FM11: Newcastle United Team Guide @ Sports Interactive @ SJP.com

[col_nufc1]

Happy days the forum is back

I am thinking about starting another new save with Newcastle. With my emphasis being to sign younger players and try to develop them into good players.

I will only use the English leagues as playable with every other league selected as view only for quickness although that might change depending on how many players are on that database.

[DandyDon]

Happy days the forum is back

I am thinking about starting another new save with Newcastle. With my emphasis being to sign younger players and try to develop them into good players.

I will only use the English leagues as playable with every other league selected as view only for quickness although that might change depending on how many players are on that database.

I always run as large a database as I think my pc can handle and plenty of playable leagues so I can go wandering if I feel like it. Currently have 43 leagues playable across 22 nations with 1120,000 players. Not the quickest of save games, but plenty options.

[col_nufc1]

I always run as large a database as I think my pc can handle and plenty of playable leagues so I can go wandering if I feel like it. Currently have 43 leagues playable across 22 nations with 1120,000 players. Not the quickest of save games, but plenty options.

I used to do that but it used to take ages to complete a season. I also never leave the club I start with either so loading loads of playable leagues was pointless, so i used to load players from every continent with the leagues selected as view only.

There is only 16,000 players on the English leagues only database so I should fly through the seasons

[col_nufc1]

For some reason Lorient are refusing my bids for Kevin Gameiro, the last bid I made was for £10m but I am sure on previous saves I have signed him for £6-7m in the 1st season :confused:.

[DandyDon]

2010/11 Season Update March to May

Going in to April we actually went top of the table for a while after beating Birmingham, and we were in with a shot at winning the title. We held on to top spot for two weeks with Ben Arfa finding some great form after an injury lay off, but the draw with City and defeat to Spurs let Chelsea in and pretty much put pay to our chances of winning.

Chelsea were relentless toward the end, recovering from a blip after their defeat in the League Cup, to take 26 points from a possible 30. We were given some slim hope when they drew with Man Utd and lost to Man City in the space of a week, but they then beat Wolves 8-0 in their penultimate game and brought that form to SJP. Stomping us 3-0 to gain revenge for their defeat in the LC final.

Final League Table

I wasn't too worried by that last day defeat as we'd secured second place in the league and automatic qualification for the riches of the Champions League. We'd also done it playing the attacking football I wanted (though as you can see by the goals against column that did come at a cost )

Eden Hazard pipped Kevin Gameiro to the Footballer of the Year award, and there was no doubt they were our star performers. Hazard finished his first season with 7 goals, an incredible 36 assists (30 of them in the league) and an avg rating of 7.80 from 40 appearances. Gameiro' avg rating was slightly lower at 7.62 but he scored 43 goals in all competitions and provided 13 assists. 31 of his goals came in the league as he finished top scorer, 10 more than his closest rival.

Yohann Cabaye was the best of the rest of the new arrivals, pitching in with 8 goals as a deep lying playmaker. He should have had more but he missed 6 weeks with a knee injury and also had an unerring ability to hit the woodwork with his free kicks.

I went into the summer break looking to add another striker to help share the workload upfront, Tomas Necid had started well but tailed off badly in the run in and I didn't want to be so reliant on Gameiro next season. Especially considering we would have European football to cope with. I also planned to sign another keeper to take the 1st team slot as Harper was starting to decline slightly and Krul still was a little inconsistent (though he did have a very good second half of the season).

[DandyDon]

I used to do that but it used to take ages to complete a season. I also never leave the club I start with either so loading loads of playable leagues was pointless, so i used to load players from every continent with the leagues selected as view only.

There is only 16,000 players on the English leagues only database so I should fly through the seasons

I have a pretty decent pc so it doesn't take so long to play a season that I get frustrated, and I like having all those potential signings available. Also gives me plenty time to think about my tactics and signings.

[DandyDon]

For some reason Lorient are refusing my bids for Kevin Gameiro, the last bid I made was for £10m but I am sure on previous saves I have signed him for £6-7m in the 1st season :confused:.

