FM18: Serie A - The home of Calcio

[zlatanera]

@Ronaldo Beckham If I'd known about that affiliation I might have considered a Udinese save. I'd guess that's exactly what it means, Watford will be able to take Hughes etc. back for free, but check your affiliation to make sure. Did they do especially well in the PL in your save?

[Ronaldo Beckham]

Not really @zlatanera Watford finished 14th in the league.

I assume they can't rob Hughes, Peryera or Doucure just yet as they have only just signed for me so I will at least have them for 1 season and hopefully if I get a top 6 Seria A finish I can negotiate the existing affiliation with Watford to go back to how it was.

 

[Jonas1987]

11 hours ago, zlatanera said:

2019/20 Serie A TIM to henceforth be referred to as 2019/20 Serie Cutrone TIM.

That's quiet impressive.

Are you still using the 4-4-2?
I'm currently using 4-2-2-2 with Regista, DM and 2 wingers, 4-1-2-3 with Regista and 3-5-2 with Regista (see the common position :roll:). As with the 4-4-2 you posted earlier there's games I shouldn't win that I win easely (1-6 Napoli) and games I lose that I shouldn't lose (1-3 to a promovendus).

In 2019 atm, didn't buy nor sell anyone worth mentioning this season other than Ibracadabra to tutor Cutrone (obviously, I can't select him in the list).
CL group phase is being a thriller, it's currently PSG on 12 points, AC. Milan on 7 points, Chelsea on 7 points and Sparta Prague on 0 points. Both me and Chelsea still have to play PSG and Prague.

[BadAss88]

Searching for a ball winning midfielder and a trequartista and a poacher for Inter in season 1, any suggestions?

[lblanc]

2 hours ago, BadAss88 said:

Searching for a ball winning midfielder and a trequartista and a poacher for Inter in season 1, any suggestions?

Depending on what timeline you playing with. for the Trequarista I'd recommend Luciano Vietto on post Jan update he is usually available for loan has Italian passport too.

Stefano Sturaro for the BWM again Italian and will be available for loan or for about 6m always done a job for me whenever I bought him.

 

Though I will say for Inter Gagliardini can play any position you want him to in the midfield i've played him in nearly every role and he done it with ease

 

[zlatanera]

5 hours ago, Jonas1987 said:

That's quiet impressive.

Are you still using the 4-4-2?
I'm currently using 4-2-2-2 with Regista, DM and 2 wingers, 4-1-2-3 with Regista and 3-5-2 with Regista (see the common position :roll:). As with the 4-4-2 you posted earlier there's games I shouldn't win that I win easely (1-6 Napoli) and games I lose that I shouldn't lose (1-3 to a promovendus).

In 2019 atm, didn't buy nor sell anyone worth mentioning this season other than Ibracadabra to tutor Cutrone (obviously, I can't select him in the list).
CL group phase is being a thriller, it's currently PSG on 12 points, AC. Milan on 7 points, Chelsea on 7 points and Sparta Prague on 0 points. Both me and Chelsea still have to play PSG and Prague.

Yeah, still using the 442. Signed Christian Eriksen so thought about changing to 4411 but couldn't bear to reduce playing time for any of my attackers, so its a 442 and I'm letting Musacchio **** off to Barcelona for about £40m (he's valued at £46.5m but I'd rather get the money now and have no unhappy player), retraining Benassi as my fourth choice CB and then not spending any more money.

That's a tough CL group! I'm concerned that with my league's drop in reputation this season is my best chance of an easy CL group lining me up to win it. Surely I can't end up playing Bayern agian, right?

2 hours ago, BadAss88 said:

Searching for a ball winning midfielder and a trequartista and a poacher for Inter in season 1, any suggestions?

BWM - Lucas Tousart from Lyon is great at it. If you want an even bigger guy, Fellaini would probably be available from United, but would cost a lot more in both fee and wages. Stefano Sturaro is often available too.

