FM17: Sheffield United - Be A Blade

[Reedy_1988]

4 minutes ago, StereoMonkey91 said:

Advanced forward for me. He leads the line and that's where you want him. He is struggling at the moment though for me. I'm trying to analyse the problems. It seems the lack of quality balls in from the full backs is affecting him. Going to try low crosses for a few games.

That's the logical position for him but even still I used Done as the advanced forward on max closing down & Sharp as the dlf (a) mainly due to the fact he would hold up the ball but still get into  goalscoring positions, this pairing seemed to work fairly well.

[stevemc]

Sheffield United: 2016/17 - EFL League One (season 1) - end of season

Finally finished my first season, massively dominated in the league, strikers on fire, Reed was excellent in centre midfield and Long was unbeatable in goal. Marco Motta, my free signing, won player of the season. Here are the final standings:

 

We ended up doing the double, winning the Checkatrade Trophy:

 

Also gave Kimarni Smith his debut, stats didn't look too great, but he performed really well when called upon:

 

Very good season whilst making a profit on transfers too:

 

Next season will be much tougher in the Championship, the board have set me a budget of £3.6m, plus £152K p/w in wages but I also need to upgrade the backroom staff as well as strengthen on the pitch.

We also begin work to upgrade the clubs youth facilities in the Summer.

[Georgey Howson]

What a first season Stevemc!

119 points is a crazy tally, Charlton in second with 97 is usually enough to win the league but not this season. You're doing the right thing in upgrading the youth facilities btw, it's what has kept my club going while we've been down in this league without it I can't bear to think where we'd be. Well done on winning the paint trophy, even though the fans honestly wouldn't care if we would've managed that this season, it's silverware nevertheless. Real travesty that an under 23 side made the final, absolute joke of a competition...

What's the situation with the loaned in players? Is it looking like the EEL, Chapman and Lafferty will stay or are you going to have to let them return to their parent clubs?

Also on a sidenote, I wonder if Coventry will go out of business or into administration now that they've got relegated as I honestly believe that they will if they drop down to league 2 irl. Be interesting to see.

[stevemc]

Thanks @Georgey Howson it was a good season. Just in pre-season now, struggling to get the level of player I need for the Championship, but maybe my standards are a little too high. I've had to send all loanee's back to their parent clubs, and Landell ended up going to Leeds United.

 

[ChefRobGaming]

started a new game with Sheffield United today, so far got rid of most of my staff and in the process of going through the free transfers available to bulk up the squad

[stevemc]

Good luck @US ARSENAL 

[stevemc]

Sheffield United: 2017/18 - EFL Championship (season 2) - start of season

Had quite a big recruitment drive over the Summer, trying to strengthen the team for the Championship, 15 came in, 16 went out (permanent & loan). Managed to hold off more bids for Long, O'Connell and Reed too.

Blew most my budget on Zach Clough.

 

Here are my new staff. My backroom staff is nowhere near where I want it to be, especially the scouting team, but the board are really tight on this.

 

Had a tough start to the season, but a solid performance away at Derby gave me an idea of the level we could play at this season in the Championship.

 

5 games into the season, we sit in second behind Leeds United. We won the the EFL Cup before we lost away at rivals Sheffield Wednesday.

Mavididi, who I signed on a free from Arsenal, has had a brilliant start to the season earning the Young Player of the Month award:

[Reedy_1988]

Finally got round to starting as the Blades, unsure how long it'll continue for mind.

I've gone with Wilder's current formation IRL the 352/3412 & I'm going to try to keep it as realistic as possible. I've only played two games so far, one being a late 2-1 win over Bolton with Lavery netting the winner, then I managed to beat Carlisle in the EFL cup 3-1 I did need extra time to overcome these though with two goals coming from Scougall & Done.

[stevemc]

Nice to see this thread finally moving and a few more people trying out a Sheffield United save. Be good to see who can take them the furthest on the game.

[stevemc]

Recorded a nice little derby win over Sheffield Wednesday:

 

But these are the games I love, I was struggling away at Blackburn, gave away a silly penalty, my keeper dropped one in his own net, couldn't get going. Changes tactics a few times, eventually threw on an out of form Billy Sharp to grab an equaliser, then in the last minute, Summer signing Stevie May comes off the bench, out of the cold (due to injuries), to bag a last minute winner  

[Lufcberg22]

quick question lads, any idea where you get the stadium backgrounds from?