Have you got the French leagues loaded, even as view only? I've noticed some players seem to be harder to sign if their current league isn't actually loaded, noticed it especially with some of the players at the major Spanish clubs on earlier saves. Not sure why it is though

But with French league loaded you should be able to get him for 7 million easily, I know I was.

[col_nufc1]

A very good season for you Dandy, unlucky missing out on the Premier League title but your in the Champions League next season and have also added some much needed silverware into the SJP trophy room.

[col_nufc1]

I have a pretty decent pc so it doesn't take so long to play a season that I get frustrated, and I like having all those potential signings available. Also gives me plenty time to think about my tactics and signings.

How many stars did you have for computer performance on your save ? and how long did it take you to complete the season ?

[col_nufc1]

Have you got the French leagues loaded, even as view only? I've noticed some players seem to be harder to sign if their current league isn't actually loaded, noticed it especially with some of the players at the major Spanish clubs on earlier saves. Not sure why it is though

But with French league loaded you should be able to get him for 7 million easily, I know I was.

I have the French league loaded as view only. I have finally had a £15m bid accepted for him but I won't go through with it as I have signed Benitez, Necid and Lukaku.

[DandyDon]

2.5 stars for the current save set up and I've been playing it for about 5 days, 17 hours so far (according to the game staus screen). Completed 2 seasons so far, part way through 3rd.

I have been watching a few movies, plowing through Dragon Age again and working in between.

[DandyDon]

A very good season for you Dandy, unlucky missing out on the Premier League title but your in the Champions League next season and have also added some much needed silverware into the SJP trophy room.

Cheers Col, was very satisfied with the season. The second season was even better, but also worse in some ways. I'll stick some updates on for it soon.

[col_nufc1]

2.5 stars for the current save set up and I've been playing it for about 5 days, 17 hours so far (according to the game staus screen). Completed 2 seasons so far, part way through 3rd.

I have been watching a few movies, plowing through Dragon Age again and working in between.

Is that 2.5 stars for performance or game speed ? if it's for game speed you must have a quality computer.

[DandyDon]

That's for performance, 1.5 for game speed I think. In the middle of a match now so can't check.

[DandyDon]

I have the French league loaded as view only. I have finally had a £15m bid accepted for him but I won't go through with it as I have signed Benitez, Necid and Lukaku.

Yeah...I think you're pretty covered for strikers there

[col_nufc1]

My computer says its 5 star for performance and 1/2 star for speed with 120,00 players loaded.

EDIT: Do you know what you need to upgrade in the computer to boost game speed ? more RAM maybe

[DandyDon]

My computer says its 5 star for performance and 1/2 star for speed with 120,00 players loaded.

Pretty bloody good on performance then

[DandyDon]

My computer says its 5 star for performance and 1/2 star for speed with 120,00 players loaded.

EDIT: Do you know what you need to upgrade in the computer to boost game speed ? more RAM maybe

I think more RAM would probably help yeah. I added some more to this when I upgraded my graphics card and it did give it a boost.

Right I'm off to watch True Grit on dvd, will probably be back on later to post some updates of our heartbreaking, yet life affirming second season....

[col_nufc1]

I think more RAM would probably help yeah. I added some more to this when I upgraded my graphics card and it did give it a boost.

Right I'm off to watch True Grit on dvd, will probably be back on later to post some updates of our heartbreaking, yet life affirming second season....

I might buy some then to see if it helps.

I'll start a new game tomorrow with the leagues loaded as playable instead on viewable. I am off also now.

[DandyDon]

2011/12 Pre-Season

With a great first season and a trophy in the bag I went into the transfer window looking to make some signings that would improve the squad and hopefully consolidate us as Champions League team. I wasn't too cocky though and accepted the board's expectations of a top half finish, I felt the current squad would be good enough to achieve that even if things went a bit pear shaped.

