Floyd The Barber
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- Joined
- Oct 29, 2011
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- 6
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NOTE:
This is based on the demo as I don’t have the full game yet. As far as I know everything is the same so this shouldn’t cause any problems. However, depending on the nations and leagues chosen for your game you may have more players available to you so you might want to do a player search before just signing any players that I recommend. Feel free to suggest any changes.
Club Information
Name: Preston North End
Nicknames: Preston, PNE, North End, Lilywhites
Founded: 1881
Reputation: Regional
League: Npower League 1 (Predicted 4th)
Last Season: Npower Championship (22nd)
Finances: Insecure (£24M debt)
Fierce Rivals: Blackpool, Burnley
Other Rivals: Blackburn, Bolton, Wigan
Facilities
Stadium: Deepdale (23,404 capacity)
Corporate: Average
Training: Good
Youth: Adequate
Junior Coaching: Adequate
Youth Recruitment: Fairly Basic
Start of Season Expectations
Your 2 options for the season expectations are:
Although winners would be a fairly reasonable expectation I suggest choosing promotion. With the club’s limited funds you’ll want to reduce the wage bill and you really shouldn’t need to spend any more than £185K on transfers anyway. Even if you didn’t try to reduce the wage bill the slightly higher wage/transfer budget isn’t sufficient enough to make much of a difference and isn’t worth the added pressure, especially with other title contenders like Huddersfield, Charlton and Sheffield United/Wednesday.
Finances
Preston are in a bit of a mess financially. They have a hefty loan debt of £24M to be paid in installments of £104K per month. This, coupled with the club’s starting bank balance of around £1.2M, means that if you want avoid going massively into negative figures you’ll have to employ cost cutting measures from the start.
The only bonus is that the monthly payments of £104K only have to be made while the club is in profit so provided you keep the wage bill down and get good match attendances/season ticket sales you should be able to keep the finances reasonably stable. It’ll still be a while before you’re paying any large transfer fees though.
Your first move should be to ask the board to cut back on youth recruitment and junior coaching. Neither of them are that good at the minute anyway and the club already has plenty of good prospects (Devine, Proctor, Middleton, McLaughlin, Wright, Barton, Clucas, Mayor). Reducing the spending on youth will save you some money and you’ll still have good players for the next few years.
Tactics
The squad at the start is fairly unbalanced. There are only really two wide players and there are 7 central players. This does set you up well to use the assistant’s suggested formations of 4-1-3-2 and 4-1-2-1-2 but I really don’t like these formations.
4-1-2-1-2 is the better one as there is an AMC providing support to the two front men but it leaves you really exposed on the flanks. If the opposition has attacking full backs then they can double up with their wingers making it very easy to get crosses in. The only way to stop this is if your CM’s go out wide to stop them but then this opens up space in the middle and doesn’t really solve anything.
Instead I suggest using 4-4-2 as your main tactic with 4-5-1 as a more defensive/controlling backup option. This allows you to sell some central players to reduce wages and you can bring in wide players on loan to provide cover for the wings.
Squad and Transfers
Goalkeepers
Iain Turner is a solid goalkeeper at this level and there is no need to replace him. However, the two backup keepers, Arestidou and Comrie aren’t really good enough so you’ll need a decent backup. There isn’t really anyone available for a small fee so a loan would be best for now.
Suggestions: Ben Amos (Loan - Man Utd), Aaron McCarey (Loan - Wolves), Ben Alnwick (Loan - Tottenham)
Defenders
Right back is fine as it is. David Gray is one of the better full backs in this league and McLaughlin is decent cover and a youngster who will improve well if given enough games.
You are also very well covered at centre back. The pairing of Carlisle and Morgan should do just fine with McLean as backup. Devine should make an appearance every now and again to gain experience.
Steven Smith is the only good left back currently at the club but he’s easily good enough at this level. However, you will need to sign somebody else for backup in case he’s injured or too tired to play.
