Football Manager - FM19 release date Nov 2nd

[Fry Crayola]

 

Yes. Yes it is.

[Tomox]

Do others struggle with consistency? I’m finding it difficult to get a settled side. I sort of assume that most people have these issues on FM, but never feel like I am in control!  

Annoyingly I have two good CBs who keep getting called up for Wales youth sides, which causes rotation that doesn’t help things!

 

The latest video is linked below, I think we doing ok as we’ve got a mid table budget, but I always want better! Hope people enjoy!

 

 

[CovisGod]

My first season in the Champions League with Coventry after winning the Prem last year, draw Barcelona in the groups, shit myself, then this happens...

 

[Fry Crayola]

Last year's good times obviously couldn't last. With six games to go, we had been swapping places with Crusaders (oh, how I wish I hadn't mocked them now) at the top of the table, neither side able to pull away from the other. We were in the semi-final of the Irish Cup, and the final of the Scottish League Challenge Cup, which was the only pseudo-domestic competition I'd yet to win with Newry. Well, that and the Under 18s Cup, which continually eludes my youngsters despite their other successes.

 

Dundee United, top of the Scottish Championship and fully professional, awaited my part timers. An early goal from us in Falkirk's shiny new Latapy Arena showed promise, but they equalised before half time. We kept at it and took the game to extra time, whereupon my players destructed in a five minute spell and lost 4-1. Ah well, I thought, it's not an important competition and at least we didn't get smashed by Hamilton like in the last two seasons. Indeed, we had beat them 2-1 in the semi.

 

Back home to the bread and butter, we drew 2-2 at Coleraine, before throwing away several leads against Cliftonville to draw 3-3 in the Irish Cup semi and go out on penalties. We'd entered the league split stage, and found our last game was to be at home to Crusaders, yet their last game was to follow a few days later. With goal difference heavily favouring them, we'd need to establish a four point lead by the end of our campaign to guarantee the title. Yet the packed schedule with just three or four days between matches, coupled with the exertions of two extra-time periods in the cups with nothing to show for it, seemed to suck the fight out of all the lads. Defeats to Glenavon and Glentoran, a crushing 4-0 defeat at home to a Linfield side who hadn't been in the title hunt at all, and throwing away a 2-0 lead over Cliftonville to draw 2-2 meant that come that final game, we'd already lost the title. We'd slipped to third place, which didn't even grant a Europa League place.

 

The dreaded European qualification playoffs loomed. 7th would play 6th, the winners joining the next three ahead of them in the semi finals. In our current form, we did not want to be there, and yet nothing was working. Leads could be established but not held. It wasnt looking good. However, a cautious 2-0 win over Crusaders temporarily moved us up into second and gave some hope, before their final game of the season brought the point they needed to leapfrog us. Cliftonville ran out surprise title winners, just a solitary point separating the top three. With 71 points, they were the worst title winners since... well, Newry two years ago.

 

Thankfully, they also went on to win the Irish Cup, giving us their Europa League place into the bargain. Our Champions League campaign which saw us beat Partizan Belgrade before falling to Basel and then Borussia Moenchengladbach had netted nearly £1m in prize money, so the balance was still nicely in the black. Haemorrhaging about £300k a year servicing bank loans, we need European football if we're to avoid serious trouble.

 

But really, we need titles.

[wullie]

I've pulled Everton up in my first season with them (2025/6) to a steady fifth place while flirting coquettishly with fourth, and now I'm into March I've been eyed up by Chelsea, the team in fourth. Leonardo Jardim failed to challenge for the league and whoever's the caretaker has just had them lose 7-0 at relegation-threatened Stoke, so if they get me in it might be quick. Putting out fires all over the place like I'm Mr Wolf. Stamford Bridge? That's thirty minutes away.

[Gabe]

How is your career going @Fry Crayola?

[Fry Crayola]

"Frustrating as balls" is how I think Guardiola would put it.

 

This is my run of league form between late September and early February: WDDWWWWDDWDWWWWWWW.

 

And here's my run of form after we got knocked out of the cup: LWLWLLDWLL.

