i did the save hudders thing and it was too easy in the end. i was able to get a euro spot in the first season just by dumping all but 4 of the starters and bringing in youth signings.

starting with $30 million or so made it really simple to build a killer squad under 20.  lafont, brereton, barco, sarr are all great cheap signings. - gomes, fruchtl, fry, sessengon, good cheap signings as well.  brereton was one of the best in the game until they cut his potential.  not the greatest striker, but sensational as an attacking mid. gomes had a massive potential but they cut it and now he plays better - stronger on the ball.

alphonso davies is a great signing as well. $2k salary. fuck all.  i play him as a wingback and he is a boss.  carves through the field cuts in and overloads the front 3rd.

On Meredith... he is good

I have just started a career with Millwall.

Meredith is quality banging down the left side and is good at crossing as well.

With all the happy vibes going around Millwall atm how could I not get all wrapped up in it and start a career there and transfer Cahill in. I also transferred Arzani in as well

Quit Dijon to rescue Huddersfield. Waiting to offload their deadwood and develop Juric, Glover and Elder. Got Socceroos in the first September so 2018 WC is on .Qualifiying had finished. Aus, Saudi, India and China got in. Australia had heaps of simulated draws but smashed teams when it mattered. Brought Meredith in as reserve LB and he's quite good.

Going to try this. Once my team gets chemistry, victory is quite easy. Need to have the feeling I need to tackle like crazy and really move the ball.

you could always stack the sliders towards the AI and actually make the game more difficult.

I could meet their expectations easily if I played the game the way 'normal' people do.  But because I'm an idiot who insists on doing things the hard way...  

I think I've proved my point (to myself) on the current game - promoted to Prem, then stayed there, and look like staying up again this season - without any player ranked over 69 in any team I've picked (played all the games too - no sims).  Have my squad set for next season but don't know if I can be bothered to play another struggling year - even if it does genuinely feel like the real Sunderland.

the board expectations are such bullshit.  they give you no money and expect you to finish mid table in the EPL or something immediately after being promoted. even worse is coming up from league one to the championship and the board expect immediate promotion. when does that ever happen?  maybe if a new owner came in and loaded you up with cash.

Long term I have no cash problems - I'm spending a fraction of what I get from being in the EPL.  Profits are healthy - just no way to get that quick profit to keep the board happy.  20-25 million in 2 months when you've got no-one to sell is hard going!!  I failed that little challenge, but still battling through on the pitch.
It's funny, but as a Sunderland fan my interest in FIFA always dies off after a few seasons because once we're top of the league with a team full of 80+ players it doesn't feel at all like Sunderland...  But in this game, constantly selling anyone who gets 'too good', signing rubbish, and battling away for an occasional victory to keep me out of the bottom 3...  This really FEELS like watching Sunderland!

Half way through 3rd season now - 16th in league, 3 points above relegation zone.  Just signed 9 Bosmans for next season.  Board rating is down in the 60s, they are expecting 'mid table', I better string a few results together!  I'm curious to see how many seasons they give me before they expect European qualification.

i started a new game with huddersfield - finally on legendary with no slider adjustments.  it was difficult at first but it's now january and im in 5th place.

so i deleted all my games and thought i should start again. i want to use a couple aussies but the good ones are too old for a long campaign.  i wish you could adjust the ages and tinker with the potential.  

i started a game with st pauli and then fc basel in the championship.  basel was too easy and im over the st pauli squad from last fifa.

im lost with what to do now. i always use melbourne city from league one or two but im a bit over it.  it sucks that you can't sell the players.  one of my favourite things about career mode is getting a new team, stripping out all the deadwood and using that cash to build a solid team to get by until you can afford some big hitters.  but now you can't sell shit and the team just feels stagnant.

could you loan out some high potential players, bring them back from loan and sell them?

that way you are not playing them.

Another quick update...  Fought relegation right through to game 37, at which point I was safe.  Finished 16th.
Released a bunch of 66-68 rated players who wanted huge pay increases due to being in the EPL, despite still being very average players.

Only problem with my Season #3 targets from the board is their insistence that I make a 26 million profit by the end of the January transfer window - because I have no assets I can sell for much over a million, and anyone I sell has to be replaced.  Suspect I won't make half of that.  It won't get me sacked, but it will be a fail on my record.

I've sold a few lads who had 'developed' to '70' and couldn't be picked again, and pretty much anyone else I got a 7 figure offer for.

