[FM19] Middlesbrough

[Rooneye]

Not sure if the search is broken, but there doesn't seem to have been a Boro thread here for ages. Someone (better than me) should make one.

Anyways until then us FM Smoggies can have a little Boro chinwag in this thread.

So...

Firstly I should say, even if you're not a Boro fan, they're really great to play this year IMO. Great squad for the Championship and some really good home grown local lads coming through the great youth setup. Should easily get promoted first season.

Squad

 

Goalkeepers

In goal we have Darren Randolph who is probably the best keeper in the division IMO. Man Utd were after him in January of the first season. Behind him the quality drops off hugely. Connor Ripley would probably be the best backup option, but he's out on loan.

So you'll probably have to end up using 39 year old Dimitris Konstantopoulos if Randolph gets injured, which isn't great as he's pretty poor.

 

Full-Backs

As you can see we are in desperate need of more depth at right-back, Ryan Shotten played amazingly well for me as both RB and WB, but behind him is no natural right-back. Paddy McNair  can play there at a push, but yeah another right-back should probably be your first priority. Sadly you've only got a £4m transfer kitty to start with so will have to sell to buy. 

 

George Friend represents good quality at LB. Solid player and vice-captain. Loanee Sam McQueen is more pacy and technically better, but his tackling is weak at 9.

 

Center-Backs

In terms of center-backs we are also strong with Daniel Ayala and Aiden Flint and loanee Danny Batth solid Championship players. Flint is a beast in the air and can score a lot in set-pieces.

 

Then we have Dael Fry one of the local talents. He is awesome and is good enough for first team in the first season in the Championship and then develops into a really good Premiership quality player as well as England international. So 4 really solid CBs to choose from. Dael Fry should be the first one, then pick who to partner him up with IMO

 

Also in the Under-18s we have Nathan Wood who has great potential and should become a great player in the future.

 

 

[Rooneye]

Midfielders

We're also really strong in the DM/MC position. 6 players in fact, all more than good enough for the first team. Loanee Mo Besic is the best rated of the bunch and probably the best option in the DM slot IMO.

 

Team captain Grant Leadbitter is rated as the least quality wise, but he plays really well and is a great captain, so wether you play him over the other choices will be down to you. I would as I like my captains to play.

 

Johnny Howson should also be one of the first names on the teamsheet for sure. Great Championship player, if you play a box-to-box player, he's for you. I also got a great tune from him playing as Mezzala. He can play DM, but really you want him in a more attacking role to get the best out of him.

 

Adam Clayton, Paddy McNair and loanee George Saville (who you're commited to buying for £7m in Jan) are also good enough to play, so you'll have to juggle them around to keep them happy. I sold Clayton and McNair asap to raise some much needed funds to bring in other players as like I said £4m is all you start with. I'd rather not buy Saville tbh and have the £7m back, but you can't cancel the deal

 

There's also MC/AMC Lewis Wing, but he lacks quality IMO.

 

Wingers

Out wide we have Stewart Downing for the left (winger) or right (inside-forward) and Martin Braithwaite is a natural AML-IF as well as a natural striker, though I'd use him outwide on the left as we have strength upfront without him and don't have much depth on the wings.

 

The depth in question are youth products Harry Chapman and Marcus Tavernier who can both play either wing though both are slightly more suited to the left wing (even right footed Chapman who's more natural as a winger on the left for some reason. Tavernier is either footed, which is nice.) Champman is rated to be the more promising talent, however in my save sadly he's been really poor and his potential has gone down a lot, turned out an average at best player for me in the Prem, same with Tavernier, both just not good enough Your mileage may vary though and they might turn out great for you.

 

There's also Marvin Johnson, who's currently out on loan to another Championship club Sheffield Utd (who he usually does very well for), but he's bang average at best and bar injuries, probably won't be in the first team much if at all. He's 27 so not going to get any better and you'll probably just wanna get rid tbh.

 

Strikers

And finally upfront we again have great options. Brit Asombalonga scores bag loads of goals. There are always Premiership clubs sniffing around him, same with Braithwaite. Loanee (and local lad) Jordan Hugill is a really good Pressing Forward for the Championship. And then if you want a Target Man, Rudy Gestede is your man, 6'4" beast in the air. If you don't play a TM then maybe sell him like I did.

 

There's also Ashley Fletcher in the reserves for some backup, got the goals whenever he was needed for me.

