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FM15: Arsenal FC


JEinchy

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End Of Season Report

02/05/15 | Barclays Premier League | Emirates

TEAM: GK: Ospina 6.8 RB: Lopez 6.8 RCB: Stones 7.3 LCB: Saul 7.2 LB: Fuentes 6.5 MCR: Arteta©(MoM) 8.3 MCL: Crowley 7.4( Koscielny 60/6.9) AMR: Oxlade-Chamberlain 6.6( Walcott 66/6.7) AML: Cazorla 6.6 STCR: Welbeck 6.4( Giroud 60/6.6) STCL: Munir 6.5

Arsenal 1 ( Arteta 52)

Man City 1 ( Aguero 30)

05/05/15 | UEFA Champions League( Semi-Final Leg 1) | Anfield

TEAM: GK: Szczesny 6.8 RB: Chambers 7.1( Debuchy 80) RCB: Koscielny 6.8 LCB: Meresacker 7.3 LB: Gibbs 6.4 MCR: Arteta© 6.9( Ramsey 76) MCL: Wilshere 6.9 AMR: Oxlade-Chamberlain 6.9 AML: Cazorla 7.8 STCR: Walcott 6.5( Welbeck 80) STCL: Giroud 7

Arsenal 1 ( Cazorla 16)

Liverpool 1 ( Henderson 80)

10/05/15 | Barclays Premier League | Loftus Rd

TEAM: GK: Ospina 6.7 RB: Debuchy 6.9( Lopez 36/6.5) RCB: Stones 6.9 LCB: Mertesacker 6.8( Koscielny 45/6.8) LB: Fuentes 7 MCR: Bender 6.9 MCL: Crowley 7 AMR: Welbeck 6.8 AMC: Saul 7.2 AML: Gibbs 7.1 STCL: Munir 8.1

Arsenal 4 ( Munir 16 , Gibbs 35 , Caulker O/G 52 , Saul 58)

Q.P.R 3 ( Fer 39 & 41 & 54)

13/05/15 | UEFA Champions League( Semi-Final Leg 2) | Emirates

TEAM: GK: Szczesny 7 RB: Chambers 6.5( debuchy 74/6.8) RCB: Mertesacker 7.5 LCB: Koscielny 8.5 LB: Gibbs 7.4 MCR: Arteta 8.3© MCL: Ramsey 8 AMR: Walcott 7( Ozil 74/6.8) AMC: Cazorla 6.8 AML: Oxlade-Chamberlain 9.2(MoM) STCL: Giroud 7.1( Welbeck 85)

Arsenal 4(5) ( Koscielny 3 , Arteta 17 , Oxlade-Chamberlain 31 & 90)

Liverpool 1(2) ( Allen 25)

16/05/15 | Barclays Premier League | Emirates

TEAM: GK: Szczesny 6.8 RB: Chambers 6.4( Debuchy 77) RCB: Dede 7.1 LCB: Koscielny 6.9 LB: Gibbs 6.8 MCR: Arteta© 7.4 MCL: Ramsey 6.99 Wilshere 75/6.7) AMR: Oxlade-Chamberlain 8.5(MoM) AML: Cazorla 7.1 STCR: Walcott 6.5( Walcott 65/6.9) STCL: Giroud 7.4

Arsenal 2 ( Oxlade-Chamberlain 41 , Giroud 81)

Tottenham 1 ( Townsend 77)

24/05/15 | Barclays Premier League | Goodison Park

TEAM: GK: Ospina 6.7 RB: Debuchy 6.7 RCB: Stones 7.4 LCB: Dede 6.9( Mertesacker 69/6.7) LB: Fuentes 6.7 MCR: Arteta© 6.8( Bender 69/6.7) MCL: Wilshere 7.5 AMR: Alexis 6.8 AMC: Saul 6.5( Oxlade-Chamberlain 45/7) AML: Welbeck 8.5(MoM) STC: Munir 7.1

Arsenal 4 ( Munir 8 , Welbeck 27 , Oxlade-Chamberlain 62 , Stones 82)

Everton 3 ( Barry 1 , Barkley 24 , Baines 87)

