Football Manager

[BROseidon]

Anyone else here play FM?

[BROseidon]

What is dafuge challenge?

In '14 I did Hyundai A-League. Now I'm a DC United fan, so I do that.

[BROseidon]

That sounds hard.

I can't even win the MLS with DC United >.>

[BROseidon]

My teams always have really shitty starts, solid runs in the middle despite being over injured, and then make playoffs to lose in the semis (usually to NYRB)

[BROseidon]

I love manager games, but I don't really understand the transfer system. Or the friendlies system, I guess. Soccer is weird.

It really is, but it's not all that complicated(unless you play MLS, which is the weirdest league).

Basically, you have to purchase players from the clubs that hold their contracts and also separately determine a contract with that player.

Friendlies are just exhibition games. I tend not to set them up and just let my assistant do that, and I don't do them apart from preseason.

What's weird about mls? Trades?

[BROseidon]

Also friendlies are super important to starting out your season well.

[BROseidon]

The international slots are limiting, but they're to force mls squads to use and develop American talent so that we don't end up with a super strong league while doing poorly in international competitions (lol England)

Trades are a thing because the mls actually owns all the player contracts, so they've set up the trade system to make it impossible for rich teams (LA Galaxy, NYCFC, etc) to just buy everyone.

DPs have to do with salary cap rules. The MLS had a salary cap to create parity (aka so LA doesn't steamroll everyone). However, a salary cap limits your ability to bring in big-name talent. The DP contracts let teams sign up to 4 players above $438k/yr, while only having them count 438k against the salary cap. Kaka, for instance, makes 7.1m/yr, more than 2x the salary cap. There are a few other ways to reduce players' impact on the salary cap (allocation money, which is a super weird thing, and homegrown status)

[BROseidon]

Maybe because I play mostly mls, I'm not really phased by it anymore.

Like playing other leagues where my financial constraints are actually tied to the club is kind of weird for me now

[BROseidon]

Playing mls has also made me really good at finding undervalued talent in brazil

[BROseidon]

Oh, I started in the Hyundai A-League, which has basically the same rules (they call them Marquee Players instead of Designated Players)

[BROseidon]

Also the false parity in the MLS makes it a pretty good place to start, imo.

Although it's been getting less even each year in my current save file, with my having clinched a bye in the playoffs after 28 games this season (Unbeaten in the last 12 or something ridiculous like that). Then again, I've only managed that b/c I've got 2 near-DP level strikers that are making like 115k/yr and 55k/yr right now because lol Brazil (not to mention the host of other top-tier talent I'm severely underpaying).

[BROseidon]

It's not just that Brazil produces insane amounts quality talent, though. It's that I can get a 3.5+ player for $70k/yr, which is insane in the mls