FM12: Manchester City Thread - Time To Build An Empire

[JD nawrat]

Milner has good flair and creativity. Set him as a DLP/S or AP/S and he should come good for you. Also consider Denis in the U18 - very promising young lad who could do with a bit of experience. Maybe won't do much good for you, but give him some chances.

[billy2shots]

Pulling my hair out. Just beat liverpool 4-0 away. The price was Richards out 4/5 months and Clichy out 3/4 months lol!!!!!!!

[Bob Sardinia]

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...

Silva also seems to be super injury prone for me (dont wanna check the editor and spoil myself) to the point where, assuming he's healthy, I might offload him at the end of the season.

Dzeko went for $25mil for me in the middle of the season window. He just didnt fit my fast flowing tactic.

[Come_On_You_Spurs]

Finished a very disappointing first season. I had an 8 pt lead in April, only for my team to implode, and wind up 4 pts out of 1st at the end of the season. Got knocked out by Madrid in semi-finals of the CL, after knocking out Barca in the previous round. I did manage to win the two domestic cups. Silva is out for 5 months with a broken leg. He's barely stayed healthy, and I plan to sell him in January (won't recover in time to sell him in the summer). My defensive record was great, but my team stopped scoring during the last couple months. I was playing a 4-2-3-1, but I think I'm going to switch to a 4-4-2 with attacking wingers in the next season. Hulk will be on the left, and Nasri on the right. I have Cavani, Dzeko, Aguero and Balotelli as my strikers. Tevez is still rotting in my reserves, so I will continue to try to sell him. I brought in Hummels last season, but after selling K. Toure I'm in the market for one more DC. I brought over Ayew to give me some flexibility in midfield, though Yaya and De Jong will be my first choice pair.

I'll give another update once my second season gets started. On a positive note, I'm very excited with some of the regens now at the club. The future is bright, but I need to focus more on the present.

[Come_On_You_Spurs]

Also, Yaya Toure is somehow already a club legend! How on Earth did that happen?

[billy2shots]

Season 1 finished and I managed to bag a treble. Leage, FA and League cup. My injury plagued team lost in the away leg of the CL semi-final to OM.

Stats.

League won with 92 points.

Scored 119, conceded 30.

Players.

Tevez 37 goals in 33apps with 11 assists. WOuld have scored 50 but was out for 5 months. Before injury he had 25 in 17.

Aguero 34 goals in 44apps with 11 assists. Played out wide for half the season.

Silva 29 assists in 28apps with 4 goals.

Nasri 33 assists, 14 goals in 38apps

Milner had 20 assists in 50apps

Johnson had 20 assists in 25 starts and 25 sup apps.

Mario and Dzeko had 30 goals between them.

Thoughts.

I found City hard to manage this year if i'm honest. I have never beem plagued by injury as much on any version of FM or CM. I'm not saying it's the game it is probably the City players.

I made one signing, Ganso to cover Silva and Nasri but he was a massive let down. He scored and assisted 4 in 25apps and spent lots of the time injured.

My goal was to win as much as I could without spending much money (Ganso £22m), at the same time I wanted to bang in the goals. Everything was going well and after 15 games I had scored 65 goals, then the injuries took hold. I had to change tactics on a regular basis to fit the players left. At one point I was without Tevez, Silva, Nasri and Aguero for about 2 or 3 months. My scoring slowed and at won point my defence was the following for 3 games running.

DL Barry

DR Owen Hargreeves

DC De Jong

DC Kompany.

Really didn't like Dzeko he was so hit and miss and will look to offload him now. Not sure what my plans are now. Winning the CL doesn't excite me but I think I will try and change the team into a more financialy sound squad and see what happens.

Yaya Toure= Legend because he scored in the FA cup semi vs Utd then scored the winner in the final.

[Madmario]

Just finished season 1, really disappointed with the way it finished to be honest.

I decided to pretty much stick with the current squad as I think we have good enough quality in all areas, sold Tevez to Inter for £20m, bought in a whole load of young players to be groomed for the future, highlights include Ross Barkley for £13m + addons, Felipe Anderson for around £5m, plus various other bargains for no more than £2m each. Transfer spending was around break even (after selling / loaning some of the deadwood)

Tactics wise I wanted to replicate the current set up as much as I could, although I had a slightly less adventurous tactic for tougher away games, which I also used in both domestic cups (to blood some of the younger players.

