FM13 Liverpool F.C Thread - The future's so bright, you have to wear sunglasses

[lfc7]

Haven't been on my save for a few days as am too busy playing GTA 5, plan on getting on it later or tomorrow

[cyborgscouse]

A 4.5 star inside forward and keeper, a 5 star midfielder and a 3.5 star winger in my intake

[cyborgscouse]

Season 1 review

League: 3rd

I snuck into the automatic CL place on the last day of the season having spend most of it battling between 4th and 6th. It was an insanely inconsistent season for me with only 21 league wins, I only lost 5 games all season which was the least amount of loses for any team but it was the 12 draws that were the most annoying. A lot of the time they struggled to get past a team and get the ball in the net, at one point I went 6 or 7 matches in a row without a win and was thinking I'd end up 6th at best with the way things went. While my 4-3-3 is going to be my main formation, near the end of the season I started using a 4-4-2 with pushed up wingers when I was chasing a game, and it seemed to help me grind out the wins. Next season simply has to be better in regards to the draws

League and FA Cup cups: Winners, Semi finals

Pretty much what I wanted to happen, the league cup was fairly normal until the semi finals when I had a 6-4 match with Reading in the first leg and then a 5-2 game in the second before beating Man Utd in the finals. The FA cup was roughly the game but player fatigue meant that I had quite a few players out on holiday when the time the Spurs match came around. The 2-1 win was very much deserved for them

Suarez to reach 25+ goals and 10 assists; before demanding to leave he'd scored 15 goals overall and 7 assists, so I think he would have gotten those targets

Sturridge to get15 goals, 10 assists; he ended up with 9 goals and 6 assists. But he had a few injuries early on so again I'm not too sure what would have happened here if he'd stayed fit.

Coutinho, Aspas, Moses, Gerrard to hit 10 goals and 10 assists; Coutinho 4 goals, 13 assists, 12 goals, 7 assists, 5 goals, 4 assists, Gerrard 3 goals, 3 assists. It was only Aspas who got close to both targets despite Coutinho getting more assists he fell short on the goals. Gerrard got injured quite a lot and lost his place to Henderson or Alberto and wasn't really good enough to keep it for long. Moses likewise got injured and struggled to get back into the team. It's odd because last time I started with the Marshall update both Coutinho and Moses did well with this 4-3-3 in terms of scoring goals.

Henderson, Sterling, Allen to reach 5 goals and 5 assists; Sterling 9 goals and 6 assists, Henderson 5 goals and 6 assists, Allen 0 goals 2 assists. Allen was often played as my DLP or at times the DM so I can make an excuse for him there with his lack of a return. On the other hand Sterling and Henderson did really well, the former did better when the 4-4-2 was being used which was odd to me since the instructions were the same as in the 4-3-3, whereas Henderson was better in the 4-3-3. Hopefully there will be improvements on this next year.

Talented players to get 10-15 games a season even as a sub; Sterling 16 starts 12 subs, Alberto 18 starts 12 subs, Yesil 1 start 12 subs, Ilori 11 starts 1 sub, Maupay 5 subs, Paco 6 subs, Ibe 2 starts 3 subs, McLaughlin 5 starts 3 subs, Wisdom 15 starts 1 sub.

I don't think it's hard to tell who the more important players were in terms of development this season so I'd say I reached my aim for that.

[Plainlayzee]

Morning,

I have decided to give my Derby county save a bit of a break and try again (for about the 100th time) to manage Liverpool. This make last a week, it may last a year, but ideally I am looking for a long term save that will keep me going until FM2014 when I pick that up early next year (after the .2 patch normally).

So what I decided to do was to load the game in December 2012 and see if I could get the reds in a 'low' league position and give me something to build on. I did this purely because I find the first summer quite frustrating as we have no money and can't seem to shift any of the unwanted players.

I fired the game up and found Liverpool exactly where I wanted them. Sitting 15th in the league with just 20 points. 5 wins and 5 draws from 20 games, an awful home record and a negative 5 GD. Exactly what I wanted, something to work on.

The last couple of games had been a right mixed bag, home defeats to Lazio and AZ had seen us finish 2nd in our Europa League group, further defeats by Sunderland and West Ham plus a draw at Swansea had seen us drop points, however they had managed to beat Everton and Tottenham at home. With BR out of his job, I have added myself with semi-professional reputation and a lot of work to do.

First things first, the backroom staff at Liverpool are appalling. I don't like Colin Pascoe at all so off he went, together with Mike Marsh, Morris (GK Coach), all 3 fitness coaches, 2 of the physio's and a number of scouts. In came Andy Crosby as assistant manager, someone I have used previously and I find to be very reliable. Paul Winsper is in as a fitness coach, Les Parry as a physio and a couple of scouts have joined who's names are escaping me right now.

Overall the team is quite poor, we lack depth and any real attacking creativity, plus we lack a 'destroyer' in midfield. Lucas is great, but for me he is better served slightly further forward and, long term, we all no he will have to leave eventually unless I agree to pay him over 100k per week.

First challenge was to get myself some money to play with. I t/fer listed and offered to clubs Assiadi, Downing, Skrtel and a number of the reserves. A 7m offer from Reading was enough to let Assiadi go as he simply isn't someone that interests me, Tottenham offered me 7.5m for Downing and Skrtel was subject to a number of offers, 14m from Arsenal, 15 from PSG, 20 from Man City and 20 from Bayern Munich. Clearly I didn't want to sell him to another English club, and Bayern's offer was much higher than PSG's, so there's was the only offer that was accepted. All 3 players have left together with about 4/5 of the reserve team for minimal sums. I know have a nice healthy bank balance of £42m and around 28m to spend. For once I was clever and remembered to ask the board for an increase in the wage budget and also to increase the % of t/fer revenue I can receive. This was increased to 75% meaning I get back a nice amount from the players I have sold.

I have played 2 games, firstly Reading away in the league. I decided to go quite gung ho and get some points on the board. A brilliant 4-1 victory gave me a lot of hope, Suarez netting twice, Sturridge and Sterling. Sterling was also voted MOTM as he provided 2 assists. The only negative really was Steven Gerrard being sent off for 2 bookings, however they also had a man sent off so it was 10-10 for most of the second half. Next up was Hull City at home in the FA Cup. They took the league just before half time but Suarez levelled it up after the break. Unfortunately we lacked any creativity and missed SG and the game ended 1-1.

Not a bad start, we have some points on the board and money to play with. Next up is QPR A before West Brom at H. I would love to make it 3 wins from 3 in the league.

[cyborgscouse]

Morning,

I have decided to give my Derby county save a bit of a break and try again (for about the 100th time) to manage Liverpool. This make last a week, it may last a year, but ideally I am looking for a long term save that will keep me going until FM2014 when I pick that up early next year (after the .2 patch normally).

So what I decided to do was to load the game in December 2012 and see if I could get the reds in a 'low' league position and give me something to build on. I did this purely because I find the first summer quite frustrating as we have no money and can't seem to shift any of the unwanted players.

I fired the game up and found Liverpool exactly where I wanted them. Sitting 15th in the league with just 20 points. 5 wins and 5 draws from 20 games, an awful home record and a negative 5 GD. Exactly what I wanted, something to work on.

The last couple of games had been a right mixed bag, home defeats to Lazio and AZ had seen us finish 2nd in our Europa League group, further defeats by Sunderland and West Ham plus a draw at Swansea had seen us drop points, however they had managed to beat Everton and Tottenham at home. With BR out of his job, I have added myself with semi-professional reputation and a lot of work to do.

First things first, the backroom staff at Liverpool are appalling. I don't like Colin Pascoe at all so off he went, together with Mike Marsh, Morris (GK Coach), all 3 fitness coaches, 2 of the physio's and a number of scouts. In came Andy Crosby as assistant manager, someone I have used previously and I find to be very reliable. Paul Winsper is in as a fitness coach, Les Parry as a physio and a couple of scouts have joined who's names are escaping me right now.

Overall the team is quite poor, we lack depth and any real attacking creativity, plus we lack a 'destroyer' in midfield. Lucas is great, but for me he is better served slightly further forward and, long term, we all no he will have to leave eventually unless I agree to pay him over 100k per week.

