FM09: Official Manchester City Football Club Thread

[Falastur]

Diarra cost me £18m in my game. I almost blew a fuse and cancelled the deal. In retrospect I should have, as he doesn't seem to be a big improvement on Fernandes or Hamann, aside from his ability to blast the ball in (occasionally...he still only has 1 goal for me).

I've always played Robinho up front as opposed to in AM. In that position, he's scored 17 goals in 18 competitive matches for me. He's no inspiration but he does have a fantastic ability to just smack the ball when you don't think there's a shot on, putting a ridiculous amount of curl on the ball to put it in the bottom corner. Elano has also exhibited this quality for me, albeit to a smaller degree. I find Evans is a decent striker too, I bought Vagner Love who took some settling but is decent in the penalty area (5 goals in 10, the magical 1:2 ratio), Jo hasn't been great but has scored 3 in 4 games and 4 sub appearances. Benjani has the ability to do absolutely nothing for a team or everything, but I think I'll sell him in January, along with Vassell, and maybe some others. Scoring is rarely a problem for me. My problem, rather realistically, is defending. I may have to try to bring in a top class DC for a small(ish) transfer fee - smaller than £10m if I can. Any suggestions anyone?

My current formation, for those who are interested:

..............Hart/Enyeama (both as good as each other, I'm rotating them a fair bit)

Srna...Richards...Dunne...Salcido

............................................

...........Diarra/Fernandes..........

Wright-Phillips..Elano.......Zhirkov

.......Vagner Love...Robinho.......

On top of this, I have spare players who get rotated in a fair bit. It's not a great system, but it works. I have:

Garrido (for Salcido) / Zabaleta (for Srna; they both also play MR when I push my midfield back) / Ben-Haim (sweeper or replacement for Dunne/Richards) / Johnson (for Diarra) / Ireland (for Elano/SWP) / Petrov (for Zhirkov) / Evans/Jo for the strikers.

I'm giving games to Hamann, Onuoha, Benjani, Castillo, Kompany, Vassell but they're not making a decent impression on my squad.

[Fane]

18m for Diarra ouch! i paid 11.25m for Veloso who is better . In my opinion mate your midfield seems really weak, dunno if that is just mine

[Falastur]

It quite possibly is. I'm not good at tactics, but I'm even worse at buying players. The important thing is that I'm (somehow) winning games...I think Robinho is probably saving me in this aspect.

[coolbananas]

\o/ 2 pages.

WWfan has made about 200 tactics available for download some of which are very good.

Pop into the tactics forum to find them.

[MarkTrevor]

I used a tactic designed especially for Man City on the tactics area

Heres my team:

-------Hart------

Diarra(13M)--Dunne--Papastathopoulos(7.25M)--Marcelo(4.4M)

Srna(19.25M)--Johnson(or Fernandes)--Richards--Robinho

-------Ched Evans------Sergio Aguero(34M)

Aguero came 2nd in Players' Young POTY and Ched Evans finished 3rd

Darijo Srna was in Team of the Year.

The best part of the season has to be beating liverpool to the last Euro spot on the last day of the season

[Mk28]

--------------Hart---------------

Richards-----Dunne-----Yury Zhirkov

--Hamman/Fernandes--Palombo----

-----Elano-----Arshavin-----

Robinho-----Benjani-----Pandev

Ins:

Zhirkov 11m

Arshavin 17m

Palombo 14m

Pandev 13m

Out:

Petrov 9m

Ireland 5m

Got around 30m to spend in January. Looking towards a new Keeper and possibly a DM to play with Polombo. Ideas?

[coolbananas]

New GK: Ochoa, Akinfeev, Leo Franco, Frey.

DM: Veloso or Diarra your best bet.

[Mk28]

Thanks.

By the way, Arshavin is amazing me so far, some phenomenal passing going on. Highly reccomended.

