FM 2008: Manchester United - Home of the Red Devils

[Barnetboyz]

Originally posted by Chasjs:

Carrick will be fine their. Use money to invest in youth. Defour is great. Bojan is great.

can Carrick actually tackle though? his creativiness might prove to be his downfall?

[SneakyDave]

Hargreaves is a great DM player, alot better than Carrick, who is a decent back-up, nothing more IMO.

I'd sell Carrick and get Zapater personally.

[Barnetboyz]

i quite like Carrick as a good MC, better then scholes for me

[Scott08]

I play with 2 CMs. One more attacking (Scholes/Anderson) and the other sitting back more.

Here i use Carrick in more open games, i.e at Home and against weaker opposition away. Then, Hargreaves in tight games away and a but more often in Europe. Especially if against a good AMC.

[Sheps.]

Tbh Carrick has never failed for me at tackling. He holds the midfield together on the defensive, then wins the ball, then plays it to Anderson who can move it upfield by either dribbling or playing a nice through ball to Rooney/Tevez.

[Chasjs]

Originally posted by Sparky_07:

I have only been given 12 million to spend need to buy a striker I think. Need to sell first

You don't really need a striker. Bojan on loan should be suffice if you play 2 up top. If not, put Ronaldo there

[Barnetboyz]

have played about 5 friendlies atm and the team seems to like the tactic atm, still feels the sqad lacks something, not too sure though, still have the 12M to spend

have spent a huge £1.6M on 15 players (mainly all youth) with £1.1M of that going on spanish talent Daniel Parejo, have sold Silvestre for 3M (as i have Sakho)

but because of the huge loan that sucks money out of the club i am a bit tentitive to splash out

[Chasjs]

I spent all my budget on youth. Pretty poor first season really. Given 39million budget for 2nd season and went from -19million to +66million in a month or two due to sponsorship, 2nd in Premiership prize money and TV money!!!

Don't worry about the debt. Act like its not there (Although, still be cautious)

[Barnetboyz]

trying to get that Mertesacker to be a possibly replacement for Rio, i have nothing against him but hes getting older, his strength is a bit poor

[Chasjs]

Pique, Evans, Sahko. End of DCs.

Spend elsewhere.

[Santhkumar]

Who is good?

Akinfeev or Neuer

[Dark_Telepath]

Who should I buy?

Bojan or Pato?

[Barnetboyz]

Pre Season Friendlies Round Up Thought i would try somethign different in my updates

Vs Bury (a)

Score : 4-0

Scorers : Parejo, Vidic, Pique & Ronaldo

MOTM : Jim Provett (Bury Keeper)

Vs Séte (a)

Score : 4-0

Scorers : Carrick, Tévez & Bojan 2

MOTM : Bojan

Vs Toulouse (a)

Score : 3-0

Scorers : Tévez & Ronaldo 2

MOTM : Ronaldo

Vs Montpellier (a)

Score : 2-0

Scorers : Nani & Sakho

MOTM : Nani

Vs Antwerp (a)

Score : 4-0

Scorers : O'Shea, Ronaldo, Bojan and an Own Goal

MOTM : Ronaldo

Overall a good clean sheet based pre season with Chelsea to come, still looking for a CB and some older players to tutor my young stars (will release the crappy under 18s to allow my signings to play more)

[Hitchy]

Originally posted by Barnetboyz:

Pre Season Friendlies Round Up Thought i would try somethign different in my updates

Vs Bury (a)

Score : 4-0

Scorers : Parejo, Vidic, Pique & Ronaldo

MOTM : Jim Provett (Bury Keeper)

Vs Séte (a)

Score : 4-0

Scorers : Carrick, Tévez & Bojan 2

MOTM : Bojan

Vs Toulouse (a)

Score : 3-0

Scorers : Tévez & Ronaldo 2

MOTM : Ronaldo

Vs Montpellier (a)

Score : 2-0

Scorers : Nani & Sakho

MOTM : Nani

Vs Antwerp (a)

Score : 4-0

Scorers : O'Shea, Ronaldo, Bojan and an Own Goal

MOTM : Ronaldo

Overall a good clean sheet based pre season with Chelsea to come, still looking for a CB and some older players to tutor my young stars (will release the crappy under 18s to allow my signings to play more)

I can never get Bojan to come on loan. What did you have to offer Barcelona?

