Barcelona are too good...

Now, I'm not usually one to go round displaying all my glories on FM but that's mainly because getting to the playoffs of the Championship isn't really worth bragging about. On FM11 though, this all changed. I started a new game as Man Utd (I know, glortyhunting) but it was mainly to test out the game on my new PC. Basically I got into it and after losing the league on the last day of the season to a Christian Benitez equaliser in injury time against Birmingham, I wanted revenge. After a successful 2 year stint in which I had won everything including that elusive PL title I was planning for season 3 and how to replace an ageing squad. What I didn't take into account was the madness of Euro 2012.

In a weird tournament, it was a Croatia vs France final which France won 2-3. Spain failed to make it out the group stages and Del Bosque was sacked. I thought "ah, that'd be a nice little way to break onto the international stage" and duely applied. I was informed that I was unsuccessful so there was only one man who could've beaten me to it.... Pep Guardiola. Sure enough he resigned from Barca and I was made favourite for the job. 2 hours of planning for the next season were thrown out the window! Barca offered me the job... and £146 million to spend! Two weeks later, Capello retired and England came knocking. Christmas came in late June. I raided my old club, taking Bale and Dzeko for a combined £70 million (after the Man Utd board had negotiated the transfers for £80 million 2 seasons ago). My team was immense, that was clear but under Guardiola had been unsuccessful and had only won the Spanish Cup twice while Real swept to victory in everything else. My first competitive game was against the might of Madrid in the Super Cup and my first meeting against Mourinho despite him berating me during my time in Manchester. We outplayed them over 2 legs and clinched it with a flourish.

All was going well, but then disaster! If you wanted one player in your team, week in and week out, it would be Lionel Messi. Not for me. He was out for 4 months with a torn calf muscle. After a quick inspection of his injury history, it turned out he'd had a broken leg the season before - explains the lack of success. Fortunately Guardiola had bought well. Lacina Traore and Rogelio Funes Mori were barely known to me before this game but now they're legends in my heart. Two players stood out - Andres Iniesta and David Villa. Both were magnificent and in December Iniesta was voted World Player of the Year and Golden Ball year. He scored a hat-trick the next game which was a little bit cocky if I'm honest. We were unbeatable and when Messi came back he was imperious. Scoring a ratio of 2 goals a game from Mid January to May, he finished my second top scorer despite missing half the season! No player is worth £275k a week but Messi comes close.

To cut what has already been a long story short. We won everything. Well except for the Champions League which I've still got to play the final of - against Real Madrid. Incidentally we had 6 Classicos this season. I won them all because of Real's dirty play. 105 yellow cards in the league! Something I laid into Mourinho about, putting the pressure on him to tone it down. In fact, the media either love me or hate me over there. Sometimes sweary, occasionally bordering on casually racist (I once described a Dzeko goal to a French journalist as being a "take a bow son" moment but then realising he was French, I went "Erm... c'est tres bien! Merci!").

Anyway, I can't claim credit for this season. The squad was good enough when I got there, it was just a matter of changing to a 4-3-3 and reaping the rewards. As for next season, I'm looking at Fabregas (as irl) or Javier Pastore seeing as Palermo were the only side to cause me real trouble - three 0-0's! I'm so into this game I've contemplated buying a Guardiola style suit! Here are some screenies of the season:

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Just like real life really, innit.

We had a thread last week claiming they weren't good enough on the game...

http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/264110-Barcelona-is-underpowered?highlight=BARCA+UNDERPOWERED

Gotta love opinions, sort it out SI!!

Congrats, now do it with Mallorca! This isn't beyond the realms of real life at all; this year they should get 98 points, only four off your total!

Also - I don't believe OP is saying that Barca are too good in the game, just in general! He doesn't complain once in his post...

no one's having a go at the OP, just pointing out how different opinions on here can be at times!!

no one's having a go at the OP, just pointing out how different opinions on here can be at times!!

Fair enough, I retract my comment.

