FM10: Official Manchester City - "a small club with a small club mentality"

[TheInvisibleMan]

Well my game wasn't delivered today but on the demo I was using a 4-3-3 that I had made myself on the tactics creator. It worked really well and i finished the demo top of the league.

When i get the game i'll probably make one with the same formation. I'll upload it so you can use it if you like, i'll leave it up to you

[stuartM]

thanks mate, would be great to use it as i am terrible at tactics:(

[stuartM]

:mad:computer just crashed. going to need to start again, gutted because had great team, including fabregas, chiellini, de rossi, otemindi(sp), rafinha and vargas. typical:rolleyes:

[TheInvisibleMan]

http://www.2shared.com/file/8792554/deca19b5/4-3-3_City__Man_City_Jul_2009_.html

Go to your FM2010 folder and create a tactics folder in there if you haven't already. Then scroll to the bottom of the page and where it says "Save file to your PC: click here" click it and save it in your tactics folder.

[stuartM]

cheers man

[Matthewas]

Just finished my first season in FM10 with Man City, continued my successful demo save. Unfortunately I wasn't able to keep my first place but finished second place so I am happy

My summer transfers:

In:

Sissoko Moussa

Rodwell Jack

Sessegnon

Vargas

Srna

Out:

SWP

Zabaleta

Petrov

Benjani

Lineup

Given

Srna-Lescott-Touré-Vargas

De Jong

Barry-Ireland

Robinho

Tevez-Adebayor

I am pretty happy with my squad but I think I am going to offload Adebaoyer and get a world class poacher. Maybe I will sell RSC aswell hmmm.

Would appreciate comments and tips who to buy/sell

[TheInvisibleMan]

Matthewas: Looks very good so far mate and well done on finishing 2nd. You haven't transformed the whole team which is something I like. You're in the Champions' League now so you could get someone like Lahm in and move Vargas up to left wing. You could then get a right winger and play Tevez upfront on his own with two wingers and Robinho in behind him. Then Barry and De Jong behind them and then your back 4. Man, that sounds really good I wish it was my team haha. Just my suggestion you don't have to do it but it sounds incredibly good.

[Matthewas]

TheInsivibleMan: Thanks!. Good thoughts, I will absolutely give that a thought but I am not sure if I want to change my current formation as I really like it . Do you have any tips for a good poacher. I was thinking like Torres or Villa but I am not sure maybe I will try and get some more English players and sign Defoe. Oh and btw my defense has been amazing only conceded 23 goals.

[Ty]

The Story so far...

Well, I have finally got going on my Man City save, with all my transfers completed before the first league game, and unless something goes terribly wrong, I shouldn't have to do any business in January and and my squad should see me out till end of the season.

I played all the friendlies, testing out players and all seemed to go well.. and didn't play my full strength team until the last friendly, just to be sure.

Friendlies

My transfers were only what I thought was totally necessary in the first season, and filled the positions that I set out to do;

- LB

- RB

- CB x2 (Experienced, Prospect)

- GK (Prospect)

- DM (Experienced)

- CMa

I thought the attack didn't really need any extra fire power, so I left that alone.

Transfers

Now all the transfers slot straight into my team.

- I wanted Chivu at left back (rather than a faster, more attacking full back), because with the attack and formation, I believe it wasn't totally necessary to have the full backs overlap my wingers.

- Boateng performed great for me on the demo, and I was almost certain to bring him in again, despite the low work rate, he still performs at every level. He is a great prospect and again is a more defensive, solid full back. Also got his first cap for Germany 3 weeks after signing for us.

- To slot in my defence along side Toure, I wanted someone reliable (not Lescott, hes useless) and the first name in my head was of that who was a rock in the demo, Mexes.

- The prospect at the back, Otamendi was a must buy, mainly due to high PA, and just to see how well he improves beyond the 6 month demo. If a big offer comes in for him, I will offload.

- Now, when I said I wanted a DM, that was a bit more experienced than the usual youngsters, I went straight to De Rossi and paid the big price for him. When it comes to stopping and scaring attackers in the middle of the park, there are few better.

