FM12: Manchester City Thread - Time To Build An Empire

[revisisland]

Has Richards passing or crossing increased? Also what does Kompany's stats look like now? Did they make Silva better? Thanks

[tomtuck01]

So in my save I have had a few injuries recently to my attacking midfielders, I therefore have played Yaya Toure there, and the results, especially in the last match, have been devastating;

That's now five goals in his last three games at AMC! I might persist with this.

[Barnetboyz]

glad to see you got Cahill as well tucker

how much did you happe to spend on him?

[tomtuck01]

T'is further up the page.

As some of you have mentioned, I too have signed Gary Cahill. I got im for £10.5million plus 20% of the profit from next sale.

I wasn't going to bring in a central defender initially, as there is already a good number of decent CB's at the club. But after a couple of my defenders picked up knocks, I needed one, and he was the best value for money player available.

[Barnetboyz]

Ahhh ok

paid £12M before i forgot to save before shutting down my demo save

[tomtuck01]

Also, managed to get Sergio Busqets for £13.5million, though he would arrive in January. I'm sure the low fee is only because it's the demo and the Spanish league isn't loaded though.

[Barnetboyz]

Charity Shield won on penalties with Hargreaves scoring during the 90 mins and then scoring the winning penalty

hit the woodwork 3 times ffs

[Madmario]

Does anyone know whether the new training facility is in the game ie will there be a significant upgrade of facilities from season 2014/14??

[TheInvisibleMan]

I can't get rid of Tevez! Nobody seems to want to pay the money or can afford his wages. How much did people get for him?

[RvN#17]

16m pounds is the going price, everyone who bought him, bought him for that price.

[tmason122]

City are looking unreal (just like in IRL).... and look at that transfer budget?! It almost seems too easy with them

[RvN#17]

They wont look unreal when you see this, they managed to win against Rubin home 5:0 and lost 5:2 away

[JD nawrat]

Okay guys, time to get this thread properly kickstarted. Somebody out there must be using them?

As for my save, just some thoughts:

Kompany and Lescott look like they'll be a fantastic centre back pairing for at least one season. Lescott looks like he's had a massive improvement since last season (deservedly so, imo). Savic will turn into an awesome player too, I think. He was originally going to partner Kompany, but I think for the sake of winning the title in season 1, I'll start Lescott. I'm annoyed that I can't recall Boyata, because he was my best and most consitent player on FM11. Kolo will stay around until the end of the season where I'll sell him and bring back Boyata... then I'll suspect Savic will become my starting CB alongside Kompany.

Richards and Zabaleta are, as always, criminally underrated. Micah's Dribbling(8), Crossing(7) and Passing(8) are all underrated, I think. They should all be around 12, 14, 14 respectively, in my opinion. The amount of improvement he has managed on all three of those areas of his game in the last 18 months is fantastic. Zabaleta's Marking(13) and Tackling (14) should be much higher, I think.

Hart's mentals are terrible. He should be better all-round for the majority of those stats.

The midfield looks fantastic. Milner especially seems to have undergone a huge improvement. I can definitely see myself using him frequently throughout the season. Silva, Nasri, Aguero will be devastating I'm sure, too. de Jong will be great defensively. Yaya I'm unsure of. He's great as a balanced all-rounder, but I'm not a big fan of him on FM.

Anyway, my transfers will probably be non-existent. If anything, I'll be selling Tevez and bringing in a new striker (currently looking at Giampaolo Pazzini and Papiss Cissé). But I'll only be doing that if I can offload Tevez for a decent-ish fee (£20M at least, hopefully). I might also bring in a back-up goalkeeper, but only because Pantilimon isn't great looking and he is only on loan. I dunno who to buy instead, though. I may wait until Season 2 before bringing anybody in.

My problem is that the squad is quite bare. I need a winger or two, especially. I think I'm going to bring in Junior Hoilett (a favourite of mine) for a start. But, at the same time, I might not use a formation that uses any wingers...

I'm going to try and work on a sell-before-I-buy basis, unless it's absolutely vital that I need somebody.

In terms of my formation, I'm probably going to use these 3 as my main choices:

4-3-2-1

4-2-2-2

4-2-3-1

First game of the season will be an interesting one... Manchester United at Old Trafford. I can't wait. I'm going to go and smash them (hopefully). Before that I've still got all of my pre-season matches and Community Shield still tog et through.

And just as I post this, my FM crashes and I didn't have anything saved. So I need to restart all over again. Fantastic. Just wonderful. I now need to recreate my tactics, bring in all of my staff again and go through other tedious crap. I'm pretty pissed off. The last 90 minutes down the drain for nothing.

