Keeping FM fun and fresh

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damola3

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This is in response to the thread "anyone else tired of signing the 'obvious' players?". After getting bored with many easy FM saves, I decided stop signing wonderkids on the cheap which everyone knows about and use me and my scouts knowledge. I followed a very strict ruleset and actually built my team and adapted to strengths and weaknesses rather than buying and selling large amounts each season. The core of my team is the same as season 1 in my save and i'm going into the 2017-18 season! I see many people with a team full of wonderkids and FM 'bargains' at season 3 with some players! Some teams are barely recognisable!

Looking at my team at the start of the 4th season, my team is:
Szczesny/Oblak
Chambers/Peruzzi, Koscielny/Balanta/Smalling, Gibbs/Gaya
Javi Martinez/Ajer, Ramsey/Lucas Silva
Chamberlain/Murphy, Ozil/Wilshere, Alexis/Odegaard/Gnabry
Zivkovic/Aboubakar

I've kept many players from the start of the game. Considering that this is the start of the fourth season, i'm pretty impressed. Aboubakar was bought for 22 million after my scouts found him. Scouts found Zivkovic who i snagged for a cool 10.5 million. Odegaard was found by scouts and cost 3.4 million. Josh Murphy was found by scouts January season 2 and playing in the championship. Cost 13.5 million plus future initiatives. Lucas Silva was found by scouts in January season 1 and replaced Flamini. Ajer was bought at the start of the game (cheeky) due to being discovered in past saves. Gaya cost 20million season 2 after being scouted. Balanta cost me 35 million quid season 2 after being scouted playing for CSKA Moscow. Peruzzi was already scouted and found season 1. Oblak was bought for 35 million season 2 to give Szczesny competition (fail). Pretty much all of these players were found by scouts.

DO:

  • Send your scouts on assignments to other countries/continents with high chance of great regens e.g South America.
  • Buy players based on your scouts' star rating of reports.
  • Ask scouts to track players for 3 months for more accurate scouting reports.
  • Look at transfer rumours to spot young talent going to rivals.
  • Keep a few experienced players over 'wonderkids' for vital games.
  • Keep leaders in experienced your squad e.g Mikel Arteta (kept for 2 seasons).
  • Keep at least 1 experienced player in your centre back partnership e.g Koscielny and Balanta.
  • Spot regens playing first team football and second division level and above.
  • Refrain from using the search bar.
  • Save every 3 games to avoid restarting in case of frustration.
  • Buy players you know of in real life.
  • Tell Man City and PSG to do one and stop buying half your team.
  • Take cup upsets on the chin.
  • Be patient with new arrivals and give them a season or 2 as least.
  • Sell deadwood to City and PSG.
  • Create your own tactics and tinker with them.
  • Use your pre match report to identify opposition strengths and weaknesses.
  • Try and identify weaknesses in your tactic and rectify them e.g I condeded 6 goals in 6 games vs strikers such as Falcao and too many strikers at the highest level were getting behind my defence. Instead of sulking, I linked it to the fact that I have an offside trap and that strikers at the highest level have high anticipation, concentration, decision and off the ball. Falcao has 18, 17, 18 and 20 for those stats. Because of that, I play a high line with 2 pacey defenders (Koscielny and Balanta), with strikers with good movement (such as him) tightly marked. The offside trap goes against top strikers. To combat the odd United formation, I created a 4-1-4-1 which is fully trained for narrow formations such as the one United uses. It has a flat back 4 with 1 DM (Man marking the AMC such as Mata), 2 central midfielders which go into the empty attacking midfield space to make a triangle with the AMC's, 2 wide attacking midfielders and a complete foward/target man to hold the ball up.
  • Enjoy FM!
Don't:

  • Use the the search bar to use potential players.
  • Buy players you have never heard of or seen play in real life unless your scouts had discovered them.
  • Save before each game.
  • Go on any real time editors to go pa searching (don't buy FMRTE or Genie Scout).
  • Save Before each game.
  • Have a full first team of inexperienced players.
  • Buy players from 'wonderkid shortlists'.
  • Look at posts from fm-base about transfer bargains and wonderkids.
  • Punch your computer screen after conceding a 95th minute screamer on your opponents first shot on target in a champions league final.
  • Sell underperforming players after 6 months.
  • Sell players because you personally don't like them or that they are out of form.
  • Get addicted to FM (who am i kidding).
  • Do something rash after cup upsets.
  • Sell half your team to City and PSG.
  • Get bored with finishing 1st in the league with Southmpton - Season 1.
  • Become dependent on other people of forums to solve your teams troubles.
 
I liked the punch your computer screen part but it is a great thread and really helpful thanks a lot
 
Personally I enjoy going to leagues I know very little about. I love the German lower divisions and the Belgium leagues. I hardly know the names of half these teams... particularly this year, and not many of the players. But I always seem to have fun taking a crappy no name to glory before smashing my keyboard against my monitor as half of my team are bought by Bayern and Dortmund.
 
damola3 said:
  • Become dependent on other people of forums to solve your teams troubles.
Click to expand...

I would perhaps add as a 'DO' bounce ideas off others on the forum, I dont see an issue with seeking advice and sharing ideas but I do agree looking for another to solve your problems is bad... Good little thread though I never look for players on website and I have played FM since 13 but whats funny is a couple of signings I made through searchs and scouts were actually Lucas Romero and Goretzka...

One of my philosophies is to have as large a pool of domestic talent in the side as possible... I currently I have 5/6 players trained in England in my Derby side it would be more but Iv been priced out of Sterling and Barkley...
 
2018 in my save and Chambers, , Gibbs, Chamberlain, Wilshere and Ramsey ate the British core of my team. Smalling is also in there as a backup. I have more young, English talent coming through.
 
Buy players based on your scouts' star rating of reports.

This should be a dont.
 
wkdsoul said:
Buy players based on your scouts' star rating of reports.

This should be a dont.
Click to expand...

Usually, I scout a player over 3 months and Arsenal have arguably the best all round scouting team in the game. If you scout over months, the reports are more likely to be accurate.
 
Last edited:
I never go obvious teams, i concentrate almost entirely on youth developement,this means working with a lot of regens but i find this way much more fun, its just too easy to win with the obvious teams, i am benfica at the moment,winning the league is easy yes but what i want to do is have a team mostly full of portuguese internationals , now im in 2019, won the league every season and the champions league in the second season which was amazing considering i basically had the same squad as they do now in real life,im actually havent got passed the last 16 since despite my team being much stronger,next season should see a lot of the youths coming through and i can get rid of the non portuguese players in my squad, ill do a few seasons and see how i get on.
 
Everyone says they love developing youngsters, so why not have a go and youth international management?
 
Bujakaa said:
Yeah, they are accurate for showing how good they are all a round. But you still need to look into stats more than only reports. What you need, what skills you like to have on a player and what fit with your tactic.

You just cant base on reports. I think what you meant here was that dont only buy players suggested on forums and "the must buy wonderkids everybody know of" find your players on you own.
Click to expand...

Brendn said:
Everyone says they love developing youngsters, so why not have a go and youth international management?
Click to expand...

I would love the ability of managing a clubs under 21's.
 
damola3 said:
I would love the ability of managing a clubs under 21's.
Click to expand...

The closest thing to that would be a B team (Real Madrid's or Barca's for example)
Your goal here is to develop players, not win titles.
 
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