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FM14 Mr. Manager Dynasty (Ivory Coast/Stade Rennais)

Travis7401

Douglass Tagg
Community Liaison
Welcome to my first Football Manager 2014 dynasty, covering the career of Mr. Manager, the Head ball Corch of Ivory Coast National Team and Stade Rennais (Ligue 1 in France). This took me a long time to setup because Yankee sucks at being helpful. I'll do some video walkthroughs that explain how I'm playing and why I'm doing certain shit. Hopefully you can pick some useful tips up if you watch, but I'm new to this game as well. Anyway, on to the Dynasty:

Having been born in the Ivory Coast, Mr. Manager decided to engage in a pre-emptive strike against racist hecklers by eating a banana in his photo for the Team Program. If any bananas are thrown at him in the future he will gladly eat them as well, as he loves bananas. nomnomnomnom

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He has a national reputation despite having never played, won, or even coached a game. In his first press conference, one reporter questioned how wise it was for Stade Rennais FC to hire such an unexperienced coach, especially one who already has international coaching obligations. Mr. Manager strutted hard and replied that most coaches spend half their time golfing and that he can manage these two teams with his eyes closed. In order to drive this point home, Mr. Manager declined almost all help from his ASS Coach, he will be driving this ship straight into the rocks on his own, thank you very much!
 

Travis7401

Douglass Tagg
Community Liaison
Technical Notes:

Here is some general info about how I started this save and what resources I'm using for help understanding how shit works.

1. Playable leagues/database decision: s I loaded a bunch of playable leagues (every major Euro league + a lot of smaller ones and the major leagues in Argentina and Brazil). I don't understand the difference between playable and view only, so I said fuck it and just went "playable." I also went into the advanced database options and added all the African players (I literally checked every possible box). I ended up with something like 150k players and it is pretty slow to load in the first place, but once you get through that initial loading phase I recommend saving that game as a unique "pick team" save before you actually pick the team. By doing this, you already have everything set up for any potential save you want to start down the road and it really does save a lot of time. You just pick your team and hit the ground running.

2. I did not like the default light colored skin, so I looked around on the steam workshop until I found the "dark skin" by Sports Interactive. If I'm going to spend hundreds of hours on this I'd prefer to stare at dark background with light text.

3. I loaded the Player facepack that Yankee linked, really the only helpful thing he did. I don't really give a fuck about haircuts for regen players, but if you do you might ask Yankee . Anyway, just follow the directions at this link and you should be good to go. Even I could figure this out and I highly recommend it as having photos for the majority of players really adds to the immersion. http://www.fmscout.com/a-pms-portrait-megapack-for-fm14.html

4. I made Mr. Manager have a nationality of Ivory Coast and a second nationality of Senegal. I found the nationality is important because it effects your starting "knowlege" of the world (ie what you know about players). If you make your guy from America you'll know a lot about MLS/American players which might not be very helpful. This literally seems to make a difference about what players "show up" when you search the player database.

5. I spent a significant amount of time creating my own "views" in various areas of the game. Basically whenever you are looking at a table of information you can customize that table and save it. The default tables have a ton of empty space on my wide screen monitor and I found myself never having all the information I wanted at my fingertips, so I spent a good amount of time customizing stuff. I'm sure all of my custom views will change as time goes and I learn new stuff, but to begin with I highly recommend messing around with all of the default tables until you see which information you like from each one. Then make a more general table with a combination of all the stuff you are interested in.

6. I really don't know what I'm doing, so beware if you follow my lead, but I'm having fun learning. Useful resources I've found are the "Work the Space" Youtube Channel, FMscout.com, and guidetofootballmanager.com. If you are getting frustrated because you can't figure something out, these resources are a good place to start. Just FYI, It seems like the FMscout.com has some "spoiler" type info on regen players and wonderkids, so avoid that stuff if you don't want to be spoiled. I personally think finding/scouting players is one of the most fun parts so I don't want to spoil anything.
 
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Travis7401

Douglass Tagg
Community Liaison
First Video - Initial Breakdown of the Stade Rennais Squad and the Ivory Coast Squad and my very first tactical setup:

Going forward I picture this being mostly a video dynasty with supplementary screenshots so that I don't spend more time typing on the forum then playing. Occasionally I'll feel like writing up a story (Mystique of ____) or doing a "live blog" of a game.

