford in match week 2.

I probably shouldn't have played after midnight, especially after drinking a bottle and a half of wine.

Ouch. That was a rough second half.

The hammered us down the left wing. Assists came from their DMCR, MR, STCR. Keane (DCL, 6.2), Digne (DL, 6.1) and Lookman (ML, 6.2), all played terrible. I'll have to keep an eye on that.

 

[Joey Numbaz]

9 hours ago, Joey Numbaz said:

Thanks!

I can post it. One thing though - nearly all (all that I've checked so far) roles/duties have changed in terms of what the game says are major and minor attributes for FM2019. I've only updated some of them so far, so I'll need to update the rest before I post it.

Today is Thanksgiving in the US, so I might not be able to get to it until tomorrow, but I'll get it posted ASAP. I also added columns for the training schedules - there is one for the attributes relating to Defending Engaged, Defending Disengaged, etc.

Another interesting thing - determination has been removed as a major/minor attribute from all roles. It's not highlighted anywhere.

[TheMadMonk]

Excellent work with the spreadsheets ...... how often do you revisit (every match, every month, every "x" months ?)

Also is it all manual entry or is there a way to extract from data from the game (or the database) and then macro (or the like) into your spreadsheets ?

[GerdMuller]

vor 22 Stunden schrieb Joey Numbaz:

 

Awesome, thanks for the tips!

With this tactic, I've never had any trouble getting the strikers to score. Both of them. In FM18 I had Pellegri and he was one of the best players in Europe by the age of 21. But I haven't played it much on FM19 yet.

I love Sandro, I'd like to find a way to keep him. I sold him for £60 million in FM18 after a couple of great seasons.

Once the January window opens I'll have all sorts of transfer market stuff up here. Can't wait to start squad building.

My last FM was 17 and Sandro was a beast , i already sold him for 50 mill. there. But in 18 i have a Gegenpress tactic that worls very good with Everton. Its basically childrens football, all high energy and everything is just chasing the bal, and when in posession away we go to the goal . Passes into the box never succeed no matter what i do, so my wings always do the scoring, if its Richardlison , who is good in that role as he knows to finish , and totally useless for Bayern now (buy back cheap? ;-) ) or even Lookman, Vlasic , basically on the wing everyone works, as a striker eeveryone form Tosun, Sandro, to Vardy , Volland whoever totally sucks. Sometimes i get to Onyekuru to work a little bit there, and join the game at least , wonder if it is because he isnt really a striker ;-) Maybe thats the trick behind Richardlison too ;-)

[Joey Numbaz]

5 hours ago, TheMadMonk said:

Excellent work with the spreadsheets ...... how often do you revisit (every match, every month, every "x" months ?)

Also is it all manual entry or is there a way to extract from data from the game (or the database) and then macro (or the like) into your spreadsheets ?

First, giant caveat - THIS IS JUST A GUIDE. It's a way to maybe point out who could be retrained at a position. Or how close a youngster might be to being ready for the big time.

You may need to tweak the relevant attributes for your tactic. Etc, etc. All this does is convert the Major/Minor attributes for each role and duty into a single number. It weighs lower attributes, higher than high attributes. So a player who is great at somethings and bad at other things will rate a little lower than a player that is average at everything. It's kind of a way to guardrail against a player who has some dealbreaker bad attributes for a role, no matter how good he is at other things.

In short, use your head. It's a just a guide. A 13.6 is not absolutely better than a 13.5. He is very probably better than an 11.6 though.

This will work best using Numbers, the Mac spreadsheet program. I'm pretty sure it will work fine in Excel too, though the "category" function won't work. I use that to auto group players into categories like forward, right, left, DC, midfield.

I use the everything view (attached) to get all of the ratings.

You can extract the view (and the ratings) by hitting (on a Mac keyboard) command+P with the Everything view showing. Then choose "text file". That will put a .rtf file in the directory you choose.

Open that with Excel.

Delete the blank rows at the top.

