Manchester City FC - A Definitive FM Guide

timmsy123

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Alright guys, I know they are not the hardest team in the world to manage, but I thought I would produce what I feel is an accurate guide for managing Manchester City to help out fellow FM'ers.

View attachment 122251

Club Info:

Name : Manchester City Football Club
Chairman: Sheikh Mansour
League : Premier League
Media Prediction: 3rd
Nicknames : The Citizens, The Blues, City
Wage Budget: £2,500,000 (Title challenge) , £2,700,000 (Winner)
Transfer Budget: £55,000,000 (Title challenge) , £75,000,000 (Winner)

So then, you're managing the Citizens, the richest club in the world. Your job is to test whether or not success can be bought and created in a short space of time. However, buying a large amount of players at once and changing the whole squad will mean that success may take longer as the players need time to gel. This is why it is important to highlight the key areas that need strengthing.

Goalkeepers:

View attachment 122250

Joe Hart
Shay Given
David Gonzalez


There is not much to choose between Given and Hart, however for me Hart would be your first choice and Given should be backup. Gonzalez isn't good enough for the first team so should be placed in the reserves, and possibly should be sold/loaned out.

This area doesn't need to be strengthened first season, the only addition I may suggest is a young Goalkeeper with decent potential to play 3rd choice such as:

Alphonse Areola (PSG)
View attachment 122263
Luis Guilherme (Botafogo)
Jason Steele (Middlesbrough)
Alex Smithies (Huddersfield)


Defenders:

View attachment 122254

Zabaleta
Richards
Bridge
Kolorov
Lescott
Toure
Kompany
Boateng


As you can see, there is a lot of strength in depth in this department. Your best defender is probably Kompany and Lescott and Toure should be rotated as his partner. Boateng starts the game injured so you may want to bring in a 4th centre half to provide competition/cover, I'd recommend the following:

Adil Rami - (£6million from Lille)
View attachment 122260
Andrea Ranocchia - (£8.75million from Genoa/Inter)
Rafael Toloi - (£3.6million from Goias)
Leonel Galeano - (£4.2million from Independiente)


In terms of full backs you have Richards and Zabaleta for RB. I personally prefer Richards but Zabaleta is good back up and is very versatile. If you want to bring in a new RB I'd suggest Van Der Wiel from Ajax (£8million), if you did this I would suggest selling Richards or Zabaleta otherwise you will have too many players fighting for one position. However, this is your own choice and I personally feel Richards is good enough for first season atleast.

Then there is Kolarov and Bridge for LB. Kolarov is your obvious first choice and in my opinion Bridge should be sold as he isn't good enough and has a huge wage. I would suggest bringing in Gareth Bale as he can play LB as well as LM/LW to give you more options, however Spurs are unwilling to sell and you may have to fork out £20million for him.

In:

Van Der Wiel (Ajax - £8Million)
Bale (Spurs - £15-20million)

Out:

Bridge
Richards/Zabaleta


Midfield

View attachment 122253

Yaya Toure
Nigel De Jong
Patrick Vieira
Gareth Barry
James Milner
Shaun Wright-Phillips
Michael Johnson
Adam Johnson
Kelvin Etuhu
David Silva


This is another strong department of the team, your best midfielder is David Silva, however I feel it is also the department which requires the most change. I would first of all try and offload Vieira as quickly as possibly as he isn't good enough and is eating away at your wage budget, however this is hard to do so, if not just place him in reserves and play him in the League Cup every so often and use him to tutor youngsters. Michael Johnson is also surplus to requirements and should be moved on when he has recovered from his injury. I personally would also sell SWP as he is getting on a bit now, however you may choose to keep him as he is a club icon and is decent back up. Kelvin Etuhu should be loaned out.

As far as players in I would suggest signing a creative Central Midfielder, as the club currently lacks one, I would suggest Marek Hamsik from Napoli and also Marco Verratti as a hot prospect from Pescara. I also feel the club needs another winger to challenge Adam Johnson, David Silva and Milner for a first team place. Here I would suggest either Bale as previously mentioned for his versatility, or Eljero Elia and another possibility is Alexis Sanchez.

In:

Marek Hamsik (Napoli - £20million)
Marco Verratti (Pescara - £1million)
Eljero Elia (HSV - £16million)
View attachment 122261
Alexis Sanchez (Udinese - £18million)

Out:

Patrick Vieira
Kelvin Etutu
Michael Johnson
Shaun Wright-Phillips (Possibly)


Forwards

View attachment 122252

Carlos Tevez
Emmanuel Adebayor
Mario Balotelli
Roque Santa-Cruz
Jo


First and foremost, Carlos Tevez is our star man here. Mario Balotelli is a promising youngster and should be used mainly as an impact substitute and in the League Cup and games you SHOULD win easily. I personally would look to offload Jo, Santa Cruz and Adebayor on a permanent basis. If you cannot get permanent deals try and get loans which pay a high % of the players wages and have a future fee clause. If no-one will buy Adebayor, and you cannot get a loan with the above requirements then keep him as back up first season.

