FM2012: Newcastle United thread - Triumphing by brave defending.....well maybe!

[Church CM]

Yeah ... Chelsea was a win until Anelka tripped over Taylor's sliding clearance and tipped the ball into the net in the 92nd minute ... sigh.

Both Cabaye and Wilfried have been sidelined with injuries and have really had little input thus far. Wilfried is back in a week or so, but I just got informed that Cabaye was injured on International duty ... for a month. Can't seem to catch a break with him.

[DandyDon]

Yeah ... Chelsea was a win until Anelka tripped over Taylor's sliding clearance and tipped the ball into the net in the 92nd minute ... sigh.

Both Cabaye and Wilfried have been sidelined with injuries and have really had little input thus far. Wilfried is back in a week or so, but I just got informed that Cabaye was injured on International duty ... for a month. Can't seem to catch a break with him.

Wow, really not having a lot of luck with Yohan and injuries are you. Fingers crossed it changes soon

[Jorgie9]

Hey all... Been reading through this thread whilst i've been playing my NC save and decided i'd join the fun!

Finished 2nd in my first premier league season after finding the perfect football playing formation, and the fans, Ashley, and the team loved it and thrived with it! Made some pretty basic signings, Sturridge on loan, (goal scoring machine!) Scott Sinclair as rotation with Gutierrez, and then snapped up Carnella as my left back, and Jonas Olsson as my centre back pairing with Steven Taylor. I've NEVER been able to get consistent performances out of Collocini and he's a real liability at the back for me..

Started second season, and decided against signing Sturridge on a permanent deal (big mistake.) And went for the far more pricey option of Carlos Tevez instead. Now here's my problem. I don't know how to play him! I play a 4-2-3-1 with Van der Vaart behind him.. and i'm currently playing him as an advanced forward, and getting pretty much no goals

Help!?

[Striker475]

Sigh, friendly against Gateshead, last one before the season, Obertan tears his calf muscle. Was going to draft a right mid anyway, now it's urgent...

[Welshace]

suggest krohn-dehli .. superb for 2.5 mil

[Striker475]

Bugger, looks good, grabbed Matt Phillips from Blackpool though. Wasn't willing to spend over 4mil on him but Blackpool wanted 4. Should be good long-term though, even if he's not as good as Obertan immediately. Might have overpaid, but if he does well then it'll be worth it. Still going to try and offload Raylor before season start.

Transfers IN

Craig Dawson (WBA), £3.9mil

Sime Vrsaljko (Dinamo), £5.25mil

Adrian Aldrete (Morelia), £2mil

Matt Phillips (Blackpool), £4mil

Transfers OUT

Alan Smith, QPR, £1mil

James Perch, Southampton, Loan £350k w/ £1mil FF

Peter Lovenkrands, Rangers, £1.2mil

Nile Ranger, Preston, Loan

Mehdi Abeid, Walsall, Loan

Various others (Tavernier, Donaldson, Richardson, Henderson, Nzuzi)

Playing a 4-1-1-3-1

GK: Krul/Harper

DR: Santon/Simpson

DC: Colo/Dawson

DC: Taylor/Kadar

DL: Aldrete/Wome

DMC: Tiote/Vrsaljko

B2B: Cabaye/Guthrie

AML: Gutierrez/Marveaux

AMC: Ben Arfa/Vuckic/Marveaux

AMR: Obertan/Phillips

ST: Ba/Best

Probably need a better box-to-box (Cabaye's doing damn well, but more as cover) but apart from that I'm happy with squad structure.

[Church CM]

@dandydon (and anyone else that has signed Sow)

How much did he cost you? I got him for £12.5 (£8 up front and £4.5 over 24 months) He was getting £25k per week so I offered £35 and he came back with £50. I caved in after the 4th round of talks ... he's expensive but I am hoping he will be worth it ... my front four now

Sow/Ba

Wilfried/Ameobi (I thought I was going to sell him in January but he's had 4 games where he has scored 2 goals coming off the bench ... Best offer me little so I sold him for £2.1)

[Church CM]

7 min into his first game Sow smokes his defenders and bangs one in ... dude's been in town for less than 24 hours ... in town, hell, in country!

lol 21 min ... another one ...

