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

[RossoneriGunner]

When you guys look at tutoring what do you consider the main factor, is it both players in the same positions or personalities?.

[Ozil]

I start with mentalities and then go from there.

I'm almost done preseason. I only signed Doria because I wanted to see how this squad could do without a lot of activity. Even then, I'm going to be looking at 16-18 year olds that have high potential Only blemishes so far are that I lost Wilshere to a sports hernia and Sagna for 2-3 weeks. Nothing terrible though and at least it happened during preseason

[llama3]

When you guys look at tutoring what do you consider the main factor, is it both players in the same positions or personalities?.

Personalities and media handling styles first - and if the PPM's are useful then all the better

[RossoneriGunner]

Thanks guys, at the moment I've got Gnabry/Arteta, Bellerin/Sagna, Vela/Khedira, Zelamens/Rosicky

[RossoneriGunner]

I must be doing something right just won my 4th friendly 16-0 against an obscure Canadian side called Pegasus FC. That makes 49 goals scored and 1 conceded in 4 pre-season friendlies.

vs Pegasus FC, Cazorla (6), Gnabry (4), Walcott (2), Vela (2), Podolski & Sagna 1 each. We had 63 shots, 30 on target and 76% possession.

[Nonlondoner]

I got €5m (£4.2m) for Bendtner sold him to Fiorentina.

Good work. I assume he wasn't injured at the start of your game. He had a broken wrist in mine, which would explain some of the comments I've heard about him around the Emirates.

We should definately have a Bendtner competition, prizes for the highest sale from Arsenal before his contract runs out and for the highest number of goals from the Donkey during the 2013/14 season.

[max787]

When you guys look at tutoring what do you consider the main factor, is it both players in the same positions or personalities?.

The player's position doesn't matter, unless there are some PPMs you want to pass on.

Personality (prioritising professionalism and ambition), followed by determination are the important ones. I don't like anyone in my squad having determination lower than 16 (which is a completely arbitrary number, in fairness), I also don't sign anyone with a bravery attribute lower than 11 (completely arbitrary, again, just one of the things I do).

Determination for tutors isn't an issue after a season or two though, I sign old free agents on 1 year contracts for tutoring. I look for a minimum of 17 determination (personal preference), and anyone who is a professional, model pro, perfectionist, or has an evasive media handling style (this is the best imo), and at least a continental reputation (otherwise you may encounter difficulties in regards to tutoring).

[llama3]

Bendtner isn't that bad. His attitude overshadows him, but he is still a fairly good player.

Remember this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19J7YR4ZVKg

or this:

or this:

or the hattrick against Porto, the goals at the Euros finals, etc etc

Don't mind people criticising things he does, but feel the general derision of him being crap is quite unfair. He is no van Persie or Messi, but he isn't crap.

[llama3]

The player's position doesn't matter, unless there are some PPMs you want to pass on.

Personality (prioritising professionalism and ambition), followed by determination are the important ones. I don't like anyone in my squad having determination lower than 16 (which is a completely arbitrary number, in fairness), I also don't sign anyone with a bravery attribute lower than 11 (completely arbitrary, again, just one of the things I do).

Determination for tutors isn't an issue after a season or two though, I sign old free agents on 1 year contracts for tutoring. I look for a minimum of 17 determination (personal preference), and anyone who is a professional, model pro, perfectionist, or has an evasive media handling style (this is the best imo), and at least a continental reputation (otherwise you may encounter difficulties in regards to tutoring).

Regarding tutors: Mikel Arteta is a superb tutor, Tomas Rosicky is another, Oxlade-Chamberlain is worth keeping an eye on in that regard as he gets older too. Sagna & Vermaelen are both good choices too.

[D0bi]

Anyone heard of Josh Vela, 19yr old M© from Bolton, only Liam Brady has bought him.

In real life, as a Bolton fan he's one of the few youth players to step up (occasionally) to the first team in recent years. Looks like he could be a decent player.

In Football Manager he's got the potential to be a good Premier League player, decent attributes in all the right areas for a DLP/DMC. No pace or determination on my save though.

[RossoneriGunner]

Regarding tutors: Mikel Arteta is a superb tutor, Tomas Rosicky is another, Oxlade-Chamberlain is worth keeping an eye on in that regard as he gets older too. Sagna & Vermaelen are both good choices too.

