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The Vagabonds: Part 4
November is going to be the month it all clicks together. I can feel it. Looking at that list, and with most of the teams we’ll be playing sitting outside the top 8 at the start of the month, I think we can target 9 out of 12 points available. With a modicum of respect […]
1.16 Boeren, Boeren PSV: Assessing the season so far
I love cliches. I love football. And in the spirit of the man who invented battered Mars Bars, I believe that only good can come by combining two things that you love. It’s often said that you should never rest on your laurels which is precisely why I’m taking this time to assess what we’ve […]
Rivalità Tra Fratelli, Episode 16
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 […]
Limitations of the squad: Anglo-Saxan Chronicles 33
It’s pretty clear what the weaknesses of the squad are. We have no right-sided wide players, except full backs. May be that’s not so bad: we can play a narrow diamond. We have no sweeper, well, no very adequate one. That’s a blow: a 5-3-2 employing a sweeper is my favourite formation. And we have […]
Leiria gain promotion but look to have lost out on the title
With just one game remaining in the Portuguese second division season long time leaders Leiria have slipped two second place in the table. That comes courtesy of a 0-1 home defeat to second place Benfica B. The evenly fought contest was settled by a late Nuno Gomes strike to give Benfica the win to move […]
The Legend of Roger Milla Part XXIV: How do you summarise all that then?
Four years ago, Mark Monroe strode into Tonnerre KC determined to change the direction of this once great club. Tonnerre had given the world Roger Milla, Rigobert Song and George Weah in years gone by but were at rock bottom. Relegated from the MTN Elite I, just four players at the club all of whom […]
To Dare Is To Do: Episode 33
FM17 Tottenham Hotspur FC To Dare Is To Do | #33 Season Review | Let’s Play Football Manager 2017 Welcome to a Football Manager series on my channel thats right its Tottenham Hotspur. Today we take look at all the facts and figures from the season that was 2017/18 Join me on this adventure on […]
The Higher Tempo Press Goal of the Month: #1
OK, we know it is a little later than planned but we finally bring you the first Goal of the Month competition. Remember, YOU voted for these goals and now YOU have to vote for the best one. The winner gets to choose some FM merchandise from SI’s official merchandise store! VOTE!
Tempo Tactics: 5-3-2 Ćiro’s Croatia
“If he [Prosinečki] ever becomes a real football player I’ll eat my coaching diploma” – Miroslav “Ćiro” Blažević Between the ‘96 Euros in England and France ‘98, one international football team captured my heart and pocket money bets. The epitome of the dark horse, Croatia were a team full of individual greats crammed into a 5-3-2 […]
The Land Down Under XIII
G’day, mate! Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and all that jazz. This is update 13! I have to keep Googling how to correctly do Roman numerals since I didn’t expect to get quite so many posts in when I first thought of this series idea. Anyway, it’s January 1, 2019, as I write this post. […]
A Few Tips for Beginning Your Writing Adventure
So, you read The Higher Tempo Press and you think, “gee, that seems easy, I could do that better than those guys.” However, you have no idea what to do, where to start or how to go about building an audience. Well, have no fear because I am here to give you just a few […]
The Legend of Roger Milla Part XXIII: Analysing your top scorer…
Yesterday was a day of highs and lows at Tempo Towers. I knew we’d see the conclusion of our third MTN Elite I campaign. I knew we’d get a fair idea of how our first adventure into the CAF Champions League would end up. I knew it was going to be a decisive day. The […]
1.15 Boeren, Boeren PSV: Eredivisie Match 10 – PSV v AZ
Pre-Match After that fine result against Twente, the bookmakers have shortened our odds to 1/2 for this fixture. Santiago Arias is suspended for PSV and Menno Koch is still a bit away from match fitness. A massive blow days before the fixture as first choice stopper Jeroen Zoet is diagnosed with a hernia that will […]