2 goals, no issues, Man of the Match, 9.0 rating ... where do I sign?

[Jack The Thrasher]

Squad is -

GK - Krul/Forster

RB - Raylor/Simpson

CB - Saylor/Williamson

CB - Colo/K.Toure(Loan)

LB - Santon/Atila Turan

RW - Shaqiri/Salvio

CM - Tiote/Emre Can/Gibson

CM - Cabaye/Poli

LW - Guti/Marveaux

AM - Vuckic/Ben Arfa

ST - Wilfried/Kadlec/Sanogo(Loan)

Playing 4-4-1-1.

Finished 7th in the 1st season. Highlight's were -

and

Currently top of the PL after 8 games in the 2nd season, beating Mackems 1-0 in first game, City 2-0, Chelsea 4-1 and Villarreal 4-2 (in the Euro Cup) in the process.

[Striker475]

7 min into his first game Sow smokes his defenders and bangs one in ... dude's been in town for less than 24 hours ... in town, hell, in country!

lol 21 min ... another one ...

Happened to me with Marveaux and Phillips.

[Geordie_Gaz]

Ok, so, second season nearly over. I've already won the league cup, I'm in the final of the FA cup and the Europa league semis. In the league, I was sitting in third, 8 points behind Arsenal and one point behind Chelsea with 2 games in hand. One of those games in hand was against Arsenal of all teams...

I love Jay Rodriguez. He loves playing against the "top 5" - he's scored 14 in 10 games against Liverpool, Man City, Arsenal, Man Utd and Chelsea in the league.

[DandyDon]

@Church CM

I got Moussa Sow for £7.5 million upfront and he's currently on £40k a week. Totally been worth it

@Geordie_Gaz

Hell of a performance against the Gunners, especially to boss them so bad on their own ground

@Jorgie9

Good deals to get both Van Der Vaart and Tevez. I'd give Carlito a try as Trequartista

[Ruvio4]

Could people please tell me the leagues to load to sign: Shaqiri

Wilfried

Damiao

Sturridge

Tshabalala

Llanna

Mbiwa

McFadden

Craig Dawson

Could you tell me each lague to load to sign each player? Do I need the patch?

[DandyDon]

After 3 games into the season and Sow has 12 goals already with another 2 against Blackburn. His first goal really showcased his determination for me. He was the only player still up the park when Blackburn were taking a corner, when the ball was hoofed clear he won a header just inside their half and flicked it on. Obviously there was no-one there to flick it on but somehow Sow won the foot race to catch his own flick on then beat a defender to get into the box. He didn't score with the shot as it beat the keeper but came back off the post. However Bressan and Johnson had managed to catch up in support by now and in the ensuing scramble the ball was fed back to Sow to blast it home.

[DandyDon]

Could people please tell me the leagues to load to sign: Shaqiri

Wilfried

Damiao

Sturridge

Tshabalala

Llanna

Mbiwa

McFadden

Craig Dawson

Could you tell me each lague to load to sign each player? Do I need the patch?

All of them should be available if you select a large database when setting up your game I think, but as far as I'm aware these are the leagues they start in

Shaqiri - Switzerland

Wilfried - Holland

Damiao - Brazil

Sturridge - England

Tshbalala - South Africa

Llanna - Who?

Mbiwa - France

McFadden - England

Dawson - England

[Ruvio4]

Okay, how do I select a large database? And thanks for that!

[Ruvio4]

BUMP Sorry could someone awnser please?

[DandyDon]

BUMP Sorry could someone awnser please?

Have a bit of patience mate...this is a team thread not a 'How do I play the game' thread.

[DandyDon]

EDIT: This is the second screen after the screen where you select the initial countries and leagues you want to play in. Decide which leagues of the ones you selected you want as playable, then click on the down arrow next to Database size and you can select 'Small, medium or Large' and can also choose to customize by selecting to add players of certain nationalities, or with certain reputation levels etc.