1st choice line up

GK D Hart

FB R Auto Richards

FB L Auto Clichy

CB D L Lescott

CB D R Kompany

MCL CMD De Jong

MCR DLP Yaya ( Scored 13 and set up around 6)

AML IFA Nasri (although Balo was quality here scoring 20 in 22 games)

AMR APS Silva (Used as the main playmaker he set up 25 and scored around 6)

FCR Treq Aguero (really slow start by sergio but came good at the business end scoring 41 goals in all comps)

FCL CFA Dzeko (again slow start but ended up with 35 goals and 20 odd assists, was voted fans POTY)

My second formation was an asymetric 4-3-2-1 with pretty much the same line-up but with milner player on the left as a wide mid support, clichy as a wing back attack. This formation wasn't as potent but seemed to be good used away from home against decent teams.

Anyway , heres how my season panned out:

League: Needed to win my last three games to be guranteed the title, Sunderland H , Wigan A , Fulham H ....silpped up and lost 1-0 at Wigan gifting the dirty rags the title on the last day on the season (lost 4 games , which was less than the rags but drew too many at the start of the season)

Champions league: Brilliant run to the final beating Inter Milan in the QF (5-0 at the Etihad) and 6-3 on agregate, then beat the rags 3-2 on agregate, wiining the tie at the swamp even though we lost the leg 2-1.

FA Cup: Beaten by bolton(!!) on penalties (after a 3-3 draw) in the semi, although injuries and a fixture pile up had meant I had to rely on a few youngsters.

League Cup : Won , beating Villa in the final , 4-1

So onto the off season where I'm trying to get rid of the rest of the deadwood thats come back from loan (sold Barry as well) . Cant get rid of Adebayor for free !! anyone got any tips ?

Bought in Eden Hazzard for 20m + Addons, and Carlos Fiero to cover the striking options. Wondering whether or not to replace lescott with someone better (Sakho) but might give him another season

[Nørbæk]

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.

Thanks for the input. You seem to be doing quite a lot better than I am so I will give some of your suggestions a go.

[Bob Sardinia]

Adebayor (sp?) is annoying the shi- out of me. His wage + his awfulness = Hime not playing and no1 willing to buy him... What a money sink for anoher 2 seasons.

[JD nawrat]

I managed to offload Adebayor to Aston Villa for £7.5M, but I have to pay him around £30k per week for the next two seasons until his contract runs out. Not too much expense for Man City, of course. I've got around £2M spare wages, so losing 30k isn't going to bother me.

Feels like I've not posted here in a wee while, mainly because I've not played FM too much. So here is a small update on my happenings with City.

My transfers in/out:

Adam Johnson is likely to make a £6.5M move to Chelsea. He's currently in contract discussions with them. I have no need for him, so he'll be gone. There are two Outs missing at the top - £7.5M for Adebayor and Lenny Nangis (who I just signed) was loaned out to Swindon for a season. All of the Ins barring Pantilimon and Romario are youths and won't feature in any games unless I'm strapped for options/in a generous mood.

This is my most likely starting XI. It's a wonderful team. I used it in my first game of the season - Chelsea in the Community Shield (result below).

André Ayew is a wonderful talent. I feel he is my most valuable player (after Hart) and irreplacable in my XI. I think I missed him a lot in the Champions League v Barcelona. Regardless, I have him this season and I'm confident he can win me a lot. His control over games is phenomenal. The best central midfielder in the game, in my view.

And my Community Shield match.

Fantastic result considering the early red card to Yaya. I was highly impressed with the way Ayew, Weiss and Cavani romped going forwards. The defence was solid, but that's the least I expect from my players.

I'm going to make a double post in a moment showing some of my brightest young signings.

[JD nawrat]

I owe a lot to Germany, it seems! All three wonderful talents, all only 15, all 4* PA, all going to become world class players for me, I'm sure. I can't wait.

EDIT: small update. Sold Edin Dzeko to Napoli for £15M and sold Adam Johnson to Chelsea for £6.5M.

It means that this season so far I have spent £36M on future stars and youths, and sold £34.5M. So really I've only spent £1.5M. Not too bad at all. I'm contemplating signing Marc-André ter Stegen, aka the best keeper in the game, though. He's unhappy at Gladbach and if I can I'm going to sign him for around £15M (never managed to get him below £25M before though). He'll be my backup for a season or two and then probably displace Hart in goals.

