INTRODUCTION (CONTENT CREATOR)

Hello all,

Welcome to the Dummies 101: Football Manager (Things you probably should not do) career. 

A short background about the content creator, I used to play Football Manager 2020 but eventually got frustrated with the game owing to multiple losses and sackings in the game. After watching Chroo, Zealand, and TomFM, I got interested again in the game and couldn't resist the itch to try and re-learn Football Manager once more. So here I am documenting my learning process of the game and hopefully interacting with the community here, beginner and experienced players alike.

To the beginners of the game like me, with the positives of my progress, I hope you learn it (which probably would be rare) and with the negatives of my progress, definitely avoid them.

To the veterans of the game, I hope you enjoy watching me fumble and struggle along the way similar to a toddler trying to learn how to walk or talk.

My objectives for this career story are simple:

1. To learn the game and enjoy it at the same time;
2. To entertain people; and
3. To interact with the community here.

With that, I hope you guys will join me along for the ride that will definitely bring about some blood, sweat, and tears.

CAREER SETUP

League/Database

For this save - I will only be loading the default Leagues available for England.

For the database, I've loaded:

1. Current International Players;
2. Players from Top Division Clubs;
3. Players from Top Clubs;
4. Players with Continental Reputation;
5. Players with National Reputations; and
6. Players from clubs in International Competitions

I've also chosen to keep the advanced options default other than “Disable Player Attribute Masking” as I don't really aim to be that in-depth in my gameplay.

Manager Setup

Insofar as the tasks are concerned, I've only decided to handle the team and staff of the first team.

Training for the first time and all others matters in respect of the Youth Team have been left in the hands of the A.I.

As for the Attributes of my manager, I've decided to keep them as realistic as it is in real life.

I've watched football since 2005 after Liverpool won the Champions League against AC Milan with a marvelous comeback. Since then I've only been following the Premier League primarily but dipped my toes into reading articles about the big games in other big leagues. I don't really have a great amount of knowledge or experience with the game of Football as I've only played it leisurely.

So with that, I've given myself the lowest settings possible with the most realistic areas that I would be better at given my personality and playstyle.

Team Selection

For the longest time - I pondered where to start.

I've thought of the usual advice of “Start with a big team - that's where it's easier to learn”. However, I felt that, with regards to the storyline-wise to the title of the series, it won't be appropriate to have such an “easy” start.

I also wasn't familiar with a lot of the teams around England below the Championship league and I feel like knowing what team is good and what team is bad would be less fun than leaving it to a form of Russian roulette to see what team I manage. As such, we will be starting unemployed and see where the save takes us.

Conclusion

And so it begins. The start of a dreadful learning curve that I will hopefully persevere against.

I will be simulating the game with the option of applying for ANY jobs that are available.

Once I find a job, the next post will be up for this series.

Hope to see you guys there.

CHAPTER 1 - START OF SOMETHING NEW

Job Opportunites

Three (3) months have passed since the beginning of the save and I would be given three (3) interviews with:

1. Cheshunt Football Club;
2. Chester Football Club; and
3. Banbury United FC.

Given their positions in their respective leagues, being 24, 24, and 23 respectively, it was no surprise that they would take anyone who would be interested. However, given my reputation and experience, as the saying goes, beggars can't be choosers.

I went for all three interviews but only one came back to me with an offer, Cheshunt Football Club. I delayed their offer with the view that maybe Chester and Banbury would revert back to me with an offer, but after a week passed, there was not any.

I did not want to delay it any further and risk them retracting their offer, so being life with no choice, I took up the job offer with Cheshunt Football Club.

Team No. 1 - Cheshunt Football Club

Year Founded: 1946

League: Vanarama National League South

Current Position: 24

Training Facilities: Basic Training Facilities

Youth Facilities: Basic Youth Facilities

Reputation: Semi-Professional

Team No. 2 - Chester Football Club

Year Founded: 2010

League: Vanarama National League North

Current Position: 24

Training Facilities: Adequate Training Facilities

Youth Facilities: Basic Youth Facilities

Reputation: Semi-Professional
 

Year Founded: 1931

League: Vanarama National League North

Current Position: 23

Training Facilities: Poor Training Facilities

Youth Facilities: Poor Youth Facilities

Reputation: Semi-Professional

Cheshunt Football Club

Founded in 1946, Cheshunt, at the time of my acceptance of the job, currently sits in 22nd place in the Vanarama National League South. They are a newly promoted club from the Isthmian Premier and are a semi-professional English Club playing at Cheshunt Stadium which has a capacity of 2,000.

The expectations for the job were as follows:

1. Work within wage budget;
2. Attempt to avoid relegation from the National League South;
3. Be competitive in the FA Cup; and
4. Be competitive in the FA Trophy.

I had also promised the board that the dressing room atmosphere would remain positive throughout my tenure.

Conclusion

With that - we have finally found a place to call home, Cheshunt Football Club.

I will probably take the time to review the squad and the state of the club as the content of the next update.

