FM16: Southampton FC - When the Saints go marching in

[Muzzza]

I have Embolo and Rodriguez (top scorer in the prem last year) can pick Lukaku for 12m.. Surely I have to add him into the mix?

[RazorsEdge]

I have Embolo and Rodriguez (top scorer in the prem last year) can pick Lukaku for 12m.. Surely I have to add him into the mix?

Depends on how much game time you think you can actually give him. 12M could be used elsewhere for a much greater need elsewhere on the pitch when you already have 2 top class strikers.

[Muzzza]

Depends on how much game time you think you can actually give him. 12M could be used elsewhere for a much greater need elsewhere on the pitch when you already have 2 top class strikers.

Embolo ended up going to Real as they met his release clause Lukaku scores 2 on his debut though!

[RazorsEdge]

Embolo ended up going to Real as they met his release clause Lukaku scores 2 on his debut though!

Unlucky. I am very hesitant to include release clauses in any player's contract. I generally prefer to pay above their worth in wages to avoid it just to not have my season derailed over it. Hopefully Lukaku works out for you.

My save is going well. 16 games into the Prem with 9 wins, 6 draws and 1 loss leaving me 3rd, 5 points back from Arsenal and Man City. Finished top of my group in the Europa League with 4 wins, 1 draw, 1 loss (away to Shakhtar, nothing to be embarrassed about), and have drawn Lokomotiv Moscow for the first knockout round. I am confident we can progress.

Charlie Austin is immense. He's the Premier League highest scorer with 14 goals in 14 games. He has 21 in 25 for all competitions. Embolo went about 10 matches without scoring but seems to have finally settled in with 8 goals in all competitions. Also has 7 assists, all of which have come when he is deployed on the right wing. I play him as a backup to both Austin and Mane, so he gets plenty of game time. My main attacking four of Austin, Rodriguez, Tadic, Mane has been immense and when one isn't playing one of the others generally picks up their game which has made it easier to rotate in Embolo, Davis, Alvarez and Juanmi.

Only 2 weeks away from the January transfer window and I have no idea what my goals are. Juanmi, Romeu, Gardos and Martina will all probably be listed... Juanmi I might hold onto until the end of the year... The main player I'm looking to bring in is Demarai Gray but there's about 6 other clubs interested as well. If I can't get him I may go after Nathan Redmond, but it all depends on what funds I can raise...

[r_amanze]

Unlucky. I am very hesitant to include release clauses in any player's contract. I generally prefer to pay above their worth in wages to avoid it just to not have my season derailed over it. Hopefully Lukaku works out for you.

My save is going well. 16 games into the Prem with 9 wins, 6 draws and 1 loss leaving me 3rd, 5 points back from Arsenal and Man City. Finished top of my group in the Europa League with 4 wins, 1 draw, 1 loss (away to Shakhtar, nothing to be embarrassed about), and have drawn Lokomotiv Moscow for the first knockout round. I am confident we can progress.

Charlie Austin is immense. He's the Premier League highest scorer with 14 goals in 14 games. He has 21 in 25 for all competitions. Embolo went about 10 matches without scoring but seems to have finally settled in with 8 goals in all competitions. Also has 7 assists, all of which have come when he is deployed on the right wing. I play him as a backup to both Austin and Mane, so he gets plenty of game time. My main attacking four of Austin, Rodriguez, Tadic, Mane has been immense and when one isn't playing one of the others generally picks up their game which has made it easier to rotate in Embolo, Davis, Alvarez and Juanmi.

Only 2 weeks away from the January transfer window and I have no idea what my goals are. Juanmi, Romeu, Gardos and Martina will all probably be listed... Juanmi I might hold onto until the end of the year... The main player I'm looking to bring in is Demarai Gray but there's about 6 other clubs interested as well. If I can't get him I may go after Nathan Redmond, but it all depends on what funds I can raise...

May I ask, why you're selling Romeu and Juanmi? Both look very solid in FM16.

[RazorsEdge]

May I ask, why you're selling Romeu and Juanmi? Both look very solid in FM16.

They do look solid but I haven't been able to get much out of them. Romeu wants to play every week and I can't offer that to him and Juanmi just hasn't clicked at all and I'd rather cash in and get a solid home grown option instead which will leave space for me to bring in bigger international names in the coming seasons.

[james_wilko]

How good is James Ward-Prowse?

I have the opportunity to pick him up for 18mil at the start of the 3rd season. Plan to slowly phase him in as the main CM and sell Wijnaldum (I'm Newcastle) at the end of the season. JWP has the obvious benefits of being English and helping with my awful home grown quota too.

Would you pay 18mil for him?

Has anyone got any screen shots of him 5-6 seasons in, so around his peak?

[Consortium11]

So, I'm a little behind the curve compared to many of the rest of you, having only just got to the end of 2015.

But what a first half of the season!

Transfers

I always feel a bit weird doing too much in the first transfer window as the starting squad you get already reflects where each team was at the end of the window in real life. With that in mind I didn't do much in the way of wheeling and dealing... and of the little I did, most was obvious. I had to turn down a few bids from Chelsea for JWP (although he never got upset) and Mane wanted to leave when he heard Manchester City were interested... but they never bid so that issue never came to a head.

Brought in

Timo Horn for £6.5 million: I imagine the vast majority of Southampton players will at least consider this transfer. Maarten Stekelenburg simply isn't very good while Horn is already a top level keeper, has the potential to get even better and with his £6.5 million release cause and reasonable (£37k a week, likely could have got it lower if I'd pushed) wage demands it's almost a no-brainer to sign him. Things may get a little awkward when Forster finally gets healthy but I think I should be able to rotate the pair for a season at least before one of them (likely Forster) wants more football and has to be sold on.

Angelo Fulgini for £4 million: My second choice defensive option after Mere turned me down for Arsenal in the long term this may actually have been a better deal. As things stand his stats are reasonable but a little on the weak side (13 heading and tackling are a bit underwhelming) and his natural position is as a defensive midfielder but he's accomplished at both DC and DR and long term I'm looking to turn him into a central defender who can also provide cover for Cedric on the right. Bags of potential but with his low starting stats I was happy to loan him back to Valenciennes FC (who I bought him from) for the rest of the season. Next year I'll start to integrate him into the first 11 with him completely supplanting Martina as the backup right back and depending on what I do with Gardos and Caulker possibly getting some runs as a central defender as well.

