adam_otbfm Posted June 25 Share Posted June 25 When Sir Alex Ferguson retired having guided Manchester United to the 2012/13 Premier League title, the thirteenth of his legendary reign, even the most pessimistic of fans would not have imagined that they would struggle to even compete for another title in the decade to follow. Fans who were used to almost constant success were suddenly faced with mediocrity, and despite some definite high points David Moyes, Louis van Gaal, José Mourinho, Ole Gunnar Solskjær and Ralf Rangnick have all flattered to deceive. The current man in the hot-seat is Erik ten Hag, who has brought two trophies in two seasons, but what can only be described as a horror campaign has seen United eliminated from the Champions League early despite a favourable group, and finish eighth in the Premier League – their worst league position since 1989/90. Despite such a poor season, there is a feeling amongst the majority of the fan base that a new era may finally be starting, thanks to Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s INEOS coming in as minority owners, but crucially also taking control of football operations. Since this change in infrastructure changes have already been made, with Omar Berrada coming in from rivals Manchester City as the new Chief Executive, Jason Wilcox coming in as a Technical Director and a well publicised pursuit of Newcastle United’s Dan Ashworth. Rumours were rife that INEOS would look to bring in a new manager – their own man who more suitably fit the profile of a ‘head coach’, rather than a manager who would demand input in every area as Sir Alex Ferguson famously had. Although Erik ten Hag has ultimately been allowed to remain in the job the rumours of his imminent sacking came thick and fast, particularly in the run-up to the FA Cup final, which United went on to win, with rumours still not subsiding and in fact intensifying that he would be relieved of his duties the day after his Wembley triumph. This save will forge an alternate reality where ten Hag was indeed fired the day after the FA Cup final, and we will be taking the reins to hopefully bring success to the INEOS era. Save Structure In order to pick up the INEOS story in the immediate aftermath of the FA Cup Final, I am using a Real Fixtures file, as well as a Custom Start Date file to recreate the 2023/24 season as accurately as possible. These are available from www.fmrte.com, although you will need to purchase a license in order to download them. As the real fixtures file only takes care of league fixtures and not cup ties, I reloaded the file a whopping 91(!) times in order to have Manchester United lift the FA Cup, meaning that we will be playing Europa League football in season one. Funny story, Manchester United also won the FA Cup in attempt 7, but they inexplicably also made the Champions League Final which was not only unrealistic, but also ruined what I needed from the file! There are a couple of things that won’t be entirely realistic; Although Omar Berrada is already at the club, Jason Wilcox and Dan Ashworth are still with their previous clubs, and although I may well make approaches for them, there is of course no guarantee they will join. Also, as a result of our FA Cup win, Chelsea have indeed been bumped into the Europa Conference League, but Newcastle United are also listed as qualifiers for the competition which is no longer the case in real life. The last is the outcome of the Championship Play-Off Final, as in this instance Leeds United won out over Southampton. Although I would prefer these things to be accurate to real life, in the grand scheme of things they are relatively minor and won’t affect the realism of the save too much. In terms of my save setup, I have loaded England down to National League North/South level, the top two divisions of the other major European leagues, plus the top divisions of Scotland, Brazil and Argentina. When playing a save where Champions League football is likely I always include at least the top five nations as playable leagues, in order to give more realistic progression from clubs as the save progresses. The Scottish Premiership feels like a division where some of our young players could flourish on loan, and also a place to pick up some talented youngsters, while Brazil and Argentina are wonderkid central and speak for themselves. For the first time since this year’s Early Access, I’ll be using a skin that displays player and staff attributes. Despite the fact that I adore the Mustermann Iconic skin that I’ve used almost exclusively this year, there are a couple of reasons for the switch. Firstly, although it is a return to the ‘standard’, after eight months of not truly knowing how good a player is it feels like a move that will freshen the game up for me as we approach Football Manager 2025. Secondly, using Mustermann Iconic has made me approach aspects of the game in different ways, and I’m keen to bring those approaches back into a numerical skin and ensure that I don’t slip back to old habits. Core Principles I don’t tend to set a massive amount of restrictions in my saves, in regards to being an academy only save or working to particular wage or transfer restrictions, for example. I tend to just try to bring as much realism as I can to the save while also having an enjoyable playing experience. With that being said, there are a few things I’ll be looking to ensure I either implement or maintain during this save. Smart Signings I’ll be covering our transfer strategy in full in a future post, but it’s clear for everybody to see that Manchester United need to make a change to their approach in the transfer market. The ratio of successful signings in the post-Ferguson era would probably sit somewhere in the region of one in every six or seven, which is an awful record. Added to that the extortionate transfer fees and wages shelled out for some truly unworthy players, and a sheer lack of ability to sell players for anything near their value because of this, the club’s recruitment is up there with one of its very biggest problems. Although Manchester United can obviously field a very talented side, the squad has some real problems and is in need of a major overhaul. Trimming the fat and making some funds for new recruits will be priority number one, before expanding the operation to put Manchester United at the forefront of the transfer market once more. Squad Composition Tying in nicely with the recruitment strategy, I’ll be looking to keep a realistic squad composition throughout the save, trying to treat the playing staff as people rather than just a set of numbers. I’m not looking to build a squad of twenty-five wonderkids as soon as humanly possible while selling all of our best players in the process, personalities and experience will count for a lot and less talented players may be kept around to offer depth as long as the rationale suits. As well as this, I’ll be looking to address one thing that I am particularly guilty of, which is bloating the squad with extra signings to pre-emptively cover injuries before they happen. Manchester United have never been afraid to give a young player an opportunity when needed, and it’s part of the reason that so many youngsters succeed at the club. I’ll be looking to lean into this and give deserving young players the chance to step up if gaps appear in the squad. Club Restructuring This of course won’t be an entirely realistic aspect of the save, as Erik ten Hag won’t be in charge of the continuing recruitment of staff. However, I think it is important that I focus on improving the club as a whole and not just the playing staff, and so will be taking an active role in making sure our staffing is up to scratch across all areas. I will also consider the areas where I may be willing to delegate responsibility to the staff to improve realism but not reduce my enjoyment of the save. Youth Development Youth development is the sheer lifeblood of the United way. Recently, Ethan Wheatley has become Manchester United’s 250th academy graduate to play for the first-team, and the club holds an astonishing record of naming at least one academy player in every matchday squad for over 85 years! That is absolutely insane, and I will not be the person to end that streak! As a personal little aside, I’d like to create what I’ll be calling the Class of 2011. Although Manchester United won the FA Youth Cup in 2011, with players such as Pogba and Lingard in the side, I’m actually referring to a save I had with United back on Football Manager 2011. I’ve mentioned this save a couple of times in previous posts, most notably when creating the Danny Birchall list at Tokyo Verdy. I brought through some sensational youth intake newgens in that save, but also supplemented them with some youngsters brought in for nominal fees who then went on to become world beaters. This is something I’ll talk about further in the future, but is a part of the save I’m exceptionally excited for. There’s no time to waste getting stuck into the save, although there’s a full summer of international football before we can get stuck into pre-season, some early decisions need to be made as there are contracts expiring in just a month’s time! 7 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
adam_otbfm Posted June 25 Author Share Posted June 25 (edited) Season Overview - Performance Season Overview - Players Barclays Premier League: 0 Emirates FA Cup: 0 Carabao Cup: 0 FA Community Shield: 0 UEFA Champions League: 0 UEFA Europa League: 1 (2024/25) UEFA Super Cup: 0 European/South American Club Challenge: 1 [2025/26] Edited 18 hours ago by adam_otbfm Updating Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
adam_otbfm Posted June 25 Author Share Posted June 25 (edited) Manchester United First-Team Squad as of end of Summer Transfer Window 2025 *Click on images to show each player's attributes* GOALKEEPERS DEFENDERS MIDFIELDERS FORWARDS Edited September 2 by adam_otbfm Updating Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
CameronFM Posted June 25 Share Posted June 25 After discussing this one with you over the last couple of weeks, I'm excited to follow it along! A lot to fix at the club, so it will be interesting to see the steps taken to fix the footballing department! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
adam_otbfm Posted June 28 Author Share Posted June 28 @CameronFM thanks mate! I'm excited to finally get this properly underway! --- --- --- --- --- --- As I mentioned in the save introduction, it’s no secret that the Manchester United squad needs a massive amount of work. There are some incredibly talented players, but there are also a lot of players undeserving of the massive wages they are on. It’s not practical to suggest that we can completely overhaul this in one transfer window, especially starting with zero scouting work done. What we can do, though, is start with the ‘easy wins’, letting go of any players we can who aren’t on long contracts and don’t offer the value or performances we’re looking for. In order to do that, we need to identify those players, so I’ve taken a look at the squad as a whole and split them into different categories. I’ve included a couple of younger players who have either had a little bit of first-team involvement or I can see potentially getting some next year, but I think the split in the chart above speaks for itself, and not in a good way. Out of a 34-man first-team squad, there are just eleven players that I would not entertain offers for and would want to see here next season no matter what. This is nowhere near a good enough ratio, and really puts into perspective how many unsuitable players will still have to be in the squad for next season. Expiring Contracts These are the players who will be set for release, and will definitely leave upon the expiry of their contracts. Although it seems like an obvious choice to let all of them go, some decision making did have to happen in a couple of instances. Ideally I would like to keep Tom Heaton and Jonny Evans at the club; both are academy players and would serve to be excellent role models for the younger players we’re looking to continue bringing through. However, there has to come a point where the financial aspect becomes the priority, and with neither willing to discuss a pay cut I will be reluctantly showing them the door. Over £100k per week is too much for two players who will have next to no game time, despite the other upsides that they bring. A very large part of me wants to keep Raphaël Varane at the club, especially as there is a one-year extension that I could trigger. Despite being slightly injury prone he is still an exceptional defender and I would definitely not hesitate to play him next season. However, extending a £350k per week deal for a 31-year-old doesn’t sit well with the new direction we’re trying to take the club in, and as is shown in real life also doesn’t suit INEOS’ decision making. There is better value to be had by letting an excellent player go before he starts to decline rapidly, and using the money saved to look at bringing in one or two really good squad reinforcements. As it stands at the moment Sofyan Amrabat will return to Fiorentina at the end of his loan spell, although there is potential that I could revisit this before the loan expires if the funds are there and I decide he’s a player who could fill a role next year. An optional fee of £17m seems a decent price for an experienced holding midfielder with reasonable wage demands, although he would demand an increase on his current £31.5k salary in Italy. As another homegrown player, Brandon Williams may feel aggrieved to be on the way out. However, despite being a decent full-back, he isn’t going to ever reach the level I would expect from a Manchester United player, and a wage of £50k per week is far too much for the ability that he has. There was never going to be any outcome for Anthony Martial other than release. He is a prime example of the sort of player Manchester United have kept around for far too long, on way too much money, and never been close to getting a transfer fee for. Exactly the kind of situation I’m looking to avoid going forwards. Martial has had some great moments for United, but for me it never got better than his debut, and although I don’t dislike him as a player, I won’t miss him. Charlie McNeill and Shola Shoretire aren’t first-team players, but I’ve made mention of them here simply because they’re on a significant wage compared to their peers, and although there is still potential there in both of them, I’d rather let them go and forge their careers elsewhere as I don’t feel they will become United calibre players. Having a guaranteed £810k per week with which to supplement the squad next season is a huge boost, especially as the transfer budget is currently non-existent. We could easily bring in two or three strong free transfers and still convert some money to put towards transfer fees, should the right targets be out there. Looking to Sell Manchester United have a terrible record of selling players for anything resembling good value. The list of their top ten highest transfer fees received in history still includes Jaap Stam and Juan Sebastián Verón, who were sold in 2001 and 2003 respectively. Add to this the fact that four of the top ten were also sold at a loss and it makes for pretty grim reading. Of course, some context should be added; for a lot of players Manchester United will be a side they want to join and never leave, not a stepping stone in their career. From the top ten, only Cristiano Ronaldo could be considered a player that United would have been desperate to retain. (David Beckham and Jaap Stam would have been too if not for infamous arguments with Sir Alex Ferguson.) We have five players that I would consider sellable assets who I don’t see a future for at the club. Under the previous regime, they would almost certainly just stick around, possibly go out on loan while the club covered some or all of their wages (a la Martial to Sevilla), and then leave on a free at the end of their contract. I’m looking to change that immediately. That won’t be simple, considering these are players who are unlikely to garner a lot of interest and they all have just twelve months remaining on their contracts, but I feel actively trying to ship them out is a step in the right direction, and any fee we can gain for them will help. Let’s start with the elephant in the room. I’m reluctant to mention him for obvious reasons, but the player formerly on loan at Getafe is still a club employee who I could get a good transfer fee for. He will not be at the club next season, come what may. Victor Lindelöf is by no means a bad defender, but is on huge money for the level of performances he has produced for the club, and while there is interest in him I would rather sell him on than lose him for a free next year. On day one of the save there is interest from Tottenham Hotspur and Inter Milan, so there is definitely scope to get a decent fee while also getting his wage off of the bill. Christian Eriksen could conceivably fall into the Tom Heaton and Jonny Evans bracket of being a useful older head to keep around as a mentor to the younger players. As a Model Citizen he would be excellent in this regard, but I cannot justify a wage of £170k per week for a player who’s positioning isn’t strong enough to sit in the pivot, especially in tougher games, and isn’t mobile enough to play behind the striker. If we can’t move him on then cup and possibly late substitute appearances would be the best he could hope for. At just 22, Facundo Pellistri is young enough that he could probably be given another year to prove his worth and earn a new deal, but I just don’t see him coming back to the club from his loan at Granada and pushing Antony and Amad for much game time, especially when Garnacho and Sancho can also play on the right. With this in mind, it seems sensible to try and get as much for him as we can, and wish him well with his career. I didn’t agree with the signing of Donny van de Beek when he joined the club back in 2020. He was never going to get into the team consistently considering his competition was a certain Bruno Fernandes, and also didn’t suit playing in the pivot, despite many fans thinking he should be given a chance there. As a result, his career has completely stagnated, and even his former boss ten Hag coming to United couldn’t get him back on track. His loan at Eintracht Frankfurt does have an optional future fee of £8.5m but I don’t expect them to activate it, as in this save he has had a poor loan spell, so it will be a case of ‘welcoming’ him back to the club and then seeing what we can get for him. If, and it’s a big if, I can get the fees I want for all five of them, then we’re looking at nearly £65m in transfer fees and more than half a million a week extra saved in wages. Even if we have to sell for lower fees, the free wage budget alone would be a huge boost to the recruitment operation. Combined with the expiring contracts, all of these players leaving would bring us £64.5m in transfer fees and free up nearly £1.4m a week in wages – absolutely incredible numbers considering there is not one player there that I would be disappointed to be without. Entertaining Offers The rest of the squad comprises players that I would be happy (in a lot of cases willing is a better word) to have at the club next year, for a number of various reasons. Some I believe won’t attract interest if I try to actively sell them due to their wages (Antony, Sancho, Casemiro), some I see as good squad players who I’d accept suitable offers for but aren’t a priority to move on (Bayindir, Maguire, Wan-Bissaka, Malacia), and some are homegrown players who are worth keeping around for depth and registration reasons unless we get offers above market value for them (McTominay, Hannibal). I do believe we could see some offers for a few of these players – Casemiro especially I’d happily move on should a Saudi club come knocking, for example. However, rather than moving these players on just to bring in funds, these sales would need to be considered in the context of who would/could conceivably replace them. For example, if we sell Casemiro for £40m then we could easily bring in a quality young player for the same money or less, and save a lot in wages, so the sale makes sense. However, should we accept a bid of around £15m for Altay Bayindir, only to find that any potential number two we could bring in to replace him would cost similar money, then there would be no point in making the deal, especially as Bayindir’s wage is incredibly reasonable and likely to be less than what we would have to pay a replacement. With all that being said, there is some really good money to be made if clubs do come in for some of these players, especially if we could convince somebody to take on Casemiro, Sancho and Antony’s wages. However, I think offering them out will damage any chance of getting good offers and therefore these players will all be given opportunities to be a part of the squad if they perform well. Willy Kambwala and Omari Forson will both be offered new deals, as I believe they are both high potential players on the cusp of more regular first-team involvement. However, we won’t be bullied into giving them excessive pay rises, and will let them leave if terms cannot be agreed. There are also concerns around whether Kambwala would get a work permit, so he may leave the club regardless. Álvaro Fernández will also be offered a new deal as his contract is expiring; ideally I would like to keep him at the club next season, but Benfica have an optional future fee of £5.25m as part of his loan deal and if they trigger it then I am powerless to stop him. If we do manage to retain him, then this could be a factor in whether we actively look to move on Malacia. So with these early decisions made, the earliest building blocks are in place. I have no idea what kind of transfer window we have in store for us, we may well be stuck with a lot of the existing squad and therefore a lot of compromises in the first season. However, if we can sell well, it could be a very exciting window indeed! 6 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
danyates8 Posted July 1 Share Posted July 1 Superb writing Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
john1 Posted July 1 Share Posted July 1 Good luck Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
