It’s now just over six months since Football Manager 2019 was officially released. At the halfway stage of FM19’s life cycle, I think it’s time to give my thoughts on how this season’s game compares to previous titles.

I will also use this update post to quickly talk about the two FM19 careers that I’ve covered on this blog – “Shades of Deep Purple” and “Floreat Salopia”. Both those careers ended after only a few seasons apiece for rather different reasons, but you may be interested to know that I’ve got a longer-term adventure in the works.

There’ll be more details on the newest Fuller FM story later, but first, here’s my honest assessment of FM19…

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It’s always notoriously difficult to improve on an annual game series year-on-year. Just look at the progression of EA’s FIFA franchise (this year, we’ve given Ultimate Team a shiny new coat and made Career Mode slightly worse!).

However, I feel that Sports Interactive do a fine job of consistently making the latest of Football Manager the best yet. Though I only played the FM18 demo, I thought that was a rare misstep compared to FM17, especially with regards to its user interface and the match engine. After that disappointment, it was refreshing to see FM19 return to form.

One of SI’s big feature announcements for FM19 was the overhaul to tactics. I have LOVED these changes, which give me even more freedom over how my teams generally play. It’s also much easier to create a particular style of football, like the ‘Sarriball’-style vertical tiki-taka I implemented at Fiorentina.

The new training module has helped hugely as well, allowing me to sharpen up my players’ skills just how I like them. I appreciate that this ‘micromanagement’ is not for everyone, but even if you let your assistant handle training, they generally do a capable job.

I also feel that the match engine is more realistic than it has ever been. I know this will get up some people’s backs and make them cry, “Long shots/free-kicks/corners are OVERPOWERED, crosses are BROKEN, and strikers NEVER score!”

That’s not what my experience has been. I’ve seen a healthy variety of goals scored at different levels of football – perhaps too many long shots go in, but my Shrewsbury team weren’t exactly netting 40-yarders every week. Wing play is a big part of my tactics, and crossing has been quite effective with me. As for strikers rarely scoring, a mediocre League One marksman like Lee Angol getting 64 goals in three seasons suggests otherwise.

It’s always been the case that your tactical set-up is very important to your success (or otherwise) on FM, and that’s even more significant in FM19.

Now, I’m not saying FM19 is a flawless game. I have a few bones to pick, but they’re mostly about UI bugs and glitches.

For the first few months, nationalities often disappeared from my player profile screens, and I’ve had to do a workaround to keep them there. I’ve also seen quite a few newgen faces go bald in matches when they shouldn’t, thought that’s still better than them frequently changing ethnicity (see FM18).

Ah… newgen faces. Although they’re still not fantastic, they’re certainly vast improvements on FM17’s lizard men or FM18’s plasticine heads. My one big minus this year is that East Asian newgen faces are all wrong; they generally look Caucasian and the skin tones are sometimes far too dark.

On the whole, I’m very happy with how FM19 has turned out. I just wish I could say the same about my careers…

“Shades of Deep Purple” was my first FM19 career, which started during the beta in mid-October and continued until January. Over the course of four seasons, I set out to restore the sleeping giants of Fiorentina to their former glories in Serie A.

This story coincided with the start of The Wide Playmaker’s own FM19 exploits in Florence. It was very interesting to compare our respective Fiorentina teams, even if his squad ended up having… let’s say rather more success than mine! As a more established FM blogger than myself, I will also appreciate the support he showed in promoting my blog, especially in the days before I went on Twitter.

By the end of 2021/2022, the Viola had established themselves back in Italy’s top four, but a first trophy since reforming in 2002 had continued to elude them. We just missed out on the scudetto to perennial adversaries Napoli, who had also pipped us to the 2020 Coppa Italia. Also, aside from one early run to the Europa League Quarter Finals, we were generally very disappointing in continental competition.

Nevertheless, I had assembled a defensively sound side that could play some brilliant vertical tiki-taka football at time. Exisiting stars such as Federico Chiesa and Marco Benassi were joined at the Stadio Artemio Franchi by several new heroes. They included anchor man Lucas Tousart, Pirlo-esque regista Sandro Tonali, marauding wing-back Almamy Touré, and the exciting but volatile newgen centre-half Belaïd Nemdil.

If I’d continued managing Fiorentina, I could well have ended their trophy drought and turned them into a major force in Italy and Europe. Unfortunately, I already had my heart set on a longer-term career elsewhere.

However, I will return to this save soon to work on a new part-time story, in which I will rebuild the England national team after a disastrous 2022 World Cup qualifying campaign. That story will likely begin early next month.

