Marching On: Feeling 22-ish

 
 

It’s rare that any FMer has an approach to the game that doesn’t include some form of youth development, whether it’s producing your own players or signing young talent to give them a platform. If you’ve been following my FMing over the years you’ll know that I’m no different to the norm here. There’s been fleeting moments where I might have changed my approach slightly, but by god I can’t keep away from the knock-down prices, low wages and that potential column filling up with gold stars.

As I wrap up my third season at St Mary’s with Southampton on FM22 we have the youngest squad in the Premier League on average by far. It shouldn’t be a shock. How did my young squad get on though, and who are our standout performers?

Season Three Summary

Premier League

We had an incredible start to season three that just kept rolling. At the halfway stage of the season we were sitting top of the Premier League. We were unbeaten across our 19 matches, with 15 of them being wins. We were just two points ahead of Liverpool though, who were also unbeaten.

Surely it wouldn’t be a fairy-tale so early on in this save? Little Southampton with the 14th highest salary per annum in the league wouldn’t be able to overcome the big six would they?

No, no they wouldn’t. It was bloody close though! We were 14 points away from City at the top of the table last season in 3rd place, this season’s 3rd place finish saw us finish just six points behind Liverpool. We scored six less goals this season compared to last, but actually conceded six less this time round so our goal difference of +55 is exactly the same as last season. There was more incredible wins along the way, with a 5-1 against Villa, a 6-1 against Sheffield United and a 7-0 demolishing of Burnley in January.

Our four defeats came against Manchester City, Manchester United, Arsenal and Aston Villa, in a match that ended our incredible unbeaten league run which had been running since the 22nd of April 2023. It was our draws that killed the title challenge in the end, including a 0-0 on matchday 37 against Spurs which was the only league match all season where we failed to find the net.

At the fifth time of asking we finally got a win against Manchester United, beating them 3-1 at St Mary’s in October. Though a league double against them wasn’t to be, it wouldn’t be the only time we’d play against them this season. They scored 100+ goals for the third consecutive season but for the past two it hasn’t been enough to secure them the title.

It wasn’t to be, but you know me, I’m fine with it. I won Manager of the Year and there’s always next season for another assault on the Premier League title.

Domestic Cups

I was determined to do much better than last season in the domestic cup competitions so there wasn’t as much rotation as I usually have done in the past.

We made it to Wembley in my first season, losing out against Liverpool in the FA Cup semi final. They were our cup foes that season, with Manchester United replacing them in season three. We managed to draw first blood though, taking home our first domestic trophy of the save and the first domestic cup competition the club has won since the 1976 FA Cup.

Delighted to win an EFL Cup to add to last season’s Europa Conference League trophy in the cabinet. The old “play the ex-player” trick worked perfectly as an Anthony Martial double downed his old club in a confident cup final performance.

We had some really tough draws in the cups this season, overcoming Arsenal in the EFL Cup third round on penalties, taking Liverpool to a replay in the FA Cup third round before securing an unbelievable 4-1 win at Anfield to go through and now United stood in our way again, this time in the FA Cup quarter final. It looked as though it was going to penalties, with the full time score being 2-2 and extra time amounting to not much at all. In the 121st minute, Mo Salisu slid in and won the ball from Victor Osimhen but the loose ball fell to Jadon Sancho who’d got in front of Romain Perraud. He kept his head and finished coolly past Gavin Bazunu. A cruel way to end this season’s FA Cup run. Talking of cruel…

Champions League

Last season’s third place finish in the league saw us take on our first ever Champions League challenge. I wasn’t expecting much and I was expecting much less when we got drawn into a group with RB Salzburg, Bayern Munich and Barcelona.

Five remarkable wins and one disappointing defeat away in Munich later we’d unexpectedly finished second and qualified for the knockouts. Summer signing, Benjamin Šeško, came into his own, hitting a late winner at home against Barca before scoring a double against his old club, Salzburg, and hitting another goal in the Camp Nou. He then proceeded to destroy Atalanta in the knockouts, scoring four of our seven goals in a 7-1 first leg victory. A 2-2 draw away from home set up a quarter final clash with our old friends, Manchester United.