First challenge was to get myself some money to play with. I t/fer listed and offered to clubs Assiadi, Downing, Skrtel and a number of the reserves. A 7m offer from Reading was enough to let Assiadi go as he simply isn't someone that interests me, Tottenham offered me 7.5m for Downing and Skrtel was subject to a number of offers, 14m from Arsenal, 15 from PSG, 20 from Man City and 20 from Bayern Munich. Clearly I didn't want to sell him to another English club, and Bayern's offer was much higher than PSG's, so there's was the only offer that was accepted. All 3 players have left together with about 4/5 of the reserve team for minimal sums. I know have a nice healthy bank balance of £42m and around 28m to spend. For once I was clever and remembered to ask the board for an increase in the wage budget and also to increase the % of t/fer revenue I can receive. This was increased to 75% meaning I get back a nice amount from the players I have sold.

I have played 2 games, firstly Reading away in the league. I decided to go quite gung ho and get some points on the board. A brilliant 4-1 victory gave me a lot of hope, Suarez netting twice, Sturridge and Sterling. Sterling was also voted MOTM as he provided 2 assists. The only negative really was Steven Gerrard being sent off for 2 bookings, however they also had a man sent off so it was 10-10 for most of the second half. Next up was Hull City at home in the FA Cup. They took the league just before half time but Suarez levelled it up after the break. Unfortunately we lacked any creativity and missed SG and the game ended 1-1.

Not a bad start, we have some points on the board and money to play with. Next up is QPR A before West Brom at H. I would love to make it 3 wins from 3 in the league.

A very interesting idea to start the game in the hopes that Liverpool will be in a crap position and you need to save them. I hope it works out for you

[Plainlayzee]

A very interesting idea to start the game in the hopes that Liverpool will be in a crap position and you need to save them. I hope it works out for you

Ah what's the worst that can happen, it lowers the board expectations slightly as well I think as I now only expected to achieve a top half finish as opposed to qualify for Europe?

[Plainlayzee]

So I thought I would post a plan of how I intend to develop the squad/club over the next few years.

Firstly it is vital that we get the wage bill down, similar to in real life. We have a lot of overpaid players who are simply not good enough, or there are much cheaper and better alternatives available.

I am hoping to bring in a few players between now and the end of the January t/fer window, Will Hughes, Carlos Fierro, Mason Bennett, Sakho and Victor Wanyama are all people I am considering although I don't think Sakho/Wanyama will join at this stage and I may have to wait until the summer.

The team clearly lacks creativity, especially as Coutinho is so injury prone as in Gerrard. We therefore require a quality CM to add some flair which is something I will again address in the summer.

Likely players to leave are Brad Jones and/or Pepe Reina. I think Reina is overpaid and does make a few mistakes whereas there are cheaper/better alternatives available. If I can cash in on him and make a nice boost to my t/fer budget then I will. Brad Jones isn't a great backup and again will be told to leave.

I have noticed a lot of people selling Glen Johnson although he does seem to perform very well. I assume most people sell him as you can get about 15-20m for him? I may do that in the summer if Martin Kelly/McLaughlin make some progress but will more than likely hold onto him for now. Coates again has great potential but I have never really seen it develop. Perhaps he needs more game time and he might only get that out on loan.

Lucas I will keep for as long as possible or until he starts moaning about his contract. Henderson needs to improve and could again be someone who is let go to generate funds, although I do think he can be useful especially for his work rate in big away games. Shelvey needs to improve or will be sold, same for Joe Allan but he is likely to get an extra season as he is quite new to the club.

Sterling and Ibe will be starting a few games where possible as they can both become brilliant players and save us a lot of money going forward.

Borini baffles me. Who thought he was as good as Cristiano Ronaldo when creating this game I don't know, but they should be shot! I have seen him being sold for around 30-40m before in just a few seasons which is unbelievable. Don't get me wrong if I can get him to play well and score some goals then great, but I don't see how he fits into my system or how am I going to get him game time, especially with Suarez and Sturridge at the club. Sturridge is again someone I need to get more from, he is far too inconsistent for me but if I can get him scoring he could be a great asset.

Has anyone ever got Coutinho to play to a high level?

I think bearing in mind all of the above, we need more squad depth. A number of players will be sold in the summer to generate extra funds, especially with it being very unlikely we can sneak back into Europe given our poor league form. Therefore if 5/6 players are going to leave, plus the likes of Spearing/Carroll etc we are going to need quite a few coming in.

The likes of Will Hughes and Mason Bennett can provide us with some squad depth but I still feel a real world class attacking midfielder is needed. As is another world class CB. Can we get these when we aren't in the CL/EL? I doubt it.

Formation wise I plan on playing something similar to real life although this may change.

I am considering a 5-3-2/3-5-2 type formation which will get the best out of our full backs and make us quite narrow meaning that we don't have to sign anymore flaming wingers!! Lucas sitting deep, Gerrard/Coutinho slightly further ahead and then Suarez/Sturridge upfront or something might work.

Ideally I don't want to be signing 20/30 players as I want to use the youth at the club, but it might be a case of having to bring some in to assist short term.

Robinson, Wisdom, Kelly, Sterling, Ibe, Morgan and Yevil could all be first teamers with the right development so I need to make sure that I don't sign players who will stop them developing at the right rate...

(PONDERING OVER )

[cyborgscouse]

Season 2 preview

I'm ready for season two to start and I'm looking for a better season than the last one, especially in lowering the 12 league draws. Again I'm sticking with my 4-3-3 as the main formation and will be using the 4-4-2 with pushed up wingers when I'm chasing a goal or drawing in the last 20 minutes. For once I knew exactly were I needed to improve my team, a left back to push Enrique whilst Robinson developed, a DM as backup for Lucas and another attacking mid who could play AML/AMR to a high standard which I think I've found all three.

Sterling developed enough last season to now be considered my first choice AMR and will be part of the front three alongside Coutinho and Damiao. Borini got 21 goals last season for Sunderland in 35 matches, so it'll be interesting to see who becomes my second choice striker between him and Sturridge

The preseason went well for me with 6 wins out of 6 matches;

Liverpool 3-0 Peterborugh

Liverpool 2-0 Chesterfield

Liverpool 3-0 Alaves

Liverpool 5-0 Lugo

Liverpool 4-1 Anderlecht

Liverpool 1-0 San Jose

Transfers

In

Lengoualama £1m a 15 year old French Dm regen from Monaco

Schurrle £20m Chelsea never played him last season and he'll get a lot of game time under me

Mastour £3.2m again the 14 year old midfielder from AC Milan, looks like he'll develop into something special

Santon £12.5m he was transfer listed at Newcastle and is likely going to be my first choice left back

Radosevic £8m a 19 year old DM from Napoli who will rotate with Lucas for that spot

Alcazar £1m compensation from Real Madrid, a 16 year old Spanish midfielder who can play MC or DM

Out

Reina £12m Monaco

Assaidi £7m Stoke

Yesil season long long, first team, Newcastle. He would have been kept if I'd only ended up in the Europa and played those matches, but he isn't developed enough to play in the CL games yet

Ilori season long loan, key player Monaco. I sent him out to get more game time than he would this season at Liverpool

Skrtel £13m AC Milan I have better defenders than he is right now and his wages meant he couldn't be 4th choice

Allen £17.5m Arsenal. A good player but I've got Alberto and Suso to rotate in the centre two midfielder spots and a new defensive midfielder as well as Gerrard and Henderson who can play there. He wouldn't have got a lot of time either.

Maupay is being kept in the under 18's right now and will continue to get the easy matches whilst he develops. He's already looking great for a 17 year old

Season aims

Top four finish; following how hard last season was I'll aim for this and hope for better

Quarter finals of the Champions league

FA Cup; finals

League Cup; win it again

Damiao to score 25+ goals and 10 assists

Sterling, Sturridge, Borini to get 15 goals in all competitions and 10 assists

Coutinho, Aspas, Schurrle to reach at least 10 goals and 10 assists

Alberto, Alcacer and Gerrard to get at least 5 goals and 5 assists

Suso, Henderson and Lucas to get 5 assists

Talented youth players to get 10 full games over the course of the season

[Plainlayzee]

Season 2 preview

I'm ready for season two to start and I'm looking for a better season than the last one, especially in lowering the 12 league draws. Again I'm sticking with my 4-3-3 as the main formation and will be using the 4-4-2 with pushed up wingers when I'm chasing a goal or drawing in the last 20 minutes. For once I knew exactly were I needed to improve my team, a left back to push Enrique whilst Robinson developed, a DM as backup for Lucas and another attacking mid who could play AML/AMR to a high standard which I think I've found all three.

