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I like how all the player faces look they were made in Oblivion, especially Sam Edwards'.
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Nov 15, 2013 01:00
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Chapter the Fourth: Slouching towards Bethlehem to be born. July 26, 2013-August 15, 2013 It's two days from our first friendly, and we've actually added some players. None of them are a goalkeeper, and we've only got one defender, but it's a start.  The bookies have made us the favorite for the league crown despite only having 7 players signed. I'd like to imagine it's because they understand my greatness, but it's more likely because we have a ton of money to spend and our players so far are better than the semi-professionals who play at this level.  We've also held a trial day, hoping to find some players from the local area who can fill holes in the team. I didn't expect to find any of my starting 11 from this, but I've made offers to several players for depth and to fill our currently empty under-21 and under-18 teams. Some of them could turn out useful, and none of them were asking for much money. The scouts say that a couple of them could be with us all the way to the Championship if they develop.   Signing players is going poorly, as players who are good enough to earn their keep in better leagues need to be blown away by our offer This guy, for example, flat out refused a transfer after hearing my initial, generous, offer. The only thing that assuages me is that they'll be sorry when we're knifing through the ranks and they're still stuck as a backup in a backwater. I won't deny panicking over our lack of goalkeeper, either. We were shortly before our second to last friendly and still hadn't found a suitable keeper, so when one demanded a knock-me-down offer to get his interest I ended up giving him nearly £5,000/wk. I've paid players less when I was in the Premier League! It was not my finest hour. It's only a one year contract, but I still feel embarrassed.  My scouts continue to sift through the dross for players. For every 20 player's scouted there might be one worth looking at. You'll want to look at the scout report, where under the potential rating they'll tell you how good they think a player can get. As a lower league manager you should be looking for guys with the ability to grow into players that can hang in leagues a couple above the one you're at while being useful at your current level of play.  The purpose of these friendlies is for the team to get match fit. Match fitness is essentially how in shape a player is. Players who aren't in shape tire out more quickly and often can't go a full game without getting badly fatigued. As such, I've scheduled four friendlies against small teams to get our sea legs and let the players build up some rapport on the pitch. In this coming match we're 20-1 favorites against an opponent I picked just because their name is so quintessentially English.   All of our players need to improve their match fitness. Our striker pairing is Target Man Hester in support of Rosetti, our Advanced Forward. Duchamps is playing as an Advanced Playmaker, seeking to set up play for the strikers and Wide Midfielders, Mudd and Terry, while Gallagher plays more defensively as a Deep-Lying Playmaker. Our back line has two Fullbacks, Stamp and Edwards, on automatic duty, which means they're responsible for both attack and defense, while the Limited Defenders Milner and Stevens don't contribute much to attack and instead focus on keeping things tidy at back. Stevens isn't even a defender by trade, but we don't have anyone who can play the position signed yet so he'll just have to do his best.  The team didn't play as well as I would have liked, but sometimes you need to boost the morale more than you need berate sloppy play. This was the first game they'd ever played as a group and while the opposition was uninspiring they did a good job in the second half to take a 3-1 victory. The ratings you see are for halftime and fulltime. Ratings of 6.7-6.8 are about average. Ratings above 7 indicates playing well, while anything below a 6.5 indicates playing poorly. They're not the be all and end all of player evaluation, but they give a quick and dirty sense of how someone played. The team significantly improved after the half, which I'm going to credit to my inspiring halftime pep talk.  Now that we've got some players on the team, we can start assigning them individualized training. Your coaches can provide advice on what players should work on, but I prefer to set their focus to a specific role that I use in my style of play, so instead of various players working specifically on one attribute they work on one role. That way they'll become better fitted to my style, even if they weren't a perfect fit initially. That only goes so far, you're not going to turn a central defender into a winger, or a striker into a defensive midfielder, but it helps improve a range of skills that are most important to a position and tactical role. This naturally doesn't work as well with older players, part of my preference for young players is the chance to mold them as I deem fit.  I've been putting off the tactical side of things because it's one of the more complex parts of the game to explain, especially in this format. But it would be malpractice of me to not set the list of who takes free kicks and throw-ins, especially as some of our players would struggle to throw a soccer ball into a garbage bin from three feet away.  I've told the players to look for long throws, so that Edwards tries to use his world class Long Throws attribute to get the ball into the penalty area to create goals. Rosetti is by far and away our best free kick taker, and hopefully can steal a couple goals from dead ball situations. None of our players have a decent corner kick stat, so I've set them to aim for the near post because it's closer to them and they're less likely to screw it up.  I don't know who our captain and vice captain will be yet. The players with strong Determination and Leadership scores are very young, and beyond not wanting to put too much pressure on a teenage player several of them will be either backups or playing on the youth teams. Parrack could be an option, but he folds like a cheap suit when things get tough. Hopefully by the time the season starts we'll have slightly better options here. For now, though, we need to play the rest of our preseason.  We might be in real trouble. Or Football Manager might have finally fixed the way that the game determines player ratings and players no longer always end up around a 6.7-7 when they don't have a big mistake or score a goal. Either way, we lost two games that we should have won. The game against Rokycany, a Czech team, was never even close, we went down 3-0 before I could blink.  While we've wended our way through the preseason I've been signing players and trying to get everyone into playing shape, so at no point has our best 11 been on the field at the same time. But we're on the verge of the season opener against Brackley Town, a vibrant metropolis of 14,000 in the English Midlands, and I still don't have a good feel for this team yet. There's only one way to find out what these guys are made of, and that's to play the games. habeasdorkus fucked around with this message at 14:40 on Mar 19, 2014 |
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Nov 15, 2013 02:28
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Farecoal posted:I like how all the player faces look they were made in Oblivion, especially Sam Edwards'. Pretty sure that both Football Manager and Oblivion use FaceGen, so that'd be why! Don't quote me on this, though.
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Nov 15, 2013 02:28
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Really enjoying this, and echoing the fact that I appreciate the more explanatory nature of this LP.
