[FM20] Manchester United: Falling Giant...

[Gee_Simpson]

8 hours ago, FifaBing said:

Isn't every save of yours "an old save?" 

How many have you had now!?

Lol not that many 

That was my original save, I've only had three in total, not that bad 

Edited August 5, 2020 by Gee_Simpson

[FifaBing]

4 hours ago, Gee_Simpson said:

Lol not that many 

That was my original save, I've only had three in total, not that bad 

I actually kind of feel like you now. I get a few years into a Man Utd save, and think, "I really want to start over and buy these set of players this time and see how United progress'..."

 

 

[Gee_Simpson]

I'm deciding whether I should start from the beginning this time so I can make sure I get top 4 or start from January 2020 again. It's risky starting January 2020 with those real life fixtures from game 23 with my 4231 as I have already failed to claw back the points before and finished 5th. It's probably a better idea to start from the beginning of the season, although there's no guarantee I would win the league 1st season like I did in my 1st save. 

Edited August 6, 2020 by Gee_Simpson

[Dong21]

On 04/08/2020 at 16:23, KCHDD said:

Just curious, I am actually trying to do something similar with my united save with regards to the tactics (building around Bruno like the team does irl). How do you usually line up in a 4231 wide, or have you switched to another formation? Pondering over what roles Bruno and Pogba have to play, still split over 4123 and 4231 currently. By the way Gomes was fire in my save, scored a first half hat trick in my first Europa League game vs Ludogorets, sad we didn't tie him down in real life.

I have stuck with the 4-2-3-1 wide formation with a customised gegenpress style and it is going well. Fernandes plays AM (support) and Pogba is DLP (support), sitting behind him next to a BBM (support) - usually McTominay. Unfortunately Bruno was injured for two months so has only played in 24 out of a possible 45 games so far (I’m at the start of April) but he’s done well when he’s played and created a lot of chances for his teammates.

Gomes has been great for me in the Europa League. He’s had 14 starts in all competitions and 9 goals. Unfortunately he’s just got ruled out for 5 weeks, which likely ends his season given where we are in the calendar.

[Conor O'Hare]

So third season in (just past March) and my team is playing the way I want them to play - I'm just short of a league title challenge but with one new arrival this summer, I think we can take the next step.  The fact that liverpool seem like they'll be a dominant force in this game for some time,  it's made me think of the rivalry between us and also the personal challenge that SAF had to try and reign them in....So I'm about to challenge myself to a SAF style Challenge.  These are the challenges I have to achieve to mirror SAF's Man Utd Career:

Win the FA Cup within 4 seasons  – ACHIEVED SEASON 1

Win the Premier League within 7 seasons

Win a Premier League/FA Cup double within 8 season

Win Three Premier League/FA Cup Doubles within 13 seasons

Win the Premier League/FA Cup/Champions League Treble within 13 seasons

Win 13 Premier League titles

Win 5 FA Cup (5) (1)

Win 4 League Cups (4) 

Win 10 Community Shield (10)

Win 2 UEFA Champions League (2)

Win 1 UEFA Europa League – ACHIEVED SEASON 1

Win 1 UEFA Super Cup (1) – ACHIEVED SEASON 2

FIFA Club World Cup (1)

(OPTIONAL CHALLENGES)

Ensure a HGN (Club) Player is part of the Man Utd Squad for every game

Ensure a Man Utd HGN Player wins Ballon D’or within 22 Years

Ensure United Surpass Liverpool in every trophy (EXCL Europa League)…AKA Knock them of their perch

Attempt to Win More Trophies Than SAF – 37 Trophies

 

Ensure the Club goes no more than 1 season without lifting some silverware (EXCL Community Shield)

Ensure the club goes no more than 4 Seasons without winning the Premier League after winning the first title.

ACHIEVE ALL THIS IN 26 YEARS

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

This is my most ambitious attempt at a challenge in FM as longest I've ever went in a save was 15 years so near 30 years will be fairly challenging!!!  The Ballon D'or will be a huge challenge as in all my years of playing FM20 I think Ronaldo was the only player I've ever actually managed who went onto win that award.  I've used Europa League to replace the Cup Winners Cup that United won but obviously doesn't exist anymore.

But also I'm looking to really surpass Liverpool's roll of honours - 3 seasons in this is how the competitions looks between us.

Trophy	Man Utd**	Liverpool**
Premier League	20	20
FA Cup	13	7
League Cup	7	8
UEFA Champions League	3	6
UEFA Europa League	2	3
UEFA Super Cup	2	4
FIFA Club World Cup	1	1
Charity Shield	17	18
TOTAL	65	67

[MatthewS17]

19 hours ago, Chapman7 said:

Had him before? If so what's his output like?

Very good in my last save. I'm not sure how he developed at Dinamo in your save, but in mine he was quite good foil if I wanted Sancho on the left and his left footed nature came in handy. 

He's not rapid, but he can cross, create, with good movement, work rate. A fantastic all round left footed winger. I signed him so I could stop using Dan James and increase the quality in depth, who offered me nothing. 

Chipped in with goals and assists throughout the season whenever he played.

Careful though, cause bigger clubs do end up coming in for him later on. 

I haven't signed him on my current save, as I'm opting for a backup CF instead in Jimenez or Aubemeyang, both available for 30m and 22m respectively, so I can rotate Greenwood in and out with Sancho on the right and even centrally sometimes, until I feel he can supercede Martial. 

[npjones88]

A Home Grown Man Utd Adventure 

So I started up a new Man Utd save myself recently, as something casual to idly spacebar my way through during lazy summer holidays watching the Marvel movies for the first time. Partly inspired by @Powello 's adventures with youth and also young Brendan Williams, who is my player of the year this season, I made three types of database tweaks before I started with the aim of fielding only players who are HGC.

