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

[noikeee]

RFC Liège - May 2020

An unimportant match, but it's nice to end the season on a positive note with a big away win - even if it took an early red card for a Tubize player, and then they switched to a weird ween formation of a diamond + a single striker, that clearly didn't work. We finish 2nd in the promotion playoff, best of the rest.

 

[noikeee]

RFC Liège - Season review 2019/2020

 

We spent most of the time playing in the initial 4-3-3 and slightly tweaked variants, but by the end we were in this 4-2-3-1 setup:
 

 

Keeper

 

The ratings don't show it, but I truly believe Kevin Debaty was key to our season - the number of saves he pulled off was impressive. One-on-ones don't appear to be a very reliable way of scoring at the moment but I was scoring more of them at the other end, than the opposition was at our goal, despite our high line which hands out a lot of opportunities like this, which I think says a lot about him.

Centerbacks

 

This duo was one of the highlights, lots of points were gained thanks to Planic's 8 goals and Van der Ackerveken's 7, they were a massive danger upfront in set pieces. I think they made a pretty decent duo defensively too, with ratings of 6.98-6.95.

Fullbacks

 

D'Ostilio was superb in the early season then faded in importance, whilst I really struggled with the RB position. Unhappy with Giargiana, I hired Junior Oto'o in January but the pacey player from Ghana hardly justified the investment with very poor performances, honestly I'd rather have Giargiana.

Midfielders

 

On paper Paul Niankou was too destructive a DM for the more technical game I want to play, but he did well and as the season developed I eventually morphed the deeper role into a more and more restricted role which suits him best. But the real highlight was the 2 guys in front of him. Serbian teenager Ilija Stojancic excelled on loan from Crvena Zvezda, with the highest ratings in the side; whilst Giljzen was another key signing with 8 goals and 8 assists.

Wide attackers

 

With my initial idea of the 2 wide attackers being the primary goalscorers and danger creators, I think they turned out a little underwhelming. Mouchamps didn't impress as inside forward on the left, so I brought in teenager Manu Koné on loan in January and he was a decent upgrade, but struggled with injuries. On the right-wing Peeters doubled up as IW or wide playmaker if necessary, and had the most assists in the side (9), but I still feel with his talent he could've done more.

Striker

 

On paper Lallemand did not fit a DLF/S role but he was too talented not to make it work. A goalscoring record of 14 goals was quite frankly excellent given the tactical system, I am a little surprised/disappointed however he didn't even record a single assist.

Prospects

 

Kimi Farmers' Antoine Colassin was a huge prospect we grabbed on loan, and I expected him to easily grab Stojancic's place in midfield. Instead the Serbian was the side's single best player and Colassin's season was utter crap. Talented on paper but disappointing on the pitch.

On prospects that are actually our own, 17 year old keeper Matyas Goffin is the most decent player but he has a lot to do to grab Debaty's place in goal.

Career progress table

[noikeee]

Unfortunately, our quality loanees don't want to stay for next season and we might have to rebuild our side a bit:

Tbh this is a bit more realistic than in previous FMs in which you could keep star loanees for 2 or 3 seasons very easily. Bit strange that it's the player rejecting it rather than the parent club, but okay.

[noikeee]

17 hours ago, noikeee said:

Unfortunately, our quality loanees don't want to stay for next season and we might have to rebuild our side a bit:

Tbh this is a bit more realistic than in previous FMs in which you could keep star loanees for 2 or 3 seasons very easily. Bit strange that it's the player rejecting it rather than the parent club, but okay.

Nevermind, I got them all back as soon as they returned to their parent clubs.  

[noikeee]

Hey look who's going to be my opponent this season!

 

[noikeee]

RFC Liège - Pre-season 2020/2021

 

Getting wage spending under control was a big theme, hence why I let go the likes of Damien Mouchamps, Junior Oto'o, and even youth prospect Mickaël Perrin YP20D (who we got money for!). Meanwhile, beyond the 3 loanees that return, we hired another 6 new players:

Young CB that I got on ridiculously low wages. Not expected to play much but he's got okay potential and can cover for the position.

Getting an upgrade for the RB position was a huge priority and hopefully this guy fixes that, I got him from one of the sides that got relegated.

