[FM20] Manchester United: Falling Giant...

[MatthewS17]

7 hours ago, stevemc said:

Done...

Wonder what the stats look like after the time that's passed. Surely he must be somewhat peaking as a player now?

[MatthewS17]

Ah, so in the end, probably the most challenging league I've ever come across. For me, this was a fantastic result(I never wanted to win the league, it wasn't realistic), but I still found it indeed extremely challenging at the end. And dramatic. One of the reasons, is because although I kept winning, Liverpool never stopped winning either. So they always remained ahead. City had an early blip(including a 5-0 loss to Wolves) and fell to third, but their late season form was incredible. Liverpool, for all their quality and consistency, lost ground(*cough* choked *cough*) at the end of the season, with a draw 2-2 to Wolves(Wolves were incredible!), and a 4-2 loss to Chelsea costing them the title. 

As for me, it was 36 games, City were ahead by 4 points, but I had a game in hand(They played 37). That game......was against Liverpool. Due to the superior goal difference, only a draw and a win on the final day would have sealed the title. 83 minutes into the match, and it was 1-1, with Liverpool not having created anything reasonable since the goal. Enter Sadio Mane, who annhilated my title hopes with a deflected shot. 

However, this is the first time I've had the lack of depth at United affect me so incredibly(also, this FM's poor fixture planning, but anyway). My end of season involved 6 games in 12 days(Kind of insanity), which shattered my entire starting XI. This was made worse by the long term injury to Ighalo, Martial missing the final 5 league games, McTominay picking up an illness, Douglas Costa doing what he did all season and never NOT pick up an injury, James picking up a 1 week knock, and Bruno being too tired to keep on playing. All made worse by the sales of Jones, Pereira and Lingard.

 

However, on the bright side, I don't think anybody would be complaining with a 2nd place finish with this squad by just 1 point. We also claimed the Carabao Cup and the Europa League, so all in all, it was a good season. 

City won the FA Cup, beating Liverpool, so they completed an English double as well. Barca won the CL, beating Real Madrid. English teams were knocked out early.

We've also already got Van De Beek, Cavani and Reguilon joining soon. My plans to sell Pogba have been thwarted, as Liverpool have signed Milinkovic-Savic, and so I will begin negotiating a new deal for him. Leaving instead will be Romero, Sanchez, Rojo, Bailly, Shaw and Mata for now. Fred is not in my plans at all, so I will look to get rid of him in future. Levitt and Bellingham will have a loan spell away for game time.

Still to come is an already agreed deal for Sancho for 90m(65m + 15m installments) and Florentino Luis to take over that DM role(was actually Ndidi, but a little negotiation and Benfica quoted me a price of 38m for him, which is incredibly cheap, and his mental stats are fantastic). That would be a grand total of 5 players coming in, and I won't sign anymore, to avoid upsetting the balance of the team. 

Although, I'm a little sad as my long term target for the DC role in Ruben Dias has just moved to Spurs along with Alex Telles and Max Aarons.(Damn, that's some good business!). 

Shockingly, on the other side of town, City lost Sterling to Barca and Jesus to PSG. And have yet to even move for anyone. 

Looking beyond this season, my other long term targets are someone to partner Maguire(can't replace Maguire as it's not seemingly realistic, although he isn't enough quality), and I'm looking at pacy options in Upamecano, and Ben Godfrey(who's developing into something akin to a Ferdinand Regen!) and a backup option to Rashford on the left(James, Gomes aren't good enough, and it looks like Martial keeps the CF role), of which Grealish is the idea target. Sadly he's wanted by Arsenal who just had an offer rejected, and I hope it stays that way. I considered making him sign up this season, but I then realised I need to fix priority before depth, and so I focused on the DM role.

Other long term targets are Emi Buendia who had a blinder of a season(look at Norwich's league position for an idea of how good Buendia, Godfrey and Max Aarons were for Norwich) and Lautaro Martinez(Depending on how Martial develops in my second season. 

 

On the other side, I may stop playing again, as I really am finding it a challenge to play this game. Some things, like having 38% possession at Old Trafford against Tranmere in the FA Cup really do bug me, and I feel my enjoyment draining away. Will try to slog on, I really want to complete a long term Man United save, but I think if I do, it will have to be in increments. 

Edited April 17, 2020 by MatthewS17

[stevemc]

5 hours ago, MatthewS17 said:

Wonder what the stats look like after the time that's passed. Surely he must be somewhat peaking as a player now?

Here he is:

 

Sweeps up the awards every season.

[BigV]

Hefty fee that, love how monaco only get around 5m from that massive sale . You gonna play him as a striker or RW? 

[stevemc]

Season 2022/23: End of Season

 

January Transfer Window:

January was straight-forward, didn't do any real business just a few loans out, plus a few young players added for my 18's:

 

Only sale was Gary Lawlor to Nottingham Forest for an over-inflated £18m. He came through my youth team, he's only 18 but labelled the new Michael Owen, I didn't see an Owen in him so shipped him out for £18m plus 50% of next sale.

 

 

Community Shield: 

 

 

Premier League: 

Won again, 4 PL titles in a row. Erling Haaland once again won the golden boot with 19 goals from 23 games, just ahead of Arsenal's Anthony Martial with 18.

 

 

Champions League: 

We topped our group comfortably and then proceeded to knock-out Valencia, Arsenal and Real Madrid.

 

This set up a repeat of last years final against PSG, but this time we made no mistake:

 

 

FA Cup: 

Dumped out in the 3rd round to Championship Bristol City, embarrassing performance but I did rest the full team for youth/reserves even so. Nathaniel Clyne with the winner.

