[[FM20] Manchester United: Falling Giant...]

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

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Luis is a beast he’s just struggling to get into my midfield 3 of De Jong, Pogba and Bruno

[[FM20] Manchester United: Falling Giant...]

1 hour ago, Powello said:

So I=it's the january transfer window time and I have been looking for the one player I can sign, if I decide to get one, andI looked through Rices scout report and a few others because obviously CB is our weakest spot and it occured to me after our talk before about retraining players, United played Shaw at CB in real life. Looking at his stats he can easily become a top CB on the game, will just take some work, I have already also got TFM training as a BPD and he could do a good job there and I have Reece Devine in the first team squad who can cover Williams at LB. 

So I am going to trial Shaw at CB till the summer, if he does well then CB covered with Mengi, Axel, TFM, Luca and Will Fish all developing, plus Garner can step in.

I thnk ill wait till the summer before signing anyone now and also see what I get in the youth intake then go from there

UPDATE: SHaw was named in the team of the wkek in his first start at CB, not bad  

Ah I didn’t think of retraining Shaw, that’s a quality choice there under your own self imposed restrictions.

Id also add that you could also have laird retrained to be LB as he is already able to play the position iirc

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2 minutes ago, Powello said:

True, I like retraining players, a few versions ago I retrained shaw into an IF-R, made him the new Bale hahaha

I'm looking forward to seeing who comes through in March, it sounds promising

I’ve done it a few times, my favourite was a AM who I retrained to basically be Scholes/Pirlo and just played them in the DM slot as a DLPs, absolutely ran the game for me.

Yeah youth intakes are alway exciting but when it has the Golden Generation tag it’s a lot better

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36 minutes ago, Powello said:

It's safe to say the search for CBs to improve the team won't be coming through the youth intake this year

Although it looks like we have some decent potential in midfield and attack, which we already have anyway haha. Might be calls for a very attack heavy tactic next season lol

You never know m, you get a lad in at CM with stats like Garner and you can always retrain him. So far the best player in each of the youth intakes to me have been a CB and an RB, but the RBs stats for that position are not great so I’m training him to be a CB instead

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54 minutes ago, Powello said:

No matter who you sign there will always be a better option, doresn't mean they are the right option for you. Like Sancho in your case, one of the best options on the game in the wide left position yet he's not right for you because of his determination, even though he would probably out perform any one in your team in the position.

I had a striker a few versions ago who had finishing of 8, scored 40 goals in his first season, never got his finishing or any stat related to a striker above 11, he was also the top scorer at the world cup when I won it with San Marino, was amazing some of his goals. I couldn't work it out. His PA was very low, can't ermember what it was but it was very low

Yeah I totally agree, I can’t remember who it was but I know someone on the forum turned a left back into a 40+ goal a season striker a few versions back and I believe he was like a championship level player at best and yet he was world player of the year several times

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13 minutes ago, Powello said:

On the way to proving Hansen wrong again, yeah not against a great team, but away with a very young team I'll take that result

That is a belter of a result with that team....I would love to give you full tactic a go with some of the players I’ve got I’m my squad

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10 minutes ago, Powello said:

Hes not on my game

Ah bugger he’s an Argentinian player so you probably need South American players added to find him

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@Powello he’s not English but he is a youth player, take a look at Dario Sarmiento quality looking player, I’ve brought him and now I’m looking at selling Martial because I wanna develop him

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2 minutes ago, Tummyowl said:

Henderson is not a good enough replacement for De Gea

There are far superiour young keepers out there, just not English. Henderson is ultimately not good enough.

I dunno stat wise he’s not the best but for me his been solid and I certainly wouldn’t be selling him unless I had a great backup or a wonder kid that was ready to replace both him and DDG

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@Powello yeah Garner makes a good backup CB and could be trained to be a good BPCB but would be a waste in my opinion.

CM wise the youth is quite stacked, on my save I believe the coaches said that Puigal could be as good as Pogba plus you’ve got Garner, McTominay, Gomes, Hannibal and now Bellingham so there’s defence is the problem as you stated

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3 hours ago, Powello said:

I have decided I am bored of my current save, I need a break as it's too easy. It's fun but winning every game does get boring when you;re at the point where you don't have to work much for it. So next up is a different challenge. 

Youth Development Challenge

I have made some database changes and I have rules

Changes made:-

- I have removed quite a few first team players - squad will be shown soon so you can see who has gone
- I have added the Nevilles, Scholes and Keane into the first team coaching staff,
-  Nicky Butt has been changed from a technical director to a normal 1st team coach
- Added NO signings over 23 and I think English signings to the clubs vision

Rules:-

- No Signings over 23 - Also put that as the clubs vision
- Max 2 1st Team Signings per season and must be English, that includes loans and free transfers
- De Gea must be sold by the start of the 2nd season to allow Henderson and the other keepers a chance
- Ass man/DoF/HOYD can sign players for the youth sides

Starting Squad

 

If any one is interested in having a go at this I can share the database

Hopefulyl this will ease my boredom

Well I know that your starting lineup should be if your still using your current set up.