Meanwhile, have signed a fresh bunch of nobodies, and will sign another 4-5 before summer transfer window closes.  No one in the squad is earning over 10k/week.

Targeting bringing in a new 'u69' ranked team 1-11, on Bosman deals, during the January window.  No reason other than to see if I can.

Quick update...  The reality of playing with in the EPL with an awful set of players is setting in...  Fighting relegation (not in the relegation zone though).  Have had to drop a couple of my better players because their ratings got up to 70.  Certainly keeping the challenge real.  Every time I score there's a genuine sense of achievement, every time I concede it's a hammer blow.  Defensively I'm reasonably sound - it's just my finishing that's letting me down (poor strikers).

Stand-off a little more - don't dive in and make them pass it through you.  They don't shoot particularly accurately.  Beyond that, focus on scoring more than them.  On previous FIFA games I've gone through a 38 game season scoring about 40-50 goals but only conceding about 20 (spells where 1-0, 0-1 or 0-0 seemed to be the only result I could get).  Now I'm on about 60-70 goals per season, conceding 40-50.  Got promoted from the Championship with 80plus goals scored and over 50 conceded.

It's hard for me to enjoy the premier league. I absolutely hate the TV graphics in sky blue and all of that. I know it's genuine but it's a bit of an eyesore.

Lower leagues in England appear a bit more economical. I also feel the premier league gets easy once you get a gun side and City, Chelsea etc barely take it to me. Bundesliga always say Bayern as a massive challenge. 

Wow that'd definitely be a big change. If I remember correctly 14 to 17 was quite similar. 17 18 had a few changes. 

After their 8:0 murder by PSG I started from scratch with Dijon. Ligue 1 is actually reminiscent of the Bundesliga 10 years ago. A few shabby looking clubs and stadiums but soon I think it'll be quite a modern league with all 18 clubs.

France actually has a number of great well established clubs. Interesting is how many clubs were formed not all that long ago compared to other countries. The ligue 1 theme song is pretty epic.

I signed Cahill Sainsbury as free agents while I got Smith on loan and dealt well to get Federici and Jedinak after my 8 million keeper did his arm and Amalfitano failed to get things going. 

Ulloa from Leicester was a handy signed as was Moritz Hartmann from Ingolstadt. Their side has very few wide men with good passing. Ollie Banks from Oldham, now Swindon has served me well on the years. Great tall passing midfielder. Cheap Rogic version.

From the original Dijon side, midfielder Marie is a handy type while I'm starting to enjoy Yambere in defence for his heading and strength. Djilobodji is still on loan from Sunderland but I won't keep him.

It never happens by the first September wherever I've managed but this time after 3 reboots I got Australia as a national team job. I'll go to 2018 with Cahill. 

Little update...  Won 9 of the last 10 games to earn promotion from the championship in first season on u70 career.  (I only play late in the evening so it takes a while to get through a season - especially as I can't skip games in this career because my team is terrible on paper!).

Top scorer in the league, golden boot winner (Knudsen, 29 in the league), plenty of cash in the bank.  Board set the target of keeping salary increase below 15% and I had it at 5%.

Sold Lens, Khazri, Djilobodji and Borini in the summer - along with a few fringe players.  Signed a few cheap squad players to replace them.  Now have about 50 million in the bank and only 1 player ranked over 70 in the squad (Djilobodji, who I've agreed to sell about 5-6 times only to see the deals collapse).

2 games into Premier League season - won 1, drawn 1.  Enjoying it - can't switch off for a second.  Because there's so many players ranked 66-67 I'm now buying them based on their haircuts half the time!

Depending where I finish in the league this season I may drop my u70 rule to u65!

I have a custom squad set up with all of our (Sunderland) summer signings removed and returned to previous clubs - which means I always start with a pretty thin squad and not much cash.  Never take the bonus cash boost or world class scout options.  Try to make it really hard.  Legendary, default sliders.

Started a new career in which I can't put a player on the pitch if he is rated over 70, and I can't sign anyone rated over 69.  Have also decided that I need to achieve the financial goals the board have given me (not to raise salary by over 15%) - so have to be careful who I sign.  Sweden and Norway have been big for recruiting!

Sold 6 70+ players in pre-season, and have four more burning the bench (2 of them are negotiating deals at the moment outside the transfer window).  Have now got about 16-17 players rated 66-69 and a shed-load of cash in the bank, with more to come.