adam_otbfm Posted July 1 Author Share Posted July 1 (edited) @danyates8 @john1 thank you both for your kindness! --- --- --- --- --- --- In the last post I talked through the earliest decisions I’ve had to make to set the tone for the new era dawning at Old Trafford. In this post, we’ll be talking transfer strategy, outlining both the profiles of signings we’ll be looking to make, plus how we plan to approach scouting in order to find those players. Different Types of Targets As the old saying goes, there is more than one way to skin a cat. Manchester United may not be the force they were in the Sir Alex Ferguson era on the pitch, but off it they are still an absolute juggernaut, and having vast resources available means that recruitment could be approached in many different ways. We could spend the next few years signing one or two world-class players every year for huge fees, hoping that they can raise the level of the existing squad to take us to new heights. Or, we could go the other way and sign a horde of young wonderkids, accepting that there will be some short-term teething problems but with potential huge long-term benefits. Either of these would be a perfectly reasonable, and fun, approach to take to the save. But I’m looking for something slightly more realistic, with a few more shades of grey; therefore, I’ve put together a fivefold transfer strategy to guide me throughout my time at Old Trafford. Don't Be Afraid To Spend Big When Required ‘Spending big’ is of course a very subjective term, but Manchester United have never been afraid to splash the cash. Given the amount of poor high-profile signings the club has made, especially in the past decade or so, it would be easy to suggest that continuing to sanction expensive signings would be a poor strategic decision. However, I reject the idea that a high transfer fee cannot represent value for money. It’s not easy to identify value when big money is involved, but it is out there. There are a couple of ways that I will take this into consideration throughout the save. When it comes to potential first-team ready signings, I think it’s especially difficult to identify true value for money. Players can come in for huge money and perform exceptionally well, but if the side is already at a good level then how do you quantify the value they’ve added? In my mind, the only player brought into the first-team fold for big money in the last decade to truly prove value for money is Bruno Fernandes. One player. In a decade. It’s an awful record, but the difference for me between the signing of Fernandes and some of the other relatively good high money signings we’ve had (arguably Mata, Herrera and Shaw would be some of the next on the list) is that he obviously, and immediately, raised United’s level beyond what it had been. Between his debut on February 1st 2020 and the end of that season, Manchester United were the best side in the Premier Division, two points better than rivals City, but this was only enough to help secure a third place finish – a sign of how United’s season had been going previously. To try to maximise our chances of getting another Fernandes, and less of the likes of Fred, Mkhitaryan and Wan-Bissaka, I’ll only be looking to target first–team players in their prime if they fill an obvious gap in the squad, or I feel I can get instant performances from them that may push us towards a title or cup win. If there isn’t a player like that on our radar, then I’ll focus instead of giving opportunities to a young player at the club, or look to spend less bringing one in if we don’t have an obvious candidate. When it comes to signing younger players, who maybe won’t have quite the same pressure to succeed right away, I’ll still happily spend big on the right player, but I will need to be convinced they are an elite level talent. With some players you just know, and I won’t pay above market value for a player without being confident they’re destined to stay at the very top of the game for a long time. Be Wary of Premier League Tax There is very little true value for money when signing players from Premier League rivals any more. The amount of money in the league means that even lower mid-table clubs are often demanding £50m plus for their players, not to mention the wages players are often on, and wanting pay rises from. Of course, Sir Alex Ferguson often had success in poaching players from other Premier League sides, with Wayne Rooney and Robin van Persie being two prime examples. However, Rooney had already shown the world his talent at Everton and then lit up Euro 2004, while van Persie was identified as the striker to bring home Manchester United’s 20th league title, and he duly delivered. In the current day, United are strongly linked with Everton’s Jarrad Branthwaite. He’s an excellent player and as a fan, I’d like United to sign him if they can get a deal done. However, in terms of the save, it’s the type of deal that I’d probably look to avoid. For the money that Everton would likely demand for Branthwaite, there are almost certainly similar profiles in other divisions that would cost less and would have lower wage demands, so the question then becomes whether a player already in the Premier League offers advantages that warrant the extra expenditure. This isn’t me making a rule that I’ll avoid signing players from the Premier League, it’s more about having the awareness to look for alternatives from cheaper sources that may offer the same profile or ability. If none are out there, or the outstanding candidate is at a Premier League club, then we will still pursue them. Search for Value in the Championship Manchester United, certainly in recent years, don’t have much activity (or luck) when it comes to picking up players from lower divisions. I’m not talking about players to join the academy here, as United are actually fairly good in this area, but players ready to come in and make an impact at first-team level. There have been a few, the likes of Tomasz Kuszczak and Michael Owen were both signed as cheap cover from relegated sides, but I’m talking more about the likes of Daniel James, Wilfried Zaha and Nick Powell. Powell was a bit more of a prospect and further away from first-team involvement after his move from League Two side Crewe Alexandra, but James and Zaha were both signed for around £15m each, with the idea being that they would go on to be great additions to the squad for modest fees, due to the league they joined from. This didn’t work out particularly well, especially for Zaha, and it’s rare lately to even hear of United being linked with a player from the Championship or below. Compare this to Crystal Palace, who have recently been excellent at picking up and integrating Championship talent, and it’s clear to see that this pathway absolutely can work, providing that sides are willing to commit to first scouting and then developing these players. Ebere Eze, Michael Olise and most recently Adam Wharton are the most notable cases of this, but Palace also have the likes of Sam Johnstone, Joel Ward and Jordan Ayew who have been solid since signing from Championship clubs, plus Nathan Ferguson who was a hugely exciting prospect before a horrible run of injuries. There are absolutely players currently in the Championship talented enough to make the leap and have an impact at United; the likes of Wilfried Gnonto, Kyle Walker-Peters, Archie Gray and Crysencio Summerville immediately spring to mind, so it’s definitely a market I would like to tap into, rather than letting others unearth the gems and then paying a premium for them further down the line. Agree Smart Pre-Contract Deals One of the biggest weapons in our transfer strategy could, and should, be pre-contract deals. With player power higher than ever before, and the sheer pull the club still has despite our current predicament, we should be able to approach players whose contracts are expiring and bring them to the club without the need for a transfer fee. Juventus and Bayern Munich are generally considered the masters of securing elite players on free transfers, with the most famous being Andrea Pirlo’s move to Juve, and Bayern poaching Robert Lewandowski from rivals Borussia Dortmund. However, Juve can also boast the likes of Fabio Cannavaro, Paul Pogba and Dani Alves, while Bayern have also signed Leon Goretzka and Rafael Guerreiro in recent years. United actually don’t have a bad record with free transfers; Zlatan Ibrahimović and Edinson Cavani are both loved by the majority of United fans, while Christian Eriksen also had a solid first season at the club. It’s also been a popular way for United to sign backup goalkeepers, with Sergio Romero, Víctor Valdés, Lee Grant and Tom Heaton all joining on frees. I’ll be looking to secure deals early where I can, although I won’t rule out signing free agents if a player does fall through the cracks. I’ll primarily be looking to supplement the squad with decent squad players and young talents through this route, although if a genuine star looks attainable then it would be daft not to explore it! Use INEOS Links Wisely Purchasing a stake in Manchester United is not the first venture into football for INEOS. The group wholly owns French side OGC Nice, as well as Swiss outfit FC Lausanne-Sport. Added to this a partnership with RC Abidjan from the Ivory Coast, and United actually become INEOS’ fourth investment in football. With these new links established, it seems foolish not to look to utilise them to strengthen us. I have manually added affiliate links between United and each of the other three clubs, with varying conditions that I would consider realistic to each relationship. Now of course, in real life there is talk that United are actually unable to sign players from Nice, with their publicised pursuit on Jean-Clair Todibo seemingly brought to a halt due to UEFA’s multi-club ownership rules, and the fact that both United and Nice will compete in the Europa League in the 2024/25 season. This is another example where I’m looking to tread the fine line between trying to adhere to real life situations, but also having a save that is interesting and enjoyable. I have no doubt that Sir Jim Ratcliffe and INEOS will fight any potential ban on inter-group transfers, and therefore as it’s not a restriction within Football Manager I don’t feel it necessary to self-impose a ban. Manchester United are always linked with a host of names when transfer windows approach, it’s the nature of the beast amongst the world’s elite clubs. However, there have been names that have cropped up a lot since INEOS’ arrival, and so I’ve created a shortlist of those names to give me an early pool of talent to scout and potentially target. Edited July 1 by adam_otbfm 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
adam_otbfm Posted July 1 Author Share Posted July 1 (edited) The squad needs a huge amount of work, we covered that in the last post. However, how much of that work we’ll be able to undertake will depend entirely on how well we can sell, as finances one day one are bleak. There is £140k per week free in the wage budget, which isn’t unsubstantial, but with only £500k in transfer budget, early deals will have to be players whose contracts are coming to an end. Huge shout-out to Jamie | CarrileroFM for his blog templates! The first priority is to plug the biggest gaps in the squad. In order of importance, I will be looking for a centre-back, a defensive midfielder and a forward. However, I won’t sign three players with contracts expiring just because they fill a need. If the right profile isn’t out there then we will bide our time and see what we can do when some funds come in. We of course know that a huge amount of wage budget will be freed up at the end of June. If we convert some of that into a transfer budget, I’d expect us to have around £30-40m to spend – probably enough for one good squad addition. So without other departures, we’re going to struggle to bring in all of the profiles we need. When it comes to identifying targets that we may be able to sign for a fee, I’ll be looking to dive into my INEOS driven shortlist, which at current looks like this: In addition to this, the frankly enormous scouting and recruitment team I’ve inherited have been working on recruitment focuses in some of the major European nations and Argentina, so anybody found through this will also be evaluated. Key Targets A right sided central defender. Strong aerial presence is a must; comfort on the ball and good pace are also important. A holding midfielder to replace/compete with Casemiro. Needs to be comfortable being the deepest midfielder and doing the dirty work, but an ability to contribute as a more progressive passer/running would aid rotation. An experienced centre forward to offer competition and rotation for Højlund. Profile actually isn’t as important, doesn’t need to be the same type of player as Højlund, but does need to offer a reliable goal threat. Additional Targets A second central defender; preferably young with a lot of potential, and predominantly left sided. Budget would depend on outgoings but would be likely to target a budget option with potential resale value. A top quality right-winger. This deal would be dependent on a high money sale of Antony/Sancho. Both footed, tricky, agile wingers would be the profile – more of a creator than a wide forward. An experienced third-choice goalkeeper, aka the Scott Carson role. Cheap wages, no expectation of playing time, desirable personality. Enough ability to play if absolutely needed. Replacements for any unexpected departures. Would need to take each of these as they come. The amount of wage budget we will be freeing up leads me to believe that we will be able to achieve our three key targets, by hook or by crook. That may be all we manage to do though, as interest for unwanted players doesn’t feel overly likely unless we accept knock down fees or burden a large portion of their salaries for the final year of their contracts. Long-Term Strategy As the save progresses, I’ll be overseeing the creation and distribution of recruitment focuses myself, to ensure that we’re finding as many viable targets as possible. Our scouting department will be the envy of practically every club in the world, and if we can get the best from them then we will have a massive advantage in the transfer market. I’ll be splitting recruitment focuses into three main types; Talents, Established, and Short-Term. Talents It goes without saying that focuses that fall under the ‘talents’ bracket will be looking for younger players. Of course, we want to be finding our next Wayne Rooney or Cristiano Ronaldo, but I think sometimes the impact of improving and selling on younger players can be underappreciated at the biggest clubs, and therefore I’ll be looking to cast a wide net. Talent focuses will be set as ‘ongoing’ in major nations and regions where we would expect to find exciting talent. To keep things fresh, the scouts and analysts assigned to each focus will be rotated periodically. In terms of criteria, it will be incredibly vague – just an age limit and a minimum potential ability requirement of 2.5*. This will allow me to pick up three main types of young player; the absolute superstar who is an instant must-sign, the decent young player who could challenge for first-team minutes and be a solid squad player until they’re sold on, and the extremely raw youngster who can join the youth teams to develop. As well as these, I’ll also occasionally run some more short-term focuses in areas where talents are a little more rare. In these, I’d be looking for the cream of the crop in that area, so the search parameters will be slightly higher, but still vague in a sense of only being age and ability. One last attempt to find young talents will see us scouting youth group international tournaments while they run. Established ‘Established’ focuses won’t be running consistently, but will instead be set between transfer windows if I believe that there is a position in the squad that I need to fill with a player in their prime, either to add depth or to improve our quality in the position. As these are going to be shorter, snappier projects, I’m happy to assign a large number of scouts and analysts to them, knowing that they can return to other work once complete. This means that to search for one position I can add a lot of nations to one focus, rather than needing a large amount of what would essentially be the same search. As these focuses will vary case by case due to the needs of the squad, it’s hard to describe exactly how they will look, but in general I’d expect to be searching for one position but potentially a couple of different roles, and will set ability parameters depending on whether we have the budget and need for a new star player, or whether we’re looking for a more budget friendly depth option. Short-Term The type of focus I’d anticipate using least, ‘short-term’ focuses will be few and far between, and set to fill a very specific need. The biggest use I can think of for this sort of focus will be mid-transfer window, if we’ve sold a player we weren’t expecting to and need to find a replacement quickly. In this instance I would set a top priority focus in regions we’re the most familiar with, in order to find potential solutions. I’ll also likely look to create a focus each December to find players who may be of interest to us entering the last six months of their contracts. Edited July 2 by adam_otbfm 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
El Payaso Posted July 1 Share Posted July 1 I think this story has many of the same aspects as @SteinkelssonFMhad with his excellent Ajax career update. These kind of approaches with clear philosophy and aims, instead of just casual gameplay, make career updates with larger clubs super interesting. Will be following this closely. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted July 1 Share Posted July 1 Echoing what @El Payaso has said - you've taken a fairly generic save, in Man Utd, and turned it into a really precise and outcome-driven save. Will be following closely! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oppiiz Posted July 2 Share Posted July 2 Excellent read! Hopefully you will restore United back to where it belongs! Will be interesting to see what system you will play, and if you can get the best out of Mainoo Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
john1 Posted July 2 Share Posted July 2 Brilliant update! your screenshot for recruitment focus isn't appearing. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
adam_otbfm Posted July 2 Author Share Posted July 2 @El Payaso thank you mate! The Ajax save that @SteinkelssonFM had was sensational, as is all of his work, so I appreciate the comparison greatly. Hopefully I can do it justice! @_Ben_ I usually scratch my United itch with an offline save, but actually skipped it last year altogether, so I've been looking forward to getting this going for a little while! I always think the big clubs can still make for interesting content, but there needs to be a clear angle or approach to be worth discussion. @Oppiiz thank you, I hope so too! The next non-results post will be about the tactical approach, but I'm not entirely sure when that will be yet! Early days but Mainoo is looking as comfortable as in real-life so far! @john1 thank you for letting me know! I could see it on my end but have tweaked the image, hopefully it shows now! --- --- --- --- --- --- Pre-Season 2024 Transfer Activity NOTABLE INS: Paul Wanner - Free Transfer - £22,000 per week until 30/06/2027 I don't see Paul Wanner mentioned often when discussion around Football Manager wonderkids takes place, but for me he's right up there, especially in recent years, and I'm delighted with his signing. Picking him up on a free transfer is an unbelievable bit of business, and reminds me slightly of United losing Paul Pogba to Juventus back in 2012 - Bayern have seemed reluctant to give him any more than scraps of first team football, but I feel he can settle with our Under 21's for a while and then start to make a real impact. Mehdi Taremi - Free Transfer - £84,000 per week until 30/06/2026 Mehdi is exactly the sort of smart, solid, value for money signing I'm looking to make a feature of this save. An experienced and very talented forward who was happy to sign for a couple of years as an Impact Sub and allow me to rest/rotate Rasmus Højlund when needed, he fills an immediate need while also allowing me to divert any transfer funds to other areas that need work. Unfortunately, Mehdi has had a relatively slow start and is now out with a torn hamstring, so we'll need to assess his level once he's fit again. Odilon Kossounou - £42m rising to £49m - £80,000 per week until 30/06/2029 Our most expensive signing of the window, and arguably the most important one for us to get right. With Varane, Lindelöf, Evans and Kambwala all leaving the club, we were left with just Harry Maguire, Lisandro Martínez and newly promoted Will Fish as natural central defenders in the first-team squad. With Maguire spending a lot of his career as a left-sided centre-back, and Luke Shaw able to cover there as well, it was clear to me that a right-sided player was an absolute must. We looked at a few options, Jean-Clair Todibo was a clear candidate, as were Odilon's former team-mates Jonathan Tah and Edmond Tapsoba, but ultimately I decided that the Ivorian was the correct profile, with his combination of pace, power and passing ability appealing, as well as his incredibly reasonable wage demands. The transfer fee is slightly more than I would have ideally liked to have spent, but I'm confident he'll be worth every penny in the long run. Morten Hjulmand - £23m rising to £27.5m - £85,000 per week until 30/06/2029 The last major signing of the window, Hjulmand comes in as a strong option on either side of the pivot. Early on he's been our deepest midfielder and has been keeping Casemiro out of the side, but he does also have the quality to offer a threat going forward should we need to rest/rotate the likes of Mainoo, McTominay, Mount etc. Signing a 25-year-old 'elite midfielder' (the game's words, not mine) for less than £30m and on another really reasonable wage feels like a sensational piece of business, and although the game doesn't necessarily reward players who do the dirty work with high average ratings, I think his contribution will be invaluable. Marcus Bettinelli - Free Transfer - £16,000 per week until 30/06/2026 An experienced third-choice goalkeeper is never a glamorous signing, but they are becoming increasingly important. I've discussed previously that I would have liked to have kept Tom Heaton for this purpose, but his wage demands were far too high for his role, and in fact in talks he expressed a desire to be our first-choice keeper! I admire self-confidence, but that borders on delusion, and therefore Marcus comes in as his replacement for less than half of the cost. Although the deal is not confirmed at the time of writing, we are also in advanced talks to sign young Argentinian right-back Agustín Giay from San Lorenzo for a fee of £6.75m, rising to a potential £11m. This deal would see Giay stay in Argentina and remain with San Lorenzo on loan until the end of the season. NOTABLE OUTS: I've talked through my reasoning for letting Jonny Evans, Tom Heaton, Raphaël Varane, Brandon Williams and Anthony Martial leave on free transfers previously, so won't be going into detail again here. I did hold contract talks with Willy Kambwala, but unfortunately it became clear that he wouldn't get a new work permit even if we agreed a deal, so he's moved to Italy to join Pro Vercelli. I don't really want to discuss him again, but in the name of full disclosure I will mention that in order to more closely match what is likely to happen in real life I did move the former Getafe loanee on with the use of the editor. Using the editor to do a deal was a last resort, but in-game going back to Spain for a second loan seems hard-coded, so I've moved him to a side I've seen him linked with in real life, Juventus, for what I think is a realistic fee of £22m. They love a bit of scandal. Victor Lindelöf - £10m - Tottenham Hotspur For me, Victor was the weakest of the central defenders still at the club on 1st July, but even with the absolute dearth of alternatives I didn't want to continue to pay him £170,000 per week when there was interest in him from other clubs. Spurs struck while the iron was hot, and although with some negotiation we could have maybe raised the fee by a couple of million, getting his wages off the books was priority number one, so we bit Levy's hand off and sent Victor on his way. Donny van de Beek - £5m - Celta Vigo I'm not thrilled with the terms of Donny's sale, as we've had to agree to pay £60,000 per week of his wages for this season, but honestly getting any kind of transfer fee for him is a positive, and it still saves us £110,000 per week compared to him staying. We weren't able to do the same with Christian Eriksen unfortunately, who remains at the club, and considering Donny would only have made the bench even due to the deepest of injury crisis, a clean break is the best outcome for everyone. Facundo Pellistri - £300k loan fee with a £4.8m fee after ten games - Fluminense Although I would have liked an immediate deal for Pellistri, the early suitors Sheffield United were trying to low ball us at a measly £3.1m, and with the option of triggering a one-year extension in his contract, I wasn't going to sell for the sake of it. Although I originally wanted closer to £7m, it became clear pretty quickly that nobody was going to bite for that price, so when an offer came in for Facundo to head back to South America, I thought it was worth accepting as the terms of the future fee are favourable. If for some reason he fails to play ten games for Fluminense throughout a famously hectic Brazilian season, then we may well trigger that extension and see if