FM14: Arsenal Thread - "Remember who you are, what you are and who you represent!"

[RossoneriGunner]

OK then Mitch will you come over and talk to my board , they asked me for contract talks and offered me a transfer budget of £6.75m, so I asked for more and they said they couldn't so I said I couldn't enter into talks now.

[RossoneriGunner]

What an unfortunate name:

[Mark.]

Still on FM13!

Season 2 nearly over.

League was won with 8 games left I think. Still unbeaten as well with only one game left vs Villa away.

FA Cup Final was won vs Spurs which was very nice. Hate them just as much in game, and have a nice wee spat with current manager Hiddink going on. Love the response to his criticism "I have never heard of Gus Hiddink, so his comments mean nothing to me".

ECL has been a very exciting and entertaining run. Drew Juventus in the Quarter Final and gave them a 9-0 agg walloping. Team was just relentless on the counter attack. Semi Final saw us drawn against Barca, hadn't played them in FM13 yet so was quite nervous. First leg was away and started as expected with them passing us all over the pitch, but we were just too solid, not allowing any shots on goal, then absolutely clinical with set pieces. We won 5-0 with Theo getting a hattrick (2 penalties) and us also scoring off two corners, the other goal being a scramble over the line after a secondary cross form a corner. We won the second leg 2-0 at home to make it 7-0 agg.

Bayern approaches in the final. Haven't played them before either so will be doing some thorough scouting leading up to that match.

Have to say, this is easily the most enjoyable Arsenal save I have had so far. The second half of this season I have built up an incredible amount of momentum and have managed to quicly stamp out any complacency.

I must thank llama3 for the tactical advice he gave me. Really established myself a great solid base to work from. Other than his tips I think the most important thing I have done tactically is approach the shouts with a less is more midset. Kind of funny, when I first started using shouts it was a "holy crap what do all these mean" thing, then it was a "yeap, that one, that one, oh that one looks like it would work, oh yeah, that one also" and so on. Finally I now only try to use them if I can properly justify a reason to myself, and often find I am starting out games with no shouts at all!

Anyway, sorry for the wall of text. Will give a proper wrap up in a few games time

[RossoneriGunner]

Looks like you found the right combination at last Mark , well done mate.

[Mark.]

Looks like you found the right combination at last Mark , well done mate.

Thanks mate It's odd though, now that I finally have my tactical side working well, I want to change it all to offer a new challenge! Silly stuff, just silly.

[RossoneriGunner]

I do that a lot as well. I get a tactic working and my team are playing like a cross between Arsenal/Barce/Brazil and I suddenly change from say 4-2-3-1 to a 3-4-1-2 or something silly, then I start a new game and start winning all again then I want to change again and start a new game.....crazy

[RossoneriGunner]

Does anyone know if the players don't perform as well if you are stalling on managers contract talks?

[Mark.]

I do that a lot as well. I get a tactic working and my team are playing like a cross between Arsenal/Barce/Brazil and I suddenly change from say 4-2-3-1 to a 3-4-1-2 or something silly, then I start a new game and start winning all again then I want to change again and start a new game.....crazy

Yeah. That or try lower league management perhaps, surely that is a completely different tactical adventure.

I think the most likely thing I will do though is finally get FM14. Actually I had a question on my mind, if I start a save, then a patch comes out, how much does it affect my save? I am assuming all ME changes will take affect on pre-existing saves? That is something that is holding me back really.

[patootie]

I think the most likely thing I will do though is finally get FM14. Actually I had a question on my mind, if I start a save, then a patch comes out, how much does it affect my save? I am assuming all ME changes will take affect on pre-existing saves? That is something that is holding me back really.

Yup, as with previous FM patches, the current patch will apply to your current save except when there is a database update included by which you will have to start a new game instead.