Transfer Action

1. Strikers

Again this was my top priority for the season, I wanted at least one striker capable of challenging Gameiro and Necid upfront to take the pressure off those two. I looked at several players but eventually settled on everyone's favourite large green man and Lou Ferrigno signed from Porto for a relative bargain price of £9.5 million (mostly paid over 48 months). I had made a bid for his team mate Falcao, but he wanted more than 70,000 a week in wages, while Hulk was willing to accept around 40,000. I was able to convince Feyenoord to pay £700,000 for Lovenkrands, but couldn't offload Leon Best or Ameobi for love nor money.

2. Goalkeeper

Harper and Krul had done well for us the previous season, but Harper had shown some signs of decline and I wanted at least one more 1st team Keeper. Fraser Forster didn't look quite ready so I signed David Ospina from OGC Nice after his agent touted him, then I also went in for Matej Delac from Chelsea, Ospina cost us 4 million upfront while Delac would cost us 7 million over 48 months. Ole Soderberg headed of to FC Metz for £325,000

3. Central Defence

Due to an injury plagued season for Colo our first choice partnership for most of last season had been Cahill and Shawcross. I decided that they would continue as first choice after the summer. Since Coloccini was on massive wages but might not be a regular starter I decided to offer him out to other clubs and if I got a taker I'd use the money to sign someone slightly younger. We offered him out for a price of £9 million, but the best offers we received were from Wolves for £7.75 million and Wolfsburh for £7million. In the end he chose Wolves and I used the money to buy Scott Dann from relegated Birmingham for £6.5million.

4. Fullbacks

I felt we were pretty well covered in this area apart from Danny Simpson complaining about not getting enough games, he'd demanded a transfer but looked like there wouldn't be any takers until Leicester put in a bid in the last week of the window. I gladly accepted the 1.2million bid and on transfer deadline day snapped up Sebastien Corchia from Le Mans for £6million. He'd been a target last season but had turned us down, now with Champions League football we were a much more agreeable prospect.

5. Wingers

Xherdan Shaqiri arrived on the 1st of July, completing a deal I set up last summer. He'd provide extra cover for both flanks which meant I know had plenty of options with Hulk also able to offer cover in the wide positions.

6. Central Midfield

There were no new arrivals here in the summer. Joey Barton did return from his loan at Napoli as they decided not to make the deal permanent, but I still wasn't happy with his reaction to the sale of Nolan last summer and offered him out on sale again right at the start of pre-season. We eventually got a £5million bid from Hoffenheim and Joey was off to Germany.

2011/12 Season August to October

We got off to a relative flyer in the league winning our first 4 matches, including a 4-0 demolition of the defending champions Chelsea. Hulk bagging a hattrick while playing as the AMR (Niakhaichyk was out injured so I decided to give Hulk a go out there). I was rather dismayed to see we had Real Madrid in our group for the Champions League, but felt we had a good chance both home and away against the other two teams, Fenerbahce and Cluj.

Spurs brought us back down to earth with a bump in the league, they are establishing themselves as something of a bogey team having knocked us out of the FA cup last season, and scuttling any chance we had of the league. To add insult to injury we followed up the Spurs game by losing our hold on the League Cup, knocked out on penalties by Liverpool.

We recovered from that knock to record impressive wins over Man City, Aston Villa and West Brom in the league and battered Fenerbahce and Cluj in Europe. The draws with Bolton and Everton meant we missed out on leapfrogging Arsenal at the top of the table, at Halloween they sat top with a surperior goal difference after they crucified poor Reading 9-0.

Tomas Necid had struggled for the first few matches, and with Niakhaichyk fit again I was considering dropping him to the bench and playing Hulk and Gameiro as the front pair. He changed my mind by scoring 3 goals in 2 games and winning MoM awards in both of those.

[col_nufc1]

Hulk will be a star for you, he has been my favourite striker on FM11 and he just scores goals for fun as a poacher .

[col_nufc1]

As I said I have started a new game today and we are now in December as I have been playing FM all day today.