A new loanee. Although I don't want to break the Planic-Van der Ackerveken duo at the back that worked so well last year, with Planic losing pace as he ages we need a new covering CB, and I think this kid might be just about good enough for that.

Manu Koné should retain his place as wide forward on the left, but given that he's injury-prone he needs some proper competition for the spot, and this experienced lad is just that, he might even win the place.

Another experienced player. His aggression terrifies me, but we needed cover for the LB position, and he also offers versatility, covering perfectly well for the CB and DM positions as well. And versatility is absolutely key when we only sit 4 guys on the bench for every league match.

The final signing comes from Germany, this guy will probably be our starting DM now, and he can also cover for MC and even RB. His high aggression again is a problem, and I would also prefer better physicals, but his mentals are excellent.
 

So this is the squad now and the expected starting 11:

A smaller squad than I'm used to, but with wage budget concerns (btw our finances have gone to absolute crap already), a relatively short number of matches if we don't go far in the cup, and just 15 players named in the match squad, it makes sense to trim the squad down.

Ah, a perfectly normal 15-0 win.

[noikeee]

Oh and this season I'm gonna take team talks, let's see if that makes a difference.

[noikeee]

Hasselt's keeper is made of paper.

Btw, he then saved 2 penalty kicks in this match.  

Edited November 17, 2019 by noikeee

[noikeee]

RFC Liège - August 2020

 

I wasn't planning to sign anyone anymore, but sometimes the scouting team finds players that are too good to pass up. This is one of them:

Such a good player that he immediately prompts a change in tactics, mirroring it left-to-right so he can play on the right as IF/A, at least until he learns to play on the left since he's right-footed. Scored on his debut playing like this!

We seem to have no problems whatsoever beating these smaller sides in the earlier rounds of the cup. Midfielder Ilija Stojancic is on a particularly good run, with 4 goals already - even if the goalkeepers have sometimes been rather nice to him...

 

[Peter G]

Thiel's picture looks like he was too short for the camera so that he had to stretch

[noikeee]

RFC Liège - September 2020

It's not last year's clean sweep of wins, but it's a very exciting beginning of the season with lots of goals and open matches. The 7-1 was particularly memorable - Lallemand scoring 5, 3 of them on penalty kicks! The away draws weren't that bad, Lierse are pretty decent and Beerschot VA just got relegated from the division above and they're very competitive.

On the cup, we nearly pulled off another giant-killing performance like last year, we were beating Sint-Truiden until minute 88, then they drew and killed us in extra time.

 

[noikeee]

Our most talented player.  

[kidthekid]

Option C

[noikeee]

RFC Liège - October 2020

 

What a wild ride this season has been. The 4-2-3-1 is super open and this creates all sorts of defensive problems, which I'm getting tired of, despite all the goals I'm scoring. I've been trying to fix the defensive issues, but it's been a struggle and we're paying in points. We finally got a win over Deinze though, in one of the most bizarre matches I've ever had, losing 0-2 at half-time to win 6-3 after missing 2 penalty kicks and scoring another 2.

Losing Laurens Symons clearly hasn't helped, he gave us an edge in attack that has now been lost, I believe he'll skip November and December and return in January.

 

[noikeee]

This also doesn't look very good:

[noikeee]

RFC Liège - November 2020

 

I'm ever more confused about this game. Clearly all the tactical tinkering I've been doing lately isn't working very well, and we've been a level below the performances of last season. However, when it clicks, we are a terrifying side, as proven by the 5-0 away win over Rupel Boom. I repeated the tactics for the next match and it gave us another win. Could I finally have found a good formula to make this 4-2-3-1 work consistently? I need to find that fast because we've dropped out of the playoff spots (although we're still just only 1 point outside of them).

 

[noikeee]

RFC Liège - December 2020

 

Surprise, we remain inconsistent. Crazy 4-3 win, poor display and defeat, massive smashing. I guess at least this gives nice goals+assists numbers for our forwards. We seem marginally better lately though, with 4 wins in the last 5 matches, and with Symons now back - although it'll take him a while to build match fitness - there are reasons to be optimistic for the rest of the season. We're still 1 point outside of the playoffs, but I'll risk a cautious optimistic prediction that we'll make it.

