FM10: Official Valencia Club de Fútbol Thread

[jeesh]

No point playing with Valencia with its 10.3 information. Villa is sold, Silva will be sold and so may Mata. Besides the club will have a debt of around 370 Mill Euros after selling these players. This also needs to be adjusted in the editor.

This way you will have a more realistic challenge. Its way too easy with 10.0.3

[jeesh]

No point playing with Valencia with its 10.3 information. Villa is sold, Silva will be sold and so may Mata. Besides the club will have a debt of around 370 Mill Euros after selling these players. This also needs to be adjusted in the editor.

This way you will have a more realistic challenge. Its way too easy with 10.0.3

[RomaRulez]

Well, keeping in mind that I took over Valencia in the middle of the 2nd sim season, but Villa, Silva, and Mata were not sold and are still with my team.

[RomaRulez]

So after 13 game months of frustration I think my time at Valencia has come to an end. I don't know what it is about this team, whether they just chronically underachieve or if La Liga is much tougher then I expect or what the problem is, but I just can't seem to get this team to play well consistently.

Fiorentina, currently sitting 4th in Serie A in January 2012, have sacked their manager and approached me with a 25M Euro transfer budget and a decent wage base and I'm inclined to take them up on their offer.

But back to Valencia for a minute....

Through 20 games Los Ches have 8 wins, 6 losses, and 6 draw, good enough for 7th in La Liga. We got bounced from the Spanish Cup by Real Madrid. We're still alive in the Europa league however. The season so far, including other competitions, has been a real roller coaster. We started the season with 4 wins, 4 losses, and 3 draws. I then switched tactics from my own custom formation to the "Typhoon" tactic found on this forum and the team seemed to respond. We reeled off 8 wins in a row after switching tactics and I thought we had turned a corner. Then Barcelona got a 2-2 draw out of us and everything started to fall apart. After the 8 game win streak the team has 4 wins, 6 losses, and 4 draws. And I can't even blame it on something like injuries as we really haven't had any bad ones. The team just can't find a way to win.

Most puzzling has been David Villa. After a season where he scored 37 goals for Valencia in 47 games, this season he has just 14 goals in 30 games and is currently sporting an average rating under 7.00. I just don't know where he went.

So, should I stick it out in Valencia and try to get the team into next year's Europa League? Or should I go to Italy and take over a Fiorentina team that you could probably make the argument is over achieving?

[joe__the__man]

That's crazy, 7th?

What's your strongest lineup and formation at the moment. And the roles you use, if possible?

[AcidBurn]

Just started as Valencia and those are my transfers, I am trying to sign players that I have never bought before on FM. So far so good, Zigic is good and I would like to have kept him but a targetman just doesn't fit with the tactic I am trying to create. I am using a 4-2-3-1 with an MR and AML, MC and DMC. It's working reasonably well so far but the defence is not the best against big teams, need a new CB and a new GK for next season.

[RomaRulez]

That's crazy, 7th?

What's your strongest lineup and formation at the moment. And the roles you use, if possible?

Yeah, I don't get it either. You'd expect a team with Villa, Silva, Mata, & Adler to be near the top of the table.

Ok, here's my starting XI barring injuries:

GK: Rene Adler

DL: Fernando Navarro

DR: Cedric Monongu

DC: Cristian Zapata

DC: Carlos Marchena

MC: David Silva

MC: Thomas Hitzlsperger

AML: Juan Manuel Mata

AMR: Pablo Hernandez

ST: Nikola Zigic

ST: David Villa

Now I do have some rotation going on in the back line and the midfielders, but that's usually the base team I start with and just make changes due to fatigue or opponent. The 2 positions I feel I need an upgrade in right now are AMR as all of my wingers have been terrible on the right side and the DC spot next to Zapata. But I'm almost out of transfer funds and there just aren't any decent players available on a free at those positions.

