FM13: Manchester City - Winning the Title in Spectacular Fashion Since 2012

[bluemoon]

After a long struggle to get into a save on 13, I started a City save at the weekend (albeit with a few database files) - Sergio Aguero's been amazing as you might expect.

I'll try and do a proper update soon

[JohnSmart]

I just got sacked mid January - its been a while since that happened in FM.

Back to the tactical drawing board for me! I think I should avoid playing with City first - my inherit real life bias affects my judgements too much.

[danm2501]

Started a game as City. Had a pretty tasty start. Made quite a few changes to the squad, with my transfers as follows:

In:

Christian Eriksen £28m

Isco £17.5m

Wilfried Zaha £13.5m

Adryan £875k

Leighton Baines £14m

Raphael Varane £23m

Out:

Joleon Lescott £13m

Mario Balotelli £20m

James Milner £16m

Then my first XI is:

----------------------Hart---------------------------

------------Kompany------Nastasic/Varane----------

--Maicon-------------Garcia---------------Baines-----

------------------Toure---------------------------------

------------Eriksen---Aguero---Silva-------------------

-----------------------Tevez----------------------------

Had a really good start. Maicon and Baines as attacking wing backs works brilliantly. Absolutely dominated Chelsea, especially Maicon, who ended up with 3 assists and a goal in a 6-0 community shield drubbing. Since then, we've won every game. None as convincing as the Chelsea win, other than a 4-0 win against Villa, but we've been winning, and playing well. Tevez has had a slow start, and put in some poor performances, but Aguero's been excellent, and is leading the goal scoring stats in the league. 5 wins in 5 in the league, 2 points clear of United. Pretty tasty start.

[olivermcpherson]

I've decided to quit playing as Man City for the simple reason that I'm constantly being ripped off by agents and players. I've been trying to turn profit at the club and coming into my 4th season, I've had enough. Gotze was on 130k a week and playing well, but now he wants 400k a week and a 50k appearance bonus. Rodwell is on 55k a week and now wants 150k a week. I sold alot of players and tried to sign young players with high potential. A 16 year old regen wanting 50k a week as a hot prospect? NO CHANCE.

This game needs some serious thought put into the way wages and demands are handled. You have the 'Reduce Wage Demands' tab on the talk to player page, but it never ever shows up. What's the point in even having that option there when you can never use it? I'm done with FM2013 already. Total waste of time.

[Zaba5]

I've decided to quit playing as Man City for the simple reason that I'm constantly being ripped off by agents and players. I've been trying to turn profit at the club and coming into my 4th season, I've had enough. Gotze was on 130k a week and playing well, but now he wants 400k a week and a 50k appearance bonus. Rodwell is on 55k a week and now wants 150k a week. I sold alot of players and tried to sign young players with high potential. A 16 year old regen wanting 50k a week as a hot prospect? NO CHANCE.

This game needs some serious thought put into the way wages and demands are handled. You have the 'Reduce Wage Demands' tab on the talk to player page, but it never ever shows up. What's the point in even having that option there when you can never use it? I'm done with FM2013 already. Total waste of time.

I get what you mean, even as a City fan it gets tedious and annoying very quick with them. Players demand around 5million as a bonus or an Agent will also which is just crazy, I try to build for the future but certain players demand the earth regarding the wage and it's not worth it.

[blueboy25]

anyone still playing with city?

[glyndav]

I am blueboy, this thread looked to have died a death so haven't posted!

[blueboy25]

how you doing in your game ?

[glyndav]

To be honest with you, I've done the same as I do most years in that it takes me four or five saves to get into it. Currently only halfway through the first season, top of the league by 5 points and got through the CL group stage (had Dortmund and Barca in it, Barca got knocked out!).

Although winning a lot, I'm not particularly happy with how we are playing so thinking about changing tactics completely, not sure what to yet though! How are you getting on?

[blueboy25]

I am the same i struggle with the tactic's in this years fm what formation did u play in 1st season and who u bring in i was thinking of trying 3 at the back but i really dunno

[glyndav]

I alternate between a 442 and a 4231. My best results always come from a 442 (against certain teams, I push up the wingers to the AMR/AML slot). On my current save, I left transfers to Begiristain just to see who he brought in. I'm in January and Kolorov and Dzeko have gone out, Falcao, Cavani, Bale, Fellaini and Baines have all come in. Trying to get a formation now that I'm happy with which also accommodates the players I want to really is pretty difficult (in terms of getting the best out of them, with the squad I have, pretty much any formation works to a certain extent). Thinking of a 451 asymmetric.

