Becks is back!

Hi readers,

As I am a huge Beckham fan (he was the one who drew me to watch football), I will be embarking on my first ever FM14 save with Becks as the manager!

Before embarking on my United save, I would like to set a few aims and write a bit on my philosophy when it comes to playing fm.



Philosophy

1. Developing youth: I have always been an admirer of teams with fantastic youth systems (think Ajax, Barcelona and very recently Southampton) and my team will certainly be closer to these teams than the likes of Chelsea, Man City, PSG and Real Madrid.

2. English talents: As much as possible, I would like to develop and bring players through from the youth system. Nevertheless, when there is a need to sign players, I will be giving priorities to English players (even if they are overpriced) instead of the obvious talents from abroad. It's a pain watching the English national team nowadays and I will be looking to help as much as I can by developing English talent.

3. Be emotional: As I am an United supporter since young, I will be slightly biased towards players who have been at the club forever (think Fletcher, Giggs etc) and not sell them unless I have no other choice. One of my first tasks at hand would be to try and sign Gary Neville and reunite the class of 92 back among my coaching staff

Aims

1. Win as much as I can: There is no other way when it comes to managing United. Sir Alex has been relentless when it comes to winning and I will be very happy to achieve half of his successes.

2. Reduce the debts: Glazers have brought in remarkable amounts of debts to the club and I will try my best to reduce it and hopefully make the balance positive by the end of my tenure.

3. Have fun: Last but not least, I hope to have as much fun as possible in my first FM14 save. No doubt there will be disappointments and set-backs along the way. I hope that I can persevere on so that when I reach the end, I can look back at my journey with a smile

I will be back with updates on pre-season real soon!

With lots of love,

Beckham Plays FM

Fair play. Hope you succeed!

Hi readers,

I have just completed my first ever pre-season of FM14! To my surprise, the patch 14.1.4 came just in time before I embark on the new season!



Transfer-ins

I would like to first touch on the transfer-ins I made. United has a really huge squad with at least two players for every position except the right full-back position. Thus, Kyle Walker was bought from Spurs at 15 million pounds and considering that he’s currently one of the top two right-backs in the country, it was money well-spent. I was willing to fork out 25 million pounds Luke Shaw as I really want an English left-back to take over Evra when his stats start to deteriorate. Furthermore, this is exactly the kind of signing that I want to make on this save - young and English. I now have 2 future English first-choice full-backs at the club and that pleases me a lot.

Transfer-outs

People will perhaps slam me for doing this but I off-loaded Kagawa to Chelsea for 24 million pounds. I am looking to play 4-4-2 and I find it hard to fit Kagawa in this system. He is too light weight to play in a central midfield two and I have lots of wingers whom I was unwilling to offload (Young and Zaha) as they are English. I also have four quality strikers in Wazza, RVP, Chicharito and Welbs so I don’t need Kagawa upfront. Unable to play him anywhere, I decided to offload him to our rivals as they were the only club interested.

Anderson was off-loaded as I have too many central midfielders at the club. Fabio was sold to free up space for young Luke Shaw. Michael Keane was someone I wanted to keep hold of but he fell out with me over contract issues. No player is bigger than the club and I decided to off-load him. Other deadweights such as Amos, Macheda and Buttner were all off-loaded. All in all, I only spent 1.59 million pounds and it was in line with my philosophy of not splashing too much cash like Chelsea or City.

Tactics 

Attacking 4-4-2

As mentioned earlier, I am looking to play my team in a 4-4-2 formation which resembles that of the 98/99 treble winning team. The team instructions were selected for the following reasons:

Pass Into Space and Higher Tempo: I dislike watching patient, controlled football with playmakers pulling the strings behind a lone striker. I prefer my team to force the issue, move the ball around quickly and make through passes into space.

Play Wider: I want my team to play high up the pitch with direct wingers supporting two out and out strikers. (Beckham/Giggs/Blomqvist/Greening supporting Cole/Yorke/Solskjaer/Sheringham) The wingers will hug their respective lines and stretch the play wide.

Roam from Positions: I like to see lots of movement among my players to confuse the opposition defence but this requires tremendous amount of understanding among the players to cover every part of the pitch at all times. Being labelled as title favourites, I would like to think that the United players have the tactical discipline to do that.

Hassle Opponents and Use Tighter Marking: I want my players to get into their opponents’ faces and press them high up the pitch to unsettle them before imposing our own game on them.

Work Ball into Box: This is just to discourage aimless long whacks at goal from distance and hopefully create better chances through quick interplays/crosses from wide areas.

Player Roles: The player roles were very much chosen to encourage interplays as well as to ensure covering of positions all around the pitch. The typical Stopper and Cover central defence partnership (Vidic and Rio) is favoured to encourage the stopper to close the strikers down and reduce the time they have on the ball while the covering defender waits to sweep out any impending danger. Only one of the full-backs is on attack duty to encourage overlapping past the winger on support duty.

A BWMs was chosen to ensure that we try and win the ball high up the pitch. The DLPd offers cover in central midfield when the BWMs goes tearing about the pitch.

The front two is straight forward with the AFa playing higher up the pitch working the channels while the CFs drops deep to link the midfield and attack.

Counter-attacking 4-4-2

An alternative tactic was created for the tough away games against bigger teams. In this counter-attacking tactic, the team is encouraged to keep its shape and counter quickly when we regain ball possession. Stand Off Opponents, Be More Disciplined and Play Narrower were chosen for shape retention while Higher Tempo encourages quicker transition from defence to attack. Work Ball into Box was chosen for similar reasons as mentioned in the first tactic.

