[FM20] Manchester United: Falling Giant...

[Gungner]

So what is "cheap" for Jude Bellingham? He's valued at £7,75 mil, and Birmingham wants £24 mil. 

Will try to get it as low as possible, but what do you consider "cheap"?

[Zeonflux]

2 hours ago, Gungner said:

So what is "cheap" for Jude Bellingham? He's valued at £7,75 mil, and Birmingham wants £24 mil. 

Will try to get it as low as possible, but what do you consider "cheap"?

Well I think I got him for £20m with tbh is a steal for the lad, just give him games and he will improve and become a mainstay if the team for years

Edited July 11, 2020 by Zeonflux

[Zeonflux]

6 hours ago, Spiegel said:

Garner has the core attributes, but don't think he had a high PA on my save (I imagine it's a minus number). If he does, I imagine he'd be a great option. 

Luis is at Spurs on mine, and is one of the best midfielders in the league tbf. I went with Aké due to the number of positions he can fill.

Bellingham's CA is on par with Pogba and Eriksen on my save now. Ridiculous player. 

Haaland is a great shout. I recall he wanted stupid wages on my game, so I eventually went with Kane as the big name striker - mainly why Greenwood eventually moved to the wing (though I imagine he'll replace Kane long term).
I do find that wingers are quite inconsistent on this version of the game, but Sancho's been one of the best I've used upto now. Typically comes away with 10 goals & 15 assists a season without set-pieces.

I got Haaland as he fit my criteria of being a young player with potential and he’s world class and I wasn’t fussed about the wages as if dropped Sanchez onto a new 2 year contract on £200k a week so I’d saved £250k.

Plus Liverpool wanted him so that helped the decision, 65 odd goals in around 78 league games isn’t a bad return either

[Spiegel]

3 hours ago, Gungner said:

So what is "cheap" for Jude Bellingham? He's valued at £7,75 mil, and Birmingham wants £24 mil. 

Will try to get it as low as possible, but what do you consider "cheap"?

He's available for compensation *very* early in the game. Think I paid about £4mill. 

If he's signed a contract, £20-£25mill is probably realistic. 

EDIT: £4.1mill

Edited July 11, 2020 by Spiegel

[Gungner]

2 minutes ago, Spiegel said:

He's available for compensation *very* early in the game. Think I paid about £4mill. 

If he's signed a contract, £20-£25mill is probably realistic. 

EDIT: £4.1mill

The date with me is 24th of June 2019 (The very first day of a new save), but he's still worth £7,75 mil, and they want £24 mil. 

Edited July 11, 2020 by Gungner

[Spiegel]

2 minutes ago, Gungner said:

The date with me is 24th of June 2019 (The very first day of a new save), but he's still worth £7,75 mil, and they want £24 mil. 

Are you on the new patch? They may have updated his contract IRL, not sure. 
I'm still on the original database.

[Gungner]

Just now, Spiegel said:

Are you on the new patch? They may have updated his contract IRL, not sure. 
I'm still on the original database.

Yeah,  I'm on the latests patch. 

[Spiegel]

Must've signed pro terms by the time the January update. That's a shame!
If he's on the high end of his PA, I'd still pay the £24mill to be honest, he's well worth that.

[Spiegel]

For reference, here he is on my save. 

Edited July 11, 2020 by Spiegel
Badman assist

[Gee_Simpson]

Hmm... seriously considering starting over as I've had a shocker of a 2nd season so far. We're 2nd but are already 10 points behind Liverpool after only 14 games. Greenwood has stopped scoring up top, and we are conceding in almost every game, especially away from home. I brought in Skriniar for 65m and I have to say, he's been absolutely woeful, he looks amazing on paper but the amount of individual mistakes he's made is crazy. I think I've signed too many and now don't know my strongest 11 really. Dunno why I decided to sign 10 players when we won the league 1st season.

[Gee_Simpson]

@Zeonflux You still using a 4231?

Mine seems to have collapsed for some reason.

Edited July 12, 2020 by Gee_Simpson

[Gee_Simpson]

We just beat Everton away 3-0 after I reinstated James, Lindelof, WIlliams, McTominay.

