Bought FM19 in the steam sale the other week.
Did the double with Sydney in season 1 including a 5-0 win over WSW in the GF. My first version since fm13 but all my old tricks seem to work. Lost Brillante mid season and DDS before finals to ACL injuries though, so my training may need some work.
Next Season will be interesting as will probably lose Reza, SDJ and DDS as I’m not sure I’ll be able to renew their loans. Nathan burns, Luke Bratten and Tim Cahill are incoming though.
I’m really struggling with FM19. It’s far more complex than FM18 which I really enjoyed. For me the training is far too complex and time consuming (yes, I know you can allocate this to the staff but not sure if you’ll get the best out of your players that way).
You could have written the same complaint about every FM since 02/03. Just hire good staff and leave it up to them if you can’t be bothered.
Disclaimer: last FM I played was 14.
I am slowly easing myself into all of the new training features. I’m occasionally taking over when I feel someone needs to be training another position or role. I’m also getting used to the fact that adeptness of a certain position and the adeptness of a role in a certain position are two entirely different things.
I started as Blyth Spartans in Vanarama North. I got my first win at the fifth time of asking in the league. Still trying to get the best out of my team, which is playing a mostly possession-based 4-1-4-1 / 4-3-3, but not trying to play too quickly because my team’s fitness is quite poor. They still pop the odd ball over the top for my quick striker to run onto, though, and that’s very effective. Having a competent wing-back who likes to make killer balls often should provide quite a few assists.
Yeah I play a lot of lower league games and a good wing back or attacking fullback is something teams at that level just can’t cope with. You often have to play with a proper destroyer in midfield though to make up for the frailty.
That’s not a problem for me. Most of my midfield three tactically are fairly defensive in nature. The drawback to that is that while I have a lot of the ball, sometimes we just don’t have the punch up front. I could play 4-2-3-1 but I don’t have enough players that can either play DM or AM to make it work without a lot of training.
The team is getting used to my tactics, so results should improve. It isn’t really how most non-league teams would play (direct, use someone’s speed or superior physique), but it seems to suit the players at my disposal.
Has anyone tried out the Rado/Farina donut?
I believe the answer would be no 
But if one were to try it, would it be cheating if we used inside forwards, inverted wingers or inverted wing-backs? Or must they hug every bone of their body down the line to facilitate this formation?
No donut formation for me, I’m a “Finger Bun” man (3-2-1-1-3).
I’ve gotten back into FM this last week. I started unemployed and took over Guiseley in National League North about 18 games into their season in the relegation zone. After some initial success pulling them together for a couple of wins, and converting to a full possession style of play, things have drifted away from me in the league. We’re back in the relegation zone and it seems like every match we miss 1-2 clear cut chances, often hitting the woodwork. I’ve also struggled to get in any halfway decent striker who might be able to actually finish chances.
At the same time we’re having a good run in the FA trophy, through to the third round proper. It’s so frustrating that my players only seem to be turning up in the knock out games.
I think its hard at semi-professional level because you have a very limited amount of things you can work on per week on the training ground. Even at sixth-tier, there are still the odd professional team who will have a clear advantage over you.
If you concentrate training on one end of the pitch for very long, the other end goes to shit. If your defensive record is really good, maybe manually change the training occasionally to incorporate attacking play, or even just finishing. I occasionally change it up, especially if a big game is coming up and I need defensive organisation, or if an easier game is coming up, I can focus on more attacking aspects. It’s been going okay for me.
I took over Blyth Spartans, who were tipped to finish low in the sixth-tier and I’m currently in the play-off spots, also focusing more on possession football. We’re well-organised, but have been throwing away points at home sometimes as a consequence. I have a decent poacher but probably not enough quality attacking or support players around him to feed him through balls as much as he needs. I’ve brought in a good left-back (which has upset a popular member of the dressing room) and ball-winning midfielder (which upset someone and caused me to terminate their contract) permanently, along with retaining a good trial defender and getting a couple of loan players.
