essien_5
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Posts posted by essien_5
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Ha, just finished first season and not quite as impressive as some of you boys but considering I haven't played FM for a couple of years, I'll take it.
Finished 4th in the league on 71 points, 5 clear of Leeds with the position sewn up with 3 games to spare. Man City won with 93 points and Haaland scored 55 goals (80 overall)!
FA Cup I went out early, but managed to win the Carabao Cup in quite remarkable style. I lost the first leg of the semi 4-1 away to Newcastle, but beat them 7-1 after extra time in the second leg, before beating United on pens in the final after a 1-1 draw.
In Europe, as per an earlier post, I ended up third in a tight group so dropped down to the Europa League. However I ended up winning that too with a 3-1 win against Milan in the final. So not the biggest, but 2 trophies feels a reasonable starting point.
Goals proved a bit of an issue throughout the season, although Broja (20 in all comps) and Havertz (16) both had streaks at different times to help me cope. Besides them, Sterling got 16 in all comps and Mount from centre mid chipped in with a respectable 9 goals and 11 assists. Chilwell had the most assists with 13.
Transfers in the first season were Schjelderup for £7.5m, Bellingham for £88m and Hazard on loan all coming in January. Hazard was a huge disappointment unfortunately and I won't be looking to buy permanently.
Outgoings were Jorginho to PSG for £60m, Chalobah to United for £31.5m and a couple of younger players moving for insignificant fees.
Despite being £180m in the red (new season monies haven't come through yet), I have a £138m transfer budget for season 2. The current £4.9m wage budget is maxed so this is something that does need to be brought down and I'm hoping to do this by moving on fringe players like Auba and RLC. Kova doesn't seem to want to extend his contract so I'll probably look to sell him too for the right price and targets will likely be younger players to bring into the squad unless the right move falls into place. The new youth recruits overall got strong scout reports and the youth team won the academy league and europe so hopefully the future is bright.
For the second season already confirmed, Sarr is moving to Monaco permanently for £13m due to a contract clause and Thiago Silva is moving to Madrid on a free. In turn, I've agreed a deal for Marco Asensio on a free transfer.
One area I do particularly need to target in the summer is a centre back having sold Chalobah and now Silva. Fofana is a mainstay, and Koulibaly has done ok but does seem a little erratic at times and given his age I need to find a longer term option. I'll check Colwill in the summer, but will also likely need to target a transfer there too.
One problem I do have is Bellingham. He's playing as a ball winning midfielder in centre mid in a 4-3-3 as apparently was requested in his contract (I can't remember doing this but oh well). He's handed in a transfer request already though because he's not being played in the right role?! Is this a glitch? Or does it matter whether he's on a defend or support role alongside the ball winning midfielder? If so, is there somewhere I can see exactly what I've promised him? I'm hoping playing him in the right role early on next season will have him withdraw his request and get things back to normal rather than risk losing him 6 months after buying him!
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4 hours ago, Phil930 said:
Time for a mid Feb season 1 update.
- 2nd in PL, tied on points with City who have superior GD (and beat me in the only head to head meeting so far)
- Went out in the first round of both the Carabao and FA Cup! Lost at home to Brentford in Carabao (heavily rotated my team), and away to Man Utd in 3rd round right after the World Cup
- In final 16 of CL, and just beat Napoli in first game. Dominated the match, and confident of second leg, although likely facing PSG or Real next
After a solid preseason, my first match was away to Haaland, sorry City. Honestly I didn't get a kick, losing 2-0. Was slightly concerned, but then won the next 7 in a row, and thru end of Oct won 15 of 19 games. A really strong start faded in Nov & Dec Oct as player fatigue really kicked in - during that period winning only 4 of 8, drawing 3, losing 1. After a concerning WC restart winning narrowly to West Ham and losing to Utd in the FA Cup, the team is flying again, winning 7 in a row, scoring 15, conceding 1. The players are fit again and what a difference.
I've overhauled the AM and all coaches for 4.5 - 5 star training, upgraded the recruitment and medical teams. Transfer wise, spent pretty big bringing in Bellingham (£115M), Barella (£60M), Zakharyan (£13M) and Almada in Jan (£25M). To partially fund I sold Jorginho in the summer for £61M, and sadly Kante in Jan to Real for £41M (6 months left on contract, wanted a raise and isn't in my future plans).