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Nov 15, 2013 02:50
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Interlude: Meet the Lads! Your 2013-2014 Tackleford City FC Facebook! It's another exciting year here at the Fig Poll! New manager Scott Brown looks set to take the Lads back to glory! With a whole new squad and our owner chomping at the bit to bring home to bacon, we're ready to take the Skrill North division by storm! Follow it all in the Number One Magazine South of Leeds and North of Barnsely, the Football Monthly!  Sponsored by Percy Import-Export, whenever you need to get something somewhere, Percy's your man!  Alex Hester Position: Striker Age: 23 Coaches Quote: “Slower than molasses on a cold day.” Favorite Member of One Direction: Zane Malik  Ally McLaren Position: Central Defender Age: 24 Likes: Heading the ball. Dislikes: Kicking the ball.  Andrew Carr Position: Defensive Midfielder Age: 22 Last Police Interaction: ASBO for practicing tackles on old ladies.  Anth Hotte Position: Left Back Age: 32 Hobbies: Reading Sartre, wallowing in existential woe.  Billy Holsgrove Position: Left Winger Age: 24 Best Feature: “My hair, obviously.”  Bobby Oriogun Position: Striker Age: 19 Appellation: Bobby Flamboyant  Chris Burns Position: Central Defender Age: 19 Favorite Malcolm in the Middle Character: Dewey  Cyrus Rosetti Position: Striker Age: 21 Quote: “The minute my contract is up I am loving out of here.”  Dave Stamp Position: Midfielder Age: 21 Favorite show: Gilmore Girls How he bonded with Coach Brown: Watching Gilmore Girls, despairing over Rory's taste in men.  Dax Terry Position: Attacking Midfielder Age: 19 Plans after football: Waste Management.  Derek McLaughlin Position: Goalkeeper Age: 19 Best Feature: “Billy Holsgrove's hair, obviously.”  Jim McCarron Position: Right Winger Age: 31 Second Job: Babysitter  John Bradley Position: Goalkeeper Age: 21 His Normal Friday Night: “Putting on my eyeshadow and listening to My Chemical Romance. Those guys just get me!”  Josh Milner Position: Central Defender Age: 18 Wages: £180/wk Hair Care Expenses: £100/wk  Oliver Johnston Position: Defensive Midfielder Age: 33 Most embarrassing secret: “I thought they were calling me ginger because I was spicy!”  Orson Duchamps Position: Attacking Midfielder Age: 19 Biggest Fear: Falling satellites.  Paul Gallagher Position: Attacking Midfielder Age: 19 Quote: “Sometimes me and Tommy [Casey] pretend to be each other. It's a real larf, except when he banged my girlfriend.”  Sam Edwards Position: Fullback Age: 30 Claim to fame: First signing by new manager!  Sammy Oliver Position: Right Back Age: 18 On loan from parent club MK Dons.  Stefan Robinson Position: Striker Age: 17 Coaches Quote: “Holy poo poo, how did this kid sign with us?!”  Tommy Casey Position: Right Winger Age: 23 Voted Hottest In Class, 2008 Bonus! Stephan Robinson's Scouting report!  Those are very good technical and decent mental stats for a striker. Unfortunately, he's got very little by way of physical gifts. I expect him to play above his rating until we hit League One, though, simply because of how good he is technically and mentally compared to the competition. If he develops on the physical side, he'll be a great prospect, but my scouts say he won't ever be much more than a good League 2 player. As is he'll make a good strike partner for Rosetti, at least when he gets back from his current knee strain injury in six to eight weeks. Next update won't be for a week or so, probably. I'm off to see Ian McKellen and Sir Pat Stew on Broadway and then stalking them until they adopt me. habeasdorkus fucked around with this message at 17:22 on Nov 15, 2013 |
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Nov 15, 2013 17:11
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I'm now hoping you lose every game for having MK Dons as your parent club 
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Nov 15, 2013 17:14
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mfcrocker posted:I'm now hoping you lose every game for having MK Dons as your parent club I didn't have a choice! The board came back with one option, and overrode me when I chose not to recommend them.
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Nov 15, 2013 17:17
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This game has inspired me to pick up a game as Boston Utd (in FC2012 because I'm poor), and goddamn does it suck playing as a semi-professional team. Barely any practice time, shoestring budget, bad player pool and it's basically impossible to keep good match fitness.
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Nov 15, 2013 17:45
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Drone posted:This game has inspired me to pick up a game as Boston Utd (in FC2012 because I'm poor), and goddamn does it suck playing as a semi-professional team. Barely any practice time, shoestring budget, bad player pool and it's basically impossible to keep good match fitness. Ah, the life of the lower league team. Definitely way more satisfying turning them into European powerhouses though.
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Nov 15, 2013 22:34
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habeasdorkus posted:I didn't have a choice! The board came back with one option, and overrode me when I chose not to recommend them. It would appear that the board in Football Manager 2014 is like boards in real life: full of uncooperative assholes.
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Nov 15, 2013 23:40
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Chapter the Fifth: Undefeated! August 15, 2013-September 8, 2013 We've now played through the first five games of the season. Let's see how it went.  Before the season started, I fiddled with our tactics slightly. As you can see, we're not well versed in our tactics yet, and that could seriously cost us in the early going- especially as the squad also has to gel into a coherent team. This tends to be my biggest problem when I'm trying to raise my team to the top levels. I not only use young players that grow into their talent over the season through regular play but I also have a lot of player turnover. That results in early stumbles as the younger players adjust to a higher level of play if we've been promoted and the new arrivals get used to playing with my tactics and their teammates, and it's something every manager should be aware of when they're reshaping their team.  I've modified the 4-4-2 to focus on controlling the game, as we should have better players than our opponents in the league and at the very least be able to dominate home games. There's a concern that it will leave us open to counter attacks, as we're not a very fast team even for this level of play, but hopefully setting the centerbacks as Limited Defenders will keep them from pushing too far up the field and letting the opposition get behind them via long passes.  I've also added a second 4-4-2 variant that focuses on staying back and playing a counter-attacking game for when we face off against better teams in the FA Cup and the Non-League Trophy. It won't be that effective, our team has a distinct lack of pace, but it's better than trying to hold the ball and push a high line when we're up against a League 2 side whose players can keep us from controlling possession and methodically setting up our attacks. With that, we enter our first league match and see if I was right to be worried based upon our preseason performance. At Brackley Town, August 17, 2013 Skrill North   Take that. Brackley Town! We played well overall, and I'm very pleased with the 5 “clear cut chances” and 3 “half chance” goal opportunities we had. If we produce that many chances per game, we're going to score heaping bucketloads, and our stadium announcer will wear himself out screaming “GOL!” We were quite lucky to not concede a goal, however, and if that keeps up we're going to have to do something about the defense. Brackley Town 0-3 Tackleford City  John Bradley came down with a hernia, our third string GK is already out with a strained neck, so I'm spending £2,000 to bring in a 37 year old as a backup. Andy Morris Centerback   While looking for a backup backup goalkeeper, I also decided to be proactive and bought two young centerbacks. Colin Standing Centerback   Standing and Morris both have the potential to play at the Championship level if they develop, according to the scouts. They're also better than what we already had out there. If