FM2009 - Official Manchester United Thread - The Home of the Champions

Manchester United Football Club is an English football club, based at the Old Trafford stadium in Trafford, Greater Manchester, and is one of the most popular football clubs in the world, with over 330 million supporters worldwide – almost 5% of the world's population. The club was a founding member of the Premier League in 1992, and has played in the top division of English football since 1938, with the exception of the 1974–75 season. Average attendances at the club have been higher than any other team in English football for all but six seasons since 1964–65.

The club is the second most successful in the history of English football and by far the most successful of recent times, having won 20 major honours since the start of Alex Ferguson's reign as manager in November 1986. They are the Premier League's reigning champions, and have won England's top division 17 times, one short of Liverpool's record of 18 league titles. In 1968, they became the first English club to win the European Cup, beating Benfica 4–1. They won a second European Cup as part of an unprecedented Treble in 1999, before winning their third in 2008, 40 years almost to the day after their first. The club also holds the record for the most FA Cup titles with 11. - Credit to Wikipedia.

Club Information

Background

Name: Manchester United

Nickname: The Red Devils

Founded: 1878

Fierce Rivals: Liverpool, Man City, Leeds

Minor Rivals: Arsenal, Bolton, Chelsea

Affiliations: Bury, Antwerp, Altrincham

Legends: Roy Keane, Ole Gunnar Solsjaer, Sir Bobby Charlton, Eric Cantona, Sir Alex Ferguson

Icons: Bryan Robson, Ryan Giggs, Mark Hughes, Paul Scholes, Gary Neville, Brian Kidd, Steve Bruce, Peter Schmeichel, Denis Irvin, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Phil Neville, David Beckham, Brian McClair, Nicky Butt, Andrew Cole

Favoured Personnel: Teddy Sheringham, Sammy Mcllory, Lou Macari, Steve Coppell

League: English Premier League

Media Prediction: 1st

Team Captain: Gary Neville

Vice Captain: Ryan Giggs

Finances

Estimated Value: £403m

Loan Debt: £682m

Balance: £75m +

Transfer Budget: £10m

Remaining Wage Budget: £160k

Stadium and Training

Ground: Old Trafford

Capacity: 75000

Season Ticket Holders: 58000

Average Ticket Price: £37

Average Season Ticket Price: £709

Training Facilities: Top Training Facilities

Youth Facilities: Excellent Youth Facilities + Youth Academy

First Team Squad

Goalkeepers

Ben Foster

Tomas Kusczcak

Edwin van der Sar

Defenders

Rio Ferdinand

Nemanja Vidic

Jonny Evans

Fullbacks

Gary Neville

Wes Brown

Patrice Evra

John O'Shea

Midfielders

Michael Carrick

Owen Hargreaves

Darren Fletcher

Anderson

Paul Scholes

Wingers

Cristiano Ronaldo

Nani

Ryan Giggs

Park Ji-Sung

Forwards

Wayne Rooney

Carlos Tevez

Dimitar Berbatov

Manucho

This is an overall analysis of the squad from my point of view.

Goalkeepers: You have thre main keepers in the Squad; They are of course Edwin van der Sar, Ben Foster and Tomas Kusczcak. This department is strong enough in the first season as Van der Sar although ageing can do a job in the first season and Foster and Kuzczcak can provide fantastic back up. So there is no need to improve here in the 1st season. Your long term first choice GK should be Ben Foster but thsi could be a position to strengthen after VdS retires as Kusczcak is not good enough to be 1st choice..

Left Backs: Patrice Evra is fantastic as always and should be your first choice LB. O'Shea will provide adequate back up. No need for improvement except if you want a top class LB to rotate with Evra in latter seasons.

Right Backs: On the right side Neville and Brown both can do a job but you should be looking to get a long term replacement for Gary Neville. It will be also intresting to see how the Brazilian twins Fabio and Rafael develop.