 

[stevemc]

I downloaded a pack years ago and I've changed it myself over the years for my own use. There's plenty of downloaded via a quick Google search.

[StereoMonkey91]

I've finally got my save up and running. I had a bit of a shaky start with a few unconvincing wins and a couple of close losses. As the Tactic familiarity started to rise and a few tweaks we are starting to pick up. I used the Walker money to sign Cummings and John Mcginn. It set me back about 1.5m but Cumming is on fire. Mcginn not so much.  I'm going to move along with what I've got for now and assess in January.  

This is the tactic I've settled on so far. Reed is being kept out of the side by Coutts. 

 

The best result of the season so far when it just seemed like the tactic clicked, but we will see

 

Time to start picking up consistent wins. I'll update when I hit January.

 

 

[1987scott]

Hi all,

Good to see the thread getting going.

So posting on from my first one earlier I ended up going straight up from league one in the first season. Just come to the end of the transfer window in January in the first season in the championship and massively surprised myself. Currently sit top and whilst no-one is running away with it we are in a great position to go for promotion back to the big time at the first attempt.

Also just managed to sign Tyron Wings from Bournemouth ... a steal in my eyes at £875k especially as he only played 4 games for them costing them a hefty fee per game based on what they paid Ipswich a few years back.

 

As for transfers there have been some bargains and some major ones. Like others i went for Zac Clough (£2.5m) who has been sensational for me to be honest as has Andreas Pereira (£3.5m) who i have since rejected a £7m bid from Hull in the window just gone.

Someone who is a must is Fabio Martins from SC Braga mainly from a money making point of view. I paid a mere £200k for him where his value currently now sits at £5.5m. To be honest he has been a great AMRC/MRC but I can see myself making some serious cash on him,

Fingers crossed for promotion now as I feel the team needs the cash and deserves to be back there, I will update you on how I get on.

Cheers,

Scott

[stevemc]

Nice work getting Pereira, Zach Clough is inconsistant for me, paid £2m as my landmark signing but has one wordly game followed by 2/3 average games. He takes a mean free kick though.

[FMKalle]

Nice 2 see this thread going, as i said i would update my progress. And some hours later im here.

I wanna start off how i've been doing. I'll go trough transfer etc. later on in the post. (I've changed my in game settings to english so you guys can understand, im swedish).

First year as you see i ended up at 2nd place, one point behind MK Dons. First half of the season didnt work so good, new tactic and i had to get 2 know my players. As the season progressed we played better and better. And the other teams slowly played worse, as i remember MK Dons had lots of injures, something we were lucky with. Players like Billy Sharp, Stefan Scougall, Louis Reed, Jack O'Connell, Matty Done and Mark Duffy were beasts. We ended up doing 110 goals, concede 62.

2nd season we played in the Championship. After a decent start we started to drop. Injures, and a tactic i wasnt pleased with, conceded too much goals. I ended up not changing it, and was planning on to change it for the next season. As you see we ended up on a solid 10th place with 67 points, Norwich won the leauge with 88 points, media thought we would relegate. I think it was good to stay one more season in the Championship, my new players had to adopt and develop. And i also needed to change my tactic a bit.

3rd season as you se we ended up on another 2nd place (88 points), behind Sunderland (92 points) this time. As my new players from last season and from this we really got things going. With a tweaked tactic that was more solid in defence but also scored more goals.

I've played with the same formation all seasons, 4-2-3-1. But at the 3rd seasons i tweaked the tactic with some new instructions etc. and it went really well.

 

Transfers (I've been kinda cheeky with some of my transfer, i played a save with Liverpool before this. And i noted this players as i ended up scouting them in the Liverpool-save and some of them ended up being great.. I had to.. .. But the majority of the transfers i've found on this save and having no idea how they'll end up.)

 

16/17

I also used the money from Walker. Carlos Badal (Centre-Back) is a youngster who i used as a sub in the first season. Solid. Tom Rosenthal is a tip i got from others in this thread, used him as a sub. My scouts picked up that Emile Heskey was on free, had to sign him as an old fan of him, good sub. Marco Motta is also another tip from this thread, best signing of this season, went straight in 2 my starting 11. Chuma (Striker) is also a youngster, used him as a sub. And last i got Reece Oxford on loan, i needed some1 2 fill the gap Louis Reed left us.. As i mentiond in this thread before Louis left us with a buy out in his contract. The game started with bigger teams wanna buy him so he demanded a new contract and i couldn't remove the clause.. Shame..

