My first Brighton FC Season

Hi Guys,

Ive been a player of football manager for the last 4-5 years, and ive steadily grown better at working out how the game, transfers and tactics all work. I played as Brighton FC in FM 2011, and was able to get promotion from league on in my first season, I then had a couple of years in the championship before finally getting promoted, and i managed to avoid relegation in the next season, but decided that i probably wouldnt be able to do any better than that so the game sat unused for many months before FM 2012 came out.

So now i've picked up my copy of FM 2012 and i have just finished my first season with Brighton FC. I have to say, ive enjoyed the game a lot more than in previous seasons. I think the game is more balanced, the players seem more 'realistic' in terms of contract offers and ability and the tactics / formations and everything else worked really well.

So i wanted to make a post with a bit of history about my first season. Obviously, you dont have to read it, but if you're thinking of starting a season with an 'average' championship team, then maybe some of my tips and strategies can help you out. I managed to come 2nd in the league, 8 points clear of 3rd and only 2 points off of league winners West Ham - although my match with them that ended 2-1 to them 3 games before the season, in my opinion, decided the championship.

So who were my signings that made this possible? Let me give you a quick rundown:

IN

After viewing the squad, i realised there were certain areas which needed strengthening. As usual, i scoured the free transfers section and bought in Pierre Wóme, a fairly old but competent left back and Lomana Lua-Lua who chose to come to me over a couple of other high profile teams, so i was pretty happy. I also signed Striker Aruthuro to give me something a bit different up front. It was ultimately the signing of Lua-Lua however, that made my brilliant run to the top of the championship possible, as will be explained later. Leonardo Borzani, a defensive midfielder, also signed for me, along with former England international Sol Campbell.

After recruiting these players, i had a look at the rest of my team, and decided that more firepower was ultimately what was going to help me succeed in the league. I did some extensive scouting, and was reccomended a player by the name of Darwin Quintero, who plays for Santos Laguana. I believe Quintero cost me around the 5 mil mark, with most of the fee being paid over 24 months. Along with Lua-Lua, Quintero would prove to be a masterclass of a player in my team.

I also signed Jonny Howson from Leeds for around 2-3 mil. Howson formed an impressive partnership with Liam Bridcutt in the centre of my midfield, that let my more creative players (Lua-Lua, Buckley, Vicente etc) raid up and down the wings supporting, creating chances, and scoring goals. Last but not least, Jason Steele signed from middlesborough for around the 3 mil mark (again paid over 24 months)

Out

As with all of my games, i like to build a team in my own image, even if the brighton squad was and is good enough to perform well in the division with the right tactics. First out was Marcos Painter, who i sold to Peterborough. Next, Casper Ankergren departed for a dutch side, followed by Will Hoskins on a free transfer and Gary Dicker to Burnley for around 600k. Matt Sparrow and Roland Bergkamp also left the side to gain some loan experience, however a fee was put in place for Sparrow and accepted over the course of the season. A few fringe players also had bids put in for them which i accepted, however my senior squad was still quite full so i knew keeping everyone happy would be fairly difficult.

So i bet you're all dying to hear how my new signings got on with the old players i inherited. I remember the start of the season going pretty averagely. I started the season with the team:

And i was round about mid-table after the first few months. I then decided to have a tinker with my tactics, and i developed the tactics that i used all season, which were...

Philosophy Balanced

Strategy Standard

Passing Style Shorter

Creative Freedom More disciplined

Closing down Press More

Tackling Hard

Marking Zonal

Crossing Default

Roaming Stick to position

Defensive line About 3/4 of the way up

Width Middle

Temp Fairly quick, about 3/4 of the way up again.

Away from home, i usually employed a similar tactic, although i bought the speed of the tempo down and chose to focus passing down the wings. Obviously in some games this was all changed, but on the whole, this is what i started with.

By January, i was sitting comfortably in the play off places, i think around 4th. Mackail-Smith, Quintero and Lomana-Lua-Lua all had around 13-14 goals each, and Vicente was putting in many man of the match performances so all i was going well. I also became alerted to Billy Sharp, a striker who had 36 goals in the division by this point, so after a quick chat with the board he was bought in to provide some more competition for my strikers. This worked out even better for me, when Mackail-Smith picked up a broken leg and had to sit out for pretty much the rest of the season. Similiary, around this time, Vicente picked up a similar injury, so 2 of my most consistent and better players were out of the squad for many months.

