FM13: Leeds United - Marching On Together

[Nicko Blaggo]

Not much at all, lost my first few Premiership games so all I did was move the mentality and defensive line sliders down a couple of notches.

And the the usual, match preparation defensive positioning, OI against known danger players.

Thanks for that, I'll monitor how I get on the first few games and adjust, etc.

[mrwoodz]

1st Half Season Report

The above shows that I am well on my way to reclaiming the Premier League place the club has been missing for so long now.

Steve Morison has been the main reason (apart from my tactic ) with almost a goal a game, which sees him leading the league in goals scored, and average rating, as you can see from the above image.

I have had issues with injuries, losing a collection of vital players to serious injuries, but it has not stopped my progress towards my ultimate goal.

I have had a couple of great wins, knocking Man Utd out of the League Cup, but unfortunately going out to Man City 2 rounds later - and a ridiculous 8-2 win over Nottingham Forest.

I have tried to keep any signings to a minimum as I don't plan on staying in the Championship for long, but have supplemented the 4 teenagers I have signed with a couple of more experienced loan signings.

(***I will expand on this post later, but as I have to work at 7am I'll leave it here for now. Didn't realise the time!***)

Below gives a look at my tactics and stats for the 1st team squad:

[Scotsman27]

Great start mrwoodz, Morison is a great player even in the Premiership!

[Scotsman27]

Season three was a slight improvement, I really wanted to break into the Champions League places but in the end we just drew too many games.

Some more astute dealings throughout the season, as usual most of the transfers were spread over 2-4 years. My scout in South America alerted me to some 4.5 PA kids with minimum fee release clauses of around £1 million so I snapped them up.

Very happy about picking up Pedro from Sampdoria, an incredibly well rounded player who I feel can run my midfield for years to come. I scoured Serie A again for a partner to Ogbonna and found Capuano, he had just an amazing debut season as Ogbonna had last season.

The big signing of the Summer was, of course, Jordan Rhodes. He started like a house on fire but unfortunately got injured for a few months, I'm looking forward to seeing how he can do with a full season behind him.

I was alerted to Schneiderlin's cheap price in January by his agent and beat Man City to his signature, however he was another victim of injury and only made a handful of appearances, hopefully him and Pedro can form a decent partnership next season.

Couldn't write up a season review without mentioning Morison, despite being third choice still got some game time due to injury. Two good goals today IRL as well!

Got to the Semi-Finals of the Europa League, my highlight of the run.

My team looked like this for the majority of the season

Carrizo

Byram - Ogbonna - Capuano - Cresswell

Redmond - Parolo - Pedro - Estigarribia

Rhodes - Cox

Amos, Lees, White, Jose Dias, Howson, Morison, Choupo-Moting

[Scotsman27]

There's something strange regarding attendances in my save. (new patch)

I've got promoted and finished 6th, 5th and currently in the top 4 but my average Premiership attendance is around 28,000.

That would be okay if we were still in the Championship but we're among the best teams in the league now, last time that happened a decade ago the average was upwards of 36,000.

To add insult I'm in the FA cup semi final at Wembley against Swansea and there's only 44,000!

[Scotsman27]

What a season! I was in third going into the final game with a mathematical chance of winning the title but unfortunately a Mourinho managed Man Utd didn't slip up.

Surprisingly little was spent in the summer, obviously Doumbia was a big signing on a free, as was Jason Steele who I initially signed as back up but went on to claim the number one jersey.

Gouweleeuw is a Dutch international on my save and was transfer listed at Chelsea so I bought him in as he has high potential.

Stupidly my board decided to take a £12.5 million offer from Liverpool for Pedro Obiang into their own hands on January transfer deadline day which left me with a gaping hole in my midfield. With no reasonably priced replacements available I decided to take Belhanda on loan from Spurs' reserves who covered the central midfield and two wide positions well in his five month loan spell.

A much better season from my record signing as of yet, linked up really well with Doumbia.

Really impressed with Redmond who's just been called up to (Stuart Pearce's?!) England squad for Euro 2016. Also won the Premiership Young Player of the Year.

Our old friend Morison, he spent most of the season on the bench and I don't think I can justify offering him a new deal. Will be a great signing for a lower Premiership / Championship team.

Excited about plying my trade among Europe's elite next season, hopefully my prudent spending thus far will sway GFH's mind in letting me open the chequebook in the summer, I have my eye on more than a few top signings.

The team this season was:

Steele

Jose Dias - Capuano - Ogbonna - Cresswell

Redmond - Schneiderlin - Belhanda - Estigarribia

Rhodes - Doumbia

Carrizo, Gouweleeuw, White, Howson, Byram, Cox, Morison

[mrwoodz]

Impressive progression (and speed through the game, matfrith.)

I've had to work too much the last couple of days, and got overly involved in transfer window when I did play (mainly trying to offload players admittedly.)

After my half season update I feared I was heading for a 2nd half slump, with a couple of poor results, only for Morison to quickly get me back on track with 2 hat-tricks at start of January.

This little run of results has boosted my Goal Difference, and given me a 20 point lead in the league - not to mention the 2 FA Cup victories over Premier League opponents.

A revision of my goals at the end of December saw the board increase my transfer kitty to £6m. And that 1 defeat, which saw Diouf see red for the 2nd time this season saw me fall out with a player for the first time. He refused to accept his fine, so was transfer listed, and after he missed training as well, I off loaded him for a paltry £250k.

