Football Manager 2019

Liking it so far, only a month or so in, but seems like what you say and do have a much bigger effect on the game than last years

Solid to get rid of any of the * from Celtic but, probably realistic tbf

 

Definitely realistic, that’s why they are all still here. Even FM knows Jack Hendry should rot in the reserves

 

Boyata signed 4 year extension for me. Hard to get any other players in tho.

 

Was thinking that myself!!

 

I put in a 1m bid for Tonali (his value) and they negotiated, when I offered his value plus Jack Hendry they came back with 'unacceptable' and ended negotiations there and then.

 

First 2 competive games and end up winning 20-1 In first leg of Euros

 

Glad they’ve made the AI more sensible

 

Early impressions of the game: so far, so similar. Though VAR does add a touch of intrigue to proceedings. And everything looks really fresh. For example, big fan of the club crests now showing up on the team of the week award alongside the kits. Looks very snazzy. Just a shame my pack of stadium images is now redundant as they've gotten rid of the little coloured seats bit on the skin.



I can't really say too much about the new tactics and training as apart from the initial setting up bit I've not delved much deeper into either. This probably isn't helped by me essentially playing through largely on auto-pilot as I'm concurrently playing NBA2K. But despite that lack of undivided attention - or who knows, perhaps because of it - we're doing reasonably well. Some dodgy form here and there, some frustrating * results against middling league sides, but overall a largely positive season despite relying on the goalscoring exploits of almost-38 y/o Aduriz.

I think I'm about 9th at the moment, and I think I'm somewhere in November. These two matches have been the absolute zenith of the season, particularly the Atleti away one as it came right after a 4-1 home defeat to Barca.

 

4-3-3 11 made in Benfica.

Note: U21 and currently in Benfica. Players already abroad, like Ederson, João Cancelo, Renato Sanches, Bernardo Silva, Gonçalo Guedes, etc, are not included.

TLDR: buy Florentino Luís, Gedson Fernandes, Tiago Dantas, Jota, Úmaro Embaló and João Félix and dominate the game in 5 years. No need for a defence with a midfield and attack like that.

GK - Zlobin, 21y. Headed for a decent career in real life.



RB - Tomás Tavares, 17y. May be great in real life (not sure if João Cancelo's level, but certainly can play for Benfica).



CB - Rúben Dias. Future of Portugal (already pairing with Pepe) and Benfica (already a starter). Benfica rejected 30M€ for him last summer.



CB - Ferro. Benfica has high hopes for him. Benfica's president already said he has to be part of next year's squad.



LB - Yuri Ribeiro. Decent, but I doubt he'll be Benfica's quality any time soon. He's a backup to Grimaldo in real life.



DM - Florentino Luís, 18y. U17 and U19 European champion with Portugal. A future world class player. Benfica's president already said he has to be part of next year's squad.



CM - Gedson Fernandes, 19y. Already a starter for Benfica and a national team player in real life (played against Scotland). Future world class player.



AM - Tiago Dantas, 17y. Tiago Dantas is really talented but physically lacking. Reminds me of Bernardo Silva at his age. May be a future world class player, if duly protected.



RW - Jota, 19y. U17 and U19 European champion with Portugal. Had his main team debut last Thursday, for the Portuguese cup. Future world class player.



LW - Úmaro Embaló, 17y. A 17M€ deal to Leipzig aborted last summer. He has the tools to be great, but I doubt his agent will let him achieve his full potential... May be a future world class player.



CF - João Félix, 18y. João Félix is a part of Benfica's main squad and is widely regarded as the Portuguese biggest talent. Hard to tell if he is, but certainly may be a future world class player. His FM stats at 18y make him a potential Ballon D'Or in game.

 

Players out of the Portuguese Big 3 who deserve to be mentioned:

Francisco Trincão. Future world class player, joint top scorer of the U19 European championship.



Chiquinho. Best youth player of the Portuguese second league in 2017/18. Benfica bought him and let him go to Moreirense with a buy back clause.