 

 

Edited November 18, 2019 by noikeee

[noikeee]

RFC Liège - January 2021

 

A quiet month with 0 transfers for the main senior side. Being on the absolute edge of the wage budget means I need to be restrained. I did have a look at several potential loanees from the Kiwi Farmers, because they'd be available for free, but when I was about to place a bid they suddenly decided they wanted me to pay for a large chunk of their wages. No thanks.

A much better month than it might look like. Although we only just grinded out two away wins and drew twice at home, by beating Tubize we got one over direct rivals for the playoff spots; and drawing at home to Beerschot was not bad neither, as so far they've been dominating the division. Really the only "bad" result was against Lierse, and they're also a very strong side that's in 2nd place. Laurens Symons has been sensational on his return as predicted (even if I'm playing him out of position at AML!), with 2 assists in the first 2 matches, and then 2 wonder solo goals against Tubize.

With all this we return to a playoff spot in 3rd, and with a much easier calendar for the rest of the regular season.

 

[noikeee]

RFC Liège - February 2021

 

Well, no-one can accuse us of being boring this season, now that's for sure. Under all the craziness it's a 2nd consecutive undefeated month, even if not beating Deinze who were down to 9 men, was disappointing. We are hanging on to a playoff place but can't lose concentration in the 5 matches that remain - and it would be important to cut a bit of Beerschot's current advantage, because 8 points in the regular season translate to a 4 points headstart in the playoffs, and that's already quite big.

Tbh right now I'm not expecting promotion, I guess I'd be happy enough with getting into the playoffs and showing reasonably well in them. That would only match last season's effort instead of improving on it, but let's take it easy, I'm still learning FM20.
 

 

[noikeee]

RFC Liège - March 2021

 

Problems. The home defeat to Rupel Boom was bad, but the one to Olympic Charleroi might've been the worst moment of my short-lived career so far. Not just because of the huge numbers (exaggerated, we had more shots on target than them!!), but also because that allowed them to just jump ahead of us into 4th place, bumping us out of the playoff spots.

A very difficult win over La Louvière helped, but coming into the final match we're on the backfoot. We need to beat Dessel and hope Olympic Charleroi don't beat Thes Sport. Another option might be to hope for Tubiza to slip up badly at home to Molenbeek.

 

[noikeee]

RFC Liège - April 2021

 

Wow. Twice Dessel went on a counter that their wide forward headed back to an unrushing player, twice it went in. We reduced in the 2nd half, but most of my team spent the whole match "nervous", "anxious", "frustrated", and worst of all: "uninterested" (!!!). What an absolute bunch of ****ing knobs. We miss out on the playoffs.

I need to take some time to review this season. It really seemed like a tactical switch mid-season for a more symmetrical 4-2-3-1 (2 MCs instead of 1 DM and 1 MC), had turned things around, but that was never 100% super stable and now we've suddenly collapsed the last few weeks. It looks to me like last year's 4-3-3 performed better but was a hell of a lot duller, so I don't know which of the two tactics I want to pursue further.

One thing that particularly puzzles me is that last year we scored an absolute heap of goals from corners, and those completely dried out this season. Maybe the tactic makes us win fewer corner kicks, but it just seems we're so much less effective on them. Either way the main problem is surely the huge amount of goals we concede (we ended the season with the 3rd worst defensive record in the league!!!), as we're now scoring a lot from open play. For next season I might experiment with a 4-4-1-1 (wingers dropped back from AMR/AML to MR/ML) to see if that improves things and makes us more stable defensively without dulling our attacking power.

 

 

Edited November 20, 2019 by noikeee

[noikeee]

RFC Liège - Season review 2020/2021

The current 4-2-3-1 that I talked about in the previous post. It's unquestionably pretty damn open, so no wonder we concede a lot (I was gambling on the goals we score paying off):
 

 

Keeper

 

With 53 conceded this isn't going to be Debaty's greatest season ever, but under the circumstances I retain my faith in him as an excellent keeper for this level.

Centerbacks

 

There were issues here. The plan was to field new signing Adewoye next to Planic, but that became a bad partnership (that's a thing in the game now) and I had no other option but to opt for just one of them. Planic who was great last season but is losing his pace was dropped for Van der Ackerveken then. Nevertheless, an horror season from them, and the fact they just scored a total of 3 goals whereas last year Planic+van der Ackerveken had scored a total of 15, makes it crystal clear on just how many goals from corners we've missed out on.

