FOOTBALL Football Manager Discussion

[Themer]

Things didn't work out with Sunderland for me. I finished my first season in twelfth which I was very pleased with even though at one stage I though I had an outside chance of Europe. I set my goal as getting into Europe which looked possible following the first season and the ?30 million pounds worth of encouragement that the board were prepared to give.

After 14 games I was 10th and a bit away from the European places but I still thought my position was safe. I then lost to Newcastle 4-0, a big no no for a Sunderland manager and was promptly sacked.

I spent a while going for jobs until I was finally offered the job as manager of Koblenz who in the relagation play-off zone in the German Second division and I went for it. Despite decent results I wasn't able to haul us out the the relegation playoff and then lost the first leg of the playoff 2-0. Needed to win the second leg away from home 3-0 or face penalties or worse. We did it 3-0.

I've had to have a big overhaul of the squad though, there was alot of deadwood in the team and literally go rid of 19 players for virtually nothing and I didn't have much money for transfers despite the club being financially sound.

I did get a few decent cast off from the big German clubs and after 16 matches we're 6th which for serious relegation candidates I'm very pleased with.

 

[blake]

Well, in 2021/22 I've finally taken Malachians to our first ever league title in Northern Ireland after taking them all the way through the ranks from being fourth-tier fodder to champions of Northern Ireland. We've had a number of 90 point seasons in the past but this year was the first one we actually managed to beat Linfield (the bastards) as we clocked up a 34-2-2 season, scoring 117 and conceding 25 and finishing on 104 points, well clear of Linfield's 88. We've started off brilliantly too with a great run in the Champions League, knocking over a weak team from Malta 8-3 on aggregate before taking out the Czech Republic's finest in Slavia Prague with a 7-4 aggregate win after the away leg finished 3-3.

The one match which stood between us and the group stages was against Danish giants FC K?benhavn.. they were a far better team than us on paper, but I clearly have amazing managerial skills and despite going 1-0 down early at home we pulled back late in the second half to finish the home leg 1-1 and in the away leg we pulled out a stunning 3-1 victory with the last goal coming in the 90th minute. $12M AUD going to our bank account and a group against Inter, Benfica and Galatasaray.. should be brilliant!

I've finally found the ultimate tactic though, started using it last year and the rest is history. We've generally been scoring 4-5 goals each game with it and sometimes even go better; we put 9 past Dundalk last match in the Setanta Cup. I also have a devastating 22 year old left footed Northern Irish striker by the name of Mark Neill who looks to be a sensational prospect. He scored 48 goals in 49 (2) matches last year but this year he has matured ridiculously and has scored 25 goals in just 10 matches. Freakish. He has 15 finishing, 13 dribbling, 13 composure, 16 off the ball, 15 pace and 15 acceleration and at this level that is enough to ensure you are going to be a very successful striker.

Oh the joys of Northern Ireland! Can't wait to see how we fare against Inter.

 

[mattfb]

Ahem, what about Rileys 50 goals?

Top stuff Blake. Campiones, Campiones, ole ole ole

 

[blake]

Yeah, we have some other left footed hack who is Pommy, 26 years old and is an average striker.. knocked in 50 goals from 41 (3) games last year, had a casual campaign..

blake added 6 Minutes and 45 Seconds later...

Next step: Undefeated season in the league. Our two losses came at the hands of Linfield last year, but we've gotten off to a better start this year - knocked them off 4-1 on the season opener.

 

[treva]

Liverpool, eat your hearts out! Probably the greatest comeback of my Football Manager career. A very embarrassing first half but as soon as we scored the 2nd I just had a feeling we'd go on and win.

 

[hedger_14]

Decided to try something new in FM. Only use youth players in the Man Utd team (i.e. used the editor to get rid of anyone 21 years of age or older so 20 is the oldest in my squad). I've put myself in Coca-Cola League 1 just to have a bit of experience. I've made the rules for my challenge.

Can only buy players under the age of 21 (i.e. 20 or younger)
Can only buy English, Welsh, Irish or Scottish players
Must play at least 4 U20 players in each match (won't be a problem at the start)
No rules on selling players apart from player exchanges with non English U20 players

That's all I can think of. Now lets see how I go. I'm loading a large database with all English players loaded.

 

[mattfb]

Liverpool three time EPL winners. Lost the ECL final to Real Madrid 3-2 :/

My first season I finished second to Chelsea but I've won the last three since then.

 

[hedger_14]

I've started off by signing Jack Rodwell, Jose Baxter and John Bostock for a total of 23.5M pounds as well as a future transfer of Jack Wilshere for 15M when his loan finishes with Bolton and of course Chris Smalling who is already a future transfer in the game. I was unable to sign Victor Moses though. I've got a reasonable starting XI now.

