FM18: Man Utd - Awaken the Sleeping Devil 👹 !

[Footygamer89YT]

2 minutes ago, Ronaldo Beckham said:

@Footygamer89YT have a look at the French leagues as there are loads of good players in there.

Some players who have done well for me are Noah Okafor and Teguy Ndombele, they done well for me at Lyon.

i will take a look at them for sure then

[zlatanera]

@Footygamer89YT above post is right on the money. If you look at Lyon, Benfica, Sporting and Porto in particular you could find an entire 25 man squad of wonderkids pretty much. 

[Footygamer89YT]

9 minutes ago, zlatanera said:

@Footygamer89YT above post is right on the money. If you look at Lyon, Benfica, Sporting and Porto in particular you could find an entire 25 man squad of wonderkids pretty much. 

cool any specific players you would recommend or ?

[zlatanera]

36 minutes ago, Footygamer89YT said:

cool any specific players you would recommend or ?

Willem Geubbels

Amine Gouiri

Myziane Maolida

Houssem Aouar

Tanguy Ndombele

Lucas Tousart

Alex Pinto

Ruben Dias

Gelson Martins

Florentino Luis

Diogo Dalot

Rui Pires

Joao Felipe, Felix and Carvalho (all the same first name, all at Benfica)

Gedson Fernandes

Diogo Queiros

Bruno Fernandes

Wendel

Francisco Geraldes

I've italicised the ones I've used and had success with in my most recent save (with Lyon), the others are all on my shortlist highly recommended by my scouts (and we just lost the CL final in the third season so they're not comparing them to crap players). 

 

[Footygamer89YT]

1 minute ago, zlatanera said:

Willem Geubbels

Amine Gouiri

Myziane Maolida

Houssem Aouar

Tanguy Ndombele

Lucas Tousart

Alex Pinto

Ruben Dias

Gelson Martins

Florentino Luis

Diogo Dalot

Rui Pires

Joao Felipe, Felix and Carvalho (all the same first name, all at Benfica)

Gedson Fernandes

Diogo Queiros

Bruno Fernandes

Wendel

Francisco Geraldes

I've italicised the ones I've used and had success with in my most recent save (with Lyon), the others are all on my shortlist highly recommended by my scouts (and we just lost the CL final in the third season so they're not comparing them to crap players). 

 

cheers

[westmarsh7]

So I’m in January 2nd season.....

whats everyone’s views on Lukaku he has been terrible for me! 

Misses so many chances and headers constantly game after game. 

Is it me or my tactics that causing him to be so poor hahaa

[mojojojo101]

3 hours ago, westmarsh7 said:

So I’m in January 2nd season.....

whats everyone’s views on Lukaku he has been terrible for me! 

Misses so many chances and headers constantly game after game. 

Is it me or my tactics that causing him to be so poor hahaa

I sold him end of 2nd season to Chelsea for £65m. Probably could of got more for him but he was unhappy and moaning about not playing enough.

 

He played okay for me in the first 2 seasons, but he wasn't clinical enough for my liking, I found that both Martial and Rashford were more reliable in front of goal and suited my tactic much better.

 

On balance I don't regret selling him, was able to cope very easily without him and he didn't play all that well for Chelsea before being sold to Monaco for £26m 3 years later.

[Spiegel]

3 hours ago, westmarsh7 said:

So I’m in January 2nd season.....

whats everyone’s views on Lukaku he has been terrible for me! 

Misses so many chances and headers constantly game after game. 

Is it me or my tactics that causing him to be so poor hahaa

Won World Player & Footballer of the year for me in Season 2, but then my tactic's kinda built around getting crosses to him. 
Valencia and Shaw are good for 15+ assists a season ha! :')

[zlatanera]

He blew hot and cold for me first season using Ozil's Sacchi 4-4-1-1 tactic, but mainly that was because I like Juan Mata at AM and I guess because of his PPMs or something, they didn't play well together. He still got 18 goals 10 assists. I then changed the same tactic to 4-4-2 where he was a Target Man (effectively the AM role, which had "Hold Up Ball" ticked, moved up into the ST band) and we got 30 goals 20 assists. Then a counter-attacking 4-3-3, again as a TM-At and he got 28 goals 18 assists (he played less that season as I had to rotate Harry Kane in his position to keep them all happy).

Like most strikers its all about who you surround him with and what roles he plays. In particular, I think Mata having "Gets Into Opposition Area" meant he was running beyond him looking for the killer ball instead of providing it, so whilst I got the best out of him as a Target Man he could probably pull off most striker roles bar False Nine if you set up right. Working either in tandem with Harry Kane / Marcus Rashford, or with support out wide from Martial and Cristiano Ronaldo, he performed much better. 