Football Manager gives and takes away in equal measure. In the 93rd minute of the first leg we were cruising. The score read 4-1 and 31,000 of the 32,000 St Mary’s crowd was bouncing. Then Victor Osimhen scored a 94th minute goal. I’d say consolation, but going from 4-1 to 4-2 in the home leg of a two-legged tie is far from that. I’m sure you can all predict what happened in the second leg.

Hate you FM (but I also love you too so I’ll be back next season for even more…).

Feeling 22-ish

I’ve made a fair few changes to this squad in my three seasons in charge. There’s only really a few players left over from when I initially took over. Where the core of the squad beforehand was closer to 30 than 20, or even over 30, e.g. the likes of Nathan Redmond, Oriol Romeu, Jack Stephens, Moi Elyounoussi, Stuart Armstrong, that’s been shifted much more in the direction that I prefer. I said at the beginning, we’ve now got the youngest squad on average in the league, at 24-years-old. That could still be younger, but 36-year-old Fraser Forster has just signed a new deal to continue as my back-up keeper.

The blog title is partly a nod to Taylor Swift, but mainly just because I’ve now got a core group of players who are around about the age of 22 and I want to show them off.

Tino Livramento

I wouldn’t say he’s the main reason why I wanted to manage Saints on FM22 but he’s high up there on the list. 2023/24 was his best season yet and he’s showing real improvements in his game. He provided 17 assists in his 40 appearances this season, adding to his 21 from the previous two seasons combined. He’s flying up and down that right flank and I love the low crosses he puts in for our Advanced Forward, usually Adam Armstrong, to finish.

I was positive Chelsea had a buyback clause on him when I started the save but I can’t seem to see it now. If it’s expired then it’s only another positive for us as he’s now the second most valuable player at the club.

Andrew Omobamidele

I picked up Omobamidele for his relegation release clause of £10m when Norwich went down at the end of season one. Is he the best defender in the Premier League? Not quite. But he’s young, quick, has a great personality and attitude and he’s only getting better and better. He made 23 starts across all competitions this season and will likely be our third choice CB going into next season too. It feels harsh to say that especially after he won the English Players’ Young Player of the Year this season.

His fellow countryman, Gavin Bazunu (22), cemented himself as our number one this season too, so that can only be a good thing for both club and country.

Taylor Harwood-Bellis and James Garner

I’d been tracking THB and Garner for the entire save so far. I just knew they’d be available to buy at some point and that both City and United wouldn’t give them the gametime they both deserve. Both players arrived in January this season, Garner for a club record fee of £27m potentially rising to £32m and Harwood-Bellis in a gamechanging swap deal for Lyanco. I see their arrivals as the start of the next phase for the club. They’re young, English and, importantly, quality players. They’ll both walk into our starting line up and could be the catalyst to push the club to that next level.

They both got around 1,400 minutes of action since their arrival and I think that’ll be hitting the 3,000 mark like our other key players from this season like Salisu, Tino and Billy Gilmour. Gilmour is also 22-years-old and had another superb for the club, averaging a 7.41 across his 28 league appearances, and a 7.35 overall for the season.

I could be here posting screenshots of my entire squad to be honest. Thierry Small (19) got 2,100 minutes this season and is developing brilliantly. Andreas Schjelderup (20) forced himself into the latest NxGn wonderkid list. I’ve already mentioned Benjamin Šeško (21) in this post, he finished his first season at the club with 23 goals and is only going to get better. A name you’ll likely recognise, Filip Rønningen Jørgensen (22) finally got a work permit after actually being my first signing at the club in the January transfer window of season one. This was his breakout season and he’ll be competing with Garner and Gilmour for those two CM spots.

What’s Next?

I’m already in the club’s favoured personnel, it’s time to start pushing to become an icon and legend. The board want us to start becoming the best of the rest, which looks as though it translates into finish just outside of the top three. We’ve just had two consecutive top three finishes so I’m confident we can keep hitting those expectations.