 

Firstly, I removed all players not Home Grown at Club or not due to become HGC back to where they came from (Sorry Harry, Aaron, Dan).

Next, I went through the top 7 variable potential players and fixed their PA to the max it could randomly land on in game.  This game will be my last Man Utd save this year, designed to see how far our current crop could go if they reached their absolute ceiling as determined by the game so I don't mind some cheeky thumbing of the scales in this regard. Tiny PA spoilers here as I'm listing who those most promising players are, as well as seeing them present in my squad in screenshots, although I think anyone on this thread will already have a good grasp on who our top youth are. Anyway the 7 players who's PA become fixed are as follows. 

Spoiler

Mason, Tahith, Angel, Haniball, Ethan L, Brandon, James G.

Finally, I added 300m to the club finances to compensate for all the players sent back to their previous clubs and ensure we weren't overly shortchanged by my shenanigans. For realism, it would've been better to arrange future transfers out, with accurate fees, for all departing players set up a few days after the start of the save but that was a few too many extra clicks for my liking. The game actually calculated all the outgoings at nearly 600m of talent

Now I am ready for my Home Grown adventure, I will outline my self imposed rules.

1. Any player present in the squad must be classed as Home Grown at Club for the purposes of European registration - this means they have spent (or will spend) 3 years at MUFC before their 21st birthday.
2. All future signings must adhere to these rules. That means any incoming players must be classed as HGC already or <18years old, so that they can qualify as HGC.
3. Any young players coming in that are not yet HGC must not have any senior appearances for any other teams, so they start their footballing careers and make their fist professional appearance at Utd. 

(The glitch in the matrix - I'm not sure if this is accurate to real life or poor wording on the part of the game but I will try to explain...

According to FM, in order to be classed as Home Grown at Club a player must have  'been trained at the club for 3 years between his 15th and 21st birthdays'. This would suggest the oldest a player can be to qualify is 18yrs 0days. However, provided a player joins before his 19th birthday, they still qualify. This means a player joining aged 18yrs 364days will only spend 2 years and 1 day trained at the club before his 21st birthday. This means that for my game, anyone aged younger than 19 who has never played for another team is fair game.)

Signings - Having released the majority of the youth players with very little potential and having some glaring gaps and weaknesses in the squad, signings were required to flesh out youth teams and provide depth. Over the course of the season 4 seasoned pros have returned to the club that made them along with 9 young signings to provide backup to the squad. 

Darren Fletcher - Exceptional tutor who may get some pitch time.

Nohan Kenneh - 16yrs

Noah Katterbach - 18yrs

Jude Bellingham - 16yrs

Nathan Ferguson - 18yrs

Marco Kana - 16yrs

Rafael Da Silva - probable first choice RB

Jonny Evans - brought in to nurture young defense and captain the team

Troy Parrott - 17yrs

Signings Jan

Stefano Turati - 18yrs

Marten Vandevoordt - 17yrs

Cristiano Ronaldo - Hassled him all season and became interested in Dec. Woodward sorted his wages at only 475k/week!?

Faustino Anjorin - 18yrs

 

Some screenshots to show how it's going so far in the next post...

[npjones88]

Ridiculously well as it happens. Whilst I expected this to take several years to get anywhere, I think the chemistry of having all HG players has given me a bizarre kind of boost as I am in March of S1 and sit 1st in the league! 

Tactics including the first XI and backup XI

Pretty standard Gegenpress with a flat 3 in midfield. In the second screenie I have included the bit-part players in the subs.

Squad Stats sorted by Average Rating

Some of the youngsters have great ratings due to playing in the cups and weaker prem games, even so, I didn't expect performances like this at all!

Competitions overview (as of March 2020)

Gutted about the Liverpool final, mainly because the youngsters got me to the final and then the 'first choice XI' lost it. I should have had more cajones and played the kids! 

Results this season

Just about all the cup games were second string as well as alternate games during the hectic winter period. 

Standout performers

Angel Gomes - 20 goals (doesn't matter who they were against, they all count) Weirdly, he has at least 5 scrambled in following some corner-kick pinball.

Andreas Pereira - 16 assists. Set-piece boss!

Ethan Laird - best fullback. Seems all you need to succeed at FB this year is pace, dribbling and 'gets forward' PPM.

Paul Pogba - 19 goal contributions in 32 apps and runs the show. This is following a dismal first 10 games when I couldn't get him firing as a Mezzela. 

Disappointments

Marcus Rashford - Worst performing wide forward. I'm clearly messing something up with tactics - Pogba getting in his way? Yet other players perform much better in the same tactic so not sure. Might try to give him a run up top instead of Greenwood and try to find some form for him.

Jonny Evans - Poorest performing CB. Regularly done for pace and beaten in the air. 

Rafael - bit of a liability at RB but I love the guy. We're strongest with Brandon Williams and Luke Shaw as full-backs but they're my 1st and 2nd choice LBs! 

[Conor O'Hare]

 

What a run in my third season is shaping up to be - City at one point had a 12 point lead over Liverpool and we were then a further 5 behind Liverpool.  City crumbled and eventually Liverpool went a few points clear of them - before Liverpool then lost against Tottenham to throw the title up in the air - We frustratingly just drew our last game against Newcastle which would have left us needing just a Liverpool slip up, but judging by the way the two above us are playing.  They may drop more points in these next 3 games.   The real highlight is the fact that City are managed by Bielsa who has constantly been an absolute arse to me - Dating back to calling for me to be sacked back when he managed Newcastle (after I thumped his team)....I could just hear the Streford end singing "Marcelos cracking up" as we play football the Busby way!

