Football Manager 2023

[PhillippaT]

So I suddenly felt like checking what state LCFC was in during my game.  (What would we give to be in 11th atm? )

 

 

(As far as my current team Chania is concerned, given the state it's going to be in at the end of the season, even (maybe especially!) if we do get promoted, I might have to leave it and run.  Still unbeaten with 4 to play, though!  )

 

Well, we won it with 3 games to go (so far unbeaten) 

 

 

 

Well, after finishing the season unbeaten in the league, I just resigned (no, not re-signed  )    This club now needs more work than I can be arsed to give, so it's time for another club to benefit from my management  

Edited 16 March 2023 by PhillippaT

[Will1981]

English B-Team Project - Season 2

 

We had a great season winning league 1 easily with Opoku scoring for fun, however Leicester struggled in the premier league and sacked Fonseca in December and replaced him with Arne Slot who promoted Alves, Braybrooke and Popov to the 1st team really weakening my squad but they continued to struggle and were relegated to the championship which also blocked my promotion to the championship as there must be a rule where you can not play in the same league as your B-Team, so Chelsea B are the 1st team to reach the championship by default.

[lcfc278]

What's the deal with praising your players?

 

I have a striker at Aberdeen who's been smashing it, so assistant manager (Steve Agnew no less) decided I should praise his recent form. The guy's just kicked off about it and his morale has dropped right down.

 

I has also previously praised a player who had been smashing it in training (with a rating over 9) and that pissed him off as well as he thought he could train better. Now he's got the arse.

[AjcW]

15 minutes ago, lcfc278 said:

What's the deal with praising your players?

 

I have a striker at Aberdeen who's been smashing it, so assistant manager (Steve Agnew no less) decided I should praise his recent form. The guy's just kicked off about it and his morale has dropped right down.

 

I has also previously praised a player who had been smashing it in training (with a rating over 9) and that pissed him off as well as he thought he could train better. Now he's got the arse.

A lot of those features are just padding in the game, don't think they are heavily worked on or thought through.... Can't say I ever speak to players to be honest, even try and avoid going into too much detail at the start of the season (never bother with promises!!!) 

[Tommy Fresh]

17 hours ago, Stinky said:

Pre-season for the top division started two weeks after the 2nd tier league ended. Eventually right at the end of June these Polish clubs got back to me. Sandejca first, saying they want me but they cant afford compensation, can I talk to my board? Which I do and they reluctantly accept to let me go which was very sweet. Then the next day the other two (bigger and better) clubs come back with the same... but I don't have the option to talk to my board so I cheat a little bit, go backwards and replay the last few days and decide to ask the board to accept the Stal Mielec offer (Cracovia are bigger than what i'm looking for). Sign a handful of players for Zmijavci and play a few pre-season games before I finally get offered the Stal Mielec job. Predicted 2nd (behind Cracovia) so gonna be pressure right from the start but have a tidy transfer budget and space on the wage budget to add to my very thin squad.

Cracovia get relegated? Wieczysta Krakow I imagine will appear on your save at some point, they were in about the 5th tier last year I think, got a sugar daddy owner and they had Majewski and a few other older biggish players. 

[Stinkenzo]

3 hours ago, Tommy Fresh said:

Cracovia get relegated? Wieczysta Krakow I imagine will appear on your save at some point, they were in about the 5th tier last year I think, got a sugar daddy owner and they had Majewski and a few other older biggish players. 

Can't say I've seen them yet, though I am playing 22 and not 23 so not sure how long the sugar daddy has been there. 

 

Cracovia have been a yo-yo club from what I see. Started this season sluggish but are back near the top now 

[Tommy Fresh]

10 minutes ago, Stinky said:

Can't say I've seen them yet, though I am playing 22 and not 23 so not sure how long the sugar daddy has been there. 

 

Cracovia have been a yo-yo club from what I see. Started this season sluggish but are back near the top now 

Yeah they had a sugar daddy last year as well I think so they should pop up at some point

[Leicester_Loyal]

Took the plunge on this.

 

Literally every other goal is fractionally offside or checked by VAR.

[PhillippaT]

1 hour ago, Leicester_Loyal said:

Took the plunge on this.

 

Literally every other goal is fractionally offside or checked by VAR.