- CMa, I wanted someone in this position mainly due to my defensive CM's that you have a choice from. (Barry, De Jong, De Rossi) So I invested into Marek Hamsik, who unfortunately only got to play 1 friendly before going into the season, so I don't know if he has settled in yet. Scored 2 great goals in the friendly though. Screamers.

- Lastly I wanted a GK, that was a great prospect and that could play when Given was injured, and in cup games. I was thinking about Fiorillo but didn't want to fork out that much money, so I went with Areola because he looks pretty decent at the start, and his high PA attracts me.

Tactics

Well, after extensive research on the demo, I found out that the best formation that suited how I wanted Man City to play, was the 4-2-3-1 Formation.

It works brilliantly, with a Box-to-Box CM, and a normal support CM. Hamsik really played well as a B-t-B midfielder.

I have Robinho on the left wing as a Inside Forward, so he cuts in and shoots, and then on the right, I have that set up as a Winger/Attack, as I have SWP and Ireland on that wing who can both whip the ball in on their favoured foot.

I have retrained Tevez to AMC, just so he is a bit more comfortable there, and he is set up as a Trequartista, and has really excelled in this role pre-season.

At the moment, thats all thats happened, but its looking promising.

I will update again like this in January, until then I will just keep posting as normal.

[Ross.]

Enjoying City so far. made half the Rec. signings before even looking in here haha.

ATM got a narrow 4-1-1-2-2 going on in an attempt to let Vargas and Srna give width (hasn't worked, irritatingly), With Cassano and either VDV or Jovetic playing behind Robinho and Tevez. works well smaller teams (don't score 10 goals or anything like that, but keep a lot of the possession. has anyone had experience with Cassano on the left? it's one of his positions, but I'm not sure whether he's better on the wing or behind the strikers.

[stuartM]

tyoldinho, could you mabye tell me your team instructions as am am struggling a bit

[Ty]

stuartM

CM(left) - Box-to-Box (Support)

CM(right) - Central Midfielder (Support)

AMR - Winger/Attack

AML - Inside Forward (Robinho)

ST - Target Man

Then I Control and Fluid football, and Roaming and Creative Freedom.

[Knowlzy]

Well, I've just finished my first season, so here's my story..

After having a long hard look at the team it was clear where I thought the improvements we're needed. I've never really been a fan of Wright-phillips so I aimed to get a right sided midfielder. I was also given the advice to sign a certain player who I thought was a very good buy. The defence overall needed to be improved. Up front I think we were pretty much all set. I took the option of aiming to qualify for Europe as I didn't want to put too much pressure on myself when I had no idea what to expect. This gave me transfer budget of 55million!

Here are the players I brought in -

Phillipe Mexes 21 Million

Luka Modric 33 Million

Marco D'Alessandro 5 Million

Players out -

Javier Garrido 3 Million

Benjani - 3 Million

Pablo Zabaleta - 6 Million

I was pretty happy with mysquad at this point. Now it was time for formation and tactics. I decided I would go for a 4-1-1-2-1 using attacking wingers.

My starting eleven would be (I apologise for not being able to put up any pics I'm abit of a noob, anyone can help?)-

GK - Shay Given

DR - Micah Richards

DL - Joleon Lescott

DC - Kolo Toure

DC - Phillipe Mexes

DM - Gareth Barry

MC - Stephen Ireland

AML - Robinho

AMR - Luka Modric

ST - Carlos Tevez

ST - Emmanuel Adebayor

I think this is a very strong starting eleven. I set the Right back and Left back as Full backs and changed them to support. I had one Limited Central defender stopper (Kolo Toure) and the other ball laying defender cover (Phillipe Mexes). I set Gareth Barry to Defensive midfielder and to defend. AMR and AML to winger and attack. MC to deep lying playmaker and support. The two strikers were set as one being a Target Man and the other complete forward.

My general tactics were -

Philosophy - Fluid

Starting strategy - Attack

Passing style - More direct

Creative Freedom - More disciplined

Closing down - Press more

Tackling - More aggressive

Marking - Zonal

Crossing - Float Crosses

Roaming - Stick to position

Adebayor would be set as my target man and Stephen Ireland my playmaker. I set the team to be a 3/4 tempo with focusing passing down both flanks towards my danger players.