[wakesta]

Board take over in my game in 2022/2023 Season

 

[wakesta]

Gomes turning into a great player

[McClane29]

3 hours ago, wakesta said:

Board take over in my game in 2022/2023 Season

 

 

Are you playing on an iPad/Tablet?

[zlatanera]

5 hours ago, wakesta said:

Gomes turning into a great player

Screenshot of Gomes? I've only played as far as 2021 in any of my saves, and United never play him so be interested to see what he's got to.

[Smaldini]

Season 3 done.

As well as the league, we also beat Spurs to win the Carabao Cup once again and finally won the Champions League beating Lyon 2-1 in the final. We were eliminated from the FA Cup in the 4th Round by City, who went on to win the competition.

I wasn't planning on selling Alexis but when that offer came in I thought considering his age & the high wages he's on, it would be silly to turn it down. Lukaku was unsettled by Monaco towards the end of the year too, by the time the window was open though they were no longer interested & I was left with an unhappy player who wanted a new challenge. Surprisingly, Arsenal were the only team willing to pay in excess of £80m for him so I let him join them rather than take an inferior offer from PSG or Madrid. Fortunately Rashford and Munir were reliable goalscorers so we didn't miss Romelu too much. 

So Munir was deservedly my Player and signing of the season, and the best freebie I've had on the game since Icardi in FM12. He won United's Young Player of the Year award (we didn't receive any PL awards except for my third Manager of Year trophy) too but I thought any of  Sessegnon, Vignato or Ramazani would've been more deserving of that given Munir's age. The reason why Vignato and Ramazani featured so much is because I had quite a few injuries at the start of the year, Alexis had been my first choice RW and Lingard wasn't performing well in the first half of the season; so I was rotating between the young lads and they were consistently delivering.

Robben is retiring, Cech is too & I'm concerned he won't complete his tutoring of Simon Johnson (newgen) in time, he already failed at tutoring Dean Henderson which is why I bought him in the first place. PSG made a very good offer for Lindelof so he'll be leaving in July, there's uncertainty over Koulibaly & Pogba's future because clubs keep unsettling them, and there's several players like Torreira, Martial and Semedo who I could be tempted to sell if a decent offer came in. It could be another big summer. I've just been taken over by a Consortium too, so we're now owned by Carlos Suarez who runs Real Valladolid IRL. 

[zlatanera]

@Smaldini that's an incredible amount of player turnover! 

I've decided to start another save with United. I'm using This Bielsa recreation which I've had great fun with at Athletic Bilbao. Thought it would be interesting to see how it works with a team that can actually make signings (a consistent striker was a struggle at Bilbao, United shouldn't have that problem), and the resources of United on FM should be as close a test Bielsa's claim he'd be the greatest in the world with robots will come to being tested. Original database (Sanchez was a stupid signing imo), no first window transfer budgets so I don't end up signing too many players and starving my younger ones of opportunities (in my last save signing Cristiano Ronaldo and Harry Kane in seasons 3 and 2 respectively limited Martial and Rashford's playing time). 

Similar to my last save I've completely overhauled the staff, booting most that hadn't been with us in 2013, and bringing in some of Class of '92 to join the coaching staff for nostalgia's sake.

Just could not be assed with that. Going back to Real Sociedad. No money, no problems  

[z464]

On 22/05/2018 at 15:52, Smaldini said:

Season 3 done.

As well as the league, we also beat Spurs to win the Carabao Cup once again and finally won the Champions League beating Lyon 2-1 in the final. We were eliminated from the FA Cup in the 4th Round by City, who went on to win the competition.

I wasn't planning on selling Alexis but when that offer came in I thought considering his age & the high wages he's on, it would be silly to turn it down. Lukaku was unsettled by Monaco towards the end of the year too, by the time the window was open though they were no longer interested & I was left with an unhappy player who wanted a new challenge. Surprisingly, Arsenal were the only team willing to pay in excess of £80m for him so I let him join them rather than take an inferior offer from PSG or Madrid. Fortunately Rashford and Munir were reliable goalscorers so we didn't miss Romelu too much. 

So Munir was deservedly my Player and signing of the season, and the best freebie I've had on the game since Icardi in FM12. He won United's Young Player of the Year award (we didn't receive any PL awards except for my third Manager of Year trophy) too but I thought any of  Sessegnon, Vignato or Ramazani would've been more deserving of that given Munir's age. The reason why Vignato and Ramazani featured so much is because I had quite a few injuries at the start of the year, Alexis had been my first choice RW and Lingard wasn't performing well in the first half of the season; so I was rotating between the young lads and they were consistently delivering.

