[FM20] Football manager manages football teams - 10 years of careers special edition

[noikeee]

Hi. Do I look like Unai Emery? This bodes well, doesn't it?
 

 

Welcome to my trillionth journeyman career. You know what's the deal: start low, aim to climb the managerial ladder, switch clubs like a mercenary, travel the world, the usual. I'm not planning to do anything outrageously fancy or outside the norm here.

 

This one's special though. Why? Because it's my 10th year of writing careers for the forum, after starting all the way back with FM11. Time flies. Bloody hell.

 

Technical details:

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you can tell by the responsibilities thing, I plan to be a very hands-off manager. Can't be arsed with team talks, press conferences and daily training, sorry. I did, however, go back to full fat FM after toying with FM Touch last year.

[noikeee]

Liège, Belgium, 1st of July 2019

 

We start here. In the red dot.

 

 

 

 

The club

 

 

 

 

 

Fallen giants RFC Liège are an interesting club (well, duh, otherwise I wouldn't have taken them on as a starting point). Founded in 1892(!!!), this is a club that has won 5 national titles but an absolute lifetime ago - in 1896, 1898, 1899, 1952 and 1953. It did, however, win a Belgian cup in 1990 but only to plunder into absolute obscurity ever since - a bankrupcy might not have helped. Currently they play in the semi-professional 3rd tier, play in a stadium with capacity for 3000 people; and don't ask me for much more than avoiding relegation. The facilities are pretty damn good for a club at this level though, which was a big plus that attracted me to this job.

 

There is one fascinating extra fact about these guys - they might had a big role in ruining European football (or making it fairer, depending on your point of view). Their refusal to release striker Jean-Marc Bosman from his contract in 1990, then contested by the player, led to the famous Bosman ruling that swept European football like a Tsunami in the 1990s, as player power increased dramatically now that clubs couldn't hold their footballing registering rights forever against their wishes.

 

 

The squad

 

 

One thing that was a big priority when choosing my 1st club was a squad that was already somewhat suitable to my footballing philosophy. It's not a perfect fit and talent is quite limited, but it's a good start to then build upon. I have two work in progress tactics, a 4-3-3 and a 4-2-3-1:

 

 

 

 

The stars

 

  

 

A good striker and a good keeper are always important for any club, although my plans rely more on grabbing more goals out of wingers than strikers, so I've got some doubts. A nice attacking fullback is absolutely key, though.

 

 

 

The finances

 

 

Looks okay, at least we're not in debt. There's not much room for manouvering in the transfer market, with the wage budget stretched to the maximum already.

 

 

The goals for this season

 

 

* Survive without getting relegated

* Get the tactics working at this level

* Build a little basic reputation for myself as I'm completely unknown in the footballing world at the moment

[BillHoudini24]

First of all, Good ebenin'! I will be following closely.

Edited November 13, 2019 by BillHoudini24

[Jimbokav1971]

33 minutes ago, noikeee said:

Hi. Do I look like Unai Emery? This bodes well, doesn't it?

Claudio looks like he has 2 faces that have been spliced together to make 1. I'm not sure if that's because of the shadow or the fact that the corner of the room is behind him, (the shoes are bad too by the way), but he looks slightly disfigured on his left hand side. 

If this is a picture of you that has somehow been skewed, then I am of course completely joking and you are a very attractive man. 

[Jimbokav1971]

39 minutes ago, noikeee said:

There is one fascinating extra fact about these guys - they might had a big role in ruining European football (or making it fairer, depending on your point of view). Their refusal to release striker Jean-Marc Bosman from his contract in 1990, then contested by the player, led to the famous Bosman ruling that swept European football like a Tsunami in the 1990s, as player power increased dramatically now that clubs couldn't hold their footballing registering rights forever against their wishes.

That's the stuff I read other peoples threads for.  (Well, that and Youth Intakes).  

