FM16: Manchester United Back in Europe

[BharadwajNaidu]

Have the rules been changed about Affiliate club loan players.. Didnt send any till my third season as I did not have any affiliate clubs to loan them out but now that I have loaned them .. I cant recall them in the middle which I could do on earlier FM versions .. I sent them to affiliate loan through my assistant in the backroom advice screen.

[Cooke]

I ended up using a kinda different approach than most people here.

Season 1 (2015/2016)

The basic thought at the beginning of the season was that ManU has really good players for a system with 3 CB which LVG also tried to establish at Old Trafford. Furthermore, I did not want to make any oversea wonderkind signings since this would not match my philosophy.

Major Transfers: Only Dragovic from Kiev (22,5 Mio. €) for the first team, Jorge Mere (loaned him out straight away), Andre Dozzel and Reece Oxford for the second team. Only sold Valdes in the January transfer window for 3 Mio. to Everton.

Premier League: We struggled, we struggled a lot, especially in the beginning when a system was yet to be found. Nonetheless, I am quite content with the result, ending up 3rd behind Chelsea and champions Man City.

Champions League: It was an rather unfortunate campaign, being thrown out in the quarter finals by later champions Juventus due to the away goal rule. If we defended a little bit better we would have easily advanced to the semi finals.

Capital One Cup: Thrown out by Tottenham in the 4th round. I did not mind since we had some more breaks and the board did not either.

FA Cup: The competition that started in January 2016 which was a big advantage for us since the results became better and better since November. We had quite an easy run to the final, only facing Leicester and Newcastle as stronger opponents. In the final itself we have beaten Everton with 3-2, much to the delight of the fans, the board and - of course - myself. WINNERS!

Season 2 (2016/2017)

Transfers after season 1:

OUT: Carrick for free (great player, but becoming older and older), Dragovic for 44,5 Mio. to Barca (left me no choice, wanted to leave), Blind for 42,5 Mio. to Arsenal (didnt fit in the system, too slow), Rooney for 40 Mio. to Chelsea (too many injuries, complaining a lot, aging), Darmian for 30,5 Mio. to Real Madrid (left me no choice, wanted to leave), Ashley Young for 25 Mio. to Barca (showed some good performances, but injured for quite a long time and not becoming younger either), Schweinsteiger for 20 Mio. to Barca (needed some new faces, some injuries), Januzaj for 17,5 Mio. to Lazio (in the end not good enough), Romero for 12,5 Mio. to Sampdoria (only need De Gea), Mc Nair for 11,5 Mio. to Palace (in the end not good enough, showed some bad performances), Pereira for 10,25 Mio. to Sheffield Wednesday (same as Januzai), and Lingard, Blackett, Johnstone, Keane and Varela each for less than 10 Mio.

IN: William Carvalho for 45 Mio. from Sporting (release clause, great DLP), James Ward-Prowse for 42,5 Mio. from Southampton (replacement for Darmian, should do for a good WM (S)), Stefan De Vrij for 40 Mio. from Lazio (great BPD), Breel Embolo for 20 Mio. from Basel (replacement for Rooney), Frederico Dimarco for 17,5 Mio. from Inter (replacement for Young, actually wanted Gaya for 50 Mio. but he wanted the hell of a contract and ended up at City), Julian Weigl for 11 Mio. from Dortmund (transfer listed, replacement for Schweinsteiger/Carrick), and some signings for the future (Passlack in the January transfer window for 16,75 Mio., Lincoln (my only oversea player, he was just way too good) for 9 Mio. from Gremio and tow New Gens who might play a role in the squad some years later)

Squad for Season 2:

GK - De Gea, Savic

CD - Jones, Smalling, De Vrij, Rojo (couldnt get rid of him), Oxford, Fosu-Mensah

DM - Weigl, Carvalho

LM - Shaw, Dimarco

ZM - Fellaini, Schneiderlin

RM - Valencia (great player), Ward-Prowse

AMC - Mata, Herrera

ST - Martial, Depay, Embolo, Wilson

Premier League: We played such a good season but somehow, we ****ed up. Okay, not totally, but we couldnt become champions and ended up 2nd behind Chelsea. Whos to blame? Good question, as I said we played most of the time really well, but had to take some stupid losses (e.g. Burnley) and two draws against winners Chelsea after which nobody understood how Chelsea could score even once. Moreover, I realised too late in the season that I may never ever substitute De Vrij in order to rest him (giving away a 2 goal lead two times after that). So I guess we will just have to come back next time and do better.