My pre-season was a big success winning all 8 games and not conceding a goal. My strikers were looking very good.

First game of the Season - Man Utd away

Not my greatest ever first game, totally outclassed by a very good team, lost 2-0.. i decided to change my tactic in this game and go defensive and counter attack, silly mistake and I paid for it.

Next Game - Liverpool at home

Decided to attack from the off and it benefited my team, we absolutely dominated the game with Ireland pulling the strings we went 1-0 up but they equalised in the 80th minute, Torres with a 30 yard screamer, i was devastated. i went for the overload and Modric floated a cross in and Adebayor banged it away in the 2nd minute of injury team, i cheered the house down, i swear my mum thinks I'm mental! Great result, showed that we can kick it with the big boys.

This kicked off a good run for me where i went unbeaten for 7 Games, the highlight being beating Totenham 2-1 at home. Unfortunately we then lost 2-1 Bolton at home!

2 weeks later we travelled to Stamford bridge to play Chelsea who were flying and were clear favourited for the title. They grabbed the winner in the 84minute - Nicolas Anelka, nice one mate! 1-0 but a good performance where we weren't outclassed.

This kicked off a MASSIVE 22 game unbeaten run with results such as 1-1 with Arsenal, 1-0 against Man Utd and 3-2 against Liverpool! We were absolutely flying and my forwards could not stop scoring. We lay in 2nd place!

We were then brough back down to earth by a pumped Tottenham side that thumped me 5-1! Ouch!

We were steadily progressing through the league cup also and we reached the semi finals where we were put up with Totenahm, we beat them 5-1 on aggeregate and would face Chelsea in the final.

The game before the final we took on Chelsea at home, we were comfortably beaten 2-0. I had to think of something I could do to get a result in the final. I decided to go all out and just attack them full on from the first minute, this worked wonders.. we battered them 4-1. Adebayor unplayable grabbed a hattrick! Great day and my first trophy.

I was pretty happy with how the season was going, although I did think we conceded far too many goals. We lay in 2nd place 14 points behind Chelsea and in the Semi Final of the FA cup against Liverpool.

The Semi Final was a bad match for us, we had 17 attempts and 12 on target but still amanged to get beat 2-0. Liverpool had 7 attempts 3 on target! Summed up the whole game.

We lost 6 games in the league this season, one at Aston Villa, Two to Chelsea, Bolton, Man Utd and Tottenham. I finished 2nd place, 19 points behind Chelsea. My strikers were on fire all season, Carlos Tevez Played 48 Scored 41, Emmanuel Adebayor Played 48 Scored 33. Against the top 4 we Lost twice against Chelsea, beat Liverpool twice, lost one and won one againt Man Utd, won one against Arsenal and drew one.

A very successful first season, my only concern was my defence that conceded a massive 46 goals to Chelsea's 21 and Man Utd's 28!

I was told that the expectation for the new season was to win the league! A big ask I thought with my leaky defence, I was given 83million, made the task a wee bit easier!

So, who did I sign? -

Stevan Jovetic (34 Million)

Darijo Srna (20 Million)

Cristian Zapata (20.5 Million)

Lee Cattermole (18 Million)

As you can see I tried to sure up my defence with the signings of Srna and Zapata, also Cattermole will replace Barry in the defensive central midfield role, where i really need someone to break things up, I'll rotate Ireland and Barry in the Central midfield.

Hopefully I'll have a good season! I'll let you know how it goes.

[TheInvisibleMan]

Knowlzy: That was brilliant mate! Really enjoyed reading it. It's got me really excited for when my game finally comes (hopefully tomorrow). Hopefully you can make a decent title challenge next season and really push Chelsea all the way. Keep us posted

[Ty]

I decided I would go for a 4-1-1-2-1 using attacking wingers.

Haha, trust me, its never a good idea going out on the pitch with one less player.

Over-confidence is never a good thing

[FjollFan]

Hitting the January transfer window now and so far I have brought in:

Chris Gadi £1.8M - Looks like a decent prospect.

Henri Saivet £9M - Has been a really good as a backup to SWP who has been playing very good for me

Christian Ansaldi £4M - Good All-rounder who cover up both wings and full backs.