Choose "delimited" when it asks and "custom". Use the pipe symbol "|" for the custom delimiter. Then you'll have to do some formatting - "text to columns" on the name, using space as the delimited (add a few extra columns for the name field to split out into). This is so you can sort them alphabetically. Make sure it lines up with the order the players are in the Numbers file (which should also be sorted alphabetically. Take care to make sure one-name players are correct (I use "Last" name for those), etc.

For birthday, you'll need to text to columns that also, using "(" as the delimiter. Generally I only do this the first time. After that it's easier to just type in the new players birthdays since there are only a few transfers or newgens but that's up to you.

I copy and paste the DOB through "Best Pos" fields to columns G through N of the main spreadsheet.

The ratings get copied to columns EV through GP (it's a big spreadsheet).

Each time I update the ratings (generally 2-3x a year - July, December before the transfer window, March when the newgens arrive), I copy columns H-J to columns GQ-GS, this way I can quickly see who's personality and player style may have changed. If you want you can manually update columns GW-HI with the positions the player can play - I use a scale of 1 Awkward, 2 Unconving, 3 Competent, 4 Accomplished, 5 Natural. This can be used to filter - so if you want to see only your Accomplished or better strikers, for example.

I've attached the file, with all of my current Everton players, you can just delete the information from columns A-B, F-N, P (I use this to filter the starting lineup with an x), EU-GP.

You can change cell G2 to the current date. Ages listed will be as of that date. Those other dates are for figuring out citizenship, but don't worry about them unless you want to use them.

Let me know if you have questions, I may have missed something.

EDIT: There is also a staff worksheet in there too, with an up to date coach calculator.

Everything.fmf

JoeyNumbazRatingsFM2019.numbers

[Joey Numbaz]

U18s got hammered by City.

Once we are good, this will not happen. I try to win every youth competition, the U23s, the U18s, the UEFA Youth League, all of the Cups, everything. It doesn't always work out, but this getting outshot 18-3 stuff will not happen. Give it a year or two to get the youth program functional.

[_Ben_]

Thanks @Joey Numbaz - sadly, I'm just getting that the .numbers file is corrupt. I can't open it with Excel nor can I convert to an .xls file to then use with Excel. 

[Joey Numbaz]

@_Ben_ Try this! I guess I have to convert it on my end first. Should work for you, but let me know if it doesn't.

 

JoeyNumbazRatingsFM2019xls.xlsx

[ElCuriosoJr]

@Joey Numbaz Thank you for posting the spreadsheet. I'm trying to put my data into the file correctly and to understand everything. 

[Joey Numbaz]

It seems like it is taking a long time for players to learn new positions. Like to even get the orange circle. I wonder if I'm doing something wrong training wise. Maybe need to do more that have position/role/duty as an impact.

[Joey Numbaz]

4 hours ago, ElCuriosoJr said:

I'm trying to put my data into the file correctly and to understand everything. 

If you need any explanations of the column headings or anything else just let me know ...

[Joey Numbaz]

Just like the Everton that plays inside my TV set, my Everton squad also take on Cardiff City today (we are at Saturday August 25, 2018 for those scoring at home).

Good news, Seamus Coleman (75 minutes) and André Gomes (60) are available today! Neither will start, but I am planning to get them both in the game depending on the score. We've also got a League Cup game Tuesday against Reading. So everyone should get to play the next few days.

Tom Davies gets to start today. We need to bounce back after the 2nd half disaster at Watford last week.

I assertively tell them I'm expecting better today and they react well. 7-of-11 seem motivated. The positive atmosphere is tangible as we kick off!

Richarlison picks up a shoulder injury early and it's hampering his performance. That's suboptimal, jeez.

We've been getting some nice chances off of corners (which we worked on again this week) including hitting the woodwork. But despite outshooting them 15-5, we've only had 3 on target and no clear cut/half chances. Scoreless at the break. They react very well to being told I am not happy with this performance.

Richarlison and Schneiderlin are out at halftime. Bernard moves to the left, Coleman and Lookman are in. I'll bring on Gomes around 60' if we haven't scored.

