[FM20] Manchester United: Falling Giant...

[Gee_Simpson]

19 minutes ago, MatthewS17 said:

Tbh, I keep them around to make it feel slightly realistic, given I'm in charge of everything. I have Luis Ocampos as my DoF and don't remember who my technical director is. The idea was to have something similar to the way Sir Alex used to do things, in which he was part of negotiations and meeting players alongside David Gill. However, more delegation is needed. 

I don't use the Loan Manager as it makes no sense. The Head of Youth development can do the same thing, and I've placed him in charge of signing any potential youngsters for youth teams. 

However, he never seems to do this. He just accepts or rejects incoming offers which is slightly frustrating. 

 

As for the scouts, I sack anyone with below 16 in in the Potential or Ability stats. This is Man United. Only the best will do. 

Interesting, I'll keep that advice in mind, thanks.

I've wasted money especially on the loan manager, looks like I'll have to wait a while before sacking him now. I may keep the technical director on but don't see much point actually as I have taken most of the power away from him now. I have the first window disabled so a little waste of wages on a few staff members won't hit me too hard.

I had my assistant take charge of general training but I have now delegated that to my HOYD Bernhard Peters, because he has really good attributes.

Edited May 7, 2020 by Gee_Simpson

[dozzie]

I just finished my 23/24 season with probably the best run of results I can remember having. From the start of March to the end of the season I only conceded 5 goals and ended winning the League, FA Cup and Champions League. Having bought Mbappe in January I was trying to find a way of playing both him and Haaland (I usually play 4-2-3-1) and stumbled into a really effective 5-3-2 for the big games against City and Barcelona. Then, Haaland got injured and missed the last month of the season which was a worry, but Mbappe carried me over the line!

Such a satisfying end to the season!

[MatthewS17]

2 hours ago, Gee_Simpson said:

Interesting, I'll keep that advice in mind, thanks.

I've wasted money especially on the loan manager, looks like I'll have to wait a while before sacking him now. I may keep the technical director on but don't see much point actually as I have taken most of the power away from him now. I have the first window disabled so a little waste of wages on a few staff members won't hit me too hard.

I had my assistant take charge of general training but I have now delegated that to my HOYD Bernhard Peters, because he has really good attributes.

In terms of training, I handle the individual aspect, as Man United have a lot of players with key attributes slightly underdeveloped, especially in the Mental area. 

I replaced the backroom staff, and my assistant manager is Juan Carlos Carcedo, who handles the general training. Seems to do a good job at it too. 

However, I hit a stumble as one of my more defensive minded coaches(Danny McGrain) retired and I'm struggling to find an adequate replacement. 

In terms of the Loan Manager, I did at first consider hiring one, but when he demanded 30k, I told him very specifically where I'd like him to shove that wage. Very specifically. 

[stevemc]

Season 2024/25: Start of Season

 

Transfer Window:

Big summer, decided to allow 29-year-old Bruno Fernandes leave as I was able to pick up Pedri from Barcelona for £112m, who at 21 is already an elite player, also signed Ilaix Moriba from Barcelona too for £73m to replace 29-year-old Sergej Milinkovic-Savic. Kai Havertz requested to leave for PSG, so I signed elite attacking midfielder, Houssem Aouar as replacement. In term of first team players to leave, I also sold Lautaro Martínez (who is being replaced with regen wonderkid Marcos Vinícius when he arrives in December from Gremio) and Maximilian Wöber, who left because I needed to lose one player for fulfil the FGN quota (he was replaced with 16-year-old Daniel Atkins from Walsall in a £2.9m deal), and Jadon Sancho because he just doesn't fit the way I'm playing and it shows in his output.

My youth intake brought through Igor Arsenijevic, a 16-year-old English goalkeeper dubbed the next David Seaman, and looks a world-class prospect.

We actually brought in £660m this summer in total whilst spending £228m.

Rúben Dias and Florentino Luís have also becoming British Citizens having spend 5 years in England, helping me with the FGN quota.

 

Here's a couple of my regen players:

6. Léo Guerreiro

 

3. Cizão

 

14. Thiago Hurtado

 

20. Marcos Vinícius

 

 

Community Shield: 

Although it's a nothing game, we gave Liverpool some revenge and embarrassment with a 9-1 win the season curtain raiser, happy to see Pedri get on the score sheet on this debut:

 

 

My Squad:

GK: Gianluigi Donnarumma,  Yannick Becic(HG), Igor Arsenijevic(HG)

RB: Aaron Wan-Bissaka(HG), Reece James(HG)

LB: Cizão, Daniel Atkins(HG)

CB: Matthijs de Ligt, Léo Guerreiro, Rúben Dias

DM/CM: Eduardo Camavinga, Thiago Hurtado, Rúben Neves, Florentino Luís

AM: Pedri, Hannibal Mejbri(HG),, Houssem Aouar, Ilaix Moriba, Jude Bellingham(HG)

IF/WINGERS: Kylian Mbappé, Marcus Rashford(HG), Mason Greenwood(HG), Rayan Cherki(HG)

STRIKER: Erling Haaland, Sebastiano Esposito, Marcos Vinícius

YOUTH OPPORTUNITIES: Mazinho (D/WB/DM), Michael Burling(HG) (CM), Victor Maurin(HG) (AM), Charlie Burton(HG) (AM/ST), Fabio Calvet(HG) (AM/IF), Yassine Hamzaoui(HG) (IF), Victor Huysmans (AM/ST)

*regen/newgen

 

 

England:

After the Summer tournament, Gareth Southgate stepped down to join Lyon, and the FA approached me. I accepted, and took Mike Phelan as my number two too. I'm just going through re-structuring the backroom staff at all levels.