It's too realistic then? 😋😁

[Stinkenzo]

On 14/03/2023 at 16:24, Stinky said:

 

Woo. Cracking season where things finally clicked from more or less day one, an early 6-0 defeat at Dinamo II aside. Surge in form around October/November saw me take a 7pt lead into the winter break. Dinamo and Rudes came on strong before the latter fell away, sealed promotion with 2 games to spare as Dinamo aren't allowed to be promoted. Made the cup QF again but lost away at Dinamo's first team. Promotion was timely because most first team players' contracts expire in the summer. New wage budget is 20k (from 5.5k) so have been able to easily offer all players new contracts. Still got too many loanees here but should be able to get a few permanent players and also utilise Dinamo's academy. New stadium is confirmed (13k capacity) and will be ready in a year for when we return to the 2nd tier probably. Have kept applying for Polish 2nd tier/lower top tier jobs but no luck. Literally in the middle of applying for Cracovia, Stal Mielec and some other side I can't spell but if the last 18 months is anything to go by they probably won't even get back to me. Been turned down by Zaglebie Sosnowiec twice now because of my lack of experience in getting sides promoted. I've now been promoted, they've now had a double relegation 🖐

 

 

Tidy league is the Croatian 2nd Division, don't think i've ever played midweek in 3 seasons here. Would recommend @Finnegan

 

Well Stal Mielec has been a great success. Arrived and had a lot of experienced but unhappy players, and my captain being ruled out for 13 months. Kept the squad together and added some much needed quality/depth in attacking positions. Took a punt on a Croatian LW from their 2nd tier who I tried to sign in season 2, who proved to be a shrewd bit of business for 15k (19 G/A in 28 games. Put a squad together in time for the new season and then found the playing XI must have atleast 1 Polish u21 player at all times. I only had one so was forced to go into the transfer market to get a couple of youngsters and just happened to stumble across this fella below for 210k. He did alright. The original u21 I actually loaned from Zaglebie Sosnowiec from the 3rd tier and is already 4 stars current ability at 18yo.. managed to bag him on a free for next season. 

 

Won my first 5 games of the season then was fairly inconsistent but picked up a decent amount of points regardless and went into the winter break 1pt clear at the top, 2 ahead of 3rd and 3 ahead of 4th. Took off after the break though winning 12 of the remaining 14 games, drawing the other two including against Cracovia where a draw with 10 men sealed promotion. They came up with me a few weeks later finishing 13 points behind. I led the way from GW3 and finished on 80pts from a possible 102. Nine of my players in the team of the season  (same as my last year at Zmijavci coincidently) Wage budget has doubled but transfer budget is a modest 300k. Don't need a massive overhaul on the playing staff thankfully.

 

My old club finished a very credible 7th (out of 10) in their first season in the Croatian top division, comfortably clear of relegated Lokomotiva which was a bit of a shock

 

[Tommy Fresh]

Anyone else think post update you pick up a lot of injuries? 

[Dan LCFC]

By pure luck and good timing I qualified for the World Club Championship as it was being played in Norway and we'd just won the league. I had to play in the preliminary round against Auckland City - we beat them 8-0.

 

Got put into a group with Arsenal & Al-Nassr (seems to be a rule where our games can only involve teams beginning with A). We beat Al-Nassr 4-0 but I fully expected Arsenal to shit all over us. We ended up drawing a silly game 1-1, full of cards and incidents and we got a late equaliser, so I had to nervously watch Arsenal play Al-Nassr in the final group game (thank god they've scratched 3 team groups) - amazingly, despite a first half red card for Al-Nassr and about 40 shots and 20 corners for Arsenal, they could only win 2-0 and we've somehow gone through, knocking Arsenal out.

 

We lose to eventual winners Newcastle (takes the prestige away somewhat) 1-0 in the quarter finals. Alta in the quarters of this is quite funny.

 

Looking likely to win the league again but Molde are making us sweat a bit, really keeping pace this year.

