FM17: Manchester United - The Special One Arrives

[Smaldini]

Just an update on my third season, which I haven't finished yet.

Towards the end of 2018 I was surprised to see Ousmane Dembele transfer listed (it didn't state why) so I couldn't resist making a move for him. He'd just been crowned European Goldenboy too. Carlos Soler was someone I've had my eye on for a while, and I tried to sign him in the previous window with a loan-back clause, but Valencia were reluctant to sell for lower than his £53m release clause. So, in January I made him a top target, offered bids up to £40m for him but they stubbornly refused. Eventually he puts in a transfer request and I manage to sign him for a bargain price. I do have a lot of quality midfielders already, but I do like having a big squad for when the injuries start piling up. 

As for Smalling, he's never been first choice for me on this year's game (compared to FM16 when he was my captain & became a club legend) but he has put up good ratings when I rotate the squad. He got fed up with not being regular starter so I decided to let him go without falling out with him. I'm disappointed we didn't get more money, I know Barca were interested but they never made an offer so I just let him go to Southampton. Bailly had been to the ACON too so I recalled Poole & Tuanzebe from their loans as cover and both have provided some good ratings, especially the latter. Regan has made several appearances before, but this was the first time I'd used Axel on this save & he actually scored on his debut. Unfortunately he's injured at the moment but he's done enough to secure a place in the senior squad permanently now. I'll try and loan Poole out again next season (not to Cardiff though, they only played him twice), he's done well but doesn't have the CA of a PL player yet. Centreback is another position where I do have a lot of young, talented players. 

So the season is going extremely well, although I'm disappointed we were knocked out of the EFL Cup by a Championship side, three League Cups in a row would've been nice. We're still undefeated in the league, with just 7 games remaining. We have Sheffield Wednesday to play in the FA Cup final, and Bayern Munich to play in the CL quarter finals. They knocked us out in the semis last season so I'm hoping we'll get some revenge over them. Our top scorer is Dybala with 18 goals, who won the Ballon d'Or this year. He'd been out injured with a double hernia for six weeks, so I eased him back into the team with a couple of sub appearances & then a start against Villarreal in the first leg. He got an assist but didn't much else other than that, so I rested him for a few games before starting him in the second leg and he just went off with 4 goals & an assist in that match. Since then he's scored a brace in each of the two games he's played. I'm pretty sure he's level on assists with Coman for the season too. Lukaku is now fit again (finally) so I'm currently at full strength as we head towards the end of the season.

[sedge11]

17 hours ago, SpillBlood said:

Who have people replaced Ibra with?  Only players come to mind are Belotti and Kane.

Never had a striker as good as him.  Lone striker as a CF-A and he's done this.

I signed belotti to replace ibra in the 3rd season, he had a steady season but nothing special though, think he got 13 league goals in 26 appearances, am hoping for more next season. But Rashford has been quality for me playing as a lone striker replacing ibra, I can post his stats later for all comps but he got 18 league goals in the 2nd season and 19 league goals in the 3rd.

[Crockfordkat]

Hi all

I'm new to this forum and FM as it happens.. was talked into it by a friend now I'm addicted!! 

Ive started and restarted various times just to learn the various machsnics etc and am now coming to the end of my first season.

Once done I plan on restarting and giving it a solid run of several seasons. 

The main question I have is about the Home Growns,  I see on this forum people saying sell off Rooney Young and Jones asap  from the start but surely that puts you below your home grown quota? 

Are people buying in HG replacements? 

What happens if you play a season below the quota? 

Its mid 2017 before anyone else in the team becomes HG so how do you all juggle it? 

 

 

 

[Chapman7]

6 hours ago, Crockfordkat said:

Hi all

I'm new to this forum and FM as it happens.. was talked into it by a friend now I'm addicted!! 

Ive started and restarted various times just to learn the various machsnics etc and am now coming to the end of my first season.

Once done I plan on restarting and giving it a solid run of several seasons. 