[MarkTrevor]

Leo Franco's contract is expiring, you might be able to snap him up

[MarkTrevor]

And after blowing all my transfer budget in the first season, I get 108M for the second. I love citeh

[Falastur]

Has anyone come up with a way of combating the progressive losses you make every month, mainly on player salaries (I'm presuming everyone's losing about £4m/month as I am)? Sure, there's going to be the TV revenue, and there's CL money if you can get there, but short of finding a way to butcher the wage bill is there a way of evening the figures? Does the stadium tend to get upgraded, for instance? I'm slowly bleeding money at the moment, which is unusual for me on FM, and I'd like to correct it.

[aidayc]

Okay My Man City game is going fairly well

First season I signed Vukcevic, Huuntelaar, Srna, Marcelo, Fiorillo and Emerson (to appease Robinho)

so i played a 4-4-2.

-------Hunteelar-----Robinho----

Vukcevic/Petrov---Fernandes--Johnson/Elano---SWP

Marcelo---Dunne---Richards---Srna--------

---------------Fiorillo

Players like Ireland, Onouha, Jo, Caicedo etc got plenty of games due to injuries and fatigue and developed nicely. Huuntelaar banged them in and robinho played his part.

I managed to finish 5th in the league (2pts behind l'pool in 4th), and I won the FA Cup with a thrilling 3-2 AET victory over Arsenal.

Got knocked out by Barca in a late KO round of the UEFA.

So after I finished the season somewhat inevitably there was a lot of interest in my players; At first I started to resist accepting bids but my squad became fustratingly moody as players were unhappy at blocked transfers.

So I thought screw this it's time for a total clear out. I ended up selling almost my entire squad and made 179mil from it. Marcelo, Srna, Huuntelaar, Johnson, Ireland, Robinho, Dunne, Vukcevic, Caicedo, Onouha, Petrov Benjani and more all left.

So I made these signings; Aguero (took 140k a week and 7mill signing on fee, plus 40.5mil as a fee), Santa Cruz, Guardado, Veloso, Diarra, Ben Arfa, Vargas, Barzagali, Curtis Davies, Salcido, Luguano and Sebastien Frey.

So now my team is...

-----Santa Cruz------Aguero--------

Guardado---Veloso----Diarra-----Ben Arfa

Vargas---C.Davies----Barzagali---Richards (the sole surviving first teamer for both seasons)

----------------Frey------------------

This team is performing impeccably, Currently first in the league after 11 games. 8 wins 2 draws 1 loss.

Although I've only played a top four side once (2-2 draw at Stamford Bridge)

Aguero and Santa Cruz score for absolute fun. Great Partnership.

I also am top of my Uefa cup group with 9points from a possible 12.

Reckon I'll definitely finish top 4, with a small chance of snatching the title. Hopefully I can win a cup for the second season running too, preferably the UEFA.

[paulbluecat]

In my first season got carlos vela for 10million just had my board update for october who are particulary pleased with my signing of Eduardo (botafogo) but slightly dissapointed with the signing of vela???????????????????????

[MarkTrevor]

Falastur - Stadium is getting expanded by 12000 seats

[Mk28]

This is game is making me smash my room up.

[HappyNoodleBhoy]

I'm not doing too great but I think the City fans/board will give me a little slack thanks to the result of my first Manchester Derby.

[MarkTrevor]

Just into September; here's a transfer window round-up.

In:

Leo Franco - Free

Jean (regen) - 1.4M

Massimo Di Bari (regen) - 1.2M

Jack Wilshere - 6.75M

Manuel (regen) - Free

Cristian Zapata - 39M

Miguel Veloso - 23M

Guilherme - 20.5M

Fabian Monzone - 9.25M

Jamie Gavilan - 8M

Simone Lupo (regen) - 400K

Marek Hamsik - 43M

Total: 153M

Tranfers Out:

Benjani - 1M

Darius Vassell - 375K

Glauber - Free

10 Players - Released

Tal Ben-Haim - 1M

Marcelo - 13.25M

Pablo Zabaleta - 9.75M

Jo - Free

Michael Johnson - 7.25M

Dedryck Boyara - 100K

Manuel - Loan

Nedum Onouha - 3.5M

Valeri Bojinov - 5M

Total: 41M

And the club is still injecting cash

[jp135]

My team is

Hart

Hutton-Richards-Dunne-Marcelo

Elano-veloso-diarra-petrov

Robino-santa cruz

16 games so far and 13 wins 2 draws and a last min defeat at liverpool

[Mk28]

I'm starting again, just lost 5-3 to Wigan. I'm going to read tactical framework guide and have another shot.

