FM13 Arsenal Thread - Victoria Concordia Crescit

[Guest]

thanks for the suggesting of Charlie Austin but Im using Pro's latest edited data and I think he is a new signing at QPR , he is also out injured for 6 weeks.

[tomtuck01]

Wingbacks are fairly useless on FM right now on the basis that they don't behave remotely like they do in real life.

[llama3]

Wongbacks! Lol!

[Mark.]

Considering how they work in the game, I think 'Wongbacks' is fitting.

Finally finished my first season. Update coming after work. Exciting results. Now the challenge is to keep myself interested and resist the lure of starting a new game with Ozil on board!

[jlm8695]

Considering how they work in the game, I think 'Wongbacks' is fitting.

Finally finished my first season. Update coming after work. Exciting results. Now the challenge is to keep myself interested and resist the lure of starting a new game with Ozil on board!

Im sure there is going to be a few waiting for Ozil, I know I certainly am

[llama3]

What a treat playing the game is going to be next year with Ozil on board!

[Cesc_cil]

will start a new save when pro releases it later tonight. do you think he will cut it playing AML inside forward?

[lomekian]

Wingbacks are fairly useless on FM right now on the basis that they don't behave remotely like they do in real life.

Gibbs for me does almost exactly what I want him to, despite the fact I leave him hung out to dry far too often

[tomtuck01]

Gibbs for me does almost exactly what I want him to, despite the fact I leave him hung out to dry far too often

Irrelevant. It doesn't for a second mean they behave as they do in real life, which is the point.

[lomekian]

Irrelevant. It doesn't for a second mean they behave as they do in real life, which is the point.

Not irrelevant seeing as he does for me what he does in real life. But hey, keep with the aggressive tone if you like!

[tomtuck01]

Not irrelevant seeing as he does for me what he does in real life. But hey, keep with the aggressive tone if you like!

Aggressive? Really? Wow, I think you need to check up on what "aggressive" means.

Also, you do realise I mean the position of Wingback, and not the role that is given to a fullback, don't you?

A FB with the role of "Wingback" works just fine, however there is a bug with the position of WB regards to how they behave. The fact that you may have a player in that position behaving in a manner you are happy with doesn't mean the bug isn't there.

[Mark.]

Alrighty, about time I got a season review done. Excuse the lame title, ran out of ideas and that was about the length I wanted in terms of characters.

I have tried a few saves with my Gunners, but either got caught up in other things, or in the case of my previous one to this, the file got corrupted.

I think I will start out showing the transfers I made during during my first season and outline where I was looking to go personnel wise.

As we hear a 100 times around here 'I wanted to keep spending to a minimum'. Well I tried, really, I tried. My only signing I really had intentions of going after to begin was Fellaini as he was pretty crucial to how I want my team to play (as you will see further down). From there is just got a little out of hand. I completed most of my transfer business, then I saw the Lewandowski had been transfer listed. By now I had exhausted my transfer funds, but noticed the 'Ask board to handle negotiations' feature, foolishly deciding to give it a go, and lo and behold, Lewandowski was a Gunner.

Come Jan, I was performing very well and the board offered me to increase expectations, I chose Winner (previously on Challenge) and got a hefty transfer budget increase which I proceeded to blow on future prospects.... for fun.... and to provide the U18s a bit of depth as I hadn't been able to use them in Cup ties much as they were always seemed to be as lively as a sack of potatoes.

Net spend of £92m, ouch, need a bit of work there.

Onto the performances...........

Well what can I say, we were dominant. I think our success was down to how much time I spent watching the games and trying to respond to the opposition. I did a lot of research into how to exploit weaknesses in other formations and shore up my own. Mix that in with a bit of luck and some big time performances when it mattered from Walcott, Wilshere and Fellaini to name a few and here we are.

Bit disappointing not to go unbeaten. Second to last game of a season and a Miguel own goal at home against Chelsea

From here I want to reach the 100x100 club, then the 100x100x100.