[RossoneriGunner]

One Tactic Season - 2013/24

December 2013

Premier League

Arsenal 5 - 0 Sunderland - Oxlade-Chamberlain, Celustka, Rosicky, Giroud (2)

Liverpool 0 - 2 Arsenal - Gibbs, Sagna, Wilshere s/o

UEFA Champions League (Group F)

BATE 1 - 2 Arsenal - Wilshere, Koscielny, Monreal s/o

Premier League

Southampton 1 - 3 Arsenal - Giroud, Balanta, Oxlade-Chamberlain

Capital One Cup Qtr/Final

Arsenal 4 - 0 A. Villa - Rosciky (3), Vietto

Premier League

Arsenal 2 - 1 Man Utd - Podolski, Özil (pen)

Arsenal 2 - 0 Hull City - Oxlade-Chamberlain, Commons og

Stoke 0 - 2 Arsenal - Vermaelen, Khedira

We have maintained our top spot in the League. So at the halfway stage of the season with 19 matches played we have 52 pts followed by Newcastle on 45, Man Utd on 41, Stoke with 39, Man City and Chelsea both have 37.

We have Qualified for the knockout stage of the Champions League with 6 wins out of 6. We have been drawn against FCP with the 1st leg away in Portugal.

The FA Cup 3rd round see's us at home to Wolves.

In the Semi-Final of the Capital One Cup we have been paired with WBA, again with the 1st leg away. In the other semi-final it's Tottenham v Chelsea.

Carlos Fierro joins us from Chivas on January 1st 2014, he was brought in by my Head of Youth Development.

[gholliday87]

Anyone suggest a decent enough midfielder who could fill in my B2B role? I've got rid of Arteta/Defour and Flamini looks to be on way out...I've got young, yet incredibly talented, Ryan Lesdon as my backup but want someone who will play 75%-80% of the game time for the next few seasons

[llama3]

Anyone suggest a decent enough midfielder who could fill in my B2B role? I've got rid of Arteta/Defour and Flamini looks to be on way out...I've got young, yet incredibly talented, Ryan Lesdon as my backup but want someone who will play 75%-80% of the game time for the next few seasons

Aaron Ramsey or Jack Wilshere

[RossoneriGunner]

Am I proud of my players......you bet....

Özil and Oxlade-Chamberlain

[gholliday87]

Aaron Ramsey or Jack Wilshere

llama, I play Wilshere as a AMC (AP/A) and Ramsey as a CM (DLP/S)

[gholliday87]

Am I proud of my players......you bet....

Özil and Oxlade-Chamberlain

Bravo!! Cracking achievement

[KingLara]

13/14

After guiding my team to fantastic success in FM12 I couldn’t wait for FM13. Unfortunately my computer had other ideas and having not backed up I kept losing the game after just starting. Now though my computer is fixed and I’m ready to start again.

PRESEASON

I arrived at the training ground ready to begin. As I always do there was an extensive change of the coaches with only a few remaining. Gazidis brought in Comolli as director of football. Given he has only made an offer for Michah Richards so far he won’t be lasting long.

Transfers wise there was a waft of In’s and outs. I still struggled to get the ultra cheap players like I used to but signed a few promising players. It is a worry that despite having every competition and league in England scouted I didn’t sign a single homegrown player (yet!)

Bendtner was injured so can’t sell him. Park and Frimpong are just a waste of space. Balanta and Vietto people already know about. Darder is highly rated defensive midfielder from Malaga. Lara was at Barcelona. The other two are quite well known.

My biggest issue team wise will be where to fit Ozil in. I play with two strikers. Im trying a new formation and will see how it goes but he still can’t get in the team on a regular basis at the moment. Also Vermaelen is still captain but has just returned from injury so its still mert-kos at the back.