30/05/15 | F.A Cup( Final) | Wembley

TEAM: GK: Szczesny 7.2 RB: Chambers 6.5( Debuchy 75/6.8) RCB: Koscielny 7.4 LCB: Meresacker 7.2 LB: Gibbs 6.9 MCR: Arteta© 7.5 MCL: Wilshere 9(MoM) AMR: Oxlade_Chamberlain 8.6 AML: Cazorla 7.1 STCR: Walcott 6.7( Welbeck 36/6.4) STCL: Giroud 6.8

Arsenal 3 ( Wilshere 25 , Oxlade-Chamberlain 33 , Walcott Inj 36 , Koscielny 48)

Man City 2 ( Toure 21 , Toure S/O 45 , Aguero Pen 69)

06/06/15 | UEFA Champions League(Final) | Olympiastadion

TEAM: GK: Szczesny 6.4 RB: Chambers 5.8( Debuchy 65/6.9) RCB: Koscielny 7 LCB: Mertesacker 7 LB: Gibbs 7( Saul 93/6.3) MCR: Arteta© 7.5 MCL: Wilshere 7.3 AMR: Oxlade-Chamberlain 8.7(MoM) AML: Cazorla 7.5 STCR: Alexis 6.4( Welbeck 56/7.9) STCL: Giroud 7.4

Arsenal 3 ( Cazorla 2 , Welbeck 59 , Giroud 65 , Gibbs Inj 93)

Real Madrid 3 ( Jese 1 , Rodriguez 17 , Pepe 40)

AET

PEN-Shoot Out

Arsenal 11 ( Debuchy , Giroud , Arteta , Welbeck , Saul , Koscielny , Mertesacker , Oxlade-Chamberlain , Szczesny , Debuchy , Giroud - Wilshere , Cazorla Missed)

Real Madrid 10 ( Rodriguez , Modric , Jese , Coentrao , Marcelo , Carvajal , Kherdira , Pepe , Casillas , Rodriguez - Hernandez , Ramos , Hernandez Missed)

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One loss? Omg how do you do it? I don't get that. Your defensive setup must be very good. I keep conceding goals. What formation are you playing ATB?

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Guys, don't mean to alarm you, but I've just signed Paul frigging Pogba!

I genuinely don't think he'd get in my team at the moment :D

I wouldn't turn him down though, he could be Ramsey's backup for less than £40m ;)

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Hello all, wow, what a frustrating season for me! Wish I was doing as well as a lot of you lot.

Finished 4th in the league which isn't a disaster but my against column could have been halved (got hammered 6-1 by Spurs which made me feel like chucking my laptop out the window!)

Screenies..

ScreenShot2014-11-19at005440_zps50897bb6.jpg

My transfers, Diarra (very solid) was the only first teamer out of that lot really.

ScreenShot2014-11-19at005549_zpsff6620e0.jpg

This was the only decent thing I did all season really (IMO) which was scraping (to say the least) my way to the Champions League Final against Barcelona.

ScreenShot2014-11-19at005519_zpsfb016005.jpg

Feel like jacking it in & starting again but also want to try and sort things out.

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Season 2014/15 half-term report

As an avid Arsenal fan, naturally I had to begin FM15 with the Gunners. I am quite a slow player, so my soundbytes will likely come in half-season instalments!

  • House Rules

I prefer to play as realistically as possible and like to establish the 'Wenger way'. With Arsenal now a financial superpower on FM, I wanted to add a few casual rules to my file.

  • Focus on Youth - develop young talents where possible, especially English ones in accordance with the home-grown rules.
  • Streamlined Squad - we are Arsenal not Chelsea! Keep the squad streamlined with 'as needed' main purchases, no huge overstocking of players or high wage players sitting unwanted or unplayed on mammoth wages just because we can. To that effect, also limited procurement of free players.
  • The Unknown - take an occasional punt on an unknown quantity, the new Toure or the new Stepanovs?
  • Financial Prudence - retain a healthy financial aspect and limit requests for more transfer funds

  • The Squad/Transfers

There are two huge problems with the Arsenal squad; the lack of defenders and the absence of power in midfield. With a £46.5m budget, my initial plan was to remedy the situation. To that effect I signed Benedikt Howedes and Lars Bender. Cliched signings perhaps, but ideal for my needs. Bender was the only DM I targeted due to his sitting/destroying/box-to-box capabilities. I actually preferred Chiriches for defence, signing him on my initial Beta. This time Man Utd swiped Vertonghen and the Romanian proved unavailable. Howedes was the next in line. Berahino was my third main purchase, nabbed on an £8.5m deal with a loanback. He fits the criteria of adding to the home-grown list and is essentially a Walcott in miniature. The squad already has an abundance of midget, rapid, half-forwards, but I see Berahino proving a valuable addition over time.

