FM23: Manchester United The Ten Hag era

[DominicForza]

1 hour ago, Nick OGS20 said:

Just something to keep in mind - without going too much into how the sausage is made, each researcher is given an upper limit in terms of CA allocation amongst the first team. For the first time in a few seasons we're performing at a level where I have us right at that upper limit. Any significant attribute increase (even a +1 if it's in a highly-weighted attribute for the player's position) means an increase in CA, so either other attributes need to come down or, if the CA is going up, someone else's CA needs to come down in order to balance it out. There are a few players (Rashford and Martinez certainly amongst them) who I would have liked to rated a bit higher, and hopefully if the team continue in the same vein in real life I'll be able to do that come the summer (unfortunately there will always be a bit of a lag when you've got a team that's rapidly improving or declining).

Greatly appreciate the peak behind the curtain.  VERY interesting about the first team CA allocation limit.    Thanks Nick OGS20

[V3ntricity]

I don't understand how Harry Kane can have one of the highest current ability in the game, when there is a CA cap on each team.  Tottenham is not a top 2 team, so that must break the 'rules' quite hard.

Edited March 3, 2023 by V3ntricity

[sp3c]

It was said it was a cap per team so you could still have a world class player. You would just need to downgrade another player.

[Tummyowl]

I, personally, feel that both Martinez and Rashford are still moderately underrated.

[Cobblers]

3 hours ago, Tummyowl said:

I, personally, feel that both Martinez and Rashford are still moderately underrated.

Same, I loaded up a fresh MUFC save last night and felt disappointed in the results where both were concerned.

Garncacho looks moderately better though, so silver lining.

[Tummyowl]

I think the rest of the squad is pretty much where it should be. Garncacho looks ok on my winter update save.

Martinez has come off the back of winning a World Cup and is consistently brilliant, one of the better defenders in the league. Rashford is one of the best forwards in Europe this season. Still feel they are lacking via this update. The entire squad has improved under new management, and has in some cases shown players to be what many people thought they could be, However, it is disappointing that there is a 'cap' on increases given how impressive the turn around has been, and how impressive some of the players have been.

There are clubs that have dramatic drop offs, and some that have dramatic increases and putting an arbitrary cap on how much a squad can improve seems a little wrong. Just frustrating.

[stevemc]

22 hours ago, Matty89 said:

on club screen should be something about chairman status

Which club screen?

[Gee_Simpson]

14 hours ago, Tummyowl said:

There are clubs that have dramatic drop offs, and some that have dramatic increases and putting an arbitrary cap on how much a squad can improve seems a little wrong. Just frustrating.

I agree with this. Seems a bizarre way to go about things.

[Cobblers]

15 hours ago, stevemc said:

Which club screen?

Hey - I've created an edit file to force through a take over more quickly.

In the first test, and by the 2nd match of the EPL season, MUFC are already noted as "in process of a takeover".

Just going to do one more test, and if OK, I'll add the edit file to this thread for you.

Edited March 4, 2023 by Cobblers

[Cobblers]

As you can see, the takeover is already in play from the very beginning of a new save.

Fingers crossed you get a tycoon come your way!

See file attached.

Tested this twice, both times take over happened around September/October time. 

Both times it was Josep Maria Bartomeu who took over the club. Neither time was the debt paid off, as no new investment offered for transfers etc, as per the image below. It does look as though there is a small increase to end of season expected transfer budget, but I'm still going through an end of season "holiday period" to see how things work out. (Edit: they gave £85m end of season 1, with a 6th in EPL finish)

MUFC Force Takeover Glazers Out.fmf

Edited March 4, 2023 by Cobblers

[Matty89]

16 hours ago, stevemc said:

Which club screen?

seems they dont let you change it now in pre game editor im sure they used to

If you have the in-game on or FMRTE you can change it there and it makes them wanting to sell

[Cobblers]

3 minutes ago, Matty89 said:

seems they dont let you change it now in pre game editor im sure they used to

If you have the in-game on or FMRTE you can change it there and it makes them wanting to sell

Did you read up, @Matty89?