Champions League: Won the group stage with Shaktar, Gladbach and Salzburg, defeated Leverkusen in the first knockout round 4-2 on aggregate, defeated Feyenoord in the quarter finals 2-0 on aggregate and then we had to face Barca. We had to play at Camp Nou first and although the game was quite even, individual quality succeeded and defeated us 3-0. I was speechless since we played really well and tried to encourage the players to show the world how good we actually are. Even twenty minuites after the end of the game the applause for our team did not fade, yet we did not manage to overcome the defeat in the first leg. Nonetheless, we dominated Barca completely and defeated them 2-0. If the game lasted only 10 minuites longer I swear we would have made it into extra time. Well, we will be around next time. In the final Real defeated Barca with 2-1.

FA Cup: Nothing good to report here either, deservedly defeated by Arsenal with 0-1 in the 5th round.

Capital One Cup: Usually, we tend to score a lot of goals, but not this time. We were defeated by Everton in the semi finals with 1-0 on aggregate.

Preperations for season 3 (2017/2018)

With an heavy heart I decided its about time to change something in the sqaud. All players played well but we continuesly failed in the important games. Furthermore, the sqaud needed some fresh blood. So Fellaini (22,5 Mio. AC Milan), Rojo (22,5 Mio. Monaco - wanted to get rid of him anyway, Herrera (50 Mio. Tottenham ) and Mata (60 Mio. Barca :( ) had to leave. Terefore only Özil (23,5 Mio. (!)) came in for the first team, the rest will be filled up with our talents. So the sqaud is as follows:

GK - De Gea, Savic

DC - Jones, Smalling, De Vrij, Oxford, Mere, Fosu-Mensah

DM - Carvalho, Weigl

LM - Shaw, Dimarco

ZM - Schneiderlin, Dozzel

RM - Ward-Prowse, Passlack, Valencia (he got injured in the pre season for several months)

AMC - Özil, Lincoln

ST - Martial, Depay, Embolo, Wilson

Still got more than 470 Mio. to spend but I will refrain to do so. This is my way and it will finally lead the club to glory again. What do you think, can we do some titles this year?

Edit Update: Great news! Its just September 5th and Özil getting injured on international duty for 4-5 months

[Mike1987]

My second season is going very nicely, Champions league is my goal this season as i lost the final 2-1 to Chelsea in my 1st in a game i dominated which still irritates me, Hopefully will soon break Arsenals all time unbeaten league record of 49 (currently 40 unbeaten i think) and match their 'invincible' season although i still have a couple of tricky aways to come.

Update:

http://imageshack.com/a/img633/8903/pfYOiv.png

If not for Norwich getting a 91st minute equalizer against me id currently have 30 wins in a row in all competitions stretching over nearly 6 months, Norwich!

Got Bayern Munich in the semis of the champions league and Chelsea in the final of the Fa Cup, i owe Chelsea big time theyve beaten me in both cup games at neutral venues although 1 was the community shield.

Oh and Andrija Zivkovic has to be the best buy in football manager history considering he costs about 2 million and is only 19 at the start of the game, hes basically a serbian Messi.

[Mike1987]

Its games like this that really annoy me, the one major criticism i have of this game is the ridiculous number of times the Ai teams score with their only attempt/Attempts on target whilst you hammer them for 90 mins and get crumbs like in the game above, it happens too often, im lucky that usually i score 3 or 4 so the opposition scoring with their only attack often doesnt cause any issue but the regularity in which ill dominate a game then the AI has 1 attack and scores after ive had 20 and havent is highly irritating.

Is anyone else finding the number of offsides on this years version excessive? ill probably average something like 10-20 a game which is incredible to me and it makes no difference if i put my forwards on support duties in drop deep roles like deep lying forward etc my forwards still get caught offside a ridiculous amount.