[samiam]

Okay guys, time to get this thread properly kickstarted. Somebody out there must be using them?

As for my save, just some thoughts:

Kompany and Lescott look like they'll be a fantastic centre back pairing for at least one season. Lescott looks like he's had a massive improvement since last season (deservedly so, imo). Savic will turn into an awesome player too, I think. He was originally going to partner Kompany, but I think for the sake of winning the title in season 1, I'll start Lescott. I'm annoyed that I can't recall Boyata, because he was my best and most consitent player on FM11. Kolo will stay around until the end of the season where I'll sell him and bring back Boyata... then I'll suspect Savic will become my starting CB alongside Kompany.

Richards and Zabaleta are, as always, criminally underrated. Micah's Dribbling(8), Crossing(7) and Passing(8) are all underrated, I think. They should all be around 12, 14, 14 respectively, in my opinion. The amount of improvement he has managed on all three of those areas of his game in the last 18 months is fantastic. Zabaleta's Marking(13) and Tackling (14) should be much higher, I think.

Hart's mentals are terrible. He should be better all-round for the majority of those stats.

The midfield looks fantastic. Milner especially seems to have undergone a huge improvement. I can definitely see myself using him frequently throughout the season. Silva, Nasri, Aguero will be devastating I'm sure, too. de Jong will be great defensively. Yaya I'm unsure of. He's great as a balanced all-rounder, but I'm not a big fan of him on FM.

Anyway, my transfers will probably be non-existent. If anything, I'll be selling Tevez and bringing in a new striker (currently looking at Giampaolo Pazzini and Papiss Cissé). But I'll only be doing that if I can offload Tevez for a decent-ish fee (£20M at least, hopefully). I might also bring in a back-up goalkeeper, but only because Pantilimon isn't great looking and he is only on loan. I dunno who to buy instead, though. I may wait until Season 2 before bringing anybody in.

My problem is that the squad is quite bare. I need a winger or two, especially. I think I'm going to bring in Junior Hoilett (a favourite of mine) for a start. But, at the same time, I might not use a formation that uses any wingers...

I'm going to try and work on a sell-before-I-buy basis, unless it's absolutely vital that I need somebody.

In terms of my formation, I'm probably going to use these 3 as my main choices:

4-3-2-1

4-2-2-2

4-2-3-1

First game of the season will be an interesting one... Manchester United at Old Trafford. I can't wait. I'm going to go and smash them (hopefully). Before that I've still got all of my pre-season matches and Community Shield still tog et through.

And just as I post this, my FM crashes and I didn't have anything saved. So I need to restart all over again. Fantastic. Just wonderful. I now need to recreate my tactics, bring in all of my staff again and go through other tedious crap. I'm pretty pissed off. The last 90 minutes down the drain for nothing.

Huge bummer when you forget to save.

Micah richardss at mid-teens for technical ability? lets be serious... 10,11,12? sure. Mid teens? definitely not.

Onto your formation - I like your last formation best. I fear that things will get very congested in the middle of the park without wide players in your other formations. Especially since micah richards isnt a true wingback and won't going to be beating people down the line and whipping in crosses. Why not play your first formation except have nasri and silva start wide and come in. That seems to be the trend in football these days, as opposed to starting inside and moving towards the touchline (away from where you ultimately want to be, the goal).

I like playing with a team like city because it really tests your ability to tactically manage the game as you can never complain or use the excuse that your team is not good enough, because they are!

[JD nawrat]

Turns out I had saved some stuff, just not my coaches etc., so I'm having to redo some of it.

Micah's crossing has massively improved in the last 18 months, same for his dribbling. Perhaps his passing I was being generous with, but the way he takes the ball past players and delivers dangerous crosses is excellent. He reminds me of Walcott in a technical sense, who has 11 for Passing, 12 for Crossing and 14 for Dribbling. He's definitely comparable to them, I'd say.

I rarely create a formation with the idea of putting crosses in with any team (I do it sometimes, especially with Rennes in France). But never with City - I reckon we are a team which should work on passing and moving around the pitch, much like we do in real life. Crosses every now and again are okay, but very rarely will I look to playing the ball in from wide. Therefore, my idea with the 4-3-2-1 is that de Jong is there to defend, Yaya is to support, both scoring and defending, whereas Milner is to sit in between both, but defend moreso than attack. Silva and Nasri are there to both score and thread through to Aguero for goals. The idea of congesting the centre of the pitch so much is to allow me to play intricate passing and movements and get the ball through to Aguero.

Much the same for the 4-2-2-2, except Yaya and de Jong are definitely more defensive, with the front four being for attacking. They've all got roaming on to allow them to find space themselves, with very high creative freedom to allow for whatever they want. The idea is organised chaos, really. I've got Nasri and Silva switching positions on all formations, too.