[Conor O'Hare]

We had throw caution to the wind to try and keep the pressure on Liverpool and beat Arsenal 2-0 at Emirates with an 87th and 90th Minute brace from Greenwood.....Over to Liverpool which and they do this.

We now have it all to do on the final day of the season.  We have to beat Wolves at Old Trafford by 3 goals to secure the title as that 7-0 win takes away our GD advantage,  and we hope that Liverpool get beat by Sheffield United - Jesse Lingard is playing his trade at the Blades these days 0 Can he help Utd secure the title

Edited August 7, 2020 by Conor O'Hare

[D'TripleA]

Anyone know best right winger for budget avr 35mil? 

[Gee_Simpson]

5 hours ago, D'TripleA said:

Anyone know best right winger for budget avr 35mil? 

Everton from Gremio, he can play either side.

I was going to sign him again in my new save but just noticed Benfica have practially signed him irl.

Edited August 8, 2020 by Gee_Simpson

[Gee_Simpson]

Not sure what people's views are on this, do any of you manually update transfers to match real life around this time of the year?

I've manually edited over 100 now, mostly the major ones. Then again it's FM20, not 21, but I dunno, it feels kinda wrong to sign a player in game who you know is moving or has moved to a different club irl. For example, Everton from Gremio has all but signed for Benfica according to reports, but he is someone I definitely would have signed, and I'm still considering it because he only costs like 20m in the game which is insane, last time he only cost me 18.5m. I've set Bellingham for a future transfer to Dortmund, so I probably will have to wait a few seasons to sign him for way more than you can get him for now, he'll probably cost 50m+ if I do that. I'm basically losing out on a fee for Alexis Sanchez because I've given him a move to Inter on a free transfer, but in game you can get him to agree a reduction in his contract down to around 150k p/w then sell him in the summer for around 10m or so, I would imagine.

Do any of you do the same as me? Considering scrapping all these changes though. I started doing it since Timo Werner moved to Chelsea, I set all these to future transfers (1st July 2020), that's why I haven't gone and downloaded a transfer update as they are always set instantly from what I've seen.

Edited August 9, 2020 by Gee_Simpson

[D'TripleA]

11 hours ago, Gee_Simpson said:

Everton from Gremio, he can play either side.

I was going to sign him again in my new save but just noticed Benfica have practially signed him irl.

Hmm how about Victor Tsygankov? Is he a good option for right winger? I found it and the price just 15m

[Gee_Simpson]

9 hours ago, D'TripleA said:

Hmm how about Victor Tsygankov? Is he a good option for right winger? I found it and the price just 15m

Yeah he's a good option. 

[D'TripleA]

5 hours ago, Gee_Simpson said:

Yeah he's a good option. 

Okay 👌

[dido53]

started out a new save with red devils.Playing 4123 customised tiki taka.ı didnt wanna sell matic but he wanted to go so ı let him off.ı play mctominay as defensive midfielder ı may buy tonali or luis for there.I want to be a legend lıke sır alex ferguson ı wıll use academy players and try to make less transfers.7wins ın7 games so far tryıng to mix players and my tactic and win as much as ı can before city and liverpool catch up the pace.greenwood is a beast hope he will be the clubs legend.everytime ı sell lingard but this time ı gave him a chance he played 5 scored 4 asissted 4 

[davecrossley]

7 hours ago, dido53 said:

started out a new save with red devils.Playing 4123 customised tiki taka.ı didnt wanna sell matic but he wanted to go so ı let him off.ı play mctominay as defensive midfielder ı may buy tonali or luis for there.I want to be a legend lıke sır alex ferguson ı wıll use academy players and try to make less transfers.7wins ın7 games so far tryıng to mix players and my tactic and win as much as ı can before city and liverpool catch up the pace.greenwood is a beast hope he will be the clubs legend.everytime ı sell lingard but this time ı gave him a chance he played 5 scored 4 asissted 4 

Any chance of sharing your tactic? How have you adapted it for fixtures where you should be winning vs more challenging games?

[dido53]

3 saat önce, davecrossley said:

Any chance of sharing your tactic? How have you adapted it for fixtures where you should be winning vs more challenging games?

this is my tactic.I was using mctominay as dm but tonali is always great and only 36.5mılıon euros free for man utd.the only thing ı change in big games ı use regroup and sometimes standart lines thats all or in game standart passing(depends on opposition ıf they give me more space usıng standart)personal ınstructıons are only making left winger to mark their right back.ı want to be lıke ferguson so ı dont wanna make a lot transfers and ruın the save

[Gee_Simpson]

@dido53 Nice tactic, looks really well balanced 

How many is Martial scoring for you?

[dido53]

27 dakika önce, Gee_Simpson said:

@dido53 Nice tactic, looks really well balanced 

How many is Martial scoring for you?

thank you ıts goıng very well now(hope not to jınx:)martial played 25 scored 17assist 2 rashford 25 sscored 17 asisst 3 lingard is the big suprise 23 scored 7 asisst 8 and to add rashford started season very bad he recently picked up form

Edited August 14, 2020 by dido53

[Gee_Simpson]

Dunno if I'm going to start a new save or wait for FM21, tough choice. I would imagine Greenwood will be a

- 9.5

in FM21, although tbf he's already a great talent in FM20. 

[dido53]

True great season it was!!:) very stresfull to the end to finish unbeaten(ıts not always doable)whole team performed really good and ı get really good performances from all lads.bruno pogba martial rashford did very well.Brandon williams was great and will be first choice again and lingard 9goals 9 asists greenwood scored 17.We are at the final in euro cup arsenal is the opponent

[Gee_Simpson]

5 hours ago, dido53 said:

True great season it was!!:) very stresfull to the end to finish unbeaten(ıts not always doable)whole team performed really good and ı get really good performances from all lads.bruno pogba martial rashford did very well.Brandon williams was great and will be first choice again and lingard 9goals 9 asists greenwood scored 17.We are at the final in euro cup arsenal is the opponent

Wow, probably the best opening season I've seen on this thread! Brilliant stuff. 

