FM 2018 - Spanish La Liga

[Guest El Payaso]

Welcome to the La Liga guide for season 2017/18

Spanish La Liga is possibly the best league on the planet lead by two giants: Real Madrid and FC Barcelona, tightly followed by such successful clubs like Atlético Madrid and Sevilla who have been highly successful in Europe also during recent years. This is also why you should most definitely try to manage in La Liga as there is always huge deal of competition when Real Madrid and Barcelona are around. Atlético Madrid also are really strong in the game and behind those big three there are really good teams such as Valencia and Sevilla who are also considered as big teams even in Europe. This pack is followed by two Basquan sides Athletic Bilbao and Real Sociedad along with Villarreal. Really good league in total with lot of small and skillful footballers and that is what football is all about: attacking and skill. 

The following list of the teams in predicted finish order is a straight copy from my The final chance of the Chosen One career. I hope that you enjoy reading it.

Real Madrid

The first full season under Zinedine Zidane continued Real Madrid's winning ways as the team celebrated both Spanish La Liga and UEFA Champions league trophies. The success seems to be continuying as the Madrid side already won both Super Cups before the Spanish La Liga campaign has started.
Real Madrid have to be the favorites in this season too both in Spain and in Europe.

Follow him: Marco Asensio - With Gareth Bale's injury troubles there needs to be someone who can step up to the shoes of the Welsh magician. Asensio showed glipmses of that class already last season and might well be a long terms replacement for the superstars like Ronaldo and Bale.

Barcelona

A lot has changed for the Copa del Rey winners as both Neymar and Luis Enrique are gone from the club. The all important duo has been replaced by Ousmane Dembélé and Ernesto Valverde who made their name in Dortmund and Athletic Bilbao. 
Barcelona basically gave away the title last season in the first half of the season but mounted a serious comeback in the final hundred meters of the season only allowing Real Madrid to glinch the title in the final round of the La Liga. While the season wasn't the most successful one Barcelona did lift the Copa del Rey trophy by beating Alaves.

Follow him: Ousmane Dembélé - The 20-year-old has huge shoes to fill in as he will be joining Lionel Messi and Luis Suaréz in an attempt to create a new trio to cause horror in defenses both in Spain and in Europe. Dembélé netted eight times in total last season for Dortmund which means that stepping up to Neymar's shoes will be huge task for him.

Atletico Madrid

If someone else it's going to be Atletico like always. Atletico have come to stay at the very top of both Spanish and European football under the helm of Diego Simeone and they are once again the ones who might be able to flirt with the La Liga trophy. When at their best they can absolutely beat both Barcelona and Real Madrid no matter where the game is played.
What is different from Barcelona and Real Madrid when you talk about Atletico is the fact that the team relies heavily on their mean defending and that is usually their downfall in long run as the team is always more likely to drop points against smaller opponents. Also Atletico are not a team making huge amount of big money signings and once again this season the team will do their utmost to keep hold of their star players Antoine Griezmann and Yannick Ferreira-Carrasco.

Follow him: Ángel Correa - The 22-year-old Argentinian might be finally up to it to play the second violin for Atletico this season as Kevin Gameiro struggled last season. Behind world class Antoine Griezmann Atletico have a long list of really good attackers all willing to play alongside Griezmann as the other striker. We think that this season Ángel Correa will take this place. At least until Diego Costa is back in January.

Sevilla

After two years of building Sevilla Jorge Sampaoli decided to step back to international management with Argentina and was replaced by former Celta Vigo man Eduardo Berizzo. The shoes are big to fill as Sevilla have set a tradition both in Spain and Europe and will be one of the favorites to nail the final Champions league place like they did last season. 
Sevilla have brought in many new old faces well known in the club from previous years but have also lost lot of talent especially with loans expiring. 

Follow him: Luis Muriel - A new arrival from Sampdoria who set his career best with Italian club by scoring 11 goals along with five assists. This convinced Sevilla to smash their transfer record with €20M for the striker. Muriel will be looking to lead the newly formed Sevilla attack along with the return of Éver Banega, as well as the additions of Nolito and Jesús Navas from Manchester City.

Valencia

A 12th place finish last season was not what Valencia fans were expecting from the season. It started all wrong under Pako Ayestáran and four consecutive defeats were enough for him. The interim manager Voro stepped up to guide Valencia all the way to the mid-table. Marcelino now takes over the permanent role with many of the club’s core players from last year heading elsewhere so he’ll have to find ways to implement his system quickly with a squad that needs a lot of gelling up as well.

Follow him: Goncalo Guedes - Dubbed as the new Cristiano Ronaldo along with many others the Portugalian made a big money move to PSG last season only to feature in seven Ligue 1 matches. The talented 20-year-old is now on loan at Valencia and both the club and the player are willing to show some of that promise. Guedes will take over as a replacement of Nani who is only loan at Lazio. 

Athletic Bilbao

Long time manager Ernesto Valverde is gone and was replaced by José Ángel (Cuco) Ziganda. Ziganda is in all familiar situation as the club once again has managed to keep hold of the core of its key players. 
Athletic Bilbao have created a clear tradition of keeping their place well in top half of the Spanish La Liga and constantly featuring in the Europa League. Taking the next step forward is not in sight as the club is not investing in new players.

Follow him: Aritz Aduriz - Forever young Aduriz never seems to slow down and is still keeping his place as the main man in Athletic attack. The 36-year-old striker only made his international debut in 2016 but seems to get better the older he gets. Last season he helped the club by netting 16 goals in 35 games. 

Villarreal

Villarreal conceded the second least goals last season in La Liga only allowing 33 in La Liga. A lot of that was thank to long time server Mateo Musacchio who has finally left the club after all the speculation in recent years as the Argentinian joined AC Milan with €18M. The manager Fran Escribá has also spent a lot of money to replace him by bringing in guys like Rúben Semedo to plug the hole and Carlos Bacca, Pablo Fornals and Enes Ünal to bolder the attack. Villarreal have finished in top six of the La Liga in all the four seasons after returning to the Spanish La Liga in 13/14 season and they will most definitely be looking to retain that position. The competition for these places in the top half and Europa League though is tough.

Follow him: Carlos Bacca - The 30-year-old striker has moved to Villarreal from AC Milan with one year loan deal and Villarreal have the option to sign him for €2.5M after the season. Bacca has a successful history in the La Liga as he netted 34 league goals with Sevilla in two seasons in 2011-13. If that form is regained, Villarreal will most definitely fight seriously for the place in Europe.

Real Sociedad

Real Sociedad are back in Europe after sixth place finish last season but they are having to cope with an important departure as left-back Yuri joined PSG this summer with €16M deal. The manager Eusebio Sacristán countered that by spending €14.5M to sign both Diego Llorente (Real Madrid) to shore up the backline and Adnan Januzaj (Manchester United) to provide a spark to the offense.
Real Sociedad are doing a really good business at the moment along with their worst rivals Athletic Bilbao and they most definitely want to have their hide in the La Liga.

Follow him: Adnan Januzaj - The Manchester United flop Januzaj was brought in to bring some spark to Sociedad attack and surely has to deliver now especially as Carlos Vela will move to MLS in January. The 22-year-old has promise in him but has only showed some glimpses of realizing that potential.

Celta de Vigo

After three years at Celta Eduardo Berrizzo is now gone to Sevilla. The new manager is now Juan Carlos Unzué. Celta finished 13th last season but will be one of those teams looking to improve their fortunes this season as the previous season saw Celta dropping seven positions from the previous one. Celta will have to improve their away record which last season only saw them gaining four wins on the road. 