The 4-2-3-1 is a formation I use with most teams as it's pretty universal and easy to use. It's effective all over the pitch, except a little weaker in defence. If necessary I will turn to that. It won't be my first choice because the other two allow me to play Nasri and Silva through the middle where they are undoubtedly more effective.

On 11 with City I was pretty successful... I won the League every season I played (8 of them) and won the CL 3 times, as well as around 4 FA Cups and 5 League Cups (or something like that). I don't think it's particularly hard, to be honest. I just do it because I'm a City fan. If it is a test of tactical management, then it must mean I'm pretty good at it.

[JD nawrat]

My start to the season, now that I'm done with games for the month of August. I have to say that, whilst I'm very happy with my teams overall performances, I'm disappointed that Aguero and Dzeko haven't scored a competitive goal yet. Dzeko has only started two of the three, whereas Aguero has started all of them. But neither have taken any of the several chances they've had. Dzeko has 1 assist, Aguero has zero. On FM11 I couldn't stop Aguero from scoring, and now he can't do anything. I'm at a loss. I'll get it sorted eventually, though, I'm sure.

My Champions League group will be a tough one - Porto, Milan, Man City, Dortmund. I'm expecting 13 points from it (win all 3 home games, win in Portugal, draw in Germany, lose in Italy)... I don't think that's optimistic at all, haha.

[Come_On_You_Spurs]

JDownie: Great thread, mate. I'm starting a City save to alternate with my Spurs save. Despite having no ties to City in real life, I want to keep things realistic, so Tevez will hopefully never play for me. Were you able to sell him in your game, and if so, how much did you get for him?

[JD nawrat]

Cheers COYS. I was able to sell Tevez, aye - to Inter for £16M. I may have been able to bump the price up a little, but I was prepared to accept anything above £15M for him really.

My current season if going pretty well. I have won all 9 of my competitive games so far, which includes 2 v Man United and 1 v Borussia Dortmund. My next game is v Milan though, so it will be interesting.

In the League I have a record of P6, W6, GF15, GA2, GD+13 which is pretty impressive, huh? Well, Spurs (who are top) have a record of P6, W6, GF18, GA0, GD+18... they haven't even made a single signing. Looks like they will be very interesting rivals. I can't wait to play them.

On a side note, I was reading through the thread and noticed that people were wondering about coaches. I've not got any fantastic setups or anything, but here is my coaches and star rating, if anybody cares to nick them. Of course some areas could be improved, but I didn't want to spend too long searching for coaches when, in my experience, 4* and above is definitely good enough.

If for whatever reason you can't read those coaches, their names are: Mauro Tassotti, Jim Blyth, Harald Schumacher, Massimo Bonini, Attilio Lombardo, Fausto Salsano, Paul Winsper, Bruno Demichelis, David Platt

I hope some of you find use of this.

[Come_On_You_Spurs]

Thanks, JD. I'm just about to get to August. Not messing with the team too much, as there's obviously a lot of quality already. I signed Hulk for 30m, to alternate with Adam Johnson on the right. I had a ton of success with Johnson in the demo, so he will get his chance. Savic has been moved out on loan to get some match experience. I'm working on getting rid of Tevez, and currently his asking price is 30m. By the time the deadline approaches, I'll bring it to 20 to see if I can get any bites. I have teams interested, but they're scared by his wages. If he doesn't go, he will rot in the reserves until January, when I will try again.

[bluemoon]

I've just started my City save - using my own slightly altered database - I haven't finished pre-season yet, but, despite only making one signing (Alphonse Areola) we're playing well and gelling quickly. I'm using the same formation as Damocles posted.

I was able to get shot of Tevez for £20m (over 48 months) to Inter, though I am having to subsidise his wages. Anybody bought Hummels to partner Vinnie? I'm pondering buying him to replace Lescott.

[matty2323]

United fan here, just thought i would congratulate all you city fans on your teams fantastic performance. pure class.

[Raymubdo21]

United fan here, just thought i would congratulate all you city fans on your teams fantastic performance. pure class.

Cheers matty 2323, Just one of those days for united and city, and who wanted it more.....

[Simsejensen77]

United fan here, just thought i would congratulate all you city fans on your teams fantastic performance. pure class.

Thanks alot! What an epic match!

[Simsejensen77]

Nice.. My first season with City is finally done - and boy what a season!

Premier League winners with 106 points, runners up was Arsenal with 82. 38 played - 4 draws - 0 losses

Champions League winners, played against Chelsea in the final - won 2-1 in a tight match!

I also won the "smaller" cups as Community Shield, FA Cup and League Cup also.

