Firstly, apologies for the delayed post, a busy life schedule and time off work meant that I did not get chance to play much at all, thus gathering material for the post and making time to edit it all up had to take a back seat.
Life in season 4, back in the Premier League for the second time, has started ominously realistically.
After the summer signings of Suarez (CF), Torres (CM), Spinazzola (LM), Adama Traoré (RM) and Balbuena (CB) I had optimism going into the new season, picking up four wins and a defeat in the opening 5 matches, to take an early lead at the top of the Premier League.
Much like any newly promoted team who want to make an impact on the division and get as many points on the board as early as possible, we played solidly in those opening five matches, with a 1-0 win over Liverpool at home being the highlight, and a thumping 4-1 win away to Huddersfield showing that the newly acquired firepower was paying dividends.
Suarez has started as expected, his deadly finishing on show, and his movement really adds to our forward threat, Spinazzola has been surprisingly good also, a Left Mid who joined from Juventus, always seems to be in the right place.
Jurgen Damm has kept his place on the right-wing ahead of Adama Traoré but has so far only chipped in with a couple of goals and is finding it harder in the better division.
Then came a 5 week injury to CF Josh King, so as backup, on the closing day of the transfer window we managed to grab Tammy Abraham from Chelsea on a 5 year deal worth £18 million.
The next 3 matches consisted of a draw, against a superb Chelsea side and a 2 defeats, to see us slip down to 8th in the table.
Chelsea were a cut above anyone we had played up until that point, with Hazard always a constant threat, they moved the ball well and played with pace, and the match against them was one of the most enjoyable for a long time.
Chelsea went 1-0 up mid-way through the first half, I needed a tactical change, so brought on Adama Traoré to use his pace down the right-wing, moments after he came on this happened ….
A driven pass seeking out Adama, who took a great first touch to race down the wing with pace and cut inside the Chelsea full back, who lunged in and brought him down for a Penalty, which Suarez duly converted, 1-1.
Chelsea then went 2-1 in the 67th minute, Hazard again, at which point we switched to a high pressing, attacking formation, and in the 88th minute, Adama once again staking a claim for a starting place by dispossession the Chelsea full back just outside the box, and laying a nice pass inside the box to a waiting Suarez who drilled home inside the near post for a last gasp equalizer.
I probably should have altered the tactics and formation to maybe a 5-4-1, or 4-5-1 to stifle Chelsea and try to hit on the counter attack, but I wanted to see if we could hang with the big boys playing our usual style, and to come from behind twice to earn a draw against one of the leagues best teams was satisfying.
Next up was Spurs, who hammered us 4-0, we didn’t play very well at all but that’s more credit to Spurs, hands down the toughest team I’ve ever faced on a football game.
The pace and way they moved the ball, the constant pressure, and their deadly attacking trio of Kane, Son, and Delle Ali, was just impossible to play against.
We was lucky to get zero.
So quite realistically, we have started well, and then started to fade away a bit, but I’m confident we can pick up enough points against the rest of the teams to remain in the division, which was the target from the outset, and what is expected from the board.
After all, we are 8th but still only 3 points off the top.
We also have some promising young players who I have promoted, trained and developed and are getting games in cup matches, and as subs in league games, more on these players next time.
A few goals from the opening matches, and finished off with a stormer of a goal from the CM against me.
FIFAFX.com 
Paul – I am 15 games into the season now and am top level on points. I won the first 5 but the game has been holding me in check and seems to be getting harder. This makes it even better as I am gritting it out and hanging in there. I have no illusion I am going to be top at the end of the season. The presentation and extra aminations in the PL are just stunning. My favourite ground to play on so far is Chelsea and really feels like you are watching a game on TV played there.
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Similar path here Darryl, I played several so-so teams except Liverpool, and was top, as soon as I started to play higher quality teams, the gap in quality showed, you can really get a sense of playing a big team with their superb players.
My fave ground is Bournemouth’s Vitality stadium, the real TV broadcast angle is replicated, so its very close to the pitch and due to the small stadium, a lot lower, space is tight, but the atmosphere is superb, love it.
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Paul – that has to be one of the best AI goals I’ve seen in a long time. I was pre-prepared by your introduction for a good AI goal, but because the team was in red I thought it was you for a moment and was about to congratulate you on a long-range in-off-the-woodwork-er. I’ll congratulate the game instead.
I still think Suarez is a great signing and exactly what you need to energise CM – but that Torres will be your long-term stalwart I think.
Spurs in all football games are supercharged and tough to play against over the past few years. Before that it was Chelsea. Man City too of course. I’ve been dabbling with Football Manager again and there it’s a matter of putting out your A team and taking a beating or putting out your B team and taking a beating, so I put out my B team.
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It was a corker, I was surprised as when the Middlesbrough forward picked the ball up i immediately switched to another player to cut out a passing option and was just about to secondary press using one of my defenders and before I could even press the button, Boom!!! it was in the net.
The COM has scored a few very nice goals against me from range, they are definitely not afraid to have a pop.
I still have FM18 on the mac, just dont ever find any time to be able to play it.
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We need AI that plays like a human and will try shots from silly range occasionally. Across the aisle on the other game I’ve only seen them try long-rangers from cleared corners, never from their own organic buildup.
The secret of playing Football Manager is pre-committing to the idea that you will only get on it once or twice per week for a few matches. In that way, the rhythms of playing it match the rhythms of real-life footy and it just becomes part of your life. Even that can fall by the wayside, as if I skip it for a few weeks I tend not to return. Currently managing Hinckley in the lower leagues on FM2012. There are some great FM YouTube channels that keep inspiring me to start another career.
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NG – I have watched a fair few of the TTB (True Brits) videos on YouTube where he plays a ML with the Modded PC version, and have seen the COM take a good few long range shots from all positions, and didn’t Konami state the COM would attempt more shots within their LCS patch notes?
Last time I fired up FM18 on the MBP, I was en-route back to MK from Manchester, on the train, and got so engrossed I very nearly missed my stop and ended up in London.
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Paul – your Suarez post has reminded me of a bug I have encountered in the game. When a player is on a one year contract you can’t renew his contract. This is because the game comes up with an error to say you have already negotiated with the player. This is because you have already negotiated a contract with the player in the last 12 months. Similarly in January if you extend a players contact who is due to expire, by a further year the new contract then only takes you to the summer. This means you have to let go of the player anyway. Easiest thing to do is avoid 1 year contracts in future.
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Looks like I’ll lose Suarez regardless then Darryl, I will give it a go when I get to play over the weekend, if it is an issue I’ll feed it back to Vorey (EA Community Manager)
Needs patching.
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Another season comes and goes. I finished 8th having lead at the halfway stage. Although I did fall away a little bit I am very pleased with the performance over the season as my objective was to finish mid table. The quality of opposition has been a massive leap from the Championship. My star man Brewster finished the season 2nd in the goal scoring charts but went a bit grumpy when a big move for him was turned down and his form dropped as a result. The highlight of the season was a 5-1 thumping of Spurs early on in the season. Looking forward to the season ahead and curious as to my spending budget having netted 147 million in prize money for the high finish.
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Thats a superb finish Darryl. The gulf in quality between the Championship and the Premier league is huge and noticeable, I’m having a frustrating period at present, as mentioned in the new post due up in a min.
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