TRANSFERS – IN

E Balanta – 9.5

L Vietto – 5m

S Darder – 5m

P Balleste – 1.6

G Lara – 525k

R Zieler – 7m

TRANSFERS – OUT

CY Park – 2m

E Frimpong - 1.8m

Bellerin - loan

Gnabry

Yennaris

akpom

dawkins

Fagan

sanogo

ottewill

boating

eisfield

mugabo

Jeffery

uade -

SQUAD

GK – Szezesny - Zieler

DL - Gibbs - Monreal

DR - Sagna – Jenkinson

DC – Vermaelen - Mertersacker

DC – Koscielny – Balanta

MC – Areta - Flamini

MC – Wilshere - Ramsey

AML – Cazorla - Rosicky

AMR – Ozil - Chamberlain

SC – Giroud – Podolski

SC – Walcott - Vietto

FIXTURES

PRESEASON

Pre season was appalling by my high standards. We didn’t keep a single clean sheet and twice had the Emirates Cup cancelled. However we didn’t lose and scored plenty dominating most of the matches so there were some silver linings.

Shamrock Rovers 3-3 Arsenal – Giroud 3

Shelbourne 2-4 Arsenal – Chamberlain 2 Arteta (pen) Rosicky

Slavia Prague 1-1 Arsenal - Walcott

Anderlect 2-3 Arsenal – Rosicky Giroud Podolski

Sturm Gratz 2-2 Arsenal – Ozil o.g

Emirates Cup

Arsenal 2-1 Boca – Walcott Cazorla

Arsenal 4-2 Genk – Walcott 2 (1pen) Podolski, Cazorla

There was a final fixture against Estudiantes but I forgot it was international break so left it to the assistant Manager. We lost 2-4. Arteta and Lipman with the goals

AUGUST

PL - EVERTON 1-3 ARSENAL – Mirallas 4 – Walcott 55 78 82 Flamini s/o 62

We started the league at a familiar ground heading to Goodison Park to face Everton. Gibbs was returning from injury so I stuck with Monreal although that will change. I also had Ozil and Giroud on the bench. After the goal glut in preseason I played quite defensive. Obviously we were behind just four minutes in and from then on Everton continued to dominate with us barely threatening. After a kick up the backside The Second half got underway and we were level with Cazorla finding Walcott. Everton were still dominating and it looked like they would grab a winner when Flamini was sent off with 30 minutes to go. I responded by bringing on Ozil and he set up Walcott for two counter attack goals. Giroud unused. Harsh on Everton but a great start.

CL - ARSENAL 3-0 PSV – Walcott 12 60 Cazorla 71

We hosted PSV in the first leg of the play off. After a very indifferent opening display at Everton I was anxious. I dropped Flamini and played Ozil. I should never have had doubts as we were rampant. Two Arteta crosses were tapped home by Walcott before Cazorla added a third. PSV threatened in the second half but still couldn’t break through as we recorded our first clean sheet of my reign

PL - ARSENAL 3 – 0 SUNDERLAND – Mertesacker 36 Cazorla 41 Giroud 90 – Sung Yeung s/o 1

Sandwiched in between the play off game was a home match against Sunderland. The game was pretty much over after a minute when Sung-yeung was sent off. After that it was a barrage but only the three goals.

CL - PSV 0-1 ARSENAL – Giroud 1 / missed pen 45

Ozil got his first taste of my management style as he was left on the bench. Walcott joined him after a poor display previously. Vermaelen was fit and available but I stuck with the centre back pairing that had kept consequetive clean sheets. I set out defensivly playing two defensive midfielders hence the descison to omit Ozil. Giroud scored from a corner after 1 minute and that was game over.

League Table top 5

1. Southampton played 3 points 9

2. Chelsea played 3 points 9

3. Man United played 3 Points 9

4. Arsenal played 2 points 6

5. Newcastle played 2 points 6

7. Man City played 2 Points 4

9. Tottenham played 2 points 4

10. Liverpool played 3 points 4

DRAWS

Both were fairly kind to us

Champions League

ARSENAL

ZENIT ST PETERSBURG

STEAUA BUCHAREST

ATLETICO MADRID

Man City got Barcelona PSG and Kobenhavn. Other English clubs should go through with ease.

