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I have over 14,000 hours in Football Manager. That's a lot. That means, though, over the years, I've created a process that works when starting a brand new save. And I think it's time to share that with you. And then, to prove that it
FM player with 14,000 hours shares his proven process to start a new Football Manager save and win the Champions League in three seasons.
Ask about this video. Answers come from its transcript only — with the timestamp, so you can check them.
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Key Takeaways
- Loading more leagues increases player options but may slow game speed; balance is key.
- Player attribute masking enhances realism but requires scouting to discover player potential.
- Early squad assessment and decisive player retention/selling set a strong foundation for success.
- Delegating staff responsibilities early helps manage complexity and workload.
- Building tactics around preferred players ensures a cohesive and effective team strategy.
What the video covers
- The creator has over 14,000 hours in Football Manager and shares his step-by-step process for starting a new save.
- He emphasizes setting up leagues carefully to balance player database size and game speed.
- Player attribute masking is used for realism, requiring scouting to find players.
- Manager experience and qualifications can be customized to adjust difficulty.
- The 'assessment phase' involves reviewing transfer budgets and deciding which players to keep or sell.
- A 'vibe check' method is used to determine player suitability based on personal preference.
- Staff responsibilities are delegated early to ease management workload.
- Tactics are built around the players retained after the vibe check.
- The video demonstrates the process through a Porto save aiming to win the Champions League within three seasons.
- The creator encourages viewers to adapt the advice to their own play style for maximum enjoyment.
Chapters
- 00:00Introduction and Overview of Process
- 01:04League Setup and Database Management
- 01:57Advanced Settings and Player Attribute Masking
- 02:50Manager Creation and Experience Settings
- 03:42Assessment Phase: Budget and Player Decisions
- 04:44Staff Responsibilities and Delegation
- 05:36Tactics Setup Based on Squad Assessment
- 06:31Final Steps and Preparing for the Season
- 12:29Showcasing the Team After Three Seasons
- 16:10Champions League Victory and Conclusion
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
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works, I'm going to start a save and win the Champions League within three seasons. Firstly, and quickly, the setup. Now, this will obviously depend on the type of save that you're running, the club that you're managing, and even
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the PC or laptop or console that you're actually playing on. Now, I always go for an advanced setup as it allows me to add the leagues that I actually want to include in the game. There's a few things to remember here. You want to
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load in as many leagues as possible so that you load in as many players as possible because these are the players that you can go on to sign. However, you need to consider the type of career that you're going to go on to have in the
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game. For example, I'm going to start a save here with Porto. So, I'm probably not ever going to need the lower divisions in any of these leagues. So, I'm going to go through and click just the top divisions from these different
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leagues. Maybe just for the Portuguese league, the league below, so that I can keep an eye on those teams and players from that league, too. And for me personally, I'm not aiming to move to a different club throughout my save. So,
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I'm just going to have the other leagues as view only. This will allow for most of the players to be loaded in so that I can sign them, but I won't be able to go and get a job in those leagues. However,
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you should remember that if you want to change any of this later on in the save, you can always go and add and remove leagues as you play here. I'd be aiming to get as many players loaded in whilst
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also maintaining a nice first game speed. A tip as well is that if you don't intend to go to the women's side of the game, go to your women's leagues, set these women's leagues to none here, and then you can go back to the men's
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leagues and load in more leagues here so that you have more players that you actually might want to go and eventually sign. And if you do want to go across to the women's game, make sure that you have the leagues loaded in on this tab.
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Obviously, I always make sure that I set the start date to the league that I'm actually in. And I like to go for a late preseason start. However, if you do want to do more squad building and you think
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you've got more work to do for your save, you could go for an earlier preseason start. And this can just give you more prep time. I like to go for a late preseason start though, so that I've got time to do some transfers, but
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I also get into the league season pretty quickly. Here, I always go to advanced settings as well and make sure that I've put my player attribute masking on the way that I want it to be. If I want to
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do a more realistic save, I turn on player attribute masking. If I want to do a quick fun save, I turn it off and it allows me to filter and find players that way. Generally, I like to have it
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on because it means that I actually have to go and scout players in the game. You can see that I've got 8,520 players in my database. That's not that many. So, I usually go to custom and then I tweak it on here so that I've got
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as many players as possible whilst always trying to maintain this fast game speed because you just don't want your game to be processing slowly, especially on FM26, which doesn't feel like the snappiest game anyway. Right. On my PC,
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I've been able to load in over 20,000 players and keep the game nice and fast.
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I'm going to load my database and begin. So, I'm in through the door. I've been made the manager here at Porto. And the first step that I always do is what I like to call the assessment phase. By
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the way, the way that you make your manager here is completely up to you how much experience you want to give yourself. Just think about it like this.
