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FM14: Inter Milan - Shooting for Europe!


D0bi

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I've had a lot of success with Inter using a very simple counter-attacking strategy. For around 80% of my matches I use counter mentality, and just 'hassle opponents' and 'look for overlap' instructions. If I'm playing against a team at the bottom of the table or in very bad form I'll play the first 10 mins of the match on attacking and adding 'push higher up'. Formation is a 5-3-2 with complete wing backs.

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Hi D0bi great thread you have here. I just started a save with Inter and would like some advice.

I use the same tactic 1 that you have in the OP. I would like to know what Instructions you use. I'm still doing the friendlies in year 1 so I'm still tinkering around. My big problem seems is that no matter what instructions I use the possession is usually in favor of the opponent, shots are approx. 16-10 against me, and in 4 games I won 1, lost 1, drew 2 - against inferior clubs.

If you or anyone else wants to give a FM rookie some help I would appreciate it. Sorry to hijack your thread, thank you

In my first season, I had good success with 4-2-2-2 formation. Which I listened to my assistant advice on best formation to use and which help me out great.

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January 2015 – Inter Milan

Serie A

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We started our first match after our winter break with away to Napoli. It was a even matched consent and both teams found it difficult to break eachother down. Went into half time, 0-0. The game finally came to life after Mitrovic put us ahead on 60th minutes. We had a corner and Mitrovic beat Maggio to head the ball into the goal. 13 minutes later, he decided to be a villain by giving away a penalty by clattering into Maggio /o\ which Callejon converted to level the score. It was heading for a draw until Mitrovic blasted half volley which Reina had no chance of saving to gift us 3 points! What a day for Mitrovic!!

Once again, we on our travel to bottom place team, Pescara. Pescara was up for this game as we was. Palacio decided to score out of blue on 21 minutes and we constantly wasted a lot of chances afterwards Palaico's opener. Whichwas really disappointing.

Bizarrely another away game for us, away to Lazio. I decided to go on holiday for this match and see if my assistant manager will do the job for me. Thanksfully he did, He went for 3-5-2 formation. He handed Icardi his first start and grabbed the only goal in the match for another 3 points to us.

Finally, we got a home game against Livorno, We absolutely battered them even we won 1-0. We took 24 shots in total. Their keeper was in superman mode and was pretty much saving most of our shots. Mitrovic had a chance to put us ahead but thanks to their keeper, he tipped it over. They failed to clear the ball out of the box. Livorno player could only head it to Illarramendi who let the ball drop and blasted it into top corner to give us the lead :cool: I'm getting frustrated as the team constantly missing chances again and again.

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TIM Cup

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We brush Udinese aside by winning 3-0. Thanks to our defence scoring goals :D

We got drawn to Latina in semi final over 2 legs. First leg, I decided to play my fringe and youth players. I admit we got lucky to come out of this game with 1-0 win, they had chances to put it away.

Second leg, I decided to play a strong XI and we did the job.

We will play Sampdoria in the final after they beat Napoli over 2 agg. Again, I'm confident of winning TIM Cup.

Transfers

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I decided to sign this chap from Sweden, I managed to beat PSG, Chelsea and Real Madrid for him. Got huge potential ahead of him.

Out: I decided to sell Honda to Shakhtar for 19M. As much I love him, I decided to let him go as he's 29 and I got good youngsters in the team and want to play them more.

I will be looking to bring in a striker and a midfielder in the summer.

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February 2015 – Inter Milan

Serie A

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We faced Juventus at home, we should have won this match, this stats says it all. They was there for taking.

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We travelled for our away game against Padova, before the game I was confidence of picking up 3 points. Which the team shared the same thoughts. Decided to give Barbosa a start against them and did well and pleased with his and Palacio's partnership. Great to see Palacio bagging a hat trick!

We welcome Palermo for the match, we was slightly poor but thanks to Barbosa's sharp finish before half time settled down the nerve. We hit the post twice in 2nd half and should have extended our goal lead.

Stuck with the same duo against Sampdoria and they just couldn't handle them and ran the show by bagging a goal apiece.

Due to the crash dump, I had to play this match again, We found it hard to break them down, thanks to Palacio and Balatna header in both half we won 2-0.

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Nice to see the gap is now 15 points ahead of Napoli.

Champions League

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Having 2 games in 3 days, which forced me to rotate the team for this match. Went behind after Hulk heading in to give them a lead, Mitrovic scored on 57 minutes to give us a crucial away goal for 2nd leg at home.

Transfers

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Didier Drogba will be joining our backroom staff as U's19 assistant manager in the summer. I'm looking to add couple staffs as Alberto Galbiati (physio) and Tarcisio Burgnich (scout) are retiring :(

Players news - Javier Zanetti, Christian Chivu, Hugo Campagnaro and Gaby Mudingayi will be retiring at the end of the season :( Will be looking to replace them in the summer. Going to try and get Zanetti on our coaching team.

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john1 - I reckon Zanetti would make a great coach, shame to see such a legend retiring.

