Football manager 2015

[katmai]

So with first year in EPL winding down, have Leicester safely above relegation, heck outside chance for Europa Cup qualification even, i guess I'm doing something right as now faced with job offer from Fiorentina, what to do, what to do.

[Norgy]

Martin O'Neill had a good career at Norwich and Leicester as a manager. He took over Celtic and made sure those inbred Catholic Irish fucks became Scotland's best side. You could take over Fiorentina and re-surrect Fascism?

[katmai]

Wait I'm not Ide.

[katmai]

Welp stuck with Leicester and we ended up in 9th in first year in EPL.
But with a great run in FA Cup we ended up with this.

[katmai]

Still continuing with Leicester save
second season in Barclays we were picked to finish 14th, board hoped we could make the group stage of Europa league and once again our little Leicester overachievers proved the pundits wrong.
We made it to knockout round in Europa and went into away game with a 2-1 advantage, of course in process of that match we had three injuries and a red card so ended up with 9 men and losing on aggregate goals.
But domestically we won the Capital One Cup to repeat our Europa league qualification, of course the point was moot was we were able to finish a very distant but respectable 3rd in league and qualified for Champions league.

in our third season, felt comfortable enough to tell board i believed the squad could repeat a top 4 finish and qualify again for Continental play.
the team started off gangbusters and at early in campaign we had a 20+ game unbeaten streak (it was a carry over from end of previous season's good form) and we one our group with commanding 15pts from 5 wins in 6 matches (the 2nd place team? oh a little plucky club from Munich, that would go on to win the whole darn thing)
Domestic play we hit a rut that meant for good 2nd half of season we were hanging around 5-7th place, but with some luck and rebound in form we again ended up 3rd place.

now in my fourth full season we are in dogfight with Man U and Liverpool for top spot, though we played horribly in Champion Group play and ended up with only 4 pts as each game we dominated possession and shots, but kept coming out on losing end.

Having fun with this team as built them up to top 15 in world in value, and now trying to get the board to invest to bring up good/very good youth setup to world class so we con compete with home grown talent. only way i see me leaving club is if dream job at arsenal opens up or barca/Real were to offer me gig.

[Norgy]

Those are the best kind of FM games. A real career game.

I got a soft spot for several sides I have managed. Ajax, Hearts, Hibernian, Brentford, Leyton Orient, Fiorentina. And unfancied Hannover 09.

[Bluebook]

How important are youth facilities and staff when it comes to getting talented youngsters?

[katmai]

My experience is limited but I know when started this current job the facilities were superb, but youth recruitment was above avg all best players incoming were 2 1/2-3 stars. After two seasons I was able to get board to bump up recruiting and my last intake I have GK being touted as next joe hart as he tops out in predicted ability of 4 1/2 stars.

[Norgy]

How important are youth facilities and staff when it comes to getting talented youngsters?

"Youth recruitment" is important for the new youngsters you get every year.
The facilities will influence how well they develop outside of getting game time. The key really is game time. That is my experience.

[Bluebook]

Does that mean I have to coach the U21s aswell?

[Norgy]

Never tried that. But having good youth coaches never heard. A head of development too.

My character isn't that much of a coach anyway.

[The Larch]

Thing I find annoying about scouting is that for instance, I scout a kid who has 1 current ability but 3 1/2 potential.
I buy him, and immediately he drops to 1 and 1 1/2. He's no longer valuable to me.

Take into account that once he signs for your team he is rated not by your scots but by your coaches, and they surely have worse evaluating potential numbers than your scouts, so that must account for something.

[The Larch]

What do you guys do when you want to defend a 1-0 lead? Do you have a defensive formation you switch to, or do you just change focus to defend or contain? None of the above?

I seem to be unable to lock away games where I lead with one goal.

I keep my same formation 99% of the time, but yeah I'll change focus to Counter or defend, and put sideline instructions to  take a breather, drop down more and usually in 70th minute or so I put in fresh Defender to stabilize the back line. Doesn't work 100%, but seems to do trick frequently.

Take a breather? Doesn't that make them relax? Normally I don't change anything until well into the 2nd half, and then I'd take the mentality down a notch (normally I play offensively and drop to control in those situations) and slow down the tempo (from fast to normal or slow).

Normally I will still want to increase my lead, though.

[Norgy]

Thing I find annoying about scouting is that for instance, I scout a kid who has 1 current ability but 3 1/2 potential.
I buy him, and immediately he drops to 1 and 1 1/2. He's no longer valuable to me.

Take into account that once he signs for your team he is rated not by your scots but by your coaches, and they surely have worse evaluating potential numbers than your scouts, so that must account for something.

I cheated and looked at the real potential once on one of those youth candidates coming in, as I thought he looked quite the full package. Yet my coaches did not rate him.

You have a potential between 0 and 200 for every kind of staff in FM. This lad had a potential of 176 and a current ability of 56 at 15. Yet my coaches felt he should just be shipped out.
Looking at his hidden stats, he had a high injury-proneness and low professionality and ambition. Add to that a determination of 3, and he was a middling sub after 3 years and never made it above 102 in skill points. He also complained a lot.

[Bluebook]

http://passion4fm.com/football-manager-training-facilities-levels/

Good read on facilities and youths