I have loaded all leagues in these countries as playable Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Croatia, England, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Scotland, Spain, Turkey, Ukraine, USA so my game will be slow but it should be more fun.

I got rid of all the staff at the club except Peter Beardsley, Derek Wright, Graham Carr and Norman Wooster. I took your advice Dandy and signed Roberto Rojas as my assiatant manager as he looks very good.

I signed these coaches Chico Fraga, Luvanor, Julio Tous, Narciso, Paul Winsper, Ray Clemence, Doctor Khumalo, Ze Mario, Fabio Mahseredjian, Dave Watson. I athen signed Gary Lewin as a Physio and loads of scouts including Faustino Asprilla and Renatinho.

I started the season playing a 4-4-2 with advanced wingers but I wasn't really happy with how we were playing so early on I changed our formation to a 4-2-3-1 deep and therefore will sell some of the strikers we signed as they are no longer needed.

I will post a screenshot of my transfers when the January transfer window closes as I have been wheeling and dealing as usual and I can't be bothered to write them down . I used the 48 month installments method so my transfer budget of £25m for European qualification through the league became a lot more.

As I said before we have just entered December and we are doing very well and we a top of the Premier League and we are 4 points clear of second placed Tottenham Hotspur and 6 points clear of third place Blackburn Rovers .

We are also into the semi finals of the Carling cup were we play West Ham United after beating Exeter City, Swindon Town, Liverpool and Chelsea in the previuos rounds.

[DandyDon]

Off to a good start Col Specially dumping Liverpool and Chelsea out of the cup

Blackburn were strangely decent on a couple of my saves, absolute bogey team on an earlier Newcastle save.

[col_nufc1]

The January transfer window has now closed and these were our transfers in the first season. I used the 48 month installments method so my transfer budget of £25m for European qualification through the league became a lot more.

These were the staff changes I made in the first season.

[col_nufc1]

Damn it Manchester United have just pinched my scout John Park although with him having a 5 year contract we got £600k compensation.

[DandyDon]

Damn it Manchester United have just pinched my scout John Park although with him having a 5 year contract we got £600k compensation.

I spent this the summer between second and third seasons fending off Man utd offers for my staff. They spent August going though each one in turn offering them a contract and I've had to offer them all new deals on higher wages to hang on to them, bloody vultures.

[col_nufc1]

NEWCASTLE END OF SEASON ONE REVIEW.

We have had a great first season at Newcastle with us doing the double of the Premier League and the Carling cup.

We were crowned champions of the Premier League with three games still to play but complacency set in and we only managed to pick up one point from them games so we could of had a better points finish.

I introduced some youngsters to the side and the player that impressed the most was young Haris Vuckic who towards the last third of the season made the AMC role his own. Joey Barton tutored him in the first half of the season with Yohan Cabeye tutoring him in the scond half of the season with great sucess uping his determination to 16. I used Major Raver training schedule this season and quite a lot of our players improved.

PREMIER LEAGUE TABLE.

IN THE CUPS.

Carling Cup final. Newcastle United 4-1 Blackburn Rovers.

FA cup 4th round. Sheffield United 2-0 Newcastle United.

CARLING CUP FIXTURES.

THE SQUAD.

[col_nufc1]

I spent this the summer between second and third seasons fending off Man utd offers for my staff. They spent August going though each one in turn offering them a contract and I've had to offer them all new deals on higher wages to hang on to them, bloody vultures.

Yeah they are doing my head in now in pre season but I have managed to keep a hold of everyone so far. But John Park jumped ship even though I offered him the most we could .

EDIT: I spoke to soon they have now pinched Tino off us for £825k compensation .

[DandyDon]

2011/12 Season Update: November and December

Barring another unexpected defeat against a struggling West Ham side we had a very solid run of results as we drew closer to the end of the year. Hulk and Gameiro were in fine form, but the real star player in those two months was Tomas Necid. He'd really been finding it difficult toward the end of the previous season and for the first 7 or 8 games of this, but a few tweaks of his player instructions and 2 goals against West Brom and suddenly he was flying. Not only scoring but setting up several chances for his strike partner Gameiro.