Moved on

Maarten Stekelenburg: With Horn now being the first choice goalkeeper Stekelenburg wasn't getting a game and so wanted his loan terminated. While letting him go did leave me without any real cover for Horn I decided that was probably better than either putting Stekelenburg into matches for the sake of it or keeping him around and unhappy. Fortunately the injury gods haven't decided to punish me.

Lots and lots and lots of loans out: I seemed to turned into a budget Chelsea with the number of players I have out of loan, although frankly with almost none of them likely to feature in my first 11 plans it's hardly been a loss. Perhaps the only really notable player to head off was Harrison Reed; I rate him in real life (and wish we'd give him some game time this season) and if I was using a tactic that included three central midfielders I'd have likely kept him... but I'm only using two and with JWP, Davis, Clasie, Wanyama and Romeau ahead of him he wasn't going to get any game time and so off he went. In the next season or two I'm probably going to have to bite the bullet one way or the other with him.

Contract Stuff

Nothing two exciting here. I gave Kelvin Davis a sentimental contract having taken him off the transfer list largely because in real life I can't imagine him leaving Saints. Ramirez got a new contract; he's not a particularly natural fit for my tactics as things stand but there's talent there, his contract demands were reasonable and he does provide cover for a number of positions. Wanyama, Long, Mane, Tadic and Pelle all got new contracts keeping them at Southampton for a fair few years (and heading off interest from other teams) with only Mane's really being expensive. As above my key thing was keeping the Southampton team I played the season with roughly in line with the Southampton team that are playing the actual season in real life.

Results

Brilliant

That's played 38 (including friendlies), won 29, lost 2 and drawn 7 (two of which were friendlies).

The obvious highlights are the 3-0 away to Arsenal (albeit at a time when the AI seemingly refused to rest their exhausted players), the 3-1 over Manchester United (albeit they're pulling a Chelsea and are currently mid-table having "promoted" Van Gaal to director of football and brought in Ancelotti, the mad 5-3 over Chelsea, the 6-0 over Braga to secure qualification from the Europa League group and then following that with a 3-0 win over Villarreal where I basically sent out the reserves. I'm second in the league and only three points behind Arsenal, into the semi-finals of the League Cup (where I play Stoke) and facing Celtic in the knockout rounds of the Europa League.

With only two defeats there aren't too many disappointments; my teams was picked apart by Manchester City and deeply unlucky against Watford where I hit the bar twice at key moments. I guess you could argue some of the draws aren't great but considering where I am in the league and the cup I can hardly complain.

Tactics

I re-purposed a tactic that had done fairly well for me in FM2015 and frankly I seem to have stumbled upon something pretty special (or I'm on one of the luckiest runs ever seen). It's a pretty traditional 4-4-2 with wide midfielders as opposed to wingers, the football played at a high intensity and with a nice mix of short and long passing at a really quick pace and quite direct. It breaks one of my (normal) cardinal rules of FM in that it's not a tactic that I built around the players I have but one that I try to fit players into but despite the issues (the obvious one being the fact that the likes of Mane and Tadic are very much round pegs in square holes when played as wide midfielders) the results have been stunning.

It's very much a "we'll score more than you!" tactic (in 38 matches including friendlies it creates a clear cut chance every 24 minutes, has led to 103 goals scored against 29 conceded... although that's with some luck and last ditch tackling) and I've frequently conceded the first goal (and often early) only to come roaring back. The advanced forward is going to get a huge number of goals, the deep lying forward will come up with a fair few and a lot of assists, the wide midfielders are going to get a lot of both and even the box-to-box midfielder will chip in with a fair number. Statistically it looks pretty strong at the back with the relatively few number of goals conceded being visible above and my worst rated defender still having an average of 7.15 but watching the matches themselves it's a lot more dicey; with a high line, high closing down and playing the offiside trap fast players can often get behind you and then you're reliant on a sweeper keeper and poor finishing to keep you safe.

Star Players

Pretty much pick an attacker...

Shane Long: 20(6) appearances, 23 goals, 7 assists, average rating of 7.82. Started out as a backup advanced striker and occasional wide midfielder on the right but when Pelle went down injured has become my advanced forward and hasn't looked back since.

Sadio Mane: 25(7) appearances, 13 goals, 7 assists, average rating of 7.71. My first choice right wide midfielder he competed with Long for a while but when Long moved up has made the position his own. Only thing holding him back is my need to keep him fresh and healthy.

Dusan Tadic: 25(1) appearances, 13 goals, 6 assists, average rating 7.61. Wide midfielder on the left gets more goals and less assists then I imagined but a key player at moving the ball into the final third.

Jay Rodriguez: 22(3) appearances, 13 goals, 12 assists, average rating 7.62. Primarily played as a deep lying forward and on rare occasions moved to left wide midfield to rest Tadic he causes havoc in and around the box.

Juanmi: 15(2) appearances, 7 goals, 9 assists, average rating 7.53. A replacement for Rodriguez as a deep lying forward he's taken a little while to get going but is now a more than adequate replacement.

Pelle: 13(3) appearances, 12 goals, 4 assists. Started the season as my first choice advanced striker but has had the season blighted by injury. Despite so much of my good play coming from the wingers I've never quite been able to take advantage of his skill in the air but with stats like that it's not exactly been bad. The only challenge now is finding a way to slot him into the first 11; I may see how he does as the deeper lying forward.

Truth be told you could pick a defender as well... Bertrand on 7.15 is the lowest while van Dijk is sitting pretty on 7.78. My midfield is a slightly more mixed bag with Clasie at 6.84... but Wanyama's up there at 7.64 (6 goals, 4 assists), JWP at 7.34 (2 goals, 7 assists) and Davis has a rating of 7.22 (1 goal, 7 assists).

Frankly I'm amazed that I've got everyone performing so well, especially the wide midfielders none of whom are meant to be any good there. I expected this season to be a balancing act where I slowly retrain some people to my tactics and then look to really push on next season but as things stand barring a big collapse I stand a good chance of winning the League Cup, getting fairly deep into the Europa League and maybe even making the top four (I've got a five point cushion to Manchester City, currently in fifth).

Issues

Injuries: This is the big one. Perhaps it's due to the style I play, perhaps I'm not managing my squad well enough, perhaps my physios aren't up to snuff, maybe the game is harsher this year or perhaps I'm just unlucky but I seem to be struggling with injuries. Pelle is the big loss; he's had nine weeks off injured already and is injured again right now but Juanmi also missed 4 weeks, Ramirez has missed 3, JWP has missed six and a bit, Shane Long has missed 5, Bertrand missed a week, Yoshida missed a week and van Dijk missed two months early in the season. Maybe I'm just noticing it more as it's some of my big name players and with some decent squad depth and replacements playing well than called upon it's hardly the end of the world... but neither is it ideal.

