FM24 Heartbreaker - AS Monaco (2008)

 
 

Bonjour tout le monde, 

It was French Noël in the save when I last left readers. Monaco were 7th in Ligue 1 and aspiring to mount a title challenge in the new year. That new year is 2008. Just a reminder, I am playing the FM 2007/08 retro database made available by TheMadScientist (themadscientistfm.wixsite.com). Huge thanks to him and his Danish fingers.

Let’s kick-off right from where we left off…

January 2008 signings ✍️

It is certainly not a ‘war chest’, but €7.5m is a modest amount of money to improve the squad with a couple of players. In fact, I went a bit further than just a couple…

  1. Mathieu Valbuena (€2.5m from Olympique de Marseille)

    In real-life, Dwarf-ish Mathieu Valbuena had a great Ligue 1 career with Marseille. Signing him for €2.5m is a great piece of business, as it not only improves us…it also weakens a geographical and sporting rival. He can play across the front line, but he featured mostly as a Shadow Striker or right Winger in my current 4231. He even scored against his old club too 😀

  2. Bafetimbi Gomis (18 month loan deal with option to buy €3.2m from AS Saint-Etienne)

    Bafe was the original Black Panther, before Marvel got their hands on the rights to make movies in his image. I’m screaming the house down with frequent “Go Miss” as my striker netted 5 times in his first eleven games. Sadly though, a knee injury forced him to call it a season in the final two months of the league campaign. The good news is that I have Gomis for one more season before making the decision to sign him permanently from ASSE.

  3. Michel Bastos (€2.9m from LOSC Lille Métropole)

    I loved Bastos in these early FMs. In real-life he went on to Lyon, but he did not win much in the end there as it coincided with PSG’s real-life dominance from 2012. But he’s quality, and he proved to be a great addition as the attacking Wing Back in my 4231 with 7 assists in 17 appearances.

  4. Yohann Pelé (€3.5m from Le Mans Union Club 72)

    Club captain Flavio Roma got one last dream move in his career as AC Milan opened their cheque book to sign our Goalkeeper for €3.5m. Looking to immediately re-invest, I could have gone big on Hugo Lloris, but Yohann Pelé was the cheaper option (he also isn’t tainted in my mind for one day moving to Tottenham either). It’s worth noting that he’s no relation to the Brazil great, but I hope he will be a solid option between the posts nevertheless.

  5. Guillaume Hoarau (€1.2m from Le Havre, with a 6 month loan back agreed)

    Jan Koller is irreplaceable, but I accepted he would leave me for Celtic at the end of the season. A similar mould of player exists in Guillaume Hoarau. 192cm tall and still only 24-years-old, he will be a decent player in the future. For that reason I loaned him back to Le Havre for the rest of the season to provide him with adequate playing time.

My approach with these signings was grounded in the real-world. I thought it best to go and get Ligue 1 established players because (1) they know French football and (2) they are already physically conditioned into the cycle of the league campaign. I needed new January signings to ‘hit the ground running’, and that’s why I went with these guys. But did they secure European football?

Season 2007/08 - Heartbreaker 💔

“Just about”, is the answer to the previous question. But it could have been so much better!

I usually have a good record of final days in Football Manager games. But this season was a heartbreaker…dropping from 4th to 7th as a result of a 2-0 defeat in the Parcs des Princes to PSG; whilst everybody else won around me. This meant no Champions League, and we relied on Olympique Lyonnais to do us a favour by winning the Coupe de France against lower league opposition (SC Bastia). Even then, Monaco will have to deal with many Euro Cup qualifiers in pre-season just to get a shot at a European campaign!  For the first time in a long while I was left wondering if I was going to get the sack in FM, considering the Board wanted Champions League football.

Alas, they have decided to stick with me for a bit longer…

Target Forward - how did Jan do?