League Cup

Leicester City vs Arsenal

Other Stuff

Community Shield was won by Man United 5-1. Chelsea won super cup 2-1. Less said about both the better.

Manager of the month went to Mourinho for three wins from three. Southampton scooped the double in the players award with Ramierrez and Chambers.

Other transfers wise there wasn’t much movement. Lucas and Townsend moved to Man City. United bought Turan.

PLAYER OF THE MONTH – Per Mertersacker

Wasn’t really expecting it but stats and performances don’t lie. Walcott has 5 in 3 and Arteta has been fantastic with 4 assists but Per gets my vote.

Everton - 81

PSV - 80

Sunderland – 79(1)

PSV - 75

GAME OF THE MONTH

Man City 3-3 West Ham - Toure 14 Negredo 17 Aguero 20 / Crouch 24 65 Cole 67

The reason City don’t have maximum points far. West ham coming from 0-3 down at the Etihad to get a draw. West Ham had 3 shots the emire game. City had 22 although only 5 were on Target. City’s response was to beat Swansea 3-0 in Wales. West Hams was to get thumped 4-0 at Chelsea and then lose1-0 at home to Aston Villa.

STAT OF THE MONTH – Super Saints

Tricky. I guess I’ll give it to Southampton for the way they have started. Here are the games

Southampton 5-1 West Brom – Lambert 3 Lallana Rameirez

Fulham 2-3 Southampton – Rameirez 2 Lambert

Southampton 4-0 Norwich – Lambert Lallana Ramerizes Benayoun

Also beat Torquay 5-0 in the league Cup. September sees them faceWest Ham us and Swansea.

September Preview

We face City away the same day the window closes. Elsewhere a decent run of fixtures should still have us around the top even if we lose or draw the City game but we do play Chelsea right at the end of the month.

[llama3]

llama, I play Wilshere as a AMC (AP/A) and Ramsey as a CM (DLP/S)

Abou Diaby

[Guest]

OK then Mitch will you come over and talk to my board , they asked me for contract talks and offered me a transfer budget of £6.75m, so I asked for more and they said they couldn't so I said I couldn't enter into talks now.

lol what , I would tell them "where to go!" not sure that one is an option though!

[RossoneriGunner]

Bravo!! Cracking achievement

Cheers GH.

Well when was the last time this happened....

FA Cup 3rd Round

Millwall 3 Man City 0

Man Utd 1 Nottm forest 2

[gholliday87]

Abou Diaby

Abou Diaby, I gave him away for free and my fans & board still applauded the decision...that speaks volumes!

[gholliday87]

Theo...should I sell him?! Only scored twice last season form 15 games with an average rating of 6.75.

This is my list of strikers currently, I see him game time been even lower than 15 games

As you can see, in terms of potential he's way down, and he not exactly pushing for a starting birth on ability either!

Thoughts?

[1984mattyd]

just won the treble on last day of the 15/16 season, won the league over Chelsea on last day by one point, but just had 3 bids from man city/man utd and everton bidding on the ox, ramsay and timo werner, 30 mill for werner, 35 mill for the ox and 40 for ramsay, ramsay is a bit player and the other 2 are squad players, but not sure if I want to sell them or not, that's 105 million in on 3 players, any ideas people?

[gholliday87]

Personally, I'd keep em, but if they are just bit/squad players, then you'd do no harm selling them.

[llama3]

I love our current squad so would not sell any of them - congrats mattyd on your title win.

[llama3]

Onto my new season, hoping to take my form for the first 3/4 all the way this time. Made no signings over the summer. Am happy with the entire team.

[Mark.]

Onto my new season, hoping to take my form for the first 3/4 all the way this time. Made no signings over the summer. Am happy with the entire team.

Nice discipline! I too have finished a season (still playing FM13) Kind of sitting deciding what to do, would like to see my young guns keep developing. Think I need to trim some fat, but am at the stage where the next logical ones to go will be Arteta and Cazorla and I cant bring myself to do it. I only just got Cazorla to unlearn shoots from distance too!! Much improved performances since.