FM17 European Gigalo Challenge: 5 Champions League, 5 Clubs, No history
It’s mid-July, the transfer window is in full swing and we’re a few weeks away from having football that actually matters on our TV again. Like many other football fans, the break is leaving me quite bored. I need a challenge. I need to be back on Football Manager. Admittedly, it’s quite a few months […]
Determination as leverage: Anglo-Saxan Chronicle 32
A basic principle of engineering that everyone understands is leverage. Try to open a door by pushing on the side nearest the hinges and it’s hard work; press on the side furthest from the hinges and it’s easier. I think of determination as a form of leverage. A defender has the strength, height, and heading […]
The Legend of Roger Milla Part XXII: Chasing Onesimo Sanchez…
Hey folks, and sorry. It’s been a couple of days since I’ve updated you all on the latest from Cameroon. The reason is that we’ve been on the real-life road in the last couple of days, viewing a property on the outskirts of Madrid, quite near a place called Toledo. A quick side track… Two […]
1.14 Boeren, Boeren PSV – Eredivisie Match 9 – FC Twente v PSV
Pre-Match PSV are somehow still odds on favourites away from home here being priced at 1/2. FC Twente have no injury or suspension worries today. Menno Koch is still 3 weeks away from his return, van Ginkel is an option for the bench. Oussama Assaidi’s impressive work rate on the wing for Twente is what […]
The Young Lions – Learning Tactics Part I
Can a man go from having heard the word tactic in passing, to being Marcelo Bielsa? All tacticians start somewhere, right? Honestly, I don’t build tactics with a goal in mind. I can’t translate an idea into practice. I can’t even think of the movement needed by players in situations in most cases. This is […]
Visual display of data: Anglo-Saxan Chronicle 31
So here I am in Ceadir Lunga, down in the south of Moldova, with a remit to approach the management of a football club the way that an engineer would. Engineers like data. In particular, they like quantitative data. And most of them like data to be displayed visually. A good dashboard is the kind […]
Southampton’s Black Box Part 6
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 […]
The RaumDiamond: FM17 Tactic
Follow @DistanceCovered on Twitter for more. I’ve created a variety of tactics in FM17 to suit various needs, to create certain goals or to recreate real-life systems in the match-engine. As the 2018 version of Football Manager is on the horizon, I wanted to create one last system from scratch that was unique, my own […]
1.13 Boeren, Boeren PSV Champions League Match 2: Napoli v PSV
Pre-Match PSV are the underdogs today with odds of 11/5 away to Napoli. Napoli are without the injured Emanuele Giaccherini and Lorenzo Tonelli while Raul Albiol and Piotr Zielinski remain doubts. Menno Koch is ruled out for PSV and Marco van Ginkel is still unlikely to feature. Arkadiusz Milik has been picked out as the […]
Mission completed: Anglo-Saxan Chronicle 30
With the help of Grace Price, my personal assistant who can speak Moldovan and so act as an interpreter during phone calls, I offer contracts for a Head Physio, a Physio, a Fitness Coach, and Goalkeeping Coach, an Assistant Manager, a Coach, A Chief Scout, and a Scout. Having read his team report, I terminate […]
1.12 Boeren, Boeren PSV – Eredivisie Match 8: Vitesse v PSV
Pre-Match PSV are billed as favourites despite being away from home. Odds of 4/6 are the best available. Adnane Tighadouini is picked out as the creative outlet for Vitesse, a player we’ll have to watch very closely. The Teams First Half Vitesse have the first chance of the half on 10 minutes after an intricate […]
Timo Werner
German football has a long and storied history of developing predatory goalscorers. From the penalty box brilliance of Gerd Muller to the strike partnership in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s of Rudi Voller and Jurgen Klinsmann through to the perhaps underappreciated tenure in recent years of Miroslav Klose and Mario Gomez. However, for all […]
Scouting for scouts: Anglo-Saxan Chronicle 29