I was hoping Fiorentina would let me delay my decision a week and scout their team, or better yet accept the job but delay my moving to the team till the end of the season so I could see Valencia through to the end of their season, but they aren't giving me the option to do either. Since I don't have those options, and I don't recognize anyone on their team except their goalkeeper (Frey is still there), I've decided to turn down Fiorentina and try to get through this season with Valencia. If we don't qualify for the Europa league at least I'll resign on my own. And if a team that I'm more interested in comes along I'll go through this process again.

[joe__the__man]

No room for Banega in the lineup, or don't you have him anymore?

I would say the three areas that need upgrading are a centre back partner to Zapata like you said, and Zigic and Hitzlsperger who just aren't good enough imo. I would personally drop Zigic and play a midfielder instead, but that's just me.

[RomaRulez]

I got rid of Benega as he wanted to move and wasn't playing well for me. I like having a 2 striker formation, and while Zigic has played pretty well (10 goals so far this year) I agree that I need an upgrade. I've already signed Lukaku (sp?) to come in next season when his current contract is up. Regarding Hitzlsperger I tend to agree that a quality midfielder similar to Silva is needed, especially if I'm only going to use 2 MCs. Still looking to fill that DC spot. We'll see what happens going forward. After turning down the Fiorentina job my team has won 1 and lost 1 so the mediocrity continues.

[RomaRulez]

I finally finished the 2011-2012 season at Valencia and we had a nice run at the end to earn a trip back to the Europa League, finishing 5th in La Liga.

The key to our late season success was a slight change I made to the "Typhoon" tactic found on these forums. I had been reading various people on the forums talking about how they fixed their inconsistent performing teams and a common change seemed evident. They had all slowed down the tempo and narrowed the width of their tactics. The "Typhoon" tactic as designed was slightly quick and slightly wide. I reversed it and made it slightly slow and slightly narrow. After those adjustments Valencia won 10 games, lost 2, and got 4 draws.

I really should have made it into the Champions League but I was stupid and rested all my starters in the final game of the year. We only managed a 0-0 draw and when Barcelona won they leap frogged us into 4th. Even more annoying was that 3rd place Villareal had lost, and if we had won we would have ended up 3rd. Oh well. My board was happy with our finish so that's good enough for me.

In the stat department I had 3 players score double digit goals. David Villa's production dropped from 37 goals last year to 24 this year, but it was still enough to lead the team. Zigic, who I had intended to sell after the season, had a very nice year with 17 goals and 10 assists. I'm thinking now I may want to go to a 3 striker system and keep him. Also, young striker Lacina Traore impressed by scoring 10 goals in just 15 appearances.

My offseason focus will be to find a top center midfielder. I'm shoring up almost all other deficient areas of the team, especially with Rafael Marquez coming in from Barcelona next year. But I still need a really good MC. I may even sell David Silva if I need the transfer funds and bring 2 guys in. I'm getting pretty annoyed with Silva's injury problems. He missed half the La Liga season this year, the same as last year. He's very good but he does me no good if he's not playing. He finished up the season hurt again, and this time he's out until October at the earliest.

I know I've talked before about changing teams, and there are still a couple of big clubs that interest me that may open up this offseason. But I enjoyed the way this team finished up the year so I'll probably stick with it for another season at least.

[RomaRulez]

I've reached the start of the 2012-2013 season at Valencia and it was an extremely busy summer for Los Ches. A number of factors led me to decide to change my tactics up, and because of this a lot player movement occurred in the offseason so I could build a team that could hopefully better play the new tactic I want to try.

Two things got me to decide to try a new formation/tactic. First off my board is "very pleased with my leadership" of the team so I feel I can get away with experimenting, at least for a couple of months anyway. Secondly, as I mentioned above, I felt like I needed to go to a 3 striker formation and keep Zigic on the team. He scored 17 goals last year and was selected by the fans as their favorite player. With Lukaku coming in I couldn't just dump a striker. So rather then go with a "traditional" 4-3-3 formation (which I'll probably switch to if this doesn't work), I'm going to try the "atomic bomb" formation developed on these forums (http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php?t=184650).