[DandyDon]

Any other queries like that you'd probably be better off asking in here: http://community.sigames.com/forumdisplay.php/24-PC-Mac-General-Discussion

More likely to get a quicker response and there's a few helpful FAQs and the like.

[Ruvio4]

Thanks so much guys! Thanks Dandy!

[nufc1]

Into the 2nd season now finally! Transfers look like this although there are 2 days left in the window and i may bring someone else in.

Had to qualify for the 'Champions Cup' after a 4th place finish in season 1. I didnt have high hopes but apparently I had nothing to worry about! Even Adam Campbell got in on the action!

Hoping to push on and improve from last year although i may need a world class winger in to do that

EDIT: I've signed Sidney Sam for £6M to provide depth on the wings

[DandyDon]

That Juve strip is just a wee bit painful on the retinas isn't it

Nice result though, and great to see young Campbell chipping in. he just made his Champs League debut for my side against Rangers, coming off the bench to set up Paloschi for his hattrick.

[nufc1]

That Juve strip is just a wee bit painful on the retinas isn't it

Nice result though, and great to see young Campbell chipping in. he just made his Champs League debut for my side against Rangers, coming off the bench to set up Paloschi for his hattrick.

Haha it is indeed. And I hope he can carry on getting some decent appearances. He should turn out good, fingers crossed.

[DandyDon]

Haha it is indeed. And I hope he can carry on getting some decent appearances. He should turn out good, fingers crossed.

His progress seems to have stalled a little on my game, but I have managed to persuade Sow to tutor him this season, and he's in the 1st team squad so hopefully combined with some more games this year we'll see some improvement.

[tommonufc]

Have many people been able/have signed Ganso? I've seen a couple of people mention him in their transfers, but he's not listening to any contract offers from me. Have tried buttering him up a little with media interaction, and he says along the lines of 'willing to listen to any formal offers', yet still doesn't want to know.

[GeordieInExile]

To those of you having success, what formations are you using? I just don't seem to be scoring too many goals.

Currently playing a 4231 - Control, Mixed Passing:

GK

DL

DC

DC

DR

CM (Ball Winner)

CM (Deep Lying Playmaker)

AML (Inside Forward)

AMC (Trequartista)

AMR (Winger)

ST (Poacher)

[DandyDon]

I've been switching between a 4-2-3-1 Balanced Philosophy, Standard strategy, Shorter passing, More Pressing and a 4-2-2-2 (or 4-4-2 with advanced wingers) Balanced Philosophy, Control, Mixed Passing, More Pressing down

Also have a defensive 4-5-1 that I used in the first couple seasons in games where I felt we were a bit overmatched.

[col_nufc1]

I am playing with a basic 4-2-3-1 Deep with Fluid Philosophy, Attacking Strategy, Shorter Passing, Zonal Marking, More Roaming and then everything else on default.

These are the player roles I am using at the minute.

GK: Goalkeeper Defend

RB: Wing Back Attack

LB: Wing Back Attack

CB: Central Defender Defend

CB: Central Defender Defend

DMC: Anchorman Defend

DMC: Deep Lying Playmaker Support

AMR: Inside Forward Attack

AML: Inside Forward Attack

AMC: Trequartista Attack

STC: Poacher Attack

[Robin :)]

What the **** is demba ba

never score while 1on1, he puts it into row z every ****ing time this game is ****ing suck

[Geordie_Gaz]

To those of you having success, what formations are you using? I just don't seem to be scoring too many goals.