The club currently has no scouts. We will certainly need some. Searching for scouts is relatively straightforward. For the chief scout, I search for the ability to judge players’ ability and for tactical knowledge, so that they can produce helpful team reports. For the second member of the team, the plain scout, I search for […]
The Legend of Roger Milla Part XXI: The Champions League is underway…
Firstly, I have to come clean. I didn’t get through anywhere near as much as I hoped yesterday so if you are tuning in expecting to hear about ten or fifteen games you are going to be very disappointed. But, we did potentially find a new house to go and play in so swings and […]
The Land Down Under XII
G’day, mate! It’s been a nice couple of weeks off on holiday to watch the World Cup, as I mentioned in the last post, but we’re back to business and it’s time for the grind of a new season once again. Oh, and England won the World Cup for once, but that won’t be covered […]
1.11 Boeren, Boeren PSV – KNVB Beker Round 1: PSV v GVVV
Pre-Match The bookmaker’s’ odds reflect the disparity in quality between the two sides today. PSV are available at odds of 1/8. PSV are still without Menno Koch, Joshua Brenet and Marco van Ginkel due to injury. There is no team news for GVVV. Not too much is known about this side other than our Chief […]
Rivalità Tra Fratelli, Episode 15
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 […]
The remaining coach: Anglo-Saxan Chronicle 28
According to the board, I’m entitled to appoint one other coach – or to retain the incumbent coach, Vasile Arlet. He’s not so bad – quite versatile, in fact. But I’d like to see if anyone can do better. Here there are four criteria: The candidate needs to be strong in an area of coaching […]
The Legend of Roger Milla Part XX: We are raining down in Africa
Welcome back folks, welcome back. You’ve got to love having all day Saturday to progress through a season, haven’t you? I managed to motor through 14 fixtures yesterday and, on the whole, it was a good day. In a moment you’ll find out whether it being a good day includes getting the better or Warri […]
Leiria Top the Table at the Half Way Point
An impressive 10 wins from the last 13 games sees Leiria sitting pretty at the top of the Portuguese second division. They currently hold a four point advantage over second placed Benfica B and six points over their closest rivals for promotion. After a devastating end to last season where they missed out on promotion […]
The Legend of Roger Milla Part XIX: The Lions start to roar…
As I announced, exclusively, yesterday I (sorry, Mark Monroe) is the new manager of Cameroon. Today I will let you know how the first matches in charge of my adopted country went as we had a B team match and a full match against Gambia B and Senegal respectively. But first I really want to […]
The Land Down Under XI
G’day, mate! Welcome back to The Land Down Under! The end of the season is upon us, so you know what that means? It’s time to wrap up what we started this season before I take off to spend some of that AU$425k I’ve earned these last two seasons so that I can go watch […]
The Legend of Roger Milla Part XVIII: What do you do when the country calls?
Things move fast in football, we know this. One day you are in a job, the next day you are not. Then sometimes, you get a job offer completely out of the blue. And that’s what my adopted homeland did to me. After much deliberation, and some research into what I had available to me […]
The Vagabonds: Part 3
Firstly, allow me to apologise for the extreme tardiness of this post. A combination of festivals and summer colds have kept me in various states of knackered so I’ve been a bit lax with FM. Updates should resume at a regular tick from here. So, onto part three! It’s indicative, I feel, of my desire […]
1.10 Boeren, Boeren PSV – Eredivisie Match 7: PSV v FC Utrecht
Pre-Match A return to domestic football at home to FC Utrecht. The odds, as ever, are in our favour with prices of 4/6. Menno Koch and Joshua Brenet remain out for PSV. Marco van Ginkel is on his return to training but will be doubtful to be fit to play yet. Utrecht’s Sean Klaiber is […]
10 Things You Learn From Being Sacked in Football Manager
