Football Manager 2010

Hi all…Wish you all a very Happy New year. I know FM 2010 has been out for sometime now and I am very late in my post about it. But I guess better late than never right? So here I am writing about a few of my experiences playing the wonderful game i.e. Football Manager 2010!

As usual, I began the game with Arsenal, my favourite team of all… And I must say I was a little disappointed at the ratings given to some of the promising youngsters at Arsenal like Aaron Ramsey, Carlos Vela, Jack Wilshere, Alexandre Song, Gibbs and the likes. They all peaked at a maximum of 3 stars. In real life though I think many, if not all of them have the potential to be top player for Arsenal. Ramsey and Song in particular have been sensation so far this season. Anyways I have never understood how FM 2010 players are rated anyways… Some of the ratings are such a load of crap while some sure are spot on.

So since Song and Denilson are not so good on the game (peaking at 2 and a half stars each) I went and bought a couple of defensive minded Brazilian Midfielders in Sandro and Hernanes (both peaking at 3 stars). Hernanes was already at 3 stars and so ready to start the first team for me alongside Fabregas in the midfield.

Next i bought a left midfielder in Jovetic who was promised to be a 3 and a half star player by my scout but seems to be showing a peak at 3 stars now. which is not that bad. I also bought Ibrahim Afellay who again is a 3 star player for Arsenal. Now i have enough good options in attacking midfield in Arshavin, Walcott, Nasri, Jovetic and Afellay. Afellay was a little upset because of the competition for places, but after i gave him a few games on the run he cooled off.

I have also bought some players for the future like Angel Di Maria (he is currently at 2 stars and peaks at 2 and a half). I am training him to play at left back since I sent both my back up left backs on loan, i.e. Gibbs at Everton and Traore at Udinese. Defensively i have bought Per Mertesacker who has been an awesome signing for me. I played him alongside Gallas for the first half, but since Gallas’s pace was slowing down with his age, I am giving Vermaleen more of a run in the second half of first season. Early February I have bought Chellini and De rossi who will join me next season. I will sell Hernanes then and use De rossi and Fabregas in the midfield. I have bought Hamsik as a backup for either of the staring midfielders.

I also sent Vela on loan to Udinese. Song went to Wigan for a season long loan spell and seems to have settled well. Extended Rosicky’s contract for 2 more years only to put him on the market once he signed. He is getting old and is injury prone. Sent Almunia on loan to Barca/Madrid and bought Hugo Lloris who is twice the keeper of Almunia. Bought a great Spanish young Keeper, I cant remember the name now but his potential is like 3.5 stars which is like one of the best for Keepers as far as I can tell.

Luckily none of my players were injured long term. RVP was sensational in the first season scoring almost a goal a game overall. Dzeko also played well averaging just lower than a goal a game. Eduardo contributed well when called upon, though his playing time was limited due to the good form of both Robin Van Persie and Edin Dzeko. Eduardo is a decent striker though at 3 stars.

Good first season overall so far. Second should only be better as I am on my way to win all 4 trophies that I was into. Which should mean decent money available for transfers for next season and also I have already signed De rossi(4.5 stars) and Chellini(4 stars) who are coming in at the begining of the transfer window. I have also signed Robert Enke (very sad to hear about his rcent death in real life) and Sergio Canales and Juan Roman Riquelme all on free transfers and they should also be joining my team at the start of the season.

All in all a very good first season so far.

Now lets come to the important part. What FM 2010 wonderkids have i signed for my team so far?

Well I don’t remember all of them offhand and I havent got the game running now so pardon any spelling mistakes. Below is a list of amazing young talent that I have amassed at the club so far:

1. Lorenzo Crisetig from Inter
2. Stephan El Shaarawi from Genoa I suppose
3. Ryder matos from Fiorentina(bought for some 3-4 millions, but Benfica and a few other clubs happily offer 8-10 millions for him in a couple of years)
4. Adrian from Spain (bought for 3.5 million and sold in 6 months for 6 million to Birmingham)
5. Simone David cheap young Keeper (Juventus want him already after just 6 months in my team)
6. Kyriakos Papadopoulos
7. Gerson from Cuzerio
8. Luiz Guillherme cheap GK from Brazil

There are a few more good ones. Will post about them later. Let me know if you have bought any good wonderkids yourselves and how they have matured for you.

