FM12: Hull City AFC - We all love Cash Converters....

[kccircle]

FM12: Hull City AFC – We all love Cash Converters....

Club Information

Brief History

Hull City Association Football Club is an English football club based in Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, founded in 1904. They play in the Football League Championship.

It is fair to say the club has had limited success until the 21st century and doesn’t boast a very big trophy cabinet. The club went on steady rise during the 20th century and in 1983 were promoted to division 3 (League 1), captained by future England manager Steve McClaren.

In 1986 the club were promoted to Division 2 (The Championship) but everything declined from there. Over the next 15 years the club were relegated several times and in 1997 the club were relegated to Division 4. At that time Hull were in great financial trouble and looked certain to be relegated to the Conference Premier but somehow managed stay up after “The Great Escape” where managed Warren Joyce managed to save Hull from relegation, despite being bottom of the table in November. From then on the club steadily rised through the leagues and by the 05-06 season, were back in the Championship.

In 2007–08 they achieved promotion to the top flight of English football for the first time in their history, by winning the Championship play-off final at Wembley Stadium. They finished the 2008–09 season 17th in the Premier League table, successfully avoiding relegation by one point. The previous highest position Hull City had finished in the English Football League was third in the old second division in 1909–10, which they matched in 2007–08 when they gained promotion. Their greatest achievement in cup competitions came in 1930, when the team reached the semi-finals of the FA Cup.

Hull play their home games at the KC Stadium. They previously played at Boothferry Park, but moved to their current home in 2002, with Boothferry Park set for demolition. They traditionally play in black and amber, often with a striped shirt design, hence their nickname The Tigers.

Stadium

Between 1904 and 1905, Hull City played their home games at The Boulevard. This ground was used by Hull on a contract which allowed them to use it, when not used for Rugby League, at a cost of £100 per annum. Hull built their own ground, Anlaby Road, which was opened in 1906. They negotiated the deal for land between Boothferry Road and North Road in 1929, which was financed by a £3,000 loan from the FA. Due to the club's financial difficulties, no work took place for three years, and development then stopped until 1939. In that year a proposal to build a new multi-purpose sports stadium on the site temporarily halted the club's plans to relocate, but when this plan failed the club resolved to continue with the stalled development of the site, in anticipation of moving to the new stadium in 1940. The outbreak of war, however, meant that the redevelopment again came to a halt.

During the Second World War, Anlaby Road was damaged by enemy bombing, the repair cost of which was in the region of £1,000. The Cricket Club served notice to quit at the same time, and so in 1943 the tenancy was officially ended. Hull were forced to return to the Boulevard Ground from 1944 until 1945 because of the poor condition of the planned stadium at Boothferry Road. The new stadium was finally opened under the revised name of Boothferry Park on 31 August 1946. After Boothery Park, Hull City, along with one of the city's rugby league sides, Hull FC, moved into the newly-built KC Stadium in 2002. The KC Stadium was named "Best Ground" at the 2006 Football League Awards and holds 25,000 people.

Squad Analysis

(Based on a traditional 442 formation)

Goalkeepers

Adriano Basso

Peter Gulacsi

Basso, at 36 years old, has a wealth of experience when compared to the youthful (21) Gulacsi. As Gulacsi is only on loan I would suggest that there is a need to find a permanant No1 for season 2. Im sure a year of working with Basso would do any future prospect the world of good. If you can tempt Liverpool to sell Gulacsi then I would go for it as he has great potential according to the coaching team

Left Backs

Andy Dawson

Joe Dudgeon

It is hard to remember a City team without Dawson in the left back slot. Mother time has probably caught up with him and i fear his lack of pace would see you struggle against even average wingers. Dudgeon is a great prospect and would be my choice to play at left back. A little tutoring should see him blossom into a nice little player.