Follow him: Iago Aspas - Aspas keep improving as he recorded his personal best with 19 goals in La Liga which saw him claiming the throne of the best Spanish goalscorer in the league. As a 30-year-old Aspas is playing the prime years of his career and could even sement a place in the Spanish national team with another solid season.

Espanyol

The bitter rivals of Barcelona had a great campaign in 2016/17 as Quique Sanchez Florez invested heavily in the squad and saw them finishing 8th in La Liga. Not lot has changed this summer and Sanchez Florez will most definitely be looking to build the momentum they created last season.

Follow him: Pablo Piatti - The little Argentinian signed permanently this summer from Valencia and for a reason as he recorded 10 assists last season in La Liga. Once dubbed as the new Lionel Messi, Piatti hasn't quite lived up to those expectations but has now found his home in Barcelona's bitter rivals and has already formed a good partnership with Gerard Moreno who netted 13 times last season. 

 

Deportivo de La Coruña 

Deportivo had a solid start to last season but eventually slumped all the way down to 16th place winning only one game away from home. 
The club got back all important Lucas Perez from Arsenal and have invested otherwise vicely by adding for example Zakaria Bakkali from Valencia. Pedro Mosquera and Celso Borges form a formidable midfield duo that have the experience and quality that match most of the teams in La Liga.

Follow him: Lucas Perez - The Arsenal flop re-signed with Deportivo for whom he scored 17 league goals in season 15/16. Lucas is all important improvement for the team and has the potential to reach 20 goals during the starting season which lifts Deportivo's chances a lot. 

Málaga

Málaga were 11th last season in La Liga and for many teams this would mean stability. Málaga head coach Michel though is scratching his head currently as he had much busier summer than he maybe would have liked to have. Due to some key departures from the club Michel has had to build many areas all over again.
It will be interesting to see if and how quickly the team can pull together after busy summer. And if not Málaga may have to even battle even against the relegation.

Follow him: Roberto Rosales - The Venezuelan has been almost ever-present for Málaga for three seasons already. The complete wingback is good both at defending and going forward and has the ability to offer Borja Baston the delivery that the Swansea-loanee requires to score.

Real Betis

Quique Setien received a clean bill of money with the departure of Dani Ceballos who moved to Real Madrid and he wasn't the only one departing. This allowed Betis to improve their finances while the club refused to spend all the money on new players. Setién will have good pieces like Victor Camarasa and Guardado to create a solid midfield while newcomers Cristian Tello and Sergio León can be counted on to provide some goals.

Follow him: Christian Tello - Scored seven goals in 22 games for Barcelona during the 2012/13 campaign but could never really build on that in Catalonia. After the weaker 13/14 campaign Tello has been on the move and having one really good season with Porto but once again failed to build on that. For the last two seasons Tello was with Fiorentina playing a lot but providing frustratingly little. Now Tello is back in Spain, permanently out of Barcelona and very much capable of scoring more than 10 goals in La Liga. 

UD Las Palmas

Summer of changes for Las Palmas as the club lost couple of key players and their manager Quique Setién. After a strong start last season the team slumped to 14th place which was three places worse than on previous season. 
The new manager Pako Ayestaran will face many problems here as he has to manage the team in a different way than he is used to and in different culture. Losing Roque Mesa and Kevin-Prince Boateng is a huge blow for Las Palmas' campaign. 

Follow him: Vitolo - The Las Palmas' own boy is back for half a season and the Spanish international is undoubtedly the best player of the team and a fan favorite. Can form a really great partnership able to entertain with Jonathan Viera and Alen Halilovic.

SD Eibar

Eibar last season were the only team outside top 7 having a positive goal difference. The team surprised many by a positive attacking style of football which they cherished especially at home seeing the team winning 10 of their 18 home games. 
The defense will suffer this season with the loss of Florian Lejeune to Newcastle but the club also spent a lot of money bringing in some new faces to replace him.
If Eibar can keep up their strong home record. They will be safe this season for sure.

Follow him: Pedro León - The freekick specialist scored ten goals for Eibar last season which was his best ever. It was looking for some time that León was past his peak but after leaving Eibar whom he had represented ever since 09/10 (exc. one season with Real Madrid) the right winger got his career back on right tracks. The mobility is not what it once used to be but León has a real golden boot when it comes to delivering the ball.

Deportivo Alavés

Deportivo Alavés were really close to a huge surprise as the team reched the final of Copa del Rey last season as well as finishing top ten in La Liga. 
The popular and successful manager Mauricio Pellegrini has now moved to England and Southampton which will certainly leave Alavés suffering. New boss Giovanni De Biasi has plenty obstacles to cross if he wants to help this club stay afloat the relegation zone.

Follow him: Bojan - The wonderkid's career never really kicked off and while he was performing quite well at Stoke, Bojan is once again in all familiar situation: with a new club looking to fulfill all that promise. At Alavés he will unite with another player that hasn't really made it with Barcelona, Munir.
This duo can form a formitable partnership in the attack and play in a really attractive style of football. 

Levante

Levante were relegated from La Liga for the first time since 09/10 after season 15/16 but immediately bounced back to the top flight. They did this with style as they were 14 points clear at top of the table. Staying up is always going to be a struggle but what is good for Juan Muñiz is the fact that he could keep his important puzzly of players together and can build on that. 
Levante have all the chances to stay up.

Follow him: José Morales - 7 goals in their previous La Liga campaign from left wing but only 4 in Segunda. Morales needs to be the one that can improve his game if the club wants to stay up. Has all the attributes needed to score regularly in this level.

Getafe

Another team up for this season that is all familiar for La Liga fans. Jose Bordalas, the man who promoted Deportivo Alavés and got sacked will now get his first chance to manage in La Liga with Getafe and is facing a tough mission here. Getafe have invested a lot during the summer by signing in total 10 new players. 
Gelling up will be a key for Getafe as they will fight bravely to keep up instead of returning to Segunda. 

Follow him: Unai Nuñez - The super talented Nuñez is surprisingly on loan this season. Nuñez is a superb addition for Getafe's defensive line and will be hoping to hop into the level that is required at Athletic Bilbao. 

CD Leganés

Leganés were up for the first time in their history last season and barely escaped with their feet dry by finishing 17th in La Liga. 
To repeat the feat will be a challenge for fifth-year manager Asier Garitano, who lost center back Pablo Ínsua and forward Luciano following the end of their loan spells. Leganés will rely heavily in their defensive shape and providing goals from the flanks. 

Follow him: Nordin Amrabat - The skillful winger from Morocco hasn't quite lived to the expectations that he once set in Holland. After two seasons without goals with Watford Amrabat is back in La Liga and having a really large role down left hand side. Leganés will be relying a lot on their wide play during the season and Amrabat really needs to deliver this season to keep the team up. 

Girona

The third team to be promoted to La Liga is a little bit of an odd bird. Manchester City have adopted the club as their feeder club and will provide they help with lot of young players. Generally you cannot win anything with kids that aren't exceptionally talented and this will apply to Girona too. 
Girona have the youngest squad in La Liga and while they have lot of interesting players, we doubt that they can keep up this season.

Follow him: Gorka Iraizoz - After 10 seasons with Athletic Bilbao it was finally time for Gorka Iraizoz to make way for the talented Kepa as the main man in Athletic. Gorka though didn't step off as a starter as he will claim this place with Girona. The 36-year-old keeper is still up to La Liga standards and will provide vital experience to the young Girona side. He needs an excellent season though to keep the team up.