 

Champions League - into the playoffs again and we draw Celtic. We beat them 1-5 away and draw 2-2 at home so we're into the league phase again. With an improved team upon the last campaign (which we guttingly came 25th) I want to qualify this year, but I think we've likely ****ed it in our opening game again by losing at Levski Sofia. A gutting loss but fair play they deserved it. We face a massive battle to get through now as that, along with Anderlecht at home (which we had last time, and lost) are our kindest fixtures. Never know though - we've got Nice away and that don't half remind me of having Rennes away last time.

 

I am gradually picking up the urge to do Leicester again though.

[Stinkenzo]

Bloody Poland and their stone age rules of a maximum of 3 subs 

[Stinkenzo]

On 17/03/2023 at 15:55, Stinky said:

 

Well Stal Mielec has been a great success. Arrived and had a lot of experienced but unhappy players, and my captain being ruled out for 13 months. Kept the squad together and added some much needed quality/depth in attacking positions. Took a punt on a Croatian LW from their 2nd tier who I tried to sign in season 2, who proved to be a shrewd bit of business for 15k (19 G/A in 28 games. Put a squad together in time for the new season and then found the playing XI must have atleast 1 Polish u21 player at all times. I only had one so was forced to go into the transfer market to get a couple of youngsters and just happened to stumble across this fella below for 210k. He did alright. The original u21 I actually loaned from Zaglebie Sosnowiec from the 3rd tier and is already 4 stars current ability at 18yo.. managed to bag him on a free for next season. 

 

Won my first 5 games of the season then was fairly inconsistent but picked up a decent amount of points regardless and went into the winter break 1pt clear at the top, 2 ahead of 3rd and 3 ahead of 4th. Took off after the break though winning 12 of the remaining 14 games, drawing the other two including against Cracovia where a draw with 10 men sealed promotion. They came up with me a few weeks later finishing 13 points behind. I led the way from GW3 and finished on 80pts from a possible 102. Nine of my players in the team of the season  (same as my last year at Zmijavci coincidently) Wage budget has doubled but transfer budget is a modest 300k. Don't need a massive overhaul on the playing staff thankfully.

 

My old club finished a very credible 7th (out of 10) in their first season in the Croatian top division, comfortably clear of relegated Lokomotiva which was a bit of a shock

 

 

Well this continues to go alright  Strengthened in the summer with the free transfer of some 22yo CM released by Lyon who I found without a club in the Polish U21 side. All in all spent 325k, made next to nothing. First half a dozen fixtures were very friendly and took 13pts from 15 at the start. Went on to draw at Legia and at home to Lech Poznan but then tailed off somewhat to 8th/9th but had a fairly sizeable gap below that, relegation not a worry already. Picked up after the winter break and beat Legia 2-1 at home, who had won all 16 league games since our meeting earlier in the season. Think with 3 games left we were 6pts off 4th which showed as being the final European spot. Then after the Cup final it shrunk to 3 spots, (still don't know who won it but figured it wasn't anyone above me), either way with 2 games left we were 3pts off, then went in to the final match needing Zaglebie to lose and Pogon not to win. Was all going well after an hour but then Pogon raced into a 3 goal lead in their match to seal 3rd, we finished 4th. Only when setting targets for next season with the squad do I then find out we've qualified for the Europa Vanarama League  So 4th was enough in the end. My wonderkid (IMO) striker picked up a calf strain in the 32nd game, gave him injections for the remaining 2 matches which put doubt over whether he'd be fit in time for next season. Was worth it as he scored 2 in the final game to see him go level with the top goalscorer. Managed to nail him down to a 5 year contract last summer but can't imagine him being here too much longer with the likes of AC Milan and Willem II sniffing around. The board accepted a ridiculous 500k bid in January but I successfully protested. My big bad Bulgarian bastard of a centre back Bozhidar Chorbadzhiyski absolutely killed it yet again, 7.48 average rating across the season which more or less matches the previous season. 

 

I've applied for the managers job at De Graafschap who fit my agenda for my next club (crap but not guaranteed relegation fodder) in the Netherlands. Applied for the Sparta Rotterdam job in January but got knocked back because of my lack of experience of guiding teams away from relegation. It allowed me to take relegation predicted side into Europe anyway. Cracovia got relegated again but did shithouse their way to a draw against me in the penultimate game to stop me getting 3rd.

 

 

[Leicester_Loyal]

On 17/03/2023 at 14:34, Leicester_Loyal said:

Took the plunge on this.

