SirCular

Hi guys, I've been pretty inactive in here due to not having the time to play. Tried to continue my old Salford save but just couldn't get into it knowing the new update was out and have once again gone for Salford. I've picked up a couple of real quality Spanish players from the lower leagues - Miguel Real and Eric Llopis. Miguel Real is an AMC from Silva in the Lower Leagues and Eric Llopis is a Winger from Binefar. Both available on free transfers and are easily good enough for a few leagues above.

In terms of the players mentioned - Miguel Real and Eric Llopis. Miguel Real is an AMC from Silva in the Lower Leagues and Eric Llopis is a Winger from Binefar. Both available on free transfers and are easily good enough for a few leagues above.

Been pretty inactive in here due to not having the time to play. Tried to continue my old Salford save but just couldn't get into it knowing the new update was out and have once again gone for Salford. I've picked up a couple of real quality Spanish players from the lower leagues and I'll drop the names of these in later, they're definitely worth a look from the first season.

I've always found a good counter attacking formation to be reliant on both quick and intelligent players that know when to push forward and track back (even despite tactical tweaks). As I said in a previous post, the quality of Salford's team in the lower leagues is good enough to dominate games without needing to catch teams on the counter and most of my tactics were set up to get as much service to Adam Rooney as possible.

I played Adam Rooney as an Advanced Forward all the way through the leagues and he was very consistent. I've found him far too slow for the Poacher role.

Will try and grab this for you later on tonight bud. With regards to the takeover, I had an attempted takeover collapse and Peter Lim is still very much involved. Decent luck with cup draws and the results I've had have definitely helped the bank balance and this should be do-able for most due to the calibre of players you are able to attract in the lower leagues. The good thing about having Peter Lim still in place is that he's still classed as a tycoon and it's handy to have the injections up the leagues when finances aren't particularly great.

Think this might now mean Scholes will take over at Oldham! I'm due an update on my progress with Salford, currently sat in the European Places in my first season in the Premier League. Plenty of players mentioned in here to help with your first season!

I had some decent luck with the draws in the cups which obviously helped the bank balance. I think my budget was around the £900k mark, which I wasn't too unhappy with. I tend to try and build for the next season in January especially when I'm looking at promotion and often spread the deals over a few years. Loans are very handy though, Marcin Bulka has been on loan with me now for 3 seasons as he doesn't get a look in at Chelsea for example, he's easily the best keeper in the Championship currently and I'll definitely look to get a permanent deal done next season.

So after a bit of a wobble over Christmas (injuries to pretty much all my main midfielders didn't help), I'm sat top of the Championship in February, 6 points clear of 2nd place who have a game in hand. Signings wise, the main ins were: Oliver Burke for a measly £110k. He was transfer listed having played just a handful of first team games in 2 seasons and he's been great in rotation with my regen AMR. Yannis Ammour came in again for a small fee of £350k and has made the AML position his own. Impressive technical and physical stats and will keep his place should we get promotion. Sergio Prandi is a regen from Uruguay who was on my shortlist for around 2 seasons prior to joining. Has always been coveted by major European sides and when his contract expired I made an approach only for him to accept a trial with Napoli. Not deterred I again approached and tied him down to a 4 year deal. Will post his attributes later on as I think he could be an absolute steal! Jonathan Panzo was brought in on a season long loan from Monaco and again has slotted straight in at CB next to Nathan Philips. Provides me with a pacier partner and has sured up my sometimes rocky defence from last year. Matthias Bader came in from Cologne and was my largest outlay at £600k. I'd been crying out for a solid right back having gotten by with sub-par players and he's been very consistent thus far. Another he will keep his place next season.

Good to see other guys having success with some of the players I recommended. Gil Santos is definitely one of the highest recommended as he's solid right up the leagues with room for development. The whole Brexit impact doesn't look to be changing much in terms of Championship and Premiership sides - there's a minimum wage requirement of £8k per week to be considered, which in terms of current wages I have a few players earning £4-7k already in League One (phew!). In terms of performances so far for me this season, Sean Goss has been outstanding and is already just 2 POM awards away from the record and I've only just hit February, not bad for his £28k transfer fee from QPR. Aside from him, Gedion Zelalem and Callum Camps have rotated for the advanced playmaker spot and both have performed brilliantly with Gilson Costa and Ben Thompson applying the bite in my midfield, operating between Box to Box and Ball Winning Midfielders dependent on how the opposition are set up to play. Adam Rooney again has been consistent although his lack of pace I feel is hindering the way my team operate - he has a quality stream of supply from the midfield but just doesn't have the legs sometimes to attack or get on the end of the through balls they thread, this will definitely be looked at going into the Championship. This is certainly the most enjoyable save I've had on any FM for a while. I did have a couple of attempts last year with Salford but Brexit took the feel away from the game as I went up the leagues.

