FM2012: Newcastle United thread - Triumphing by brave defending.....well maybe!

[ramlaku]

Should I buy Baines for £10m + Mike Williamson? First season. Don't know if Williamson is any good.

[james_wilko]

Williamson was always poor for me. Baines is a great option for LB and means you can play Santon at right back. 10mil is a steal for his quality.

[nickbirdspain]

I'd keep Williamson - always a solida back up player and ample cover for Saylor and Colo

[nickbirdspain]

Hi guys - i'm looking for some recommendations on a good CB and DM to bring in. Decided to offload Tiote in the summer to Chelsea for £11m and want to replace him. M'villa was my starting point but the greedy sod wanted £33m and £125k p/w - i've only got £33m was i was buggered if i was going to blow it all on one lad. The other i'm looking at is Moussa Sissoko - i could pick him up for £22m but again, i'm sure i can find better. My central midfield pair, at the mo, are Cabaye and Sigdusson. I want someone a little more DM minded so i can push Cabaye up further.

Also, looking for a young CB to take over from Colo. Kurt Zouma was the one i really wanted but i was quoted a ridiculous £57m!! I've got Williamson as back up and also Remi Streete has a potential of 4 star so i might look to blood him. I could also pick up Raphael Varane for £20m - is he worth it? I'm looking for long term and want someone with good potential.

[Welshace]

dmc's =

Andile Jali

Kara

Bacinovic

Oriol Romeu (chelsea tend not to use him so comes cheap)

Casemiro

DC's =

Kyri Papadopoulos

Mario Fernandes (gremio)

Inigo Martinez

Siyanda Xulu

Nkoulou

Alderweireld

Guiseppe Prestia

Danny Da Costa

[nickbirdspain]

Cheers Welsh - i think Romeu is transfer listed at the moment so i'll certainly check him out.

[Welshace]

definately do... he outplays his stats too... brilliant player...

andile jali is probably my favourite from that lot though.. just amazing. and probably the closest to tiote in terms of defensive and attacking qualities...

kyri papadopoulos , if you can get him can play dmc and cb btw.. and will become one of the best in the game if you improve certain mental stats

[DandyDon]

A couple more recommendations for DMC for you Nick. Radja Nainggolan, Fernando (the one that starts at Porto, quite often ends up available quite cheap), Javi Martinez and Taras Stepanenko (not sure if that's the correct spelling for him).

Any of them should cost you a lot less than the prices you've been quoted for Sissokho or M'Vila

[nickbirdspain]

Cheers Don - i'll check those two out. Out of interest have you ever brought Sissokho or M'Vila before? I think i had them both on an Arsenal save on FM11

[DandyDon]

Cheers Don - i'll check those two out. Out of interest have you ever brought Sissokho or M'Vila before? I think i had them both on an Arsenal save on FM11

Haven't bought them yet on FM12 due to the prices I've been quoted generally. Had M'Vila on a couple of FM11 saves and he was great, though he generally took a while to really get going at a new club. (Both times he had fairly average first seasons, but improved performances after that)

[Obaaa]

Just starting my 12.2 game with Newcastle using Chris' update above. Who has everyone signed to play at left-back, or have you used Santon/Ryan Taylor to good effect there? I'd rather play Santon at right back and use Taylor as a versatile backup player.

[Welshace]

for leftbacks i usually look to the likes of :

martin olsson

cheik m'bengue

renzetti

neil taylor

jeremy mathieu

[Obaaa]

Made the decision to not have transfer budgets in the first window but I will take a look at those options and possibly bring one in in January. Think it could be quite a challenge without budgets because we're a little short in some positions but Pardew's had to deal with it and done fine! Thinking of re-training Ryan Taylor to play central midfield...anyone attempted it or am I crazy?

[Andrew!]

Just been offered £15m by Man City for M'Bengue. Probably going to accept it, and I want to buy Mark Kruse to replace him. He's transfer listed by request, his agent offered him for £12.25m, and that's his asking price at Bayern. However, they won't accept a penny under £100m?? Is this a bug, or does this normally happen when a player is listed only by request?

You knnow how you always find a player who is just about the best in one position.. this is the best left back in the game, and he's been on my shortlist for years!