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The more experience, the more qualifications that you give your manager, the easier it's going to be for you. If you want to make it more difficult, make yourself a worse manager. I tend to stick to what is recommended for the league that I'm
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managing in because it feels like a fair place to start. What I mean by the assessment phase though is that I take a quick glance at the transfer budgets.
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I've got £3.9 million to spend and a little bit of wage budget here. And then I'm straight into deciding who I want to keep and who I want to sell. This is almost always the first thing that I do
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in a Football Manager save because to me, it's one of the most important parts in my mind. I want this Porto save to be about bringing in young players and developing them and trying to get quick success with the young exciting players
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that are in the FM26 database. And so with that in mind, players like Yan Bedner, I'm sorry, but I just don't really want you. Now, obviously, this will come down a lot to how you want to go and play the game, which is super
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important here. But for me, I think it's vital that you have ownership and a grasp on your squad of players. And so I'm pretty ruthless in this first stage.
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I will run through what I like to call the vibe check. It's a highly scientific process that helps me to decide if I actually want to have a player in my team. For example, in gold, Diego Costa, he passes the vibe test. Luke Dong
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doesn't as much. Once I've done this, I'll have an understanding of which players I ideally want to fit into a tactic soon and which players I'm going to try and probably sell. As I say, I'm pretty ruthless here because that's just
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my style of play. So, disclaimer here. This is obviously going to come down to your own personal style. Some of you will focus on realism. So, going into a club and trying to sell almost everybody isn't very realistic and that's okay. For some of you, you might be more like me and it's all about the story and that means having ownership of your own players. To me, that's really important.
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And I'm a massive advocate for playing this game the way that you want to play this, the way that is most enjoyable to you because it's a game, right? And I guess that applies for loads. In this video today, adjust and amend all of the
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advice that I give you as I talk you through my process and maybe fit it towards your own styles. I guess the reason that I'm doing this is because I know Football Manager can be really overwhelming and knowing where to start
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and how to begin can set all of the foundations for a successful save. So I'm not telling you how you must do it.
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I'm just showing you how I do it. So please don't fight me in the comments.
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Okay, so I've now decided which players I like and which players I don't like via the vibe test. I'd also recommend that here you quickly go and set your staff responsibilities. You can do that by clicking club staff and then
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responsibilities and going across to delegation. If you haven't done this loads before, you might just want to take your time and go through each tab here. But as a general rule to start a save, I usually go and get my staff to
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go and recruit other staff to begin with, as well as initially handing over training responsibilities, as I generally work off the idea that it's better to hand over responsibilities at the beginning and then reclaim them as you get your foot in the door as you
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establish yourself as the manager in your new save. If you find Football Manager overwhelming at the beginning, this can be a massively important step.
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It can help you feel like you're on top of things. And then I'd move over to tactics. When initially setting up my tactic, I'm thinking here about the players that I've identified as players that I definitely want to keep. If when
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I've done my vibe check, as I've called it, I've identified that I've got two great strikers that I really like, I'll probably want to go for a two-striker system. If I've identified that we've got great wingers, I mak...
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I've done my vibe check, as I've called it, I've identified that I've got two great strikers that I really like, I'll probably want to go for a two striker system. If I've identified that we've got great wingers, I make sure that I
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set up an initial tactic that has wingers. If there's loads of center backs, maybe a back three. Or, of course, if I've got an idea before the save begins here of what tactical style shape I want to use, obviously set your
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team up in that here. The suggested tactical styles that you get here, the ones with a little thumbs up on them can be really useful if you don't quite know. But what I will always say is you can always change this afterwards. So
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don't overthink it massively. I guess I'm, going to, go, with, the, old, trusted gagen press here at Porto. And I'm going to set us up in something really quite preset, and, obvious., We're, going to, go 4-33 in possession and 4-33 out of
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possession. And this this is deliberate firstly because this shape allows me to put in the players that I like, the ones that have passed the vibe check. Tammy Agahawa up front for example. William Gomez more are really nice wingers. I
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like the midfield. Throw halt's an amazing talent in this particular save. I want to use him going forward in this save too. But also because I really recommend starting with a preset tactic.
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I'll almost always start with a preset because generally they're really strong and because you kind of know that you're not going to break anything when you start to tweak things. Once you build out your squad, once you've done some
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recruitment, once you've got yourself properly started in your brand new save. Again, you might be an expert on tactics or this is something that you really want to go and do something wacky in. If that's your style, go and do that. But
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for me personally, I'd usually set us up in a tactic that fits the players that I like, in a preset tactic, and then as I build the squad out, I'd adjust and amend the roles so that they fit the
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players that I've got, the players that I want to bring in. From this point as well, look, I know that when I go shopping in a minute, I want to sign some defenders, a left back, maybe some center backs. And in my head, I already
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know that I want to maybe upgrade on Gabri Vega in the midfield to a fun attacking young midfielder might be something I want to look for as well.
