FM19: Ajax Amsterdam - Time to reap what has been sown

[Chef Raekwon]

11 hours ago, ChrisBones1990 said:

Any advice with mentoring? Do you guys let your assistant do it or set your own up? I'm a few months incand de ligt and de Jong personality types have gotten worse. In a group with blind de light de Jong and a balanced young defender.

Set it up myself. In addition to position, pay attention to which social group individual players belong. In my save, Blind, De Ligt and Schuurs are all model citizens, de Jong is Resolute and they are coming at an age where I don't really have to worry about their personalities degrading.

[Gungner]

Well, I would say my save is a succes so far... 11 league games played, 10 won and 1 drawn. Through to the second round of the Cup, beating two amateur teams with my reserves. Champions League is a sort of different story. First Qualifying round was a meeting with Sturm Graz (3-0 on agg), second round was Spartak Moscow (3-2 on agg) and the Playoff Round was Benfica (2-1 on agg). Group stages drew me against Barcelona, Dynamo Kiev and Hoffenheim. First match, I somehow managed to beat Barcelona 2-0 at home, but subsequently drew both Kiev and Hoffenheim 1-1 (away and home respectively). Next match is away to Hoffenheim, a must win match if I don't want to rely on me beating Barca away and rely on Hoffenheims future results.

But all in all, I really enjoy the team and save

Edited December 20, 2018 by Gungner

[KlaaZ]

I'll need to find a place to put this one right into my first team squad. 

[KlaaZ]

I also need to learn how to take proper screenshots that don't have attribute partially obscured. 

[john1]

1 hour ago, KlaaZ said:

I also need to learn how to take proper screenshots that don't have attribute partially obscured. 

He looks fantastic!  

[LukasZ_VCF]

On 05/12/2018 at 21:20, KlaaZ said:

No complaints here, won the CL in my third season after a rather 'easy' knockout draw with Monaco and OL until the semis, then managed to contain City (with Simeone as a coach) thanks to an emphatic 4-2 home win and just about edged Liverpool in the final. 

 

Squadwise, I managed to hang onto Veltman, Schuurs (who developed really well), Tagliafico, Blind, Neres, Dolberg and Gravenberch (for now). Main additions apart from regens now are Ludovit Reis (very comparable to Donny in stat distribution), Kik Pierie, Xadas (very cheap and very solid development), Nikola Moro, Robert Gumny and Thiago Almada (ridiculous Argentinian, see screenshot). I'm hoping to challenge for the CL again but had (once again) a very tough group draw even with being seeded first: Milan, Stuttgart and Liverpool... Drew first place with Liverpool but they had the better goal difference so I got Juve in the first knockout round, sucks to be me. 

 

Financially I'm very solid with 270M in the bank. My reputation also skyrocketed.

Don't know if you can pick him up but I picked up Josip Posavec in my third season for 5.5M and he's been very consistent. Nice attribute spread and a spirited personality.

What Tactic do u use? Because if u won CL with Ajax, then probably better team than that should win it easily ?

[dsmiggy]

This is a fantastic read as I'm about to start a save with Ajax. I've always been interested in making one of these saves because of the great reputation the Ajax academy has, my plan is to hold onto my top young prospects such as De Ligt and De Jong until at least January and take it from there.

[MatthewS17]

Can anyone give a recommendation on Frenkie De Jong?

Looking for a DLP for my United save. He seems perfect. However, my scouts don't recommend him.

Haven't seen anyone posting about this so trying to find out?

[we dont do that]

12 hours ago, MatthewS17 said:

Can anyone give a recommendation on Frenkie De Jong?

Looking for a DLP for my United save. He seems perfect. However, my scouts don't recommend him.

Haven't seen anyone posting about this so trying to find out?

Played him as a DLP in the MC position as part of a two (added run with ball more to take advantage of his dribbling) and he was brilliant 

[zlatanera]

Edit 2.0: forgot to save - just kept it open in the background, and hadn't set up my auto-saves, so I lost two months of progress. I'll start up at some point, and remember South Africa this time I guess. 

Edited January 7, 2019 by zlatanera

[Chef Raekwon]

So I picked up my save after the holidays to see if I want to salvage anything from it. Currently starting season 4 and have decided that this season is going to be more of a transitional period, where I'm going to play a lot of my up-and-coming talents regardless of the (importance of the) fixture. This means I'm going to be benching Kristensen, Blind, Dolberg, Fischer, Ziyech and Tadic permanently now, in favour of Hoever, Wöber, Gravenberch, Marin and a few newgens. This provides me with a very good bench but a somewhat weak first team, although I should have no problems retaining the Eredivisie. I would like to challenge for the semi's of the CL in my fifth season.