We were pretty unlucky not to come away from the Santiago Bernabeu with a win having the greater share of possession and 21 shots on goal to their 17 but I was still delighted that we'd made it in to the knockout stages of the Champions League...with the amount of money we were spending each month the price money would be invaluable

Going into the New Year we were just ahead of Arsenal in the league but they had a game in hand and a slight goal difference advantage due to their tighter defence. I was pretty confident that if we kept playing the way we were we'd have the better goal difference by the end of the season, we were scoring well and the defence, while not exactly miserly, was a lot tighter than this same stage the previous season. The 0-0 draw with Liverpool was a pretty rare occurence for this team.

[DandyDon]

2011/12 Season Update: January to March

We hit a great run of form during the first 3 months of the year, the only points we dropped in the league were draws away to Chelsea and Aston Villa. By March we'd opened up a gap on Arsenal in second place and the goal difference had swung in our favour by virtue of our freescoring attack. We were helped by the arrival of Yann M'Vila during the January window. A couple of clubs had put bids in for him in November and I didn't want to see him end up at one of our rivals.

In the Champions League we'd drawn Roma in the first knockout round, having finished second in our group I knew we'd need a decent performance in the first leg so we could take a good lead away from home in the second. I still wasn't expecting the result we got, Necid finished the night having had 7 shots on goal and scoring with each of them.

Not surprisingly I went into the return leg feeling rather cocky and chose to rest several key players like Gameiro, Enrique, Cabaye and Shawcross. My confidence waned rather when I watched Roma take a 3-0 lead by half time and then 5-1 by the 63rd minute. They had 27 minutes left and the way both teams were playing it might have been plenty. We were saved not by any formation change or tactical brilliance on my part but by Nicolas Burdisso getting 2 yellow cards in the space of 3 minutes. With Roma down to 10 men after 65 minutes we were able to close the game out much to my relief.

We drew Athletico Madrid in the Quarters and with the Home leg first we again put in a brilliant performance, scoring seven, Nile Ranger in for the injured Kevin Gameiro scoring 2 of them, and setting up 2 of Hulk's hattrick, but I was worried that conceding three away goals would come back to haunt us.

[DandyDon]

2011/12 Season Update: The final run in

We started April with a rare 0-0 draw at home to Arsenal, this meant they'd lost a chance to close the gap on us leaving us with some breathing space as the season drew to a close. Heading out to Madrid with a four goal cushion we almost blew it against Athletico as they mauled us 3-0 but couldn't quite find the fourth goal that would send them through on away goals. So we were through to the Champions league semis, and of course we drew Barcelona.

Injuries were beginning to mount up at this point, we'd already been missing Gameiro for several weeks by this point and Necid was struggling to maintain match fitness after having a couple niggly little injuries. We'd also lose Shawcross, Cahill, Cabaye, M'Vila and Hulk for various short spells over the last month or so.

Despite the injury problems after getting through against Athletico we managed a 1-0 win over Man Utd at SJP and 1-1 draw with Sunderland in the league. That meant we'd go into the last 3 games of the season 6 points clear of Arsenal. With the league table looking like this:

Our last three games in the league would be away to Wigan, at home to Wolves and finishing away at Liverpool. Despite the mounting injury crisis I was confident of getting the points we needed. In the Champions League we went to the Nou Camp and came home with a very creditable 3-2 loss, the 2 away goals giving us at least a chance of getting through, assuming we could keep enough strikers fit to score in the home leg of course.

The first of those last 3 league games ended in a 1-1 draw at Wigan. Despite taking the lead through Necid and having 24 shots on goal to Wigan's 8, we just could not find a winner after Rodallega equalised. Ranger was very wasteful, not hitting the target once with any of his 5 shots. Poor Yohann Cabaye managed 12 shots on goal, mostly from range, hitting the woodwork on two occasions from free kicks.

