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Football Manager Mobile 2025 is now Officially CANCELLED! 🙁 Countdown to FMM 2026 Begins now.... Unfortunately that means at least 9 more months without any squad updates, new or updated leagues and new features. Fortunately I have been working on my own update that focuses on the 2024/2025 Season, I have had most big clubs completed since the start of the season. This includes updated leagues, teams, also new player images and badges (if necessary) - I have also fixed the fake club and league names. I am on IOS Meaning some restrictions for editing in some areas, Although I've been able to make use of the "Changes.txt" file. I have also been able to add players into the game that aren't actually in the database, using changes.txt by changing the date of birth, full name and club. Also adding custom images afterwards. Anyways if your interested in the file let me know and ill drop my updated changes.txt file, I also have my own files for players, clubs and leagues but not sure if I can upload them here, if interested I can email them to you directly.

So I have had this idea for quite a while now and what better time to try it out. I have an idea to create a complete Retro database in FMM24 using the vanilla base game. My only issue is deciding what season to go for... Ideally for me one with RVP, Arjen Robben, Van Nistelrooy etc.. Maybe like 2008/2009 ? So my question is what season should I start with. This would consist of me changing every league, Player, Manager, Staff, Name of competitions etc. So it would take a little bit of time I would probably start with a Version 1.0 that would be 1 complete league probably the Premier League. This update would also include real player images from that time so it might take a while sourcing these images, so please comment below what season I should go for and the most popular one ill give it a go.

Best Personality Such as Determination, Professionalism etc. WARNING: FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY. Ugh.. my wonderkids has the worst personality such as "Rash" (not determined, somehow unprofessional) Well this could be fixed by using Gold badge motivational coach (will applied the next youth intake) OR By mentoring them to a good personality player, for example your wonderkids has "Rash" and need to fix his professionalism, mentor him to a player such as Giroud (any player works as long they have the needed personality even its out of the kid's position), and wait for next message of "progress have been made" then cancel their mentoring and after that the kid will have the mentor's personality. Not getting the personality you want? Just save and reload before cancelling their mentorship. But this only works to players under the age of 24 so it would be likely impossible to fix "Somehow Unprofessional" player older than age of 24, but i think when that player got red card and you give him the exact discipline it would fix some of his personality. OR Save Editing. Most people would asks: Q: Isn't that cheating/hacking? A: Yes it's considered to be cheating/hacking in my opinion and we're doing it for educational purposes. Q: Why should i do that when i got the in-game editor ? A: You can't edit personality using the in-game editor. As you can see i edited Emre Can's personality and now he got that out of the world personality. The "Determined" might can't be seen but i actually edit it into max stat. And this is his default personality: How is it Possible? As i mentioned before we are editing the save files of the game. file name example: fmm_save_1.fms Its required basic hex editing skills and alot of tests. By using one of the provided tool by Mr @Scratch "AM24" apk. Since the save file is basically a huge data file, i need to find the player's exact id or information location such as their CA/PA or even Personality. If you copy each hex string and go to its address: - for the "Main Record" its containing the player's age and some half of their personality - and "Attributes/CA/PA:" containing player's attributes, some of personality attributes, CA or PA, or foot usability or even position suitability. - for "Contract Section" i haven't tried anything yet but my best guess is its containing the player's contract information. By editing the attributes, import the save into the game, and see if there's any changes made, i've edited Emre Can's into an impossible player without any help of the in-game editor: The point about this post is the "fastest way to fix player's personality" does exist but its also the "not-fun way" and complicated. Once again i post this for educational purposes. Maybe the dev need to add encryption to the game's save files.

Orta sahanın yaratıcı ve hareketli olması, hücum oyuncularının iyi bir tekniğe ve beceriye sahip olması gerekir. Ayrıca beklediğiniz topu iyi bir şekilde ortalayabilmelidir.

Guide to Denmark in FMM2020 After analyzing a few interesting aspects from Greek football, it’s time to move up-north. Time to travel from the hot waters of the Aegean Sea to the cold breezes of the North Sea. We now move to the land of Vikings, the land of Hygge, the land of Lego, home to the brilliance of Andersen and Bohr, setting for Shakespeare’s Hamlet, but above all the birthplace of Lord Bendtner. Compared to Greece’s, Danish football is a tad bit more popular around the world with players like the Laudrup brothers, the Schmeichel dynasty, or more recent ones like Eriksen and Bendtner which have contributed to create a name for Danish football around the world. However, most of these players are known for their game outside of Denmark, but how is football inside the country? Let’s take a look! Background The Big Three: This time around, the “big three” is maybe an overkill. Some would argue that historically there are only two clubs deserving of the Big Club status. For some others there are 3. As for me, 3 is the answer. Now, on to more controversy: some argue Aab Aalborg with 4 titles (winning one almost every 5-6 years) deserve the “big” tag, others, me included, believe the recent growth (2 titles in the last 4 years) and consistent top 3 finishes of FC Midtjylland have won them the “big” etiquette. I will be focusing on Midtjylland this time around, but I should give an honorable mention to Aalborg. FC Copenhagen: The heir of former danish superpowers KB Copenhagen (15 titles and 13 subtitles) and Boldkluben 1903 (7 titles and 6 subtitles), FC Copenhagen have maintained the dominance of their predecessors and have gone on to win 13 out of the 28 Superligaen leagues since 1991. In Europe although they are one of the most successful Danish club continentally in recent years (4 times in Group Stage and 1 in Round of 16), they haven’t managed to assert the same dominance as they have back home. They play a very fierce Copenhagen Derby against Brondby IF, a match attractive both on the pitch and on the stands. Founded: 1992 City: Copenhagen Nicknames: The Lions Stadium: Telia Parken (Capacity: 38,065) Best Player: Nicklas Bendtner (jk, it’s Viktor Fisher) Brøndby IF: Based on the outskirts of the danish capital, Brøndby IF have been the second largest team in Denmark since the foundation of the league in 1991. After spending their first 17 years playing in the lower divisions, Brondby broke into the First Division with a blast, having won 10 (6 since 1991) leagues and 7 cups since. Their fierce rivalry with FC Copenhagen attracts thousands of fans from Denmark and foreign countries each year. They are the most successful danish club in Europe, having reached the Champions Leagues QF in 1986, and the Europa League SF in 1991. Founded: 1964 City: Copenhagen (Brøndbyvester) Nicknames: The Boys From Western Outskirts Stadium: Brøndby Stadium (capacity: 28,000) Best Player: Hany Mukhtar FC Midtjylland: Founded in 1999 thanks to the merge between Herning Fremad and Ikast FS. Although one of the youngest sides in Denmark, the wolves have already made a name for themselves locally. Their success is mainly due to their economic power, which has allowed them to partner with clubs around the world and to invest in the first ever Danish youth academy (which has seen the likes of Pione Sisto, Simon Kjær and Winston Reid come through). They have also won 2 league titles and 1 cup in the last 4 years. Founded: 1999 City: Herning Nicknames: The Wolves Stadium: MCH Arena (capacity: 12,000) Best Player: Evander Teams to manage: Following now, four teams which I believe could make for an entertaining career/challenge in FMM2020: FC Copenhagen: From local to continental Powerhouse As mentioned above, the Lions have won 13 league titles in their short history, but have never managed to progress further than the Round of 16 in any continental competition. The idea of the challenge is simple, take FC Copenhagen to Continental glory, have you got what’s required to tackle such a hard task? Good thing is the team is already a local powerhouse so no need to worry about that. FC Nordsjælland: Academy Challenge FC Nordsjaelland, if you didn’t miss the information, are the youngest team in all of Denmark at the moment with an Average Age of only 21.4 years. They are also one of the most profitable teams in Denmark having sold 12 players for 13.1 million euros and buying other 12 for only 1.7 million euros. Their project has been very redituable since they’ve also won two cups and 1 league title in the last 10 years. At the moment 19 out of 29 players come from their own youth ranks. Can you challenge for the league and maybe bigger things using only Youth Academy prospects? Vejle Boldklub: Wake up the giants This Vejle based team is one of the oldest teams (128 years of age) in Denmark and one of the most successful ones. They’ve won 5 first division titles and 6 danish cups, making them one of the most laureated teams in Denmark. But in recent years, the team has experienced 4 drops from the top flight, risked bankruptcy and risked relegation to the third level. Can you bring back this sleeping giant to where it belongs and revive their glory days which today are nothing but a memory? Kjellerup IF: From rag to riches Founded in 1907 in Kjellerup, this team has spent most of its existence playing outside of the profesional leagues (specifically 104 years) having only won promotion to the Third Division for the first time in their history in 2011. They currently remain in said division, being probably the smallest team available at the start of FMM2020. Their 3000 stadium and almost null experience as professionals could make for a very interesting challenge. Can you bring this team up the ranks and make history with them? Young players to keep an eye on To end this guide, a list of 4 Danish youngsters to keep an eye on. One goalkeeper, one defender, one midfielder and one attacker that might be useful to refresh each line in you careers. Oscar Hedvall Coming from Denmark and being a goalkeeper must not be easy. Trying to follow, or surpass, the steps of Premier League legends Peter and Kasper Schmeichel in goal must put a lot of pressure on young emerging danish keepers. Not many youth talents manage to break through and establish themselves as starting goalkeepers in Denmark . But recently a young talent has won himself a place in the Superliagen. He is Oscar Hedvall, and while he isn’t such an exciting talent as the next 3, he has fought for a place in Silkeborg IF and has to date managed to get 23 appearances with the first team. Age: 21 Position: Goalkeeper Nationality: Danish Team: Silkebor IF Victor Nelsson With 21 years of age, Victor Nelsson is already a strong defender with an admirable work-rate. His 1.87 height is also a plus for such a complete defender. Having emerged from the youth rank of, you guessed it, Norsdjælland where he played 98 matches, Victor made an important move to danish Superpower FC Copenhagen last season. He has since played 23 games and is tipped to become a danish international anytime soon. Age: 19 Position: Center-back Nationality: Greek Team: Asteras Tripoli FC Mikel Damsgaard This 19 year old is already one Denmark’s biggest hopes upon the future. He is a multi-functional mid-fielder who can also play as a left winger and a striker. His great performances have made him an indisputable starter for Norsdjælland in the Superligaen, where he has played 70 games, scored 7 goals and provided 16 assists. A very exciting player to say the least. Age: 19 Position: Midfielder/Winger/Striker Nationality: Danish Team: FC Norsdjælland Mohammed Daramy This 1.80 m striker, made his debut for FC Copenhagen’s first team in 2018 and hasn’t ceased to impress since. He is one of Denmark’s brightest prospects at the moment, and his fenomenal physique, sprint and dribbling skills haven’t gone unnoticed. PSV and Leipzig are already knocking on his door. He has already played 25 games for the first team, and is set to become a superstar. Age: 17 Position: Striker Nationality: Danish (Sierra-leonean) Team: FC Copenhagen That’s all from me this time. Hope you enjoyed, if you did leave a like and a comment, if you didn’t I’m all up for constructive criticism. Thanks for reading, and until next time.

So about 3 months ago I was enjoying my Wolverhampton Wanderers save when at the beginning of the season I wasn't able to play any matches. It always shows as if I haven't picked any players and it showed I had a match when I didn't have any matches. Then I went to my reserves and saw the go to match option though I was messing around with hex editor and I don't even know how I did this plus in the match against Bournemouth reserves I discovered a gem " Vitor Jesus" anyways it felt more like I was an observer who could pick the formation, players, give team talks and make substitutions

Since @Jsavfc posted about clubs to manage, I decided to post about wonderkids. I'll be posting starting from English Premier League, Bundesliga, La Liga, Serie A, and a few other leagues. Stay tuned 😉 ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE BUNDESLIGA LA LIGA Serie A FRENCH LIGUE UN EREDIVISIE LIGA NOS Jupiler Super League ARGENTINE PRIMERA DIVISION REQUESTED BY @George Traistă LIGA MX REQUESTED BY @George Traistă CYMRU PREMIER REQUESTED BY @RichD CANADIAN PREMIER LEAGUE REQUESTED BY @Kun Aguero Honorable Mentions: Neko Williams - A young Right Back from Liverpool and with Trent-Alexander Arnold currently out due to injury we might see him performing in the Premier League Rayan Ait Nouri - Wolverhampton Wanderers new signing had a good start in the Premier League. He's currently just a loanee from Angers SCO but got a buy out clause around €15m. Jamal Musiala - He's became Bayern Munich's youngest ever goal scorer in their 8-0 over Schalke. He is also another Englishman decided to try his luck in Germany Luca Netz - A pacey left back possessing good crossing ability. He's yet to make a first team appearance but has been their unused substitute it's just a matter of time before he get one. Ander Barrenetxea - Most Vibers should've know this guy since I've used him for my assist challenge, but he's got a lot of first team appearance and we might actually see his potential rise up probably a 5*? Victor Mollejo - He looks older than he really is. Still just 19 and had made 36 appearance while he's on loan at Deportivo La Coruna last season. This season he's loaned to Getafe and is yet to make and appearance Emil Roback - When Zlatan wants you to join his club you know you’re something special. We don’t need any much explanation for this Lucien Agoume - Made his senior debut last season and had impresed the fans. Currently he is on loan at Spezia to gain more first team action Amir Arli - Joined Dijon in 2018, trained with the first team at just the age of 17 and already impressed many big clubs like Juventus, Valencia and AS Monaco. Edouard Michut - Doubted as the next Marco Verratti, PSG are desperately trying to keep him after the departure of Nianzou Kouassi and Adil Aouchiche considering a great interest from FC Barcelona and Manchester City for the 17 years old. Naci Unuvar - Being one of the best prospect in FMM 20, Unuvar are looking to be better than he currently is having impressed during appearance for the Ajax first team Noni Madueke - Another English talent going abroad for his development. Having 4 goals and 3 assist in just 8 appearance this season, he really have a bright future Joelson Fernandes - He haven't even play a single game in senior level but has already be u-17 with the highest value in Liga NOS showing how great he is. Ronaldo Camara - One of my favourite Portugese talent in this year FMM, he's played 7 games for Benfica B this season. We can expect him to get a higher PA next edition with the reputation of the name he's holding. Marco Kana - One of the most overpowered player I've used in FMM 20, he's made a decent 15 appearance last season and looking to get more this season