The main question I have is about the Home Growns,  I see on this forum people saying sell off Rooney Young and Jones asap  from the start but surely that puts you below your home grown quota? 

Are people buying in HG replacements? 

What happens if you play a season below the quota? 

Its mid 2017 before anyone else in the team becomes HG so how do you all juggle it? 

 

 

 

Don't know about Jones but agree with other two. Young I find in my tactics just doesn't seem to cut it when rotated to play and Rooney is just difficult to find the right role for him to get the best out of him though find he's best in Playmakers role or as a BBM and even if you do manage to get him playing well he will ask to leave for a new challenge come the winter window so if you can offload him and try get a better price for him. There are players in the reserves that come under the HG I'm pretty sure in a previous save I had Gomes registered to cover one think it was after selling Young in the first window.

 

Would suggest selling Fellaini unless you've found a way to get something out of him form wise I haven't played with a tactic that suits his style and don't play a target man in my 4-4-2 to try him there like last season where he was pretty good as a target man striker.

[Crockfordkat]

2 hours ago, Chapman7 said:

Would suggest selling Fellaini unless you've found a way to get something out of him form wise I haven't played with a tactic that suits his style and don't play a target man in my 4-4-2 to try him there like last season where he was pretty good as a target man striker.

Haha yes he's always been one of the first out the door!  Don't really like him at the club in real life either  

ill have to have a good go through the youth and see who's classed as home grown.. didn't think there was many on first look but still gettimg used to it all 

anyone done a season with below quota home grown?  Just wondered what happens?  A fine I presume anything more serious? 

[Chapman7]

11 hours ago, Crockfordkat said:

Haha yes he's always been one of the first out the door!  Don't really like him at the club in real life either  

ill have to have a good go through the youth and see who's classed as home grown.. didn't think there was many on first look but still gettimg used to it all 

anyone done a season with below quota home grown?  Just wondered what happens?  A fine I presume anything more serious? 

I think I did register under the amount your supposed to on a previous edition and didn't make any difference to what I can remember 🤔

[warlock]

Two approaches to the HG issue: 1) There are plenty of candidates in the reserve/youth squads and you only have to name them in the squad; you don't have to play them. 2) You're allowed a squad of 25; if you don't have enough HG players, just leave a squad place empty (eg, if you are short of one, leave one empty slot; if you're short of two, leave two empty slots). Of course, you can always buy some HG players!

For me, Fellaini has often been great as a B2B, usually racking up 7-plus ratings across the season and chipping in with a few goals. Rooney has rarely performed across multiple United saves. If you offer him out on the first day of a save, I've often got £10m from Everton, but if you leave it even a few days that bid doesn't materialise (although Everton will sometimes take him on loan), and loan deals are often the only available options.

And a thought about people's player recommendations... I've probably played more than 20 United saves (some long term, some just quick experiments) and there's a random element to player performance. I've had saves where Mata has been brilliant and saves where he's been poor, and saves where Miki starts poor and gets better and saves where he's just consistently poor. I've had saves where Martial has been brilliant as Ibra's understudy, and saves where he's been completely useless (ditto Rashford). Some of it is obviously tactical, sometimes it can be a result of injury (so the player doesn't get enough games early on), and some of it is confidence-based where a couple of poor games leads to a long-term loss of form. If you look back through this thread you'll find lots of exchanges along the lines of 'Player X is rubbish for me' and immediately someone else says 'No, Player X is a footballing god' and I think that random element (plus tactics and man management) is the reason why. And, I think, that's how it should be; see one Javier Hernandez Balcazar!

[Crockfordkat]

Total agree with your comments Warlock, the random nature to each save is what makes it so playable for me.. Re Rooney, I managed to get Everton to part with 11mil in the January window on my save although I had to pay £80K of his wages lol 

Thanks for the comments on HG  

[Smaldini]

Love it when a halftime talk inspires a great second half performance. We were crowned champs after this game too because Chelsea lost their match the next day. 

[Crockfordkat]

So in the Jan transfer window i sign Hazzard..  he lasts a month before damaging his Achilles' tendon.. out for 2-3 months!! 

