FM14: ACF Fiorentina - Forza Viola

[Seule]

Honda never made it out of the first transfer window in my game, went to Milan. Cerri .... he doesn't fit what I wanted from my team so I won't ever be signing him, and I've had this argument already with people, just cause they love him, doesn't mean he's right for me, I want my strikers with a bit more creativity and versatility eventually.

Yeah I need to post my off-season stuff from season 2 :

Sold Cuadrado to Tottenham for 7.25 for my half, that plus getting rid of the likes of Compper, El Hamdaoui, Romulo, Yakovenko and Marcos Alonso and some others made a total of about 12 million for me.

In... the board loaded us up with a bunch of money for the Champion's League, so we started with a budget of about 10 mill left from last season, and they said I could have another 30 mill, which left us with about 40 million, plus the 12 we made from sales.

Bought Begovic for 4.4 million. A goalkeeper for the better part of the next decade if I make it that far, totally worth it.

Tried to get Corchia to replace Cuadrado (since I play with wingbacks) but sadly, Monaco and their 70k a week just couldnt be matched, so I had to find other options, we wound up going with Hugo Mallo for 5.5 million from Celta Vigo.

Same with Neil Taylor from Swansea, he cost 5.5 million, but is at least on par with Pasqual and only 25.

Splurged on 3 good looking regens, Jacob Bay for 2.2 million, Martin Koleno for 475k and David Ventura for 250k, they're already starting to come good, will post more about it later.

And then I went for the big one, Aleksandar Mitrovic for 12 million. My plan is to have him replace Gomez, it's been derailed early due to injuries to both Gomez, Mitrovic and Giuseppe Rossi, but every cloud has a silver lining, Rebic is stepping up and so is Wolski.

So all in all we spent a little over 31 million, which leaves us 20 to play with as needed in January.

I should add, Salifu came back from loan and is looking like he's the goods so he stayed, and has done ok for me so far. Camporese has stayed and filled in a backup role. Gil Romero came back from his season loan after buying him last year as well, so the squad was actually bolstered a lot by players coming back from loan who didn't cost a cent.

[tyro]

I assume you let Cuadrado go because you can get better WB? Let me know how Begovic works out for you. He's on top of my list.

I am quite happy with the squad but they are getting old so I am thinking about gradually phasing them out.

[PeterPistola]

Honda never made it out of the first transfer window in my game, went to Milan. Cerri .... he doesn't fit what I wanted from my team so I won't ever be signing him, and I've had this argument already with people, just cause they love him, doesn't mean he's right for me, I want my strikers with a bit more creativity and versatility eventually.

Yeah I need to post my off-season stuff from season 2 :

Sold Cuadrado to Tottenham for 7.25 for my half, that plus getting rid of the likes of Compper, El Hamdaoui, Romulo, Yakovenko and Marcos Alonso and some others made a total of about 12 million for me.

In... the board loaded us up with a bunch of money for the Champion's League, so we started with a budget of about 10 mill left from last season, and they said I could have another 30 mill, which left us with about 40 million, plus the 12 we made from sales.

Bought Begovic for 4.4 million. A goalkeeper for the better part of the next decade if I make it that far, totally worth it.

Tried to get Corchia to replace Cuadrado (since I play with wingbacks) but sadly, Monaco and their 70k a week just couldnt be matched, so I had to find other options, we wound up going with Hugo Mallo for 5.5 million from Celta Vigo.

Same with Neil Taylor from Swansea, he cost 5.5 million, but is at least on par with Pasqual and only 25.

Splurged on 3 good looking regens, Jacob Bay for 2.2 million, Martin Koleno for 475k and David Ventura for 250k, they're already starting to come good, will post more about it later.

And then I went for the big one, Aleksandar Mitrovic for 12 million. My plan is to have him replace Gomez, it's been derailed early due to injuries to both Gomez, Mitrovic and Giuseppe Rossi, but every cloud has a silver lining, Rebic is stepping up and so is Wolski.

So all in all we spent a little over 31 million, which leaves us 20 to play with as needed in January.

I should add, Salifu came back from loan and is looking like he's the goods so he stayed, and has done ok for me so far. Camporese has stayed and filled in a backup role. Gil Romero came back from his season loan after buying him last year as well, so the squad was actually bolstered a lot by players coming back from loan who didn't cost a cent.

Mitovic and Cerri is a much of a muchness really. Only difference is Mitrovic is just what Cerri will become in a few years. Which is exactly what's happened, Cerri if you don't allow the AI to train him becomes a beast Target Man or Deep Lying Forward. Awesome physical and mental stats.

Costil might be my cheap replacement option. For a free it might be good to bring him in even if it's for competition only but it seems he is an improvement. Even if he has the same stats (which he doesn't, he has slightly higher stats) his determination is much higher which is a big improvement - Neto just keeps complaining about the training workload he has.

Cerri is already on my shortlist but maybe a summer target. Honda is an AMC and I am really not looking to improve that part of the squad, otherwise a good option.

I have also scouted Kevin Constant but I am looking for an ML/AML player as a long term replacement for Pasqual.

Yes Honda his favorite position is AMC but he is just as good as a advanced playmaker in CM or even a box to box in CM. I have Honda and Andrea Poli as my CM and they swap postions with each other all game. One is AP(A) the other is BBM(S). Awesome combination. Foolish to not get him. Have a look at Pedro Obiang from Sampdoria, great physical stats, looks like a decent box to box midfielder himself. Or even a ball winnning midfielder.

[Seule]

I assume you let Cuadrado go because you can get better WB? Let me know how Begovic works out for you. He's on top of my list.

I am quite happy with the squad but they are getting old so I am thinking about gradually phasing them out.

Yeah Cuadrado was leaning a little TOO attacking for me. Begovic has been great so far, once again, he's been a beast of a GK for a few versions now, I more picked him up because at 4.4 million, I think it's a pretty damn reasonable price.

Played years with Honda on FM12 and 13, he was a beast then, its amusing to see everyone finally coming to the party, he's always been a beast, most people just ignored him til now because he played in Russia. Definitely get him if you can, but I wouldn't say you were foolish to pass on him either, if you don't think he fits your team, don't take him. For me it was a case of trying to get him to pair with Valero. I missed out, have done fine without him, can't complain at all cause in a year or two I'll have better.

Peter : You need to make a thread about Cerri, I know you seem to love him, yes I do read the other threads of the Italian teams, I think you really should make a thread for him, he is a great striker, but for me, the lack of creativity crossed him off my list, especially given one of the regens I got in my first batch Personal preference, which is what FM is all about.

[tyro]

For both Honda and Mitrovic, even if I am interested, my scouts need to pick them up first. I am playing without the search button, so if they don't include them in their report, I won't look at them.

Looks like my scouts think Begovic will be around EUR 14mn.