[Guest El Payaso]

Budgets club by club (credit to @Bigpapa42) 

Alavés

Balance: €9,670,000

Budget: €209,000

Wage Budget: €416,000 p/w

Current Wages: €403,000 p/w

 

Athletic Bilbao

Balance: €42,290,000

Budget: €25,000,000

Wage Budget: €1,040,000 p/w

Current Wages: €956,000 p/w

 

Atletico Madrid

Balance: €9,860,000

Budget: €197,000

Wage Budget: €2,750,000 p/w

Current Wages: €2,750,000 p/w

 

Barcelona

Balance: €145,000,000

Budget: €79,000,000

Wage Budget: €5,420,000 p/w

Current Wages: €5,190,000 p/w

 

Real Betis

Balance: €27,510,000

Budget: €3,000,000

Wage Budget: €570,000 p/w

Current Wages: €541,000 p/w

 

Celta

Balance: €44,450,000

Budget: €6,000,000

Wage Budget: €618,000 p/w

Current Wages: €629,000 p/w

 

Deportivo

Balance: €33,540,000

Budget: €3,000,000

Wage Budget: €605,000 p/w

Current Wages: €606,000 p/w

 

Eibar

Balance: €6,610,000

Budget: €500,000

Wage Budget: €402,000 p/w

Current Wages: €419,000 p/w

 

Espanyol

Balance: €13,550,000

Budget: €4,990,000

Wage Budget: €764,000 p/w

Current Wages: €708,000 p/w

 

Getafe

Balance: €14,890,000

Budget: €149,000

Wage Budget: €408,000 p/w

Current Wages: €366,000 p/w

 

Girona

Balance: €5,920,000

Budget: €150,000

Wage Budget: €396,000 p/w

Current Wages: €349,000 p/w

 

Las Palmas

Balance: €12,100,000

Budget: €4,490,000

Wage Budget: €396,000 p/w

Current Wages: €388,000 p/w

 

Leganes

Balance: €6,920,000

Budget: €180,000

Wage Budget: €422,000 p/w

Current Wages: €401,000 p/w

 

Levante

Balance: €6,850,000

Budget: €2,000,000

Wage Budget: €314,000 p/w

Current Wages: €318,000 p/w

 

Malaga

Balance: €17,010,000

Budget: €1,000,000

Wage Budget: €591,000 p/w

Current Wages: €563,000 p/w

 

Real Madrid

Balance: €131,000,000

Budget: €59,990,000

Wage Budget: €4,940,000 p/w

Current Wages: €4,930,000 p/w

 

Real Sociedad

Balance: €19,070,000

Budget: €750,000

Wage Budget: €777,000 p/w

Current Wages: €816,000 p/w

 

Sevilla

Balance: €48,810,000

Budget: €3,990,000

Wage Budget: €1,560,000 p/w

Current Wages: €1,520,000 p/w

 

Valencia

Balance: €45,900,000

Budget: €15,000,000

Wage Budget: €1,220,000 p/w

Current Wages: €1,220,000 p/w

 

Villarreal

Balance: €37,190,000

Budget: €15,000,000

Wage Budget: €711,000 p/w

Current Wages: €689,000 p/w

[Bigpapa42]

Big thumbs up! A thread we've needed for a few years, I think. I haven't managed in La Liga for a long time, but its rather appealing. The quality of the league is impressive. I've been eyeballing Malaga for some reason and they have some truly outstanding players. Almost every club in the league does. And the newgens that Spain produces.....

Might already be in the works, but might not be a bad idea to touch on foreign player rules in Spain and how the second teams work.

[Bigpapa42]

Double-posty goodness.

So started up a save with Malaga last night just to take a closer look. Think I'm pretty much done with my current save (Lobos BUAP in Mexico) and debating where to go next. Leaning toward my old standby (Lokomotiv Moscow) but a La Liga save may need to happen. If not now, then sometime later on FM18. Not sure why I've targeted Malaga. At this point it could be a few different clubs. Betis are of interest. Deportivo were a powerhouse back when I started watching football about 14-15 years ago, so they still have a bit of a mystique for me. Too many options.

One thing I didn't like when I checked Malaga is that their B team doesn't play in an active league, even with Spain going down to the third division. I created a quick editor file to active the fourth division and tested it last night. Works, even if the promotion and relegation processes are not likely correct. So if  I do use Malaga, that will be handy.

I haven't managed in Spain in many many versions. Had some saves with Real Madrid and Valencia way back in the day but I've mostly avoided it. A combination of the B team setups in past versions and not really liking the foreign player restrictions. Plus taking down Madrid and Barcelona just seemed impossible. I've gotten a lot more used to really restrictive foreign player rules, so Spain's don't seem so bad. And I've either gotten used to the B side setup or maybe its changed in the past few versions.

A side like Malaga (or Depor, Betis, Espanyol, or Levante) seems like it would be interesting. The sides have some real quality and some good youth. But keeping hold of those seems tough, especially with the money of the Prem. So when turnover does happen, it seems like it would be a challenge to find players of similar quality that don't cost a fortune. That would be an interesting part of the challenge. Spain produces a huge amount of quality youth, so plenty of options there. Plus you can scour for prospects in some places that might be less of an option for a Prem clubd due to Work Permit issues. I'm thinking you can probably do pretty well picking up leftovers from the likes of Real Madrid, Barcelona, Atletico, and even Sevillla. Similar to how a mid table or lower Prem club can end up with some really solid players by watching for high potential youths that don't get a chance at United, City, Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool, and Spurs. But will this approach be enough to evolve Malaga into a powerhouse side capable of challenging the bigger clubs? I have some doubts but it seems fun to try.

A lot of clubs I tend to manage are below the very top in their given nations, but only a step or two. It doesn't take a huge amount of success to move the club up in reputation to be amongst the top clubs in that nation, if not the very top one. In Spain, that seems like it would be much more difficult. Real and Barca just have so much of a lead. And so much talent.

Not sure if I'll tackle Spain next. Could be Russia, Colombia, Argentina, or Mexico again. But yeah, thinking I need to give Spain another chance.

[Saint_Lane]

Real Betis B. SAD - Season [1] Preview 2017/18

 

 

 

Introduction

It has been yet another summer of mass change at Los Verdiblancos, with a new Coach, Vice-President , nine new players. An unpopular owner ousted and his shares sold to the fans!  There is renewed optimism at the Benito Villamarin that this season will bring a masked improvement, recruitment seems impressive and a lot of the club’s deadwood has been moved on.  However, there are several notes of caution – losing star midfielder Dani Ceballos was a massive and, prior to the European Under-21 Championship, unexpected blow. Betis’ all-time top goalscorer, Ruben Castro, has departed too, although he’ll return from China in January.

I expect to do much better than my predecessors last season who failed to get the Andalusian's to standard -  But this is a team that may take time to gel and may be short of goals up front,but i do not believe a top-half finish does appears entirely unrealistic.

Tactics

I am planning to emulate Quique Setién's 4-3-3 formation in game - The formation allows me to play to the strength of the team with the quality ofthe wide players, including of course the evergreen Joaquin. I am a big fan of Sanabria having been lucky enough to watch him a couple times this season already. The 21 Year Old Paraguayan has fantastic technical ability and posses all the traits necessary to lead the line for the forseeable future.

 

 

Media predict a 13th place finish, but i've promised the board a top half spot - If i can get the likes of Tello, Leon & Boudebouz firing i think we have enough to get there. I've disabled first season transfers for the added realism. Ready to venture into my first career save of FM2018!