There’s no current plans to sell any players, but alongside the young players at the club there’s also a group of players hitting their peaks. Season one arrivals, Anthony Martial and Ruben Loftus-Cheek are both now 28-years-old and the deals they had in place with Man Utd and Chelsea to top up their wages end this summer. Ché Adams and Adam Armstrong, who I’ve not even mentioned in this post despite him scoring another 33 goals this season to make it 104 goals in three seasons, are both 27. Is it time to cash in and kickstart the next cycle of the save?

Marching On: The Goal Machine

 
 

In season one, I recovered from selling James Ward-Prowse, the best player at the club, to qualify for the Europa Conference League by way of a 7th place finish in the Premier League.

Season two has surpassed season one, and then some. We’ve played some brilliant football and had a European adventure. The biggest reason for a lot of what happened was down to our goal machine, Adam Armstrong.

The Goal Machine

In season one Adam Armstrong scored 30 goals in 43 appearances, 26 of those came in the Premier League as he finished runner up in the top goalscorer stakes. It was a great season for him, with it being his first season playing at that level.

In season two, he’s gone up a fair few notches. He finished the season with 41 goals in 49 appearances. 36 of those goals came in 36 Premier League starts, making him top goalscorer ahead of Manchester City’s Erling Haaland and Manchester United’s Cristiano Ronaldo and Kylian Mbappé.

Looking at his attributes I wouldn’t exactly say he’s an elite Premier League marksman. His role in the side is an Advanced Forward, playing alongside a Deep Lying Forward on Support, so let’s take a look at what stands out.

Elite Attributes

I love quick players and Armstrong is certainly rapid. His ability to get to top speed and then stay at that top speed are both elite level attributes, his two best ones. Defenders will struggle to catch him and then keep up with him, and that’s certainly been evident on a fair few of his goals this season.

Gonçalo Inácio has no chance of catching Armstrong here once he’s seen that space and run onto that brilliant ball in behind. This was part two of a double in a 5-1 hammering of Chelsea.

Good Attributes

He’s a striker after all, so his Finishing attribute sticks out here. With 71 goals in 92 appearances you’d expect he’d be an elite finisher. 14 is elite in some leagues, but the Premier League? I’m not sure. 14.40 is the league average for strikers to be fair, but if you compare to a few of his closest rivals in the goalscoring stakes, Haaland and Ronaldo both have 19, while Lukaku and Salah have 18 and Mbappé has 17.

You’d think Composure would help in his goalscoring situations. A rating of 12 though makes it difficult for me to make the case that it’s that that’s helping him to be our goal machine.

In the end, what difference do the attribute ratings really make when he can finish like this for us?

This is an elite level one-two and an elite level finish showing nothing but composure. The little spin to get round Oumar Solet once he’s laid the ball back to Diallo is beautiful and what comes next matches it. Hugo Lloris is left wanting with that cheeky dink. This goal rounded off an incredible 5-2 victory over Spurs.

Poor Attributes

You have no idea how many times this season I’ve gone to check Armstrong’s attributes after a match to just double check a few of them. The main one I’ve been dumbfounded with has been his 11 Off The Ball rating. You’d think that it was one of his elite attributes with some of his movement in the box at times to get on the end of crosses and passes.

Armstrong is on the left periphery of the above GIF and this goal was a regular occurrence throughout the season. Many of Tino Livramento and Kyle Walker-Peters’ 19 assists between them were them rampaging on from right back and firing the ball across for Armstrong to make that similar run he does in the GIF above. Kurt Zouma is caught ball watching and Armstrong is able to sneak in front of him, making that front post run to smash it in.

Sometimes a player, a tactic and a period in time just click into place and everything is perfect. Will Armstrong continue his goalscoring form in mine and his third season at the club? Who knows.

