In my opinion, Eduardo Salvio is the next ‘Marquinhos’ on Football Manager 2010. He is a creative AMR that can also play up front so we already have similarities to Marquinhos. Salvio has some of the biggest clubs in the world after him, and in the summer he turned down a move to english giants Manchester United because of the competition for places. Good move my friend Eduardo Salvio is a 19 year old Argentinian who plays his trade at Lanus. On Football Manager 2010 he has some great stats with a lot of potential.

Stats

It’s obvious Salvio’s strength’s are his pace and acceleration. Any winger with great attributes in these two areas, mixed with high agility and flair is going to be an awesome player up and down the touch line. His lightening pace will scare a load of defender. Eduardo Salvio’s technical attributes are a bit of a let down but he is still developing at 19 years of age. Saying that, his passing, technique and crossing attributes are not that low and these are 3 key technical attributes for a winger. Salvio has bags of potential. I have always believed that a high determination stat on a youth will help them develop faster. Will have to get word from SI on this soon!

Tactics

In my current Arsenal career, I am playing Salvio as a winger set to support. This is the best setting for him because he has all the right attributes to play as this type of winger. His stats may not be as good as some of the wingers in your squad, but I still reccommend giving him some action as that is what he will need. If you read my Marco Verratti Player Profile, you may have started to understand my concerns with playing youth too young, but Salvio is a little bit older than Verratti so giving him more first team action will be vital. I still think a tutor would be good for Eduardo Salvio, find a suitable winger in your squad who you would like Salvio to take tips from and try to become like him. I have no set schedule for Salvio, but continue to use Tugs Training for Football Manager 2010.

Price

Eduardo Salvio starts the game with a value of 2.1 million, like 95% of the wonderkids on the game, the clubs are reluctant to let go. I managed to get him for 4.1 million, which is a bargain for someone with so much potential in my opinion. If you have the funds available at your club, definitely  try to snap him up before someone else does! He does not ask for much wages (£6,000 a week) so definitely a great long term invenstment.

My Rating: 6/10

Potential Rating: 9/10

He is rapidly becoming a favourite in the FM community, and at a young age for a small fee, nobody can say no. Nicolas Otamendi is a 21 year old wonderkid centre back from Argentina. At the start of the game he plays for Atletico Velez with a value of around £3m. Here is a screenshot of his stats:

Stats

As you can tell by his stats, which are amazing for someone so young, that Otamendi is a strong centre back who will rip opposition attackers and be a solid key player in your team. His technical attributes are not the greatest; however he does have decent attributes in the defence atts such as 15 for tackling and marking. In my opinion, his mental and physical attributes more than make up for it, especially his physical atts that are all mostly 16 or higher.

Tactics

Defenders are usually not that versatile, and Otamendi can only play in the centre back position. I suggest playing him as the right centre back because his left foot is very weak. This could cost your team goals if he is under pressure on his left foot. He is best suited to the central defender role, and not as a ball playing defender because his passing, creativity and decision making is not quite there.

Price

Otamendi is in high demand from a lot of the top teams in Europe in real life as well as Football Manager 2010, so you have to be quick in getting your offer in as usually he is snapped up straight away. Nicolas Otamendi can be picked up for between £4-7m. I highly suggest if you have the funds that you try to get him at your team. I have managed him several times incluindg my current Arsenal game if you are following, and he is averaging well over a 7 every match.

Nicolas Otamendi is a great player now, with great potential, so I highly recommend him if you can afford him.

My Rating: 9/10

If you read my last post, you would know that I will be writing a brief guide with my opinions and info for every team I manage. I have chosen to manage Arsenal to kick start my managing career and attempt to complete my challenge. I wont bore you with the wikipedia crap, just get across some useful information about managing them on FM2010.

The Squad

The current Arsenal squad has a wealth of talent, and as you should know from real life, most of the players are still very young. In my opinion, having a young squad is great, but there are some dangers when it comes to their performances, they are still learning and maturing as players so be careful. The Arsenal squad does come with a couple of oldies in William Gallas, Manuel Almunia, and Silvestre. Sometimes keeping one or two oldies in the squad can be good for experience and to nurture the youngsters through player linking etc. There are many top players in the Arsenal squad good enough to play for any premiership side, these include Cesc Fabregas, Andrey Arshavin and Robin Van Persie.

In my opinion, the star of the squad is Cesc Fabregas, Im sure you know, but just in case you don’t he is a 22 CM, i highly recommend you hold onto him for ever and ever because he is irreplaceable(that’s what I think anyway). The youngster to watch out for is Jack Wilshere, home grown in England, the 17 year old centre mid has a great future ahead of him. Same position as Fabregas, and what I normally do when managing Arsenal is to get Fabregas to tutor young Jack. This will be great for Wilshere because Fabregas is very experienced and one of the best in the world in his position.

Best XI

GK: Manuel Almunia

DR: Bacary Sagna

DL: Gael Clichy

DC: William Gallas

DC: Thomas Vermaleen

MR: Andrey Arshavin

ML: Samir Nasri

MC: Cesc Fabregas

MC: Denilson

ST: Robin Van Persie

ST: Eduardo/Bendtner

Transfer Dealings

The board give you 29m for title challenge, and 31.5m for winner on patch 10.2, I would suggest picking one of these, I usually go for Title Challenge wherever I go. Although picking winner gets you slightly more money, you may regret it if you fail to win the league at the end of the season and the board lose confidence. Anyways, the Arsenal squad could do with some strengthening.

Defence: Manuel Almunia is a decent keeper, but nothing more. He will do for the first season as money is better spent elsewhere, but once you have finished season one i highly suggest bringing in an excellent young keeper such as Hugo Lloris or Rene Adler. I think the wing backs are fine in Gael Clichy and Bacary Sagna however I would say a new centre back is needed to partner Gallas. Gallas is 32 when the game starts but his experience can be vital in the first season, I suggest selling him after the first season whilst you still can. My suggestion for a partner for William is Nicolas Otamendi, the young argie wonderkid. You can pick up Otamendi at the start of the game for around 4m, but be quick because lots of top clubs will be lusting after him.

The midfield is perfect in my opinion, you have a host of great players for every position, the weakness is Denilson in DM, but he will do for the first season as other areas are more of a priority. You have great cover for all positions especially on the wings with Nasri, Walcott, Arshavin, Rosicky and Van Persie(depending on where you want to play him).

The best striker at Arsenal is without a doubt Robin Van Persie(or RVP as I will commonly refer to him as). I see RVP as more of a support striker than a 30+ goal a season guy, but that is just my opinion. You have two other great strikers in Bendtner and Eduardo, however I usually buy a top class target man such as Edin Dzeko to partner RVP. This way I have two great strikers who play different roles and can combine together to speed me into success. Edin Dzeko can be purchased for around 20m which is cheap for such a powerful striker.

Tactics

The Arsenal squad is so versatile with players having the ability to play in a number of positions, you have a big choice of tactics to play. I usually play a 4-4-2 with Arsenal, and change the wingers from AMR and AML to MR and ML depending on who I am playing.  If it’s a big team then I will set my wingers to make more runs on the counter attack and help out when we are in possesion.

Other tactics that I have used and have worked well with Arsenal are 4-1-1-2-2(DM and CM, AMR, AML, 2 ST’s) and a 4-4-2 diamond.

Ok, I said it would be brief but went into a bit more detail once I got writing. I apologise for that but hope this guide helped you incase you fancied a go at Arsenal. Feel free to comment on this post with your experiences with Arsenal or if you have any questions I will be happy to answer them  My next post will be my pre season friendlies and transfer round up as I eagerly anticipate the first season.