To accommodate for my injuries, i started playing Kazenga Lua-Lua in Vicentes position. He had a bit of experience there, but mainly from the bench, but he quickly became a key figure for my team (becoming so established that even when the brilliant Vicente came back from injury, i just could not find a place for him and chose to keep Lua-Lua in the right wing role). Around this time, i also started playing his brother, Lomana Lua-Lua in the strikers role, alongside either Quintero or Billy Sharp. Lua-Lua began to really shine in this position, especially after i made a priority to put him on finishing training, and i believe he scored about 3 hattricks from january until the end of the season, and finished on 31 goals for the season, which i think was absoloutely fantastic. Sharp didnt impress so much, only scoring about 6 goals for me, however he was a useful player to have in the squad. (He also won the golden boot for the championship that season, thanks to his 36 goals for doncaster!)

My team did ship a lot of goals throughout the season. Mistakes by my defenders led to me signing Alex Pearce from Reading for 1.5 mil, and he replaced Sol Campbell, who to be honest, was rubbish. His partnership with Greer was going well, until Greer picked up an injury, and then Lewis Dunk played with him until Greer was back and did very well - so i alternated between these 3 defenders for fairly good effects. Overall, we shipped 51 goals in the league, which was in no way the worst, but wasn't great. However, when you look at the fact we scored 107 goals (by far the highest) it makes this seem a bit more impressive.

So even with 2 of my main players out, the pace of Kazenga Lua-Lua on the right wing destroyed many defences, and the amazing strike rate of Quintero and Lua-Lua up front propelled me up the league so i was sitting on level points with West Ham with just a few games remaining. However, disaster struck when i lost 2-1 to west ham at home, in a very even match, and subsequently drew my next 2 games with very beatable opposition, and i was about 7 points off the leaders. This gap did drop when West Ham started to slip up in the last few games, however it ultimately cost me top spot in the championship.

Obviously there are many things ive forgotten about the season, but i really wanted (i have no idea why) to share my experience with you all, as you know how exciting the season can be, and after just finishing the season i am completely buzzing! lastly, i would like to tell you my key players and ones in which i wish i'd never signed / kept.

KEY PLAYERS

1) Lomana Lua-Lua. 30 goals. Need i say more?

2) Will Buckley. I realise i havent spoken much about him, but he was literally brilliant as an inside forward, scoring and creating many fantastic chances.

3) Darwin Quintero. Could create something out of nothing. Brilliant.

4) Jonny Howson. Brilliant centre mid who scored some outrageous goals.

5) Jason Steele. Great goalkeeper who made some brilliant saves, and apart from the occasional error was a solid and dependable player.

Mistakes

1) Aruthro. He was awful. Really really really awful. Played him in quite a few cup matches and early league games. Never scored a goal or even got into good positions.

2) Sol Campbell. Paid him too much money and he was just terrible. So slow, and full of mistakes.

3) Leonardo Borzani. Useless.

4) Not playing Lomana Lua-Lua up front when i realised he had such a good eye for goal.

5) Wrong tactics for drawn games at the end of the season. I was complacent.

So there you have it. This information is probably useless to you, but its here anyway. Hope you enjoyed reading it - i enjoyed writing it. On to a season in the premiership! I will let you know how it goes. Feel free to comment, or to judge my signings, or to rant at how useless a manager i am or whatever. I came 2nd with this team so i feel as though i did pretty well. The league at the end of the season looked like this:

1) West Ham. 102 points. 89 goals scored. 42 goals conceded. G.D +47

2) Brighton. 100 points. 51 goals conceded. 107 scored. G.D +56.

3) Reading. 92 points. 51 goals conceded. 92 goals scored. G.D +41

etc.

Crystal Palace, Hull and Watford were relegated

Hope you all enjoyed my post, and that you're seasons are going or have gone just as well.

A nice post but it belong in GPTG forum really, there is a Brighton thread here http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/282356-FM-2012-Brighton-amp-Hove-Albion-thread-Seagulls-Starting-to-Soar

again proof that the game is too easy