james_wilko

restarted with Newcastle a little while ago as I got bored of my last save. You know what's a good formation? 4-4-2. First season, winners (obviously) + EFL Cup. Loads of goals, solid defence, all round great. Sold Perez in the first window, replaced with Nahki Wells of Huddersfield, Tom Ince, Craig Noone, Rani Kheidra and Charlie Taylor. Also got Emanuel Mammana from Lyon in the January window to replace Mbemba who went to Man City. Second season we added the challenge of the Europa League to our campaign, lost Mitrovic, Shelvey, Ritchie and Lazaar who were all sold for big money. Clark, Diame and Sels were also sold. In their place we signed Asensio (R Madrid), Saido Berahino (WBA), Ivan Cavaleiro (Wolves), Atsu permanently, and a few other squad players. So second season, quite a few new players and newly promoted with the challenge of surviving the Europa League. Asensio was retrained as a forward alongside Berahino and they fired us to not only the Europa League (beating Vigo in the final), but also the Premier League. Move over Leicester, there's a new underdog story to tell. So approaching season 3, we're now PL champions and in the Champions League so it's time for a statement signing or two. £63mil later and Dele Alli has signed for us, Geronimo Rulli is also signing to replace Tim Krul who, while solid, was one of the weaker links.

Flat/wide 4-3-3 with Sanchez the striker as a complete forward on support.

Alexis Sanchez has just scored 6 goals as we destroyed Real Madrid 6-1 at The Emirates, beating them 8-2 across the two legs to secure our place in the final. That's taken him to 19 goals for the Champions League campaign, 7 ahead of second place, and also to 60 goals for the season in 47(2) appearances. This also means he's overtaken Ronaldo's most goals in a campaign ( which was 17) and Messi for most goals in a match (record was 5).

Decided to give Arsenal a go after getting bored of my Newcastle save after two season. Made a few transfers early on, selling Debuchy, Giroud, Gibbs and bringing in Coutinho, Charlie Taylor, Jamaal Lascelles and Sebastian Corchia. Opted for a 4-3-3 with Sanchez up top and well... Sunderland & the first West Ham games were weakened teams V their full strength. Not entirely certain Coutinho is justifying the 45mil I paid for him just yet, but it is early days. A good start though, long may it continue.

Could be the fact the players are all so new they're struggling. May get better with time. What formation are you playing at the moment?

I had Dembele briefly in my beta save and he was great. Was outscoring Mitro and Gayle and in one game got a hat trick off the bench.

Try holidaying around it? You're basically guaranteed to lose the match 'cause it'll be all youth/made up players that your team will use, but it's probably the only way around it that doesn't involve starting again.

Had him on the Beta, came in January and while he wasn't first choice he was a solid performer who did a job on the left and right. Played him as a CAM a few times too. 4-4-2 experiment has failed horribly, combined with stupid numbers of injuries and whiney players I'm going to restart with the transfer window on. Get some of the deadwood (Anita, Tiote, Gouffy etc), possibly make a better start with the youth (Woodman 1st choice, see if I can bring Armstrong back) and give it another go. Still want 4-4-2 to work, will have to rethink it.

Both been crap for me, Sels falls with long range shots. Most goals we've conceeded are easy ones he shouldn't be letting in. Think I'll look to sell him & Darlow, bring back Woodman and make him first choice, sign an old keeper with high determination & a good personality and tutor him.

Not wanting anyone young, planning on Woodman being our number one in a couple of years. Looking at the 30+ GKs right now.

Made a slight change to the 4-4-2, previous it was sort of a 4-1-3-2 with two wide men and a DLP in CM & a BWM for the DM. Had a couple poor games after my last post (drawing with both Derby & QPR). I've pulled the DLP to DM, change the left winger to LW-Attack, both FBs on attack and now both strikers in support roles (F9 &TM). So a 4-2-2-2 really, with quite a lot of movement in it. [ Having a lot of issues with Sels, one on ones he's fine but he's constantly getting beaten from long range. Darlow's also crap so I need a new GK. Needs to be of high enough quality to compensate for my more offensive formation.

I might do something on mine later, only a few games in though and I'm not certain whether it's just the fact we're the best team in the league by some distance that's getting us the wins, or a good tactic.

The 4-4-2 is off to a good start.

You can get him on loan until the end of the season in January, then part way through extend the loan until the end of the following season. Would put an agreement to buy in at that point as they up his transfer fee massively after that. Deleted my save, going to run a few test tactics tonight/tomorrow before starting the full game over the weekend. Want to do a 4-4-2 but imagine it'll be a challenge.

Season one complete, and in a complete surprise we won the league. Who would have thought with a squad like this we'd come top? We also won the League Cup, beating Man City 2-1 at Wembley. Gayle and Diame for us, Gabriel Jesus scoring for them. We were lucky they played quite a weakened team, but they still had John Stones, Andre Gomes, David Silva and Aguero starting, Used the Summer Window to sign Asensio permanently. 28mil for him, but in the 24(3) games he played he scored 7, assisted 8 and had an average rating of 7.57. Can only get better, well worth the money. Also brought in an FM favourite - Youri TIelemans for 12.5mil, as Everton offered 28mil for Jonjo Shelvey which, despite his performances in the Championship, was just too much money to reject. A load of younger players were brought in too, which I'll screenshot later, but the main one was Maitland-Niles from Arsenal on a free who I've got a lot of hope for. Trying to sell Saivet, Riviere, De Jong and Krul now. Krul is a weird one, got him to sign a new contract so I didn't lose him on a free (and at a lower wage) but no one is interested. Considering keeping him and selling Selz if no one wants to sign Krul. Also binned off Colback. 1.6mil, still feels like I've overcharged for the waste of space. So back to the Premier League, and Europa League to go alongside it! Will need to strengthen the squad, looking at a quality 3rd choice striker to back up Gayle & Mitro. Looking at Moussa Dembele from Celtic who seems to have a lot of potential.