Wolverhampton Wanderers FM17

[NabsKebabs]

No thread for the Wolves on FM17 that I have seen so far so why not get one rolling...

I'm two seasons into a Wolves save and it's awesome. Comfortably promoted from the Championship in the first season and a solid mid table finish against the odds in the Premier League in the second.

Season #1: Championship

I was looking for something different as I have mainly stuck to just EPL saves thus far so thought it would be fun to try and get a team promoted from the championship. Wolves are a great choice for this challenge, started off at a media prediction of 7th with a promising squad.

 Table:

The start of the season was amazing with 8 friendlies, 12 league games and 2 cup ties unbeaten. We were competing for the title all season long but fell short by a point to the outstanding squad of Newcastle. Definitely disappointing to have lost out but overall a great season 

Transfers:

Budget was ok at @£4m but squad was very solid so not much needed to be done in the market. 2 Arsenal players came in in the Summer, Yaya Sanogo was transfer listed listed and the squad needed another striker option. Zelalem is a youngster with a fair bit of potential and offered some technicals that the squad lacked. There were no major departures.

In the January window, I offloaded Jón Daði Böðvarsson who had been bought for £2.8m in the Summer (not by me). He was meant to be one of the best players at the club but Sanogo was outperforming him and I bit the hand off of Swansea when they came in with a £5m offer. He has performed quite poorly for them too so it was a great decision. Mings was very cheap and potential to be a premier league left back so came in and so did Emnes as a backup striker option who turned out to be extremely handy - he banged in 6 goals from just 5 starts and 7 sub appearances. He had actually spent the first half of the season on loan at Blackburn, scoring 8 goals.

Key Players:

RB : Dominic Iorfa - 46 starts, 0g, 4a (7.09)

CB: Danny Batth (club captain) - 42 starts, 2g, 0a (7.15)

CM: Conor Coady (vice captain) - 38 starts, 4 sub, 3g, 5a (7.00)

CM: Prince Oniangué - 38 starts, 6 sub, 9g, 6a (7.29) Absolute beast as a box to box mid.

RW: Ivan Cavaleiro - 35 starts, 10g, 15a (7.55) Championship player of the year

LW: Helder Costa - 41 starts, 1 sub, 11g, 9a (7.37)

ST: Yaya Sanogo - 29 starts, 12 sub, 14g, 10a (7.26) Not bad for a player with 8 finishing....

ST: Nouha Dicko - 30 starts, 6 sub, 28g, 10a (7.58) Champion top goalscorer despite missing the first 2 months of the season (12 month injury) 

 

Season #2: Premier League

Now this was always going to be a struggle, a squad with only a couple of players rated as premier league quality and a media prediction of relegation/19th place. A transfer budget of just £10m with only 10% of transfer revenue being made available meant selling players was not much help.

Table:

:

Despite all the odds being against us of meeting the board expectation of avoiding relegation, we completely overachieved with a respectable 11th place finish. Other clubs were so impressed that I was being offered job interviews left right and centre, Liverpool at one stage approached me as well as the likes of Marseille and Valencia.

Transfers:

*Note OUTS are not listed in order of fee, not date

Over the course of the season, the net spend was not even £2m! Batshuayi was transfer listed and a real bargain for someone of his quality. Mulumbu is a very solid defensive mid with a lot of EPL experience and did a good job of protecting the back four. Heider Costa was with us on loan in the first season and was brilliant on the left wing so I made the move permanent just like IRL. Only difference is I managed to pick him for just £1.5m while IRL he broke the club record fee coming in for £13m. Rob Holding came in to help out our defence on loan while Marshall came in on deadline day as we were desperately in need of a GK. I had given our championship GK a shot in the first few EPL games and he was not able to perform at the top level. Outs in the summer were just a couple of deadwood players nowhere near good enough for the PL. Marvin Emnes I reluctantly sold on deadline day because I needed the money for a GK and on deadline day the board changed the 10% of revenue to 80% available for the budget. 