Talented Karlo Lulic added to my future prospects, loaned back to Osijek in the interim and I took a punt on Gabriel Almeida, a virtual unknown with reasonable potential and whom had Portuguese heritage. Coquelin was my only sale, an unneeded jack of all trades, but that role is covered by Flamini. Sanogo went out on loan to newly-acquired feeder club Nottingham Forest to see what he could do, Gnabry moved on loan to Norwich once fit.

Our early season and current form have been polar opposites. As the schedule demonstrates we could not defend for toffee in the early weeks, conceding a plethora of goals. Partly due to lack of cohesion and tactical familiarity, undoubtedly others caused by unsuitable tactics and formation. Two significant problems appeared since the hotfix; goal concessions from corners and - the bane of my FM14 career - opposing wingers ghosting through my defence. After conceding almost every game from a corner, a work-around was found with one or two players zonal marking. These tend to sit on the near-post and stopped the AI from sneaking in at will. In fact, only one further goal has been conceded from a corner since the opening weeks.

Wingers decimating fullbacks was a real issue; I have tried all sorts of combinations from the early days of FM14 and found no solution. Wingers ghost behind fullbacks, my own wide AMs simply refuse to track their opposing fullback in countering situations. Or so it seemed....quite a novel solution has been to get my wingers to rabidly close down and man mark their fullback. Widemen are seemingly defaulted to man-mark opposing wingers on the instructions marker, but pushing them high up on the marauding fullbacks has nullified them almost every game, in turn cutting supply and interaction to their own AI widemen. We conceded 23 in the opening twelve games, nine in the following fifteen. A huge difference. It does pull my own widemen out of position though, and has had a detrimental effect on goal-return averages.

The home deep-lying 4422 has worked wonderfully well, combined with a high defence and pressing game. It picks up clean sheets for fun. However, in the early stages of the season, I was using a counter-attacking 41221, with a DM, two CMs and two wingers. It tanked, losing the opening three Prem away games, a high-scoring Champions League encounter against Dnipro, a loss to Stoke in the Carling Cup, and it was en route to a 2-0 defeat at Stamford Bridge until I switched up to my home 442 and stormed back to equalise with the last kick. That heralded a use of the 442 away from home too and we haven't looked back since. Stylistically it is similar to the home set-up, except with the use of control rather than attack, harder tackling, and switching the ball-winning CM to a deep-lying playmaker. Essentially, Ramsey and Bender switch roles home/away.

At the (almost!) half-way stage we sit top in a cracking 7-way title battle. Chelsea were undefeated until game 16, Man Utd are inconsistent but explosive, and City still somehow lurk despite sacking Pellegrini following a poor start. Liverpool have been top for most of the season.

In the Champions League we opened with a 2-3 defeat to Anderlecht at the Emirates, stormed back to lead the group by 2pts with a trip to Belgium upcoming. Then I committed the cardinal sin, resting the entire first-team and promptly lost 2-1, dropped into second place and have been drawn against Barca in the knockouts! Oi, Wenger indeed....

Overall, the most perplexing problem with the Arsenal squad is the amount of flexibility. There are too many players able to play multiple roles. Ozil has been a quandary, as for most. It is clear that wing-play is a solid route on this game, but two-up worked well enough that I don't tend to use an AM. So Ozil has been shunted out on the left wing (he actually has superb winger atts, but it still feels odd...) whilst retraining to play as the deep-lying striker. Giroud has featured as a target-man and advanced forward, but has actually revelled as the deep-lying forward in Alexis Sanchez's absence (out for 3 months with a torn hamstring and has been injured three times in the month since his return, sigh). So much so that the Frenchman is now almost a must-have, 13 goals in 19 games and his physicality and aerial prowess are a real handful.

