Football Manager 2014

[Baddar]

Fuck you, Erik Lamela.

[Jimmy]

[Baddar]

He just knocked me out of the CoC, almost single handedly. Scored two and made another. I would have taken it more seriously had I not had a league game two days before, but still irritating. Doubt I'd be able to sign him, either.

[Lineker]

I actually might not get FM15.

But then again, Blackpool.

Then again, FINISH THE FUCKING PENTAGON!

[Baddar]

Beat Milan 7-1 at the San Siro in the CL!

Wasn't all good news though. A clean sheet would have meant a trophy for five consecutive.

[Whisper]

He just knocked me out of the CoC, almost single handedly. Scored two and made another. I would have taken it more seriously had I not had a league game two days before, but still irritating. Doubt I'd be able to sign him, either.

It's gotten to the point now where I'm basically telling my team to dropkick him every time he gets the ball. "Lamela looks in pain" has become a commentary favourite of mine.

[Baddar]

There was one passage of play that was ridiculous - he picked it up (not literally, that would be cheating) outside of his own box, ran through the centre of my midfield (ok, it was Fletcher and Powell) and darted into my half, then played an amazing through ball to Landon Donovan, leading to Vertonghen bringing him down for a pen, which Lamela converted.

As mentioned already, I signed both Vertonghen and Vermaelen in the close season, so didn't have any kind of budget left. The board has agreed to an extra £20m for the upcoming January window, though I'd need double that to sign Lamela, I think.

The current plan is to make sure I have at least 8-10 million of that left after January, so if anyone becomes available to sign on a free in July 2015, I can adjust the budget accordingly to snap them up. Missed out on Menez last season because I had no transfer budget left, and was already spending as much as I could on wages.

[Whisper]

Coming to the end of my first season with United, and 3-5-2 has served me well. Into March, we're top of the league with 7 games to go. 13 points clear of second place Everton, and even further clear of Arsenal, Chelsea, City. Chelsea and City have had awful seasons. Chelsea look like they will scrape a CL spot, whilst City will miss out. Liverpool are 10th, Spurs 11th.

Offloaded Nani, Young, Evra, Buttner and Hernandez, and brought in Herrera, Shaw, Alex Sandro, Claudio Yacob and Danny Ings.

I got Ings just because he was cheap and I needed a 4th choice striker, but he's bagged 11 goals for the season so far. Welbeck has just overtaken RVP (who is out for a month) as top scorer with 25 goals. Valencia has been a revelation as a retrained Wing Back.

Anyhow, the league is basically won. We went out of the League Cup, losing 1-0 at home to Cardiff having rested a number of players. We have an FA Cup semi final vs Everton to look forward to and are into the Champions League Quarter Finals, having overturned a first leg deficit to knock out Ajax 2-1. Up next: PSG. Don't expect to win the CL, but reaching the semis would be nice.

This is definitely the best I've had a team playing on this version. Just now looking to see if I can make the most of the youth intakes.

[Baddar]

Back to back away defeats at Hull and WBA (went down to 9 men in that one :/) meant I waved goodbye to my unbeaten run, and 6pt lead in the league.

It's not all bad though. Wolfsburg away next, which means nothing as we're both through, and I'll definitely top the group. After that, it's Man City and Liverpool at home. I think I need a minimum of 4pts there, as I'm not too confident in going away to both late in the season. I need points on the board early.

With no players with contracts expiring standing out, I decided to spend most of the money I had given to me for January. Picked up the versatile Daley Blind for 14m (but only 9m of my budget now) depending on clauses, and I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to sign Arjen Robben for about 12m, and again, only 7 off my budget. I don't often sign 30+ year olds, but there's a year difference in age between him and Valencia, and Robben is infinitely better.

Looking forward to playing some more this evening.

[Whisper]

What formation are you playing Baddar?

I've currently got a bit of a Van Gaal 352/532 going.