Right Backs

Liam Rosenior

Paul McShane

Liam is arguably the best full back in the division and would get into a fair few Premier League teams too. McShane is a good player at a Championship level. However, he is on £20k per week and I would suggest selling if you can and replace him with another option. However, as he is injured you wont be able to offload until January. Corry Evans can act as a back up to get you through if required

Centre Backs

James Chester

Jack Hobbs

You can quickly see there is a lack of competition for this area. McShane can cover here. The other alternative option is Sonny Bradley from the reserves. He has a decent physical set of skills, but is nowhere near good enought from a technical point of view to be included as cover. Even if you keep McShane then I would suggest another back up. Again, Corry Evans can act as a back up if required

Defensive Midfielders

Corry Evans

Paul Mckenna

James Harper

Seyi Olafinjana

My choice to play the defensive role in the middle of the park would be Paul Mckenna (if only he was a little quicker). If you find that he struggles with the lack of pace then Corry Evans would be the next choice. In the long term Corry has the potential to develop into a good player according to the scout reports.

James Harper is someone who i would try to offload. Olafinjana wont get any game time until after the New Year and with his high wage you should do all you can to offload when you get the chance. He has the quality to perform at this level, but not great value at £20k per week

Attacking Midfielders

Tom Cairney

Robert Koren

Cameron Stewart

Robbie Brady

Martin Pusic

Nick Barmby

It is a shame that Cameron Stewart is injured until the New Year. With Cam on the right and Robbie Brady on the left the team would have enought pace and creativity to torment the division. Cairney has the potential to be a great player, although I fear he has been downgraded a touch on FM11. Koren has to start and my suggestion would be for him to start on the right until the New Year with Cairney in the centre and Brady on the left. Both Pusic and Barmby are bench players at best and should be used as impact subs.

Strikers

Matty Fryatt

Aaron McLean

Martyn Waghorn

Dele Adebola

Perm 2 from 3 of Fryatt, McLean and Waghorn and use Adebola as an impact sub.

Reserves and Youth Players

The following players are out on loan

Jamie Devitt

Kevin Kilbane

Liam Cooper

Will Atkinson

Jay Simpson

Kamel Ghilas

Mark Cullen

Of the 7 Jamie Devitt is the one who always looks like a great prospect. He should perform at League 2 level.

In the youth team only two players have potential above 1 star. These are John Atkins (GK) and Jack Barlow (For)

Backroom Staff

Coaches

Its fair to say that the coaching staff are not the best. Craig Shakespeare and Steve Walsh are both Assistant Managers with Sean Rush employed in a fitness role, Stuart Watkiss as a general coach and Nicky Barmby in his player coaching role. In addition Neil Mann and Billy Russell are employed in a youth team coaching capacity. The board will allow 6 coaches so i would try to get a mutual termination of those that dont offer value. This would include Sean Rush, Neil Mann and Stuart Watkiss. You should replace with coaches who specialise in fitness, goal keeping and defensive training.

Scouts

There is just the one scout (Jamie Newell) currently. Its fair to say he would struggle to pick out Messi in an u16s school game based on his stats. Id look to replace with as many scouts as you can afford.

Physios

Both of the two physios currently employed should be replaced - again when you afford it

Finances

£13m in the bank at the start of the season should be enought to get a team promoted. Unfortunately, due to the way the finances are structured on FM all of that will disappear by the end of the season by paying off a loan. I presume, similarly to FM11, this is due to the fact that the parachute payments are already accounted for

The transfer kitty at the start of the game is £500k for a top half finish. This increases to £750k for stating you will win the league. Wage budgets vary from £125k to £145k which is under the initial wage amount of £155k - this is where the difficulty will arise as you need to reduce wages below what you set as your target before you can recruit. The highest earners are injured too so it will be tough going on a financial front for one season.

