Sunderland's Beastly Charge to the Top!

Monthly Update

Manager of the Month

Roberto Mancini
Alex Ferguson
Arsene Wenger

Player of the Month

Ryan Giggs
Vincent Kompany
Javier Hernandez

Young Player of the Month

Fabio
Sime Vrsaljko
Victor Moses

League Cup Final - 26 Feb 2012

Arsenal vs Sunderland (Neutral)

Formation and Line-ups

Matchday Information

Full Time Score: 0-2

Arsenal:
Squilaci (41)
Djourou (87)

Sunderland:
Digne (50)
Wikham (63)
Giuliano (3)
Vrsaljko (15)
Dante(54)

Player Ratings

Man of the Match: Giuliano (8.5)

Manager Views

Delightful performance! Truly fitting for a final, and boy did we silence the critics. Giuliano was sublime in midfield, passing and moving brilliantly. The Arsenal midfield couldnt cope! This is a wonderful day to finally have won my first ever trophy! Watch out...Sunderland are making their BEASTLY charge to the top!!

English Premier Division - 3 Mar 2012

Wigan vs Sunderland (Away)

Formation and Line-ups

Matchday Information

Full Time Score: 0-2

Wigan:
Figueroa (50)
Stam (53)

Sunderland:
Welbeck (27)
Giuliano (82)

Player Ratings

Man of the Match: Giuliano (8)

Manager Views

Wigan played very well today, and were unlucky not to score. They created a fair few chances, but just couldnt take them. We however, took our chances and thus secured the win. Another brilliant performance from Giuliano, and i must say, rather modestly, that he has been a truly inspired signing!

Great story and great results Nakulp. This is a promising season for Sunderland. Looks like your players works well together and brings in good victories.

I have responded to your post on my story and made a tactics post to. Good luck with this story. Looks great!

How have you managed to spend £97 million on players? I guess that you will be paying most of the fees over 48 months? If so risky if you have a bad season.

#44098 Slogh : Great story and great results Nakulp. This is a promising season for Sunderland. Looks like your players works well together and brings in good victories.

I have responded to your post on my story and made a tactics post to. Good luck with this story. Looks great!

Thanks mate. Hopefully i can finish first...too much to ask?

#44100 Godman : How have you managed to spend £97 million on players? I guess that you will be paying most of the fees over 48 months? If so risky if you have a bad season.

Yeah most of it is over 48 months. How is it risky if i have a bad season? The initial players i bought were young and many have doubled in value. So if it really really comes to it, though i doubt it will, i can sell a few. Ive already been offered £13mil for Felipe Anderson (which i rejected lol).

English Premier Division - 10 Mar 2012

Sunderland vs Fulham (Home)

Formation and Line-ups

Matchday Information

Full Time Score: 4-2

Sunderland:
Kadlec (13, 42, 53)
Brunt (86)

Fulham:
Murphy (17, pen 36)
Dembele (27)
Ruiz (50)
Dempsey (72)

Player Ratings

Man of the Match: Kadlec (9.6)

Manager Views

A shaky start, but we grew into the game and played better as the time rolled on. Kadlec was truly clinical today, bagging himself a great hat-trick. I was however rather disappointed with Dante who didnt put in a very good performance, and what was worse, he didnt seem to care that e had performed badly!

English Premier Division - 14 Mar 2012

Norwich vs Sunderland (Away)

Formation and Line-ups

Additional Tactics

Philosophy was set to rigid instead of fluid

Matchday Information

Full Time Score: 0-3

Norwich:
Vaughan (55) Wilbraham (90+1)

Sunderland:
Welbeck (23, 45)
Bendtner (31)
Gibson (63)
Welbeck (71)
Welbeck (73)

Player Ratings

Man of the Match: Welbeck (8.7)

Manager Views

Welbeck Welbeck Welbeck!! How could you miss a penalty son! Still a brilliant poachers performance today from Welbeck. Did brilliantly to score twice and he paired very well with Bendtner. We didnt let Norwich into the game and we created bags of chances! And i mean bags!

impressive beating arsenal 2-0

#44376 nlmh : impressive beating arsenal 2-0

Thanks mate. Its just about finding the right tactics and exploiting the oppositions weaknesses

I have a question, about something that is plaguing all my FM files:

My strikers have terrible finishing when they're clean on goal. My build-up play will always be goo, but when the poacher is released, four times out of five they'll blast the ball straight at the keeper, even when it's easier to score.