To make matters worst 2 weeks into his recovery he comes to me  moaning about broken promises!!  Wants to leave cause of how he's been treated!!!  WTF!?!? 

😡😡😡

 

[Chase Failey]

Does anyone else enjoy tapping up Chelsea players at the start of the game or is it just me?

Hazard, Costa & Courtois all usually spit the dummy out after your enquiry is dismissed.

[Chapman7]

Just finished first Season as United. Won the treble(if you include the Community Shield). Without making any signings for the first team only young players that will be coming through to the first team squad in the next season or so. 

 

League Table

 

Some of the better League results

 

Euro Cup Final

 

Player profiles

 

These four were ever so dominate in the run for the titles. Rashford was just a monster in front of goal hardly had a poor game. Mhkitarian was an assist king! Don't think I've ever had a player to be such a assisting player in a save. Pogba what you say goals and assists were brilliant but also done his part in the defensive duties when called upon. Mata scored and assisted alot more than I had even imagined he would due to being lacking in the position but adapted rather quickly.

[Smaldini]

Amazing season. I've had unbeaten league campaigns on FM before, but I don't remember ever having so many wins in a season. I won Manager of the Year for the second year in a row, and De Gea won the Golden Glove for the first time thanks to his 25 cleansheets. Everton are in the Europa League because they beat Arsenal in the EFL Cup final, and Spurs have qualified too because we beat Arsenal in the FA Cup final.

But this final was something else. Absolute classic game. I'd never played Dybala on the wing before but Lukaku has been in good form so I wanted to get both of them on the pitch without changing the formation. As great as Coman is, Malcom's CL form in the knockout stages was really good so I backed him. Unfortunately, we were very wasteful in the first half, Malcom only had a 6.5 rating and Lukaku actually finished up with a 5.4 because he was dominated by Varane and Ramos...so neither one lasted the full match. I made my first changes with Coman on for Malcom and Nainggolan for Herrera, but before they came on Benzema gave Madrid the lead. The next highlight was Nainggolan banging in a 30 yard rocket to make an instant impact.

I had Zlatan on the bench because he's retiring and I wanted to give him a good send off. I gave up on Lukaku turning his performance around in the 82nd minute and brought on Ibra. In extra-time Madrid took the lead so I went straight to overload to get the equaliser. Our goal came from a throw-in to Tielemans who crossed to the far post towards Coman (who was in acres of space), to poke in an easy tap-in. When Felipe Anderson scored though I was really worried that we wouldn't come back from that. I pushed Dybala up next to Zlatan, and I moved Coman to the right flank so the left wing was empty. I went route one and to my delight Zlatan scored a wonderful equaliser after Nainggolan played the ball over the defence. Ibra was on the left hand side of the box and he just smashed the ball into the roof of the near post, it was great. Then, almost immediately after Dybala ran at the defence, cut inside onto his left foot and curled the ball into the top corner from outside of the box. Quality goals in a quality match, I loved it.

Here are the overall stats for the season :

[SirToby]

Nearly halfway through my sixth season at United and I am close to having a squad containing only players from Greater Manchester.

I have survived selling profiles like Anthony Martial, Paul Pogba, Eric Bailly and Henrikh Mkhitaryan without replacing them with nearly as good players. Now I need to take the last step and sell Luke Shaw, David De Gea, Ander Herrera, Phil Jones and Daley Blind. I need the last three as tutors for my young Manchester players while Shaw and De Gea are difficult to replace. I have no left back coming up, so maybe I should go for a three man defence.

Rashford are obviously the star with 156 goals for me and Callum Gribbin is beginning to be a star as well.

[Gareh]

On 6/8/2017 at 20:38, Chapman7 said:

Just finished first Season as United. Won the treble(if you include the Community Shield). Without making any signings for the first team only young players that will be coming through to the first team squad in the next season or so. 