Suggestions: Stephen Jordan (Free), Jlloyd Samuel (Free)
Midfield
At right midfield you have Danny Mayor who is a good prospect and apart from his low stamina rating he’s a good first choice. Rather than sign another player I suggest training Keammar Daley as a right mid and setting an individual focus on dribbling. It’ll take a while until he’s comfortable playing here but he has the attributes to be a good winger (Pace, Flair, Natural Fitness and eventually Dribbling)
Central midfield is the one area you want to actually sell players. Alexander and Ashbee should be kept as more defensive minded players and you should try to sell Russell as he is on fairly high wages and isn’t that great. Nicholson is on fairly high wages and is no better than Coutts so it would make sense to sell him and keep Barton as your backup. However, you can get a good amount of money for Coutts (I got £600K) and if you loan out Barton to get regular football he’ll develop better, in which case you’ll want another creative mid on loan until Barton comes back.
Suggestion 1: Sell Nicholson and Russell.
Suggestion 2: Sell Coutts and Russell. Loan out Barton. Andrea Orlandi (Loan - Swansea) covers all of midfield.
Left midfield also requires someone new to be brought in. If you signed Andrea Orlandi he would be good enough but he’d then be covering 2 positions unless you brought in/didn’t sell 1 more central midfielder. Alternatively, you can just sign another left mid on loan since there are no good frees available.
Suggestion 1: Andrea Orlandi (Loan - Swansea) but keep Coutts/Barton.
Suggestion 2: Andros Townsend (Loan - Tottenham)
Strikers
The strikers are pretty good as they are. Tsoumou and Hume have been a great partnership for me and Proctor is a good prospect. Mellor is a good player but probably not worth the wages he is earning. If you sold him now there aren’t many players to replace him with and if you keep him then in December you can ask him to lower his wage demands and offer a fairer contract.
Suggestion 1: Keep Mellor but reduce wages later in the season.
Suggestion 2: Sell Mellor to reduce wages. Steve Howard (Loan - Leicester)
Reserves
Loan out Leather, Wright and Clucas to a club with decent facilities and offering regular football.
Loan out/sell the rest to anyone get them off the wage bill.
This is based on the demo as I don’t have the full game yet. As far as I know everything is the same so this shouldn’t cause any problems. However, depending on the nations and leagues chosen for your game you may have more players available to you so you might want to do a player search before just signing any players that I recommend. Feel free to suggest any changes.
Club Information
Name: Preston North End
Nicknames: Preston, PNE, North End, Lilywhites
Founded: 1881
Reputation: Regional
League: Npower League 1 (Predicted 4th)
Last Season: Npower Championship (22nd)
Finances: Insecure (£24M debt)
Fierce Rivals: Blackpool, Burnley
Other Rivals: Blackburn, Bolton, Wigan
Facilities
Stadium: Deepdale (23,404 capacity)
Corporate: Average
Training: Good
Youth: Adequate
Junior Coaching: Adequate
Youth Recruitment: Fairly Basic
Start of Season Expectations
Your 2 options for the season expectations are:
- Winners - £0 / £66K p/w OR £285K / £61K p/w (Budget Adjustment)
- Promotion - £0 / £64K p/w OR £185K / £61K p/w (Budget Adjustment)
Although winners would be a fairly reasonable expectation I suggest choosing promotion. With the club’s limited funds you’ll want to reduce the wage bill and you really shouldn’t need to spend any more than £185K on transfers anyway. Even if you didn’t try to reduce the wage bill the slightly higher wage/transfer budget isn’t sufficient enough to make much of a difference and isn’t worth the added pressure, especially with other title contenders like Huddersfield, Charlton and Sheffield United/Wednesday.
Finances
Preston are in a bit of a mess financially. They have a hefty loan debt of £24M to be paid in installments of £104K per month. This, coupled with the club’s starting bank balance of around £1.2M, means that if you want avoid going massively into negative figures you’ll have to employ cost cutting measures from the start.
The only bonus is that the monthly payments of £104K only have to be made while the club is in profit so provided you keep the wage bill down and get good match attendances/season ticket sales you should be able to keep the finances reasonably stable. It’ll still be a while before you’re paying any large transfer fees though.