[CapaJr]

1st season, finished 9th, lost to Villa in the UEFA cup final(weird 6-1 loss)- dissapointing season overall. i found the game relatively harder compare to FM08

Now, our ambitious Arab friends are expanding the stadium to 60,000, and given me about 250 million dollars for the transfer budget- and not just that, city board invest crazy amount of money every few months, just recently they invested 150 million dollars into the club, i think with this rate, no team can compete with Man City after 2009-10 or so.

with that money, i have created a young, ambitious and highly talented team.

here is Man City 2nd season

-----------------------Schmeichel ---------------------------

----Mickael Chretien----Micah Richards----Dunne the magnificent----Alexandr Kolarov(Guardado)

---Alexis Sanchez---Fellaini------Angelo Palombo----Downing(Guardado)

-------------------------Diego(Robinho)------------------------------

------------------------Giuseppe Rossi(Cardozo)

my other purchases are, marquinhos, alex teixeira, axel witsel,marek hamsik, ustari, gilles brou, keirrison, joe mattock, ustari..

although club only expects me to qualify for Euro cup, i think i ll finish at least 4th place.

so far 3 games 3 wins in the league.

[CarlosEsDios]

I've just bought with my £56 million -

Veloso - £15m

Moutinho - £12.5m

Radu - £1.6m

Lavezzi - £8.75m

Cardozo - £7m

Zhirkov - £11m

First game of season is away at Chelsea (nice!) and I'm lining up as follows going 4-4-2

-------------------------HART-------------------------

ONUOHA-------RICHARDS--------BEN-HAIM--------BALL

-------------------------------------------------------

ELANO--------MOUTINHO--------FERNANDES------ZHIRKOV

---------------------------------------------------------

--------------CARDOZO---------ROBINHO

SUBS: Schmeichel, Garrido, Petrov, Lavezzi, Radu, Johnson, Castillo

UNAVAILABLE: Dunne, Kompany, Zabaleta, Ireland, Vassell, Bojinov

NOT IN SQUAD: Jo, Caicedo, Veloso, Wright-Phillips, Etuhu

I know some of you might be surprised by the omission of Veloso, SWP and Jo but I'm going to see how the team I've picked first goes.

FULL TIME - CHELSEA 0 MANCHESTER CITY 1

Scorer: Robinho 49 minutes

What a fantastic start to the season with Man City. The Stats tell the story though.

Chelsea 17 shots (8 OnT, 9 OffT)

Man City 1 shot (1 OnT)

A fantastic ball from Moutinho sent Robinho on his way and he fired past Cudicini on the volley. I switched Robinho at Half Time from being a striker (on 5.2 rating) to playing Left Attacking Midfield and this is where he scored the goal from (rating 7.1 at finish). Chelsea hit the woodwork so many times though and actually one chance Deco hit the inside of one post, all across the goalline, hit the other post and was eventually cleared!

Best rating Man City: Onuoha 7.5

Worst rating Man City: Lavezzi 5.8 (Half Time Sub)

Bring it On! However bedtime no beckons and I can't play now until Monday :-(

[CarlosEsDios]

Quick Update guys -

Played Aston Villa away in the next game. Robinho went to the left to replace Zhirkov and Lavezzi came in for Cardozo.

ASTON VILLA 4 MANCHESTER CITY 1

Perhaps the Chelsea victory was a miracle!

[coolbananas]

I'm not doing too great but I think the City fans/board will give me a little slack thanks to the result of my first Manchester Derby.

