mr.SPANKY
17 years ago
9 months ago
1,755
So I begin my journey with Villa, I have of course disabled first window transfer budgets as per SR67's guidelines.

As it is based off Billy Beane who played baseball I gave myself past experience of professional player.

I then went about sifting through the youth teams and the first team and recalled a few players from loan and my first team looks like this :

http://i40.tinypic.com/sp917l.jpg

I don't feel the need to strengthen or drastically add players in the January window as I am fairly happy with the squad but injuries and things can happen so we shall see.

I have my scouting team scouring UK and Ireland and Scandinavia to find those bargains but will only be purchasing for the most part to replace with the odd depth signing. I will try to justify each signing using the guidelines provided in the original challenge post.

http://i44.tinypic.com/bdmpev.jpg

That is how we form up, we play a direct game as that is one of the philosophies imposed on me. Now I have gone fairly average in my other careers on this years version and it is always the defensive side that lets me down, so I have decided to go with defensive wingers to counter the complete wingbacks (something I have never done before) and also try to play a narrow game to lessen the workload of those wide men who I rely on to defend.

http://i44.tinypic.com/i1b8n4.jpg

Absolutely outstanding pre season, my best ever and despite conceding a few goals in the last 3 games I am delighted with the defensive side of things.

Okay now let's get the ball rolling on the season proper.
Rick87
14 years ago
6 days ago
3,084
Good luck with the Villa mate, I'm not sure about using Fabian Delph out wide or picking Enda Stevens over Luna though.
mr.SPANKY
17 years ago
9 months ago
1,755
Cheers mate.

Luna had just come back from injury that's why he wasn't starting in that pic, also Stevens is actually a good little player in my save although not a complete wingback he should be a limited fullback based off his attributes and aside from marking Delph's attributes are surprisingly good for a defensive winger on support duty. I am retraining him to ML now because of it.
itchycoo
15 years ago
1 year ago
1,652
Good luck with this, will follow.
hexhamlad
17 years ago
1 month ago
3
Premium
Good read.

I'm actually doing something a bit similar to this - http://www.statisticalapproach.com/
SR67
12 years ago
2 months ago
1,491
Good luck man. Will definitely be following!
George14brfc
12 years ago
3 years ago
3,912
mr.SPANKY
17 years ago
9 months ago
1,755
Before I post the mid season update I want you all to have a look at this.

http://i43.tinypic.com/14lj144.jpg

I'm not talking out for 3 or 4 days either, most of these injuries are for 2 months or more.
mr.SPANKY
17 years ago
9 months ago
1,755
http://i39.tinypic.com/260u146.jpg

1 game after my previous post. I now have 10 first teamers out with only Agbonlahor coming back any time soon.
SR67
12 years ago
2 months ago
1,491
That's quite an injury list!
Dan
12 years ago
4 months ago
16,964
Wow! Been hit hard there!
mr.SPANKY
17 years ago
9 months ago
1,755
Okay so mid season update. I actually played 2 games into January because I was so caught up in the game I forgot to take screenies lol.

Anyways let's start with the cups :

http://i43.tinypic.com/1zvxy4z.jpg

Some shaky results early on but they coincided with a poor run in the premier league that also resulted in a tactical tweak. A much better performance against Swansea saw us dominate and do it with ease to set up a very winnable semi final against WBA.
The FA Cup came at a bad time, not only did we draw Man Utd but it came in the midst of my injury toll. (see above)

League results :

http://i40.tinypic.com/3g5ea.jpg

After our very good pre season we started off with a dominant (yet failed to find the net when we should have) win and I thought I was onto something here. A 2-2 with Stoke who are a somewhat tough opponent these last few FM's and a 2-1 win over Crystal Palace rounded out the first three games. That is where it all went down hill. We seemed to forget how to retain possession and pass the ball to each other, back to back losses from games I was expecting at least 4 points from saw me start to worry.

A small tweak to the tactics and some rotation and a huge 0-0 with Man City was big for morale however we failed to capitalize on that result and failed to beat Norwich at home.

Losses to Liverpool and Tottenham were expected although Westwood was sent off 2 minutes into the Tottenham game so who knows what would have happened, but the 4-1 to Cardiff was disgusting and that resulted in an overhaul of the formation.

Since then Benteke has been on fire, scoring 8 in the next 10 games. The huge loss to Man Utd doesn't worry me as much because of the awesome results against Chelsea and Arsenal. Keeping them to only 8 and 7 shots respectively. What makes the result against Arsenal even more impressive and the wins against Hull and West Ham afterwards were the fact that it was right in the middle of the huge injury crisis facing me.

http://i40.tinypic.com/xe3pt2.jpg

Pretty standard table at the new year except for Liverpool and Tottenham. Another 13 points and we should be safe however I was aiming for mid table at the beginning of the season and will aim to stay where we are.
Benteke with 9 goals is the only player appearing in the stats page but as long as we keep working well as a team I'm not too fussed.

