So this year's FM hasn't been my fondest if I'm honest but I've decided to give it another whirl. This time trying to go around the world, and although I've tried doing this before, I've been thoroughly enjoying this one, and I've already completed my first 2 seasons (in rather rapid succession) in the last 2 days!
My goal is to see how many pieces of silverware I can pick up from around the world, becoming an FM Globetrotter! To start it off with I asked for suggestions in a stream I was doing, as to who I should be and someone said China. It's somewhere I've never attempted in Football Manager, and somewhere I've seen very few people wonder off to, so I accepted the challenge, chose a random team and came out with Shanghai Dongya.
In the lowest playable tier (second), they are predicted first, but have not really got much of a history to talk about. They've began declining over the past 2 seasons in their First League position but I felt I had a good chance of achieving second.
This year was a restructuring of the Chinese league system, with 1 team going down and 2 going up from the First League so that the Super League would have 16, not 15 teams next season. The league is not decided on goal difference, after points, and neither is the Super League. Instead, just like in the Champions League, it is sorted on head to head. Here's how the first season panned out...
View attachment 369326
It was one of the closest league tables I believe I've ever seen!! 3 teams at the top on the same amount of points, with us recording our highest ever league position finishing top on head to head. It'd all came down to the final game and we were 0-0 at half time and so slipping to third, so I chucked them out in the second half on attacking and the risk paid off away from home, as we won 2-0. I was pretty happy I guess you could say, or as happy as you could be at 1.30am in the morning with your parents sleeping, awaiting another day of work in just 5 hours!
I knew, however, that with that being the first promotion to the Super League the team has ever accomplished, that this next season was going to be a tough one, very tough! We had a decent side which I strengthened with a couple of acquisitions, but my signings from last term seemed to still be better than that, unbelievably. We were shaky at the start, as you'd expect from a newly promoted team, but soon found some form in the middle of the season and were sitting, above all expectations (predicted 12th) in 7th spot! We then faced every team in the top half of the league in 7 consecutive outings. It did mean that we would only have to face 1 more top half team this season at the end, but it was going to be a tough run to get through unscaved. We managed it though, somehow, and with some pride still left in us, losing just twice in possibly the toughest run I could've formulated in my worst nightmares! We'd done it, got out of the tough part of the season and were sitting high and mighty in 6th, and, looking back, in very good contention for 4th, which (dependant on FA Cup winners) could be Asian Champions League stuff!
We powered through the rest of the season, dropping the odd point and it came to the final 5 games, with only 4 points separating us from 4th spot. We fought hard but we just couldn't do it in the end as our team slipped out of a winning habit and began dropping points like a jet with an engine puncture. In the end we finished a still very valiant 6th, a result I'd of snagged your arm off for if you'd offered it to me at the start of the season, but I was still feeling a little annoyed that we couldn't finish the season off well. Perhaps a change of tactics is inbound for the new season? What I am hoping to do is pick up a few players. Our keeper and defence had cost us a few games, my defensive midfielder was playing until his legs fell off, the central midfielders likewise. The attacking midfielder, Ma Long, who I had signed in my first season, had managed to grab an award or two through the season due to his fine form, and our strikers...well, about them. I've never seen such bad finishing/composure on Football Manager. No matter how high the stats (I signed Meyong with 16 finishing and 13 composure), no matter if they were in the right position and role, they could not finish for the life of them. One had picked up 10 goals, fair enough, but we had scored the 3rd least in the league and finished on 0 goal difference. Although I say that I'd like to improve my defence, we still had an awesome defensive record for the league, and perhaps I'm being a bit harsh on the lads. But the front 2 are what I most want to improve so that's what I'll be looking for on the market. Oh yeah, the league table:
View attachment 369328
As you can see we finished behind Beijing, and it was only on goal difference, we'd both won a game 2-1 against one another so that wasn't too bad, but there's still a lot more to come from this team.
Next season I'm hoping to dodge the big boys (Guangzhou) in the Cup unlike this year, and hopefully push on further in the Cup, that being a goal of mine before my time here is up. I don't think we could push for the league just yet, with the forely mentioned Guangzhou proving to be a dominant force so far, but I feel we can possibly push for a top 4 position, so the Cup would really give us something to shout about if we could also get a good run going there!
So that's about it for this season, I'll post monthly updates when the season starts and I hope this thread excels, as does my career!