In FM13 I had Vermaelen tutor Jenkinson and they got on brilliantly well, but as Vermaelen is injured I'll have to wait till he's recovered.

In real life, as a Bolton fan he's one of the few youth players to step up (occasionally) to the first team in recent years. Looks like he could be a decent player.

In Football Manager he's got the potential to be a good Premier League player, decent attributes in all the right areas for a DLP/DMC. No pace or determination on my save though.

Thanks for the info. He will be played as a DLP/s.

[Nonlondoner]

Yep. Real life Bendtner could have been a first team regular by now but his attitude stinks and that comment about never playing for Arsenal again meant he was dead to me from then on. Hence why I call him a Donkey and will happily ship his virtual self out of my FM team.

[RossoneriGunner]

I'm just waiting for Bendtner to get over his injury and I will put him up for sale.

[Conchis]

I have to disagree that Bendtner is a fairly good player. He has some rare moments, but then again pretty much everyone else does. He has the first touch skills of a brick wall. I think he wouldn't be able to control on first touch even if the ball was magnetized. Days of Gerd Muller style "just sitting in the box and finishing" strikers are pretty much over. It's an absolute must to have first touch, especially for a lone striker.

That's the only good thing the AI Wenger has left me, a Bendtner-free squad

[llama3]

Sorry mate, crap players were Gus Caesar, Francis Jeffers, Igors Stepanovs, Tomas Danilevicius - you cannot call a player who still scores regularly at international level (twice against Italy i might add!) a crap player. Not saying you cannot dislike him, just feel some perspective is required.

[hooniebagoonie]

thing with Bentner is people got on his back when he was playing out of position, it was never going to work with him playing out wide and supplying crosses, he should have been getting on the end of them, but he obviously thinks he is far better than he actually is, people are entitled to there opinion on him, if he plays and scores I will cheer the same as anyone else who scores

[rGade]

In terms of Bendtner, as a Dane who's followed him for quite a while, I wouldn't call him a crap player. I'd call him an inconsistent player, who has a habit of saying some pretty stupid things in the media, giving him a bad image in the world of football.

He can score, no doubt about it, an incredible header of the ball (Even both goals v Italy were headers). And I can safely add, me being Danish does not make me biased. I really, really, really don't like Bendtner, but saying he is a crap footballer is wrong in my eyes.

[Carmi88]

need your thoughts guys, should i or shouldn't i?

[Nonlondoner]

Agree with a lot of that. As I said, he could have been our first choice now if he'd stuck at it. I think his recent poor performance against Chelsea was down to his current lack of motivation and very little game time, not a lack of skill.

[Carmi88]

nevermind, he chose me over a 75m move to Milan, he is staying here for life!

[RossoneriGunner]

Looks a beast Carmi, was he one of your regens?.

[arsenalthebest]

I must be doing something right just won my 4th friendly 16-0 against an obscure Canadian side called Pegasus FC. That makes 49 goals scored and 1 conceded in 4 pre-season friendlies.

vs Pegasus FC, Cazorla (6), Gnabry (4), Walcott (2), Vela (2), Podolski & Sagna 1 each. We had 63 shots, 30 on target and 76% possession.

can you post a screenie of your tactics and team instructions please?

[Carmi88]

Looks a beast Carmi, was he one of your regens?.

nope, he is a Barcelona player, check him out

[hoppy_7]

Carmi out of interest what formation and tactics do you use ?

[Carmi88]

I play a 4-2-3-1, works well enough, just not in Europe i also just snapped up yaya toure for 2m and beat Man City 2-0 in the community shield Rejected for the England job though

[RossoneriGunner]

Hi ATB as you requested......

[RossoneriGunner]

nope, he is a Barcelona player, check him out

Cheers Carmi.

[Yasp0]

I play a 4-2-3-1, works well enough, just not in Europe i also just snapped up yaya toure for 2m and beat Man City 2-0 in the community shield Rejected for the England job though

I play the same formation, how is Ozil performing in the AP role?

What are your (team) instructions?

Will have a look at Vietto asap

[max787]

2014/2015 review

League: 2nd, 5 points behind Chelsea.

