Football Manager 2017 - General Chat

[Storts]

5 minutes ago, StefBWFC said:

Wow!! 

Nailed on to be a flop for me then. 

Yeah, setting him up for failure there

[R-D]

SL Benfica - 2021/22 - Season Review

So I ended up doing the entire season without an update, but to be honest it wasn't majorly eventful and was a pretty standard season. No January transfer activity to report on either. This'll just be a short round up post I reckon.

Liga Nos

Board Expectation: Winners

Final Result: Winners

A second routine league win. We were so so close to an undefeated season losing just 1 game! Porto gave us a run for our money this time round, but ultimately finished 12 points adrift, Sporting 22 points adrift. We were dominant. 

UEFA Champions League

Board Expectation: First knockout round

Final Result: Quarter finals

A good Champions League campaign. Group stage was a doddle, 6 wins out of 6, 20 goals scored. Zenit joined us into the first knockout round. We then drew Liverpool, 0-0 away, 4-0 win at home (just after our first loss in the league). Bayern in the quarters. 3-1 home leg win, marvellous result. The away leg genuinely filled me with rage, because you know what's coming. We conceded after 40 seconds. 40 seconds. They then grabbed a second to put them up on away goals, and in classic FM fashion we squandered a lot of chances. But there we are. They went on to lose 4-2 vs. United in the final.

Taca de Portugal

Board Expectation: Reach final

Final Result: Quarter finals

Not an ideal cup run. We got knocked out by eventual winners Sporting. This is truly their cup winning it 3 seasons in a row. A focus for next season perhaps.

Taca da Liga

Board Expectation: Not important

Final Result: Winners

Reserve sides put out, comfortable really, beat Porto in the final. This competition is done by end of Jan.

Squad review

A quick run down out of 5 for each player over the last season (min. 5 games).

GK

Alban Lafont - 4/5; has improved massively over the course of the season. Will be #1 for a while yet.

RB

Nelson Semedo - 3.5/5; very solid for most of the season. Complacent toward the end. Wants to leave.

Luis Pinheiro - 3.5/5; rotation option for Semedo. Equally as good, took Semedo's place toward end of season.

LB

Alex Grimaldo - 4/5; consistent and dependable. Wants to leave.

Luca Pellegrini - 3/5; had no concerns every time I used him. 

CB

Ruben Dias - 4/5; second season staking a claim in the first team after I pulled him from the B Team. Absolutely fantastic CB who has come on leaps and bounds. If anyone can get this guy on the cheap I'd recommend. So well rounded.

Diogo Verdasca - 3.5/5; played a lot of games and was solid.

Omar Guzman - 3.5/5; arguably our best CB by attributes as he's improved quite a lot over the season. Will probably be first choice with Dias next season.

Bjorn Engels - 2/5; tried to flog in Jan, simply not good enough and is eating a large chunk of wages. Will be sold in summer.

MC

Gedson Fernandes - 4.5/5; I love this guy. Can play almost anywhere and is incredibly well rounded with room to grow still. Just signed a new 5 year deal. 

Regis - 3.5/5; solid but unspectacular. I expect more from our highest earner, and I know he's capable of it. Maybe I'm using him wrong.

Santiago Ascacibar - 2.5/5; new signing, but only played on rotation for large parts of the season. Didn't shine, but wasn't awful. Kicked off about wanting to start more, but there's simply no room for him at the moment.

Florentino Luis - 2.5/5; much like Ascacibar, a rotation option only. A good player I'd like to keep around. Dependable.

AMR

Bakary Konan - 5/5; our star performer this season. Had an indifferent one last year, but really shone this time round and we struggled when he was injured for a period of time. I currently have him playing as the Raudmeuter (sp?) and it suits him well. May move him into the centre next season.

AML

Andrija Zivkovic - 3/5; early season was poor but came into it a lot more. Still not sure how to best use him. Also used him as AMR.

Joao Filipe - 3/5; burst onto the scene this season. Very good player. Went the opposite way to Zivkovic, excellent start but tailed off.

Rafa Silva - 2.5/5; a strong rotation option for those less important games. Won't be a first team player for us. Would sell.

AMC

Oliver - 2.5/5; expected more really. 8 goals 7 assists isn't bad but isn't what I want. Some games he was truly found out and was a waste of time.