I tried repeatedly to sell more players, but could only manage to loan out the likes of Tonge and Drury.

My problems with injuries continued with Lees suffering a double hernia at end of December which sees my initial CB pair of Hinteregger and Lees out until March. But as the results show, my loanee from Wolves, Eggert Jonsson, along with Jason Pearce, have filled in admirably. The injuries mean that Austin is having to help out at CB for now, but I am now overflowing with midfield options.

Battaglia was out of contract at the end of the season, and I was able to pick him up at a bargain price. (Around £500k over 48 months.)

With Svennson and Paredes joining Battaglia in the middle of the park, and my options on the wide roles now supplemented by the fit again Murray, the returning Snodgrass, along with Paul Green, Aidy White, Luke Varney, and Sam Byram, the majority of my midfield could be around for a long time.

The above gives an idea of how determined I was to reduce numbers in January, although not my wage bill!

And the goalkeeper mentioned previously, that is my current hope for the future is:

[Scotsman27]

Thanks mrwoodz - everyone knows reading weeks are the perfect opportunity to indulge in some FM.

Some astute transfers there, I've checked in my save and they mostly turn out to be good players!

[Bert44]

Do you guys getting some good youth intake players with the new patches 13.3? Just started a new game with my beloved Leeds and planning to build my team with own youth players but now Im concerend that I wont get any good youth players with the latest patch.

[mrwoodz]

Do you guys getting some good youth intake players with the new patches 13.3? Just started a new game with my beloved Leeds and planning to build my team with own youth players but now Im concerend that I wont get any good youth players with the latest patch.

I've just got my 1st intake on March 13th 2013 (coincidental that it is real life date also) and this is the cream of the crop. Easily. Won't expect one this good every year. (I got a 3.5 and a 3 too but they are a long way behind this guy's starting ability.

I got him on the Wednesday, clinched the League title on the Saturday, and then on the following Wednesday to top off that week, I got this result in FA Cup Quarter Final replay- now 90 minutes away from final - which may be enough to qualify for Europe, if the other finalist is in Champions League (or I beat them too.)

I got the replay by drawing at Stamford Bridge when Chelsea did use 6 or 7 regular starters, but also started 3 17 year olds. They went with full XI in the replay though.

[mrwoodz]

Thought I'd also copy my post from my tactic thread - http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/349278-4411-1st-Season-Quadruple-%28Dortmund%29-League-Record-W30-D4-F92-A16?p=8600602#post8600602

Posted these now, as I'll likely get experimental in remaining 8 league matches. Playing that new regen is definitely included.

I am nearing the end of the first season using this tactic in the full game. I clinched the English Championship with Leeds with EIGHT games remaining, so have taken these screenshots at that point. (Also after a 4-2 win over Chelsea in a FA Cup Quarter Final Replay.) I still have a chance of European qualification, as I have Man Utd in Semi Final, but already knocked them out of League Cup, before losing to Man City away.

The above shows my home page - so shows the stats for my 49 games so far, along with some other info.

And below is the home page for the league to show my team, and players leading the way:

And finally, here is my tactics screenshot, with player stats added:

What I will add as a note to the above is only the goalkeepers, and Lees, Hinteregger, Pearce, Warnock, Svennson, Paredes and Morison have played the same position for all their appearances. The other 9 continually get moved about to cover needs.

[Scotsman27]

Do you guys getting some good youth intake players with the new patches 13.3? Just started a new game with my beloved Leeds and planning to build my team with own youth players but now Im concerend that I wont get any good youth players with the latest patch.

I get some good players among the general bunch of average ones. These two are from last year's intake.

Just scout English U18 leagues and you can pick great youngsters for next to nothing by offering them a contract early on.

[Scotsman27]

Unfortunately Man Utd ran away with the league, I had a hectic run in which included two Champions League semi-finals, an FA Cup final and games against Man Utd and Arsenal in just over two weeks.

As promised I decided to open the cheque book in the summer! Tom Ince was a long term target of mine and is a regular fixture in the England team, Hotlby was transfer listed at Bayern and slotted straight into my midfield.

Although Rhodes and Doumbia did great last season I had some spare change still and went for Ademilson, he had a phenomenal scoring record at Sao Paulo and Brazil U20's where he's scored 37 goals in 35 games so far.

In January I was hanging onto a top 4 spot so decided to strengthen further with another transfer listed midfielder in Verratti, Dani Alves had run his contract down and provided cover down the right.

Leeds' first FA Cup in 45 years was a bit of a walkover to be honest as Leicester are a Championship team, I had to beat Man Utd away in the quarter finals though.

I continued my 100% home record against Barcelona in European semi-finals, unfortunately the aggregate score can tell you what happened in the first leg..

Ademilson had quite a slow start, not scoring in his first six or something as Rhodes sat on the bench. However a great scoring run around Christmas coincided with his first Brazil cap.

One of the best strikers in the league IMO, strangely not called up to Ivory Coast's ACON team.

My super sub, saved me on many an occasion. Doumbia and Ademilson are comfortably the better players but when Rhodes scores as much as he does it makes my decision to start him on the bench each week harder.

A great debut season, reminds me of a left sided version of..

Another amazingly productive season, unfortunate to be kept out of the England team by a resurging Oxlade-Chamberlain.

My target next season is to topple Mourinho and win the Premiership, had we not had a poor start to the season we might have achieved it already.

