FM11: Aston Villa Thread - Life after MON

[Doc5150]

Hey Hey!! 1-0 Villa. All over them we were. Just couldnt take our chances. Park scored on his debut from a Ash corner. Going to keep Friedel until Jan at least, break Romero in gently via the cups.

[Doc5150]

I believe I have killed this thread!!

[Marc Albrighton]

I believe I have killed this thread!!

People are just too busy playing the game lol, how is everyone doing btw? Just got into january second season myself and im on course for a top 4 finish hopefully if i can keep my form.

[tottivillarossi]

@doc5150 - you sold Sidwell? He's amazing!

[Daverea]

People are just too busy playing the game lol, how is everyone doing btw? Just got into january second season myself and im on course for a top 4 finish hopefully if i can keep my form.

Just coming to March in my first season (how do you guys get through them so fast???) 4th in the EPL but Spurs have a game in hand with 1 point behind. Out of LC in the first match (whatever round that was) out of the EC on the first group stage (drawing, then winning against Juventus but losing 2 times to PSG :-( ) and in the 6th round of the FA cup.

When I started I said I'd get Euro qualification so if I get a bad run of form at the end of the season then I may be for the sack.

[Daverea]

Can anyone give me any tips on getting good performances out of Ireland? He's shockingly bad most games for me, I don't want to sell him as he should be one of my best players....

[artvanderlay]

finished the season in 3rd after a good jan transfer window helping me thru till the end.

bought in micah richards - 4.5m (man city)

luis suarez - 18m (ajax)

looking forward to testing my wits in the champions league.

p.s still no one wants emile heskey!!!!!!! (have fun rotting in my u18's)

started one with villa this morning & got some great buys.

santa cruz - season long loan. (man city)

hutton - straight swap for downing

neves - 6.5 million (al ????)

bouanotte - 2.4million (river)

defour - 6.8 (standard)

mori - 1.5 (river)

paulo henrique ganso - 15m (santos)

mexes - 7m (roma)

david luiz - 7.5m (benfica)

ochoa - 2.3 (america)

most of these deals were over instalments. i also managed to get rid of some of the clubs high earners. carew - 4.8m (liverpool) sidwell - 1.5m (everton) habi beye 1m (seville) friedel - free (lens)

just about to start the busy xmas period & im in 3rd place behind chelsea & man utd.

[Marc Albrighton]

Can anyone give me any tips on getting good performances out of Ireland? He's shockingly bad most games for me, I don't want to sell him as he should be one of my best players....

What role/position is he playing in?

[Doc5150]

@doc5150 - you sold Sidwell? He's amazing!

I did. Playing Hokey Cokey int the middle.Doing a solid job for me. Also my Captain. Dunne VC

Im playing slowly. Quick update.

P 6 W2 D3 L1(To Birmingham...Fans not happy)

10 Goals 9 Conceeded.

In the Europa Group Stages.

3rd round league cup

Heskey is a beast!! P8 G4 Asts 4 MOM 4!! Av R 7.43 WOW!!

Enjoying everthing so far.

Ive had 2 players sent off. Had Heskey, Frediel & Ash come to me unhappy at the disipline in the club. Managed to keep them in side & they all feel they have a good relationship with me. Good Stuff!!

I need to try & quickin the pace & play more games!!

[Daverea]

What role/position is he playing in?

Either AM in support role or CM Advanced Playmaker role is what I have been using most, but I've tried most settings in the AM or CM position. If he gets above a 6 then it's a good game for him.

Just finished first season 6th place, lost in the final of the FA cup to Chelsea.

Carew out for free

Petrov out for 875k

Collins out on loan

Shawcross in for 5.25M

John Sutton in for 425k

Only need to offload Beye and get another (preferably English) DR.

How's Micah Richards doing for those who got him?

[tottivillarossi]

Either AM in support role or CM Advanced Playmaker role is what I have been using most, but I've tried most settings in the AM or CM position. If he gets above a 6 then it's a good game for him.

Only need to offload Beye and get another (preferably English) DR.

How's Micah Richards doing for those who got him?