Ozil and Giroud are both settled, but the other two attacking roles have been variously attributed to Welbeck, Walcott, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Cazorla, Podolski and Campbell - mostly dependant on fitness as every single one has been injured at some stage. Walcott is showing signs of form at RAM after injury, Ozil has nicked Podolski's LAM spot, whilst both Campbell and - to a lesser extent - Cazorla have been sidelined yet provided good returns. Welbeck is exactly like his real self; one week blazes a treble, the next missing an open goal from six yards. The definition of inconsistent. As I say, too many options, and I think I could easily move on three attackers, replace with one and be better off for it.

The remainder of the team is more settled. Szczesny the clear no.1, Debuchy at rightback, then any of the main three centrebacks fitness dependent (Howedes has been the most impressive). I have a Kolarov/Clichy situation developing at leftback; preferring Gibbs' attacking thrusts at home, but the more stable Monreal on the road. In midfield it is all about Lars Bender; he plays regardless, with one of Ramsey or Wilshere. Diaby is an intriguing wildcard. Doesn't have mojo to really impact as a ball-winner, but can win possession and playmake reasonably, whilst possessing a rocket shot and being a great late-game option to drop the deep-lying attacker for an AM and use him to shore up defensively or act as a shadow striker.

Neither Arteta nor Flamini have featured much, and Rosicky is Rosicky - injured.

  • January Window

A small cash injection from the board and the sale of Vermaelen's transfer clauses added a solid £5m to the budget, which I've used towards building up the youths. In addition to developing the U18 and U21 sides, a policy is also not to overstock the two squads with multiple talents of the same ilk or role, as it has always been unrealistically easy to do. The squads need an initial injection of talent though, as prospects are thin on the ground. So I'll be adding:

  • John Hou Saeter
  • Nikolai Laursen
  • Bjorn Inge Utvik
  • Andrija Balic

...to give the U18s a much-needed boost. I've also acquired Patrick Banggaard, a tall 20 y/o Danish CD to provide more depth for the 1st team, the '8th defender'. Finally, fulfilling the 'unknown punt' I've also snapped up Irven Avila, a 24 y/o Peruvian striker with intriguing atts on a free transfer. Unable to acquire a work permit, he'll be loaned out to prove his mettle.

  • Decisions, Decisions

Gaining more tactical flexibility is the main aim prior to the start of 15-16. That 442 can't hold out forever. I have a multi-purpose 4231 Enganche sitting as a second formation, but would also like a dedicated 3rd. Toying with the idea of trying a 442 diamond, although dislike the idea of having no wide midfielders/wingers, unless raiding fullbacks and/or lateral movement from the two STs can provide it. Mainly like the idea of being able to easily slot Wilshere and Ramsey in as a tandem ahead of Bender and still be able to use Ozil as an attacking midfielder/shadow striker, and also not entirely kill off any of the other main forward options.

Or perhaps even an asymmetrical? Bender sitting, Wilshere tucked inside left CM, Ramsey retrained as a right wide midfielder, an inside forward on the left and some sort of advanced creator right-central.

Hello mate, am very interested to see how you got on for the rest of your first season. I played a similar 4-4-2 for the most part and ended up playing a bit like Keegan's old Newcastle, exciting for a neutral but not good for my ticker!

I might use your tactics for my 2nd season.

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Just been offered the Arsenal Job 2016. Can anybody tell em if Scsezny is worth keeping as the main keeper or should I get somone else in?

Update: First full season:

Sczesny

Chambers, Metersacker, Dragovic, Criscito

Wanyama

Florenzi, Ozil

Bernard, Sanchez

Welbeck

Also bought : Icardi, Malcolm, Kurzawa, Tielemans, Tin Jedva, Lucas Silva

Won the league, fa cup, league cup and champions league in the first season. Probably best squad I've had on football manager.

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YES!

In the first season I won just the FA Cup after bottling the League in true Arsenal fashion :o ... In the second season, I have secured the League after almost bottling it again, having to come down to last day! (I was 8 points clear at one point)

Also have the Champions League against Man Utd coming up in 12 days! Could be a fiesty game.