 

Travis7401

Douglass Tagg
Community Liaison
In the first video I mentioned coming up with a tactic that I felt fit my teams as they exist now. It was kind of cool that Stade Rennais and Ivory Coast had similar strengths/rosters so I think the same tactic will work for both. In coaching football I always loved the advantage given by playing an unorthodox/unbalanced formation. There is definitely something to be said for balance, if you have the players to be balanced, but if you have players that work better in some unorthodox formation, why not get all of your best players in good spots?

In the long run, I'm going to be experimenting with various "3/5 back" systems (the future of soccer, IMO) that will be highly adjustable depending on the opponent's formation. Here is my first crack at an asymmetric 5-3-2 that fits my current roster pretty well (I want a better anchor man CDM/CB guy with versatility though). Here is a screenshot of how I have things set up now (I will find a better anchor man in the transfer window and move Makoun to the box-to-box midfielder spot). I'll be interested to see how it works in the squad scrimmage and friendlies.

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Travis7401

Douglass Tagg
Community Liaison
After scouting the Free Transfers, I found a really good utility player for the squad. He's a little older, but he has good stats at the Anchor role and he can also play CB or RB.

Here is the video of my search and my negotiations.


Here are some screenshots of the player and his scouting report. He looks like he is straight out of A Clockwork Orange:
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Yankee151

Hot Girl Summer
"He played for Reel Madrid" FFFUUU trapped me. As a tip, you wage budget usually can't be changed if you have offers out, which is probably why you can't change yours atm.
 

Milo

Well-Known Member
I like the reverse African stereotype. Instead of a 30-year-old claiming to be 20, you have a 5-year-old manager claiming to be 30.

Also, keep in mind that the star ratings are likely your assistant's evaluation which is determined largely by their Judging Ability and Potential ratings. Like your scouts, take them with a grain assault unless your assistant is very good.
 
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Travis7401

Douglass Tagg
Community Liaison
If you listen to my video you gonna have a bad time with the pronunciation. I'm at this weird tipping point where all the words I messed up on purpose (Derdiyok = Dirtycock, Real = Reel, Hamsik = Hamfist) combine with the words I legitimately don't know how to pronounce and the words that I actually try to pronounce correctly but get wrong. I considered making Mr. Manager play in the language of whatever country he's coaching in :laughing: Maybe for my next save.

Anyway, I've reached my first crisis as Mr. Manager in that I REEEELY want to sign my boy Diarra, who is one of my FIFA favorites
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But I also really want to sign this young fella who would plug in as rotation Right WB and have the versatility to play everywhere and has good potential moving forward:
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I "suggested terms" to his team for 2.5 million and they denied. I could afford up to 3 million and still have wages to pay him what he'll probably want... but they are dead set on 3.5 million. I offered 3 million and walked away, so it looks like I'll be bringing in Diarra instead. He wants 25k/week which is on the upper end of what I can afford to pay a "starter" but I think he's still going to be one of my best players this year.

Any tips on how I can cancel a loan player or what it costs? I'm paying WAY too much for this Kadir dude who will only see rotational duty. I'd rather replace him with someone from my reserves anyway.
 

Travis7401

Douglass Tagg
Community Liaison
Here is a video of my scrimmage between the first team and the reserve squad. I played this before I'd officially signed an anchor man. I slaughtered the reserves on the strength of 2 own goals from the reserves. I really liked the offensive movement of this formation. First time I"ve really seen awesome wingback play unlocking the defense.



Liverpool has been trogging at me for Pitropia, but they aren't really offering enough to make me bite. I want at least 1.5x-2x his "value" so that I can replace him and have some profit.
 

Travis7401

Douglass Tagg
Community Liaison
Sweet. He's been playing like poo anyway, and that might free up some room I need to sign both those target players.

The results of the first friendly... weren't good. Sondjooauiofuaodsin beat me 3-0. I had all the chances early and went down 1-0 on a counter, then got a red card and decided to go ultra attacking anyway and conceded 2 more. I tried a different tactic for this match and hated it, so back to the asymetric 532 it is! I was worried about the tactic when I saw their formation because I felt I might get overloaded against a 2-striker + CAM formation. I should have just switched to a 4231, because this formation I used just created a big hole for the CAM to do hard work work and distribute the ball to open players. I need CDMs!

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osick87

Well-Known Member
Community Liaison
I'm 7/9. Let's bang,

I'll start one today. Going to be a little different than Tavaris. I hate my voice so probably little commentary.
 
