FM13: Chelsea F.C – We’ve Got A Star On Our Shirts Now

[DBurns]

Yes, I'll take a look at Bale. Never thought of retraining Bertrand although I'll most likely release Cole when his contract is up so he'll be needed at LB.

[Bracken]

Decided to start as Chelsea, just on day one but I unintentionally started with the Spanish start date so I have the whole of July as opposed to starting on the English start date of the middle of the month.

Considering going with an asymmetric formation:

The usual GK and back four

DMC: Mikel

RM: Ramires

CM: Lampard/Oscar

AML: Hazard

AMRC: Mata

I will also have the opposite of this with Hazard playing AMLC and Mata AMR meaning I'll need to buy a left sided Ramires, any suggestions? Think I'll use Malouda for now but will need a replacement soon.

Good choice for starting with Chels, really interesting idea for the formation too, look forward to hearing about how that turns out, good luck mate

I just finished my first season, very pleased with the results overall, I'll post a proper review in a little while, just going to do some staff changes right now, then I'll get to it

[essien_5]

Yes, I'll take a look at Bale. Never thought of retraining Bertrand although I'll most likely release Cole when his contract is up so he'll be needed at LB.

I'd look at Alaba too. You should be able to get him from Bayern in the first season for £15-18m and he should grow to become the best left back in the game. He is pretty good going forward and so you could maybe look at retraining both him and Bertrand for the left midfield role for the first season and offer cover for Cole at left back.

[Bracken]

Alaba is a great shout for anywhere down the left hand side IMO, if he's still available then I'd say get him.

Right, here we go:

2012/13 Season in Review

Premier League

Player Stats

A very good season overall, scoring plenty of goals (breaking the 100 goal mark) and winning the league fairly comfortably in the end. Damiao was by far and away the stand out player, scoring over 40 league goals, breaking all records, and just generally being awesome. Hazard, Mata and Oscar proved a great creative force as you can see, with all of them making it onto the assist leader board in the league. We perhaps conceded a few more goals than I'd usually like, and interestingly we lost more games than City who lost only twice (one of those being to me) all season. So, a very good league season, with a few things to build on.

Champions League

As I've detailed before, we made it through the group stage easily, winning every game, and we dominated Montpellier quite easily. Then the Barca tie. Well, it was one of the most interesting games I've had on FM, and a brilliant example of the weakness of my formation. I'll be making some changes to make sure it doesn't happen again, but basically, we just got killed, after a nice 2-0 home win, they showed me how football should be played, winning 7-2 at the Nou Camp and 7-4 overall. Well, it was interesting.

FA Cup

Erm, lost in the fourth round 1-0 at home after extra time to Sunderland. I did use the younger or backup players, but still, not the greatest result I have to say. Definitely need to improve.

League Cup

A win I was really pleased with, again playing the youngsters and backups, we beat City 1-0 in the final with a really solid defensive display, and a Joe Hart own goal in the 66th minute giving us the win.

Community Shield, European Super Cup and World Club Championship

We won all three, the CS was a tough one and the 3-1 scoreline flattered us, the Super Cup was 3-0 and we really dominated (and somehow kept Falcao quiet), while the Club Cup was pretty easy with a solid 2-0 win over Corinthians in the final.

Conclusions

Overall Player Stats

So, we ended the season with 5 out of 7 trophies, a pretty good haul I'd say. The style of play was very pleasing, though some defensive improvements have to be made. Damiao, Hazard, Oscar and Mata are a fantastic attacking quartet who will lead my line for years to come, but their backup players are where I'll need to look at some transfers.

Sturridge frankly wasn't great, though he didn't get too many games, that's mainly because in the game she got he was disappointing, and surprisingly injury prone. He also just hasn't improved as much as I'd like, and I'm not sure he's ever going to. Lukaku had a pretty poor season at West Brom, but I'll be giving him a shot next time round and trying to move Sturridge on. Marin was ok but not outstanding, another who may move on. Moses was surprisingly effective, scoring and assisting, he'll probably get a bigger role and will certainly be sticking around.