Some great results there, hopefully you can win Zenit in the second leg. Did well not to let Juventus not have any shots at all :thup: Well done on being 15 points clear at the top, I reckon it's yours to lose now :D

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john1 - I reckon Zanetti would make a great coach, shame to see such a legend retiring.

Some great results there, hopefully you can win Zenit in the second leg. Did well not to let Juventus not have any shots at all :thup: Well done on being 15 points clear at the top, I reckon it's yours to lose now :D

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Yeah here is his staff attributes, Going to try and get him on U's19 coaches. Shame his mental attributes isn't good.

EDIT: He wants 62K to be a coach when his contract is 52K p/w. Going to wait til end of the season and try again.

I also agree with you :D Definitely is mine to lose.

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Got back to playing my Inter save... in my third season in charge right now. Finished my second season in 2nd behind winners Napoli. We finished 15 pts off the pace. This season we're top of the table having won all 8 of our matches. We've scored 20 goals and only given up 4 goals in 8 matches. I think this team is going to run right through Serie A this season. The midfield duo of Kovacic and Verratti are amazing. The secret to my success however has been playing Nenad Kristicic as a regista. I've decided to build my team around a regista and so far it's working. I'll post more updates once I get to the winter window.

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I've been trying to decide between Francesco Bardi and Mattia Perin as my starting keeper, I sold Handanovic after he wouldn't sign anything but a huge multi-year extension, and frankly Bardi has been faultless. Through 8 matches (2 in the Champions League), Bardi has kept 6 clean sheets. It probably helps when you've got potentially the best back 3/4 in the world playing in front of him. (Marquinhos, Balanta, Astori, Dragovic, Peruzzi...)

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I've been trying to decide between Francesco Bardi and Mattia Perin as my starting keeper, I sold Handanovic after he wouldn't sign anything but a huge multi-year extension, and frankly Bardi has been faultless. Through 8 matches (2 in the Champions League), Bardi has kept 6 clean sheets. It probably helps when you've got potentially the best back 3/4 in the world playing in front of him. (Marquinhos, Balanta, Astori, Dragovic, Peruzzi...)

Have Bardi for my CL winning Celtic side (3rd season) and he is brilliant, you should go with him

Thinking about starting a Inter game, but is waiting for the January transferwindow update to come along

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I've been trying to decide between Francesco Bardi and Mattia Perin as my starting keeper, I sold Handanovic after he wouldn't sign anything but a huge multi-year extension, and frankly Bardi has been faultless. Through 8 matches (2 in the Champions League), Bardi has kept 6 clean sheets. It probably helps when you've got potentially the best back 3/4 in the world playing in front of him. (Marquinhos, Balanta, Astori, Dragovic, Peruzzi...)

Who did you sell Handanovic to?

I'm coming to the end of March fixtures so I will post up update :thup:

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March 2015 – Inter Milan

Serie A

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We started the month against Bologna. They always seems to play well against us. No surprise to see them playing 3-6-1 formation. We went behind on 37th minutes thanks to Diamanti's screamer which Handanovic had no chance of saving it. We just couldn't get going until Palacio pulled one back for us on 51 minutes to set up nervy finish. It was heading for a draw, until we took one last chance to get a winner, Belfodil took a shot which was deflected over which we gain corner kick. Kovačić took the corner which Balatna headed it in from middle of 6 yards box to grab 3 points for us \o/ I also got tad annoyed that we had 4 CCC.

We was really poor against Atlanta even tho we won 1-0. Their defence played their heart out against our team.

We travelled to Sassuolo, Murru some reason decided to gift them a goal on 2nd minute which got me angry. But thanks to Palacio equalising just a minute later :D McDonald Mariga put us ahead with a decent strike. It wasn't long til they equalised 5 minutes after we scored. Murru once again, conceded a stupid penalty, thanksfully Handanovic saved it so we go into half time 2-2. Schar grabbed two goals for us in second half from corner. Which put the game to bed, until they scored with 3 minutes left.

I will have what Christian Chivu having... Wow!! I decided to play Chivu as Murru was banned. Amazingly he's 34. He put us in front just under 60 seconds! with a beauty strike. We double our lead thanks to Belfodil on 19 minutes. Chivu put the ball into the net which was unfortunately was disallowed after being offside :D Nothing to report until 86th minutes that Chivu bagged another goal :D

Massively disappointed that we didn't beat Hiddink's AC Milan. We dominated from the start, AC Milan went ahead thanks to conversationally decision by the ref. Mario Balotelli put them ahead and we just couldn't get past them until Balatna scored a header from the corner on 73rd minutes. We should have won but Belfodil and Palacio was anonymous :( They only took 5 shots and only one shot landed which was the penalty. We took 16 and 7 was on target.

League table

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Champions League

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We was utterly pathetic with our 2nd leg. We scrapped through on away goals. But I have to praise Handanovic for saving TWO penalties in either half. We got Man Utd in Q-Final and first leg is at Old Trafford.

Transfers

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I have decided to bring this guy in, costing me 350K. I have lost my patience with Murru and he will be sold in the summer.