Great to get one over Sp*rs. Great to beat them in a final. One of many match ups against them, this one probably being the easiest.

Another one over THEM! Was a lot tougher this time as AVB had been fired and they had brought in Guss Hiddink. Guss had decided to start playing the narrow 4-2-3-1 that Citeh play, my nemesis when it comes to opposition formations. Ultimately Sp*rs were a testing ground for a tactic I had designed specifically for playing against this formation.

The Quad in my first season! To be honest I kind of wanted to lose this one in a sense as it would then leave me another height to scale next season. In the end I was handed a very easy run, at least until the Semi Finals, and then a 2-0 victory at both OT and the Emirates really didn't do justice to how much of a no show ManU were.

Oh well, better luck next time RVP.

The final was EPIC! As mentioned above I had just tested a new formation to use vs the narrow Citeh formation and had promising results. But boy was I unprepared for how this game started out. 18 mins in and a Walcott cross tees up Lewandowski for a finish just inside the box. Then 10 mins later Theo beats half the defense and dribbles right to the near post and slots it in at the opposite post. Kos wrapped it up on 30 mins with a header from a corner.

I had to endure the last 20 mins one man down as Fellaini got sent off, but due the nature of the tactic it didn't cause much trouble.

Onto the Squad and Tactics.......

I rolled with a pretty deep squad this season. Had a few options at most positions as well as trying to ensure what each player brought was a little different. Theo was the star of the season really followed closely by Fellaini in the 'destroyer' role. That isn't to say that there weren't other great performances!

On their way out: Podolski is likely surplus to requirements. I am not 100% sold on Per, he played really well at the start of the season but started making A LOT of crucial errors, especially giving the ball away. Santi could be getting moved on, but that will depend if I can get a good price and if I bring in a replacement for Podolski. Who knows all very up in the air at this stage.

Little unsure where I am going with this group. There are some obvious top prospects in there, but also some that I brought in as stop gap fillers when I realised I had made the squad too small. Will likely scour the world for some top regens over the summer break. My youth intake was rubbish, and I only ended up taking on Myers.

Akpom is tearing it up at the level!

I only really used one tactic for most of the season, just making pre game and in game tweaks. It is listed in the pic as 'Control' but I often change to 'Counter' as I like the space it opens and plays to my teams strengths. The key guy in the formation so far is the BWM role, this is where Fellaini plays mostly and he causes much havoc and often gets on the end of some nice build up for either headers or low drives at goal.

I am still fiddling with the Striker role, I find Giroud does nicely as a Treq, while Lewandowski seems to play better as an AF. Odd.

The second tactic is my Citeh 4-2-3-1 destroyer. The Box in midfield floods the space the AMCs are trying to use and it allows me to break out on counter attacks nicely, setting Theo at AMR to the targetman with run onto ball. I usually try play Lewandowski in the AML role to offer at least a bit of a target for Theo. The two Centre Mids still get involved once we have the ball up their end. 6 shots, 6 on target to 1 shot from long range in the ECL final.

Phew... done... sorry for the info bomb. Expecting some TL:DR. Will start doing monthly updates now.

[llama3]

Not meaning to sound like I am criticising, I am not, just expressing my surprise - but quite shocked to see how successful your system is with only 1 support role and 4 specialist roles in a fluid philosophy.

[Mark.]

llama3,

No, please go ahead. I have read a lot of your work and am wanting as many suggestions as possible. Yeah I have wondered on those points, especially the fluid philosophy myself. I actually started last season with a 4-2-3-1 that used CMd and CMs which made a fluid philosophy more appropriate. When I moved to the 4-3-3 I didn't change at the time and haven't felt I need to yet. That being said, offensively I think we need work, and that is where I intend to start.

