FM14: Liverpool F.C Thread - This Year is our Year!

[eastley]

Top of table and cruising, beating all teams that come before me. All players 100% fit, same tactics as usual, no reason to perform badly.

Game thinks it is time i lose, and lose I do..

Flapping horrible..

How could a team in first, no losses for the season, lose like that?

[dsouthy]

Maybe not 9-1 but take Arsenal last year in real (you will see the LFC connection in a min...)

Started the season off brilliantly then lost 3-0 to Everton. The they went on another good run and then lost 6-0 to Chelsea. Then they beat LFC 2-1, draw Man U 0-0 and then the mighty LFC 5-1 beat them. At some point no matter how good of a run you have got it has to come to an end and normally in a big way.

[eastley]

He is only 18!!

Experiment with only English players complete, 2 seasons done, winning both EPL seasons, took out the ECC by upsetting Madrid in the final 2015.

2014

Won Capital One CUp

Won Premiership

Won Community Shield

2015

Won English Premiership

Won ECC

Semi Final FA Cup

[WillGC]

I'm beginning a new liverpool save, any good tactics. I really want to play sterling,sturridge,coutinho and suarez together.

[eastley]

Hall of fame, took me a gander and realized I am that awesome, I won the Swedish cup 5 times..

[eastley]

I'm beginning a new liverpool save, any good tactics. I really want to play sterling,sturridge,coutinho and suarez together.

I play a 4-2-3-1.

Well that is what I call it, 4 backs, 2 mids, 3 attacking mid's, left and right are wide, and a lone striker. Always been best formation for the team I reckon.

------------------------ Suarez ---------------------------

-- Sterling ------------ Coutinho ----------- Sturridge --

--------------- Gerrard -------- Henderson --------------

------------------------------------------------------------

---- Enrique ----- Sakho ----- Agger ----- Johnson ----

------------------------- Mignolet ------------------------

Retrain Sturridge for right wing. I can never decide between agger or Skrtel so your choice really..

I usually ditch both, sign Balanta and Lovren first transfer window, along with Sakho they do well.

Attacking Mentality, Balanced.

I usually Hassle Opponents, Drill Crosses, Retain Possession, Be More Expressive, Run at Deefence, Pass into Space, Use offside Trap, Tighter Marking, Higher Tempo and Shorter Passing.

Striker is Complete Forward, Wingers are inside forwards, both support, AMC is attacking Playmaker. One BBM on support and advanced Playmaker also support in Midfield.

Complete wingbacks on attack and CD's on Defend.

Highly attacking football tactic which I have had great success with.

I always sell Leiva straight up due to not working well with this tactic. From usual transfer funds and his sale, this is where I will get Lovren and Balanta, if I can sell off Agger and Skrtel for decent coin, I snatch up Shaw for the left, if that looks like a done deal I sell off Enrigue too.

[eastley]

Just started again, my final long term save until 2015 is released.

Loaded up edited database, all major signings done for me, transfer budgets updated and so forth.

If there happens to be any more signing for Liverpool this season, I will sign the same players in my save.

[WillGC]

The tactic looks like it will leak goals. I tried a 4-2-3-1 deep with the 2 central midfielders dropping to the dm spots. Lucas was either a dm or a half back and gerrard was deep lying playmaker with support. His ppm is long passes. I used complete wingbacks and so far conceding very few goals.

[eastley]

The tactic looks like it will leak goals. I tried a 4-2-3-1 deep with the 2 central midfielders dropping to the dm spots. Lucas was either a dm or a half back and gerrard was deep lying playmaker with support. His ppm is long passes. I used complete wingbacks and so far conceding very few goals.

It don't though, I always have fast good defenders. When I use this tactic I always top 3 defense for the season.

[eastley]

So with the transfer changes already applied from real life to my save, I have made further changes.