 

 

 

 

[23drd23]

I've had a long term save as Atletico Madrid every year since 2009 or so, and this year is no different.  So far I've played 2 reasonably successful seasons.  I may as well share my progress to see if we can get some discussion going.

2017/18

Transfers

Obviously start with a transfer ban, so despite leaving the window open I couldn't bring anyone in to bolster the squad which lacks depth before the season started.  Didn't get any money prior to the January window so couldn't really buy anyone either.  The real life pre-arranged transfers of Diego Costa and Vitolo helped greatly though

Sold Yannick Carrasco to Man City for €66m as he was becoming unsettled (which seems to happen a lot to me whenever PSG/Man City/Man Utd/Chelsea/Barca etc are even rumoured to be interested in my players) and Nico Gaitan was outplaying him!

Signed Leon Goretzka on a free and a regen Nigerian RWB who'd already debuted for the national team in the AFCON before I signed him as an 18 year old.

 

Competitions

Won La Liga with a game in hand, although it should have been more comfortable as I had an 11pt lead on the competition with 8 games to play.  I was surprised that Madrid/Barca dropped so many points as I didn't beat either of them, managing a home D and away L to both.

Lost the Copa del Rey to Barca in the final on penalties after somehow playing out a 0-0 draw

Got knocked out of the Champions League by Bayern Munich in the First Knockout round on the away goals rule (0-1 in Munich and 2-1 in Madrid)

 

Also, Koke won the Ballon D'Or and World Soccer Magazine World Player of the Year awards for 2017!

   

[john1]

@23drd23Congrats on winning the league in first season

[23drd23]

2018/19

Transfers

Bought Dani Ceballos in the summer after he was transfer listed, even though I probably don't need him.  Brought in Pablo Maffeo on a half season loan as Juanfran sustained a 3 month injury in pre-season.

Walter Kannemann and Arthur arrived in the January window.  Kannemann to provide depth at CB after selling Savic, and Arthur almost because I couldn't turn down the value of a starting CM in the Brazilian national team for just 16m

Sold Savic to PSG as I'm not a fan of him IRL (he makes Godin play worse imo) and because they'd already made bids on Gimenez and Lucas which I swiftly rejected.

 

Competitions

Won the Supercopa over Barca 3-2 away and 1-1 at home. 

Somehow won La Liga again but this time I actually had to beat Real Madrid (3-0 at home and 1-0 away) and Barca (3-0 away and 4-1 at home) to do it.  Lost the final game of the season but my superior H2H record meant I won despite ending up with equal points

Got knocked out of the Copa del Rey at the Semi Final stage by Madrid in controversial circumstances (at least in my mind).  Won the first leg 1-0 at home and were through on away goals at the 90min mark of the second leg with the scores 1-2 at the Bernabeu only for Gareth Bale to score a goal at 94:40 despite only 4 mins of extra time being allotted 

Lost the Champions League to a 10-man PSG in the final on penalties 4-1 after finishing at 1-1 in regular time 

I think (not really) SI may have somehow hardcoded Atleti's inability to win a penalty shootout into the game  

[Armistice]

I took a brief look at Levante tonight, a yo-yo club and less known than the rivals from the city, could be a nice challenge to be the best team in Valencia. Anyway, I was surprised to see how balanced their team is, moulded straight away into a counter-attacking system I thought out and some of their players have 14-15 in Mentals attributes which is top half quality from what I've seen in Team Comparison tab.

[john1]

@23drd23 Unlucky to lose in the Champions League Final  

[23drd23]

It was tough to watch, especially because I knew it was coming.  I'm pretty sure most of the penalties I've watched my team take have been saved - be that during games or in the Copa del Rey final the year before.

[Guest El Payaso]

Good to see people here. Betis and Malaga actually were two teams that I was considering to play with in my career update but ended up with Las Palmas. They have lot of players that I like (Jonathan Viera and Calleri along with Vitolo and Halilovic). Not a hard working squad and pretty awful defense but a side that in theory should be able to play attractive football. 

Currently doing well with my save but I am going to have a little bit of a break from playing now as I have lot of work to do and am traveling to North of Argentina this week. Hopefully we will see some update to the ME. 

Anyway, if you are interested in the career. You can find it in careers forum. 

[Gungner]

Never really had a serious save in La Liga, do to the rule of only being able to register 25 players for the season, and with the injury frequency in the this years FM.... But I'm seriously considering a Valencia or Villarreal save! I follow both clubs in real life and I think it could be fun... 

[Bigpapa42]

14 hours ago, Armistice said:

I took a brief look at Levante tonight, a yo-yo club and less known than the rivals from the city, could be a nice challenge to be the best team in Valencia. Anyway, I was surprised to see how balanced their team is, moulded straight away into a counter-attacking system I thought out and some of their players have 14-15 in Mentals attributes which is top half quality from what I've seen in Team Comparison tab.

I think that's relatively common in La Liga. At least amongst the mid-level clubs. They all tend to have at least a few really solid players. Relatively technical players with good to really good mentals. Sometimes they lack strong overall physical skills. But lots of skllful players in La Liga outside the top clubs. I'd be curious how they compare to Prem and Bundesliga clubs in that regard, but my perception (which could be wrong) is that the average quality is a touch higher with mid-level clubs in Spain.

El Payaso, northern Argentina? Sounds interesting. Hope you manage to catch some football. And been checking out the career. KUTGW.

[Guest El Payaso]

24 minutes ago, Bigpapa42 said:

El Payaso, northern Argentina? Sounds interesting. Hope you manage to catch some football. And been checking out the career. KUTGW.

Yes well I live here in Argentina nowadays so it's just a trip to the north but anyway not taking my laptop with me and not feeling like playing in general. My careers always get so little attention compared to others' that I think that I need to really improve my writing or something.

[Bigpapa42]

1 hour ago, El Payaso said:

Yes well I live here in Argentina nowadays so it's just a trip to the north but anyway not taking my laptop with me and not feeling like playing in general. My careers always get so little attention compared to others' that I think that I need to really improve my writing or something.

Ah, that makes sense. Here I was assuming it was some grand adventure. Forget sometimes how global the FM fanbase is. Flipped you a PM on the project, but I'm of the opinion that its a solid read already.

I fired up a proper save with Malaga last night but don't know if I'll actually go forward with it. I always use the Add Players to Active Clubs option to get first-day newgens. And Spain produces so many. Quite a few at clubs in the second division and below. Its become all but impossible in FM18 to sign newgens for compensation, but if you wait a few months and keep an eye on them, you can often get them for relative bargain transfer fees when they are still at a small club.

In poking around on that save, I'm thinking that Portugal is going to be a prime hunting ground for Spanish clubs. Well, it already is, but the amount of young talent is huge. Not just at the big three, but almost all the clubs in Portugal have at least a couple of players who could develop into really solid players. This is also true of countries like France, The Netherlands, and so on. But Portugal looks to be have fairly reasonable prices for some solid players - but expect to pay premium prices for elite youths, especially if they are at Sporting CP, Benfica, or Porto.

[Werrett]

@Bigpapa42 Malaga are also a side that have been interesting me quite a lot. I agree with your comments about Portugal, Trincao and Xadas are a couple of names who look like superb young players that can be signed for relatively cheap prices (both from Braga). Malaga's lack of finance and fairly ageing squad make me think they'll be a good save for FM18. Javi Ontiveros, Youssef En Nesyri, Juanpi and Recio are a few players I like the look of and believe the squad would be more than capable of a top half finish. Gonna take a bigger look through the teams before I decide myself.

