FIFA 20: Manchester City Career Mode Guide - lineup, custom tactics, who to buy & more

Despite of Manchester city's Premier League dominance over the last few seasons, a Champions League trophy still alludes the English champions. With Liverpool storming ahead in the new season, City are facing a serious challenge for the first time in a while.

Do you have what it takes to top Liverpool, and bring home the silverware?

Keep reading for a full guide before you start your game on FIFA 20.

Team Rating

Manchester City have a five-star rating, with a decent 83 defence, topped off with a sensational 87 rated midfield and attack.

Formation

Man City’s default formation on FIFA 20 is a 4-3-3 Holding. This formation is your best option as frankly it allows you to include the most amount of City’s quality as possible. Your two centre midfielders have space to operate, behind a three-pronged world class attack who give them plenty to aim at. If you’d rather push one of your centre mids in to an attacking midfielder position, then 4-3-3 Attack also works.

Brazilian goalkeeper Ederson (88 GK Reflexes) starts, with new signing Joao Cancelo, John Stones, world class Aymeric Laporte (89 standing tackle) and Benjamin Mendy making up the back four. 

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Young Spaniard Rodri holds the fort in midfield, with dynamic duo Kevin De Bruyne (94 vision) and captain David Silva ahead of him. City’s attack is made up of the terrifying trio of Raheem Sterling (89 dribbling) and Leroy Sane out wide, with Sergio Aguero (93 finishing) up top.

A well-balanced bench would consist of Claudio Bravo, Nicolas Otamendi, Kyle Walker, Fernandinho, Ilkay Gundogan, Bernardo Silva and Gabriel Jesus. 

Tactics and instructions

For your offensive tactics, you should use balanced; the quality of City’s team means you should be able to control most games; possession based play will allow your midfielders to set the pace of a game before striking at opportune moments.

Defensively, you should go for press on heavy touch; City’s team is packed with pace and explosive power, so a high press will allow you to suffocate opposition possession, forcing them in to errors and punishing them thereafter.

If you’re trailing in a match, Gabriel Jesus (84 finishing) and Bernardo Silva (92 dribbling) make devastating attacking subs, whilst Fernandinho’s wealth of experience is perfect when you want to tighten up.

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Team instructions allow you to really get stuck in to the customisation of your team; the following instructions are what we recommend. 

Man City’s attack needs a little tweaking when it comes to team instructions. The reason we’re playing Sterling on the left and Sane on the right is so they can cut in to shoot on their strong foot. Therefore, you should set both wingers to support runs to ‘get in behind’ and their chance creation to ‘cut inside’. 

In addition, Aguero’s attacking runs should be set to ‘get in behind’, so that he can get on the end of David Silva’s and De Bruyne’s deliveries.

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City’s midfield is pretty much ready to go; the only change you should make is change Rodri’s defensive position to ‘cover centre’. With the wing backs covering the channels, Rodri needs to stay central to cover for Silva and De Bruyne when they venture forward.

The final team instruction is dependent on how confident you are in your defensive ability. Currently the wing backs’ attacking runs are set to ‘join the attack’; with Sterling and Sane cutting in, your wing backs can overlap offering more attacking options. However, vulnerable, so if you want more defensive cover, set Mendy’s and Cancelo’s attacking runs to ‘balanced attack’.

Training

Man City already own several high growth players with fantastic potential. These players are indicated by the green symbol in the training section of Career Mode and should be your priority. Our recommendation is to focus on the development of Benjamin Mendy (POT 85), Joao Cancelo (POT 89), Phil Foden (POT 90), Leroy Sane (POT 92) and Gabriel Jesus (POT 88).

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The Transfer Market

Starting transfer budget: £187 million

Starting wage budget: £400,000 a week

Who should go

Man City have a massive squad, so you will need to conduct a clear out as you can’t guarantee everyone play time. Your best bet is to sell the low potential youngster, of which there are several at City. The following youngsters may yet make something of themselves in football, but FIFA 20 predicts they are nothing special, giving them low potentials.

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The sales of Daniel Grimshaw, Tyreke Wilson, Taylor Harwood-Bellis, Adrian Bernie, Iker Pozo, Collins Tanor and Benjamin Garre will earn you a combined £1.6 million and free up 35,900 a week in wages.

