FM17: Arsenal

[MorganGalahad]

Coman is available after I unsettled him. Anyone have any experience using him?

[gholliday87]

44 minutes ago, MorganGalahad said:

Coman is available after I unsettled him. Anyone have any experience using him?

Never used him myself, but I'd be interested to see how you get on. How much is he available for?

[hasdgfas]

well, I had a pretty good second season

 

Competitions:

Transfers:

Stats:

 

A few notes from this season.

Icardi was just incredible. Scored almost at will, apart from a couple small droughts. Very happy that I've gotten rid of Giroud, as Rondon is far less likely to complain about not getting game time. Plus, Rondon just played better than Giroud last year. While I like Giroud, I couldn't justify keeping him.

Pulisic couldn't perform quite as well as last season, but that's because he was absurd last season. He still played very, very well.

I had sent Reiss Nelson out on loan to newly-relegated Everton for the season, but I called him back in January because I wanted to start to bleed him into the first team. He wasn't exactly blowing me away, but he's 18. I just want to get him some game time. He currently looks like this:

 

I am additionally starting to play one of last season's youth prospects, as he seems to have a lot of potential.

 

I have Donnarumma coming in over the summer to take over for Cech, who has started to show signs of declining. I'll probably let Ospina go, he has been very underwhelming in his performances, and I'd rather keep Cech as the backup. I'm also likely getting rid of Welbeck, who has performed poorly and complained about not getting game time. Same with Lucas, actually. I'd rather play my young players, in Nelson, Reine-Adelaide, and Iwobi.

 

Let me know if you have any questions for me!

[gholliday87]

Kos and Mert are slowly been phased out...Am I the only one who's really impressed with Mustafi?

[disaccharide]

@hasdgfas What an impressive season you have there with 31 wins in the league  I think you're ready to lift the CL next season!

Here's the question, how can you keep Gabriel? Was he not tempted by a chinese during winter transfer window?

[hasdgfas]

3 minutes ago, disaccharide said:

@hasdgfas What an impressive season you have there with 31 wins in the league I think you're ready to lift the CL next season!

Here's the question, how can you keep Gabriel? Was he not tempted by a chinese during winter transfer window?

Nope. He was actually tempted by Barcelona, who came in with a bid for him in the second season winter transfer window. I told him if they bid again for him at an acceptable price I'd let him go, but they didn't, so I kept hold of him.

[disaccharide]

7 hours ago, gholliday87 said:

Kos and Mert are slowly been phased out...Am I the only one who's really impressed with Mustafi?

You're not the only one. Kos (DCL-CD/D) and Mustafi (DCR-BPD/D) brought me EPL and UCL in my 1st season. I change Mert's squad status to rotation since day one I took charge, I'm in my 2nd season now and he's still my captain (Kos vice captain) with squad status of rotation, lol. I think I'm doing the Arteta to him. 

[disaccharide]

1 minute ago, hasdgfas said:

Nope. He was actually tempted by Barcelona, who came in with a bid for him in the second season winter transfer window. I told him if they bid again for him at an acceptable price I'd let him go, but they didn't, so I kept hold of him.

Omg. Next time I need to try that sentence. During 1st season winter window, a Chinese came for him, I handled the fee, but the chinese then withdrew the bid. Gabriel came to me, I asked him what could I do to keep you here, he then to me: "Make me your key player, I want to be your most important player." He ended up at Everton, sad to see him leave but lol. 

[gandrasch]

I don't get how all of you doing so well this year. 

 

That's how I roll all the time.

And of course all my key players are injured one after another. I'm Arsenal 2013/14 and not 16/17.

 

 

[gholliday87]

6 hours ago, disaccharide said:

I change Mert's squad status to rotation since day one I took charge,

I don't know if it's only me, but I always change the players status to rotation, no matter who they are. I've never had anyone complain at that status and I found they complain less about not playing.

[WillyBroadband]

14 hours ago, gholliday87 said:

Kos and Mert are slowly been phased out...Am I the only one who's really impressed with Mustafi?

Mustafi has been great for me, man, but Kos has been even better! I've renewed his contract twice. 

[WillyBroadband]

8 minutes ago, gholliday87 said:

I don't know if it's only me, but I always change the players status to rotation, no matter who they are. I've never had anyone complain at that status and I found they complain less about not playing.

Yeah, same here. One or two 'Important first team' but thats it. 