With only 1 support role, I kind of felt that the BWMd kind of covered the lack of a support role a little (he is tweaked to run from deep often too). I often set the AP as support too, so it changes game to game. I am toying with the idea of setting one of the wingers to support, but it kind of goes against how I am trying to get the tactic to work.

I dunno, any suggestions?

[Carmi88]

ever since the Ozil transfer i've completely lost interest in my save, hurry up FM14 :[

[Mark.]

ever since the Ozil transfer i've completely lost interest in my save, hurry up FM14 :[

Yeah it is tough, I tried to see if I could get a transfer for him, but he just signed a new deal with RM and to be honest, despite my success he had no interest in coming.

llama3

I have been thinking about changing my 4-3-3 to get more attacking success out of it. I am probably going to change the AP to support full time and move the IFL to support as well.

Now without any testing I suspect I am going to need to swap the AP and BWM around as I foresee and IFs and the BWM getting in each others way a little due to the Forward Runs of the BWM. Could you assess my reasoning here?

[TheBigBoss]

ever since the Ozil transfer i've completely lost interest in my save, hurry up FM14 :[

You can always download one of them transfer updates thats what I've done

[lomekian]

Aggressive? Really? Wow, I think you need to check up on what "aggressive" means.

Also, you do realise I mean the position of Wingback, and not the role that is given to a fullback, don't you?

A FB with the role of "Wingback" works just fine, however there is a bug with the position of WB regards to how they behave. The fact that you may have a player in that position behaving in a manner you are happy with doesn't mean the bug isn't there.

In which case, I'll try not to make you sufficiently angry to actually be aggressive!

Personally, I only ever play with a left wing-back (I see my formation has been used or slightly adapted by others on here to great success, which is nice!), and bar the odd very occasional meander infield, Gibbs plays exactly as i would envisage a Wing-back should. To be honest, I've also played with 2 wing backs in a Fiorentina game, and in each case every player has performed in the match engine exactly as I would expect a wing-back to do.

I think in the latest patch, how accurately players perform their roles is too dependent on the positioning of others, but the formations I play seem to remove the issue. TBH I've never noticed any issue with Wing-back positioning or behaviour and I've played more hours on this thing than is healthy.

We shall agree to differ....

[lomekian]

To overcome the FM14 wait, I played a game without any meaningful signings (ie kids or people I knew I would sell at the end of the 1st season who were brought in to pad out the squad) and saved it at the end of season 1.

Accordingly I am playing the 13-14 season with Ozil, Viviano and the Flamster, and having gone the season unbeaten in all competitions in my last formation (another quad!), I have tried to re-create our current tactics as I see them working with our squad as it stands.

So I am currently playing

Giroud (TM/A) Walcott (IF/A)

Cazorla (T/A) Ozil (T/A)

Ramsey (BBM/S)

Gibbs (WB/A) Arteta (DLP/D)

Koscielny (BPD/D) Mertesacker (CD/D) Sagna (FB/s)

Szczesny (SK/D)

I didn't think playing two Treq's would work, but AM and AP seemed too rigid, and stopped Cazorla drifting wide or Ozil breaking forward in support. As it turns out, the formation isn't as prolific as that with two up top, but I'm still unbeaten by 30th of Oct.

Ozil seems to particularly like it with 8 goals and 4 assists in 12 games. Mertesacker is as usual averaging above 8 (8.42), Giroud has 12 gms/9goals/5assists, Walcott 11 games/4goals/8assists. Santi not performing quite as well as season one, but still has 5 goals and 2 assists in 11 games.

Lets see how it lasts......

[tomtuck01]

In which case, I'll try not to make you sufficiently angry to actually be aggressive!

Personally, I only ever play with a left wing-back (I see my formation has been used or slightly adapted by others on here to great success, which is nice!), and bar the odd very occasional meander infield, Gibbs plays exactly as i would envisage a Wing-back should. To be honest, I've also played with 2 wing backs in a Fiorentina game, and in each case every player has performed in the match engine exactly as I would expect a wing-back to do.