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March 2015 – Inter Milan

Serie A

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We started the month against Bologna. They always seems to play well against us. No surprise to see them playing 3-6-1 formation. We went behind on 37th minutes thanks to Diamanti's screamer which Handanovic had no chance of saving it. We just couldn't get going until Palacio pulled one back for us on 51 minutes to set up nervy finish. It was heading for a draw, until we took one last chance to get a winner, Belfodil took a shot which was deflected over which we gain corner kick. Kovačić took the corner which Balatna headed it in from middle of 6 yards box to grab 3 points for us \o/ I also got tad annoyed that we had 4 CCC.

We was really poor against Atlanta even tho we won 1-0. Their defence played their heart out against our team.

We travelled to Sassuolo, Murru some reason decided to gift them a goal on 2nd minute which got me angry. But thanks to Palacio equalising just a minute later :D McDonald Mariga put us ahead with a decent strike. It wasn't long til they equalised 5 minutes after we scored. Murru once again, conceded a stupid penalty, thanksfully Handanovic saved it so we go into half time 2-2. Schar grabbed two goals for us in second half from corner. Which put the game to bed, until they scored with 3 minutes left.

I will have what Christian Chivu having... Wow!! I decided to play Chivu as Murru was banned. Amazingly he's 34. He put us in front just under 60 seconds! with a beauty strike. We double our lead thanks to Belfodil on 19 minutes. Chivu put the ball into the net which was unfortunately was disallowed after being offside :D Nothing to report until 86th minutes that Chivu bagged another goal :D

Massively disappointed that we didn't beat Hiddink's AC Milan. We dominated from the start, AC Milan went ahead thanks to conversationally decision by the ref. Mario Balotelli put them ahead and we just couldn't get past them until Balatna scored a header from the corner on 73rd minutes. We should have won but Belfodil and Palacio was anonymous :( They only took 5 shots and only one shot landed which was the penalty. We took 16 and 7 was on target.

League table

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Champions League

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We was utterly pathetic with our 2nd leg. We scrapped through on away goals. But I have to praise Handanovic for saving TWO penalties in either half. We got Man Utd in Q-Final and first leg is at Old Trafford.

Transfers

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I have decided to bring this guy in, costing me 350K. I have lost my patience with Murru and he will be sold in the summer.

Hi John,

What skin is this?

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How did you manage to sell Honda for 19M O_O

I just finished S2, won championship + cup, all my players have had their values increased by a lot this season (for example Icardi was like 6M whole season by now he is estimated at 25M), teams are interested in Honda but they just offer me like 4 or 5M.. 19M how the hell !! He did a good season too, he had 22 games / 4 goals / 5 assists / 7.14

Currently playing early S3... Feels kinda weird, i had something like 60M to spend but I also had to end the co-ownership thing from Taider, Icardi and Ljajic (i had bought the co ownership last season cause Roma went down to Serie B..) and as I did a great season they're all estimated at a much higher price now I had to pay a lot for those 3.. Maybe not totally worth it but i'm sentimental and they've played well so far.. Oh well !

I'm playing a 4-3-3 and got huge victories.. Winning AC Milan 7-2 was one of the best time in the season :D

cheers!

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2nd Season as Inter boss Serie A & Champions League double narrowly missing a treble after a 2-1 Italian Cup Final defeat to Juventus

Current Squad

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Serie A Champions

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Champions League Winners

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Good to see you won the Champions League :cool:

Hi John,

What skin is this?

Steklo X4 :thup:

How did you manage to sell Honda for 19M O_O

I just finished S2, won championship + cup, all my players have had their values increased by a lot this season (for example Icardi was like 6M whole season by now he is estimated at 25M), teams are interested in Honda but they just offer me like 4 or 5M.. 19M how the hell !! He did a good season too, he had 22 games / 4 goals / 5 assists / 7.14

Currently playing early S3... Feels kinda weird, i had something like 60M to spend but I also had to end the co-ownership thing from Taider, Icardi and Ljajic (i had bought the co ownership last season cause Roma went down to Serie B..) and as I did a great season they're all estimated at a much higher price now I had to pay a lot for those 3.. Maybe not totally worth it but i'm sentimental and they've played well so far.. Oh well !

I'm playing a 4-3-3 and got huge victories.. Winning AC Milan 7-2 was one of the best time in the season :D

cheers!

He was valued at 11M on mine so I decided to offer him to clubs for 20M and they was the only club to come in for him and bid 19M.

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April 2015 – Inter Milan

Serie A

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We played Torino off the park, shame it wasn't more than 3. Pleased to see Duncan showing his worth for the team, will play him more next season.

We travel to Fiorentina, I was expecting a tough game which it was. We took the lead thanks to McDonald Margia's long shot outside the box which hit the post and went in. We should have double our lead but Belfodli's strike was disallowed. Mario Gomez found his way past our defence to equlise for Fiorentina on 61 minutes. Barbosa immediately grabbed a goal for us and thankfully it got us 3 points. Afterwards both sides was trying to score, thankfully it ended in 2-1 to us.

