How Are You Doing On CM?

[sledger]

He's throwing a strop at the moment. Keeping him might be a bit difficult - though he has 4 years left on his contract, so I am in a fairly strong position.

Umtiti cost £20m, has been a top signing so far.

 

[King Pietersen]

So annoying when players throw a strop, can really affect team morale, so in some cases it's almost worth just selling up for as much as you can get. If you can attract someone like Koke, Lucas Romero, Goretzka, or Will Hughes if he's been well developed, it'd probably be worth cashing in, but only if he's really kicking up a fuss, and you can get £40m+ for him.

Not bad. He develops very well, and becomes one of the best CB's in the game, so good effort. Balanta is probably a slightly better version of Umtiti (CB's that can play LB if needed), and likely cheaper, unless he's already moved to a top side, but Umtiti is very good. Nice to see you've gone with Ben Davies at LB too, big fan of his, one of the better cheap LB's on the game. Jonathan Silva is another if you ever need another LB. Normally very cheap, but has massive potential, and I've seen him get seriously good. Shaw and Silva the 2 best LB's on the game for me.

Am tempted to start a game in Serie A actually, maybe as AC. Not managed in Italy for years. A decent challenge to build a team good enough to top Juve.

 

[Pothas]

Carlos Vela has thrown constant strops for about two years but then he goes and accepts at new contract before then moaning again.

Balanta is seriously amazing, hope he is good in real life.

 

[sledger]

I currently have Ishak Belfodil asking me to go out on loan literally every week. I always say "no, you're needed as cover", and he says "ah ok, I understand", and then comes back the next week moaning.

It's also annoying how you can give a player a new 4+ year contract, and then a few weeks later after they get into a good run of form they come back and ask for an improved deal. No, **** off, it's not happening.

 

[King Pietersen]

Started as AC Milan today, and really enjoying it. With not too much work, I've built a really exciting team with some dynamic, young talent. There were quite a few older, or overpaid players that I didn't want to keep, so the first job was to get rid of the players I didn't want. So out went:

Robinho to Everton - £4.6m
Kevin Constant to Monaco - £6.75m
Sulley Muntari to Benfica - £1m
Urby Emanuelson to Lille - £4.4m
Giampaolo Pazzini to Benfica - £5.75m

That freed up some funds, which allowed me to sign:

Jonathan Silva - £4.6m
Eder Balanta - £5.5m
Adam Lallana - £12m

With those changes made, my strongest XI is currently:

------------------------------Abbiati-------------------------------
--Di Sciglio-------Mexes-------Balanta-------Silva-------
--------------------Nocerino-------Honda------------------------
--Lallana------------------Kaka--------------El Shaarawy-----
----------------------------Balotelli------------------------------------

Pretty happy with that XI. Abbiati and Kaka will not be long-term starters, nor will Balotelli, far too inconsistent, but for the minute, for my first season in charge, it's a solid line-up. Unbeaten in the first 7 league games of the season, with 4 wins and 3 draws. Highlights have probably been a 5-1 win over Genoa and a 5-2 win over Verona. Balotelli has 4 in 6, but 3 of them are penalties, he's missed some absolute sitters. El Shaarawy is attracting attention, and 4 goals and 2 assists in 7 shows why. Lallana's been awesome too, has 7 assists and 2 goals, and an average rating of 7.73, well worth £12m. Balanta was an absolute steal at £5.5m too, going to be the heart of the defence for years!

 

[Pothas]

Did well to get Balanta for that price, just started a game with Sevilla and has to pay 8.5 in the end, they asked for 20 begin with.

 

[GIMH]

Don't you hate it when a player gets a one match ban and then you forget to put him back in the team

Or is it just me who does that

 

[Pothas]

Nah do it all the time.

Changing your entire side for the Europa league and then just starting them in the next league match is a good deal worse though.

 

[Spikey]

this was 75% off on steam so i am gonna play this series for the first time

what do I need to know

 

[GIMH]

Nah do it all the time.

Changing your entire side for the Europa league and then just starting them in the next league match is a good deal worse though.

Yeah I use the save selection option for those things now, it does help

 

[sledger]

Nah do it all the time.

Changing your entire side for the Europa league and then just starting them in the next league match is a good deal worse though.

I usually remember to change this, but quite often I'll miss that I've left the reserve goalkeeper in and lose the next match because of a soft goal.

Anyway, bit the bullet in my Inter game and sold Icardi to Man City for £39m in the January transfer window. Given that he's not been a regular in my side for the best part of a year and has scored 5 league goals in the last 18 months I think this is a pretty good deal.