We've had a good start to our UEFA Nations campaign, I dropped a number of older players from my first squad and promoted more younger talent which caused a bit of uproar with the media and some of the squad mainstays. Joe Gomez, John Stones, Eric Dier, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Harry Maguire were the biggest culprits in the cull. Kept 32-year-old Harry Kane around because he's still absolutely disgusting

 

Here was my first squad, Aaron Wan-Bissaka pulled out injured but was initially selected:

[BigV]

Any reason as to why you loaned out Marcus-ST? guy looks stupidly good, those long shots will be deadly with this ME

[stevemc]

25 minutes ago, BigV said:

Any reason as to why you loaned out Marcus-ST? guy looks stupidly good, those long shots will be deadly with this ME

Part of the deal when I signed him in January Gremio wanted him to stay on loan until the end of the season, they wouldn't budge on it.

[Gee_Simpson]

7 hours ago, MatthewS17 said:

In terms of training, I handle the individual aspect, as Man United have a lot of players with key attributes slightly underdeveloped, especially in the Mental area. 

I replaced the backroom staff, and my assistant manager is Juan Carlos Carcedo, who handles the general training. Seems to do a good job at it too. 

However, I hit a stumble as one of my more defensive minded coaches(Danny McGrain) retired and I'm struggling to find an adequate replacement. 

In terms of the Loan Manager, I did at first consider hiring one, but when he demanded 30k, I told him very specifically where I'd like him to shove that wage. Very specifically. 

Miguel D'Agostino would be a good replacement imo.

Lol yeah I made a booby when agreeing to sign my loan manager for 20k and my technical director for 23k

Edited May 8, 2020 by Gee_Simpson

[tolkon]

well, after taking a break from my save, here is my result from the 3rd season

all in all, won everything except Carabao Cup because I decided to drop it hahaha

somehow I can't beat Liverpool on EPL this season LOL

drawn match:
1-1 A Everton
2-2 A Liverpool
1-1 A Brighton
1-1 A Man City

lost match:
0-1 A Watford
2-4 H Liverpool (this is what caused me to take a break, after a draw with Man City, a lose against Liverpool)

 

after some thought and asking here in this forum as well, I bought Harry Kane just because, and he didn't perform very well for me. I'm wondering what is the best role he could act to start banging the goals more regularly? currently he is DLF(S), but I'm looking to retrain him as CF because his stats are good

looking to sell Chiesa (some rumor says Chelsea is wanting him for 200M $ ), Martial or Rashford (IF I can sell them both it will be good), and maybe Maguire or Lindelof

I also get both CR and Messi on a free transfer LOL. well, don't really need them but who can resist the urge?

 

edit: formation line up, player stats and some rumor

 

here is my usual line up: 

Bruno is injured here, he is my regular MCR on Mejbri's spot. been there since 1st season

 

here is Kane and Haaland at the end of 3rd season:

from the picture it shows a big different in goals at EPL: Haaland 33 from 27 apps - Kane 12 from 33 apps. and Kane is starting to injury prone now

 

and for the transfer rumor, here is the big money hopefully I can make

a real money maker if I may say, as I bought him for 75M $ at the 1st winter transfer window

Zaniolo perform better at RW for me as IW(s) than him, so as I'm starting to want to sell him, comes the good rumor(s) hahaha

Edited May 8, 2020 by tolkon
adding screenshots

[MatthewS17]

4 hours ago, tolkon said:

well, after taking a break from my save, here is my result from the 3rd season

all in all, won everything except Carabao Cup because I decided to drop it hahaha

somehow I can't beat Liverpool on EPL this season LOL

drawn match:
1-1 A Everton
2-2 A Liverpool
1-1 A Brighton
1-1 A Man City

lost match:
0-1 A Watford
2-4 H Liverpool (this is what caused me to take a break, after a draw with Man City, a lose against Liverpool)

 

after some thought and asking here in this forum as well, I bought Harry Kane just because, and he didn't perform very well for me. I'm wondering what is the best role he could act to start banging the goals more regularly? currently he is DLF(S), but I'm looking to retrain him as CF because his stats are good

looking to sell Chiesa (some rumor says Chelsea is wanting him for 200M $ ), Martial or Rashford (IF I can sell them both it will be good), and maybe Maguire or Lindelof

I also get both CR and Messi on a free transfer LOL. well, don't really need them but who can resist the urge?

 

**I forget to take a screenshot from my line up, will update later

I use Cavani as a CF(A). While he's not Kane, they're pretty similar in pace and as forwards, however Kane is much more creative and rounded. 

I've noticed that Cavani drops deeper than Martial and plays in Rashford a lot from the Left Wing. 

Then again, I'm biased as the CF role is the only role I like to use for my forwards. 

[BigV]

I find that dropping the carabaro cup is a great oppertunity to succeed in other cups, it drags alot of fitness concerns and stuff like that unless you rotate- inevitable to making first teamers angry tho about playing time.... 

Kane is a CF in reality and can do it all, really wished they'd get rid of that move into channels trait into an optional one for that and AF. Rashford goes worldclass levels so maybe hold of on him, sell maguire way too slow, lindelof is always bought by barca or madrid or bayern in my save for some reason so you could make a bit of a profit off him. 

[Gee_Simpson]

Finally started my save, only completed pre season in the first season, 1st game is vs Bournemouth away and 2nd game is vs Man City at home which will be tough. I disabled 1st window so no transfers of players in or out. 

I'll definitely be less focused on the League Cup, and also the Europa League, I will certainly play weakers squads in those, but especially the League Cup. 

Edited May 8, 2020 by Gee_Simpson

[tolkon]

3 hours ago, MatthewS17 said:

I use Cavani as a CF(A). While he's not Kane, they're pretty similar in pace and as forwards, however Kane is much more creative and rounded. 

I've noticed that Cavani drops deeper than Martial and plays in Rashford a lot from the Left Wing. 

Then again, I'm biased as the CF role is the only role I like to use for my forwards. 

well, I also got Cavani but he is sidelined by Haaland Martial and Greenwood at 2nd season. then Harry Kane is available for 80M $ at the start of 3rd season, so here he is LOL. 

 

1 hour ago, BigV said:

I find that dropping the carabaro cup is a great oppertunity to succeed in other cups, it drags alot of fitness concerns and stuff like that unless you rotate- inevitable to making first teamers angry tho about playing time.... 