CL: Quarter final, knocked out by Chelsea.

FA cup: 3rd round, knocked out by united, Vermaelen own goal in the 90th minute against 10 man united.

COC: 4th round, knocked out by Swansea in the last minute of extra time.

Chelsea won the quintuple... league, CL, FA cup, COC, and the community shield.

Mertesacker and Ozil were the standout performers, again. Chamberlain was also brilliant, and has taken Cazorla's starting spot. Performance in the cups was rubbish, it's something that I really have to work on. I also shouldn't have fiddled around with tactics during the season.

Ozil is a bit of a beast physically by the way, he has now played 91 games (playing 90 minutes for pretty much all of them) over the last two seasons and hasn't been injured once. He was my top scorer and top assister again this season

In regards to transfers, I don't have anything major in mind for the summer. I'll pick up a few regens, but I don't think I'll make any signings for the first team. Arteta and Rosicky will be dropped back to 3rd choice in their respective positions, with Zelalem and Crowley becoming the direct backups for Ramsey and Wilshere. Crowley was supposed to make a few appearances this season, but unfortunately spent several months out injured which has definitely stunted his development a bit.

Podolski has once again earned the right to stay at the club, finishing the season very strongly. He seems to start out crap, then he wins games on his own from about February onwards.

[Carmi88]

I have retain posession and short passing on, Ozil was average for me the first 2 seasons, but that was because he was a treq, and it was beta, sinxe the full game came out i've played him as an enganche and he has really improved.

Only issue i have now is Szczesny, gonna need to play him in every game as he wants to leave and contract expires at the end of the season

[Kawee]

I haven't got the game, yet, waiting for Christmas sale (minimum wage sucks) but I'm a big fan of Giroud (even named my fantasy team "Giroud & co.) can anyone post a screenshot of him from the beginning of the game please. Thank you!

[daniele]

Just about to start my sescond season, holding the Premier League title and Champions League. I just signed Robert Lewandowski on a free transfer, heeeel yeah! Also got Draxler for £28M.

[max787]

Also got Draxler for £28M.

Super signing, he just moved to Madrid on my game and I greatly regret not signing him

[RossoneriGunner]

Carmi I found Luciano Vietto, he was at Racing Club, Argentina.

He was valued at £2.5m so I offered £5m and they accepted and has now signed for Arsenal. Bould has already said he reckons he could be a key player in the future.

[Carmi88]

oh my bad, he signed for Barcelona in my game but got loaned back to Racing for a season, so when i saw him i assumed he was originally a barcelona player

[RossoneriGunner]

oh my bad, he signed for Barcelona in my game but got loaned back to Racing for a season, so when i saw him i assumed he was originally a barcelona player

I noticed your in 2016, so you are in front of me by a couple of years.

[mkabas]

I'm thinking in play with a false nine upfront. Wich one do you think could be better. Wilshire or Ozil???

[Yasp0]

How do you guys play the big games away? Really struggling here (read overrun).

[edit]

Did some testing with a Manu away game. Opposite player instructions improves it a bit.

[PervertedbyLanguage]

Great thread so far. Started an Arsenal save a few days ago but finally have the time to post now.

Preseason targets: bring in an extra FW for backup and competition for Giroud, an extra DMC/MC to spell Ramsey/Arteta/Flamini (and to cover for their inevitable injuries), and a strong GK to cover for or replace The Woz. Find some UK youth and some veterans, and get rid of the deadwood on the end of the bench (even if at a loss), to clear salary. Finally, try out a modified possession-based 4231, with the 2nd midfielder dropped deeper into a DMC position to play as a Half-back or Regista.

IN:

Andrea Pirlo (Juv) £5.00 - Veteran hand to stabilize the midfield and play Regista in possession-oriented 4231.

Mario Mandzukic (Bayern) £12 - Veteran FW to spell Giroud. Linked briefly to Arsenal last summer. Loved watching him play IRL last year, offers great strength, passing, pace, and workrate.

Igor Akinfeev (CSKA) £7.5 - Quality GK.

George Thorne (West Brom) £8.25 - Young English MC/DMC, rated as one of the best English prospects in my game at least. For the future, and/or FA Cup games.