Discipline: Statistically I'm roughly in the middle of the pack when it comes to red and yellow cards but while watching matches you wouldn't think it; I frequently get games where three or four players pick up yellows. The biggest concern is which positions are picking them up; my deep lying playmaker probably gets a yellow card in about 75% of games while my back four get their fair share as well. Much of that is down to the tactics I use... with a high press, tight marking and hard tackling it's almost inevitable that I'll pick up cards and there seem to be a lot of tactical fouls... but I may have to tone that down as the season goes on and players start serving their second (or even third) suspension.

Woodwork: I doubt there's anything I can do about this but I seem to hit the woodwork more than one would reasonably expect. The only game where it has really cost me is the aforementioned Watford one but it's still a concern.

Moving forward

I'm not sure if I really want to do any business in January. There's no obvious weak links in the team (Martina who on paper should be the worst player has still managed a 7.52 rating with 13 appearances as Cedric's backup and a utility defender) outside of maybe some depth. With no urgent business seemingly needing to be done (and so no great need for transfer funds) and my players who are most likely to interest other teams being locked down to new contracts I'll probably turn down even large offers for my stars and content myself with either doing little or picking up some young prospect types I can hopefully build over the next couple of seasons. Maybe that will come back to haunt me... but having gone through the early part of the season I'm not so sure it really will.

Outside of that the only real things I intend to do are look at the injuries and the cards. In "easy" (at least on paper) matches I may try lowering the intensity and getting people to tackle less forcefully which may improve things but I'll have to judge that in comparison to my defensive record. I may look at improving the physio team but the board already think I have too many so I'm not sure if I can do much more on that front.

I should probably start work on a new tactic as well... or at least a variation. As things stand I've used precisely one and while the results are great right now I know from experience in FM games that the AI eventually starts setting up to counter it specifically and you need at least a second option to fall back on to make things less difficult. But otherwise, considering the great results so far, there's not really a whole lot that clearly needs to change or that requires drastic improvement. Things may not go quite so well in the second half of the season... there's a fairly large element of luck to any Football Manager game and the luck my turn against me... but unless the sky falls in I can't see the season being a failure.

[RazorsEdge]

So in January the only moves I made was to bring in Demarai Gray for 5M, buy Caulker permanently for 8M, bring in young striker Marcus Thuram for 1.2M and Jesus Gamez joined on loan before I secured him permanently for 1.5M after some impressive form. Juanmi left for 8.5M + clauses, Cuco Martina for a bit under 1M, Romeu for a bit under 3M + clauses.

Ending up finishing 3rd in the Premier League, winning the League Cup (against Arsenal) and the Europa League (against Tottenham). So pretty happy with the outcome from my season...

Board has given me 42M in transfer budget to begin with. Gardos is joining Hull for 2.1M. I am pursuing Kevin Volland (but there's a lot of competition) as I am 99% sure Mane will end up at Man City sooner or later... Just need to add a couple more pieces to the puzzle to strengthen the team for Champions League football. Mikel Arteta is available for free and would be a good mentor for my young midfielders. Gary Medel might do too. Hmm, decisions, decisions...

[RazorsEdge]

Well that transfer window was... interesting. Mane went to Real Madrid pretty quickly after the season ended, I am not upset for him to be gone - he was getting unsettled with all the interest from Man City and had a poorer second half of the season compared to the first.

Man City came in with a ridiculous bid for Jordy Clasie, something like 20M and wouldn't budge so it was a bunch of rejections until they sold someone and we managed to settle at 32M. Wasn't really sure where to go from there as my main target, Kevin Volland went to Man City as well until....... for some reason Cesc Fabregas ended up on the transfer list. He was listed at 29.5M but I managed to get them down to 24.5M. Had the opportunity to bring in either Oscar or Willian and really considered it but decided to go a bit cheaper and landed Erik Lamela instead as he had requested a move from Spurs. Brought in Gary Medel from Inter for some experience and a tough player to rotate with Wanyama. Cheekiest signing was probably bringing back Callum Chambers from Arsenal. Scouts said it wasn't out of the realm of possibility so I went for it since he's home grown at Southampton. Brought Gokhan Tore in from Bayern Munich on loan for the season with the option to buy at any time for 21M as safety signing in case Lamela fails. Austin ended up injured during pre-season and will miss 6 or 7 games so I brought in Danny Ings from Liverpool on loan with the option to buy for 4.1M. Barely played at Liverpool and he seems to be a great option. Added 2 backup 'keepers and finished everything off with 2 free signings - Scott Parker as a U18's coach/backup player and Kevin-Prince Boateng for a bit of European experience.

IN:

Cesc Fabregas - Chelsea - 24.5M

Ben Garratt - Crewe - 100K

Jesus Gamez - Atletico - 1.5M

Erik Lamela - Tottenham - 17.5M + 20% profit to Tottenham, 1.8M after 50 league appearances

Gary Medel - Inter - 11M + 20% profit to Inter, 110K per game for 10 league appearances, 1.1M after 10 international appearances, 1.1M after 50 league appearances

Gokhan Tore - FC Bayern Munich - Loan Fee 190K p/m - Option to buy for 21M

Calum Chambers - Arsenal - 17.75M + 180K per game for 10 league appearances, 1.8M after 10 international appearances, 1.8M after 50 league appearances

Cristian Alvarez - Cerro Porteno - 120K

Danny Ings - Liverpool - Loan Fee 45.5K p/m - Option to buy for 4.1M

Scott Parker - Unattached (Previously Fulham) - Free

Kevin-Prince Boateng - Unattached (Previously Schalke 04) - Free

Total: 75.37M

OUT:

Florin Gardos - Hull - 2.1M

Fraser Forster - Sampdoria - 5M

Sadio Mane - Real Madrid - 36M + 20% profit to Southampton

Jordy Clasie - Manchester City - 32M + 30% profit to Southampton

Paulo Gazzaniga - Latina - 925K

Maya Yoshida - Torino - 6.5M

Total: 82.52M

Lineup:

GK - Ron-Robert Zieler/Cristian Alvarez/Ben Garratt

DR - Cedric/Jesus Gamez

DCR - Jose Fonte/Steven Caulker

DCL - Virgil van Dijk/Calum Chambers

DL - Ryan Bertrand/Matthew Targett

MCR - Steven Davis/Lewis Cook/Scott Parker

MCL - Victor Wanyama/Gary Medel/Louis Reed

AMR - Erik Lamela/Gokhan Tore/Breel Embolo

AMC - Cesc Fabregas/Ricky Alvarez/Kevin-Prince Boateng

AML - Jay Rodriguez/Dusan Tadic

STC - Charlie Austin/Danny Ings

Notable players out on loan: Baily Cargill, Paddy McNair, Harrison Reed, Demarai Gray, Sam Gallagher, Jason McCarthy, Jack Stephens, Jordan Turnbull

EDIT: Oh, and Lincoln arrives from Gremio in January.