Anyway got my work cut out getting past Bayern now after that farce of a first leg where they deserved nothing whatsoever, will probably get similiar treatment in the return so not holding out much hope. On a Happier note ive won the league still unbeaten 2 games to go, Martials broken Coles all time league top scorer record of 34 (hes currently on 36) and ive broken Chelseas points record of 95 (currently 98) just 2 to go to match Arsenals invincible season and 5 to beat their all time record of 49 undefeated. (watch me get Chelsea, City and Arsenal away in my first 3 games next season!)

[Mattyboy89]

End of Season 1

Decided I would go all out I was given a transfer budget of just over 90mil.

Transfers in: Laporte £30M, Pogba £82M, Berardi £31M, Zivkovic 850K Gotze £41M, Felipe Anderson £25M, Higuain £45M, Barbosa £15M & Bentancur £4M Total £215M

Transfers out: Fellani £17.5M, Herrera £19.75M, Blind £23.5M, Rooney £37M, Mata 22.5M, Valdes £1.2M, Valencia £21M & Young £18.25M Total £160.7M

Why was Mata sold for so little? After my first season, Barca came in for him and stumpted up £60m.

[Mike1987]

End of my 2nd season basically a repeat of the first won the League and Fa Cup double but fell short in the Champions league frustratingly again, home leg against Bayern killed me utter domination yet ended 1-1 second leg was a drab 0-0 i couldnt break them down. Still delighted with my league season am 46 unbeaten now just 3 behind Arsenal and 37 unbeaten in all comps since i lost the last group game to Shakhtar back in November. Gonna be a hard season to follow but i really need to win the champions league its frustratingly eluded me so far.

Have deals for Neymar and James Rodriguez done as well as Lincoln from Gremio so theyll all join in July, will probably sell Depay if i get a decent offer as Neymar will take his place even though hes been good hes not been amazing.

Irritatingly ive somehow managed to retrain Dybala as an AMC/Attacking midfielder because i needed a Mata replacement last summer when Madrid came and i couldnt resist 64 million for him and couldn't get any of the replacements i wanted last year (Rodriguez and Ozil werent interested at the time and Erikssen got a 3 month injury) so i went for Dybala as his stats looked excellent for the role anyway and knowing long term id sign Rodriguez and move him up front in place of Martial. Yet it appears a season playing at AMC has made him a natural in that position and role and whilst hes still rates as a natural striker hes now only competent in any striker role i give him.. not quite sure how that works but hey ho hoping playing him regularly up front as a complete forward he'll get that back up.

[Sampa]

I'm now midway through 2017/18 season, season 3. I made my new tactic, a 41221 narrow formation and it is destroying the competition. Had a slow start as it needed tweaking and working out the kinks, leading to 1 loss and 3 draws in my first 4 league games, and yet again for the third season in a row I was knocked out the league cup at the first hurdle.

But it's 1st Jan 2018 now, I'm 7 points ahead of City at the top of the Prem. Lukaku is top scorer in the prem with 15 goals in 16 apps, 18 in 20 overall. Eriksen has most assists in the league with 9. Came out top of an easy CL group, avoiding a giant with my 2nd seed and have drawn Galatasaray in the 1st knockout round.

Pastore was the only player in the first 11 of the World Team of the Year (he's outperforming our reigning player of the year Ozil, in this new setup, keeping him out of the first 11). Somehow Lukaku didn't make it. Barbosa was chosen with his 26 goals in 43 games, compared to Romelu's 41 goals in 46, and a higher average rating. Mario Fernandes was also on the subs. Somehow Rulli beat De Gea to a place on the subs.

Hoping for the board to give me more money for the Jan transfer window. Though I'm hoping for a big bid for Darmian, so I can bring in better fullbacks to cover Mario and Luke Shaw (who is destroying right now, even grabbing himself some goals).

Oh and my New Years Day fixture is away to Liverpool - 2-0 up at half time with a brace from monster Romelu Lukaku, of course. -- I won 2-0 and Unai Emery was sacked afterwards. Mario Fernandes has been wanting a new contract, I refused and he is now saying he's going to complain to the media and teammates and make it hell for me... I dropped him for the Liverpool game.

