Ok, firstly, without a shadow of a doubt, PES 2010 is the most challenging PES game I have ever played by a long, long way. Only PES 5 comes close. I'm currently in my 5th season with Middlesbrough and still I'm no-where near winning the Premiership or even a European Trophy, Champions League or the Europa.
Usually afer 3 seasons on Top Player on any other PES game I have at least won one of these trophys, if not the treble. This is one of the reasons I love this game so much, it's so freaking hard, especially playing with a lesser team and starting in the Championship. I have little money, my Scout, Coach, Trainer are all Level 3, Fan Club and Doctor Level 2, although I have my Youth Academy at level 4, investing in the future. This yearly budget alone ensures I need at least a top 7 finish in the Premiership, or a good F.A. Cup run, and as far as I can get in the Euro competitions I qualify for.
The season before last I earned a Champions League spot in the last game of the season, but went out in the group stages. I then got knocked out in the Europa Cup by Barcelona in the last 16, 6-4 on aggregate. I reached the semi-final of the F.A Cup, losing to Liverpool.
I qualified for the Europa League last season finishing 7th in the Premeirship on the very last day, although 8th would have also got me a spot as Spurs won the Premiership and the F.A. Cup releasing another spot in Europe, of which Sunderland must have been very happy about.
Currently this season, after 15 games I'm lying 8th in the Premier League, out of the F.A. Cup and in the final game of my Europa League group stage, but I'll get back to that.
My team currently consists of some original Boro players created via the Championship patch and mainly cheap young players and youth players brought through the academey, of which only one is a 'Superkid', my African right back called Pagomelle. He has a rating of 85 and has 4 player cards, is only 19 years old, and a first team regular. My scout is pathetic at best, and couldnt even sign his own name, never mind a potential transfer target.
My starting 11, providing everybody is fit is as follows.
GK - Marinelli - A young Argentinian GK that is an awesome shot stopper with a rating of 84 overall. Makes mistakes, but also pulls off some stunning saves as shown in the Magic Moments video thread.
LB - Andrew Taylor - Progressed very well over the years, great left foot, fast, can pass, decent touch, and strong.
RB - Pogemelle - African Superkid. Covering, Man Marking, Slide Tackle and Passing as his four player cards. Fast, small and in the Ashley Cole style mould. His dribbling accuracy needs to be improved, but overall a great young player with bags of potential. And the main reason I spend so much on my Youth Academey.
CB - Wheater - Strong, quick, very tall, dangerous at set-pieces, and a complete rock at the back. Reads the game very well. My Captain and also one of my star players.
CB - Cecu - English with a French name. Youth Team product. Big, strong, poor first touch but still young. Postional play needs work but he'll get there. Also, not the quickest and his passing sucks. Needs to keep it very simple with short passes to better players.
Left wing - Adam Johnson. Another one of my stars. Very quick, awesome passing, great touch, lovely quick feet and finished Top Assist leader in the world last year with 29. Next best was 11. Gets his fair share of goals as well, but it's his quality of both cross and early cross that get me my goals.
Right Wing - Wagner Libano - Brazilian kid bought at 18 years old as an AMF. Never played for the first 3 seasons, but has the Passer player card. His stats have risen very well. He is small, fast, good feet, tricky, and has bags of potential. He was given his debut in the last couple of games of last season. He got an assisit on his debut and a goal that lead to a 2-1 win. During the close season I spent £2 million on training him as a right winger as the AMF role is owned by my best player, Marvin Emnes.
DMF - Digard - Very Strong, good passer, powerful shot and good vision. Also great in the tackle. Like Emnes, Johnson, Taylor and Wheater, his stats have come on leaps and bounds over the years. He reminds me of a Patrick Viera, but alot stronger, without the cute feet or air of elegance.
AMF - Marvin Emnes - Last seasons Premierships Top Scorer and the jewel in my crown. Emnes stats have gone through the roof. He has a super powerful shot, excellent accuracy, great feet, excellent passer, and bags of technique. He can create a yard of space where there doesnt look to be any room, and has the strength to hold off players for fun. He has been trained with the Passer card, 1st touch card and can perform all the tricks and feints. His sliderule pass with his through balls 80% of the time are weighted perfectly. Emnes never ceases to amaze me with his flicks, tricks and all round game. A complete match winner in the style of an in form Stevie Gerrard. I have had some big sponsorship deals based on his performances. Priceless.
SS- Iqaunta - 33 years old, signed from Juventus 4 seasons ago and has been worth every penny. Strong, excellent target man with the ability to hold up play. His first touch is ok, but his dribbling skills after his 1st touch are bad. Good in the air and has the Dummy Run Player card and always opens up defences with his diagonal runs. Can be clumsy and his passes need to be simple, very rarely completes a decent through ball. His biggest strength is his ability with the snapshot. Needs very little backlift and seems to have this trademark shot that is drilled very low and hard. Getting on now, but still does the job, and also has the Supersub Player card if brought on. Doesnt play well on a 'Blue'.
CF - Sane - Another cheap young buy that has proven to be a hit with the fans. Trained in the 1 on 1 Player Card. Sane is fast, decent strength, good accuracy, nice feet, can dribble and gets his fair share of goals. Not very good in the air, and his form can drift. His last few games he has been on a Purple. Finished 3rd Top Scorer in the Premiership. Still on 23 years old though. A great buy.