 

I've also sold off a lot of players to Dutch clubs for a modest fee, in hopes of raising their squad strength. Kühn for 2,5M to PSV and de Wit for 1,8M to Heerenveen and various loans as well. Also had to sell Tagliafico as he become annoyed at a lack of playing time, because he was only the third choice left back. My only signing is Cillessen for 13,5M as he was transfer listed at Inter and I needed a good stand-in for Onana with a good personality for mentoring. This means I still have a 65M transfer budget and over 800k/week left to spend on players. My U19's are starting to look a little weak, so there might be some action up ahead.

[Burty76]

Just about to start my second season. Made a load of changes to the team by selling off all of the older players and bringing in young talent, mainly Dutch. 

Team for season 2 is 

GK  Onana / Regen

DR  Christensen / Vangoman

DC  De Ligt / Schurrs

DC  Wober / Van Drongelen

DL  Willems / Pierie

DMC  Tonali / Eiting

MC  De Jong / Gravenbach

MC  Van de Beek / Sparv

AMR  Pereira / Stengs

AML  Kean / Marin

ST  Dolberg / Arp

 

Won the league unbeaten in season 1 (31:4:0) but finished rock bottom of the champions league group. I’m hoping as the team grows older and more experienced together we can progress much further. 

Sold a few youngsters who have developed well for some of you but weren’t growing for me at all - Mazraoui, Cerny, Bande, Johnsen, Sierhuis. Bought Reis but he didn’t develop at all, and fear Nunnely will be sold too unless he improves dramatically on loan at Breda. 

Have got van der Heide and Boadu in Jong Ajax as well as a couple of newgens who seem much more promising 

[Chef Raekwon]

Sound good, am interested to see how your players will develop! Hopefully you can secure a top 2 finish in your CL group this year as well!

 

My most curious piece of business in FM ever has been me selling Mazraoui (at CA/PA 150, I've checked) to PSV for 90M, then PSG not playing him, and me subsequently loaning him back the following season, on 10% of his wages (25,5k) and no further fee. Kind of elated to see him back, as I think his leaving us made my side a lot weaker than I'm willing to admit. 

 

EDIT: Just sold Schuurs to Barcelona for 87M, although some parts are locked behind clauses, such as 15M after 10 international games (I'm the current Dutch manager, I reckon this wouldn't be impossible) and 15M after 50 games for them. Schuurs is a good player (linked his profile earlier in this thread) but I'm not sure if he's good enough for Barca. We'll see!

Edited January 8, 2019 by Chef Raekwon

[Burty76]

Thanks...managed to get to the quarter finals in season 2 but was then humped by PSG (well, mainly Mbappe)

Won the league again but much closer as I played back up,players in a lot of the easier games. 

‘How are you getting such massive bids for players? I’d want to keep most of the stars but if a huge bid came in for Frenkie De Jong id take it - only getting max 20M at the moment. 

‘He’s really frustrating as he won’t develop how I want. I play him as Centre Mid - attack, but despite being on Shooting training for two years his Finishing hasn’t moved up from 7. And that’s the second time I’ve done it as in a Liverpool save the same thing happened. Are some players attributes hard coded not to move?

Edited January 8, 2019 by Burty76

[Barnsley]

Hi Guys, also playing as Ajax, won the league first season and came bottom of the CL. I am trying a youth only approach only signing young players and using my own system. Currently only signed Antonio Marin from Dinamo to play AML. Got a couple of promising players through the academy so they are in Jong Ajax squad, who won the league. Now - i have never seen this before, but they have been promoted into my league? I didnt know this was allowed but its brilliant!! anyone else seen this.

 

Edited January 8, 2019 by Barnsley

[zlatanera]

31 minutes ago, Barnsley said:

Hi Guys, also playing as Ajax, won the league first season and came bottom of the CL. I am trying a youth only approach only signing young players and using my own system. Currently only signed Antonio Marin from Dinamo to play AML. Got a couple of promising players through the academy so they are in Jong Ajax squad, who won the league. Now - i have never seen this before, but they have been promoted into my league? I didnt know this was allowed but its brilliant!! anyone else seen this.