A truly epic and magnificent season, hopefully my second season ends in a disaster.

[rocky0]

Man United fan here as well. I also offer congrats on today, City really put on an amazing display. Hopefully it leads to a good season coming down to the end for the title.

I have always played as Man United and I hvae grown a little bored with that save so I thought i would try something new. As I know nothing about Man City, living in the US and all, I was wondering about the staff. Is the staff worth keeping around when I start a new game or are some of them not worth keeping?? I would appreciate some advice on the coaches and scouts as well.

Mucho thanks

[JD nawrat]

In terms of coaches, have a quick look above in this thread at my screenshot. I more or less got rid of the majority of the staff, hanging onto only 3 (I think) of my coaches. I haven't yet changed physios or scouts, but if last year is anything to go by, you'll want to change most of that too if you hope to get top quality. The current setup is decent, but isn't going to make any real difference to your club.

[rocky0]

Ok thanks for the info JDownie, I appreciate it

[ollie laaaaaaaad]

Just loading up my Man City game now looking to bring in mtas Hummels and Gotze from Dortmund. Anybody got thoughts on coaches to remove and coaches to bring in?

[JD nawrat]

No problem, rocky0.

ollie laaaaaaaad, I've posted my setup for coaches just above. Here is the image again, if you're interested in borrowing my setup for coaches which isn't bad. It could be beter, admittedly. But it isn't terrible. I didn't want to spend much longer than I did finding good coaches etc so I settled with the best I could find in a 20 minute time period. Relatively solid coaches, with slight room for improvement in a few areas.

Anyway, I haven't played my Man City save (or FM at all for that matter) since Saturday. I think I'll have to play some tonight.

[JD nawrat]

Not bad. Currently doing well in the Premier League too. 14 games in, I have 11 wins, 2 draws and 1 defeat. I'm currently 1 ahead of both Spurs and Arsenal.

In terms of signings, I have agreed a £30M for Edinson Cavani who'll join me on January 1. I need him because Dzeko isn't very good to be honest. Aguero is doing well - 13 goals is 16(1), but I feel like he needs competition up front, and seeing as Cavani/Aguero/Tevez were my trio on 11, I might as well go for it on 12 (with less Tevez). Nasri is in scintillating form. 9 goals and 5 assists in 14(1) games for me. Kompany has been my standout this season so far though. in 18(1), he has 5 goals, 3 assists and an average match rating of 7.65.

Currently only aiming for the Premier League and maybe the FA Cup. But I will make a proper go of the Champions League. I'm already out of the Carling Cup, so I'm not winning a quadruple this season.

[Harlequin]

Hey everyone, long-suffering Man City here. I don't usually like to play with City on FM, as I become entirely too emotionally invested in the results + our finances make the game rather easy. However, I've decided this year City will be my long term save; I want to build the club around me with everyone playing the same brand of fluid, attacking football. I also want to turn the club into a production line for young players, yet to decide if I'll just focus on majorly UK talents or allow the youth squad to become a melting pot for talent.

Decide to play a 4-2-3-1, as I feel it allows the team to attain solidity with a great deal of fluidity with the front 4. I want to play Dzeko up top, with Aguero out wide in a non-traditional ST's role, he has two good feet so either side will be fine. In order for this to work I need the other flank to be really dangerous and pull the defence across to give Aguero space. So whether Balotelli, Nasri or Johnson plays will depend on a game-game basis. Hopefully, I cans how you more what I mean when I have it fully sorted out.

As far as transfers go I had a muck around save to work out what I wanted to do and managed to sell Tevez for 33.5m to Inter. I'll definitely use that money to bring in another quality attacking option across the front four. I'd like to bring in another player capable of playing in behind the ST, i.e. the Silva role, or I'll use Nasri here and buy someone for out wide who can worry the defence. I'm also looking at buying a new CB - as Kompany is very good on the ball I might look towards a more physical, imposing defender e.g. Samba, Mangane. This would pretty much seal an exit from the club for Kolo Toure as Lescott looks much improved and Savic/Boyata will be developed/loaned. I'm also looking at strengthening the centre of the park, I want two players here who are good on the ball, but also with good ball-winning attributes. Creativity, Passing, Positioning, Tackling, Concentration, Teamwork etc.

My shortlist; I like to do this in word to give me an idea who I'm most likely to target.