they play up to their attributes, our defense should give up a lot fewer chances. vs. North Ferriby, August 20, 2013 Skrill North   That was frustrating. We dominated the entire game and allowed just two shots on goal, but we still only came away with a draw. Nine times out of ten we win a game with those final possession and shot numbers. I told players they were unlucky and to keep their heads up, which perked the locker room up. Given that we're a young team I don't want to get too angry with them when they played pretty well. Tackleford City 2-2 North Ferriby  Between matches my rear end Man reminds me that I haven't held a staff meeting recently. Staff meetings involve coaches informing you about any problems a player might be having, any potentially useful players they might know about, and suggesting training regimens for the players. You're free to have a staff meeting as often as you want, I prefer to do it about once a month. I don't take their training advice often unless it involves preferred player moves, but they're useful at identifying potential tutoring relationships between older and younger players. At Harrogate, August 24, 2013 Skrill North   Okay, maybe I should have gotten angry with them. Not only did Harrogate score without getting even a single half-chance, Rosetti missed a penalty kick and we squandered 4 other chances. We've dominated the last two games and have all of 2 points to show for it. The silver lining is that we should be good enough to win the league once our luck evens out. Harrogate 1-1 Tackleford City  The team is still not looking confident with our tactics yet, despite having our match training set to maximum, but we are at least improving. I'm hoping by November they'll be comfortable enough that I can have them spend more time on general training and start having them do opponent-specific match training.  Our 37 year old backup goalie goes down. I'm starting to wonder if the team is cursed. Currently we have 4 goalkeepers in the organization, and 3 of them are hurt. You can see the option here for giving the keeper painkilling injections (cortisone shots) which will allow them to play through the injury. When you give a player an injection their condition will max out at 92% and their fitness will drop. The original injury will also take longer to heal if they're trying to play through the injury instead of getting treatment and not playing/training. There's also have a chance of aggravating the existing injury, and this risk increases the more games they play while receiving injections. I use the injections when I have either a lot of games in a short period of time, very important upcoming games, or when the initial injury isn't all that serious and the player will be back to full health in less than a month even if he keeps getting injections. Occasionally a player will refuse the shots, as they're concerned about hurting themselves further, in which case I usually tell them that they're a soccer player and I need them to play soccer. Depending on the player and how much they trust you they might get pissed off, but I say who cares about their inability to walk without pain when they're 50, I need them to win the next match against Dag and Red. vs. Stalybridge, August 31, 2013 Skrill North   We still can't win a game. At least this time we were the ones to come back and equalize after we fell behind. This time we were also evenly matched, Stalybridge actually had the better chances to score. Our next fixture will be without our best players, Rosetti and Duchamps. They're both members of their national Under-21 teams and will be away playing international matches. We're up against the team atop the table right now, Guiseley. If we win, we can move up as high as second place. Tackleford City 1-1 Stalybridge vs. Guiseley, September 7, 2013 Skrill North   More blown leads, another draw. Guiseley was down 2-0 at the half, and we simply failed to play defense. We hit back immediately after letting them tie it up to take a 3-2 lead, and I thought we'd finally win our second game, but even after I shifted to defensive tactics in an effort to protect the lead we gave up a late equalizer in the 87th minute. I was momentarily ecstatic when Oriogun scored in the 89th minute to put us up 4-3, but it was disallowed as he was offside. We also missed another penalty shot, making us zero for two this season. That's abysmal, and is the difference between our current position on the table and first place. Tackleford City 3-3 Guiseley  I excoriated the team afterward. I'd told them to stay focused and not get complacent after they'd played very well in the first half, they all seemed to be listening, and then they promptly went out and gave up 2 goals in 25 minutes. The players seemed suitably embarrassed and chastened by my vituperation, and I think they're as sick as I am of dominating the first half and then being outplayed in the second.  So it's a good news/bad news situation after five games. We've looked reliably dangerous on the attack, we've controlled possession almost every single time we've played, and we haven't lost a game. We've also given up several late goals and dropped a bunch of points that count just as much as the ones we earn when the promotion race heats up late in the season. The end result is that we're lying in 9th place at the moment, but we're only 4 points back from the top of the table. 
habeasdorkus fucked around with this message at 16:46 on Sep 26, 2014 |
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Nov 18, 2013 20:33
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Not bad. Could be much worse, but it could be much better. I'm not sure about anyone else, but if you have room at the end of updates, could you throw down a shot of the table?
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Nov 18, 2013 20:48
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rizzen posted:I'm not sure about anyone else, but if you have room at the end of updates, could you throw down a shot of the table? Ask and you shall receive!
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Nov 18, 2013 20:53
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habeasdorkus posted:Before the season started, I fiddled with our tactics slightly. As you can see, we're not well versed in our tactics yet, and that could seriously cost us in the early going- especially as the squad also has to gel into a coherent team. This tends to be my biggest problem when I'm trying to raise my team to the top levels. I not only use young players that grow into their talent over the season through regular play but I also have a lot of player turnover. That results in early stumbles, as the younger players adjust to a higher level of play if we've been promoted and the new arrivals get used to playing with my tactics and their teammates, and it's something every manager should be aware of when they're reshaping their team. Familiarity with your fellow teammates (in Portuguese, entrosamento, the "mesh" of the team) was widely regarded by legendary Brazilian manager João Saldanha as the single most important aspect of football. Saldanha is known for creating the Brazilian national team that would go on to win the 1970 World Cup and be considered the best team of all time*. In his newspaper column, Saldanha would often analyse match outcomes and predict team performances based solely on how well and for how long the players had been playing together, and he was pretty much always right. It's a perspective so many people have forgotten. It was weird seeing people think Brazil had any chance of winning the 2006 and 2010 World Cups when the players had been brought together for half-assed training like one month before the competition. Since 1966 we know this just doesn't work out, but it's scary the amount of people who are utterly convinced that a team made up of 11 excellent players that don't know each other at all is still an excellent football team. See: how people were stupefied that Ronaldinho didn't play all that well for Brazil in these World Cups – "but he plays so well in Barcelona, this doesn't make sense!" Of course it does, that's his team, goddammit. * the also legendary Mário Zagallo was the one who actually managed that team during the WC, but he took over just a couple of month before the competition after Saldanha left for political reasons. It's hard being an out-of-the-closet communist when your country is a dictatorship undergoing the equivalent of a McCarthyist regime.
