Fifa 12 Career Mode Discussions

So, the update no one's been waiting for... I went through with my plan of giving a lower league team Tevez, selling him, and using the funds to build a good young team and help them progress through the league, as an antidote to struggling through. I went for Crawley, and imagined them being bought out by some benevolent oligarch or other. I moved them into a brand new 20,000 seater stadium and began the great adventure. Crawley are a strong team to begin with, and probably good enough to secure promotion as they are, but with a sudden cash injection of 25 million following their takeover, it would have been frankly silly not to invest in a solid future. I went for mainly English players, young but with high potential. After much wheeling and dealing, my squad for the first season looked like this:

GK: Jack Butland (61 rated bought from Birmingham)
DR: Mustapha Dumbuya (65 rated bought from Doncaster)
DC: Luke Chambers (71 rated bought from Nottingham Forest)
DC: Wes Morgan (69 rated bought from Nottingham Forest)
DL: Steven Hammell (68 rated bought from Motherwell)
MR: Andros Townsend (68 rated bought from Spurs)
MC: Emmanuel Frimpong (71 rated loaned from Arsenal)
MC: Jonjo Shelvey (69 rated loaned from Liverpool)
ML: Andrew Driver (70 rated bought from Motherwell)
ST: Brett Pitman (68 rated bought from Bristol City)
ST: Marvin Sordell (70 rated bought from Watford)

Subs:

ST: Jordan Rhodes (66 rated bought from Huddersfield)
MC: John Bostock (65 rated loaned from Spurs)
DM: Sean Davies (69 bought from Bolton)
DC: Pablo Mills (Current player)
RM: Sergio Torres (Current player)

Fairly unsurprisingly, this squad was far too strong for this level, and I walked League Two, finishing on 112 points, with a very respectable 35 wins and just 6 losses from the 46 games. Brett Pitman was a revelation, scoring 27 goals in the league, and keeping Jordan Rhodes on the bench for pretty much the whole season. In total in the first season the squad cost getting on for 18 million, and it was a total blast assembling these future stars into a viable team. I also had a great run in the F.A. Cup, beating Rochdale, Liverpool then Sunderland, before taking Everton to a replay, but going down 1-0 at Goodison. League One would perhaps present a stiffer challenge, so I took full advantage of the summer window. Here are the dealings:

Frimpong, Bostock and Shelvey all returned to their parent clubs, and several players including Sergio Torres and Hope Akpan were sent packing having failed to make the grade. I used the money gained from these transfers as well as a few million remaining from the previous season, to bring in: Nathan Redmond for a paltry 3 million, (already rated 65 at the age of 19 and with potential to reach the mid 80's), Liam Trotter (rated 71 for around 1.5 million, a direct CM replacement for Frimpong), Sam Baldock (Striker, rated 68, signed for 1.5 million from West Ham, rated 68) Owain Fon Williams (GK, rated 67, signed for 400k from Tranmere) and Serge Aurier (DR, rated 69, for 2 million from Lens). Also brought in on loan were Apostolos Vellios (ST from Everton), Josh McEachran (CM from Chelsea), and Jonathan Williams (CM from Crystal Palace).

I'm feeling pretty confident now about attacking League One and enjoying another good cup run, and think this game has some serious legs!
 
Insoired by a fantastic book about that club (Family by Michael Calvin), a couple of weeks ago i started a carreer (as a manager) with the ugly ducklings of English football: Milwall.

Thoroughly enjoying this.

Started of the league very well with a string of wins. But the best result was in the third round of the league Cup, a home match against Man Utd. They took the lead, but Milwall came back, and after that they scored again (Valencia's runs were devastating). Half-time score: 1-2.
I scored an early equaliser (a bit fortunate because the bals was deflected) and then the match went up and down...at the end Milwall won 4-2...Man Utd played with a B-team, but so did Milwall...

Bought two players: Julien Gorius from KV Mechelen and Auriac (another French player) from a French ligue 2 club (Clermont Ferrand).

All credit to EA, the manager mode is fantastic, i got injuries (a litle too much to be comfortable, but i will not change the sliders), moaning players...vergood and immersive. The only thing i miss a litle bit is the individuality of the players...

This year FIFA is the better game for me, i liked last year's PES, but this year's edition is a step back. I will play much more FIFA.
 