Will update more details soon! Cheer!!!

Football Manager 09: – second coming continued

 To continue with more on the team I am currently managing in the FM 09 series. I have attached some pics of the various aspects of the game. Hope the same are helpful to you all… 

Secured job as of now…and why not with 5 titles each in the last 2 seasons… 🙂

Great looking personal summary…That’s coz if I lose a match I press ‘Ctrl + Shift + R’ 😉

Current Squad…Great, isnt it?I need a good keeper who has a 5/5 though…any suggestions?

Assistant reports… Like you see… very few players with less than 5 stars on potential!!!

Reserve team… Look at some of the names in it… Great players… but with the quality I have in the squad I had to send some really good players out on loan.

Reserve team assistant reports… good back up players to stand up and be counted when called upon…

Great potential coming through at the club… screen 1

Lots of young players are out on loan too to get some much needed first team exposure!

Great potential coming through at the club… screen 2

First Team tactics… V attacking 4-1-3-2 formation, isn’t it?

First Team tactics… Team instruction page…When giving team instructions do not forget to assign free kick takers and penalty and corner takers etc…

To know the best order for players to take the above corners and penalties, Just click on the views above the GK mentioned against Steve Mandana for e.g. there u will see a tab called attributes, you can choose to select the following attributes for the following skills and then sort it by clicking on the short name of that attribute: –

1.       Captains: – Influence : Choose View – Attributes – Influence (then sort by clicking on the short name Inf)

2.       Playmakers: – Choose View – Position – then choose all midfielders (drag the player name and drop it on the right hand side.

3.       Target Men: – Choose View – Position – then choose all forwards and strikers

4.       Penalty takers: – Choose View – Attributes – Penalty Taking (then sort by clicking on the short name Pen)

5.       Free Kick Takers: – Choose View – Attributes – Free Kicks (then sort by clicking on the short name Fre) see screen shots below for E.g.

Choose Free Kicks, and then sort by clicking on the column heading Fre…

 

Drag and put the player on the right side of the screen...

First Team tactics… Tactics I use in away or tough games…

I have also been recently been assigned as the Manager of the Spanish National team…

Great players lined up… It’s placed at 9th in the Fifa rankings… I am aiming at top 3 by the end of this season.

I am already through to the latter half of the season now. Have sold Tevez for 56 Mil and  bought Benzema (40Mil) and Tranquillo Barnetta(6Mil).

Guys let me know how u liked the post! If you have any queries, do write a comment and I will help out as I can…

Keep playing Football Manager 2009!!! The game rocksJ

Football Manager 2009

Hi Guys…Since I have started posting again, thought I should write something about the latest offering from the FM series, the “Football Manager 2009”.

I started playing the series since there 2008 edition but since then, boy have I got hooked onto it or what? Keep having arguments with my wife as to why I keep playing that game at any free minute I get…

The 2009 game is great and barring a few players who they haven’t rated as highly as I would’ve liked, the database is right up to the mark and the player capabilities are all very appropriately done.

Started playing with Real Madrid as they offer the highest transfer money at the beginning of the season that I found… Also they have a large squad, so further money can be raised by selling the unwanted players… Kept on playing as the Real Madrid Manager for more than 5 seasons and won all trophies each year. Became the best manager on the game et al. Had a blast… Next I took up Barcelona, as I wanted to see the likes of Bojan, Messi and Eto play for me (I could not buy them earlier as Barca wouldn’t sell to their Rival team). Again awesome fun, but was disappointed to see that the transfer money being offered was extremely meager…  The trophies followed the same way as in Madrid and I kept playing for 5 odd seasons as Barca Manager too… Now I took up Arsenal in the BPL, one of my favorite teams. They are weak to start with, but once u keep playing with them and add a couple of quality players you survive and once the quality of the youngsters like Ramsey, Wilshere, Vela and Walcott starts coming through, there is no turning back. Even Bendtnar & Denilson are pretty good on the game. I’ve played 2 seasons with Arsenal and won all major and minor trophies.

