Hi all,
Just wanted to tell you all about the start of a promising save with Aston Villa. I am using the newest official patch released in March (ish) 2011. Since buying FM a few months ago, I have started lots of saves but never continued them for very long so hopefully this will change now!
I chose Villa as I support them and go to a few home games myself. I know the squads strengths and weaknesses well, both in real life and in the game. They have a few quid to spend and have some promising players but there is still a challenge there to advance the club and finally bring some success to the Midlands.
Firstly, my formation. I think I have taken a few tactics on board and adapted them a little. I decided to opt for a 4-2-3-1 attacking, fluid, counter attacking formation to maximise the talent in the Villa squad. The 2 central midfielders are not playing in the defensive area however, but more centrally in the park with 2 wide men and an attacking midfielder ahead.
I opted to push for European qualification through my league finish and took the £36m transfer budget and £1.3m wage budget, laughing all the way to the transfer market.
On first impressions, the squad is good but there are definite areas for improvement. Particularly the full backs and the attacking midfield area. In the long term I dont see Luke Young and Stephen Warnock being good enough to play at a higher level so wanted to replace one or both of these. Maxwell from Barcelona was my first target for LB but he decided to go to Juventus instead (fair enough) so I eventually signed Taye Taiwo from Marseille for what I thought was a bit of a bargain £2m! With my other signings, I didn't have the time or the money to replace L. Young so he will have to do for now and I have Kyle Walker on loan as well.
Eden Hazard, was actually my first target signing as I know how good he can be in the AMC position of my formation and I know how quickly he usually gets snapped up (either by Palermo on loan, or Man City) so I was glad when I got snapped him up for £13.5m.
My backroom staff were telling my that the AMR position was a weakness in my team which I understood. Ashley Young is a natural left winger along with Stewart Downing in the squad, and Marc Albrighton is still young and developing (and I have heard he doesn't turn out that good, but we will see!). After quite a few escalating bids for Alexis Sanchez of Udinese (I bid up to £25m including add ons), I was advised to approach the board to push the transfer through as it would be an important signing. And they accepted! So the board negotiated his transfer and package for me (£25.5m cash, £90k per week 4 year contract).
I was pretty happy with the squad after this and thought qualifying at least for the Euro Cup should definately be achievable. Plus Sanchez had cleared out my transfer budget. But with a little fiddling with the wages, I got a bit more money out of the board and brought in Mario, the young right back from Villarreal for £1.8m and Lucas from Sao Paolo for a fee which will reach £6.5m.
So after a very successful pre-season, here is how my team/squad is looking for the first half of the season:
GK - Brad Friedel
DR - Luke Young (Kyle Walker)
DC - Carlos Cuellar (James Collins)
DC - Richard Dunne(c)
DL - Taye Taiwo (Stephen Warnock)
MC (Def) - Jean Makoun
MC (Supp) - Nigel Reo-Coker (Stilian Petrov)
AMR - Alexis Sanchez (Marc Albrighton)
AMC - Eden Hazard
AML - Ashley Young (Stewart Downing)
SC - Gabby Agbonlahor (Darren Bent)
My short term targets once the season starts will be to get a strong start in the Premiership, get through the qualifying rounds of the Euro Cup and sort out my backroom staff as there are a few poor members of staff there.
Hopefully I will get a bit more money in January to improve further as I know Friedel will probably get a bit rickety later in the season.
Let me know what you think so far and I'll update soon!
Just wanted to tell you all about the start of a promising save with Aston Villa. I am using the newest official patch released in March (ish) 2011. Since buying FM a few months ago, I have started lots of saves but never continued them for very long so hopefully this will change now!
I chose Villa as I support them and go to a few home games myself. I know the squads strengths and weaknesses well, both in real life and in the game. They have a few quid to spend and have some promising players but there is still a challenge there to advance the club and finally bring some success to the Midlands.
Firstly, my formation. I think I have taken a few tactics on board and adapted them a little. I decided to opt for a 4-2-3-1 attacking, fluid, counter attacking formation to maximise the talent in the Villa squad. The 2 central midfielders are not playing in the defensive area however, but more centrally in the park with 2 wide men and an attacking midfielder ahead.
I opted to push for European qualification through my league finish and took the £36m transfer budget and £1.3m wage budget, laughing all the way to the transfer market.
On first impressions, the squad is good but there are definite areas for improvement. Particularly the full backs and the attacking midfield area. In the long term I dont see Luke Young and Stephen Warnock being good enough to play at a higher level so wanted to replace one or both of these. Maxwell from Barcelona was my first target for LB but he decided to go to Juventus instead (fair enough) so I eventually signed Taye Taiwo from Marseille for what I thought was a bit of a bargain £2m! With my other signings, I didn't have the time or the money to replace L. Young so he will have to do for now and I have Kyle Walker on loan as well.
Eden Hazard, was actually my first target signing as I know how good he can be in the AMC position of my formation and I know how quickly he usually gets snapped up (either by Palermo on loan, or Man City) so I was glad when I got snapped him up for £13.5m.
My backroom staff were telling my that the AMR position was a weakness in my team which I understood. Ashley Young is a natural left winger along with Stewart Downing in the squad, and Marc Albrighton is still young and developing (and I have heard he doesn't turn out that good, but we will see!). After quite a few escalating bids for Alexis Sanchez of Udinese (I bid up to £25m including add ons), I was advised to approach the board to push the transfer through as it would be an important signing. And they accepted! So the board negotiated his transfer and package for me (£25.5m cash, £90k per week 4 year contract).
I was pretty happy with the squad after this and thought qualifying at least for the Euro Cup should definately be achievable. Plus Sanchez had cleared out my transfer budget. But with a little fiddling with the wages, I got a bit more money out of the board and brought in Mario, the young right back from Villarreal for £1.8m and Lucas from Sao Paolo for a fee which will reach £6.5m.
So after a very successful pre-season, here is how my team/squad is looking for the first half of the season:
GK - Brad Friedel
DR - Luke Young (Kyle Walker)
DC - Carlos Cuellar (James Collins)
DC - Richard Dunne(c)
DL - Taye Taiwo (Stephen Warnock)
MC (Def) - Jean Makoun
MC (Supp) - Nigel Reo-Coker (Stilian Petrov)
AMR - Alexis Sanchez (Marc Albrighton)
AMC - Eden Hazard
AML - Ashley Young (Stewart Downing)
SC - Gabby Agbonlahor (Darren Bent)
My short term targets once the season starts will be to get a strong start in the Premiership, get through the qualifying rounds of the Euro Cup and sort out my backroom staff as there are a few poor members of staff there.
Hopefully I will get a bit more money in January to improve further as I know Friedel will probably get a bit rickety later in the season.
Let me know what you think so far and I'll update soon!