SuperClub Diaries (Vol.3) - Zebre FM #FM24

 
 

Intro

I was six in-game minutes from calling it a day with Juventus, seeing my side drop out of the Champions League qualifying places in 5th. The thought of managing in the Europa League within the SuperClub Diaries save would have been an abject failure…especially with this being my third season with The Old Lady. Sports Interactive declared that “Progress Never Stops'“ in FM24, yet I seem to be doing my utmost to counter that claim.

Thankfully though, my first real big signing from two years ago, €41m Ibrahima Bamba, chipped in with an 84th minute winner to see my Juventus side leapfrog Roma into 4th on ‘head-to-head’ superiority. Wow, it felt good…but it showed the non-SuperClub levels I am currently finding myself within this save.

Three seasons, three top four finishes.

 

If Carlsberg did final day drama (which they do not btw), they'd probably do something like this because it's a shite pilsner.

 

What does this mean for the save? Well, the Juve Board in their wisdom have given me a four year contract a few weeks after a Champions League Last 16 exit against Paris Saint-Germain. Desperate for any kind of attention, I hastily I accepted but I would have left my position at the end of the season if not for Bamba’s 84th thunderbastard.

So, It’s time to go again. Perhaps one last season to see if I can get this Juventus side back to the top of Serie A and challenging for Champions League glory once again…

2031 Champions League

I have already spoilt my performance in the Champions League, but I will share below the up and down campaign for my own posterity…

Away from home something was clearly not gelling, a likely indicator that my 4231 tactic isn’t as all conquering as the ones I could probably download from FM Scout 😩. However, I was confident going into the PSG game with a new narrow 442. Later season form was good and deep into Extra Time my side had chances to get a goal and win it. But it was Federico Valverde, a €78m Parisian signing from yours truly, who scored with a couple of minutes before potential penalties. Unlike the Serie A campaign, a Last 16 UCL exit is much more disappointing for last year’s Semi Finalists.

2031/32 would have to be better.

Going Narrow, but keeping back line the same(ish)

Another season, another bloody tactic. With the FM24 embers slowly dying away, this may well be my last tactic of the cycle. It’s a narrow 442 and very similar to what I did with France U23s with Matt (FM Adventure) in a network save. Go read up on that Olympic success story here (if you want to).

Defence - in defence though I am very similar to the 4231 before it. There’s an Inverted Full Back at right back to form a back three giving a carte blanche to the left sided Full Back to do what he wants. He is essentially our wide attacker, with nobody in front of him. For that reason the Complete Wing Back is perfect for him in this formation, he can roam and simply find the spaces to be effective. Ahead of the back three, we have a Deep Lying Playmaker. I am perhaps a little conservative here, and dependant on the opposition I face I will likely give the DLP a support duty. International Football Association Board rules also mean I have to field a Goalkeeper.

Midfield - higher up the pitch we have the engine room. The left sided has a Box to Box midfielder. As we know, this role shuttles vertically up and down the pitch and will provide good support in both the build up and also some attacks too. On his right we have an attacking Mezzala, particularly essential to this tactic given the Mezzala's ability to drift into wide areas in order to stretch opposing defenses. ‘In the hole’ we have a bog standard Attacking Midfielder. Given the runners behind him (and also ahead, which I will get to in a sec), my feeling is that he doesn’t necessarily need to be running channels, or bombing ahead as an auxiliary striker.

Attack - I’m at my best in FM with two central strikers. Putting them both on attack duty is that extra sprinkling of salt to get the justices flowing. 31-year-old Dusan Vlahovic’s remaining years will be spent as an attacking Target Forward. Now that his more advanced years are upon him, Vlahovic will keep his Jumping Reach and Strength (as well as his good mentals) to play the Target Forward much longer than his Acceleration and Pace he’d need to play as the Advanced Forward. That pacier role is left for much faster Newgens now breaking into the First Team squad.