The push is on thru the end of the season now. Havertz has been great up top, scoring 23 in 26 and Sterling is really finding his groove with 11 goals to date. The summer will see me address the defence with a new CB for the long term to partner Fofana. Silva is leaving for Juventus.
Side note - Chalobah is really effective.
I should have also noted I am £95M in debt. End of season prize money and new season sponsor money will help here, but that is not small. Expecting significant summer player sales to address wages and raise funds from the deadwood.
Very Nice! I'm hoping to give an end of season summary over the next couple of days as I'm now just into April but I'm doing nowhere near as well as you as I'm clinging on to 4th place with 8 games to go (Leeds of all teams pushing me all the way).
The budget issue as you alluded to is certainly a concern as I'm over £120m in the red currently. Although I bought Bellingham for £88m in January, I have sold Jorginho and Chalobah to pretty much fund that. The wage bill definitely needs to be brought down and for me, I have a number of players like CHO, RLC and Auba sat in the stands collecting huge wages.
There's a couple of areas in the team I could do with strengthening in the summer and I'm a little concerned due to the financial position that a transfer budget will be pretty scarce in the summer.
Who are some of the coaches you've found?
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Not been able to play too much so far but managed to get through to the World Cup break and it's carried on being a mixed bag.
We got knocked out the group of the Champions League which wasn't ideal. Beat Marseille twice, won and lost against Napoli and lost twice to Madrid, the second time playing with 10 men for an hour and losing 3-2 with a late goal. Napoli matched our results but managed a draw at home to Madrid to get a point more than us. So, we have a Europa League play off in February with Real Sociedad.
In the league, currently have 31 points from 16 games and sat in 4th. 3 points clear of Newcastle and 5 clear of Arsenal and Leeds. 1 point behind United, 6 behind Liverpool and 11 behind a rampant Man City. Haaland has 30 goals from his first 16 games. To put that into context, we've managed in total 20 goals from 16 games. That goalscoring is clearly the issue currently with the inconsistencies I feel I'm suffering and probably need to look to address for the second season. Broja and Sterling have the most goals so far for the team with 6 each in all comps - it's just not enough.
I'm likely going to recall Schjelderup from his loan spell in January as Hudson Odoi is out long term with an achilles injury.
I think this season is all about top 4. I'll be happy with that, and then the opportunity to start putting a stamp on the side.
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So I've managed to get to the end of August (transfer window) and so far a bit of a mixed bag, albeit amongst a tough start with regards to fixtures.
Currently 5th (level on points with Arsenal in 4th) with 10 points from 6 games, but really should have been more.
So far beaten Spurs (H) 1-0, Villa (H) 3-1 and Arsenal (H) 3-1. Lost to City (A) 2-0 and admittedly well outplayed, drew with Leicester (A) 1-1 and lost to West Ham (A) 1-0. The latter two games we dominated and conceded late in both. Just writing this out now I realise all the dropped points have come away so far so this is definitely something that needs addressing.
Havertz got injured in pre season and has only just returned which I hope will help improve the attack. I'm not a fan of Aubameyang on the game and think I'll look to try and move him on in January or next summer. Broja is raw but I'm far more willing to sit him behind Havertz and get minutes to develop. In Havertz absence, Sterling and Ziyech have stepped up and carried the attacking workload. Sterling has 3 goals in 6 games so far with an AR of 7.43. Ziyech has 2 goals and 2 assists from 6 games with an AR of 7.27.
Champions League I've managed to draw Real Madrid, Napoli and Marseille so a tough group to try and progress out of.
Transfers ended up a bit of a disaster. I sold Jorginho to PSG for £60m, and in the meantime got Kante extended by another year with a £75k per week wage drop. My target was Bellingham who I finally managed to broker a deal for with the potential value just above £100m only for the owners to pull the plug as they weren't willing to pay that much (this would never happen under Roman!). His release clause is £88m which they won't let me go above so I'm going to wait to try and trigger that clause next summer when I hopefully have a bigger budget to work with. I looked at a couple of others, Caicedo in particular, but Bellingham is the one I really want to replace Kante long term. It does leave me a little thin for now though.
I also tried to bring Hazard back on a loan, but just couldn't quite get the numbers to work, especially with his wages. In the end I've had to settle with recalling Hudson Odoi back from his loan just to beef that area of the squad up a bit.