A sprain to Jan Koller’s knee ligaments meant he missed all of February and March, a period which happens to see us drop points in five of eight league games. It is probably fair to say he was essential to how we play, and this is to be expected since I built the team around his presence last time in the blog. If he could have stayed fit for the whole season then he may have topped the Ligue 1 goalscoring charts. Instead, Jan Koller makes do with 19 goals in 30 Ligue 1 games…which is 3rd highest scorer in the league behind Djibril Cissé (20 goals for OM) and Frederico Chaves Guedes (24 goals for OL).

Big Jan is also where you’d expect to see him in the Data Hub too. Decent amount of headers, with a good win rate. Hard bastard.

 
 

But I did see a dip in Jan Koller during the final two months of the season, and his four goals are evidence of that. This could be due to the injury, his upcoming move to Celtic distracting his focus, natural decline as a player in mid-30s OR a combination of all of those things put together. The beauty of FM is that we will never know but it’s meant parting ways with Jan is perhaps right for everybody: virtual him, virtual Monaco and non-virtual me.

Děkuju Jan xoxo

Nouvelle Tactique pour 2008/09 🔜

So, with big Jan leaving, the most sensible thing is to adjust the Target Forward tactic. As I alluded to earlier in this post, Guillaume Hoarau is a solid option for the physical approach upfront but I cannot expect the same results as what I was getting from Jan Koller. We will have to play slightly differently, tweaked instructions and perhaps roles/formation too. I will save that for a future post, as I fully intend to play at least one more season of this 2007/08 database in FM24.

Thank you for reading / sharing and caring.

Tony | FM Grasshopper (p.s. now on Bluesky 🦋)

The Ultimate Target Forward in FM24 - AS Monaco (2007)

 
 

Bonjour Readers,

I’m still at AS Monaco, but it’s no longer CM4 and I am no longer trying to be Matthew Perry in ‘17 Again’. Instead, it's a 37-year-old me with FM24 and a 2007/08 retro database (originally from FM2008). This is all made possible by TheMadScientist (themadscientistfm.wixsite.com), a content creator that devotes his working life to inputting past values into the FM Editor until his eyes bleed.

Why AS Monaco, again?

It was probably the FM before it (FM07), where I had Jan Koller doing all kinds of crazy things for a Monaco save played at University back in 2006-2007ish.  Back then, there was a near post bug which meant I could use Koller for 45 mins upfront, see him score a few times from corners…before slotting him back in a back three system to shore up the win. He rarely lost an aerial duel.

Ultimate Target Forward: 20s in Balance, Heading, Jumping Reach and Strength.

Anyway, I digress, the cold Winter nights are back too and I’ve relapsed into downloading FM24 back onto my Mac Mini. Whilst CM4 was good for a one-season fling, it was buggy and I missed Positional Play. Positional Play is the main driving factor for me wanting to play the latest edition of the game again. I cannot say enough good things about its addition this year. It still feels as fresh now as it once did back in October 2023.

I therefore come back to FM24 with two objectives from this save:

  1. Revisit the Target Forward role in FM24, with perhaps the best-ever fit in any FM game: 100kg Jan Koller.

  2. Start with a 4231 base shape (as a throwback to my CM4 series I just did with Monaco)...but get a nice 325 in possession through Positional Play.

The overall aim is simple: match the CM4 playthrough whereby I win Ligue 1 with the league’s top scorer. For a stretch goal, that’s 49-goal Shabani Nonda!

Target Forward - my thinking

Like many other FM writers, I am a huge fan of keeping it simple from a tactics point of view. Jan Koller requires two main things in order to be successful as a Target Forward: Supply and Demand.

Supply - How do we get the ball to our Target Forward?

  • A Target Forward needs a constant supply of aerial balls. The roles that cross often are Full/Wing Backs and Wingers. I’ll take one of each and place them on opposite sides of my tactic to vary crossing location and style.

  • As a result, it makes sense to ask the team to play wide. The theory is to go outside before you supply the Target Forward with a cross.

  • Lastly, we’ll play for set pieces. This gives us a natural reset point for the team, so that we can re-position and once again supply our Target Forward and build off from him.

Demand - Once supplied with the ball, who demands the ball from our Target Forward?