[Seule]

For both Honda and Mitrovic, even if I am interested, my scouts need to pick them up first. I am playing without the search button, so if they don't include them in their report, I won't look at them.

Looks like my scouts think Begovic will be around EUR 14mn.

Yeah I think in my game Stoke got relegated at the end of S1 at which point, he wanted out.

[tyro]

I am adding August and September to this post to have all in one:

August

Serie A Juventus (A) 0-1

Serie A Catania (H) 1-4 (Tomovic)

Serie A Atalanta (A) 3-1 (Gomez x2, Savic)

3 out of 9 points. Bad start.

September

Euro L. Club Brugge (H) 3-0 (Gomez, Joaquin, Ilicic)

Serie A Cagliari (H) 3-1 (Gomez x2, Ilicic)

Serie A Parma (A) 3-0 (Cuadrado, Gomez, Ilicic)

Serie A Livorno (H) 0-1 (o.g. Savic)

6 out of 9 possible points in Serie A. 3 out of 3 in EL. Not too bad.

Update (October/November)

Results

Oct 3 - Anorthosi vs. Fiorentina - 3:1 (Cuadrado 14)

Oct 6 - Sampdoria vs. Fiorentina - 0:4 (Gomez 44, Cuadrado 47, Fiorillo o.g. 64, M.Fernandez 88)

Oct 19 - Fiorentina vs. Lazio - 0:0

Oct 24 - Fiorentina vs. FC Utrecht - 3:0 (Paqual 15, Joaquin 31, Ilicic 70)

Oct 27 - Chievo vs. Fiorentina 1:1 (Ilicic 70)

Oct 30 - Fiorentina vs. Milan - 2:1 (Savic 14, Rossi 49)

Nov 3 - Torino vs. Fiorentina - 1:2 (Rossi 79, Gomez 90+1)

Nov 7 - FC Utrecht vs. Fiorentina - 1:1 (Rossi 49)

Nov 10 - Fiorentina vs. Udinese - 3:1 (Rebic 4, Gomez 58, 64)

Nov 24 - Fiorentina vs. Sassuolo - 1:0 (Rossi 28)

Nov 28 - Club Brugge vs. Fiorentina - 3:1 (Gomez 80)

Serie A Recap - 26 out of 39 points. 67% of the points achieved. 8W (4 Home, 4 Away), 2D (1 Home, 1 Away), 3L (2 Home, 1 Away).

August 3 Games: 3 out of 9 - 33% efficiency

September 3 Games: 6 out of 9 - 67% efficiency

October 4 Games: 8 out of 12 - 67% efficiency

November 3 Games: 9 out of 9 - 100% efficiency

EL Group B Recap - 7 out of 15 points. 47% of the points achieved. 2W (2 Home), 1D (Away), 2L (2 Away).

August No Games

September 1 Game: 3 out of 3 - 100% efficiency

October 2 Games: 3 out of 6 - 50% efficiency

November 2 Games: 1 out of 6 - 17% efficiency

This clearly shows I am doing much worse in the Euro League even though the teams aren't really good. Interestingly, I did really well in Serie A in November but really badly in the EL in the same month. I won all my home games in the EL though. For Serie A it seems that it doesn't matter where I play it is pretty balanced.

Serie A Table

1. Juventus 37 points, 14 played

2. Sampdoria 30, 14

3. Fiorentina 26, 13

4. Cagliari 25, 14

5. Napoli 23, 13

6. Catania 23, 13

7. Lazio 23, 13

8. Roma 22, 14

9. Milan 18, 14

10. Chievo 16, 13

EL Group B

1. Club Brugge 9 points, 0 Goal Diff., 5 played

2. Fiorentina 7, +2, 5

3. FC Utrecht 7, -2, 5

4. Anorthosi 6, 0, 5

Players

Top Goalscorers/ Assists / % of Total Scored (32)

Gomez 12/3/37.5%

Ilicic 5/6/15.6%

Rossi 5/3/15.6%

Cuadrado 3/3/9.4%

Savic 2/1/6.2%

Joaquin 2/3/6.2%

Gomez, Ilicic, and Rossi amount to about 70% of my goal threat - as it should be. Cuadrado and Joaquin show that the Right Wing is also a threat as well as a creative force.

I have scored a total of 32 in 18 competitive games and conceded 17 in those 18 - almost 1 goal a game. There were 6 clean sheets. Out of the remaining 12 games, in 3 games we got 3 or 4 goals (of those 2 in the EL), the remaining 9 games we got 1 goal. It is not bad but can be improved upon, hopefully with Begovic in goal.

[tyro]

I am now almost finished with December as well. After a loss to Napoli I scrapped all my tactics and went back to the drawing board. Not necessarily because I lost but because I had 3 really different tactics and it was becoming a headache figuring out which to use and rotating players in different positions. I wanted to go back to something simple.

So, I thought about the players at disposal once again and decided the following: 1) 3 at the back, 2) a DM, 3) 2 strikers.

That left me with either the 3-1-4-2 I have been playing or a 3-5-2 (same as yours Seule but with a DM instead of AM).

I wanted a bit more defensive stability so I opted for the 3-5-2.

-------Gomez---Rossi-------

----------------------------

-------Ilicic----Valero-------

Pasq.------Pizar.------Cuadr.

----Savic--Gonz.---Ronc.---

-----------Neto------------

I have saved the tactic 3 times: each with a balanced approach, one standard, one control, one counter to be able to adapt to the opponents just by strategy instead of tactic.

Looking at my new tactic I also abandoned my search for an ML but instead need a WBR desperately to cover for Cuadrado. I played Joaquin there once as a sub but he has no familiarity with that position and in the heat map he was up front like a winger and not at all in the position I asked him to play.

I was looking at Corchia but he would be more of a replacement for Cuadrado rather than a back up. So I found a young 19 year old DR/WBR from Nice (Fofana I think) who has great potential and can now already cover if necessary. Cost me EUR 3mn.

I also stepped up my chase for Begovic and bid EUR 12mn for him. With additional incentives this was accepted and he is on the way in January.

Once the transfer window opens I will offload Vargas and Joaquin. In the summer I'll focus on a new DM, maybe a CD, and a ST. Rossi has been great lately (from his 5 goals he scored 4 in late Oct/Nov) but he also has brief spells of injuries. Rebic is stepping up as his replacement and doing so nicely. So I need a backup for Gomez but that is for the summer.

In the meantime I managed to beat Anorthosi to reach 1st place in Group B of the EL. 1st Knockout stage will be against Red Bull Salzburg which we should be able to win. 2nd Knockout would be possibly against Napoli - until then, with my new reinforcements and my new tactic I hope to be able to beat them - well, need to beat Salzburg first - in the EL I have seen that weak teams do really well. My players get too complacent.