Robben is retiring, Cech is too & I'm concerned he won't complete his tutoring of Simon Johnson (newgen) in time, he already failed at tutoring Dean Henderson which is why I bought him in the first place. PSG made a very good offer for Lindelof so he'll be leaving in July, there's uncertainty over Koulibaly & Pogba's future because clubs keep unsettling them, and there's several players like Torreira, Martial and Semedo who I could be tempted to sell if a decent offer came in. It could be another big summer. I've just been taken over by a Consortium too, so we're now owned by Carlos Suarez who runs Real Valladolid IRL. 

You have 30 players in the first team ?

[Smaldini]

22 hours ago, z464 said:

You have 30 players in the first team ?

Not all the time. As I said, Vignato & Ramazani (forgot to mention Gribbin too) got their chance due to injuries, and they played so well I thought they might as well stay in the first team. 

[zlatanera]

deleted.

[Zeonflux]

11 hours ago, zlatanera said:

I was going to continue my old save, however I just couldn't get myself into the zone, so I decided to start over. New database, same tactic that was getting the best out of Lukaku and Cristiano Ronaldo last time. Unlike my usual saves I'm going to be avoiding stockpiling young players - in fact, I will not partake in the purchasing of foreign players my youth team. Of my many ridiculously ambitious targets one is to win the CL with an entirely British and Irish squad, so I've loaded all British Isles leagues to maximise the chances of the next George Best being generated. I've just finished the transfer window, it was a busy one, so thought I'd offer an update.

We started the season off with an injury crisis that has yet to fully abate, although hopefully thanks to Rashford missing out on the England squad when club football resumes, we'll only have Rojo and Ibra out. We went into the first game with only 13 fit first-teamers - and I'm defining "fit" here as "able to walk unaided":

Not the most auspicious of starts - although 2 of the three against Madrid came in the last two minutes when we were on Overload as I knew my squad wouldn't last extra time without even more injuries. Juan Mata was only on the field for 10 minutes against Watford yet managed to conceded a penalty, which they scored, and against Arsenal we fell prey to the overrated (on FM) Alex Iwobi. Still, it took me until the deadline to assemble my squad and I'm confident things will pick up.

My long term left back targets (TIerney, Alex Sandro) weren't available / affordable, so I saw the opportunity to bring in Romelu Lukaku's brother on loan as a good stop-gap solution. Right back likewise has no real options beyond Valencia, Hysaj can play on both flanks and is young enough to be tutored by Valencia, plus was someone I've just never got round to buying on FM before. A vast upgrade on Darmian. 

I've resolved to sell Eric Bailly one Rojo is fit, as I've had issues with African players being called up by their national squads during Champions League ties, but for now I settled for getting rid of Mike Smalling, Rugani is a vast upgrade and a 3rd choice defender the envy of many. Daley Blind was shipped out as he's both slow and small, which makes him useless to my playing style - he'll get caught out in the high amount of turnovers generated by combining Attacking mentality with Pass Into Space, and is a liability on set pieces too. That was meant to be it, but the same day Juan "Nicest Guy In Football" Mata cost me 2 points, reports came back saying Sergei Milinkovic-Savic was available, and I leapt at the opportunity to sign another 190cm+ Serbian. I needed a couple of million extra to get the deal over the line so back to Spain Juan went! Then with my spare change I picked up Sander Berge, a 190cm Norwegian, who will be a backup option this season whilst being tutored by the best. This leaves me with two players for every position, so I could line up as follows:

Ashley Young (for RB/LB/RW/LW), Eric Bailly (due to Rojo's injury) and Sander Berge (as CM-At whilst Fellaini is my backup TM-At) will be my backup options taking me to a 25 man squad.

Hey Zlatanera what ‘Tis/Pis do you use?

[zlatanera]

3 hours ago, Zeonflux said:

Hey Zlatanera what ‘Tis/Pis do you use?

Attacking / Fluid, Pass Into Space, Play Out Of Defence. Only PI is Gk-Distribute Quickly. 
I know PIS and POOD might seem somewhat contradictory, I had them in as I had Jesse Lingard as CM-Su in the original version and didn't want us constantly lumping it over his head when he's so good at carrying it forward at pace.

Basically you end up playing reminiscent of Mourinho's Madrid (not least when I had Cristiano Ronaldo as the Inside Forward), lightning breaks with a bunch of excellent dribblers and passers, and due to my preferences in players, quite good off set pieces.