 

Surely that's a bug? On previous FMs I've had my reserves dominate the league below but they'd never get promoted. It seems highly unlikely there'd be a rule change in real life that allowed it.

[Barnsley]

I would imagine so, just wondered if anyone else encountered it, I am not complaining something interesting for this save definitely. i didn't thing it was allowed and never seen a B team/reserve team ever allowed to be in the same league, nevertheless. I am going to ensure they don't get relegated on this one and try and get them into Europe alongside my team! 

[Burty76]

Jong Ajax didn’t get promoted in my save, but Jong AZ did and were in the Eredivisie with their senior team as well

[zlatanera]

@Barnsley @Burty76 You need to make a thread in the bugs forum about this. Any fixes wouldn't affect your save, so if you think its cool, fair play. But it is a bug and I doubt they'll have noticed it.

[Chef Raekwon]

12 hours ago, Burty76 said:

‘How are you getting such massive bids for players? I’d want to keep most of the stars but if a huge bid came in for Frenkie De Jong id take it - only getting max 20M at the moment. 

‘He’s really frustrating as he won’t develop how I want. I play him as Centre Mid - attack, but despite being on Shooting training for two years his Finishing hasn’t moved up from 7. And that’s the second time I’ve done it as in a Liverpool save the same thing happened. Are some players attributes hard coded not to move?

I don't do anything to be honest. There are a few reasons: (1) Ajax has its reputation increased because of doing well in Europe, (2) the Dutch competition has had its reputation increased because of good European campaigns by a few clubs (including Feyenoord and Groningen) and (3) they have become (much) better players. I'd rather not lose Schuurs though, as he was the ideal back-up CB after de Ligt and has a model citizen personality, but I felt like 87M was too much to turn down. And I have some more good young CB prospects, so I'm sure I can cope.

As for the bids, I don't do anything and the bids just... come right in. I always decline withouth negotiating whatsoever, which seems to drive the price up a bit.

So far, had the following offers:

• De Ligt 139M from Man Utd. Always ignore these because I want De Ligt to be my CB for the next 10+ years.
• De Jong: 61M from Barca and PSG. Am starting to get tempted because he's never really critical to my games and I have a very good young prospect waiting in the wings.
• Dolberg: 45M from Dortmund
• Pierie: 30-50M
• Wober: 20M
• Ziyech: Just accepted 50M, had a 70M offer a few seasons ago when I couldn't miss him, with Gravenberch developing I don't see his value anymore.
• Onana: 30M

Basically my entire first team (starting 11 and subs) are being watched and actively being bidded for. I dread transfer windows because of all the offers for my players and me constantly having to placate my players.

 

As for the second part of your question: attributes are never hard coded to (not) improve. 

9 hours ago, zlatanera said:

Surely that's a bug? On previous FMs I've had my reserves dominate the league below but they'd never get promoted. It seems highly unlikely there'd be a rule change in real life that allowed it.

It's either a bug or because of an editor file. You can edit the competitions to allow B teams to be promoted. Before posting about this bug, check if you are running an editor file which enables this.

[Burty76]

Thanks for the response 

Any idea how I can get De Jongs finishing stat up then? Have you managed it at all?

[Chef Raekwon]

2 hours ago, Burty76 said:

Thanks for the response 

Any idea how I can get De Jongs finishing stat up then? Have you managed it at all?

No, but I'm not too concerned with that. He plays as a MC - DLP-S for me and doesn't often find himself in positions where his finishing stats matter. However, I can imagine scenario's where you'd like to see his finishing attribute raised. I'm not entirely sure how to make that happen, but probably train him in a position and role that touches his finishing stat, such as 'AMC - shadow striker'. 

[zlatanera]

My first Klassieker went well! 

[Chef Raekwon]

13 hours ago, zlatanera said:

My first Klassieker went well! 

Damn, amazingly done! Can you share your tactics / first team?

[Barnsley]

On 09/01/2019 at 00:03, zlatanera said:

@Barnsley @Burty76 You need to make a thread in the bugs forum about this. Any fixes wouldn't affect your save, so if you think its cool, fair play. But it is a bug and I doubt they'll have noticed it.

Yep, no worries i will get it reported. I haven't used any any files etc, i don't like it playing the game when it doesn't count my score on the leader-board!

 

I can upload a saved game if anyone is interested in playing a save with Jong Ajax in the same league.