Kane is a CF in reality and can do it all, really wished they'd get rid of that move into channels trait into an optional one for that and AF. Rashford goes worldclass levels so maybe hold of on him, sell maguire way too slow, lindelof is always bought by barca or madrid or bayern in my save for some reason so you could make a bit of a profit off him. 

TBH I got too many forward in the squad (Haaland Kane Greenwood Martial Cavani and some young prospects) so I'm looking to sell either Martial or Rashford as they both perform very nicely at LW as IF(a). 

And Kane as CF is what I'm training him for right now, hopefully he will works for me this season. not a bad forward actually, just didn't score as much as I would like him to.

[sedge11]

3 hours ago, Gee_Simpson said:

Finally started my save, only completed pre season in the first season, 1st game is vs Bournemouth away and 2nd game is vs Man City at home which will be tough. I disabled 1st window so no transfers of players in or out. 

I'll definitely be less focused on the League Cup, and also the Europa League, I will certainly play weakers squads in those, but especially the League Cup. 

Good to see you have finally got your save started, hopefully will be a great save for you 👍🏻.

Edited May 8, 2020 by sedge11

[Chapman7]

On 06/05/2020 at 21:32, Gee_Simpson said:

I reckon I'll go first season with the Chief Scout and review it at the end of the season. I actually replaced the loan manager and technical director with better ones but now I think I may let both of them go lol, as usually I like bringing in my own staff and handle loans myself but I was just getting lazy so delegated those areas to them. With regards to the overload of scouts, do you release quite a few of them down to the amount recommended by the board? Not sure whether to let some go or not. There are loads of scouts at Utd at the start, not sure if they are all needed.

I do release quite a few think it's like 20+ plus data analysis the only poor one I keep I can't think of his name but hes the best one for opposition scouting with tactical knowledge 

[tolkon]

Community Shield against Liverpool and debut match for CR and Messi 

too bad CR has to substituted early 'after being a victim of a heavy challenge'  

oh and Kane as CF(a) is superb, shows a great performance and score twice 

 

 

got 2 injured for a couple of days but manage to hurt Salah for longer period of injure HAHAHA

[MatthewS17]

9 hours ago, BigV said:

I find that dropping the carabaro cup is a great oppertunity to succeed in other cups, it drags alot of fitness concerns and stuff like that unless you rotate- inevitable to making first teamers angry tho about playing time.... 

Kane is a CF in reality and can do it all, really wished they'd get rid of that move into channels trait into an optional one for that and AF. Rashford goes worldclass levels so maybe hold of on him, sell maguire way too slow, lindelof is always bought by barca or madrid or bayern in my save for some reason so you could make a bit of a profit off him. 

I like the Carabao Cup. I see it as a platform to further success during the season. 

I find the FA Cup infinitely more difficult as it starts in January when fixtures are tight. 

And I like that the Carabao Cup ends before Champions League knockout stages begin. 

[BigV]

7 minutes ago, MatthewS17 said:

I like the Carabao Cup. I see it as a platform to further success during the season. 

I find the FA Cup infinitely more difficult as it starts in January when fixtures are tight. 

And I like that the Carabao Cup ends before Champions League knockout stages begin. 

i think carabaro around jan and ucl stages makes it so much harder. FA cup, UCL and league is where the bigger challenge is ofc but the fitness you train without carabaro makes it alot easier imo. hate having 2 games a week especially when its within 2 days, and injury struck. 

[MatthewS17]

Is the reason "Cautious Mentality" states "expected to lose the battle for possession" just SI half-heartedly copy pasting last year's text, or is it naturally supposed to be applicable. 

If applicable, I'm curious why every side that plays cautious tends to dominate possession (to an incredibly high extent) against me. Including a league 2 side. 

The moment they switch outside Cautious, I automatically start dominating again

 

Confused as all hell. 

Edited May 9, 2020 by MatthewS17

[Spiegel]

Just about to go into the 22/23 season. I've kept transfers to a minimum this summer, moving out Luke Shaw and replacing him with Ben Chilwell from recently relegated Leicester.

Barcelona have been working the charm offensive to lure Pogba there, but backed off once I negotiated their opening offer of £117 mill. I'm fairly well prepared should he move; Bellingham's insanely good now, and really pushed Pogba and Eriksen for a starting spot last season. Kenneh and Mejbri are also back from their loans at West Brom and Malaga respectively. 

I've made a couple of tactical changes this year. 

• I typically mirrored my wide forwards, but I've had a torrid time getting any sort of form out of the left sided one, regardless of who plays there.
  Rashford, Ronaldo, James and Sancho have all been tried, but only get ratings between 6.2 and 6.7 there. James and Sancho, along with Bowen and Greenwood are getting good numbers from the right side.
  
  I'm currently experimenting with a Raumdauter.  Trail of thought is that Ronaldo isn't as quick as he once was, so relieving him of defensive duties will allow him to take up positions where he won't have to beat players off the dribble. 
   
• The DM is now a half-back. Hoping this will protect us from some of the fast-breaks we've conceded from, and also allow us to split defenders during build up - Busquets style. This also gives sufficient coverage for both of my full-backs to bomb forward. Hopefully Chilwell's pace, crossing ability and left foot (Brandon Williams, I'm looking at you!) will help with my left wing issue.

Academy's looking better this year also, I was a bit thread-bare last year due to the amount of players out on loan. I've kept everyone who joined the academy this year (Jamal Murray is this year's main prospect) and raided other academies to give us better depth. 

 

[sean_oc16]

August 2025 - Start of season 7

Let's start with the Club World Championship.

As expected the big European sides each won their group easily. We beat Barcelona and Arsenal to set up a repeat of the CL final 2 months prior against Dortmund. This time around it was a much closer affair coming down to a penalty shootout which we won 5-4 to add a new trophy to the cabinet.

On to the Community Shield.

An even match but we edged it 2-1 to win this trophy for the 5 year running. Always good to get a win over a rival and we face off again 10 days later in the Euro Super Cup.