DDG (until Dean returns)

AWB, Axel, Tengi, Williams

Garner, McTominay

Greenwood, Bruno (Hannibal), Chong

Rashford

overall I’d say that Tengi is possibly the weakest link in that team but using that squad does give you some interesting options, for example you could use Laird as your 2nd choice RB and train Dalot as a RW. I’ve also noticed that my U23 manager has been playing Garner as a centre back and he does have pretty decent stats for the position

[[FM20] Manchester United: Falling Giant...]

1 hour ago, Powello said:

I think that's better, stops the CBs being too wide so they are there when the crosses are fired in, with your 3 CBs, even with one as a libero youll be a bit wider anyway

That was my thinking in defending narrow, I did use it again in my first CL game against Wolfsburg and we won 3-1 so can’t complain

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5 minutes ago, Powello said:

Has to be done considering his attributes on mine. I don't need him but if you hadn't noticed, I like my midfielders now haha

Nice goal and break away, great tracking back from Rashford as well. Might just be the defensive side that needs sorting now and could have a good tactic

Hopefully, I've set the tactic to play defend narrow but that might be giving the opposition too much space on the wings

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7 minutes ago, Powello said:

Nice... I think when you go to the highlight theres an option to save it. I saw somewhere on these forums, someone was uploading gifs of goals, if I can remember where I saw it I'll let you know as he said how to do it

Well i remembered and so here is the goal after making the changes you suggested @Powello

https://youtu.be/mp-udgmDOls

Not sure how to have the video show and play just through this forum.

Unfortunately Burnley went on the offensive in the second half so i swapped the tactic out to see of the game

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2 minutes ago, Powello said:

How about pushing the strikers outwide and have them as IF? you can make them play like strikers so can use your strikers. Players like Greenwood can be used out there, even Halland can, just use a narrow attack so they are pushed further inside, they will still be upfront but would add a bit of width to the attack to counter the packed midfield and open space, that would stretch the oppositions defence more as well allowing more room to create or break through their lines

Well I’m currently using the midfield heavy tactic in a game against Burnley.

I changed from a 1-2 in the AM and ST positions to 3 in the AM positions. Rashford and Greenwood as IFa with Bruno AMs. Made the change on 33 minutes. 35 odd minutes and Rashford wins the ball by tracking back And by 35.54 De Jong scores his first for the club.

ill try and upload a video of the goal if I can figure out how 

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8 minutes ago, Powello said:

Maybe yeah, I mainly got him for mentoring, but he can still do a job in a few games, even if it's just as a sub

Have you thought about 3 AMs using SS on 2 of them?

No not yet, no I’m not sure where I’d take a player from to make it 3 AMs as I don’t like strikerless tactics.

If I didn’t have so many good CMs I’d look at a 4-2-4 going forward......I think long term it’s either gonna be a 4-2-3-1 or a 4-3-1-2

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8 hours ago, Powello said:

THat's good to know for future saves

 

Oh I forgot to add to my season review, in January I signed a pre contract agreement with a now 37 year old Messi to come in on a free, he still has amazing stats just his speed is terrible now haha

I see an Enganche in your future plans!

I forgot to say yesterday that the AF did well in my first trial with the 3-1-3-2-1 although seemed a bit isolated in the other game and a half I used it, I may switch from 2 AMs and 1 ST to a 1 AM and 2 ST versions do see if that sorts the problem but I was happy with new signing dario sarmiento getting a brace against Liverpool in his debut

[[FM20] Manchester United: Falling Giant...]

37 minutes ago, Powello said:

Season 23/24 Review

After last season winning all but 1(or 2, can't remember now) in all competitions, it was always going to be tough to beat it again. Unfortunatly we didn't manage to beat it, winning all but 5 games thistime. But those 5 were draws, so still unbeaten. In the league, obviously tou can't improve on a perfect winning season but we repeated it and smashed the goals scored, goal difference and conceding less.... Scoring 140,and conceding just 15 for a goal difference of +125, now I am happy

NO one seems capable of stopping us so far, but with the new tactic being used a lot next season who the heck knows what's going to happen.

In the cup we won everything, culminating in a 3-1 win against Inter in the Champions legaue final with Greenwood scoring a hat trick. Apparantly I should have the club world cup soon but not sure when as it's the Euros in the summer so I guess around end of the year I'll play that so that will be 7 trophies going fo rnext season.

The players have had a great season and the goals were flying in with 6 players getting into double figure and 5 or so others getting very close. Greenwood scored less than last season but still had a great one and was injured for the frst month or so of the season

Sancho really stepped up this season and was close to being top scorer. He won a few awards top celebrate his season

He must be a shoe in for world player of the year if he keeps it up next season. Bruno and Jude kept up their impressive form throught the season, with Bruno being a maestro in the middle of the park.

What's next?