[blueboy25]

some really good transfers there could i add u on steam ? I'm thinking of selling kolorov and kolo and maybe dzeko. might train Garcia as a cb see how he does.

[Luckz]

The AI seems addicted to buying Baines (and Fellaini).

[blueboy25]

just started and let my dof buy players and hes gone for fellaini

[Magraev]

Annoying that players demand so much! I tried to sign alaba (sp) from Bayern, and he turned down a first team offer of 95k euro p/w and made a deal with man utd for 47k euro p/w instead...

[tomtuck01]

Annoying that players demand so much! I tried to sign alaba (sp) from Bayern, and he turned down a first team offer of 95k euro p/w and made a deal with man utd for 47k euro p/w instead...

It's because of the money you have. Players, agents, clubs, try to take advantage of that fact. I have suffered from this in a save where I had a rich owner takeover. Just something you have to live with.

[30.Beast]

Then why does he accept a lower wage with Utd?

[tomtuck01]

Then why does he accept a lower wage with Utd?

Because he preferred to go there but was willing to join City for silly money?

[30.Beast]

Silliness

[tomtuck01]

Silliness

I like your well reasoned argument...............

Atleast I have come up with a vaguely plausible reason for the situation that Magraev encountered.

[Magraev]

I wouldn't be offended if he accepted the same deal or a marginally lower wage at the U, but deciding to work for half wage is absurd.

[Luckz]

Maybe they were better at bribing his agent?

[Gunteraz]

Just tried managing City. Biggest f*king mistake of my life. The way this game calculates how much a player wants to get payed really needs to be reworked or there's no way in hell im ever gonna buy another Football Manager game from this company again. Tried signing Courtois from Chelsea, they wanted 25 million for him, in my Bayern game they only wanted 15. That's fine i guess. But the contract he asked for just blew my f*king mind! 110k p/w, 32.5k appearance bonus and clean sheet bonus, 80k in. cap bonus, 7+ million agent fee and loyalty bonus. My final offer was 120k a week, 20k clean sheet and appearance fee and 50k int cap + maximum agent and loyalty bonuses and 10% sale thingy, whatever...he wasnt interested. When i signed him for bayern he wanted abour 34k a week, 7.5k clean sheet and appearance fee and no int cap bonus. I don't remember the loyalty and agent fees but they weren't very big either. I understand that when signing to city players would try to get a better salary than when signing to clubs with no sugar daddy but COME ON!

My suggestion to everyone is DO NOT TRY TO MANAGE CITY, it will be the most frustrating experience you'll EVER have.

I'm so angry right now.

[Griffo]

About to start a Manchester City save, I have signed El Shaarawy for 29 million and Sandro for 18.75 million which fills up the lack of depth in the squad when using a 4-5-1 formation. I also plan to sign David Alaba is January as he is injured at the start of the season.

[Santa Claus]

Maybe they were better at bribing his agent?

^^ This.

[mr harry]

suprised this thread is dead with the money and the squad city have thought it would be more lively but then again it could be to easy

[JD nawrat]

The City thread has been dead for about 4 years now.

I did FM12s and I think it got just into three pages before dying (the only reason it made it to Page 3 was because I kept posting my own updates but I haven't played as City this year).

Nobody likes to play as us, for whatever reason.

[tomtuck01]

Nobody likes to play as us, for whatever reason.

It's because it could be rather boring, I'd assume.

[JD nawrat]

Just as boring as managing Man Utd or Chelsea or any other top club like Barcelona and Bayern Munchen. Yet all of these threads get activity (to varying degrees, but all more popular than this thread)

[JD nawrat]

Okay so I decided to start a Man City save in the end.

Playing with three different shapes:

4231 (narrow)

41212 (narrow)

4312 (narrow)

I'm probably going to use the 4231 standard, 41212 against equal or better sides and 4312 when I'm chasing a goal or against some smaller sides that I need/want to smash.