[Hitchy]

If you are looking for a centre back, then try Pique, Evans, Brown and Sahko before buying anyone else.

Breno is quality (though I don't think he can sign until January).

Veloso is also a great buy as he can cover midfield and defence. (costs about £6m though).

Couple of youth players you really should buy are Saviet and Baxter.

[Barnetboyz]

i just offered to pay all bojans wage for the season and installed a recall clause (but i have never seen any loan recall a player on loa in FM

about the DCs, Brown is a bit iffy for me and Evans is on loan at sunderland atm, Veloso is more expensive on the 8.0.2 patch i've found

[Barnetboyz]

Community Shield

Piqué slotted in at DM and played suprisingly well, Rio wanted me to pay 67k a week for him to join madrid so he is gonna stay now

[Thystone]

I have a tendency to use FM Formation and find out what players I can get for which prices. And I also used it to clear up United's debt and bulk up my transfer budget. Now I have a ridiculously awesome squad, with too much depth, and I'm a bit worried that it's not "fair", and certainly not real.

Anyway, my game is already 3 years in, so I don't want to have to start another one... so I need some help telling me who I need/don't need and where I can improve.

GK:

Cech (signed for 100m, 3rd season)

Akinfeev (signed for 20m, second season, got Cech next season so Akinfeev doesn't get many games)

Van Der Sar (getting older)

DR:

Micah Richards (signed for 26m, first season)

Dani Alves (signed for 22m, second season)

Sergio Ramos (signed for 100m, third season)

G. Neville (getting old, but I'm waiting for him to become a coach)

DL:

Chivu (signed for 100m, third season)

Chiellini (signed for 60m, third season. Only played one game in 6 months)

Evra (getting annoyed that he's not playing enough games)

Marcelo (signed for 5.5m, 1st season)

DC:

Ferdinand

Vidic

Kompany (signed for 12m, second season. Barely plays)

Zapata (signed for 14m, second season. Asst Manager uses him when I go on holiday.)

Evans (I've never played him, but the Asst Manager does every time I go on holiday)

DM:

Veloso (signed for 6m, 1st season. Really high PA, and he's very solid, but not high physical stats for a DM)

Banega (is ranked as my 2nd best DM, but I have so many AMC's and MC's that he barely gets a go)

CM/AM:

Scholes (still ranked number 1, despite getting older)

Essien (signed for 100m, third season in in the winter)

Montolivo (signed for 50m, second season. Was my first choice CM with Scholes in second season, but now the squad is so big, with the inclusion of Essien, he's not getting much of a go)

Anderson (has massive potential, but he's not getting enough of a go to get to it. I do like him though)

Carrick (ranked pretty low by my assistant manager, but I need SOME players who were trained in England)

Van Der Vaart (signed for 12m, third season. Tried to get him first season but he went to Barca. They put him on transfer list third season, so I picked him up. He's been injured so he hasn't played yet, but he's probably my 3rd best CM behind Essien and Scholes.)

Moutinho (signed for 17m, second season. He barely gets a go, and doesn't complain too much. Has decent stats, but isn't as good as the others. I'm in his favourite personelle, and he has high Influence which I need for the future. Tough to let him go when he's put me in his favoured personel.)

AMR:

C. Ronaldo (obviously, a superstar)

Rosina (based on the fact that Ronaldo is capable of playing out the entire season without missing many games, Rosina hasn't really gotten a fair go, but is still ranked my number 2 AMR.

AML:

Silva (signed for 90m, winter second season. Obviously better as an AMC, but I use him on the wing as my first choice. Has been very solid and all my players say he's going to be big in the future)

Matias Fernandez (signed for 14m, second season. I barely played him in his first year, but when Dos Santos got injured I used him as a back-up and his form was so solid, he almost kept Silva out of the team. He can also take excellent free-kicks.)

