Football Manager 2009

[FireDoughnut]

Playing 2008... On for the quintuple with Man Utd, go away to Blackpool in the FA Cup and Ronaldo breaks his leg... This is going to be harder than I thought.

Four games later after picking up the Carling Cup, rooney breaks his ankle away to Liverpool.

Both are out for the season.

I'm now 3rd in the league, out of the FA cup at the semi-final and losing on away goals to Real Madrid as I head out to Spain for the away leg; QF stage

Won the league on the last day of the season as Arsenal fell to 'Boro and I picked Everton apart 5-0.

The board have thrown me £81 million in transfer budgets so I think I'll go get Stancu, Denilson and Aguero to slot into my line-up as well as the host of youngsters I picked up throughout the year.

[pililuk]

Just picked this up recently and its the best one yet, im currently 5 games into my first season as arsenal sat in 3rd place, Dropped 2 points against newcastle

I dont know who to buy as i need a new CB, I bought Assenjo and hes been fantastic in goal, conceded 1 so far.

not looking forward to the next 3 games, Olimpiakos, Everton, liverpool. Can see a few points being dropped there.

[Herr Matzat]

The latest patch made me a winner

[IAceI]

Playing as Arsenal (read the diary, it's good) but fans and my assistant appear adamant that I need a central midfielder. I've done a bit of looking, I think I need a central midfielder who has some defensive tendencies more so as we seem to attack minded. Now.. Denilson or Song would probably do, but... maybe not good enough. My problem lies here, if I want to play an old fashioned 4-4-2 it seems there just isn't room already let alone buying players.

GK sorted obvious, flat back four is the only way I like to play really, Sagna, Clichy, Gallas and Toure. Sorted. No problems there.

Going to attack first, if I want to play one up front Adebayor - 2 then I have Van Persie to join him. Now the main problem seems to be the midfield. Do I play Arshavin on the left? Walcott on the right is pretty obvious, that leaves Nasri and Fabregas in the centre. But then there's Ramsey as well who may be a better fit as he's a proper CM where Nasri's too attack minded, Fabregas is a CM too but he's attacking in theory. So do I need a midfielder who can tackle more (WHY SELL VIEIRA?!) but then that would mean one of Nasri/Fabregas/new player/Arshavin sitting out - which seems kind of pointless.

So I splash £23m on Inler (I have like 45m to spend or so) and let him clean up as the defensive minded midfielder? Then I could have Fabregas sit next to him and Arshavin/Merida/Walcott/Nasri all charging forward. Maybe Barry as well (although £20m and I'm still not getting anywhere with him.)

So.. how do I deal with this midfield 'problem' it almost seems like I've convinced myself I need someone. But I'm thinking Arshavin on the left (ugh), Walcott on the right, Nasri and Fabregas would work. Ramsey waiting in the wings. Meh, thoughts?

Inler? Barry? Someone else? Lots of money to spend so meh.

Fans/Ass Man want Lucho Gonzalez or Mauro Camoranesi it seems.

[Matt]

I'd bring in Barry as he is a defensive minded player and can play LM too (since Arshavin is one player you're not overly sure on position wise anyway, it'd seem). So yeah, if I were you I'd bring in Barry and play Arshavin/Barry/Fabregas/Walcott with the possibility to go for Barry/Fabregas/Nasri/Walcott or Barry/Fabregas/Nasri/Arshavin if anything happens to either of your wingers (or you need Arshavin to play up front).

[rocksta]

My favorite defensive minded midfielder in the game is Miguel Veloso. Check him out.

I've found Nasri works better on the left too then in the middle.

[Anderson]

Try the diamond formation. You could then leave out Walcott if neccessary

[Matt]

I've always wondered (whilst it doesn't really apply to this case), does playing a diamond with 2 wingers make your team weaker, since you have no central midfielders that way?

[IAceI]

My problem with Arshavin is I'd rather he were in the middle than the left, just don't see him as a winger as such. More a roaming central player, same with Nasri but I guess Nasri on the left isn't too bad.

For the record Inler is an either footed DM/CM with vicious long shots. But looking at his stats, I ain't paying £25m for him. Not to mention anywhere in the next 2-3 months I have Rosicky coming back who can also play on the left/centre attacking or midfield so I have another headache there.

Don't think I'm either going to splash on Barry, but I might see how much I can get him for and if it isn't too ridiculous then I MIGHT put a bid in.