I soon forgot about that frustrating result when we turned in what was probably our best performance of the season so far. Barcelona arrived at SJP with a goal advantage but went home empty handed as scored twice, had 56% of the possession and managed to keep a clean sheet. Hulk had recovered enough from a knock that I decided to risk him and dropped Nile Ranger back to the bench. I was rewarded with Hulk scoring the opener only 3 minutes into the game. 1-0 would have been good enough for us considering the away goals but Yann M'Vila made sure of things on the 86th minute, smacking the ball home after Hazard's shot rebounded off Caceres. Unfortunately Hulk picked up an ankle injury which would keep him out for 10 days, meaning he'd miss the last 2 games of the league season.

That probably proved to be the turning point in the league even with Arsenal only managing a draw against Burnley in their second last game. With so many players out injured or not fully match fit we contrived to lose our last two games. Even then we should still have won the title as Arsenal could only equal us on points after that draw with Burnley, but on the last day we slumped to a horrible 5-1 defeat at Liverpool that allowed them to snatch it from us on goal difference, by just one goal. To make things worse we missed a penalty and Ranger missed several clearcut chanes to score near the end of the game. Just one of those going in would have been enough.

I don't think I've had such a run of bad luck, injuries and poor performances that close to winning the league, we were agonisingly close but it wasn't to be.

We still had the Champions League final to play though, and luckily the break between the final and our last league gave some of our key players time they needed to recover from injury, or regain some fitness levels. I was able to field Gameiro and Necid upfront, with Hulk and Hazard in the wings in probably our strongest attacking line up. We faced Real Madrid in the final, having already played them twice in the group stage. They found us a very different proposition this time round.

This totally superseded the Barcelona game as our best performance of the season, crushing them 3-0 with a massive 29 shots on goal and 60% of possession. Kevin Gameiro winning man of the match for his 2 goals just after half time that put us in the driving seat, substitute Pavel Niakhaichyk putting the icing on the cake in the 89th minute.

April and May Fixtures

2011/12 Final League Table

Players Stats

I was pretty gutted with how things panned out over those last few games, even with beating Real in the final, but I couldn't complain too much about the players performances. With three players in the squad managing to score more than 30 goals and Eden Hazard managing a whopping 52 assists for the season. (player bonuses were pretty expensive though!)

Hazard retained his Footballer of the Year crown, but Hulk picked up the players Player of the Year award. Not surprisingly Gameiro was the season's top scorer again, though not by quite the margin he'd won it the previous year.

I have a squad I'm largely very happy with, but the way the injuries mounted up toward the end and the way we capitulated in the league means I want to add a little more depth, and also improve the quality of the fringe players. Some of them hadn't performed too well toward the end of the season when called upon. Nile Ranger had a run of games deputising for Gameiro, and apart from one good game in Europe had a horrible habit of missing sitter after sitter.

I've arranged a deal with Tottenham for Kyle Walker and he'll arrive at the start of the transfer window, also signed a promising young regen winger from Burnley. Sergio Asenjo will arrive on a free from Athletico Madrid when his contract expires as will the Brazilian winger/attacking midfielder Willian from Shakhtar Donetsk. May also bring in a couple of older players over the summer to be back ups, but also provide some experience and tutors for the youth players.

With any luck we'll be able to go one step further in the league next season and do it in style.

[SeanH91]

I've started a new save with Newcastle on 11.3, but have done some database tweaks (removed injuries, given us Cabaye, Ba, Marveaux, Abeid, removed Campbell, Kuqi, Nolan and also altered some stats of some of our players). I also lowered the transfer budget, accommodating for the players added.

Just coming up to the first game of the season and have signed just 3 players, Nathaniel Clyne, Xherdan Shaqiri and Jordan Mutch for a combined £12m. Unfortunately both Ba and Cabaye got injured in the first friendly match and neither have had a pre-season, with both due back in training the day before we open the league campaign against West Ham.

