Reasons why I am better than Diego Simeone

By: Marco | December 15th, 2008

Take notes Aguilar. After residing in Italy for the past few versions I ventured off into the world of FM. Winning everything with Palermo was getting boring and after winning the treble for the fourth time I decided that I had done all that I could do. I went up north into the cold and bleak but interesting Russian league and won it twice with CSKA Moscow. From there I traveled to Ukraine and won the double twice with Dinamo Kyiv. After freezing my ass off I thought I would go to South America and take my beloved River Plate (who suck at the moment) back to their former glory. The Argentinian league is one of my favorites because of their attacking play and physicality. Sure I love the Serie A and their tactical ingenuity and time wasting but I do enjoy pretty football.

With River I had a squad that needed to be rebuilt if we were going to even make the top 4. With a gracious 12M to spend I set out looking for talent. My first choice was obvious. Juan Manuel Torres. Fucking legend. Imagine Gattuso & Matrix mixed with Pirlo and you have him. He broke Pazzini’s leg and ripped up Ibra’s leg muscles in my Palermo save and injured god knows how many others. He had at least one yellow card per game and would miss chunks of the season with suspension. But I needed that ferocity and work rate in the midfield to go along with Dessena. In this years version he hasn’t changed and still leads my River midfield. I also brought in Guilherme & Wanderely from Cruzeiro and reunited the legendary Argentine trio that destroyed everything in my days with Palermo that consisted of Juan Manuel Torres, Andres D’Alessandro and Augusto Fernandez. Up front we have a shit load of depth with Falcao, D’Alessandro, Wanderely, Fernandez, Guilherme, Salcedo, Aban, Rios, Buonanotte, Rosales, Barrado, Nieto, Conca, Mauricio and Abreu (resigned him). I know it is kind of overload but I plan on loaning Mauricio and Rios out while Abreu should be leaving.

My midfield is also deep with Juan Manuel Torres, Leandro Torres, Galmarini, Domingo, Abelairas, Ahumada and Ponzio. My 4-4-2 Diamond system has worked to perfection so I usually start Juan Manuel Torres in the DM position and sub him at halftime so he won’t get a red if he hasn’t already and replace him with Ponzio or Ahumada. Domingo, Leandro Torres and Galmarini play on the flanks if D’Alessandro or Fernandez aren’t available. Guilherme can also drop back and play in the center of the midfield if needed.

My defense hasn’t changed and I don’t plan on it either. Ferrari was going to Panathiakos or whatever they are for 24M but I decided to cancel it since he is class. Cabral, Gerlo, Merlo, Sanchez, Martinez, Quiroga, Gioda, Tuzzio, Villagra, Archubi and Ferrari make up my defenders and I usually don’t have that many injuries in the backline so I don’t need anyone else. My keepers are Vega and Ojeda and I don’t need to replace them yet. They aren’t world class but I usually dominate possession so I don’t need a world class keeper. I tried getting Ochoa but America wouldn’t let him go and I can’t find any other prospects. I still have 10M to spend on transfers if needed and I want to offload some dead weight. Mauricio, Rios, Bernardo, Bou, Carrizo, Olivia and Lizio are all prospects for the future but the first three are definitely class. Mauricio and Bernardo can be world class if they play to their potential while the others should be decent top flight players.