Centre Backs: Both Ferdinand and Vidic look amazing and could be the best DC's in the game imo. They should be your first teamers with Jonny Evans, O'Shea and Brown providing back up. You may want to sign a promising young CB though.

Defensive Midfielders: This position again looks strong with Hargreaves and Carrick both looking solid and they are English aswell. You should rotate the two of them and maybe use Fletcher as back up.

Central & Attacking Midfielders: Paul Scholes looks amazing and still could have a couple of seasons in him. Anderson looks very good and should have a high potential. A long term replacement is needed for Scholes but i would advise to buy in the 2nd season.

Wingers: You have four main wingers in Ronaldo, Giggs, Nani and Park. Ronaldo is arguably the best player in the game and he should obviously be your first choice on the RW with Park as back up. Howver both of them are injured so it could be useful to find a short term replacement at the start of the game. On the LW Nani and Giggs should be good enough for the 1st season but you need a long term replacement for Giggs.

Strikers: Man Utd have arguably the best Strike force in the game with Rooney, Tevez and Berbatov. Rooney looks as though he has been slighty downgraded but he is still fb. Tevez also looks like he has been toned down but agin he still looks fantastic. Berbatov looks amazing and gives you another option and with Manucho as further back up and promising ST's such as Welbeck and Brandy in the Under 18s there is no need for investment here.

This is based on the original players that start at the club. That is, no additional signings have been taken into account.

               Van der Sar
Neville     Ferdinand      Vidic    Evra
          scholes   Carrick
Ronaldo-->                   <--Giggs
       Berbatov/Tevez   Rooney

Player/Staff Recommendations

Staff Credit goes to davidbowie

Like alot of managers these days, once you join a club, you need to sort out the backroom staff. Whilst in real life United have one of the best coaching staff in the world, in-game there are areas sadly lacking.

You have alot, but most of them simply are not that good:

Clearing out the Backroom:

Scouting

With scouting, you simply require 18+ for either Ability or Potential scouting, and preferably 19 or 20. Anything less is not good enough with 17+ scraping through. This requires you to release:

Emmanuel Amunike

Martin Ferguson

Joe Corcoran

Antonio Lopez

John Owen

Tom Veron

Gilles Rouillon

This will leave you with about 6 scouts left, which have at least 17 for potential scouting. This is not ideal, but it is better than nothing. It also keeps release costs down.

Coaching

United's coaching staff are a good base to work from, with the majority of the staff being a 5 or 6 star rated in a particular area. You should also only want each staff member working on one area.

United have a very good Goalkeeping staff, with the other areas being generally being 5+ stars or higher. The 5+ requirement means the following staff should be released:

First Team Coaches:

Warren Joyce - Nothing above 4 stars

Youth Team Coaches:

Tommy Martin - Highest is 5 stars in Ball Control, which United have coaches with 6 and 7 stars already.

Youth staff to contract as 1st and Youth team coaches:

Eamon Malvey - 6 stars for shooting.

Mark Dempsey - 6 stars for ball control.

Tony Whelan - 6 stars for attacking.

Other notes on coaches:

Paul McGuinness - Has a stupidly large contract, but only 5 star in defence.

Brian McClair - Another stupidly large contract, but nothing about 5 stars.

Physios

The obvious statistic for these staff is Physiotherapy. You have 8, release the following:

Garry Armer (12)

Tony Gill (14)

Richard Merron (15)

Mandy Johnson (16)

John Davin (16)

The main issue here is that the game in it's current state appears to limited United to 3 physios after you sack the ones you start with. You may want to keep Davin and Johnson who have 16 each, or you can sack the entire physio staff and hire new ones.

Hiring new staff:

Now that you have cleared the deadwood, you need to replace the staff and upgrade.

Scouts:

The first scout needed is a high level Current Ability scout:

Roberto Bettega, is World Class, unemployed, and has 20 for both stats. He is perfect. He will cost though, 11k a week, but his stats are worth it.

