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Top 20 Free Transfers – FM20 – Non League South
Welcome to this Football Manager 2020 guide to help you find the best free transfers in non league South, the top 20 free transfers! In this Top 20 Free Transfers – FM20 post we save you clicking, searching and failing to find the gems to help you get to the football league if you are starting in the South of the country. Miles Jacobson@milesSIWinner of Twitpoll roulette – 26314. When players are released, particularly when at lower levels or youth… Read More Read More
New logo and re-branding
This is just a quick update for anyone interested in why we’ve changed our logo and will continue to re-brand. With Football Manager officially out today, what better way to announce our new logo then now. This is the Dictate The Game re-brand
Great Sides of FM – Valencia, The Forgotten World-class Club
Part of Great Sides of Football Manager Series Last year I did a club highlight article on why AS Roma was a fun club to play in FM19. It is still the case in this year’s version. If you want to manage in Italy, Roma is never a bad choice. With FM20 release looming around the corner, I decided to highlight another club. It is a team that probably does not need an introduction but definitely deserves one. The club… Read More Read More
FM20 Guide | Starting A New Save
With the release of the FM20 beta last week, many players have already sunk their teeth into their first saves, well on the way to getting Woking into the Champions League. I’m about 2 months in to my beta save with Chesterfield FC. For those of you who are new to Football Manager, or have come back after a hiatus, this is your guide to starting a new save on FM20.
Club Vision | Premier League | FM20
In this FM20 guide we will be showing you every FM20 Premier League team’s Club Vision. Club Vision is a huge part of FM20, and underlines your time at the club for many years to come… Failure to meet your proposed club vision will put your job in serious jeopardy!
PL Teams to Manage in FM20 | Part Two
Football Manager 2020 is expected to release in November and you’re probably wondering what team to go on the beta. In this PL Teams to Manage in FM20 guide, I will cover youth players and key players for each team. Will it be the newly promoted teams like Aston Villa, or European champions Liverpool, you might even try Chelsea under a transfer embargo? This guide should help you pick a Premier League Team to manage. If you haven’t read part… Read More Read More
Hoofball Bringing it back for FM20
Whether you call it Hoofball, Longball, Kick and Rush or Route One, as a tactical approach it has had a long history in Football. Sticking it in the mixer might be something you would expect to see more in the lower leagues than in the Premiership or the Champions League but teams like Bolton, Stoke and Wimbledon all claimed plenty of scalps. There’s no reason you can’t play like Big Sam and Pulisball your way to the top in… Read More Read More
Young Devils – Recreating Bielsa’s 3-3-1-3 Tactic in FM20
Recreating Bielsa’s 3-3-1-3 tactic has always been my football manager dream. I had some success in previous years but the tactics never worked exactly as planned. Halfbacks not working, wingbacks not advancing enough, too many crosses. In short, I could not recreate Bielsa’s ideas to my satisfaction. With FM20 and an improved match engine, I’m hoping to finally do it in my Man Utd project.
Yeovil Town – FM20 – Challenge
Welcome to this FM20 challenge showcase as part of a series I will be running to show a team with a challenging aspect to potentially try in this year’s edition of FM. Within this post I will be going through a number of aspects and key points to note and an overall difficulty challenge rating out of 5 at the end. Are you the one to take Yeovil to the upper echelons of football?
FM20 new features: how the game is an improvement over FM19
This year, I think I felt even more underwhelmed than usual. Being able to delegate the role of shouting from the touchline was one of the heights of the FM20 new features announced. Almost everyone I spoke to felt the same way. There wasn’t much to be excited about before the FM20 beta came out, but it was still a chance to start afresh with updated squads. Yet the game feels more professional and realistic. Let me explain!
FM20 Wonderkids – £1 Million Release Fee – Spain
Welcome to this Top 20 FM20 Wonderkids – £1 Million Release Fee – Spain, within this Football Manager 2020 world we are always looking for bargains! Within this post I hope to help you find a gem or two to take to your clubs around Europe and the world, be it Manchester United or River Plate, can these potential FM20 Wonderkids help take you to the next level?