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Nov 18, 2013 22:01
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Chapter the Sixth: Where are the superstars you promised us? September 8, 2013-October 6, 2013 At Solihull Moors, September 10, 2013 Skrill North .png) We went into this game as the underdogs on Ladbrookes, and if the punters had known how badly I botched my pregame talk the odds would have been even worse. Every single member of the starting 11 were “demotivated and confused” after I had initially told the team that if they played their game they'd win, and then told the defenders and midfield that I expected to see a good performance from them. The team went from relaxed and loose to agitated and discomfited in a heartbeat, and it was entirely my fault for not paying better attention to what I was saying.  After the first 30 minutes, I was sure we were headed to our first loss of the season. We'd come out tight, playing our counter tactic for the first time due to the opponent's use of an aggressive 4-3-3 with a lone striker atop 3 attacking midfielders. .png)  They missed an easy opportunity early, and we caught a huge break when the sideline judge disallowed a clearly onsides golazo by Solihull Moors in the 22nd minute. At that point I junked our counter-attacking style, and threw the team into attack. It paid dividends immediately, as we scored twice in the next ten minutes. Despite giving up a goal in the middle of the second half, we won 3-1, and we clearly had the better of the home team. Solihull Moors 1-3 Tackleford City  How hard is it to play in a 4-4-2, guys? C'mon! I want to start practicing set pieces! At Workington, September 14, 2013 Skrill North .png)  We play another away game at Workington, where we're narrow underdogs. They're in second right now, so it would behoove us to get some sort of result out of this match as our other match against them is in our stadium. Luckily, one of their midfielders is a miserable idiot and gets a straight red before 3 minutes have elapsed in the game, leaving them with only ten players for nearly the entire game. We can't break the game open in the first half, but by the final whistle we've won a resounding 6-1 victory, capped by a double brace by Rosetti. This has been by far and away our most impressive performance of the season. First round's on me, boys! Workington 1-6 Tackleford City  We had six players in the Team of the Week. First round's on me, boys! What do you mean you don't want to go drinking again? I don't understand this response!  Here's a situation where I will absolutely pump my employee full of corticosteroids. Johnston anchors our midfield, and he's played very well all season. The injury will only keep him out two weeks, so there's a good chance he can recover even while playing in each fixture. So Dr. Feelgood is called, and gives him a dose of the top shelf stuff. vs. Boston United, September 21, 2013 Skrill North .png)  Within the first six minutes of our next match we've gone down two goals. We fight our way back to a tie in the 50th minute, and take the lead in the 59th minute. Boston United doesn't let us enjoy our lead for long, less than two minutes later we're knotted at 3 each. We get several more chances, but can't force a winner. While I'm privately relieved that we recovered from a two goal deficit, I harangue the poo poo out of the team, telling them that it's absolutely unacceptable that we didn't win that match. The draw knocks us from second place back to fourth, which is still much better than we were doing at the start of this update. Tackleford City 3-3 Boston United  Welp, he's out for two weeks. We still get a game out of him that we wouldn't have had otherwise, and he doesn't miss any additional time. A data point in favor of medicating your players! At Goole, September 28. 2013 FA Cup 2nd Qualifying Round .png)  We got lucky against Goole. They mollywholloped us up and down the pitch for the entirety of the first half. This from a team in a league so far down the English football pyramid that it isn't even playable in the game! We recovered in the second half, though, and now we're onto the next qualifying round of the FA Cup. The board expects us to reach at least the first proper round of the tournament, so we're going to need a couple more victories to make them happy. .png) I walked into the postgame meeting with a dire look on my face, but when I cracked a grin the whole team lit up. Inside I was still seething that they made me sweat. My drinks are on you guys, assholes. Especially since I'm only earning £28,600 a year. Goole 1-3 Tackleford City  Our 37 year old keeper is no longer our 37 year old keeper. It cost us some money, but he would never get on the field now that we have a couple youth goalkeepers and if he got cranky about his lack of playing time he could poison the locker room. I couldn't have done this if I hadn't gifted us a billionaire owner when setting up the game, we'd be too cash poor. But since I did, I might as well take advantage of it. Relatedly, I love the phrase “surplus to requirements.” Such a nice way of telling someone they're useless.  The first coach gets sacked. Mark Bates was too good for you, North Ferriby! You'll see this pretty regularly, and once you have some accomplishments under your belt you'll find yourself being headhunted by larger teams who want you to bring your mojo to their team.  Finally! I highlighted this guy in one of the first updates, he's the incredibly technically proficient striker who's slower than light in a Bose-Einstein condensate. I'm hoping he gives us a good partner for Rosetti, Hester has been very good so far but he's missed some easy chances and having a squad where you have multiple options not only inures you to injuries but also fatigue over a long season. At Oxford City, October 1, 2013 Skrill North .png)  Oxford City is already looking like nailed on relegation bait. We handled them confidently, our victory was sealed by Robinson converting our first penalty of the season. We're in a fine run of form, the key now is to not let it go to the players heads. Oxford City 0-2 Tackleford City vs. Barrow, October 5, 2013 Skrill North .png)  We missed another penalty, but by the end of the first half one of Barrow's defenders had been sent off for his second yellow card. We take the lead less than two minutes after the restart, and pick up a second goal in the 73rd minute on Oriogun's first of the season. Another two goals see us to a 4-0 victory. Barrow couldn't even manage a single shot. Tackleford City 4-0 Barrow  Things are looking up, it's early October and we're 4-0-1 in our last five league games. The board is content with our performance despite their disappointment that we've failed to sign anything even approaching a star. I think we'll be able to make a strong push for promotion. I'm going to aim for a decent run in the FA Cup, I think we have a deep enough team to make some noise until we get matched up against a League One or better side. 
habeasdorkus fucked around with this message at 15:26 on Mar 19, 2014 |
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Nov 19, 2013 07:18
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Howay the lads!
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Nov 19, 2013 11:10
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I don't think I've ever once used injections on a player. I guess it's different if you're LLMing and don't have a solid backup, though.
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Nov 19, 2013 13:50
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With the way things are going you'll get that promotion despite the lack of high-profile signings. It doesn't matter if you can't get Beckham when you are winning the FIFA cup anyway.
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Nov 19, 2013 15:06
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KDavisJr posted:With the way things are going you'll get that promotion despite the lack of high-profile signings. It doesn't matter if you can't get Beckham when you are winning the FIFA cup anyway. Yeah. My contract is up at the end of the year, though. Hopefully I can get the philosophy changed when they want to renew me. If not, it'll leave me much more precariously positioned until we reach League One or the Championship and I can start signing old, broken down stars who are looking for one last paycheck before retirement. I'm kind of glad for it, though. I'm probably going to edit the team's finances at the end of this season, I just have way too much money and it's making the game too easy. sebzilla posted:I don't think I've ever once used injections on a player. I guess it's different if you're LLMing and don't have a solid backup, though. I think the risk of additional injury is overstated, personally. And if you have a player who's significantly better than their backup then him playing at 92% is going to help more than it's going to hurt.
