Football Manager 2014

[Gazz]

They've got Gary Medel, therefore they are unbeatable.

[EddieG]

Wut...

This is the first time in many FM's where I've seen a dutch team in the finals of the Champions League... Well, one that isn't controlled by a user.

I haven't seen it since FM 07 (although I didn't play 08-11) where Feyenoord in some games were rather OP.

[JasonM]

The only thing I personally absolutely hate about AI controlled Ajax/PSV/Feyenoord, it's that they have a ridiculous tendency to buy a metric shit-tonne of East-European and/or South American talents.

I'm not talking about 1-2 either, I'm talking about having seen squads with only 3 homegrown players in there.

Let's see how much Eastern European and South American players real life Ajax have... Oh right, none.

[Mad Jack]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arkadiusz_Milik

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Murić

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dejan_Meleg

?

[Whisper]

Finished my first season at United. Coasted to the title, sealing it with 4 games remaining (though we then went and lost 2 of those 4 games away at Everton and City). Finished 10 points clear of Everton with Chelsea and City beating Arsenal into 4th. Liverpool were way back in 11th. They sacked Brendan Rodgers earlier in the season and hired Spalleti, who is now on the verge of a sacking as well.

In the Champions League we went out to Barcelona in the Semis. Won the first leg 3-2 at Old Trafford, but were well beaten 2-0 away from home. Didn't help that we lost Van Persie for a month and, due to Rooney's poor form, I brought him back too early for the second leg and he got injured again, missing the end of the season. This led to me dropping Rooney for the FA Cup final, starting with Ings and Welbeck up top. Beat Spurs 2-0 thanks to two Adnan Januzaj goals. Had Van Persie stayed fit, I think we could've won the Champions League, but the team probably isn't quite good enough just yet. Welbeck finished as the club's top scorer with 34 goals in all competitions, 9 ahead of RVP. Ings was third with 13.

Into the summer now and I've spent most of my transfer budget bringing in youngsters. Got a 5 star rated 16 year old striker from Espanyol for £6m - plan on getting him some game time asap to ensure he meets that potential. I do need a decent centre back though. With Vidic and Ferdinand leaving I'm left with Jones, Evans and Smalling.

[stokeriño]

LFCMarshall's updates are good. I don't have FM14, so haven't played his newest, but I follow his update thread and it looks as good as ever. It should work if you have a legit copy and the latest update.

I use fluid attacking too 99% of the time. Whenever I try other things it doesn't seem to work as well.

That does actually look pretty sweet, but there's a new update out in four days, I'll wait until then

Sorry I didn't respond. I actually haven't been back to my home computer to check since you asked. >_> The one I got wasn't LFCMarshall's (by someone called...pr0, or something?), but I have had LFCMarshall's in the past and they were good.

Incidentally, a nice start to the season with Liverpool coming to Stamford Bridge on the opening day. Schurrle scored in the first two mintues. Henderson got himself sent off for a two-footed lunge. Liverpool didn't threaten all game. Fun times all round.

[Roster Depth Sicko No. 2]

Ahh, don't worry about it. I like the look of this LFCMarshall one, so I'm just going to go with that once the new one's out.

[DavidMarrio]

Update on my Brighton game.

Won the Championship: Won 28, Drew 10, Lost 8 and finished ahead of Leicester by 13 points. Bit disappointed as I wanted to try and break 100 points but could only manage 94.

So with the squad being good enough to win the Championship, I felt it needed major investment in order to be good enough for survival in the Prem. With Stoke getting relegated. Here's my team now with the new additions

GK: Benoit Costil (Free transfer)

DR: Luis Pedro Cavanda (Signed on loan from Lazio)
DC: Ryan Shawcross (Signed for 9.5mil)
DC: Eder Alverez Balanta (Signed for 7.5mil)
DL: Jonathan Silva

DMC: Scott Brown (Signed from Celtic for 7.5mil)

MC: Gareth Barry (Free transfer)

AMR: Marko Arnautovic (Signed from Stoke for 5.5mil)
AMC: Nick Powell (Signed on loan from Man.Utd)
AML: Tom Ince (Free transfer)
ST: Jordan Rhodes (Signed for 8.5mil)

Bench:
DR: Bruno

DC: Craig Cathcart
MC: Andrea Orlandi

AMR: David Lopez

AMC: Will Buckley

AML: Gary Mackay-Steven

ST: Leonardo Ulloa

Also signed Patrick Woods from Crewe, he's only 16 but looks like he could be immense in the future. Sold Berisha to Hull for 4.3mil due to him sulking and I thought I'd sell him whilst I can make a profit on him. I had 40 mil to spend and I've spent it all.