2016-2017 Team looked like:

Steele

Jose Dias ® - Capuano - Ogbonna - Cresswell

Redmond - Hotlby - Verre - Ince

Ademilson - Doumbia

Amos, Gouweleeuw, Schneiderlin, Byram, White, Rhodes, Dani Alves/Verratti

On a final note, has anyone ever seen an AI player (that isn't Messi/Ronaldo) be as ruthless as this?!

[max787]

After 2 longterm saves with Arsenal and PSG, which inevitably resulted in domination and became a bit stale, I decided to start a save with a "sleeping giant."

Leeds was my choice, and it has been thoroughly enjoyable so far

1st season wasn't great, I finished 8th, due to loads of summer signings which needed time to settle.

I'm currently in the second season and things are going very well, the players from the 1st season have settled and I made some good signings in the summer and January. I'm 1st in the league, but have been knocked out of both cups This is fine though, my first priority is getting into the Premiership!

This is my current team:

GK: Blazevic (1.7m, very good keeper on cheap wages)

RB: Byram (developing very well)

LB: White (Great offensive full-back, but very weak defensively - his recovery pace often helps though)

CB: Van wuytens (170k, bargain dutch ball playing defender signed from Ajax, I'm hoping he'll settle quickly)

CB: Mario Maluca (1.7m, solid centre back with 18 acceleration!)

DMC: Rodrigo battaglia (500k, bargain price for a good ball playing DMC)

MCR: Mattheus (925k, great prospect who is developing well )

MCL: Macnelly Torres (Free, great free signing!)

AMR: Wayne Routledge (900k, transfer listed in January )

AML: Frédéric Bulot (1.7m, good player but he can't finish, which is a serious problem for an inside forward!)

ST: Morison (Doing well, but I might need to replace him next year in the prem)

Backups:

David Bentley (1.2m, transfer listed for a very reasonable fee, his wages are huge though)

Prince oniangué (free, very good DMC, offers a more physical presence to Battaglia)

Rafinha (825k from Barcelona, good young player, I'm expecting him to fill in at MC and ST)

Adriano Pimenta (Free, backup MC, he's been very disappointing so far)

Danilo Bueno (Free, backup MC, as disappointing as Pimenta unfortunately)

Steve Gohouri (Free, great CB for the championship despite his crap concentration and positioning)

Tom Lees (Developing very nicely)

Simon Vukcevic (Free, he's been complete crap and his wages are expensive )

[r-lufc-c]

Hi guys not sure where I should post this but hopefully someone can help out a fellow Leeds fan. I'm looking at getting a new laptop so I can give a leeds save a real go. I have a budget of around £350 and I want something that will be able to run football manager at a decent speed with a couple of different leagues running instead of just english leagues. I have a couple of options available, would you be able to recommend any of these?

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/5088979.htm

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/5089693.htm

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/hp-pavilion-g6-2241sa-15-6-laptop-blue-17056536-pdt.html

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/advent-monza-v200-15-6-laptop-blue-19393624-pdt.html

Thanks in advance.

[macca72]

CB: Van wuytens (170k, bargain dutch ball playing defender signed from Ajax, I'm hoping he'll settle quickly)

Always good to see a non Leeds fan (guessing here) start a save !

Good player, I signed him on my last save (prior to patch and update), will be solid for you for 2-3 seasons, very good piece of business that, think I paid around 1.2m for him...

EDIT: I'm talking rubbish, I signed a chap called Jan Wuytens from Utrecht, have a look at him, he is still in my all time best 11...

[Welshace]

Hi guys not sure where I should post this but hopefully someone can help out a fellow Leeds fan. I'm looking at getting a new laptop so I can give a leeds save a real go. I have a budget of around £350 and I want something that will be able to run football manager at a decent speed with a couple of different leagues running instead of just english leagues. I have a couple of options available, would you be able to recommend any of these?

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/5088979.htm

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/5089693.htm

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/hp-pavilion-g6-2241sa-15-6-laptop-blue-17056536-pdt.html

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/advent-monza-v200-15-6-laptop-blue-19393624-pdt.html

Thanks in advance.

Hey fella, welcome to the forums..

try in here :

http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/316085-New-Laptop-Help-Needed

We'd like to keep the threads on topic if possible, but as a guideline.. those you've posted above are really underpowered compared to what you can get for your budget.

Aim for a decent i5 cpu at least, with 4Gb + ram and a dedicated card if possible, but it's not really essential for FM.

Have a look here:

http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/nav/pb/05/processor/intelcorei5/type/laptops/0?&isort=price

[r-lufc-c]

Hey fella, welcome to the forums..

try in here :

http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/316085-New-Laptop-Help-Needed

We'd like to keep the threads on topic if possible, but as a guideline.. those you've posted above are really underpowered compared to what you can get for your budget.

Aim for a decent i5 cpu at least, with 4Gb + ram and a dedicated card if possible, but it's not really essential for FM.

Have a look here:

http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/nav/pb/05/processor/intelcorei5/type/laptops/0?&isort=price

Thanks for the quick reply, I will take a look at the other thread that you mentioned.

[max787]

Always good to see a non Leeds fan (guessing here) start a save !

Good player, I signed him on my last save (prior to patch and update), will be solid for you for 2-3 seasons, very good piece of business that, think I paid around 1.2m for him...

EDIT: I'm talking rubbish, I signed a chap called Jan Wuytens from Utrecht, have a look at him, he is still in my all time best 11...

