FM10: The Official S.S.C Napoli Thread - "The Little Donkeys"

Football Manager Information

Achivements

Serie A: 1987, 1990

Serie B: 1950

Italian Serie C1/B: 2005

Italian Cup: 1962, 1976, 1987

Italian Super Cup: 1990

Euro Cup: 1989

Facilities

Ground: Sao PaoloStadium, Naples

Capacity: 64,000

Training Facilities: Top Training Facilities

Youth Facilities: Average Youth Facilities + Youth Academy

First Team Squad

Goalkeapers:

Morgan De Sanctis

Matteo Gianello

Gennaro lezzo

Defenders

Paolo Cannavaro (SW, DC)

Fabiano Santacroce (D RC)

Hugo Campagnaro (D RC, WB R)

Gianluca Grava (D RC, WB R)

Matteo Contini (D LC)

Salvatore Aronica (D LC, WB L)

Leandro Rinaudo (DC)

Camilo Zuniga (D/WBR)

Erminio Rullo (D/WB/M L)

Midfielders

Cristian Maggio (WB, M R)

Nicolas Amodio (DM, M C)

Luca Cigarini (DM, MC)

Walter Gargano (DM, MC)

Michele Pazienza (DM, MC)

Mariano Bogliacino (DM, AM LC)

Roberto De Zerbi (AM RLC)

Jesus Datolo (AM LC)

Pia (AM LC, FC)

Marek Hamsik (AM C)

Forwards

Ezequiel Lavezzi (FC)

Fabio Quagliarella (FC)

German Denis (ST)

Erwin Hoffer (ST)

Best 11 - (This is based on my anaylisis on the squad so others may have different views)

Formation - 4-1-2-1-2

GK - Morgan De Sanctis

DR - Hugo Campagnaro

DL - Salvatore Aronica

DC - Paolo Cannavaro

DC - Fabiano Santacroce

DM - Walter Gargano

MC - Jesus Datolo

MC - Luca Cigarini

AMC - Marek Hamsik

ST - Fabio Quagliarella

ST - Ezequiel Lavezzi

Squad Analysis

Its the final 3rd of the pitch where Naopli are at there strongest, in Hamsik, Quagliarella and Lavezzi there are not many teams in europe with a better attacking 3 players. The squad in general is good but i would say its the defence and goalkeaping positions where players need to be signed. Aronica is not going to be a good enough left back long term so that is defenatly an area to look at improving. In Cannavaro and Santacroce you have a very good central defensive partnership, thats not to say they cant be inproved as there are plenty of better central defenders out there but for me there are other areas which need looking at 1st.

Reserved for future patch

Reserved for future patch.

Ahh there is a Napoli thread, excellent. I decided my first game on FM would be at Napoli, a team I've only ever briefly managed on previous version, hopefully I'll stick with them for the long haul this time (i.e. a few seasons!!). I'm already a few games into my save, so I'll post up some screenies and whatnot:

Transfers

Squad

Fixtures

Tactics/formation

Going great at the moment, sitting on top of the league after 12 games, and we played surprisingly well against Juventus & Milan (we went 0-2 up against Milan only for them to pull us back, and then we missed a penalty late on ). I don't have use for wingers so I tried to get rid of Maggio but nobody is interested in him, I did manage to get some money for Datolo, though. I've considerably strengthened the backline, with a new LB, 2 CBs and a GK, all of whom have impressed so far, especially Ansaldi! Zuniga has also had a good start at RB, and he's still young so it'll be interesting to see if he develops. Nainggolan was a bit of a panic buy after I realised I might get a bit short in midfield, but he was cheap and he's a promising player so I'm not too bothered Capoue is a pretty good like for like replacement if Sissoko is banned/injured. I have £2.8m left of my transfer budget so I'm going to look to get VDV signed on permantely as he has been really impressive.

Anyway, good luck to anyone else who decides to play as Napoli, if you have any questions or screenie requests feel free to ask.

Also I'd like to add that the only tactical changes I've made is formation, roles and philosophy/starting strategy. The only player I've tweaked has been Sissoko... to reduce his long shots to rarely, other than that it's all default from the tactic creator.

Hamsik winning all the awards

He's brilliant.