Now coming to the strategy and players I have used in achieving the success with all these clubs…

Following are the good young quality players I’ve found on the game. There may definitely be more but once u find one with a team you are bound to stick to those even when u change the team… So the people who disagree or have found someone better in those positions, do leave a comment and I could try those players in my games…

Strategy: –

I usually used the 4-1-3-2 strategy as depicted below…

Goalkeeper

Def /Wing Back Right            Central Def                 Central Def       Def /Wing Back Left

Central Mid /Defensive Mid

Attacking Mid /Winger Right          Attacking Mid Center        Attacking Mid /Winger left

Striker / Forward Center     Striker / Forward Center

I will post the tactics screen from one of my games later. But it’s usually very attacking with decent creativity and long/direct passing with high tempo.

Players: –

Now we come to the Players which I found to be good in the positions as depicted above: –

Goalkeepers: – The best Goal-Keeper I found in the game was Iker Casillas, no second thoughts to that. Only Gigi Buffon might even come close. But otherwise Casillas beats all others. Below is a list of some good goalkeepers not necessarily in the order of there Quality: –

Sr. No.	Name	Team they are playing for at the start of the game	Comments	Potential Rating
1	Iker Casillas	Real Madrid	Simply the best keeper in the game	6/6
2	Gigi Buffon	Juventus	Also equally good, but is already 30+ when the game starts so he may get old in few years and might not be as good.	5/6
3	Victor Valdes	Barcelona	Very good for Barcelona	4/5
4	Petr Cech	Chelsea	Another good keeper	4/5
5	Igor Akinfeev	CSKA Moscow	Very good keeper	4/5
6	Guillermo Ochoa	America	Very good keeper	4/5
7	Rene Adler	German league	Very good keeper	4/5
8	Hugo Lloris	Lyon	Good young keeper	4/5
9	Sergio Asenjo	Valladolid	Best young keeper	4/5
10	Vincenzo Fiorillo	Sampordia	Good young keeper	3/5

There are or may be a few others and you are free to comment on the same.

Right Back/Defender Right: – Sergio Ramos is probably the best Right Back in the game. Surprisingly Daniel Alves who has been phenomenal for Barca this Season is rated only 3/5 and his rating does change to 4/5 at times, but that’s that. For me he too could have been 5/5. Another funny thing is that the Silva brothers at Man United have been given very poor ratings. But we have seen Rafael play and delight one and all. So that’s another glitch in the game. I made Mirlaem Pjanic of Lyon to train at right back and he moulded very well and was a 5/5 player for me playing as right back.

Sr. No.	Name	Team they are playing for at the start of the game	Comments	Potential Rating
1	Sergio Ramos	Real Madrid	Simply the best Right-Back in the game	5/5
2	Micah Richards	Manchester City	Very good Centre back and equally good Right sided Defender	5/5
3	Bacary Sagna	Arsenal	Very consistent for Arsenal in the game, just as in real life	4/5
4	Christian Zapata	Udinese	Very good Defender Right and Centre	4/5
5	Bartosz Solomon	Brescia	Good young right wing back or Right midfielder	4/5
6	Daniel Opare	Real Madrid	Good and Cheap young Right back	4/5
7	Miralem Pjanic	Lyon	Excellent Right Midfielder – good modified/re-trained Right back	5/5
8	Lorenzo De Silverstri	Lazio	Very good wing back	4/5
9	Davide Santon	Inter	One of the best young right back and Mid	4/5
10	Darijo Srna	Shaktar	Very good and influential Right back & Midefielder	4/5

Left Back/Defender Left: – The best Left back or Left defender in the team would be Gael Clichy and I should say rightly so. He is rated 5/5. There are a lot of other good ones too like Gareth Bale, Armand Traore, Giorgio Chiellini, Young Mohammadu Sakho, Real Madrid’s Marcelo etc.

