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FM12: Nottingham Forest Thread - Reminiscing Ol' Big 'Ed


danger_mouse

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Hmm, so maybe it was the fact that Findley and him can't settle. I have Dex back soon and Hull are next. I'll go with Ish and Matt again as that worked. Radi did well against Derby so he may get another game. Also, just a little tip, don't loan out Darlow or Emitov if you've got rid of Smith because Camp and Emitov go on international duty a few times.

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August 2011

August has been a very good month. We sit happily in fifth and into the third round League Cup where we shall face Burnley at home. The month didn't get off to the best of starts. We were away at Reading and whilst it was a very even game, we missed too many chances which cost us the game. The next game was against Rotherham. Again we played rubbish and were lucky to win the game in extra time. The Barnsley game was the turning point of the month. I made the brave decision to drop Ish in place of Marcus who didn't disappoint. Two goals from him and we were on our way. Unfortunately for us though we picked up three injuries, two long term and one short-term. Next up was Derby. With Marcus injured I chucked Ish back in whilst dropping Findley. Robbie didn't deserve to be dropped but Ish and him are struggling to play together. Matt played and Ish was a beast. He had a hat-trick and should have had 7. We won 3-1, away. With Hull the next visitors to the City Ground, I was hoping for another good win. The first half was tough, but a kick up the backside at half-time saw us hammer them. Unfortunately for us we couldn't make our chances count and as happens quite often in football, it comes back to haunt you. Hull equalised in the 87th minute and we dropped two points. Next up was Leyton Orient, away. The league is the obvius priority but a cup run would be nice. A 1-0 win occured and well we march on. The final game of the month saw us travel to Cardiff. They were better in the first half and were leading up until the stroke of half-time. Robbie Findley equalised and the team-talk was the usual kick-up the backside. Dex on his first league start, got a goal and Chambo sealed the victory. Paul Pogba has joined on loan until the end of the season from our parent club Manchester United.

Fixtures

League Table

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Pre Season

Pre season went pretty well for a change. Suffered just the one defeat against a good strength Celtic side, a game in which we weren't embarrassed but the squad looked pretty unfit. A 2-2 draw with Portadown but in that game every player was from the Under 18 squad. The main squad had played 3 games already so didn't want to over stretch them. They played pretty well, I thought I should have won that game but mustn't grumble. I brought in Hogan Ephraim on loan from QPR, quality left midfielder and Jack Robinson at Left Back. I originally brought him in as cover for Gunter but I dropped Moloney and put Gunter at RB and Robinson at LB, it's working pretty well so far.

Start to Mid Season

So got the season off to a flyer with back to back wins against Burnley and Bristol City with Miller bagging a brace in each, then an away loss to Southampton. Then an 11 game unbeaten run followed, 3 draws, disappointingly 2 of these were at home and both were games we should have won. But 8 wins and all them pretty convincingly scoring at least 2 goals in each win, 20 in total, a slight worry only keeping 4 clean sheets. Then things started to go wrong, coinciding with the loss of Wes Morgan for 4 months and Ish Miller for initially 2 months but throughout the rest of the season he got injured at least 4 more times. A defeat away to Ipswich, followed by a horrendous home defeat to Posh led to a 6 game run without a win including another home defeat. Lost my way here, changing the team, various niggling injuries to defenders left me having to resort to a back 3 which didn't quite work out like I expected. This took me into the mid season area with a disappointing 1 win in 8, so having sat pretty at the top of the league, I was now languishing in 3rd.

Mid Season to Finish

Boxing Day kicked off with a comfortable win at home to Leeds and now we were back to the turn around. A couple of wins, then a couple of losses, another 1-0 defeat at home was really disappointing. Miller out injured, Morgan injured, Chambers injured, really couldn't get a settled team. It seemed every game another player picked up a little injury. Went on another little run of 9 games unbeaten, but 5 of these were draws, 3 of them at home which inevitably would cost me the league title. A little hiccup away at Posh, a game in which I was 2-0 up sealed my fate as going on to finish either 2nd or 3rd. But myself, Ipswich and Burnley went on various dodgy runs towards the end of the season and thanks to a 7 game unbeaten run at the end of the season 2nd place was sealed. Had it not been for a late, late I would have gone into the final game against Leeds with a chance of winning the title. But it was not to be, a final day 3-0 victory against Leeds sealed automatic promotion back to the Premiership.