Yep, Arsenal fan

No you're right, it's Jan wuytens​, and he's belgian not dutch I checked his history, he moved from Utrecht to Ajax in the first season, then I picked him up for 170k in January of the second season! It was a terrific price, The guy is a fantastic ball playing defender. He also takes a cracking free kick, he scored 3 in the second half of the season.

I won the Championship, so I'll be in the prem next season

Transfer window has been ok, I'm finding that you have to spend between 5-10m per player to find one that is a big improvement on my current players... I decided to spend big on a striker, and look for decent transfer listed players or cheap youngsters for the future. Hopefully this won't backfire...

Anyway, I sold Bentley for 2.1m (which is a 0.9m profit in 6 months) and I finally got Vukcevic off the wage bill!

I brought in Luis Garcia on a free, he'll be my starting DLP, very pleased with this transfer.

I purchased José Angel from Sevilla for 1.8m, he'll be my starting LB.

I picked up Diego Buonanotte for 1.3m, which is a steal, and I'm really excited about his possible impact

My big purchase was Corentin Jean, a young french striker for 10.5m. I feel that I paid over the odds for him, but I wanted a striker with real explosive pace to lead the line this season.

I have about 1m left to spend and I'm on the lookout for transfer listed players! I was going to sign Lee Cattermole for 750k but he wants 60k a week unfortunately, and I refuse to give him that!

EDIT: I managed to get Cattermole on loan for only 8k per month! And I'm only paying him 22k per week

[Scotsman27]

A little part of me wants to accept and run them into the ground.

[mrwoodz]

Always tempting Mat, but don't do it. Just seeing your name as their manager will make you feel dirty, in a way no shower can clean.

I have hired two ex Man Utd players as coaches and feel bad doing that! (Andy Cole and Ray Wilkins.)

Fair to say my pre season after promotion is busy. Major player and staff overhaul. Will post details when I get past transfer window. But my FA Cup final win without my 50 goal striker hopefully made me more attractive. But not attractive enough for some. (Milner was transfer listed but wouldn't even discuss contract despite Leeds being a favoured club. Stupid game!)

[mrwoodz]

I finished my 1st season, with a narrow, shock win in the FA Cup Final over Arsenal - but considering I knocked out Reading, Everton and Man Utd among others I justified the win. In the build up to the game, Morison went down with injury, so I turned to my first regen, who scored and got man of the match whilst still only 15!

The following shows my stats for the season, with Morison leading the way with a stunning 51 goals!

Fair to say I was busy in the transfer market, but the emphasis firmly on youth:

All those gave me a European squad along these lines:

And my u18 squad is now overloaded with potential for the future:

Whether that was the correct transfer policy for my first pre-season for the Premier is debatable. But time will tell.

The 3 loanees (Rose, Carroll and Defour) all come with the option for permanent transfers - ranging from £3.5 to £4.4m.

In the same way that I signed Coleman, I hope they prove themselves, and if I decide I want to keep them I can.

Toloi should be at the heart of the defence for some time, and Begovic gives Sy the time to develop. (Maybe stupid not to sign Ospina on a Free when he was only marginally ranked lower, but I couldn't resist splashing the cash.)

[Scotsman27]

Two trophies in your first season, very impressive mrwoodz!

[John Joe O'toole]

Anyone know if you get a cash injection in jan?

I have got a long way to go just played my second game lol but going to love this leeds save.

Brought in

Strandberg 1.2mil

Nouah Dicko Loan - Morison injured for 6 weeks

Jonas Svensson - 300k

Florent Cuvelier - Loan

Gohouri - Free

Going to save the rest of my budget incase i need to strengthen in jan, got about £1.5million left.

[Scotsman27]

Champione, Champione, Ole, Ole, Ole!

My finest hour in any FM, a rollercoaster of a season that climaxed with clinching the title at Old Trafford, beating a very strong City side in the FA Cup final then playing out the most boring, defensive Champions League final you're ever likely to see. I also got about six steam achievements in one go.

Feels good to spend doesn't it?

M'baye Niang proved to be a great signing, so much so that I sold Ademilson for a tidy profit as he just wasn't getting enough game time.

Schmelzer was signed purely because I couldn't get my other targets for LB, he's an experience German international but get's sent off too many times for my liking.

John Stones linked up with former Everton team mate Tom Ince, my best centre back by far, a regular for England.

Adams is a regen I picked up from Fleetwood (yes, Fleetwood!) for 50k in my promotion season. He was shipped out on loan to various championship teams and came back this season to become my first choice striker. An amazing goal scoring record and he's improving all the time, not quite sure why his technical stats are so low as I've got world class facilities and coaches and he's been tutored enough. I can see him leading the line for the next ten years!

As you might have seen the signing of Martinez from Man City in January broke Leeds' transfer record, looks a ridiculously good player and I can't wait to see the havoc him and Adams create next season.

A free signing from Milan, trained him to become as effective on the right wing as I don't think he'll like sitting on the bench too much.

Colossus of a defender!

Special mention for Verre, didn't expect him to play much considering I have Schneiderlin, Holtby and Verratti but Verre outperformed them all. Would have a lot more international caps if Italy weren't ridiculously stacked in midfield.

2017-2018 treble winning team!

Shubin ®

Dias ® - Stones - Ogbonna - Schmelzer

Redmond - Verre - Schneiderlin - Ince

Adams ® - Niang / Martinez ®

Steele, Miltinho ®, Goweleeuw, Holtby, Alves, Verratti, Doumbia

My squad is in great shape and I've got some exciting regens on the fringes of the first team squad!

