14 DAY TRIAL // I won't go any deeper into how my Liverpool unfolded (hint: it does not get pretty as the season progresses) but I will make a few final observations about Football Manager 2012 based on the more than 10 season I have played until now (full disclosure: this is all based around teams in England, with Germany, France, Spain, Romania and Italy also included in the simulation down to the second division, using a large database).
First off, African born players currently linked to teams in France are the stars of the transfer market, with the Ayew brothers and Eden the leaders of this Gallic assault, snapped up once by Manchester United and City and another time by Liverpool and Chelsea.
They don't perform as well as the money paid for them would suggests during the first seasons but in one of my games Andrew Ayew led Liverpool to a title while I was controlling Arsenal, managing to get an average rating of 7.35 despite being sidelined for about two months by injury.
I also came to believe that FM 2012 needs to put some more pressure on managers, especially big name ones, because managers like Wanger and Fergusson (and even me, the lowly human player) tend to quit when their teams dip in form before Christmas while the boards are just issuing warnings and talk about improving form.
Another issue I have with the game is how well regarded Brazilian attacking midfielders are, with a group of about 5 to 6 players younger and better than most of what Europe has to offer, which means than in a few years they tend to dominate the attacking line-ups of big European sides.
And, finally, something that I noticed in my review and need to reiterate, home teams get too much of an advantage and playing an attacking open game can be suicidal even when the opponents are teams like Norwhich (who managed to gut my titles hopes one year) and Reading (who knocked me out of a cup quarter final).