Able left sided players

Walcott

Nasri

Rosicky (injured 8 week - 3 month)

Arshavin

Vela

Van Persie

Able right sided players

Walcott

Arshavin

Van Persie

Eboue

Central

Denilson

Diaby

Song

Arshavin

Nasri

Rosicky

Vela

EDIT: For the record I know all about Veloso. I've had an eye on him since the U21 Euro Championships some time ago, if I was to sign a DM out and out I'd probably take Tymoshcuk from Zenit. He's a fantastic player, a bit old (but I've never had a problem with signing players over 26 etc. like some seem to). Worth looking at since he wants to move to a bigger club on my game, so that might be the case in other peoples. Worth a gander.

And apparently I need a midfielder!?

Edited March 7, 2009 by IAceI

[Darloboy]

Definitely get Veloso if you can, he was awesome for me as Arsenal.

[Matt]

So for shits and giggles I've started a game as Arsenal. So far I've sold Eboue and Song whilst I've brought in Pirlo and Santa Cruz. After 3 (maybe 4 actually) friendlies, my injury list looks like this:

Toure (1 month)

Gallas (1 month)

Pirlo (1 month)

Diaby (1 month)

Fabregas (1 month)

Rosicky (5 months)

Adebayor (2 weeks)

Eduardo (4 months)

Santa Cruz (1 month)

Plus Ramsey is very unfit and Denilson is travelling to the Olympics. So as it stands, I have to play Ramsey even though he's really unfit and I have just 2 subs for my next game (both goalkeepers), so I'm having to draft in some kids.

Edit: Add Mikel Silvestre (1 month) to that list.

Edited March 8, 2009 by Footjob Fever

[pililuk]

I had that problem when i was doing my pre season friendlies but as soon as the season had started i hadnt taken any injuries except arshavin for 2 weeks and Van perise for 3 weeks, which i can deal with. Nathan Deflouneso is a definate buy for arsenal, Throw him into your youth team, every week he will be the player that it tells you about in the youth team. he becomes very good.

[FLiam]

I just downloaded CM01-02 off the Eidos website, it says I have to insert the CD to start a new game, I don't understand, have I missed something when installing?

[TheArsenal]

Oh my days.

I was just in the most RIDICULOUS penalty shootout ever.

Top of the table Luton Town (me), suffering with a lot of injuries and suspensions played bottom of the league Brentford in the Johnstone's Paint Trophy Semi Final. After 90 mins it was 1-1 - so we head to penalties. Below, is the penalty shootout, Brentford in red, Luton in black.

Marvin Williams - Scored (1-0)

Kevin Nicholls - Scored (1-1)

Jeff Smith - Scored (2-1)

Robbie Fowler - Scored (2-2)

Glenn Poole - Scored (3-2)

Jospeh Ndo - Scored (3-3)

Tommy Black - Scored (4-3)

Vladimir But - Scored (4-4)

Marcus Bean - Scored (5-4)

Juho Makela - Scored (5-5)

Score after 5 rounds: 5-5

Sudden death.....

John Halls - Scored (6-5)

Seyfo Soley - Scored (6-6)

Brett Johnson - Scored (7-6)

Amaury Bischoff - Scored (7-7)

Leon McKenzie - Scored (8-7)

Vaclav Kadlec - Scored (8-8)

Ryan Dickson - Scored (9-8)

Rossi Jarvis - Scored (9-9)

Karleigh Osbourne - Scored (10-9)

Miguel Rebosio - Scored (10-10)

David Button (GK) - Scored (11-10)

Anthony Basso (GK) - Scored (11-11)

Score after 11 rounds: 11-11

Back to the beginning.....

Marvin Williams - Scored (12-11)

Kevin Nicholls - Scored (12-12)

Jeff Smith - Scored (13-12)

Robbie Fowler - Scored (13-13)

Glenn Poole - Scored (14-13)

Jospeh Ndo - Scored (14-14)

Tommy Black - MISSED (14-14)

Vladimir But - Scored (14-15)

FINAL SCORE: Brentford 14 - 15 Luton Town

[Matt]

I've once got to the 17th penalty, but they weren't all scored.

[therockbox]

On F365 there's an 11 page thread dedicated to 'inventing backstories' and the like in FM. Someone's just posted this, a squad photo they made for a lower league career game:

That's up there with the bloke the wore the suit for an FA Cup Final.

Edit: And this..

Someone has favourite regen:

Spoiler: Click here to view

So does this...

Spoiler: Click here to view

Edited March 9, 2009 by therockbox

[FireDoughnut]

That is far too awesome.

[-A-]

The Barce shirt is amazing

There are actually dozens of people who wear suits for the in-game cup final. There was a thread on the SI forums where loads of people posted pictures of themselves in their finery. Only one had a flower in his lapel though (N)

[FireDoughnut]

If EWB had of made a cup final I would have thrown on a suit...

[Matt]

If I got a regen as good as that I'd have his name on my shirt.