How Are You Doing On CM?

[King Pietersen]

Have a pretty good career going ATM. In my 4th season and after 3 seasons tearing it up as Real Madrid I thought it was time to move on. I won everything there was to win with Real. 3 league titles, 2 champions leagues, a club world championship and the spanish cup. Built an awesome team with a tactic that made the absolute most out of Ronaldo (52 in 30 league games in my 3rd season) which was absolutely dominant, but instead of kicking on and running the save into the ground, I decided to resign, move on and take the vacant Juventus job. Juve had gone title-less for the past 2 seasons, with Napoli and Sampdoria taking the title. My first move was to make a few transfer changes from the side I inherited, making the following transfers:

In:

Memphis Depay - £45.5m
Mohammed Salah - £4.2m
Ezequiel Lavezzi - £1m
Jack Grealish - £18m
Timo Horn - £6.75m
Nicolas Otamendi - £32m

Out:

Olivier Giroud - £9m
Jackson Martinez - £10.25m
Angelo Ogbonna - £5.25m
Gabriel Silva - £3.25m
Martin Carceres - £2.2m
Silvan Widmer - £1.7m

Depay was the guy I wanted most. Signed him for Madrid, and he was absolutely epic. I love playing with inside forwards, and he's one of the best on the game, so had to try and get him. The rest of the transfers were mainly to fill out positions where I needed back-ups, and to replace guys not good enough. And with those changes, and a change in tactic, to the one I was using at Madrid, my strongest XI now looks like:

Pretty happy with that. Have Depay on the left, with Lavezzi as back-up, Grealish on the right with Salah as back-up, a very strong defence (although I could do with a new right-back) and 3 very strong forwards in Benzema, Tevez and Dybala. Started very well too. Won our first league game 5-0, and followed that up with an 8-1 away win. Benzema started the first game, but has already moved down to the 3rd in the pecking order. Tevez came on as sub and scored 2 in the first game before bagging another in the 2nd, and Dybala came on as sub in the second game and blitzed a hat-trick. Looking like we've got some serious options going forward, and have a team that is going to score heaps of goals.

 

[Shri]

I used to follow Juventus as a kid when Trezeguet played for them.

 

[cpr]

Ridiculous World Cup. Beat Argentina 4-0 in the group (they went out on GD to Japan). Dispatched Uruguay 3-0 in R2, Spain 5-2 in QF, before beating Italy 7-4 in the Semi.

Come WC final v France, went 2-0 down before Rooney scored just before half time. Sturridge equalised on 76, they scored on 80, before Rooney scores a pen a min later. 3-3 FT

First period of ET only notable for Wiltshire picking up a second yellow, before they scored on 110.... Tried to chase the game a man down and ended up letting in two more.



Utd board keep on giving me huge transfer budgets, which I eschew in the main for young talent (or £70m on Pogba a few years ago). Even taking Pogba into consideration I'm £20m up on transfer fees over the last 3 years. Also about £1.5m below the wage budget.

So this summer I brought Ronaldo back to OT for £15m (he is 33!), then spent £90m on a 31 year old Messi. Because **** you City, basically.

Turns out having an ageing Ronaldo/Messi/Rooney frontline isn't a bad thing. Hammered Villa 13-1 in one game. 7 games to go, I'm 13 points clear and already on 109 goals for the season (the record is 134 I scored in the first season).

As England manager I'm getting annoyed at Sterling though, he's always knackered when he gets to the international setup, can't seem to get his fitness above 90%, and even thats rare. His natural fitness stat is appaling - i'll call him up for back to back games and he's not fit enough to play either. He's played 12 out of the 30 games I've had as England boss.

 

[sledger]

I note steam have FM 2015 on sale for £9.99 atm. How different is it from FM 2014?

 

[King Pietersen]

I'd say it's the biggest upgrade to FM in years. Last few before this one have basically just been data updates, but this one is an overhaul of the UI, loads of new player positions, better press conferences and player interactions, it's just a much better game. Once you get used to the new UI it's amazing. Best FM for years, and a bargain for £9.99!

 

[sledger]

Sounds like something someone who works for SI would say

 

[King Pietersen]

Haha, I wish I worked for SI!

 

[Dan]

Just bought it, ftr. Never owned a FM game before.

 

[cpr]

But then you'd be like Miles, and he's a tosspot, or at least always was back in th' day....

I jumped from 13 to 15, and yeah its an improvement, better tactics, liking the UI. Press conferences are still horrendously repetitive though. Always miss out on Transfer Deadline day deals as I CBF with doing the full day of answering ridiculous questions every 30 mins. Its like the game thinks you're Harry Redknapp.

 

[sledger]

Sold to that man!