LB: Gareth Bale

CB: Jan Vertonghen, Gary Cahill, Mats Hummels, Christopher Samba, Kader Managane,

Nathaniel Chalobah, Thiago Silva

RB: Gregory Van der Wiel, Sime Vrsaljko

CM: Yann M’Vila, Marek Hamsik, Luca Modric, Jack Rodwell, Jack Wilshere, Aaron Ramsey,

Javi Martinez, Maraoune Fellaini, Kwandwo Asamoah, Ross Barkly, Emre Can,

Felipe Anderson, Josh McEachran, Fernando

CAM: Douglas Costa, Lucas Moura, Ganso, Mario Gotze, Thiago

RAM: Thomas Muller, James Rodriguez, Gaston Ramirez, Nicolas Gaitan, Son Heung-Min,

Ezequiel Lavezzi, Willian

LAM: Neymar, Eden Hazard, Hulk, Christian Eriksen, Mesut Ozil

ST: Edison Cavani, Moussa Sow, Seydou Doumbia, Leandro Daimao, Iker Munian, Leandro,

Mbaye Niang

Of those a few such as Gotze, Ozil, Hazard may be long-term targets. I'll certainly butter them up.

As far as backroom staff goes I've completely cleaned shop, I'll try and edit in a pic of my coaching staff, however I'll print the names here for those who'd like to know them. I have a system for coaches which I try not to break.

Ass. Man. - Valdir de Moraes - Excellent tactical advice; I don't use him to specialist train any category

1st Team Coaches - Valter Di Salvo - Trains all categories, not specialist; very high man-management and motivating skills + JP/JC are musts

- Elio Carravetta - As above

Specialist Coaches - Paulo Cesar Batista dos Santos - Defending (4)

- Martin Keown - Tactics (4.5)

- Alexandre Grasseli - Attacking (4)

- Rodolfo Borrell - Ball Control (4.5)

- Eugenio Carlos de Souza - Shooting (4)

GK Coaches - Carlos Pracidelli (5)

Fernando Moraes (5)

Fitness Coaches - To complement Damian Roden who trains both categories:

- Roberto De Bellis (5)

- Omar Feitosa (5)

I also have a handful of youth coaches who I prefer have high Working with Youngsters (18+); Motivating; Level of Discipline and Determination. Younger the better so they can develop into specialist coaches.

[Chaosrsf]

Started a City save because JDownie was mad that his thread gets no replies

Sold Tevez for 24m to Inter, because JDownie would've cried if I kept him. Loaned out Barry and Milner because they never perform for me. Brought in Leandro Damiao and Yann M'Vila.

Started off the season with a 4-2-3-1 but it wasn't working for me so changed back to a 4-2-2-2, with 2 Inside Forwards, a Poacher and a Trequartista. Leandro Damiao is a surprisingly good Poacher .

Just lost to Wolves so tweaked my tactics a bit and the next game we pull this:

Messi's two goals were, of course, absolute screamers but 6-2 pleased me after losing to Wolves.

Fixtures so far:

[Nørbæk]

I've tried to replicate how City (want to) play to be honest, and this seems the closest fit.

You can pretty much forget the positioning of the front 4 as they are completely fluid. I have it on a Very Fluid setting, with both inside forwards changing positions and the TM and AM changing positions. I've got the TM on wide play and the IFs on cutting inside. Obviously the creativity is at more expressive, I try to play through defences and short passing is on there. Depending on how confident I am in a game, I might tell my defence to push up a bit (with a shout) and with the wing backs and the Very Fluid setting, it really is an all-attack, all-defend type scenario.

The Milner thing, was because I needed someone with the ability to rough and tumble, but also be able to pass the ball forward and in extreme cases, play as a box to boxer. I tried both Yaya and Barry there, but none of them had either the pass percentage nor the assists that Milner did in pre-season. I kept him there and he's the first name on the teamsheet at present. He's just won Player of the Month for the second month running, including an awesome performance at the Nou Camp in the opening CL group game where he chipped the ball through the Barca defence for Aguero to run on to from AM and bang it in.

How is this going?

[JD nawrat]

Okay, so now that I'm into February, here are my League results:

This is how the table looks as a result:

And here are my signings for the season. I've had a number of injuries, which explains the reasoning for Hazard (Silva out for 4 months, Nasri out for a month at the time):

As you can see, my original plan of selling before I spend too much didn't come close to lasting. It's unfortunate, but oh well. I doubt I'll need to buy too much in the near future. Maybe a new CB, as I'll be selling Kolo. I'm probably going to target Grant Hanley. I can also imagine I'll be trying to bring in Ross Barkley and selling Gareth Barry, maybe. I'm unsure. Loads of time to think it over. Oh, and I still need a goalkeeper... I might bring in Pantilimon permanently. He's decent.

[Chaosrsf]

At the last game of the season, dead even with United on points, but they had a game in hand against West Brom, which they managed to lose 3-2 at OT.

I love Shane Long, considering buying him now.

[JD nawrat]

Little update on my youths intake. Here are my top 3 prospects.