Play Ireland as a deep-lying playmaker with the "support" role. That's how I use him and he owns the midfield, with the other CM centre midfielder - defend.

Try for Chris Gunter - I got him for £2.1million as he was transfer listed, and he's definitely one for the future. If you fail to find someone, Cueller actually plays really well as a RB.

Finished my first season!

We were awful up until the end of September, when I changed my tactics slightly, and we went on an amazing run that boosted us from 14th to 2nd where we finished, a long way off of Man Utd.

Won the League Cup

Lost in the semis of the FA Cup

Went out in the group stage of the Europa.

Slight problem: Delfouneso and Ashley Young both can leave for free at the end of the 2012 season, and I'm obviously keen to renew their contracts, but they want £56,000 p/w and £120,000 p/w respectively, which I do not intend to give them.

I might do a proper update in a bit.

[Marc Albrighton]

Play Ireland as a deep-lying playmaker with the "support" role. That's how I use him and he owns the midfield, with the other CM centre midfielder - defend.

Try for Chris Gunter - I got him for £2.1million as he was transfer listed, and he's definitely one for the future. If you fail to find someone, Cueller actually plays really well as a RB.

Finished my first season!

We were awful up until the end of September, when I changed my tactics slightly, and we went on an amazing run that boosted us from 14th to 2nd where we finished, a long way off of Man Utd.

Won the League Cup

Lost in the semis of the FA Cup

Went out in the group stage of the Europa.

Slight problem: Delfouneso and Ashley Young both can leave for free at the end of the 2012 season, and I'm obviously keen to renew their contracts, but they want £56,000 p/w and £120,000 p/w respectively, which I do not intend to give them.

I might do a proper update in a bit.

Always renew any contracts for main players that are due to expire in the 1st or 2nd year because if you over ahceive as you have done finishing second they expect better wages as other clubs are looking at them.

@daverea the above post beat me too it but i agree with him deep lying playmaker/support is his bets role atleast for me and hes mastered dictating the tempo of the game. Hes incredible for me he comes deep gets the ball and dominates my midfield.

[Daverea]

@ tottivillarossi and Mark Albrighton, Cheers guys, worked a treat. He's not a top performer but it's far far better.

Just got Micah Richards for RB and it was a very good choice.

2nd in prem and doing well in all competitions in Oct.

[Marc Albrighton]

Just finished second season and finished second again

Brought in micah richards so far as i let luke youngs contract expire and also bought in huddelstone for 4m ready for when pertrov retires at the end of the upcoming season. I dont really need another player but i still have 28m budget

[Lugat]

So I decided to start a game with Aston Villa this year:

Out

Sidwell - Everton - 1M (Didn't need him at that time, shortly after I sold him Petrov started to annoy me)

Carew - L'Pool - 3M (Wasn't worth the wages)

Salifou - RC Lens - Free (Had no future)

Beye - OM - 2.5M (Too old, too expensive)

Petrov - Lyonnais - Free (Started bitching when I gave the armband to Dunne. Still have to pay him 15.5k/w for a few years -.-)

Cuellar - Villareal - 4.2M (We have enough center backs, he has the worst passing stat, he goes)

Can't get rid of Heskey which really bugs me because I brought 2 new strikers in.

In

van der Wiel - RB - Ajax - 7.5M (Quality RB)

Coentrao - LB - Benfica - 5.5M (Quality LB)

Sissoko - CM - Toulouse - 15M (Very good allround player, worked wonders for me in FM2010)

Nemec - ST - Kaiserslautern - 2.5M (Cheap but looks good enough for backup)

Cardozo - ST - Benfica - 6.5M (Looks way better than Heskey)

Ochoa - GK - America - 5.5M (Friedel didn't want a new contract with less wages)

Annan - MC - Rosenborg - 2.5M (Cheap replacement for Petrov)

Shaqiri - LM - Basel - 3.2M (Looks good for his age, will play in the cups)

Alaba - LM/CM - Bayern - 15M (Another allrounder and my usual backup for the LM position)

All payments are spread over 4 years, so I hope they all settle otherwise I might be in trouble.