I did make one signing - Andreas Schjelderup from FC Nordsjaelland for around £7.5m, although he's been loaned back for this season (I can recall him if needed in January so we'll see). He does look a real talent though with very strong stats in some key areas already despite only just turning 18. The scouting reports had him as an A+ and priority signing for the future so happy with that one.
So far reasonable, but this side doesn't fill me with great confidence!
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3 hours ago, Ivan787 said:
I'm thinking about starting a Chelsea save. I'm undecided between them and Arsenal.
They are a strange team, they have some very high value elements, on which to build a foundation for years and years (Havertz, Mount, James, Fofana). They have good reputation, probably it will be easy to attract key players.
But how many dead wood with high salary: Kantè (I really don't like this type of player), Lukaku, Jorginho, Ziyech, Cucurella....
Kante and Jorginho only have a year left, so at worst you can move them on in a year. As mentioned above, you should be able to sell Jorginho immediately for big money.
Lukaku is on loan so no idea how easy he is to shift the following season, I would assume it's doable though.
It's probably a save that will take a couple of seasons to shape the squad to your preference, but like you said there are some very good younger players that can act as a spine for the long term.
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5 minutes ago, bucket said:
Ha snap. I signed Barella as his replacement!
Nice how much was he?
I like the look of Rice for a genuine defensive midfielder but he's going to cost a fortune.
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It looks like Jorginho can be sold for £60m at the start of the game.
I usually like to start with the usual squad and go from there, but for someone 30 years old with one year left on their contract, it feels a move that probably needs to be made!
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2 hours ago, Phil930 said:
I will play as Chelsea. Just been scanning the game for now, not really playing. Completely agree on the team looking weak / imbalanced. Fofana, James, Sterling, Kante and Havertz need to perform to get the current squad firing.
Simply put they need a rebuild, which makes it fun. I have no idea though why they start the game in debt - just does not align with the takeover and funds injected into the club. There is no base for that. I am pleased to see they tweaked the Lukaku loan terms to include a monthly payment, although the contract is off (70% of current rate, 100% paid by Inter). Some may call it cheating, but I'm probably going to tweak the finances to be more reflective of real life (keep in mind they were willing to spend another £70M on Gvardiol or £40M+ on Gordon right on deadline day, so the money is there).
There was talk of the ownership taking a significant credit facility for cash flow in the summer so I wouldn't be surprised to a degree if the finances were reflective of that argument.
The key, theoretically, would be whether the board during the game are keen to inject money at intervals into the club for transfers, infrastructure, etc as per what they are obligated to do in real life per the terms of the purchase of the club.
To be honest though, it just adds to the difficulty factor for me if this is not the case, as it might take a couple of years to get the books balanced for the club.
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Going to get into this save tonight.
I think on initial reflection with the squad at hand, my first thoughts are a 4-3-3 with a vertical tika-taka approach.
One of the harder aspects I think is finding the best role in the team for Havertz and Mount who are two players that I should be looking to somewhat build around long term but probably don't have obvious defined roles. The easy option would be to just try and fit all the best players into the team which would mean pushing Mount out to the left and Sterling subsequently to the right, with Kovacic, Kante and Jorginho in midfield.
But I think I'm going to look at a midfield initially of Jorginho or Kova as the deep playmaker, Kante as the ball winning midfielder and Mount as a box to box. Sterling I'd be looking at playing wide left in an inverted role and Havertz up front, probably initially just as an advanced forward. It does however mean the right-hand side is a weakness as realistically I'm looking at either Pulisic or Ziyech to fill it. If I'm looking for someone to play an inverted role then Ziyech on paper, probably looks the better option for now (god help me). It looks like Vale and Hudson-Odoi can both be recalled from their loans so I may look at recalling one of the two, just to give me an extra option in the wide areas over the course of the season.
In defence, realistically I need to look beyond Thiago Silva and start to phase him out over the season. The aim is to build around Fofana so if I can keep him fit I think I'll be looking at him + one of Silva or Koulibaly this season. James and Chilwell I'll look to operate as offensive full backs to provide the width for the wingers to cut inside.
Contracts are going to have to be a big consideration relatively early too. I want to see if Silva shows any early signs of decline before whether to keep him another season. Kante seems like he would be willing to take a bit of a wage drop on a 2 year deal, which seems like a decent deal to tie him down for a further year and allow surgery to be carried out in other areas of the squad. Jorginho on the other hand seems to want a sizeable bump in wages so would need to have more thought on this one. Perhaps it would be better to see whether I cash in immediately?