I think in the latest patch, how accurately players perform their roles is too dependent on the positioning of others, but the formations I play seem to remove the issue. TBH I've never noticed any issue with Wing-back positioning or behaviour and I've played more hours on this thing than is healthy.

We shall agree to differ....

Yeah, you haven't made me angry. I'm actually just laughing at your lunacy.

Alll that waffle and yet you're just wrong. It's a confirmed ME bug that players in the Wingback position, (I again stress position, and not FB with Wingback role), do not behave as intended to do so. If you don't see it, then you're either simply not watching what's going on, or are just in denial.

Wingbacks are not meant to cut inside every time they get into the final third, and yet that is what they do in this ME. Simple as that.

[james_wilko]

Yeah, you haven't made me angry. I'm actually just laughing at your lunacy.

Alll that waffle and yet you're just wrong. It's a confirmed ME bug that players in the Wingback position, (I again stress position, and not FB with Wingback role), do not behave as intended to do so. If you don't see it, then you're either simply not watching what's going on, or are just in denial.

Wingbacks are not meant to cut inside every time they get into the final third, and yet that is what they do in this ME. Simple as that.

Thanks for posting that, I had never realised they did that. The only time I have used wing backs for a long time was at Newcastle and my left wing back was Santon so I wanted him to cut inside (being right footed) but I could never work out why the right back did the same.

[Rigga89]

To overcome the FM14 wait, I played a game without any meaningful signings (ie kids or people I knew I would sell at the end of the 1st season who were brought in to pad out the squad) and saved it at the end of season 1.

Accordingly I am playing the 13-14 season with Ozil, Viviano and the Flamster, and having gone the season unbeaten in all competitions in my last formation (another quad!), I have tried to re-create our current tactics as I see them working with our squad as it stands.

So I am currently playing

Giroud (TM/A) Walcott (IF/A)

Cazorla (T/A) Ozil (T/A)

Ramsey (BBM/S)

Gibbs (WB/A) Arteta (DLP/D)

Koscielny (BPD/D) Mertesacker (CD/D) Sagna (FB/s)

Szczesny (SK/D)

I didn't think playing two Treq's would work, but AM and AP seemed too rigid, and stopped Cazorla drifting wide or Ozil breaking forward in support. As it turns out, the formation isn't as prolific as that with two up top, but I'm still unbeaten by 30th of Oct.

Ozil seems to particularly like it with 8 goals and 4 assists in 12 games. Mertesacker is as usual averaging above 8 (8.42), Giroud has 12 gms/9goals/5assists, Walcott 11 games/4goals/8assists. Santi not performing quite as well as season one, but still has 5 goals and 2 assists in 11 games.

Lets see how it lasts......

That's an interesting post. There's another thread in the Tactics forum addressing Özil's arrival at Arsenal and I've been trying to recreate the way I expect the team to play, though I've arrived at a different solution to you. I've always shied away from the Treq role because I'm aware how little closing down they do. How do you find playing with two Treq's and several more players on attacking duty? Do they press the opposition much to regain possession?

[lomekian]

Yeah, you haven't made me angry. I'm actually just laughing at your lunacy.

Alll that waffle and yet you're just wrong. It's a confirmed ME bug that players in the Wingback position, (I again stress position, and not FB with Wingback role), do not behave as intended to do so. If you don't see it, then you're either simply not watching what's going on, or are just in denial.

Wingbacks are not meant to cut inside every time they get into the final third, and yet that is what they do in this ME. Simple as that.

Maybe it is a confirmed ME bug, but maybe as a result of my weird formations, that doesn't reflect my experience visually or statistically. Playing at LWB as WB/A - Gibbs has attempted 104 crosses in 15 games. Maybe only playing one in a lopsided formation off-sets it.