[Come_On_You_Spurs]

JDownie, I coincidentally have a very similar team to yours. I bought Ayew and Cavani as well. I had a 4-2-3-1 formation in my first season, but due to my collapse over the final two months, I've switched to a 4-4-2 with attacking wingers this season. I have Hulk on the left and Nasri on the right, with Aguero and Cavani up front. I still have Dzeko, as he fills in for Cavani in some matches. I bought Hummels to replace Kolo Toure, and eventually Lescott too, though he was fantastic last year. Those are some good looking regens. I'm pretty excited about a couple I have, and I'll post the screenshots later.

[JD nawrat]

GG, Chelsea. GG.

8-0 on aggregate in the last two games v Chelsea now. Cavani has 4 v Chelsea. Machine.

COYS - good signings. Ayew is fantastic and Cavani is brilliant (not too great for me in his first 6 months, but he put in good performances, just lacked the goals really). Ayew was injured for me v Chelsea, Yaya was suspended and Milner was also injured, so I played my last choice MC (Barry) alongside de Jong, both as Anchor Men. Chelsea had few shots. They scored, Danny headed from an Adam Johnson cross, but it was (probably unfairly) chalked off for being offside. Hummels is a quality player, nice signing.

I'm trying not to sign any CBs, as I feel that Kompany, Savic and Boyata are the future for a good 5/6 years at least. I'll promote a youth or something when Lescott retires in a few years (looking at that young German lad I posted above. Even if he will be a bit too young, he'll learn valuable things). Oh, and you might have noticed in my screenshots that I have signed Marc-André ter Stegen. £15.75M - bargain! He'll probably be my starter in a year or so. He is rated as 3.5* CA, the same as Hart, and 4* PA. He'll start all Cup games regardless of opposition, and he'll start all European group games (regardless of opposition) and knockouts too, unless it's against major opposition (ie, Real Madrid or the likes).

[Come_On_You_Spurs]

How is Savic performing for you? My assistant only rates him at 2.5* PA, so I'm not sure if I want to depend on him to be a future starter. That's the main reason I brought in Hummels. I plan on having Hummels, Lescott, Kompany, and Boyata lead the backline for the next several years. Stegen looks phenomenal, but I want to try to commit to Hart in goal, despite him being underrated on the game. I'm happy with my team now, except I'd like to sign a few older players to act as tutors for some of the regens I have coming up. Players like Raul and Kuyt are on my radar. I figure I can get them on contracts to be backups, and just play them in the league cup. This is the same reason I brought Hargreaves back for a second season. I want to have a squad with high determination and work rate, and there just aren't enough of those players at the moment.

[JD nawrat]

Savic is a quality little player. He's not the most astounding player physically, but mentally and technically he has the stats to be the best in the game. As long as he isn't up against somebody like Drogba he is probably my second best CB (after Kompany).

Boyata, on the other hand, has been poor for me. It's frustrating as I lost out on a whole year of development due to his stupid loan deal. On Fm11 he and Phil Jones were my two starting CBs from Season 1 and both were world class in less than 2 years. Now it looks like Boyata may never be that good.

Part of my wishes I had kept Owen Hargreaves as I could do with another central midfielder to allow for rest to de Jong, who has started just about every single game for me. I have decided, then, that at the end of the season I'm going to sell on Yaya (who has been poor so far this season) but hang on to Barry (who I originally planned to sell). I'll then bring in Andile Jali, Kara and Javi Martinez, with the intention of a midfield trio primarily consisting of Ayew, Martinez and Kara, but I'll then have Milner, de Jong (still a starter this season) and Barry for backups which is a much healthier position than the current 5 I have for 3 roles.

As for my current season, in a group of Bayern, Maccabi Tel Aviv and Athletic Bilbao, I currently have 4 out of 4 wins and I will seal my place in the last 16 in first place with just one point (easy, easy!). I have just squeezed past Chelsea in the League Cup 4th (?) round on penalties to make it into the last 8 v Fulham at COMS. I am top of the Premier League, undefeated still. I have won every game bar 1 (very similar to real life, in that case), which was a draw at home to Wolves (my bogey team). I beat United 2-0 most recently. Basically, everything is going well. I have lost only one Premier League game in the calendar year of 2012 - it was the very first game on 2.1.12, at home to Man United where I lost 0-1. I have the intention of going undefeated in this season (in all competitions if possible, but unlikely), although I've only ever managed that once before and it wasn't with Man City (Chelsea, if I recall correctly, on Fm09). It's a big challenge, but I'm capable.