Great achievement still, especially with Messi out for half of the season.

Yeah, I'm not complaining about them. I was more impressed by how the game (or rather Guardiola) recognised where they were weak and improved. I just read the thread about Barcelona being rubbish and have to say that I think the problem is with getting the best out of the key players. Messi was easy but Dzeko and Xavi were tricky at times.

As for Mallorca, I think that'd be a step too far but Athletic would be feasible. They finished in 5th and have got a good squad. On my game, Almeria have got an excellent regen with stats only slightly off Villa's but the regen is only 18 so I may look at bringing him in.

TBH, i think that playing in La Liga is just too easy as it is right now. I believe its much more difficult in real life than it is in FM. I don't know why, but thats my experience. I'm an Atl. Madrid fan and every time I play them, I tend to win games ~3-0. The only fun games are against Real Madrid and Barcelona.

For some reason, Valencia always falls bellow 10th, Sevilla rarely goes above 6th and Villarreal are usually disappointing and the manager tends to destroy the team as the years go on. I ended up being bored of the save and started a new one.

( Unimportant Note : i probably only bought 4-5 first team players over 4 seasons )

Yeah, I've found that only the top 4 provide any real competition. Valencia are doing alright on mine, Martin O'Neill is in charge and has got Soldado scoring for fun but the defence is shaky.

I just beat Real in the Champions League final, I say I did but really little Lionel did. He scored a hat-trick including a beautiful first goal that was the best he's scored all season. With that hat-trick he's also my top scorer on 27 goals while missing half the season. Has FM made him too good?

Xavi for me was outstanding before my game crashed. I got through a season and a half and in 2010/2011, Xavi (being played as an inside forward) bagged 17 league goals. No idea why he used him in that way, but I'd definitely recommend it now!

TBH, i think that playing in La Liga is just too easy as it is right now. I believe its much more difficult in real life than it is in FM. I don't know why, but thats my experience. I'm an Atl. Madrid fan and every time I play them, I tend to win games ~3-0. The only fun games are against Real Madrid and Barcelona.

For some reason, Valencia always falls bellow 10th, Sevilla rarely goes above 6th and Villarreal are usually disappointing and the manager tends to destroy the team as the years go on. I ended up being bored of the save and started a new one.

( Unimportant Note : i probably only bought 4-5 first team players over 4 seasons )

Oddly enough I just got offered the Valencia job, and Villareal just sacked their manager (Im managing Ajax) so that assessment certainly rings true in my save even at only 1 season full season in.

Guardiola's been great at barca in my save. Only manager to cause me trouble, have been United the whole save and i'm in 2017 now. It's 2 a piece between me and Guardiola in the CL. Only team i find really tough to beat. Even more annoying that Rooney scored against me last season to knock us out!

Definitely going to be playing Xavi as an inside forward now! As for Guardiola, he didn't enjoy much success at Barcelona (by Barcelona's standards anyway) but as Spain boss he's doing great. 5 games into the World Cup qualifiers and they've scored 20 and haven't conceded. A slight bug is that he's never come to watch a Barcelona game which is weird seeing as half the team are from the Barca squad.

Taken a break from my Oxford FM10 save and started a Real Madrid FM11 save.

I'll tell you at the end of the season how good Barcelona are..

Taken a break from my Oxford FM10 save and started a Real Madrid FM11 save.

I'll tell you at the end of the season how good Barcelona are..

First blood to Real! This was Barca's second league defeat of the season, we are yet to lose in the league (13 games: 12 wins 1 draw).

Nice! Pretty even game from the looks of it but you took your chances. To be fair, I think as long as you're one of the big 2 in Spain you can't really go too wrong. My only other foray into Spain was with Deportivo on FM11 and I managed to get them to 3rd through a massive amount of spending before leaving to join Arsenal. Top 2 destroyed me in every game I played against them though.

on my save internationally Spain have won the last 3 world cups and last 3 euro championships....crazy