Hope to see you guys there.

CHAPTER 1.2 - STOCKTAKING

Squad

A breakdown of the squad is as follows:

Goalkeepers - 2

Defenders - 6

Right Backs - 2

Centre Backs - 2

Left Backs - 2

Midfielders - 5

Defensive Midfielders - 2

Central Midfielders - 3

Attackers - 9

Right Wingers - 4

Left Wingers - 3

Strikers - 2

Given this, a likely tactic that we will be employing would be 4-3-3 with a Defensive Midfielder.

Squad Considerations

From a quick view, it is clear that the team's best performers are clearly Josh Shonibare and Will Seagar.

On the other hand, the underperformers are Raul da Silva, Luke Warner-Eley, Zack Newton, and Taylor McKenzie. Should they continue to underperform, we will look towards off-loading them to free up some wages.

The quality of the Centre Backs and the Centre Midfielders looks sub-par whilst our Strikers does not seem to be familiar with scoring or assisting goals. We should look towards improving and/or offloading these positions as soon as possible.

What's good news for us is the availability of wages in the sum of around £1,000 per week to improve the squad.

Tactic Considerations

Based on the report on the squad, it seems that passing is our best bet in creating chances but it ought not to be from things as we are reportedly to be poor at both crossing and headers. Similarly, a high-pressing tactic would not be ideal since our players have poor stamina and work rate.

Build-A-Tactic

Given the squad depth - I think the best tactic that fits our squad would be 4-3-3 with a Defensive Midfielder.

I've decided to make a tactic where our defence will hold their line, the midfielders will create a diamond and hopefully pass the ball amongst themselves until an opportunity shows up, our wingers cutting in when they see the opportunity and our striker spearheading the attack.

I've also decided to adopt a balanced mentality with a patient pass-first tactic. Hopefully, this will help us concede less and make wiser decisions when attempting to launch an attack.

Conclusion

I think we are more or less ready to simulate some games and see how the tactic goes.

Next update - we will see how our first tactic works against the league for the month of October.

Also, we might try to arrange some transfers to improve the squad.

Hope to see you guys there.

CHAPTER 1.3 - OCTOBER 2022

New Signings

I've decided that, for the most part, I wanted to increase the depth and quality in our squad in terms of our midfielders and our Centre Back. I also wanted to bring in a new striker considering how poor our strikers are in terms of finishing. With that, I brought in 5 players:

1. Tom Wright (21) - Centre Back - Free Transfer
2. Liam King (34) - Defensive Midfielder/Central Midfielder - Free Transfer
3. Malachi Talent-Aryeetey - Central Midfielder - Free Transfer (£300 p/w)
4. Troy Chiabi - Striker - Free Transfer
5. Matt Richardson - Centre Back - Free Transfer (£170 p/w)

Hopefully, I made the right transfers and they would make an instant impact on the team.

October 2022

v Ebbsfleet (0-1)

Of all the teams in the league, we were fated to first play with the top dog of the League, Ebbsleet.

Personally, I felt like there were some positives to be taken away from the game as we had an xG of 0.97 and a decent Passes Completed % and Possession %. However, the downside was the poor performance by our striker Tyreece Campbell and the high number of fouls committed during the game (14).

Nonetheless, I feel like it was a decent start given that we are still familiarising ourselves with the tactic and the players held their ground to just a one (1) goal deficit.

vs Bath (2-3)

With another defeat under our belt, I didn't feel discouraged as I felt that the team played well considering the situation and the fact that Bath was a 2nd placed team at the time.

Bath boasted an xG of 2.22 and with ours being 0.84 and yet we managed to keep the game tight at yet again, a one (1) goal deficit. The number of fouls committed was yet again very revolting. Further, at least we now know that our strikers know, at minimum, what assists are.

Overall, I was proud of this game as I felt like the team showed a lot of character by fighting their way through despite being 2-0 down before halftime.

vs Hungerford (0-0)

This was the one game I felt like we could have pulled a cheeky 1-0 win, however, it ended in a draw.

I was slightly disappointed watching the team as I felt like there were so many chances we could have converted into a goal but were not able to. A 2.35 xG yet we didn't score one? Just shows how lacking in the quality we are with the strikers as I mentioned in my last update.

Similarly, we picked up two red cards in the span of 11 minutes which made left me fuming but our defense really showed up and kept the team together.

v Havant & W (0-0)

Playing against a team above the mid-table, I always just hope for a game where we keep a clean sheet but remain threatening.

This game brought about some positives as we did better than the other team in terms of possession and passes completed. We also almost got a goal but Troy Chiabi would be judged offside.

Our defence seems to really be the team's best quality and I hope it remains that way throughout this season for our fight against relegation.

Conclusion

Overall, not a bad start. I would probably give it a D since we kept the goal deficits at a minimum.

Hopefully, you guys are enjoying the series so far. If not, do leave some suggestions on how I could improve the content.

Next update, I will probably be updating the progress up to the start of the January transfer window.

Hope to see you guys there