So you can suggest I am talking waffle, or that I am in denial, but perhaps, just perhaps, the ME bug and/or your observations of it are not absolutes and can be affected by other things. In the same way people have always complained about the match engine being broken or too hard etc, and yet apart from the obvious crossing, dribbling and pressing bugs that went a bit crazy in the initial patches of FM13, I've never really had a problem. I design my own tactics, tailored to the strengths of the players and based on real life articles written by myself and others, and on the whole they work exactly as they should bar the odd weirdness.

[lomekian]

That's an interesting post. There's another thread in the Tactics forum addressing Özil's arrival at Arsenal and I've been trying to recreate the way I expect the team to play, though I've arrived at a different solution to you. I've always shied away from the Treq role because I'm aware how little closing down they do. How do you find playing with two Treq's and several more players on attacking duty? Do they press the opposition much to regain possession?

Here is a visual:

I sort of tweak it to encourage more pressing, but for the most part its not a problem, due to the decent work-rates etc of the players involved. Ozil doesn't really press, but I don't want him to. Ideally I want to slow down opposition possession and break quickly. I think I'm still a Vieira type away from having the perfect balance, but its only against sides with great wingers and target men that i struggle to dominate - and occasionally against massively physical midfield set ups. I still need to tweak to get Cazorla's balance right, and I might move him wider as an AP for a bit, but for now its working!

What's your solution been?

[llama3]

tomtuck & lomekian - life's too short.

Mark - I personally never tweak individual instructions - Cleon does, wwfan does not - I do prefer not to. Basically a balanced team should have approximately 3 defensive duties, 4 support duties & 3 attacking duties. (Alter depending on if your team is being defensive or attacking or not). I like to start with the central midfield trio, and generally have a defensive duty, a support duty and attacking duty, if you like a "sitter", "runner" & "attacker" or similar type set up. If you have Inside Forwards make sure that there are overlaps on the flank. If you play with a lone forward make sure he links with the wide men and/or midfield.

Hope that helps.

[Rigga89]

What's your solution been?

Interestingly we've ended up somewhere similar.

My tactic started off looking like this, but after 45 minutes of the first pre-season match - despite being 5-0 up - it was apparent there were a few areas not behaving quite as I'd hoped.

For the 2nd game of pre-season I'd adjusted it to look like this:

It was working well and Özil was scoring, however he wasn't the hub of our creativity like I wanted. This is when I saw your post about using 2 treq's and decided to experiment myself. It currently looks like this:

You can see I've been trialling whether there's a benefit to having the striker offset to one side rather than directly ahead of Özil. It appears to give Özil a little more freedom and space to venture forward into. I've manually tweeked his sliders for runs with ball and gets forward both to often and his involvement is now much more central to the build up than when he was an AM(a) and he's chipped in with a goal as well. I'm now trying to find an adjustment that gets Walcott as involved in the game as I'd like. I think PPMs may be the answer with him. The other position I'm not quite settled on is the BBM. I've tried BBM, CM(s) and BWM(s) and think I prefer the first but it's still early days.

I'm only on my 4th pre-season game, having watched all of them in full so far, so it's early days and there's still work to do with tactical familiarity before the players are fulfilling their roles to the best of their ability. I do think I'll need a secondary tactic for top teams and tough away days that's slightly more conservative. I've got a nice 4-1-2-1-2 diamond that worked well in the past so may just use that again.

[RossoneriGunner]

Having read llama's comment 'Basically a balanced team should have approximately 3 defensive duties, 4 support duties & 3 attacking duties', I decided to take a more in-depth look at my players roles.

I changed my IF L/R to 's' so now I have IF-s Cazorla, AM-a Özil, IF-s Walcott with either Podolski or Giroud as ST-a and the change has been amazing. We have just beaten West Ham 7-0 at the Emirates with Podolski hitting 4.

Will have to see what happens over the next few games.

I am finding that when we have the ball both Corchia/Jenkinson and Alaba/Gibbs tend to spend their time as wingers and when they have the ball I have both my IF's, AM and ST in or around the box, allowing me more options for scoring as in the 7-0 slaughter of West Ham and the most pleasing result is the 4-1 home win over THEM (Spurs), both games at the Emirates.

