FM12 Aston Villa - Surely not Mcleish?!

Based in Birmingham, Aston Villa (nicknamed Villa/Villans) play their football in The Barclays Premier League. Founded in 1874, one of the founding team of what is now The Premier League.

Currently playing in their 42500 seated stadium, Villa Park. The main behind goal stand The Holte End is the largest behind goal stand in England, beating Liverpool’s Kop.

Villa’s most successful time came between 1981-1982, in which Villa won the European Cup (now The Champions League) one of only four English clubs to reach that achievement. Villa have also won The First Division seven times, FA Cup seven times, and overall won 20 major honours.

Villa enjoy a fierce rivalry with fellow Birmingham side, Birmingham City, although West Bromwich Albion is physically closer to Villa Park.

In 2010, then current manager Martin O'Neil departed Aston Villa only a matter of days before the season started, Gerrard Houllier was brought in, but only lasted the season due to health reasons. The current club manager is Alex Mcleish, who jumped over the city from local rivals Birmingham City.

1 Given

2 Hutton

3 Warnock

5 Dunne

6 Collins

7 Ireland

8 Jenas (on loan from Tottenham Hotspurs)

9 Bent

10 N'Zogbia

11 Agbonlahor

12 Albrighton

14 Delfouneso

16 Delph

18 Heskey

19 Petrov ©

21 Clark

22 Guzan

23 Beye

24 Cuéllar

25 Bannan

26 Weimann

30Lichaj

31 Herd

32 Baker

33 Marshall

34 Lowry

35 Johnson

38 G. Gardner

Currently on loan away from club – Parish, Makoun,

Future transfers – Enda Stevens (will join Jan 2012)

GK – Very strong keeper in Shay Given for the fews 2/3 seasons, Brad Guzan still suitable for number 2 spot. Improvements not needed at start of the game.

Defence – Key players here include Richard Dunne, James Collins, Alan Hutton and Carlos Cuellar. In terms of who to play, Dunne and Collins would be my choice of 2 CBs, with Hutton and Cuellar on the flanks. Clark is a excellent youth prospect so try and bring him into the first team. If finances avaliable, invest in a top class CB or RB.

Midfield – If you play with wingers, then this area is in need of investment. Albrighton and N’Zogbia only real wingers in the side, yet Albrighton is a good prospect, not sure if ready for first team straight away. So i would recommend purchasing at least a back up winger. For center mid, Bannan is the one you should be looking to bring in, along with Delph. Petrov, Jenas for center, with Ireland for attacking mid. Midfield is an okay department, so once brought in a winger should be okay for at least the first season.

Forwards – Probably Villa’s strongest area, Bent and Aghonlahor are main strikers, Heskey and Delfouneso back up. Look to place Delfouneso in first team early to middle second season, with sub apparences for first season.

Villa have some very good youth players coming through, below is a list of who i feel are the main ones and where they play; (ones in bold are the main big prospects)

Clark – Defence,

Lichaj – Defence,

Herd – Defence,

Bannan – Midfield,

Delph – Midfield,

Albrighton – Midfield,

Gardner – Midfield,

Delfouneso – Forward,

Weimann – Forward

I would say go for top half finish, due to being a decent budget, and top half is definitely achievable.

Top Half finish - £7.75m/875k p/w

Euro Cup - £9.75m/975k p/w

Champions Cup - £10.5m/1m p/w

Title Challenge - £11.25m/1m p/w

Winner - £12m/1m p/w

So, hope you enjoy my team guide and all feedback appreciated, but mainly good luck with your Aston Villa save and lets bring the glory days back to Villa Park!

Goodluck with the thread

Nice O/P, Hope to manage them at some point on FM12

Nice post, just want to add that Gary Gardner will also be a main youth player to watch, could turn out to be real talent!

All the youth players i listed have the potential to turn quite good, i just highlighted the ones i feel to have most potential

Nice Thread Mate

Good OP mate.

I'm a bit apprehensive about using Villa in this game. The squad has obviously taken a huge battering, and, well... Jenas? JENAS!?

Anyway, looking forward to getting started anyway. If I can do anywhere near as good as I did with Villa in FM11 I'll be happy.

This year I'm all about nurturing youth. Major roles for Albrighton, Bannan, Delph and Clark, with steady squad rotation for Herd, Lowry and Fonzie.

I know two areas straight away that need to be strengthened: the team badly needs another ball-winner (wtf is up with Makoun being shipped off?), and I want to phase out Dunne/Collins sooner rather than later so need at least one first-team CB.

It's going to be a long, tough game!

