[FM20] Manchester United: Falling Giant...

[Jedd95]

Using Knapps Beowulf 4-4-2 I think mate. I usually do my own formations but just couldn't quite get a 4-4-2 right on this years game so far (very casual player when not on isolation!!)

Whole team scored a lot of goals, Greenwood and Martial obviously way ahead of everyone else. Was great to watch.

I've actually just nabbed Aubameyang from Arsenal in season 2 for a season loan.

Transfer listed for £75m as contract up end of season, I was trying to sign Kane all window to no success, got to deadline day and they dropped Aub. to £45m, I put in a cheeky loan bid, they demanded I put option to buy for £115m (which I of course agreed to, with potential I can just approach in January if I want to?), paying £180k a week wages but means I have him, Martial, Greenwood rotating with Almada providing cover.

Very happy with that! Scored 4 in his first 2 games (2 as sub, 2 starting)

 

[manchester]

Anyone managed to get Sancho to work playing RW im wanting to sign him first season (if i can) to play that position and not had much luck before

[Jedd95]

15 minutes ago, manchester said:

Anyone managed to get Sancho to work playing RW im wanting to sign him first season (if i can) to play that position and not had much luck before

I play a flat 4-4-2, Sancho Right midfield on winger attack duty. 

Last season he played 40 games, 9 goals, 10 assists, 7.23 rating. 

This season he's been much better asked him to get into box more (PPM), with 2 goals, 2 assists in 4 games so far.

I'd definitely recommend him because he's grown into the role throughout. Much better towards end of season than at start.

[manchester]

Just now, Jedd95 said:

I play a flat 4-4-2, Sancho Right midfield on winger attack duty. 

Last season he played 40 games, 9 goals, 10 assists, 7.23 rating. 

This season he's been much better asked him to get into box more (PPM), with 2 goals, 2 assists in 4 games so far.

I'd definitely recommend him because he's grown into the role throughout. Much better towards end of season than at start.

so you believe i can get the same results if i do the same in RW

[Jedd95]

Yeah, I think he'd be even better at right wing as he's already further forward and has less defensive responsibilities.

He'd work on wing attack very well, in my opinion. I don't think inside forward so much. 

Train him to try killer balls often as his passing and flair works wonders!

[manchester]

2 hours ago, Jedd95 said:

Yeah, I think he'd be even better at right wing as he's already further forward and has less defensive responsibilities.

He'd work on wing attack very well, in my opinion. I don't think inside forward so much. 

Train him to try killer balls often as his passing and flair works wonders!

cheers man

[sean_oc16]

August 2024 - Start of season 6

 

Much simpler updated club vision from the board for this season, used to have 7 or 8 items on there. Signed a new contract back in April for 4 years on £375k p/w so board are obviously happy and that gives me a lot of job security.Aims for competitions are obviously to be winning trophies. Between transfer activity and international football the summer has flown by, I'm not sure if we're quite ready for the new season and 10 players are still at the Olympics. Not good when Arsenal, Chelsea and Man City are our first 3 games.

Notable Transfers Out: Dean Henderson to PSV for £32.5m. He was a good servant backing up DDG, but the time has come for Luis Alves (previously posted) to take a step toward succeeding DDG longer term. There were English clubs interested and surprised he ended up going abroad. Dusan Vlahovic to Inter for £72m. The signing of Harry Kane a couple years ago blocked his planned development and now we play differently to when he signed them, still good  but a lot of money to turn down for a 3rd or 4th choice striker. Jadon Sancho to FC Bayern for £101m. As previously discussed, 1 year left on his contract and his excessive demands meant I was looking to cash in now despite how good he can be. Eduardo Camavinga to Real Madrid for £69m. It's so easy to accumulate top quality centre mids, Camavinga is a casualty of that. He was one clubs bid for and expendable as I already have better in Baro. Bruno Fernandes to Barcelona for £101m. Big one. Controversial one. We all know how great he is, big risk for him and Sancho to go at the same time, but similarly he was getting unhappy with his current contract and didn't want to commit to a bigger long term deal. Mason Greenwood to Aston Villa for £80m. Another controversial one. Not as much I have turned down previously for him from Chelsea but there wasn't the level of interest despite having his best season. Just wasn't scoring for me like I have seen others post in here so decided it was time to cash in and give someone else a chance.  Lucas Tousart to Lazio for £35m. Been a good squad player for five years, but didn't quite fit how we've been playing more recently. Axel Tuanzebe to Derby for £36m. Another very good squad player to have and of course being English and home grown are bonuses, but a new signing meant it was probably time to move him on.