The back four were all given defend duties as their main role in this tactic is to defend their territory. Both wingers were given support duties to support the full-backs and double up on opposition’s wide players. CMs was chosen instead of BWMs to discourage the aimless closing down of the central midfielder and encourage two banks of four when defending. The role of the front two remained the same.

Players' Instructions: The players’ instructions were left untouched with the exception of the Goalkeeper. A sole tweak was made to encourage the goalkeeper to look out for quick throws when in possession for quicker transition.

I have yet to test out the counter-attacking tactic but I have used the 4-4-2 treble tactic in all of my pre-season games so far and it was hugely encouraging.

Looking at the Community Shield game…

Wigan 1 - 3 Man United

It could have been much more comfortable if our strikers were clinical enough. We created 7 clear cut chances but only managed to put the ball in the back of the net three times. After an early opener by Chicharito, Wigan equalized with a Ferdinand own goal after young full-back Luke Shaw was skinned by Maloney down his flank. Thankfully, Chicharito pounced again in the box to put us back in the lead and Fellaini put the result beyond any doubt with a powerful effort from just inside the box. The treble tactic looked solid enough as Wigan only had 4 shots all game while we had 29 in total. We also had the majority of ball possession at 62% and remarkably, 18 corners to Wigan’s none. I will certainly be looking to test out the two tactics further when the season starts officially.

I will be back with the mid-season update once I am done!

With lots of love,

Beckham Plays FM

I don't want to be too critical but it looks better if you crop your screenshots

I don't want to be too critical but it looks better if you crop your screenshots

I personally don't think it makes a lot of difference.

What do the rest think? If you guys prefer it cropped I will do it

Cropped I reckon.

As you are playing in Windowed mode, if you press ALT+Print Scrn you should just get a screen of the active window.

Hi all,

I am back with the mid-season update! Let us first take a look at the games played so far.

The first three rounds of fixtures were all scrappy one nil wins as the team wasn't fluid yet with my tactics. Then came Arsenal away, where we were lucky to come away with a 3-2 victory after an injury time winner from the brilliant Antonio Valencia. However, the joy was shortlived as we were destroyed 5-1 by Dortmund away, with Lewandowski grabbing four goals like how he did last season against Real Madrid.

Lewandowski?

I did everything I could (OIs, specific man marking) to stop him but he was unstoppable. And now the question is, should I try to sign him on a free transfer when his contract expires? I don't want one of our rivals to snap him up and yet it's against my philosophy of signing English players. Do let me know by leaving a comment at the end of this entry and tell me if I should try signing him

Bouncebackability

Like all great United teams, we recovered from the thrashing to go on a 12-match unbeaten run, not counting a solitary defeat to Liverpool at Anfield after going ten men. Dortmund beat us again at Old Trafford with a late goal and we were unlucky not to have at least gotten a draw. With qualification from the Champions League group stages sealed and zero possibility of overtaking Dortmund as group leaders, I fielded all my young players against PSG away. Despite losing 2-3, they gave a good account of themselves, matching the experienced internationals from the cash-rich side.

Center Backs Closing Down Bug?

We were beaten for the second time in the league by Newcastle away from home after my central defenders decided to go haywire by closing down too furiously (bug?), leaving Ben Arfa with arches of space to finish with ease past De Gea. Otherwise, we were excellent in the league as shown in the table below:

League Gone Crazy?

We have been the best team in the league with a healthy 6-point lead over our nearest rivals. We also have the best goal difference, resulting from the best goals scored and against records. Stoke is the surprise package of the season so far, sitting on second place in the table with 39 points. Chelsea is a further 5 points behind. The table looks chaotic to say the least with Man City, Arsenal and Liverpool all in the bottom half of the table. Sunderland looks as if they are heading for relegation, with a mere 9 points from the first 19 games.

Players Assessment



Goalkeepers

De Gea started the majority of the games after Lindegaard disappointed me with a few howlers in the League Cup. The wonderkid from Spain has been excellent for me, making brilliant saves and looking assured while handling crosses. I expect interest from the Spanish giants sooner or later.

Defenders

The defenders were well rotated, with all starting at least 10 games with the exception of the ageing Ferdinand. Despite starting a mere 8 games, Rio has the highest average rating out of all the defenders and is staking a claim to start more games coupled with unfortunate injuries suffered by Smalling. To my delight, new signings Walker and Shaw settled quickly at the full-back positions.

Central Midfielders

Carrick suffered a long-term injury early in the season and as a result, Giggs played a bit more often than I would have liked him to. Impressively, he was still doing a job at DLPd, moving the ball accurately and quickly to the front four. Fletcher continued his amazing recovery from the unfortunate bowel illness with commanding performances in central midfield. Fellaini was the star in central midfield, with 3 goals and 5 assists from the BWMs position. I decided to play Jones in midfield for most of the season and he too was encouraging before an unlucky injury struck.

Wingers

My right wingers were arguably the most impressive players in the first half of the season. Valencia scored an amazing 7 goals while picking up 5 assists and 4 Player of the Match awards. Zaha's development was pleasing too with 3 goals and 6 assists (He is English!). On the opposite flank, no one really impressed me and this may be due to the support duty given to them. On a bright note, Januzaj broke into the first team and is no longer intimidated by the prospect of first team football.