Deeper in the team, my big problem that was exposed against Barca is the weakness at CM. Ramires, while a great all-round player, just doesn't quite fit either role I have at CM, he's too attacking to be my ball winner, but not quite skilful enough to be my deep-lying playmaker. I've had an offer of £27m from Bayern and I think I'll be accepting and brining in someone more defensive, perhaps Nainggolan or one of the Bender brothers, they all look solid and could make good tutors too. I ended up extending both Lampard and Cole's contract, Lampard to be a tutor and Cole because I simply can't find an affordable, first choice left back, so I'm going to bring in Jetro Willems and develop him until I find anyone better or a good regen comes along.

I've got a load of exciting regens coming in (I probably went a little over-board in all honesty), but I'll try to use the rest of my cash wisely, and I'll let you guys know how I get on! Come on the Chels!

[Canal]

Got Wilshere for £28.5m... been pretty poor, but im trying to play him as deep lying playmaker and its not working too well at the moment!

[Welshace]

Bracken... who's Wellington Bruno and Rafael Fernandes?

[Bracken]

Bracken... who's Wellington Bruno and Rafael Fernandes?

Both newgens mate, spawned at the start of my game as I ticked "add players to playable teams", I've posted some links to screenshots on one of the earlier pages, I'll add some more up-to-date ones on here in a mo.

Good bit of business Canal, let me know if he improves, I considered moving for him at some point myself

[bucket]

Got Wilshere for £28.5m... been pretty poor, but im trying to play him as deep lying playmaker and its not working too well at the moment!

I managed to get him for £19.5m. Playing deep lying playmaker. But hit and miss at the moment. (In my 3rd season)

[Walrus]

Anyone know if Roman puts any money in season 2. I won everything but the fa cup but we appear to now be skinter than a homeless man?

It should help when Cole goes after demanding a new contract on £230k!!!!

[NRH]

After a brilliant first season I decided to sell Torres. Offered him out for 20£ mill and Porto immediately bid, so I'm thinking I should have asked for more.

Still have to pay him 100000£ a week for three more years though...

[bucket]

Anyone know if Roman puts any money in season 2. I won everything but the fa cup but we appear to now be skinter than a homeless man?

It should help when Cole goes after demanding a new contract on £230k!!!!

No he doesn't mate, not anymore. I've had my transfer budget taken away from me to help the bank balance.

[And Could He Play]

I'm at the end of Jan in season 1 and currently have just over £10m for my finances, at this rate I will be in the red by the end of the season. Will be releasing Cole in the summer, selling Cahill, Marin, Mikel & Torres which will trim the total wages. Any other tips for avoiding going into debt? The amount of money I'm losing means winning either the league or Champions League is an absolute must.

[DBurns]

Good choice for starting with Chels, really interesting idea for the formation too, look forward to hearing about how that turns out, good luck mate

I just finished my first season, very pleased with the results overall, I'll post a proper review in a little while, just going to do some staff changes right now, then I'll get to it

I'd look at Alaba too. You should be able to get him from Bayern in the first season for £15-18m and he should grow to become the best left back in the game. He is pretty good going forward and so you could maybe look at retraining both him and Bertrand for the left midfield role for the first season and offer cover for Cole at left back.

Yes, Alaba was one of many players I've looked at although he is currently injured so it'll be closer to the end of the transfer window before I can get him. Interestingly, when I used Ramires' profile to 'Find Similar Players' and then filtered it to include left sided players, it threw up three Ghanian's. I have made a shortlist of 15-20 suitable players and am currently waiting on scout reports. (Not on the game atm, in work) And yes, Alaba would further cover at LB as well as in CM.

Alaba is a great shout for anywhere down the left hand side IMO, if he's still available then I'd say get him.

Right, here we go:

2012/13 Season in Review

So, we ended the season with 5 out of 7 trophies, a pretty good haul I'd say. The style of play was very pleasing, though some defensive improvements have to be made. Damiao, Hazard, Oscar and Mata are a fantastic attacking quartet who will lead my line for years to come, but their backup players are where I'll need to look at some transfers.