We welcome Pescara to our place, Decided to give Mitrovic his first start since coming back from injury. Only took him 6 minutes to grab his first goal. We conceded on 58 minutes due to fantastic individual goal by Pescara's Cutolo. Mitrovic grabbed his second goal right away. We failed to break them down until 20 minutes after they scored. Balatna's header found his way into the net to give us the lead :D

I was really confident of beating Chievo and the team didn't let me down by bashing them 3-1. Belfodil pounced on their mistake to score within first 15 seconds, we was awarded a penalty on 6th minutes which Palaico converted to double our lead. Palacio became a villain by conceding a penalty against us which they gracefully converted. Then he repaid us for his mistake by converting another penalty for us to grab 3 points for us, I'm disappointed the team didn't score more.

League table

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Champions League

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First leg loss really cost us, we conceded 3 goals from corner. We gave it a good go but just couldn't find the net on that day.

Second leg - I decided to switch from 4-1-3-2 to 3-4-1-2 and it did well for us by winning 2-1 but shame the team didn't take the chances for us.

I also stuck with 3-4-1-2 against Chievo and Pescara as well.

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nice one mate ! got dropped out from CL by Real on similar conditions : lost 2-0 first game, then won 2-1 but not enough to go through ! How does Crisetig and Marco Bennassi are doing on your save ? I'm starting to use them more and more in S3. Did you have any regens worthwile?

Benassi is currently on loan at Bari. Crisetig is still co-owned between us and Atlanta, but plays for them.

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All three came through the academy. Hoping they will get game time next season.

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May 2015 – Inter Milan

Serie A

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We faced Cataina at our place, We couldn't break them down until second half with a quick fire 2 goals thanks to Palacio and Mitrovic gets us 3 points.

We travel to Udinese and I was expecting a tough games but surprisingly it was walk in the park for us. Kovačić was brilliant and ran the show from the start.

Our last match of the season was home to Napoli, I decided to give Barbosa his start up front with Belfodil and Obi as ML. Both impressed me with grabbing a goal each. We conceded in added time of 90th minutes with Bojan grabbing a goal for them.

League table

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TIM Cup Final

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It was a bore fest. Thanks to wonder strike from Kovačić which won us the TIM Cup :cool:

Other news

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The board announced the new stadium :cool: Which will cripple our balance until 2035 /o\

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Would be silly not to.

Next season

Thinking about shifting some of our deadwood players out and release some youngsters that isn't good for the first team.

Might cash in on Belfodil as he's unhappy and is being chased by Dortmund and Arsenal.

Bring in new scouts and physio as other staff are retiring.

Play youngsters more.

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Hey,

I'm currently having a Napoli save but I'm winning everything very easily on that one and Inter looks like a tempting challenge to rebuild the squad and develop the youngsters.

How do the finances turn out? I see some of you are getting a new stadium just 2 seasons in which surprises me actually, considering Inter still has a huge debt at the start of the game.

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The finances are quite decent at the club, I had 103M in the bank which is now reduced to 62M due to the new stadium. I asked the board for new stadium which they refused and I leaked it to the press and they ended up planning for new stadium.

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Started a game with Inter today, never managed them before. Going to play a 5-3-2 (3 cbs, 2 wbs, 2 cms, 1 am, 2 strikers). Need to get more players in upfront, the squad seems short there. A lot of old players on high wages as well. Will post later after I've started the season/finished the transfer window.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I am playing with them. You start the season with around 6 million euros to play with but you have a few players that you can sell. At the end of the first season there are around 8 players going out of contract and if you let them go you will save around 25 million a year of wages. Thohir can be pretty reasonable in terms of budgets. I got 40 million in the first season and 70 million in the second season.

But to get those budgets I qualified for the champions league the first season and won the title in the second.

Has anyone been playing on the latest update with Inter? Are finances any better than they previously were? I always like a bit of money to play around with at the end of the first season.
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I am playing with them. You start the season with around 6 million euros to play with but you have a few players that you can sell. At the end of the first season there are around 8 players going out of contract and if you let them go you will save around 25 million a year of wages. Thohir can be pretty reasonable in terms of budgets. I got 40 million in the first season and 70 million in the second season.

But to get those budgets I qualified for the champions league the first season and won the title in the second.

Thanks for that, those budgets after the first season do look very tasty! Think I'll start a game up with them then, as they also have tons of quality youngsters out on loan which would be very interesting trying to integrate them into the first team!

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I ended up starting a game with Inter and I'm now at the end of October.

Budget wise, I thought I'd be cheeky and ask Thohir for more money, and he ended up giving me a £24m budget! As my starting squad was fairly complete, I just brought in Alberto Perea from Rayo as a backup winger, as he only cost me £500k and wanted £5k in wages.

I used most of the money to buy promising younger players and loan them back out to their clubs for the season, so I went about buying Martin Hinteregger and Andre Ramalho from RB Salzburg, two very promising centre backs. I also bought Marco Capuano from Pescara and a Brazilian CB called Bonfim from Cortiba.

