FM14: Inter Milan - Shooting for Europe!

[tyro]

Unfortunately, Pereira is out on loan. I have to see if I can terminate the loan.

[tyro]

I tried to recall Perreira and Belfodil but did not see the option. Also looks like there's a 7mn fee agreed for Perreira. It would be great to keep him and Nagatomo on the right.

[MeesterCat]

Yeah they make a good combination: Pereira as CWB on the left attacking the box and Nagatomo on the right as a WB-S providing slightly deeper, crossing options.

I got a tricky CL qualifying playoff tie: Bilbao. We won the first leg pretty comfortably 2-0 though, so I'm hopeful we can go through to the group stages ok. I've also sold Longo for €3.8mil, loaned Capezzi and Pasa and am now looking for a top quality DM; Duncan and Romeu will be useful and versatile rotation options, but I need a starter there from the experience of the first few games.

Ayew is already accomplished at ST and him and Eriksen are looking very promising already.

[tyro]

Good luck with Bilbao.

I've had a bad run and then decided to change things around a bit. Moved the DM to AMC and am now playing a 3-2-2-1-2 formation using a treq, CFs, AF as described by MeesterCat.

This is showing immediate impact with the players doing much better. Unfortunately, the next game was against Juventus. We quickly led 2:0 with nice strikes from Icardi and Hernanes but Tevez pulled one back on the counter. I defended the rest of the game until a penalty decision would have let Juve equalize. Handanovic saved Tevez' penalty. In the 94th minute, 10 seconds before the end of the game Rolando decides to become Ronaldo and dribble around in our penalty area. Tevez went up to him, grabbed the ball, crossed it to Llorente, who just headed it in. 2-2 is a good result against Juve but the way we lost was just terrible.

Fortunately, there were more signs of improvement against Sassuolo who are currently first in Serie A. Hopefully, we keep the momentum going.

[MeesterCat]

Glad to see that your tactical tweak has made a difference tyro. I've certainly seen that the CF / AF / Treq combination is very effective, even when using two players who aren't fully match fit.

I've managed to play a whole two games (!) since my last update, but they were important ones.

Firstly, we visited Bilbao with a 2-0 lead going into the 2nd leg of the CL playoff. I set us out to stay tight in a narrow 4132, especially wary of Muniain. However I think I was too cautious and we went into half time having barely managed any attempts on goal and losing the game 1-0. I switched things around and went to a more attacking 41212 and it made all the difference. Eriksen started giving them real problems in midfield and Kovacic and Taider were able to find more space and thus become more of a threat. We levelled through a beautiful piece of one-touch football: Eriksen picked up on a loose ball, drove past the opposing DM, slid a perfectly weighted ball to Ayew who instantly threaded it past a defender and the onrushing keeper to Icardi who coolly slotted home.

That took the wind out of their sails and we soon went 4-1 up on aggregate when Icardi scored again. A Handanovic error in injury time denied us the away win, but a 4-2 aggregate win is one I'll happily settle for. The draw for the CL group stages however was not kind and we face Fenerbahce, Shakhtar and Barcelona. I'm already getting a cold sweat thinking how I can cope with the Barca front three of Messi, Neymar and Lewandowski.

We consoled ourselves with a thorough dismantling of one of our likely rivals, Fiorentina, in their own ground. Although it only finished 2-0, we totally dominated them and Biraghi managed to score a Suarez-esque outside of the box header.

Finally, I brought in Fernando on a seasons loan from Liverpool as my main DMC. I'm hoping that should mean I can develop Duncan with game time, without burning him out.

[tyro]

Congratulations on going through against Bilbao.

Barcelona might be tough but you should be able to beat the other two and finish second in the group?

I haven't been able to play much but things are looking much better. As far as I remember we won the last one or two (?) games I played (need to check when on my computer).

I am heavily scouting strikers. Icardi is now my starter together with Palacio and he has been on form really but I need a second young one. I am not sure if Belfodil is the one but Milito and Palacio should be leaving soon (age and wages).

I am quite satisfied with the rest of my team, although if Perreira is set to move then I need to invest in a WBR and keep Nagatomo on the left. Jonathan/Wallace/D'Ambrosio are ok but not great. I don't really play Campagnaro on the wing but as a DC back up.

Guarin, Hernanes, Kovacic, Taider, Cambiasso are all outstanding in midfield. Mundingayi and Mariga have just returned from injuries and haven't featured much. Kuzmanovic is a good back up but I might move him on. Alvarez has featured a bit as a creative striker or as my AMC but i am not impressed so far.

Samuel and Rannochia have been playing terribly. Juan Jesus and Rolando (except for the game against Juve) have been outstanding.

Handanovic is a rock.

(Completely forgot: Zanetti still injured, Andreoli has played maybe once).

[tyro]

I had a look at my save and played a couple more games. Things are really getting much better. We are playing nice football and I am amazed at the types of chances created.

