Football Manager 2014

[Roster Depth Sicko No. 2]

I tend to find the wages are ridiculous in England and the lesser European Leagues (namely Ukraine, Shaktar are spunking money away) and the rest of the big four Euro leagues give everyone more realistic wages, barring the star players.

[stokeriño]

"Match Highest Earner" clauses are my biggest pet hate. I would make them illegal if I could.

(Even at Rhyl's level when the highest earner is a whopping £200 per week. Thanks in part to that I am £6 per week over budget. SIX FREAKING POUNDS!)

[Gazz]

I don't think the wage is particularly ridiculous, more that Moi Gomez could come on as a 93rd minute sub for Spain, never play for them again and between his and Ward-Prowse's contracts, cost Man Utd an extra £25m over five years.

[Baddar]

Smart agent.

[Roster Depth Sicko No. 2]

Salvaged the Champions League group! We were diabolical at times though, had no right to go through really.

Followed up the two 1-0 losses with a win and a draw against Steaua (their only point at the time), meaning I had to beat CSKA in the return leg and match their result in the final game to go through.

Smashed CSKA 3-0, first part done.

In the return Bayern game, Serge Gnabry scored a first half hat-trick, along with Mario Pugliese adding a fourth, with Andrija Zivkovic getting one back on the whistle. CSKA scored in the middle of the half, meaning I was heading out. Second half, Lukaku went boss mode and got a hat-trick of his own to make the game a tie, which still wouldn't have been enough.

Until Steaua scored in the 90th minute to equalise, meaning I went through.

I'm sending those lovely Romanians some champagne right now.

[Jimmy]

For the first time in a while, nothing is going right for me at Auxerre. After fucking up our promotion bid because we couldn't win an away game, I thought this season would be a little different after bringing in better players, and all my younger players being one year better, but nope. We're somewhere like 12th because we're just not very good. We should be. We have the players, including Tom Ince playing in Ligue 2, but it just won't work. My main striker keeps getting injured, but we either don't create enough, or we don't score when do.

I keep getting told to play more direct, but when I do, we just lose. It doesn't help that my wingers don't really seem to produce, despite being my best players. I think I might get sacked for the first time in FM 14 .

I keep rejecting big bids for my youth talent, including like 5 million for one of them. That could totally revamp my team, but the whole reason I went with Auxerre was because of the players. Strange one.

[The Lusophone]

Call in Dr Gazz for help. I liked his thing when he did (I think it was) Plubby's.

[Gazz]

Took the England job.

English striking options in 2020.

Adam '111 PL goals in 168 PL career apps' Campbell

Dale '11 goals in 29 PL career apps' Hurst (regen)

Saido '32 PL goals in 144 PL career apps' Berahino

Danny '17 PL goals in 135 PL career apps' Welbeck

It's amazing, second season, I was drowning in five star potential rated English striker scouting reports. Now they're all 22-23 and clogging up the Championship. The only one who has come through is Hurst and he's still only my third choice striker at Newcastle.

[Meacon Keaton]

I really need to slow down and take my time with this game (well, FM 2011, but still...)

I get in such a rush to play the games that I either don't sign any players to improve my team, or I sign a bunch of guys that my assistant says would be "worthwhile signings". I need to take it easy and actually look over each player and figure out if they're worth it, but my short attention span keeps pushing me to move on.

[EddieG]

Worthwhile signings means they're not very worthwhile.

[Roster Depth Sicko No. 2]

The stars may be aligning. Or just fucking me about.

Capitol One Cup Semi Final: Manchester City (Bogie team)

Champions League Round of 16: Barcelona (The team that knocked me out of the contest back when I qualified with Everton)

I'm either going to win both or get horribly battered.

[DavidMarrio]

Finished my first season at Liverpool. Somehow managed to makr a tactic similar to how we play in real life with the only difference being the team can actually defend now!

Signings I made in the first season were Volland for his release fee of 12.5/.75 Mil, Will Hughes for 9 Mil and in January I signed Morata for 15 Mil. Sold Lucas for 30+Mil to PSG

Beat Newcastle in the league cup and fa cup final, finished top on 87 points unbeaten at home. Chelsea finished 2nd, Everton 3rd, Man utd 4th, Hull 5th thanks to Shane "20 goals a season" Long and City finished 6th but won the Champions League knocking Man Utd out.

Spurs sacked Sherwood, hired Van Basten, did shit and sacked him for Rodgers.

Arsenal finished 9th with Solskjaer taking over for Wenger at the end of the season.

Looking to build a youthful side and I've been given a massive transfer budget so going to get rid of a lot of the dead weight like Assaidi, Borini, Wisdom etc and sell one or two of the first teamers to bring in younger and more long term options.

[TCO]

Annoying thing about the MLS is that it's impossible to keep your stars long-term. It's part of the challenge but I had to sell Wickham to Ipswich for $10mil and my regen captain, who's amazing and only 23, to Sporting Lisbon for $15mil. I had a DP slot free and Wickham agreed to a 5 year deal on $65k a week but the finances wouldn't allow it. Top it all off the stupid league took 33% of the fees.

Sigh, rebuilding again it is.

[Blaze09]

So in my save that's up to 2021, Man City just knocked Man U out of the Champions League by winning the final after coming in fifth in the Prem.

The final was in Old Trafford.

[JasonM]

Anyone got a good wingerless tactic working?

I had a 5-3-2 last year and I took the eredivisie and everything was happy and fine.

Season 2, better players but the goals aren't coming and it's everything it wasn't last year.

[Whisper]

I play that, though the ball playing defender makes little difference. Attacking, fluid, short passing, high tempo.

Works well in my United game and took me to a third place Bundesliga finish and cup win with Hoffenheim before I accidentally saved over my game

Not had great success with it in really low leagues - probably not wise asking pub footballers to play a high tempo passing game.

Edited July 16, 2014 by Whisper in the Wind

[The Lusophone]

Works well in my United game and took me to a third place Bundesliga finish and cup win with Hoffenheim before I accidentally saved over my game

3 file rolling autosave is god.

[JasonM]

Works well in my United game and took me to a third place Bundesliga finish and cup win with Hoffenheim before I accidentally saved over my game

3 file rolling autosave is god.

QFT

I use(d) this 5-3-2

I didn't have Guidetti/Seto/Propper/Hildebrand last season, yet I scored a lot more and my strikers were non-stop producing.

This season with better players (Clasie, Janmaat left) I can't score at all with the tactic and I lose bullshit games through bullshit means.

The two CWB's are just pure pure effort and they run around the entire length of the pitch for 90 minutes, so they really need great stamina and work rate.

Also, if you have Takayuki Seto in the database, get him because he's phenomenal.

Edited July 16, 2014 by Jasonmufc

[MDK]

I play that, though the ball playing defender makes little difference. Attacking, fluid, short passing, high tempo.

Works well in my United game and took me to a third place Bundesliga finish and cup win with Hoffenheim before I accidentally saved over my game

Not had great success with it in really low leagues - probably not wise asking pub footballers to play a high tempo passing game.

If you gave your DM a free role he would be Roaming Polanski

[JasonM]

I play that, though the ball playing defender makes little difference. Attacking, fluid, short passing, high tempo.

Works well in my United game and took me to a third place Bundesliga finish and cup win with Hoffenheim before I accidentally saved over my game

Not had great success with it in really low leagues - probably not wise asking pub footballers to play a high tempo passing game.

If you gave your DM a free role he would be Roaming Polanski