[stickyjim]

Hi guys,

So i'm in January in my second season with Newcastle and things are going pretty well. First season I finished 5th so made the Europa, although I did get knocked out in the other cup comps early on. I'm currently into my second season and am fighting for a champions league spot, into the carling cup semi and have a first knockout round tie against a strong Dortmund side to look forward to.

I usually play 4-2-3-1 or 4-2-4 with 1 winger and 1 inside forward if i'm extremely confident going into a match. Take a look at my strongest side:

------------Sturridge P (loaned in my first season then bought for 4mil!!!! BARGAIN, the guy's a machine)-------

Gutierrez W ------- Ben Arfa AM -------- Dos Santos IF (another 4mil purchase, again, some top notch performances from him)

---------- Cabaye DLP ------- Tiote CM ---------

Pieters FB ---- Hughes CB ---- Collo CB ----- Santon FB

--------------------Krul---------------------

My 4-2-4 strongest usually looks like this:

------------Ba CF ------------Sturridge P ----------

Gutierrez W ---------------------------------Dos Santos IF

Cabaye---------Tiote

Pieters ---- Hughes ---- Collo ----- Santon

--------------------Krul---------------------

I also have some pretty solid cover in most positions:

Castagionge (spelling!?!) - On loan from inter

Delph - Good prospect for when Cabaye eventually wants out (inter sniffing around him)

Obertan

Grandin

Marveux

Gosling

Savic

Illis (again spelling) - South American RB

Forster - New keeper arriving on a free in summer to replace him

Plus others and a few youths I'm trying to develop.

So let me get to my point, with this squad I score plenty of goals and play some very nice football, BUT, I leak far too many goals from set pieces. Hughes and Collo are both pretty poor in that aspect but I do have Savic coming through as a CB. He's a big guy with good heading but he just isn't ready yet. I don't want to buy a good new defender so as not to hinder his development, as Castagoignes will be going back to Inter in the summer i'll have a spot free up front.

So... do you guys know any strikers who would do a great job helping out at the back for set pieces? Ideally he would be a target man who'd play well with Sturridge as the poacher. Assuming I'm not forced into selling some of my players in the summer, the only other position I want to strengthen is LW. My transfer budget can go on those 2 positions, any suggestions for either?

Think my wage bill is currently around 750k and will come down further when I finally get rid of the useless 50k per week Xisco.

[shoonaldo]

End of Season 4 update

Transfers

Domestic

This season was relatively easy. No team ever really threatened us at the top.

Cups

League Cup: won 5:0 against City

FA Cup: lost 1:0 to Wolves in the 6th round

Europe

I had actually won the final against Lyon but when I wanted to load up the save the next day it had corrupted. Replayed it and lost this time but thats life and we'll be back next season. I hope.

Stats

Tamburini has really been a great signing. He's transformed us from lucky league winners to dominators. He builds a deadly trio with Cabaye and Sigurdsson behind him. Special mentions have to go to the fans player of the season Jose Angel and Johnny Hansen who played upfront in the cup matches.

Next Season

So far I've signed a load of regens, a young swiss RB to show Shaqiri I value his opinion and Shaqiri made his loan permanent for 5m after months of not even speaking to me about signing.

Six regens didn't have their contracts renewed and Fredy Guarin joined Roma for 3m.

I've also agreed to sign the foolowing young CB regen for 17.25m and 10% of the profit made should I sell. He'll join us on his 18th birthday.

http://img834.imageshack.us/img834/9026/newcastletransferstrans.png

Thanks for reading.

[nickbirdspain]

Hi folks,

Short update from Tyneside.

We’ll we’ve reached the half way point of season three and not all is going swimmingly. After finishing last season with an unprecedented treble including Premiership, League Cup and Champions League, this season was always going to be a real test of our staying power. Summer recruits saw Tiote head to Chelsea for £11m, Simpson to Burnley for £3.6m and young Rich Cotton to City for £3m, bringing our available income to £33m to strengthen.

First through the door was Lacina Traore for £6.75m. I then spent the rest of the summer umming and arring with whom else to splash the cash on. Originally looked at M’Vila and a few other targets but was quoted stupid prices. Brought in Danny Wilson from Liverpool as CB cover for Colo and Saylor. My big signing was Lucas Moura whom I splashed a whopping £18m.

