Rebuild my Man Utd squad to win Champions League

Mulagar

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This is my second playthrough (really the first since I abandoned the former game after just a few months) and I have just finished my second season as Man Utd manager.
Won EPL but lost in final to Bayern. Knocked out of FA and that other cup by Man City.
As such the second season is not much better than the first where I won EPL but got knocked out in the CL semi against Madrid though.

City bought Fellaini, Sandro, Leighton Baines, Thomas Mueller
Chelsea bought Vidal, Valencia (from moi) and Adrian

Whom should I buy so that my team can compete with the continental juggernauts and rich men sinkhole.

I have:
GK : De Gea, Lindengaard
DL : Alaba, Fabio, Buttner
DC : Vidic, Jones, Smalling, ( and now Zouma )
DR : Rafael
MC : Thiago, Powell, Fletcher and Carrick
AML : Neymar (IF), Kagawa, Nani
AMC : Kagawa, Rooney
AMR : Nani, Zaha and RVP
ST : Rooney, RVP, Neymar, Wellbeck

4.5 to 5 stars regen in training :
1 GK, 2 DC, 1 ML, 1 ST

It is now 50 days until pre-season begins.
I have just bought Zouma for 20 million pound sterling.
Tottenham who finished third in PL want to buy Wellbeck (21 goals in 30 apps, 8 subs) for 24 million. But I feel he is not very effective against strong opponent. I need a striker that can do more than deliver a beat down on EPL small fishes.

Budget is 100 million. Have about 300 - 400k left in weekly wages. (corrected)

This season I have come to the realization that my squad dont have a lot of depth to deal with injuries. Injury to Nani, Alaba or Rafael will force me to use much much inferior players. Looking back selling Valencia and Hernandez for a mere 18 million each was a big mistake. I simply take a look at their value and since the offer was slightly larger, I accepted.
 
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Make neymar your focal point as a trequarista upfront with inside forward cutting in. Sell the likes of RVP(very injury prone) and welbeck..

Rooney neymar alaba are the untouchables, well, sell rooney if you can't find a spot for him, but try to keep him.

You need defensive minded midfielders like wanyama, benders, mvila... try to buy also players like fellaini, sandro, vidal, khedira, those kind of players are great in europe
 
Sell the likes of RVP(very injury prone) and welbeck..

Rooney neymar alaba are the untouchables, well, sell rooney if you can't find a spot for him, but try to keep him.

You need defensive minded midfielders like wanyama, benders, mvila... try to buy also players like fellaini, sandro, vidal, khedira, those kind of players are great in europe

Word. RVP has been injured 9 times within the two years he was in the team.
Fellaini, Sandro and Vidal have been bought by City. Their squad page is terrifying and they regularly kick my ****. For some reasons they ended the season in the fifth place.

Alright, Lars Bender it is then.Still need ML / AML though. How is K. Asamoah for 27 million ?

Edit:
Reload my save and replayed the final match against Bayern. This time somehow I won 4-1 with a Neymar hattrick. I put the injured Nani on injection and played him. Change style from Counter to Attacking set Target Man to Neymar (*). Not gonna use this save and used the one where I lost instead but the result certainly make me feel like there's a bit too much luck involved here.
 
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Defo buy Lars Bender, Valencia has been brilliant for me on my save! With that sort of budget and in need of an AML buy Bale!!!
 
Bender does not want to move from Leverkusen (wtf??). Bale is also staying put.
I really dont know how people can sign Bale for 25-30 million. My bid of 40 million pound was rebuffed with nary a thought.
What about Hamsik or Rodriguez instead ?
 
In midfield you want to get rid of Fletcher and Carrick and replace them with two better tenacious midfielders. Wanyama/Sven Bender/Crisetig/Luiz Gustavo should all be good options. You might want to look for a better rotation player then Powell as well as I wouldn't want to be playing him in tough league games/Europe. Someone like Veratti/Garmash/Hughes would be a good choice.
 
there is another bender twin if your heart is really set on him. also spurs will accept and offer of about that 1st season and he will leave but if you let time pass they wont. I totally agree with wanyama (especially if you run lfcmarshalls update). Your back 5 seems really solid except for a backup rb (even though fabio can play it) i would look at montoya from barca. your attackers and attacking mids seems excellent and able to compete at the top, i would push powell a bit forward and possibly thiago although he does excel in a DLP role as well. both of your stronger CMs are aging though so a younger player/upgrade could be possible, already suggested Wanyama, but there are a ton of other good young to entering their prime players for that position.
you could try for pogba to bring him back to man u which would be awesome.

some other names:
Strootman
Nainggolan
Leroy Fer
illaramendi
hamash
rodwell
jack cork

hope this helps!
 
Thanks for all the suggestion.
The ones I really want like Bale, Benders Brothers, Gotze or Neuer are off limits regardless of price.

With the money burning in my pocket I impulsively bought a couple of players with nary a thought. Hamsik was unhappy and transfer listed at 18.5 million so I bought him, to deny Arsenal and Chelsea from getting him cheaply if nothing else . Then when I was checking squad depth, I saw that Nani has begun to decline. So I bought El Sharaawy for 33 million. I justified it by treating it as buying the guy for 6 million + Welbeck.