Nice thread matey

Nice start mate

Might start another all British side with them like I have just done for FM11!!!!

looking good, and happy i managed to find the thread.

where did you get the list of staff and the info regarding transfers and wage budget, did SI let you have all this? i'm happy with 7.75m, amazingly i'd amended my FM11 db and had estimated a 7.5m budget, looks like i was pretty close!

after the performance against wigan, i'm warming to mcleish. getting gabby/bent firing together is a real plus.

you sure there's no option for "avoid relegation" in 2012? i'd have thought that both in the game and IRL we can't EXPECT to finish in the top half as this is a transition year and the wage budget needs trimming.

will have a decent look and comment once i've a little more internet credit.

After my initial pessimism, I'm actually quite optimistic I can finish top-6. I brought in Gibson, Guardado, Spearing and Dos Santos; chose a 4-4-1-1 and pre-season has been promising. Just beat PSG 3-1 and morale is pretty good.

Its all on the demo mate, i just screenshotted it from there. Im pretty sure i didnt see no avoid relegation option.

Wow. Why do I never learn that a good pre-season means the square root of sod all when it comes to real games? Just got absolutely schooled by Newcastle. Awful.

Its all on the demo mate, i just screenshotted it from there. Im pretty sure i didnt see no avoid relegation option.

sad about that. i just think real-life wise uncle randy isn't expecting top half. just mid-table that could be anywhere from 6-17. wld hate to have a good season, finish 11th or 12th and get the sack for it not being 10th. that wouldn't happen in the real world

Wow. Why do I never learn that a good pre-season means the square root of sod all when it comes to real games? Just got absolutely schooled by Newcastle. Awful.

hi again andy, haven't heard from you for a long while. personally, i'm not gonna bother with the demo, will get the real thing on the 21st in the meantime i'm gonna experiment with a few things back in good ol' FM11!

ok, really took the time to read through in some detail this time and so i thought i'd add to what i wrote earlier. please don't take this as being in any way critical, just my honest assessment of the thread, the squad, expectations IRL and in the game, and anything else that springs to mind.

in FM11 my only saves have been Villa, and it will be my starting point this year. I've been a villa fan for 33 years and, having not lived near birmingham since about 1986 i don't get to as many games as i'd like (had a spell living in belgium and watched a host of intertoto games on the continent but am embarrassed to admit i haven't been to VP since 1996!!). as soon as i've taken villa to the pinnacle of the european game, and this may take several majorly disappointing saves before i hit on something, i intend to take over at Sporting Lokeren in Belgium, and then St Etienne in france, but my passion remains the villa......

so.

expectations. i reckon if this is official, then SI have got it wrong. i dont reckon villa should "expect" a top half finish. outside the top 6 there are 8-10 teams that will occupy mid-table and villa could TBH finish anywhere from 6th to 17th. it'll be tight and i reckon IRL lerner is expecting a transition season and to stay in the division.

i'm happy with the transfer budget for what I'D call mid-table but seems to be the expectation of a top half finish, and hope in the game the wage budget will be maxed out, meaning the need to offload players such as beye, heskey to free up some wages. i'll personally probably send jenas packing too, so strong do i believe we are in midfield.

*ANYWAY* i will quickly point out i really like this thread, the graphics (naturally i love our badge!) and will add that, last i heard, the Holte End is in fact the largest behind the goal stand IN EUROPE! this is going back several years but as new stadia tend to be fully enclosed the Holte is probably still up there.

moving swiftly down to the squad analysis: personally i would bring in a new number 2 keeper, don't reckon guzan will cut the mustard if given's shoulder packs up.

defence: IRL collins and dunne are forging a formidable partnership this year, partly due to mcleish being strong defensively. however, in FM both are flawed and it could be wise to look for lower-wage replacements and to ship these two out.

similarly, warnock on the left and hutton on the right are offensive fullbacks, if your thoughts are to attack simply with the midfield and attackers, as i am, playing very rigid, then again it might be wise to look for replacements. ciaran clark shows potential and can be developed to play DL or DC

midfield: i'd say VERY strong. there's the possibility of recalling makoun from turkey as he can play as a decent defensive midfielder.

now, this is where the game could prove different to RL. ireland and delph both show promise and flashes of class in real life, and both can be developed in the game pretty much as you'd like them. ireland can play in central midfield or sititng behind the strikers, delph has the attributes and PPMs (if 12 is anything like 11) to play anywhere in the midfield. my personal preference, if he stays similar yet slightly better than last year's version, is to develop him as a DMC due to his aggression, decent defensive stats.

N'Zogbia is capable of both creating and scoring goals, but don't expect much from him defensively.

