Manchester United 2013-

Update, the First; New Faces, Same Challenges at Old Trafford.

Manchester United start the 2013-2014 season with a host of changes, manager Sir Alex Ferguson retired after an amazing 26 year tenure at the club, including having won the premiership in the previous season, he is replaced by young Rory Lee, a passionate fan of the club aged just 24 from Bath, his appointment comes as a shock, but the Glazers have stated that a fresh approach is best to take the team forwards. his first task is to revitalize the midfield, Paul Scholes has retired (this time for good), Darren Fletcher is injury prone with a virus, Carrick was the only midfielder to take much praise in the previous season, can Lee get the likes of Cleverley, Young, Nani and co to perform? well, he has started promisingly, drafting in several new midfielders to the club over the summer.

Transfers (Summer 2013):



the season has got off to a pretty good start for Manchester United under Lee, an unbeaten pre-season saw the team try out variations on both the 4-2-4 formation and 4-3-3 line up, none of the games really showed a hugely convincing display, but they were enough to satisfy Lee who commented that "It's easy to expect a tough start for any new manager, especially at this level, but to get through a pre-season with some potentially difficult matches, without losing, I think this is a good start, I got to try out formations and players and I am very happy with that, everything should be well set for the start of the season against Wigan in the Community Shield"

Pre-Season Games (2013-2014):

Update, the Second; Community Shield and August

"we have to keep our focus and take each game as it comes, if we can do that I have every confidence that this team will do big things this season" - the words of Manchester United manager Rory Lee just 2 days before his side opened their season with a Community Shield against Championship side Wigan Athletic.

Manchester United got their season up and running today with a fantastic 4-0 victory in the Community Shield, lifting the traditional English season curtain raiser for the 18th time (United extend that record of their own for most CS wins), it was a dominant display for United, who outplayed Wigan for much of the match, braces from Wayne Rooney and Javier "Chicharito" Hernandez provided the goalmouth highlights, whilst United enjoyed 24 shots on goal and 56% of possession to hammer home their superior stature.



after the match, Lee had this to say "today was a fantastic performance from the lads, Wayne in particular was on top form, reminding everyone just how good he is up front for the team. I am delighted with this result and it gives us a great boost for the start of the league campaign next weekend, it's also great to see two of our strikers find goalscoring form when it mattered today, and to keep a good clean sheet"

United's opening league games see them visit Southampton on the opening day before hosting Chelsea and Swansea at Old Trafford.

August 2013



Manchester United enjoyed a good first month to the season, recording a thrilling 6-2 victory over Southampton on the first weekend of the season, the game saw a hat-trick from last years top goalscorer Robin Van Persie, who also claimed the man of the match award, he was joined on the scoresheet by Rooney (2) and Hernandez, though United manager Rory Lee voiced some concern over his sides defending in the game "we got a big win today which was great, but it's a bit disappointing to let a couple of goals in, there was a bad pass from Nicolas (Gaitan) for their opening goal and Michael (Carrick) should have dealt with the corner that led to their 2nd better as well, but despite that I think most of the lads had a good game, Robin and Wayne in particular, they really are great together I have to say, best pairing in the world right now I might even say, they are literally that good if you ask me"

United followed the Southampton win with a crucial 3-0 Home win against likely title rivals Chelsea, a tense match that only really opened up on the 60th minute when Wayne Rooney fired home from the edge of the area to give the champions the lead, he then doubled his and United's tally for the match just 4 minutes later with a well placed header from a Micheal Carrick cross, United completed their victory on the 78th minute when substitute Danny Wellbeck tapped in after a Marouane Fellaini shot was saved. team boss Rory Lee was delighted with the win; "this is a huge result for us, especially in front of the home fans, Chelsea are a great team with a top manager and some fantastic players, to beat them by any scoreline would have been a great result for us today, but to win 3-0? that was fantastic, I took a slight gamble today putting Rafael back in the team after he was banned for the last match, but he was superb today, helped to set up the first and third goals, it was fantastic to see Wayne continue his fine form as well, he's at his best right now and I definitely hope that continues"

after that emphatic victory over Chelsea, United faced another potentially tricky home game against last seasons high fliers Swansea, the League Cup winners are always a threat but United continued their impressive start to the campaign with a 4-0 thrashing of the Swans, new signings Keisuke Honda and Marouane Fellaini among the scorers, with Van Persie netting from a free-kick and Phil Jones heading home from a corner, United boss Rory Lee named the young English defend his man of the match; "Phil was excellent today, he's done great this season for us, played at Right Back against Southampton and did okay and today he played in the middle and showed why he is such a highly rated young prospect for us there, made some great tackles and headed himself a goal as well, his earlier header for the Honda goal as well shows just how talented he is going forward for us as well as at the back"

Selected Player Profiles for August

this is my first attempt at a story so sorry if it's a bit habdash

FM2014 beta game so I thought I would do the story of how it goes, hopefully the good start keeps up! should be uploading September sometime before 4pm GMT

Looking good so far mate

Could we get a screenshot of your tactics to an idea of how you are getting your wins? You say its either a 4-2-4 or a 4-3-3 but how about the players rolls etc?

How comes you decided to buy Honda in summer and not sign him on a pre-contract