[stevemc]

Nice one guys, I’m easy on whoever takes over, just want the Glazers gone 

[Cobblers]

1 minute ago, stevemc said:

Nice one guys, I’m easy on whoever takes over, just want the Glazers gone 

If be interested to know if you get anyone different. Cheers. 

[stevemc]

Just now, Cobblers said:

If be interested to know if you get anyone different. Cheers. 

Interested to know how you managed to create it?

[Cobblers]

7 minutes ago, stevemc said:

Interested to know how you managed to create it?

So I increased the owners birth date to 1945, made board and fan opinion of the owner rated as 2.

Also made mufc the owners mist disliked team.

And as results show, the owner wants to leave.

 

[VDB34]

Sabitzer and Weghorst any good?

[W2C]

56 minutes ago, VDB34 said:

Sabitzer and Weghorst any good?

Both are very good and can be useful for different options. Weghorst gives you a big, strong, aerial presence up front that you can take advantage of, though I tend to prefer playing Rashford up there so only use Weghorst for 2 striker formations or to fill in for injuries or rest. Sabitzer is also really solid, but seeing as he was brought in to cover for injuries that aren't in the game, he winds up being pure bonus. If you wanted to go with a heavier midfield formation or to move one of your other midfielders it would make it easier to fit him in, The fact that they're both on loan, and while good, aren't the people I'd want long term tends to have me prioritize my actual players for playing time.

[sedge11]

2 hours ago, VDB34 said:

Sabitzer and Weghorst any good?

Sabitzer was good for me in the 1st season and have signed him permanently for 19.5 mil. I didn’t play Weghorst that much and let his loan end, but I might bring him back as a back up purely because I love his work rate and determination in real life.

[Cobblers]

Regards MUFC staff; there is a lot of them. Particularly Scouts and Recruitment analysts.

Question: Is it better to have more but lesser quality, or less staff, but higher quality? I'm guessing the later. 

[Welshace]

2 hours ago, Cobblers said:

Regards MUFC staff; there is a lot of them. Particularly Scouts and Recruitment analysts.

Question: Is it better to have more but lesser quality, or less staff, but higher quality? I'm guessing the later. 

More staff only helps with their workload, which for a team like man utd, isn't an issue as they alway allow enough staff to be hired..

 

Quality is the way to go, and save on the wages

[Cobblers]

2 hours ago, Welshace said:

More staff only helps with their workload, which for a team like man utd, isn't an issue as they alway allow enough staff to be hired..

 

Quality is the way to go, and save on the wages

Cheers. Appreciate an alternative perspective.

[vrig]

Garnacho seems excellent now. My third top scorer in season 1 with 14 goals, practically all as a supersub when chasing a game.

[stevemc]

How’s everyone getting on with a United save? I’m in January but struggled to get fully invested in it, not sure if it’s the patch or what but hoping I’ll get the bug soon. The keeper/striker ratings, balls over the top  and excessive missed penalties are grating on me.

Started with transfers off, so got to January and sold Martial (due to him moaning about everything) for £36m to Brighton and brought in Declan Rice (£82m).

Flying in the league, top by 7 points, but the cup draws have been grim, knocked out of Carabao Cup away at Arsenal, through in FA Cup but now got Chelsea. Europa League is going well too.

I’m going to let De Gea leave on a free, he’s on a mad decline (although the current patch isn’t fair on keepers) and can’t justify £375k per week so that’ll need addressing in the summer.

Think I need a buyout to get fully invested, which is on the cards now so hopefully done by the end of the season.

 

Edited March 12, 2023 by stevemc

[sedge11]

On 12/03/2023 at 10:53, stevemc said:

How’s everyone getting on with a United save?

I finished season 1 about 2 weeks ago, started in December with real life results, finished 2nd and won the carabao and europa league. Also had a tycoon takeover.
 

But I’m the same in I’ve struggled to get invested in it, but that’s mainly because I had a plan for the summer window and it hasn’t worked out how I wanted it, so had to re think who to sign.

But I plan to get back on it tomorrow, get the summer finished for season 2 and crack on with the save.

