FM14: Chelsea F.C. - The Happy Ones...We Hope

[tcoleman1]

Have to say I rage quit earlier

Lost 4-0 to Arsenal after a couple of farcical goals. Their 2nd was the highlight though. For some reason somebody back headed it straight to Giroud but the keeper ran off towards the side of the box and he just tapped it in. Also left pretty annoyed with the fact that everytime any of my players got a chance they would hit it straight at the goalkeeper when to either side would easily score. Either that or a shot from the edge of the box that goes wide in exactly the same place every time.

Will probably start a new save in the future but something I have realised with FM is that I get way to into it when I have a save going. Need to take a break for a bit

[JackJCFC]

Just finished my 4th season and it's the 3rd season in a row without a trophy. Still got a new contract though

In the league we finished 3rd again with 78 points, 8 points behind City in 1st and 1 behind Newcastle who had an incredible first half to the season to end up at the top, i still don't know how they done it with Dave Jones as manager! We did have some great form in the new year, losing just once in the run 2017 which i was quite proud of. We were the top scoring team with 83 goals but this time we shipped 44, just can't quite seem to get the balance right for the most part, although the 6-0 against Wolves didn't help!

In the domestic cups there wasn't really much to shout about, we lost 2-1 to Stoke in the 4th round of the Capital One Cup and 2-1 to Sunderland in the 3rd round of the FA Cup which was pretty poor considering they're a Championship team.

We done much better in the Champions League, breezing through the group stage against Anderlecht, Valencia and Sparta Prague. We beat Fenerbache in the 1st Knockout round 5-1 then Spurs on away goals after drawing 3-3 over both legs. We then faced PSG in the semis but we suffered a 1-0 away defeat in the first leg and only managed to draw 1-1 at home which knocked us out.

Player wise i'm quite happy with the team, although defensively we could be upgraded in all areas. I signed a future World Class Chilean striker from Espanyol for 3.4million as well as a promising young RB from Bournmouth for 12 million but he went on loan in January as he wasn't a good enough backup. In his place i signed Vrsaljko who should do the job as backup to Azpi until the other guy is developed enough to step in. In terms of out goings, i finally let Cech and Ivanovic go as they were both feeling the effect's of age and quite simply weren't worth the wages they were on. Torres also left on a free to Championship Aston Villa as i hadn't been able to sell him during the past few years. Youngsters like Baker, Christensen and Piazon also left on frees as they were never going to make the grade at the club, although Baker did have a pretty decent season at Everton.

My love for Boga continues to grow this year as well, he put in some amazing performances in some pretty big matches. In total he got 13 goals and 6 assists making his the clubs joint 2nd top scorer which is pretty good going for the 20 year old.

[essien_5]

I think he was hardcoded to join Bayern in the Beta or earlier patch but isn't anymore.

Hmmm, Steam is saying that I am up to date but looking at the editor he is still set to join Bayern.

Anyone have any idea why this might be?

[NRH]

Hmmm, Steam is saying that I am up to date but looking at the editor he is still set to join Bayern.

Anyone have any idea why this might be?

Weird. Perhaps head over to the supportforum and ask there? Would imagine you aren't the only one with this bug/problem.

[tcoleman1]

Tempted to start a new Chelsea save tbh. Really didn't get into the last one for various reasons and I rushed my tactics without really thinking how I wanted to play.

[Galvanize]

Here's my Chelsea side for the start of the 2016/17 season:

Formation: 5-4-1

First off, i've decided to go with this formation even though I have two more than capable wingers. This is mainly because of the FB bug that's floating around. I get it some games, then they play out of their skin in others. I thought i'd compromise and change formations, allowing the wingbacks to flourish whilst keeping stability at the back and attacking prowess further up the pitch.

GK: Courtois / Ramasco

Courtois is, and will be, my first choice GK for years to come. PSG, Real Madrid and Barcelona have been sniffing around for him, but he won't be going for anything less than £35m. Ramasco was a £975k purchase last season and will primarily feature in the Capital One Cup, FA Cup and Club World Championships.

CB: Vranic / Jimenez

CB: Balanta / Terry / Jackson

CB: Inigo Martinez / Magee

Vranic - Balanta - Martinez is the first choice three, all are comfortable on the ball and defend well. Terry's still kicking around so he'll be tutoring Jackson to hopefully bring his attributes up a bit. Jimenez is out on loan this season to give him more game time and Magee came through our youth ranks so i'll be trying to give him a lot of game time.