Strikers

These are the two vital positions of my tactic as they are the main goal grabbers of the team. The four strikers didn't disappoint as they all shared games and goals evenly:

Welbeck: 10(4) games, 9 goals and 1 assist

Rooney: 19(3) games, 9 goals and 5 assists

RVP: 17(7) games, 11 goals and 6 assists

Chicharito: 13(3) games, 11 goals and 3 assists

If the new fab four can all grab at least 20 goals each, it will give me 80 goals for the season and that will go a long way to help the team to a successful season.

All in all, it was a great first half of the season, with the team remaining in contention for all four competitions. We drew AC Milan in the first Champions League knockout round and it will be tricky facing the likes of Kaka and Balotelli. Chelsea awaits us in the League Cup semis and I am expecting two tough ties. Hopefully, come the end of the season, we will have some reasons to celebrate about!

I will be back with more updates!

With lots of love,

Beckham Plays FM

Hi readers,

I have completed season 1 and it was a season of mixed feelings.

English Premier League - Champions

It was a weird season in the league, with many of the big teams struggling. Stoke and Everton were the surprise packages in the top four, with Man City, Arsenal and Liverpool all under-acheiving. Liverpool in particular ended up in 17th, narrowly escaping relegation and it was shocking to say the least.

In the end, we won comfortably on 81 points, 14 points clear of second placed Chelsea . We didn't impress this season and it was again a case of other teams failing rather than us succeeding. We will have to improve next season if we want to be champions again.

Champions League

This was perhaps the biggest disappointment of the season. We went all the way to the finals to face Juventus after beating Dortmund (after losing to them twice in the group stages, it was sweet sweet revenge) in the semis. However, key players Vidic and Fellaini were both suspended for the finals and we came up short against the Italian giants. To add to the disappointment, we lost one nil to a Carlos Tevez goal. Yes, it had to be him.

FA and League Cups

We lost to Chelsea in the League Cup semis after my central defenders went too high up the pitch once again. I read in the bugs forum that this is one of the problems with the match engine but well, that's life and I lost narrowly 2-3 on aggregate. FA Cup was another disappointment with Newcastle beating us yet again through a Cabeye wonder goal.

All in all, I could have done better with some luck but I ended up with the league win, which isn't too bad considering how we are doing in real life. Let us now move on to the players' analysis:

Goalkeepers

De Gea continued his solid form for the second half of the season, winning the Premier League golden glove. Lindegaard was disappointing as usual and he cost us three points in the league after letting in two long range efforts against Norwich at Old Trafford.

Defenders

They were solid but not spectacular throughout the course of the season, with every single one of them making at least 20 starts. Walker and Shaw continued to settle well, making 67 appearances between them. With Rio declining, I would be looking to bring in a center-back in the summer.

Midfielders

I have picked out three top performers:

3. Fellaini: Considering that this is his first season, he contributed well with 5 goals and 6 assists from central midfield. However, he was sent off thrice this season and I believe that this is due to a bug from the latest 14.1.4 patch.

2. Valencia: He was more impressive in the first half of the season. Nevertheless, he ended up with 9 goals and 7 assists playing down the right flank.

1. Zaha: Both the fans' and my player of the season! He was one of the success stories this season, chipping in with 5 goals and an impressive 13 assists. As a result, he was named in the Premier League Team of the Season and I was proud to see the English youngster doing so well.

Strikers

They didn't perform as well in the second half of the season, with only RVP reaching my 20-goal target. Welbeck was disappointing as he missed lots of clear-cut chances. I believe that this was down to his poor composure and I will be focusing on this particular attribute in his individual training. Nevertheless, my Fab Four ended up with 65 goals and 26 assists for the season and I was reasonably pleased.

In a nutshell, I am on course to acheive my aims set out at the start of the season. I won something, developed and bought English talents and of course had lotsa fun! Bring on the second season!

With lots of love,

Beckham Plays FM

I think Lewandowski is worth it, the man is simply brilliant and RVP isn't exactly going to play until he's 40. So I would get Lewandowski in as a long-term replacement for RVP.

didnt he already sign for Bayern in your save?

didnt he already sign for Bayern in your save?

Nope. He's still available on a free after the first season

Your better off getting in a decent young English striker, to keep to your philosophies

I think Lewandowski is worth it, the man is simply brilliant and RVP isn't exactly going to play until he's 40. So I would get Lewandowski in as a long-term replacement for RVP.

Your better off getting in a decent young English striker, to keep to your philosophies

Thanks for the valuable advice guys! I have made the decision and will be explaining it in my next update

Sign Lewandowski. Decent first season mate, surprised at the top four though.

Hi readers!

I am finally back with the second season! Pre-season was long and draggy and I would like to start off by explaining some of the key transfers made.

Lewandowski for RVP!

The decision is made! And here are the reasons for it:

1. Age: Lewandowski is on the right side of 30 but RVP isn't. Lewandowski still has lots of room for improvement as he's still relatively young.

2. Money: I had to cash in on RVP early before his value starts to drop as United is still in debt. Lewandowski is too good to be ignored on a free transfer and his value can still rise in the next few years.

3. Freshening of the squad: Every title-winning squad needs some freshening to prevent complacency from setting in. Man City regretted not adding RVP last season and United is struggling this season with only Fellaini coming in. Hopefully the addition of the Polish sharpshooter can help me to my second consecutive title.