Having looked at your tactics, I would try changing your attacking width to normal, change your passing directness to normal, run at the defence more and also try it without passing into space. Whilst in transition, I always found distribution to both centre backs and full backs useful as it means you can keep the ball on the deck whilst getting it into danger men such as Danny Lloyd. Also I wouldn't play on the counter, you should be controlling games at this level. Out of possession - normal defensive line but a higher line of engagement. That's just my opinion really based on how I was and am currently set up to play for most games. Let me know how you get on!

A copy of your tactics would probably be more useful - there might only be a couple of tweaks needed to make a big difference. Be mindful that a Target Man and Poacher are reliant on the service, both from wide areas in terms of crosses and through the middle with through balls. Both strikers you have there aren't necessarily quick or mobile so the focus should be getting the back into the box, as that's where they're predominantly going to be strongest.

So I'm now underway with the third season, currently sitting 5th in League One after 3 games. Definitely a step up in terms of quality with some solid sides coming down from the Championship (Nottingham Forest and Wigan being the stand out sides). Ethan Robson picked up damaged cruciate ligaments in the first game of the season, meaning he's out long term and will probably miss the entire season. Other than that the core of my team remains relatively similar:- Current Squad https://www.imgur.com/nfhn1AM Transfers https://www.imgur.com/soXF7HA I'm still crying out for quality fullbacks and both Grandison and and Gabriel just aren't up to scratch for this level really. Luhey has been an upgrade at left back however with Tom Walker having to fill that roll for most of last season. Certainly hoping for promotion though based on some solid signings!

Seems to be pretty quiet in here so thought I'd post some progress. Haven't had chance to play a great deal over the last few weeks, but managed to get a few hours in last night and the night before. I'm currently sitting top of League Two and I'm 9 points clear of 2nd with promotion already confirmed. Second season signings were as follows:- Ethan Robson - Free - Released from Sunderland at the end of the first season having spent the entire year on loan and driving my midfield. Still top class for League Two and League One at least. Nathan Phillips - Free - Released from Liverpool and has filled the void of the released and ageing Nathan Pond perfectly. Gilson Costa - Free - Was strangely without a club for a year and was interested in joining me. Has 5* potential according to my Assistant and looks to be a mainstay in Midfield for a few seasons to come. Thomas Touré - Free - Released from Angers and again I was surprised he was interested in joining, albeit in the January window. Definitely a player who will get game time and has forced me to switch to a more traditional 4-4-2 formation from the 4-5-1 I played to ease the reliance on Adam Rooney, who despite being the best striker in the league isn't particularly quick! I've had some decent runs in the cups and actually got a lucrative away draw at Man Utd, they won convincingly but the money free'd up from the tie has allowed the board to give me a £1million transfer kitty for League One. Brexit went ahead in my save and the Work Permit rules change to the minimum wage being a certain amount etc. Haven't had this outcome before so will be fun (or not fun) to see how this affects my transfer plans.

Finally managed to settle into my first long term save with Salford (again) after dabbling and failing to really get into any other saves. Signings so far have been fairly limited as the squad is obviously more than good enough to win promotion in the first season, however, I did bring in the following players: Gil Santos - AMR/AML/ST - Free Transfer - Guy looked ridiculous for this level and although he's on £3.9k per week, he'll be good for the next two tiers at the least whilst also being an option to turn a healthy profit if need be. Leeds and Montpellier both had bids accepted in the January transfer window but I was able to get the board to re-consider. Jermaine Grandison - DC/DR - Free Transfer - He's been mentioned on a few threads here already. Solid Centre Back of Fullback for this level. Bilal - AML/AMC - Free Transfer - Recently released from Real Madrid and looks to have good potential. Has appeared mainly as an impact sub for me from the Left Wing but has been solid so far when needed. Al Hassan - ST/AMR - Free Transfer - Again, recently released from Lazio and looks to have good potential. Already has much bigger clubs sniffing around him so could be a profit maker if nothing else. Ben Close - MC - Loan - Brought in from Portsmouth and has added a bit of steel to my midfield playing as CM Support. Brilliant first season loan signing. £0 fee and £0 wage contribution. Ethan Robson - MC - Loan - Brought in from Sunderland and has easily been the standout player. Playing as a Deep Lying Playmaker he's been fantastic and currently has 19 goals and 26 assists in 52 games. £0 fee and £0 wage contribution.