[Zeonflux]

On 03/06/2018 at 17:31, zlatanera said:

Attacking / Fluid, Pass Into Space, Play Out Of Defence. Only PI is Gk-Distribute Quickly. 
I know PIS and POOD might seem somewhat contradictory, I had them in as I had Jesse Lingard as CM-Su in the original version and didn't want us constantly lumping it over his head when he's so good at carrying it forward at pace.

Basically you end up playing reminiscent of Mourinho's Madrid (not least when I had Cristiano Ronaldo as the Inside Forward), lightning breaks with a bunch of excellent dribblers and passers, and due to my preferences in players, quite good off set pieces.

Thanks very much been trying to get a tactic that gets the best out of lukaku but does use a 3 striker formation and 

[Footygamer89YT]

Any tips on improving the quality of regens with United never get any top rated ones often i usually have to buy regens on mass would love some home grown beasts and tips of what to do in terms of staff or anything would be helpful

[Footygamer89YT]

Never seems to work out for me

[zlatanera]

@Footygamer89YT just improve youth recruitment, junior coaching, youth facilities and your HoYD. Its luck after that. Also, how bad are your youth intakes? You're Manchester United so presumably your squad has quite a few world class players, so your youth players' potential will be rated against those - so if Pogba's 4.5-5 star for your first team, it's going to be rare to get a Cm regen who's rated as 4+ star potential. 

[Chapman7]

Started a new save and using Advance Forward for time for so many years. But Burkart is doing doing well come off the bench twice and scored twice. 1 in Super Cup against Madrid and one in the League few days later against Brighton 

[Chapman7]

Anyone had success to get Martial and Rashford as goal scoring striker rather than Inside Forwards. They've been very inconsistent and only managed handful of goals between them. Haven't found a role to suit them even 

[warlock]

32 minutes ago, Chapman7 said:

Anyone had success to get Martial and Rashford as goal scoring striker rather than Inside Forwards

Which season? For me, Martial has always been better coming in off the left wing (either as an IF or a IW from deeper). Rashford develops into a great striker, but it usually takes a season or two before he delivers.

[zlatanera]

I paired Rashford with Lukaku as CF-S - TM-A combination and they were both on fire. Martial was an IW and still got a bunch of goals. I find Martial's traits mean he's better on the flanks to be honest, but if you surround him with the right system for delivering chances he should still be able to light it up as a forward - I've managed it on previous FMs, just on this one he's been behind Lukaku, Rashford, Kane and Cristiano Ronaldo at varying times. 

[Chapman7]

3 hours ago, zlatanera said:

I paired Rashford with Lukaku as CF-S - TM-A combination and they were both on fire. Martial was an IW and still got a bunch of goals. I find Martial's traits mean he's better on the flanks to be honest, but if you surround him with the right system for delivering chances he should still be able to light it up as a forward - I've managed it on previous FMs, just on this one he's been behind Lukaku, Rashford, Kane and Cristiano Ronaldo at varying times. 

Tried him as Advanced Forward,  Complete forward support and attacking and now trying with a poacher with TM-support. Maybe I'll try him as a Complete Forward again if he starts dropping again in performances. 

21 hours ago, warlock said:

Which season? For me, Martial has always been better coming in off the left wing (either as an IF or a IW from deeper). Rashford develops into a great striker, but it usually takes a season or two before he delivers.

First trying out my 4-4-2 from 17 I had but it's just my players in the the quicker striker posistion not getting performance and lacking goals. Saying that Lukaku is lacking goals. Bad when your main goals tally coming from the flanks because striker either miss from point blank range or just kick it at the keeper from point blank range

[warlock]

35 minutes ago, Chapman7 said:

First trying out my 4-4-2 from 17

Don't remember playing a twin-striker tactic with United. My most recent save was a hugely-successful 4411 with Martial as an inverted winger on the left, and Lukaku and Rashford rotating as CF-support. Took a while to get everyone up to speed but towards the end of the first season, and definitely in the second, they were firing on all cyclinders.

[wwffan2]

Just started my fourth season and been pretty sucessfull so far

 

 

 

 

although the board have got really tight and only given me transfer budget of 55 million and will only let me retain small percentage of any players sales.

best player so far has been

some of last seasons fantastic results

 

 

 

 

 

[Chapman7]

After few tweaks Rashford has almost doubled his 5 Goals within two matches. Martial turned up to a game and assisted Ibrahimovic and then even scored himself since the League season started!

[Smaldini]

Season 4 done. 

As well as the league, we won the Carabao Cup again & also retained the Champions League after beating PSG on penalties. For the second consecutive year we were dumped out of the FA Cup early, this time it was Sheffield Wednesday who knocked us out. Leicester (who finished second in the Championship) beat Liverpool in the final.

