[FM 12] DeadMan's Arsenal Dynasty

[DeadMan]

Just posting this because I might come back to it. Also, some history for my current Inter dynasty.

DeadMan’s FM 12 Arsenal Dynasty

This is something I’ve gotten back into recently. Because it’s pretty easy to put an FM dynasty together with screenshots, I decided to go ahead and post the dynasty here. I’m currently in 2014 (2014/2015 season), after starting in 2011, so it’s my 4th game year of managing. I say game year, because I started this dynasty in 2012 when I originally bought this game . So, I’ve been playing off and on for a while now. I’m going to quickly run through the history of the game (mostly because I don’t remember much of it, ha ha) in this post, and then the next post will be about the current season. Going forward, I think I’ll follow goblue’s format of posting season previews, mid-season reviews, and full season reviews. Anyways, here goes:

2011/2012 Season

I started off fairly well, with a second place finish in the Premier League. I ended up winning the FA Cup (other competitions summaries will come all together), so at least I ended Arsenal’s trophy drought My transfer business was, frankly, bad. I bought a lot of players, but the only people who are still at Arsenal are Barkley, Valencia (both of which I’m debating selling in the near future because they are not developing like I want), and Dzagoev (and I will probably sell him soon). Still, it was a good start to my career, with the trophy and doing well in the PL.

2012/2013 Season

Started off the season by clearing out a bunch of U18 and Reserves to focus on the best players, and to also make those teams easier to manage. This was a great transfer window for me as far as bringing in players as well. All of the players I brought in are still at the club. Aogo, Busquets, and Doumbia are all starters and arguably the stars of the team. Charrier is my best prospect, and Valk and Stiefler are both highly promising prospects as well.

I ended up winning the mickey mouse treble, although I left it to the last day. As you can see, although my goals scored suffered, I gave up a lot less goals. The race for the title was pretty tight all year long (and I actually ended up with fewer points as the year before, I just realized), from what I remember (this season I finished about 10 months ago I believe). I had a lot of success in the other competitions. Won the FA Cup, Community Shield, and League Cup, which is nice. I came runners up in the Champions League. That was heartbreaking. I had rampaged through the knockout phases – beating PSG, Man United, and Man City in dominating performances (all of the margins were along the lines of 5-1, 6-0). Then came up against Barcelona in the final and played them really close. Ended up losing on penalties. Barcelona were also the team that knocked me out of the CL the year before, in dominating fashion. Still, a domestic treble (quad, I guess, if you count the Charity Shield) is nothing to scoff at.

2013/2014 Season

(having an issue with this image, will re-upload later)

Added a bunch of prospects (Lopes, Vurmaz, Monnet), a couple of backup GKs because Fabianski left. Continued to clear out the waste in the squad, including getting rid of some players that were in the first team but not good fits. Isco is going to be a key player for me over the next season, and Schurrle, while sometimes frustrating, is a really good player (now that I got him off always taking long shots.

Did another double – this time with the Premier League and Champions League. I had an epic comeback in the PL – I was down 7 points to ManU in March, with a game in hand. I went on a rampage – winning every game except for one draw. I’ll post a picture of the run-in later. ManU didn’t really fall apart that much. I beat them and won the game in hand. I believe they drew two other games until the last day of the season. Last day, I was up by one point. I had a lay up game against Middlesbrough, while ManU faced Chelsea. I didn’t get an early break through, but it didn’t matter because ManU was down 3-0 before I could blink. They lost 4-0, and I ended up winning pretty comfortably. 100 points, won the title by 4. It was a great end to the season, as you can see:

Champions League was relatively easy in comparison. My biggest test was Real Madrid in the semis, but I managed to get a 4-2 away win and then hold on to go through. Ended up against ManU, of course, in the final, but didn’t have too much trouble in brushing them aside. I was very happy to win this after the heartbreak of the year before.

I was close to pulling out a treble, or even the fabled quad. I lost in the semis of both the League and FA Cups. In the League Cup, I played the kids all throughout the competition and didn’t change anything in the semis. Southampton beat me over two legs. Oh well. In the FA Cup, I ended up losing to Liverpool in extra time. I was winning that game 1-0 pretty comfortably until the 88th minute, when Landon freaking Donovan scored on a long ball into the box. My players fell apart in extra time – one really bad mistake by Sneezy and it went to pot. Ended up losing 3-2, which was super frustrating. Oh well. Double is still pretty damn good.

Other Competitions History

Manager History

Charity Shield Winner: 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015
League Cup Winner: 2013, 2016
FA Cup Winner: 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016
Premier League Winner: 2012/2013, 2013/2014, 2014/2015, 2015/2016
Champions League Winner: 2013/2014, 2015/2016
European Super Cup Winner: 2014
Club World Champion: 2014
Manager of the Month: 6 times
Manager of the Year: 4 times

 

[DeadMan]

2014/15 Midseason Review

Just got past the January transfer window, so I'd figured I'd give an update.