Congrats on that result mate, fans will love you now.

[HappyNoodleBhoy]

Congrats on that result mate, fans will love you now.

Thanks mate, came back from 1-3 behind to beat them 4-3 in the next game too, the team has beaten the "big teams" in the league as well as in Europe (beat Valencia convincingly away from home) but have struggled pretty badly against the likes of Villa and West Ham. Position is currently 8th and the January transfer period brought in Guilherme for £20m with the unhappy Elano shipped out to Chelsea for the same price... I'm scared in case my promise of the title will see me out on my arse before I get to taste the next transfer window. Eep!

After a bad start Jo is now sticking them away regularly, Guardado converts into a good left-back, Robinho actually produces some good performances way out on the wing and Boruc is a god in goals. The basis to build a truly great team is there.

[MarkTrevor]

Just smashed Liverpool 5-1, 3 goals and a red card in 20 minutes

Aguero got 3, Hamsik and Srna nabbed a goal each.

[Fane]

Just into September; here's a transfer window round-up.

In:

Leo Franco - Free

Jean (regen) - 1.4M

Massimo Di Bari (regen) - 1.2M

Jack Wilshere - 6.75M

Manuel (regen) - Free

Cristian Zapata - 39M

Miguel Veloso - 23M

Guilherme - 20.5M

Fabian Monzone - 9.25M

Jamie Gavilan - 8M

Simone Lupo (regen) - 400K

Marek Hamsik - 43M

Total: 153M

Tranfers Out:

Benjani - 1M

Darius Vassell - 375K

Glauber - Free

10 Players - Released

Tal Ben-Haim - 1M

Marcelo - 13.25M

Pablo Zabaleta - 9.75M

Jo - Free

Michael Johnson - 7.25M

Dedryck Boyara - 100K

Manuel - Loan

Nedum Onouha - 3.5M

Valeri Bojinov - 5M

Total: 41M

And the club is still injecting cash

WTF? 39M for Zapata? 23M for Veloso, please tell me thats dollars and how did u sell Marcelo?

[MarkTrevor]

Not dollars, pounds. And what do you mean how?

[betts]

managed to get owen for a steal 4M but he been out for a month 4 different times so guess the game got his injury proneness spot on sturridge is the future tho def

[Falastur]

Despite having questions about my formation, I am on an alarming run of good form. I say alarming as I rarely learn the tactics on FM (even after reading TT&F) and a good run of form is usually the build-up to a massive disappointment I just qualified for the UEFA Cup knockouts after winning Group H by a decent way, and knocked out Chelsea with a stunning 4-1 away win in the League Cup Quarter-Final; with only 42% of the possession they still dominated the shots taken stats, but I made it count the most. I only managed a 1-1 draw at home against Man Utd but the fans were still happy. Robinho is up for European Player of the Year with a quite frankly scary 21 goals in 27 (it was a goal a game for a long time). The only thing I'm concerned about really is where I will go from here. In FM I'm rarely good at continuing success over several seasons, and I'm bad in the transfer market. I'm currently 4th in the league, though, so I'm hopeful of a good league finish to give me a boost for next season.

Edit: I was just asked about World Player of the Year in a press interview. Turns out Robinho and Srna are both up for that, too...I'm having trouble with Petrov though, as Claude Puel (Olympic Lyonnaise manager) keeps releasing statements literally more than once a week saying he thinks he's a great player, and I rejected a bid from them which upset him. I'm concerned about not being able keep hold of players, for the abovementioned poor transfer skills reason. I'm also sorely tempted to remove Puel from his job with a second player to stop all the stupid press releases (I'm not actually going to, of course, but he's annoying me so much that I'd like to...)

[Fane]

Just into September; here's a transfer window round-up.