Sr. No.	Name	Team they are playing for at the start of the game	Comments	Potential Rating
1	Gael Clichy	Arsenal	Simply the best Left-Back in the game	5/5
2	Gareth Bale	Tottenham	Very good at free kicks and equally good Left sided mifielder	5/5
3	Giorgio Chiellini	Juventus	Very good Centre back and equally good Left sided Defender	4/5
4	Mamadou Sakho	PSG	Very good Defender Left and Centre – great stats	5/5
5	Marcelo	Real Madrid	Very good young left wing back	4/5
6	Armand Traore	Arsenal	Good young Left wing back	4/5
7	Yuri Zhirkov	CSKA	Excellent Left Midfielder – good Left back	4/5
8

Central Defender: – There are a lot of good young defenders in the game like Gerard Pique, Micah Richards, Mamadou Sakho, Zapata, Ezequiel Garay, Pepe, Giorgio Chiellini, Federico Fazio, Johnny Heitinga etc

Sr. No.	Name	Team they are playing for at the start of the game	Comments	Potential Rating
1	Gerard Pique	Barcelona	Very good and versatile young defender/Defensive Midfielder	5/5
2	Micah Richards	Man City	Excellent Young Defender	5/5
3	Mamadou Sakho	PSG	Promising young defender	5/5
4	Christian Zapata	Udinese	Very good young defender	4/5
5	Ezequiel Garay	Racing Santander	Versatile young defender and good at free kicks	4/5
6	Pepe	Real Madrid	Consistent performer	4/5
7	Giorgio Chiellini	Juventus	Huge potential	5/5
8	Federico Fazio	Sevilla	Promising & versatile youngster	4/5
9	Johnny Heitinga	Atletico Madrid	Very hyped up but lives up to it	5/5
10	Phillipe Mexes	Roma	Very famous and all scouts recommend highly	5/5

Some other good young defenders include Kyriakos Papadopoulos(Greece),  Gerson (Brazil), Thiago Heleno (Brazil) or Thiago Silva ( Brazil), Jack Rodwell etc.

Defensive Midfielder: – Lot of good Def midfielders are available on the game with the likes of Toulalan, Camacho, Javi Martinez, Miguel Veloso, Lorik Cana, Mikel, Gago, De La Red, Rafael Carioca, Arouca, Diarra etc…

Sr. No.	Name	Team they are playing for at the start of the game	Comments	Potential Rating
1	Ignacio Camacho	Atletico Madrid	Very good and versatile young Defensive Midfielder	5/5
2	Javi Martinez	Athletic Bilbao	Excellent Young Defensive Midfielder	5/5
3	Miguel Veloso	Sporting FC	Promising young defender/ Defensive Midfielder	4 or 5/5
4	Obi Mikel	Chelsea	Very good young Defensive Midfielder	4/5
5	Fernando Gago	Real Madrid	Versatile Defensive Midfielder	5/5
6	De La Red	Real Madrid	Consistent performer Season after Season	5/5
7	Rafael Carioca	Brazil League	Very good Defensive Midfielder	4/5
8	Arouca	Brazil League	Good Defensive Midfielder	4/5
9	Javi Garcia	Real Madrid	Low profile, but picks up if you play him consistently	4/5
10	Jeremy Toulalan	Lyon	Very highly rated and great at long shots	5/5
11	Lassana Diarra	Portsmouth	Great Defensive Midfielder and very good stats	5/5

Midfielder Centre: – Some very good central midfielders on the game but none better than our very own Fabregas…Other good ones include Hamsik, Zdravko Kuzmanovic, Joao Moutinho, Aaron Ramsey, Denilson  and the likes.

Sr. No.	Name	Team they are playing for at the start of the game	Comments	Potential Rating
1	Fabregas	Arsenal	Best Central Midfielder on the game	6/6
2	Steven Gerrard	Liverpool	Another Class player. But not so young	6/6
3	Aaron Ramsey	Arsenal	Very good and versatile young Midfielder	5/5
4	Denilson	Arsenal	Very good and young Midfielder/Def Midfielder	4 or 5/5
5	Marek Hamsik	Napoli	Excellent young midfielder who can go straight into your first team	5/5
6	Zdravko Kuzmanovic	Fiorentina	Good young midfielder who all top clubs will be after a few seasons	5/5
7	Joao Moutinho	Sporting FC	Very promising young midfielder	5/5
8	Nuri Sahin	Dortmund	Good young midfielder	4/5

Please let me know of others you may have found in your games.

Attacking Midfielder Right/Right Winger: – This is where you will get the worlds best players, World Player of the year Ronaldo, Runner up Messi, and other promising youngsters and stars like Dos Santos, Pjanic, Theo Walcott, Ben Arfa, Henri Saivet, Mario Balotelli etc.