Dos Santos (signed for 16m, first season. I like his youth and PA, but with Silva and Fernandez, and his constant injuries, it's pretty difficult to put him in the team on a regular basis)

ST:

Rooney

Aguero (signed for 70m, second season. High PA, not quite there yet, but I like to use him as a lone striker when I'm playing Ultra Defensive with a 5 man defense away in big champions league games or against chelsea or liverpool)

Tevez

Villa (signed for 60m, second season. I got him using his release clause and he flourished in his first season. Now that Aguero is hitting form and Tevez is back from injury, it's tough to put him in the team)

Adriano (signed for 6m, second season in the winter. After playing in the reserves for Inter, I figured I'd sign him and he surprised me with an average of 2 goals a game in 6 months. Now, he's getting older and is my last choice behind such quality strikers. He's starting to complain that he's not getting enough game time.)

In the last transfer window, I sold Nani, Hargreaves, Wes Brown, O'Shea, Berbatov and a few other pretty big names. Obviously I'm running out of UTD trained players for Champion's League, but I do have some youth players coming up.

I'm in desperate need of help though!!

[Fabregas18]

How much did you get in trasfer budget in third season???? 500m??

That's not possible, if you were posting in £.

[Scott08]

How you got that squad in 3 years is beyond me, even if its not in £'s.

Line-up like -

Cech

D.Alves

Ferdinand

Vidic

Chiellini

Veloso

Essien

Ronaldo

Silva

Rooney

Aguero

Pretty much a dream team.

I'd sell Marcelo, Chivu, Kompany, Montolivio, VDV, Adriano for sure.

[Barnetboyz]

he has already said he editted his game to get rid of the debt, huge money etc

[Scott08]

I've gone back to the fifth season on my 8.01 save.

My team is as follows..

GK B.Foster / O.Ustari

DR M.Richards / D.Simpson

DL P.Evra / G.Bale

DC G.Pique / Breno / R.Ferdinand

DC J.Evans / C.Cathcart / M.Sakho

MC C.Fabregas / M.Carrick

MC Anderson / M.Johnson

AM C.Ronaldo / H.Saivet

AM Nani / T.Kroos

ST C.Tevez / Bojan

ST W.Rooney / D.Berbatov

As you can see, i focused on my youth side and have lots coming through. Some regens and also - Wellbeck, Fabio, Rafael, S.Mota, Aquino and Balotelli are nearing first team football.

Pato is out on loan at Real Madrid after playing very little football at Milan the previous 4 seasons. He'll replace Berbatov next year.

Haven't played the save for a while.. expect last night so i won't bother much with my achievements from before.

[Scott08]

Originally posted by Barnetboyz:

he has already said he editted his game to get rid of the debt, huge money etc

Missed that bit

In which case, the only position i'd look to strengthen is to bring in another world-class, young CB. Kompany isn't very good and with the players available.. you can do better than Evans.

If on 8.02 go for Nordtveit, Sakho, Fazio or Vidal.

[Dazbo101]

can anyone recomend player instructions for ronaldo and tevez, i play them in a 4-2-3-1 with ronaldo AMR and tevez AML, im looking for them to get more goals, as at the moment rooney seems to be only 1 scoring, play him as a striker, but he misses to many chances, kinda like real life lol, forgot to mention i have both them with arrows going into the box.

[Ganzoars]

Lol. Check out my United squad:

As you can see... My squad is insanely huge Then again, a few are Reserves. I have won all 5 trophies (League, league cup, FA, CL and CS) for 3 years running. The team is now worth £2 billion.

I wish this would happen in real life.

[Ale House]

I've won the league again in the second season, clinched it with 3 games to go. Ronaldo has 53 goals in 50 games so far, and is by far my leading scorer. Benzema is #2 with something like 33 in 29. My team is very attack minded, so I do have a lot of games that are 4-2, 5-3 (although the defense has improved as the season has gone on).

I have Ronaldo's mentality set to very attacking, and gave him the free role (at the AMR position with arrows running to the box). Only about 5 or 6 of his goals are from the penalty spot, so he gets the majority of them during the run of play. I don't think I've ever had anyone on any game (previous versions too) score as many goals as he has this year. I also play Rooney at AML with a forward arrow, with Benzema and Tevez rotating at CF. It really does work like a charm. Rooney plays great in the position.