Sterling developed enough last season to now be considered my first choice AMR and will be part of the front three alongside Coutinho and Damiao. Borini got 21 goals last season for Sunderland in 35 matches, so it'll be interesting to see who becomes my second choice striker between him and Sturridge

The preseason went well for me with 6 wins out of 6 matches;

Liverpool 3-0 Peterborugh

Liverpool 2-0 Chesterfield

Liverpool 3-0 Alaves

Liverpool 5-0 Lugo

Liverpool 4-1 Anderlecht

Liverpool 1-0 San Jose

Transfers

In

Lengoualama £1m a 15 year old French Dm regen from Monaco

Schurrle £20m Chelsea never played him last season and he'll get a lot of game time under me

Mastour £3.2m again the 14 year old midfielder from AC Milan, looks like he'll develop into something special

Santon £12.5m he was transfer listed at Newcastle and is likely going to be my first choice left back

Radosevic £8m a 19 year old DM from Napoli who will rotate with Lucas for that spot

Alcazar £1m compensation from Real Madrid, a 16 year old Spanish midfielder who can play MC or DM

Out

Reina £12m Monaco

Assaidi £7m Stoke

Yesil season long long, first team, Newcastle. He would have been kept if I'd only ended up in the Europa and played those matches, but he isn't developed enough to play in the CL games yet

Ilori season long loan, key player Monaco. I sent him out to get more game time than he would this season at Liverpool

Skrtel £13m AC Milan I have better defenders than he is right now and his wages meant he couldn't be 4th choice

Allen £17.5m Arsenal. A good player but I've got Alberto and Suso to rotate in the centre two midfielder spots and a new defensive midfielder as well as Gerrard and Henderson who can play there. He wouldn't have got a lot of time either.

Maupay is being kept in the under 18's right now and will continue to get the easy matches whilst he develops. He's already looking great for a 17 year old

Season aims

Top four finish; following how hard last season was I'll aim for this and hope for better

Quarter finals of the Champions league

FA Cup; finals

League Cup; win it again

Damiao to score 25+ goals and 10 assists

Sterling, Sturridge, Borini to get 15 goals in all competitions and 10 assists

Coutinho, Aspas, Schurrle to reach at least 10 goals and 10 assists

Alberto, Alcacer and Gerrard to get at least 5 goals and 5 assists

Suso, Henderson and Lucas to get 5 assists

Talented youth players to get 10 full games over the course of the season

Some interesting targets there. Be very interested to see how Damiao does for you. Have you missed Suarez at all? when you sold him did the fans moan?

Good price getting 17.5m for Allen as well, a nice boost to the t/er fund there.

[cyborgscouse]

Some interesting targets there. Be very interested to see how Damiao does for you. Have you missed Suarez at all? when you sold him did the fans moan?

Good price getting 17.5m for Allen as well, a nice boost to the t/er fund there.

I haven't missed him that much really, he was hit and miss for me and was going through a 6 game goal drought. They whined a little bit about it, but the next month everything seemed fine for them, Damiao should do well for me, his stats are quite similar to Suarez.

Maupay has ended up on a season long loan at PSG as a key player too. It doesn't look like it'll be too long before he's first choice the way he's developed

[Plainlayzee]

I haven't missed him that much really, he was hit and miss for me and was going through a 6 game goal drought. They whined a little bit about it, but the next month everything seemed fine for them, Damiao should do well for me, his stats are quite similar to Suarez.

Maupay has ended up on a season long loan at PSG as a key player too. It doesn't look like it'll be too long before he's first choice the way he's developed

Surprised you let Maupay go out on loan to be honest, I thought he would of been a good backup.

[Plainlayzee]

I managed to fit a few more games in last night.

Firstly we followed up our disappointing 1-1 home draw to Hull with a 3-0 away win at QPR. Sturridge scored the first before Suarez added two more. Next up we took apart West Brom 4-1, goals from Steven Gerrard, Sturridge, Suarez and Agger sealed the win, although in the first half we were poor.

Next up was a trip to Man City and unfortunately we lost 2-0. We never really got going and created very little. Dzeko scored twice for them, one from about 40 yards out which is no doubt going to be goal of the season.

The cup reply against Hull again proved to be a tricky encounter. Jordan Ibe scored and become our youngest ever goalscorer, however, in the second half our legs ran out and they got on top before eventually equalising with just 6 minutes left. In extra time, two Fabio Borini goals secured a 3-1 win and a trip to Aston Villa in the next round.

The Villa game started badly, we were 2-0 down inside 15 minutes, however late goals from Adam Morgan and Jordan Henderson got us yet another reply. If we win the reply we will be playing Arsenal at home.

With us slowly moving up the league table, we had home games against Newcastle and Fulham to come. 6 points was vital so that we could close on the top half. A 3-1 win over Newcastle was brilliant, Andre Wisdom became our 3rd youngster to score in as many games, Fabio Borini and a rare goal from Enrique secured the win. Next up was Fulham who are currently sat 3rd in the table (no I don't know how that happened either!). A 2-0 victory got us 3 more points. Goals from Suarez and **** (see transfers) in the second half but in all fairness we could of scored many more.

So transfers. As I had stated earlier, I have sold some of the 'deadwood' to create some additional funds and lower the wage bill. In the end my transfer activity looked like this:

Outs

Assiadi - 7m - Reading

Downing 7.5m Tottenham

Skrtel - 20m Bayern Munich

Plus Sokolik, Lussey, Adorjan, Joao Teixeira, Craig Rodden, Kristoffer Peterson, Brad Smith, Yalany Baio and Villyan Bijev all left for nominal fees. I let them go as I don't see them ever becoming first team players and it reduced the wage bill rather than waste money.

Also leaving were John Flannagan on loan to Ipswich, Samad Yevil to Barnsley and Jonjo Shelvey has gone to Swansea on loan, with them paying his full wages and nearly 600k per/m which should be a nice money maker.

Incoming.

I had said I was looking to bring in some creative flair. Well first into the club was Mason Bennett from Derby County for 2m. He is young and won't get much game time to start with, but long term he has the potential to be a very good player for us. Man United and Tottenham were both in the running as well so I am pleased to of snapped him up.

With a budget of 28m I couldn't decide what to do. Clearly the squad lacked any real depth however the players I wanted just were not available or were too expensive. PSG wanted 23m for Sakho despite the fact he has only played 4 games this season and Celtic wanted 16m for Wanyama. Neither of which I was willing to pay. Derby also wanted 11m for Will Hughes. I might pay that much eventually, but for now I needed first team players and not another youngster so that might be one for the summer.

After considering all my options, I decided to make a bid for Isco of Malaga. He was valued at around 15m so I bid 23, however they demanded that I pay his buy out clause of 30.5m. I initially didn't want to do this, however, Man City were then linked with him although no formal bid went in. I eventually decided that I could build my team around him long term and agreed to pay 30.5m, agreeing a 76k p/w contract for the next 4 years. I am delighted he has signed, he adds a lot of creativity to our midfield, he is versatile and can hopefully add some goals from midfield. It is a hefty sum of money, but I figured that we are going to make around 4m for having Shelvey out on loan, plus we have trimmed the wages heavily in other departments. I think he could be a great player for us going forward.

The only other signing was that of Kolo Toure on loan from Man City on deadline day. We seem to be lacking a bit of cover at the back so he was the ideal target and again I am thrilled he has joined until the end of the season.

Going back to those Newcastle and Fulham games. Against Newcastle we were 1-0 down until we brought Isco on, he set up 1 and got a rating of 7.5 despite only being on the pitch for 35 minutes. Against Fulham he scored the first and then set up Suarez and this time got MOM!! Amazing start from him.

Clearly I now have a squad like Arsenal IRL. Lacking depth but we managed to sign a world class attacking midfielder (Ozil/Isco) who can hopefully see us through to the end of the season. I am starting to get an awful lot of injuries which is worrying so I hope that that doesn't cost us. We now sit 10th in the league just 7 points off 6th placed Everton and 11 points off 4th placed Fulham. If we can continue this form who knows what might happen, however are next few games read Arsenal away, Villa (cup) at home, Inter Milan @ home (EL), possible cup game against Arsenal. Going to be tricky.