I've decided I don't want to start from the beginning again, as I don't want to have a chance of winning the league 1st season, it wouldn't feel right considering how far behind Liverpool we were irl this season, just a personal choice really, most of you prefer to start from the beginning it seems.

@sedge11 Will you be doing one more save with Utd or are you going to wait for FM21? I'm considering starting in May 2020 using a custom date from a file on sortitoutsi, but will probably just start from January 2020 again. 

Edited August 16, 2020 by Gee_Simpson

[dido53]

5 dakika önce, Gee_Simpson said:

Wow, probably the best opening season I've seen on this thread! Brilliant stuff. 

I've decided I don't want to start from the beginning again, as I don't want to have a chance of winning the league 1st season, it wouldn't feel right considering how far behind Liverpool we were irl this season, just a personal choice really, most of you prefer to start from the beginning it seems.

@sedge11 Will you be doing one more save with Utd or are you going to wait for FM21? I'm considering starting in May 2020 using a custom date from a file on sortitoutsi, but will probably just start from January 2020 again. 

thanks mate ıt was so stressfull to fınısh lıke thıs :)dont consıder real lıfe and game thınk lıke this is your oppurtunıty to show ıf you were ın charge and what you do :)hope u start a new one because 2021 wıll be comıng late

[Gee_Simpson]

17 minutes ago, dido53 said:

thanks mate ıt was so stressfull to fınısh lıke thıs :)dont consıder real lıfe and game thınk lıke this is your oppurtunıty to show ıf you were ın charge and what you do :)hope u start a new one because 2021 wıll be comıng late

Yeah I'll be starting a final save with Utd but I doubt I'll start from the beginning, as when I won the league 1st season last time it felt strange to me anyway.

[sedge11]

1 hour ago, Gee_Simpson said:

@sedge11 Will you be doing one more save with Utd or are you going to wait for FM21? I'm considering starting in May 2020 using a custom date from a file on sortitoutsi, but will probably just start from January 2020 again. 

I'm not sure yet, I've gone back to my Lazio save picking up my save file before I left Lazio, as I felt I could of done so more with that team. But I do want to do another Man Utd save, and with FM21 probably going to be slightly delayed, I should still fit it in before FM21.

[Chapman7]

On 06/08/2020 at 18:27, MatthewS17 said:

Very good in my last save. I'm not sure how he developed at Dinamo in your save, but in mine he was quite good foil if I wanted Sancho on the left and his left footed nature came in handy. 

He's not rapid, but he can cross, create, with good movement, work rate. A fantastic all round left footed winger. I signed him so I could stop using Dan James and increase the quality in depth, who offered me nothing. 

Chipped in with goals and assists throughout the season whenever he played.

Careful though, cause bigger clubs do end up coming in for him later on. 

I haven't signed him on my current save, as I'm opting for a backup CF instead in Jimenez or Aubemeyang, both available for 30m and 22m respectively, so I can rotate Greenwood in and out with Sancho on the right and even centrally sometimes, until I feel he can supercede Martial. 

Seems a decent player. Atleast to have with another player rotating along side him. I'll see what they want for him see if he's worth the punt for 

[D'TripleA]

Anyone know how to get rid of Sanchez and Phil Jones? 

[MatthewS17]

8 hours ago, D'TripleA said:

Anyone know how to get rid of Sanchez and Phil Jones? 

Offer them for free or offer to pay some of their wages. 

[Sherkey]

8 hours ago, D'TripleA said:

Anyone know how to get rid of Sanchez and Phil Jones? 

Playing on the original DB, play them (or keep around the squad for a year). Mid-way through, you can offer Sanchez a contract with reduced wage, and then can sell him off in the second season (may still have to cover some percentage of his wages). Jones can generally be sold w/o any salary contribution in the second season.

Edited August 17, 2020 by Sherkey

[ShadowEdSide]

Time for my yearly posts in this topic. FM 2020 was on sale on Steam so I picked it up, started up my usual Man Utd first save and got cracking with sorting out staff and transfers.

In the summer window, as well as doing my usual coaching staff clearance (I find promoting some of the coaches from the U23s such as Tommy Martin, Tony Whelan and John Cooke work just as well as getting in new ones), I also made one or two signings and one major sale. Sent Matic packing straight from the get-go to China, and in his place I tried to bring in Reuben Neves from Wolves but they were asking way too much, thought about getting Vidal on the cheap from Barca but decided against that as well before eventually plumping for Thomas Partey from Atletico for £27.5 million pounds, and he's a usual midfield option if I am playing a tactic where I push either Pogba or Fernandes further forward in the AM position.

As for my second signing, I identified left-back as an area that needed strengthening straight away. Luke Shaw is too injury-prone for my liking and Brandon Williams still needs a year or two to be first team ready so I went and brought Lucas Digne from Everton for £37.5 million, and I gotta say he has more than done enough to justify that fee as he has easily been my best player this year, making the left-back position his own and allowing me to sell Shaw in January.

As for the youngsters, the standout in my save has been Tuanzebe, by far my best centre-back at the moment and forming a strong partnership with Maguire and keeping Lindelof and Bailly out of the team. Daniel James is currently swapping in and out with Rashford for the AML position, Greenwood is competing with Martial for first-choice striker and Gomes, Chong and Garner are getting minutes in cup fixtures and whenever players need a rest.