 

[hedger_14]

Igor Akinfeev is a legend. Hulk scored early on giving me a 1-0 lead against Bolton but 70 minutes into the match, Fabio gave away a penalty. Akinfeev made an excellent save though to give me a 1-0 win, although I'm not happy that we didn't win by now. Brazil match now against Russia. Hulk is in for a hattrick here.

hedger_14 added 2 Minutes and 39 Seconds later...

Hulk has scored in his last 6 International matches for a statistic and 7 in his last 8 (this season) after only scoring 2 in his first 7 matches.

hedger_14 added 13 Minutes and 11 Seconds later...

Yep. He scored again in a 2-1 win. Now for the final game of the year, against Bosnia. Let's see if he can score yet again there.

 

[shantanu_rooney]

Started a new game with Real Madrid and had a great August and September. Scored 23 goals in 5 league games and conceded just 2 and both in the defeat against Espanyol. Ivan Alonso of Espanyol scored in 93rd minute to win the game. But the match below shows Cristiano Ronaldo is the just brilliant in FM 2010.

 

[hedger_14]

Gone back to my Man Utd save which I have played all games without holidaying. I'm 3 seasons in (December 2011) and this is my current squad.

Players in brackets are other players that also play pretty regularly

GK: Igor Akinfeev (Alphonse Areola)

DR: Rafael (Rafinha)
DL: Alioune N'Diaye (Fabio) - N'Diaye is a really great player who has already taken the left back position for France from Patrice Evra and has got 11 caps for France and he is currently 20 years old
DC: Rio Ferdinand (Jonny Evans)
DC: Nemanja Vidic (Chris Smalling if 2 of the 3 centre halfs are injured)

DMC: Daniele de Rossi (Owen Hargreaves)
MC: Andrey Arshavin (Anderson/Ander) - Anderson is signing for Fiorentina for 15M in January.
MC: Alex Witsel (Alan Dzagoev)

ST: Hulk (Welbeck/Sanogo/Macheda) - Latter two on loan
ST: Edin Dzeko (Baba Kanote) - Kanote is a good looking regen signed from Chelsea for 2.8M a year ago (when he started his career)
ST: Alexis Sanchez (Wayne Rooney)


Other Players:

Tom Bird - DL. On loan at Cardiff. 17 years old. Signed from Middlesbrough for 7.75M last year.
Josh Cross - DC. On loan at Crystal Palace. 17 years old. Signed from Wolves for 2M
Jack Wilshere - AM (RL). Signed from Arsenal for 3.6M
Damien Le Tallex - AM/ST. Signed from Dortmund for 4M. Waste of money though.


Transfers throughout the seasons: (Everything in pounds)

2009/10

In:

Alex Witsel - 10M
Alphonse Areola - 250K
Alan Dzagoev - 16M
Rafael van der Vaart - 7.5M
Damien Le Tallec - 4M
Rafinha - 15M
Igor Akinfeev - 30M
Edin Dzeko - 25M
Yaya Sanogo - 2M
Ander - 8.5M

Total: 10 players, 118M

Out:

Dimitar Berbatov - 13M
Michael Owen - 3,4M
Robbie Brady - 1.2M
Antonio Valencia - 20M (Not suitable with my formation)
Darron Gibson - 6.5M
David Gray - Loan
Tomasz Kuszczak - 3M
Park Ji-Sung - 6M
Craig Catchart - Loan
Ritchie De Laet - Loan
Joshua King - Loan
Mame Biram Diouf - Ln Fee 525K
Tom Heaton - Loan
Rodrigo Possebon - Loan

Total: 14 players, 54M


2010/11 season

In:

Chris Smalling - 7M
Jack Wilshere - 3.6M
Hulk - 22.5M
Baba Konate - 2.8M
Alexis Sanchez - 15M
Daniele de Rossi - 55M
Josh Cross - 2M
Simon Vukcevic - 12M
Tom Bird - 7.75M
Alioune N'Diaye - 32.5M

Out:

Mame Biram Diouf - 4.7M
John O'Shea - 5M
Wes Brown - 6.5M
David Gray - Free
Gary Neville - Free
Tom Heaton - Free
Ron-Robert Zieler - Free
James Chester - Free
Sam Hweson - Free
Corry Evans - Free
Scott Moffatt - Free
Joe Dudgeon - Free
Oliver Gill - Free
Ben Foster - 4.1M
Gabriel Obertan - 3.4M
Paul Pogba - 525K
Darren Fletcher - 12M
Michael Carrick - 12M
Ritchie De Laet - Loan
Federico Macheda - Loan
Rodrigo Possebon - Loan
Nani - Ln Fee 1.7M
Zoran Tosic - 4.5M
Simon Vukcevic - 15M - Yep, I sold him in the same season.
Rafael van der Vaart - 13.5M
Patrice Evra - 26M
Febian Brandy - Loan
Matt James - Loan
Yaya Sanogo - Loan
Josh Cross - Loan
Tom Bird - Loan

Total: 33 players, 113M


2011/12

In:

Franck Ribery - Free
Andrey Arshavin - 35M
Roman Nagy - 10K
Adam Davies - 3M

Total: 4 players, 38M

Out:

Joshua King - Free
Yaya Sanogo - Loan
Nani - 5M
Tom Bird - Loan
Franck Ribery - 40M
Ritchie De Laet - Loan
Febian Brandy - Loan
Josh Cross - Loan
Matt James - Loan
Federico Macheda - Ln Fee 1.5M

Total: 10 players, 46.5M

 

[mattfb]

Witsel is a gun. Signed him for ?7.5m in my first season. Sold him for ?10m after 5 valuable years of service.