[llama3]

As long as he plays well then I would keep him. I like the optional contract extensions clause, allows me to keep making decisions on players as I go. No sense in getting rid just because their age says so as long as they keep performing. Arteta and Cazorla are good characters to keep around too.

[gholliday87]

As long as he plays well then I would keep him. I like the optional contract extensions clause, allows me to keep making decisions on players as I go. No sense in getting rid just because their age says so as long as they keep performing. Arteta and Cazorla are good characters to keep around too.

I too like this feature, I install a 3 year one in every contract negotiation to a point where I won't finalise the deal until it's in there.

[llama3]

August 2014

Well as the disappointment of the last season settles, we begin the new season with fresh determination. The only summer movement in players was the release (albeit reluctantly) of Tomas Rosicky on a Bosman, and the arrival of Joel Campbell back from loan.

PL - Arsenal 1-0 Nottingham Forest - Podolski

PL - Hull City 0-4 Arsenal - Giroud, Arteta, Wilshere, Ozil

PL - Arsenal 3-1 Watford - Giroud (3)

League Table

1 - Liverpool - 9

2 - Arsenal - 9

3 - Man Utd - 7

4 - Man City - 7

UEFA Champions League - Group F

Arsenal

Borussia Dortmund

SK Galatasaray

LOSC Lille Metropole

Capital One Cup - Third Round

Manchester United v Arsenal

Player of the Month

1 - Luis Suarez (Liverpool)

2 - Olivier Giroud (Arsenal)

3 - Kieran Gibbs (Arsenal)

Young Player of the Month

1 - Andrew Robertson (Nottingham Forest)

2 - Jed Steer (Aston Villa)

3 - Saido Berahino (West Brom)

Goal of the Month

1 - Luis Suarez (Liverpool)

2 - Gabriel Agbonlahor (Aston Villa)

3 - Markus Rosenberg (West Brom)

Manager of the Month

1 - Brendan Rodgers (Liverpool)

2 - Me

3 - Arsene Wenger (Man City)

Currently missing Podolski for a few weeks with injury, but generally a decent start to the season. Kieran Gibbs has provided 5 assists in opening 3 games, which is promising.

[RossoneriGunner]

Spot The Ball

[Llew_Arshavin23]

With the new patch having been released, I will be starting an Arsenal save in due course - and I'll be compiling monthly updates!

Inevitably, my posts in here will be sporadic, but interesting nevertheless.

[ajw10]

Right, starting a new FM with Arsenal due to the patch being released.

Messing around with my tactics a bit, I had some joy last time having Santi out left as an IF but coming in to "sit narrow" with Ozil as the AP and Theo as the winger. Ozil and Giroud were my best performers during that period, with Giroud as the AF. I'm thinking about playing him as a target man though, with the thinking that he'll play more to his back to goal and bring others into play. Thoughts?

[RossoneriGunner]

Hey Llew where you been hiding? nice to see you back mate.

[Mark.]

So how are people finding the impact of the new patch?

Tempted to move to FM14 now if the patch is good, just finished my latest season on FM13 so it all makes too much sense!

[Pod17]

Hi, i'm just starting a season with Arsenal and was wondering if anybody could recommend a few signings? I've had 15m bids accepted for Sven Bender and Nemanja Matic as I feel I need a DM (i'll only sign one obviously) or can anyone recomend a better DM? Also going for Mario Manduzik from Bayern at 15m, signed him before and banged a few in! Any advice would be appreciated

[ajw10]

So I started a new Arsenal save, turned transfer budgets off in the first window (I always do this with Arsenal) and set up with a 4-2-3-1 with Ozil central as an AP (A), Walcott providing the width (Winger-A) and Santi as the inside forward (s) sitting inside leaving Gibbs (CWB-A) to provide the width on the outside. I tinkered with Giroud, switching between AF and TM with varied success. Ramsey as a B2B and Arteta as a DLP (s) (CM defend when Flamini plays there). Sagna as the standard full back-S as Walcott provides the width down that right hand side. Koscielny and Mertesacker both CD's with Koscielny the stopper.

