The Deep Lying Podcast

This week Ed and George are all on their own after a week off. But it’s good to be back on the FM Wagon and ready and raring to commit more of their lives than they should to digital eternal football managing glory.

This week’s question is about the purchases you’ve been inspired to make because of a Football Manager save. George answers the question in a roundabout fashion by talking about a Chilean wasting ten minutes of his time on the wing.

Ed’s answer is tempered a little by fear of his wife. But he did buy a Bayern Munich shirt in Venice because he was managing them in Championship Manager at the time. Even though the shirt was far too big for him.

And that’s one of the themes that runs through the community’s answers as well. The best one is probably a Preston shirt with Ibrahimovic on the back.

And on top of all of that there’s all of this as well –

• George’s illness seems to have wiped his memory of what he was meant to be doing in his save, and he’s starting to feel guilty. He’s given up on it and he’s looking for ideas for where his next save should take him.
• Ed gives George a stern talking to about how he should probably play a bit more FM, since he runs an FM podcast. George makes a plea to the community.
• Ed’s Stoke save is getting a little bit silly now, but he’s having an awful lot of fun. Hotel stays have given him the chance to take them closer to the pantheon of English greats with back-to-back Premier League wins.
• We also talk about how far you can go with a tactical team when you start coming up against teams who just have better players. And how multiplayer offers a different FM experience.
• Then there’s some interesting news about The Deep Lying Podcast becoming an official FM fan site.

There’s a lot more too, and you can listen to it all in the SoundCloud player below. Or if you’d prefer head to iTunes and search for Deep Lying Podcast.

 

Ed and George get together to celebrate the big 4-0. Yup, that’s right, we’ve reached the fortieth episode of The Deep Lying Podcast. And Ed still says “good evening.”

This week we’re joined by Pete Sharland who works for Squawka. He’s the Ball Control editor, which means he’s in charge of all the football gaming content on the site.

The question this week is about the underrated gems in FM. The players who’ve done a great job for you but might just have flown under the radar.

Pete’s got two, Will Bruin of the Houston Dynamo, and Ahmed Soukouna who helped him take Gillingham to the Europa League. Ed goes for Febian Brandy and everyone makes an “oooh” noise. He also likes a strength 18 bruiser from Udinese.

George has a plethora to pick from thanks to his aversion to playing as good teams. There’s Leon Andreasen and Nicolai Boileson to name just two.

Wait, you want more? Well how about all of this? –

• Ed’s Stoke save continues apace. After his Champions League winning season he finished second behind Chelsea, and the year after that finally managed to bag the Premier League, winning by six points from Spurs (who drive him insane in real-life and on FM).
• George is having fun with crosses. He’s started a new save with Sevilla. It’s only his second save in FM16, but he’s having a crack at playing strikerless.
• Pete doesn’t really have a save going on at the moment. After three seasons with Rennes he’s lost interest, but he’s narrowed down his options for his next save. And he asks George and Ed for some help deciding where to go next.
• Then we have a chat about Pete’s job. By the sounds of it he spends a lot of time playing Football Manager. He also mentions FIFA, but don’t hold that against him.

There’s also a whole bunch more going on, and you can check it all out in the SoundCloud player below. Or alternatively head to iTunes and search for Deep Lying Podcast.

 

Ed’s back this week, and he’s joined by George who’s still upset about how he says “good evening” at the start of every podcast.

Our guest this week is Ryan Keaney, who pops in to talk about his In Bed With Maradona blogs and all things Football Manager-y.

The question this week is all about the superstar wonderkids we’ve had in our saves. Ryan talks about Arjen Robben, Joe Cole, Wayne Rooney and a Serbian star who solidified his Manchester United team in the early ’00s.

George had a think about it, can’t remember the edition it happened in, but goes on about a Brazilian centre back called Sidnei. Ed cuts a hypothetical list of 30 down to three – Carlos Fierro, Pablo Piatti and Lucas Romero. Then George throws another one in for good luck.

And if that wasn’t enough, how about all of this as well? –

• George hasn’t done anything this week because he no longer cares about Crystal Palace. He’s thinking about what to do for his next save, but he’s not turned any of his ideas into actual things he can talk about yet.
• Ed’s Stoke save is exciting him again, despite being pissed off when he left it last, and the fact that everyone hated him. But now he’s come back and something’s clicked. A tweaked 4-4-1-1 and Leroy Sane on the left has kicked things on again. Also he won the Champions League.
• Ryan talks us through his save. The idea is to take the list of In Bed With Maradona’s 100 young players from the top flight of various countries and only sign those.
• He’s playing as Ajax because they start with three of the players on the list. His first season saw him finishing second and winning the Dutch cup. Since then his team has pretty much been untouchable.

There’s loads more as well, and if you want to check it out you can do so in the SoundCloud player below. Or if you’d rather, head over to iTunes and search for Deep Lying Podcast.

 

 

George hosts on his own this week, because Ed is off doing “something.” He might not make any sense because of a frazzled brain courtesy of Amsterdam and 12 hours sleep.