WBR: Reymond / Apaza

WBL: Iriate / Bowland / Cuevas

Reymond's now the first choice on the right after Azpilicueta was sold to PSG, with Apaza being out on loan. Iriate can cover both flanks which is a plus and Cuevas is now third choice after Silva was sold. Bowland's been put in here as i'm retraining him here because I don't want to lose out on his ability. He'll be first choice AML in other formations.

CM: Petcoff / Chalobah

CM: Illarramendi / Capoue / Lampard

The two in the middle consist of a Box to Box midfielder (Petcoff/Chalobah) and a Deep Lying Playmaker (Illarramendi/Capoue/Lampard). Tatters/Gomez might occasionally drop into CM but it will largely be those five above.

AMC: Mata / Oscar / Depay

AMC: Tatters / Hazard / Rodrigo Gomez

Depay, Hazard and Gomez are primarily wingers, but I can see them doing a comfortable job from AMC. They could all potentially play upfront also, but as you can see from below, there's a bit of a pecking order there. Gomez on a free is insane really too.

ST: Lukaku / Ibrahimovic / Althaus / Paveley

Lukaku is obviously first choice and Ibrahimovic provides adequate cover whilst still being quite good. Althaus and Paveley will get lesser Prem games, FA Cup games and C1 Cup games but i'm not sure if they'll ever get ahead of Lukaku unless I sell him.

The rest of the U21's include: Joyce / Harrington / Musonda / Davies / Lonoce / Davis / Okoro / Farley-Hearn / Morris / Keehan.

The majority of those are out on loan, otherwise they'll only play in C1C games only.

[JackJCFC]

Tatters is insane for 17!!

[rGade]

Just finished pre-season and my first month in the league[/url], and it's gone quite well! Winning the Super Cup v Bayern was very satisfying, I seem to have found a tactic that works for my Chelsea team.

I'm also very happy with my transfers, offloading Ramires for £51M enabled me to buy a few quality players and keep a profit through the window. Tried to sell Ba and Torres as well, but no one came in.

[Bracken]

Some fantastic regens you've got there Galvanize, they're going to be immense when they hit their peaks, Tatters in particularly (and a great name too)

Sorry you haven't been able to get into the game yet tcoleman1, hopefully when they release the new patch that will help.

Good start so far rGade and some great transfer business there. I actually found Ba to be my best striker (until I brought in Lewndowski in January) so that might end up being a blessing. Torres, however, seems pretty crap for me.

All going well on my game, top of the league and unbeaten so far into March, with the Capital One Cup in the bag and a nice easy draw with Basel in the CL. We were squeezing wins and draws out at the beginning of the season, but we've now really hit our stride, Lewandowski was a big part of that brought in for £6m in January, but also a slight change in style has lead to a much more fluid attacking style and some good goals scored. I doubt we'll remain unbeaten as the season goes on, as we've got quite a few tough games yet to play, but we're looking very good for the title at 11 points clear right now, and hopefully we can wrap that up and concentrate on the CL and FA Cup, we'll see. I'll update properly at the end of the season.

[kamikaze_josh]

I've just started my Chelsea save. I know I'm in the minority, but it'll be a delight to see Jose Mourinho's name no longer associated with the club - no more controversy and hopefully good, attacking football from now on!

I intend to set the team up in a 3-3-1-3, with alternates (2-3-2(or 4-1)-3, 4-1-2(or 2-1)-3) depending on the spare man principle. These systems are based largely on totaalvoetbal and Bielsian priniciples - sweeper keeper, high line, plenty of pressing, taking the initiative and building from the back but also playing vertical balls as soon as the chance arises. I've been a big fan of Marcelo Bielsa's ideas for 5 or 6 years and clearly his influence on many coaches seems to grow by the day. It goes without saying that the work of Michels, Cruyff, van Gaal (although I'm yet to be convinced by LvG, even if his 3-3-1-3 was a thing of beauty) etc at Ajax (as well as that of Maslov and Lobanovskyi further East) were highly successful and has also influenced such luminaries as Pep Guardiola. Having been at Wembley on Friday and seen Sampaoli's Bielsista style at first hand as Chile (my favourite international team for a good few years now) overran England, I'm keen to give it another go on FM. The problem in the past has been that it's been very difficult to set up a team in this way (apart from FM11, I think, where I got something similar to work with Barcelona, although this seems more realistic), but from my early tests on FM14 it seems possible. Here are the average position / heat map and team sheet from the friendly I just played:

The Wingers/Inside Forwards can also be positioned deeper as AML/Rs, the AP pushed forward to an AMC rather than an MC and the Complete Forward can be a False Nine. With the wingers slightly deeper and a slight reconfiguration of the centrebacks, it's almost the perfect triple diamond. At half time, before I changed system to counter their switches, we were 5-0 up away from home, had 70% possession and 21 - 1 on shots. The 3-1 almost forms a diamond in midfield in possession and are key to the system - the wingbacks in particular are important in pinning back the opposition. I shouldn't get too excited, it's only a friendly against Chivas USA, but the style, possession and average positions are very promising. It's the first time that I've ever been able to get the heat map to resemble a 3-3-1-3. Hopefully it'll work in the season proper! I'll post some more detailed descriptions of tactics and instructions once I've fine tuned things and got into the season.