Gave Lukaku a new one though, PSG enquired and couldn't risk him becoming unhappy so gave him a new one. Pogba wants to leave for Madrid, said he'd only stay if I assured him we'd win the CL this season, I did so for now he's happy to stay.

[Jon MUFC]

Hi guys just started a (hopefully) long term save. Going great at home, winning comfortably and scoring lots with a short passing, high pressing control game. However i can't buy a win away - Lost at WBA, Sunderland and CSKA Moscow and it's not even October yet, tried playing on the counter but the deep line sees us get absolutely destroyed! Any advice for a good approach to away games in first season? Thanks!

[Mike1987]

Hi guys just started a (hopefully) long term save. Going great at home, winning comfortably and scoring lots with a short passing, high pressing control game. However i can't buy a win away - Lost at WBA, Sunderland and CSKA Moscow and it's not even October yet, tried playing on the counter but the deep line sees us get absolutely destroyed! Any advice for a good approach to away games in first season? Thanks!

Away games are hard full stop first season when everythings new and your players are still very young and adapting, against the bigger sides away from home try starting with standard mentality, flexible shape, low tempo and retain possession highlighted, the rest depends on how you want your team to play but thats how i generally approach the bigger away games, against the midtable to bottom teams start with control but again with a lower-normal tempo and at first retain posession, then tweak it during the game from there, i find if you start too attacking away from home A it rarely works and B when it usually doesnt it leaves you with nowhere to go, the more solid and patient you set up to start with the more you can attack if needed as the game goes on, where as if you start gung ho and go behind where do you go from there?

Also in combination with the above team instructions try and put as many players on support roles as you can, theres no point telling your team to be patient and solid then have half of them on attacking duties, try and have no more than 3 players on attack duties at first, as your team gets better you can increase that over time.

[midemperor]

I highly recommend using James Wilson.. He has been an absolute beast for his CA and I had to use him considering both Rooney and Martial got 4 month injuries. Was able to score against almost all levels of teams, and contributes well to assists aswell. Helped me beat Real Madrid 4-1 H and 2-1 A.

Also Memphis is a great player when used as an IF on AML. Even using him as a striker sometimes if I'm desperate has worked.

[damo666]

Also Memphis is a great player when used as an IF on AML. Even using him as a striker sometimes if I'm desperate has worked.

Using him this season (2017/18) as a DLF - Support in a front 3:

Played 30

Scored 32

Assists 7

Avg. Rate 8.03

[Jon MUFC]

Away games are hard full stop first season when everythings new and your players are still very young and adapting, against the bigger sides away from home try starting with standard mentality, flexible shape, low tempo and retain possession highlighted, the rest depends on how you want your team to play but thats how i generally approach the bigger away games, against the midtable to bottom teams start with control but again with a lower-normal tempo and at first retain posession, then tweak it during the game from there, i find if you start too attacking away from home A it rarely works and B when it usually doesnt it leaves you with nowhere to go, the more solid and patient you set up to start with the more you can attack if needed as the game goes on, where as if you start gung ho and go behind where do you go from there?

Also in combination with the above team instructions try and put as many players on support roles as you can, theres no point telling your team to be patient and solid then have half of them on attacking duties, try and have no more than 3 players on attack duties at first, as your team gets better you can increase that over time.

Brilliant thanks for the advice. Getting nowhere with counter so a slow and steady away game approach might be the answer. I'll try it!

[Mike1987]

Brilliant thanks for the advice. Getting nowhere with counter so a slow and steady away game approach might be the answer. I'll try it!

No worries mate hope it helps, to me there needs to be a better balance between home and away games on FM, home games are far too straightforward and away games too difficult especially at first.

[Spector]

My first season transfers:

Second season tranfers:

My team squad for 2nd season:

Bayern offered me 36m for Schneiderlin... Not sure If I should take it and is there something I need to add to this squad?

[midemperor]

No worries mate hope it helps, to me there needs to be a better balance between home and away games on FM, home games are far too straightforward and away games too difficult especially at first.

Agreed, I struggled with away games early in my first season just because it was so different to home games, which I didn't expect

[Chase Failey]

Started a new save (as you do) and for one reason or another I sold Mata to Arsenal for around £25m, Rooney ended up kicking off about it so I sold him to Arsenal too for £30m.

