zagor said: @ZaZ Have you ever tried the formation of 2 shadow forwards and 1 target man in low reputation and bad teams? The target man's strength and physique can be overused. It just occurred to me as an idea and I wanted to get your opinion.
Like that - I'm really curious about this . I'll test it Expand
I tried that with AF already and results were slightly inferior, but not much. I didn't try with TM, but I also didn't see any tactic with TM that performs better than the same tactic with AF instead.
ZaZ said: By the way, from these two seasons with Concord Rangers I figured some tips to improve the tactic. Basically, I noticed there are too many people by the edge of opponent's area, by the middle. Everyone goes up, including RPM, IWBs and even BPDs. What I'm trying now is to bring SS back to CM-At so he can help a bit more in defense, while trying to tweak wingers so they stretch more the field. I'm still experimenting around, but results seem promising. Expand
I did try added "Roam from position" to SS. And the result seem pretty good, now I experimenting the same thing apply to 2 AF
Six matches into Sky Bet League Two (so I can skip ten at a time until fourty six matches of the season). My team is again predicted last by a large margin, but promotion should be easier since there are three direct promotions plus one in play offs (lower divisions have one direct plus one in play offs).
I have hired 8 new players, upgraded contract of 14 from last season to full time and sold (loaned out) everyone else. The new squad of 22 players has an annual cost of 586k euros, from ~360k from past season.
Season has been rather good this year. Other than pre-season cash grabbers, I have won all official matches. I'm rotating a lot, with second team playing Carabao Cup and Papa's John Trophy while main team focuses on the league. My initial goal is to earn 282k euros to get a positive balance projection, then I want to use any leftovers to start upgrading my facilities (still everything in the worst quality).
Below are media odds, projection of finances, competitions, schedule, squad and player in best form. Let me know if you want to see the full profile of any player. Tyler Magloire is a beast in speed.
Now at 26 matches into the league. I got kicked out of Carabao Cup, but still going on FA Cup and Papa's John Trophy. The league is also going well, maybe way easier than I thought it would be.
Because of the good results in the cups, my finances are finally in the blue, with 516k in balance and a projected balance of 268k for next year. I tried to ask for improvements for training grounds and youth set up a couple of times, but got denied twice already. Because of that, club structure is still the same as when we started, except stadium, since we loaned a bigger one because of league requirements.
During these past matches, I gave two weeks of holidays to my players, in two different occasions (when I got 8 days between matches). Two of my players are now regulars on their national teams, Liberia and Saint Kitts and Nevis (sorry if anyone lives there, but I didn't even know that country existed). I really dislike to have players in national teams, because you get no benefit from it, but I try to think like real life and just let them be happy there.
Some players are starting to complain about play time, so I changed all agreed playing time from main team to regular starter and all second team players to squad players. Half the squad complained, but since they were happy they just let the issue go when I talked to them (without the need of convincing them). Two players required me to promise to increase their play time, but I will just keep my plan and hope they get happy enough. Even when they get unhappy with playing time or unkept promises by the end of season, they usually let it go after a while if team is winning and they are happy.
Other important things that happened include the injury of my main goalkeeper for nine months, with a broken leg. My reserve goalkeeper is not that great so I might need to hire a new player just in case. Transfer window is now open and I have around 60k free annual wage budget, so I might try to find some good free player to improve the team.
Now at 36 of 46 matches in the league. Title is already won, it's just a matter of time. Unfortunatelly, I got kicked out from FA Cup, but I'm in the semi-finals of Papa's John Cup. Since I survived long enough in the cups, finances are going really well, and the board allowed me to improve youth facilities, recruitment, coaching and to hire one extra physio (with 17 in physio). Unfortunatelly, they keep denying me training facilities, so I hope they propose it themselves once we get promoted.
I have decided to keep the same squad without hiring anyone new. To be fair, I just got lazy to scout new players and do trials. When you are in the lower leagues, it's just better to use trials instead, 30 players at a time. Next season I will probably start using scouts to help revealing player attributes, but right now it's too inefficient.