I'm very happy with the squad I have, only shortcoming could be up front with the likes of Best and Ameobi the only real cover for Ba. I suppose I'll find out soon enough, and may pick someone up in January as I still have a decent chunk of the £15m budget left having used the 48 month payment scheme for the 3 I've already brought in.

GK: Harper, Krul

DR: Simpson, Clyne, R.Taylor

DL: Enrique, Ferguson, Clyne

DC: S.Taylor, Williamson

DC: Coloccini, Kadar

DM: Tiote, Mutch, Gosling

MC: Barton, Guthrie

MC: Cabaye, Gosling

AMR: Ben Arfa, Shaqiri

AML: Marveaux, Jonas

ST: Ba, Best, Ameobi

Also have the likes of LuaLua, Ranger, Lovenkrands etc... lingering around. I did plan on selling/loaning them out but nobody seems keen, so they'll just sit and cover incase of any injury crisis.

P.S. Btw just incase anyone wondered/cares, I used to be NUFCSean

[DandyDon]

Welcome back then Sean

I'd definitely recommend getting in another striker if you can in the January window, Ameobi, Best and Lovenkrands never really showed anything for me when they were given a chance.

How do Marveaux and Abeid look btw? I thought about buying in Marveaux when I bought Cabaye but he had a long term injury at the time

[SeanH91]

Welcome back then Sean

I'd definitely recommend getting in another striker if you can in the January window, Ameobi, Best and Lovenkrands never really showed anything for me when they were given a chance.

How do Marveaux and Abeid look btw? I thought about buying in Marveaux when I bought Cabaye but he had a long term injury at the time

Thanks

Yeah I think I may regret not getting in a striker, I was offered Benitez for £1.8m but rejected and he's now gone to Sao Paulo.

Well I removed Marveaux's injury for starters, and he looks quite good tbh. Very quick and has 15's for dribbling and crossing so should get some good balls in from the left. I've had Abeid before on another save and he progressed really really well, but I think he's a

-9

so I may have gotten lucky

[SeanH91]

Sorry for the double post but I've just had a news item saying Harper's picked up an injury in training and will be out for 5 months :| Time for Krul to step up, and I may loan in a backup keeper until January just incase something happens to Tim too!

[DandyDon]

Sorry for the double post but I've just had a news item saying Harper's picked up an injury in training and will be out for 5 months :| Time for Krul to step up, and I may loan in a backup keeper until January just incase something happens to Tim too!

I got pretty lucky with injuries in the first season, none to either Krul or Harper. I'd probably have been stuffed if it had.

[SeanH91]

Brought in Jack Butland on loan until January, was about the best of a bad bunch available tbh. He is better than Sodeberg though, and he shouldn't have to play much at all.

Got off to a good start at Upton Park, winning 2-1 but probably should have been 3 or 4. Ba scored on his debut with Lovenkrands coming off the bench to bang one in from 18 yards, off the post and in! Lapse of concentration in the last 5 minutes saw them score from a corner, but the game ended with a 2-1 win.

Next up was Arsenal at St. James', again we got off to a flyer with Steven Taylor scoring a Joey Barton corner. Then 10 minutes later Barton played a perfect through ball for another debutant, Ben Arfa, to score and put us 2-0 up. It was all Arsenal after that though, but they were very wasteful in front of goal, missing a good 4 or 5 chances to get back into it. Eventually in the 79th minute Vermaelen headed in from a free kick delivered by Fabregas. It wasn't enough though and we again won 2-1

One thing that's annoyed me though in the 2 games, I've had Jonas against West Ham then Ba against Arsenal both get 5.7 match ratings I've hardly ever had any below 6 ratings before, then to get 2 in 2 games is a bit frustrating.

[col_nufc1]

Welcome back Sean

For your keeper problems try and sign Vincent Enyeama, you can sign him for £230k and he is quality. I have sold him in the second season for £8.75m though due to me signing Igor Akinfeev but he is a very good cheap keeper.