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Travis7401

Douglass Tagg
Community Liaison
Toivonen is on my shitlist now. He makes a solid 20k more/week than any of my other players and he's been a whiny bitch with very little production so far. I just got an offer from Southampton for him. I have a ton of young strikers coming up in the next few years, so I don't need any young players, so I might sell Toivonen an bring in an old free transfer or a player on loan to cover the depth.
 

Travis7401

Douglass Tagg
Community Liaison
Double feature, not sure why the sound is so low, I'll fix for the next one!

Everton Smacks me in a friendly:


I make some strategy changes and smack Dessel in my next friendly


Still wheeling and dealing
 

Travis7401

Douglass Tagg
Community Liaison
I switched around my Asymmetric 5-3-2 a little bit to provide more cover for the right wingback and that really helped the formation a lot. If I'm going to play 5-back formations a lot going forward, I'm going to need some better wingbacks, but even as some of the worst players on my team they are already putting up good ratings. I also experimented with a more standard 4-2-3-1 formation and liked it a lot, I think that will be my formation of choice against better teams in the league.
The results of my remaining friendly matches were much better. I drew against Valencia and Villareal, and then beat the doors of some crappy team. A new youth player I brought up from the reserves actually scored a hat trick in one of the games and looked awesome, so I might be looking to sell Pitropia if the price is right because he can't hit the broad side of a barn and he can't really cross either. What good is a wing player who cant cross or cut in and shoot? He get in great spots, shreds the defense with his speed, then "shoots" so badly the ball goes out for a throw in. I had to make his player instructions "shoot less" and "cross less" :laughing:

Game 1 - Victory!
Played my first official Ligue 1 match against Stade Reims and won 5-3. Toivonen scored 2 free kick goals, Feret scored 1 goal, and Oliviera scored 2 goals. My new wingback signing had a really good game and a really nice assist as well. I wish Oliviera was actually on my team and not just a loan player, because he scored most of my goals in the friendlies and is doing awesome still. Toivonen earned a reprieve from the transfer list by showing up as MOTM with those 2 goals and an assist (and just great knockdowns/ hold up play). He might be a "gamer" who doesn't give a shit about friendlies but shows up for real games.

The 3 goals I gave up were all pretty ham-fisted but not from the run of play, so I'm pleased with how my defense is coming together. I gave up 2 goals on corners (Just like fifa!) and a third goal where my goalie picks the ball up and then instead of booting it downfield, literally passes the ball to their striker who then scores on the open net. HMMMMMM. Check that goal out at about 0:50 in this video.

I added commentary to this video but I must have had my mic muted because nothing came through. I'll get this right someday.

 
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Travis7401

Douglass Tagg
Community Liaison
Roster Changes - New Additions
Lamine Gassama - FB/WB (Right preferred but can play both sides)
My initial scouting report indicated that this guy had a current ability of 2 stars and a potential of 4 stars. He was available for 300k despite having a "value" of 900k. I needed more depth at the RB/RWB position and this guy seemed to fit the bill. His offensive stats aren't as good as I'd like, but the price was good and he is already a pretty solid defender. The fact that he can play LB/LWB in a pinch is a nice bonus. When I brought him in, I was disappointed to find that my assistant has a more pessimistic view of his ability (1.5 star) and potential (2.5 star). His wages are cheap enough that I'm not too worried if he only serves as a backup, so I still think it was a good signing. In his very first game against Stade Reims he picked up a 7.9 rating and an assist. I was pleased.
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Paul-Georges Ntep - AM (L/R)
This guy was in the reserve squad and I realized that he was already at least as good as the loan player Kadir who had a pretty hefty payroll hit for a loaned player. I terminated Kadir's loan and brought Ntep up. At 21 years of age he already has awesome stats and has better shooting stats than Pitropia who plays the same position. He has 4 star potential, so he should get even better. If he ends up playing well now, I might look to unload Pitropia in the Winter transfer window. I started him in the last friendly match and he scored a hat trick and added an assist for a 9.8 rating. It is awesome when that left inside forward position in my Asymmetric 5-3-2 formation can shoot. Pitropia ends up in so many awesome spots, but he seems to struggle to score. Watching Ntep shred his way through the crappy team we were playing gives me hope for the future. I'm going to start him as a super sub to replace one wing or the other every game in about the 50-60th minute.