17/18

As i progressed into championship i got more money in my budget. As im a huge fan of buying youngsters i got some promising ones that i knew from my last save and some of my scouts picked up. I won't go through these players so much cuz i bought them as solid subs. The only one who went straight in to the first team was Ohayon (GK). Maybe this is one of the reasons we didnt advance as i didnt really bought players for the first team.

18/19

My 2nd season started some of my last transfers were good enough to take place in the first team as they've developed. But likes of Glen Johnson and Myles Kenlock (left back) went straight into my first team. Kenlock ended up being the signing of the year and was great.  Castellano also went straight into the first team. The likes of Kevin Diks and Dylan Louiserre were greats subs. Alex Rizzotto was a GK on loan (Back up). The other ones is young talents.

 

Now i've just started my first season in Premier. I'll update later on how its going. But so far i'm in love with this save. Can't stop playing.

 

 

[BarrovianTaylor]

Loved reading all the updates in this thread so I've decided to start my own save, hope I can do just as well as most

[stevemc]

This isn’t what I wanted, first game last night, both injuries within minutes of each other…

 

 

Mavididi, broken leg, minimum 7 months, and last seasons Player of the Year, Marco Motta, broken ankle, 3 months.

[Georgey Howson]

Bloody Burton Albion! No doubt Clough wanting to leave a mark on his old side. But on the up side at least you beat Wednesday at Hillsborough and via a brace from a player that was deemed not good enough for them. Love when that happens.

[FMKalle]

2nd game in my first season in premier. 5-1 at home versus Liverpool, i almost felt bad cuz LFC is my favorite club.. First game i played Watford away, beat them with 0-1! I've done some solid transerfs, great budget. I'll update everything later..

[FMKalle]

7 hours ago, stevemc said:

This isn’t what I wanted, first game last night, both injuries within minutes of each other…

 

 

Mavididi, broken leg, minimum 7 months, and last seasons Player of the Year, Marco Motta, broken ankle, 3 months.

**** that's lame..

 

But i hope you don't end up like José Mourinho and Eva Carneiro..

[stevemc]

 No, she's a good physio!

I must be doing something right though at Sheffield United, as I've turned down two interviews so far:

[StereoMonkey91]

Just a quick tip. I've noticed that towards the end of the first season the sell on clause for Calvert-Lewin is available to cash in. It's about 500k so its helpful. 

I hope everyone is enjoying their save.

 

[StereoMonkey91]

End of the first season report

Just a quick end of the season update. After a slow start to the season my team seemed to slowly gain momentum. I think becoming familiar with my Wilder tactic helped. I seemed to pick up results away from home by changing the mentality. Something I may need to do permanently in the Championship.

The biggest highlight for me was my strike partnership of Cummings and Sharp tearing the league apart. I used Cummings as an Advance forward and Sharp DF/S. Cummings found himself being called up to the Scotland Squad. Only a certain Ched Evans stopped them being 1 and 2 in the league scoring charts.

A big mention to Jake Wright as well. Not sure how other people found him but he was a Rock, offered a new contract but I will need some better quality there to cope in the championship.

I'm going to start assessing the squad for what I need to compete in the Championship. Defenders are a must. Any recommendations? How is Clough? He's tempting me.

Also does anyone have any experience with developing Semple? He looks a decent prospect.

[stevemc]

Nice work @StereoMonkey91. I noticed that clause too, I forget to mention.

Clough has been mixed for me, when he's on form, he's unplayable though.

[stevemc]

Sheffield United: 2017/18 - EFL Championship (season 2) - mid-season

Well, after a busy summer, I assembled a squad more than capable of competing in the Championship, even after some terrible injuries. We made an early exit from the EFL Cup in the second round, to Sheffield Wednesday but that's helped our league form as we are currently top, unbeaten after 28 games and in fine form:

 

Only brought in one player in January, on a free, Vajebah Sakor. I don't feel the squad needs any money spent on it mid-season:

 

We are in the fourth round of the FA Cup, home tie against Manchester City.