we can get a fee next year. Friendlies On the basis of results pre-season looks like a resounding success, but there are areas of concern. The first, and most obvious, is the apparent lack of defensive stability. The game against the Second XI was nothing more than minutes in the legs, so with a central defensive partnership of Will Fish and Álvaro Fernández I'm writing off the three goals conceded. One in particular from Ethan Wheatley was an absolute screamer! The three away games in Portugal against Covilhã, Penafiel and Santa Clara are particular concerns; although we were rotating to test partnerships and roles, we still had senior defenders playing at all times and some of the defending on display was schoolboy at best. Even in our most composed performances, ironically against the two toughest sides in Bayern and Porto, we weren't able to keep a clean sheet. I'm wary of tweaking too much once the season starts as I want us to settle, but it will have to happen quickly. Another issue (although I guess really it's just an unresolved selection decision) is on the right-wing. With Jadon Sancho returning to the club, we currently have him, Antony and Amad who will all want significant minutes, and that's without mentioning Omari Forson, or Alejandro Garnacho who probably forms our best front three with Rashford and Højlund. None have really asserted themselves in the position throughout pre-season (Amad arguably had the most promising performances), and so I feel we're bloated on that side with options I don't entirely trust, nor seem likely to sell on in January. In terms of positives, Odilon Kossounou and Morten Hjulmand both seem to have settled quickly with solid pre-season performances, and Odilon showing early on what a threat he can be from set-pieces. Mehdi Taremi has been slightly slower to impress; he did grab what turned out to be the winner against Covilhã but has otherwise looked slightly toothless off the bench. When adjusting to a new club and lacking sharpness it can be hard to fit the net, though. I've also been impressed by Dan Gore, who having returned from a loan spell at Port Vale looks ready to take a place in the first-team squad. He's looked good in limited pre-season minutes, and right now looks like he may offer the same box crashing threat I expect to see from Scott McTominay throughout the season. I don't expect him to have the sort of immediate impact that Kobbie Mainoo did last season, but I'd like to make him a prominent part of our Europa League campaign if performances allow. By far the biggest positive I have taken away is from the performances against Bayern especially, but also Porto. Diving into the match stats, it feels a bit counter intuitive to be so pleased with a late 1-1 draw when we created 3.67 xG and six clear cut chances; however, this was a full strength Bayern side, and although I have a decent track record of getting results in big games I rarely do it by creating so many chances. Finishing can be worked on, but the evidence I have in front of me at this time is that the approach I have decided to take can be successful. The Porto stats aren't quite as impressive, but show that the same approach can also see us dominate the ball and be more clinical with the chances we create. We actually went behind in the second minute, but that turned out to be the only shot on target we allowed Porto, as we completely dominated the rest of the game. Staffing The last area I've tried to be active in throughout pre-season is in our staffing, particularly the coaching department. I've been unsuccessful in a few ventures; I looked into deals for both Dan Ashworth and Jason Wilcox, but neither were willing to negotiate. I would have also liked to remove Darren Fletcher from his role as Technical Director and simply keep him as a Coach, but he's currently unwilling to consider this. For the sake of realism, I should really be looking to replace John Murtough as soon as is humanly possible, however, as I'm looking to oversee recruitment, at least for the first few seasons, he actually doesn't have many responsibilities to get wrong. I also took a look at the Assistant Manager situation, and will do again in the near future. I was a bit slack on day one, and just progressed without really considering any staff changes, which is poor on my part as it means mutual terminations will be either impossible, or expensive. Manchester United currently have two assistant managers, Steve McClaren and Mitchell van der Gaag. I did look to emulate real life by trying to lure Ruud van Nistelrooy to the club, but he instead took the Manager's role at Lyon. Both McClaren and van der Gaag are out of contract at the end of his season, so I think the plan will likely be to stick with what we have while I settle into the role, and then bring my own man in next season. That feels a fairly realistic progression. I have managed to do a couple of deals, though. Considering the enormity of Manchester United's workforce, I find it inexplicable that Benni McCarthy is the first-team's only general Coach. I've bolstered that slightly with the additions of Kevin Ball and familiar face John O'Shea, although I would like to sign a couple more. I did consider promoting the likes of Travis Binnion or Adam Lawrence into the first-team coaching staff, such is their regard within the club. However, with both of them having a clear affinity for working with young players, it feels counter productive to take them away from roles they clearly excel in. I've also signed a dedicated Set-Piece Coach, something the club were previously lacking. After putting out an advert I decided against many well qualified free agents, and instead gave Brighton £300k in order to take Nick Stanley from them. His preferences align most closely to mine, and for the first time this game cycle I'll be handing full control of set-pieces over to him. We looked fairly threatening from corners especially using my routines, so I'm intrigued to see how we fare throughout the season. 6 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
CameronFM Posted July 2 Share Posted July 2 Go away for a day at the weekend, struggle to get back to normal and log in to a few updates! An impressive pre-season given the circumstances - plenty of players in and out so cohesion needs to come - and I think the 1-1 against a full-strength Bayern is a mightily impressive result. We had discussed the transfers in over Discord and I do firmly believe the deal for Odilon is worth every penny! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
adam_otbfm Posted July 3 Author Share Posted July 3 (edited) @CameronFM thanks mate, yeah cohesion will definitely take time but pleased with the building blocks we managed to put in place. --- --- --- --- --- --- August 2024 With pre-season complete and some much needed new blood in the squad, I was heading into the season feeling optimistic. August would see us compete with the other side of Manchester in the Community Shield; it may not be the most prestigious trophy out there but bragging rights and setting a tone are beyond valuable. After that, we have a HAHA start to the season; Newcastle (home), West Ham (away), Nottingham Forest (home), Ipswich Town (away). I'd be lying if I said I didn't believe those to be four winnable fixtures, but it's never easy to tell early in the season, particularly in season one. Huge shoutout to @_Ben_ who’s match layout I’ve shamelessly ripped off! 🙈 FA Community Shield | Manchester City (Wembley) | Match Information | Goalscorers: None A cruel end to a really promising and heartening performance. It's not often teams keep the ball better that Pep's Manchester City, and although we lacked a little bit in quantity of chances, it's a positive sign that the few chances we did create were of a higher quality than we were allowing City. For the most part, we kept their key players quiet; De Bruyne was especially poor but Rodri and Foden were equally anonymous. Only Haaland and new signing Di Maria secured over a 7.0 from their front six players, which shows the element of control we were able to hold on the game. Towards the end it felt fairly obvious that both sides would rather settle the game on penalties than risk it all for a normal time victory, and in the end we fell on the wrong side of the lottery as Scott McTominay missed the vital spot-kick. We'll have other opportunities to let them know how serious we are this season. Man of the Match: Stefan Ortega (Manchester City) Premier League (1/38) | Newcastle United (Old Trafford) | Match Information | Goalscorers: Bruno Fernandes, Marcus Rashford A really solid start to our Premier League campaign. Newcastle are always difficult to beat, but we made them look very, very average. We sacrificed a little bit of sharpness on the ball for a more dominant attacking display, with twelve shots on target and nearly 3 xG created. I'm a little disappointed to see us underperform that xG with just the two goals, but the performance was so complete that for now I'm happy to chalk it up as one of those days and move on. The back five have looked like a completely different beast in competitive action compared to our pre-season, perhaps complacency was a factor? Man of the Match: Marcus Rashford (Manchester United) Premier League (2/38) | West Ham United (London Stadium) | Match Information | Goalscorers: Odilon Kossounou og, Jarrod Bowen; Bruno Fernandes I'm historically terrible at getting results away from home consistently, so this was exactly the sort of match I was dreading I would see early on. Ironically the match stats tell a tale of a fairly routine performance; a good amount of chances created, the majority share of possession and dominant in the air. Individually though, only Bruno Fernandes can hold his head high, as him aside match ratings all around ranged from unspectacular to downright poor. In reality we were unlucky in this game; West Ham went ahead without a single shot in the game, and by the time they had taken their 2-1 lead on the brink of half-time they had amassed a paltry 0.03 xG(!) All credit to Jarrod Bowen though, his goal was a screamer. Far too early to say that a tweaked approach will be needed in away games, but it is something I'll be keeping a keen eye on. Man of the Match: Bruno Fernandes (Manchester United) Premier League (3/38) | Nottingham Forest (Old Trafford) | Match Information | Goalscorers: Rasmus Højlund, Alejandro Garnacho; Anthony Elanga A return to Old Trafford sees a return to winning ways, but it could have easily gone another way. Forest were excellent, if I'm being honest better than I expected they would, or even could be. Spurred on by ex-United winger Anthony Elanga, they threatened our goal with regularity, possibly owing to the poor performance of Casemiro who was making his first start of the season. Our attacking play once again looked fluid, much like against Newcastle, with Rashford, Fernandes and Højlund all having good games. Sancho was given an opportunity from the start and was poor; hooking him at half-time was potentially a bit extreme, but justification came in the form of Garnacho's goal and man of the match performance from the bench. There was also a nice little ten minute cameo from Dan Gore as a late substitute, I will admit to being a little apprehensive about throwing him in with the result not secured, but he played with composure and helped us to shut things down. My main concern for Gore is that I don't see him and Mainoo as a pairing in the pivot; both are better suited to being the more progressive player with a 'defensive' partner next to them. This is going to make a strong breakthrough season tough to achieve for Dan, but I'm committed to giving him as many opportunities as I can justify. Man of the Match: Alejandro Garnacho (Manchester United) Premier League (4/48) | Ipswich Town (Portman Road) | Match Information | Goalscorers: Kobbie Mainoo The complete inverse of the West Ham game; an underwhelming performance that garnered three points. A couple of changes saw Maguire and Mount come in, the latter a particular risk as it meant playing Kobbie Mainoo as our deepest midfielder. I switched the dynamic of our pivot, asking Mainoo to dictate play from deep, while Mount was given the freedom to join the attack and crash the box. In order to maintain the balance of the side, I in turn asked Shaw to invert and join Mainoo and Dalot in midfield while we were in possession. Kobbie was sensational, not for the first time this season, but this game felt like it belonged to him. Everything good that we did went through him and he also scored the winning goal, albeit with the help of a generous deflection. I already knew that he can play as the deepest midfielder for us, and this has only confirmed it, but I still wouldn't want to burden him with that responsibility in the biggest of games. Going into the game, I felt confident that an early goal would all but settle the game, and so it transpired. I knew Ipswich would make life difficult for us though, and without that early goal it felt almost certain that frustration and desperation would start to creep into our play, making a victory less likely. Our forwards were wasteful this game, with 9/13 shots off target, so on another day the scoreline could have been far more convincing, but ultimately we'll happily take the points and head home to Manchester. Man of the Match: Kobbie Mainoo (Manchester United) I'd call our start to the season par for the course; I think realistically dropping points of some sort was always likely, and considering we're still looking to implement a tactical style and work on our attacking fluidity, we aren't in a position to be arrogant enough to assume we'll win every game. We've also received our fixture list for the newly implemented 'League Phase' of the Europa League. We're facing a number of very capable sides, and although we respect every team in the competition it's undeniable that we've not been given any of the 'minnows' from pot four - HJK (Finland), Zrinjski Mostar (Bosnia and Herzegovina) and Vllaznia (Albania) would have been far more preferable than FC Utrecht and RC Lens. However, we're one of the favourites to win the whole competition, and we aren't going to do that without facing good sides, so let's go. I'll be looking to give significant minutes to the likes of Gore, Forson, Amad, Álvaro Fernández throughout the league phase, and look forward to seeing how they perform in some of the more intense atmospheres, plus I'll be looking to give some academy players a bit of first-team involvement with bench spots. Should we qualify comfortably, the likes of Harrison, Wheatley, McAllister, Lacey and Amass may get some minutes in the last handful of matches. Edited July 5 by adam_otbfm 7 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Don Carlo Posted July 4 Share Posted July 4 (edited) Nicely written! Branthwaite is a good young defender I can assure you, but I understand that financially there may be a better option for money. I've enjoyed this! I was contemplating a few different saves including an Everton save in a similar writing style, or another English teams Burnley or Hull City - perhaps the inspiration I needed to get started! Are you using a skin or badge pack as they look cool, in an animated style? I am looking forward to reading more, be good to read a bit more about tactical approaches, especially against Man City or other big clubs. Edited July 4 by The Don Carlo 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
adam_otbfm Posted July 6 Author Share Posted July 6 @The Don Carlo thank you mate! Oh for sure I think Branthwaite is an excellent player, and if he ever becomes available I'll be interested, but I think as long as Everton want him and he's happy there the value for money won't make a deal worth pursuing. I'd love to see what you could do with any of those clubs, Hull City are actually one of my early thoughts for a FM25 early access save! I'm using @keysi's fabulous skin but with the fonts folder deleted, and the badges are the FMG Standard Logos --- --- --- --- --- --- September 2024 After a solid, if unspectacular start to the season, we know start to face a familiar foe - fixture congestion. We begin both our Europa League and Carabao Cup campaigns this month so squad rotation (and with it, tactical flexibility) is going to be key. Premier League (5/38) | Wolverhampton Wanderers (Old Trafford) | Match Information | Goalscorers: Marcus Rashford, Scott McTominay A textbook victory, and another example of the importance of getting an early goal when opposition are looking to park men behind the ball and frustrate. Wolves were relying on moments of magic from their front three to hurt us, but with only 35% of possession those players weren't getting the service to attempt anything. On our end, it was a really pleasing performance; everybody performed, Casemiro was sensational and even Sancho produced one of his best performances to date. Bruno was once again the catalyst for everything good we did going forward, with seven key passes and an assist to his name. The only sour point was an early injury to Mehdi Taremi - he's torn his hamstring which has cost him a couple of months of the season. Man of the Match: Casemiro (Manchester United) Europa League (1/8) | RC Lens (Stade Bollaert-Delelis) | Match Information | Goalscorers: Florian Sotoca; Bruno Fernandes It's frustrating not to kick off the league phase with a victory, especially as our overall performance probably warranted it. Again, our frailties away from home have been shown, and our inability to hold a narrow lead was frustrating. Make no mistake, despite being a Pot Four side Lens are no dummies; they went toe to toe with PSG for the Ligue 1 title as recently as the 2022/23 season. However, we had the better of the game and the fact we haven't beaten them just puts a little bit more pressure on a couple of the tougher fixtures we have left to play - Villarreal away and Atalanta at home. No overwhelming positives from this one really, Mainoo was impressive once again, and it was nice to get some more minutes into Dan Gore and also get Ethan Wheatley some minutes as a late sub. Man of the Match: Florian Sotoca (RC Lens) Premier League (6/38) | Aston Villa (Villa Park) | Match Information | Goalscorers: Douglas Luiz; Scott McTominay The second game in succession where we've gone ahead away from home and then failed to secure the victory. In truth we were poor and if either side deserved the win, then it wasn't us. Still, I'd like to see us be a little more street-wise and be more effective at locking things down - although maybe the criticism for that needs to start with me? We looked a bit leggy after the Lens tie, and had to rotate a little; with Taremi out and Højlund only fit enough for a spot on the bench we had to play Rashford through the middle, which is something he didn't look at all comfortable with. Antony was also poor on a rare start, and I'm starting to really wish he or Sancho had attracted some transfer interest in the window. Man of the Match: Scott McTominay (Manchester United) Carabao Cup Third Round | Tottenham Hotspur (Old Trafford) | Match Information | Goalscorers: Kobbie Mainoo, Bruno Fernandes. Marcus Rashford; Victor Lindelöf When I saw the Spurs line-up I had a little chuckle, muttered to myself 'Lindelöf scores here', and started the game. A mere 21 minutes in, my chuckle was more of a despairing gasp. Luckily by that point Kobbie Mainoo had put us ahead, but still, FM gonna FM. I've set my stall out a little bit in the 'big six' games, especially for this season. I don't consider myself an especially possession focused manager anyway, but in the past I've found that in the bigger games if I try to get control of the ball then I sacrifice any kind of attacking potency in the process. So I've made the decision to focus heavily on transitions in these matches, setting us up to play the deadly balls when they're on and making the most of moments. This game was a perfect example of how effective that can be for us this year. We definitely had the better of the game, but I felt things really turned in our favour with the introduction of Jamie Donley. It's no fault of his, he's a talented young player, but he lacks any pace to run in behind and was dropping deep to link with the midfield, meaning as the game came to a close we could keep our defensive height without much concern that they would punish us in behind. Man of the Match: Bruno Fernandes (Manchester United) Premier League (7/38) | Crystal Palace (Selhurst Park) | Match Information | Goalscorers: Jean-Philippe Mateta; Rasmus Højlund (2), Bruno Fernandes Finally, a strong, convincing away performance. We managed to keep the key men of Eze and Olise quiet and were richly rewarded for it. Højlund has been bubbling along quietly but had a real impact in this one, while Garnacho was absolutely unplayable. I'm starting to worry a little about the form of Marcus Rashford, he seems to be blowing very hot and cold so far, and at a time where I'm already carrying two right-wing options that I don't trust to turn up I don't really want to be wondering which Marcus I'm going to get each week. One last mention has to go to Odilon Kossounou, who has adapted to the Premier League instantly and is already looking worth every penny we paid for him. Man of the Match: Alejandro Garnacho (Manchester United) October 2024 Europa League (2/8) | Ferencvárosi TC (Old Trafford) | Match Information | Goalscorers: Rasmus Højlund, Henry Wingo og We rotated fairly heavily for this one, but still came away with a convincing victory. I'd have liked a couple more goals but other than that we were excellent in every phase of the game, with Ferencvárosi having just one low-quality shot in the whole game. We were once again able to blood some youngsters, with Forson starting the game, and Gore, Wheatley and newest debutant Finley McAllister being summoned from the bench. Man of the Match: Scott McTominay (Manchester United) Premier League (8/38) | Leeds United (Old Trafford) | Match Information | Goalscorers: Ethan Wheatley, Amad Diallo This is my favourite match of the save so far. On the hour mark I was certain that we wouldn't score if the game was 90 hours, let alone minutes, and I was frustrated that Rashford was once again anonymous. This time we also had to deal with Højlund not showing up, and so with just over fifteen minutes left Amad Diallo and Ethan Wheatley were summoned from the bench. It may have come from a mistake, from Dan James of all people, but seeing Wheatley score his first Premier League goal was a really special moment. It serves as justification that dipping into the youth groups to cover injuries is a better long-term method than running a bloated squad, something I've been incredibly guilty of in the past. Amad put the icing on the cake with a quick-fire second, but I'm starting to wonder if we need to look at tweaks to our attacking setup. Man of the Match: Bruno Fernandes (Manchester United) Premier League (9/38) | AFC Bournemouth (Vitality Stadium) | Match Information | Goalscorers: Tyler Adams More away day woes. I thought we had turned a corner against Crystal Palace, but we were truly awful here. Things may have looked different if Bruno wasn't forced off with an early injury - a pulled calf muscle which will cost him a couple of weeks. However, I can't pin it all on that, and if we can't perform with just one player missing then there is definitely something wrong, even if it is our best player. Wheatley and Amad weren't able to replicate their Leeds heroics from the bench sadly, but really it was more of a case of hope than expectation. Man of the Match: Tyler Adams (AFC Bournemouth) Europa League (3/8) | Villarreal (Estadio de la Cerámica) | Match Information | Goalscorers: Marcus Rashford, Rasmus Højlund, Mason Mount, Daniel Gore, Omari Forson Bruno's injury gave me the impetus I needed to make a tactical tweak, switching from our 4-2-3-1 to a 4-3-3. I'd been reluctant previously due to Bruno's excellent performances as a number ten, but without him I dropped Mount slightly further back to play alongside Mainoo, with Hjulmand as the sole pivot player. This also meant an adjustment was needed to our build-up structure, with Dalot continuing to invert to join the Dane, but the left-back now playing as an Inverted Full-Back to create a back three in possession. It was Lisandro Martínez on this occasion, but it's a role I'd also happily use Luke Shaw in. I'd earmarked this game as the toughest one we would have in the league phase, but we were absolutely sensational, and finally looked like a free flowing attacking unit. Definitely a shape that's worth exploring further. Man of the Match: Alejandro Garnacho (Manchester United) Premier League (10/38) | Manchester City (Old Trafford) | Match Information | Goalscorers: Odilon Kossounou An absolutely massive victory. We stayed with the 4-3-3, but altered the structure slightly again. We asked Hjulmand to be the creative midfielder from deep, and tasked Scott McTominay and Mount with offering energy and forward runs to aid our attacking transitions. This plan worked like a charm, with both playing excellently, but in the end a fairly low quality affair was settled with a set-piece. Odilon Kossounou rose highest from a Mount corner and powered home a header to secure, at the very least, Michael Owen levels of regard amongst the fanbase. Defensively we were superb, and for the second time already this season we were able to completely shut down and frustrate Manchester City's midfield. Man of the Match: Odilon Kossounou (Manchester United) Carabao Cup Fourth Round | Aston Villa (Old Trafford) | Match Information | Goalscorers: None For the first time, we've failed to win a competitive match at Old Trafford. Two games isn't a great sample size, but the move back to the 4-2-3-1 brought about the same uninspiring attacking play we've been accustomed to seeing in our away matches. I'm torn between giving the 4-3-3 a long run as our primary shape, and tweaking the wide roles in the 4-2-3-1, as Bruno (and Mount when needed) have played exceptionally well as a Shadow Striker throughout the season. If the tweaks don't work though, then Bruno may have to adjust to a slightly deeper role. As for the game itself, Villa were excellent and deserved to beat us in normal time, let alone winning the shootout. Man of the Match: Robin Olsen (Aston Villa) All things considered, the first ten games have been pretty solid. The board don't expect a title challenge this year, in fact they're content with another Europa League spot for 2025/26. However, I want Champions League football as a bare minimum, so to be above City and within four points of Liverpool and Arsenal has to be considered a good start. I'm happy with our defensive record considering the frailties we showed in pre-season, but I would like more goals; I don't feel an average of 1.5 goals per game will be enough over a 38 game season. A solid enough start to the league phase, I'd love to finish top but ultimately a top eight finish is all that matters. Our next two games are Maccabi Haifa (away) and Atalanta (home), so I feel if we can secure six points from those then we'll be in excellent shape. I must give a huge shoutout to Vllaznia and Zrinjski Mostar, who I called out in the last post as minnows, but are currently in contention for a playoff place and ahead of Juventus! 