Good luck to anyone starting a game with the mighty Tigers - the next page will be saved to highlight anyone getting promoted from the Championship and those who manage to collect any silverware along the way

2011 thread (and thanks to TigerTime for one or two copy and pastes from that thread)

[kccircle]

Hull City Records

Post your screenies in the thread and I will add here

Player Records

Most goals in a game: Rodelin

Most goals in a season:

Most assists in a season:

Team Records

Most goals in a season:

Fewest goals conceeded in a season:

Most points in a season (Championship):

Most points in a season (Prem League):

Other Records

Highest home attendance:

Hall of Fame

Promotion from the Championship: Powersurge / Tyler 42 / HCFC_Clark / Ukchris / Richie1981 / kccircle

Championship Winner:

FA Cup Winner:

UEFA Qualification: Tyler 42 / kccircle

Champions League Qualification: Tyler 42

League Cup Winner: FERARK

Premier League Winner: Tyler 42

UEFA Cup Winner:

Champions League Winner: Tyler42

World Club Competition Winner: Tyler42

(If anyone wants anything adding then post it and I will add it)

[kccircle]

Ive now spent a little more time looking over the squad and despite not yet playing the annual 1st team vs reserves game I can easily see how challenging this save will be in the first season. The way the finances are makes it really hard to alter the squad as getting a new player in means you have to offload some high earners. The trouble with the high earners is that many of them are injured until the January window.

James Chester gets a bit of attention at the start, but Id be worried about selling him for an expected £1m given he would only reduce the wage budget by £4k pw.

The obvious choice for a sale is James Harper. With McKenna and Evans ahead of him I offered him out for £500k and immediately received offers of £375k and £350k from Peterborough and Southampton. I have already tried to get a bigger % of any transfers received but my request fell on deaf ears

[arron52]

Finances are tough i agree , i said title challenge and was still £13 .5 k over budget on wages and even after editing it i ended up with nothing to spend and -£27 . Anyway beat ferriby 8-0 , and aberdeen 3-1 , in which Chester got sent off and dawson injured for a month.

[FERARK]

Got rid of Harper and terminated the loans of Waghorn and Gulacsi. Still 12k over budget but it does give a little bit of breathing room when offering contract extensions (Koren), or looking to bring in other loans. Priorities for me are a new GK (Don't rate Basso), and a M L/R to cover for Brady and Koren. There's a kid in the under 18s who might be able to do a job on the left wing, Lewis Clarkson.. only rated half a star for potential, but he's done a reasonable job coming off the bench for me in the pre season games.. worth keeping an eye on maybe.

Star of the show so far for me is Jack Hobbs, own goals in each of the first 2 matches costing 2 points against Barnsley, and knocking us out of the league cup 1st round. Happy days.

[kccircle]

Id not really thought about terminating the loans of Gulacsi or Waghorn. Waggy scored a 93rd min winner away at Barnsley so prob going to keep. Confused by your comment re: Hobbs - OGs but star man?

He got sent off for me in my first game in which Brady scored and played a blinder from AMR.

ive just done a graphics card update which froze my laptop so lost what I had - back to the start for me

[FERARK]

Just a bit of sarcasm re: Hobbs.. although he is my best performer so far with 7.25 from 4 appearances. Gulacsi was only ever going to be backup to Basso for the first season so no worries about getting rid of him, Oxley can step up in an emergency until better options become available. Ideally I would have held on to Waghorn as he seems a decent player, but I'm mainly using 4141 formation starting the match with Fryatt and bringing on either McLean or Adebola depending on how the game is going.. Barmby can also do a job up front I think, as long as he doesn't have to move.

[kccircle]

Noticed Adebola knocking one in for me too - playing a similar formation to FM11 - 41221 with a DMC, 2 x MC and 2 x wingers

Only signed one in on loan - need a bigger squad as played Port Vale in the League Cup 1st round and had about 6 players out on International duty - only had one on the bench

[kccircle]

James Chester is getting a lot of attention so far - but only bids in the region of £500k ish. Set an auto reject of £2m on him.

The corner banging seems to be in existance again which is disappointing.

[Gaz1808]

Nice to see the Hull thread up and running

Struggling with the finances too so didn't bring anyone in. Sold Harper to Birmingham for 250k and will hopefully be able to get rid of Olofinjana & Mcshane in the January transfer window to free up some wages.

Didn't do badly in pre season, won all but 2 games. Drew with Aberdeen despite dominating and narrowly lost 2-1 to Rangers.