I've got 3 games left in the league, and the CL final against, guess who, Chelsea. Preview of Wednesday.

[SkidRo]

in my first season halfway through and i thumped arsenal 6-0 at home whooohooo bloody gunners aint got numthing on me. first in the league have no money to spend because man utd are broke beginning of game but im thinking a left midfilder for next season is needed, a centre back to replace ferdinand and a striker who can header like hunterlaar. btw im playing an attacking short and quick passing 4-4-1-1 formation which is working extremely well for me so far.

shame about the 600 million debt, that nearly blew my eyes away, i gotta watch my spending or it could be curtains. i havent sold anyone but im gettin a lot of offeres for pique and my question is should i sell or keep?

[Dempsey]

Heres my Dilemma

Got my first team performing away

But i got all these wonderkids coming up , 20/21 years old, what should i do?

[SkidRo]

raise them and either make money off them or use them or use the ones needed and sell the ones that arent.

regarding not performing at home which im sure your suggesting maybe you need to attack more and play at a faster pace or if you already are then play at a slower pace with shorter passing.

[Barnetboyz]

End of Transfer Window (1st Season)

Squad

Transfers In / Out

Fixtures So Far..

Charity Shield Vs Chelsea - Won 3-0 (Rooney 2 & Anderson)

Premiership Vs Tottenham - Won 3-1 (Ferdinand, Rooney & Anderson)

Premiership Vs Aston Villa - Won 3-0 (Rooney & Vidic 2)

Premiership Vs Wigan - Won 3-0 (Ronaldo, Rooney & Anderson)

Champions League Group

Man Utd

Lyon

CSKA

FC Kobenhavn

League Cup

My reserves will be playing at home against Crystal Palace and maybe a debut for Victor Moses

Roll On The Season \o/

[Ale House]

Finished the season winning the Champions League 3-1 over Chelsea.

Ronaldo finished with 61 goals in 57 games.

[Dazbo101]

Originally posted by Ale House:

I've won the league again in the second season, clinched it with 3 games to go. Ronaldo has 53 goals in 50 games so far, and is by far my leading scorer. Benzema is #2 with something like 33 in 29. My team is very attack minded, so I do have a lot of games that are 4-2, 5-3 (although the defense has improved as the season has gone on).

Any Chance u could post his Player Instructions, Cheers!

I have Ronaldo's mentality set to very attacking, and gave him the free role (at the AMR position with arrows running to the box). Only about 5 or 6 of his goals are from the penalty spot, so he gets the majority of them during the run of play. I don't think I've ever had anyone on any game (previous versions too) score as many goals as he has this year. I also play Rooney at AML with a forward arrow, with Benzema and Tevez rotating at CF. It really does work like a charm. Rooney plays great in the position.

I've got 3 games left in the league, and the CL final against, guess who, Chelsea. Preview of Wednesday.

[Dazbo101]

Originally posted by Ale House:

Finished the season winning the Champions League 3-1 over Chelsea.

Ronaldo finished with 61 goals in 57 games.

How and Where do you play ronaldo? What Formation?

[Slim Charles]

Started a game as United tonight.

Squad fine at the start really so I just brought in a few youngsters and sold a few of the fringe players.

Transfers in:

Bojan (loan)

Amauri (£8m)

Lloris (£13m)

Youth players (Sakho, Sankhare, Saunier, Moses, Bostock, Aquino, Le Tallec, Saivet)

Wasn't going to buy another striker until Bojan got a 4 month injury.

Transfers Out:

Silvestre (£4.4m)

O'Shea (£4m)

Fletcher (£7m)

A few of the reserves and youth team players were released.

Still looking to sell PIG since I have no place for him now.

Lost 2-1 to Chelsea in the community shield but won the first 4 league games. Giggs with 2 goals and 6 assists so far.

[Ale House]

Here are Ronaldo's instructions I use (all out attack as you can see)

And the formation I'm using. (I actually play Carrick a lot in the position Anderson is in).