In all honesty, I wasn’t really happy with the depth of the squad going into the new season and was particularly gutted to not bring in M’Vila while losing Tiote. Despite this we had a roaring start beating Chelsea 3-0 in the community shield and then sat top by the end of October. The wobbles though have started to set in. We lost 3-2 at home to City and then were knocked out of the league cup 2-1 by Scumderland. That was a pretty hard pill to swallow but before I retired to the land of nod last night we were thoroughly smashed 4-1 by Southampton.

Despite this we are still in the hunt sitting 3 points behind leaders City in 4th with two games in hand – we’ve also had some amazing results including an all time record beating Boro, on their return to the big time, 12-0 in the league!! We’ve also posted huge results against the likes of Shaktar (8-0) and a very impressive 3-1 victory at the Emirates.

As mentioned in the Cups we’ve crashed out to Scum in the league cup, but we finished top in the CL group stages and we’re safely into the next round. Also won the World Club cup beating Sao Paulo 2-0 in the final.

As mentioned I’ve had issues with the squad and will be looking to make some huge changes come the summer. Demba Ba seems to be imitating real life and only hit 3 goals all season. Cisse is still doing well, currently with 10 in 13 games. Traore has been very good when used, amassing around 11 goals in 17 starts. Lucas started off with a bang including a hatrick against the scum in the league in his second start but his form has started to wobble and I’ve been leaving him out recently in favour of Zaha whom has been fantastic on the wing. Colo is still a beast smashing in 9 goals already this season including a hatrick against City in the cup. Stand out performer is easily Sigardsson – take a bow son – average rating of 8.08, 10 goals, lots of assists – the guy is the dogs.

Just coming into the Jan transfer window and we’ll be looking to make some changes. HBA has been average at best and if someone comes in with a decent offer I’ll let him go. Same for Cabaye – tried using him as the DM to fill Tiote’s place but it hasn’t worked. Will probably off load him in the summer.

Still confident we’ll win the league but I think it’s going to come down to the wire. Real push this year will be on the FA cup got Shef Utd in the first round of games and then in the summer it will be an overhaul of the squad with casualties likely to include Cabaye, Jonas, Ba, HBA, Marv, Williamson, Raylor and potentially Lucas.

[Maran]

Can we have a discussion on how to play Papiss Cisse? I've seen some suggestions but they have come from people who say "he's done ok for me as a...". After tonights unbelievable goals (2nd goal = goal of the season!!) I want to get him playing well in game because he is a beast and it should be reflected when the rest of my team are playing well. I've tried him in a few roles but no real joy yet. Best I've got out of him is as a poacher with "runs with ball" turned down to sometimes. While he does score every two or three games, the rest of the time he gets horrible ratings. Advice please on role/duty for Cisse?

[Welshace]

well firstly.. his in game stats do not represent him irl so far this half season.. not a chance..

he's shown skills and attributes that in game are not reflected at all..

chris' update a few posts up goes a long way to change that though and i highly recommend it..

roles and advice is always subjective as it all depends how you've set up the rest of your team aswell.

i.e is he upfront on his own? or with Ba? or someone else?

what kind of game do your team as a whole play? i.e passing? possession based? counter attacking?

but in general.. i would look to use papiss as and advanced forward or complete striker...

poacher might get you some success but limits him imo...

[ChefRobGaming]

won the prem twice in a row 2nd season i also won the CL and steve harper comes in with a takeover that fails and Im now in so much debt and ashley wont give me nothing, this team is falling apart bad, had to sell demba ba and a few others just to keep the books somewhat balanced

[ragolis]

Can someone give me a screenshot of papiss cisse please on the latest patch

[DandyDon]

won the prem twice in a row 2nd season i also won the CL and steve harper comes in with a takeover that fails and Im now in so much debt and ashley wont give me nothing, this team is falling apart bad, had to sell demba ba and a few others just to keep the books somewhat balanced

Someone else earlier in the thread had a Steve Harper takeover....and promptly got sacked!