[r_amanze]

Has anyone noticed a problem with Dusan Tadic's work permit? Due to Serbia's low world ranking. He can't get a work permit or sign a new contract.

[Consortium11]

So, my ridiculous season ended up getting even more ridiculous.

I completed the minor quadruple (Premier League, FA Cup, League Cup and Europa League) while losing precisely one match during the entire second half of the season. That would be ridiculous at the best of times but considering that from early April I was basically playing every four days and by the end of the season I was frequently having a match every two days it's almost farcical; if I hadn't been playing the game I'd assume I was save-scumming. Even if I have stumbled across some super tactic by accident then sheer luck should have caused me to lose more games than I did; I can only assume that next season I'll suddenly find that my goalkeeper can't make a save and my strikers can't score a goal as karma reasserts itself.

And you know what? I sort of hope that happens.

It was a weird feeling being so outrageously successful this season. Yes, there was the customary football manager punch in the air when I won the Europa League and FA Cup... but there was also a sense of disappointment. As a general rule FM games get easier the more seasons you play because the AI has never proven to be particularly adept at squad building. But here I am having already won every single thing I could in my very first season so exactly how much easier can it get and how much more successful can I be? Now, obviously the Champion's League is going to be a harder nut to crack than the Europa and I imagine my low seeding means I'm going to be going into a group with a couple of "top" teams in it, but even so. As entitled as it sounds I'd have probably preferred to have a season where I won one cup, scraped into the top four and gone out relatively early in the knockout stages of the Europa League (which would still have been an extremely successful season) so I could have the sense that I was building to something. Instead I've had the greatest season in Southampton's history right off the bat.

Shane Long won footballer of the year and the golden boot with 28 goals, Dusan Tadic won player's player of the year largely on the back of a league leading 14 assists (and I'm sure 12 goals didn't hurt), Sadio Mane won players young player of the year, Long, Tadic, Mane and Fonte all ended up in the players team of the year and I won manager of the year.

Transfer Window

(Just started pre-season)

Out

Sadio Mane - £55m (rising to £65 million) - Manchester City: I largely expected this one to happen and with Manchester City offering such a ridiculous amount of money it was always going to be hard to say no. Mane's clearly been an important member of the team but I've always felt that he was somewhat of a round peg in a square hole when played in the position and role I had him in. With him agitating for a move as well it made perfect sense to cash out.

Gaston Ramirez - £40m - PSG: I knew there was a reason I re-signed him! PSG clearly have more money than sense in this game (so I guess it does resemble real life somewhat) and while Ramirez is certainly a good player on paper he's worth nothing like this amount. That said an overall rating of 7.24 in his 16 appearances last season and the long contract I signed him too probably push the price up somewhat (if I recall correctly his in-game valueation was at about £30 million which suddenly makes the £40 million price look a little more acceptable). As a backup player used purely when Tadic needed a rest it was obvious I'd sell him with that much money on the table.

Oriol Romeu - £15m - PSG; Joining Ramirez in the "PSG have lost their minds!" club is the defensive midfielder. He was only ever a backup for me and considering I came into this transfer window with five "first choice" midfielders and Harrison Reed waiting in the wings in a two midfielder formation someone was always going to leave; Davis and Wanyama are first choice, Clasie isn't far behind Davis and JWP has the potential leaving Romeu as the odd man out. £15 million isn't completely outrageous for a player in Romeu's position and age but it was still far too much money to turn down.

Florin Gardos - £3 million - Middlesbrough - Gardos only played a couple of times for me towards the end of the season and despite doing fairly well he simply wasn't as good as my other defenders. With new defenders arriving depth isn't much of a concern and it made sense to get him off my books when a reasonable offer came in. I could have probably held out for more but I'd prefer he gets a new team and gets in there early.

Outside of my actual sales I had to do a fair amount of fighting, convincing, threatening and new contract offering to keep hold of Clasie, Tadic, Wanyama and van Dijk. On paper all of those transfers would have been good and with the large amounts of money being offered I imagine I could have sourced replacements who were better on paper. But I'm a Southampton fan in real life and the thought of the team being ripped apart after such a great season depresses me and so they all stayed. Even if it costs me an arm and a leg in new contracts.

In

Willian - £26.5 million - Chelsea: Chelsea appear to be having a bit of a fire sale this off season with Willian, Costa, Oscar and Fabregas all being transfer listed. Honestly I was quite tempted to take all of them (even if my wage budget would have groaned); Fabregas would be a great playmaker (although slightly lacking in the defensive qualities I need from that position), Costa is on paper better than my other strikers and Oscar is an excellent hybrid workhorse/creative attacking player. But at the end of the day I already have a lot of midfielders and strikers so unless I was going to sell some of them (and as above, I wasn't) it would be nearly impossible to fit all those players in. That left filling the right wide midfielder spot left vacant by Mane and Willian looked the best man for the job. £26.5 million is eminently reasonable for a player of his quality. Frankly, Willian may even be an improvement; Mane has a touch more finishing and a few slightly better physicals but otherwise Willian has him dead to rights, especially on the mental and technical stats. Willian also has the great advantage of being a brilliant utility player; while I've bought him to be a wide right midfielder he could also play on the left, drop back into midfield (although his lack of tackling may hurt) and at a pinch play striker.

Aleix Vidal - £12.5 million - Barcelona: I struggled slightly with backup wide-midfielders last season. Ramirez did a solid enough job on the left but on the right things were less pretty; with Long being my main striker and in such good form I didn't want to move him back and while Clasie, JWP and Davis can play there what I want my wide midfielders to do doesn't really correspond with their skills. Vidal is a damn solid player, was transfer listed (hence the low price) and strikes me as being only a step or two behind Willian on paper. Add in that he can cover right back (where he's better than Martina) and he strikes me as being a solid and rather risk free addition; I know I'll have to do some rotation to give him the first team football he wants, but that's hardly the end of the world.