[enders357]

Torn between starting an Italian save as Fiorentina or Napoli... this thread may well swing it though!

[tyro]

Fiorentina is definitely a fun save. I have a save with Napoli as well. Fiorentina is probably a bit more versatile.

December

Serie A - Napoli (A) - 1-4 (Ilicic 28)

Serie A - Bologna (H) - 2-0 (Rebic 52, Gomez 75)

EL B - Anorthosi (H) - 4-1 (Sozos o.g. 12, Gomez 34, Savic 65, Ilicic 85)

Serie A - Genoa (A) - 3-1 (Gomez 4,51, Cuadrado 40)

Serie A - Roma (A) - 0-1

6 out of 12 points. Average display. Napoli was a tough one and I changed tactics after that. At least I won against Anorthosi while the other teams drew for us to qualify 1st place.

Winter Break / Transfers

I played 2 friendlies to keep match fitness up and Rossi goes and tears a muscle - out for 3 months. Pizarro out with a torn hamstring for 6 weeks. My new guy, Diacko Fofana, Cuadrado's backup breaks his collarbone first training and is out 3 weeks.

Begovic joins for €12mn+, while Joaquin joins Lazio for 100% wages and a small loan fee. €1.2mn future fee agreed after the loan if they want. Vargas is difficult to get rid off but finally Atalanta take him on loan for 30% of his wages (@€2.6mn per year that's not too bad). Yakovenko goes on loan for 40% loan fee as well and Olivera joins Parma for €275k.

An agent offers me Honda and I say ok but then I can't pay his wages of €2.2mn per year so he goes to Benfica. Milan knock on the door to sign Neto for €1.5mn. I tell them 2.1mn and they agree. He wasn't bad but he wasn't going to play either with Begovic in and Munua is a decent backup. Finally, due to all the injuries I look to loan a midfielder and my DOF gets de Zeeuw from Spartak Moscow. Decent backup for MC and DM.

January

TIM Cup 1st round - Sampdoria (H) - 1-2 (Rebic 60)

Serie A - Inter (H) - 1-2 (Pasqual 75)

Serie A - Verona (A) - 1-2 (Rebic 55)

Serie A - Juventus (H) - 2-0 (Chiellini o.g. 3, Tomovic 35)

Serie A - Catania (A) - 1-0 (Rebic)

Serie A - Atalanta (H) - TBD

Well. Terrible games. Lost to Roma and then even after great friendlies in the break we continue the losing streak. Sampdoria was very close. They grabbed the winner just in time. Inter played well. Verona was a shock. So was Juventus. I played counter and it worked well. They had no chance. Finally, I played counter again against Catania as I had lost earlier 1-4 to them. It was a deserved victory and Begovic is starting to settle. Both the Juventus and Catania games he pulled some fantastic saves. Rebic is really replacing Rossi well and I might offload Rossi end of the season. He's great but injured too much.

League table after 21 games (max points 63)

1st Juventus 50

2nd Sampdoria 43

3rd Napoli 43

4th Fiorentina 38

5th Lazio 35

6th Roma 34

7th Catania 34

8th Inter 34

9th Cagliari 31

10th Atalanta 27

Not much between 4-8. We lost too many points in Dec/Jan but we can still catch 2 or 3.

EL we play Red Bull Salzburg while Napoli play Lyon (our possible 2nd Knockout Round opponents).

Players (Goals/Assists)

Gomez 16/4

Ilicic 7/7

Rebic 5/4

Rossi 5/3

Cuadrado 4/4

Savic 3/1

Tomovic 2/1

Pasqual 2/3

Valero 0/5

[PeterPistola]

Yeah Cuadrado was leaning a little TOO attacking for me. Begovic has been great so far, once again, he's been a beast of a GK for a few versions now, I more picked him up because at 4.4 million, I think it's a pretty damn reasonable price.

Played years with Honda on FM12 and 13, he was a beast then, its amusing to see everyone finally coming to the party, he's always been a beast, most people just ignored him til now because he played in Russia. Definitely get him if you can, but I wouldn't say you were foolish to pass on him either, if you don't think he fits your team, don't take him. For me it was a case of trying to get him to pair with Valero. I missed out, have done fine without him, can't complain at all cause in a year or two I'll have better.

Peter : You need to make a thread about Cerri, I know you seem to love him, yes I do read the other threads of the Italian teams, I think you really should make a thread for him, he is a great striker, but for me, the lack of creativity crossed him off my list, especially given one of the regens I got in my first batch Personal preference, which is what FM is all about.

When I say foolish to pass up on him, I mean if you didn't bother to try and get him that's foolish. He's a free transfer, no compensation fee AND, he onlys asks for maximum £35K per week in wages. The man can play box to box midfielder, advanced playmaker and deep lying playmaker in CM. Along with advanced playmaker, trequartista and attacking midfielder as a AM.

Now I'm certain people use those positions, at least one of them.

[PeterPistola]

Yeah Cuadrado was leaning a little TOO attacking for me. Begovic has been great so far, once again, he's been a beast of a GK for a few versions now, I more picked him up because at 4.4 million, I think it's a pretty damn reasonable price.

Played years with Honda on FM12 and 13, he was a beast then, its amusing to see everyone finally coming to the party, he's always been a beast, most people just ignored him til now because he played in Russia. Definitely get him if you can, but I wouldn't say you were foolish to pass on him either, if you don't think he fits your team, don't take him. For me it was a case of trying to get him to pair with Valero. I missed out, have done fine without him, can't complain at all cause in a year or two I'll have better.

Peter : You need to make a thread about Cerri, I know you seem to love him, yes I do read the other threads of the Italian teams, I think you really should make a thread for him, he is a great striker, but for me, the lack of creativity crossed him off my list, especially given one of the regens I got in my first batch Personal preference, which is what FM is all about.

You noticed that ehh I love Cerri ??? HAHAHAHAHAHA

Yeah I do, but I do wish I still had Super Mario, he (Mario) got P'd Off that I reneged an offer from Man City. Ending up having to sell him as squad harmony was diminishing and he caused 2 other players to be upset. So sold him for a reasonable price of £50M back to City.

Would love to do a thread of Cerri, but would really love to know how you get the pictures showing straight away instead of having to click on a link ????

[Seule]

You noticed that ehh I love Cerri ??? HAHAHAHAHAHA

Yeah I do, but I do wish I still had Super Mario, he (Mario) got P'd Off that I reneged an offer from Man City. Ending up having to sell him as squad harmony was diminishing and he caused 2 other players to be upset. So sold him for a reasonable price of £50M back to City.

Would love to do a thread of Cerri, but would really love to know how you get the pictures showing straight away instead of having to click on a link ????

If you enclose the url of the picture in the img tags ie : "" it should show up straight away.