Notable Transfers In: Ilaix Moriba from Barcelona for £90m. The Fernandes replacement. Big shoes to fill, interested to see how he has developed on other peoples saves. Club record transfer and record fee for a Spanish player. Fabio Silva from Porto for £45.5m. With two strikers going out a transfer listed Silva is a good addition to fill one of those spots. Kalidou Koulibaly on free transfer. So this goes against so many other deals being about youth, but the opportunity to sign this player for free was too good to pass up, still looks great at 33yo. Lyu Hao from Hoffenheim for £11.25m 18yo Chinese wonderkid centre back I grabbed at his release fee. Not sure how much he will play this season, I have few guys competing to be the fourth CB. Record fee for a Chinese player.

That leaves the squad looking like this for the season. Just the minimum 15 players registered for the league, with the rest being exempt via the U21 rule.

[Gee_Simpson]

Getting rid of Bruno and Greenwood is sacrilege! 

[Powello]

6 minutes ago, Gee_Simpson said:

Getting rid of Bruno and Greenwood is sacrilege! 

haha yeah I agree 

[Powello]

So in the summer I signed Sancho and previously I only managed to get the best out of him on the left. I'm a big fan of what he is doing at Dortmund and every time I saw highlighs of games he was pretty much on the right but he did go on the left a bit aswell. So I have spent the last hour or so, studying their tactics, watching highlight and analisys videos and articles in an attempt too recreate it on FM. I have come up with 2 different version, their 4 at the back and 3 at the back. 

It's stilla work in progress and the familiarity was low, but I decided to try it out in a vital Champions League group game against Juventus. Risky  you say, well yes as firstly the winner will probably top the group and secondly they smashed us in Turin 4-0 in the first game. But the way they took us apart previously I thought I had nothing to lose, I was still going to get out the group. I wasn't ex[ecting what I saw

Their stats are very misleading, they didn't create a single decent opportunity as we nullified Ronaldo and Higuain and you can see my 11, not the strongest. Bellingham and James started, bubb is that striker from the youth intake last season.

We created 3 clear cut chances and scored all of them, they created none. The other goal was a penalty.

Still very early doors but it's promising . It's not exactly their tactic as it's pretty difficult to recreate a proper tactic on FM for certain things that teams do, but I definitely saw a few similarities

[sedge11]

So coming to the end of season 7, 3 games left 6 points ahead of Liverpool.

Liverpool draw 1-1 with Arsenal.

We play bottom of the table and already relegated Cardiff.

What a way to win our title back, Bruno Fernandes got 3 assists as well, to continue his incredible assist record.

[Mulligan88]

Season 1, half way point.

Havent played Football Manager in some years, with lockdowns and what not i felt it was something i could go back to, to keep me sane. progress report so far.

 

transfers in. 

Saul for £65m (£73m)

Sancho for £70m (£95m)

Transfers out;

Matic £14.25m

 

Tactics;

I have opted for an attacking 4-2-3-1 which presses high;

 

the Season so far is going well, and ordinarily i would be thrilled, Saul, Pogba, Bruno and Martial have all been top drawer. but after spening big money on Sancho i really was hoping for more out of him, both him, Rashford and Greenwood have been tough to get a tune out of. Any advice for getting the best out of them?

league half way through

 

played youth in group stages of euro cup and topped the group. have drew Besiktas in knockout stage.

played youth in league cup, knocked out by Wolves on pens at quarter final

squad arranged by average rating showing selection info

 

I have 54m to spend in january. think a CB is my main target area as i lack depth there.

 

Any thoughts?

[sedge11]

11 minutes ago, Mulligan88 said:

Rashford and Greenwood have been tough to get a tune out of. Any advice for getting the best out of them?

Play Rashford as an inside forward, doesn't really suit as a winger.

Give Greenwood time, he will just get better and better.

13 minutes ago, Mulligan88 said:

I have 54m to spend in january. think a CB is my main target area as i lack depth there.

 

Any thoughts?

I recommend Milenkovic from Fiorentina or Dias from Benfica, both quality and should get for 54mil or less.

[Juls317]

Ferro is another good shout for a CB. Brought him in because Florentino Luis requested me signing a friend as part of him signing for me in the first season, and he recommended Ferro. He was quite good for the few seasons I had him. Ended up flipping him to Madrid once the wonderkids started populating, and I bought de Ligt to try to stop Liverpool (it didn't work) but Ferro was very good while I had him.

[Powello]

5 hours ago, sedge11 said:

Play Rashford as an inside forward, doesn't really suit as a winger.

Give Greenwood time, he will just get better and better.

I recommend Milenkovic from Fiorentina or Dias from Benfica, both quality and should get for 54mil or less.

