The Higher Tempo Press
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The Land Down Under XVIII
G’day, mate! We’re back to check in on the Mighty Mariners! I left you all on a cliffhanger at the end of the last post. I usually completely finish a preseason before the preseason post comes in, but I stopped at the end of the first leg against Shanghai. We’re going to cover that result, […]
The Legend of Roger Milla Part XVIV: We need a fancy, clever announcement video
It’s a bit different out here in Africa. Frankly, Tonnerre KC don’t have the social media budget in place to do some kind of super cool, anthemic video announcing the fact that WE’VE ONLY BLOODY WELL WON THE LEAGUE! That’s right, season five and another big aim crossed off the list. I’d love to tell […]
Under The Lens Part 3: Mixed Fortunes
So, when I left you last time we had won every game we played so far, four wins in Ligue 2 and a win in the Coupe de la Ligue 1st round. That 1st round win sees us play against Racing Club de Strasbourg Alsace next who we beat 2-0 on the opening day of […]
1.21 Boeren, Boeren PSV: Champions League Match 3 – Leicester v PSV
Pre-Match The bookmakers have taken note of our last result in Europe and Leicester are the favourites with odds of 4/5. Nampalys Mendy misses out through injury while Marc Albrighton is a doubt with a twisted ankle. Leonardo Ulloa and Daniel Amartey are also unavailable due to manager Juande Ramos’ decision not to register them […]
Rivalità Tra Fratelli, Episode 18 (Inter Milan Revisited)
This is the story of two brothers, a modern-day Cain versus Abel if you will, based in the northern powerhouse Italian city of Milan. If you’d like to replicate this challenge, we’re using the updated medium database with the following leagues: England (Premier League, Championship, League One & League Two), Italy (Serie A & Serie […]
Club recruitment system: Anglo-Saxan Chronicle 43
In my role as manager of FC Saxan, I am attempting to develop a systems engineering approach to football management. In my previous post I identified five pertinent systems involved in managing the club, of which the first was talent acquisition. There are two ways to acquire new talent: through recruitment and through developing the […]
The Higher Tempo Press Goal of the Month: #2
Hey folks, we are back with another Goal of the Month competition. Today you can find out who won the first competition and that winner gets to claim their prize direct from the official Football Manager merchandise store! Then we have EIGHT of the best goals sent to us in the last few weeks for you […]
The Legend of Roger Milla Part XVIII: It’s been a while, how have you been?
Well hello. It’s been a while, hasn’t it? Don’t panic, the save hasn’t died, crashed or been forgotten about. I’ve been having a mini-break from playing it and writing about it, to try and keep myself fresh. And I think it worked, as when I fired Tonnerre KC back up last night it was like […]
The Land Down Under XVII
I’m starting to become convinced that the FFA Cup is cursed and that I am never going to be able to win it. I’m going to open up the blog by saying it and getting it out of the way… We lost to amateurs. There, I said it! We lost to a bunch of f*****g […]
To Dare Is To Do: Episode 36
FM17 Tottenham Hotspur FC To Dare Is To Do | #36 Black Cats| Let’s Play Football Manager 2017 Welcome to a Football Manager series on my channel, that’s right, it’s Tottenham Hotspur. Today we take on Sunderland in the Premier League and after a good start for the Black Cats will they offer us a […]
Systems engineering and football: Anglo-Saxan Chronicle 42
So what does a systems engineering approach to football management – especially the management of FC Saxan in the Moldovan top tier (Divizia Nationala) – look like? I don’t yet know – when, prior to being appointed, I floated the idea over dinner with the chairman, Eugeniu Merciu, I was talking off the top of […]
FM17 European Gigalo Challenge Episode 4: Schalke squirm & stumble
We’ve reached the winter break in the Bundesliga and I’ve managed to keep my job. Four wins in a row across all competitions saw us secure top-spot in our Europa League group and rise to just four points off the Champions League spots. About six weeks ago we were a point off the relegation zone, […]
Young Lions: A Tale of Success and Woe
With our struggles in defending, I realised it is probably best we avoid… defending. We aren’t very good at it, so why bother? The opposite of the growth mindset I so readily promote every day. We can’t not defend though. It isn’t possible to ignore this part of the beautiful game, but what if we […]
To Dare Is To Do Episode 35
FM17 Tottenham Hotspur FC To Dare Is To Do | #35 Revenge Mission | Let’s Play Football Manager 2017 Welcome to a Football Manager series on my channel, that’s right it’s Tottenham Hotspur. Today we take a look at one last major signing for this summer, we also take a look at the Champions League […]