[tyro]

Interestingly, Seule, your final league table has the exact teams in top 4 as my January table - in a slightly different order. Sampdoria is really playing well it seems and neither Inter nor Roma or Milan are really close to challenge. You even have Catania up there as well.

Juventus had lost only one game to Livorno before January. They played me and lost (tbh, most of their players were exhausted 88-90% condition). Pirlo and Peluso are out injured. Right after they lost to me, they lost to Napoli. Maybe we started a small losing streak for them. If so, the title race will become more interesting again. Inter is currently on a good run and we caught them in their winning streak.

To reach about 80 points I need to win another 13 to 14 games out of the last 17. I don't see that happening. I am thinking 65-75 is feasible, however with Rossi out and Gomez currently in a bad form this might not happen (Ilicic also picked up a minor injury for 2 weeks). At the moment it is up to Rebic and Cuadrado to pull us through. I want to stay in the top 5 (Champions League would be great but we need to be more consistent for that) and then rebuild a bit in the summer.

Results from other Italian Saves

Well I sneaked over to the other threads to see their results at the end of Season 1 (including our VIP visitor PeterP.) and that's what I found:

Juventus save:

1. Juventus 85

2. Inter 82

3. Napoli 76

4. Sampdoria 62

5. Milan 58

9. Fiorentina 50

Inter save:

1. Inter 85

2. Napoli 74

3. Juventus 73

4. Sampdoria 66

5. Milan 60

7. Fiorentina 57

Milan save (I think that's PeterP's save):

1. Milan 84 (or was it 81? couldn't quite read the screenshot)

2. Juventus 74

3. Napoli 72

4. Catania 69

5. Sampdoria 63

17. Fiorentina 39 !!!! (What did you do to them Peter?)

Pretty much the same teams up top but Milan disappearing in our saves, while Fiorentina doesn't do well when the AI manages (I hope I do better ). Sampdoria and Catania always up there.

[PeterPistola]

Interestingly, Seule, your final league table has the exact teams in top 4 as my January table - in a slightly different order. Sampdoria is really playing well it seems and neither Inter nor Roma or Milan are really close to challenge. You even have Catania up there as well.

Juventus had lost only one game to Livorno before January. They played me and lost (tbh, most of their players were exhausted 88-90% condition). Pirlo and Peluso are out injured. Right after they lost to me, they lost to Napoli. Maybe we started a small losing streak for them. If so, the title race will become more interesting again. Inter is currently on a good run and we caught them in their winning streak.

To reach about 80 points I need to win another 13 to 14 games out of the last 17. I don't see that happening. I am thinking 65-75 is feasible, however with Rossi out and Gomez currently in a bad form this might not happen (Ilicic also picked up a minor injury for 2 weeks). At the moment it is up to Rebic and Cuadrado to pull us through. I want to stay in the top 5 (Champions League would be great but we need to be more consistent for that) and then rebuild a bit in the summer.

Results from other Italian Saves

Well I sneaked over to the other threads to see their results at the end of Season 1 (including our VIP visitor PeterP.) and that's what I found:

Juventus save:

1. Juventus 85

2. Inter 82

3. Napoli 76

4. Sampdoria 62

5. Milan 58

9. Fiorentina 50

Inter save:

1. Inter 85

2. Napoli 74

3. Juventus 73

4. Sampdoria 66

5. Milan 60

7. Fiorentina 57

Milan save (I think that's PeterP's save):

1. Milan 84 (or was it 81? couldn't quite read the screenshot)

2. Juventus 74

3. Napoli 72

4. Catania 69

5. Sampdoria 63

17. Fiorentina 39 !!!! (What did you do to them Peter?)

Pretty much the same teams up top but Milan disappearing in our saves, while Fiorentina doesn't do well when the AI manages (I hope I do better ). Sampdoria and Catania always up there.

LOL, they've really been struggling in my save Fiorentina. Also Inter, but since they've signed a few players and Handanovic becomes one of the safest keepers they've sky rocketed from 6th in 13/14 and 8th in 14/15 to 3rd place this season knocking on Sampdoria's door for 2nd. As for Fiorentina 17th then 15th now they're in 11th. Not quite sure hey ??? LOL

I just survived a board takeover and the new owner Alessandro Sabatini was convinced in getting rid of me for Marco Van Bastan. Had a meeting and they weren't gonna keep me on, dunno what I would've done in my save. But changed his mind due to my admiration and love for him (the new owner) in the press. Thank God.

If you enclose the url of the picture in the img tags ie : "" it should show up straight away.

Ohhh bro you don't know how much better that is for me now. Thanks a million. Good luck in your save and forza Milan sempre. :-p

Will do a Cerri'ing soon.

[tyro]

Wow nice. Didn't know you can actually talk them out from throwing you out. Nice depth to the game.

I played 3 more games.

Results

Serie A - Atalanta (H) - 1-0 (Gomez 64)

Serie A - Cagliari (A) - 1-1 (Gonzalo 26)

Serie A - Parma (H) - 4-2 (Fernandez 3, Gomez 30, 65, Savic 50)

Good games against all three with Cagliari playing well. Unfortunately, Parma took Cuadrado and Valero from me for the next 3/6weeks.

Next up Livorno then RB Salzburg away, Sampdoria, RB Salzburg home and we arrive in March.

Both Juventus and Sampdoria have dropped points recently each picking up only 5 points in the last 5 games. Napoli, Inter, Fiorentina, and Lazio did the best with 13 points from the last 5.

Current table after 24 games (max points 72 points)

1. Juventus 55 (+18 last 10 games)

2. Napoli 52 (+29 last 10 games)

3. Fiorentina 45 (+19 last 10 games)

4. Sampdoria 45 (+15 last 10 games)

5. Lazio 44 (+21 last 10 games)

6. Inter 43 (+27 last 10 games)

7. Catania 36 (+13 last 10 games)

8. Roma 35 (+13 last 10 games)

9. Cagliari 32 (+7 last 10 games)

10. Livorno 31 (~+12 last 10 games)

The title race is becoming interesting again between Juventus and Napoli. Places 3-6 are hotly contested but we want to make 3rd ours. 14 games to go with 42 points up for grabs. If I get another 30 that's great.

Players: Goals/Assists

Gomez 19/4

Ilicic 7/7

Rebic 5/5

Rossi 5/3

Cuadrado 4/4

Savic 4/1

Pasqual 2/3

Joaquin 2/3

Fernandez 2/0

Valero 0/8

Others 4/?

54 goals scored total with 35 conceded. Gomez scored about 35% of our goals and was player of the match 6 times. Pasqual is the best rated player at 7.19. From the regulars, Rossi has the worst avg. rating 6.59.

[PeterPistola]

If you enclose the url of the picture in the img tags ie : "" it should show up straight away.