Double S - Shelvey and Shawcross

I mentioned in my last post that a central defender is essential this summer due to Rio's decline and I decided to bring in an ex-Red Devil Ryan Shawcross for ten million pounds. Similarly, Shelvey is brought in for cover as both Carrick and Fletcher are on their wrong sides of thirty. And of course, they are young and English.

Trimming of squad

The likes of Nani, Bebe, Vermijil and Will Keane all left for decent money as I saw the need to trim the squad.

Table

Here's how the table looks after half a season. The top four has a more familiar look this time round with Spurs, Arsenal and Liverpool all back in contention. I was pleased to see us top again with Spurs breathing down our necks, with a mere 3 points behind. It will be closer this time round and my team will surely have to gather more than 81 points to win the league.

Cups

We struggled to get out of the Champions League group and only managed to seal qualification in our sixth fixture. Galatasaray beat us twice with Drogba bullying our central defenders but thankfully, we managed to clock the magical ten points to finish second in the group. We managed to avoid the giants in the draw and we will be facing Benfica in the next round. We are also in the quarter-finals of the League Cup and hopefully we can go one better to reach the finals this season.

Now, I would like to examine the development of some of my young English talents:

Shaw

Luke is developing faster than what I expected and he's already getting his fair share of games at left-back. With Evra ageing fast, he's already giving me selection problems and I can't decide who my best left-back is. Although Luke is a left back, he has awesome attacking capacity with 17 Dribbling, 17 Acceleration and 18 Pace. If he can avoid injury problems, I believe that he will go on to have an awesome career like the legendary left-back Ashley Cole.

Welbeck

This kid has everything to be a top forward except his composure. After some training focus on this attribute, he now has 14 composure and is missing less of the one-on-one chances. With 16 Finishing, 16 Flair, 17 Work Rate (this is what I like most about him) and great all-rounded physical attributes, I predict that he will go on to score a lot of goals for us and for England.

Zaha

And last but not least, last season's player of the season. His stats don't look as impressive because huge amount of focus was placed on retraining him in the new positions MR/L. Nevertheless, he's still performing tremendously for us down both flanks with 18 Dribbling, Acceleration and Pace, as well as 17 Flair and Agility. If he can improve his decision-making and finishing ability further, he will surely get more goals and assists than he already has.

Hopefully come the end of season, we will have more success to look back on! Cheers! \o/

With lots of love,

Beckham Plays FM

Sign Lewandowski. Decent first season mate, surprised at the top four though.

Did exactly that! And yes this game went a little haywire imo. But things are looking normal in the second season!

Hi readers,

I am finally done with the second season! Like what the title says, this game really puts you through an emotional roller coaster ride! Why do I say so? Lets start with the league:

EPL

We won the league by just one point! We were trailing Spurs by 5 points with 3 games to go as the squad was struck by an injury crisis towards the end of the season. I was prepared to give the league up until Spurs was miraculously beaten at home twice consecutively by Cardiff and Forest (how many times would this have happened?!) and thankfully, we capitalized on their slump by winning our last three games against Chelsea H, Newcastle A and Hull H to clinch the title. It was by no means a vintage season and unlike last season, we didn't score the most goals or concede the least. We were really lucky this time round to avoid the second season syndrome.

League Cup

We won! We had a run of easy draws until we met Arsenal in the finals and I was surprised by the ease of the victory. It was a bizarre game with an hat-trick of own goals as we dismissed them 3-0 and secured the first ever league cup win of my tenure. I was also pleased to see Chris Smalling pick up the man of match award.

FA Cup

Lady Luck smiled on us yet again! We beat Liverpool 1-0 in the semis to reach the finals and our fierce rivals Leeds United awaited us at Wembley. It was a crazy game and Fellaini was sent off real early 10 minutes from half-time. (I am pretty sure that there's a bug regarding these sending-offs) However, I was still relatively confident as my team always seems to play better with ten men and it was against a weaker opposition. Phil Jones opened the scoring on 78th minute with a powerful effort and I was sure that it was the winner until Pratley equalized with a Gerrard-like screamer from 25 yards. With that we went into extra-time and in the second period, Jones capped an excellent performance from the bench with yet another powerful effort to win us the FA Cup. Vidic got sent off right at the end and again, I strongly believe that it's due to a bug in the match engine.

Champions League

I thought it was gonna be a special season when we beat PSG in the semis to meet Dynamo Kyiv (they beat Juventus!!) in the Champions League Final. Everything was going my way with victories in every single one of our domestic competitions and with a relatively weaker opposition awaiting us in the final, I was confident. Miraculously, the team was real flat and the real hot Younes Belhanda grabbed all three goals to beat us comfortably. It blew my chance of a clean sweep and I was really disappointed. It felt like the roller coaster has plunged right to the bottom from great heights.

On a positive note, we added three trophies (plus the community shield) to my collection and it was certainly a successful season. Let us now take a look at the players' performance:

Goalkeepers

As you can see, De Gea played the majority of the games once more with Lindergaard really unconvincing. That made me sign Victor Valdes on a free towards the end of the season to provide better cover. It was yet another superb season for De Gea, who saved us on countless occasions with his great shot-stopping ability.

Defenders

I rotated the defenders even more this season, so much so that they each played half of the games. Chris Smalling and Ryan Shawcross impressed the most with the highest ratings, and they will have to raise their game even more next season to replace the fast deproving Vidic. The full-backs weren't particularly impressive, and with Evra fast deteriorating, there's a need to bring in another left-back in the summer.