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Game 2 : Nice(A) : L 0-1

Tactics and lineup: With this being an away game, I decided to start out in a 4-2-3-1 with a counter attacking mentality. Basically I don't want to go down a goal early, so I'll play a more defensive formation and a more defensive strategy. I have enough speed upfront to hurt them on the counter attack and I played Toivonen at the CAM spot as a target for direct passes from the defense. Nice came out in a 4-5-1 formation.

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Nice is a very slight favorite according to Skybet, but the reporter predicts Stade Rennais to win.

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This game pretty much sucked. Despite my best tactical plans I went down early and despite having the best chances I was unable to score. I eventually changed to an "attacking" mentality and then finally an overload mentality and was never able to generate another goal. I literally won 12 corners and never scored. Their goalie had an awesome game as well.
 
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osick87

Well-Known Member
Community Liaison
My Assistant coach likes Romain. Anytime I do auto select, Pitroipa is on the bench and Romain is selected.
 

Travis7401

Douglass Tagg
Community Liaison
Game 3: Evian (Away) : Loss 1-2

Another away game where I was the slight underdog. Went with the Asymmetric formation and a Counter attacking mentality to start with, hoping to play good defense and steal a goal. Here were the starting formations:

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Everything went really well and I picked up a nice goal when Mensah flubbed a ball into the path of Oliviera who then took it on the break and made a nice cool finish. I was really controlling the game well all the way toward the last 30 minutes when they went with a Route 1 style attack against me. They hoofed a ball into the box for the mongoloid Berigaud who knocked it down perfectly for Ruben who scored. Then in the 83rd minute they ran the exact same play and did it again. Berigaud just out Jumped Armand and Kans Byik couldn't pick up the pieces. What an excruciating loss in a game where I felt that I at least deserved a draw.

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The match stats were pretty even. Toivonen played like shit again and Pitropia made such bad shot at the 36th minute that I yanked his ass immediately. I'm going to make myself wait until the winter transfer window before doing anything rash, but right now they are both on my shit list for sure.

I'm now a full 6 points behind Osick in only 3 games, lol..
 

Travis7401

Douglass Tagg
Community Liaison
I decided to resign from Ivory Coast because it bored me and was tedious. Another African team thrown into chaos, scrambling to find a corch before the world cup.

Game 4: Lille (Home) : Win 3-2

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This was a very interesting game. I started with a new 4-1-3-2 formation and went with an attacking mentality to try to get ahead of things. Lille came out in a 4-5-1 formation so they really controlled play and I was outnumbered in the midfield badly. Fortunately, I was having pretty good success hoofing the ball up to my attack and was able to score 2 goals early (one on a PK) both from Oliviera. At this point, they had most of the possesion but shots/chances were relatively equal. When they realized they were down by 2, lille pushed the "Badass button" and started just dominating the game. I was forced to switch to a 4-2-3-1 formation with counter attacking tactics in order to try to weather the storm. They got one back shortly after halftime. Then I scored the third goal on a counter with nice movement where The Ferret scored a goall on an assist from Oliviera after Toivonen knocked the ball down for him.

Lille became more and more frantic, and I eventually went to "defend." to try to weather the storm. I held out in the end, but as you can see in the game stats, they outshot me 30 to 10 (though most of their shots were from long distance and off target).

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Travis7401

Douglass Tagg
Community Liaison
Game 5 : Lyon (A) : Loss 1-3

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I went with the 4-1-3-2 formation again, but started out with counter attacking tactics since I was away against a better team. I went down relatively early when Lacazette scored, then I went down 2 when he scored again. The game was actually pretty even and my players just had zero luck finishing. Eventually I got one back when my sub striker (Romero) picked up his first goal of the season. Any hopes of a comeback were cut off as Lacazette finished his hat trick.

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I'm still getting frustrated by my lack of ability to convert corners. I'm winning a lot more corners than my opposition in each game, yet I can't convert any of them. Time to switch up tactics on my set pieces!
 