 

2nd Season i am struggling a bit at the min, not clicking like it did in season one, however my champions league group consists of Zenit, Celtic and Leipzig so definitely have a chance to get out of in the top two this time.

Transfers so far Antonio Marin, Svetozar Markovic and Christian Kouan who looks a cracking player. Got rid of Hunterlaar as Dolberg is incredible.

How does Hassane Bande develop? 

[zlatanera]

4 hours ago, Chef Raekwon said:

Damn, amazingly done! Can you share your tactics / first team?

Decided not to go with a Libero this time - I just want to focus on developing players, trying to crack probably the most significant role (in terms of having to build your tactic around it) in the game as well was just too much. I like to have a 22 man squad when playing in a league such as Eredivisie (Lamprou being man 22) which is why I posted two lineups. Sierhuis makes 23 as he got 3 goals in 3 league starts whilst Dolberg was injured, then hasn't appeared since. 

At 2nd of December and currently have only conceded 3 goals at home all season (AZ, Celtic and Feyenoord each got one, results 3-1, 5-1, 7-1 respectively). I'll do a big season summary when I get to the end, but I'll just say a couple of things about the tactic:

- I'd like to get more goals out of Ziyech and Labyad, the MEZ role makes them pop up in worse shooting positions than the BBM, but changing to CM-Su seemed to make the entire team play worse.

- I think in part due to the MEZ role combining with the left-sided IF and WB, leading to overloads on the left and space opening up on the other side, the RW is our best performer a lot of the time - David Neres has 11 goals 7 assists in 18(2) apps, Cerny has 8 goals 2 assists in 8(4) apps. 

3 hours ago, Barnsley said:

Got rid of Hunterlaar as Dolberg is incredible.

Dolberg has 1 goal 1 assist in 8(6) apps for me...FM18 he was unplayable. Gotta love the variation between saves, its what keeps it interesting. He even did something similar to Wayne Rooney in Louis Van Gaal's first competitive game - took a touch with an open goal, allowing the Excelsior defender to smash it into his own net when attempting a tackle.

[LukasZ_VCF]

33 minutes ago, zlatanera said:

Decided not to go with a Libero this time - I just want to focus on developing players, trying to crack probably the most significant role (in terms of having to build your tactic around it) in the game as well was just too much. I like to have a 22 man squad when playing in a league such as Eredivisie (Lamprou being man 22) which is why I posted two lineups. Sierhuis makes 23 as he got 3 goals in 3 league starts whilst Dolberg was injured, then hasn't appeared since. 

At 2nd of December and currently have only conceded 3 goals at home all season (AZ, Celtic and Feyenoord each got one, results 3-1, 5-1, 7-1 respectively). I'll do a big season summary when I get to the end, but I'll just say a couple of things about the tactic:

- I'd like to get more goals out of Ziyech and Labyad, the MEZ role makes them pop up in worse shooting positions than the BBM, but changing to CM-Su seemed to make the entire team play worse.

- I think in part due to the MEZ role combining with the left-sided IF and WB, leading to overloads on the left and space opening up on the other side, the RW is our best performer a lot of the time - David Neres has 11 goals 7 assists in 18(2) apps, Cerny has 8 goals 2 assists in 8(4) apps. 

Dolberg has 1 goal 1 assist in 8(6) apps for me...FM18 he was unplayable. Gotta love the variation between saves, its what keeps it interesting. He even did something similar to Wayne Rooney in Louis Van Gaal's first competitive game - took a touch with an open goal, allowing the Excelsior defender to smash it into his own net when attempting a tackle.

Can you add download link ?:P

[zlatanera]

10 minutes ago, LukasZ_VCF said:

Can you add download link ?:P

It's all up there on the screenshot - I don't have any PIs, and I adapt these set piece routines to my players:

https://strikerless.com/2018/11/29/short-corners-my-plan-b/

https://strikerless.com/2018/11/19/defending-corners-and-other-set-pieces/

Also, I've only played up to early December so there's still time for it all to collapse. Frenkie de Jong just got a 3 week injury which is the only time one of my first XI has had an injury that's actually kept them out of a game.

Edited January 10, 2019 by zlatanera

[zlatanera]

Strange how there's licensing issues with the J-league, for example, yet I just got taken over by Theodoros Zagorakis. 

I just hope he doesn't want us to play like Euro 2004 Greece!

