Football Manager 2014

[Andrew 4855]

For My lazio side its Marin or Depay on the left and Candreva or Mkhitaryan (moved to be an AMC when he plays as a shadow striker) on the right

 

Jovetic or Luuk de Jong up front.

 

btw, signing players out of contract is easy as hell on this game, the majority of my business has been done that way and I managed to win serie A last year

[Andrew 4855]

So, a decent start to my 4th season with Lazio has occurred, won the supercup, won my first 2 league games and my first CL game.

 

I've got good depth everywhere except fullback but my midfield and attack are awesome.

 

Hoping, after finishing 3rd twice and then winning the league last season, I can sustain a CL campaign as Ive gone out in the groups both times Ive been there so far.

 

I spent about 6 months as Spain manager alongside managing Lazio but quit after the Confederations Cup because I did a bit crap and I didn't like managing 2 teams at once, plumped to stay with Lazio.

[StoneColdStephenIreland 74]

 

None of my strikers are tearing up the goal scoring records, but they are all on a reasonable rate of return.

 

Have you looked at the roles they're best suited to and all that?

 

I was playing Remy as an Advanced Forward, but shifted him to the left wing as an inside forward and he's scoring more freely. It does mean I'm having to rotate: Him, Ben Arfa, Gaitan and Holtby though.

 

I would like to play 4-2-3-1, but Cisse isn't scoring enough. Hopefully signing Benteke because Villa are doing shit and he's put in a transfer request. Again, I doubt he'll stay for long, but I should hopefully make a profit.

 

I tried a few different options and now i just stick with advanced forward as that seems to get the best out of them no matter who i play. JUst finished my 4th season with the Toon and came 2nd. I'm getting Zouma on a free and a few young brazilians to loan out too.

[Andrew 4855]

Just played a match against Inter where my Lazio side had 55 shots (29 on target)

 

I won 1-0, scoring in the 92nd minute

[Tooj 17]

Aye Boruc is ok but his eccentricity is so high he is prone to doing some mental stuff. I just replaced him with Jason Steele from boro and I'm more solid defensively.

 

Signing Victor Valdes on a bosman at the end of the first season.

[Howay 12496]

bastard he got snapped up by Napoli on mine

[Tooj 17]

League table at the end of my first season with Southampton.

Although the next year will be tough as we have nowhere near enough quality to compete for all competitions, I still don't want to disrupt the squad too much.

As well as Valdes signing on a free, I've also managed to bring in Negredo for £10 million (he can be an upgrade on Lambert) and Chiriches for £8 million as I released Fonte. Also bought some Argentinian midfielder called Guido Pizarro that my scout recommended who I can rotate with Wanyama.

[StoneColdStephenIreland 74]

Just finished my 7th season on it with the Toon and won the league for the 2nd year running. Kurt Zouma my CB was my 3rd top scorer with 13 goals including a hat-trick in one game against Swansea.

[Tooj 17]

Corner bug?

[StoneColdStephenIreland 74]

Possibly, my other CB Harry Maguire scored 6-7 too so it's likely theres a bug. I just put it down to my Set-Piece masterclass' though

[TheMoog 0]

On Steam's sale list today for half price - £17ish

[The Fish 10962]

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/football-manager-2014-wonderkids-top-2674509

[Tooj 17]

Started another game with Southampton as I felt I'd bought too many players in my second season so I want to try and keep the squad together as much as possible. The only signing that I've made so far was Eder Balanta for £10 million, as I want to build my defence around him for the next decade. (Tim Vickery would be proud)

I'm playing this formation below:

Team Instructions:

Retain Possession

Work Ball Into Box

Play Out of Defence

Run At Defence

Exploit The Middle

Play Narrower

Play Much Higher Defensive Line

Hassle Opponents

Stay On Feet

Use Offside Trap

Much Lower Tempo

Be More Disciplined

The formation is Very Fluid and I alter between a mentality of either Control or Defensive dependent upon who I am playing.

The reason I am using this formation is I'm trying to get them to play similar to how Pochettino has them set up in real life, so I want this to be a game about keeping things really tight at the back as usually I just try and outscore the opposition. That's why I've set the team up as very fluid so we keep the shape as much as possible.

Sometimes I change the SS to an AP and bring in Ramirez if I want to get even more possession.

This is the table at the end of January.

A bit annoyed though as there's some games that I've been cruising only to concede which means we miss out on that all important clean sheet.

This happened in my last game and was obviously the main highlight of the season so far.

[The Fish 10962]

I'm surprised you're finding goals as easy to come by with that formation. I always struggle when I don't play with two up front.

 

Newcastle are shit.

[Howay 12496]

I won the league my 3rd season with Southampton, Clyne, Shaw and Ward Prowse are all class acts now (Ward Prowse in particular). Got some Romanian lad called iancu as Lallana has been getting injury prone recently, Danny Welbeck as another option up front/on the wing, and Balanta in defence (he's a monster Madrid, Monaco, Barca etc all tracking him but I'm financially sound so no need to sell). Picked up a lad called Ryan Ledson from Everton and he's becoming a canny midfielder in my rotation.

After winning the league my form took a nightmare dip and I started getting grief from everyone (including Gordon Strachan the cheeky cunt ) but forms picked up and I'm top 5 now coming into December.

I'm considering starting a new game, maybe a smaller league like Croatia or Ukraine as I really enjoyed the one I had with Boca Juniors on FM 2010 (Where I took a shine to mussachio and now I buy him on every FM game I play, he's worth £15m now on my Soton game after buying him for 2m).