Bannan: yes, i was getting to this. have yet to see what his attributes will be in FM12 but he's quality. can certainly pick a pass, has a range of passing.

overall other than experience/potential tutors the young midfielders in bannan and delph could easily be given starting roles this year.

strikeforce: my opinion has changed, dramatically, after the RL game against wigan. for those who didnt see it or the highlights, commentators' views, gabby agbonlahor showed real class in taking one goal and setting up the second.

i've had to change my thinking from a lone striker into playing gabby/bent as a partnership regularly. it'll be hard in FM because there doesn't seem to be a striker role specifically suited to gabby's strength and pace (or maybe target man? hmmm) but i'm determined to play them together and hope that life imitates art.

the future is, indeed bright, having nathan delfouneso for the future, but i can see the need for a 4th striker after selling heskey and getting those pesky wages down.

well (and i hear you all breathing a collective sigh of relief!) that's about all i've got for now. i'm not gonna bother with the demo i'll wait the next 14 days for the cd to drop through the post then get cracking.

once again sparey, good thread mate, thanks for spending the time to do it,

neil

...scratch that about not bothering with the demo, i'm well tempted, just using pay-as-you-go mobile broadband and haven't got enough data allowance to download it this week. can someone post me screenshots of delph and bannan attributes in FM12? wld be ace! thanks, neil

looking good, and happy i managed to find the thread.

where did you get the list of staff and the info regarding transfers and wage budget, did SI let you have all this? i'm happy with 7.75m, amazingly i'd amended my FM11 db and had estimated a 7.5m budget, looks like i was pretty close!

after the performance against wigan, i'm warming to mcleish. getting gabby/bent firing together is a real plus.

you sure there's no option for "avoid relegation" in 2012? i'd have thought that both in the game and IRL we can't EXPECT to finish in the top half as this is a transition year and the wage budget needs trimming.

will have a decent look and comment once i've a little more internet credit.

can't disagree more.. your being a great real life fan by accepting that villa are in transition and might not get mid to top half finish, but the board, investors and fans in the majority , would never accept less than a top half finish for a team as large as villa...

and irl a board setting such a low standard as avoid relegation is ridiculous with a team like villa... avoiding relegation should be nowhere near the target set by the board and isnt even on the radar for villa...

you still have top class players in given, dunne, petrov, n'zogbia and bent... and with the youngsters coming through strong.. top half and even a run at getting into europe should be the goal tbh... consider the other teams around going for europe.. everton, fulham, blackburn etc ... villa are easily as good/strong as these, if not more.

can't disagree more.. your being a great real life fan by accepting that villa are in transition and might not get mid to top half finish, but the board, investors and fans in the majority , would never accept less than a top half finish for a team as large as villa...

and irl a board setting such a low standard as avoid relegation is ridiculous with a team like villa... avoiding relegation should be nowhere near the target set by the board and isnt even on the radar for villa...

you still have top class players in given, dunne, petrov, n'zogbia and bent... and with the youngsters coming through strong.. top half and even a run at getting into europe should be the goal tbh... consider the other teams around going for europe.. everton, fulham, blackburn etc ... villa are easily as good/strong as these, if not more.

reckon the board would accept it. randy lerner is no fool and realises his is a team that is mid-table and not pushing for european places this year, though if gabby and bent stay on recent form they might just sneak into a european place with their goals.

the expectation should be "mid-table" i probably worded it wrong saying avoid relegation~ but no FM manager should be sacked if we finish 11-14 yet only 3-4 points below 8th, which is likely IRL

tbh... id expect the sack if i was managing villa irl and finished 14th...

tbh... id expect the sack if i was managing villa irl and finished 14th...

really all depends on how well they do while getting that 14th placed finish, how the fans react to the style of play, what evidence there was of developing the likes of bannan, delph, gabby even to vastly improve the season after.

remember, villa finished 8th last season due to winning on the last day. had they lost it would have been 16th. things are that close in the prem that i dont expect randy to take any knee-jerk decisions.

with mcleish in charge?! id expect him to be gone first sign of trouble

well i hope its not an issue anyway and villa do well

with mcleish in charge?! id expect him to be gone first sign of trouble

well i hope its not an issue anyway and villa do well

well with last week's performance and his bravery in playing the youngsters - which is paying off - he's winning me over. now, i'm not a brummie by birth (although i have a lot of links to birmingham) but if he's winning me over then he will be doing the same to thousands of others.

HMMM. all gone quiet here. i guess everyone apart from me (he says, hoping for sympathy) has the demo and is fully esconsed in it.

was wondering: how are y'all gonna play gabby and bent together? i had a eureka moment earlier, thought of using gabby as a target man/run onto ball because of his strength and better creat/passing than bent. have yet to give it a good trial but it's an idea.......

have decided i'm not gonna bother with genie scout for FM12. i LIKE developing a decent scouting network and signing realistic players. shame successive villa managers haven't bothered with scouting or for that matter (other than delph and makoun) daring to look outside of the prem for talent. say what you want about john gregory (who happens to be the last manager to win 9 games on the trot) and some of his signings were awful but at least he took a punt.

ok, ok, this post was just an excuse to ask again: any chance anyone can post pics of the attributes of delph and bannan? as i'm stuck with FM11 for a week as my mobile broadband data allowance is almost maxed out, i'll amend the 11 DB with those two's new stats. gimme a chance to see them as they will be now and test a few more things.

was playing for MONTHS with a single striker before "that" performance from gabby last weekend. has totally changed my thinking.

in my current save i haven't bought a single midfielder or striker yet, so contented am i with our RL talent.

well, wld be good to hear from someone, ANYONE on this thread if y'all can drag yourselves from the demo....