[WillyBroadband]

Pretty good 2nd season overall, won League & Cup double but lost in the semis of Champions League, again. Slightly miffed I only equalled Chelsea's record point tally and was also 2 wins away from Sp*rs' record for most wins. 

Ross Barkley was superb! Check out screenshot below. 

[disaccharide]

11 minutes ago, WillyBroadband said:

Ross Barkley was superb! Check out screenshot below. 

So bye-bye Xhaka for sure now, right?

[WillyBroadband]

Just now, disaccharide said:

So bye-bye Xhaka for sure now, right?

Yeah man, definitely. Transfer listed already and Roma are interested. Maybe bye-bye to Ramsey too as he is entering the last year of his contract. 

[WillyBroadband]

Transfer listed Sanchez too! IRL I love him but he underperforms for me on this save. Last year of contract again too. 

[puffascruffowitz]

On ‎11‎/‎19‎/‎2016 at 15:21, WillyBroadband said:

How were RB Leipzig in CL first season, dude? Do you mean RB Salzburg? (pedantic of me, man, sorry)

Sp*rs are so good this year! Overrated, I reckon. 

Shows how much attention I pay to my opponents! Should've taken note when they stomped me at home.

Either way I was proud of us going through after losing the first 3 games. Beat FCP in round of 16 then lost to damn Bayern.

[gholliday87]

2 hours ago, WillyBroadband said:

Transfer listed Sanchez too! IRL I love him but he underperforms for me on this save. Last year of contract again too. 

Ox out performs Sanchez for me as well, and with buying Dembele from Dortmund (sent back on a season long loan), Sanchez' days could be numbered!

[WillyBroadband]

1 hour ago, gholliday87 said:

Ox out performs Sanchez for me as well, and with buying Dembele from Dortmund (sent back on a season long loan), Sanchez' days could be numbered!

I sold Sanchez to United for £37M! Not bad considering he was in the final year and knocking on 30. 

Signed Coutinho for £42M, possibly over paid but I really like him. 

Predrag Rajković finally got a WP, too, so him & Cech are on squad rotation for Cech's last year of his contract. Also got a tutorship going on there too.

[WillyBroadband]

3 hours ago, disaccharide said:

So bye-bye Xhaka for sure now, right?

Sold him to Milan for £16M! Less than I would've liked but, never mind. 

[WillyBroadband]

@gholliday87 still unsure what to do with Ramsey, entering final year so might just keep him on and see what happens

[gholliday87]

2 hours ago, WillyBroadband said:

@gholliday87 still unsure what to do with Ramsey, entering final year so might just keep him on and see what happens

He's started the second season ok for me, so he may have a stay of execution until Jan, but still not sure.

Ozil, is been an utter tool. After demanding a new contract, with the clause that I will let him use my club as a stepping stone, he also wants me to strengthen the attack, but I've signed 2 more strikers and he still isn't happy!

[Kazeria]

Ramsey has been fantastic for me, but only when used as an Adv Playmaker with support, anything else and he is a 6.8 max. My issue is that Wilshere is playing just as well and I don't want to rotate.

[Kazeria]

1 hour ago, gholliday87 said:

He's started the second season ok for me, so he may have a stay of execution until Jan, but still not sure.

Ozil, is been an utter tool. After demanding a new contract, with the clause that I will let him use my club as a stepping stone, he also wants me to strengthen the attack, but I've signed 2 more strikers and he still isn't happy!

I had issues with the strengthening attack too, I signed Andre Silva and he is a beast, yet this wasn't enough. I signed Hakan Calhanoglu from Leverkusen and this seemed to help. Great rotational player and great at set pieces. Might even let Ozil go now if someone bids

[lomekian]

7 hours ago, WillyBroadband said:

Transfer listed Sanchez too! IRL I love him but he underperforms for me on this save. Last year of contract again too. 

On my first save (which I stopped because I'd downloaded a workshop file that unexpectedly created thousands of world class regens!), he broke Henry's league scoring record by march playing up front....

[disaccharide]

11 hours ago, WillyBroadband said:

Sold him to Milan for £16M! Less than I would've liked but, never mind. 

Sad to see him leave, but if he underperforms, so never mind. 

For me, he's fine, like I said before, but just notice recently that in a lot of games I start him, his body language always be like 'looking nervous', which is kinda weird. He moans about not getting first team chance, but when I put him on my starting XI, he's almost always 'looking nervous'. 