[mrwoodz]

John Joe - I got a budget boost back to £6m at end of December. It was labelled as renegotiating my season aims due to my good form. Not a lot, and not sure if you have to be doing well to get it. But it is possible.

[mrwoodz]

Congratulations on your treble Mat - something tells me my squad may be capable (once they're old enough to vote!) Yes, my squad is high on youth at the moment, but things have got off to a good start.

The above is page 1 of my season results, or where I am at so far. As you can see I had a tough baptism, but coped well. If not for a run of draws in September I may be top now. As it is, I am 5 points behind Everton who lead the league, and 3 points behind Man City. As you can see from the above results I have defeated both already. (Everton in league, and spectacularly in the cup.)

One of my more frustrating matches was away to Chelsea, where I was holding my own, until a 75th minute Red Card for McCormack saw me go on to concede 2 late goals.

Another bad one was the 3-3 draw with Swansea - where Snodgrass notched a hat-trick from right midfield in the first 30 minutes, but I then blew the 3 goal lead.

The above shows my 1st team stats for the season, with the squad sorted by age. It doesn't include a couple of youngsters who are out on loan, but I haven't loaned out anyone I actually rate so far, as I need all the talent I have in the squad just now. From past experience, I will end up with about 20 out on loan each season, but I am not anywhere near that yet! (Basically, my intent is to start each season able to field a high potential starting XI for my under 18s - and then see what cash is left over for bolstering the 1st team. But if I keep finding u18s like Tin and Stamp I may not need to worry about signing older players.)

Tom Lee(d)s has been inspirational at CB, and became my first player to win a Premier League Player of the Month award. And my local lad regen, Stamp, continues to set records. He set a Leeds record for youngest appearance, youngest goalscorer, got FA Cup final man of the match at 15, became the Premier League's youngest player, and youngest goalscorer, once he turned 16, and in my match against Bruges he scored a double to take the record off one of my FM12 favourites for the Euro Cup...

All of this lead to me activating the Headhunter achievement, when I got my first job offer without looking for it:

Fair to say Stade Rennais is not my aim just now though!

PS - Mat, you may notice who won young player of the month in the headlines alongside Lees' player of the month award.

[Scotsman27]

Indeed I did pick up on that, you should definitely look to pick him up in the near future, not sure what his PA is or if its random but he's grown to become one of the best CB's in the league.

On a related note I sold Lees to Forest for around £4 million after being in the reserves for two seasons and when I checked at the end of the season he was worth £9.5 million!

[max787]

Wow, my first season back in the Premiership was incredible! I won the FA cup, and finished 6th in the league Only 2 points off a CL spot!

My signings all settled well and contributed to our success. The standout players were Jan wuytens and Maloca who were just fantastic at the back, they also contributed a decent amount of goals

Cuadrado was signed in January, he was transfer listed, and was fantastic in the second half of the season!

Diego Buonanotte was also very good, he was such a steal at 1.3m.

This was my team for most of the season:

GK: Blazevic - Solid season from the croatian international

RB: Byram - Developing very well, he played fantastically at times.

LB: White - Great offensively, but occasionally found lacking defensively. I've signed a young regen who will probably usurp him soon.

CB: Maloca - Incredible season, his 18 acceleration is a godsend at centre-back

CB: Jan Wuytens: Amazing ball playing defender, also scored a humber of cracking free kicks

DMC: Battaglia - Decent season, but nothing special, he'll probably be demoted to a rotation role next year.

MCR: Romero - Signed him in January, great young DLP from argentina, great pace and aggression too.

MCL: Raul Garcia - Signed on a free in the summer, solid debut season.

AMR: Cuadrado - Signed in January, super little player, I love his 19 acceleration and 17 agility

AML: Buonanotte - Very good season, but he's quite injury prone.

ST: Jean - The young frenchman had a great first season, and my choice of going with an agile, mobile striker instead of Morison was vindicated.

Backups:

Creighton - Regen RB who has awesome physicals, I can see him replacing Byram in 2 years.

Munoz - Regen LB who I signed in January, he'll probably replace White next season, he's already a regular for Mexico.

Lees - Very dependable backup CB

Cattermole - Good season from the loanee, but I won't be purchasing him, he isn't worth 50k per week in wages.

Mattheus - Good season and he developed well, I'm not sure if he fits into my longterm vision for the club though

Rafinha - Similar to Matheus really, good season, not sure if I'll keep him though.

Fountas - The young greek had an excellent season

Bulot - He surprised me greatly! He found his scoring boots and became quite influential

Morison - Played in the cups, and had a decent scoring record, I'll be releasing him this summer though, he's not the type of player that I want.

This summer my main targets will be an english goalkeeper (for the quota), an advanced playmaker for the midfield, and maybe a new starting inside forward (but only if I find someone who is really good). I'll be looking for some good youth players too, I need to start up the Leeds production line

[max787]

The summer went very well and I was able to get some fantastic signings while also managing to sell most of the deadwood.

I went for the megabucks signings this summer and signed Alex Teixera for 15m to play my creative CM role, I also signed Kwadwo Asamoah for 27m from Udinese! This signing was reckless however, he was listed late on and since I had very little money left I decided to pay the fee over 48 months, this has probably screwed my finances for the foreseeable future...