Mark Llewelyn is definitely the standout there, for me. Fish looks promising too though. Molyneux impressed in the trial day and was the best defender of all trialists.

[Bob Sardinia]

Have tevez out on the right wing (He immediately rescinded his transfer request at the start of my game) and he's an absolute beast.

Ballo is the lone striker and is currently leading the EPL, and aguero holding down the AMC position with silva out to the left.

Main problem for me is Nasri and Dzeko ride the pine. So come next window gonna be offloading some people and bringing in some younger/cheaper depth. Not sure who I'm cutting as the tevez experiment on the wing is working great, and ballo is banging them home.

Defensively picked up Lahm for 40mil and he's been solid. Only weakspot at the back is Richards, but his speed makes up for it.

[JD nawrat]

Image dump incoming.

FA Cup Run:

The FA Cup Final - guess why I was enraged at this defeat

My Champions League run - ending in total disaster and misery and humiliation, unfortunately (Barcelona were eventual winners)

My Premier League Fixtures from January to May. Note only two matches without a win - the first of the year being one defeat (and a difficult one to take as I didn't deserve to lose)

[JD nawrat]

The Overall Premier League Table - Wonderful

My Man City squad at the end of the season

I'd also like to note the following awards:

Samir Nasri named Players' Player of the Year

Sergio Aguero named Players' Young Player of the Year

Joe Hart won Golden Gloves

Myself named as Manager of the Year

Joe Hart, Vincent Kompany and Samir Nasri all included in the Team of the Year First XI

Overall thoughts on my debut season...

Ultimately I was pleased with how things went. To dominate the Premier League in such an emphatic fashion is of course a brilliant point. However to lose the Champions League in unceremonious disappointment is never a good thing. I suppose it should have been clear that I wasn't functioning too well when I lost 1-3 at home to Valencia, but the 7-0 result v Ajax probably caused me a lot of unfounded overconfidence, which is partly the reason why I got thumped by Barcelona (the other part reason is because I cocked it up, in all honesty). The FA Cup was a bitter defeat and one I didn't deserve, but hey ho, there's always next year.

With André Ayew at MCL as AP/S, I have a gem of a player. I'll probably play Milner alongside him as a DLP/S, de Jong in behind as A/D as my main trio for the centre. I also have other players available such as Yaya and Barry though, so it isn't too bad. I'll probably offload Uchida. I originally planned to retrain him as a RW, but I have Vladimir Weiss returning from loan. I'll sell Kolo as Boyata is set to return from loan. I'll try to sign Pantilimon permanently. I'll contemplate offloading Dzeko, but I'm unsure at the moment (I only need one striker, so Cavani/Aguero with Mario as back-up is the plan). Owen Hargreaves will be released. I've got a tonne of young superstars coming in, so I've already started to look to the future.

Next year my plans are to win the Premier League again, win the FA Cup this time, and make the final of the Champions League (though in truth I'll be disappointed if I don't win it).

And if anybody is at all interested this was probably my preferred XI when fit and available:

[J.T]

I have started a City save so I can eventually knock United off their perch of winning the most leagues etc...

[Cardoso12345]

Hi all

Interested to know how Mario is in FM12? I remember in FM11 (due to his poor hidden stats and mentals) he always ended up sulking and bench warming or really just having a awful career.

IRL he appears to be changing his attitude & growing up. Plus hes been on fire when in the team. Has this been reflected in FM?

[Bob Sardinia]

Hi all

Interested to know how Mario is in FM12? I remember in FM11 (due to his poor hidden stats and mentals) he always ended up sulking and bench warming or really just having a awful career.

IRL he appears to be changing his attitude & growing up. Plus hes been on fire when in the team. Has this been reflected in FM?

Been solid for me

[Bob Sardinia]

Talk about representing

4 of the top 11 players in the world? More people should check out my tactic thread apparently

[Nørbæk]

I need some advice, guys.

I am playing the following formation:

GK: Hart

DL: Kolarov (full back - automatic)

DC: Kompany (central defender - defend)

DC: Richards/K Touré (central defender - defend)

DR: Lahm (full back - automatic)

MC: Milner (central midfielder - support

MC: Y Touré (ball winning midfielder - defend)

AML/AMCL: Nasri (inside forward - support)

AMC: Agüero (attacking midfielder - attack)

AMR/AMCR: Silva (inside forward - support)

SC: Tevez/Dzeko (target man - attack)

Mixed passing - balanced strategy.

But I'm simply not doing very well. I have like 35-40 shots per game but most of them are long range and I have very few clear cut chances. The ones I do have are usually wasted.

I wonder if I am bringing too many players into the box but from the posts in here many of you are quite successful with that very strategy.