Switching Up The Squad

I mentioned in the last post that I was aiming to start making some big changes to the wide options in the squad. I outlined that our options of Walcott, Stuart Armstrong, Redmond, Elyounoussi, Djenepo and Tella weren’t exactly ideal in terms of age, quality and wage outlay. Of the six, only Stuart Armstrong remain at the club come the end of season two. The departures of the other five earned us just over £28m. Not bad but I needed to invest to replace them. In came the below:

The first three arrived in the summer, while the latter two were January window moves that I couldn’t turn down when presented with them. Based on output and what I’m seeing during matches I’m happy with the changes and I’m certainly classing them as upgrades. Gouiri scored 11 times and assisted 13 as he played the most amount of minutes out of the five. Jeong started the season superbly, scoring five and assisting nine, before a hip injury all but ruled him out of the rest of the campaign early in the second half of the season. Keane Lewis-Potter was one of the standout stars of our Europa Conference League campaign, but in Jeong’s absence took that form into the league. He ended the season with 14 goals and eight assists, a great return for his first season at this level for the young Englishman plucked from the Championship.

Following on from last season too changes continued in central midfield. After seven and a half years at St Mary’s, Oriol Romeu moved on to Sassuolo in January, but he’d already been replaced in the Saints midfield.

I’m not sure why or how Billy Gilmour was on the transfer list in the summer for a bargain £4.1m, but he was, and Chelsea’s loss has been our gain. My fellow Scotsman scored four times and laid on 15 assists on his way to being crowned signing of the season and undoubtedly high up on our player of the season list if it wasn’t for Armstrong’s exploits. He really does dictate the tempo in the centre of the pitch for us and has formed a decent partnership with his former and now current teammate, Ruben Loftus-Cheek.

Season Two Summary

You’ve seen a few of our goals and I alluded to us playing some brilliant football. How did that translate into the Premier League table?

That’s unexpected! The running joke of me playing this game is that I’m happy to trundle along and hit the targets expected of me (the board wanted mid-table!). As the season went on, as Adam Armstrong kept on scoring and as we kept blowing teams away we looked unstoppable and come the end of the season the top four finish is fully deserved in my opinion. We haven’t overachieved here, we’ve massively deserved it.

We were ridiculous in a 6-0 battering of Arsenal in August, Spurs were handed a 5-2 defeat ahead of the 2022 World Cup kicking off and Brighton and Sheffield United were both smacked 5-1 in the second half of the season. 2.5 goals a game is a great achievement and we conceded seven fewer than last season too. Third most wins and third most goals scored, we deserved third in the table.

Eight of our six defeats came as Man City, Liverpool and Leeds did doubles over us. All three are our bogey teams of the save so far, with us being able to beat just Liverpool and Leeds once each, and not picking up any points against the might of Man City yet. Quite ridiculously the only points we dropped against teams in the bottom half of the table was a 0-0 draw on matchday 37 against Wolves.

A special mention goes out to one of my signings from last season, Anthony Martial, who did the elusive double figures for both goals and assists this season in the Premier League and obviously overall too for the season. He scored 11 times and assisted 10 goals in the league, and hit 19 overall and made 16 assists. A great full first season for the £10.5m man as he finished above his old club in the table.

We might have had some success in the Premier League, but the less said about our domestic cup exploits in comparison to last season, the better.

After our semi final appearance last season, to have Nottingham Forest knock us out on penalties at the first time of asking in this season’s Carabao Cup is pretty shocking. I didn’t exactly play a weakened side but we were in the midst of a run of games that included Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United.

A 3rd minute Abel Ruiz goal was something we couldn’t come back from in the FA Cup quarter final against Wolves. Manchester United went on to win both domestic cup competitions to make up for not retaining their league title from last season.

I mentioned a European adventure in my introduction, I led the club into its first ever Europa Conference League campaign. I said in last season’s post that I wanted to win it so that was my aim from the outset. Did we achieve it?

Was it our good league form that helped our Europa Conference League form, or vice versa? We scored 55 goals in 14 matches as we qualified for the group stage, swept our group aside and overcame Nice, Anderlecht, Sampdoria, and Standard Leige in the final to win the competition.