Sturridge frankly wasn't great, though he didn't get too many games, that's mainly because in the game she got he was disappointing, and surprisingly injury prone. He also just hasn't improved as much as I'd like, and I'm not sure he's ever going to. Lukaku had a pretty poor season at West Brom, but I'll be giving him a shot next time round and trying to move Sturridge on. Marin was ok but not outstanding, another who may move on. Moses was surprisingly effective, scoring and assisting, he'll probably get a bigger role and will certainly be sticking around.

Deeper in the team, my big problem that was exposed against Barca is the weakness at CM. Ramires, while a great all-round player, just doesn't quite fit either role I have at CM, he's too attacking to be my ball winner, but not quite skilful enough to be my deep-lying playmaker. I've had an offer of £27m from Bayern and I think I'll be accepting and brining in someone more defensive, perhaps Nainggolan or one of the Bender brothers, they all look solid and could make good tutors too. I ended up extending both Lampard and Cole's contract, Lampard to be a tutor and Cole because I simply can't find an affordable, first choice left back, so I'm going to bring in Jetro Willems and develop him until I find anyone better or a good regen comes along.

I've got a load of exciting regens coming in (I probably went a little over-board in all honesty), but I'll try to use the rest of my cash wisely, and I'll let you guys know how I get on! Come on the Chels!

Fantastic season, as you say 5 out of 7 ain't bad whilst also giving you something to build on for next season.

I'm also looking at bringing in better back ups for the attacking midfield positions, preferably players that are equally comfortable playing out wide or in the middle to add to Mata, Oscar and Hazard's versatility. How did you use that quartet of players?

That's the main reason behind my reason to play my formation - to fit in Ramires as the two central positions will both be playmakers and as you say, as good as Ramires is he's just not Brazilian enough to be a playmaker. Did you reduce Lampard and Cole's contract by much?

I've decided to recall Lukaku from his loan as on my previous Newcastle he didn't play much in the first season so he may as well develop here whilst getting tutored and being a back up to Torres.

[Bracken]

Fantastic season, as you say 5 out of 7 ain't bad whilst also giving you something to build on for next season.

I'm also looking at bringing in better back ups for the attacking midfield positions, preferably players that are equally comfortable playing out wide or in the middle to add to Mata, Oscar and Hazard's versatility. How did you use that quartet of players?

That's the main reason behind my reason to play my formation - to fit in Ramires as the two central positions will both be playmakers and as you say, as good as Ramires is he's just not Brazilian enough to be a playmaker. Did you reduce Lampard and Cole's contract by much?

Cheers mate, I used them as a 3 AMC's (2 Attacking Midfielders (Attack duty) being Hazard and Mata and one Advanced Playmaker (Attack Duty) being Oscar, with Damiao as an Advanced Striker. However, the individual roles are somewhat misleading as I basically do everything manually with the tactical sliders rather than the TC, so it's tough to replicate for people. I can post screenshots of the instructions if people want. Lampard is now on £95k p/w and Cole on £93k p/w, still higher than I'd like but both were necessary as tutors for the youngsters I've brought in.

Looking forward to hearing how your formation works out, and how Lukaku develops, he's my backup striker this season and I'm hoping he can press on after not being given many opportunities at West Brom. He's impressed in Pre-Season at least.

Will do a roundup of my transfer activity in a bit, along with the weirdest Community Shield I've ever had!

[craney]

Great season there Bracken good stuff!! Would love to say your manual player settings as im looking to try and get the best out of the magic 3 :-)

[Bracken]

Well, for those interested, here are those tactics and my team settings:

Team Tactics

Hazard/Mata AMCL/R Tactics

Oscar AMC Tactics

Hope that helps out with a few people, I'm constantly tweaking the defensive side of it because I'm not quite yet happy with it, but I'll get there.