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Having a busy 2nd season transfer window, so far signed 11 players with another 2 currently considering contract offers & 4 more future transfers the soonest of which will arrive in the Jan transfer window. so Far 11 player have left 5 on loan & 1 Released 2 are currently considering contract offers from other clubs(one is a money + player deal) I may bring in a few youth players but highly unlikely any first team player also if I'm successful in completing 1 of the offers currently on the table I'll try to sell 1 more player

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Having a busy 2nd season transfer window, so far signed 11 player with another 2 currently considering contract offers & 4 more future transfers the soonest of which will arrive in the Jan transfer window. so Far 11 player have left 5 on loan & 1 Released 2 are currently considering contract offers from other clubs(one is a money + player deal) I may bring in a few youth players but highly unlikely any first team player also if I'm successful in completing 1 of the offers currently on the table I'll try to sell 1 more player

I am having the complete opposite 3rd season transfer window, I really don't wanna do anything to this squad except buy a prospect RB. Which is done... don't know what to do with the rest of summer now :D

Might offload PerMer.

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A quick update. Good news and bad news - I've made my first signing of this save: Joe Gomez will join Arsenal from Charlton Athletic in January on a contract which will run until 2017, worth £416,000-a-year. The fee is around £4 million - to be paid largely in instalments - with the potential of rising to around £6 million if he is to succeed here.

JoeGomez-CharltonNovember2014_zps81d48e66.png

He's already made 15 appearances for Charlton this season and has impressed various Arsenal scouts, most recently Steve Rowley. At just 17-years-old, I am hoping Gomez will develop into a fine cnetre-back and an excellent partner to compatriot, Calum Chambers. I've yet to decide whether Gomez will be involved immediately with the first-team upon his arrival.

AbouDiaby-DamagedCruciateLigamentsNovember2014_zps000c4023.png

Needless to say, this is the bad news. It's a situation Abou Diaby has been in all to often, sadly, for player, club and country. After recovering well form his previous injury and making a brief substitute appearance in a 4-1 win away to Sunderland, Diaby has once again fallen foul of bad luck. This is likely to be the end of his Arsenal playing career with his contract expiring in the Summer. Should he retire and decide to continue in football, I would be more than willing to employ him.

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It's nice that my players decide the cup final to be the one day to be super-clinical:

COCFinal2016_zps40b6358e.png

EDIT: Two days later, we just lost 1-0 at home to Liverpool. Ramsey missed a penalty, and we somehow couldn't convert some of these chances. Mignolet even miraculously made two point-blank saves back to back. Oh, and we hit the woodwork three times:

ScoringChancesvsLiverpool2016_zps5360aac0.png

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A quick update. Good news and bad news - I've made my first signing of this save: Joe Gomez will join Arsenal from Charlton Athletic in January on a contract which will run until 2017, worth £416,000-a-year. The fee is around £4 million - to be paid largely in instalments - with the potential of rising to around £6 million if he is to succeed here.

[snipped screenshot]

He's already made 15 appearances for Charlton this season and has impressed various Arsenal scouts, most recently Steve Rowley. At just 17-years-old, I am hoping Gomez will develop into a fine cnetre-back and an excellent partner to compatriot, Calum Chambers. I've yet to decide whether Gomez will be involved immediately with the first-team upon his arrival.

I signed him also, with the loan back clause for the entire season. I then sent him out to Aston Villa where he played pretty much all the league games for them in the second season, he has come along nicely. Developing his physicals well, but I want to work on his technicals a bit more, while being tutored now he's finally here to stay.

Will probably be using him as 4th choice CB and second choice RB behind Chambers in third season (which starts tonight!) :thup:

dfba1dd7c06c57967bf929cd8c3f609e.png

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How much does he cost?

I paid less than Llew, I was negotiating for ages with them :D managed to get them down to;

£3m upfront

5% profit of next sale

£1.5m after 50 appearances

The only problem is, he had 12 months left on his contract and someone was sniffing around him. So had to offer him £25k a week :( bugger.

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Also that reminds me, after winning the CL and Prem in the second season... Jones, Wilshere and (someone else, name escapes me) wanted a new contract. I thought, you know what, fair enough you're all doing fantastic.

Every. Single. One. Of. Them. Wanted bloody £170k a week, which is almost £100k a week on top of their previous deals :D Managed to get then below the £120k mark in the end!