Oh I tried what you said but it wouldn't show the picture, which is why the link is there to click on. I use photobucket on my mac, should I use something else perhaps ??? Apologise this isn't La Viola related but, I'd be able to help you guys out with your teams screenshots as I'm 4 seasons in.

[tyro]

I'm sorry man, cannot help you with pictures. Don't use any myself.

Here's a bit of an early analysis of my Goalkeepers. Let's see if my purchase of Begovic is as good in reality as on paper:

Player - GamesPlayed - Conceded - CleanSheets - 1GoalConceded - 2+GoalsConceded

Neto 23 26 7 10 6

Begovic 8 9 3 1 4

So, in the 8 games he played, he already managed 3 clean sheets but at the same time he conceded a lot of goals. However, the "bad" games for him were in the beginning so far. It is still too early to tell. Neto was actually not bad looking at the numbers but, from watching both in game, I can say that Begovic is definitely better. Neto let in "easy" goals while Begovic has already had brilliant saves. After the first three games he settled in well. The last game were we got 2 goals was complacency by the defenders rather than Begovic playing badly.

[tyro]

The plot thickens:

Serie A - Livorno (A) - 1-1 (Doria o.g.). First match with the new ME patch. Much, much less shots and generally smoother. One strange thing, Begovic caught the ball and then went behind the line for an own goal. Never seen that before - maybe he lost balance . Fortunately they headed one of my corners into their goal as well. Still, 1-1 nothing to brag about against this team.

EL - 1st KO - RB Salzburg (A) - 5-2 (Savic, Gomez x2, Gonzalo, Fernandez). Great game in which we, as expected, dominated. We should make it to the 2nd KO phase against either Napoli or Lyon unless something goes horribly wrong at home.

Serie A - Sampdoria (H) - 3-1 (o.g., Gomez, Rebic). I realized why Sampdoria is slipping down from 2nd to now 5th. Many of their key players, especially strikers, are injured. However, they bought Leandro Damiao in the winter break. And he scored against me.

Current Table (26 games played)

1. Juventus 58

2. Napoli 55

3. Inter 49

4. Fiorentina 49

5. Lazio 46

6. Sampdoria 46

Gomez is just on fire with 22 goals now. We are top in goals scored with 44 in Serie A. Rossi still out until end of season. Valero also for several weeks. Pizarro about to make a comeback. Cuadrado out for a couple of weeks. I am happy how Rebic has been developing and now with Cuadrado out, and Joaquin out on loan, Ryder is getting his chances on the right side.

My verdict is still out on Begovic. He is still settling in but in all honesty (except for the big games) I haven't seen him "produce" the big saves yet. Livorno was a fluke. The goals against Salzburg was from my right after I put in Fofana, who has no match fitness and is new, so probably not his fault. I hope he can show his performances like in the game against Juventus, Catania, and Atalanta.

[PeterPistola]

The plot thickens:

Serie A - Livorno (A) - 1-1 (Doria o.g.). First match with the new ME patch. Much, much less shots and generally smoother. One strange thing, Begovic caught the ball and then went behind the line for an own goal. Never seen that before - maybe he lost balance . Fortunately they headed one of my corners into their goal as well. Still, 1-1 nothing to brag about against this team.

EL - 1st KO - RB Salzburg (A) - 5-2 (Savic, Gomez x2, Gonzalo, Fernandez). Great game in which we, as expected, dominated. We should make it to the 2nd KO phase against either Napoli or Lyon unless something goes horribly wrong at home.

Serie A - Sampdoria (H) - 3-1 (o.g., Gomez, Rebic). I realized why Sampdoria is slipping down from 2nd to now 5th. Many of their key players, especially strikers, are injured. However, they bought Leandro Damiao in the winter break. And he scored against me.

Current Table (26 games played)

1. Juventus 58

2. Napoli 55

3. Inter 49

4. Fiorentina 49

5. Lazio 46

6. Sampdoria 46

Gomez is just on fire with 22 goals now. We are top in goals scored with 44 in Serie A. Rossi still out until end of season. Valero also for several weeks. Pizarro about to make a comeback. Cuadrado out for a couple of weeks. I am happy how Rebic has been developing and now with Cuadrado out, and Joaquin out on loan, Ryder is getting his chances on the right side.

My verdict is still out on Begovic. He is still settling in but in all honesty (except for the big games) I haven't seen him "produce" the big saves yet. Livorno was a fluke. The goals against Salzburg was from my right after I put in Fofana, who has no match fitness and is new, so probably not his fault. I hope he can show his performances like in the game against Juventus, Catania, and Atalanta.

If I were coahing Fiorentina I'd keep him till end of 1st season then sell. That way he'd most probably have his value higher then begining of game. One thing I can't stand is injury prone players. How is your youth player Leonardo Capezzi coming along ??? He turns into one of the best box to box midfielders. He's already worth £10M in my save and I'm half way through season 4.

[tyro]

Which one? Rossi?

I have to take a look in my save about Capezzi. I think he's on loan somewhere (Eventually, I really have to start paying more attention to my youth players and where they go and how they play).

[PeterPistola]

Yeah Giuseppe Rossi. Love him, incredible player...... Well could've been. Poor bloke has had 3-4 knee reconstructions. Just one of the unlucky ones I guess. I said it pays to have Honda. You cpuld've sold Rossi and play Honda in behind Gomez. Purchase fast, flairy and great technique wingers and just float cross into Gomez all day. I have Ibra in season 4. His stats are still awesome all bar pace. He's got none. Doesn't need it, he's top scorer in the league, and 90% of them have come from headers. Got my wide players float crossing into him at the near post. Deadly combo. And if you were to purchase Cerri he's incredible in the air as well. 18 for headers and 17 for jumping reach. With a height of 191cm. The Italian Drogba.

Bit late probably now for you, but worth having a look into. Yeah Capezzi is a real gun, I missed out on him and I could get now but I have 5 star regens in my midfield. He wouldn't feature at all.

[tyro]

I looked up Capezzi. Out on loan but injured for 4 weeks. My scouts rate him 1 star still but his stats for a b2b are already decent. And he has 3 more stars to develop.

[PeterPistola]

Promte him to your first team mate. He won't dissapoint.

[tyro]

I will see how he looks like at the end of the season. I was starting to look for a box to box midfielder anyways so he might be a great and cheap option if he is developed enough.

I am not renewing Ambrosini's contract. Pizarro's I renewed but he was again out so long. Might move him on. I need to see all the players coming back from loan and evaluate what I need.

Played the home game against Salzburg 2-3 (de Zeeuw, Gomez) - aggregate 7-5. I think my guys got really complacent after 2-0 up. 2nd KO round against Lyon who beat Napoli.