In:

Leo Franco - Free

Jean (regen) - 1.4M

Massimo Di Bari (regen) - 1.2M

Jack Wilshere - 6.75M

Manuel (regen) - Free

Cristian Zapata - 39M

Miguel Veloso - 23M

Guilherme - 20.5M

Fabian Monzone - 9.25M

Jamie Gavilan - 8M

Simone Lupo (regen) - 400K

Marek Hamsik - 43M

Total: 153M

Tranfers Out:

Benjani - 1M

Darius Vassell - 375K

Glauber - Free

10 Players - Released

Tal Ben-Haim - 1M

Marcelo - 13.25M

Pablo Zabaleta - 9.75M

Jo - Free

Michael Johnson - 7.25M

Dedryck Boyara - 100K

Manuel - Loan

Nedum Onouha - 3.5M

Valeri Bojinov - 5M

Total: 41M

And the club is still injecting cash

Not dollars, pounds. And what do you mean how?

omg u got ripped off then, i got them for half that.... how u sell marcelo? as in he comes to you in that window and cannot sell him in the same window?

[Falastur]

omg u got ripped off then, i got them for half that.... how u sell marcelo? as in he comes to you in that window and cannot sell him in the same window?

MarkTrevor is in his second season, Marcelo was sold after a year at the club.

[trunky07]

Congrats on that result mate, fans will love you now.

Dunno about the fans but i love him for that result!

[1.zer0]

I'm not doing too great but I think the City fans/board will give me a little slack thanks to the result of my first Manchester Derby.

As a City fan myself I can only dream this will happen next week......

[Niall1389]

signed:

arshavin

boka (missed out on srna)

khirkov

remy riou

belletti on loan (totally overrated lol)

looking a striker....

[adamj11]

Only started.

In:

Arshavin - £13m

Srna - £15m

Vucinic - £20m

Lucho Gonzalez - £20m

Out

Strurridge - Derby (season loan)

Logan - Wolves (season loan)

trying to get rid of the rest of the dead wood from my squad, ie. Benjani, Vassell, Glauber, Mills, Hamman but no one will sign them

Need a left back for cheap (as you can see I slightly over spent on the 4 players I have signed) any suggestions?

[matt 2403]

hi to be honest i think i did quite bad with man city jus about to play 1st league game:

formation: 3-5-2

GK: Lobont

DC: Dunne

DC: Richards

DC: Kompany

ML: Petrov

MC: veloso

MC: matias fernandez

MC: palombo

MR: wright phillips

ST: cardoza

ST: robinho

i paid 8m for sakho :\ and bought loads of potential e.g saivet , victor moses, mark randall, merida.. i have no money left!!

what you think and howd you think i should play!?!? cheers

[iamjerome]

sold: garrido 5m, gelson 10

bought: diarra 11.25, vela 10, nihat 16, asenjo 7.25, veloso 11.5, diego 23, miranda 12.5, cardozo loan, carioca 3m, chretien 5m, molinaro 4m

4-2-3-1

asenjo / hart

chretien / onuoha, micah/dunne, miranda/kompany, molinaro/ball

veloso/carioca

diarra/johnson

nihat/swp, diego/elano, petrov/vela

robinho/cardozo/jo

[rtgr]

thanks for the posts has helped alot with looking for players only just started with man city so ill keep updating my progress

[ajcatterson]

in first season, now into Business end at March.

Lost the League Cup Final surprisingly to Pompey after beating Scum in semi final , am second in league but 10 points behind all conquering Arsenal , who also knocked me out of FA Cup QF . Into QF of UEFA after knocking out Dortmund.

Preseason signings ;

Radoi (12.5m)

Rossi (8.75m)

Marcelo (3.5m)

Palombo (17.25m)

Diarra (7.5m)

Palombo (15m)

Miguel Veloso (13.75m)

Emerson (loan to keep Robinho sweet)

then signed in the Jan window ;

Balotelli (5m loan fee + 12m if I want him)

Ponzio (3m loan + 10m )

and out the door have gone ;

Petrov (5m)

Caicedo (4m + future)

fernandes (3.5m + future)

Ball (2m)

Richards (23.5m + future) to Chelsea . Didnt want to sell him as playing really well, but relented on deadline day after he stated his unhappiness