[Terminatortom]

My roommate has finally convinced to me come back to the game and give it another go, so I'm going to see how it works this first. I've started with the LFCMarshall database to have all of the updates in the game already.

I'm using a type of a asymmetric 4-2-3-1 for this season because it does look the best formation for Liverpool with the players that they have. I was thinking about using a 4-4-2 but Liverpool have never been blessed with top wingers, or a lot of the time even decent ones that would make that formation viable. Until Sterling and Ibe develop wingers or wide players will be a focus for me, since Moses is the only actual winger in the team who could start matches and even then he's on loan for the season; this is both the MR and AML slots as well. Leftback is another position that needs to be looked at some time in the near future, with Cissokho on loan, Liverpool only have Enrique for that position unless Robinson can develop into something great. Though I'm not too sure on how well I think he'll turn out for me.

The midfield is a big issue for me in this game, there's no proper backup for Lucas in the DM slot, Henderson and Allen could play there but neither of them are an actual DM so I'm not too sure how well they'd do in there for the long term. There's also a lack of creativity in the Liverpool midfield, Coutinho, Alberto and Suso when he comes back off loan are all better played in more advanced positions. Gerrard is a crock nowadays and I doubt he'll play all the matches in midfield despite him being the best central midfield, Henderson and Allen don't really look like the type of players who will be able to make something happen from the center either. So there's something else that needs to be looked at.

Even before Suso comes back my AMC is one of the most covered positions in the team; Coutinho, Alberto and Suarez can all play here and next season there will be another person who can too. I've already mentioned the AML up top too when I talked about the lack of wingers or wind players

As for my strikers there's one great striker, one who can be a top one, a decentish striker and another possibly top one on loan. That's not including Yesil in the reserves. I'm looking at bringing either Fierro or Maupay in for the under 18's team too, so I can develop them into being a top player for the future team.

That's four slots that I need to look at least to improve the first team before I start working on depth

[Plainlayzee]

My roommate has finally convinced to me come back to the game and give it another go, so I'm going to see how it works this first. I've started with the LFCMarshall database to have all of the updates in the game already.

I'm using a type of a asymmetric 4-2-3-1 for this season because it does look the best formation for Liverpool with the players that they have. I was thinking about using a 4-4-2 but Liverpool have never been blessed with top wingers, or a lot of the time even decent ones that would make that formation viable. Until Sterling and Ibe develop wingers or wide players will be a focus for me, since Moses is the only actual winger in the team who could start matches and even then he's on loan for the season; this is both the MR and AML slots as well. Leftback is another position that needs to be looked at some time in the near future, with Cissokho on loan, Liverpool only have Enrique for that position unless Robinson can develop into something great. Though I'm not too sure on how well I think he'll turn out for me.

The midfield is a big issue for me in this game, there's no proper backup for Lucas in the DM slot, Henderson and Allen could play there but neither of them are an actual DM so I'm not too sure how well they'd do in there for the long term. There's also a lack of creativity in the Liverpool midfield, Coutinho, Alberto and Suso when he comes back off loan are all better played in more advanced positions. Gerrard is a crock nowadays and I doubt he'll play all the matches in midfield despite him being the best central midfield, Henderson and Allen don't really look like the type of players who will be able to make something happen from the center either. So there's something else that needs to be looked at.

Even before Suso comes back my AMC is one of the most covered positions in the team; Coutinho, Alberto and Suarez can all play here and next season there will be another person who can too. I've already mentioned the AML up top too when I talked about the lack of wingers or wind players

As for my strikers there's one great striker, one who can be a top one, a decentish striker and another possibly top one on loan. That's not including Yesil in the reserves. I'm looking at bringing either Fierro or Maupay in for the under 18's team too, so I can develop them into being a top player for the future team.

That's four slots that I need to look at least to improve the first team before I start working on depth

I don't know how the finances are on the database you are using, but I am guessing you will have to sell to buy? If I were you I wouldn't worry too much about left back, if injuries do get bad you can play Agger, Johnson or Robinson there, plus you have Cissoko at the minute and presumably Sakho?

[Terminatortom]

I don't know how the finances are on the database you are using, but I am guessing you will have to sell to buy? If I were you I wouldn't worry too much about left back, if injuries do get bad you can play Agger, Johnson or Robinson there, plus you have Cissoko at the minute and presumably Sakho?

LFCMarshall's database has 40m+ and a budget of £18m.

Arsenal have just bid £45m for Suarez to, can you successfully replace him in the first season as Liverpool?

[Terminatortom]

Got through a decent pre-season with the only loss being against Barcelona. 14 goals with the tactic only competent is good for me. The backroom staff didn't look that good so a lot of that has been revamped for the new season, and I'll be looking at their stats before renewing any staff members contract.

I brought Maupay in because he was cheaper and younger than Fierro was, I signed Cissokho for the arranged £4m fee from Valencia which sorts my left back problem out for now at least unless I see an amazing one. I've also brought in Praet in to develop into my creative central midfielder. Next season will be my wingers and defensive mid and after that it'll just be squad depth

[Plainlayzee]

LFCMarshall's database has 40m+ and a budget of £18m.

Arsenal have just bid £45m for Suarez to, can you successfully replace him in the first season as Liverpool?

I don;'t see why not, at the end of the day any player can be played, although personally I would keep him. On your modified database he might slightly different in terms of character and more prone to wanting to leave whereas on the standard 13.3 he isn't normally too mouthy

[Terminatortom]

I don;'t see why not, at the end of the day any player can be played, although personally I would keep him. On your modified database he might slightly different in terms of character and more prone to wanting to leave whereas on the standard 13.3 he isn't normally too mouthy

His stats are improved a little on this database so I'm going to see how he does on it, and if he whines about wanting to leave.

A nice first month of my season, I started with a good 3-0 over Swansea with Suarez as my striker, Coutinho as the AMC and Sturridge on the AML. All three players got on the score sheet before 60 minutes in, and Coutinho's was a funnyish one, Suarez took a shot and hit the post, Sturridge's rebound was saved and Coutinho hit the next rebound into an empty net. I drew 2-2 with Norwich in the next match having fallen behind twice, and Suarez scored twice in the match to get a point for the team.

My next game was the league cup against Crawley, it let me rest nearly the entire team with Alberto, Sterling, Aspas, Paret, Allen and Wisdom all getting starts. Alberto scored twice from the AMC either side of an Aspas goal to make sure I got into the next round. Moses was disappointing here and was replaced by Johnson as my right winger, while Sterling hit the post three times from the AML spot

[Plainlayzee]

His stats are improved a little on this database so I'm going to see how he does on it, and if he whines about wanting to leave.

A nice first month of my season, I started with a good 3-0 over Swansea with Suarez as my striker, Coutinho as the AMC and Sturridge on the AML. All three players got on the score sheet before 60 minutes in, and Coutinho's was a funnyish one, Suarez took a shot and hit the post, Sturridge's rebound was saved and Coutinho hit the next rebound into an empty net. I drew 2-2 with Norwich in the next match having fallen behind twice, and Suarez scored twice in the match to get a point for the team.

My next game was the league cup against Crawley, it let me rest nearly the entire team with Alberto, Sterling, Aspas, Paret, Allen and Wisdom all getting starts. Alberto scored twice from the AMC either side of an Aspas goal to make sure I got into the next round. Moses was disappointing here and was replaced by Johnson as my right winger, while Sterling hit the post three times from the AML spot

Good start there mate

[lfc7]

Nice to see some new faces welcome am off work all weekend so will fit some time in for fm aswell as GTAV

Up to Jan on my save, last match i played was a 2-1 defeat at home against City with J.Hart getting MotM, there goals were from a fk and a 89th min pen conceded by Lucas

[Terminatortom]

Thanks

Suarez has just torn his hamstring on international duty and will be out for two months, step up Sturridge and Aspas

Sturridge stepped up in the next game and got injured for a month....

[Terminatortom]

My good form continued into September, in the last match before he got injured Suarez scored the only goal against Spurs with a lucky deflection from a corner. I was worried about losing him for two months but my next match was a 5-1 win over Newcastle with Sturridge scoring twice as well as Aspas, Moses and Henderson all getting goals too. Typically Sturridge picked up a knock straight after this match, and I was surprised that Aspas scored two goals to give me another win. The last league match of the month was against Crystal Palace, goals from Aspas and Coutinho secured three league wins for me without Suarez and good ones at that too.

