Started a save with Atlético Madrid playing a counter-attacking 442 formation so far so good won all 6 league games only conceding 1 goal did score 9 goals in my 1st two games then the next three were all 1-0 and then beat R.Madrid at home 3-0.
In the Champions league beat Ludogorets 6-0 but drew away to Basel 1-1 (made 5 changes from my usual line up)
Both goals I have conceded have been from corners
Line up
Oblak
Juanfran Godin Gimenez Luis
Carrasco Soul Gabi Koke
Gameiro Griezmann
Gameiro and Griezmann have 14 goals between then in the 8 games played
Started a save as Ajax as I've never managed them before and have some really good young players. Had an excellent PSV save a few years ago and it was good but challenging to constantly fend off bids for your best players. This I imagine will be no different. Dolberg, De Ligt etc. I'll have to do well to keep.
Transfer wise didn't bring much in, gave some pay rises out to key players to try and butter them up managed to make it past the first window unscathed.
Kaiser I thought was a bit of a bargain, he's very well rounded and cost little in both wages and transfer fee. Excellent rotation option. Felt we were lacking in central defense so I got Wouters from Genk as a young rotation option who will also be perfect if somehow De Ligt is prised away from me. Pajot is probably my best signing for the money IMO. Lots of experience playing at a decent level which will be important in this very youthful team. I consciously tried to bring in a few experienced players to give the squad a bit of a boost in that department.
Pajot is pretty much perfect as a BWM and my stupid assistant thinks he's only 2.5*. I had no one in the squad who could play the role, the only thing that lets him down is his strength. I loved signing him a few years back on one of the older games, he's a gem for smaller clubs this year IMO.
Will be training Wouters as a BPD, pretty good technically but will get better over time with his mentals. Kaiser is pretty much in his prime and will be a AP option of me in CM.
The only player I have sold is Viergiver, wasn't happy with not playing too much and I just didn't really rate him that much. Gone to Benfica for £1.5 Million.
Tactically I'm trying to be very basic with instructions and try and let the player's creativity come through. I've had little success this year so far with creating my own tactics with 'higher level' teams. The only one I managed to get working is on my journeyman save managing FC United which is also an attacking tactic. I love playing with inside forwards in a 4-2-3-1 and Ajax have fantastic players for the roles. Here is my XI with the instructions too.
Normally Dolberg would start up front but is injured ATM
One other thing which I have noticed is I have conceded much less from corners this year with a few tweaks to the default defending corners tactic, I always have a man on the posts and like to bring pretty much everyone else back except a quick winger/striker. Here it's Ziyech because Huntelaar has less pace and would be better in the area defending corners with his heading. This set up is mirrored for both sides.
Had some really impressive results I got through both CL qualifying rounds and into the group stages without conceding a goal and so far (13 Games in) still unbeaten.
I almost have a few times but just fell short. I had a Man City team, on FM13 I think, who managed to go 3 league seasons unbeaten. Two times I had only one draw
That was also the only time I've ever managed to make 3-4-3 work in the Prem too
Just remembered I signed Sanchez on a free transfer on my train journey travelling save before any of the speculation of us actually signing him begun. You can thank me when he comes good. Good job I don't feel the need to start a new save now
Having so much fun with my Wolves save. 3 striker formation is the only formation working for me. After breaking every single championship record, I'm now 2nd in the PL, a point behind Chelsea who just beat me 2-1 and I play them again in the 2nd leg of the Carabao at home next. I signed James Wilson from United for 2.5million and play him as a poacher with Jota as an AF and Giovinco as an AF. He is just lethal.
Tactics I'm using are KNAPS 3-4-3 which you can get from the SI site.
@Berbaclass I usually play with Ajax. Constant bids for your players and players handing in transfer requests is what you are in for. Like two FMs I let the DOF handle transfer bids and he ended up selling like 14 first teamers. And you are doing a lot better than I usually do. I tend to play the Ajax 4-3-3(4-1-2-3 to be exact) with a focus on possession and high pressing. I also tend to zonal mark corners
@Berbaclass I usually play with Ajax. Constant bids for your players and players handing in transfer requests is what you are in for. Like two FMs I let the DOF handle transfer bids and he ended up selling like 14 first teamers. And you are doing a lot better than I usually do. I tend to play the Ajax 4-3-3(4-1-2-3 to be exact) with a focus on possession and high pressing. I also tend to zonal mark corners
Yeah it's a nightmare. Had it on my PSV save a few years ago and my Goteborg save too.
I always want to play possession football but I feel it doesn't really work due to the limitations of the match engine. You cant really set up and dominate games in the manner that teams like City/Barca do or have done. City I think average something like 70% possession IRL and I don't think that would be possible on FM, would be closer to 55% I think.
I'm trying to play like Guardiola with my setup atm but a bit more conservative and in a slightly different shape. Instead of having a player like Fernandinho in a HB role I have Pajot as a BWM and an AP next to him. Speaking of City, I've been looking to make a tactic to replicate their play style but not tested it out yet.
Yeah it's a nightmare. Had it on my PSV save a few years ago and my Goteborg save too.
I always want to play possession football but I feel it doesn't really work due to the limitations of the match engine. You cant really set up and dominate games in the manner that teams like City/Barca do or have done. City I think average something like 70% possession IRL and I don't think that would be possible on FM, would be closer to 55% I think.
I'm trying to play like Guardiola with my setup atm but a bit more conservative and in a slightly different shape. Instead of having a player like Fernandinho in a HB role I have Pajot as a BWM and an AP next to him. Speaking of City, I've been looking to make a tactic to replicate their play style but not tested it out yet.
I have the GK passing to defenders, I have the FBs sitting narrower and I have inside forward wingers sitting narrower as well. So I able to get 60% plus possession most matches.