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Next, squad building. And here's where I have the most fun in Football Manager. Via my vibe check, I've decided the players that I like. And then by proxy I've decided the players that I don't like. Here on my squad screen, I've
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selected the players that I want to keep at the top here down to my subs. Look and then these players down the bottom honestly, I'm going to go and try and sell. I want to create the biggest budget that I can so that I can bring in
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players that I have full ownership on. I'm, going to, have, infinitely, more satisfaction and enjoyment from the game when they become a success. So, I am pretty ruthless at this stage. So again to clarify, if this isn't your style and
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you want to use the players that you've inherited, this still kind of applies. You just won't be selling as many players as I usually do. And so my general workflow at this stage is to try and sell everybody in any way that I
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possibly can. The three main ways to do this is to go to individual players and use these three options here. You're going to ask the agent about market interest. First of all, usually if that fails, hire an intermediary to sell the
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player. See if that works. And finally just offer them out. Again, I'm really ruthless here. So any money coming in for players that I just don't want, I'm kind of happy to take even if it isn't quite at their values. Selling players
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feels like it's difficult, but you can usually sell them. Even players, for example, here, Luke Dong, who's technically only just joined Porto, I'm going, to, sell, him., And, I'm, going to, go and do this for basically all the
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players that I don't want. See how much money I can bring in. And then it's time to start signing players. To sign players, we're playing with attribute masking on, meaning we need to get scouting. Here, I set as many
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recruitment focuses as I possibly can for the specific positions that I'm looking for. We've talked about how I want to go and sign center backs. So first of all, I might do a recruitment focus for center backs with specific
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filters by age and then go from there. I'll do this for every position because my general rule is scout and gain as much knowledge about all of the players possible and then once you have the knowledge on the players, you can sort
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by the recommendations from the scouts and filter by things like attributes to find the best player for you to actually go and sign. Loads of people ask me how I find wonder kids how I find players.
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And generally the answer is just do as much scouting as physically possible in the game. Make sure you spend the entirety of your scouting budget. And if you need to move money into your scouting budget to get more, do that
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because knowledge is power. As you go through this process, you'll start to build the squad that you actually want.
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Bringing in your own players to play in the positions that you actually want them. And as I go through this, I actually use the squad planner. I actually use it before the season starts. I like to try and make sure that
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I, have, at least, two, players, that, I, like that I'm happy with in each position in the tactic that I've set them up in. For example, Diego Costa is my first choose keeper. Claudia Ramos at the moment is
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my backup keeper. And as I actually use the squad planner, even though sometimes I will admit it is still a bit broken in FM26, but as I go through and use the squad planet, it's all about having that
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full understanding of where my squad of players are at. Because having an understanding and ownership of your squad means that you just get that clarity and clear view in your mind of of where your save is at. And it's very
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difficult to put in words, but I understand that feeling of when everything feels like it's just overwhelming and you don't really know where you stand. And it's really difficult to get into a save because of that feeling. I still, even after all of
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my hours in FM, understand that feeling especially now that we're presented with a new UI that is completely different.
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these tips and this process that I use allows me to navigate past that feeling and actually begin a save where I feel like I'm on top of things. Please let me know in the comments down below if what
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I'm trying to explain to you actually resonates here. If that feeling of being overwhelmed and not being able to get into a save because of it is actually a thing. Cuz I'd be really interested to hear what you say about that. And I know
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what some of you are thinking. Won't you have terrible team cohesion and club atmosphere and squad morale? Won't your dynamics be awful from trying to sell half the squad? Well, yeah, in the short term this could happen, but my general
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advice is don't worry about it too much. If you focus on selling the players that are unhappy, they're no longer unhappy players at your squad. And to be honest any unhappiness in the squad is nothing that winning a few friendlies can't
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overcome anyway. So, arrange some easy friendlies, win some matches, and suddenly you've got a squad that is your own and is not that upset anyway. And that's it. You're ready to start. You're ready to begin your save. And because
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you have such a clear idea about your own squad, about your staff and what they're up to, about the tactic that you're going to play, everything that you do going forward just makes that a little bit more sense. It's a simple
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base to start working from without everything feeling overwhelming. And then in time, you can make it more and more complicated if you feel like you want to do so. In that I mean things like taking control of training, looking
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at your youth teams, affiliate clubs etc., etc., etc. There's no secret process here, but I do believe if you follow this workflow, it gives you the best possible start, your assessment your tactics, your squad building, and then go from there. And look, I promised
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to show you that it actually works. So I'm going to go and play this Porto save now and prove that to you. And here it is then. This is my Porto save three seasons in where we're about to go into
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a Champions League final with Real Madrid. We're going to play that together because I feel like it's a good way to prove that this start to an FM26 save actually kind of works. Now obviously if I lose that'll be a little
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bit awkward but I feel like you'd still kind of get the point hopefully. And this is the team that I've built over the past three seasons. We have kept our goalkeeper Diego Costa and then just have a look at the wonder kids that I've
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managed to bring in. Yes, I've lent in heavily to the OP wonder kids of FM26.