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Didn't play last year's game, but my son has the Gamepass now for his X Box so might as well have a go this year and see if I can get into it.
Just having a brief look, the financials look a bit worrying. Already in the overdraft, and some big wages now compared to previous years (Sterling, Koulibaly, Kante, James, Fofana, etc).
I agree with the initial comments on here, the squad overall looks weak as **** which probably runs in line with real life to be fair. Ironically though in game, our midfield looks the strongest position which needs a major revamp in real life. In game, I think goalkeeper, attack (probably a winger depending on formation) and maybe left back are the areas I may look at first. Will likely not bother buying anything first window for the realism factor though so will soon see who can and can't perform.
However, there are some excellent young players to build around - James, Fofana, Mount and Havertz in particular but there's also a number of other very promising players. I think Chelsea could be quite a difficult job short term, but potentially a very attractive job longer term.
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For all my good intentions I always struggle to get beyond my annual Chelsea save.
However I might put that on the backburner as there are two teams that really stand out for me this year.
Parma have always been my favourite Italian club going back to the glory days of the late 90's and Werder Bremen were my late grandad's team after living nearby in Germany for around 30 years.
Both teams were relegated last season so offer the nice challenge of first getting promoted, and then re-establishing in the top league before hopefully kicking on further.
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On 13/01/2021 at 13:21, FMunderachiever said:
Very early days for me in my Chelsea save, but i cant put my finger on why we are so wildly inconsistent.
Champions League performances are excellent. scored a 3-0 win away at RB Leipzig and a 3-1 away win at Atalanta.
Yet in the league, away from home we seem really ponderous and ineffective.
I am not convinced at all about any of the goalkeepers. Mendy has already made some atrocious mistakes but Kepa looks average.
Brighton beat me 2-1 at the Amex playing a strange wingback formation with two AM's in behind a central striker. I just couldnt adapt to it even after euqalising they always looked more likely to score. Ive also lost away to Everton 2-1, yet beat Man Utd at home 2-0, Palace 4-0 and totally outplayed Spurs only to draw somehow.
I dont think we can win the title, but im aiming for top 4 and then to change the squad with some signings
Haven't been back on this month due to work commitments so still in pre season of season 2.
I found inconsistency to be the case in stages of the first season, and actually started again after my first Chelsea save reached October. What formation are you using?
I wanted to play 4-3-3 with Kante as a holder and then 2 of Mount, Havertz and Kovacic as more attack minded midfielders but it just didn't seem to work well so in my second save I changed this to a 4-2-3-1 which was much improved. I also scrapped the idea to play Werner from the left as I don't think he's very effective there and is far more potent playing centrally. Tammy is a more than able backup to him and Pulisic and Ziyech can then operate on the wings. He doesn't look the best, but Hudson Odoi has played well on my save in the first season and really stepped up to being the third choice winger who got plenty of game time being able to play on either side.
I agree with the keepers too. I'd say Mendy was serviceable first season, but I managed to get Donnarumma on a free after the first season to demote him to backup. You really want to try to move Kepa on, he's not good enough and at the start of the game still has a 5 year contract on £150k per week!
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11 hours ago, hickmanrocks said:
@essien_5 "One player I can buy if I want is Kane. Spurs got relegated"
Now I haven't switched to FM21 yet as I'm still enjoying FM20 too much, but the above makes me smile! So many questions -
- How did Spurs get relegated? Did they slip down the table or have a terrible start to the season that they couldn't recover from.
- Are any players transfer listed or asking for a move?
- Was Mou in charge when they went down? If not who?
- What version of the game are you running? (Sorry I haven't been following the game too closely but I'm guessing by now the beta can be replaced by version 1.0 or similar at the players choosing)
Thank you
Not the beta, first proper version of the game.
They were in the relegation zone pretty much the whole season. Flittered between 17th and 18th and went down with a game to spare.
Mourinho was sacked after about 12-15 games and Laudrup took over.
Kane wants to leave, Son has put in a transfer request and teams are circling the rest of the group - Lloris, Moura, Alli, Dier, etc.
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I've been able to drive the wage budget down to around break-even point and I have a couple more I'm trying to get rid of.