Now, I'm gonna finish my experiments with Blue with W-Su > DW-Su, since I often change tackle harder to ease off tackles when my players get a yellow card. That is not possible for DW-Su, so I'm testing all flank roles to see which one does better (including mezzala and carillero), and W-Su is currently doing the best.
I'm also considering if I should use FM Genie Scout to test the filters, or if I should avoid it so I keep being in the blind for hidden attributes. I prefer being in the blind so I focus more on the current match, because when I see players hidden attributes I often play thinking too much about the next seasons.
End of season and we are the champions! It was an extremely easy season on the league, as well as Papa's John Cup (U23 weren't as strong as I feared). Considering how well my team did against opponents of League One, I think next season will be as easy as this one.
Nothing very special happened in the past ten matches. I got 9 days between matches and was able to give vacation to most players before the final of Papa's John Cup, and also got enough time to train preparation for all set pieces.
My wage budget for next season is €1.5M (per year), or triple of current. That means I can finally hire more scouts and buy from other teams, instead of relying only on free transfers. My goal for next season is to be promoted and maybe upgrade my training facilities, since board keep refusing it time and time again.
ZaZ said: Gonna play a journey from lowest division in England to Champions League. Results will be posted here after each five or so games. The team chosen was Concord, from Vanarama South. I chose that one because of the poor facilities, low odds in the league and cool colors (vanity reasons). Tactics used will be Blue and Light Blue (https://fm-arena.com/thread/2073-zaz-blue-3-0).
For this season, I expect to be promoted in the first year, since the lower leagues are usually very easy. Media prediction was 17th. I hired three players for the first season: Zak Brown, Jordan Aina and Alfie Matthews. All deadwood was loaned out or sold to improve finances, leaving only eleven players in the squad (usually it's fine to use gray players in this kind of league).
After the first five matches, here are the stats, including finances, facilities, squad and player in best recent form. Got two ties after matches with little time to rest, but things should get back to victories now.
As always, one of my goals is to make sure my finances are positive before hiring anyone. I also plan to improve my facilities and becoming professional in the next couple of years. Let me know what you think! Expand
Can you please send the tactics you use again? The one in the link does not open
He plays with ZaZ - Blue DM but you can take any top tactic from the table that suites better your team and have a great success in the lower leagues. Expand
Thanks! As long as you have one of the top tactics and a fast team (high pace and acceleration), you will dominate the lower leagues. If I remember well, it only becomes trouble at Sky Bet Championship and Premier League (TV money gap is too big).
Following that route you will be fine and keep going back to back until you hit prem where you will end top 8. Those stats , perfect morale and a good transfer policy will get you there. Only reason it takes many YouTubers longer is that they play their own tactic or don’t bother wasting streaming time with upping the morale to max before every match possible
I'm currently scouting and doing trials for new signings. I plan to hire around five new players to next season.
After season was over, a few notable things happened. First, I got almost 500k from participation in League Two and FA Cup, then the board finally accepted to upgrade training facilities (it costed 889k). My players are also being heavily sought in the market, and even though I'm denying most of the offers, they managed to buy my central defender for 200k + loan back + options. I had no choice, director though offer was too good and accepted on his own, though I would probably accept it too. As a reminder, he came for free during last season. (P.S.: Right after that, Norwich offered 500k for him. He might be the next Beckembauer, but I can't say no to a whole year of wages to my players.)
ta2199 said: How can you do trial signing ? I do it but can't registered them Expand
I do trials just to reveal attributes, it's faster than using scouts. When players are 100% revealed, I release the bad ones and invite more trialists, until I have a good pool to choose from.
In upper leagues, I use scouts more. First I ask agent for availability and if cost is ok, I ask for a scout card. Those that have potential in the scout card (which reveals a bit of attributes) I ask to scout for a week, or a bit more if scouting is not revealing the attributes that really matter.
