FM18: Chelsea FC

[bucket]

12 minutes ago, mhaffy said:

Spot on re Dave. With two stikers, I only have 1 slot in AM and Hazard, on his return from injury, is the main man and performing really well. Pedro unhappy with lack of playing time but Dave seems for now to have sorted. Great news. Will rest Hazard for next match, Carabao cup, and play Pedro and try to give Willian some game time too.

Second night of not playing! Last night was busy buying and setting up a TV. Tonight was a evening spent in A&E. Great fun! Good reading everybodies else’s saves. Keep them coming!

[mhaffy]

2 minutes ago, bucket said:

Tonight was a evening spent in A&E.

Hope everything ok and no problems.....

Re FM, not sure when I will be playing next........had some spare time this afternoon and while England footy on TV to make some progress. Lost away to Liverpool and that is only defeat. Belotti proving to be a great buy so far.

[bucket]

8 minutes ago, mhaffy said:

Hope everything ok and no problems.....

Re FM, not sure when I will be playing next........had some spare time this afternoon and while England footy on TV to make some progress. Lost away to Liverpool and that is only defeat. Belotti proving to be a great buy so far.

Yeah given all clear after having some chest pains for last few days. Had a heart operation when I was 6 so have to be careful! 

My next spare time will probably be Thursday evening I hope! I’m out for a meal tomorrow night. 

Belotti will be my number 1 target. 

[PitchPosh]

37 minutes ago, bucket said:

Yeah given all clear after having some chest pains for last few days. Had a heart operation when I was 6 so have to be careful! 

My next spare time will probably be Thursday evening I hope! I’m out for a meal tomorrow night. 

Belotti will be my number 1 target. 

Glad to hear everything is OK! I left my laptop running when I went to work this morning, along with FM, and it restarted for updates while I was out. Now I have to play 3 matches again to get back to where I was. Hopefully everything goes my way again! Looking to make it to January in the next few days. I think my main targets are Goretzka and a youngster from Dortmund named Dzenis Burnic. Both have contracts expiring in the summer, so I'll be looking to tie them down in January. I also have to figure out who from the U23's is going to get a chance in the first team next season. 

[PitchPosh]

Got some mixed results from my replayed games. Before I won 3 games, one from each of the Premier League, Carabao Cup, and Champions League. After replaying them I won 1, lost 1, and drew 1. This was all made better by a huge win over a certain red neighbor. I will post a full update when I get home this evening. 

[mhaffy]

16 hours ago, bucket said:

Yeah given all clear after having some chest pains for last few days. Had a heart operation when I was 6 so have to be careful! 

Very glad to hear all ok. Take care.

Finished earlier than I expected today so time to sneak in a bit of FM!

[bucket]

23 minutes ago, mhaffy said:

Very glad to hear all ok. Take care.

Finished earlier than I expected today so time to sneak in a bit of FM!

Thanks mate. Me too.

It’s great when that happens, like a little bonus. Looking forward to having a spell on it very soon! Love reading all the updates too. Don’t know what it is, but gets me wanting to play it even more! 

[bucket]

16 hours ago, PitchPosh said:

Glad to hear everything is OK! I left my laptop running when I went to work this morning, along with FM, and it restarted for updates while I was out. Now I have to play 3 matches again to get back to where I was. Hopefully everything goes my way again! Looking to make it to January in the next few days. I think my main targets are Goretzka and a youngster from Dortmund named Dzenis Burnic. Both have contracts expiring in the summer, so I'll be looking to tie them down in January. I also have to figure out who from the U23's is going to get a chance in the first team next season. 

Thanks Mate. You looking to move anyone on in the window also?

[PitchPosh]

10 minutes ago, bucket said:

Thanks Mate. You looking to move anyone on in the window also?

I'm not sure. The squad is already pretty thin, but Cahill has been awful for me. Not sure how trying to move him on will affect the dressing room, but I'd love to be rid of him. Pedro hasn't been particularly great for me either, so bar a huge improvement I may look to cash in on him as well. His £52m value at the beginning of the game is puzzling. Everyone else has been quite good for me, though, so I'll try to keep the squad together.

[SirCular]

Hi Guys,

Ended up starting with Chelsea after having a decent save with Watford on the Beta and I'm looking for suggestions on signings first season.

I've overhauled the squad quite a bit, selling Moses, David Luiz, Pedro, Willian, Batshsuayi and Kenedy. This, coupled with the huge transfer budget now means I've got a big chunk of funds to bring some players in and I wondered who everyone went with during their Chelsea saves.