Diego Batista - 3/5; another youngster I brought into the first team (again if you can get him for cheap I'd go for it). 8 goals 5 assists, so at least equal to Oliver. Strong debut season.

ST

Andrea Belotti - 3/5; really unsure if he had a good season or not. Comparing to his 51 goals last season, no he didn't. He scored half of that this season, and just looked a shadow of the player he was last season. Even found himself dropped from the starting XI for a few weeks. Still finished our top scorer though. Wants to leave for Milan, and to be honest not sure I wouldn't sell.

Ze Gomes - 3/5; always wanting in the wings for when Belotti dropped in form. He has the potential to take that lone striker role from him. He needs to improve consistency, but is a very well rounded striker.

Luka Jovic - 2/5; brought on as a sub, did very little. Looks good with potential to grow, but I haven't really got a place for him right now. Loan next season is likely going to be the one.

Next Season

I've been set an initial budget of £25m to improve the squad. At the moment I'm pretty content with what I have in terms of starting XI, unless an unbelievable talent pops up. I'll be looking to ship out some deadwood and then focus on some youth I reckon. This'll all depend on if we sell anyone.

Naturally I'm aiming for another league win, but I want to win the Cup Sporting have their mitts on, and aim for another quarter final or better.

The Juventus manager is currently on 'insecure' as they finished outside of Champions League positions. If he gets the boot I think I may go for it.

[Guest]

We're not quite done but we've had a youth intake so its a good time to update.

This is my best guy from the intake.

 

 

[Stan]

that is a very manly, big forehead-ed 16 year old  

[Dave]

My Girlfriend puts this gammy finger injury down to excessive FM playing and I didn't get one comment on my last season. You can all get fucked.

[Honey Honey]

That is disgusting. It's gonna drop off.

[Stan]

8 minutes ago, Aaroncpfc said:

My Girlfriend puts this gammy finger injury down to excessive FM playing and I didn't get one comment on my last season. You can all get fucked.

 

2 minutes ago, HoneyNUFC said:

That is disgusting. It's gonna drop off.

wonder if he's out for the season like Ibra is. 

[Storts]

Someone put that shit in spoilers 

[Storts]

Charlie Taylor as promised:

 

 

As a 32 year old:

[Cure]

37 minutes ago, Aaroncpfc said:

My Girlfriend puts this gammy finger injury down to excessive FM playing and I didn't get one comment on my last season. You can all get fucked.

I honestly thought a bird had shat on your finger.

[Danny]

So I'm 15 games in and just entering November with Barnsley, so far so good.

The table so far

My Schedule

As you can see my first four games weren't bad, 3 wins and a draw. Then went on a run of two losses and two wins, was about 6th at this point. Then I lost 4 games in 5, 3 in a row to Brighton, Villa and Leeds. Morale was down and so were performances, but I've managed to turn it around in my last 4 games. Fulham were top of the table at the time I played them and I completely hammered them, they had about 1 shot on target. Newcastle was a close win but they never looked like scoring. Brentford I thought maybe tricky as they've been doing well and I hadn't won three games on the trot yet...I was 2-0 by half-time, in complete control playing defensively. Hoffman scores a goal for them to make it 2-1 so I changed to attacking as they were taking control of the game and managed to put the game to bed. Bristol City I was all over and 1-0 flattered them.

I'm hoping to keep this run going, Tom Bradshaw is on fire so far with 7 goals and Kwesi Appiah is starting to chip in with 4 overall. So far not a bad signing for £600k. Adam Armstrong is yet to score, he did suffer an injury and has been in and out with fitness, but I've given him chances and he's not done it. Appiah is coming up with important goals too, so I can't really drop him as I'd like him to catch up Bradshaw, especially as I have him long term. But I could do with Armstrong finding his scoring boots.

I signed Josh Harrop from Man Utd on loan and have the choice to sign him in the Summer for £300k, I most likely will. He's been pretty good as a sub and links play up well, has managed a goal too. Matty James and Alew Mowatt run like a dream. Jay Spearing has been great when playing but within about 4-6 games he'd been sent off twice, fuck me I can't handle the amount of red cards he may get.