Chilwell, Skriniar, Sancho and Pogba out.

Liverpool lost their 1st of the season at home to Chelsea, back down to 7 points in it, there's hope!

Edited July 12, 2020 by Gee_Simpson

[Gee_Simpson]

I'm gonna keep going, even if we don't win it this season. Just played Liverpool away and we got a good 1-1 draw after beating Dortmund at home 4-0 so there are positive signs of recovery.

I think my main problem was certainly bringing in too many new 1st choice players. I should have taken the 201m bid for Pogba for sure and will be letting him go at the first opportunity, Barca are interested so he will probably leave in January.

I will also be trying to move Skriniar on for at least 50m as he's been dire. I'll probably bring in Onguene or Milnekovic as backup instead.

Sancho has been poor for me, and it seems for some of you as well.

My intention is to get Greenwood firing again but if I can't then I'll probably play him out wide instead. I'm certainly not letting him go though.

I did manage to get a hat trick out of Martial at CF (A) vs Dortmund but Greenwood never plays well in that role, probably due to his low strength.

Edited July 12, 2020 by Gee_Simpson

[Gee_Simpson]

Here are the 10 signings I made:

Tbf 4 or 5 of them are backups or players with potential so it's not THAT bad, but yeah Skriniar, I wouldn't recommend him to anyone! I thought he would have been a good alternative to Ruben Dias but he's been awful!

One of Nouri or Chilwell will leave in January, probably Nouri as Chilwell has put in some good performances and only cost me 28m due to him being transfer listed, he's only on 57k p/w too.

Edited July 12, 2020 by Gee_Simpson

[Gee_Simpson]

I've decided to start over again as I'm not happy with how things are progressing tbh. I can't sell the players I don't want either as nobody is interested in them.

Edited July 12, 2020 by Gee_Simpson

[Spiegel]

Yeah you went a bit mad in the summer by the look of it!
Skirinar was one of the signings forced on me following the takeover, though he's been quite solid for me. 

Reached January in my save, didn't sweep the Ballon D'or like previous seasons but I'm really pleased with these. 

I'm really pleased with Goalkeeper award as it justifies me moving De Gea on in the summer as part of my long term rebuild. 

Bellingham follows in Greenwood's steps four seasons ago by winning the golden boy. He's playing on another level at the moment so well deserved.

Edited July 12, 2020 by Spiegel

[Zeonflux]

8 hours ago, Gee_Simpson said:

@Zeonflux You still using a 4231?

Mine seems to have collapsed for some reason.

Tbh I haven’t played the save for a few weeks and I can’t remember what tactic I’m using.

i have gone onto one of Knaps I know that (pretty sure it’s a 4-3-3 narrow)

ive found that personally yet again the wide players on this years game (to me) seem really badly coded. They either cross appallingly regardless of attributes or they run at the goal and shoot when there are much better passing options regardless of role so knaps 4-3-3 was a better way to go

[Spiegel]

Conveyor belt of talent coming through!

[BigV]

46 minutes ago, Spiegel said:

Conveyor belt of talent coming through!

how does B. Williams look, value seems to be immense 

[Spiegel]

18 minutes ago, BigV said:

how does B. Williams look, value seems to be immense 

He’s been good but he’s my second choice Right Back behind Laird. The game rates him more than Laird though. I rate Grice (regen) over him aswell.

He’s got quite a bad knock at the minute but I’ll grab you a screenshot when I’m back home.

[craigcwwe]

12 hours ago, Gee_Simpson said:

I'm gonna keep going, even if we don't win it this season. Just played Liverpool away and we got a good 1-1 draw after beating Dortmund at home 4-0 so there are positive signs of recovery.

I think my main problem was certainly bringing in too many new 1st choice players. I should have taken the 201m bid for Pogba for sure and will be letting him go at the first opportunity, Barca are interested so he will probably leave in January.

I will also be trying to move Skriniar on for at least 50m as he's been dire. I'll probably bring in Onguene or Milnekovic as backup instead.