EDIT: Ricardo Rodriguez (who had only been here a year) was the other person wanting a new contract, told him to clear off straight away. Bargain he was at £5.5m though! :D

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Hello mate, am very interested to see how you got on for the rest of your first season. I played a similar 4-4-2 for the most part and ended up playing a bit like Keegan's old Newcastle, exciting for a neutral but not good for my ticker!

I might use your tactics for my 2nd season.

Cheers Will, I'll be sure to update once I (finally!) get the season done.

It has gone altogether pear shaped. Leading the league after 18 games, I am now 9pts behind Chelsea after only 24 :eek:

Lost my unbeaten home record to two Falcao goals. The first, well....long ball clears the defence and Falcao is about 5 yards offside. Szczesny comes out, Falcao round him and somehow hits the bar with an open goal. The ball arcs about 20ft in the air, bounces down a yard outside the goal line, yet then backspins into the net. Never seen that occur in any FM iteration, quite cool in an altogether demoralising way!

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Just started a save with Arsenal. After struggling to get into a save, I actually ran the game through until 9th February 2015 and then decided to take over the Gunners who were sitting 5th in the Premiership upon my arrival, with it looking like Man. City's title to lose so I will be focusing on preparing a squad for next season by assesing everyone in the squad as much as possible before the summer transfer window. Wenger managed to not qualify for the Champions League Knockout stages after failing to qualify from a group containing Dortmund, Roma and Basel finishing with a miserly 7 points so a Europa League journey will be starting soon where I'll be using mainly fringe players in order to concentrate on finishing as high as possible in the league.

These were the transfers made by Wenger as well as the squad stats before my arrival.

I look forward to what I hope will be a long and successful reign especially seeing some of the success already in this thread.

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Here's my mid-season update:

The league table

ScreenShot2014-11-20at195631_zpsb9f27238.png

My matches

ScreenShot2014-11-20at195631_zpsb9f27238.png

Pretty gutted to have lost my first premier league game in the final game of 2014.

Terrible tracking back by Cazorla was the cause of both goals leaving Alaba overloaded. His lack of protection clearly got the better of him because he flew in wildly at the back of Wanyama early in the second half to see a well earned straight red that left a comeback hugely unlikely.

My biggest gripe of the season is our lack of clinical finishing. Our conversion rate is no where near what it should be despite the number of goals we have scored.

Ozil as roaming playmaker on the MC line is just incredible. He's joint highest key passer on 27 in the league, but sadly our lack of clinical finishing means he doesn't feature in the top 5 assisters.

Sanchez is leading goalscorer in the league having played a mix of AML/AMR and occasional DLF(s).

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Here's my mid-season update:

The league table

My matches

Pretty gutted to have lost my first premier league game in the final game of 2014.

Terrible tracking back by Cazorla was the cause of both goals leaving Alaba overloaded. His lack of protection clearly got the better of him because he flew in wildly at the back of Wanyama early in the second half to see a well earned straight red that left a comeback hugely unlikely.

My biggest gripe of the season is our lack of clinical finishing. Our conversion rate is no where near what it should be despite the number of goals we have scored.

Ozil as roaming playmaker on the MC line is just incredible. He's joint highest key passer on 27 in the league, but sadly our lack of clinical finishing means he doesn't feature in the top 5 assisters.

Sanchez is leading goalscorer in the league having played a mix of AML/AMR and occasional DLF(s).

Wow, never mind you're not so clynical finishing, your defence is immense dude!

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Cheers Will, I'll be sure to update once I (finally!) get the season done.

It has gone altogether pear shaped. Leading the league after 18 games, I am now 9pts behind Chelsea after only 24 :eek:

Lost my unbeaten home record to two Falcao goals. The first, well....long ball clears the defence and Falcao is about 5 yards offside. Szczesny comes out, Falcao round him and somehow hits the bar with an open goal. The ball arcs about 20ft in the air, bounces down a yard outside the goal line, yet then backspins into the net. Never seen that occur in any FM iteration, quite cool in an altogether demoralising way!