[james_wilko]

Quick question, does Wilshere get a lot of bookings for anyone else? I have played 8 games in the league and he already has 5 yellows! And in 4 European games he has managed to pick up 3 yellows.

Any ideas how I can fix this problem?

[tomtuck01]

Quick question, does Wilshere get a lot of bookings for anyone else? I have played 8 games in the league and he already has 5 yellows! And in 4 European games he has managed to pick up 3 yellows.

Any ideas how I can fix this problem?

It's, primarily, because he has the PPM "Dives Into Tackles". I managed to get him to unlearn it and then it was sorted.

[RossoneriGunner]

How long did it take to unlearn Tom?

[tomtuck01]

How long did it take to unlearn Tom?

PPM's can take anywhere from 3-6 months to learn/unlearn I think.

[RossoneriGunner]

Thanks mate.

[Guest]

guys who would you suggest for adding a bit of extra cover for the defence?

I have the team as irl so the defence is a little light.

cheers

[Rigga89]

How much do you have to spend? Zouma, Umtiti and Papadopolous are all viable options that can have a lot of potential.

[Guest]

17 million

both left backs are out injured and I feel I need cover in the centre ?

[Guest]

i was thinking fabio (man u) or luke shaw , not sure how much shaw would cost though?

as for central defence the guys you mentioned I think are out of my budget.

Its very hard finding players for these areas.

[arsenalthebest]

Alrighty, about time I got a season review done. Excuse the lame title, ran out of ideas and that was about the length I wanted in terms of characters.

I have tried a few saves with my Gunners, but either got caught up in other things, or in the case of my previous one to this, the file got corrupted.

I think I will start out showing the transfers I made during during my first season and outline where I was looking to go personnel wise.

As we hear a 100 times around here 'I wanted to keep spending to a minimum'. Well I tried, really, I tried. My only signing I really had intentions of going after to begin was Fellaini as he was pretty crucial to how I want my team to play (as you will see further down). From there is just got a little out of hand. I completed most of my transfer business, then I saw the Lewandowski had been transfer listed. By now I had exhausted my transfer funds, but noticed the 'Ask board to handle negotiations' feature, foolishly deciding to give it a go, and lo and behold, Lewandowski was a Gunner.

Come Jan, I was performing very well and the board offered me to increase expectations, I chose Winner (previously on Challenge) and got a hefty transfer budget increase which I proceeded to blow on future prospects.... for fun.... and to provide the U18s a bit of depth as I hadn't been able to use them in Cup ties much as they were always seemed to be as lively as a sack of potatoes.

Net spend of £92m, ouch, need a bit of work there.

Onto the performances...........

Well what can I say, we were dominant. I think our success was down to how much time I spent watching the games and trying to respond to the opposition. I did a lot of research into how to exploit weaknesses in other formations and shore up my own. Mix that in with a bit of luck and some big time performances when it mattered from Walcott, Wilshere and Fellaini to name a few and here we are.

Bit disappointing not to go unbeaten. Second to last game of a season and a Miguel own goal at home against Chelsea

From here I want to reach the 100x100 club, then the 100x100x100.

Great to get one over Sp*rs. Great to beat them in a final. One of many match ups against them, this one probably being the easiest.

Another one over THEM! Was a lot tougher this time as AVB had been fired and they had brought in Guss Hiddink. Guss had decided to start playing the narrow 4-2-3-1 that Citeh play, my nemesis when it comes to opposition formations. Ultimately Sp*rs were a testing ground for a tactic I had designed specifically for playing against this formation.

The Quad in my first season! To be honest I kind of wanted to lose this one in a sense as it would then leave me another height to scale next season. In the end I was handed a very easy run, at least until the Semi Finals, and then a 2-0 victory at both OT and the Emirates really didn't do justice to how much of a no show ManU were.