IN

Hughes ($8m)

Balanta ($7m)

Ward-Prowse ($24m)

Santon ($13.5m)

El Shaarawy ($39m)

Berardi ($20m)

Total: $111.5m

OUT

Skrtel ($5.5m)

Agger ($15.75m)

Coates ($4.2m)

Leiva ($35m)

Borini ($5m)

Total: $65.45m

Hughes was loaned back to Derby for the season.

I got the bad end of the stick as far as Random PA for the likes of Sterling, Rossiter and Sinclair, all on there lowest side, so none of those players will be best XI in the future.

[craigd84]

I havent posted in a while as i havent played in a while.

Im in 2018 i think.... either way Suarez is now 33/34 but STILL my most influential player.

I just picked up Cristiano Ronaldo mostly for tutoring but hes scored 3 in 11 so not bad.

One month until i get my next intake my first on fully upgraded facilities...im hoping to notice a big difference in terms of quality. NOT that i have crap regens.

[dan99]

Ojo has became a very solid player under AI management:

http://i.imgur.com/VgS2L1F.png

[dsouthy]

Had a busy transfer window and its not over yet!

In

Lovren 22m

Balanta 7.25m

Cerri 7.5m

Stegen 10m

Prowse 16.5m

Kovacic 24.5m

Gauld 7m - loaned back to Dundee Utd

Key players out

Allen to Swansea 7.25m + 40% next sale

Assaidi to Stoke 7m + 25% next sale

Lucas to PSG 41.5m - paid all upfront

Aspas to Espanyol 5m

Borini to CSKA Moscow 7.25m + 25% next sale

Suarez to Real Madrid 57m + 25% next sale

Alberto in talks to move 3.5m

Mignolet in talks with Juventus 15m

[dsouthy]

Moreno in to replace Enrique for 12.5m, I've accepted a bid for 12m for Enrique.

Update:

Signed Divock Origi 5m

Might keep Enrique for training up and backup my last decision to make is should I keep Riena...

[jenkothfc]

Sabine, what are the rest of your team instructions after "Pass into space"

[smplfc123]

Some help needed please guys?

I've agreed fees and wages for both Remy and Jackson Martinez, but can't decide which one to get. What do you think?

[dsouthy]

Martinez in my opinion but there is better striker out there for the same price.

[WillGC]

Just started a new save to test this formation.

Mignolet

Johnson--------------------Agger------------------------------------Skrtel-------------------------------Enrique

Gerrard (DLP/S)-----------------Henderson (B2B/S)

Coutinho (AP/A)

Surarez (IF/A). Sturridge ( conplete foward/false nine /support duty)

Feel free to try it out, not sure whether to swap sturridge ans surarez and put surarez as a treq

[dan99]

Only 10 men?

[eastley]

Why does Gerrard and Johnson become so mad??

Second season onwards they never tutor anyone for me, always say it is not beneficial. But first season they tutored everyone.

Johnson complains more than anyone I have ever seen, he is just unhappy, but his morale is very good.

[WillGC]

Yeah when i pressed wnter it messed up the formation. Basically its 4-1-2-1-2 with lucas as a dm with defend duty. Gerrard and henderson as dlp support and bbm. Coutinho is AML with an advanced playmaker support duty. Surarez is a treq and sturridge as a st far right pousition as an if attack.

[GR3NDAL]

Just finished 2029/30 season making it my longest save since CM says

Came closest so far to a perfect league season (lost a couple of cup games though)

He is now 34 but Liverpool (and Italy) Captain Alberto Cerri is still the top striker in Europe with another 50 goal season. His record for the club is now 662 goals in 667 games.

Lost another couple of club Legends with 33 year old Guglielminpetro moving to Spain and a 34 year old Luke Shaw retiring from football. They both played in the ML position but I managed to snap a awsome looking youngster Gino Salomon for a mere 5 million pounds.

After a disppointed quarter final defeat to France in the 2030 world cup I resigned as England manager and have taken up the Spain job.