So yeah, we were active in the transfer market. Fred has been decent but considering my top scout gave him a 95 recommendation (before Pogba had left) I'm pretty disappointed he hasn't been better. Ndidi was signed as cover and he had a better average rating than Fred, scored more goals too. With Milinkovic-Savic being inconsistent (very annoying considering he was amazing on previous saves) and Kovacic & James Rodriguez being quite injury prone (especially the latter) I kind of regret letting Pogba leave. I'm probably going to have another busy window, definitely in terms of players being sold, but one player that certainly won't be leaving is Harry Kane...

This is the first time I've ever signed him on Football Manager, and he's been brilliant so far. He scored 25 of those goals in the Premier League and that was enough to seal the Golden Boot, making him the first United player to do so on this save. He also won the PFA, United's & Football Writer's Player of the Year award, and followed that up with the Best Player in Europe award.

[wkdsoul]

The 85/86 season is up on Steam (@ClassFanaticFM)... awaken the coma Devil  #Legends

[isignedupfornorealreason]

On 06/06/2018 at 22:04, zlatanera said:

@Footygamer89YT just improve youth recruitment, junior coaching, youth facilities and your HoYD. Its luck after that. Also, how bad are your youth intakes? You're Manchester United so presumably your squad has quite a few world class players, so your youth players' potential will be rated against those - so if Pogba's 4.5-5 star for your first team, it's going to be rare to get a Cm regen who's rated as 4+ star potential. 

 

Yep, 2.5-3 star players at United will usually be Premier League level if you've got a world beater squad assembled. So if you do end up with a 4-5star player, you better be quick in training that guy cos he's probably the next Ronaldo.

 

Anyway I'm tempted to play a United file. I had Martial scoring 50+ per season as the CF in a 4-4-1-1 in FM17 (or 16 I forget), but if I start up a new file I'd want to be getting the 4-3-2-1 to work (As in, 4-4-1-1 with AML as an inside forward). I just dread clearing out that staff list though...

[warlock]

1 hour ago, isignedupfornorealreason said:

I just dread clearing out that staff list though...

Yeah, it takes a while. And FM18 is quite a bit worse than FM17 - they have even more staff, and many of them are of even-lower quality. Despite that, I find I still do a new United save every month or so!

[isignedupfornorealreason]

On 09/07/2018 at 21:48, warlock said:

Yeah, it takes a while. And FM18 is quite a bit worse than FM17 - they have even more staff, and many of them are of even-lower quality. Despite that, I find I still do a new United save every month or so!

Well, I booted a save but I haven't done anything yet.

I re-created my 4-4-1-1 with an AML IF.

 

Aaaannnd... well, thanks to Mr. Mourinho I'm now trying to work out how to fit one of Martial, Sanchez or Rashford in that position. And of course, Lukaku is there and is a bit too good not to use as the striker. 

 

On the plus side, Mata is still ever so slightly over-rated - his attributes are phenomenal, let's be honest. He makes a mean Trequartisa. 

Also slightly disturbed that the best defensive pairing on average is roughly Bailey and Smalling (or Jones). 

[warlock]

24 minutes ago, isignedupfornorealreason said:

I'm now trying to work out how to fit one of Martial, Sanchez or Rashford in that position. And of course, Lukaku is there and is a bit too good not to use as the striker. 

In most saves, I've found Lukaku and Rashford in rotation at striker to be pretty good (although Rashford takes a while to settle into the role). Martial is definitely first choice as IF-L, and Mata has always been excellent in a variety of roles at AMC. Sanchez (just like in real life) is the problem child - should be able to play anywhere across the front but mostly doesn't play well anywhere. I couldn't wait to ship him out at the end of the season.

Depending on exactly how you set up, there are also other holes around the team. At right wing Lingard is OK but not the best; both FB positions are problematical; Carrick simply can't play in the CM line and isn't much better in DM; and central defence is weak (for me, Bailly and Lindelhof have always been the best).

I think I've said it before, it's a tribute to the FM research team that United in game have exactly the issues that the team has in real life.

[mojojojo101]

 

End of Season 24/25 and I don't think I have ever had a team with goalscoring so dominated from the front players, all regens apart from Pellegri ofc.

 

Stats are Apps - Goals - Assists - Avg. Rating

[isignedupfornorealreason]

2 hours ago, warlock said:

Sanchez (just like in real life) is the problem child - should be able to play anywhere across the front but mostly doesn't play well anywhere. I couldn't wait to ship him out at the end of the season.

Ouch! I think attribute-wise he's much more balanced than Martial - his vision in particular is impressive. I'll have to tinker with it and see if I use Sanchez when I need more creativity and Martial when I need more direct threat perhaps.