2nd choice is Uwe Scherr, from Schalke, who will cost 130k transfer, but only 1.4k a week. He only has 14 for Potential though.

The next lot are high level Potential Ability scouts:

Arnold Catalano - AS Monaco - 180k Transfer - 20 Potential.

Nicky Hammond - Reading - 50k - 20 Potential, 18 Ability.

Hans-Martin Kleitsch Stuttgart - 275k - 20 Potential, 18 Ability.

Micheal Schroder - HSV - 60k - 19 Potential.

Just keep signing scouts with high potential ability spotting, until you hit the limit of about 12.

Physios:

Again, you need Physio 20 skills, other skills include Motivating, Determination, Discipline. However, there is a problem in that you may not be allowed to sign any more than 3, meaning you may have to fire anyone not as good as these staff to actually bring them to the club:

Alex Nieper - Chelsea - 250k - 20 Physio

Jose Luiz Runco - Flamengo - 110k - 20 Physio

Silvano Cotti - Unemployed - 20 Physio.

Gary Lewin - Unemployed - 20 Physio.

Odir de Souza - Unemployed - 19 Physio.

Rodrigo Lasmar - Atletico Miniero - 19 Physio

Reserve Team Manager:

For this position, you require a coach with Tactical Knowledge, good Judging Player Ability as the main attributes. Having good Motivating and Man Management is a plus, but all 4 in a single coach would be rare. The only real candidate at the start of the game I belive is:

Joao Alves - Benfica - 210k - Tac Know 18, Judge Ability 19, Man Man 15.

Youth Team Manager:

This position is similar, but requires Working With Youngsters and Judging Potential Ability as much or more than you would want tactical knowledge as well, some candidates include:

Massimo Neri - Unemployed

Torbjorn Nilsson - Unemployed

David Court - Arsenal - 210k

Coaches

These should be left to after you have arranged the team's coaching with the newly promoted to full coaching staff (from the youth coaches). Once you have done this, you should have almost, if not all, the areas covered by at least 6 star coaches. Move to fill any gaps, and to upgrade to 6 or 7 star coaches.

The main areas you will need to fill are:

Tactics - There are no staff (who appear in the England Demo Start) with 20 for tactics. United have no-one above 14, best option would be:

Luc Rabat - Unemployed - Tactical 19, Youngsters 20.

Defending - For a team who concede so few goals during a season, the fact their highest defensive coach is rated at 5 stars, and is a youth team coach only is a strange issue, 2 main options are:

Rene Eijkelkamp - Schalke - 375k - 20 Defending

Ludek Miklosko - West Ham - 525k - 20 Defending

Peter Drake - West Ham - 300k - 19 Defending, 18 Youngsters

You should end up with a staff which is comprised of:

Coaching - Majority of 6 stars in every area, for both the first and youth teams, with a GK rating of 7, with 1-2 coaches in each area with a "light" workload.

Physio - Between 3 to 5 good Physios, with most of them ranging in the 18+ category.

Scouts - approximately 12 scouts, with at least 5 being 19 or 20 for Potential Ability, with the rest comprised of 17 for Potential Ability, with a few with 20 for Current Ability.

Reserve Manager, and a Youth Team Manager.

From there, you need to setup your training, your scouting and what you will leave up to your Youth and Reserve managers.

Right Credit to Hulk as I used his brilliant Arsenal thread as a template.

If anyone wants to add anything then post here and I'll add it . Also will update it with recomendation of who to buy etc after I've played the game.

Been waiting for this thread to pop up.. was thinking of making it myself if it didnt turn up soon .

Looks like a strong squad this year, am going to strengthen the right side of defence, only as an heir to Neville.. Will also look in to buying a few cheap youngsters to carry on the role of scholes and Giggs. The Van der Sar problem will need to be resolved after a few seasons, am yet to look at Foster but he might be good this year.

With only £10mill to spend its going to be a tough game and it is likely 1, maybe 2 positions will be able to be strengthened in the first season.

