I've played two and a half seasons with Almeri? with some friends. They picked Real Madrid and Barcelona, but I thought that I'd get a challenge instead of going for Atletic?.
First season I ended up 8th place with 54 points, one point from getting qualified for the EURO cup.
Second season I ended up 9th place with 55 points, but I think I was 6-7 points from the EURO cup that year.
I'm playing an offensive 5-1-1-1-2 formation with 3 centre backs, 2 complete wing backs (Offensive mentality), one defensive mid-fielder (Plays halfback, regista or ball-winning midfielder), one central midfielder, one CAM and two strikers. I'm playing control and fluid mentality, trying to keep the ball in the team and playing through the middle.
I've not tried to buy any Spanish players yet, actually. First season I signed Franco Zuculini and Antonio Ad?n on free transfers, and they were extremely important for me. I loaned ?scar Ustari to Juventus for a season due to his high salary and sold him the year after for 2 million ?, since Ad?n was just as good and demanded about half the salary Ustari demanded. I also sent Suso back to Liverpool to get rid of his salary, which I do not regret.
The first season I varied from using two defensive midfielders (5-2-1-1-1) to using two midfielders (5-1-2-1-1), but in the end I ended up with 5-1-1-1-2, because I loaned Dongou from Barcelona, who scored a lot for me.
I converted some of my salary to transfer money and signed Driussi and Guido Vadal?, the problem was that Vadala's contract ended 30/6/2015, and Driussi's contract ended 30/6/2014, so I played two seasons before I got Vadal? for 0.5 mill ? and 1 season before I got Driussi for 1.5 mill ?. (I do not regret it though, as both of them, especially Driussi, has been fantastic for me.)
At the beginning of the second season I also bought Sebasti?n Corchia as my right wingback, since Rafita wasn't good enough and since I did not manage to keep Michel. Corchia is probably my most important player and scored 7 goals and got 10 assists as a wing-back in his first season. I also signed Perin (goalkeeper from Genoa, who got relegated) for 0.1? mill and he's fantastic. Last signing of this season was Anthony Annan on free transfer, because I needed a substitue for T?bar.
At the beginning of my current season I bought Jorginho from Palermo (4.5* CDM), I bought Jonathan Silva as my LWB, because Christian had suffered 13 injuries (2 of them he was out for more than 2 months) over the past 2 seasons, for 4 mill ?. I also found a keeper from Denmark who was seen upon as the new Peter Smeichel (He's 1.5*, has the potential to be 5* for me, and 4.5* for my friend at Barcelona) and I signed him for free, so I was lucky with him. I'll keep Ad?n until the end of this season as a substitute, and then I'll sell him for around 3mill ?. I also signed Michael Keane and Loris Bacchetti as CB's, as they turn out good. This year Almeri? was sold and some business man from Madrid bought it. He said he wanted me to keep my job, and now the economy is safe, so I think I'll get even more money next season. Only thing I really need to buy now is a striker, as Rodri (signed him when his contract with Barca ended) isn't good enough anymore, and Dongou (who I've loaned for about 3 seasons, will soon go back to Barca's first team), but other than that I'm pretty much done with my team.
I wrote a bit more than I intended, but I hope it helped.. Basic tip I'll give is:
Keep the salaries low.
Loan out players you don't need and make the other club pay 100% of the salaries whilst on loan.
Sell Ustari and sign Ad?n for free, as they're just as good, but Ad?n demands half the salary.
Corona is fantastic the first season, but after that his stats drops, so get a young CAM pretty early. Sorano will be quality for at least 3 seasons, and he is a fantastic substitute for both CAM, CM and CDM.