[billy2shots]

Well as a Cty supporter I have not played with them in FM or CM since the days of Anelka and Bernabia. Last year the money put me off a bit if im honest, but this year with the players we have it would be rude not to at least manage them to a bit of glory.

After loading up a game and having a quick check through the squad and staff and set about sacking a couple of the coaches and picking up 3 or 4 of the ones mentioned earlier (thanks guys for the tips).

I then started to think about tactics and how I wanted to approach the game. Should I go for a solid defensive tactic knowing I have the quality up top to pinch a goal or two or should I go balls out looking to score more than other team?

What was clear from playing fm12 and listening to others was the fact an AMC playmaker could be marked out of the game by a solid DMC and as I decided I would base a formation around the magician that is David Silva, I would need to come up with something good to make him perform in ALL matches.

Then comes the Tevez debate. Having clicked continue I was met with his request to stay. I'm not sure if I was blinded by how good he looks on the game or the fact I believe he drove us into the CL almost single handedly last year but right or wrong I decided to keep and use him.

After running through pre season it was clear my formation would get me goals. I scored 7,8 and 9's with the lowest score being 4 against Sao Paulo (sp). In 6 matches I conceded 2 and had scored about 39. Sure the opponents were not top draw but I was happy with the attacking movement plus creating 25/30 shots per match with only around 5 long shots I was happy I had what I was looking for.

Per season finished and a date with our rivals saw us win the community shield on penalties. I was 3-1 up when they scored from a weird corner and a Giggs direct free kick (Hart is worrying me a little on long shots).

Now I have to say this at this point. My aim was not to sign anyone in the first year and plan for next summer but the formation I chose meant I needed an extra creative midfielder to cover Silva and Nasri. Looking round I couldn't do a deal for Hamsik or Hazard without paying silly money so I bought my one and only player for the season Ganso for £22 mil.

On to the season proper and I have only played a handful of games but so far so good and it's raining goals.

Fulham 5-1

Liverpool 5-0

Man U 3-3 Conceded from 2 corners and a Kompany OG.

Norwhich 7-1

FC Porto 5-1 CL

Newcastle 3-3 LC won on penalties with my reserves.

Wolves 4-0

Tevez has 12 goals in 8 games Aguero has 8 in 8 and Nasri has 9 assists and 5 goals. and Silva has 6 assists.

Now onto the formation and how I got around that AMC playmaker problem. It's a 4-2-3-1 and I will list it below.

GK Hart

DR full back support.- Richards

DL full back support - Clichy

DC Kompany

DC slightly less mentality - Lescott

DMC defend- De Jong

DMC support- YaYa (has been injured so milner has played and done very well. YayYa mabe a bit gung Ho)

This is where it gets good.

AMCR- Aguero who is played like a striker and busts his gut to get forward past the SC

AMC- Traq and Playmaker who I have set to defensive which forces him deep into loads of space to collect the ball- David Siva

AMCL- Advanced playmaker - Nasri

SC- Poacher - Tevez

Now the trick I have used is to have Nasri and Silva swap positions (their instuctions are very similar and suits both). By doing this if the AI has set it's DM to man mark my AMC Playmaker when Siva moves wider so does the DMC which leaves loads of space for Nasri to run riot.

I have also converted to classic and changed a fair bit of player instructions keeping passes short through defence and midfield and pulling the defensive players creativity and crossing right down.

Thought I would share and I look forward to having a City save for the first time in quite a while.

[JD nawrat]

GK: Hart

DL: Kolarov (full back - automatic)

DC: Kompany (central defender - defend)

DC: Richards/K Touré (central defender - defend)

DR: Lahm (full back - automatic)

MC: Milner (central midfielder - support

MC: Y Touré (ball winning midfielder - defend)

AML/AMCL: Nasri (inside forward - support)

AMC: Agüero (attacking midfielder - attack)

AMR/AMCR: Silva (inside forward - support)

SC: Tevez/Dzeko (target man - attack)

In my opinion you have too many people trying to score rather than set up goals.

Consider this instead:

AMCR: Nasri - Attacking Midfielder Attack (set to switch positions with AMCL)

AMCL: Silva - Advanced Playmaker Attack (set to switch positions with AMCR)

RS: Aguero - Advanced Forward Attack

LS: Dzeko - Target Man Support / Complete Forward Support

AML: Silva - Inside Forward Support

AMR: Nasri - Inside Forward Attack

AMC: Aguero - Trequartista

ST: Dzeko - Target Man Attack / Complete Forward Attack

Just my opinion. I don't see much point in using Aguero at AMC if you already have Silva and Nasri at AMC, and so I'd prefer to push Aguero forward and have him leading the line. If Nasri and Silva are out wide, it's often difficult to have these players control the game as Advanced Playmakers, so I would bring Aguero into AMC in this instance and have him as Trequartista so he can still control the game. Have Nasri on an Attack IF role because he can score. Have Silva on Support IF because he's better at passing and assisting than he is at scoring. I would favour TGM/A for Dzeko as a lone man, and that has worked for me to some extent.

