Football Manager 2020 Discussion Thread

[LFCMike]

Unfortunately we couldn't keep hold of Mbeumo. He wanted out at the end of the season. £3.5m with a sell on clause not bad business. Akcay from recently relegated Kilmarnock is his replacement. Only three or four signings for the first team this summer, the rest are for the future. Been trying to get the board to improve the youth facilities at every opportunity so hopefully we can start producing some of our own.

I completely forgot that winning the Scottish Cup would see us in Europe and it got us out of that bloody group stage in the Betfred Cup! 

A great first leg result away to Levski gave us a decent chance of going through. In the second leg though, we went down to 10 men after four minutes. We ended up conceding late on and went out.

Exact same results in the Euro Cup 2. 0-1 at home and 2-2 away. 

Not a bad start to the league season with two wins from four. The one defeat being at Rangers. Not a bad performance by any stretch. We went down to 10 men after an hour (1-0 down at that point)

[Dan+]

Seems a quite common theme regarding fixture lists being bullshit on this game with a poor balance of home/away games, regularly getting 3 home, then 3 away etc..

[LFCMike]

So here we are as we head into the winter break.

Another defeat in the Betfred Cup final.

We've had some incredible results in the league, we're really strong at home. Celtic the only side to beat us there in the league.

We certainly won't be winning the league but let's see if we can break up the top two

[LFCMike]

Oh and I've just taken the Scotland job too

[Dan+]

This next season is going to be another slog. Sigh.

[LFCMike]

So the January transfer window is over and we've lost these two for £4.5m & £4.2m each. Managed to get Gonzalez back on loan until the end of the season though. We've not signed any replacements yet. Got a couple of youngsters ready to step up next season

It's great seeing these youngsters improve dramatically but annoying that they're only regulars for about 6 months before they're snapped up by someone else

[Bluebird Hewitt]

1 hour ago, LFCMike said:

So the January transfer window is over and we've lost these two for £4.5m & £4.2m each. Managed to get Gonzalez back on loan until the end of the season though. We've not signed any replacements yet. Got a couple of youngsters ready to step up next season

It's great seeing these youngsters improve dramatically but annoying that they're only regulars for about 6 months before they're snapped up by someone else

A bit similar with me to a lesser degree. For some to sign, they demand minimum fee release clauses and a few in the past have been activated, which has knackered me a little. 

My biggest concern is with Joe Gelhardt. He's already made his mark in the prem in a few months and his price tag has jumped significantly from about £15m to £35m currently. However, he wouldn't sign without a minimum fee release clause and while I increased it to £50m, he's approaching that rapidly and I fear losing him. 

On a different note, for those starting in League One on the mobile version and needing a striker, have a look at Jay-Roy Grot from Leeds. I signed him for less than a million in the second season and he has scored goals at all levels, including the prem. 

[LFCMike]

9 minutes ago, Bluebird Hewitt said:

A bit similar with me to a lesser degree. For some to sign, they demand minimum fee release clauses and a few in the past have been activated, which has knackered me a little. 

My biggest concern is with Joe Gelhardt. He's already made his mark in the prem in a few months and his price tag has jumped significantly from about £15m to £35m currently. However, he wouldn't sign without a minimum fee release clause and while I increased it to £50m, he's approaching that rapidly and I fear losing him. 

On a different note, for those starting in League One on the mobile version and needing a striker, have a look at Jay-Roy Grot from Leeds. I signed him for less than a million in the second season and he has scored goals at all levels, including the prem. 

Yeah that's the thing and I always try to increase the release clause as much as possible but they won't agree the release clause being too high incase they get priced out of a move.

I've got 25-30% sell on clauses on these players anyway so I'm hoping they get another big move!

[Bluebird Hewitt]

7 minutes ago, LFCMike said:

Yeah that's the thing and I always try to increase the release clause as much as possible but they won't agree the release clause being too high incase they get priced out of a move.

I've got 25-30% sell on clauses on these players anyway so I'm hoping they get another big move!

