Football Manager 2012

Persian-Fred

Depends what you're after. Newcastle would give you a pretty good team already capable of doing well in the league, Sunderland are pretty stable everywhere but need improving, QPR will give you fun with transfers with loads of money to spend, and Swansea will be more of a challenge but they have some very good players already at the club.

Ralaks

Did the same, going to have a crack at Newcastle, pretty exciting squad.

Burrow

I did that with QPR, really great squad with low expectations aswell. Get yourself a decent keeper / centerhalf and you should be able to do well. Cissé is a fucking beast so far!

Sw33t

I chose the same. Only played a friendly so far, Cisse with a hat trick and a 9.8 rating where the rest of the squad played crap lol. May delete and start Swansea if this turns a bit shit.

Burrow

Destroyed the league leaders (Arsenal) 5-0 with QPR, with Cissé scoring his 3rd hat trick of the season (10 games into the season), Taraabt and SWP tearing up the wings.

Levo91

Well I only went and managed it didn't I .

Won everything, I'll give a brief summary of the season and some of my results.

Community Shield

Started the season well with a slim 1-0 win over City.


League

Pretty much spent the whole season in the top 2 and was pushed most of the way by Tottenham & City. Finished with 92 points which was 29 wins, 5 draws and 4 losses. Scored 96 & conceded 26.

League Cup

Put together a good run with the youngsters and players on the fringe in the League Cup. Despatched Swansea in the final.


FA Cup

Took this one a little more seriously but still got through with relative ease.


Champions League

Got a relatively easy group with playing Lille, Shakthar & Dortmund. I won't list the group results but go straight into the later rounds.



Don't think I've ever managed a clean sweep so early into the game, never mind the 1st season. Didn't bring anyone in from apart youth players. Signed Busquets to come in for the 2nd season.

Hopefully won't get bored now but hoping to find motivation and build a legacy and hopefully a stadium named after me

Burrow

Reputation got so much to do with how this game works, it's unreal. I made a United-team with abysmal reputation, then fielded a team with all youngsters (Pogba, Daehlie, Januzaj and the likes) and destroyed teams. I won 5-0 vs City away, did great in the CL etc. Great fun

Sw33t

How do you mean reputation exactly?

Your starting reputation? Such as past semi-pro footballer, pro, international, etc?

Burrow

Nah, the clubs reputation. A well-known club got a reputation of like 8-9000, whilst lower league clubs might go down to 1000-2000. It's in the editor / FMRTE, and it's great to lower your clubs reputation if you dont want the board to expect too much from your club etc.

Burrow

By the way; Playing a new game with United at the moment. Managing the reserves aswell, and it's really so much fun! Welbeck and Owen is tearing it up down there, and it allows me to play Pogba as much as possible aswell Larnell Cole is great by the way!

Snow

Friendlies don't mean shit. I arrange them myself to get the most money out of them and I let the assistant handle them because it takes less time and players will reach their fitness level.

In my 2nd season with Newcastle I played about 9 friendlies. Think I lost 7, won one and drew 1. It was mainly against teams like Juventus, Sevilla etc. After 24 games I'm top of the league and I've only got Chelsea left to play of all the top teams. The season before I finished 10th. And it's the normal player database.

Sw33t

Yeah, started my Newcastle game properly now. Brought in Dempsey for 5m and Paul Scharner for 2.5. Want Scharner as a squad player as he's good as CM, DM and CB and good cover. Dempsey scored a wonder goal on his debut, the winner in a 3-2 win against Sunderland when I had 10 men after Steven Taylor got sent off.

Games so far:
Newcastle 3-2 Sunderland
Everton 4-2 Newcastle (Tiote got sent off in the 16th minute and after going 1-0 and got fucked from there).
Southampton 1-2 Newcastle (CC)
Newcastle 3-1 Norwich
Blackburn 1-1 Newcastle

Cisse, Ba, Ben Arfa and Dempsey have been quality, but defence is a bit crap at the moment, leaking stupid goals.

Liking managing them though tbh. Should pick it up once the team become familiar with my formation.

Burrow

It's probably hard to do with the new update and all, but Walker seems to be available within the first 6 months of the game and is quality in defense. Should be able to get yourself Tomkin from West Ham aswell as a viable backup CB.

Leroy The Red

I never understand why people play 1 player games with big sides or teams with lots of money cos it just gets stupidly easy very quickly. By the looks of it, nobody here is really being tested. I dare someone in here to pick Plymouth and keep us updated on how they're doing.
League two/in debt/short of players, perfect file (if you want a challenge that is)

RedMist99

I hate this game. Effectively ended my title bid



2 own goals in the last minute. Ar they seriously taking the piss? That's without even going into my ridiculous injury crisis.

Makes me wonder why I bother

Snow

Or take a Bulgarian or Ukranian team to Europe, that isn't one of the big ones.

Definitely a whole different game being a big team if you're playing with a friend.

Varun_Utd

Yep, started off with United, bar one FA cup, won everything on offer in 3 seasons. Playing with everton now. 2mil transfer budget, wafer thin squad. still won the league the first season. 2nd after about 8 games this season..

got bored of FM now though. dont see myself playing beyond this season. starting off with united killed it for me. 3 seasons and pretty much no challenge.

mr.suave

I feel your pain. Sometimes the game just decides it's your time... then, over the course of about 3 months, repeatedly fucks you over over with a series of completely unrealistic events.