Also take into consideration this:

ST: Aguero - Advanced Forward Attack

AMC: Silva - Advanced Playmaker Attack

AMR: Nasri - Inside Forward Attack

AML: Balotelli - Inside Forward Attack

Balotelli is fantastic as an Attack IF (in my experience, at least) and should definitely be taken into consideration when playing with a wide 4-2-3-1.

Also, and again this is just my opinion, I wouldn't use Milner and Yaya as MC/S & BWM/S - I would favour Yaya as B2B/S and Milner as DLP/S, a combination which has been successful. Personally I wouldn't use this combination without de Jong as A/D or BWM/D, though. I would rather have Yaya as B2B/S and de Jong as BWM/D as my central pairing.

[JD nawrat]

For the sake of activity and me not wanting this thread to fall off of page 1, this is both a bump and a question which I'd appreciate a bit of help for (although I already have my own ideas anyway).

This is my current squad:

Joe Hart, Micah Richards, Atsuto Uchida, Pablo Zabaleta, Kolo Touré, Dedryck Boyata, Stefan Savic, Joleon Lescott, Vincent Kompany, Aleksandr Kolarov, Gael Clichy, Nigel de Jong, Gareth Barry, Yaya Touré, James Milner, André Ayew, Eden Hazard, David Silva, Samir Nasri, Vladimir Weiss, Adam Johnson, Mario Balotelli, Edin Dzeko, Edinson Cavani, Sergio Aguero

(1 GK, 3 RBs, 5 CBs, 2 LBs, 5 MCs, 6 WGs, 3 STs)

I need a new goalkeeper, and I'm not sure who to target. I'm going to try and bring in Pantilimon permanently, but failing that, I'm unsure who I should target. I also want to get rid of a RB. I was considering Zaba, but he's a great player, he's reliable, and he's versatile. Would I be better to get rid of Uchida? I also need to sell a CB. I will be getting rid of Kolo for sure. Should I offload Boyata and bring in someone new, or should I keep him as my 3/4th choice? I play Balotelli on the wings, but now that I have Weiss I don't really need another wing. Meaning I should get rid of a striker. Should I offload Dzeko and hang onto Mario or the other way around? Balotelli is younger, more promising, and versatile. I can also get results from Mario on a consistent-ish basis, whereas I struggle with that from Dzeko. Who should I offload? Also, do I need a new MC? I was considering Jack Rodwell or Jack Colback, but I'm unsure if I even need a new MC.

I have some ideas for all of these (I'd be stupid not to), but I'd appreciate it if anybody could give me some advice/assistance.

[billy2shots]

I would sell Toure, Dzeko, Uchida and keep the rest.

I'm starting to get really annoyd now. Although I'm top and smashing the goals in, my game is just an injury fest. Played Newcastle away and after the match I lose Tevez for 6 months, Nasri for 3 months and Silva for 2. I plod on with 1 AMC (I need 2 for my tactic) then Ganso gets injured for a month. Ganso comes back then Aguero and Mario get injured for a month each. So thats no Tevez, Silva, Nasri, Ganso, Aguero, or Mario. Just as Nasri, Ganso and Silva return, 2 games later and I lose Ganso for another month and Silva for 3!!!!

Not going to buy Ganso again in this game and I would love to know Silva and Nasri injury prone rating.

[JD nawrat]

Silva is very injury prone in my game too. Remarkable, seeing as he's never injured in real life. He was out for 6 weeks for me, on his return he came on for the last 20 minutes of a game and got a broken leg, out for 4 months. Finally return and then twisted his ankle and put himself out for another 4 weeks. Managed to get a good 10-game run towards the end of the season though. Nasri rarely got injured for me, though, thankfully. He was my best attacking midfielder.

I have sold Kolo to Milan and loaned Uchida out to Leverkusen. I brought in Romario for RB who'll become my starter in a few years (I had agreed a deal near the start of the game but forgot about it). I brought in Pantilimon permanently for £2M (such a good price for him!). I'm working towards selling Dzeko, but nobody is willing to match my £15M asking price. I'll keep him if I have to...

[billy2shots]

Can't face loading my game. I have afew weeks with Dzeko and Johnson as my only attackers. Barry playing in the hole and milner as a creative force does not inspire me.