I'm going to bring in Isco or Eriksen (preferably Eriksen if I can get him cheaper than £25M), I want van Wolfswinkel up front and I'd like Lucas Romero for the future. I'll probably promote Karim Rekik to the first team along with Abdul Razak now.

In January I'll offload Kolarov and try to bring in Alaba most likely. I might change my mind on that, depending on how Kolarov performs.

[Come_On_You_Spurs]

JDownie, I know you've put in a lot of effort in this thread the last few years. I'm going to put my Chelsea save on hold for a while, and have some fun with a Man City save to try to help keep this thread busy. I'm not going for ultra-realism, more to just have fun and use the pretty much endless funds to build a team that I want to. Let's just say it might take some time for my team chemistry to build.

In

Roberto Soldado

Romelu Lukaku

Daniele De Rossi

Isco

Will Hughes

Kaka (loan)

Dede

Neymar

David Alaba

Out

Tevez (Spurs)

Dzeko (Loan-Chelsea)

Kolarov (Loan-Porto)

K. Toure (Southampton)

GK- Hart

LB- Alaba/Clichy/Zabaleta

CB- Dede/Lescott

CB- Kompany/Nastasic

RB- Maicon/Richards/Zabaleta

CM- De Rossi/Rodwell/Garcia

CM- Toure/Milner

AML- Neymar/Sinclair

AMC- Isco/Kaka

AMR- Silva/Nasri

ST- Aguero/Soldado/Lukaku

Again, obviously not realistic. But I plan on using this team to build with for the next several years. Hopefully this ends up being a fun, relaxing save for me.

[Come_On_You_Spurs]

Sorry for the double post, I just wanted to add that this is off the most recent official patch, and not an unofficial update. So none of this summer's transfers are in my squad, and obviously Neymar and Isco were still on their original teams

[JD nawrat]

Barely played this save due to work. Loading up now.

Glad to have someone else in here, COYS Like that you've gone down the crazy spending route

[JD nawrat]

So far my signings and such.

Isco for £30.5M

Lucas Romero for £8M

Ricky van Wolfswinkel for £8M

Will Hughes for £7.5M

Won the Community Shield on penalties, after a 1-1 draw. Then won at Norwich 1-3, Dzeko nabbing a brace. Just beat Stoke 2-0 at home there. Started off well enough.

[Come_On_You_Spurs]

Yeah, I can't help my spending. I like playing with City, but there are a lot of players on the team I can't get the best out of for some reason. As I predicted, my players are taking a while to blend in. I'm at the beginning of November, and Neymar and Soldado in particular have been horrible. Isco is out for 4 months with a broken foot. Aguero is coming back from a 2 month injury. Despite my struggles, I'm 4 pts out of 1st. Hopefully the boys will pick it up soon.

[lennon67]

I can see me starting a Man City save after I get bored with my Deportivo one, I never have loads of money to spend or manage the best players in the world so should be a fun save.

[JD nawrat]

Activity \o/

COYS - how are you playing Neymar and Soldado that they're playing so poorly?

My save is going great, won every league game although I did lose my first Champions League game. Played a B side v Milan in Milan and got beaten 2-0, two late goals stealing a victory for them.

I am getting some great results from certain players. I changed my 4231 (narrow) to a 4222 (narrow, still), with BWM/D (JaviGar), B2B/S (Yaya), AP/A (Silva), AM/S (Nasri), DLF/A (Aguero) and TGM/S (Dzeko) and it essentially morphs into a 4231 because Aguero drops so deep at times. I have Nasri and Silva rotating because I don't want to play with two AP/As and that's what both excel as, so if they rotate positions with each other it means that they both get around 7.8-8.3 per game for ratings, wheras if they don't switch, Silva gets around 8.5 and Nasri gets below 7.0 every time. My team also works better with Silva and Nasri roaming freely. Controlled chaos

Going to load up for an hour or two.

[Come_On_You_Spurs]

I played Soldado as poacher, and Neymar as IF/A on the left. However, due to basically half my team coming down with long-term injuries, I've decided to restart the save. I plan on doing things a little different. I want to play a 4-4-2 with wingers, as that's how I've succeeded with City in the past. Because of this, I don't plan on repeating my Isco and Kaka transfers. I may go for another striker instead of Soldado, but I may give him another shot.