Hey Neil, yeah been a while. I've still been on FM but not as regular as I was. Ended up winning two consecutive Quadruples on FM11 and the game started to lose it's appeal as it got too easy - just in time for FM12 I guess!

I am really, really, REALLY jaded with Villa lately. My family are Celtic fans and I'm obviously a Villa man, so McLeish is pretty much the worst man the board could have appointed from a personal view. From what I've seen this season I don't think I'll be warming to him any time soon, either.

I don't however think we are in as much trouble as certain people claim. We have a good squad. Not world-beating, but solid: a proven 'keeper, a reliable no-frills defence (and if McLeish can do anything, it's organising an old-fashioned back line), pace up front and some potential creativity in midfield (provided he can get N'Zogbia playing, is gentle with Bannan and makes Ireland feel loved again). Still yet to be convinced by any of our signings (N'Zogbia has potential; Hutton was so disappointing at Spurs that even 'Arry Redknapp decided that a foreign centreback was a better choice at right back than him; and Jenas has always been the epitome of a 'meh' footballer).

The days of the club contesting for 4th are a distant past, but I can't see us being anywhere near a relegation battle come April/May; and I'm not just saying that as a fan, I'm saying that as a football man who is convinced there are at least 6 other teams in the league who will struggle more than Villa (I'll name them now: Blackburn, Bolton, Wigan, Norwich, Swansea and at a push, Sunderland).

I do love the club, and will be coming here to join with the banter, but genuinely don't think I'll be able to focus on a FM save with the Villa this year.

PS Has anyone else here noticed that Ashley Young's early success with Man Utd is directly linked with Utd management finally teaching him that it is OK to use his left foot? For his last 2 seasons with us, every run he made seemed to have the same inevitable outcome: he will go down the left, cut onto his right and either get 'fouled' (I think we can all admit now, he went down easier than a porn star who wanted a new greenhouse) or cut inside and try an inswinging cross (with increasingly rare success). It seems that since he joined Utd he has been told that it's actually OK to try stuff on his left foot, and he's looking twice as dangerous now as full-backs don't know what he's going to do. Why couldn't he realise that simple, simple football tactic 18 months ago?!

it'll be hard in FM because there doesn't seem to be a striker role specifically suited to gabby's strength and pace (or maybe target man? hmmm) but i'm determined to play them together and hope that life imitates art.neil

I had this problem alot in previous versions of FM but always got the best out of Gabby as either an Inside Forward or Complete Striker with Attack Duty, depending on the formation I was using and his strike partner

hi andy. i WILL be focussing on a villa save. i've really warmed to mcleish. true, his strength is being able to organise a defence, but he's also playing the decent kids (bannan, delph) and getting the best out of gabby. this will be the first villa save, ever, where i'm happy to play a RL villa front 6. i still rip up the defence in FM because dunne/collins/warnock/hutton defensive/physical/mental stats aren't all that.

i always find FM a decent challenge because i like to operate well within the wage budget and develop all my own tactics, i enjoy doing it even though i'm no expert.

right, it's early (ish) and i need a coffee..... andy, if you get a moment can you post delph/bannan attributes in the FM12 demo? i dont have enough data allowance left to download the demo so i'll play a "test" game in 11 with those 2 with new stats...... cheers.

Well I've always been a man of conviction (/sarcasm), so I started a new demo game with Villa this morning!

Neil, here's Bannan and Delph:

thanks andy, you're a star! i see they haven't changed since last year! i expected bannan to get 16 now for creat/passing tbh... oh well, not a lot for me to amend then.

Being a hearts fan i've always kept a close eye on the English Prem not because I don't love and follow my team everywhere just that every so often watching some actual football rather than the kick and chase SPL is needed. I follow the progress of the Scottish players and managers in your league so this season have watched Villa a few times and like the potential and pace your squad has especially with Bannan, Albrighton and Agbonlahor...def going to head to Villa when the game comes out see if I can turn the potential into a league title.

I actually feel Bannan could be slightly better...his corners, crossing and free-kicks have impressed me with Villa and Scotland.

I actually feel Bannan could be slightly better...his corners, crossing and free-kicks have impressed me with Villa and Scotland.

i agree, i reckon bannan is a real gem. his stats should probably be slightly better in fm12 but i'm sure i can develop him. delph has blown hot and cold but again, bags of potential. i'm tempted to develop him as a DMC he has a lot of what's needed but i'll definitely need to bring in extra midfielders as i've got (currently) bannan ML, N'Zogbia MR, delph DMC and Ireland AMC. i do have two formations but both use these four. problem is if i bring in someone half decent (thinking probably arouca from santos) then delph will lose his starting role. tough one.

