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FM13: Oxford City F.C. Fight to be top Ox


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I'm intrigued by this, have to admit I clicked on this without reading it properly and thought it was the United guide :o

may make a save however, looks a good challenge and would be fantastic to finally topple the neighbours!

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I started a City save as my career game...frustrating and fun. We are a Premiership team in my third season - Blue Square variety! Should be an interesting season as a few of my older players have decided to hang them up after successful careers. Keep everyone posted on how I get on!

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  • 2 weeks later...

I am about half way through my first season in the BSP - sit mid table. I am somewhat pleased with how the on field product considering we were tipped to be relegation. My board, however, decided it would be best to build a new stadium. Now I am bleeding red at about $50K per month.

Resulted in us having a paper thin squad, we struggle with two or more injuries at a time.

I play excruciatingly slow due to work, wife, kids, and life getting in the way. Still enjoying the save though. Let you know how I get on.

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We ended up in 10th place - not bad and the board were extremely happy. My status went to untouchable.

However, the new season rolled around and mt wage bill was cut by $3K (USD) per week. Makes things a little tricky. I have been changing my tactic around for the coming year to get the team moving forward and popping a few more goals. Started off great and was 2nd place by the end of August. Went on a 10 game streak without winning due to a bunch of injuries and fixtures just piling up. My thin squad just can't handle an injury crises even with loans.

I am in November and currently sit mid-table. I am staring to get my players back from injury and hoping we can start winning again. I am only 5 points out of a playoff position due to a plethora of draws that my team are able to pull off. And by that they are able to snatch a draw from the jaws of victory as a regular occurrence.

Jojo - are you playing in the upper echelons of Norwegian football? :)

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I forgot to add that we won the FA Trophy last season - beat Dartford in the final I think? will confirm that tonight. I did beat a strong Stockport side in the Semis by the skin of our teeth in penalties. Stockport ran away ran away with the BSP title by 12 pts. The final was a 4-1 victory - nice to win a trophy!

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I was correct - It was Dartford.

I am in the middle of December and have climbed up into a playoff position, with one or two games in hand on all the teams above and immediately below me. We lost in the 1st round of the FA Cup to Yeovil on a replay where we gave up a goal in the 92nd minute and lost 1-0. Not excessively upset as we were underdogs and I was resting most of my starters due to fixture congestion and injuries.

I am still alive in the FA Trophy as well. I tweaked my tactics a touch and we are starting to bang more goals in away from home. We have scored the most goals in the league so far. However, my starting striker is currently hurt and out for 2 months. So far he has racked up 10 goals and 7 assists. Will be a struggle as my back up strikers are not nearly as skilled as he is.

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Philadelphia which is good as it's a team I have a lot of history with and own shirts, Oxford City I follow because I am from Oxford and its the same with Oxford United aswell but Villa are my team and I admit I do have a soft spot for Philly.

But anyways how far away from United are you if you go up same league?

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Jojo - United are in League 2 now and are mid table.

That's funny you play with Philly, I am a season ticket holder for the Whitecaps. I have lots of history with them - my dad used to have seasons tickets when I was little and they played in the NASL.

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I do really like the MLS as it allows you to build a team without the worry of relegation and a decent salary cap, I always have felt England could take some ideas from the MLS.

I did sign Basham for a joke but he has surprisingly took to the league rather well, not sure if thats thanks to Adu but im not complaining just wish he did the same for City.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well we finished 3rd in the table and clinched a playoff position on the last day of the season. We had a shot at automatic promotion but lost to a fifth place Burton in the second to last game of the season 2-0. Burton ended up placing 4th so I had a chance to make it right by beating them in the semi-finals of the BSP playoffs. Unfortunately we lost at home at the death 1-0 and followed that with a 3-0 shellacking at their park. Very disappointing end to a rather successful season. Lost 3 of my last 4 games to Burton. Little consolation that they beat Grimsby in the final to move up.

I had to sell my star right back at the end of the season as he no longer wanted to play with me...I sold him for $750K (USD) so not an outright loss. I am finding it very frustrating trying to fill out my team for this year. No one wants to come to my team. Even those have decent players on teams who were relegated from the BSP. I did finish in the black this year because of the $750K sale.