Young Devils – Manchester United FM20 Guide
As promised, I start this FM20 series with the comprehensive guide to my chosen club, Manchester United. Although it was started in Beta, I intend to update the player profiles (and injuries) to reflect the full release data. So be sure to check back on Nov 19! I hope you find this guide useful, especially if you are starting your FM20 career at Old Trafford. Red Devils are a great team with a lot of potential which should nevertheless provide… Read More Read More
PL Teams to Manage in FM20 | Part One
Football Manager 2020 is expected to release in November and you’re probably wondering what team to go on the beta. In this PL Teams to Manage in FM20 guide, I will cover youth players and key players for each team. Will it be the newly promoted teams like Aston Villa, or European champions Liverpool, you might even try Chelsea under a transfer embargo? This guide should help you pick a Premier League Team to manage. In part one I will… Read More Read More
Who to Sign | FM20 Guide | MLS
Not sure who to sign on your adventure state side – don’t worry, here’s a list of some players you can sign to help you to MLS Cup.
How to Manage in MLS | FM20 Guide
Want to take an adventure to the states on Football Manager 2020? Not sure how to manage in the MLS? Fear not, here in this Football Manager 2020 guide, we will show you how to manage in the MLS. You’ll be a natural in no time at all!
FM20 Story Prologue – New FM, New Tactic, New Club
It is that time again! The next release of our favourite football manager is around the corner. Time when many football fans start thinking about new saves, tactics and challenges. For me its a been a time of tactical introspection and tying up old saves. Looking back at what I achieved last year, I have to say that I mostly enjoyed FM19. It had its share of challenges and triumphs. Although I did not get a taste of success until… Read More Read More
Dictate The Podcast | Ep 21 | FM2020 Limbo
Firstly welcome back to the podcast! This weeks podcast see’s Dom Paul and Pelham discuss new features for FM2020 announced on twitter this week. As a result of the limbo between games we spend the time talking badminton, brexit and more. In addition don’t forget to follow https://twitter.com/DictateTheGame and check out our website: http://dictatethegame.com/ Lastly check out Paul’s content here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCu31SvaD9VhK3FRGNnMJJLw Also check out Pelham’s Content!: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCN0EpFqPAwCsEMygWV1qy8A Finally thank you for listening to the podcast, if you like what you… Read More Read More
4-1-3-2 Velvet Blitzkrieg Tactic – Recreating the Mighty Czechs
This article is dedicated to that amazing team from 2004 which was able to take Czech Republic national football to heights it never experienced since. I believe that modern managers can learn something from the Czechs tactic. Recreating this 4-1-3-2 Velvet Blitzkrieg Tactic, as I like to call it, will be the focus of this article. It will be my last tactical experiment in Football Manager 2019. It is also my attempt to get back to the essence of what… Read More Read More
Getting expected goals or xG into FM19: FM Statistics Lab
Football Manager 19 introduced a huge range of match stats and analysis for us to use, and with FM20 soon upon us it’s probably safe to say that the new features will add even more to our experience. Despite all the improvements, the player pathways, development hub and even the club vision there are certain details that are probably yet to make an appearance even in FM20. Match statistics like shots on target might be our FM bread and butter… Read More Read More
Brexit is coming. How could it affect FM20 and British football?