League One just started! Five matches on the season and I can't call it a good start. I believe things will get better later, but right now I'm just eighth, eight points behind automatic promotion zone (my goal). My team is obviously predicted last again, and I also added a picture of sponsorship to show how big the financial gap is.
I only managed to hire three players this window, being a DM, a DR and a MR. I lost lots of time trying to get a good MR, but every time I offered contract for some player, some bigger teams imediately started showing interest, stealing the player from me. Because of those players, my annual wage budget increased from ~650k to 950k, including some contract renewals.
If anyone is curious on how I get rid of players easily, I just keep offering them to other clubs. First I put no asking price, then I set a value and go down little by little until someone shows interest, even if it has to reach zero. When it reaches zero, I also offer the player for loans for anyone willing to pay his wage. No need to keep deadwood around when finances are weak.
Talking about finances, facilities are now slightly better than when it started, and training facilities are in the way to complete.
Below are the usual competitions screen, schedule, squad, player in best form, as well as finances, facilities, media odds and sponsorship.
P.S.: Forgot to say the board got Crystal Palace to be feeders of my team, meaning they pay us around 50k a year and we can get loans for free. Too bad all players that I asked on loan either rejected to play on lower league or got some offer from another team and decided to go there instead.
After fifteen matches in the league, I'm finally in the lead. I'm also progressing well in the cups, and I would like to talk about my last match in Carabao Cup against Manchester City. Right before the match, their manager did what no manager should ever do: he called us an easy opponent. Never be that guy, be it on a game or on real life. As a result, his team got complacent and they got their ass kicked 4-0 against my second team. I don't like Carabao Cup, but it felt good to thrash one of the strongest teams in the game.
Twenty matches update. Nothing really special other than losing points against the last place in league. Other than that, the board agreed with me to upgrade youth facilities again. It costed 775k.
P.S.: The "Rst" symbol in my players mean they are being rested after the match, not that they have fatigue.
Twenty five matches, everything running well. Maybe too well in the Carabao Cup, which I usually prefer being kicked out early because it doesn't pay well and is just useful for clogging my schedule.
Thirty five matches now, I should get promoted in the next few games. I was kicked from Carabao by Tottenham, but got over a million euros in gate receipts. Also got kicked from FA Cup by a team from my league, probably my fault for letting players get complacent. Other than that, the season is going reasonably well and I should always remember my main goals were to be promoted and to get enough rewards to upgrade my facilities (which I got).
About facilities, I have upgraded youth recruitment and junior coach yet again, as well as youth and training facilities. Finances are good and I should get some good participation money by the end of season. If I'm lucky enough, I can get perfect youth setup before reaching premier league.
P.S.: Almost forgot to say, but they bought my defender by release clause and gave me back on loan to the end of season. Nothing I could do there, I usually remove release clauses from contract, but sometimes players force them and you just need to accept.
Just closing the season. We got promoted this year and won Papa's John Cup again. My goals for next season is to be promoted to Premier League, which won't be so easy since Sky Bet Championship is way harder than previous divisions. Since some teams come from Premier League, they arrive with better squad and way more money than everyone else, so I need to build a squad to at least reach play offs.
zagor said: @ZaZ Have you ever tried the formation of 2 shadow forwards and 1 target man in low reputation and bad teams? The target man's strength and physique can be overused. It just occurred to me as an idea and I wanted to get your opinion.
Like that - I'm really curious about this . I'll test it
I tried that with AF already and results were slightly inferior, but not much. I didn't try with TM, but I also didn't see any tactic with TM that performs better than the same tactic with AF instead.
ZaZ said: By the way, from these two seasons with Concord Rangers I figured some tips to improve the tactic. Basically, I noticed there are too many people by the edge of opponent's area, by the middle. Everyone goes up, including RPM, IWBs and even BPDs. What I'm trying now is to bring SS back to CM-At so he can help a bit more in defense, while trying to tweak wingers so they stretch more the field. I'm still experimenting around, but results seem promising.