Travis7401

Douglass Tagg
Community Liaison
Game 6 : Ajjacio (H) : Win 3-0
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Finally had my first really good win of the season. We came out hard and pissed from the first whistle and destroyed Ajaccio. The goals were mostly flukey, including some ridiculous 40 yard goal from Tiny/Tony Danze. I'm not sure if he was attempting a shot or trying a cross to nobody or even trying to just clear the ball, but he caught the goalie out and it floated over the GK's head for a wonderous goal. I'm enjoying the 4-1-3-2 right now, especially in home games, as it seems to lead to a lot of scoring. Also finally picked up a goal off a corner (though it was a rebound). The Ferret had another awesome game, winning MOTM with 2 assists. All of my defenders also had really high match ratings, as 3 of them scored goals in this game, lol.

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Goal #3 was the Wonder Strike from Tony Danze




4 players made the Ligue 1 TOTW: The Ferret, Tiny Danze, Cheick M'bengue, and Kana Biyik
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Travis7401

Douglass Tagg
Community Liaison
Game 7 : Montpelier (A) : Draw 0-0

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Played an away game, which I had been usually losing, against a good opposition. This game was really pretty boring, all things considered, but I was glad to pull a draw out, because a draw in an away game against a solid team is good in my book! They dominated me in possession, but neither team really looked all that threatening. I switched to a counter attacking 4231 in the second half and really just tried to hold the draw. My defense is looking much better the last few matches!

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Travis7401

Douglass Tagg
Community Liaison
Game 8 : Nantes (H) : Win 3-0

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Mr. Manager had to be a little softer on Stade Rennais than he'd have liked so far this season, because they didn't respond well to his ranting and raving during the friendly matches. Heading into this home game against the struggling Nantes boys, Mr. Manager decided that after a couple months of being reasonable, it was again time to unleash a little crazy in order to properly motivate his players...

The players, satisfied with their away draw against a quality team last week, were shocked when Mr. Manager stormed into the locker room ranting about how ties are like "KISSING UR SISTER." Mr Manager then continued his rant, saying that, "your previous Surrender Monkey coach might not have had a problem with sister kissing, but I'll be damned if I allow that sort of West Virginia @Bmack behavior in my club!"

The players almost universally responded with "confused" stares as Mr. Manager's rant lost much of the original meaning in his Google Translate French.
(votre Surrender précédente entraîneur de singe n'aurait pas eu un problème avec la sœur de baiser, mais je vais être damné si je laisse ce genre de West Virginia @ comportement Bmack dans mon club!). Mr. Manager then strutted out onto the "pitch," imploring his players to follow his lead.

Some might question the unorthodox tactics, but they can't question the results. The highly motivated Stade Rennais team, lead by previously disgraced Pitropia, played an excellent match winning 3-0. Pitropia was named MOTM with a goal and an assist.

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The win moved Stade Rennais up to 3rd place in Ligue un
 
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Travis7401

Douglass Tagg
Community Liaison
How do you think? :laughing:

I had my CDM man mark him with "hard tackling" and "close down quickly" on and I just brutalized that twink. I think he finished with a pretty low rating, but I'll check it when I get home tonight.
 

Travis7401

Douglass Tagg
Community Liaison
Game 9 : EAG (A) : Win 1-0

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As you might have noticed so far, Stade Rennais under Mr. Manager seem to perform well at home and really wilt in away games. The best result of the season was a draw against a solid upper half team. With The visit to newly promoted EAG, whatever that is, Mr. Manager implored his side to turn a new leaf in away games.... or walk home. "The team bus is only for winners, gents, I SAID WINNERS..... WOOOOOOOOWEEEEEEE"

Mr. Manager's rebel yell confused the team slightly, but by this point they had become accustomed to some of his eccentricities. They took the field, hoping to secure their ride home. The game was a tense affair, with neither side having many high quality chances, but a single goal by Wunderkind Paul Ntep secured the victory, and the bus ride home, for Stade Rennais. Really this game was ugly on all levels as EAG seemed content to play with very negative tactics and hack the Stade Rennais players at every opportunity.

On a tactical note, Mr. Manager noticed that the strikers were getting a bit worn down, so he switched to a lone striker formation, hoping to get some rest for Toivonen. Wanting to play more positive/attacking soccer, Mr. Manager tweaked the counter attacking 4-2-3-1 by moving the holding mids more forward. This paid immediate dividends as Makoun and Diarra seemed much more connected to the attacking movements than they had been in the counter attacking 4-2-3-1 formation. Makoun had a great game and provided the assist for Nteps goal with a beautiful pass to unlock the defense. In the second half, Mr. Manager then adjusted the 4-2-3-1 formation back to the more defensive set in order to hold the lead, since EAG had only really threatened on counters to that point. The defensive support from Makoun and Diarra rendered the EAG attacking efforts impotent and the ugly game finally ended.