Conclusion

All in all a good start for me on FM12. For the majority of the games I stuck with 4-4-2, Philosophy balanced, Strategy attacking. Towards the end of the season I deviated to either 3-1-4-2 because of various injuries thanks to using match preparation as a back up formation it worked well. Had significant injuries to Miller, Morgan and Chambers been avoided I would have been top of the league. Will need to make a lot of signings for next season, think the challenge will be to bravely avoid relegation.

League Table

Season Transfers[/url]

Pre Season I brought in Jack Robinson at left back and Hogan Ephraim at left midfield. Both really good signings, Robinson slotted nicely in at left back allowing me to utilise Gunter at right back. Ephraim was probably the difference between me making auto promotion instead of the play offs. Apart from Pellicori whom I brought in on loan from QPR for the back end of the season and he turned out to be poor, the rest of the signings were all youngsters who I scouted out for the future. Tery Kennedy made a handful of first team appearances and did well. 11 games, 2 goals, average rating of 6.94, definitely going to be a star of the future. I signed Joe Lewis in the January transfer window and immediately afterwards I regretted it. The board did the transfer after I showed the initial interest, securing the deal for £1mill. I played him for 4 games, he conceded 4 goals but kept 2 clean sheets. But at 10k a week and a million spent on him, Lee Camp was performing well enough, I just got greedy!

Best Signing: Hogan Ephraim on Loan

Worst Signing: Joe Lewis £1million

As for players departing the club, Raddy went early on. I was playing 4-4-2 formation and with a plethora of central midfield players he just didn't fit my portfolio. It wasn't until towards the end of the season when I started playing 4-1-2-1-2 that he would have fitted in perfectly. I didn't rate Mcleary so he languished in the reserves before we parted company and Paul Smith went due to me signing Joe Lewis. A few youngsters went out and about on loan but nothing drastic.

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Impressive that. Kicked off the premiership campaign. Unbeaten in first 3 games, albeit all 3 were draws! One of which was 2-0 up at home to WBA and chucked it away. Brought in 9 signings, I always have a habit of doing this whatever FM it is! Got Michael Owen on a freebie backed 1 in 3 but struggling to keep him fit. Mainly a bit part player.

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Started my game yesterday evening with Forest.

Pre-season went well results wise, beat Arsenal Reserves 8-1, Arsenal 4-3, Alfreton 7-0, Stoke 4-2 and Torquay 5-2 only loosing to Exter 3-2 after fielding a team made up of back-up/reserve and U-18 players. Derbyshire & Miller were a brilliant partnership with them scoring 7 & 10 respectively.

Only 3 games into the season so far and the good form has continued beating Hull 4-1, Bradford 3-1 and drawing 2-2 with Cardiff although i feel i should of won the game with Chambers scoring an own goal late on.

Transfer wise I sold Paul Smith too Birmingham for 300k after i had an argument with his agent who wanted a ridiculous new contract. Bought in Jlloyd Samuel in DL for free and Glenn Loovens (DC) from Celtic for 170k. Tempted to sell Mcgoldrick as the strike force is pretty strong, but the board will only give me 10% of the funds raised so i'm not sure it'll actually be worth it.

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Started mine least night, Miller and Blackstock are forming a truly lethal partnership up top, with a combined 10 goals between them in the first 8 games. Currently sitting 5th in the table, 4 points off of West Ham at the top. Now, the problem is, when we play big matches, we choke. I had won 5 on the bounce going in to the match against reading, ended up getting battered 4-1. Then, I'd won 2 in a row going in to the West Ham game, we didn't take our chances and ended up losing, rather unfortunately, 2-0. Any ideas on why my players aren't up for Big Games?