Hopefully with a bit of luck there'll be another bidder come in if Ashley is looking to sell now, good luck

[DandyDon]

well firstly.. his in game stats do not represent him irl so far this half season.. not a chance..

he's shown skills and attributes that in game are not reflected at all..

chris' update a few posts up goes a long way to change that though and i highly recommend it..

roles and advice is always subjective as it all depends how you've set up the rest of your team aswell.

i.e is he upfront on his own? or with Ba? or someone else?

what kind of game do your team as a whole play? i.e passing? possession based? counter attacking?

but in general.. i would look to use papiss as and advanced forward or complete striker...

poacher might get you some success but limits him imo...

I'd second what Welshace says there, he's a decent enough striker on FM12 but not quite at the level in terms of his real life impact. I haven't downloaded Chris' update as I don't really want to start another save, but I think his changes would make Cisse even more viable as a lone striker.

Without the update I've been playing him as an Advanced Forward when he plays alongside Paloschi in our 4-4-2, and as a Poacher in the 4-2-3-1 when he's on his own, but with plenty pace and attacking threat from the 3 behind him. He's gotten 20+ goals a season in both of the first 2 seasons which is fine by me.

[Maran]

I'm playing him up front on his own and I'm using Chris' update. The team plays default passing at a moderately slow pace with counter-attacking on. I haven't tried him as an advanced forward because it is like poacher apart from the higher creative freedom and byline crosses. Because cisse isn't good at crossing and hasn't got much flair I chose poacher.

[martywigham]

Just a quick question. I've downloaded the new update posted above, but I'm not sure where I have to save the file?

[Welshace]

D:\Users\<your username>\Documents\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2012\editor data

in there fella...

then make sure its selected before you start a new save

[martywigham]

That's great, thanks!

[Andrew!]

Just won the 2015-16 League Cup, Premier League and Champions League (against Marseille), on penalties. Hopefully I won't need to buy anyone else aside from a Dutch regen left wing back and midfielder who i'm going to train to be a left winger. I might sell Fierro though, haven't decided yet. Musacchio is finally gone, and Krul will be on his way too.

Congratulations to Fulham who have now won the FA Cup three times in a row, and got to the final 4 times in a row (last being beaten by me )

[ragolis]

Has anyone got a pappiss cisse screenshot on 12.2.1 please?

or can someone give me his finishing, composure, anticipation.

[Andrew!]

Just got offered both the England and Holland jobs.. think I'll take England. Hopefully I won't get bored of it after the first game

[DandyDon]

Haven't been on my Newcastle save for a while as I was taking time out to complete Mass Effect 3...and then a few more days out to get over the disappointment that engendered:p

Anyway fired it up again last night to finally get through the transfer window and get our third season properly underway and looks like we'll be in for a hell of a challenge. Man Utd have gone completely mental in the transfer market and brought in a scary bunch of signings for the new season.

Simon Kjaer

Axel Witsel

Yann M'vila

Douglas Costa

Edinson Cavani

That lot have all arrived at Old Trafford this summer for the princely sum of £167 million all told I reckon they're going to be tough to stop...and I haven't even looked at what City have done in the transfer window yet.

[ballinisahabit90]

Just completed the first season using Chris's update...

[OutClassed]

Finished my third season as Newcastle boss and unexpectedly finished 2nd in the league! slightly annoying that if I'd gotten 94pts for the previous two seasons I'd have won the league, but Man Utd beat me (96) and Man City were close behind (92). Not planning on doing much over the summer, seeing as I have a couple of good regens that i want to start playing more.

After spending the last season on loan, Ait Fana and Jonas have been sold for small amounts (£4m and £900k). Still trying to shift Jordan Rhodes and Sylvain Marveaux so that my reserve team is just filled with my young, developing players. No one seems to be interested, but both contracts are up at this season so might just try and loan them out. Only real big surprise was selling Stepanenko. He's been great for me, but Chelsea were interested and I negotiated up to £17.75m for him. I've still got Vass and Tiote, as well as a star regen that can fill his spot. Hoping, like most players I sell, he doesn't settle and gets listed. Wouldn't mind bringing him back later in his career.