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mannojunior Posted July 7 Share Posted July 7 Top quality content as always mate! Interested to see how you settle tactically. I’ve found the Shadow Striker role incredibly powerful over the last two versions but often find myself sacrificing the 10 to shore up elsewhere. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DARREN06 Posted July 24 Share Posted July 24 Whats happened to this thread? Gone quiet for a while now? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
adam_otbfm Posted July 24 Author Share Posted July 24 @mannojunior thanks mate! Shadow Striker has been one of my top 2/3 roles for the last few editions of FM now, but if the whole team is better off in a different shape then sacrifices will have to be made! @DARREN06 just had a lot on lately unfortunately, so not much time for FM! The content will definitely be back, I've got a tactical piece half written which I will hopefully get to complete soon! 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Don Carlo Posted July 28 Share Posted July 28 (edited) Looking forward to the tactical write-up! What do you think you have changed the most from Ten Haag's approach? Edited July 28 by The Don Carlo Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DARREN06 Posted July 31 Share Posted July 31 Cheers Adam...sorry mate, no pressure! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
PequenoGenio Posted July 31 Share Posted July 31 Looking foward to learn more about you tactical set-up. Can you share the rgb code from your atributes colors please? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
adam_otbfm Posted August 11 Author Share Posted August 11 (edited) @The Don Carlo Great question! Probably looking to strike a balance more than Ten Hag does. Especially last season it was a lot of relying on transitions and moments of magic, whereas I'm looking to establish a bit more control. @DARREN06 Not at all mate, glad people are still enjoying even though it's been a bit quiet on my end! @PequenoGenio Thank you mate! Of course, here you are! --- --- --- --- --- --- It's been a while, but after making contract decisions and setting a transfer strategy, it's time to look at something that can bare immediate results, namely setting the team up to go out and win football matches! Playing 'The United Way' One of the major criticisms that a few of Manchester United’s managers post-Fergie have faced, is that their style of football wasn’t exciting enough for the fans to tolerate, and that the club weren’t playing the ‘United’ way. David Moyes, Louis van Gaal and José Mourinho in particular bore the brunt of this backlash, despite the latter two both bringing trophies back to Old Trafford. Although recent comparisons have rightfully been made to Sir Alex Ferguson’s multiple incredible sides, the ‘United’ way long precedes the Scot. As Sir Matt Busby once said to a teenage Bobby Charlton, “All those lads you see going to the factory in Trafford Park, they come to watch you on Saturday. They have boring jobs, so you have to give them something they will enjoy.” Fast, exciting, attacking football is the nature of the beast, and even success isn’t always enough for managers who don’t provide it. As I’ve said in pretty much every tactical post I’ve ever written, I am by no means an expert. This post, and save in general, is in no way a recreation – I’ll just be looking to create a successful tactic that embodies the style of football that Manchester United fans demand. Having said that, there are many a smarter mind than mine out there, with two of my particular favourites; FM Treq and RDF Tactics, both producing excellent videos – Treq covering the all-conquering 07/08 side and RDF looking at a realistic rebuild under Erik ten Hag. Starting Out I had a pretty clear idea of what I wanted to create when putting together my first iteration of a tactic for this save. Exciting, aggressive football while looking to fully utilise attacking transitions and the pace we have on the counter-attack. Amongst a sea of iconic Manchester United goals, this one from Cristiano Ronaldo is right up there as one of my very favourites, and perfectly encapsulates the sort of threat I want to carry. I still prefer a more pragmatic approach to tactic building, and so won’t be throwing an ultra-attacking formation out in order to overwhelm opponents. For a few years now I’ve had a preference for a double pivot in midfield, and with the introduction of positional play into Football Manager this has made me think more than ever about my build-up shape. Fortunately, with the additions we’ve made, the squad suits a 4-2-3-1 quite nicely. The choice to show you through a third-party site, rather than an in-game screenshot is intentional, which I’ll explain in more detail later on. For now though, I’ll lay down the bold strokes of what I’m looking for and how we can achieve that. We want to defend on the front foot – not necessarily full blown gegenpressing, but definitely aggressive and proactive. A huge advantage in this is Onana’s ability to sweep, although for somebody so renowned as a sweeper keeper his relative lack of acceleration is a minor concern. Despite wanting to maximise attacking transitions and be effective in the counter attack, we also want to be able to create sustained pressure, especially against opposition who are likely to sit in against us. We’ll do this by building out from the back, building up in either a 2-3-5 or 3-2-5 shape depending on opposition and personnel. The renaissance of the ‘proper’ number nine seems to be in full swing, and in Rasmus Højlund I think we have a player who can grow into that role and become one of the world’s best. He’s quick, strong, relatively creative and has good movement, as well as having an incredible work ethic, and I want to utilise that as much as possible. I want variations within our combinations. If one winger is tasked with offering a goal threat, then the other will be asked to hold the width and create. I don’t want both of our pivot players doing the same thing; even if both are asked to sit deep, one can be a passer and one a destroyer. Variations increase the options we have and also make us less predictable, which can only be a good thing. Combinations of Roles The reason that the image above wasn’t taken from in-game, is because for this save I’m putting more focus into allowing players to play their natural game, and making selection decisions based on how well players can complement each other. Let’s take a look at our build-up shape as an example of how I’m looking to approach things. With my current preferred eleven on the pitch (as seen in the previous image), our roles look like this: In this configuration we build-up in a 2-3-5 shape, with the two central defenders staying in place, able to hit long balls if they’re on, with Dalot inverting to join the pivot from right-back, and allowing Shaw the freedom to join the attack from the left. In midfield, Hjulmand is tasked with sitting and doing the dirty work, while Mainoo is given the responsibility of offering our main source of creativity, albeit while remaining positionally disciplined. In the past, I’ve been guilty of putting a tactic together and then rotating players without changing the roles they perform. In my head, tweaking a role could ‘break’ the tactic, and then at times where we have lost games, confirmation bias has kicked in, and I’ve blamed the new roles rather than looking at what has actually gone wrong. There are two players who will benefit above all others from my change of mindset – Scott McTominay and Aaron Wan-Bissaka. Both have fairly unique skill sets within the squad, and neither fit seamlessly into the composition above. Wan-Bissaka is a far more defensive able right-back than Dalot, but also a lot more limited on the ball. Although Wan-Bissaka can still maintain the balance of the side by inverting, by changing his duty from Support to Defend, it eliminates any creative responsibility and he essentially joins the pivot as a second ‘destroyer’. This setup would possibly suit some of our tougher games, but against sides we would expect to dominate we may struggle to break teams down with only Mainoo really allowed any creativity in the midfield three. We could add to the creativity of the midfield in build-up by adjusting Hjulmand’s role; he’s excellent on the ball, and in all honesty I’m probably wasting him slightly by using him solely to provide defensive stability. However, I don’t like to use too many playmaker roles in a tactic where I can avoid it, especially right next to each other. The option I actually prefer is to bring another player into the midfield during build-up, who is excellent on the ball but does not need a playmaker role – Luke Shaw. Using Shaw in this way gives us an excellent left-footed passer in midfield, and also allows Mainoo to play more through the centre than in the left half-space, which are both things I like, but there is one obvious flaw with this – it completely changes our build-up shape from a 2-3-5 to a 2-4-4. That’s where Scott McTominay comes in. McTominay has often been mis-profiled by many as a below average holding midfielder, especially during the ‘McFred’ era. However, he’s proven himself to be an incredibly dangerous player further up the pitch, rescuing multiple poor team performances with vital goals. I wouldn’t want to use McTominay as either the Defensive Midfielder or the Deep-Lying Playmaker in my current tactical setup, nor would he get gametime as the ten with Bruno Fernandes and Mason Mount in his way; however, luckily for Scott, there’s a role in Football Manager that I love, that he suits, and that provides a sensible tactical adjustment. Using McTominay as a Segundo Volante reverts our build up shape to my preferred 2-3-5, while also giving us something the previous composition lacks – a line breaking runner and a goal threat from deep. This change also allows the possibility of switching Hjulmand to a Deep-Lying Playmaker to make the most of his technical ability, especially with Wan-Bissaka in the side who is more limited on the ball. There are of course other changes that can be made; I haven’t even talked about the front four and the different ways I see the profiles we have complimenting each other, but there are far too many possible combinations to cover them all! So, Is It Working? Umm, not entirely. I've played a little more since the last results post, and those games will be covered in full, but at the time of writing this post at this point of the season we’re sat in sixth place with nearly half of the season gone. The positives are that we are only expected a Europa League qualification spot by the board, so there are no concerns of underperformance, and that we’re only a point off of our city rivals, having beaten them earlier in the season. The major negative is that we’re only winning half of our games, and dropping points in winnable games. Our goal difference would suggest many of our games are close, and therefore one mistake can be costly. Given United’s struggles with the number of shots faced in real life last season, you could be forgiven for assuming that we’re giving away too many soft goals, particularly given my desire for exciting attacking football. In fact, we’ve gone the other way and are struggling to score enough goals. I think in an attempt to try and nail the attacking transitions I want, I’ve lent too far into the direct, counter-attacking instructions, and I’m hurting our cause by not allowing us to maintain the control of the game we need in games where we are the stronger side. I think it speaks volumes that we’ve already beaten Manchester City and Chelsea, and drawn with Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur while we’ve also dropped points to the likes of Bournemouth, West Ham, Everton and Fulham. Making Adjustments I’m nowhere near as prone to ripping everything up and starting again as I used to be; I’ve become much more of a disciple of the ‘evolution not revolution’ train of thought over the years. The thoughts of making some adjustments really started to cement themselves in my head at a time where results were actually strong, but a few of the performances were unconvincing, and the loss to Bournemouth, coupled with a Bruno Fernandes injury, meant the timing was right. Why did Bruno need to get injured before I would make a change? Well, because I wanted to change the shape, but I love Bruno as a Shadow Striker. Essentially, I was too afraid to drop Bruno deeper and risk blunting his impact, so without him available the opportunity presented itself. The move to a 4-3-3 isn’t exactly revolutionary, but does shift the onus on supporting the front three firmly onto the two number 8’s. This will obviously in turn affect our build-up structure, where we again have the flexibility to use either a 2-3, or 3-2 shape. This will require both of the full-backs to invert, but personnel and opposition depending we will on occasion play one of them as an Inverted Full-Back and ask them to tuck in as the third centre back. This will more often than not happen at left-back, with Shaw able to do so and Martínez able to shift across if needed. I wouldn’t want Dalot to do this job on the right, but Wan-Bissaka could, and Kossounou is also pretty comfortable at full-back. The big difference I was looking for was whether we would look more threatening in attack with an extra member of the midfield creating the attacking five. My theory is that by having that fifth member of the attack starting higher up the pitch, we may be in a better position in both attacking transitions and sustained possession. I couldn’t have dreamt how well the first run-out would go. We have trouble away from home and we have trouble scoring goals, so to go to Spain and demolish a very good Villarreal side is a great achievement. Hjulmund had one of his better games so far in what has been a fairly slow start to his United career, Mainoo and Mount both played exceptionally as number 8’s, and we got a goal from each of the front three positions. In the very next game we saw the other side of the 4-3-3, where we were able to match up Manchester City’s midfield and win a very tight game with a disciplined performance. There is still very much work to be done, and as a forum only exclusive, I'll mention that I've also been toying with a variation of the 4-2-3-1 I created and won the Euros with in my England mini-series. If you haven't read that, go and check it out over on my page at View From The Touchline! Edited August 12 by adam_otbfm 6 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carambau Posted August 12 Share Posted August 12 Loving your writing style! I will follow this 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
danyates8 Posted August 12 Share Posted August 12 I've been utilising a similar approach in my current Spurs save in terms of playing style wanting to be achieved and have also been playing around with various set ups to achieve either a 3-2 or 2-3 build up depending on opposition. Historically I've not messed with player roles that much, I was led to believe tactical familiarity was the be and end all so fell into a trap of not utilising various roles to suit different types of players. Its really satisfying when important fixtures go they way you want or an in-game change leads to a better result, it feels like the decisions being taken are really making a difference. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
adam_otbfm Posted August 12 Author Share Posted August 12 @Carambau Thank you very much for your kind words! @danyates8 Tactical Familiarity is something I definitely sacrifice, and there's no way I could tell you my approach is 'better', it's just my preferred approach. I find when I'm more reluctant to adjust roles I just end up buying multiple players that offer the same profile in each position, so when I need to make a late sub to chase a game I'm not getting anything different from my replacement! --- --- --- --- --- --- I'll be honest, after a bit of a hiatus from playing any Football Manager, I was a bit nervous to drop back into the save. Board expectations aren't overly high this season, but this is Manchester United and I want better. I always find there's a period after a while away from the game where decisions don't feel quite so clear cut, a little bit of second guessing creeps in, routines take a while to come back, and that's where mistakes can be made. With November containing three huge league games and two crucial Europa League ties, and December always being a mammoth slog to get through, I felt some inconsistency may show. November 2024 I don't really know how to feel about November. On the one hand, four points from two away games at Arsenal and Chelsea can't be sniffed at. We rotated quite a lot for the Maccabi Haifa tie too, so although a win was expected we still needed to be good enough to make it happen. Considering some of the experiences United have had against Liverpool in recent years we gave them a good game, but I will never consider a home defeat to them anything other than a catastrophe, so I'm not going to praise us for 'giving them a go'. The Atalanta game really disappointed me. I'd built it up in my head as the game that would decide who topped the League Phase table, and when Bruno put us ahead after just three minutes I was sure we'd go on to secure a huge victory. However, Atalanta soaked up pressure well, and created some excellent chances to come from behind and head back to Italy with all three points. I'm still confident we'll qualify automatically, but I wanted to top the table and that now looks unlikely. Game of the Month Premier League [13/38] | Chelsea [Stamford Bridge] | Match Information | Goalscorers: Rasmus Højlund Chelsea may not be the force they have been at times in the Premier League era, and have arguably been as much, if not more, of a laughing stock than United in the way their club has been run since Todd Boehly took control. However, under Mauricio Pochettino they ended the 23/24 season strong, with just one defeat in their last fifteen league games, and in this save he's been allowed to keep his job and continue his rebuild. We managed to go to Stamford Bridge and keep them at arm's length, setting up in the 4-3-3 I discussed in the last post, with Mainoo and Bruno doing a job on Chelsea's pivot of Caicedo and Lavia, allowing Hjulmand to focus on the industrious but not overly creative Conor Gallagher. Maguire and Kossounou were excellent, and their aerial prowess up against the talented but slight Nkunku kept him out of the game completely. In terms of chances it was a relatively even affair, but crucially the chances we did create were of a higher quality, and Rasmus Højlund sealed the win for us with twenty minutes to go. Man of the Match: André Onana (Manchester United) December 2024 December started off slowly, but things finally started to click as we enter 2025. Dropping points at home to Spurs was disappointing as we'd had the better of the game, but they are top of the league so the performance at least was encouraging. Everton and Fulham were two really poor games from us and very much feels like four points dropped. With a couple of small tweaks to our in possession instructions we started to gather some attacking momentum, not to mention three away wins in four games. The Wolves and Leicester games both involved coming from behind; a disappointing position to be in but we showed great character to turn it around in back to back games, especially Rasmus Højlund and his excellent hat-trick at Molineux. We were slightly fortunate against Brentford as they had the better of the game despite us dominating the ball, but then the West Ham game was excellent, Game of the Month Premier League [21/38] | West Ham United [Old Trafford] | Match Information | Goalscorers: Bruno Fernandes (2), Marcus Rashford, Emerson og; Jarrod Bowen We scored four goals three times in December, but this felt like the game where our attack truly clicked. Wolves was all about Rasmus Højlund, and against Leicester we broke their spirits with a late goal from a set-piece. In this game, we may have gone behind, but it was well and truly against the run of play but we set about responding instantly and were a consistent threat for the full 90 minutes. Bruno was absolutely exceptional, but Rashford and Garnacho out wide were also excellent and despite a quieter day Højlund was still integral to our build-up play. Harry Maguire was once again fantastic at the back, but despite his impressive form we may look to take advantage of rumoured interest in him in January; his contract expires at the end of the season and although I'd miss him, any transfer fee we can get now is better than nothing, plus we'd also shift his £200k per week wages. Man of the Match: Bruno Fernandes (Manchester United) Premier League Table Europa League Table We're in good shape both domestically and abroad; we're well and truly in the hunt for Champions League football next year which is a goal I earmarked for this season. As I mentioned previously, I wanted to top of the League Phase which we can no longer do, but the main priority was, and still is, securing an automatic passage to try and limit fixture congestion. Sadly I think our position will limit my bravery, meaning the academy players I wanted to give some first-team exposure to may miss out. In Other News... The format of my other results based posts were just too much work to maintain; I already won't get as many seasons of this save played as I'd have liked, but stopping to detail every single match would only limit me further. Therefore I've decided on this layout as a compromise, and will end each post (generally 2-3 in-game months per) with a small round-up of other things happening at the club. We've had our first youth intake preview through, and to say I'm excited is an understatement. Considering the composition of our first-team squad and the talents we already have in the youth teams, the promising centre-back mentioned appeals most to me. However, I'm never going to turn down a raft of new potential stars. Expect to hear more about this intake in a later post, where I'll be looking at the pool of academy talent we have. This new crop will be nurtured by a new youth management team, however. Under 21's Manager Travis Binnion and his Assistant Manager David Hughes have both left the club to take senior management opportunities; Binnion has joined Northampton Town while Hughes will be boss of friends of Football Manager AFC Wimbledon. I like to promote natural progression throughout the club in both the playing, and coaching staff, and so Adam Lawrence and Colin Little have been promoted from Under 18's Manager and Assistant Manager to the now vacant Under 21's roles, while Stuart McCall has joined as the new Under 18's Assistant, and a deal is currently in the works for Tor Ole Skullerud to join as Under 18's Manager. Last but not least, I wanted to just give an example of the sort of counter attacking goal I'm looking to score. It's not quite Ronaldo vs Arsenal or Rooney vs Bolton, but it's definitely the best we've had so far! 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DARREN06 Posted August 12 Share Posted August 12 @danyates8 Yeh, i'd not be too concerned about tactical familiarity. Doesnt appear to have that great a impact on the ME this year. Arguably the best build up pattern is a diamond out of defence (say - IFB - LS - BPD-D - IFB) as htis faciliates the positional play very well in the ME and can allow your deeper midfielders to move through the tiers. I do hope this feature is kept for FM 25. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
