Shearer Serason 2: A Dreadful Start

Well Season 2 has started and we're on a desperate run in the league, as memory serves just four points from the first five, it looks very much like we'll be doing well to stay up. I've decided to just play a few matches a day as previously I've charged through games and the end of season has felt very flat.

Coming back to the performance we've actually played quite well in games but conceeded late on after failing to convert many chances, I think it's a case of trying to keep a cool head and as the performance is there the rtesults will come. It is worrying that in other competitions form is A1 but in the SFA Premier League (the only that really matters) it's poor. I've abandoned a few games in other competitions to try and correct this, I don't actually know if this does more harm than good but it really can't get much worse.

Meanwhile so far the youths have started well with victories in every FA game played although it's not top of priorities it's nice to see. There is a manager in Shearer who managed to sign a 15 year old on 40k a day and a fine player this £40k 15 year old looks, I did show him M'Vila and he told me that he was 'nothing special', only time will tell but here is M'Vila today:-

Ze Podcast or Not............

I do have in mind a subject for the podcast but despite several dry runs I'm yet to hit form :) I suppose it is something I should just do and get it over with but soon maybe.......

Shearer Serason 2 Squad

GK - Iraizoz was a £150k Aq Fee Keeper with high stats in the commanding area etc. Well Known Rep and 27 ish. Has risen to £200+k Aq Fee and will be locked next season, great goalie.
DL - De Cler a spot buy Well Known Rep 30 years old. A dutch international and picked him up in auction for his Aq Fee £220k, too good to miss despite his age.
DC - Diakhate £275k 25 Year Old Well Known, had bid on loads of players like him in wage auction and a semi reasonable £20k a day.
DC - Torrejohn £100k+ was in starting squad 24 years old and will be locked to the team very safe and solid.
DR - Rodriguez £90k Aq Fee, currently weakest point in the team seriously considering a young 16 year old DR here. This is odd for me as U21 defenders I'm not keen on but Tetteh, the kid in question, certainly gets it done. For now we'll stick with this. Aggressive player but clearly wants to win.
ML - Gimenez Went all out for him early on (had to pay by installments) and went to High Profile in no time, really tricky winger that can also play up front. 29 so not long term but has impressed.
MC - Dudu has actually played for Brazil in real life and is pretty tasty very technical player.
MC - Parker another starter in Season 1 will hit 29 this season captain of team.
MR - Ashkan awesome footballer can also play up front and AMC. Can open it all up, £275k and already high profile at 22!
FC - Grafitie if we have a star this is him, powerful, quick, and likes to place shots. 30 this coming season and will go in £1 auction once season is over. A great early buy that I used every penny I had at the time to sign.
FC - Wendell, big season for Wendell, this one hopefully will go £200k+ and High Profile. A lot of his game is about pace and flair but I know from GW6 he becomes strong when this happens he turns from a nice young player into a goal machine.
Other players of note
Sub - M'Villa it's odd how you talk about kids with other managers and they can't see further than 3 stats. 16 years old was pleased when i bagged him on £300 a day (silly managers missed this one) quick, strong, aggressive, technical and determined. At 16 without an extended run in first team is £65k Aq Fee, if he carries on improving going to be HUGE!
Sub - Paulo Roberto Right Wing / Striker seriously considered starting with him and not Wendell as I can easily slot Ashkan into the striker role. In some ways Paulo is a better winger, will have to think about this.
Sub - Mutumbo At 17 still too young but an outstanding young DM.
Sub - Fidel Martinez AMC, whilst Dudu is predictable Fidel isn't, very random but sometimes puts on a show. At 19 some way off first team but will feature here and there.

The wage bill is under control at £140k area, have nice group of youth players right down to 15 year olds. The first thing on the agenda is going to be securing our spot in the Premier league if we hit form we could challenge for a UFFA spot.
My plan was to be fielding a team where every player could get into most premiership teams and this squad has that. I think other managers have the strategy that they'll get one superstar and a competitive team behind them. We've no £1m + Aq Fee players but a very solid and quite a mature squad.

Player Sales End of Season One - Gameworld Shearer

Screens so you can see 'Greens' :)

1.1 Boring - But in a Good Way

We can now talk about 1.1, I won't get into great detail for that see FM Blog - A Moderators Life or Your FML both A1 blogs. Instead I thought I'd give me impressions from a playing point of view.