And in terms of the AMR position, I thought I could manage with the likes of Mata and Lingard but they hadn't been playing well enough and so in January, after selling Jones, Shaw and Mata and sending Pereira out on loan, I signed Kingsley Coman from Bayern for £30 million, and he immediately made an impact, bagging an assist and an 8.3 rating in his first game before having to sit out 2 or 3 games through injury, but on his return he scored a hat-trick as we demolished Zenit 6-0 in the first leg of the First Knockout round of the Europa League and has made that AMR position his own since.

As for the competitions, we've won the Carabao Cup, beating Arsenal in the final 2-0, and are still in the Europa League and FA Cup. As for the league, we've only lost one game all season (a 2-1 loss away at Chelsea early) and are cruising at the top, with 30 games played we are currently 9 points ahead of Liverpool in 2nd, although we do have quite a tough run-in to come, especially a three game streak against some of the top teams: Arsenal at home followed by away trips to Liverpool and Man City.

I'm mostly using a 4-2-3-1 Wide tactic at the moment, although sometimes I swap it to a 4-1-4-1 DM Wide depending on the game. Here is my strongest 11 at the moment:

GK: De Gea

DR: Wan-Bissaka (although Dalot is giving him a good fight for that spot)
DC: Maguire
DC: Tuanzebe
DL: Digne

MC: Partey (Fred/McTominay rotate in when needed)
MC: Pogba

AMR: Coman
AMC: Fernandes
AML: Rashford/James

SC: Martial/Greenwood

Will probably update when the season comes to an end, and am really enjoying reading how everyone else is doing so far!

[Chapman7]

16 hours ago, D'TripleA said:

Anyone know how to get rid of Sanchez and Phil Jones? 

Got rid of him for £18-20 million with £20k wages I think it was and Jones sold for £15.5 with around same wages. 

[Gee_Simpson]

@ShadowEdSide Imo Williams is good enough to play straight away, but I suppose it would be boring if we all done the same thing!

As for Sanchez, well thankfully he's agreed to join Inter irl so I will be setting him for a future transfer to them. I know you can get his wages down to around £150k in game 1st season and then can probably get a fee for him, but I don't mind letting him go to Inter for free.

I won't be starting on June 2019, because as I have said, I don't want there to be a chance of us winning the league 1st season, so I'll probably be starting January 2020 again with the official fixtures and placings as of game 23. That puts us 11 points behind Leicester and 5 points behind Chelsea with 15 games to play, so the target is to finish top 4.

[MatthewS17]

Anyone come across any top quality right backs in game? 

Leicester want 80 mil for Pereira and I'm unsure on Max Aarons. Kimmich is unsellable to Bayern. Laird and Dalot have been injury magnets for me. 

I have Grimaldo on the left, so I'm looking for someone who is good both defensively and offensively on the right. Pereira is perfect, but I'm not willing to pay up to that amount. 

Any suggestions? 

[Ronaldo Beckham]

 

1 hour ago, MatthewS17 said:

Anyone come across any top quality right backs in game? 

Leicester want 80 mil for Pereira and I'm unsure on Max Aarons. Kimmich is unsellable to Bayern. Laird and Dalot have been injury magnets for me. 

I have Grimaldo on the left, so I'm looking for someone who is good both defensively and offensively on the right. Pereira is perfect, but I'm not willing to pay up to that amount. 

Any suggestions? 

Max Aarons has been quality for me whenever I have signed him. He will be a good signing for you and fits the Man Utd model of buying young English players.

[MatthewS17]

Alright, so I'm a little late on this one, as I'm already mid-December in my save of my second season. Sitting first place, 3 points of City at the top, so all in all a good season so far. 

Transfer wise, I feel like I did a lot:

While Sancho and Grimaldo were deals I'd negotiated in February, I completed the signings of Jimenez and Torres once I'd made enough sales. I must admit that I took a risk on Torres, signing him based on the real life player. This could be a risk that works or doesn't work. He's been good so far and has been a better player than Maguire. If he can develop some of his mental and especially his ball playing ability, he will absolutely top class defensively. But I'm keeping tabs on Upamecano just to be sure.
Raul Jimenez for that kind of money was just too good to pass up. What I liked about this was, bar Sancho, who signed for 120k a week, every player on that list opted for a contract under 100k. For me, this is important as I wanted to stop having players that demanded exorbitant wages in the squad. The other two were 15 year old newgens I brought in to keep the youth squads ticking over.

With that being said, although looking at that total fee seems a bit high, my net spend was only 80m, as I'd sold to a total value of 120m. Tbh, I was shocked at this myself. But it helped me to keep my limitation of 150m expenditure.

The biggest transfer out was Luke Shaw, with Bournemouth stumping up 40m for him. Sanchez and Smalling were most surprising, leaving for 20m and 30m respectively. While Fosu-Mensah and Romero combined for a total 30m. Jones, Pereira and Lingard had already left the January previously.

 

The valuations I got were damn weird. However, the entire market was weird. Chelsea put up their entire midfield for sale. All of Kovacic, Kante and Jorginho. City signed Jorginho and sold Rodri back to Chelsea. Three clubs spent over 200m(Chelsea hit 300, after sales amounted to 200m). It was all very weird.

 

Nonetheless, the new signings have galvanised the team. While Sancho is struggling a bit scoring wise, his creativity has bagged him an incredible amount of assists. Grimaldo has added the creativity and attacking threat to the LB position that I had hoped for, but his fitness levels are proving problematic. I've also started playing Williams on the right, as Laird and Dalot have broken bones all season long. Wan-Bissaka, although solid, just doesn't seem like my type of player. He lacks good ability on the ball, and this is something I want in all of my players. Remains to be seen what I will do with him.

