FM14: Super Hans to Berlin. Berlin? Yes, nowhere near Berlin

[kella]

I'm not going to be as detailed as the other guys but I wanted my own thread to document my miserable failure as the manager of a promising Bundesliga team, VFL Wolfsburg. Die Wolvie (wtf) have recently signed Keven De Bruyne and Luiz "El DeBarge" Gustavo to shore up some midfield issues, and think they still have a few years left in veteran poacher Ivica Olic.

Benaglia is being a bitch and attracting attention soon, so I'll probably sell him for a ton of cash and hope that Naldo just doesn't allow any shots on goal...

I won the first cup game against 3rd division side Osnabruck but it wasn't pretty, only 1-0 even though we outshot them 20-3 and had 65% possession.

Super Hans is looking to gain a little more tactical edge, but will probably wait until after the first game against Bayern to even try to win.

 

[osick87]

What formation are you running?

 

[kella]

This is germany motherfucker, a 4-2-3-1 of course (and because it fits our personnel).

 

[osick87]

What are you going to do with all that transfer money? Buy a Tim Hortons franchise?

 

[kella]

lost to bayern in the opening match 1-0. I tried to come out really aggressive in the first 25 minutes and bag one, but it didn't happen

 

[kella]

Every team I play just kills me on the counter, but my team can't counter at all. WTF

 

[osick87]

Apparently the counter is borked. @Karl Hungus might be able to tell you how to make it work.

 

[kella]

I mean I don't use the tactic, but I've played probably 15 games between my saves now and I have literally not seen my team break on a single counter.

 

[kella]

3rd game of the season. Currently sitting on 3 points after a narrow loss to Bayern (despite getting owned the whole game) and a not-quite-convincing win over upstarts Augsburg.

As you can see HBSC are a bunch of hacks and injured Perisic like 10 minutes in. Replacing him on the left attacking flank was Maximilian Arnold who duffed a 1-on-1 with the keeper later that half but otherwise performed pretty admirably.

Naldo poked a post-drilled-FK clusterfuck ball past Kraft for the first goal, Benaglio saved a bunch and then De Bruyne fired a 25 yard direct FK into the upper 90. After that I shut it down using lower tempo, possession, and a control approach.

I replaced Olic despite his fitness being fine in the 65th minute because he hasn't done dick all year. Dost didn't do a whole lot better. So far we've scored 4 goals in the league and our strikers have none of them.

 

[kella]

Does the German league not play reserves games? I don't see any on the schedule...

 

[DeadMan]

No. You have a Wolfsburg II team, which plays in a lower level division (likely not playable in the game). That functions as your reserve team.

 

[kella]

KDB made the team of the week, woohoo.

In other news agents keep coming to me with serviceable, cheap young players but my remaining transfer budget is a whopping 15k.

 

[kella]

The gap in quality between Dortmund and Die Wolfe was a little too apparent as the team got totally shelled despite a pretty conservative outlook from the start.

 

[osick87]

KDB made the team of the week, woohoo.

In other news agents keep coming to me with serviceable, cheap young players but my remaining transfer budget is a whopping 15k.

That doesn't make sense. Everywhere I've looked they've had a Transfer budget of 15-17 mil. Is that 15k your remaining wage budget?

 

[kella]

No. I only had 5m for transfers because I am fairly sure it took into account the KDB and DeBarge signings.

 

[kella]

BTW, I can find nothing on google that suggests that the counter tactic doesn't work right. Are you sure it's that way for FM14 @Karl Hungus?

 

[Travis7401]

I'm not sure "doesn't work" is the right phrase. It works as an inbetween point between Defensive and Standard mentalities, but in order to actually get players to break fast on counters you have to give other team directions.

For me I like the following for my "Counter" tactic.

Counter

Team instructions:
Play more direct
Exploit flanks
hassle opponents
run at defense
higher tempo

Direct/higher tempo are what get you up the field more urgently. I use Exploit flanks and run at defense to get the ball in the hands of my fast wingers, but that may differ depending on your team. Hassle opponents is what helps get more turnovers. You might experiment with higher lines too, but I coudln't do it with my team as the lacked speed at 3 defensive spots.

I found that setup worked really well against some teams, while against others the higher tempo/direct route just lead to a ton of bad passes and turnovers and the game just became very FIFA like.

 

[kella]

Ah, gotcha.

3-0 win over Hoffenheim! Other than a couple chances by Modeste, we played really well defensively, and Olic finally got a goal so I will praise him. Naldo scored another and De Bruyne scored another. I was also able to get Caligiuri a run out after spending the first part of the season injured.

 

[Milo]

I use Exploit flanks and run at defense to get the ball in the hands of my fast wingers

I think that's against the rules.

 

[Travis7401]

This is association football? well that probably explains all of my success, I was playing American Football. PSG never knew what hit them when Feret starting throwing TDs to Oliviera.


@chibob

 

[kella]

I have no fast players whose pace I can exploit, lol. Actually tabbed alessandrini and pitriopa for the next transfer window because of that.

