[FM Touch 2017] Old Style Management
Lucas:
Posts #1 to #11 is pre-season; GO TO POST #12 FOR THE BEGINNING OF THE SEASON
Aaaand back, after four years: hopefully I'll make this Radicalthon last a little bit longer :P
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So, what do I mean by "old style"? Nothing fancy, really: it means I'll play the "Touch" (but I prefer the "classic" tag SI gave to it a few years back) version of FM: much more "agile", with the main focus on team building, transfers, tactics and the matchday experience. No time-wasting press releases, manager-player interaction, or excessive micromanagement of the training schedules. The game still retains all the awesome fidelity and depth of the "normal" game when it comes to tactics and matches. In other words, pretty similar to the CM games and the earlier FM ones.
Also, it's going to be "old style" because I'll keep the experience within the UK borders, much like the early CM games, and starting from (almost) the bottom. I've selected all the possible leagues from England, Scotland, Ireland, Northern Ireland and Wales. From time to time we'll also take a peek at what's happening in the filthy european mainland, with its main club competitions.
Will try to squeeze in as much play as I can but, beside RL commitments, I'm quite engaged in finishing Divinity Original Sin and can't wait to start playing the second chapter which comes out tomorrow :awesome_for_real: . Anyway, the quicker nature of the Touch version is going to be a bless, especially when I'll start getting into the heart of the season.
My plan is trying to keep this 'Thon running at least 'til FM 2018 comes out (November 10th).Like I said in my previous attempt, I'm not the kind of "let's player" (ugh) that likes to pile up lots of playing days then blurt them out in a single day/single post; hence, bar any other commitment/delay, I'll write a report after every single session.
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Anyway, enough babbling. Train* just dropped me off:
Welcome to the English Vanarama National League...
...And welcome to Silverlake Stadium, home of "The Spitfires", also known as Eastleigh Football Club :drill: :ye_gods:
*Yep, actual mini-trains in Eastleigh doing some sort of lakeside tourism trip
Lucas:
Ok, a brief introduction to the situation at the start of the game.
It starts on July 1st, with the first League match scheduled for August 6th; in between, my assistant manager booked 4 friendlies, with the first on July 16th, definitely too late: in lower leagues, training regimens, coaches and players suck, so my sorry bunch will need more match play in order to get fit.
Schedule:
Andy Cook, my head physio (for now), is ready to welcome me at the training grounds with some juicy bad news :why_so_serious: :
Both players, as you'll notice when we'll get to the Squad screen, are first team material. I'm especially disappointed about McAllister because in lower leagues you need experienced strikers (he's 36) with high strength and heading values (that's actually true in RL too).
Ok, let's end this first post with the general info screen about my team...:
And the overview of the Vanarama National League:
Lucas:
From time to time, I'll leave a couple screenshots unspoilered, just to give some more lively resemblance to the thread: game is already wordy and enough of a spreadsheet on its own :P
SHORT, GENERAL LOOK AT MY TEAM AND STAFF:
Ok, let's have a look at my team:
Just in case you're not really up to speed with FM, those " dark blue" players are loan-ins; "light blue" ones (usually in a reserve team) are loan-outs.
Even before filtering them by role, or getting an in-depth look at their attributes, I already know that my starting point, tactics-wise, will be a 4-4-2. Why? Well, I think it's important to have a rock-solid 4-4-2 in the lower leagues: players are not that creative, it's a matter of following the rules of their absolute overlord manager. Then, as you go along, you can put in adjustments and experiment a little (but mostly with 4 defenders, in my case).
So, to summarize by role:
- 2 Goalkeepers
- 2 Right Full Backs (1 injured)
- 5 potential Left Full Backs (including Wing Backs and central defenders)
- 4 potential Central Defenders
- A LOT of central midfielders/defensive midfielders, either harsh ball winners, box-to-box runners, or all-around players.
- 2 Left Midfielders
- ZERO Right Midfielders
- A decent amount of potential Attacking midfielders; some can play as wide midfielders/wingers, a couple also as strikers, but no true "Trequartista" for a possible 4-3-1-2
- 3 natural Strikers (1 injured)
So, yeah, I KINDA need some meat on that right side of the pitch :grin:, plus at least another striker and maybe a natural advanced midfielder (maybe a promising loan coming from the higher leagues? We'll see about that).
In my next post I'll post detailed attribute screens of a couple of my players. Other players screns might get posted as needed (good performances, new signings, comparisons etc.)
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Now, regarding my STAFF. View is A LOT less detailed compared to normal FM; as you can see there are also less roles you need to pay attention to. In fact, in plain FM, it's almost a game in itself (and quite time consuming) if you don't delegate that aspect to your Assistant Manager, Director of Football or whoever else:
Now, injured players are bad, and I want a reliable Physio especially in a club that can't afford to have an endless roster. A value of 9 Physio won't cut it, no matter the other attributes. YOU ARE OUT, ANDY COOK :cthulu:
Youth dev is not THAT important right now, so I'll settle for Mr. Peacock; The Director of Football, IMO, has a slightly more interesting and important role in FMT, because you don't have as much control over the scouting team as in FM. He basically acts as another scout giving out useful advice on potential transfers. He's a bit low with the fundamental attributes for the role, so I might decide to look for someone better.
Here's my Assistant Manager, 28 yrs old (wow) James Russell:
Well, he surely had an early start in 2008 at the Kansas City Wizards :oh_i_see:
But you know what? I think he has potential, especially because of that focus of Fitness, Man Management and mental attributes. Let's do it, kid!