I'm already preparing what I need for the upcoming season. Donnarumma is going to be available on a free, so I may pick him up, as he's a more confident player in and around his own box, and to reduce the wages I have in the team, if ever slightly. I desperately need a new DM, and the squad still needs depth. I may find myself having to sign a backup LB and a new first XI RB, but that depends whether I persist with Wan-Bissaka. A new backup RW who is left footed is also needed, and I think Fred is going to ask to leave soon, so there's still a bit of work to be done in developing this squad to be of the best quality.

 

But the season is going well so far. Will edit in my season progress and a squad list later.

[Dong21]

Season 2019-2020: Part 5

We began March with a draw away at Man City, which saw Liverpool overtake us into 2nd. We picked ourselves up with a Cup win over Blackpool that Gomes shone in and a thrashing of Watford. I rested some players against Torino and ended up regretting it - Rashford missed a penalty and we drew the first leg. Up next was Southampton and I was again left frustrated; we scored what I thought was the winner in the 91st, but Ings equalised in the 94th. We righted our wrongs in the home leg against Torino, winning comfortably. Around this time I was proud to see Henderson, Wan-Bissaka and Tuanzabe get their first England caps, and bemused to see the bald fraud Pep get sacked by City.

It's worth mentioning how well the youth team have done - they won the Italian Youth Cup Invitational, beating Juve 5-0 in the Final, and only a few days later they also won the EFL Trophy, beating Peterborough 3-1 at Wembley. I did sprinkle a few squad players into the team for the EFL Trophy and it was that touch of class that made the difference as Macias, James and Dalot all got on the scoresheet. The only shame was Gomes picked up an injury playing, that would rule him out for 5 weeks. The U23s would go on to secure promotion to U23s Division 1, capping off a great season for them.

We beat Roma in the EL Quarter Finals, shutting up shop in the away leg (a game which Maguire was suspended for) and then attacking them at home to secure a 3-0 win. Competing in multiple competitions was starting to compress the fixture list, so I was particularly pleased when we were able to beat both Chelsea and Roma in the space of just three days. I signed Vidal on loan in January as a utility option but due to knocks to McTominay and Bellingham he played more than expected in April. I think his experience was valuable and surprisingly he picked up no red cards (aggression 20!). We lost to Liverpool in the FA Cup Semi Final, ending a run of 36 games undefeated. I can't complain, they were the better side on the day.

Then, with eight or nine games left to play, De Gea was ruled out for three months with a hip injury. This meant Romero had to deputise, who had previously only played once all season. I had concerns about his reliability, but these turned out to be unfounded. We immediately bounced back from the Liverpool defeat, demolishing their neighbours Everton 5-0. The five goals were important, as this was a game in hand and having won it we went back ahead of Liverpool into 2nd, on goal difference. Perhaps we will have the last laugh over them.

We finished the league campaign in strong fashion, winning four out of our last five games. When we drew with Leicester, Liverpool once again regained 2nd place, but they then lost to Chelsea when we beat Bournemouth so we were able to reclaim 2nd place. I was so focused on our battle with Liverpool for 2nd place that it almost passed me by how close to the league leaders we ended up. On the final day, we could have even won the league as we were 3 points behind Arsenal, with a better goal difference. In the end we both won, but I am delighted to have finished 2nd in our first season. Particularly as I have had a strong focus on playing youth. We only lost once in the league all season, we just had too many draws, particularly at the beginning of the campaign. We conceded the least amount of goals and only scored one less than top scorers Arsenal. The way we finished this season gives me a lot of hope we can challenge for the title next season, without wholesale changes needed.

Note - Interesting sub-narrative, Newcastle were taken over by a new owner who spent £88m in January yet they were still relegated to the Championship! They are joined by Southampton and Villa and have been replaced by Leeds, Swansea and Millwall

Pogba had the highest average rating of any player in the PL (7.81) and as such was named the Footballer of the Year and Players' Player of the Year. In April PSG players began publicly tapping him up in the media and I began to worry I may lose my star performer. Luckily when we secured Champions League football he announced he was happy to stay and I was able to agree a new four year deal with him.

Pogba and Fernandes shared the league record for most chances created. Martial was the Premier League top goalscorer with 25 goals and not far behind in 4th was Rashford with 22. Pogba, Martial and Wan-Bissaka were all named in the PL Team of the Year.

Lazio proved to be easier opponents than Roma or Torino in our tour of Italy, as we beat them 4-1 on aggregate in the Eruopa Semi Finals. Our opponents in the Final were to be Arsenal, who had just won the Premier League. I would have prepared non-English opponents. Martial, who had scored 36 goals for me in all competitions, was ruled out with a knock the day before the Final. My worries disappeared though as the game commenced, it turned out to be one of our most convincing wins of the season. So the Europa League is my first trophy of my United tenure (well, if you don't include the EFL Trophy!).

We were top scorers in the Europa League (40 goals) which was pleasing as we often played a lot of youth. This focus was demonstrated when McTominay won EL Player of the Season.

Edited August 25, 2020 by Dong21

[npjones88]

3 hours ago, MatthewS17 said:

Anyone come across any top quality right backs in game? 

Leicester want 80 mil for Pereira and I'm unsure on Max Aarons. Kimmich is unsellable to Bayern. Laird and Dalot have been injury magnets for me. 

I have Grimaldo on the left, so I'm looking for someone who is good both defensively and offensively on the right. Pereira is perfect, but I'm not willing to pay up to that amount. 

Any suggestions? 

Max Aarons!

Hidden stats must be incredible. I've managed him at Norwich for a few seasons and signed him for United on an old save. Both times became the best RB in the game, highest average ratings in his position across all the top leagues, good pro, constantly training with 9.00+ Whilst his attributes might not all head up past the 15 mark wo he doesn't exactly look like Dani Alves on paper, his strong pace, dribbling, PPMs and solid defensive skills make him almost unbeatable. In the game, he plays a lot like AWB does in real life, but with more threat. Would recommend him for any elite first XI on this game. 

