FM21

[Sortmeout]

Thought something had gone badly wrong in my save at about 2am this morning when I played a game in October and it said my next game was in 65 days......eventually the Qatar World Cup sprang to mind.

My first season at Kilmarnock saw me having a good end to the season and missing out on the top 6 in last game before the split, eventually finishing 7th.

Second season I made the top 6 and bagged a Euro 2 slot by finishing 5th (Celtic and 3rd place Livingston contesting the SF final). Kabamba scoring 22 goals being the main reason for my success

In my third season as per the above. Somehow I had to play European qualifiers and the LC group stage which wrecked my start to the season (knocked out of LC, 2 points and no goals from my first 4 league games as the players were knackered). I got to the 4th road of qualifying and drew At Bilbao. Won 2-0 at home and I was 1-0 up at half time away. This was after the league cup exit and poor league start. Lost 4 goals in the second half to get knocked out.

Since then I’ve won 8 Premiership games in a row to sit second as we hit the World. Cup. 

Celtic have won every trophy so far in this save.

[The Moonster]

Realise this won't apply to many folk as they turn Brexit off but after Brexit kicked in, the game gave me a red warning any time I tried to sign players in the summer of 2021 saying that they couldn't be registered until January 2022. It was probably about 90% of the players I tried to sign I got this message. In the end I just decided to sign them anyway and if I had to go with half a team for the first half of the season so be it, but when it came to registering the players it let me add them all, so I'm assuming it was some sort of bug. Just thought I'd put it up here in case anyone comes across it and decides to nuke their save because I was a bawhair away from doing it (if I hadn't won League 1 with Dumbarton I'd probably have ended it).

Finished 8th in my first season in the Championship, Alloa going down automatically and Dunfermline staying up through the play-offs but f**k me it was a slog. I thought I'd built a good team and then 1 week before the league starts Ross County came in for my top Scorer Anthony Spyrou and he went off his nut about leaving, so he left for £30K. I had to sign up Nathan Austin late in the day and he just didn't cut it at Championship level. My defence were also not as good as stats suggested and my keeper was throwing in at least 1 a game. Struggled through to January when I got Spyrou back on loan and just scrapped enough points to get 8th on the last day. 

Really struggling to find a keeper at all. I have quite a big player database on (50K) but the options for a small club in Scotland's second tier are ridiculously slim. I can find umpteen keepers good enough for League 1 but haven't found 1 for the Champ yet. I've been given a £40K budget this year so I reckon I'll need to spend it all on a keeper from somewhere down the leagues and hope they're good enough.

[Connor1874]

Came to the conclusion that this FM is ridiculously easy. Started with Sonderjyske in the Danish league, and after 15 games, I'm top by 9 points with a game in hand. 13 wins and 2 draws out of 15. Even beat Copenhagen and Midtjylland away from home. Still in the cup too, however I did lose away at Rosenborg in the Europa League.

Playing a 4-2-4 wide formation. Positive mentality seems to be the key, and once I've gone 2 up, I switch to cautious. Before that, I was shipping far too many goals. Since that change in mentality, I've not lost a league game, not just on this one, but on my Hearts save too.

Sweeper Keeper - Support

Full Back - Def             Centre Back - Def             Ball Playing Defender - Def               Full Back - Def

BBM - Support                             Mezzala - Support

Winger - Attack                                                                                                            Inverted Winger - Attack

Advance Forward - Attack                Advanced Forward - Attack

 

4 defensive players, 4 attacking players, and the middle 2 assisting with both, gives a good balance.

[DukDukGoose]

Anyone signed Chris Mochrie? Picked him up from Utd but by the third season he was still lacking and nowhere near as good as he was in FM20. 

Just sold him to Arsenal with a £10m buy back and 50% sell on. Am I going to regret this?

[DukDukGoose]

3 hours ago, Connor1874 said:

Came to the conclusion that this FM is ridiculously easy. Started with Sonderjyske in the Danish league, and after 15 games, I'm top by 9 points with a game in hand. 13 wins and 2 draws out of 15. Even beat Copenhagen and Midtjylland away from home. Still in the cup too, however I did lose away at Rosenborg in the Europa League.

Playing a 4-2-4 wide formation. Positive mentality seems to be the key, and once I've gone 2 up, I switch to cautious. Before that, I was shipping far too many goals. Since that change in mentality, I've not lost a league game, not just on this one, but on my Hearts save too.

Sweeper Keeper - Support

Full Back - Def             Centre Back - Def             Ball Playing Defender - Def               Full Back - Def

BBM - Support                             Mezzala - Support

Winger - Attack                                                                                                            Inverted Winger - Attack

Advance Forward - Attack                Advanced Forward - Attack

 

4 defensive players, 4 attacking players, and the middle 2 assisting with both, gives a good balance.

Give it time. Give it time.

[CM.]

1 game to go in my Blackburn save I started the other day. 4 teams still in with a chance of the title/automatic promotion. 

To say it's going to be a nervy final day is an understatement. Fucking hell  

Edited December 7, 2020 by C. Muir

[CM.]

Bournemouth and Brentford absolutely shat the bed. Resulting in..

[CM.]

