Breaking the Habit - A Man United rebuild
Forum Discussion
Summary of August results:
- @JustinCase0110
You know, I keep saying to my brother-in-law that ten Hag should switch the wingers round, and stop this inverted nonsense, especially with the players we have (such as Antony).
I know it's the fashion to have the wingers cutting in, but if you keep doing it and getting the same non-result, shouldn't you try something different?
Your experiences with him show how right that aproach could be, even if it is just in a console game š
@CO88LER5 wrote:
You know, I keep saying to my brother-in-law that ten Hag should switch the wingers round, and stop this inverted nonsense, especially with the players we have (such as Antony).
I know it's the fashion to have the wingers cutting in, but if you keep doing it and getting the same non-result, shouldn't you try something different?
Your experiences with him show how right that aproach could be, even if it is just in a console game šHaha, yes as I wrote in another thread, I could actually see him being useful in the left, though perhaps not as great as he's been so far in this save. But on the right wing, no. He does have a great shot to the far corner, once he comes in from the right, I'll give him that. But after a few early successes, he's been read by every defence since, and his success rate has fallen drastically, even though he still tries to make these near impossible shots. I don't expect he would become world class on the left or anything, or live of to his gigantic price tag. But I could definitely see improvements to his game with such a change.
In regards to other wingers in the team, I was reluctant to see Garnacho in the right side. I saw him as a true left winger, who was often lethal, when cutting in from the left. But the last few games with him on the right wing (IRL) has convinced me that he should play in the right from now on. Which has otherwise been a problem position for years.
- @JustinCase0110
I agree about Garnacho. I think he's been far more effective on the right.
Makes it difficult to see how Antony fits in, then, because Rashford has to play on the left.
As for strikers, I think it's time that ten Hag gave Joe Hughill a chance. He's around the same age as Hojlund (so mature enough) and has been scoring quite a few in the academy matches. He deserves a chance. Like I said, try something different...
Unfortunately, he's not in the United squad in the game, as I'd have liked to try him - at least, he wasn't when I started my United save.
On the subject of Hojlund, I don't know what your experience of him has been in your career save so far, but in my United save he's not that good. He seems to lose the ball too easily and his shooting (mine, to some extent, I suppose!) isn't that accurate, either. He's another IRL that United paid well over the odds for, in my opinion.
@CO88LER5 wrote:
On the subject of Hojlund, I don't know what your experience of him has been in your career save so far, but in my United save he's not that good. He seems to lose the ball too easily and his shooting (mine, to some extent, I suppose!) isn't that accurate, either. He's another IRL that United paid well over the odds for, in my opinion.I haven't played him very much so far. I saw he had an 89 Potential in the game, and I feel it's way too much for him. I think he'll improve IRL, and I also think he's played better than his goal contributions suggest. But 89 potential, that's too much IMO. So I'm trying to play him as little as possible in the first season, in order for his potential to perhaps drop a bit and be more realistic in the seasons to come.
Good to see Eriksen performing! He was one of my favorite's at Spurs and he has such a great story now after what happened to him. I do think he's a weird fit at United though, he does not seem like a player for their style but happy to see him doing well for you.
Stuttering start to the season in the league, possibly to have been expected with quite the overhaul over the summer. Like the individual player reports. It's something I kept meaning to add to my updates before focusing on 1 player etc
@Stlducks4 wrote:Good to see Eriksen performing! He was one of my favorite's at Spurs and he has such a great story now after what happened to him. I do think he's a weird fit at United though, he does not seem like a player for their style but happy to see him doing well for you.
Weird fit, yes, I think I agree with that. As I also hinted before, I find him to be quite important in games, where United are dominant on the ball. He distributes the ball like no other in the current squad. But he often comes off being "too light" in the big games, and with more and more Premier League teams improving and knocking on the door to the top 4-6 (Aston Villa, Brighton, Newcastle etc.), I suppose we are only getting fewer of these "Eriksen games"...
@thurlow885 wrote:Stuttering start to the season in the league, possibly to have been expected with quite the overhaul over the summer. Like the individual player reports. It's something I kept meaning to add to my updates before focusing on 1 player etc
Thanks! Yes I'm trying to find the best way for me to summarize a run of games, to find the balance between writing information and not making it too dense, now that I play and write quite frequently. So my plan here is to bring the results and let the player evaluation be the text to go with it. Knowing well that I won't get every detail into the writeup... Glad you like the approach so far...