Treq - is this AMC, AMR/L or ST? Regardless, you could sign Domenico Berardi and train him as a Treq to get his vision up, same with Lautaro Martinez. Houssem Aouar from Lyon again (can you tell I've managed them?), or one of the young Joaos from Benfica (there are a few, at least one is in that position with great potential) or what I would personally do is just promote Felice D'Amico from the u20s, if he develops then your option fee to sign him permanently would be a bargain.

Poacher - Again, look to your youth ranks, Andrea Pinamonti is outstanding, just train him as a Poacher / Advanced Forward rather than rounding him out, get Icardi to tutor him to pass on his ppms. You also have Colidio (not as good), or go out and sign Lautaro Martinez. He's well-rounded but you can train him as a Poacher, that way you're not locked in to a set way of playing.

[FlairRA]

Ahh, heartbreak. After under performing the past two years we reached the CL Final in a strong fashion. Winning it would have been the perfect send off for my legendary team, my back 4, GK, MR and striker are all over 30 and not a single player in the starting 11 is under 25. We were very good and missed an incredible amount of one-on-ones while PSG took the few chances they got. 

Very disappointing as we deserved a lot more from that match, but there's always next time! On another topic, Trevisan, who's being called the next Buffon now, has some great development going on as a sweeper keeper. 

He'll definitely become a full-fledged starter next season! 

[Jonas1987]

Biggest problem I am currently having is finances. Fees I can use for transfers has been reduced to 35% again. I'm losing about 4-6mil each month.
I'd really love to get Pelligri, but I'd have to sell over 250mil worth of players to get the transfer funds :P.

[zlatanera]

@FlairRA Nothing worse than losing it to the most hateable club in world football. That SK looks like he's going to be incredible!

Were Roma's finances bad at the start? I've noticed on my save they've barely spent any money whilst selling most of their best players, although they did miss out on CL every season which may be part of it (Bologna made it amazingly, which is pretty cool).

@Jonas1987 Have you handed out many big contracts? I've found being incredibly stingy with contracts is the way to go, although I do have the benefit of planning to play basically the same way every season, meaning I can get a team leader to talk a player down (or myself by saying "you're influential...blah blah"), then when they have 3 years left and I know I want to keep them I sign them onto a pre-contract meaning that when they would be getting down to two years left, they resign for another 5.

[Jonas1987]

I didn't do that big on new contracts. I'm at 10.7mil wages now, no clue if that's a lot or ok-ish. I've passed the CL group stages by winning home to Chelsea and PSG so I won the group. I hope this will give me some extra funds, but I'm not lying when I say I don't really understand the financial side :P.

Right now Silva is injured for 6 weeks, Kalinic for 5 weeks and Locatelli for about 3 months.

 

EDIT: Just added a 5month injury for Bonaventura :wacko:

[zlatanera]

£10.7mil over what period? Yeah I'm not the best, when the transfer revenue is reduced I generally make sure I have the option to increase it still available as a conversation, then try to make two big sales - first one most will go into the club's coffers, then I'll usually be able to get revenue increased, and then I use the funds from the second transfer to replace the two players if necessary.

That sucks with the injuries! Other than a promising youth teamer (could become a backup option for be if I had the patience to develop him) getting some sort of ligament damage that puts him out for 12 months I've been really lucky, don't think anyone has had one over 4 weeks so far.

One thing that frustrates me is the directors have been giving themselves large payments (over £10m) the past two seasons as for the purposes of FFP and tax we've made profits, even though we've got over £100mil debt.

Nikola Kalinic signed for Manchester United for £20m + £30m in 3 installments, has made 4 starts, scored 1 goal, and been transfer listed since March - now down to £12.5m, which is less than I got him from Fiorentina. Tempted to liberate him from his purgatory and loan out Rodrygo, but Kalinic will want far more wages and even with 15 natural fitness I'm disinclined to sign someone over 30.

[Jonas1987]

€10.7 per month :P.

[zlatanera]

That's...quite high compared to mine, how do you rank in terms of total wage budget in the league? I'm in August 2020 and I'm only on £9.7mil / month, which has risen significantly the past two months as pre-contracts came in and Eriksen (£210k/week) signed. It'll rise again next year, but I managed to knock over half a million / week off it at the end of the first season.