Admittedly I try to lower the sell on clause as I don't want to lose a fair bit of money to another club. Greedy bastard and all that. 

A screenshot of Jay-Roy Grot's greatness as well. 

He's currently worth £13.25m.

[The Palace Fan]

1 hour ago, Bluebird Hewitt said:

Admittedly I try to lower the sell on clause as I don't want to lose a fair bit of money to another club. Greedy bastard and all that. 

A screenshot of Jay-Roy Grot's greatness as well. 

He's currently worth £13.25m.

I tried signing him from Dagenham after he tore league two to shreds. They wanted 700k which I couldn't afford 

[Bluebird Hewitt]

7 minutes ago, The Palace Fan said:

I tried signing him from Dagenham after he tore league two to shreds. They wanted 700k which I couldn't afford 

He's absolutely ridiculous and has stepped up each time with ease. Not sure how good he would be on Touch and the main version though. 

[LFCMike]

Here's the table as we head into the final five games of the season (I believe the league splits now?) 

Oh and we're getting a new 30,000 seater stadium

[LFCMike]

Remaining fixtures, plus the cup final v Rangers

[Mpache]

Would be a great achievement if you do beat them @LFCMike. Good luck!

[Mpache]

My CL group.

[The Palace Fan]

We have been ruthless back down in League One. Twelve new players. A high pressing very direct style of football. Second in the table at Christmas.

[Mpache]

30 minutes ago, The Palace Fan said:

We have been ruthless back down in League One. Twelve new players. A high pressing very direct style of football. Second in the table at Christmas.

If this is anything to go by, @Dan's Andorra side have some hope in his next season  

[LFCMike]

So that's another season done. Made up to break up the Old Firm in our first season in the SPL. Hopefully we can start taking a few more points off Celtic next season and close the gap

Rangers done us again in a cup final though. Goals in the last 10 minutes in both finals have lost it for us

Looking forward to next season. Got some really good young players coming through

[Bluebird Hewitt]

Signing good enough players for reasonable prices is an absolute twat. 

[Danny]

I used to have this formation on FM15 that was weirdly defensive but also possession based, don’t think you could pull it off on the new games and probably hard to find the players for the prices you used to be able to back then, it was a bit like

 

st - st

 

dpm/s - bbm

dpm/d - bwm 

fb - cb - cb - fb

gk

I’d signed players like Vertongthen, Alderweireld, Vermaelen. Players who can play centre back and defensive mid, good passers of the ball. We didn’t create a lot but Arsenal has Sánchez, Walcott, Giroud and Ramsey which meant when you caught a team out you were going to score. A lot of 1-0/2-0 victories.

I tried it on FM17 and got pummelled

[Dan+]

FC Andorra - 2023/24 (Part one of three)

Last season was a success, and you would have to say bar the first season, everything so far has been. We've done so much better than I thought we would, achieving the La Liga dream far sooner than expected. The hope from here I think is to establish ourselves at this level and then kick on to hopefully challenging for Europe. Progress is always possible if you buy properly.

The catch for Andorra is the stadium situation means we are a bit handicapped in our transfer budget, and I'm delivered a measly £5.5mil to work with this year which is even less than last. With the newly promoted sides all still currently predicted to finish above us, this is going to be yet another slog of a season where ultimately we're going to have to accept 17th. I don't like the habit of that because eventually, you are going to sink down the plughole if you keep circling around it and the aim should be to improve ourselves to a position where we aren't really worrying about it, but I suppose you've got to appreciate we still have the league's lowest budget.

 

 

Now in fairness, the top two deals of Hack and Asencio were simply mandatory permanent fees for players I had on loan last season. I don't think I'd have bothered with Hack - he's OK but nothing special and on decentish wages too, aged 29. Asencio is better, he's younger, a cheaper deal anyway and I think can be of more use to us over the next 3/4 years than Hack will be. While we speak of the next few years, that's where I mention Wout Van Herck - for me the biggest snare this club has made so far, only 17 years of age but already not too far off first team level, on a free it's a super signing at centre back.