January was pretty quite until the end of the window...Iorfa was angry I had rejected an offer from Villareal so when they came back with an improved offer I let him go. Unfortunate because he is a home grown talent with great potential but he wanted out. With a heavy heart I accepted a bid for Sanogo from Swansea, he was an absolute beast in the first season and had actually been decent in the top flight coming off the bench (from 11 cameos, 1g, 2a 7.13 rating). Allison who is a very solid GK came in on loan (had to terminate Ntcham's loan) from Roma. Naughton was the replacement for Iorfa and Lens came in to give the attack some depth. The SLB players on loan were just youngsters, Wolves and SLB have a deal where they offer us a lot of players on loan for free.

Key Players:

CM: Prince Oniangué - 33 starts, 2 sub, 3g,3a (7.07) Only regarded as a championship quality player the now 29 year old man from Congo backed up his great season with a brilliant effort in the PL

RW: Ivan Cavaleiro - 33 starts , 15g, 8a (7.42) Our best player again. Players young player of the year and also made it to team of the year

LW: Helder Costa - 38 starts, 4g, 6a (7.12) £1.5m well spent. Still only 24 years old just like Cavaleiro

ST: Michy Batshuayi - 34 starts, 1 sub, 17g, 10a (7.35) Topped both goals and assists

The captain Danny Batth was probably slightly out of his depth at this level but did a job. Kourtney Hause partnered him at centre half for most of the season and at 22 years old looks very promising. Mulumbu was solid making 36 appearances. Conor Coady and Romain Saiss both did a job in the midfield when called upon too. Dicko was mainly restricted to cameos since I mainly played with just Batshuayi up top but chipped in with 6 goals and 3 assists from 9(18). It was a real team effort.

Looking ahead:

The board have given me £55m to play with in the third season! I therefore plan on making wholesale changes which means it is definitely possible to push for a European spot. Top half finish should be the minimum. Antonio Valencia had already agreed to join for just £95k before the season finished as his contract was about to run out. A GK,CB, RB, LB and a CM are musts I reckon. Depth will also be added in other areas but they are priority.

Interested to hear how other people are going with their saves, hope you're enjoying managing the Wolves as much as I am!

 

   

[DannyFM87]

Sounds like you're having a good save!!  I've dabbled with Wolves a couple of times but never really stuck at it.... may give it another shot

[Ride-dat-vip]

What were your tactics for the first season?

[NabsKebabs]

15 hours ago, Ride-dat-vip said:

What were your tactics for the first season?

Was waiting for this question to come up! I had two that I generally would swap between. 

My favourite was this - a nice flat 442.

Obviously the players I have now are a lot different but I remember my favourite 11

Sanogo Dicko

Costa Coady/Saiss Oniangue Ivan Cavaleiro

Silvio Hause Batth Iorfa

Ikeme

If the opposition was playing with a number 10 I would usually go with this:

Oniangue Prince would play the BBM role with get further forward.  Sanogo would drop to the bench and I would play Saiss at DM with Coady as CM(S). Everyone else was the same.

Both wide midfielders on dribble more in both tactics. 

Basically the tactics are all about getting men behind the ball and hitting them with our pacy wingers/strikers. Sometimes I would play more direct passing in the 442 because of how good Sanogo is in the air. 

[Ride-dat-vip]

Thanks my dude

[Generation-Next]

Also just started as Wolves. I always try to get into Championship saves, and it never proves to be worth while, but already at the end of the August, with only 5 games played. I'm starting to love it. 

When looking for players, I figured that we had enough defenders to be able to cope with all 3 competitions and injuries. Same for up top, as I'm going to look to bring through some of the young strikers we have at our disposal. I play a 4-4-2 and wanted to find a winger and a creative central midfielder. I came across these two guys. 

 

Amine Harit on loan from FC Nantes - who's chipped in with a goal and an assist in his first 2 Championship starts.

 

Probably a slightly more well known one now in Javier Ontiveros, on loan from Malaga. Making an assist in his first sub appearance for the club. 

 

Results and Table

 

We've been scoring buckets. Winning 6-1 and 5-1 in what were absolute demolitions, struggling to keep a clean sheet though. Which I will soon sort out. 