[Barnsley]

Starting to get tougher to hold off the bids now, being battered for Neres, Dolberg, Ligt and Ziyech. Really don't want to let them go due to replacements and the philosophy i wanted to install on this save. But seems like it's going to be incredibly tough to do so! Already turning down 57m bids for Ligt from City.

I need a backup plan ASAP! Sitting top just mid season 2, PSV matching my every result. Won the CL group with ease, 4-2-0. Thought I would get a favourable knockout draw, Man City didn't win their group and i got them! So tough one coming up.

Would be gutted if i have to get rid of Dolberg, 24 in 23 for me he really has been the business! Hes signed up long term but the harmony in the squad is taking a huge hit with these rejected bids!

 

[Barnsley]

Now i have been offered £50m from Bayern for Neres! Damn!

[zlatanera]

@Barnsley I have a similar issue but in January 1st season. I'd suggest rejecting at all costs no matter what the cost to harmony, then having a serious think about accepting some in summer if players haven't cheered up again. No point weakening yourself mid-season

[Barnsley]

I didn't face too many issues first season, managed to reject and just offer new long term deals and made sure i removed all release clauses so i could cash in if it was required, like now it seems.

Tempted to take the £50m for Neres, 40 upfront and 10 in instalments and try to implement a youth team player in the AMR role, however Neres has been absolutely brilliant for me. So replacing him could be tough but definitely doable for that kind of money.

I also accepted and sold Ziyech to Inter for £32m as he just didn't play for me and was only a squad player.

I have gone back in for Kluivert to bring him home, should he come back i will accept the £50m for Neres .

Really enjoying this Ajax save so far, very rare for me to move outside of England on FM's but finally found an enjoyable change, not too hard domestically but PSV certainly don't go away, but a big challenge to conquer europe again with so many powerhouses now.

 

[Boss]

15 hours ago, Barnsley said:

Starting to get tougher to hold off the bids now, being battered for Neres, Dolberg, Ligt and Ziyech. Really don't want to let them go due to replacements and the philosophy i wanted to install on this save. But seems like it's going to be incredibly tough to do so! Already turning down 57m bids for Ligt from City.

I need a backup plan ASAP! Sitting top just mid season 2, PSV matching my every result. Won the CL group with ease, 4-2-0. Thought I would get a favourable knockout draw, Man City didn't win their group and i got them! So tough one coming up.

Would be gutted if i have to get rid of Dolberg, 24 in 23 for me he really has been the business! Hes signed up long term but the harmony in the squad is taking a huge hit with these rejected bids!

 

What role have you been playing Dolberg in?

[egor_mq]

Hi guys. Also started the game with Ajax.

I wonder, what tactics and roles do you use to make your strikers (Dolberg especially) move and score?

Because as for me, Ajax squad (Tadic + Ziyech + Neres + Labyad) calls to play 4-2-3-1. But both AMC and ST are completely out of the game – as far as all weak teams in Eredivise just close down on their own half.

Could you give any advice and your examples?

[KlaaZ]

 

On 23/12/2018 at 16:22, LukasZ_VCF said:

What Tactic do u use? Because if u won CL with Ajax, then probably better team than that should win it easily ?

Apologies for the late reply, haven't played over the holidays and found HOI4 again so been spending time there. I'm just playing a standard 4-1-2-2-1, flipping the roles around here and there depending on opposition. Very aggressive pressing when not in possession.

Anyway, finished season 22-23 by winning the league, cup and CL again. Beat Man United on penalties (with some luck, to be fair) after turning a 4-1 away loss at Real Madrid around by beating them 4-0 in the ArenA. I had to sell Posavec to Southampton as he really wanted to go but got a fairly decent young Brazilian GK who can step in and am looking for a potential Italian worldbeater (Minelli). His price tag is 37M though, so I'm still a bit on the fence.

On the incoming side, I've picked up Tahith Chong from United (the former Feyenoord youngster). He will replace Neres on the right hand side with Sanchez, the biggest prospect, as a substitute. Considering selling Neres although he can also play on the left but that's Almada's position. I also bought another brilliant to be striker from France, Anthony Gameiro, for 6M. With only 16 years of age, he's one for the future. And I found a replacement for Tagliafico, who turned 30, in Brazil, where I hit the release clause of 10.75M for a 20-year old Romanian. Hernan Perlaza was first choice left back last season, but despite his potential he has an unambitious personality and I can't seem to get it changed. Vladoi is technically a lot more developed as well.

Oh, and I also picked up Cidimar and Ximenes in January.

 

Screenshots below!