First league game i won 2-0 at Barnsley and had to start Sonny Bradley at CB due to Chester being injured. Also brought Emerton off the bench for 15 minutes. Fryatt (pen) and Cairney got my goals. Then beat Bradford 1-0 in the league cup through an own goal. Didn't have the strongest of sides out, give Holohan, East, Emerton & Pusic a chance from the start. Got Leeds up next so need to win that for the fans!

Am i right in thinking you can now add leagues and improve the database size at the end of the season? If so i think i'll keep this save and just update at the end of the season.

[kccircle]

I havent really played any of the kids. I keep getting injuries though and have an overload of strikers.

I have managed to get rid of Ghilas though, but only for £350k and not until June 2012. Sat in the playoffs currently, but it is still mid September

[kccircle]

Not my best result

[arron52]

took Ravel Morrison on loan from Man Utd , Harper offloaded to Southampton for £400 k . Now have £240 k to spend with £6k wages .

[FERARK]

8 - 4?! Brings back memories of City v Whitby town.. Anyways I restarted my game as things were going very badly. Sold Harper again, 450k to Southampton.. Gulacsi and Waghorn also sent packing again. Brought in an American keeper for 275k and Pablo Counago on a free. Wasn't really looking for a striker but his wage demands were so low I couldn't resist. Playing him as a DLF and he's doing well with 3 goals in 5 starts. In fact its been a great start all round, P12 W11 D1 F25 A5.. half of those were friendlies but still.. sitting pretty on top of the league after 4 games. Next game is Southampton away, odds on a Harper winner??

[kccircle]

Records thread

Goals in a game: Barmby 2

[richie1981]

3rd game of the season, 5-1 win against Leeds!!! Will Keane in on loan, hope he and Fryatt fire me to glory.

[kccircle]

FERARK - P12 W11 is very impressive - what formation are you playing?

Nice win Richie - keeping up the Man U youth team connection I see.

Finding it a bit of a struggle so far on the demo - just as i get a mini run going and bouncing into the play-offs I then go and lose back to back games to fall away again. McKenna is playing well, but cant play back to back games for me. Waghorn is going to be a 20 goal a season striker - think I will sell Fryatt when I play for real once the game comes out

[FERARK]

KC - Mainly been using a 451, (more like a 4141 with the wide midfielders pushed up to AM/L AM/R positions), and played a couple of matches with a 4132 setup. Starting strategy always standard or counter.

[FERARK]

First loss of the season 2-0 Home defeat by Cardiff.. Dominated the game but couldn't score (even tho they played Jon Parkin at CB)

[kccircle]

I remember going to York years ago (Boxing Day?) and Parkin played DC for them - it was his original position I think

[arron52]

Rubin offered me £1.7m for Koren , tried to negotiate to £1.9m and they buggered off , should have took the dosh lol

[powerspurge]

City is a great challenge this year with the wage budget been over from the start! Also the injured players are the ones that need to be offloaded so I do hop that the large database throws up some really cheap bargains not asking massive wages.

Looking forward to it - will be a good test.

UTT.

[Tyler42]

Damn this is a hard one this year, looking forward to it. In FM11 I'm dominating with Hull, hoping to do the same here. I try to keep up with the squad but it's changing so much every season. Dawson, Carney, Chester, Barmby and Koren are pretty much the only ones I remember from last year. (And some of the one's I named have actually been at the club for more than 2 seasons) I still laugh at Myhill's decision to be a benchwarmer for West brom, instead of staying at Hull.

Btw a bit off topic but this year's kit numbering, is it as cheap and awful printing as last year? I bought a couple of them and the number & name could be cropped off. I emailed the online store to complain and their excuse was "The material of the letters and numbers is different this season due to this being Championship lettering and not Premier League." so its the same this year? Just asking cause I need these kits shipped to Iceland so I cant really get a good preview of them

[kccircle]

Ive never been one for the names and numbers on the back. The away kit this season looks a lot better, especially as the sponsor blends in a little better now it has been changed.

I would presume the letters and the numbers are the same as last year though.