[MatthewS17]

18 minutes ago, npjones88 said:

Max Aarons!

Hidden stats must be incredible. I've managed him at Norwich for a few seasons and signed him for United on an old save. Both times became the best RB in the game, highest average ratings in his position across all the top leagues, good pro, constantly training with 9.00+ Whilst his attributes might not all head up past the 15 mark wo he doesn't exactly look like Dani Alves on paper, his strong pace, dribbling, PPMs and solid defensive skills make him almost unbeatable. In the game, he plays a lot like AWB does in real life, but with more threat. Would recommend him for any elite first XI on this game. 

Lol. That's two for two. I'll definitely look him up and likely make him my prime RB candidate. Thanks for your help!  

[ShadowEdSide]

I know I said I wouldn't post again until the end of the season but...has anyone ever had this happen in a game themselves? Suddenly my defence wants to be attackers as every one of my back four chips in with a goal in one game!



 

[ShadowEdSide]

Welp I said I would post again when we got to end of season so here it is, end of my first season with United in FM 2020:

Like I mentioned earlier I won the Carabao Cup, and followed that up by winning the league as well. Out in front for the majority of it, dropped a few points near the end including two losses away at Liverpool and Bournemouth (although the Bournemouth loss was after we'd already secured the title and I wanted to rest some players for cup finals). Very happy with how it went, although losing Digne to injury for the last few weeks of the season was something we could've done without. Wolves did well to finish in 5th ahead of Arsenal and Spurs disappointed, hence why Mourinho was sacked part way through the season. And due to them not winning anything and finishing 4th, Pep got sacked by City at the end of the season, and since I saved and quit just before the transfer window his replacement hasn't been decided yet. As for the other cups...

This...yeah, was a shame but wouldn't be interesting if we won them all each time. Chelsea went right out of the blocks early and could easily have been 2 up had De Gea not saved Jorginho's penalty. Improved in the second half but Chelsea held firm to run out FA Cup winners

The boys put the sting of the FA Cup final loss behind them and produced a solid display to knock off Arsenal and deny them in the Europa League final for the 2nd season running, thereby completing a treble in my first season and making the board happy.

Stats and goals for the first season, and lo and behold two of my signings were the best players throughout the whole season! (Digne cleaned out the player awards at the end of the season as well and all my back four plus De Gea were named into the Team of the Year). As for goals Greenwood topped the pile with 20, only one of five to get into double figures for the season. Although shockingly Rashford wasn't one of them, and has even been dropped by Southgate for the Euros! Worrying times indeed for young Marcus...



My two stand-out players of the season. Digne of course I've gone on and on about already, but Tuanzebe I was pleasantly surprised by! He's now an absolute beast and PSG are sniffing around, gonna have to ward off interest for him!

Now comes my first summer window with a kitty of £250 million and some interesting dilemmas are afoot. Pogba won't sign a new contract and Real Madrid are interested. Should I try and hang onto him or not? I'm also going to be doing a clearing of my first team players who were on loan so Sanchez, Smalling and Pereira are all going as usual as will Romero to make way for Henderson's return.

Haaland I'll be picking up straight away to create a three-way fight at the head of the line between Martial, Greenwood and Haaland. Coman's made the AMR position his own and James has impressed so I might keep him as a backup to Coman. Rashford might need some competition on the left side, so either I stick with Gomes and Chong or give them another season to develop and bring in someone else such as Sancho or Gelson Martins because Lingard will be going.

As for centre-back, Maguire and Tuanzebe have got those positions locked down with Lindelof and Baily in reserve. Thinking of selling Baily and bringing in another to compete with Maguire alongside Tuanzebe, any ideas? Digne's got the LB position locked down with Williams as a back-up, and Dalot and Wan-Bissaka will be competing again for the RB position and I think I'll keep it that way for another season.

Also here's an interesting occurrence: Leroy Sane has been put on the transfer list by City...he's 96 scout rated, recommended to be signed whatever the price and on offer for around £55-£60 million. Should I plump for him or will having him compete with Rashford for the AML position cause one of them to be upset with their lack of game time?

Any suggestions will be welcome, time for me to sleep! Best to do the transfer window after a good night's sleep!

[Chapman7]

6 minutes ago, ShadowEdSide said:

Welp I said I would post again when we got to end of season so here it is, end of my first season with United in FM 2020:

Like I mentioned earlier I won the Carabao Cup, and followed that up by winning the league as well. Out in front for the majority of it, dropped a few points near the end including two losses away at Liverpool and Bournemouth (although the Bournemouth loss was after we'd already secured the title and I wanted to rest some players for cup finals). Very happy with how it went, although losing Digne to injury for the last few weeks of the season was something we could've done without. Wolves did well to finish in 5th ahead of Arsenal and Spurs disappointed, hence why Mourinho was sacked part way through the season. And due to them not winning anything and finishing 4th, Pep got sacked by City at the end of the season, and since I saved and quit just before the transfer window his replacement hasn't been decided yet. As for the other cups...

This...yeah, was a shame but wouldn't be interesting if we won them all each time. Chelsea went right out of the blocks early and could easily have been 2 up had De Gea not saved Jorginho's penalty. Improved in the second half but Chelsea held firm to run out FA Cup winners

The boys put the sting of the FA Cup final loss behind them and produced a solid display to knock off Arsenal and deny them in the Europa League final for the 2nd season running, thereby completing a treble in my first season and making the board happy.