 

 

Carabao Cup: 

We had quite a favourable run in this cup, knocking out Aston Villa, Wolves, Bournemouth, then Manchester City in the semi-final. but beating Championship Swansea in the final:

BTW, the Carabao up is miles better with the semi-final being at a neutral venue over one game, rather than two legs.

 

 

Under-23s: 

We dominated the league:

 

And also picked up the EFL trophy:

 

 

Under-18s: 

Basically, won the lot...

 

 

My Squad:

GK: Gianluigi Donnarumma, Dean Henderson, Yannick Becic*, Señén Martín Domínguez*

RB: Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Ethan Laird, Scott McTominay

LB: Cizão*, Brandon Williams

CB: Matthijs de Ligt, Léo Guerreiro*, Rúben Dias, Axel Tuanzebe

DM: Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, Rúben Neves, Florentino Luís, Eduardo Camavinga, James Garner

CM/AM: Paul Pogba, Bruno Fernandes, Kai Havertz, Hannibal Mejbri, Jude Bellingham

FORWARDS: Lautaro Martínez, Erling Haaland, Jadon Sancho, Marcus Rashford, Mason Greenwood, João Félix

*regen/newgen

Edited April 17, 2020 by stevemc

[stevemc]

10 minutes ago, BigV said:

Hefty fee that, love how monaco only get around 5m from that massive sale . You gonna play him as a striker or RW? 

I'm loaded but I'll offset that this summer with some sales.

Undecided yet ha!

[BigV]

1 minute ago, stevemc said:

I'm loaded but I'll offset that this summer with some sales.

Undecided yet ha!

Fair enough, looks like you will. Thats some hefty wage too jesus looks like its harder to buy than the first patch. Try him on both see how you feel

[Powello]

I just had to 

Terrible stats for the role, but I had to add him to Keane, Scholes, Butt, Carrick and the Nevilles and he wouldn't make even a half decent coach so u23 manager it is. I wanted Ole but he is the manager of Swansea so had no chance to get him.

Oh and I have also brought in Rooney as an U18 player/coach

Edited April 17, 2020 by Powello

[willbrown83]

Sold Pogba Jan season 3 he was keen to go to Barca offer of 90mil for a player who will be 29 soon and on 400k a week was to good to turn down and lets sergio gomez and others get more game time .Sad to see him go he was having a good season but felt the deal was for the best.What is the  most anyone has got for him?

Edited April 17, 2020 by willbrown83

[MatthewS17]

Would it be too unrealistic if I signed Neves to play behind Bruno and Pogba? 

In game, his stats are quite close to Carrick's who functioned as the holding midfielder next to Scholes in a midfield two(who we all know wasn't the best in the defensive aspect).

I'm looking for something in the mould of a Busquest. Great defensively, with the ability to pick out passes. 

I realize Florentino Luis isn't meant for this role, and Bentancur signed a new deal, and Sandro Tonali is considered average by my scouts after a season long scout where he lost 2 months to injury.

Alll in all, unrealistic or no? 

[Powello]

2 hours ago, MatthewS17 said:

Would it be too unrealistic if I signed Neves to play behind Bruno and Pogba? 

In game, his stats are quite close to Carrick's who functioned as the holding midfielder next to Scholes in a midfield two(who we all know wasn't the best in the defensive aspect).

I'm looking for something in the mould of a Busquest. Great defensively, with the ability to pick out passes. 

I realize Florentino Luis isn't meant for this role, and Bentancur signed a new deal, and Sandro Tonali is considered average by my scouts after a season long scout where he lost 2 months to injury.

Alll in all, unrealistic or no? 

I was going to sign Neves for that role on ym other save, but I deceded in the end to go for Tonali, and I was glad I did, Tonali is a beast, don't always listen to what your scouts say, go by attributes for the role

[MatthewS17]

4 hours ago, Powello said:

I was going to sign Neves for that role on ym other save, but I deceded in the end to go for Tonali, and I was glad I did, Tonali is a beast, don't always listen to what your scouts say, go by attributes for the role

I did as well. I got turned off Tonali as, bar those two months of injury, he'd been a first XI regular, and yet he's barely showed any improvement. In fact, he's still too similar to Fred for me who IG isn't probably good enough.

 

 

Edit: Nevermind. Game crashed in the middle of loading my save and the save has corrupted. Luckily I have a backup save. Stupidly, I only saved before the Europa League final.

Not too bad I guess. Could be worse. 

Edited April 18, 2020 by MatthewS17

[willbrown83]

Marcus Llorente could be good for that role i rotate him and Tonali and his pass accuracy is great  and good defensively thinking of trying both with one as segundo volante

[Toonarmyfc]

22 hours ago, stevemc said:

Season 2022/23: End of Season

 

January Transfer Window:

January was straight-forward, didn't do any real business just a few loans out, plus a few young players added for my 18's:

 

Only sale was Gary Lawlor to Nottingham Forest for an over-inflated £18m. He came through my youth team, he's only 18 but labelled the new Michael Owen, I didn't see an Owen in him so shipped him out for £18m plus 50% of next sale.

 

 

Community Shield: 

 

 

Premier League: 

Won again, 4 PL titles in a row. Erling Haaland once again won the golden boot with 19 goals from 23 games, just ahead of Arsenal's Anthony Martial with 18.

 

 

Champions League: 

We topped our group comfortably and then proceeded to knock-out Valencia, Arsenal and Real Madrid.

 

This set up a repeat of last years final against PSG, but this time we made no mistake:

 

 

FA Cup: 

Dumped out in the 3rd round to Championship Bristol City, embarrassing performance but I did rest the full team for youth/reserves even so. Nathaniel Clyne with the winner.

