Well, this doesn’t happen quite often (and I’m not referring to my 9 game winless streak)… We usually see the glitz and glamor of 10, 20, 30 match unbeaten runs being plublished for every Soccermanagerite accross the globe to behold, but when has it ever occured that someone decides to display their elongated L’s for the entire community of Soccermanager Worlds to see? I mean, who does that, right?!
I’ll tell you exactly who🙋 …🤦
Last month, I posted this unto my X account:
And I meant every word
Today’s blog is my way of keeping that aforementioned promise…
THE CURRENT BIOPSY
After 11 matches, my beloved Manchester City team is currently languishing in the bottom half of the table in what has quite frankly been a terrible start for us. Top 4 is currently 11 points away and might be the most challenging thing I’ve ever had to embrace within SMWIn my 16 years of playing this game I’ve never suffered such an extent to which I haven’t tasted victory. I’m so accustomed to the peak of perfection that this trough of imperfection has really got me in my feels of lateWhat hurts even more is that we haven’t really changed much from last season. This is the formation and personnel that was primarily used (and to great effect) but for some reason the performances have been horrible this time aroundSome might say that the decision to utilize this formation at times could’ve been the main culprit for our dismay, but that is complete b.s since even if I was never a fan of this formation in the past, it does not mean that it’s trash and not usable. I mean, look at this starting XI and TELL ME what’s the huge deal with as to why it has suffered so badly throughout each match it’s been used???For extra context, here are my tactics that’ve been in the works predominantly throughout my 3 and a half seasons at the helm. I understand that a loss of form is part and parcel of being a top class Manager, but the game engine has seriously made it seem like we’re playing a completely foreign style of play just because of a couple a simple formational tweaks 🙄Around MD 30 of last season the game engine started to muck around with my players who were deemed to be playing “out of postion”, so much so that I realized a trend of them showing up within the commentary but never being able to rack up the G/A statistics (speaking primarily about Foden and Álvarez). This played a role in me choosing to swap to a 3- triple 2- 1 since I was fearful of it coming back to impact me again this season, and lo and behold, it has… The result is that now I’m having to improvise with this new formation, but it still didn’t have the effect I wanted as we had to come back from 2 down to salvage a draw against an UNMANAGED, 18th position Chelsea side in my previous match 😪This is how bad we’ve been so far… Not a single Manchester City player in sightAgain, something that I’m simply not used to (bro, we have Kane, Foden, Álvarez, Nico Williams, and Rodri. HOW IS THIS HAPPENING?!) 😭
WHY IT HURTS EVEN MORE
For those of you who aren’t aware, when a player gets a lot of Goals and Assits throughout his career within a Gameworld he tends to continue that trend season after season. So, for Harry to be no where near both lists for season 4 when we haven’t changed a thing tacically is borderline criminal since, when it comes to numbers, he’s currently the best player within the ENTIRE freaking gameworld (I mean, even when City were shit at the start of the 24/25 season Haaland was still banging them in 😮💨)
BRO, I’M A POWERHOUSE WITHIN THIS GAMEWORLD…
I didn’t share this to boast. It’s actually a well known “secret” that Vets of this game are aware of the fact that the longer you stay within a gameworld the harder you should be to beat. And yet it seems like the S.M.F.A have chosen yours truly as some kind of lab rat 🤨
Lastly, I wanted to share some of the more heart wrenching defeats I’ve had during this terrible run of form:
Lost 3-0 in this one… Fair play to Madrid. Their XI has balance and makes sense on paper (albeit I’m not rocking with the positioning of their midfield 3). One of those 3 goals was a free kick by Sergej Milinković- Savić (hard to take)This one left me in tears (the uncontrollable kind)… Not to bash out this Barca Manager, but in what world does this starting XI make any form of rational sense?! Lost 3-1, Harry (the best player within this gameworld who hasn’t scored a goal in 11 matches) missed a penalty to make it 2-2This one is very similar to the Barca loss where I came up against a 4-1-3-2 with some very shady picks. What made it even more hard to take is that all 3 goals conceded were from set pieces… taken by Richarlison… Scored by Marco Veratti, Bernardo Silva, and a direct Freekick 🫤
As of publishing this (what now seems like an elongated vent), I have a pivotal showdown against Stuttgart in the SMFA Champions Cup which commences in like 10 minutes… The scenario is that it’s currently game 6 and we’re in 2nd, tied on points with Stuttgart in 1st and Augsburg in 3rd… I have absolutely no idea what’s going to happen, and I am indeed pessimistic about this run of form continuing. But what you can bet your bottom SM coin on is that I’ll still be here trying to fight my way back to where I truly belong, posting up engaging content just like this, and allowing you to learn from my mistakes, learn from my experience, or, as the title of this post suggests, laugh at my pain.
The Soccermanager Experience 