[Bigpapa42]

1 hour ago, Werrett said:

@Bigpapa42 Malaga are also a side that have been interesting me quite a lot. I agree with your comments about Portugal, Trincao and Xadas are a couple of names who look like superb young players that can be signed for relatively cheap prices (both from Braga). Malaga's lack of finance and fairly ageing squad make me think they'll be a good save for FM18. Javi Ontiveros, Youssef En Nesyri, Juanpi and Recio are a few players I like the look of and believe the squad would be more than capable of a top half finish. Gonna take a bigger look through the teams before I decide myself.

I think the basic things that make Malaga appealing - a couple of star players, some young talent, some solid vets, some areas to build - are common with a lot of similar level clubs in Spain. Betis and Deportivo are other clubs I considered and they have relatively similar situations. You can sell a star player to have more resources, but at the pain of losing one of the best players in the side. And some of these clubs do have players in the squad of immense quality.

With Malaga, that's Rosales. In the save I started, he was wanted by a Prem club and I imagine one could probably get 15-20m for him, if not more. At the cost of losing a really well rounded rightback. But Malaga do have Alex Robles who should develop into a star at the same position, so that transition is more a question of when than if. The keeper position doesn't look too strong, but there is a really good prospect in the B side.

One of the reason that Malaga appealed is that they seem pretty well suited to the tactic I was using in my last save, a 4-2-3-1 deep-deep, based on Cleon's work, that is built around a Segundo Volante. Malaga have a couple of players who would do well as an SV, including Cecchini.

Forgot they also have Kuki, who was a common signing on FM17. He is away on loan, though.

When going through the club staff - which are a mixed bag, as some are worth keeping and some aren't - was surprised to see that Martin Demichelis had retired and become a coach. And a decent coach, but not really great at anything. Too bad - had hoped he would be a great defensive coach.

Xadas is actually one of the first Portuguese players I looked at lol

One other thing I keep meaning to mention... the game does list the foreign player rules in pretty good detail. But I'm not sure if it mentions anything about South American players. I believe it applies to all South American players, but not 100%. But they can get Spanish citizenship after 2 years of residence, which is great because once they have an EU passport, they are no longer foreign players.

[23drd23]

1 hour ago, Bigpapa42 said:

I believe it applies to all South American players, but not 100%. But they can get Spanish citizenship after 2 years of residence, which is great because once they have an EU passport, they are no longer foreign players.

All the EU countries, Russia, a few other non-EU European countries, Morocco, Algeria and the Cotonou agreement countries (all of Africa except the north African countries, Carribbean and Oceanic countries) count as "not foreign". 

All the South American countries (except Suriname and French Guyana) count as foreign, but as you said they are eligible for a Spanish passport after just 2 years.  Which is something to keep in mind if you sign young players from South America and then want to loan them out - make sure to keep the loan in Spain

It'll basically only be North and South American players that you'll buy that count as foreign - and the South Americans become EU in 2 years. 

Also I'm pretty sure that the list of countries "treated as EU" has expanded in the last couple of years - I distinctly remember a save where Yarmolenko occupied a "Foreign" spot in my squad registration for the 6+ years I had him

[Bigpapa42]

Do believe you are correct, @23drd23. I do not recall The Ukraine and Serbia being on the "treated as EU" list last year. Serbia in particular is nice to see, because there are some absolutely brilliant young players there and almost certain some nice newgens.

[23drd23]

2019/20

Transfers

The major purchase in the summer was Andrea Belotti for €46.5m, funded enitrely by the sales of Gameiro (who was approaching his final year of his contract) and Vietto (who came to me prior to me buying Belotti and told me Bayern were interested).
Brought in David Silva to mostly be a tutor on a 1-year deal with an automatic extension depending on games played. 
Aaron was really cheap for some reason - I'd tried previously and couldn't get him for €15m.  Berza is a regen GK and Scaglia a regen CB, both from Argentina.  Selvas is a regen CB/DM/CM who has 4* potential.
The big sale was Sime Vrsaljko - who PSG got for a bargain at €54m rising to €64m considering his value was €52m. Bought Dani Alves to replace him and to tutor a regen RB, but he refused to tutor any one.

 

Competitions

Won the Supercopa over Valencia 

Came 2nd in La Liga this season.  Was leading the league by 5 or 6 points at the start of April, but dropped a number of points to mid table teams trying to rotate the squad to keep players fresh for the UCL

Lost the Copa del Rey in the final to Barcelona again, this time 1-2.

I did win some meaningful silverware though, winning the Champions League 2-1 against Arsenal

Barca had a shocker of a season to finish in 9th - their season only salvaged by winning the CdR and making the semi-finals of the UCL

 

Awards

My players won a number of awards this season.  Griezmann swept the end of year awards for 2019, winning the Ballon D'Or, FIFA Player of the Year and World Soccer Magazine World Player of the Year!  He somehow didn't make the FIFA World XI though (?), even though a number of my other players (Saul, Godin, Belotti and Correa) did.  Griezmann also won the season ending Best Player in Europe award

 

Belotti also won the Champions League Golden Boot with 10 goals in 12 UCL games

[Pablo Sanchez]

Edited gone

 

Might start with Depotiva La Coruna

[Matto97]

Playing as Valencia right now, sitting in 4th January 2018 with victories over Barca and Atletico being my highlights with Sevilla 3 points clear at the top!

Transfers in so far have been;

- Matheus Fernandes a Brazillian wonderkid for 5.5m who is doing a great job in the BBM position of my midfield.

- Juan Bernat returns to the club in the summer after Bayern transfer listed him for 10m, too good an offer to pass up!

- Erik-Palmer Brown in on loan due to an out which I'll move on to.

Transfers out;

- Garay to a Chinese team for 10m, he had just come back from a knee ligament injury and his physicals are starting to decline so I thought I'd move him on while I can recoup this much money on him as Paulista and Murillo were my first choices.

- Parejo for 25m because he was destroying morale in the dressing room over a move to PSG because he wanted their big wage. Really didn't want to lose him because his wicked set piece ability and being at the club for so long but 25m is pretty good for someone unsettled I guess. 

- Orellana on loan to Everton with a future fee of 5.5m and wages covered, he wanted first team football and Rodrigo/Pereira plus the mestalla kids were always going to start ahead of him.

 

Now looking to replace Parejo with a long term option as I opt to play Soler higher up in the BBM role of my 3 man midfield. Vuckevic from Braga is my current target. 

 

Star players have been Guedes & Parejo before he left, both carrying the team. Zaza has been disappointing having only scored 4 in the league & Mina has only scored 1! Rodrigo has bagged 7 mainly playing as an inside forward sometimes shifting into the centre so I am happy with him.

 

Overall I think Valencia are a great long term save in La Liga as both IRL and in game they really seem to have sorted their s*** out finally. I would advise going for 1 up top over a 4-4-2 like they play IRL though as with 1 or 2 additions to midfield you have a very strong engine room indeed. 

[CapaJr]

the "real men" are those that plays with Bilbao  

[Rooneye]

How do you get that overview:

 

Is it a skin or is that FM Touch or something?

[jeesh]

Anyone know how to implement Marcelino's tactics with VCF in FM

He uses three central midfielders, although the third midfielder (Soler) drifts wide when attacking, moves inwards when defending. Both strikers cover the entire opposition half, pressing defenders. And one winger plays wide

[Saint_Lane]

How do we think the last 3 games will play out here. 

