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FM13: Southampton F.C. - Reasons to be cheerful - Part 3!


Matthew Le God

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Stadium

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The future?

A DVD with each season ticket this summer revealed early plans from AFL architects for an expansion of St Mary's stadium and the development of the land around the stadium.

FM13 has St Mary's with a max capacity of 52,000 so plenty of potential for you to grow the club.

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Finances

The club was taken over in 2009 by billionaire owner Markus Liebherr and chairman Nicola Cortese. Markus Liebherr passed away in 2010, but his legacy has seen the club rise from League One on -10 points to the Premier League in just three years.

The summer of 2012 saw a net spend of circa £30 million, which was the 7th highest in European football. The club's transfer record was broken twice this summer. First with the £7m purchase of Jay Rodriguez, and then £12 million for Uruguayan international Gaston Ramirez.

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Squad analysis

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My starting XI with a 4231 formation

Goalkeeper

Last season in the Championship saw veteran Kelvin Davis win the PFA keeper of the year as Southampton were promoted. In the opening games of the campaign it was clear to see he was a little out of his depth back in the Premier League and has since been replaced in the starting line-up by young summer signing Paulo Gazzaniga. The keeper position was further strengthen by the free transfer of former Celtic and Fiorentina keeper Artur Boruc.

Boruc should be your keeper from the start of the game, he is a solid Premier League quality keeper, but as he is only on a one year contract it i important you tie him down to a longer one whilst Gazzaniga develops. Kelvin Davis can act as back-up.

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Full backs

Summer signing Nathaniel Clyne is a very good prospect at right back. Very fast and has high potential. At left back is where you will see one of the squads weak points, Scottish international Danny Fox lacks pace and is often caught out positionally. He is someone you should look to replace quickly.

The depth is also poor in fallback areas, Frazer Richardson is the replacement rightback and will struggle in the Premier League and at left back there is very little in the way of good cover from Seaborne or Dickson until 17 year old Luke Shaw is ready to play.

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Centre backs

Along with the already stated problem at left back, centre back is the other major issue you will have to find a solution to. Last season's pairing of Jose Fonte and Jos Hooiveld will probably struggle in the Premier League. New signing Maya Yoshida has more potential than both of them but will need time to improve. You should look to bring in a quality centre back as soon as you can.

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Midfielders

Central midfield in my 4231 formation is strong with Northern Irish captain Steven Davis and Frenchman Morgan Schniederlin first choices providing some bite and quality on the ball from deep. They are backed up by Jack Cork and 17 year old prospect James Ward-Prowse.

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Attacking Midfielders

This is perhaps the strongest area of the pitch for Southampton in my formation. Two of the club's star players are to be found in roles behind striker Rickie Lambert. Gaston Ramirez is the best player at the club and I use him in a creative attacking central role behind the striker. Adam Lallana also provides quality and flair on the ball and is on the left wing where being strong with both feet and turn fullbacks inside out.

The right wing is up for debate, Jason Puncheon and Guly Do Prado are both options but I like to use Emmanuel Mayuka as a winger and games will help him reach his high potential. As Mayuka isn't a natural winger you should retain him for that positional to help him deal with the demands of the role.

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Striker

Rickie Lambert was the Championship's top scorer last season with 27 goals and was voted the player of the season. I use him in a lone striker role with Gaston Ramirez just behind him, what Lambert lacks in pace he makes up for in technical ability, aerial ability, vision and finishing.

Summer signing Jay Rodriguez is a good long term replacement for Lambert and provides good back-up with high potential. Other alternatives include Japanese international striker Tadanari Lee and Brazilian Guly Do Prado.

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Youngsters to keep an eye on

Southampton were granted category 1 status earlier this summer for their academy under the EPPP. Saints have a good record of producing players in recent years with the highest profile players being...

- Theo Walcott

- Gareth Bale

- Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain

There are numerous other Southampton academy products playing at Premier League and Championship level. FM13 reflexes the production line coming out of Staplewood and Southampton will produce very good newgens in future seasons for you.

Below are the profiles in FM13 of the four main prospects in the academy, Shaw, Ward-Prowse, Chambers and Stephens. All have represented England at youth level recently and all trained with the Saints first team over the summer. Ward-Prowse at just 17 years old has already started a number Premier League games already. These four and Jake Sinclair (brother of Man City's Scott Sinclair), all have big futures in the game so look after them well and they will be first team players in the Premier League for you.

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What skin is that mate? And how do you get those shirts in left side of the players screen?

The screenshots are a mixture of ones from the main Football Manager 13 mode and Football Manager 13 Classic mode (the streamlined version). I used the Football Manager Classic screenshots for the player profiles in the opening post. They are all using the normal skin.

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Well done Sir, great thread :)

Do you have any recommended signings in the positions stated? i.e centre back and left back? I have only made 1 signing so far and that was Anderson from Man Utd. He was transfer listed so had to get him :)

P.s what skin are you using? it looks great.