Midfielders

Age certainly didn't show in Michael Carrick's performances as he grabbed 6 goals and 7 assists in an impressive season. Jones, Fellaini, Fletcher and Shelvey contributed 10 goals and 21 assists altogether in a productive season.

Red card bug?

This is supported by the fact that a total of 12 red cards was obtained throughout the course of the season. This is exceptionally high in comparison to the situation in real life and I am contemplating if I should tweak my tactics/players instructions to improve the problem. What do you guys think?

Cleverley

I would like to give a special mention to one of my favourite players at United. I retrained him at MR as I was trying to mold him into a similar type of player as Beckham (myself!). I played him as WMa and he was simply electrifying with 8 goals and 9 assists! He really reminded me of myself with quality delivery, clever runs and great finishing ability. Unfortunately, he tore his hamstring towards the end of the season and will be out for 2-3 months. Lets hope that he will come back playing the same way!!

Strikers

Lewandowski has a solid first season with 16 goals and 4 assists and he will only get better once he settles down in Manchester. Rooney grabbed 18 goals and 7 assists while Chicharito scored only 10 as he went through a dry spell in the middle of the season. Special mention goes out to Danny Welbeck, who went on to be our top scorer with 23 goals and an incredible 12 assists in a brilliant season. This is definitely due to the improvement in his composure through training and he's really growing into a beast for us upfront. Long may it continue!

All in all, it was a satisfying season despite losing a second consecutive final in Champions League. It certainly made me even hungrier for it and I will give my all to go one step further in the next few seasons! I will be looking to play the game slower and enjoy the details of the game more as I feel like I have rushed through my games out of excitement. Hence, I may be making tweaks to my tactics (I have been using the same treble attacking tactics throughout the season without changing) and I will be posting more updates instead of just 2 per season. Bring on the third season!

With lots of love,

Beckham Plays FM

Are Dynamo Kiev on steroids? Their team isn't even that different to what they had at the beginning of the game save for Yarmolenko who I assume transferred away from them.

Are Dynamo Kiev on steroids? Their team isn't even that different to what they had at the beginning of the game save for Yarmolenko who I assume transferred away from them.

Haha what a comment! Unlucky mate

Are Dynamo Kiev on steroids? Their team isn't even that different to what they had at the beginning of the game save for Yarmolenko who I assume transferred away from them.

They may be on steroids mate, you never know

The third season is on the way and we have played the community shield game and 2 league games. First, lets take a look at the signings I made!

Steven Caulker

With Vidic ageing, English centre-back Steven Caulker signs for 15.25 million pounds as he is one of the top young English centre-backs in the market. Arsenal and Spurs both wanted the man and it makes even more sense bringing him in.

Ryan Bertrand

As mentioned earlier, a left-back is needed to replace Evra and Bertrand is the chosen man. He's relatively young and would compete with Luke Shaw for the left-back slot.

Tom Ince

With Ashley Young offloaded due to his stats deteriorating after a serious injury, Tom Ince (another young and English player) signs for United.

Transfers Out

Apart from Ashley Young, Javier 'Chicharito' Hernandez is offloaded to Benfica for 30 million pounds due to the emergence of Angelo Hernandez. It was a painful but inevitable sale as there's no longer room for improvement in his stats and he's not English.

The Dutch Sharpshooter returns!

Shirt Sales

This is one of my favourite new features of FM14 as it tells us who are the most popular players among the fans and how the pre-season tours boost the shirt sales.

Community Shield

It was a fairly even game between two strong sides but we were sharper and Jones & Rooney helped themselves to their first goals of the season.

Chelsea H

It was a tough first fixture of the season but my players made little fuss of it, putting up a perfect performance and we came away 4-0 winners. Shelvey has established himself in the team playing the DLPd role while Tom Ince had a great home debut!

Cardiff A

We didn't play well in the first half at all and Cardiff scored when Cornelius latched onto a long punt from former keeper Lindergaard to finish past De Gea. After giving the hairdryer, the team came out on fire as we turned the game around just three minutes into the second period. Team-talks have proved to be vitally important on this version.

It was a pleasing start to our third season and long may it continue!

With lots of love,

Beckham Plays FM

Great last season. Good luck this season.

Great last season. Good luck this season.

Thanks dude! Will try my best!

I am glad to say that this has been the most smooth-sailing season of my tenure so far.

Premier League

As shown, we are unbeaten! The team has been really consistent, we have scored the most number of goals and conceded the least. Long may this continue!!

Cups

We are still in all competitions, with QPR awaiting us in the League Cup semis and Celtic in the Champions League first knockout round. We also have a home draw against Middlesbrough in the FA Cup. All's good!

However, we did not have the luck on the injury front and two of our players suffered really LONGGGGG term injuries.

Darren Fletcher

Fletcher has been really unlucky Having gone through the bowel problems, of all people, he had to be the one to go through this. This is the worst injury I have encountered in my years of playing FM. It's crazy to be out for 7 or 8 months. Let's hope this does not signal the end of his illustrious career at United.

Nick Powell

It's really unfortunate that one of my most promising English youngster became a victim of yet another long term injury. He got injured when out on loan at Aston Villa. I really hope that this does not pull back his development too much as I have high hopes for this fella.

