Football Manager

[Lanteri]

Leon Osman and Tony Hibbert are retiring at the end of June in addition to Neville and Cahill. Osman's been added to the coaching staff. Hibbert, isn't a useful coach so he's gone.

[Lanteri]

World Cup results (from the quarters on)

Uruguay 0 vs. France 0 (Uruguay advances on penalties)
Portugal 0 vs. Germany 0 (Portugal advances on penalties)
Spain 1 vs. Brazil 0
England 3 - Argentina 0

Uruguay 0 vs. Portugal 0 (Uruguay through on penalties)
Spain 4 vs. England 1

3rd place game

Portugal 1 England 0

Championship

Spain 1, Uruguay 0

[Lanteri]

2014 Summer Transfers

 

Squad

 

Progress of Rodwell, Barkley, Sealy, and Wale

 

[Bigpapa42]

Just about through October in the first season. Have only one loss, which was 3-2 away to Bayern in the CL group, plus a 0-0 draw away to Lyon. Everything else has been wins. 7 points up in the Eredivisie already with a game on hand, with a +27 goal difference. Of the 5 goals allowed, 3 came against FC Groningen when the home side went up 3-0 in the first half, I blasted the team at half-time, and they responded by coming back to win 4-3.

While I was tempted to keep the squad as per, I decided to move some players. I sold on El Hamoudi and then van der Wiel when Arsenal unsettled him. I spread the money out and made some great buys. The keys ones have been Gylfi Sigurosson, Willfried, Xherdan Shaqiri, and Ivan Bandalovski. Bandalovski was supposed to be versatile cover for both fullback spots. Instead he became a key player, average 7.79 in 9 league matches with 4 assists. Sigurosson was a luxury buy, since Eriksen is pretty capable, but Sigurosson has 5 goals and 6 assists in 8 league matches, with an 8.09 average. Eriksen plays a bit deeper on the pitch, where his runs slice up the defense. Wilfried "only" has 4 es goals, but 7 assists and a 7.86 average. He has a tendency to hold up the ball, which doesn't really fit his tactical settings or skills, but he's contibuting. Shaqiri was even more of a luxury buy than Sigurosson and I only spent the money after vdW left. Playing on the right wing cutting inside, he's been lethal - 6 matches and 3 sub appearances resulting in 8 goals and a 7.93 average.

Its been a really fun game so far. Unless the injuries pile up, winning Holland shouldn't be too tough but even just getting out of the CL Group is gonna be tough.

[Lanteri]

Dude Lan, you've really got to sign some creative players. How are you playing your two center mids?

They're both box to box.

[Fappin Raptor]

Played my first game with Everton against Blackburn and won 2-0 in Goodison. Cahill scored as well as Drenthe right after he came in as a sub.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePVUk_uw8Ho"]Everton 2 - 0 Blackburn - Match Highlights - YouTube[/ame]

[Fappin Raptor]

FM quit unexpectedly and now I have to reinstall 2000+ files again through Steam. Is anyone else having this problem with Steam on Mac?

[Bigpapa42]

They're both box to box.

Do they have the skills? A true box-to-box midfielder is one of the rarest players in the game, much like a complete forward.

[Lanteri]

Do they have the skills? A true box-to-box midfielder is one of the rarest players in the game, much like a complete forward.

I believe they are both well-rounded enough and have enough stamina, yeah. I posted their latest screenshots a few posts up.

[Bigpapa42]

I believe they are both well-rounded enough and have enough stamina, yeah. I posted their latest screenshots a few posts up.

I honestly wouldn't be trying that role with those two. Not to say they aren't solid but they aren't outstanding. Rodwell doesn't quite have the mental attributes and Barkley isn't really attacking enough. From what I've read, to be truly as effective as they should be, a box-to-box midfielder should be a player like Gerrard.

Just had four players do a line dance after scoring the 5th goal of the match. Don't think I've seen them do it in a group like that before...

[Lanteri]

Found this interesting. Again I don't know if this is new for FM12, but I don't remember it happening last year.

Barkley got hurt on international duty, and is going to be out 3 months. I got a notification saying the club will receive compensation payments of 11.75k per week towards his wage while he's out injured.

[Bigpapa42]

Made it through the Group Stage with Ajax! Woohoo! Took a surprising 3-0 win at home against Lyon, then managed a 1-1 draw in Amsterdam against Bayern, and finally demolished Otelul (of Romania) away to secure advancement. Lyon only managed a draw with Bayern in the final round, so even a draw against the Romanians would have been enough. The match cost me a couple of players, though. Haven't had too many players get injured playing domestically but they always seem to get hacked up in Europe.

Still undefeated in the Eredivisie. Haven't even drawn a match yet. Have 45 points, which 13 ahead of PSV, plus a 55-9 for-against ratio.

[Lanteri]

10 games in we've got 7 wins and 3 draws, with 28 goals for and 7 against.

[Lanteri]

Finally suffered our first loss of the season, at the hands of Liverpool, 1-0 at Goodison.

[Bigpapa42]

Since they've brought the ability to play players in certain roles, I've only ever played two players as box to box mids. Gerrard and Schweinsteiger. They're pretty rare, and honestly I don't really like playing my guys that way. If I'm playing 2 central mids I always, always, have one in an attacking role and another in a defensive role.

I guess that's just my philosophy. My fullbacks are attacking in nature, so I always have a midfielder who drops back and shields my centerbacks, while my other central mid is more attacking and links up with my striker who plays in the hole and looks for my wingers who play as strikers or the target man/poacher in front of him.

I'm much the same. In wanting to create my own tactic this time around, I did a bunch of reading on player roles. FM Britain has a great guide that's nearly 200 pages. The guide made a great point - the box-to-box mids are rarely used in football anymore become there are few players of that type. Role specialization on the pitch means you don't need to try to find mids who can do everything, because most players can't.