 

 

Carabao Cup: 

We had quite a favourable run in this cup, knocking out Aston Villa, Wolves, Bournemouth, then Manchester City in the semi-final. but beating Championship Swansea in the final:

BTW, the Carabao up is miles better with the semi-final being at a neutral venue over one game, rather than two legs.

 

 

Under-23s: 

We dominated the league:

 

And also picked up the EFL trophy:

 

 

Under-18s: 

Basically, won the lot...

 

 

My Squad:

GK: Gianluigi Donnarumma, Dean Henderson, Yannick Becic*, Señén Martín Domínguez*

RB: Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Ethan Laird, Scott McTominay

LB: Cizão*, Brandon Williams

CB: Matthijs de Ligt, Léo Guerreiro*, Rúben Dias, Axel Tuanzebe

DM: Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, Rúben Neves, Florentino Luís, Eduardo Camavinga, James Garner

CM/AM: Paul Pogba, Bruno Fernandes, Kai Havertz, Hannibal Mejbri, Jude Bellingham

FORWARDS: Lautaro Martínez, Erling Haaland, Jadon Sancho, Marcus Rashford, Mason Greenwood, João Félix

*regen/newgen

What’s your approach to scouting and regens/newgens? I’m just about to finish my 3rd season with Man Utd and I feel the difference over the next few seasons will be scouting and finding the next superstars- particularly given how much City and Liverpool are spending!

[stevemc]

9 hours ago, Toonarmyfc said:

What’s your approach to scouting and regens/newgens? I’m just about to finish my 3rd season with Man Utd and I feel the difference over the next few seasons will be scouting and finding the next superstars- particularly given how much City and Liverpool are spending!

I always split my budget out and leave £15-20m per season to sign players for my youth team (always remove any % sell on options too), after setting that up in season 1, and repeating each season, after season 3-4 you should start seeing a return on your money or see HG players almost ready for the first team - every summer. I'm in my 5th season and I've sold around £500m worth of players this summer. I also loan alot of these out getting the wages paid and demand a fee too, covering your costs. 

I generally leave my Chief Scout to set it up but do occasionally take control my self to scout obscure regions. I also scout all U19 International Teams every year and scout around 30 of the best youth academies every year too. I also check the Youth Intake screens on the World tab. Another tip is to use the "Short Term" scouting focus, I keep it set to count from 2 star to 4 star aged 15-21. Obviously you need good scouts and a good variety of scouts too.

I have them automatically set to save to the default short list, and I have a seperate shortlist which I move players too if I'm serious about them, named "Youth Intakes" and "Potential Signings".

Edited April 18, 2020 by stevemc

[tolkon]

hey, need some advice for my squad here

I'm currently on the beginning of the 3rd season and Kane is available on 80m as he is transfer listed lol

been using 4-2-4 through the 1st until now, and earlier I was able to get Havertz for 81m (release clause or transfer listed, didn't really paying attention lol)

my 1st plan is using 4-2-3-1 with Havertz as No. 10 for this season, but then Kane is available too for only a cheap price

is it worth to get Kane and revert back to 4-2-4 and retrain Havertz as MC, or just let Kane go to other club?

right now Haaland is my 1st choice up front, with Martial and Greenwood as his partner (on 4-2-4) 

[Powello]

2 minutes ago, tolkon said:

hey, need some advice for my squad here

I'm currently on the beginning of the 3rd season and Kane is available on 80m as he is transfer listed lol

been using 4-2-4 through the 1st until now, and earlier I was able to get Havertz for 81m (release clause or transfer listed, didn't really paying attention lol)

my 1st plan is using 4-2-3-1 with Havertz as No. 10 for this season, but then Kane is available too for only a cheap price

is it worth to get Kane and revert back to 4-2-4 and retrain Havertz as MC, or just let Kane go to other club?

right now Haaland is my 1st choice up front, with Martial and Greenwood as his partner (on 4-2-4) 

you don't need Kane if you have those 3, plus I am guessing you still have Rashford

[tolkon]

4 minutes ago, Powello said:

you don't need Kane if you have those 3, plus I am guessing you still have Rashford

yes, he still works like magic for me there, and using Martial and Gomes also as backup at RW

my squad (4-2-4) as of now is:

DDG

AWB Maguire Lenglet Junior Firpo

Bruno Camavinga (Hannibal and Garner as backup)

Zaniolo Rashford

Martial Haaland (tried to give Greenwood more game time)

 

as you can see, if I want Havertz as starter in my squad I guess I need to change my tactic to 4-2-3-1

have a lot competition at MC, and if I buy Kane the ST will also loaded. On the side note, I also got Cavani on a free transfer at the end of 1st season lol

but the model professional personality from Kane is what I'm looking for, and his already high finishing stat is what I'm concerned, as MCity is one of the clubs that wants him as their forward other than PSG like always  

[Powello]

3 minutes ago, tolkon said:

yes, he still works like magic for me there, and using Martial and Gomes also as backup at RW

my squad (4-2-4) as of now is:

DDG

AWB Maguire Lenglet Junior Firpo

Bruno Camavinga (Hannibal and Garner as backup)

Zaniolo Rashford

Martial Haaland (tried to give Greenwood more game time)

 

as you can see, if I want Havertz as starter in my squad I guess I need to change my tactic to 4-2-3-1

have a lot competition at MC, and if I buy Kane the ST will also loaded. On the side note, I also got Cavani on a free transfer at the end of 1st season lol

but the model professional personality from Kane is what I'm looking for, and his already high finishing stat is what I'm concerned, as MCity is one of the clubs that wants him as their forward other than PSG like always  

Concentrate on your team, don't worry about what others are doing  

Ask yourself, do you need to buy either of them? Do you need to buy Havertz, and are you willing to change a winning tactic just so you can fit him in. I have played him out wide thoughon past saves haha. With that front line do you really need Kane or are you just wanting him to stop city getting him? You have to do what's best for the team and if getting so many players in, in one position, would disrupt the harmony in the rdressing room when they don't get games, si it worth it?