JUST FANCIED ASKING YOU GUYS FOR SOME FEEDBACK ON MY MIDFIELD:

hi again guys, just wanted your take on the midfield.

i'm now tinkering with 2 different variants of 442. the midfield, at the beginning of the game will be either:

ML -ZOGGY- MR -IRELAND-

DLP - BANNAN- DMC - DELPH-

OR

AMC IRELAND

ML BANNAN MR ZOGGY

DMC DELPH

IN CASE this isn't posted as it should be, the first system is ML, MR, DMC (deep-lying playmaker/defend) DMC (defensive midfielder, support) the second system is a wide diamond.

i'm losing petrov, and probably jenas, don't see where he fits in my thinking and that's an immediate saving of 80k in the wage budget.

now, bannan and delph are still developing, and i guess ireland and zoggy can also be improved but i'm gonna need some depth in midfield.

just wondering how i should strengthen. i'm looking only at bringing in players that are at least as good as these 4, probably better in their specific ways.

my options are:

arouca from santos. class. wld play as dmc in the diamond or wide right or amc. cld play in either of the dmc positions in the 442 deep or wide right. as he has the ppm runs with ball thru centre the dmc position would be fine, i've developed this diamond specifically so that delph/arouca have space to drive into. arouca seems to get a fair few goals from his mazy runs.

giulio migliaccio, palermo. a pure dmc, no dribbling, shooting or creativity

christian ledesma. lazio. has some decent agression but could also be a deep-lying playmaker or playmaker on the left side or deep in the diamond.

then there's also stefano morrone, alvaro rubio or mauricio isla who is very similar to delph.

so i've got the option of 6 quality midfielders but realistically only want two of them, and they'll mean dropping 1-2 of my zoggy/ireland/bannan/delph dream quartet.

it's a tough one, so just thought i'd ask for some feedback from my fellow villa players.....

cheers!

the second formation with bannan on the left would be my preference... and n'zog is excellent on right cutting in onto his left...

and for the players... id go for ledesma.. he fits more into your mentality of deep-laying playmaker but with an aggressive streak to cut out any trouble in front of the back 4 .. plus, unlike arouca he is a bit older an experienced and lets face it.. you want delph to take up the dmc mantle eventually so you dont want another youngster like arouca taking delphs position for too long

the second formation with bannan on the left would be my preference... and n'zog is excellent on right cutting in onto his left...

and for the players... id go for ledesma.. he fits more into your mentality of deep-laying playmaker but with an aggressive streak to cut out any trouble in front of the back 4 .. plus, unlike arouca he is a bit older an experienced and lets face it.. you want delph to take up the dmc mantle eventually so you dont want another youngster like arouca taking delphs position for too long

interesting and good thinking! will be hard to take arouca out of the thoughts unfortunately because he's one of those rare players who has good defensive and mental stats AND 15 technique (in FM11) AND runs a lot and scored a lot of goals for me AND he can play as AMC, MR, MC, DMC.

i agree that delph is the future as an energetic DMC, not sure if you remember Ian Taylor in the '90s?

ledesma would take bannan's role as a DLP or, yes, i could play bannan left, ledesma and delph dms, zoggy right, in the deep 442. means no place for ireland. hmmm. although of course this lot would get rotated, and someone will ALWAYS miss out.

if i went with the diamond, ireland or arouca (or even delph) could play amc, ledesma or delph dmc, bannan or zoggy left, zoggy or arouca right.

it seems like overkill to get arouca AND ledesma. both pretty hefty investments but if i want a decent midfield and to rotate to avoid tiredness/cover for injuries during the season, and if i cut down the amount spent on my defence, then maybe it's the way forward??

the second formation with bannan on the left would be my preference... and n'zog is excellent on right cutting in onto his left...

and for the players... id go for ledesma.. he fits more into your mentality of deep-laying playmaker but with an aggressive streak to cut out any trouble in front of the back 4 .. plus, unlike arouca he is a bit older an experienced and lets face it.. you want delph to take up the dmc mantle eventually so you dont want another youngster like arouca taking delphs position for too long

having taken a bit of a hammering against similar rep teams in pre-season i'm amending the defensive attributes i want. was getting hit on crosses and i need to plug some gaps.

anyway, did the 2 formations on paper and tried to work out who COULD play in each position. the BEST one for rotation, i found, was the diamond.

i'd go:

AMC: ireland/delph/arouca

ML: bannan/albie/zoggy/delph

MR: zoggy/ireland/arouca/delph

DMC (and here i bring a new name into the equation): delph/bannan/MATUIDI. a gap plugger!

darn. foiled. PSG went for him in the summer. just googled him. back to the drawing board!