Sancho has been poor for me, and it seems for some of you as well.

My intention is to get Greenwood firing again but if I can't then I'll probably play him out wide instead. I'm certainly not letting him go though.

I did manage to get a hat trick out of Martial at CF (A) vs Dortmund but Greenwood never plays well in that role, probably due to his low strength.

Imo you definitely signed way too many players there in one window. You have to remember that by having so many new players all arriving at the club in the same window they all have to get up to speed with your tactic and by introducing that many players at once your tactical familiarity will go down and in the mean time, results can and usually will suffer.

[Spiegel]

3 hours ago, BigV said:

how does B. Williams look, value seems to be immense 

Williams, along with Laird, Chilwell and Grice.

[stevemc]

On 09/07/2020 at 18:31, Gee_Simpson said:

I ended up going for Sebastiano Esposito, as I have read only positive reviews of him, and £20m seems a steal. He looks insane in @stevemc's screenshot. Who would you say is better out of the two, Esposito or Haaland @stevemc? I have decided to loan him out to Aston Villa with the option for him to be recalled if needed. I brought in Andrea Belotti for £28m as a stop gap for a few seasons, I like him, very solid striker and he's always pretty cheap. His model citizen personality is a bonus, he'll also be used to mentor Greenwood and Esposito.

 

Haaland, but it's close.

[Gee_Simpson]

3 hours ago, craigcwwe said:

Imo you definitely signed way too many players there in one window. You have to remember that by having so many new players all arriving at the club in the same window they all have to get up to speed with your tactic and by introducing that many players at once your tactical familiarity will go down and in the mean time, results can and usually will suffer.

Yeah I feel that way too after looking back. I think I went crazy 2nd season because I had the 1st season summer window disabled. I'm most likely going to restart my save as I've not been happy with my transfers, although I could also just take the hit and come back stronger next season. Most likely I'll restart though and try again.

[Gee_Simpson]

1 hour ago, Spiegel said:

Williams, along with Laird, Chilwell and Grice.

What training schedules do you use? Your Williams and Laird look great. 

[Spiegel]

18 minutes ago, Gee_Simpson said:

What training schedules do you use? Your Williams and Laird look great. 

Phelan runs my team training. I control Individual training. 
 

I’ll train both on Complete Wing Back, then use focuses to target weaknesses. 

[stevemc]

Liverpool needed a win to secure Champions League football on the last day of the season, I'd already won the league, could have rested players ahead of the FA Cup but temptation got the better of me so I put my full strength team out and smashed them  Enjoy the Europa League, boys!

[Gee_Simpson]

23 minutes ago, Spiegel said:

Phelan runs my team training. I control Individual training. 
 

I’ll train both on Complete Wing Back, then use focuses to target weaknesses. 

Cheers. Although tbf I'm comparing your Williams and Laird with my 2021 versions, so they're bound to be better.

[stevemc]

Season 2026/27: End of Season

We had a brilliant season, and came so close to winning every competition we entered. A penalty shoot-out away from immortality.

I've moved up to 3rd in the Hall of Fame, one trophy away from overtaking Pep Guardiola who is currently managing Roma.

 

Community Shield: 

Absolutely terrible game of football but a De Ligt header from a corner gave us a 1-0 win over Zinedine Zidane's Arsenal:

 

 

Super Cup: 

Much better performance here, Marcus Rashford coming off the bench for a double to clinch a 3-1 win:

 

 

Premier League: 

Eight titles in a row for us, two away from a decade now. 97 points, fighting off Zinedine Zidane's Arsenal, with Chelsea and Wolves making up the top four. Rafa Benítez's Wolves have an insane striker up front, a £59m Cape Verde international. Zinedine Zidane has since stepped down at the end of the season, probably ending Arsenal's three year title pushes against me, to join Manchester City

Kylian Mbappé won the golden boot with 24 goals, Mason Greenwood (15) and Ansu Fati (13) also made the top 5. Fati was on fire until he broke his leg in February. We also now hold the outright record of most titles in the competitions history (28).

