Football Manager 2011

[Ben E.]

I bought this yesterday after waiting a few days for HMV in Newcastle to get it back in stock . Thanks for the replies to my earlier post by the way, turns out my laptop can run the 3D match engine fine. It's so much better in 3D.

Started a game with Nottingham Forest and was immediately disappointed by the lack of transfer budget. This got worse when the injuries struck and left Dele Adebola as my only fit striker. Franco's agent was a wanker, so I can no longer negotiate with him either. Jerome Rothen seems like a decent signing in my early games.

Drew 1-1 with Derby in my first league game, beat Bury 4-0 in the League Cup, then beat Preston 1-0.

[britneyspearsisgod]

So, I started a game with U.D. Vecindario of Gran Canaría. I fancied having fun and not giving a shit, so I gave them lots and lots of money and I am looking to build a crazy dynasty of footballing great.

The team were bottom of the Spanish Second Division B1. The team had an atrocious fitness level and no physio's or scouts at the club. The entire back-room and team has been revamped and now we have an outside chance of hitting the play-off's if results go our way.

We also just won a match against 18th in the table Coruxo 6-0, all of which came from long shots. Every goal were hit from at least 20yrds out. Absolutely amazing.

[cmb211087]

Started a new game and I thought why not go Blackburn as it'll be an interesting challenge.

Not much money to spend about £1.5mil and there isn't really anyone that I wanna get for that low so I've resorted to signing 3 players out of contracts: Sylvinho, Guillermo Franco and Jeremy Rothen.

Starting line up:

GK: Paul Robinson

DR: Michel Salgardo

DC: Ryan Nelson

DC: Christopher Samba

DL: Martin Olsson

AMR: David Hoilett

MC: David Dunn

MC: Morten Pederson

AML: El Hadji Diouf

ST: Guillermo Franco

ST: Mame Diouf

Kalinic in pre-season damaged his cruciate ligaments and is out for 7/8months also I've only played 2 games in the Prem so far, beat Stoke 2-0 and then lost to West Ham 2-1

You know Olsson is our best Left mid and Givet our best left back yes? Diouf on the left is a bad idea

[jack95]

So, I started a game with U.D. Vecindario of Gran Canaría. I fancied having fun and not giving a shit, so I gave them lots and lots of money and I am looking to build a crazy dynasty of footballing great.

The team were bottom of the Spanish Second Division B1. The team had an atrocious fitness level and no physio's or scouts at the club. The entire back-room and team has been revamped and now we have an outside chance of hitting the play-off's if results go our way.

We also just won a match against 18th in the table Coruxo 6-0, all of which came from long shots. Every goal were hit from at least 20yrds out. Absolutely amazing.

I'm doing something similar with Aston Villa, attempting to be like Man City ratcheted up to 11. I feel guilty because I know my success is just built on buying players rather than actual merit, but it's just so fun. Agbonlahor is in insane form, Ciprian Marica from Stuttgart is looking to be an ace signing, I've essentially revamped the reserves and brought in stacks of young talent my backroom staff recommended, and in the summer I've got Roberto Carlos, Deco, Ruud Van Nistelrooy and Andriy Shevchenko all arriving. Sadly the only competition I'm in contention for now is the Europa League, out of the League Cup and FA Cup, but I'm quietly confident about winning that one.

Also, going 5-1 down against Chelsea, pulling it back to 5-4 in the space of ten minutes thanks to an Agbonlahor hat trick, and then not being able to go on and get the damn equaliser was one of the most frustrating things I have ever, ever done in this series.

[Jimmy]

Anyone else have a problem selling players? Last season I received a few good offers for some of my young prospects at Ipswich, but I couldn't allow myself to get rid of them just in case they become a great player.

Also, my staff seem to get upset anytime I put someone on the transfer list because 'they still have something to offer to the club' despite not making an appearance all season.

[DavidMarrio]

Started a new game and I thought why not go Blackburn as it'll be an interesting challenge.

Not much money to spend about £1.5mil and there isn't really anyone that I wanna get for that low so I've resorted to signing 3 players out of contracts: Sylvinho, Guillermo Franco and Jeremy Rothen.

Starting line up:

GK: Paul Robinson

DR: Michel Salgardo

DC: Ryan Nelson

DC: Christopher Samba

DL: Martin Olsson

AMR: David Hoilett

MC: David Dunn

MC: Morten Pederson

AML: El Hadji Diouf

ST: Guillermo Franco

ST: Mame Diouf

Kalinic in pre-season damaged his cruciate ligaments and is out for 7/8months also I've only played 2 games in the Prem so far, beat Stoke 2-0 and then lost to West Ham 2-1

You know Olsson is our best Left mid and Givet our best left back yes? Diouf on the left is a bad idea

I'm a maverick It seems to work though thats the thing, I've only lost to West Ham, Aston Villa and Man.City and it was only Villa and City that really deserved to beat me and I was 10 men down after 5 minutes against City

I'm waiting to train some people like Olsson and Pederson at AML then it'll just be swapping a few peoples positions about. Especially with Dunn injured for about 2 or 3 months and a few other niggling injuries

[Jimmy]

Is it possible to offer contracts to those who have expiring contracts? If so, how?

