I've just finished the 2016-17 season with United. Managed to win every single trophy on offer, meaning I completed the "septuple": Community shield, European super cup, Club world championship, Champions league and all three domestic trophies. Already came close in the previous season, but lost the community shield against City on pens.
I had a great start to my game, managing to win the european double in my first two seasons, although in my first season I was extremely lucky to win the champions league, playing against teams like Schalke and Galatasaray in the knockout stages and winning Bayern in the final despite being on the back foot pretty much throughout the game. In the second season there was a lot less luck and much more strategy and player performance involved, and RVP for example had a great season in the AMR/IF position/role.
Then in the summer of 2014, things took a ridiculous turn when a filthy rich croatian (IIRC) businessman took over the club and gave me a 300 million transfer fund. And has done every summer since. As a result I've had a great squad for a couple of seasons, and have managed to win champions league five times in a row now. Also I've won the league and FA cup three times in a row and premier league twice in a row.
Here's my current first team squad:
Llorente is out of contract this summer and has already agreed to move to Barcelona. Vidic and Fabio are also out of contract, probably will let both of them go as well. Vidic seems to be in decline although his average performance is still good. I've been pretty satisfied with Fabio's performances, but he's just too injury prone and gets very tired in games because of his low stamina.
Left back has been my number one problem position throughout the whole game. I missed out on Alaba, he's been at City since 2013. I bought Luke Shaw as a long term replacement for Evra, but he was really, really poor in his first season. Reacted badly to team talks, was nervous in almost every game and rarely managed a performance rating of 7+. He's spent the last two seasons on loan but isn't really making any progress, so I'll probably sell him this summer. I'll probaby make an offer for Alaba, but I doubt City will sell for less than 100m which is way too much, so I'll probably go for Alex Sandro. I tried to sign him a couple of seasons back, but FCP were asking like 60m, which I thought was too much and ended up buying Criscito for about 25m. This year I'll just pay as much as I need.
Of those players that I bought before the board takeover I really recommend Sandro, Oxlade-Chamberlain and Bale, they're all excellent. Wilshere has been less impressive, although he's been improving lately. I also bought Nathaniel Clyne at the start of the game as a backup full back, would probably still have him if I didn't have ridiculous amounts of money to spend, since he was pretty good.
Of the original Utd squad, I found that pretty much all defenders with the exception of Buttner (who is better as a left winger, though still a backup player at best) were good enough, even Evans who most people don't seem to really rate. He's been solid defensively and for me has a real knack for scoring from corners. He was even my first player to score a hat-trick! Nani was utterly useless for me, managed a few great performances but spent most of his time firing long range shots miles wide, getting booked for diving, red carded for violent conduct and usually getting performance ratings of about 6.0. Looking back, I'd definitely sell him at the start of the game, as I probably would Rooney. He was never as good as his stats would suggest, and at the start of the game you could probably get a lot of money for him. I sold him to Tottenham for about 10m last summer. Cleverley has done a great job as an all-round midfielder, filling in at center mid, right wing and attacking mid. He'll be sold this summer though since he wants a new challenge.
Besides making big buys such as Ronaldo (ca 200m) and Messi (ca 100m) I've invested a lot in buying youngsters with lots of potential. Here are the regens in my first team squad:
Crljenica has been at the club since he was 14, and he only cost like 2,5m, all the others have cost around 10m per player. In FM2007, which is the only other FM I've played, you could buy young players with great potential for very little money. It's great to see that this is no longer the case. You really have to pay over the odds for potential.
Here's a few of the more promising regens in U18/reserve squad:
And my U18 squad:
Here are the formations I've used, and first choice XI for each formation:
The first two I use for home games and away games as a counter attack strategy, the third I use exclusively for away games. The asymmetric 451 I find is a very good formation. Very balanced and strong all over the pitch, solid defensively and powerful on the attack. At home I use it with balanced style and control strategy with short passing, heavy pressing and touchline instructions pass to feet, play out of defense, work ball into box and hassle opponents. For away games I use counter strategy, direct passing, passing focused on the flanks and heavy pressing, with touchline instructions pass into space, hit early crosses, clear ball to flanks, work ball into box and hassle opponents, and depending on which players I have on, sometimes run at defense as well. When I use the counter strategy, I often change the inside forward role to winger to get more crosses in. I also set the striker as a target man with mixed supply.
The 5-4-1 formation is excellent for controlling possession in away games, which I feel is almost ridiculously difficult to achieve even against significantly weaker opposition. Compared to the asymmetric 451 the 541 is somewhat weaker in attack, probably mainly due to the lack of wing play and thus crosses. The wing backs do provide some width and crosses in, but not as much as proper wingers. But as I said, the aim is to control possession and for me, I usually achieve that and manage to get one or two goals and win the game. With this formation I use pass to feet, play out of defense, play through defense, work ball into box and hassle opponents touchline instructions, and also retain possession against strong teams when the main aim is to avoid defeat. This strategy seems to be very vulnerable to poor conditions though, it usually works when the weather is "drizzle", but if it's "wet" or worse and especially if the opposition plays a direct passing game, you're usually in for a beating.
The asymmetric 451 I've used since the start of the game, and it worked really well with the original Utd squad. The 541 I've only used for a couple of seasons with my billion pound squad, so I don't know how well it would work with weaker players.
I'm contemplating starting a new save since this is almost too easy, but will probably try to achieve an unbeaten league season in this save. And besides, huge investments also bring huge expectations, here's my boardroom confidence ratings at the end of my septuple season:
Notice the "competitions" rating. And this is after I won SEVEN trophies. Here's a more detailed competition confidence view:
So I was expected to win every trophy except for league cup and community shield. Not a lot of room for error...
Sorry for the long post, hope you managed to read it without falling asleep...
I bought Kyle Walker who's healthy competition with Rafael (who's having a blinder so far too) and that's it. Kinda wish i'd got good cover for Evra, but Buttner has not been terrible in the games he's started and January is just around the corner. A fit Phil Jones is an absolute BEAST in midfield and positively responds to team talks consistently - can see why he's gonna be future captain. RVP is knocking them in, as is Hernandez. Nani, apart from his fruitless long range efforts, is playing brilliantly too. Even Paul Scholes, when called upon occasionally, is scoring some trademark goals which I wish I had recorded. In fact, everyone has average 7.0+ rating apart from Cleverly, but he's only had 2 starts (7+ average) and 3 late sub appearances due to injury. And of course, who could forget Rio Rio Rio? He's been awesome too.