I also brought in a very promising young striker called Josef Martinez from Young Boys, and finally I bought Sarabia from Getafe and Lass Bangoura from Rayo. Should have me sorted out for next season!

Now, to the league, I'm currently sat in 7th position. Napoli and Juventus are running away with the first two CL places, but 3rd placed Sampdoria are only 2 points off me, although my target is at least the Europa league, so not doing too badly at the minute! I've had some mixed results, beating some of the top teams such as Fiorentina, Roma and Napoli, and some awful results, losing 2-0 to Sampdoria and conceding two goals in the last 10 minutes to lost 2-1 to Livorno.

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So after getting Blackburn promoted in Season 1, and having them at a relatively safe mid table position at the end of November in 2014, Inter approached me for the job!

Now whilst I'm enjoying trying to return Blackburn to their former spot, an offer from Inter is just too big to turn down.

Unfortunately, my predecessor has left them in a bit of a state. Although the finances aren't too bad (The save was started prior to 14.3, so it's before Thohir took over) the squad looks like it has stagnated and nothing has been done to address it. I'm basically a Norwegian David Moyes in Italy.

Things to address:

* Starting league position: I've taken over the club with them in 14th position and only 15 points.

* European run: Under my predecessor we have qualified from our Champions League group with a game to spare. (Mainly thanks to a group containing the Albanian league winners!)

* The old timers are still here: Cambiasso, Zanetti, Samuel, Milito, Mudingayi & Campagnaro. Not necessarily a bad thing, but they are going to need to be replaced very soon.

* Hardly any Italian players in the First Team squad: Slightly worrying given European requirements, plus I like to have a core of native nationality players in my squad.

* Barebones in the fullback department: We have Nagatomo, Pereira, a 41 year old very declined Zanetti and a retiring 35 year old Campagnaro. Going to a back three would be a solution but I personally am not a fan and besides, we don't really have any wide midfielders either!

* Mediocre CMs: The Moyes comparison continues. Aside from (a very out of form) Kovacic and Guarin there isn't much to inspire in the centre of the park. Co-owns Taider and Ekdal look decent enough, but the rest are pretty meh.

* Poor staff distribution: I took over with only two First Team coaches, no Goalkeeping coach, far too many physios and and very Italian based scouting network.

The board have given me 19mil Euros for the upcoming January window, and I have 120k Euros p/w to play with in wages. Priority must be a non CL cup-tied RB and then to hopefully survive on the current squad until the summer and then deal with a probable raft of retirements. I've been given the target of at least reaching the Europa League this season, so it could only be a 6 month spell in charge!

I've only managed so far to bring in a couple of coaches, Rene Meulensteen and Udinese's GK coach, remove a couple of the weakest Scouts and play one game: An unfortunate 3-2 loss away to Genoa.

Interesting times ahead...

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I've had more of a chance to look at the squad and assess things now, though I've only played another 3 games.

I've got three tactics set up now; my default is a 4222, with a 4132 and a sort of lopsided 3142 to switch between as required. I've basically settled on a First XI too:

GK : Handanovic

DL : Pereira (CWB-A)

DC : Burdisso (D-D)

DC : Ranocchia (D-D)

DR : Zanetti (FB-S)

DMC : Cambiasso (A)

DMC : Ekdal (DM-S)

MC : Kovacic (AP-A)

MC : Guarin (BBM)

ST : Belfodil (CF-A)

ST : Milito (DLF-S)

Then if I switch to the 3142, Cambiasso drops into the centre of defence and Ekdal becomes a DLP-D in the DM position.

Results wise things have been a bit up and down. As mentioned we lost my first game in charge 3-2 away to Genoa. Since then we've scored two victories in the League, a 2-0 win over Torino and a very impressive 3-1 victory over Napoli (In which I was proud I got my tactics just right). Sandwiched between those two games was a frustrating 1-0 home loss to Galatasaray in the final CL group game - one of those games where you dominate, but they sneak a goal. Still, we were already through to the first knockout round where we have been drawn against Chelsea.

With regards personnel, as expected some announcements of retirements are coming through. Firstly Campagnaro, then Samuel, then Zanetti. I've offered U19 Coaching roles to the latter two; hopefully they will accept. I've tried to get Cambiasso and Milito to sign a years extension to their contracts, but they won't even enter discussions, so I'm resigned to losing them both in the summer. I've also made my first signing as Inter boss - Lorenzo De Silvestri for €475k. He was transfer listed by Fiorentina and will be my main DR/WBR for the rest of the season. Importantly, he's not cup-tied for the CL.

I have to say, just how awesome is Kovacic?! As an AP-A from the MC spot with the TI Roam From Position he is a total beast, drifting all over the place, finding space, pulling strings.

Finally, I've arranged a Winter Break friendly against Boca which will act as Cambiasso's testimonial.

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I cocked up slightly and hadn't spotted that I offered Zanetti a U19 Coaching only role and he's now retired half way through the season. I'm already in his Favoured Personnel though. :D

Do I stick with Campagnaro as back up, or do I go shopping for my second right back of the transfer window?