GK: De Gea

CB: Vidic (leaving end of season)

CB: Evans/Smalling

CB: Jones

RWB: Rafael/Valencia

LWB: Shaw/Alex Sandro

CM: Yacob/Fellaini/Fletcher

CM: Herrera/Carrick

AM: Mata/Januzaj

ST: Rooney/Ings

ST: Van Persie/Welbeck

Playing "Rigid" (as opposed to fluid/very fluid) has really helped I think. I had a look over on the SI forums before I started, I had never realised the value of tactical familiarity. This time I left my team training on "Tactics only" until they were fully competant with the 352. It took until around Christmas but was definitely worth it.

Thinking I might see how much I can get for Rooney in the summer. He hasn't played that well this season. I'd have to bring another striker in, but I'd be comfortable with RVP and Welbeck as my main front two.

How do you guys approach the youth intakes? I'm looking to poach some god young players but my scouts aren't really finding anyone, particularly in England. I've got them set to look for 4 star+ current ability or 4 star+ potential ability but they haven't found a single regen in England despite being past the intake date.

Edited August 12, 2014 by Whisper in the Wind

[Jimmy]

My Auxerre youth system produces like four or five 4 star+potential's per season.

[Gazz]

Star ratings are relative, so, for example, with Rooney and RVP in your team, you're not going to find 4/5 star regens because the it's not possible within the attribute ranges to be that much better than Rooney and RVP.

Whereas, Jimmy, as a high Ligue Two team Auxerre, will produce them but in reality, they might only be good Ligue Un players in the future.

[DavidMarrio]

Started a game with Brighton and its been going great so far.

Been rotating between 4-4-2 and 4-2-3-1 and its got me to the top of the Championship at the half way point, got knocked out by Crystal Palace in the fourth round of the Carling Cup (Scrappy 1-0 loss) and got beat by Cardiff 2-0 (again a scrappy game)

Transfer dealings I made was selling Solly March to Liverpool for 5mil. Using that 5mil and the money I started off with I signed Jonathan Silva for 3mil, Craig Cathcart from Blackpool for 1.8mil, Gary Mackay-Steven from Dundee for 2.2mil, Veton Berisha for 1.4mil from Viking and Billy McKay from Inverness for 2.4mil.

GK: Tomasz Kuszczak

DR: Bruno

DC: Craig Cathcart
DC: Matthew Upson
DL: Jonathan Silva

MC: Kemy Agustien (Dale Stephens)
MC: Keith Andrews
AMR: Gary Mackay-Steven (David Lopez)
AMC: Andrea Orlandi
AML: Will Buckley (Veton Berisha)
ST: Leonardo Ulloa (Billy McKay)

The squad is more than capable of keeping up the form we had in the first half of the season, 15 games won, drew 6, lost 2 but I need to get out of the mini slump I'm currently in, having drawn 2, lost 1 and won 1 in the busy christmas period allowed Blackburn to catch up to me (especially considering I lost to Blackburn)

[Baddar]

I never change from Balanced. I guess it's because I've had success with it, so I don't see the point trying something different on a system that's working.

My team looks like this;

GK DDG

RB Montoya (S)

CB Garay (D)

CB Vertonghen (D)

LB Shaw or Evra (S)

DM Carrick (D)

CM Herrera or Fellaini (Au)

RAM Mata (S)

LAM Januzaj (S)

CAM Rooney (A)

TM Van Persie (A)

I shift Mata into the centre and play Nani out wide whenever Rooney is injured/needs a rest. I start games on control at 'higher tempo', and have the 'run at defence' and 'retain possession' instructions active almost all the time. If I'm up against a side that I think has the better of me in midfield, I'll start on balanced instead of control, especially if I'm away.

As things stand, notable back-up players are Jones, Nani, Welbeck, Pereira (his stats are progressing nicely so I'm hoping I can bring him into the first team properly in the future), Lodeiro, Hernandez - with Blind and Robben to come into the fold in a month or so.

[Jimmy]

Star ratings are relative, so, for example, with Rooney and RVP in your team, you're not going to find 4/5 star regens because the it's not possible within the attribute ranges to be that much better than Rooney and RVP.