Just passed the January transfer window without anyone coming in or out. I did however sign Acquafresca for a mere £2.5m, though he'll come at the end of the season. Couldn't pass him up at that price, and he'll add some competition up front. I may look to get rid of Lavezzi :/ He's just not doing it for me at the moment, though I cannot seem to get my advanced striker position to score many goals, most are coming from my playmakyer Hamsik and my target man Mileskyi.

Napoli have won Serie A

Very surprised to have achieved this in only my first season in charge, and as my first game of FM10 I'm still familiarising myself with the game. I guess it shows if you play to your strengths (Hamsik) and bring in some reinforcements (defence) you can achieve a lot in no time at all. Hope some of you guys will start playing as Napoli soon

Still got a few games left to play, but I'm already planning for next season. Will look to bring in 2 excellent MCs to play beside Hamsik, and some better cover defensively depending on what budget I'm given. Good luck everyone.

Final league table

Squad stats

Hamsik is obviously the star, but Milevskyi was brilliant all season too. Would have been nice to get Quag/Lavezzi scoring more, but they don't seem to fit into any role as my second striker.

Looking foward to CL football next season I'm going to have bring in a fair few quality squad players, otherwise my team are going to be veryyyyy tired without some kind of rotation.

Final league table

Squad stats

Hamsik is obviously the star, but Milevskyi was brilliant all season too. Would have been nice to get Quag/Lavezzi scoring more, but they don't seem to fit into any role as my second striker.

Looking foward to CL football next season I'm going to have bring in a fair few quality squad players, otherwise my team are going to be veryyyyy tired without some kind of rotation.

hw exactly did you end up with about £40 million to spend?

I think I asked for more & and all the transfers were over 48 months.

Napoli seem to be an excellent team to start off with in this game, they have lots of quality players. I'm currently top of Serie A as well half way through the season. I only made four signings in the summer transfer window, but I would strongly recommend all of them to fill the weak spots in the team.

Cristian Ansaldi (Left-back) £1.6M

Angel Di Maria (Left-wing) £4.1M

Gabriel Milito (Centre-back) £4.6M

Ruud van Nistelrooy (Striker) £1.2M

My starting line-up

I would strongly recommend this as it does not require too much tweaking and is highly effective, although make sure your strikers are good enough, because a lot of onus is put on them to provide goals. I play Quagliarella as a complete striker and van Nistelrooy as a deep-lying forward. I find Lavezzi is very effective as an impact sub, scoring many goals on the counter when deployed as a poacher. Between them they have scored 37 goals in 23 games.

I think I asked for more & and all the transfers were over 48 months.

Not to rain on your parade, but not that hard to win when you do all transfers over 48 months. Not much realism, but you're free to play the game the way you want. For a challenge, take Napoli and do all purchases 100 percent money up front, then report back how you did

Not to rain on your parade, but not that hard to win when you do all transfers over 48 months. Not much realism, but you're free to play the game the way you want. For a challenge, take Napoli and do all purchases 100 percent money up front, then report back how you did

Uh, ok. It's not like I can actually sell any of my players for cash upfront to raise funds, I only get offers over 48 months so I do the same... that feature is in the game to allow me to finance transfers however I please, and that's what I'm going to do.

And speaking of realism, you don't think clubs in real life just pay for players in one lump sum, do you?

Very very few transfers in real life are paid all money upfront now anyway. That is why the Crouch, Defoe and Keane transfers hit snags because payments where still being made when they went to a different club

Quick screenies of my ins/outs for season two:

Transfers

I feel like I've considerably improved my midfield with the additions of Gourcuff, Kroos and Meireles. Both of my first choice CBs are aging so I wanted to bring in an upcoming CB, and Breno fits the bill perfectly. Van Damme looks like a useful backup at LB and can cover CB if needed. Ochoa in as I wasn't overly impressed with Vilar last season. Nordtveit won't get too many games but he can cover DC, DMC and MC, and he's promising so I may take up the option we have of signing him permanantely. We've got a 100% record so far in our first few games, though we were handed a tough CL groups - Arsenal, PSV and Benfica. I'm confident we can qualify, though.

Hamsik winning all the awards

He's brilliant.

Can you post a screenshot of Hamsik's settings.