Updated Players Out :
Giroud - Marseille - Free
Rudiger - Man Utd - £38m (rising to £51m)
Jorginho - PSG - £46.5m
Alonso - Sevilla - £26m
Moses - Inter - £12.5m
Zappacosta - Ajax - £8.75m (rising to £11.5m)
Azpilicueta - PSG - £30m (didn't really want to sell him but for the fee, a near 32 year old with one year of contract left and £150k per week wages, it was too tempting)
Drinkwater - Galatasary - £1m (thank god)
Kenedy - Leipzig - £4.9m
Kepa is also awaiting a work permit before a £22.5m move to Bournemouth which will be amazing to get his wages off the books.
At present I just have Donnarumma and Alaba coming in. Any suggestions of players to look at? Wouldn't mind picking up a couple of young talents (I brought Papetti last season but needs to be loaned out as can't get a work permit).
Two main areas currently I would say is an improvement on Zouma to play alongside Tomori and a long term replacement for Kante (otherwise I'll keep Bakayoko to back him up this season).
One player I can buy if I want is Kane. Spurs got relegated so will accept a deal of £45m, rising to £75m with some fairly straightforward clauses. I'm just not sure whether I need him, after the season Werner just had and Tammy also on the books. I'm also not sure whether he'll suit my Gegenpress style. The deal seems attractive for a player that should be in his prime but I'm just not certain whether to rubber stamp it.
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Might be worth you looking at Hudson-Odoi's situation at Chelsea.
On my Chelsea save he ended up playing himself into my team a lot in the first season (not started second yet).
26 starts and 19 sub appearances, he got 15 goals and 8 assists and his output seemed consistent across both wide positions.
His wages are big, but you may be able to pick him up on a loan if he's struggling for game time at Chelsea.
It's worth looking at Chelsea in general, there's a quite ridiculous amount of players at the club as so many start on loan. They can't all play so you might be able to pick something up from here. I haven't used him yet, but plan to bring Malang Sarr in as a backup for me second season, he's a centre back that may fill your requirements for Brighton.
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I'm still in the summer of 2021 at the moment. Really struggling to manage the wage bill, I'm currently £360k over it which is restricting my ability to bring new players in beyond Donnarumma and Alaba.
I have a bank balance of £360m and £175m transfer kitty with no means to use it!
In terms of the first team squad, I've so far managed to sell:
Giroud - Marseille (free)
Rudiger - Man Utd £38m (could rise to £51m)
Batshuayi - Arsenal £27.5m
jorginho - PSG £46.5m
Alonso - Sevilla £26m
Zappacosta - Ajax £7.75m (could rise to £10.25m)
I also have offers in currently and accepted for Moses, Drinkwater and Kenedy.
Christensen has interest but I'm trying to push an offer as close to £30m as possible.
Been unable to gain interest so far in Barkley, Lewis Baker, Izzy Brown, Musonda and Miazga.
The other one to try and move on is Kepa. I am currently trying to do a deal with Spurs for Kepa + circa £20m for Son. Spurs are getting cherry picked at present for a number of their players having been relegated with Lloris already moved on. They seem interested in Kepa so will be interesting if I can pull something off.
Presently, I plan to keep Sarr and Bakayoko at the club, Bakayoko as the ball winning backup to Kante that I lacked last season and Sarr will be the 4th/5th choice centre back option.
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35 minutes ago, Natedog17 said:
Just an update on Havertz, I found he plays best as Mezzala attack on the left cm role of my 4-3-3 or in the trequarista role as a amc in the 4-2-3-1.
Nice I'll try him as a trequartista in pre season.
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Just finished my first season and what looked like petering out somewhat has ended up finishing excellently.
I finished (a distant) second to Liverpool in the league on 84 points. Liverpool finished 10 points ahead on 94 so was always going to be a tall order with that. My problem was drawing too many games (9). There was a period just when Champions League started back up and the team was jaded and struggling for form where in a 4 game stretch we lost to Liverpool, drew 0-0 at home to Brighton and then drew 2-2 with Arsenal where Tammy came off the bench to score 2 goals in the last 10 minutes to rescue a point, only to miss an 89th minute penalty winner! We lost ground on Liverpool at that point and never made it back.
FA Cup was a write off, losing 1-0 to Norwich in the fourth round when trying to rest a lot of the players.
We won the Carabao Cup with a penalty shootout win over Man City after a 0-0 draw.