  • The above is all about increasing the frequency of balls into the Target Forward. But I also need to think about the demand from my side when he does have the ball. The Target Forward is a very simple role, it will not pick up the ball and break into the channels. Instead, the role will lay it off to onrushing teammates. This is covered through the use of player roles in my tactic that act as runners off him. This is primarily a Shadow Striker in the AMC position, and the other two advanced attackers: a Winger and an Advanced Playmaker.  There is also a central runner in the Segundo Volante…who acts as a vital link between those at the base of our team and the attack.

  • A Team Instruction added in the preliminary months of Ligue 1 was to bring more demand out of the team via the Counter instruction.  When we have the ball, I want numbers regularly getting forward to benefit from the Target Forward’s hold up play and simple distribution.

The Tactic

Player Roles + Positional Play

Our defensive shape is 4231, two Defensive Midfielders shielding a back four means we are resistant to the opposition trying to play through us centrally. Once with the ball, we morph into a back three where the Half-Back becomes a left sided centre-back.  The knock-on here is that I give an attacking role to my Full Back, knowing he has defensive cover nearby. The same could be said for the Segundo Volante who pushes up to link with the attack with an Inverted Wing Back taking his place to act as a DM pivot. More often than not, we progress to a 325.

4231 DM tactic

4231 out of possession.

In possession 325 leading to goal.

Here is the transition from the above screenshots, a goal against ASSE…

Team Instructions - It should be obvious from looking at the instructions as to what I am trying to do. The team instructions I have set all derive from the demand and supply idea for the Target Forward mentioned previously. I want to commit bodies forward and move the ball quickly into our Target Forward. The only slowness of our game is (1) overlapping on the left, to strategically increase the chances of our Full Back getting into good crossing opportunities and (2) playing for set pieces, because that’s a real strength of ours.

Important point - I originally asked the Goalkeeper to distribute long kicks to the Target Forward (especially as Flavio Roma has Kicking 17), but it did not work well and rarely were we able to build meaningful possession from it. Distributing to the Full Backs is way more effective, it allows us to progress beyond the halfway line where we see our midfield and attack take shape.

Player Instructions - I use PIs sparsely. But in this tactic I am asking three players to aim for the Target Forward with their crossing. That is: the attacking Full Back, Advanced Playmaker and the supportive Winger. The instructions, and set piece routines that I document shortly, bring about a style of football that I want to see. Both Jan Koller and a new Shadow Striker (to be revealed shortly) are dual battering rams upfront, and the tactical instructions are seeing them win enough headers in the area of the pitch which is essential (the penalty box + central areas). Here are their headers Vs Auxerre (red is Target Forward and blue is Shadow Striker):

Six headers won in the opposition penalty box Vs Auxerre.

Corners - More often than not, in any FM, there will be a superior corner set piece routine. Whether that’s near post of far post, or something in between. Personally, I love variety in football. I try to get variety in our attacks from player roles and team instructions, and it makes sense to vary corner routines too. I’ve got one Far Post and one Near Post routine for Jan Koller and friends, combine that with inswinging and outswinging and there is enough there to probe the opposition in different ways with each attacking corner kick.

Variety shown in 1st contact in opponent’s box. 37% attacks of near post 1st contacts, far post is similar %.

Throw-ins - The attacking third throwing absolutely has to be ‘long’. I’ve got two players with 15 long throws, and a huge man mountain to aim for. Jan Koller is really effective here, either with flick-ons further into the box…or simply laying it off for teammates. More often than not, we work a chance from this routine and they are varied movements too. I love it.

Corner - attacking near

Corner - attacking far

Throw-in - attacking third, long

Season 2007/08 - Part 1

I was unsure if Jan Koller could stay fit for the whole season, so I wanted another guy that could play the Target Forward role effectively when called upon. I also needed depth in the AMC area, so I was delighted to arrange a season long loan for Antoine Sibierski from Wigan. Signing Sibierski has proved to be a masterstroke, he has 7 league goals in thirteen starts and benefits from some of the team instructions built around the Target Forward. We really are a delight to see us line up in the penalty box with these two jugganauts. The two glaring limitations to 187cm tall Sibierski in the Shadow Striker role are the loss of that ‘explosiveness’ that the role sometimes needs (Acceleration, Anticipation and Pace for example) and also his Player Traits encourage him to do less of what I expect from the role. It’s given me something to address in future transfer windows: find that killer Shadow Striker.