I've brought in Nabil Fekir so far but hes's the only first team signing I've made.

Looking primarily for another Centre Midfielder, Centre Back and some players to add depth!

[Carefree_Since_1905]

27 minutes ago, SirCular said:

Hi Guys,

Ended up starting with Chelsea after having a decent save with Watford on the Beta and I'm looking for suggestions on signings first season.

I've overhauled the squad quite a bit, selling Moses, David Luiz, Pedro, Willian, Batshsuayi and Kenedy. This, coupled with the huge transfer budget now means I've got a big chunk of funds to bring some players in and I wondered who everyone went with during their Chelsea saves.

I've brought in Nabil Fekir so far but hes's the only first team signing I've made.

Looking primarily for another Centre Midfielder, Centre Back and some players to add depth!

How much did you get for Moses? Valued at £25m in mine but couldn't get any takers at that price.

[mhaffy]

Before Carabao Cup match at home to Newcastle the Head of Sports Science advised me that we have had 15% fewer injuries to what we would have expected. Dread to think what injuries i would have had to cope with at expected level - Morata has hardly played competitively for me so far and Alonso, Drinkwater just back from long injuries.

I decided to deploy my back up 2 striker tactic against Newcastle and rest Dave, Luiz, Belotti, Kante and Rudiger. Decided to keep Courtois in goal rather than give Wily an outing! Will only play Wily if I have to. Drinkwater and Alonso came back for this match (first since injuries) and Morata led the line with Batshuayi. Pedro started, after his recent issue with lack of starts that Dave helped sort! Cahill had a rare start and was paired with de Ligt (first comptetitive start). We won convincingly 3-0 with Batshauyi, Morata and Cahill scoring. Cahill was man of match........

Result and performance was great but downside was more injuries - Batshuayi out 3 weeks with broken jaw, Pedro out for 2-4 weeks and Zappacosta for 3-4 weeks! Damn!!! Injuries probably in line with average expected now. Kennedy, Moses and Charly at least got some decent competitive game time.

[PitchPosh]

2 minutes ago, mhaffy said:

Before Carabao Cup match at home to Newcastle the Head of Sports Science advised me that we have had 15% fewer injuries to what we would have expected. Dread to think what injuries i would have had to cope with at expected level - Morata has hardly played competitively for me so far and Alonso, Drinkwater just back from long injuries.

I decided to deploy my back up 2 striker tactic against Newcastle and rest Dave, Luiz, Belotti, Kante and Rudiger. Decided to keep Courtois in goal rather than give Wily an outing! Will only play Wily if I have to. Drinkwater and Alonso came back for this match (first since injuries) and Morata led the line with Batshuayi. Pedro started, after his recent issue with lack of starts that Dave helped sort! Cahill had a rare start and was paired with de Ligt (first comptetitive start). We won convincingly 3-0 with Batshauyi, Morata and Cahill scoring. Cahill was man of match........

Result and performance was great but downside was more injuries - Batshuayi out 3 weeks with broken jaw, Pedro out for 2-4 weeks and Zappacosta for 3-4 weeks! Damn!!! Injuries probably in line with average expected now. Kennedy, Moses and Charly at least got some decent competitive game time.

Wow, that's a lot of injuries! I've been extremely lucky with them so far, with the exception of losing Luiz for 2-3 months with a broken foot. I have had a couple of short-term injuries (bruised thigh/knee 1-3 days), but everyone has stayed healthy for the most part. Hoping my luck will last until January where I can at least add some depth to the squad if need be.

[SirCular]

2 hours ago, Carefree_Since_1905 said:

How much did you get for Moses? Valued at £25m in mine but couldn't get any takers at that price.

I ended up getting £14m for him from Jiangsu. Just wanted rid of him to be honest. Willian went to Man Utd for £40m, with David Luiz going to Monaco for £30m as well so I've got quite a war chest now!

[mhaffy]

4 hours ago, PitchPosh said:

Wow, that's a lot of injuries! I've been extremely lucky with them so far, with the exception of losing Luiz for 2-3 months with a broken foot. I have had a couple of short-term injuries (bruised thigh/knee 1-3 days), but everyone has stayed healthy for the most part. Hoping my luck will last until January where I can at least add some depth to the squad if need be.

I hope your luck lasts until January. Just checked my training and my players workloads are all medium - are yours also medium or is your training lighter?