 

League Table

 

Some of the better League results

 

Euro Cup Final

 

Player profiles

 

These four were ever so dominate in the run for the titles. Rashford was just a monster in front of goal hardly had a poor game. Mhkitarian was an assist king! Don't think I've ever had a player to be such a assisting player in a save. Pogba what you say goals and assists were brilliant but also done his part in the defensive duties when called upon. Mata scored and assisted alot more than I had even imagined he would due to being lacking in the position but adapted rather quickly.

Would you mind posting or even messaging me your tactic? Would love to know how you set up your 442, cheers.

[Cubelar]

PSG denied me of winning every competition, also denied me of winning back-to-back CLs. It was a rematch to last year's CL final. 

 

Stats for the year

 

 

My home tactic

 

[Jsteer1986]

be intresting to see what happens here

[sedge11]

Well I stopped playing for a week, due to losing interest in my save, but now back playing and enjoying it again.  So here are my transfers for the 4th season. Am glad I got rid of Martial, was terrible for me and hasn't fared much better at Madrid. I did try to sign Morata but he chose Juventus.

Fabinho was originally brought in to play right back but changed formation from 4-4-1-1 to a 4-3-3 or 4-3-1-2, both are much more solid, have barely conceded a goal and am scoring for fun, with my best 11 below.

 

Have been giving some youth more of a chance as well, Gribbin in particular has been excellent playing centre mid, also Warren as a back up to Valencia has also been good, they will both continue to play all the cups and be back ups to Valencia and Pogba. Hoping to continue their development along with the 2 regens below, and Fosu Mensah, Tuanzebe and Gomes. So far they have been playing in the EFL cup against prem opponents in every round and been winning, along with a couple of league games, am hoping they will get me to the EFL cup final and they can then play in the final and hopefully win it.

The 2 regens who are in my 1st team are:

 

Am about 10 games into the league and have won 9 drawn 1, think kept about 7 clean sheets. I have also won the super cup beating Athletico Madrid.

[Jsteer1986]

2 hours ago, sedge11 said:

Well I stopped playing for a week, due to losing interest in my save, but now back playing and enjoying it again.  So here are my transfers for the 4th season. Am glad I got rid of Martial, was terrible for me and hasn't fared much better at Madrid. I did try to sign Morata but he chose Juventus.

Fabinho was originally brought in to play right back but changed formation from 4-4-1-1 to a 4-3-3 or 4-3-1-2, both are much more solid, have barely conceded a goal and am scoring for fun, with my best 11 below.

 

Have been giving some youth more of a chance as well, Gribbin in particular has been excellent playing centre mid, also Warren as a back up to Valencia has also been good, they will both continue to play all the cups and be back ups to Valencia and Pogba. Hoping to continue their development along with the 2 regens below, and Fosu Mensah, Tuanzebe and Gomes. So far they have been playing in the EFL cup against prem opponents in every round and been winning, along with a couple of league games, am hoping they will get me to the EFL cup final and they can then play in the final and hopefully win it.

The 2 regens who are in my 1st team are:

 

Am about 10 games into the league and have won 9 drawn 1, think kept about 7 clean sheets. I have also won the super cup beating Athletico Madrid.

how was pereria for you, i made the mistake of selling him then buying him back later , bit of a pogba moment but was too good not too

[Jsteer1986]

so the takeover went ahead in the end 

turned out well though with next seasons budget

[sedge11]

14 minutes ago, Jsteer1986 said:

how was pereria for you, i made the mistake of selling him then buying him back later , bit of a pogba moment but was too good not too

Wasn't that good really barely did anything, sold him off to palace for 4 mil, and has barely played for them. Gribbin is turning out much better playing in the same position.

[ssrider]

Im in my first season with United and was wondering if you guys have been getting a lot of offers from PSG for your players? Ive sold Martial but Darmian and Blind couldnt agree terms with them.  These were what was offered for my 3 players

Martial $90M over 48mos+ 50% transfer

Blind $90M over 48mos+ 50% transfer

Darmian $60M over 48 mos + 50% transfer

I like money coming in at all times and i think its less taxes i have to pay out compared to if i did the whole $90M upfront.  