 

[DominicForza]

9 hours ago, sedge11 said:

I finished season 1 about 2 weeks ago, started in December with real life results, finished 2nd and won the carabao and europa league. Also had a tycoon takeover.
 

But I’m the same in I’ve struggled to get invested in it, but that’s mainly because I had a plan for the summer window and it hasn’t worked out how I wanted it, so had to re think who to sign.

But I plan to get back on it tomorrow, get the summer finished for season 2 and crack on with the save.

 

I'm curious what you summer plan was, how it didn't work out, and what re-think and adjustments you made.

[sedge11]

2 hours ago, DominicForza said:

I'm curious what you summer plan was, how it didn't work out, and what re-think and adjustments you made.

Well I wanted a big name striker to lead the team and the save, Vlahovic and Osimhen were my targets and I could get them for a decent fee just before the end of the season, but I then left it too long and their prices went up massively. I then just couldn't really decide who to sign instead, so decided to have a small break from fm.

I also struggled to sell a few players like Maguire, Donny and Henderson.

But now got back on it, with a fresh look. Donny and Maguire are now both going out on loan with permanent deals included. Striker wise I am going to keep Rashford as my main striker and maybe sign a Moukoko or Toney as rotation, then go all in on a big striker next season by making them my no 1 target, scouting them constantly see if I can unsettle them abit.

[dothestrand]

Has anyone tried to manage Man Utd with a ten Hag-esque approach to recruitment, signing either:

• Players from the top Eredivisie clubs (Ajax, PSV, Feyenoord, AZ): both Dutch players like Teze, Rensch, Timber and Simons, but also foreign players like Kudus, Alvarez or Sangare. 
• Dutch players from other European leagues (Dumfries, Frimpong, Gravenberch, etc.) as and when they become possible transfers.

 

 

[molemenacer]

So i decided to start a new game with the updated patch and have just hit the World Cup in the first season.

I always disable first window transfers so squads are as they are at the start.

Been a very good start in the league

\

For some reason Arsenal imploded from the start, sacked Arteta and have now hired Veira

The loss at home to Fulham was one of those games, they scored with their 2 shots on target ad we couldn't score at all.  Southampton we never got going and never looked like scoring.

Rashford and Bruno have been amazing and surprisingly so has Weghorst.   

[sedge11]

So its been a few weeks, but have got back on fm and have done the summer transfers and started season 2.

Can Arsenal retain their title? Can we improve on a cup double in season 1?

So Sabitzer joins on a permanent, he done well for me and I like him, at 19.5 mil it was a cheap deal. N'dicka was a deal I had put in place in Jan of season 1. SMS was going into his final year of his contract and was transfer listed, I had to battle Spurs and Liverpool for him. Now Ramos, he was by no means my 1st choice, Osimhen and Vlahovic were my main targets, but i waited too long and they became too expensive, Napoli won serie A and the champs league so Osimhen was impossible to get. So Ramos was the next best striker to buy and in he comes.

On the outs I think they are all fairly obvious, Donny and Maguire's loans both have permanent deals in them.

I also have a future transfer set up for January.

He will come in and probably replace Amad and Pellistri if they don't develop.

We have actually had a really poor start to the season.

Team just isn't clicking at the moment, Ramos got injured against Napoli and hasn't played since, but a front 3 of Antony, Garnacho and Rashford have performed well. What makes the start annoying is in these games we have hit the woodwork 8 times.

 

[sedge11]

Home game VS Liverpool, we lose Casemiro and Sabitzer due to injury before the game, so I decided to trust Kobbie Mainoo in the DM role as a DLP.

1st senior goal, 1st goal for Man Utd, absolutely brilliant.

[duvels]

19 hours ago, sedge11 said:

Home game VS Liverpool, we lose Casemiro and Sabitzer due to injury before the game, so I decided to trust Kobbie Mainoo in the DM role as a DLP.

1st senior goal, 1st goal for Man Utd, absolutely brilliant.

Mainoo has been decent for me as well. He got some chances in the first squad during the first season and is loaned out at PAOK in the 2nd season.

Any big changes to your tactics since the latest update? I haven't settled down yet and no idea where to go. I tend to play a 4231, but looks like 433 is a bit more effective this time?