Just checked Head of Science feedback immediately after Carabao cup match in which three players injured - now 1% less injuries than expected. So the 3 injuries in that match impacted injuries by 14%!

Chief scout has just suggested I open contract negotiations with Cahill.....no thanks...I dont see long term future for him! He also suggests Kante not justifying his wage......methinks he most certainly IS justifying his wage....

[PitchPosh]

19 minutes ago, mhaffy said:

I hope your luck lasts until January. Just checked my training and my players workloads are all medium - are yours also medium or is your training lighter?

Just checked Head of Science feedback immediately after Carabao cup match in which three players injured - now 1% less injuries than expected. So the 3 injuries in that match impacted injuries by 14%!

Chief scout has just suggested I open contract negotiations with Cahill.....no thanks...I dont see long term future for him! He also suggests Kante not justifying his wage......methinks he most certainly IS justifying his wage....

I believe I have my training set to "average" or whatever the mid setting is. There is no way I'd offer Cahill any type of contract! Kante has been one of my best players by far. I find he plays very similar in-game to the way he does in real life. 

[mhaffy]

Just endured one of those games where you are convinced that it is just not going to be your day. At home to Stoke who are bottom of the league, and my squad is depleted with few players >95% and an away Champions League game following in midweek. Decide to put out a strong side including Belotti, Morata, Hazard, Willian, Kante, Dave, Luiz......Stoke set up 5221 Defensive and we attack in wave after wave......Early penalty...Belotti takes.....Butland saves....Butland then continues to produce a masterclass, saving everything and his average rating rises....and rises....and after 70 minutes he was the outstanding player on the pich with a rating of 8.0......

I have changed instructions, formation, roles and dropped defensive line to temp them out........Charly replaced Fabreagas (ineffective) after 50 minutes, and I decided to sub Dave for Moses who I put on WB (A). Kennedy had been playing left back and Morata having a stinker (tumbling over all the time, losing possession and expecting ref to give a foul).....so I put Alonso on for Morata and played Kennedy as a poacher....

With fifteen minutes left , soon after final two subs subs completed we get a corner and score a really scrappy goal thanks to Kennedy...........

A 1-0 win, no more injuries...job done...just.......

One thing that did confuse me at the end was Butlands rating - 6.9. The goal was not his fault, he rated 8.0 just before our goal and made several good saves after we scored......No doubt one of FM's quirks!

[bucket]

Can anyone tell me if Loftus Cheek is good enough to step up and take Fabregas’s place in the second season? I like the look of Dom Berardi From Sassuolo, you could get him for roughly £21-£22.5m on beta. Was thinking of delaying or not signing Savic at all if Reuben can step up. Berardi will take Pedro’s place and be understudy for Willian for the 2nd half of the season and then hopefully step up the following. Hoping to finally get some game time tonight!

[mhaffy]

2 hours ago, bucket said:

Can anyone tell me if Loftus Cheek is good enough to step up and take Fabregas’s place in the second season? I like the look of Dom Berardi From Sassuolo, you could get him for roughly £21-£22.5m on beta. Was thinking of delaying or not signing Savic at all if Reuben can step up. Berardi will take Pedro’s place and be understudy for Willian for the 2nd half of the season and then hopefully step up the following. Hoping to finally get some game time tonight!

Regarding Ruben, i think a lot comes down to how favourable his PA is as the start of your save. I think that another forum indicated his PA range was 140-160 with 40% Injury proneness. In my current save his PA is 3 stars with the third being black. At least his personality seems ok in FM18 at balanced/level headed. Another thing to consider is what position/role you would be using him in. I am currently using midfield 3 with Fabregas playing DLP (D) centrally - not ideal for him but he is doing fine. The attributes Loftus Cheek has in my save are ideal for DLP (D) and given he potentially has some scope for improvement, I will probably bring him back and try him in 18/19. Given the feedback from my medical team on high injury risk for lots of players due to match fatigue I will probably try to get a quality MC as well. Loftus Cheek in my save currently:

My scouts rate Loftus Cheek at 54. I am still thinking of trying for Savic next season, having finally scouted him; 80 rating and looks very versatile in MC.

Hope you do finally manage to get some quality game time tonight. Looking forward on update.....

[PitchPosh]

I have high hopes for Loftus-Cheek, he'll definitely see some playing time during next season. He has up to 3.5 stars for me and hopefully some regular playing time at Palace will help him develop. If he continues to play the way he has, I think he'll get a decent bump come the January update. 