As mentioned previously:

vs. Sassuolo 1-0 (Icardi) (currently first, so a game against an in-form team)

vs. Parma 2-1 (Icardi x2) (he's on fire)

vs. Fiorentina 1-1 (Palacio) We played much better and scored early on only for them to get one back right away. Rossi started with very low condition 83% and with an icon "in need of rest." I tried to exploit it by tackling him hard but it didn't really work out. We had 5 clear cut chances but the ball just didn't want to go in. A draw, in the end, against a good Fiorentina was ok.

vs. Bologna 3-2 (Palacio, Icardi x2) Bologna are sitting in 20th spot. But their morale was okayish and not poor for some reason. They scored quickly, Palacio equalized. They scored again. I changed to attacking and Icardi got one back. Then we had almost the entire second half dominating but not finishing well, Nagatomo was especially wasteful as my CWB until I instructed him to shoot less often. In the 93rd minute Icardi headed in from the near post after an amazing cross from Jonathan. I was really happy about this win.

Now we have the international break again end of October and are sitting between 6-9th with 19 points. Juventus is leading the charts with 28 points. All top teams are really close together, so if we could just win two in a row for once we would be in the top 4. On a positive note, since my tactics change we have been unbeaten.

Icardi has picked up an injury but should be back in 11 days, hopefully in time for the next game after the international break. Milito is just not doing anything. I need Icardi and Palacio.

[MeesterCat]

Some excellent results there tyro. Serie A seems to be a very competitive league (with the exception of Juve, at least initially) so as long as you keep grinding out those results you should stay nicely in touch.

It looks like Icardi is The Man for you! I've found him to be very much a confidence striker - when things are going well he is amazing, when he goes on a goalless streak he can be totally anonymous. Interestingly, I cannot get Palacio to fire at all, but Milito was outstanding until he retired.

Are you still using the 32212?

[tyro]

Yes, I am still using the 3-2-2-1-2. It is working remarkably well. I think your combination of AF, CFs, and Treq. pushed them up to the next level. As you can see my strikers are really scoring. Hernanes has been a bit out of form in the past 2 games (I play him as Treq) and I wish I had someone to rotate out Nagatomo. He's out of form but I don't really have a quality backup for him - all the backups are for the right side. Hopefully when Zanetti comes back in 20 days he can fill that void.

[MeesterCat]

Ivan Zamorano has just earned himself a pay rise for discovering this guy:

Not bad for €2.9mil upfront.

[kingjericho]

He's only worth €80k, couldn't you have bought him for less? Nevertheless, top class prospect

[tyro]

I just restarted my Inter save now in FMC mode because I was getting tired of clicking through tons of messages and taking ages to get to the next match. I have been playing with Inter for weeks and am only beginning of December. In FMC I am already in early October and it goes much smoother (yes, I miss some parts but mostly it is just refreshing as usual when I play FMC and I am enjoying).

In FMC you cannot turn off first window transfer budgets but the board only gave me EUR 6mn to play with. I brought in Nicolas Blandi from Sampdoria? for about EUR 5mn and renewed Samuel's and Mariga's contracts (one lower wage the other higher). Unfortunately, Samuel has been constantly injured.

We are currently second and I am enjoying the freedom of altering my formation without penalty. Just the last game we played against Napoli who played a 4-2-3-1 deep and I employed a 4-1-3-2 and shut them down completely. Won 1-0 in an ugly game. Before that we played mostly with a 3-1-4-2 and have done fairly well.

I will keep you updated.

MeesterCat, nice find there.

[MeesterCat]

He's only worth €80k, couldn't you have bought him for less? Nevertheless, top class prospect

Believe me, I tried. That agreed price was after much haggling. For some reason Liverpool decided not to take their 'Right to Buy' clause on the guy, not that I'm complaining.

Good luck on the restart Tyro. FMC always appeals due to my limited FM time, but I just miss that extra level of control that you get with the full version.

[tyro]

Breezed all the way through to December. Will make an update when I am in January. I went back to FM for a moment (2 games) due to trying out a new skin but went back right after that. I really like the tactical flexibility of FMC. I hope they do rethink the tactical familiarity for the next FM. If not that, then I hope they add the analysis tool, or some parts of it to FMC and I will be pretty happy.

Still 2nd at the moment with Juve leading and Cagliari and Sampdoria right on my tail.

Napoli 13th? The Serie A seems to be very unpredictable apart from Juve this year around. I have had saves with Napoli, Fiorentina, and now Inter and see different teams in the top 5 but Cagliari and Sampdoria are usually up there.

[Hoarau]

Sorry to interrupt, I'm managing Aston Villa in an online game. We're in the Championship, the reason I'm posting is I've just signed Alfred Duncan for £300k and I wondered if anyone could show me any examples of how he progresses?

[MeesterCat]

Sorry to interrupt, I'm managing Aston Villa in an online game. We're in the Championship, the reason I'm posting is I've just signed Alfred Duncan for £300k and I wondered if anyone could show me any examples of how he progresses?

This is him at the beginning of the 2015 season:

He's been on loan for the first two seasons, but still seems to be progressing. I'm aiming to gently ease him into first team action this season.

[MeesterCat]

Well, that all went drastically wrong.

We went on an awful, awful run and were 11th in the league. I was getting concerned noises from the board and then we went to bottom club Reggiana.