Pre-Season 2013/14

Transfers

In:

Radja Nainggolan - £11.75m

Jetro Willems - £14m

30 Regens

Total: £48m

Out:

Daniel Sturridge - £8.75m (Stoke - it's important)

Michael Essien - £5m (Also Stoke)

Ramires - £27m (Bayern Munich)

Tomas Kalas - £1.1m (Everton)

Lots of youngsters for nominal fees or free

Total: £46.5m

Pretty pleased with my transfer dealings, would've liked Willems and Nainggolan for cheaper but I'm confident that they'll prove worth the outlay. I know I went a little bit overboard on the Regens, but there were just so many with great potential and already good stats, those who don't make it will be sold for profit as I only spent more than £2m (it was £2.1m actually) one player, only more than £1m on 5 players, and the average price was around £500k, so I think I got pretty good deals. I couple of the youngsters will be first teamers by next season no question, particularly two of the AMC's and the CB's who I'm very excited about.

Community Shield

This game was nuts, and actually beat my Barca game last year for high scoring! As you can see, I sold Sturridge and Essien to FA-Cup-Winning Stoke at the end of the season. Sturridge just didn't do it for me, and Essien wanted a new challenge and wasn't in my plans anyway. I got reasonable fees (would've liked more for Sturridge) but wasn't too worried about selling them to Stoke as I didn't expect them to have a huge impact on me. Well, I was kind of wrong.

Chelsea 6 - 4 Stoke

Damiao 3', 65'

Michael Turner Own Goal 14'

Geoff Cameron 21'

Daniel Sturridge 25', 87'

Oscar 34'

Ashley Cole 51'

Dean Whitehead 77'

Lukaku 82'

A truly barmy game. Sturridge getting 2 goals (he never managed a brace for me), Ash somehow finding himself in the box and finishing cooly, Lukaku grabbing a debut goal, it was just nuts. Our defending was pretty poor, but Sturridge's first and Cameron's goals were just wonder goals that we could do nothing about. Still, at least we hung on for the win

I'll let you guys know how the rest of the season goes, the pre-season was fairly uneventful, I'm going to make a real FA Cup push with my youngsters this year as I'm disappointed with how that went last time, so we'll see how it goes. Come on the Chels!

[DBurns]

Cheers mate, I used them as a 3 AMC's (2 Attacking Midfielders (Attack duty) being Hazard and Mata and one Advanced Playmaker (Attack Duty) being Oscar, with Damiao as an Advanced Striker. However, the individual roles are somewhat misleading as I basically do everything manually with the tactical sliders rather than the TC, so it's tough to replicate for people. I can post screenshots of the instructions if people want. Lampard is now on £95k p/w and Cole on £93k p/w, still higher than I'd like but both were necessary as tutors for the youngsters I've brought in.

Looking forward to hearing how your formation works out, and how Lukaku develops, he's my backup striker this season and I'm hoping he can press on after not being given many opportunities at West Brom. He's impressed in Pre-Season at least.

Will do a roundup of my transfer activity in a bit, along with the weirdest Community Shield I've ever had!

Thanks for that, and putting up the player instructions!

What a crazy game is right but another trophy!

Good transfer window for you, and almost breaking even but I'm sure the outlay on the regens will be more than worth it in the long run!

[Walrus]

Seems like its a case of having to hugely trim the wage bill as I've got no cash despite the club being mega successful. Oh well.

[kamikaze_josh]

Decided to start as Chelsea, just on day one but I unintentionally started with the Spanish start date so I have the whole of July as opposed to starting on the English start date of the middle of the month.

Considering going with an asymmetric formation:

The usual GK and back four

DMC: Mikel

RM: Ramires

CM: Lampard/Oscar

AML: Hazard

AMRC: Mata

I will also have the opposite of this with Hazard playing AMLC and Mata AMR meaning I'll need to buy a left sided Ramires, any suggestions? Think I'll use Malouda for now but will need a replacement soon.

David Alaba or Kwadwo Asamoah could be good on the left. Danilo is another option on the right.