I'm backing Valencia!

[Guest El Payaso]

3 hours ago, Saint_Lane said:

How do we think the last 3 games will play out here. 

I'm backing Valencia!

 

Quite incredible season so far from you. While I'm doing well in my game too I doubt that I (want to) do that well. Can you tell more about your save? Tactics, player performances etc.? Really nice to see other people playing with Las Palmas too. 

[23drd23]

Wow, that is an amazing performance to have Las Palmas fighting for the title in the first season

[23drd23]

2020/21

Transfers

A few ins for the first team, but no significant outs.

Emerson was a bargain buy at LB because Roma somehow finished 16th!  Mario was transfer listed at Man City, so was brought in to provide competition at RB after Dani Alves retired.
Franco Hoyos is an Argentinian regen who had a 90+ scout recommendation, and Nunez is a Spanish regen with 4* potential.  Karamoko is a 3.5* regen Right Winger who I have no real idea why I bought him considering I don't play with an AMR

Competitions

Almost the perfect season.  

Started off by winning the European Super Cup 2-1 over Monaco, with Belotti netting a brace.
The Club World Cup was far more difficult than it needed to be.  I scraped through the semi-finals 1-0 in extra time against Auckland City and then clinched the title with another 1-0 win against Club America.
I had a pretty easy run to the Copa del Rey, not having to play either of the big 2 teams, and beating Espanyol in the final 2-0
La Liga was wrapped up pretty early mostly thanks to Real Madrid and Barca dropping points elsewhere, as a lost away but won at home against both of them.
Lost in the semis of the Champions League to eventual winners Man Utd on away goals, with a nil-all draw at home in the first leg and a 1-1 draw at Old Trafford, despite the fact that they played almost the entire 2nd half with only 10 men.

Awards

No major awards this season, but Saul came close, coming second in all 3 major individual awards.  Nobody was lucky enough to be selected in the World XI or its subs

[23drd23]

2021/22

The season started off with the club subject to a take-over, which seemed to have the sole effect of reducing the clubs debt, and basically halving the monthly repayment and reducing the pressure to either win or sell players to maintain a positive bank balance each year.

Transfers

Domizi is an Argentinian wonderkid who can play all down the left flank.  Paulo Henrique  is a two-footed, regen Brazilian RB who i'd had my eye on for a while who I bought to play IWB at LB after selling Emerson.
Sold Walter Kannemann as I wanted to give playing time to a couple of young CBs and he was coming into his final contract year. Mensah and Caio didn't progress on loan, so were sold before their contracts ran down.
Bayern came in with a big offer in January for Emerson - made a potential 40m profit in just 18 months on him!

Competitions

The Supacopa was a relatively straight forward affair, winning 1-0 away and 2-0 at home against Espanyol.
It was a difficult season for me in the Champions League. First I only just scraped through to the knockout stages on the final day (and needing a result to go my way), coming in second to Fiorentina and on equal points with Dortmund.  Lost to Man City in the First Knockout round on away goals 2-2 at home and then 1-1 away.
The Copa del Rey was won on penalties against Sporting Gijon after a 0-0 draw where I had 35 shots compared to Gijon's 4.  I had to beat Barcelona and Real Madrid in the QF and SF respectively to make the final.
La Liga was won with 5 games in hand.

[Saint_Lane]

3 minutes ago, 23drd23 said:

I had to beat Barcelona and Real Madrid in the QF and SF respectively to make the final.
La Liga was won with 5 games in hand.

Good Skills - You're dominating! 

Nice to see Belotti getting goals for you. He is a great player. 

[Saint_Lane]

Heading into the last game of the season now versus Valencia. Too Nervous. Madrid are away to Espanyol who are playing well. 

La Liga is awarded on head to head results - So level points with Valencia would crown us Champions. But Madrid would be crowned champions even if they only manage a draw (And i beat Valencia).

 

1 hour ago, El Payaso said:

Can you tell more about your save? Tactics, player performances etc.? Really nice to see other people playing with Las Palmas too. 

 

Will finish the season and put a review up El Payaso. Las Palmas are a fun team - I don't do anything too creative with tactics ( I dont understand the ME or tactic screen well enough too lol) but will happily share.

 

. . . Some time later

 

Las Palmas 2 - 1 Valencia

90th minute winner from Calleri after what i thought was heartbreak following the best goal i have ever seen in FM.  Parejo pick up the ball far on the right, in line with the 18 yard box and drills in a cross - Zaza leaps above Lemos and heads against the bar - He hits it so hard the ball flies out 30 yards to Pereira who volleys it first time past Chichizola <!> Calleri's winner was crap - Kondogbia played the worst back pass to Neto and Calleri sweeps in, intercepts and scores a late winner. 

Leaves the table: 

Madrid play Espanyol now in Catalonia. I've got a ticket and will be watching from the stands.  I'm sat next to Sergio Ramos who is serving a 3 game ban after a 94th minute red following a 2 footed tackle against a 36 year old Joaquin. In a game they were winning 5-0. 

Good decision maker Ramos. Fingers crossed!!

[23drd23]

That's a super effort to have Las Palmas on top of the league on the final day of the first season @Saint_Lane

[23drd23]

On 12/11/2017 at 09:49, Saint_Lane said:

Good Skills - You're dominating! 

Nice to see Belotti getting goals for you. He is a great player. 

Eh, the squad is so good now I don't have to do a whole heap - most of the games I don't even play, just hit the "Instant result" button after setting the line-up and picking the mentality. 

In fact, at the end of the last season I posted, I had 4 midfielders whose description was "Elite midfielder" (Koke, Saul, Leon Goretzka & Arthur), plus an "Elite goalkeeper" in Oblak and 3 more "elite" players in Griezmann, Correa and Belotti. My only weakness in the squad was at LB.

Belotti performs well but he has been a pain to keep a hold of.  Despite Atletico being one of the top 3 or 4 clubs by reputation according to the game, basically every transfer window an offer gets put in for him and then he asks to leave.  Last season I had to give him a €50k/week raise and a €10m signing bonus to keep him, and now this off-season (winter of 2022)  he wants to go to Monaco because they've put in a €94m (including clauses) offer 

[DawsLFC88]

3 hours ago, 23drd23 said:

Eh, the squad is so good now I don't have to do a whole heap - most of the games I don't even play, just hit the "Instant result" button after setting the line-up and picking the mentality. 

In fact, at the end of the last season I posted, I had 4 midfielders whose description was "Elite midfielder" (Koke, Saul, Leon Goretzka & Arthur), plus an "Elite goalkeeper" in Oblak and 3 more "elite" players in Griezmann, Correa and Belotti. My only weakness in the squad was at LB.

Belotti performs well but he has been a pain to keep a hold of.  Despite Atletico being one of the top 3 or 4 clubs by reputation according to the game, basically every transfer window an offer gets put in for him and then he asks to leave.  Last season I had to give him a €50k/week raise and a €10m signing bonus to keep him, and now this off-season (winter of 2022)  he wants to go to Monaco because they've put in a €94m (including clauses) offer 

What formation do you play with Atletico. Do you implement your own 442 version? I was thinking of either starting with Atletico or Dortmund to stop the dominance of the usual suspects. I had the same issue with Icardi as you have with Belotti, won the league in first 2 seasons and as soon as Monaco come calling he wants out. 

[Bigpapa42]

Some rousing success, gents. Great to see and quite encouraging.