Does anybody have any suggestions for players to fit the system? One key position will be in goal - I need somebody who is great as a sweeper keeper and distribution. Apart from that, versatility, good passing, decisions, first touch, composure, stamina, team work and work rate are going to be important. I'd appreciate any other attributes to add to that list too. Sorry to ramble on! I'll report back soon with some more sound observations once I've played a few games. Good luck with your saves.

[Luke.Graham@hotmail.com]

Starting a new one and actually going to actively attempt to play posession and attacking football. Gotten use to a lot of the matchengine so should be a better save. Bloody Torres being underrated on this game is annoying

[tcoleman1]

Right, the new save is loading now. After my pretty nightmare game before this will be my long-term Chelsea save. Going to make sure that I sort my tactics out early though as that was my downfall before. I am planning to play 4-2-3-1 but currently undecided as to the instructions. I might try and adopt a short, quick passing game where I try and catch the opponent out with the speed of my play.

No idea what I am going to do transfer wise but will probably do something similar to last time. Timo Werner is likely to come in as I do like the look of him.

Edit - so I start my new game and my first two games of the season are away. Against Arsenal and then Liverpool

Extra edit - scratch that, forgot to make the German national team not greyed out so have to start again.

[Bracken]

Well kamikaze_josh, while I can't agree with your thoughts about Jose, your tactic certainly is interesting and could work very well, will make you hard to break down and give you a lot of space to play in up front. I'll be interested to see how it gets on and I'll let you know if I can think of any players to fit the style.

Good luke Luke.Graham@hotmail.com, I agree Torres has been significantly nerfed on this one, seems somewhat harsh really. I think there's a bug around the board promise for possession football, so no matter how well you do it, the board are never satisfied, but it shouldn't have a big impact on your save I hope.

Hope this save goes better than the last tcoleman1, and you've just reminded me I forgot to fix the greyed out German teams on my save. Damn

[rGade]

Well, this result (I know it's in Danish, but you can figure out what I'm pointing at) has really been the story of my Chelsea career so far. I am currently undefeated in the league so far (13 games played) but not scoring much at all.

Lewandowski on 4 goals and 0 assists after having played 13 full league games. I have no idea how to get him to perform, I've seen him miss chances from 2 yards multiple times. Have any of you had any success getting your striker to score in a 4-2CM-3-1 formation?

On the other hand, Insigne has stolen the show with 5 goals and 5 assists in 13 league games from the AMR spot, which I'm really pleased with!

[Bracken]

Well, this result (I know it's in Danish, but you can figure out what I'm pointing at) has really been the story of my Chelsea career so far. I am currently undefeated in the league so far (13 games played) but not scoring much at all.

Lewandowski on 4 goals and 0 assists after having played 13 full league games. I have no idea how to get him to perform, I've seen him miss chances from 2 yards multiple times. Have any of you had any success getting your striker to score in a 4-2CM-3-1 formation?

On the other hand, Insigne has stolen the show with 5 goals and 5 assists in 13 league games from the AMR spot, which I'm really pleased with!

Ouch that's probably one of the harshest I've seen. I do think it's more difficult in this FM to feed a one striker in that formation than it has been previously. My advice is focus your match preparation on getting your tactic fluid, and then on attacking movement, and hopefully you'll see some benefit. I play Lewnadowski as a DLF (Support) with no other instructions and that's worked for me, he gets much more involved in play but still gets on the end of chances, and seems to find himself with a bit more time and space, rather than being bunched up against the centre backs or running too far beyond them.

[rGade]

Ouch that's probably one of the harshest I've seen. I do think it's more difficult in this FM to feed a one striker in that formation than it has been previously. My advice is focus your match preparation on getting your tactic fluid, and then on attacking movement, and hopefully you'll see some benefit. I play Lewnadowski as a DLF (Support) with no other instructions and that's worked for me, he gets much more involved in play but still gets on the end of chances, and seems to find himself with a bit more time and space, rather than being bunched up against the centre backs or running too far beyond them.