OUT:

Park Chu-young to Cardiff £3.2

Tricky Nicky Bendtner to Atletico £2.5

Emmanuel Frimpong to Leeds £450k

Ryo Miyaochi to FC Lorient £1.4

Average lineup: Giroud/Mandzukic

Santi/Podolski (IF) Ozil (EG or T) Walcott/Ox (W or IF)

Ramsey/Arteta/Wilshere (DeepPL or C-MC-Sup)

Pirlo/Arteta (Reg) or Flamini (Anchor)

Gibbs/Monreal Mertesacker Kosc Sagna

First season went very well: we won the League by 2 points over Chelsea and won the Capitol Cup, but were eliminated (more like steamrolled) by Bayern in the Champions League quarterfinals and went out in the FA 5th Round to Ipswitch.

Stars: Giroud led the line with 17 goals, Ozil popped up with 15 goals and 23 assists, and Mandzukic contributed 11 goals, while none other than noted goleador Per Mertesacker achieved 12 (!) goals through corner headers. Pirlo contributed a 89% pass-completion rating, while Ramsey (playing as a Deep-laying playmaker or CentralMC-Support) pulled some Xavi-like numbers every now and again, hitting triple digits in passes per game several times and a 85% pass-completion rate.

Disappointments: Akinfeev was alright with an average 6.86 rating, but did nothing to displace The Woz for the future. I assume he was still adapting and learning the language, though. Podolski I couldn't get anything out of: a 6.74 season average and only four goals a game. Frustrating. Also, I should have gotten Pirlo as a loan; I gave him a 2-year contract, and the 2nd year his physicals really start to decline.

Bugs: regarding Per's goal-getting, is anyone else getting a monstrous amount of corner-kick goals from the near-post? Every third game Per would score from the near post, and every fourth game Koscielny would do the same from the far post.

Misc: Just FYI, the best UK youth prospects on a non Big-Five Club at the start of the game (according to my scouts) were Thorne, James Ward-Prowsse (Southampton), and Luke Shaw.

2nd season:

IN:

Lewandowski (Free) - Can't pass that up.

Victor Valdes (Free) - See Lewandowsi.

Xabi Alonso (Loan) - Similar to Pirlo pickup last year, although much more sensible to grab as a loaner. Will replace rapidly declining Pirlo and Flamini.

Leighton Baines - £13 - Left back to replace Monreal.

OUT:

Flamini £3.0 Getting too old and injured; St. Etienne wanted him so seized the moment, and have a greatly improving George Thorne to replace him.

Abou Diaby £4.0 Whoo hoo!! Was injured all of last year, so very happy to dump him to PAOK.

Podolski £4.2 Never performed, so happy to get him and his salary off the books and on Valencia's instead.

Santi Cazorla £36 Real madrid came in with a bid of £19; I almost doubled it and they bit. Great player, but that's a lot of money for a player who'll be 30 soon.

Coquelin £2.2 Backup, time to go, off to OM.

Johan Djorou £6.5 Returned from year-long loan, quickly sold to OM.

Natxo Monreal £14.75 When I learned Baines was available for a cheaper price I sold Monreal. Anytime you can replace a foreign player with a HG one, do it.

Igor Akinfeev £13.5 When I picked up Valdes I knew I couldn't have 3 high-quality GKs, and The Woz is HG, so Akinfeev was odd man out.

Total Transfers out: £85Million!

Just starting 2nd season now, so will see how it goes. May have to switch to 2 strikers to accommodate Giroud, Mandzukic, and Lewandowsi. The Ox and Walcott, along with George Thorne, are doing very well so far.

[arsenalthebest]

Pre-Season Update

TRANSFERS

IN: Tim Ream - Loan(2m buy) - Bolton , Gonzalo Castro - Loan(60k/month Ln fee + 4.6m buy) - R.Sociedad , Billy Sharp - Loan(3.5m buy) - Southampton , Sven Bender - 12m + max 4m add ons - Dortmund , Dusan Basta - 8m - Udinese , Paddy McCarthy - FREE - C.Palace

OUT: B. Sagna - 12m - Man City , T. Vermaelen - 15m - Chelsea , M. Arteta - 9m - Man City , E. Frimpong - 600k - Bolton , B. Ormonde-Ottewill - Loan - Aldershoot , T. Dawkins - Loan - Cambridge , Park Chu-Young - Loan Bordeux(115k/month Ln fee)

TACTICS

[strangerthankindness]

need your thoughts guys, should i or shouldn't i?