adam_otbfm Posted August 13 Author Share Posted August 13 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
adam_otbfm Posted August 14 Author Share Posted August 14 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
john1 Posted August 16 Share Posted August 16 Going well after making tactical change Youth intakes will be interesting to see! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
adam_otbfm Posted August 20 Author Share Posted August 20 @john1 thanks mate! Yeah I'm very excited to see how the intake comes out! --- --- --- --- --- --- January Transfer Special **I'll be talking through the entire January transfer window in this post, but the matches will follow as part of the next results update. For those who prefer the quick option, a full transfer overview will be at the end of the post.** Discussion of our January transfer window actually begins in early December. As I mentioned in a previous post, we were in talks with San Lorenzo to bring in right-back Agustín Giay. This deal has now been completed, but we agreed to allow Agustín to stay in Argentina until the end of their season. This felt like the perfect plan; Aaron Wan-Bissaka is in the last year of his contract but is a more than capable rotation option with Dalot for now, giving Giay the time to develop before coming in as his replacement. That plan was blown out of the water though, as Aston Villa came in with a bid to sign Wan-Bissaka at the start of the window. £10m isn't a great fee for a player who excels so much in some areas, but given a choice between that and losing him for free in six months, I took the money and ran. This left me with an issue though, as we were now light at right-back with not a whole lot of money to go and sign somebody. I wanted to try and identify a handy player who could potentially fill the gap short-term and then be sold on for a profit, or could fill another gap in the squad once Giay arrives. The easiest way to do that is to sign a CB/RB hybrid - a role becoming more popular in the modern game. With the budget available to me, I wasn't going to find a natural fit for this - but I could mould one. Tomás Araújo and, controversially, ex-Manchester City player Eric García were earmarked as the two most suitable targets, so offers went in for both that stretched our budget to it's limit. That budget was given a bit of a boost as Al-Nassr slapped in a £17.5m bid for Tyrell Malacia. I like Malacia, but we don't need three senior left-backs, and I'm also conscious of ensuring a pathway for Harry Amass, so this sale seemed a no brainer. Just as we were about to hit January 1st, I was informed of some shortlisted players who were entering the final six months of their current contracts. RB Leipzig youngsters Winners Osawe and Aris Bayindir both looked intriguing, but there were two obvious standouts - Khephren Thuram and Lutsharel Geertruida. As you can see from Fabrizio's tweet* (don't sure me Fab!) a couple of posts ago, the Thuram deal was straightforward despite having to fight off interest from other clubs. I wouldn't call Thuram a panic signing, although I will admit that as of yet I'm not sure how our midfield will be structured next year. We'd see the best from him playing as the more 'free' of the two pivot players, but as time goes on Mainoo looks more and more generational in that role. Those two would also be an incredible pairing as two number 8's in a 4-3-3, but that would mean finding a different role for Bruno. Still, he improves the quality of our squad massively and the finances were too good to pass up on, so we'll find a solution and are very happy with the deal. Geertrudia is a player I looked at while trying to find a centre-back at the start of the season, where I of course ended up with Kossounou. The thing that drew me to Geertrudia was his versatility; I actually think centre-back is one of his weaker positions, I prefer him as a right-back or even in the pivot, but I felt he could improve us and our £30m bid unsettled him big time. That's caused him to not sign a new deal at Feyenoord, and we swooped to try and beat the competition to secure his signature before the start of the transfer window. Unfortunately, we couldn't agree terms as his agent went back on his estimated wage demands, and now we were in limbo as to whether we would get back to the table before another club came calling. January 1st Finally, we hit January 1st. Giay 'joins', although he's still enjoying sunny Argentina, and García's in but is hugely short of match fitness and still getting used to wearing red in Manchester. We also get some early offers. Newcastle United are prepared to hand over £8m to take Harry Maguire from us; I accept - he's also in the final six months of his contract and although he's been very solid this season, it gets £200k per week off the books six months early with a decent fee to boot. The other is for Christian Eriksen, a player we tried and failed to get rid of for the entire summer window. Brighton want him to bolster their creativity and will pay £3.5m for the privilege. They've asked us to contribute to his wages, which usually I hate, but the contribution is only £25k per week for the final six months of his deal, so it still represents a huge saving compared to having him at the club not playing. January 6th A big day. Harry Maguire has agreed to join Newcastle United; it leaves Garcia as the main cover for both centre-back and right-back for now, but I have faith that Will Fish could play a more significant role if required. I wish Harry all the best, he was arguably our best performing centre-back so far this season and I've always been a fan of his, but I'm keen to ensure players move on at the right time, something the club have been notoriously bad at in recent years. We also get a very interesting offer, Al-Ittihad want to give us £60m for Jadon Sancho. The reason this is so interesting is because he's been on the transfer list since the summer window with nobody showing even a lick of interest. He wanted a new contract and was furious when I told him he wasn't worth a pay rise - he's lucky the game doesn't allow me to tell him he's already stealing a living! There had been signs of life in recent games with some promising performances, and he even withdrew his transfer request. However, that doesn't change the fact that I wanted Sancho out of the club as soon as possible, and with Saudi being the only place where he could realistically have his wage demands met, he was happy to discuss terms. January 11th Sancho agrees a deal and leaves for Saudi Arabia. Although there are a lot of players still at the club who play out wide, I feel this now leaves us one light of options I'd actually want to use. Antony may as well not exist, only the most major of injury crises will see him play for the club again, and although I kept Omari Forson around for an extra year he's not looking like a player able to make an impact at first-team level. Amad is starting to come into his own on the right-hand side, much as is his in real life, and Garnacho also looks more threatening from that side, so I actually think a left-winger to rotate with Rashford may be the better profile to pursue. January 14th After four or five rounds of pleading and sweet talking, we get to sit down with Geertrudia's agent again to discuss a deal. Amazingly, it seems nobody else has officially entered the race, despite there still being eleven listed interested clubs. We agree terms, and Geertrudia will be a Red Devil next year. I'm thrilled to have added two excellent young players to the squad for free, they're exactly the kind of market opportunities I said I wanted to exploit in my transfer strategy post. January 18th We've signed a new left winger. Anybody would think Erik ten Hag was still in charge the way we're exploiting the Dutch market. Ruben van Bommel joins from AZ Alkmaar after we met his £32.5m release clause. I really like the player; he's an exciting young talent who the game labels as a wonderkid, but is developed enough that we can expect him to perform in first-team games. I was hesitant about the fee though; £32.5m isn't the extortionate fee for a youngster that it would have once been, but it's still a significant investment to make. I had a chat with @CameronFM about it, and the crucial detail that swung it for me was that his release clause was due to expire in 2026. It's highly probable that, should he still be at AZ by then, the fee they would want for him would be far in excess of what we're paying now. I know we're a higher reputation side and his wages have significantly increased, but the fact that his market value is now more than double is testament to this, All of that, combined with the fact that van Bommel has no expectation of guaranteed minutes, and is happy to bide his time and rotate in to give Rashford a rest as and when needed makes this a deal I'm very happy with in both the short and long-term. January 24th We've been working on a couple of 'smaller' deals on the background, looking to spend the Sancho money while we have it to secure some youngsters who can either develop into first-team members or at least be sellable assets after some loan action. The first of these deals is complete, with Jobe Bellingham signing on the dotted line. Pre-INEOS the club fumbled the bag with Jude, but now we've brought in little bro who looks like he could be an excellent addition to the midfield in the coming years. Jobe has stayed on loan with Sunderland until the end of the season, as he wasn't likely to get many minutes with us this year. We've also been working on some deals to move on some youth team players who aren't going to make the grade. We agreed a deal with Swansea City for Joe Hugill before the window began, so he left on the first, but since then we've tried to be smarter with the deals we do. I'm happy to take relatively low fees for these guys, but a 50% of profit on the next fee clause is a non-negotiable. So far Gabriele Biancheri, Toby Collyer, Sam Mather and James Nolan have moved to the Championship on these kinds of deals, with the thought process being that if they manage to break into the first-team and contribute to a promotion, their value could sky rocket after a season in the Premier League. January 25th Another opportunistic signing has been completed, with young left-winger Faniel Tewelde joining from Norwegian side Odds BK. Tewelde was brought to our attention when we were searching for our Sancho replacement, and although he's clearly a lot more raw than van Bommel and not ready to contribute to the first team, there's no doubt he's talented and worth bringing to the club. As with the Bellingham deal, Tewelde will remain on loan with Odds until the end of their season. As we entered Deadline Day, I felt the squad still needed work. We had the money to spend, as we were still sat on around £40m with a whopping half a million available in wage budget. That would be enough to sign one genuine star, but those are hard enough to come across in January, let alone on Deadline Day. I felt a new centre-forward was the move to make, if the right profile was available. Rasmus Højlund has had a good start to the season, averaging roughly a goal every other game in all competitions, but he is prone to blowing hot and cold - I guess that's to be expected at the age of 22. I'm starting to worry, though, that Mehdi Taremi may end up as a bit of a dud. He was unlucky with an injury very early on, and at 32 he's clearly not the prime age to recover from a torn hamstring. However, he's only scored twice for the club in 500 minutes, and my trust in him to contribute when he does play is starting to wane. If a striker is to come in, I want them to offer a different profile to Højlund and Taremi. I want a striker who looks to get in behind and utilise their, ideally, explosive pace. I had a look through the catalogue of players we have shortlisted, but the options weren't overly plentiful. We could mimic real life and move for Joshua Zirkzee; he's affordable, talented and has lots of room to grow. However, he doesn't really fit the profile, as he prefers dropping deep and linking up play. One interesting option was RB Leipzig's Loïs Openda, but with an asking price of £73m it would be one heck of a gamble. He definitely has the pace and traits that we would be looking for, but for such an expensive transfer his record doesn't scream prolific, not to mention that he's already on £99k per week in Germany so his wage demands would likely be huge. Instead, I decided to change tact. Ethan Wheatley has been permanently promoted to the first-team squad and will be given a few more opportunities, while new signing van Bommel can also play through the middle. They of course aren't perfect solutions, but I'm reluctant to bloat the squad with an extra expensive striker when we only ever start one. With the money still there to spend, I turned to the defence and looked to bring in a left-sided centre-back. Since the start of the save I've admired Chadi Riad. He's recently signed for Crystal Palace in real life, but in game he's on loan at Coventry City from Barcelona. He'd be a signing akin to the Eric García deal - a cheapish player who would undoubtedly serve as the backup for Lisandro Martínez. However, his loan means he'd be unable to join immediately, and we're not able to discuss taking over his loan deal. The two 'big-ticket' signings I've imagined at LCB are Jarrad Branthwaite and Marc Guéhi, but due to the Premier League tax I've previously talked about, I'm not convinced either are truly the right option, particularly on Deadline Day. Instead, we headed to Italy, for a player very briefly linked with United in real life and who will be playing Premier League football this season - Riccardo Calafiori. Calafiori comes in primarily as competition for Martínez, as currently there is only really Shaw who can replace him, but the Italian also offers a stronger rotation option than Álvaro Fernández for Shaw himself at left-back. I don't feel this impacts Amass' potential pathway, as Fernández will probably move on next year now, but Calafiori definitely adds both depth and quality to our back line, as well as being very comfortable in multiple roles. The last action of Deadline Day was to secure one last market opportunity with the signing of Dean Huijsen from Juventus. A flat fee of £5m for a player with a lot of potential feels like a bit of a no-brainer, and I was going to keep him around and try to give him some minutes. However, when a good looking loan offer came in from Frosinone, it made more sense to ensure he got good game time, and keep Will Fish around as our deep cover in central defence. Transfer Overview INS: Agustín Giay - £6.75m rising to potential £11m - £27,000 per week until 30/06/2028 Eric García - £12m rising to a potential £14m - £82,000 per week until 30/06/2029 Ruben van Bommel - £32.5m - £80,000 per week until 30/06/2029 Jobe Bellingham - £10m rising to a potential £16.5m - £23,000 per week until 30/06/2028 Faniel Tewelde - £2.2m - £11,500 per week until 30/06/2029 Riccardo Calafiori - £40m - £78,000 per week until 30/06/2029 Dean Huijsen - £5m - £24,000 per week until 30/06/2028 OUTS: Aaron Wan-Bissaka - Aston Villa - £10m Agustín Giay - San Lorenzo - Loan Tyrell Malacia - Al-Nassr - £17.5m Joe Hugill - Swansea City - £300k Gabriele Biancheri - Middlesbrough - £275k Elyh Harrison - Stockport County - Loan Harry Maguire - Newcastle United - £8m Paul Wanner - Sheffield Wednesday - Loan Christian Eriksen - Brighton and Hove Albion - £3.5m Toby Collyer - Sheffield United - £70k rising to a potential £78k Sam Mather - Blackburn Rovers - £210k Jadon Sancho - Al-Ittihad - £60m James Nolan - Norwich City - £150k Jobe Bellingham - Sunderland - Loan Faniel Tewelde - Odds BK - Loan Dean Huijsen - Frosinone - Loan 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
adam_otbfm Posted August 21 Author Share Posted August 21 (edited) December saw us hit a good run of form; remaining unbeaten all month and winning the last five games on the spin at a time where fixture congestion is rife is no mean feat. I felt good at the turn of the year, and with the transfer moves we've made (check the previous post for full details) I feel confident we can kick on. However, there is still a lot of football to be played, so things can always go wrong. January 2025 Another unbeaten month with some very emphatic wins, but only one win from three Premier League games isn't good enough, especially considering the relative strength of the opposition. Newcastle United had been really poor all season, sitting in 19th position when we faced them. However, Roberto De Zerbi had been appointed in mid-December and they've shown themselves to be a difficult side to beat since. We absolutely dominated Nottingham Forest and should never have needed a last minute equaliser, but it doesn't make me any less relieved that Amad popped up with one! This was the start of a sensational run of form for Amad that lasted the rest of the month, as the attack fully clicked and we started to score goals for fun. The FA Cup and Europa League ties also gave us ample opportunity to give some minutes to academy players, with the likes of James Nolan, Finley McAllister, Harry Amass and Shea Lacey all featuring. Game of the Month Europa League [8/8] | FC Twente [Old Trafford] | Match Information | Goalscorers: Ruben van Bommel (3), Rasmus Højlund (3), Casemiro; Adrián Kaprálik After beating FC Utrecht in the previous Europa League game we were guaranteed a play-off spot, but could still have missed out on a bye to the Round of 16 if we didn't beat Utrecht. We were also coming off the back of sticking seven past QPR - I honestly don't remember the last time I scored seven in a game on Football Manager, and now we've done it back to back. Ruben van Bommel was devastating from the left in just his second start for the club, but Højlund wasn't to be outdone and bagged a hat-trick of his own. Bruno also dropped a creative masterclass with three assists, but also made eleven key passes in the match! Harry Amass, Tyler Fletcher, and in particular Shea Lacey all made really promising cameos from the bench too, which was nice to see. Man of the Match: Ruben van Bommel (Manchester United) February 2025 A better, but not perfect, month in the Premier League. With all due respect to Bournemouth, they aren't a side that should be taking four points from us in a season. We dominated the game once again, but couldn't find the quality to break them down. Next season we really need to work on our ability to breach stubborn defences as we're dropping too many points in games we're clear favourites for. The other games were all strong wins; Aston Villa are in the battle for a Champions League spot so a win over them was crucial, Crystal Palace were blown away within 20 minutes and then we were able to coast through the rest of the match, and we always find away days tough so to go to Leeds and win can't be underestimated. Then we have the disappointment of the Arsenal game. Of course, an FA Cup tie against another of the 'big six' is always going to be tough, but I wanted to go far in the competition and at home I felt we should be considered favourites. We rotated slightly. but it was still a side I'd happily field in a Premier League game. We went ahead, but truth be told Arsenal always had the better of the game, and it felt more like when we concede, rather than if. Game of the Month Premier League [27/38] | Crystal Palace [Old Trafford] | Match Information | Goalscorers: Bruno Fernandes (pen), Diogo Dalot, Lisandro Martínez, Rasmus Højlund As I mentioned before, we blew Crystal Palace away early on, and then coasted through the rest of the game to save our legs. Poor old Dean Henderson had an absolute shocker of a game but wasn't wholly responsible for any one goal, whereas Sergiño Dest thought shoving somebody over in the penalty area might be a smart idea. It wasn't, and Bruno got us up and running from the spot. A deflected Dalot effort from the edge of the area was next, followed by a rare goal from Lisandro Martínez. In the second half a lovely darting run from Riccardo Calafiori started a slick move that was finished off by Rasmus Højlund to seal the deal. The only downside was a horrible looking injury for Morten Hjulmund. He's lost his place to Casemiro in recent weeks and was starting to show a little bit more form after a slow start, but has now broken his foot and will miss most, if not all, of the rest of the season. A real shame. Man of the Match: Alejandro Garnacho (Manchester United) March 2025 March signalled the start of a horror run of domestic games; as well as the three fixtures above, we also have Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur at the start of April. We've been pretty good in the big games this season, and this run of five games will absolutely make or break our run at the Champions League spots. It got off to the best possible start, as we demolished City on their own turf. After this, a routine two-legged victory over Rangers in the Europa League. The away leg in particular was a great chance to rotate, with Jaydan Kamason and Tyler Fletcher making their first starts for the senior team. Then came Liverpool away, a game with an ending I could scarcely believe! I even took to Twitter to express my disbelief. The Chelsea game was a disappointing way to round off the month. I would probably have taken a point before the match, but we were by far the better of the two sides and so to have to come from behind twice to rescue a point was irritating. Game of the Month Premier League [29/38] | Manchester City [Etihad Stadium] | Match Information | Goalscorers: Bernardo Silva; Rasmus Højlund, Alejandro Garnacho (2), Marcus Rashford, Scott McTominay I seem to have Ole's knack of getting one over on the noisy neighbours. It seems a silly thing to say when we've won 5-1 away from home, but our performance wasn't actually that good. City created the two best chances of the game but were wasteful, whereas we held them at an arm's length and were clinical when needed, especially after City went down to ten men. I was praying for a sixth, so that I could use my god awful Photoshop skills to create a new Why Always Me? photo. Man of the Match: Alejandro Garnacho (Manchester United) Premier League Table With just seven league games to go Champions League qualification is in our hands, a position I would definitely have taken at the start of the year. Our next two games against Arsenal and soon to be champions Tottenham Hotspur will be huge, as two defeats could see struggle to even make the Europa League with how tight the table is. Wouldn't it just be classic Spurs to not win it from this position? In Other News... After progressing past Rangers in the Europa League, we received the draw for the Quarter and Semi Finals. My preference would have been to face one of Fenerbahçe or Freiburg, but it wasn't to be as we were drawn with familiar foe Chelsea. Should we progress, then we will face the winner of Fenerbahçe or Feyenoord. With Juventus on the other side of the draw there is no easy route, but my gut feeling is that the winner of ourselves and Chelsea will go on to lift the trophy. It's been an incredible few weeks for Kobbie Mainoo. He may not have yet received the international honours he has in real life, but he's just been crowned European Golden Boy and winner of the NXGN 2025. As well as Mainoo, the top 50 also includes this year's signings Jobe Bellingham (14th) and Paul Wanner (39th). Of course, I'll be scouting everybody on the list to see who may be available to us in the future. Lastly, our youth intake has come through. I'm not going to reveal anything here, as my next non-results post will be about Academy pathways, so I will discuss the intake in full there. There are definitely a couple of talents to be excited for though, so eyes peeled for them! Edited August 21 by adam_otbfm 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