After the game, a reporter asked Mr. Manager how it felt to win such an awful display of soccer, and Mr. Manager replied with "Better than a sharp stick in the eye" before strutting onto the team bus.


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As you can see, my defense has improved immensely as this is the 4th straight shutout!
 
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Travis7401

Douglass Tagg
Community Liaison
Game 10 : Valenciennes (H) : Draw 2-2

I forgot to snap a screenshot of the pre-game lineups, but I went back with the 4-1-3-2, looking to rack up some quick goals in a home game. It backfired as my midfield was overrun and I conceded 2 goals in the first half (on only 3 total shots on target for the whole game :( ). I told the chaps that they'd just been unlucky at halftime, and the much maligned Pitropia rewarded me early in the second half with a goal. Things weren't looking good as I struggled to get possession as the game wound down. I changed my tactics to "Overload," and was rewarded when Toivonen picked the perfect time to score his first goal in open play with a nice header in the 89th minute. The unbeaten streak extends to 5 games!

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About fucking time Pitropia and Toivonen did something for this team!


I also drew Valenciennes in a cup match, so I play them again in like 2 weeks. I'll be looking to destroy them like Osick did in his save.
 
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Travis7401

Douglass Tagg
Community Liaison
Team Review after 10 games!

After 10 games, Mr. Manager's record is 5 Wins, 2 Draws, and 3 Losses, and everything has been looking up lately as Stade Rennais are currently on a 5 game unbeaten streak in which they've only given up 2 total goals.

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17 Points is good enough to earn a 4 way tie for 3rd place in the league, and only one point off that second place spot (not looking at tie breakers this early). PSG are the leaders, a full 6 points clear and absolutely rolling, having scored 20 goals and only allowed 7.
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The First team squad, when sorted by average performance, is lead by Tony/Tiny Danze, The Ferret, and Kana-Biyik all having put in a brilliant first 10 games. The Ferret hasn't had quite the same goal scoring success for me as he has for Osick, but he has put in several great performances where he is accounting for multiple goals through scoring or assist. He's also by far my most successful crosser and passer so far, with 23 crosses completed and 11 key passes. Nelson Oliviera is my leading scorer with 5 goals, but he's been on a relatively bad run of form recently and was just injured in the last match.

I've been pretty disappointed so far in the play of Ola Toivonen (only 1 goal from open play) and Pitropia, who were supposed to be my key players. They've still been contributing a bit, but not nearly as consistently as they should be, especially considering the fact that they've started 9 and 8 games respectively. The especially damning thing about both of them are their bad ratio of shots on target at 35% and 36% and this is with me playing tactics that discourage aimless long shots. Pitropia has also put in less than 1 completed cross per game from his wing position. HMMMMMM. I probably won't be able to sell Toivonen at the next transfer window because I don't have much depth at the ST/CAM position, but I should have no problem selling Pitropia. Ntep and Allesiandrini haven't performed great either as wingers, but they haven't been given as much opportunity as Pitropia yet and they cost MUCH less, so their production is at least in line with their expectations. I also have more depth in the Great Osick, who has only made 1 appearance with the Senior team for me so far, but has been a leading player for the Reserves (see below).

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Speaking of the Reserves, here are the stats for my reserve team. I have several young/rotational players from my senior team set as available for 45 minutes each game with the reserve squad, and so far they've been doing pretty well! The Great Osick and Ntep are 2 out of the 3 highest rated players for the reserve team, which makes me feel much more confident about the young talent at my wing positions. I've still get some time before the winter transfer window, but if I get a decent offer for Pitropia I'll feel good about unloading him! I'll probably promote that striker Anouar El Guennouni and the central defender Cedric Hountondji to the Senior squad and work on getting them some playing time. They are playing great for the reserves and I have limited depth at those positions. With cup matches starting soon, fitness may be an issue with the senior squad, so these guys will probably get some playing time!

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DeadMan

aka spiker or DeadMong
I'm curious what your long term plans for the team are. You've sort of talked about it, but what your plans are for the next transfer window(s), what area of the team you need to upgrade, etc.