 

2 hours ago, warlock said:

At right wing Lingard is OK but not the best; both FB positions are problematical; Carrick simply can't play in the CM line and isn't much better in DM; and central defence is weak (for me, Bailly and Lindelhof have always been the best).

True.

I'm considering shifting Sanchez out right-wing, so Martial can run riot on the left.

Lindelhof's lack of heading and jumping height bothers me for a central defender, but he looks so well-rounded in other areas I'm considering re-training him to replace Matic in the future as the holding midfielder. And don't get me started on where to play Fellaini! :P 

[warlock]

9 hours ago, isignedupfornorealreason said:

And don't get me started on where to play Fellaini!

Not really a fan of his in real life but I have to say he's pretty good in game. I've usually played Matic as the holding DLP, and Pogba as the more dynamic partner, either as a B2B or RPM (occasionally as a simple CM-S), and Fellaini has always done well as backup/rotation for Pogba. Not as RPM, but in either of the other two roles he creates and scores with regularity and over the first two seasons usually rates a solid 7.5-ish.

[zlatanera]

11 hours ago, isignedupfornorealreason said:

 

I'm considering shifting Sanchez out right-wing, so Martial can run riot on the left.

Lindelhof's lack of heading and jumping height bothers me for a central defender, but he looks so well-rounded in other areas I'm considering re-training him to replace Matic in the future as the holding midfielder.

I played on the original database (no Sanchez) but signed Cristiano back to the club, which meant he was an IF on the left and Martial a W-Su on the right, Martial played outstanding. His "Gets Into Opposition Area" trait meant he got about 15 goals a season mostly from the back post, and also got a lot of assists from cutting it back from very close to goal (like a yard outside the right post). I imagine you can get them going either way.

As for Lindelof - pair him with a more solid aerial threat like Bailly, Jones or Rojo (whose tackling / marking are outstanding) and play him as a BPD and he'll be amazing. But yeah, he could also replace Matic, or make a good Libero, or even a central midfield playmaker. One of the most well-rounded players I've spotted on the game. 

[isignedupfornorealreason]

Well, this is what I'm lining up as:

 

GK: De Gea 

DR: Valencia (FB/A)

DL: Shaw (FB/S)

DC: Bailly (CB/D)

DC: Jones (CB/D)

MR: Sanchez (W/S)

MC: Matic (CM/D)

MC: Pogba (DLP/S)

AML: Martial (IF/A)

AMC: Mata (T/A)

FWD: Lukaku (AF/A)

 

Usually serves me quite well, that attack might seem too aggressive but I've always considered the Treq to be a 'support' role... It's basically a 4-2-3-1 in attack. I do have one issue with the formation though, I dislike the right wing and have been unable to solve it for three versions of FM now. W/FB just seem to end up too close together rather than dynamically supporting each other. I've adjusted the roles a few times, but nothing really sticks in terms of getting it to work better than it could be. Just one of those things really. 

In the end I elected Bailly and Jones as my pairing, based on the key attributes. Bailley was the best overall, followed by Jones whose weakness is his jumping. Smalling was superb attribute wise but lacks in concentration. Rojo was hit with concentration and jumping issues, and I already covered Lindelof. I am a huge stickler for concentration in my defenders, I've had too many goals conceded from a defender switching off. 

I've started the game with transfer windows switched off, so hopefully my next post is in January with some success.

[isignedupfornorealreason]

Pft, so... I finally got to September. :P

 

I had two false starts tinkering with the tactics, but eventually decided I wasn't happy with how things were working. So I switched to a 4-4-2 just to see how it works at top level and because it wasn't that far off my 4-4-1-1 anyway.

 

I revised the line up so it would be like this:

GK: De Gea

DR: Valencia

DC: Bailly

DC: Smalling

DL: Shaw

MR: Mata

MC: Matic

MC: Pogba

ML: Martial

FC: Sanchez

FC: Lukaku.

 

Sounds a bit odd? Mata is just a WM/S trying to replicate the Beckham role, but because he's naturally left footed I expect him to be more of a wide-playmaker that doesn't cut in so much... Herrera is the genuine 'Beckham' style player on that side, assuming he plays. Martial on the left is a WM/A. I didn't really enjoy the IW/A role and seem to get better results with the old customised WM.

In an inversion of expectations... Sanchez is the DLF and Lukaku the AF. Sanchez has all the attributes to be a creative deep lying forward (minus strength), while Lukaku is genuinely frightening as a striker when he gets things on target.