Antoine Sibierski has yet to play for Wigan Athletic.

My Monaco side top the league’s statistics for both cross completion (30%) and amount of completed crosses (161), with the nearest side being league leaders Olympique Lyonnais with 19% and 134 respectively. However, the results have been inconsistent so far (ahem, 1-6 defeat to Toulouse), and we find ourselves in 7th place at the halfway stage. Jan Koller has had a strong start though, 14 goals in seventeen starts means he tops the league’s golden boot after 19 games.

‘Moyenne’.

20-year-old Jérémy Ménez is also attracting interest from some of Europe’s richest clubs like Chelsea. In our tactic he is the right sided Winger and his crossing is 10% above the league average, and he also is the 5th best ball carrier in the league (with 4.57 dribbles per 90). I am expecting many bids in the January window, and I may have to find a suitable right sided Winger to replace Ménez when he does eventually leave for big money. Whether that is this January, or next Summer.

AS Monaco’s starboy in 2007.

Next up on the blog

We have a transfer budget of €7.5m for player transfers, and an available wage budget of €2m for annual salary; should there be a player become available that improves us for the 2nd half of the season. In real life, AS Monaco finished 2007/08 in mid table (12th) and were distinctly average. It looks like I have a chance of Europe but a Shabani Nonda inspired title win, like in my CM4 adventure, really does look a stretch right now!

To see how I do, I will update the blog soon with the outcome of 2007/08 soon.

Thank you for reading / sharing and caring.

Tony | FM Grasshopper (who is also now on Bluesky 🦋)

SuperClub Diaries (Vol.3) - The End, for now #FM24

 
 

Intro

Let’s face it, the FM25 delay to March 2025 is disappointing for a lot of us. I positioned these SuperClub Diaries™ blogs to be lighter in touch in order to allow myself to have a little re-charge after 8-9 years of blogging, before launching into a new shiny FM25-era save. I genuinely had no idea if the save would feel ‘over’ after a couple of months OR span the length of the cycle. A normal cycle. Well, it has. SuperClub Diaries has taken me to three clubs, across 9 seasons and whilst not a standout FMG classic save, it has provided genuine moments of enjoyment and amazingly for the whole traditional annual cycle. But, I think this is where I stop.

I have seen a number of Community posts around finding a save to fill the unavoidable gap of those 4-5 months without a new Football Manager title. People stuck about what to do etc and ‘get the love back’. Whilst I know there is plenty to achieve in this save (because quite frankly I’ve not won enough). Personally, I know it is time to pause and take a definite break from the game. Luckily my income is not tied up with producing Football Manager content, and for that reason I won’t need to ‘react’ or provide any further content on FM24 (unless I wanted to of course). Often the term jealousy has been applied to writers like me, about perceived jealousy towards some of those earning a wage out of the game. Well at the time of writing, in October 2024, my jealousy is almost non-existent. Those poor bastards, if you can support them, in any small way* then please do.

*Four example ways you can support: (1) leave a Twitch browser tab open on mute when they stream, (2) watch their previous YT content and let the ads run whilst you head to work, (3) subscribe to their monthly Patreon and (4) use their affiliate link when pre-ordering the game.

Apologies for the tangent, this was a long and rambled way to simply say that this is my final SuperClub Diaries save update within the FM24 title. The narrative may resurface one day in the FM25-era…or be reserved to FM Grasshopper Coffeehouse archives. But for now, let’s head back to Turin…

2032 Champions League

The oil riches of the Middle East once again proved to be an impenetrable opponent for my Juventus side. Like PSG last year…Manchester City were just too strong in the Last 16 tie. Haaland is in his 30s now, but he doesn’t look any slower or any less capable than becoming ‘clutch’ in the key moments of big games. A shame really, the UCL campaign got off to a really good start for us, A couple of defeats away at Braga and Arsenal were quickly forgotten about when we went away to AC Milan and won.

