Welcome to the second chapter of my Football Manager 27 launch preview mini-series, right here on Fuller FM… and to be honest, I wasn’t expecting to be writing a second chapter.
The plan was to get through a full Bundesliga season with VfB Stuttgart before the launch preview was over. Unfortunately, things went a bit pear-shaped when I kept tweaking my tactics and my players suddenly forgot how to score, and I was sacked in mid-January with ‘Die Roten’ in mid-table.
Despite that, I have decided to soldier on and look for another challenge. It’s now the end of February 2027, and I have found one – in east Germany, in a city where the locals consume an insane amount of energy drinks.
HOW DID I END UP HERE?!
Well, look. I did promise I would complete a full Bundesliga season, but I was never specific about the gender of the league.
And while I’m probably the last person you would expect to see managing RasenBallsport Leipzig, their women’s side offer an intriguing challenge. While the male Red Bulls are firmly established as one of the Bundesliga’s richest and best teams, their bovine sisters are definitely NOT among the leading lights in the Frauen-Bundesliga.
RB Leipzig set up their women’s team as recently as 2016, and it wasn’t until 2023 that they made it into the Frauen-Bundesliga for the first time. Their first three seasons in Germany’s top league ended with a string of mid-table finishes – 8th, 8th again, then 10th. The 2026/2027 season has been much more of a struggle.
Leipzig won only two of their first 17 league matches this season (2-0 vs Mainz in October, and 2-1 at Köln in November), leaving them in the relegation zone. Their head coach Jonas Stephan was sacked, and the caretaker oversaw back-to-back victories over Union Berlin and then Mainz (again) to ease some of their worst fears… but the situation still isn’t great.
I come into the Leipzig job with us sitting just two points above the relegation zone. We have scored just 15 goals in our 19 matches so far and have been outscored by everyone… except Mainz, of course. I don’t wish to keep mocking Mainz, but let’s just say I’d have more sympathy for them if their men’s team hadn’t got me fired last month.
Anyway, I have SEVEN matches (and two real-life days) to save Leipzig from relegation to the 2.Frauen-Bundesliga – a league which is sadly still not actively playable on FM27. Sadly, none of those remaining fixtures are against the bottom two, but we do get to play each of the top three – Wolfsburg, Bayern München and Eintracht Frankfurt. Oh goody.
Long-time Fuller FM readers will also know that when it comes to pulling clubs away from relegation, I’m not exactly peak Sam Allardyce. I infamously failed to save Burnley on FM20, and a similar short-term challenge with Crystal Palace on FM22 ended in even more misery.
At any rate, this is my first proper attempt at managing in women’s football on FM, and it will be a good warm-up for when/if I eventually start a longer-term career with Arsenal Women.
RED BULL GIVES YOU NO WINGERS
Luckily for me, there are a few half-decent players in this Leipzig team. Andrea Norheim is a very solid and spirited ball-playing centre-half who has played in six different nations. She is also pretty strong, which unfortunately cannot be said for most of our other defenders.
We’re also blessed with two very good left wing-backs, of which I’m probably going to favour the rapid Swiss international Lara Marti. Our backline will be ably protected by the defensive midfield duo of the industrious Lou-Ann Joly (no relation to Dom) and the energetic Annabel Schasching.
Arguably our biggest name and most experienced player is Sandra Starke – a very skilful midfield creator who has won two Frauen-Bundesliga titles and been capped six times for Germany. Sadly, she has got a nasty case of ‘ein Schnupfen’ and will miss our next two games through illness.
Meanwhile, our attack is led by Marleen Schimmer – our joint-top league scorer this season with, er, THREE goals. Schimmer is naturally a left inside-forward, but we don’t have any decent right-wingers, so I have to get creative…
So here’s what I’m going with – a wonky, asymmetrical 3-4-2-1. As we’ll be the underdogs in every game from this point, we’ll look to defend deep and frustrate our opponents, before springing a quick counter-attack. At least that’s the plan.