As ever with Arsenal the mentality is control and fluid. Team instructions were "shorter passing" "retain possession" "hassle opponents" and finally "roam from positions"

I played my first 4 matches with this system.

PL - Arsenal 2-0 Stoke Walcott 60, Wilshere 74

CL - Arsenal 3-0 Zulte Waregem Giroud 8, Cazorla 63, Chamberlain 69

PL - Southampton 1-1 Arsenal Ramirez 45 Ozil 53

CL - Zulte Waregem 1-2 Arsenal Naessens 48 Podolski 1, Giroud 77

Now, the results look promising enough, 3 wins and a draw at St Mary's is certainly no disgrace but the performances weren't that great.

We dominated the Stoke game without ever really threatening their goal, it was a hopeful ball into the box from The Ox was nodded down by Giroud into the path of Walcott which saw us make the breakthrough. Our next 3 goals all come from freekicks. The Ozil goal was a freak long ranger due an odd bit of play from both Boruc and Luke Shaw.

Giroud's goals came when he was a target man. Ozil wasn't moving the ball quickly enough, Gibbs wasn't making runs down the left hand side.With Swansea at home coming up I decided to go with a tactic that gave me a good half season of success with Arsenal pre-update to try and give us more attacking potency.

Still a 4-2-3-1 but with some changes. Gibbs becomes an FB-A instead of a CWB-A. He also has an additional player instruction to stay wide. Arteta changes to DLP-D and Ramsey becomes an AP-S. Arteta and Ramsey have closes down more as an instruction as with my previous tactic the midfield two were too static and not give us any attacking thrust. Ramsey is also given license to roam.

The right winger stays as he is, as does the IF. Ozil becomes a TQ-A now and Giroud stays as a TM-A. All four attacking players have the "shoot less often" instruction selected. Team instructions have "be more expressive", "push higher up" and "play out of defence" selected.

PL- Arsenal 5-0 Swansea Giroud 14, 41, 79 Chamberlain 47, 49

The change in tactic made a massive difference to our play. Ramsey and Ozil both picked up an assist each with a couple of delightful through balls for Giroud. Gibbs managed to get one himself too, constantly causing Angel Rangel problems down that left hand side. Our midfield really pushed Swansea back and we created varied chances from through balls to crosses.

I can't go into big away games with that tactic, but it's certainly useful for games against inferior opposition.

[gholliday87]

As ever with Arsenal the mentality is control and fluid. Team instructions were "shorter passing" "retain possession" "hassle opponents" and finally "roam from positions"

I always get told to play a more direct style of play when I select shorter passing! I'm going to experiment with it during the second season.

[Yasp0]

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE group F

- Arsenal

- Dortmund

- Monaco AS

- Dynamo Kiev

AUGUST 2014

SC - PSG 1-2 Arsenal - Wilshere, Ayew

The only match left in August was the UEFA Super Cup, versus PSG. It was a hard fight but we won 2-1. Szczesny performed very well with some good saves and stopping a penalty just before the end of the match. MoM with 9.6.

Ayew continued his form with scoring in his first 4 matches for Arsenal in a row. Sadly after this match he got injured for 2 months.

SEPTEMBER 2014

From here I played with the new 14.1.4 patch.

PL - Arsenal 3-1 Liverpool - Mertesacker (2x), Cazorla

CL - Dortmund 2-2 Arsenal - Cazorla, Khedira

A very tough away game, with Szczesny saving me from losing in the last 10 minutes. Happy with the result!

PL - Arsenal 5-2 Crystal Palace - Walcott, Ramsey, Ozil, Wilshere, Giroud

Lots of shots on target, CrystalP only had 2 shots in total... I am easy conceeding goals. Need to fix this.