The capital one cup had me resting the entire team again, and it paid off for the second time; Yesil scored twice for me before Johnson found the net having been brought on for Sterling near the end of the game.

My four strikers have so far scored 5, 4, 3, and two goals respectively

[Plainlayzee]

I managed to get another load of my save played last night.

Firstly we followed up our 2-0 victory over Fulham with a poor 2-1 away defeat to Arsenal. They only had 10 men after Vermaelen was sent off but we struggled to get control of the ball. A late Jose Enrique screamer the only positive from a poor day in the capital.

Following the defeat it was back at home for a game against Villa in the cup, 1 -0 win with Sebastian Coates scoring the only goal with a bullet header. Next up was against Inter in the Europa League. It was a tight and cagey affair but perhaps a typical Anfield night. After they took an early lead through Diego Millito, Daniel Sturridge and then Steven Gerrard both scored in the last 15 minutes to get us a home victory, all be it they had scored the away goal.

That win against Aston Villa in the cup set us up to face Arsenal again, a 2-2 home draw wasn't the worst result ever, especially as I rested a lot of players ahead of second leg against Inter Milan. Luis Suarez and Jack Robinson scored our goals, the biggest concern was an injury to Luis Suarez ruling him out for 3 weeks and importantly our return tie against Inter.

Unfortunately we never got going in Milan, they were 2-0 up after just 9 minutes and although we created a few half chances, they killed us off in the second with a third. A poor night, not what we had wished for, but with Suarez missing, Gerrard going off injured and Jamie Carragher playing at only half match fitness, we were missing 3 of our best players.

Just 3 days after the Inter game it was back to the league and a tricky away game against Southampton. A Daniel Agger 11th minute goal secured us a 1-0 victory. A further 2-0 win at home to Stoke (Isco 2) kept our incredible league form going ahead of yet another trip to Arsenal in the FA Cup. Yet again they were reduced to 10 men, Thomas Vermaelen again being sent off, but yet again we couldn't seem to get control of the ball and created very little. Olivier Giroud scored the winner and we were now out of both the FA Cup and Europa League in the space of 2 weeks!

A return to league action saw us face Norwich at home, a 2-0 victory put us right on the heels of top 7 and this was followed up by a 3-0 victory away to Wigan. Jamie Carragher scoring a rare goal at the DW Stadium.

Now we enter crunch time for the season. Some big games coming up between now and the end of the season and the first of which was against Chelsea at Anfield. Goals from Daniel Sturridge and Luis Suarez secured a 2-1 victory.

That result left us 9th in the table but only 7 points off 4th with 6 games to go. Plus Tottenham who are currently 4th have played 1 more game than us. We are suddenly back in with a real chance of securing some form of European football, and possibly even CL football if results go our way.

Our remaining fixtures are:

H Man UTD - they are currently chasing Man City at the top of the league but have lost their last 2. Our game in hand is against our biggest rivals.

A Aston Villa - in 19th place in the league at the minute and fighting for every point, they held us to a 2-2 draw earlier in the season in the FA Cup at Villa park

A Everton - The Merseyside derby, Everton are currently 1 place and 1 point above me in the league. If they kick on, this game could be a massive one in terms of who qualifies for Europe next year.

H Sunderland - they are 16th in the table and struggling big time. Hopefully this should be a comfortable 3 points

A Tottenham - What can be said about this game? They are 4th as I type, we could be going into this game on very similar points in the push for Champions League football

H Swansea - Mid table, struggling with their away form so this should be a good 3 points.

All in all we have some tricky tricky fixtures but we are on form and can hopefully push on for a top 6 finish which should get us into Europe. Who knows, if we can win 4 or 5 of our last 6 games we might sneak 4th, but I would suspect that 7 points to be made up in 6 games is too much, I just can't see Tottenham and Chelsea losing half of their remaining fixtures.

[glenn28]

The game is like IRL Suarez wants to leave for Champions league he agreed to stay one more season then he will leave if we dont get top 4

[Plainlayzee]

The game is like IRL Suarez wants to leave for Champions league he agreed to stay one more season then he will leave if we dont get top 4

Are you using a modified database or just standard? What season are you in?

[tomtuck01]

in season 2 pre season I use tactics normal season balanced

Do you give them fitness training in preseason? If not, then that'll be hugely contributing to the injuries.

[Plainlayzee]

I managed to get my first season (or half season) finished last night.

With a tricky run of fixtures coming up I did think getting into the Champions League would be a big ask, trying to make up 7 points in just 6 games was always going to be difficult.

We started the run in with a home game against Man UTD. Nothing like a big game to get the team confidence up and really kick on. I decided that as we seem to be hopeless at defending, we should just attack and hope for the best. And that is what we did! 2 Luis Suarez goals and a Daniel Sturridge creamer cancelled out Nani's early goal for them. A brilliant 3-1 victory that on another day could of be 5 or 6.

We followed this up with a scrappy 1-0 win at Aston Villa, again Suarez the scorer. Next was the Merseyside derby. Everton lost their cool completely and by half time they had Jelevic off injured, Distin sent off and Tim Howard sent off for randomly walking out of his box and just picking the ball up. We struggled to break them down still but Mr Sturridge again did the business securing a 1-0 victory.

Sunderland were next on the 1-0 list. An Isco free kick got us the 3 points going into our massive game against Tottenham.

Unfortunately before the Tottenham game had even kicked off 4th placed looked impossible. We trailed them by 4 points with 2 games to go and they had a much better goal difference. We effectively needed them to lose to us and then away to Newcastle, plus for us to score about 10 goals and we might of got 4th. They did win away to Man City 3-0 in a game that I had them down to lose, thus all be scuppering our chances.

We produced a great performance at White Hart Lane, a 2-1 victory (Carragher and Suarez) gave us some hope going into the last day against Swansea. However, this was short lived as Tottenham raced into a 3-0 lead away to Newcastle. We did beat Swansea 2-0 but in the end finished a point behind Tottenham in 5th place.

A terrific end to the season with 9 wins in the last 9 games, but it came too late unfortunately. We have some good results to look back on and I am thrilled with how it has gone since I took over. 5th isn't too bad considering at the 30 game stage we were 11th!! Just 4 points separated 4th-9th place in the league. Chelsea missed out on the CL as well and Fulham missed out on Europe all together despite there amazing start to the season. Relegated were Sunderland, Aston Villa and Norwich.

The plan now is to add some quality to the squad.

With Jamie Carragher retiring, Steven Gerrard getting old and injury prone and Glen Johnson spending his entire season in and out of the physio's room, we need some first team quality players to come in, together with a few players to bulk up the actual squad and not leave with a load of kids on the bench.

I would like to keep Kelly, Sterling, Ibe and Robinson in and around the first team, but I think Suso and Morgan can probably go out on loan if I can find a suitable club.

Outgoing, Carragher will retire, I will probably sell Johnson due to his fitness/injury problems and cash in whilst he is at a good age, also Reina (consistently poor all season) and Brad Jones will both go as neither have been good enough, meaning I now need 2 goalkeepers. Borini is a tricky one because he has been poor but I have seen people on here say he becomes amazing, the same with Shelvey who has been on loan at Swansea and has an average of 6.02 over 19 games!!!

Henderson may be sold if the right bid comes in, but he has performed quite well and does add some work rate and flexibility to the squad.

Incoming I have a deal agree for Mama Sakho for just 5.5m! I offered them 16m in the January which they rejected and my scout then recommended him and said an asking price of 3.5-5m which confused the life out of me. They have eventually agreed to sell for 5.5 and he will be on 62k per week which I think is a bargain. The deal isn't yet confirmed but should be shortly.

Also Nacer Chadli who has signed for Tottenham IRL will join on a free after his contract expired at FC Twente (I think it was them? Maybe AZ Alkmaar?).

Now I need to find myself a solid CM who can add some power, a right back and a young CB as cover. Plus 2 gk's!!

Not expecting a big budget but you never know, I can make some additional cash through sales I think.

[glenn28]

Are you using a modified database or just standard? What season are you in?

Normal dont like changing it

[glenn28]

Do you give them fitness training in preseason? If not, then that'll be hugely contributing to the injuries.

Never done it ill give it ago

[tomtuck01]

Never done it ill give it ago

Christ no wonder you pick up injuries.

What about friedlies and getting players match fit?

[glenn28]

Christ no wonder you pick up injuries.