Currently just outside the play-off places and have knocked Liverpool out of the League cup (1-0, breakaway goal in the 82nd minute).

maybe you could go all australian or a-league?

i found brandan from melbourne city an absolute gun. 68 rated max. played him on the right side of a front 2 and he hit about 25 goals in the championship -in my reserves team and as a sub.  only 1 goal off the golden boot. unfortunately in the EPL the strength of all the defenders means he struggles. he just gets knocked off the ball every time.

also jamie maclaren with his pace and high high work rate is a beast. ive only trained him in shooting and he has picked up to 81 and is getting about 20 goals a year in the epl and last year in the championship.  also on the right side of a front 2.  here's the kicker - almost 30 assists in his last 3 seasons and topped each league in assists.

also ive found a back 3 actually works this in fifa18. it's been a fairly useless formation in fifa until now.

There's definitely something wrong with the game.  Took me a while to crack how to play the AI - had a couple of seasons where everything would be going fine, then I'd run into a brick wall and couldn't win a game to save my life...  Restarted the game and won back to back titles - Championship, then Premier League (squad average skill level around 75-76).  On Legendary, with sliders are default settings. 

Haven't played for a week or two.  Considering starting a new career - either with the sliders in the AI's favour, or possibly not allowing myself to have any player over a certain rating in my team - see if I can win the league with every player rated below 70...

go up to a harder level and adjust you sliders and bring them down as you improve.  ive gone from semi pro to legendary this way over the last couple years.  

also i find world class bullshit because the AI doesnt seem to play better - it just seems to stunt your team. where as in legendary the AI plays better and my team isnt as affected.

the bugs are shitting me.  ive had to confirm the new update about 15 times.

and every game i play (now that i have won the season) they say that the trophy will be given out at the end - and its not.

they need to make it obviously clear when the season trophy is coming out.  the fact that you can press x or whatever at the end of a game and miss the trophy is bullshit. because you dont even know when it is coming out.  

also there is a serious issue with the AI squad selection/starting line up. you never play a full strength team. and it's obviously fucking up because at half time the AI is subbing on pogba or de bruyne or hazard straight away.  this is completely fucking the game. i also think the positioning stat of the players is limiting their use by AI unrealistically.

also i won my first EPL season with melbourne on 78 points. probably because the big teams have all their stars sitting on the bench.

Legendary.

If your manager rating is high and so long as you meet league targets you should keep your job.  Don't worry too much about it.

I've never met all my targets but I've yet to be sacked in any version of the game.

So im in late november of my first career as everton manager we are sitting pretty in 3rd position and i get a notification saying im not meeting my objectives.So confused me looks at my objectives didn't realise i need to be the owner, ceo and manager as well as football director.

All of the objectives are self explanatory apart from the profit how am i suppose to make 188 million worth of profit when im currently only at 3?? 

Help required Ben.

What do level do you play on? I find professional is too easy and world class is too hard. 
Player controls feel like they are playing on ice if that makes sense reactions are slow for attacking and defending. 

I used to be a dive-in tackler, headed off a lot of trouble that way - timing seems much harder on 18.  I've had to teach myself to stand-off.  If you can hold a line near the edge of the box you can be okay - but sooner or later they will weave into the box and forced you to make a challenge.  I get my timing right MOST of the time...  But still concede more than I used to.  I had seasons on 17 where I'd concede 17-18 goals in a full season, nothing like that anymore.

As for attacking, bursting past players down the wings seems to be a thing of the past now, but one-twos can still put you into good crossing opportunities - particularly with an overlapping fullback/wingback.

im just stuggling in general. in fifa 14 i use to run past defenders and get crosses in the box you can't seem to run past any defenders anymore and once i get near the box defenders easily shut me down it's hard to keep the ball. Do you find defending very hard ??

Seem to have cracked it now...  Flying in the championship with all my squad limitations (no free transfers, no Bosmans, no improving youths with training, no cash boosts, only signing players found by scouts, only two scouts, etc., etc.)...  Beginning to think I should up the sliders to make it harder.

I'm not that good - so I'm thinking that AI isn't as good on 18 as on previous versions...  It seems if you are super-patient and focus on keeping the ball, the chance will come eventually, and if you hit it low you'll score more often than not.  Anyone else finding that?

So i just started Career mode and i love it. So much more in depth then fifa 14 which was the last one i had.
Really enjoying the setout like optus sport and the breaking news on the side as well as all the negotiating for players.
One thing im finding hard is defending. It's completely changed its very hard.