Onto pressing concerns though, Chelsea came in with an offer for Benteke. At first it was £16.5m I managed to negotiate it up to £20m upfront, £5.75m over 12 months and £2.3m after 10 league goals with a sell on percentage of 20. He is still in negotiations with them but I am having trouble finding a replacement. If you haven't seen the moneyball challenge guidelines yet, I can't sell my best players without having a replacement lined up and I am only looking at players in their early to mid twenties. If I fail to find one before he accepts a contract I will have to cancel the transfer.
mr.SPANKY
17 years ago
9 months ago
1,755
Okay so since the interest in Benteke was brought to my attention (always knew an offer would come at some time) I have had my scouts working over time. I used a player filter to find similar players as Benteke, took off unrealistic targets and set an age cap at 25 to coincide with the guidelines.

The two players I have come up with are :

http://i42.tinypic.com/mcvz8x.jpg
http://i39.tinypic.com/2e4mbo5.jpg

Now Austin being English somewhat goes against the guidelines of avoiding certain nationalities because they are over priced but my scouts think I can get him for maximum £8m, whereas the young Italian striker is superior to Austin in nearly every way and is 2 years younger. It is also nearly impossible to find someone with the physical attributes of Benteke but also his technical skill so looks like no more target man or complete forward for now.

http://i40.tinypic.com/334rj4o.jpg

However being co-owned might push his price tag up. Benteke has accepted Chelsea's offer and I have asked to delay for a week so I can make offers for both of these players and see what happens, if I can't get a good price for either then I will cancel Benteke's transfer until the summer.
mr.SPANKY
17 years ago
9 months ago
1,755
Unfortunately I couldn't reach an agreement with young Zaza, he wanted too much money per week for what we could afford. I had to cancel the Benteke transfer and he is now unhappy

I was tempted to still go through with it and not sign anybody but with Bent and Delfouneso out on loan we would be dangerously short on strikers especially with the way our team seems to get injured.
mr.SPANKY
17 years ago
9 months ago
1,755
Benteke requested a transfer as he wasn't happy with my reasoning for rejecting the transfer but he is still playing well which is all that matters.

http://i44.tinypic.com/29zyb1g.jpg

His 2 goals have helped send us to the Carling Cup final and hopefully it does enough to make him want to stay. If not I have rejected Delfouneso's loan extension and he will be back at the end of the transfer window, so if a good enough offer comes in Benteke will go. (Trying not to get attached to players)
mr.SPANKY
17 years ago
9 months ago
1,755
http://i44.tinypic.com/fwtw5k.jpg

Happy with £25m all up front as opposed to the £28m with clauses Chelsea offered, also glad he won't be playing against me.

As I said earlier Delfouneso is back from loan and my young Czech striker is coming back from injury so I don't feel the need to spend any money in this window. I will reassess at the end of the season.
SR67
12 years ago
2 months ago
1,491
Going well so far man!

I thought of another thing that could make it more like the movie if you're interested. Beene swaps players with other clubs to get someone who fits his 'tactic' (not sure what they call it).

Say you have a target man and you want a deep lying forward. Find your target offer the player you're looking to replace and see there response. Might save some cash. Obviously it wouldn't be possible every transfer.
mr.SPANKY
17 years ago
9 months ago
1,755
Yeah might try and use the exchange player option, never something I've used really. Could make things interesting.

Now back to the game,

http://i40.tinypic.com/2rcohok.jpg

Ohhh yeahhh. Very happy with this performance, they didn't start Rooney, Van Persie, Evra or Fellaini but it was still a full strength 18, so to come away with a win in the way we did was awesome. The best feeling I've had in this years version so far and onto Europa League.

I was a bit worried about our ability to score once Benteke left given the form he was in but Helenius has really stepped up. He started the first game after Benteke's departure in the striker role and scored then moved back to his AMC role when Delfouneso returned and has a total of 7 goals in 7 games since.
mr.SPANKY
17 years ago
9 months ago
1,755
Okay so just finished season 1 and have to say it was a very successful one, we have achieved more then I expected.