Oh no, sorry to hear that dude! I've gone for your 4-4-2 home & away tactics for my 2nd season and so far so good (jinx, haha) hammered Ajax 10-1 on aggregate for the Champions League Qualifier. Are you still using the same tactics? What player instructions do you use?

Playing my 2nd season at Wembley too as I'm having Emirates expanded to 76,000. I always add that in on the editor - have read a few articles about the possibility of it being expanded in real life so not too unrealistic.

Hope you manage to turn your season around.

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bf097613-79f4-453c-843f-72bbde684679_zps6e4bc9d1.jpg

Start Of Season/August Report

a526c156-d731-49ea-a617-3c6e3b4a0b47_zpscaf64c3e.jpg

11/08/15 | Euro Super Cup | Mikheli Meshki

TEAM: GK: Ruddy 6.8 RB: Juanfran 7 RCB: Koscielny 7 LCB: Mertesacker 6.9 LB: Taylor 6.9 MCR: Kongdogbia 6.9( Ramsey 82/6.5 MCL: Arteta© 7.9 AMR: Ozlade-Chamberlain 6.4( Cazorla 7.6) AMC: Wilshere 6.9 AML: Welbeck 6.4(Alexis 58/6.6) STCL: Giroud 6.7

Arsenal 1 ( Cazorla 100)

Napoli 1 ( Ghoulam 96)

PEN SHOOT-OUT

Arsenal 4 ( Arteta , Wilshere , Ramsey , Cazorla)

Napoli 3 ( Zapata , Claise , Callejon)

23/08/15 | Barclays Premier League | Emirates

TEAM: GK: Ruddy 6.8 RB: Juanfran 7.1( Gamez 81) RCB: Meresacker© 7.5 LCB: Koscielny 8.7(MoM) LWB: Taylor 6.9 MCR: Wilshere 7.1 MCL: Simao 7.19 Arteta 75/6.9) AMCL: Ramsey 6.9( Cazorla 45/82) AMR: Oxlade-Chamberlain 7 STCR: Giroud 6.9 STCL: Welbeck 6.5

Arsenal 2 ( Koscielny 42 , Cazorla 58)

Tottenham 0

29/08/15 | Barclays Premier League | Stadium Of Light

TEAM: GK: Lukac 7.1 RB: Gamez 7.3 RCB: Mertesacke© 7.4 LCB: Koscielny 8.8 LWB: Taylor 7.5 MCR: Gnabry 7.3( Arteta 57/6.7) MCL: Simao 7.5 AMCL: Ramsey 7.3( Oxlade-Chamberlain 57/6.6) AMR: Sterling(MoM) 9.2 STCR: Giroud 8.5 STCL: Alexis 7.1( Walcott 45/6.5)

Arsenal 4 ( Alexis 45+2 , Giroud 48 , Sterling 53 , Koscielny 57)

Sunderland 1 ( Wickham 84)

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So im coming up to the January transfer window in my 1st season and im sitting top of the table with Chelsea close behind me. Im thinking of looking at bringing in a striker that is alot more clinical that both Welbeck and Giroud as they are both hit and miss. The board have given me 35 mil extra so just thinking who to bring in or who to look at. Any ideas people or who have you brought into the club as a main striker???

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So im coming up to the January transfer window in my 1st season and im sitting top of the table with Chelsea close behind me. Im thinking of looking at bringing in a striker that is alot more clinical that both Welbeck and Giroud as they are both hit and miss. The board have given me 35 mil extra so just thinking who to bring in or who to look at. Any ideas people or who have you brought into the club as a main striker???

I'm having a great time playing Giroud & Welbeck up top together and they're unreal.. as Deep Lying Forward (support) & Advanced Forward. Obviously that doesn't answer your question though, sorry. I can definitely recommend Raúl Jiménez a Mexican forward at Atlético, he's been great for me as third choice striker.

Welbz..

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OG..