Basically the atomic bomb tactic is an offensive formation with 2 wingbacks, 1 center mid, 2 attacking mids, and 3 strikers. Part of why I decided to try this formation is because I had a boat load of AMR/AMLs, but not many AMCs. Even though the actual tactic file wasn't available through the forum thread anymore, I felt the developer wrote enough detail that I could duplicate the tactic. So I created it using the tactic creator and had the team using it all summer and all through it's friendlies. Now it's time to put up or shut up.

So because of these changes, and some personnel issues, Valencia was probably one of the busiest teams in the world in the transfer market this summer. We spent 43.5M Euros on bringing in 8 players and we made 52M Euros on 16 outgoing players (not counting loans or free transfers). Here are the significant moves:

Players In:

ST Romelu Lukaku (free from Anderlecht)

AMR Scott Brown (free from Celtic)

A 17 year old regen DC named Diego Delgado (4.2M from River)

DC Rafael Marquez (free from Barcelona)

MC Lucas Biglia (free from Anderlecht)

MC Michael Carrick (20M from Man. U.)

WB/R Emmanuel Eboue (17.24M from Arsenal)

Att.Mid. Steven Pinnear (loan to buy from Everton)

Players Out:

AMR Alejandro Dominguez (2.6M to Gir. Bordeaux)

DC Carlos Marchena (free to Getafe)

MC Jan Polak (1.5M to Gladbach)

AMR Pablo Hernandez (4M to Inter)

AML Juan Manuel Mata (17M to Man. City)

MC Thomas Hitzleperger (1.5M to Rostock)

DC Alexis (2.8M to Stuttgart)

DC Cristian Zapata (19M to Arsenal)

The big departures of course are Mata & Zapata. Both were complaining to the press about moving to bigger clubs. Both were refusing new contracts. Both were a bit on the expendable side due to other signings and depth on the team. The big acquisitions of course are Marquez, Carrick, & Pinnear, with Carrick being the most important in my eyes. With Mata leaving that let me move Silva to the left side (hope he can stay healthy for a change) and with only 1 center midfielder in the formation I felt I needed a top talent to replace Silva. I had a lot of purchase options at MC (not many at AML) and though I probably could have gotten someone younger for about the same money, I felt Carrick was the best available. I tried very hard to pry guys like Xavi or Xabi Alonso away but their teams weren't budging.

So, I'll give this a run for a month or 2 and see if the team can pick it up. If I have to I can always convert to a 4-3-3. Going into opening day here is my starting XI (ignoring injuries):

GK: Rene Adler

WB/L: Fernando Navarro

WB/R: Emmanuel Eboue

DC: Cedric Monongu

DC: Rafael Marquez

MC: Michael Carrick

AML: David Silva

AMR: Steven Pinnear

ST: Nikola Zigic

ST: Romelu Lukaku

ST: David Villa

We'll see what happens....

[RomaRulez]

And btw, if this doesn't work I still have a 27M Euro transfer budget left to spend.

[joe__the__man]

Wayyy overspent on Carrick and Eboue I'm afraid. Should have got more money for Zapata, Pablo and Mata as well :/

[RomaRulez]

You're probably right for the 2010 players, but for the 2012? They're 2 years older. Not saying I completely disagree but I think it's not as bad as you think. Probably right on Carrick and Eboue, not sure on the others.

[RomaRulez]

Things that make you go hrmmmm...

Turkey's Tranzonspor knocked us out of the Europa League by a 2-1 aggregate score, winning in Valencia. Chalked it up to the team still learning the new formation/tactic because in our first La Liga game we beat Athletic 2-0. Go figure.

[joe__the__man]

I just think Pablo Hernandez is much more than a £4m player, and he's only 27 or so, so I'd value him at £12-15m or so.

The other two I don't know why you wanted to sell them, Zapata is one of the best centre backs in the game, I wouldn't sell him unless he was deeply unhappy and I got a bid in excess of £30m. Again he's only 25, so not even at the peak of his career yet.

Juan Mata is only 24, so still not peaking, and like the other two his value will have gone up from 2010. Would probably sell him for £30m ish.

[RomaRulez]

Well, I may live to regret those decisions, or not. We'll just have to see what happens.