I have cooled off slightly and allowed ManCity and ManU to start breathing down my neck in the title race. Even though I'm still unbeaten in the PL, I've been in a slump recently. I have been having reel trouble scoring goals and more and more teams seem content to bunker against me and try for a 0-0. The AI seems to have solved my corner routine, and this has all coincided with Doumbia going off the boil a bit, then getting injured, and then leaving for the African Cup of Nations. Although Carvalho has filled in pretty well, he doesn't create chances on his own like Doumbia, leaving to my scoring drought. I am probably going to shake up my tactics a bit to play a slightly different way.

That said, I'm into the 6th round of the FA Cup, against a bottom half Premier League team (forget which one) after beating ManCity 4-0. That was a great little victory that hopefully will push us on. I also advanced through my CL group with ease, winning both games against PSG handidly, beating Athletico soundly at home, and then beating Haifa away to finish with 16 points and in first place. I drew Hannover in the round of 16, so I should be able to get through that with ease. After that, it's pretty much a crapshoot.

I also managed to win the Club World Cup, which is nice.

I did crash out of the League Cup against a lower league side, but I was playing kids. I might be a little frustrated if that's the competition I don't win this year, but right now, even winning the PL is going to be tough.

Only one signing. My right back of the future. Sagna is starting to decline a bit, so I brought this guy to start grooming him to take Sagna's place:

He looks like he'll be a real playah soon enough. The weird part is that the fans are upset with me for signing him. I don't get it. My plan is to use him as a spot starter this year and then have him starting by the season after next. If he develops quicker and relegates Sagna to the bench, then so be it.

I did let Dzagoev go out on loan, with an eye to selling him in the near future. Arteta will also be moving on this summer, and RvP should as well (unless he agrees to a pay cut). I've played them all only a handful of times, and I want to try to buy a box to box CM because I'm somewhat thin in that position.

2014/15 Season Review

Well, in the end, it was a great season. But I'm pissed about it. I did a domestic double, and I also won the UEFA Super Cup, Charity Shield, and Club World Championship. I'll explain why I'm pissed in a bit. In the Premier League, I was pretty much a wire to wire winner, except for a couple of times when I had games in hand. That said, it wasn't easy. Manchester United and Manchester City were breathing down my neck all season. Through most of March and April, they were 2 points behind me the entire time. United fell apart in early May, while City kept up the pressure until the end of the year. Going into the last day, I was 3 points clear with an advantage in goal difference, so it would have taken some collapse on my part to lose the title. I ended up brushing Middlesbrough aside pretty easily in the end. And, to go with that, it was another unbeaten league campaign for Arsenal. The Invincible's II, except with 8 more points than the 2003/4 version of Arsenal. We had a bit of a lull in goalscoring in the late winter/early spring, with Doumbia getting hurt and going through a dip in form.

FA Cup was sort of a cakewalk, although we made it more difficult than it should have been. ManCity in the 4th round was the only really difficult game, although the rest of the game were against Premier League teams.

Champions League ... ugh. I got past City in the quarters after a 2-1 home win and hanging on for a 0-0 tie away from home. The draw for the semi-final was the winner of Real Madrid and Marseille. I figured it would be a tough one against Real Madrid, but Marseille advanced. I was really happy with that, because Real is a really good team. Well, Marseille just crushed me at their place. We gave up 4 goals, and at least 2 were just terrible defending. I was so pissed afterwards. I tore the team to shreds after the game in the team talk and in the press. Fortunately, we got 2 away goals, so it was still possible to go through, albeit difficult. I was hoping for a reaction...

Got it - barely. We were tied at half, but then got an early penalty to get to within 1. And then the onslaught began. But Mandanda was on fire. He was a brick wall back there. I had 4 clear cut chances in after the penalty, plus a bunch of other chances and he turned them all away. I eventually took a defender off for a striker, going with a 3-3-2-2 formation. In the last minute of extra time, Mandanda made another brilliant save but it lead to a corner. Somehow, we score from the corner to tie the tie at 4-4, and after 30 more seconds, go through on away goals. It was insane. I was resigned to defeat, but some how we pulled it off. Then comes Lyon in the final (yeah, I don't get all of the French teams here). It was a tight game but I eventually lost in the second half of extra time...

Yes, to a fucking penalty. In the 114th minute. I couldn't see the foul at all, and I'm so pissed about it. I went full Fergie after the game about it. Penalties are obviously a crapshoot, but it would have been nice to have a chance in those. We managed two half chances after the penalty but nothing came of it.

So close to a treble. Dammit. Final CL tree:

And my final stats:

RvP managed to get himself back into the team in the second half of the season, and was probably the reason I won the title. He was superb, and won at least 3 games for us singlehandedly. I'm hoping to keep him around, but he makes a ton of money and he's 32 at this point. I might sell him to get some more flexibility in the transfer market, or if I could just renegotiate his contract. We'll see.

Anyways, onto next season. This time I'm going to get the treble.

 

[DeadMan]

2015-16 Season Preview

Apparently imageshack changed its website so that it no longer works with IE5 or whatever old ass browser we're forced to use, so I can't pound these out at work as easily. I'm pretty close to the January transfer window in the game, so I'd better catch up.