Steven Defour £12.25M - A bit over-priced maybe but hes been pretty decent for me so worth the price so far

Francisco Javier £3.8M - Dunno if hes a first year regen or something but a really good prospect nevertheless

Alphonse Areola £775K - People have raved about him so no need to comment.

Jonjo Shelvey £2.1M - Looks like a decent prospect.

GK: Given

LB: Ansaldi/Bridge

CB: Toure

CB: Lescott

RB: Richards

DM: De Jong/Defour

MC: Barry

MC: Ireland

AML: Robinho

AMR: SWP/Saivet

ST: Tevez/Adebayor

Lies currently on 2nd place 7 points after United after a pretty horrendous start of the season with a loss against Wolves 2-0 as the peak but then I've had a 14 match unbeaten run with wins against Arsenal and Chelsea as the highlights, so its been going pretty good for me

[Knowlzy]

Haha, that's class! I meant 4-1-1-2-2, my bad!

[Ty]

Haha, Yeah I knew what you meant after looking at your formation of where you play people

But I still couldn't help myself leaving a funny comment lol!

[stuartM]

tyoldinho, have been playing the same formation as you but my defense has been rocky. i play chiellini and toure at the back, chiellini as ball playing defender and toure as central defender, but teams like oldham are playing the long ball over the top and my defense are getting caught all the time. only reason they haven't been scoring much is because hugo lloris is insanely good and stopping everything.

p.s. screenshots-

formation = http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/2544/mancitysquadfm10.jpg

team instructions = http://img22.imageshack.us/img22/9823/teaminstructionsmancity.jpg

p.p.s. maicon and oteminda(sp) are on work permits

[Ty]

tyoldinho, have been playing the same formation as you but my defense has been rocky. i play chiellini and toure at the back, chiellini as ball playing defender and toure as central defender, but teams like oldham are playing the long ball over the top and my defense are getting caught all the time. only reason they haven't been scoring much is because hugo lloris is insanely good and stopping everything.

p.s. screenshots-

formation = http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/2544/mancitysquadfm10.jpg

team instructions = http://img22.imageshack.us/img22/9823/teaminstructionsmancity.jpg

p.p.s. maicon and oteminda(sp) are on work permits

If your getting caught out, I highly suggest you don't start Otamendi when you get him. That will lead to disaster!

I am still perfecting my defence, I have 2 defensive full backs that I signed (Chivu & Boateng) which I play against top of the table teams, and then use Richards and Bridge against lower teams, and use them in attacking sense.

I can't really comment on my CB's, as I rotate too much at the moment, when I find something that works I will let you know!

All I know at the moment is that Mexes gets way too many yellows for my liking, and a red on his first game of the season!

[stuartM]

thanks, found the problem, my defense line was pushing forward to much so tweaked that and next frendly they didn't get a sniff at goal(only plymouth but still)

[stuartM]

update:

won first league game 4-1!!!! i play a fluid, attacking more direct game with the defenders sitting back while the attackers run riot.

signings:

lloris - absolutely amazing, saved two penalties in pre season and countless point blank saves. definitely worth the money.

chiellini - only one word can describe him, rock !!! nothing can get past this guy, an absolutely great player.

otemandi - haven't played him much, one for the future

vargas - bought him in the demo and was really impressed, haven't been disappointed yet, up and down the wing all day long

maicon - one of my star signings, with him and van persie on the right wing they are indestructible together.

moussa sissoko - great box to box midfielder, was going to go for de rossi but moussa has more potential.

van persie - scored a 30 yard screamer on his debut, absolutely class player.

will post more updates later on

[manchesterboy86]

update:

won first league game 4-1!!!! I play a fluid, attacking more direct game with the defenders sitting back while the attackers run riot.

Signings:

Lloris - absolutely amazing, saved two penalties in pre season and countless point blank saves. Definitely worth the money.

Chiellini - only one word can describe him, rock !!! Nothing can get past this guy, an absolutely great player.

Otemandi - haven't played him much, one for the future

vargas - bought him in the demo and was really impressed, haven't been disappointed yet, up and down the wing all day long

maicon - one of my star signings, with him and van persie on the right wing they are indestructible together.