[Matty89]

Still not started my Man Utd save this year just keep getting distracted.

It will be the last chance i have to have Ronaldo at United (my fav player)

Cant decide which database to use has there been "massive" upgrades to United in jan update in your guys view 

[ThanatosAFC]

8 hours ago, Matty89 said:

Still not started my Man Utd save this year just keep getting distracted.

It will be the last chance i have to have Ronaldo at United (my fav player)

Cant decide which database to use has there been "massive" upgrades to United in jan update in your guys view 

Garnacho alone is worth to start with the winter update, dude got a massive CA and PA increase.

[molemenacer]

Season 1 finished.  No incomings or outgoings in January as had no money to spend so backed the players to get us there

After the world cup we had an away tie to Liverpool in the EFL Cup ad got soundly beaten, 2-0 flattered us, then lost 1-0 away to a high flying Brentford side.  I thought the bubble had burst but then we went on an 11 game winning streak before Liverpool ended that!!

 

FA Cup got to the semi final and lost on penalties after a 0-0 draw in where Meslier. got a 10.0.  I have hardly ever seen a 10 let alone for a goalkeeper.  This trend happened a lot in the final few months as we made all goalkeepers look like the best in the world.

In the end we won the league comfortably as Liverpool ad City had very inconsistent form.

Lost the Europa Final 1-0 where we created nothing, 4 shots none of target, nothing seemed to work as RB Leipzig ran out comfortable 1-0 winners

Rashford and Weghorst had great seasons, Bruno fell off a cliff for the last few months and with no one else to really control that role we struggled to create and score.

 

Overall a pretty good season, annoyed about the FA Cup and Europa but already have some nice deals lined up for the summer.  It will be a summer of change

[molemenacer]

The summer transfer window turned out to be busier that i expected

Highlights are Skriniar in on a free, and Villarreal wanted Torres release fee.  Worth it to have my 2 CBs for a while.  Bellingham and Koopmeiners come in to the midfield to replace Fred and McTominay and displace Erikson and Casemiro in the starting 11.  Brighton got relegated a Mac Allister for £37.5 mill was good for extra depth until he did his cruciate in pre season, going to miss the whole year pretty much.

 

With the strength coming into the midfield and defence not much left for a striker, tried to loan Weghorst again but Burnely were not interested.  My scouts found Yuri Alberto and so far he has scored 5 in his first 4 games.  3 loans on deadline day for depth, Sabitzer to cover the injury to Mac Allister and Mudryk and Sesko to increase numbers up front.  I think i may have gone too far!!

Didn't want to sell Dalot but Real came in for him and i needed the money so he got sacrificed.  McTominay, Elannga, Van De Beek all have mandatory buy clauses so will get a fair amount coming in at the start of next season.  PSG loaned Martial in Jan with. a mandatory buy clause if he played 10 games, he played 11 and they have listed him for £41 mill with non takers.   Everyone else i just didn't want.

Season has started off well

Beat Liverpool in the Community shield, Should have beaten Newcastle but struggled to score.  Yuri Alberto seems like a great buy at the moment though

[sedge11]

8 hours ago, molemenacer said:

The summer transfer window turned out to be busier that i expected

Highlights are Skriniar in on a free, and Villarreal wanted Torres release fee.  Worth it to have my 2 CBs for a while.  Bellingham and Koopmeiners come in to the midfield to replace Fred and McTominay and displace Erikson and Casemiro in the starting 11.  Brighton got relegated a Mac Allister for £37.5 mill was good for extra depth until he did his cruciate in pre season, going to miss the whole year pretty much.

 

With the strength coming into the midfield and defence not much left for a striker, tried to loan Weghorst again but Burnely were not interested.  My scouts found Yuri Alberto and so far he has scored 5 in his first 4 games.  3 loans on deadline day for depth, Sabitzer to cover the injury to Mac Allister and Mudryk and Sesko to increase numbers up front.  I think i may have gone too far!!

Didn't want to sell Dalot but Real came in for him and i needed the money so he got sacrificed.  McTominay, Elannga, Van De Beek all have mandatory buy clauses so will get a fair amount coming in at the start of next season.  PSG loaned Martial in Jan with. a mandatory buy clause if he played 10 games, he played 11 and they have listed him for £41 mill with non takers.   Everyone else i just didn't want.

