MANUMAD's box of sweets

Southampton - a return

In the end it all fell into place. I went into my last match vs ARSENAL at home on 71points to ARSENAL's 74, having the much better goal difference.

Thanks to THE ROCK 4141 FINAL VERSION with IOs by WIM TEUNISSEN my 4.5* Tactical ASSMAN I won 5-1 (!) thereby winning the league on gd (I also comfortably won the FA CUP final 4-1 vs CRYSTAL PALACE, having already won the CAPITAL ONE CUP).

Due to the awesomeness of the tactics (which btw were not as effective as with other teams - I ended up with 7 defeats!) it was a very quick season finished in 3/4 days.

The shock was that for the second season despite my expectations as mentioned above I didnt get any increase in wage/transfer budget so I only got BRUNO MARTINS INDI who s amazing on a free.

I tried to generate money by selling YOSHIDA/TADANARI LEE/PUNCHEON but there are no takers for the latter and the BOARDROOM got most of the money from the sale of the others. Oh, and LFC got BORUC for 750k, the mugs.

Therefore:

1. Thank god I was given 60+m first season.
2. Thank god I spent it on young players and thank god I gave them matches.
3. My squad is reasonably sized (will have some probs as Ive also loaded an extra tournament FIFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE from this site) and having played already together for some time I ll be able to test once and for all not having to train tactics/team cohesion pre season (instead I trained ball control mainly).
4. The purchase of MSAKNI who's quite good, cost me only 1.5m but is on 90k per week (and spent most time so far on treatment table) was not that wise ...
 
More Southampton

1. Managed to also get SADIO MANE in, plus my Youth Developer brought a decent youngster in.
2. Squad is good size but with 5 comps going I know it will strain. Hopefully in January Ill be given money to spend.
3. Schneiderlin is awesome as are most others.
4. Won the supercup beating ARSENAL 5-1(!).
5. Currently after 6 matches Ive had 4 wins 2 draws and 2nd one point off the top.
6. Ferreyra is really on fire.
7. Beat MILAN away 6-1 in CL first match - The Rock 4141 plus IOs by Mr Teunissen tend to do that kind of thing.
8. FIFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE: Early stages against v weak teams (african/asian) so beating them with youngsters.
9. Tom Ince!!!
 
Squad Building with Southampton

In November I was given 39m oO) to spend and I did. I sold:

Steven Davis to Blackburn and Diego Alves to Arsenal for 23.5 m (I bought him on a free in June so within 5 months I made a cool 23.5m profit!) and bought:

1. Jack Butland GK)
2. Carlos Fierro
3. Hachim Mastour
4. Nathan Redmond
5. Jonjo Shelvey
6. Lamela
7. Ekdal (dm/cm)
8. Kelly (from LFC).

Currently in February second 3 points off CHELSKI who added Leandro Damiao and hardly drop any points (I lost 2 matches: to Chelski and my bogey team FULHAM).

Comfortably proceeding in all CUP comps with my extremely young squad ...
 
Tactical Advice

1. Do not leave your defense without a defensive screen in midfield.

The most defensive way is to have an anchorman sat in front of your cb(s). Other more complex permutations including eg a dlp defend are better as they offer smoother transitions from defence to attack.

2. Always make sure your system has a logical balance.

3. Have a staggered midfield, use the roles in the TC to set it up. If you have two players there they should support one another. Its ok having two/more players with same roles (eg dlp) but dont give them the same duties.

4. Think where your threat will emanate from. eg: a formation/tactic with only one player on support from mf upwards can easily be negated. So try to offer as many avenues for threats.

5. Learn to use shouts during the game; go here:Football Manager Touchline Instructions - Adapt Tactics | Passion for Football Manager

6. Try to have a spine - players you can depend: gk-rcb or lcb-mf-cf

7. Dont be lazy. Or if you choose to be dont complain. Do the work (as mentioned in other posts in this thread) from day one.

8. Watch the highlights at least on extensive. Understand what they are showing you. eg:

-look whether your players are making space for each other.

-if your players are always going offside reduce their forward runs or press less.

-If your defenders are not intercepting through balls then look for whether your midfield is getting bypassed too early. If yes, make sure you have a staggered midfield and reduce their closing down.

-If you re always on the back foot you ll soon be breached. Be proactive.

-Identify weak links in opposition eg injured players/not brave players and tackle hard etc

9. Do not listen to your assman all the time . Even if 5 star, he's still AI.
 
Ginger Prince

Cruyff wrote in the Daily Mail: "The United attitude was so good. There was a week where we had three games and Paul Scholes scored in all three, maybe six or seven goals in total. I was looking at him in the dressing room the next day and he was so calm in the dressing room, completely normal, as though he’d done nothing all week."I said, ‘Jesus, if I’d scored seven goals in three games, I’d be walking in with a new suit! They would have had to make the doors wider because my ego would not have fit through anymore!’ I learned a lot of these small lessons at that time."
 
