FM11: Iker Muniain- the Basque Messi

BIO

Iker Muniain Goñi (born 19 December 1992 in Pamplona, Navarre) is a Spanish footballer who plays for Athletic Bilbao in the Spanish first division. Muniain made his first-team debut for the club on July 30, 2009, in a Europa League match against BSC Young Boys, making him the youngest player to appear for Athletic Club in a competitive match. He became Athletic's youngest scorer in the next match against Young Boys a week later, and became La Liga's youngest scorer on October 4, 2009 against Real Valladolid. He has become a regular first-team player for Athletic Club, making a total of 38 La Liga appearances for the club (as of the time of this posting). He has earned 2 caps at the U-16 level, 20 at the U-17 level, and 5 at the U-21 level, all for Spain.

Muniain has drawn some comparisons to Wayne Rooney, but more parallels are drawn between him and Lionel Messi, with former Athletic star Joseba Etxeberria among those who have named him "Athletic Club's Messi".

Here he is in my Athletic save, one match into the season on 11.2:

I play him as a poacher in my 4-4-2, but he also appears to be a competent inside forward on the left wing, or possibly a trequartista either up front or at AMC. He definitely has the tools to become a star player, but may be expensive for managers of other teams- he begins with a minimum release clause is US $63mil, though I doubt that amount of money would be the only way to get him.

Sitting in Barca Atletico on my game being ruined

I'm gutted, he's 21 so I cba to develop him now, any screenie's of him developed a few years in?

Sitting in Barca Atletico on my game being ruined

I'm gutted, he's 21 so I cba to develop him now, any screenie's of him developed a few years in?

I personally have none from FM11- in my other save he hardly developed because I could never find a good training schedule, and I just started a new save cause of 11.2. He was a world superstar for me in FM10, though, and actually starts off better this year than he did in FM10.

Ive had him with my chelsea team for one season. he had an okay season, but he played most of the season as amc as inside forward. he grabbed 9 goals in total, he's definately going to be one for the future!

He has hilariously just joined Birmingham City on mine.

I hoep he gets good as I like him IRL. His starting stats are too tragic for me to give him a go at a top side though. He's not even good enough for Birmingham really.

Bought him for my Roma team when he was young in FM10, took a while for him to get good, but when he was good he was real good.

He's a starter on my team now. This is him in 2015

And these are his stats for when I sent him on loan PS he was top scorer of the league when he went to Valencia

Wow, looks as if he tore apart the German and Spanish league.

Yeah he did. Hopefully he'll do the same for me once hes gelled with his teammates and gets used to the formation. He can also improve a little since hes close to his full potential now.

He's a starter on my team now. This is him in 2015

*snip*

And these are his stats for when I sent him on loan PS he was top scorer of the league when he went to Valencia

*snip*

Sad to see that his finishing hasn't improved

Still, he's lookin' good and he's still just 22 so he could improve a bit. What position/role do you play him at or he was played in at the other teams?

In my save he's been very streaky- he started off by getting an assist in the first three games, before being mostly useless for a long time before he scored. And then, when he did score, he started doing so consistently. As of right now, he's back to not scoring but I think he recently got an assist. Still, he's only 18 in my save so I don't expect him to be at his best right now, and he is showing promise. A few of his attributes have improved- screen shot coming at the end of my season.

Well his dribbling is at 16 his finishing went up to 14 but went down like literally as soon as I checked it for this thread -.-

Hopefully it'll shoot back up next month. He misses his fair share of one on ones but he is still quality with his assists and goals.

I play him as an advanced forward Attack. He is my starter next to Babacar and has got Cavani, Dzeko, and Abel Hernandez relegated to the bench.

Tempted to try and get him first season instead of Neymar purely because he'll become home grown. Plus it'll allow me to spend the extra cash on Oscar Cardozo until Muniain develops.

I honestly think hes better then neymar from my previous experiences with neymar but that's just me

I honestly think hes better then neymar from my previous experiences with neymar but that's just me

agree I have both on my bolton save and he scores more than neymar does play them both as poachers not together though alongside an advanced forward

agree I have both on my bolton save and he scores more than neymar does play them both as poachers not together though alongside an advanced forward

Yeah I have him play next to Babacar usually and he's been doing good but he misses so many easy chances it ****es me off lol.

Here he is after my 2010-11 season. He did well, but was not spectacular- he was also very streaky. Not much movement on his attributes yet, but he has improved:

After 2011-12:

Not huge movement on the attributes, but good enough. His goal tally did improve a lot, though. He started off the season very slowly, but picked it up a lot in the latter half.

This is how to develop him

Default training, btw. Plays AML Inside Forward (Attack) for me.

This is how to develop him

Default training, btw. Plays AML Inside Forward (Attack) for me.

He's absolutely rapid

That's by far the best one I've seen.

He's absolutely rapid

That's by far the best one I've seen.

Thanks!

Biggest regret with him is that I've not found any suitable tutors to raise his determination

Must have for me if I use an left Inside Forward.

Two seasons in and he's a player I'm trying to lure to my Granada CF team. Have qualified for the Champions League already and with four games left, neck and neck with Real Madrid and Barcelona in a three-horse race. Could go either way, but a title win will be a huge plus to attract him to join.

I've been considering him as a left winger or an inside forward or even as a poacher. I like having players who are flexible, I's I'm flexible with tactics and formations.

His asking price is the most off-putting thing at the moment though. My last approach Bilbao wanted 29 million quid!

I've been trying to sign him on my Barcelona save, currently towards the end of the second season. He's having none of it tho. So far he has played 77 games for Athletic and scored 32 goals which isn't bad at all. Only got 6 assists in that time tho.

Signed him straight away with Spurs for £15 million. A bit expensive but don't care as he is for the future. First 3-4 seasons or so he has been very streaky, misses loads of 1 on 1s every game, despite that I kept on playing him behind my main strikers so he got over 30+ appearances every season. But in the 5th season he has grown up scoring over 1 goals per game, 29 goals in 24 games so far this season, he has became very consistent with his performances even though sometimes he doesn't score but still get some assists. I play him as the main striker with Neymar and Alexis Sanchez alongside him, simply the most destructive strike force ever.

He's been fantastic for me (Villarreal).

I play two up front, and he's currently rotating with Neymar and Alexis Sanchez.

I tried to sign him in my second season for £15mill but had my bid rejected

A few weeks later, Barca get him for £3.2mill

It ****ed me off to say the least

I tried to sign him last night in the 5th season, he wanted 180k per week i told him to go do one.