I bought Reus for around £50m to cheer myself up (who has been excellent in the ML position) but hit a bit of a snag when it came to CL registration for group stages. Turns out I only had 3 players who'd been at the club for 5 years (or however long it is) from 15 to 21. So I literally couldn't carry on and had to restart

[Mike1987]

Beat Arsenals record! Wasnt a given when the fixtures came out when as expected i got Chelsea first game and my first 2 aways were Tottenham and Liverpool but got through ok:

Still cant beat Liverpool at Anfield though even when i dominate the game to that extent, still was happy to control such a big away game that well just a shame Neymar and Martial both missed sitters and Mignolet got a man of the match rating of 8.4 against me

This is probably my most satisfying result so far simply because for 45 minutes it was the perfect performance and given its an away game im very pleased with how it went.

Anyway as you can see above im in the very early stages of my 3rd season and things are going well, main aim is to win the champions league this season as it has so far eluded me agonizingly in my first 2 attempts, am something like 42 unbeaten in all competitions stretching all the way back to November 2016 when Shakthar bent us over in the final group game of last seasons champions league which was almost a year ago now, tbf it was a dead rubber but still.

Not sure how much longer this save will keep me interested, at the moment i still have the champions league to aim for but if i win that i might lose motivation to play as there isnt much left to do and given my teams quality and age bar regens theres no one out there worth getting that would improve me, probably only Bellerin is someone i could sign who would be a direct upgrade and thats over a player whos had the highest and second highest average rating in my team the first 2 seasons Darmian.

[Sampa]

Start of season 4 - Dybala for 122m or Embolo for 52m? Money is no object, to play AMC and backup FC.

[Mike1987]

Scary to imagine how good this guy is gonna turn out! those stats at 18:eek: Its almost worth playing the game long term purely to see how good he becomes. Got him a fantastic loan with RB Leipzig in the Bundesiliga where hes their 1st choice keeper, getting him regular top level football should do wonders for his development.

[Sampa]

2017/18 Season 3 Review

We ran away with the premiership, it was silly how easy it was. Last season we were running away with it until a team implosion leading to a winless last 6 games in the league. We won with 90 points, Spurs came in second on just 68.

In the Champions League we got an easy group after returning to a second seed team. We came out on top ahead of Dynamo Kiev, Porto and Dinamo. We beat Galatasaray 3-2, AS Monaco 3-2 (tough tie, Ozil won it on 86 minutes), Barcelona 4-1(!) and Atletico Madrid in the final. 2-2 at half time, went to extra time and won on a Mesut Ozil penalty on 104 minutes. I had been resting Lukaku the important semi final and finals I had coming up, so Higuain had a run as the starting striker in the league and he went beserk. Ended up earning starts over my 40+ goal striker Lukaku.

FA Cup we got to the final but lost to Man City 2-1.

League Cup we were knocked out at the first hurdle as has been in every season. To Hull. Again.

Lukaku - Was/is an absolute monster. He scored 33 goals in 31 league appearances. 41 goals in 40(4) total appearances.

Eriksen - Signed him in the summer for 44m after he was always tearing us apart. He had the most assists in the league, and key passes. 20 assists in 35 league appearances. 8.21 average rating in the league. 8.05 overall in 49 appearances.

Luke Shaw - When he's not injured he's incredible.

Summer transfers

IN

Baba Rahman (10m - waiting for a work permit...)

Raphael Varane - 72.5m (after resigning when I tried to get him for more, last season)

Isco - 41.5m (was transfer listed)

Paulo Dybala - 122m(!)

Tried and failed to get Neymar.

OUT

Higuain - 34m (sad, but he's old now, had to cash in)

Memphis - 34m (doesn't fit into my team, only ever had a couple appearances off the bench for me, always was sent on loan)

Pjanic - 38m (didn't perform well enough and was complaining about game time, funded Dybala)

Mayoral - 30m

I keep loaning Martial out, can't get him scoring for me, don't trust him at all! Maybe next season he'll get a chance. Though I might have my eye on Icardi...

Just finished the transfer window - Romelu is already on 8 in 3(1) appearances! 2 hat tricks already. Man beast.