Youth facilities upgrade has also been completed.

Billy Sharp has been a monster, scoring 22 in 25 games. Zach Clough has improved from his patchy start. Notable shout out to Kieron Freeman, Andres Schetino and Louis Reed.

[r0b]

Hi all, 

Enjoying reading about all of your progress! I've been following the thread anonymously for the past few weeks..

I'm currently 6th after 17 games, not great! 6 points off top. I've been rotating between 442, 532WB and 4231 formations. Also saw quite a bit of action in the transfer window - 6 in (5 around the first team) and filled out (with some replacements) the staff. All together I think it really hindered consistency and settling in for the team at the start of the season but it's looking better now.

I've tried to check out some of the players you've mentioned here but don't seem to be able to find them on my large database, can anyone give me a pointer on how I might be able to increase the pool of players available? For example, Vajebah Sakor is no where to be found. Do I need to include more view-only leagues?

Keep up the good work everyone!

[stevemc]

Sakor should be at Juventus, I have the Italian league loaded.

[r0b]

Thanks @stevemc! Thought I'd included Italian as view-only but hadn't.

Edit: now realise I had, but that's not how view-only works.. Think I may start over at this rate, only had English leagues as playable! 

Here's the signings I made, Donal McDermott is probably my player of the season so far.

[stevemc]

Yeah I have about 12 leagues loaded on the large database so I've got a ton of players available

[stevemc]

Sheffield United: 2017/18 - EFL Championship (season 2) - end of season

Absolutely stormed to the title by 25 points, only losing two games, which were both lost after we'd secured promotion and I started to blood a few younger players:

Back to back promotions!!

The win that secured the title was a satisfying away win at Ryan Giggs's Norwich City, this also marked the occasion of my 5-star rated youth intake striker Scott Baldwin:

 

He looks a real prospect, scoring 5 goals in the final 5 games:

 

Promotion to the Premier League will provide a much need cash injection for the club which are currently struggling financially:

 

I've managed to add Gary Neville to the backroom staff, but I'm planning a big overhaul this summer, with 13 already set for release:

 

On a personal note, I've surpassed 100 games, and there may be a statue of me outside soon

 

Premier League here we come!!

[nextqprmanager]

stevemc

well done, let us know what transfers you get?

[r0b]

17 hours ago, stevemc said:

Yeah I have about 12 leagues loaded on the large database so I've got a ton of players available

The dream! I usually play on a Dell xps 13 i7, 8gb ram laptop which can get quite hot with 4 playable leagues on the go.. I've not dared try with more yet!

Also congrats on the promotion, smashed the league!

[lol28]

Hi Everyone

So I decided to follow my usual FM plan which is to do my first game as Man Utd so that I could get use to the game and bring some glory back to Old Trafford.  After 4 years in charge, I got a bit bored because I had assembled a ridiculous team (Front 5 = Pogba, Alli, Griezman, Dybala & Bale) so I have gone to my second save which is always to return a fallen giant to the big time.  IN previous years I've had great success with Nott'm Forest but this year I am going to give it a go with Sheffield United.  I've always had a soft spot for them since the 90s and it's about time to return them to the big time!

Been great reading all the tips from this thread (although I do feel a bit bad stealing ideas!)

I got started in earnest last night & I'm really happy with my pre season and I think I've found a good way for this team to play to get the most out of our key players.  Any thoughts or advice welcome!

 

here's my summer signings.  I activated the 4m clause in the Walker contract to give me some extra room although I didn't really need it.

Cummings is a legend for me after firing my Derby team into the PL in FM2016.  Add to that Coulibaly who is just a beast at 6''4, 14 stone, high strength etc means I have lots of different options for my front line.

My defence should be looking good too with Motta providing width and attacking from RB and Spence being an experience CB at this level.  

 

I like to play around with tactics in FM and I've had success with all different shapes in previous incarnations.  Looking at the SUFC squad, I've decided to give a diamond midfield a go.  I feel like this can allow me to play the abundance of CMs and play with 2 up top as I have 5 good quality Strikers.  I'm really happy with the balance of this starting line up.  I feel like every position is well covered.

 

I aim to play a high press, high intensity game.  Again, I feel like my team should be capable of incisive attacking play and a heavy press.  