I also tied down Davies, Young, Albrighton, Agbonlahor and Delfouneso on new contracts with less basic wage and a bit more bonus payments.

So my formation looks something like this:

GK Ochoa/Friedel

DR van der Wiel/Luke Young

DCR Dunne/Davies

DCL Collins/Clark

DL Coentrao/Warnock

MR Ashley Young/Albrighton

MCR Reo-Coker/Annan

MCL Ireland/Sissoko

ML Downing/Alaba

STCR Cardozo/Nemec

STCL Agbonlahor/Delfouneso

I fired all the youth coaches and brought in coaches to work with both youth and senior players instead (every category is now 4 stars at least) and hired some scouts that are now scouting different parts of the world in the hopes of finding some regens and/or other nice young players.

Preseason was a mixed bag as my US tour didn't go well but I won rather convincingly against Rangers, Kilmarnock and PAOK. I lost Ochoa because he broke his finger but he should be back a few weeks in but Ireland is out for about 2 months which is a bummer but Sissoko and Alaba are doing a good job at filling in.

Any suggestions?

[Marc Albrighton]

Good luck let us know how your first season goes!

[gregt or smokey]

players in- yaya sanogo- 5 million players out- heskey - 2 million fabio coentrao- 7 million carew- 2.9 million giuliano- 10 million osbourne- 800k rafael toloi- 5 million salifou- 800k rafael- (loan)

oscar cardozo- 10 million

My first team is what you would expect really, however gabby is'nt doing too well but delfouneso is banging them in, as is sanogo and also cardozo.

I would never loan out delfouneso, in the past 2 versions of fm he's always reached 20 goals in the first season

sorry i set this out in a crazy way

[Andyp]

Ugh, 10 games into the season and my injured players list now consists of:

Warnock - broken foot (5 months)

Roberto Carlos - torn knee ligaments (3 months)

Reo-Coker - Gashed leg (2 weeks - 8 days left)

Guzan - hernia (8 weeks - 3 weeks left)

Park - hernia (5 weeks - 2 weeks left)

Young - twisted knee (3 weeks)

Ireland - strained knee ligaments (7 weeks - 2 weeks left)

Bare bones... Bare bones.

[alfie009]

Nice thread, just finished my first season with Villa, finished second; 14 points behind Tottenham; Santa Cruz who i picked up for 2.2M scored 26 goals for me

Just signed Milner after being offered him for 11M, City finished 9th :O

[Andyp]

Woof! Despite my terrible injury troubles, having nobody on the bench and having all of my midfield 4 starting the game with <88% fitness, I just beat Man City 3-2 What a wonderful game this is..

Well, despite losing Collins for 2 weeks with a sprained wrist.. That's now 8 first-team players out!

I've just noticed, to a mixture of joy and annoyance, that Renato Augusto has just been transfer listed by request. He's available for £4.5m but it's October and I've got no money left . Wonder what are the chances of him still being on the list come January AND Randy being generous and giving me a few quid for transfers... Fingers crossed, eh!

alfie - bringing Milner back? Brave move!

[Andyp]

Double post and I apologise, but... WOW, this is the last time I ever think it's a good idea to flood the midfield and play on the counter in an away game from now on. Just played Liverpool at Anfield. Started the game with a counter attacking 4-5-1. I was 4-0 down by half-time, when I bought on Heskey for Sidwell and changed it to a 4-4-2 and were 4-2 up by 60 minutes and generally dominated the game from then on. Heroic goalkeeping and frustratingly toothless attacking play were the only thing in the way from comeback of the season.

[tottivillarossi]

You must get Renato Augusto! He was the signing of the season, according to the season review, in my first year. Though, would he fit into your formation?

[Andyp]

A player like Augusto? I'll MAKE him fit into my formation!

[tottivillarossi]

A player like Augusto? I'll MAKE him fit into my formation!

haha, fair enough! Believe it or not, I'm considering selling him (if I get a decent offer) so I can replace him with Javier Pastore...

[Andyp]

Funny you should mention him, he just inspired Palermo to a 1-0 win against me in the UEFA/EUROPA/WHATEVER Cup, scoring a delicious 20-yard lob..