Steven Caulker - £8m - QPR: Not a vast amount to say about this one. He did well for me while on loan, at £8m it's a relatively cheap deal (current value is at about £15m) and at 24 he'll have some resale value. Not an exciting transfer but a decent one all the same.

Ezequiel Lavezzi - Free - PSG: Much like on the right, I also somewhat lack for depth on the left of midfield; Ramirez had the job but he's gone, Rodriguez can cover there but I'd prefer him as my second striker and the other options are my fullbacks, neither of which are ideal. Willian could go there but unless I'm struggling to give Vidal game time I intend to play him on the right. With Lavezzi at the end of his PSG contract I was able to get him on a free and despite his high wages that looks a decent enough deal to me. Stat-wise he's pretty much everything I want from my wide midfielders, he can be a backup striker if needed and while at 31 I'll likely only get a couple of seasons out of him and there'll be little in the way of resale value the fact I picked him up for free mitigates that. The only real concern is rotating him and Tadic enough to keep them both happy.

Angelo Fulgini - Valenciennes FC: Not a new signing but with his loan-back having ended this is my first chance to put him in the team. At 19 I don't expect to give him a major role, especially as his duty as backup right back will likely be taken by Vidal and while I intend to eventually use him as a central defender his defensive stats aren't great yet. That said he'll have a place in my cup teams and his versatility (he can also do a job in central midfield) means I may try running him out in the last 10-20 minutes of games I'm confident of winning.

I also picked up some young players who my scouts rate for a few million each. I don't expect any of them to play a role in the first 11 but hopefully they'll start to come good in seasons to come.

On paper I'd argue my squad is stronger than last year. In terms of first choice players it's about even... Willian may be slightly better than Mane (although I'm not entirely sure yet) and Lavezzi may offer more of a direct threat than Tadic but the real strength is in the backups; Vidal gives me a better option than my central midfielders on the right of midfield and Martina at right back, both Tadic and Lavezzi are better than Ramirez or my left backs when played at left midfield, Willian and Lavezzi both give me yet another striking option and Forster's return means I'm going to be rotating two damn good keepers in him and Horn. My depth still isn't incredible; two injuries in a couple of positions would hurt but I don't think there are too many great players who'd be willing to sit on the bench at Southampton waiting for two players to get injured before they get a chance.

I've still got a pile of money burning a hole in my pocket and the temptation will be to spend it; there's certainly good options out there (the aforementioned Chelsea players all being transfer listed in one example, Benteke's available for £8 million and I think would be great as my lead striker and if nothing else with £50 million + still to spend there aren't going to be many players I can't bully their teams into selling). That said I'm going to try to resist the temptation... albeit more for sentimental reasons then practical ones. As above I don't want to see this Southampton team ripped apart again and what sort of message would it send if Shane Long has the season of his life for me and I immediately stick him on the bench in favour of a new arrival like Costa or Benteke? Likewise with my other positions. If I am going to pick up new strikers, central midfielders or defenders they're going to be young prospects who won't expect game time and I can develop over the next season or two.

Has anyone noticed a problem with Dusan Tadic's work permit? Due to Serbia's low world ranking. He can't get a work permit or sign a new contract.

I haven't, although to be far I'm only a season or so in and have only had to re-sign him once. I don't know what happens in the real world in the same situation (has there ever been a case like that) and as such it may be worth checking in with the bug team to see if this is working as intended?=.

[r_amanze]

Congrats on an amazing season Consortium11. I think your challenge will come from attempting to retain the title whilst competing in the champions league. Plus every team will approach matches against you differently now due to the success.

Thanks for your advice about Tadic. I'll upload a screenshot to the bugs forum tonight.

[RTHerringbone]

That is a ridiculous season Consortium11! Well done!

Could you elaborate on your set up please? Just how attacking is it?

[Consortium11]

Congrats on an amazing season Consortium11. I think your challenge will come from attempting to retain the title whilst competing in the champions league. Plus every team will approach matches against you differently now due to the success.

I'm not expecting to retain the title this season despite bringing in some better players; I think I had about as lucky a season as one can have last time out and I still only managed the title by three points and goal difference. Top four, at least one good cup run and making the knockout stages of the Champion's League are my ambitions for the next year.

With teams likely setting up differently against me I've been having a go at tweaking my tactics to see if I can change things round a bit, likely by making my second striker into more of a target man (in effect if not by actually changing the role) which would also give Pelle a role more fitting to his strengths and hopefully means I can rely on him to break down stubborn defences. I already play in a fairly wide manner with my wide midfielders which should allow them to stretch games and with my guys there having good pace, dribbling and decent crossing it should give me more options. The other thing I'm looking at is set pieces; frankly, I'm pretty rubbish at creating them and just left them on default this season. If I can put some work in and find even a slightly better option it should offer me more of a goal threat even if things are going badly.

That is a ridiculous season Consortium11! Well done!

Could you elaborate on your set up please? Just how attacking is it?

Utterly ridiculous... and I expect very lucky as well.

The tactic is an odd one. When I made it I'd have suggested that it was a very attacking tactic with an emphasis on "we'll score one more than you" rather than defensive solidarity and control. But if I look at the stats for last season I had the seventh best defense (conceded 40 in the league) and were in the top three (I can't seem to find the stats now that the season is over) for possession with an average of something like 60% which doesn't make that picture clear at all.

The basics of the tactic were posted in a previous reply:

And the team instructions can be seen below:

The key to the tactic is attacking during the transitions; winning the ball (hopefully fairly high up the pitch), very quickly moving it to one of my strikers and then keeping on sustained pressure with my deep lying playmaker and back four winning the ball after any clearance and immediately getting it forward again. The "typical" attack would generally feature a lot of two and three touch passing through the middle of the park before sending it out to one of the wide midfielders who then drives into space.