http://i41.tinypic.com/29bfwaw.jpg

So this is how our second half of the season stacked up.
Crystal Palace, Stoke and Fulham, I was expecting at least 4 and at best 7 points from these fixtures but alas it was not to be. This was right in the middle of our injury crisis and the way we lost to Palace was a disgrace as we actually dominated that game and restricted them to 5 shots on goal, 3 of which went in. The one bright light was the form of Nicklas Helenius but it was Gabby Agbonlahor who found some form to strike us to our first victory for 3 games with a huge double over Sunderland. A good performance against Man City saw us unlucky to lose but they do have unreal firepower.
The Tottenham game almost wen the same way as our previous encounter, this time it was Chris Herd sent off in the 3rd minute but we stole a draw thanks to the on fire Helenius.
The Liverpool game was so intense, we went up 1-0 before going down 2-1, then coming back to 3-2 before a Suarez double in the 64th and 90th minutes sunk us.
The losses to Cardiff and Everton were disappointing as was getting beat by 4 against Chelsea. We absolutely dominated possession and shots against Man Utd, a game we should have won but with star player Helenius out for the last 2 months of the season we lacked any good balls to my striker and were lucky to steal a draw with the 90th minute goal.
Finally the Newcastle and Arsenal games were a highlight where nearly everything went out way.

http://i42.tinypic.com/240yt0m.jpg

So along with out impressive cup victory our league standing was pretty good, a few results going our way and games we lost when we shouldn't have might have seen us to 8th but it is something to build on. Also it means expectations won't be too unrealistic next season.

http://i39.tinypic.com/11cfpyt.jpg

How the players performed over the course of the premier league. (looking at this it would be an awesome feature if you could export stats to a spreadsheet, that way you could keep accurate stats across all competitions for every player)
Guzan played every premier league game and performed well, he had 5 clean sheets, for a team expected to stave off relegation at the start of the campaign I am quite happy with that.

Injury problems ensure nearly every one of my first team played a few games, young Nathan Baker got his start in the center of defence and never gave it up performing at just under 7 during his 22 appearances. Matt Lowton was also a standout performer in my defence taking that wing back spot, contributing with goals and assists and keeping Hutton out of the side. Finally Antonio Luna, I am more then confident in saying he is my second best player and he more then showed why. One of the few players to average out over 7 in the premier league and never really had a bad game.

Ashley Westwood is a player I really have wraps on, in my England save on FM13 he was one of the youngsters I gave a chance to and he shone, shame he gets a bit reckless in this save and his 2 red cards hurt his overall performances as he was suspended for a total of 6 games for both offences.
I felt Delph was really coming along nicely before a long term injury put a dent in his hopes of being a standout performer, I look forward to big things from him next season if he can stay injury free.
Albrighton doesn't really get the credit he deserves and his average rating doesn't tell the whole story. A quiet achiever, his 10 assists in the prem league and 15 overall show what class he brings to our team. 15 assists was the most in the premier league so that tells you how well he really went.

Finally Nicklas Helenius, an absolute standout when Benteke left he was headed for big things before a long term injury stopped that. 10 goals and 4 assists he was the perfect link between midfield and striker, 18 goals won the golden boot and I have no doubt if he played the last 2 or so months of the season he might have come close as he struck a rich vein of form right before injury which you can see in the fixtures image.

So now the work begins for next season, I am going to re-evaluate my scouting team and look to hire more scouts from obscure areas to find those cheaper players. I've also decided that when looking to buy a player I will not only look at the attributes and player comparisons but I will look at player stats over the course of their careers, if they have continuously performed then I know they are my man, if they have had inconsistent seasons then I will look to alternatives, I will try to keep the range of average rating somewhere around a 6.8 and up.
mr.SPANKY
17 years ago
9 months ago
1,755
http://i39.tinypic.com/2ryms6p.jpg

Some good news here, the sale of Benteke really has helped in more ways then one.

So I sacked a few scouts who were all fairly weak in the judging attributes and knowledge was only in England anyway. I have hired a Scandinavian, Middle Eastern and North American scouts in their place to help find those obscure gems. I also signed Simone Pepe on a free transfer, seeing as I didn't pay anything for him it doesn't break the rule of buying early to mid 20 players but he can slot straight in anyway. He adds depth to my wide positions and will probably be the best wide player I have now.

My next target will be a goalkeeper to play second to Guzan, for the right price of course.
Dan
12 years ago
4 months ago
16,964
Well done on the capital one cup! Not the best league season but did well!
SR67
12 years ago
2 months ago
1,491
Good start to this and great signing in Pepe, very versitile. Surprised Weiman had such a bad season!

As for the spreadsheet print the stat screen as a web page and copy and paste it into one. I do it to evaluate my squad and look for the weakest position.
Dyrim
11 years ago
2 months ago
593
Good season and first big sell under the belt, now start pilling the cash
mr.SPANKY
17 years ago
9 months ago
1,755
Well done on the capital one cup! Not the best league season but did well!


Thanks mate, well considering the board wanted us to avoid relegation and most of the players thought we could achieve a mid table finish I'm pretty happy with the final position, as I said before it doesn't risk us having unrealistic expectations placed on us by finishing higher then we should have.

Good start to this and great signing in Pepe, very versitile. Surprised Weiman had such a bad season!