Sliders For Tactics In Football Manager Mobile Having played Football Manager for years one of the things I used to love about the PC Version of the past that I think would be great for Football Manager Mobile is positional sliders. I understand that player roles dictate roughly where a player should be on the pitch in relation to the formation you are using but sometimes this is too generic Having arrows that you can use and being able to drag to roughly which part of the pitch you want a player to be in during attack would bring slightly more tactical control in the game but not make it too in depth. This would help with transitions as sometimes what starts as a 4-4-2 can change into a 4-4-1-1 during a match or the formation you defend in is not always the formation you attack in for take this 5-4-1 starting formation Now this is our starting formation and how we set up to defend during the match however this could easily change into a 4-3-3 via the use of some attacking sliders such as these (* Please don't judge the badly drawn arrows *) By using these attacking sliders you could then create transitions, these arrows would change the 5-4-1 into a 4 -3-3 in attack as shown below You might say there is no need for this as I could play Alderwierld as a BPD or Libero to have him move into that position and have both Milner and Sissoko as IFs to create the transitions I am describing BUT what if you want to play a system that it would not be so simple by using the player roles such as Sheffield United under Chris Wilders overlapping centre backs? For Stephens and Baldock I could simply choose Inverted Wing Back Role but they don't push up as far as you'd want in this tactic and there would be no option to have the Centre Backs overlap in this way without tactical sliders I appreciate this is maybe a minor detail for those who would think you don't need much tactical depth in the game but for me I believe the handheld version should be about tactics and transfers and a bit of tactical depth never hurt anyone especially as this is Football Manager and not FIFA Another way sliders would help is if I want my Centre backs to push out wide effectively making them cover the flanks In this formation I am using wing backs that will push up which would lead the set up to look like this during the attack As you can see this would leave us very weak at the back in the wing areas so a way we could fix this by using sliders would be to have sliders on the CBs to make them drift wide to cover the overlapping full backs and a arrow on the DM to slot in between the back 2 to create a 3 at the back when in defence such as this Which would lead the formation to look like this during attack as I would want As you can see here tho the way the current tactics interface is this would cause a problem as it would leave you with only one centre half so the arrows would need to be able to drag EXACTLY where on the pitch you'd want the player to be as this is how in my head id want the formation to look after the sliders were implemented At least some form of sliders would be appreciated or definitely some more tactical options to select with maybe a button you can select for CBs to be able to cover the wings when your Wing backs Push forward and I guess the Narrow Balanced and Wide comes into play but I do believe sliders would be able to give you more detail tactically Yes this is where someone goes well go get FM Touch but some people do not have the devices capable for that and I do think with some tweaks we could see some form of sliders in FMM Let me know what yous think

(thanks to @Foxy for the graphic) This is the first of what I plan to be semi-regular discussion articles where I kick off a discussion for the forum. If you think it’s a turd idea then do say and I will stop, otherwise I hope you enjoy and comment. Introduction - The current state of ‘real resources’ Real players, leagues, teams, and the like (let’s call them ‘real resources’ for the purpose of this article) are integral parts of Football Manager, whether it be versions for PC, mobile devices, or video games consoles. Yet how weird did it feel to play this year and see Juventus labelled as Zebra Turin? This article is about the importance, or lack thereof, of real resources towards a satisfying gameplay experience, where I will write upon a few discussion points and actively encourage all to join in. If I miss anything please do raise it and let’s get the conversation going. In this article please assume that I am discussing FMM in particular and the game engine will always remain the same - it is just the resources themselves that real or not. I am not specifically talking about enabling ‘use fake players’ either. Affinity to clubs The most obvious benefit to using real resources in the game is your affinity to that resource. Say you are a huge Liverpool fan then the thought of loading the game and demolishing all ahead of you, much like the current team, has a massive appeal. The same applies if you are the fan of a smaller club, where your dream may be to march them up through the leagues and conquer Europe. You also may have a favourite player, or indeed a friend, in the game and want to sign them and maximise their potential. Yet you may also want to do the opposite and ruin a club...if that’s in your nature. In a way FMM allows you to play a computerised replica of all the times you pretended to be a footballer or a team in the playground, down the field, or in the street with your friends or family. Not using real resources would dispose of this affinity but perhaps build new ones. One of my favourite joys of the game is finding a player (Zarzana) that I had not heard of and then growing him in to a beast. Funnily enough Woody is having exactly the same experience with the exact same player (Zarzana) this year. Not knowing this player meant I felt like they were a secret that I found - a golden trinket lost amongst a pile of rubbish. Imagine if you found, say, Frank Jefferson in your non-real game and you sign him for a bargain. Then you grow him and he becomes top scorer, playing 1,000+ games for you, and leading you to managerial riches. No one else will ever have that experience and it will be all yours. Regens, or evogens, could fulfil this role, but, whilst I don’t know about others, I find myself unconsciously figuring out who they are. An amazing young Swedish striker you find? That’s usually a Zlatan or Isak replica. Whereas a database with randomised player names, attributes, club structures, and the like would generate a fresh experience every time. Tactic Fulfilment One of the supposed benefits of real resources is the ability to build a tactic and then buy players you know can fill the roles. It’s the same as when you select a club: you may have a style of play and pick a club that suits it. I’m guilty of picking Man City in a lot of challenge as they have an abundance of quality players in the roles I want. Having non-real resources means, however, would make you think about the game more and what attributes suit what role. If you wanted to play a right winger then you would pick a lesser known player with good crossing, dribbling, movement, and pace... whereas if you knew the players you may be tempted to go for a more familiar name who would not be suited to a role. I’ve lost count, for example, of the amount of people who shoe-horn Anthony Martial in as a right winger and then wonder why he is not assisting enough for their main striker. This all ties in to my next topic... Easy Scouting You know a player; you can find them. Want a top class left winger? Douglas Costa is your man. Want a decent younger left-wing prospect? Dilrosun, Lainez, and Lemar come to mind. On the right? Let’s all bellow it together: PAVON! Most of us know the traditional beats that play the best music, but finding the instruments that make the freshest of tunes is what really gets the mind dancing. If you were playing the game ‘properly’ then searching by name wouldn’t be possible. Hands up if you often just type a name in the search box and don’t even bother with attributes? Yep, most of us can be guilty of this crime; our sentence at Vibe’s prison yet to be decided. But searching by name... it’s just too easy. Tangential to this, the wonderkids list is a wonderful resource, especially for new forummers who want to make their first steps in to completing challenges which is to be applauded and encouraged, but it also breeds laziness amongst more seasoned members. What’s more interesting: a 1kc with Fabio Silva or Geoff Smith from FC Dudley? More importantly, what would feel more of an achievement to you: success with someone everyone else has had success with or success with someone unheard of? Non-real resources would fulfil the latter. I liken it to music. It feels so exciting to find a new band and hear all their ‘choons’, but when they go mainstream and over-saturate all streams of media the novelty soon dissipates and you doff your thinking-cap and begin your search for your next fresh music fix. One of my favourite 1kcs of recent times is Foxy’s with Mitrovic. Mitrovic wouldn’t land on any recommended players list but Foxy scouted him and decided his attributes would be interesting for fulfilling Vibe’s most famous challenge. I loved this! Not only did he get his 1kc but he also joined the 100 Club. I can only imagine how satisfying that must be. I’ve not seen a Mitrovic career since. Having non-real resources would enforce proper scouting and proper strategy. Proper strategy would inspire people to think about the game more and, perhaps, grasp more enjoyment from the jaws of the boredom of FMM’s ‘rinse repeat’ familiarity. The influence on Vibe Vibe’s challenges are split wonderfully by the main admin team, but for the purposes of this articles let’s split them in to two: specific players and number targets. Liverpool Front Three is an example of the prior, whereas the 1kc is the latter. Any switch to non-real resources would render a good proportion of our fantastic player-specific challenges null and void. HOWEVER, the offset of this is that a lot of the number target challenges would, perhaps, become a lot more appealing. We have no idea how the player(s) or club will develop, whereas real resources would be a lot more predictable. They were be fantastic and unpredictable. Final Opinion So there are my offerings. I’ve thrown a few pros and cons in. What does everybody else think?

Hi. Decided to make some plans for my FMM20 save and would like to share them with this awesome community hopefully inspiring some of you to manage this club on your saves or challenges. For FMM20 I am planing to manage "Farsley Celtic". Newly promoted club playing in National League North. My goal will be winning CL and PL with this club. I really like club name, nickname, stadium name and logo. Those things are inspiring me to use this club.Farsley Celtic Football Club is a football club based in Farsley, West Yorkshire, England. The club was founded in 1908, but folded in 2010 and were reformed as Farsley AFC before returning to the name Farsley Celtic in 2015. Nickname: The Celt ArmyGround: The Citadel Capacity: 4000 (300 seated)League: National League NorthHistory that I would like to mention.2003-04 Promoted to Premier Division2005-06 Promoted to Conference North after play-offs (SF Marine 0 Farsley Celtic 1, F Farsley Celtic 2 North Ferriby United 1)2006-07 Promoted to National Division2008-09 Relegated to Conference North2009-10 Resigned mid-season, record expunged2010-11 Newly formed club joined Northern Counties East League Premier Division. Northern Counties East League Champions2011-12 Joined Northern Premier League Division One North2015 Changed name to Farsley Celtic2016-17 Northern Premier League Division One North runner-up. Promoted to Premier Division after play-offs (SF Farsley Celtic 4 Colne 0, F Farsley Celtic 4 Ossett Town 2)2017-18 Not promoted after play-offs (SF Ashton United 2 Farsley Celtic 1)2018-19 Northern Premier League Champions. Promoted to National LeagueAs you may notice they had great success in recant years with promotions. At the moment when I am writing this they are standing in 4th position after 12 games in National League North. Which is really impressive for newly promoted team. I hope to retain their success and continue moving their journey to Premier League.I will update this thread with players stats from FMM20 when it will be released, but if you want to check real world player stats for this team, you can check them here https://us.soccerway.com/teams/england/farsley-celtic/25837/squad/

Can FMM Learn From Fire Emblem? Roughly six months ago I wrote an article (Link) which explained how seeing FMM as a RPG changed my gaming life, it might seem daft to some but I found FMM compares well to certain RPGs due to its stat based gameplay and how both genres utilise role and class systems among many other similarities. While that article hardly set Vibe alight it did catch the attention of the developer of FMM ( @Marc Vaughan ) who and I quote said "It might interest you to know I've always approached designing the game as it being a 'partial RPG' product" which was all the justification I needed to prove to myself I'm not crazy! After this development it's only natural that while playing Nintendo's latest smash hit SRPG "Fire Emblem Three Houses" I started to ponder certain elements of the game design and how it relates to FMM. Fire Emblem at its core is a tactical and strategy game where you have battles on a map involving your class of heroes against the enemies in a rock, paper, scissors like battle system (actually not really present in Three Houses but historically), where each class has a clear advantage and disadvantage against the other. However since Fire Emblem Awakening on the 3DS the series has developed massively away from the battlefield introducing a support system where characters get to know each other and their interactions help you get to know them, it really adds so much depth to each character. Obviously something like that wouldn't be practical for a game like FMM but I'm laying the groundwork for the next set of massive developments introduced in Three Houses, which is where I'll bring FMM into the discussion. In Three Houses you play as a professor at a school for knights and the like and in this position it is up to you to train, develop and instruct your characters as you see fit, stats aside every character is basically a blank slate. The training is what really got me thinking about FMM though as the core systems are extremely similar, in Fire Emblem you can train your students in each weapon type as you see fit, so for example you can train your lance user to get better at using horses with the end game of him developing into a mounted unit, or training your sword uses with a bow to utilise ranged attacks and so on. Obviously all you have to do is swap warrior class types to FMM role types and the similarities are clear as day, even if FMM is more restricted. However one area where Fire Emblem stands out is the level of growth not only relies on uses of said weapon and experience but also in motivation. Don't get me wrong I know a motivation system is already in place in FMM but it's basically boiled down to the same old interactions and performance based results. In Fire Emblem the way to increase a characters motivation is to not only interact with them but to bond with them, for example doing well in battle will give a motivational boost but so will other activities like having a meal together, giving gifts and bonuses and various other things. The whole idea of this motivation system is to get to know your players because the Fire Emblem series uses a perma-death system where a character stays dead, obviously this doesn't translate directly to FMM yet at the same time it does as selling a player or having one you love retire would sting that little bit more. Obviously FMM can't go to stupid levels of depth and characterisation for every player like Fire Emblem can but I do think there might be legs in the motivation angle. Before we go any further I want to make it clear I'm not talking media interactions, team talks or anything that would bog the game down. I'm thinking of true bonding experiences which would increase a players motivation but at the same time will bring it's own risks (injury, media spotlight, attitude, etc). Realistically how often do clubs go on warm weather training, have Christmas parties, do charity events or even daft stuff like going paint balling or golfing. If results are going well allow your staff to enjoy the Christmas spirit (which could lead to a New Years slump) or if you're fighting relegation tell your players to cancel the celebrations and get on the training pitch. Why not reward your star striker with a day off after a top performance or be able to select who goes to charity events (his attitude could impact the club etc), or fly out to Tenerife to enjoy the sun after a gruelling period. Have players or groups approach you asking to do certain events and then it's your call. Obviously every option would need to have the chance for it to go wrong as we see in real life, obviously footballer DUI's are annoyingly in the news all too often and for obvious reasons negative impacts like that can't be a thing but these bonding exercises could lead to injury or lack of effort in training. Most clubs have the big time Charlie type and this type of system would put us in the position of do we let it slide or do we stamp it out, you could even get reports of players doing these activities without your consent which just adds to the depth. Having a degree of control over a players motivation would allow us the option of not only seeing how a player trains but it would obviously also impact how the player does on the pitch. Maybe a squad member is frustrated at not playing but because you're lax with what he does off the pitch he stays relativity happy and performs when needed. What if your squad is divided and a few players have decided they don't get on anymore which does happen as is in FMM, we currently have no way to influence or fix these issues outside of selling the impacted players whereas a system like this might allow us to fix the relationship. In recent instalments of FMM we've seen motivation/moral become more and more important, especially when relating to a strikers finishing ability so when I saw another game use similar systems which allowed influence in this area the creative juices got flowing. However I will say I'm writing this article with a massive amount of hesitation as it's not something I'm completely sure I want, anyone who knows me knows I'm against anything media or team talk related in game, however I do think we need a degree of personality in the game and more involvement in how a player/team develops. Fire Emblem's new system is a massive time sink but the personality of it helps to remove the grind somewhat whereas in FMM it's a grind with the hope FMM rolls in your way and that you have the right players to develop, our interactions are limited with so much of the game depending on hidden mechanics and even luck so wrestling back some control at least could be cool. One other feature Fire Emblem has which links somewhat to FMM would be abilities which you earn upon levelling up in training, for example if your knight on sword training advances in that subject they'll learn a knew ability they can use in battle. This system really got me thinking about traits in FMM as we know they're stat based, as in certain stats will usually unlock certain traits. While traits might not be the most utilised feature of FMM learning from Fire Emblem could make them much more enjoyable to use, in Three Houses each attribute has abilities and each character can have a certain amount of abilities tied to them which you can switch between, like weapon abilities, stat boosts, or boosts to you allies, for example you might have an inspiring attribute which boosts teams mates in close proximity leadership stat or something. If each stat we train in FMM has traits tied to them, and if we could then allocate a certain amount to each player not only would we actually be influencing how our players play in each position we'd also be adding personality to a squad and more purpose to training and developing players. You'd might not focus on earning 20's in key stats like we do know but instead focus on various stats to earn traits which would be beneficial. In Three Houses you can even approach members who've mastered certain areas to tutor characters for specific boosts somewhat like a mentor feature. As @Marc Vaughan revealed in the article linked at the top of this page he's also a massive Fire Emblem fan so maybe he's also deep into Three Houses? I wonder if he saw the similarities or took any inspiration from Intelligent System's latest release? IS flipped is SI after all....Lol. Anyway if you stuck with me on this bizarre yet enjoyable journey I'd love to hear your views, as always thank you for reading.