[coolbeans]

Have none of you guys gone for the legends like Gerrard or Lampard? I picked up Pirlo for 12.5 mil!! great additio to the squad imo

[tomtuck01]

Have none of you guys gone for the legends like Gerrard or Lampard? I picked up Pirlo for 12.5 mil!! great additio to the squad imo

As good as he is, (and the others are), it's frightfully short term thinking to spend so much on players who are around that sort of age.

Each to their own of course.

[Come_On_You_Spurs]

Currently in September of my second season. My team of "Galacticos" won the league last year, but we were disappointing in all other competitions.

Current lineup:

GK- Hart

DL- Alaba

DC- Kompany

DC- Varane

DR- Richards

CM- Toure

CM- Sandro

AML- Bale

AMR- Silva

ST- Falcao

ST- Aguero

My subs include Lescott, Chalobah, Milner, Rodwell, El Shaarawy, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Neymar, Benzema, and Nastasic.

Pretty much the team I want now. Next step is to work on the youth. I've got some exciting youth prospects, but no one that really stands out.

[coolbeans]

As good as he is, (and the others are), it's frightfully short term thinking to spend so much on players who are around that sort of age.

Each to their own of course.

I got 85mil to spend after my first season and there aren't really any other world-class DLPs' available for the 15m mark. I get the point though..

[coolbeans]

Pirlo just got a hat trick away from home against Bolton as a DLP:lol: 2 penos and 1 longshot

[glyndav]

As in all fm games, I had about four or five saves with City, but never made it past halfway through the second season. Going to load up a new one tonight and try and stick with it, it always tends to be August before my long term game starts!

Tend to go with the 4222 as well, might try something different this time.

[glyndav]

Right, started another game up a few nights ago. Left the transfers to the DoF (to replicate what Txiki does for us nowadays!), he's brought inBale, Fellaini and Falcao and sold Kolorov, Toure, Maicon and Dzeko.

Here's my results so far -

Going to mess with my tactics as I'm not massively happy with them so far, got a few ideas in mind though. Going to put a load of youngsters on the target list for Txiki for January as well.

[JD nawrat]

Very good going there mate. With the exception of losing at Villa, you haven't got a poor result there (your home form is great, away form is by and large great bar one or two silly results like drawing at Reading, Palace, Everton and losing to Villa).

KUTGW

[glyndav]

Thanks mate

Yeah, away games, even the ones that look comfortable, up to now been a struggle. I never change my team instructions but I've now got a 4411 I'm using in away games that is working a treat, looking a lot better on the road now.

just had two games in a row at home against United in the Carling Cup then league. Won the first 5-0 and the second 5-2!

Scraped through the CL group stages, so I still need to do a bit of work on my tactics against bigger teams. I'm already at the stage where my tactics are bugging me slightly but I'm forcing myself to stick with this save rather than restart again!

Hopefully, I'll finish the season at the weekend and put up some more screenies.

[glyndav]

As usual, struggling to finish the season as I'm not 100% happy with my tactics, determined to stick with it though! Now in early February. 1st in the prem by four points from Arsenal, I've got Chelsea in the League Cup final and Milan in the first knockout round of the CL.

Bought Ward Prowse, Isco, Sandro and Zouma in January, Sinclair has left as well (my last update, meant to put Tevez, not Dzeko) . I'm happy with my squad now just trying to work out eexactly how I want to play them and what my first XI will be. Here's my squad now -

GKs

Hart, Pantillimon

Full Backs

Richards, Zabaletta, Clichy, Baines

Central Defenders

Kompany, Nastasic, Lescott, Zouma, Rekik (using him a fair bit as Kompany and Nastasic have been injured since the first week of the season)

Midfielders

Sandro, Toure, Rodwell, Barry, Milner, Garcia

Attacking midfielders/Wingers

Silva, Isco, Nasri, Bale, Ward Prowse

Strikers

Aguero, Falcao Dzeko

[glyndav]

Anyone making a city thread for fm14? They haven't been particularly popular recently, maybe the implementation of ffp might attract a few more back!

[olivermcpherson]

Is there going to be a FM14 thread for the mighty blues then?