Looks a good challenge and Man Utd will be the first team i take control of. Last year we did the double, Lets see if anybody can pull off the Treble this year

A tough challenge but one im more than looking foreward to.

Goodluck everyone

well done manu legend but the title says "welcome to the fm2008 guide"......

Glory Glory Man United!

well done manu legend but the title says "welcome to the fm2008 guide"......

Well its been a long night. Anyway fixed

Robert Brady looks crap now not much of a prospect anymore...

Ronaldo has been pumped up and looks superb !!

Fletcher doesn't look very good, has he been downgraded since FM08? If anything I think he should have been made better because he is amzingly underated.

Well done to Nick; the Man Utd researcher. The data looks spot on imo.

Any youngsters in the youth team which looks promising other than Welbeck to look out for?

Well done to Nick; the Man Utd researcher. The data looks spot on imo.

Apart from Evans, Rafael, Fabio and Possebon who are all vastly underated.

Evans isn't underrated imo as long as he still has a highish potential then he will develop well. Rafael and Fabio I'd imagine were rated by the Brazilian researcher and not sure about Possebon. It will be better to judge him when the full game is out to see how he develops imo.

Nice. Thanks for the screenshots. FM09 doesn't work on my computer

Oh yeah, somebody post screenshots of Fabio, Rafael, Possebon and Campbell please.

Witsel looks fb but Standard want a lot more than £10m for him. Have also had a offer accepted for Balotelli. Is he worth £9.5m?

Btw Lassana Diarra looks amazing.

Evon

Heres the SS mate:

Rafael

Fabio

Campbell

Possebon

what do you think of Hargreaves at RB he seems to have the right stats for it.

My tem is looking like this atm

GK: VDS/Foster

RB: Hargreaves (inj)/Nev

LB: Evra/O'shea

CB: Rio/Evans

CB: Vidic/Brown

RM: Ronaldo (inj)/Alexis sanchez

LM: Nani/Giggs

CM(d): Veloso/Carrick

CM(a): Scholes/Anderson

ST: Rooney (inj)/Rossi

ST: Berbatov/Tevez (inj)

other squad players are Fletcher and Manucho

How much did you pay for Veloso and Sanchez?

Yeah and come to think of it Hargreaves does have stats in the right areas to play at RB.

Suprised more people havnt posted on this thread after the great success of the last years thread i thought we would have loads of replys by now..

Maybe people are deterred because how can you improve on a team thats just won the double? maybe people dont see the challenge?

Well i think there certainly is a challenge and i am really looking foreward to starting as The Red Devils.. (Demo installing now).

Come on guys we need more posts.. who have you signed? whos a big let down on this years game? who should we all look to buy? what position do you think needs strengthening? what do you make of the current squad? Youngsters?

Come on.. look at the Arsenal thread.. over 100 replys already.. get youre buts moving and post please

Hey guys, downloaded the demo earlier and have started the game as united(obviously i spose or I wouldn't be posting here lol)

Anyway, So far I have played 2 friendlies drew 4-4 in the first and changed my stupid tactic to an attacking 442 and won the second 5-0. Still not convinced with the match engine yet but looking ok at the mo.

I haven't bought anyone yet as I don't really see that I need anyone except maybe another MC. I am scouting 3 potentials and thanks to asking the board for more cash I now have 24m to spend.

I do see this as a challenge just the same as any other team as it is a new game with a new match engine so who knows how well anyones gonna do. It will take us all some time to get to grips with tactics and the like.

I do believe that the youngsters like fabio, rafael etc haven't been statted right but there isn't much that can be done. I'm still gonna play them in the first team as much as I can.

hows this for a tough champ leaugue draw: man u, b munich, juventus and shaktar!!

I brought Sanchez in on loan for £3.4 million upfront with the option to sign him permanently for an extra £5 million and Veloso was £11.25 million. i asked for more money.

i had a tough champions league draw as well not as hard as yours though.