As for the players, Hobbs played on loan the season before but I think it was classed as a short term loan so wasnt in the patch. Also, Stewart was in a latter patch (as arrived albeit on loan at first at the same time as Chester)

Agreed the squad has changed a lot in recent times - im going to try to do what i did on FM11 and get the starting team promoted (not that I will have a lot of choice in the first season)

[Tyler42]

I got sacked.... the first season is impossible to deliver any good results. Unless you guys find some amazing tactic.

- No contract extensions

- Can offload the highest waged players cause they are injured.

- Cant get any players for loan cause your 7-20k over wage budget

- Cant sign any players cause of wage budget.

Dont know if I should bother trying to do it again cause it's just too hard to be able to do anything.

[powerspurge]

Its not that difficult tyler to get the wage under control, if you terminate 1 x asst coach, sell harper and ghilas at the start, terminate gulasci & waghorn loans and sell koren you can then reduce the wage by editing the budget adjustment easily under giving you 1million still

go for ravel morrison from man utd on season long loan - brady and morrison on each wing works a treat!!

[Tyler42]

Its not that difficult tyler to get the wage under control, if you terminate 1 x asst coach, sell harper and ghilas at the start, terminate gulasci & waghorn loans and sell koren you can then reduce the wage by editing the budget adjustment easily under giving you 1million still

go for ravel morrison from man utd on season long loan - brady and morrison on each wing works a treat!!

yeah i did that (didnt sack an assist m. yet) but now i bring in 4 new players and 2 of them get long term injuries the first 2 games of the season. fml -_-''

[TigerChris]

Agreed with Power. In fact, keep Koren, sell Cairney, sell Harper (Can't sell Ghilas as he's out on loan) and you're pretty much set.

Rely on free's and loans in, incorporate the youth and you're fine.

[kccircle]

Im leaving my Tigers save until I get to grips with the game - not really played the demo much apart from an initial look.

[Ukchris]

I've just got FM12 and started my Hull save Things definitely look challenging with the finances, and there's not a whole lot of creativity in the squad, but it will be fun!

Going to be spending a while looking over the squad and planning things, then I'll get my real posts going.

[dannyh]

You can sell Ghilas, just offer him to clubs and you should get about £350k and you get the money straight away even though the transfer doesn't complete until end of season.

[powerspurge]

Agreed with Power. In fact, keep Koren, sell Cairney, sell Harper (Can't sell Ghilas as he's out on loan) and you're pretty much set.

Rely on free's and loans in, incorporate the youth and you're fine.

you CAN sell ghilas even on loan - your just selling him once the loan ends - in FM12 the funds get allocated to you in your spending budget when you have agreed a deal

[dannyh]

you CAN sell ghilas even on loan - your just selling him once the loan ends - in FM12 the funds get allocated to you in your spending budget when you have agreed a deal

Didn't i just say that????

[Ukchris]

Start of Season 1: 2011 - 2012

Well, here goes As everyone has mentioned the start of the first season puts us in a fairly tricky situation. No money, over the wage budget and expensive players injured until the new year. There are some good players in the squad but certain positions aren't covered very well, there's not much depth in some areas and due to the finances you can't go sign 4-5 new players as other teams can. All things considered I looked at the squad and did the following:

Transfers In:

- None -

Transfers Out:

Waghorn (Loan cancelled)

Gulacsi (Loan cancelled)

Waghorn on 8k a week just didn't offer anything I felt I needed. Low creativity, technique etc. but lacking high pace to make up for it.. He wouldn't be a starter for me and I didn't want 8k wages sitting on the bench. The same with Gulacsi... Basso is my first choice and 8k wages on the bench is too wasteful. I'll simply be hoping Basso stays fit, and have Oxley as backup this season.

With the wages freed up I still couldn't sign anyone new but it gave me the ability to renew Koren's contract. He's valued over £1m and it would've been a shame for him to go free next summer. I'd rather keep him as a key player than sell so I've got him signed up for another 3 years. I decided to keep everyone else as I need some depth and didn't want to drain the squad too much trying to free up wages to bring someone new in. I wouldn't have the transfer funds for a good signing in any case.