the second formation with bannan on the left would be my preference... and n'zog is excellent on right cutting in onto his left...

and for the players... id go for ledesma.. he fits more into your mentality of deep-laying playmaker but with an aggressive streak to cut out any trouble in front of the back 4 .. plus, unlike arouca he is a bit older an experienced and lets face it.. you want delph to take up the dmc mantle eventually so you dont want another youngster like arouca taking delphs position for too long

well, having been foiled with Matuidi going to PSG i checked and Fernando is still at porto. i reckon you could be right, the 442 deep with bannan on the left and i can have 3 - Fernando, Delph, Arouca - for the two DMC positions. the major casualty in this system will be ireland, which is a shame, but he'll get his chance

Nice OP Sparey Hope to spend a little more time on FM this year. Had to kind of ditch it a bit last year when my sprog popped out of the missus and didn't get as much done as I'd like

Hi guys, good OP.

Just getting some tactics sorted for the sorely depleted Villa before the full game comes out.

hi again guys, just wanted your take on the midfield.

i'm now tinkering with 2 different variants of 442. the midfield, at the beginning of the game will be either:

ML -ZOGGY- MR -IRELAND-

DLP - BANNAN- DMC - DELPH-

OR

AMC IRELAND

ML BANNAN MR ZOGGY

DMC DELPH

IN CASE this isn't posted as it should be, the first system is ML, MR, DMC (deep-lying playmaker/defend) DMC (defensive midfielder, support) the second system is a wide diamond.

I'm trying out your first system Neil, I have to say it's working out pretty well in the friendlies.

Instead of first team spots for Bannan and Delph straight away I bought LW Ivanschitz so my midfield looks like this

ML Ivanschitz DLP Ireland MR N'Zogbia

DM Petrov

Delph, Bannan and Albrighton all being shuffled in and out as appropriate. BTW Bannan has scored 2 screaming long range free kicks in the last 4 matches!!!

Hi guys, good OP.

Just getting some tactics sorted for the sorely depleted Villa before the full game comes out.

I'm trying out your first system Neil, I have to say it's working out pretty well in the friendlies.

Instead of first team spots for Bannan and Delph straight away I bought LW Ivanschitz so my midfield looks like this

ML Ivanschitz DLP Ireland MR N'Zogbia

DM Petrov

Delph, Bannan and Albrighton all being shuffled in and out as appropriate. BTW Bannan has scored 2 screaming long range free kicks in the last 4 matches!!!

Darn, just lost an entire post

Well my current experiment owes a lot to what sfraser said in one of his great posts: that creativity is not just spotting a key pass, but is spotting everything in the game, a little like anticipation.

So my current thinking is to stick with the 442 deep and bring in an experienced, intelligent playmaker to sit deep. Benoit pedretti or cristian ledesma looking likely.

So I’d have:

ML: bannan (to be developed in the DMC/DLP role over time

MR: zoggy (he’s got a load of goals and assists in pre-season)

….both wide midfielders cutting inside, bannan RFD rarely and RWB sometimes, staying deep and creating basically

DMC/DLP: ledesma/pedretti

DMC/support: delph

Ok, Ireland misses out but I still have a 442 wide diamond which accommodates him if I find myself chasing a game

Started a game with Villa after playing as Chelsea for more of a challenge.

I havent sold anyone but i have brought in Matterazzi on a free and GDS for 4.5m. Pre-Season is completed and were approaching the first fixture of the season, Newcastle. These are the Pre-Season results using a 4-5-1/4-3-3:

Yeovil 0-3 Aston Villa

Queen of South 0-4 Aston Villa

Le Mans FC 0-3 Aston Villa

Aston Villa 3-1 PSG

Brechin 0-3 Aston Villa

Newport County 0-5 Aston Villa

Aston Villa 2-0 Celtic

Aston Villa 3-1 Malaga

So its lookin good so far.....

I got Dos Santos for £4.3m, Ferrara for £900k, Barry for £2.6m, and Kranijar for a season long loan.

Managed to sell Beye for £750k and Ireland to West Ham for £3.2m - although I did end up having to pay £20k per week for his wages!

Darn, just lost an entire post

Well my current experiment owes a lot to what sfraser said in one of his great posts: that creativity is not just spotting a key pass, but is spotting everything in the game, a little like anticipation.

So my current thinking is to stick with the 442 deep and bring in an experienced, intelligent playmaker to sit deep. Benoit pedretti or cristian ledesma looking likely.

So I’d have:

ML: bannan (to be developed in the DMC/DLP role over time

MR: zoggy (he’s got a load of goals and assists in pre-season)

….both wide midfielders cutting inside, bannan RFD rarely and RWB sometimes, staying deep and creating basically

DMC/DLP: ledesma/pedretti

DMC/support: delph

Ok, Ireland misses out but I still have a 442 wide diamond which accommodates him if I find myself chasing a game

Oh right, well, I've pushed one of the DMC up to MC, playing DLP when Delph is in and AP when Ireland where both are playing very well.