[sedge11]

9 hours ago, ssrider said:

Im in my first season with United and was wondering if you guys have been getting a lot of offers from PSG for your players? Ive sold Martial but Darmian and Blind couldnt agree terms with them.  These were what was offered for my 3 players

Martial $90M over 48mos+ 50% transfer

Blind $90M over 48mos+ 50% transfer

Darmian $60M over 48 mos + 50% transfer

I like money coming in at all times and i think its less taxes i have to pay out compared to if i did the whole $90M upfront.  

I'm in the 4th season and don't think I've sold a single player to PSG, and haven't really had any interest from them in any of my players. I have however sold De Gea and Martial to Madrid.

[cuzn1984]

In my 3rd season with transfers being aimed at youngsters if possible or promoting the likes of Axel Tuanzebe etc.... however Barca decided to test my resolve with a £53m bid for Mikhy who had got 20assists in previous 2 seasons. So off he went with Dembele coming in for £60m...which made me spot Isak so £33m on him....and £15m on Kessie. 

My only real target was Bernardo Silva but Monaco wanted over £100m so I backed off...I then checked my shortlist for the pipe dream Dybala (never gunna splash that much) and saw an Arsenal interest which materialised into a £50m plus bid..... I followed suit with straight £55m and been accepted 😘 

[wakesta]

Quick question do people keep Nicky Butt as head of development?

Currently on my save:

Working with Youngsters:7

JPP: 11

JPA:12

[Chapman7]

10 minutes ago, wakesta said:

Quick question do people keep Nicky Butt as head of development?

Currently on my save:

Working with Youngsters:7

JPP: 11

JPA:12

 

Nope, usually one of the first to go staff wise.

[wakesta]

1 hour ago, Chapman7 said:

 

Nope, usually one of the first to go staff wise.

Thanks 

[Smaldini]

2 hours ago, wakesta said:

Quick question do people keep Nicky Butt as head of development?

Currently on my save:

Working with Youngsters:7

JPP: 11

JPA:12

13 and 12 on my save. I've kept him, I like having former United players on my staff, I'll probably move him back into a coaching role eventually though.

[Chapman7]

30 minutes ago, Smaldini said:

13 and 12 on my save. I've kept him, I like having former United players on my staff, I'll probably move him back into a coaching role eventually though.

Never been interested in anything coaching wise other than being the head of youth development on my previous saves 

[howard moon]

Did anyone else struggle to land big targets at the end of the 1st season?

I had a similar season to real life, finishing 6th and winning the Europa League.

Have an enormous transfer budget, and hadn't made any signings in the first season. 

A number of players have gone (Darmian, Schneiderlin, Schweinsteiger, Fellaini) and others are set to follow if I can get buyers and replacements (Jones, Depay, Rooney, Januzaj). Zlatan has also retired, which was slightly surprising.

I really wanted Kane and Dybala, but cannot get them. Griezmann went to Bayern and turned me down, and now I'm struggling to find upgrades in attack. Martial and Mkhitaryan were disappointing for me, and whilst I'll keep them I want to upgrade on my options and bring in a no.9 and someone who can win matches for us, either playing as a 10/second striker or out wide.

Any suggestions? Muller, Lewandowski won't talk to me, so I've been looking at:

• Lukaku (though I'm far from convinced about him)
• Andre Silva
• Lacazette
• Gameiro
• Morata 

Does anyone have experience with these players? Or any other suggestions?

 

[warlock]

Please allow me a small boast... just had my most successful season (second season).

We were just one game away from an unbeaten Premiership run, going down to a home defeat against Liverpool in the last week of April (so close!). Top signings were Klaassen and Parades in midfield; Jetro Willems at LB; and Michael Keane at CB.

Managed to get Dybala for £70m in June 2017 but he was a little disappointing - brilliant in the Champion's League but disappeared in the Premiership. Also brought in Bernardeschi who was also underwhelming - hoping both of those are just first-season syndrome. Martial and Rashford were also poor - not sure whether to give them another season or get rid.