Transfers Out: Cengiz Under to Tottenham for £70m. He's given us a good 4 years, but injuries have started to limit his play time so we cash in now and let younger players take his spot. Eder Militao to PSG for £88m. He was good, but didn't quite work out as well as I hoped and when PSG showed interest he was wanting to go and this is another spot where I have a replacement already. Kalidou Koulibaly to Juventus for £12m. He was already asking for a new deal last season and unhappy that I wouldn't give him one. His attributes had started to drop off and I got the good year out of him I wanted so don't mind flipping him for a quick 12m profit.

Transfers In: Matthijs de Ligt from Juventus for £50m. He became available and some other clubs were in for him so I was happy to get him. Will be our 3rd established DC with Militao and Koulibaly leaving.

So we head into the season with this squad and what the board is expecting from us. As always there will be some players from U23 and U18 that get opportunities at various points.

 

Let's see if we can make it 6 league titles in a row!

[BigV]

13 hours ago, MatthewS17 said:

Is the reason "Cautious Mentality" states "expected to lose the battle for possession" just SI half-heartedly copy pasting last year's text, or is it naturally supposed to be applicable. 

If applicable, I'm curious why every side that plays cautious tends to dominate possession (to an incredibly high extent) against me. Including a league 2 side. 

The moment they switch outside Cautious, I automatically start dominating again

 

Confused as all hell. 

Welcome to FM20  in all fariness this is why I reverted back to fm17, having a baller of a time doing challenges on there with United and salford atm, I'd post it here but its fm20 based

[MatthewS17]

34 minutes ago, BigV said:

Welcome to FM20  in all fariness this is why I reverted back to fm17, having a baller of a time doing challenges on there with United and salford atm, I'd post it here but its fm20 based

I can't, mate. I've tried. I like the updated database. 

[BigV]

17 minutes ago, MatthewS17 said:

I can't, mate. I've tried. I like the updated database. 

I feel ya, I was the same until I got hooked again 

[MatthewS17]

14 hours ago, Spiegel said:

Just about to go into the 22/23 season. I've kept transfers to a minimum this summer, moving out Luke Shaw and replacing him with Ben Chilwell from recently relegated Leicester.

Barcelona have been working the charm offensive to lure Pogba there, but backed off once I negotiated their opening offer of £117 mill. I'm fairly well prepared should he move; Bellingham's insanely good now, and really pushed Pogba and Eriksen for a starting spot last season. Kenneh and Mejbri are also back from their loans at West Brom and Malaga respectively. 

I've made a couple of tactical changes this year. 

• I typically mirrored my wide forwards, but I've had a torrid time getting any sort of form out of the left sided one, regardless of who plays there.
  Rashford, Ronaldo, James and Sancho have all been tried, but only get ratings between 6.2 and 6.7 there. James and Sancho, along with Bowen and Greenwood are getting good numbers from the right side.
  
  I'm currently experimenting with a Raumdauter.  Trail of thought is that Ronaldo isn't as quick as he once was, so relieving him of defensive duties will allow him to take up positions where he won't have to beat players off the dribble. 
   
• The DM is now a half-back. Hoping this will protect us from some of the fast-breaks we've conceded from, and also allow us to split defenders during build up - Busquets style. This also gives sufficient coverage for both of my full-backs to bomb forward. Hopefully Chilwell's pace, crossing ability and left foot (Brandon Williams, I'm looking at you!) will help with my left wing issue.

Academy's looking better this year also, I was a bit thread-bare last year due to the amount of players out on loan. I've kept everyone who joined the academy this year (Jamal Murray is this year's main prospect) and raided other academies to give us better depth. 

 

Tbh, your style and mine are completely different.

However, in terms of wide players, I try to make mine the most expansive, yet dynamic players on the pitch. I have Rashford at IF(A) on the left, with the instruction to "Stay Wider". Rashford has 50 goals and assists combined in 55 games for me since I started this save( 42 goals and 8 assists). On the other side, I want a player with more creative output, so I have Sancho(Greenwood players here as well, but then it acts like a front 3, so you need your midfield and wingbacks to create width. Sancho alternates between W(A) and a Support duty. Mainly support against lesser teams, because they sit deep(and still somehow dominate possession), and then attack against the bigger teams, because he's got more space. So far Sancho's got 2 goals and 4 assists in 6 games in the league, I think. Not bad. 

The best example I can think of is to look at how Pep sets his wingers up. When Sterling and Sane played. Both hugged the touchline, until the final third when Sterling would cut in using his pace while Aguero dropped deeper. Sane always held width.

Anyway, just my two cents. However, what do I know? MK Dons had 68% possession over me at Old Trafford for the entire game in the Carabao Cup. 

Edited May 10, 2020 by MatthewS17

[MatthewS17]

8 minutes ago, BigV said:

I feel ya, I was the same until I got hooked again 

I think it's safe to say that for me, "other games" have been the hook.

Also, does anyone actually mind if you post here. It may be FM17, but I personally come here for the stories and to see how everyone likes to envision their team.

Edited May 10, 2020 by MatthewS17

[BigV]

1 hour ago, MatthewS17 said:

I think it's safe to say that for me, "other games" have been the hook.

Also, does anyone actually mind if you post here. It may be FM17, but I personally come here for the stories and to see how everyone likes to envision their team.

Loool same tbf, been bashing borderlands2 , it's a bit off topic but once im back in full swing, I might post in here 

[Zeonflux]

Season 4 is now coming towards March and I’m either 3 points clear of Liverpool with a game in hand or 6 points clear. (Can’t remember if I played the game in hand or not before I finished playing yesterday)

ive lost 3 times all season being community shield, super cup and my final CL group game and I’ve had 2 draws in the league.

I also managed to get the Norway job after the 2022 World Cup finished which I’m looking forward to what with them having Haaland, Odegaard and Berge as a strong core of players that all fit into the tactics I use.

So far this season couldn’t have gone any better, Hubbard is pushing for the first team and Weaver (a regen GK I nabbed from Arsenal a few days after and intake) is now my Second choice keeper and has had some great displays for me and De Gea has been back to his best as we were on a run of 10+ games without conceding and we have the lowest goals against and Haaland is doing his thing which sees us as the top goalscorers as well.

