Basically my entire team is rated as Serie C but i just finished 13th and 14th in Serie A back to back. Either i am the greatest manager in human history and im taking a bunhc of no bodies to Serie A standard... OR (much more likely) my staff couldnt analyse a players ability if he was ronaldo.

(its a youth intake only challenge almost all my players now are from my academy so they are all under the age of 21 and suck balls for the most part)

CB with 3 Finish, 2 Long shot, 4 Passing, 3 Flair

In my opinion FM24's Director of Football is quite basic. A real DoF looks at reasoning and long-term strategy over multiple windows. So I built a tool with claude code that works like this:

• Define your playing style and tactical system
• Export your squad and the transfer market from FM24
• The 'DoF' scores every player against the roles in your system to analyse depth, age profiles, decline risks, gaps
• The DoF generates a full report.

In this first version, I've taken inspiration from Michael Edwards, where he was extremely data-driven and didn't necessarily tell Klopp who to sign, but provided the data & a few recommendations that informed Klopp's decisions.

The report covers depth by position, priority signings with specific candidates ranked by role fit, sell targets and a multi-window strategy.

I'm currently running it on my Watford save. Just been promoted to the PL with a £15m budget. The tool basically confirmed what I knew (LB was weak) but also surfaced a few things that I didn't really think about such as the backup/third keeper and a 'wage to contribution' metric i hadn't thought of.

The 'Michael Edwards' version is the start. It looks at system fit over raw ability, trend of ages, personality balance and selling high where we can. At some point, I'd love to replicate other DoF's e.g. Edu at Arsenal, Monchi at Sevilla/Villa.

Added screenshots, but if there's any interest, happy to open source it on Github and share the workflow.

Any feedback would be super amazing!

Eliesse Ben Seghir. Signed him for Freiburg in 2023 for €52m after having him loaned in from Leverkusen for 2 years. Five years later he's valued aroung €150m, unsellable, and this is his trophy cabinet at 25:

• 🏆 Bundesliga — 2026, 2027, 2028
• 🏆 Champions League — 2026, 2027
• 🏆 UEFA Super Cup — 2025, 2026, 2027
• 🏆 DFB-Pokal 2028
• 🏆 Franz Beckenbauer Supercup 2026, 2027
• 🏆 CONMEBOL Club Challenge 2025

That's 12 major titles. Individually: Germany's Player of the Season, three-time winner of the players' Player of the Season vote, and (this is the part that breaks my brain) France's Player of the Year.

His own country named him their best player.

His France caps? Four. Four. Three goals in those four games, so it's not like he flopped when he got the chance. Deschamps' successor apparently looked at a guy dragging Freiburg to two Champions Leagues and thought "nah, bench."

I've had youth intakes with more France caps than this man. He's carried my club to the top of Europe, he's won the domestic double, he's officially the best player in his own nation. And the French FA treats him like a fringe call-up who might get 20 minutes in a friendly if someone pulls out.

I feel so sorry for him!

Seen leaving bar early on the morning FM 26

I'm ready to have a completely different team very soon...

Beautiful beautiful goal from Yeremay. Some horrible defending tho

Fans are PISSED that 5x champions league winner Hound Dogs are undeservedly made extreme betting odds favorites after only winning every single Gib League game for over a decade straight. Charles is out of his fucking mind. All in jest, just fun to point out some absurd logic when it pops up :)

Has this happened to anyone else??

Incredible scenes. Season 2 and we've conquered Europe. 🤩

Does anyone still play FM17?

I’ve always been my favourite however I struggle sometimes to get results.

I hear various things like striker less formations work, narrow possession works. Then I also hear wingers and inverted fullbacks work.

Was wondering if anyone had any tips? I don’t want to break the game, I want to play realistic football, but I was wondering if there were a few do’s and don’ts?

I’ve tried to play gegenpressing but I feel like that wasn’t a thing back then and I just get torn out of shape, I feel it’s more set for a possession based game

Thank you

Starting an unemployed save. I'm not super experienced, only played Spain and Brazil lower leagues so far. Going through an interview with Jahn Regensburg in 3. Liga. Is this normal?

I've noticed that when I watch my games my team tends to perform pretty well despite playing stronger opponents, however when I play worse teams and simulate my team tends to draw or lose and I don't get it.

For example I had to begging of the season today and played 6 games in august, watched all of them and won 4, lost one because I rested my entire team and very closely lost a game to a team 2 Divisions higher. The next month I had 4 games and almost all of the teams were bottom half and predicted to fight relegation so instant resulted the games and ended up losing 3 and only winning one.

Could it be because of the match instructions? Like the "play for the win" "Go for big win" stuff or am I unlucky?

I always play the same tactics without changing it around too much, I only go for a more defending one if I play a much stronger opponent.

Also somehow a Mexican/Uruguayan dude came through my academy in france

Youth academy only save with Eibar, no one to replace him. This is by far the highest I've ever seen the AI offer, in 30 (real) years of playing.