- @JustinCase0110 Even in their reduced state, United should be too good for the other teams in the UECL group.
Varied set of results in the premier league; again what is to be expected at this point.
@CO88LER5 wrote:
Even in their reduced state, United should be too good for the other teams in the UECL group.
Varied set of results in the premier league; again what is to be expected at this point.Thanks, yeah I do expect to win this group. It's certainly a step down from Champions League opponents.
Judging from the images, I assume you still play the games yourself?...
@Danimal5981 wrote:Judging from the images, I assume you still play the games yourself?...
Yes, I do. I'm still mostly involved in the Rangers career, but jump over here from time to time to play a few games.
- @JustinCase0110 Unable to score....sounds familiar.
Any academy strikers to promote and give a chance to, perhaps?
@CO88LER5 wrote:
Unable to score....sounds familiar.
Any academy strikers to promote and give a chance to, perhaps?I haven't found any myself so far, but there is one striker, a Portuguese fellow, who was the only one I kept from the academy, when I started. I didn't like the others, so I set them free.
I think it's way too soon for the Portuguese though, his OVR is really poor, so I need him to improve, before I'll give him a chance. Next season perhaps. I also play Mainoo and Garnacho quite regularly, so swarming the squad with more academy players are also not in my plans at this point.
Strange to say the table looks realistic with United and Chelsea in the middle. Scoring is a big issue so far. Any changes to the formation coming?
- @JustinCase0110
"the only one I kept from the academy, when I started. I didn't like the others, so I set them free."
It's a point about the game that I have raised in the past with EA, to no avail. When you start a career with an elite club, the contents of the academy are mostly dreadful - not at all what you expect them to have. It's simply not realistic that practically all of them need to be released immediately.
Never got any kind of acknowledgement from EA, though.
@Stlducks4 wrote:Strange to say the table looks realistic with United and Chelsea in the middle. Scoring is a big issue so far. Any changes to the formation coming?
Yes, I noticed Chelsea too. Quite realistic actually. Man City, Arsenal and Liverpool in top 3 is also quite similar to the current real life league standings, except Aston Villa pushing Arsenal down to 4th IRL. I could be inclined to switch up a few things in regards to the formation. In my Rangers setup I have tweeked the formation to a back 4, a midfield with a CDM, RCM, LAM and a forward three with a RM/RW, a LF and a ST. It creates a lot of these "diagonals", which @Danimal5981 spoke of earlier, and it's worked wonders for me. I could try to recreate that here, though with the players at my disposal I'd probably try to reverse it, with a CDM, LCM, RAM, LM, RF and ST.
@CO88LER5 wrote:
It's a point about the game that I have raised in the past with EA, to no avail. When you start a career with an elite club, the contents of the academy are mostly dreadful - not at all what you expect them to have. It's simply not realistic that practically all of them need to be released immediately.
Never got any kind of acknowledgement from EA, though.At least we start with a "full" academy now, contrary to a few years ago, when it was empty at the beginning. I don't mind too much, I'll just find some myself, and I rarely introduce anyone in my first season anyway. I would like to be able to edit these youngsters though. Their names, appearances etc., that would be great to be able to change. Then you could also rename an academy striker as one you know from real life, who just hasn't been included in the game yet. This would be awesome IMO.
Ten Hag's job already on te line? Mid table with United... I mean, no one can make gold with this, but still - a little underperforming I'd say
@Danimal5981 wrote:Ten Hag's job already on te line? Mid table with United... I mean, no one can make gold with this, but still - a little underperforming I'd say
There's definitely room for improvement, I agree to that. And EtH needs to find a way to make the team score some goals, otherwise it's going to be the end for him. He's making a decent effort with the defence though, and that's probably a good thing after conceding 15 goals in 6 champions league games in 23/24. If the goals start coming too, that could be the start of something new. Having sent so many expensive players away, with only Tapsoba and free transfers coming in, we might also see another new signing come January.
A good run of games minus the blip against Everton which was quite the defeat. Improvement up top as well. 7 goals in 3 league games after just 10 in previous 10. Still much work to do tho.
@thurlow885 wrote:A good run of games minus the blip against Everton which was quite the defeat. Improvement up top as well. 7 goals in 3 league games after just 10 in previous 10. Still much work to do tho.
Thanks, yeah the Everton was just the typical "a good game followed by a poor game" routine that Man United have now been doing for years.