And lost 4-1.

It was one of the worst team performances I've had in FM for several years.

I got my marching orders straight into my inbox. I'd not even been at the club for a full calendar year! I'm so annoyed as the set up at Inter was really promising. I think I introduced too many younger players at one go without bringing in some more experienced campaigners. I'm not sure what to do now. I have an auto save back before things went pear-shaped, so I could go back to that. Or should I treat the save as a semi-journeyman and see where I end up next.

[tyro]

Ah man, that really is annoying.

I usually don't continue if I am sacked in a "one-team" save. I did it once last year when I managed Werder and got sacked I went to Stuttgart and it was actually fun. It really depends how deep you are into the safe and how much you invested in the team.

If you think you have invested too much, then go back to the old save and try turn things around.

Or, if you want something different, try to see if someone else hires you now.

[MeesterCat]

Yeah, I'm still in two minds.

It's not actually a one-club save as I came to Inter after getting Blackburn promoted in the first season. I actually ran the save along a bit to see what happened and I accepted a job offer from a relegated Fulham as it looked kind of interesting (plus I think I'm suited to more underdog teams - I'm the FM David Moyes ). I'm not sure whether to go with it or not though.

I'd hate to start again though as I really hate the first season normally - I like it when chaos theory has taken hold and squads and league have changed.

[MeesterCat]

Ok, I tried following on in the Fulham job, but I wasn't really feeling it. Back to the Inter AutoSave I return! Reading Cleon's Defensive Arts thread in the Tactics Forum has given me and idea too.

[tyro]

Good luck!

[MeesterCat]

Not much to really report (bloody family getting in the way of FM time!)

I've swapped to a more counter-attacking style with a deeper defence and usually a 4222 or 4132 formation - it seems to be paying dividends. Mostly. We are suffering very few clear cut chances or situations where we are being carved open, but we still seem to be conceding a couple of goals per game and it appears to be the keepers fault. Handanovic seems to have gone to pieces after I gave him a new contract. I shall be having stern words.

Luckily we seem to be blessed with an attack that cannot help but score shedloads. Our last league game was the Reggiana match which lost me my job prior to the reboot. We won it 6-2 this time around, and were actually leading 6-0 until Super Hans turned into a flapping quivering wreck. Two of our goals were sublime: Kovacic receives the ball on the halfway line, surges forward as the opposition backs off and then chips the keeper on the edge of the 18 yard box. The second was some incredible one-touch passing around the box, started and then finished by Eriksen.

I seem to have annoyed Pereira's agent and he won't even talk to me now. I'm hoping I can persuade Pereira to jettison the guy and sign a new contract - I don't want to lose him as he's a club icon.

Finally I've signed another cracking regen for the future., this time a 15 year old German RB by the name of Yannick Hopp. My scouts inform me he has the potential to be a World Class RB, so fingers crossed. He'll cost an inital €2mil with another €2mil in addons. (I've also completely forgotten to take a screenshot of him).

So yeah, in summary: Top of the league, doing ok in Champion's League group, keeper has become terrified of aerial balls.

[Minez01]

So I haven't posted here for a while, but decided to pick up FM2014 and started off with Inter, one of my favourite teams. I read through a heap of advice here on the forums before starting.

Anyway, just came to the end of the first season and had some unexpected success in Serie A - we topped the league by 4 points (IIRC) over Juventus. The league win came on the second to last match day against none other than AC Milan - we won 2-1 which was a great way to claim the league title. Starting the season I had no expectation of winning, my club expectations were set to qualify for European football next season so the team overachieved as far as I'm concerned. The season started out slowly and we lost most of our trial games and some of the first few games due to tactical adjustments etc. but around November we started to string together a good bunch of results which continued right through until almost the end of the season. I'll try and post a screenshot when I'm home. Unfortunately we were knocked out of the Italian Cup in the first round after qualifying, by Fiorentina 3-1. Though that made things easier when it came to the late season in terms of fielding the best team each week.

Tactics:

Tactics wise we started out playing a 4-3-2-1 type of formation which was a bit hit and miss. Tactics kind of changed between that and a 4-2-2-2 over the first couple of months before I decided to switch to a 4-3-3. Once we did that, we started to play a more attacking game, retained possession a bit better and got some great performances out of the two wingers Alvarez and Guarin. Milito was the star forward of the season scoring 18 goals in total and Icardi was used as the backup striker, though I changed the role of the striker to come deep to receive such that he was able to lay off balls to the wingers and connect with the midfield more. Kovacic also had a great season, probably the best performer in the team alongside Ranocchia who was solid all season. Hernanes was the other starting centre midfield and while he had some great games one problem I had was that his long range shooting was pretty dismal and probably cost us a lot of chances in games. The starting lineup looked like this, for the most part:

GK: Handanovic

LB: Zanetti (when returned from Injury)

CB: Ranocchia

CB: Samuel/Juan

RB: Juanfran

DM: Cambiasso

CM: Hernanes

CM: Kovacic

LW: Alvarez

RW: Guarin

ST: Milito

Transfers:

At the start of the season with a limited budget I brought in Juanfran to solidify the defense. He was transfer listed and relatively cheap and ended up going on to take the RB spot in the team of the season, which was excellent. That was really the only pickup we made to begin with. Once we arrived in January I was given an extra transfer budget of 26 million Euros to play with, so I pumped a bit more into our wage budget, renegotiated a few key contracts that were way too high and went looking for a couple more players. Kuzmanovic badly underperformed for me so I sold him to Newcastle, and brought in the 20 year old Stanciu who was versatile and could play anywhere in the middle of the park or on the wings. With a bit of a budget left over I purchased Tielemans as a future prospect but he cost me a pretty penny, though I really only wanted to get someone because I had the transfer budget available and wanted a future prospect in.

