Gilberto Silva

Yes, that was my initial point.

Fair - but I’m not a fan of the hard-coded “cross from deep” as that’s something he doesn’t do.

A “real” recreation is impossible due to the complexity of many of the roles in the team. For example, Ben Whites role can never fully be replicated as he will act as an “inverted full-back” one minute and then act as a “wing back” the next before turning into an “inverted wing-back”. So a true replication would require tinkering during matches from minute to minute which isn’t feasible for most. That’s before talking about the “left-eight” role amongst others.

For my sins, I started a Manchester United save. I figured with their current on and off-field issues, it would be an interesting re-build job. Fair to say that I struggled in the first season as the quality in the squad is severely lacking. I’ll break down the season by competition. Starting with the Premier League, we were Jekyll & Hyde all throughout the season. One minute, we looked like world-beaters and the next we looked like bottom-half material – which I guess is par the course with Manchester United lately. We finished with 65 points in 7th place thereby qualifying for the Europa Conference League which I have to say – I am disappointed with as I wanted at least Europa League qualification. One of the biggest problems we faced was conceding goals, we conceded far too many for my liking with 48 come the end of the season. Scoring goals was also a challenge as we only netted 59 which is simply not good enough. Our away form was definitely an issue as we only mustered seven wins on the road, mostly coming against sides I expect us to beat. We lost to all of the other “Big Six” clubs at Arsenal (2-0), Liverpool (5-2), Tottenham (3-1), Chelsea (1-0) and Manchester City (2-1) however in the reverse fixtures we won three, drew one and lost one. The domestic season could easily be split into thirds, as up to December we won only four of our opening 14 games, drawing two and losing the other seven. Not good enough. Whereas between December and March we managed go go unbeaten throughout all of December and not losing until 30th January (10 games, winning nine and drawing one before said defeat). Then we had other inconsistent run between February up until the end of the season recording seven wins, five draws and three defeats in those games. Next season we will be aiming for more consistency and definitely shoring up our defence in big away games – personnel could help. In the Champion’s League, we were handed a favourable draw in the group stages being pitted against Sparta Praha, Sevilla (who were relegated from La Liga!) and Red Star. We finished top comfortably with 13 points, winning four, drawing one whilst losing away at Red Star in a dead rubber. That saw us through to the last-16 in which we were drawn against Feyenoord – again I feel as though this was a kind draw. We scraped a 3-2 win in the first leg away from home, despite being 2-1 down until the 65th minute where Garnacho leveled before super-sub Scott McTominay scored the winner in the eighth minute of stoppage time (more on him later). The second leg was a killer. We took an early lead through Varane but succumbed to two late goals from Feyenoord in the 76th and 84th minute which took the tie to extra-time before heading to penalties. I fancied our chances as we had a good selection of penalty takers on the field. Amrabat, Eriksen, Fernandes, Martinez, Martial and Mount all converted spot-kicks whilst Feyenoord converted all of theirs, and then up stepped midfield revelation Kobbie Mainoo who skied his effort over the bar before Feyenoord scored the next to win the tie and knock us out at the last-16 stage. Very disappointed. Onto domestic competitions. Two trophies I thought we could have a good run at. We were drawn away against Tottenham in the Third round of the FA Cup and were duly dispatched 3-1. Not much to talk about here. The EFL Cup we beat Stockport 5-3 in the Third round before knocking out Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park thanks to a late Christian Eriksen goal. We met Arsenal in the quarter-final at the Emirates and ended up losing 1-0 in a close-fought game. So there we have it, 7th in the league, last-16 of the Champion’s League, 3rd round of the FA Cup and quarter-finals of the EFL Cup. Overall, a very disappointing season. Whilst I was not expecting a lot, I was definitely expecting more in the cup competitions especially. Now when it comes to player performances, we had a standout which was predictably Bruno Fernandes. Leading by example all season and only missing one league game through illness, he finished with 19 goals and 14 assists across 45 games which was by far our most productive outlet. Alejandro Garnacho had a stellar season playing on the right-wing with 8 goals and 10 assists from 41 starts. On the other wing, Marcus Rashford had a stinker, scoring only 6 and assisting 5 across 35 starts. I expect more. Kobbie Mainoo had an excellent season in midfield, ending with an average rating of 7.12 getting 2 goals and 5 assists as well. Rasmus Hojlund had a respectable first season in English football, leading the line well and netting 14 times in 40 appearances and bagging 4 assists. Next season I hope spreading the load up-front will help. Scott McTominay ended up being a hero on multiple occasions, often scoring off the bench in the final ten minutes to either earn a point or all three – he ended up with 9 goals in the league from only 5 starts and 20 sub appearences. Now, the good stuff – transfer time. Of the first team squad, I was looking to offload several players to bring in some extra money for signings as well as trimming the wage bill. Almost everyone was considered for a possible sale aside from Onana, Martinez, Mainoo, Fernandes, Garnacho and Hojlund. Our outgoings ended up looking like this: Brandon Williams (Sporting CP – free) Omari Forson (Nottingham Forest – free) Raphael Varane (Al-Nassr – free) Anthony Martial (Southampton – free) Shola Shoretire (Blackburn Rovers – free) Aaron Wan-Bissaka (Al-Ahli – £28m) Victor Lindelof (Newcastle United – £20.5m) Antony (Las Palmas – loan, £1.4m) Casemiro (Al-Hilal – £43m) Facundo Pellestri (Glasgow Rangers – loan, £1.9m) Christian Eriksen (West Ham United – £7m) I had already set some real-life moves via the editor before starting the game which also saw Fernandez, Greenwood and Van de Beek leave bringing our total income to 131m for the summer which I am very happy about. That left a fair chunk of money in the transfer budget (again Zirkzee and Yoro were already agreed transfers). I felt like we needed depth at center-back including someone that could come straight into the team to partner Martinez. We aso needed a number six to partner Mainoo as well as depth at right-back and in midfield. We started by bringing in Morten Hjulmand from Sporting CP for a fee eventually rising to £56m. Top player, works hard, brilliant in the tackle as well as having a decent passing range. I feel he will excel as our holding midfielder. With Casemiro and Eriksen leaving, I figured another midfielder would be required so I opted to activiate the £17m clause to sign Sofyan Amrabat on a permanent deal as he performed well as a squad player throughout season, no-brainer for me. In defence, we brought in Marc Guehi from Crystal Palace for a fee that could end up costing us £87m although I feel like he will prove value for money, he can partner Martinez for years and be a good mentor for Yoro (who will play a lot of cup games). I went through the market for right-back depth as I decided Diogo Dalot would be a starter for me, I ended up signing Nordi Mukiele from PSG on a season-long loan for £1.4m with an option to buy at the end of the season. I feel as though that will be unlikely as he is primarily a short-term option before I hope to bring in a younger option in January or the summer. I thought my business was done, but Kobbie Mainoo decided to pick up a four-month injury on the first game of the season – which forced me into bringing in another midfielder. I opted for Danilo from Nottingham Forest for a fee rising to £43m. He is a solid option to be third choice midfielder as I am happy with him covering both playmaker and ball-winning roles in the midfield. This leaves me with what I consider to be a much stronger squad than the previous season, our depth is: GK: Andre Onana, Altay Bayandir, Tom Heaton DR: Diogo Dalot, Nordi Mukiele DL: Luke Shaw, Tyrell Malacia DC: Marc Guehi, Lisandro Martinez, Lenny Yoro, Harry Maguire DMC: Kobbie Mainoo, Morten Hjulmand, Danilo, Sofyan Amrabat AMR/L: Amad Diallo, Jadon Sancho, Alejandro Garnacho, Marcus Rashford AMC: Bruno Fernandes, Mason Mount, Scott McTominay FC: Joshua Zirkzee, Rasmus Hojlund We have started the season very well, 5 wins from our opening seven games but we did lose away to Tottenham (3-1 again!!).