The deep lying forward is the main playmaker of the team (I've started to use Juanmi here more and more although Rodriguez has also done well for me) and probably plays more like an attacking midfielder than a traditional striker. He holds up the ball, picks out risky passes and then bombs forward in an attempt to follow up that initial attack. The advanced forward is more of a blunt instrument basically designed around scoring goals; I have him dribbling a bit more and moving into the channels while staying as far forward as possible. It is worth noting that he seems to get dragged wide a fair amount so it may be worth looking into finding someone with good crossing. What surprised me here is how well Pelle did when I played him; he's not fast and his dribbling is fairly rubbish but he was still scoring a huge number of goals until injuries took his season off track... which rather indicates that I'm not great at working out exactly what sort of player is needed for each role! The wide midfielders play more like wingers than anything else; they're often further forward than the DLP and while I've told them to cut inside and play narrower they still provide a large amount of width. They do a lot of mazy runs with the ball at their feet and when the other wide midfielder has the ball they tend to attack the far post, trying to burst past their fullback and take the opposition by surprise.

The midfield is a fairly simply one; the box-to-box midfielder runs all over the park like a madman supporting both attack and defence. In attack he tends to get roughly in line with the deep lying playmaker and move the ball to other players while also blasting some long range shots; they'll be some matches where you'll be utterly frustrated when he sends everything miles off-target but Wanyama still got 11 goals and 10 assists last season... and you'll rarely find a goal that isn't in contention for goal of the week there. The DLP is more defensive and controlling; during attacks he sits fairly deep and simply moves the ball to one of the main four attackers or the b2b midfielder (although with 13 assists Davis did seem to pick some killer passes) while when defending his main role is to stall the opposition so the b2b midfielder can get back to make the tackle.

The back four are very much about defending; even the fullbacks rarely get that far beyond the half-way line and then deliver diagonal passes or crosses. Frankly you could probably play central defenders there and get just as good results; the fact that Bertrand and Cedric managed five assists between them last season probably shows how little I expect of them from an attacking front. I play with high line (but without much closing down) which means one of the defenders has the cover duty and is expected to be a bit quicker to stop through balls getting behind while my keeper is given sweeper duties to help in the same circumstances.

In essence the team operates as two distinct units with the midfield connecting them. The front four (so the two strikers and the wide midfielders) do a lot of pressing, a lot of quick passing and a lot of direct running. The back four in contrast play a high line but don't press at all and when we have the ball do very little other than move it to someone else or look to fire it long so one of the attacking players can get onto it.

Does that help?

[RTHerringbone]

Does that help?

It does, thanks for taking the time to go into detail

We rarely see 4-4-2 threads in the Tactics forum these days, so I was interested to see if your approach was different to the last threads I could remember about that formation. In post #58, I assumed that you'd gone really aggressive, but it's not completely bananas. Exploit The Middle is a brave TI to use with a 4-4-2, but probably offset a bit with the conservative-ish full backs.

I'm inevitably getting drawn back to a Saints save. I've tried to resist but I have now started a save.....

[Marinho]

Have taken over Southampton mid-season (always sim to january and take over a club struggling in the table) at 14 in the table, the start so far has been solid. Won the League Cup and thus have secured European Football for next season (much of that run accomplished by my predecessor of course)

I sold Mane to Juventus for 37 mio at the end of the January window, did not see his skillset as all that special and there´s plenty of depth in terms of attacking midfielders at the club. Bought Riechedly Bazoer (19 year old dutch DC/DM) for 15 mio, looks really good already. Ravel Morrison (Lazio) for 5 is a low-risk gamble i think and and Kieran Trippier (Tottenham) for 7.5 is a solid backup for the RB position. I have also agreed to bring in Zack Clough from Bolton for 12.5 mio in the summer, really like his profile as a Striker who projects to be able to be an asset aside from pure scoring and physicality. Also Rulli in Goal coming on a free transfer.

Ideally i would like another DMC/MC who can tackle and work hard (only Wanyama is that sort of player in the squad), maybe be a veteran presence. But other than that i am looking to keep that group together for a bit, see what i have really and give the home-grown youngsters a shot. Being kinda in no-mans land in the league and really no need to try to desperately push for the 6th/7th spot (which are 8 points ahead) gives me a prime oportunity to give a few players a run at first team football and try a few things before hopefully settling on a tactic and rotation next season.

[Spike]

Really surprised this thread isn't more active.

Great 1st XI and backups right from the outset, with some solid youth prospects.

Will post my first update later.

[Spike]

2015-2016 Mid Season Update

Having evaluated the squad I decided there wasn't much improvement needed. The first team is already Champions League ready and the back-ups are solid for most positions. Therefore there wasn't much in the way of transfer activity;

The season has gone exceptionally well so far, with us sitting top of the Premier League at the half way point thanks to a 9 game unbeaten run;

The EURO Cup group was pretty straightforward despite being relatively tough on paper;

The player performances so far have been way above expectation;

Fingers crossed for the remainder of the season.

[Spike]

So I have finished the first season and to the shock of everyone (myself included) we won the Premier League. Despite the 7 point gap the title was only secured in the penultimate weekend of the season;

The player performances were exceptional, with Jay Rodriguez being the standout performer with 33 goals from 43 starts. Harrison Reed was an unexpected bonus, performing well above his rating when given the chance.

The squad has been upgraded in readiness to defend the PL title and make an assault on the Champions League. Mario Gotze was transferred listed at £20m and was an absolute no brainer, bringing Callum Chambers back to the club helps with the home grown players for the Champions League and Mammana replaces the aging Fonte. The one disappointment was Ramirez leaving on a free after I refused to guarantee him first team football Ravel Morrison has been brought in as back up and may be a permanent signing depending on his performances.

[r_amanze]

Congrats Spike a fantastic achievement in your first season. Can we see a screenshot of your tactic and TI's please? Interestingly it looks like your play with 3 strikers.

[Spike]

Will post details next time i'm on the laptop.

[Spike]

Here you go......

[r_amanze]

Cool thanks Spike. Your tactic is very aggressive. A high line with lots of pressing. Also it's not often you see a midfield with 3 playmakers. Do their roles conflict as they're all fairly similar?

[Searley60]

Just started a new game with Southampton on the new patch. Really enjoying it and the team is performing much better than expected, currently sitting 4th in the league at Christmas.

Transfers have included shipping out Rodriguez for 15m and Shane Long for 10m plus a few more leaving for a few mill. I've brought in Coric, Zivkovic, Balanta, Mammana, Mayke, Dragowski and Correa & Oliver both on loan from At Madrid. The board gave me another 25m to spend too, which has gone on Lewis Cook joining in January and James Wilson in the summer.

Wanyama (23m) and Mane (24m) have been throwing tantrums wanting to leave, but the PSG's and Real's will have to up their bids to get my interest, especially in what looks like a title race!

Anyone else playing a game with them at the moment?

