FM17: Arsenal

[WillyBroadband]

1 hour ago, llama3 said:

I have signed Kieran Tierney - he's loaned back to Celtic and will be ready with me at the end of the season. I will sell Gibbs then. Jenkinson has gone for £10m to Southampton.

I tried to get Tierney but he wanted huge wages and ended up going to Liverpool instead. 

I did sign Dembélé from Celtic, though. Has been very disappointing so far. Not sure he suits my system though, so my fault. 

 

[llama3]

I've been having an immense season so far:

Premier League
I'm top 5 points clear of Chelsea. We lost our first game of the season away to Everton in December and just lost 2-1 to a rampant Chelsea side. We have 14 matches to go, but we're playing well so fingers crossed we see it through. It's a 2-horse race. No chance of either Manchester club even going close. My goal difference of +46 is really impressive so far.

EFL Cup
Into the final against Sunderland at the end of the month. Good semi final win over Reading, although made hard work of the 2nd leg and had to call Alexis, Ozil & Cazorla off the bench. My Quarter Final win over Southampton was excellent, trailing 1-0 until the 87th minute long range strike from Elneny, with Giroud scoring in stoppage time

FA Cup
Into round 5, which is away to Preston. Won at Anfield in round 3, coming from behind for Koscielny to score the winner in injury time in a 3-2 win. Also dispatched Birmingham 5-1 in round 4 at the Emirates.

Champions League
I won my group containing Benfica, RB Salzburg & Olympiakos comfortably. My reward is Atletico Madrid in the round of 16 which will be very tough. Xhaka and Elneny are both suspended for the first leg with 3 yellow cards each.

Other
Have had an excellent season so far, scoring plenty and conceding few, dominating possession and scoring some sublime goals. We've also had a habit of getting late goals too which has been good to see. Ramsey has scored 11 so far this season, Giroud 18, Alexis 17, Walcott 11 - along with 6 from Cazorla and 5 from Ozil. Getting plenty of assists too from Ozil 13, Walcott 11, Bellerin 8 amongst others. Development of Iwobi has been good too.

[exumo]

Haven't had one since FM14.

[WillyBroadband]

Hello all, 

Just a quick question before I ask in a different part of the forum.. have any of you guys noticed this when selling players? 

As you can see I'm getting £500 a month but these transfers were all done up front with no monthly instalments involved, anywhere. It's no biggy but a little odd, maybe. 

[VP.]

Just wondering what formation do you all use with Arsenal, i'm currently working on a 1-4-1-2-1-1 based on the formation we used when we beat Liverpool 2-0 at Anfield back in 1989 and not doing too bad with it so far.

 

SW/O'Leary

RWB-DF/Dixon ----- CB-DF/Adams ----- CB-DF/Bould ----- LWB-DF/Winterburn

DLP-SU/Richardson

CM-AT/Rocastle ----- BBM/Thomas

SS/Merson

TM-SU/Smith

[llama3]

2 hours ago, SortitoutsiVP said:

Just wondering what formation do you all use with Arsenal, i'm currently working on a 1-4-1-2-1-1 based on the formation we used when we beat Liverpool 2-0 at Anfield back in 1989 and not doing too bad with it so far.

 

SW/O'Leary

RWB-DF/Dixon ----- CB-DF/Adams ----- CB-DF/Bould ----- LWB-DF/Winterburn

DLP-SU/Richardson

CM-AT/Rocastle ----- BBM/Thomas

SS/Merson

TM-SU/Smith

Mine is a good old 4-2-3-1

[WillyBroadband]

3 hours ago, SortitoutsiVP said:

Just wondering what formation do you all use with Arsenal, i'm currently working on a 1-4-1-2-1-1 based on the formation we used when we beat Liverpool 2-0 at Anfield back in 1989 and not doing too bad with it so far.

 

SW/O'Leary

RWB-DF/Dixon ----- CB-DF/Adams ----- CB-DF/Bould ----- LWB-DF/Winterburn

DLP-SU/Richardson

CM-AT/Rocastle ----- BBM/Thomas

SS/Merson

TM-SU/Smith

I like the sound of this, dude. 

I'm using a 4-3-3 or you could call it a 4-1-2-2-1. 

[llama3]

Just got a 0-0 draw away to Atletico in the 1st leg of Champions League Knockout Round. Both sides had chances. I must say I'm much more conservative in the Champions League than I am in Premier League.

[WillyBroadband]

Second season went alright! 5 trophies won, including my favourite The Club World Cup. 

Sounds stupid but I feel a bit frustrated though. 

[WillyBroadband]

My first team squad.