Looking at the remaining squad, a lone striker seems the way to go with Fryatt, Mclean and Adebola providing the options here. The strongest area of the squad is midfield, but I'll be relying on Koren and Barmby for creativity and Brady for pace. Cairney should be decent in the middle, but not as strong as in FM11. Evans, McKenna and Harper all provide rotation and cover for midfield and may be played out of position a bit too while Stewart is injured. After pre-season I'm looking at playing Barmby as an AMC, Cairney sitting back as a deep-lying playmaker and Koren as a more attacking central mid getting up to join attacks. The alternative is to play McKenna regularly as a holding midfielder, let Cairney play the more attacking role and have Koren out on the wing. Brady should provide pace on the wing. I'm looking at something like a 4231 and with Stewart out I have no one for the other wing - I may try Mclean with his pace pushed up as a wide forward, or simply only use one winger and play narrower on the other side (could play both Barmby and Koren at AMC behind a striker). If the first choice defence (Rosenior, Chester, Hobbs, Dawson) can stay fit then that area isn't too bad but a couple of injuries there could be horrible with the lack of cover. Again it may come down to players like Evans playing out of position to cover any gaps here.

I'm hoping not to have to use youth players as none are very good but if necessary they'll be used to fill the bench.

Ultimately this season doesn't give me high expectations. If my first team can stay fit I hope to do fairly well but with key players already injured for 5 months the squad is already light. If more key players pick up injuries we could find a real lack of talent in the squad. The high loan repayments end after the first season so I'll just be doing what I can to keep the team in good shape and hope to be able to start rebuilding then.

[powerspurge]

Didn't i just say that????

maybe theres an echo in here, maybe theres an echo in here

[Ukchris]

Injuries sure like to pile up! Fryatt out for 5 weeks right before the start of the season, Dudgeon out for 4 weeks, Brady injured in the first match and out for 6 weeks, Cairney out for 5 weeks after an injury in the 2nd match. I'm spread so thin at the moment I have no choice but to use the youth players.

On the plus side Barmby got 2 goals to beat Leicester on the opening day of the season.

[BCFC_Mike]

I got Koren on a free for Bristol City at the end of the first season, how do you lads play him? I play a 4-3-2-1, with a RW not RM.. So I am playing him as a central midfielder atm..

[Ukchris]

Koren should perform best either as MC with an attacking role or at AMC. He's got good creativity, technique etc. for the Championship so should do well in a playmaker role. Either way I'd look at getting him making attacking runs from time to time with fairly high creative freedom. You want him up around the box, not sitting too deep.

[cmsdan]

just got to end of October and just as stewart, oli and mcshane where beginning to get fit i get sacked and whats worse Simpson at millwall is get banging them in lol

[BCFC_Mike]

Koren should perform best either as MC with an attacking role or at AMC. He's got good creativity, technique etc. for the Championship so should do well in a playmaker role. Either way I'd look at getting him making attacking runs from time to time with fairly high creative freedom. You want him up around the box, not sitting too deep.

Cheers mate, appreciated.

[Ukchris]

Unlucky cms. Where were you in the league and what were your expectations?

Season 1 Update: September 2011

I've just passed transfer deadline day, Sept 1st, and managed to make a couple of moves right at the end. I renewed a few players like Barmby and Basso on lower wages and that freed up just enough space for the board to allow me to make some free transfers. I brought in these two veterans:

Injuries were hurting my squad and I've been having to play Pusic and Emerton who are, quite frankly, fairly useless in the game. I needed someone with some creativity and ability on the ball for better depth and these two have come in for free and on fairly low wages. As older players they're not long-term signings but they should help get me through this season and let me rebuild in the summer.

I added a couple of youths on around £55 a week too, just because they looked a bit better than my current youths as emergency backup (I'll take players with 10 creativity as backup over players with 4!).

11th in the league with the transfer window closed. 2 wins, 2 losses and a draw. Fryatt and Mclean are fit now so hopefully they'll stay that way, but as soon as Brady got back into training he got injured again immediately on international duty. Oh well!

[Tyler42]

I've never had such a difficult time with Hull. But I've made it to Feb.