[jojko]

JDownie do you change some individual player instruction or you play default like on the screens?

[JD nawrat]

I make some minor changes for some players. If a player has good crossing and it on the side of their strong foot (so right footer on right wing, for example) I have them to Cross Often, regardless of their role. Otherwise I have them to Cross Rarely. All offensive players (that is, anybody who is intended to set-up or score goals as a primary function) are set to Through Balls Often, and ALL players, no matter where they are on the pitch, are Long Shots Rarely (this is the case in all tactics I make). This is my general setup:

it stays like this for the majority of the games, except maybe bringing Nasri into AMR, and thus changing his role from Winger Attack (in the screenshot is says Winger Support, that is an accident) to Inside Forward Attack.

[jojko]

can you post team instruction screen?

[JD nawrat]

these never change, really. I don't feel the need to change my tactic-per-team. It has meant only 12 games not won in 82 (I think 5 are defeats), so I must be doing something right.

[rocky0]

As I am a Man Utd fan, please dont hold it against me, I had no clue on how to setup a man City save but I decided to give it a whirl. I have to admit that I am enjoying it very much. After 20 games I am in first with a 5 point lead over Man Utd and only one loss coming against Man Utd of course. After I finally found the formation to use, it seems my guys are just flying around and not having issues with anyone. I changed to a 4-5-1 by the way in case anyone is curious. One thing I wanted to mention was about Yaya Toure. As I looked over the posts, it seems that most everyone use him a box to box midfielder or on the defense. I have him setup as a ball winning midfielder with support. As of right now, he has 9 goals in the league and is hitting 80% of his passes. He is also hitting a 7.95 avg rating so he is working very well right now.

As I have no clue about it, I was wondering if what I am getting from him is just a fluke since as I mentioned before, most see him as a box to box. I am just curious is all. Im not complaining because he has been a big part along with hamsik in midfield.

Thanks for the info as it is always appreciated

[JD nawrat]

Yaya is a funny ol' player. I find that giving him a lot of creative freedom really makes him perform well, and giving him the freedom to roam the pitch also helps with this - Box to Box is also perfect for his stats. He more or less ran the show for me in most games in Season 1, finishing my top goalscorer (after Aguero) in both the League and overall. If I need a bit more defensive stability, I set him as a ball winning midfielder support, but this is rare as de Jong is ALWAYS in the same team (he has played 21 of my 25 games this season), and so extra defensive stability is really unnecessary.

However whenever I play Yaya with very little creative freedom and don't allow the ability to roam, he always plays poorly (which is why I couldn't get a good performance out of him as I said earlier. Since I noticed that I had changed his settings by accident (gave him de Jong's) he's been a marked improvement. Basically, I feel that using Yaya as anything (from MC/s, B2B or BWM/s) is fine, as long as you give him freedom to roam and license to do as he wishes in terms of creating chances and using his flair. Quality player in FM12, he was crap in 11.

[rocky0]

I should have known that it wouldnt last. My 5 point has disappeared, I am now tied with Arsenal for 1st place, and I am now on a 5 game winless streak. Not to mention my players have forgotten to score but do now do nothing but fire shots from long long range without even being on target.

Only consolation is I beat man Utd 2 - 0 in the FA cup 5th round but other than that.........

Speaking about Yaya, ever since he came back from the Africas cup, he has played a shadow of his former self, I even had to tell him to improve. Going to be a long rest of the season. I have determined that I need a new keeper as well as hart has decided to let in anything that comes close even if he has to knock it in himself

lol

[JD nawrat]

Marc-André ter Stegen - best keeper in the game. Sign him as a replacement for Hart. I bought him as Hart's understudy and he has already established himself as my first choice keeper (only 4 months into season 2, I bought ter Stegen on the last day of the Summer window in season 2).

[JD nawrat]

Bump.

I haven't played my game for almost a week because I've been rather busy, but here is an update that I don't think I've posted yet.

So a shoddy defensive showing all through the groups and a 3-0 pummelling in Munich cost me top spot. However, not all is bad - besides Real Madrid and Barcelona there are no difficult teams that have finished top that I can draw. Napoli, Celtic, Lyon and Porto are the other teams. Man United is the final team, one that I cannot play obviously.