Think about it, if you change to a 4-2-3-1 youll have 4 strikers for one spot, yes some of the can play wide but then you already have others who play there, can you keep everyone happy or do you need to sell some, are you willing to sell some to fit others in/.

Lots to think about haha

[tolkon]

13 minutes ago, Powello said:

Concentrate on your team, don't worry about what others are doing  

Ask yourself, do you need to buy either of them? Do you need to buy Havertz, and are you willing to change a winning tactic just so you can fit him in. I have played him out wide thoughon past saves haha. With that front line do you really need Kane or are you just wanting him to stop city getting him? You have to do what's best for the team and if getting so many players in, in one position, would disrupt the harmony in the rdressing room when they don't get games, si it worth it?

Think about it, if you change to a 4-2-3-1 youll have 4 strikers for one spot, yes some of the can play wide but then you already have others who play there, can you keep everyone happy or do you need to sell some, are you willing to sell some to fit others in/.

Lots to think about haha

hahaha you make a good point there 

maybe I will retrain Havertz as MC for this season and see what goes at the already crowded position

well, other than Cavani which I will release at the season's end, I also planing to offload some players like Martial and James among other. Any tips how to get decent money for selling player? as when I offer them to clubs usually there is no other clubs interested. I succeed on selling Pogba because PSG is asking him 1st

[Zeonflux]

Well I’m nearly at the end of my 3rd season and I’ve already played the best game of the save so far, having gotten smashed 3-0 in Germany by Bayern Munich in the CL QF I went into the second leg hoping to not go out in disgrace but after 2 goals by Haaland and being 2-0 up with 20 minutes of the second leg left I started to dream, especially with us being dominant in the game.

The next 20 minutes went by with Neuer making world class saves and the Bayern post being rattled twice and the hope died.

5 minutes of injury time to play Haaland smashed in his 3rd of the game and completed the perfect hat trick and I erupted in joy and was politely asked to ‘sort my s**t’ by my partner but I was riding high and hope had sprung that we could actually do it.

Less than a minute later and Haaland added his forth after calmly rounding Neuer from a fantastic through ball by De Jong and I knew we were through to the Semis as we were on top and had the away goal. With 2 minutes of injury time still to play a long throw in was cleared back out to Dalot and after taking a touch to clear the ball out of his feet he whipped in a cross that was sweetly met by the head of Bellingham to bring us to 5-0 on the night and 5-3 in the tie.

Truely it was a fantastic game and it’s games like that that keep me coming back to FM20 and to the series year after year, all the frustration of losing to a relegation battling team with their only shot on target is lost like tears in the rain to the joys of games like that one.

Anyways we strolled through Barca in the SF and will play PSG in the final in Munich.

Like last season we’ve already won the Carabao Cup (which were not unbeaten in 18 games in) and were also into the final of the FA cup again, hopefully we’ll win it this time.

[tolkon]

well, just to finish my session tonight, just won the Euro Super Cup in a real drama haha. Here is the match report from the game:

if it's me, I'm long death. 20km in 120 minutes. lol

[Powello]

Youth Development Season 3 Review

Last seasons performance in the league was really bad, the amount of draws were unacceptable. So I set about changing that with a new philiosphy,although technically it was an old one, but new for this team. 4-2-3-1 formation, keep tight at the back and attack with speed and numbers looking to overpower teams. I supose that has always been the philosphy but hasn't really worked so far this save, but I tinkered far too much with tactics over the firt 2 years, no I am more settled with what I want and will stick to it, even if it doesn't work at first. The players need to grow into it without the constant changing.

Transfers - There was only 1 first teamish incoming, that was Rooney, but hewas signed primarily as an u18s coach but with a player/coach contract for his last season as he is set to retire. So another legend added to the backroom staff. There were a few signings made by the DoF for the u18s but nothing else from me.

Heading out was Dalot for 24.5m to Hertha Berling and TFM for12.25m to Hoffenheim, plus a load of loans as usual.

The youth intake was very unkind to us this year, no one of any note in a ny position.

I'm not going to go into a full scale review like I have done before as I am too tired right now and want to get on to the next season. SO here is how we did in the competitions.

European Super Cup - Lost 2-1 to Barcelona after ET - we held on and almost got pens but Dembele scored the winner in the 121st minute right before full time.

FA Cup - Lost 2-0 to City in the Semi Finals - Goals don't reflect how the game went and we were unlucky to lose

Carabao Cup - 

Reclaimed the trophy we won 2 years ago

Champions League - We failed in keeping hold of the trophy, losing to Dortmund on away goals after drawing 4-4 on aggregate, still pleased as winning it last year was a shock, I had a 5 year plan to restore United to european Champions as I built the clubs foundations up.

Premier League - 

Again a very unexpected win, the board said at the start of the seaosn they wanted a top half finish lol. I would have been happy with just an improvement on last season but we got that and more. It took 3 seasons, but we are once again the best team in England and still got an average age of 22, so lots of time to grow togeteher with new youngsters being added.

Squad stats - 

I am still trying to sell DDG but he has been transfer listed for since the summer of the second season and no one wants him, I have offered him out and included we'll pay 160k of his wages and still no one has made a sensible offer, so I guess he will be leaving on a free when his contract runs out at the end of next season unless in the summer I can find a buyer.