[col_nufc1]

One thing that's annoyed me though in the 2 games, I've had Jonas against West Ham then Ba against Arsenal both get 5.7 match ratings I've hardly ever had any below 6 ratings before, then to get 2 in 2 games is a bit frustrating.

Do you use the player interaction ? when players play badly and get a 6.4 or below rating I will tell them that it wasn't good enough and then fine them 1 weeks wages (normally they increase either determination or workrate if they agree they played badly). On the other hand though I praise players when they have a good game and normally they will have you as favoured personel after a while.

[SeanH91]

Do you use the player interaction ? when players play badly and get a 6.4 or below rating I will tell them that it wasn't good enough and then fine them 1 weeks wages (normally they increase either determination or workrate if they agree they played badly). On the other hand though I praise players when they have a good game and normally they will have you as favoured personel after a while.

I don't usually but for those 2 games I issued both an official warning for poor performance, to which both agreed. Jonas certainly upped his game for the Arsenal game, let's see if Demba follows suit.

[DandyDon]

Do you use the player interaction ? when players play badly and get a 6.4 or below rating I will tell them that it wasn't good enough and then fine them 1 weeks wages (normally they increase either determination or workrate if they agree they played badly). On the other hand though I praise players when they have a good game and normally they will have you as favoured personel after a while.

I don't think I've fined a player yet on FM11, too many bad experiences with players throwing a strop for just getting a warning. :confused:

[SeanH91]

Welcome back Sean

For your keeper problems try and sign Vincent Enyeama, you can sign him for £230k and he is quality. I have sold him in the second season for £8.75m though due to me signing Igor Akinfeev but he is a very good cheap keeper.

Enyeama's already gone off to Galatasaray Think I may have sorted out a striker though, Diego Costa of Atletico Madrid's agent just offered him out, and a £2.4m bid was enough to let Atletico talk to me. He does want £40k a week though, but hopefully he improves as much as my scout says he will to make it worth it

[col_nufc1]

I don't think I've fined a player yet on FM11, too many bad experiences with players throwing a strop for just getting a warning. :confused:

Of course they can kick up a fuss but that rarely happens but usually I will talk with them and tell them that they deserved the fine which 99% of the time they will agree but for those that don't do you really want a player with no respect for your decisions ? I don't and I usually transfer list them.

[col_nufc1]

Enyeama's already gone off to Galatasaray Think I may have sorted out a striker though, Diego Costa of Atletico Madrid's agent just offered him out, and a £2.4m bid was enough to let Atletico talk to me. He does want £40k a week though, but hopefully he improves as much as my scout says he will to make it worth it

Thats a shame about Enyeama. I signed Diego Costa as well as back up in the first season but he has never played well for me though

[SeanH91]

Well it seems Ba certainly took that warning to heart, coming out against Blackpool and scoring a 15 minute hattrick! Also seems FM loves a debutant, with Ba and Ben Arfa bagging a goal each on their debuts, this time it was Marveaux's turn to turn on the style. Having set up 2 of Ba's 3 goals, he went and set up another 2 (that's 4 in the one match) of a very comfortable 9-0 victory over the seasiders

[col_nufc1]

Thats a very impressive win Sean 9-0 .

I am also having fun with picking opponent players as the weak link and unsettling them as well as putting managers that are under pressure via the press .

[SeanH91]

Excellent start to the season, just hoping Ba keeps up his goalscoring form and Barton carries on pulling the strings (he has 8 assist in 7 appearances )

[SeanH91]

Really don't ****ing believe it! Krul's gone an injured his arm, out for 4 weeks :| Up steps Jack Butland between the sticks.

[DandyDon]

Really don't ****ing believe it! Krul's gone an injured his arm, out for 4 weeks :| Up steps Jack Butland between the sticks.

Ouch! Hope FM is as kind to your debutant goalkeeper as your attackers Sean

[ivans]

anyone think they know how where going to set up this season and play?