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Nov 19, 2013 17:27
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In order to fill the "marquee signings" hole, you should have given ol' Calamity James a call when you had your rash of GK injuries
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Nov 20, 2013 04:54
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Chapter the Seventh: Trouble in paradise. October 6, 2013-November 21, 2013 At Bedford, October 12, 2013 FA Cup 3rd Qualifying Round .png)  Our next FA Cup match is in mid October against minnows Bedford. We are wretched out of the gate, falling behind after only five minutes. The final line is 2-1 in our favor, but the team seems surprised and upset when I tell them that they'll need to be much better if they hope to win against better teams. Bedford 1-2 Tackleford City  One of the players, Chris Burns, has the gall to go to the press and complain about my post-game admonitions. Upon reading his quotes in the local fish-wrapper, I summon him to my office.  gently caress off, grasshopper. You seem to believe I am merely your manager. You are wrong. I am your God, sent here to mold you in My image, and you will obey My commands. I send him down to the U18 team, which he is ineligible to play for, as it's the only way I can approximate refusing to let him practice or play. He can cool off there for a few weeks as punishment. No one flouts my authority, especially not some upjumped little poo poo who's lucky to be on a Skrill North team. At Leamington, October 19, 2013 Skrill North  We enter halftime down one to nil, being stymied offensively for most of the first half. We get back to even with a goal on a corner just after halftime, and at the conclusion of an exciting second half, we take a 4-2 victory home with us. Leamington 2-4 Tackleford City At Hednesford, October 22, 2013 Skrill North .png)  A nice and relaxing victory. We were up 3-0 before they could score. Hednesford 1-3 Tackleford City At Nuneaton, October 26, 2013 FA Cup 4th Qualifying Round .png)  We play a higher division team for the first time in Nuneaton, who make their home in the league we hope to be promoted into, and we're also on their home turf. Sam Edwards shows us how useful a 19 in Long Throws is when he wins us our first two goals through tosses deep in the opposition third that our centerback Ally McLaren ably heads into the back of the net. Nuneaton is able to claw one back early in the second, and I move us to a counter-attacking posture as we've been unable to control the ball or create opportunities outside of our throw-ins. Then disaster strikes. Duchamps gets a second yellow card in the 54th minute, leaving us down a man with over half an hour left to play. They equalize fifteen minutes later, and it's all we can do to hang on for a draw. We'll have to play Nuneaton again, but next time it'll be on our turf. Nuneaton 2-2 Tackleford City  When players get themselves ejected from the match, you can discipline them. In this case, as it was Duchamps first ejection and was for two yellow cards as opposed to a straight red, I give him a warning. If it happens again I'm fining him a weeks salary. Players will generally learn from discipline, but if you are too harsh they'll feel mistreated and if you're too lenient they'll continue to rack up yellow and red cards. They may also react badly if they have a low “professionalism” hidden stat, in which case unless they're great you might be better off ridding the team of them as there's no cure for being a jackass.  Fans are displeased at how Dave Stamp has been performing. It's not really fair, he's a central midfielder who's been playing right back due to the team's needs, but he's been downright bad the last two games and has the second lowest average rating on the team. It's time to try and do something about that.  I bring him into my office to tell him that I've noticed his poor play and that he should try to pick himself up and play better. Private chats with players are useful to buck them up when they're in a poor run of form, or to let them know that I'm pleased when they're playing well. It's not an essential part of the game, but done right it makes the players like you more and that improves your chances of getting them to perform well as they'll have more faith in you and your ability to manage the locker room. vs. Nuneaton. October 30, 2013 FA Cup 4th Qualifying Round Replay  Oh the difference four days and home field advantage makes. We were in control of the game for the entire match, and were unlucky to come away with only a 2-1 victory. Our next cup match is in the first round proper of the FA Cup against Ebbsfleet, a Skrill South side. We should be able to beat them, at which point the luck of the draw is what will determine how far we'll go. If we get lucky and are matched up against fellow minnows, we can advance deeper and deeper into the late stages. If we get unlucky, or advance far enough, and get matched against a Premier League squad we're completely boned. Tackleford City 2-1 Nuneaton vs. Harrogate Railway, November 2, 2013 FA Trophy 3rd Qualifying Round .png)  The FA Trophy is the non-League version of the League Cup. It's open to those teams outside of the top 4 divisions of English soccer, and it's the only hardware outside of winning our league that we can dream of taking home. Except that I play a team with a lot of our U21 players to give our first team a rest, and we fall to our first loss since August in a thuggish game that saw a combined 30 fouls and 9 yellow cards. The FA Trophy isn't much of a prize, but it's still silverware, and the whole point of this LP is to amass a collection of cups and trophies large enough to smelt into a throne. Tackleford City 1-2 Harrogate Railway vs. Ebbsfleet, November 9, 2013 FA Cup 1st Round .png)  Another loss, and now we're out of both cup competitions. This one was especially frustrating as we had more chances than Ebbsfleet and simply couldn't convert them, and we were playing our best lineup besides. Still, the thing that really matters this year is winning promotion. We remain on pace to do that, and if we have to lose games it's best that they're in the cup competitions when we need every last point we can get in the league. Tackleford City 1-2 Ebbsfleet vs. Altrincham, November 12, 2013 Skrill North .png)  We draw against the team currently in first place. Coming out with a tie against the best team in the league wouldn't seem like a bad outcome, but they scored the tying goal at the very death of the game, three minutes into stoppage time, to cost us a victory. The last few games has seen us return to our old habit of giving up late goals, and we're lucky that it's only cost us in cup matches. Tackleford City 2-2 Altrincham At Bradford PA, November 16, 2013 Skrill North .png)  A solid 1-0 victory where, other than a short period in the second half, our opponents are unable to string together any attacking moves. I'm unconcerned about our only score coming from an own-goal by a Bradford player, as we should have scored several times had we any luck. Bradford PA 0-1 Tackleford City  This is what happens when you get Americans into soccer, all they want to do is increase the amount of scoring. Also, despite all my kvetching about giving away leads, we've conceded the fewest goals in the league. That results in us having the second best goal differential amongst all teams, behind Altrincham. vs. Vauxhall, November 20, 2013 Skrill North .png)  Another 1-0 win, with the decisive strike coming on a brilliant 25 meter free kick by Duchamps. Even Chris Burns, the insubordinate and churlish twerp I banished to the U18 squad for two weeks at the start of this update, has his morale raised from “Abysmal” to “Fairly Poor” by the end of this game. Tackleford City 1-0 Vauxhall  We've moved into second place, tied in points but ahead on goal differential with Stalybridge. Altrincham is five points ahead of us, but we have a game in hand, so a win would see us to merely two points from the league lead and an automatic promotion spot. It's November 21, 2013, and we're the only undefeated team left in the Skrill North. I'm taking bets on when we'll finally lose a league game, and I want to set the over/under after New Years. 
habeasdorkus fucked around with this message at 17:24 on Mar 19, 2014 |
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Nov 22, 2013 03:13
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Nice. 5 points off the top with a game to play and pretty safely in for promotion playoffs if nothing else. Still undefeated in the league as well. lovely deal about the cups, though. I've always found it pretty fun to see just how far I can take my lovely Fucknowhere FC into the national cups while they're still down in the gutters of the pyramid.
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Nov 22, 2013 13:18
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Going under on that one. It's got to happen eventually, and if my forays into the genre tell me anything, it's that the game loves to throw a "gently caress you" game in there sooner than later. Also, I completely misread the message about the team scoring a lot of goals - I thought you were getting fired because fans were so angry about your performance they ended up destroying goals, which confused me quite a bit.
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Nov 22, 2013 13:35
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Man, gently caress Chris Burns. Fire his dumb rear end.