[joe__the__man]

10101010101

[RomaRulez]

So far so good for my 2012-2013 campaign. After being bounced out of the Europa league by that Turkish side I figured that was a clear enough signal that my "atomic bomb" tactic wasn't going to work. I converted to a more standard 4-3-3 with 3 midfielders and 3 strikers and we've only lost 3 times so far. It's early November and we're on top of La Liga with 22 points, 1 point ahead of Real Madrid. Pretty much the only worry I have right now is that David Villa just isn't scoring. I had him on the right side of the 3 strikers playing as a poacher and he only has a couple of league goals so far. So I switched him to a Trequarista now so we'll see how that goes.

In other news I'm still thinking about selling David Silva, mainly due to his injury situation. When he finally came back in October from his last injury, he only played 3 games before getting hurt again. He's back on the pitch but I'm getting really annoyed with him. So 2 questions for whomever is reading...

1) How much do you believe David Silva is worth? Silva is 26 years old. He's taken training hits to his corners, crossing, and dribbling. He's only played in 4 games so far this year and has a total of 47 games in the last 2+ seasons, averaging 20 games a year. He's missed time due to injury 13 times since 2009. The game says he's worth 6.75M Euros. Could I get 20M for him?

2) If I do move him, any recommendations for a similar ML/AML quality wise who will hopefully be able to stay on the pitch? I'll have 27 million Euros plus whatever I get for Silva, so I'm figuring at least 40M Euros. Preferably an EU national and it would be really great if they were Spanish, but not required. The 3 names I'm thinking of are Andres Iniesta, Cristiano Ronaldo, or Eden Hazard, but I have serious doubt that I could get their clubs to part with any of them. Probably the best option due to be a free agent this year is Ricardo Quaresma, but he's not even being played by Inter so if he's not good enough to bust their lineup, he's probably not good enough for mine. So that means if I do move Silva I'll almost certainly have to buy a player from another team.

Thanks in advance guys.

[RomaRulez]

BTW, Robinho is currently transfer listed by request at Manchester City. They're asking for 8.25M Euros.

[clokey1988]

Try switching Villa to the left side of the front three. I've always found right footed strikers perform better on the left side of a threesome and vice versa (the only exceptions being for players with the "shoots with power" PPM, who should always play on the same side as their strongest foot). Hope that made sense. Also he is more comfortable playing on the left hand side according to his position ratings I believe.

And that's an absolute bargain for Robinho. He's inconsistent and his work rate is horrible, but for that kind of money I'd bite their hand off. He also speaks Spanish so should settle a lot better than he did/does in England. And he is highly accomplished AML which helps your other problem.

Cheers.

[joe__the__man]

I can understand the frustration at Silva, and agree you should probably sell. You could get more than 20mE for Silva, as his reputation is sky-high. Try offering him out for 40mE, and see if anyone becomes interested (don't transfer list mind, that'll reduce his value unless you find a buyer straight away). If no one bites, wait a week or two and offer him for less - 35mE or something, and keep doing that until someone makes an offer. It shouldn't be too long as like I said, his reputation in the game would be really high.

Ooh and get Robinho if you can, perfect replacement for Silva. It says he's a natural striker but he's better on the left imo. The best replacement for Silva though is surely Mata - they're almost identical in quality?

[RomaRulez]

If I could have kept Mata happy and under contract he would have been good. I've got 7 weeks till the January transfer window so I should be able to get a buyer for Silva. And I agree that Robinho looks like a good option, especially at that price.

Also, thanks for the tip on Villa. I'll try that as well.

[RomaRulez]

Well the first problem I have with Robinho is his contract demands are way out of my range. He's currently making 165k per week and the most my board will allow, even after a request to free up more wages, is 94k per week and he won't even consider that. So I'll take every opportunity the game allows to praise him in the press and see if that gets him to come down.

On the David Silva front I put him out there for 40M Euros and the only offer that came back was from Roma for 13M. Obviously not even close to acceptable.

