Il Doria – Sampthing Old, Sampthing New

Having reached the end of season two, we’re now in a good place with the squad feeling more like “mine” than that I inherited. Various personnel changes, a massive staff overhaul and a meandering tactical experiment have left us in a solid position to push on next season.

Contrary to my last posts, I’ve now abandoned the 3-5-2 / 5-3-2 experiment (I’ll explain why), so this update will be a pretty straightforward one covering what’s happened in season 2019/20.

Club Tactics – Forward Planning

Whilst early signs are that my fears of domestic dominance coming too easy look to be well-founded, I’ve still more or less enjoyed the initial months at Rapid.  The national side, though, is another matter completely as I’m already struggling to keep my job.

Having reached the winter break in the first season, it does seem an apt time to update on my tactics – or rather my tactical plans.  As always with a new save, I set up for the first half season to suit the existing personnel until I can get a feel for the strengths and weaknesses of the squad.

FM15 – time to revisit the tactical vision that failed?

It’s been a long time since I wrote anything for this blog so apologies to anyone who has been disappointed by the lack of activity. My absence was caused by a number of factors – a new arrival in the shape of our second child and the need to campaign for a No vote in the recent Scottish referendum on independence, but primarily because I really didn’t like FM14 at all. It was a bad game.

Towards the end of my attempts to make FM14 enjoyable, I tried to implement a truly pompous sounding “Tactical Vision” with my Alavés side. My attempts to do so failed spectacularly, hampered, I believe, by the restrictions inherent in the FM14 engine. However, shining through the usual detritus, filler and sales-pitch bullcrap of the FM15 “new feature” announcements was news of four new “roles” – one of which might actually make my vision workable.

So, ahead of FM15, and because I’m bored waiting to give the new child a late night feed, I thought I’d sketch out what exactly I hope to be able to do in the new match engine. This, for me, is likely to be the yardstick by which I gauge whether FM15 is an improvement on its scandalously poor predecessor. And by god I hope it is.

Feralpi Salò – Developing a small club

After 4 seasons with Rapid Wien and Austria, I’ve decided to head for pastures new. Seeking a different challenge as the domestic game was becoming far too easy, I decided to head to the Italian lower league. Taking over a small, practically tiny, club in Feralpi Salò I’m looking to turn a minnow into a side that will eventually challenge the Italian giants of Milan, Turin and Rome.

In terms of the blog, I’m hoping that this game will show readers a different side to FM. With both Toulouse and Rapid, the two teams I’ve updated on so far, the clubs have been in their countries’ top tiers and well-established with good stadia and facilities. Feralpi are the complete opposite.

Therefore, in this post I’ll detail a bit about the club, why I chose them and what the current status of the club is; before then detailing my early days in charge with a bit on squad analysis, setting up the tactic and the initial signings that I have made… including an Austrian – old habits die hard.

Rapid Wien – 2012 / 13 Season Review

I had originally planned on following my usual routine of a half-season update rather than waiting until the campaign had finished, however several things in my personal life have lead to a lack of time and/or a lack of wireless facilities to provide an update. Therefore, I’ve managed to complete our first season with the club side and things have been going relatively well.

As is the general approach with club and country games, the success or otherwise of the club side is secondary. Therefore, I will only provide quick details on the results over the course of the season.

Instead, much of this post will concentrate on the players with a particular focus on the youngsters that might one day progress into Austrian internationals.  I’ll also take a look at the first mid-season batch of newgens whilst updating you on the off-the-pitch changes that I’ve made since the last update.