My transfer business:

The goalie rotation continues. The worst thing about FM12 that I've found so far is that any experienced backup goalie will complain about not getting enough playing time. So I bring in Handanovic, probably for a season . I'm hoping the young goalie I bought can be a backup for a while. Szczesny isn't going anywhere for a decade, so I guess I'll continue the rotation. He's probably the best goalie in the game at this point.

Anyways, here are the players I bought:

Alaba was the only first team transfer. He looks like a pretty good box to box midfielder, but he can also play any position on the left hand side, along with any midfield position up the middle. I've played him at left back a couple of times this year, too. He's been solid but not spectacular, which is fine. I see him more as a rotation player considering that Wilshere and Ramsey are both really good.

The other three players there are prospects for the future. Festa is getting rave reviews from my ass man and had a great review from the scouting team as well.

To make up for not spending a ton, I'm looking to move a couple of prospects into the first team. I think Valk might overtake Vermaelen in the CB pecking order, mostly because Vermaelen had a broken leg last year that sapped him of a lot of his attributes. I'm into the last year of Ross Barkley's contract, so this is his put up or shut up year. He's been playing well when I've played him, which is not often enough unfortunately.

I also sent a couple of prospects on loan. I'm going to start emphasizing that more, because I have a lot of prospects at some positions.

Anyway, onto the season. My Champions League group:

Not as bad as it looks. Inter are tough, but I've had no trouble playing PSG in the past couple of seasons. Gala are a wild card, but I think I can easily take 9 points at home and get a win or two on the road to sail through the group.

Hey, I won the Charity Shield! Fourth time in a row. Didn't expect it to be as much of a cakewalk as it turned out to be.

2015/16 Midseason Review

Season is going swimmingly so far. I have a huge lead in the Premier League, and I'm in the final of the League Cup despite playing kids all the way. Got first in my CL group and got a decent draw against Roma in the round of 16. ManU is a tough draw in the FA Cup for sure, but I've been doing well against them recently. Chelsea was actually leading the league for the first 15 games or so, but then went into somewhat of a tail spin after I beat them. Speaking of which, I just destroyed them:

They're using a weird 3-4-2-1 formation, and my 4-3-3 just eviscerated them. I doubled them up on the flanks and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain just killed them. I spent a while debating what formation to use to counter it, and I stayed with the 4-3-3 for that reason. I figured it wouldn't be super solid defensively against that many attacking players but that I should be able to exploit it on the counter. I was right.

A couple of other exciting games:

Pulled that one out of my ass. I was playing the kids and was okay with a loss. But I did try to put some starters in and go for it. And they came through.

I was set for the draw after Wilshere got a red and they equalized. I played super defensively but managed to get a goal off a set piece to win. I would have been okay with a replay, but I'm not complaining.

No transfers in or out during the window. I'm happy with my team. I do have some areas I might want to upgrade in the off season, but right now I'm pretty set. Stats:

Had some injury issues during the season so far. James Rodriguez blew out his ACL after a couple of games - he's still got a couple of months before he's back. So far, his stats haven't decreased too much, so he should be able to contribute. Schürrle has been amazing in his absence. Playing him as an inside forward has just unleashed him.

Busquets went out for a while as well, and then Charrier went down for a while on top of that. So I played Monnet in the DM position, and he performed admirably. I am slowly turning him into a DM instead of a CB. Charrier has improved tremendously even with his injury:

A surprise has been Sean Ross, a young striker. He's come through the academy here and I didn't pay much attention to him until recently. He's developed really nicely and scored 4 goals in 3 league cup appearances. He's behind two great strikers in Doumbia and Carvalho though, so I'm not sure about his future either.

I wish he was slightly faster because he could be a great poacher with a little more speed. I have him on an individual training, so it should improve quickly. We'll see.

2015/2016 Season Review

Like I said, I just dominated the league. Lost a weird game after I put the title away, but it was pretty much a faultless season. I obviously let in a few more goals than last year, but I more than made up for it in the goal scoring department. Still managed to have the best defensive record in the league though.

West Brom getting into the Champions League really surprised me. ManU had a terrible season - resulted in them firing their manager and bringing in Guardiola. That should bring a new challenge, I'd think. Anyways, on to the cups:

An elusive treble, and then the even more elusive quad! Champions League was a lot easier than it has been in the past. The first knockout round against Roma was about the only time I was in real trouble, but even then I felt pretty good about overturning the 3-1 deficit. I was surprised how easy the rest of it turned out to be. League Cup was a cakewalk outside of that Liverpool game. FA Cup was slightly harder than it was in the past, but after the 5th round it was relatively easy. Stats from the year:

And just wanted to share this beast that Carvahlo has turned into:

LAWD

Honestly, now that I've won the treble (and I guess the quad), not sure if I'll be continuing with this. I don't really have that much more to accomplish. We'll see.

So I decided to resign from Arsenal and then make that a new save. I will start a new thread for this new version of this save. I want to leave this thread here in case I decide to come back to this save. For now, I'm looking for a new job, and I'm going to lean towards a big club that's fallen on hard times.

Interesting who took over for me at Arsenal

He and I had a feud going through the media for the past couple of years. He would say he wasn't my biggest fan, and I would respond that it doesn't bother me because I had never heard of him