Playing a first 11 of ;

Franco

Ponzio - Radoi - Dunne

Zabaleta / Diarra - Marcelo (wing backs)

Palombo - Diarra / Veloso / Johnson

Elano

Balotelli - Robinho

Have beaten Liverpool 3 times , Scum twice , and Chelsea once , but keep getting hammered by Arsenal (Adebayor mostly)

Should finish 2nd in league , and have a tilt at UEFA , then look fwd to some great signings in summer

[rtgr]

game update:

signings -

Huntelaar 15.5mill

vela 10mill

sakho 14.5mill

angel di maria 7.5mill

mirel radoi 10.5

sergio asenjo 7.25mill

darijo srna 17.5mill

veloso 12.25mill

outs - martin petrov 7.75mill

i know i've been ripped off with some prices but the clubs were being divs and always negotiating rejecting my initial prices

but i feel i have a good squad now

Hart

Asenjo

richards

kompany

ball

srna

dunne

radoi

zabaleta

onuoha

gelson

johnson

veloso

elano

di maria

ireland

wright-phillips

robinho

vela

huntelaar

jo

now i was wondering what kind of tactics to play?

i am thinking about a 4-5-1 with a 2 cm's an attacking mid 2 wingers and a tm striker

thoughts?

[PaulHartman71]

started as City, just finished a rather interesting transfer window -

In -

Razvan Rat - 2.7M

Fabio Daprela - FREE

Aquivaldo Mosquera - 3.5M

Carlos Salcido - 13M

Bogdan Lobont - 9.75M

Klass Jan Huntelaar - 18M

Alexandr Anyukov - 13.75M

Gokhan Inler - 15M

Emerson - 2.2M

Gerardo Torrado - 5M

Sent the following out on loan: Schmeichel, Evans, Sturridge, Etuhu, Daprela, Logan, Williamson.

Admittedly payed over the odds for a few players, but had so much money I wasn't really worried

7th after 3 games, winning 2 and losing 1.

Will keep you up to date

[jp135]

in my 2nd season now and ched evans is turning into a fantastic player

spent last season at leeds 37 games-28 goals and scored 6 in 4 games for the under21's

Currently 4th choice in my city side but scoring alot of goals still

[jimi m]

In my first season,I signed Zapata-13 mill,Diarra-12 mill,huntelaar-13 mill,radoi-10 mill,mattock-3 mill,ballotelli-10mill,zumanovic-13 mill..

I sold a few aswell,fernandes vassell benjani and a few more.

came 4th just about,got to the quarters of the UEFA and semi final of the FA cup only for chelsea to beat me on pens.

Now Im half way through my second season and coming 3rd challenging fir the title,through to the next round of the champions league.

my team this year is-

Gk-akinfeev

Rb-Bosingwa

Lb-Mattock

Cb-Richards

Cb-Zapata

Mr-young

ml-robinho

cm-diarra

cm-zumanovic

fc-balotelli

fc-huntelaar

subs-hart,jo(i think hes crap),swp,elano,johnson,fausto rossi,garrido,radoi,dunne,petrov,sturridge,

i signed a lot of young players as well some for the future also gettin oscar and gelvan in january

sold smeichael,ball,zabaleta,caciedo,evans

Did any1 get sturridge to turn out good cuz he crap for me?????

[Seanmc123]

in my 3rd season my city team is

Akinfeev

Richards Demichellis Sakho Marcelo

Quagliarella Veloso Mikel Robinho (Diego backup (usually play him when im at home and can afford to be more attacking)

Aguero Balotelli (berbatov as backup united offered me him for 4.5mill in the 3rd season so i couldn't refuse!)

Won the UEFA cup in my first season, havn't actually won the league yet as Arsenal seem to just destroy everyone (I was the only team to beat them last season, they lost 1 game all season)

[Gianni1974]

just bought the game yesterday, I'm italian but love english football (and of course in the game I'm praised for my defensive style of play LOL).

