Football Manager 2007

[fineintent]

Neither is not wearing socks. You could catch a verruca.

[TheTruth]

Just fixed it up, sorry.

[Guest Mr. Potato Head]

To be frank, I liked the others better.

I don't get the point of playing an attacking style when you want to slow the game down as much as possible? Surely that's a better fit for defense?

[fineintent]

Fast tempo suits direct play as well. Though I play a quick, short passing game and that seems to work.

[Farmer Reil]

Turn 'Time Wasting' right down. A, because you're Australia - it's bound to lead to disaster, and B because you're trying to play direct, attacking football. Time Wasting and direct, attacking football don't mix.

[britneyspearsisgod]

Speaking of formations, which ones do you guys use? I choose depending on the depth in my squad for that position.

[edcq]

We're (Arsenal) have to be the most inconsistent team in the world... I beat Porto 3-0 in the first leg of the semis of the CL at home, then we go on to lose 4-0 away in the 2nd leg. I'm so pissed, the entire team had a 6 or less. I'm fighting for 5th place in the League, but I'm losing to Newcastle at the moment 2-0 with no signs of improvement. I'm so disappointed with the way the team are playing.

[Pesci]

It's not that I expect the league to stop getting better, Reilly, but for seven years my team has dominated and now they're wank, it should have been more of a slow progression if it's going to go down that route.

Anyway, as for the question, I play a 4-4-2. When I first started my strengths were generally my wingers and centre backs. My centre backs are still awesome but my wingers haven't been performing. In fact none of my wide players have, because my full backs never tend to play as well as the centre backs. I suppose I could buy some good wingbacks and opt for a 3-2-3-2, or 3-2-2-1-2. Whatever happens I need two up front, because Higuain and Niguez are immense.

[Matt]

Pesci, are your players getting past their prime maybe?

And as for formation, I like to play 4-5-1 or if I'm a more aggressive team 3-5-2 (with attacking wingers and a defensive midfielder). I play whatever suits my team and players really.

Edited July 12, 2007 by - Matt -

[fineintent]

I usually play a pretty simple 442, or if I'm a team with loads of wingers the Chelsea 451/433.

My game at the moment is Spurs and the line up is:

GK: Robinson

DR: Chimbonda

DL: Bale

DC: Dawson

DC: King ©

MR: Lennon

ML: Downing

MC: Jenas/Bentley

MC: Huddlestone/Zokora

FC: Berbatov

FC: Keane/Bent

[Kanegetshighbysmellinhisarmpits]

I play a diamond formation (i.e. dmc, mr, ml, amc in midfield), lumping long balls up to a tall, lanky bloke up front, with a smaller, nippier ally.

[Anothername]

Aston Villa just got relegated in my 2014 season, finishing 19th. Before this season they've consistently been finishing in the top-7, sometimes finishing in the top-4. They were also the only Premiership side to have kept their manager all this time, until Martin O'Neil just got sacked. Now I'm the longest serving manager in the league with Newcastle. They have a proper great squad too and are marginally better than both Liverpool and Tottenham. Now they're in the Championship with players such as the immense Luke Moore (currently holds the record for top Premiership scorer with 37 goals in one season), Michael Dawson (currently the England team's second best centre back, after JT), Manuel Ruz, Hugo Rodallega, Stewart Downing (still the England team's best left winger), Steven Davis, Craig Gordon, Fernando Belluschi, Kristofer Haestad, Ashley Cole, Ryan Babel, Andy Taylor and some quality regens. First time I've ever seen one of the top clubs go down. Strangely, they won the FA Cup in the same season so are in the Community Shield and UEFA Cup.

Has anyone had this happen? 5 games in 8 days is bad enough, but playing the same team twice in two consecutive days is a joke.

Its a well known bug that Si have yet to fix unfortunately.

I have only suffered that once but have seen it happen to a good few other people.

[edcq]

So yeah, I finished 5th with Arsenal. My notable transfers are as followed:

Out:

Justin Hoyte - Free (Rangers) He wasn't doing anything for me.

Anthony Stokes - Free (Fulham) Same as Hoyte.

Lauren - Free (Porto) He played so shitty at the end of the season and wanted to move on anyways.

Mart Poom - Free (Belenenses) Didn't need him

Ryan Garry - Free

William Gallas - £15M (Milan) I could buy other players with his transfer money.

Aliaksandr Hleb - £15M (Inter) Hasn't gone through yet, but I'm pretty sure he'll sign the contract. I'm looking to beef up my defense.

In:

Hatem Ben Arfa (Free)

Rui Fonte (£50K)

Gerard Pique (£3.3M) My scouts were nutting over this guy so he must be decent.

I'm also looking to sign Micah Richards and Vincent Kompany. Hopefully I can qualify for the CL this year.

[estebanmon]

Attempting to stay away from my Villa game, I started a new save with Bayern. I needed a new keeper since Kahn was retiring, so I just spent all my budget on Akinfeev. Now I managed to make Kahn finish his contract in 2 years, and also found that apart from Lahm there weren't any decent left backs. I miss the boatloads of money fro Villa, but I'll just play around for now.

[Pesci]

Pesci, are your players getting past their prime maybe?

[Matt]

Too many transfers too quick won't really help you Pesci, because your back 4 won't be settled at all, bring in maybe 2 changes in the summer and 2 in January. The release clause may have expired but check out Sergio Ramos because he's a world class central defender with only a 22m buy out fee.

[estebanmon]

I couldn't resist going back to my Villa game, and I don't regret it, much anyway. I have discovered an awesome goalscorer in Marvin Marezzo(I'm not sure if I spelt it right). 20 goals in 29 appearances(24 starts) is awesome, which beats Delgado who has 15 goals in around 35 appearances.

Also, Given has become my first player to be criticized by the press, negatively. He has conceded 30 in like 22 appearances. He only played well in cup games, in which he barely played, and I lost the League Cup semifinals against Liverpool because of him(and Crouch's offside goal). I decided to give Cudicini a try. He barely had to move against Stoke when I won 5-0, played well in the FA cup, and then became shit in the league again, conceding 4 in the next game. Now that Given's regained his first team spot, I think he's starting to get better. That didn't stop Charlton from scoring a 93rd minute goal, but I still won the match.

In transfers, Chelsea bought De Rossi from roma for $73m, and Arsenal bought C. Ronaldo for $69m.

I bought Robert Enke from Liverpool as a backup over Cudicini, and also bought Gudjohnsen from Barca for $7m. I also managed to get Farfan for free. And, for some reason, I cancelled my contract offer for an Inter player who's name I forgot, and when I check my transfers he's there and on his profile it says that he's joining me on June. If it actually happens, I'll pay like half what he asked for.

While Cudicini was on goal, I lost nearly all my offensive players, losing Pizarro, Moore, Delgado, Abghonlahor, Ashley Young, Maloney, Gibson and Maldonado. Luckily, Gudjohnsen arrived just in time to fill in the empty striker spot and scored a goal on his debut. Now I actually have hope for getting to 5th place, or at least a top-half position.

[Pesci]

Too many transfers too quick won't really help you Pesci, because your back 4 won't be settled at all, bring in maybe 2 changes in the summer and 2 in January.

Edited July 14, 2007 by Pesci Wallace

[Matt]

I didn't read the end of the sentence, I stopped reading at "end of the season" <_>

Edited July 14, 2007 by - Matt -

[METALMAN]

I've got FM 2006 but I don't have FM 2007. I used to get the games every year for the transfer updates and so on but I'm not interested in that anymore. What I'd like to know is how much of an improvement FM 07 is feature wise, because I've got some cash lying around and I've been thinking about buying the game.

cheers.