[PeterPistola]

Should keep Ambrosini, he's fantastic with tutoring.

[Seule]

Apologies for not responding recently, been busy RL haven't had a huge amount of time to play. On the topic of Capezzi, yeah I would keep him for at least a year or two to see how he turns out, he looks like he's going to be pretty solid on my save, he's already worked his way into the first team squad in season 2. And don't forget you'll need those homegrown players for the European squads if you make it.

I've also used Salifu in my save after he finished his first season loan, same thing, does a job, nice and cheap. I didn't keep Ambrosini around, but peter is absolutely right, if you can, he is an amazing tutor.

Hoping to get to play a few games this weekend

And the injury prone players : yeah, they annoy me too, I keep Rossi simply cause I like him RL, actually had the chance to get Jovetic back from Man City, but he's injury prone too, and as much as I would love to have him back in the side, it's just too much money for a guy who's going to be on the treatment table a lot.

[tyro]

I haven't played much lately and when I have I was playing my FMC game with Wolfsburg. I might get back into this now. I will see about Ambrosini. I don't know his wages of the top of my head. If they aren't too high, I might keep him as a tutor-backup type.

[Ranquelme]

Currently midway through my first season with Fiorentina..

5th in the table but level on points with 4th and 3rd, one point behind second and two behind leaders Napoli. I only play with one up front so Rossi and Gomez rotate, Cuadrado is a little disappointing unlike Joaquin who racks up so many assists with his crosses. Matias Fernandez also is very good. Signed Balanta in Jan and sold Rodriguez as he wasn't getting games, and Compper. How did you find Neto? He makes a lot of errors for me..

[tyro]

Neto was actually quite good when I used him. You can see his statistics for my save further up. But, just from watching the matches, there were some games, when I thought he gave away the goal quite easily and should have saved. My biggest problem with him was him complaining about the "average" training workload. I cannot stand players who can't keep up with a normal training's routine.

[Seule]

I found Neto ok too, but I never felt completely comfortable with him, there were times where like Tyro said, you just felt he should have done better. I replaced him first chance I had, and he'll be leaving my team at the end of second season. I like my backup keepers to be homegrown just to fill the requirements for Europe and now that I have Begovic he is no longer first choice. I've actually just managed to get a good ways through toward the end of my second season, I should comfortably win the league, although I was just knocked out of the CL by PSG I'll do up a post at the end of the season, less because I should win the league, and more to look at the development of some of the younger players at the end of my second season. Wolski and Rebic in particular have really stepped up this season for me, and Capezzi is coming along well too.

[tyro]

I keep playing different saves but yesterday I continued my Fiorentina save again. I missed those guys.

As mentioned in my previous post, we beat Salzburg on aggregate and set up Lyon for the 2nd knock out round.

Serie A Results

Lazio (A): 1-0. We were quite evenly matched with us the more likely team to score throughout the game. Klose was a ghost through efficient marking from Gonzalo and Savic and it looked like we would take the lead several times. Alas, in the 92nd minute, as I had switched off, so had my players, and Floccari received a very nicely played lobbed pass overhead and beat his marker for a one on one with Begovic who stood no chance.

Chievo (H): 3-1 (Gomez x3). Gomez, Gomez, Gomez. Always Gomez. What to do without him? Chievo played a very narrow formation 4-3-2-1 and I obliged and played very narrow as well and pushed up high. It denied them any space and we had over 60% possession. But they were a resilient bunch. Constantly blocking and defending my shots. Until Tomovic delivered a truly brilliant cross into the penalty box, and at it seemed straight at the defender, when out of nowhere Gomez appeared and slotted it home. Quite a bit later, Gomez received a pass from Cuadrado on the right flank and then dribbled, and dribbled, and dribbled, shot at the goalie, who blocked it, the defender missed it, and Gomez tried again and found the net this time around. The third was just as brilliant when a pass from Pasqual found Gomez again. Towards the end we got a bit complacent and they got one back. Gomez got his hat-trick and sits now with a total of 26 goals scored for the season.

Serie A Table (28 games played)

1. Juventus 62

2. Napoli 56

3. Inter 52

4. Fiorentina 52

5. Lazio 49

I think the 65 point target seems very realistic at this point. I actually want to aim for 3rd and maybe push for 2nd if possible. All depends on the remaining games. Rossi is still out for months, and Valero also has a long term injury. Cuadrado just made it back for the game against Chievo and Pizarro is back in training after a long injury. This means I have almost my entire squad ready for the last games.

Here are my next games: Lyon (H), Milan (A), Lyon (A)

Serie A Fixtures remaining:

Milan (A) - tough game, we won at home 2-1 but they dominated

Torino (H) - we won away 2-1 so this should bring us 3 points

Udinese (A) - an away game but we won 3-1 at home

Sassuolo (A) - we scrapped a 1-0 win at home

Napoli (H) - lost terribly 1-4 away, time to set things right, and their form is slipping a bit

Bologna (A) - we won 2-0 at home, should be 3 points

Genoa (H) - we won 3-1 away, again 3 points

Roma (H) - they made it 0-1 away, so we should win this one

Inter (A) - they are in great form right now, tough, tough game

Verona (H) - they just won 1-2 away, at home I should win

For fans of some numbers (Serie A):

Total Games played: 28

Wins: 16

Draws: 4

Losses: 8

Goals For: 47

Goals Against: 29

Goal Difference +18

[Ranquelme]

I never got much out of Gomez, sold him back to Bayern in the summer before the second season for £40m. Rossi into the second season started to decline and pick up injuries which is a shame.

[Chr1s Lawson]

Started a Fiorentina save too with the aim being to utilize the 3-5-2/5-3-2. Team atm is:

Gk: Storari 100k got rid of Neto & Munua

df: Rodriguez

df: Bellusci £1.2m

df: Savic/tomovic

wbr: Cuadrado

wbl: Pasquale

cm: Valero

cm: Ambrosini

amc: Ilicic

st: Rossi

st: Gomez

got rid of a few players i don't particularly like Aquilani £10m Commper £1m Vargas £1m as well as the keepers to fund moves for mainly prospects with the exception of Storari who is a solid keeper & Rigoni who is a solid performer. Other ins were Pugliese, Pezzi (atalanta) Rugani, Bellusci, Gomez (Argentinos).

Long term vision is to have a strong Italian core with a splattering of Argentinians who always adapt well to Italian Football.

[tyro]

Good luck on your save. Seems the 3-5-2 is definitely a good option for this team.

As for my save, I continued the next 3 games and things didn't go really well.

Lyon (H) - 1-1 (Gomez). We played really well and held them in their half constantly. Gomez scored an amazing header from a cross from Cuadrado. I pushed for the 2-0 because I wanted to make sure we go to the next round. So I kept my defensive line pushed up and in the end, in the last 5 minutes, when my defenders became tired, it punished us. Lacazette found a through ball and ran one on one at Begovic and scored. This gave them an away goal, which would come back to haunt us.