Zlatan has also retired so a new striker is needed. Onwards and upwards... we hope!

[Kamakazeee]

48 minutes ago, howard moon said:

Did anyone else struggle to land big targets at the end of the 1st season?

I had a similar season to real life, finishing 6th and winning the Europa League.

Have an enormous transfer budget, and hadn't made any signings in the first season. 

A number of players have gone (Darmian, Schneiderlin, Schweinsteiger, Fellaini) and others are set to follow if I can get buyers and replacements (Jones, Depay, Rooney, Januzaj). Zlatan has also retired, which was slightly surprising.

I really wanted Kane and Dybala, but cannot get them. Griezmann went to Bayern and turned me down, and now I'm struggling to find upgrades in attack. Martial and Mkhitaryan were disappointing for me, and whilst I'll keep them I want to upgrade on my options and bring in a no.9 and someone who can win matches for us, either playing as a 10/second striker or out wide.

Any suggestions? Muller, Lewandowski won't talk to me, so I've been looking at:

• Lukaku (though I'm far from convinced about him)
• Andre Silva
• Lacazette
• Gameiro
• Morata 

Does anyone have experience with these players? Or any other suggestions?

 

I have personally had great experiences with Andre Silva, though I was managing Porto and the Portugese league isn't that difficult. He did get a more than fair share in the champions league though. How has Rashford developing for you? Couldn't he take the striking berth on himself? I've made conscience effort to develop him as much as I can, I signed Drogba to tutor him and hes coming on tremendously.

[Cubelar]

I kept Nicky. He's brought through some good regens for me

[howard moon]

14 hours ago, Kamakazeee said:

I have personally had great experiences with Andre Silva, though I was managing Porto and the Portugese league isn't that difficult. He did get a more than fair share in the champions league though. How has Rashford developing for you? Couldn't he take the striking berth on himself? I've made conscience effort to develop him as much as I can, I signed Drogba to tutor him and hes coming on tremendously.

Cheers for the response. 

Rashford has been immense, both playing up front and also from the left. He capped his season with 2 goals and an assist against Monaco in the Europa League final.

At the moment though, he's my only real option up front. I'm tempted to get Mandzukic as a back-up, but ideally I'd like another top striker to compete with Rashford or play alongside. Someone who's got different attributes; so better at hold-up play etc. and who can be a reliable goal scorer. 

I'm close to giving up on finding a suitable alternative for Dybala in the second striker role, and might just push my best player - Pogba, into a free role at AMC instead.

[sedge11]

3 hours ago, howard moon said:

Cheers for the response. 

Rashford has been immense, both playing up front and also from the left. He capped his season with 2 goals and an assist against Monaco in the Europa League final.

At the moment though, he's my only real option up front. I'm tempted to get Mandzukic as a back-up, but ideally I'd like another top striker to compete with Rashford or play alongside. Someone who's got different attributes; so better at hold-up play etc. and who can be a reliable goal scorer. 

I'm close to giving up on finding a suitable alternative for Dybala in the second striker role, and might just push my best player - Pogba, into a free role at AMC instead.

Have a look at Belotti, I have brought him on my utd save for 62 mil, I got him in the 3rd season, he was abit hit and miss in the 3rd, but has been on fire so far in the 4th season, and him and Rashford have formed quite a good partnership.

Got 19 goals in all comps in his 1st season with and this is how he doing in his 2nd season with me.

[sedge11]

Well from I have seen in my saves, plus last couple of years fm's, the world player of year is very biased towards Messi, but in this save there has been a couple of different winners, and now I have finally had a winner of the world player of the year in my 4th season, which I think is the 1st time that's ever happened to me, at least on this years game.

But it wasn't Greizmann or Pogba who I thought would be in the running, no it was ............................................................. Rashford!!!! Who I know has been good but has actually got a better record than I thought.