[WillGC]

In my new save i bought calum chambers. I was just wondering if he ever rewches his 4 star potential. Also has anyone tried retrsining him to cb like arsenal are doing in real life?

[WillGC]

In my first season man city offered javi garcia for 4.3 million. Should i sell lucas leiva as psg are offering me 35 million upfront. Only thing outting me off are his wages

[J88KLN]

I am not sure if this would be the right place to post this but I am playing as Liverpool and have started a thread in the Tactics Forum and would like a bit of advice from other players of the game on developing the tactic to the squad.

This is the thread - http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/396265-Brendan-Rodgers-Liverpool-13-14-%28help-needed%29?p=9806326#post9806326

Thanks

[GR3NDAL]

start of 2030/31 season and Giggs is put in charge of league runners up Man United

[GR3NDAL]

start of 2030/31 season and Giggs is put in charge of league runners up Man United

[mark b]

sabine, would it be possible to upload your save soemwhere? I'd really like to take over liverpool on a different save to my own right now.

[DKB]

Going to give Liverpool a try

Cleared out most of the backroom staf, and brought in new ones

Agger was send to down to Rafa at Napoli and terminated the loan of Cissokho

Brought in

Kyle Walker

Ryan Shawcross

Eder Balanta

Lucas Romero

Jackson Martinez

Davy Klaassen (loan)

[Sabine]

So I haven't posted at all recently because upon the process of uploading my save for inspection as a couple of you suggested, turns out I saved over that save whilst checking out a wonderkids database that I was making.

So granted, I am pretty pissed off but I will be back in a week or so with a new save alongside my already made wonderkids database.

[mark b]

So I haven't posted at all recently because upon the process of uploading my save for inspection as a couple of you suggested, turns out I saved over that save whilst checking out a wonderkids database that I was making.

So granted, I am pretty pissed off but I will be back in a week or so with a new save alongside my already made wonderkids database.

Ouch! Sorry to here that. Don't you have any backups on cloud at an earlier date?

[Captain America]

Played 2 seasons with the latest LFCMarshall update with a couple of my own additions since his next one doesn't come out until Sept 6th (Di Maria to Utd, Balo to LFC etc.)

First season I wanted to make due with the squad Rodgers bought this summer pretty much.

Outs:

Lucas 17m

Coates 4.2m

Assaidi 4.7m

Suso, Robbo, Yesil loans

Kolo free (january)

Flanagan, Henderson loans (january)

Ins:

Sascha Horvath 10k

Schneiderlin 14m

Odegaard 11k

Came 2nd in the league, fell out early in FA Cup, won the Carling Cup and lost in semis of CL.

Sturridge: 37 apps - 25 gls - 6 asts

Lambert: 37 apps - 24 gls - 7 asts

Balotelli: 24 apps - 10 gls - 12 asts

Borini: 12 apps - 5 gls - 5 asts

Sterling: 36 apps - 11 gls - 16 asts

Coutinho: 31 apps - 12 gls - 14 asts

Gerrard: 41 apps - 1 gls - 17 asts

Pretty good with pretty much the default squad IMO.

In the summer I made Manquillo's deal permanent and signed a few regens.

Ins:

Manquillo 5m

Joe Hart 8.5m

Ricardo Rodriguez 19.75m (deadline day panic)

David Marshal (loan)

Aguero 39m (january) (he was listed by request)

Mangala 16m (listed by request)

Insigne 17m

*City was in the ******* and went through like 5 managers in the season, so most of the team was unhappy and I snatched 3 of them.

Outs:

Brad Jones 500k

Borini 9m

Johnson 4.2m

Enrique 7m

Mignolet 15m

Wisdom (loan)

Came 2nd by 1 point in the league to Newcastle (I know...), won the Carling Cup again, got beat in quarters of FA Cup by ****ing Sheff Wed but won the Champions League after a 6-0 win over Dortmund in the final.

