How Are You Doing On CM?

[King Pietersen]

Started a new save on FM15, and after a superb first season Chelsea took the title with 91 points. No major first season signings other than Yarmolenko, and only Moses, Marin and Van Ginkel departed. At the end of the season Jose decided against signing a new contract, linked himself with the Southampton job (Koeman got sacked after they came 9th, one place below United, now managed by Ancelotti), but ended up moving to Napoli (ironic taking over an old Benitez team). Chelsea then make the most bizarre appointment in history, re-hiring the man they sacked after 9 months in charge last time, AVB. He went on to make 4 solid but unspectacular signings in Aboubakar, Rondon, Sisto and Schwegler and kept all key players.

However, he must be doomed as Chelsea manager already. They lost the Community Shield on penalties to Ancelotti's Man Utd, then lost to them in the league at Stamford Bridge, they followed that up by getting hammered 4-1 away at Leicester before making it 4 losses on the bounce in competitive games with a 2-0 home loss against Liverpool. Ouch. Good luck AVB, you're not going to be around long. Thank you AVB, making the almost impossible to beat Mourinho Chelsea very much beatable. Be hilarious if they go from winning the league to finishing in mid-table.

 

[cpr]

Took a season out after my hissy fit, rejected the Bayern job the next summer as I don't like the 'play possesion football' philosophy (I'd top the possession charts with Utd but still the board whinged, so I'm presuming its a bit knackered - I'm not going for a 80% possession and win 1-0 strategy, my tactic works fine as it is)

So I've taken over at Forest instead. This could go wrong....

Was riding as high as 4th with Forest, before a collapse at the end of the season saw us finish 8th (still, they'd finished 16th the year before). Made the FA Cup final too but lost to Chelsea 1-0. Still, gave European football. My old Utd team under Pep went the season unbeaten, though I stand by the fact the fans preferred the days of 130 goals scored and 50-60 against than his defensive 75/15 ratio....


Had a dodgy start to 22/23, not as dodgy as Simeone at Arsenal though, so Octobers seen me managing them for the first time in my life. Sitting 10th after 10 games. Given me a £6m transfer kitty (Simeone had managed to spend £126m this summer mind!)

 

[King Pietersen]

My Stoke side going into my 2nd season. Pretty huge overhaul in the space of a season. Bulk of the starters have been bought in and there's not much of an English core there, but happy with the squad. It's young, quick and will score goals. Actually made a profit in the summer before the 2nd season too. Spent £25m bringing in:

Valdes (to tutor Butland and replace Given)
Destro
Balanta
Tielemans
Bamford (loan)
Markovic (loan)

and then made £30m selling:

Haugaard
Afellay
Bardsley
Arnautovic
Cameron
Sidwell
Diouf
Crouch

Had a solid first season, only needed to avoid relegation to please the board, but at times was challenging for the Europa League, before ultimately finishing 9th after a L, X, D, X finish where wins in the final 3 games would have got us up to 5th. I normally try and keep a core of players from the original squad, but with this squad it hardly seems worth it, most of the squad players were old, terrible and overpaid. I've got 6 players left from the original squad: Butland, Johnson, Pieters, Shawcross, Adam and Bojan, and most of the 6 will play bit-part roles in the squad. Pretty excited to see how a front 3 of Shaqiri, Fischer and Destro does, should be epic. Fischer came in in January of the first season and was awesome. 7 goals 5 assists in 17 starts and pushed Arnautovic out of the side. If I can keep most of this team together it should last years and be a real dominant force.

 

[Dan]

Started a new ManU save while procrastinating uni work. Here are my transfers so far:

Charlie Austin -- 15mil
Memphis Depay -- 23mil
Eder Alvarez Balanta -- 12.25mil
Jonny -- 11.75mil
Antonio Rudiger -- 12mil
Gino Peruzzi -- 3.8mil

Trying to get rid of Ashley Young to free up a bit more cash for an actually-decent LB to supplement Shaw (120k a week for a guy who doesn't make the bench sucks), but nobody wants him and the Board won't let me release him on a free.