Gotta love free transfers aye? I've picked up about 2 or 3 a season at least, including Trezquet, Inazghi, Henry, Van Brommel, Joaquin, Riquelme, Van der vaart and my greatest one yet - Gourcuff.

You've sold a lot of good players, how's your team going? What's your record? (Playing stats, league wins, cup wins etc)

EDIT: Signed Trezquet for 4m actually. Just signed Hunterlaar for ?3.5m too, he's been a gun back-up for Dzeko and Torres. 5 (3) appearances, 4 goals and 1 assist

 

[hedger_14]

Yeah. Witsel is a damn legend. It was annoying cause he was unsettled, unpleased and had everything wrong so I played him 10 matches in a row, gave him a month back in Belgium and then I did something else and he was finally feeling better. Now he is a big influence. He has an average rating of around 7.2 over the past 2 seasons and always does a lot of work. Ribery and Gourcuff are the best free transfers when they appaer.

Well let's see. I sold Berbatov and Owen in the first season and signed Dzeko who won player of the year last year with like 60 goals in a season. His league record since joining Man Utd is 62 goals in 74 games and 31 assists with an average rating of 8.22 last season. He hasn't played well at International level though. I signed Akinfeev and sold Kuszczak. I didn't make any real transfers out in the 09/10 season apart from Valencia who doesn't play any part in my formation, 4-1-2-3. In 10/11, I sold Fletcher and Carrick to try for a younger central midfield and that's probably where I lack a bit although now that I bought Arshavin, it's been a bit better. I sold Evra to get N'Diaye who had nearly better stats and had many more years in front of him. I sold van der Vaart cause he wasn't part of my starting XI by the time I sold him. And I bought Ribery on a free, always planning to sell him since he played no part in my formation. Apart from that, most of my transfers have been pretty small, not making much impact. And I'll give you my record after this game with Aston Villa.

hedger_14 added 2 Minutes and 40 Seconds later...

OMG. Akinfeev made a big mess (not often he does that) and Caicedo passed it across to Agbonlahor after Akinfeev couldn't get to the ball first and Agbonlahor with an open goal in front of him and all the time in the world sent it wide.

 

[hedger_14]

Ok. I'll post my performances in each season.

Season 2009/10:

Premier League - Winner, 26-8-4 record, 86 points, 4 ahead of Chelsea

Community Shield - Lost on penalties

Champions League - Winner, 3 wins, 3 draws in group stage finishing 1st, 5-4 win on aggregate in first KO round against Bordeaux, 2-1 win on aggregate in Qtr finals against AC Milan, 4-2 win on aggregate in Semis against Barcelona, 2-2 winning on penalties in final against Real Madrid

League Cup - Winner, 4-1 win in the final against Aston Villa with a Rafael van der Vaart hattrick

FA Cup - Runners up, lost to Chelsea 2-1 in extra time in the final


Season 2010/11

Premier League - Winner, 36-2-0 record (What a great season) taking 110 points, 30 ahead of Arsenal in second

Community Shield - Again lost

Euro. Super Cup - 4-0 win against Shakhtar

Champions League - knocked out in quarter finals against Juventus on away goals

Club World Championship - Easy winners with Dzeko scoring 5 goals in the 2 games

League Cup - Runners up, 3-2 loss to Liverpool in the final

FA Cup - Lost in semi final, 1-0 in extra time against Arsenal


Season 2011/12

Premier League - Currently first in Premier League, 13 wins, 2 draws and 1 loss, with 41 points although I haven't had a great season with many games being very close.

Community Shield - Winner, 3-0 win against Arsenal

Champions League - Finished top of the group after a win against Schalke, with 4 wins and 2 losses. KO rounds not decided

League Cup - Easy wins in 3rd and 4th round. Playing Sunderland in the quarter final and will play Arsenal in the semis.

That is all I've played in so far this season.



Man Utd Match Stats

2 league wins, 5 cup wins, 152 games played, 117 wins, 23 draws, 12 losses, 366 goals scored (2.4 pm), 101 goals conceded (0.7 pm), GD = 265

 

[hedger_14]

Also forgot to mention that Luka Modric is signing for us in January for 5M upfront + 25M over 48 months. Note that I'm already paying 3M pounds a month to pay for monthly installments on other players, although I'm getting in 1.6M a month from monthly installments as well.