But the big success came in Europe. After struggling past Dinamo Zagreb, we smashed Inter 3-0 at home to get past them before meeting City in the semi's. By this point I was struggling with a couple of key injuries. Ziyech broke his ankle at the start of April to finish his season and Pulisic was also out too. We lost at City 4-2 in the first leg before putting an incredible performance in at the Bridge in the second leg, winning 5-1 including a Hudson Odoi hat trick.
This all led us to the final and a showdown with Courtois, Hazard and Real Madrid. Pulisic just returned in time a week before and scored the opener before Werner scored a second and we managed to comfortably see the game out with a 2-0 win to finish Champions of Europe.
With regards to players, Werner finished 44 (7) games and 33 goals, 9 assists. He also finished the league top scorer on 26 goals and 7 clear of second placed Lacazette. Tammy ably supported with 17 goals but I felt that he was always better for me coming on in the last half hour rather than giving him starts.
The three wide men all produced very well.
Ziyech 38 (4) games, 16 goals, 16 assists
Pulisic 39 (7) games, 14 goals, 8 assists
Hudson Odoi 26 (19) games, 15 goals. 8 assists
And the final silver lining on the season, Spurs finished 18th and got relegated! Will be interesting to see what players aim to push a move out the club.
Transfer wise, I already have Donnarumma and Alaba joining on a free. I'll keep an eye on the Spurs situation but the season has shown to me that I probably at least need a ball winning alternative to Kante and a fourth winger so I'm not forced to play Werner on the left if a couple of players are out.
Any suggestions for players to look at?
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7 hours ago, bucket said:
Did anyone get any money to spend in January 1st season? I had the first window off, but haven’t been given any budget for Jan. Only £30m for the following!
I didn't disable first window so just had my summer budget rolled over which was about £12m. I'm not sure if there is a glitch of some sort when disabling first window that it leaves you with no money for January too.
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Loving the saves above boys.
I've finally started getting into a good save on the game. Just reached January and I've settled on a 4-2-3-1 in the Gegenpress style and haven't really moved away from that so far.
Currently 2nd in the league after 17 games with 36 points, 2 points behind Liverpool. Although City are one point behind with a game in hand, and Leeds are also level on points with me. United and Wolves are 5 and 6 points further back respectively and then there's quite a gap thereafter. Spurs are in a relegation battle in 17th, 1 point off the bottom three and Arsenal aren't much better in 15th.
We've been pretty free scoring with 40 goals so far, although could be better defensively conceding 18 although I've noticed we've conceded a few late goals when games have been won. Something to maybe think about with the Gegenpress knackering players out and maybe I need an alternative style to revert to in the last 20-30 minutes of games to see them out better.
I also won my Champions League group comfortably which included PSG and will play Dinamo Zagreb in the first knockout round, and in the Carabao Cup semi final against Brentford.
Werner has played mostly central and usually only moved over to the left if I want to bring Tammy on as a sub. He's scored 15 in 17(5) so far and top goalscorer in the league with 12.
The wide men have also been scoring regularly - Ziyech 11 goals and 7 assists in 21(3). Pulisic 8 goals and 7 assists in 19(5). Hudson Odoi 8 goals and 4 assists in 10(9).
Mount, Kovacic and Kante have all been solid in midfield and the defence I've been able to rotate in and out with everyone playing fine. The only ones that haven't seen any real game time from that group is Alonso and Christensen who I'll probably look to move on.
Like @MBJ96 I've offered bosman contracts to Donnarumma and Alaba which I'm hoping both will sign as that would be two insane signings on a free. I probably won't make a move in January but in the summer I will look to bring in someone who can rotate with Kante who is the only player really in the squad who I don't have a viable alternative to.
The only player who I haven't really got going yet is Havertz. He has been playing in the '10' role and I've switched a couple of times between Attacking Midfielder and Advanced Playmaker in support and attack roles. So far he only has 1 goal and 1 assist in 18(6) with an average rating of 6.91. I'm trying to work out if his presence in the hole is what is helping my wide players put good numbers together so far.
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On 13/12/2020 at 17:39, MBJ96 said:
Just had the youth intake and WOW. Got two players with five potential stars, and one of them has the beautiful name “James Essien”, who is a CM with the same caracteristica. Also got a third young talent with 4,5 potential stars.
Think this is my best youth intake ever, and frem this is in the Chelsea spirit.