If you can move Adebayor on, then I would suggest signing another forward to provide competition for Tevez such as Edin Dzeko, Fernando Llorente or one for the future in Romelu Lukaku.

In:

Edin Dzeko (Wolfsburg - £20million) or Fernando Llorente (Atletico Bilbao -£16million)
Romelu Lukaku (Anderlecht - £6million)
View attachment 122262

Out:
Emmanuel Adebayor (Possibly)
Jo
Roque Santa Cruz


Other Player Requirements:

As you have a large transfer budget, I would suggest securing some of the World's best young talent to help build for the future, some I would recommend are:

Tiago Alves (Santos)
Vaclas Kadlec (Sparta Prague)
Yaya Sanogo (AJ Auxerre)
Serge Aurier (RC Lens)
Khouma Babacar (Fiorentina)
Sime Vrsaljko (Dinamo Zagreb)


Tactics:

Given the current playing squad and the players at your disposal I would suggest playing a 4-5-1 formation, a little something like this...

View attachment 122267

Tevez is the focal point of your attack in the Deep-Lying/Complete Forward role with David Silva operating from a wide left role as an Advanced Playmaker.

Other formations you may wish to experiment with could be:

4-2-3-1: This could be with either 2DM's or CM's depending on players choice

4-1-2-1-2: This would get the best out of Silva in a central AMC role, and allows a partner for Tevez upfront


Staffing Requirements:

I would recommend adding some World Class staff to work with and train the players, some I would recommend are:

Carlos Quieroz - (*** Man)
View attachment 122265
Franco Baldini - (Coach)
Gianpiero Ventrone - (Coach)
Joop Hiele - (GK Coach)
Valter Di Salvo - (Coach)
Brian Eastick - (Coach)


Miscellaneous

These are just a few other little things I would suggest doing...

1) Ask board to improve Youth Facilities, the initially decline but say back 'we will be left behind by our rivals' and they usually then accept.

View attachment 122264

2) Also ask the board to find a feeder club in another country to improve the clubs profile, they will initially decline but say back about the financial benefits and they should accept then. This will enable you to send your talent youngsters abroad for first team football.


A lot of time and effort has gone into creating this guide so I hope y'all appreciate it and find it helpful!

The very best of luck!
Timmsy123 x

 
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just about to start a man city save so will listen to this. what formation would you recommend to use
 
just about to start a man city save so will listen to this. what formation would you recommend to use

Will edit OP with recommended tactics mate :)

N.B. - OP has now been edited to include tactics, hope it helps!
 
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I'm currently playing as Cheltenham in League 2 (initially predicted bottom) and it's incredibly frustrating at times.

I think I might start a Man City save which I can play whenever escaping the lower echelons of league football becomes too stressful; thanks for the advice.
 
That was a great piece of work up there. It is much appreciated, I'm a hardcore Man City fan!
 
just about to start a man city save so will listen to this. what formation would you recommend to use

I play a 4-1-3-2 on mines as I have a plethora of attacking mids. (Setting: Fluid, Control)
- FB's set as WB (role:auto - maybe not good idea as it can leave your defence open, but i like my team to play attractive attacking football)
- Deep-Lying Playmaker (role:defend)
- AML (role:attack since my Silva, Balotelli, Neymar can play here & join the FW's)
- AMC (role:attack)
- AMR (role:support)
- ST (role:poacher?)
- ST (role:complete forward - For Tevez, he bagged 42 goals in my 1st season, even though I only came 3rd in the league).

I have my Strikers switching positions so it's difficult to mark them. However, the Striker roles can be changed I guess as I have problems making both strikers score together in one game.

Also keep my players in 'More Disciplined' roles & have only certain players roaming.
 
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I'll count on your advice when I'll play Manchester City. Thanks a lot for this !
 
I wouldn't sell SWP, he can be quite handy for tutoring as he's now an player/coach in my save (& we know how hard it is to find good attacking coaches these days) for me & already has pretty decent staff attributes!
 
I don´t really agree in some points.. hey, you´re the richest team of the world.. you can buy much better player´s.. such as Thiago Silva, Otamendi or Arne Friedrich, instead of Rami and the others in the defence.. in the mid ill go for Ozil, Pastore, Ganso, Annan, Elia and Robben for the attack zone i would bring, young stars as Lukaku, Sanogo and Babacar, with a star like Aguero, Dzeko or Higuain.
 