Season has started off well

Beat Liverpool in the Community shield, Should have beaten Newcastle but struggled to score.  Yuri Alberto seems like a great buy at the moment though

That is a pretty mental summer , what does your starting 11 look like now.

[RuokOrnot]

Just finished S2 and I couldn't believe it, we end up winning everything except the Community Shield, which we lost to Liverpool.

More surprising was VDB stepping up and doing the honors for us.

It wasn't smooth sailing and we really had to manage tantrums thrown by Martial and Shaw who wanted to look for new challenges. We bought Rijkhoff in anticipation of Martial leaving but there were no takers at the end of the Jan window. To top that off, the match engine kept insisting I don't give the players enough playing time so for most of the season we kept having that bit of a morale issue. It also prevented us from rotating as much as we like so that we can keep these unreasonable players happy.

Most of the youth prospects sent out were also not given the agreed playing time and so that was the other main frustration for the season.

Transfers:

Miretti was the only player bought in the pre-season although we concluded other deals in June :

Leonardo proved to be a good replacement for CR7 and end up being the club's overall top scorer with 21 goals (CR7 gave us 36 before he left :P). Scalvini is proving to be the key player for us so far, usurping Martinez position and partnership with Varane towrds the end of the season.

Trubin has not really proven himself and is looking to be a bad buy. Guler is not developing as well as we had hoped.

We finally managed to lower to wage bill to less than $5M. We are also looking at about $100m to spend in S3. An added bonus was we snagged this dude on a free:

 

Have decided not to start a new save so not sure how the Winter Update would affect S3. In terms of tactics, we primarily used 2 this season; 4231 was the main one and 433 was the other one.

 

Initial thoughts for S3:

We are thinking of offloading some players that didn't really perform. Would love to recoup the entire outlay for Anthony who is really inconsistent. Martinez seems to be a good CDM so we might convert him. Martial and Shaw remains to be sold at the moment and Laird seems to be a good replacement for Shaw. GK is now a very key position and it looks like we might have to really break the bank for Costa as a more worthy replacement rather than relying on Trubin. Henderson did not look good as a replacement as well.

We also need to be mindful of homegrown restrictions. in S2, we barely made it. If Shaw, Henderson and Maguire leaves, we will need at least 3 HG replacements.

So signing off this S2, a word from the game's journalists:

[sedge11]

So a small update on season 2.

Bardghji joined at the beginning of Jan and he had a great debut.

He come on in the 70th minute and won us the game.

We have then got some bad news.

De Gea's season is over.

My other keepers are Heaton and Henderson. Heaton has only played 1 game this season which was an fa cup game, and Henderson hasn't played at all and am trying to sell him.

So Luckily we are still in January so a new GK will have to be brought. The 2 I'm looking at are Kobel and Bijlow. Both can be got for around 40 mil, so which to go for.

[RuokOrnot]

5 hours ago, sedge11 said:

So a small update on season 2.

Bardghji joined at the beginning of Jan and he had a great debut.

He come on in the 70th minute and won us the game.

We have then got some bad news.

De Gea's season is over.

My other keepers are Heaton and Henderson. Heaton has only played 1 game this season which was an fa cup game, and Henderson hasn't played at all and am trying to sell him.

So Luckily we are still in January so a new GK will have to be brought. The 2 I'm looking at are Kobel and Bijlow. Both can be got for around 40 mil, so which to go for.

Ouch. How about Diego Costa?

[sedge11]

2 hours ago, RuokOrnot said:

Ouch. How about Diego Costa?

I used him on my last Man Utd save, and he wasn't that good, De Gea ended up getting his place back and I sold Costa. 

I have used Kobel when I went to Dortmund in a save and he was brilliant. Bijlow is just that Dutch Ten Hag connection.

[molemenacer]

On 31/03/2023 at 07:41, sedge11 said:

That is a pretty mental summer , what does your starting 11 look like now.

It escalated very quickly from only wanting to replace a few players with that happening!!