Brenaldinho said:
So, the update no one's been waiting for... I went through with my plan of giving a lower league team Tevez, selling him, and using the funds to build a good young team and help them progress through the league, as an antidote to struggling through. I went for Crawley, and imagined them being bought out by some benevolent oligarch or other. I moved them into a brand new 20,000 seater stadium and began the great adventure. Crawley are a strong team to begin with, and probably good enough to secure promotion as they are, but with a sudden cash injection of 25 million following their takeover, it would have been frankly silly not to invest in a solid future. I went for mainly English players, young but with high potential. After much wheeling and dealing, my squad for the first season looked like this:

GK: Jack Butland (61 rated bought from Birmingham)
DR: Mustapha Dumbuya (65 rated bought from Doncaster)
DC: Luke Chambers (71 rated bought from Nottingham Forest)
DC: Wes Morgan (69 rated bought from Nottingham Forest)
DL: Steven Hammell (68 rated bought from Motherwell)
MR: Andros Townsend (68 rated bought from Spurs)
MC: Emmanuel Frimpong (71 rated loaned from Arsenal)
MC: Jonjo Shelvey (69 rated loaned from Liverpool)
ML: Andrew Driver (70 rated bought from Motherwell)
ST: Brett Pitman (68 rated bought from Bristol City)
ST: Marvin Sordell (70 rated bought from Watford)

Subs:

ST: Jordan Rhodes (66 rated bought from Huddersfield)
MC: John Bostock (65 rated loaned from Spurs)
DM: Sean Davies (69 bought from Bolton)
DC: Pablo Mills (Current player)
RM: Sergio Torres (Current player)

Fairly unsurprisingly, this squad was far too strong for this level, and I walked League Two, finishing on 112 points, with a very respectable 35 wins and just 6 losses from the 46 games. Brett Pitman was a revelation, scoring 27 goals in the league, and keeping Jordan Rhodes on the bench for pretty much the whole season. In total in the first season the squad cost getting on for 18 million, and it was a total blast assembling these future stars into a viable team. I also had a great run in the F.A. Cup, beating Rochdale, Liverpool then Sunderland, before taking Everton to a replay, but going down 1-0 at Goodison. League One would perhaps present a stiffer challenge, so I took full advantage of the summer window. Here are the dealings:

Frimpong, Bostock and Shelvey all returned to their parent clubs, and several players including Sergio Torres and Hope Akpan were sent packing having failed to make the grade. I used the money gained from these transfers as well as a few million remaining from the previous season, to bring in: Nathan Redmond for a paltry 3 million, (already rated 65 at the age of 19 and with potential to reach the mid 80's), Liam Trotter (rated 71 for around 1.5 million, a direct CM replacement for Frimpong), Sam Baldock (Striker, rated 68, signed for 1.5 million from West Ham, rated 68) Owain Fon Williams (GK, rated 67, signed for 400k from Tranmere) and Serge Aurier (DR, rated 69, for 2 million from Lens). Also brought in on loan were Apostolos Vellios (ST from Everton), Josh McEachran (CM from Chelsea), and Jonathan Williams (CM from Crystal Palace).

I'm feeling pretty confident now about attacking League One and enjoying another good cup run, and think this game has some serious legs!
Click to expand...

Absolutely enjoyed reading this and looking forward to more news about your career.
I'm thinking of doing the same thing you did, just to see what kind of squad I could assemble with millions to spend.
 
Brenaldinho said:
So, the update no one's been waiting for... I went through with my plan of giving a lower league team Tevez, selling him, and using the funds to build a good young team and help them progress through the league, as an antidote to struggling through. I went for Crawley, and imagined them being bought out by some benevolent oligarch or other. I moved them into a brand new 20,000 seater stadium and began the great adventure. Crawley are a strong team to begin with, and probably good enough to secure promotion as they are, but with a sudden cash injection of 25 million following their takeover, it would have been frankly silly not to invest in a solid future. I went for mainly English players, young but with high potential. After much wheeling and dealing, my squad for the first season looked like this:

GK: Jack Butland (61 rated bought from Birmingham)
DR: Mustapha Dumbuya (65 rated bought from Doncaster)
DC: Luke Chambers (71 rated bought from Nottingham Forest)
DC: Wes Morgan (69 rated bought from Nottingham Forest)
DL: Steven Hammell (68 rated bought from Motherwell)
MR: Andros Townsend (68 rated bought from Spurs)
MC: Emmanuel Frimpong (71 rated loaned from Arsenal)
MC: Jonjo Shelvey (69 rated loaned from Liverpool)
ML: Andrew Driver (70 rated bought from Motherwell)
ST: Brett Pitman (68 rated bought from Bristol City)
ST: Marvin Sordell (70 rated bought from Watford)

Subs:

ST: Jordan Rhodes (66 rated bought from Huddersfield)
MC: John Bostock (65 rated loaned from Spurs)
DM: Sean Davies (69 bought from Bolton)
DC: Pablo Mills (Current player)
RM: Sergio Torres (Current player)

Fairly unsurprisingly, this squad was far too strong for this level, and I walked League Two, finishing on 112 points, with a very respectable 35 wins and just 6 losses from the 46 games. Brett Pitman was a revelation, scoring 27 goals in the league, and keeping Jordan Rhodes on the bench for pretty much the whole season. In total in the first season the squad cost getting on for 18 million, and it was a total blast assembling these future stars into a viable team. I also had a great run in the F.A. Cup, beating Rochdale, Liverpool then Sunderland, before taking Everton to a replay, but going down 1-0 at Goodison. League One would perhaps present a stiffer challenge, so I took full advantage of the summer window. Here are the dealings:

Frimpong, Bostock and Shelvey all returned to their parent clubs, and several players including Sergio Torres and Hope Akpan were sent packing having failed to make the grade. I used the money gained from these transfers as well as a few million remaining from the previous season, to bring in: Nathan Redmond for a paltry 3 million, (already rated 65 at the age of 19 and with potential to reach the mid 80's), Liam Trotter (rated 71 for around 1.5 million, a direct CM replacement for Frimpong), Sam Baldock (Striker, rated 68, signed for 1.5 million from West Ham, rated 68) Owain Fon Williams (GK, rated 67, signed for 400k from Tranmere) and Serge Aurier (DR, rated 69, for 2 million from Lens). Also brought in on loan were Apostolos Vellios (ST from Everton), Josh McEachran (CM from Chelsea), and Jonathan Williams (CM from Crystal Palace).

I'm feeling pretty confident now about attacking League One and enjoying another good cup run, and think this game has some serious legs!
Click to expand...

Crawley are a really good team to have a takeover, in real life they are actually being bankrolled by some wealthy owners, which is why they suddenly won the Conference last year and are near the top of league 2.
 
Placebo said:
Henriksen my highest rated player suddenly out of nowhere handed in a transfer request, so I listed him (he's valued at £15m but I had a figure of £20m in mind as minimum because the board said it was up to me), went through 8 hours of the window and Man Utd finally offered £21m but then it was too late to find an alternative because you're not allowed to bid on players you don't have the funds for, which again is stupid because it should take into account bids received or such, so window ends and he's still mine, offer him a 5% payrise and he agrees to stay and is all happy again, so ended up quite a bit like the Rooney situation last year!
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So the January window opens, right away Valencia bid £24.5m for Henriksen, he's settled and happy but I'm not against selling him for the right price, I say no as I have a figure of around £30m in mind (his current value is £14m) they come back with £29.5m so I snatch their hands off! And immediately bid for Kasami now at the recently taken over Stoke, he is the same age and the same overall rating as Henriksen but much more mobile so I think he'll work perfectly with Kouyate in the middle, Kasami was valued at £18m iirc, I bid £20m, Stoke came back saying they want £24m I returned with £22m so waiting to see what happens next, will leave me some funds left over to hopefully get a backup RW as I have no cover at all for the extremely impressive Redmond who I grabbed from Birmingham at the start of the season :)
 
In charge of Newcastle, I've brought in 6 new players who should hopefully add more magic to the team; Manoel, Rafael (GK), Olsson, Cortes, Al Ghanassy, and Fletcher (Striker). Got rid of some in the process too; Best, Krul and can't remember the rest now lol.

Still lacking on goals, I'm 16th in the league with 3 points from 5 games. Won my first game in cup tie vs Leeds though, finally!

2 players injured already, Williamson for 3 months and Demba Ba for 3 weeks. I've placed Ben Arfa in Ba's position for the time being alongside Fletcher. It worked beautifully in my cup tie. If it continues that way then that's Ben Arfa's new position ;)

EDIT: Just went into my transfer history to check. Here's a more detailed history:

Joined
GK - Rafael $7.5mil from Santos
DF - Olsson $4.9mil from West Brom
DF - Manoel $11mil from Atletico Paranaense
MF - Cortes $7mil from UNAM
MF - El Ghanassy $9mil from KAA Gent
CF - Fletcher $11mil from Wolves

Departed
GK - Krul $6mil
DF - Coloccini $10mil
MF - Marveaux $7mil
CF - Best $4.9mil

So that's about $50.4mil (spent) - $27.9mil (received) = $22.5mil spent in the transfer window. Not bad for 6 mostly quality players :)

Rafael has very good stats for a GK aged 21. He's already saved my bum a few times and kept 3 clean sheets so far + MoM once.
 