Haven’t had much chance to test it yet - but will let you know.

My interpretation: The Ben White is the most difficult to mirror. I would try an IFB with run wide with the ball as well as underlap right in the TI's - not sure if this would work or not though, my idea would be to get him to over and underlap. LB probably add sit narrower as a PI. Could put Havertz as a DLF but I think having both him and Odegaard in the AM slots makes more sense, perhaps add to mark the opposition CB's? Note, this is an interpretation if Jorginho/Partey + Rice both start, otherwise it would look a bit different.

The post says 400,000 database changes, so we’re talking 400,000 changes in the two-week window between the last update and when the cut-off was? It doesn’t make sense to release a data update on 9th April that had a cut-off of mid-February.

I feel really cheated by this update. Have waited to start a new save, when I could have used an unofficial update all this time?

The data update post says internal March deadline - so I don't understand why things in February haven't been updated. This whole game cycle has been really poor.

This is comical then. A data update released in April does not reflect managerial changes from two months ago? That particular managerial change even happened before the previous data update.

:-/

The new Manchester United board doesn't seem to have been reflected either, not sure if that's a licensing thing or if this update is simply old.

I updated but still see Hodgson as Palace manager. The database says 24.3.0, is that the newest one?

It's definitely been there the whole release, I guess you have been lucky up until now.

Click the 'i' next to stoppages and it will fix itself. also found that restarting my computer works too.