Moussa sissoko - great box to box midfielder, was going to go for de rossi but moussa has more potential.

Van persie - scored a 30 yard screamer on his debut, absolutely class player.

Will post more updates later on

spunds like your doing well mate! I have the demo, top of the table with city! Still waiting for my copy to arrive! Damn postal strike!! Grr!!

Mexes did really well for me!

How much u spend on your players?? Can persie must have been loads!!

[stuartM]

188m ( plus extra 55m cause i just bought fabregas) all on 48 month payments

[Ty]

188m ( plus extra 55m cause i just bought fabregas) all on 48 month payments

Oh you are going to destroy your finances

But don't worry, as long as your doing well.. the chairmen just pumps in the cash to make sure the club stays a float

[stuartM]

thats why i went man city;) the chairman just put 27m and 100k into transfer and wage budget, gotta love the chairman:D

[Knowlzy]

Well, the start to season number 2! Brought in a few quality signings as you will be able to see from my last post!

Pre-season again was a success with me winning all 5 of my friendlies conceding just 2 goals! Cristian Zapata and Darijo Srna both looking very impressive.

The big game would be The Community Shield, I don't really normally care much for this but as I was up against Chelsea I felt this was a chance to see how far my team had come and see if we really could challenge them.

It was quite an interesting game with Chelsea having 55% of possesion and 14 shots to my 18, 9 of mine on target and 5 of theres. We won the game 3-0! A cracking result, this sent confidence sky high going into the new season with last years top stars Adebayor and Tevez both bagging goals.

We went on to win the first 4 league games of the season with relative ease, not conceding a goal! This made it clear to me how far my defence had come and showed what cracking signings i had made !

With wins at Villa and Wigan and home wins against Cardiff and Hull my team now sat top of the league. Yet to have a really challenge though. Jovetic got his chance as Robinho got injured before the Villa game and he has been on fire, average rating of 7.35.

[Knowlzy]

http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/1231/sofar.png results so far...

http://img692.imageshack.us/img692/1563/table.png League table so far!

[Eugster]

Just started a City game, won all my friendly's by plenty of goals. Everything is going great I've gpot a good squad (I think/hope), but then I saw that my first 3 league game are Arsenal, Chelsea, Man Utd. Hopefully I'll do well. I'll post scrennies of transfers, aquad and progress after roughly 10 league games.

[JD nawrat]

Here is my team:

I've not played it much over the weekend. So I'm only into my second game. The first was a 1-0 win against Spurs, in which Adebayor scored a 25 yard screamer. Next up is Man United. I'm not looking forward to it. I'm at home, but my team have obvious weaknesses, as Spurs missed 2/3 easy chances.

[stuartM]

toyldinho, i have been having problems with my tactics. could you maybe upload yours please.

[Ty]

toyldinho, i have been having problems with my tactics. could you maybe upload yours please.

Sure mate, I will just get it uploaded now.

[Ty]

Here you will find my tactic...

TACTIC

[stuartM]

thanks a lot man

[moudiz8]

First I read the thread and got excited by your posts , so i decided to start a man city game.

Players In :

Antonio Cassano

Chivu

Moussa Sissoko

Areola

Srna

Ansaldi

Otamendi

Players sold / Loaned out :

Benjani

Onuoha

Garrido

Vidal

Zabaleta

Mee

Moore

Tactic:

I'm playing 4-2-3-1 ,

GK : Given

RB: Srna

LB: Ansaldi

CB:Toure

CB: Chivu

MC: Moussa Sissoko / Gareth Barry

MC: Gareth Barry / Ireland

AMR: Tevez / SWP

AML: Robinho

AMC: Cassano

ST: Adebayor

Team Instructions:

Balanced , Short passing, More Expressive, Press More, Tackling,Marking and Crossing as Default and More Roaming .

Starting Strategy depending on the opponent and if its home or away .