That is a beautiful name I agree haha
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49 minutes ago, MBJ96 said:
End of february for me.
It is a three horse race for the title with Liverpool, Manchester United and me. All teams within two points.I got one foot in the Champions League quaterfinal after a 3-2 victory away against Atalanta. Trailed 2-0 in that game.
I'm playing 4-3-3 against tougher opponents and away. Against easier teams I tend to use 4-2-3-1. So far I have been scoring a lot of goals and my defense has been great.
My top players are Tammy Abraham, who is the topscorer in Premier League, Kurt Zouma (what a beast in the air) and the wizard Hakim Ziyech. Unlike many others Kepa Arrizabalaga is my number one in goal as Mendy was bad.
I have already signed two players of very high class for the next season. Both David Alaba and Gianluigi Donnarrumma will arrive on a free transfer. Alaba will probably replace Thiago Silva in central defense, although the brazilian's contract has been extended for one year. Donnarumma will be my keeper the next decade.
Will give an update when the season is done.That is two outstanding purchases on free transfers. Did you do anything to declare your interest or attempt to unsettle them prior to January as I would have assumed their clubs would look to get them signed up as a matter of urgency.
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15 minutes ago, wetfred said:
I started a Chels 433 save which I scrapped. I'm doing well so far with a 4231 Gegenpress ,I'm in December and only lost one game at Liverpool. Werner is leading the league in goals, Havertz has a lot of assists and Ziyech is doing good. I've been watching training vids from Foxinthebox and its helped a lot. I sold Emerson and bought Skriniar who was transfer listed for a decent amount. So far so good.
Cool, if everyone is available what is your strongest XI and their roles?
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How are people getting on so far, I've been very stop-start I must admit struggling to get out of the first month or so of the season before ripping things up and starting again.
Unlike Frank in real life at present, I'm struggling to be honest to find the right formation and style to suit everyone within the team. I've mainly been flipping between a 4-3-3 and 4-2-3-1. I'm particularly struggling to get the new boys (Havertz, Werner, Ziyech) clicking.
I'm sure I'll find what I want eventually and get stuck into a good game with the team but currently it's been very frustrating.
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FM23: Unofficial Chelsea Thread.
in Good Player & Team Guide
Posted
Pushing on through the summer of 2023 trying to make some hopefully, positive changes.
As mentioned previously, I've brought Marco Asensio in on a free transfer and 150k per week. On paper looks like he should be good value as is natural across the attacking midfield spots to give me some flexibility, although I'm currently looking at him taking up that right wing spot to play opposite Sterling.
With this in mind, I'm trying to tie Pulisic down to a new contract as his is up in the summer. Not managed to yet, but will continue to push. If I don't manage to, I might look at cashing in later in the window. He would be the third choice winger behind the above two, which means I am looking to move Ziyech on this summer. He was unhappy however at being offered out and seems to be digging his heels in a bit so he might prove to be a struggle to sell.
Thiago Silva left on a free to Madrid and I sold Chalobah in January to Man United so I've bought Andre Amaro from Vit. Guimaraes for £23.5m (a release clause in his contract for Champions League clubs). Looks very promising and carried an 'A+' scouting grade but at only 20 I might need to lean on Koulibaly for a little while longer whilst blooding him in alongside Fofana who is now the lynchpin in the defence.
I've managed to sell Kovacic to PSG for £60m and RLC to Bournemouth for £14.5m, and bought in Moises Caicedo from Brighton for £37.5m on a relegation release clause. Pleased with this buy and for the price too, and gives me a really good youthful midfield alongside Bellingham, Gallagher and Mount to complement Kante.
I've also signed Han-Noah Massengo from Bristol City on £1m compensation. Not sure he'll likely 'make it' at Chelsea but I'm looking to loan him out next season and try to make some good profit on him (a project so to speak!).
Auba was allowed to move to Bremen for free to get rid of the wages.
Still trying to move some players on. Hudson Odoi I'm hoping to sell, Bakayoko is a struggle, Kepa doesn't want to move, and Lukaku the best deal so far was £20m from PSG and he wants a £7.5m payoff to leave. Unfortunately, I'm thinking I might have to run with this as I really want to get this wage bill trimmed down significantly and some of these big undeserving earners out the club.
Incoming wise, unless some sort of deal pops up, I'll probably look to bring in a couple more top young players if I can.