Maybe you've talked about it in your videos, but I can't be bothered to watch them :laughing:
 

Travis7401

Douglass Tagg
Community Liaison
Game 11 : Toulouse (A) : Draw 0-0

Well the unbeaten streak continues and the great defensive play also continues, but this was kind of a frustrating game because I absolutely dominated and felt like I deserved a victory. Very sister kissy on this one.

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Toulouse came out in the sort of 5-3-2 formation that I'd like to play someday, but I was able to completely dominate the game in all areas, but wasn't able to finish. Romero has been having a hard time picking up goals at striker and Oliviera (came on at half) is also out of form. With neither of them scoring much it feels like I'm pretty lethargic offensively. Still relatively happy to be hanging out at 3rd place in the league.

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Travis7401

Douglass Tagg
Community Liaison
I'm curious what your long term plans for the team are. You've sort of talked about it, but what your plans are for the next transfer window(s), what area of the team you need to upgrade, etc.

Maybe you've talked about it in your videos, but I can't be bothered to watch them :laughing:


I mostly talked about it in my videos, but I'll give a quick summary:

Basically my first immediate need for the first team squad, when I took over, was adding depth at CB (only 3 on roster), RB (1 on roster), and CDM (1 starter on roster). I added Diarra as the CDM on a free, added a utility player Baird who can play RB, CB, CDM, and CM on a free, and added another young RB/RWB in Gassama for 300k. After renegotiating contracts with all the players I want to keep, I was basically out of transfer budget as far as 1st team signings go (300k left). I had some offers for Pitropia and Toivonen during the first transfer window, and I was tempted but decided to hold onto them in hopes that they could help me make an early push toward the top of the table (since my goal is top half). Pitropia is in a position with lots of depth and I'm not crazy about his poor crossing ability for a winger or his poor shooting abilities for an inside forward. Toivonen can play CAM/ST which is currently a position where I lack depth (only 1 other first team CAM and 2 other first team strikers, both in on loan). Even though he's versatile/valuable, he's also making 74k/week, which is double my next highest salary and he isn't getting any younger. I have a load of good youth players at CAM/ST but they were all loaned out for the season before I started. Basically I've got plans to sell them both (1 in the winter transfer window, 1 next summer) and bring up my good looking youth players to replace them. I should be able to get about 30 million total for the 2 players and dump 105k/week in salary, which will be nice, and I really don't think I'll take much of a hit on productivity.

As for the long term plan, I've been doing a ton of scouting in West Africa and France. It looks like the first crop of West African regens just spawned and there isn't really anyone exciting there, but there are some great looking reel life 16-19 year olds available for cheap from some league in the Ivory coast. Right now my youth/reserve team is completely stacked with talented STs and AMs, but they are really lacking on defenders. I'll be looking to sell on a few of the CAMs (I have like 5 dudes with 4 star potential) and add to the depth at the defensive positions. I also need to start grooming some more CBs, CDMs and wingbacks so I can start playing my favorite 5 back formations.

I can take some screenshots of the Reserve/U19 teams and show what I have for the future. I've yet to sign guys for those squads because I had to shore up the first team before the season started. Youth/Reserves will be a major focus when I get that transfer money from selling off my overvalued players.
 
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Travis7401

Douglass Tagg
Community Liaison
Game 12 : Valenciennes (H) : Win 3-0 (First Cup Match)

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Mr. Manager was faced with 2 matches in rapid succession this week, with the cup match against Valenciennes followed only 3 days later by a very important Ligue 1 matchup with Marseilles. Mr. Manager tried to find a balance between playing enough starters/strong players to win the cup match while still having players available for the game against Marseilles. Mr. Manager started his best defense and midfield for the cup match, but started 3 younger players up front. The strategy payed off well in the cup match and the unbeaten streak continued.

Alessandrini was the player of the game with 2 really nice crosses for goals (1 by Romero and 1 by Toivonen who came on as a sub. The unbeaten streak extends to 7 games and the defense had another shutout. Was very happy with this

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Mr. Manager vowed to blow all the prize money on Liquor and whores.
 

Travis7401

Douglass Tagg
Community Liaison
Deadman, here are screenshots of my Reserve and U19 teams, sorted by best position. As you can see, a ton of my players had been loaned out before I even arrived, lol. I loaned a couple more guys out that I didn't really need after I got here too, but there are certainly areas where I'm lacking depth going forward. I have a few senior team players who show up on the list but do not play with the youth team (Costil) not sure why that is happening.