elrikas Posted August 22 Share Posted August 22 gotta feel nice seeing a new signing kick it off with a hat-trick! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DARREN06 Posted August 28 Share Posted August 28 Just brought Van Bommel in my own save - seems to have the goods alright if your save is any guide. Can't wait to bring him in now. Alos had a play with Lewis Fergunson from Bologna, as a pressing shadow striker who can help lead the press with guys like Mount & Fernandes... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
adam_otbfm Posted August 28 Author Share Posted August 28 @elrikas Yeah it was a superb start for him. I always think it's important for a young attacker player to get a goal contribution of some sort early on - if for no other reason than just to prove they can actually contribute. @DARREN06 He's had a solid start and obviously has a huge amount of potential, next season poses an interesting dilemma though as van Bommel actually served more as a backup to Højlund towards the end of the season. So now the choice becomes targeting a top class CF (which was always Plan A for season two) or finding another left-winger who can rotate in for Rashford, and use van Bommel as the second choice CF. I think I'm potentially leaning towards Plan B, as van Bommel is 6′4″ and seems to be effective as a Pressing Forward. He'd also not demand to be first choice, so he and Højlund could develop simultaneously. Let's see what the scouts find though! Ferguson is a player I've admired at a distance for a little while, but I'm not sure how I would fit him in, so I'd be unlikely to go after him unless we lost a couple of midfield players first. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
danyates8 Posted August 28 Share Posted August 28 Damn Spurs showing me how its done! Looks like you've have done a good job working on the mentality over at Utd. Losing only 3 times in the league whilst navigating so many games is impressive, really close to mounting a serious title challenge which I assume will happen next season! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
adam_otbfm Posted August 30 Author Share Posted August 30 @danyates8 Yeah Spurs have been incredible! I'm very pleased with how often we're beaten, but with that comes the downside of drawing too many games. Next season the focus needs to be on breaking down stubborn teams, we seem to have the big contests cracked. --- --- --- --- --- --- Ask any keen Football Manager player what their favourite aspect of the game is, and there’s a strong possibility that they would say developing young players. I’m no different, and luckily for me that melds perfectly with Manchester United’s youth development philosophy. With the end of season one approaching and our first youth intake now at the club, I thought this was the perfect time to talk through my approach to maintaining United’s incredible youth record and show off some of the club’s most talented youngsters. There will be quotes dotted throughout from an incredible two-piece article from The Athletic, who had an all-access day with United’s academy. They are behind a paywall, sadly, but for anybody with an active subscription they are well worth a read. Part one can be found here! An Unbelievable Record I think I’ll just let the numbers speak for themselves here. In a pre-academy leaflet that the club gives to the parents of prospective youngsters, there is the famous Sir Matt Busby quote ‘If you are good enough, you are old enough’, accompanied by pictures of first-team players who have come through the academy and the headline statistic: Over 4,200 consecutive games featuring an academy graduate. The statistics continue to stagger as the leaflet poses the question, ‘What makes our academy different?’ 1: ranked the leading English club for producing and developing players 85: years of matchday squad featuring academy graduates 46: academy graduates playing in Europe’s highest-ranked divisions 88: academy graduates currently playing professional football 246: academy graduates have made a first-team debut for Manchester United. This is slightly outdated now, as last season Ethan Wheatley became Manchester United’s 250th academy player to make their first-team debut, but this just serves to add to the insanity of the numbers being presented. Between the start of the 2023/24 season and April 9th (around the time The Athletic’s article would have been finished/edited), United had given nearly three times the number of minutes to teenagers in the Premier League (3,637) than the rest of the division’s top six combined. By the end of the season, United had given more minutes to teenagers than any other side in the division. I firmly believe that any manager who ends this record is likely to lose their job for it, such is the club’s pride in this astounding record. One thing is for sure, I don’t want it to be me who breaks the streak! Youth Recruitment I won’t just be relying on youth intakes and signing first-team ready wonderkids, I also want to supplement the youth teams with promising youngsters from other academies. Despite heavy criticism of Manchester United’s transfers over the last decade or so, recruiting players to join the academy has actually been a strength in recent years. Pre-Brexit, the likes of Willy Kambwala, Isak Hansen-Aarøen, Álvaro Fernández and of course, Alejandro Garnacho were all highly rated youngsters who were signed from abroad to bolster the ranks. Brexit has obviously had a huge impact on the ability of English clubs to acquire the best young foreign talent, and so United have turned to bringing in the likes of Harry Amass (Watford), Elyh Harrison (Stevenage) and the Fletcher brothers, Jack and Tyler (both Manchester City) in recent years. Our mentality has always been to try to attract the best locals, but also the best globally. Local lads like Paul Scholes or Nicky Butt taught players like Cristiano Ronaldo about the club and the history, but at academy level that all stopped with Brexit. - Nick Cox I’m not looking to flood the youth teams with hordes of young players, as too many will make giving each player enough minutes impossible. Instead, it’s about assessing which players are best suited to which age group, and then targeting players who can compliment what we have in house. This approach matches that of the club in real life, who as an example, specifically targeted Alejandro Garnacho because there were gaps in his age group. In an ideal world, you should only ever have three or four gaps to fill to play alongside the eight or nine players who’ve come through. So last year we brought in the two Fletcher boys, Harry Amass and Gabriele Biancheri. That feels about right to me. But in the year when Garnacho turned 16, we had more gaps. We’re never trying to build a team, but a healthy pool of talent that is balanced and that can go and support the first team. - Nick Cox The part of that quote that I find particularly interesting, and probably subconsciously already adhere to myself, is the mention that they aren’t looking to build a team. I’ll explain this fully later in the post, but United’s focus in academy football is developing the individual players, not cultivating winning sides. Chelsea and Manchester City, two clubs who have dominated youth football in the last decade, do it a different way. Theirs is a trading model, with less likelihood of reaching the first team and more of being sold. They have surged past United in what they spent on youth after their takeovers in 2003 and 2008 and their brands are about winning at every level. Talented young players will always be a precious commodity, but especially since Brexit the competition for the most promising youngsters is fierce. Particularly for United, as there are more professional clubs within an hours drive than anywhere else in the world. That means that the club focuses on retention of the players they have, with Under 21’s Manager Travis Binnion even calling it more important than recruitment. Although retention is important, it’s also important to take stock of when it may be time for players to move on. This is an area where United have adjusted their approach in recent years, and by their own admission taken inspiration from their Manchester rivals. United have started to sell young players who are looking unlikely to make a first-team breakthrough, with Zidane Iqbal arguably being the first casualty of this new approach. The fee of £850k was ridiculed by many, but the inclusion of a buy-back clause and a sell-on fee protects the club should the player kick on. If he doesn’t, it’s likely he may have ended up leaving on a free transfer anyway, and any fee is better than nothing. Similar deals have since followed, with the likes of Matěj Kovář, Facundo Pellistri, Will Fish, Willy Kambwala and Álvaro Fernández. That is a deliberate policy change at United, with staff suspecting players going "stale and sour" if they stay at the club too long without getting an opportunity to play. That has led to a desire to sell players while using clauses and add-ons to protect themselves, taking inspiration from City in that area. In game, I’ve continued the trend. Admittedly, I’ve not been including buy back clauses, but I’ve moved on seven young players already who I don’t see making it to first-team level, all including significant sell-on clauses. To try and implement a similar approach to United’s in game, I’ll be looking to scout and sign a handful of promising domestic talents each season, in positions where our youth teams have clear gaps. I won’t, however, be scouring each youth intake and poaching players before they can sign contracts at their club. United are keen to try to do things in the ‘right’ way, and are up front with their approaches for players. Building relationships with selling clubs is also important to United, as it allows for a longer-term relationship where players could flourish on loan deals. As he talks, players train who have arrived at United from City, Rochdale, Cardiff City and Derby County. Cox is conscious that he needs good relationships with selling clubs, that he might need to loan players back to them, but feels they can work together. This would apply more to more ‘established’ signings, the sorts of players who would come in on the fringes of first-team action. I have already made a few signings where we have allowed players to remain at the selling club for the remainder of their domestic season, and will continue to do so if I feel a signing does not have an immediate pathway to the first-team but is too talented for Under 21’s football. Travis Binnion calls them over-ripe fruits, and in regards to the likes of Jobe Bellingham, Agustín Giay and Faniel Tewelde, I’d be inclined to agree. In terms of departures, I’ll be looking to continue to sell players once I’ve established they won’t make an impact at first-team level. The fee will be secondary to ensuring that a high sell on percentage is secured, as I look to develop players to at least go on to have a strong professional career, even if not at United. I’ll be looking to cultivate these players by focusing on the retention of the players we have at the club. This doesn’t mean nobody will be released, nor does it mean I’ll sign every player from each youth intake. Rather, it means that I won’t just be focusing on the players who could go on to be superstars. I’ll be working to ensure every player hits as much of their potential as possible, no matter their eventual level. We know every player isn’t going to end up in the first team, but we have to help them get as close to that as possible. - Adam Lawrence. Integration and Utilisation Developing young players is one thing, but ensuring there is a pathway to the first-team and making sure they’re used correctly is crucial. The club has an admirable philosophy of ensuring that their academy players develop as people as well as footballers, and the article does a great job of explaining how they go about that. However, I’m limited by what I can do in-game, and therefore I’ll obviously be focusing solely on football decisions. As I mentioned earlier in the post, United don’t view the success of their youth teams in terms of silverware. Instead, they see supporting the first-team squad as the key objective, choosing to ‘run light’ and very often having players taken out of their matchday squads at short notice. This often means that Under 21’s matchday squads will be backfilled by the best of the Under 18s. Having several young players facing opponents years ahead of them in their development, plus of course the possibility of facing senior players in need of minutes, could lead to some huge defeats, but will also provide challenges that will stand players in good stead for the future. Our duty is to the players, not the under-21s (team). That’s why we choose to sail close to the wind with our teams, going young and letting the players face huge challenges. We believe that will ultimately make them better. Our policy is, ‘Go young and go thin’. On Friday, our team was stretched against a more experienced Liverpool side. Brilliant; that’s what we want. They’ll learn a lot more from that. - Travis Binnion The Under 21s campaign in season one has been a perfect example of this in action. A seventh place finish with a strong, but not exceptional record goes to show that the Under 21s were often facing sides with players further along in their development, or bolstered by senior players. This is supported by the top five performers in the division, based on average rating. Although it would be unfair to call any of these players ‘established’ at first-team level, Jack Moorhouse sticks out like a sore thumb here. The others are all players who played in multiple first-team games throughout the season, whereas Moorhouse is a long way down the pecking order for players I would want to bring in for any first team involvement. The Under 21 season ends with a knockout tournament, with the top sixteen sides competing. Our Under 21 side managed to reach the final, beating Nottingham Forest (10th), Derby County (16th) and Manchester City (12th) along the way. In the final, they faced Chelsea’s Under 21s, previously mentioned as a club who invest a lot of money into the success of their youth sides. Chelsea fielded an array of players who are far too good for Under 21s football, showing their focus on winning youth team silverware over developing the players as efficiently as possible. They beat our Under 21s 4-0, but I would estimate the transfer fees paid for their matchday squad exceed ours by about £40 million. In Gabriel Slonina and Carney Chukwuemeka, they had £20 million of talent that didn't even make it onto the pitch! Given my transfer dealings in season one, the United line up for this game could theoretically have included Paul Wanner, Jobe Bellingham, Agustín Giay, Faniel Tewelde and Ruben van Bommel, if I had tried to follow Chelsea's approach. However, after half a season with the Under 21s I decided Paul Wanner needed to be stretched a little, so he joined Sheffield Wednesday on loan, van Bommel instantly became a first-team member, and the others all remained with their old clubs on loan as previously mentioned. Winning this match instead of losing it (never a guarantee, of course) would not have changed the individual development of any of the players involved; however, four productive loan spells and first-team involvement have been a great help in their improvement. Loans then, are going to be a crucial part of the development pathway. I’m not a fan of having a load of 16 and 17-year-olds out on loan - as I’ve already mentioned the Under 18s have quite a high match load by backfilling for the Under 21s so they'll get plenty of game time and benefit from our higher level of facilities. However, there will be no set policy based on age, and each player’s situation will be taken on its merits. I’ll also be looking at adjusting my expectations for players breaking through. In the past, I’ve essentially written off any young player that either wasn’t good enough by 18/19 to start playing semi-regularly, or any player that I felt was needing too many loans to improve to the level we needed. This was essentially because I was expecting every young player I brought through to be one of the best at the club immediately, no matter the level of club I’ve been at. This is not only unrealistic, but also gave me issues with squad registration, as in many of my previous saves I’ve reached a point where I didn’t have enough home grown players to register a full squad. It’s going to be important to not only give players enough time to develop as much as possible, but also time their introduction to the first-team. A player may be talented by 20, but if their pathway is blocked, there’s no reason not to expose them to first-team football elsewhere until a space for them opens up. A 22-year-old breaking into the first-team squad for the first time can still be a valuable squad member, especially as a home grown player. Loans are a key part of player development, though there are outliers such as Rashford and now Mainoo who don’t need one. Lingard had four loans from 2012-15, Scott McTominay took until he was 21 to be physically strong enough for regular senior football. Talent progression is not linear. It probably won’t be often that I integrate a young player with no loan football at all; it takes a special talent to make the leap seamlessly, and it generally only comes around through fortuitous circumstances (Rashford due to an injury crisis and Mainoo taking advantage of a poor United midfield spring to mind). However, if a young player who is now too good to be playing Under 21s football can fill a gap in the squad, I will always look to promote them before I bring in a new player. Given a choice, Ten Hag would keep the best young players at the club as he sometimes needs them to join in training, but in November it was explained to him by the since-departed director of football John Murtough that, while he might want them, it would be better for their development if they went out on loan. In season one, I’ve probably gone a bit over the top in handing out minutes to academy players, if I’m being completely honest. Six youth team players (outside of the likes of Gore, Wheatley and Forson who have been promoted to the first-team squad this season) have made appearances in all competitions, amassing a total of 1023 minutes. I think it’s very easy in Football Manager to drop a couple of youngsters into the line-up for games your team should win, and them not really look out of place. This has meant that I’ve been far too easily tempted to skip over some of our squad depth options (McTominay, Fernández, Taremi etc) and use our youth players as rotation options instead, especially in the Europa League. None of this is to say that the players haven’t performed well when called upon; it may not be a huge sample size, but there hasn’t been a poor performance between them. However, it feels like a 'gamey' approach, rather than the realistic approach I’m looking for, and I think it’s important to look back on things like this and question whether they’re the way you truly want to do things. Next season, I’ll be looking to earmark maybe two or three players who will stay with the youth teams but have semi-regular first-team involvement. Outside of them, other players will only get opportunities if there are first-team injuries in their positions. Fans who are predisposed to support the youth system often say, ‘Throw in the kids’ in moments of frustration, but most kids are not ready for regular Premier League football and Sir Alex Ferguson, among others, has spoken about the harm caused by placing premature and damaging pressure on young footballers. Equally, United must ensure young players feel they have a pathway and are learning at the right club. So the plan is to stretch the Under 18s thin, focusing on progression over results. The best of the Under 21s will go out on loan, and the best of the rest will be the ones to get some first-team opportunities when appropriate. The Talent I thought I’d round the post off by taking a look at some of the talent I’m most excited about, both already at the club and in the first youth intake. I haven’t included players that I’ve brought to the club, like Wanner or Tewelde, as I’ll mention them more as and when they break into the first-team. Click image for player profile Tyler is comfortably the most technically proficient youngster at the club, and if it was just based on this ability I could see him doing a Mainoo and Rashford and breaking through as a teenager without the need for a loan move. He has strong mental ability for his age, too, and this gives me confidence that he will develop to be the real deal. However, his physical attributes are not sufficient for regular first-team football, particularly his strength and stamina. I’d like him to be quicker, too, but this is less important given his ability to read the game. I’d like to think Tyler may be able to secure a Championship loan next season, which I think would do him the world of good, but even if he only gets a League One/Two move I still think a full season of men’s football would help to bulk him up with a view to integrating him in 2026. Click image for player profile Harry seems to be pretty close to a first-team breakthrough in real life, and impressed during pre-season. I’m not sure that in game his potential matches what many believe he will go on to be, but he’s still a very capable young full-back with room to grow. Harry does have one big obstacle to overcome that he doesn’t seem to for real - Luke Shaw is nowhere