3 games in to the season proper, won 3

N'castle 3-1

Wigan 3-0

Charlton 4-0

Top of the table all looking sweet, until the nasty little run of Man U, Man C, L'pool comes up that is.

Oh and Cuellar, Dunne and Collins all out for the next 2-4 weeks, so bringing in Cahill, he should never have left anyway!

Ivanschitz seems to have been a good buy, but I'm struggling to get anything good out of N'Zogbia on either the right or left side of midfield. Any ideas for getting him going?

Finally got a load of stuff out the way so can fully start on this demo. It's too late to get really stuck into it tonight, but I've loaded it and will get cracking tomorrow.

My plan is to play two different systems (one for home, one for away). For home games: a 4-4-2 diamond, and for away: a 4-5-1.

My back-line will be the same for both systems (Given; Hutton-Dunne-Collins-Warnock), with the following:

For my diamond: Petrov DM (DM def); Ireland AMC (AM supp); Albrighton ® and Bannan (L) as WM supp. If we're clear favourites, or are chasing the game I'll change AM and WM to attacking roles). I'll also have Gabby (AF) and Bent (Poacher) up front.

For my 4-5-1: Petrov (Anchor); Jenas (BWM supp); Bannan (DLP supp); Albrighton ® and Gabby (L) on the wings (albrighton as an attacking winger, Gabby as an attacking inside forward). This'll be finished off with Bent (Poacher).

I know N'Zogbia doesn't appear in either of those teams but frankly, he just doesn't look that good - doesn't look any better than Bannan as a LM, nor does he offer the defence-bothering pace that Gabby will as LW.

Looks like I can have around £10m to play with in the transfer market, and I would say I need the following:

A new defensive midfielder as cover for Petrov and as a better defensive option instead of Jenas when away from home. It's a damn shame Makoun isn't with the club as he would be perfect. Ideally I want him to be fairly young (as to potentially be a long-term replacement for Petrov), but also ready for first-team action now. After a brief look I think top options are either Diamé from Wigan or Muamba from Bolton (we'll ignore the Blues connection). Diamé is first-choice as he offers a bit more dynamism, but Muamba looks like he may have the qualities to turn into a very decent DM. I've also been looking at Jay Spearing from Liverpool; doesn't have the physical attributes of Diamé/Muamba, but much better all-around mentally. However, if anyone here has any other suggestions then please fire them my way!

I could do with a bit more creativity in attack, and also RM cover for Albrighton. As far as creativity goes, I know dos Santos is easily gettable so I'll go for him on loan, hopefully with an option to make permanent if he impresses. On the right, I have no idea. The scouting system in the demo is pretty restrictive at the start so my options from afield are pretty low. I quite like the look of Celtic's James Forrest as an out-and-out winger, so will try for him.

I will try and offload Beye, as Lichaj can be adequate cover for Hutton until Cuéllar is back from injury.

Sooner rather than later I want to offload Dunne/Collins. Perfectly OK for this season, but ideally I want to replace with at least 1 CB of genuine quality to play alongside Cuéllar and eventually Clark.

I'm planning to retrain Delph as a LM as I think his speed and dribbling could cause trouble there. With the right training I'm pretty sure his creativity and crossing can grow sufficiently to mean the LM position would be taken care of for a long while.

Right, to bed now. When I get in from work tomorrow I'll get started!

i've actually found zoggy to be class on the RW, is cutting inside and dribbling a lot and setting up and scoring a lot of goals.

i've settled on 3 formnations, the first of which is doing really well pre-season. a deep 442 with ML,MR, DMC, DMC. got rid of petrov and brought in cristian ledesma (wanted pedretti but he's just gone to PSG) as a DMC/DLP.

delph is the second dmc he can be developed as a great midfield destroyer though roaming forward too. great aggression and determination to break up attacks. bannan ML, zoggy MR.

My first run through with the demo resulted in a VERY strange game!

I cut back on the number of friendlies to protect the small squad from injuries, and set the match preparation to very high to get my new attacking 4-4-2 bedded in before the real war began.

I cleared out the back room staff dross for a new set of excellent coaches, brought in Gibson from Man U on the cheap and Tomas Rosicky, binned Habib Beye (can you really get a transfer fee for him??), and shipped

Jenas back to Tottenham (who subsequently put him on the transfer list on the SAME DAY - harsh)

Ok, I found that doing all my teamtalks with a CALM setting and telling the boys I believed in them or to relax and enjoy the game gave me a MASSIVE boost to their confidence. When the season actually began I wanted to

switch over to a more assertive tone of voice, but found that I didn't really get the same response. Throughout the demo I felt really constricted by this and didn't really try mixing things up as morale is so important in FM.

