Dial Square Story – Part 1
After my Arsenal compendium it was finally time for me to actually start a save using all these resources. I set out to play as realistic as possible, so this is my story and observations with a realistic Arsenal save.
I know most people tend to do these kinds of stories in character, but this is more of an observational piece on how I go about playing a realistic Arsenal save.
2009/2010 Season
So to get the first season as realistic as possible, I had to steer the results by saving before any premiership fixtures and restarting if necessary. I was mostly interested in making sure the correct teams got relegated from the Premier League, as well as getting the top 4 correct.
As the real season isn’t over yet (writing this April 29th) I just guessed that Spurs would crumble at the finish line, making the top 4 CL spots 1 – Chelsea, 2 – Man Utd, 3 – Arsenal and 4 – Man City.
At the bottom we got the correct teams relegated as well; Burnley, Portsmouth and Hull.
I tried steering Chelsea into scoring loads of goals, and Arsenal to leak lots of goals. In the end Chelsea scored 77 goals, and Arsenal let in 36. Most teams scored a lot of goals though, and noone scored below 70 in the top 6.
I couldn’t get Aston Villa to play good enough to challenge for 4th, but at least they challenged for 7th against Everton.
With the Dial Square 2.2 tactic, I managed to get Cesc to score 13 goals in 24 appearances (compared to 15 goals in 27 appearances in real life). Unfortunately he only got 6 assists, compared to 15 in real life.
The most unrealistic part about my save was that Walcott scored 12 goals and made 13 assists in 30 appearances, compared to 3 goals and 2 assists in 21 appearances in real life. Also, Eboué scored a lot of goals also when played in the same position, so it’s a positional issue with the Dial Square 2.2 that makes that right wing position slightly too effective compared to reality.
In the rest of the world, I managed to get Inter Milan and FC Bayern to play against eachother in the CL final, which Inter subsequently won.
Barcelona won La liga, with Valencia and Real Madrid challenging for 2nd place.
Fiorentina won the Serie A, with Palermo 2nd unfortunately, I tried steering Roma and Inter to battle it out but I didn’t succeed. So the Serie A didn’t really have a realistic outcome.
Oh, and Brazil won the World Cup against Argentina in the final.
So only trophy won was the Emirates Cup:
2010/2011 Season Transfers
So now when I had a somewhat realistic base to build upon, I slowed down (I played every game with key moments and kinda fast in the 3D matches to get through the first season quick) and took a look at the squad before pre-season started.
Pat Rice informed me through a team report that Almunia is the weakest link in the team, and that we need some extra men in defense and midfield.
Goalkeeper
First I took a look at a couple of goalkeepers. Wenger has said that Arsenal is very interested in Hugo Lloris, but that Lyon is a rich team and we would probably not be able to match whatever price they’re asking. In FM I asked Lyon how much they wanted for him, and they said around £30m, which is highly unlikely that Arsenal would ever pay for anyone, so I looked at some other goalkeepers instead.
Akinfeev is too “famous” in terms of FM, and is unrealistic and expensive. Joe Hart was an option, but I think Man City wants to use Hart as a first choice keeper within a year or two, so I dropped him as well from my target list.
In the end I settled for René Adler from Leverkusen. He’s a typical Arsenal transfer; relatively unknown, not hyped, young(ish), etc.
Central Defender
Now I needed to identify a couple of central defenders, as the contracts of Gallas, Campbell, Silvestre and Senderos all expired in the summer of 2010. Kyle Bartley had been doing great in the reserves throughout the past season, so I made a Wenger-ish decision to let him have a go at breaking into the first team.
So now I had the following central defenders in my first team:
1. Thomas Vermaelen
2. Johan Djorou
3. Kyle Bartley
I wanted to have Djorou and Bartley as back-ups, so I needed a first choice defender to partner Vermaelen.
First I took a look at the more credible transfer gossip stories, and names like Brede Hangeland, Neven Subotic, Phil Jones and Jerome Boateng all seemed very likely. I had Steve Rowley scout all these, and he recommended Hangeland as first choice, and Subotic as second. Hangeland was a little too expensive though, so I went for Subotic.
I also signed Phil Jones from Blackburn as a youth prospect, and loaned him out to QPR.
Defensive Midfielder
I wanted to get a defensive midfielder to either have as first choice, or to have as backup to Song. I took a look at some names being mentioned during the 2009/2010 season; Gökhan Inler, Steven Defour, Steven N’Zonzi, Miguel Veloso, Blaise Matuidi, Felipe Melo and Jack Rodwell…but they were all very expensive.
Instead I took a look at my reserves, and ultimately decided to give Craig Eastmond and Jay-Emmanuel Thomas a chance, at least until January 2011. If they aren’t good enough during the first part of the season, I’ll take a look at a defensive midfielder in the january window.
Forward
I already had Chamakh coming in automatically with the new Dial Square 2 database, and with Van Persie, Walcott, Eduardo, Bendtner, Vela and Sanchez Watt, forwards wasn’t an issue.
Sold Players
Barcelona offered me £36m for Arshavin, and seeing how he’s been running his mouth the last couple of days about how Barcelona would be the culmination of his career, I decided that this transfer isn’t that unrealistic, so bye bye Arshavin.
Merida went on a free to Villareal, and Senderos went on a free to Wolves. I also loaned out Almunia to Sevilla, who were looking for a backup keeper.
Final Transfers
I spent £20.5m in total, which is more than what Arsenal usually spend, but Wenger has been talking about buying some players for key positions this year, so I felt it was ok in terms of realism.