Still nothing at 85' Cardiff outshooting us 7-5 in the 2nd half. Just ugly. I'd like to say my coaching got us a goal, because frustratedly I moved Siggy to the WL, Lookman to the Poacher, Cenk Tosun to the DLF, and Bernard back to the right.

But it wasn't me, it was Siggy! With a direct free kick for the lead! I'll take it.

Boom!! Maybe goal of the month!

Waste time guys, let's get out of here with a win!

They had other ideas. Less than a minute later, Bernard takes a great shot running across the top of the area, 2-0!

Winning ugly, but it beats losing. Cardiff never threatened (0 crosses completed), but our attack still needs some work. We haven't had those long balls over the top that we got against the good teams in the friendlies, which makes sense. These opponents are sitting back more.

Richarlison looks like just a bruised shoulder, he's going to be out 4-6 days, whew.

[Joey Numbaz]

Uh holy cow, United just won 7-1 against the same Watford team that beat us 3-0.

[Joey Numbaz]

Good solid win v. Reading in the League Cup, playing with a weak lineup. Coleman and Gomes got 65 minutes in (including a goal for Gomes), Oumar NIasse got two goals and missed a penalty for the hat trick. Gave up a goal on a corner, but overall a nice 4-1 win. We gave up shots, but no good chances until we were up 4-1, and 13 of their 20 shots were long.

Martin Stekelenburg got hurt in training and will miss a few weeks. Our #3 goalie is Mateusz Hewelt, a 21-year old kid who is not a prospect (suited to National League football) and would be scary in a big game.

So Hewelt played this one, because I couldn't risk hurting Pickford. He did fine but let's hope Stekelenburg heals quickly.

Reading coach Paul Clement whined that we aren't as good as people think we are. Whah whah you whiny *****. We kicked your arse.

 

[Joey Numbaz]

[Joey Numbaz]

Drew at Southampton 1-1 before the international break and picked up another win 3-1 v. Wolves after the break. The youth teams are finally starting to at least win some games, I thought the U23s might be on the path to relegation but it seems stabilized.

We are in 6th place with 10 points through 5 games, but haven't played anyone yet. The board are happy, 65% since we are only charged with finishing top half.

I am finally getting movement on position changes. Richarlison has an orange dot for ML and Bernard's yellow dot has turned light green at MR. I think it might just take longer since I played 6 friendlies, not the typical 12-13 I played before FM19.

One of those goals I gave up was a counter on a  direct free kick. I noticed I only had two people back in some of the attacking free kick scenarios so I fixed that.

Of our 9 goals, 3 are from corners (most in the league) and Gylfi's direct free kick was another. So only 5 goals for (and allowed) from open play in 5 league games. Arsenal have 2 corner goals so set pieces will be vital in our match this weekend.

I went with a light week of training heading into the big Arsenal match.

But look at all of that match preparation! Let's see if it helps. It went off the screen (note the ... after pressing) I had to highlight to show them all :-)

Hopefully I can play the game tonight. We'll see. Everyone is healthy now, except for Keiran Dowell, a decent prospect who is U23 quality, but I have him training and occasionally playing with the seniors. He's out a few months with a torn calf.

[Joey Numbaz]

Well, the Arsenal game didn't go so well. A 1-0 loss, and we had some moments including Bernard hitting the woodwork with a great shot, but they kind of shut us down. We've been very not good on the road this year. One point (tied for 13-15 in away points). We are perfect at home. We'll just keep on working at getting better. We've got a mid-week rematch with Watford in the League Cup this time at home.

[Joey Numbaz]

I know it's just a League Cup game in September, but this was fun.

Watford, who you might remember hammered us 3-0 in the 2nd half a few weeks ago, jumped out 2-0 25 minutes in, both on balls over the top. So I tweaked the tactic some. Enough already. I had decided to defend narrower before the game, turned that off.

I pushed the line of engagement from lower to standard. A little later I put in an offside trap. I guess this stabilized the game, as we'd been outshot 4-1 early including their two goals.