In the League, I am 5 points clear with 2 games in hand. It's all a wee bit too easy, I fear, at the moment.

[rocky0]

Before the game was corrupted, I was able to finsih my first season. I won the league in my first season by 5 points and Man Utd finshed 2nd. I did terrible against the "big four". I lost both games to Man Utd, lost one and drew the other against Arsenal, won 1 and lost 1 against Liverpool but I did manage to beat Chelsea both games. Chelsea finbshed in 6th place and fired their coach. I beat Man Utd in the Fa semi but lost to Arsenal. I made the quarters against Leverkusen in the Champions league but was shut out in both games and lost 4 - 0

The 4-5-1 seemed to work really well in the strecth run and after seeing some comments by Jdownie in the thiread, Im going with it against so here's hoping. I thought I did pretty well considering I never played as City before as I mentioned before, I am a Man Utd fan, whoops - lol.

So Im going to start a new save now and see how it goes.

[thebigmacmoomin]

Ive started as Man City. Still have a week of the transfer window left but only signed VanDer Wiel (right back) from Ajax for £12.25m & Ganso for £22m from Santos. Played Ganso in a few pre-season games, 1st game he playes for Brazil, he goes & gets a broken leg and is out for 5 - 6 months. Great.

[EnriqueZove]

This is my 5th save (United) on FM12 that I have started with closed transfer window (i.e Transfers can be made from Jan only). In all of them (Melbourne Hearts, Mohun Bagan, Real Madrid & Ajax), he got fired.

seems funny if i look IRL

[Kevmcc87]

Decided to start a Man City save after trying and failing to get into a few different saves.

First Season

Didn't make any transfers during the first season at all. I decided to go with the squad given and see how i do. I finished second to Man U and got to the semis of the champions league where i was put narrowly out by Barca. Both domestic cup competitions ended with embarrasing early defeats although it was a very young team put out in both games. All in all it was ok first season.

Second Season

http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/5093/leaguey.png

http://img94.imageshack.us/img94/9500/fixturest.png

http://img573.imageshack.us/img573/4501/players.png

After buying no one in the first season i went on a bit of spree in the second buying Thiago Silva who i somehow managed to get for 15 mil after he requested a transfer.

Luka Modric and Ross Barkley were bought for the midfield and ter Stegen as backup/successor to Hart. 3 Promising regens were also bought.

I was much more satisfied with this season than the last as we managed to secure a double of the league and the champions league. the only disapointments were again the two domestic cup competitions.

[SaveMeJeebus]

Hey,

I’m playing Football Manager alongside my brother and he decided to choose Chelsea as his team. I’m not a huge Football buff so I don’t fully know things when it comes to playing the game. I found your thread, which is amazing, and then I used the 4-3-3 tactics. I just about stole the title from Man U in goal difference; we had around 65, we lost about 4 games, and conceded around 20. My brother ended up finishing 4th.

Straight away I sold Tevez and only bought in Matt Hummel’s. We’ve just gotten to the second season transfer and I decided to sign Marek Hamsik, Yann M’villa, Alexjandro, and Raymond. My brother decided to get Cavani and Toni Kroos; I weren’t tempted by Cavani as Augero scored more than twenty goals during the first season.

I’m in-between whether or not to purchase Hazard as I’ve got Silva and Nasri. But I’m actually really curious to know if I’m using the right duties/roles for my players. My defenders are still using the same duties/roles as recommended.

Augero [AF] [A]

Nasri [iF] [A]

Silva [AP] [A]

Mark Hasik [DLP]

Toure [bBM]

Yann M’villa [DM]

[JD nawrat]

I'm glad you enjoy the thread and had great success with my advised tactic! It's brilliant to hear that. Well done on winning the league, too.

Buying Hazard depends entirely upon how your team performs for you. Silva was not performing for me so I brought him in onto AML as IF/S with loads of through balls, rarely shooting from distance or crossing, and setting the PPM "Pass rather than Shoot". He's a relevation. He has something like 12 assists in 10 starts and one or two goals. However, if Silva is performing for you, I don't think you need to purchase him, although a bit of squad depth never hurts I suppose.

