Football Manager 2011

First topic message reminder :

Saw there wasn't a topic for the greatest Football Management sim ever,so post all your trials and tribulations of your seasons here,and any players/tactics you can recommend.

I'm currently playing a season as Worcester City in the Blue Square North and I'm going well so far,top of the league and lost two games all season(One League and one in the FA Cup first round away at Crawley).No money so all signings are free transfers.Best players for me so far:

Gautier Mahoto:9 Goals and 9 Assists from Central Midfield
Mark Danks:15 goals in 16 games
Mustapha Traore:Absolute rock at the back.

Mahoto and Traore were both free transfers.So,Anyone got any stories of glory/despair on Football Manager this year?

I tend to play jouneyman games or take teams form English Conference North level jobs so if a player coming in costs any transfer fee then its a big signing.

Rarely play the big teams get bored to quickly.

I normally take mid table sides in Premier league first, and then try and bring someone from League 2 up. Arsenal next season looks quite interesting if they lose Fabregas and Nasri with no replacements.

I keep trying with Macclesfield, I get all the known must have freebies in etc yet I’m getting pummelled every single week. On paper my team should be mid table League 1 but I’m adrift at the bottom of League 2.

Biggest achievement is taking Huddersfield in to the Champions League. I think a lot of it is how you set up the team.

Finished 2nd in my first season with Spurs on a transfer update database. Not too bad, were about 6 points off winners Man Utd, and only 1pt clear of 3rd and 4th place Arsenal/Man City.
Footballer of the Year - Bale (2nd) & Lennon (3rd)
Manager of the Year - Me (1st)
Players' Team of the Year - Dawson, Lennon & Bale. Adrian on bench.

Managed to get to the semi of the Europa League, final of League Cup and 5th Round of FA Cup- but no trophies this season.

Top goalscorers:
Defoe - 34 in 45(4)
Lennon - 20 in 45(4)
Hlousek - 18 in 11(32)

Asissts:
Adrian - 20 in 34(14)
Bale - 18 in 38(2)
Modric - 15 in 40(8)
Lennon - 13 in 45(4)

Its all about how you setup up the team for me, fitting the formation to your players and not the players to the formations. You need to spend time looking at individuals and making sure if your bringing someone in they fit in your team shape attributes wise.

I tend to play a version of 4-1-3-2 while in the lower leagues, where the DM is a support role and the left & right sided CM's are both Ball Winning Mids with either Support/Defend depending on which suits best. The other CM is normally a advanced playermaker with attacking as his option. I then go into the market with these positions/attributes in mind. With the lower leagues you can do this as your mostly building a new squad anyway.

Not played as much of this version of FM but my best success so far has been St Albans from the Conference South to League 1 within 4 seasons, not sure I'll get them to Prem before next FM though.

Just started a file with Liverpool with the updates, spent a hell of a lot of money this summer:

Signings:

Gary Cahill - £6m
Eden Hazard - £18m
Domonico Criscito - £13m
Abdallah Yaisien - 16 year old from PSG - £3m
Karim Benzema - Loan - small fee

Total = £40.5m

Sold (notables)

Kyrgiakos - free (West Ham)
Maxi Rodruigez - £5m (Sevilla)
David N'Gog - £5m (Athletico)
Dirk Kuyt - £7.5m (Bayern)

All sales come to a total of £18.5m

remaining cash £26m

Current starting XI

..............................Reina..........................
Johnson.....Carragher..........Agger.....Cristico
................Gerrard............Meireles..............
Hazard...............................................Suarez
.................Carroll............Benzema

Subs:
B.Jones
G.Cahill
M.Skrtel
F.Aurelio
J.Cole
M.Jovanovic
Yaisien

want a replacement on the bench instead of Yaisien any good suggestions for a young striker/winger, dont mind spending up to £20m

Jelle Vossen, I got him for Liverpool, high finishing stats, cost me around £2 million only 21 he was my top scorer even though he didn't play much, only a striker though.

The other option is to play Pacheo, he did an alright job for me as back up.

Kuyt would have been good back up, much better than Jovanovic and Joe Cole. You might also want to think of playing Cahill instead of Carragher who is outpaced quite a bit.

Also get some decent cover for Johnson at right back.

hodge wrote:want a replacement on the bench instead of Yaisien any good suggestions for a young striker/winger, dont mind spending up to £20m

For £20million there will be a lot of good young strikers/wingers available, if you're going to be searching all suggestions then you may aswell just search for a list of wonderkids and then search them all on your game.

I managed to buy Kaka for £10 million on the last day of transfer window, unfortunatly it means that one of my other signings Sessegnon isn't going to play much as he was originally going to be my choice for that position.

hodge wrote:Just started a file with Liverpool with the updates, spent a hell of a lot of money this summer:

Signings:

Gary Cahill - £6m
Eden Hazard - £18m
Domonico Criscito - £13m
Abdallah Yaisien - 16 year old from PSG - £3m
Karim Benzema - Loan - small fee

Total = £40.5m

Sold (notables)

Kyrgiakos - free (West Ham)
Maxi Rodruigez - £5m (Sevilla)
David N'Gog - £5m (Athletico)
Dirk Kuyt - £7.5m (Bayern)

All sales come to a total of £18.5m

remaining cash £26m

Current starting XI

..............................Reina..........................
Johnson.....Carragher..........Agger.....Cristico
................Gerrard............Meireles..............
Hazard...............................................Suarez
.................Carroll............Benzema

Subs:
B.Jones
G.Cahill
M.Skrtel
F.Aurelio
J.Cole
M.Jovanovic
Yaisien

want a replacement on the bench instead of Yaisien any good suggestions for a young striker/winger, dont mind spending up to £20m

Babacar from Fiorentina, wonderkid who scores for fun.