The important thing to note here is that Most of the good Attacking Midfielders are quite versatile and play in all 3 positions i.e. Right, Left and Centre.

Sr. No.	Name	Team they are playing for at the start of the game	Comments	Potential Rating
1	Cristiano Ronaldo	Manchester United	Arguably the Best midfielder on the game. But I think Messi is better than him on the game.	6/6
2	Lionel Messi	Barcelona	One of the best Right or Central attacking midfielder on the game	6/6
3	Theo Walcott	Arsenal	Excellent young prospect	5/5
4	Giovanni Dos Santos	Spurs	Very good and versatile young Midfielder	5/5
5	Miralem Pjanic	Lyon	Very good and extremely versatile young Right Midfielder/Right Back	5/5
6	Ben Arfa	Marseille	Excellent young midfielder who can go straight into your first team	4/5
7	Lautaro Acosta	Sevilla	Good young midfielder/forward	4/5
8	Henri Saivet	Bordeaux	Very promising youngster who is very dexterous and can play either Right/Left winger or best as forward	5/5
9	Luca Tremolada	Inter	Very promising youngster who is very dexterous and can play either Right/Left winger	4/5
10	Alexis Sanchez	Udinese	Another promising youngster who is good at both wings and as a forward	4/5

Attacking Midfielder Left/Left Winger: –  Surprisingly this is the position I have suffered in all my games and have not been able to find the perfect player. But still have found some good ones like Andres Guardado, Arjen Robben, Luka Modric, Stevan Jovetic, Christian Rodrigez, Angel Di Maria etc.

Sr. No.	Name	Team they are playing for at the start of the game	Comments	Potential Rating
1	Nani	Manchester United	Good wide player and can play on both flanks	4/5
2	Andres Guardado	Deportivo	Very good Left winger and/or Left wing back	5/5
3	Arjen Robben	Real Madrid	Excellent Left winger who scores goals too	5/5
4	Luka Modric	Spurs	Very good and versatile young Midfielder who plays best either as left or central midfielder	5/5
5	Angel Di Maria	Benfica	Very good and extremely versatile young Left Midfielder	4/5
6	Stevan Jovetic	Fiorentina	Excellent young midfielder who can go straight into your first team. Also plays as forward	5/5
7	Cristian Rodríguez	Porto	Another good left winger who can go straight into your first team	4/5
8	Carlos Vela	Arsenal	Very promising youngster who is very dexterous and can play either Left winger or forward	5/5
9	Mario Balotelli	Inter	Very young player but excellent on both wings and best as forward. Puts in Classic Free Kicks too. Must Buy for all teams.	5/5
10	Sebastien Giovinco	Juventus	Good Left midfielder or Forward. You need patience with him though.	5/5

Attacking Midfielder Centre: – Another of the most preferred place for some of the best players in the game. Best would be Kaka or Messi here. But some other really promising stars are also there like Anderson, Miralem Pjanic(This guy you will find playing great every where), Sebastien Giovinco, Toni Kroos, Giovani dos Santos, Jack Wilshere, Georginio Wijnaldum, Coutinho etc.

Sr. No.	Name	Team they are playing for at the start of the game	Comments	Potential Rating
1	Kaka	Milan	Great Player, we all know that.	6/6
2	Messi	Barcelona	Great as a attacking Mid centre too	6/6
3	Toni Kroos	Bayern	Very Promising young Attacking Mid Centre	5/5
4	Giovani dos Santos	Spurs	Very good and versatile young Midfielder who plays best either as Left/Right or central midfielder	5/5
5	Sebastien Giovinco	Juventus	Very good and extremely versatile young Left Midfielder/Forward/AMC	5/5
6	Miralem Pjanic	Lyon	Very Dexterous player, you might have seen his name in lot of other positions too. Very good utility buy	5/5
7	Anderson	Manchester United	Good Brazilian Attacking Mid	5/5
8	Jack Wilshere	Arsenal	Very promising youngster who is very dexterous and can play on either wings and best as Central Mid	5/5
9	Coutinho	Inter	Very young player but excellent prospect. You may need to wait till he turns 18 before you can try and buy him from Inter. I bought him from inter for some 5-7 Mil. And Sold them again for some 15 Mil with high Add-on Clauses.	5/5
10	Georginio Wijnaldum	Feyenoord	Good young Mid to have in the team	4/5

Forward Centre / Striker: – The best young striker on the game would be Bojan for me. So also Pato. But if you want someone to lead your Goal Scoring from Season 1 itself, you may need to buy Eto or Adebayor or Torres.