Oh well, better luck next time RVP.

The final was EPIC! As mentioned above I had just tested a new formation to use vs the narrow Citeh formation and had promising results. But boy was I unprepared for how this game started out. 18 mins in and a Walcott cross tees up Lewandowski for a finish just inside the box. Then 10 mins later Theo beats half the defense and dribbles right to the near post and slots it in at the opposite post. Kos wrapped it up on 30 mins with a header from a corner.

I had to endure the last 20 mins one man down as Fellaini got sent off, but due the nature of the tactic it didn't cause much trouble.

Onto the Squad and Tactics.......

I rolled with a pretty deep squad this season. Had a few options at most positions as well as trying to ensure what each player brought was a little different. Theo was the star of the season really followed closely by Fellaini in the 'destroyer' role. That isn't to say that there weren't other great performances!

On their way out: Podolski is likely surplus to requirements. I am not 100% sold on Per, he played really well at the start of the season but started making A LOT of crucial errors, especially giving the ball away. Santi could be getting moved on, but that will depend if I can get a good price and if I bring in a replacement for Podolski. Who knows all very up in the air at this stage.

Little unsure where I am going with this group. There are some obvious top prospects in there, but also some that I brought in as stop gap fillers when I realised I had made the squad too small. Will likely scour the world for some top regens over the summer break. My youth intake was rubbish, and I only ended up taking on Myers.

Akpom is tearing it up at the level!

I only really used one tactic for most of the season, just making pre game and in game tweaks. It is listed in the pic as 'Control' but I often change to 'Counter' as I like the space it opens and plays to my teams strengths. The key guy in the formation so far is the BWM role, this is where Fellaini plays mostly and he causes much havoc and often gets on the end of some nice build up for either headers or low drives at goal.

I am still fiddling with the Striker role, I find Giroud does nicely as a Treq, while Lewandowski seems to play better as an AF. Odd.

The second tactic is my Citeh 4-2-3-1 destroyer. The Box in midfield floods the space the AMCs are trying to use and it allows me to break out on counter attacks nicely, setting Theo at AMR to the targetman with run onto ball. I usually try play Lewandowski in the AML role to offer at least a bit of a target for Theo. The two Centre Mids still get involved once we have the ball up their end. 6 shots, 6 on target to 1 shot from long range in the ECL final.

Phew... done... sorry for the info bomb. Expecting some TL:DR. Will start doing monthly updates now.

nice mark how did you gt the image at the top? i want it!

[Dark Demon]

i was thinking fabio (man u) or luke shaw , not sure how much shaw would cost though?

as for central defence the guys you mentioned I think are out of my budget.

Its very hard finding players for these areas.

Shaw costs about 13 - 15 million but he is worth it, turns out to be fantastic in a few seasons.

[Rigga89]

Cheikh M'Bengue is a class left back. Alex Grimaldo from Barcelona became incredible for me in one of my saves for under £1m initially but he's been hit and miss in other saves.

[Guest]

Having read llama's comment 'Basically a balanced team should have approximately 3 defensive duties, 4 support duties & 3 attacking duties', I decided to take a more in-depth look at my players roles.

I changed my IF L/R to 's' so now I have IF-s Cazorla, AM-a Özil, IF-s Walcott with either Podolski or Giroud as ST-a and the change has been amazing. We have just beaten West Ham 7-0 at the Emirates with Podolski hitting 4.

Will have to see what happens over the next few games.

I am finding that when we have the ball both Corchia/Jenkinson and Alaba/Gibbs tend to spend their time as wingers and when they have the ball I have both my IF's, AM and ST in or around the box, allowing me more options for scoring as in the 7-0 slaughter of West Ham and the most pleasing result is the 4-1 home win over THEM (Spurs), both games at the Emirates.

just trying this out , do you mind telling me the team instructions you use.

thanks

also thanks guys will check out Shaw and Cheikh M'Bengue out further.