Vietto looks amazing in my game as well, but evidently he has random hidden attributes in the editor (and also a random PA # as well), so Vietto in one game could have high professionalism/adaptability/etc and low controversy, and Vietto in another have the opposite. Good luck!

[yey]

he's agreed a contract with Schalke in my save. so he's going for free then

I got €5m (£4.2m) for Bendtner sold him to Fiorentina.

[yey]

Just finished my first season. Won the league with two games remaining after beating Man City and Man Utd lost to Spurs. Ozil was voted Player of the Year. However, we lost to Spurs on penalty in FA cup semifinal and lost to Real Madrid on away goal in UCL semi final.

[yey]

****, Arsene Wenger has just been appointed as the Liverpool manager!

[max787]

****, Arsene Wenger has just been appointed as the Liverpool manager!

He went to city in my game, got sacked in less than 6 months.

[Nonlondoner]

Had to start again. After a so-so start, getting 12 points from 5 games I lost 3-1 to Man Utd (H), drew 1-1 at Fulham, lost 2-1 at Liverpool and then got thumped 4-0 at home by Cardiff. Morale sunk, the players couldn't be bothered and every decision seemed to go against me. Giroud was awful, Carzola went missing every game, Ozil was average but most eye-catching were Ramsey and Kos who averaged about 6.20 over the last 5 games.

I clearly did something wrong. I think I'll do more pre-season work on tactics, team cohesion and ball control. I will still buy Zouma as he averaged 7.48 and scored 3 league goals, will invest the rest in a proven striker I think as Podolski isn't very good and Giroud has clearly been rated on last season.

[max787]

2015/2016 season preview

Quite a disappointing summer to be honest, I didn't find a single player worth signing. I found one good regen, who could be the best ball playing defender of his generation, but decided not to sign him because his club wants 15m and also because he only has 9 for jumping and 5 for strength. I prefer to have more robust defenders, regardless of how good he could be on the ball.

I could have signed Draxler, he went to Madrid for 38.5m and is looking like an excellent player. I decided not to buy him because his determination was only 10 and due to his "worldwide" reputation it would have been very difficult to tutor him, I do kind of regret not buying him though. Bakkali is another player I looked at, two footed AML who's only 19, but PSV wanted 20m and I'd rather develop my own players than pay that much.

I signed 8 players on free transfers for tutoring, my current batch of youngsters should be "done" by the end of the season. Giroud was sold to AC Milan for 25m, he was on loan last season and scored 34 goals for Atletico Madrid (and won top scorer in the CL). Diaby and Park have finally left, their contracts expired.

This will be Cazorla's final season I think, he's starting to decline, his wages are expensive, he's not a particularly good tutor, and I need to make room for the youngsters coming through.

Zelalem is now an established member of the first team squad, Crowley should be getting a few appearances this season, Gnabry is backup AMR, Bellerin is 3rd choice RB but Sagna just got injured for 6 weeks so he's bound to make a few appearances as well. I also have 3 regens who should be making a decent amount of appearances this season. Rosicky won't play at all this season, and Arteta won't play very much.

Since I couldn't find any players that I really wanted, I invested my money in the back room staff, all training categories now have 4.5 or 5 stars (for both senior and U-18 squads), I revamping the scouting team, revamped the physiotherapy team, changed assistant manager, reserves manager, and U-18 manager. The board also agreed to upgrade senior and youth training facilities, increase junior spending, increase youth recruitment network, and I got a Brazilian feeder club which increases my chances of getting Brazilian regens.

[Kawee]

Giroud has clearly been rated on last season.

I've always been a big advocate for SI to invest in crystal balls for their researcher. Always knew they were too cheap.

[arsenalthebest]

Hi ATB as you requested......

Thanks successful so far

[Nonlondoner]

I've always been a big advocate for SI to invest in crystal balls for their researcher. Always knew they were too cheap.

Giroud was a bit under-rated on FM13 in my opinion, that's what I meant.