Man Utd

Schalke

Zenit

Shaktar

What is Jonny Evans' potential like? Sir Alex really rates him and Roy Keane said he has a great chance of making the grade at Old Trafford but from his profile there, he doesn't look too hot.

I personally find Manchester United's players to be very unrealistically rated in FM. Michael Carrick for example is always so average in the game but is a fantastic player in reality. I also feel Patrice Evra and Rio Ferdinand are much much better than their stats in the game would suggest. Judging by those screen shots, Fabio, Rafael and Possebon have also been made to look crap even though Fergie has spoken about all three being exceptional talents? I'm not even a United fan and I think it's harsh like

Great Starter of the thread well done

I asked the board for more money for wages and transfers and then adjusted the budget. I now have £59m to spend and a £1.7m wage budget Try it out.

I asked the board for more money for wages and transfers and then adjusted the budget. I now have £59m to spend and a £1.7m wage budget Try it out.

Just tried it out and now have a 60 million budget.

Thanks for the tip.

I will update on my game later on.

Just bought in Mario Balotelli for £10m and Lassana Diarra for £5m. Wanted to try Balotelli and Diarra look ffb and will provide good cover for RB and DM.

And thanks for the comment Terras FM

Just started a game playing a 4-2-3-1 formation. Have signed Diarra for £4.5m and sold Fletcher to Spurs for £20m!!! ALso on the list is Kuszack. Looking at Moutinho and Veloso and Marcelo have had a £4.2 m accepted. Got Real Madrid sniffing around Tevez.

Greetings.

I see ML was hasty starting this thread (I'd heard the demo was released midnight tonight) and I was going to do one seeing as I've been playing the demo for about 6 weeks now *smug*, but it's saved me the time. I'd never heard of Balotelli IRL but I found him on the game and looks great as well as Lawlor saying he's got a great potential.

In my demo I got around £30m at the start. I bought:

- Veloso £9.25m

- Owen £4.8m

Sold:

- Fletcher to Juve £5m

- Kuszczak to Spurs £3m

I wanted to sign Chiellini and get rid of O'Shea but there's no chance unless I unsettle him first. O'Shea's done OK actually as some **** broke Evra's leg and has missed most of the season. Evans plays a lot of games (18 so far, av. rating of 7.05) and after plenty of midfield combos my current pairing is Carrick and Andy.

Here's my overview so far:

I know, I'm not doing too well at the moment. Defensively it's been brilliant recently but just don't score enough.

ML: You reckon a striker isn't a necessary signing but I disagree. There's only three at the start who are good enough. Manucho is only really good enough as a backup and Welbeck and Brandy can't be relied upon in the first season. Owen's a great signing at under £5m, especially if you only have £10m to spend. I'm thinking perhaps he's not quite good enough, but he's still my top scorer and the only other person I can see who isn't a rip off and is good enough for the FCa role is Mutu. I didn't need Veloso but he's young and quality and a snip at £10m, so that's why Fletcher (as much as I like him) went.

Just started a game playing a 4-2-3-1 formation. Have signed Diarra for £4.5m and sold Fletcher to Spurs for £20m!!! ALso on the list is Kuszack. Looking at Moutinho and Veloso and Marcelo have had a £4.2 m accepted. Got Real Madrid sniffing around Tevez.

Oh yeah, there's some strange players getting transfer listed like Marcelo for £5m. Watch out for Bojan for a similar price too, as well as VDV.

Tevez always gets sold by the AI for around £10m as he's in his last year of his contract, but he'll sign a new one happily enough. Walcott is also in his last year of his contract and can be bought for under £10m I've heard.

Gra \o/ Haven't seen you around for a long time mate. Hows it going?

Anyway I guess you would have been more qualified to do the thread as your further in the game (Explain? Are you a researcher?!) Anything you want to add to the thread just PM me fwiw Some good buys Btw, Veloso is amazing and I'll probably end up buying him on the Full game but I want to try Diarra.