Edited November 13, 2019 by Jimbokav1971

[noikeee]

17 minutes ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

Claudio looks like he has 2 faces that have been spliced together to make 1. I'm not sure if that's because of the shadow or the fact that the corner of the room is behind him, (the shoes are bad too by the way), but he looks slightly disfigured on his left hand side. 

If this is a picture of you that has somehow been skewed, then I am of course completely joking and you are a very attractive man. 

It's me. The game is **** at glueing my face in the character plus I don't seem to be able to adjust the skintone so it looks like I have a tumour around my face.

[Jimbokav1971]

19 minutes ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

Claudio looks like he has 2 faces that have been spliced together to make 1. I'm not sure if that's because of the shadow or the fact that the corner of the room is behind him, (the shoes are bad too by the way), but he looks slightly disfigured on his left hand side. 

If this is a picture of you that has somehow been skewed, then I am of course completely joking and you are a very attractive man. 

 

Just now, noikeee said:

It's me. The game is **** at glueing my face in the character plus I don't seem to be able to adjust the skintone so it looks like I have a tumour around my face.

Like I say, I have always found you to be a highly attractive man. 

[oriole01]

Best of luck with your new save, and congratulations on the big ten years of fraudulence. Will be following along.

[Rikulec]

Always nice to see you back with a thread, I'll be following.

[B.W.G]

Best of luck

[john1]

Good luck  

[noikeee]

1 hour ago, oriole01 said:

Best of luck with your new save, and congratulations on the big ten years of fraudulence. Will be following along.

 

1 hour ago, Rikulec said:

Always nice to see you back with a thread, I'll be following.

 

45 minutes ago, B.W.G said:

Best of luck

 

20 minutes ago, john1 said:

Good luck  

 

6 hours ago, Jimbokav1971 said:

 

Like I say, I have always found you to be a highly attractive man. 

 

[noikeee]

 

We beat the U21s 5-0. I always find this initial match against the U21s interesting, when you're in the process of building tactics, because of how optimistic/pessimistic it can make you at the same time. I mean, the tactics clearly work well, we won 5-0. Or do they, given that the U21s were using it as well?

We played the 4-3-3 the first half, the 4-2-3-1 the second half. U21s with the 4-3-3 all 90 minutes long.

[noikeee]

RFC Liège - Pre-season 2019/2020 

 

 

 

I managed to get a few more deals than I expected, a Serbian assistant manager proved to be a surprising advantage, as a few Serbian players appeared on player search that I then picked up. The U21s manager also snapped up a couple of kids but these are my signings:

 

A versatile Dutch playmaker that will likely start either as advanced playmaker or mezzala on midfield, although he could potentially also play on the right as a wide playmaker on the 4-2-3-1 (he's accomplished at AMR). I could do with more pace but right now he's one of the first names on the team sheet.

 

The other new MC, on loan from Crvena Zvezda. I think he's a bit lazy but offers another option with a touch of flair and technique to create chances on our midfield.

 

Our third creative signing, he's now one of the side's most talented players. Was once on Real Madrid and on Ajax's books! He seems a perfect fit for the inverted winger role on the right but can also play centrally and as AML - but my secret plan is to make him double-up a fearsome mezzala. He's only on loan, though.

 

Backup left-back, we only had one! Got him on another loan.

 

An excellent player, even if he's just gone past the age of 30. He's more comfortable at right-back - and could certainly do a great job as an attack-minded RB - but I need him at CB (where's he also accomplished) to cover for our high line, for as long as he doesn't lose his pace to his age.

 

 

 

So now we're looking like this, on the 4-3-3 because so far that's looked a little better than the 4-2-3-1, so I think I'm sticking with that:

 

 

 

 

The friendlies went just fine. Only one defeat, and we faced some pretty illustrious opponents, even a Ajax reserves side that included Quincy Promes upfront. Most of these matches were at home, however, so I don't know how will the side react to playing away to good sides.

 

We have only one competitive match scheduled for August for now, a cup match against Nijlen (from the divison below us). The league kicks off in September.

Edited November 14, 2019 by noikeee

[noikeee]

My plan for this season is to strike fear into the opposition through my zombie eyes.