Fullbacks

 

Kenne was a good signing that certainly sorted out the RB position, whereas D'Ostilio racked up an insane 12 assists from the other wing. They picked up better ratings than the CBs, making it seem like in terms of talent at least, our defensive issues were clearly more on the center than on the wings.

Midfielders

 

It wasn't a very happy first season for the club for Maurice Hirsch, his role of trying to keep our midfield together defensively clearly didn't go very well. I still retained my faith in him however. In more advanced roles, Stojancic started the season on insanely good form and recorded a total of 9 goals which is great for a MC, whereas Gijzen thrived on a AMC position scoring 13. Nevertheless I feel Gijzen often wouldn't offer much when he didn't score, I would've wanted more than 4 assists.

Wide attackers

 

Peeters was the season's standout in terms of average rating, with a superb 7.48, also racking up an excellent 12 goals + 12 assists. On the other flank the supertalent Symons - who is still getting adapted to AML - struggled with injuries but still managed to get 9 goals and 5 assists which is good considering the reduced playing time, but I felt he went missing on the final month of the season that put us out of the playoffs.

Striker

 

Lallemand had a superb season upfront. An extraordinary start to the season put him on more goals than starts for a very long time, but goals dried out later on. He still finished with 26 in 33 starts which is great nevertheless. Unfortunately his contract is running out and he doesn't appear to want to re-sign.

Prospects

 

Toulouse loanee Manu Koné is the player that dropped out of the 11 with the arrival of Symons, he did fairly well and all those appearances from the bench is what lowered his ratings. Keeper Matyas Goffin is promising, but with the huge bug of low determination and other hidden stats (hopefully a fix for careers in progress is out soon), he's not progressing at all whatsoever.

Career progress table

This many red columns means we've done worse than last year on all those categories - worse performance in the league, the cup, and worse attendances. The club is also leaking a ton of money...

Edited November 20, 2019 by noikeee

[noikeee]

RFC Liège - Youth intake 2021

 

This could be worse, for our level I really quite fancy Gallet as a striker, even if I don't think the others will make it.

[noikeee]

And those nicknames are all wrong, should be YP21A not YP20A.

[noikeee]

RFC Liège - Post-season friendlies 2021

 

With our regular season finishing pretty damn early, as we didn't qualify for the playoffs, I used this time to schedule weekend friendlies to test things tactically, in an attempt to build a more defensively sound version of our recent tactic. I can't exactly say it's been a success, whenever I tone things down we lose an attacking edge, whenever I loosen things we start conceding goals again. I've already abandoned the idea of using a 4-4-1-1 formation and am back to the 4-2-3-1, to try to balance it better. Been a bit of a frustrating time tbh.

Another blow has been the implementation of the latest hotfix from SI, which was supposed to fix determination and a few other attributes... well that has worked for a few players, but Symons and Manu Koné have tanked their determination to 1, and those are our two options for inside forward where that's a key attribute IMO. Symons is apparently leaving anyway... which is another blow.

[smp20]

Good first couple of seasons, though I feel you need those promotions to the top flight sooner rather than later to help with the leaky finances...easier said than done!

[noikeee]

52 minutes ago, smp20 said:

Good first couple of seasons, though I feel you need those promotions to the top flight sooner rather than later to help with the leaky finances...easier said than done!

Yeah I think I lost my chance which would've been last season, with some really good players on loan, now I was unable to retain a few of them (Symons, Koné and player of the year Peeters), the finances are getting worse, and the pressure is increasing due to club vision becoming more demanding. 

Perhaps switching tactics from the 4-3-3 to the 4-2-3-1 last season was a mistake, but we had already started to lose an edge at the end of season 1 with the 4-3-3, and I just felt it was too dull. 

Either way if things don't work out at Liège, it's a learning experience. 