 

[Dan]

Just started a FM 2015 save with Man United. Literally everyone was injured, so I've had to call up randoms from my U21s team to fill in gaps while I'm active in the transfer market.

In:
Simone Pepe (Juventus; $500k)
Alvaro Arbeloa (Real Madrid; $2.7mil)
Jan Vertonghen (Tottenham; $26.5mil) [yeah I overpaid massively but I needed a decent CB)
Mile Jedinak (Crystal Palace; $12.75mil) [also overpaid, but he's been gun so far and good DMs aren't easy to come by, apparently]

Out:
Ben Amos (Southampton, $350k)



Currently trying to get Nathan Dyer in from Swansea but I've got my sliders wrong; probably will need to shift someone or other (trying to get rid of Fellaini, but nobody wants him).

 

[King Pietersen]

Lost my Juve save posted above as had to restore my laptop, stupid trackpad. So started a new save as Juve last night. Sold Caceres, Pepe, and a load of random guys I'd never heard of. Then bought in:

Antonio Valencia - Loan
Gerard Deulofeu - Loan
Denis Cheryshev - Loan
Marc Bartra - £22m

Then, when everyone is fit (literally no-one is fit right now, which sucks), my strongest XI is:

------------------------------GK-------------------------------
----------------------------Buffon-----------------------------
-----CWB A-------CB D--------CB D-------CWB A---
--Lichsteiner-----Bartra-----Chiellini------Evra------
--------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------RGA S------------------------------
-----------------------------Pirlo--------------------------------
---------------------BWM D------------------------------------
----------------------Vidal---------------------------------------
----------------------------------RPM S------------------------
----------------------------------Pogba-------------------------
------IF A------------------------------------------IF A--------
---Valencia-------------------------------------Morata------
---------------------------AF A----------------------------------
---------------------------Tevez---------------------------------

Love the centre of midfield, particularly with Marchisio as back-up, the defence is pretty decent too, though I'd like a new RB (Di Sciglio would be nice, or Carvajal), a new LB (ideally Gaya) and a long-term replacement for Pirlo (possibly Verratti) and then 2 new inside forwards (Ljajic and Lamela) but for the first season, I'm pretty happy with the squad. Not really a fan of loaning guys like Valencia, but Juve's squad had literally no decent wingers, and in his first few games he's actually been pretty impressive, and is very versatile. Won't be signing him permanently, but short-term he's a good option.

 

[Agent TBY]

Looks like I missed the sale, argh.

 

[cpr]

Just started a FM 2015 save with Man United. Literally everyone was injured, so I've had to call up randoms from my U21s team to fill in gaps while I'm active in the transfer market.

In:
Simone Pepe (Juventus; $500k)
Alvaro Arbeloa (Real Madrid; $2.7mil)
Jan Vertonghen (Tottenham; $26.5mil) [yeah I overpaid massively but I needed a decent CB)
Mile Jedinak (Crystal Palace; $12.75mil) [also overpaid, but he's been gun so far and good DMs aren't easy to come by, apparently]

Out:
Ben Amos (Southampton, $350k)



Currently trying to get Nathan Dyer in from Swansea but I've got my sliders wrong; probably will need to shift someone or other (trying to get rid of Fellaini, but nobody wants him).

Try getting Balanta, he'll be your future CB for years to come.

Fellaini does a decent DM, as does Blind, though I prefered to play with 2 CM's and either an AM or 2 forwards, rather than a DM. Managed to snag Lucas Romero in the Jan transfer window of season 1, again, great buy for your future IMO, and DM is his preferred position.

As a Utd fan I see your transfers above and start wishing for a return of Moyes

 

[Dan]

That's why I'm not taking control of any teams I actually like

 

[King Pietersen]

Buy Memphis Depay. Everyone. Seriously, he's incredible.

 

[Pothas]

Yeah, he is stupid.

 

[King Pietersen]

He's so good that it almost feels like cheating having him. Depay on this years FM is one of the best players I've had on any version of the game, he's great on every save!

Thinking long-term for my Juve save, and trying to work out who would be a good replacement for Andrea Pirlo. I'm planning on keeping him around in the Regista role for at least 2 seasons, but after that who do I bring in? Philip Lahm would be the ideal guy, but it's almost impossible to prize him away from Bayern, so who else is there? Verratti is a possibility, but he's more of an attacking CM than a regista. Any ideas?

 

[sledger]

Started with Arsenal. Bought Michael Bradley from Toronto.

Have played 5 games with him. He's got a rating of at least 7.5 in every one. Has made about 90 successful tackles in that time, and has been sent off twice.

Quite funny.

 

[Cabinet96]

90 tackles in five games is legit impossible.