Most of the width will obviously come from the wing-backs, with Schimmer cutting inside from the left to partner Nikée van Dijk in attack. Maybe our defensive midfielders’ in-possession roles are a bit too ‘safe’ to provide enough support for those further forward… but let’s see how it does when we host Freiburg. They’re 8th in the table as it stands, so this is one of our more ‘winnable’ games.
15 MARCH: VS FREIBURG (H)
Well… the first half wasn’t the most exciting I’ve ever watched. While our defence don’t allow Freiburg many opportunities, we are seriously struggling to get shots on target ourselves. Then, right at the stroke of half-time, our right-back Nikoline Dudek puts a cross into Freiburg’s box…
…and from the tightest of angles, Schimmer somehow heads it home!
Marleen then adds another goal early in the second half, burying an excellent drilled cross from attacking midfielder Sára Pusztai to double our lead. A 77th-minute belter from Meret Felde puts Freiburg back in contention, but we shut the gates and grind out a priceless 2-1 victory.
We are now two points clear of danger, which is just as well..
20 MARCH: VS BAYERN MÜNCHEN (A)
…because next up are Bayern – the four-time defending champions. If we are going to take anything home from Munich, we will have to try and play the most disgusting anti-football imaginable.
At first, the gameplan is working well. It takes Bayern 25 minutes to get their first shot on target, and even that is a pretty routine save for our keeper Elvira Herzog. Unfortunately, Herzog cannot keep out Vanessa Gilles’ penalty about 10 minutes later – given away by a clumsy foul from centre-back Linde Veefkind – which finally breaks our resistance.
Jovana Damnjanovic makes it 2-0 just before the interval, but we don’t lose hope. Schasching unluckily hits the host early in the second half, before Norheim nods in a corner… only for it to be disallowed for a holding foul from van Dijk. Darn it, Nikée!
After taking a few more risks in the final 15 minutes, we pull one goal back when Schimmer’s deep cross is smashed home by substitute attacking midfielder Therese Simonsson. Young striker Emilía Kiær Ásgeirsdóttir also comes off the bench to get another goal (again from a cross)… but sadly not before Damn Janovic nets again. Despite our best efforts, we go down to a brave 3-2 defeat.
Look, it’s Bayern. This result will not define our relegation battle.
Hey, look! That’s a mighty fine youth intake! This is only a single-season save, so I don’t think I’ll be getting much use out of these girls, but it’s great to know that Julia Altenburg looks like a potential world-beating centre-forward. If only she could finish…
28 MARCH: VS KÖLN (H)
Fellow strugglers Stuttgart score a late equaliser at Frankfurt, putting a little bit of pressure back on us when we host mid-table Köln. The great news is that Sandra Starke is back from illness, though Schasching picks up a thigh strain and has to drop to the bench.
It’s another miserable first half, with ZERO shots on target. Köln look far more likely to break through, considering that our two efforts on goal combine for a pitiful 0.05 xG. For the second half, I decide to bring on Schasching, switch Joly to a box-to-box role, and adopt a more positive mentality.
Within 55 seconds of the restart, my changes make an instant impact. Schasching perfectly times her run to the edge of the penalty area, where her shot from Schimmer’s cut-back deflects off a Billy Goat and into the net.
As we battle to retain our lead, my assistant keeps begging me to sub off Norheim because she is “one booking from suspension”. I refuse to listen, and instead bring on another pair of fresh legs. Nikée van Dijk repays me by driving in our second goal to kill Köln off and move us another step closer to safety.
Stuttgart and Nürnberg also win, so now it’s Hamburg who slip into the drop zone – leaving them three points behind us with four rounds to go. Poor old Mainz are finally condemned to relegation after their 18th defeat in 22 matches.