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Nov 22, 2013 14:15
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rizzen posted:Nice. 5 points off the top with a game to play and pretty safely in for promotion playoffs if nothing else. Still undefeated in the league as well. lovely deal about the cups, though. I've always found it pretty fun to see just how far I can take my lovely Fucknowhere FC into the national cups while they're still down in the gutters of the pyramid. Yeah, I agree. The silver lining is that now we have a lot fewer matches to play, which should help keep our very young team from getting too worn out as the season proceeds- having to play a lot of cup games where you have to field your best players every single time to have a chance at winning will get your staff jaded pretty quick. TheMcD posted:Going under on that one. It's got to happen eventually, and if my forays into the genre tell me anything, it's that the game loves to throw a "gently caress you" game in there sooner than later. That's what the Harrogate Railway game was. And the Altrincham game. I think in some ways it's even worse than games like FIFA or Madden where you at least actively control the players and can try to make something happen- you're stuck on the sidelines watching your players gently caress up. Of course, then there are games you have no business winning where you come back for an epic victory- I had one in the second match of the Europa League semifinals where we came back from down 3-1 on aggregate to win in the final 20 minutes, and my reaction was exactly like that of Club America's coach:  quote:Man, gently caress Chris Burns. Fire his dumb rear end. As for Burns, I'm disappointed that they removed the option to react aggressively to them. In past versions I would have been yelling so loud that the rest of the team could hear me from all the way out on the training pitch. He's still unhappy, but our defense has been the most disappointing part of the team and he's played well enough to deserve a second chance. Next update will run to the start of the transfer window on January 1st, and then I'll give an update on the team's performance so far and ask y'all what you think we need. Also, if there's anything I can do to make the LP easier to read/digest, or anything you want to see, let me know. This is still a work in progress, and is my first LP, so I'm still adding bits and pieces (like listing who we're playing before each match). habeasdorkus fucked around with this message at 14:43 on Nov 22, 2013 |
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Nov 22, 2013 14:32
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Chapter the Eighth: Slip and slide. November 21, 2013-December 31, 2013  Our field is in bad shape, a result of playing in an unrenovated century old stadium. This makes it harder for players to find their footing, affecting their ability to play certain ways, and increases the chance of injury.  The board agrees to relay the field, but they won't be doing so until next June. We'll be forced to muddle through the Tackleford Marsh until then. At Stockport, November 23, 2013 Skrill North  Anth Hotte gets clattered in the 19th minute and has to come out. We don't have anyone who can play left back on the bench, so someone is going to have to be out of position for the majority of the game. Callum Woods has a rating of “unconvincing” there, which is still better than any other substitute. I had forgotten how irritating having only 5 bench spots was, once we get to League Two we'll have 7 and we won't have to worry about injuries forcing us to play people out of position. Ally McLaren continues his run of goalscoring with his third of the season on a corner in the 26th minute, but at halftime things are level. Only 30 seconds into the second half, though, Andrew Carr earns his second yellow card and sent off. Giving up hope at winning the game, I park the bus and we escape with a draw. We remain in second place, but are now 4 back of Altrincham. Stockport 1-1 Tackleford City  One of our Under-21 players asks to speak with me, specifically about letting him out on loan to another club. Our training facilities and especially coaches are light-years ahead of whatever team would take him, so I refuse. He whinges. Tough poo poo, kid.  Players will want to slack off on their training if they have certain stats that indicate laziness or if you've simply scheduled a fuckton of training to do. When that happens it's good to check if they're just being a git and either adjust the amount of training they're doing or tell them personally to step it up. vs. AFC Telford, November 30, 2013 Skrill North .png)  Colin Standing has a Jekyll and Hyde start to the match, scoring on another perfect throw-in by Edwards in the 4th minute but also picking up his fifth yellow card of the season ten minutes later. Earning five yellow cards before January means that he'll be suspended for the next game. Edwards later closes the scoring with a goal of his own off a corner in the second half, and all four of our goals come from defensive minded players. It's the first game all year where the entire team has played well, rather than having some players give sub-par performances while their teammates carry the side to victory. No one finishes with a rating below 7, and Sam Edwards wins Player of the Match with a 9.1 rating. Tackleford City 4-0 AFC Telford  Edwards has been nothing short of excellent this year. He's been everything you could want offensively in a fullback, while not making too many mistakes on defense. His throw-ins have been remarkable. I've never scored goals from them as often as I am this season, a fact I attribute both to Edward's world-class talent in that area and the fact that defenders in this league couldn't mark even if you taped them to their man.  Despite having an undefeated team, I've never won the Coach of the Month award. I've only been near the top of the ballot once, coming in 3rd for October. It's because I'm American, isn't it? You Brits just can't stand that not only did we surpass you to become the most important country in the world, but we're going to become better at soccer, huh?  The Ballon d'Or award shortlist is announced. This is what  Here's next years modifications to the tax brackets in England! Didn't I tell you this was the best spreadsheet simulator ever? I love this game.  I wonder how far down the pitch quality can go? “Horrible?” “Abominable?” “Peat Bog?” vs. Gainsborough, December 3, 2012 Skrill North .png)  Alex Hester bags a brace, and Rosetti finally finds the net again after going 480 minutes since his last goal. Rosetti adds two assists to his total, and it looks like he's finally snapped out of his bad run of form. Tackleford City 3-1 Gainsborough  It's always nice to set records.  Christiano Ronaldo has become Ricardo Lobo. I am going to send his agents an email with this screenshot telling them that he should change his name in real life. He'd go from primadonna to EL LOBO in an instant!  The World Cup draw for 2014 occurs, and both England and the USA have chances to get to the knockout stage. England has the easier group, playing against Italy, Peru, and Costa Rica, while the USA faces Uruguay, Russia, and Ghana. America will obviously be knocked out by Ghana for the third straight World Cup, while England will advance to the quarterfinals where they will lose on penalty kicks. There actually doesn't seem to be a group of death, though anyone could come out of Group G, which contains Mexico, Holland, Egypt, and Bosnia. If the USA gets that group in the real draw happening in two weeks I'll be pretty happy, it's not the nightmare Brazil, USA, France, Italy draw that this simulation website gave me.   I sent my best scout to watch Neil Smith for 3 matches last month, so I could get the most complete scout report possible. Smith is transfer listed at Bradford, and he can be had for a bargain price of zero pounds, so I pick him up. He's a good defensive midfielder and will rotate with Johnston, who has proven that he's both injury prone and doesn't have enough stamina to play multiple games a week. He arrives immediately, as we're not bound by the transfer windows that the upper divisions are.  Worcester is still in the FA Trophy hunt, so a game that was originally scheduled between us for December 10th has now been moved twice. When we play Gloucester on the 21st, it will have been close to three weeks since our last match. To keep match fitness up, I have the first team play the reserves.  This turns out to have been an unwise decision, as Hester is now out until mid-April and had been a vital part of our offense.  Just let me play another game, damnit!  Great. We now have 3 games in a single week, after going over three weeks without a single game. This is some serious bullshit, schedulers. You wouldn't do this to Sir Alex Ferguson. Well, you would, but he'd call it bullroar too, and he had a much bigger microphone than the phone number of one dude at the Non-League Paper. vs. Colwyn Bay, December 26, 2013 Skrill North   Happy Boxing Day everyone! Say hello to that old humbug Ebenezer Scrooge. Tackleford City FC gives its fans the gift of a solid victory. Bobby Oriogun fills in capably for the injured Hester, collecting a brace of goals, while the victory is marred only by a penalty given to Colwyn Bay after we were already up 2-0. Tackleford City 3-1 Colwyn Bay vs. Brackley Town, December 28, 2013 Skrill North .png)  This match is a tough ask for us. I don't want to use many of our first team players because of fatigue after the last game, but at the same time I'm concerned that it leaves us with a very weakened squad. As such, I modify our tactics so that we don't push quite as high up the field and play slightly more defensively. The changes work like a charm, and we win 3-0 for the second time against Brackley. Neil Smith seals the game in the second half with a goal in his debut, and half of the opposition's shots came from long range, indicating that we were able to prevent them from getting good looks inside our penalty area. Tackleford City 3-0 Brackley  Well, so much for worrying about playing 3 games in 6 days. It's New Years Eve, and we're going to party like it's almost 2014!  I worried about the effects of a long layoff in the middle of December, but I clearly shouldn't have been. The team played just as well at the end of the month as they had been before the impromptu break. We're still 8 points back of Altrincham, who've been even hotter than us, but we have played two fewer games so if we win out we'll only be 2 points off their lead. We still have a game against them in mid-March, which could be Lower League Gotterdammerung if we're still neck and neck at the top of the table. 