Annoyingly, it’s the Milan outfit that went on to win the 2032 Champions League with a penalty shootout win Vs Barcelona.

Love you Swiss Models xoxo

Serie A winning signings…

I shouldn’t really celebrate any domestic success in this save, but it is nice to have [finally] won Serie A in this save after three 4th placed finishes in a row with Juventus. Whilst not a lavish Summer transfer window, Ball Playing Defender Lorenzo Pirola arrived on a Free Transfer from Arsenal and my Segundo Volante of dreams, Manu Koné, arrived on loan from AC Milan. Both feel very ‘Serie A-like’ to me, especially the latter. Manu’s move between rival clubs is reminiscent of previous Serie A deals like Andrea Pirlo or Clarence Seedorf.

30 wins, 5 draws and 3 defeats. +75 GD. Bene!

Two players who you’d want to have by your side when going to war.

Hands down the best Newgen I’ve had in recent FMs…

I mentioned Kağan Köksal a couple of blog posts ago who has become a top Inverted Full Back role in my Juve back four. But the best Newgen I’ve signed (probably in any FM save) is Estanislao Gomez from Olympique Lyonnais. The deal was fairly complex: €10m upfront, rising to €58m through a lot of player performance add-ons...but it could one day end up costing Juventus €119m should we win the top prizes of club football (lol).

He’s taken a full 12-months to come good, including a fairly slow start to 2031/32 season. However, something happened since January 2032 and he is now rated 5* in CA/PA, a natural ‘in the hole’ and loving life in Italy. His surges into the box have won us penalties, he’s assisted many through the eye of a duck’s anus to Dusan Vlahovic and his quick shooting has seen him reach double figures for goals. Sometimes a Newgen is that good you want to continue the save in order to see how they end up doing through a whole career…

Oofff.

Which SuperClub has performed the best over the 9 season save…?

Previously, I’ve given a country-by-country overview on how the 12 SuperClubs have fared in the season I’m blogging about. This provided more context on the save universe as a whole, and kept me abreast of which jobs could conceivably be available in the next 6-12 months. I have also had a few readers message to say how they have enjoyed reading this section of the SuperClub Diaries posts. However, after 8-9 years in it become a bit stale OR a challenge to keep the reader engaged; especially when Newgens (who only I know) enter the Save Universe and start to do well at the top end of European Club Football.

So, today’s ‘Elsewhere in SuperClub Diaries’ is a little different. Instead of a lookback on the current season just passed…I will instead recap UCL performance and league wins over the past 9 seasons per country, before announcing in my view who was the greatest SuperClub in SuperClub Diaries save.

England

The Premier League title has been shared between the two Manchester SuperClubs with non-SuperClub Arsenal winning a hat-trick of titles between them during 2028-2030. That Arsenal team also won two UCL titles too in 2029 and 2031, but there has only ever been one English SuperClub winning the UCL, and that was my 2028 Liverpool side. YNWA…

Chelsea

  • UEFA Champions League: 2026 (runner up)

Liverpool

  • UEFA Champions League (x1): 2025 (runner up) and 2028 (winner)

Manchester City

  • UEFA Champions League: 2024 (runner up) and 2030 (runner up)

  • Premier League (x5): 2024, 2025, 2026, 2031 and 2032

Manchester United

  • UEFA Champions League: 2029 (runner up)

  • Premier League (x1): 2027

FMG Manager observation: After my stint in charge, Liverpool are yet to win silverware with Alessio Dionisi and Simone Inzaghi getting yearly stints at the job with current Manager Enrico Maaßen in charge.

France

There is only one SuperClub in France, and there is no surprise they have won Ligue 1 in all nine seasons of the save so far. The Parisians have also won the big UCL prize too, back when I won the 2026 UCL in Volume 1.