[llama3]

On 14/03/2017 at 23:42, WillyBroadband said:

Second season went alright! 5 trophies won, including my favourite The Club World Cup. 

Sounds stupid but I feel a bit frustrated though. 

To be fair - the FA Cup and Champions League does put a dampener despite how impressive you've been.

[WillyBroadband]

3 hours ago, llama3 said:

To be fair - the FA Cup and Champions League does put a dampener despite how impressive you've been.

Yeah man, I agree. I love playing in the World Club Cup, it's a shame previous winners don't automatically qualify for it. 

[llama3]

3 hours ago, WillyBroadband said:

Yeah man, I agree. I love playing in the World Club Cup, it's a shame previous winners don't automatically qualify for it. 

It's been a few years since I actually played in the competition - haven't won a Champions League since FM12 roughly

[llama3]

I have won the EFL Cup - unbelievable climax!

We went 1-0 down in the first half. After 65 minutes I used my final change and brought on Olivier Giroud for Alex Iwobi. Giroud converted Walcott's cross to equalise on 72 minutes. We went to Extra Time at 1-1, and with 10 seconds of injury time left on the clock, Pickford came for a lofted ball into the box, Giroud won the knockdown to Ozil who scored into an empty night. Talk about leaving it late! 

Boom boom Olivier!

[WillyBroadband]

3 hours ago, llama3 said:

I have won the EFL Cup - unbelievable climax!

We went 1-0 down in the first half. After 65 minutes I used my final change and brought on Olivier Giroud for Alex Iwobi. Giroud converted Walcott's cross to equalise on 72 minutes. We went to Extra Time at 1-1, and with 10 seconds of injury time left on the clock, Pickford came for a lofted ball into the box, Giroud won the knockdown to Ozil who scored into an empty night. Talk about leaving it late! 

Boom boom Olivier!

Nice! Sounds great.

 

[WillyBroadband]

£70M for Iwobi plus 25% sell on fee?! Yes please. 

[WillyBroadband]

My transfers for my third season. I know Dybala is quite an obvious & common transfer but I just couldn't resist. 

[nextqprmanager]

37 minutes ago, WillyBroadband said:

My transfers for my third season. I know Dybala is quite an obvious & common transfer but I just couldn't resist. 

great signings !

Origi no good?

[WillyBroadband]

2 minutes ago, nextqprmanager said:

great signings !

Origi no good?

I had a bit of a panic buy as I decided to switch back to playing with wingers, hence signing Bolasie, Gnabry & Asensio. 

Origi was alright, I played him as a False 9 & AML/Inside Forward and was far too inconsistent really. 

[WillyBroadband]

This made me smile! A sharp decline for Spurs, brilliant. 

[WillyBroadband]

Also, if anyone is interested this is the formation I use. The Ox has been superb as an Advanced Playmaker/Attack so far this season. Hummels & Dybala have really taken me to the next level, too. £108M for the both of them, so you'd hope they would. 

Fingers crossed I'll win the FA Cup this year @llama3

[WillyBroadband]

I normally start to enjoy the game less when I've made big changes to Arsenal but I'm loving it more & more, this year. 

[llama3]

17 hours ago, WillyBroadband said:

Also, if anyone is interested this is the formation I use. The Ox has been superb as an Advanced Playmaker/Attack so far this season. Hummels & Dybala have really taken me to the next level, too. £108M for the both of them, so you'd hope they would. 

Fingers crossed I'll win the FA Cup this year @llama3

Good luck with the cup!

[arsenalthebest]

Season 3 so far

 

[LLNDVS]

Here are my two primary set-ups - a standard 4-3-3 and a unorthodox 3-1-4-2:

As I mentioned in previous posts, I like to micro-manage a lot, so the the details of those set-ups change often within games, but the general shape remains the same, unless I do something drastic.

I'm now seven points ahead of second placed Manchester City, which is pretty good going, and I'm very happy with my goal difference: 57 goals scored and a league low 17 goals conceded, five of which were conceded in disappointing losses to Burnley and Southampton.

I now go into a UEFA Champions League last sixteen tie versus Atlético Madrid, managed by Arsène. I'm also in the FA Cup fourth round, where I play Championship side Barnsley. 

I'm actually really enjoying this Arsenal save. I normally hate them, but the real-life goings on mean I'm sort of implementing the changes - tactical, personnel and general - I'd like to see implement in real-life. 

[llama3]

I drew my 2nd leg 1-1 at home to Atletico, so went out on away goals. Frustrated by that really. 