Player Analysis

Goalkeepers

As Valdes is significantly better than Lindegaard, it allowed me to rotate a bit more in the goalkeeping department. As a result, De Gea only played 2/3 of all the games so far. However, Valdes is getting older and with Everton showing interest, I may sell him and recall Sam Johnstone back from loan. Johnstone has improved tremendously and I want to give him a chance to shine for United as he is English.

Defenders

As usual, I have rotated them a lot and all of them got their fair share of games. Caulker does not look assured at times and I am sure he will improve once he blends into the squad. Apart from him, everyone else seems solid!

Midfielders

The star of the show has got to be Phil Jones, who has already scored 6 and made 4 assists from central midfield. He's starting to remind me of Roy Keane at his prime and the fact that he's English makes things even sweeter!

For some reasons, Januzaj's stats have not improved tremendously. May I know how is he getting on in your games guys? I have made him natural at ML through position training and despite me having played him quite a bit this season, his stats have shown no signs of improvement. However, his performances have been positive with a high average rating of 7.46. Antonia Valencia has been explosive with 4 goals and 9 assists and he is no doubt our star winger so far. Tom Ince has settled in nicely with 2 goals and 5 assists.

Strikers

1. Rooney 14 goals and 8 assists in 17(1) games

2. Welbeck 12 goals and 4 assists in 18(2) games

3. Henriquez 9 goals and 3 assists in 10(3) games

4. Lewandowski 7 goals and 6 assists in 13(3) games

I am really glad that Henriquez has proven my decision to sell Chicharito right by repaying me with a decent goal ratio. Rooney and Welbeck have both performed up to my expectations. Lewandowski went through a dry spell at the start of the season but have since gone on a run, which is pleasing to see.

Having gone through such a great first half of the season, I hope that we can go on to bag some more silverware come the end of the season. Bring on the second half!

With lots of love,

Beckham Plays FM

Training Januzaj into a new position probably slowed down his development abit, and ate away a few CA points. He developed very quickly on my save and was my first choice AML by the 2nd season.

Training Januzaj into a new position probably slowed down his development abit, and ate away a few CA points. He developed very quickly on my save and was my first choice AML by the 2nd season.

I guess so! But his stats are really stagnant! Lets hope he starts developing real soon as he's already 20!

I guess so! But his stats are really stagnant! Lets hope he starts developing real soon as he's already 20!

What training focus do you have him on? I started off with Attacking Midfielder to get his Creativity to about 19/18 then switched to Winger to get his Pace and Acceleration up (I don't play with AMCs, so Januzaj has to play as an AML/AMR).

What training focus do you have him on? I started off with Attacking Midfielder to get his Creativity to about 19/18 then switched to Winger to get his Pace and Acceleration up (I don't play with AMCs, so Januzaj has to play as an AML/AMR).

I have him on the Winger schedule! I want to increase his quickness and crossing for him to play wide properly as I dont play with AMCs like u (:

I didn't know this was possible without cheating.

I have completed a clean sweep of all the competitions we entered! And what's most pleasing is that we have finally captured the Champions League title!! Having lost it in the finals for the past two seasons, I wasn't too optimistic going into the finals against our noisy neighbours Man City. And this happened!

Champions League Final

I have always been worried about facing our city rivals as they never fail to spot gaps in our defence. Jovetic and Aguero were constant threats as usual and it was no surprise to see them on the scoresheet. Thankfully, they couldn't cope with our aerial prowess and we scored two from set-pieces. Lewandowski scored in injury time as well and it was a sweet sweet victory!!!

EPL

This is our best performance yet in the league with the most points and best goal difference. We were always comfortable and kept our nearest rivals out of reach, winning the league eventually by 13 points. There was a familiar look about the table at the end with all the big clubs finishing in the top 6.

Some proud moments

A surprise winner for the player of the year! What I am most happy about is the fact that he's English! I am really proud!

Three players named in the team of the year!

We score great goals

League Cup

It was our second consecutive League Cup victory with us narrowly beating West Brom in the finals after overcoming Arsenal over two legs. Antonio Valencia grabbed the all important goal.

FA Cup

We came from behind and beat Everton 3-1 in the FA Cup final to complete the fantastic clean sweep!

Clean sweep!

After a great season, lets now look back on the players' performances and I will pick out the star players of their positions.

Players' Analysis

Goalkeeper

There is no doubt who's the star performer in this position with him winning the golden glove yet again. Made some brilliant and crucial saves throughout the course of the season. How I wish he's English!

Defenders

I would like to mention both Shawcross and Smalling , who have both gone on to form a formidable partnership in the central defence. On top of their defensive solidity, they contributed ten goals in total and it's a great bonus to have! What's more, they are both English and Shawcross graduated from the United Academy! Great stuff!

Midfielders

Clearly, Tom Ince is the star man, having won EPL's player of the year. Like Ince, Zaha won 5 player of the match awards and deserved the honorable mention.

Strikers

Welbeck is the club's top scorer with 31 goals in all competitions. However, Rooney is the more all-rounded striker this season with 23 goals and 20 assists in a productive season. They would certainly form a deadly partnership should Roy Hodgson decide to pair them up for England.

Summary

All in all, what a great season! Having won everything, I am really looking forward to the Club World Championship and the European Super Cup as I have not won these competitions. It's really pleasing to see all the English players doing well and I will finally be bringing a couple of regens through to the first-team next season as they are developing well. There's a really talented central defender and an explosive left winger lurking in the reserves. I will post up screenshots of them in the next update!