[KlaaZ]

Forgot Sanchez!

[zlatanera]

I just finished my 1st season, as promised a more detailed breakdown of how it all went down:

Eredivisie

We were dominant in the Eredivisie and wrapped up the title with five games to go, scoring the most goals and conceding the least. Concerningly, of our 2 draws and 5 losses, 1 draw and 3 losses came in our last 10 games including hammerings by AZ (5-0 away) and Groningen (4-2) away. 

KNVB Beker

We easily dispatched non-league Drachten (9-0) and ASWH (3-1) before a frustrating stalemate at home to Vitesse (4/20 shots on target) led to a loss on penalties. 

Champions League

As we got to grips with our tactic, we managed to keep our losing margins away from home 1-0 before hammering teams at the Johan Cruijff ArenA. I was pleasantly surprised that we put more past Benfica than the other two weaker teams.

In the groups we had a similar story to the qualifiers - just try not to concede too many away from home, and then hit teams hard at the ArenA. We qualified with a game in hand but 4 points behind Roma - I played a strong team out of pride but woeful finishing (the story of my season really) kept the standings the same as the previous round.

Inter were one of the two "weak" group winners (Roma being the other), I was amazed we got them rather than one of the oil empires. A 2-0 home win that should have been 5 but could have been 0 were it not for two screamers by Ziyech. This then set up a nervy 2nd leg, where at 2-2 I tried to shut up shop and could have easily thrown it away (that André Onana got a 7.0 despite an own goal should tell it all really). We then got the "weak" quarter finalist, an opinion no doubt shared by Bruno Genesio! A narrow away loss (Onana making 8 saves, only conceding a penalty) had me dreaming of the semis, and when Kasper Dolberg opened the scoring at the ArenA I was dreaming, but an outstanding volley (reminiscent of Van Persie against Aston Villa in 2013) from Houssem Aouar (one of my all-time fave players to own on FM) put them ahead with an away goal to boot, and despite 31 shots (10 on target) we couldn't break through.

Future Plans

Decisions, decisions, decisions...

I have 5 transfer pre-arranged: Predrag Rajkovic (GK) for £4.2m from Maccabi Tel-Aviv, Nicolás Dominguez (MC) comes in on a free from Velez to add another midfield option, Sigurd Grønlie (Tromsø, MC) for £575k for the B team, likewise Jack Lahne (ST, IF Brommapojkarna) for £750k, and two from Braga will be in and around the first team in Xadas (£800k) and Francisco Trincão (£850k). 

I know for certain I'll get rid of Zakaria Labyad, and fend off bids for the usual suspects but other than that (and perhaps accepting a decent offer for Dennis Johnsen, I don't like guys with Natural Fitness below 11 and he has 8) its all up in the air. In particular, the declining Klass-Jan Huntelaar and slow-ass Lasse Schöne have been attracting admiring glances, but are both valuable for mentoring (although the effects of it have been less pronounced from December onwards). 

I also have to wait to see if that bug with the B teams getting promoted will apply, given Jong Ajax won the league and Jong AZ and Jong PSV are in the promotion play-offs. If they do get promoted, it might be a game-ending thing for me, especially given my B team will be good enough to challenge for Europe which would just be bizarre. 

Tactically too, I don't know whether to iterate or obliterate, given at times it looks like FM18 there are that many long shots. I've gone off the idea of a Libero though, and want to see if I can succeed by dogmatically adhering to a 433 like Frank de Boer. 

Edited January 12, 2019 by zlatanera

[KlaaZ]

Xadas is a great transfer, very versatile as he can play in four positions (CM, AMC, AML, AMR) and will perform well in all of them. I got him on my save, scored 17 goals last season as a Mezalla in the league without even playing all games. 

[fmhick5times]

Just finished my first season last night - good save

Won league by 12 points. Came 3rd in CL group (Behind Juve + Hoffenheim), beat Moscow in Europa then lost to Arsenal 7 - 6 over two legs. So disappointed

Tadic scored 21 goals and assisted 20+ from Left wing (IF setting), Ziyech scored + assisted over 15. Bought Marin, excellent, slowly phasing Neres out but he scored over 15 goals in all comps. Bought Tonali, who was 3rd choice in my midfield 2 but will take over this season

Dolberg got 29 league goals and over 40 in all comps. What a player

Gave de ligt, van de beek, de jong all new contracts off the bat, 40m, 40m and 60m buyout clauses. De ligt joined Bayern in January, de beek Everton in June. Sold blind for 20 to lazio, wasnt playing him. Sold a few other kids / squad players for a combined 15mill I would say.