Still have 45 million for either one of the guys you recommended and maybe that elusive AML. Gonna table it until tomorrow, too tired to think clearly.

In : Zouma 20, Hamsik 18.5, Shaarawy 34.5
Out : Welbeck 27.5

Saw James Rodriguez going to Arsenal for 22 mil.
 
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What kind of AML? Winger or Inside forward?...Well, you already have shaarawy, so i think it is a winger left footed
Good AML are fisher, bernard, or dusan tadic..

I would take a push for vidal, fellaini, sandro or khedira...then if not, go for strootman, garmash(very good in the future), goretzka(wonderkid)...
 
I don't remember you need such a crazy all stars squad to win the champions cup :eek: with your pruchase of zouma, hamsik and shaarawy, you should be more than ready for champions cup already. Phil Jones can easily be push up to fill a defensive midfield slot. If you do however want to buy more players, garmash should be the player you are looking for. Although honestly speaking you should have let your rivals get shaarawy while getting other better AML :( If you do want to keep neymar left wing, you might want to try salomon rondon. He is a really awesome striker. Another 50 goals striker like olivier giroud on FM13.
 
Bale was easier to get on the original patch i always think, for a pass the parcel save recently i have bought Lewandowski, Fellaini, Alaba and Griezmann for Man Utd and i have won 24 out of 29 games and only lost once.
 
Play neymar as an if at aml. Rooney treq. Sharaawy amr winger. Bring in Lewa as an af/cf. Play thiago as a dlp. And bring a muscle for the middle. Suggestion? Wanyama, De rossi, Marchisio, Bender Bros, Javi martinez, Fernando, Mvila, Lucas, Tiote. I would also reccomend buying either a rb or a cb altough its not that necessary (jones can play both places). Hamsik And Kagawa are great backups, keep them.
 
Game crashed during a match (kept saying "changing tactics" for 10 minutes) in the first month of the season. Didnt cry about it too much cos it had been a disaster. 0-3 and 0-4 against Manchester City both in Charity Cup and first game of EPL.

Reload from earlier save :
In : Hamsik 18.5 , Zouma 20, Papadopoulos 16.5, James Rodriguez 28
Shaarawy was such a prolonged back and forth bidding, I kinda lost track and forgot about him. He was already unsettled so went to Arsenal for cheap (25 m)

Out :
Welbeck 30 to Tottenham
Johny Evans 18 to Bayern
Buttner 9 to West Brom
Chris Smalling 21.5 to Chelsea

83 million expended, 79 received.

Just to see if it was a fluke, I didnt change the strategy and once again City thrashed me in Charity Cup 1-3. Changed formation to weird 4-2-3-1 putting Thiago and Hamsik in the middle instead, Rodriguez, Kagawa and Rooney as AMC and Neymar up front. United actually did okay for once and won their first away game against City since I took over. Could be a fluke though. I wish there's a mod that can instantly replay a match so I can change a strategy and replay a match 10 times to be sure whether it is working as intended instead of just the random number generator being kind.

Gonna buy one of the suggested midfielder in January. I wasted too much time futilely trying to unsettle Javi Martinez and the Benders.
 
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You can actually sell welbeck for that much in this game? I thought hes bad on FM13... Anyway looks like you already got your all star team...
 
Thanks for all the help. My team regularly destroy City and Chelsea now, often by 3 or 4 goals. Lower ranked teams are demolished with nary a thought. Still not sure if its players becoming older and reaching their full potential, the change in strategy from 442 to 4231 or the new players. Probably a combination of all the above.

Papadopoulos, Zouma and Rodriguez have ridiculously good form in my team though none of them speak english.
 
Re:

How did you manage to get that much for Welbeck? Transfer list or Offer?
Got rid of Nani (Varane Swap), Anderson (PSG - 16 million), Young (Arsenal - 20 million).
Read a lot about people getting Fellaini for 10 million + Anderson, but i think that was on the original version. With patch, I had to shell 21 million for him.
 
For AML go for Alvaro Vadillo he is young but plays great or Gianluca Caprari both have done wonders for me. Hope it helps :D
 
Welbeck was my top goal scorer for the 2nd season.
His statistics are inflated due to the fact that he is normally only played against weaker rated teams.
At first his profligacy led me to put him as my main striker but then I noticed that he was often ineffective against stronger teams hence him being sold.

None of my players were transfer listed but for some reasons they were highly sought after e.g. I just sold Nani for 21 million. Tottenham simply bid for him out of the blue. Too good to refuse.

---
Third Season as manager in ManU:
Won PL. City and Chelsea under performed once again, 6th and 7th place.
-Destroyed- Barcelona 5-0 and 3-0 in Champions League quarter final.
Only won due to luck (red card) against Bayern in the semi.
My forwards were useless in the final against Madrid. They won 3-1.
Another season with only an EPL win (not unlike the real United team...)

The team was a bit of a hot and cold which I suspect was due to the age of the players. Most of them are in their early 20s. They gonna destroy a top team one day and held to a draw against lower league team 3 days after.
 
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Erik Lamela is a beast on the wings, with sharawy both are unbeatable, 2nd option is Andre Ayew and YOrmalenko, Zouma is a great capture. Try to get cavani and Leandro Damiao (The Giants).
 
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