Took your advice and played Lewandowski as a DLF (s), and he scored for the first time in 11 hours. Let's hope he can get on a streak now!

[Bracken]

Took you advice and played Lewandowski as a DLF (s), and he scored for the first time in 11 hours. Let's hope he can get on a streak now!

Excellent! Glad to be able to help. I'll probably post my new, updated tactic at the end of my season so you'll be able to see exactly how I'm playing him too.

[tcoleman1]

Anybody bought Muriel on their save? Was trying to get Huntelaar in as a top class striker who will only be around for a couple of seasons but don't fancy paying that much for him. Muriel though could be a good long-term option to rotate with Lukaku when he comes back. Has 4 star potential and some very good all round attributes for a striker.

Doing a lot better on this game now I have managed to sort out the pretty ridiculous drop in morale (high bonuses fixed this). I am playing a 4-2-3-1 formation with short, high tempo passing (apart from the attacking 3/striker who play direct). This seems to work a lot better as I keep the ball a lot through the defence/midfield and then when it gets up front they don't **** around with it.

Couple more match engine annoyances though. I find some wingers just wander past my strikers, for one goal my keeper decided to step to the right for no reason to leave an open net and players just decide marking is totally overrated/pointless and don't do it

Edit - was looking at that 16 year old Brazilian Barbosa but his greedy little agent wants £3.4million for his 40% stake. The offer I had accepted was £1mill up front. Then £1mill each for 50 leagues apps, 50 league goals and 20 international apps. Not such a good deal nearly £5mill now considering I bought Werner for about that.

[Santa Claus]

Anyone got Khedira and how did he perform?

[tcoleman1]

I think this version of the game just hates me

So I beat Southampton away 1st game of the season 3-1, very good win tbf. Next I have West Ham away which will be difficult but dominate then (miss a lot of chances) and end up conceding an unlucky goal. Not too hard to take though as we only drew. Next game Norwich at home. I completely controlled the game for the entire match. I had so many chances yet all my players could do was pass it to the keeper. Then Lampard get's a 2nd yellow, I get dominated and they score a goal in the 82nd minute to win 1-0. I don't get it at all, my team always play well but just miss easy chances. Muriel played and was injured 10 minutes in which doesn't help and also Hazard has been terrible in the first 3 games of the season.

The transfer system on this can **** off as well. Nobody even wanted Torres on loan for a season with no fee and no wages. Just wouldn't happen.

[rGade]

Anyone got Khedira and how did he perform?

Bought him in a previous Chelsea save, he wasn't great, but the same could be said about the tactic I was using. Probably depends on the price you're paying for him. I believe I got him for ~£16M, and his rating was averaging around 6.80.

If you get him on a good deal and a decent tactic I'd say go for it, as there aren't many cheap quality alternatives out there (at least ones I like).

[JackJCFC]

Just finished my th season, finally managed to win a trophy even if it was only the Capital One Cup .

In the league we had a poor start, losing 4 out of the first 8 matches, all of which were away. We only lost 2 more matches for the rest of the season and finished on 84 points, 4 behind United in 1st which isn't too bad when we were 15 points behind with 8 games left. We were the top scorers in the league with 93 goals and conceded 33. Lukaku got the golden boot with 23 goals in 35 games. Azpi and Hazard were both high up on the assists leader board too with 15 and 13 respectively. Hazard went on to win Players' Player of the year with 11 goals 13 assists. My deep lying playermaker Ronaldo won Young Player of the Year. We also had Hazard, Shaw, Subotic, Ronaldo and Azpilicueta in the team of the year.

We won the Capital One cup as mentioned, beating United in the final 2-0 which was pretty satisfying. We lost in the 6th Round of the FA Cup to Man City as the run of constant games started to catch up with us.

Champions League wasn't great for us this year either. We came 2nd in a group with Valencia, Celtic and PSV. In the first knockout round we had Marseille and won the first home leg 3-2. In the away leg we took a 1-0 but conceded 3 goals in the final 10 minutes to crash out.

[Santa Claus]

Bought him in a previous Chelsea save, he wasn't great, but the same could be said about the tactic I was using. Probably depends on the price you're paying for him. I believe I got him for ~£16M, and his rating was averaging around 6.80.

If you get him on a good deal and a decent tactic I'd say go for it, as there aren't many cheap quality alternatives out there (at least ones I like).

Thanks. As an alternatives, I'm considering De Rossi and Matic, although De Rossi is a little more expensive.