Sturridge: 46 apps - 33 gls - 16 asts

Lambert: 22 apps - 13 gls - 7 asts

Aguero: 22 apps - 14 gls - 11 asts

Markovic: 20 apps - 7 gls - 7 asts

Sterling: 33 apps - 12 gls - 8 asts

Coutinho: 41 apps - 16 gls - 27 asts

Gerrard: 34 apps - 0 gls - 7 asts

Origi: 28 apps - 6 gls - 4 asts (20 sub apps)

Already sold Lallana 5m, Skrtel 3.8m, Aspas 5m, Agger 4m, Allen 18m and Balotelli 39m before the 3rd season. Brought in Denswil 4m, Tan 12.5m and looking for a CM and a keeper. Getting 25m offers for Can and Flanagan, 40m for Sterling, Sturridge and Coutinho but no intention to sell. Going to run this core of players and see where it takes me. Origi and Sinclair will replace Balotelli and Lambert who leaves on a free. Trying as hard as I can to not buy a whole new team like I always do. Will probably post again after my next season

[Sabine]

Ouch! Sorry to here that. Don't you have any backups on cloud at an earlier date?

Nope. I looked everywhere for any sort of hope and found nothing. I never have back up saves because I trust my computer - but don't trust my drunkeness now that's happened.

edit: I was considering the idea of creating a save with Barcelona with the ******** of youth prospects I'm bringing into the game as my basis around the team, but I'm deciding against it and sticking with the tradition of only playing as Liverpool as a serious save.

To make it more exciting, I will be using a transfer update which is without Luis Suarez (which made the first three seasons in my previous save easier than anything I have ever encounted in this game), but also sadly without Jack Robinson (who turns into a monstrosity of a player) and the ability to buy Luke Shaw, having to instead resort to another (hopefully English) alternative.

This will probably be only temporary as FM15 is right around the corner, but I will try and get to around where I was before.

By the way, my wonderkids "database" may be available if I can be arsed uploading it to steam, but I doubt it. It's incomplete and very biased towards Liverpool, Barcelona and Partizan's youth prospects because those are the teams I follow religiously.

[Captain America]

Just finished my 3rd season. Here's the update

Ins:

Denswil 4m

Jonathan Tah 12m

Timo Horn 3.8m

William Carvalho 8.2m

Falcao loan (january)

10 regens

Outs:

Lallana 5m

Skrtel 3.8m

Allen 18m

Balotelli 38m

Aspas 4.9m

Agger 4m

Lovren 15m

Alberto 2.5m

Schneiderlin 19m

bunch of loans and frees

Won the Capital One Cup for a third time in a row, Euro Super Cup and Club World Cup, beat in quarters again in FA Cup, got thrashed by Juventus in 1st KO in CL but won the league on the last day by a point.

Sturridge: 25 apps - 19 gls - 5 asts

Aguero: 36 apps - 29 gls - 19 asts

Falcao: 18 apps - 12 gls - 8 asts

Origi: 18 apps - 12 gls - 4 asts

Markovic: 28 apps - 7 gls - 16 asts

Sterling: 27 apps - 7 gls - 9 asts

Coutinho: 33 apps - 10 gls - 10 asts

Origi getting pretty good and will get more and more game time with Sinclair. Aguero, Sturridge and Falcao will play the biggest games though.

Summer window pre 4th season has been..

Ins:

Ter Stegen 11m

Falcao (permanent) 10m

Gareth Bale 50m

2 regens

Outs:

Sakho 24m

Insigne 20m

Horvath 4m

Suso 7.5m

Ibe 4m

Timo Horn 15m

Pretty nice profits on a few there. Thinning the herd as my squad was a bit big last season. Got a regen from the academy to replace Insigne too.

Already won the Community Shield and got Bayern, Monaco and a eastern european team in CL group.