I now spend as much as Juve but their wages have gone down and mine have gone up.

[Jonas1987]

I'm currently in the second position for wages.

Bonnuci is over 1.1mil, Kalinic, Biglia, Donnarumma, Silva, Bonnaventura, ... they're all over 500k/month. I'm fairly sure most of them are still on their "base" contracts :P.

[karanhsingh]

Wow guys lot of updates on this thread. Really enjoyed catching up on everyone’s games! KUTGW folks. 

Im actually on my way to Italy right now for a wedding, but I will be getting to watch the team I’m currently managing in FM fiorentina live at the San Siro next week as they take on inter. Looking forward to seeing my two stars Chiesa and Simeone in action!

[karanhsingh]

A quick update on my game, although I will do a proper update later on. As a reminder I’m currently in my second season at Fiorentina and third overall in the game. 

We are currently in February and had an outstanding first half of the season, my best ever, as we amassed 17 wins and 2 draws from the first 19 games. The front 3 of Simeone Chiesa and Lo Faso have been outstanding. Benassi has disappointed as he’s unhappy at the club after several contract talks broke down. And our record signing Manolas has been a let down when not injured, he’s quite petulant and recently demanded a move to Barcelona after playing all of 10 games for us! 

Now however as usual we are having our second half of the season slump. I don’t know why this always happens to me. Just lost our first league game so far 1-3 at home to Samp. Defrel has 4 in 2 games against us, which are all the goals he’s scored all season! Pretty annoying. 

In the CL we got through a group with Monaco and Valencia to now draw Dortmund in the first knockout round. That is coming up soon. 

Also in the TIM semis against Napoli who we do often struggle against. 

So the crunch part of the season coming up. Wish me luck! 

[zlatanera]

@Jonas1987 sell, sell, sell! is my only remaining advice. My massive transfer window where the reduced transfer revenue meant the club had £135m pumped directly into its coffers seemed to right the ship, and now I just have to not go mad whilst attempting to beat Juve's consecutive league titles record (and ideally win the CL 6 more times to beat Real Madrid, or at least another 3 to catch up to what they were on before the Ronaldo-Zidane supremacy).

@karanhsingh that's really cool! Hope Benassi resumes his Capocannoniere tilt against SPAL and then buries a hatful when you're there!

EDIT: I'm setting myself a sort of unofficial ultimatum - if I don't at least improve on last seasons CL run by making the final I'll go for an all-Italian disapora squad (meaning all Italians and partial-Italians). I would most likely not allow Lucas Torreira, who took Italian nationality early in my first season, to stay either. Given that there are more players in the current Italian national team in-game that play for me than don't, would be an interesting challenge. I figure if I could raise enough funds to poach Gagliardini, Pinamonti and Cristante from Inter (and my foreign players are currently valued at a combined £321m so not out of the question) we could potentially be in complete opposition as an All-Italian team and an all-foreign team. If I win the CL though, I'm going all-out to try to retain it.

[FlairRA]

@zlatanera Yeah the exact same thing happened to me, I had around 2-7 million as a transfer budget every year for the first 5 seasons iirc. I'm far from worrying about that now though just loaned out three players with Mandatory Future Fee clauses of 107, 107, and 72 million respectively, which is a total sales of 286 million next year after buying the players for around 20-30 million in total! 

Good luck with the CL run, I'd love to see an all-Italian squad though, you could take over as Italy manager and win the WC with your own players. 

[zlatanera]

@FlairRA Ah right, so FM really does not reckon much to their finances. I started a Roma save and put Monchi in charge of everything, but it turns out I really need more control of that to be invested, barely played into September.

That's some stupid money right there, did you transfer list them or just loan list? Did you put monthly fees? I loved Mandatory fees on FM17 as a way to avoid the huge tax bill that would come with the inevitable cuts that happen when I've accumulated ~180 players on the books (usually takes 5 seasons) but this version I've never been able to get anyone to actually agree a contract to move.