[noikeee]

 

RFC Liège - August 2019 

 

 

 

I sold defender Emanuel Massa and hired one more guy, whilst the U21 manager went on a rampage and hired anyone in Belgium that can kick a football and was out of a club.

 

New playmaker on deadline day, on loan from Anderlecht, will fight with Stojancic for the place. But he's versatile, can also easily play as the DM DLP or even as striker!

 

 

 

Well now that's a start. Beating Nijlen then Tilleur was expected as they were both lower league sides, but both matches were comfortable. It was much tighter when we had to face a team of our caliber in Tubize, we still passed the test. Already matched the board's goal for the cup which was to reach the 6th round.

[noikeee]

[noikeee]

Aaaand I've just realized in the league we can only sit 4 subs on the bench. Why, we're in 2019 ffs.

 

[Crispypaul]

Will be following this!

Never knew that the Belgium Cup started so early (and had so many rounds in the summer).  I have never managed in Belgium mainly because of the confusing play offs.  Will be good to do so when I get my FM20 journeyman career going.

[AK22]

Started my FM19 save at Liege (thread would have been called Liege of Gentlemen, if it had made it on to here...).

Had a lot of fun with some superb youth intakes, so will look forward to seeing these with interest. The four sub rule is a bit of a ball-ache, unfortunately, as are some of the intricacies of Belgian football, which you will no doubt uncover soon enough  

[noikeee]

6 minutes ago, Crispypaul said:

Will be following this!

Never knew that the Belgium Cup started so early (and had so many rounds in the summer).  I have never managed in Belgium mainly because of the confusing play offs.  Will be good to do so when I get my FM20 journeyman career going.

I love the playoffs! It's the best thing about Belgian football! The way it's set up there's always something new to play for at all stages of the season.  Unless there's something I'm missing at this level, because I've only ever played in Belgium before in the top division.

3 minutes ago, AK22 said:

Started my FM19 save at Liege (thread would have been called Liege of Gentlemen, if it had made it on to here...).

Had a lot of fun with some superb youth intakes, so will look forward to seeing these with interest. The four sub rule is a bit of a ball-ache, unfortunately, as are some of the intricacies of Belgian football, which you will no doubt uncover soon enough  

Liege of Gentleman, wish I had thought of that.  

Like I said above I'm fine with the playoffs if it works in a similar way to the top division, just hope there's not any more nasty surprises apart from that!

--- 

One thing that is confusing me in the rules is that, it says the top 4 qualify for the promotion playoff.. fine, I get it. All teams start with half of the points that they had in the regular league, I also get it. What I don't get is that it says the team that wins that mini-league qualifies for the Jupiler Pro League. But that's 2 leagues above us, the league above us is the Proximus League.  

 

[noikeee]

RFC Liège - September 2019

 

Oh dear, what have we done... we've broke the game. Even my assistant manager is getting a bit too cocky.

The toughest match might've been... Deinze. For the first time (and only time so far this season) we've found ourselves losing, but no worries one corner goal and one banged in by our wide forward Mouchamps turned it around in the second half.

Speaking of corners, we've been absolute filth on them and that's how we broke down Club Brugge in what's obviously the big story of the month. We beat them with 2 corner goals, one of them an owngoal, and they had two goals disallowed for offside (or 3, the 3rd wasn't recorded as such as the ref had whistled already when they shot). Classic shithouse stuff.

We're... looking good, I guess?

 

[noikeee]

RFC Liège - October 2019

The signs were there. Something dark was coming. We were forced to turn the game around against Rupel Boom in the 2nd half. It took 92 minutes until we managed to score against La Louvière. And then it happened. The thing we've feared since the beginning of the season: a defeat. Oh my god, how will we cope.

I'm joking, but even if we had 12 wins from 12 this season - now 12 wins from 13 - we're already feeling the pressure at the top. That's because the team that beat us, Seraing, is only 1 point behind. Early days, but maybe a fight for promotion is already shaping up?