Uh, ok. It's not like I can actually sell any of my players for cash upfront to raise funds, I only get offers over 48 months so I do the same... that feature is in the game to allow me to finance transfers however I please, and that's what I'm going to do.

And speaking of realism, you don't think clubs in real life just pay for players in one lump sum, do you?

LOL... justify it however you want, but you do not receive offers only over 48 months... if you leave a player on the transferlist then eventually the AI will come in with a good slump of money offered upfront.

I don't think paying all money upfront is realistic, but it's sure as hell more realistic than what you're doing. IRL, a transfer offer is most often reneged or renegotiated at a higher price if most of the sum offered is in monthly payments - unfortunately the game does not mirror this.

Where is the fun in nearly completing building your Napoli side in the first season? That's all I'm saying.

Jimmy if this forum has an ignore feature you're going on it you imbecile.

Jeff Hamsik is set as my advanced playmaker in attack on default settings.

Jimmy if this forum has an ignore feature you're going on it you imbecile.

Jeff Hamsik is set as my advanced playmaker in attack on default settings.

That is Marek Hamsik... unless you created a new player in the editor and gave him godlike stats - I wouldn't put that past you.

We already concluded in last season's Napoli thread that Marek Hamsik is a box-to-box midfielder. Using him as an advanced playmaker would be like using a Corvette to drive back and forth to your mail box.

Sigh.

I was replaying to JEFF, who posted right above you asking my settings for Hamsik, I just missed a comma. Clearly Hamsik is MORE than able to play in a playmaker role, an average rating of 7.58 and almost 20 goals last season confirms this for me. I'm not going to reply to you again, good bye.

That is Marek Hamsik... unless you created a new player in the editor and gave him godlike stats - I wouldn't put that past you.

We already concluded in last season's Napoli thread that Marek Hamsik is a box-to-box midfielder. Using him as an advanced playmaker would be like using a Corvette to drive back and forth to your mail box.

He was talking to the poster jeff idiot leave him alone he has done a fine job and won Serie A

Anyone having problems with the assistant manager not able to set opposition instructions? Stats too low or?

Anyone having problems with the assistant manager not able to set opposition instructions? Stats too low or?

I had the same problem but when I got a better assistant he was able to set OI.

I'm going to start a game with Napoli when I get the game in a few days time, had a class game with them on 08, never managed to win anything major despite challenging at the top of the league for 5 years, hopefully I can deliver that elusive title this time.

Unable to replace the assistant, the board block the termination because i need to pay him 1M £.

What I did was I offered him a new contract as a coach. This way I can get a better assistant and his termination cost becomes lower if you offer him a 3 year contract as coach.

Just finished my first season with Napoli and I managed to win Serie A. I used a 4-3-1-2 formation with Hamsik as the trequartista and Lavezzi and Quagliarella as my first choice strikers.

They were also my three best players:

Lavezzi being top goalscorer with 30 goals & 15 assists in 34 apps

Hamsik 18 goals & 20 assists in 37 apps

Quagliarella 26 goals & 14 assists in 36 apps

I only brought in 3 players, Ansaldi (left fullback) and Otamendi (CB) at the start of the season, then I bought Zuculini as (DMC) in January.

My first team looked like this:

4-3-1-2 formation

De Sanctis (GK)

Ansaldi (LB)

Zuniga (RB)

Cannavaro (CB)

Otamendi (CB)

Cigarini (MC)

Zuculini (MC)

Gargano (MC)

Hamsik (AMC)

Quagliarella (ST)

Lavezzi (ST)

For next season I am looking to bring in a world class centre back to partner Otamendi. Also a new midfielder and a young backup striker. I'm trying to keep my team mostly italian and argentinian. If you have any recommendations please let me know. The centre back can be any nationality.

Hate all the starting staff. Thankfully managed to renegotiate them all on to 2011 expiries, and Barolazzi to a coach, but the board still block departure. Sigh. Oh well, wait a season. Got some top quality scouts and other coaches in.

Can anyone suggest a strong CM to buy first season? Have bought in Milito, Otamendi, Ansaldi so far, but lacking some quality in the middle. Playing a 4-1-2-1-2 with Hamsik as AMC.

annan is pretty good but i find he gets sent off far too often to be that useful. beckham isnt too bad for the one season.

im just about to start a napoli save, ill let you know how it goes

Yeah, had a look at Annan, but only have 2 non-EU signings, and Otamendi and Ansaldi used them up!