Snow

Just finished my 2nd season with Newcastle. I think it's fair to say I overachieved.

League


Reason for league position


This probably helped as well


This is why I think I overachieved


My squad (mostly)


My tactics and first team in last 11 unbeaten games (Cabaye and Weiss for Henriksen and Granero my usual first 11)


And my transfer this season



In the cup games I threw in my younglings and didn't do good. Wasn't in Europe because I finished 9th last season.

Snow

Gylfi Sigurðsson was the player of the year and Kolbeinn Sigþórsson waas the young player of the year

For the next season I get a wopping 10m budget. Imagine that. I don't expect to make the top 4 again with the added European games but I'll try to make it.

Leroy The Red

Rookie mistake As hard as it is, you must not start off FM with United.

Yeah, big team games with mates are epic, competing for the best players and titles, unless your mate turns into a fag and quits when he's not doing as well as you.

cw1984

I've been a long term fan of CM then FM but haven't really been into the last few editions and barely played last year's but, as uaual, I'm getting the itch to play.

How do you lot rate this years version so far?

Ralaks

Only played one game myself, but what a game!!

Ba got injured in the last friendly and up steps Leon Best instead and assists 3 goals in a 6-0 victory against Arsenal(!). Cisse bagged 4 as well. Did not expect such a result when I saw I played Arsenal in the opener.

As for transfers I bought Christian Eriksen, Markus Henriksen, Ryan Shawcross and Steven Fletcher.

Needed another decent striker since I plan to play with 3 up front (Ba-Cisse-Fletcher) and Fletcher is left footed so he is a perfect fit for the right striker. I want to try to keep it as British as possible with a few exceptions

Snow

Best game so far. Long time since I've been as hooked. Lots of positive changes from last year. Might need to get used to it a bit and you'll discover new things along the way even though you've played it for countless hours.

Snow

So Newcastle get money after the update?

Leroy The Red

Fucking retarded game, I had rich owners who gave me budgets of about 20m mill a season for 2 years straight. This while having a loan debt of about 30 million. Then for some stupid reason they left the club and some cheap cunt came in and next thing I know I'm cashless and now this has happened.

Ralaks

I've not played with them before so I've no idea what they had then but I think the budget was at 10m if you pick mid table finish. Went with European Qualification (Euro League) and got 12.5m

Snow

Who did you sell then? Henriksen cost me 4m the first summer. I've managed to spend 28m in 5 transfer windows so far but only because I've sold for 19m. And gotten rid of huge wage hoggers.

Ralaks

Only sold Løvenkrands (1.1m) but I generally buy players over 48 months, rarely get a game going past the first couple of seasons so I've yet to get hammered financially due to that.

cw1984

Anything in particular that's better than last years?

KingCantona87

At the moment I fancied a challenge and played with Altrincham in the Blue Sq North for a bit. At the moment I just can't seem to put the ball in the net! Seem to be creating chance after chance after chance and not putting them away.

I obviously don't have world class finishers and my striker (I play a 4-5-1) has got good finishing, off the ball and anticipation stats for a player of that level, around 12-14.

Any advice for me would be gratefully received.

Levo91

Second season with United and I'm currently in the race for 7 trophies, 3 are already secured.

Snow

It's mostly a lot of minor things. Contract negotiations. Tactics screen. Pretty much everything about the match engine. Team talks. General AI get's better every year. More human and real if you will.
Player search screen. Training screen. Different screens you look at, for example when you click on a player there's a new overview screen. Same with clubs.

You have more control over everything but the computer handles better the things you don't want to bother with.

Burrow

Playing as United now, and just destroyed Liverpool 6-1 at Anfield. Suarez got his 2nd yellow for protests after he scored a disallowed goal, and Owen scored the last two goals. Best.Game.Ever

SATA

Right, just got down to playing this for the first time. Any cheap and good players to get? I'm using Newcastle

Levo91

Sime Vrsjalko - RB - £3m
Milan Badelj - CM/AM - £4M
Andile Jali - DM/CM/AM - £500k

DouLou

I used to love playing lower league games. I don't think I've managed a top flight team in FM for nearly a decade.

You can have some joy scouting for finishing attributes. Pacey strikers with good finishing can wreck lower leagues. Also pacey wingers can to. But finding them can be difficult, I'd usually focus those attributes over most.

Also looking for players in their late 30's is a decent shout, you can get some really strong players in during the final stages of their career that can carry you up a league or two.

I was never great tactically... I'd always play simple 4-4-2 formations (with most settings to default balanced) and focus on getting the right players/coaches. A couple of strong MC's (usually old guys with good all round stats). But cause of the pace I'd focus passing down flanks and try to utilise the strikers pace. I never play offside at lower league cause they are usually to shite to get it right.

Ralaks

My three next games: United (a), Liverpool (a) and Arsenal (a). Crazy scheduling. Ba ended up getting injured in the last game as well when I lost to a Sunderland team playing a midfield two consisting of O'Shea and Kyrgiakos and a strike partnership in Chamakh and Bendtner. Fuck me that's average.

Levo91

Well & truely bored with my United save after collecting 9 trophies in 2 years.

Going for a challenge with my hometown Derby.

Burrow

Just won the Double in my first season with United. Didnt buy anyone, and was in charge of the Reserves aswell. Won the reserve-league with a whopping 18 points, though lost 5-1 to Barca in the 2nd leg on the CL Semi (7-3 on agg.) Going to take charge of the U18 in the 2nd season, lots of promising players coming through!