Next Season:

The next season is going to be very tricky, not only because of the added fixtures in the CL but also because some key areas of the squad need addressing. Primarily the fact that the Inter squad has very few good home-grown players which means that a few younger guys are going to be brought into the CL squad. I'm not quite sure who transfer targets are yet, I'm still yet to evaluate exactly who's available and who I might be interested in - just reached the start of July.

Can anyone here tell me though, what were your season expectations at the start of the second season? Last night I set my new expectations at CL qualification with a transfer budget of (I think) 52m euros and a wage bill of 2.5m Euros per week - does this sound correct? However, when I turned my game on right now and checked the finances my transfer budget is 42m and my wage bill 1.6m (which is the same as it was last season) and I'm wondering whether I misread something last night or whether this is some kind of bug or whether I'm just going senile at 25! Thanks!

EDIT: Also, just on that note, can anyone explain the implications of having a negative bank balance? I appear to be losing money on a month-to-month basis (though I'm hopeful reducing the wage bill will reduce this as well as CL income etc) but one thing that's odd is that my transfer budget is far larger than my current balance - if I go into the red will anything happen? I know the fair play rules state X but my finances are predicting profits each year while my balance is seemingly going down....? I'm no accountant but this strikes me as odd.

[MeesterCat]

Hey Minez, welcome to the thread.

Good work on winning the league there, Juve are usually a tough team to get ahead of. The HG issue for the Champion's League is a tricky one and annoying as there is no real quick fix. I've taken to promoting Benassi and Duncan to the first team, but this is the third season. You might just have to not use all your slots for a year or two while some of the U19s mature, as there are some promising looking players there.

I'm honestly not sure about the transfer budget. I took over Inter in the middle of November in the second season, so I didn't see the initial budgets, however I was tasked with achieving a Euro place as a minimum and I had about €20mil to spend in the following January. With regards the reduced amount available, I think the initial budget you get is just provisional, so it can be subject to change. Also any purchases made between the initial budget amount and the final budget will be removed from the final figure - you've not bought any players since getting the initial budget have you?

As for your Balance, I *think* there might be a couple of factors at play here. Firstly, if you're still in July, you might not have received your television money yet. I think it's spread out of the course of the year (like the Premiership), but I was given €90mil for the third season, so that will slowly top up your balance over time. Also, the projected balance takes into account the ending of contracts and the reduced wage cost that goes with it. I think you have a couple of very high earners whose contracts end in 2015 (Hello Mr Milito!) so that is probably where the discrepancy is coming from.

Good luck for season two, I'll be interested to see who you bring in.

[Minez01]

Thanks!

Yeah I've spent a fair bit of time considering what to do. Currently I've kept a few loan players and brought in a few other co-owned players so that I've got roughly the minimum amount that I need. I've moved Benassi and Bardi into the first team as well as buying Crisetig, Biraghi and Bellusci. I was after some DC backup so Bellusci seemed like an appropriate option even though I had my eye on some other players. With the existing few I think that leaves me with 4 club trained players and 8 nation trained players. I sold Duncan for a good price as well as informing my director of football that he should sell half of the reserves team. I've been working fairly hard to try and reduce my wage bill and ensure that my balance is maintained by selling off a bunch of unused players.

I'm not sure what happened with my balance and wage budget - it's telling me my wage budget is still 1.66m. As you said above there could be a couple of factors at play but currently my finances aren't looking too bad so I've just worked a bit harder to preserve them. I think I am currently around 200k Euros under my wage bill and my transfer budget that remains is 40m Euros with a balance of 31m.

I spent a bit of time yesterday searching for new players etc. and have decided that there really aren't any players worth splashing 10-20m on at the moment. I've been in the market primarily for a new WB, to cover for Zanetti whose fitness is suspect and just generally for the future as a lot of the current crop are moving on in age and have been looking at Alex Grimaldo from Barcelona B who is interested in moving, though I've been unsuccessful negotiating for him. I also want to bring in a young promising striker named Schrijvers from Genk, who is a future prospect. In addition to signing Bellusci for around 5m I also see the need for a new striker as Milito is moving on in age and his wage bill is horrendous and Icardi isn't quite there yet. I'm intending to sell Palacio as he hasn't performed well for me, and since I've struggled to find any really good prospects at this position that I like I'm likely to pick up Edin Dzeko on loan from Man City paying half of his wage (70k per week) and a fee of around 1.5m Euros for the whole loan period. His stats are still great and he's 28 and should fit in really well as a lone striker with two decent wingers feeding him. So my transfer budget is relatively intact at the moment though I'm also looking at signing a young DM to start thinking about Cambiasso's age and potentially splashing a bit of money on a new winger, though I may wait until January to do that.