On the subject of scouting, below is the issue I am having. If anything, it's worse than before. Here is my focus criteria: Then, on the scouting assignments page it shows this he has 9 reports: Upon clicking the 9 reports it shows he has zero: Then when I go to recruitment focus it shows only 2 in progress: I started this assignment in July and it is now 1st November. So my scout has seen only 2 players that are a minimum 2 star current ability and 3 star potential all season? Scouting has been broken all season - and it is a huge part of the game. How am I supposed to squad build whilst not finding any players? the changelist said this was fixed, it has not been fixed.

I set up some scout recruitments (mostly 1 star min, three star potential - so you would think each scout would find plenty of players) and went on holiday and am still getting next to no recommendations. Scouting has been broken all year. This doesn't make any sense, surely they would have spotted a few players that meet those requirements?

What was the cut-off for the data update? As Roy Hodgson is still Crystal Palace manager.

Finished up season one with Forest. Ended up finishing 15th in the league, a fairly comfortable 11 points from the relegation places. The FA cup we got to the 5th round before losing to Wigan of all teams, 2-1 after extra-time and the league cup we were dumped out in the 3rd round losing to a strong Man United side. Stand-out players of the season were definitely Chris Wood (16 goals in 32 league appearances) and Taiwo Awoniyi (12 in 29). Elanga (11 goals, 6 assists in 36) and Hudson-Odo (7 goals, 6 assists in 36) i both impressed as well. In other areas, Murillo impressed at the back with an average rating of 6.90 over the season (highest of all defenders). Summer transfer window I was given a decent kitty of around £45m - wanted to add another few attacking players and replace some ageing defenders. Window ended up looking like this: Ins: Rodrigo Ribeiro (Sporting CP, £10.5m) Omari Benjamin (Arsenal, free) Jack Moorhouse (Manchester United, free) Zack Steffen (Manchester City, £1.1m) Lawrence Vigouroux (Burnley, £300,000) Gonzalo Montiel (Sevilla, £8.5m) Neal Maupay (Everton, £4m rising to £4.8m) Manor Solomon (Tottenham, loan) David Brooks (AFC Bournemouth, loan) Tobias Slotsager (OB, £3.8m) Wout Faes (Leicester City, £15m rising to £22m) Outs: Scott McKenna (Wolves, free) Joe Worrall (Crystal Palace, loan) Fin Back (Hibernian, free) Cheikou Kouyate (Cagliari, free) Felipe (Corinthians, free) Gustavo Scarpa (Al-Qadish, £4m) Matt Turner (Al-Shabab, loan) Odysseas Vlachodimos (West Ham, loan) Jonjo Shelvey (Luton, £3.9m) Hwang Ui-Jo (Al-Raed, £2.3m) Remo Freuler (Real Sociedad, £10.5m) Lewis O'Brien (Bologna, loan) Josh Bowler (Sheffield Wednesday, £5m) jonathan Panzo (AZ, loan) Richie Laryea (Luton, £2.3m) A fairly decent squad refresh - getting some high wages off the books. Leaves my squad for the upcoming season looking like: GK: Sels, Steffen, Vigoroux DR: Montiel, Williams DL: Richards, Toffolo, Aina DC: Niakhate, Murillo, Omabomidele, Faes DM: Dominguez, Sangare, Danilo, Yates AM: Gibbs-White, Brooks, Elanga, Hudson-Odoi, Solomon, Dennis FC: Awoniyi, Woods, Maupay, Ribeiro Still have a few weeks before the window closes, currently unsure on the left-back situation. I wanted Tavares back from Arsenal but they wouldn't loan him back and he refused to join on a permanent deal. I think with the additions of Brooks and Solomon in the attacking areas should give us enough for a push for mid-table this season.

Booted up a Union Berlin save with aims to get them regularly qualifying for Europe. Decided to adopt a similar strategy in terms of transfer and tactics. Recruitment will focus on players from the lower levels of the German pyramid whilst looking to unearth some players from the surrounding regions (Austria, Switzerland). Tactics-wise, I’m keeping with the 3-5-2 they seem to pivot toward in real-life. Want to keep compact and solid at the back and mainly create chances on the counter. This leads me to utilising the defensive and cautious mentalities for the first time in a long-term save. Hopefully I can defy the odds and keep Union in the top-half of the table on a limited budget. I also plan to integrate some of the academy players throughout the save, to start with the facilities are not great, but there are a couple of youngsters I feel can add depth to the squad in the second season. Will also help with European squad registration (if I succeed) as to start off with, there isn’t many homegrown talent at the club. My aim for the Champion’s League campaign is to try and sneak a third place finish in the group stage and give the Europa League a real go.

I don’t think we’re supposed to ask - as any mention of it has been completely ignored.

Whilst this is annoying - I find clicking the 'i' icon fixes it.

Ok thanks mate - are you aware of any way to change it? Perhaps I'll take a file from another skin if not.

Is there a way to remove the graphic of the user manager on the main menu? For whatever reason it's very laggy on my machine.

It was on the Athletic.