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I started my game early hours of Friday morning, but only played 2 games so far as I like to take my time re-building the club my way.

Beat Burnley on the opening day of the season at home 3-1 & just beat Notts County in the 1st round of the Carling Cup also by 3-1 at Meadow Lane.

Changed nearly all the coaching staff (only keeping Steve Sutton, Nick Marshall, Alan Hill, Martin Wilkinson and Andrew Balderston [for now, might get rid of him yet]) & replaced them with better people. Brought in Tony Coton as my Ass Man, Mark Sertori as a FTC, John Murtough as a Coach, Bobby Downes as a Coach, Paul Winsper as a Fitness Coach, Gary Brazil as a Youth Coach, Steve Whitehall as a Physio, Steve Martin as a Scout, Ian Bowyer as a Scout & Ian Storey-Moore as a Scout.

The signings I've made so far are: Sol Campbell - Free, Lomana LuaLua - Free, Jack Robinson - Season Long Loan, Sanchez Watt - Season Long Loan (only because Arsenal sent him to me as they're my Parent Club), Glenn Loovens - 6 Month Loan with option to buy for £160K and signed Jonny Howson from Leeds for £1.5M.

I've sold McCleary to Pompey for £625K, McGoldrick to Peterborough for £825K & Raddy to Birmingham for £1.8M.

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hi all, just thought id give you an update on my game.

Only in pre-season so far, played well so far.

In

Danny rose Tottenham end of season loan

Emanuel Frimpong Arsenal end of season loan

Out

Paul Smith 500k blackpool

David Mcgoldrick 625k Peterborough

Raddy Birmingham 1.8 million

Will now look to strength defence and add the odd squad player as have healthy transfer budget now.

My tactic is 4 at back, 2 DM, with 3 Attacking midfielders, and either miller or derbyshire up front

Great thread, will update more as my season goes along.

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Hi Jackman,

How did you get that result against Cardiff. They were 2nd top when i played them (i was 8th). I was on a role of 3 wins in a row and a manager of the month award. But came thumping back down with a 5-1 defeat away to them. What tacticts did you use and who did you mark etc>?

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5 games into my season, have started well: 4-2, 4-0, 4-0, 1-1, 3-0. Did my usual trick of signing loads of players (i cant help it) and shipping out the dead wood (and McGugan). Can anyone tell me how to put a screenshot on here please? Or point me to where i can find out?

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5 games into my season, have started well: 4-2, 4-0, 4-0, 1-1, 3-0. Did my usual trick of signing loads of players (i cant help it) and shipping out the dead wood (and McGugan). Can anyone tell me how to put a screenshot on here please? Or point me to where i can find out?

Press Alt+F9 whilst in game and it saves it to the screenshots folder. Or press the print screen button your keyboard and paste it into paint. Then upload to something like imageshack and direct link it onto here using the globe in the editor.

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I started again after I installed the full game.

In

Sam Johnstone (Man Utd) - Season Loan

Federico Macheda (Man Utd) - Season Loan

Jack Robinson (Liverpool) - Season Loan

Glen Loovens (Celtic) - £375k

Carl Jenkinson (Arsenal) - Emergency 3 month loan when Gunter got injured.

Out

McGoldrick - £850k

Anderson - £1m

Smith - £500k

Put Tudgay & McLeary on the transfer market too but no-one seems to want them.

Staff Changes

I completely gutted the back room staff, sacked all scouts except Alan Hill & Martin Wilkinson and employed four better scouts with 16/16 on JPA/JPA or above. Sacked all youth coaches except Nick Marshall, who I offered a job as a Coach, so he can work with the first team too. Sacked all first team coaches except Bill Beswick & the GK coach who isn't Steve Sutton and sacked Hasslebaink.