 

[B.W.G]

Excellent start to the season

[kingjericho]

Great start. Btw that 4 subs rule is ridiculous. I wonder why other countries are not following Italy's rule to have 12 subs in the bench, even if only for the fact than it looks great when everyone celebrates a late winner

[noikeee]

11 minutes ago, kingjericho said:

Great start. Btw that 4 subs rule is ridiculous. I wonder why other countries are not following Italy's rule to have 12 subs in the bench, even if only for the fact than it looks great when everyone celebrates a late winner

I think 7 subs is perfect, 12 subs makes me have to pick too many players, then I end up either having a too large first team squad, or having to click more buttons to include the U20s in the screen and then ask the assistant manager to choose the remaining slots from them.  

This from a FM perspective... in real life I think 12 subs is fine.

[noikeee]

RFC Liège - November 2019

Not the most convincing of months, we conceded two home draws and have been struggling to score from open play lately, although we keep on grinding out goals from corners and this is what's saving us. We also managed to survive the 2nd most confusing match in Belgian football, after Gent-Genk: Lierse-Liège.

Petar Planic has been particularly key, this attacking fullback that I play as a covering centerback, has scored quite a few in corners using his aerial abilities, but also recently scored from a direct freekick and has even occasionally taken cornerkicks himself! We're missing our midfield creative force Dyon Gijzen however, he's been brilliant with 5 goals and 7 assists so far this season, but he's been out for a couple of weeks and will remain out for most of December.

 

[ManUtd1]

Please give the Kiwi Farmers a kicking for me, when you get there. Loving this.

[andychar]

Great start to the season. I've just always found it hard to take something seriously when its called the "Corky Cup". 

[deltablue]

Happy FMCU anniversary!

[noikeee]

11 hours ago, ManUtd1 said:

Please give the Kiwi Farmers a kicking for me, when you get there. Loving this.

I had to look that up, I thought the Kiwi Farmers were Oostende not Anderlecht. I don't remember it anymore.  

But yeah it would absolutely overjoy me to roundhouse kick them in the face.

2 hours ago, andychar said:

Great start to the season. I've just always found it hard to take something seriously when its called the "Corky Cup". 

It really is a truly ridiculous name for a competition, isn't it?

57 minutes ago, deltablue said:

Happy FMCU anniversary!

I feel

to have been part of this community for so long. Thanks!

Edited November 15, 2019 by noikeee

[noikeee]

So it looks like the next big team we're facing wants to line up like this

Now that's some advanced 4D chess ****.

[danmcconnell1]

Amazing start, well done!  

[noikeee]

23 hours ago, AK22 said:

Had a lot of fun with some superb youth intakes

Soooo...

[noikeee]

And in other news I think @ManUtd1 will be pleased with this

[AK22]

3 minutes ago, noikeee said:

Soooo...

Ideal for that five winger formation you're playing  

 

That is a shame, although one of the wingers may turn out to be the new Kevin Mirallas.

[noikeee]

RFC Liège - December 2019

Looks like the honeymoon period is over. Mouscron really did 4D-chess us and beat us up like a top division side ought to do (although we had a lot of shots too), and then we took that form to the league. Everything is going wrong, we hit the woodwork whilst the opposition scores freekicks from miles out, etc.

Maybe now that Gijzen is back we can get back into form. We've dropped to 2nd place, but still firmly in the playoff spots - in fact the top 4 has a huge advantage over the rest.
 

 

[noikeee]

Aaaand things are seriously getting wild in Germany right now.

[noikeee]

RFC Liège - January 2020

 

Lots of movement on the U21s side, but on what matters, quite a few fringe first team players were moved aside to free up wage budget for 2 new signings. So off went players like wingers Sindou Cissé and Yoshi Marien, striker Yadi Bangoura and goalkeeper Lucas Alfieri.

The 2 new guys:

This teenager on loan from Toulouse is most natural at MC (where he could be a mean mezzala) but I want him to play on the left as an upgrade to Mouchamps. Has already looked lively in 2 starts for us.