I also signed a number of promising youngsters on free transfers I'm thinking of fast-tracking one of them, but it would probably be to the detriment of the team in the short-term so I'm undecided as of yet. I could have signed Miroslav Stoch for a very reasonable 6.5m, but I decided to wait until Leeds' reputation goes up even more in order to get a better AML, Stoch's very low decisions and anticipation were very off-putting even though all of his other stats suggest that he would be an excellent inside forward. So, I'll be sticking with Bulot and Buonanotte at AML for this season!

This will be the team for my 4th season (2nd season in the Premiership)

GK: Blazevic/Oblak

RB: Byram/Creighton ®

CB: Maloca/Lees

CB: Wuytens/Varela

LB: Munoz ®/White

DMC: Romero/Mary ®/ Battaglia <-- this is the regen I'm thinking of fast-tracking, especially since Battaglia had an average season.

MCR: Asamoah/ Raul Garcia

MCL: Teixera/ Mattheus

AMR: Cuadrado/ Fountas

AML: Bulot/ Buonanotte

ST: Jean/ Akcay ®

My team reflects exactly how I want to play now, every single player except the centre-backs has at least 16 acceleration and agility, this helps make us an explosive counter-attacking team that can effectively use an aggressive false pressing defensive strategy Defensively it's great, the players can all keep up with the opposition and press them into mistakes Full pressing, zonal marking, and easy tackling all help achieve the false press that I want.

[mrwoodz]

Mat - what did Stones cost you? Don't think he's available in mine really - may take stupid money.

Max - some nice work there. I like your speed idea. I am slowly working toward it. Figure get a good squad first, then work on improving speed.

Above shows a difficult mid season spell for my squad. The fixture list was particularly cruel in January, and I think some of my results show that my tactic works, but I don't have the squad depth yet to cope with tougher spells of fixtures.

The FA Cup goes down as a missed opportunity as Man Utd had been KO'd by Cardiff, and Scunthorpe beat Man City, before I contrived to lose away to Blackpool.

December saw an unexpected award, as I know Paredes is outstanding for me, but considering half the year was spent in the Championship I didn't think he was a contender for the award.

As I continue to bolster my squad for the future, I proved it doesn't always need £5m to get a top prospect when I picked up this next guy for only £12,000!!!

He was one of only 3 signings in January - but he was definitely at the other end of the scale from the other 2. I signed James McCarthy for £12m from Wigan, and then followed Mat's lead and grabbed Tom Ince late on deadline day. Admittedly after being quoted extortionate prices for some other wingers - Betis quoted me £15m for Padilla who is in their B team, Spurs quoted £18m for Aaron Lennon as I continued to try to bring back ex-Leeds players, and PSV really took the biscuit (or the whole biscuit section of your nearest Tesco) when they as quoted me £83 million for Georgi Milanov!!!

Elsewhere, I continued to reject unrequested job offers - Marseille, Lyon and Chelsea are the latest to see me hit reject.

Andy Carroll continues to have me doubting whether he is worth the paltry £4m it will take to make his deal permanent, but did score both goals in my League Cup final win over Spurs.

And I could really do with Paredes' 2 month injury spell being over soon, as I don't have any one else on his level for the AMC role - although I have a few I can alternate between.

Onward now for the end of the season, my pursuit of the Euro Cup, and my aim to see how high I can get in the league, which currently looks like this:

With 12 games to go it looks like the top 2 are out of reach, but top 4 is not impossible, and with a few less draws along the way who knows what might have been....

[Chip1310]

Going to start a Leeds save!!!

Hopefully I can turn the club into a European force, going to try and use as many English players as possible once I have the side in a good position (eg like 5 seasons in)

[Leedsfan11]

So is 4-4-1-1 the way forward to play with Leeds on the new patch? Going to be starting a new game tonight

[Casual]

Hi,

I need an AMR quickly, I have a few hours left until the summer transfer deadline (first season). I have 1 milion pounds, and I have tried almost all players from known wonderkid, bargain and free transfer lists on different forums and websites. They are either too expensive, don't want to come or can't obtain a work permit... Loan list and transfer list are not rich with good options at the moment. Im playing against a friend in about 2 hours, so if anybody has any ideas which players I could try to buy...

[mrwoodz]

So is 4-4-1-1 the way forward to play with Leeds on the new patch? Going to be starting a new game tonight

Certainly the way I go - but I see others have went 4-5-1 with a DM and AMR and AML. I guess just find what works for you. But I certainly am happy with my return so far. And I think others may have went 4-4-2.

[mrwoodz]

*2 Trophies were under 18s, but I also won Capital One League Cup, and Euro Cup!!

**Thanks to relegated Nottingham Forest, who really made my late season surge worth it, when they beat Liverpool on second last game.

My 2-0 win over Spurs in League Cup seemed to inspire them, as they destroyed me 2 weeks later, and went on to win the League and FA Cup. I was really lucky to scrape through against Lille, who were French champions, and outclassed me in both matches, but I managed to draw each. After that the subsequent rounds were surprisingly straight forward. Lille were easily the best side I played apart from Spurs in those closing months of the season. The 2 wins against Arsenal were a great way to approach the finish, but I only scraped past West Brom on final day. (Admittedly got lucky there - accidentally hit continue to match when I hadn't selected team, so played exactly same team that had played Euro Cup final 3 days earlier - and a lot were a bit on the tired side.)

As this shows, QPR, West Brom and Forest went down, while Spurs just held off Man City for the title. I'll definitely be expecting an improvement in my Goal Difference next season - too many close games for comfort!