George is joined by Alexi Duggins this week, he’s a relative newcomer to the FM community. By day he’s a journalist, and also by day he spends an awful lot of his time playing Football Manager. He also doesn’t like fish and chips.

The question of the week is all about achieving a healthy life / Football Manager balance. Alexi keeps a balance via the medium of his girlfriend. Disapproval is okay, outrage means it’s time to stop. He also fell of the wagon a while ago, only to climb back on in November.

George doesn’t have that luxury though, so he looks to the community for advice. And unfortunately they can’t provide him with any.

And then there’s all of this good stuff as well –

• Alexi talks us through his voyage of discovery in FM16. He’s three seasons into an Aston Villa save and it’s all going okay. This afternoon they went top of the league after an FA Cup winning second year in charge. Finishing is his main problem at the moment.
• George has churned through his pre-season at Crystal Palace. He’s got in Dele Alli on a free transfer, which is pretty good going. He’s fairly sure that Gabriel Barbosa’s Chelsea is going to take them to pieces though.
• Then we have a chat about the reasons Alexi has been pulled back into Football Manager. Spoilers: he doesn’t really know himself.
• And we discuss how he likes Football Manager but isn’t that into football in real life.

There’s a lot more Football Manager gold as well, and you can listen to it all in the SoundCloud player below. Or if you’d prefer head over to iTunes and search for Deep Lying Podcast.

Ed, George and Ian Dransfield try a live experiment in East London. A bit of same room fun with a slightly wonky sound and Ed and George trade charming insults.

The question of the week is inspired by Leicester’s victory at Manchester City. We ask which improbable teams you’ve lead to victory, or which teams you’ve seen win in your saves.

Ed talks about Slovakia winning Euro 2016. Ian talks about Stoke City becoming a dominant force in Europe, both in terms of results and spending capacity. We’re talking them splashing out £100 million on a single player. Then there’s Huddersfield as well.

George’s tale involves Burnley winning the FA Cup against Man City. Strangely enough none of these stories actually involve us being in charge of the teams in question.

Then there’s all of this excellent stuff too –

• Ian is back playing FM15, because he’s not had the time to really get to grips with FM16. He talks about Leicester not doing as well under him as they are under Ranieri.
• Ed is having a tough time with Torino. But he can’t face starting another save so he’s slogging on. The results are up and down, but a last minute draw has knocked him out of the Champions League.
• After “flubbing it” with Ireland, George has gone to Crystal Palace. He’s got them into the Premier League, and has been given a large transfer fund to try and keep them in the promised land. And he’s only played three games.
• And then we have a chat about when our love affair with Football Manager started. And Ian talks about balancing a shoe on the space bar.
• There’s even more, and plenty of background noise, and you can check it out in the SoundCloud player below. Or head to iTunes and search for Deep Lying Podcast.
• Oh, and he sells his son.

Ed and George discuss the time-based freedom that listeners of the podcast have. And they’re joined by Paul from FMCentral.

George runs out of ideas for the question of the week, but the community comes in and saves him. With the closing of the transfer window, which players need a change in their stats with the new update?

Ed grinds his teeth and plumps for Dele Alli. And then tries to big up Arsenal. Paul gets annoyed because Ed steals his ideas, but then goes for demoting Falcao and promoting Suarez.

George basically agrees. But then decides that every Aston Villa player should be knocked down, and Stoke’s Arnoutovic deserves a boost.

Then we’ve got all of this gold for you as well –

• Paul fills us in on his FM16 save. He’s mid-table in League One with FC United of Manchester coming in to the end of his tenth season. It’s all about youth for him.
• George shocks us all by revealing he’s still on his first save. After jumping ship from Oldham to Ireland, he’s been in an awful lot of pain. In-game pain, not real pain. A tragic defeat to Slovenia leads him to the play off finals for Euro 2020.
• Ed had to have a talk with his wife about his obsession with Torino (she’s not a fan). But he’s six games into his second season and he’s cracking on with a reasonably kind Champions League group.
• Then we have a bit of a vent about SI’s slightly less than excellent communication with the Football Manager community.

There’s all of that and more, and you can check it out in the SoundCloud player below. Or if you’d prefer head to iTunes and search for Deep Lying Podcast.

This week a hungry Ed and George don’t have a guest, but that’s okay because this dream team is a recipe for success.

The question of the week is inspired by George’s Oldham save, and it goes something like this – what has Football Manager taught you about things in the real world of football?

George learns about the slightly convoluted qualifying system for Euro 2020, and Ed describes the amount of pub knowledge he’s earned from his time in FM. And then George waxes lyrical about the tactics he’s learned from watching his sides get beaten by Maribor.

Ed’s save is going pretty well. He finished second in Serie A in his first season and is in pre-season for his second year in charge. He beat Juventus as well, which he’s pretty pleased about. Not all of his tactics worked out though.

George’s time at Oldham has come to an end. Mainly due to a string of terrible results in the Premier League. He shifted to manage the Irish national team, but unfortunately he’s found the whole thing dull. Well, not the whole thing, some of it’s an incredible amount of fun.