[fatlad86]

Scary to imagine how good this guy is gonna turn out! those stats at 18:eek: Its almost worth playing the game long term purely to see how good he becomes. Got him a fantastic loan with RB Leipzig in the Bundesiliga where hes their 1st choice keeper, getting him regular top level football should do wonders for his development.

how much did you pay for him?

[Mike1987]

how much did you pay for him?

12.5 million at the end of the 1st season.

[fatlad86]

just bought him , £4.5 m 1st season january transfer window

[Zeonflux]

Scary to imagine how good this guy is gonna turn out! those stats at 18:eek: Its almost worth playing the game long term purely to see how good he becomes. Got him a fantastic loan with RB Leipzig in the Bundesiliga where hes their 1st choice keeper, getting him regular top level football should do wonders for his development.

He was my first signing at the very start of the game and cost me around £1.4M, He's Number 2 GK behind De Gea but is always solid for me

[scott MUFC]

there is already a superb youth keeper at united though

[Mike1987]

just bought him , £4.5 m 1st season january transfer window

Thats a steal

[Mike1987]

He was my first signing at the very start of the game and cost me around £1.4M, He's Number 2 GK behind De Gea but is always solid for me

This is him a month after my last screenshot!

At the rate hes going and with De Gea now kicking off because i wont play Ander Herrera over Paul Pogba he'll be my number 1 start of next season at barely 19! i knew that loan was a good one but i didnt expect this kind of improvement so quickly! he has better stats than 90% of keepers on the game already, not sure what the 17 flair values all about though! why is it i have images of that great colombian keeper who did that ridiculous forward dive back-kick thing all those years ago!

[Mike1987]

there is already a superb youth keeper at united though

Savic? hes not developed that well for me tbh.

Tbf to him those are probably highly respectable stats for a 20 year old keeper its just in comparison to Donorumma hes not even close to being as good.

[scott MUFC]

not savic

this guy

[Mike1987]

not savic

this guy

Ahh ok, hes 18 in my game now i think and had a few loans, looks ok but im not sure hes ever going to be 1st team quality and i wanted to buy a young keeper who could replace De gea within a couple of years rather than just have back ups then have to buy a new number 1, that guy will probably end up being my long term number 2 behind Donarumma. De Gea hasnt been that amazing for me and i think FM has underrated his stats especially when you compare him to someone like Joe Hart whos ridiculously overrated on this game.

[Mike1987]

Just come across this Regen whos currently tearing it up in the Barca under 19s, amazing finishing, heading and composure statsfor a 17 year old, in fact theyre better than any of my current strikers! no surprise Barca are having none of selling him ive had bids up to 31 million knocked back...he has a 41 million release clause which id rather not pay for a 17 year old but given im likely to have a huge budget and no one to spend it on anyway im considering it, not sure what to do though yay or nay?

[Welshace]

What is his potential and his 3 cons listed on his report?

[Unitedred]

How are you guys finding De Gea? he's been immense in some of my games, but I'm into my second save on fm16, and some games, it's like he just can't be bothered, so I've rotated with Valdes, and we lost to Roma 3-0, and I swear valdes was lay down for the full 90 minutes -.-

I'm switching between a primary attacking 442 after stuffing Everton 6-0 at OT, but the game straight after, we draw 3-3 with Villa, Tactics have never been my strong point, but I want one that accomodates Martial as I can see big things coming from him, plus

Memphis = For some reason, has been completly ruined in FM16, in 15, the guy scored 45+ a season for me, I'll be lucky if he scores 5 for me this season

Rooney = Can't shift him, no one will touch him, even at £7.5m xD

Wilson = On loan, hoping he becomes the new Rooney, barring the attitude and dreadful hair transplants

Higuain = Injured for 4 months

Perez = This guy has spells of brilliance, scored 3 for me against Everton, currently AWOL in the goals department though

[Mike1987]

What is his potential and his 3 cons listed on his report?

When i get back from work ill boot FM up and look but i know 1 of his cons is Barcelona being unwilling to sell him.