First game was a big success.  I went 3-0 within the first half-an-hour and the football was really great.  Fleck and Reed are going to be a great pair in the middle of midfield with Basham sweeping up behind them and my front 3 was causing them a lot of issues with their movement.  I ended up getting pegged back to 3-2 but held on.  I need to look at my defence but I feel that there were a couple of individual errors and the balance of play show that I should have won by more

 

So I'm gonna carry on and see how I get on over the Xmas break.  I am quite excited by this team as I think there is potential for us to do really well and most of the players should be capable of the step up to Championship football

 

 

[stevemc]

On 28/12/2016 at 10:40, nextqprmanager said:

stevemc

well done, let us know what transfers you get?

Will do, here are my transfers for the season I was in the Championship:

 

I'll post my Premier League transfers soon.

[dshaw]

6th in the prem now in my 6th season with blades! on a roll!

[stevemc]

Sheffield United: 2018/19 - Premier League (season 3) - start of season

Right, incredibly busy summer, trying to reinforce for the Premier League, and I'm pretty happy with my business, with £3m left over as contingency:

Pickford came in from relegated Sunderland for £7m, and pushes Long into number two. Think I also got a bargain on Marcos Llorente for £2.5m, who looks superb for my level and will partner Reed/Pereira in CM. Couple of others I consider bargains are Traore for £850k and Rob Holding for £1.9m. Yoshida has come in on a free to offer some experience.

Broke our transfer record twice this summer with Pickford, then later on Charlie Taylor.

On the outgoings, I shipped out Lavery and Fleck for £6m each, Barros left for £3m (offering a £2.9m profit on him). Browning is on loan with a £8.75m mandatory fee for next summer. Just working on a deal to sell Jordan Spence too.

 

First game went very well, decided to stick with my 16 year old striker, Baldwin, who returned the faith with two goals - this kid might become special:

 

There was alot of movement with the backroom staff too:

 

Billy Sharp i only has a year left but given how he's performed to get us to the Premier League, I've decided to keep him around and let him have a free transfer next summer.

[stevemc]

Sheffield United: 2018/19 - Premier League (season 3) - mid season

Had a terrible start to the season, to the point where I was wondering if I'd turn it around. We lost 7 of our first 9 games, including being knocked out of the EFL Cup in the third round.

 

However, during the international break I set up two friendlies to boost morale, changed tact, and began trying not to criticise players and be harsh on them (which is what I usually do), and it seemed to work. Managed to put together an 11 game unbeaten run:

 

Which leaves us punching well above our weight in 7th, at Christmas:

 

My favourite result of the season so far, was the Leicester City win:

 

Ended up offering Billy Sharp another 1 year deal, after he's continued his fine form into the Premier League, he's defying belief

 

Shout out to Bertrand Traoré, came in for £850k, and has been brilliant:

 

Also attended interviews for the Everton and West Ham United jobs, just out of curiosity.

Looking good so far though... UTB.

[nextqprmanager]

Well done Stevemc, its interesting what team talks do - maybe your bad run was changing all the staff?

[danlov]

Enjoyed reading about everyone else's progress so far. I have just completed my second season with Sheffield United, somehow securing back to back promotions in the process!

We won League One relatively comfortably, dominating team of the season with seven players, and Sharp(32) and Lavery(31) finishing as the top two scorers in the league. I did very little in terms of transfers and unlike everyone else, I only got around £2million for the Walker clause.

Only permanent transfer was Harrop from Man Utd (£400k and a complete waste of money. Bought for potential but his contract just expired having played twice). A few loans in but the only one of note was Lewie Coyle from Leeds.

Fleck awarded Fans Player of the Season.

In our second season we were predicted to go straight back down, but defied expectations by finishing 4th. I was happy enough with that, and had low expectations entering the playoffs, but much to my delight, we won 1-0 with a 91st minute winner from our star CB.

Again Sharp (32) led the leagues scoring charts, he tended to go a few games with nothing then pop up with a hattrick. Lavery(21) again was a great second striker, but spent a good few months on the sidelines with injury.

In terms of transfers I bought a few more this time to strengthen for the Championship, but wanted to mostly keep faith with the team that won the league the season before.

