Hey just wanted to share my Manchester United story. United is my favorite team in real life and I am managing them in FM 12. I started FM12 with LFCMarshall's Winter transfer update which means the transfers done in real life is done at the start of my managing career. Its already March in my game and I started late with this story.
PS: Tony Stark is not my real name, just used it cos' i love Ironman.
So I took over United after SAF. Its a big responsibility of mine to continue his winning ways.
I started with the formation 4-2-3-1 and also used 4-2-4. I also have 4-4-1-1 as backup but I have never used it yet as the first two formations have been terrific.
De Gea
Smalling - Ferdinand - Vidic - Evra
Carrick - Anderson
Nani - Rooney - Young
Hernandez
I used Rooney as an attacking midfielder (Inside Forward) for most of the season as I feel he will be able to make plays and score at the same time.
Players sold: (currency is Pounds)
Park Ji-Sung - 6.25m to Roma
Dimitar Berbatov - 4.8m to R. Madrid
Ritchie de Laet - 1.8m to Racing
Will Keane - 775k to Wolves
Michael Owen - 625k to Aston Villa
I have decided to sell these players as I have a few players in mind. Sold Park as I want Cleverly to have playing time as he can play in both wing positions and have Valencia to back up Nani. Berbatov and Owen sold to give time for Welbeck. De Laet sold to give time to Fabio for development. And sold Keane as I don't see his future at the club.
Players bought:
Ramires - 7.75m from Chelsea
Emre Can - 3.1m from Bayern
Toni Trinidade de Vilhena - 1.1m from Feyenoord
Ramires was listed from Chelsea and I bought him. I was thinking he would be a rotation in my squad depending if he plays better than Carrick or Anderson.
Can (could be the next Sebastian Kehl) is only 18 when I bought him. I see him as the future replacement for Carrick who is aging.
de Vilhena is only 17 and has great attributes. Placed him in the U-18 squad.
You should check the confidence of transfers especially as you signed a player from a rival club :). I would have kept Berbatov just incase of injuries or something but otherwise no complaints.
July matches:
vs Antwerp = 4-0 W
vs America (MEX) = 4-2 W
vs FC Porto = 3-2 W
vs Real Salt Lake = 3-0 W
vs Philadelphia = 0-0 D
vs Internacional = 3-1
Had a good pre-season and Ramires is showing great progess.
Decided to loan out Pogba, Can, Johnstone to FC Twente, which is one of my affiliated clubs, to let them gain first team experience.
Other players out on loan are:
Tomas Kuzszczak at Watford
Ben Amost at Leicester
Reece Brown at Oldham
Scott Wootton at Peterborough
Oliver Norwood at Coventry
Ryan Tunnicliffe at Peterborough
Robbie Brady at Hull
Bebe at Besiktas
Frederico Macheda at QPR
Joshua King at Hull
Michael Keane at Antwerp
Sean McGinty at Morecambe
John Cofie at Antwerp
Ramires is a solid player and at that price an absolute steal. If you use him as a supporting ball winning midfielder you should see some top performances. I have bought Emre Can in previous saves but he never really developed well enough to move into the first team. Hopefully you will have better luck with him.
Good luck...
August matches:
vs Man City (community shield) = 3-1 W
vs Aston Villa = 2-1 W
Great to see my team beating rivals City to win the Community Shield. First game, first trophy for me.
September matches:
vs West Brom = 1-0 W
vs Bolton = 3-0 W
vs Valencia (CL - Away) = 2-0 W
vs Norwich = 5-0 W
vs Oxford (Carling Cup) = 10-0 W
vs Liverpool = 1-4 L
vs Leverkusen (CL - Home) = 5-0 W
An outstanding performance against Oxford where Hernandez grabbed a brace. Ramires also scored his first for United. The next game was a blow for us as we lost to Liverpool. But the team responded greatly and we shocked Leverkusen for 5 goals.
October matches:
vs Arsenal = 1-1 D
vs Chelsea = 0-1 L
vs Genk (CL - Away) = 2-0 W
vs Wigan = 3-0 W
vs Birmingham (Carling Cup) = 2-1 W
vs Newcastle = 3-0 W
Drew against Arsenal and lost to Chelsea the next game was disappointing. Though we bounced back by winning our next 4 matches for October.