I disagree about Rashford not suiting as a winger, he scores goals for fun for me as a winger

 

5 hours ago, Mulligan88 said:

Tactics;

I have opted for an attacking 4-2-3-1 which presses high;

 

the Season so far is going well, and ordinarily i would be thrilled, Saul, Pogba, Bruno and Martial have all been top drawer. but after spening big money on Sancho i really was hoping for more out of him, both him, Rashford and Greenwood have been tough to get a tune out of. Any advice for getting the best out of them?

That is an extremely attacking tactic which doesn't really have any balance. You have 2 wide mean who will cut in, but they won't have any space because of your 3 playmakers who all stay in the hole, added with work ball into the box and overlaps then everything is pushed into a congested middle. Also if you add high tempo to all that, it just won't work very well, drop the hight tempo down a couple of notches. I don't see anyone making runs to make space, I would swap Pogba to a BBM role with get further forward, Sancho to support but stay wide, make your attacking width wide if it's not already. Both full backs would be better as normal wingabcks.

At the moment you have up to 8 players attacking, thats a lot, in one half, to find space

[MatthewS17]

What budgets have you all received at the end of the first season?

 

I just received 160m to spend from the board. 

Already spent 25m on Bellingham and 29m on Van De Beek set for future transfers, and was a little shocked by it. 

Can safely say it's my highest budget I've ever received in FM. 

[manchester]

Anyone seen or had a tycoon takeover at United on FM this year always wanted it to happen on my saves but never has lol

[Powello]

1 hour ago, MatthewS17 said:

What budgets have you all received at the end of the first season?

 

I just received 160m to spend from the board. 

Already spent 25m on Bellingham and 29m on Van De Beek set for future transfers, and was a little shocked by it. 

Can safely say it's my highest budget I've ever received in FM. 

Mine was 269m but I only bought Bellingham in in the first season, on my other save I still got around that after spending 100s of millions

[Tummyowl]

I cannot remember my budget, because I was told about it quite early, and arranged the transfer for De Ligt (95,000,000) straight away. The only other signing I am making is Sancho (95,000,000).

I am still undecided on selling Gomes, I know he will never be first choice, however I like his ability to play anywhere across the front line and saw him very much as a natural replacement for Lingard. However, £30,000,000 is a lot of money from Norwich. I am not sure I can turn it down.

[sedge11]

1 hour ago, manchester said:

Anyone seen or had a tycoon takeover at United on FM this year always wanted it to happen on my saves but never has lol

I’ve had a takeover, wasn’t a tycoon but they went and spent 130 mil on 2 players.

I wouldn’t really say need a tycoon at Man Utd though, they have more than enough money to spend.

I’ve just finished the 7th season and have been given 575mil to spend, which I will probably barely touch, and only spend if I sell.

[willbrown83]

13 hours ago, sedge11 said:

Play Rashford as an inside forward, doesn't really suit as a winger.

Give Greenwood time, he will just get better and better.

I recommend Milenkovic from Fiorentina or Dias from Benfica, both quality and should get for 54mil or less.

For CB i bought rugani Jan of the 1st season was transfer listed for 12mil great signing scores a few as well now worth 50mil .I prefer rashford as IF attack he is deadly there .Greenwood never really done much 1st season but is doing great now good 2nd season probably sell Martial soon to give him more game time

[BigV]

7 hours ago, Powello said:

I disagree about Rashford not suiting as a winger, he scores goals for fun for me as a winger

 

That is an extremely attacking tactic which doesn't really have any balance. You have 2 wide mean who will cut in, but they won't have any space because of your 3 playmakers who all stay in the hole, added with work ball into the box and overlaps then everything is pushed into a congested middle. Also if you add high tempo to all that, it just won't work very well, drop the hight tempo down a couple of notches. I don't see anyone making runs to make space, I would swap Pogba to a BBM role with get further forward, Sancho to support but stay wide, make your attacking width wide if it's not already. Both full backs would be better as normal wingabcks.

At the moment you have up to 8 players attacking, thats a lot, in one half, to find space

It's a myth that more than 1 playmakers dont work, the defensive one will work along side pogba as they're both deeper, bruno is working well by looks of his goals and assists. Pogba BBM doesnt work well at all, doesnt even suit the CM positioning really unless he has no one in front of him, anyone tried working him into CAM??

Wingers dont cut in unless they have a trait (cutting inside on both wings) works really well with sancho in a winger position on the right from what i've seen so far. 

Yeah getting rid of working the ball into the box is a good shout, seems hes going direct so wont work well with high tempo but then again the ME just allows them to shoot at far distances, bruno and pogba would love those, @Mulligan88 a few tips with logic (doesnt neccesarily mean it works tho) 

[Gee_Simpson]

2 hours ago, BigV said:

Pogba BBM doesnt work well at all, doesnt even suit the CM positioning really unless he has no one in front of him

For some reason Pogba does play well as a BBM in a 4231 from what I've tested. He shouldn't work there because like you say he has poor positioning but he does perform well. 

