Master League Default team: Lengerblitz

[Willocrew]

Ok, so this year I decided to start a default lineup ML team as I am still waiting for better option files and the anfield stadium data pack for my traditional Liverpool ML game.

Here's the setting. I am playing in the PEU league with 20 teams and I've replaced 6 of those teams with the 6 licensed teams from other European teams...eg. Dortmund etc. I've picked Lengerblitz because they have the coolest sounding name and logo.

I'll post pics containing further details in my team, but here are some initial thoughts and things I have learnt.

1) Train your players carefully. I totally ruined my Coutinho with bad training choice. At the start of the season he was playing way above his 70 rating with extremely good movement in front. He was dropping deep at the right time and was absolutely at the right place at the right time to receive passes to score. I made the mistake of training him as a goal poacher. When he acquired that playing style he totally changed for the worst... He would hang on the defender's shoulder looking to breakaway for a through ball but problem is he lacks raw speed. So right now I've got a player who is somewhat ruined. I'm retraining him to be a dummy runner. Hopefully he improves.

2) be prepared to bargain shop. This year's ML breaks down finance allocation into wages and transfer fees. Managing the salary cap is tough. I had to sell off loads of dead weight and even release a few to free up the wage budget to bring in new improvements. I found out one of my old guys (35 years old) was secretly eating up my wage budget with a salary of £550k while everyone else was around £100k-£300k. I was totally prepared to release him but thankfully some sucker club paid £1.5M for him. This allowed me to finally sign the fantastic Lobato from my youth team because the game doesn't allow you to sign even youth teams when you've exceeded the wage budget.

 

[Maximo101]

At least you can constantly retrain players into different play styles. This is a great feature this year.

I also picked the default ML players, in my 3rd season now and have a few still there but mostly have youth and regens in the lineup.

 

[Willocrew]

At least you can constantly retrain players into different play styles. This is a great feature this year.

I also picked the default ML players, in my 3rd season now and have a few still there but mostly have youth and regens in the lineup.

Yeah! Good news is that Coutinho is now a dummy runner. He plays better than as a goal poacher, but he doesn't get into goal scoring positions as much as his default style.

Which default player do you still have in your third season?

First half of second season and I'm still using Arcas, Coutimho, Castledine, Hettich, Gioza in my starting eleven. Yunkov, Canning, Mathiessen and Driessler as off the bench options. I bought Tom Davies from Everton during the July August window...my first big signing for €6M+. Box to box to partner Hettich.

I'm finding Castledine to be a very good player in recent games when the team has higher team spirit. I use him in the AM (No.10) position and now he is involved in everything. Last season, he was always late in arriving at where he should be and play often bypassed him. E.g. In the attack phase, he will still be in the defensive areas and in defensive phase he will still be in new the opposition box.

 

[DunkLFC]

A tale of two PES's (in Superstar).

In PES 2016, my first season ended with promotion via the playoffs after a tough start to the campaign where Team Spirit began at about 70%. Free signings Gerrard and Drogba (along with several other free transfers) dragging my ML team through. Season 2, I spent most of the budget I had to pay the salaries of more free transfers, with a couple of paid for players for those difficult to fill positions and wound up in fourth with a Champions League place. Season three was a romp to the title and winning the Champions League. Of course, the club found it unacceptable that I didn't win the FA Cup. LOL

PES 2017 offers no such option because of the budget cap, so I went down the route of dumping 8 or so players and bringing in a new keeper, two new CBs and myself as a 17 year old AM from Become a Legend. I expected Team Spirit to be bad at the start but was shocked to see it in the 30's!!! I could have started again, but thought, "No, I'll suffer low Team Spirit for a couple of months". I then found out that TS trickles up a lot slower this year. Best move of the season was signing a CM with the Team Player role in January. The season finished with Team Spirit in the high 80's and I'm more competitive in games, but I definitely didn't trouble the promotion places. I'm looking forward to this coming season.

All things considered, ML is better this way.

 

[Silver Surfer]

I then found out that TS trickles up a lot slower this year. Best move of the season was signing a CM with the Team Player role in January.

If you can sign a player with the team role 'smart player' and captain them, they will boost your team spirit up a lot.

All things considered, ML is better this way.

I agree, i'm finding this years ML more challenging and therefor better and more enjoyable with the new AI COM and realistic transfers.

 

[DunkLFC]

If you can sign a player with the team role 'smart player' and captain them, they will boost your team spirit up a lot.

I like that there are so many Team Roles now and I'm guessing that how you play a player will influence the path a player follows through those roles. eg My mini-me is a potential for several different roles including "Bad Boy". I'm going to guess that if I go around hacking players left right and centre with him, it'll increase the chance of getting that role. Anyone know if that's the case? I certainly don't want that one though, as I had one player in that role and because everyone started off with no Team Spirit and was playing badly, he got a red down arrow for one game and I refused to put him on the pitch ... so he stayed on red down arrow for a month or so and I sold him at the next transfer window. He was a terrible player mind you and his place in the side went to the "Team Player" CM I brought in. So it was very much a win win scenario.

Does anyone know what role players with "Bad Boy" eventually move onto?

 

[Willocrew]

Does anyone know what role players with "Bad Boy" eventually move onto?

Not sure. I also had the same problem with one of my default player (J.Rice) having the bad boy team role. Sold him off as I had enough of his poor form. He was red arrow form for pretty much the entire first season. Managed to grind it out and raise his form to green one time with, but when he was benched for the next match,, he hit red arrow form immediately.

 

[Willocrew]

In the middle of my second season with Lengerblitz. The team is playing very nicely. Team spirit is up to 92. And it's now much easier to play slick one touch football through the middle.

Problem is Barcelona just offered a contract to jump ship. Ah...so tempting.

 

[DunkLFC]

Problem is Barcelona just offered a contract to jump ship. Ah...so tempting.

Hey, if you wanted to play as Barcelona, you could have done that from the start!

 

[Willocrew]

Hey, if you wanted to play as Barcelona, you could have done that from the start!

True that. But on the issue of Barcelona, the Barca in my ML has some random PES manager that's using a 442 formation and with Suarez and some guy called M.Steger up top. Turned out he is actually supposed to be Lewandowski. I really need to do somewhere editing before I launch my real Liverpool ML play through in December.

And funnily enough, last year's problem of good players sitting on the bench seems to be rearing its head Messi and Neymar not in the starting 11.