Following this came the club's record signing and somebody I'd identified as an unlikely target a few months before, but we actually managed to get him, Luis Sinisterra joined the club - he fits the bill, a winger that can play either side, pacey, a good dribbler, and also a real mad bastard. Sergio Alvarez makes his move from Eibar permanent as well after a successful loan spell.

Alpha Dionkou arrives as an upgrade at right back, younger than Calavera and slightly better, a real bargain. Stephane Ruffier joins as goalkeeper back-up in his final year in football, I think he'll do for now. I bolster the midfield with the signings of two shithouses in Cheick Doukoure and Youssouf Fofana. I'm met with a terrifying situation on deadline day that sees Derlis Mereles' £6mil release clause met by Toulouse. In a slight panic I move to bring in Bobby Adekanye on loan in-case he leaves, however Mereles signs his new contract and I'm left with the option to bring in Adekanye on loan anyway. I go through with it. Why not. We can afford it and we could do with any options we can get really. By all means - this is not a particularly strong summer, we have been limited in what we can do.

 

-----

 

Onto the football. Valencia are our first opponents. It's the usual loss. It's the usual penalty conceded. The same old story against them. We then go and take a comfortable defeat at Alaves which leaves me very disappointed, before a carbon copy 2-0 defeat at Sevilla due to two late goals, eerie similarities to what happened there early last season. We're not done there though, it's four defeats from four when Sporting Gijon turn up here and steal it with a last gasp winner. We get our first point of the season away at Levante but it's not good enough really, before Villarreal come here and leave with maximum points. It's miserable, miserable stuff and I'm worried already.

 

 

October proves to be more of the same. The only side who have started poorer than we have is Granada who are yet to even get a point - until we turn up. An abject 0-0 draw between two dismal sides The rest of the month needs no more explaining. We are, quite frankly, in the shit.

 

 

November is trickier on paper but that doesn't make things feel any better - the Real Sociedad loss was just horrific viewing and Granada's shock win at Sevilla leaves us sat rock bottom, 14 games played, with a pathetic 5 goals scored and 2 points picked up

 

 

Just what has gone so wrong? Miserable is an understatement. Though the arguments that we are under-resourced definitely have some truth in them, there's no excuse for this. This is simply embarrassing at this point and we're in real danger of becoming a long-standing joke of a club a bit like Derby are. We are in real, real danger of going down with some kind of record points and goals total. I think we're down and it's going to take a super effort to stay up from this. It's one thing closing the 8 point gap to 17th already, but it's then to not let it slip again. It will take one real turnaround from here and I'm just not sure we've got it in us this time. We need points, and goals.

I hold my hands up on two issues. I think I've become too negative in my football. I'm all for the spoiling tactics, but I feel the minute we go behind now it's over. We are yet to come back from behind at any point all season. There is no point trying to kill a game that we're losing. It's stupid. I've become too concerned with protecting the defence, and it's not actually working anyway because we're shipping goals. We are rarely hammered, but we are losing for fun - every stat imaginable is just embarrassing.

The other mistake is I think I've just not bought that well this year. I'm disappointed in myself. Sinisterra is a good signing, but was he really what we needed above all? Time will tell but I feel like I've thrown too much of my budget at one admittedly good player, and left other issues like the defence pretty much not quite up to it, thinking that the midfield could shield it. The attack is just a shambles as well. Gyokeres isn't working anymore. I'm firmly in territory where I'm changing system by the game but this time, I'm going to change it, and I'm going to stop being concerned with having the occasional red box on my screen if you get what I mean. We need to start scoring goals, and winning games.

[Dan+]

FC Andorra 2023/24 - Part two of three

We needed to have a serious rethink. While I think relegation wouldn't kill the club by any stretch and while I think we would be quite well placed to bounce back up, you simply can't sit there and accept this. It's damaging, it's humiliating, it's a shame to see everything built up so far just crumbling with a whimper. I want players to deliver when the pressure is on, but you can't expect them to go and recover the irrecoverable. We need a fighting chance. We need a fresh think on how to approach this season.