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I think he will have to suffice as backup until the summer when he retired. Luckily my tactics don't require my RBs to be especially gung ho.

Sadly all the youngsters you listed were on loan when I arrived. Cant wait for the squad rebuilding at the end if season (provided I keep my job).

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The chairman is generally pretty generous with job security (that said, I've not played on the new patch with Thohir!). Can Nagatomo/Pereira not play right back if the other is left back? Juan Jesus is reasonably quick in-game, he could possibly be retrained as a short-term option.

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  • 2 weeks later...

The two kids have been poorly the last couple of weeks, so my time has been limited, however things are starting to head in the right direction.

We're unbeaten in the league since the Genoa game the day I took over and have moved up to 6th, just 3 points out of the top three - its a close league this year apart from Juve.

I'm at the 1st of Feb, so have only the last day of the winter transfer window to complete. I'm very happy with the changes I've made to get us to the end of the season:

In

Lorenzo De Silvestre : €475k

Oriel Romeu : €675k

Cristiano Biraghi : €3.6m (End Co-own)

Saphir Taider : €2.4m (End Co-own)

Sergio Rodriguez (Regen) : €675k

I've also got Leonardo Capezzi arriving on a free in the Summer. Come the summer I will promote Duncan, Pasa, Benassi, Longo and Spendlhofer to the first team. Hopefully then, I'll just need to spend a little money on a top quality Anchorman type.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I've finally reached the end of the 2014/15 season and I think, given the position the club was in when I took over, we have done very well.

SerieA_OverviewStages_Cropped_zps7d899bda.png~original

As you can see, we managed to retain our place in the Champion's League, although annoyingly with the play-off to navigate first. We were actually top with four games to go after we destroyed Milan 3-0 (They had 4 shots, 1 on target), but a couple of goalless draws meant that we couldn't quite stay on top and despite stuttering terribly at the end, Juventus' goal difference was too great.

Still, I take great pride in the fact that we had the meanest defence in the league and that we only lost twice in the league since I took over.

Despite the success, this was definitely one of transition. The end of the careers of some luminaries has reached us: Zanetti is already an U19s coach now, Cambiasso has just become a Tactical coach with the First team. Milito and Samuel don't really have the stats to be coaches at the top level so they are leaving to pursue coaching elsewhere. But these are big players with big personalities and are going to be hard to replace.

In Europe, most of the action happened before I took over, but I was in charge for the First Knockout Round games against Chelsea. Sadly they were just too strong for us and we lost 1-0 in both legs. We also went out in Semi-Finals of the Italian Cup - one of thosegames, where nothing goes right and you end up losing without actually playing badly.

FCInternazionale_SquadPlayers-3_zpse42329ad.png~original

As you can see, the goals and assists were spread out reasonably well, although I think if we are going to push for more success next season, we could do with at least one of the strikers not having a long goalless spell: Icardi, Belfodil and Milito all went through 10+ games without scoring and Palacio suffered quite badly with injuries. I am concerned about the lack of strong personalities in the squad now, and I'm going to have to look carefully at the mental attributes of the team when dipping into the transfer market.

As mentioned in earlier posts, I've got a group of youngsters returning from loan and I'm going to plonk at least a couple straight into the first team: Duncan and Benassi are more than ready to take the step up and I would now like to promote at least one of Pasa and Spendlhofer to start getting first team opportunities. I already have have far too many centre backs so that's a further headache. I'm going to let Paletta and Silvestre leave for definite, and possibly Burdisso since Juan really stepped up his game in the latter stages of the season. As I'm dropping the idea of a back three (I will use a HB if necessary) that would leave me with Ranocchia, Juan, Pasa and Spendlhofer as my DCs. I'm not sure if that's too weak in depth?

I'm going to have a clear out of the midfield too, as there were several players just not getting any games and I rather start rotating younger players instead. Kucka has already agree a €1.7mil move to Sparta Prague and Mudingayi is retiring. I'm trying to move on Kuzmanovic, but his wages seem to be turning clubs away so far.

I have three transfers already lined up prior to the transfer window opening. As mentioned previously, I've got Leonardo Capezzi arriving on a free, and am spending €450k on a Czech regen. Finally, I've agreed a €10.5mil transfer of Christian Eriksen from Spurs. He was sat in the U21s not getting games, so he's perhaps not progressed as much as on some saves, but I think it's a gamble worth taking.

Finally, I thought I'd just share a couple of pics of a few of the more promising players in the Youth teams.

PiergiuseppeScarnato_OverviewAttributes_zps76aff3c3.png

SergioRodriacuteguez_OverviewAttributes_zps9763b344.png

IvanBaggio_OverviewAttributes_zpsabe27847.png

Scarnato was rated as a 4.5 potential up until the point at which he turned professional, so it's disappointing that he seems to have dropped slightly, although I'm still convinced he is going to be a great player. Baggio arrived in the last Youth Intake and was described by the HoYD as being one of the best players of his generation. Now looking at his stats I'm not convinced, but he does have a good spread of attributes in useful areas. Rodriguez was brought by my DoF and I think he's picked up a gem there, especially for less than €1mil; I think I'll try and give him a loan next season to acclimatize.