Next step towards engineering a football club: Anglo-Saxan Chronicle 41
Eugeniu Merciu, FC Saxan’s chairman, offered me the managerial job on the understanding that I would approach the task of club management as if it were an engineering project. Specifically, I’ve undertaken to: Design and implement a series of protocols to govern the way we perform operations (such as acquiring players), ensuring quality control Develop […]
Potential to Legends: An FM Experiment
Football Manager has one of the most comprehensive player databases of any footballing organisation, including most clubs. They have hundreds of scouts, which means that every player on there has exceptionally accurate attributes and statistics. This means that when they scout a young player, they know better than almost anyone how that young player is […]
Southampton’s Black Box Part 7
Welcome back to ‘Southampton’s Black Box’: a story focused on the organised success of the club known for their over-achievement. As the title implies, the save will be highlighting and representing the recruitment strategy by Southampton. I will be compiling a large database of players in the game to assist me in my FM17 successes, as […]
Under The Lens Part 2: Season Opener
So here we are, it’s the opening day of the Dominos Ligue 2 season and we face newly promoted Racing Club de Strasbourg Alsace. Going into the game we were 6-4 favourites and having not lost a game during pre-season I fancied our chances. Well, what a start that was! Not even two minutes into […]
Where Eagles Dare Part 2: Tactics, transfers, and pre-season
Now I analysed the club thoroughly I have a clear objective of where to go next. First off, I need to come up with a tactic that will allow us to remain in the Eredivisie. Next, I need to find players that fit the tactic and last of all, I need to survive pre-season with […]
The key to scouting for staff: Anglo-Saxan Chronicle 40
In my previous post I introduced the notion of an Lp number. This is the maximum number of criteria that it is practical to use when scouting for a player. For example, I reckon the Lp number (‘L’ standing for league and ‘p’ standing for player) for Moldova’s top flight is 3: that is, when scouting […]
FM17 European Gigalo Challenge Episode 3: Schalke’s rollercoaster
October has not been good for us so far, we’ve won just once, and it’s extended a poor record that emerged towards the end of September. Our form at the start shows me this formation works though, as does my experience previously, so I’ve cracked my knuckles and intend on flushing out the issues. First […]
Classic Championship Manager: Down by the Riverside Part 1
Just how did this team get relegated? Well, two reasons. A quick look at the table shows us that whilst Boro outscored most of the division, they conceded more than anybody else. 60 times they were breached, that’s 1.5 times per game. So whilst Ravanelli, Junino and friends ran riot at one end, Steve Vickers […]
The key to scouting: Anglo-Saxan Chronicle 39
Time to bring some players in to replace the folk-of-little-determination that I shifted off FC Saxan’s register. I need, at least, three full-backs, one defensive mid, and a 3rd choice goalie. Potentially, several hours of frustrating scouting lie ahead. But I figure I can minimise the time required by calculating the Moldovan top flight’s Lp […]
The Land Down Under XVI
We’re coming into the final minutes of the Grand Final against Perth Glory. Last season we failed to win it and defend our title, and we were up 1-0 and ready to pop the champagne bottles. Harry Ascroft and Sean Pratt were on each side of Andy Keogh closing him down as he made a […]
Under The Lens Part 1: A New Beginning
So, I’m back again with a new FM17 save, and hopefully this one goes better than the last. Rather than start in the non-league of England, this time I’ve decided to move across the Channel and begin proceedings in France’s Ligue 2 with Racing Club de Lens. Lens have been a side that of late […]
Rivalità Tra Fratelli, Episode 17
This is the story of two brothers, a modern-day Cain versus Abel if you will, based in the northern powerhouse Italian city of Milan. If you’d like to replicate this challenge, we’re using the updated medium database with the following leagues: England (Premier League, Championship, League One & League Two), Italy (Serie A & Serie […]
Hallelujah! Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah! Hall-e-lu-jah! Anglo-Saxan Chronicle 38
As I explained in a previous post (‘Determination as leverage‘, 21 July 2017), the FC Saxan squad is besmirched by the presence of a number of players with low determination. Time to act. But how liquid will the Moldovan transfer market prove? Praise be! The answer is, pretty liquid. Of the seven players with a […]