 

We've lost a six point lead at the top, and now sit three behind Cliftonville having just lost a bollocks match to them. Everyone's playing like a lazy wanker, the defence are gifting stupid goals away, and we haven't scored more than one in a game since a 3-0 win at Carrick - that's the first W in that second run of form.

 

It's like they have forgotten how to play against the other teams in the top half. The rest is no problem, the record against the six sides in the bottom half of the table is 50 points from a maximum 54. Against the other five sides in the top half, it's 20 from 63 so far. Two games remain but we'd need to win both and hope Cliftonville don't win either of theirs, which doesn't seem likely. We sit third, but could slip to fourth.

 

We're haemorraging cash every month thanks to that ridiculous loan taken out a couple of years back, and the best player at the club, who's made a few Northern Ireland squads but has yet to make his debut, refuses to sign a new contract. His agent is a cunt too. Rather than refusing outright, he had a spell of insisting upon a wage increase (which we can offer) and key player status, both of which I'm more than happy to grant, but then he acts like I haven't met his demands. 

 

The board won't let us go full time, they don't care about having the option to scout elsewhere in the world, including anywhere south of the border which is appears harder to cross than the Berlin Wall despite the softest of Brexits having no impact on foreign player status. I can send a scout on a four hour round trip to Limavady but the club won't sanction a short hop across the border to nearby Dundalk. They stubbornly refuse to let me look at Derry City, despite them being in the same bloody country, but will make the same trip to the same city to watch Oxford United Stars play in the same damn stadium.

 

And still, despite apparently being the club with the highest reputation in the country, we can only manage to rustle up 50-odd fans to go to Belfast. Though seeing as we'll probably only lose, maybe I see their point.

[5R7]

ahhh, soft Brexit...i remember  soft Brexit...now...now its foreign squad rules, like the early 90's... 

[Mike]

On 2/16/2018 at 09:46, Mike said:

 

Not bad since I came in half way through a disappointing season 

 

Drew Wigan in the play offs.



Not happy with that away goal, came late on and mostly as my left back had gone off injured so the right back was filling in for him.

 



Flippin eck.  Turns out only having one left back and one good right back isn't going to lead to glory.

 

One year on and it was well worth not going up.

 

Did it with five games left to play!

[Fry Crayola]

Everything's gone massively tits up at Newry. A 5th place finish last season was tempered by lifting both the League and Irish cups, bringing back European football, and that was remarkably successful as we beat Odd, Zaglebie Lubin and Grasshoppers in the first three qualifying rounds of the Europa League. In the playoff we faced Borussia Mönchengladbach, who had beaten us 10-2 on aggregate in the same stage three years ago. This season, a 2-0 away defeat was followed by a 1-1 draw at Windsor Park. We took the lead through Connor Sinclair in the first half and fought hard to find a second to take it to extra time, but they scored late on to deny us the win. 

 

That was the highlight of the season. We had already picked up just five points from twelve in the league by the time we were out as we struggled against Carrick and Warrenpoint, and we spent the majority of the season sat in 6th place, never really threatening either a push into contention, nor a drop into the bottom half. We lost our grip on the League Cup with a 2-0 loss in the final to Glenavon, and then lost 4-3 in a cracking Irish Cup semi final to end any hope of a trophy. Slumping through the post split fixtures, we then took a 90th minute lead in a European qualifying playoff against Glentoran only to concede a couple of minutes later and crash out on penalties.

 

I'm moonlighting as Denmark manager. In a European qualifying group featuring Belgium and Northern Ireland, we picked up three points against the Belgians but drew at home to Northern Ireland, so in the crunch it came down to all three teams on 20 points with a match to go. Belgium would comfortably win in Armenia, and we'd crash 2-0 at the same Windsor Park that had given me a sniff of glory just a few months before. That saw us finish third, and thankfully some comfortable playoff wins against Albania and Scotland let us through the back door. So at least I've that to look forward to.

 

But never mind all that - what the flying fuck is going on in Ballinamallard?