All I need now is for Hereford FC to make sure they don’t get relegated before the National League North/South become available and it’ll be a perfect season.

On a brief side note we beat City in the Carabao cup final to make it 4/4 wins since the save began and means were unbeaten in that competition since the save began as well

[Alioz]

Never posted on here, I'm a bit of a lurker as I think its called  but thought I would give it a go.

Ive played FM/CM for a long time now but over the last few years ive really struggled. This year I finally worked out why, as a Utd fan I have been used to not buying any ready made players and just searching for youth and regens whilst allowing my current squad to start the winning! This year I started with a few 'bigger' signings whilst getting rid of a lot of the squad. 

I am now 30 games into season 4.

My 1st season I finished 3rd and won the carabao cup signing Varane, Fernandes and haaland as my main signings. 

My 2nd season I finished 2nd and won the Carabao cup signing Sancho Chiesa and Luis as my main signings

My 3rd season I won the league by 1 point on the last day as Man city lost to spurs phew! Main signing were Dias and Fabio silva.

Im now 8 points clear with 8 games to go in the league so looking good, currently against PSG in the Champs league and got a decent away draw 1-1.

Im probably pretty set with my team now and may not sign anyone in the summer. Although I do have a deal to bring Ronaldo (39) to the club as an 'impact sub'! I couldn't resist.

Here is who my best XI prob is (backs ups in brackets)

                                         De Gea (Henderson)

Dest (wan Bissaka) -  Dias (maguire) -  Ougenue (Varane) - Shaw (Williams)

                                   Luis (Johnson-regen) - Pogba (Savic)

Greenwood (Cheisa) - Fernandes (Bellingham) - Sancho (Rashford)

                                         Haaland (Silva)

 

Not very good at screen shots etc but hopefully you get the gist  

Let me know any thoughts 

 

[stevemc]

Not bad. Still going too...

[BigV]

Have you had any tough games where you've had to throw your aggressive side out to push them to score and come through? Always thought FM at somepoint fks you over when you have a good streak (unless you're doing the quit and no save thing) 

[stevemc]

18 hours ago, BigV said:

Have you had any tough games where you've had to throw your aggressive side out to push them to score and come through? Always thought FM at somepoint fks you over when you have a good streak (unless you're doing the quit and no save thing) 

Yeah a good couple of times!

Edited May 13, 2020 by stevemc

[sean_oc16]

On 12/05/2020 at 22:15, stevemc said:

Not bad. Still going too...

Not bad

 

[sean_oc16]

The kids are doing alright.

They've also had 10-0 and 11-0 wins domestically this season and have currently won every match to Jan 1st. 

[Alioz]

Does anyone have any tips or advice on how to get better youth intakes? or is it just luck? in 4 years I have only got 2 players that have the possibility of being 4* the rest are less than 3* at best most not worth having anywhere near the club? 

Got the best youth facilities I can get so am I missing something else?

[willbrown83]

10 hours ago, Alioz said:

Does anyone have any tips or advice on how to get better youth intakes? or is it just luck? in 4 years I have only got 2 players that have the possibility of being 4* the rest are less than 3* at best most not worth having anywhere near the club? 

Got the best youth facilities I can get so am I missing something else?

Assuming Head of youth development being amazing plis facilities make a difference in 4yts at United i have had 1 player with 4 star potential i have Bryan Klug as head of mine would love to know as well

[raden.indra.pratama]

1st season after winter transfer windows update :

1. Bought Sancho for 68Mil Pound. Bought lot of much younger player; Lucas Gourna Douath, Naci Unuvar, Jayden Fevrier, Karamoko Dembele, Marie-Gael Mukanya, Devyne Rensch, Thomas Dickson-Peters, Lewis Dobbin, Marcel Beifus, Maximillian Beier and Rafael Brito. 
2. Sell Romero, Lingard, Matic, Mata and Loaned Jones for agreed future fee.
3. Loaned Chong (Hertha-First Team), Garner (Luton-First Team), Levitt (Salford - First Team), Ramazani, Traore (Cheltenham - First Team), Barlow (Coventry - First Team), and Puigmal (Alaves- Rotation) and fortunately all works.
4. Giving 5-10 senior match experience for Mengi, Laird, Karamoko, Mejbri, Elanga, and Kovar.
5. Bishop, Gomes, Dalot, Greenwood are priority subs. Gomes impact with lot of assist, Greenwood with some important goals, Dalot good going forward. Ighalo, Lindelof, James, Baily, Fosu-Mensah good squad player too. Andreas last resort but good on some lower quality match.
6. Play 4-1-2-3 with DDG - Wan Bissaka - Tuanzebe - Maguire - Shaw/Williams (50-50) - McTominay (DM) - Pogba (DLP) - Bruno (Mez) - Sancho (IF) - Rashford (IF) - Martial (AF).
7. Finish 2nd place, FA Cup Semi, UEL Semi, and win Carabao. Rashford top scorers with 26 goals, Bruno Pogba provide lot of assist. Martial kind of underperforming because lot of minor injuries. McTominay highest rating (and highest yellow card tally).

2nd season :

1. Integrate Henderson, Garner, Levitt, and Chong into 1st team. Ighalo going back to China. Greenwood step up. Did not buy anyone. Sell Andreas, Rojo, Smalling, Jones, and Sanchez (low price).
2. Loaned Bishop, Laird, Mengi, Elanga, Ramazani, Barlow, Traore and Brito out on summer. Mejbri, Karamoko, Beifus, Bejger on winter. Released/sell McGhee, Max Taylor, Demetri, Woolston and Puigmal.
3. Still play 4-1-2-3 with DDG - Wan Bissaka - Tuanzebe - Maguire - Williams - McTominay (DM) - Pogba (DLP) - Bruno (Mez) - Sancho (IF) - Rashford (IF) - Martial (AF).
4. Premier League runner up again (2 points difference with Liverpool). FA and Carabao Winners. UCL Quarterfinal (slayed by wonderkid-full Madrid, front trio of Kubo-Vinicius-Rodrygo). U-23 and U-18 are their division's champions.
5. Martial and Rashford going for 28 and 25 goals each with double digit assist too. Sancho top assist maker in EPL. Greenwood also reach 11 PL goals record. Gomes and James supersubs with some important goals and assists. McTominay and Maguire high rating.
6. Garner decent backup for Pogba, Levitt play mezzala quite well. Chong and Shaw uneffective. Fosu-Mensah good backup DM. Henderson cup heroes.