Stars to look after in Brazil’s 2019 U-17 World Cup As many of you may know, or might be following, the U-17 World Cup is being played at Brazil as I write this. This tournament, since it was created back in 1985, has been used as a stepping stone by players like Toni Kroos, Cesca Fabregas, Neymar, Xavi, or Eden Hazard to show their talent to the rest of the world and gain so experience. Obviously many youngsters who play or have played this tournament eventually flop,while many other go on to have ordinary careers. Only time will show us who among this year’s batch goes on to become a superstar, until then we can only speculate, and we are doing that right now. So, below I’ve made a formation with the best player and potential talent in each position with my own opinion as judge. Many will surely make the next edition of the game, and many are already available on FMM2019. Most of this players will be in next years games, so you can always come back to this article and look for their names in your saves, they will mostly be young cheap talents with potentially International or World Class potential. Hope you enjoy: GK: Ivan Martinez (17 / Spanish / Osasuna) Some might remember him for being one of the most promising talents at goal during this year’s version of the game. He is currently the goalkeeper at Osasuna’s segunda B side and is at the moment Spain U17’s first man in goal. If things go as expected and he fulfills his potential, he will probably step up from Osasuna on to a bigger club. So, FMM20 might be the last time you can use him in the small Spanish side or the last time you have such a young talent as a bargain. Try him out, and don’t miss on the opportunity. LB: Lee Tae-Seok (17 / South Korea / FC Seoul) Although he is only 17, Tae-Seok is already a very good full-back, not a very common or easy to achieve position for people his age. He is specially good carrying the ball around and his amazing creativity and precise passes make him one of the best build up defenders in the tournament. He is also reliable when he is needed upfront. He can easily overlap wingers to provide width and good crosses for the strikers. He currently plays in FC Seoul so it is very probable he will appear on FMM20 as a very cheap talent. CB: Tanguy Kouassi (17 / French / PSG) With 1.87 m of height, a very strong profile, and decent speed, Kouassi is probably the best defender in the competition. His impressive physique shouldn’t misguide you though, he is also a very technical player which gives him the chance to play as a BWM when needed. He is currently playing for the younger divisions at Paris Saint Germain and is expected to step up around the end of this season. Evidence of this is his appearances at the bench during PSG’s victory over Real Madrid in the Champions League and his 5 call ups for the bench for Ligue 1 this season. We should see more for him in the near football. CB: Bruno Amione (17 / Argentine / Belgrano) This 1.85 m defender is one of the most promising South-american players of his generation. Seeing how poor the Argentine defense was during Russia 2018, the whole nation has their eyes put on players like Amione. Since he started playing for the U17 national team, they have only conceded in one match. He is one of those players you will be able to get for a cheap amount of money in FMM20. RB: Ki-Jana Hoever (17 / Dutch / Liverpool) After winning the award for best right back in the U-17 Uefa qualifiers, it is natural to assume that he is also one of the best in his position for this World Cup. He started his career at Ajax’s younger sides, before moving in August 2018 to Liverpool. He was supposed to play for the U18 side but his level projected him to the U23’s last season. A six year difference is already impressive, but Hoever doesn’t get tired of impressing and he has already played for the 1st team in the FA and EFL Cups (scoring one goal) and was also called up for the bench during this summer’s UEFA Super Cup against Chelsea. If he continues this amazing development I wouldn’t be surprised to see him get a substitute status next season for TAA. CM: Pedri (16 / Spanish / UD Las Palmas (Barcelona)) My favorite player in this competition, and currently one of my favorite footballers of any kind, there isn’t much I can say about him that will make him justice. He is an amazing player, with Iniesta-esque skills, with impressive creativity, envidiable vision, strength, tactical awareness and impressively mature. Oh, and he is also the youngest player in the tournament. He debuted this season for UD Las Palmas and has since played 10 games for their first team scoring 3 goals and providing with 3 assists. His talent caught the eye of Barcelona, tam he will be joining by the end of the current season. With nothing left to say, I highly recommend you go on Youtube and take a look at this once in a generation talent. CM: Matias Palacios (17 / Argentine / San Lorenzo) He is the main star of probably the best or second best side of the tournament, if that isn’t enough to convince you of the talent of this player I don’t know what will. He is a very effective passer with an eye for clinical through balls, he is a really good player to apply pressure when off the ball, he is also a very fast midfielder and an effective goalscorer. He is still waiting for a chance to break into the first team of San Lorenzo, but let’s remember it is a very rough league and younger players risk getting injured if the step up too early. AMR: Gonzalo Tapia (17 / Chilean / Universidad Catolica) He is probably one of the most skillful players in this U17 world cup, with amazing speed, dribbling and finishing. He is the perfect player for counter-attacking football, due to his amazing ability to surpass defenders and find spaces where no-one else would. He hasn’t made his professional debut yet, but a performance half as good as what we saw from him during the Sudamericano, should fulfill the dream for him. AM: Efrain Alvarez (17 / Mexican / LA Galaxy) I must confess I added him in this eleven in part because he is Mexican, but also because he is an amazing talent (Don't believe me ? Ask @Kanegan who used him in a save) . He was born in Los Angeles to Mexican parents, and therefore he decided it was in his best interest to play for the Aztecs. He currently plays for his hometown team LA Galaxy, but his amazing left foot should take him to a bigger side in european football soon. He debuted this season in the MLS and played 14 games, handing out 3 assists. That doesn’t sound as much, but the impressive part is he only played 150 minutes out of those 14 games. For the Mexican U17 team, he has played 6 games scoring 3 goals. AML: Pablo Moreno (17 / Spanish / Juventus) A very prolific forward, he can play as a Striker, left and right Winger/Inside Forward, as well as AM and CM. I’ve chosen him for the AML position since he is right footed so he could cut in easily and also, since our chosen striker is something very special. He currently plays for Juventus U19 after leaving La Masia behind last season. He has scored 7 goals in total having played 34 games during his career. He will be Spain’s main striking force due to the absence of Ansu Fati. ST: Talles Magno (17 / Brazilian / Vasco da Gama) Tipped to become the best player of the tournament, Magno’s task is to use his talent and Brazil’s home advantage to lift this year’s trophy. He is one of the few players in the whole tournament to be playing first division football in such a constant way. He has already played 15 games for Vasco da Gama’s team scoring 2 goals. He can play in both wings, preferring the left one, and as a striker through the middle. He will Posible Formation Honourable Mentions Thanks for reading, and don’t forget to watch the U17 WC for future talents!! If you enjoyed please leave a like and a comment. Till next time.

Hi Vibe, hi everyone, I hope everyone is doing great and enjoying the last two months of FMM19. As FMM19 comes to an end, it is time to start talking about the features the next edition might add. @Foxy has done a fantastic job compiling (with due credits to @smoggy90, @Rob, @Mr Tree, and @Ian) some cool ideas and features the game might have here, so go check it out. In said article Foxy mentions Mexico’s First Division, Liga MX, as potential cool league to be added to the game. He gives some interesting points to support his argument, and it is my intention to give some more arguments that fully answer: Why Mexico’s “Liga MX” would be a positive addition to FMM2020? So if you’re interested please join me in this 6 post series (posted separately), where I’ll try to expose some aspects of Mexican football, which I intend convince you of the positiveness of the aforementioned addition, or at least spark some interest in you for my Nation’s league. Anyway, let’s start with the 6 points to be discussed How the league works? (It is a complex one) Some facts Liga Mx as a supporting feature for the MLS Historic and best teams Former players Best youth prospects Enjoy. Posts will be published shortly.