Shoya Nakajima. Japanese international, all Big 3 showed interest but Portimonense demands 10+M€ for him in real life. They are Porto's feeder club and even signed Jackson Martínez last summer.



Fábio Coentrão. From Real Madrid to Rio Ave.



Cláudio Ramos. Decent keeper, had his debut for the Portuguese national team against Scotland. Sporting wants him to be Rui Patrício's successor.

 

Tutoring??? Am I missing something?

 

It's now called mentoring and it's a tab option in Training.

You need to create groups and put players in there, not had a close enough look yet. Have a look at the following link for a brief description of the new training overhaul.

https://community.sigames.com/topic/448638-fm19-training-a-brief-guide/

 

Seen this guy and remembered reading about him.

He's got bags of potential.....

 

Saying that, Hibs just bought him off us for £200k

 

Has anyone got into the CL group stages yet and then asked the board for more cash to spend? Any success?

 

Seems like it could be better than the old way, but will take some getting used to.

Sent from my F8331 using Tapatalk

 

Not got that far yet.
I've just been mainly dicking around with a Celtic save and a man United save - after watching them yesterday, I've decided I can do better.
* hard though trying to sell some players, absolutely no bids for smalling, Jones, rojo, Valencia or young.
Even when offering them out for half their value.



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Aye it happens quite a lot where they don’t get the balance right with how easy it is to get rid of unwanted players. In Last years game it was quite easy, this year it seems difficult

 

At first I was laughing at myself for how * these players were, but once I started reducing the asking fee and still no bites, gets a bit silly.

 

You've really got to hand it to SI, they manage to blur the lines between fantasy and real-world football so well.



Bit unrealistic though, in that he lasted until February.

13 games left and we're in the midst of a proper Europa League scrap. The top 4 are essentially set in stone but anyone from Alaves down to Betis could conceivably snag a Europa League spot.



We were having a bit of a tough patch on the goalscoring front so I scoured the market for the best available striker. Only remotely viable player up to a La Liga standard was Bosnian-Basque Kenan Kodro, who was tearing up the Danish leagues at Kobenhavn. He'd notched up 10 goals in 10 starts so I decided to buy him to take some pressure off of Aduriz. Cost £1.7m rising to £2.1m. Naturally that form hasn't carried across to a much tougher league, but he's a reasonably good bench option. We desperately need a high potential goalscorer to come through in the next youth intake, as the ranks of young Basque strikers seem to be particularly barren.

Made a couple of other January signings, two highly-rated youngsters who my scouts brought to my attention. German Valera, a 16 y/o winger from Villarreal, and Ivan Martinez, a 17 y/o keeper from Osasuna. Former cost £1.3m, the latter £325k. Both were release clauses.

Had a tough decision to make when Oscar De Marcos refused to negotiate a new contract due to the interest being shown in him by Napoli and a host of other clubs. There were a number of other players whose contracts were expiring at the end of the season, including key players such as Muniain, Remiro and Raul Garcia, but I had no trouble getting them all tied down to new deals with modest pay bumps in most cases (or a £20k pay cut in Raul Garcia's case, good to see that older players can still be persueded to take a lower deal). De Marcos was the only holdout.

Once the 6-months-to-expiry date hit he got a big Bosman offer from Guangzhou. At this point I was able to enter into negotiations for an extension, but his demands were unrealistic. I decided that I'd transfer list him to at least extract a bit of money from the situation. Got several bites at his £4.4m value + 10% sell-on, the likes of Newcastle, Napoli and a few Chinese clubs. But sadly he turned them all down and agreed a Bosman with Guangzhou, thus denying me a fair fee. Had to take the hit of the 'sell now' option, and Guangzhou would only cough up £2.3m.

To be fair to him, Guangzhou did put him on a £210k p/w contract for three years, which is insane money for a middling fullback. Sad to see a 266-league appearance career for Athletic end like this. I recalled Lekue from his Watford loan, and he'll now rotate with Ander Capa in the battle to nail down the starting RB spot.