And as for needing a ST, your starting to convince me especially becasue of the rate of injuries but I still think Berba, Tevez and Rooney with Manucho and Ronaldo (retrain) are more than enough.

What tactic do you guys use? I play 4-4-2 but thats not working well

Gra \o/ Haven't seen you around for a long time mate. Hows it going?

Anyway I guess you would have been more qualified to do the thread as your further in the game (Explain? Are you a researcher?!) Anything you want to add to the thread just PM me fwiw Some good buys Btw, Veloso is amazing and I'll probably end up buying him on the Full game but I want to try Diarra.

And as for needing a ST, your starting to convince me especially becasue of the rate of injuries but I still think Berba, Tevez and Rooney with Manucho and Ronaldo (retrain) are more than enough.

That's because I haven't been playing FM for quite some time. Didn't really get in to FM08, but because I'm part of the best guide to FM that is the Tactical Bible on www.fm-britain.co.uk I got to do testing on the demo. Doesn't matter too much about who does the thread because you can edit it now.

The injuries are ridiculous and I've been doing my nut in about them all through the demo. Good thing is, though, I remember there were too much in the FM07 demo and it was sorted out. Tevez tore a calf near the start of the season and only came back around xmas. Match injuries definitely aren't as bad as they were, but I've got a few from training recently.

I play 41212.

very good opening post manu legend very inspiring. Well i just started with my amazing club, trying to bring in Hamsik for alot of money but he will be worth it. Playing first match now and I must say the game looks amazing.

i dont believe Hamsik will be worth much money especailly if you arent planning to continue you game as he is niether better than Anderson, Carrick, Hargreaves or Scholes and you can get alot better for cheaper tbh.

Veloso - 10-15 M

Bodmer - 10-15 M

Mountinho - 10-15 M

L.Diarra - 5-10 M

Radoi - 8-15 M

Palombo - (price??)

all would be loads better than Hamsik and cheaper in the the short run (the Demo only lasts for half a season)

what tactics you lot using with Ronaldo to get the best out of him?

Starting as United - Backroom Staff

Like alot of managers these days, once you join a club, you need to sort out the backroom staff. Whilst in real life United have one of the best coaching staff in the world, in-game there are areas sadly lacking.

You have alot, but most of them simply are not that good:

Clearing out the Backroom:

Scouting

With scouting, you simply require 18+ for either Ability or Potential scouting, and preferably 19 or 20. Anything less is not good enough with 17+ scraping through. This requires you to release:

Emmanuel Amunike

Martin Ferguson

Joe Corcoran

Antonio Lopez

John Owen

Tom Veron

Gilles Rouillon

This will leave you with about 6 scouts left, which have at least 17 for potential scouting. This is not ideal, but it is better than nothing. It also keeps release costs down.

Coaching

United's coaching staff are a good base to work from, with the majority of the staff being a 5 or 6 star rated in a particular area. You should also only want each staff member working on one area.

United have a very good Goalkeeping staff, with the other areas being generally being 5+ stars or higher. The 5+ requirement means the following staff should be released:

First Team Coaches:

Warren Joyce - Nothing above 4 stars

Youth Team Coaches:

Tommy Martin - Highest is 5 stars in Ball Control, which United have coaches with 6 and 7 stars already.

Youth staff to contract as 1st and Youth team coaches:

Eamon Malvey - 6 stars for shooting.

Mark Dempsey - 6 stars for ball control.

Tony Whelan - 6 stars for attacking.

Other notes on coaches:

Paul McGuinness - Has a stupidly large contract, but only 5 star in defence.

Brian McClair - Another stupidly large contract, but nothing about 5 stars.

Physios

The obvious statistic for these staff is Physiotherapy. You have 8, release the following:

Garry Armer (12)

Tony Gill (14)

Richard Merron (15)

Mandy Johnson (16)

John Davin (16)

The main issue here is that the game in it's current state appears to limited United to 3 physios after you sack the ones you start with. You may want to keep Davin and Johnson who have 16 each, or you can sack the entire physio staff and hire new ones.