[mhaffy]

1 hour ago, PitchPosh said:

I have high hopes for Loftus-Cheek, he'll definitely see some playing time during next season. He has up to 3.5 stars for me and hopefully some regular playing time at Palace will help him develop.

Looks like you had a more favourable "Random PA" outcome than me. Only time will tell whether he justifies a place in 18/29 or not.....

[bucket]

Thanks lads. Is there a call back clause in January? I’ll have to check tonight what his Potential is and go from there. 

[mhaffy]

1 minute ago, bucket said:

Thanks lads. Is there a call back clause in January?

Unfortunately not. I dont think there are for any of those on loan at start of game.

[wetfred]

What formation are you guys using this year? Are people still using the 5 backs? Still trying to get the staff sorted out and haven't decided on a formation.

[mhaffy]

27 minutes ago, wetfred said:

What formation are you guys using this year? Are people still using the 5 backs? Still trying to get the staff sorted out and haven't decided on a formation.

I have never managed to get a 3 DC tactic to work on FM17 or FM18. I have set up three tactics but rarely deviated from the main one, with line-up used in last match 3-1 win at home to Everton. I modify defensive line based upon how game develops, sometimes move Hazard (or whoever subs for him) to AMR and sometimes changed Bakarayo role to Mez (S). Centre backs sometimes changed to Luiz BPD Stopper with his partner on Cover.

Only defeat so far was 2-1 against Liverpool. Very happy with Belotti - 8 goals and 2 assists in 10 apps.

Only played 7 league games so far scoring 13, conceding 5, Board happy with teams attempts to produce attacking football but expect possession (only 50.4%) to improve.....Have recently been including play out of defence as additional instruction. Hopefully possession will improve as player relationship lines increase in number and turn to green on tactics! Still seeing lots of poor passes.

Let us know what formation/set up you go with.

[Benoit2]

Cesc is unhappy with a lack of football. I ask Cahill to have a word, he refuses. I ask Azpi to have a word and Cesc drops his complaints. Thank you Dave  (and screw you Cahill..)

[mhaffy]

52 minutes ago, Benoit2 said:

Cesc is unhappy with a lack of football. I ask Cahill to have a word, he refuses. I ask Azpi to have a word and Cesc drops his complaints. Thank you Dave  (and screw you Cahill..)

Dave is the man. He has helped me with Pedro and Cahill over lack of 1st team chances.

PS Since reply above, Moses unhappy with lack of first team chances. Choosing Dave to have a word was not an option. Asked Cahill to have a word and, at least for now, he has resolved the issue.

Willian next up during international break.....Luiz has a word and sorts for now!

Starting to wonder what determines the player you have the option of asking to help resolve issue.

[PitchPosh]

2 hours ago, mhaffy said:

Spoiler

 

I have never managed to get a 3 DC tactic to work on FM17 or FM18. I have set up three tactics but rarely deviated from the main one, with line-up used in last match 3-1 win at home to Everton. I modify defensive line based upon how game develops, sometimes move Hazard (or whoever subs for him) to AMR and sometimes changed Bakarayo role to Mez (S). Centre backs sometimes changed to Luiz BPD Stopper with his partner on Cover.

Only defeat so far was 2-1 against Liverpool. Very happy with Belotti - 8 goals and 2 assists in 10 apps.

Only played 7 league games so far scoring 13, conceding 5, Board happy with teams attempts to produce attacking football but expect possession (only 50.4%) to improve.....Have recently been including play out of defence as additional instruction. Hopefully possession will improve as player relationship lines increase in number and turn to green on tactics! Still seeing lots of poor passes.

Let us know what formation/set up you go with.

 

 

I was thinking of playing something like this during my second season. Morata seems to be good (so far) at creating chances for others, so I'm hoping Tammy can flourish with him up top. I'd look to move Hazard into a central attacking midfielder role, though.

After some modifications to my 4-1-2-3 the squad is playing some good football. I have fallen into the too much possession, not enough shots trap, though. Need to look to get more shots on goal. 

[bucket]

Woohoo, finally managed to play a bit of my save this evening. Going quite well I must say...

Currently 1st December. 

3rd in League, 4 points off United who are top and who I play next. 

Matches that I’ve played this evening are:

CL: Celtic -Drew 1-1 

Prem: Beat Spurs 2-0

EFL: Lost 2-1 Bournemouth - played mostly youths in this game. 

Prem: West Brom drew 1-1 (so need a new striker!)

CL: Beat Celtic 2-0

Prem: Beat Swansea 2-0

Prem: Beat Brighton 3-0

CL: Beat PSG 2-1 (currently bottom and cannot qualify with 2 points!!!)