At this time of year the excitement is starting to build at the prospect of the next edition of FMM and we are now only a few months away from FMM20. Every year we see a handful of new features added to the game and we all have ideas what we would like to see those features be. I have gathered four other prominent members of Vibe and got them to give some ideas of features or improvements they would like to see in FMM20. I would like to thank @Rob, @smoggy90, @Mr Tree, and @Ian for taking the time to write their sections and it would be great if you can show them some appreciation in the comments and pop them a their way too if they comment. @smoggy90: Set Pieces Set pieces in the game are a bug bear of mine and for many other players I imagine, particularly when doing a goal scoring/assist challenge. I would love to see some form of set piece designer/creator and it would add a whole new level to tactics. A lot of tactics you see are very similar and there is little flexibility for me, so adding the ability to be creative with your set pieces would be a massive improvement. Currently you get to choose four takers and be specific which side you take them from with corners and free kicks. So you may prefer a left footer one side swinging it towards the goal or on the other side swinging it away and vice versa. I will note some further options for each of these categories below. Free Kicks We’ve all been there - you win a free kick just inside the opposition half or out by the by-line and your main striker steps up to take it – yes he is the 1st choice taker but that is for free kicks just outside the area where you want him to bang them in. Not for crossing it into the box for someone else! To me I would love to see a few options incorporated such as selecting different takers for direct or non-direct free kicks. I personally set my main striker on both left side and right side free kicks so this doesn’t really do much for me, I would much prefer to be able to have more influence on who takes them in what specific areas of the pitch and for what purpose. You don’t want your big brute of a target man trying to cross it in for your playmaker or wingers. Also who will go forward for attacking free kicks, can we have the ability to send your centre backs forward, or hold them back – can we set our striker up to attack the ball in the box, perhaps have your AP lurking outside the box for a breakdown. There are so many options but even just some simplistic ones to get us started and hopefully develop over the next few releases would be good for me. Corners Corners are a great way to score multiple goals and also gain a lot of assists for the taker – whether this is a slight flaw in the engine or the fact it is fairly easy to train up a strikers aerial ability I’m not sure. If you have a striker with good aerial he will attack the near post and score you plenty. In my current DT challenge I have my left sided striker taking corners and my right sided (or central) striker who has 20 for aerial attacks the near post. Even a 41 year old Phil Foden is still notching assists for me in a Real Madrid save, many of which come from corners. It would be nice to have some sort of control over this and to be able to set certain players to attack the near post, stay central, attack far post, lurk outside the area etc. It’s very similar to the free kick options in this respect as in there are so many options and so much flexibility available that it would be nice to see a step towards some sort of set piece creator. Imagine how pleasing it would be setting up a set piece routine and to see it play out and come to fruition on the pitch. I don’t think there is much to say about penalty takers so I’m happy with that and I don’t really see any benefit of choosing a throw in taker unless you adopt a Tony Pulis style of bombarding the penalty area at every opportunity with a Ryan Shotton long throw, but that brings me out in cold sweats just thinking about it! Hope this provokes some thought and discussion and would love to hear other people’s opinions on it. @Rob: Team Instructions Set piece instructions Perhaps my biggest bugbear with player instructions and Vibe challenges is set-piece takers. The first element I’d change is free-kicks. Now I know Vibe is a microcosm of FMM users, so SI probably don’t care, but does anyone else get infuriated when the striker you want to get a 1kc is taking free-kicks from just inside the touchline? In fact, take challenges out of the equation and it seems nonsensical that you cannot determine who takes freekicks where. My suggestion is to have four freekick roles: ⁃ Freekick (crossing) right; ⁃ Freekick (crossing) left; ⁃ Freekick (shooting) right; ⁃ Freekick (shooting) left Then you can put your best crossers in the crossing positions and best shooters in the shooting positions and aim for the goals and assists you want. On to my second setpiece change: corner instructions. Most goals from corners are front post headers from your main striker. However, wouldn’t it be good to set individual player instructions? You could have your best heading central defender (Maguire, for example) hit that front post.  Whenever I’ve done a Strikerless challenge my main attacking midfielder NEVER scores from corners as the game isn’t clever enough to deduce that he is my focal point. Individual player instructions on corners would help this. Arrows Controversial one this, as I know some people hate arrows, but I want them added to FMM as soon as possible. Football, primarily, is about angles and space. The addition of arrows would really enhance that. I know player positions are meant to cater for a lot of this, but I would rather layer instructions myself. Say you have a ball-playing defender, being able to state where he steps out to would be great as the natural assumption is that he would step out centrally, but you may want him to always step out diagonally right to provide the ball to a second line right wingback. On the other side you could have just a first line left-wingback and no other left-sided players, so you could push their arrow to cover the whole length of the side. I want arrows to drag defenders around. I want players to run in to space. At the moment you have to play inside forwards to mimick a wingback overlapping down the whole flank, which often causes space issues if they cut in to a striker’s area. What about if you could have ‘inside midfielders’ where a right midfielder tucks in, ala how Beckham used to often play at Manchester United to allow Neville to overlap?  I just want arrows back! @Mr Tree: The Enhanced Match Engine Before I launch into a few problems and suggestions, I have to say that I think it's brilliant - I've played thousands of matches and still genuinely "enjoy" following them. There are some great little touches too, like players going to retrieve the ball, or the game restarting despite a full-back taking his sweet time to get back into position (so suddenly he has to dash back). But maybe there could be a few little tweaks - the whole system hasn't had much of a refresh since it was introduced. However by "tweaks", I would like to emphasise that I'm looking for real improvement, rather than gimmickry like the poorly-handled addition of VAR this season. I get that it's a nice touch, but what is the point - the silliness of the score updating and the players moving into position before the decision is announced on commentary make it all a bit nonsensical. One change I'd like to see is in making substitutions. I actually didn't even know that pressing the team name stopped the game until I did it by accident! I always used to just press the "tactics" button at the bottom, although it's always been a bit "sticky" - sometimes it ignores you, sometimes it takes ages to stop. And maybe it could be more realistic anyway - the tactics screen could be one of the tabs and the match could continue (slowly) in the background, so changes are made in "real time" (as it were). Multiple changes would take longer. And changes at half-time could be more effective than drastic mid-match changes which can be hard to communicate to your boys, or maybe that could be more noticeable in lower leagues. I find some of the goals to be ridiculous - we all know the frustration of conceding. I'd love to see (in real life) some sort of facility for mapping real goals onto the FMM-style pitch - it would make for interesting viewing! But a lot of goals would look so different to how FMM plays. I'm not advocating making the game less interesting by any means, I don't mean to get bogged down in realism in that way - but I do think the goals could be a bit more reflective of how goals are scored in real life. I'd love to see melees added - as a keen watcher of 40+ Championship games every season, there's barely a game goes by without 10-12 players coming together at some point to share a frank exchange of opinions. And I'd like to see more Easter Eggs, more fun little "one-offs" that pop up occasionally. Punch-ups, bizarre own goals, awful misses - there must be a wide range of things that can be added, not to excess, but just to make us smile after hours and hours of playing. It's meant to be fun after all! My final suggestion might just be a personal issue, but can we please change the orange ball?! The whole reason for using it (in real life) is to make it more visible, but against the FMM pitch, for me it has the opposite effect. Use a white, yellow, or BRIGHT orange ball, SI, please! @Ian: Changes to Training The whole training system was revamped for this years game with the intention of giving us the user more control over the development of individual players. The previous system allowed us to modify a few different training schedules and then go through the players and pick which schedule you wanted them to train in such as wingers and strikers in the attacking one, defenders in defending and wing backs and midfielders in general as an example. The system worked pretty well I thought and if there was anything I would’ve wanted added to it then it would just be for there to be a couple more customisable training schedules so you could further target some players who you might want to train slightly differently. I’m sure there are plenty reading this who actually preferred that system but it’s probably all hearsay now as we’ve got the new training system and it’d be highly unlikely that the developers would ever contemplate reverting back to the previous one so I will focus on the current system and look at a few things I’d personally like to see added or modified for FMM20. As I mentioned earlier, the new system allows us to manage the training of all of our players individually so we can select a player to train the role he’s currently playing in and the focus will be on the attributes needed for that role. For example, you've got a deep lying playmaker and you select that role in his training section and he’s now training the main attributes required for the role in passing, creativity, movement and decisions. All sounds great but the problem for me is that it becomes a bit monotonous to have to go through every player and select their role and training intensity separately especially as there are plenty of times when you’ve got a few players who you’d like to train in the same way. I often have all or most of my centre midfielders training in the plain central midfielder role as it covers such a wide range of attributes so I’d be all for an advanced button or something at the top left of the training screen which would then bring up a check box next to every player so you could select a few and then make changes to all of those players at once. As another example, you might be playing a system using a few roles requiring a high level of fitness such as box to box midfielders and wing backs and might decide you want to put them all on light intensity training during heavy fixture periods to keep them fresh so being able to select all of those players and set it up in one go will be a great timesaver. Another thing that might be good is for there to be a few schedules that we could totally customise where we could select about say five or six attributes and have that schedule available as an option for the players to train. As an example, there'd be plenty of times when I’d want all of my strikers training what I would call the bread and butter striker attributes in shooting, movement, aerial, pace and strength so a schedule with only those attributes in would be one I’d create given the chance. It’s a change some might be against as you could see it being abused depending on how it were to be implemented but it would add a bit of customisation for the user and would bear similarities to the previous system if you think about it. Most of you will probably know by now that it’s rather easy on FMM19 to train a player to a high level for the aerial attribute. You only need to select a role that includes aerial as one of the trained attributes and then also select aerial as the players focus attribute and as long as the player still has potential for growth be prepared to see it rise and it could be fast and extreme as in going from 5-20 in a month or so. It’s all a bit ridiculous really and seems to have been known about since the very day the game was released. Many including myself have exploited this on many occasions this year but it’s difficult not to when nothing seems to have been done to try and fix it. Maybe something could be done and of course we don’t know what constraints the developers are working under but in an ideal world you’d probably say that aerial should be an attribute that has potential for improvement but maybe limited to an increase of say 5 to 8 or something like that. Also, I have never been able to get any of my players to increase their technique attribute and I have a feeling it’s impossible so if that is the case then maybe disabling it or any other unimprovable attributes in the focus attribute section might be a good idea so people are not just wasting their time. Another idea might be to be able to train players to improve their weaker foot and also maybe an option to try and improve their ability at corners, free kicks or penalties. Those options could easily be added into the focus attribute section which could easily be renamed to just focus. If someone could persuade me that role traits have any significant effect on the game then obviously having an option to train our players specific traits would be good but I’m not convinced they do a great deal in game so it’s not on my wish list. Player tutoring is also something that’s on the full game and could maybe be added to FMM20 where we could select an older player to tutor a youngster and some of the older guys personality and hidden attributes like professionalism and ambition might rub off on the younger player. The feature never gripped me when I played the full game so it’s not something I’m in favour of but plenty of others will be I’m sure. My main wish is for FMM20 to be as bug free as possible and I would almost certainly accept a few features being dropped from the game if it were to guarantee a more stable game which is why I haven’t gone overboard here as I believe the training system is decent as is and only needs a few little tweaks to streamline it a touch. What changes to training would you like to see? @Foxy: New Leagues In the last two editions of FMM we have seen four new playable leagues added to the roster with two added in each edition of the game. These leagues always bring a new set of challenges and players to the game and can really help make the new editions feel more fresh and exciting. It’s certainly no guarantee that we will see any new leagues in this years game but let’s hope we do. Everyone will have there own ideas of what leagues that would like added to the game especially if you live in or support a club that you cannot manage at the moment. I think it’s safe to say that SI generally have financial reasons behind the leagues they look to add to the game as demonstrated by both Korea and China being added in the last two years as they are huge mobile gaming markets and FMM is a popular game in those nations. The hope is that they also look to give a good spread of nations across the world that we can manage in and with that in mind I have three nations I would be happy to see added to the new game. Mexico This may seem a slightly random choice but I think it would add more depth to the MLS and the North American Champions League. At the moment we can only manage the MLS clubs in North America which means when you go into continental competition with those clubs the other teams in the competition can feel a little incomplete which in turn makes it feel less of an accomplishment if you win it. You then have the fact that Mexico has some big clubs and it is a well supported league with some good players just waiting to be discovered which is a huge part of the fun of FMM I think. Just think of the hidden gems that must be just waiting to be discovered. Brazil and Argentina Brazil was in FMH/FMM up and till a few years ago and it seems there is some licensing issues meaning we have to make do with just initials for the club names meaning Brazil may not be a viable league to be added. Then in Argentina they have a odd system of relegation based on average points over a couple of seasons that may be hard to replicate. That said South America is a huge empty space in the FMM map that needs to be filled in a little bit. I have put Brazil and Argentina together as they are the top leagues in South America and personally I would like to see them both added for the same reasons as Mexico, simply they will add more depth to continental competitions if they are both added. Both nations are hotbeds of football and the breeding grounds for some of the best footballers in the world so it would be great fun to be able to manage in these two nations. I think any of these three leagues would add more depth to the game but honourable mentions should also go to leagues in Europe including the nations in Central Europe such as Austria, Switzerland and Czechia, Greece or the Scandinavian countries that would also be good to see added. Which leagues would you like to see in FMM20? It will be great to get your thoughts on these ideas but also what features or improvements would you like to see on FMM20? Thanks for reading and all comments are appreciated.

Welcome to my first ever article. I’ve put in a lot of hours playing this years game and have completed multiple challenges which has seen me manage in a good few countries and manage a wide variety of players. I thought I’d share a few of the younger players I’ve used that have exceeded my expectations and turned into decent players. Whilst these boys are not wonderkids or superstars they have all done a good job for me and a few I wouldn’t hesitate to place in a top team right from the off. Obviously this would appear to be solely about the players in question but I have a slightly different motive as with the game now being old in its yearly cycle sometimes we the user can lose motivation to play and I’m trying to get you thinking and hopefully give you a few ideas for potential saves you could do. I thought I’d present the players in a team line up and then go through each player individually so here goes. Please note that to get all these players to appear in your game you will need to select the top two leagues in England, Germany, Portugal and South Korea and depending on which club you choose to manage you may encounter work permit issues on a few of them. Ian’s Young Gems Aaron Ramsdale - Goalkeeper Team - Bournemouth Cost - £3-6m This lad is the least tested of my boys as I’ve only actually used him in one short save which was actually a challenge where I had to try and get him to score goals. Although I had the option of using him outfield I mixed it up and he was impressive when I had him in goal and he actually scored five goals in half a season with Portsmouth in League One. Three of those five goals were from free kicks so he may make a good choice of goalie for the Rogério Ceni challenge. You can see he’s got decent attribute numbers in Aerial, Handling, Kicking and Reflexes but his Throwing at only 3 is poor so might be a good idea to focus your training there if you take a punt on him. In the real world he’s currently employed by Bournemouth but hasn’t played a competitive game for them as he’s had a couple of loan spells away from the club. Firstly he went to Chesterfield in January 2018 where he scored a horrible own goal on his debut but he followed that up with a clean sheet in his next game which shows he can bounce back after calamity. Fast forward to January 2019 where he was loaned out to Wimbledon for the remainder of the season and performed really well for them in winning the clubs Young Player of the Year award. It’ll be interesting how he develops over the next few years and whether he can go on to being a decent Premiership level keeper. Lewis Travis - Right Full Back Team - Blackburn Rovers Cost - £3-6m Lewis actually played for Liverpool in his younger days but left the club in 2014 and joined Blackburn Rovers where he’s so far made 31 first team appearances. He’s a versatile player who can play in midfield or at full back. I signed him on my Queen’s Park career where I took the club from amateur status all the way to Champions League winners and he was an important first team player in that side. Here he is in 2025. So we can see he’s a decent player and it looks as if he’s still improving. He has a lot of attribute numbers in the 13-14 range which could quite easily rise to 15 green level with better facilities and then he’d be rather good. Josh Earl - Left Full Back Team - Preston North End Cost - £3-6m He currently plays for Preston North End having spent his entire youth career at the club where he actually played in defence, midfield and as a striker. On FMM 19 his starting attributes aren’t anything special but you can see he has some promise with his Pace already at 14. I used him at Queen’s Park and on my first save of FMM 2019 whilst managing Sunderland and he turned into a great left wing back with all green for the key attributes needed for the role in Crossing, Dribbling, Positioning, Pace and Stamina. Scott McKenna - Central Defender Team - Aberdeen Cost - £3-13m I wasn’t sure whether to include this lad as I’m sure a few of you will have used him but I felt I had to because he’s an absolute steal as he usually only costs a few million at the beginning of the game. He has great attributes to play centre back with 14+ in all the main attributes needed for the role in Aerial, Tackling, Decisions, Positioning and Strength. He also has green level for pace which is great if you are planning on playing a high defensive line and with his Passing, Dribbling and Technique all being decent he can play the Ball Playing Defender role pretty well right from the off. In real life he’s currently playing for Aberdeen where he’s made 70 first team appearances and scored 5 goals. Celtic came calling in August 2018 with a bid of £3.5m which was rejected and later in the same month Aston Villa had a larger bid rejected so it looks like Aberdeen are going to have trouble keeping hold of him in the next few years. Luka Racic - Central Defender Team - Brentford Cost - £1-3m A young Danish defender who came through the Copenhagen Academy and played for the club at youth level until he signed for Brentford in 2018 where he’s made 2 appearances so far. He doesn’t look fantastic on FMM 19 but I think he’s one of those players that plays better than you’d expect when looking at his attributes. His Strength attribute at just 9 stands out as a weakness so that’s an area to maybe focus your training on if you do decide to try him. Here he is in 2025. You can see he’s improved a great deal and even though he still doesn’t look fantastic his season average rating of 7.29 in a Champions League winning side shows he usually performs well on the pitch. Matheus Jesus - Deep Lying Playmaker Team - Estoril Cost - £5-10m I really like this player and he always shows up in my searches. I used him in my Sunderland save where he became a top player. At 21 you can see the potential as he’s already got good numbers in most of the key attributes to be a decent midfielder. Good numbers in all the Physical attributes, Passing, Decisions, Creativity, Movement, Positioning and Tackling. Even his Technique and Teamwork are high which is great as it’s difficult to get those to rise on this years game. The only annoying thing for me is his Leadership at only 5 as I generally like the players at the base of midfield to have a good number there but it’s an attribute that should rise as he gets older. He’s currently contracted to Estoril of Portugal but hasn’t played a game for them as he’s been loaned out a few times over the last couple of years. In May 2019 he joined Corinthians on loan until December with a buy out clause added into the deal so I’ll be watching with interest as to what happens with him over the next few years. Lewis Ferguson - Box to Box Midfielder Team - Aberdeen Cost - £1-4m Lewis Ferguson currently plys his trade at Aberdeen and has played in 33 competitive games and scored 6 goals. He actually began his youth career at Rangers before transferring to Hamilton Academical in 2013 and eventually graduating from their academy in 2018. After impressing in his first few games in the first team Aberdeen showed interest and with him being out of contract in the summer of 2018 they offered him a deal and snapped him up. His first goal for Aberdeen was a fantastic overhead kick against Burnley in the second leg of a Europa League tie which they unfortunately went on to lose. In May 2019 he was nominated for PFA Scotland Young Player of the Year award which was eventually won by Ryan Kent but it shows he’s certainly one for the future. On FMM 19 he looks like a decent prospect with some good starting attribute numbers in Stamina, Aggression, Passing, Decisions, Movement, Technique and Teamwork and you can easily see him developing into a fantastic player. I used him in one of my earlier saves where I took Fleetwood Town to the top and he was an important squad player in that side. Bruno Costa - Advanced Playmaker Team - Porto B Cost - £2-6m This lad was the main playmaker in my successful Queen’s Park side a few years into the game but looking at his starting attributes at 21 years old and you just wouldn’t be able to predict what kind of player he would go on to become. Here he is in 2025. He’s now a nice player with some good attribute numbers in Pace, Passing, Decisions, Crossing, Movement and Technique and he’d make a great first team player in a weaker league or squad player at a big club in a stronger league. I played him mostly as an Advanced Playmaker in the CM strata which is why his average rating is nothing special as that role can be funny in my opinion but trust me he did his job. He can play on either wing and may be even better in those positions. In real life he plays for Porto B but you’d expect him to break into the A team over the next few years. Che Adams - Right Inside Forward Team - Birmingham City Cost: £8-15m This lad currently plays for Birmingham City having started his senior career in non league football at Oadby Town. He’s a pacey player and can play anywhere in the final third. For City he’s scored 34 goals in 116 games at Championship level. On FMM 19 he’s usually available for a reasonable fee and I wouldn’t hesitate in bringing him straight to a decent English Premier League club to ease into the first team over a few seasons. Here he is in 2025. Some rather nice attribute numbers there with great Physicals, Dribbling, Movement and Shooting. I used him as an Inside Forward on the right and he was the main man in my Champions League winning Queen’s Park team. Here he is scoring a brace in the Champions League final against Milan. Tim Handwerker - Left Winger Team - FC Köln Cost - £5-10m Tim is just one of the many decent wide players available from the German leagues. I bought him in my Double Trouble challenge attempt whilst managing Ajax and he was great for me. He can play in any position on the left flank and could probably be retrained to play any position on the right without much trouble. He doesn’t look amazing at the start of the game by any stretch of the imagination but with attribute number 14 for both Pace and Crossing there’s plenty of promise there. In the real word he’s currently playing for FC Koln but hasn’t properly broken into the first team yet and has just had a loan spell in Holland at FC Groningen. Jun Se-Jin - Poacher Team - Suwon Cost - £1-2m I just couldn’t create this team without including this boy. He was one half of my successful Double Trouble duo that combined to score 1200 goals at Ajax in the Dutch league. Not content with that he also went on to score over 1000 club goals himself in a fantastic career that’s still ongoing. I was looking for a player I hadn’t heard of or seen anybody else use for the challenge when my searches put this lad up. The main selling point for me was his Pace at 15 and decent numbers in Shooting and Movement for a youngster. Here he is in 2028. He’s now got big numbers in Pace, Strength, Shooting, Movement and Aerial which basically means he’s a beast. He’d scored 575 club career goals at this stage and wasn’t showing any signs of letting up as you can see below with him knocking in seven goals in one game in 2031. Well that’s the team and I hope you enjoyed reading through my choices. As I said at the beginning my motive for creating this wasn’t solely about showcasing the players it was more about hopefully getting you thinking. Maybe this will give you an idea of a save you might want to try and get you to play the game slightly differently which can often reinvigorate the game. Anyway, if any of you have used any of the boys I’d love to hear how they performed for you or maybe you’d like to share some of the gems you’ve found so feel free to do so in the comments section below. Thanks for reading and thanks you to @Foxy for creating the tidy header graphic.