near as injury prone. He’s not a million miles away from the level Álvaro Fernández is currently at, and is four years his junior, so there’s no doubt in my mind that he can at least go on to be a useful squad option. Whether he will ever become good enough to be a regular starter, I’m not too sure, but the building blocks are all there. He’s a very well rounded full-back, capable of going down the outside or inverting into midfield. A loan could well do him good, but I’m not sure he’d currently garner interest from clubs at a level that will stretch him. If he doesn’t and Fernández moves on, which is likely as there is active interest in him, then we could instead keep him with the Under 21s and look to use him as a third choice left-back behind Shaw and Calafiori. Click image for player profile I usually find it more difficult to integrate attacking players, as even the most talented can often struggle to make an impact in terms of actual output early on. Lacey actually gives me Shola Shoretire vibes; there’s no doubt he’s incredibly talented and the hype around him at such a young age almost makes it feel that he’s a dead cert to succeed. However, I think it’s important to temper expectations as he still has a long way to go. Lacey has a lot of strengths; he’s technically very good already, has decent mentals with elite flair, and is fairly quick and agile without being explosive. If we can work on a few of these aspects and get his pace, off the ball and work rate up in particular, then we could definitely have an excellent wide creator on our hands. Click image for player profile Elyh Harrison has had a strange season. With Radek Vítek going out on loan to Wycombe Wanderers I was sure that Harrison would be able to play Under 21s football, while possibly even getting a first-team debut towards the end of the Europa League League Phase. However, for some reason he was never selected and I didn’t want to break the realism by interfering, so I had him training with the first-team for a while. With no match experience to support that, though, development was slow. In January I sent him on loan to Stockport County, and he’s played half a season as their undisputed first choice goalkeeper which has done him the world of good. I’ll probably look to keep loaning him out for a few years now, as our goalkeeping unit is fairly settled and breaking through as a keeper isn’t easy. Youth Intake Part of the reason that I left it until towards the end of season one to write about my academy plans is so that I could also discuss the first youth intake when it came. In the original preview, I was teased with the prospect of a five star group. The reality didn’t quite match up, but it’s still a very good intake. With eleven players now aged 18 and therefore moving up to Under 21s football next year, I’ve signed ten players from this intake, with three in particular that I’m excited about. CHARLES | FALLON-MYLER | GEDLING | GREEN | JONES NAIRN | POWER | SALGUEIRO | SAMBOR | SYMINGTON Jamal Charles - D RL, WB R Defensively, Jamal already looks like a handy little player. Strong tackling, marking and positioning make me think that he could probably hold his own a year or two above his own. He’s not great on the ball, and his physicals need a lot of work, but the building blocks are definitely there. Charlie Sambor - DM The coaches don’t have quite the same faith in Charlie’s potential as they did before the candidates friendly, but there’s no doubt he could go on to be a really handy holding midfielder. He’s never going to be an overly creative player, but he has all the tools to do the dirty work for a midfield partner. I’m impressed by his strength and decision making in particular, and there are no obvious weaknesses, so if we can make him a bit more mobile while his game advances I could see him making a first-team breakthrough. Eoghann Nairn - AM L In the age of 4-3-3’s, Inverted Wingers and Inside Forwards, it seems the traditional winger is a dying breed. However, Eoghann could become a mighty fine example of one. Already capped for the Scottish Under 21’s at the age of 16, there’s no doubt he’s a talented boy and can already hurt defences in year groups ahead of his. He’ll need to work on his dribbling if he is ever going to be elite at it, and mentally he is very raw, but at 16 that is to be expected. He’s definitely the graduate I’m most excited by this year. Once the season ticks over and the 18-year-olds make their way into the Under 21 squad, this is what we’ll be left with. Yep, just the intake players. I’m not fussed about having ‘squad depth’ in the Under 18s, if greyed out players need to fill gaps then so be it - the focus is on the development of the individuals, and a squad with multiple options per position means that some players will be missing out. As I mentioned above, in the recruitment section of the post, I’ll be looking to supplement intakes with a couple of signings per year where we look short. Next year, a new keeper and striker will be on the agenda, but only if the right deals are out there. 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
adam_otbfm Posted August 30 Author Share Posted August 30 We're in the middle of a brutal run of league games, but with just seven games to go our chances of qualifying for the Champions League are in our own hands. I'd absolutely have taken that at the start of the season, but now it's time to go and do the business. Oh, and if we can win the Europa League too, that would be pretty nifty. April 2025 Despite the delight of thrashing City, plus decent draws with Liverpool and Chelsea, we still needed to come out of the Arsenal and Tottenham games relatively unscathed to stay in the hunt for the Champions League, that's how tight things are at the top. We were sloppy at the back against Arsenal, Martínez in particular had an awful game, but our attacking power saw us through after going behind twice. Doing it without Bruno, who was never summoned from the bench because of a knock, just made it all the sweeter. A draw away to the league leaders, a side I'm almost certain will now go on to seal the deal, should never be sniffed at. However, considering we were the better side and switched off in the 96th minute, I'm pretty bitter about it. It keeps us in pole position, but a win would have given us some much appreciated breathing room. We then turned our focus to the Europa League, with a really impressive win over Chelsea. Dalot let us, and himself, down with a reckless red card, but we managed to extend our lead and then hold on. A late Nkunku penalty narrowed the deficit which makes the second leg tougher, but I still back us to progress. Everton frustrated us in a game we dominated from start to finish, with the Toffees not even having a shot. We did eventually get the breakthrough though through van Bommel. We were thoroughly professional in the second leg against Chelsea, Casemiro extended our aggregate lead early on and then we saw the game out comfortably. To round the month off we secured a routine win away to Fulham, Bruno missed his second penalty of the season early on and I thought we were destined to be frustrated, but he and Bruno sealed the win. Game of the Month Premier League [32/38] | Arsenal [Old Trafford] | Match Information | Goalscorers: Mason Mount, Rasmus Højlund, Marcus Rashford; Eddie Nketiah, Gabriel Martinelli As I mentioned above, we owed this result entirely to out attack, supported brilliantly by Mainoo from deep. We were poor at the back but I still felt we were unlucky to go behind twice, those goals were Arsenal's only shots on target in the game, so then the question was 'can we go and score more than them?'. Well, yes. Garnacho was a menace all game, giving poor Zinchenko the run around and bagging a couple of assists, while Mount showed what he can do in a rare game with no Bruno, and Rashford and Højlund added to their season tallies. Man of the Match: Alejandro Garnacho (Manchester United) May 2025 A huge month started with the Europa League Semi Finals. We were drawn with Fenerbahçe, and knowing we had to go to Türkiye first had me a little nervous. I needn't have been, as we smashed them around the park for 90 minutes and secured a commanding victory. That gave us the luxury of rotating pretty heavily for the home leg, which we won pretty comfortably too. Ethan Wheatley grabbed his second senior goal 14 sub appearances after the first in a huge boost to his confidence. Sandwiched between those games was a drab draw at home to Brighton who have had an awful season, so this was a really poor result at such a crucial time. Two league games to go. Leicester City. We win comfortably, but Højlund goes off with a twisted ankle and is out for four weeks. He'll miss the Europa League Final. Nightmare. One game left. Brentford. Another comfortable win, but the unthinkable happens. Bruno this time, yet another twisted ankle. You couldn't write it. Garnacho also picks up a knock but we sub him immediately to protect him. Doesn't matter, he's strained his calf. Three of our best front four will miss the Final and I'm starting to panic. However, let's focus on the league for a second. A last day defeat for Chelsea made it look more comfortable than it could have been, but we secured a third place finish which I'm really pleased with. We lost the fewest games of anyone, even the new champions Tottenham Hotspur! However, we drew way too many games and that's something we need to address next year. There were some truly horrible performances in the league this year. City and Arsenal will be devastated with their finishes considering the strength of their squads, in fact Arteta paid with his job. Newcastle looked likely to be relegated at the half way stage, but De Zerbi came in and steadied the ship, they'll be looking to massively improve next year. The huge shock though, is Brighton going down! To say I'd be tempted to try and grab a couple of assets next season would be an understatement! The Europa League Final - Feyenoord vs Manchester United Dutch side Feyenoord stood between us and the first piece of silverware of the save. They were unfortunate not to qualify automatically from the League Phase, missing out on goal difference. However, it didn't stop them as they defeated Sporting Braga, Sevilla, Freiburg and most impressively Juventus to make their way to the final for the first time since the UEFA Cup days, where they beat Borussia Dortmund 3-2 in the 2001/02 final. With our recent injury crisis, selection was not easy. We settled on the 4-3-3 that has served us well in recent tough games, and put Mount next to Mainoo as the number 8s. Amad came in on the right hand side which was a simple selection, I resented the fact that Antony even made the bench. Up front, young Ruben van Bommel was preferred to Mehdi Taremi. For Feyenoord, the big talking point was the omission of vice-captain Lutsharel Geertrudia, a player that we, of course, have agreed to sign next season. Geetrudia has been in fine form this season for Feyenoord, with two goals and eleven assists in 44 games from right-back. Even so, he didn't even make the bench, as Gernot Trauner was the preferred full-back option. Other than that, it looks like the team picked itself, with only Ramiz Zerrouki looking like a rotation option from their starting eleven. There were definitely threats to be wary of, with Mats Weiffer, Calvin Stengs and Santiago Giménez arguably the key men. Europa League [Final] | Feyenoord [San Mamés] | Match Information | Goalscorers: Santiago Giménez; Marcus Rashford, Mason Mount . We only went and did it! I can't say it would have been the most exciting final for a neutral, but it was a very even affair and Feyenoord made us work hard for our success. We were lucky to go in at half-time 2-0 ahead, as Feyenoord had also had chances, but we were clinical and in the end that was the difference for us. Marcus Rashford stood up and was counted when he was truly needed - he hasn't had his most explosive season ever, with just 14 goals in all competitions, but as the 'senior' attacker in our side he didn't go missing and came up woth the crucial first goal. I thought it was great to see Mason Mount grab what turned out to be the winner, too. I really like Mount, in game and in real life, but playing a similar role to Bruno Fernandes he's never going to be the main man. If, and it's a big if, we do switch to a 4-3-3 as our primary shape next year then I feel that suits Mount more, but he then goes from competing with just Bruno, to competing with Bruno, Mainoo, Thuram and Hjulmand as a minimum. He's too good to start less than half of his games, but I'm not sure what the solution is yet, if there is one. Man of the Match: Marcus Rashford (Manchester United) 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
adam_otbfm Posted September 1 Author Share Posted September 1 After what I would consider to be a very successful first year of the rebuild, now is the time to build on that momentum and really kick on. Due to last season's exploits we're actually in the hunt for six trophies this season, the biggest of which of course being the Premier League and Champions League. Do I believe we're good enough to win them this year? Probably not if I'm honest, but last season showed how good we can be in the big games, so anything is possible. The squad needs some work, so we'll look to be active in the window, and I have a pretty strong idea of the route we want to go down. Pre Season 2025 Transfer Activity NOTABLE INS: Khephren Thuram | OGC Nice | Free Transfer | £100,000 per week until 30/06/2030 We finally get our hands on Khephren, having secured a pre-contract with him back in January. I said at the time that I didn't have a concrete plan for his integration, but that he was too good to pass up on. I think I maintain that viewpoint, and this may be a season of chopping and changing for him, but he's capable of playing any of the roles I expect my number 6 or 8s to play, so I have no doubt he'll find his place. He's a physical beast, but also has exceptional technical and mental ability. He could go on to be talked about as one of the best free transfers ever, up there with the likes of Pirlo and Lewandowski. Lutsharel Geertruida | Feyenoord | Free Transfer | £98,000 per week until 30/6/2030 I don't have quite the same level of excitement for Lutsharel as I do for Khephren, but he'll still be a very handy addition to the squad. Being natural at right-back, centre-back and defensive midfield means we can run our squad a man or two lighter than we possibly would, and he's a very solid all-round player, despite not possessing any exceptional attributes. I can see him mostly rotating with Dalot for the first half of the season, before potentially moving into the pivot once Giay returns from his loan at San Lorenzo. Mathys Tel | FC Bayern | £57m rising to £61m | £100,000 per week until 30/6/2029 The big recruitment dilemma I had going into this transfer window was how to approach bolstering our attack. In January I added Ruben van Bommel to rotate with Rashford out on the left. However, a couple of injuries to Rasmus Højlund and the poor form of Mehdi Taremi saw van Bommel fill in admirably as a number nine. The question then became whether to spend big on a number nine, and potentially hamper Højlund's development, or to spend on another option out wide and ensure the Dane remains the main man up front. As you can see, I went for the latter, and I'm excited for what Mathys can bring, now and in the future. For this season he will very much be a rotation option, as I don't think he offers quite the same quality as Rashford or Garnacho, but he's definitely good enough to play an important role. Evann Guessand | OGC Nice | £5.75m | £40,000 per week until 30/6/2029 Even with the signing of Tel, I still wanted to bring in at least one number nine to offer some depth behind Højlund and, at this point, van Bommel. The INEOS link came in handy when we were informed that Nice had accepted a bit for Guessand, and we were invited to match it. I don't anticipate him having a huge impact, but he's a useful player to have around - he's quick, strong and works hard, which suits our high press. He's on the lowest wage of any first-team player outside of Bettinelli and Gore, and only wants to be an Impact Sub, so I don't anticipate any dynamics problems from him. Giorgi Mamardashvili | Valencia | £20m rising to £27m | £70,000 per week until 30/6/2029 I don't ever like to admit that I've taken inspiration from Liverpool, but given they've made this signing in real life, I kinda have to! This wasn't a deal I was looking to do, at all, when the window opened. He was brought to me in a scouting report and when I saw his estimated cost, I had to explore a deal. Altay Bayindir was fantastic in our cup campaigns last season, but when I compare the two, there's no doubt who I would rather have at the club. Competition will be rife over the years, as Onana is still relatively young for a goalkeeper and was also sensational last year, but at 24 Mamardashvili is already one of the best around and I couldn't let him go anywhere else. Yussuf Poulsen | RB Leipzig | £3.3m | £47,000 per week until 30/6/2027 A bit of an opportunistic signing, this one, as Leipzig were looking to get Yussuf go on the cheap. He'll compete with Guessand to be the first rotation option for Højlund, which in turn offers us more flexibility in wide areas. He's still physically excellent for a 31-year-old, will be here for a couple of years on cheapish wages, and then we'll let him go. Possibly a slightly unnecessary signing but it hasn't exactly broken the bank. Désiré Doué | Stade Rennais | £10m | £29,000 per week until 30/6/2028 Désiré has been on my INEOS shortlist since day one of the save, having been linked with United for a while in real life. I decided against making a move for him in season one, as he wouldn't make a first-team impact immediately and I needed to ensure the funds I raised were used to fix the first-team before I moved onto longer term deals. However, this season I've had a bit more financial freedom, so on deadline day I decided to pull the trigger and make the move. He's gone straight back out on loan, interestingly to Bordeaux where he will have to face his former side. From there, we'll evaluate his role - there's no doubt he's talented, but his current competition would be Bruno. As well as these deals, I also made a few academy signings as I mentioned I would in the last post. André Moreira has come in from Benfica to be the Under 21's keeper while Radek Vítek and Elyh Harrison gain experience out on loan, while fellow goalkeepers Scott Taylor (Motherwell) and Girdon Richardson (Luton Town) will join the Under 18's. along with striker Steven Docherty (Ipswich Town). They're all deals under £1m, except for Richardson who I feel I've slightly overpaid for, but he seems to be the only keeper in his age group with any kind of potential. NOTABLE OUTS: Hannibal | Hull City | £2.6m Hannibal never came close to making a breakthrough last season, playing just three minutes of football. With his contract expiring, I managed to eek a small transfer fee out, with newly promoted Hull City taking a chance on him. I wish him well, but he just wasn't for me. Álvaro Fernández | Borussia Dortmund | £13.5m Álvaro didn't play a lot of football last season, but played well when he did. I did feel he was a player who would probably impact Amass' route to the first team, and although I didn't actively offer him out, I did jump at the opportunity to move him on when interest made itself known. Borussia Dortmund were always his first choice, and although I prompted a bit of a bidding war to up the price, I felt it was fair to give him the move he wanted. Antony | Al-Ahli | £40m This deal was actually completed just after the January transfer window, which was a huge relief as it was one less pressing item on the agenda for this window. Trust is a huge thing for me in Football Manager, call it intuition after years of playing the game, or just put it down to vibes, but if I get the feeling that a player isn't going to perform for me then I look to get them gone as soon as possible. Al-Ahli have thrown £40m and £325k per week at him, so more fool them. Mehdi Taremi | SS Lazio | £13m I couldn't believe my luck with this one. I thought I would be stuck with Mehdi after a poor first season; admittedly, injuries and limited minutes didn't help, but by the end of the season he'd fallen behind van Bommel and even Wheatley in the pecking order. It was actually Marseille who first registered an interest, so at the advice of Taremi's agent, I invited them to make a bid. They did, but contract talks sadly broke down. That saw Lazio enter the race, and fortunately he was more enamoured with their offer and off he went to Italy. I'll be honest, even if he'd had a good season, I'd still be delighted to get £13m for a 32-year-old rotation option. So to get it after a poor season is a blinding result. Altay Bayindir | Valencia | £20m I was already chuffed with the Mamardashvili deal, but when Valencia came back to us a few days later with an offer for Bayindir, it just made the whole thing sweeter. It was plainly obvious that one keeper would have to leave, and it wasn't going to be Onana. My first thought was actually to loan Mamardashvili out for a year and then re-assess, but I tested the waters of a Bayindir move through TransferRoom and Valencia showed an interest in replacing their former number one with my number two. 20% of the fee had to go to Fenerbahçe, but it's still a big profit in just two seasons and offsets the Mamardashvili deal nicely. Casemiro | Al-Nassr | £20m Casemiro actually had a far better season than I thought he would last year. Hjulmand took a while to adapt and then got a serious injury, so Casemiro steadied the ship in the pivot. However, that doesn't change the fact that he's now 33 and was on £300k per week. With the additions of Thuram and Geertruida we have more than enough options to play as a number six, so being able to get his huge wage off the bill a year early is a big plus. The £20m doesn't hurt, either! As well as these deals, we continued our work of accumulating sell on clauses for players who are going a bit stale. Will Fish, Ethan Wheatley, Jayce Fitzgerald, Habeeb Ogunneye and Ethan Williams all moved on - Wheatley is potentially a touch unlucky, but he didn't look overly threatening in his performances last year. Still, he scored a Premier League goal for Manchester United and nobody can take that away from him. We also sent a few players out for some much needed experience. Radek Vítek and Elyh Harrison have both made the step up to Championship football, with Cardiff City and Bristol City respectively. Tyler Fletcher will have a full senior season at Bristol Rovers to bulk up, Dean Huijsen is back at Frosinone for another year, and as previously mentioned Désiré Doué has gone straight back out to Bordeaux. The last move is the one I'm most pleased with, as Jobe Bellingham has moved to fellow INEOS club Nice for the season. Not only will he be playing top level football in France, they also qualified for the Champions League this season, which will be a huge opportunity for him. Overall I'm really pleased with the transfer window, especially as we managed to make a net profit. I did want to move McTominay on, but sadly a deadline day move to Sevilla collapsed. I don't mind having him around the squad, but I doubt he'll play much. Our strongest eleven arguably isn't much, if at all, better than last year. Thuram is the most likely of the new signings to immediately establish himself as a starter, but there is tough competition in that midfield. One thing is for sure, though, our depth is far superior to last season. The likes of Wan-Bissaka, Sancho and Antony have been replaced with Geertruida and Tel, while we also have an extra senior striker and our young players are only getting better. Friendlies We predominately used this season's friendlies to test a tweaked version of the 4-3-3 we introduced part way through last season. Being able to alternate shapes, while keeping our identity, saw us lose just once in the last 38 games of last