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But it's the start of the game cycle and to me this is fun to do. We've got Javro Reed at right back who I think is great only 21. We've got Carabash Villi as the left back. What a left back signing by
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the way. I signed him for £3.3 million. This is his first season. And just have a look at that for an average rating.
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I've gone for two Frenchman as our center backs. Jeremy Jac on one side and JD Convo on the other side. I've also got another Frenchman as a backup on the bench too in Joan Gadu who is fantastic and has played a lot of games too. And
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then in midfield, Froalt is still there from the beginning. Same with William Gomez as well, who if you remember when we talked about my vibe check. A few of these players are still in the squad. A few of them haven't made it to this
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point, but that's because their release claws were triggered most of the time. Samu up front and Rodrigo Moira both moved to the Premier League when their release clauses were triggered. So that's why they're not in the team. But
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then my midfield two of Manzambi who's got 17 goals by the way this season with 12 assists from midfield. And AU Buadi who's got 10 goals and 17 assists also from midfield. He's pretty OP and pretty brilliant. And then William Gomez is
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still here on the left hand side. He's got 28 goals as a winger with Ibrahim Bay on the right hand side. He doesn't play all the time because I've also got Esteal and a few other youngsters on my
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bench here as you can see. But Estad did do his crucial ligaments which was a bit of a shame. Then I've got Franchesco Kamada up front who rotates with POS Pacito as the striker. Just an outrageous squad that I built over the
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years. Look here is the history of the transfers that you can see including in that first season where I sold 12 players where I was doing my cutthroat rofless selling of players including as I talked about earlier in the video Luke
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Dong selling him even though he'd only just technically signed for the club for £3.2 million. You may have been wondering looking at that squad as well.
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Batti cost me 120 million and is worth every penny of that. And this was my final season business here too. Actually using by the way the squad planner still to show you how it is in action. Look I've got two players in every position.
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The goalkeeper with the right backs with my left backs with my center backs as you saw them. Throw as my defense midfielder Kevin Dano by the way. Just want to show you him. He's really good.
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You should sign him in your save only 23 as well and he's been fantastic for us.
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The midfielders also have two players and then even the strikers to Espacito and Commander as my strike force just to show you that I have been using the processes that I set up at the beginning of the save. But now after a Europa
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League final loss, a couple of league titles, some other cup wins, I'm going to go and try and put the cherry on the icing on the cake by winning the Champions League. Let's pick a team and do this. Okay, so you join me in the
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last 10 minutes of this Champions League final where we are on the cusp of winning the Champions League. And you know what?, If, we, lose, it, from, here,, then you know, I think I've still proved my point to hopefully the extent that is
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satisfactory to you. We're 2-1 up with 10 men against this world Real Madrid team with Enrich now going through on goal and he's about to equalize. Is he?
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No. Saved by Costa. There's 7 minutes to play. I'm going to waste some time.
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We've had a red card. Javro Reed was sent off. So, I've gone with this flat midfield three with a DM behind them and we're just trying to hold on. We're on balanced. I'm actually if this highlight if we survive it finish his junior
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that's wide. Let's add some time wasting and then I've got maybe one or two more subs to use to try and get through this.
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We've been brilliant in this final. It goes to prove just how good this squad that I've built actually is. Here's Danoir. Can we add an extra goal? There is four minutes added on and we're about to win the Champions League with this
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Porto team. This team of wonder kids. Danoir down the right hand side. Take your time lads. Forte against his old team Danoir. A third goal to cap it maybe. Danoir into the box. Oh my god what a run. It's has been saved by
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Corttois. We're into the last two minutes. Last one minute. The time is up. Referee blow the whistle. And that is a Champions League win here for Porto, my Porto Wonder kid lads. And that I'm hoping is enough for you to
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like the video and subscribe because I'm hoping it shows you that if you follow my process, it gives you a good clear understanding of your save and can get you off to the best possible start. And in a few seasons, maybe this could be
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you in FM26. Thank you very much for watching. I'll see you in the next one.
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If it's been useful to you, you have to like the video and subscribe. And also whilst you're here, watch the video that pops up at the end of this one because it's another banger. I promise. See you in a bit.
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[Music]
Topics:Football ManagerFM26Football Manager saveFootball Manager tacticsFootball Manager squad buildingFootball Manager scoutingFootball Manager leagues setupFootball Manager tipsFootball Manager PortoFootball Manager Champions League
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