Recent content by rawket

After 2 months of pathetic performances (bar European games), the club has finally returned to winning ways back home. Whether this remains a sustainable run of form remains to be seen but I'm confident the squad has gelled together and is ready to take on the many challenges ahead. Aston Villa...

Picking up from where I left off 2 weeks ago, when we managed to beat Bilbao and maintain our Euro 100% streak and mask our domestic ineptitude. I wouldn't expect the 2-1 win to change our domestic fortunes much, especially since it's Chelsea up next. By far the most envied squad around and it...

Thanks for all the support guys! I've enlisted earlier this month so my FM time is cut short. By a lot. Just got home for the weekend to find Lambert sacked (lol) and Sherwood as manager. Hopefully the club pick themselves up in this last stretch. I'll try to post as often as possible but will...

After reaching the group stages of the Europa League I think I had to reschedule 9 or so BPL games. Going to be playing lots of mid-week games now. It'll be tough, but I'm looking for the squad to rise up to the challenge and put in consistent performances both at home and in Europe. September...

I appreciate your confidence in the squad. I'll definitely try to go out and take as many points as possible, and hopefully it will be enough to see us progress to the next round. Larsen will turn 21 half a year before he finishes 3 years with us. His birthday is in January. So I doubt he'll...

Yeah still beats seeing Callum Robinson played as a CM. Got to get Tonev and gang out on loan, they're not going to get anything from the U21 matches.

Yeah he's pretty average at attacking, but defensively very capable. Defending is supposed to be his no. 1 priority anyway. If he isn't a Dani Alves going forward, it doesn't matter much. I rate fullbacks for their defending. Any attacking ability as a bonus. Baines for all his praise has very...

Anyway, on to a more serious post. My last friendly of the pre-season was against QPR. It was intended as somewhat of a test against a Premier League opponent, but still an easy match so as not to destroy the morale. Aston Villa 3-2 Q.P.R. This was the first Villa match for Flanagan. I also...

Transfer Window Wrap Up Ah, the transfer window finally comes to a close. It's been a whirlwind the past few months, but we've managed some pretty good business and brought in many new faces who will be integral to the club achieving its goals this season. Disappointingly, I failed to sell off...

Beats me. XD He's worth 7.5mil; they came in with a pretty **** offer like 1.8 upfront plus a bunch of additional fees. My original plan wasn't to sell, so I tried to deter them with a 20mil price. Normally clubs would baulk and walk away but they seemed pretty persistent and negotiated. So I...

If I were to sell Cissokho off to Monaco, I would need to search for a replacement real quick. Barreca may be decent in terms of technical ability, but he has a long way to go mentally before he's Premier League standard. I have been scouting fullbacks through the transfer window, so I already...

I believe it does not. Telling your team to close down more means they will press the opposition more. They will step out of their position to press more aggressively. Which means they may get dragged out of position. And this could affect the team shape somewhat. But it doesn't really clash...

Oh, I may have misunderstood you. By "Pressing very high" do you mean the Push Higher Up instruction or the Close Down More instruction? Sounds like the former.

I use a similar 3-man midfield too. Setting your players to close down the opposition is your best bet if you want your midfield to step up and press aggressively. If you want only your midfielders to Close Down More, consider setting it under player instructions rather than team instructions.

All the best mate! A very fresh idea for a save.