What about friedlies and getting players match fit?

Yes friendlies i do 5 to 6 before main season starts

[lfc7]

Right near the end of Jan Gerrard, Neymar and Sterling all get 3 month injuries in the same match

[glenn28]

Suarez just submitted a transfer request unless i get 40 mill hes going nowhere

[cyborgscouse]

I will get into this game damn it, final restart and if not I'll be stopping until around December when I'll buy fm14

[cyborgscouse]

The first thing I've done is replace a lot of the backroom staff, a lot of them have stupidly poor stats to be at a top club especially the scouts. Finding the scouts took a bit of time since I'm not using the guide for the best staff members anymore, it helped but seemed a bit of a cheat to do it.

From the mind numbing inconsistency from my repeated attempts at getting a 4-3-3 going with Liverpool, I've fallen back to the 4-2-3-1. One version uses a DLF for when Suarez is being played as my striker to get involved a bit more with the build up, and the other is with an advanced forward if I wanted someone to lead the line a bit more. Hopefully I've set it up to get the most out of Coutinho as both the AMC and playmaker too, in a 4-3-3 I've had him as both a AML and a MC advanced playmaker but never had him playing good enough for me.

The lack of quality around the pitch and depth at the club is something that will be looked at during this save if I can get it going properly. Outside of Sterling and Alberto, none of the youth players have developed enough at the start of the game to be involved too much in the first season. To get around the lack of depth in the team and focus on youth buys for now, I've brought in Maupay, Halilovic and Hughes for around £10m in total. The wings are my biggest concern to try and improve during the second season, I'm not a fan of having to use strikers or attacking mids out wide like Sturridge and Aspas will likely be used this season.

My major aim in this season is to get the top 5 position, but I've not setting player targets just yet because I wasn't hitting them the last time I was doing it

[cyborgscouse]

First three matches, 4-4 with Newcastle, 6-3 Fulham and 4-2 Brentford in the league cup, weird start

[tomtuck01]

First three matches, 4-4 with Newcastle, 6-3 Fulham and 4-2 Brentford in the league cup, weird start

Think you need to work on your defensive set-up.

[Mark.]

cyborgscouse & Plainlayzee

Really enjoying your guys updates. Keep them coming

[cyborgscouse]

Think you need to work on your defensive set-up.

I know hahaha, wasn't expecting that to happen to me

[Plainlayzee]

So I have managed to rattle through quite a lot of my save and I am now nearing the end of December 2013.

First things first I will update you on my signings/sales for last summer.

Outgoing:

Peter Gulacsi - 250k - Blackpool

Brad Jones - 500k Celtic

Glen Johnson - 17m - Chelsea

Andy Carroll - 7.75m West Ham

Andre Wisdom - 700k - Notts Forrest

Dani Pacheco - 500 - Sporting

Spearing 4m - West Brom

There was also a large number of players who left on free t/fers or for nominal fees. Yevil, Coady, Shelvey, Suso all went out on loan to get some game time. Overall I was happy with the players that went out and the money we got for them. Johnson is the stand out departure, however he had only played 5 games since January 2012 and was forever injured. He was sold to Chelsea and has actually had a knee injury since signing for them and therefore only played 4 games.

Incoming

Mamadou Sakho - 5.5m - PSG

Victor Wanyama - 8m - Celtic

Nacer Chadli - Free t/fer - FC Twente

Scott Wootton - Free - Released by Man UTD

Patrizio Dainese - 650k - Vicenza (regen GK)

Carlos Kameni - 2.5m - Malaga

Will Hughes - 6m - Derby County

Sebastien Corchia - 11m - FC Sochaux-Montbe

Clearly we signed a number of quality of players especially at the back, Sakho and Corchina should be very good replacements for Carragher and Johnson. Wootton was signed as I think he has a lot of potential and is only young, so he will be a squad player for now, same with Will Hughes.

We started the season away to newly promoted Blackburn Rovers who had gone the entire of last season unbeaten at home. They took an early lead however Luis Suarez scored his first goal of the season to get us a 1-1 draw. We had been drawn again Rijeka in the Europa League qualifies. A 3-1 home victory put us in a good position for the second leg, although I was somewhat concerned by the fact they had an away goal. Cardiff came to Anfield the following Saturday, a game that we won 1-0 with Will Hughes scoring the winner in the 90th minute. The next Thursday it was back to the Europa league and the second leg. We were comfortable until the 85th minute when their right back decided he was Lionel Messi, ran the length of the pitch and hammered the ball home. My team seemed to go in panic mode and suddenly they had a penalty and a chance to knock us out of the competition in just our first game. Luckily their forward hammered the ball wide of the post and we hung on, losing 1-0 on the night but qualifying on aggregate.

Following the poor performance against Rijeka I changed 7 players for the away trip to West Ham, mainly in an attempt to get some players some fitness. Daniel Sturridge scored his first goal of the season as we again 1-0. Clearly a lack of goals in our early form, however another win nonetheless. Next up was a massive home game against Tottenham. They had started the season poorly and had a number of players injured. A 3-0 home victory kick started our season, Sakho, Borini and Corchia all scoring the goals. Dinamo Moscow were first up in our EL group, a comfortable 2-0 win at home got us off to a winning start in the group. We followed this up with a 0-0 away to Old Trafford, although I did nearly fall asleep half way through the game it was really that bad. 2 shots for us, neither on target and just 4 for them with 1 on target. Appalling from both sides.

We had been drawn against Leeds in the League Cup at Elland Road and dispatched of them 2-1, Victor Wanyama scoring the first goal of the season from 30 yards before Raheem Sterling secured the win with a brilliant solo effort. Next up was Chelsea at home. Luis Suarez returned to the side following a 3 week injury and he scored the only goal in a 1-0 win. We were suddenly chasing Man City at the top of the league.

A 1-1 draw away to Matalist in the EL was good enough, followed by another league win, this time 3-1 against QPR and then another 3-1 away to Wigan. A 1-0 win again Slask in the EL put us top of the group and looking comfortable for qualification to the next round.

We lost some form over the next few games. Firstly a 2-2 draw against Reading was worrying as we were poor throughout, this was followed by a League Cup exit on penalties away to Everton. It was bad going out, even worse going out to that lot! We then drew 1-1 at home to Newcastle again a game that we could of lost, before just about beating Slask in the EL, a Luis Suarez free kick getting us the 3 points, but again we were poor. I decided we needed more squad rotation at this point and effectively split the team into 2. We now had a home team and an away team. At home against West Brom we flew out the blocks and were 2-0 up after just 6 minutes, eventually winning the game 3-0. We looked much better going forward and created a lot of chances. This was followed by a 2-2 at home to Arsenal. Luis Suarez scored a last minute equaliser. In trust neither team deserved to win, but interestingly Oliver Giroud scored his 5 goal in 4 matches against me, I just can't stop him it seems!

A 2-1 win at Leicester got us back on form again and right down Man City's necks ahead of a our trip to the Ethiad Stadium. They had lost their last 2 and were without Sergio Aguero and Edin Dzeko so I believed we had a chance, what I didn't expect was that we would be 3-1 up at half time!! Corchia, Agger and Suarez all scoring from corners. They did get it back to 3-2 but we hung on and went top of the league!

A 2-0 win in Moscow saw us qualify from our EL group with a game to spare, before we beat Fulham 3-0 at home, Suarez scoring another 2.

These results leave us top of the league, 3 points clear of Man UTD although they do have a game in hand, and 5 points clear of Man City but again they had a game in hand. The aim is just to finish in the top 4 and we seem to have a fighting chance of doing just that, especially as we had an 11 point gap over 5th placed Chelsea.

Player wise, Coates has been immense at the back with the help of Agger and Sakho, Lucas has also been the heart of the midfield, even more so as Gerrard is out injured for 2 months. And how can I write a review without mentioned Mr Suarez. 15 goals in 19 starts and an average rating of 8.08 makes him by far our best player. Him and Sturridge (6 goals in 16) are perhaps becoming my SAS like IRL.

More goals needed from the midfield, Isco hasn't yet hit the heights I hoped for but that will come I am sure.

[cyborgscouse]

Its safe to say following the first month or so things started to turn around. My first six league matches were three wins and three draws two of which were more high scoring ones too because my defensive wasn't working all that great and Mignolet had a habit of scoring own goals. I think four of the 22 goals overall I've conceded are own goals from him, which I think is pretty mental for your keeper. Luckily things started to become good for me, although it took a lot of time for things to turn around. In the following 14 matches I picked up another 11 wins, 1 draw and two defeats, which had left me top of the table with two points over Man City.