Hopes for the new season aren't high - my expectation is to qualify for the CL again. Serie A is my primary concern and I feel that any success in the Champion's League is going to be an added bonus. My squad is OK for now but the objective of this season is to really focus on solidifying our finances and maintaining a good Serie A record and then doing a full re-build of the team next summer. It's telling me that my predicted transfer budget next season is 75m or thereabouts which is good. Once Dzeko departs off loan the hunt will be on for a world class striker and some great new regens.

[MeesterCat]

Biraghi is a good signing, he's doing very well for me at the moment. It sounds like you're doing basically the same as me in that second season and consolidating whilst waiting for the big wage earners to bugger off. Dzeko is an excellent signing, especially for that cost and wages.

One thing you definitely need to be wary of is the fact that these veterans have strong personalities and you're likely to lose a lot in one fell swoop. Bringing in a couple of leaders is a priority I think (something that I did poorly).

I remembered to take a screenshot of the young German RB (Scouted as having World Class potential) I picked up:

I'm actually really tempted to retrain him into a Ball Playing Defender as he looks to have the attributes in the right places for that role. And he's not going to be 16 for another 7 months. Scary.

[MeesterCat]

Zlatan is back

He's 34 and his stats have declined a little, but he's still a great player and more importantly gives us options in attack as Palacio and Livaja are not good enough (Icardi is injured). I've also rescued Pedro Obiang from Man Utds U21s as he arrives in January for €8mil.

I've also changed my tactical system again. Out goes the wingerless formations and attempts to try the Golden Triangle - in comes a more versatile 4141. The new system allows me to exploit the weaknesses of many Italian teams (the flanks) and allows to me to be more solid in European games where there are more wide players. It also, with exception (see below), is a more solid shape which is really helping. I have my two WMs tucking in when in possession, so its a 4141 in defence and a cross between a 41221/4231 in attack.

While the squad was learning the new system we were involved in this game:

Hat-tricks on either side, 11 goals, two players sent off; madness.

Competition-wise, we're top of the league although it's tight. Juventus and surprise package Lazio are snapping at my heels. We're also through to the knockout stages of the Champions League. Two expected, though narrow, losses to Barca but wins over the rest qualified us in second in the group. I'm still awaiting the draw.

Finally, I'm just trying to workout my squad as it's a bit large, especially in the centre of midfield. My main headache is whether to hang on to Duncan (as HG) or move him on as he's not been particularly convincing...

[connort787]

Hi Guys,

Just started an Inter save and have come across this thread. I would like abit of help in the transfer and formation sections.

Cheers

[john1]

Connort787 - I would definitely go for 4-2-2-2 (DM DM MC MC) as I has immensely success with that formation.

Transfers - I would definitely look for a defender as few old defenders in the backline. Maybe couple players for back up.

Good luck.

[connort787]

Thanks john1

[connort787]

Got going there but got stuck on the team instructions, any help. Who would be good to sign in the first season aswell as Inter is a pretty old team!!!

Thanks

[MeesterCat]

Your TIs would depend on the way you want to play really Connort. Do you want possession? Counter-attacks? Ugly attritional football?

Personally, after lots of reading in the Tactics Forum, I tend to keep my TIs to a minimum and then occasionally use others in game if something needs tweaking.

After the first season I would say a RB, a DM and a STR should be high on your list as you'll probably only get another year out of Zanetti, Milito and Cambiasso.

[Fanatical Ollie]

Hi all, good to see a few people on this thread. I decided to start a season with Inter on the basis of finding their recent history quite interesting, as well as the strength of this thread. I've just finished my first season with the club and would like to update you as to my progress.

Inter Milan 2013/2014 Season

Coming into the club, I realised it was a time of transition and a potential turning point in the club's history. Since Mourinho left, Inter have struggled both on the field and off the field. With new owners, I look to the future with renewed optimism and hope to restore this sleeping giant to the heights it reached just a couple of years ago.

Just to give you guys some background, my ambitions for this save are to win Serie A, the Italian Cup and most importantly, the Champions League. Once I am, hopefully, able to achieve that I wish to move on to another European club and achieve the same aims.

Goals for the 2013/2014 season

League: With a poor performance last time around, Europa League qualification would be great, but I hope to qualify for the Champions League.

Italian Cup: With no other competitions, my goal is to win the Italian Cup this year. This year gives me the greatest opportunity to do so.

Squad: Let's see how some of the legends perform, but my goal is to see in a new era and say goodbye to some of those on ridiculous wages for declining ability.

So, how did I get on?

Italian Cup

We'll start with the Italian Cup because it was the competition I really wanted to win this year. As time went by, I got more and more worried we'd face a dominant Juve in the final, luckily they were beaten in the semis setting up an easier tie for us. We didn't disappoint!