If I was managing Italy as well, I'd end all my players' international careers to keep them fit!

One issue if I do go all-Italian is that I'd have to ship out Eriksen after one season, and even if I made a profit I'd still be paying for him for 3 years. Although I suppose that's kinda realistic from what I understand about transfer fees irl.

[FlairRA]

@zlatanera I first offered them out on loan with a mandatory fee clause of 120 million (easy way to see how high a team is willing to pay) then accepted the highest offer. After that I transfer listed them and made them 'Not Needed' to increase their chances of signing the contract and guaranteeing they leave. It's a bit of an outlier though because the three players are all world class or a level below which doesn't happen every season, but still some great money to be made.

[Ronaldo Beckham]

Udinese Season 2 Review

My 2nd season with Udinese went a lot better then I thought, I ended up 3rd with 75 points, I was top as late as March but the team faltered a bit come April, too many potential points lost but overall a great season for Udinese.

Lasagna was on good form scoring 26 goals in 41 games, he also got 6 assists and 8 man of the match awards with an average rating of 7.32, I think he will score more next season.

Felipe Vizeu the player I thought would be my first superstar had an average season and I will be expecting more off him next year, he seems more of an set up merchant for Lasagna, Vizeu only scored 10 goals but got 16 assists and an average rating of 7.05, he is young so I expect he will get better as the seasons go on. 

Other stand out players were FIkayo Tomori, a right back I signed on loan from Chelsea and I have managed to get him for another season on loan after his great performances for me, he got 7 assists and has the best average rating of all my players this season with an 7.43 rating, I am so happy I have got him back for another season.

Robert Peryra was ok for me but expected more from him, he played in the centre of midfield usually as an DLP, he didn't score, only got 6 assists and a average rating of 7.04, maybe I am expecting too much but I thought he would of contributed more to my team, I was hoping he would be my driving force to my team.

Other free transfers from Watford was Will Hughes, Doucure and Rafa, Doucure was really good for me with an average rating of 7.25, 8 goals and 7 assists. Rafa also was a really good signing with an average rating of 7.22, 14 goals and 10 assists, he usually played on the left wing as an Advanced Playmaker, a role he excelled in, Will Hughes barely played as I had better players in centre of midfield, he player 12 games and did ok when called upon.

Due to the Watford link up I only had to spend 4.7m on transfers and had a really good squad, I sold 45m's worth of players as well. 

I am going to be playing Champions League football so that will be fun, I am hoping to get past the group stage and get another top 4 Seria A finish, maybe win the Coppa Italia as well if possible.

Sorry for all of the screenshots lol.

[Ronaldo Beckham]

Udinese Update

Just a small pre season update, I managed to negotiate the deal I have with Watford as an affiliate and I was able to sign some of their players on frees, I signed Santiago Arias, Nicolas Castillo and Adalberto Penaranda on free's.

I also raided Ajax by signing Frankie De Jong for 10m and Kaj Sierhuis for 5m. 

Transfers out Doucure went to Chelsea 50m plus more in fees, I sold Pereyra to Inter for 40m and ter Avest 23m plus fees, all in all I made 130m in transfer fees and only spent 15m of it.

My bank balance is very healthy with 80m in the bank.

I ended up with Athetico Madrid, Liverpool and Wolfsburg in my Champions League group, I reckon I have a chance of advancing to the next stage.

 

[zlatanera]

Think I'm going to do an Ajax save - try to combine a youth save with turning Frenkie De Jong into the next Beckenbauer (although his physicals might be slightly lacking). When I get bored though it'll be between this save (I've begun the all-Italian project by agreeing to get Bernardeschi at the end of the 2020/21 season even though I'm in October) and my Lyon one though. If anyone has any experience with a Libero, particularly on attack duty, and has advice, I would be grateful so either @ me in this thread or just send me a dm. 

@Ronaldo Beckham I see you're using the Salah tactic, its great when you get the right players. Strange that Felipe Vizeu didn't do much in the STCR slot when he's left-footed though, perhaps you need someone pacier? 