Over the course of the season I bought in 12 players excluding loans. Mostly these were youth players for the future, none of which have developed enough to warrant mentioning now, but of the rest, the stand out player, who scored the highest average rating across the whole league, and who scored our injury time winner in the playoff final, was Deji Oshilaja. Signed on a free after his release from Cardiff he was a brilliant CB, partnered O'Connell so well. In addition, switched to RB for a few games when Brayford was out and performed brilliantly there too.  Other signings of note were Dawidowicz from Benfica B, and Lafferty making his loan move perm.

O'Connell voted player of the season and very much justified.

Over the course of the two seasons we have played exclusively with a 4-3-1-2, switching only once or twice to a 4-4-2 when we've needed to shake a rough patch. Moore, O'Connell, Lafferty, Reed, Coutts, Fleck, Lavery and Sharp have been starters from the very beginning. Going into the Premier League, Moore, Lafferty and Fleck have been upgraded but I am hoping to keep faith with the other five for as long as I can.

Let's see how we get on at the top. Not sure how generous the board have been for everyone else, but I've only been given £8 million for this campaign!

[stevemc]

3 hours ago, nextqprmanager said:

Well done Stevemc, its interesting what team talks do - maybe your bad run was changing all the staff?

Never thought of that? I thought it could be the turnover of players, I'd done a big pre-season though (10 games) and the tactics were pretty much fluid, but it was a tough start too against some of those top teams.

Nice work @danlov 

[r0b]

Finished 1st in the league at the end of the first season and have been endowed a very generous transfer budget of £65k for the second season! I assume that maybe I went a bit OTT with the wages in the first season? Any other tips on why I might only have that much? Is it common? It doesn't look like it from what I've read on here.

[stevemc]

Think I've pulled off a coup in January, picking up Shinji Kagawa on a free transfer, stumbled across him after my centre back Maya Yoshida was playing for Japan with him, anyway, he's come in and made an instant impact, significant upgrade on what I had available:

 

Subbed him on in his debut, and he scored the winner a few minutes later:

 

His second game was an absolute lesson:

 

[YellowKicks]

STEVEMC would you mind sharing what skin you use with me please?

[stevemc]

17 hours ago, YellowKicks said:

STEVEMC would you mind sharing what skin you use with me please?

Its just the Base Skin with background pictures:

I adjusted the background colour from the default green because I struggled reading off it: 

 

[stevemc]

Sheffield United: 2018/19 - Premier League (season 3) - end of season

First season in the Premier League went better than expected, after a really poor start, we had a superb mid-season before tailing off in the final 5 games, finally finishing off in 7th position and gaining Europa League football:

Billy Sharp bagged 18 goals at the mature age of 32, joint 6th with Mauro Icardi.

 

Here's a review of our season:

 

As you can see we had a good FA Cup run too until we met a start-studded Manchester United in the semi final, but at least the fans had a day out at Wembley!

 

A shout out to a couple of my players this season, worth looking at in your future saves:

Bernardo Cruz | £400k CB from Sevilla Atlético

 

Kevin Mbabu | Free transfer CB from Newcastle United (starts at HSV)

 

Dennis Diekmeier | £1.1m RB/RWB from Schalke (starts at HSV)

 

Charlie Taylor | £7.75m LB/LWB from Norwich City (starts at Leeds United)

 

Marcos Llorente | £2.5m CDM/CM from Deportivo Alavés

 

Bertrand Traore | £850k LW/F9 from Chelsea

 

Really happy finishing with Europa League football next season, big gap to push for Champions League football, the gap in the quality of player from 4th to 7th is quite big. This summer will be a case of adding real quality over quantity.

Our under 23's won their league:

But our under 18's have some work to do:

We've started working on upgrading the training facilities and the youth category to a category 1.

 

We also had a very good year financially:

[nextqprmanager]

good post Stevemc, just bought Clough - how is he?

[stevemc]

10 minutes ago, nextqprmanager said:

good post Stevemc, just bought Clough - how is he?

He's doing well for me, not amazing, but worth the initial £2m.

[nextqprmanager]

Stevemc, thx, think I paid too much up to £4m, we`ll see

[stevemc]

7 hours ago, nextqprmanager said:

Stevemc, thx, think I paid too much up to £4m, we`ll see

His resale is more than that after a few seasons, you'll still make on him should you want to cash in