[FM2017] Valencia - Rome Wasn’t Built In A Day

Assessing the Club

• Goalkeeper – Diego Alves is pretty good, no urgent need for changes in goal.
• Defence (Wide) – Really great full/wing backs at the club all with strong attacking attributes. This really needs to be something that we use to build our tactics around.
• Defence (Central) – Some very good but not great centre backs. Garay and Mangala look like the best with Abdennour as a good backup. This is something that will need attention at the end of the season, as Mangala is on loan and I cannot imagine I’ll be able to buy him at the end of the loan.
• Midfield (Central) – Not too bad really. Parejo is very good and certainly the player I’ll be best building my tactics around to some extent. Perez also has a lot of plus sides and is a good candidate for tutoring. Soler is going to get promoted and I want to look to give him quite a bit of game time. Medran is pretty useful, albeit not stellar. Suarez will be back up only, I think, he’s handy but I would rather give game time to my owned players.
• Midfield/Attack (Wide) – Any thoughts of playing a narrow (no ML/R / AML/R) can be basically forgotten after looking at the clubs AM options. Bakkali and Nani need to be played wide (although Bakkali could be converted to an AMC later - perhaps). With Orellana too, I’m going to really need to play with wide AM players. The choices at the club should be ok for now as I have no Europe.
• Attack (Central) – Zaza is the kind of player I like, a versatile and strong forward. Munir and Mina will offer some decent other options too. Not a bad selection of forwards for now but with two of them on loan something will need to be done next summer.

There is an issue with the type of players at the club, many who have low determination. Essentially, the ‘culture’ around the club seems to be a bit bad/negative/lazy. This becomes an obvious issue when it comes to finding first team players to tutor the younger players; there are very few good options.

Nani is also an issue that needs some thought. He’s technically talented, no doubt of that, but his age (29) combined with that salary (£180k a week) and the fact that he’s a mentally weak player is an issue which needs addressing; I usually like mentally strong players to allow me to play more fluid styles of pressing and/or ball controlling football. For now, I need to try to get the best out of him as he is a very skilful player and I don’t really have the squad for very fluid football anyway.

Finances are also a concern, at present we’re going to miss out of the FFP. I’m probably gonna have to sell some players if a top 4 finish looks like a possibility.

Coaches are an issue but I find that they are far from perfect at any club - will need to go on a huge hiring spree.

Transfers

I’m going to ‘keep my powder dry’ in the first transfer window as the squad should be strong enough, for now, to finish in the European places at the end of the season. I’m going to start bringing in all the cheap young players I can, no big signings. I’ll look to keep almost all the rest of the money I can and possibly off-load one or two to hit FFP if we get a top 4 finish (or if it looks likely in January)

I’m going to sell Rodrigo as I’ll have no place for him. He’s lazy and not as good as the clubs other attacking options. This will be the only proactive sale I’m going to look to make in the first transfer window.

I brought in a few young players at the start of the game as I know of a few younger players who can be brought in for small fees.