I am traveling for work until the end of January and wont have access to my City save on the road. So if you dont hear from me for awhile I have not given up on taking City to the Premiership!

Hope you are have fun with your Philly save Jojo!

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  • 2 weeks later...

This is probably a very silly question, but isn't Oxford a little "Southern" to play in the BSN? I'm not from England so i'm relying on GoogleMaps here a bit, so feel free to state the obvious if I've missed something.

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This is probably a very silly question, but isn't Oxford a little "Southern" to play in the BSN? I'm not from England so i'm relying on GoogleMaps here a bit, so feel free to state the obvious if I've missed something.

You are correct but because Oxford City are more northern than any teams in the BSS it means they qualify to be in the BSN as both leagues have to have a certain amount of teams in each league so they got the unfortunate long travel to away games.

Well we finished 3rd in the table and clinched a playoff position on the last day of the season. We had a shot at automatic promotion but lost to a fifth place Burton in the second to last game of the season 2-0. Burton ended up placing 4th so I had a chance to make it right by beating them in the semi-finals of the BSP playoffs. Unfortunately we lost at home at the death 1-0 and followed that with a 3-0 shellacking at their park. Very disappointing end to a rather successful season. Lost 3 of my last 4 games to Burton. Little consolation that they beat Grimsby in the final to move up.

I had to sell my star right back at the end of the season as he no longer wanted to play with me...I sold him for $750K (USD) so not an outright loss. I am finding it very frustrating trying to fill out my team for this year. No one wants to come to my team. Even those have decent players on teams who were relegated from the BSP. I did finish in the black this year because of the $750K sale.

I am traveling for work until the end of January and wont have access to my City save on the road. So if you dont hear from me for awhile I have not given up on taking City to the Premiership!

Hope you are have fun with your Philly save Jojo!

You seem to be going very well as a couple of friends of mine have taken the challenge to but have failed with relegation me included but I made quite a few mistakes.

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I am not having a good start to this season. My job status is listed as "Very Insecure."

As I stated in my last post, i had the hardest time attracting quality players to the club. I have the money to spend but no one to spend it on. I am currently lying in 17th place in the BSP at November 1st. The worst part is that I have tweaked my tactic and really having everybody playing the way they should and I want them to.

For example - at home I push forward and put teams on the back foot. I have roughly 15-20 shots on average sometimes more with around 6-10 SOT. Away from home we play tight and try to hit teams on the counter. I usually split possession and for the most part have the same if not more shots and CCC than my opponents. We keep losing 1/2-0 or tying 0-0.

The one glaring hole in my lineup is a striker that can finish! I have the lowest tally in the league by a fair margin. My leading goal scorer to this point is my left winger with 3 goals and close behind him is my Right winger, who I play as a IF, with 2. My striker and I say striker because I only have one on my first team just scored his first goal of the campaign and first in 28 games. My other strikers are from my U18 squad and not really worth having a run unless my striker is exhausted.

On a positive note I managed finally to loan in a striker of a whopping 2 stars. I hope he will add a different dynamic to my squad so I can mix it up and score different ways!

Last night as I was answering questions in my pre and post game media scrums I was fully expecting them to be asking me how I felt being fired. My last Board Update said they were extremely angered by our position in the BSP. That can't be good for any job review meeting!

Will keep you appraised to see if I can turn this thing around. Tough sledding this season for sure.

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When you are away I would have one of your CB's as cover so he drops in the hole behind your other defenders I find it helps as mine gets quite a few off the line saves.

With your striker could it be your more central midfielders just not creating the opportunities for him also I would recommend a short passing game as its a bit easier to create easier chances that way with the right players.

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Striker - he is just not finishing. Most of my shots are from the top of the box and in. Midfielders are actually the strength of my team to be honest. Most games at home i boss the midfield with short passing. When the time is right they will send a through ball that for the most part are very good. I keep an eye on the Key Passes stat and they seem to be giving the attackers a chance to score at the very least. Just cant score. I am hoping that the goal he scored will get his confidence up and start performing once again. Plus a little extra competition so he has to fight for his place may help him focus a bit more.