Edited April 15, 2020 by Gee_Simpson

[Powello]

2 hours ago, BigV said:

It's a myth that more than 1 playmakers dont work, the defensive one will work along side pogba as they're both deeper, bruno is working well by looks of his goals and assists. Pogba BBM doesnt work well at all, doesnt even suit the CM positioning really unless he has no one in front of him, anyone tried working him into CAM??

Wingers dont cut in unless they have a trait (cutting inside on both wings) works really well with sancho in a winger position on the right from what i've seen so far. 

Yeah getting rid of working the ball into the box is a good shout, seems hes going direct so wont work well with high tempo but then again the ME just allows them to shoot at far distances, bruno and pogba would love those, @Mulligan88 a few tips with logic (doesnt neccesarily mean it works tho) 

what do you mean it's a myth?. I am going by my experences. I have used up to 4 playmakers in my sides and any more than 2 hasn't worked very well. Pogba was amazing for me as BBM, most definitely does work.

Wingers without those traits certainly do cut in, I have spent ages trying to stop them doing it, they might not do it always but I have seen them do it a lot. And in his case he has Rashford as a winger, who definitely has that trait and for somereason, even though Sancho doesn't, he cuts inside a lot.

You might not have seem them happen on yours but they have defintely happened on mine

[Powello]

Youth Development Season 2 Youth Intake

This seaosn has been a terrible one where we are currently failing to improve on last season, but I will review that at the end of the season. But for now it is time for the youth intake, and its been a mixed bag again.

5 terrible players, 4 potential squad players at best and then to add to last years high potential striker in Bubb, we have recieved 2 potentially excellent strikers. Walker being labelled as possibly one of the best players of his generation. As I did with Bubb last season, both will be added to the 1st team squad straight away and I will be getting them trained and mentored asap. Both have the starting stats to be decent AML/Rs as well. We only have 3 forwards int he squad as it is so they will be well recieved and be decent back up, especially as I am playing 2 up top now.

 

[Mulligan88]

 

15 hours ago, Powello said:

I disagree about Rashford not suiting as a winger, he scores goals for fun for me as a winger

 

That is an extremely attacking tactic which doesn't really have any balance. You have 2 wide mean who will cut in, but they won't have any space because of your 3 playmakers who all stay in the hole, added with work ball into the box and overlaps then everything is pushed into a congested middle. Also if you add high tempo to all that, it just won't work very well, drop the hight tempo down a couple of notches. I don't see anyone making runs to make space, I would swap Pogba to a BBM role with get further forward, Sancho to support but stay wide, make your attacking width wide if it's not already. Both full backs would be better as normal wingabcks.

At the moment you have up to 8 players attacking, thats a lot, in one half, to find space

Thanks for the advice, i agree it is extremely attacking, and the tactic is working in 19 league games i have won 17, drawn 1, lost 1. scored 48 (best in league) conceded 10 (best in league. and my play makers are working well. its just tinkering it to get more out of sancho and rashford. both have had little niggles throughout the season so maybe they need just a nice run injury free.

 

the tactic in general produces 50:50 possession, better against lesser teams, worse against better teams, but mostly 50:50. but total shots is always at least 2:1 in my favour same with shots on target.

[Mulligan88]

7 hours ago, BigV said:

It's a myth that more than 1 playmakers dont work, the defensive one will work along side pogba as they're both deeper, bruno is working well by looks of his goals and assists. Pogba BBM doesnt work well at all, doesnt even suit the CM positioning really unless he has no one in front of him, anyone tried working him into CAM??

Wingers dont cut in unless they have a trait (cutting inside on both wings) works really well with sancho in a winger position on the right from what i've seen so far. 

Yeah getting rid of working the ball into the box is a good shout, seems hes going direct so wont work well with high tempo but then again the ME just allows them to shoot at far distances, bruno and pogba would love those, @Mulligan88 a few tips with logic (doesnt neccesarily mean it works tho) 

thanks for the advice, it just needs tinkering to get more out of my wide men. but overall im fairly happy with progress so far

[Powello]

2 minutes ago, Mulligan88 said:

 

Thanks for the advice, i agree it is extremely attacking, and the tactic is working in 19 league games i have won 17, drawn 1, lost 1. scored 48 (best in league) conceded 10 (best in league. and my play makers are working well. its just tinkering it to get more out of sancho and rashford. both have had little niggles throughout the season so maybe they need just a nice run injury free.