Really could've made lighter work of that if it wasn't for a horrendous run in February/March of 1 win in 9 games. Was in the top 2 pretty much all season and that run dropped us to 5th 7 points off promotion. Ended the season with 7 wins from 9. What an utter nightmare the last few games were, Josh Zirkzee (my only signing all season, on loan from Bayern Munich) single handely winning games on his own, but the other teams in the mix just wouldn't budge and with goal difference against me I feared a play off finish then imploding, but happy days. 

Decent run in the Carabao cup before exiting to Man City.

FA cup was shite though. Lost to Derby in the 3rd round. 

Good achievement winning the league obviously but Premier League's going to be a completely different animal. Hopefully I get money to spend!  

edit - 

Current wage outlay is about 300k but that should go down a fair bit with about 6/7 players contracts expiring and loans ending. 

Edited December 7, 2020 by C. Muir

[djchapsticks]

3 hours ago, Merkland Red said:

Anyone signed Chris Mochrie? Picked him up from Utd but by the third season he was still lacking and nowhere near as good as he was in FM20. 

Just sold him to Arsenal with a £10m buy back and 50% sell on. Am I going to regret this?

Mochrie starts as a -8, so his potential is randomly generated anywhere between 130 (top Scottish Premier player and regular international) and 160 (Top 4 English Player and key international player).

So, maybe.

[djchapsticks]

Had a brilliant start to season 3.... even giving Celtic a complete spanking on day 1 - potentially a real powerhouse in Scotland this season.

Then I ran into St. Johnstone who were 2nd bottom and got clamped. 3-0 going on 6 or 7, no shots on target.

[DukDukGoose]

2 minutes ago, djchapsticks said:

Mochrie starts as a -8, so his potential is randomly generated anywhere between 130 (top Scottish Premier player and regular international) and 160 (Top 4 English Player and key international player).

So, maybe.

Looks like I've got him at the lower end. Last year he was a £50m player by the 7th season.

[Connor1874]

21 hours ago, Merkland Red said:

Give it time. Give it time.

I=Since I posted that, I've had a couple of defeats and been knocked out the cup. Finding it harder to win games as the season goes on, but still 15 clear with 6 to go so looks like the title is mine. Sonderjyske in the CL could be fun/

[DukDukGoose]

[Stellaboz]

I've got one game to go in my first season away to alloa and I'm guaranteed 8th. Fucking 8th. Not sure if my team is rank, certain positions are, the training hasn't been right or whatever. But it's been a horrific league campaign.

Trying to snap up Bruce Anderson for next season.

[Dons_1988]

Won the league with the Dons in my 1st season.

2nd season I took a 5 point lead over Celtic into the final 3 games.

A defeat at Ibrox and conceding a last minute equaliser at Easter Road set up a must win home game with Celtic on the final day (They had superior GD).

Lost it 1-0. I was absolutely fucking seething I'll be quite honest.

[CM.]

33 minutes ago, Dons_1988 said:

Won the league with the Dons in my 1st season.

2nd season I took a 5 point lead over Celtic into the final 3 games.

A defeat at Ibrox and conceding a last minute equaliser at Easter Road set up a must win home game with Celtic on the final day (They had superior GD).

Lost it 1-0. I was absolutely fucking seething I'll be quite honest.

Take enourmous pride in the fact you stopped 10. Take even more pride in the fact that 10 was stopped and it wasn't even Rangers who stopped it. 

That is extrememly unlucky though. 

[Dons_1988]

Just now, C. Muir said:

Take enourmous pride in the fact you stopped 10. Take even more pride in the fact that 10 was stopped and it wasn't even Rangers who stopped it. 

That is extrememly unlucky though. 

I did take pride in that Rangers finally achieved their goal of finishing above Celtic and it still ended in tears. It was also true to life that Lennon managed to finish 3rd in the 10IAR season and still wasn't sacked.

Tbh it was the Hibs game that did me. If I'd held onto the win I could've shut up shop with 10 minutes to go against Celtic at 0-0, instead I had to go for it and they picked me off.

[CM.]

4 minutes ago, Dons_1988 said:

I did take pride in that Rangers finally achieved their goal of finishing above Celtic and it still ended in tears. It was also true to life that Lennon managed to finish 3rd in the 10IAR season and still wasn't sacked.

Tbh it was the Hibs game that did me. If I'd held onto the win I could've shut up shop with 10 minutes to go against Celtic at 0-0, instead I had to go for it and they picked me off.

You might not be that far into it yet for them to make any sort of impact but have you used Calvin Ramsay or Connor Barron yet? I had an Aberdeen save in FM20 that lasted a few seasons and they came through the youth system. Both of them were brilliant. IIRC Arsenal bought Ramsay off me

[Dons_1988]

Just now, C. Muir said:

You might not be that far into it yet for them to make any sort of impact but have you used Calvin Ramsay or Connor Barron yet? I had an Aberdeen save in FM20 that lasted a few seasons and they came through the youth system. Both of them were brilliant. IIRC Arsenal bought Ramsay off me

Barron was class in FM20 and sold for multiple millions but would seem he's not nearly as highly rated in FM21. Wouldn't get near the first team currently.

Ramsay seems decent but Ronnie Hernandndez has actually been brilliant.

[CM.]

Just now, Dons_1988 said:

Barron was class in FM20 and sold for multiple millions but would seem he's not nearly as highly rated in FM21. Wouldn't get near the first team currently.

Ramsay seems decent but Ronnie Hernandndez has actually been brilliant.

Going on loan to the shitest team in Scotland might've played a part in Barrons rating this year