[Crownroyaldaddy]

Registered just to reply to this topic.

in my first successful save in FM that I can recall (usually fired in first or second year), I am currently in the summer going into my 6th season as Wolves manager. We have been in the Premier League for the last 3 seasons with a 14th place finish sandwiches between two 17th place finishes. 

I am uneducated about tactics and have no idea how to truly create a great working tactic. Thought I had something after dominating the championship in my second season but fell flat on my face upon promotion. Any tactic I create that seems to work turns to rubbish after a few matches. 

So Ive been reading a little bit here and there on these forums but a lot of it is so detailed and deep that I get lost. I'm looking for a tactic that I can run with in just about every match if thats even possible. 

So I just happened to stumble upon this         3-5-1-1 thread in the forums created by Ozil. I was nearing the end of my 5th season and facing relegation or worse, being sacked. I had a 5 point in 5 match ultimatum. I tried out the tactic and was able to grab 7 points in the 5 matches and kept my job and our spot in the league.

 

So now I'm in the following July. Wasnt given much of a transfer/wage budget or much of a percentage of transfer funds retained (45%). I have decided to fully committ to the 3-5-1-1 which is a huge change for the team as Im used to my wingers and fullbacks being an important part of the squad. Ive purged the team of most of these fullbacks and wingers and any other player that I didnt want to take forward. I believe I ended up with something like a $60 million transfer and $60 million wage budget. 

Some of my additions off the top of my head. Through some good free transfers (Strootman, Sane, Kun Aguero, Mangala), we added a lot of talent. Got some steals like Ojo (Trapp + 1.2 mil), as well as some more expensive transfers (Francisco Ramos -7.5 mil Demarai Gray-10 mil and Opara-13 mil). That combined with my wonderkids I'd acquired Niall Ennis, Jordy Toussaint, Eddie Buchanon(Man City after him hard), and Marian Prinz, I feel like the team is in a good spot going into the season. Still have about 15 mil left to add somebody too...

[DKB]

On the start of season 3 as Wolves manager

Short rundown on the game so far

Season 1. Got the team together after the new year and won the Championship ahead of Newcastle. Hause were assigned to be tutored by a senior player to get his determination up, then given a new contract - a few weeks later he felt out of the tutor and as a result of the new contract he were a senior player, so can't be tutored no more, so he is running around with a 9 in determination, resulting in him being no more than a squad player, a real shame. Kylian Mbappe signed on a 12 month loan deal in January. Didier Drogba signed with the main focus on tutoring Ennis, did a really nice job. Charlie Taylor joined from Leeds

Season 2. Finished 3rd in the EPL and won the FA Cup. Mbappe signed a new 2 year loan deal. Geronimo Rulli signed in a record deal as a result Helder Costa was sold on as he had a match highest wage in the contract, and despite of playing well in season 1, he were no where close to being worth the equal wages of Rulli. Super Mario were signed on a free contract after being released by Nice. Kenneth Omeuro were signed from Chelsea. Andreas Pereira joined from Man U, spending the first half as a back up to Ivan Cavaleiro, but forcing his way into the starting 11 after the new year. Kieran Gibbs joined from Arsenal. Rulli's record deal were broken when Franck Kessie joined from Atalanta in a £20m deal.

Season 3 (so far). The record deal were broken once again with Zé Gomes joining from Benfica for £28m going towards £35.5m. Galloway (Everton), Holding (Arsenal) and Lucas Silva (Real Madrid) all joined in major transfers. Balotelli were given a new super contract after having been brilliant for me, so no more min clause for him, but matching the highest earner now. New stadium on the board, news of it will appear at the end of season 3 if it is going to happen or not (41k seats)

A week and £42m left on the transfer budget, so there could still be some movement, most likely an attacking midfielder

---

Of the original squad,Batth, Iorfa and Bodvarsson (17 goals in 32 EPL games) are still in strongest 11, with Doherty, Price, Hause and Ennis being a part of the first team squad

[DKB]

On 7/9/2017 at 21:06, DKB said:

