A 2 week trip to France. Viva la Beta

So I’ve gone and got the beta for FM20, my current save found here is on hold for now, more details on that thread

Anyway, as the game is only in beta stage for 2 weeks with full release being 2 weeks tomorrow, I’ve decided to go ahead and play a save with a big team to get used to the new features and what not.

This is along the same lines as @r96Skinner 'journey to’ threads, his current one being in the MLS found here, with that in mind, please follow my 2 weeks trip to Paris, specifically Paris Saint Germain



Not anything like my usual saves where I start as low as possible, this time I’m starting at the top, and given my manager stats based on PSG. There’s no aims to this, just have a play with the beta, see how the new features play out and if I see any bugs, get them reported to SI on their forums.

Here’s our hero for the next 2 weeks then, Matt B who has stats based on PSG from the start.







The board’s vision is to win everything domestically whilst challenging for the Champions League. Now I don’t know if I’ll have this thread going into year 5, I might get sacked before then or the full game will be released long before season 5 is in the bag. Either way, no aims, no challenges to stick to just get the game, and have fun. Fun fact, I’ve never managed in France, or at least I don’t ever remember doing so in my 21 years playing this game from my first edition way back on CM 99/00.







So, PSG are a massive club I’m sure we’ll all agree to that, and the assistant managers best line up is below



A front 3 of Neymar, Mbappe and Cavani should frighten any defence in any league in the world. All 3 able to play inside forward on the left and up front, whilst Mbappe is considered better as a winger on the right over Neymar. Basically, with these 3 in the line up there’s going to be goals.

Complementing that world class front 3, are 3 players that I know most football fans have heard of. Angel Di Maria was an out an out winger ant Benfica, Madrid and Man U, but in game he is competent at center mid and that’s where the assistant manager tells me he’s best suited, however he finds himself on the bench prior to our first game. In his place is former Everton midfielder Idrissa Gueye. A good all rounder, probably looks better than he actually is alongside the world class pairing of Marco Veratti and Ander Herrera. As all 4 of those are generally positive thinking players, I’m looking to sign someone to compliment them, more on that later.

In defence is where we find yet more world class players. Center halves Marquinhos & Thiago Silva are absolute rocks in defence, and should take some beating. Out wide at the full back positions we see Meunier and Bernat, 2 complete wing backs in every sense that should patrol the wide areas.

In goal we’re not short of quality, Keyler Navas is a top goalkeeper and playing back up is on loan Sergio Rico, another keeper of high quality.

Even the bench players at PSG would walk into most top flight sides first team, as Kurzawa is a quality left full back, Kimpembe will be better than Marquinihos all being well, and then there’s the small matter of Icardi on loan from Inter Milan, who is a world class forward, enough said really.

Here’s where I’m a bit confused, despite the attacking threat in the team, as well as the world class team in general, the assistant manager thinks this 4-1-2-3 counter attacking set up is the best way to go. Not only that, the board want us to play attacking football, weird. Anyway, with that in mind here’s the starting tactic and line up.



Just before our season opener, I decided that with the midfield players consisting of Veratti, Herrera, Gueye and Di Maria, none of those are really defence minded players. So I sign Nemanja Matic from Man United for 12 million. I’m mainly using him alongside any 2 of the other 4 players, mainly for his defensive qualities.



So after pre season gets out of the way, we win our first trophy in FM20, with the Trophee de Champions, or the French equivalent of the English Charity Shield. A nice opening victory in my first competitive game.







On to league action, and the first game of the save was an absolute white wash, a resounding 4-0 home win over Strasbourg.



This was followed up with another win, away at Angers.



After that game I can’t believe I’ve not noticed until now but Cavani is leaving on a free at the end of the season. If this save carries on until then I’m going to need a replacement, luckily I don’t have far to look, and make an offer for on loan striker Icardi.



We get brought straight back down to Earth with an absolute appalling loss away to Reims who hung on for dear life. They took a 2 goal lead but that scoreline flattered them as we absolutely battered them all over the pitch, but we just couldn’t get that killer goal.



Champions League draw time and we’re in Group A alongside Benfica, Valencia and Lokomotiv Moscow



We finish my first month off in Paris with a good win over FC Metz, to leave us with 4 wins from 5, and see us top of Ligue 1 for now, with Marseille having a game in hand








It’s early days but anyone with half an interest in football knows this team has some serious talent in it. Okay so the 2-0 loss to Reims came as a surprise, but in that game we could’ve scored 8 any other day, so that’s got to be the catalyst for not allowing any complacency to creep in.

Next update will be the next couple of months worth of games, and any other business.

Thanks for reading.

One trophy won, first of many I'm sure! Not many seem to be, but I'm a fan of Ligue 1. It's a pretty well-rounded league when you take out PSG, in real life just 9pts separates 2nd to 20th!

Hope I can win a few things with PSG in the beta, should set me up for full release man

Great start as expected mate.

I'm probably gonna do the same with my Arsenal save, depends really how big the changes are in the full version as always prefer to start from scratch when such a big patch is added.

Likewise, I'm running a Liverpool save on the BETA just to see how things are. But feel its vital to start a new save on full release each year

Cheers mate

I think having the beta is a good way to get to know about the new features and lay out, plus with big teams there won;t be much to change in the short term

Not been on the forums much recently, and had a few bugs crop up in the beta, logged them over on the SI forums. Will try and get an update on this soon.

That's a shame, hopefully see an update soon!

good start! there are some people that are against managing big teams but its such a pitty not being able to play the current age big players like neymar messi ronaldo etc, or missing out on all the big transfers like milinkovic-savic.

I havent had many bugs, i think its one of the most stable beta's in years

Not played the beta in a while, haven't even updated to the newest patch. Thread is finished now as I'm readying myself for full release on Tuesday.