Loving how you're milking that affiliation for all its worth though!

[Ronaldo Beckham]

Yeah @zlatanera its fun to raid a Prem club for all of their best players but feel like it is cheating in a way.  

Yeah that Salah tactic is really good, I have yet to try it with Liverpool so they might be my final save on FM2018 to see how well Liverpool play with that tactic.

Funnily enough Vizeu has stepped up his game getting 7 goals in 5 games so far. he is playing well as a DLF now.

Adalberto Penaranda is also banging in the goals with 8 in 11 games so far, I think he will go for big money in a season or 2, Will Hughes is also kicking on for me now he is the main guy in the centre of midfield for me after the sales of Doucure and Peryera. 

Rafa is going to go for big money as well as he continues to perform well for me with 7 goals in 13 games.

Udinese are currently 2nd in the league after 10 leagues with 22 points, 6 wins and 4 draws, no loses, also amazingly I have played 2 Champions League games and won both of them, beating Athletico Madrid 4-0 and Liverpool 2-1.

 

[Ronaldo Beckham]

Udinese End Of Season Update

I managed to win the Seria A title, my main players were Lasagna, Vizeu and Penderanda, 3 world class strikers banging the goals in.

I am leaving my Udinese save and going to start a Southampton save, good luck to everyone in their saves and I will be back soon enough.

[Muerte706]

What are you talking about? Lasagna World Class. He is mediocre at most. I have him at Leipzig and he is ****. I feel cheated into paying 10M for this crap player.

[zlatanera]

@Muerte706 Lasagna isn't as good outside of Italy as you just didn't get the ingredients right 

[Jonas1987]

Short update (AC '19):

I lost in the 2nd knock out round to Arsenal being the lesser team, so mostly acceptable.
I won the Serie A and the supercoppa Italia.

I sold Silva (4.5star CA) for a 50 + 20 + 40% of future transfer fee to ManU, this one felt too got to let slip. Apparently Belotti refused the juventus offer so I signed him with 1.1mil wage xD.

Cutrone is becomming the next best thing, Ibracadabra was able to change Cutrone's character to perfectionist prior to retiring!

On my way to have an Italian only club!

Cheers

[Ronaldo Beckham]

4 hours ago, Muerte706 said:

What are you talking about? Lasagna World Class. He is mediocre at most. I have him at Leipzig and he is ****. I feel cheated into paying 10M for this crap player.

He has been really good for me. Maybe play him in a different role.

[dothestrand]

I've got a game going with Palermo. I was promoted in the play-offs in 17-18. Two mid table places (12th and 9th) in the following seasons, but in 20-21, we managed to finish second behind Juventus as the other big guns were undergoing transition periods. In 21-22 and 22-23, Juventus were our main rivals again, but we've managed to win two titles back to back. In 22-23, we picked up the Super Cup and the Coppa Italia.

In terms of star men, we kept D'Amico and Lo Faso as their future fees were never claimed. Anglieri has been an excellent CB from the youth system and I blooded him from the very start. Ruggerio was also a youngster from the start and he's been excellent too. Other mainstays - Dickmann, Melegoni, Miceli, Dimarco, Cataldi. 

 

[Bilbaoboy]

On 29/09/2018 at 19:16, dothestrand said:

I've got a game going with Palermo. I was promoted in the play-offs in 17-18. Two mid table places (12th and 9th) in the following seasons, but in 20-21, we managed to finish second behind Juventus as the other big guns were undergoing transition periods. In 21-22 and 22-23, Juventus were our main rivals again, but we've managed to win two titles back to back. In 22-23, we picked up the Super Cup and the Coppa Italia.

 

 

How is Riccardo Mansueto, Bentivegna and Alastra on your game i play 17 and have done about 3 Palermo saves and they are all world class potential, Along with D,amico Tafa La gumina, Balough they had unreal U20's on par or maybe better than Atalanta

I have just Started up a Lazio save but i used the editor to wipe all the debts of the big 6 so hopefully they will all get stronger/keep there stars and build as i want it as hard as i can i agree it can get easy once you have reached the top.