In other news, Patrice Evra has left my under 18's to take over at Crystal Palace and Everton re-hired Marco Silva.

 

 

EFL Cup: 

After putting out Fulham (H), Barnsley (H) Tottenham (H) and West Brom in the semi-finals, we set up a very straight-forward win against Jesse Marsch's Liverpool. Greenwood, Haaland and Mejbri with the goals. We've now won the EFL Cup for 5 consecutive seasons and hold the outright record of most trophies in the competitions history (11).

 

 

FA Cup: 

We have a very favourable run and put out Bolton (A), Luton (A), Portsmouth (H), Brentford (H) and Sheffield Wednesday in the semi-finals before turning over Manuel Baum's Tottenham 3-0 at Wembley. We've now won the FA Cup 3 times in the last 4 seasons and hold the outright record of most trophies in the competitions history (16).

 

 

Champions League: 

Topped the group with a perfect record, then proceeded to knock-out FC Porto, Roma and Napoli to set up a final against Marcelo Gallardo's Chelsea in Luzhniki. Chelsea took revenge on the 2008 final and won 5-4 on penalties, with Marcus Rashford missing from the spot for us.

This is a tournament I need to do better in, I've won 3 Champions League's (doubling United's total up to 6), but I've also lost 3 finals. Real Madrid currently lead with 13.

 

 

U-23's: 

Another year of dominance;

 

 

U-18's: 

Under 18's also dominated again;

 

 

My Squad:

GK: Gianluigi Donnarumma,  Yannick Becic(HG), Igor Arsenijevic(HG)

RB: Francisco García, Reece James(HG)

LB: Cizão, Daniel Atkins(HG)

CB: Matthijs de Ligt, Léo Guerreiro, Rúben Dias, Declan Rice(HG)

DM: Eduardo Camavinga, Thiago Hurtado, Federico Polito

CM: Ilaix Moriba, Jude Bellingham(HG), 16. Michael Sant(HG)

AM: José Molina, Hannibal Mejbri(HG), Yassine Hamzaoui

IF: Kylian Mbappé, Marcus Rashford(HG), Mason Greenwood(HG), Ansu Fati

STRIKER: Erling Haaland, Sebastiano Esposito, Marcos Vinícius

YOUTH OPPORTUNITIES: Fareed Ismail (GK), Dan Bordei (AM R), Waldemar (AMC), James Dill (CM))(HG), Sean Llewellyn (AM R/L)(HG), Nei (AMC)(HG)

*regen/newgen

Edited July 12, 2020 by stevemc

[jackripper]

So how do you guys keep motivated after winning everything years on end? Do you set new targets with utd or do you move on? 

[stevemc]

3 hours ago, jackripper said:

So how do you guys keep motivated after winning everything years on end? Do you set new targets with utd or do you move on? 

This is the longest save I've ever done with United, I'm trying to get to the top of the Hall of Fame but I'm at the point now where I'm getting attached to some of my regens that have come through. Plus I'm enjoying managing Rashford and Greenwood who start out quite young.

[Spiegel]

4 hours ago, jackripper said:

So how do you guys keep motivated after winning everything years on end? Do you set new targets with utd or do you move on? 

I'm all about pushing youth development. I'm looking to phase out the big earners and build the club around the guys I've brought in - it's managing that transition. 

It's still also fairly tense as Liverpool are quite possibly the best AI side I've seen in FM, and are more than capable of beating us.

[Gee_Simpson]

So I've decided to delete my save and start over again. I wasn't happy with how things went, don't get me wrong, it was nice to win the title in the 1st season but we should have kicked on after that, but instead we went backwards. As weird as it sounds, I didn't really want to win the league in the 1st season, I want to build up to it. Also, I think I signed too many players in the summer window of season 2 and want to be a little more sensible this time.

[Gee_Simpson]

How do you all get through the seasons so quick? Do you watch games on extended or even less?

[krisdonna]

How many first team players do you all sell in season 1? Always feel like  i wanna kick too many players out in the first transfer window.

[stevemc]

This upsets me

[sedge11]

2 hours ago, Gee_Simpson said:

How do you all get through the seasons so quick? Do you watch games on extended or even less?