 

[Travis7401]

You might want to look into the fact that Pitropia can neither cross the ball nor shoot the ball. He was the Ligue 1 winner in worst shooting percentage last season. That whore drives me nuts, he's like having Allen Iverson on your soccer team.

I do believe Allesiandrini has potential to at least cross the ball.

 

[osick87]

If you don't care about age, get Feret as a rental

 

[goblue96]

All of your transfer dealings better be squiggly things.

 

[Travis7401]

Ok, you've driven me to ask the question...

Why in the blue fuck would an American use British currency in his German/French fake soccer dynasty? I mean I could at least understand using the local currency or the Euro or something.

This really is just scarf wearing, right?

 

[kella]

Naldo is my 3rd leading scorer, lol

 

[goblue96]

Ok, you've driven me to ask the question...

Why in the blue fuck would an American use British currency in his German/French fake soccer dynasty? I mean I could at least understand using the local currency or the Euro or something.

This really is just scarf wearing, right?

Sadly, I've been playing versions of this game before the Euro was in circulation. I've always used squiggly things as the currency when playing. Bow down to the squiggly thing.

 

[Travis7401]

I'll never bow down to squiggly things or scarves!

 

[osick87]

Naldo is my 3rd leading scorer, lol

Armand was my leading scorer for a bit. Iworks itself out.

 

[kella]

I scored a filthy 28 yard goal with Armand in fifa off of a poorly cleared corner (which is to say, any corner, since it's fifa)

 

[Yankee151]

Ok, you've driven me to ask the question...

Why in the blue fuck would an American use British currency in his German/French fake soccer dynasty? I mean I could at least understand using the local currency or the Euro or something.

This really is just scarf wearing, right?

I play with Euros and use the metric system for height and weight, which is dumb because I can't convert metric in my head (unless it's 180cm) at all. Of course I also play in petulitis Spanish, so that shouldn't be a surprise

 

[kella]

What a try hard

 

[worst2first]

I use Euros but using metric? Nah. This a game b, not a math class.

 

[Karl Hungus]

BTW, I can find nothing on google that suggests that the counter tactic doesn't work right. Are you sure it's that way for FM14 @Karl Hungus?

What people have said is pretty much it. You can't just set the mentality to counter- the other instructions are key. Even with that, I don't ever see the quick transition from offense to defense regularly- if your players don't meet the condition the AI considers the "trigger" for a counter, it will never happen. There were a few threads about this at the SI and FMBase forums.

I've had much better results with the attacking mentality, but combined with defending deep/ hassle opponents/ direct passing/ high tempo. I feel like that has put me on the break much more often than using "counter." You might experiment with "pass into space."

 

[GatorTD]

I use te squiggle setting cause I'm lazy to change settings and I just treat them like American dollars anyway CAUSE THIS GAME ISN'T REAL

 

[goblue96]

What people have said is pretty much it. You can't just set the mentality to counter- the other instructions are key. Even with that, I don't ever see the quick transition from offense to defense regularly- if your players don't meet the condition the AI considers the "trigger" for a counter, it will never happen. There were a few threads about this at the SI and FMBase forums.

I've had much better results with the attacking mentality, but combined with defending deep/ hassle opponents/ direct passing/ high tempo. I feel like that has put me on the break much more often than using "counter." You might experiment with "pass into space."

I defend from the front. Direct passing/high line/hassle opponents/higher tempo. I set the opposition instructions to always close down the wingers while tightly marking the players in the center of the pitch. I look for CBs with high anticipation and heading and DCMs with high anticipations and tackling. Squeeze the pitch and force the opposition into a mistake.

 

[adchester]

I use te squiggle setting cause I'm lazy to change settings and I just treat them like American dollars anyway CAUSE THIS GAME ISN'T REAL

Bruh
https://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/blog...-football-team-thanks-football-140446068.html

 

[kella]

I just hope naldo scores. Working so far

 

[kella]

Jesus Christ Benaglio just kicked a ball right to Ola John on a goal kick. Immediately down 1-0 to Hamburg

 

[osick87]

THat happens more than you think.

 

[kella]

On another Everton-like losing streak. Fantastic. Keep losing to teams with less talent, too.

 

[goblue96]

#KellaOut

 

[GatorTD]

On another Everton-like losing streak. Fantastic. Keep losing to teams with less talent, too.

You should stop doing that.

 

[worst2first]

It sounds like your squad needs more hard work work.

 

[kella]

I agree. I am now giving pep talks only in aggressive.

 

[kella]

Haven't scored more than 1 goal in the last 4 games.

 

[Travis7401]

Watching people lose at this game is more funny than watching people win

 

[kella]

And now a goalless draw against Stuttgart that we vastly dominated. Fantastic.

 

[kella]

Both of my strikers are in the news for being goalless this week

Christ. Fuck this game.

 

[kella]

Olic still hasn't scored a league goal. In the past 2 games he's had 4 clean looks (including a goalkeeper pass mistake) and all 4 he has just drilled right into the keeper.

I'm about to get fired, naturally.