[Sparky_07]

Need a good Attacking Midfielder around £6.5mil to spend?

Cheers

[Marc Albrighton]

Need a good Attacking Midfielder around £6.5mil to spend?

Cheers

I got dos santos for 2.7m and hes amazing.

[tottivillarossi]

need a good attacking midfielder around £6.5mil to spend?

Cheers

RENATO AUGUSTO!!!

xx

[Marc Albrighton]

Finally got a chance to play again today and ive just been offered aaron ramsey for 5.75m which is pretty funny considering they rejected a 15m bid for him last summer

[Andyp]

So, after making countless schoolboy errors on my first save, I'm starting again with the Villa. Starting from the off with a balanced 4-4-2 and done the following:

Bought in: Pires (free); Santa Cruz (s/long loan for £120k and a future fee of £2.5m); Ochoa (£5m); Renato Augutso (£7.5m)

Shipped out: Osbourne (£475k to Norwich); Carew (£2.7m to Chelsea - I initially wanted to lose Heskey as he's on a bigger wage, but nobody wanted him)

That leaves me with £4.28m left for future transfers and a useful £86k p/w in the coffers for wages.

The real problem now is, now I've got Augusto do I stick with my 4-4-2 and have him as a right mid (I'm not confident in him being part of a central 2 - unless anyone knows better); or do I switch to a 4-4-1-1 and have him in the hole behind Gabby, which will leave a Santa Cruz-sized hole up front (not to mention Heskey seems to know how to score goals in this game).

Saying that, I've just had a peek at the Transfer List, only to find Vedad Ibisevic is listed by request.. Now he looks like a player, especially for £3.8m. Needless to say, I'm tempted. Very tempted. In fact, I've put an offer in. If I get him, Santa Cruz is going back to City and I'm definitely playing 4-4-2 and Augusto will have to adjust accordingly.

[tottivillarossi]

I've never had much luck with Renato Augusto playing out wide, but I was using him as a winger. If you had him coming inside to get involved more (possibly on the left with Warnock overlapping?) he might adapt.

[Daverea]

Just finished my second season with a mixture of good and bad results

3rd in the EPL after a great end of season run that beat Chelsea, Man U and Arsenal!

Out of both the FA cup and the League cup in the 4th round, both times by Blackburn.

Out of the Euro Cup in the 1st knockout stage.

In the Jan transfer window I bought Wilshere for a whopping 30M over 2 years (I just couldn't resist) and a couple of regens.

This year it's time for silverware!

[Daffie]

So, after making countless schoolboy errors on my first save, I'm starting again with the Villa. Starting from the off with a balanced 4-4-2 and done the following:

Same here

Values below are in euro

I Bought in : Steven Defour (7,25 mil); Enyeama (275K); Ochoa (3,3 mil); Cardozo (12 mil); R. Carlos (1,5 mil)

Shipped out : Carew (3,3 mill); Petrov (200K loan with future buy); Beye (150K loan with future buy); Friedel (Free); Guzan (1 mil); Ciaran Clark (loan)

In my first try with Villa I managed to get Coentrao by giving alot of wages, which now I didnt. Result is he went to Bayern instead. that is why I had to buy Carlos.

Im playing Agbonlahor as target man with run to ball because he has such mad pace. Any tips how I would play Cardozo next to Agbo ?

[Andyp]

I'd have him as a deep-lying forward, definitely.

Speaking of Gabby, I really appreciate SI not adjusting the game engine meaning raw pace alone is enough to bag you 25+ a season

Though saying that, my first league game of the season (Blackburn at home) was a win courtesy of two Ireland goals.

[Andyp]

My first FM11 hat trick and it was that man Ibisevic! In fact he got 4, so that's officially a 'haul'.

[Spike]

So i've finally started my Villa save on FM11 & my transfers were as follows (as you can see i've gone for youth over experience as I want to build a side for the future):

Nobody would make any bids for Sidwell & Guzan so I made them available on free transfers to free up some wage room.