Well, iI was going to start a new save and do a youth one, but with this new tactic, I really want to work on it and with my current crop of midfielders, I have the perfect squad to test and tweak it so I am going to continue withthis save for now. First port of call is Ath Madrid to sign that Camavinga(whatever his name is) bloke and add to my alrady packed midfield haha. We are now on 7 Champions league trophies, so I will finish this save when we have overtaken Madrid as the most successful side, well I want Greenwood to be United Top Scorer of all time aswell, so he has a bit to do to catch up with Rooney. That's going to be difficult I reckon with this new tactic in the works but we shall see

Top stuff fella, what does your main tactic look like.

just tried my 3-1-3-2-1 tactic in a league game against Liverpool, was losing 1-0 at half time with no shots at all, ended up losing 3-2 but looked much better

[[FM20] Manchester United: Falling Giant...]

2 minutes ago, Powello said:

Ha that's awesome, although you can't really go by pre season friendlies, but yeah I agree there is potential here. If I were you I would swap brun oand Angel though, Angel is much better further forward and Bruno can play anywhre in midfield, he plays in the middle for me and bosses it.

So I played the FA Cup Final against Liverpool and I decided to use Crazy Train again as I was impressed with a lot from the Bournemouth game and I wanted to see how it could handle a top side with decent wide men and here is the result

I mean, it looked like they battered us with the shot total but they didn't really, most of the efforts were poor and easily saved by Dave. Look at Bruno bossing it

Definitely going to play with this and see what I can do. I have the Champions League Final now and not risking it in this game as I want to catch up with Madrid

Yeah I’m not gonna get too enthusiastic about friendlies but cup games it’s getting looked at.

the squad selection was done by the Ass man due to injuries and what not I didn’t bother choosing my first xi for it.

i agree with you about how good some of the football is and it can make other teams seem more in control of the game than they actually are 

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@Powello i think we might be onto something here.

I didn't see that you'd already tried it out before hand so this was completely blind but i game it ago in my last 2 preseason friendlies.

So here's how I chose to set up to maximize the number of midfielders but to try and be secure at the back.

 

I went for a Libero purely because i've never used on before. The DM provides cover in front of the defense and covers for the Libero when he moves forward. The center midfield 3 is the same as on my main tactic only the DLP is set to support rather than defend.

As for the friendlies i used it against Sevilla in my final friendly

 

As you can see we restricted them to 1 shot throughout the whole match and that was it otherwise we bossed them for the full 90 minutes.

The other friendly i used this for was against the kings of the Bundasliga, Bayern Munich.

 

Smashed 'em, they didn't really have a chance of note mostly long shots and a few chances that were well covered by the defense and the defensive screen.

All in all i'd say that there is definite potential with this tactic.......I might keep it around and use it as a 3rd choice tactic and see how it goes.

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38 minutes ago, Powello said:

Yeah fair enough, I want to do a save like that next as well. Garner got a few chances and did well for me but just like Gomes and Axel, their chances were ruined by me bring ing in many players. I still have and use Hannibal though as he is quality. He's the main player in the original squad I am most looking forward to developing when I do a himegrown save in the future

Yeah Garner is good but I’ve given the youth a real run at the team and they’ve not let me down.

Greenwood was top scorer in the second season, Williams owns the left back slot, Axel was my starting CB partner for Maguire, Hendo has come back as second keeper and has done well. Gomes has played and performed well when needed as a replacement for an injured Bruno and I’ve got a soft spot for Scotty so he won’t be sold

[[FM20] Manchester United: Falling Giant...]

21 minutes ago, Powello said:

I have been considering all 3 but look at him now. Imagine him and Tonali infront of the back 4, damn not many people are getting through

Damn the boy is good. I would have got Tonali but I had him on the original database and so I didn’t want to be using the exact same players plus this is more of a homegrown save so I want to use players I already have rather than bring loads in.

To be fair I’m more than happy that I didn’t buy loads of players as there’s no way I would have used Garner, who I’m very happy with, Hannibal would have never really been getting a look in and Gomes and Axel would have been shipped out so it’s worked out well. Just got to actually win the league now

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1 minute ago, Powello said:

Interesting thought, but seriously, I'm only having one game with it, unless it somehow turns out to be a diablo haha

Carrying on with my abundance of cms I am actually looking to sign Cavaniga(however you spell his name) in the summer as well haha, but I will be getting rid of Arthur, he would have gone on deadline day in january but the paperwork didn't go through in time

Yeah I can’t see it being overly effective in the long run......watch as Mbappe bangs in 7 and you dominate possession at like +80% or something ridiculous like that.

I did look at Cavaniga but I’ve got a soft spot for Florentino Luis from the last 2 games so I went with him, although he’s now second choice behind Frenkie De Jong

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36 minutes ago, Powello said:

I might set one up and leave it in the 3 slot so the team get familiar with it and play it in the final game of the season for a laugh, can always switch back to main one if it looks bad

And this is what I came up with HAHAHAHAHAHA

How do you think it will get on?  That is likely the players I will use, although I have 6 other players in the squad who could step in lol As I Said, way to many cms ha

Well the middle is very compact and I suppose if the defense is a little thin you could try De Ligt as a Libero in the middle of Todibo and Skriniar.

Also I found the Bellingham plays very well as a SS so you could also move him there when Felix and Havertz are injured

Oh and I guarantee you still give away at least one throw in a game because one of your players just run off the pitch with the ball regardless of the fact that they shouldn’t be anywhere near the touch line 😂