Your first move should be to ask the board to cut back on youth recruitment and junior coaching. Neither of them are that good at the minute anyway and the club already has plenty of good prospects (Devine, Proctor, Middleton, McLaughlin, Wright, Barton, Clucas, Mayor). Reducing the spending on youth will save you some money and you’ll still have good players for the next few years.
Tactics
The squad at the start is fairly unbalanced. There are only really two wide players and there are 7 central players. This does set you up well to use the assistant’s suggested formations of 4-1-3-2 and 4-1-2-1-2 but I really don’t like these formations.
4-1-2-1-2 is the better one as there is an AMC providing support to the two front men but it leaves you really exposed on the flanks. If the opposition has attacking full backs then they can double up with their wingers making it very easy to get crosses in. The only way to stop this is if your CM’s go out wide to stop them but then this opens up space in the middle and doesn’t really solve anything.
Instead I suggest using 4-4-2 as your main tactic with 4-5-1 as a more defensive/controlling backup option. This allows you to sell some central players to reduce wages and you can bring in wide players on loan to provide cover for the wings.
Squad and Transfers
Goalkeepers
Iain Turner is a solid goalkeeper at this level and there is no need to replace him. However, the two backup keepers, Arestidou and Comrie aren’t really good enough so you’ll need a decent backup. There isn’t really anyone available for a small fee so a loan would be best for now.
Suggestions: Ben Amos (Loan - Man Utd), Aaron McCarey (Loan - Wolves), Ben Alnwick (Loan - Tottenham)
Defenders
Right back is fine as it is. David Gray is one of the better full backs in this league and McLaughlin is decent cover and a youngster who will improve well if given enough games.
You are also very well covered at centre back. The pairing of Carlisle and Morgan should do just fine with McLean as backup. Devine should make an appearance every now and again to gain experience.
Steven Smith is the only good left back currently at the club but he’s easily good enough at this level. However, you will need to sign somebody else for backup in case he’s injured or too tired to play.
Suggestions: Stephen Jordan (Free), Jlloyd Samuel (Free)
Midfield
At right midfield you have Danny Mayor who is a good prospect and apart from his low stamina rating he’s a good first choice. Rather than sign another player I suggest training Keammar Daley as a right mid and setting an individual focus on dribbling. It’ll take a while until he’s comfortable playing here but he has the attributes to be a good winger (Pace, Flair, Natural Fitness and eventually Dribbling)
Central midfield is the one area you want to actually sell players. Alexander and Ashbee should be kept as more defensive minded players and you should try to sell Russell as he is on fairly high wages and isn’t that great. Nicholson is on fairly high wages and is no better than Coutts so it would make sense to sell him and keep Barton as your backup. However, you can get a good amount of money for Coutts (I got £600K) and if you loan out Barton to get regular football he’ll develop better, in which case you’ll want another creative mid on loan until Barton comes back.
Suggestion 1: Sell Nicholson and Russell.
Suggestion 2: Sell Coutts and Russell. Loan out Barton. Andrea Orlandi (Loan - Swansea) covers all of midfield.
Left midfield also requires someone new to be brought in. If you signed Andrea Orlandi he would be good enough but he’d then be covering 2 positions unless you brought in/didn’t sell 1 more central midfielder. Alternatively, you can just sign another left mid on loan since there are no good frees available.
Suggestion 1: Andrea Orlandi (Loan - Swansea) but keep Coutts/Barton.
Suggestion 2: Andros Townsend (Loan - Tottenham)
Strikers
The strikers are pretty good as they are. Tsoumou and Hume have been a great partnership for me and Proctor is a good prospect. Mellor is a good player but probably not worth the wages he is earning. If you sold him now there aren’t many players to replace him with and if you keep him then in December you can ask him to lower his wage demands and offer a fairer contract.
Suggestion 1: Keep Mellor but reduce wages later in the season.
Suggestion 2: Sell Mellor to reduce wages. Steve Howard (Loan - Leicester)
Reserves
Loan out Leather, Wright and Clucas to a club with decent facilities and offering regular football.
Loan out/sell the rest to anyone get them off the wage bill.