This. has been the starting lineup for the first few games but i have not settled on an 11 yet.   These are the other players in the squad at the moment.

Antony and Sancho were both similar in the first season so not sure who is going to secure the right side yet.  Sancho has had a decent start so gets the spot for now.

Casimiro and Koopmeiners will interchange a lot this season with Casimiro probably going next summer.  Same with Erikson and Bellingham.   The main draw with Koopmeiners and Bellingham is the higher intensity i can play with this season.  Those 2 look a lot better at the moment that Casimiro and Erikson at times last year.

Varane picked up a few knocks last year and was my only reliable CB so now i can protect him a bit with Skriniar on a free and Pau Torres.

Sesko on a loan was to provide competition for Alberto, based on the season start Alberto has the spot at the moment.

Ziyech came in because i was short on wide covering players and he was cheap, but then Mudryk became available on loan later in the window, wish i hadn't got Ziyech now!!  

[molemenacer]

On 01/04/2023 at 08:14, sedge11 said:

I used him on my last Man Utd save, and he wasn't that good, De Gea ended up getting his place back and I sold Costa. 

I have used Kobel when I went to Dortmund in a save and he was brilliant. Bijlow is just that Dutch Ten Hag connection.

I used Costa on my last save as well and was not impressed at all, made so many mistakes

Kobel is on my target list for end of season 2 this time around

[sedge11]

So I opted to sign Bijlow, and got him for 33 mil, and he's on less than 100k a week.

He's had a great start as well.

4 Clean sheets in 6 games, not a rating below 7.

The Brentford game was an fa cup game that we won on penalties, in which he saved 2 in the shootout.

[molemenacer]

So it is all going to pot!!!

Started off really well but after the Man City game i was hit with 8 injuries in 3 days and since then no one seems to be able to score consistently.  Managed to top the CL group some how, have just crashed out the EFL cup at home despite dominating the game totally, they scored with 2 shots on target.  This has happened to me in every fm version for a while now and i never learn, DDG had a good first season so stuck with him and he has fallen off a cliff.  Luckily i do not concede many shot on target because pretty much every shot on target is currently going in.

League table is bad, only good news is that it is only 6 points to 3rd

 

I have decided i have had enough of DDG screwing up every game so Kobel is about to join for £8 mill and DDG leaves for £10 mill to Rennes.  No idea how i am going to make £2 mill and save £200k on wages but there you go.

I reckon i only have about a month or so to turn it around before my job is at risk

[molemenacer]

What a difference a month makes

As i said, DDG is off and Kobel is in, i also raided a relegated Brighton for 2 more players

Lamptey goes straight in at RB to replace Wan Bissaka and Evan Ferguson straight up front.  He has already started to repay the faith with 3 goals and. 2 assists in 5 games

A few players also left

DDG goes for 10 mill, with6 months left on his contract, no idea why Rennes thought it was a good idea but i am not complaining.  Casemiro and Lindelof both go out on loan with Mandatory clauses, Garnacho has picked up a fair number of injuries so wanted to give him 6 months of first team football.

The results

Kobel has been immense, as i said above Ferguson has been a revelation so far.  The Chelsea result was the most surprising, they are flying high top of the league and we blew them away at Stamford Bridge,  This leaves us in 5th only 4 points of second, Chelsea are 6 points clear of second.

[molemenacer]

Season 2 over and in the end i was disappointed.

From being 14 points behind the leaders at the turn of the year we ended up just 5 off and really should have finished 2nd or 3rd.

We only lost away to Arsenal and Man City and drew at home with Southampton in the whole second half of the year, should have beaten Southampton, Kobel had a shocker and cost me 2 of their goals, and the Arsenal game was not a 4-1 loss, once again Kobel had a shocker with a 6.2.

FA Cup, we have very nice home draws the whole way to the Semi Finals and then bottled it on the day against Brentford.  Their keeper, Strakosha, got an 8 - he was immense, or rather we let him be immense.