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Started an Inter save last night. Signed Santon for £11.8m (£2.8m upfront and £9m over 48mths) as well as Bellusci for £1.4m from Catania. The plan is to re-populate the side with Italians, then eventually only Inter youth academy players. THEN I want the Italy job and win the WC with a whole squad of players from the academy...

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Awesome, someone else posting in the Inter thread :)

Good luck with the save. I'm not sure if Biraghi is still co-owned in the last update, but if he is I can highly recommend him.

I should have a close season update to add soon (probably tomorrow when I'm able to get screenshots and have time to write).

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Time for the 2015/16 pre-season update.

I've reshaped the squad, settled on formations, got the training underway and starting putting things to test in friendlies.

Firstly, the squad. Most of the old timers have gone and the average age of the squad is much reduced. Cambiasso and Zanetti are now coaches, Samuel, Campagnaro, Milito, Mudingayi have all retired. Further more, I've stripped out the squad players who I thought either didn't have sufficient potential, were too expensive, or I wanted to move aside to let younger players get game time. The sales are as follows:

Eziquiel Schelotto :: €4.9mil (Ends co-ownership)

Zdravko Kuzmanovic :: €3.5mil

Gabriel Paletta :: €2.7mil

Juraj Kucka :: €1.7mil

Matias Silvestre :: €750k

Juan Pablo Carrizo :: Bosman

The board expect me to make a title challenge this year and have given me €57mil in transfer budget and €1.6mil in wages to achieve this, but I'm determined to try and only spend money when really necessary and try to bring through more youth players (if possible). My signings up to this point have been:

Andre Ayew :: €24mil

Christian Eriksen :: €10.5mil

German Lux :: €275k

Leonardo Capezzi :: Free

I'm taking a big gamble on Ayew. He's obviously a cracking winger and central midfielder, but I have a hunch that with his attributes, he can make an excellent forward. There was a big turn around in strikers this summer so the big guns were out in force and priced me out of my main targets.

I'm also gambling on Eriksen as he's basically lost a season due to injury, but his stats still look good and he has time to improve still, so hopefully €10 will be seen as a bargain.

Given that I am retraining Ayew and nursing Eriksen back to match fitness, their introduction to the team will be slow. I'm also welcoming back players from loans that will go into the first team: Spendlhofer, Pasa, Benassi and Duncan. At least initially, I will be using the players that I relied on last season with the exception of Cambiasso. Lack of Cup or European football after February meant I could use an almost unchanged First XI and that very nearly won us the league. My only concern about the squad is the DM position. I have one cultured player (Romeu) and two promising players (Duncan & Pasa), but I worry that I need someone who can stamp their mark on a game, like Cambiasso would. The main debate in my head is whether Pasa will ever develop sufficiently. If not, it's worth me spending some money bringing a Neustadter or (budget permitting) a Bender into the club.

The squad looks like this now:

GK: Handanovic / Bardi / Lux

Full backs: Pereira / Biraghi / Nagatomo / De Silvestri

Centre Backs: Ranocchia / Juan Jesus / Burdisso / Spendlhofer

DMs: Romeu / Duncan / Pasa

Centre Mids: Ekdal / Benassi / Taider / Guarin

AMCs: Kovacic / Eriksen

Forwards: Ayew / Icardi / Belfodil / Palacio

Tactically, I'm going to be sticking to three main formations. My primary formation will be a 41212, with a 4132 and 4312 to switch between depending on how the match progresses or the opponents line up. It is my intention to use a Half Back if I face teams which like to play with 3 up front (Genoa for example) or if I want to try and match a 352 type formation without rejigging my whole line up and losing familiarity. Key to the offence is the idea of the Golden Triangle - using the interplay between a Trequartista, Complete Forward (Support) and Advanced Forward to create lots of movement to break open defences and never have a single point of attack that can be negated.

Away from the pitch, the Finances are looking okay. Our sponsorship remained unchanged at €30mil per year and it has just been announced that we will receive €94mil in TV rights. With the reduced wage bill from Cambiasso and Milito retiring, we should hopefully start to see a more settled Balance, especially as I'm trying to promote from within.

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I will be following this MeesterCat, usually when I play FM I use a 4-1-3-2 & 4-3-1-2 but I have struggled pretty badly with FM14 so I'm hoping I can pick up some tips. When I use my 4-3-1-2 my front 3 are set up exactly like yours, I can't decide on my outer Midfield though if I should use 2 BBM or a CM-S & CM-A. How have you set your Midfield up?

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I'm still working on getting the balance right. At the moment I'm trying DLP-S CM-D BBM. I'm thinking the DLP down the left side as I use a CWB down that flank and I want to maintain structure and cover for the runs. The right full back is a WB-S, so I think a BBM might be a good choice, although possibly a CM-S with some PIs might work too.