PSG

  • UEFA Champions League (x1): 2026 (winner) and 2028 (runner up)

  • Ligue 1 (x9): 2024, 2025, 2026, 2027, 2028, 2029, 2030, 2031 and 2032

FMG Manager observation: After my three years in charge, PSG had Pep Guardiola for almost five years before hiring Arne Slot in 2031.

Germany

Fußball-Club Bayern München Ja. They’re really good at football in Germany and represent the only Germanic SuperClub in this save. I never got to manage them, but I always figured they’d be a similar challenge to PSG anyway (which is where I started the save).

Bayern Munich

  • UEFA Champions League: 2027 (runner up)

  • Bundesliga (x6): 2025, 2027, 2028, 2029, 2030 and 2031

FMG Manager observation: Bayern Munich re-hired both Thomas Tuchel and Julian Nagelsmann during this save.

Italy

I’ve loved a bit of CalcioFM in FM24. It’s been the country where I have spent the most FMing in this year and Juventus were ‘close but no cigar’ in the 2030 UCL. But there is one club that has reigned supreme in Italia…

AC Milan

  • UEFA Champions League (x1): 2032 (winner)

  • Serie A (x5): 2025, 2027, 2028, 2029 and 2030

Juventus

  • Serie A (x1): 2032

Inter Milan

  • Serie A (x1): 2031

FMG Manager observation: Evergreen Stefano Pioli is the longest serving SuperClub manager in this save. He has been at AC Milan for 12 years and 241 days.

Spain

Virtual LaLiga has continued to be a borefest with Barcelona and Real Madrid taking turns to win the domestic crown. No wonder Sports Interactive ditched that licence! Barcelona win SuperClub Diaries bragging rights.

Club Atlético de Madrid

  • lol

Barcelona

  • UEFA Champions League (x1): 2025 (winner), 2031 (runner up) and 2032 (runner up)

  • La Liga (x5): 2024, 2027, 2028, 2029 and 2032

Real Madrid

  • UEFA Champions League (x1): 2027 (winner)

  • La Liga (x4): 2025, 2026, 2030 and 2031

FMG Manager observation: Zinedine Zidane finally returned to Real Madrid in 2031, but he remains trophyless in his 2nd stint as Manager.

Tl;dr…Who is the Greatest SuperClub?

It’s good to see five of the twelve SuperClub diaries win the UCL, although none of them went on to win it twice. If we took a club from each country, based on UCL performance, we’d have to say Liverpool, PSG, Bayern, AC Milan and Barcelona are the best performers. It is the latter that has to be considered the overall best performer though, given that they had two Runner Up medals in 2031 and 2032.

I’d like to personally congratulate Barcelona on this achievement, proving once again they are més que un SuperClub 👏

Vol. 1 (PSG 2024-2026), Vol. 2 (Liverpool 2026-2028) and Vol.3 (Juventus 2029-2032).  Available to read in its entirety from this landing page: coffeehousefm.com/fmgrasshopper

Going underground, for now

Does anybody now look at ‘X’ and just think it’s pretty disgusting? Today, not even joking, I saw a dildo on there be tossed up in the air before it landed in an Olympic Dancer’s vagina. This wasn’t found via a search either, it just appeared as an auto-play video. This is actually awful, even if AI generated...it was incredibly life-like. I worry for any young adults and vulnerable people on that platform, and how all this type of stuff could affect their concepts of women…and Olympic events in general. For other reasons: like the constant dull adverts, bots (lots of them), farming of monetised interactions with nonsense etc. I just don’t think it is a social media app that holds my attention like it used to. I will not go FM nuclear on it by deleting it, but it’s used less and less nowadays; perhaps in the future to simply post my blogs…which is a real shame 😢

As such, I do not know where my online presence belongs outside of the ☕🏠 website. I love chatting FM, particularly with some of your readers over on X, and I am fortunate enough to also have FM Slack too. Feel free to join with this link. When I do appear with more FM content in the future, Slack is a place I am more likely to be found. Unless another new social media app can make headway in the coming months. I hope you can understand.

As always, thank you for reading/sharing and caring.

Tony / FM Grasshopper