Decided to edit my tactic from last season slightly by moving one of the centre midfielders to play as a defensive midfielder. My problem last season was although I could score plenty I was susceptible at times to conceding. I only kept 14 cleansheets in the league last season so with my newly bolstered defence I shouldn't concede as many.

[R.W.]

Strange question...

but does anyone know of a skin where it doesn't show the player faces?

[Hobo]

Did I mention I have signed Robinho? Seemed like a thing to do after my Demba Ba and Junoir Hoilett deals fell through due to China's foreign player rules and also the fact I can't ship out either of my two highly paid left backs.

[JasonM]

Strange question...

but does anyone know of a skin where it doesn't show the player faces?

SI removed the feature to disable the faces.

I've found this thread where someone has some code to edit your skin: http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/368994-Disabling-player-pictures

Edited August 14, 2014 by Jasonmufc

[stokeriño]

FINALLY got the Comeback King achievement!

Lost count of the number of times where I'd come back from being two goals down in, say, the 60th minute...but in all this time I'd never been two down at half-time and won.

Away at Leicester, 2-0 turned into 2-4 thanks to Hazard, Costa twice and Salah.

[DavidMarrio]

Sold Will Buckley and Lua Lua to QPR for a combined 12mil. Signed Stanciu for 7.5mil.

So far in the Prem I drew 2-2 with Villa away in the opening game, conceded a 87th minute N'Zogbia goal which was highly frustrating before going on to smash Cardiff 3-1 at home with Stanciu, Rhodes (pen) and Shawcross bagging the third.

Drew with Preston however in the Carling Cup, won on pens but highly frustrated with some of the players. I think i'm still in the middle of a feeling out period so once the team has had a few competitive games under its belt hopefully I can cut out the goals being conceded.

[stokeriño]

Still some tinkering required with this 4-2-3-1 fluid/attacking setup. For two games in a row now (Bayer Leverkusen away, Newcastle away) I've been 1-0 down come the 80th minute and have only won 2-1 with utterly ridiculous last-gasp goals. Can't be relying on that...

Plus I drew 2-2 with West Brom at home (1-0 up, then 1-2 down). This displeased me.

[Baddar]

I always feel like whenever I 'go for it', it bites me on the arse.

[Gazz]

I've always found I create more chances using balanced or counter than attacking or overload. I just find a more patient buildup leads to better opportunities for that killer pass into the box.

My full backs score regularly from the overlap too, which with a more direct attacking style, they'd never get into position in time.

[stokeriño]

Yeah, which is why my default in any game is "Control"...unless I fear the other team and scale it back to "Counter" or similar.

The only time I've really been happy using "Attacking" as default was when I spent a couple of seasons at Juventus on the same save from the diary I ended after the 2018 World Cup. Joined Juve thereafter and played Attacking with a 4-2-3-1 wherein the midfield two were both DMs rather than CMs. The absolutely beastly regen striker was probably more responsible for the tactic's success than anything else, though.

[R.W.]

Strange question...

but does anyone know of a skin where it doesn't show the player faces?

SI removed the feature to disable the faces.

I've found this thread where someone has some code to edit your skin: http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php/368994-Disabling-player-pictures

Seems like a lot of effort.

Boo-urns.

[Lineker]

I had a brilliant thing like that on FM08 where it added a whole huge panel breaking down every last one of my players matchday performance stats (percentages and all) over the course of an entire season. That was ruddy brilliant.

[DavidMarrio]

Jordan Rhodes has been awful for me. But I think that's because I always seem to struggle to get my strikers to score, it always seems like the attacking midfield three scores the goals.

I've got Stanciu as an advanced playmaker on attack and the two wingers on attack with Rhodes as a poacher. Stanciu is on roam from position and move into channels whilst Rhodes is on hold position and move into channels.

There any advice in how I can get Rhodes to score more?