Will update after the season as always. Getting through them pretty quick since I broke my leg and am binge watching TV and playing FM all day. Questions will be answered if you have them

[mark b]

Nope. I looked everywhere for any sort of hope and found nothing. I never have back up saves because I trust my computer - but don't trust my drunkeness now that's happened.

edit: I was considering the idea of creating a save with Barcelona with the ******** of youth prospects I'm bringing into the game as my basis around the team, but I'm deciding against it and sticking with the tradition of only playing as Liverpool as a serious save.

To make it more exciting, I will be using a transfer update which is without Luis Suarez (which made the first three seasons in my previous save easier than anything I have ever encounted in this game), but also sadly without Jack Robinson (who turns into a monstrosity of a player) and the ability to buy Luke Shaw, having to instead resort to another (hopefully English) alternative.

This will probably be only temporary as FM15 is right around the corner, but I will try and get to around where I was before.

By the way, my wonderkids "database" may be available if I can be arsed uploading it to steam, but I doubt it. It's incomplete and very biased towards Liverpool, Barcelona and Partizan's youth prospects because those are the teams I follow religiously.

Any DB bias to liverpool is always a good one and makes a change lol

[Sabine]

Any DB bias to liverpool is always a good one and makes a change lol

Haha, that's true. I haven't added any youth players in, I have just improved some of the existing ones. I decided against adding existing players in the end because the amount of -9 potential players in the game is already very large, so I decided to improve on a lot of them instead.

For example, Munir of Barcelona is now 127 CA and -9 PA, reflecting his introduction to the first team.

I have all of the -9 promising youngsters of Liverpool (Sinclair, Rossiter, Chirivella, Wilson (up to 115 to reflect his Wales call-up), Ojo) set at 100 CA. But this, as mentioned before is also the case with all of the young -9 potential players.

I have also given Joao Teixeira and Jordan Ibe significant upgrades (125 CA, -9 PA for Teixeira, 115 CA, -9 PA for Ibe), as they are going to be on the fringes (Teixeira possibly in the first team squad when he comes back from loan) of the first team in the near future.

It may overpower Liverpool (once again), but it also balances out other teams with promising young players, like Fulham with Patrick Roberts and Moussa Dembele, Chelsea with their tremendous amount of promising youngsters (who will sadly in real life will probably never get a chance to show what they're capable of), Arsenal and Zelalem (who I have increased to 115 CA) and Crowley.

But the reason why I have done this is because 100 CA is around the League 2 first team mark, which a lot of these players would be more than comfortable playing in if they were sent out on loan. This also may give the AI the ability to play these promising youngsters more, and not wasting away in their talents like I have witnessed throughout playing in previous saves in previous versions of FM.

[mark b]

Haha, that's true. I haven't added any youth players in, I have just improved some of the existing ones. I decided against adding existing players in the end because the amount of -9 potential players in the game is already very large, so I decided to improve on a lot of them instead.

For example, Munir of Barcelona is now 127 CA and -9 PA, reflecting his introduction to the first team.

I have all of the -9 promising youngsters of Liverpool (Sinclair, Rossiter, Chirivella, Wilson (up to 115 to reflect his Wales call-up), Ojo) set at 100 CA. But this, as mentioned before is also the case with all of the young -9 potential players.

I have also given Joao Teixeira and Jordan Ibe significant upgrades (125 CA, -9 PA for Teixeira, 115 CA, -9 PA for Ibe), as they are going to be on the fringes (Teixeira possibly in the first team squad when he comes back from loan) of the first team in the near future.

It may overpower Liverpool (once again), but it also balances out other teams with promising young players, like Fulham with Patrick Roberts and Moussa Dembele, Chelsea with their tremendous amount of promising youngsters (who will sadly in real life will probably never get a chance to show what they're capable of), Arsenal and Zelalem (who I have increased to 115 CA) and Crowley.