I really wish we had more control over things like defensive transitions. Even just being able to set players to track back when losing the ball would be great.
You have all these options to tweak your team going forward but hardly anything the opposite way.
Won the league by 10 points but yet only 3 of my players got into TOTY and Madrid who came 2nd got 6 including 4 of the back 5, Oblak got the Golden Glove but was overlooked, Griezmann finished 2nd in the race for the golden boot was also overlooked,
Won the Champions League beats Spurs 2-0 in the final scored an early goal then went defensive, and then got a pen mid way through the 2nd half, scored with both shots on target. I got 9 players the the CL TOTY
I know you can deactivate teams having transfer budgets in the first window, but is there a way to do it for the January one as well? I'd like to play the first season with the teams as they are, and THEN have the movement start to happen.
is it just me, or is this database heavily biased towards Italy for some reason? They've got a bunch of players with insane potential values which aren't looking anything special in real life. They are basically bound to dominate international football after a few years.
is it just me, or is this database heavily biased towards Italy for some reason? They've got a bunch of players with insane potential values which aren't looking anything special in real life. They are basically bound to dominate international football after a few years.
Like who? A lot of players, especially fairly talented youngsters have potentials that are -7,-75,-8,-85 etc which gives them a range PA of about 120-150 and upwards for each one etc. which is randomly generated each time, the Italian's might have just got lucky on your save . There's a few decent ones that pop up regularly like Pellegri, Pellegrini, D'Amico & Pinnamonti but most of the others turn out average for me.
Like who? A lot of players, especially fairly talented youngsters have potentials that are -7,-75,-8,-85 etc which gives them a range PA of about 120-150 and upwards for each one etc. which is randomly generated each time, the Italian's might have just got lucky on your save . There's a few decent ones that pop up regularly like Pellegri, Pellegrini, D'Amico & Pinnamonti but most of the others turn out average for me.
I just was in the editor to do some stuff on the Bayern team and then started searching for outstanding players. I think maybe just you got lucky so many of them turned out to be normal, they have by far the most players amongst the top talents. By the way, how can I generate players? I want to complete some German teams
I just was in the editor to do some stuff on the Bayern team and then started searching for outstanding players. I think maybe just you got lucky so many of them turned out to be normal, they have by far the most players amongst the top talents. By the way, how can I generate players? I want to complete some German teams
Thanks mate. I'll be looking at starting a new game this weekend then. Mkhitaryan's been doing my head in so it'll be nice to not have him refusing transfers left, right and centre.
Hate when the big update comes midway through a season. Was curbstomping everyone in sight and had a chance to get my first ever unbeaten season only for the first match post-update to be a 5-1 defeat to the team in 12th...
Still playing 2017 seeing as only bought it a few months ago. Pogba said he wants to leave to join a bigger club, just after winning the PL for the second season running and the CL a few weeks ago. We also just won the Super Cup. He's won literally everything possible in England other than the League Cup over 3 seasons. The team is ridiculous - DDG, Rose, Varane, Van Dijk, Danilo, Pogba, Silva, Neymar, Dybala and Griezmann.
I just left it hoping it'd blow over and thankfully no offers came in. Come transfer deadline day the team holds a meeting saying I should've let him go. Wankers. Now all their morale ranges from poor to okay. Inclined to implode my save, fine them all constantly and do my best to ruin their careers.
Premier league players are so overrated in FM, it's just unreal.
When you search with filters, most of them in results are PL players. Looks like Bournemouth, Liverpool, Arsenal researchers are just overexcited teenagers.
Yeah, Mkhi is one of my best players as well. Generally have some luxury problems in the attacking places, so might even let Mata go in the summer if Real Madrid comes in with a big offer.
When you get to the last few weeks of the season and your success has left you playing matches every other day, it's a bit of a bitch to manager while trying to keep players fit.
Started journeyman save but with all the coaching badges (not arsed to do coaching badge, usually teams don't play well when you start preparing for the badges). Simulated till mid December to take over team midseason. Dortmund job was available and they were 11th or 12th with 10 points behind 3rd placed team and nearly 20 points behind Bayern.
4-3-3 is working really well, finished in CL places, sign Arthur, Martinez, Diego Llorent in Jan. Next season signed Savic, Jorginho (was transfer listed), Dolberg, De Sciglio (transfer listed) and then batshuayi (loan with option to buy). Won the league comfortably and then lost to Barca in CL QFs. Highlight of the season is losing 6-4 to Schalke. Crazy game and 4-4-2 is unstoppable and very hard to defend against.
batshuayi is a beast, had agreed 15M to buy him and activated that in Jan. He scored more than 40 goals..
Then Milan sacked Gattuso so left Dortmund after just 18 months (they had 105 Million to spend for next season). Milan offered 0 for transfers and all the wage budget is already utilised. They have only 3 fullbacks and 3 CBs in the squad. Offload 2-3 players.
Today I read that there is bug in match engine (which was sort of known) but it still exists in latest patch, that 3 striker formation is like exploiting that bug. Don't think that will stop me from using it as Milan squad suits that formation very much. They have 4-5 good strikers already in the squad.
Messing about with a United save. Signed Mbappe for about 220 million but he's been worth every penny. Insane stats and has averaged about 8 a game. Won World Player and he's still only 21. I'm actually at the point now where I genuinely don't need to sign anyone. I'm just waiting for Sanchez to decline so I can sign a new player.
Messed around with a real time editor and changed one of the youth prospects to a potential superstar and made him good enough to be a first team DM/CM. Not sure if I could keep that or undo all that and go back to the previous save file.
I think it is worth a purchase. I have every FM since '10 on my steam account, I probably got them all the way back to 05 tbh. I end up getting it every year. This year has more material changes than previous few years.
managed to make it past the first window unscathed.
