First of all listeners of the podcast will know about this already but for those unaware we’ve created a way to finally decide who is the best at Football Manager; an FM19 writers cup.

With 8 of the 9 writers we currently have (unfortunately excluding CrusaderTsar), we have created a competition to test who is the best at football manager in the group. Each season will have its own take on the tournament and rules will change each season. This won’t happen often, usually in the summer or at slow times in the football manager calendar. Now lets explain the rules of the FM19 Writers Cup!

The rules of the FM19 Writers Cup:

Firstly each writer creates a squad (max 25 players) using the following rule-set:

Each writer is assigned two letters of the alphabet (usually tied to their initials) The writer may only use players whose surname starts with one of those letters.



For example: Guy (aka FMVars) will only use players whose surname starts with G or F (Godin, Firmino etc)

Each player has drafted their teams and the tournament is designed as so:

8 teams are divided into two groups of 4. Each team players 3 games against the other members of their group.

Subsequently All teams qualify for the knockout round, with 1st in group A playing 4th in group B and so on.

Straight knockout for a champion, with a 3rd place playoff.

Writer’s Name: Team Name: (Letters Allocated) Ben Benfica (I, M) Dom Domcaster Rovers (D, L) Eric Eric St. Petersburg (E, T) Guy Guyern Munich (F, G) Luke RB Lukezig (A, H) Pelham Pelham North End (C, P) Ryan Ryan Brownpool FC (B, R) Sam Samdoria (S, W)

The Groups:

FM19 Writers Cup Group A FM19 Writers Cup Group B Eric Ben Guy Dom Pelham Luke Sam Ryan

Week 1 Fixtures:

Guyern Munich 1-0 Eric St. Petersburg

In the opening set of games we saw Guyern Munich take on Eric St. Petersburg. Guys team looked far superior but the Eric the mastermind tactician created an most noteworthy “Attacking 4-4-1-1 DM Asymetric AM (CL) – Custom”. The game was a very tight match with little chances either way. Ultimately a freak goal from Bobby Firmino proved enough to win the match, and can be found with a live reaction below:

https://www.twitch.tv/dictatethegame/clip/VivaciousUnusualOcelotChefFrank?filter=clips&range=7d&sort=time

Also this match was recorded on our twitch and is now available on YouTube if you’d like to watch arguably the worst match from the opening week:

Samdoria 1-4 Pelham North End

Thankfully this time the two teams managed to grab a picture in game of the line-ups, saving me a lot of time and improved the quality of the images! The match was equally entertaining, with 5 goals managed in the highest scoring game of the opening round. Most notably a wonder goal by John Stones and a fantastic goal by Douglas Costa in the 89th minute.

Here are the highlights of the Samdoria vs Pelham North End fixture

Domcaster Rovers 0-2 Ryan Brownpool

In a nervy affair, Ryan Brownpool overcame Domcaster rovers after a stunning goal from James Rodriguez and a tap in from Bale. The two teams were very well matched and some (can’t imagine who) would say that Domcaster Rovers were unfortunate to not get anything out of the game. Crucially the questionable decision to start Edin Džeko may have proved costly with the likes of Lukaku and Lacazette on the bench however even when they came on they failed to perform. However Buffon despite his old age played fantastically well and rolled back the years with a few fine saves in 1-one-1 positions.

Rodriguez’ goal in the 42nd minute broke the deadlock, with a fantastic finish from outside the box. Although De Gea will be disappointed he was beaten at his near post. More importantly the goal is an early contender for goal of the tournament. Bale wrapped up the scoring after Andrew Robertson played a sublime cross field cross for Bale to hit on the volley from 5 yards. Some may argue the stats were in Domcaster Rovers’ favor however the only stat that wins you games is goals.

Benfica 3-2 RB Lukezig

The final match of the opening round of games saw Benfica take on RB Lukezig. Notably we had a few technical issues with this match however we agreed the result is fair. Benfica took at early lead after Timo Horn scored an own goal after right back Milinkovic-Savic (yes you read that corrrectly) hit the post. Suddenly the game crashed due to reasons unexplained by either party so the players agreed to give Benfica a 1-0 head-start. This next ‘game’ was much more exciting with the two teams battling for an eventual 2-2 score (3-2 on aggregate).

Sources from Benfica claim they didn’t play this game well at all and the victory was undeserved. RB Lukezig played well given the management team in charge although with games against Domcaster Rovers and Ryan Brownpool FC coming up they’ll be hoping to pick up some points in the future.

The Tables

Group A

Name P W D L F A GD Pts Pelham North End 1 1 0 0 4 1 -3 3 Guyern Munich 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 3 Eric St. Petersburg 1 0 0 1 0 1 -1 0 Samdoria 1 0 0 1 1 4 -3 0

Group B

Name P W D L F A GD Pts Ryan Brownpool FC 1 1 0 0 2 0 2 3 Benfica 1 1 0 0 3 2 1 3 RB Lukezig 1 0 0 1 2 3 -1 0 Domcaster Rovers 1 0 0 1 0 2 -2 0

And that concludes the first weeks fixtures for the FM19 Writers Cup! The next installment of the tournament will have wrapped up the league fixtures and we’ll be moving into the knockout stages of the competition. The next set of fixtures are:

Group A Week 2 Pelham North End vs Guyern Munich Eric St. Petersburg vs Samdoria Week 3 Pelham North End vs Eric St. Petersburg Guyern Munich vs Samdoria

Group B Week 2 Domcaster Rovers vs RB Lukezig Benfica vs Ryan Brownpool FC Week 3 Domcaster Rovers vs Benfica RB Lukezig vs Ryan Brownpool FC



Some matches might be played on other platforms for instance Twitch, YouTube or the podcast but we haven’t fully decided yet. Keep your eyes and ears on our social media platforms to see the updates.