[davehanson]

On 6/11/2017 at 18:37, sedge11 said:

Well I stopped playing for a week, due to losing interest in my save, but now back playing and enjoying it again.  So here are my transfers for the 4th season. Am glad I got rid of Martial, was terrible for me and hasn't fared much better at Madrid. I did try to sign Morata but he chose Juventus.

Fabinho was originally brought in to play right back but changed formation from 4-4-1-1 to a 4-3-3 or 4-3-1-2, both are much more solid, have barely conceded a goal and am scoring for fun, with my best 11 below.

 

Have been giving some youth more of a chance as well, Gribbin in particular has been excellent playing centre mid, also Warren as a back up to Valencia has also been good, they will both continue to play all the cups and be back ups to Valencia and Pogba. Hoping to continue their development along with the 2 regens below, and Fosu Mensah, Tuanzebe and Gomes. So far they have been playing in the EFL cup against prem opponents in every round and been winning, along with a couple of league games, am hoping they will get me to the EFL cup final and they can then play in the final and hopefully win it.

The 2 regens who are in my 1st team are:

 

Am about 10 games into the league and have won 9 drawn 1, think kept about 7 clean sheets. I have also won the super cup beating Athletico Madrid.

Can I ask you what player roles you use? I use a very similar formation to your 4-3-1-2, but am having trouble conceding with it (really good going forward though), so was just interested in your approach.

[sedge11]

3 hours ago, davehanson said:

Can I ask you what player roles you use? I use a very similar formation to your 4-3-1-2, but am having trouble conceding with it (really good going forward though), so was just interested in your approach.

Here are the roles I use with that tactic. There's nothing special about it, no extra instructions or anything. Hope that is what you were after.

So far 17 league games in the 4th season, scored 50 goals and only conceded 7. 

[manchester]

Has anyone managed to get CR7 back to united this game if so how did you do it i have tried and tried ad just cant do it also where do you play him 

[Chapman7]

On 16/06/2017 at 22:47, manchester said:

Has anyone managed to get CR7 back to united this game if so how did you do it i have tried and tried ad just cant do it also where do you play him 

Not done it myself but you'd probably have to wait 2/3 seasons when he's near the end of his contract before you could persuade him away from Madrid plus you'd probably have to get the wage bill down quite a lot to fund his wages I would imagine 

[ssrider]

Starting my 2nd season as United and made the mistake of selling Mik before i had his replacement.  I thought i had Odegaard signed when Barcelona offered me $75M + 50% of future transfer.  But Odegaard signed a new contract and im left with injuries to both Martial and Walcott and a not so great keisuke Honda.  I have a ton of money, but am very cheap.

[oneronaldo]

7 hours ago, ssrider said:

Starting my 2nd season as United and made the mistake of selling Mik before i had his replacement.  I thought i had Odegaard signed when Barcelona offered me $75M + 50% of future transfer.  But Odegaard signed a new contract and im left with injuries to both Martial and Walcott and a not so great keisuke Honda.  I have a ton of money, but am very cheap.

Gelson Martins from Sporting CP still available? I'm usually not too fussed about selling Mkhitaryan, he's very good at many things but truly excels in none tbh, only thing I missed from selling him is his versatility as he covers many positions.

[warlock]

As a SS in the middle, or IF or AP on the right, Miki has been great for me over multiple saves. But I honestly believe "first season syndrome" is a thing in FM - Miki has been poor-to-average in the first season and then brilliant second season and onwards. Pogba slightly better first season, but brilliant second season. At Monaco I signed Hakim Ziyech and Davy Klaasen, who were both adequate first season but match-winners after that.

I think it's even pointed out in the 'tips' section as the game progresses: it takes time for players to fit in with the squad, and the tactics. That has certainly been my experience.

[oneronaldo]

5 hours ago, warlock said:

As a SS in the middle, or IF or AP on the right, Miki has been great for me over multiple saves. But I honestly believe "first season syndrome" is a thing in FM - Miki has been poor-to-average in the first season and then brilliant second season and onwards. Pogba slightly better first season, but brilliant second season. At Monaco I signed Hakim Ziyech and Davy Klaasen, who were both adequate first season but match-winners after that.