In
1. Marouane Chamakh – Free
2. René Adler – £11m
3. Neven Subotic – £7.75m
4. Phil Jones – £1.8mOut
1. Fran Merida – Free
2. William Gallas – Free
3. Sol Campbell – Free
4. Mikael Silvestre – Free
5. Philippe Senderos – Free
6. Andrey Arshavin – £36m
7. Manuel Almunia – Loan
The sale of Arshavin cancelled out a lot of the money spent on new recruits, so finances stayed good.
Staff
In addition to bringing new players in, I decided to sack some of my physios, since we’re having quite a lot of injury problems. I actually brought back Gary Lewin to the club, and I also hired a couple of extra coaches to help with the load of the schedules.
2010/2011 Pre-Season
Arsenal have confirmed that Celtic, Lyon and AC Milan will play the Emirates Cup 2010, so I tried booking them. All french teams were busy on July 31st though, so instead of Lyon I booked Villarreal.
I did the usual pre-season format, starting with Barnet, going on an Austrian tour, and ending with the Emirates Cup + an away game against a medium level european team a couple of days later.
August 2010
Premier League
West Bromwich 0-3 Arsenal
The Premier League started against newly promoted West Bromwich, and we got off to a flying start in a 3-0 win. I brought Chamakh on for the last 30 minutes, and he had a solid game together with the other new recruits (Subotic and Adler).
Arsenal 3-0 Wigan
Second game was against Wigan. I started Chamakh, and he got two goals in that game. 3-0 again and top of the league.
Stoke 0-1 Arsenal
Third game was a little harder. Van Persie started again but we were quite ineffectual, so I subbed Walcott and Van Persie for Eboué and Chamakh in the 60th minute. In the 85th minute, Chamakh scored a goal from an Eboué cross. ;)
Arsenal 2-0 Bolton
Fourth game was against Bolton, and once again we kept a clean sheet in a 2-0 win. So far Subotic and Vermaelen have been doing a very good job in central defense.
Champions League
Manchester City had a hard time against Fenerbache in the Champions League qualifier, but overturned it in the end.
We were drawn against Italian champions Fiorentina, Celtic and Belgian side Standard in Group E.
Transfers
Man Utd bought Ryan Shawcross, Angel Di Maria and Filipe during the January window, and then Jack Rodwell and Chris Smalling in the summer window. They loaned out Macheda to Burnley, and sold Park Ji-Sung to Milan and Michael Owen to Villarreal.
Chelsea bought Luka Modric and Landon Donovan, and they loaned out Malouda and Belletti.
Barcelona bought Giuliano from Internacional, and their purchase of Arshavin for £36m was the biggest transfer of the summer worldwide.
Real Madrid bought Giuseppe Rossi and Serio Canales.
Real Madrid and Inter had been sniffing around for Vermaelen, and Fiorentina wanted Song…but I’m not selling anyone else until the January window.
All in all, not a very busy transfer window, which I prefer. It would have been more realistic for Man City to buy a couple of bigger names other than Vargas from Fiorentina, but I’m sure they’ll have a spree come January.
September 2010
Premier League
Man City 1-1 Arsenal
The month started with a two week break for international fixtures, and then the fifth game of the season was against Manchester City away. Nasri got injured during the start of the match, so Van Persie played wide left while Chamakh played in the center. Man City has made a really good purchase in Vargas, who was lethal down the left flank. Game ended 1-1.
Arsenal 3-0 Fulham
Next up was Fulham at the Emirates. With Nasri still out, I gave Wilshere another chance on the left flank, and I also gave Chamakh his second start. A red card for Aaron Hughes after 15 minutes meant Fulham would become difficult. Fulham had good defensive discipline and made it very difficult for us. I had to bring Eboué into the mix, who eventually scored twice. With Van Persie scoring one more, we racked up yet another 3-0 win in the premiership.
Arsenal 3-0 West Ham
7th game of the season was against West Ham. Wilshere got his third start of the season, and 15 minutes into the game we were 2-0 up thanks to a Van Persie free-kick and a very impressive Wilshere goal. A hilarious mistake by the West Ham goalkeeper saw Van Persie score an easy goal to once again bring the final scoreline to 3-0.
Champions League
Arsenal 2-0 Standard
First european game of the season was against Belgian side Standard. Nasri, Cesc and Clichy injured, so Traoré, Denilson and Wilshere filled in. Standard were playing a physical game and they were making it hard for us. Walcott scored from a Wilshere assist in the 27th minute though, and shortly after that Wilshere scored his first goal of the season.
Fiorentina 2-1 Arsenal
Next fixture was away against Italian champions Fiorentina. Cesc and Clichy had returned to full training, but I didn’t want to risk them just yet. We were 1-0 down at halftime, as Fiorentina were exploiting our high backline. I instructed the team to play deeper in the second half, but it didn’t help. 2-1 to Fiorentina.
League Cup
Arsenal 2-0 Stoke
Keeping to the tradition of Arsenal’s involvement in the Mickey Mouse Cup, I picked some youngsters for the first League Cup game of the season.
Mannone
Hoyte – Nordtveit – Bartley – Traore
Ramsey – Emmanuel-Thomas – Randall
Wilshere – Watt – Barazite
Stoke was having a good start to their season, so I didn’t expect to win this game with a bunch of 17-year olds. Stoke had a hard time against my youngsters though, and Barazite scored a very good free-kick in the 60th minute. Watt scored in the last second of the game to make the final score 2-0.
Part 2 >