I did try added "Roam from position" to SS. And the result seem pretty good, now I experimenting the same thing apply to 2 AF
Six matches into Sky Bet League Two (so I can skip ten at a time until fourty six matches of the season). My team is again predicted last by a large margin, but promotion should be easier since there are three direct promotions plus one in play offs (lower divisions have one direct plus one in play offs).
I have hired 8 new players, upgraded contract of 14 from last season to full time and sold (loaned out) everyone else. The new squad of 22 players has an annual cost of 586k euros, from ~360k from past season.
Season has been rather good this year. Other than pre-season cash grabbers, I have won all official matches. I'm rotating a lot, with second team playing Carabao Cup and Papa's John Trophy while main team focuses on the league. My initial goal is to earn 282k euros to get a positive balance projection, then I want to use any leftovers to start upgrading my facilities (still everything in the worst quality).
Below are media odds, projection of finances, competitions, schedule, squad and player in best form. Let me know if you want to see the full profile of any player. Tyler Magloire is a beast in speed.
For most of the matches, do you skip them or choose to coach in person?
showmake said: For most of the matches, do you skip them or choose to coach in person?
I manage everything. I'm just playing the game normally and having fun.
Now at 26 matches into the league. I got kicked out of Carabao Cup, but still going on FA Cup and Papa's John Trophy. The league is also going well, maybe way easier than I thought it would be.
Because of the good results in the cups, my finances are finally in the blue, with 516k in balance and a projected balance of 268k for next year. I tried to ask for improvements for training grounds and youth set up a couple of times, but got denied twice already. Because of that, club structure is still the same as when we started, except stadium, since we loaned a bigger one because of league requirements.
During these past matches, I gave two weeks of holidays to my players, in two different occasions (when I got 8 days between matches). Two of my players are now regulars on their national teams, Liberia and Saint Kitts and Nevis (sorry if anyone lives there, but I didn't even know that country existed). I really dislike to have players in national teams, because you get no benefit from it, but I try to think like real life and just let them be happy there.
Some players are starting to complain about play time, so I changed all agreed playing time from main team to regular starter and all second team players to squad players. Half the squad complained, but since they were happy they just let the issue go when I talked to them (without the need of convincing them). Two players required me to promise to increase their play time, but I will just keep my plan and hope they get happy enough. Even when they get unhappy with playing time or unkept promises by the end of season, they usually let it go after a while if team is winning and they are happy.
Other important things that happened include the injury of my main goalkeeper for nine months, with a broken leg. My reserve goalkeeper is not that great so I might need to hire a new player just in case. Transfer window is now open and I have around 60k free annual wage budget, so I might try to find some good free player to improve the team.
Great stuff, @ZaZ!
Nikko said: Great stuff, @ZaZ!
Thanks!
Now at 36 of 46 matches in the league. Title is already won, it's just a matter of time. Unfortunatelly, I got kicked out from FA Cup, but I'm in the semi-finals of Papa's John Cup. Since I survived long enough in the cups, finances are going really well, and the board allowed me to improve youth facilities, recruitment, coaching and to hire one extra physio (with 17 in physio). Unfortunatelly, they keep denying me training facilities, so I hope they propose it themselves once we get promoted.
I have decided to keep the same squad without hiring anyone new. To be fair, I just got lazy to scout new players and do trials. When you are in the lower leagues, it's just better to use trials instead, 30 players at a time. Next season I will probably start using scouts to help revealing player attributes, but right now it's too inefficient.
Now, I'm gonna finish my experiments with Blue with W-Su > DW-Su, since I often change tackle harder to ease off tackles when my players get a yellow card. That is not possible for DW-Su, so I'm testing all flank roles to see which one does better (including mezzala and carillero), and W-Su is currently doing the best.
I'm also considering if I should use FM Genie Scout to test the filters, or if I should avoid it so I keep being in the blind for hidden attributes. I prefer being in the blind so I focus more on the current match, because when I see players hidden attributes I often play thinking too much about the next seasons.