Milan (A) - 1-4 (Gonzalo). This was never going to be an easy game. Milan won the last 5 of their games and started picking up even though they were at a lowly 13th place in the league at the moment. They just punished us over and over. In addition, Gomez picked up an injury, and Gonzalo got us a consolation goal.

Lyon (A) - 0-0. Well out of Euro League. They just sat back and defended. I had no Gomez and Rossi was also out injured. Rebic was my starter. We had many chances but maybe due to nervousness or lack of creativity we didn't score. And we had to score. They were happy with a 0-0 draw due to the away goal.

9 more games to go in Serie A to salvage the season and hopefully get at least EL again or maybe even CL.

Fortunately, the other teams close to us in the table didn't play well either, except for Inter:

29 played

Juventus 63

Napoli 56

Inter 55

Fiorentina 52

Lazio 50

Sampdoria 50

Will Inter catch Juventus even? They seem certain to take 2nd with Napoli on a really poor run. Lazio and Sampdoria are breathing down our necks. Next up Torino, Udinese, Sassuolo - hopefully 3 wins to get to 61 points.

Tough games ahead - Napoli (H), Roma (H), Inter (A).

I would say 20 more points are definitely possible. At least another 12 points.

[PeterPistola]

Another potential gun Italian midfielder is Mario Pugliese of Atalanta. Sensational box to box midfielder. I'm in 2019 and he's in my squad. Awesome stats physically and work rate and team work is also high as well. He's a 4 star potential and he's currently 3.5 at the moment. Currently worth over £15M. For smaller clubs starting out like you guys with The Viola, definitely look into him.

[Chr1s Lawson]

8 games left to go in a strange season that has me 3 points clear of Cagliari at the top of Serie A and 5 clear of Atalanta with Juve a further point back in 4th.

Mainly used 5-3-2 wing backs but have recently been forced into 4-5-1 due to injuries and crap form of Gomez who has been utter toss all season.

Been giving Leo Capezzi regular subs appearances and occasional starts against weaker teams to aid his development, has av rating of just above 7 which im extremely pleased with.

Brought in Jorginho in Jan for £3.9m because Ambrosini spends most of his time injured, but his performances have not been better than ok! Highest av raring is Valero on about 7.25 closely followed be Savic & Bellusci both 7.20. Rossi has 18 goals (12 in league), despite league standing ive been struggling to get the best out of the strikers.

In semis of Euro Cup and due to play Saint Etienne so hope to progress there.

Like I said its been a strange season so far because I feel the level my team is playing at is more befitting a top 8 club and not a title challenger but I keep grinding out results! Whatever happens this season I hope and expect to have better individual performances next season!

[tyro]

Very nice season for you so far.

I think confidence is a major factor for the strikers in this version - more than previous ones. Gomez, for me, has been constantly scoring so he is really my go to man but Rossi had troubles and bad luck in the beginning and then went on a long run of no goals because of exactly that - confidence - he kept missing easy chances, penalties, hit the woodwork and so on. He then finally started scoring until he got injured, of course.

How are you playing Gomez? I have had success with him as a Target Man Attack, Advanced Forward, and Complete Forward Attack. Even though the assistant recommends a poacher role, I have had no success with him as such as he is too static. He is not creative enough for the other roles really.

[Chr1s Lawson]

I've played him mainly as TM but also experimented with poacher without much luck. He has 11 goals in all comps and a really low av rating. With my formation change ive started dropping him in favour of Rossi on his own up front supported by Rebic and Joaquin from the flanks.

[tyro]

Probably due to low confidence. If you have the chance play some friendlies against weak teams and let him play. Hopefully he will score a couple. Once he starts scoring he will have confidence and find the net even in competitive games and when the chance isn't as clear.

[Chr1s Lawson]

Finished the season as Champs ahead of Cagliari and Juve and took home Euro cup as well against Schalke.

Got an unbelievable budget of £49m based on challenging for title further supplemented by the sales of Gomes £13.5m my half of Cuadrado £15m and Tomovic £5m. Got to serious work in transfer market by signing Candreva £13m pereyra from relegated Udinese £7m Sassuolo's half of Berardi £7.5m Vergini on a free from Argentini ( what a physical beast btw) and Gino Peruzzi £22m. That's my budget completely gone.

My team is now much stronger and has now changed to 4-5-1 permanently.

[tyro]

good luck in the new season. nice signings.

[Chr1s Lawson]

Cheers, almost forgot Marco Veratti £8m. Best 11 going into this season.

gk: Storari

dr: peruzzi

dc: bellusci

dc: savic

dl: pasquale

mc: veratti

mc: perreyra

mc: Valero

amr: candreva

aml: Rebic

st: Rossi.

Will have to see how it pans out but im a little concerned about the lack of a bwm in the centre, Veratti could do it and i also still rigoni and Jorginho as back ups.

[Ranquelme]

I had to sell Savic to Barcelona for £27m. Rebic to PSG for £30m. My squad currently:

GK - Ruilli as first choice. Lezzerini as back up

RB - Tomovic or De Silvestre

CB - Balanta/Dede/Doria/Marquinhos

LB - Alonso/Santon

DM - Salifu/Kofi Agyei/Guilavogui

CM - Verrati/Capezzi

RW - Cuadrado/Berardi

AM - De Bruyne

LW - Vitinho/Regen

Str - Rossi/Regen

I have 4 regen strikers who have PA of over 160.. not sure what's in the water in Florence but I get ridiculously good strikers. A couple are on loan at Wolves and are ripping up the Championship at the age if 17/18

[adumr]

This thread totally turned around my Fiorentina save. I was struggling mid table playing 4-2-3-1 but on reading this I switched to 5-3-2 and have been so impressed by the changes. I ended up finishing my first season 3rd after figuring out my best shouts and my second season has Started well.

My question is what do other people do with Mario Gomez? He was player of the year for my first season but then the goals dried up. He's not getting assists. He's almost dead wait. And what's crazy Macheda is free scoring for me when he gets playing time but I have to keep leaving him out. I have him set as a target man alongside a False 9 and ahead of a Treq. How have others found Gomez?

GK Romero

RCB Rodriguez

CB Caulker

LCB Mussachio

RWB - Fabio/De Silvestre

LWB - Pasqual/Alonso

CM - De Rossi

CM - Valero

AM - Rossi

CF - Gomez

CF - Paloschi/Macheda

I only got £11.25m for savic but got a good deal on Caulker as a replacement who has been fantastic.