We secured some pleasing wins against Napoli and Fiorentina along the way too.

Serie A

With the disappointment of last year and the dominance of Juve, I really hoped we could push for a top 3 finish. Again, I was extremely pleased with the result, helped by an incredible run of form losing only once (to Juve) before the last game of the season. We went on a run of 30-something unbeaten, incredible.

We actually didn't finish that far off the pace in the end, just a few too many draws against lesser teams that should've been wins. With a different tactical approach second time around against Juve we managed to smash them 3-0! It sets us up nicely for a title challenge next season.

Transfers

Not too much activity this year. Bellusci has been brilliant, a bargain for the money. Galvez came in in January and, although he's only played a few games, he looks like he's a bargain too. Javi Espinosa and Bertoli are solid youngsters. Kleber I'm really not sure about... I took a punt and we'll have to wait and see if it pays off.

The biggest transfer news, however, is Fuchs in as a replacement for Nagatomo. Schalke came in with an incredible bid for Nagatomo, which I managed to up even more. I then decided to go into their squad and see who I could raid. Found Fuchs and managed to steal him at that price.

So I essentially got £8m plus Fuchs for Nagatomo, let's see who got the best deal;

Nagatomo

Fuchs

What do you guys reckon ? 23 assists and a 7.32 average in comparison to a 6.37. I'm laughing all the way to the bank with my £8m and a superior player! Managed to get a news item come through with words to that effect too.

Tactics

These are the tactics I've been going with. Firstly, the more attacking tactic.

Attacking tactic

Followed by the defensive tactic. This one in particular is still very much work in progress so help here would be appreciated!

Counter

Squad

Here's the current squad;

As you can see: Palacio, Icardi and Kovacic were the main goalscorers for the team. Kovacic is incredible. Icardi can often be inconsistent, although of course he has finished with an incredible goal tally. I hope the experience of this season will help improve his consistency.

So what about next season?

Next season we line up in 3 competitions, Serie A, the Italian Cup and the Champions League. I really don't think we've got the squad to compete in all 3. I know that may sound ridiculous after a pretty solid first season, but I'm really worried about the season ahead. My goal is to try and win the CL within the next 3 years, I don't think that'll happen with this squad.

I expect the finances to pick up substantially now and hopefully get around £40m to spend for next year. I need to spend that money wisely if I'm going to compete. With 3 midfielders leaving due to unhappiness, that may be an area to look at. Here are my goals for next year;

Serie A: Title Challenge

Italian Cup: Win the trophy

CL: Qualify from the group

In terms of my squad, these are the areas I feel need strengthening;

GK: Carrizo is leaving at the end of the year so I need a new backup.

RWB: (got Murru joining for LWB but can play here).

CM: (got a decent young BWM in Salifu joining). I feel I need a strong BWM to replace Cambiasso (even though he'll stay for 1 more year). I like Guarnin as my DLP, though he's not necessarily world class.

ST: this is the main area. I need someone to replace Palacio and to partner Icardi. I need someone who will bang in goals to win us games out of nothing. I probably need 2 STs really. I was thinking of going for someone like Lukaku, but he may be just too expensive.

Oh and I also have all the original staff at the club. I need to clear pretty much all of them out and start afresh. Should've done that last year really...

Any thoughts you guys have on any of the above would be much appreciated!

Thanks for reading.

[MeesterCat]

Excellent post Ollie!

Some fantastic successes there, especially in the league. Juve are tough to beat, so finishing so close behind them is no mean feat.

Nagatomo is actually playing well for me as a right wingback, but I think you got a great deal there - Fuchs was a machine in my FM13 Schalke save. Plus Pereira will make for an excellent backup when he returns. You could also as you mention switch Murru to RWB as Zanetti will probably retire shortly and you should have the excellent Biraghi returning.

In terms of your players, I would advise trying to buyout the co-ownership on Taider as he, for me at least, has become a fantastic all-round midfielder. He's a great BBM, but can play in a few different roles. He's more solid than Guarin too, who can be a bit wayward.

You could pad out your squad with some of the returning prospect loanees; Bardi, Pasa, Duncan, Spendlhofer, Benassi have all started to feature in my first team, although admittedly I'm a season and a half ahead of you.

Your finances should be better with CL football, but then you get a bit of a windfall in the next season when several of your high earners will retire: Milito, Cambiasso, Samuel, etc...

Good luck in season 2!

(I haven't posted any updates in here recently because i've been sidetracked by Diablo 3, but my save is still very much ongoing )

Oh and for your defensive tactic, your AF looks very isolated there. The enganche will be fairly static and you don't have anyone else making forward runs - DLP and BWM will be deep, your WBs might not get forward enough too. With the Anchorman there, I think you could afford to be a bit more adventurous with your CMs and probably at least one of your WBs.

[Fanatical Ollie]

Excellent post Ollie!

Some fantastic successes there, especially in the league. Juve are tough to beat, so finishing so close behind them is no mean feat.

Nagatomo is actually playing well for me as a right wingback, but I think you got a great deal there - Fuchs was a machine in my FM13 Schalke save. Plus Pereira will make for an excellent backup when he returns. You could also as you mention switch Murru to RWB as Zanetti will probably retire shortly and you should have the excellent Biraghi returning.