So, let’s think about what we have got in defence/midfield:

  1. Back three. Let’s field big lads here so we’re menacing.

  2. Holding DM, who can ping a ball or just keep things ticking over.

  3. Strong midfield presence. An AM and a Mez who will press quite high up.

In attack we have:

  1. A complete Wing Back being a nuisance crossing to a Target Forward.

  2. A Mezzala taking the ball out wide, finding pockets of space to be effective.

  3. An Advanced Forward pushing back opposition CB’s with forward runs.

Team instructions - I think we suit a fluid counter attack in the big games. But Vs lower reputation sides in Serie A/Copa Italia we will probably need to be more aggressive/controlling. I’m liking it, ‘on paper’. Let’s see how we do and what I end up with during pre-season and a few new signings.

The last FM24 tactic, +maybe

England

Man City’s five year wait for a Premier League title ended, but last year’s Champions League runners up could only get to the Semi Final stage this time out. The 0-2 FA Cup final defeat to cross-city rivals Manchester United will also hurt Antonio Conte’s men and take the Charlie Sheen off a successful season. Manchester United incidentally are the only other English Superclub to qualify for next year’s Champions League. But they also experienced cup heartache to fellow Superclub Chelsea, who despite finishing outside of European places managed to enter the Europa Conference League with their League Cup win. Simone Inzaghi did not last too long in the Liverpool hot seat this season, sacked in January 2031…his replacement, Enrico Maaßen, improved the form and scrapped into the Europa League with a 7th placed finish.

France

For the first time in this save, PSG did not win the league ‘at a canter’/’petit galop’. Pep Guardiola’s men had to thank their lucky stars after dropping points on their final day of the season…only to see their bitter rivals Olympique de Marseille do exactly the same at home to OGC Nice. PSG win the league on goal difference, and by just the one goal too! The Qatari owners also seem to continue their frugality by operating a sell-to-buy policy. €300m was made in transfer sales, whilst €200m was invested back into the squad. Raheem Sterling’s Parisian stay was limited to 12 months in the end, as he became a Summer Deadline Day signing for Tottenham Hotspur.

Germany

In Germany, Thomas Tuchel wins back-to-back Bundesliga titles for his Bayern Munich side and added a DFB-Pokal win to his name. A disappointing Champions League Play-Off exit against AC Milan will add some pressure though. One other noteworthy item is the Bavarian side raising almost €60m in loan fees for the season, an incredible period of business management from new Director of Football Pablo Longoria.

Italy

Inter’s 96 point haul sees them win the Scudetto, the highest points tally of the save so far. There was no success in the Champions League, going out on penalties against Manchester United in the Last 16. So, there was no record 5th title for AC Milan in the end; and like Inter they also crashed out of the Champions League to Spanish Superclub Real Madrid. Juventus make do with a Coppa Italia win and a 4th placed finish.

Spain

Real Madrid’s Jürgen Klopp celebrated his seventh year in charge with a 4th career La Liga title, amassing a cool 100 point season in the process. However, it was 2nd place Barcelona who were their cup nemesis this season. The Catalans knocked out Madrid in the Semi Final stage of both the Lana Del Rey (and went on to win it) and the Champions League. 34-year-old Dutch legendary midfielder Frenkie de Jong had his best ever season too: 18 goals and 12 assists (all comps). But it wasn’t enough in the Champions League, as de Jong’s Barca was beaten on penalties by Arsenal after drawing 1-1. After a little dip in this save, Atlético de Madrid go three seasons on the bounce and qualify for the Champions League with a 3rd placed finish.

That’s the 8th season of this FM save universe summarised for your reading pleasure. Tl;dr…Three drab 4th place finishes in a row and a Champions League Semi so far for Juventus, I’ll await my invitation to next year’s FIFA e-sport comp 😀

Thanks for reading/sharing and caring.

Tony / FM Grasshopper

SuperClub Diaries (Vol.3) - Old Lady dancing to the rhythm #FM24

Previously on SuperClub Diaries, Juventus became the third club of this save.