Made signings last night that I cant remember the names of (one was definitely a centre half Jorge Mere fr 10mill, another Argentinian winger). All in all very enjoyable save, cant ever see myself breaking down Europe but may move on after another season or 3

[KlaaZ]

Should have stayed away from the clauses, all three can be sold for a lot more. But it is a very enjoyable club and the potential to breaking down Europe is defo there. 

[zlatanera]

Ryan Babel's move to Fulham reminded me that I'd been looking into bringing him back to the club as his wages at Besiktas weren't too ridiculous...

...yeah, I know I've been giving out big contracts (Frankie on £44k/week for 7 years, anyone?) but I think he's going to be out of reach for me.

[Chef Raekwon]

2 hours ago, zlatanera said:

Ryan Babel's move to Fulham reminded me that I'd been looking into bringing him back to the club as his wages at Besiktas weren't too ridiculous...

...yeah, I know I've been giving out big contracts (Frankie on £44k/week for 7 years, anyone?) but I think he's going to be out of reach for me.

He's on 84k/week (euro's) for me -_-

[zlatanera]

37 minutes ago, Chef Raekwon said:

He's on 84k/week (euro's) for me -_-

Frenkie? Still worth it. 

[Chef Raekwon]

3 hours ago, zlatanera said:

Frenkie? Still worth it. 

Yeah, he's doing well, although I have a newgen from our very own academy waiting in the wings to take over. He's almost better than Frenkie already!

[zlatanera]

2 hours ago, Chef Raekwon said:

Yeah, he's doing well, although I have a newgen from our very own academy waiting in the wings to take over. He's almost better than Frenkie already!

you recommended Kik Pierie and Antonio Marin. Any chance of a screenshot of how they worked out? I had Pierie on FM18 and he was so good I decided to sign him this time in spite of his low natural fitness - loaned back to Heerenveen for a year - and brought in Marin too on a very generous contract (quadrupled what he was earning at Dinamo but got that treasured 5 years + 3 extension). 

[Barnsley]

Update from my game, still enjoying it thoroughly!

Won the league on the last day ahead of PSV. I only lost 1 game aswell and they ran me to the end!

Just about to sign this 16 year old, probably one of the best i have seen in a game! he will be a backup for now but will be a good asset to the Jong Ajax boys.

Bringing Kluivert back hasnt worked out so far, Neres was far more effective but it was a 35m net swing in favour of selling and buying back Kluivert.

Nothing special tactic wise, this is always reliable for me in most FM's. although i do fancy a 343 with wing backs (the wolves way!) 

We finally had a small boost in the League rankings, we now have 1 qualifying for Champions league directly so no more playoff games! Looking forward to trying in Europe again and developing some more younger players!

[Boss]

8 hours ago, Barnsley said:

Update from my game, still enjoying it thoroughly!

Won the league on the last day ahead of PSV. I only lost 1 game aswell and they ran me to the end!

Just about to sign this 16 year old, probably one of the best i have seen in a game! he will be a backup for now but will be a good asset to the Jong Ajax boys.

Bringing Kluivert back hasnt worked out so far, Neres was far more effective but it was a 35m net swing in favour of selling and buying back Kluivert.

Nothing special tactic wise, this is always reliable for me in most FM's. although i do fancy a 343 with wing backs (the wolves way!) 

We finally had a small boost in the League rankings, we now have 1 qualifying for Champions league directly so no more playoff games! Looking forward to trying in Europe again and developing some more younger players!

Good job Barnsley! Glad to see you’re enjoying it, and that newgen looks incredible

[LukasZ_VCF]

On 12/01/2019 at 20:53, KlaaZ said:

 

Apologies for the late reply, haven't played over the holidays and found HOI4 again so been spending time there. I'm just playing a standard 4-1-2-2-1, flipping the roles around here and there depending on opposition. Very aggressive pressing when not in possession. 

Anyway, finished season 22-23 by winning the league, cup and CL again. Beat Man United on penalties (with some luck, to be fair) after turning a 4-1 away loss at Real Madrid around by beating them 4-0 in the ArenA. I had to sell Posavec to Southampton as he really wanted to go but got a fairly decent young Brazilian GK who can step in and am looking for a potential Italian worldbeater (Minelli). His price tag is 37M though, so I'm still a bit on the fence.