I don´t really agree in some points.. hey, you´re the richest team of the world.. you can buy much better player´s.. such as Thiago Silva, Otamendi or Arne Friedrich, instead of Rami and the others in the defence.. in the mid ill go for Ozil, Pastore, Ganso, Annan, Elia and Robben for the attack zone i would bring, young stars as Lukaku, Sanogo and Babacar, with a star like Aguero, Dzeko or Higuain.

Rami as as good as the defenders you just named and will hardly cost anything, Ozil won't come after just signing for Madrid. Elia I suggested as a signning in my guide, I also suggested signing Dzeko, Lukaku and a number of other young stars, Higuain won't come first season and Robben would cost the earth to sign from Bayern and probably again would not be interested.
 
Hey I have just started my city managerial career. Plyaed 15 game...UNBEATEN. Players i sold; Zabaleta, G barry, Santa Cruz, Guttierez(GK).
I bought...........Neymar ST/LAM (26mil) Henrique CM/CAM (26mil) Munez CB i think (11mill) Van Der Wiel RB/RWB (11mil) Rodwell CB/CDM/CM (14.5mil) Some others cant remeber.

Formation=4-5-1

GK:HART
DR: VAN DER WIEL
DC: KOMPANY
DC: LESCOTT
DL: KOLAROV

MAL: NAYMAR (AWESOME!!!)
CDM: YAYA TOURE
CM: HENRIQUE
CM: SILVA
MAR: JOHNSON

ST: TEVEZ

CANT REMEBER SUBS BECAUSE THEY ALWAYS CHANGE DEPNDING CIRCUMSTANCES BUT THE THREE PLAYERS ALWAYS THERE: BALOTELLI, MUNEZ, RODWELL
 
Great Guide, I would suggest breaking up the Position Categories such as Defence, Midfield into sub-categories such as Right-Back, Defensive Mid, just so that can be read more easily but a great guide nonetheless :)
 
What about Javier Pastore? - Just thinking about signing him for £25mill on my save (4th season)
 
Remember BOYATA. He is good enough to be 4th choice CB in the first season. Starts in the reserves but he is absolutly fantastic! Promote him to the first team..i strongly suggest that.

BTW...Bale costs far more..because City is a rival club. he costs about 30m in first season.
Wilshere is also an very good player...i would buy him, costs pretty much from arsenal due to rivalry. I would sell barry to make way for him :p
 
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Remember BOYATA. He is good enough to be 4th choice CB in the first season. Starts in the reserves but he is absolutly fantastic! Promote him to the first team..i strongly suggest that.

Forgot to add that in mate, great point.
 
Also I highly recommend Rafael Toloi who will come cheaper than Galeano and is a fantstic CB, in my Leeds save he is the captian of Brazil at the age of 25 and has been getting an average ration of 7.4 every season
 
Also I highly recommend Rafael Toloi who will come cheaper than Galeano and is a fantstic CB, in my Leeds save he is the captian of Brazil at the age of 25 and has been getting an average ration of 7.4 every season

What does 7.4 get you now a days? 6 rasher of bacon, 200 grams of butter and a small packet of tabacco?
 
I play a 4-1-3-2 on mines as I have a plethora of attacking mids. (Setting: Fluid, Control)
- FB's set as WB (role:auto - maybe not good idea as it can leave your defence open, but i like my team to play attractive attacking football)
- Deep-Lying Playmaker (role:defend)
- AML (role:attack since my Silva, Balotelli, Neymar can play here & join the FW's)
- AMC (role:attack)
- AMR (role:support)
- ST (role:poacher?)
- ST (role:complete forward - For Tevez, he bagged 42 goals in my 1st season, even though I only came 3rd in the league).

I have my Strikers switching positions so it's difficult to mark them. However, the Striker roles can be changed I guess as I have problems making both strikers score together in one game.

Also keep my players in 'More Disciplined' roles & have only certain players roaming.

That sounds good. i use the 4 2 3 1, but i might try that one for a more attacking approach :)

---------- Post added at 05:41 AM ---------- Previous post was at 05:08 AM ----------

btw guys, i found this great amc from atlas. cant remember his name, but he's 20 years old and WOW he is promising... especially when you get him for 1mil... :)

---------- Post added at 05:42 AM ---------- Previous post was at 05:41 AM ----------

What about fabio coentrao for the LB? another bright, cheap and young talent!
 
played 34 games - currently 1st.
players bought - Kadlec,Dzeko,Coentrao,Annan,Kevin,Affelay,Sanchez.

GK : Hart
DR: Richards/Zabaleta
DC: Kompany-Toure/Boyata
DL: Coentrao/Kolarov
CDM: De Jong/Annan
CM: Kevin/Barry
AML:Silva/Affelay
AMR:Sanchez

ST: Tevez-Dzeko/Kadlec

I use Ghost Tactic.
 
should i loan out Dedryck Boyata, John Guidetti, and Frederic Veseli.?
Please help me!
 
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