 
 

Intro

My interest in a save usually takes a dip as Newgens enter the game universe. I see some odd attribute combinations, like the near-perfect 201cm Target Forward who cannot head the ball or the midfield general who has all the fibra…except for 9 Aggression. Their faces too are often a reason to wince at the screen, why are they covered in mud? But…you reach a point in a save where the Newgens take over and you accept the new generation for what they are. It is then when my interest creeps back up again. I get attached to the odd few Newgens, their attributes begin to correlate, their faces begin to…nah they’re still shit.

It’s at this point where I now find myself in FM24. I’m over my Newgen mountain, and I can now see the plateau of sexiness that they bring. Welcome to Turin, the year is 2030…

2030 Champions League

Save updates in SuperClub Diaries are intentionally brief, only the UEFA Champions League matters in this save. Right from the off in season 2029/30, things looked bleak after two opening home defeats in the League Phase. I therefore never expected to come back from that and grab 5 wins from the remaining six games to secure a top eight position! Avoiding the Play-Off place is essential in my opinion, I just hate how it’s sandwiched so close to the Last 16 ties and really disrupts the domestic flow. To draw my previous SuperClub Diaries club Liverpool in the Last 16 was a really good test for my fledgling Juve side. We answered the test, 3-2 away at Anfield…boom. De Zerbi’s Bayern were next up in the QFs, and beating him in two legs meant the Bayern Board ditched him at the end of the season 😎

I felt I had the right side of the draw for the Semi, avoiding the riches of English sides Chelsea and Man City. A nice 2-0 home win against Lens meant I had one foot in the 2030 UCL Final…but then a disastrous opening 12 mins away in France undid all of that good work. My side regrouped in the 2nd half, Dušan Vlahovic had a couple of good chances and he really should have done better. But FM is a cruel game. Up came Kevin Danso in the 88 minute to slap his meat head on the end of a corner delivery. My Juve side were ‘nearly finalists’ in 2030.

80 in-game days ago I really fucked up

My Rebuild (aka manage a team, sell some players, buy some others)

Despite the UCL heartache, I once again secured Champions League football for next season. A 4th place finish shows that I am still some way off domestic honours, where we once again saw AC Milan romp to the title. Yet, I’m optimistic. I’m saying goodbye to the old guard: Angeliño, Federico Chiesa, Federico Gatti, Moise Kean, Nordi Mukiele and Benji Pavard all leave on Free Transfers. This frees up a sizeable chunk of salary to secure some youngsters on long term deals and also go and get a couple of exciting talents.

I’m not going to screencap every Newgen I am signing in this save, because my name is not Dan Gear. However, generational talents will be shared…and I believe Kağan Köksal is a good example of a generational talent. Just look at him ffs. At 18 years of age, he’s a mentally strong defender with attributes nearing an elite standard of Inverted Full Back already. He was my No.1 target in this Transfer Window, and the €24m release clause in his Galatasaray made it all the sweeter. Europe couldn’t bid either, something Dan and I have discussed before in private Q&A together…AI clubs are unwilling to make offers when the window is closed. Bully for me, but a bit of a Human Manager hackz.

 
 

Europe unwilling

Kağan Köksal slots into the side as the right sided Inverted Full-Back, and I’m sure he is going to be great. The IFB role just seems to allow everything else to flourish through Positional Play. Our starting shape is a 4231, but in possession we are a back three with good numbers in attack. The below tactic has Juventus playing at a good rhythm, and I think a full season with this 4231 could see us win trophies next season…

England

English superclubs had to once again see Arsenal win a third straight league title. There was some success in Manchester though: Man City made a Champions League final before being beaten 2-1 by surprise package Lens and Manchester United beat Fiorentina 4-0 in the Europa League final. Luckily for Chelsea, a 5th placed finish is enough for them to get Champions League football…but Liverpool are the English superclub to miss out on European football entirely with a 7th placed finish. Their infatuation of Italian Managers shows no signs of stopping either, with Alessio Dionisi sacked…Liverpool now appoint Simone Inzaghi for the 2030/31 season. Inzaghi will be their 4th Italian Manager appointment in a row!