There will hopefully be a few outgoings this summer, players like Chong and James I am looking to get rid of plus a few others who barely get a game.

Now to build on what we have done and move forward

[Zeonflux]

Oh I meant to say in my save I came across something I know is in the game but haven’t seen before.

I had a message appear saying that Man City had poached a player from my youth system (prior to being a newgen) so I’ve made a mental note of the lads name and I’m gonna be looking for him when the next youth intake roles around 

[Powello]

5 minutes ago, Zeonflux said:

Oh I meant to say in my save I came across something I know is in the game but haven’t seen before.

I had a message appear saying that Man City had poached a player from my youth system (prior to being a newgen) so I’ve made a mental note of the lads name and I’m gonna be looking for him when the next youth intake roles around 

Never seen that before

[stevemc]

Season 2023/24: Start of Season

 

Summer Transfer Window:

Manager movements in full swing again, Rúben Amorim took over at Chelsea, Eddie Howe turned up at Everton, Gerardo Seoane took over at Liverpool, Lucien Favre now at Manchester City, Jürgen Klopp is now Tottenham manager, Paco Jémez to Wolves and Henning Berg left relegated Blackburn to managed Sheffield United.

Very busy for us, with £618m in player sales. Decided on letting a number of first team players leave, or go on loan to make space for some elite signings plus some younger players to come though. Joao Felix and Leon Bailey left and we're replaced with Kylian Mbappé and Sebastiano Esposito. Ethan Laird left for Chelsea with me taking Reece James in return - Chelsea missed out on Champions League football and a number of players left. I decided to let Brandon Williams (loan), James Garner, Scott McTominay and Axel Tuanzebe leave because of game time concerns, and replaced with with just Maximilian Wöber, who can cover left-back and centre-back. Dean Henderson wasn't required anymore due to having two young, regen back-up goalkeepers who are now both Home-Grown. Finally, I let 30-year-old Paul Pogba leave for PSG for £64m, as I have a ready-made replacement in Eduardo Camavinga. My squad now feels better balanced with less players, contracts and promised game time secured.

 

Here is the Premier League overview for this window:

 

 

Community Shield: 

Comfortable win against Manchester City, 3-0, with Kylian Mbappé scoring on his debut.

 

 

UEFA Super Cup: 

Terrible game but another win against Manchester City, 3-0, with Kylian Mbappé scoring again. We had Gianluigi Donnarumma to thank for saving an 85th minute penalty too.

 

 

Champions League:

The groups have been draw, we've got a good group:

 

 

My Squad:

GK: Gianluigi Donnarumma,  Yannick Becic(HG), Señén Martín Domínguez(HG)

RB: Aaron Wan-Bissaka(HG), Reece James(HG)

LB: Cizão, Maximilian Wöber

CB: Matthijs de Ligt, Léo Guerreiro, Rúben Dias

DM/CM: Eduardo Camavinga, Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, Rúben Neves, Florentino Luís

AM: Bruno Fernandes, Kai Havertz, Hannibal Mejbri(HG), Jude Bellingham(HG)

IF/WINGERS: Kylian Mbappé, Marcus Rashford(HG), Mason Greenwood(HG), Jadon Sancho(HG)

STRIKER: Lautaro Martínez, Erling Haaland, Sebastiano Esposito

YOUTH OPPORTUNITIES: Thiago Hurtado(HG) (CM), Victor Maurin(HG) (AM), Charlie Burton(HG) (AM/ST), Fabio Calvet(HG) (AM/IF), Yassine Hamzaoui(HG) (IF), Lee O'Donnell(HG) (ST)

*regen/newgen

Edited April 19, 2020 by stevemc

[sedge11]

6 hours ago, stevemc said:

That’s a mental amount of transfers, I don’t think I would have the patience or effort to deal with that many.

[sean_oc16]

Just had this drop in my inbox

"It's testament to the incredible work being done with youth at Manchester United that all three award winners belong to the club."

[stevemc]

2 hours ago, sedge11 said:

That’s a mental amount of transfers, I don’t think I would have the patience or effort to deal with that many.

Scouts do the majority of the work, I just sign them if they meet my criteria.

[Powello]

Youth Development Season 4 Review

So the aim of this season was to build on the promise of last season. Well there was some improvement but also some backwards steps.

Firstly, lets start off with the transfers made over the season

The only icoming were made by Phelan I think, maybe the DoF, for the future and whoever it was chose well as they are fine prospects.
As you can see, I finally managed to sell DDG, I let him have his testamonial and then offered him out and Wolves were the only team to come in for him so I let him go to them as his contract was up at the end of this seaosn. Got some nice money for James but was a little disappointed in the fee for Ching but he wasn't playing much so it was ok.

I have been tinkering with the tactic again to try and get it stronger in attack and produce a better conversion rate, so throughout the seaosn it was never full familiarity which did hamper the results at times and also made us weaker in defence,, although selling De Gea might have had a bigger impact on that than the tactic, so next seasons challenge is to improve the defensive side haha.

Our Youth intake was once again terrible, seems we were spoilt in the first couple of seasons

Competition Performance

Communty Shield - Lost 3-2 to Arsenal

Carabao Cup - Lost in the Final on pens to Chelsea after drawing 2-2 - So close to keeping hold of the trophy for another year

FA Cup - Lost 3-2 after ET to Aston Villa - That was a disappointment, was hoping to at least get to the Final

League - Not as good as last year, we were unable to retain the title after losing too many games with me tinkering again, we seemed to turn those draws that held us back in the 1st couple of seaosns, into losses this time lol

But 4th is ok, we hit the boards targets at least so keeps them happy and for the second season running we had the top scorer, Rashford last year with 26 and Greenwood this year with 25

Champions League - For the 2ndA time in 3 seaosns we have won the trophy, which is very pleasing. We are definitely on the right track, this young squad can go vary far.