Decent EU D/CMs are hard to come by for non-silly money. Even Vieira asks for 90k wages!

Anyone had any luck with getting Lavezzi to learn PPMs? So far he's failed to learn places shot and likes to round keeper. If only his finishing was higher..

Im thinking of starting a Napoli save after my Arsenal one

lol just reading this thread for some backround on Hamsik and have a question, why is JimmyYingYang on the thread starters nuts?? ridiculous!

Can anyone suggest a strong CM to buy first season? Have bought in Milito, Otamendi, Ansaldi so far, but lacking some quality in the middle. Playing a 4-1-2-1-2 with Hamsik as AMC.

In the demo I bought Nocerino from Palermo in the first season. He doesn't have the best stats but he does better than any other CM Napoli has apart from Hamsik. He also has Napoli as a favorite club which is a bonus.

Can anyone suggest a strong CM to buy first season? Have bought in Milito, Otamendi, Ansaldi so far, but lacking some quality in the middle. Playing a 4-1-2-1-2 with Hamsik as AMC.

Yeah, the lack of a good, strong MC really makes me wish that Blasi could be recalled.

Jeff3037 I know this is not a tactics thread but would you mind posting a link to your tactic please? I am Napoli at the moment and I'm really struggling first season to get Lavezzi to play well.

Play Lavezzi as a FCL put as a poucher. Use Hamsik as playmaker, Lavezzi as TM and pass into feet. 12 goals / 11 played.

At 4th place in Serie A. Lost to Juventus in Coppa Italia, 1st round - got red card after 1 minute but still managed a 2-2 up until stoppages, where Fabio Grosso scored a 30m screamer.

In Serie A, i've won against Inter in Milano 1-0. Beaten Juventus 2-1 in Napoli.

Playing a 4-1-3-2

GK De Sanctis

DL Guilherme

DR Zuniga

DC Cannavaro

DC Santacroce

DMC Annan

ML Di Maria

MR Datola (retrained)

MC Hamsik

FCL Lavezzi

FCR Quagliarella

Bought young DL Guilherme for 4M, unknown Czech DMC for 1.5M and Annan for 1M.

Will update at end of season.

Apologize for format/typos. Using my phone to post.

Jeff3037 I know this is not a tactics thread but would you mind posting a link to your tactic please? I am Napoli at the moment and I'm really struggling first season to get Lavezzi to play well.

I use both my strikers (lavezzi & quagliarella) as complete forwards with a couple of tweaks. Here's a link to my tactic

http://rapidshare.com/files/305482192/El_Diez.tac.html

I put Quagliarella on right side and lavezzi on left. I would be very interested to know how it works for you so let me know how it goes. Also it takes about 5-10 games for the players to get used the tactic.

Sorry to be a massive pain Jeff but it seems I'm not only one interested in your tactic as Rapidshare says it's exceeded the maximum downloads available. Any chance of uploading it to another site like filefront please?

Many Thanks in advance

I use both my strikers (lavezzi & quagliarella) as complete forwards with a couple of tweaks. Here's a link to my tactic

http://rapidshare.com/files/305482192/El_Diez.tac.html

I put Quagliarella on right side and lavezzi on left. I would be very interested to know how it works for you so let me know how it goes. Also it takes about 5-10 games for the players to get used the tactic.

Here you go.

http://www.filefront.com/14906693/El%20Diez.tac

Absolute hero!!

I will post back with results as soon as I've got some mate. Thanks very much.

Here you go.

http://www.filefront.com/14906693/El%20Diez.tac

I've been using this El Diez tactic but not having quite as much luck. Keep conceding sloppy goals - generally after I've gone ahead. Currently 7th after 13 played (W5,D6,L2). Jeff, do you go into games with the 'control' strategy? Are there any tactical tweaks that you find yourself doing to counter the opposition?