Brexit is coming into FM20. No, that’s not the tagline to Boris Johnson’s Game of Thrones themed leaving-do but instead a reality that the United Kingdom is facing, whether we like it or not. Regardless of if or what you voted in the referendum, because fundamentally this is Dictate the Game and not Newsnight, many of us are sick to death of hearing about it. Britain will likely leave the European Union at the end of October. When it happens,… Read More Read More
Counter-attacking slickly in FM19
What a surprise, huh? I’m used to describing my possession tactics every week; now I’ll tell you about counter-attacking slickly in FM19. Strangely, my WBA side is still set up to control possession patiently. However, there are a few alterations, which have made the passing style slightly more mixed. Obviously, I will explain this in the article below! Hamburg 1-5 West Bromwich Albion I did not expect to concede 56% of the ball in this game. I also didn’t expect… Read More Read More
FM19 | Vertical Tiki Taka | 4-1-2-3 | Tactical Guide
My last post discussed how you can use data to improve my save. The eagle eyed among you may have noticed I was using a Vertical Tiki Taka tactic, one I have been tweaking for a while now. In this post I will explain what the tactic is designed to do, how effective it is, and where it’s shortcomings are.
FM20 Headline Features | FM20
Following the release of the highly anticipated headline features for FM20, we take a look at them and explain how they will improve your experience
Five LLM Teams to Manage | FM20 Guide
We’re all excited for the release of FM20 – and here are five LLM teams you should consider as a save.
Dictate The Podcast #19 | Community Content & FM Central
This weeks podcast sees host Dom, manager Ryan and Pelham (FM Tahiti) Talk website, football manager and more. We discuss our favorite content producers and our new ties with FM Central! Don’t forget to check out The NorthMan on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCu31SvaD9VhK3FRGNnMJJLw Check out our other podcasts! https://www.facebook.com/groups/FMCentral/
FM19 Guides | Tips & Tricks for Transfers & Contracts
After our article this week on “Finding Wonderkids easily on Football Manager” I’ve decided to add further information to this article and essentially a follow up. In this article I will be teaching you some nifty tricks to sign the best wonderkids and stars. I’ll also be teaching you how to keep them when bigger clubs come sniffing. These tips should help with your Transfers & Contracts and work in 2020 too! Tip 1: Sneaky Transfers & Contracts This is… Read More Read More
Great Sides of FM – AS Roma, The Most Fun Club to Play
Part of Great Sides of Football Manager Series We finally did it! Roma has won its 3rd Serie A title after a long 20 year drought. The fairy-tale run we had in my 2nd season, solidified my belief in Roma as the most fun club to play on FM. Luckily the club’s talented core remained unchanged in real life. So it should be another great year with AS Roma in FM20. Here are some of the reason why I love my FM19… Read More Read More
FM19 Guide | Finding Wonderkids easily
Finding Wonderkids on Football Manager Everyone has different methods when looking at bringing in the next Wonderkid for Football Manager. In this particular guide, I will explain the methods I have used in my online FM19 save which has allowed me to take a Vanamara National League team in to the Premier League. Before I start, I use these easy methods across all of my saves, and this one in particular is the save where I have reaped the rewards…. Read More Read More
Dictate the Game Podcast | #18
In this weeks podcast, Paul aka The Northman hosts for the first time in the absence of Dom. He is joined by FMTahiti, writer Ben and special guest GeeW. They discuss getting promoted and what you can expect from DTG this week. Listen on our YouTube. Like, comment and subscribe! Or listen to our podcast on the following platforms via our partnership with Northman Media… Our iTunes will be up soon! We hope you enjoy our podcast, our podcast is… Read More Read More
Comparing FM19 Tactics: FM Statistics Lab
Last time in the lab, we worked out the attributes that formed the DNA of my hoofball side. In this post, we’ll be comparing FM19 tactics. To do that, we’ll compare that hoofball tactic against a range of others from Dictate the Game in a tactical showdown. We discovered, as a result of the analysis, that for my angry hoofballing side the (common sense) attribute of aggression was not the only key for success. So were surprise attributes like positioning… Read More Read More
Top 5 Italian Sides to try in FM20