Sr. No.	Name	Team they are playing for at the start of the game	Comments	Potential Rating
1	Pato	Milan	Very promising youngster	6/6
2	Bojan	Barcelona	Goal Scoring Machine and he only gets better with each season passing	6/6
3	Sergio Aguerro	Atletico Madrid	Great Argentine Youngster who scores a lot of goals	5/5
4	Karim Benzema	Lyon	Excellent buy and will score many a goals for your team	5/5
5	Carlos Vela	Arsenal	Another Gem from Arsenal, who wins many a player of the year awards of the Future	5/5
6	Mario Balotelli	Inter	Very young striker, but fits right in d First team and scores stunning goals from Free kicks. Very Versatile	5/5
7	Goran Pandev	Lazio	Goal scoring forward, who you can get on a free transfer. Keep an eye on his contract.	4/5
8	Owen	Newcastle	Only including here, coz you can get him for free in the 2nd season. Then sell him at the end of 2nd season for 10-15 million.	4/5
9	Keirrison	Cortiba	Got him for Free for my Arsenal team. Has become a 4/5 player already in the team and scored some superb long range efforts	4/5
10	Marquinhos	Palmeiras	Another good Brazilian Forward	4/5
11	Nikolas Bendtnar	Arsenal	If you are patient with him he can reach a rating of 5.	4 or 5/5

Let me know how these players turn out in your team.

Few 4 rated players below you can get on free transfers once their contracts are about to expire: –

Goran Pandev, Keirrison, Igor Akinfeev, Nigel De Jong, Gullirmo Ochoa, Michael Owen, Daniel Sturridge etc. Will update a complete list with Seasons when you can nip them for free later.

Football Manager games

Its that time of the year when the new soccer season has started in most of the leagues across Europe. Its also the time when the innumerable Football manager games start hitting the market…

It begins with one of My favourites

Fifa 09 hitting markets soon…

Fifa 09 hitting the markets on the 3rd of October. Though Fifa 09 is not a purely Managerial game, its manager mode is immensely satisfying and in most cases thoroughly researched…

I especially like the ease with which you can sell your own players and then buy them again at bargain prices only to see there prices increase once they are in your squad. The scouting in Fifa 09 is also very cool with the depending on the level of your teams scout, he can unearth wonderkids who can be stars of the future..(i find the scouting in Championship Manager and Football Manager not so upto the mark)

There are options to upgrade your stadium capacity as well as the level of your various coaches and Physios. This sets good challenges for you to earn enough money to take your club to the highest level not only i terms of the trophies won, but also with respect to the stadium capacity and having the top most coaches training your team..

The one drawback that i find in the Manager mode of Fifa 09 is that it does not have a youth set up at all.. just a youth academy which has like 1 or 2 players in it. What it definitely needs is a youth team which lists all the future prospects for the team with a few of them the next superstars… I sincerely hope that Fifa 09 when it comes out on the 3rd October has these features in it.

Next comes the Football Manager 2009 which is expected by the end of October. This game is the mother of all soccer manager games. This game has everything.. it has a lovely youth team setup… it has a great transfer system in place… it has a new 3d gameplay mode… it has a great team base…

Inspite of being one of the best football manager games in the market it sure has its own drawbacks too… One thing is that the scouting does not turn up future superstars as often as one may like… Another very iritating feature is the fact that you are not able to sign a player you so badly want in your team cos either the other club is not willing to accept an offer for him even though you are willing to pay a 100 Million pounds for him or he is not willing to move to your club… I understand that this feature has been put in place to replicate the real world etc… but When you are actually playing the game it can sure get on your nerves…

Anyways, I hope when the latest offering by Football Manager series, FM 09 hits the market it has taken care of these flaws etc.

All in all, i cant wait for these latest soccer manager games to hit the market and i trying to be the next Arsene Wenger or the next Alex ferguson…[;)]. Will let you know if i did manage that feat or not..

Till then Adios..