Ok heres his report:

[Mike1987]

How are you guys finding De Gea? he's been immense in some of my games, but I'm into my second save on fm16, and some games, it's like he just can't be bothered, so I've rotated with Valdes, and we lost to Roma 3-0, and I swear valdes was lay down for the full 90 minutes -.-

I'm switching between a primary attacking 442 after stuffing Everton 6-0 at OT, but the game straight after, we draw 3-3 with Villa, Tactics have never been my strong point, but I want one that accomodates Martial as I can see big things coming from him, plus

Memphis = For some reason, has been completly ruined in FM16, in 15, the guy scored 45+ a season for me, I'll be lucky if he scores 5 for me this season

Rooney = Can't shift him, no one will touch him, even at £7.5m xD

Wilson = On loan, hoping he becomes the new Rooney, barring the attitude and dreadful hair transplants

Higuain = Injured for 4 months

Perez = This guy has spells of brilliance, scored 3 for me against Everton, currently AWOL in the goals department though

De Gea has been ok for me and nothing more considering hes on 200k a week and supposed to be one of the best if not the best in the game hes underwhelmed to say the least. As said above i think hes underrated in FM especially when you compare him to the likes of Hart who shouldnt be anywhere near as good yet always has amazing games against me. The number of times ill have shot after shot and every opposition keeper i face makes brilliant save after brilliant save then the opposition have 1 shot on target and score against me also isnt helping my opinion of him, now that may just be FM rather than De Gea specifically but either way its annoying. Considering hes also a bit of a whiny **** because his mate Herrera isnt happy and has a short term plan of wanting to play abroad im seriously considering selling him at the end of my 3rd season getting his huge contract off the wage bill and giving Donorumma the number 1 shirt.

[Unitedred]

De Gea has been ok for me and nothing more considering hes on 200k a week and supposed to be one of the best if not the best in the game hes underwhelmed to say the least. As said above i think hes underrated in FM especially when you compare him to the likes of Hart who shouldnt be anywhere near as good yet always has amazing games against me. The number of times ill have shot after shot and every opposition keeper i face makes brilliant save after brilliant save then the opposition have 1 shot on target and score against me also isnt helping my opinion of him, now that may just be FM rather than De Gea specifically but either way its annoying. Considering hes also a bit of a whiny **** because his mate Herrera isnt happy and has a short term plan of wanting to play abroad im seriously considering selling him at the end of my 3rd season getting his huge contract off the wage bill and giving Donorumma the number 1 shirt.

I've got Donorumma coming in January, hoping to ship him out to a good side where he can play a good amount of games, those ratings he has got are enough for me to consider him a long term replacement to De Gea. I do like De Gea, one game stands out this season for me where he was basically a huge wall against Chelsea as we beat them 1-0, but the defence I think is severely lacking, I thing United as a whole have been downgraded due to our real life problems in seasons. FM while Fergie was still in charge, I went on insane season runs xD

January is a few days away in my first season, thinking Marcos, Chris & Phil all have to go, Need someone beasty to partner Chambers, who went from being my worst defender to someone who seems to walk the MOTM awards at the end of games. Might just sell all 3 keepers and have a good look at Rulli or Lloris as a stop gap for when Donorumma becomes good enough

[scott MUFC]

there seems to be a fair few 4+1 black and 5 star rated keepers in this game.

Rulli is just a take, regardless.

[Mike1987]

I've got Donorumma coming in January, hoping to ship him out to a good side where he can play a good amount of games, those ratings he has got are enough for me to consider him a long term replacement to De Gea. I do like De Gea, one game stands out this season for me where he was basically a huge wall against Chelsea as we beat them 1-0, but the defence I think is severely lacking, I thing United as a whole have been downgraded due to our real life problems in seasons. FM while Fergie was still in charge, I went on insane season runs xD

January is a few days away in my first season, thinking Marcos, Chris & Phil all have to go, Need someone beasty to partner Chambers, who went from being my worst defender to someone who seems to walk the MOTM awards at the end of games. Might just sell all 3 keepers and have a good look at Rulli or Lloris as a stop gap for when Donorumma becomes good enough

Try and get him regular football at no lower than championship level for 1 year then when he comes back see if you can get him major league top level football, i got lucky on my game and got him a loan at Liepzig who got promoted to the Bundesliga so playing every week against the likes of Bayern, Dortmund, Lverkusen etc is doing wonders for his development, far better than sitting on my bench playing in the Under 21s or the odd cup match.