[JackJCFC]

Just let a 27 year old Schurrle leave on a free and he went to Southampton who just went down to the Championship. He's not that bad!

[Bracken]

Just finished my th season, finally managed to win a trophy even if it was only the Capital One Cup .

In the league we had a poor start, losing 4 out of the first 8 matches, all of which were away. We only lost 2 more matches for the rest of the season and finished on 84 points, 4 behind United in 1st which isn't too bad when we were 15 points behind with 8 games left. We were the top scorers in the league with 93 goals and conceded 33. Lukaku got the golden boot with 23 goals in 35 games. Azpi and Hazard were both high up on the assists leader board too with 15 and 13 respectively. Hazard went on to win Players' Player of the year with 11 goals 13 assists. My deep lying playermaker Ronaldo won Young Player of the Year. We also had Hazard, Shaw, Subotic, Ronaldo and Azpilicueta in the team of the year.

We won the Capital One cup as mentioned, beating United in the final 2-0 which was pretty satisfying. We lost in the 6th Round of the FA Cup to Man City as the run of constant games started to catch up with us.

Champions League wasn't great for us this year either. We came 2nd in a group with Valencia, Celtic and PSV. In the first knockout round we had Marseille and won the first home leg 3-2. In the away leg we took a 1-0 but conceded 3 goals in the final 10 minutes to crash out.

Congrats on the cup, Ronaldo looks freaking incredible!!

[JackJCFC]

I've had him since he was 18 but after 2 and a half seasons he couldn't push Ward-Prowse or Evangeslista out of the team so i sent him to Fluminense for 6 months and he tore their league apart. Recalled him over the summer and he was always one of the first names on the team sheet. At 6' 4" he's a real threat in the air too so him and Chalobah in front of my defense usually works pretty well against the long ball teams.

[Footymanagerfan]

wanyama is amazing as BWM! I also found mata average considering his value

[tcoleman1]

So I'm coming back to my FM save today. Hopefully my season will pick up. No luck selling Torres to anybody not even on a free so managed to patch it up with him and he's happy to stay. Probably won't be when he doesn't play for ages but we will see. Demba Ba has gone on loan to Atletico for 22k a month and 100% wages. Not great but got him off the wage bill and will get around £200k for him over the year. Hoping he does well so I can get some actual money for him. I have decided not to send anyone out on loan yet (apart from a few weaker youngsters and Werner) as I am going to tutor them and watch them in the u21s/18s.

I have Sunderland at home in the league next and I really need a win and a few goals really. Started off the season with 1 win, 1 draw and 1 terrible loss at home to Norwich and most other teams have started well. I am finding I just don't finish off chances very well so will try and tweak things a bit. I am a bit gutted I can't replicate Mourinho's home league record as I only lasted one home game before losing but I am sure there will be other records to have.

Also getting very unlucky with Mata. He has just come back from a 3 week injury to be called up to the Spain squad. Now he comes back and is out for another 6-7 weeks getting injured in training. So unlucky. Actually just seen it was in the match, he scored for Spain then got injured. Don't remember having an option for him to be removed/play 45 mins though so bit annoyed they played him as he was just about back from injury.

Dear god, I wish I could post just once in this thread without it being a moan. Chelsea save #2 is deleted, I just cannot win at this game. I totally dominate every team that I play yet they will score some pathetic goal. I know I can go to the tactics forum but I don't think I should need to spend 3 hours tinkering with some tactics for players to put away a chance. I can't play this game again until the match engine is better. I never usually moan about it but when I see 4 players head over the bar from in front of the goal and Schurrle be clean through on goal to pass it wide, I think there is no point in carrying on.

[Benoit2]

Dear god, I wish I could post just once in this thread without it being a moan. Chelsea save #2 is deleted, I just cannot win at this game. I totally dominate every team that I play yet they will score some pathetic goal. I know I can go to the tactics forum but I don't think I should need to spend 3 hours tinkering with some tactics for players to put away a chance. I can't play this game again until the match engine is better. I never usually moan about it but when I see 4 players head over the bar from in front of the goal and Schurrle be clean through on goal to pass it wide, I think there is no point in carrying on.

Rest assured its not just you The match engine definately needs a lot of improvement still, particularly offensively.

[Bracken]

I feel your pain tcoleman1, even though I'm having success there are just so many frustrating bugs that make it difficult to feel immersed in the game. My personal bug bear is wingers getting the byline, with nobody around them, and punting it back to someone lurking outside the area instead of crossing to the unmarked striker. It's just so frustrating. I've managed to get through my first season and plan on spending quite a while on the post and pre-season part so that hopefully the ME update will be out by the time I get to the new season.