Currently playing a 4231 - Control, Mixed Passing:

GK

DL

DC

DC

DR

CM (Ball Winner)

CM (Deep Lying Playmaker)

AML (Inside Forward)

AMC (Trequartista)

AMR (Winger)

ST (Poacher)

Usually it's between two, depending on the strength of opposition:

4-2-3-1, Fluid, control, everything default except Crosses (drilled), marking (zonal) and roaming (more roaming) in all home games and most weaker teams away:

GK: Keeper D

DR: FB S

DL: FB S

DCR: BPD Stopper

DCL: BDP Cover

MCR: BWM D

MCL: DLP S

AMR: AP A

AML: AP A

AMC: T A

ST: P A

And for away games against big teams/away ties in Europe it's a deep 4-2-3-1, rigid philosophy, counter strategy, shorter passing, pressing more, zonal marking and drilled crosses. Positional roles are pretty much the same, except MC's drop back to DM position and BWM changes to Anchor Man. Aim is to keep possession, slow play right down and keep the ball, and it seems to work well.

[Geordie_Gaz]

@Geordie_Gaz

Hell of a performance against the Gunners, especially to boss them so bad on their own ground

I couldn't believe it tbh. I went away for the first half and left the game running, came back and we were 2-0 up at half time. Told them I was pleased in the team talk and the reaction was "looking fired up" for the whole 11, so there was no way in hell I was gonna make a change after that. Infact I didn't make a change till Cabaye went off lol

[GeordieInExile]

Cheers for the responses lads. I'm off work for a week which means plenty of time for FM!

I'll post about my first season later - in a nutshell, the first half of the season was great, while the second went down the tank. Managed to finish in 7th.

[DandyDon]

2013/14 - Season Update

As I mentioned at the end of the last update I went into the summer 2013 looking to bring in one or possibly two players to add real quality to our defence for the next year and hopefully help us sustain a title challenge for the full season this time round.

Fortunately I got my major moves in the market done and dusted pretty early on as from mid June onward there was speculation about a board takeover, and from the second week of August we had a transfer embargo as Ashley talked things over with Hodcroft. Eventually the takeover led to nothing and currently Mike is still the owner, though he is apparently willing to listen to offers (no! really!?)

With the addition of ter Stegen and Jose Dominguez we had a couple of possibly world class players to help out at the back (posted a couple screenshots earlier of Jose who is bit of a beast) and with Postulka arriving we hopefully will have a world class left back in a few seasons. The only other new arrival was Alan Gonzalez who we'd sealed a contract agreement with back in January, a central midfielder from Mexican club Morelia, he'll provide some extra cover in case of injury to Cabaye or Bertolacci.

Transfers:

Alan Gonzalez:

Results so far

Barring the 2 games against Chelsea, we've gotten off to a very impressive start so far. Moussa Sow was in irresistable form early on with 14 goals in 4 league matches (unfortunately failed to score against Chelsea or Spurs in the last 2) and Alberto Paloschi also has 2 hattricks so far in from the games he's started.

Obviously Sow at the moment is way ahead of everyone else in terms of his average ratings, but the new arrivals have settled in pretty quickly. Dominguez has a rating of 7.54 from 10 games, and added a couple of goals, while Marc-Andre ter Stegen has a 7.13 average now after a slow start. We're still not quite there defensively, having not kept as many clean sheets yet as i'd have liked, but our form sees us sitting second behind Man Utd, but with a game in hand still.

Table So far

[Trilo_G]

Haven't lost a game in my career so far and I'm in January!!

Here's my formation for those who were discussing successful tactics...

GK (GK/D) - Kameni (new signing), Krul

DR (FB/S) - Simpson, Vrsaljko

DL (FB/S) - M'Bengue, Santon

DRC (CD/D) - Taylor, Williamson

DLC (CD/D) - Coloccini, Kadar

MR (W/A) - Gutierrez, Diouf, Obertan

ML (W/A) - Marveaux, Ben Arfa

MRC (DLP/S) - Cabaye, Guthrie, Gosling

MLC (BWM/D) - Tiote, Diarra (looking for a new signing to cover ANC absences)

STR (DLF/S) - Suazo, Ba (RWB often, LS sometimes for Suazo, rarely for Ba)

STL (P/A) - Sow (new signing), Sturridge (loan), Niang (new signing)

[Church CM]

Could people please tell me the leagues to load to sign: Shaqiri

Wilfried

Damiao

Sturridge

Tshabalala

Llanna

Mbiwa

McFadden

Craig Dawson

Could you tell me each lague to load to sign each player? Do I need the patch?