I said from the outset I wanted to win it, but I also made the decision that it was going to be the competition where we’d play some players who weren’t necessarily classed as first choice. I’ve already mentioned Keane Lewis-Potter took his Europa Conference League form into the Premier League come the second half of the season, but he wasn’t the only one to impress. We had another goal machine firing us to continental glory.

Last season Dan Nlundulu was on loan at Lincoln in League One. His exploits there, finishing as top goalscorer in the league, and his standout elite attributes (actually more than Adam Armstrong), made me think back to my opening post. Should I disregard a player just because I’ve not spent £15m on him and signed him from the Dutch Eredivisie? So Nlundulu became our Europa Conference League main man.

He scored 15 goals in 13 appearances as he finished top goalscorer and was named Europa Conference League player of the season. There’s always value in the players you’ve already got at your club when you start your save.

What’s Next?

Where do you go from massively overachieving? I’d love to do it all over again and finish in the Champions League spots next season but I’ll also be delighted to just secure European football again for the club.

With the board virtually in love with me I might start to look into some requests. I’ve got my eye on a St Mary’s stadium expansion with us being at full capacity 99% of the time this season in the league. There’s £150m in the bank that should hopefully be enough to bankroll it.

I’ve already lined up a couple of new additions to the squad for next season. FM22 wonderkid, 19-year-old Benjamin Šeško, is arriving from RBSalzburg for a knockdown price of £14.25m and Marcos Leonardo, a 20-year-old Brazilian, is arriving from Santos for £11.75m. They should bolster our attacking options even more. Do we need them? I’m not sure just yet, but those prices couldn’t be ignored for a couple of young talents. One or two players might leave but if we can improve on 96 goals scored in the league I’ll be bloody delighted.

Bring on season three.

Marching On: How to Replace Your Best Player

 
 

“I’m starting to get into this…”

That’s what FM tells me as I finish off my first season in charge of Southampton on FM22, and I’d agree. It was a cracking first season at St Mary’s, one I really enjoyed more and more as it went on. I haven’t played in the English Premier League since FM16 and I’d forgotten how good the battle for every point is on a weekly basis.

Here’s a summary of that first season and a look at the biggest decision I’ve had to make so far…

James Ward-Prowse

I switched the first transfer window off when I fired up the save, meaning the squads that begin the game are the ones you’ve got to contend with until the January transfer window opens.

It’s quite clear on that first look of the Saints squad that James Ward-Prowse, the captain, is the star man. By the time January rolled around he was deemed a world-class midfielder. He’d scored twice, once in the league, and laid on 10 assists across his 27 appearances. He was a cut above the majority of my side, and obviously a set-piece wizard. Brendan Rodgers’ Newcastle were sniffing around with their reported £200m budget to burn, but when Manchester City came in with an initial bid of £33m I saw he was keen to leave the club to head to the Etihad. I don’t like standing in the way of players that want to leave so I negotiated up to a more fair price of £52m and off he went.

The initial January transfer window budget of £6m was obviously bolstered by the sale of our key man, so how would we replace him? Even before his sale we were probably a little bit lighter than I’d usually like in the central midfield area. Oriol Romeu took over the captaincy following JWP’s departure, but the 30-year-old Spaniard probably isn’t my preferred option long-term in that midfield two. He has some incredible mental attributes and his Natural Fitness is 18, but his Acceleration and Pace have both dropped to 7, I need a mobile and dynamic midfield two in our 4-2-2-2. Ibrahima Diallo was the third choice in the first half of the season, with Stuart Armstrong also capable of filling in centrally.

To summarise, what I was looking for was:

  • Numbers. At least a couple of players to fill out our options. The Aston Villa approach post-Grealish.

  • Dynamism. They need to be able to move.

  • Affordable. Despite the JWP money we still aren’t made of money. I won’t be splashing tens of millions on a replacement.

  • Homegrown. Ideally they’d help fill out the Premier League homegrown squad rules.