Prem: Beat Arsenal 3-2 with Hazard scoring a late penalty! 

Prem: Drew 1-1 with Leicester. 

Managed to extend Tibo’s contract. Azpilicueta asked about a move to Real, but he backed down when I said we have some good youngsters coming through. Had Azpilicueta talk Hazard down from wanting a move to Bayern. 

Dynamics:

Match Cohesion: Good. 

Dressing Room: Excellent 

Manager: Average. Doing a fine but unspectacular job. 

[mhaffy]

Spoiler

 

Spoiler

Glad that you have finally managed to make good progress on your save. What tactic(s)/formations etc are you using? Thanks for reminding me about clubs coming in for Hazard in January window. Snap re Manager. Re dynamics how many support/oppose you?

Glad that you have finally managed to make good progress on your save. What tactic(s)/formations etc are you using? Thanks for reminding me about clubs coming in for Hazard in January window. Snap re Manager. Re dynamics how many support/oppose you?

[PitchPosh]

Right then, time for an update. Not much progress has been made, but figured I'd go over these results to catch up.

Carabao Cup 3rd Round at Middlesborough 2-3 L

(Pedro 52', Morata 67') - (Fletcher 54', Howson 57', Malley 70')

An extreme disappointment here. We dominated possession, had twice as many shots, and had two clear cut chances on goal (neither of which were scored). Meanwhile, Middlesbrough scored 3 of their 4 shots on target with 0 clear cut chances.  To make matters worse, it was a full-strength side bar Zappacosta and Musonda. Caballero and Cahill had average ratings of 6.1 & 6.2, respectively, and won't be seeing the first team anytime soon bar an injury crisis. Time to focus our attention elsewhere and move on. 

vs Brighton 3-0 W

(Morata 19', Hazard (Pen 54'), Willian 65')

A good all around performance. The three that scored all dominated the game, along with Fabregas who's been in great form. This win was an expected one and was a nice way to get back on track. This was Rudiger's first start and he did well, hence the clean sheet. Another thing to note was Musonda's impact on the game after coming on in the 77th minute; he caused a bunch of problems for Brighton's defense and made 2 key passes that lead to good chances, but neither were converted. 

Champions League vs Slavia Prague 0-0 D

Boring! I was disappointed that we couldn't find a way to win, despite having 55% possession and 7 good shots on target. Things could be worse, but I hope this result doesn't come back to bite us. 

at Arsenal 6-2 W

(Morata 5', 34', Hazard 18' & 67', Kante 57', Rudiger 61') - (Bellerin 3', Walcott 26', Xhaka OFF 52', Mustafi OFF 63')

Wow. The scoreline doesn't suggest a good match, but the match had an incredible first half. We went into the dressing room at half-time leading 3-2 and I was confident of  our chances on seeing the match through for the win. I tweaked things a little bit to help us keep possession, which Arsenal dominated in the first half, and tightened things up at the back. Little did I know, Xhaka and Mustafi had other plans for the match, and after going down to 9 men, it was a pretty lopsided affair. I was glad to see the players take advantage of the situation and stick it to them at the Emirates. This will be one to remember. 

Hoping to get 3-4 more matches into night, which will see us come up against Newcastle, Dynamo Kyiv, Everton, and possibly Bournemouth. Hoping to ride the momentum of the Arsenal match to a new win streak!

[mhaffy]

8 hours ago, PitchPosh said:

at Arsenal 6-2 W

 A great result even if they did have two players sent off. Hope this result is the start of a good run.

[masta p]

I've installed the game last night. Lost some time setting up face/logo packs. After that came the shock, as I haven't played the last few FMs: so many new things  

Overhauled the staff. Took over all staff responsibilities. Did the first team personal training, coach training duties for all team, sent out the scouts and played a bit with the tactics. 

Like I said in a previous post, I'll start with my favorite 4-1-2-2-1 and see how that goes. Spent some time in the Tactic Sharing sub-forum, but couldn't find something like it. Only some formations I do not like. 

I haven't checked the fixtures yet, I'll try to add more friendlies if possible. 

 

I have to decide what to do with the players... I've did a quick look at some players (own and other clubs') at 2AM so not much of an idea what I saw  The interesting thing is that some players I've heard from the forums are rated almost like some of my own players.