Squads Performance

Next season I think it is time for Shaw and Rashford to move on. Shaws stats are declining and Williams is only good enough for backup, so need a new starter. I am reluctant to let Rashford go as he is deadly and I don't want to have to play against him, but I am sick of him constantly cutting in and shooting from stupid angles instead of passing to players in much better positions. ANd before anyone says it, yes I have tried him with different roles, positions, PIs, team instructions, mentality etc and he still does the same thing., because of his traits which I can't get him to forget  I will only sell him abroad though and onlyfor the right price. I am happy to keep him as backup but he won't like that.

There will probably be others leaving but not sure yet. We have a provisional transfer budget of 602m for next season, so there's plenty of money to strengthen the LB position and one more if I need anyone, not that I do, even if I do sell Rashford. I have about 10 players who can take his spot lol

This season at the World Cup we had 8 players in the England squad, I'm hoping we can get a few more in there this year.

[stevecummins78]

2020/21 Season Review

I continued the clear out that had commenced under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, while prioritising the strengthening of my forward line. Jadon Sancho was a key signing at £80m, while Moussa Dembele was a bargain at just £26m. The biggest overhaul was in the midfield. As expected PSG came in for Paul Pogba and having got them to go up to £100m I decided to sell. To replace him I signed James Maddison for a fee of £49m plus Jesse Lingard. Maddison was bought to play as a central attacking midfielder or further back as a playmaker, but I still needed to replace Pogba’s physical presence in midfield. Scott McTominay is a good player but I needed another body in there. My dream signing would have been Ruben Neves, but he wanted to go to Real Madrid and would not talk to me even though his move to Spain didn’t happen. I also scouted Florentino Luis extensively, but his wage demands were too high. I eventually settled on Declan Rice for £70m (including instalments) with Andreas Pereira as a makeweight. The initial plan was that he would play on the left of midfield, next to Fernandes and behind Maddison in a 4-2-3-1, but he also gave me the flexibility to play with him at the base of midfield, with Fernandes as Maddison as ‘double eights’. At the back I sold Tim Fosu-Mensah, Phil Jones, Eric Bailly and Chris Smalling. This raised money to trigger the £52m release clause of Ruben Dias from Benfica. I was also able to sell Alexi Sanchez to Lokomotiv Moscow for £10m, albeit with having to cover some of his wages.

After the money spent in the summer, albeit offset by the Pogba sale, I felt United had to mount a serious challenge for the Premier League title in 2020/21 and that is what we were able to do. We had difficult opening fixtures but victories over Tottenham (4-2), Chelsea (2-1), Bournemouth (3-0) and Newcastle (2-1) put us in a good position and winning 2-0 at Liverpool in October was a strong signal of our title intentions. We led for much of the season, not losing until Arsenal won at Old Trafford at the start of December, but champions Liverpool went on a good run and their 0-1 victory at Old Trafford in January threw things wide open again. By then left back Ben Chilwell had signed in a £60m deal from Leicester City, a necessary purchase given Luke Shaw’s injury record. We beat Chelsea and Tottenham again, but lost at Brighton, Arsenal and West Ham and it looked like our title challenge was fading. April saw us return to winning ways and we went on a spectacular run, beating Leicester (4-2), Southampton (3-2), Newcastle (2-0) and then hammering Bournemouth 6-0 with hat tricks from both Moussa Dembele and Daniel James. Dembele had a fine debut season, winning the Premier League golden boot with 22 goals. Going in to May we were a point clear of Liverpool but both they and Chelsea had a game in hand. Liverpool won all their remaining games and beat us to the title by four points. We had reached 89 points, representing a terrific campaign, but to lose out to our rivals was hard to take.

In the domestic cup competitions we suffered the embarrassment of losing at Burton Albion on penalties in the fourth round of the League Cup after throwing away a two goal lead to draw 2-2. We were also knocked out of the FA Cup by Chelsea in the fourth round after a replay.

Our Champions League campaign exceeded expectations. We were in a group with Juventus and lost both games against the Italian giants, including 0-2 in the first game at Old Trafford. Home and away victories over Ajax and Dinamo Zagreb allowed us to secure second place in the group and progress. We faced Napoli in the last-16 and won the first leg 2-0 at home in a dominant display where we should have scored more goals. It looked like our profligacy would cost us in the away leg as we conceded twice to take the tie to extra time. I always felt we had an away goal in us and sure enough Marcus Rashford cut inside from the left to power home a wonderful shot from distance and we were through. Manchester City were up next, the reigning European champions but a side in transition themselves, and I felt sure we would beat them. Rashford scored again in a 1-1 draw at the Ethiad Stadium and Aaron Wan-Bissaka of all people smashed in the only goal of the second leg. We were in to the semi-finals, where we would again face Juventus. Our first leg performance at Old Trafford was our finest of the season. We dominated from start to finish in an emphatic 4-1 win. Although we lost the second leg 1-2, Manchester United were through to their sixth European Cup final. Our opponents in Saint Petersburg were AC Milan, themselves having surpassed expectations on their run to the final. It wasn’t a memorable final but we created more chances and in the 16th minute Dembele ran on to a long pass by Bruno Fernandes to score the only goal of the game. Manchester United were champions of Europe again!

[Zeonflux]

So the 3rd season is over and it was a fantastic end to a disappointing season.