[Dave]

@DanReading that diary I thought you'd be eleventh or twelth so quite surprised to see you so high. That run of five wins in six has been massive. One more spurge  like that and you should be good for the playoffs.

Heads up though about Tom Lawrence. He's got good end product but very injury prone. Only reason I never signed him again.

Surprised you and Danny have got a tune out of Tom Bradshaw. I've never managed to get him going.

[Dave]

@StefBWFCI think with the players you've signed you'd more than be ready to cope with the extra fixtures and improve on last season. I imagine you will have a mass exodus of players in January though.

[Dave]

@Danny I don't get how you've all managed to get Tom Bradshaw scoring or how that formation is still working. I think you'll need to strengthen to keep in January to keep the momentum going. Call me narrow minded but I just can't imagine Kwesi Appiah being an important player in a playoff achieving side.

[Dave]

4 minutes ago, Cannabis said:

@Dan really is the Sean Dyche for TF365 .

I'm trying to think of a passionate manager who ends up looking dejected and demoralised at the end of every season. Neil Warnock.

[Stan]

New sub-forum has been set-up. @Cannabis will be sorting out rules and guidelines in due course. 

It'll be on a trial period to see if it works activity-wise . 

Keep the posts and updates coming though!

[Dave]

Awesome stuff. I'll set up a thread about my progress until now when I've got the time. May have to be Tuesday at the latest. The opening posts are going to need to be a Microsoft Word job.

In the mean time I'll endeavour to keep on top of other people threads.

[Stan]

yep, this game pisses me off even more.

Dominating a Chelsea side away from home. 3rd vs 2nd. 0-0 going in to 89th minute. I've had about 20 shots on target, restricted them to about 1 or 2. Then they score a long-range goal, maybe 35 yards out. Check the guys stats as it's not a name I've seen before. It's a fucking 18 year old with long-range shot stats of......

 

 

 

 

5. 

 

[Dan+]

I've had a lot of time to think about this but I've concluded Tom Bradshaw is the best forward in the world.

[Dan+]

Bradshaw has 22 goals in 18 games for me I play him as a defensive forward. Fucking hell.

Kudos to my director of football as well. Bradshaw's out of contract in the summer coming up, stupid on my part, and I went to offer him a new deal. His interest was "unsure" and he wouldn't budge on £23k a week demands when I'm limited to offering him £14k. Feared the worst.

Used the option of getting my DoF to negotiate it. He's got him on £13k a week until 2022. Absolutely fucking great work from him.

[Dave]

9 hours ago, Dan said:

Bradshaw has 22 goals in 18 games for me I play him as a defensive forward. Fucking hell.

Kudos to my director of football as well. Bradshaw's out of contract in the summer coming up, stupid on my part, and I went to offer him a new deal. His interest was "unsure" and he wouldn't budge on £23k a week demands when I'm limited to offering him £14k. Feared the worst.

Used the option of getting my DoF to negotiate it. He's got him on £13k a week until 2022. Absolutely fucking great work from him.

I couldn't get him scoring for love nor money. Tom Lawrence was more effective up top and it wasn't a natural position for him.

[Danny]

I'll post a topic up tomorrow but I'm currently getting hammered as Barnsley. Bradshaw, Appiah and Armstrong all on a goal drought and I went 8 games without a win, drew 3 of those. Absolutely fuming.

[Pig on the Wing]

On 4/22/2017 at 6:37 AM, Danny said:

Jay Spearing has been great when playing but within about 4-6 games he'd been sent off twice, fuck me I can't handle the amount of red cards he may get.

Are you playing him as a BWM? I'd advise against it - perhaps as an Anchor Man or BBM instead? Stupidly high aggression stats means he'll always get bookings - I had similar things with Ryan Tunnicliffe who just couldn't stop getting sent off.

@Storts, I'm genuinely excited to get Taylor up and running. What a monster!

@Aaroncpfc, you need a new hobby. That finger is grimmmm!

[Danny]

Come on, no highlights and just commentary? 2D Classic and key highlights? No replays?

I like to play on 2D classic but I need to mix it up with no commentary to speed the season up.

[IgnisExcubitor]

Haven't played the game for two years now, but I am just like you. 2D highlights with commentary. It moves quicker that way.