Even being first I'm only aiming for a top 5 spot this season since there's only six points seperating me from 5th. There's a few reasons for this, Liverpool have an insanely small squad in this game compared to the other three teams in the top four; City, Man Utd and Arsenal, That's no including Chelsea and Spurs who aren't that far behind either. Morale is often going up and down, and I'm aware of how hard it is to get things going right again if you hit a series of loses in quick succession in the game. The final reason is there's only two proper goal scorers in the side as well.

That said take away the first three matches and I've had another 8 games were my side has scored at least three goals, and in all of these I've won the match. Another two of them were 4-3 wins whilst the rest were either clean sheet victories or only conceding the sole goal. My favorite of these was the 4-0 dismantling of Everton who are bottom of the table and a 3-0 over Norwich which had Sturridge scoring a first half hattrick.

Suarez and Sturridge are doing pretty well for me for the most part, Suarez has scored 13 goals in 18 matches primarily as my DLP in my 4-2-3-1 and the latter has got 10 goals in 21 matches either from the AMR or has an advanced forward when he's been played as the striker. The only concern I have for them is Suarez's habit of picking up yellow cards since he's already on 8. The rest of the team aren't doing so well for me, Coutinho has 4 goals from the AMC spot and only 3 assists, while Alberto has got 3 and 2 from being rotated in there. The lack of quality wide players has meant that there's been a lack of goals from there too, Aspas has 4 goals himself mostly from out wide but has been injured often. While on the other side I've had both Gerrard and Henderson playing as my AML with Sterling rotated in to no great success really.

The AML/AMR are still my main concern going into the summer, and no matter were I finish they'll need improving

[Plainlayzee]

We followed up our 3-0 home win against Fulham with a 1-0 at Goodison Park, Adam Morgan scoring the winner with just 8 minutes left. The injuries and suspensions had really set in by this point so I had quite a young team out.

Next we drew 0-0 at home to Metalist in the EL, we had already qualified so I wasn't too concerned and again took this chance to rest a lot of first team players. This was followed up by a disappointing 2-0 defeat at Southampton in the league, out first defeat for quite some time.

2 1-0 wins against Stoke and Swansea at home over the Christmas period kept us in the top 3, now with an 11 point gap over 4th placed Chelsea. Following this we got a 1-1 draw at Cardiff (who had won their last 4 games) and won 3-1 away at Blackpool in the FA Cup 3rd round.

Wins at home to Blackburn and West Ham in the league (Sturridge scoring 5 in 2 games) fired us into second placed, ahead of Man UTD but they have a game in hand. However we then had a massive off day as lost 3-0 at White Hart Lane, Gareth Bale taking us apart and scoring all 3 goals. We beat Sunderland 1-0 in the next round of the cup with Will Hughes getting on the score sheet, with Man UTD to come at home next.

Man U had lost their last 2 and had a number of players injured, so I effectively wound Fergie up all week, told Evans he was useless and told Rooney he was a fat ****. It did the trick! 2 Sturridge goals, a Daniel Agger headed and FABIO BORNI!!! (yes he can score a goal) secured a massive 4-1 victory, leaving us 2 points clear of them in the league!! Amazing result that will hopefully kick start the second half of our season.

No transfers made in January, just Shelvey coming back from his loan at Fulham and Danny Wilson joined Norwich for 3m although to be fair he was hardly playing.

One deal I am hopeful of completing is Toby Alderwird who's contract is due to expire and is available on a free. I have used to press to get onto his 'favourite personal' list so hopefully that will bring him my way.

[cyborgscouse]

Hmm I've hit a bad run of form right near the end of the first season, which means I'm hanging onto 4th place or Arsenal will overtake me. 1 win in 5 matches has been more than a little annoying and for the second time this season Suarez has asked to leave. He first asked in January and I said I want to challenge for the league in two years and he agreed, but after the bad run of form he's asked to leave again and when I told him the same thing he said that I'm coming out with things that won't happen (nice little twists with the LFCMarshall database since I never saw this in the official ones) and demanded to go. So I've put him on out for £40m

[cyborgscouse]

A quick review, I'll be back to bigger ones for next season

The biggest up and down season I've had has come to a close. What I said about finding it hard to break out of the cycle of loses came to fruition in the last 6 or so weeks here. Six defeats in a row had morale at the lowest it ever had been with no signs of things improving, fatigue hit Liverpool's already small squad like a tonne of bricks as players were continually needing breaks or they picked up small injuries. Then Suarez demanded to leave the club and was put on the transfer market.

As soon as I put him up for sale I dropped him from the team altogether and threw Sturridge up top for me, switching the DLF to an advanced forward role with three matches to go. It worked out too as Sturridge scored in two of them and set another goal up as well, I was going into the last game of the season with the possibility of ending 3rd or 5th though the former was only happening if I scored 8 more goals that Man City did in their game which just wasn't happening. Arsenal's form over the past month made it likely that they would snatch 4th from me and have Liverpool playing in the Europa league next season. Somehow Arsenal only managed a draw against Everton while I knocked two goals past Cardiff to secure 4th spot for Liverpool

The cups weren't that great for me overall, and had to be treated as a youth development exercise this season. The team simply wasn't big enough to treat them properly. And again going back to the fact I'm using LFCMarshall's database a lot of teams have bigger squads than Liverpool in it, meaning it was always going to be a struggle to try and focus on multiple aims this season.

Goal scoring was a major problem again, apart from, Suarez and Sturridge the other players didn't do enough for me in that regard. I'll be using the transfer budget as well as the money from Suarez and any other sales to work on improving the attack of the team first and foremost, after that it'll be defensive mid and leftback

[cyborgscouse]

Huh the board gave me £35m but then only gave 15% from the sales of Suarez, Reina and Aspas which brought in 61m, and that's despite having 50m in the bank. I can't get them to increase the percentage of transfer money either. Missed out on Lewandowski on a free because of it.

Looks like the rebuild will be continued next year

[cyborgscouse]

Season 2

So after a inconsistent season it's time for the second one, with the champions league added into the mix. Usually I'd have the summer to strengthen my team and get ready for the next year. The end of the year had the Suarez debacle just like in real life, and was met with stupidly low bids of £17.5m from a load of clubs, which was nowhere near what I wanted for him. It got to the point were I was going to force him to stay because no one was willing to bid what I wanted for him, to be able to go. In the end Real Madrid bid £39m which was as close to the £40m I was asking for, so he went to them. At this point in time I'd spend the money that I had to improve the position that I had sold a player in. That wasn't my plan however, I needed to improve the wide areas like I said from the start, so that was were my primary focus was during the summer.

Again like I've mentioned in the post above this one, the board screwed me over in the transfer budget with not giving me anywhere near the right amount of percentage from sales made. This meant other positions that needed to be looked at this summer went ignored as I didn't have the money to reinforce them; i.e left back and defensive midfield.

With Suarez being sold my striking options are now Sturridge, Borini, Yesil and Maupay. Hopefully these four will be good enough to do well this season, as again my main aim will be to get into the top 4 again, and finish improving my team. I brought in Ayew and Griezmann for 36m to improve the wide areas of my team, which is a hell of a lot better than using central midfielders or strikers out wide and losing that goal threat. Due to his development in the past year Sterling will likely be my first choice AMR which leaves Griezmann and Ayew fighting out for the AML slot in the team.

I want the team to break into the top 4, quarter finals of the champions league and one of the domestic cups. Since he'll be my main striker I want Sturridge to improve on the 14 goals he scored last year. Since he'll be playing as my advanced forward and not being rotated as my AMR I can't see this being any problem. Borini, Yesil and Maupay will be rotated in as my other strikers, so as long as they make it into double figures then I'll be happy enough. I'm looking for a hell of a lot more goals from the wide players compared to last season too, I don't think it'll be too hard since I don't think they scored 10 goals altogether last season. Coutinho, Alberto and Suso will be playing in the AMC spot, and they should be able to set up most of my goals for me.