Italian football historically has had some of the most fascinating storylines over the 21st century. You can create more with your Italian sides in FM20. At the turn of the millennium, Italian clubs were outspending their other European counterparts. The likes of Juventus, Lazio and Inter, amongst others, spent large amounts of money on bringing the top stars to their teams. In the mid-nighties, Calcio was plagued by the infamous Calciopoli saga; various clubs were found guilty of match-fixing. More… Read More Read More
FM19 Guide | Starting A New Save
If you’re anything like me, you’ll get to a point some time when you’re thinking about starting a new save in FM19. Recently, I was missing English football, having started my first save in Italy, and wanted to start a save in the Championship. While this is a guide for starting fresh, there are a lot of similarities to starting at a new club, so this post will be useful to those players also. Starting out well at a new… Read More Read More
FM19 Guide | Adjusting to Promotion
Recently I wrote an article showing how to start a new save well, if you missed it you can check it out here. With a strong start in the league, I decided to continue my Brentford save and see where we ended up. After an expected finish of mid table, we won the league, finishing with 88 points. Here’s my guide to adjusting to promotion in FM19. After the success I’d had, I decided to give it a go in the… Read More Read More
FM19: Frustrating the opposition with defensive width
Defensive width in FM19 is supposed to be self-explanatory. In the FM19 tactics creator, you only get an explanation for the option you pick; you get nothing about what defensive width means in itself. That said, you get a helpful interactive graph:
FM 2020 Special: Dictate The Podcast #17 + The Northman
In this weeks FM 2020 podcast, we’re joined by the usual gruesome twosome of Dom and Guy, as well as Pelham and Paul aka The Northman! Paul joins us to talk about Football Manager 2020. With the new video released by the Football Manager themselves, we discuss we discuss our plans for the game. If you’ve not heard of Paul, check out his twitter and YT here: FM19 | How to use data to improve your save Mason Bradshaw |… Read More Read More
Using data to improve in FM19
Data is a powerful tool in the world of football. It can be even more powerful when utilised within Football Manager. This makes using data in FM19 essential. FM is essentially a huge database of attributes and statistics, which can be manipulated and analysed to produce better results for your team. In this post I’m going to outline my tips for utilising this data to improve your save.
Mason Bradshaw | Livin’ the Dream | #7
The Mason Bradshaw saga reaches it conclusion – and the ending WILL shock you! He’s certainly lived his dream – but is a reality?
Marseille- the most fun team in FM19?
If you’re looking to squeeze out a bit – or a lot – more fun in Football Manager 2019 before FM20 comes out, Marseille could be the perfect team to coach. They have so much attacking flair and some exciting young talents, but you’ll have to be man enough to deal with the unpredictable Mario Balotelli. Read on to find out why Marseille might be the most fun team to manage in FM19. No pressure You play in a competition… Read More Read More
Dtg Writers Cup! Group Stage
Welcome back to the DtG Writers Cup! Firstly, in this tournament, each person was assigned two letters to build a squad. Secondly they have been pitted against each other with some interesting results! After week one we had 4 games but as its been three weeks we’ve finished EIGHT matches to share with you in this article! Some will be more detailed than others but we’ll try and cover the important bits. Part 1: ( http://dictatethegame.com/2019/08/02/fm19-writers-cup-season-1-introduction/ ) Week 2 Fixtures… Read More Read More
The Sweeper Keeper in FM19 – Running with the Wolves #3
Just as Roma was not built in a day, you cannot create a successful tactic in one season. Especially not without taking into account the input of the innovations that came before. My 4-2-3-1 tactic is no different. It took me a few months of experimenting with various tactical setups and teams to arrive to its current form. In my second season as AS Roma manager I am about to take a brave new step into the future. But first… Read More Read More
Football Manager Predicts English Premier League
Who will win the league? Will it be Liverpool, City? Who will go down? In this instalment, Football Manager Predicts the English Premier League. Using an updated database, it will be interesting to see what Football Manager predicts will happen in the Premier League. Obviously, player attributes haven’t been adjusted. That will happen in Football Manager 2020, which is to be announced towards the end of this month.