Brought in Terry McDermott as assistant, Tosh Farrell and a couple of others. I've got roughly three stars all the way down now except Tactics & Defending, which are 4.5 stars.

Strongest team

GK - Camp

RB - Gunter

CB / CB - Chambers / Loovens

LB - Robinson

DM - Moussi

CM / CM - McGugan / Cohen

AMC - Majewski

ST / ST - Miller / Findley

Season so far

I have Man Utd as a parent club, which explains Macheda, although he's not as good as I expected so he spends most of his time on the bench and I might even send him back to save on wages.

Gunter out for minimum five months, so I've switched Chambers to RB & put Morgan back in CB. Carl Jenkinson on loan was a panic move and he's worse than Maloney, so that was a waste of time.

I got knocked out of League Cup, round four by Fulham on penalties. Cardiff are hammering the league, with West Ham and Leicester just behind. I'm fourth but there's nothing between fourth and about tenth and there's about a six point gap between me and third place. It's generally been a season of win one, lose one but I'm currently four games unbeaten, drew 0-0 then two games running I was 2-0 down at half time but drew 2-2, then won 2-1 before I switched it off so I could get up for work this morning. :D

Biggest win so far 6-1 vs Leeds

Kinda pissed off I sold almost £2.5m of players but only ended up with £400k to spend.

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Anyone made it to the PL with them yet?

YEah I made it to the prem at the first attempt but finding it a real struggle. Messed it up to be honest, brought in some crap players, panicked at getting staff in. Languishing in 18th place after halfway through the season.

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I started again after I installed the full game.

In

Sam Johnstone (Man Utd) - Season Loan

Federico Macheda (Man Utd) - Season Loan

Jack Robinson (Liverpool) - Season Loan

Glen Loovens (Celtic) - £375k

Carl Jenkinson (Arsenal) - Emergency 3 month loan when Gunter got injured.

Out

McGoldrick - £850k

Anderson - £1m

Smith - £500k

Put Tudgay & McLeary on the transfer market too but no-one seems to want them.

Staff Changes

I completely gutted the back room staff, sacked all scouts except Alan Hill & Martin Wilkinson and employed four better scouts with 16/16 on JPA/JPA or above. Sacked all youth coaches except Nick Marshall, who I offered a job as a Coach, so he can work with the first team too. Sacked all first team coaches except Bill Beswick & the GK coach who isn't Steve Sutton and sacked Hasslebaink.

Brought in Terry McDermott as assistant, Tosh Farrell and a couple of others. I've got roughly three stars all the way down now except Tactics & Defending, which are 4.5 stars.

Strongest team

GK - Camp

RB - Gunter

CB / CB - Chambers / Loovens

LB - Robinson

DM - Moussi

CM / CM - McGugan / Cohen

AMC - Majewski

ST / ST - Miller / Findley

Season so far

I have Man Utd as a parent club, which explains Macheda, although he's not as good as I expected so he spends most of his time on the bench and I might even send him back to save on wages.

Gunter out for minimum five months, so I've switched Chambers to RB & put Morgan back in CB. Carl Jenkinson on loan was a panic move and he's worse than Maloney, so that was a waste of time.

I got knocked out of League Cup, round four by Fulham on penalties. Cardiff are hammering the league, with West Ham and Leicester just behind. I'm fourth but there's nothing between fourth and about tenth and there's about a six point gap between me and third place. It's generally been a season of win one, lose one but I'm currently four games unbeaten, drew 0-0 then two games running I was 2-0 down at half time but drew 2-2, then won 2-1 before I switched it off so I could get up for work this morning. :D

Biggest win so far 6-1 vs Leeds

Kinda pissed off I sold almost £2.5m of players but only ended up with £400k to spend.

There were something like 25 teams came in for loovens when I wanted him. He didn't choose me :mad:

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No-one wanted him on my save. He starts at about 700k then Celtic get panicky and start dropping his price and offering him out. :D

He's not that good, you're not missing much and I dare say I could've got someone better if I'd searched hard enough.

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