I now have £60m in my transfer budget, but not sure if I should spend it. The team isn't really deficient in any area, it's just that Juventus, who are top of the table as always (I'm in a close second), have so many ridiculously good players (Vidal, Pogba, Llorente etc...) it's still proving hard to come close to toppling them.

Amusingly Roma and Fiorentina have been relegated though, not quite sure how that happened.

 

[GIMH]

I created my own team on conference north, made about 9 superstars and then a few average players, bought the rest of my squad and found it even easier than expected. Went up with 100+ points 4 years in a row but in the second season in the Championship now and finding it tougher. All bar one of my originals have moved on, got a good squad and just outside the play offs. Few million to spend but squad is deep so really just looking for something a bit special rather than filling any holes.

First time in all my years on CM/FM I've ever used a data editor option. Been fun actually.

 

[King Pietersen]

Did well to get Balanta for that price, just started a game with Sevilla and has to pay 8.5 in the end, they asked for 20 begin with.

That's probably a good thing for you. Normally, if the team you're buying from set a massive asking price for a young player it means their potential ability is higher than if they ask for less. One good example I've experienced with this was with Alen Halilovic. In one save I picked him up for £4m at the start of the game, and he never really developed, or played particularly well. Then, in another, Dinamo asked for £25m to start, I got him for 15m, and he was awesome, developed much faster, and made an impact much earlier. Might be worth picking up something like FM Scout 14 (or MacAssistantRT on Mac) and checking his PA. Pretty sure on my Milan save, his PA is set to 178, be interesting to compare, and see if it's consistent.

 

[sledger]

Using those scout things is basically just cheating though. Takes the fun out of it in a big way if you can just check to see if a player is guaranteed to be good/rubbish.

 

[King Pietersen]

Yeah, agreed, I used to use them a lot in past years, mainly 2012, but it's so much more fun to find good players through your own scouting, instead of just sorting by PA. Some players with lower CA/PA perform better than those with higher anyway, someone like Jonathan Silva, who has a low PA grows into a fantastic LB, and one that I would never have found/bought if still using the scouting tools. I just thought I'd give Balanta's PA a look after reading Pothas' post, to see if the correlation between asking price & PA actually does exist.

 

[sledger]

Am on an amazing run with Inter. Have won the last 12 league matches in a row, and it's still not enough to get into first place.

 

[King Pietersen]

On a good run with AC too. All started with three massive wins against Inter (3-1), Juve (1-0) and Fiorentina (2-1), and we're now 7 games unbeaten, with 6 of them victories. The last match, a 5-0 win over Genoa just topped the run off. The only issue I'm having is cards. Every other game someone gets sent off, usually 2 yellows. My centre backs are getting good rotation, but only because one of them is constantly suspended. Mexes has 1 red and 4 yellows, Balanta has 2 reds and 2 yellows, and Zapata is the only regular not to be sent off. Abate has also been sent off twice, with Di Sciglio and De Jong also picking one up. Not good enough!

One tactical decision I've made which has really paid off though, is moving Andrea Poli to DMC, as a Regista. Having someone with good passing, technique, and positioning means that our attacks are much better organised. There's more space between the two attacking minded midfielders, and with a ball winning midfielder set to defence backing them up, it makes us very effective going forward. The change came for the Juve game, and it's definitely working. Will have a look in the summer at a more regular Regista, someone more Pirlo-like, but if I can't find anyone, Poli fills that position perfectly.

Lallana has been exceptional also. 16 assists in 20 games, plus 5 goals, well worth the £12m I spent on him. His value has sky-rocketed too, now worth £18.75m. and has 5 goals in 3 International caps too. What a gun. Couldn't be happier with my two wingers, can't really get a lot better than El Shaarawy and Lallana in a team outside of the elite.

 

[sledger]

So annoying when players have terrible disciplinary records. I had to get rid of Yuto Nagatomo because he was getting sent off far too frequently. Kept having to sub him off once he got booked because a second yellow was highly probable.

 

[King Pietersen]

Yeah, it's so frustrating. Everytime Balanta or Abate are on a yellow, it feels like a countdown until they get a second. Abate is already out, leaving on a free, but can't really sell Balanta, far too good. Just hope as he develops, his discipline will get better; Abate's a lost cause though, and not good enough to keep around when I've got De Sciglio.

 

[sledger]

Urgh. Was 1-0 up away to Juventus, looking comfortable after 60 minutes, and then Umtiti gets sent off. Have to take off Tonny Vilhena to bring on another centre back. Just get completely overran in midfield and lose 3-1. Annoying. Juve now 8 points clear with 8 games left. They still have to play me at the San Siro, but I can't see them dropping many points. Looks like I will have to settle for second place.