FM 2014 STAFF TO HIRE: Dave billows

Name: Dave Billows

Contract: Unemployed
Job: Fitness coach
Best training category: Strength & Aerobic
Best Raiting: 10 (5 Star)

Summary: Immense fitness coach. Having experience from David Moyes long spell in Everton he is a real world class fitness coach. Not only is he already world class but he is also not that old, only 41. Not that it matter because he doesn't have too much room for improvement but seriously he is a 5- star coach, what improvement is needed. However what is important with his relatively young age is that he has many years to come and still remain as world class fitness coach. The negative side is that he is very hard to recruit but not impossible, always worth a try for this man. It does make it easier to hire him as he is unemployed. Otherwise he is willing to work for about 1,200£/week and a must to recruit if you are a top side team!

Recomendation: 10/10

FM 2014 PLAYER TO SIGN: Jerome Williams

Name: Jerome Williams

Nationality: England
Contract: Crystal Palace
Age: 18
Value: 89k£
Salary: 800£/week
Position: DL

Summary: In Crystal Palace there are two Williams, one is named Jon Williams the other Jerome Williams. Jon is in the first team, Jerome plays for the reserves. Jon is worth 3.1M£, Jerome is worth 89k£. Jon is the star youngster and scouts report that this is a promising four star talent, Jerome usually has no scouts on him, but when he has they give him no more than two and a half stars. But believe me, Jon is not even half the talent of Jerome. I've had Jerome in my team for six years or something and never have I had any problemn with him. He is a very offensive lefb back, I though converted him into LWB which suited my tiki taka tactic more. Anyhow he is developing steady, just be patient with him. As I stated earlier he is a very talented player but tutoring is strongly recommended to help him reach his potential. Try not to have too high expectations on him in the beginning as he is a slow bloomer. In my game he is making huge improvements even though he is 24, let him develop in his own pace. One special thing I love about this guy is unlike many other full/wingbacks good with his head but at the same time technical. When he is fully developed you will see him as an allrounder. His asking price isn't too high and initially in the game he ask for a very small wage both big plus.
Recomendation: 8/10

Update

Sorry for the lack of updates, I've been busy with a lot of things. To make it up for it I've got some big news coming up. New tactics, new players, new coaches and some surprises.

During the past week I've been skiing in the foggy swedish mountain :-)

Stay tuned for updates

MY FM 2014 CAREER: Wolves Resumé

I never intended this type of articles because it hasn't got anything to do with the guide, but since I've had a couple of request I can't see why not.

I would love to have told you a continuous story about my career but I've already played until 2020 therefor a recap would be the right way to go. 

So I started as Wolves in League One (English third division) and the whole club was a mess. The biggest problem I had was the minimal budget and to make matters worse I had a lot of poor players with very high wages and long contracts, a total nightmare. I sold what I could and bought what was available, I ended up having an okay but very young squad. To get the most out of the players I implemented a tactic that I thought would fit the squad, I choose a Tiki Taka Tactic but I would lie to you if I told you it worked out smoothly. In fact I had to adjust the tactic numerous times and in the end we found a working tactic. We cruised up the table and secured promotion with a couple of matches left to play. The season goal was fulfilled: we got promoted and furthermore we won League One which was the icing on the cake.

Now we were playing in the Championship. League One was a piece of cake, we probably were the big favorites but to be promoted again in the first season in Championship? No the media though we would end up at the 13th place, but seriously who cares about the media! In pre-season I figured out that Tiki Taka isn't to any good if I don't construct a plan B, therefor I developed a Gegenpressing tactic. I knew the club was poisoned with bad highly paid players so I wanted to redo almoast the whole team if we were to have any chance of success. In total I released or sold 27 players and I loaned out 10 players so in total 37 players left the club either permanently or temporary. At the same time I brought in 8 quality players, you call me mad for letting go of 37 players and bring in 8? Well we shocked everyone as we not just got the right results but also we won the whole Championship in big style, even though we probably had one of the thinnest budget in the whole league.

Okay i was the hero, we won against all odds everybody is happy. But now we are in Premier League and to summarize a couple of seasons: we have done very well. The first season was the most difficult because we were predicted to be demoted, but you can now guess that it didn't happen. At the same time we got a bigger budget, but even if it was bigger than before it was one of the smallest budget in the league. The thing is I had done miracles with small budget before and for the first time I could sign player I really wanted. Later after the first season I started to lap the wholes from the devastating time in the League One and Championship. The youth academy was a mess I rebuilding it wasn't going to be easy and it took time. But I managed and besides I even managed to rebuild the stadium. 

Among others there are some people I wanted to highlight that really helped me through my career. These players have followed me for a long time very loyally, some even from the start when we played in League One:

 
 

 FROM LEFT TO RIGHT ALI ADNAN, DAVID DAVIES,
 MEMPHIS DEPAY, WAYNE HENESSEY, ZELI ISMAIL

I've continued the hard work throughout the seasons, and each season we ended up at a higher place than the previous. I've been runner up for the Premier League's Manager of the Year Award twice and once I came in third place for the award. Next time I'll write about the season I'm in at the moment and to finish this Resumé here is a full list of the awards::

FM 2014 PLAYER TO SIGN: Zeli Ismail

Name: Zeli Ismail

Nationality: England/Albania
Contract: Wolverhampton Wanderers
Age: 19
Value: 220k£
Salary: 500£/week
Position: MR/AMR