We finally managed to beat Liverpool in a game with something on the line (I’m not counting a 1-0 win in the 1st leg of a SF) and beat them 2-1 at Wembley to win the FA cup thanks to a late Bellingham goal. It’s taken us 10 attempts to get something other than a loss and it couldn’t have come at a better time.

We also managed to prove that we can hang with the big boys after beating Bayern Munich 5-3 on aggregate and then Barcelona 4-0 on aggregate on the way to the CL final which we played against PSG. It wasn’t the prettiest of games and even with PSG we struggled to find the back of the net but a late Martial penalty sealed it and we and Champions of Europe.

To win both is fantastic but we disappointed in the league finishing 4th behind Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal. Overall we were never gonna catch Liverpool as then went unbeaten in the league all season but with 7 games to play we had 2 games in hand of the other 3 and were only 2 points behind Arsenal and 4 behind Chelsea but we blew it with silly draws and so I’m disappointed with that but we did have some tactical changes throughout the year so that didn’t help.

Moving onto next season I’m not sure what I’m planning to do squad wise, I don’t really need to bring anyone in as I’m happy with the players I’ve got and I want to give the backup youth players games as well but I also need to trim the squad down.

With a BWM, DLP and AM set up in midfield I don’t have room in the squad for Gomes, Pogba has become squad player due to Luis and De Jong playing better in the 2 and Bruno and Bellingham dominating the AM slot so he could go, Lindlof is already leaving and there’s a real possum he Maguire could follow as hes become a second team player behind De Ligt and Axel

[Zeonflux]

Well season 4 is going to be difficult, I’m not planning on strengthening and Liverpool who have run away with the title for the last 3 seasons have just dropped a cool £178m on Mbappe 

[Powello]

Youth Development Season 5 Review

Let us begin with the transfers this season. Firstly I decided not to sell Rashford, instead I decided to rotate him more with Bellingham. He still annoyed me, but I didn't want to have to face him

My DoF and HoYD went out in search of some young talent to bring in and nuture, they found 3 tasty looking ones. I personally brought in Sessegnon as a straight swap for the departing Shaw. Even though he is an AML on the game he is full green for wing back and I retrained him as well for that position. It was a costly signing but when we had over 600m in the kitty I didn't care much haha.

The youth intake was a bit kinder to us this season as we managed to get a CB with decent potential... AT LAST!!

Not much else of quality in there though

Competition Performance

Euro Super Cup - Won 5-2 v Tottenham - Nice way to start the season and Greenwood starting as he intended to go on with 3 goals

Carabao Cup - Lost on pens to Liverpool after a 2-2 draw in the 4th round - They went on to win it

FA Cup - Lost 2-0 to Chelsea in the Quarter Finals

Champions League - Lost 3-2 in the Final to Liverpool(argh) - So close to 2 years in a row

Premier League - Outstanding performance, breaking team rcords on the way and Greenwood finishing top scorer again with 30 goals

 

 

Squad Stats for the Season

Greenwood just keeps getting better and better and is now getting close to Messi and Ronaldo level after scoring 40 last seaosn and now 50 this season, he isalso only a 100 or so behind Rooneys record, if he keeps at this level he will be United top scorer in aorund 2 seaosns.

Next season I think I will be selling a few players on, some of the youngsters need  more game time, not sure yet. Will decide that over the summer

 

[Spiegel]

@Powello how does your Mengi look? He's playing well out on loan on my save but doesn't quite have the core technical attributes.
Interested to see how he looks with regular football.

[Powello]

12 minutes ago, Spiegel said:

@Powello how does your Mengi look? He's playing well out on loan on my save but doesn't quite have the core technical attributes.
Interested to see how he looks with regular football.

Hes my 3rd choice cb, always performs well

[Zeonflux]

45 minutes ago, Powello said:

Youth Development Season 5 Review

Let us begin with the transfers this season. Firstly I decided not to sell Rashford, instead I decided to rotate him more with Bellingham. He still annoyed me, but I didn't want to have to face him

My DoF and HoYD went out in search of some young talent to bring in and nuture, they found 3 tasty looking ones. I personally brought in Sessegnon as a straight swap for the departing Shaw. Even though he is an AML on the game he is full green for wing back and I retrained him as well for that position. It was a costly signing but when we had over 600m in the kitty I didn't care much haha.

The youth intake was a bit kinder to us this season as we managed to get a CB with decent potential... AT LAST!!

Not much else of quality in there though

Competition Performance

Euro Super Cup - Won 5-2 v Tottenham - Nice way to start the season and Greenwood starting as he intended to go on with 3 goals

Carabao Cup - Lost on pens to Liverpool after a 2-2 draw in the 4th round - They went on to win it

FA Cup - Lost 2-0 to Chelsea in the Quarter Finals

Champions League - Lost 3-2 in the Final to Liverpool(argh) - So close to 2 years in a row

Premier League - Outstanding performance, breaking team rcords on the way and Greenwood finishing top scorer again with 30 goals

 

 

Squad Stats for the Season

Greenwood just keeps getting better and better and is now getting close to Messi and Ronaldo level after scoring 40 last seaosn and now 50 this season, he isalso only a 100 or so behind Rooneys record, if he keeps at this level he will be United top scorer in aorund 2 seaosns.

Next season I think I will be selling a few players on, some of the youngsters need  more game time, not sure yet. Will decide that over the summer

 

Damn dude you quest to make Greenwood into an R9 scoring beast is going very well I see!

great work in the league, what role have you settled on for the ST?

[Powello]

1 minute ago, Zeonflux said:

Damn dude you quest to make Greenwood into an R9 scoring beast is going very well I see!

great work in the league, what role have you settled on for the ST?