But the reason why I have done this is because 100 CA is around the League 2 first team mark, which a lot of these players would be more than comfortable playing in if they were sent out on loan. This also may give the AI the ability to play these promising youngsters more, and not wasting away in their talents like I have witnessed throughout playing in previous saves in previous versions of FM.

Agreed. Liverpool have lots of promising youngsters, yet it's not reflected that well in the game. Take for example Trickett Smith who has been courted by Barcelona, yet on this version of FM isn't any great shakes. Brannagan and Dunn, two players showing great promise don't have very high currents or PA values to reflect where they are now. People like Ibe definatley need a boost for next version of FM. Teixeria, as you also mentioned has been around the first team squad and is better than how he's portrayed at this moment in time. I don't know about you also, but whenever I manage Liverpool on FM the quality of youngster I get coiming through always sucks, despite superb facilities and coaches, not to mention we have on of the best academies at present and are good at developing and bringing young players through under Rodgers.

[Sabine]

Yeah, I've given the likes of Trickett-Smith, Brannagan, Lloyd Jones and Dunn small upgrades as well. Not too big of an upgrade, but Trickett-Smith is one of those who I have been watching closely at Liverpool and he looks pretty much the same calibre as Teixeira in terms of current ability and potential. I was disgusted when I first saw his starting CA.

A lot of youngsters in general are potrayed pretty badly. I was astounded to see how bad some of these players were when I had a closer look at them, it's really just not fair. I mean yeah, they do have plenty of time to develop and some do develop into monsters, but not every AI is going to do that.

I've had no problems with getting academy prospects in this version of FM. I did in 2013 though, I got so pissed off in 2013 because I had like four players in ten seasons that were potentially stars to start with in ten seasons.

[eastley]

I have played a combined of 50 or so season in FM14 with Liverpool.

Never got a player through youth intake that is worth keeping.

And the CA/PA of Liverpools youth is just woeful...

Needs to be fixed in 15..

[Sabine]

Yeah, I really hope that they do fix some of the younger players in 15. Especially Trickett-Smith. His CA is woeful and he looks like he can barely play football with the starting attributes he has.

[Captain America]

What is your opinions on how long pre-season should last? Been doing 6-7 weeks to get the most preparation possible but decided to try 5 weeks now. Does it matter at all?

[Captain America]

Alright finished my 4th season lads.

Won the Community Shield, FA Cup, Capital One Cup and Premier League. Knocked out of semis in Champions League.

Ins:

Ter Stegen 11m

Falcao made permanent 10m

Bale 48m

couple of regens

Outs:

Sakho 24m

Insigne 20m

Horvath 3.9m

Suso 7.5m

Ibe 3.6m

Timo Horn 15m

Loads of loans/frees

Stats:

Falcao: 35 apps - 27 gls - 9 asts

Aguero: 26 apps - 14 gls - 10 asts

Sturridge: 30 apps - 17 gls - 7 asts

Bale: 30 apps - 10 gls - 15 asts

Sterling: 41 apps - 11 gls - 23 asts

Coutinho: 27 apps - 12 gls - 16 asts

Markovic: 32 apps - 11 gls - 12 asts

Origi: 27 apps - 17 gls - 14 asts

Already halfway through my 5th season so update will come early tomorrow probably. Made a couple of big changes to my squad!

[CRN711]

I need an advice guys! I'm in january 2015, Bayern Munich made an offer of 37M for Markovic. He's not in my starting XI, more of a "superSub". He played 10(3) games, scored 5 assist 3; so far this season but he keeps asking to play more. When the offer came I start to make some research and found out that I can get James Rodriguez on loan for the end of the season with a 30M fee to agree permanent deal. What should I do? Or do you have any other replacement for Markovic? Or I sold him and don't buy someone?