 

 

A wage bill of over £100k per week, and they couldn't even win the Championship. No wonder - these players aren't much good. Zapico, sitting on £3.1k, was a cast off from my team because he couldn't cut it. They're throwing absolutely silly money at people and the club is valued at £24m. I'm not entirely sure what happened. A new chairman took over at the end of last season and the club turned professional a month later, but he doesn't appear to be some moneybags oligarch. They were taken over by a fans trust in 2022 and every chairman appointment since then has been a promotion from within, so it appears they're still fan owned, and there's been no big money transfer out of the club.

 

They're far and away the richest club in the country, and in fact are richer than every other club in the top three divisions combined. Even Linfield, sitting in second and owning Windsor Park, are worth just £8.75m. Newry, as it happens, are ranked 9th with just £850k to their name, though expect that to tumble.

 

They've got a 2-1 lead over Coleraine in the promotion playoff. If they come up, they could do very well. Or they could crash and burn because they're paying £15k a week to a guy who's had four stints in the intermediate leagues, and £7.25k per week to a goalkeeper who made just four league appaearances for me in four seasons. 

 

Absolutely crazy.

[carlospie]

Got this on iPad Pro, love it! I am Lincoln in the lowest league. Got Ishmael miller on a free and he’s banging then in. Anyone know any wonder players for the lower leagues? 

[Butters]

FM18 is £11.39 on Fanatical.

 

I'm still playing FM17, and put a good number of hours into it. Is there enough between FM17 to FM18 to warrant buying it?

[carlospie]

For that price definitely 

[Butters]

Cheers @carlospie.

[MardiganX]

The Squad Dynamics is the biggest difference and it adds a nice visual layer to the player chemistry type stuff that was previously all hidden and largely irrelevant.

 

My current game is with Liverpool and it has been a pleasure seeing Trent Alexander-Arnold, Andrew Robertson and Joe Gomez progress to become hugely important players both on and off the field. 

[Butters]

Won £36 on the England game tonight, so think I'll treat myself!

 

I know there will be another one out soon, but I rarely buy them at full price.

[NickC]

So I'm going to pick this up, and I was wondering, is it better suited to a tablet or Switch?

 

The tablet price is less than half the Switch price, so I'm tempted by that. But is it a cut down version compared to Switch?

[Vorgot]

Very skint at the moment, and the latest version I have is FM15, but I never really got on with it. The World Cup has me hankering after a go though, so checking my Steam library I realised I owned 11, 12, 13 and 15. Didn't put to much time into 12, so playing that now with Southport in the conference and it's more approachable for me that 15. Funny to see Jamie Vardy at Fleetwood though. 

[Dark Soldier]

1 hour ago, NickC said:

So I'm going to pick this up, and I was wondering, is it better suited to a tablet or Switch?

 

The tablet price is less than half the Switch price, so I'm tempted by that. But is it a cut down version compared to Switch?

 

The Switch version is basically the tablet version I think

[SMD]

I've just bought this on the Switch, the last FM I played properly was 2010 on the PC. Forgot how much I loved these games but fuck me, some of the menus are properly hidden.

[kiroquai]

I've been playing FM 2017 Touch recently on my iPad (World Cup probably to blame). Started off with Poole and got them promoted into the National League proper in my second season... turns out that I really had polished a turd because the next season was tough. I resigned three-quarters of the way through the year when in 16th position feeling like I'd taken the team as far as I could. Turns out I was right - after I left they finished 21st, got relegated and midway through the following season are now sitting 17th in the National League South. Ouch.

 

After leaving Poole I was offered the Ebbsfleet job, and oh BOY is that the hot ticket when it comes to lower league management. I had a ridiculous (by comparison) transfer budget and wage budget to play with, so having steered them to 10th in my first quarter season (they were 13th when I took over) I spent the summer assembling a team of players who my scout reckoned would be good for League 2 (future-proofing ) by splashing some cash and grabbing some decent season-long loans.

 

We're about half way through the season now, and I am top of the league on 44 points. Second place are Grimbsy on 28...

[Pants McSkill]

FM 18 is a shade under £13 in the Steam summer sale.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/624090/Football_Manager_2018/

 

 

My most recent game has seen me take charge of the Vancouver Whitecaps, in an attempt to navigate the MLS for the first time.

