Fulham FM24 first season guide

Welcome to the next episode of the managing Fulham FC in the first season series on FM24.

The Fulham FC team have a great modern history in the EPL. I remember the greats, when Saha moved from Metz FC on loan, when Berbatov joined from Man Utd and when Boa Morte and Malbranque run the wings. They have been an entertaining team that try to further themselves, can they do it on FM24 this year?

In this guide we are going to:

• Look at the end of season league performance and individual performances.
• We will look at the tactics which have been used.
• Where the team will go next.

Read on to see how Fulham FC pushed the Premier League on FM24!

Fulham FC results on FM24

This is where we discuss the team performance versus the club and supporter objectives. This is a great way to measure the success of the team and the strengths and the weaknesses. While this fairly general data, it is a starting point for any changes we want to make to Fulham FC on FM24.

First Half of the Season

This season with Fulham FC has been unreal. We started so poorly against Man Utd and Arsenal, then we took off, beating Liverpool and going on a nice run. November was rough again losing, two out of the three. Then it picked up big time in December including an 8-0 win over Sheffield United.

Words cannot describe how well we have performed. From losing the first two games of the season to being 4th in January pushing for a Champions League spot.

Looking at the table, we fully deserve to be near top of the table. We have a strong positive goal difference, scoring nearly 2 a game and conceding less than 1 a game. We have won the majority of the games we have played. It is looking very rosy going into January and the board have given us more money to buy players.

As an additional comment, the defence is really good. It has been a strong as any defence I have used on Football Manager 24. Really looking forward to seeing what we can do by the end of the season.

Second Half of the Season

The first thing to draw your attention to is that we managed to qualify for Europe for next season. Bearing in mind we only needed to avoid relegation this is a great achievement and really propels the club forward. The top four have run away with the league, especially Man City and Liverpool FC.

As you can see from the win rate we achieved a 50% win to games ratio. This is a really good stats to track and plan around for next season. We definitely deserved our position as with more wins than losses and with a GD of +17. It was an amazing season and given us a big springboard for the next season. There are going to be a few big changes to cash in on our achievements, we just need to mitigate any risk.

Our goals to games was just under 1.5 goals a game, while conceding just over 1 goal a game. While this has been a worthy result over the course of the season, we need to maximise our goal scoring potential. The attack we have is rather good at the moment, a couple of changes and we should improve our results.

Individual Performances

In this section we speak about the individual performances of the squad, this unveils the heroes and villains of the season. Using the basic data we can see trends and dig deeper in what opportunities are presented. Little changes will change the trajectory of the tactic results.

First Half of the Season

I’m really surprised that Fulham FC are playing well above expectations does not have more players playing over a rating of 7. The main note here though is that the great defence is represented through Diop and Adarabioyo. Both of these guys are so good and make for a solid backline on FM24.

Looking through the usual Xg stats. You can see that a lot of players are smashing their targets. There are very few players that are not fulfilling there Xg, and the ones that are under are not first team players.

Jimenez, Bassey, Traore, Decordova-Reid, Vinicius and Willian are all having a bad time with passing completion. This is a concern as they are mainly attacking players, so indicates that attacking plays are breaking down. In turn that means that the opposition could counter and at least turning the ball over.

Second Half of the Season

Starting with the average ratings, we only have 3 players that achieved over a 7 rating on the season. With this team I am going to use a retrospective stretch target system. This means that we work out the score of the top 60% of the team’s average ratings. This resulted in Kenny Tete being the dividing line and the benchmark being 6.83.

There are two things we do with this data, we start changing the players instructions to suit them in their role. Alternatively, we sell the player and replace him with a player who has achieved over 6.83 to improve standards in the team.

As we are not scoring enough, a good indicator to look at is the Xg. We can see two things emerging here, our top performing players are defensive. The other thing is that we have a lot of players missing their Xg targets. We need a goal scorer and a few creators in midfield.

Fulham FC tactics on FM24

In this section we speak about the tactics that have been used so far in the season. We normally use the tactic that we built in the day one guide and make changes as progress in the season. Fulham FC on FM24 have been an easy team to set up in a 433 DM.

So this tactic is designed to play around mid block defense. The AMC has been withdrawn to take him out of the high traffic area in the centre. The easiest way to play against a mid block is to set up to go wide and create chances. The goals will be scored by a number 9 that will slip in behind the backline will the inside forwards attack the centre of defence.

One thing we could do, is create a stronger defense base in the midfield. So the DM and two MCs could be more defensive and recycle the ball to wide players to then create chances for our forward. The inside forwards overload the centre and wing backs then push up to cover that vacated space.

Conclusion

Fulham FC have been a great team to play with on FM24. We have achieved a great level of football in our first season, and getting into Europe. We did reach the dizzy heights of fourth by January, but just couldn’t keep up with the demand of quality games.

The strength of the team is the defence, there is a great nucleus with Leno, Diop and Ream. While Ream is leaving us in the summer, Adarabioyo is ready made replacement. The weakness in this team seems to be obvious, the goals. We need to get natural goals scorer in a creative midfielder.

The opportunity in the team is that there is a young team in the making. This team can stick together to get that early season consistency with minimal changes to the team. The threat to the team is that if this team is stretched to thin through it’s success it could end up a actual disaster.

I hope you enjoyed this guide, now go and start your journey with Fulham FC on FM24. Please comment any feedback below.