 

the tactic in general produces 50:50 possession, better against lesser teams, worse against better teams, but mostly 50:50. but total shots is always at least 2:1 in my favour same with shots on target.

I would say at some point you will hit a bad patch, high intensity all throughout the seaosn will at some point likely bring  injuries, possibly to key players. I've had a stupid amount of injuries this season compared to last, rather annoying.

TBHit took me a while to get the best out of Sancho, not quite sure I still have yet, Rashford though is my top scorer and he's mostly played on the left until recently.

As long as you are converting enough of those shots, I've had a few games where I've out shot the opposition like 5:1 sometimes higher, but still lost 1 or 2-0 hahaha, can be frustrating at times

[Spiegel]

31 minutes ago, Powello said:

Youth Development Season 2 Youth Intake

Strikers look promising!

Walker has good attributes in pretty much all the key areas. 

Ratcliffe shouldn't need much mentoring as he has an ideal personality. Two footed aswell!

[Powello]

3 minutes ago, Spiegel said:

Strikers look promising!

Walker has good attributes in pretty much all the key areas. 

Ratcliffe shouldn't need much mentoring as he has an ideal personality. Two footed aswell!

Yeah, going to have fun Developing them, especially Ratcliffe, He's going to be able to play anywhere in my front 4 pretty much

Walker has already made his debut for the 1st team lol

Edited April 15, 2020 by Powello

[Akustik]

Who can upload a good tactic for default squad (no transfer) ?

[sedge11]

58 minutes ago, Powello said:

Youth Development Season 2 Youth Intake

This seaosn has been a terrible one where we are currently failing to improve on last season, but I will review that at the end of the season. But for now it is time for the youth intake, and its been a mixed bag again.

5 terrible players, 4 potential squad players at best and then to add to last years high potential striker in Bubb, we have recieved 2 potentially excellent strikers. Walker being labelled as possibly one of the best players of his generation. As I did with Bubb last season, both will be added to the 1st team squad straight away and I will be getting them trained and mentored asap. Both have the starting stats to be decent AML/Rs as well. We only have 3 forwards int he squad as it is so they will be well recieved and be decent back up, especially as I am playing 2 up top now.

 

Walker looks really good. You need to get some luck and other positions coming through with good potential.

[Powello]

1 minute ago, sedge11 said:

Walker looks really good. You need to get some luck and other positions coming through with good potential.

Yeah it's annoying that we are just getting good attacking players, the best CB we have had in 2 intakes is 3 stars. But add walker and ratcliffe, to rashford, sancho, greenwood and bellingham and there is the furture of the english attack right there 

[sedge11]

So season 7 is finished, as put in previous post we had won the league, so here's just a summary.

So I added another signing in January.

Evans came in for 80 mil from Dortmund, and did well when he came in. He will now be my main rb.

Season started well and we got the 1st trophy of the season in the carabao cup.

Always nice to beat Liverpool, even better when its in a final.

As mentioned before an 8-0 win against Cardiff sealed the title, and this is how the league finished.

In the final game, Bruno Fernandes got a hattrick and 2 assists, so just wanted to share Bruno Fernandes stats. I brought him in jan of season 1 and he has probably been my best performing player I've had in a long time on fm. Even at 31 he has been immense and is not going anywhere anytime soon. Obviously these are just his league stats, his overall stats look even better.

Sadly we lost in the fa cup final to Chelsea 3-1, they absolutely dominated us and are becoming abit of a bogey team for me at the moment.

We also couldn't defend our champs league title losing to Madrid in the quarter finals, they went on to win it.

So onwards to season 8, which I have decided if I win the league title again it will be my final season on this save, as I do have plans for another save, but just can't let this one go just yet.

Transfer wise Maguire, Mctominay and Pavard will probably all go. Evans takes care of Pavard's place, but I may need to buy replacements for the other 2.

[BigV]

5 hours ago, Gee_Simpson said:

For some reason Pogba does play well as a BBM in a 4231 from what I've tested. He shouldn't work there because like you say he has poor positioning but he does perform well. 

Wp, how've you managed to do that? when you say well you mean by rating or by statistics like assists and goals?

 

4 hours ago, Powello said:

what do you mean it's a myth?. I am going by my experences. I have used up to 4 playmakers in my sides and any more than 2 hasn't worked very well. Pogba was amazing for me as BBM, most definitely does work.

Wingers without those traits certainly do cut in, I have spent ages trying to stop them doing it, they might not do it always but I have seen them do it a lot. And in his case he has Rashford as a winger, who definitely has that trait and for somereason, even though Sancho doesn't, he cuts inside a lot.

You might not have seem them happen on yours but they have defintely happened on mine

Looks like I need tinkering then, I was speaking in general that people dismiss more than 1 playmaker when it does work on some occassions, think of it as prime barca with busquets, xavi and iniesta (all 3 considered playmakers) and you can technically work it using tika taka if you have the right players.