Transfers in

Griezmann £21m

Ayew £15.5m

Govic 500k a 15 year old 5 star Croatian defender

Saponara free a 21year old Italian from AC Milan who can cover the three spots behind the striker

Rault £4m a 15 year French defensive mid regen

Transfers out

Ngoo free

Assaidi £7.m Stoke

Aspas £10m Monaco

Roddan free

Dunn free

Suarez £39m Real Madrid

Reina £12.5m AC Milan

Jones 500k Arsenal

Fulton free

Sama free

There was a lot of crappy reserve players sent out on loan too, who will likely be gone on free transfers next year

[cyborgscouse]

August

League

Liverpool 2-1 Watford; Coutinho 65, Gerrard 68; Deeney 76

Liverpool 3-1 Cardiff; Allen 3, Wisdom 27, Yesil 67; Cornelilus 77

Liverpool 2-0 West Ham; Sterling 29, Sturridge 64

Champions league

Liverpool 1-0 AZ; Coutinho 11

Liverpool 3-2 AZ; Sturridge 6, 91; Skrtel 45; Martens 15, 27

A perfect first month so I'm happy about that, I drew Barcelona, Anderlecht and Galatasaray in the Champions league and Man City in the 3rd round of the league cup

[cyborgscouse]

September

League

Liverpool 2-0 Aston Villa; Sturridge 38, Sakho 48

Liverpool 1-1 Newcastle; Alberto pen 38; Cisse 67

Man Utd 1-0 Liverpool; Van Persie 86

Champions league

Liverpool 1-1 Barcelona; Agger 45; Iniesta 1

League cup

Liverpool 2-1 Man City; Sturridge 80, 91; Rodwell 9

[glenn28]

Haven't updated since this thread is dead think most are waiting on FM 14

[baros2011]

Hey guys,

I decided to start a new game with Liverpool before FM14 because they’re basically the only team I’ve ever played as in FM13. Despite all the time I’ve spent playing as Liverpool, I’ve never won the league with them, so I decided I wanted one more save before FM 14 to put that right. I started the save with the most recent official update, so not taking into account any of the summer’s transfer business.

Season 1

My first season went like they often do for me – pretty disastrously! I never buy anyone in the first season as I like to try to work with what I have, and this time was no different. However the big problem with my squad was a lack of firepower, exacerbated by the fact that Danny Sturridge got injured in our first European game for 9 months! A massive blow as he was a big part of my plans.

In terms of tactics, I went with a 4-3-3, generally with Reina in goal, Johnson, Skrtel, Agger and Enrique across the back 4, with Lucas holding in midfield, Joe Allen as a ball-winning midfielder and Gerrard pushing on from the midfield 3. Up front, Suarez was the focal point of the side, with Downing, Coutinho, Borini and Sterling rotating in the wide positions off him. Sturridge’s injury meant Suarez got very little rest, with Borini playing up front very occasionally.

In terms of the squad, Martin Kelly, Carragher, Coates, Henderson and Shelvey all saw a lot of game time and my best performers overall were probably Reina, Skrtel, Agger and undoubtedly Suarez, who plundered 30 goals in all competitions, including finishing as top scorer in the League.

The only transfer business of any kind that I did was bringing Scott Parker in on loan in January, and he was an excellent acquisition, really adding steel to my midfield and popping up with some important goals.

In terms of competitions, this is how I got on in the first season:

League:

After a solid, if unspectacular start, the league campaign looked to be tail-spinning into an eventual sacking around January, February time, when we languished as low as 11th at one stage. The problems were all attacking. We finished with the best defence in the league, conceding just 24 goals, and up front Suarez finished as the league’s top scorer, also with 24 goals, but we just didn’t get enough goals from other areas, especially in the league. Fabio Borini was our 2nd top scorer with 10 goals in all competitions but only about half of those were league goals. The like of Downing, Gerrard, Borini and Sterling all failed to contribute enough goals whilst Sturridge’s injury meant he only returned for the last handful of games, netting one solitary goal all season.

However, the team was very hard to beat, going on a run of losing just twice in about 20 league games to end the season, whilst we also beat the eventual champions Chelsea home and away (as well as beating them away in the League Cup). We held our own against the other top sides also so the problem was not getting enough wins against the lesser sides, a direct result of our poor attacking prowess.

We eventually finished the season in 6th spot after a strong end to the campaign; enough to get into the Europa league for our second season but along way short of a top 4 spot, never mind a title challenge.

Domestic Cups

A good run in the league cup (including an extra time win at Stamford Bridge) eventually ended at the semi-final stage with a narrow 3-2 aggregate defeat to Manchester City who went on to win the cup. The FA Cup run ended abruptly and embarrassingly with a 4th round replay defeat away to Brighton. The squad was simply stretched too thin at this stage of the season to be able to put out anything like a competitive side.

Europe

We easily got through the first two qualifying rounds of the Europa League and also topped our (admittedly weak) group. We then managed to narrowly overcome AZ in the first knockout round, but a golden opportunity to knock out the relatively weak Montpellier in the next round went begging, as again the weakness of our squad cost us dear.

So 6th place in the league, semi final of league cup, 4th round of FA Cup and 2nk knockout round of the Europa League – not exactly a fantastic season by any standards.

Second Season:

It was clear that I needed to make major changes in the summer if we were going to push for top 4, which was the aim I told the board I thought we could achieve at the start of season 2. Suarez needed more help up front (although the returning Sturridge would help in this regard) but we needed to get more goals from wider areas to and from midfield.

I therefore went about remodeling the squad. In terms of attacking players Andy Carroll was shipped out to Arsenal for 10million, whilst Stewart Downing left for Stoke for 5 million. Ousamma Assaidi, who made minimal impact in the first season was let go to West Brom for 3.5 million, whilst youngsters Suso and Jordan Ibe were let go on loan for the season. The decision was also taken to let Fabio Borini go to Milan for 10 million pounds.

To replace these players, we first of all brought in Theo Walcott from Arsenal for 23 million. Walcott’s pace and ability to score goals from the right of a front 3 made him an attractive proposition. We followed up that purchase by signing Willian from Shakhter for 29million. A lot of money, but a player I feel could score and create a lot of goals from the left hand side of my front three. I still felt we needed another attacking player, someone who could play centrally and replace Suarez in that deep lying forward role (and someone better at bringing others into play than Sturridge). I decided to plump for Michu for 15 million on transfer deadline day. The best part of 70 million pounds on three new attacking players, but I felt that all three were important purchases if we were to right the mistakes of season 1.

The spending didn’t stop there though. Jamie Carragher’s retirement and Sebastian Coates’s desire for more first team football meant that they were both no longer part of my squad, so I replaced them with 2 centre backs from the French league; Dejan Lovren (12 million from Lyon) and and Kurt Zouma (10 million from St Etienne). I also bought in Simon Mignolet for 4 million from Sunderland (yes just like real-life) to back-up Pepe Reina (no way was I letting Reina go after his good season last year) and made another like-real-life signing by loaning Aly Cissokho from Valencia to provide competition for Jose Enrique at left back.

My final two signings were brought in to add a bit of steel to the midfield – I loaned Momo Sissoko and Blaise Matuidi from PSG, as I had let Jonjo Shelvey go for 4 million at the start of the summer. Andre Wisdom, John Flanagan and Jack Robinson were all loaned out to gain experience, and my squad for season two was complete. It looked as follows:

Keepers: Reina, Mignolet, Gulacsi

Full backs: Johnson, Kelly, Enrique, Cissokho

Centre backs: Skrtel, Agger, Lovren, Zouma

Midfielders: Gerrard, Allen, Lucas, Henderson, Sissoko, Matuidi

Attacking Midfielders: Willian, Coutinho, Michu, Sterling

Strikers: Suarez, Sturridge, Walcott

We’ve started the season in a pretty mediocre way – we easily came through our Europa League qualifiers, and then won 4-1 away to Notts Forest on the opening day of the premier league (Walcott scoring and Willian hitting 2 on his debut). However we followed that up with a 1-0 home defeat to Champions Chelsea and then could only manage a 0-0 draw at Anfield versus Villa. So 4 points from our opening 3 games and next up is a trip to Man City – could be a very poor start indeed.

Still, I think the squad is a lot stronger than last season. I think Willian and Walcott in particular can score more goals than say Borini and Downing last season, and if we can get the same sort of output as last year from Suarez, as well as the defence holding firm and a fit again Sturridge chipping in with a few, we should hopefully get top 4 and make a better challenge in the cups and in Europe.

I want to win this league before FM14 comes out.