 

The only thing putting me off is I sometimes like to move up to a stronger league after making a name in a smaller one but on my FM I don't seem to be getting offered many jobs, anyone else noticed this? normally by this point I'd of been offered every job going but I've had nowt apart from an interview for AC Milan (it always bugged me how quickly the game had top teams offer you jobs but this seems the opposite atm).

[Scottish Mag 3]

Also playing a Southampton game here.

I decided not to make any transfers and to see what I could do starting with the existing squad given its potential with the likes of Clyne, Shaw, JWP, Wanyama, Ramirez etc. I was flying high halfway through the season in and around the top spot then the update to 14.2 caused a blip in form. I signed Eric Dier in January though hardly gave him a game choosing instead to bed Jack Stephens in to the team alongside Lovren. Osvaldo and Lambert both had been banging the goals in for the first half of my season but with the change in formation I also began to play Jay Rodriguez whose goals led us to the title in which was a very weird season with my team fighting it out with Newcastle for the title and Man City, Arsenal and Liverpool finishing 8th, 9th and 10th.

James Ward Prowse was my star man with 12 goals and 15 assists and already being capped by England. With a war chest of around 35 million for season 2 and many top players now interested in signing for our side I am undecided how to continue as I do not want to sign too many players and keen to keep as much of the existing squad together as I can.

The obvious improvements should be in goals with Boruc getting on, being quite erratic and on a big contract but Gazzaniga played my last 10 or so games and was the man in between the sticks as we picked up the title.

Defence wise I think we need a top class defender to play alongside Lovren and I am considering bring in another attacker to replace Osvaldo (if I can sell him) as whilst he gave a good goal return I don't feel he adds enough to the team and given his 70k a week salary I think now is possibly the best time to get a return on our investment in him and get a quality attacker in (particularly with Lamberts stats dropping already)

[TheMoog 0]

I won the league in my first season with the Toon using the 'Ghost' & 'Goals goals goals' tactics from the Steam workshop - the second season's been a bit more of a struggle mind because I've sold Ben Arfa, Sissoko, Krul, Jonas and Santon for a combined total of about £85m and replaced them all with young wonderkids to bring through.

[Howay 12496]

I won the league in my first season with the Toon using the 'Ghost' & 'Goals goals goals' tactics from the Steam workshop - the second season's been a bit more of a struggle mind because I've sold Ben Arfa, Sissoko, Krul, Jonas and Santon for a combined total of about £85m and replaced them all with young wonderkids to bring through.

Aye I always end up doing similar, keep replacing the 'old guard' with the up and coming wonderkids and struggling for a bit as their current ability isn't as high as the players they've replaced yet.

I started a new game with Manchester City (I know I know) for a laugh and decided to use Tooj's tactics from his Southampton game, it's been pretty ridiculous tbh. Won the FA cup, prem and CL treble first season and second season has been one long winning streak as I've won every game (besides 2 draws in the CL and a draw away to Newcastle in the league cup semi final 1st leg) and I'm just after xmas.

Was given £125m after my 1st season and spunked pretty much all of that and was just handed £85m for january, tbh I've had little practical use for either budget but have just went about padding out the squad. I got Lewandowski as a free agent at the end of the 1st season so I sent Dzeko out on loan to Barca (due to Tooj's tactic using 1 up top, although I have taken to using Aguero as the SS with Lewandowski up top recently).

Brought in: Balanta, Shaw, Ravel Morrison, De Bruyne, Hamsik, Lucas Romero, Adam Campbell, Emre Can, Shaqiri, Allione, Jonathan Silva, Druissi, Correa, Vydra and a load of regens.

I'm sure I'll get bored in the very near future and go back to my Southampton game or start a lower league one but sometimes it's nice to have some of these top players, as when I normally bring a team to the top I've already started using regens. The price differences are pissing me off mind as the CPU clearly sells lower to other CPU teams, as on my Southampton game Man City bought Thomas Muller and Wilshere for £40m and £28m in the first two seasons so I've tried every window and neither will budge even when I offer £50m, they got Hamsik for £30m and he cost me £50m.

[Tooj 17]

Been using some mental Bielsa style 3-3-1-3 formation. The games are entertaining as fuck.

[Andrew 4855]

Just finished season 1 with us using a 4231 of my own making. finished 5th in the league and won the FA cup with Cisse and Ben Arfa my joint top scorers.

 

new HBA wants 94k a week to extend his contract so I am in the unenviable position of pretty much needing to sell him this summer and replace my best player

[The Fish 10962]

Just finished season 1 with us using a 4231 of my own making. finished 5th in the league and won the FA cup with Cisse and Ben Arfa my joint top scorers.

 

new HBA wants 94k a week to extend his contract so I am in the unenviable position of pretty much needing to sell him this summer and replace my best player

Can you get Holtby?

[Andrew 4855]

Ive got Ocampos from monaco, ben arfa is still with me but hasnt signed a new deal, no one wants to meet the asking price for him.

[The Fish 10962]

Ive got Ocampos from monaco, ben arfa is still with me but hasnt signed a new deal, no one wants to meet the asking price for him.

 

 

How long has HBA got left?

[Andrew 4855]

1 year, which is what makes this very annoying as I don't want to lose him for nothing but I cant bring myself to sell him for less than hes worth cause hes really good

[The Fish 10962]

1 year, which is what makes this very annoying as I don't want to lose him for nothing but I cant bring myself to sell him for less than hes worth cause hes really good

Shit son, concentrate on finding a replacement and try & sell him now. If no one comes in at a decent value, he may drop his wage demands with 6 months to go?