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I'm in charge of Newcastle too, in my second season, and I'm still well shit at this game. One bit of progress (a win over Tottenham) is instantly brought down with a bump with a league cup loss 0-2 at Everton followed by a 1-2 home loss to Blackburn. Ouch. I'm not sure I'll ever reach a stage with FIFA12 where I'll ever be able to consistently win matches. I did better in season one, qualifying for the Europa League after an initial relegation battle, but since changing the sliders, the CPU is more aggressive in attack and I'm not coping too well!

I also can't put my finger on it, but the game feels more frantic in CM than in a friendly. I prefer the pace of the game in friendlies to be honest.

It's interesting though to see the differences in our transfers. I've gone for some young players like Nathanial Clyne, Tom Cleverley and Connor Wickham, and they've done pretty well.
 
LTFC said:
since changing the sliders, the CPU is more aggressive in attack and I'm not coping too well!
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Is it possible you might be suffering from high Run Frequency? Tactical Defending is a fun challenge, but more CPU players turning up your defensive third would logically make it more challenging, I think. That was my theory, anyway. My results slightly improved when I re-visited that slider, which may or may not have been a coincidence.
 
I think you're probably right. I've been using run frequency at 70 for both teams and yeah they do get more players forward, probably more than I can cope with. It's the dribbling into the box that gets me most of the time.
 
Questions.

Can you sign someone on a pre-agreement who has 6 months left of his contract like you can in pes?

Do any well known players turn up in the free agents section?
 
No.
Yes (season before last I signed Poli and Gueye on free transfers), this season was the worst yet for free transfers though so I'm hoping the next one is better!
 
Just can't handle this form at the moment. I'm glad that Form matters and makes a difference, but... wow. This is a runaway train.

I started the season by going seven games unbeaten, but after some bad results, the downward momentum has gathered. As more of my players drop to poor form, my season has dropped off a cliff. Every match is like playing through treacle. Shots that used to fly inside the post now go wide. The ball rebounds to opposing players more and more.

This is exactly what happened in my last Career Mode game, I could never figure out how to halt the slide. It's an exercise in frustration at the moment.
 
Maybe if it's one or two players showing the first signs of lost form you need to take them out quick smart to stop it spreading to the rest of the team?
 
nerf said:
Just can't handle this form at the moment. I'm glad that Form matters and makes a difference, but... wow. This is a runaway train.

I started the season by going seven games unbeaten, but after some bad results, the downward momentum has gathered. As more of my players drop to poor form, my season has dropped off a cliff. Every match is like playing through treacle. Shots that used to fly inside the post now go wide. The ball rebounds to opposing players more and more.

This is exactly what happened in my last Career Mode game, I could never figure out how to halt the slide. It's an exercise in frustration at the moment.
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I had the opposite in my first season, I was in the relegation zone until January then a couple of good, ground out results randomly saw everything change and I charged up the table to grab a Europa League spot. I think just getting a few 'ugly' wins turns it around though that's easier said than done!

I also thankfully just halted a run of bad results with a scrappy 2-0 win at home to Forest. Before that I had both an amazing and frustrating game away to Arsenal. I shocked the home crowd by racing into an early 2-0 lead thanks to my VP and Obertan, and Arsenal weren't at the races at all. They then upped the tempo (I love how teams can do that) and pulled one back right on half time.

Second half was a proper backs to the wall job, I couldn't get any kind of possession and needed some desperate tackles to keep them out, but the pressure told and concede an equaliser on 70 mins. I continued to be under pressure but my VP caught Gibbs on the ball and was through on goal but spurned the chance to win the game, then in the 90th minute a long ball was played up to the edge of my box, for some reason Coloccini sidestepped away from the striker for a split moment before I could get my cursor on him, and the striker rifled it into the roof of the net to win the game. It was a realistic, pulsating but frustrating game under the floodlights, if ruined a tiny bit by the games' 'dodgy' player positioning rright at the end :(
 
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It seems that even in 2018 Man Utd still have little faith in De Gea, just played them in the league and three of their bench were Amos, Lindegaard and Kuszak, for people who don't follow football that closely this was 3 substitute goalies for one match! Although you can't blame them too much as they do have David Luiz in front of De Gea now ;)
 
Placebo said:
Maybe if it's one or two players showing the first signs of lost form you need to take them out quick smart to stop it spreading to the rest of the team?
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How do you improve their form though? Surely they need to play to improve it?

Not one of my players seems to be in form, and only very rarely do I see one or 2 go up in form.

My season with Leicester is just a roller coaster at the moment. I have brought in Frimpong and Mchechran on loan till the end of the season, and bought Mastorovic from Celtic to hopefully get me to the play-offs.