As for away matches - I am not really concerned about conceding that much. We will usually only be down by 1 until I try to open up in the last 20 minutes. I will try to set one CB to cover to see if we can close the holes. Away from home I do sit deeper and stand off a bit more to make us hard to break down.

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Update - I have gone a little bit of a run...and moved my way up to 7th place before drawing two matches on the bounce to drop me to 9th. Unfortunately I only loaned a striker for 2 months. He had score 8-9 goals in his 2 month run in the squad. He is now gone and my goal scoring has dried up. To give you an idea of my woes in the BSP - Goals scored - 3rd from bottom, goals allowed - tied for 3rd. I have signed a new young striker that may be able to at least help with my goal scoring issues. I currently have 2 matches left in December, then have to see if I can get some help up front in January. I think my current striker would be an excellent IF at this level as he is able to play both AML/R.

Tactic - I have made a small adjustment at home with using the shout Work ball into Box right from the get go. It has certainly seemed to help with hitting the net a lot more and shooting from better areas.

Jojo - I have tried out a DC cover - not convinced i need to go this route yet but it seems like something I could use against stronger teams that are pushing me back. Still tinkering!

Question for you - are you finding that when you have a DC covering that your other DC gets sucked out of position more? I have seen that a little more than I would have liked but on a positive my covering DC has intercepted a lot more passes.

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I am in the last week of January and I am still scouring the leagues for a new striker! I have played 2 games only in Jan so far as 2 matches were postponed.

I have managed to bring in a Central Midfielder and fantastic winger for this level. Can play either AML/R as either a W or IF. I am still in 9th position but I am behind in games played by 1 or 2 games.

Everytime I loose a match the media always ask me about my fragile job position. Oh well, i do not think I will be let go until the end of the season if they are still upset with out league position.

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Ok fair enough it should be ok as the board are generally pretty fair with bad seasons, depending on how far you are into the season I would look at talking to them and saying the season hasn't gone as planned and to start over next season, you will have to get it right almost from the start of the new season as I think the board want you to meet expectations almost instantly after you ask this, so you will have pre-season to set things right to then go be in place with expectations.

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With 5 games left in the season, I remain in 9th place. Both the 2 best players have asked for a transfer and will not sign new deals with me. Fortunately I have one locked in until 2013. I have transfer listed both and looking to get a solid payday for at least one of them. If I am still around by the end of the season.

I just cant score enough to win games. Through the end of December, January, and February I went on a 9 game undefeated run. The majority were draws however but i did manage to get us up to 6th for a day. We lost one game and dropped right back down to 9th. During that run I held 1st place Cambridge to a nil-nil draw and then was held to nil-nil draw at home to 20th place Lincoln. I was all over them, even watched long chunks of the game. My wingers and midfielders were carving their defense apart only to have my strikers miss breakaways and point blank chances. I want to moan about this being a bug but the data I have collected throughout the season leads me to the undeniable fact that my strikers are more likely to hit the corner flag when aiming at the middle of the net than score.

I hope the board see the error in my ways and keep me around for at least one more season. I think I can get City over the hump and into the league proper. Will keep you updated!

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Not having my save right in front of me and utilizing my memory...he was underwhelming. However, that may be because of the way I was utilizing his skill set. I think I was playing him out wide and doing spot duty up front. I do recall he would not sign a new contract with me or some one offered him a non contract and he took it. I have seen him in the expired contract list when I was looking for new strikers.

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I ended up finishing 7th in the league...not horrible, but also not great from where i predicted we would finish. I took your advice Jojo, and begged for forgiveness from the board. They agreed to keep me on for another year, and promptly offered me a new 2 year contract!

I have almost revamped my entire roster except for a few stalwarts that I could not do without! I am trying to get evryone I need in time for the majority of my friendlies. Give the squad enough time to gel. I have also been conservative in estimating a mid table finish. I have a lot of extra salary that I can go out a spend on a few decent players. I am finding it easier to attract some better players to the club this season.

