I've played FM for a number of years now, and I've had many enjoyable moments immersing myself in the in-depth features that the game offers and simulating my imaginary rise to success in the footballing world.

In the latest game, FM 2018, I decided to do a little experiment. I took charge of Watford and played 7 league games into the season. My next match was away at Newcastle; I read the report from my scout, which said that they would play slow, patient, possession-based football. So I set the team up with a counter-attacking mentality and instructions that countered what I expected Newcastle to do during the game. My line-up was close to being my strongest, but a few regular back-up (though fairly talented) players were brought in that were better suited to the tactics I had chosen.

I lost the game 2-0, with Newcastle having 60% possession and 21 shots compared to my 40% and 4. Considering that this was my team's worst performance of the season by far, I thought it would be interesting to see what was wrong with the tactic I used (using a counter-attacking style against possession-based opposition has nearly always worked wonders for me, and I had already used it in away games earlier in the season) and how I could have deployed my team in order to win the game.

I decided to pick the same starting eleven I had used in my last game (a 2-2 draw with Tottenham) with the same tactics as well. This time we lost 1-0, but in terms of stats this particular win was just as convincing for Newcastle.

I used various different line-ups and worked through all the tactics with different combinations of instructions, adjusting my instructions accordingly as the game progressed in order to suit the pattern of the match. I played 12 games in total (including the first one which triggered my thought for the experiment, and you may be interested to know that:
- I lost every single one
- the scoreline was always 1-0 or 2-0, meaning I didn't score in any of the 12 games
- I never had ball possession of more than 43%
- I never had more shots than 8, and in that particular game we didn't register a shot on target
- Either Abdoulaye Doucouré or Andre Gray was forced off through injury in every game they played in
- Either Abdoulaye Doucouré or Daryl Janmaat, and sometimes both, were booked in every game they played in (even when I told them to ease off tackles before the game).

The statistics I've provided above are either a truly remarkable coincidence, or are substantial evidence that results in Football Manager are predetermined. I have read through various discussions on this subject, so I am aware that many petty FM players will simply reply to this with "you're just bad at the game" or "how can the game be scripted, that's a ridiculous statement". If you want to be petty like that, please don't bother; I want a genuine discussion with people who have experienced what I have or who possess genuine knowledge or evidence (such as mine) that suggests that FM is not scripted.