[Rohkey]

Any ideas on potential 15-17 year old youngsters to inject some quality into the youth program? They don't have to particularly be world beaters, just decent prospects (3.5+ stars) that clubs will sell for a decent price (under $10M or so). Looking to rehaul my youth system and am finding it difficult to find players that clubs are willing to let go.

[And Could He Play]

Managed to get Torres firing, 12 goals in 24 games, much better than his record IRL. My finances are about to go into the red anyday now and I'm only in February 2013.

[kamikaze_josh]

Congrats on the first season, Bracken. Good luck with developing those youngsters and regens!

Won't have time to play for a week or so. Yet to decide whether to start afresh and attempt to slash the wage bill, given the problems a lot of people are having down the line, or try to do something similar after my first season.

[buckyohhare]

Quick word of advice for anyone starting up, Stick with Torres/Sturridge the score a packet. I bought Jovetic and Rodrigo and they a truly awful. I mean terrible. So I have popped them on the bench and FT AND ST are working wonders

So moral of the story, Save your money and don't by those two twits

[Natedog17]

Sacked in the 2nd save... 3rd save lucky and if not, its time for Barcelona save

[kamikaze_josh]

Quick word of advice for anyone starting up, Stick with Torres/Sturridge the score a packet. I bought Jovetic and Rodrigo and they a truly awful. I mean terrible. So I have popped them on the bench and FT AND ST are working wonders

So moral of the story, Save your money and don't by those two twits

Torres got 25 goals for me in the first season, but Sturridge was truly awful. Considering the wages they're both on, if you can get rid of them then I'd recommend doing so.

[DBurns]

So, I spent a large part of last night playing the game and I'm only in mid-July!

Ended up listing all the first players as well as the reserves and youths with potential and creating a short term, mid term and long term plan for each player.

May have only progressed two weeks into my save but I'm really getting into it and I've also made a few transfers and starting to overhaul the backroom staff as well.

[And Could He Play]

Torres has almost scored 20 goals in all comps for me and I'm in March however Sturridge hasn't been up to scratch, add in the fact I've recalled Lukaku and brought in Ademilson I think I'll be releasing Sturridge on a free in the summer.

[essien_5]

Right spent the last couple of days thinking of the best way of progressing my Chelsea side in the summer before the second season. I'm pretty happy with what I've managed to do, transfers wise:

Players In -

Fernando Llorente (Athletic Bilbao) - Free (replacement for Torres. £85k pw wages are pretty decent)

Danielle Rugani (Empoli) - Free (young player for future)

Rafinha Alcantara (Barcelona) - £575k (young player for future)

Romulo (Spartak Moscow) - £27m

Mats Hummels (Borussia Dortmund) - £24.5m

Javier Pastore (PSG) - Swap for John Obi Mikel

Players Out -

Fernando Torres (PSG) - £10.25m + 50% sell on

Marko Marin (Bayern) - £17.5m + 50% sell on

Patrick Van Aanholt (Doncaster) - £250k + 50% sell on

Jeffrey Bruma (Swansea) - £4.3m

Gary Cahill (Inter) - £14.25m

John Obi Mikel (PSG) - Swap with Javier Pastore

Overall really pleased with my signings. I still also have a transfer budget of £40m to use in January if required.

Romulo I coveted as my anchor man in my 4-2-3-1 deep formation, possibly overpaid a little but needs must.

Mats Hummels was a big signing - City unsettled him and he became transfer listed so I swooped in. Had to pay him £120k pw (I'm trying to get players in under £100k pw wages) but I see him as Terry's replacement and part of the new spine of the team.

Javier Pastore was also a big signing, very pleased PSG accepted my offer. Mikel only had a year left on his contract, and Pastore was so desparate to join he accepted a wage cut down to £50k pw!

The players I let go were dispensable as I want to use some of the younger players as squad players this season to give them games. Okore played well when used last season, so he'll feature more and I want to try to use Courtois, De Bruyne, Kakuta and Chalobah too.

Still trying to get rid of Essien! No one really interested.

[Jrgallo]

Bracken - Can you post the instructions you use for your cm's and back four as well? I use a similar formation, but I leak goals like crazy!