That's strange, you reckon it's a bug/ME issue? infact I want mine to usually cut in and they never do unless they have the trait, mine always go run wider than they are to just plow a cross in, IF's would suit him better but it seems they cut in too much, same with IW. 

[Powello]

8 minutes ago, BigV said:

Wp, how've you managed to do that? when you say well you mean by rating or by statistics like assists and goals?

 

Looks like I need tinkering then, I was speaking in general that people dismiss more than 1 playmaker when it does work on some occassions, think of it as prime barca with busquets, xavi and iniesta (all 3 considered playmakers) and you can technically work it using tika taka if you have the right players.

That's strange, you reckon it's a bug/ME issue? infact I want mine to usually cut in and they never do unless they have the trait, mine always go run wider than they are to just plow a cross in, IF's would suit him better but it seems they cut in too much, same with IW. 

I don't think the ME has the wide men, attackers and defenders working properly, I have the same problem with my full backs, even though I set them up to play and stay wide plus overlap, they will still do a giggs v arsenal semi final run minus the finish and the chest hair. between them the full backs either side must have at least 8 shots per game from cutting in when they are told not to

[Zeonflux]

1 hour ago, Powello said:

Yeah it's annoying that we are just getting good attacking players, the best CB we have had in 2 intakes is 3 stars. But add walker and ratcliffe, to rashford, sancho, greenwood and bellingham and there is the furture of the english attack right there 

Great luck with the strikers but terrible luck with the defenders.

In my 2 intakes I’ve only had one decent player in each intake, both defenders, one is a CB and the other an RB but he’s too slow for that so I’m gonna train him as a CB. I’ll try and post some SS later on for you to check out

[Zeonflux]

So my only 2 youth intake players that will make it to the first team,

Chambers came through my first intake and looks like he could be a solid if unremarkable CB but he does have decent Marking, Bravery, Determination and Jumping Reach.

Hubbard came through my second intake and although he started as an RB i dont feel he's gonna make it there long term but at 17 and with 5* potential he has more than enough room to grow into a very good Ball Playing Centre Back which is what i have him training to be

[Powello]

Chambers will take till hes about 25 but he could be a decent backup cb if you develop him well.

Hubburd could make a pretty good rb if you train him as a CWB for a couple of years with extra training on quickness, then when he's 19/20 if he's not developed enough you could change it to BPD, at least then he would be very versatile, that's how I would go about developing him

[Zeonflux]

1 hour ago, Powello said:

Chambers will take till hes about 25 but he could be a decent backup cb if you develop him well.

Hubburd could make a pretty good rb if you train him as a CWB for a couple of years with extra training on quickness, then when he's 19/20 if he's not developed enough you could change it to BPD, at least then he would be very versatile, that's how I would go about developing him

Well I’m not sure if I’ll be keeping Chambers long term as he’s currently 6th choice and none of my other CBS are even in their 30s yet so chances are I’ll find a better regen before he makes the grade

Hubbard is already on quickness training and is being restrained at CB so his game time will come over both positions.

Also I’m almost at the wall in terms of frustration with the game itself at the moment, I think I’ve just hit the part of the season when your team goes through a bit of a lull and don’t play well but the last 4-5 matches I’ve played I’ve lost 3 of them drawn 1 and won the other but in all 3 games I’ve lost I’ve had more than 70% of my shots in the game on target and my players just don’t finish and it’s getting frustrating to constantly see your striker smash it straight at the keeper every time.

i didn’t rage quit the game I finished the match save and then turned off but played Chelsea last night and had 15 shots with 11 on target. Chelsea has 6 shots and 2 on target and they won 2-1, that got my annoyed but chelsea are still a good team in my save at the moment so I carried on but after that I played Bournemouth 25 shots, 17 on target and nothing Bournemouth has 9 shots and 3 on target and won 2-0 and I save turned off and I dunno it’s just getting a bit of a pain in the ass now

[axehan1]

36 minutes ago, Zeonflux said:

Well I’m not sure if I’ll be keeping Chambers long term as he’s currently 6th choice and none of my other CBS are even in their 30s yet so chances are I’ll find a better regen before he makes the grade

Hubbard is already on quickness training and is being restrained at CB so his game time will come over both positions.