[UnarmingPine]

Just started a new game with Southampton on the new patch. Really enjoying it and the team is performing much better than expected, currently sitting 4th in the league at Christmas.

Transfers have included shipping out Rodriguez for 15m and Shane Long for 10m plus a few more leaving for a few mill. I've brought in Coric, Zivkovic, Balanta, Mammana, Mayke, Dragowski and Correa & Oliver both on loan from At Madrid. The board gave me another 25m to spend too, which has gone on Lewis Cook joining in January and James Wilson in the summer.

Wanyama (23m) and Mane (24m) have been throwing tantrums wanting to leave, but the PSG's and Real's will have to up their bids to get my interest, especially in what looks like a title race!

Anyone else playing a game with them at the moment?

Yeah I'm playing with Southampton on the new update aswell. Just started by 2nd season. First season I finished 5th in the PL, Semi final of Europa, 4th round of both the cups . Played the kids in the cups though!

Major Transfers Out (Season 1) - Mane £34mil (PSG) , Wanyama £22 mil (PSG), Forster £11 mil (Chelsea), Bertrand £19 mil (Arsenal)

Major Transfers In (Season 1) - Barbosa £10 mil (rising to 15) , Horn 6.5 mil, Luan £4.1 mil, Kolasinac £3.8mil, Narsingh £3.4 mil, Zahavi £4.1mil, Lucas Romero £3 mil, Zoet £2.9 Mil, Zivkovic 700k and Jorge Mere £1.9 Mil.

[Searley60]

Good to hear! I finished 3rd in the league, and that was after a mid season dip in form and some really poor results and a really disappointing loss in the FA Cup to Watford who actually went on to win the thing.

I'm just in pre-season of 2nd season now. Big shake up with players wanting to leave,

Sold:

Mane 40m - Reluctant to sell but at that price, he wanted to go too.

Wanyama 25m - Keeping hold of JWP and have Clasie and Cook who I'm hoping to play more this season

Juanmi 20m - Couldn't turn down a bid of this.

Cedric 19m - As above, too good to turn down and wasn't even first teamer (Mayke)

Forster 10m - Surplus to requirements with my new GK on a free

Romeu 6.5m - Just didn't cut it, surprised me but didn't want him to waste away

Plus a couple more for a combined few million.

With the money invested it in top young players:

Tielemans 15m

Bazoer 14m

Embolo 14m

Pulisic 13m

Passlack 11m

Berahino 10m (Relegated)

Rulli - Free

Targett has been fantastic and turning into a star. Pretty much got my team sorted now, I want John Stones but Everton are not willing to negotiate. Villa went down so Grealish is available for around 14m, might pick him up based on the HG status!

[Limmy]

Got a bit of a crazy save going on at the moment with Southampton. Took over in mid January of the first season with the club bottom and despite being unable to save them from the drop, we were absolutely unstoppable in Europe and managed to win the Europa League. So it looks like for the first time in history, a lower division side will be competing in the Champions League! Player-wise only Wanyama has wanted to move and despite relegation, no one else seems to be unhappy (could change further into the summer though). Looking forward to seeing how this save develops and to see if I can guide us back into the PL while competing alongside Europe's elite.

[UnarmingPine]

A good first season for you! Just left the pre-season on my second season. Made too many changes to my team tbh. Had to loan out ALOT!

Major in - Martial 25mil (Utd), Tielemans 14mil (Anderlecht), Hermmann 13.5mil (Bo Mon), Klaassen 11mil (Ajax), Clayton 2mil (Figueirense) and lots of young english talent for 200k-800k.

Free Transfers in - Rulli, Kelvin, Roco, Andre Martins.

Major out - Van Dijk 30mil (Real M), Cedric 18 (Bayern), Juanmi 8.75mil (Napoli), Gaston Ramirez 7mil (Lyon

[akuji2012]

My Southampton team Jan first season:

GK: Timo Horn (sold foster)

DR: Cedric and Peruzzi

DC: Nkolou, Van Dijk

DC: Fonte

DL: Betrand, Taggart

DMC: Bender, Lewis Cook

MC: Stendera, Davis

MC: JWP. Nouri

AMR: zivkovic, Bakkali

AML: Tadic, Jaunmi

SC: Dembele, Austin

Sold Mane to utd for over 20m, sold rodriguez and sold a lot of other players. Told board I could finish top 4 and currently sitting 6th in jan first season.

[AllyJoseph]

Started a Saints save as i like the youth set up. Intended it to be a side project lasting 4-5 seasons(longer if i enjoyed it) as a break from my Blyth save.

Well...I was doing well but not pulling up trees and before i knew it i went into the last day knowing a win for me and id win the title unexpectedly.

I lost 2-1 to Spurs, however, City Vs Chelsea who were both my title rivals needed a result, anything other than a draw saw me 2nd. Chelsea were 0-1 up going into the 92nd minute when Kelechi Ianacheo scored with the final kick to make it 1-1. I won the title with a record low points tally with 71 points. We won because people were crap rather than us being good.

Got screens if people wish to see.

Signed Barbosa, Pavon, Cubas, Butland and Veltman. Sold Mane to United tor 30m.

[Mr_Demus]

I am big Saints fan, and could not keep away from a save with them. So far I have sold Sadio Mane for £30 mio. (give or take). I struggle to find decent defenders which are also affordable. I want to buy a GK who can take over in a couple of years and be a backup for Stekelenburg and Forster (when he comes back), a talented DC and perhaps a star AMC.

[lewis999]

Got a bit of a crazy save going on at the moment with Southampton. Took over in mid January of the first season with the club bottom and despite being unable to save them from the drop, we were absolutely unstoppable in Europe and managed to win the Europa League. So it looks like for the first time in history, a lower division side will be competing in the Champions League! Player-wise only Wanyama has wanted to move and despite relegation, no one else seems to be unhappy (could change further into the summer though). Looking forward to seeing how this save develops and to see if I can guide us back into the PL while competing alongside Europe's elite.

I don't want to look really facetious here but I think Ipswich got relegated and were in the Europa league at the start of the millenium. I'm not 100% sure but I think I can remember playing an old game, maybe LMA manager or even Championship manager and they had players like Finidi George, Jim Magilton, Matt Holland etc. I could be totally wrong.

Just had a look and it looks like my usually pointless head of football knowledge has provided useful, to me anyway haha.

They actually qualified for the Europa League the season before (2000-01) finishing in 5th place but due to being in Europe they couldn't cope in the league and got relegated. Yours was a lot more impressive by winning a trophy rather than qualifying through fair play.