There's something very Huddersfield about it. Huddersfield got promoted against the odds, stayed up against the odds, then totally bombed the next season looking totally out of their depth. This is a very similar pattern to what we've taken on ourselves and it doesn't have to be that way.

I have been setting my team up with a functional midfield and quality on the wings to counter sides. But it just isn't working anymore. We're not finishing as many chances as we should be, as much as it's rubbish I do think we should have a few more points than just two at this stage, but it is what it is. I decided to change to a 4-4-2 formation, a pressing forward in Gyokeres and an advaned forward in Asencio. Wing play. Two attacking wingers in Mereles & Sinisterra. Stop trying to neutralise every 'red' box on my tactics screen and try to play to some strengths, rather than becoming a blunt knife all over the pitch. Where better to try and rebuild things than at the ground we got ourselves up to La Liga in, Riazor, the home of Deportivo la Coruna.

Absolutely gutted, but encouraged. We had our third point of the season. We played the better football, the more dangerous, and with 88 minutes on the clock would break through for a chance to seal the game with a 0-2 victory, but winger Bobby Adekanye went alone and blasted wide. Inevitably, Deportivo would equalise right at the death. Robbed of our first win. Our best performance of the season, but you just think it's never coming is it? I stuck with the same formation ahead of the home game with newly promoted Osasuna - the typical bright starting newly promoted side that had hit their slump. We had it. What followed, was quite extraordinary.

 

 

We absolutely battered Osasuna, then absolutely trounced Real Betis, and then absolutely blasted Gondomar into outer space.

Osasuna was an excellent display, 30 shots to their 5, this formation worked an absolute treat. Deadly on the break, genuinely tough to handle. To then repeat the trick against managerless Betis but by even more ruthless, I felt like such an idiot for trying to persist with such drivel football earlier on. The cup game was admittedly against total rabble but I'm not joking when I think that pre system change, we'd have probably only won it 0-3. Gyokeres x3, Asencio x3, Appeh x4, Waldo x1 and Wout van Herck on his professional debut x1. The Atletico loss was expected, albeit disappointing as they've had a shocker themselves.

I still think we will probably get relegated, but we have given ourselves a chance. January started with a slightly disappointing draw with Rayo at home and then a poor loss at Girona, but in a crunch game at surprise strugglers Bilbao we did something pretty remarkable from a goal down at half time. A weakened team was punished big time in the cup but we won the crucial game with Granada, we sat 18th, with Granada and Alaves below us.

 

 

January saw the arrivals of two players on loan, Sassuolo defender Giangiacomo Magnani and Real Sociedad striker Opa Traore, giving us a little more strength in depth.

February started utterly abysmally, with a comforably home loss to out of form Espanyol and a long-term injury to goalkeeper Moritz Nicolas, meaning 37 year old Stephane Ruffier would be in goal for the meanwhile - something I really didn't want, I brought Ruffier in for what he'd bring off the pitch rather than on it. We did pick up an impressive victory away at Rayo Vallecano, but our trip to the Mestalla proved to be our first real shellacking in La Liga. It's disappointing because we actually started the game really brightly, but a series of events in the next 20 minutes left us open for a pounding, including conceding a penalty, a free kick in a promising place, a red card and the memory that our keeper is finished. It was abject stuff.

Thankfully though, we won the crunch game with Alaves afterwards despite having not a single winger available - having to play Gyokeres on the right and Bicho on the left.

 

 

March was a massive month, where we'd face plenty of the teams around us - most importantly those I thought we had a chance of catching.

 

 

Where on earth to even start. The first two games were just absolutely calamitous. Red cards picked up in both and abject collapses ensued. We've got to channel this aggression into giving ourselves the edge, not the opposition a man advantage. That said, what a fucking result the next one was. Atletico are faltering, which is worth pointing out, but that's a serious scalp for us.

 

 

So there we have part two. The next game against Deportivo is absolutely massive because I think our run in is pretty cruel. I give us a chance. We've put ourselves right back into the discussion again and you've got to say, after 2 points from 14 games, we now have 23 from the next 15. Keep that up and we will survive, but it's a big ask with that run in of ours.