With those players, I would probably be tempted to try something like:

Aguero - AF/A

Nasri - IF/A

Hazard - IF/S

Hamsik - BBM/S OR AP/A (OR even AP/S)

Yaya - BWM/S OR BBM/S (depends entirely on what you use for Hamsik. Don't have 2 BBM/S)

M'Vila - DLP/S OR DM/S (depends on above again. Don't have a DL/P and AP/A in a midfield trio, imo. Having an AP/A in a front 3 and a DLP/S in a midfield three in the same attacking 6 is fine, though).

It all requires a wee bit of playing around, really. Go with what you think works. I can only give you my opinion on what works, and having not managed Hamsik or M'Vila on FM12 (but having extensive use of both on 11), my opinion may very well be wrong. On FM11 M'Vila was brilliant in my Rennes team, sitting as DLP/D in a 4-2-3-1 and helping me to win the Champions League and Ligue 1 in Season 2, a mighty feat not easily accomplished. Hamsik, in my Man City team, was a staple for about 3 years until I found a better regen and sold him on. In those 3 years he functioned primarily as a BBM/S to wonderful success, winning the League 3 times in his 3 years and the CL once, alongside a runners-up finish in another of those seasons. In all, it differs per person. While I may have great success with Hamsik as BBM/S, another may get more out of him as AP/A or whatever.

Let me know how you get on in season 2, though.

[JD nawrat]

I haven't been playing too much FM12 recently, so I played a bit today (and will hopefully continue to do so). Here's some images of the season so far now that I'm at January 1 of Season 2.

The League table at exactly halfway through (for me). I'm hoping to make it another 19 games without defeat, thus meaning I would spend an entire season undefeated in the league: a feat I've accomplished only once before on FM09 with Liverpool.

Fixtures, results and goalscorers. Cavani has the most in the League for me - 16 in 14(2) - whilst Aguero has the most in all competitions for me - 22 in 11(10) with 11 of those in the league. Note v Stoke above, Kompany scoring 4. King. 3 headers - 2 from corners, 1 from a FK - and a penalty.

My star man. My player of the calendar year. Phenomenal.

And a final wee side point, my standout players and competition runs. Note my Champions League opponents. As an avid disliker of all things Celtic, I'll take pleasure in battering them stupid.

OH, and I'm making some signings in January. I prefer to buy in January because it gives the players 6 months to bed in and become used to working with the new players before they become starters in the next season.

I'm targeting:

Marouane Fellaini, Kara and Andile Jali. All have been offered contracts. Just offered Asamoah from Udinese a contract too. He won Young African Player of the Year this season (Ayew won it last season). He looks like an ideal replacement for Yaya at MC too. Fellaini, Asamoah and Ayew would be great. Shame that 2 are African and will leave a huge gap in my midfield. Same for Kara and Jali. I need to bring in some non-African based players. But they're all so good.

I've made one signing:

Adil Rami, from Valencia, for £13M. He'll be my starter alongside Kompany and I'll look to sell the old man that is Joleon Lescott.

Now signed Marouane Fellaini, from Everton, for £10.5M

[Kevmcc87]

Can anyone tell me how to get my screenshots showing instead of showing the link???

[Kevmcc87]

Third Season

Transfers for the third season

Tbh i didnt want to sell Nasri but Barca came in with an enquiry and i didnt think they'd give me 60mil so thats what i set it at but they offered it and as i had the jap coming in on a free i decided to sell. I may have payed over the odds on the Greek but as im hoping he'll be the cornerstone of my defence for the next ten years or so i thought it was worth it.

So with Ramos and the Greek come in for the first team my starting 11 now looks like this

Season started with wins in the community shield and the European super cup but the highlight so far has to be this

Aguero has been on absolute fire for me last season and the start of this one.

[Lewis007]

Just completed the first season. I won the EPL and the FA Cup as well as getting to the UCL final only to be hammered by none other than Barcelona 4-0. Barry, Johnson and Silva all handed in transfer requests as they barely saw any minutes due to me not playing with wingers/attacking midfielders. Sold Johnson to WBA and Barry to Everton, no clubs are interested in Silva currently. Nasri is also mithering me for regular first team football, so I'll probably look to move him on too. Second season looks promising.

[westmarsh7]

So the first season is over and quite a succesful season in my eyes really. Finished the season in 1st place in the Premier League with 92 points with the local rivals Utd behind in 2nd with 84. Lost only 2 games in the league season which was impressive and held the best attack and defensive record in the league.