France

PSG’s Pep Guardiola consulted the TimeHop App and signed a 35-year-old Raheem Sterling from Chelsea for €20m. However, it was Chelsea who were their undoing in the Quarter Finals of the Champions League. The Parisians make do with a domestic double once again, but there is now a growing sense of acceptance with how things are going. This is best demonstrated with the Qatari owners scaling back funding for the second year in a row.

Germany

in Germany, Bayern Munich continue to be ambitious…the Bundesliga win of 2030 is not enough to keep Roberto De Zerbi in the job. The Bavarians made a Quarter Final exit in the Champions League against Juventus, so their response is to re-appoint Thomas Tuchel. The man responsible for their 2023/24 in-game Champions League triumph.

Italy

30-year-old Dušan Vlahovic retires from International football after scoring 50 goals for the Serbian National Team. When the Serbian press asked him why, he simply stated: “So I can solely focus on wining something for the handsome guy in the Juve dugout”. That may take some doing for Juventus, who once again finish 4th and 19 points behind league winners AC Milan. Stefano Pioli has now officially reached ‘Legend’ status at I Rossoneri with a club record breaking fourth title in a row. Cross-city rivals, Inter, make do with a 3rd place finish.

Spain

Just like last year, Barcelona splash €260m cash in a bid to rival Real Madrid. Youssoufa Moukoko is the big January signing for €100m, who failed to live up the hype and who still has not scored a goal for the second placed Catalan side. Real Madrid win La Liga, with cross-city rivals Atlético de Madrid in 3rd. None of the Spanish superclubs make waves in the Champions League.

The longest run at a club so far in this save is with PSG (three seasons). But, I think Juventus and me may break that as I enter my second full season at the club. The UCL remains the target, but I am looking forward to seeing if I can topple this Milan juggernaut off from the summit of Serie A. If Vlahovic is true to his word and Köksal can settle well, we may just do it 🤞🏻

Thanks for reading/sharing and caring.

Tony / FM Grasshopper

Progress did not stop in #FM24

Football Manager 2024 was touted as ‘the most complete edition of the series’ by the game developer, Sports Interactive. With the much requested upgrade to set pieces, major match engine tweaks and cross-edition save compatibility…you can certainly see why.  But is it?  With 400 hours ploughed into the game, and with FM25 potentially 4-5 months away, I am using my blog today to share my thoughts on FM24.

Match Engine

Well, well, well.  I’ve said in previous reviews of earlier FMs…I place huge emphasis on how good the match engine is when rating a Football Manager title.  FM24 simply has to be judged highly, on the basis that the match engine got a lot of attention this time round.

The introduction of Positional Play elements has continued to grip me well into June 2024.  There are still combinations of roles and shapes I am yet to try, mainly because Positional Play influences so much of the pitch.  From CB to AM, and the lines in between, there are a lot of rotations you can now create.

 
 

Historically, I have felt that new roles added into FM have felt in isolation.  Roles introduced then just felt like alternatives that you used in place of others (Pressing Forward instead of an Advanced Forward for example).  Yet, in FM24, the introduction of the Inverted Full Back, or major reworkings to Half-Backs and Liberos, now have major knock-on effects elsewhere in your tactic.  There is no need to have fancy starting shapes, a simple back four can morph into some exotic shapes, as explained in this cracker of a Byline piece from my podcast co-host.

I must also mention the animations.  I could have forgiven Sports Interactive for delivering zero progress here whatsoever, seeing as FM25 brings about the new Unity match engine. Yet, here we are.  A whole host of new player animations were added this year, and they’ve had a bigger impact on my match day experience than I originally expected.

It is therefore hard to give the FM match engine anything less than a 9/10 this time round.  It’s more than a solid base for the match engine team to roll out into the Unity engine, where I am hopeful that fluidity and animations can once again combine to give another solid score in FM25.

Set Pieces

Prior to FM24, a common pain point for a lot of FMers was that set pieces were previously set by position, not a general priority of the best for the job.  This meant that in previous editions, a change in tactic could wreak havoc with your set piece routines. But that is no longer the case.  In FM24 you can make tactical or team changes without having to change your set pieces.  Our routines will always use the best players from the match day squad.