PL - Aston Villa 0-2 Arsenal - Pino, Ozil (pen)

First goal by my rightback Pino. He is performing well, also has 1 cap for Italy now.

PL - Man City 3-1 Arsenal - Giroud

City strike lucky, a draw would have been the good result. Despite the loss a good squad performance.

CL - Arsenal 3-0 Dynamo Kiev - Wilshere (pen), Drogba, Cazorla

Easy game, dominated.

OCTOBER 2014

CC3R - Birmingham 1-3 Arsenal - Cooke(og), Giroud (2x)

Fielded my B-squad but gladly I had Giroud on the bench. Needed him to fire in 2 goals in min 83. and 87. He replaced Drogba in min. 80. Dominated the game though.

PL - Arsenal 1-0 Chelsea - Giroud

Forgot to score more, should have been like 3-0. I took 1st spot from Chelsea, now leading by 2 points.

My upcoming fixtures are relatively easy, but will face Monaco twice in the CL. Quitte lucky with only 1 injury so far, Ayew.

[gholliday87]

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE group F

- Arsenal

- Dortmund

- Monaco AS

- Dynamo Kiev

AUGUST 2014

SC - PSG 1-2 Arsenal - Wilshere, Ayew

The only match left in August was the UEFA Super Cup, versus PSG. It was a hard fight but we won 2-1. Szczesny performed very well with some good saves and stopping a penalty just before the end of the match. MoM with 9.6.

Ayew continued his form with scoring in his first 4 matches for Arsenal in a row. Sadly after this match he got injured for 2 months.

SEPTEMBER 2014

From here I played with the new 14.1.4 patch.

PL - Arsenal 3-1 Liverpool - Mertesacker (2x), Cazorla

CL - Dortmund 2-2 Arsenal - Cazorla, Khedira

A very tough away game, with Szczesny saving me from losing in the last 10 minutes. Happy with the result!

PL - Arsenal 5-2 Crystal Palace - Walcott, Ramsey, Ozil, Wilshere, Giroud

Lots of shots on target, CrystalP only had 2 shots in total... I am easy conceeding goals. Need to fix this.

PL - Aston Villa 0-2 Arsenal - Pino, Ozil (pen)

First goal by my rightback Pino. He is performing well, also has 1 cap for Italy now.

PL - Man City 3-1 Arsenal - Giroud

City strike lucky, a draw would have been the good result. Despite the loss a good squad performance.

CL - Arsenal 3-0 Dynamo Kiev - Wilshere (pen), Drogba, Cazorla

Easy game, dominated.

OCTOBER 2014

CC3R - Birmingham 1-3 Arsenal - Cooke(og), Giroud (2x)

Fielded my B-squad but gladly I had Giroud on the bench. Needed him to fire in 2 goals in min 83. and 87. He replaced Drogba in min. 80. Dominated the game though.

PL - Arsenal 1-0 Chelsea - Giroud

Forgot to score more, should have been like 3-0. I took 1st spot from Chelsea, now leading by 2 points.

My upcoming fixtures are relatively easy, but will face Monaco twice in the CL. Quitte lucky with only 1 injury so far, Ayew.

Good set of results there. I keep meaning to do this for start of second season but I forget!!

[yey]

have a look at Illaramendi mate. I loaned him in for two consecutive seasons in second and third season. I only pay half of his wage (39k per week). he's done very good job for me. I bid him at the end of fourth season for 16mill and Real Madrid accepted it.

Anyone suggest a decent enough midfielder who could fill in my B2B role? I've got rid of Arteta/Defour and Flamini looks to be on way out...I've got young, yet incredibly talented, Ryan Lesdon as my backup but want someone who will play 75%-80% of the game time for the next few seasons

[yey]

very well done Rosso!

Am I proud of my players......you bet....

Özil and Oxlade-Chamberlain

[yey]

sell him. you could easily get 20mill plus for him. he's not good enough in my save too

Theo...should I sell him?! Only scored twice last season form 15 games with an average rating of 6.75.