We won the FA Cup on pens after a 1-1 draw with Liverpool after a 92minute equalister from Tevez.

Champions League semi final we went out to Barcelona who really put us to bed 5-2 on agg.

Carling cup out 3rd round after the kids couldnt beat a full Liverpool side 3-2

The only major signings way Ayew who played very well in the first half of the season but picked up a injury ruling him out for rest of season at Christmas so then brough in Marin who took a while to settle but has looked to be a good buy also.

As the new season approaches I do have 3 signings in mind. A new center half as Lescott may not be what i want anymore, A ball playing hard working central midfielder and then a back up keeper to Hart.

Anyone recoment any signings keep me updated.

[JD nawrat]

Marc-André ter Stegen of Gladbach should be your back-up to Hart and future replacement. If not, Pantilimon is usually available for about £2M after the loan ends.

Ball playing hard working CM? First that spring to mind are Kwandwo Asamoah of Udinese, Marouane Fellaini of Everton, Axel Witsel of Benfica, Marek Hamsik of Napoli.

At Centre Back you have the choice of anybody you like, really. I targeted Adil Rami for £13M from Valencia. There's plenty of choice, look at Jan Vertonghen (Ajax) and Gary Cahill (Bolton) for good cheaper options.

[Gazza56]

I have just started my first season with Man City.......only bought 2 players.........Maicon at right back and Hamsik to play MC.......am going to play a 4-1-1-3-1 formation.......so far played 3 pre-season games, won all 3...........Wrexham 6-0......Cluj 5-0.........PSG 4-1.........

This is how i see the selection

GK......Hurt

RB......Maicon

LB......Clichy

CB......Kompany

CB......Lescott

DMC...De Jong

CM......Hamsik

AMR....Nasri

AMC....Aguiero

AML....Silva

ST.......Dzeko

any thoughts would be welcome!

[Lewis007]

Just completed the first season. I won the EPL and the FA Cup as well as getting to the UCL final only to be hammered by none other than Barcelona 4-0. Barry, Johnson and Silva all handed in transfer requests as they barely saw any minutes due to me not playing with wingers/attacking midfielders. Sold Johnson to WBA and Barry to Everton, no clubs are interested in Silva currently. Nasri is also mithering me for regular first team football, so I'll probably look to move him on too. Second season looks promising.

So I managed to sell Silva and Nasri in the end after much negotiation to Málaga. Along with RSQ (Fulham) and Bridge (Aston Villa), releasing Taylor and Johnson and retaining Adebayor and Boyata. For Summer signings I brought in Neymar, Hummels, Subotic and Marc-André ter Stegen. I took the GB Olympics job but was beaten (unfortunately, I might add) by Brazil in the semi-finals, 2-1 after a Pato brace. Hart, Terry and Lampard were my over 23 players. Rooney, Ferdinand, Gerrard, et el were injured.

I've just beaten Manchester United 1-0 in the CS, with Yaya scoring the only goal of the game yet again. Looking to retain my trophies (the EPL and the FA Cup) at minimum, hopefully going one better in the UCL and winning it.

[Kevmcc87]

Third Season Summary

Absolutely delighted with how the league went this year. It defo has to be up there with my best seasons ever playing FM.

We managed to retain the trophy this year with a superb run which saw us defeat Porto, Barca, Man U (hahahahahahahahahaha) and then Arsenal in the final. David Silva picked up the Best Player award and we had five players in the Dream Team.

After failing miserably in the past 2 seasons to even reach the semi final i decided to play a stronger team after the first two games which were against Barnsley and Sheff Utd.

Raging. The only blot on my near perfect season

[Kevmcc87]

Silva was brilliant again this year. His assists and all round play made everything come together nicely. Modric wasnt playing that great especially considering how well he done the season before so it was up to my little midfield dynamo and he produced all season long.

Words cant describe how happy i am that i didnt sell him at the start. Absolutely superb

Another great season from the little Argentinian and considering he was playing in the hole behind Tevez all year i think his goal ratio is tremendous.

Here is the future

[Kevmcc87]

The stats for the rest of the team. Shoutouts need to go to Kompany, Papadopoulos, Clichy and Ramos for being an an absolutley solid unit all season long. Toure was superb again and young Barkley look good when ever called upon.

[RTHerringbone]

Playing as City is both hollow and enjoyable. I'm only in my second season, but battered everyone in season one, winning everything (including the Champions League against Barcelona).