Summary: Ever heard of this guy? No? Well he isn't the most famous player in neither the real world nor in the FM communities. But this guy isn't nobody, he has represented England U16 and U17 and is about to break through in the lower divisions as a 19 year old talent. In FM this guy starts off as a pretty poor player, I am not going to lie to you, when I managed Wolves in FM 2014 the only reason I kept him was because of the lack of alternatives. Zeli Ismail isn't the biggest talent in the game but he isn't that bad either, he develops ok and he has some potential, never world class but he'll be a descent midfielder in the Premier League. He is quick and strong with an okay technique. I schooled him to be an AML were he plays as an inner forward, that way I believe you get the most out of him. The thing is if you have a very tight budget and can't get those supertalents, you might be looking for this guy because he is very cheap and he is willing to leave his League One team. Unfortunately he isn't top class or even close even when he reaches his top potential, but as I previously wrote he is a good signing if we are talking about really stretched budgets.
Recomendation: 5/10

FM 2014 PLAYER TO SIGN: Memphis Depay

Name: Memphis Depay

Nationality: Holland
Contract: PSV
Age: 19
Value: 2,7M£
Salary: 4800£/week
Position: AML/AMR/ST

Summary: Great player overall for his position. Like many wonderkid he starts off pretty decent but even at start you can pretty much guess what his strong abilities will be: Set piece. This guy is all you need for your set piece. I signed him pretty early in the game and now he is imensive as a free kick and corner taker but since I've used my my corner tactic this guy scores a lot of assists. I use him on the left side as an inner forward and that role suits him perfectly. Though I recommend you to use in as a inner forward in a AML position I must make it clear, he is fully capable playing on the right side and as striker but the risk is you won't use his full capacity. He is a weaker version of Cristiano Ronaldo if you ask me. This guy is otherwise all-round good only one thing he lacks: defending abilities. But even if you ignore his defending stat which most of the time isn't used by him if you position him right, the biggest problem for this guy is that besides free kicks and corners he hasn't any other specialties. He is absolutely on of the top offensive wingers in the world if he reach his potential but we aren't looking at any miracle player here, he is one in the line in a top club. He always produce assists and goals, but we aren't talking about a goal machine, more a safe card. In other words he always gets assists and goals every season, but is never the player of the year for your team. He isn't a bargain, be prepared to pay something in the region of 9M£ early in the game and more if youy attempt later, still he is good enough to be worth every penny.
Recomendation: 7/10

I mean look at his free kick stats in 2019: 20 FK, 18 Long Shots. Perfect guy for the job!

FM 2014 TACTIC: ATTACKING CORNER

This has been one of the hardest part of Football Manager 2014, how to get a good working corner tactic. I should remind you that a corner tactic and especially this corner tactic is laying importance in whether the corner kick taker is right or left-footed, but if you're luck you'll have a corner kick taker that can play with both his feet :-)

Corner kick taker

Aim?

Aim for the Far post, but just because you aim for the far post doesn't mean you will score goals at the far post. Depending on how elevated the ball is there will be a chance for players to head it along the way to the far post, in fact it is more common to score anywhere but the far post than the far post using this tactic.

Right or Left?

Use you're right footed corner kick taker on the left side. For the left footed use them for corners on the right side. If you are lucky your best corner kick taker can use either feet which makes him a candidate for both right and left side.

What stats should I be looking for in a corner taker?

This is VERY important. There are two very common mistakes when people look for a corner kick taker. The first mistake is some people only look for the corners stat but that isn't the only stat to consider in a corner kick taker. The second common mistake is that people consider a taker based on three stats: corners, crosses and passing. If you don't have a corner tactic where the player needs to either pass or cross then you don't need both. In this tactic you aim for the far post and there is no way you can pass the ball to the far post, you will always need to cross the ball if you aim for the far, therefor the only stats you should be looking for in this corner tactic is corners and crossing.

A corner taker cannot challenge goalkeeper at the same time

When you have a player taking the corner he cannot have another role in your corner tactic. To prevent this problem you can do like this: If your two best corner taker usually plays as ML and MR, the give both ML and MR the role forward or default that way if he is taking the corner there won't be a player missing for an essential role.

Instructions:

• Challenge goalkeeper:Someone with okay physical stats and heading stats.
• Attack far post: Someone with both good speed and heading stats. Often receives the ball after a flick or if the corner is slightly missing it's trajectory, then this guy will be coming with speed towards the ball. 
• Stand on far post: This role requires both good heading and physical stats. It.s usually this player the taker aims for, but most of the time the ball is headed somewhere along the way to this player, but sometimes it actually is this player that heads the ball and in that situation you need someone that is strong and just gets his head on the ball.
• Near post flick on: Here you should only look for good heading stats. This guy sets up good scoring opportunities for his teammates.
• Attack ball from depth: Good speed but only okay heading and finishing stats is required. This guy has somewhat a similar role as the Attack far post guy but the difference is this guy comes to the rescue when the corner has seriously missed it's trajectory.
• Lurk outside area: Put in a player that is good on long shots and passing. This role is important and prevent many counterattacks after a failed corner, besides it happens that this player can shot from long range and score just after the opposition heads it out.
• The rest? 
  Some of them should stay back if needed, some you could just set on default or go forward, you should use go forward or default for the positions your corner takers usually play so that none of the roles above are missing when your taker sets up a corner.