Leagues to start with

VIEW

South Africa (View)

South Africa (View)

South Korea K League (View)

USA (View)

Denmark (View)

Norway (View)

Poland (View)

PLAYABLE

Mexico (Promotion and League aboce)

Belgium (Pro League Only)

England (All)

France (CFA above)

Germany (2nd above)

Italy (Series B above)

Holand (Jupiter above)

Portugal(2nd and above)

Russia (1st and above)

Scotland (third above)

Spain (Liga adelante above)

Sweeden (1st Above)

Argentina (2nd above)

Brazil (2nd above)

Load all players of these nationalities:

English

Irish

Scotish

French

[si4uk]

Have many people been able/have signed Ganso? I've seen a couple of people mention him in their transfers, but he's not listening to any contract offers from me. Have tried buttering him up a little with media interaction, and he says along the lines of 'willing to listen to any formal offers', yet still doesn't want to know.

My advise is not bother. You will paying some £40m+ over 48 months and it ends up that due to that you will less than £8m the next season as the out going payments will mean you're constantly in the red.

By the time is noticed by the likes of Chelsea then the board will just sell him over your head.

He's really not worth the effort as there cheaper options who will be around a while longer.

[Church CM]

After a shaky run where a draw seemed like a victory, we had to take on Arsenal for the 2nd leg of the quarter finals of the League Cup. We had drawn 2-2 with them at SJP and didn't have the best feeling going into this game, Colo was out with injury and Sow had 2 ineffective games ...

Chelsea in the Final

[DandyDon]

After a shaky run where a draw seemed like a victory, we had to take on Arsenal for the 2nd leg of the quarter finals of the League Cup. We had drawn 2-2 with them at SJP and didn't have the best feeling going into this game, Colo was out with injury and Sow had 2 ineffective games ...

Cracking result Church Nice to see Sow getting back to form in style for you

[Geordie_Gaz]

Finished my second season at last, and what a season it was!

I was 5 points or more behind Arsenal since January. It just so happened that we both seemed to hit a good run of form at the same time - from the end of January to the beginning of May we racked up 11 wins in a row, conceding once! Shawcross and Cahill have formed an almost immovable partnership at the back, and Shaqiri started to find his form on the right (24 goals from him). Rodriguez's goalscoring exploits have also earned him an England call up too. Add in our League cup win (6-0 vs Spurs in the final!) and our FA cup win - which was played on a Wednesday night, and we dominated domestically. Then there was the "Euro Cup" run...

I wasn't taking it seriously. Infact, we lost our first group game because I was experimenting with shouts. I chose a stronger starting 11 the further we progressed. If memory serves me correctly, this is the first time I've ever won the Europa League for a few years. I remember winning the Champions League, but not this one. Chuffed.

Now I'm in pre-season and the club is in the process of a board takeover. Even though my budget has been announced (£22m), I cant touch a penny of it!

[rhchia]

Ended season 1 with disappointment. I finished 6th but i'm not in Euro Cup. Can anyone explain to me why? I know its has got to do with league cup and FA cup winner.

FA Cup Final: Wolves 1- 3 Tottenham

League Cup Final: Bolton 0 : 0 (p) Fulham

Final Table

1) Man City

2) Man Utd

3) Tottenham

4) Arsenal

5) Chelsea

6) Newcastle

EC: Chelsea, Wolves, Fulham

Why wolves not me?

[Spedding]

wolves went through as runners up in fa cup as tottenham already in champions league

[rhchia]

wolves went through as runners up in fa cup as tottenham already in champions league

that means EC priority goes to cup winner/runner up instead of league position?

[Spedding]

yeah winners of the cups go to europe if already in europe through league, euro spot goes to runner up if runner up is already in europe goes to league

[rhchia]

yeah winners of the cups go to europe if already in europe through league, euro spot goes to runner up if runner up is already in europe goes to league

ouch... that hurt me badly! Try again next season! First i'll need reinforcement on AMR and MC. btw, I'm trying to upload screenshot but i have some problem with the uploading of images from computer.