Just finished my first Apertura with Xolos Tijuana in Liga MX. I finished 2nd in the league table, but got knocked out of of the playoffs by a Tigres squad who really had my number. America went on to win, who also finished first in the league table. That means I qualified for Copa Libertadores action! Really excited, I've never played in Copa Lib before on FM.

I sold my starting ST Duvier Riascos to a French team (can't remember exactly, OGC Nice or Toulouse) but I bought Carlos Fierro in the preseason so I already have a replacement, plus Herculez Gomez and another veteran ST. I picked up Romario, Diskerud and Carlos Bocanegra on frees. Which is good, because the club isn't doing so hot financially and isn't given me much in transfer revenues toward a budget. Edgar Castillo has been agitated for a move for a while, which is unfortunate because part of the reason I chose this team was because of it's Mexican-American players who play for the USA. Oh well, Greg Garza (also Mex-American) has been performing well at LB.
 
metalface13 said:
Just finished my first Apertura with Xolos Tijuana in Liga MX. I finished 2nd in the league table, but got knocked out of of the playoffs by a Tigres squad who really had my number. America went on to win, who also finished first in the league table. That means I qualified for Copa Libertadores action! Really excited, I've never played in Copa Lib before on FM.

I sold my starting ST Duvier Riascos to a French team (can't remember exactly, OGC Nice or Toulouse) but I bought Carlos Fierro in the preseason so I already have a replacement, plus Herculez Gomez and another veteran ST. I picked up Romario, Diskerud and Carlos Bocanegra on frees. Which is good, because the club isn't doing so hot financially and isn't given me much in transfer revenues toward a budget. Edgar Castillo has been agitated for a move for a while, which is unfortunate because part of the reason I chose this team was because of it's Mexican-American players who play for the USA. Oh well, Greg Garza (also Mex-American) has been performing well at LB.
Click to expand...

1. Whats the budget situation? How much were you given. Reason Im asking is because recently I went back to my ARSENAL DE SARANDI save and Argentina has been ****** up big time by SI. Arsenal is actually the 3rd save I attempted in Argentina and the other two (Newell's and Tigre) I was forced to stop after one season (and pretty successful ones as well as I won all there was to win) because:

a) Squads were small.
b) Despite my success I was given no increased wage/transfer budget and could not renew contracts of my best players (all the loanees went back and I couldnt get people in of similar quality) and so I ended up with miniscule squads.
c) Schedulling is ridiculous: bearing in mind my success in all competitions at the end of the season I routinely had to play matches on consequent days!
d) Arsenal was barely playable for a second season cos it has a slightly bigger squad with no players of quality at the end of their contracts.

2. I still had to pad my squad with young/crappy loans to be able to handle 3 matches a week which I have twice a month but its still ridiculous, not enjoyable at all and a struggle really and Im only continuing it out of curiosity to see what will happen financially in the end of the next season.

3. So far I won the Copa Argentina and Recopa as well as the Copa Libertadores, came second in the apertura (to BOCA) and first in the Clausura (so had to play a play off match which I won winning the league) and so far in the second season I came second to Belgrano (who had media expectation to finish 19th!) in the apertura and Im currently struggling due to squad depth/injuries routinely having to play players out of position/unfit and Im fourth in the clausura. Oh and in the CWC I played Chivas in the semis and beat them 3-0 and Man City in the final to whom I lost on penalties after drawing 1-1.
 
I'm not sure things in Mexico are that bad. I was given an initial budget of 4M (can't remember what currency is set to, Euros maybe). But I've only played through a little over half a season, so I can't say how things will be next season. I think this is mostly a case of SI misjudging the situation of Xolos Tijuana. They are a really new team, formed only in 2007 but have already made their way to the top division in Mexico, won an Opertura and made their way to the Copa Libertadores semi-finals this year. Hopefully SI rates the club differently in FM14. The ownership is very ambitious, they already have a 22,000 capacity stadium and are already expanding to 33,000. Tijuana is on the border with the USA and the California city of San Diego and Xolos really has a cross cultural appeal to Mexicans, Mexican-Americans and Americans. It's a really cool, unique situation that Chivas USA in the MLS wishes they had.
 
I won La Clausura! Fixture congestion is crazy! I was going through the Clausura playoffs and the Copa Libertadores knockout rounds at the same time. In Copa Lib I was grouped with Cruzeiro, Cienciano of Peru and The Strongest from Bolivia. I finished second in the group without a fuss, though Cruzeiro demolished me both home and away. I was drawn against Universidad Catolica from Chile who I took care of as well. But for the quarterfinal I was drawn against Cruzeiro again. I managed a convincing 3-1 win at home, but lost 2-0 in the 95th minute away. Cruzeiro pulled some serious Fergie time. 4 added minutes, and then they won a corner kick and scored in the 95th minute. It was brutal. But then I went on and won the Liga MX Clausura despite 3 of my starters being called up for internationals! Ridiculous scheduling.

Now in the off season, going through friendlies during international tournaments, but the board has given me know transfer budget. They haven't even offered at all. No talk of season expectations or anything. It's a real shame. Financial the club is not doing well, we lost 3.5 million last season.
 
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