Final Day Of The Season As Leiria Look To Steal The Title Away
The entire Portuguese second league season boils down to one final set of fixtures to decide who will become champions. Two teams are locked together at the top of the table, last seasons runners up Benfica B and long time leaders Leiria. Leiria has been taking the division by storm but one point from their […]
Tempo Tactics Episode 2: Recreating Zinedine Zidane’s Real Madrid
A couple of weeks ago Stuart Davidson wrote a fine, fine piece on recreating Zinedine Zidane’s tactics that have led Real Madrid to back-to-back UEFA Champions League titles, something that has never been done before. Zidane probably hasn’t been given the credit he deserves for this achievement, and he cannot have achieved it without some […]
The Land Down Under XV
G’day, mate! The regular season has come to an end and we’re getting ready for that Australian winter and our downtime for the year, so let’s get to work covering our regular season exploits. First off, I said in the previous post that I’d provide an update on the Australia situation. I was the favourite […]
Kit Download: 1860 Munich
It’s been a rough month or so for TSV 1860 Munich. Relegation to 3.Liga via the relegation play-offs at the end of the last season was the moment where their owner, Jordanian Hasan Abdullah Ismaik, decided enough was enough and refused to foot the €5m bill for the club to continue. With no license to remain […]
1.20 Boeren, Boeren PSV: Luuk de Jong
Profile Luuk de Jong signed for PSV in 2014/15 for £4.4m from Gladbach. The 26-year-old front man has 7 goals in 16 appearances for the Dutch national team and joint with Davy Propper leads the scoring for PSV this year with 6 goals. De Jong’s technical strengths are in the obvious areas of Finishing and […]
On acquiring defensive midfielders: Anglo-Saxan Chronicle 37
I wish to develop a protocol to regulate the way we acquire defensive midfielders. If I were managing at a higher level, that might prove a complex task. The roles in which a defensive midfielder can play are quite diverse. A ball-winner differs markedly from a half-back, who in turn is very different from a […]
FM17 European Gigalo Challenge Part 2: The struggles of Schalke
Our pre-season campaign was solid, the signing of Javier Pastore has got the fans loving me, and my players are all performing out of their skins, sort of. I’m hoping the struggles to defeat Duisburg in the German Cup was simply a blip as I prepare for my Bundesliga debut. Hopefully the press don’t ask […]
The Legend of Roger Milla Part XXVII: A monumental win
Welcome back to my African adventure! For fairly new readers, I am in Cameroon managing the club that gave the world the legendary Roger Milla (he of Italia 90 fame), Rigobert Song (he of bad hair at Liverpool fame) and George Weah (he of probably being the greatest African footballer of all time fame). Tonnerre […]
The Young Lions: The Story of Defending
This series was always going to be interesting from an age versus experience standpoint. In the Championship we had an average age of 20.46. That is 8.19 years below Norwich, who have the oldest squad in the league. Our defence has an average age of 19.90, compared to Norwich at 29.33. Almost a decade of […]
1.19 Boeren, Boeren PSV: Davy Propper
Profile Davy Propper is a 25 year old midfield playmaker, he has 2 caps for Holland at this point. Propper is in his second season with PSV after a £3.6m move from Vitesse. Propper is currently our joint top goal scorer this season with 6 goals in all competitions. Propper is technically adept as a […]
Slack FC: Season One Summary
It’s been a long time coming, but finally we’ve reached the end of the first season with the Slack FC lads. This season saw Slack FC achieve a non league double, winning the National League South and the FA Trophy under the management of Emile Heskey. Here we take a look at the original Slack […]
Protocol for acquiring a right-back: Anglo-Saxan Chronicle 36
I wish to develop a protocol to regulate the way we acquire right backs. Whenever I develop a protocol I start by searching the web to see what guidance is already available. No point re-inventing the wheel. Fortunately, when it comes to acquiring a full back, my work has been done already. Just recently another […]
How to Transform Youth Players into Global Megastars with Football Manager 2017
Most youth coaches and team managers understand the frustrations of watching a kid with a ton of potential fall short. When they first join the team, parents and coaches have high expectations. They rely on the best individual coaches they can find, but before they realize it, that potential has slipped right past them into […]
The Legend of Roger Milla Part XXVI: Everyone loves a kit launch, don’t they?