[tcoleman1]

Glad it's just not me. I rarely rage quit but I just didn't feel I had any control at all. The crossing on the game is annoying though. The thing that gets me is you see the player has an easy opportunity to cross but they stop turn out, pass it to the closest player who plays it across the box and someone has a weak shot at goal. This happens every time.

[danm2501]

Surprised you guys are struggling so much. I've started as Chelsea. Played 8 league games, won 7 drawn 1. Scored 26, conceded 3. I've beaten City, Liverpool and Spurs, and my one draw came against Arsenal. Beat Bayern in the Euro Super Cup 1-0, and smashing the Champions League with 2 easy wins. David Luiz has 8 league goals, Demba Ba has done well, and then Hazard, Willian, Azpilicueta and Mata have been exceptional. Can't wait for Lukaku and Courtois to come back, going to have an incredible team.

[rGade]

Surprised you guys are struggling so much. I've started as Chelsea. Played 8 league games, won 7 drawn 1. Scored 26, conceded 3. I've beaten City, Liverpool and Spurs, and my one draw came against Arsenal. Beat Bayern in the Euro Super Cup 1-0, and smashing the Champions League with 2 easy wins. David Luiz has 8 league goals, Demba Ba has done well, and then Hazard, Willian, Azpilicueta and Mata have been exceptional. Can't wait for Lukaku and Courtois to come back, going to have an incredible team.

I don't really struggle getting 3 points when I really need them. I struggle more getting my players to really perform. I scrape home victories often times, and the game's just not enjoyable at all to me. Managed to finish my first season as Chelsea, where I won the Premier league and the Champions league, with only a couple of improvements, but I found the game dull, as my players would usually be crap and take 30+ shots for me to win 1-0. I'd have 25+ shots every game no matter who I played against, and the opponent would mostly have less than 5, but even with that difference, I drew 13 league games that season, often times the end result would look like this.

[danm2501]

What formation are you using? I go with this:

Check the Average Ratings for Luiz, Azpilicueta, Ramires, Willian, Mata, Hazard and Torres/Ba. Been working exceptionally well. Absolutely dominated every game I've played. Bayern had absolutely nothing for me, dominated the game, should have won 3 or 4-0.

[kamikaze_josh]

Surprised you guys are struggling so much. I've started as Chelsea. Played 8 league games, won 7 drawn 1. Scored 26, conceded 3. I've beaten City, Liverpool and Spurs, and my one draw came against Arsenal. Beat Bayern in the Euro Super Cup 1-0, and smashing the Champions League with 2 easy wins. David Luiz has 8 league goals, Demba Ba has done well, and then Hazard, Willian, Azpilicueta and Mata have been exceptional. Can't wait for Lukaku and Courtois to come back, going to have an incredible team.

How has David Luiz scored 8 goals in 8 games?! Have you found a secret, is he on set pieces or just a lucky start?

[danm2501]

Just a lucky start I guess. I've done any tweaking of how the set pieces are taken, he just seems to be banging them in from corners. He now has 11 in 16 in the league, and an average rating of 7.94, he's been pretty awesome.

[Bracken]

Just a lucky start I guess. I've done any tweaking of how the set pieces are taken, he just seems to be banging them in from corners. He now has 11 in 16 in the league, and an average rating of 7.94, he's been pretty awesome.

Have a look at his instructions, usually one of the CB's will be set to Attack Near Post, which is sadly exploiting a glitch in the current match engine. It's really frustrating, as the AI will exploit it (obviously unknowingly) but I always feel like cheating if I have anyone set to near posts at the minute, when usually that's that I prefer to do

[andrewfx]

Who has everyone replaced Lampard with?

[JackJCFC]

Who has everyone replaced Lampard with?

Ward-Prowse for me.

[Bracken]

Who has everyone replaced Lampard with?

Only in the second season, but MvG and Chalobah have been great as DLP's for me when I don't play Frank.

[Katone0]

I've just finished my 1st season with Chelsea in this FM. Although I've won CL, FA cup and C1C, I'm very annoyed with the present engine and I think I'm going to drop my career until fixes come out. But enough of moaning. Let's talk about the season.

Transfers

As you can see, at the beginning of the game I was rather cautious on transfer market. I've tried to bring Lewandowski, but City snapped him for a 26.5M £, so I've decided to invest my dough in hot prospects.

And it turned out to be a great idea:

Balanta/And his amazing development

Doria, who became my main DC choice/And his not so impressive progress

Marco Veratti / Development

I won't show rest because they aren't that impressive right now, but they'll get their minutes in next season for sure.

