Football Manager

[JBauerisGod]

Posted a Facebook status that just said "footmall manager 2012 awwwwwwww yeahhhhhh".

Everyone now thinks I'm a manager for the Virginia Tech football team next year.:lolol:

[JBauerisGod]

I had no idea how important player morale is in FM12. After having a couple poor performances, I had a team meeting to talk about it. Bam, everyone's morale drops to poor or very poor. Haven't won a game in six matches now.

[Lanteri]

Added Angel Di Maria to the squad after word went out that he was transfer listed for £13.25m This was with what I had left of my transfer budget for the 11/12 season.

Interestingly enough, despite our Champions League spot, the board has elected to not continue to give me money to spend. I thought they would be continuing to spend, but alas my transfer budget for the upcoming season has been set at £1m, so other than Di Maria, no one's coming in.

Out:

Caballero to Lecce for £500k
Xavi Torres to Torino for £750k
Ivan Gonzalez to Torino for £1m
Joaquin to PSG for £3.5m
Javi Lopez to Las Palmas for £700k
Diego Bounanotte to Bologna for £2m

Squad as it stands today. (may look to add via free transfer or loan of course)

GK: Almunia
LB: Monreal
CB: Alderwerield
CB: DiMichelis
RB: Gamez
DMCL: Sven Bender
DMCR: Toulalan
AML: Di Maria
AMC: Julio Baptista
AMR: Cazorla
ST: Rondon

Subs: Ruben, Apono, Raul (via free transfer), Gonzalo Castro, Alexander Kolarov (on loan), Duda, Sergio Sanchez

Eliseu and Ignacio Camacho are still with the squad as well, and Danny Welbeck is in on loan from Man U.

[Lanteri]

Through to the group stage of the Champions League following a 3-1 aggregate victory over Schalke (2-0 at home, 1-1 draw on the road).

[Lanteri]

Rough group draw:

Rangers, Marseille, and Man U.

[JBauerisGod]

If this has been posted before, I do apologize.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNtMZuc7_BY"]Jason Manford - Football Manager - YouTube[/ame]

[Lanteri]

We've successfully fought our way out of the group stage of the Champions League and into the Knockout Rounds. We came away with 3 wins, 1 draw, and 2 losses, the key win being in the final matchup against Man U, in a 3-0 victory. Now the bad news, we've been drawn against Bayern, and the worse news is that we'll be going at it without Demichelis for both matches as he picked up a straight red that resulted in the automatic one match ban + he was handed down a further two match ban. Fortunately, we have reinforcements coming in January, mainly Sebastien Bassong.

Domestically, on the other hand, we're struggling. 15 matches in, we have a record of 8 wins, 1 draw, and 6 losses. We've been solid defensively, conceding just 14, but we've had a ton of trouble as of late hitting the net, scoring just 25 goals. Rondon and Baptista are still getting theirs, but Di Maria has missed two significant stretches with injury and has had a tough time having a steady run of match fitness, and Santi Cazorla has not found the net all season after scoring over 10 last year. Interestingly enough the struggles are not limited to a particular venue, as we have 4 wins both home and away. Our home record does though leave a bit to be desired.

Transfer wise..in a week the following moves are occurring:

Out:

Santi Cazorla to Lazio for £9.25m - Elected to sell Santi while he still has value. He continues to lose the pace necessary to be effective in a counter attacking formation, and of course his complete lack of goal scoring made it a fairly easy sell.
Natxo Monreal to Villareal for £6m - Monreal's been in awful form all season long, sporting a 6.69 average rating in league play. He's been slightly better continentally, with a 6.97, but given how well Kolarov has been playing on loan from Man City, I'm electing to sell here as well.

In

Bassong - £2.8m - Bassong's always much better on FM than he is in IRL. His pace and anticipation are what lures me to him, as I play a high line defensively. He should pair well with Alderweireld.
Geraldo - £2.9m - 21-year-old Angolan winger playing in Brazil's Serie A for Coritibia. He has good pace, and solid mental attributes for his age. Signed him for cover for both Di Maria and Gonzalo Castro.

I'm likely not done, but rather waiting to see how much, if anything more the board will be giving me for funds. I'll be keeping an eye on the loan market as well. If I sign anyone else it'll likely be a permanent left back.