 

So all in all a great squad to get you promoted to the Premiership at first asking. Boro also have a really good youth setup like I mentioned as pretty much every year you get one or two 5-star potential players who could turn out world beaters (currently in my second season I have an amazingly talented kid who's scored over 70 goals this season for the Under-18s!) Steve Gibson is also really open to upgrading everything, so I now have all state of the art facilities at the end of the second season.

 

Tactics

In terms of formations I would say 4-1-4-1 DM Wide (or 4-3-3 as we call it in the real world, seriously SI why didn't you just call it 4-3-3?) suits the players we have currently, rather than a 4-2-3-1 due to the lack of good AMC. 4-1-3-2 would also be a good choice to get those midfielders in the team with Braithwaite and Asombalonga upfront. 3/5 at the back with wingbacks is also a good shout due to the number of good center-backs. I also used a long ball 4-4-2 to great success once I switched to it in the latter stages of the first season. 

 

Signings

First season:

I bought Carl Jenkinson for £3m for right-back cover. Wasn't impressed with him at all, but he did the job. 

Another Arsenal player who did much better for me was young talent Ben Sheaf, who's a natural BPD, but can also play RB and did really well, really impressed me, sadly Arsenal rate him highly so I couldn't afford to make permanent.

Olexandr Zinchenko from Man City on loan was also very poor for me. He's a natural AMR-IF, but also can play at DL/R and WBL/R.

Young players I bought for the future; DM/MC Alex Blesa (He became my clubs "Hot Prospect" when you look at the club overview. I tweeted a screenshot of this with the caption "Future Boro Legend" to him. He liked it. So if he ever joins Boro in the future you can thank me fellow Boro fans! 😂) (£675k) and GK Ivan Martinez (£1m) both are coming along really well. Would recommend them both.

Also signed GK Sondre Rossbach (£1m) for backup to Randolph, but was so good he ended up replacing him and I sold Randolph at the end of the season for around £10m, upgraded and made a profit doing so which was nice.

And finally my signing of the season and one of the best signings I've ever made on FM; Striker Breel Embolo for a bargain price of £8.5m in January 2019. This guy is an absolute beast. Far too good for the Championship he ripped it up scoring 14 goals in 15 games. Scored 29 goals in 33 Premiership games. Now at the end of my second season Real Madrid, Barcelona, Milan, Dortmund, Chelsea, Liverpool and more want him. I will try my hardest to keep hold of him. Promised him I'll sign some good players for hi to play with and he's open to staying if so, so hopefully I can actually keep him.
 

In the second season the most notable signings were: 

Jack Grealish (£20m) who was amazing, from the ML position in my 4-4-2 he was the top assist maker in the Premiership until Chelsea came calling in Jan and he wanted away, sold him for around £40m and he continued to set up loads of goals for them too.

Striker Odsonne Edouard from Celtic for £20m. Bargain price, he scored 20 goals in the Prem and is now worth double what I paid for him. He's still only 22 so I hope he'll be banging them in for years to come, and Embolo is only 23 so if I can keep him too, I'll have a great partnership for the next decade. Fingers crossed.

Left-back Dalbert from Inter Milan for £2.5m, again bargain price for such a good player.

Right-back Fabrico Bustos from Independiente was brought in for £9.5m, really great solid player.

Ohh and I also bought  young centre-back Nicolas Cozza who's natural at Libero, so I'm thinking of trying to create a system around him as Libero. Not sure yet, he's also left footed which I love (I always like to have that left foot-right foot balance at the back in my team).

(Also missed out on Kieren Trippier for around £5m, which seems a bargain for him, but I'd spent my money by then. He also seems really poor for some reason, my scouts didn't rate him highly at all and he ended up at Real Sociedad, I think he's a bit underrated on the game tbh)

 

Currently have my eyes on these guys for next season:

Lovro Majer from Dinamo Kiev. M/AMC with amazing technical attributes.

DM/MC Fred on loan from Man Utd. (New Man Utd manager Diego Simeone doesn't fancy him)

Inside Forward/Winger Riyad Mahrez on loan from Man City. (Not in new Man City Manager Klopp's future plans it seems)

Callum McGreggor from Man Utd (formerly a Celtic player). World Class labelled M/AMRC. (Another player Simeone doesn't want in his team)

Lewis Baker from Chelsea DM/MC/AMRLC for some backup only cheap around £4m he's available for.

Vincenzo Grifo from Hoffenheim MRL/ALC.

 

So, how are you guys getting on this year?