If youre looking for a new first choice centre half John Stones is your man, ticks every box including HG status for champions league squads etc, if you cant get him the likes of Laporte, Rugani and Romagnolli (or however you spell the milan kids name) are great options, id recommend keeping Smalling and Jones around for back up and future tutoring, plus theyre really good options anyway, you should get a good fee for Rojo, sold him to Bayern for around 20 million end of my first season.

Talking of insane runs this is by far my best as United manager on any version:

And yeh lets not discuss Uniteds real life issues atm its depressing enough watching it..

[Raymubdo21]

First season is done...

Just beat Juventus in the Champions League final = 5-1

I also won the league and failed in the english cups

[scott MUFC]

I just leg Giggs do away leg of Champions league KO against Real... he won 1-0

[Mike1987]

I just leg Giggs do away leg of Champions league KO against Real... he won 1-0

Obvious to me Football manager is in on the campaign to have Giggs replace Van gaal...its a conspiracy.

[scott MUFC]

yea but he played Antonio Valencia who scored the winner

[Mike1987]

yea but he played Antonio Valencia who scored the winner

A celebrity must have died on FM!

[cjgoodsell]

Try and get him regular football at no lower than championship level for 1 year then when he comes back see if you can get him major league top level football, i got lucky on my game and got him a loan at Liepzig who got promoted to the Bundesliga so playing every week against the likes of Bayern, Dortmund, Lverkusen etc is doing wonders for his development, far better than sitting on my bench playing in the Under 21s or the odd cup match.

If youre looking for a new first choice centre half John Stones is your man, ticks every box including HG status for champions league squads etc, if you cant get him the likes of Laporte, Rugani and Romagnolli (or however you spell the milan kids name) are great options, id recommend keeping Smalling and Jones around for back up and future tutoring, plus theyre really good options anyway, you should get a good fee for Rojo, sold him to Bayern for around 20 million end of my first season.

Talking of insane runs this is by far my best as United manager on any version:

And yeh lets not discuss Uniteds real life issues atm its depressing enough watching it..

Whats your tactic/training for this?

[Mike1987]

Whats your tactic/training for this?

Ill post a couple of screenshots in a bit mate:

Ok Tactics wise it varies match to match but as a general rule of thumb if im at home ill go with this as a basic startpoint:

Ignore the player roles and duties ive literally changed the entire 11 as im resting everyone for the league cup game ive got next so i havent put these players in their best roles yet. If im at home to a top side ill highlight retain possession and lower the closing down to sometimes instead of more but for everyone else thats how ill go for home games. Away from home ill lower the tempo and again highlight retain possession to start with then tweak it in game depending on how its going, oh and ill always change from fluid to flexible away from home and set the defensive line to slightly higher instead of higher. Away to top sides ill start with a standard mentality instead of control and again low tempo and less closing down at first, as well as changing a few player duties for example in home games ill have Shaw on an attack complete wing back role where as away ill set that to support and so on.

As for training, nothing fancy:

Results so far:

[cjgoodsell]

Thanks I will give it a go let you know how I get on

Do you do any individual training?

[Mike1987]

Thanks I will give it a go let you know how I get on

Do you do any individual training?

No worries hope its of some help, and yes i just train my players in the position and role i intend to use them and for individual focus ill either follow my coaches advice or if theres a stat i particularly want to improve ill select that as the individual focus. For example my coaches keep advising me to put Dybala on an individual focus to improve his off ball movement but hes already got a 16 rating in that attribute where as his composure is only hovering between 13/14 and for a striker i consider raising that more important than increasing an already highly rated stat.

[Mike1987]

Luke Shaw showing the rest how its done..

[Mike1987]

Check this guy out!

Got him for an initial 8 million potentially rising to 14 if he scores a shed load and plays a few internationals, absolute bargain, those stats at 17..so glad i passed on spending over 40 million on that regen from barca now.

[Unitedred]

I'll be posting my own season review, of course, if I can survive a season of not getting sacked that is