Football Manager

[calgaryballer]

The animations seem much smoother, and the attacking AI seems smarter. In a friendly against At Madrid, Kiesling and Helmes created a 2 v 1 chance. In years past, Kiesling would probably have run straight and then launched the ball over the net. In this one, he drew the defender to him, and then laid an easy square ball in to the path of Helmes for a tap in. I've been screaming at my strikers for years for that kind of finish

[BigHouseUSA]

Good decision on not going with Newcastle. I had a similar game last year and am having trouble getting into my Newcastle game, plus, we suck.

[Fappin Raptor]

Did you guys know you can set your video resolutions to 720p or 1280p?

[BigHouseUSA]

Probably going to start a game over. Don't really want to go through preseason again, but my team is awful. I heard Man City offer up to 10mil for Vuckic, so I'm going to try and get on that.

[1ke]

Im buying this from Steam tonight, dont know who Im gonna go with. Need to find some skins ASAP!

And Im also gonna download the new FIFA Manager 11 game tonight as well to see how it is.

[Lanteri]

The draw I mentioned earlier was for the Europa League, my apologies, not the Champions League.

Won all 6 games in the gorup, and drew Sporting CP in the first knockout round. Winner of our matchup will play the winner of Napoli/Manchester City.

So far in domestic play through 16 games we have 9 wins, 4 draws, and 3 losses, and are third in the table.

van der Vaart has been my best player by a wide margin, with 7 goals, 5 assists, and a 7.29 rating in 15 league apps.
Gomes, and my defense has also been very strong, with Gomes turning in a 7.11 and 9 clean sheets, Gallas with a 7.25, King with a 7.16 (though only in 5 matches due to missing several weeks with an injury), Dawson with a 7.15 in 14 apps.

Bale has been my best midfield player on the left wing with 2 goals and 2 assists, 7.08 rating in 15 apps, Cahill with 4 goals, 4 assists, 7.06 rating.

Defoe started off the campaign well, but has fizzled out tremendously as of late. He's got 6 goals and 3 assists, and a rating of 7.07 in 14 apps thus far, but is goalless in his last 5 premiership appearances, and did not appear in my last match as I went with Crouch over him.

[Lanteri]

Jermaine Defoe is completely useless.

It's been 10 league games (8 that he's played in) since scoring.

Now that I'm in January, I'm definitely going to be looking for a striker.

Outgoing so far:

Kaboul to OL for £5m
O'Hara to Derby for £3.1m
Bentley to Sunderland for £3.3m
Corluka to Atletico Madrid for £3.8m
Palacios to Espanyol for £4.3m

As for the formation I'm using, I've switched it a little bit, to a 4-3-2-1 pyramid. The two wide midfielders are wingers, the central midfielder is a ball winning midfielder in a defense role, AMCR (VdV) is a trequartista, AMCL is a supporting advanced playmaker, and ST is an attacking forward. Both fullbacks are set to defend, and one defender is a CD, the other a limited defender.

I've got £16.25m available for transfers.

I was targeting Ashley Young, but he picked up a serious injury, so he's off the radar at least until the summer.

As for strikers that I'm targeting: Dzeko is the main one, but I'm also interested in Neymar, Luis Suarez, Eduardo, and maybe Lewandoski.

[Lanteri]

Signed Dzeko for an initial fee of £8.5m, with £21.5m due over 48 months, and Julio Baptista for £7.5m. Obviously, I would have preferred to sign Ashley Young for that particular spot, but Baptista is a suitable fallback option.

Going with:

------------Dzeko---------------
-----Baptista---van der Vaart----
Bale--------Cahill----------Modric
Ekotto--Gallas--Woodgate--Hutton

At the end of January now, we're 4th in the table through 24 games with 12 wins, 6 draws, 6 losses. 36 GF, 23 GA.

[1ke]

Better fix that D!

And youre like Arsenal, only 2 Englishmen in you starting XI haha

[1ke]

Anyone find any decent skins yet, all I could find were some that were still pretty dark.

[BigHouseUSA]

Starting one unemployed, got the job at Woking. Here we go.

[BigHouseUSA]

Anyone know of any players I could get on loans?

[Fappin Raptor]

Anyone know of any players I could get on loans?

Possibly Seamus Coleman from Everton, as well as Shane Duffy, Kieran Agard, Hope Akpan, Nathan Craig, Gerald Kinsella, Shkodran Mustafi, Ross Barkley, Johan Hammar. All youngsters at Everton.

[Fappin Raptor]

Started one unemployed as a Sunday League footballer and got an offer to manage (Matt) Stafford in March 2011.

[Lanteri]

Defeated Sporting 5-0 on aggregate in the first knockout round of the Europa League.
Defeated Man City 1-0 in the second knockout round.

Drew Arsenal in the quarters, and winner of that plays the winner of Leverkusen-Atletico Madrid.

In domestic play, we're 5th in the table with 50 points through 29 games.

van der Vaart, who was so good early on in the season, has disappeared since his return from injury, turning in a 6.0 or lower in 3 of his last 5 games. He's been particularly wasteful with his shooting, having been on target just 2 times in his last 14 attempts.