In terms of your players, I would advise trying to buyout the co-ownership on Taider as he, for me at least, has become a fantastic all-round midfielder. He's a great BBM, but can play in a few different roles. He's more solid than Guarin too, who can be a bit wayward.

You could pad out your squad with some of the returning prospect loanees; Bardi, Pasa, Duncan, Spendlhofer, Benassi have all started to feature in my first team, although admittedly I'm a season and a half ahead of you.

Your finances should be better with CL football, but then you get a bit of a windfall in the next season when several of your high earners will retire: Milito, Cambiasso, Samuel, etc...

Good luck in season 2!

(I haven't posted any updates in here recently because i've been sidetracked by Diablo 3, but my save is still very much ongoing )

Oh and for your defensive tactic, your AF looks very isolated there. The enganche will be fairly static and you don't have anyone else making forward runs - DLP and BWM will be deep, your WBs might not get forward enough too. With the Anchorman there, I think you could afford to be a bit more adventurous with your CMs and probably at least one of your WBs.

Thanks for your reply . You make some good points about my defensive tactic, I've made some changes and we'll see how it works out. I agree with you on Taider, I'll do the same for Icardi as well. Any tips as to a good ST to partner Icardi?

[MeesterCat]

If I'm honest striker is the one position I'm really having difficulty with. When I was using a two striker formation I found Icardi and Milito to be my best combination; I just cannot get Palacio to work. I've since gone to a single striker formation, using either a CF-S or a CF-A and I'm struggling to find a good fit. Belfodil does ok, Palacio is declining rapidly and doesn't have the physical attributes. Icardi has been injured since the beginning of the season so I've not been able to use him, though I worry he's not creative enough for a solo striker. I've actually picked up Zlatan on a free as a temporary option while I scout for a new main forward.

Thats not really much help is it! The problem I've got is that the super rich clubs have all been splashing the cash on forwards and have priced me out the market. Now that I'm happy with the rest of the squad more or less, I can afford to spend big on a top level striker in the summer.

[Fanatical Ollie]

If I'm honest striker is the one position I'm really having difficulty with. When I was using a two striker formation I found Icardi and Milito to be my best combination; I just cannot get Palacio to work. I've since gone to a single striker formation, using either a CF-S or a CF-A and I'm struggling to find a good fit. Belfodil does ok, Palacio is declining rapidly and doesn't have the physical attributes. Icardi has been injured since the beginning of the season so I've not been able to use him, though I worry he's not creative enough for a solo striker. I've actually picked up Zlatan on a free as a temporary option while I scout for a new main forward.

Thats not really much help is it! The problem I've got is that the super rich clubs have all been splashing the cash on forwards and have priced me out the market. Now that I'm happy with the rest of the squad more or less, I can afford to spend big on a top level striker in the summer.

Yeah I see what you mean. My main areas are RWB and ST. I'll be on the lookout for a goalscorer over the summer, willing to pay up to £25m. Wish me luck!

[MeesterCat]

Good luck indeed. I was hoping for someone like Benteke, but I think someone paid the best part of €40mil for him! I might try and wing it: I have 3 forwards in the U19s who look like they could be awesome, Puscas, a regen called Scarnatto and, uhm... another Italian kid. Zlatan til the age of 38 it is!

[MeesterCat]

I thought I'd post a small update (partly to bump the Inter thread a little).

It's March 2016 and we find ourselves 10 points clear of Juve with 10 games to go. We face them in a couple of weeks so that could be the make or break point of the season. The 4141 formation is much more defensively solid than previous formations, although I'm having difficulty with preventing my lone forward from becoming isolated. Star performers of the last 3 month period have been Andre Ayew (now top scorer from the ML position) plus Juan Jesus, Handanovic and Biraghi who have been immense at the back.

Annoyingly we're out of the Champions League at the first Knockout Stage again. It was another English club that knocked us out, this time Spurs, and it's annoying me somewhat as we weren't massively out-played in either tie. Ah well, theres always next season.

[z3n]

Has anybody got a new stadium in the new patch? I cant get it and I tried everything...im in year 2019.

[john1]

Try leaking it to the press I did and they granted it afterwards

[z3n]

I did several times with all the options available but nothing...money sure is not the problem since I have around 650M€ of transfer budget available. It just sucks. In earlier patch I leaked it to the press and they granted it too but in this latest patch and in a new save it is just impossible.

[john1]

Yeah, they probably have fixed it tho

[MeesterCat]

I finally reached the end of the 2015/16 season and... Serie A is ours!

We pretty much dominated the league with only a couple of loses throughout the whole season. I'm a bit surprised too as I'd been chopping and changing the formation a bit while I was trying to settle on the right tactic and in the end a change to a Fluid 4141 worked a treat. Teams were trying a variety of different formations against us, but we were able to handle them all pretty well (only the 4231 seemed to cause us some issues).