Rolling on to the 4th season!

With lots of love,

Beckham Plays FM

England Manager

This was a no-brainer with Roy Hodgson stepping down. I expressed my interest, applied for the job and got it!

Shocking Retirement!

I was devastated to see this! I tried calling Rooney out of retirement but he won't answer my call. Anyone succeeded in calling players out of retirement on this version yet?

Bias or not?

Solid Start

Amid all the problems, it was a solid start with the national team.

Charity Shield

Back to United, it was one of those days. We had the better of the chances, couldn't convert and lost on penalties in the end!

Super Cup

This time, I had the luck and won on penalties! I really wanted to add this to our trophy haul and was really glad to have won!

League Table

Club World Championship

I wanted my first club world championship so much and thankfully I got it!

Cups

Champions League: Celtic (1st Knock-out round)

FA Cup: Chelsea/Leeds (4th round)

League Cup: Bolton (Semi-finals)

And now, I would like to show some of the regens who have already broken into the first team!

Regens

The next Giggsy

The next Steve Bruce

The left-footed Becks

I am loving the game!

League

Zaha is the player of the year!

Rooney is the players' player of the year!

League Cup

Great FA Cup Semis

FA Cup Final

Champions League

First ever all English lineup

No more debts!!

Players Analysis 1

Players Analysis 2

Smalling Lets celebrate with some Jägerbombs then

Smalling Lets celebrate with some Jägerbombs then

Strictly no alcohol under me

January fixtures

January was incredibly busy with 9 matches and I am very pleased to say that we won them all!

League

We started off with Cardiff at home and we weren't at our best but thankfully, we managed to grind out a 1-0 victory thanks to our Team of the Year Center-Back Chris Smalling's winner. Lewandowski grabbed a treble as we beat Stoke comfortably away next, followed by a 2-0 home victory against Sheffield Wednesday with explosive Steven Spinks grabbing a double. It was Welbeck's turn to bag a double as we beat Derby 2-1 at their home ground before we wrapped up the month in the league with a 3-1 victory against Southampton at Old Trafford. Welbeck and Phil Jones were among the goals.

Table

We finally regain top spot after a busy January and hopefully we can stay there till the end of the season. Manchester City were back among the champions league places after a good run.

FA Cup

There were two home ties and we first beat fierce rivals Leeds United 5-2, with Danny Welbeck bringing home the match ball. Blackburn was next and it was a tough and well fought victory, with Lewandowski bagging the winner.

Capital One Cup

We face another good old rival Liverpool in the semis and managed to run out 6-2 aggregate victors, and now we await Chelsea in final in March.

Manager of the month

And finally I am back among the awards after a perfect month!

Fixtures

It was another busy month and I had to rotate the players around quite a bit.

League

We kept up our solid league form with three consecutive wins against Arsenal H, Burnley A and Fulham A. Chelsea stopped our run of wins in a 6 goal 3-3 thriller with Lewandowski scoring in his 4th consecutive game. I was frustrated as we conceded a late goal to Chelsea through a corner kick. We wrapped up the month in the league with a 3-0 win away at Watford, with my favourite United player, Tom Cleverley, scoring the third goal to bag the three points.

Table

We kept our place at the top after a solid February and Manchester City has emerged as our main rivals this season, sitting four points behind. Chelsea are languishing 8th in the league with Jose Mourinho under increasing pressure.

FA Cup

We were drawn against our city rivals Manchester City in the FA Cup and it was a boring stalemate at the City of Manchester stadium as we added an extra fixture to our growing list unfortunately. The replay was at Old Trafford and we took full home advantage to knock our rivals out of the cup with the help of sharpshooters Tom Ince and Lewandowski.

Champions League

We had to travel to Spain in our champions league knock-out round to face Athletico Madrid and it was a nervy game. We managed to come away with a fine 2-1 result, with Brazilian right-back Rafael netting a late winner.

Capital One Cup disappointment

We kicked off with a defeat in the Capital One Cup final against Mourinho's Chelsea. Ryan Shawcross made a costly mistake and allowed Nuno Santos to grab the winner in the 11th minute. We had a few clear cut chances but couldn't finish them off.

Man United fixtures

Premier League

After the cup final loss, we were back in the league against Norwich at Old Trafford. We struggled to overcome our opponents but thankfully, we managed to hang on to a 1-0 victory. We were brought back down to Earth in our next league game against Newcastle at home, with the Magpies grabbing the solitary goal in a smash and grab victory. I demanded a reaction from the players and they responded by bouncing back in the next two league games, beating both Blackburn and Liverpool comfortably at home.

Table

Results elsewhere went our way as we stayed top after a defeat against the Magpies.

FA Cup

Having struggled past Man City in the last round, we didn't have much luck with the draw as we drew Liverpool in the quarter finals at Anfield. Again, we weren't at our best and luckily, we managed to hang on to a goal-less draw. Inevitably, we add yet another game to our busy list of fixtures next month and it was beginning to take a toll on our squad.

Champions League

We struggled yet again (it has happened far too often this month) against Athletico Madrid at home and were a goal away from exiting the competition. It was painful to watch as we hung on to a narrow 4-3 aggregate win.

England

We had a friendly scheduled against Egypt at home and I decided to take a gamble by resting most of my first 11. As a result, we never got going as we went 1-0 down at half-time. Wanting a win to keep the momentum going, I threw on most of the first-team players in the second period and we came back to win the game 2-1.