Ronaldo had between 25-30 goals last year in about 50 appearances, but just blew it up this season. I was shocked he scored so much. As you can see by the avg rating, Rooney does great in the AML with forward arrow role.

[Ale House]

I brought in Kroos and Sankhare so far in the summer transfer window, but I'm also looking for a solid RB. Not looking to break the bank, but someone who's a good young player.

I've got Neville (who's too old and slow now), O'Shea, and Simpson. Just need someone better than them.

[Ganzoars]

^ Micah Richards? He's solid, not absolutely brilliant but solid enough. (And Alves, but he's just expensive....)

[gra y]

I am just in pre season for the up coming 3rd season.

The first 2 seasons i have won every competition entered.

I now want to give some of the younger players a chance, but still have too many i think to keep happy.

In defence

simpson

vidic

pique

evans

evra

pander

breno

cahis

mattock

sakho

saunier

duplas

keiran lee

any suggestions who to sell? was thinking of pique just to make it a bit realistic as he is on his way to Barca IRL.

Upfront i am about to sell Tevez to arsenal for £33.5 Million as i have

Rooney

Ageuro

Andy Carrol (top scorer last season)

and also want saivet to get more chances this season.

[tomtuck01]

Oh so thats why Ronaldo got so many goals for you Ale House, the corner cheat!

[SkidRo]

@ ale house : i thought giving ronaldo more creative freedom would work better. what is your reason to giving him less CF?

[Ale House]

tomtuck, are you kidding? He's had like 3 goals from corners. He's an okay header of the ball, but not great. Like I said, the majority of his goals are from the run of play. Something like 5 or 6 from the spot and 3 or 4 from corners.

SkidRo, I don't really know. I was just reading about some other tactics on here and they said less creative freedom for the majority of the team is better. And since his creativity isn't that high I figured he shouldn't have a lot of it. I think I have the AMC as the only one with high creative freedom.

[tomtuck01]

Ale House, sorry, forgot to insert this smiley , indicating it was joke!

[Hitchy]

Originally posted by Ale House:

I brought in Kroos and Sankhare so far in the summer transfer window, but I'm also looking for a solid RB. Not looking to break the bank, but someone who's a good young player.

I've got Neville (who's too old and slow now), O'Shea, and Simpson. Just need someone better than them.

Anthony Vanden Borre? Can normally pick him up for about 2.5m.

Also you can buy Ever Banega and retrain him for RB.

[Ale House]

Originally posted by Hitchy:

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Ale House:

I brought in Kroos and Sankhare so far in the summer transfer window, but I'm also looking for a solid RB. Not looking to break the bank, but someone who's a good young player.

I've got Neville (who's too old and slow now), O'Shea, and Simpson. Just need someone better than them.

Anthony Vanden Borre? Can normally pick him up for about 2.5m.

Also you can buy Ever Banega and retrain him for RB. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I was looking at his stats yesterday, and noticed his mental stats were pretty low, technical and physical were very good though. Is he better than O'Shea? I might just go with O'Shea and Simpson again for this next season and just go for Ramos or Richards next year.

[Barnetboyz]

O'Shea is brilliant at right back imo, don't think i would ever sell him unless i got a silly bid from someone

[Ale House]

Originally posted by tomtuck01:

Ale House, sorry, forgot to insert this smiley , indicating it was joke!

Alright, fair enough.

[bsoltan]

I finished my first season with Man Utd at the weekend using the latest patch and update.

First Season

Transfers In (£10m funds)

- Matias Fernandez £9.5m

- Bojan 12month loan

- Sahko (Yth)

- Wijnaldum (Yth)

(may have some spelling wrong there)

Staff

Replaced most of the coaches to get 6-7 stars. New Physios as well.

Squad

GK VDS/Kuzsaczk/Foster

DR Brown/Neville

DL Evra/O'Shea

DC Ferdinand/Pique

DC Vidic/Silvestre

MR C.Ronaldo/Nani

ML Fernandez/Giggs

MC Scholes/Carrick

MC Hargreaves/Fletcher

SC Tevez/Saha

SC Rooney/Bojan

XX Anderson, Park

Achievements

Charity Shield Runners Up

League Cup Winners

Premier League Winners

FA Cup Runners Up

Champions League Winners

So a pretty successful first season on all accounts, with Vidic netting over 25 goals! Rooney and Tevez were high scorers as well.