Only recommending him because he's been awesome for me. Hlousek. Can get him for under £5m and his physicals play a big part in his performance.

There's also Lukaku but I've found Babacar better for consistancy.

Vaclev?

Having a clearout in the summer of my 2nd season with Spurs. Pedroza (£2.4m), Hutton (£5.5m), Pav (£6.75m), Pienaar (£8.25m), VDV (£17.25m), Bentley (£6.25m), Gomes (£5.25m) and Crouch (£7.75m) have all left. At the moment only Begovic has came in, and I've got a bid in for Tomas Neci (Another good young striker). Caulker, Naughton and dos Santos all return from loans so I no longer need to look to strengthen those positions. It's just a case of trying to get the wage bill down, starting with Brad Friedel who won't be number one keeper this season.

cheers for the suggestions guys, realised i had enough to sign Mata though so will play Suarez upfront if required rather than on the wing

As it's been a while since I last played I decided to start a new game with Arsenal only two signings in my first transfer window managed to get Neymar and Claudio Marchisio. Thought I would bring in Neymar to add some goal scoring talent, and needed a centre mid due to injuries.

The game is incredibly unrealistic so. Arsenal would never spend money on players like that!

if have latest update you can get benzema for 8m

Thomond wrote:The game is incredibly unrealistic so. Arsenal would never spend money on players like that!

That would be because my name isn't Arsene Wenger. Intending to raise money in the next transer windows by selling Bendter, Denilson and some of the youth players, then shall try to get a keeper and centre back I missed out on Hangeland as Chelsea bought him for £15million.

ended up winning the league cup, knocked out in the quarter final of the europa league and FA cup 6th round, althought i finished 5th in the league. So for this season lowerd my expectations to qualification for europe through league place. Currently having a battle over 4th/5th place with Arsenal.

fernando wrote:if have latest update you can get benzema for 8m

if i'm a good team in the prem i always sign him on loan

4th season with Liverpool and really liking my team now, won the league cup all 3 seasons and in my 2nd season won the euro cup, and each season having reached the quarters each year.

I thought if you came 4th though you had a qualifying match for Champions league? i got put in 4th round for euro cup qualifiers.

Starting XI

............................Reina..............................
Johnson.....Kjaer.............P.Jones.....Criscito
................Gerrard.............Gago..................
Gourcuff...............................................Mata
.................Suarez...........Carroll...................

Subs:
Skeletenburg
Cahill
Aurelio
Diego
Pastore
Hazard
Benzema

rest of squad:

Kelly
Carragher
Agger
Meireles
J.Cole
Huntelaar
Klose

hodge wrote:4th season with Liverpool and really liking my team now, won the league cup all 3 seasons and in my 2nd season won the euro cup, and each season having reached the quarters each year.

I thought if you came 4th though you had a qualifying match for Champions league? i got put in 4th round for euro cup qualifiers.

Starting XI

............................Reina..............................
Johnson.....Kjaer.............P.Jones.....Criscito
................Gerrard.............Gago..................
Gourcuff...............................................Mata
.................Suarez...........Carroll...................

Subs:
Skeletenburg
Cahill
Aurelio
Diego
Pastore
Hazard
Benzema

rest of squad:

Kelly
Carragher
Agger
Meireles
J.Cole
Huntelaar
Klose

|it depends on how well English clubs have been doing, if they've been failing to reach the finals etc then our quota goes down to 3 like France.

Sami Khedira is a good one to get on the cheap from Real, he's a boss in the centre of midfield.

could Chelsea winning the champions league and finishing 6th have had something to do with it?

I found myself looking at the regens that are on the 2011 edition and I seemed to remember that there used to be an edition of FM where the regens were just players that had retired? Like Scholes and Neville retiring, they'd come back as youngsters?

On my best save yet at the moment.

Started as Leicester, took them up through the play offs but resigned in December of my first season in the Prem, having not won a game and the board getting a bit mardy. Was offered the Sheffield United job and took it, taking them from 14th in March to 7th in May, missing play offs by a point.

After a summers rebuilding and takeover, I assembled a decent squad and walked the league winning by 30 points and finishing on 115. Winning the Carling Cup guaranteed European football.

In my first season in the prem, I finished a solid 5th, above all expectations. Attracting a better calibre of players allowed me to strengthen the squad further and my team looked like this.


Smithies

Hodson - Ramis - Mills - Mulgrew

Lansbury - Adam - Matic

Eagles Hlousek/Gueye

Evans

That team continued to perform exceptionally and I was 6th in the prem and contesting all other competitions when in December, I was offered the Barca job. Took it and was given 122 million to spend. Spent 100 million and my teams looks like:


Valdes

Dani Alves - David Luiz - Pique (C) - Lahm

Mascherano - Iniesta - Douglas Costa

Messi

Zarate - Neymar (who is injured and is ably replaced by Gameiro)