We now know that FMM19 will be released on Friday 2nd November and that it will likely cost the same as last year at £8.99 or 9.99 euro. The price the game costs is often up for debate here on Vibe in the lead up to a new release and I thought I would just jot down a few of my thoughts on the issue. One thing to get out the way early is that there are ways to save money on the game if you act quickly by signing up to some of the questionnaire apps that are available and give you credit to spent in the app stores. I have been using the Google Opinion Rewards app since the beginning of September last year and over that time I have earned £10.52 for answering 69 surveys (a bit more than 1 a week) so that is about 15p a time which doesn’t sound much but most surveys take about 30 secs to complete and as it stands FMM19 is going to cost me about £1 as I have spent some of that credit already. You can get similar apps for iOS as well and I think it is something worth looking into as even though you may not save a massive amount before FMM19’s release anything is better than nothing. I think one point that can often be missed is the fact that at least in my opinion anyway FMM19 is a true computer game and not just an app which may sound obvious but I often see people describe FMM as an app. It is far more detailed and immersive than your standard mobile game and so I don’t think it can be put in the same bracket as something that is free to download or costs a few pence. We are all used to going onto the app store and downloading an app for free or for a few pence and a lot of mobile “games” work on a freemium model. That means you can download it for free but to progress in the game quickly you need to spend money on extras that may otherwise take hours to unlock and without them you are stuck waiting to continue the game. FMM is different in that almost all aspects of the game are available from the off and you can play as long as you want without needing to wait to earn coins etc, we can also start in any of the leagues and with any club we wish straight off without any extra payment. The exception is international football which takes a bit more effort or 99p to unlock but things like sugar daddy, no loan restrictions etc can be unlocked after a few hours of play especially if you start with one of the easier teams to manage. If you compare FMM to its PC big brother it is only the fact you can’t start in international management without unlocking or paying that is the difference although FM does come with a free PGE so you can give your chosen club a sugar daddy that way of you wish. That isn’t to say SI aren’t trying to squeeze a few more £££ out of us all with a myriad of extras or shortcuts that can be purchased, some which save you time in the game such as sugar daddy or a tutor to help a coach pass his exam first time and some which add new in game scenario’s and of course the IGE. I believe the complete package of extras and unlockables comes in at around £15.99 but in the end it’s your choice if you want to pay that or not. One area I feel SI could be a little more generous though is the IGE as they are asking the same price for that as the full game costs! Personally I have no interest in editing my saves unless it is for an experiment but I know that for many people they do like to use the editor for whatever reason and with the create a club feature being pretty basic I can see the appeal if you wish to make a club of your own with perhaps your mates in the team. To charge the same price as the game though seems crazy to me and unless the price has changed it is more expensive then the IGE that can be bought for the PC version which to me makes no sense. I think that at the moment SI have the balance right with the unlockables and I would hate to see them add many more especially extra leagues which need to be unlocked or payed for as I think all teams and leagues should be available straight away. The other big bug bear for many of us is that we are asked to pay £8.99 for a product that if it follows the last few years is essentially unfinished and will likely need a couple of updates to fix problems in the game within the first few weeks of release. Just take a look at our bug reporting thread and you can see the myriad of problems that this year’s game has had and in some cases still has. It is hugely frustrating but I think we have to look at were we are in the list of priorities for SI. FMM19 will cost £8.99, FM Touch 19 will be £21.99 on Steam and the full game is listed with a pre purchase 10% discount on Steam at £34.19. The PC version will far out sell any other version and bring in much more money so that is always going to get the most development time with a big team working on it and of course FMT is essentially the same game so much of the development overlaps with the full game and now it is on Switch probably sells very well too. That leaves FMM at the bottom of the pile and will have a much smaller team working on the game and a much shorter development time which shouldn’t excuse a buggy release but at least goes some way to explaining why it happens. The one thing that will ultimately lead me to buying the game again is that for all its faults I love it and I get far more than my moneys worth out of it and in no small part thanks to Vibe. If I go to the game status page on my current Atletico save I can see just how much value for money I have got by looking at the game time. You need to take that figure with a pinch of salt as I have a tendency to leave the game loaded on my tablet and going off for an hour or so and doing something else but still if you half that it is still only 6p an hour or 9p if it is quartered. This isn’t the only save I have had with my DT that lasted 8 seasons and then test saves, saves for articles and various short Vibe challenges I have essentially got the game for nothing when you consider the amount of time I have put into it and despite a few bugs and areas of the game that could have just a little more depth I have loved it and will be back for more next year. This is just my thoughts but I would love to hear from you guys. Will you buy the game next year or do you feel the game doesn’t offer you value for money these days and you may give it a miss? You can also vote on the polls below. Cheers lads.

Over the past week you guys in the community have been voting for an FMM18 dream XI. I decided that it would be fun to take a look at the back story for the players and also how they look in the game and how they progress in the game as well if they are a youngster. The final XI looks like this. I think the biggest thing we can take from this dream team is just how much we value potential over current ability in our players as a community. We all love a wonderkid and I think that shows in this XI, as most of these guys definitely fall into that category. Of course that makes a lot of sense as we are often playing many seasons and it’s the younger guys that we buy and develop and that spend longer playing for us and stick in our minds more than the established star that may only play a couple of seasons before he starts to decline and we ship him out. The lads that are youngsters and can significantly develop further in the game I have posted screenshots of them at the start of the game and then 4 and a half years later to show how they develop. The guys that are at Barcelona have had IT training and the guys who aren’t have had to put up with the AI managers training them and so could develop better if you have them at your club. As my Barca save got corrupted I didn’t have a save that was far enough in that I could get the screenshots so a big thank you to @NucleusNT for providing these from his Justin Kluivert 1KC save. All the information is as up to date as I could get it. So without further ado lets meet the team. GK. David De Gea David is the current Manchester United and Spain number 1 and is a strong contender to be considered the best goalkeeper in the world. He began his career at his home town club Atletico Madrid and made his first senior appearance in 2009. The following year he was there first choice ‘keeper and helped the club win the Europa League and European Super Cup. These performances for the club attracted the attention of Manchester United who bought him in June 2011 for £18.9m a British record for a goalkeeper at the time. Since joining Man Utd he has won the Premier League, FA Cup, League Cup, Europa League and won the Sir Matt Busby player of the year award three seasons in a row. He has represented Spain from the Under 15’s right up to the full team and has won 27 caps for his country. He was first choice for Spain at Euro 2016 and was part of the Spain squad at the 2014 World Cup. At junior levels he won the European under 17’s championship in 2007 and the European under 21’s championship in both 2011 and 2013 making the team of the tournament on both occasions. David De Gea in FMM18 At 26 when the game begins De Gea is just about at his peak and as can be expected is very very good. He has all the attributes you would want from a ‘keeper with good aerial, agility, handling and perfect reflexes. He makes good decisions and takes up good positions as well. His kicking is very good but with only 8 for throwing along with 1 for creativity his distribution isn’t perfect. As a sweeper keeper his pace isn’t the best at 13 either but all in all he is a top goalie that any team would be happy to have between the sticks. CB. Jonathan Tah Jonathan is a promising centre back for both Germany and his club Bayer Leverkusen. He joined Hamburg from SC Concordia in 2009 and made his senior debut for the club in a cup match in August 2013 versus SV Schott Jena. In 2014 he joined Fortuna Dusseldorf in a one year loan and made 23 appearances for them in the 2.Bundesliga. After that loan Hamburg decided to cash in on him and accepted a bid of 10m Euro from Bayer Leverkusen for him. Since joining Bayer he has made 70 appearances and won the prestigious Fritz Walter medal as the best under 19’s player in Germany. He has represented Germany from under 16’s right up to the full national side and has so far won three caps for Germany. He made his Germany debut in a 3.2 friendly loss to England in 2016 and was called up to replace an injured Antonio Rudigar in the German Euro 2016 squad. Tah in FMM18 Jonathan is tall and powerful in real life and FMM reflects this with excellent aerial, strength and pace. He has lots of good blue attributes as well such as tackling, decisions, teamwork and passing. His aggression at just 10 isn’t great as you don’t want a timid defender. At just 21 you can see he is going to develop into a top defender if you give him the chance. This is without any IT and you can see that he is looking excellent as either a CB or a RB. The only attributes you may have wanted more development in are probably teamwork, aggression and leadership but everything else for his position are very good. CB. Dayot Upamecano After impressing for Valenciennes youth teams in his native France Dayot joined Red Bull Salzburg in Austria for 2.2m Euro in 2016. After a year and 33 appearances for both Salzburg and there feeder team Liefering in Austria he moved to Germany and signed for RB. Leipzeig for 10m Euro. Dayot has yet to make an appearance for the full French team but has represented his country at youth levels since the under 16’s. He was part of the France squad which won European under 17’s championship playing in all six matches. He was also included in the team of the tournament. Upamecano in FMM18 Dayot is one of my favourite players this year and at just 18 he already looks brilliant with green attributes in pace, strength and aggression. I have used Dayot for seven seasons and I never found him at much risk of sending’s off despite having quite high aggression. He then has excellent blue attributes in tackling, passing, aerial and positioning in name a few. He also looks like he would be a candidate for retraining as a DM or CM as well. What a player he has become! He is let down a little bit as a centre back by only having 14 for aerial but with tackling and positioning of 18 coupled with 20 pace and strength he isn’t going to do a bad job. As you can see Nucleus has retrained him to play midfield an looking at his attributes he could do a great job as a box to box midfielder with the only negative the lack of growth in his movement which my hinder him finding space in the midfield. RWB. Benjamin Henrichs Benjamin has spent his entire career at Bayer Leverkusen having come through there youth ranks. He is a regular in the Leverkusen team having made his debut vs Dortmund in September 2015. In 2016 he won the prestigious Fitz Walter medal as the best German Under 19s player. He played at under 19’s and 21’s for the German national team and he has been capped at senior level by Germany and made his debut against San Marino in an 8-0 win. He has so far won 3 caps for Germany and was part of the squad which won the Confederations Cup in 2017. Henrichs in FMM18 He is a versitle player who is natural at RB but can also play RWB, LB and CM and could probably be retrained in a number of positions as well. His pace isn’t the best at the start of the game but he has good stamina which is very handy as a WB. He makes good decisions and works well with his team mates. His technical stats don’t look great at a glance but he isn’t far away from green in crossing, dribbling, passing and tackling. He has progressed very nicely and know has everything we would want from a WB. His pace has increased along with his stamina so he is going to bomb up and down the wing with ease. He has all then technical skills as well and would be very at home in CM as well. Excellent crossing, dribbling and passing coupled with 16 tackling means he will be a threat going forward as well as defending. LWB. Kieran Tierney A Celtic fan since a child Kieran has been with the club since the age of 7. He made his Celtic debut versus Dundee in April 2015 and the following season really broke into the Celtic first team making 23 league appearances. He has won two (soon to be three) league titles, one FA Cup and the League cup twice and was voted young Scottish player of the year the last two seasons. At international level he only made a total of five appearances for the Scotland Under 18’s and 19’s and has never played for the under 21’s instead going straight into the full squad. He has played nine times so far for Scotland and has been used as a centre back and right back as well as a left back due to the presence of Liverpool’s Andrew Robertson in the same position. Kieran is seen as a future Scotland captain and has already captained the side in a friendly versus Netherlands in November 2017. Tierney in FMM18 You can see the promise in this lad straight away with some good green attributes and plenty of high blues as well. He has good pace, crossing, tackling and teamwork which are all important WB attributes. His movement and positioning aren’t the best so far and it will be interesting to see how they improve. He is already captain material with that 16 leadership though. Considering he has been managed by the AI he has progressed well although only his crossing and tackling have seen a massive jump in his technical’s. He has had great progress in his mental attributes as well as his physical’s with only his creativity being any kind of weakness in those areas of his game. CM. Arthur Melo Arthur’s performances for Gremio have led to him being labelled the Brazilian Iniesta and he may have chance to prove this in the coming seasons as Barcelona have first refusal to sign him and its expected he will sign for the Catalans this summer. He began at his home town club of Goias before being spotted by Gremio at a youth tournament. He made 50 appearances for Gremio in the 2017 season scoring 2 goals. During his time at Gremio he has won the Brazilian Cup as well as the Copa Libertadores which is the South American equivalent to the Champions League. He received his first call up to the full squad for World Cup qualifiers against Chile and Bolivia but has yet to make an appearance for Brazil. At youth level he has represented the under 18’s and 19’s. Arthur in FMM18 As a player that’s being compared to Iniesta you would expect good passing, technique and teamwork and Arthur has all three of these along with bribbling as well. I like a playmaker with high teamwork as he tends to look for the pass a little more often than shooting which can be important in a goal based challenge. I would like to see his creativity and movement up significantly as well as some physical improvement as well. Brazilian Iniesta indeed!!! Significant improvements across the board as Arthur turns himself into a world class playmaker and with tackling and positioning of 15 he could quite easily play as a DLP as well. CM. Leon Goretzka Another German and another Fritz Walter medal winner this time in the under 17’s category in 2012. Leon started his professional career at Vfl Bochum making his debut against Dynamo Dresden in 2.Bundesliga in 2012. In June 2013 he signed for Schalke for a fee reported to be between 3m and 4m Euro and has gone onto make over 100 apperances for the club. As almost anyone who plays FMM knows his contract runs out at the end of the 2017/18 season and he has agreed a deal to move to Bayern Munich in the summer on a Bosman. Leon has played for Germany from the under 16’s right up to the full team. In 2012 he was part of the under 17’s side that came runner up in the European under 17’s championship and he also has a silver medal from the 2016 Olympics. He played in the 2017 Confederations Cup scoring three goals in the tournament against Australia and two past Mexico as Germany won the tournament. Goretzka in FMM18 The promise is here for all to see as Leon has a good range of attributes that you would want from a midfielder. A worry with Leon is his high aggression coupled with his poor tackling of 11, if your going to be aggressive at least be able to tackle and he could be a yellow and red card risk. Some good improvements for him especially in his physical attributes and he looks a good all round box to box midfielder. Still no major improvement in his tackling and he has got more aggressive as he has gotten older! He also doesn’t have good positioning and he isn’t a player I would consider for a DM role. RW. Cristian Pavon Cristian is the latest in the long line of attacking talent to come out of Argentina. Boca Juniors signed him from CA Telleres for 1.3m Euro in 2014 and he has gone onto win the Primera Division in the 2016/17 season. At international level he has played for Argentina since the under 16’s and was part of the Argentina Olympic squad in 2016. He made his debut for the full team in 2017 and had an impressive debut in a 1-0 friendly win against Russia as he set up a goal for Sergio Aguero. He has so far won four caps for Argentina and will hope to make this years World Cup squad. Pavon in FMM18 Pavon has the classic stats you would look for in a winger with very good crossing, dribbling, movement and pace. He can also play on the left but I wouldn’t say that would be the best use of his talents as his shooting, passing and creativity aren’t as good so he may be less effective cutting inside on his right foot. Some good improvements in the areas he was already good and its good that his creativity has grown as well. A very good improvement in his stamina means we can see him running up and down the wing all game and his decisions have had a nice boost as well. He still looks a classic winger to me but that’s great for me as we have too many IF’s in the game and not enough wingers for my liking. LW: Ryan Sessegnon Ryan made his debut for Fulham at the tender age of 16 years and 81 days old in a League Cup game versus Leyton Orient and has gone on to be one of the great young talents in the English game. Happy as a left back or left winger he has received plaudits around the world with La Gazzetta dello Sport in Italy naming him in the top 30 under 20 talents in Europe. He has played over 60 games for Fulham and has scored 19 goals including a hat trick versus Sheffield Utd in November 2017. He has played for all the England youth teams from under 16’s up to under 21’s but has yet to make the full England squad. He was part of the England team which won the under 19’s European championships in 2017 and was named in the team of the tournament. He scored three goals during the championships including two in a 4-1 win over Germany and was the tournament joint top scorer. Sessegnon in FMM18 A really good range of attributes but he probably is more suited to a winger role at the start of the game as he lacks tackling, positioning and strength so may struggle in a more defensive role. He has good crossing and pace and unbelievable stamina of 16 from a 17 year old. It would be great to see his dribbling, creativity and movement improve so we have a top winger in our team. Some excellent improvement considering he has had to put up with AI training. We see his dribbling has really improved as has his passing, creativity and movement. His strength and tackling have grown but not much and he still looks better as a winger in my opinion. One area that he is still lacking in is his teamwork, as a winger I would like to see him work more for the team but he is only 23 and that could still improve. ST: Kylian Mbappe Does Kylian need any kind of introduction considering he is probably the most famous wonderkid in the world at the moment? Kylian came to prominence as part of the exciting Monaco team that won the French title in the 2016./17. The top clubs across Europe have been keep an eye on Mbappe for a few years as he had attention from clubs such as Real Madrid and Valencia and even had a trial at Chelsea as an 11 year old but in the end he chose Monaco. In summer 2017 he was subject to intense transfer speculation with a number of clubs after his signature. In the end he moved north to Paris and signed for PSG. Initially on loan for the 2017/18 season to get around FFP regulations but he will sign for Les Parisians in the summer of 2018 for a rumoured 145m Euro. He featured for the French under 17 and 19 teams but has skipped the under 21’s and gone straight into the full French squad due to his impressive club performances. He did win the European under 19’s championship in 2016 and was named in the team of the tournament. In 2017 he won the prestigious European Golden Boy award as Europe’s best player under 21. Mbappe in FMM18 18 years old and he already looks like a goal machine. There is very little not to like a Kylian he has pace, dribbling, movement and shooting ability in abundance and is only going to get better and better. It would be good to see his stamina go up so he can play more minutes and a boost in creativity and decisions to go along side his excellent passing might be good as well. Nine years later and he is a beast! All the attributes he had before have got better and better and he has added crossing to his game as well so lots of assists from corners. His strength and stamina have both shot up as well so he has pace, power and endurance now. He makes excellent decisions and his creativity has gone up a little but lets face it this lad is all about goals, goals and more goals. ST. Timo Werner Our fourth German completes the team. Timo was the youngest player to ever play for Vfb Stuttgart when he made his debut in 2013 and then went on to become there youngest ever goal scorer. He is also the youngest player in Bundesliga history to reach 50,100 and 150 appearances. He currently plays for RB Leipzeig have transferred for 10m Euro in June 2016. He has been a prolific goal scorer at youth level for Germany having scored 34 goals in 48 appearances from the German under 15’s up to the under 21’s. He received his first call up to the full squad in spring 2017 and was part of the Confederations Cup squad that lifted the trophy in the summer of that year scoring three goals in the tournament. He won the Fritz Walter medal in both the under 17’s and under 19’s categories. Werner in FMM18 Timo’s pace coupled with his movement, dribbling and shooting make him a real threat up front. He is a little more one dimensional as a player than Kylian as he lacks great passing ability but as an out and out goal scorer he has most of the attributes you would want. The only place he could really improve as a goal scorer is in his strength and aerial but at 21 it is unlikely that his aerial ability is going to get much better. Unfortunately Timo hasn’t had the benefit of IT but we have seen some improvements. His strength has really improved and his aerial has gone up one point. His creativity has had a big jump as well as his decisions but we see a decrease in his movement. So there we have it our dream XI for FMM18 is complete. I want to thank everyone who nominated players and voted in the polls as without you guys it wouldn’t have been possible to get this team complete. I big thanks to @NucleusNT who provided the screenshots of the players at or very near their peak. What do you make of the team, which players have you used from the team this year or is their anyone you will now go and try to buy based on this dream XI? Let us know in the comments below. Thank you for reading