Just before halftime, Theo Walcott delivered a perfect corner and Keane shot it home to make it a game.

71' Siggy (in as a sub) dumps a cross to Ademola Lookman in the box. Marc Navarro shoves him. Martin Atkinson goes to VAR and ... it's a penalty! Leighton Baines buries it and we are all square. On to penalties where we make all of ours and Stekelenburg stops two of theirs. Good guys win!

Pretty great that the old guys all had a big part. Besides the US, I root for Italy and Holland (England some too ) and so seeing all of these guys do well who were prominent when I first started playing FM and getting into the game and Everton seriously in 2010 was fun. Baines had the penalty during the game and made the first in PKs. Stekelenburg had some big saves, including one in regulation. Jagielka made the final penalty in PKs. Good times all around.

That being said, Watford outplayed us, but we also started players that weren't our A squad almost everywhere.

[Joey Numbaz]

More balls over the top against West Ham (at home) early. I think I am permanently moving the line of engagement to standard. And putting in the offsides trap full time as well. I also told the players to regroup when possession is lost.

Luckily, they are West Ham, and not a good team, and I have Jordan Pickford, so both point blank shots did not find the net.

André Gomes scored off of a corner (maybe I add play for set pieces?) 14' and we were nervous but not really threatened other than the two over the top balls for the entire game.

70' I bring on my subs, move Bernard to his more comfortable ML, Richarlison to Poacher, as Walcott comes in for Cenk Tosun and takes up the MR.

Gueye had a tight thigh (1-2 days), so James McCarthy finally returned from his devestating broken leg. Either he or Morgan Schneiderlin will have to be sold in January, assuming all three are healthy. Yerry Mina looked nervous, so Michael Keane came on for him.

75' Bernard adds one and Gylfi gets on the scoring sheet at 82' for a comfortable 3-0 win.

[Joey Numbaz]

Awesome, I have finally picked up the "His door is always open to his players" interaction style for my profile. I try to praise/criticize training over/under-performers, players who had good games, are in good form, etc.

We have seen a 22% decrease injuries so far. So I think my training schedules are looking OK too. When players complain about too much/not enough strength or quickness training, I add/remove it (replacing with something else physical) for the next period.

Match cohesion has finally ticked to the green side of average. The dressing room atmosphere is very good. Managerial support is good. The only player who isn't in a social group at this point is Bernard. But he's playing well and has a balanced/level-headed personality so he should be OK. He's in a mentoring group with the captain Seamus Coleman and Dominic Calvert-Lewin, so I hope that helps.

Big match at Manchester City coming up this weekend. Here's the table.

[Joey Numbaz]

Finally, I have some partnership lines!

[Joey Numbaz]

City kicked our butts, 3-1. I am thinking about adding a more defense oriented tactic for when we play the big dogs. These balls over the top are just killing me.

I mean they are Manchester City and the game was away, so I know I shouldn't overreact.

I suppose I could just drop the FBa's to support. Maybe make the DMd a halfback to make him more defensive. Maybe make it a normal 4-4-2 instead of a wide diamond. There are options. I'm going to have to think about this. We are heading into the international break, so there is time to make some tweaks.

Manchester United, Liverpool then Chelsea after the break. October is a rough month. At least I get to beat up on Portsmouth in the Sweet 16 of the League Cup somewhere in the middle of all of that.

[Joey Numbaz]

What's going on in the greater world around me? October 14 is a decent time to check in on the Leagues in Focus ...

Many leagues with an unexpected leader! The Premier League is the only one that is seemingly chalk (City, Chelsea, United 1-2-3, Liverpool and Arsenal have struggled though).

Some transfer rumors in there too if you squint. I cannot wait for January.

Atlético in Spain - Barcelona is in 3rd, Real down in 8th after 7 games.

Italy - Juventus down in 5th place, Fiorentina and Udinese leading the way after 8 games

Over in Russia, our boy Nikola Vlasic on loan is playing for the leaders, CSKA Moscow, 11 games in there.