 

Literally every other goal is fractionally offside or checked by VAR.

This is genuinely ruining the game for me, one game had 9 goals go in, 7 were checked by VAR, 5 allowed 2 disallowed, it's madness. It's constant offside checks.

[Stinkenzo]

On 20/03/2023 at 18:57, Stinky said:

 

Well this continues to go alright  Strengthened in the summer with the free transfer of some 22yo CM released by Lyon who I found without a club in the Polish U21 side. All in all spent 325k, made next to nothing. First half a dozen fixtures were very friendly and took 13pts from 15 at the start. Went on to draw at Legia and at home to Lech Poznan but then tailed off somewhat to 8th/9th but had a fairly sizeable gap below that, relegation not a worry already. Picked up after the winter break and beat Legia 2-1 at home, who had won all 16 league games since our meeting earlier in the season. Think with 3 games left we were 6pts off 4th which showed as being the final European spot. Then after the Cup final it shrunk to 3 spots, (still don't know who won it but figured it wasn't anyone above me), either way with 2 games left we were 3pts off, then went in to the final match needing Zaglebie to lose and Pogon not to win. Was all going well after an hour but then Pogon raced into a 3 goal lead in their match to seal 3rd, we finished 4th. Only when setting targets for next season with the squad do I then find out we've qualified for the Europa Vanarama League  So 4th was enough in the end. My wonderkid (IMO) striker picked up a calf strain in the 32nd game, gave him injections for the remaining 2 matches which put doubt over whether he'd be fit in time for next season. Was worth it as he scored 2 in the final game to see him go level with the top goalscorer. Managed to nail him down to a 5 year contract last summer but can't imagine him being here too much longer with the likes of AC Milan and Willem II sniffing around. The board accepted a ridiculous 500k bid in January but I successfully protested. My big bad Bulgarian bastard of a centre back Bozhidar Chorbadzhiyski absolutely killed it yet again, 7.48 average rating across the season which more or less matches the previous season. 

 

I've applied for the managers job at De Graafschap who fit my agenda for my next club (crap but not guaranteed relegation fodder) in the Netherlands. Applied for the Sparta Rotterdam job in January but got knocked back because of my lack of experience of guiding teams away from relegation. It allowed me to take relegation predicted side into Europe anyway. Cracovia got relegated again but did shithouse their way to a draw against me in the penultimate game to stop me getting 3rd.

 

 

Finished 6th the next season, massively hampered by injuries to attackers in the first 6 weeks of the season and juggling Vanarama qualifiers with the league. Took til the halfway stage to recover into the top half, then looked as though we were going to sneak in to the top 4 in similar fashion to the previous season but too little too late. Drew at Lech Poznan before Christmas who played with 10 men because they refused to bring on a sub in the 5th minute for a player who broke their foot??? Malkowski another 20+ goals and three more protests to the board to reject bids for him. Lost to Levski Sofia annoyingly in the final round of qualifiers for the Vanarama, who ironically I was delighted to be facing as it was either them or Club Brugge. Cracovia got promoted again.

[Finnegan]

Holy shit. I just scored directly from a corner?

 

I've been playing this game for... embarrassingly long... and I don't think I've EVER seen that? Is that new?

[Lcfc82]

On 22/03/2023 at 11:32, Leicester_Loyal said:

This is genuinely ruining the game for me, one game had 9 goals go in, 7 were checked by VAR, 5 allowed 2 disallowed, it's madness. It's constant offside checks.

I can’t be doing with VAR on this, only do saves in lower leagues that don’t have it.

[Tommy Fresh]

Been waiting for this so I can do Venezuela post update

[Stinkenzo]

Probably just completed one of my better achievements

 

Fantastic start with Stal Mielec in our 3rd season back in the top flight, won the first 7 without conceding. Then the switch was flicked, Lech Poznan had won their first 11 games of the season then drew with me. Halfway stage I was in a decent battle for 2nd with Legia who had slipped somewhat. We were well adrift of Lech though. Ended up finally getting the break in the Netherlands with Sparta Rotterdam. 6 games to go, we were 8pts away from safety but 3 from the relegation play off, didn't even check when I applied

 