Whereas, Jimmy, as a high Ligue Two team Auxerre, will produce them but in reality, they might only be good Ligue Un players in the future.

I'm Ligue One now and I'm still producing 'leading stars in Ligue 1'. One of my 18 year olds is already the subject of 14 mil bids, and some 16 years olds at 5 mil.

[DavidMarrio]

And just after I posted that, Blackburn have been docked 10 points for going into administration. So Doncaster and Nottingham Forest are the two closest teams behind me now with a 9 point gap between me and them.

Just realised too, if I do get promoted this squad is going to need a major overhaul. A lot of the players I can't see being better than Championship level

[King Ellis]

Star ratings are relative, so, for example, with Rooney and RVP in your team, you're not going to find 4/5 star regens because the it's not possible within the attribute ranges to be that much better than Rooney and RVP.

Whereas, Jimmy, as a high Ligue Two team Auxerre, will produce them but in reality, they might only be good Ligue Un players in the future.

And relative to your assistant as well, I'd imagine. Like, if he's 2 and 3 for current and future ability he'd probably look at a young Peter Crouch and say " He's gonna be a world beater!"

Star ratings are relative, so, for example, with Rooney and RVP in your team, you're not going to find 4/5 star regens because the it's not possible within the attribute ranges to be that much better than Rooney and RVP.

Whereas, Jimmy, as a high Ligue Two team Auxerre, will produce them but in reality, they might only be good Ligue Un players in the future.

And relative to your assistant as well, I'd imagine. Like, if he's 2 and 3 for current and future ability he'd probably look at a young Peter Crouch and say " He's gonna be a world beater!"

[JasonM]

I never change from Balanced. I guess it's because I've had success with it, so I don't see the point trying something different on a system that's working.

My team looks like this;

GK DDG

RB Montoya (S)

CB Garay (D)

CB Vertonghen (D)

LB Shaw or Evra (S)

DM Carrick (D)

CM Herrera or Fellaini (Au)

RAM Mata (S)

LAM Januzaj (S)

CAM Rooney (A)

TM Van Persie (A)

I shift Mata into the centre and play Nani out wide whenever Rooney is injured/needs a rest. I start games on control at 'higher tempo', and have the 'run at defence' and 'retain possession' instructions active almost all the time. If I'm up against a side that I think has the better of me in midfield, I'll start on balanced instead of control, especially if I'm away.

As things stand, notable back-up players are Jones, Nani, Welbeck, Pereira (his stats are progressing nicely so I'm hoping I can bring him into the first team properly in the future), Lodeiro, Hernandez - with Blind and Robben to come into the fold in a month or so.

That's gonna be a devastating team when Robben and Blind arrive.

Just one question, what are you gonna do with Daley Blind? His best position is LB, which is firmly held by Luke Shaw. I assume Carrick is also still gonna be around for a while, so that'd make Daley Blind more of a handyman bench player who can slot in everywhere?

Also, since you have Mata and Januzaj. I assume Januzaj will be benched with Mata going to the left side and Robben taking up shop on his favourite right side?

[Baddar]

I've brought Blind in as someone who can cover in the positions he's able to play. I'd like to use him at DM ideally, but Evra won't be with me much longer, so he'll get play time.

As for the Robben/Januzaj/Mata situation, I haven't really thought about it much - Robben wasn't being used by Bayern (not entirely sure who's playing instead of him) and he came relatively cheap. I do play enough games so that all 3 will play enough to be happy. Januzaj's stamina is a bit shit, and Mata gets injured every now and then. I'm full.expecting Robben to be injured by the time he arrives anyway.

[stokeriño]

In the updated Chelsea game I've just started up for fun, I'm trying to force "Fluid" on them right from the beginning, in hope that they'll have figured out how to do it properly by late October, say.

In fact, not only am I playing every match with "Fluid", but I've decided that in every match I shall also be "Attacking". Just because.

Obviously if this goes well then the next step is "Very Fluid" and, if I want to really get silly, "Overload". LIKE A MANIAC.