Reserves:
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U19 Squad:
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I'm not sure what the greyed out trogs are, but I think they are random shitty players who are generated by the CPU when I don't have a complete roster? Hopefully I'll have a solid enough youth team after the transfer windo that it will no longer be a problem!
 

Milo

Well-Known Member
Yep on greyed out players. You can make them "real" by signing them to contracts(extremely cheap). It's never really necessary except for immersion.

You'll also get a youth intake every off-season. Not sure the dates, but each country has a youth creation date. May want to check those out for countries you are scouting(Ivory Coast, etc). That way, you know the days they appear and can individually scout players that have appeared immediately to beat potential rivals. Good idea to check out the new players at clubs known for producing quality players(ASEC(Ivory Coast), Hearts of Oaks(Ghana)). Certain teams, because of higher reputation, tend to produce better players. ASEC was a goldmine in previous versions.
 
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Bmack

IRREGULAR HUMAN USER
Mod Alumni
Game 8 : Nantes (H) : Win 3-0

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Mr. Manager had to be a little softer on Stade Rennais than he'd have liked so far this season, because they didn't respond well to his ranting and raving during the friendly matches. Heading into this home game against the struggling Nantes boys, Mr. Manager decided that after a couple months of being reasonable, it was again time to unleash a little crazy in order to properly motivate his players...

The players, satisfied with their away draw against a quality team last week, were shocked when Mr. Manager stormed into the locker room ranting about how ties are like "KISSING UR SISTER." Mr Manager then continued his rant, saying that, "your previous Surrender Monkey coach might not have had a problem with sister kissing, but I'll be damned if I allow that sort of West Virginia @Bmack behavior in my club!"

The players almost universally responded with "confused" stares as Mr. Manager's rant lost much of the original meaning in his Google Translate French.
(votre Surrender précédente entraîneur de singe n'aurait pas eu un problème avec la sœur de baiser, mais je vais être damné si je laisse ce genre de West Virginia @ comportement Bmack dans mon club!). Mr. Manager then strutted out onto the "pitch," imploring his players to follow his lead.

Some might question the unorthodox tactics, but they can't question the results. The highly motivated Stade Rennais team, lead by previously disgraced Pitropia, played an excellent match winning 3-0. Pitropia was named MOTM with a goal and an assist.

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The win moved Stade Rennais up to 3rd place in Ligue un

Don't knock it till ya tried it homie. (Hypothetically speaking that is)

 

joshuahuskers

Utopia Football League
How are you taking screen caps? With print screen? Whenever I try to do that, what shows up is what I'm running underneath Football Manager...
 

NML

Well-Known Member
What's ur finances look like? Ur reserves look bloated. Looks to be about 50k a week in wages just on reserve keepers.

I'd also sell a guy like Osicki, myself. Yeah, he's playing well in the reserves, but he's 25 and hasn't cracked the first team yet. If you get even close to market value for him (around 5 million) plus his wages gone, you might be able to find a quality player.
 

Travis7401

Douglass Tagg
Community Liaison
How are you taking screen caps? With print screen? Whenever I try to do that, what shows up is what I'm running underneath Football Manager...

Just hit F12 Button and it takes a screenshot in Steam. Then go to "view" menu and screenshots and it will show everything from your latest session (or you can find the file folder to see all your screenshots).
 

Travis7401

Douglass Tagg
Community Liaison
What's ur finances look like? Ur reserves look bloated. Looks to be about 50k a week in wages just on reserve keepers.

I'd also sell a guy like Osicki, myself. Yeah, he's playing well in the reserves, but he's 25 and hasn't cracked the first team yet. If you get even close to market value for him (around 5 million) plus his wages gone, you might be able to find a quality player.


Those aren't actually all reserve goalies, btw, my first team guys show up there for some reason even though they aren't set to play with the reserves. The one old backup goalie is being released at the end of this year or transfered during the winter window (his request) if anyone will take him, and then I'll be down to the starter + 2 young guys. Also, one of the young GKs was already loaned out and I need to keep 3 on the roster and I didn't realize that till after the transfer window because I was still kind of learning the ropes of finances/transfer stuff.

I agree that my reserves list is bloated, but most of them were already out on loan when the year started. The Great Osick is being kept for his name right now and the fact that he's a first team rotational player. I probably will sell him as I have youth players come up. My reserve wages are actually well below what I have budgeted based on my wage schedule, but only because so many of them are loaned.
 
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