So naturally the first signing I made on FM22 was spending £5m on Filip Rønningen Jørgensen, one of my star men from FM21. He could be an excellent Premier League midfielder, but the 19-year-old failed to get a work permit. He spent the remainder of the season out on loan at Austria Vienna, and continues to fail to qualify for a work permit so he’s spending the 2022/23 season at FC Midtjylland. I hope it works out eventually.

My key target was Ruben Loftus-Cheek. I was losing one double-barrelled surname player, I needed another in to replace him. RLC was deemed surplus to requirements at Chelsea and in he came for £7m. If you compare the two players, it’s no contest. Ward-Prowse has a number of standout attributes, Loftus-Cheek only has a couple, but I’m confident he can be one of those players that plays beyond his immediate ability given a chance. It’s always handy when you’ve got a club like Chelsea topping up his wages, they’ll be paying him an additional £52k a week for the next two seasons.

24-year-old Englishman, Lewis Cook, also joined the club. He’d hardly featured for Bournemouth in the Championship and was available for £3.7m. He won’t be the first name on the teamsheet, but was affordable and adds another rotational option in there.

Squad Planning

I actually really love switching the first window off. It gives you that first half of the season to really analyse your squad, give them minutes and see who’ll perform for you. Wholesale changes might not have come immediate once the January window opened, or even by the time it ended, but it certainly gave me the time to work plenty out about the future of the squad.

There was one more addition in January though. Ché Adams and Adam Armstrong had cemented themselves as my first choice pairing up front with Armando Broja as their back up. Broja was only on loan from Chelsea and I didn’t see a permanent move coming in the summer, so I acted swiftly to bring in another option up front. Someone who could be a difference maker.

There’s a theme developing on these signings. Anthony Martial was deemed surplus to requirements at Old Trafford and arrives on the South Coast for £10.5m. Again, Manchester United are happy to be paying him £48k a week for the next two seasons. It’s a really handy tool to attract players that might just be demanding more wages that you’re willing to offer.

He mostly lined up on the left wing in his 17 appearances across the second half of the season, cutting inside as an Inside Forward on Attack. He scored four and assisted two and I’m expecting bigger things from him as he settles into life nearer his native France.

There was one main reason he didn’t get more minutes on the pitch in his preferred forward position. Adam Armstrong. More on him later.

Both first team goalkeepers were out of contract come the end of the season. Fraser Forster cemented himself as my number one, and had a great season overall. He agreed a new deal with a £15k reduction in his weekly salary, while Alex McCarthy left for Lazio on a free. The JWP sale money was also used to agree a deal for a future number one arriving in the summer. 20-year-old Irish international, Gavin Bazunu, will arrive from Man City for a potential £8m. He’s got great potential and will be the perfect initial back-up for Forster.

After starting the central midfield overhaul my next step will be working on the wide positions. There was enough there to see me through until the end of the season but long-term, the current options aren’t ideal:

  • Theo Walcott (33-years-old, on £75k p/w)

  • Stuart Armstrong (30-years-old, £60k p/w)

  • Nathan Redmond (28-years-old, £75k p/w)

  • Moi Elyounoussi (27-years-old, £60k p/w)

  • Moussa Djenepo (23-years-old, £35k p/w)

  • Nathan Tella (22-years-old, £10k p/w)

There’s some big wage savings to make there on players who aren’t quite living up to what they’re making. Walcott barely featured, Redmond had a good first half of the season but lost his place in the second half, and Elyounoussi was disappointing when he did feature. They’ll be some changes in the summer for sure.

Season One Summary

Back to Adam Armstrong. Our £15m arrival from Blackburn last summer repaid the outlay and then some in his first season at the club. Armstrong scored 30 goals in 43 appearances, 26 of those goals coming in the Premier League as he led us to 7th in the league and finished behind Cristiano Ronaldo in the Golden Boot (Ronaldo scored 46, ridiculous).

It’s our highest finish in the league since 2015/16 and qualifies us for the Europa Conference League. I’m delighted about that and will 100% be going for the win in that competition.