[Welshace]

To continue the facetiousness... he said champions league and not europa

[lewis999]

To continue the facetiousness... he said champions league and not europa

So he did. I've been out facetious'd .

[Welshace]

I shouldn't be proud of this... but I am...

[lewis999]

I shouldn't be proud of this... but I am...

You have to take the little victories Welshace, we all do it's how we carry on existing.

[Mr_Demus]

I am in serious need of help guys. I can't find a way to play. I have lost to small team in the pre season and to hungarian giants Debrecen in the Europa League.

I have sold Ward-Prowse and Mané.

I want to play a possesion game and play with the following TI's: Lower tempo, Retain possesion, play out of defence, stay on feet, roam from positions.

Control and standard mentality.

I have tried several formations, roles and duties.

Please give me some advice on a good formation that suits my current players.

[lewis999]

Post yours that you're currently using and how you want your players to play and i'll take a look. I'm no expert but I can try to help if you want.

[Mr_Demus]

So far I have:

GK - Stekelenburg (GK D)

DR - Cedric (FB S)

DC - Fonte, Van Dijk (CD D)

DL - Targett (While Bertrand is injured) (FB A)

MC - Wanyama (BWM D)

MC - Clasie/Davis (DLP S)

AMR - Ziyech (IF S)

AMC - Davis/Tadic (AP S)

AML - Rodriguez/Tadic (IF A)

ST - Pelle/Austin (F9)

Control and flexible

TI's: Retain posseison, stay on feet, toam from positions, lower tempo, play out of defence

This is the setup I played my last match with.

I make small alterations based on opponent

[lewis999]

One thing that jumps straight out at me is that apart from your AML you have no serious goal threat, your striker will drop into the space the AMC wants as he's a playmaker so they will get in each others way. Add to that both inside forwards want to run inside wth the ball that area of the pitch is going to be really congested and hard to get through the defensive line.

Another thing is on your right flank you have two support duties and on the left flank 2 attack duties. That may make you exposed down your left as they are both going to be up the pitch. I would consider making the winger with the attack duty in front of a full back with the support duty and with the support duty inside forward I would have Cedric bombing past him to take one of their players with him.

In a 4-2-3-1 the two central midfielders are very important and they need to be set up as a screen to protect as your front 4 won't defend as much as they would if they were in MR and ML (4-4-1-1) so a ball winning midfielder shouldn't be used as his job is to chase the ball down which will leave your DLP on his own against counter attacks which won't end well.

In my current save I started the season with the retain possession shout as one of only two team instructions. My defence were set up well so I wasn't conceding many but look at how few I scored despite having 60%+ possession in every game.

The 3-0 was against a team in the division lower than us. I couldn't understand why my team were having so much of the ball, the other team not having many shots but we weren't scoring much. I took retain possession off and this :-

Not a massive difference but very noticeable. I found retain possession blunted our attack, slowed it down too much and we were playing from side to side and not many through balls. Now this doesn't mean the retain possession instruction is bad and should never be used it just shouldn't of in my tactic so I guess what i'm saying is take it off and see what happens. Worth a try.

[Mr_Demus]

I'll try a couple of adjustments based on that. Thank you

[lewis999]

I'll try a couple of adjustments based on that. Thank you

It could get worse mate like I say i'm probably no better or worse than you but sometimes a different mind, looking from a different view can help. Suppose that's what assistant managers are for. Hope it works.

[Mr_Demus]

It could get worse mate like I say i'm probably no better or worse than you but sometimes a different mind, looking from a different view can help. Suppose that's what assistant managers are for. Hope it works.

Sometimes you are blind to your own mistakes. It's nice to have suggestions

[Welshace]

Lewis made some great observations there, the only thing I'd add is maybe adjusting your mentalities and play style over all too... Control, roam from positions don't match well with an attacking formation like yours imo.

[Mr_Demus]

Lewis made some great observations there, the only thing I'd add is maybe adjusting your mentalities and play style over all too... Control, roam from positions don't match well with an attacking formation like yours imo.

What would you alter it to?

[Keano16]

Is anyone else playing with Southampton? I'm struggling so far.

[warlock]

On 12/08/2016 at 17:45, Keano16 said:

Is anyone else playing with Southampton? I'm struggling so far.

Had a couple of saves but didn't do well. Might have been unlucky but on both occasions we had a string of bad injuries which, coming on top of those at the beginning of the season, make it hard to get anything going. Never managed to get anything out of Pelle or Austin, and centre midfield is a dog's dinner where Steven Davis is consistently my best player, and the much-hyped Wanyama is nothing but poor.

Elsewhere in the team I'm not convinced by Van Dijk, Martina, Romeu, 

We keep hearing how the AI in FM is hopeless at squad development, but when you look at a lot of Premiership teams - and Southampton are only one example - you'd have to admit that high-paid human managers aren't doing much better. I suspect the answer might be to sell Pelle and Mane and use the resulting funds to better balance the squad. Also I really don't think Southampton have the kind of squad that lets you play the Thursday/Sunday Europa League treadmill. Put up a brave fight, but make sure you lose in the qualifying stages, would be my advice!

[Keano16]

On 8/13/2016 at 22:19, warlock said:

Had a couple of saves but didn't do well. Might have been unlucky but on both occasions we had a string of bad injuries which, coming on top of those at the beginning of the season, make it hard to get anything going. Never managed to get anything out of Pelle or Austin, and centre midfield is a dog's dinner where Steven Davis is consistently my best player, and the much-hyped Wanyama is nothing but poor.

Elsewhere in the team I'm not convinced by Van Dijk, Martina, Romeu, 

We keep hearing how the AI in FM is hopeless at squad development, but when you look at a lot of Premiership teams - and Southampton are only one example - you'd have to admit that high-paid human managers aren't doing much better. I suspect the answer might be to sell Pelle and Mane and use the resulting funds to better balance the squad. Also I really don't think Southampton have the kind of squad that lets you play the Thursday/Sunday Europa League treadmill. Put up a brave fight, but make sure you lose in the qualifying stages, would be my advice!

 

Yeah I'm sitting 2nd in EL group stage after 4 games (I think) and 13th/14th in the Prem in mid November. Injuries don't help and atm Mane, Austin, JWP, Long and Forster are injured. I also sold Pelle so I only really have Juamini for up top. Hoping to strengthen with a winger and goalscorer in January but it may be tough with only 6m.

[Keano16]

Anyone still playing as Southampton?