[rhchia]

As mentioned in the earlier post, i finished 6th without europa. My team play awfully in away. Here's the stats

Home

Pld 19

Win 12

Draw 4

Lost 4

For 41

Ag 22

GD +19

Away

Pld 19

Win 6

Draw 4

Lost 9

For 32

Ag 41

GD -9

I rotate between 2 tactic having 4231 as main tactic...

GK: Keeper (D) - Krul

DR: FB (A) - Simpson/R.Taylor

DL: FB (A) - Bridge/Santon

DCR: CD (D) - Colo/S.Taylor

DCL: CD (D) - Alderweireld/Kadar

MCR: BWM (D) - Tiote/Gosling

MCL: BBM (S) - Cabaye

AMR: W (A) - Satana/Obertan

AML: W (A) - Jonas/Tshabalala/Marveaux

AMC: T (A) - Ben Arfa/Abeid

ST: P (A)c - Ba

Alderweireld and Santana has been quite a good additional this season and i expect more to come from them in season 2

Wilfried played not too bad as a Target Man in my save, Rochina as Trequartista

Tshabalala and Vossen are the disappointing one. I play Tshabalala as AML Winger and Vossen as a Advanced Forward. Did i got it wrong?

[dozzie]

I've just started a new game save as Newcastle inspired by their impressive start IRL. Here's the story so far:

Bought

Toby Alderweireld (DC) £4.2m

Wilfried (ST) £2.5m

Zakaria Labyad (MC) (loan £375k)

Sold

Nile Ranger £1m

Adam Campbell £3m

Leon Best £1.9m

James Perch (£160k loan + £1.2m future fee)

I've been trying desperately to get some cover in at left back for Santon, with a loan deal for Wayne Bridge appearing the best bet, however Man City's wage demands for the loan are more than i want/can pay. I also really want to get rid of Alan Smith (his wages are ridiculous) but i can't find any takers.

I won all my pre-season games, except against Sevilla where i drew 1-1. And now, two games into the season i beat Villa 3-1 at home, and have just now won 1-0 at Arsenal.

I'm playing a very standard 4-4-2, although switched to 4-5-1 with an Anchor Man for the Arsenal game. Once Ben Arfa is back from injury i may also adopt a 4-4-1-1 depending on the opposition.

There are only 10 days left of the summer transfer window, i have £3.5m in the transfer kitty and would really like to get another left full back and perhaps another centre midfielder. Anyone got any suggestions?

[Trilo_G]

Cheik M'Bengue has been amazing for me, although he has picked up a good number of yellows. He cost me £5.25m over 24 months, taking only £2.625m out of my transfer fund initially. He's definitely worth it if you want a solid left-back. Try Mahamadou Diarra on a freetransfer, Eyong Enoh for around £2-3m, or Mohamed Diame from Wigan for around £3.8m (you could structure these deals over a couple of seasons if they will be important players for a few years. I can vouch for M'Bengue, Diarra and Diame, and although I have never tried Enoh, a mate of mine rates him very highly, especially for the price.

[Spedding]

try lucas digne for left back dont know how much he'll cost as i got him on a free 3rd season originally as back up but replaced santon quite quickly

[DandyDon]

Haven't been on much today due to some irritating hardware problems with the PC....have a horrible feeling my wallet is going to take a massive hit sometime soon.

@dozzie

Check out Arthur Boka or Razvan Rat for the left back position, they both moved in first season for reasonable fees on my save, so might be within your budget. Some of the other possibles I mentioned to Lawly earlier in the thread might be a little out of your range if you've only got 3 or 4 million left to spend.

Like Trilo suggests Diarra is always worth a look at as a freebie if you need a DM. If you need a more attacking option on the cheap take a look at the Cheap Scandanavian thread for a few possibilities, or check out Bressan at BATE Borisov or Andile Jali (starts at a South African club, can't remember which off top of my head).

Good luck with your save