Do Certain Managers Have Certain Repetitive Influences? Football Manager Mobile is the closest to the reality of being, well, a football manager, we Mobile users have to boot. The game and it's developers go to incredible lengths, immersing each and every consumer of the game into the deep, dark world of football management. Our own managerial experience is judged purely by ourselves, with the decision falling to us as to who to sign, what tactic to deploy and whether to fine our players for misconduct. However, do the AI managers have this same freedom, or are certain managers set to deploy certain tactics and sign a certain criteria of player? That's what we'll be looking at today as delve into the thought-provoking question; do certain managers have certain influences and tendencies in Football Manager Mobile 2018? How will this experiment work? Well, I'll be picking three managers and simulating three seasons on three separate saves, where we will monitor each manager in two certain aspects. Those aspects are: Transfers Tactics We’ll look at these conditions in order to get a grasp on if these managers really do have an impact on these things. For more information on exactly what we're looking at, see below. Transfers: We’ll be intrigued to find out if the managers consistently sign the same type of players to fit their tactical master plans in the three saves, or if they bring in the exact same players all together. Tactics: Fairly self explanatory, do they explore several tactical options or just stick to a set shape, say the managers preferred formation. Now that we've had a deeper look at the experiment layout and criteria, we need to introduce the three test subjects for today's little experiment. I'll try to explain why these certain three managers have been selected for the test and we’ll go from there. Pep Guardiola: Pep was the first manager that came to my mind for this and was actually the inspiration for the experiment. He has a very set style of play that he likes to deploy in a match and his brand of football is recognisable in any team he manages. He is perceived as a very good man Manager and likes to bring in players cultured in a certain way of football, as we've seen with the arrivals of Bravo and Laporte at City. Pep will, of course, start the experiment at City. Massimiliano Allegri: The man who's done it all in Italy, Allegri is my second choice for the experiment. Like Guardiola, though maybe not as highly discussed as other managers, Allegri has a very strict and clear way of setting his team up and it will be interesting to see if that translates over the three saves. Allegri, like in real life, will be the Juventus manager. Zinedine Zidane: Our Final manager who will be the subject of experimentation, Zidane has had gargantuan success since the beginning of his reign, with his great tactics and management of a side full of egos and aging players seeing him be credited as a world class manager. Zidane, like the other two, will be starting the experiment at his current club, Real Madrid. Why These Managers? All three of the managers we've chosen to evaluate have specific traits that are the most noticeable amongst their managerial peers in their respective leagues. Alongside this factor, I didn't particularly want all three managers in the same league, as I was seeking a bit more variety in the results, so we opted for three differing leagues for our three coaches. Finally, we needed to pick people who are less likely to get their P45 midway through the season than others. Considering they are managers at top clubs, the hope is that they'll perform as expected and keep their jobs as to not ruin the experiment, and waste my time . Anyway. Now that we've thoroughly analysed the three managers at our experimental disposal, let's introduce the actual experiment rules. I'll be simulating three seasons, as we've already established. I'll take regular screenshots of the transfers dealings of the manager, and the tactics they choose to teach and deploy during the season. In the event that a manager is dismissed, I'll have to (rather annoyingly) restart the simulation. Ok, so before your attention dwindles any further, let's go into Experiment One. I kind of want to present the data a little differently. So instead of looking at the three seasons overall, I thought it'd be more interesting to look at each Manager individually to see specifically where their strengths resurface in sperate saves, and what influences they have. Experimental Data - Pep Pep and his flamboyant City side are running away with the title this season, and with such a noticeable playing style it's a no brainer to have him take part here. We’ll first look at the tactics that Pep chose to deploy during the Premier League Campaign in a nifty little table. This will be marked out of the nine times we checked Guardiola’s tactics over the 3 different saves. 4-2-3-1 9 Times Interestingly, over 3 saves and 3 different points in each season, Pep stuck with the exact same shape week-in, week-out. You can see his constant use of the formation over the 9 checkpoints in the spoiler below, for proof. A pretty simple, solid base formation with simple, solid roles to accompany it. Nothing interesting or even ‘exotic’ about his choice of tactics. It's interesting that Pep went for a similar shape in all three experiments and didn't change once, is that a part of his tactical profile or a problem with the game? Transfers Another subcategory, another table! Over the 3 seasons we’ll be looking at transfers Pep made, not by individual player, but by that players role or type. Goalkeeper Solid Defender 1 Ball Playing Defender Defensive Midfielder Creative Midfielder Attacking Midfielder 1 Attacking Winger 1 Creative Winger 1 Poacher Striker Target Man Striker So no real re-occurrences to Pep’s transfer business whatsoever in the three experiments. The only thing we can really pick out is the fact he tended to sign attacking talent regularly, which is perhaps something he is more equipped at as a manager, or maybe it's a weakness for his current team, yet I doubt City need attacking reinforcements in real life. What Can We Infer - Guardiola In the two aspects we looked at, Pep seemed to stick to a specific way of management. On the tactical side of matters, he put all his eggs in the 4-2-3-1 basket, whilst opting for a similar type of player, albeit it not much of a filter was on them. So, Pep looks like he is programmed to behave a certain way, and these experiments have gone a long way in showing that. Massimialiano Allegri Next we move over to Italy and take a visit to Turin to monitor the proceedings at Juventus, and more importantly the acts of Manager Allegri. His swashbuckling side have taken the Serie A by storm this year and it'll be insightful to see if Allegri replicates any certain ways of management in this virtual footballing world. Well, in all three of them in this case. Tactics Juventus are world renowned for their defensive shape and strong, solid backline and midfield, so would this be replicated over our three simulations, or does Allegri have another trick up his sleeve? 4-2-3-1 9 Times Huh? Wasn't that the exact same for Pep? You would be correct in assuming that and don't worry, I was rather baffled as well. Allegri went with the exact same shape and player roles as Pep Guardiola at Man City, which was a shock for me as I suspected the traditional Italian way of football would kick in here. This shows Allegri is also a stubborn one when it comes to tactics. You can see all 9 screenshots from the 3 different saves below: Transfers This is the department in which we are most likely to see the most variety in our managers actions, with the transfers seemingly changing each year, even if we see similar types of player, which is what we are really after. Goalkeeper Solid Defender Ball Playing Defender Defensive Midfielder 2 Creative Midfielder 3 Attacking Midfielder Attacking Winger 3 Creative Winger 1 Poacher Striker Target Man Striker Here’s an interesting set of data! It seems Allegri goes for certain players, with Attacking Wingers and Creative Midfielders his preferences when looking for recruitable talent. It's interesting to see he prefers these varieties of the position and maybe it's due to underlying instructions or an unseen way of play he likes to utilise, hence splashing big cash on certain specified targets. What Can We Infer - Allegri We, rather suprisingly, saw Allegri use an identical tactical makeup as Guardiola, which shows he also likes to stick to similar shapes, but we also saw Allegri specialise in recruiting a certain calibrate and type of player. This maybe gives us a bit more to think about when considering the big question and title of this article. Zinedine Zidane Our final manager and one who is struggling domestically this year, Zidane has, like out other two candidates, a fluent style of play that is recognised solely in his teams. Will he give us anything major to think about in the last part of this experiment? Tactics I'm almost hoping we see Zidane use a different shape, instructions or just anything that sets his tactic apart from the other two for this…. 4-2-3-1 9 Times What?!?! How crazy is this! Zidane, Guardiola and Allegri have all used the exact same instructions, shape and roles in three seperate saves and on 9 overall checkpoints! Maybe all three are stubborn tacticians, or maybe there is an underlying issue with the game. See below all 9 instances of Zidane using the same tactic. Transfers At this point, the Transfers are the only way we are going to learn anything here. Does Zidane prefer a certain type of player, like Allegri before him? Goalkeeper 1 Solid Defender Ball Playing Defender 1 Defensive Midfielder Creative Midfielder Attacking Midfielder Attacking Winger 3 Creative Winger Poacher Striker Target Man Striker Slight variations in business this time round, but it seems Zidane prefers a more attacking Winger than a creative one. With three seasons, 6 windows and an abundance of wealth at his fingertips, it's hard to see why he'd sign extremely similar players if he wasn't programmed that way, unless Madrid need attacking reinforcements. What Can We Infer - Zidane Similar to Allegri, Zidane prefers a more advanced, attacking Winger than any other variation of the role. The tactical side of things once again didn't prove fruitful, but maybe that's a whole other issue entirely. Overall Conclusion So, what have we learned, if anything? Well it's fair to say that managers have some input on proceedings and, as the title asks, some repetitive influences on the tasks at the club. However it seems it's all very randomised, or perhaps buggy. The tactics thing was strange and I can't really explain that, and some transfers were just completely off the rest of the business, yet we did see the managers sign similar, and sometimes the same, players. So I'd say yes, certain managers do have certain influences, however small they may be. I hope you enjoyed this rather long winded article, hopefully it gave you some food for thought. I'd love to hear your opinions on the matter, and as always, thanks for reading!