I was using a 4-4-2 tactic a friend gave me, I think he probably got it from these forums.

Second Season

This one has just started, I was gifted with £55m transfer funds.

Transfers In

- Alfonso Zapater £7m

- Bojan 12month loan

- Mauro Zarate £3.5m

- Hugo Lloris £8.5m

- Daniel Alves £40m !

Transfers Out

- Kuszcazk £5m

- Silvestre £1.2m

- some loans

Squad

GK Lloris/Foster/VDS

DR Alves/Neville

DL Evra/O'Shea

DC Ferdinand/Pique

DC Vidic/Brown

MR Ronaldo/Zarate

ML Fernandez/Nani

MC Anderson/Carrick

MC Zapater/Hargreaves

SC Tevez/Manucho

SC Rooney/Bojan

XX Fletcher, Park

Obviously I would like to replace Manucho, O'Shea and Neville as well as finding a winger so I don't have to play Zarate (despite his 5 goals in 3 games!). However I only have £2.5m funds remaining although I have some other players transfer listed.

Tevez is unhappy as I didn't listen to offers from a few clubs, and his contract is up in '09 his status says he isn't ruling out leaving on a Bosman. Should I cash in now? Would I be able to turn him round and get him to sign? I would probably replace him with Huntelaar or Ashton.

I have been training Fletcher and Park to be DMs, Giggs & Scholes will just be backup but I'm not planning to play them much and their contracts are up next year.

I'm thinking of using my remaining funds to get some good scouts in.

Any advice or comments are welcome. Thanks for reading.

[Dudley01]

Hello All, I'm back!

Finally got round to getting FM2008 and have the 8.0.2 patch so I've started as United.

I'm into July 2009 (start of second season).

First season saw me lost the Community Shield to Chelsea 1-0.

The league I lost to Arsenal by 4 points (gutted as I was 8 points clear at Christmas).

The FA Cup I lost to Arsenal in the final 2-1.

The League Cup I lost early to Chelsea.

I WON the CL beating Real Madrid 2-1 in the final. I beat Inter and Chelsea en route including beating Chelsea 5-0 in the first lag and losing the second leg 5-1!

Only player sold was Fletcher to Valencia for £8m whilst I bought in Saviet, Sakho, Wijnaldum, and Aquino plus Stefan Kiessling for £7.5m and he was a great 3rd striker.

I have just sold Tevez to AC for £37.5m (over 24 months) so have £59m to spend now.

I have also managed to get a Japanese and Amercian feeder club so hopefully this helps.

On the subject of O'Shea, he performed superbly and my first choice right back all of season 1.

How does Manucho perform second season?

Which striker can I buy to replace Tevez to partner Rooney?

Kiessling will be 3rd striker with Manucho or Saviet 4th striker.

GGMU.

Duds

[thegaffer91]

i am in my 5th season with man u (802) and i am top of the league, in the semis of the league cup, 4th round of fa cup and 2nd round of cl. this is my current squad, where do i need to improve next season?

Gk: Akinfeev, Curci

Rb: Evans, Apam

Lb: Bale, Evra

Cb: Taylor, Ferdinand

Cb: Nordtveit, Vidic

Rm: Ronaldo, Young

Lm: Nani, Fernandez

Cm: Veloso, Hargreaves

Am: Anderson, Nasri

St: Vaughan, Saivet

St: Rooney, Baxter

I dont know how much money i will have next season.

[Slim Charles]

Good deal you got on Lloris there bsoltan. I had to pay £5m more for him and I was in the first season. Seems like you had a good season.

Dudley go for Aguero if you can.

He's a perfect replacement and should be within your budget.

thegaffer you need a new right back, maybe a new cm to replace Hargreaves in the future since he will be getting on a bit. Maybe a new centre back to take over from Rio as your fourth since he will be old as well. Pretty decent squad you have.

Giggsy just immense on my game so far. 3 goals and 19 assists in 14 games.

Tevez finally coming round as well.