I watch on key highlights, and I do have a pretty good laptop that helps get through the seasons.

[Gee_Simpson]

33 minutes ago, sedge11 said:

I watch on key highlights, and I do have a pretty good laptop that helps get through the seasons.

You running many leagues? I'm on 50 but considering lowering it by quite a bit. I have a i9 9900k though. I'm wary of FM21 coming out so I kind of want to get far in this save. 

Edited July 13, 2020 by Gee_Simpson

[sedge11]

15 minutes ago, Gee_Simpson said:

You running many leagues? I'm on 50 but considering lowering it by quite a bit. I have a i9 9900k though. I'm wary of FM21 coming out so I kind of want to get far in this save. 

I'm only running 7 leagues, which will help.

[sedge11]

So season 2 is getting close to the end, and we go into the final day like this.

We play Brighton at home, while Liverpool have Westham.

We also have Liverpool to play in the fa cup final as well.

[Conor O'Hare]

What tactics are people using for Man Utd - Hit the inevitable slump where teams now consider me  a threat and are parking the bus....Another thing I've noticed is teams are also tighter marking my attacking players and every shot / cross they make in the final third tends to get blocked.  Went from hammering teams 4-5 - 0 from December 19 (when i found the perfect system and thigs started clicking )until December 20.  Since then I've struggled to break teams down and tend to only win 1-0 with scrappy set piece goals or wnder goals.

Shame, as before this I was scoring wonderful, well worked team goals with variety of worldies, tap ins and well worked through/square balls

 

Struggled over the line with my second season and claimed the title (mainly due to my form in first haf season) as my second season every singe match was a chore with goals drying up from Martial/Rashford/Bruno/Pogba

[Gee_Simpson]

3 hours ago, Conor O'Hare said:

What tactics are people using for Man Utd - Hit the inevitable slump where teams now consider me  a threat and are parking the bus....Another thing I've noticed is teams are also tighter marking my attacking players and every shot / cross they make in the final third tends to get blocked.  Went from hammering teams 4-5 - 0 from December 19 (when i found the perfect system and thigs started clicking )until December 20.  Since then I've struggled to break teams down and tend to only win 1-0 with scrappy set piece goals or wnder goals.

Shame, as before this I was scoring wonderful, well worked team goals with variety of worldies, tap ins and well worked through/square balls

 

Struggled over the line with my second season and claimed the title (mainly due to my form in first haf season) as my second season every singe match was a chore with goals drying up from Martial/Rashford/Bruno/Pogba

My game went the same way, although from the very start of season 2. Teams started sitting in because we had won the league in the 1st season, then my 4231 became ineffective. Greenwood got 26 in 28 1st season then he went I think it was 8 hours without scoring 2nd season. I made some mistakes in the transfer market, probably bought too many so I decided to scrap it and start again. I'll be using the 4123 this time around because it's more balanced and won't be as likely to face the same problems the 4231 did. I tested it before I deleted that save and I had won 12 games in a row with it which was a new record in that save so it was obviously working better.

Edited July 14, 2020 by Gee_Simpson

[sedge11]

So season 2 is finished. I posted above going into the final day top on goal difference, would we bottle it or would we bring the premier league trophy home.

Well we won it and we won our game quite comfortably, Brighton never threatened. It was a great title battle, which also involved Chelsea but they dropped away towards the end.

We scored just shy of 100 league goals, and just to show how good our forwards were, this is the leagues top goal scorers.

Martial, Rashford and Greenwood all with 19 league goals. Bruno adding 15 goals to his 15 assists, I said this on my previous save, but he really is the best player I've used on fm for many years. 

We also went and won the carabao cup.

However after beating Liverpool to the league, we then lost out to them in the fa cup final.

Real Madrid won the champs legaue, while Man city won the europa.

So a great 2nd season with 2 trophies, wrestling the title back away from Liverpool, after they won it in the 1st season.