PS: I'm in January 2nd season right now and Szczesny also moans about not getting first team chance, might sell him at the end of the season. (Cech is still my No. 1, Ospina is on loan since he's not on my plan, Donnarumma is also on loan to get Prem experience with Bournemouth, got Svilar in my U23 team, and now I'm after Lafont.) Bournemouth also loans Akpom from me, lol. I call this Jack's loan effect. Someone might be on loan at Bournemouth next season too, lol. 

[disaccharide]

7 hours ago, Kazeria said:

I had issues with the strengthening attack too, I signed Andre Silva and he is a beast, yet this wasn't enough. I signed Hakan Calhanoglu from Leverkusen and this seemed to help. Great rotational player and great at set pieces. Might even let Ozil go now if someone bids

At the start of 1st season, Giroud was worried about the lack of depth in attack, but we were doing just fine, no moaning or whining from him. 2nd season I signed Dybala (my Plan A was to get Griezmann), that means Giroud automatically got benched. Now I notice that Dybala is also concerned abouth the lack of depth in attack too. 

[gandrasch]

I'm still struggling with tactics. I would like to play something different from a 4-2-3-1, but I feel like Özil is wasted if he's not on the 10. Atm I'm trying a 4-4-1-1 (with Alexis as right winger, which is better than expected), which is okay, but not as great as I hoped. 4-2-4 could be fun, but then there's no room for Özil again. 

looks interesting.

 

What do you play? 

[gholliday87]

2 hours ago, disaccharide said:

PS: I'm in January 2nd season right now and Szczesny also moans about not getting first team chance, might sell him at the end of the season. (Cech is still my No. 1, Ospina is on loan since he's not on my plan, Donnarumma is also on loan to get Prem experience with Bournemouth, got Svilar in my U23 team, and now I'm after Lafont.) Bournemouth also loans Akpom from me, lol. I call this Jack's loan effect. Someone might be on loan at Bournemouth next season too, lol. 

I talked Roma into taking Szczesny on a perm basis, which was a relief.

[disaccharide]

@gandrasch I play 4-2-3-1 with Özil as Treq, it wokrs like a charm in my 1st season, but now I'm struggling. 

@gholliday87 Hope I can keep Szczesny until the end of the season and wait for Donnarumma to return. 

[Liamgannon]

I'm finding this game a bit easy so to make it more challenging i've decided to start my arsenal save again and i'm not going to sign any new players for 3 seasons. 

My aim is to develop the young talent we already have, so i want to bring through players like holding, jeff, iwobi, akpom, dragomir and nelson. 

Another aim is that i must try and replicate how we play in real life, so my tactic consists of playing Sanchez up top and not on as a IF. 

I'm only 19 games into the league season and it's going well so far, i've won 16 out of 19 games, losing 3 in the process, and i top the league by 3 points. Admittedly its been tougher than my previous save but mainly because of injuries - kos has been injured for 3 months, Coquellin broke his foot and has been out for 4 months, paulista for 5 weeks after coming back from injury, sanchez 6 weeks out, walcott injured twice for 4 weeks at a time, and Ozil has had a few niggly injuries too.  

So my defence has mostly consisted of Mustafi and Holding, but i've still only conceded 10 goals in 19 league games. I'm nearly at Xmas so i'm eagerly waiting for the return of Welbeck who i'll use mainly in the IF position. Iwobi is in need of a major rest, in a team that is forever chopping and changing due to injury, he's been my the only ever present player in my side.  

Main highlights include, wins against chelsea, spurs at home with a draw vs Utd.

Away, got a draw against liverpool and narrowly lost to city 1-0. But i've beaten everyone i was expected to win against so maybe my side could be labelled as a bit of a flat track bully, but i'll take that as i've been seriously under resourced at times. Looking forward to the return of Kos, Mertesacker, Coquellin, Welbeck and Sanchez to help me push on. 

The surprise of the season has been sunderland, they are second atm and Defoe is on fire! 

One thing i will say is, the advantage of injuries is that all my players feel included. Elneny has been an absolute rock in a BWM (d) position. So much so that i'm wondering how Coquelin will get back into the side when he returns. 

I'm confident i can win the league though, after all the adversity that we have been through so far it's making me feel that we can pass every hurdle that comes our way.

In other competitions, i qualified 1st in my CL group, coming ahead of Juventus, Beskitas, and Dynamo. 

I'm also in the semi final of the league cup, awaiting my 2 legged tie against watford. And i'm yet to play my 3rd round FA cup game. 