 

[Pothas]

Maybe the worst situation I have ever had, 2 promotions in 3 seasons means I have Oxford in the Championship but I have been given no transfer budget. Managed one free transfer but that is it, this would be ok if I could get some loans but they all require wage contributions that I can't make. I actually can't make a squad as I had so many loans last season that needed replacing. The board refuse any appeals for additional funds but they then randomly sign a striker (who is not even that good) for 300,000 after I asked them to get him on loan for me. Stupid game.

 

[Pothas]

So it would seem the only team I can get players on loan from is Standard Liege, 4 in from them and a couple from Everton (parent club) means I can actually have a match day squad.

 

[Dan]

The progress of my most recent ManU save:

Rudiger has been an absolute beast at the back for me. WAG.

Also working with a 3-1-4-2 DM option, and a 5-4-1 Diamond. Really struggling with playing possession football though; as you can see its very much a case of banging in as many goals as possible with RvP and Depay and backing ourselves to concede less than that.

In:
Charlie Austin, Memphis Depay, Eder Alvarez Balanta, Jonny, Antonio Rudiger, Gino Peruzzi, Charlie Adam (+ Michael Bradley joining in January)

Trying to get Smalling and Young to piss off, but with no success yet. Only sale was Ben Amos to Southampton, though Rafael wants to leave if we don't hit the CL.

My backline is still quantity over quality, with a lot resting on potential atm. That might be where to aim if I get rid of Young and Smalling for decent fees.

 

[Dan]

I still have no ****ing clue how I went down 4-0 to Villa. Embarrassing.

 

[Jarquis]

Charlie Adam

 

[Dan]

Hey, considering I know absolutely nothing about football, idiot signings are to be expected!

 

[sledger]

It's cool hearing about how someone new to the series is getting on Dan, keep it up.

 

[Magrat Garlick]

Hey, considering I know absolutely nothing about football, idiot signings are to be expected!

If you're using it to learn about association football, you should consider download a patch to fix the German club names.

Calling Schalke Gelsenkirchen is just silly.

 

[Dan]

It's cool hearing about how someone new to the series is getting on Dan, keep it up.

I'm **** and I have no idea how to keep possession of the ****ing ball. Even "everyone to midfield!" isn't working.

 

[sledger]

The "retain possession" type instructions/board goals are a bit broken I think. I regularly get about 65% possession with my Arsenal team, but the board continues to moan.

 

[Magrat Garlick]

The "retain possession" type instructions/board goals are a bit broken I think. I regularly get about 65% possession with my Arsenal team, but the board continues to moan.

This is pretty much exactly how this works IRL though. As long as the media are moaning that you don't have enough possession the actual numbers are irrelevant to the board.

 

[Dan]

No, like I'm playing high-possession formations against League teams and I'm only holding 46% of the ball.

Just did Liverpool away 4-2, all 4 going to Depay. Him and RvP are both going at >1 goal per start. That was after 3-2 vs. Arsenal. Now I have league leaders Chelsea at home, all my guns are at least semi-crocked because I didn't look at my fixture list, and I still don't know what a decent formation is.

 

[Agent TBY]

You're not keeping possession because FM formations aren't as fluid as real life. Looking at your screenshot above, I'd say you're giving your opponents far too much space to just pass it around in midfield. Do Blind and Fellaini get knackered often? That's a sure sign of them spending too much time chasing the ball around.

Try putting Blind at DM, Mata where Blind is now, and increase the mentality and forward runs sliders in his player instructions.

 

[Agent TBY]

Post a screenshot of your team instructions too.

 

[GIMH]

In my day CM tactics comprosed deciding between defensive, balanced, attacking or gung ho. And whether to have your players tackle hard or not.

#AMFM

 

[Eds]

You're right GIMH, FM is ultra advanced these days. https://twitter.com/FootballManager/status/640879722646237184