Around the World Status:
2012-Present: China (Shanghai Dongya)
My goal is to see how many pieces of silverware I can pick up from around the world, becoming an FM Globetrotter! To start it off with I asked for suggestions in a stream I was doing, as to who I should be and someone said China. It's somewhere I've never attempted in Football Manager, and somewhere I've seen very few people wonder off to, so I accepted the challenge, chose a random team and came out with Shanghai Dongya.
In the lowest playable tier (second), they are predicted first, but have not really got much of a history to talk about. They've began declining over the past 2 seasons in their First League position but I felt I had a good chance of achieving second.
This year was a restructuring of the Chinese league system, with 1 team going down and 2 going up from the First League so that the Super League would have 16, not 15 teams next season. The league is not decided on goal difference, after points, and neither is the Super League. Instead, just like in the Champions League, it is sorted on head to head. Here's how the first season panned out...
View attachment 369326
It was one of the closest league tables I believe I've ever seen!! 3 teams at the top on the same amount of points, with us recording our highest ever league position finishing top on head to head. It'd all came down to the final game and we were 0-0 at half time and so slipping to third, so I chucked them out in the second half on attacking and the risk paid off away from home, as we won 2-0. I was pretty happy I guess you could say, or as happy as you could be at 1.30am in the morning with your parents sleeping, awaiting another day of work in just 5 hours!
I knew, however, that with that being the first promotion to the Super League the team has ever accomplished, that this next season was going to be a tough one, very tough! We had a decent side which I strengthened with a couple of acquisitions, but my signings from last term seemed to still be better than that, unbelievably. We were shaky at the start, as you'd expect from a newly promoted team, but soon found some form in the middle of the season and were sitting, above all expectations (predicted 12th) in 7th spot! We then faced every team in the top half of the league in 7 consecutive outings. It did mean that we would only have to face 1 more top half team this season at the end, but it was going to be a tough run to get through unscaved. We managed it though, somehow, and with some pride still left in us, losing just twice in possibly the toughest run I could've formulated in my worst nightmares! We'd done it, got out of the tough part of the season and were sitting high and mighty in 6th, and, looking back, in very good contention for 4th, which (dependant on FA Cup winners) could be Asian Champions League stuff!
We powered through the rest of the season, dropping the odd point and it came to the final 5 games, with only 4 points separating us from 4th spot. We fought hard but we just couldn't do it in the end as our team slipped out of a winning habit and began dropping points like a jet with an engine puncture. In the end we finished a still very valiant 6th, a result I'd of snagged your arm off for if you'd offered it to me at the start of the season, but I was still feeling a little annoyed that we couldn't finish the season off well. Perhaps a change of tactics is inbound for the new season? What I am hoping to do is pick up a few players. Our keeper and defence had cost us a few games, my defensive midfielder was playing until his legs fell off, the central midfielders likewise. The attacking midfielder, Ma Long, who I had signed in my first season, had managed to grab an award or two through the season due to his fine form, and our strikers...well, about them. I've never seen such bad finishing/composure on Football Manager. No matter how high the stats (I signed Meyong with 16 finishing and 13 composure), no matter if they were in the right position and role, they could not finish for the life of them. One had picked up 10 goals, fair enough, but we had scored the 3rd least in the league and finished on 0 goal difference. Although I say that I'd like to improve my defence, we still had an awesome defensive record for the league, and perhaps I'm being a bit harsh on the lads. But the front 2 are what I most want to improve so that's what I'll be looking for on the market. Oh yeah, the league table:
View attachment 369328
As you can see we finished behind Beijing, and it was only on goal difference, we'd both won a game 2-1 against one another so that wasn't too bad, but there's still a lot more to come from this team.
Next season I'm hoping to dodge the big boys (Guangzhou) in the Cup unlike this year, and hopefully push on further in the Cup, that being a goal of mine before my time here is up. I don't think we could push for the league just yet, with the forely mentioned Guangzhou proving to be a dominant force so far, but I feel we can possibly push for a top 4 position, so the Cup would really give us something to shout about if we could also get a good run going there!
So that's about it for this season, I'll post monthly updates when the season starts and I hope this thread excels, as does my career!
Around the World Status:
2012-Present: China (Shanghai Dongya)
- 1x Chinese First Division Title