I have Sterling, Suso, Balotelli, Tariq or even Coutinho and Sturridge who can play at AML or AMR instead of him. But I prefer Coutinho in CM spot and Sturridge in a CF role

[yonko]

I need an advice guys! I'm in january 2015, Bayern Munich made an offer of 37M for Markovic. He's not in my starting XI, more of a "superSub". He played 10(3) games, scored 5 assist 3; so far this season but he keeps asking to play more. When the offer came I start to make some research and found out that I can get James Rodriguez on loan for the end of the season with a 30M fee to agree permanent deal. What should I do? Or do you have any other replacement for Markovic? Or I sold him and don't buy someone?

I have Sterling, Suso, Balotelli, Tariq or even Coutinho and Sturridge who can play at AML or AMR instead of him. But I prefer Coutinho in CM spot and Sturridge in a CF role

I say sell him. See how Rodriguez performs on loan then buy him (if he plays well) at the end of the season. If not, keep an eye on Deulofeu and Rafinha from Barca.

[eastley]

Darn

Tried to go unbeaten, failed in game 33 I think, busy schedule that weak, tired players, had to play a couple of rotation players, Arsenal away, got smashed.

2 Games later, we wrapped up the Premiership 3 games early, woot!!

P.S. Sturridge is a scoring machine. 49 Goals in 46 Appearances this season, he is going so well, I sold of Balotelli as he was not performing as well as hoped, he had declined badly for some reason, i was playing him and everything, only got $10m for him .

Pro Tip: Train Coutinho as Striker, specifically Trequartista. He is a machine up front. I use him when i rotate Sturridge, it's not un common for him to snag hat tricks..

Pro Tip 2: If you play AMC, Suso is your best option, put time and effort into his development, worth every minute of your time.

[eastley]

Like this.

FA Cup final, big game against Blackburn, it is 2016.

Enter Coutinho, rested Sturridge.

BOOM

HAT-TRICK Yo.

[eastley]

[the SLC]

I don't like arousing suspicion, because I'm 100% against cheating in any way (meaning it benefits me, I'm all for editing attributes of players who I will never use because I disagree with them, like I have done with Marco Reus, Christian Benteke etc.).

I'm actually planning on making an hour-long video of playing 3-4 games sometime soon, to show what I do in say, a month of play time. But every game, I extensively prepare for, figuring out opposition attributes, applying man marking if needed, tweaking roles to a more defensive or more attacking formation depending on the opposition.

Let's take my next game against Nottingham Forest, for example.

They are relegation contenders and have a squad with mainly players who are far from good enough for my team, at least, so I should beat them easily but I will still take them seriously because they are fighting for relegation and will be a lot more determined to win this than our team, considering we have nothing to lose for. For this, I will employ a team talk that will fire the team up instead of my usual "pick up from where you left off" team talk.

Let's have a look at their wingers, Lee Chung-Yong and Henri Lansbury.

Tight Marking can be useful in against dangerous wingers and strikers, if you have very good centre backs and full backs or defensive wingers. I don't specfically use man-marking unless it's against dangerous players, like Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale, Neymar, or at this point of the save, Shaqiri, who are all very decent in four or more of the following: Crossing, Passing, Long Shots, Technique, Creativity and Decisions.

But this is Lee Chung-Yong and Henri Lansbury, so they don't need that treatment.

Instead, I will be setting the Closing Down to Never and combining it with the Tackling on Hard because they have average or below average (inferior anyway to my full backs) Bravery, Determination and Strength as I have found that they are less likely to take my full backs on, and look for a pass instead, negating their effectiveness.

I will also use show onto right foot for Henri Lansbury, forcing him to cut inside where, with Flanagan's superior pace, anticipation, tackling and positioning will be able to mark him effectively but also prevent Lansbury from going wide and crossing to Vellios, who is great in the air, taller than both my centre backs but relies mainly on his aerial presence to score goals.

If the central and attacking central midfielders have a weak foot, I always set the show onto foot as Weak Foot, as this reduces the effectiveness of their passes and shots respectively, if they are both footed, I depend on their position and show onto the opposite side. This can also be used for wide players if they are dangerous (like those I mentioned) if they are played on the inside.