Christ, that's a complicated league to dive into. 'Misunderstandings' highlights include not being that fussed when losing in the semi-final of the 6-team Canadian cup, to only realise later in the season that winning it is my only route into the North American champions league.

 

And while the first season has been fun, I'm weighing up weather to stick with it, or start a final lower league game that'll see me through to the release of FM19.

 

 

[Fry Crayola]

I haven't played in a while as I just haven't the time for it. In my last couple of seasons, I was on the brink of the sack at Newry due to underperforming, which was a bit harsh considering the fans just aren't flocking to the team (we've been on 46 season tickets sold for what seems like forever), and we'd have been in severe debt if it wasn't for bringing through enough youth to sell off to England for six figure sums. That said, performances on the pitch were not good, with the team doing nothing to trouble the top of the table. 

 

I think I'd have been sacked if not for the game being slightly wonky - it treats participation in the end-of-season playoffs for the last Europa League spot as having qualified for Europe regardless of how you do, and then if you do win those playoffs, it thinks you've played in the final of the league, like we're in Australia or someone. So, scraping into Europe by the skin of their teeth was enough for the board to be rather satisfied. Meanwhile, my international career struggled with yet another knockout stage exit with an aging Denmark side, despite strong performances in qualifying. I opted to step aside, hoping one of the two Irish sides would sack their manager. They didn't, so now I'm the Irish U21 boss, biding my time.

 

In the 2039/40 season, I decided that we needed to keep the ball more. It's how my older, more successful games have panned out in recent years - 60% possession and up, not letting the opposition have a sniff while we tiki-taka them to death. Something that's a little trickier with a bunch of part timers but keeping the ball is not beyond their ability, even if being Andres Iniesta is. I instructed them to stop dribbling the ball, keep the passes short, and retain possession while we pushed forward. It brought results, too, as we stormed to the top of the table thanks to some dogged victories over Cliftonville and Glenavon. We were on course for our best ever season, hitting the 70 point barrier before the split, but we couldn't maintain the run of form. Once Michael Hughes had decided to end his ten year stint as our best player by refusing any new contract and agreeing to move to Scotland after the season, he stopped performing, and there just wasn't anyone to take his place. We slid to second, despite amassing our highest points tally, and confirmed our spot in the Europa League for another season.

 

I've been managing Newry for 23 and a half years now. I've decided to make it to 25, and if we're not back on top of the table, I'll let it go.

[kiroquai]

Ebbsfleet update: after 33 of 46 games we have 84 points, and are well on-track to smash the VNL record of 103 points as champions. We're 21 points ahead of second and 32 ahead of 5th, so if we win our next two games we seal a playoff spot at the least. It's the end of February. This is probably the most overpowered team I have had on any Footy Manager game since my old Liverpool teams on CM97/98.

 

I bought in a young AML at the start of the season from Bournemouth on loan. He's had such a good time with us that he decided he wasn't going to renew his contract with them so we snapped him up for pennies, which is great because he's brilliant. Our deadly AMC from Liverpool looks likely to do the same, and now I am listed as one of his favourite people I think we have a really good chance of snapping him up too. Only issue I have had all season is that one of our CM's (I play a 4-2-3-1) was targeted by Chelsea(?!) in the January window, but I somehow managed to stave them off and he's not grumpy about it anymore. Pretty much my entire midfield either comes from or is being targeted by a team in the top two divisions.

 

Heady times. Am hoping the chairman can pump more money in and also we can start filling our ground a little better than the current 1/3 full we tend to get. Come on Ebbsfleet fans - you basically get to see a League One team masquerading as a VNL team destroying everyone week-in, week-out for a bargain price. WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU?

 

(No, seriously... I want more money).

 

 

[g wings]

On 26/06/2018 at 07:30, NickC said:

So I'm going to pick this up, and I was wondering, is it better suited to a tablet or Switch?

 

The tablet price is less than half the Switch price, so I'm tempted by that. But is it a cut down version compared to Switch?