With City I have:

Hart

Kompany Richards Dunne

Balzaretti Srna

Veloso Johnson (Jenas)

Elano

Robinho Giuseppe Rossi

19th october 3rd in premiership

How do you guys managed to get Balotelli and Marcelo ? They turned me off even my 9MIL €/year offer

Robinho is not so good, do you think I should sell him if I can't get Marcelo play with him ? I asked him a player he likes and he told me to buy Emerson, go figure

[adamj11]

How do you get rid of Benjani? Noone will sign him.

Also anyone have suggestions for DL?

[Boy85]

I am a few games into my first season with Man City, I spent a lot of my budget on promising youth players as you will tell with the rest going on Diarra, M Fernandez, fiorrelli and Sakho. I am just interested on peoples thoughts on my team and where I should strengthen or where I have gone wrong.

GK

Fiorelli -

Hart -

Schmeichel - How good does he get?

DL

Sakho -

Garrido

DR

Richards

Zableta

DC

Dunne

Kompany

Spence

Ohnoura

Beevers

MR

Ireland

Wright-Phillips - Not been impressed with his stats, think i may sell him in January

Sneijder

Kalouda

ML

Petrov

Saviet

Bruna

DMC/MCd

Diarra

G Fernandes -

Hahmann - 34 but he is a great player to bring on for last 10 mins to mark someone out of the game

AMC/MCa

M Fernandes

Johnson - does he improve much?

Fleck - only 16 looks like he is going to be great

Galvan

Bostock

FCa

Robinho - cant get him to play well, even with a free role

Sturridge - doubt he will be as good as on 08 but will hang on to him

Caicedo - does he improve? might sell him as i feel i have better youth players coming through

Baxter

Glen

FCd

Jo

Benjani

I am playing with Rashidis 442v formation and using the benitez style templates for most games. I have been quite solid but not really been scoring many goals. won my first 4 games 1-0. I have obviously had a lot of new players so i know they need to gel but i cant seem to get the best out of robonho. He plays better with a free role but nothing like his stats would suggest. Has anyone found a way to get the best out of him?

[welshguy3425]

Didn't want to bring in too many first team players so I've spent a bit on youth...

Current lineup...

Hart

Zabaleta (Got Davide Santon from Inter as future RB)

Richards

Dunne © (Bought Jack Rodwell as future CB)

Marcelo

Johnson (My fave player IRL, only reason I havn't replaced him)

Kompany

Have 3 AMC, no wingers. On the left of the 3 I have Robinho, Riquelme centre with Arshavin to the right.

Good ol' Darrent Bent up top..!

Other youth players I've bought are Jonjo Shelvey, Georgio Winja-whatever his name is-aram the AMC from Feyonoord?

Dont know about anyone else, but when Bent and Jo are injured, Ched Evans has been an absolute menace. Got a hatrick and a cheeky brace in 2 prem games for me.

Instead of using wingers, I've foud having 3 AMC's works wonders. Robinho naturally roams out to the left as his PPM is moves into channels and hes been unbelievable there.

I didn't concede for my first 7 games in charge, mainly due to Joe Hart. My centrebacks kept getting the ball lobbed over their heads, but I dont want them to play deep as the gap between midfield and defence would be massive.

Thinking about replacing Zabaleta in January...any recommedations for an attacking RB?

Fernandes has been toilet too!

[jaymajik28]

Also anyone have suggestions for DL?

Marcelo for 4.4m

Radu for about 2m

Torres (Real Madrid) for about 2m

[dap1987]

has anyone got Robinho to sign a contract further than the 3years at the beginning? i can only offer him 135k and he wants 160k and wont accept anything

i did complete one season but got the "crash dump" message, finished 7th, Quarters of UEFA Cup and beat by Sevilla and knocked out of both cups early on, not a bad season and my leading goal scorer was Jo (he plays well for me so don't understand why so many people slag him off, to be fair he goes through spells for me where he cant stop scoring and then he just cant score)