Sold Moses to some Chinese team for 14m €. I haven't checked my finances after the deal, but I had 67m € for transfers before that. I've chose France for a start date of my save which gives me more time to handle things and prepare for the start of the season. The budget might rise when I set the season expectations. 

Wondering if I can get rid of Cahill without unsettling the whole team.

Dave, Alonso and Zappacosta look good for fullbacks and they are not that old, so I'll stick with them. I'll have to check up on Baba Rahman (spelling?) if he's any good. 

Christensen, Rudiger and Zouma will be the backbone of the defense apparently. Not sure what to do with David Luiz. Tomas Kalas doesn't look half bad, so I might end up using him as a backup player in the future. Took a quick look at de Ligt and Milenkovic, can't remember how their stats looked, I'll have to scout them. Fiorentina wanted 30m €, which annoyed me a bit and made me think that maybe Kalas and/or some other youngster can do the job. probably the same will go for other positions as well. 

[mhaffy]

9 minutes ago, masta p said:

I have to decide what to do with the players...

Looking forward to hearing what you end up doing - In's and Out's.

In my save I think Jay Da Silva may be near max of whatever PA rating range he was assigned under the hood so planning on using him and Baba, together with Alonso for DL side duties. Kalas did well for me on an earlier version of FM and although his over CA/PA isn't great he may be worth using as backup. My transfer kitty is £0 and overspending on wage budget so will have to stick with what I have unless I sell someone in January; even then I only get to keep 50%.

[masta p]

I'll check all players tonight when I get back from work. 

My main approach is to build for the future. I don't like to spend a lot of money on superstars. Or, like it seems now, spend a lot of money on some nicely rated youngsters... The world is changing or maybe it's just me getting old. 30m € and 40% from future transfer for a 1m € player is not a good deal for me when I am the buyer. 

I know most of you guys prefer to stay away from other sites/forums/guides listing the best bargains, wonderkids, etc., but I've going through them for the last few days and combining that knowledge with my brief experience with the game last night makes me think that the overall quantity and quality has been reduced. Now most players are standing at CA/PA of about 150-170 and, if I want someone with PA in the higher end, I'll have to pay quite a bit of money even if that player is valued at 1m €. I might be wrong though, as Milenkovic is the only player I tried to buy and he plays for a Seria A club. I'll check some other players from such lists, just to get a better understanding of the game, but I guess I'll stick with my scouts' reports and what I already have in the team. 

I'll keep you posted and hopefully some of the info could be useful to you as well.  

[mhaffy]

Is Bring ball out of defence a new player trait? I like the way Dave is currently utilising this trait. Just been through player trait training options and pleased to see that it is included under Technique options. Pleased to see that it is not a trait that you can only acquire via tutoring.

de Ligt is currently being tutored by Dave so, hopefully, he will acquire this trait to complement his Ball Playing Defender role.

[Carefree_Since_1905]

1 hour ago, masta p said:

Wondering if I can get rid of Cahill without unsettling the whole team.

 

I managed to sell him to West Brom for 10m (7.5m up front). Luiz had a word and I said that I wanted to test the youngsters and the concern was immediately dropped.

[bucket]

On my save Baba Rahman recovered from his cruciate injury only then go and break down and do it again. So another 7-8 months out. I’ll look to shift him on should he not retire... 

[masta p]

2 minutes ago, Carefree_Since_1905 said:

I managed to sell him to West Brom for 10m (7.5m up front). Luiz had a word and I said that I wanted to test the youngsters and the concern was immediately dropped.

Cheers, mate. I'll try to move him tonight. 

[mhaffy]

4 minutes ago, bucket said:

On my save Baba Rahman recovered from his cruciate injury only then go and break down and do it again. So another 7-8 months out. I’ll look to shift him on should he not retire... 

Thats a blow. He is currently in rehab in my save.....fingers crossed.....

[mhaffy]

On 11/16/2017 at 09:15, bucket said:

Can anyone tell me if Loftus Cheek is good enough to step up and take Fabregas’s place in the second season?

Forgot to mention in my earlier respose that one of his player traits in my save (presumably in yours too) is Dwells on ball. This is something I will keen to untrain.

[PitchPosh]

Well, everything was going well with injuries. Then, in a 3 day span I lost Willian (4 weeks), Musonda (2 weeks), Gaya (3 weeks),  and Fabregas (2 weeks). In other news, Rudiger is the first player of the season to score a hat trick for the club. Bizarre!