Players Instruction :

GK:Sweeper/Defend

DR/DL: Wing back / Auto

CBr: CD/Defend

CBl: Ball playing /defend

MCr: Ball winning mid/Defend

MCl: Box to Box/ support

AMR: Inside forward /attack

AML: Inside forward / attack

AMC: Advanced playmaker/ support

ST: advanced forward/attack

Results :

7 Friendly matches : 6 wins and 1 draw .

PL so far : 4 matches , 3 wins and 1 draw .

I started by beating portsmouth 2-1 at the city of manchester followed by 1-0 win aganist Westham at the upton park . Then, chivu had a disaster of a game and i drew 1-1 with the rovers at City of manchester . Then i beat Arsenal 1-0 at the Emirates stadium .

Also I beat Millwall 3-0 in the League Cup 2nd round with my 2nd string team .

this is so far for me ..

i'll keep u updated ..

[andy_o]

Just started my first season in Man City as well and here's what happened.

Transfers

IN:

Mexes - 17,5 mln (over 48months)

Otamendi - 3mln

Srna - 17,25mln (over 48months)

Vargas - 8,5mln

Sissoko - 17mln (over 48months)

Di Maria - 4,1mln

Jovetic - 13,5mln (over 48months)

Maxi Rodriguez - 17mln

Areola - 45k

Salvio - 4mln (coming at the end of the season though)

Jadson - free (coming in december)

in total - 98mln spent

OUT:

Benjani - 3,3mln

close to selling Petrov for 5mln and Garrido for the same amount. Trying to offload Sylvinho and ... Robinho! Noboby wants him, even for 20mln, which i think is low price already. Also Dzeko almost signed a contract, but didnt have enough funds anymore (18mln for him).

At the moment i think that my team is only missing one good backup midfielder, preferably box-to-box, but im gonna have to wait till the next season. I think i overpaid for Moussa Sissoko, hope he'l be worth it. Target for the next season is: Hamsik! I think he's the only one who can play as great as Barry on that position, plus im tempted to try tactics with two box-to-box midfielders and those 2 are definitely the best for the job.

Im gonna play 4-5-1 or 4-3-3 depends how you call it.

Starting 11:

gk: Given (Taylor)

dr: Srna (Richards, Zabaleta)

dl: Vargas (Bridge, Sylvinho)

dc: Mexes (Lescott, Onouha)

dc: Toure (Richards, Otamendi)

dmc: Sissoko (De Jong, Kompany)

mc: Ireland (Di Maria, Jadson)

mc: Barry (De Jong)

amr: Maxi Rodriguez (Wright-Philips, Tevez)

aml: Jovetic (Di Maria, Robinho)

sc: Adebayor (Tevez, Bellamy, Santa Cruz)

So far played only friendly games, comfortable wins, so looking forward to the beginning of the season. Or actually not anymore, I was, before i checked fixtures. First 3 games are: Man Utd, Chelsea and Arsenal... between first 2 games only 3 days for resting, gonna be hard. Hoping to get 4 points at least, we'll see how it goes.

How do you play Ireland btw? Im using him as central midfielder with attack atm and he's been absolutely brilliant so far.

[Mani_Q80]

On my game as manager of Real Madrid, after the first transfer window Citeh had bought:

Fabio Aurelio - £9.75 million

Marek Hamsik - £8.5 million

Matteo Brighi - £7.75 million

Brede Hangeland - £7.25 million

Clint Dempsey - £7.25 million

Lee Woon-Jae - £1.1 million

[Ty]

On my game as manager of Real Madrid, after the first transfer window Citeh had bought:

Fabio Aurelio - £9.75 million

Marek Hamsik - £8.5 million

Matteo Brighi - £7.75 million

Brede Hangeland - £7.25 million

Clint Dempsey - £7.25 million

Lee Woon-Jae - £1.1 million

Ha, AI controlled Man City don't know what to do with their money

I mean, c'mon, look at them signings.. (except Hamsik, he's a hero).

[TheInvisibleMan]

I have to say i'm shocked by some people here. Selling Robinho is crazy in my eyes, one of the best players in the game on his day. I know he's inconsistent for some of you but I just don't understand, he seems to do well for me. Also the fact people are signing new centre backs and not playing Lescott and Toure. They're both top class in my opinion and sometimes your assistant tells you on the team report to sign a centre back, I just ignore him and he eventually comes round to the fact Lescott and Toure are quality.