Stats and goals for the first season, and lo and behold two of my signings were the best players throughout the whole season! (Digne cleaned out the player awards at the end of the season as well and all my back four plus De Gea were named into the Team of the Year). As for goals Greenwood topped the pile with 20, only one of five to get into double figures for the season. Although shockingly Rashford wasn't one of them, and has even been dropped by Southgate for the Euros! Worrying times indeed for young Marcus...



My two stand-out players of the season. Digne of course I've gone on and on about already, but Tuanzebe I was pleasantly surprised by! He's now an absolute beast and PSG are sniffing around, gonna have to ward off interest for him!

Now comes my first summer window with a kitty of £250 million and some interesting dilemmas are afoot. Pogba won't sign a new contract and Real Madrid are interested. Should I try and hang onto him or not? I'm also going to be doing a clearing of my first team players who were on loan so Sanchez, Smalling and Pereira are all going as usual as will Romero to make way for Henderson's return.

Haaland I'll be picking up straight away to create a three-way fight at the head of the line between Martial, Greenwood and Haaland. Coman's made the AMR position his own and James has impressed so I might keep him as a backup to Coman. Rashford might need some competition on the left side, so either I stick with Gomes and Chong or give them another season to develop and bring in someone else such as Sancho or Gelson Martins because Lingard will be going.

As for centre-back, Maguire and Tuanzebe have got those positions locked down with Lindelof and Baily in reserve. Thinking of selling Baily and bringing in another to compete with Maguire alongside Tuanzebe, any ideas? Digne's got the LB position locked down with Williams as a back-up, and Dalot and Wan-Bissaka will be competing again for the RB position and I think I'll keep it that way for another season.

Also here's an interesting occurrence: Leroy Sane has been put on the transfer list by City...he's 96 scout rated, recommended to be signed whatever the price and on offer for around £55-£60 million. Should I plump for him or will having him compete with Rashford for the AML position cause one of them to be upset with their lack of game time?

Any suggestions will be welcome, time for me to sleep! Best to do the transfer window after a good night's sleep!

With Pogba just negoiate any offer they do for alot of money they should lose interest then he should be happy to stay long as you get the Champions League qualification that he asks for at the start of the first season or atleast he did on mine. Even got him on a lower wage than he starts on too!

Sane I would play as the AMR perhaps as a Inverted Winger with his crossing and got a decent rating for finishing and has speed him and Rashford on the flanks would be a devastating attack with Greenwood or Martial at the tip of the attack! 

How much did Digne cost you? Just started a new save and just had him come up to be signed! 

[Gee_Simpson]

@ShadowEdSide Nice first season mate. What role did you use Bruno at in the 4231? I'll be trying him as a Treq this time around as he didn't get many goals for me as a AM (S) last time. 

Edited August 19, 2020 by Gee_Simpson

[ShadowEdSide]

10 hours ago, Chapman7 said:

With Pogba just negoiate any offer they do for alot of money they should lose interest then he should be happy to stay long as you get the Champions League qualification that he asks for at the start of the first season or atleast he did on mine. Even got him on a lower wage than he starts on too!

Sane I would play as the AMR perhaps as a Inverted Winger with his crossing and got a decent rating for finishing and has speed him and Rashford on the flanks would be a devastating attack with Greenwood or Martial at the tip of the attack! 

How much did Digne cost you? Just started a new save and just had him come up to be signed! 

Thanks for the advice, I'll take it into consideration. As for Digne I paid £37.5 million for him, and worth every bit of it 

8 hours ago, Gee_Simpson said:

@ShadowEdSide Nice first season mate. What role did you use Bruno at in the 4231? I'll be trying him as a Treq this time around as he didn't get many goals for me as a AM (S) last time. 

If he was in the AM role in my 4231 it's as an AM (S). Otherwise if he was in the MC role for both of my tactics it was as a Mezzala (Att). If both Pogba and Bruno were both playing centre mid I'd always have Bruno be the more attacking role and Pogba would be playing the DLP (support) role. 

[Chapman7]

27 minutes ago, ShadowEdSide said:

Thanks for the advice, I'll take it into consideration. As for Digne I paid £37.5 million for him, and worth every bit of it 

Not too bad! Take it was Wing Back role you played him to get that many assists in the league alone lol and yeah can definitely see that lol 

[Mauley]

Has anyone started a game in the new season with the updated teams. Been searching around for a good set of files but unsuccessful so far.

[Dong21]

13 hours ago, ShadowEdSide said:

Also here's an interesting occurrence: Leroy Sane has been put on the transfer list by City...he's 96 scout rated, recommended to be signed whatever the price and on offer for around £55-£60 million.

I’ve had something similar. Man City just finished 5th first season on my save (update above) and the majority of their squad are unhappy about missing out on Champions League football. Sterling, De Bruyne, B.Silva and Gundogan are all transfer listed by request! I’m hoping this leads to the club capitulating 😂

[Gee_Simpson]

2 hours ago, Mauley said:

Has anyone started a game in the new season with the updated teams. Been searching around for a good set of files but unsuccessful so far.

Nah not yet. I don't know how long it will take for a new season update either so I'm just gonna start now, but in January 2020 so we can't win the league 1st season. I have the official fixtures and results as of game week 23 so at least the tables should be a little more realistic even if they won't end up completely accurate. I have set over 100 future transfers in the pre game editor, mostly just the major ones like Werner to Chelsea, Pjanic to Barca, Arthur to Juve etc. 

[Gee_Simpson]

4 hours ago, ShadowEdSide said:

If he was in the AM role in my 4231 it's as an AM (S). Otherwise if he was in the MC role for both of my tactics it was as a Mezzala (Att). If both Pogba and Bruno were both playing centre mid I'd always have Bruno be the more attacking role and Pogba would be playing the DLP (support) role. 

Interesting, he barely scored for me at AM (S). What formation did you use most? 

Edited August 19, 2020 by Gee_Simpson