Alright folks. Apologies once again for not getting an update out yesterday, we were on the road once more heading down to the coast finding ourselves a nice quiet beach and a decent view of the Med. That’s not a bad view to play FM too, I can tell you. But you don’t care about […]
To Dare Is To Do Episode 34
FM17 Tottenham Hotspur FC To Dare Is To Do | #34 Signings Galore | Let’s Play Football Manager 2017 Welcome to a Football Manager series on my channel that’s right its Tottenham Hotspur. Today we take look at the outgoings and incomings as well as a match with West Brom as we return to White […]
1.18 Boeren, Boeren PSV: Nicolas Isimat-Mirin
Profile Isimat-Mirin is a 24 year old defender capable of playing anywhere across the defence but his strongest position is as a central defender. Isimat-Mirin is capped at U21 level for France but is yet to make his senior international debut. He was signed from Monaco in the 2015/16 season having spent the previous season […]
Where Eagles Dare Part 1: Introduction
After having great success with Nottingham Forest, I have decided to emulate this with my local club, Go Ahead Eagles from Deventer. It is a small club that was promoted to the Eredivisie at the end of the 2016/2017 season. With its limited resources it has always shuttled between Eredivisie and Jupiler League (the 2nd […]
Stakeholder management, the press: Anglo-Saxan Chronicle 35
My next meeting with stakeholders consists of a press conference. I reckon I can keep the press reasonably happy simply by making a point of always showing up myself, rather than sending a deputy, and by answering every question, even if it’s with a ‘no comment’. I can also use the press to send messages […]
1.17 Boeren, Boeren PSV: Jeroen Zoet
Profile Jeroen Zoet is our custodian between the sticks. A 25 year old with 4 international caps to his name, Zoet has been at the club for his entire career having established himself as first choice goalkeeper in the 2013/14 season. Zoet possesses a Professional personality, one of the must haves for football managers. His […]
Disciples of the Rafalution: The Roles of the Fullbacks
Rafa Benitez & his tactical approaches demand a lot from his players. A cautious man, he seeks to build a solid spine & defensive foundation before looking to put together his attacking exploits. No greater a case to be seen is the first signings of Liverpool’s Rafalution. Antonio Nunez (a part exchange transfer from Real […]
Football management as stakeholder management: Anglo-Saxan Chronicle 34
When we first met Eugeniu Merciu, the FC Saxan chairman, we had attempted to interest him in the notion of stakeholder management. Unsuccessfully. But that doesn’t mean I can’t myself implement a stakeholder strategy. I start by listing all the types of stakeholders I can think of. By ‘stakeholder’ I mean anyone who stands to […]
The Land Down Under XIV
G’day mate! Welcome back to Central Coast Stadium! Interested in hearing what’s been going on for the last month and a half down under? We’ve got some good news to talk about, some irritating news, and most importantly we have the new draw for the Champions League, which was why I came back to write […]
The Legend of Roger Milla Part XXV: What do you mean we’re in the World Club Cup?
Well, after all the excitement of last season this preseason has been a little bit different. Muppet-pants here forgot that winning the CAF Champions League meant we’d be heading to Seoul for the FIFA Club World Cup! That meant our preseason was all a bit upside down, with our first game after the short break […]