Looking forward to getting the game so I can show you all how it's done I'll only make some minor changes to the team with a long term plan in mind

[JD nawrat]

I have to say i'm shocked by some people here. Selling Robinho is crazy in my eyes, one of the best players in the game on his day. I know he's inconsistent for some of you but I just don't understand, he seems to do well for me. Also the fact people are signing new centre backs and not playing Lescott and Toure. They're both top class in my opinion and sometimes your assistant tells you on the team report to sign a centre back, I just ignore him and he eventually comes round to the fact Lescott and Toure are quality.

Looking forward to getting the game so I can show you all how it's done I'll only make some minor changes to the team with a long term plan in mind

Although I totally agree with you on all of your points, I'm going to make a point about the Centre-Back thing.

Lescott and Touré are two great players, I agree. But if one of them is injured, your back-up is Richards or Kompany. Therefore, signing another good player for a relatively cheap price, IE Demichelis for £8.5M, means I have good back-up. Besides, Touré is inconsistent for me. He always plays badly in the first few games. So I bench him for Demichelis. But Martín got injured, so Touré has been given the chance to settle in now.

[Ty]

TheInvisibleMan

No, I'm sorry I cannot agree with you there. Lescott is so mistake prone its unreal, its disgusting some of his mistakes, sometimes it would be his fault I lose the lead 1-0 games (e.g. winning 1-0, 85+ minute and a cross comes in, and Lescott misjudges the ball and the attackers scores, ends 1-1), the quicker I can offload him the better. Toure is absolutely amazing though, has been the last few FM's, especially last year!

Mexes is a great replacement for Lescott, but does pick up too many yellows, and a couple of reds.

[TheInvisibleMan]

JDownie: Yeah I agree mate, i kind of forgot to mention that. I'll probably sign Otamendi as my back-up and use Kompany and Onuoha as well.

Tyoldinho: I guess it varies on different people's game but Lescott and Toure were brilliant on my game. I'll keep the faith with them with Otamendi, Ned and Kompany as back-up

[Ty]

I normally start with Toure & Mexes, and then Lescott and Otamendi as backup! (As Mexes is suspended alot ) So Lescott does get alot of games!

[andy_o]

TheInvisibleMan

Im not the biggest fan of Robinho irl and in the game so far he was never top performer in my team and selling him will ease wages budget a bit (not that is a big problem in MC). I much prefer Jovetic, who's younger and better fits my strategy. I was considering leaving Robinho as a striker, but Adebayor and Tevez have been much much better than him.

About defenders, i think that Mexes bought for 17mln is an absolute bargain. He's terrific as stopper defender and fits the team perfectly, esp because i have a few French speaking players already. Ill try Demichelis next time, but so far Mexes has been great transfer.

[Eugster]

Things are going decent seven games in (3rd in league) but my coach tells me were struggeling against teams who play 4-4-2 which we do, anyone have any advice.

Anyone know how to make this screen bigger, I saved in with pant as a jpeg and uploaded it on photobucket.

[JD nawrat]

Robinho has barely featured for me. I tend to play Petrov on the left. However, Robinho had a massive part in my draw against Man United.

I went up 1-0 within 5 minutes. But at half time found myself down 3-1. In the second half I brought it to 3-2, and thought I had a chance. Not able to find a way back into the match, and with 15 minutes left, I brought on Robinho. He seemed to be doing nothing, but on the 88th minute he played, arguably, the greatest pass you will ever see, and assisted Van Der Vaart to make it 3-3. Purely because he stopped me from losing, he is an FM legend for me now.

[Ty]

Things are going decent seven games in (3rd in league) but my coach tells me were struggeling against teams who play 4-4-2 which we do, anyone have any advice.

Anyone know how to make this screen bigger, I saved in with pant as a jpeg and uploaded it on photobucket.

Save it as a PNG image. Would make it alot crisper and clearer when uploaded!

Dont know about the size though.