First 3 fixtures we had to make the most of as our last 3 were PSV/Vitesse away and Feyenoord at home. We bear Fortuna Sittard 1-0 (who were a surprising 6th) then beat Waalwijk (sp) who were the team in 15th, so the gaow as already down to 2pts from 4 games, had already moved out of the bottom 2. We beat Heracles 3-1 at home then failed to shithouse PSV, got to 70mins with no key highlights but lost 2-0. Absolute banging match away at am underperforming Vitesse, going behind 3 times then winning 4-3. Going into the final game we were 3pts ahead of safety but with the worst GD in the league, Waalwijk at home to Cambuur (10th). We were probably favourites for the relegation play off spot but we stayed up thanks to Waalwijk drawing 1-1, who in turn actually went down automatically as Twente won on the final day. 

 

Watched Stal Mielec bag 3rd place on the final day in Poland, only 7pts off eventual winners Legia who pipped bottlers Lech on the final day who could only muster a draw at a rubbish Slask. 

 

Whopping 400k TB to build next season, wouldn't have minded getting relegated tbh as they seem to have good youth players who could have been given regular football. Dutch 2nd tier from memory is one of the weirder ones so maybe dodged a bullet. 

[Finnegan]

On 22/03/2023 at 11:32, Leicester_Loyal said:

This is genuinely ruining the game for me, one game had 9 goals go in, 7 were checked by VAR, 5 allowed 2 disallowed, it's madness. It's constant offside checks.

 

On 23/03/2023 at 21:32, Lcfc82 said:

I can’t be doing with VAR on this, only do saves in lower leagues that don’t have it.

 

Few things, firstly VAR should be mostly "fact" in FM. Unlike real life, VAR shouldn't really involve a lot of incorrect decisions so it shouldn't majorly ruin your experience other than obviously slowing gameplay down.

 

Secondly, you can actually go in to the Editor and remove VAR from the leagues you want to play. If you've never used it before, the editor can look a bit intimidating or complex but what you'd need to do for this is incredibly easy and can be done in just a few clicks.

 

If you want me to talk you through it, give me a wave and let me know how much experience you do/don't have with the editor and I'll tailor some instructions to match if you like.

 

But thirdly, if you're experiencing an extraordinary amount of offisdes that won't actually change if you turn VAR off, they'll just be the linesman putting his flag up instead of a VAR replay. It might speed up your gameplay but it won't actually fix your problem which is that you're probably trying to play too fast a game with players who don't have good movement and anticipation.

 

[Lcfc82]

Yeah my issue with it is how it slows the gameplay down.

I’ve never used the editor on FM, I might have a look into it. I didn’t know you could take VAR out.

 

Is it straightforward to do ?

[Finnegan]

15 hours ago, Lcfc82 said:

Yeah my issue with it is how it slows the gameplay down.

I’ve never used the editor on FM, I might have a look into it. I didn’t know you could take VAR out.

 

Is it straightforward to do ?

 

Yes mate really easy. Don't be put off by my long-ass description below and loads of screenshots, it's just me being thorough. The whole thing is only a few clicks and will take you less than a minute or two.

 

Firstly, you get the editor (I'm assuming Steam here, by the way) by changing your library view from the default "Games" to include "Tools":

 

 

You'll probably have quite a long list of available tools, scroll down to the latest Football Manager editor and favourite / install it. Shouldn't take long.

 

First thing you're going to have to choose is whether or not you want to base your changes on the original database from launch or the winter update (which includes January signings etc.) You'll get a little popup window with a drop down. Pick one or the other as per your preferences and hit ok:

 

 

Next select Competitions on the menu on the left hand side. It will automatically load up the highest ranked competitions by reputation so if you want to do the Premier League only, for example, you can just double click it straight away from the list. Otherwise you may need to search, doing so is pretty easy. Just click the "Add Condition" button and pick something off the list, name is a pretty obvious one or Nation. So for example, to search for all competitions based in England I'd do this:

 

 

Once you double-click in to your competition of choice, the option you want to change is actually straight away there on that first "Details" page. Just scroll down a bit to below the winter match ball colours and you'll see the "Video Assistant Referee" option. The Premier League has "Remote Review" selected by default, just turn this to "No VAR." There's even an option below that to turn off goal line technology if you want, just untick the box.