I managed to offload a few players, but not as many as I was hoping for. I brought in a few good signings, Timo Hildebrand being my biggest one so far. My goal was to reach top8, but lowered it to 15-10th. Need to offload many more at the end of the season and I think I'll be in the red because of this huge loan repayment.

Squad:

[Ukchris]

I've just about given up on my save. Dropped to 19th in November now and I expect to be sacked soon. Keeping the original squad just isn't working... there's no quality.

-Chester and Hobbs are too slow for a strong defence.

-Koren is about the only creative player, and he's weaker than last year.

-Most midfielders have no cutting edge on the ball - too many with 8 creativity and decisions etc.

-Fryatt is too slow, McLean has no ability.

If I was building a championship team, Koren and Rosenior are probably the only players who'd get a look in. The rest just aren't up to it. Last year it was easy as we had a better Koren and Cairney and Bullard was around, along with Halmosi and Garcia who had good ability for championship level.

I'm tempted to give up before I do get sacked, start again and this time sell as many players as possible and try to rebuild the squad. Was going to do that in the summer when loaned players have returned but I doubt I'll make it there with my job intact now. I rushed into this save expecting to be safely mid-table and rebuild the team for the 2nd season but in hindsight that was a mistake.

[kccircle]

Do you think the squad have been under valued then based on how we are doing at the moment?

[Ukchris]

Not hugely under-valued. I'd say a few of our players are faster than rated here (Chester really isn't 9 and Fryatt is more a 12-13 than the 10 he has here) and some are more technically gifted than the database suggests. Stewart only has pace in the game, whereas in reality he has a cracking shot and good touch on the ball. Similar thing with Brady. I'd also argue that Koren is a touch underrated this year.

Most of our players are fairly representative of reality. The likes of Evans, Cairney and McKenna have all struggled to create much on the pitch and that's the same in-game. Harper is quite accurate in his running around a lot without doing anything. Our wins have often come from moments of quality from Koren, Rosenior and Brady. While Brady feels a bit undervalued, Koren and Rosenior are at least two of the better players in-game. Unfortunately while in reality we've become good at grinding a clean sheet and grabbing a winning goal out of nowhere, in-game it doesn't work the same way.

The problem in the game is that we only really have Koren as a creative player and even then he's average at best for a Championship playmaker in FM12. It's not like he's a Premiership class player who can completely run the show. The rest of our midfield just don't have that vision or ability to play pinpoint passes to split defences. It wouldn't be a huge issue if we could bring a couple of decent players in but compared to other teams who have millions to spend we start way over the wage budget and we can only sell a couple of players as the rest are injured or have just signed for us and won't leave. We have players who would actually be useful out on loan all season (Ghilas and Simpson).

You can sell Harper, Dawson and Fryatt (if you want to) at the start but that's about it. Waghorn and Gulacsi loans can be terminated to free up wages. Some have mentioned arranging transfers for loan players like Ghilas - I'll look into that if I do start again.

Ultimately we start with very little creative quality and have no funds to fix it. It's very different from FM11 where Bullard, Koren and Cairney were three of the best players in the league and could control matches. I suggest anyone starting a new Hull game sits down and spends plenty of time looking for free transfers and loans. Don't do what I did and rush into the first season - it's painful!

[Ukchris]

I've started a new save, I rushed into the last one and just wasn't enjoying it. Going for a different approach here - as we don't have strong wingers I'll go with a wingless formation. Probably a 41212 diamond but it could easily play as a 4312. I spent a couple of hours looking over all the free transfer players and in the end have done this:

Transfers In

Krisztian Nemeth (Free): A creative striker with 14 for technique, creativity and first touch. 13 accel and 12 pace so he's around the same speed as Klemen Lavric who was great for me in FM11.

James Beattie (Free): He's a slow striker but he provides more of an aerial threat for knock-downs and with 15 finishing if he gets a chance in the box he should be on target.

Alan Mahon (Free): Another older, slower player but with a lot of attributes around 12-13 he should be reasonable on the ball in central midfield.

Transfers Out

Martyn Waghorn (Loan terminated): £8k wages were too much for a player with 10 creativity etc.