My results? I had injury, after injury, after injury - Ireland, Collins, N'Zogbia, Agbonlahor, Warnock all out for weeks and months. This meant that I went into some of the biggest fixtures with the kids pepppering the 1st XI.

Newcastle 1 - Villa 3

Villa 5 - Manchester United 2

Villa 3 - Liverpool 0

Everton 1 - Villa 2

Arsenal 5 - Aston Villa 1 (scored first after 2 mins and then got destroyed!!)

Villa 4 - Tottenham 1

WOW - Bent and Delfouneso became GOAL MACHINES! Remember Saunders and Atkinson? Yeah, just like that.

Ciaran Clark was awesome at either LB or CB. Rosicky was pulling the strings from either the centre or the left wing. Happy Days! or so I thought.

I began to realise that all was not well - we were getting really high in the table and progressing in the League Cup, but Darren Bent had stopped scoring after going on a tear up of 6 goals in 4 games.

We drew a couple of games in which Shay Given was basically Man of the Match every time - not good.

I decided to have a team meeting, but to be fair it was a disaster - Both Petrov and Bent were really happy but 13 other players came out the meeting pissed off! I hoped if D-Bent could find his

shooting boots again and we could secure a few results against some shocking teams I would get them all back on board. How naive.

The wheels had fallen off big time - Dazza went 900 minutes without a goal and I changed the formation around to get Gabby back in the team as an inside forward on the right hand side.

Because its only the demo I had lost interest, I'd got Mickey Owen coming in the winter and some potential superstar Brazilian midfielder from Santos, but couldn't be bothered to complete the first 6 months.

Has anyone else had similar scenario??

My first run through with the demo resulted in a VERY strange game!

I cut back on the number of friendlies to protect the small squad from injuries, and set the match preparation to very high to get my new attacking 4-4-2 bedded in before the real war began.

I cleared out the back room staff dross for a new set of excellent coaches, brought in Gibson from Man U on the cheap and Tomas Rosicky, binned Habib Beye (can you really get a transfer fee for him??), and shipped

Jenas back to Tottenham (who subsequently put him on the transfer list on the SAME DAY - harsh)

Ok, I found that doing all my teamtalks with a CALM setting and telling the boys I believed in them or to relax and enjoy the game gave me a MASSIVE boost to their confidence. When the season actually began I wanted to

switch over to a more assertive tone of voice, but found that I didn't really get the same response. Throughout the demo I felt really constricted by this and didn't really try mixing things up as morale is so important in FM.

My results? I had injury, after injury, after injury - Ireland, Collins, N'Zogbia, Agbonlahor, Warnock all out for weeks and months. This meant that I went into some of the biggest fixtures with the kids pepppering the 1st XI.

Newcastle 1 - Villa 3

Villa 5 - Manchester United 2

Villa 3 - Liverpool 0

Everton 1 - Villa 2

Arsenal 5 - Aston Villa 1 (scored first after 2 mins and then got destroyed!!)

Villa 4 - Tottenham 1

WOW - Bent and Delfouneso became GOAL MACHINES! Remember Saunders and Atkinson? Yeah, just like that.

Ciaran Clark was awesome at either LB or CB. Rosicky was pulling the strings from either the centre or the left wing. Happy Days! or so I thought.

I began to realise that all was not well - we were getting really high in the table and progressing in the League Cup, but Darren Bent had stopped scoring after going on a tear up of 6 goals in 4 games.

We drew a couple of games in which Shay Given was basically Man of the Match every time - not good.

I decided to have a team meeting, but to be fair it was a disaster - Both Petrov and Bent were really happy but 13 other players came out the meeting pissed off! I hoped if D-Bent could find his

shooting boots again and we could secure a few results against some shocking teams I would get them all back on board. How naive.

The wheels had fallen off big time - Dazza went 900 minutes without a goal and I changed the formation around to get Gabby back in the team as an inside forward on the right hand side.

Because its only the demo I had lost interest, I'd got Mickey Owen coming in the winter and some potential superstar Brazilian midfielder from Santos, but couldn't be bothered to complete the first 6 months.

Has anyone else had similar scenario??

who's the potential superstar from santos? because i'll be looking to pick up Arouca from there.......

Filipe Anderson. He's not Santo's best player but I picked him up for only £5m and should be able to keep hold of him.

Who's this Arouca chap?

Filipe Anderson. He's not Santo's best player but I picked him up for only £5m and should be able to keep hold of him.

Who's this Arouca chap?

who's arouca? he should still be at santos. officially a DMC/MC but can also play wide right or AMC. my fave midfield player in FM 9, 10, 11. he's only 24 and scores and creates a lot but also has good defensive stats. has "run with ball thru centre" as PPM and does a lot of it and creates and scores a lot from these little runs. i dont know another lpayer with 15 tackling , positioning, AND 15 technique!!