The team has now settled into things with some excellent recent results, particularly the last 3 Premier League fixtures:

The draw against Man U came courtesy of a 93rd minute 25 yard screamer from Gabby who has been on fire so far. With Carew out for 3 months with a broken ankle my very young strikeforce of Gabby, Lukaku & Fonz have been performing brilliantly:

We are currently sat nicely in 3rd place, which I would settle for come the end of the season:

[Daffie]

Nice one Spike !

I got myself 10 points after 5 games in the EPL, first match in the EC was a draw. So not so bad all in all.

[Spike]

Nice one Spike !

I got myself 10 points after 5 games in the EPL, first match in the EC was a draw. So not so bad all in all.

Thanks Daffie

Good start for you too

[Marc Albrighton]

Gabby fonz and lukaku are my forwards too a si only play 1 up top and these 3 have plenty of goals between them expecially the fonz he scores for fun in this game.

[Daffie]

Any Tips on what tactic to play guys, cause im struggling beyond words...

12 points after 10 games

And Gabby is playing terrible as a target man run to the ball

This is the second time i tried with Villa, cant seem to find any working tactic

[tottivillarossi]

4231:

gk

dr cb cb dl

cm cm

amr am aml

st

full backs - attack

centre backs - defend

one cm (Ireland preferably) - deep lying playmaker - support

one cm - central midfielder - defend

amr & aml - inside forwards

am - trequarista

st - poacher

team tactics:

balanced

standard (switch between that, counter and control)

passing short

default everything else

This is mine (I ended up finishing second in the league!)

[jimi m]

i went for samba players this year with villa, i didnt mean to sign so many brazilians it just happened, got jo on loan from city,rafael on loan from man u,guliano is a great young right winger at 20 years of age paid 8 million for him also bought dodo a young left back. I bought areola as my future keeper hes only 17 has a long way to go yet but il keep giving him appearences.

Cant get rid of heskey,sold sidwell and most of my young players are out on loan.

[artvanderlay]

start of my second season & after a take over by some random who secured a loan against the club ( glazier style) he only gave me £16m to spend.

luckilly i had already agreed deals for ducasse ( bordeaux) & afellay (psv) both on bosmans.

finaly i managed to dump heskey who went to stoke on a free, also out were dunne to chelsea (4.1m) petrov to schalke (1.3m)

with thoss players gone i decided to splash my budget on akinfeev from cska (15m) & zarate from lazio (15m) both over instalments.

with the first transfer window closed im currently top of the leage by 2 points......

finished the season in 3rd after a good jan transfer window helping me thru till the end.

bought in micah richards - 4.5m (man city)

luis suarez - 18m (ajax)

looking forward to testing my wits in the champions league.

p.s still no one wants emile heskey!!!!!!! (have fun rotting in my u18's)

Originally Posted by artvanderlay

started one with villa this morning & got some great buys.

santa cruz - season long loan. (man city)

hutton - straight swap for downing

neves - 6.5 million (al ????)

bouanotte - 2.4million (river)

defour - 6.8 (standard)

mori - 1.5 (river)

paulo henrique ganso - 15m (santos)

mexes - 7m (roma)

david luiz - 7.5m (benfica)

ochoa - 2.3 (america)

most of these deals were over instalments. i also managed to get rid of some of the clubs high earners. carew - 4.8m (liverpool) sidwell - 1.5m (everton) habi beye 1m (seville) friedel - free (lens)

just about to start the busy xmas period & im in 3rd place behind chelsea & man utd.

[Spike]

Just reached the half way point of the first season & things are going pretty well so far in the league:

We also won our Europe League group (AZ, Motherwell & Unirea Urzicena). The only low point has been an early League Cup exit by my reserve team at the hands of Cardiff.

Gabby & Ash have been outstanding:

I hope the second half of the season is just as good.

[Daffie]

I finished 4th in my first season, out in second round knock out phase of the Euro cup and early exits in league and FA cup.

But unfortunately no champions league in second season??!!

Is this a bug? Top 4 should qualify... Or is it because number 5 of the EPL (Arsenal) won the champions league that season and is therefore auto qualified?