Right-back Randy Giargiana had been pretty much the worst player in my regular starting 11, so I needed an upgrade. This lad from Ghana isn't particularly well rounded, more of a crazy quick pace merchant than anything else but he'll do for now, we play a high line we need pace.

Although we returned to competition after a brief break, with a home defeat to Molenbeek, there were already some signs things could be getting better again, as we took the lead in this match. We were much better in the following 2 matches, breaking our bad run with 2 fairly solid wins, and hopefully we're back on track now. 

We remain 3 points below leaders Tubize and well in the fight for promotion.

 

[noikeee]

Little quiz, do you guys prefer to see signings like I've just shown above:

 

Or like this:

 

Or even like this:

I keep going back and forth between my careers and never quite decide on what I like best.

I think option b) might be the best but option c) is the easiest and gives less work. Usually it's not a problem but it's a pain when I'm showing like 20 players at once. a) and b) are also not ideal for when it's something like a season review and you want to show detailed player stats.

Edited November 15, 2019 by noikeee

[ManUtd1]

7 hours ago, noikeee said:

And in other news I think @ManUtd1 will be pleased with this

[ManUtd1]

4 hours ago, noikeee said:

... option b) might be the best but option c) is the easiest and gives less work. Usually it's not a problem but it's a pain when I'm showing like 20 players at once. a) and b) are also not ideal for when it's something like a season review and you want to show detailed player stats.

I vote for option C, for full context. Just my preference.

[noikeee]

RFC Liège - February 2020

 

"Inconsistent" is the word that best suits us at the moment, the unstoppable momentum of the early season now long gone. Still, we're managing to get a few wins here and there, and the away win over Seraing was particularly valuable. That just about allowed us to hang on to them and to Tubize in a fight for the table lead, although we're now down to 3rd.

 

 

Edited November 16, 2019 by noikeee

[deltablue]

b, or c.

[noikeee]

RFC Liège - March 2020

 

The goals had dried up, the form looked rather dodgy again, so midway through the Winkel Sport match I did yet more tinkering (which has been a constant the last few months) and tried a new version of a 4-2-3-1. That worked great and although it's a short sample we've looked most definitely better since.

1 match remains, and even if the points are getting halved after it (in the playoffs group we start with 50% of the points we had accumulated through the regular season), this last match is pretty important: we face leaders Tubize and if we win we go top, if we lose they get a decent head start for the playoffs.

Oh and of course just the simple fact we got into the playoffs is pretty good, the board's goal was just to avoid relegation and we were tipped 9th in the pre-season odds.

 

 

 

Edited November 16, 2019 by noikeee

[noikeee]

1 hour ago, deltablue said:

b, or c.

Think I'm gonna do b) for signings and c) for season reviews.

[noikeee]

With the last regular season match finishing Liège 0-0 Tubize, the final league table looks like this:

And the promotion playoff table starts like this:

The next 6 matches will decide which of these 4 teams goes up.

Edited November 16, 2019 by noikeee

[noikeee]

RFC Liège - Youth intake 2020

 

Well I'm not exactly expecting this place to be La Masia. I think it's not terrible, but if I'm planning to build this club a bit, I don't think none of these players can reach any higher level than the one we're at, at the moment.

[kingjericho]

Option B for the first time you show a player is my vote.

[noikeee]

RFC Liège - April 2020

 

A win over La Louvière was very encouraging, even if it came only with a 94th minute winner. However, it would soon emerge that they were the whipping boys of this group and we struggled much more against the other 2 sides. Another win over La Louvière clinched in the final minutes, in even more spectacular circumstances (turned it around in minutes 92 and 93!) gave us vague hopes, but with Seraing running rampant at this end of the season, we had to beat them away if we had any chance of postponing their promotion until the final match.

It turned out to be our worst match all season long, we were smashed 3-0 and Seraing are up... Still I guess we came much closer to promotion than I expected before the season, so it's alright.

 

 

Edited November 16, 2019 by noikeee