This shows that the loss to Blackpool in the FA Cup was my big disappointment, and I failed to reach 2 goals a game - something that will be my aim for the next season. Hopefully I'll be allowed to spend a lot of that £55 million profit...

Here is the top performing player for the season. It leaves me with a couple of dilemmas over my loan trio. Rose was probably never used enough, Carroll maybe didn't do as well as I'd like, but for £4million he may be good value, and Defour was not outstanding, but keeping him may be wise. (His lack of speed is my only concern, but my fans were delighted with his signing in my season review.) All depends on my budget, and what else I can find really.

Tom Lees has obviously been outstanding, and Roy Hodgson got stick from the media for leaving him and Carroll out of the World Cup Squad. He did get some recognition though:

But for an idea of what the future may hold, I can't help but like what my under 18s pulled off this season:

A series of outstanding performances, with a squad of about 15 players only, playing my tactic, resulted in a deserved double for them.

Now to work out what to do for next season....

[pedromanuelpinto]

Hello,

Will the board accept a Counter Attack Style?

I'm not shure what tactic to use... a 4-4-2 (with a anchor men, one CM in the anchor men position), going for a 3 Central defenders (3-5-2)...

Any suggestion? What the main transfer?

[mrwoodz]

http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/349278-4411-1st-Season-Quadruple-(Dortmund)-League-Record-W30-D4-F92-A16?p=8637123#post8637123

That's the link to my tactic thread Pedro if you want a look. It is attacking, but also uses counter attack.

It's not perfect, and the linked file uses offside, but I have switched that off now I have been promoted. It was originally developed as "standard" but I changed it to "attacking" but it still works. (For me anyway.)

Seamus Coleman became available for loan at end of August in two saves for me and I signed him to alternate with Byram on the right. Both can play RB or RM so I sometimes use both. My loan deal allowed me to sign Coleman for 2.5 at end of season. You can probably get bye with midfield you start with - but signing Svennson was too good a bargain to miss.

If playing an AMC you likely need to buy - although I have trained McCormack to play there. That was my big signing at £4m.

Also - I spread deals out with payments over 48months in initial years. Allowed me to get a couple of big signings in without selling much. (As I couldn't get much interest in my players.)

[Westtyyy]

I finished my 1st season, with a narrow, shock win in the FA Cup Final over Arsenal - but considering I knocked out Reading, Everton and Man Utd among others I justified the win. In the build up to the game, Morison went down with injury, so I turned to my first regen, who scored and got man of the match whilst still only 15!

The following shows my stats for the season, with Morison leading the way with a stunning 51 goals!

Fair to say I was busy in the transfer market, but the emphasis firmly on youth:

All those gave me a European squad along these lines:

And my u18 squad is now overloaded with potential for the future:

Whether that was the correct transfer policy for my first pre-season for the Premier is debatable. But time will tell.

The 3 loanees (Rose, Carroll and Defour) all come with the option for permanent transfers - ranging from £3.5 to £4.4m.

In the same way that I signed Coleman, I hope they prove themselves, and if I decide I want to keep them I can.

Toloi should be at the heart of the defence for some time, and Begovic gives Sy the time to develop. (Maybe stupid not to sign Ospina on a Free when he was only marginally ranked lower, but I couldn't resist splashing the cash.)

you seem to be able to get a lot out of your leeds side. I just wanted to know what tactics you use. Ist it the same formation as the U21's?

Also, can i know how you had so much money to spend in the first season? did you get a tycoon takeover immediately because i have a very small wage and transfer budget were as you spent 3 times as much as my transfer budget on one player.

[mrwoodz]

To begin with, as mentioned by other posters, make sure you have the latest update, and tick the box to make transfer funds available in first window.

Then my tactic early on is to stretch deals out. By selecting play offs as my aim my budget was 4-5 million. I then make bids where I only pay a small amount up front and stretch rest over 48 months. Hence I paid over 12m in first window, or committed to. You sometimes over pay what you would have to if all up front, but it gives you stronger start.

I do use the same tactic for each level - and I've linked my tactic thread in the post a couple above this one.

I did need Paredes for the tactic, but could probably have found a cheaper option for the Championship - and I could have survived with starting squad otherwise.

Because I was top of league in December, my transfer budget got a £6m boost then when I revised my target to title challenge.

Once promoted I concentrated a lot of finance on my u18s, so could have spent more on the seniors, but I like to get good u18s sorted first - hence relying on a couple of top loan signings that first season in the Premier.

[Leedsfan11]

Has anyone sold McCormack. How much can you get for him?

[mrwoodz]

Has anyone sold McCormack. How much can you get for him?

I have struggled to sell anyone.

In September of 3rd season my total spending has been over £140m (although I am still paying a lot over the next few years of that) and my total income has been less than £10m. Not exactly financial fairplay.

[Leedsfan11]

How do you use your wide men? Are they Defensive wingers? I'm also struggling getting the AMC (Advanced Playmaker) having a big impact.

[mrwoodz]

How do you use your wide men? Are they Defensive wingers? I'm also struggling getting the AMC (Advanced Playmaker) having a big impact.

I'm going to add a mid season update for season 3, but will answer this first. My wide midfielders are defensive wingers, with a couple of adjustments - but at the moment they just provide the base for my formation. Typically whoever plays wide has lower ratings than the central players for me. (But my central players are also my best players so that may be why.)

At AMC my formation usually gets great performance there BUT Paredes is struggling a bit since he became the second best Leandro up front for me. My front two did prompt me to scout the other 127 players called Leandro - but none are at their level.