The new routines also have an effectiveness behind them too.  Like tactics they link to the training modules you place into your weekly cycle.  I like how thought has been taken in linking some of the good bits about FM together, in order to make a more seamless game.

I think on first glance, or through pre-release screenshots, some players could have been expecting a reskin of the set piece creator (and I still saw some comments in the early days that this was true)...but what Sports Interactive did here was overhaul set pieces in the best possible way.  However, there are still set piece routines that cannot be done.  It’s perhaps not as fluid as it possibly can be, but like the ME we have is a solid base to build from.

Overall I like this feature.  It was much needed and it’s vastly better than what we had previously in FM23: 7/10.

Save Compatibility

I did not use this feature.  But I know some people who did, and I never once heard any problems with their integration or adaptation to the process of loading an FM23 save into FM24.  My guess is that this feature was heavily tested for years before its addition, which you have to once again praise the painless rollout.

Like a Tripadvisor review, you’re more likely to report a bad experience than a positive one.  Perhaps this feature is less memorable than other headline features as a result.  But the real strength is that this feature is here to stay, and I think it encourages players to embark on longer saves well into the cycle of the current edition, knowing that they could conceivably carry it on into the next edition.  I felt so passionate about this last point, that I decided to write a Byline article on longer challenges.

I’m giving it a 7/10, but part of that is because I think at some point it will be taken for granted.  This post will perhaps be a nice reminder of how revolutionary it once was.

Quality of Life

The UI is still clunky.  Whilst some shortcuts have been made through Agents & Intermediaries, the game can sometimes feel laborious in places. This is hopefully to be corrected in FM25, but an overhaul is needed after many years of onion layer-type features being added to the game.

However, lovely additions like ‘Real World’ and ‘Your World’ game modes alongside the usual ‘Original’ mode add a nice juxtaposition to the way you play.  Real World sees the FM player take the realism route: players join at their real-life transfer date meaning that they could arrive after the first fixtures of the season and need to catch up on fitness and bed into the team culture.  Your World will wipe clean those future transfers and give you the budget back to take on a new alternate timeline with your new club.  Kudos to the developers here for not forcing either of the game modes down us, we simply choose the one that suits us best.  What did you go for in FM24?

Overall, the Quality of Life is a ‘misc’ within the article.  I’m scoring it 6/10, on the basis that FM25 can ride in like a White Knight and ‘cull the clicks’ and get us to 9/10!

Licenses

 
 

The recent announcement of the Premier League license coming to FM25 has blown the J League(s) acquisition in FM24 out of the water.  Yet, getting Japan into the game (and selling it in the country of SEGA) was a big deal for a lot of people.  I did not undertake a Japanese save, but it is something that I will definitely experience within the multi-year lifespan of the contract.

But if I was being critical, it took a long while to get Japan ‘right’.  Some players were not present right away, and it felt work-in-progress for a little while after launch.  However, I’m sure these issues will not exist in a league that’s already researched like the Premier League.

Despite the integration hiccups with Japan, FM24’s repertoire of licenses is probably the biggest I can remember in any era of Football Manager (and I’ve not even detailed anything about the Netflix licence either).

Miles and co. at SI HQ have already bettered themselves for FM25, and they show no sign of stopping.  KUTGW guys.

8/10.

Final thoughts

On final reflection, I feel FM24 hit the levels to be classed as ‘the most complete edition of the series’.  Whilst I do not think I have had my most memorable, or ‘complete’ save, there is something that keeps bringing me back to the game itself.  Seasons are quick to get through and I have often had to stop myself in order to pause and blog…that’s a sure sign that the game is gripping me.

If we aggregate my crude category scores, the title gets a solid 8/10.  This leaves obvious room for the new FM25 title to come in and reign supreme, and I look forward to seeing what comes next.  After all, progress never stops.

What do you think about FM24?

Thanks for reading,

Tony / FM Grasshopper