“Floreat Salopia” was meant to be my long-term FM19 career. To celebrate the 20th anniversary of my first career on the Championship Manager 3 demo, I went back to where I started and took charge of Shrewsbury Town. Salop had just been beaten in the League One Play-Off Final, but I was confident of building them into a team capable of taking that next step into the Championship.

Lee Angol very quickly became the star of the story, netting an impressive 64 goals in three seasons. Winger Alex Gilliead and midfield playmaker Charlie Colkett were also favourites of mine, as were two later arrivals in centre-back Kyle Howkins and former England youth goalkeeper Freddie Woodman.

So what happened? In season 1, we lost in the Play-Off Semi Final to Oxford. In season 2, we lost in the Play-Off Semi Final again, to Fleetwood.

Guess what happened in season 3? You’ve guessed it. We lost in the Play-Off Semis YET AGAIN – this time to Luton. To make matters worse, we’d already had automatic promotion snatched from us by Portsmouth in the final minutes of the season.

A string of personal problems had coincided with my Shrewsbury career, and after watching the Shrews endure several near-misses, I was in quite a bad spot. Therefore, at the end of the 2020/2021 season, I decided to leave New Meadow and end the story there.

After seven trophyless seasons, you’d think I’d have got the message that I’m perhaps destined never to achieve anything meaningful on FM19. However, I’m determined not to be beaten, and after taking a couple of weeks’ break from the game, I’ve decided to pursue one more challenge.

My quest for a new save took me to Scandinavia. Over there, leagues run from spring-to-autumn, rather than using the traditional autumn-to-spring schedule you’ll find in most European countries. Seasons are shorter as well (in terms of matches), which means I can progress through the game much quicker than I would in Italy or England.

Back on FM15, I had an enjoyable season-long stint in charge of IFK Eskilstuna in Sweden’s fourth tier. I was seriously interested in taking charge of them again for a longer-term save on FM19. Then I discovered that they had a club crest similar to about two dozen other Swedish teams (see above), which rather killed my enthusiasm.

I looked elsewhere in Scandinavia for another club that would capture my imagination. Before long, I’d found the perfect team… in Norway.

LYN ON ME (Lyn 1896)

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Lyn 1896 – one of Norwegian football’s sleeping giants. I’m no expert on Norwegian phonetics, but I’m led to believe that Lyn is pronounced the same way as we would say “lean” in English. That explains the story title, which is a pun on that famous song by Bill Withers.

I have never managed in Norway’s league system, though I did coach the national team for three years during my longest-ever Football Manager save, on FM13. I did so well with them that my highlights were almost getting a 0-0 draw against Germany, and beating Northern Ireland to avoid finishing bottom of our Euro 2036 qualifying group.

Lyn are based in the capital city Oslo, where they have a trophy cabinet that includes eight Norwegian Cups. Their golden era came in the 1960s, when they were twice crowned Norwegian champions, secured a domestic Double, and reached the Quarter Finals of the Cup Winners’ Cup.

After a spell of yo-yoing between the leagues, Lyn returned to some prominence in the early 2000s. They achieved a couple of 3rd-place finishes in the top-flight Tippeligaen (now known as the Eliteserien), and also advanced to their most recent Norwegian Cup Final in 2004.

In 2005, Lyn were involved in a long-running transfer dispute with Manchester United and Chelsea over their young Nigerian midfielder John Obi Mikel. That saga played a part in their subsequent financial problems, which culminated in relegation to the second tier in 2009. Despite initially being saved from liquidation, the crisis worsened until they were declared bankrupt midway through the 2010 season.

Though the professional club was now defunct, it lived on through its amateur team, who were playing in the sixth tier. They achieved three consecutive promotions and reached the 2. divisjon, where they stayed for three seasons before dropping back down in 2015.

I will take up this story at the start of the 2019 season in-game. Having won their group in the 3. divisjon in 2018, Lyn have been promoted back to Norway’s lowest ‘playable’ division – two tiers below the Eliteserien. Despite that, their title-winning manager has left the club for personal reasons, paving the way for another coach to continue their ascent.

The new manager will be tasked with stabilising Lyn in the third tier and then leading them back up into the professional ranks. The ultimate aim will be to restore them to their championship-winning glory days and subsequently improve the general standard of the Norwegian league.

Considering my track record on FM19, all that could take quite a while, but I’m up for the challenge, and so is my new managerial alter ego. You will meet him – or her – for the first time when I publish a Preview post at some point next week. I’ll also go into some more detail about Lyn’s history and infrastructure.

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After falling short with both Fiorentina and Shrewsbury, here’s hoping for some better fortune in Norway. I hope you’re looking forward to my next adventure with Lyn 1896 and will join me for the ride. If you want to keep up to date, please hit the ‘Follow Fuller FM’ button on the sidebar and/or follow me on Twitter @Fuller_FM.