[NRH]

Torres has almost scored 20 goals in all comps for me and I'm in March however Sturridge hasn't been up to scratch, add in the fact I've recalled Lukaku and brought in Ademilson I think I'll be releasing Sturridge on a free in the summer.

You should be able to get at least 7.5£ million for Sturridge, so no reason to release him on a free

[Walrus]

Not if he hasn't renewed his 1st year expiring contract.

[Bracken]

Bracken - Can you post the instructions you use for your cm's and back four as well? I use a similar formation, but I leak goals like crazy!

I'll be happy to post them, I'm currently travelling a bit so I might not be able to upload them until Saturday, but I'll get put here when I can. There are a couple of key things about this formation which I didn't really fully understand in my first season, to my detriment.

The second season began as much more of a slog than the first, my board stopped being happy with the attacking football, as did the fans, for pretty good reason - the attacking football had dried up. We were still winning games, but the margins were much closer, the goals were coming from set pieces of scrappy rebounds, and we just generally didn't seem to be gelling well.

I couldn't really understand why (at first I jumped to the "it must be the ME" answer, which was not true), I hadn't changed anything in the instructions from season one, and the only player who had changed from the first 11 was Ramires. It turned out, Rambo was key. His driving runs and energy meant that, although he sometimes left gaps in the midfield when we defending, and he was caught out of position, his movement into the final third was creating the space for Mata and Hazard to drive into the box. Without those runs, and as the opposition has been dropping deeper because of my teams enhanced reputation, Mata and Hazard were finding less space and were less able to get into the opposing area. So, it turned out that selling Rambo, which I thought would tighten up the defence, in fact just left me slightly lacking in the final third without dramatically improving my defence.

It's taken a while for me to rectify these problems. Mata failed to score until December 11th, but when he did, he scored twice and now has 4 in 3 games. Whereas I thought the key to making my team function was between Mata, Hazard, Oscar and Damiao, it was in fact between Oscar, Lampard and my DM. Those three were the key to giving Mata, Hazard and Damiao the space they needed to operate in the final third. It's taken me some time to get their instructions right in order to make the linking between midfield and attack work, but I think I've got there now. We've scored 13 goals in our last 3 games, and the football has been vastly improved, something close to (though still not quite matching) last season. Where I was hoping I'd be less reliant on Damiao this season, the opposite has proven true thus far, as he has carried us through our difficult phase, still scoring over a goal a game. Hopefully now we've figured out the tactical problems, he'll have a little more support in the goal-scoring department. I'll let you all know how it goes!

[tcoleman1]

Right. Tried to stay away from my game but it was too hard. I have a dissertation chapter to write so will only be able to play at night

Some advice about my strikers/forward 3. Is there anyway to get them to actually pass when they are in ridiculous positions to shoot? I know reducing creative freedom might work but I don't want them to not do some of the unpredictable stuff they usually do. In the last game Hazard had 10 shots 3 on target and Cavani seems to do the wrong thing when he gets through at tight angles.

[cragswfc]

Well, for those interested, here are those tactics and my team settings:

Team Tactics

Hazard/Mata AMCL/R Tactics

Oscar AMC Tactics

Hope that helps out with a few people,

Could you upload it please

[Bracken]

Here are the other instructions for anyone who's interested:

DCR

DCL

FBL/R

MCR

MCL

This formation has lead me to currently be unbeaten this season, 24 games through the League, 19 wins and 5 draws, but I'm second to City by one point, who have 20 wins, 3 draws and 1 loss (to me, 4-1). So, a really tight league season but I'm still confident we'll pull it out the bag at the end.

I do have a second tactic that I adopt sometimes in late on in games or in really big games (have so far only used it against PSG away this season as they're on fire on my save), which is very similar but with two DM's instead of CM's and a counter mentality.

Hope that helps some people

[cragswfc]

thanks, how do you set up your striker?

[Bracken]

Sorry, thought I'd already posted that one, here it is:

STC

[cragswfc]

Nice 1 cheers Bracken

[tcoleman1]

Currently going well in my 2nd season and have picked up the scoring now, which is good. Hazard not being as brilliant as he was last year though.