habeasdorkus fucked around with this message at 17:36 on Mar 19, 2014 |
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Nov 22, 2013 19:36
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Why didn't you post the superior ssj version of this gif? C'mon dude And even in virtual fantasy land, USA still cant shake Ghana. 
Nissin Cup Nudist fucked around with this message at 05:32 on Nov 23, 2013 |
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Nov 23, 2013 05:29
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I'm actually hoping we get grouped with Ghana again, we've developed a neat little rivalry with them. And our team now is better than '06 and '10. My internet has gone out, so unless I get crafty and transfer the screen shots and text to my phone, no update this weekend.
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Nov 23, 2013 16:49
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Interlude: Midwinter Night's Dream. Everything's going as well as could be hoped. We're undefeated through our first half year, and solidly in contention for promotion. We've only had one major injury so far, and the team seems to have gelled into a cohesive unit. That doesn't mean we can rest on our laurels, though. It's all about constant improvement if we want to become the very best, and if we want to gain promotion into the Football League next season.  These are the contracts that end in six months. Teams from other nations can sign players on a pre-contract six months prior to the end of the contract, so for example an Irish team could sign any of these guys to a pre-contract starting January 1st. Teams from England can only sign players from other English teams one month before their contract runs out, meaning we don't have to worry about anyone in our league or above it coming after our talent. We need to decide who we're going to offer a new contract to and who we're going to let go. We've also got coaches whose contracts will be up.  Here's the team, ranked by the players average rating. Rosetti is naturally our best attacker, but Hester is right up there with him, which means we're missing our best striker tandem for most of the rest of the season. Oriogun has been OK, but Robinson has been downright disappointing. Our best midfielders have been our captain McCarron and Billy Holsgrove, both of whom usually play outside positions. Duchamps and Johnston are our advance playmaker/ball winning midfielder tandem, and they've acquitted themselves well. Duchamps is completing nearly 90% of his passes, which is exactly what we need him to do. Ally McLaren is our best rated defender thus far, largely because he's got a great nose for goal. Stamp, Robinson, and Standing have all been disappointing thus far.  You can see why our defenders have lower ratings than our attackers and midfielders in this heat-map of our match against Colwyn Bay. It's in part because we play a high line where the defense is playing relatively close to midfield. Also, in looking at this I just realized I had my defensive minded midfielder dropping back into the same area my covering defender comes up towards (#6 and #4). The covering defender should be behind the offensive midfielder so that the players don't get too bunched together on the pitch. Whoops.  The result of playing higher up the pitch with a possession game is constant pressure upon our opponents that leads to a lot of shots, but leaves us susceptible to an opposing player getting behind our defense and catch us out of position on counter-attacks. We're essentially playing Lower League Tiki-Taka.  Our U21 and U18 players. Many of them have and will play for the First Team at some point this year but the stats shown are their performances in the U21 and U18 leagues. Silver stars indicate their rating for the youth team, and are obviously worse than gold stars because Football Manager opposes bimetallism.  This is an abbreviated depth chart for the team. As you can see, there are some positions (Striker, Center Midfield, Centerback) that we run three or more deep, and others where we... don't. This doesn't include our youth players, we've got two other keepers on the U18 squad for example, but it does show where we might need improvements.  Our players are almost all improving, some by leaps and bounds. Derek McLaughlin has gone from being roughly as good a keeper as John Bradley to significantly better. The only two players who've declined are Hotte and Johnston. Both are over 30 and have had injuries that have kept them out over a month so far this season.  Johnston is on the downslope of his career, but still playing pretty well. His contract is up at the end of the year, I'm uncertain whether to renew it or not.  Rosetti isn't improving as much because he's well above the level of play in the Skrill North. Without harder challenges, he'll stagnate and have more trouble reaching his potential.  It doesn't matter what they throw at us, the 4-4-2 can handle all of them.  Our early season tendency to dominate the first half and get dominated the second half has gone away, and now we're the ones most likely to score late in a game. Our assists are coming largely from the wings, while our right backs give up nearly as many assists as the rest of the team combined.  We're remarkably good at scoring on headers, which accounts for our success on throw-ins and set pieces.  These assists don't even count goals from throw-ins, of which we've had 6-8. We're making it count on set pieces, despite set piece tactics not being anything special. Still, they've been working in a league where a good defender has a marking score of 10.  The board remains content, despite being irritated at our loss in the FA Trophy. They're especially happy about the low wage bill, which is kind of funny given how much cash they've given us to play with.  The fans are very happy with some of our signings, especially considering how little we paid for most of them. Holsgrove especially has been excellent, playing on either wing with aplomb.  They can't all be winners. Stamp still rates out as someone who has the potential to succeed at a much higher level, but I've been playing him at his secondary position of right back most often rather than as a defensive midfielder, and it's showing.  We've been playing well, and the fans are happy with several of the players. Edwards is naturally a fan favorite, and despite already being 30 years old his performances seem to be improving.  The disparity isn't quite as large as it looks, Rosetti alone is earning over £1m a year. But we are seriously outspending our opponents by a three to one margin just with the players I've brought in. This will change by the time we reach League 1, and will change a lot if we can't resign Rosetti next year and have to transfer him/risk him leaving on a free.  Here's how our stats match up against the other teams in the Skrill South. I apologize for the bad cropping/cut and pasting. I'm very, very new at this. These are attributes that matter to all players regardless of position. I'm pleased with the high work rate and teamwork numbers, it means our players don't slack off during games and are good at playing a team game rather than trying to make things happen on their own.  We're in such good shape here because of McLaughlin's development. We weren't nearly this high to start the season. Handling is the biggest problem, it's one of the most important GK abilities and is something that really needs improvement. I'm changing McLaughlin's training to entirely focus on that skill.  Our defense is physically adept, but not necessarily the best in the league. They're pretty quick for the league, though, which helps them recover when our opponents break through our high line.  Our midfield, by comparison, is much better than our opposition. Even when we're not #1, we're off by less than a single attribute point.  As I've mentioned earlier, our attackers are very technically adept, but are also lead-footed. It's one reason why I chose to play a possession based game, we're simply not fast enough to play strong direct football. Our strikers can break down a defense, but they won't win a whole lot of foot races.  All those postponed games are coming to bite us in the rear end. We've got 6 fixtures scheduled over the course of 11 days. loving Yorkshire weather is the bane of my existence. We've got plenty of money to play with, £120k in wages a week and a transfer budget of nearly £3m. What do the denizens of the TackLyfeFooty.co.uk Forum think the team should be doing? Who should we be re-signing? Who should we be bidding adieu to? And what, if anything, should the team look to add? Also, we need at least one team song. I have no idea what it should be, but it should sound good when chanted by 10,000 drunken supporters for a half hour on end. I'll start playing again Sunday night, or earlier if I don't get any response.