[mrwoodz]

I figure the best place to start here is by showing my pre-season transfer splash that has basically got me paying out for 4 years - AGAIN - despite my aim being to get away from that. I had the opportunity to try Icardi, Bony, Altidore and others at between 10-20m, but once I realised I could get my second Leandro I couldn't resist. I also was unsure about paying so much for Zouma, but so far, so great....

Schennikov was a bargain pickup for LB, and Taider shows great potential as part of my midfield rotation, but has missed a couple of months through injury.

Zouma leads my team in average rating, and I think Damiao leads the world in scoring, so the heavy outlay looks worthwhile at the moment. I certainly don't have a fully rounded squad yet though, but I am getting a lot closer.

The above basically confirms my previous post about the more consistent performers being through the centre.

And below you can see my average goals are now on the rise, but my average attendance is still a little low. Hopefully I can edge out Man City over the second half of the season to rectify that issue. I'm guessing my January transfer window will be quiet though - unless I get a cash influx from somewhere....

[max787]

My season has been advancing very, very slowly due to real life time constraints, I've only just finished January! So this is a mid-season update of my 4th season (second season in the prem).

Things have been going fantastically well so far, I'm currently 1st in the league (6points ahead of Man United), in the 4th round of the FA cup, and in the final of the Carling cup which I'll be playing against Arsenal quite soon I got knocked out of the Europa league group stage though...

Alex Teixera was outstanding in the beginning of the season, averaging a goal or an assist per game until he picked up a 2 month injury in December.

Asamoah has been solid, if unspectacular (He may find himself on the bench, or moved back to DM next season).

I signed Aubameyang from Arsenal in January since he was transfer listed for 15m and I had been tracking him for about 2 seasons, I plan on using him as an inside forward on the left flank. This is incredibly harsh on Bulot though, because he has been fantastic so far. His performances are very surprising and constantly improve, he has 8 finishing but somehow scores a load of goals. Last season I signed Buonanotte to replace him, but Bulot upped his game and kept his place most of the time, this season I've signed Aubameyang to replace him but he hasn't been able to dislodge Bulot from the starting XI yet

In the summer I'll be looking to swoop for Roman Bezus, a ukrainian I've been tracking for 3 seasons now. The scouts said that he wouldn't get a work permit, until now! He's an AMC/ST but I'll be retraining him to play as a CM so that he can take over the DLP role in my midfield. He's a cracking player, but he breaks my self-imposed "high acceleration and agility" rule since he only has 14 for both of these attributes, so we'll see.

In January I also signed 5 quality regens who will help bolster the u-18s and hopefully kickstart the Leeds' production line.

I'm hoping to win the carling cup and continue my good form in the league, and who knows, with a bit of luck we might even win it

[Leedsfan11]

I'm going to add a mid season update for season 3, but will answer this first. My wide midfielders are defensive wingers, with a couple of adjustments - but at the moment they just provide the base for my formation. Typically whoever plays wide has lower ratings than the central players for me. (But my central players are also my best players so that may be why.)

At AMC my formation usually gets great performance there BUT Paredes is struggling a bit since he became the second best Leandro up front for me. My front two did prompt me to scout the other 127 players called Leandro - but none are at their level.

Finally think I may have cracked it!

Playing Parades behing Morrison just wasn't working so I have gone with two up top. Morrison playing as an advanced forward & McCormack as a poacher. Since I have switched to this my results have improved & are now up to second mid way through January.

Here are the signings I made (most over 48 months)

Alan Tate (Loan)

Strandberg (1.3m)

Matt Briggs (Loan)

Jonas Svensoon (400k)

Parades (3.2m)

James Ness (Loan)

Mattheus (925k)

Jamie Mackie (Loan)

Craig Gardner (Loan - from January)

Outs:

Pugh (725k)

Peltier (Loan)

Hall (Loan)

Brown (150k)

Payne (Loan)

Norris (Loan - January)

As you can see I have a big squad which is needed as rotating the squad & covering injuries is needed. Mattheus scored twice on his debut before getting injured & is out for 8 months

[max787]

Mattheus scored twice on his debut before getting injured & is out for 8 months

Unlucky

Aubameyang just got injured for 3 months on my save, that's him out for the season!

[lloydy13]

have had a bit of a break from fm13 but keen to get back into it after reading about the transfer update - though will be very sad to play without becchio just a question for those that have played a couple of seasons with the update, do any of the young guys out of the current u/18's that have been doing pretty well irl turn out to be any good eg dawson, mowatt, denton etc?

[mrwoodz]

have had a bit of a break from fm13 but keen to get back into it after reading about the transfer update - though will be very sad to play without becchio just a question for those that have played a couple of seasons with the update, do any of the young guys out of the current u/18's that have been doing pretty well irl turn out to be any good eg dawson, mowatt, denton etc?

Afraid not. Would need some pre-game editing to be any good.

Byram and Lees do really well for me, and White is decent as well. Of the others you start with Morison is outstanding as you'll see from my posts and others, so don't feel too bad about Becchio - and Pearce could likely still be doing well, but I have outgrown him. But that is at end of 3rd season. McCormack is good if your formation fits him, but I'm about to let him go after 3rd season. And Austin did well for me without too many discipline issues. But he only had 23 appearances in season 3. (He had 46 in season 1.)

Man City bought Paddy Kenny off me - which still confuses me - and Green was good in my promotion year.