The Osasuna result really was the killer. To not only lose it, but get hammered was disastrous and I have no idea how it went so wrong, we were dominating them at 1-1. What's even worse is that head to head advantage now goes their way too.

I do think if we lose to Deportivo we're probably going to be relegated, but I really fancy us to turn up in that.

[LFCMike]

Ok here we go. We've had a very good summer. Two top loan signings, including our former player Darren Grigg. We brought in around £1.5m in sales but the two major signings were largely funded by January's sales.

Only a 90th minute equaliser for Hamilton has stopped it being a perfect start to the season

[LFCMike]

First two competitive games as Scotland boss. First game v San Marino was shocking. Deserved to win but was too close. Big improvement v Latvia

[Dan+]

FC Andorra 2023/24 (Part three of three - the run-in)

We went into the game with Deportivo knowing a win would take us out of the bottom three for the first time pretty much all season, and we didn't disappoint. We actually made slightly harder work of it than the performance suggested by conceding a late goal to give Deportivo a chance to get back into it, but we won the game 2-1 and it really ought to have been by a few more.

So we had the run-in ahead of us starting with a game against Celta Vigo where we produced, for me, one of the most impressive results of the season - the 10 men of Andorra turned the game on its head courtesy of a rocket from winger Derlis Mereles with just a minute left on the clock. We had every chance now. We were remarkably up to 15th - but don't get carried away, we have a horror run-in.

So it proved.

 

 

It was disappointing but half expected. Real Sociedad were having a brilliant season themselves but had really faltered of late, so I was very disappointed to see ship 4 yet again. We continued our habit of making the toughest games even tougher with another first half red card at the Nou Camp. We played well against Real Madrid, but it wasn't enough.

We went into May sat 17th, but I was worried because it was so tight down the bottom - our final four games were very mixed I felt and we started with a trip to Sporting Gijon, a ground we've won at the last two seasons but had lost two at home twice this season. It was abject. We lost 2-0 and I really feared that despite the comeback, we were about to fall through the trap door after all. A trip to Villarreal turned out to be equally as awful, as picked up yet ANOTHER early red card before crumbling in the second half. We were 18th. Two games left.

 

-----

Matchday 37

 

The table sat at the following:

16. Osasuna | 34 points
17. Alaves | 33 points

18. FC Andorra | 31 points
19. Deportivo | 27 points

 

We would be the first to play. Granada were already relegated by this point and Deportivo were likely to join them, joined be one of the other three. We faced Sevilla at home in the opening fixture of the weekend knowing a win puts us 17th, as Osasuna (and Alaves as it happens) beat us on head to head. The good news for us was Alaves having a pig of a last two games, travelling to Celta Vigo in 7th and then Barcelona. Osasuna's run-in was relatively kind, probably the best of everyone's, and ours I thought was pretty average.

We played well against Sevilla and took the lead in the first half through Viktor Gyokeres, as usual, who met a flick on from Sinisterra. We were fairly comfortable at half time and lead the game 1-0, but Sevilla do worry me, they've had another underwhelming year but they have good enough players in their side to turn a game at the flick of a switch, and so it proved, as they forced a penalty from us with just 20 left on the clock, Ezequiel Barco made no mistake.

I just had to attack. I don't think playing for a draw is any use at this point. If we drew this, we could be relegated with a game to spare, so we just had to throw everything at it. We pushed and pushed but I just couldn't sense it, not until the 93rd minute where Raul Asencio was in a great position but with his back to goal, he turned, shot, but it was tipped around for a corner which Sevilla cleared. This was surely it.

Jordi Calavera picks the ball up on the right and drills an absolutely sensational, literally peak Alexander-Arnold ball right into the box for Gyokeres who cannot miss. We've won it. Absolutely incredible. Nobody can quite believe what's happened. Andorra have pinched the win with the very last touch of the game. Alaves know the pressure is right on them now.