Fixtures

After a bad March, it was heartening to see us remain unbeaten in a busy April!

League

We first face Everton at home and their manager Roberto Martinez was under pressure following a string of poor results. Doing him no favors, we beat the Toffees 4-0 with goals from Tom Ince, Ryan Shawcross, Steven Caulker and Wilfried Zaha. Tottenham was the next team to travel to Old Trafford and they managed to come away with a creditable 1-1 draw. We traveled to Stamford Bridge to face Chelsea and we were unlucky not to win as the game ended goalless. The last league game of the month took place at Nottingham Forest, where our second-stringers beat them 4-1 with goals from Nick Powell, Danny Welbeck (x2) and the next Giggsy, Martin Reid.

Table

And we stay top, 3 points ahead with two games in hand!

Champions League

We were handed AC Milan in the quarters and I was happy to see my team achieved a commanding 5-0 lead in the first leg. I rested my first 11 in the second leg in Italy and struggled to a 2-2 draw to progress into the semis. Real Madrid was next and we beat them 2-0 at home in a solid first tie.

Unbeaten!

We were beaten finalists for two consecutive seasons and have remained unbeaten since!

FA Cup

In the quarter finals replay, we faced Liverpool at home and thankfully, we managed to come away with a 2-0 win with goals from Danny Welbeck and Ryan Shawcross. After Man City and Liverpool in the last two rounds, we were offered some rest bite in the Semis against championship side Birmingham. We beat Sam Allardyce's side 3-1 with another Danny Welbeck brace.

Man United fixtures

Champions League

We kicked off the final month of our club season with a defeat against Real Madrid in the Champions League semis second leg. The 2-0 first leg victory ensured that we progress into the finals against Barcelona at Nou Camp!

Champions League Final

To my pleasant surprise, we didn't face much difficulties against the Spanish giants and lifted the trophy with a 5-1 victory. \o/

League

We secured the league title with 3 league games to go against second placed Man City at Old Trafford. Second stringers and the youngsters got valuable game time in the last three fixtures.

Table

Looking at the table, we won the league by 10 points ahead of our city rivals Man City. Everton overachieved by sitting prettily on 3rd place, with Tottenham completing the top 4. Watford, Burnley and Blackburn all got relegated.

FA Cup

We dominated the game from start to finish but Southampton's keeper, Romero was in the form of his life. Football is a funny old game and right at the end, Romero made a costly error and Welbeck pounced to win us the cup.

Tom Ince

Tom Ince wins his second player of the year award...

Chris Smalling

and Chris Smalling wins his first players' player of the year award!

The next post will be on my World Cup adventure with England! *fingers crossed

That 5-1 destruction of Barcelona, I approve

That 5-1 destruction of Barcelona, I approve

Thank you! The result was such a pleasant surprise. Cheers \o/

Really enjoyed reading that. Keep going!

Really enjoyed reading that. Keep going!

Thank you for your kind words

Fixtures

Group stage & knock-out round

It was my first ever international tournament on FM14 and I had mixed feelings about this. We met our expectations in the group stages, beating Serbia, Japan and Angola to grab top spot. Danny Welbeck got himself on the score sheet 4 times in total and many tipped him to win the golden boot. We drew Ireland in the next round and managed to squeeze ourselves through to the quarters with a narrow 2-1 victory. Germany awaited us in the quarters and we were the underdogs.

Germany

It was an epic game! We led until the last minute of extra time when Germany equalized. We were shattered and I thought it was going to be penalty heartbreak again at the end. It turned out to be a thrilling penalty shootout, with both teams scoring all their penalties until Germany's 11th penalty, where their keeper missed and we were through the the semis!

Spain

It couldn't get any tougher against the mighty Spain. Things got off to a great start when Welbeck scored in the third minute. However, we conceded 3 goals in quick succession and it was the manner we conceded these 3 goals that angered me. All three goals were scored through corner-kicks and we were supposed to be the superior side at set-pieces due to our size advantage. We played much better after half-time but failed to grab that all important equalizer and eventually lost 3-2

3rd place play-off

We face Serbia again after the group stages and I did not know how we manage to lose this. We simply battered them but they scored the only goal of the game in a smash and grab victory.

All in all, there were both positives and negatives in my first ever World Cup but I ended up feeling more disappointed than happy

Transfers

It was a tough decision but I finally decided on selling Rafael as I had the chance to bring in Callum Chambers for only 1.8 million pounds. Rafael had been fantastic for me at right-back for the past five seasons but I had to stick to my philosophy of going English and Callum Chambers has fantastic potential. Jonny Evans was sold on a free to Tottenham (no one wanted to pay for him) as he is approaching his thirties and he is not English. Jonjo Shelvey was also moved on as Will Hughes and James Ward Prowse are developing nicely. A couple of loans completed the transfers in this window.

Fixtures

As usual, friendlies were arranged against weak oppositions to boost the squad's morale before the start of the season. And once again, for the third time in a row, we lost on penalties in the Community Shield and it is getting annoying. In the league, we only played two times in this month and they were against Leeds United H and Arsenal A. The next Ryan Giggs, Martin Reid scored a double in the fiery encounter against Leeds where we had two players sent off. We ended the month with a 2-2 away draw against the Gunners and it was frustrating to concede a late equalizer.

Table

And here's the table after just 2 games.