Anyway, I hope all of you have a great new year!
End of season and we are the champions! It was an extremely easy season on the league, as well as Papa's John Cup (U23 weren't as strong as I feared). Considering how well my team did against opponents of League One, I think next season will be as easy as this one.
Nothing very special happened in the past ten matches. I got 9 days between matches and was able to give vacation to most players before the final of Papa's John Cup, and also got enough time to train preparation for all set pieces.
My wage budget for next season is €1.5M (per year), or triple of current. That means I can finally hire more scouts and buy from other teams, instead of relying only on free transfers. My goal for next season is to be promoted and maybe upgrade my training facilities, since board keep refusing it time and time again.
are u playing with Blue or White?
(if I understand well it is with Blue -- Wingers S instead of DW(S) -- is it?
Edit: I'm trying to figure out with tactic i'll play next season (playing now with Blue).
treath said: are u playing with Blue or White?
(if I understand well it is with Blue -- Wingers S instead of DW(S) -- is it?
Edit: I'm trying to figure out with tactic i'll play next season (playing now with Blue).
No, just plain Blue 3.0 RPM, with DW.
ZaZ said: Gonna play a journey from lowest division in England to Champions League. Results will be posted here after each five or so games. The team chosen was Concord, from Vanarama South. I chose that one because of the poor facilities, low odds in the league and cool colors (vanity reasons). Tactics used will be Blue and Light Blue (https://fm-arena.com/thread/2073-zaz-blue-3-0).
For this season, I expect to be promoted in the first year, since the lower leagues are usually very easy. Media prediction was 17th. I hired three players for the first season: Zak Brown, Jordan Aina and Alfie Matthews. All deadwood was loaned out or sold to improve finances, leaving only eleven players in the squad (usually it's fine to use gray players in this kind of league).
After the first five matches, here are the stats, including finances, facilities, squad and player in best recent form. Got two ties after matches with little time to rest, but things should get back to victories now.
As always, one of my goals is to make sure my finances are positive before hiring anyone. I also plan to improve my facilities and becoming professional in the next couple of years. Let me know what you think!
Can you please send the tactics you use again? The one in the link does not open
Ole said: Can you please send the tactics you use again? The one in the link does not open
That thread was merged that's why you can't open. Try this - https://fm-arena.com/thread/1831-zaz-blue/
He plays with ZaZ - Blue DM but you can take any top tactic from the table that suites better your team and have a great success in the lower leagues.
Ole said: Can you please send the tactics you use again? The one in the link does not open
I have updated the link.
Rince said: That thread was merged that's why you can't open. Try this - https://fm-arena.com/thread/1831-zaz-blue/
He plays with ZaZ - Blue DM but you can take any top tactic from the table that suites better your team and have a great success in the lower leagues.
Thanks! As long as you have one of the top tactics and a fast team (high pace and acceleration), you will dominate the lower leagues. If I remember well, it only becomes trouble at Sky Bet Championship and Premier League (TV money gap is too big).
Following that route you will be fine and keep going back to back until you hit prem where you will end top 8.
Those stats , perfect morale and a good transfer policy will get you there.
Only reason it takes many YouTubers longer is that they play their own tactic or don’t bother wasting streaming time with upping the morale to max before every match possible
About the main attributes are speed and acceleration still the main ones for all positions like the blue fm 21?
Tavares82 said: About the main attributes are speed and acceleration still the main ones for all positions like the blue fm 21?
Check "Attributes Importance" at the first post pf Blue.
I'm currently scouting and doing trials for new signings. I plan to hire around five new players to next season.
After season was over, a few notable things happened. First, I got almost 500k from participation in League Two and FA Cup, then the board finally accepted to upgrade training facilities (it costed 889k). My players are also being heavily sought in the market, and even though I'm denying most of the offers, they managed to buy my central defender for 200k + loan back + options. I had no choice, director though offer was too good and accepted on his own, though I would probably accept it too. As a reminder, he came for free during last season. (P.S.: Right after that, Norwich offered 500k for him. He might be the next Beckembauer, but I can't say no to a whole year of wages to my players.)