[s0ni42]

I have Edouard for West Ham; too early to know, but scouts loved him and he’s bagging them early in euro cup qualifying 

[jakes1991]

Great write up! Boro make for a great save this year. Plenty of players which are more than suitable for the task which can also be sold for a reasonable price to reshape the squad should you wish.

Currently in my third season, sat in mid table in the Premier League. Here's a very brief summary of each season so far:

18/19 Performance:

Won the Championship by 4 points ahead of Reading. Never really in doubt. 

Won the Carabao Cup! A huge 2-1 victory against Man Utd in the quarter final, followed by a 4-3 aggregate win against Everton in the Semi (who got relegated that season) and then a 4-0 smashing of Southampton in the final guaranteed Europa League football next season.

18/19 Transfers:

Brought in a selection of young talent that could grow with the club - Most notably Antonio Marin, Sandro Tonali and Jarrod Bowen.

Carles Alena joined on loan from Barca.

I sold Daniel Ayala to give Dael Fry a chance as a first teamer.

Couldn't turn down 12m for Braithwaite in January which left me short up front, which has been a common theme ever since.

 

19/20 Performance:

Finished 9th in the Premier League and got knocked out in the quarter final of the Europa League by Man Utd, losing 3-0 on aggregate. The good position in the League was mainly thanks to our fantastic start, losing just 1 of the first 10 games. I believe this was down to the team being in superb match-fit condition early on thanks to the Europa Qualifiers which started in July.

Had a good run in the FA Cup with a favourable draw, before losing Liverpool in the final on penalties. Man Utd also ended any hope of retaining the Carabao Cup, beating us in the 3rd round on penalties.

19/20 Transfers:

With a 50m budget and 400k in wages, I had the funds needed to attempt to meet the board's lofty demand for a mid table finish and knockout stages of the Europa. 

Predag Rajkovic came in for just over 1m, bargain.

Scott McKenna and Jorge Mere were brought in to shore up the defense which Fry adjusted to a bigger league. I also raided Norwich for some young English full backs.

Scott McTominay came in on loan with no wages to pay. Carles Alena had his loan renewed.

Ben Woodburn was brought in on loan to lead the line as I again struggled to find a quality striker that represented good value.

Jack Grealish joined for some more attacking potency in midfield, allowing me to move on Adam Clayton and George Saville who simply weren't mid-table quality.

Paddy McNair was sold in January, I had visions of him leading the club to glory, but he just couldn't cope with the Premier League. Looking, back I should have kept him as I was left a bit short of a DM at times. Darren Randolph was sold to warm Man City's bench for a huge 14.5m.

 

20/21 Performance:

Too early to say. Sitting in 10th, safely away from both relegation and European places. The board expect a top half finish which should be doable.

20/21 Transfers:

Much quieter this time around, focusing on depth options in the middle as I let go of too many last January. Still have 30m and 200k available, but I can't attract good enough players to replace anyone in my now settled squad. Nathan Ake was my primary target, as I don't see Jorge Mere being around too much longer, but Bournemouth wanted an eye-watering 60m and Arsenal were sniffing around him too.

Alena was allowed back on loan yet again but is getting pushed down the pecking order as I develop my own players. Ben Woodburn and McTominay are also back.

Offloaded Rudy Gestede for 5.5m, replaced by a super looking Colombian regen striker called Diego Zapata who had finally turned 18.

 

Best Prospects:

Marcus Tavernier can develop quite nicely given the chance. His stats aren't elite level, but being either footed and able to play anywhere across the front 3 makes him a great option off the bench. I originally had no intention of using him, but an injury crisis allowed him a shot at some Premier League action, where he impressed in every big game and would always grab vital goals. He quickly became a reliable rotation option and has forced his way into a starting spot in my 3rd year.

Dael Fry took a while to develop, but he's finally got his marking up a bit and his physicals have rocketed. Really starting to look like a good Premier League standard player.

[Rooneye]

Wow that's a bold first season transfer strategy! As a Boro fan it makes me whince to see things like Howson let go for just £4m and letting the Georgies snap up Asombolonga for such a bargain price! 😲

But obviously that allowed you to make some nice looking signings. Marin for £5m looks an amazing piece of business.  What a deal that is. 

In hindsight I wish I also sold Ayala now in the first season. You got a good price for him there at £7.5m. £1.9m was the best I could get for him, just to get rid of him in the second season.