For 3rd season planned to add more 15-17 y.o to aging U-18. Any suggestions?.

 

Edited May 15, 2020 by raden.indra.pratama

[raden.indra.pratama]

On 01/05/2020 at 03:19, StePratt said:

 

You put a trophy in front of this team and they win it. Brilliant for the lads who are at the club at the start, Barlow, Levitt, Bishop, Laird, Garner, Mejbri and Traore. Not sure if I will carry on. I might see what international jobs come up after the Euros.

 

Building the team around local lads!. What an interesting option. What role do you assign to Levitt, Traore, and Barlow?.

Edited May 15, 2020 by raden.indra.pratama

[stevemc]

Season 2024/25: End of Season

 

Summary:

Despite winning the title again (6 in a row) and the Carabao Cup I put this season down as a disappointment, we were embarrassingly dumped out of the Champions League and Liverpool put us out of the FA Cup too, both performances were terrible. We had a great unbeaten run of 108 games ended by Liverpool's 3-0 win over us at Anfield too - these three performances were up there with the worst performances I've ever had on this save and made me question a few of the players. I'd made some mistakes too, but also made some poor signings, both Pedri (£112m) and Houssem Aouar (£65m) had shockers, absolutely stunk the club out, I've fallen out with both and there's a very good chance both will leave in the summer - I also think I made a mistake selling Bruno Fernandes last summer too, even though he was 29. Sebastiano Esposito, who has been superb for me, went 3 months without a goal too but has come back into some form now. Throw in a few injuries and some terrible red cards, it was a tricky season but I've saved loads of money in the fines I've been handing out

In January, I sold bit-part player Rúben Neves for £70m to Juventus, but also managed to pick up Ansu Fati for £123m from Barcelona, who has actually been superb. English centre-midfielder, Michael Sant, who I tried to sign three years ago, finally came in for £31.5m, he was more of a signing for summer onwards - he's been playing under me for England so it was a no brainer when I discovered his release clause, and he has a great partnership with Jude Bellingham too. Ángel Espinoza also arrived for the future.

I'm going to change my tact this summer for transfers, I'm going to promote some from within, not spend so much on over-priced foreign-slot players and try to being in some more home-grown players to expand my quota and make registration a little more comfortable. Trying to cleanse the club. Also need to address the lack of a specialist set-piece taker.

Anyway, season went like this:

 

Community Shield: 

Although it's a nothing game, we gave Liverpool some revenge and embarrassment with a 9-1 win the season curtain raiser, happy to see Pedri get on the score sheet on this debut:

 

 

Premier League: 

6 in a row! Liverpool runner-up for the 4th time too  I was very close until game 31 when the gap opened up and Liverpool led the table until game 31 too, they basically bottled it! Mo Salah won golden boot with 22 goal, with Kane and Mbappe behind him.

Arsenal spent £403m under Zinedine Zidane to finish 4th.

 

 

Carabao Cup: 

Really boring final, dire 1-0 win, but we put out QPR (H), Tottenham (H), West Ham (A) and Arsenal in the semi-finals en-route. 

 

4 times in 6 years we've lifted this non-important trophy, I don't care, we're dominating it, might as well rename it to MUFC-Cup

 

 

FA Cup: 

Although we made the semi-final final, Liverpool knocked us out 2-1, we did knock out MK Dons (H), Leeds United (A), West Ham (A) and Swansea (H) - what a waste

Not even posting a screenshot of the result, still makes me angry.

 

 

Champions League: 

First season in 6 years that's we've not made a European Cup Final.

We comfortably topped our group too, beating Leipzig home and away, only for them to knock us out in the Quarter Final:

The loss was embarrassing, I'm not even joking, 5-0 at half time in the second leg after Leipzig came to Old Trafford and sweated out a 1-1 draw. Ex-United playmaker Jack Grealish tore us apart whilst our team had 5.3 ratings galore by the final whistle - worst defeat in as long as I can remember on ay FM, performance came from nowhere, I fined 7 players two weeks wages for poor performances.

 

 

Under 23's: 

League and cup double:

 

 

Under 23's: 

Basically just won everything:

 

 

My Squad:

GK: Gianluigi Donnarumma,  Yannick Becic(HG), Igor Arsenijevic(HG)

RB: Aaron Wan-Bissaka(HG), Reece James(HG)

LB: Cizão, Daniel Atkins(HG)

CB: Matthijs de Ligt, Léo Guerreiro, Rúben Dias

DM/CM: Eduardo Camavinga, Thiago Hurtado, Florentino Luís, Ángel Espinoza

AM: Pedri, Hannibal Mejbri(HG), Houssem Aouar, Ilaix Moriba, Michael Sant(HG), Jude Bellingham(HG) 

IF/WINGERS: Kylian Mbappé, Marcus Rashford(HG), Mason Greenwood(HG), Ansu Fati

STRIKER: Erling Haaland, Sebastiano Esposito, Marcos Vinícius

YOUTH OPPORTUNITIES: Mazinho (D/WB/DM), Michael Burling(HG) (CM), Victor Maurin(HG) (AM), Charlie Burton(HG) (AM/ST), Fabio Calvet(HG) (AM/IF), Yassine Hamzaoui(HG) (IF), Victor Huysmans (AM/ST)

*regen/newgen

 

 

England:

Progressing well, unbeaten, we have a Nations League semi-final place booked (vs Germany) coming up, and we are also top of our World Cup Qualifying Group where the draw has been incredibly kind!

 

I've successfully managed to talk a few younger, talented players into representing England over other countries, which is great for the future, plus we also have Charlie Burton - dubbed the new Paul Gascoigne, along with Daniel Atkins, Igor Arsenijevic, Jarod Hibbs, Michael Sant, Mark Adams, Bob Simmonds and Keasel Headley - who are all 16-18 years old with 5-star potential.