Our main rivals most of the way were unsurprisingly Juve, but a raft of suspensions seemed to take the wind out of their sails towards the end of the season and they dropped off badly. They are in the Champions League final though, so they might be able to redeem their season with that. Reggina, despite being relegated, were our bogey team.

Looking at our squad, we obviously have a few standout performers, but the main thing was that the squad acted as just that: a squad. I would often bring in players for particular opponents or tactical decisions and on the whole the players fitted in perfectly, there was very little grumbling and for the most part the players did the job when it was asked of them.

I've very rarely been able to get a crazy goal return from my strikers in recent FM games, so I like my team to be able to score from a variety of positions and I think this is reflected in the stats. Obviously Eriksen and Ayew came top of the scoring charts, but you can see just under double figures from other players too. Eriksen was absolutely fantastic in the second half of the season when Kovacic got injured, even scoring from DFKs. Ayew could be a little inconsistent at times and drift in and out of games, but he still managed to be top scorer from the ML position. I was really impressed too by Taider and in particular Biraghi who somehow didn't even get in the Euro 2016 Italian squad, despite being immense all season. It looks like Icardi didn't have a great season, but he was injured for four months and was scoring a goal ever other game on average when he returned to fitness. My only disappointment was Benassi - he has great attributes, but didn't seem to be able to produce consistently decent performances. It was his first season in the first team though, so I'm hopeful he will be much better next season.

So looking forwards...

Overall I'm pretty happy with the squad. The majority of the players are still relatively young, so in theory they should be improving all the time. The change of formation has tightened up the defence, so I don't think I need major upheavals there though I am looking to bring in a new RB as I think Nagatomo is too suspect defensively. I'm overall pretty happy with the midfield, though I'm too well stocked so I couple of players will be leaving, probably Obi, Duncan and Ekdal. Simone Pasa has had a fantastic loan season at Sporting Lisbon so he'll be in the first team next season. My only real issue is upfront. Palacio is retiring, which is fine as he has declined rapidly and his wages are way too high. Icardi and Belfodil do ok, but aren't really main striker material (given the formation I play) and Ibrahimovic makes a useful impact striker.

So priorities are to trim the squad a little, bring in a new STR and RB and possibly another position if a really top quality player becomes available. I've got a couple of U19s who are on the verge of being ready for the first team so I have to decide whether to loan or throw them in at the deep end. I would also like to get further than the First Knockout stage of the CL next season for a change!

To end, I've made my first signing of the summer. Not a priority position, but he cost €20k(!) and can be nutured to be Guarin's replacement at MR:

[MeesterCat]

I'm seriously considering putting in a bid for Wayne Rooney. He's 30 and transfer-listed for €4.8m. I have a feeling though that his wages might be too high (I've given myself a €100k p/w limit on player wages).

[z3n]

Try going for Hervin Ongenda...I've been playing him as DLF/A and...well see for yourself

http://s1375.photobucket.com/user/d3nz3n/media/HervinOngenda_OverviewProfile_zpsd897f5a8.png.html

http://s1375.photobucket.com/user/d3nz3n/media/HervinOngenda_HistoryCareerStats_zpsd29c3aa5.png.html

http://s1375.photobucket.com/user/d3nz3n/media/HervinOngenda_HistoryCareerStats-2_zps7a05ee5b.png.html

Got him for free in 17/18 and I turned down 83M€ for him from real madrid...I just love the guy

[MeesterCat]

Wow. Cheers z3n. I'm going to check him out tonight when I get home. I hope his attributes are close to yours - they look just about perfect for the role.

I've actually changed my lone striker role from CF-S to DLF-A as I found it linked the midfield and striker much better.

Cheers again.

[z3n]

Np. I hope you get a good deal on him. Btw, I'm playing an attacking 4-4-2 with 2 InsF/A and a DLF/S plus Ongenda on DLF/A. 1 attacker is always connecting the mid with attack plus opens space for InsF and passing in the space for the other attacker.

I have a funny little story to tell...in 15/16 I sold Kovacic to Monaco for 50M€ and now in the winter transfer window of 19/20 I signed him for free. Waiting for summer for him to arrive back to Inter 25 years old and at his peak...will be rotating him with Rafinha Or I will try to sell Rafinha for around 60M€ since I have an outstanding young regen.

[MeesterCat]

Haha, nice work with Kovacic!

Chelsea have been sniffing around him for a year or so, but I just got him to sign a 5 year contract at €78k p/w. However he's suffered a real drop in form since an injury and Eriksen kept him out the team. Plus I have an awesome regen arriving in January, so he may be on his way out if he doesn't improve.

Did any of the original promising youngsters ever make the grade with you? (People like Spendlhofer, Pasa, Benassi, etc)

[z3n]

Thank you! I always try and sell players if I receive an offer of around 45-60M€ but in Ongenda's case, I want 100M€.

I have made a bucket of pictures...there are youngsters who got some playing time exept for Pasa(made SS of him because I think he developed well)...and pictures of my first team, tactics...you will see...oh and M'baye was playing very good...I then offered him for 30M€ and Spurs bought him...same goes for Crisetig and Biraghi (20M€).

http://s1375.photobucket.com/user/d3nz3n/slideshow/