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Nov 23, 2013 20:49
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Considering the last time I played something like this, I failed to keep my beloved Eintracht Frankfurt from relegating in a year where they actually managed to land somewhere around midfield, I'm probably not the best guy to give advice on signings, strategy and whatnot, but as a darts fan, I at least know a bit about what could make a good team song (a good walk-on song has many similarities with a good team song, since both work really well if it's easily chanted by crowds). "Seven Nation Army" is always a good bet, with teams from all sorts of sports already using it. "Chelsea Dagger" is a classic as well (alternatively, we could go with the more fitting rip-off, "Engerland (Fabio The Daddy O)" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OoirwWBd68g, which doesn't fit our team, but I doubt people care at that point). Or to symbolize our rise up the ranks and the fans that stick with us, we could go with "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)". However, my personal pick would be Snap!'s "The Power", because much like Phil "The Power" Taylor, we're going to be dominating the world of our sport for a very long time.
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Nov 23, 2013 21:34
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My team's, uh, 'ultras'* run Seven Nation Army. It's pretty good. Went to see a World Cup Qual game at the home stadium, which was, despite the snow, pretty fun, and the local fans just reused most of their chants, which are leaps and bounds above the god awful "EW ES EH EW ES EH" which seems to be the national default. Also they stopped the match repeatedly to shovel snow off the lines, which amused us to no end. *Not that they really warrant such an appellation... MLS 
the JJ fucked around with this message at 02:24 on Nov 24, 2013 |
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Nov 23, 2013 22:28
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You were at the Costa Rica snow game? awesome!
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Nov 23, 2013 22:37
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habeasdorkus posted:You were at the Costa Rica snow game? awesome! Yup. It was a lot of fun.
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Nov 24, 2013 02:24
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the JJ posted:Yup. It was a lot of fun. It looked so much fun on TV, how did the away fans like the snow?
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Nov 24, 2013 03:16
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<------ Best Goal Song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBYxIElug8M
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Nov 24, 2013 03:27
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Giovanni_Sinclair posted:It looked so much fun on TV, how did the away fans like the snow? Seemed like they took it well. Soccer in America being, well, soccer in America, you had a fair number of 'away' fans, but also lot of those 'away' fans lived locally.
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Nov 24, 2013 04:25
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Can you post pictures of your set pieces for headers, and throw-ins and etc? Or just post all your set pieces, maybe a little explanation on them too (how to create and focus on them?)
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Nov 24, 2013 11:15
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quote:When players get themselves ejected from the match, you can discipline them. In this case, as it was Duchamps first ejection and was for two yellow cards as opposed to a straight red, I give him a warning. If it happens again I'm fining him a weeks salary. Players will generally learn from discipline, but if you are too harsh they'll feel mistreated and if you're too lenient they'll continue to rack up yellow and red cards. They may also react badly if they have a low “professionalism” hidden stat, in which case unless they're great you might be better off ridding the team of them as there's no cure for being a fuckwit. Oh man, this can be so frustrating. It's been a while since I played FM, (think it was the last version that used the 2D match engine) but I'll never forget this guy. Over the years I had lead lowly Morecambe into the Premier League, and after a couple of seasons developed the team enough I scraped fourth and thus qualified for the champions league. In the close season my scouts found this god of a defender in Mexico. Still quite young, and the best stats I've ever seen. Like a souped up Rio Ferdinand in his prime. (Who was back then the gold standard for FM defenders.) 17-20 in all important defensive and mental stats (positioning, tackling, teamwork and what have you) Physically imposing with 20 in both strength and jumping, could play a bit too with a passing of 18 (low creativity though, but that's okay in defence) and to top it all of he had 20 in pace and accelaration too. On his own he transformed me to title favorites: totally dominated all opposition attackers, allowed me to play an unbelievably high line since he'd just catch up to anyone breaking through and stop them with an inch-perfect tackle, (or just muscle them off the ball) it was glorious. For most of the season. then in the space of a couple of weeks he got sent of in the first few minutes of the FA cup semi-final, the final of the Champions League, and the final day title-decider against our straight rivals. Reacted badly to my reprimand, and never got to that level again. Got rid of him 2 seasons later. (And should have done so earlier, he kept costing me with silly mistakes and even more red cards. But I knew how good he could be, so kept giving him chances I shouldn't have.) quote:Another loss, and now we're out of both cup competitions. This one was especially frustrating as we had more chances than Ebbsfleet and simply couldn't convert them, and we were playing our best lineup besides. Still, the thing that really matters this year is winning promotion. We remain on pace to do that, and if we have to lose games it's best that they're in the cup competitions when we need every last point we can get in the league. quote:<------ Best Goal Song
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Nov 24, 2013 12:23
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habeasdorkus posted:At Learnington, October 19, 2013 Pretty sure that should be Leamington. It's really interesting seeing things from a low-league perspective for once, since I usually play as my local team and thus only see the top couple leagues in Scotland.
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Nov 24, 2013 12:36
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SnafuAl posted:Pretty sure that should be Leamington. You are correct! I was also misspelling Stalybridge. I'm just glad that these days I know how to pronounce Wigan. I always used to call it Why-gan. Necroneocon posted:Can you post pictures of your set pieces for headers, and throw-ins and etc? It won't let me take screenshots of them, for some reason, but I'll see what I can do for the next update. Amhazair posted:You're lucky enough to have the money to not care, but when I played lower leagues I used to prioritise the cup games. A single "lucky" draw away against a Premier League side, or one of the bigger Championship ones could bring in more money than you otherwise earned in an entire year. Yeah, if we were playing true LLM I'd be focusing on playing friendlies for cash and getting to play a Cup game at Etihad or Old Trafford. Or even Elland Road. And man, I hear you about that defender. I'd have stuck with him for unreasonably long as well.
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Nov 24, 2013 14:57
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