[noikeee]

RFC Liège - Pre-season 2021/2022

 

This was always going to be a busy Summer due to a compulsory large squad revolution. With stars Peeters and Symons, and the talented backup Koné, all leaving with their loans not renewed; and last year's disappointing signing Molenberghs also leaving because I promised him a move, that's 4 replacements needed for the AMR/AML/AMC positions. Other backup players stopped being as useful as they aged or were paid too much, so the likes of Planic and Niankou - regular starters back in season 1 - or Bruggeman, Electeur and De Schutter also left, opening up places in the squad.

One of the best new signings was the first one. I think he looks like a pretty exciting new AMC, although Gijzen scored 13 goals from the position last year, we could've done with a upgrade.

A versatile lad that isn't quite perfect for left-back or center-back, there's a high chance he'll get a lot of substitute appearances this season...

I like this guy. I wasn't very happy with the performance of Maurice Hirsch last year as the most defensive-minded midfielder, so I think this guy is a slight upgrade. He can also cover for CB so that's a bonus.

Replacing Symons as a left-wing inside forward was always going to be tricky. Right now this lad is in pole-position for this spot, although he is unquestionably a step down from Symons, and he will have competition.

One signing too many? A nice well-rounded midfielder that can essentially play in any of the three central roles, CM/D, CM/S or AM/A, he is in the running for these positions but might not quite grab any of the places. One of 4 new loanees.

Replacing Peeters as a playmaker from the right wing was another huge problem. Ideally I'd have a left-footed player in here, but I don't think this guy is a bad option.

The other alternative I have for the left-wing inside forward role, comes on loan from Vitesse. A superb dribbler, and quick, his game is a bit limited apart from that though - but he's young and can improve. Fighting Bangoura for the place.

My favourite of the new loanees, might be the best signing. I've wanted a truly good CB for a while and this kid looks like he could be it. Fingers crossed for him. Contracted to our city rivals Standard - one day we'll be bigger than them. Hopefully.

My final loanee signing is my new backup RB, coming from Serbia. I would've liked a more attacking option, but the market was very limited and his wages are super cheap. He also has huge potential so I think this signing just can't go wrong.

Squad for the new season:

This actually turned out surprisingly alright? We have a major step-down in quality in the AMR/AML positions no question, but with a couple new talents such as Tarfi for AMC, Spruyt for MC, Ngoy for CB, we might actually not be any weaker than last year, probably even more well rounded.
 

 

And this is how the 4-2-3-1 is looking now. This has had so many different incarnations - with the wingers dropped back to MR/ML, with the central midfielders dropped back to DM, with lower line of engagement, with lower mentality, normal defensive line instead of higher. Nothing worked - it either gave no defensive improvement or dulled our attack.

So what's new now? Well I actually increased the pressing - up to more urgent, whilst at the same time made the team slightly more compact horizontally in defence through adding "defend narrower". This embraces the nature of our top-heavy formation, and should give the opposition less time to think on the ball, minimizing the sheer amount of times they had a player in space to hit a long shot, or to think before hitting a long pass that broke us.

The other new thing, that I'm experimenting with is.... "shorter passing". It's as of yet unknown if this hurts our goalscoring numbers, but we seem to be a) prettier on the ball; and b) since we have more of the ball, the opposition has less of it, they have less chance of camping in our half until they score. Classic Spanish national team tiki-taka principle, which I'm not entirely sure suits our lower league side, but we'll see.

I'm also preparing a tactic to try to shut off games later on, when we have a lead:

 

And we retain the tactical options from seasons 1 and 2 in our arsenal, of course.

Looking good so far, but we're playing mostly rubbish sides... and this will continue in the earlier rounds of the cup. The true test is when the league starts and things play out beyond a month or two (because we always seem to start well, IMO this is because I field the expected starting 11 a lot in the friendlies to get used to my setup early on, so I get a head start over the opposition).

[B.W.G]

Shame things didn't work out for you in the last couple of season,here's hoping that this season is will be the breakthrough you want.

[noikeee]

 

 

[noikeee]

RFC Liège - August 2021

 

A couple of minor transfers for U21 squad players.

 

A 6-0 win to kick off things was promising. However this really meant nothing until we faced a decent side, but then we had a surprise first competitive match by facing Olympic Charleroi rather early (they're from our league). We beat them well, and although we conceded 2 those goals were from high crosses, not super clear chances so I'm not particularly worried.