Hiring new staff:

Now that you have cleared the deadwood, you need to replace the staff and upgrade.

Scouts:

The first scout needed is a high level Current Ability scout:

Roberto Bettega, is World Class, unemployed, and has 20 for both stats. He is perfect. He will cost though, 11k a week, but his stats are worth it.

2nd choice is Uwe Scherr, from Schalke, who will cost 130k transfer, but only 1.4k a week. He only has 14 for Potential though.

The next lot are high level Potential Ability scouts:

Arnold Catalano - AS Monaco - 180k Transfer - 20 Potential.

Nicky Hammond - Reading - 50k - 20 Potential, 18 Ability.

Hans-Martin Kleitsch Stuttgart - 275k - 20 Potential, 18 Ability.

Micheal Schroder - HSV - 60k - 19 Potential.

Just keep signing scouts with high potential ability spotting, until you hit the limit of about 12.

Physios:

Again, you need Physio 20 skills, other skills include Motivating, Determination, Discipline. However, there is a problem in that you may not be allowed to sign any more than 3, meaning you may have to fire anyone not as good as these staff to actually bring them to the club:

Alex Nieper - Chelsea - 250k - 20 Physio

Jose Luiz Runco - Flamengo - 110k - 20 Physio

Silvano Cotti - Unemployed - 20 Physio.

Gary Lewin - Unemployed - 20 Physio.

Odir de Souza - Unemployed - 19 Physio.

Rodrigo Lasmar - Atletico Miniero - 19 Physio

Reserve Team Manager:

For this position, you require a coach with Tactical Knowledge, good Judging Player Ability as the main attributes. Having good Motivating and Man Management is a plus, but all 4 in a single coach would be rare. The only real candidate at the start of the game I belive is:

Joao Alves - Benfica - 210k - Tac Know 18, Judge Ability 19, Man Man 15.

Youth Team Manager:

This position is similar, but requires Working With Youngsters and Judging Potential Ability as much or more than you would want tactical knowledge as well, some candidates include:

Massimo Neri - Unemployed

Torbjorn Nilsson - Unemployed

David Court - Arsenal - 210k

Coaches

These should be left to after you have arranged the team's coaching with the newly promoted to full coaching staff (from the youth coaches). Once you have done this, you should have almost, if not all, the areas covered by at least 6 star coaches. Move to fill any gaps, and to upgrade to 6 or 7 star coaches.

The main areas you will need to fill are:

Tactics - There are no staff (who appear in the England Demo Start) with 20 for tactics. United have no-one above 14, best option would be:

Luc Rabat - Unemployed - Tactical 19, Youngsters 20.

Defending - For a team who concede so few goals during a season, the fact their highest defensive coach is rated at 5 stars, and is a youth team coach only is a strange issue, 2 main options are:

Rene Eijkelkamp - Schalke - 375k - 20 Defending

Ludek Miklosko - West Ham - 525k - 20 Defending

Peter Drake - West Ham - 300k - 19 Defending, 18 Youngsters

You should end up with a staff which is comprised of:

Coaching - Majority of 6 stars in every area, for both the first and youth teams, with a GK rating of 7, with 1-2 coaches in each area with a "light" workload.

Physio - Between 3 to 5 good Physios, with most of them ranging in the 18+ category.

Scouts - approximately 12 scouts, with at least 5 being 19 or 20 for Potential Ability, with the rest comprised of 17 for Potential Ability, with a few with 20 for Current Ability.

Reserve Manager, and a Youth Team Manager.

From there, you need to setup your training, your scouting and what you will leave up to your Youth and Reserve managers.

Fantastic guide, this is exactly what I needed

Fantastic guide, this is exactly what I needed

This is the squad I've put together with Man Utd in my first season, sold quite a few squad players and brought in quite a lot too.