Champions League, we did really well in the Round of 16, drew Man City in the quarters and got knocked out by Haaland, he scored all 3 of their goals and the 2nd in the second leg was a 93 minute header from about 16 yards out with an xg of 0.01, thats right 0.01.  I could not believe it.  Haaland finished the season with 60 goals in all competitions from 41 starts and. 8 sub appearances.

From where we were in January we lost 4 games and drew 1 and won the rest, it was a crazy turn around.  I am unsure where to strengthen at the moment.   Going to put fm down for the Easter break and reevaluate after then.

[sedge11]

Season 2 is over and it was a disappointing one, as we ended up trophyless.

The league table looked like this,

For the 2nd season in a row we miss out by 1 point, 11 draws really killing our chances and we just weren't good enough defensively. We had good individual performances from Rashford and Bruno but as a team we were poor.

We lost early on in the carabao cup so we didn't defend our title, and the fa cup we lost in the quarter final for the 2nd year running, the champs league was frustrating as there was a really good opportunity to win but lost out in the quarter final of that as well.

Here were our best performers for the season.

Rashford by far our top scorer, with Ramos next on 17 but his average rating was poor. Bijlow came in and done very well with the 2nd highest average rating. As a team we just didn't perform well enough, there were too many poor performances resulting in alot of the draws. Injuries also hurt us quite badly, as you know De Gea broke his leg, but we also lost Garnacho, Sancho, Antony and Wan Bissaka for periods which didn't help.

Going forward we will need more from the likes of Antony and Sancho, we can't keep relying on Rashford.

So that brings us onto the summer, and what a summer it was, it as alot busier than 1st expected it to be. Lets start with the outs.

The biggest out was Ramos, sold after only 1 season. He did ok with 17 goals, but he also had alot of poor performances, I didn't plan to sell but a big name striker unexpectedly became available and was brought in. Dalot goes as I brought a new RB, and I wanted to keep Wan Bissaka.  Kehoe was my best regen from youth intake from season 1, he goes on loan to get some game time at one of the best teams in the championship, to then hopefully come into the 1st team for season 4.

So the ins, Ramos was sold, a big name striker became available and with City buying Vini Jr, and Liverpool buying Rice, Gvardiol and a couple others I just had to go for it, so in comes................................

Harry Kane, Spurs had an awful season finishing in 15th, and it weren't until after the euro's I saw he was cheaper than usual so I just had to do it. I have never used Kane before, and though he is nearly 31 for 2-3 seasons he will be quality.

Here are the rest of my signings.

After being trophyless we needed a big summer and we certainly delivered.

Frimpong comes in as our new RB. Silva, Caicedo and Hojlund come in with a view for the future, with Silva and Caicedo able to replace Varane and Casemiro probably next season. Hojlund was someone I wanted to buy even before I noticed Kane was available, but now he comes in to back up Kane then takeover from him in 2 seasons time.

Overall very happy with the summer, much better quality in depth with a good mix of experience and youth.

I plan to use Mainoo alot more this season, and with Silva, Caicedo and Hojlund I think we are in a good place for the future.

We have won our 1st 2 games, with Kane getting a hattrick against Spurs .

 

Edited April 9, 2023 by sedge11

[sedge11]

So we have had a decent start to the season, but this is not helping.

Kane got injured for a month, then 3 games later Hojlund out for a month, next game Rashford now out for 3 weeks.

Wan Bissaka out for 2 months from the start of the season, Shaw out for 2 weeks.

Luckily Martial is still around. He was out of contract at end of last season, but I decided to activate his extension purely because I like him. I then signed Kane and was gonna sell him but with no luck, now I'm glad he' still here.

[duvels]

11 hours ago, sedge11 said:

So we have had a decent start to the season, but this is not helping.

Kane got injured for a month, then 3 games later Hojlund out for a month, next game Rashford now out for 3 weeks.

Wan Bissaka out for 2 months from the start of the season, Shaw out for 2 weeks.

Luckily Martial is still around. He was out of contract at end of last season, but I decided to activate his extension purely because I like him. I then signed Kane and was gonna sell him but with no luck, now I'm glad he' still here.

Yeah, that's some bad luck there... Martial might perform well, but he's inconsistent. You never know what to expect from him.

Big transferperiod there! How is Garnacho developing?