Your strikers seem to know what they're doing. Any chance you could help me out?

#44378 Geneharper : I have a question, about something that is plaguing all my FM files:

My strikers have terrible finishing when they're clean on goal. My build-up play will always be goo, but when the poacher is released, four times out of five they'll blast the ball straight at the keeper, even when it's easier to score.

Your strikers seem to know what they're doing. Any chance you could help me out?

Hmm its a tough one to be honest. First think, is make sure that the players are playing in the right roles. So to check what their best role would be, go to their report, and the coach/assistant manager will tell you that his best position is a poacher, or an advanced forward or a target man etc etc.

Secondly, as a striker, you need to have composure. So maybe set the training for your striker to be composure.

I also make sure every player and the overall team has a high level of training. This keeps people fit and on top of their game. I also set the match preparation to teamwork as i see that as key!

As for additional tactics, that is up for you to tinker with. If your striker has poor passing then set his creative freedom to low. Set mentality to attacking. Passing style short, running with the ball as sometimes (unless they have a dribbling statistic over 14, in which case make it a lot). Just tinker around really.

Its also about getting the right strikers! Who do you have currently?

Hope that helps mate.

That does help. I've got them training in Finishing, so I'll switch that to Composure.

I'm playing my Blackpool file, and my strikers are Ahmed Soukouna and Yaya Sanogo, both poachers, but Sanogo has the bulk to be a target man. I'll do some tinkering. Embarrassing admission: I don't have the faintest idea how to work the training in this game. I don't know which menus to scroll down or which buttons to press. I'll see people write on forums "Train a GK in shot-stopping, composure and one-on-ones, and assign him a defensive coach" or whatever, and I'll just say, "Huh?"

#44509 Geneharper : That does help. I've got them training in Finishing, so I'll switch that to Composure.

I'm playing my Blackpool file, and my strikers are Ahmed Soukouna and Yaya Sanogo, both poachers, but Sanogo has the bulk to be a target man. I'll do some tinkering. Embarrassing admission: I don't have the faintest idea how to work the training in this game. I don't know which menus to scroll down or which buttons to press. I'll see people write on forums "Train a GK in shot-stopping, composure and one-on-ones, and assign him a defensive coach" or whatever, and I'll just say, "Huh?"

No problems mate. Try to always play a poacher on their own, or with a target man or attacking forward.

I would suggest buying Vaclav Kadlec because he is incredible and will score tonnes!! Sanogo really doesnt have enough experience. Kadlec is young but also pretty consistent and scored a lot.

Ok training. Heres the breakdown. There are two kinds of training, individual and team. So for individual training, click on the player. When you see his stats etc, your see some tabs on top saying, Overview, Transfers and Contracts, Stats, Training, Reports etc. You want to click on the training bit. This is the place where you can train players on certain skills like composure, finishing etc etc. You can also train them to play in different positions. Below you will also see the intensity. Make that high (as in all the way!).

The second kind of training is the team training. This is located somewhere else. So at the top youll see different buttons, one of which will say the teams name. So for you it will say Blackpool. Click on it, and it will say Training. Go to that, and then you will see a bunch of coaches and their attributes. At the bottom, you will see three tabs. Click on the last tab (forgot what its called). There you will be able to set the training intensity for the different groups. I usually set all of mine to the 'hard' intensity. Here you can also create new training groups and choose what they train in. So you may want to create a poachers training group. In that you may want to train up their strength, finishing/attacking, tactics etc etc.

There is also one last type of training. This can be found when you talk to a player. So right click on the player, click interaction, and select the training instructions option (or something like that). Here you can set a personal training regime for the player to work towards. Like switch ball to opposite flank, or cut inside, or come deep to get the ball.

Hope that makes things clearer buddy