It was a real battle for the top 6 as the season went on. Leeds, Aston Villa and ourselves were swapping positions between 5th and 7th on an almost weekly basis. After we beat Villa 3-0 on matchday 35 it looked as though we’d sewn up a top 6 place, but then faltered with draws against West Ham and Watford, while Villa went on an incredible run to finish the season, beating Liverpool, Man Utd and Arsenal and Dean Smith got the May Manager of the Month award. It’ll be very interesting to see if Spurs and Chelsea recover next season and finish as high up as expected.

We took 12 points this season against the traditional big 6, six of those points came on the first two matchdays as we defeated Chelsea and Liverpool. The importance going forward will be turning some of those eight defeats into at least draws and competing more in some of the disappointing defeats. Every little helps.

We fared well in the other 14 battle, losing four times and only one of those was in the second half of the season. Villa and Leeds did inflict two of those defeats, with Leeds handing us our only outclassing, a 4-1 defeat at Elland Road on matchday six. All of our seven draws came against our direct competitors and could easily be turned into more points on the board.

Armstrong’s form, as our Advanced Forward, really did help propel us into Europe. By the end of the first half of the season he had seven league goals, which I thought was fine. I was quite happy with his outlay. In the second half of the season though, something clicked. He scored in seven consecutive appearances from the end of January to the beginning of April, actually scoring 11 in that time, including two hattricks against Norwich and Everton. Doing some quick maths, it was 19 league goals in 17 matches across the second half of the season.

Going forward in the save it’d also be really nice to beat Liverpool again after they knocked us out of both domestic cup competitions. It was great to get to the semi finals of both though, going above and beyond the board expectations.

What’s Next?

More of the same?

The board are expecting us to finish mid-table next season, which suits me perfectly. I’ll be personally aiming for another European spot finish, but it’ll be tricky if the big 6 underperformers do improve.

I’m buzzing to finally play in the Europa Conference League too. The board are expecting us to reach at least the quarter finals, I want to win it. I’d love to win it. Will we be able to contend with the multiple matches every week?

I didn’t go through our tactical approach much, but did allude to a few positions. We’re mainly lining up in a 4-2-2-2 similar to Saints’ approach IRL right now. I won’t be making many tweaks to that going into my second season.

The summer will be busy, with a fair few squad changes planned. Everyone wants a summer of wheeling and dealing on FM, don’t they? I’ve got to get it right, seeing as my contract expires at the end of season two. Will I be given a new deal and get kept on at St Mary’s?

Marching On: My FM22 Save with Southampton

 
 

Football Manager 2022 is here. The buzz of save reveal season is upon us and I couldn’t miss out on gaining some of those juicy hits for the new home of my FM writing, CoffeehouseFM.

I’ve found myself struggling to follow my usual process when it comes to picking a save for this edition of the game. I knew I wanted to head to Norway for FM21 for a good while. Eibar and Vitória were both planned way in advance too. Samo’s Stirling saw me putting in the yards on the editor to revamp Scotland’s league setup.

Time has been the big factor. I haven’t had the time to do my usual of looking into stories that catch my eye or a club that is doing things a little bit differently to the norm in. It’s been a busy few months as I settle into a new job for the first time in eight and a half years. It’s the dream job too, I’ve finally made the move into working in football full time. How will I cope when my working and FM lives combine?

Well, my proposed coping mechanism is to start off my FM22ing at my place of work, St Mary’s. My office will become my virtual office. I’m heading to the English Premier League for the first time on the game since FM16.

Why Southampton?

Didn’t you just read me say why? I work there now.

In all seriousness though, I didn’t have the time to look for a club that’s doing things differently but luckily I didn’t need to look very far for one.

In a footballing world where Newcastle are now the richest club on the planet and money is everywhere, Southampton live within their means and try to turn potential into excellence.

Gareth Bale, Luke Shaw, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Theo Walcott, Adam Lallana. They’ve been highly regarded as one of the best talent producing clubs in the country for a long time. Couple that alongside the talent identification approach that brought in and sold on the likes of Virgil van Dijk, Sadio Mané, Morgan Scheiderlin and Victor Wanyama, there’s a lot for me to base a Football Manager save around.