season. As we dropped too many points by drawing games we were expected to win, I wanted to work on a 4-3-3 that may help us break stubborn teams down and turn some of those draws into wins. It looked pretty good for the most part; Mainoo looked fantastic as a box-to-box midfielder, being able to use his athleticism more than he could as part of the pivot, while still retaining his creative license and also seemingly adding a goal threat. We used the tried and trusted 4-2-3-1 in what seems to now be an annual friendly against Bayern, and recorded a very impressive 2-0 win. There definitely seem to be promising signs that we have three solid templates to work from this season. However, injuries hit us hard and may disrupt what it already an incredibly difficult start to the season. Højlund, Garnacho and Rashford all picked up injuries throughout pre-season, meaning they may not be back and match sharp until after our horror start (more on this later). August 2025 Our first 'competitive' action of the season is the UEFA Super Cup, courtesy of our Europa League triumph last season. Of course, we're in the Champions League ourselves this year, so facing last year's winners will be a good test to see how we may fare. Who won the Champions League, I hear you ask? Liverpool. Of course they did. UEFA Super Cup | Liverpool [Estadio Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán} | Match Information | Goalscorers: Ansu Fati, Darwin Núñez, Mohamed Salah; Amad Diallo, Ruben van Bommel, Odilon Kossounou A truly crazy game. Considering our injury woes in attacking areas we looked dangerous and composed, in a complete juxtaposition to our defence that looked like they had never met. Amad put us ahead, only for Ansu Fati to equalise within 60 seconds. We went back ahead through van Bommel with around 15 minutes left to play, but much as last season we couldn't hold on and Núñez got Liverpool back on terms, We entered extra time, and when the inevitable Mohamed Salah put Liverpool ahead for the first time in the game, I thought we were done. We were exhausted, out of subs and had lost all momentum. Step up Odilon Kossounou, who powered home a header to take us to penalties. With the players we had left on the pitch, we weren't exactly blessed with fantastic options for takers, but this was, by far, the worst penalty shootout I've ever seen! It sucks to not bring home the trophy, but on another day we definitely could have! Man of the Match: Mohamed Salah (Liverpool) Throughout March and April last season, we faced a run of Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur in consecutive Premier League games. We held our own, staying unbeaten and picking up nine points, but I still couldn't believe our luck in getting such a tough run. How does this season start? Chelsea (a), Tottenham Hotspur (h), Liverpool (a), Manchester City (h), Arsenal (a). You have to be kidding me. This already feels like it may be affected by the editor files I'm using, but if it happens again next season I'll be convinced there's something at play. Never mind, we have to face them some time, may as well get it done. Oh brother. We only lost three league games all season last year, and now we've lost two in three games. The Chelsea game was absolutely abhorrent, there wasn't a single good performance in the side and for ten minutes after half time it felt like they could put eight or nine past us. It was so bad in fact, that the travelling United fans were given a refund. Rightly so, if you ask me. Sometimes you just have to lick your wounds and take your medicine, and that's exactly what we did. Back at Old Trafford, we bounced back with an excellent win over Tottenham Hotspur - reigning champions, don't forget. We may have left it late to win the game, but we defended excellently and reduced them to low quality chances throughout. After that, another defeat to Liverpool. This one annoys me more than the Super Cup. Although they'd had more shots than us, the game had been very even and I felt we deserved it when we went ahead. Once again, holding a lead proved to be our achilles heel as we conceded a late penalty that Salah, of course, converted. Then we had the blow of losing Geertruida to injury, and with all of our stoppages used we had to make do with ten men, and Mainoo as an emergency right-back. Make do we did not, and in the seventh of nine injury time minutes, Salah broke our hearts. Game of the Month Premier League [2/38] | Tottenham Hotspur [Old Trafford] | Match Information | Goalscorers: Odilon Kossounou, Rasmus Højlund Man of the Match: André Onana (Manchester United) Premier League Table Clearly, it's not a great start. If we could get four points from City at home and Arsenal away it doesn't look so bad, and then we have a spell of winnable games where we need to be perfect. By the end of September I expect us to have a more representative view of how our season is shaping up, but if we continue to drop points in winnable games then we could be in for a struggle. In Other News... We've had the Champions League League Phase draw, and the fixtures could have been kinder. I back us to beat anybody at home, but there's no doubt that in particular Inter and RB Leipzig will be tough. For the second time in two seasons we're drawn to face Nice in a European competition and we also face Dutch opposition again in PSV Eindhoven. There was never going to be an easy away game from Pot 1; we've shown before that we can can dispatch Chelsea, but in this very post they've also shown what they can do to us. Barcelona away feels like a really unfortunate Pot 2 draw, but with the likes of Borussia Dortmund, Atlético Madrid and Juventus also in Pot 2 it would have been tough to get a 'favourable' game. With all due respect to AEK Athens and FC København, they're the games I'll be most disappointed if we don't win. Last season 16 points got Arsenal into the top eight on goal difference, but based on the fixtures we have my target is 18 points, It'll be tough, but picking up draws in the Inter, Chelsea and Barcelona games and winning the rest feels at least feasible. Lastly, we've made a couple of changes to our staff. I mentioned at the start of season one that we would continue to work with both Steve McClaren and Mitchell van der Gaag as joint assistant managers before finding our own man to bring in. Combined, McClaren and van der Gaag were being paid £45,000 per week, which I didn't feel we needed to spend, and I didn't fancy either to be my long-term number two. I ideally wanted to find somebody with a connection to the club - Ruud van Nistelrooy and Wayne Rooney are both unemployed but didn't wish to discuss terms to come in as a number two, Ole Gunnar Solskjær is currently the manager at Hibernian and Roy Keane is currently his number two! In the end I decided to move away from this and just try to find someone who I felt would be a good fit, with similar tactical ideas and preferred shapes. The man I settled on is Paul Clement, who has some of the world's most successful clubs on his CV (Chelsea, PSG, Real Madrid, FC Bayern), but in game has most recently been down near my neck of the woods, at Plymouth Argyle. To bolster the coaching team further, we also brought in goalkeeping coach Claudio Filippi and former player Robin van Persie. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
danyates8 Posted September 1 Share Posted September 1 15 minutes ago, adam_otbfm said: This already feels like it may be affected by the editor files I've come across this myself in virtually every save that I've started this year, the recent Blackburn save I was blogging a drastic example - played the previous seasons top 5 in the first 7 games and the first 3 games were 1st, 2nd and 3rd from the season prior too. I really like the players you have brought in, Geertruida I really like as a player with his versatility. I'd be interested to see a comparison between Onana and Mamardashvili too, my gut feeling says Mamardashvili will be your #1 in due course 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
adam_otbfm Posted September 1 Author Share Posted September 1 @danyates8 That's interesting, I didn't notice anything like it when I was managing in Japan with a vanilla database, which makes me believe it's an editor file issue. Ultimately it's not a game breaker, we have to play each time twice anyway, but I feel like when it comes right at the start of the season it really sets the tone for what we could achieve this year. Honestly, I can't split them at this point. The game gives the edge to Onana, but the attributes with the most significant gaps are Eccentricity and Flair. I really enjoy Onana, he was sensational last year and I'm not sure Mamardashvili would be comfortable playing as a SK-A, but having said that when Bayindir came into the side last year he played as a SK-S and it didn't affect us negatively so maybe it doesn't matter. The crucial thing in the short-term is that Mamardashvili was willing to sign on Backup playing time. I upped it to Domestic Cup Goalkeeper, but he shouldn't raise any concerns if he doesn't play much this year. I guess where I stand right now is that I would have no interest in forcing Onana out, but should Saudi come knocking then maybe I'd take a look at a deal. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
El Payaso Posted September 1 Share Posted September 1 Really interesting transfer window for you. Plenty of names that I'm not familiar with and it is nice to see you also bringing in clear and more experienced rotation/backup options instead of concentrating on wonder kids. Like I said in the beginning, it is hard to make this kind of saves with big clubs interesting to read but your approach and excellent writing is really doing it. These kind of career updates really keep the fire going for me while waiting for FM 2025. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
danyates8 Posted September 1 Share Posted September 1 Mamardashvili looks excellent and at 24 has another 10 years ahead of him and from a value stand point is stellar business. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Ben_ Posted September 1 Share Posted September 1 Your youth recruitment post really resonated with me! Whilst I have an utter disdain for anything Man Utd, I am happy to see you doing really well and like the signings you've made. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhilH82 Posted September 3 Share Posted September 3 Despite this being a Manchester United save I’m really enjoying this. Great first season with some truly excellent posts describing your decision making / polices and how you implement them. Really good transfer business which has created a squad with a lot of depth, which of course you’ll need for the Champions League. Well done on the European trophy in season 1 🏆! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
adam_otbfm Posted Tuesday at 13:54 Author Share Posted Tuesday at 13:54 (edited) @El Payaso thank you mate, I'm pleased with the window on the whole and how the squad has shaped up. We've cut down from a 28 man squad to 25, while in my opinion improving the quality of our depth. Really appreciate your kind words, although I'm not 100% committed to the idea my current thinking is that I'll continue this save into FM25 as my 'early access' save, so hopefully that will keep me excited to play FM when we start to get new info! @danyates8 I agree totally, I'm a big fan of his and think the fee is a bargain. @_Ben_ Thank you mate! I'm pleased with how the youth post came out, I always enjoy youth development but when I manage United I feel a sense of obligation that I just don't get from other saves! @PhilH82 thanks mate! I'm pleased with how the squad is looking, I think I'm at the point now where I'd be looking for areas where my current starters could be upgraded and become the rotation options. First up is probably at CB! --- --- --- --- --- --- September 2025 September was due to be an absolute mish mash of a month, with games in four competitions, but after our slow start it's imperative we start to win some games. We actually started the month with a chance for another piece of silverware - The European/South American Club Challenge. Euro/SAM Club Challenge | Red Bull Bragantino [Estadio Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán] | Match Information | Goalscorers: Shea Lacey, Kevin Lomónaco og; Bruninho I had no idea this trophy existed until I saw we would be playing for it this year! It's a one-off final, founded in 2023, between the winners of the Europa League and the Copa Sudamericana. Sevilla have won the only edition to have taken place in real life, with AC Milan continuing Europe's streak in my save. My plan was to rotate slightly for this one anyway, but as it came at the end of an international break that was forced upon me anyway, to the point where at one stage I thought I'd be fielding a predominantly Under 21s side! The side actually came out stronger than I expected it to, but there were starts for Harry Amass and Shea Lacey, plus a cameo from the bench for Jaydan Kamason. Giorgi Marmadashvili was also rushed back to make his debut. The game itself was very intense, and considering the poor form Bragantino were in I was impressed with how they started. The game came towards the end of their notoriously gruelling season, so there's no doubt they had the edge in regards to fitness, so seeing them just take the lead just before half-time wasn't a big shock, even if it was disappointing. We started to look a bit more like ourselves after half-time, and the chances started to flow. Just as I was starting to consider my options from the bench, Shea Lacey gave us parity on the hour mark. We pushed and pushed for a winner, with extra time being something we definitely wanted to avoid. Finally, we got one, when Shea Lacey whipped in a free-kick and Evann Guessand's header was deflected into his own goal by Kevin Lomónaco. Man of the Match: Mason Mount (Manchester United) I said in the last post that I was looking for four points from Premier League games against Manchester City and Arsenal to get us back on track, and then we needed to be perfect. We've made a pretty good start at that. We beat our city rivals for the third time on the bounce, before kicking off our Champions League campaign with a fantastic win over Inter. The Arsenal game was a very even, but pretty poor, affair. We could have nicked it, but then in fairness so could they, so I was happy to take the point and run. Liverpool are the only 'big' side who have consistently had the better of us so far in the save, so I was of course thrilled to draw them in the Carabao Cup. They played a relatively full strength side, except for in goal, where Harvey Davies was given a game. We we so poor we barely even managed to trouble him, and limply crashed out of the competition. We bounced back in style against Everton, using an adjusted build-up structure that I'll probably write about at some point. Game of the Month Premier League [6/38] | Everton [Old Trafford] | Match Information | Goalscorers: Kobbie Mainoo (2), Ruben van Bommel, Bruno Fernandes (pen) As I mentioned, this was the first game where I tweaked the system a little bit, and boy did it look lovely. We used the 4-2-3-1 against RB Bragatino and looked a bit lethargic, and for the rest of the month moved to the 4-3-3 that I like to use in the big games. When it came to Everton though, I felt we really needed to put down a marker for the season, and I felt the key was unlocking the potential of the midfield a little bit. As I mentioned, I'll probably do a full post on my thought process behind that pretty soon. When Leon Bailey put Everton ahead after a minute, I was nervous. There had been no time to see whether we had settled well, they literally kicked off and carved us open immediately. We did settle, though, and when Kobbie put us back on terms we definitely deserved it. From there, it was dominance. Goals from van Bommel and Bruno from the penalty spot took the game away from Everton, before Mainoo grabbed his second just after the hour mark. Man of the Match: Alejandro Garnacho (Manchester United) October 2025 The first perfect month of the save. The new version of the 4-2-3-1 is working like a dream and we look capable of scoring against anybody. The Leipzig game was frustrating, we came up against a man possessed in goalkeeper Niklas Hedl, but we finally got the breakthrough to secure a deserved victory. From there, October was as routine as could be. Norwich City were blown away despite scoring a couple of screamers of their own, then three consecutive clean sheets against Leeds United, AEK Athens and Bournemouth (huge shout-out for finally beating the only side to give us as much trouble as Liverpool do!), before we travelled up to Hull City and secured another comfortable win. October was also a big boost for a couple of new signings, with both Yussuf Poulsen and Mathys Tel scoring their first goals for the club. Game of the Month Champions League League Phase [2/8] | RB Leipzig [Old Trafford] | Match Information | Goalscorers: Rasmus Højlund, Odilon Kossounou, Marcus Rashford; Loïs Openda As I mentioned above, Niklas Hedl had the game of his life here, but in the end it still wasn't enough as we managed to bag a late win. Loïs Openda put Leipzig ahead with their first shot of the game just after the half hour, at a time where we were threatening to go ahead ourselves. We showed that continued intent almost immediately through Højlund, and then set to work trying to grab a winner. Leipzig had a lot of the ball but did nothing with it, with just one more shot coming after their goal, and with time ticking away I was starting to worry that it would be another frustrating draw akin to many of our results last year. Late highlight, we get a corner. I think to myself 'Kossounou seems to be a bit more of a threat this year'... BANG! It's as if he heard me, and suddenly we feel like a team with an air of inevitability. We then grabbed an injury time third to seal the win through Marcus Rashford - a great moment considering the injury hit start to the season he's had. Man of the Match: Alejandro Garnacho (Manchester United) Premier League Table When the fixture list was announced, I'd have bitten your hand off if you offered me this position. We're only ten games into the season, and at worst will only be three points off top spot once the games in hand are played, despite having already faced all the rest of the 'big six'. We face Manchester City away in the middle of December; if we can get there with minimal points dropped, then we're right in the title race. Champions League Table Best team in Europe after three games - piece of cake, this! In all seriousness, the Inter game set the tone and we've looked really strong, but arguably our two toughest tests are yet to come. It'll be interesting to see how things shake out as we approach the end of the League Phase, with the likes of PSV Eindhoven, FC København and RB Salzburg showing they aren't just here to make up the numbers! In Other News... There's not a whole to focus on outside of results at the moment, although with plenty of money still available to spend the January transfer window is always in the back of my mind. I think the area I'd most like to address is centre-back, but I need to come up with a clear plan on how to go about it. My first thought is a sad one, as I'm a big fan. Lisandro Martínez hasn't played overly well throughout the entire save, and currently feels like the weakness in our strongest back four. If we could generate some interest in him, I'd probably be willing to let him go at the right price. That would leave us with Riccardo Calafiori and Luke Shaw as the only left-sided centre-back options. I like Calafiori, and at 23 he can still improve, but I see him more as a versatile squad option than somebody who can become part of our best centre-back pairing. As Luke Shaw gets older I do like the idea of him transitioning to become a full-time centre-back, his quality on the ball suits the demands of a modern centre-back perfectly and I think his physicality is an underrated part of his game. However, neither of these feel like options that will elevate us, they feel like viable solutions from the resources we already have. Perhaps it would be better to try and secure a dedicated option and let Shaw and Calafiori act as their support, which would also open up the pathway for Harry Amass a bit more? Arthur Theate interests me; he's 25 so wouldn't necessarily improve a lot, but is left-footed, great in the air and just an all-round solid defender. Nico Schlotterbeck would be a sensational signing, but he'd also be incredibly expensive and I'd need to be sure there wasn't a more viable alternative. Plus, there's no way Dortmund would let him leave mid-campaign. Another player I'd love to try to bring in, but would again have to be a summer signing rather than in January, is Jorrel Hato. He'd probably cost me £100m+, but could genuinely go on to be one of the best centre-backs of his generation. On the right side of central defence, I'm very happy with Odilon Kossounou, but I'm not as convinced by the options behind him. Geertruida is a talented player, but I see more value in him playing at right-back or in the pivot, and Eric García is solid, and has probably already justified his modest transfer fee, but in the biggest games I'm not sure I'd want to have to rely on him if it came to it. After Brighton's relegation last season, I briefly flirted with a move for Jan Paul van Hecke. He also attracted interest from Liverpool and Real Madrid, but he never got his move. If I were to go back in for him in January, I think I could get a deal done for £50-60m. However, despite possibly being a marginally better player than Kossounou, I'd question if he has the ability to physically dominate opponents like the most elite centre-backs do. Another option would be to splash the cash on somebody like António Silva, who at present is a very capable centre-back, but much like Hato could go on to be a truly incredible one. Perhaps then, I'd be better to sign a predominately left sided player, who could also serve as the first rotation option on the right where needed? Harry Maguire was a capable deputy on either side until we sold him last January, so we'd essentially be looking for an upgrade of that profile. That would almost certainly bring Jarrad Branthwaite into the conversation, especially since his market value seems to have dropped since last season. I'll definitely put some feelers out in January, and maybe even make a move if the right deal presents itself. Edited Tuesday at 14:09 by adam_otbfm 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DARREN06 Posted Wednesday at 00:43 Share Posted Wednesday at 00:43 On 01/09/2024 at 23:53, danyates8 said: I've come across this myself in virtually every save that I've started this year, the recent Blackburn save I was blogging a drastic example - played the previous seasons top 5 in the first 7 games and the first 3 games were 1st, 2nd and 3rd from the season prior too. I really like the players you have brought in, Geertruida I really like as a player with his versatility. I'd be interested to see a comparison between Onana and Mamardashvili too, my gut feeling says Mamardashvili will be your #1 in due course I too have used Geertruida beofre; the only problem is his flexibility means I used him all over the palce, but he then asked to be played in the 1 position where i had the most depth (midfield) so i actually had to sell him he was so upset by the end! So, a word of caution there with him! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
DARREN06 Posted Wednesday at 04:56 Share Posted Wednesday at 04:56 I didnt realise you were using a edited gaming file for this? As Nice isnt a feeder club in new FM 24 saves for me? Can I ask where you found this file? In terms of centre backs, i'd imagine a Hato/Silva CB partnership would set you up for a decade. Amortising their costs over that period of time and you've really got a bargin, im sure INEOs would approve! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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