[foof-1984]

End of season 2014/15

Been a struggle to get on with my game lately but had some time the past few days to get back into it,

Another solid season winning a treble this year, winning the world club championship with a reserve/youth squad, felt that playing and winning it the year before with my strongest team left me with a backlog off league games and it left me with playing 11 games from end off december an through january costing me the league that time, i won the league this year with a record 100points total with a 22point cushion over united, retained my champions league trophy with a 3-0 win over barce makin it 3 wins on the bounce, seydou doumbia set a record for 16 goals scored in a season and a team record off 39goals in it

Transfers in

spent 31m this year with the big signings off daniel sturridge 4m and jack rodwell 18m the main signings, needed to bring them in to help with trained in nation players for champions lg, the rest off the money was spent on future prospects.

Transfers out

In january when the african cup off nations came around i threw a mini hizzy fit after realising i was going to lose my 3 first choice strikers doumbia,cisse an ba for it i transfer listed all 3 and offered them all for sale, i ended up having to back down after selling ba for 18.75m to PSG when the fans became unhappy with this, that was only major sale, released an sold couple regens that weren going to make the grade

Im at the stage in my game now that i need to start getting more regens through to the first team, ive a couple ready to play but some need more game time so will be looking to loan a lot out

[OutClassed]

How did Rodwell perform for you? Depending on whether I'm at home or away I usually play with 1 DM, 1CM and 1 AMC or 1 DM and 2CMs. At the moment I've got:

A. Vass - DM/CM

C. Tiote - DM/CM

J. Francois - DM/CM

A. Ramsey - CM

J. Wilshere - CM/AMC

G. Sigurdsson - CM/AMC

Would bringing Rodwell in be worth it or would I have too many players?

[foof-1984]

rodwell performed well for me, i usually played him as cm he had a 7.16rating in 30 games in the league, depends on how much you think you need him hes a good english player and still young so he'd be a signing for the long term

[Obaaa]

How are everyone fitting Ba and Cisse into the same starting XI? Obviously in real life Pardew is using Ba out wide but can they work together in a 442?

[Welshace]

yes they can....

ba as a deeplaying forward , cisse as a poacher or advances forward

[ballinisahabit90]

Does Padrew play Ba out on the left? Im sure hes been playing 4-4-2...anyway i play Ba as a Complete Forward (Support) and Cisse as an Advanced Forward, they scored 52 goals between em.

[Obaaa]

He played Ba in a 442 on Sunday but against West Brom he was definitely out on the left. Thanks anyway guys, I've gone with Ba as Complete Forward (Support) and Cisse Poacher.

[Welshace]

yeah he's been playing ba on the left in a 5 man midfield .. but obviously with ba moving up alongside cisse and jonas holding his position on the left

all very fluid

[Andrew!]

Just beaten Arsenal 5-4 at the Emirates

Can't remember the last time i've had a game as high-scoring as that.

[DandyDon]

Slightly deranged game against Fulham at the cottage earlier on in our third season. Shocking defending from both teams

We were especially poor at corners.

[TRC]

How does everyone set up the defence? Coloccini is poor on this for me every time, always have to replace him in Jan. I want him to be as awesome as he is in reality though.

[DandyDon]

How does everyone set up the defence? Coloccini is poor on this for me every time, always have to replace him in Jan. I want him to be as awesome as he is in reality though.

Not sure I'm best qualified to be giving defensive advice considering the performance against Fulham...but when I had Colo in the side I generally had him playing as Centre Back/Cover alongside Steven Taylor who was Limited Defender/Stopper. Both with fairly defensive mentality and set to short passing, so they'd preferably just move the ball on to the better passers in midfield than try and hit 40 yard hollywood passes.

[michaelthestrange]

What about the club's finances in the future, considering the high debts?

[SeanH91]

He's a bit special ain't he?

[Obaaa]

Great result, what a player! How are you playing him?

Anyone know a good, cheap backup player for Tiote in the first season?

[OutClassed]

Great result, what a player! How are you playing him?

Anyone know a good, cheap backup player for Tiote in the first season?

Adam Vass (£800k) or Taras Stepanenko (£3m) both did very well for me. Sold Stepanenko on for almost £18m 3 years on.

[SeanH91]

I'm using him as an advanced forward in a 4-2-3-1.

I haven't signed anyone in the first window so not sure about Tiote backup.