[mhaffy]

4 hours ago, PitchPosh said:

Well, everything was going well with injuries. Then, in a 3 day span I lost Willian (4 weeks), Musonda (2 weeks), Gaya (3 weeks),  and Fabregas (2 weeks). In other news, Rudiger is the first player of the season to score a hat trick for the club. Bizarre!

I sympathise re injuries....experienced similar in my save, with three in one match.....Have reduced my team training to low since then. It almost seems that when your injuries are a certain % lower than expected, a hardcoded catch up is implemented! I have gradually recovered to 16% less than expected so will probably get some injuries in next couple of weeks.

LoL re Rudiger, although he has scored a couple of times for me.

Played another match since posting above reply and, you've guessed correctly...Charly injured in training and Bakayoko injured after about 20 mins of the match. Great!!!

[PitchPosh]

I'm getting really sick of my squad's profligacy. Match vs Liverpool: 4 clear cut chances, 2 half chances - 1 goal. Match vs Crystal Palace: 62% possession, 6 clear cut chances,  - 1 goal. I have no clue what else I can do to get the ball to hit the back of the net more. 

[mhaffy]

Just finished for today so quick update on results so far and forthcoming fixtures:

Pretty pleased overall with the results so far although team switch between being good and poor too often. Often tweaking tactics in match to try and get the result.

Belotti went quiet after a great start but ended his recent goal drought by converting a penalty against Sevilla, in which Drinkwater was injured - curse of the "hardcoding"?

Giving youngsters game time, when "safe" to do so. de Ligt developing well in training and playing well (made team of week recently) and Charly has played well at times. Just gave Trevoh Chalobah a brief debut against Sevilla.

Looking forward to other peoples updates.

 

[mhaffy]

10 hours ago, PitchPosh said:

I'm getting really sick of my squad's profligacy. Match vs Liverpool: 4 clear cut chances, 2 half chances - 1 goal. Match vs Crystal Palace: 62% possession, 6 clear cut chances,  - 1 goal. I have no clue what else I can do to get the ball to hit the back of the net more. 

Don't get too downheartened - even worse if your team are not creating any chances at all. Re profligacy, I am sometimes grateful for the apparent "chances" that the opposition squander.

I am not sure how accurate CCC and Half chances actually are. I watch all my matches on comprehensive, part of reason my progress is sooooo slow. In my most recent match against Sevilla I was frustrated to watch numerous, in my view, good chances being wasted by poor finishing. After the match I was amazed to see that my team apparently only had 2 clear cut chances and 2 half chances from which we scored 2 goals (including 1 penalty).

Match stat extracts from my last four matches (all won) have been:

                  Leicester      Stoke    WBrom   Sevilla

Shots             20               15          16            19

On Target      9                 10            6            7

CCC                 1                Nil            1            2

1/2                  2                  5             Nil         2

Goals             3                   2            2             2

Based upon upon CCC and 1/2 chances per match stats I am pretty pleased with goal tally!

From watching the matches, I certainly thought we had wasted more chances than were reported.

Main thing for me is the result, and keeping my job!

[xDieArdUk]

Hey everyone! Ive been abit quiet for the last couple of seasons on here but ive always been reading! So this FM boy isit hard? lol FIrst season i managed to win everything! Got super lucky with some 1-0 away wins in CL against PSG and Barca with scratch teams (mainly Morata and Batshuiyi uptop) leaving me at stages playing 4-6-0 lol Start of 2nd season and my teams looking like this with some good additions and sales!

GK) Courtois/Krul
RB) Azpilicueta/Zappacosta
LB) Gaya/Alonso
CB) Rudiger/Zouma
CB) Christiensen/ De Ligt / Luiz
CM) Kante/Miinkovic Savic / Arne Meier
CM) Fabregas / Wilshere / Drinkwater / Loftus Cheek (Just back)
AMR) Willian / Yarmolenko / Cerny
AML) Hazard / Kluivert 
AMC) Dybala / Barkley
ST) Morata / Dembele / Tammy Abraham

 

Quite happy overall! The whole home grown thing stopped me going OTT and forced me to sell good backups like Pedro and Batshuiyi. Also had so many some back from loan and dont quite know what todo with them! But one thing after last season i noticed was i need depth ie 3 people for 1 position ideally because of the injuries (Last season i had a successful spell with Miinkovic Savic in CB! ) . Abit light uptop but im hoping with managing the strikers well ie using morata only for the bigger occasion and using Dembele and Tammy for cups.

[PitchPosh]

36 minutes ago, mhaffy said:

Don't get too downheartened - even worse if your team are not creating any chances at all. Re profligacy, I am sometimes grateful for the apparent "chances" that the opposition squander.