City are unstoppable at the moment though. They are top and I am in 3rd 7 points behind but with a game in hand so hopefully 4 points. They just don't look like they are going to lose, they were 2-0 to Reading with 10 men and came back to win 3-2. They also beat Newcastle 5-1 away from home. I have them in 3 games time I think and I hope I can be a bit closer to them by then and hopefully grab a win. There's a lot of hoping going on.

In terms of other comps, I did lose the CS to Fulham on pens but am top of my CL group with 9 points and all the others have 3. Sunderland at home next in the CC so will rest some players. I have some tough decisions to make at the end of the season as Terry, Cole and Lampard's contract expire and I want to re-sign them all if they drop their wages. In terms of Terry, I may let him go even though he is my best defender as £175,000 a week is ridiculous, although if I can get Alaba in from Arsenal then it will make letting go of Cole easier. Any replacements need to be English though so I am looking at Phil Jones for the centre-back and hoping one of the youths can step up as a 3rd choice CM for me.

Oh and to the people above wondering about finances. Wages seem to be the key. Have a real good look at the reserves/youth and decide who you do and don't want. Players like Piazon, Kalas etc are on £20k a week plus a number of others on £5k plus. Getting rid of some of these will no doubt help the finances. Personally my projection says I aim to make a profit of £9million this year and that's without the idea of selling anyone and I am hoping to get Sturridge gone for £12mill (his release clause on loan at WBA) and then ship out some of the youngsters who aren't going to cut it e.g. Davila.

Edit - getting really pissed off with the game despite the fact I'm doing really well. Now level with City with a game in hand over them and just lost away to Gladbach in the CL after a pathetic performance. I am already through but still was a joke. The team just aren't creating many chances which is frustrating. Gotze is doing okay, Mata performing the best and Hazard has been really disappointing so far. My pet hate with this game is when players dribble along the byline and try and score. Makes no sense and they need to sort it out.

[Bracken]

I hate the dribbling along the byline thing as well, it's pretty ridiculous. This game is definitely harder than the last, much more difficult to create a tactic that is both strong defensively and great going forward. I have to say I am really enjoying that though, the last game was just too easy after a while. Hope your enjoyment of the game picks up again, I was frustrated at the start of this season with a lack of chances created but it somehow seems to have worked itself out.

How's Moses doing for everyone? I have to say I've been really surprised by his performances, he's got 8 assists and 6 goals in 18 games for me, which may not sound huge but he's proved a great attacking weapon, and a fair few goals have come from rebounds of his shots. He's also now worth £15.25m on my game!! If his value continues to rise I may sell him, despite his good performances, he's not worth £20m+

Nice 1 cheers Bracken

No worries mate, let me know if you want to see anything else

[cragswfc]

I hate the dribbling along the byline thing as well, it's pretty ridiculous. This game is definitely harder than the last, much more difficult to create a tactic that is both strong defensively and great going forward. I have to say I am really enjoying that though, the last game was just too easy after a while. Hope your enjoyment of the game picks up again, I was frustrated at the start of this season with a lack of chances created but it somehow seems to have worked itself out.

How's Moses doing for everyone? I have to say I've been really surprised by his performances, he's got 8 assists and 6 goals in 18 games for me, which may not sound huge but he's proved a great attacking weapon, and a fair few goals have come from rebounds of his shots. He's also now worth £15.25m on my game!! If his value continues to rise I may sell him, despite his good performances, he's not worth £20m+

No worries mate, let me know if you want to see anything else

Ok mate do you change strategy during the game, are use it as a plug and play type?

[Bracken]

Ok mate do you change strategy during the game, are use it as a plug and play type?

I do change strategy, usually not until the last 20 minutes or so though, if I'm winning I'll go for a counter (or switch to my DM formation as well), if I'm drawing against a big team I'll stick with control, drawing or losing against anyone else and I'll go attacking. I don't tend to manually change any player instructions during the game though, I just sometimes use the shouts or change the strategy. I always stick to a fluid formation, even when I go to a counter strategy.