Let's go through the competitions.

Premier League was the biggest struggle. I've finished second, because of two draws at the end of my campaign. For the most of the season I thought that Tottenham will win the league as they were on 15(!!!) win in a row streak, but at the end United took the lead and both me and AVB were powerless.

At least there was an opportunity for retaliation in CL finals:

I've also won C1C vs City (humiliatted them by winning 3:0) and FA Cup vs Southampton (1:0)

And a quick summary of my squad statistics:

[Bracken]

Right, I kept meaning to update on my save and now I've finally got some time to do it. I've actually finished two seasons now, but here's the first for starts and I'll do the second later on (I hope!)

First Season

Transfers:

I brought in Eliaquim Mangala and Sven Bender at the start of the season for £9.25m and £13m, Bender providing some much needed stability and cover in the centre of midfield, with Mangala brought in to become my long term replacement for John Terry.

Out went Essien and Mikel for decent fees of £6m and £19.5m respectively, and that financed the rest of my transfer dealings really.

In January, after being disappointed by the number of goals from my strikers, I went out and shelled out £6m for Lewandowski, which turned out to be money very well spent.

The League

We won it very comfortably in the end. Although our football wasn't fluid, particularly in the early part of the season, we were very hard to beat. We were unbeaten until we'd already secured the title, and then we put in our first horror show at Southampton and lost 4-0. I'd like to say it was a reserve team but it wasn't, we were just awful. Still, a great points total and distance to Spuds in second place, even if we weren't playing as well going forward as I would've liked. The underperformance of Arsenal was good to see, but the real surprise was Liverpool, who were in the relegation zone after around 23 games, sacked Brendan Rogers and brought in Mancini who turned them around fairly well.

Capital One Cup

We had an easy ride right the way through the competition, facing Stoke in the final where we won it 2-0 with a nice easy performance.

FA Cup

Out in the 6th round to Newcastle. We lost 1-0 at home, it was a really poor performance and we got exactly what we deserved.

Champions League

A really tough group (exactly mirroring Arsenal's this season in real life) and we made it through but not without a couple of defeats to Dortmund and Marseille. We drew Basel (grrr) in the next round and managed to lose the first leg but came through comfortably at home. We got Real Madrid in the next round, and despite a really good 2-1 win at home we got destroyed 4-1 in Madrid and so out we went. The CL really demonstrated to me the weaknesses in my tactics, and so I had a good rethink for next season.

Overall Thoughts

We started out ok, grinding out wins but never particularly hitting top gear, a lot of that due to the inability of my strikers to find any consistent form. Demba Ba proved the most effective for me int he first half of the season, but due to me being a moron he wasn't registered for the CL until January, meaning we really struggled through the group stages.

We were better after the arrival of Lewandowski in January, but never particularly outstanding. I felt like I never really got to grips with my tactics in the first season, part of that was probably me tinkering too much, and there was an element of the problems of the ME, but the football just wasn't good enough for me, and this lasted well into the second season as well.

On the individuals front, Lewandowski finished as top scorer, despite only coming in January, with 21 goals. Ba was second with 12, which shows how much we struggled for goals. After that it was much of a muchness, with everyone chipping in with around 5 or 6 goals, Hazard managed 9 with Oscar, Mata, Lampard and Shcurrle on 8, nice to see them shared around, but some of those numbers really should be higher.

Hazard was the standout player of the season, although I would've liked to have seen him getting more goals, he did grab 22 assists which is a superb achievement, with Willian grabbing 16, though a fair few of his were from corners.

Overall, while the results were good, the performances weren't up to scratch for me, and I felt a big improvement on that front would be needed for the second season, particularly if we were going to challenge for the Champions League.

I'll update you with how that second season went on when I get the chance, hopefully later today.

[Natedog17]

Who has everyone replaced Lampard with?

Warde-Prowse and Will Hughes for me

[Luke.Graham@hotmail.com]

Started a new one, adjusted tactics a lot more and having more success, John Terry with default set piece settings slaughtered it. Luiz/Hazard/Lampard/Eto injured meant cheap exit in Champions League, but a good premier league/CapitalOneCup/Supercup win.

Now, azpilcueta dilemma, he's my best rb with 3 stars, next best is 2 stars and I can't see all that many appealing replacements. I received a 38million dollar bid from real madrid, should I take it?

[Benoit2]

Do you need the money? Probably not. Just keep him, he's one of the best right backs.