The endless top-ups by the Sheikh mean that I've been able to buy everyone you could ever want (Neymar, Ganso, ter Stegen, Howedes, Papadopolous, Fellaini, Jovetic, Damiao, Alaba, Hummels, Leandro). So it's an entirely hollow feeling to win games, but still bloody enjoyable!

[JD nawrat]

Season 2 is FINALLY complete. I'll apologise now for the 4-post picture dump I'm about to do. I'm not even sure what I'm posting, but they're all relevant to my squad and the successes of the season.

League Cup Run

FA Cup Run

[JD nawrat]

Premier League Fixtures Parts 1 & 2

Final League Table

A Snapshot Of General Successes & Player Performances

[JD nawrat]

Champions League Run

My Squad (a few players missing at the bottom, notably ter Stegen, Joe Hart, Yaya Touré & Mario Balotelli)

My Star Goalkeeper

[JD nawrat]

My Star Defender (Note: Goals)

My Star Midfielder and Overall Player (IMO)

My Star Attacker/Winger

My Star Striker And Best Player (Average Rating)

[JD nawrat]

Yeah, so it was a very eventful season where I won everything possible (Community Shield too, I didn't post that above because nobody cares about it). I won countless awards, as did my team. We ended the season 30 games undefeated, but we couldn't go an entire league season undefeated, unfortunately falling to Spurs 3-2 at WHL (3-0 down, fought back to 3-2).

I originally won the Champions League 4-2, with Aguero scoring a hattrick and Lescott grabbing the other, but my game crashed as soon as I ended the game and I couldn't save in time, so I had to replay it.

It's probably worth noting that I've ommitted a screenshot of Edinson Cavani. So I've put one in at the bottom, because he was fantastic all season too.

My targets next season are to retain everything and win the Club World Championship too. No pressure.

In terms of transfers, I plan on selling Yaya and Barry and probably Silva too. I will sell Balotelli in January because he's injured until October at the moment. I'll probably have to sell Hart too as he's a disruption in the dressing room and I'm sick of his moaning because he's not getting game time. In terms of bringing players in, I will probably target Jay Rodriguez (second top goalscorer in the PL) from Burnley because he's English, cheap, and quality. I'll also sign a new winger to replace Silva. I've not got a target in mind yet, but I'll probably look towards the like of Antoine Griezmann. I'm unsure at the moment.

[RTHerringbone]

It is amusingly, and pleasantly, rewarding playing as Man City. Does the Sheikh ever get bored? I'm waltzing to wins, signing crazy players, and he just keeps throwing money at me!

[Prowl]

It is very enjoyable to play as City although I'm taking a different approach to build with high potential young players as opposed to buying every star on the planet. Besides, the team at the start is very very good

My ins:

Jack Butland

Jack Robinson

Ross Barkley

Vaclav Kadlec

I brought in these players to develop and am giving them as much first team football as I can. I got rid of Toure, Tevez, Bridge, and Kolarov. Kolarov was tough, but I had Clichy and Zabaleta plus Robinson

My team as it stands:

GK: Hart/Butland

DR: Richards, Zabaleta

DC: Kompany/Savic

DC: Lescott/Onouha

DL: Clichy, Robinson

MCR: Toure/Barry/Barkley

MCL: De Jong/Hargreaves

AML: Nasri/Milner

AMR: Silva/Johnson

ST: Dzeko/Balotelli

ST: Aguero/Kadlec

Playing a 4-2-4 and so far so good. 5 point lead on Spurs and United. Biggest surprise have been Wolves who are 5th place. Pardew was sacked and Shearer took over. Kean was sacked and Mick replaced him at Blackburn while Pardew went to Wolves

Best performer has been Silva. 1st place at Christmas although Clichy, Yaya, and Barry all picked up 2-3 month injuries. I brought Denis up, but my midfield is thin ATM

[Nottingham Forest]

So I'e started my umpteenth save on FM12 and hopefully this one will get me into it. For the time being I would like to have fun and see what players I can sign, whether they be youth prospects or star players. I'm not going to bother with negotiations much and if I want someone, I will offer what I need to get them. Once I've had some fun, eventually I'd like to get the club operating at a profit, if that is possible at all and see if I can build a squad that can continue the success, if I have any from the squad of superstars. If I don't post much, it's either because I've got bored, or because I'm busy at work and haven't had time to play.