If I get up to doing it, I will post a screen shot of my team and transfers and such...to give you an idea of my squard.

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Well hopefully this season is the one for you.

I am looking into starting an Oxford City save, but also have Psv and Aston Villa as options as I support both and follow City as they are more local so I can go and see a few games, I am really struggling to get into a game this year on Fm so am giving it a rest for awhile in hope that I get the urge back.

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Jojo, hopefully you get into it eventually. I always find when the fun leaves it is best to take time away. When you come back you will be raring to go.

I am taking my time playing as of right now. I am watching games a little longer to make sure I am reacting in the most positive manner. I started horribly again this season...found myself in the relegation zone with 3 pts in 5 games. Once I started to take my time and act somewhat like a manager...I found my team was a lot stronger and better for it. I am not lighting the world a fire just yet but 13 games in and I sit in 8th place. Not bad but I just got my hat handed to me by Ebbsfleet at their park.

I struggle with creating chances away from home. Leads to dull, boring affairs that I usually end up losing. Well back at it, will keep posting to keep you updated.

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If you haven't I would recommend trying a 4-1-2-2-1 with City as it gives you a base 3 in midfield to build the team around and should allow less space closer to the defense for the other teams, with a DLP who can pick a pass (a bit harder in lower leagues but possible) and an anchor man to just hold the defensive line and allow less pressure on the defense, also a BBM to run into the hole and also allows him to link play.

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Jojo - It is my favored formation.

Away from home - I play the 4-1-2-2-1 with counter/standard mentality depending on the strength of the opposition. If I am facing a 4-1-2-2-1 stronger opponent I with use an Anchor Man Defend. The same or weaker opponent I will have him as DLP D. I also use one of my DC as Cover - thank you for the advice BTW. My midfield is the same as I dont have any real BBM at the moment. I use one CM S and one AP A, AML W A and AMR IF A. This season, after I signed a striker, he is best suited as a TM so I use him in a support roll. I like to stay compact while defending.

If I am playing a 4-4-2 then I set my DLP to S and both DC's to D.

At Home I do much the same but always have my DLP as S. If I am dominating my opponent and they are parking the proverbial bus then I may change to a 4-2-2-2 formation to get more options creating space.

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I will post what I think in here as then anyone else as City (even tho looking at it there isn't many this time around hopefully next year) can see.

With your central 3 in midfield I would go with a BBM who can do most of the running and can take that space where a AMC would go when he attacks but also bring that extra bit of defence when needed, A DLP who can make those killler balls to start attacks but can also help cover any counter attacks aswell and I would make him the main man in the team, and then an Anchor man to just pick up any extra players who attack and loose balls to then lay off to the DLP to hit the other team on the counter.

I think of it as this Gerrard or Lampard are players you should look at as inspiration for the BBM, Pirlo and Beckham as inspiration for the DLP and Gattuso as inspiration for the anchor man, obviously with Oxford City you wont get players that great but I use them as a base to help me.

By doing this it should give you abit more security in the center and allow the wide players to make runs and ping balls in to your striker but also gives the option to attack through the center, also if you want to do a slow build up short passing tactic or a quick counter this can work for both but I would use Rigid,Control for the slow build up and Fluid,Counter for the quick counter.

Sorry for rambling and hopefully this helps.

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I also feel that mine is a work in progress. I am just learning how to use shouts as I have never used them before...I also struggle with playing my system or playing to my players strengths.

I try to experiment with different small changes but am unsure if they made a difference in game.

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Here are our matches for the year. You can see when I started to take a little more interest in my games. We are on a great run...but am unsure if it has something to do with me or just the team gelling.

oxfordmatches.jpg

Obviously you can see that either my team starting playing very well, I started to take more of an interest in games, or both. My aim is to go far in the FA Trophy and hopefully win it. Also I want automatic promotion. I am on a good run as of right now. I think I can do it as long as I don't sustain any long term injuries to any more Key Players.

My DC tore his calf muscle and is out for 4-5 months. He is 6-7 and has been dominate in the air. My back up is more than capable so here's hoping.

Will post any more screens over the weekend when I get some game time in.

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