One thing that I have found important is not to always trust my assistant with opposition instructions, I usually apply his, then add my own, particularly tight marking of the strikers and closing down the wingers or AMC's

[cragswfc]

I do change strategy, usually not until the last 20 minutes or so though, if I'm winning I'll go for a counter (or switch to my DM formation as well), if I'm drawing against a big team I'll stick with control, drawing or losing against anyone else and I'll go attacking. I don't tend to manually change any player instructions during the game though, I just sometimes use the shouts or change the strategy. I always stick to a fluid formation, even when I go to a counter strategy.

One thing that I have found important is not to always trust my assistant with opposition instructions, I usually apply his, then add my own, particularly tight marking of the strikers and closing down the wingers or AMC's

cheers for that

[tcoleman1]

Drew 2-2 away at Arsenal. Decent result and slowing down the tempo has improved my team. Still a rubbish own goal from Luiz and the Cavani and Mata missing 2 CCC's means I am disappointed with a draw.

[Jrgallo]

Bracken - Thanks for the tactic recommendations. I've really seen some improvements, particularly from Ramires.

Does anyone have any advice for year 2 regarding Courtois? There are no offers for loan (despite $0 fee or wage contribution) and he won't accept a loan to an affiliate. So are the only choices to let him rot in the reserves or to sell Cech? I want to continue his development, but the loan issue is really hindering that.

[ReggaeBwoy]

Bracken - Thanks for the tactic recommendations. I've really seen some improvements, particularly from Ramires.

Does anyone have any advice for year 2 regarding Courtois? There are no offers for loan (despite $0 fee or wage contribution) and he won't accept a loan to an affiliate. So are the only choices to let him rot in the reserves or to sell Cech? I want to continue his development, but the loan issue is really hindering that.

Do a United and Valencia situation and rotate both

[Bracken]

Bracken - Thanks for the tactic recommendations. I've really seen some improvements, particularly from Ramires.

Does anyone have any advice for year 2 regarding Courtois? There are no offers for loan (despite $0 fee or wage contribution) and he won't accept a loan to an affiliate. So are the only choices to let him rot in the reserves or to sell Cech? I want to continue his development, but the loan issue is really hindering that.

No problem, glad to help out.

I kept Courtois as backup but he did become unhappy around January asking for more regular football, he's asked twice now and though he's reacted well to my interactions both times, I'm trying to give him some more football. It's a tough situation but if your defence is playing well, he's easily good enough to slot into most Prem games already

[tcoleman1]

Oh and after looking at your main team instructions Bracken and my successful tactic from my 1st season, I have gone back to slightly slower and sitting a bit deeper. Has worked wonders for me and I have won 5 straight PL games scoring a fair few and conceding none. It's going really well. I don't know why I changed formations after last season, I think I just thought I should otherwise I had little to do. I have learnt my lesson though. Got Barnsley in the FA cup next, Stoke after in the 1st leg of the C1C and in Feb I have Juve in the CL who aren't doing too well domestically. Would like to win the Capital One Cup just for the hell of it and the FA Cup would be great.

It really has helped having the extra attacking midfielder this year and Hazard after being not so great to start, has now really hit form. Cavani also has 15 in 17 in the PL I think or 13 in 15 I can't remember. Anyway top scorers in the league are Graham with 21 in 18/19 games and Le Fondre with 18, Pogbregnyak also has 16. Reading are 6th or something and score for fun, except against me.

Still have the problem of Mikel, Lampard, Terry and Cole going out of contract but Lampard agreed a provisional £80k a week pay cut. I then tried to go lower after agreeing it and his agent stopped the talks but hopefully will be able to get him talking again soon.

[ballinisahabit90]

Where can i get the editor? I want to cancel a couple of the loans.

[Natedog17]

Torres is scoring for fun for me at the moment! 35 goals from 38 games!! Playing as an advanced forward and focusing on Finishing-Heavy.