SC Freiburg is leading the Bundesliga after 7 games.

Lyon is leading in France, 2 points up on PSG after 9 games.

Ajax is struggling in the Eredivisie, 7th pace after 8 games - maybe this will make it easier for me to buy a couple a of guys.

Here at home, no clear promotion candidates have risen in the Championship just yet. But it does look like the usual suspects up top, Brentford, Swansea, Middlesbrough, Stoke, West From, Derby, Norwich, Sheffield Wednesday, QPR, Aston Villa and Blackburn, all within 3 points of the playoff right now.

At the bottom of the table, Rotherham, Preston, Nottingham Forest are in the relegation zone. Millwall is 4 points clear after 12 games.

I love the Nations League by the way. I think the games were a lot of fun. Unfortunately, in my version Netherlands is going to be relegated instead of making the finals like they did in real life. Italy also has just one point after 2 games, but so does Poland. Croatia has 0 points after two games. I like Croatia too, Drazen Petrovic was my favorite NBA player back in the day. And Iceland is also tied with Switzerland with 3 points after 3 games. Switzerland has the tiebreaker, so whoever does better against Belgium in their last game will avoid relegation, unless they both draw or lose, then Iceland is relegated. If they both win, they'll all have 6 points and CHAOS WILL ENSUE!!

So what I'm saying is that I seem to be one of the only people that cares about this tournament and my favorite team in each group could be relegated. Ick.

If there are any competitions you'd like me to keep you updated on in this virtual universe, just let me know ...

 

[Joey Numbaz]

I have added two alternate tactics. I am not sure how, when, or if I will use them. But they are also 4-4-2 (one is a 4-4-1-1) based and could give me some options. I also want to see how long it takes to get familiar with them. It also gives me some flexibility as I have a few guys who are MC's and not necessarily better suited to DM or AM positioning. The wingers are still in the ML/MR slots. I will not ever play a 4-2-3-1 unless something deep in my soul changes.

The new #2 is my take on Ozil's Sacchi tactic from FM16, converted to FM19

He wanted two very tight banks of players. This is experimental, but I went with a much higher defensive line and a much lower line of engagement. It's supposed to be very fluid, but it shows as structured here. Which is get is 'just a label', but I think something probably isn't right. I may try to get it into some games and see. I'll probably experiment with the U23 and U18s first. I flipped it around (note the WBa is on the right not the left). That was mainly to keep the strikers and CM's in their same positions when I switch between tactics which makes it easier for set pieces not having to move everyone around.

For this team Coleman is the better defender and Digne is faster, better vision and more technical, so I'd rather he attack. I'll probably flip it back. Or maybe I'll flip the original tactic so that Tosun is on the left and Siggy is on the right. That probably makes more sense.

The third tactic is JDeeguain's interpretation "Trying to keep the philosophies created by Sacchi and Ozil, bringing them into the new tactics system"

Notice Digne isn't there ... He got hurt against City early in the game. Hopefully he's back the week after the United game. It's Monday 10/15 right now, and he's going to be out 3-14 days still? I need better physios. Well, more physios as all of mine are 18-20. Shouldn't that range be narrower?

[Joey Numbaz]

I am going to send this lineup out in an U23 game against Derby U23s and see how it does. This is Monday and Saturday is the next game. Letting Richarlison play 60 minutes shouldn't be an issue and he gets more time learning ML.

Richarlison, Lookman, Jagielka, Niasse are all first teamers. The others are decent prospects.

It was a 2-2 game, but we outshot them 29-7. That's promising as a sanity check for this tactic. 4-2 us on CCC. They only had 2 key passes the whole game, we had 11.

Looking further, Kenny got a red card at 62' when we were up 1-0. Super intense tactic, short a player and they scored a penalty at 74' and another goal at 90+1'. We still played 2-1 down a man.

Reviewing the goals, the 90+1, Jagielka intercepted a ball over the top, but botched it right to the runner. Lookman and Niasse hooked up well for both of ours, each with a goal and an assist.