I need to see how things go against better opposition and when tactical familiarity is a little better.

Edit: When I use the 4132 I intend to be a little more adventurous with my midfield. If I use a Half Back, the central MC will be a DLP to help link the defence and midfield. If the DM role is either a DM or Anchor, the central MC will probably be an MC-S. The other roles are likely to change depending on personnel and the opposition, but the left MC will be more defensive, again as cover for the CWB, whereas the right MC will have a more offensive flavour.

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Just took over Inter in May 2020 after 5 seasons with Celtic and 2 seasons with Benfica.

They finished 3rd and 8 points behind champions Juventus in Serie A in the season just finished and dismissed Roberto Mancini.

The squad is pretty strong currently and I'll be hoping to compete with Juventus for the league title.

I am looking to play a 4-3-1-2 with the option of switching to a back 3 some games which will be new for me but something I want to develop as a back-up tactic. The main tactic will look something like this based on the players currently at the club.

The club have won a few honours in the past 7 seasons and spent some big money:

Inter_zpsd74c2660.png

Consistently in the top 3 in the league apart from a disastrous first season, a Champions League triumph but serious under performing in other years so a lot to improve on.

Aims for my first season in charge will be top 3 in the league and hopefully get closer to Juventus as well as the Quarter finals of the Champions League as well as trying to bring through some youngsters and make the squad as Italian / Ar gentian as possible (for some reason I associate Italian clubs with Argentine players haha think its mainly due to Maradona at Napoli and Inter IRL with all their Argentines in recent years).

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DBurns, is there a reason behind using a FB-A instead of a WB-A? I have seen quite a few people lately using a FB-A with a WB-S on the other side, I usually play with 2 WB-S but I'm thinking of making one WB-A so was just wondering your reason behind it as I'm pretty poor when it comes to tactics lol.

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Welcome to the thread DBurns. That looks like a pretty decent squad you have there. It's a shame that only Kovacic and Handanovic of the starting squad is still there and that none of the promising youth players made the grade. Still hardly any Italian players too! (Though I'm doing as well as I'd hoped on that front either).

Did you start in 14.3? Because so far I've only seen about half of that transfer budget come my way (Moratti is still in charge).

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DBurns, is there a reason behind using a FB-A instead of a WB-A? I have seen quite a few people lately using a FB-A with a WB-S on the other side, I usually play with 2 WB-S but I'm thinking of making one WB-A so was just wondering your reason behind it as I'm pretty poor when it comes to tactics lol.

I actually stumbled on it by accident when playing with Newcastle in another save. I meant to use WB-A but instead selected FB-A and the results were great so I stuck with it and had good success with it. I then read a great thread by JDownie in the Tactics forum about his 4-3-3 where he explained the benefits of it better than I ever could:

RB - Fullback/Attack - I want to see the RB overlapping the AMR and supporting him whilst also looking to get in decent crosses. Having said that, I still want my RB to be defensively solid. I feel that FB/A offers better defensive cover than either a WB/A or CWB/A and so I have gone for the FB/A because defensive stability should never be compromised.

LB - Wingback/Support - Like my RB, I want to have my LB be defensively solid. At the same time, I do not want him to be purely focussed on defence and so a Wingback role will grant him the freedom to get forward enough to support my AML properly. One great little thing I have noticed in my time playing FM14 is that a WB/S absolutely loves to get into the opposition's third and play beautiful through balls for the man he is supporting. An additional method of playing in the AML is always welcome.

Welcome to the thread DBurns. That looks like a pretty decent squad you have there. It's a shame that only Kovacic and Handanovic of the starting squad is still there and that none of the promising youth players made the grade. Still hardly any Italian players too! (Though I'm doing as well as I'd hoped on that front either).

Did you start in 14.3? Because so far I've only seen about half of that transfer budget come my way (Moratti is still in charge).

Yes its 14.3.1 on this game as far as I can remember, haven't been on this save in a while.

Kovacic looks unbelivably good and still only 26, team will be built around him for sure in the trequarista role at AMC.

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I returned to FM14 after a break and started a save with Inter.

It seems the current team (14.3 update) lends itself to some sort of a 5-4-1. I wanted to play a 5-3-2 version but there's only 3 strikers available with Milito injured in the beginning.

So I settled on these two main formations:

3-3-2-1-1:

--------GK--------

---CD--CD--CD----

WB-----DM-----WB

---CM------CM----

--------AM--------

--------ST--------

I'm playing that one on standard and more possession oriented. Slow probing build up from the back.

3-1-4-1-1:

--------GK--------

---CD--CD--CD---

--------DM-------

WM--CM--CM---WM

--------AM--------

--------ST--------

I'm playing this one on attacking, pushing up, lots of pressing, trying to win back the ball quickly and then scoring.

I played through the pre-season and the first three Serie A games against Cagliari, Udinese, and Napoli - Win, Draw, and Loss.

The squad looks good except for the strikers and possibly the WB/WM.

I will keep you updated on the progress.

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