[angryfish]

i thought the backroom advice was cool at first.

now they keep spamming me with suggested staff/players i have dismissed over 10x, keep recommending offering contracts to weak youth players and give conflicting training orders.

ie I think u should ask robhino to run down the right flank

once he learn that they go

i think u should ask robinho to stop running down the right

and they go on and on non stop about that! poor robinho spoke up and said he was confused too

btw im at the end of season 3 now, will post an update soon!

I cant believe im the only one who bought david villa in the first season.

lol well partly because i suck man city clearly dont need any more forwards but villa has been an absoulte beast for me all three seasons

scoring 57 goals in 56 games in season 2

[angryfish]

btw nedum onuoha's stats is pretty bad compared to the other defenders but he has had the highest avg rating every season for me so he became a regular. Anyone else had that too?

on the other hand zabaleta with excellent stats had to be sold coz he just sucked every game. (or more likely i didnt know how to use him)

[angryfish]

heres a summary of my career so far. i have been hardcore football managing 12hrs a day for the last 4 days (while watching 5 seasons of How i met your mother on my other monitor which is awesoem btw)

2009

signings

david villa 62m - my fav player in the game, amazing 57goal 56 games scoring record in season 2 when i tried a really werid 4-2-3-1 formation

rafael van der vaart 8.5m -an absolute steal. ManCity doesnt have a good set piece taker/playmaker (i think gareth barry is more of a DM). So apart from long throws which micah richards is excellent in, i set rafael to take all the free kicks/corners and to be my playmaker. An amazing bargin imo

stevan jovetic 17.5m (this guy has been very mediocre for me or i dont know how to use him. Not buying him again)

competitions

i didnt win ****. lost in the league cup early, got kicked out on penalities in the 5th round of the FA cup. The board thoguht the latter was an abysmal result and for the first time im a very long time i became an "under pressure" manager and nearly got my ass canned. however i managed to squeeze into 4th place of the epl and scrapped into the champs league next season.

2010

signings

cesc fabregas 80m - im in season 6 of my real madrid fm09 game, and in that game i STILL could not sigh fabregas, they wanted 255mil! (i was even fabregas favoured personnel!) so of coz i was willign to pay any amount to finally have him playing for me. a great signing avging 7.2 and scoring some vital goals.

luka modric 24m - maybe i dont know how to use him but he was an absolute train wreck for me. averaging 6.7-6.9 and ended up permenatly as a bench warmer.

competitions

league cup runner ups

euro cup winners (amazing lol - i played cska moscow in the finals, and both our teams have never made it into the finals b4)

fa cup winners

epl 3rd, 17 points behind arsenal/chelsea. chealsea btw won the first 2 seaons and is at the top of the table again now.

for some reason i struggle real bad vs weak teams. in the epl vs weak teams im always like shots/shots on target 15/9 the other team is like 6/4 and i end up losing 1-0/2-1 and its really frustrating. happens too often to be a coincidence, i must be doing something wrong. however this effect reverses vs teams better than me. in the champs league i managed to beat madrid suprisingly quite easily, scraped a win on barca thru away goals, and edged out man utd. cska moscow was actually harder than man utd and i won the match on penalties.

2011

signings

de rossi 52m - put him in the gareth barry role. barry plays better than him however. i tried buying messi who was interested but they wanted 155m

franck ribery 47m - wondering what all the fuss was abotu him. i mean hes awesome on youtube but never had him playing for my team b4. put him as a right winger since robinho was on the left. and as a inside forward which is supposed to work wonders cause his left foot is stronger and hes a natural AML. he however was very mediocre.

i blame these 2 "mediocre" signings on their inablitiy to speak english/language barrier and adaptability problems. hope they do much better next season

competitions

still in progress

lost to aston villa in league cup

at 6th round of fa cup

2nd in league 5 poinst behind chelsea with 8 games left, was top of table early season. best epl year so far

just beat barcaleona 2-0 at home and lost 0-1 away to win on aggregate points and enter the quarters

just lost vs stoke in the EPL away 2-1 dropping to 3rd place with shots/ontarget being 8/4 (stoke) 22/7(man city) SERIOUSLY I HATE THIS, i bet im never gonna win the epl. The onyl pple i let take long shots are 15 and above. the rest are set to rarely.

my current lineup (villa and rossi shld be in but they're injured)