 

My August results:

Super Cup: V. Real Madrid: 2-2 (3-2p) Mata (p), Sanchez.

First genuine test - we had so many chances in the box and we squandered so many. Keylor Navas played out of his skin, something that continued into the penalty shootout. Smalling broke his leg in pre-season which meant I actually played with a centre-back pairing of Fellaini and Lindelof. They were surprisingly good. If this happened IRL, I'm not convinced it would be as useful!

 

Arsenal: (H) 3-1 Lukaku, Rashford (2)

Sanchez got injured four minutes in, so Rashford went AF and Lukaku dropped to DLF. Lukaku opened the scoring and then missed an open net from 12 yards by hitting the post. That could have proved costly but we counter-attacked well to win. Ironically, Lukaku didn't half pull off some exceptional through balls...

 

Southampton (A) 3-1 Martial, Lukaku, Lingard

A game that demonstrated everything I hate about football - Southampton battered us and super Dave was responsible for early heroics. We did score three peaches though.

 

Newcastle (H) 3-1 Sanchez, Mata(p), Lukaku

First game we went behind in via set piece. This was the 'test' game I needed to see, you know the type where the AI turns up with 2 DM's and just defend for a draw. We got the result eventually. One thing that frustrates me is wayward long shots when there's options available. I don't think it is a tactical issue - most of our genuine chances are clear, in the box and at a good angle. We do like to squander them. But some players just make atrocious decisions at times and it's infuriating to watch.

 

Still, good month for the 4-4-2 really. I guess we really like the 3-1 scoreline? Mata is phenomenal out wide in the WM/S because his passes are in line to split the full back and centreback, and of course Sanchez loves shifting into those areas.

Biggest under-performer? Matic. CM/D in a 4-4-2 seems to get shocking ratings. He did make a mistake in the Newcastle game mind. Eh, well... hopefully I'll get to January now.

[Chapman7]

On 05/08/2018 at 22:51, isignedupfornorealreason said:

Pft, so... I finally got to September. :P

 

I had two false starts tinkering with the tactics, but eventually decided I wasn't happy with how things were working. So I switched to a 4-4-2 just to see how it works at top level and because it wasn't that far off my 4-4-1-1 anyway.

 

I revised the line up so it would be like this:

GK: De Gea

DR: Valencia

DC: Bailly

DC: Smalling

DL: Shaw

MR: Mata

MC: Matic

MC: Pogba

ML: Martial

FC: Sanchez

FC: Lukaku.

 

Sounds a bit odd? Mata is just a WM/S trying to replicate the Beckham role, but because he's naturally left footed I expect him to be more of a wide-playmaker that doesn't cut in so much... Herrera is the genuine 'Beckham' style player on that side, assuming he plays. Martial on the left is a WM/A. I didn't really enjoy the IW/A role and seem to get better results with the old customised WM.

In an inversion of expectations... Sanchez is the DLF and Lukaku the AF. Sanchez has all the attributes to be a creative deep lying forward (minus strength), while Lukaku is genuinely frightening as a striker when he gets things on target.

 

My August results:

Super Cup: V. Real Madrid: 2-2 (3-2p) Mata (p), Sanchez.

First genuine test - we had so many chances in the box and we squandered so many. Keylor Navas played out of his skin, something that continued into the penalty shootout. Smalling broke his leg in pre-season which meant I actually played with a centre-back pairing of Fellaini and Lindelof. They were surprisingly good. If this happened IRL, I'm not convinced it would be as useful!

 

Arsenal: (H) 3-1 Lukaku, Rashford (2)

Sanchez got injured four minutes in, so Rashford went AF and Lukaku dropped to DLF. Lukaku opened the scoring and then missed an open net from 12 yards by hitting the post. That could have proved costly but we counter-attacked well to win. Ironically, Lukaku didn't half pull off some exceptional through balls...

 

Southampton (A) 3-1 Martial, Lukaku, Lingard

A game that demonstrated everything I hate about football - Southampton battered us and super Dave was responsible for early heroics. We did score three peaches though.

 

Newcastle (H) 3-1 Sanchez, Mata(p), Lukaku

First game we went behind in via set piece. This was the 'test' game I needed to see, you know the type where the AI turns up with 2 DM's and just defend for a draw. We got the result eventually. One thing that frustrates me is wayward long shots when there's options available. I don't think it is a tactical issue - most of our genuine chances are clear, in the box and at a good angle. We do like to squander them. But some players just make atrocious decisions at times and it's infuriating to watch.

 

Still, good month for the 4-4-2 really. I guess we really like the 3-1 scoreline? Mata is phenomenal out wide in the WM/S because his passes are in line to split the full back and centreback, and of course Sanchez loves shifting into those areas.