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Just lost last years World Player of the Year Antoine Griezmann for 30m to Man Utd when i realised a week before the January window that his contract was expiring and he didn't want to renew, so offered him out for 30, valued at 10 and i had bought him for 25.5m. And on the opening day of the window i play Man Utd who dont even start him! Spanked them 3-0 :D

Ox got a hattrick after being named in the team of the year :cool:

checking club legends/icons. Griezmann and Sanchez made it to Icons, and the Ox is listed as a legend :D

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Just lost last years World Player of the Year Antoine Griezmann for 30m to Man Utd when i realised a week before the January window that his contract was expiring and he didn't want to renew, so offered him out for 30, valued at 10 and i had bought him for 25.5m. And on the opening day of the window i play Man Utd who dont even start him! Spanked them 3-0 :D

Ox got a hattrick after being named in the team of the year :cool:

checking club legends/icons. Griezmann and Sanchez made it to Icons, and the Ox is listed as a legend :D

Cool man, what season are you in? I'm second season in and The Ox has been brilliant so far.

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Wow, never mind you're not so clynical finishing, your defence is immense dude!

Thanks man. The only change I've made to defence was to sign Alaba who actually plays a pretty steady rotation with Gibbs so personnel is much the same. I've also made sure to get my youth involved extensively so I've not played the highest quality back line in many games. The key for me is watching the first 20 minutes of a game in full and making adaptations to any threats that I see early.

This adaptive approach to tactics is what I enjoy most so my two trained tactics both define a basic shape and mentality but are otherwise kept really simple. I then use the early tactic changes to adapt how my midfield, wide men and strikers approach the game to best exploit or contain opposition weaknesses and strengths.

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My next save is going to be with Arsenal, I do support them and have done since I was small even though I don't live in London, I was just wondering though, does the game get boring quickly with them? Or in their experience?

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I signed him also, with the loan back clause for the entire season. I then sent him out to Aston Villa where he played pretty much all the league games for them in the second season, he has come along nicely. Developing his physicals well, but I want to work on his technicals a bit more, while being tutored now he's finally here to stay.

Will probably be using him as 4th choice CB and second choice RB behind Chambers in third season (which starts tonight!) :thup:

[screenshot]

I'm really looking forward to getting him into my squad. I don't think I will loan him out once he arrives, unless I can manage to sign an older centre-back, say Sokratis Papastathopoulos or Benedikt Höwedes for fairly reasonable fees.

I'm quite excited about pairing Chambers with Gomez at centre-back in the future. Chambers has been mightily impressive in the first-half of his first season here.

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January transfer window has hit and Giroud has left for £17.5m to Roma. He just wasn't being used.

There's something about this save though that really hasn't retained my interest. I don't know whether to start again and try something else or to persevere with the season and shake things up come the 15/16 season.

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January transfer window has hit and Giroud has left for £17.5m to Roma. He just wasn't being used.

There's something about this save though that really hasn't retained my interest. I don't know whether to start again and try something else or to persevere with the season and shake things up come the 15/16 season.

I know what you mean, I had that whole feeling most of the first season.. but now, I definitely have the "one more game" bug in my second season. Perseverance dude!

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What player instructions do you use?

I'm not huge on creating many PIs, preferring to use the main tactical model with small tweaks. The deep-lying 442 (home) uses:

GK - Szczesny

FB - Monreal (tackle harder, sit narrower, cross far post)

CB - Howedes

CB - Mertesacker

FB - Debuchy (tackle harder, sit narrower)

BWM - Bender (shoot less often)

B2B -Ramsey (shoot less often)

WI - Cazorla

WI - Walcott

DLF - Ozil (Roam from position)

AF - Giroud

Those are the base instructions. I've started to drop the shoot less often from the two central mids (initially applied on the Beta when long shots were prevalent) as actually Bender has a rocket shot, Ramsey proficient too. I also switch up the two fullbacks quite often. If the opposition aren't playing advanced wingers, both Monreal and Debuchy drop sit narrower, potentially adding stay wider or get further forward depending on opposition formation.

With the 442 away sub-tactic I tend to drop the roam from position for the deep lying forward, and then also add close down more, mark tighter, mark specific player (fullbacks) to the two advanced wingers.

It has been a rollercoaster season. Since my mid-season wobble the team managed to rediscover form and go on a 12 game unbeaten run, although I've just lost in the CL to Barca after a rip-roaring double-header and been tanked 4-1 at the Etihad. Didn't move up the table much though, due to good rival form all round and a couple of late throwaways. Cracking season though; Chelsea are 8pts clear with a game in hand, but 2pts separates 2nd-5th!

7 leagues games remaining.

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