 

[sean_oc16]

January 2026 - Transfer window opens

Awards Season!

World Golden Ball: Harry Kane 1st

World Footballer of the Year: Naci Unuvar 1st, Harry Kane 2nd

World Player of the Year: Harry Kane 1st

World Goalkeeper of the Year: David De Gea 2nd

World Team of the Year: Dayot Upamecano, Naci Unuvar, Harry Kane. Subs: Ruben Dias, Franck Kessie, Marcus Rashford

Broadcasters' African Footballer of the Year: Franck Kessie 1st

African Footballer of the Year: Franck Kessie 1st

African XI of the Year: Franck Kessie

African Midfielder of the Year: Franck Kessie 1st

French Player of the Year: Dayot Upamecano 2nd

Season Progress

Wins over Man City in both Community Shield and European Super Cup put two trophies in the cabinet early. Main issue so far has been the defence, we've already conceded more than we did during last season with half way still to go. Still being inconsistent in front of goal, often 1 or 2 are a struggle then we'll have the occasional blow out game that inflates the total goal scored number, would be nice to even it out more so I'm not sweating some matches so much. This time Chelsea have been the main challenger, built on the best defence in the league, but at the start of December we beat them to go top and they've drawn twice since to open a little gap for the first time all season. Tough draw in the CL, as you would expect PSG have won Ligue 1 every season and are well ahead at the top this season already.

On the transfer front it's business as usual, no specific targets for the senior team, would take someone special becoming available or big offer for one of my players for any movement there and just keeping an eye out for any young prospects that I might like to add. Interest in some of the younger players on loan deals, that's always a balance between letting them go potentially get more senior playing time and keeping them enough to qualify for home-grown status.

[Spiegel]

On 10/05/2020 at 13:07, MatthewS17 said:

Tbh, your style and mine are completely different.

However, in terms of wide players, I try to make mine the most expansive, yet dynamic players on the pitch. I have Rashford at IF(A) on the left, with the instruction to "Stay Wider". Rashford has 50 goals and assists combined in 55 games for me since I started this save( 42 goals and 8 assists). On the other side, I want a player with more creative output, so I have Sancho(Greenwood players here as well, but then it acts like a front 3, so you need your midfield and wingbacks to create width. Sancho alternates between W(A) and a Support duty. Mainly support against lesser teams, because they sit deep(and still somehow dominate possession), and then attack against the bigger teams, because he's got more space. So far Sancho's got 2 goals and 4 assists in 6 games in the league, I think. Not bad. 

The best example I can think of is to look at how Pep sets his wingers up. When Sterling and Sane played. Both hugged the touchline, until the final third when Sterling would cut in using his pace while Aguero dropped deeper. Sane always held width.

Anyway, just my two cents. However, what do I know? MK Dons had 68% possession over me at Old Trafford for the entire game in the Carabao Cup. 

This has been useful, thanks for the thoughts! I've been running a IF(S) and IW(S), with "Stay Wider" and getting some better performances out of my wide players. 

Running this at the moment. Bit wobbly at the back, but when it clicks the football's excellent!

[Zeonflux]

So another Youth Intake has come and gone and again the only player worth signing is a defender.

This years lucky kid is Gary McDonnell who is a RB and unlike Hubbard i will actually be keeping him there. Overall he doesn't look bad for a 16 year old and he has an overall potential of 4 gold and 5 black stars so he could potentially be my first choice RB for quiet some time

[stevemc]

Opening game of the 2025/26 season, Rúben Amorim's Liverpool at Anfield, ruined my summer when the fixtures came out. Anyway, thought I'd go for it with a high press, 4 pacey front players backed up with two big, strong defensive midfielders as a base to build from. They scored off an indirect free-kick (shock), but we dominated, never let them breathe really, goals finally came in the 82nd minute and then a winner from Greenwood in the 89th minute - magical scenes, Liverpool lose their potential unbeaten run in game one 

Edited May 17, 2020 by stevemc

[sean_oc16]

March 2026 - Youth Intake

First intake under new HoYD Bernhard Peters who joined in the summer. Just the one player that might make it through eventually in Douglas Murray.

Quick update on how we're progressing in comps. Chelsea have fallen further behind by dropping points to Arsenal, Tottenham, Man City and ourselves which puts us in a strong position to win the league. We edged past PSG in the CL and in the FA Cup have dispatched Bristol City, Wolves and West Ham so far.

[stevemc]

Season 2025/26: Start of Season

 

Transfer Window:

Had a fairly quiet window, only bringing in two players for the first team squad. In came Declan Rice from Bayern Munich for £85m, I've used him for England at centre-back and was impressed, plus he's Home Grown, and after struggling to replace Bruno Fernandes I decided to bring in Sergio Gómez for a low-risk £29m. Out went Florentino Luís, Houssem Aouar, and Fabio Calvet along with a whole host of reserve players.

We spent £154m and brought in £472m leaving us with just over £1bn in the bank.

 

Here's a couple of my new regen players:

21. Ángel Espinoza

Picked up for £28m last season, is now fully ready to replace Florentino Luís who I sold to Real Madrid.

 

16. Michael Sant

Jude Bellingham's right-hand man for England and now us. Missed out on signing him on a free as he went abroad before we could chat, but picked him ip a year later for £31.5m.

 

27. Yassine Hamzaoui

Bought for £625,000 when he was 16, now 20, is ready and able to try and fill the void left by Bruno Fernandes, along with Sergio Gómez. Also home grown.

 

32. Yannick Auvray-Capoue

Picked up two seasons ago for £9.25m after he fell out with his manager at Atletico, wasn't quite ready so has had two loan spells. Now ready for the first team.

 

31. Yannick Becic

Signed him for £4m when he was 16, now Donnarumma's understudy.

 

28. Victor Huysmans

Currently trying to improve him but picked him up for £18.5k (YES, £18.5K!) three seasons ago, and is developing nicely.

