Just fired my Ass Man at QPR. What kind of idiot names our Arch Rivals (Chelsea), when asked who he think should win the Premier League this season...#-o

HE was fuckign terrible in mine too. Over a season and a half his ratings went backwards, even with 5 STAR coaching.

Ah yes...the perks of holdiaying. Watching your assistant manager do his absolute BEST to fuck over team morale for the next three months...

Won the FA Cup semi. Came back from 2-1 down against Tottenham to win 2-3 with a 90th minute winner.

I wasn't even holidaying, I just let him take the Press Conference, as per usual.

The fight for 4th is getting very tight. Next is against Tottenham in 1st, hopefully we can repeat the FA Cup semi-final dose and win. We are currently a point behind Portsmouth but with the game not played, a draw with put us ahead on GD.

It still looks like the 2nd last match will be the deciding factor.

Yeah...another downside. They need a "media interaction" rating.

or an 'I.Q' rating...

:lol:That would certainly spice things up a little...

As I've mentioned, I recently returned to my original A-League only game, and after two years with the Roar, got my old Victory job back. This sort of gave me a bit of impetus to continue with that game as we enter the 6th season (2013-14).

My Victory team is ok, but my Nix team is even better! I promised a while back to put up shots of a few regens from my Nix team - I'll do it first opportunity.

The amazing thing is that the regens in this team I came across in the underage Aust and NZ NTs pretty much within six months of each other - something that hasn't happened to me since.

It was either just a quirk of fate, or the release of regens all at once, or maybe a bit of a cycle thing.

The reason I go on about them is that they were all Aust and NZ players, and for the A-League - they're bloody good! Put it this way, if I came across the same 17 and 18 year olds with NEC or Livorno, I'd sign up straight away! (but it's a lot harder to find affordable quality regens in that game I am finding)

So during the pre-season period, my Nix team managed to defeat Bayern 4-2 (not too shabby!), but then I was looking at the calendar and noticed that we had to play Derby two days later - who agreed to that??!!

Anyway, we defeated them 2-1 - I'm telling you folks - this Nix team is the real deal!!

(unfortunately, in our very first game of the new season, we only managed a 1-1 draw away against CCM - bloody Simon again!!)

also, in six years, our average crowd has gone from 7,000 to 17,000 - to be second only behind the Victory!!

just had an epic carling cup 3rd round match againts crystal palace was down 3 nil at 20 mins 3-2 at half time then 5-2 at 70mins and 5-4 at full time was very happy with the squad.

I'll keep this as short as possible so as not to bore people, but here are my best regens from my current Nix team, circa August 2013 (start of season 6). I got 'em 2 or 3 years ago around ages 17, so they're now 19 or 20.

I've shown them against Piorkowski for two reasons:
1. he's the only real player left in the Nix team!
2. he's a good A-League standard defender, but he barely can get into my best starting XI - you'll see why from some of these snaps.

The thing here is that these are Aust or NZ players that I have picked up for next to nothing, or sometimes for literally nothing - as A-League players - I reckon they're pretty good!!

I didn't want to go over board, but in all cases I have back ups who are only marginally less than these blokes - it's f@rk'n great team!!

http://picasaweb.google.com/pippinu24/Nix2013#5338224017961634178

As last time, each shot comes with a bit of commentary for your viewing pleasure.

I will say, the stats I can see there are quite impressive for Lake.
You need to get a hold of the skin that Funky and I use that puts the polygon and the stats on the one page.

I've mentioned many times that I'm not a big fan of playing someone in the AMC role, but Lake has gradually made me change my mind (as I've watched his ratings slowly go up for passing and creativity).

But it's clear to me that you can't just plonk anyone in that role, they have to be exceptional - even for Lake, he scores a 7 only once every two games (at the very best) - in my Victory team, Ward has scored five consecutive 5s - it's a very tough role in FM.

Put it this way - in a nil-all draw, say, everyone has a chance to score a 7, even the strikers - but never the AMC!! The game is a very harsh judge on your AMC!! If he's not scoring or creating goals, it's as if he's almost invisible.

I'd be interested in hearing from others whether they've had a similar experience.

FA Cup Final vs Arsenal

We finished 4th as well. Portsmouth only managed 3 draws and 2 losses in the last 5 games, even if they had won the game vs us, we would have been 4 points clear anyway.

It's not that it's a tough role, it's more a case of getting the correct players to play the role. That's the tough ask, and setting the right instructions aswell.

That might be true - but overall, achieving that in the AMC role seems tougher than any other position - that's just my observation over many games.

In the A-League you aren't going to find that many players with passing of 17 and creativity of 18, along with good dribbling, finishing, technique, positioning etc - you don't have to worry too much about instructions when they're that good!!

It just seems very hit and miss, more so than other positions, and I haven't quite worked out why, but it must have something to do with finding space between the midfield and opposition's defence, getting closed down more than any other player, or maybe because the game itself judges that role far more harshly than other roles - I find that scores in the 5s are unbelievably common in that AMC role (and Ward is no mug either at A-League level in FM).

In fact, I've had a situation where an AMC has scored a goal, and he only scored 6.0!!!

Now that would never happen for any other position on the ground.

Let's do a little experiment - at the moment I have an AMC role in both my Nix and Victory teams (playing an attacking 4231 and an attacking 352 big V formation respectively) - I'll keep track of my two AMCs (in the case of the Victory, it will be shared by Ward, Costa Barbarouses and maybe Song at a pinch - you've seen my two for the Nix already).

Maybe you can do the same and we'll share the results on Monday. Just the rating per game will do - just for fun - it may show up something, it may not - no cheating!!