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In the next post, beside having a more specific look at my players, we'll start diving into the transfer market and advance the calendar a bit in order to fix a couple more friendlies. See ya!
Lucas:
PLAYER PROFILES (actually, I also wanted to write about my search for the physio, look at finances and a couple more things, but the current post is becoming a bit long)
So, like I said, let's have a more detailed look at a few of my players.
- Here's who I think it's gonna be my first team regular GK, Ryan Clarke:
Average technical values, good enough for the category; plus, mental ones are good for the role. He played in League Two for most of his career, Bristol Rovers and Oxford. The other GK of my team, Graham Stack, is not far as far as attributes go, but he's 34 as well, so I might decide to sell/release him and look for a young GK (19-21 yrs old), possibly free.
- Next, one of my Left Defenders, Tyler Garrett, a loan-in from Doncaster (League Two) brought by the club before I arrived:
19 yrs old, great base to work on in general, IMO.
- Regarding my Central Defenders (4 of them), they're decent enough for the category: your average, stocky and tall defenders, not really that bright on the pitch but good at tackling and marking. One stood out in particular, Réda Johnson:
Yep, high value and quite an excessive wage (highest of my team, €110,000 per annum); he's only 28 and looking at his career page, he surely made a drastic drop (don't really want to research about him in RL :P):
- My young, poor, lonely Right Defender, Hakeem Odoffin:
As you can see, he's actually more than decent :P (he's a loan-in from Wolves, after all). But yeah, that side surely needs someone else while I'll gladly evaluate the performances of this guy.
- Next, two of my central midfielders (including defensive ones); most of them are "ball winning" and aggressive bullies. I don't really have a Pirlo or Xavi among my ranks :why_so_serious:
Still, have a look at Sam Togwell...:
...And Sam Matthews:
Well, Togwell is a decent all-around midfielder (he's 31 after all, with experience in the Championships League), while Matthews is considered a "box-to-box" (quite useful) because of his physical qualities, decent long shots and passing. Anyway, I could try either of them to become my creative outlet in the middle (nope, the other ones don't qualify, believe me :P).
- Finally, last but not least, one my strikers, THE MOUNTAIN, Darius Henderson:
Yeah, ye average, tall and experienced "Target Man" that will bulldoze through the defence with his elbows while others will actually score :P. In fact, looking at his career, he's not exactly a deadly goalscorer:
Sure, a honorable career in the higher-ups leagues (overall stats got cut-off, but he's at 430 Apps, 117 Goals), but hey, no ball in the net since quite a while :P . My other, healthy striker (like I have shown, McAllister will be injured for a while), Scott Wilson, is not terrible, more of a quick player; but I really need someone more agile with better finishing to act as a poacher.
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'Til next time :drill:
Lucas:
NEW FRIENDLIES, FINANCES, LOOKING FOR A PHYSIO, FIRST (FRIENDLY) MATCH AND A BIT MORE...
Ok, let's get back on schedule, trying to unravel the usual, lenghty and somewhat boring (but important) stuff you have to do at the beginning of a new career (and, sometimes, of a new season, anyway).
- Scheduled 3 more friendlies: like I previously mentioned, only four before the first League game wouldn't have cut it. Hence, an internal game with Eastleigh reserves; then, 5 days later, Home match against Ebbsfleet (they play in Conference South, immediately lower League), and another home match 4 days after that against Bradford City, a League One team (should bring some money). Then, on the 16th of July, the previously posted (2nd post) chain of friendlies will start.
- Regarding club finances, here's the summary:
Balance is healthy and the wage budget is pretty generous; I have roughly €375,000 left to hand out as wages to potential new signings (more if I put the transfer money into the wage budget). As I evaluate the current roster, I might decide to release two or three players that earn a bit too much for what they're worth in exchange of less costly new signings. We'll see.
- Staff: the club mutually terminated the contract of Andy Cook (head physio) for a fee of 9K. After taking a look at the Staff transfer list, I'll offer a contract to the following physios, while I decide which one to pick:
Derek McKinley...:
...Or Alan Millar:
Both are pretty good, anyway (that rock bottom "motivating" isn't really important for a Physio).
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- Ok, time to advance the calendar for the first time and....Minor (hopefully) bad news from the training ground: Tyler Garrett, the promising Left Defender I wrote about in the previous post, suffered an injury (twisted ankle) and will stay out for 2-3 weeks.
In other news, Bradford City has a too busy schedule so they rejected my friendly proposal. No problem, Exeter (League Two) accepted the one I submitted immediately after.
So we get to the first friendly match against my reserve team. Now, for the friendlies I won't post a "per match" report with multiple screens, info, etc. I will do that for regular League games (including Yotube highlights). I'll just give you the result and a brief summary.
July 2nd, 2016 - Friendly Match n. 1.
Eastleigh F.C. 6 - 1 Eastleigh Res.
Can't really draw any indication from a match like this (created to start building up match condition), but my traditional, free-flowing 4-4-2 worked fine, with players doing what they were supposed to. An own goal by the reserves, and then a great workout by Darius "The Mountain" Henderson with 3 goals and 2 assists; 2 goals were scored by my other striker, Scott Wilson. Nice job by Sam Matthews in the midfield, acting in his favourite "box to box" role.
Ok, that's all for today. Next time we'll start some serious scouting in order to fill in the gaps of the roster while getting to the next couple friendly matches (and maybe a glance at the training screens, an area I don't really like to dwelve too much into)
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