[9 to 5]

Dunn injured for you? Never!

[stokeriño]

Transfer window opened. Two signings made:

1. Romelu Lukaku, £10m from Anderlecht

2. Paulo Henrique (aka Ganso), £12m from Santos

One annoying thing is that apparently my player database must be too small, because David Luiz doesn't exist in this game. In fact, Benfica only have three players who aren't greyed out, and he's not one of them. Booo. I can probably get by without an extra defender though, since I can't be bothered to spend £20m on the likes of Simon Kjaer etc.

Since I'm still playing a 4-3-3 - and haven't had cause to reconsider its use yet - it's a matter of choosing three of the following to play up front:

Didier Drogba

Nicolas Anelka

Daniel Sturridge

Salomon Kalou

Romelu Lukaku

Gael Kakuta (sent out on loan)

And choosing three of the following to play in central midfield:

Frank Lampard

Michael Essien

Ramires

John Mikel Obi

Paulo Henrique

Josh McEachran

Yossi Benayoun

And Florent Malouda fits in...somewhere. But he's been injured for ages, so eh.

Anelka and Benayoun are likely exits in the summer, I'd say. Might add Ramires to that list if he doesn't stop getting himself sent off in important matches for stupid two-footed lunges.

[Jimmy]

I got promoted with Ipswich and was given a 12M transfer budget for the next season, fighting to avoid relegation. But since did buying players not the on the transfer list because such a bitch? Any player worth having, you had to pay over double the price for them. I've made loan signings instead for now. I'll splash some cash soon, though.

I can tell the next season is going to be a struggle.

[Benji]

But since did buying players not the on the transfer list because such a bitch?

Am you grammar letting we down?

[stokeriño]

That's been the case in most FM games though, hasn't it?

It's more likely to do with the fact that most of the players' values are ridiculously low (aside from a small crop of elite who get to be £18m+ for some reason). I noticed yesterday that Didier Drogba is automatically deemed to be worth £5.5m - come on now.

[DavidMarrio]

You can normally get well abouve that value though for good players.

Ermmm yeh after a good start to the season my team have just went shockingly abysmal. After an emphatic win over Arsenal 3-0 at home were I absolutely battered them and then I just went on a mad losing streak and the team is now consistently unfit which is proper random and I really don't know why

Also got knocked out the Carling Cup quarter finals as I lost to Sunderland 2-1

[Benji]

Julian Speroni is an immense keeper. If I could make love to his rock solid Championship goalkeeping skills then I would.

[stokeriño]

Is there some reason my strikers (and only my strikers) keep getting injured?

Drogba, Lukaku, Kalou and Sturridge are all down. I've only got Anelka left.

[Benji]

I wish I knew. I swear strikers are cursed in this game.

[brenchill]

Building quite the team at Liverpool. Finished my first season in 2nd place behind an unbeaten Arsenal team who finished the season on 100+ points. This is my team at the moment:

GK: Reina/Brad Jones

DL: Aurellio/Insua

DR: Johnson/Kelly

DC: Agger/David Luiz (9m from Benfica)

DC: Carragher/Skrtel

LCM: Raul Meireles/Lucas

ACM: Paulo Henrique (14m from Santos)/Rakitic (Free from Schalke)

RCM: Gerrard/Poulsen

RAM: Joe Cole/Maxi Rodriguez

LAM: Luis Suarez (19m from Ajax)/Jovanovic

ST: Dzenko (24m from Wolfsburg)/Torres

Henrique had a bit of indifferent first season but he has been amazing at the beginning of the second season. He has 9 assists in 12 games so far and has got 4 goals to his name. Dzenko scored back-to-back hat tricks against Wolves and Fulham so at the moment Torres isn't getting anywhere near the starting line up with the system I play.

[Ben E.]

I have the same problem with strikers. It's persisted since I mentioned it in an earlier post. A few games on, my only fit striker is Nathan Tyson, who has never scored in the Championship for me. Lovely.

[Meacon Keaton]

Hmm. I've found my defense gets hurt more than my strikers. Which seems about right seeing that I have like four strikers and only five defenders. That's probably due to them just playing exhausted all the time, though. Once the transfer window opens up, that's all I'm focusing on, but until then :/

[Hobo]

I've done fairly well so far with Viking. We're currently in 4th with the league still in it's early stages and have eased through the first two cup rounds.

I've also added Caleb Folan (although he's not much better than most of my strikers) and Renato Gaucho to my team, although they cannot be registered to play in the league. Folan has two goals in the cup and Gaucho just made his debut after signing on a free. Chose us over Real Madrid he did.