On the start of season 3 as Wolves manager

Short rundown on the game so far

Season 1. Got the team together after the new year and won the Championship ahead of Newcastle. Hause were assigned to be tutored by a senior player to get his determination up, then given a new contract - a few weeks later he felt out of the tutor and as a result of the new contract he were a senior player, so can't be tutored no more, so he is running around with a 9 in determination, resulting in him being no more than a squad player, a real shame. Kylian Mbappe signed on a 12 month loan deal in January. Didier Drogba signed with the main focus on tutoring Ennis, did a really nice job. Charlie Taylor joined from Leeds

Season 2. Finished 3rd in the EPL and won the FA Cup. Mbappe signed a new 2 year loan deal. Geronimo Rulli signed in a record deal as a result Helder Costa was sold on as he had a match highest wage in the contract, and despite of playing well in season 1, he were no where close to being worth the equal wages of Rulli. Super Mario were signed on a free contract after being released by Nice. Kenneth Omeuro were signed from Chelsea. Andreas Pereira joined from Man U, spending the first half as a back up to Ivan Cavaleiro, but forcing his way into the starting 11 after the new year. Kieran Gibbs joined from Arsenal. Rulli's record deal were broken when Franck Kessie joined from Atalanta in a £20m deal.

Season 3 (so far). The record deal were broken once again with Zé Gomes joining from Benfica for £28m going towards £35.5m. Galloway (Everton), Holding (Arsenal) and Lucas Silva (Real Madrid) all joined in major transfers. Balotelli were given a new super contract after having been brilliant for me, so no more min clause for him, but matching the highest earner now. New stadium on the board, news of it will appear at the end of season 3 if it is going to happen or not (41k seats)

A week and £42m left on the transfer budget, so there could still be some movement, most likely an attacking midfielder

---

Of the original squad,Batth, Iorfa and Bodvarsson (17 goals in 32 EPL games) are still in strongest 11, with Doherty, Price, Hause and Ennis being a part of the first team squad

So season 4 is finished

Was leading the pack going into the xmas mayhem but lost to many point in that periode, while Man U despite playing like a million games in a month or so didn't tire and won them all, so they were ahead on the other side of the new year

Going into the final game of the season in 2nd place, but we could finish anywhere between 1th and 4th, with Man U, Liverpool and us all in the frame to win the title.  With Man U winning their game they clinced the title and with us loosing to Leeds (who thereby saved them from relegation) and both Spurs and Liverpool winning we finished the season in 4th place 

Highlight of the season was the reserves who got us to the semifinals of the Euro League (after finishing 3rd in the CL group stage) from there on the first team took over and got us to the 2nd ever European final for Wolves, and like the last time it would be against another English side. This years opponent were Chelsea

0-1 Willian (38) (Chelsea)

1-1 Balotelli (40) (Wolves)

2-1 Ze Gomez  (49) (Wolves)

3-1 Balotelli (59) (Wolves)

4-1 Andreas Pereira (90) Wolves

FT

So the first ever European trophy for Wolves, not a bad way to finish the season

---

Transfer news

Monaco won't loan us Mbappe anymore :-(     -  So decided to replace him with Barkley for the new season, always nice to bring in English players + Gonzalo Maroni from Boca joining as well, so we will have some really good players for the two AMC places despite not having Mbappe for next season - Andreas Pereira will most likely be first choice with Barkley, and then Maroni and Cavaleiro being backups

Andre Silva will join from Porto for form an all Portuguese starting lineup with Ze Gomez (going to see if I can offload Balotelli) with a Portuguese newgen and Ennis being backup and Bodvarsson being 5th choice and an important tutor of the young strikers 

Tiemoue Bakayoko will join (on a free)  Kessie and Lucas Silva to battle for one of the two central midfield roles with Galloway and a newgen being a step further back

Main targets for the transferwindow will be...

Replacement for Iorfa who got a long term injury in the Euro League final and will be out of 6-7 months, with Doherty's contract running out (and him not being good enough for a top EPL side) and Porto not willing to let Dalot stay for another season on loan, we will need to bring in two new right backs, as the reserves/newgens aren't good enought to step up yet

Central defence. Batth and Omeruo are doing ok, but are really "only" decent EPL defenders, and I would like better, their back ups Hause and Rob Holding aren't up for really challinging them, so one or two quality central defenders could do a real difference for the side