Into the semi finals of the FA Cup after beating Spurs in 6th round. Semi final draw:

Arsenal v Reading & Man United v Brentford

Also lost Cech, Monreal, Koscielny, Holding & Iwobi to injuries recently. Monreal, Holding & Cech will miss the rest of the season. 

[MShing]

Just finished the first season winning the quadruple. Beat Villarreal in the champs league final 4-0. Also should mention destroying Barca 7-0 on aggregate, 5-0 at neu camp!

no major first team signings just a few youngsters bought in. 

I mostly used a variation of ozil-to-the-arsenals v.fluid Barca formation from the tactics thread and my own 4-2-3-1 system. 

I am planning to offload Walcott, Wellbeck, Lucas and maybe Giroud, Elneny and  Mertesaker 

i don't know how some of you get Giroud to score so many goals. He was terrible for me only scoring 16. 

Think I may bring in Dybala in the summer and see who else I can unsettle. I would like Deli Ali eventually to replace Ozil and even though Sanchez was my best player winning player of the year and players player, #3 in world player of the year I wasn't impressed with him. Too many matches he would only score a 5 or 6 rating. 

[dily]

Started a new game on after jan update, mainly because I was keen to try Sanchez uptop and wanted to see how the upgraded Iwobi worked.

First window did not sign anyone, gave everyone a chance to work out how it went. Sanchez uptop was interesting, had games where he would score 4 and assist 2 and some games lower 6 rating, did score 38 goals in all competition, won the league and CL. Iwobi got me 17 goals and ozil 23 as well. 

In January window let go Per, Gabby, Lucas and Elneney and brought in Keane,Buitink and sessegnon

Keane has turned out to be as good as kos and mustafi, sold gabby for 25mil to china and keane was just 15 mil

Buitink is only 17 as I am going into my 3rd season and scored 12 goals last season and I have a special player

sessegnon is already my first choice left back

Summer window I brought in Greizmann for 55 mil ( tried to get Dybala but juve wanted 150 mil) Kai Havertz for 40  mil and brought back Chambers into first team

sold -Theo Gibbs Giroud, Welbeck, Jack

used Greizmann as no9 sanchez left and Iwobi right on a 4231 and won all 7 trophies. Greizmann got me 39 goals, Sanchez 27 Ozil 25 Iwobi 17

Ox had a terrible season, so In January window got Refinha for 30 mil must say he hasnt had the impact I wanted but he has been decent, both are getting one more season and if they dont step up they are getting shipped.

Brixit happened and now I am allowed maximum of 17 Foreign players, which with the current squad I have isnt an issue

Going into the 3rd season I have brought in Renato Sanchez for 77 mill and am him and kai will be my main CM paring as I am looking to go total football. Donnaruma has come into for 32 mill and he is being readied to take over from cech.

sold Woj for 20 mil and Xhaka for 37 mil

 

so far i have bought players for 300 mil including fair amount of kids -De Ligt, who will take over from Kos in a season or two, Barco as long term replacement for Ozil and Guenouch as long term replacement for Monreal and have sold players for around 260 mil. Keeping squad to 23 as I want to have everyone involved in and I have changed system slightly within the 4231 and hope to make something special

[MShing]

Anyone ever bought Rooney? He's listed for 3mil end of first season. 

Tempted to sign him for tutoring purposes mainly, doubt he will play much as he wouldn't fit into my team. 

[TheBigBoss]

Anyone getting much success with Sanchez up front playing him as a complete forward in a 4-1-2-3 and to be honest he has been pretty average with January coming I'm wondering if I should go for Lukaku or stick it out with Welbeck, Alexis and Giroud until the summer and possibly go for someone better than Lukaku

 

Decisions

[MShing]

I haven't been that impressed with Sanchez tbh even though his avr is around 7.8. He has too many games where he only gets a 6. I'm tempted to sell him and either blood the youngsters or buy greizmann

[vpn75]

On 3/20/2017 at 21:16, arsenalthebest said:

Season 3 so far

 

I use the CFM skin too. How did you get those nice backgrounds?

[TheBigBoss]

5 hours ago, TheBigBoss said:

Anyone getting much success with Sanchez up front playing him as a complete forward in a 4-1-2-3 and to be honest he has been pretty average with January coming I'm wondering if I should go for Lukaku or stick it out with Welbeck, Alexis and Giroud until the summer and possibly go for someone better than Lukaku

 

Decisions

Well my decisions been made for me Lukaku injured for 2 months

[vpn75]

16 hours ago, TheBigBoss said:

Well my decisions been made for me Lukaku injured for 2 months

I used Alexis up front as CF in a 4-2-3-1 formation last season and he was an absolute beast for me finishing with 29 goals and 14 assists in the league. 