[RossoneriGunner]

Hi Gunnermitch, here you go....

[Cesc_cil]

Re started my arsenal save, couldn't resist the Ozil factor any longer, using the pro update. Start with no transfer budgets, soon found out its going to be a struggle till January with a paper thin squad.

Formation.

Results.

After limping though the qualifier my group is.

Bate

Milan

FC Kobenhavn

[Guest]

RossoneriGunner thanks , by the way do you use shouts and opposition instructions?

[Guest]

Re started my arsenal save, couldn't resist the Ozil factor any longer, using the pro update. Start with no transfer budgets, soon found out its going to be a struggle till January with a paper thin squad.

After limping though the qualifier my group is.

Bate

Milan

FC Kobenhavn

I have found the CL qualifier is very hard whoever I play.

[RossoneriGunner]

RossoneriGunner thanks , by the way do you use shouts and opposition instructions?

Your welcome GM.

I let my asst man do oppo instructions and I have found that I am using 'Clear ball to the flanks' and 'Hit early crosses'.

With Gibbs/Monreal and Jenkinson/Sagna flying down the wing it seems to make sense to get the ball to them quickly, as it starts a quick counter attack.

The early crosses are great for Giroud as he is brill in the air.

If you want a defensive version then all I do is pull the 2 in central midfield to the DM positions in front of the back four.

[TheBigBoss]

I have found the CL qualifier is very hard whoever I play.

Done exactly the same started with no transfer budgets and using the pro update, I also struggled against Metalist just about went through 4-3 after both legs, squad is quite thin

[Guest]

Your welcome GM.

I let my asst man do oppo instructions and I have found that I am using 'Clear ball to the flanks' and 'Hit early crosses'.

With Gibbs/Monreal and Jenkinson/Sagna flying down the wing it seems to make sense to get the ball to them quickly, as it starts a quick counter attack.

The early crosses are great for Giroud as he is brill in the air.

If you want a defensive version then all I do is pull the 2 in central midfield to the DM positions in front of the back four.

Done exactly the same started with no transfer budgets and using the pro update, I also struggled against Metalist just about went through 4-3 after both legs, squad is quite thin

cheers , yeah metalist are a tough team!

I'm struggling to strengthen my defence , I feel Sagna and Jenkinson will be adequate for the season , but with Vermaelen out injured I'm light in the centre plus I have both Gibbs and Nacho injured at left back but will be coming back from injury soon although Gibbs is a little injury prone.

Im thinking a left back and cover in the centre is my priority.

Budget 19m

Subotic looks a good bet but not sure if he would like a rotation/backup role but he can be had for around 10m?

leftback I was thinking maybe shaw or Fabio?

[TheBigBoss]

cheers , yeah metalist are a tough team!

I'm struggling to strengthen my defence , I feel Sagna and Jenkinson will be adequate for the season , but with Vermaelen out injured I'm light in the centre plus I have both Gibbs and Nacho injured at left back but will be coming back from injury soon although Gibbs is a little injury prone.

Im thinking a left back and cover in the centre is my priority.

Budget 19m

Subotic looks a good bet but not sure if he would like a rotation/backup role but he can be had for around 10m?

leftback I was thinking maybe shaw or Fabio?

A short term option could be to retrain Flamini there

[Guest]

On the verge of bringing in Shaw and Doria although both young can add cover when needed.

Sagna can also play in the centre and Verm is only 4 or so weeks away from injury

with Shaw and Gibbs competing for left back I will look to sell Nacho Monreal next season.

*just realised Doria's Transfer will go threw on January 1st because of some Brazilian transfer rule , never mind , suppose he will get more game time while with his club*

[Anxiietyyy]

Due to Liverpool's shocking league position - 19th - I managed to snatch Coutinho and Sturridge off them in January 2013 for a combined fee of £30M... if they get relegated, Suarez is MINE