I've had both Kaka and Veloso win WPOTY from that position.

You don't need to, 15 in those areas would be more than sufficient. It's the A-League after all, and there are certainly players out there that fill that. Daniele Buzzegoli is one of them and I've had him play for MVFC and then nationalised him for the NT in the past he's improved that much!

I'm currently working on the FFT FC game, but I can give you a quick report on the recent stats for the two AMC's I've got there.
AMC 1: Dribbling 16, Long shots 13, Passing 14, creativity 13
Last 5 games: 6.6, 7.3, 6.5, 7.3, 7.2
AMC 2: Finishing 18, Long Shots 16, passing 13, creativity 19, flair 13.
Last 5 games: 6.0, 6.1, 6.6, 6.3, 6.9.

So even with the good stats obviously it doesn't just boil down to that.

It's interesting that the bloke with the better ratings, has had the poorer form (of course, depends a lot on the opposition and other game variables etc).

I ask you, with your gun player, scoring a 6.0, 6.1, and nothing higher than a 6.9 over 5 games - as a general rule, if your whole team is getting decent results, I'd get better ratings out of the rest of my team - this is sort of what I am talking about.

It's common for the rest of my team to be getting 6.8 to whatever, and then for the AMC to be stuck around 5.9, 6.0, 6.1 etc - very common - which makes me think there is something very unique about the AMC role in FM in terms of either how it is rated, or how difficult it is to play given the other game dynamics.

By the way, with the bloke scoring a few 7s - I imagine that each time is either at least one goal or at least one assist - your AMC won't get into the 7s unless he achieves one or the other (and sometimes won't anyway!) - whereas other positions can get into 7s with no goals or assists, including strikers and wingers.

Do you have that info handy by chance?

I'm not trying to catch you out - I'm really interested in the dynamics at work here.

It wouldn't be the first time FM has had problems with ratings correctly showing how a player has actually played. The problem they had with keeper ratings has only just been fixed, and even then it can still be a bit off.

AMC 1 played in a 3-1 loss to Watford and 2-0 loss to Liverpool. All other games were wins.

AMC 3 had NO assists. AMC 1 had just the one assist in one of the games where he rated a 7.3. However, AMC 1 has almost twice as many key passes.

We did it in 74. We did it in 78. We are doing it again. That's right, Scotland is going out in the first round. Lost 2-0 to South Korea, 5-2 to England, drew with Ivory Coast 0-0. Finished 3rd though, on GD.

Ouch...what were the FA's expectations of the Cup?

Their expectation for the WCQ's were to make the play-off stage, I qualified directly.

The expectation for the WC itself was reach the 2nd round. Silly tbh, I know in some people's games Scotland has turned into a powerhouse with ridiculous regens, but it hasn't happened in mine. Half the squad is worth under 1 million, and half of them are under 600k. Korea's squad has 4 players under 1 million, and most of them are over 2million. The other teams are England, so obviously most of their squad is worth 5+ million, Ivory Coast doesn't matter because we lost to SK then England. Meh.

I wasn't expecting anything more than 3 losses, so 2 losses a draw is okay by me. The Scotland board feel I should be performing "slightly better", so they probably won't sack me outright. I'm going to quit ofc.

The fact that you lost to SoKo means you probably deserved it :lol:

Australia lead Urugay 1-0 at HT, with a goal in the 5th minute of Injury Time to CB Mal Downes the difference.

GOOOOOOOOOOOALLLLL!!!! Australia! A well worked set piece results in midfielder Les Colli shooting from outside the area and smacking it into the opposite top corner!

GOOOOOOOOOOOOALLLLLLL!!!! Australia IT'S THREE FOR AUSTRALIA! Dylan Peisch with an amazing individual effort, breaks the offside trap, cuts inside a defender, before rounding the keeper and scoring a wonder goal. 3-0 Australia! 3 goals in 6 minutes! Uruguay are shocked.

Goal Urugay! Is this the start of a comeback, or a mere consolation. A cross flung into the middle is met by their striker Saravia. 15 minutes left. Urugay score with their first shot on target.

GOALLLLLLLLLLLL! JENNINGS HAS SURELY WON IT FOR AUSTRALIA 4-1 AUSTRALIA. A smashing 20 yarder to seal the win.

It's all over! Australia into the Quarter Finals!

Currently managing Barca. Hoping to peg down Real as the most successful club in La Liga.

Drama Asplosion!

Australia 2 - France 1 (AET).

Australia came from behind, to record a dramatic Extra Time victory despite being a man down (an injury after all 3 subs had been used) against France.

The French had a chance to lead in Extra Time, with a dubious penalty awarded against the Australian defence, with Australia thinking back to Italy in 06, the French penalty taker Baggioed it, sending it sky high.

Only 3 minutes later, Australia were the ones taking a shot from the penalty spot, and this time Jason White made no mistake, Australia holding on for a famous 2-1 victory.

Australia now play Spain for a shot at the Cup.

Woah! So it only took us 20 years? :lol:

Spain destroy Australia.

The 2-0 scoreline barely reflected the complete and utter domination Spain put Australia through. After scoring twice early, it was almost a case of "how many" for Spain, but they took the foot off the pedal and Australian never got the engine started. Spain had 16 shots to 2, with neither of them on target for Australia.

Spain take on Germany in the final, whilst Australia take on the old enemy England for the 3rd place, and Commonwealth bragging rights.

Ouch.

Going to have a BIG fm marathon tonight...start at around 9:30/10 lol. Haven't played in a while and will hardly be tomorrow as of homework etc.