And then there’s all of this as well –

• We talk about games imitating life. And then Ed talks about how much influence the real world has on his choices of saves in FM.
• George explains how he can’t start a save without a point of reference. He’s all about the inspiration – which is one of the reasons he’s getting a bit bored with his save.
• And then we talk about the three things that are the most influential on our saves. George’s include books and things he’s seen.
• Ed says that football is a universal language. Which is good because he can’t speak Italian very well.

You can check out the whole thing in the SoundCloud player below. Or if you’d prefer head over to iTunes and search for Deep Lying Podcast.

Ed and a sleepy George are joined this week by Diego Mendoza from passthebloodyball. George gets star struck when he meets a Football Manager scout in real life.

This week’s question is about the best signing you’ve made in the January transfer window. Diego’s answer is his most recent signing. It was a 190k club record in Venezuela. There’s a fan back lash, but much hat-eating after a sterling season.

George only found out about the question 15 minutes ago, but plumps for bringing Roman Pavlyuchenko to Marseille. It was a signing the managed to power his career.

Ed bought Leroy Sane for Stoke, and then developed a mancrush for him. But it’s souring a little because now all he wants to do is leave.

Then there’s all of this good stuff as well –

• George brings up Maribor for the first time in a long while. And his hatred hasn’t dimmed since the end of his Slovenian adventure.
• Ed’s Stoke save is dying a death. His third season has been thwarted by player unrest and midtable obscurity despite doing well in the Champions League. So he’s started a save with Torino instead.
• Diego talks us through his save with Caracas. He’s ended up there because he liked the kit of the Venezuelan national team. After a bit of a run of nil nils, talking to the FM community has given him some new ideas. He also finished 33 points clear at the top of the table.
• George hasn’t had much time this week, and has moved forward just three games in his Oldham save. None of them were all that interesting, but he’s got some ideas that he’s implementing involving the benefits of not conceding and the benefits of scoring.
• Then we have a gab about how to get yourself out of a slump, why sometimes you need to step away from the game, and why it’s great to look to the community for inspiration.

There’s loads more as well, and you can listen to it all on SoundCloud right here. Or alternatively head over to iTunes and search for Deep Lying Podcast.

 

This week Ed and George are joined by Chris Darwin. Ed returns from his slump with a desire to keep everything super positive.

The question of the week is all about superstitions. We dig into the strange rituals that we have to perform before or during a save. Well, Chris doesn’t, because he doesn’t believe in that sort of thing. And anything he does do is definitely common sense.

George is also a perfectly rational human being without any superstitions. And he suggests that a lot of the superstitions are actually just planning. And then we have an argument about where the keeper should be in your subs list.

Luckily Ed saves the question with a superstition of his own. It’s all about the position of the cursor when he’s playing. And it’s a bit weird to be honest. He also carries it on in real life.

And then there’s all of this excellent stuff as well.

• Chris is on a cliffhanger with his FK Obilić save. He’s through to the last game of the season with a three way chance for the last promotion spot. But he might have ruined it for himself when he set up the custom leagues.
• George’s Oldham save has collapsed around his ears. But he’s not unhappy about it, mainly because he’s got Oldham up to the Premier League. And his transfer budget is six million.
• Has Ed managed to get out of his funk? Well yes, he has, all thanks to Stoke City and stumbling across a formation that accidentally worked.
• George wonders whether keeping things simple is the way forward. He has after all got only two team instructions running in his Oldham save.
• We then go on to talk about the FM community, how SI’s promotion for that community has dropped down a little, and why people are banding together to make sure all of the high quality content is still getting pushed. It’s all about the hashtag wearethecommunity.

You can listen to the podcast on SoundCloud by clicking this link right here, or head over to iTunes and search for Deep Lying Podcast.

It’s the first podcast of 2016, and once again Ed isn’t around. But that’s okay because we’ve got James Jones from the Football Fancast to join us. Well, to join George.

This week’s question is designed to cheer Ed up – we asked what your best tip to get Ed out of his FM16 rut would be. James talks about his own rut, which involved giving the game up entirely over the Christmas period. The West Ham job can be a cruel mistress.

But his suggestion to Ed is to try and become a legend managing a team that interests him in the real world. Although unfortunately he’s slightly tactically inept tinker man.

George feels guilty because he’s having one of the best saves in his career while Ed is in the doldrums. But he suggests trying to keep things simple.

The community has other ideas though, like jumping into one of the big boys of the footballing world and spending the ridiculous budget. Retail therapy, if you will.

And then there’s all of this as well –

• James talks us through the future of his saves. He might head back to Barnet, partly to keep his fiancee happy with his FM decisions. George does the same with Luton Town.
• Osborn’s Oldham Odyssey continues. Back to back promotions have lead him back to the Premier League, despite having the lowest wage bill in the Championship. He can’t really understand how all of this has happened.
• Then we chat to James about the Football Fancast, banter and why fan’s opinions are his bread and butter. George gets a bit giddy about gifs.
• We also start to ponder how the digital world is bleeding through into the real world and what James thinks about all of that. And how he simulated Slaven Bilic’s time at West Ham.

There’s loads more as well, and you can listen to it all on SoundCloud by clicking here. Or if you’d prefer head over to iTunes and search for Deep Lying Podcast.