I am not sure how accurate CCC and Half chances actually are. I watch all my matches on comprehensive, part of reason my progress is sooooo slow. In my most recent match against Sevilla I was frustrated to watch numerous, in my view, good chances being wasted by poor finishing. After the match I was amazed to see that my team apparently only had 2 clear cut chances and 2 half chances from which we scored 2 goals (including 1 penalty).

Match stat extracts from my last four matches (all won) have been:

                  Leicester      Stoke    WBrom   Sevilla

Shots             20               15          16            19

On Target      9                 10            6            7

CCC                 1                Nil            1            2

1/2                  2                  5             Nil         2

Goals             3                   2            2             2

Based upon upon CCC and 1/2 chances per match stats I am pretty pleased with goal tally!

From watching the matches, I certainly though we had wasted more chances than were reported.

Main thing for me is the result, and keeping my job!

Looks like your boys are making the most of things! Hopefully it's just a matter of the players settling in, but I'm in November now and still have these problems. We'll see how things get on. I almost have my whole squad back. Just waiting on Kante and Azpilicueta to get fit and we'll be in business. Getting some good performances out of Musonda, too!

17 minutes ago, xDieArdUk said:

Hey everyone! Ive been abit quiet for the last couple of seasons on here but ive always been reading! So this FM boy isit hard? lol FIrst season i managed to win everything! Got super lucky with some 1-0 away wins in CL against PSG and Barca with scratch teams (mainly Morata and Batshuiyi uptop) leaving me at stages playing 4-6-0 lol Start of 2nd season and my teams looking like this with some good additions and sales!

GK) Courtois/Krul
RB) Azpilicueta/Zappacosta
LB) Gaya/Alonso
CB) Rudiger/Zouma
CB) Christiensen/ De Ligt / Luiz
CM) Kante/Miinkovic Savic / Arne Meier
CM) Fabregas / Wilshere / Drinkwater / Loftus Cheek (Just back)
AMR) Willian / Yarmolenko / Cerny
AML) Hazard / Kluivert 
AMC) Dybala / Barkley
ST) Morata / Dembele / Tammy Abraham

 

Quite happy overall! The whole home grown thing stopped me going OTT and forced me to sell good backups like Pedro and Batshuiyi. Also had so many some back from loan and dont quite know what todo with them! But one thing after last season i noticed was i need depth ie 3 people for 1 position ideally because of the injuries (Last season i had a successful spell with Miinkovic Savic in CB! ) . Abit light uptop but im hoping with managing the strikers well ie using morata only for the bigger occasion and using Dembele and Tammy for cups.

Glad to have you back and active! I hope I can emulate your success. I just got done promising Hazard that we'll be winning the Champions League within the next two seasons, so it's either that or I'll have an unhappy star player on my hands! At least his form will warrant a humongous transfer fee if it does come to that.

Good looking squad you have there. Those attacking players are something fierce!

[mhaffy]

10 hours ago, PitchPosh said:

Looks like your boys are making the most of things! Hopefully it's just a matter of the players settling in, but I'm in November now and still have these problems. We'll see how things get on. I almost have my whole squad back. Just waiting on Kante and Azpilicueta to get fit and we'll be in business. Getting some good performances out of Musonda, too!

You could well have something in players settling in. Wayward passes, stupid choices seem to be reducing over time as my players become familiar with the tactic and with each other. A few more linked lines have developed including one between Belotti and Morata.....just need to it turn to bright green now! Kante makes a huge difference and his attributes probably put him in top 10/20 midfielders in FM18. If you only play a midfield two then his workrate, acceleration, tackling etc certainly make a big difference.

[mhaffy]

On 11/17/2017 at 10:50, bucket said:

On my save Baba Rahman recovered from his cruciate injury only then go and break down and do it again. So another 7-8 months out. I’ll look to shift him on should he not retire... 

Baba has just resumed full training in my save with 40% match sharpness. Based upon your experience I have decided to move him to first team squad so that I can decide when/how much he plays. I do not want him being auto picked by U23 Manager for their next game! Fingers crossed he will not break down again in my save...International break coming up so I may set up a friendly or two against some minnows to give him some controlled game time.

I have also just been warned that Cesc unhappy with lack of first team football (my preferred midfield 3 are Bakayoko, Drinkwater and Kante).....Cahill had a word and sorted......

Morata out again for 6-10 days.....injured in training again despite general training being set to low....Grrrrrr