Super_Danny_Allsopp

The new FM14 is released! (I know I'm a few months late) For those who are avid fans of the Football Manager series, we knew roughly what to expect. I never played FM13, I skipped it totally, in-fact, up until a couple of months ago, I was still playing FM12. If you are going to download/buy FM14, shop around. I looked on Steam and it was listed at £35 at the time. After browsing various sites, I managed to find a deal which was 22 Euros, which I guess is pretty much £20. This gave me a code, to download via steam. Perfect, and £15 cheaper! Cracking on with the game itself, I started as Notts, an obvious choice for me. In previous FM games, I would pretty much ship out 90% of the existing squad and bring in who I wanted. I had been warned, however, that this would unsettle my team and I would struggle, at least initially. Also, on previous FM versions I managed to bounce Notts from League 1 on consecutive promotions all the way to the Premier League, practically re-vamping the squad every season. I was told by friends who have played this game before me, that with FM14, I might struggle achieving these standards. So I did... Season 1 Signings To begin with, I decided that the attacking part of my team wasn't really up to scratch. I was pretty happy with the defense. To compromise on my usual tactic of getting rid of everybody, I decided to replace the attacking half, and keep the defending half, give or take a player or so. As you will see in the screenshot below, this didn't quite materialise. As you can see, I off-loaded a lot of the youngsters on loan. Jamal C-R could have been useful, but I wanted to free up his wages and given his age, 100k was enough to see him away from ML. I brought in A.Keita, only slightly better than Bart, but with a lot of potential and on really small wages. Lopez, Bronzi, Zapata and Mambo were youngsters that could maybe be sold for a profit. The initial big signings were Gomis, Giandonato and Jay Bothroyd. All were Championship standard, with maybe the exception of Giandonato, who had excellent potential. I thought Gomis could be paired with Liddle in midfield, Gia to operate at DM instead of Fotheringham, and Bothroyd to be my main striker. Then the big blow. Offers made for Leacock and Liddle. Fairly big offers for this level, and they both wanted to leave, Leacock I thought I could replace, but Liddle was quite important and this was reflected by me trying to sign him back (unsuccessfully) the following season. Sheehan had offers, but due to the lack of any type of quality left backs available, I wasn't going to let him leave. Further signings included Fitz Hall, an ageing but quality CB to replace Leacock, Dudas, an adequate replacement for JCR, Bauben, to replace Liddle, Manuel Ruz, for challenge/cover for both full-back positions, and Craig Gordon, once recovered from injury, as a backup keeper and part-time GK coach to help Pilks. Gace and Bouazza were bigger signings to confirm the 'complete squad', especially as Grealish wouldn't extend his loan until the end of the season. Results As you can see, the first half of the season didn't go well. Mostly bad form was punctuated with brief periods of good form, followed by another run of losses. I did sort of think that this would be the case with pretty much a complete overhaul of the squad, although I didn't expect it to be this bad. There wasn't really much I could do to halt the bad form, changing tactics, players, nothing seemed to work. This form put me only just above the relegated zone! Moving us on to the second half of the season. Polar opposite. Great form punctuated by the odd loss or draw here and there. Loan signings helped me along the way, but the main key players were the ones that started in the first half of the season. Gace, Bothroyd, Gomis and Bouazza were particular stand outs. The form led me into the play-offs, 5th, and secured good wins over both Tranmere and Sheff. Utd in the play-offs. A great second half of the season, just goes to show what effect changing your whole squad has, it takes half a season for them to adjust. It worked out OK in the end I guess! Season 2 to follow...

I was optomistic at the start of the season too. Was I expecting to get promoted? No. I was expecting some good performances and to bring through at least 1 or 2 youth players in to the first team as starters or regular subs. However, we are now in a situation where our first team players, regardless of the youth, are staring at relegation. I know it is a bit early to say that, but 1 point so far is not exactly promising, to say the least. There seems to be no team chemistry, as in, they don't know what the other players in the team will do in certain situations. So instead of knowing that Dumbuya will try and beat his man, they are trying to give an option for the first time pass. It's this that contributes to the second problem. Flair. Or lack of. Especially in midfield, it seems flat. We need a bit more depth in the play, or the ball will keep being played sideways. It wouldn't matter as much if the wide players were beating players and getting to the byline to swing a ball into a box packed with black and white shirts. But they are not doing that either. On the few occassions that happens, 1 player is there against 4 defenders. Not good odds. In terms of the playing squad, I think players like Fotheringham simply aren't good enough. I didn't think we would, but we do miss Bishop, and Jeff Hughes to an extent. The ability of Bish to split up play effectively, and Hughes to have the technical ability to spay the ball about. Fotheringham doesn't have those abilities. We don't have a playmaker, or at least a midfielder who can pick a pass. Fotheringham doesn't have the ability, and McGregor seems more of an attacking midfielder who is better at taking players on than passing. It's definetly not just CK's fault that we have started like we have. However, it seems to me something isn't working. The players we have are no world beaters, but I don't think they are bottom of League One standard either. Unfortunately, something must change. If they can't work it out in the next match or 2, then I'm sorry Chris, but we'll have to find someone who can kick start this season.