I'm more worried about the fact the U21s/U18s are having poor results, so that doesn't reflect well on the tactics, but my senior side has started well. Two proper big challenges come already next month - our very first league match is away to Lommel who just got relegated to this level; and later on we face Anderlecht, of course.

A fun fact - I'm now experimenting with WB/Ds instead of WB/Ss, a pretty big detail since I've been so committed to the supporting wingbacks since the very beginning.

 

Edited November 21, 2019 by noikeee

[noikeee]

RFC Liège - September 2021

 

Well I'm pretty happy with this start! We did lose a league match away to Dessel, but other than that, 4 wins in 5, a healthy amount of goals scored without an absurd amount conceded... I can live with that. We're also playing a very nice brand of football, apparently all it took was to add "shorter passing". 3rd place in the league for now.

In the big cup match, we did just fine reaching half-time 0-0 and conceding one just after the break. Considering Anderlecht's budget is laughably bigger than ours, again, I'll take it, a 1-0 defeat seems fine.

 

[noikeee]

RFC Liège - October 2021

 

Ugh. I could live with losing to leaders Tubize, I could even live with getting smashed by Olympic Charleroi as they're having a good year, but losing to Hasselt at home is pretty unforgiveable.

 

[noikeee]

RFC Liège - November 2021

 

Pretty much a disaster, this season is going to hell again. To make things worse, the board suddenly reduced the wage budget a lot (which is sensible, we've been leaking tons of money)... but now they're angry at me for not keeping the club within the budget. 

 

[noikeee]

RFC Liège - December 2021

 

A little better now, but this was almost insufferable to watch as we could only grab it in the very last minutes in both wins, after creating very little throughout the matches. At least we got two clean sheets in a row, which has been unheard of for long - even if that relied on the opposition missing a penalty kick, after we had missed one ourselves in the Dessel match.

This has now turned into a season of just trying to survive on the job, we're now wildly above the wage budget and the board is obviously annoyed. And I'm not sure how do I solve this other than letting key players go. I think it's time to go manage somewhere else, but I'll try to endure the season somehow just to see how far I can get this side.

 

 

Edited November 24, 2019 by noikeee

[noikeee]

RFC Liège - January 2022

 

Being absolutely skint and desperately wanting to reduce our wage budget resulted in... uhhh, no sales and 2 players in? Let me explain. First I didn't want to let key players go and I didn't get any direct bids for them anyway. I did try to offload quite a few backups but none of them would move neither, so resigned myself to not selling anyone, cross my fingers and hope for the best - I'm not staying at this club for much longer anyway.

Then we DID lose a player. With no explanation, one day right-back Stefan Despotovski - who had just won the position in recent times - simply disappeared. He was on loan, his parent club sold him, and I wasn't even informed with a news item or anything. To replace him, I loaned in a random guy on 0 wages, then managed to get another player on 0 wages as well:
 

Not great, but we needed a backup RB and I guess he covers for CB as well.

We've been struggling with the AML position ever since Symons left, so an upgrade is welcome, specially if he comes absolutely at a free. He's left-footed so not a great fit for inside forward role, but can't possibly do worse than what Blanchard or Bangoura have been doing.

 

I could've done without the away defeat to Deinze, tbf that was a really tough fixture as they're on a roll. Even then, ever since I did some tactical changes (credit to fellow forumers @wynter and @BoxToBox for some suggestions), we've been much more solid defensively and have 4 wins and 4 clean sheets in the 6 matches since. So maybe, just maybe, I've finally found the right path.

We're still 5 points off the playoffs which is bad at this stage with probably not enough matches to recover. We have a game in hand after a recent fixture was postponed, but so does the 2 teams right ahead of us.

 

Edited November 24, 2019 by noikeee

[noikeee]

RFC Liège - February 2022

 

We're still out of the playoffs but only because our pitch got waterlogged... again.... and as a consequence a match postponed, again. Because a really good run had just bumped us up to 4th.

We're unbeaten in 6 matches now... Is the comeback on? I'm bankrupting Liège and getting the hell out of here as soon as I can, but can I at least salvage some honour for the rest of this season?

 

[noikeee]

RFC Liège - March 2022

 

Honestly, **** this game, I'm just not "getting" this version at all.