November matches:
vs Genk (CL - Home) = 6-0 W
vs QPR = 5-0 W
vs Stoke = 2-0 W
vs Wolves = 1-0 W
vs Valencia (CL - Home) = 6-1
vs Blackburn = 4-0
Undefeated during November, the team showed why they are playing for Manchester United. The win against Valencia was a shocker. I didn't expect to win by 5 goals. And it was the first goal De Gea conceded in the Champions League.
December matches:
vs Man City = 2-1 W
vs Leverkusen (CL - Away) = 1-0 W
vs Everton = 2-2 D
vs Sunderland = 5-2 W
vs Stoke (Carling Cup Quarter Finals) = 2-0 W
vs Fulham = 3-0 W
vs Swansea = 4-0 W
Beating City at the Etihad showed that we are the better Manchester. Also glad to advance in the Carling Cup.
@patrick1 Yes they were unhappy at first, but as the season went, he was one of my key midfielders and the fans love him! I usually play with 1 striker with Rooney as an AMF and I got Welbeck as a sub. So I think we're better of without Berbatov. By the way, he's already unhappy at Madrid for not having playing time.
@GrassRootsAcademy Yes I do think that he was a great steal! I do play him as a Ball Winning Midfielder but use him as defense. But I mostly play him as an Advance Playmaker(A) behind Rooney and he's been great! He's passing the ball well and he can score from long range! Thanks for the tip with Can, hopefully he'll do well.
January transfer window is open!
As Giggs and Scholes are 38 years old and and a few are above 30, I bought a few young players for the future.
Bought:
Jack Rodwell - 19.75m from Everton
Giuseppe Prestia - 5m from Palermo
Miguel Medina - 5m from Udinese
Hervin Ongenda - 1.8m from Paris Saint-Germain
Joel Valencia - 1.6m from Zaragoza B
Out:
Matt James - 525k to Southampton
Gyliano van Velzen - 400k to QPR
Tyler Blackett - 350k to Bolton
Medina - FC Twente (Loan)
I am very happy with the signing of Rodwell. He will be a very good player in the coming years. Prestia is dubbed as the new Marco Materazzi. At just 18 years old, I am looking forward to his development. Medina is just 18 years old and can be a very good striker in the future. I loaned him out to Twente for experience and can recall him incase my strikers get injured. Ongenda is just 16 and will continue developing. He is already a similar player to Rooney. Valencia is just 17 and has already great attributes.
January matches:
vs Aston Villa = 5-0 W
vs Hull (FA Cup 3rd round) = 2-0 W
vs Wolves (Carling Cup Semis - Away) = 3-2 W
vs Stoke = 2-0 W
vs Tottenham = 0-1 L
vs West Brom = 4-0 W
vs Wolves (Carling Cup Semis - Home) = 4-1 W
vs Sunderland (FA Cup 4th round) = 3-1 W
Busy January, we managed to steal 1 against Wolves in their home stadium and ended their hopes at Old Trafford.
February matches:
vs Bolton = 1-1 D
vs Norwich = 4-0 W
vs Liverpool = 2-1 W
vs Blackburn (FA Cup 5th Round) = 5-2 W
vs Real Madrid (CL 1st knockout round - away) = 0-2 L
vs Chelsea (Carling Cup Final) = 2-4 L
February was tough, lost the final 2 games to Madrid and Chelsea. We were only runners up in the Carling Cup as Chelsea outplayed us in the second half. They were leading 2-0 then we leveled up late in the first. But the boys did a great job and we'll be ready next year.
Start of March.
Manchester United vs Chelsea
Its the start of March, and now we're facing Chelsea at Old Trafford. Our previous game was against Chelsea in the Carling Cup final in which we lost. We want to set the record straight this time.
Man U starting XI: 4-2-4
De Gea
Smalling - Vidic - Jones - Evra
Carrick - Cleverly
Nani - Young
Rooney - Hernandez
FINAL SCORE: 8-1 !!!!!!
An AMAZING day for the Red Devils as we demolished Chelsea by 7 goals! 5 goals were scored by Javier Hernandez in an amazing display for the young striker! Smalling, Jones, and Rooney each bagged a goal too. Torres scored the goal for Chelsea. Its a complete shock especially to me as I expected a very close match. Chelsea couldn't handle Hernandez as it was his day. We were without Ferdinand who had an injury in the previous match, against Chelsea too. Jones did well at the back and even scored himself. A great day for us, an even greater day for the players as they got their confidence back up from back to back defeats.