Also, since the defenders are a lot worse in ability than my players, I set closing down to Always, to put extra pressure on them.

I don't need to worry about much else.

The result was, as expected, an easy win. This is a screen of Forest's statistics and defensively, they were pretty good, 100% in tackling ratio and a lot of interceptions, meaning that my side could have performed a lot better.

However, the positive side of things is that we completely negated the wingers' abilities to cross the ball, poor performances from the central midfielders and only getting a total of 4 shots with 1 on target from their attack.

On our side, things looked even better. All of the team took part in defending by winning headers, gathering interceptions and on the attacking side, gathering a lot of shots on target, completing a great deal of passes and of course, goals.

Another example I shall use in brief is the 7-1 win against Barcelona:

For this, the opposition instructions I used were very different. This was a side that contained some of the best players in the world, Neymar, Messi and Hernandez as an attacking trio is terrifying to most defence so I closed them ALL down, assigned Flanagan to man-mark Neymar, Robinson (and then Shaw after injury) to mark Messi but ALSO show him onto his right foot, to avoid him cutting inside and causing mayhem. To contain Hernandez, I man marked him with Sakho, a taller, and stronger player but also showed him onto his weak foot and a Hard tackling instruction, because of his average bravery and poor strength.

The result was a defensive masterclass:

I was actually very peeved at the goal we conceded because it was one of those fluke goals from right at the touchline from Dani Alves. But 5 saves were handled, 3 were parried and I guess one either went over the bar and was counted as a shot on target, or something else, because I, to be honest, have no idea.

Suso also had the game of his life, clinical finishing from the inside of the area with some great movement and running with the ball to inside the box and then shooting, instead of choosing to shoot outside the box.

edit:

As for maintaining an original side for first couple of seasons, I gave a couple of the younger players some game time, allowing a good amount of rotation also, to keep players fit. What also was beneficial, was the fact that in the first season, we had no champions league games to deal with which kept the fitness of our team at a decent rate with the rotation policy.

I went all the way back to page 15 for this squad, but this is what it looked like back then (I recalled Jack Robinson from loan and Coates had his injury removed, it might have either been by accident on my behalf, or from the database I was using, I'm afraid I can't remember):

It might have been down to the tactics, mostly, but it is possible to destroy teams with the right approach. I could be using exploits in the match engine with some player roles that I don't know of. But I'm 100% not cheating by the means of editor or saving and reloading (takes too long to do anyway, considering I have so much crap loaded up).

been implementing this process in my united save. but not having as much success as you. im wondering what you do against good teams that play 4231 with wingers and an amc? for example im playing chelsea next whom have the said formation. hazard on left cuardado on right oscar in the middle with drogba as the lone striker.

i have closed down all 3 attacking mids with hard tackling and shown on to weaker foot but what do i do about drogba? you marked hernandez out of the game but drogba is probably a little stronger than my DCs.

[glenn28]

Haven't played a game in months gonna update the transfers then gonna start a long term save before FM15 comes out

[Sabine]

been implementing this process in my united save. but not having as much success as you. im wondering what you do against good teams that play 4231 with wingers and an amc? for example im playing chelsea next whom have the said formation. hazard on left cuardado on right oscar in the middle with drogba as the lone striker.

i have closed down all 3 attacking mids with hard tackling and shown on to weaker foot but what do i do about drogba? you marked hernandez out of the game but drogba is probably a little stronger than my DCs.

I wish I could help you out. I only came up against the 4-2-3-1 with a strong team was with Chelsea and the once against Barcelona where I used my default 4-2-2 with defensive wingers tactic and it always worked fine with me using the OIs system. Their striker throughout the seasons I played them was mainly Lukaku, who is very similar to Drogba where the best OIs I have found are Tight Marking - Never (removing the team instruction, of course) as this can prevent your defenders from dealing with the striker at all in the physical manner and instead tackling him head on.