[Seule]

Yeah I think Gomez is an oddity, I got him to finish top goalscorer my first season but I think that was more luck than anything, and I've managed to offload him before the start of season 3. He's really not what I would consider a "flexible" player, he finishes chances, that's it. If your tactic gives him a good number of opportunities, with a bit of luck his finishing stats are really good and he'll score, but outside of that, he doesn't give you much. The other strikers listed in this thread, the likes of Rossi, Rebic, even guys like Cerri and Paloschi can at least carve out a few opportunities for themselves, Gomez can't, I mean, his dribbling and passing are less than 10.

From a team point of view, I don't like paying that big of a wage for a player like that, hence why I took the first chance to get rid of him that came along, even though he was scoring a boatload of goals for me. I just think other players will score the same amount of goals, for a lot less money haha.

[adumr]

Well I have got round to finishing my second season with Fiorentina and we absolutely stormed Serie A. In the second half of the season Gomez absolutely destroyed all opposition much to my surprise. The first half we were defensively solid and picking up wins but as I said before Gomez was not getting the goals he had the previous season. The change came when I changed my midfield pairing in an attempt to control the game a little more. I had used a ball winning midfielder (De Rossi) with an advanced playmaker (Valero) but I decided to drop Valero back to a deep lying playmaker and suddenly Gomez was getting hat trick after hat trick. We finished with the both the best defensive and attacking record in the league and has really increased my love for 5-3-2.

The problem I have now in my preseason for my 3rd year is I have lost De Rossi back to Roma, I had managed to acquire the 50% playing share of him the year before due to Roma getting relegated but on promotion they outbid me to get him back. Gomez is now 30, despite being Europe's Golden Boot winner his value is starting to decrease and his finishing has dipped from 18 to 17. And I'm struggling to bring in people that would give me even as good a squad as I had the year before, let alone better it. My Director of Football keeps trying to buy wingers, despite me not using them also. I am beginning to fear its going to be a difficult 3rd season.

I've brought in Ronaldinho as a player coach, Douglas Costa has come in to compete with Valero and Ryder, Cristieg has come in to compete with Defour for my BWM spot both based on performances in previous years but this is where I regret my purchases and feel I'm weakest, and finally Rescaldani as a new centre forward. None of those have the quality of De Rossi or Gomez on form. But to quote Fergie, there has just been no value in the market.

[youngrookie]

noticed some people are worried about the performances and future attributes change of Neto. I too was worried and so, from minute one, looked to offload him, preferably a transfer. But no one wanted him accept on loan. He went to udinese for the season. I have had 2 great brazilian keepers on FM14 in 2 different saves, Jeffersson I got on a free for my newcastle team and was first choice for me until 38 yrs old. I,ve also used Rafael on my napoli save and was out standing too. Never used Reina once, sent him back to Liverpool.

Anyway i just wanted to say that i,ve got a fiorentina save going and im in the first season. I felt i needed a keeper and wanted to go for some one new. I remembered a south african gk from FM13 who would always turn out brilliant and could get for cheap. Khune is his name and he has be excellent for me. picked him up for 450k and he's now worth 7.5m in Jan 14 with 12 conceded in 25 games (14 clean sheets) 6.87 rating. Would recommend him for sure. very reliable and great shot stopper and only 26yrs old

[youngrookie]

hello everyone, thought i'd share with you my fiorentina save which is currently in jan 15th 2014 and going pretty well. The football is good, if not spectacular but has got me good results. Starting squad is good and what i like to do when starting out is to improve depth of squad with 3/4/5 players rather than 1/2 top notch players.

bought in Dos santos first on loan but now for 2m, Antonelli again first on loan but now 1.6m. Khune for a bargin 350k as my first choice gk, Reveillere for free, Benayoun for free, Dudka also for free. In january I also nabbed Rosales on loan, Gonalons on loan as well as Cudicini for free. Overall cost 3.94m

Sold aquilani in january for 3.9m and Olivera to in january for 200k. Other players were either released or sent out on loan for minimal fees. 4.13m in.

I play 4-4-1-1 with standard and balanced set up. Here are the roles of the formation. GK(D), FBR(D),CDR©,CDL(D),FBL(A). WR(A),CMR(S),CML(DLP D),WL(WM S). AMC(ADV P S). ST(ADV F A). I also have some individual player instructions within the tactic. Team instructions do vary depending on the situation, but mainly I start with "push higher up", "work ball into box", "shorter passing", "play out of defence" and "play narrower".

so my squad looks like this so far.

GK's - khune and Cudicini

defence - Reveillere, Rosales, Antonelli, Pasqual, Rodriquez, Savic, Tomovic, Roncaglia,

midfield - Gonalons, Dos santos, Benayoun, Dudka, Ambrossini, Pizzaro, Capezzi, Ryder, Ilicic, Valero, Joaquin, Cuadrado and Fernandez

strikers - Gomez, Rossi, Rebic

Lge record

played 19, won 14, lost 1 and drawn 4. For 29 and 10 against. Pts 46. lazio are 2nd 40, Napoli 3rd 36, Inter 35 and Juve 35 too. So a bit tight and by no means a cert that i will win the league. i dont score a bundle but I dont concede much and that is how i like my teams to play. Always hard to break down and nip a goal or 2. Happy to win 1/2 nill that 6-2.

Europa lge is fine (easy). got Nice in first knockout round.

Player performances of note have been Khune (12 conceded in 28 with 17 clean sheets) and Gomez up front with 24 in 26 games.

thats it so far and am looking forward to the rest of the season.

Oh and if someone could put up a screen shot of Gomez end of season 2 or near that mark please. Im a bit concerned on what sort of decline he has and when. He is an out and out goal getter and offers nothing else, plus i hate having a player on 100k plus. Also does Rossi ever play 30+ games????????????? Thanks

[youngrookie]

so heres an end of season quick report

won the league by 15pts to 2nd place Napoli. finished on 85pts, scoring 60 and conceding only 24.

knocked out of europa lge by Nice on away goals and by Napoli in the semis, also on away goals in coppa italia.

Top goal scorer was Gomez with 40 in 49 appearances (adv f). My second goal scorer was with very distant 10 (Rossi)

Rossi, when able to play (boy is made of glass i swear) is class in the F9 role and really had a good end to the season.

second season i have changed formation to a 4-1-3-2 narrow standard/balanced.

i have signed - Gonalons, Coates, Corchia, Helenious, Rosales, Vydra, Alex (36yr old Brazilian), Vargas and just 3 newgens. All these for 20.5m.

Sold - Tomovic was only player of note. Got 2.7m for my share of Cuadrado. Total player income 9.82m

Have reduced weekly wage bill too.

have a bank balance of 17m as of august 4th 2014 and should increase.

have good squad and say only one superstar (gomez, 24.5m) but am happy with the depth, 2 comfortable players for each position.

Am looking for a title challenge and at least a champs lge knockout stage place.