First 11 (4-4-2) Van Der Sar, G.Neville, Evra, Ferdinand, Vidic, Srna, Moutinho, Veloso, Ronaldo, Berbatov, Rooney

Second 11 (4-4-2) Foster, Brown, Thiago Silva, Evans, O'Shea, Nani, Matias Fernandez, Camacho, Giggs, Huntelaar, Tevez

What a squad! I'm running away with the title and comfortably topped my Champions League group. Chelsea are also down in mid-table obscurity in 10th ;-)

brilliant stuff davidbowie. i think it should be added to the opening post.

GK – van der Sar

GK - Foster

GK -

DR - Neville

DR –

DL - Evra

DL – Marcelo (£4.4m)

DC - Ferdinand

DC - Vidic

DC - Brown

DC - Evans

DC – O’ Shea

MC – Diarra (£4.5m)

MC - Scholes

MC - Anderson

MC - Carrick

MC - Hargreaves

AMR - Ronaldo

AMR –

AML - Nani

AML - Giggs

ST - Rooney

ST - Berbatov

ST - Tevez

ST – Rossi (£9.25m)

My squad so far. Need a replacement AMR, DR and GK (DR and GK to take over Van der Sar and Neville next season). Sold Park, Fletcher, Kusczcak and Manucho. I have about £40m to spend on these three positions. Any suggestions?

Possebon's a bit **** but meh. So anyway, the game any good? Worth buying a new computer for?

brilliant stuff davidbowie. i think it should be added to the opening post.

Have added it to the OP. Like you said great stuff

Fantastic guide, this is exactly what I needed

But did you need to quote the whole thread?

Anyway, why buy Veloso for DL? What a waste of money. Zieler can be your 3rd choice keeper, use Brown at DR and you should have kept Park.

ML: For the opening post, you should say Brown is a DC as that's his natural position.

As for staff, it's a very good post. Here's my thoughts to add:

- Assistant manager: I hired Neri. Very good ass man, although neither him nor Alves are good coaches.

- My current coaches are:

Neri, 4* tactics

Strudwick, 6* strength

Hartis, 7* goalkeeping

Hawkins, 7* aerobic

Whelan, 6* attacking

McGuiness, 5* defending

Meulensteen, 7* ball control

Steele, 7* goalkeeping

Solskjaer, 6* shooting

Mulvey, 6* set pieces

Walford, 7* tactics

Miklosko has 10 for defending on my game, so maybe it's changed or it's random, but Drake looks very good

- Didn't do anything with physios. As you can only have three or four, I'd rather have a couple of decent ones and several crap ones than four 20s.

GK – van der Sar

GK - Foster

GK -

DR - Neville

DR –

DL - Evra

DL – Marcelo (£4.4m)

DC - Ferdinand

DC - Vidic

DC - Brown

DC - Evans

DC – O’ Shea

MC – Diarra (£4.5m)

MC - Scholes

MC - Anderson

MC - Carrick

MC - Hargreaves

AMR - Ronaldo

AMR –

AML - Nani

AML - Giggs

ST - Rooney

ST - Berbatov

ST - Tevez

ST – Rossi (£9.25m)

My squad so far. Need a replacement AMR, DR and GK (DR and GK to take over Van der Sar and Neville next season). Sold Park, Fletcher, Kusczcak and Manucho. I have about £40m to spend on these three positions. Any suggestions?

Matias Fernandez 8.25m on left or retrain him AMR

ML: For the opening post, you should say Brown is a DC as that's his natural position.

Pondered about this and was torn between whether to place him as a DC or DR. Agree he is better at DC but I'll keep him at DR though as thats where he has been playing in real life. Obviously can be used as a DC aswell.

with ronaldo out for the first 2 months in the game, does anyone know of a solid replacement? manucho's stats do not look very good park is also out. a quality ass. man is also required(may demote current ass. man)