Peter Gulacsi (Loan terminated): £8k wages too high for a bench-warmer.

Kamel Ghilas (£375k): Not going until the summer but it gave me a bit of transfer budget to increase my wage cap now and it will get his wages off the bill for next season.

I'm keeping everyone else for now as with the injuries I need the depth. I could have sold Cairney, Harper and Evans but really with the budget I'd have (only 60% for new transfers) it would be tough to sign replacements at the same/better quality. Hopefully in January I can try to move Olofinjana and McShane on to really free up some wages, and probably McLean then too. Harper may also go at that point.

For now I'll see how it goes not trying to play wingers for the sake of it. The diamond should play more to the current squad strengths and with the new forwards I have better support for Fryatt. Let's see if I can make it to January in a reasonable league position and keep my job!

[powerspurge]

ukchris - i'm 2nd in the league after 12 matches, it could be your tactics as I think the squad is rather good actually and stronger than most in the CCC.

Admittedly I have signed a new winger as the right side is not covered whilst stewart is injured.

Heres my squad :

basso

dudgeon

chester

hobbs

rosenior

brady

evans

cairney (he playing better then koren in my game and has loads of assists!)

dobbie (signed him on a season long loan and had to pay 400k fee - well worth it as he's scored 7 goals in 11 matches as a AMR)

Fryatt (on fire)

McClean (not great will try to sign Leigh griffiths from wolves in Jan)

Signed Fabien Brandy on a free as backup who isnt bad but really need a 2nd top quality striker in Jan to play alongside Fryatt

[Ukchris]

Oh, as I indicated in my latest post, I've actually kept almost all the starting squad again with Waghorn and Gulacsi loans being cancelled the only changes. I agree that my tactics in the first save were bad for the squad; I was sticking to a formation I like, the 4231, but I didn't really have the players for it as non of the strikers is good enough all-round to play the lone striker role (Fryatt too slow for it, McLean not technical enough) and we have weak wingers. The 4231 relies a lot on the front three, and here was my weak point. To use the old cliche I was trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.

This time, though I have the same actual Hull squad, I've tried to identify a setup that will work better for the players available. Two forwards should work better together, and I've signed Nemeth and Beattie to give me more options here. As we lack top wingers I've dropped the wings and will play narrower. Hopefully a midfield diamond can keep the ball well and a pair of strikers rather than a lone forward can get into goal-scoring positions.

[HCFC_Clark]

Alright lads,

Just finished my first season as City, and it went pretty well! Finished 8th overall, missing out on the play-offs by just 3 points, but overall I was pleased. Could quite easily of finished 2nd, no chance of 1st as West Ham ran away with it, but i messed up towards the end of the season dropping points where i shouldnt of.

I used a 4-3-3 formation that i created myself, only signing Morrison from Man U. Fryatt thrived here, scoring 26!! goals, finishing 2nd top scorer in the league.

Gotta agree with you all tho, the tight finances make this save very, very difficult, but exciting at the same time!

Anyway, i wont bore you all, let the fun begin!

[Ukchris]

Nice finish Clark How are finances for the summer, able to do much or still tight?

My 41212 is working nicely, 5th in the league at the moment after 9 games. Fryatt is so much more lethal with a strike partner. He lacked the pace to play as a lone striker but in this setup his movement gets him in great positions and has 7 goals so far. Nemeth has been a good addition to play with him, often providing the assist. I signed another striker right at the end of the transfer window for free, Zlatan Muslimovic. That means I have 6 strikers in the squad (7 when Simpson returns!) but it gives me so much more strength. I'm not needing to use McLean, who I did try to sell but got no offers. Harper is actually doing well as my DMC which is a pleasant surprise. All in all this setup is much better for the squad - the 4231 from before without a complete forward and with weak wingers was just wasting our strengths.

Here are my 3 new forwards, all free transfers:

Fryatt is always first choice to start and I'll be using Nemeth and Muslimovic alongside when fit (one starting, the other on the bench). Beattie is currently 4th choice due to his lower pace but he's good cover for any injuries or heavy schedule rotation. McLean and Adebola are currently keeping busy in the reserves.