The club seemed to lose its way for a few seasons though. The heady heights of a 6th place finish in the 2015/16 season were followed by narrowly avoiding relegation in the 2017/18 season. Big money signings haven’t worked out. Roughly £50m was spent on Guido Carrillo, Mario Lemina and Wesley Hoedt with little to no return on the pitch. That can’t happen again. Ralph Hasenhüttl arrived to steer the club to safety in the 2018/19 season, has steadied the ship and been well backed since, despite some heavy, heavy defeats. That’s where I now come in, sorry Ralph.

This season has seen another slight shift in the approach to the transfer market. When you look at it, it’s three-fold. One marquee signing (Adam Armstrong from Blackburn), affordable talent from abroad (Romain Perraud and Lyanco from Brest and Torino, respectively) and identifying younger players who could come in and either develop or make a difference immediately. Dynel Simeu and Thierry Small have promise, but Armando Broja and, perhaps my favourite player right now to watch, Tino Livramento, have made a big impression already. Livramento, at just £5m, will be one of the signings of the season and I’m sure if he develops at the same rate on the game Chelsea will have their eye on that £40m buyback clause they’ve got.

I did it on FM21 and I’ve done it again for FM22, the first window has been switched off. I think with FM coming out so long after the transfer window shuts now it just makes sense to do that and have the settled squads.

The Aims

Is it even an FM intro blog post without some aims?

Develop Talent

Is it possible to bring through your own youth players and play them in the Premier League anymore? Who knows but I’ll give it a good go. Developing talent is what Saints are built on. That could be our own youth players but it could also be younger players who come into the club and are given the platform to play.

Salisu is a prime example of that. He arrived for £10m, when he leaves he’ll be making us a fair bit more than that.

The board are expecting me to:

  • Develop players using the club’s youth system

  • Sign players under the age of 22 for the future

  • Sign players under the age of 23 for the first team

  • Not to sign players over the age of 28

The aims perfectly align there.

Identify Talent

I’m starting at a Premier League club, I’ve got a little bit of a headstart here when it comes to building out a strong scouting network with the finances available to me. I don’t just want to be going out and scouring the wonderkid lists to rinse and repeat that well trodden path on the game.

Would I have gone to the Championship and signed Adam Armstrong for £15m on previous versions of the game? Probably not. It’s those types of signings I want to be making. Signings that go against the usual grain. Not just signing anyone because they’ve got light greens all over the place and I get attracted by the shiny things. Players that fit, players that suit us and the type of club we are.

Play with Style

It looks as though FM wants people to move away from setting up a Gegenpressing tactic and winning all the time does it? Fat chance of that happening here. I love that high pressing, chaotic style of play and I’ll be looking to harness it in our approach.

The board are expecting me to play attacking and entertaining football so I’m not exactly going to be finally giving Park the Bus a go am I. I’ve set up some very standard looking 4-2-4, 4-1-2-3 and 4-2-3-1 formations to start me off and we’ll see where things go from there.

Win Some Stuff

It’s a fact that I’d happily pick a team, play through a save and never win anything on the game. The rewards for me are usually bringing through players or finding a gem and making loads of money on them. Let’s change that for FM22. The first objective is usually always “don’t get sacked”, and then I’ll look to actually win something with a club that hasn’t won a major trophy since the 1976 FA Cup.

I’ll take another FA Cup, maybe even the Europa Conference League. A Premier League win? Come back to me in a couple of seasons and I’ll tell you how I’m feeling on that.

Will Saints be my only save on FM22? Who knows. I’m not setting any goals, guidelines or targets for myself.

How often will I blog? Who knows. I’ve not quite settled into a new rhythm of free time yet so I wouldn’t like to say.

Wait, so this isn’t a beta save, you’re actually starting a save straight away in the English Premier League? No journey to get there or anything? Yeah, I am. Hopefully you’ll join me by following along.