Ratings:
De Gea - 7.8
Smalling - 9.1
Vidic - 8.2
Jones - 9.2
Evra - 8.7
Carrick - 8.2
Cleverly - 8.6
Nani - 8.9
Young - 9.3
Rooney - 9.3
Hernandez - 10.0
Subs:
Welbeck - 7.0
Ramires - N/A
Evans - N/A
now thats a crazy game! did Chelsea play with theur U-18 team? haha. A 10 rating is very rare, kudos
vs Newcastle = 4-1 W
Welbeck was superb coming of the bench and scoring 2 goals. The team is playing very good since the 8-1 thrashing of Chelsea.
vs Real Madrid (CL 1st round knockout round - home) = 4-0 W (4-2 agg.)
This is yet another surprise to me! We lost at the Bernabeu by 2 goals and I expected that we would probably score 2 and go to penalties. Yet again my team played excellent defensively and offensively. Evra was excellent against Ronaldo dispossessing him throughout the game. Madrid only had 5 shots and only 1 of them was on target. Surprising as my central defenders were Evans and Jones. Vidic is out through suspension and Ferdinand has just come out of an injury and only had 84% condition. Smalling also kept Ozil quiet in the right hand side. 1st goal was from Nani, Hernandez then earned himself a penalty in which he took and scored. Evans headed Young's corner in the second half to score his first goal for United and maybe his most important one! Rooney killed Madrid when he scored late in the second.
@ejay Haha, it was incredible. The whole Chelsea did play like they were U-18
Rest of March matches:
vs Brighton (FA Cup 6th round) = 3-0 W
vs Wigan = 1-2 L
vs QPR = 5-0 W
vs Arsenal (CL Qtr Final - Home) = 2-1 W
vs Wolves = 3-0 W
Disappointed to lose to Wigan at Old Trafford! We were poor defensively and offensively. But bounced back with a 5 goal thrashing of QPR. Won against Arsenal in the Champions League Qtr Final, although they still have a vital away goal.
Start of April:
vs Arsenal (CL Qtr Final - Away) = 2-3 L (4-4 agg.) W
vs Man City = 3-2 W
vs Blackburn = 0-1 L
vs Everton (FA Cup Semi Final) = 6-0 W
vs Barcelona (CL Semi Final - Home) = 5-1 W
Lost at the Emirates, the aggregate score is tie but we still won on away goals. We played good in the first half but did poor in the second. Defeated Man City, although they got an early penalty goal by a mistake of Evans. The lost to Blackburn was a huge blow. We dropped 3 points and now we move down to third in the BPL from first. We are still trailing Chelsea by 2 points and Liverpool by 1 point. It will go down 'till the last game to see who'll win the Premier League.
Thrashed Everton in the FA Cup Semi Final game. Smalling earned himself a red card when we were leading by a goal. His red card prove to be the turning point and our team dominated with a man down. Though they did also lose Fellaini to a red card late in the second half.
Another amazing performance for the Red Devils as we outclassed the Catalan giants! They were without Messi who is injured. But we were without Hernandez, our leading goal scorer, Nani, who injured himself in the Everton game. Yet we were the better side! They gave away a penalty and Ramires took it. It was saved by Valdes but the rebound fell back to Ramires and he just placed the ball in. Ferdinand injured himself late in the first, used Jones in the second. Vidic then was injured early in the second and I subbed Rafael and swapped him with Smalling at the right. But Smalling-Jones partnership stood against the Barca offense and they didn't allow any goal in the second. Great win for us, and we're favorites to win in the second leg.
Nani out for 9-12 days from the Everton match
Ferdinand out for 6-9 days from the Barcelona match
Vidic out for 5-6 weeks from the Barcelona match
Hernandez ready to be back in 1-4 days from a long injury term last March.
The Vidic injury is a huge blow, but I have faith in Evans, Jones and Smalling to step up. Our next game, against Tottenham in the BPL.
Also just before the Barcelona match, Welbeck is unhappy with his contract. Currently he earns 8k a week. I said I'll offer him a new contract within the month. His agent wants at least 50k a week for Welbeck. With his current form, Welbeck is turning out huge, scoring in big games, but I don't know if he's worth the 50k a week. I might be able to reduce it to 40k+ but I must raise his loyalty bonus and his agent fee. What do you guys think with the situation with Welbeck? Should I sell him after the season? Your suggestion will be very helpful, thanks.
keep welbeck, just offer him a contract, let him come to your demands. If it fails it will be him that walks away, not you, makes it much better. On my story i have the same happening with me with Walcott, turned out good, with the same contract he had and the same happiness level. Is still there if you want to have a look.
You are reading "Tony Stark's Manchester United FM12".