I’m quite a bit over my budget (1k pounds a week), and despite getting to the second round of the FA Cup (and holding out a L1 team for 70-ish minutes at home), the club inexplicably won’t let me change my budget. We have more than enough money to make it to the end of the season without getting into the red again.
My FA Cup run included beating Cambridge United (League 2) away in the first round, which also included possibly the longest and hairiest five minutes of stoppage time I’ve ever experienced in a video game. Shots raining in from everywhere, players charging in to block them, miraculous saves, balls bouncing off the woodwork, and balls being cleared off the line. It was fucking crazy!
My FA Trophy run was less glorious than the FA Cup but we were drawn away to fifth-tier Halifax so we didn’t get the luck we could have with the draw.
Overall, loving the game, and have had to learn a lot, even the fact I simply cannot play exactly the same way on the road as I do at home. Blyth have copped a few drubbings (relatively speaking) by not being more careful away from home.
Yeah this has been something new for me to adapt to as well compared to previous editions. I feel like in previous versions you could plug your tactic in and never change it. This time around I feel like there’s a lot more required of me to tailor my tactics to the situation and opponent. I’m really enjoying that aspect of it and, hell, I’ve even actually found it useful to attend games played by my opponents to figure out formations and key players. That might just be because scouting is so shit at that level though and I can’t even afford the most basic data pack to fill out player information.
I’m also finding that it REALLY matters what style your Assistant Manager wants to play. I’ve pretty much had it with his advice telling me to play Defensive or Very Defensive in every game, even when there is no need. I genuinely find it irritating, and it also influences the players and how they react to pre-match tactical briefings. That is exactly how it would go in real life as well. The only thing making me think twice about dumping him at the end of the season is that he’s got some good coaching badges on him now, so if we get promoted, I may well still need him.
Most of the above should seem obvious but in previous versions, I could seemingly get away with having an assistant who leaned heavily towards a defensive style. Kudos to Sports Interactive for finally getting these little details right.
Realistic at least in that with Sydney in FM 19 the ground maintenance for the new stadium is too much and will send the club broke no matter how much I cut the wages and scouting costs down.
I actually recently re-installed 03/04 and have been really having a good time.
It’s just so enjoyable to play, which is absolutely what about 3 more modern versions I tried to get into failed to be at all.
I will never try another version again.
I think FM19 has a lot of versatility. If you don’t want to concern yourself with the micro-management of everything, you can simply delegate it, with the possible consequences of not getting it exactly as you want. Even with that, you can just take over something to make one change, and then revert the control to your staff again. If you want to control everything, warts and all, you can do that as well. It’s something that FM has probably needed for almost a decade, and its finally here. Thank fuck.
So, long story short, I went two months after this without a win and jumped before I was pushed. I have now moved to Northern Ireland, where careers go to die. I have taken over a top-half quality club in the third tier called “Dollingstown” (apparently the whole town has about 2000 people in it, so that should give you an idea of the quality we are talking). I am going to try to get them to play an attacking, possession-based style of football, which should last about 3 months before I’m sacked.
EDIT: I love the town’s wikipedia page, which includes the following:
World War II soldier James Kyle was also from the village. As a young man he earned the respect of his officers and rose to the ranks of general. In 1975 he left the army to follow an alternative career choice. With his war history behind him, he returned to Dollingstown to open a very popular Chip Shop, D-Town.
I’ve just got back into my Stockport save on FM14. We should get promoted to the Championship at the end of the season (2019/20) and are 4 points clear at the top with 10 games to go. I took over with the team in the Skrill North and have secured promotion in all but 1 season.
Classic FM moment the other day though when the opposition had a penalty that hit the post (my keeper didn’t touch it) and rebounded to the taker who slots it home and no offside called.
why would it be offside?
Because another player has to touch the ball before the taker can touch it again.