10 APRIL: VS EINTRACHT FRANKFURT (A)
While Wolfsburg effectively wrap up the title with a 2-0 win at Bayern, we face another stern test in our pursuit of survival. We head to Frankfurt without right-back Dudek, whose return to form is halted by a groin strain. In comes Belgium international Jasmien Mathys, who has the strength of a twiglet, and whose nine appearances this season have given her an average match rating of 6.43. What could possibly… [Yeah, yeah, yeah. -Ed]
Eintracht go into the game in poor form, but that matters little when Hanna Bennison curls in a shot from distance after just 12 minutes. Our defence is soon overwhelmed, as Larissa Mühlhaus doubles the hosts’ lead, and then Laura Freigang looks certain to make it 3-0…
…until she… er… passes it all the way back to her own goalkeeper! That’s just the boost we need, as our excellent left-back Marti follows up her ‘player of the match’ performance against Köln by finding the net herself.
And then Frankfurt run rampant. Bennison completes a brilliant first-half hat-trick, and her Swedish compatriot Rebecka Blomqvist then adds a fifth home goal after van Dijk grabs one back for Leipzig. We would need A LOT more than just Red Bull if we were going to come back from 5-2 down at the break.
But even after switching to a 4-3-3 to at least try and give Mathys some protection at right-back, things only worse. Everything’s coming up Mühlhaus when she converts a penalty – completing a 6-2 demolition, and a horrendous afternoon for Herzog.
With our goal difference taking a battering, and Stuttgart and Nürnberg each gaining a point on us, we suddenly don’t look so safe after all. Fortunately, it’s now time for an international break, which means we have a few weeks to lick our wounds and then go again.
9 MAY: VS STUTTGART (H)
Four weeks later, with our confidence slowly rebuilt by a nice easy friendly and a timely team meeting, we’re ready for the final stretch. It’s our last home game of the season, and… what do you know? It’s our relegation rivals, and my former club – VfB Stuttgart.
Our trip to Wolfsburg had been pushed back because of their Champions League Semi Final against Arsenal, thus giving us the luxury of an extra week off before hosting Stuttgart. While we were putting our feet up and watching “The German Traitors”, Stuttgart were losing 1-0 at Freiburg, which meant…
…a win here would guarantee our survival. Anything less, and it would almost certainly come down to the final day at Hoffenheim.
We get just the start we need after 12 minutes, when van Dijk finishes Starke’s low cross at the near post. Schimmer quickly adds a second goal when she skilfully slides past her marker and drives the ball home. Having dominated the first half, survival is now so close that we can taste it.
And it turns out those two goals are all we need! Stuttgart begin a late fightback when Nicole Billa heads in a corner in the 83rd minute, but Herzog then makes a crucial save in injury time to keep our 2-1 lead intact.
I have saved Leipzig, and we have also pushed Stuttgart closer to the drop!
FINALE
With safety in the bag, we can now relax for our final two matches. We give newly-crowned champions Wolfsburg a guard of honour, before a screamer from Joly gives them an almighty shock.
Our stubborn defence does well to hold out for 70 minutes, until Giovanna Hoffmann gets Wolfsburg level. The hosts then push forward to try and take, but a couple of brilliant counter-attacking goals from substitutes van Dijk and Delice Boboy earn us a famous 3-1 victory!
I then give opportunities to some fringe players during our final game of the season at Hoffenheim. It’s a pretty tame 1-0 defeat, but that doesn’t matter.
With four wins and three defeats from seven games, I have successfully kept RB Leipzig in the Frauen-Bundesliga.
After such a frustrating time at my previous club, this is at least a positive end to my FM27 launch preview save… though it’s safe to say I’ll never try to play through a single season this quickly again!
As Shrewnaldo rightly pointed out, “Quality takes its time,” and that basically sums up my usual approach to FM. Speed-running the game just doesn’t feel natural to me. Indeed, I was pretty close to burning out when I was fired by Stuttgart, which was actually a blessing in disguise. Moving on to a less intense league certainly made for a welcome change of pace in my last two days with the free beta.
So it’s Stuttgart who instead go down to the 2.Frauen-Bundesliga, but what about the men’s team who got rid of me so quickly? Have their misfiring bozos continued to flounder in mid-table without me?
I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about my brief adventures in Germany. I’ll be back later this week with a full review of Football Manager 27, so stay tuned for that.