On the incoming side, I've picked up Tahith Chong from United (the former Feyenoord youngster). He will replace Neres on the right hand side with Sanchez, the biggest prospect, as a substitute. Considering selling Neres although he can also play on the left but that's Almada's position. I also bought another brilliant to be striker from France, Anthony Gameiro, for 6M. With only 16 years of age, he's one for the future. And I found a replacement for Tagliafico, who turned 30, in Brazil, where I hit the release clause of 10.75M for a 20-year old Romanian. Hernan Perlaza was first choice left back last season, but despite his potential he has an unambitious personality and I can't seem to get it changed. Vladoi is technically a lot more developed as well.

Oh, and I also picked up Cidimar and Ximenes in January.

 

Screenshots below!

can you post the screen or download link?

[Chef Raekwon]

Finished my fourth season. Won the league after 26 games, won the cup for the 3rd time and was knocked out of the CL in the quarter finals. Managed to win against Real Madrid in the first knockout rounds, but eventually lost against Liverpool after a horrible 5-1 away. We won 3-0 at home and even looked on par to score the fourth one, but just couldn't do it. I calculated this would be a transitional year so I'm not too phased by the results, but I do expect to reach the semi's next season. I've built a good squad and only have some problems replacing Van de Beek and Mazraoui, as the youngsters coming through aren't yet good enough to take over, although I'm getting there.

I've attached screenshots of my most promising youngsters, and as requested, also Pierie and Marin. Pierie is my back-up at left back, because Garza (also included) is just a world class left back. Pierie starts for my Dutch team though, so I always manage his match sharpness and development accordingly. Marin is my undisputed left inside forward, but he's been unhappy the entire season because I wouldn't let him join Man United. He's been putting in amazing games for me though, so I'm no too worried about that. Matthijs de Ligt and Frenkie de Jong have developed into world class players and every transfer period I'm just clicking 'decline' on all transfer bids coming in. Takes up an annoying amount of time though, so not too pleased with that. My highest bid has been 139M for De Ligt, which I declined with some pain. De Ligt and De Jong are playing at, or close to their full potential. I don't expect any of them to get better though. Gravenberch was my back-up for Ziyech but since I sold him, he's my first choice AMC. He's developing well but he has almost been overtaken by a promising Dutch newgen, Metgod, which I nabbed for 7,5M from AZ. 

 

Dave Karelse is my star youngster. He's a MC and plays in my 'De Jong'-position, but I've been giving him more and more game time, as I'm hoping he develops into a better player than De Jong. Right now, my plan is to keep De Jong for one more season and then sell him off, after which Karelse should be almost as good as him. 

 

I mentioned having some trouble replacing Van de Beek. He's been doing well, but hasn't become a world class player, although he's not bad by any stretch of imagination. Still, I'm looking to improve my future team, and as such, I spent 47,5M on a young MC (DLP-D or BBM) from PSV, Jalal Saidi. He's already a decent player and I expect him to grow a lot more in the following season. I'm planning on going the Karelse-route for him, so I'm going to give him a lot of game time next season and replace van de Beek after next season, if everything goes to plan.

 

I found 2 amazing Belgian newgens: Jurado and Vandeputte. Jurado ousted Tadic as right winger, while Vandeputte replaced Dolberg as a striker. Dolberg hasn't developed the way I hoped, so replacing him was easy. Vandeputte really has been putting in a lot of work lately, playing well, scoring a lot and developing amazingly. Jurado too, so I'm not complaining there. Also added my Uruguay butcher DC, Walter Britos, who is a capable stand-in for De Ligt.

Arnold de Groot (DL), Mohamed Benali (DC), Jorg Metgod (AMC) and Mohammed Mathijssen (AML) should become part of my core team in the next 2 seasons. I'm hoping to play this formation in the near future: GK (Onana/newgen); RB (weakest position, have some youngsters but not sure if any of them are world class), de Ligt, Benali, De Groot; Saidi, Karelse; Jurado, Metgod, Mathijssen; Vandeputte. If everything pans out the way I'm hoping, this would mean a strong Dutch core of players, aided by two stellar Belgians and some other mercenaries on the bench.

 

I'm not sure how much longer I'll be playing this save. I feel like I have a really strong team and I feel the CL is well within range, but getting knocked out early is frustrating and domestic games are starting to become tedious, as expected. I'll be playing at least one more season and evaluate after.