The Bench -
CF - Leroy Lita - Overall rating of 64 now and decreasing. Small, decent touch, and was a relevation last season coming on as a sub. Ended the season with 13 goals, 12 from the bench. Not great, but can produce and his form is usually an Orange or Red.
SMF - Sobralense - Brazilian 29 year old winger. Not the fastest but a great deliverer of the ball. Nice feet, excellent technique, great vision and bags of tricks.
SMF/AMF - Pilyev - Russian playmaker. Unlucky not to start, nice feet, will use either foot, can dribble, has tricks, not the strongest on the ball but can create a yard. Excellent vision with the lobbed through pass. At 22 years old, one for the future and getting better with every season.
Other subs will vary, but mostly Youth Team players.
The Argentinian Striker I bought 3 seasons ago, Gil, was coming on brilliantly, and I invested £3 million on him in Player Cards. He was only 23 years old and I had to sell him. River Plate came in with an offer of which I rejected. He then spat his dummy out and was on a 'Purple' form arrow for 5 games. He was heartbroken. River Plate upped the bid to £3.2 million so I had to let him go. I didnt want to, but he was no good to me on a Purple and obviously wanted to return back to his homeland. So off he went. Prick.
This line-up is based around my 4-3-1-2 formation. Lots of width with high player support for the counters and low pressing to ensure there is plenty of space and wide options. I tend to play with a more Spanish style flavour. The Premiership Teams all have default settings of about 70% pressing making Top Player very tight in the middle of the park. Spanish and Italian Teams if you check all have their pressing levels around the 45-50% mark. The Premiership is the fastest league in the world, you get very little time on the ball, hence the term the 'hustle and bustle of the Premiership' and PES replicates this perfectly. You get very little time on the ball on Top Player, and with lesser players your first touch is everything. Holding R2 once in receipt of the ball helps massively.
My team really lacks any real strength in depth, and if any of my star players have poor form arrows, it's a struggle. I dont have the money to buy top players, neither can I sign them if I had the cash. Every goal I score for the most part has to be created using my footballing brain, nothing ever comes easy. I love the challenge, but it can be very frustrating at times, but on the flip side of that coin, very rewarding in others. The CPU A.I. I find to be very clever indeed. I remember playing Man Utd in the Premier League last night and after going 1-0 down then equalising, Man Utd scored to go 2-1 up with 5 minutes to play. Anderson got the ball on the right wing, headed straight towards my corner flag then held up the ball with his back to my left back, sheilding himself from the ball to waste time and count down the clock. Those little moments are just magical from an A.I. perspective.
What I find when I play the top teams is that their defence is very well organised, which can negate Libano's and Johnson's crosses into the box. My best tactic I find that works brilliantly to create that extra yard on the wing is the fake cross. Pressing Circle than cancelling it with the X button tricks the CPU into thinking your crossing the ball, and creates that extra yard of space to get a clear cross into the box. Johnson uses this tactic brilliantly, and it's a tip that I think everyone should try if they are not doing it already. Also, you can fake a ground pass by simply pressing X twice very quickly and holding a direction for the fake.
I set my wingers Player Cards to Attacking for the most part, and keep my AMF as Balanced. This ensures I always have options on the flanks, especially when I want to switch play.
I love it when you bring a player on and he makes the difference. Back to my Europa League. I drew 2-2 with Celtic at home. Beat Roma 5-1 at home, Johnson on a Red getting 4 assists. I drew with Gotenberg 1-1, a game I should have won. Celtic then beat me 2-1 away in a game I dominated but couldnt score. I then played Gothenberg knowing that I needed a win.
Celtic were topping the group with 10 points. Roma second with 6 points, Boro 3rd with 5 points and Gotenberg bottom with a point. I then had Gotenberg to play knowing I needed a win and hoping Celtic would beat Roma. Emnes picked up an injury in training and was out for 2 weeks, and Libano was on a Purple. This wasnt good in my biggest game of the season. I was 1-0 down to Gotenberg at half time. I changed my formation to 3-3-1-3- and went all out attack. The idea was to use Johnson's crosses into the box to get the goals. I had put a Youth Team striker on the bench for the first time, Jakubo. His overall rating was 54 but he was 194cm tall. I brought him on for his debut at halftime. His touch is shit, shooting is shit, passing is shit, everything is shit apart from the fact he his big, strong, and very tall.
A ball in from Johnson fell at his feet, a poor first touch bounced off his leg, rebounded off the keeper, off Jakubo's ass and went in the goal.
It was the most clumsiest goal I have ever seen but I was taking it. 1-1. Gotenburg caught me on the counter. 2-1. Sane then equalised off a nice pass from Jakubo. 2-2. Gotenberg then caught me on the counter again after Johnson had missed a sitter from 3 yards out for Boro to go ahead. 3-2 Gotenberg with 5 mins to play. In the very last minute, and the last throw of the dice, Johnson whipped in an early cross flicked and Jakubo rose like a salmon and headed home the equaliser to make it 3-3, and thats how it ended. Roma had battered Celtic 5-1 which meant that with one game to go, against Roma away, I'm 3 points behind them with -1 goal difference. Those two goals from my young youth player on his debut had kept my Europa dream alive. Would you credit it.
So I now need to beat Roma by 2 goals, and I'm through. Emnes should be back fit, and so should Libano. I'll let you know how I get on in Rome.
It's a mad purchase for 144 pound since i not have peanuts to buy some new clothes, beer, and loads of other stuff for uni.