If Alaves lose at Celta Vigo, then we are almost certainly going to survive because that means they have to take points from the Nou Camp and Barcelona are just ridiculous on this game. They go 2-0 down and I think it's finally done.

Silly fucking me. I never learn do I?

Alaves win it. They score three fucking times in the second half and steal it - two of them right at the death. You just couldn't make this shit up. How on earth is this still going on?

Osasuna draw 0-0 at home to Espanyol. Deportivo's result was irrelevant as our win over Sevilla put them down anyway - meaning once again we consign them to La Liga 2. It was a three horse race on the final day.

 

-----

Matchday 38

16. Alaves | 36 points
17. Osasuna | 35 points

18. FC Andorra | 34 points

 

So here it was. Once again we had everything to play for right at the death. Lets just hope that we kept our nerve. I signed my players to deliver on days like this.

So this was the situation. Andorra v Levante. Barcelona v Alaves. Osasuna v Rayo Vallecano.

Alaves are almost certainly going to lose, although if they don't, they are safe, as their better record on head to us against us will keep them above us.

Likewise Osasuna's better head to head record would keep them above us if we were to finish level on points with them.

So we knew if we didn't win, it was curtains for us and if we did, we had to hope either Osasuna didn't win, or Alaves lost.

You really could build a case for any of the three to drop. Something told me Osasuna were going. Us and Alaves looked dead and buried at the half way stage and both of us were on course for great escapes - at least one of us was going to complete our task. Osasuna at the same stage sat 9th in the table. They were the ones who've lost their heads going into the run in and despite them having the most favourable fixture, I just had this feeling they would blow it.

Levante are no mugs though. They're normally well clear of the relegation picture nowadays. They've spent a bit of money. Their squad is better than ours. This is by no means a walkover for us. Thankfully our home form was brilliant and as I've stated a hundred times, we are built for the occasion.

We were underway and the goals were flying in. Barcelona took the lead in the 4th minute which was brilliant news. Osasuna took the lead, not so brilliant news, but Andorra also grabbed the lead... only for VAR to ruin the celebrations.

Barcelona struck the second blow and went 2-0 up on the 17th minute. I'm not prepared to totally write Alaves off as they've got something about them, but it really would take a monumental effort to get something from this Barca side from 2 down. We edged our game but as usual, couldn't take our chances. We must be the most abysmal finishers in Europe.

The second halves got underway and Osasuna doubled their lead. It wasn't going to be them. All eyes turned to Andorra as we played out one of the tensest games you could imagine. Levante loved dominating the ball and we loved hitting teams on the break. It takes some nerve to not cave in when they just keep it, and keep it, and keep it. We get the odd break but fail to make any count.

Levante miss two absolutely golden opportunities afterwards. You just can't believe what you're seeing with one of them. I cannot fathom how they've not put it away.

Osasuna have added a 3rd. They are safe. Only one great escape will be completed.

The first knockout blow is struck in Andorra.

It's Andorra.

Derlis Mereles has intercepted a pass from within his own half, ran all the way up to go one on one and for once, has slid the ball straight into the goal with just 15 minutesl left on the clock. Have we really, really done it again?

Barcelona had a third. It was curtains at the Nou Camp. The entire race came down to our game. If we won, we'd done it, if we didn't, Alaves were safe and we were down.

Levante kept the ball, we brought out every trick in the book with the fouling, timewasting, and we just never buckled.

Levante get a corner in the 94th minute. I can barely watch. Stop being pathetic Dan. It's just a game. Lockdown in my opinion justifies taking FM as seriously as this. This is nervy stuff.

Nicolas catches the corner. We have SURELY done it now. The whistle just never seems to arrive.

And then it does.

 

 

It's just simply extraordinary. I have been involved in some last day stuff on FM before but this was just special. The most ridiculous escape I think I've ever seen. The grim repear of the Pyrenees has claimed its next victim. That's Cultural Leonesa, Leganes, Deportivo, Malaga, Deportivo again, and now Alaves. When the chips are down, we just seem to have it in us. We find it from somewhere every single time.

The pirate ship sails on. They've done it again.