 

Just wanted to give a shout out to few smaller teams nobody has mentioned if you want a different challenge, I really like small teams with unusually large passionate supporters and there are few floating around Italy,all from the south which adds to the spice as the south has the character and the weather and beauty of Italy, the North is Industrial cold and serious

Bari- The birthplace of Antonio Cassano and Leonardo Bonucci, in real life just been relegated to Serie D for financial problems but were a game away from Serie A last year, they have one of the best stadiums in the world which similar to west ham was given to them after 90 World Cup and in a play off game couple of years ago they actually filled it 60,000 thats mental, a bit like scunthorpe playing at wembely, the potential is huge here

Lecce- Just Promoted in real life to B but again they have serie A crowds while in Serie C, i really love their Badge but the kit is a bit of an eyesore but that can add to the charm Right down the deepest south of Italy in the 'Florence of the south' really gutsy team when they were last in A and played above themselves and were giant killers beating all the top 6, Another huge Stadium to 40,000 cap

 

Catania- These could be a marmite team, they have arguably the most violent and aggressive supporters in Italy and that's saying something, they killed a policeman in 07 during the Sicilly Derby, really different though in that they don't really assosiate with Italy and when they were in Serie A they had about 80 percent South Americans in the squad, Team play like supporters, aggressive, they appointed Diego Simeone as manager so say's alot, they are in Serie C though so big long challenge ahead to get them back to the top but another team who 'Should' be in serie A

[karanhsingh]

I remember Lecce ages ago on FM when they had Bojinov and this other Eastern European striker (cant remember the name) - so much fun!

[BadAss88]

4 hours ago, karanhsingh said:

I remember Lecce ages ago on FM when they had Bojinov and this other Eastern European striker (cant remember the name) - so much fun!

Must be Mirko Vucinic

[karanhsingh]

1 hour ago, BadAss88 said:

Must be Mirko Vucinic

Yes!! Thank you that was troubling me lol

[GunmaN1905]

And Chevanton.

[stevecummins78]

Totally dominant in my fifth season at Roma - going for  a third title in a row. 15 points clear after just 15 games!!!

 

 

[stevecummins78]

Not a bad double!!

 

 

[ParanoidBuddha]

Let's open a new thread for fm19? What do you think guys?

[dothestrand]

7 hours ago, ParanoidBuddha said:

Let's open a new thread for fm19? What do you think guys?

Yeah, I tend to give Palermo a go after I take a break from my Bilbao game, but I'm open to someone else this time.

[king_karl]

15 hours ago, ParanoidBuddha said:

Let's open a new thread for fm19? What do you think guys?

I've decided to give AC a go, If someone starts a post I'll try and be active. I'm having a Higuain conundrum at the moment, optional buy for £30m, but he's 31 years old and 300k a week is disgusting. 

[ParanoidBuddha]

6 minuti fa, king_karl ha scritto:

I've decided to give AC a go, If someone starts a post I'll try and be active. I'm having a Higuain conundrum at the moment, optional buy for £30m, but he's 31 years old and 300k a week is disgusting. 

Ok, if no one does it before I'll open it later 
Well, you have to consider that he's a top player and is normal he required a such high *wage to play for a team that will be fighting for a 4th place in the league (not even being favorite to get it)

[karanhsingh]

13 minutes ago, king_karl said:

I've decided to give AC a go, If someone starts a post I'll try and be active. I'm having a Higuain conundrum at the moment, optional buy for £30m, but he's 31 years old and 300k a week is disgusting. 

Surely much better options out there. 

The guy Barrow at Atalanta I think looks like he could turn into a beast. 

[king_karl]

I'm stubbornly trying to go with a 2 striker tactic at the moment, if it was just one, i wouldn't worry as Cutrone could do it alone. Maybe Berardi.

 

Italian strikers are either:

A) Insanely expensive due to youthful ability or world-class status. 

B) Not that good. 

 

So i might try and turn a winger into a striker, or Giovani Simeone?

[karanhsingh]

Balotelli?