[arsenalthebest]

On ‎24‎/‎03‎/‎2017 at 21:11, vpn75 said:

I use the CFM skin too. How did you get those nice backgrounds?

http://www.fmscout.com/a-football-manager-backgrounds-super-pack.html

[dily]

On 3/24/2017 at 16:17, TheBigBoss said:

Anyone getting much success with Sanchez up front playing him as a complete forward in a 4-1-2-3 and to be honest he has been pretty average with January coming I'm wondering if I should go for Lukaku or stick it out with Welbeck, Alexis and Giroud until the summer and possibly go for someone better than Lukaku

 

Decisions

on the new update he did get me 38 goals in all competitions playing uptop but it limits him as I had the same issue of him having games where he has games he hardly does anything, second season moved him to left wing inside forward he scored 26 and was more involved, think he is best in one of the two wide roles

[TheBigBoss]

Huge huges dilemma so I've been leaving contract negotiations with the DoF (Wenger) and it has got to the summer and no deal agreed with Ozil so now he's in the final 12 months and Juve showed interest which I rejected now he's unhappy and doesn't want to negotiate do I cut my losses sell and go all out for Bernardo Silva or do I keep him and hope during the season he says he's happy which would mean he wants to negotiate a new deal ?

 

 

[Ronaldo Beckham]

How did you get Wenger as your DOF ?

[Dokara]

If i'm not wrong, when you take over Arsenal, game automatically transfer Wenger to DoF position.

[Ronaldo Beckham]

It didn't do that when I was manager.

[Sparky_07]

You get the option to keep him as DOF in your first press conference when you take over them

[MShing]

9 hours ago, TheBigBoss said:

Huge huges dilemma so I've been leaving contract negotiations with the DoF (Wenger) and it has got to the summer and no deal agreed with Ozil so now he's in the final 12 months and Juve showed interest which I rejected now he's unhappy and doesn't want to negotiate do I cut my losses sell and go all out for Bernardo Silva or do I keep him and hope during the season he says he's happy which would mean he wants to negotiate a new deal ?

 

 

I never trust any staff to organise contracts for this reason. Same for getting them to sign players. I always have final say on who we sign. 

I have wenger to find and make offers for players but I have to finalise them. It's a good job as wenger (just like irl) attempts to sign some right rubbish!

[TheBigBoss]

Has Ben Sheaf managed to break into the first team into any of your first teams, I've never really heard of him as one to watch out for even as an Arsenal fan but his stats look very impressive, seeing as he's able to play CB and CM he could really be molded into anything you want

[arsenalthebest]

my three main strikers Welbeck, Morata & Alexis have 66 goals between them so far (late Jan)

[dily]

3rd season completed, won the league comfortably with 100 points. United stayed with me till about february but their main man lewondowski who had 30 goals till then picked up a big injury and they collapsed and ended up with 80 points.

Griezmann got 56 goals in all competition, 36 in PL and 14 in CL went missing in the final though

Buitink 21 goals, most in cup games but got 10 in the league

ozil 20 goals with 17 of them in PL

Sanches 17 goals with 29 assists

Jeff Adelede , iwobi and Refinha also got 10 goals each

Going into 4th season sold Kos for 5 mil and brought in malang sarr for 25 mil and promoting De Ligt as I see them as the long term

sold Refiniha as he didnt deliver enough for me for 40 mil to psg and promoting Vlad Dragmier and Reiss Nelson

Cech retired

current squad only has 13 players who are over the age of needing to register and have 175 mil to spend. Not planning to do much more this window as I want to see how some of the kids turn up as I will need to start replacing ozil and sanchez soon.

[dily]

squad for 4th season

[talhak]

Hi guys,

Hope you are enjoying with your careers. I do wonder how do you play Iwobi (since he can play almost everywhere in the forward) and his performance. Can you share your experiences?

[dily]

when I had him sanchez uptop he played left wing and was great, now I moved sanchez to left wing he is playing mostly in right wing and has done very well there too, think you can play him anywhere, same with Adelede both great options to have between then 2 they are like having 3 players

[llama3]

4 hours ago, talhak said:

Hi guys,

Hope you are enjoying with your careers. I do wonder how do you play Iwobi (since he can play almost everywhere in the forward) and his performance. Can you share your experiences?

Same as @dily mentioned - I play him on the left flank mainly. I tend to have him as an IF(S) coming into the centre to create overloads in the #10 area with Ozil & Alexis.

[talhak]

Thanks guys for your feedback  @llama3 @dily His almost every important attribute is equal or higher than 15, so I have wondered his contribution to the game.