Usual team:

GK De Sanctis

DL Ansaldi

DR Maggio / Zuniga

DC Milito / Santacroce

DC Campagnaro / Cannavaro

MC Datolo / Cigarini

MC Sandro / Gargano

MC Skjelbred / Hamsik

AMC Hamsik / Datolo

FC Lavezzi

FC Quagliarella / Deniz

I use that exact tactic every match without any changes. I may use some OI if the team i'm playing is considerably better but thats about it.

I did concede sloppy goals as well but I found that most of time it was down to the fact that my defence was poor in the air and lost many headers as well as quite slow and were out paced. But by the end of season my team had conceded 41 goals in total, while milan conceded the least with 38, which isn't too bad. The tactic is quite attacking so you do concede a few goals when the opposition attack aggressively but most of time I ended up outscoring the opposition.

Also the tactic works better with strong box-to-box midfielders in the centre. Your using Skjelbred and datolo who are both quite weak and are very poor defensively. They also need very good passing because as you mentioned the tactic uses a control strategy and in order to control the game the players need to pass well and not lose the ball. I suggest you use Cigarini more as he was my best central midfielder.

Another reason you might be conceding so many is because your using Maggio as a right back while I used Zuniga because he was much more defensive.

I'm disappointed and a bit shocked really that "mr_whitey" was allowed to start the club thread for our beloved Napoli when all he's done so far is copy and paste some text from Wikipedia and list the players in the first team squad. To be honest, I can't see much enthusiasm emanating from such an opening post, and I think the low number of people who have participated in this thread reflect that.

I hereby make a motion to scrap this thread and let me create a new one with a proper presentation. I can think of 20 reasons why managing Napoli should be fun. Furthermore, I have extensive knowledge of all areas of the club and therefore won't be forced to copy and paste nauseating drivel. I'll add my own flavor, with a bit of creative touch, and I promise you people with look at the Napoli thread and go "hmmm, this looks interesting".

Cretins who moderate this forum, the ball is now in your court. I’m serious about this proposition, and I’ll put my heart and soul into it if you let me.

Go on Jimmy - get it done!

I use that exact tactic every match without any changes. I may use some OI if the team i'm playing is considerably better but thats about it.

I did concede sloppy goals as well but I found that most of time it was down to the fact that my defence was poor in the air and lost many headers as well as quite slow and were out paced. But by the end of season my team had conceded 41 goals in total, while milan conceded the least with 38, which isn't too bad. The tactic is quite attacking so you do concede a few goals when the opposition attack aggressively but most of time I ended up outscoring the opposition.

Also the tactic works better with strong box-to-box midfielders in the centre. Your using Skjelbred and datolo who are both quite weak and are very poor defensively. They also need very good passing because as you mentioned the tactic uses a control strategy and in order to control the game the players need to pass well and not lose the ball. I suggest you use Cigarini more as he was my best central midfielder.

Another reason you might be conceding so many is because your using Maggio as a right back while I used Zuniga because he was much more defensive.

I think you're right about Maggio. Campagnaro is now my right back and it's shored things up a bit. I finished the first season in 6th and tweaked the tactic a bit so the left and right centre mids are defensively minded.

Current team is:

------------------------Pele (£11m)--------------------

Campagnaro--Henrique (£4m)--Milito (4m)--Ansaldi (£2m)

----------Sandro (£5m)---Hamsik---Cigarini-----------

------------------------Vuckevic (£6m)----------------

----------------Quagliarella----Lavezzi----------------

Subs: De Sanctis, Cannavaro, Santacroce, Zuniga, Gargano, Skjelbred, Denis

Hoping for Champs League this season!

It's your job just as much as mr_whitey to make this thread enjoyable and active JimmyWangYang; you’ve hardly made the thread enjoyable for some users with your general attitude in posting in some situations.

The answer is no though to you creating a new one and closing this one, try and make this thread enjoyable and active and you can have/create the FM11 Napoli thread. Deal?

I'd be more than happy to add anything to the OP that you feel can improve the OP. Just let me know.

I use both my strikers (lavezzi & quagliarella) as complete forwards with a couple of tweaks. Here's a link to my tactic

http://rapidshare.com/files/305482192/El_Diez.tac.html

I put Quagliarella on right side and lavezzi on left. I would be very interested to know how it works for you so let me know how it goes. Also it takes about 5-10 games for the players to get used the tactic.