How can you do trial signing ? I do it but can't registered them
ta2199 said: How can you do trial signing ? I do it but can't registered them
I do trials just to reveal attributes, it's faster than using scouts. When players are 100% revealed, I release the bad ones and invite more trialists, until I have a good pool to choose from.
In upper leagues, I use scouts more. First I ask agent for availability and if cost is ok, I ask for a scout card. Those that have potential in the scout card (which reveals a bit of attributes) I ask to scout for a week, or a bit more if scouting is not revealing the attributes that really matter.
League One just started! Five matches on the season and I can't call it a good start. I believe things will get better later, but right now I'm just eighth, eight points behind automatic promotion zone (my goal). My team is obviously predicted last again, and I also added a picture of sponsorship to show how big the financial gap is.
I only managed to hire three players this window, being a DM, a DR and a MR. I lost lots of time trying to get a good MR, but every time I offered contract for some player, some bigger teams imediately started showing interest, stealing the player from me. Because of those players, my annual wage budget increased from ~650k to 950k, including some contract renewals.
If anyone is curious on how I get rid of players easily, I just keep offering them to other clubs. First I put no asking price, then I set a value and go down little by little until someone shows interest, even if it has to reach zero. When it reaches zero, I also offer the player for loans for anyone willing to pay his wage. No need to keep deadwood around when finances are weak.
Talking about finances, facilities are now slightly better than when it started, and training facilities are in the way to complete.
Below are the usual competitions screen, schedule, squad, player in best form, as well as finances, facilities, media odds and sponsorship.
P.S.: Forgot to say the board got Crystal Palace to be feeders of my team, meaning they pay us around 50k a year and we can get loans for free. Too bad all players that I asked on loan either rejected to play on lower league or got some offer from another team and decided to go there instead.
After fifteen matches in the league, I'm finally in the lead. I'm also progressing well in the cups, and I would like to talk about my last match in Carabao Cup against Manchester City. Right before the match, their manager did what no manager should ever do: he called us an easy opponent. Never be that guy, be it on a game or on real life. As a result, his team got complacent and they got their ass kicked 4-0 against my second team. I don't like Carabao Cup, but it felt good to thrash one of the strongest teams in the game.
Twenty matches update. Nothing really special other than losing points against the last place in league. Other than that, the board agreed with me to upgrade youth facilities again. It costed 775k.
P.S.: The "Rst" symbol in my players mean they are being rested after the match, not that they have fatigue.
Twenty five matches, everything running well. Maybe too well in the Carabao Cup, which I usually prefer being kicked out early because it doesn't pay well and is just useful for clogging my schedule.
Great stuff
Bro can u share your squad view?
pixar said: Bro can u share your squad view?
There!
Thirty five matches now, I should get promoted in the next few games. I was kicked from Carabao by Tottenham, but got over a million euros in gate receipts. Also got kicked from FA Cup by a team from my league, probably my fault for letting players get complacent. Other than that, the season is going reasonably well and I should always remember my main goals were to be promoted and to get enough rewards to upgrade my facilities (which I got).
About facilities, I have upgraded youth recruitment and junior coach yet again, as well as youth and training facilities. Finances are good and I should get some good participation money by the end of season. If I'm lucky enough, I can get perfect youth setup before reaching premier league.
P.S.: Almost forgot to say, but they bought my defender by release clause and gave me back on loan to the end of season. Nothing I could do there, I usually remove release clauses from contract, but sometimes players force them and you just need to accept.
Just closing the season. We got promoted this year and won Papa's John Cup again. My goals for next season is to be promoted to Premier League, which won't be so easy since Sky Bet Championship is way harder than previous divisions. Since some teams come from Premier League, they arrive with better squad and way more money than everyone else, so I need to build a squad to at least reach play offs.