As for the spreadsheet print the stat screen as a web page and copy and paste it into one. I do it to evaluate my squad and look for the weakest position.


Yeah look forward to seeing what Pepe brings to the squad, Weiman I think only had a bad season because I was bringing him off the bench for the most part. He wasn't getting in over Albrighton and my left winger role was usually Agbonlahor who had a decent enough season to get called up to the England squad for the World Cup.

Been playing FM since it's inception and genuinely did not know you could do that lol. How long has that been a feature?
SR67
12 years ago
2 months ago
1,491
Not sure how long you've been able to do it but I've just started using it this year.
mr.SPANKY
17 years ago
9 months ago
1,755
Just made another signing.

http://i40.tinypic.com/2u7qgr6.jpg

Now I know it goes against signing players of certain nationalities but he was not over priced, in fact Tottenham made a loss on the sale of him. If he has a couple of good years for me I have no doubt the overpriced English player tag will benefit me. I've also used this focus for my next transfer target and it is a fairly big money signing by Villa standards but once again if I get him and he plays well I will make a profit on future sale of him. Stay tuned.
mr.SPANKY
17 years ago
9 months ago
1,755
http://i41.tinypic.com/6z33tt.jpg

Well deserved, really stepped up after the departure of Benteke, shame injury cruel-ed him towards the end of the season.

We start off our campaign with a trip to West Ham and our first home game is two weeks later against Norwich.

I've said I will get a mid table finish although the minimum the board wanted was to avoid relegation, hope the extra expectations don't bite me in the ass.
mr.SPANKY
17 years ago
9 months ago
1,755
http://i40.tinypic.com/s2w1dx.jpg

My transfer activity. Now as I said in the description I will justify my signings. Both Wellington Nem and Kyle Naughton break the rule of signing players of certain nationalities however I feel that both players will return a healthy profit in the future. Nem is a given to have an offer from a better club and it won't surprise me if he goes by next season however I will hope to get close to £30m for him. Naughton I got on the cheap and if he has a good season or 2 I think I will profit from him also, maybe earning closer to £10m for him.

So that is why I broke the nationalities rule however the combined total of both players was still less then what I made from Benteke and along with the sale of Joe Bennett plus the Given's wages off the budget still leaves us ahead in finances.

http://i39.tinypic.com/zmb3if.jpg

Just the 3 friendlies as I had to qualify for the Europa league and mixed form. Really didn't play well at all against Nice and struggled in the other two to defend.

http://i43.tinypic.com/x6iolj.jpg

Made it more difficult then we should have but encouraging signs were Albrighton continuing his form and Wellington Nem is fitting in quite well.
I drew Basel, APEOL and Dnipro in my group. Tricky away games but confident we should win all our home games and qualify.

http://i43.tinypic.com/25a6n1f.jpg
Tough drawing Tottenham and a hard fought win in extra time then the bullshit of drawing Man City in the next round. Gonna be tough to retain our Carling Cup but I wouldn't be disappointed if we lost to Man City as long as we show fight.

Premier league and Europa league updates will come at Jan 1st.
mr.SPANKY
17 years ago
9 months ago
1,755
Okay so mid season update.

Start with the Carling Cup, no need for a screeny because you already know I played Man City, unfortunate thing is we lost. We had 51 percent possession and 9 shots on goal to their 5 but it went to penalties where Pepe and Agbonlahor couldn't handle the pressure and both missed where only Aguero missed for Man City.

http://i44.tinypic.com/x38hkx.jpg
http://i40.tinypic.com/24xkq6h.jpg

Nearly a flawless finish to the group stage, I thought the away ties might be tricky but we dominated every game and scored a massive 17 goals. Played a full reserve team in the last game and were still unlucky to lose.
The draw has not been too kind to us for the latter stages however as we have Real Sociedad next and if we go through there we then have either Marseille or Arsenal.

http://i41.tinypic.com/2hy7wgn.jpg

Absolutely delighted with our performance in the league so far. Losses to Arsenal, Man Utd, City and Chelsea are to be expected. Upset at the result at West Brom but it was one of those days where nothing went right. The QPR and Cardiff draws were rough results but was happy with a point against Southampton. Would love a repeat of our first half of the season in the second but just as we build some momentum and get a few wins on the trot we have the to rough runs of Man Utd and Arsenal then Tottenham, City and Chelsea.

http://i43.tinypic.com/25q6w7p.jpg

As I said delighted with the performance in the league, it is bringing some attention to a few players but I have a great crop of youngsters and my scouting team working all corners of the globe to replace those who might be off. Depending how far we go in the Europa League and with 3 players missing in the Jan window due to international tournaments I would be happy if we can hold on to anything above 10th.
SR67
12 years ago
2 months ago
1,491
Great season so far mate, coasted it through the EL!

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