If you were to summarise 1.1 into a few words it would stadiums introduced and massive changes to finance system. My previous plan for starting in a Gameworld has always been sign a couple of decent players in a youth team, watch them play and replace the youngsters that can least cope with seniors. It means I don't need to sell anyone as I'd likely sign a youth team anyway.

I've always liked to sign players with a long term view so pretty much they should be Premiership standard, these players commonly costs £150k + so with the finance system I could maybe get one or two pre season and then maybe a couple more when the season started. Hopefully the youth can cover the rest of the positions and we move forward from there.

Although the income stream isn't that much different in 1.1 the signing of players has one important difference, you pay a one off 10x contract wage signing on fee to the player. So your £150k Aq Fee players with a £8k wage demand is going to cost you £220k, quite a chunk of cash! In fact it almost half's the rate at which you can bring more players in.

In 1.01 I'd start, get to know, the team identify a weakness find a target and bid, you'd then do the same process again. The games pace wasn't too bad.... In 1.1 you start, identify a weakness find a target and wait for money, and then wait some more.... It's much slower.

The real exciting stuff in 1.1 is stadiums, how exactly these will 'play' I have no idea. I don't think you need to focus on this area until you have a bigger team, really start of season two, the beta servers get reset so I've not yet got the point where their needed.

The result of these changes is that at the start of a Gameworld 1.1 is really slow and well.... boring. However is this such a bad thing? Moving Gameworlds and having to start again becomes as chore, nice desirable result!

Player Centric Tactics

Jordan and the gang have another podcast out, essential listening as usual.

The Jakswans are looking good for promotion to the premiership having risen to 2nd spot, it's possible that we could even secure the title although that looks unlikely. Currently we're half way through the SFA Non Premiership Cup Semi Final (first leg away drew 2-2), and oddly the various youth squads have been over performing, in the FA's competitions we could literally walk away with every single youth trophy.

I decided to run all these youth comps after reading that FA games help youths progress more so regardless of the result the SFA should have strong youth players coming through.

Had an interesting chat with a few managers who read my blog and stated it's like tactics don't matter..... My tactics are very simple, pretty much standard 4-4-2 my outlook on tactics as a whole has been 'player centric'. I like to play 4-4-2, I think it's nice to watch, is balanced and can be adapted easily into something else. Having watched now literally hundreds of games I came to the conclusion that in this formation the most critical position is the DM/MC.

When something breaks down it's more often the DM that is picking up the peices, if a ball is played to a winger and there is nothing on he turns and lays it back to the DM. He then looks to set something else up and move from there. Having a player that is weak in any area in this position is a recipe for disaster and this is this reason why we spent the bulk of our early cash on a mature Scott Parker.

Another example of 'player centric' tactics is the choice of subs or maybe switching players positions currently I have a young 19 year old striker Paulo Roberto who can play right wing and then I have the wonder boy Ashkan Dejagah who can play up front or right wing. Which player to play where is the cause of much pondering, the opposition, their formation, the scoreline, all factor.

Another player in my line up is a young AMC Fidel Martinez, too young for senior football and makes a lot of mistakes but has lots of flair and can occasionally open up a defence like no other, if we're chasing a game he'll often get to see action.

Oddly I seem to enjoy not so much getting it right but sometimes getting it wrong, there just seems to be endless depths in the match engine.

Mods Day out & Random Stuff

Well the mod meet went great, Sega / SI looked after us for a meeting in Kick Bar London. The theme was Sega wanting to drive the community aspect part of the game and to outline some plans. The 1.1 release notes are fairly comprehensive so no shocks there.

The big surprise is just how heavy the marketing campaign will be and the demographic they'll be after, Sega are doing both barrels so I'd expect around 100 new worlds, yes, 100, wow.

Some changes to how Gameworlds get released but full steam ahead otherwise and some news on how 1.1 will be applied to 1.01 not sure what we can reveal or not so best leave it there.

Everyone was pretty much as I expected the day did pass in a blur and didn't have chance to chat to everyone I wanted to but this isn't a moan just how good it was to meet so many. No sooner I had got there it felt like I was looking at my watch and thinking 'omg must get train'.

Podcast - I'm thinking of doing a podcast I have started one a few times but can't quite get on roll with it.

We still putting points on the board in SFAQ2 and currently pro rata lead all the youth comps (not sure how long this will last though). The best manager in FM Live has to be Paul Wallace, this is his squad in a Gameworld that isn't three weeks old:-Wow that takes some doing!