I think it's even pointed out in the 'tips' section as the game progresses: it takes time for players to fit in with the squad, and the tactics. That has certainly been my experience.

Mkhi was always flying out of the blocks for me, he faded abit afterwards as others all stepped up their game but he was still very productive.

Dybala on the other hand, usually took a few games to get going, sometimes a few months if unlucky but once he built up a head of steam there was no stopping him.

[Gareh]

Just got this gem through the academy. What position should I retrain him to be? He's definitely not a centre back.

 

He's 5'6" btw.

 

[ssrider]

1 hour ago, Gareh said:

Just got this gem through the academy. What position should I retrain him to be? He's definitely not a centre back.

 

He's 5'6" btw.

 

BWM

[Smaldini]

Halfway through season 4 now, here are my transfers for the past two windows.

All of those signings are regens. I loaned Gonzalez back to his club for a season, he's a winger & is the most experienced of all of them having come through in the very first season. I've been scouting him all that time and had him on my shortlist. I saw Liverpool had triggered his release clause but he was holding out for United to make a move for him so I decided to get him. I poached Emilio Martin from Madrid in retaliation for their constant attempts at trying to unsettle Pogba. He's a very promising striker and has already scored one goal for the first team, becoming our youngest ever goalscorer at 16 years & 166 days.

Zlatan retired, I released several players and I've loaned out plenty too. James Wilson was a decent back-up but I thought I'd cash in while I can. Pereira impressed whenever he was loaned out but he was average when I played him, so I let him go. Romero has been a really good back-up keeper, but with Brexit restrictions happening I had to leave him out of the squad for the league and CL. I would've played him in all of the cup games but he wanted to leave so I moved him on. Then towards the end of January I had Kessie complaining about a lack of first team football even though he's only a rotation option. I tried to talk him round but he wasn't having it, so I offered him out and managed to sell him for more than his £30m value.

As for what's happened on the pitch, we've won the Community Shield beating Chelsea 2-1, we beat Sampdoria 2-0 (who had surprisingly defeated Juventus to win the Europa League) in the UEFA Super Cup and we beat Independiente 4-0 to win the Club World Cup. We actually drew Sampdoria in the CL group stage and they got their revenge by beating us 2-0 on the opening night, then holding us to a 0-0 draw at OT to clinch top place in the group; now they've got Porto in the first Knockout round while we have to play Madrid. We're through to the EFL Cup final once again, having got past Leicester (who we played three times in a row, drawing the league game) in the semi-final. We lost the first leg 3-2, then they switched to a defensive 4-1-4-1 in the second leg and it backfired because we beat them 5-0. We have Sheffield Wednesday in the final, who we beat last season in the FA Cup semi.

Our unbeaten league run (64 games FYI) came to an end in the fifth game of the season, losing to Arsenal 2-1 at the Emirates. Currently we sit second behind Chelsea (the other team that has beaten us in the league this year), and the North London clubs are in with a shot too, so this we'll be the tightest title race since the first season. We did manage to get revenge over Arsenal with this win recently...

[Manxie_Ash]

Came back to a United save as I just wanted a bit of fun for the last few months before a new release. First season went... okay... Won the title with 89 points, performed awfully in the cups. Liverpool knocked me out of both the F.A and EFL, lost at Leicester in the Community Shield and Bilbao (bloody Bilbao) knocked me out of the Europa League in the last 16. Improved a fair amount over the summer, just looking for recommendations on a back-up 'keeper as Romero is out for 6 months. Is it worth sticking with the youth?

[Smaldini]

4 hours ago, Manxie_Ash said:

just looking for recommendations on a back-up 'keeper as Romero is out for 6 months. Is it worth sticking with the youth?

If you don't mind signing a teenager then I'd recommend Marian Prinz from Leverkusen, he's got the potential to be as good as De Gea on my game. I only paid about £4m for him.

[cuzn1984]

Only on the iPad so no pics.....just sign Alexander Isak