[Natedog17]

Started a new one, adjusted tactics a lot more and having more success, John Terry with default set piece settings slaughtered it. Luiz/Hazard/Lampard/Eto injured meant cheap exit in Champions League, but a good premier league/CapitalOneCup/Supercup win.

Now, azpilcueta dilemma, he's my best rb with 3 stars, next best is 2 stars and I can't see all that many appealing replacements. I received a 38million dollar bid from real madrid, should I take it?

If you cant find better replacements or players that could end up being better then I would'nt sell him. You could angle to try and get some money alongside a swap deal for Carvajal if that's an option. He is also a very good right back. He ended up being a very important player for me and still is. Currently my vice captain at the club.

[Bracken]

I wouldn't sell Azpi if I could help it, he's not only a great RB but also a very good tutor with his personality and Determination.

[Luke.Graham@hotmail.com]

Decided to keep Azpilcueta and not regretting it team is going well, quite strong in depth but I think at the end of second season I'll look to bring in some more stars and get rid of some deadweight.

Starting lineup is:

Cech (Courtois on loan again, Schwarzer backup)

Azpilcueta (Ivanovic backup) Terry ( Cahill) Luiz (Balanta, Ivanovic) Cole (Shaw)

Midfield two rotates between: Lampard, Ramires, Mikel, Honda, Diame.

Attacking trio rotates between: Hazard, Schurle, Willian, Mata, Oscar and rarely Ba/Eto/Lampard (Great success with him as Shadow Striker, against weaker teams scores a fair few goals from entering box late)

Strikers got: Lukaku, Ba, Eto, Leandro De. Was heartbreaking letting go of Torres as most years he is still great.

Got a lot of good players on loan: Boga, Courtois, Cerri, Chalobah, Zivkovic, Johnathan Silva, Traore, Pugiles, Wallace, De Bruyne.

Regens: Got two 5 star potential, two 4 and half stars. Had to go out and buy them given I got **** in my academy. Should be interesting to see how they develop.

Will play out most of second season tonight, but I've found with Chelsea that they have a good enough squad to potentially beat anybody, just need depth and versatility in striker position for first season, than Lukaku is serviceable in leading the line, as regens/young buys develop/he develops.

So advice to anyone starting save:

Attacking trio needs 0 changes. Oscar trained as AMR, Likewise Mata, rotate between those spots. Schurrle, Willian pinch hit anywhere and DeBruyne likewise.

Midfield needs bit more depth. Diame good cheap signing to be backup to ramires, Honda great cheap backup to Lampard. Mikel can play either.

Defence needs a few young recruits. With Terry/Cole/Ivanovic beind old, but great full backs and centre backs more than adequate. Balanta great signing, Shaw whenever you can get at reasonable price.

Good fun save so far see how long I keep at it, normally three seasons into Chelsea saves on previous games it becomes way to easy. let's see how this one goes.

[Guest El Payaso]

How is Lampard doing for you guys? Is it possible to make him score/assist from MC's position in 4-2-3-1 formation?

[PitchPosh]

Hey guys, I finally got around to starting a Chelsea save now that I got FM14 recently. My goal with this save is to let the "Old Guard" fall away and be replaced with young, homegrown or English talent. My transfers probably won't be the most popular in the thread, but after sticking with them for the past few years of FM I am taking this route. My main reason for this is to trim the wage budget down. So, let's start with transfers!

Transfers In:

Tom Ince - Blackpool £3m

Callum Chambers - Southampton £10m

Keisuke Honda - CSKA Moscow £1.4m

George Thorne - West Brom £8m

Transfers Out

Fernando Torres - Fiorentina £Free (Probably not a popular move, but he didn't figure into my plans and was taking a lot of wages up)

Michael Essien - Atletico Madrid £5.25m (One of my favorite players, but after 3 injuries in preseason I decided to move on)

Loans

Marco van Ginkel

Kevin de Bruyne

Josh McEachran

Starting XI:

GK: Cech, Schwarzer

DR: Azpilicueta, Chambers

DC: Luiz, Omeruo

DC: Cahill, Terry

DL: Cole, Bertrand

DMC: Mikel, Thorne

MCR: Ramires/Honda

MCL: Lampard/Oscar

AMR: Mata, Willian

AML: Hazard, Schuurle, Ince

ST: Eto'o/Ba

Fixtures:

(H)Arsenal: 1-0W

(A)Man City: 3-2W

(A)West Ham: 2-2D

Bayern: Super Cup 4-2L

(H)Everton: 2-1W

The first two wins were sweet and could have a huge impact on the title race at the end, but the loss to Bayern was pretty disappointing. With Lyon and Aston Villa next, hopefully I can string together some wins!