This is my list of strikers currently, I see him game time been even lower than 15 games

As you can see, in terms of potential he's way down, and he not exactly pushing for a starting birth on ability either!

Thoughts?

[RossoneriGunner]

very well done Rosso!

Thanks Yey.

[ajw10]

Frustrating month.

PL - Manchester City 3-3 Arsenal Richards 21, 34 Negredo 53 Ozil 6, 16 Cazorla 47

I decided to go there and go for it, trusting my attacking talents over theirs. It worked to begin with, but I was undone by 3 corner goals from Man City. Frustrating.

CL - Arsenal 1-1 AC Milan Chamberlain 15, Balotelli 41

Blurgh. Horrible performance. We dominated in terms of possession, but created nothing. Balotelli caused Mertesacker all sorts of problems. Lucky to come away with a point.

PL - Arsenal 5-2 Liverpool Ozil 18, Walcott 22, 27, 66, Kosicleny 56 Sturridge 26, 38

Back to our free flowing and creative best but defensively we remain a worry. I knew the switch would cause us to concede against the better sides so it's not unexpected. Need to cut out the defensive mistakes.

COC - Arsenal 1-3 West Ham Chamberlain 74 Flamini S/O 53 Downing 37, Rat 102, Vermaelen OG 112

A weakened side but we should have won. Poor first half from both teams and we absolutely dominated the second half, but couldn't find that extra goal. Flamini definitely cost us.

PL - Newcastle 2-2 Arsenal Sissoko 7, HBA 64 Yanga-Mbiwa OG 33, Ozil 55

Defensive woes cost us again although I think it might be down to a bug. I stopped our defence pushing so far up the pitch, had no man to man marking and took away hassle opponents yet our back four was basically on the halfway line, and both of their goals came due to this. We also had a late Giroud goal wrongly disallowed for offside too.

A poor month results wise and the defence needs to sort themselves out, but in fairness the games were pretty difficult. I always seem to struggle at St James' and the Etihad so to get 2 points is fine.

[gholliday87]

have a look at Illaramendi mate. I loaned him in for two consecutive seasons in second and third season. I only pay half of his wage (39k per week). he's done very good job for me. I bid him at the end of fourth season for 16mill and Real Madrid accepted it.

Good shout Yey...I'll look into this when I get back on FM on Saturday...damn work preventing me from playing

[RossoneriGunner]

So how are people finding the impact of the new patch?

I didn't realise there was a new patch until I restarted this morning.

So far everything seems slower, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Walcott, Sagna/Jenkinson, Gibbs/Monreal don't fly down the wing any more, they look like they're using zimmer frames.

Players are taking 3-4 touches before passing, there doesn't seem to be no one touch football anymore, I even put the tempo up to see if this cured it but to no avail.

At the moment I am not enjoying it like I was.

[Llew_Arshavin23]

Hey Llew where you been hiding? nice to see you back mate.

Hello again!

Well, I couldn't handle, mentally, the previous patch. It infuriated me, particularly the fullbacks' reluctance to actually defend - so I decided to leave Football Manager until the new patch was released. Now it has been, I'm back.

[RossoneriGunner]

Whats driving me mad is that like llama I like to use the current squad but every time I start a new game the first players I lose to injury are my centre backs. The last game I started Vermaelen is already on the injury list but I also had Podolski out for 4 months.

After my first 2 friendlies I lost Mertesacker for 3 months and koscielny for 2-3 months which leaves me with no CB's so I have to go into the transfer market which I didn't want to do.

This happened on 3 other occasions where I lost my CB's although not for long periods. Perhaps I should loan some replacement CB's instead of buying them.

[llama3]

Oh dear, that is a rubbish bit of luck!

[RossoneriGunner]

Hi llama, I'm going to start a new game and see if it happens again.

I will be bringing Stefan O'Connor into the squad and set a tutor for him.