 

 

FIFA World Club Cup: 

Finished third, now bad considered all the players play on 70-80 fitness for the whole summer tournament.

 

 

Community Shield: 

So close to closing the game out, Liverpool scored a late equaliser and turned us over on pens:

 

Champions League:

GROUP OF DEATH!

 

 

My Squad:

GK: Gianluigi Donnarumma,  Yannick Becic(HG), Igor Arsenijevic(HG)

RB: Aaron Wan-Bissaka(HG), Reece James(HG)

LB: Cizão, Daniel Atkins(HG)

CB: Matthijs de Ligt, Léo Guerreiro, Rúben Dias, Declan Rice(HG)

DM: Eduardo Camavinga, Thiago Hurtado, Ángel Espinoza

CM: Ilaix Moriba, Jude Bellingham(HG), 16. Michael Sant(HG)

AM: Sergio Gómez, Hannibal Mejbri(HG), Pedri

IF: Kylian Mbappé, Marcus Rashford(HG), Mason Greenwood(HG), Ansu Fati

STRIKER: Erling Haaland, Sebastiano Esposito, Marcos Vinícius

YOUTH OPPORTUNITIES: Victor Maurin(HG) (AM), Yassine Hamzaoui(HG) (IF), Victor Huysmans (AM/ST), Yannick Auvray-Capoue (IF), Michael Burling(HG) (CF)

*regen/newgen

 

 

England:

Another couple of wins in the bank, steps closer to World Cup qualification...

[BigV]

@Bliss Seeker 

[Chapman7]

How are people finding getting goals from Bruno and Pogba in first season in a 4-1-4-1? Bruno had a bit of an injury prone start with a couple of injuries one and after the other keeping him out for around 6-8 weeks. Would just like to have him more attacking the goal more.

Pogba had a couple injuries himself too but not for as long so he's gotten himself into a rhythm more than Bruno has compared to Pogba 

[Spiegel]

Debating a minor rebuild at the end of the season so I can clear the path for some of the academy players. Initial thoughts are to move the likes of Pogba on, and build the first team around some of these guys; 

Bellingham

Greenwood

Laird

Sancho

Edited May 21, 2020 by Spiegel

[syemo]

After not been getting into a save for a few editions i thought i'd go for something a bit different and start off with a big club. It's something i dont normally do. So i thought i'd give this a shot of trying to take united back to the top. 

First Season.

Transfers - Not much happened in this department, near enough straight away matic forced a move away, after trying to find a replacement with 35m pound budget i lost out on a few players but brought in Van De Beek in the end.

Tactics

3 tactics ive set up are a 4411, 442 and 4141

Was going to played 442 but martial and rashford getting injured in the pre season for 6 months and 6 weeks (ighalo start of the save was also injured) brought a stop to that idea and with city the first game and greenwood the only striker available , I started with the 4411. We stuck with this formation for the rest of the season.

In the image above wasn't my first XI Fernandes played AMC instead of Mata, Greenwood/Rashford/Martial and Ighalo all played in the AF role.

Carabao Cup

3rd - Beat Oxford
4th - Lost to Norwich

FA Cup

3rd - Beat Milwall
4th- Lost to spurs in extra time in the replay

Europa League

Got to the quarter finals before getting knocked out 1-0 on agg to lyon

Premier League

We had a good campaign near the top 4 for most of the season, we lost pace towards the end drawing 0-0 to newcastle, losing 4-0 to everton and a 0-0 draw with chelsea in 3 of the last 4 games of the season ruined what could have been. Man City went on to win the league.

Some screenshots throughout the season

 

Next season hopefully challenge for the title again and see what we can do being back in the champions league.

Edited May 21, 2020 by syemo

[sean_oc16]

June 2016 - End of Season 7

  

Just the league cup that we failed to win this season falling early to Man City. In the league we went unbeaten with our highest goals scored but also highest goals against. The match of the season/moment to forget sum up the season well, we had 9-0, 9-0, 8-0, 7-0 wins that spike the goals scored but then 9 games where we could only get at most 1 goal. Having spent most of the season being our closest challengers Chelsea ended slipping behind Liverpool to finish 3rd. This was the first season after the stadium expansion and we still got 99% filled across the season which is good, not sure if that's as big as the stadium can get now. The FA cup final we won against Watford who were the only team we did not beat in the league. The CL final we beat Napoli.

  

Nice to see one of the original players in Rashford still doing the business being named fans' player of the season and be our top scorer again for the fourth successive season. You can see the quality we have on the left wing with Unuvar having the top average rating and Balde equalling the record for assists in a season. Bellingham really stepped his play up this season to become the clear first choice on the right wing. Laird and Williams I don't consider first choice so it's interesting they got into the team of the season but understandable given his playing time due to injuries.

  

These show how good we were in Europe again; 6 players in dream team, best keeper, 2 of the top 3 defenders and best midfielder. Unfortunately Rashford misses the top 3 forwards despite his 11 goals.

This is how the squad finished the season. In goal De Gea kept 25 clean sheets in his 45 games but at 35 is starting to show signs of decreasing and going into the last year of his contract so we may be coming to the end of an era. In defence Dias is still a beast, I was hoping Perez would establish himself but suffered a major injury in October that kept him out until the cup finals at the end of the season so Lyu Hao got those opportunities. I may look to move Tavares on, he's spending too much time injured to be my first choice. In midfield I'm very happy all around, the centre is just a rotation of guys to balance happiness and the 4 young wingers have all been contributing. In attack the goals were nicely spread out with 6 players hitting double digits and 5 players getting 10+ assists. Like DDG, Kane is also going into the last year of his contract and I probably won't renew so he could go in the summer.

There's a World Cup this summer that we have a lot of players going to including some young players out on loan or outside the senior squad which is always good to see. That includes 6 players for England and Alves plus 2 other goalkeepers so we should be okay whenever DDG does leave.

[FMAnderson]

I finished my first season with United with amazing player stats.

James Rodriguez and Delofeu signed 1st season. Have a look at the stats.

Liverpool gave me a run for my money.

League and FA Cup winners.

All stats available on request.