 

 

Then just go to File, Save Editor Data as and call it something obvious like "No VAR".

 

Next step - boot up Football Manager.

 

When you go to start a new career, click the database drop down in the top corner and make sure that your new editor data is selected. It'll probably be ticked by default but just double check.

 

 

And that's it.

 

Just one final little tip, if you want to bulk-change a whole load of leagues at once to basically delete VAR almost from the game then you can bulk-select and bulk-edit from the competition search screen by either holding control and clicking on multiple rows or by clicking the tiny ticks on the far left of your search result column. Select as many as you want and then press edit at the bottom like this:

 

 

Be careful when you do this because you're editing all the records at once. The screen will LOOK like there's no data there but anything you change will change every competition you have selected. So if you scroll down to VAR again, the drop-down will appear blank. Select "No VAR" again and it'll turn VAR off on all the competitions you've got. If you try and do this to tens or hundreds of records at once, your PC might freeze up and lag a bit. If it does, don't panic, it will work, it's just taking its sweet time. I'd probably keep it easy by doing no more than 20 at a time if you can. To be honest, how many leagues are you likely to play in in one save anyway unless you're @Stinky?

 

Same process after that, save the file, boot the game and load it. 

[Lcfc82]

41 minutes ago, Finnegan said:

 

Yes mate really easy. Don't be put off by my long-ass description below and loads of screenshots, it's just me being thorough. The whole thing is only a few clicks and will take you less than a minute or two.

 

Firstly, you get the editor (I'm assuming Steam here, by the way) by changing your library view from the default "Games" to include "Tools":

 

 

You'll probably have quite a long list of available tools, scroll down to the latest Football Manager editor and favourite / install it. Shouldn't take long.

 

First thing you're going to have to choose is whether or not you want to base your changes on the original database from launch or the winter update (which includes January signings etc.) You'll get a little popup window with a drop down. Pick one or the other as per your preferences and hit ok:

 

 

Next select Competitions on the menu on the left hand side. It will automatically load up the highest ranked competitions by reputation so if you want to do the Premier League only, for example, you can just double click it straight away from the list. Otherwise you may need to search, doing so is pretty easy. Just click the "Add Condition" button and pick something off the list, name is a pretty obvious one or Nation. So for example, to search for all competitions based in England I'd do this:

 

 

Once you double-click in to your competition of choice, the option you want to change is actually straight away there on that first "Details" page. Just scroll down a bit to below the winter match ball colours and you'll see the "Video Assistant Referee" option. The Premier League has "Remote Review" selected by default, just turn this to "No VAR." There's even an option below that to turn off goal line technology if you want, just untick the box.

 

 

Then just go to File, Save Editor Data as and call it something obvious like "No VAR".

 

Next step - boot up Football Manager.

 

When you go to start a new career, click the database drop down in the top corner and make sure that your new editor data is selected. It'll probably be ticked by default but just double check.

 

 

And that's it.

 

Just one final little tip, if you want to bulk-change a whole load of leagues at once to basically delete VAR almost from the game then you can bulk-select and bulk-edit from the competition search screen by either holding control and clicking on multiple rows or by clicking the tiny ticks on the far left of your search result column. Select as many as you want and then press edit at the bottom like this:

 

 

Be careful when you do this because you're editing all the records at once. The screen will LOOK like there's no data there but anything you change will change every competition you have selected. So if you scroll down to VAR again, the drop-down will appear blank. Select "No VAR" again and it'll turn VAR off on all the competitions you've got. If you try and do this to tens or hundreds of records at once, your PC might freeze up and lag a bit. If it does, don't panic, it will work, it's just taking its sweet time. I'd probably keep it easy by doing no more than 20 at a time if you can. To be honest, how many leagues are you likely to play in in one save anyway unless you're @Stinky?

 

Same process after that, save the file, boot the game and load it. 

Cheers, I’ll have a look at doing it.

 

I take it VAR would only be taken out of future saves and not my current one that I have been doing since November ?

[Finnegan]

Just now, Lcfc82 said:

Cheers, I’ll have a look at doing it.

 

I take it VAR would only be taken out of future saves and not my current one that I have been doing since November ?

 

Yes, you'd need to start a new game with your new database changes.