 

I have it on switch and last years version on ipad. Its still good on the switch but It’s better suited to the large screen of the ipad IMO (unless you are playing on TV of course). And I don’t say that lightly as I generally consider the switch to be the greatest invention ever! 

[Keiths_Dad]

Has anyone been had by FFP on this? Just about to start my second season with Liverpool having finished 3rd in the league and winning both domestic cups, and I've spunked my wad on Harry Kane and Jan Oblak, after getting Butland, Fekir, Arthur, Tierney and Mahrez in season one. However, this along with giving pay rises to my best performers has pushed me over the FFP wage increase limit, without any fucking warning from the board, or my PA or whatever. How badly can I expect to be spanked?

[kiroquai]

Wage limit is a fine from what I recall. The one you don't want to screw up is the profit/loss one, as it could end up with you being banned from Europe. I seem to recall the fine isn't much worth worrying about if you're a team with the resources of the mighty Reds.. then again I've spent most of my time with the past two games managing teams in divisions where 'financial fair play' probably only applies to the price of the pies on sale in the team's food store

 

Talking of that... fair to say that the lads did well here:

 

 

I won manager of the season, my striker won player of the season (41 goals in 46 appearances) and my League 2 odds are 9-2, with most people thinking I can get promoted straight away. My job status is 'untouchable' and I was given a one million transfer budget (!) with which I have bought in some seriously good players.

 

Bet Poole wish I hadn't resigned now. They finished 18th in the VNS. Made me feel a bit sad given they were where I got my start.

[Pants McSkill]

After leading the MLS western conference with a 6 point cushion and 5 games to go, my Vancouver Whitecaps collapsed when the opposition finally seemed to figure out how to stop me scoring. We managed two draws and three losses and finished a disappointing 2nd, even though our supporters would have torn your arm off had they been offered that at the beginning of the season.

We were then dumped out of the playoffs in the first round by FC Dallas on away goals. 

The cunts.

 

The tactics:

 

I desperately need a better finisher, Kei Kamara's composure stat has cost us points on it's own. 

*Has vietnam flashbacks to the several hundered open goals he missed*

 

 

For the upcoming season, I'm going with something new. I want to control the midfield more, but I also want to make the most of Christian Techera on the wing, and Anthony Blondell who is an excellent DLF.
And given how much I prefer two striker formations, that means it's going to have to be asymmetric.  

So these are the two I've come up with. I won't know how they work until I try them, but I'm leaning towards the 2nd of the two - the idea being that the RPM and Inside forward on the right create an overload on the right, which frees up the left for the CWB to bomb into space.
The drop deeper instruction is combined with the front three being told to close down much more, so they hopefully harry the opposition on transitions, creating time for the others to retreat back into position.

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

[kiroquai]

Ugh, always hugely frustrating to lose any league like that. Had it more than a few times. I've always said to myself that I'd give the MLS a go as it's quite different in how it's set up. Might be what I do next after Ebbsfleet

 

I'll post the table later, but I went on to win League 2 at our first attempt. Pretty comfortably, too. Will mean that we've gone from the Vanerama League South to League 1 in the space of four seasons, which is pretty good. Got to make another set of tidy business moves this summer, which won't be quite as easy due to the relative transfer costs increasing for our level. Still, reckon we can do a good job and potentially reach the playoffs if I bring in some decent players to support what I have now.

 

Board think I am 'doing an unbelievable job and bringing smiles to all of our supporters' faces'. I'm now three-star rated as well, which has seen me be offered (and turn down) jobs at Derby, Charlton and Ipswich.

[Pants McSkill]

FM 19 release date has dropped for November 2nd, with zero other information.

The only announcement so far is that they've ditched 'manager man' from the cover. 

 

However, there's some speculation doing the rounds online as people have noticed a new line in the 'About the game' blurb on the Steam page.

 

Quote

In Football Manager 2019 YOU are the author of your club’s success: you define the tactics and style of play, and drive player recruitment to build the ultimate squad. You take an active role on the training ground, developing your squad and fine-tuning the preparations for upcoming matches.

 

The bit in bold isn't on FM18's page. 
Seems odd to include unless there's an overhaul to training coming, which let's be frank, is long overdue.