[Spike]

January has rolled around & as we are surprisingly pushing for the Premier League title I asked the board to make more transfer funds available, and even more surprisingly they agreed

With John Carew out with another injury I decided to spend the money on the capture of Edin Dzeko to partner the prolific Gabby up-front. I have also agreed contracts with Ibrahim Afellay & Marco Amelia (will act as back up to Ochoa) who will now join me in the summer.

I have already decided to let the contracts of Friedel, Young (Luke) & Carew run down and will release them in the summer (Friedel & Carew have already been replaced). I will also be selling Beye, Petrov & Heskey.

My main targets in the summer will now be a world class centre back, together with a quality right back and defensive midfielder. Any suggestions to fill these positions are welcome.

[Lugat]

A piece of advice: If you aren't sure you gave your savegame the proper name, you probably didn't. You will find out the next time you want to play, though. In short: I accidently saved over my Aston Villa save file -.-

But well that gives me some the chance to correct some mistakes I made in my last save

Out

Carew - L'Pool - 2.9M (Wasn't worth the wages)

Beye - OM - 2.5M (Too old, too expensive)

Cuellar - Villareal - 4.2M (We have enough center backs, he has the worst passing stat, he goes)

Sidwell - Everton - 1.5M (It was either him or Petrov, I usually don't find buyers for Petrov)

Also loaned out a few young players.

That makes 11M in

In

van der Wiel - RB - Ajax - 5.75M (Quality RB)

Coentrao - LB - Benfica - 5.5M (Quality LB)

Sissoko - CM - Toulouse - 15M (Very good allround player, worked wonders for me in FM2010)

Cardozo - ST - Benfica - 7.5M (Looks way better than Heskey)

Ochoa - GK - America - 5.5M (Friedel didn't want a new contract with less wages)

Hulk - ST - Porto - 18.5M (Wanted another striker because neither Gabby nor Delfouneso were up to anything much in my last save)

Renato Augusto - LM - Leverkusen - 7.5M (Young needs someone on the other wing who's actually as good as he is)

Joshua - MC - FREE (Young and looking good)

Again, everything spread over 4 years. I would have signed Paulo Henrique but the currently there's no space in the squad, I will try to get him after I got rid of either Reo-Coker or Petrov though.

My main concerns are injuries. I constantly have 3 to 4 players injured that means I just have enough players to fill the bench and sometimes my players have to play 4 full matches in 2 weeks.

Right now I'm in the middle of October and things are looking quite good, we are 4th in the League, won our two Euro League matches and progressed in the League Cup.

I also made two new signings

Roderick Miranda - CB - Benfica - 750k (Coentrao couldn't settle, so I brought this bloke in to bolster my back line and hopefully his morale)

Gary Osbourne - CD/LB - Swansea - 2M (Regen with kinda okay stats and my scout thinks he could be as good as Dunne)

Still have around 5M left but no wage budget so I decided to get rid of a few high earners (Petrov, Friedel and Heskey) before I buy any player that isn't hot prospect. Any input would be welcome

@Spike

van der Wiel is doing a great job for me at right back

[Daffie]

My main targets in the summer will now be a world class centre back, together with a quality right back and defensive midfielder. Any suggestions to fill these positions are welcome.

I bought Enoh from Ajax for DMC positions, doing pretty well so far.

Alan Hutton I have for right back, doing very good also, 15 million euros though... Got that other young promising right back from Tottenham on loan now as a back-up, has good potential.

[CMOZZA]

I finished 4th in my first season, out in second round knock out phase of the Euro cup and early exits in league and FA cup.

But unfortunately no champions league in second season??!!

Is this a bug? Top 4 should qualify... Or is it because number 5 of the EPL (Arsenal) won the champions league that season and is therefore auto qualified?

No Bug, as you say if Arsenal finished 5th but won the CL then they get the right to defend the trophy at the 4th placed teams expense, which unfortunately in this circumstance is Aston Villa

[JamboLad]

Half way through my second season and I managed to give Emile Heskey a free transfer feels like a relief... I will do a proper update at the end of Season 2 and include Season 1's ins and outs etc Trying to really transform the team for Season 3.