Still haven't delved into a save in Spain. My 2nd Lobos BUAP (Mexican club) save on FM18 seems to have stalled, and while I've been toying with a Lokomotiv Moscow one (my go-to club), I'm still intrigued by a La Liga go. But much like before, still can't settle on which team. Malaga was the most intriguing option before, thought I'm not sure why, and now they interest me much less - again, not sure why. I was eyeballing an Athletic Bilboa save, which is so unique, but not sure I want to deal with that level of restriction. One of the things that is both appealing and frustrating at the same time about saves in places like Mexico and Russia is that foreign player limits, which not severe, mean you need to prioritize players from those nations. Its cool but I also get tired of it sometimes and want to have more options. A Bilbao save is that much more restrictive. Yet somehow that appeals....

Betis is the other side that appeals right now and I'm again not entirely sure why. A bit of money to spend but not tons. Some young prospects but not tons. Sanabria looks like he could develop into a star, and Joaquin was a favorite from way back in FM05/06/07... back when it was impossible to get him lol. And having Guardado is pretty awesome, as he is another FM favorite from a decade ago. Deportivo La Coruna is still wroth a look too..... The Riazor just seems so small compared to some of the stadiums in La Liga.

This isn't really an exploit or cheat, but I'll use spoiler tags just in case. Something I recently  noticed that might be useful to those managing in Spain....

Spoiler

So signing newgens from other clubs is tough on FM18. They generally won't sign when they first debut as they have just signed a contract with their current club - which is realistic, but can be annoying for those of us who have long used this approach to steal some quality newgens while just paying compensation. But I spotted something the other day and it can be handy. Clubs that are amateur and have youth players on amateur/youngster contracts may have newgens generated that have 0 value. When that is the case, they can be signed to contracts and will move for zero compensation.

This has always been the case with amateur developmental clubs in the United States, if the MLS is an active league. But on FM18, it seems to happen in Portugal, Spain, and even France. The top division has to be active in those countries, and it might help to have a pretty big database of players. Its going to be a bit random, because these clubs are lower division and don't necessarily have good facilities.

The ones I have found were at the start of new saves, using the Add Players to Active Clubs tick box. But it should - theoretically - still be workable for regular youth intakes. It would take some time to manually dig through those clubs for the zero value players and have them scouted. But if you can snap up 5-10 players aged 15-17 who are 4-5 star prospects in a year in Spain alone.... could be well worthwhile.

 

[Saint_Lane]

LAS PALMAS - Season 1 (2017/18) Review

_______________________________________________________________________________________

I went into the season with lofty ambitions of mid-table mediocrity and a season of consolidation. Transfer budgets disabled 1st season,  i was happy to work with the current crop of players. Despite loosing key players in the summer, in particular Roque Mesa to Swansea i was looking forward to seeing attack minded Viera ply his trade and witnessing the young Uruguayan CB Lemos in action. I set about creating a very basic tactic that was most importantly defensively sound. 

I set up with an initial 4-3-3 but did not have enough quality in midfield or depth to play 3 week in week out. Despite positive results in friendlies I tried a new formation for me the 4-2-3-1 DM. It allowed me to play both Viera & Hallilovic in attacking positions, and with only 3 good La Liga quality CMs and just 2 strikers i could manage rotation comfortably. 

I am not astute tactically in game but like to think I understand the tactics of football to some extent. I played all games this season with this formation. Standard & Flexible. Against a better team i went Counter. By that i don't mean i tried to play on the counter, that is not what selecting Counter means (Makes sense right) - In it's most basic form it means playing with a deeper line, more narrow, and only begin pressing the opposition deeper into your own half. I never played anything more aggresive than Standard as i found myself exposed when doing this. Particularly with a top heavy formation like 4-2-3-1, playing [Attacking] can get you found out if you are not careful.

 I do not understand the mentality option so i don't change it. I do not like using many PI's - I only use [Shoot Less Often] on my Wingbacks - I find Personal Instructions pigeon hole and drastically limit my players' actions on the pitch.  So many times i see open space in front of my WB if he just cut inside and i go crazy when he decides not to and dribbles down the flank into an awaiting fullback, only to realise its my fault or selecting the PI {Run Wide With Ball} - For this reason i dont very very rarely do PI's. 

Team Instructions were simple. Against better teams I never used them. Against equal teams i never used them. The only time I used a Team Instruction was from about 15 games into the season when lesser teams started playing 4-4-2 against me and defending deep in 2 banks of 4. Very tricky to break down even with very technically gifted players (See Leicester Circa 2015). To try and have my team work around this i initially tried a camping tactic, pushing high up whilst holding my 2 DMs back to attempt camping in there area and wear them out. Man City do this well IRL, boxing their opposition in deep inside there own half. I had NO idea how to do this in FM and failed miserably. Being countered constantly and loosing defensive shape. 

I had success against defensive teams by switching 1 DM on Support to a Segundo Volante on Attack duty. That's it. Normally Vicente. His forward runs from deep often forced opposition CB's to retreat and opened space for my attacking quartet.  Paired with just 1 TI [Pass Into Space] TI i had reasonable success. This forced my attacks to be more aggressive. Rather than ponderous passing around the oppositions 18 yard box my players dropped balls in behind and hit long balls wide for wide men to run onto. My Possesion and passing accuracy suffered miserably. But as long as i kept a solid shape, all it took was one magic ball from any one of Viera, Hallilovic or Vicente and Calleri would finish!

_______________________________________________________________________________________

Overall the season defied my expectations. I never got carried away and expected that inevitable winter slump or down-turn to come and it never really did. Real Madrid won 3-1 against Espanyol to seal the title on the lat game of the season but Champions League next year is very exciting!

We had the best defence in the league and often clinched games 1-0 with many hairy moments on the way!

_______________________________________________________________________________________

Star Player for me was DM Vicente - The 30 year old with over 250 club appeareances was instrumental in attack and defence. Scoring a 7.36 rating for the season won a ton of accolodes during the season including Most Tackles & Most Interceptions in the league as well as contributing 10 goals and 11 assists from the DM(Support) position. 

_______________________________________________________________________________________

Onto Season 2 (2018/19)

Money is very tight. I have an ageing squad and no wriggle room in my wage structure. I need to replace retiree's and want-away players and to top it all off i need to contend with Champions League placing extra strain on the players i do have.

...Can't wait

[Guest El Payaso]

@Saint_Lane That's kinda huge downfall for Barcelona who are doing well in my save game. Eibar seems to be strong on your save game too. How did Viera do for you? For me he was being until he got injured as he was only summing up key assists that seemed to lead into nothing. Halilovic has taken his place so well in the middle but Viera will of course be back in the team and playing in the position that Vitolo will hold for the first half of the season. 

[Saint_Lane]

Just now, El Payaso said:

@Saint_Lane That's kinda huge downfall for Barcelona who are doing well in my save game. Eibar seems to be strong on your save game too. How did Viera do for you? For me he was being until he got injured as he was only summing up key assists that seemed to lead into nothing. Halilovic has taken his place so well in the middle but Viera will of course be back in the team and playing in the position that Vitolo will hold for the first half of the season. 

Agree, very poor season from Barca. Messi had his worse ever season in terms of goal scoring. 

Eibar were fantastic - Pedro Leon was a real menace! Wonderful player - Very strong technically. Viera was strong - 12 Assists and 6 Goals. Had games were he disappeared, and others were he ran the show in the final third. I had terrible luck with Vitolo - Played 2 games then injured all the way through to the new year were of course he returned to Madrid. 

[23drd23]

21 hours ago, DawsLFC88 said:

What formation do you play with Atletico. Do you implement your own 442 version?