I suppose we all play this game differently but for me, signing players like brandt, anderson and griezmann killed the game for me, as it made it too easy to win. For me, most of the fun comes from going a goal down or not being able to break a team down and then analysing what to do and coming out on top of any given situation. That for me is what the game is all about. 

Finally, including those who have scored 3 or more, this is how my goals have been spread in the first half of the season.

Sanchez 14, Iwobi 12,  Giroud, 11, Walcott, 9, Ozil 6, Cazorla, 4, Elneny, 3,  

Nice spread of goals i think, and shows i am not overly reliant on any one player. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[gholliday87]

So, Ozil still complaining that my squad lacks attacking depth (I have 9 players who are either a natural or accomplished strikers), so I call his bluff, get him to recommend someone who can increase the depth. He recommends some young Spanish striker, doesn't look much, but figure, what's a couple of mil to keep Ozil happy...Sign him, he's still annoyed that we don't have enough strikers! I can't win!!!

[Liamgannon]

question you need to ask yourself

1. is Ozil playing well? 

2. Is Ozil causing low morale among other players?

3. does Ozil have many remaining years on his contract so is in no danger of leaving?

If you answered positively to all above questions then just leave it. IMO, reacting to a situation can often cause more problems than its worth, sometimes its best to do nothing. 

[gholliday87]

2 hours ago, Liamgannon said:

question you need to ask yourself

1. is Ozil playing well? 

2. Is Ozil causing low morale among other players?

3. does Ozil have many remaining years on his contract so is in no danger of leaving?

If you answered positively to all above questions then just leave it. IMO, reacting to a situation can often cause more problems than its worth, sometimes its best to do nothing. 

Oh, I agree. I'm hoping he doesn't cause a rift with the players, as he can be quite influential with the squad.

[Liamgannon]

Getting crazy injuries to my defence. Starting to take its toll now. Played wolves away in the 3rd round fa cup game and got battered 4-1. 

8 points clear at the top of the league though with 12 games to go.  

Got man u to play in the league cup and hoping to progress against cska moscow in the 1st CL knock out stage. 

[WillyBroadband]

Has anyone had any luck with Takuma Asano as a CF? I like some of his stats but then some are lower than I normally like. 

In preparation for 3rd season and I'm going to give him a chance as my third choice CF behind Morata & Silva. 

 

[gholliday87]

1 hour ago, Liamgannon said:

Got man u to play in the league cup and hoping to progress against cska moscow in the 1st CL knock out stage. 

I have no idea why, but I always end up having to face Man Utd in the cups when ever possible. I end up playing them 3 or 4 times a season.

[Liamgannon]

So i beat utd 2-1 in the league cup final, came from behind and sanchez scored two. Absolutely battered them so should have won by more. 

trounced cska moscow away, beating them 5-0. I was feeling so confident for the home leg i decided to play a youth team, so players like holding, jeff, iwobi, akpom, dragomir and nelson played.  I won the game 2-0.  

now i'm 12 points ahead in the league with 6 games to go so think i've got that wrapped up. 

I've drawn athletico madrid in the CL quarters, i'm expecting a tough game,  ozil will miss the first leg, he's been amazing for me so far, scores 1 in 3 games and makes an assist every other game. 

Giroud has been brilliant too, and he gets his fair share of goals. Think he'll reach 20 which isn't bad for a second striker. 

Still gutted about that fa cup game, that loss cut deep. But its part of the game, and its the only blemish in an otherwise sucessful season. 

Will look to sell a lot of players after the season ends, can't afford to keep most of the players out on loan so people like schzney (sp) campbell, and debuchy will all be sold. 

Then will have to wait another 2 seasons to buy a player. Bit ridiculous i know but at least it keeps the game challenging 

[disaccharide]

So, my 2nd season has just been over.

Competitions. We did pretty bad in the league, even though we hit the net 94 times, we conceded 48 goals (Man Utd 66:24). Last year it was 80:28 for us. Something just went wrong. But this year saw us finally lift the FA Cup after the win over Man Utd in the semi-final (last year we lost to them 2-3 in the semi-final), and we got Sunderland in the Final (3-0 for us). Got knocked out of CL by Real Madrid. We went away first and lost 1-0. Then back at home we were 2-0 up. I try to defend the lead and shut up the game, but then Cristiano hit the net. We lost on aggregate.

 

Squad. I see no future in Szczesny (subpar performance), Per (I love him IRL though), Jack (see screenshot below), Walcott (I need to lower tatal wage), and Giroud (Don't blame Dybala please).