Yeah thanks man, he now has 90 in 2 seasons haha he's getting close to messi and Ronaldo level now

He seems to work best in my tactic as a PF

[BigV]

90 goals in 2 seasons is disgusting for that age of 22, could he be better as a complete forward or does his heading/jump reach kinda falter him a little?

 

[Zeonflux]

1 hour ago, Powello said:

Yeah thanks man, he now has 90 in 2 seasons haha he's getting close to messi and Ronaldo level now

He seems to work best in my tactic as a PF

That is definitely getting to that top bracket of player.

I think he’s on around 50 odd goals in 2 seasons for me which is good but not top level which is what I’m aiming for. Having said that I’ve been rotating him and Haaland all of season 3 and Haaland had about 33/34 goals in all comps and Mason has 28 so I’m happy with that

[Gee_Simpson]

@Zeonflux I can't remember, were you one of those who were struggling to get a 4231 to work with Utd? Going by your recent update, I guess you have managed to get one to work? I could be getting you mixed up with someone else though.

[Zeonflux]

18 minutes ago, Gee_Simpson said:

@Zeonflux I can't remember, were you one of those who were struggling to get a 4231 to work with Utd? Going by your recent update, I guess you have managed to get one to work? I could be getting you mixed up with someone else though.

Yeah I was fella, I was lucky enough to have @Powello sent me an early version of his and I’ve also got one of Knaps that I’m gonna use a a basis to get the team playing more to how I want them to

[Gee_Simpson]

3 minutes ago, Zeonflux said:

Yeah I was fella, I was lucky enough to have @Powello sent me an early version of his and I’ve also got one of Knaps that I’m gonna use a a basis to get the team playing more to how I want them to

Nice one 

[Zeonflux]

1 hour ago, Gee_Simpson said:

Nice one 

Yeah it’s worked out quiet well, I just need to find a way to get the wide men playing how I want I.e. not dribbling inside and shooting all the time 

[willbrown83]

Sold Pogba Jan 3rd season team were playing great as was Pogba thought i would have the players to take his place had Pogba playing dlp support bruno as mezzala and Tonali as dlp defend in front of the back 4 midfielders i have available are Sergio Gomez,Marcus Llorente,Kana,Verschaeren,Goretzka,Alamda and Mctominay i know i have to many midfielders looking to move goretzka and llorente on in the summer.Any one struggled replacing Pogba??Thanks

[BigV]

1 hour ago, Zeonflux said:

Yeah it’s worked out quiet well, I just need to find a way to get the wide men playing how I want I.e. not dribbling inside and shooting all the time 

Not sureif anyone has noticed this but in lower leagues they actually tend to stay wide and cross at the byline rather than shoot. ME problem is shooting from weird angles/ angles where they can cross it in for a tap in so dw too much on that. 

[sean_oc16]

4 hours ago, willbrown83 said:

Sold Pogba Jan 3rd season team were playing great as was Pogba thought i would have the players to take his place had Pogba playing dlp support bruno as mezzala and Tonali as dlp defend in front of the back 4 midfielders i have available are Sergio Gomez,Marcus Llorente,Kana,Verschaeren,Goretzka,Alamda and Mctominay i know i have to many midfielders looking to move goretzka and llorente on in the summer.Any one struggled replacing Pogba??Thanks

Bruno is so good that missing Pogba isn't really an issue. There are a lot of quality centre mids in the game you can get, just a matter of what roles and attributes you want.

[sean_oc16]

January 2025

It's award season!

World Golden Ball: Harry Kane 1st

World Footballer of the Year: Harry Kane 1st, Jadon Sancho 2nd

World Player of the Year: Harry Kane 1st

World Goalkeeper of the Year: David De Gea 1st

World Team of the Year: De Gea, Dias, Upamecano, Kessié, Kane, Bruno, Sancho, Militao (sub)

African Footballer of the Year: Franck Kessié 1st,  Ricardo Baldé 2nd

African Promising Footballer of the Year: Ricardo Baldé

African XI of the Year: Kalidou Koulibaly, Franck Kessié

African Defender of the Year: Kalidou Koulibaly 1st

African Midfielder of the Year: Franck Kessié 2nd

Here's how the season has gone so far.

 

The double header against Spurs at the end of the year was huge, we were just 1 point ahead of them before the first game so happy to come out of it now 4 ahead but it's looking like a 2 horse race for the title. Not quite sure what happened in November to prompt the sudden goalscoring burst. Rashford and Kane continue to lead the way with the goals, unfortunately Silva's start at the club has been hampered by injury. Under continues to be productive on the wing and DDG and the defence remain solid.

Not expecting much movement in the transfer window, maybe just some younger players going out on loan, would take some seriously big offers to sell a regular starter or someone becoming unexpected available for moves to be made.

[Powello]

9 hours ago, BigV said:

90 goals in 2 seasons is disgusting for that age of 22, could he be better as a complete forward or does his heading/jump reach kinda falter him a little?

 

I have tried him as a CF in this tactic but it doesn't come close to how he does as a PF, I'm not quite sure why. Perhaps it is his aerials but as you can see I have been trianing them up, 

6 hours ago, Zeonflux said:

Yeah it’s worked out quiet well, I just need to find a way to get the wide men playing how I want I.e. not dribbling inside and shooting all the time 

I still haven't completely managed it but in my latest version of that tactic they do it much less often

[BigV]

1 hour ago, Powello said:

I have tried him as a CF in this tactic but it doesn't come close to how he does as a PF, I'm not quite sure why. Perhaps it is his aerials but as you can see I have been trianing them up, 

Inclined to believe it's a PI instruction, is move into channels already selected for a f9 role? if not it maybe that, then again AF works with greenwood aswell. Maybe it is your tactics that work better, interesting.