Thanks

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Is it only me or does clyne look ridiculously overrated?

His markring, heading and jumping are all pretty average plus his mental stats are also pretty average. He's pretty quick and good going forward and can tackle, that's pretty representative of the player who has put in some excellent performances this season for struggling defence and has been the best fullback in the championship for several seasons.

Great thread MLG, Gaston looks amazing he'll be hell of player after a season or two of development. Schneiderlin looks a little undercooked but again has lots of 13.14 and 15 rating so a bit of development he will be looking good. Any screen shots of Jake Sinclair? Lots of pace?

Finally glad to see Rickie looking like the player he is, wonder if you can squeeze any more out of those stats and when he will decline. FM has never really done late bloomers very well.

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Great stuff MLG, I've holidayed through the first season after i was done in the transfer window, had some very pleasing results

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Finished in 6th, just 3 points off the Champs League, Was sat in 3rd for most of the league but an injury to Lambert seemed to slow us down.

Lambert had a good season, as did Ramirez, but the standout guy was Tadanari Lee.

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Budget started off at 4m, which i spent the majority on Ashley Williams, and also brought in Jack Robinson at Left Back. In january my budget got increased again to 13m and an extra 100k in wages, I didn't spend any of it though as I wanted to save for Season 2.

Just started season 2 and the new budget is 27m, and just spotted this little gem...

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Wow! Quick off the mark there mate.... but still good quality too. I take my hat off to you sir!

Clyne looks amazing! I swear he ain't that good in real life. I was so gutted when you signed Davis (irl), I love him so much and with Rangers ongoing financial problems he was always easy to get cheap. Oh well, I guess he was always going to go somewhere.

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Enjoyed thread very much, well done! Seems to me that players are overrated a bit!
A very good opening to a thread, I hope you stay active in the thread, be a shame if not :)

It does seem that Southampton are like Spurs on FM11 though, vastly overrated.

"Overrated"

Really? In terms of the average CA for the best 16 players (which is how us researchers have a quick analysis) they are one of the worst in the Premier League in FM13. Also I haven't touched the profiles of any of the summer signings, they are down to their previous researchers.

Is it only me or does clyne look ridiculously overrated?
Yeah I would say so. Definitely far dodgier defensively irl.

Clyne looks amazing! I swear he ain't that good in real life.

As I said earlier Nathaniel Clyne (like all the summer signings) was done by his previous researcher.

His CA isn't that high, I've been impressed with him this season and is now getting regular callups to the England under 21 squad so is clearly doing something right.

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"Overrated"

Really? In terms of the average CA for the best 16 players (which is how us researchers have a quick analysis) they are one of the worst in the Premier League in FM13.

We all know the game doesn't work on CA though, it's the actual attributes. But in terms of the starting attributes then a lot of the squad are really overrated. I don't expect you to agree though :)

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A very good opening to a thread, I hope you stay active in the thread, be a shame if not :)

It does seem that Southampton are like Spurs on FM11 though, vastly overrated.

I suppose we won't know this until the end of the season in real life. Real life Saints look like they have struggled but if you went by performances we have troubled some of the best in the league (City, and Utd) but we are poor defensively, which Clyne aside it looks like we are.

If you look at the attributes of players they don;t look that off to me:-

Boruc was Fiorentina's number 1 last year and had 14 clean sheets, and was rated one of the best keepers in the world.

Clyne might a little overated, but there is no doubt he is great prospect, been the best fullback in the championship for two years and he is very quick in real life.

Danny fox doesn't look that much different from his Championship version.

Neither does Fonte.

Yoshida looks pretty poor IMO.

Davis looks not different from FM12

Neither does Schniedierlin

Mayuka looks about what I expected him to be, quite raw but with potential. To be fair he should probably have more pace.

Gaston looks pretty similar to the FM12 version and he had his best season for Bologna last year.

Lallana again looks about the same as last year, remember IRL he was 2nd best player in the championship and just got an England call up this year.

And Rickie Lambert was championship top scorer and best player last year and has already scored 4 goals in the premiership IRL so looks about right to me.

Aside from Clyne can't see how Saints have been over rated? Can you show me some comparable players where you think the Saints players have better stats? Say Holt and Lambert or Lallana and Jarvis?

The best players to me look like the ones brought in Davis, Clyne, Boruc, Ramirez <- they all would have been rated by their previous club's researchers no?

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We all know the game doesn't work on CA though, it's the actual attributes. But in terms of the starting attributes then a lot of the squad are really overrated. I don't expect you to agree though :)

The CA is important as is linked to the weighted attributes, a player is restricted in his attributes with a lower CA. All summer signings were done by their previous researchers, then you have the likes of Lallana who was called up to the senior England squad recently and Lambert who scored 27 goals in the Championship last year. Who do you think is "overrated"?

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