Dictate the Game Podcast 15 | Interview with Dave Azzopardi
This week on the Podcast, a slightly smaller crew of producer Dom and Guy (FMVars) talk to Dave Azzopardi; a fantastic content creator for Football Manager, Watford fan and youth football coach. He’s a researcher for Football Manager, specifically at Watford FC. His job is to record the players statistics and the clubs finances to ensure the game matches the real world accurately. He also recently started a fan site; Talking Wolves. This was a fairly lengthy interview, as Dave… Read More Read More
Mason Bradshaw | Livin’ the Dream | #6
Livin’ the Dream is the third and final installment following the journey of Mason Bradshaw. His most recent role was with Braintree Town FC, in the Vanarama South, where he managed to keep them up. He’s now down under managing Sydney FC, living on the harbour with his wife Sophie, and young daughter, Vicki. In this installment, Mason jets back down under after his Christmas break back home. We hear from new signing Dax McCarty and Andrew Smith reflects on… Read More Read More
How to make FM19 interesting, with FM20 just around the corner
Every summer, we usually find ourselves asking the same question; this year it is ‘How to make FM19 interesting?’ Each year, there comes a time when many Football Manager fans find the game growing a little tiresome. Usually after having sunk hundreds of hours into the annual title. This year, I’ve racked up around 400 hours on FM19 across various versions. I have found myself in that slump more than once. Therefore, my only have been taking a little break… Read More Read More
How many player instructions to set in FM19?
The tactical depth in FM19 is simply phenomenal. You can get so immersed in the new roles and sorting out your defensive width, while forgetting about all the other parts of your tactic. Don’t forget player instructions in FM19! When it doesn’t work, some people will go straight to Miles Jacobson to lament how the new features don’t work.However, we’re not like that. These issues test all of our patience, though; no one’s more than mine. You want to know… Read More Read More
Dictate the Game Podcast 14 | Transfer Deadline Day + New Roles in FM 20
Your hosts this week, Eric and Pelham (FM Tahiti) are back with another DtG Podcast! CLICK HERE TO WATCH We’ll be wrapping up the English transfer window! As a result, we’ll give you the top five teams in terms of transfer window success according to Dictate The Game and where we think the top six will pan out based on new additions. Plus, what are you looking for in terms of role tweaks in FM 20? Eric and Pelham will… Read More Read More
Nine football league teams to manage in FM20
If you’re feeling anything like me, after racking up over 600 hours on this iteration of FM, you’re starting to get what me and my friends call “FM Fatigue”. With the new Football League season beginning last weekend, it’s easy to look ahead to the next iteration of Football Manager. Here are my top picks for football league teams to manage in FM20.
Mason Bradshaw | Livin’ the Dream | #5
Livin’ the Dream is the third and final installment following the journey of Mason Bradshaw’s football manager career. His most recent role was with Braintree Town FC, in the Vanarama South, where he managed to keep them up. He’s now down under managing Sydney FC, living on the harbour with his wife Sophie, and young daughter, April. In this update, Mason will play more league games, Mason writes a new blog post about the countdown to Christmas and there’s a… Read More Read More
Five teams we can’t wait to try in FM20
Welcome back to the Dictate The Game Podca… oh wait, sorry… wrong intro. Anyway, are we all getting a little bored to with FM19 now? I know I am. It always gets this way this time of year. You kind of feel like you’ve done what you want to do in the current version of the game. Now, you’re looking new and exciting types of saves to try or new databases to sort out… You’re just passing the time until… Read More Read More
Dictate the Game Podcast 13 | Brand New Website + First DtG Cup Matches
Join Eric, Dom, and Ben this week for episode 13 of the Dictate The Game Podcast! We’re all really excited to have been able to bring you the brand new Dictate The Game website this past week. In this week’s podcast we’re going to take a deep dive into the new Dictate The Game website. In addition, the first group state matches for the DtG Writers Cup are underway! We have results and predictions for the tournament! We have matches… Read More Read More