[Lanteri]

Stupid me didn't realize that Bassong already played in the Champions League with Tottenham, so he's ineligible as well. With Sanchez also suspended for a game my two central defenders for the first leg against Bayern were Alderweireld and Toulalan.

Managed a 1-1 draw at home. Possession was 51 to 49 in our favor, but we held Bayern to just 4 shots, while we had 15. 9 to 2 in SOT. Even in CCC at 3-3. I fucking hate Neuer. He turned in a 9.5 rating for his performance, pretty much singlehandedly keeping Bayern in the match.

Second leg to follow after 3 more La Liga matches.

[Bigpapa42]

Yeah, Neuer was immense in both matches I played against Bayern in the CL with Ajax. Just huge. He is desribed as world class in the game, but still...

[Lanteri]

Second leg...

We got on the board first as Gonzalo Castro scored off a beautiful ground cross by Rondon in the 7th minute. Bayern equalised in the 28th minute as Breno headed in a corner. Our best spell of the first half came in the final 5 minutes before the half time whistle as we piled on the pressure, but were denied by woodwork twice. The first was a blistering drive by Baptista from the edge of the box that hit the right angle of the crossbar/right post. The rebound came to Rondon who cannoned it off the crossbar. Bayern nearly scored on the counter from the second shot. At the half most of the team was performing well, with the exception of Alderweireld (6.4) and Gamez (6.0). Sanches has had a solid game (6.9) filling in for the suspended Demichelis and ineligible Bassong.

Gamez was substituted off at half-time after failing to respond to the team or individual talks. Not taking the risk. Andreas Ibertsberger was his replacement.

We headed into the second half needing to go up 1 to win. Any goal scored would give us the advantage in away goals, thus making a 2-2 draw a win for us as well, so anything but going down a goal is acceptable for us.

We elected to substitute off Julio Baptista in the 67th minute who was having a quiet game, (6.7) and replaced him with the veteran Raul. Possession to this point in the second half had been in favor of us, but we've just been put under sustained pressure following a series of corners for Bayern, nearly resulting in Breno's second of the game, but we escaped that. The final 25 minutes of regulation time were rather uneventful, with our best chance at taking the lead being denied once again by Neuer, who has once again been fantastic, this time denying a point blank effort rushing out to turn away Rondon who was found by a spot on cross from Castro, who was looking to return the favor from earlier in the match.

With no winner after 90 minutes, the two sides headed back out for extra time. We elected to hold on to our final substitution in case of injury as we definitely do not want to risk going down a man in extra time. I gave the lads a passionate team talk, telling them to keep going and that all it's going to take is one goal to win this for us.

Both sides had a number of opportunities in extra time, but it was ultimately a Bacinovic drive in the 115th minute that gave Bayern the 2-1 lead, and the victory. That one stung quite a bit.

Easily the most exciting match I've managed on FM in a long time though. That being said, fuck Bayern, fuck Neuer, and fuck Schweinsteiger for still having legs after 115 minutes.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhGT3-zpB84"]FC Bayern vs Malaga - Bacinovic Goal 115 minutes - YouTube[/ame]

[Lanteri]

Anyway, the focus is now back on qualifying once again for European football. As of April 1st, with 9 matches remaining, we find ourselves in 6th with 52 points from 29 matches. Athletic currently has a 7 point cushion on us for Champions League football, with 59 points also from 29 matches, with Atletico Madrid right behind them at 58 points. Trailing us is Valencia with 45 points, followed by Granada and Sevilla with 39 each.

We do not have the kindest run out in the world, as out of the 9 remaining games, we still have to face Real Madrid, Barcelona, Sevilla, Villareal, and Valencia. The latter 3 are all away from the Rosaleda. Fortunately, the matches against Madrid and Barcelona are home matches. The other 4 on the schedule are Hercules, Sociedad, Villadolid and Racing. I find it pretty much mandatory that we take max points from those 4, and hope for the best with the rest.

[calgaryballer]

I want to keep going with FM, but I think my NUFC save needs a break. Time to find a new squad...

[Lanteri]

I want to keep going with FM, but I think my NUFC save needs a break. Time to find a new squad...

I do that a lot.

[calgaryballer]

Ended up with Heerenveen in Holland. Lets see how it lasts

[calgaryballer]

Dunno if it was just my first game, but my players did not give me the time of day in the team talk. Maybe I was spoiled with Newcastle, because I was able to always get them green. Perhaps it's a language thing. Or perhaps it was updated in the patch