Also I’m almost at the wall in terms of frustration with the game itself at the moment, I think I’ve just hit the part of the season when your team goes through a bit of a lull and don’t play well but the last 4-5 matches I’ve played I’ve lost 3 of them drawn 1 and won the other but in all 3 games I’ve lost I’ve had more than 70% of my shots in the game on target and my players just don’t finish and it’s getting frustrating to constantly see your striker smash it straight at the keeper every time.

i didn’t rage quit the game I finished the match save and then turned off but played Chelsea last night and had 15 shots with 11 on target. Chelsea has 6 shots and 2 on target and they won 2-1, that got my annoyed but chelsea are still a good team in my save at the moment so I carried on but after that I played Bournemouth 25 shots, 17 on target and nothing Bournemouth has 9 shots and 3 on target and won 2-0 and I save turned off and I dunno it’s just getting a bit of a pain in the ass now

Well I just went to Anfield and out played them and lost 0-4 with a Maguire mistake,Dias gifting a penalty, a Salah deflected free kick and a Wiljnaldum 35 yard screamer, while I cut through them half a dozen times and missed everyone.

[stevemc]

I'll post an update over the next day or so but nearly completed my 4th season and my 4-3-3 test has worked well, really well at home, but not as solid away, so for next season I'm going to stick with 4-3-3 at home and moved back to my 4-2-3-1 (from season 1) for away games which I think will give me better balance.

My squad and depth is superb so the only signing I really want to make is Mbappe, but not sure how do-able it is. For any who has signed him, what was the deal you did?

[BigV]

2 hours ago, stevemc said:

I'll post an update over the next day or so but nearly completed my 4th season and my 4-3-3 test has worked well, really well at home, but not as solid away, so for next season I'm going to stick with 4-3-3 at home and moved back to my 4-2-3-1 (from season 1) for away games which I think will give me better balance.

My squad and depth is superb so the only signing I really want to make is Mbappe, but not sure how do-able it is. For any who has signed him, what was the deal you did?

Is money/wages an issue for you or have any "in game feels" for example not giving any player like 400k?

If  not he demands around the 300-400k mark, singing on fee is pretty huge but weirdly enough his agent fee for me was around 4m. Appearance fee was around 50-60 in the first official release, unsued sub was like 40-50k I think, his agent demanded loads of add ons but I just accepted cause I cba with negotiating with little movement. He also clocked in a release clause of 180m but that was cause I was probably worse off and in the europa, practically threw money at him until he signed. 

[stevemc]

4 hours ago, BigV said:

Is money/wages an issue for you or have any "in game feels" for example not giving any player like 400k?

If  not he demands around the 300-400k mark, singing on fee is pretty huge but weirdly enough his agent fee for me was around 4m. Appearance fee was around 50-60 in the first official release, unsued sub was like 40-50k I think, his agent demanded loads of add ons but I just accepted cause I cba with negotiating with little movement. He also clocked in a release clause of 180m but that was cause I was probably worse off and in the europa, practically threw money at him until he signed. 

I should be fine for £400Kp/w - it's more the free, PSG want about £180m-£250m currently but they also want Pogba...

My brother just got the Barcelona job 5 years in and did a part exchange for Mbappe with a 32-year-old Griezmann so a swap may be possible.

[Powello]

Youth Development Challenge Season 2 Review

After last seaosn, finishing 4th and only 8 points behind the winners Chelsea, much was expected this season. I felt we weren't far behind Chelsea and with a couple of additions to improve the squad, we could close that gap and maybe even surpass them. But we found out this season that there's a big difference between belief and reality.

We only managed to sign one player in the summer, Jadon Sancho for 93m, I was hopeful he would be enough.

Lets start off by our attempt to retain the Carabao Cup shall we? In the first round we were paired against who we overcame 1-0 in a tight match with the majority of u23s and u18s put out. Next up we face Southampton in there backyard. Again it was a tight game and again I put out pretty much the same team as the previous round yet this time we were overpowered by their first team, losing 3-1, the scoreline not reflecting how it went. So that was our run over, not holding on to the trophy. I wasn't really that disappointed considering the side I put out.

Onto the FA Cup and this time we did much better than last years 4th round exit. We beat Oldham, Fulham, Southampton and Brighton pretty easily giving us a match up against Everton in the Semis. At this point, Everton had won the Championship very easily, losing only 3 games. So we expected a potentially tough game.This one went all the way ending 2-2 in normal time then a firther goal each in extra time led to a penalty shoot out, where we scored all 4 of our penalties with Everton missing 2. So we were through to the Final where we faced up against possibly one of the best Liverpool sides ever. We held our own taking it all the way to penalties after a 0-0 draw in 120 minutes. Unfortunatly we lost the penalty shootout 4-2 with both Rashford and Greenwood missing out.

Now where do I start with the league? as I said before, we expected to improve on last season, and in a way we did, we closed the gap on Chelsea, unfortunatly Chelsea were terrible compared to last season. Last year we ruined our season by drawing too many, well this season we did the same but even worse.