 

Jack just being Jack. He's back at the start of 2nd season, right? If you don't bench him, you bed him.

 

Donnarumma did a decent job at Bournemouth. I think he's ready for the next season with Kos and Mustafi in front of him.

[gholliday87]

@disaccharide Donnarumma is doing excellently well for me so far in the second season. I have Mustafi and Rugani infront of him, providing a pretty solid base.

[disaccharide]

42 minutes ago, gholliday87 said:

@disaccharide Donnarumma is doing excellently well for me so far in the second season. I have Mustafi and Rugani infront of him, providing a pretty solid base.

Sounds like Rugani is a solid choice. I can't decide whom to sign; Rugani, Laporte, Romagnoli, and José Giménez. Plus I've just offer Kos new contract and he announced that he will finish his career with us.

[nfornirvana]

Anyone use Mauricio Lemos? He is one of the top performers in my club. Very good BPD.

 

 

[WillyBroadband]

1 hour ago, nfornirvana said:

Anyone use Mauricio Lemos? He is one of the top performers in my club. Very good BPD.

 

 

No, never heard of him, he looks great! I'll definitely have a look, cheers man. 

[Sudeep D]

1 hour ago, disaccharide said:

Sounds like Rugani is a solid choice. I can't decide whom to sign; Rugani, Laporte, Romagnoli, and José Giménez. Plus I've just offer Kos new contract and he announced that he will finish his career with us.

Rugani is a cheaper option but Gimenez is truly world class. Buy him if you have the money. No questions asked.

[gholliday87]

45 minutes ago, WillyBroadband said:

No, never heard of him, he looks great! I'll definitely have a look, cheers man. 

I've been scouting him on and off for a year...always highly rated

[Kazeria]

I went for Lucas instead, figured with Kos still playing well I have another season to train him up. Half the price of the others and can play left back too if needed. Been fantastic for me so far. Chips In with goals too

[Sean3h]

I'm really struggling in season 2. I've only made one signing and have shipped out as many players as I can but I'm still due to fail PL FFP due to the "wage rise regulations". I'm not sure what I've done, or how I've got to this point, but I'm sitting with £72m as my transfer budget and £220k p/w spare of my wage budget yet I can't do anything with it.

 

This season, I've brought in Ousmane Dembele (70k p/w) and have offloaded Lucas, Mertesacker, Campbell, Ospina, Cazorla (loan), and Iwobi. I've got absolutely no idea what else I can do to reduce my wage bill! According to the FFP summary, I'm allowed £136m per year, but I'm projected to spend £152m. I need to reduce the wages by around 300k p/w, but considering I'm going to be unable to sign anyone as a replacement I can't afford to do that at all. Realistically I'd have to get rid of at least 2 of: Cech, Koscielny, Xhaka, Ramsey, Walcott (I've tried getting rid of him but nobody wants him), Welbeck, Ozil, Sanchez or Giroud. Looks like I'm going to have to take the points deduction...

[Kazeria]

I'd lose Cech welbeck and a bunch of under 23 players

[disaccharide]

Quick question here: How do you guys manage the youths? Like U23 and U18. I release a lot of them. Those whose PA star is less than 2 1/2, I let their contract run out since I don't know what to do with them. And literally 3/4 of those who are still with me, are on loan. I really have no idea what to do with them. 

[WillyBroadband]

4 hours ago, Sean3h said:

I'm really struggling in season 2. I've only made one signing and have shipped out as many players as I can but I'm still due to fail PL FFP due to the "wage rise regulations". I'm not sure what I've done, or how I've got to this point, but I'm sitting with £72m as my transfer budget and £220k p/w spare of my wage budget yet I can't do anything with it.

 

This season, I've brought in Ousmane Dembele (70k p/w) and have offloaded Lucas, Mertesacker, Campbell, Ospina, Cazorla (loan), and Iwobi. I've got absolutely no idea what else I can do to reduce my wage bill! According to the FFP summary, I'm allowed £136m per year, but I'm projected to spend £152m. I need to reduce the wages by around 300k p/w, but considering I'm going to be unable to sign anyone as a replacement I can't afford to do that at all. Realistically I'd have to get rid of at least 2 of: Cech, Koscielny, Xhaka, Ramsey, Walcott (I've tried getting rid of him but nobody wants him), Welbeck, Ozil, Sanchez or Giroud. Looks like I'm going to have to take the points deduction...

I had the same thing, dude, then at the end of the season all was fine. Bit of an odd one.