So, you’ve probably gathered by the title of this piece that I didn’t have the success of a save with Bromley as I would’ve liked. If you haven’t read about my Bromley save it was a very topsy tervy journey that led to me getting let go. But getting let go isn’t that bad as […]
Specification for Assistant Manager: Anglo-Saxan Chronicle 27
Normally I like members of staff if possible to have high attributes for (a) determination, (b) discipline, and (c) motivation. Here, however, I’m less worried about those things for the simple reason that I believe that I’m strong on each of those myself. Motivation I’ll not worry about – nice to have, but I can […]
The Legend of Roger Milla Part XVII: Didn’t want to win the cup anyway…
Didn’t want to win the cup anyway. Both legs against Fovu Club ended 0-0 and we lost on penalties, something like 10-9. Gutted. Still, we only had to score one sodding goal and we failed to do that. So that is the 2018 season over, and it wasn’t too bad at all. I’ve decided to […]
Podcast: Tempo10 Episode 7 with @offthepitchfm
Welcome back listener(s). Today we bring a lovely little treat, by way of a chat with @offthepitchfm talking about his Lions save. Definitely worth a listen as he goes into quite a bit of detail as to why he has chosen this journey. Enjoy! Oh, and like it, subscribe etc etc etc. You know the […]
The Young Lions Roar – 2016/17 Review
I like to think of myself as the curator of England’s future in this save. I am managing tomorrow’s England stars as The Lions boss, and today’s current stars as England gaffer. Thanks to my position, I am playing God with the future of the England National Team. But, this puts me under the scrutiny […]
1.9 Boeren, Boeren PSV – Champions League Match 1: PSV v Celtic
Pre-Match PSV are the slight favourites at odds of 6/4 as the Scottish Champions come to town. Menno Koch, Joshua Brenet and Marco van Ginkel remain out for PSV. Christian Gamboa, James Forrest and Stuart Armstrong are injured for Celtic and Scott Brown misses out through suspension. Moussa Dembele is the obvious dangerman for the […]
Banished To Bromley Part 13: Time for change
Now into March and if you read part 12 what you’d know is a crucial month for me now, after other systems failing to work I’ve gone for a 4-4-1-1 to line up against Boreham Wood who sit in 11th, hopefully something goes right. Thankfully Sergio Torres’ emergence back into the starting 11 was accompanied […]
The problem of the assistant manager: Anglo-Saxan Chronicle 26
In my judgement, FC Saxan’s incumbent assistant manager, Ivan Burduniuc, is pretty hopeless. Apparently he’s an adaptable chap. But being prepared to move from one thing to another isn’t much good if there’s nothing you’re any good at. I decide that he can apply his adaptability to coping with redundancy. Given my approach to other […]
1.8 Boeren, Boeren PSV – Eredivisie Match 6: Willem II v PSV
Pre-Match The bookmakers have made PSV 4/6 favourites for this afternoon’s clash, having obviously missed our previous outing. The hosts are without midfielder Thom Haye (sports hernia) and Anouar Kali is a doubt as he continues his recovery from a slipped disc. PSV will miss Menno Koch, Joshua Brenet, Hidde Jurus and Marco van Ginkel […]
The Legend of Roger Milla Part XVI: Dogs, cars and title races…
Alright folks? Sorry there was no update from me yesterday, time got away from me. Having picked up three new youth prospects (puppies) at the weekend we needed a new team coach so that was collected today. I have high hopes for the big lad, Buddy. He’s a bit clumsy right now, but I think […]
A Guide to the Head of Youth Development
Youth Intake day is one of the most exciting days in football manager. We look forward to it every season, hoping for that next superstar. There is not a lot more satisfying than seeing your youngster turn into a world class player. Your youth and training facilities are obviously very important if you want to […]
Our protocol for acquiring a goalkeeping coach: Anglo-Saxan Chronicle 25
Here is the protocol that I use, as manager of FC Saxan, for acquiring a goalkeeping coach. Check the personality. If unsatisfactory (e.g. ‘unsporting’), abort. Check whether the goalkeeper-coaching attribute meets the threshold for the club? If yes, shortlist, If not, abort. Rank the shortlisted coaches initially on the basis of their goalkeeper-coaching attribute. Then […]