We were pretty hard to beat most of the season but we failed too many times to find winners in certain games we should be winning, we even lost and drew to teams who ended in the bottom 3. I take a lot of the blame because I kept tinkering with tactics leading to no familiaroty a lot of the time.  As you can see below we had a very bad spell and I feared for my job, but thankfully the board never really had wanted to get rid of me and were content with how it was going, I was still on course to match their visions for the season.... Just about

I was wrong about Sancho being the only signing would be enough, injuries to key players didn't help and our defence was left in tatters in one spell. SO in January I went out and brought in Ben Godfrey from Norwich. I tried to sign Tomori from Chelsea but they wanted 113m after a lot of negotiatings and I wasn't willing to pay that for a defender. So I went and got Godfrey, although I still paid 85m rising to 135m. But 50m of that is after hes scored 50 league goals LOL. But he instantly improved our defence and him and Axel formed a good partnership. Unfortunatly that meant Mengi had to sit out more than I would have like but he still got his fair share of chances.

The last remaining competition we were in was the Champions league, which Liverpool had won the last twice. With our squad, which has an average age of 20, we weren't expecting much and we were given a tough group with Juventus, Monaco and Hoffenheim, but we managed to top the group on goal difference over Juventus. 

In the 1st knockout round we faced Dortmund who beat us 1-0 in the first leg but we smashed 3-0 in the second leg to face PSG. This game was arguably the best game of the season as you can see below.

2-0 down after 9 minutes and we were facing a destruction with Neymar having a field day down our right, so instantly completely changed our tactic and we stormed back. In the second leg we smashed 4-0 at Old Trafford to finish 92 on aggregate. That was awesome and the lads were high on confidence. Nxt up we faced Chelsea in the Semis Final. The first leg was ctight and we drew 1-1 giving us the away goal. In the second leg we stormed into a 3-0 lead in 40 mins only for them to pull one bacj before halt time. That led to a tense second half in which they pulled another one back thanks to an unlucky Godfrey og,. It set up a tense last 23 mins as they pushed for the one goal to knock us out. But thankfully we held on to book a place in the final to face Arsenal who beat Bayern.

This young squad are now European champions!! It's been a long, toug season but we ended with a great finish and gives me a lot of hope for the future.

The 2 lads from the youth intake who were thrown straigh into the first team were played a few times and held their own. Walker even became the youngest Champions League scoring, scoring against Chelsea in the Semi Final. The futuredefinitely looks bright for him.

I will be more prepared for the next seaosn this time, the summer is all about building a tactical framework for going forward, I don't want to have to do it all again mid season like this year. I want them all prepared and familiar so we can actualy stop drawing so many games and not have the same slump.

Oh and after we got through that bad slump before and around chrsitmas and got our form back, I actually asked the board for a new contract which they were happy to offer me as my contract was up in the summer, so they are obviously happy with how it's progressing, so thats good and means I can make mistakes as we develop this squad.

A few players will be off in the summer, Dalot and De Gea if I cna get a buyer this time, Henderson has shown he is ready to take over after performing great when he has stepped in. Not sure about signing this summer, still working out what I need and who is/isn't ready for the first team throught our squads

[BigV]

2 hours ago, stevemc said:

I should be fine for £400Kp/w - it's more the free, PSG want about £180m-£250m currently but they also want Pogba...

My brother just got the Barcelona job 5 years in and did a part exchange for Mbappe with a 32-year-old Griezmann so a swap may be possible.

Tried the unsettling tip? just link for top transfer/transfer and see what the media say, if its around the range give or take 20m ish, if he pushes for a move then you could lower it around 150 imo. 

Yeah you could do that but with whom? I wouldnt change it with pogba simply cause pogba's a machine

[MatthewS17]

Just received a 120m offer for Pogba(86m upfront). 

 

If I sell, I can look to bring in SMS, as a more natural replacement, or Havertz, who can morph into a Kroos-like role. Or just not sell at all. 

 

Hmm. Decisions, Decisions. 

[BigV]

5 minutes ago, MatthewS17 said:

Just received a 120m offer for Pogba(86m upfront). 

 

If I sell, I can look to bring in SMS, as a more natural replacement, or Havertz, who can morph into a Kroos-like role. Or just not sell at all. 

 

Hmm. Decisions, Decisions. 

Sell if you usually keep, challenge yourself, ignore my last message 

[MatthewS17]

18 minutes ago, BigV said:

Sell if you usually keep, challenge yourself, ignore my last message 

Yeah, but I really want to keep him. However, with his massive wage, I'm thinking negotiating may be difficult and so I could lose him on a free in the future. 

Gonna try to get him a new contract. If not, he's off. 

 

[stevemc]

Done...