Really glad to see Tavenier has kicked on for you. Really rate the lad IRL, he's looking like he could become a proper player for us. No matter how or where I played him I couldn't get much of a tune out of him. Left. Right. Winger. Inside forward. Even retrained him as a striker (which he has the stats for) and he didn't do particularly well anywhere  

Interestingly we seem to have trained our Dael Fry's slightly differently. You seem to have went with making him better in the air, whereas I made mine more pacy Also I must have done something right with mentoring as my Fry is more determined than yours.

What have you been doing in terms of tactics?

[Mike J]

Just started my second season as Boro. Romped away in the Championship first season. Brought in Tonali, Marin, Piazon, Blesa and Murilla and shipped out a few players, including my fullbacks as I'm experimenting with a back 3 with no WBs. Also brought in Alena on loan. We pretty much walked the league, getting over 100 points with Asombalonga getting 23 goals after a slow start and a lull in January and February after Fulham turned his head with a bunch of insulting offers (less than £10m). 

The summer before the 2nd season was extremely eventful. I had already secured a deal for Arp before the end of the season and had a bunch of players I wanted to move on. Out went a host of fringe players and in came Zagadou in defence, Allan Saint-Maxim and Oznutali on the right wing, Geis and Marcus Llorente in midfield and Mateta up front. I was very happy with Llorente, who was transfer listed by Real. Also got Sergio Gomez on loan and renewed Alena's loan agreement. Ended up selling Asombalonga on deadline day as Wolves came in with a £19m offer and I already had two strikers who were at least as good as him. Missed out on a bunch of targets though, which was disappointing. Rajkovic was denied a work permit, Lamela decided against coming to me and Grealish opted for Bournemouth over Boro. Also missed out on Almiron from Atlanta when Spurs swooped in at the last minute. I was pretty happy with the team overall though. Strengthened where needed and have some good young players already at the right level to be PL starters.

My season was set to start with a nice easy match - away to Man City! Went in with no expectations at all after the summer overhaul and a tweak in my formation. We came in at half time 4-0 up, then went on to concede 4 in the second half, but also score one more to win 5-4! Then we played Everton at home. Went 2-0 up by half time, then had another crazy second half and ended up winning 4-3. So we're joint top after 2 games, top scorers but also have the worst defence in the league. Need to make some defensive changes, but I'm really happy with the system going forward and I think we're benefitting from teams not showing us much respect and leaving a lot of space for my wingers to exploit. Aiming for mid-table or top half finish and things are looking good so far.

[Things Could Get Messi]

Never done a Boro save and I won't have the chance to break my duck on FM19 either. There are always at least a few clearly talented youngsters around at the club and they've played a big in helping the club become an established PL side again. I am currently in August 2025 and they have a centre back and a striker looking capable of big things and I would happily spent a £30m+ fee on either of them. Here is how Dael Fry is getting on. The only reason he doesn't have many more England caps is because Gomez and Stones are both clearly a level above him. 

[jsteve90]

Boro fan here but not done a save for a while with them. Question, you say savilles deal goes though in jan and you have to sign him. Dees this mean you need to raise funds for him as you only get 4 million, or is this already deducted and has no effect on the budget?

[Mike J]

Saville's fee is already deducted, which probably explains the fairly low transfer budget even after selling Traore to Wolves in the summer.

I've just finished my first season in the PL and it was probably my most successful season on any FM ever. I benefitted from teams underestimating me early on and also from being able to put together a great young team in the Championship who all came good in the first season in the PL. Tonali, Marin and Fry were all immense, as was Alena who I managed to get in on loan for a second season. I brought in Johannes Geis on a free and Marcos Llorente for less than £3m, along with Arp for about £18m and Zagadou for just over £20m, then strengthened in January with Boubacar Kamara in defence. At one point I had 5 wonderkids playing regularly and they all did the business. But the best signing was Geis on a free. He got 12 goals and 18 assists from central midfield and I think all but 1 of his goals was form outside the box. Combined with Arp getting 31 goals in his first season, we were top scorers in the league. Other than Man Utd the rest of the big 6 had all changed managers in the last season too and they ended up taking loads of points from each other. All of that meant I ended up 3rd in my first season but in the final round of games there was only 5 points covering 3rd to 7th so it was pretty tight at the top.

Now my main job is going to be keeping the team together. I'm braced for a really difficult summer. My transfer budget of £50m is pretty decent but I can see a lot of big teams trying to break up my group of wonderkids. I did have most of them sign new contracts during the season but it'll still be a battle to keep them all.