Football Manager Mobile is packed to the brim with exotic competitions, challenges and teams that we as virtual managers must pit ourselves against in order to fulfill our silverware-laden dreams. Not only do the developers do an outstanding job in replicating the realism of certain teams and their players, they also perfectly capture the atmosphere, intensity and enjoyment of certain competitions in-game which allows us to experience them firsthand from the dugout. With that said, here are the 5 most exciting competitions to experience and manage in on FMM18. FIFA World Cup What other competition could we possibly mention first! The FIFA World Cup is the biggest, most publicised and most difficult competition on the planet and the aforementioned developers do a superb job in transferring its realism into the game. Not only are you pitted against the biggest and best nations on the globe, but you have to find the best combination of your Countries talent in order to compete suitably. Either take a large, successful nation to worldwide triumph or take the reigns of a smaller, lower ranked side and initiate their rise to glory. Either way, each World Cup is different yet similar in the difficulty element, and you are sure to feel tingles of excitement when embarking upon your first group game or even seeing your drawn group. UEFA Champions League Arguably the biggest club competition in the world, there is nothing else like the Champions League. Each year offers a unique challenge with new groups, new players and often new teams which qualify for the competition. Not only that however, but it is the one place to prove you are the dominant force of Europe whilst the other teams sit and bask in your glory. The knockout stages are where the real nerves, anticipation and excitement begin, with your side being thrown in the deep end with countless sharks surrounding you, ready to snap up on any mistakes or slip-ups you make. English Championship Maybe the Premier League should replace this pick, many of you will say, but the Premier League cannot compare to the pure evenness and suspense the Championship offers. The majority of the teams are relatively even, meaning intense battles can occur frequently over the 46 league games as you battle to reach the Automatic Promotion or Playoff spots. Whatever team you chose to take on the promotion trail, you'll be battling to keep your star performers and struggling to make major additions with small budgets and large squads. Luckily, however, this is the same financial situation for the rest or majority of the division. The suspense towards the business end of the season can not be compared with, and that makes the Championship one of the most exciting competitions you can manage in. Asian Nations Cup A similar trait is found in the ANC and the Championship, with the calibre of sides competing so similar that it makes for tense matches in every fixture, from the group stages all the way through to the Final. With not many top-class teams entering the cup, and a mix of moderate to poor teams, the competition offers a unique blend of tactical prowess and getting the most of your selected group. Each iteration of the Nations Cup offers new challenges and almost every year offers a new champion, can you break the spell of inconsistency and secure multiple victories? Eredivisie Renowned as the home of future talent, the Eredivisie has a phenomenal track record of producing world-beating talent, but also offers a fresh title-chasing experience for any manager. In recent times Ajax seem to have fell off the throne as the undisputed champion of the country, with PSV, Feyenoord and many others offering difficult resistance for any title chaser. The league offers interesting challenges, with you offered the opportunity to return Ajax to their former glory, take PSV and shatter the title record, or a smaller side and wreak havoc. Whatever you choose to do, The Eredivisie is a new, interesting and different challenge for any manager to embark upon. What did you think of my selections? What countries do you find interesting to manage in? Thanks for reading!

FMM18 Free Transfer XI Lets all be honest now, we all love a bargain don’t we? It is fun to spend imaginary millions on FMM18 for that wonderkid or established super-star but sometimes it's the reject that you bought for free who shines during a save especially if you are a smaller team. Sometimes you can even pick up world class talent for free once you get a season or two into a save. When I do a lower league save I love going through the free transfer list to try and pick up some gems and even if I’m a big team I always look for players with an expiring contract (I do this in January to avoid the players current club resigning him) such as Leon Goretzka who is a must sign at the end of the first season in this year’s game if you are a big club. In honour of all those rejected players out their I decided to put together an XI of players who are available for free at the start of a save. This isn’t a list of players who are going to walk into your Manchester City or Real Madrid side and many of these lads are getting on a bit but if you are a smaller club there are a few gems in this list I think. Most of these guys are towards the end of their careers as I decided to go for players who could do a job straight away rather than youngsters who you can develop. I loaded all the divisions from England, Germany, Italy and Spain which gave me a database of 21K+ players. With this size of database I had a choice of 1125 players who where out of contract and looking for a new club. I’m not going to sit here and tell you this is the definitive list of free transfer players in the game, it is simply a list of players that I think can do a good job for you and your team. Depending on who you are manging some of these guys may simply be good back ups to fill the squad or they could be key players in your promotion push. How did I pick these guys? I took over Manchester City and then filtered the free transfers based on position and then key stats within that position. I did a couple of searches using different combinations of stats for each position so that I hopefully didn’t miss anyone. I also used the IGE to check some under the hood stats such as current ability and potential ability but I would still recommend scouting these guys before you offer them a contract because hidden stats can change from save to save. The Team GK: Tommaso Scuffia – Italy In goal we have Italian ‘keeper Tommaso Scuffia. He started his career at his home town club Maceratese in Serie D and made 25 appearances for the club before signing at Fiorentina. He never made an appearance for the Florence based side and since leaving them has played lower league football for a variety of clubs including Rimini (loan), Melfi, Catanzaro, Lecce (loan) and Ancona who he left in the summer. In total he has made 141 first team appearances in his career. At 25 Tommaso has years of football left in him and with some IT and game time could develop further as he is only just entering his peak as a GK. What attracted me to him was the fact he has 14 for aerial, handling and reflexes. All three of these stats are vital for a GK and are only one below becoming green stats. His kicking (12) and agility (13) aren’t bad either although communication of only 7 is a concern. On the mental side of his game a decisions rating of 7 is a concern as one bad decision as a GK leads to a goal conceded. His positioning is OK at 11 but hopefully could be improved. The main physical stat I look for in a GK is strength and 13 is OK again. I wouldn’t want to play him as a Sweeper Keeper though with only 7 pace and 3 creativity. RB: Bacary Sagna – France I can’t imagine Bacary will take much introduction as he has been one of the top RB in the Premier League for a decade. Sagna joined Arsenal from Auxerre in France for £6.25m in 2007 and went on to play 213 times for the Gunners, winning the FA Cup in the 2013/14 season. He then joined Manchester City at the end of his contract in 2014. Whilst at City he won the League Cup in the 2015/16 season. On the International stage he made his debut for France in 2007 and played 65 times for Les Bleus. As you would expect for a 34 year old Bacary isn’t the player he once was but I’m sure he could do a job if you could convince him to drop down a league. I would use him as a full back as he doesn’t have the pace any more to get up and down the pitch as a wing back does. He does have plenty of stamina (16), strength (15) and he works well with the rest of the team. The rest of his stats are quite average but aerial (13), tackling (13), decisions (14) and positioning (13) are decent and that all round spread of OK stats could help he do a job for a lower league team. He can even play CB if required and his vast amount of experience could prove valuable for your team. LB: Benoit Tremoulinas – France We have another Frenchman at LB in the shape of 31 year old Tremoulinas. Benoit had a very successful spell with Bordeaux and won Ligue 1 in 2008/09, French league cup 2009 and the French FA cup in 2012/13. He played outside of France for Dynamo Kyiv where he won the league in 2014/15 and the cup in 2013/14 and also Sevilla in Spain where he won the Europa League twice. He played 5 times for the French national team. Benoit is quicker (14) than his compatriot on the right and also like Sagna still has good stamina (15) but he does lack strenghth (9). His positioning (9) isn’t great but he works well with the team and his movement (13) is decent. The game says his best role is as a wing back so we are looking for crossing (13), dribbling (11) and tackling (12). I think Benoit could do well at League 1 or lower Championship level and could be a good back up option for bigger Championship teams. CB: Emir Spahic – Bosnia If you are looking for experience at the back then Emir has it in spades at 36 and with 93 caps for Bosnia. At club level he has played in his native Bosnia as well as Croatia, Russia, France, Spain and Germany. The only honours he has won are the Croatian league and the Russian FA cup but he has played for many well known teams including Lokomotiv Moscow, Montpellier, Sevilla, Bayer Leverkusen and Hamburg during his 19 year career. Emir has some good stats that I would look for in a CB but I’m not sure I would play him as a ball playing defender as the game suggests due to only having 12 passing and 11 creativity. He has 15 for the essential tackling stat and 14 aerial, aggression and positioning is decent as well. He could be captain material with 15 leadership so he can impart some of that experience to the younger lads, that said only having 8 teamwork is a worry because you want him to work well with his CB partner. When you are looking at a 36 year old you expect some drop off in physical stats but 10 pace really isn’t terrible but strength of 12 could be a worry against very physical strikers. CB: Jan Kirchoff – Germany I think Jan could be one of the best free transfers this year. He started his career at Mainz in his native Germany before signing for Bayern on a free transfer. Whilst at Bayern he joined Schalke on a year and a half loan to gain match experience. He only made 7 appearances for Bayern before joining Sunderland for an undisclosed fee in January 2016. He helped Sunderland stay up that season but was released following the black cats relegation last summer. In real life he is scheduled to play for the Kerala Blasters in the 2018 Indian Super League. Jan is a natural DM but I have him at CB because I think he can do a job there and I have other options for midfield. He has good numbers for the required CB technical stats with 16 for aerial and 14 for tackling as well as 14 passing if you want to play out from the back. He isn’t the most aggressive (10) you will ever manage but his decisions (15) and positioning (15) are good as is his teamwork (14). One reason I think that Jan might be better as a CB is his low stamina (10) as this would be less of a problem as a CB than a BWM. His strength and pace are Ok at 13 and may go up with some training. CM: Javi Matilla – Spain Javi came through at Villareal and played 14 times for their first team before joining Real Betis in the summer of 2011 for 1.3m euro. Javi spent 5 years at Betis but only made 52 appearances including 15 during the 2015 season when they where promoted back to the top tier. He spent the 2012/13 season on loan at Murcia where he played 34 times and scored a career best 12 goals. In 2016 he signed for Elche but was released this summer. He made one appearance for the Spanish under 21s in a qualifier against Poland in 2009. At 28 years old it is now or never for Javi if he is going to break into a clubs first team. A natural in CM he is going to provide an creative spark from central areas. He has some good stats for an advanced playmaker with 16 passing, 17 technique and 15 creativity but 12 decisions means he won’t always make the correct choices on the pitch and only 10 movement so he wont always find the space to receive a pass. I would suggest you play him alongside some players with better mental and physical stats who can protect him perhaps in a midfield 3 with him as the creative spark. CM: Joey Barton – England We have a controversial inclusion with Joey Barton simply because when Joey is around controversy is never far away. I won't go through the list of his misdemeanours here as the Vibe lawyers may not be happy but in real life he is currently banned from football for betting offences. He is available to buy and play in game so I have him in the team. Despite being a Scouser Joey started his career at Manchester City before they had all the money. He then moved on to Newcastle United for £5.75m where he got one of his three promotions from the Championship the other two coming at QPR and Burnley. He also spent a season on loan at Marseille but was unable to make the move permanent at the end of the season. Joey is going to add the steel to the midfield although with only 5 pace it won’t be as a BWM as he isn’t going to catch anyone. I would either use him as a CM or an anchor man in DM with that 15 tackling and 15 positioning. It is his mental stats that really stand out although 15 aggression paired with 5 pace may mean a few bookings. I like the fact he has good decisions (15), leadership (16) and teamwork (14) and would be the captain of this reject XI. He still has good stamina (15) for a 34 year old so he shouldn’t tire quickly although that might be because he can’t really move. CM: Nana – Ghana In the interests of fairness I should say that you won’t get a work permit for Nana if you are managing a club in the UK as he has no caps for Ghana and no second nationality but of course we don’t all manage UK teams so he is in. Nana was born in Ghana but has spent all of his career in Spain playing for the ‘B’ teams of Atletico Madrid and Rayo Vallecano and the first teams of Cadiz, Recreativio and Fuenlabrada. Nana is an exception in this team because he is more about potential. He isn’t a great player at the start of the game although 15 stamina and 17 strength is very good but I have him in the team because he has 2 and half CA but 3 and a half PA. At 23 you should still be able to develop him if you are a lower league side by giving him games and IT and either have a very good player or sell him for a healthy profit. Looking at the blue stats he has he could become a decent box to box midfielder. AM: Jose Antonio Reyes – Spain Having started at Sevilla Reyes famously joined Arsenal in the 2003/04 season for a huge (at the time) £10.5m. He didn’t have a bad spell at Arsenal winning the Premier League, FA cup and a Champions League runner up medal. He spent the 2006/07 season on loan at Real Madrid where he won the La Liga title and then joined Atletico Madrid for £8.25m the season after where he picked up two Europa league titles. He also had a loan spell at Benfica before re-joining Sevilla in 2011 for £2.8m where he won a further three Europa leagues. He played at the 2006 World Cup and earned 21 caps for Spain before the golden generation took over and won everything. Jose is natural anywhere in the AM strata but his days of flying past defenders with his pace (11) are long gone and he also lacks the stamina (11) to get up and down the wing. He still has good dribbling (16) and crossing (15) which could be handy on corners. He has decent passing, decisions and movement all at 14. I have him in CAM so he can get involved in the game with his dribbling and movement to try and create space. ST: Diego Forlan – Uruguay I couldn’t resist including Diego in our XI despite the fact he is now 38 years old. Starting at Independiente in Argentina he scored 37 goals in 80 appearances before joining Manchester United in 2002. He only managed 10 goals in 63 appearances at Old Trafford but is still remembered fondly for his two goals versus Liverpool. Once he left England to join Villareal his career really took off and he scored 128 goals for both Villareal and then Atletico Madrid in 240 appearances before joining Inter Milan in 2011 for a disappointing spell. Since leaving Europe he has played in Brazil, Japan, Uruguay and India. He is considered one of Uruguay’s greatest players having scored 36 times in 112 caps and also won the best player award at the 2010 World Cup. Well he isn’t brimming with green stats but his shooting (15) is still decent and Poacher would be the only role to consider for him. I think Forlan is a player you could bring in for a one season challenge where you see how many goals you can get before he retires. Make sure you get good players around him to get him the ball in dangerous areas and he will do the rest. ST: Mirko Vucinic – Montenegro Our final player is Mirko Vucinic a player once dubbed the 'Balkan Maradonna' in his youth due to his skills. Mirko has spent most of his career in Italy having played 111 games and scoring 34 goals for Lecce he joined Roma. Whilst playing in the capital he won two Coppa Italia’s in 5 seasons. He then joined Juventus for £13m where he won the league in all 3 seasons he played for the old lady. He has played 48 games scoring 17 goals for Montenegro and scored the first goal in his nations history following there split from Serbia. Mirko is a player who is renowned for his creative ability and we can see he has a 15 for that stat which coupled with 14 passing and 16 technique means he could do well as a DLF. He is also a good dribbler (14) and crossing of 14 is Ok as well. He doesn’t have great mental stats with decisions (13), movement (13) and teamwork (11) but I think he could still do well in the Championship. Hopefully you will find a use for some of these guys in a save this year and I would love to hear from you if you have used any of these guys already this year, at what level and how they did for you. You could also tell me your favourite free transfers of all time both on FMM and in real life. Thank you for reading.