Biggest under-performer? Matic. CM/D in a 4-4-2 seems to get shocking ratings. He did make a mistake in the Newcastle game mind. Eh, well... hopefully I'll get to January now.

I've got him playing the BWM in a 4-4-2 also just started this one. But I did do the same one on the on a practise save if you like to see if the same tactic would work from 17 I used but decided to change it around a bit. Matic performances did improve nearer the end of season think he just takes time to adapt to the different role he's playing.

I've got Martial playing as Complete striker and Sanchez as Winger on the right he's one of the better crossers in the team so made sense for him to play there for me. But may change that and use him as a striker rotate with Rashford as the Complete Forward and Martial as the Wide player 

[isignedupfornorealreason]

2 hours ago, Chapman7 said:

I've got him playing the BWM in a 4-4-2 also just started this one.

I'm tempted to use that because I think the CM/D drops and holds position defensively. Which is fine, but sometimes it causes trouble because we only have a two man midfield and if he'd step up and challenge we might force a turn over.

But, if I remember right it has 'fewer risky passes' and such hard-coded, and I loathe to lose his exceptional range of passing with how good his vision attribute is. 

2 hours ago, Chapman7 said:

But may change that and use him as a striker rotate with Rashford as the Complete Forward and Martial as the Wide player 

Yeah, I dropped Martial back because like Mourinho (supposedly) I think he does better deeper with space to run at the defenders and terrify them. His dribbling is insane on FM18. Sanchez is just very well rounded, fits in everywhere in my view!

[Footygamer89YT]

Hey guys starting a MUFC save with a summer update im wanting a DOF who will mainly look to sign youth players but open to him getting involved in first team players aswell and suggestions ?

[zlatanera]

1 hour ago, Footygamer89YT said:

Hey guys starting a MUFC save with a summer update im wanting a DOF who will mainly look to sign youth players but open to him getting involved in first team players aswell and suggestions ?

If you can poach him, I believe Michael Zorc from Dortmund has tendencies including "tends to sign youth players for first team" and "tends to sign many youth players". I'm about to do a challenge for myself where DoF has a lot of control, was put off Dortmund as he also has "tends to hire domestic manager" which may mean an Englishman would get short shrift, so doing Roma again because of Monchi. Who would also be a recommendation, harder to get first season though as he's just started.

EDIT: 

Michael Zorc - Dortmund DoF, my highest rec based purely on looking at him, no experience with any of these guys.

Monchi - 2nd rec but harder to get as he's just joined Roma

Pantaleo Corvino, Fiorentina Chief Scout. IRL he's talked of in terms similar to a DoF in terms of his influence, Viola fans joking about how he'll sign 8 14 year olds to play on the opposite wing to Federico Chiesa (and in fact Chiesa's younger brother Lorenzo, 13, has joined the academy this  summer). His high wages shouldn't be an obstacle for United. 

[Footygamer89YT]

Thanks man

[Smaldini]

I've finally completed Season 5.

This season we won everything (including Community Shield, UEFA Super Cup and Club World Cup) but the Champions League, and for the first time on this save we didn't even make the CL final. It would've been a repeat of the Season 4 final (United v PSG) but after beating Lyon 3-1 at Old Trafford they deservedly won 2-0 in the second leg. The final actually took place at OT too, and PSG ended up winning on penalties after a 2-2 draw. In the domestic cups we played Chelsea in both finals, beating them 2-1 in the Carabao Cup, and in the FA Cup we won 5-4 on penalties after an epic game that finished 3-3 with us having to equalize three times.

Massive goalscoring drop for Kane, however I did have Rashford, Dybala, Bailey, Alaa (newgen), Geubells & Munir reaching double digits so I wasn't too concerned. Szoboszlai & Vinicius Junior (who I signed for free after Madrid allowed his contract to run down) also chipped in with 8 goals & 9 assists each. 

At the start of the season I had been planning on using a back three, but due to some poor performances & Jonathan Tah acting up I decided to go back to using a back four. Tah had only been at the club 9 months before he started demanding a pay rise (and a massive one at that, which would have been unjustified) so I ended up selling him. Kovacic started moaning about a lack of game time too & asked to leave, despite being injured at the time, so I did try to sell him in January but didn't receive any decent offers, so I loaned him out instead. Hopefully I'll be able to shift him in the summer because I've already agreed a deal to bring Pogba back to replace Kovacic. Also looking to sell Bale who has declined massively & simply doesn't justify the £425k he is on, Munir who wants to leave for regular football (which is fair) and unfortunately I'll have to sell James who had another injury prone year.