My 3 signings all did well. Bailey had a steady season but kind of had to play 2nd fiddle to Greenwood, Martial and Rashford. Grealish did his job well as a back up to Bruno and Pogba. Onguene had a good season, slightly hampered by the African cup of nations in January, but did well and will be Maguire's main partner for season 3. The 3 signings were brought in to mainly add quality in depth and they certainly did that.

Onwards to season 3 now and to push on and improve the team abit more, I will look to bring in another 3 players. A dm is the main priority with Zakaria, Ndidi and Rice the 3 I'm looking at.

 

Edited July 14, 2020 by sedge11

[sedge11]

8 hours ago, Gee_Simpson said:

I made some mistakes in the transfer market, probably bought too many so I decided to scrap it and start again.

I know what you mean with this, I never like to go too mad when I do my Man Utd saves even with all that money. I think it's worse because I'm a Man Utd fan (like alot of us doing the saves) it has to feel right, sometimes it can literally take me 3-4 days to do the summer transfer windows to make sure I'm happy.

Edited July 14, 2020 by sedge11

[Gee_Simpson]

3 hours ago, sedge11 said:

I know what you mean with this, I never like to go too mad when I do my Man Utd saves even with all that money. I think it's worse because I'm a Man Utd fan (like alot of us doing the saves) it has to feel right, sometimes it can literally take me 3-4 days to do the summer transfer windows to make sure I'm happy.

I'm also considering starting like you did this time around, I like the idea of starting in January and having no transfers until summer 2020. I'm guessing it would take a good few reloads to get right though.

[muhaimin]

Just started a save with ManUtd.

Aug transfer windoow ended for the BPL. Brought in youths and also Douglas Costa on loan with a future fee of 51mil.
Sold of Matic and Lingard. I have a feeling Pogba will be sold too, PSG is currently interested. If he is sold I am screwed!
So far 2 games played, 1 win and 1 draw against Villa and Liverpool respectively.

In terms of Staff movements, I would say i do a complete overhaaul to my coaching team. Most of the staffs we had, IMO are not of a good quality.
With better staffing and the players at my disposal, I would at least aim to get a Top 4.
 

[Gungner]

On 12/07/2020 at 09:13, Gee_Simpson said:

I've decided to start over again as I'm not happy with how things are progressing tbh. I can't sell the players I don't want either as nobody is interested in them.

But isn't that part of the game though? What's the fun in starting over, everytime something doesn't go your way?

[krisdonna]

Always loan out players with a mandatory fee if  i can't sell them for the cash i want. For example Perreira went to Leicester for a little cash, they pay 100% of his wages and at the end of the season they must buy him for £24mil.

Same with Jones (to West Ham) for £16mil.

Edited July 15, 2020 by krisdonna
used a wrong word

[krisdonna]

6 hours ago, muhaimin said:

Just started a save with ManUtd.

Aug transfer windoow ended for the BPL. Brought in youths and also Douglas Costa on loan with a future fee of 51mil.
Sold of Matic and Lingard. I have a feeling Pogba will be sold too, PSG is currently interested. If he is sold I am screwed!
So far 2 games played, 1 win and 1 draw against Villa and Liverpool respectively.

In terms of Staff movements, I would say i do a complete overhaaul to my coaching team. Most of the staffs we had, IMO are not of a good quality.
With better staffing and the players at my disposal, I would at least aim to get a Top 4.
 

Love Kana, with the right training he will become a worldbeater.

Was considering Costa on loan too but his wages are too high and he is injury prone, went with Kluivert instead(loan with an option to buy of £17mil).

[sedge11]

13 hours ago, Gee_Simpson said:

I'm also considering starting like you did this time around, I like the idea of starting in January and having no transfers until summer 2020. I'm guessing it would take a good few reloads to get right though.

Yea took a few reloads till got one where Man Utd were outside top 4, and with likes of Liverpool top etc to try and reflect real life in a way.

I had to load an obscure league to have the start date in January as well.

But it was a different challenge and some of the transfers were different to the usual ones see most saves as well, which I liked, also players like Bruno then count as actual jan signings which again was another thing I liked about starting in January.

Edited July 15, 2020 by sedge11