In the first two seasons I pretty much used only this formation of my own creation against all but the biggest clubs when away (when I used a defensive, counter attacking 4-4-2):

The reason for the weird formation was purely to get my best players on the pitch in as many games as possible. Atleti's squad at the start has a number of very good central midfields (Koke, Saul, Gabi etc), a couple of good left wingers in Griezmann, Carrasco and Gaitan and some okay forwards in Gameiro and Vietto.  Add in the pre-arranged signings of Vitolo and Diego Costa, and they strengthen those positions too.  The DLP at the DM position would be moved up into the CM line against weaker teams (which is also how I have a Mezalla and a Carrilero in a 2 man CM line)

The last couple of seasons, most of the time I've used this tactic that I downloaded and changed slightly: 

The original formation has an IF-S at AMR, but I moved that guy into an AMC (with the move out wide PI) due to the players I have in my squad.  Its basically a very high possession tactic that creates a high number of shots (I typically get >60% possession and >20 shots each game) while also being pretty sound at the back despite the aggressive looking formation.  I not infrequently will hold the opposition to under 5 total shots all game, and also sometimes allow zero shots on target.

[23drd23]

15 hours ago, El Payaso said:

@Saint_Lane That's kinda huge downfall for Barcelona who are doing well in my save game

They finished 9th in the second season of my save, and were actually on the bottom of the table after ~5 games IIRC.  Valverde was fired in November of that season and then the caretaker coach used some weird (for Barca) 4-1-4-1 formation for the rest of the season. It was very unusual to face Messi playing as a true CM

[Guest El Payaso]

17 minutes ago, 23drd23 said:

They finished 9th in the second season of my save, and were actually on the bottom of the table after ~5 games IIRC.  Valverde was fired in November of that season and then the caretaker coach used some weird (for Barca) 4-1-4-1 formation for the rest of the season. It was very unusual to face Messi playing as a true CM

Seems to variate a lot as they seem good in my save game. Not something like real life level but still good and Messi banging in goal per game so far. I think that the only change I made for Valverde with the in game editor was that I raised his squad rotating attribute to 20 and made some minor tweaks on his tactical preferences. Did the same for Guardiola and at least they aren't underachieving that badly as they are 2nd on the table in Premier league. Next task would be to fix Klopp and make Coutinho and Salah actually do something for them.

[CybrSlydr]

As someone who has played numerous Celta Vigo saves (and am currently playing one right now), I can tell you that the team, with the right tactic, can over perform like you wouldn't believe.  

I used the "Scholes Can't Tackle" 4-1-2-3 off the Steam Workshop for the first season and managed to finish 5th in the league.  The main problem you run into after a successful season like that is everyone wants your players and you don't have the budget to keep them.

For instance, in the off-season I lost:  Aspas, Jonny, Hernandez, Sisto and a few others.  The GOOD news about that is you can typically get good money for them.  Sisto went to Man City for his full release clause, Aspas went to Tottenham for his release clause, Jonny went to PSG for his release clause, etc.  So you do get a good chunk of money to re-invest into the team.

Thanks to that, I picked up the likes of Andre Andre, Andrea Pinamonti, Patrick Cutrone, Jesus Vallejo (cheap and on the transfer list), Dani Ceballos (transfer listed), Gerard Deulofeu (transfer list), Rafa Silva (transfer list), Rodri, Unal Lopez (I think that's his name?... MC(AP)).

This season Pinamonti is on fire with 12 goals in the league at the Christmas Break, that's good enough for 2nd behind Ronalodo with 14.  Cutrone was out for like... 3 months with a spinal injury.  Andre Andre has been stellar (if he can stay healthy).  

Now that Cutrone is back, I've switched to a 4-4-2 as I really want those two strikers out there banging in goals.  Cutrone hasn't quite found his form yet after returning from his spinal injury, so I'm just waiting.  

Currently we sit 3rd in the League behind Barcelona and Atheltico Madrid (I think).  So we're definitely in the running for a Champion's League spot if we can stave off too many big injuries and keep our form.  We've also made it out of the Group stage in the Euro Cup after finishing second behind Inter (who just lambasted us both games).

Next up is leg two of the Spanish Cup semi-final against Barcelona.  They beat us 1-0 at home in the first leg.  Not good but if history holds, we're in luck - we went into the away leg of the Quarter Final against Athletico with the same score and won 3-0 in their building to secure passage.

No shortage of excitement in La Liga! 

[Stackalee]

Played a season with Sociedad, didn't realise they were in Europa, was actually trying to play as a small side. Either way, enjoyable save all told, very tight league season with a Europa win as the icing on the cake. 

Edit: oh yeah, the formation - played a narrow 4-1-2-1-2, hoping to get the best out of the excellent Álvaro Odriozola. Worked pretty decently, would like to have conceded less - though the defence aren't all that great as players.

[DawsLFC88]

1 hour ago, Stackalee said:

Played a season with Sociedad, didn't realise they were in Europa, was actually trying to play as a small side. Either way, enjoyable save all told, very tight league season with a Europa win as the icing on the cake. 

Edit: oh yeah, the formation - played a narrow 4-1-2-1-2, hoping to get the best out of the excellent Álvaro Odriozola. Worked pretty decently, would like to have conceded less - though the defence aren't all that great as players.

Who did you sign with Real Sociedad? Those and Vigo are defo on my shortlist for Spanish teams. Well done, you smashed it! 

[uros19]

Im also playing with Sociedad

[Stackalee]

10 hours ago, DawsLFC88 said:

Who did you sign with Real Sociedad? Those and Vigo are defo on my shortlist for Spanish teams. Well done, you smashed it! 

Quite a lot of transfer activity, although only Aaron, Alcacer, Wendel and Caio went into the first team with only Aaron coming in at the start of the game, the rest in Jan.

[AbRaiN]

1st time managed to get 100% confidence from the board in a game !!
We re doin a great start with Real Betis and i cant really believe how we re going so good in our 1st season (!)
I hope for our form to continue and i think that my main target must be an EuropaLeague place because there is a lot football to be played .
Our 4 players in front are really immpresive especially Sergio Leon as a ST havin 11 Goals in 11 Matches , beeing 1st in LaLiga scorrers and Joaquin been great as a right winger at his 36 years old !!



Let's go Betis !! Seems a very interesting save 

Edit :I dont know what is going on guys but Joaquin and especially Sergio Leon are on puuure form right now !!
Leon scored 5 Goals and 1 Assist on an Away win getting 10.0 rating (!) and Joaquin got 3 impressive crosses to Leon !! Impressive quality from both .
The bad thing is that Joaquin 4-5 days before the match complainted and wanted to leave for China as they offer bigger wage (!!)
And i a want to make a big decision , should i sell Joaquin in Winter Transfer Window who is first in Assists and AvrgRat in LaLiga(7.88) but is 36 years old with contract expiring at the end of season and get Deulofeu from Barca for about 10M + 3.5M per year contract ( a really big transfer for Betis' standar) , or i stay in the current squad which is going amazing and probably look for a Winger at Summer ?
Any suggestions would be usefull because i will continue the save tomorrow

 

[Bigpapa42]

Nice work with Betis, @AbRaiN. Just realized the other night what kind of attendances that Betis pull in regularly. Impressive fanbase.

I've seen Joaquin retire after the first season a couple of times, and his legs seem to go quite quickly. Not to say he can't be useful when he has no pace, but it does limit how he can be used somewhat. I would be very hesitatant to count on him in the 2nd season.