I am out both cups so the League is my only chance of not getting the bullet.

I don't normally play MM but am enjoying it and dont want to chicken out and restart with another team.
 
Well bench them and bring them on only when you're in control of the match, try to ensure you do successful stuff with them to get them a good rating, short simple passes, make sure their shots are on target, no crosses when nobody in the box, that kind of stuff, that should help a bit, I did the same with Shaqiri who I signed this season but was struggling to settle in and showed poor form, managed to make his go from red to green in 2-3 sub appearances :)
 
Circumstance certainly plays a part, I have left Demba Ba out of my side recently and his form is poor, but I threw him in for an away game at West Brom and he scored a fairly simple chance. Afterwards he expressed his thanks for giving him another chance and I think his form has now gone at least to orange rather than red. It's a start at least.

I finished that match 2-2 and again found myself holding on at the end of a tough away fixture. I then edged a narrow win 3-1 against Olympiakos in the Europa League under the St James' floodlights. Was a great, end to end game, and I for once took my chances after gifting them an early lead due to a calamitous error where Clyne passed the ball from defence, hit Coloccini's heel, and the rebound gave the Greek side an easy chance. Two late goals though saw me through, and I now comfortably top the group with nine points from nine.

I'm finding the Premier League tougher though, I'm the epitome of mid table mediocrity, sitting 12th after 10 matches. What I really enjoyed about the Olympiakos match though in comparison to away at West Brom was the pace of the game. West Brom were direct, fast, it was a typical English type of game. My home group game with Olympiakos though was more considered, slower, and they kept the ball better and opened me up on more occasions because of this. It felt like I was playing a European team rather than an English one.

I'm really enjoying this though. Two top bits of detail were the fact that the weather is changing as it starts to go towards the Christmas period, and the crowds are now singing festive chants. Also, I signed a top prospect called Loach, an English striker that my scouts found as a 14 year old. He's now 16, I threw him in at the end of a couple of games and he's done okay, but what's cool is that the game included in the news section a long, detailed story about how much of a prospect he is and how England have a precious new talent. That's really cool. He's only rated at 51 right now but his potential has been narrowed to 88-94, which is very high and should be a top talent. I love how the game can pick up on randomly generated players though who's potential is high and run a story on them claiming they're the next Wayne Rooney or something.

Next up, Man Utd away. Think I'll leave that for another night! :P
 
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Which formation(s) do people on here use? I find that a convential 4-4-2 leaves me exposed through the middle, and lacking support from the midfield.
 
Well, season 1 over for me. Leicester finishing 8th.

Surprisingly I didn't get sacked, but took up a new post at Blackpool with the aim of battling for promotion.

I will go into my second season with many lessons learned and confident of a playoff place at least.
 
In second season as scunthorpe, i had a bad run of form and there was a newspaper article on my rb, Franjic being unsettled and wanting to leave. I got a message from him though, saying he doesn't understand why people are saying this but he is finding it hard to settle in to a new country.
I've seen players say they won't sign a new contract or want to have rest etc, but this was a new one on me... Nice touch :APPLAUD:
 
southernbelle said:
can you track potential after he has been signed to the senior club? i am stuck trying to remember where they can get to...
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i dont't think you can, i guess you'll just have to write it down somewhere next time you are promoting a youth player...

For non-scouted players you can use http://www.fifafanatic.com as that has many databases that show you player potential. But you're stuck for youth players :SS
 
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Junaid18 said:
Which formation(s) do people on here use? I find that a convential 4-4-2 leaves me exposed through the middle, and lacking support from the midfield.
Click to expand...

All sort of variants of the 4-3-3 work for me. I'm always fiddling with some aspect of the formation, with 2 constants... a holding midfielder and attacking fullbacks.

Tactical keys to success for me are to always have 3 defensive minded players to ward off counter attacks and to always have wide players available as outlets.

Your favored style of play should influence your formation. I really like short passing to get my whole team forward, then unlocking the defense with greater numbers and a combination of dribbling and 1-2 passing... So my tactics and formation keep a high defensive line with all my players interchanging all over the place. I will take counter-attacking opportunities when available, but I don't force the ball up the field so as not to get reverse-countered if I turn it over. It works well for me, typically if I can hold possession for most of team to get into the attacking half of the field, it's very hard for the opposing team to break out. When I lose possession, I can quickly press with lots of players high up the pitch to either force a hasty (and intercepted) clearance, or (even better) quickly get the ball back which usually results in a reverse-counter of my own... which are typically easy to score from.
 
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