[clokey1988]

Can't you adjust your budgets? Didn't you have quite a bit of excess transfer funds kicking about? Won't get you to 165k a week but it should get you a little closer, and every little helps, particularly if you can get him to like you as you said.

Cheers.

[AcidBurn]

Have you tried a loan offer my mate got him for 50 percent of his wages on a one year loan with a future fee of £7.5 million, might be worth a look.

[RomaRulez]

I hadn't thought about adjusting the budget. Thanks, I'll try that. If that doesn't work I'll try for the loan. Thanks guys.

[RomaRulez]

After adjusting my budgets I was able to get Robinho to agree to the deal. He'll take a 15k Euro per week pay cut to come play in Valencia, down to 150k Euros per week. Pretty good bargain at just 8.25M Euros transfer fee. Now I have to find a buyer for Silva before January as I can't afford both. And of course he got hurt again this past game, although it was just for that match.

[RomaRulez]

Well the Silva situation has been very difficult to resolve, but I THINK I have it settled. I received numerous offers from Roma for 28M Euros, but Silva kept refusing their contract offers. Then I got a few offers from Villareal, but they wouldn't offer more then 15M Euros so I kept turning them down. Finally I got a 3.2M Euro loan offer from Roma with a future fee of 27M Euros and I was surprised to see Silva accept the loan. So he's now off to Rome and if they complete the deal I'll get over 30M Euros for him. If not I'll get him back in June and will have to try to sell him again. Robinho is now playing for my squad and in early January 2013 we're still in 4th place in La Liga.

[dustygator]

Would it be possible to sell Villa & Silva a la real life and not get crucified by ownership and given the boot? Both are in the Icons/Favored Personnel and highly regarded by the rest of the players. And I imagine it would be hard to get their real life values (combined €70mil+). It would be quite an interesting save as you would get the money to build a dream team from scratch. Think Birmingham in 10.3 but on a much larger scale.

[joe__the__man]

Fwiw the ownership doesn't care about player sales and in the end the fan's opinion doesn't matter.

[RomaRulez]

Well, a shocking turn of events for me this morning at Valencia. It's late February, 2013 and Los Ches are motoring along in 4th place in La Liga with a 7 point lead on 5th place Sevilla. We've been beating almost everyone in sight since getting Robinho. Then we go into Camp Nou to play Barcelona and they clobber us 4-1, and it wasn't even as close to the score. When the game is over I'm stunned to see that I've been sacked by Valencia! Man, tough team! :| I spent just over 2 calendar years at Valencia.

So I've been enjoying this "managerial career" save (remember, I started at West Ham before they sacked me after 18 months), and I think I'm going to continue it and see which team I land with next. I'd lean towards a team in Italy, Germany, or France next. Once I get hired again I'll post which team it is and move my story to that team's thread.

Thanks for reading so far guys. If anyone is interested I posted a record of 46 wins, 27 losses, and 21 draws while at Valencia.

[joe__the__man]

Wow, tough break man, odd sackings happen like that from time to time though. Good luck with finding a new club

[Falahk]

No point playing with Valencia with its 10.3 information. Villa is sold, Silva will be sold and so may Mata. Besides the club will have a debt of around 370 Mill Euros after selling these players. This also needs to be adjusted in the editor.

This way you will have a more realistic challenge. Its way too easy with 10.0.3

myself im looking forward to fm11 for this very reason, think my first save then will be with Valencia

[RomaRulez]

Well, it took me a lot longer to find a new team then I was expecting, but in the end I think it was worth it. After almost 1 game year of applying for jobs and being turned down by major clubs, I was about to start applying for any top league job that came open. Then Chelsea came calling in January of 2014 and I couldn't resist going to such a high reputation club. I hadn't intended to go back to England yet, but clearly my reputation was not up to snuff in other European countries, probably because I've only won one trophy since I started this save.

So anyone who has been reading about my exploits can follow me over to the Chelsea thread.

[joe__the__man]

Oh no don't ruin Chelsea!

[ballinisahabit]

LOOOOOL at Joe! Good luck Gollum!

[jeesh]

Surprised no one has opened a Valencia thread for 2011.