With FMM 19 on its way, discussion has turned to what leagues should be added to the next iteration of FMM, I thought instead of discuss a potential new league, why not show off the best parts of what is considered an under valued league. I am of course referring to Australia's Hyundai A-League. History The Hyundai A-League was founded in 2004, with its first season in 2005, to replace the National Soccer League and has gone from strength to strength. The first champions were Sydney FC, who pulled off the first major coup by signing Dwight Yorke for a season. Sydney FC then managed to better this by signing Italian World Cup winner Alessandro Del Piero in 2013. With these household names and 10 fairly balanced clubs, the league can feel somewhat competitive at the start of any save. 13 clubs have graced the A-League, with Gold Coast United, North Queensland Fury and New Zealand Knights failing to last. In 2017, the FFA announced two new clubs will be joining for the 2019-20 season, so this will most likely be the last FMM with a 10 team A-League. Players to Watch Siem De Jong (on loan from Ajax) Dutch international De Jong brings the star quality that was lost by Sydney since last season. With a goal and assist in his first game, he will be hoping to replace the Polish international Adrian Mierzejewski. Keisuke Honda One of the biggest names to hit Australia in recent years, Honda will hope to bring the class that got him signed to AC Milan. Honda is undoubtedly poised to be one of the better rated players in the league. Ross McCormack After being frozen out by Steve Bruce at Aston Villa, McCormack was allowed to join Melbourne City on a 6 month loan and scored an incredible 13 goals in his short time in Australia. Buoyed by this, McCormack has joined the Central Coast Mariners on loan for the season. Adam Le Fondre Not many strikers can claim to have scored 12 premier league goals in a season but Le Fondre can. The former Reading striker joins Sydney TC FC to replace Golden boot winner Bobo and a goal a debut should help allay fears. Usain Bolt (maybe, only in February update) The biggest name to ever come down under, Usain Bolt came on trial to the Central Coast Mariners and shocked observers when he scored a brace on his first start for the club. Interesting clubs to manage The clubs in the A-League are all fairly balanced thanks to the salary cap in place, although Sydney FC and Melbourne Victory, with their incredible recruitment and the minor and major premierships they won last year are great options for dominating the league with. The Central Coast Mariners, as the lowest spending club in the league, naturally struggle but with signings like Tommy Oar and Ross McCormack, the offer an interesting option. Thanks for reading and comments are appreciated.

FMM 2018 is upon us and we now know what new features the game will bring to the table. While looking over the list one small item really caught my eye and that's the inclusion of being a female manager. I've found myself discussing the woman's game a lot during my time here and today is no exception as I'll be talking about this new feature. Like I've said in previous articles I think FMM really missed the boat with female football as I think it could have been that unique experience to separate FMM from the crowd. I remember when FIFA announced it was having female teams and the buzz and free advertising that came with such a jump forward for the woman's game. FIFA is a console game and those consoles don't come cheap and it's typically a male dominated market, do you know what's not? Yep mobile phones and tablets. Not far off every female on the planet owns a mobile phone thus having the ability to play FMM if they so desired and let's face it the women's market is only growing. In recent years the Lionesses of England have grown in following and exposure with televised games on free to watch TV and more female players being interviewed and talked about in sports coverage like the BBC's. This exposure and coverage will only allow the game and it's audience to grow and as more people get invested in female football they'll look for more ways to be involved, after all aren't you all playing FMM due to your love of football? I honestly feel the free publicity, the chance to forge our own identity with a true exclusive feature and the fact the game would be accessible to almost all females is a missed opportunity but it appears steps are now being taken to draw in female players. With the physio and coach options added in recent years we've seen a handful of females enter the game due to their real life positions but 2018 brings a big change to the table as we'll now be able to be a female manager. This generally intrigues me as what does it mean? This feature could be nothing or it could be a game changer so let's look at some options. On paper this feature appears to mean we'll be able to play as a female character in the leagues present on the game. Looking at the leagues we currently have available they're rightly or wrongly all male dominated as the game includes only the male leagues. So how does a female manager break into this environment? Is this new feature nothing more than a gender icon on your profile or does it go deeper? For example do we have manager templates so we can physically see ourselves as a female? Or if it is just a gender icon on our profile will we be treated differently to our male counterparts? Looking at the current landscape of football the sexism and discrimination is clear for everyone to see and we can only assume this will be shown in FMM as it's a real life sim. Will female managers have a lower reputation? Will they have to do more to build it up compared to a male manager? Will female managers struggle to get jobs or even be sacked sooner? Or is this paragraph all for nothing and this feature is just changing him to her on a few text boxes? Women are underrepresented in male football and they're treated poorly and while I agree this is wrong FMM has to showcase these struggles as if it doesn't what's the point? One example that comes to mind is the on going debate about black managers not getting a chance at managerial jobs and in many ways this is shown in FMM as the more obscure your chosen nationality is the harder it can be to get jobs. This has actually improved in recent years but the impact of your chosen nationality can be seen so what about your chosen sex? That's where my intrigue comes from as this new feature can either be a skin swap that means nothing but potentially appealing more to female players or it can offer a brand new experience and way to play the game. This however is a double edged sword as if they did showcase the struggles a female manager would have in say the Premier League it could put off new female players to the series. FMM claims to be realistic with them shoehorning things like Brexit into the game last year so where do they fall on this subject? I know I'm watching with great interest. Another interesting question to ask is what about the AI managers? Will the game come with a few high profile female managers we'll have to compete with regardless of if we're male or female? Will regen managers have a chance to regenerate as a female manager later in a save? (Come on who wouldn't want to see a female Jose Mourinho!) Or is this option purely a one off just for us? While this is typically a sexist joke relating to female football something on the topic crossed my mind and that's pregnancy. Stepping away from the joke aspect of "oh she's out for nine months as she's pregnant" it is worth noting pregnancy is something already programmed into the game. What?! Yes you read that correctly, being pregnant is already a feature of FMM. While many of us wouldn't think of it the son unlockable is a feature and you can't have a son without being pregnant. Honestly this is very tongue in cheek but if you held off on earning the unlockable for the second half of a 30 year save questions would have to be asked! I'm sure this aspect will be ignored and brushed aside but I thought I'd beat you all to the punchline in the comments while using FMM to shut you up. All in all I think this feature is a positive step as it'll hopefully add a lot to the game and open the door for more bold steps in the future. Vibe wise we've seen a handful of female members over the years and as more females find themselves invested in football it's only right that FMM follows suit and allows itself to be more inclusive. The question remains of how it's implemented and if it's a great new way to play or basically a skin swap but I'm intrigued and I'd love to hear your views on the subject. Thanks for reading and don't forget to leave a comment. PS - I'd like to say a special thanks to @Stam and @Putzy for the awesome graphic!

So I had a spare afternoon this weekend and its was rainy. What could I do to fill in the time? Well that meant it was time to pull out an idea that i have had in the back pocket regarding FMM. If you are like me, then when looking at a player, you tend not to pay too much attention to the value next to the attribute "Teamwork". Yes if its a midfielder and the attribute is red then you might have concerns but I have tended to pay more attention to such things as passing, tackling etc. Anyway I recently got inspired to investigate this a bit further. So I decided to setup an experiment to see if i could quantify the impact this attribute might have on the game. To do this, I decided to pick a team and model what affect it would have on their performance where the players had their teamwork attribute increased. To eliminate the impact chance might have, I needed to minimise the possibility of injuries affecting the results. Hence I decided on using FMM2016 for my purposes because Jay Marvels excellent Save Editor is available for that platform. Thus the team I selected for the purposes of my experiment was Aston Villa who finished bottom of the league that year. My thinking was that since they were clearly the worst team of that season, they were less likely to be subject to the fluctuations of chance. So my aim was to modify the teamwork attribute of the players in that squad, then holiday through the season and see what difference this made to their performances. So how did I go? The Control To baseline my results, I simulated what would happen if the team was untouched. So I started a save with Aston Villa, opened up the Save Editor and set the hidden attribute "Injury Proneness" to 1 for every player. Why 1. Well basically because I was unsure what affect setting it to 0 might have as i was certain the game devs wouldnt have considered that as a realistic option and wasnt sure how thoroughly they might have tested that value. This meant that as I holidayed through the saves, i noticed that some players still did have some injuries but only for a very short time and only rarely. Little enough that I still felt comfortable that injuries didnt really affect my results. So after holidaying through the save 4 times this is how Aston Villa went: Save 1 : Finished 20th Save 2 : Finished 16th Save 3 Finished 20th Save 4: Finished 19th So Aston Villa was relegated in 3 out of 4 saves. Evidently the game was in agreement that Aston Villa had a lousy side that season. So how did they go when their teamwork was improved The Team with Maximised Teamwork My initial plan was to simply open up the Save Editor and change the "Teamwork" attribute of every player to 20 to maximise their ability to work with one another. Here is where I ran into an interesting issue. What i noticed was that even if I set the attribute to 20, the value displayed in game didnt update to this and in some case was some way short of it, What was going on here? After some playing around, I stumbled on the fact that the attribute displayed in game is not only a function of the underlying hidden attribute "teamwork" but is also reflective of the players hidden attribute "workrate". To have a player's Teamwork attribute show as 20, I needed to set both the "Teamwork" and the "Workrate" to 20. With consideration this makes sense. The player needs to be able to see how they can help the team achieve its aims and have the willingness to work hard in order to achieve this. In other words, its no good having the ability to see an opportunity to support a team mate, if you cant be bothered working to get into position to do this (think Joel Matip) So how did they go? Save 1 : Finished 19th Save 2 : Finished 10th Save 3 Finished 11th Save 4: Finished 15th Hmm so the results for Save 1 are not quite as I expected. Its possible that this was an anomaly. The Aston Villa team is clearly out of its depth and so bad results are still to be possible. There was a clear improvement in the subsequent results which would suggest that teamwork does have an affect on their performances. Really what i should have done was take a larger sample size which would (I assume) have clarified this trend more clearly. Implications When looking at a player, if their Teamwork is displaying as green, you can be confident that they have the willingness to help out your team. Not only this, they should also have a high work rate. If a player has a low teamwork value, this could mean that they either have a low teamwork and/or that they have a low workrate. Traditionally i have tended to ignore the team work attribute for forwards as a bit of selfishness can be a good thing in your goal scorers, But this could become an issue if they have a low work rate and expect their players to lay chances on a plate for them. Unfortunately this is trickier to work out unless you use them for some time or unless you have access to Jay's Editor :-)

Enhancing Your Experience - International Management. Hello Vibe and welcome to a new article from myself. After a week away from writing, I'm back talking about a feature I love bit doesn't get much interest because of its simplicity - International Management. As you may have noticed, I love this feature, and the way I play makes it a lot more interesting for myself. I'd like to share some of the ways you can play to help you all get more invested in an International Save. So, let's see what we can discover, eh? Picking On Form Something that the real England manager should do more is pick players on Form, not Value. Of course you want your best players in the team, but if that Hull CB is outperforming your back up Chelsea CB, why not swap them around? It adds excitement as you are picking different players, and finding diamonds where you may not have looked before. If you are against a lower ranked team, picking a shining star over an underperforming regular is more rewarding, as you can see if he is good enough to surivive at International Level. Preliminary Squads Dont have a screenshot for this one Anyway, these are a great way to judge your players form and attributes before a big competition. Why not spend a few minutes going through the stats of your 24 year old RB and your 30 year old RB, and deciding who to take? This can be a great way to give youngsters a chance too, looking at their form and past performances and seeing if you have the space to take them. Picking the most valuable players is boring, change it up a bit and select a younger player who needs a pitch why don't you? Setting Cap/Goal Targets Adding yourself little targets throughout a career can make or break it, and it's no different in the International scene. If you see an aging player who deserves success, why not stick him on in the last 30 minutes to claim his trophy? Alternitavely, you could try and take a player to 100 caps, or 100 goals if the oppertunity arises. Even if you see a young player and think 'he's my new captain, let's get him a trophy!' That's still a target which can keep you entertained. Setting yourself small targets which can give you a new experience is a great way to keep a long term save fresh. Raising A Smaller Nation Look at Serbia, a nation with such quality players and staff so low down in the rankings. It's your job to take them to the top once more. You take control, tell the regulars to buck their ideas up and inject a young breed of player into the squad. The results come, and so does the success. This applies for any lower ranked country. Any success is appreciated by the board, but can you take an under-ranked team like Ireland, Serbia or Denmark to worldwide success? Only 4 things, could go on for ages but wanted to keep it shorter for you guys, hope you enjoyed and would love to hear of your International Experiences! Thanks for reading!