Loans

A few of the younger talents need to stay at the club for injury cover and squad rotation as City compete across four competitions. However, youngsters Gavin Bazuna, Eric Garcia and Felix Nmecha can all be loaned out.

After the sale of the young Tyreke Wilson, City still have three left backs and, *Spoiler Alert*, we’re bringing in a fourth.  Therefore, you’ll want to loan out new signing Angelino for the season and send Olayinka Zinchenko on a short-term loan, before reviewing his position in January 2020.

Who to Sign

New transfer budget: £189 million

New wage budget: £554,000 a week

Exceptional Centre Back

With John Stones yet to fulfill his 87 potential, you need to bring in an exceptional centre if you want to push on to retain the Premier League and win the Champions League. 

Having worked his way up through the Hoffenheim youth system, Niklas Suleimpressed in the Bundesliga, earning himself a £22.5 million transfer to Bayern back in 2017. Since then he has won two Bundesliga titles, one German Domestic Cup and two German Super Cups.

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At 23 years old with a potential of 90 overall he is the perfect acquisition for Man City, but will cost you a substantial £67.5 million, with 85,000 a week in wages.

Alternate Options:

• Niklas Sule – Bayern Munich, Age 23, OVR 85, POT 90, Cost: £65 million, Wage: £120,000 a week
• Clement Lenglet – Barcelona, Age 24, OVR 85, POT 89, Cost: £60 million, Wage: £154,000 a week
• Jose Giminez – Atletico Madrid, Age 24, OVR 85, POT 89, Cost: £60 million, Wage: £100,000 a week
• Lucas Hernandez – Bayern Munich, Age 23, OVR 84, POT 89, Cost: £56 million, Wage: £97,000 a week
• Jonathan Tah – Leverkusen, Age 23, OVR 83, POT 88, Cost: £48 million, Wage: £80,0000 a week
• Manuel Akanji – Borussia Dortmund, Age 23, OVR 83, POT 88, Cost: £48 million, Wage: £80,000 a week

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World Class Left Back

As previously mentioned, City are not short of options at left back. However, neither Mendy nor Zinchenko are at world class level yet, so you want to look at bringing in an outstanding left back, who will give way to Mendy or Zinchenko once they reach their 85 potential. 

Barcelona’s Jordi Alba is quite simply the best left back in the game. With a rating of 87 he is a world class talent and could opt for a move to the Premier League to see out his career. At 30 years old he is the optimum age to play at the top level for a few more seasons before his stats begin to drop. 

The Spaniard will cost you £56 million and a whopping £170,000 a week in wages, but money is no object for City and Alba’s 90 sprint speed, 87 crossing and 83 standing tackle means he is worth every penny.

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Alternative options:

• David Alaba – Bayern Munich, Age 27, OVR 85, POT 86, Cost: £54 million, Wage: £130,000 a week
• Alex Sandro – Piemonte Calcio, Age 28, OVR 85, POT 85, Cost: £54 million, Wage: £150,000 a week
• Marcelo – Real Madrid, Age 31, OVR 85, POT 85, Cost: £54 million, Wage: £190,000 a week
• Alex Telles – Porto, Age 26, OVR 84, POT 86, Cost: £45 million, Wage: £85,000 a week
• Nicolas Tagliafico – Ajax, Age 26, OVR 83, POT 84, Cost: £37 million, Wage £80,000 a week.

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Contracts

Both Fernandinho’s and David Silva’s contracts expire in 2020, but they may reject a new contract in favour of retiring. If this is the case just bear in mind you’ll have to replace them in 2020 summer, but this shouldn’t be a problem with City’s transfer budget.

Scott Carson loan spell ends in summer 2020, but you’re better off bringing in a high potential young keeper to replace him in your second season.

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Managerial objectives

The managerial objectives at City are a mixed bag, with little pressure on anything but winning trophies. You’ll have to have an exceptional first season if you want to achieve all of them.

Domestic success is of critical priority and won’t be easy, with the board expecting you to win both the Premier League and FA Cup. This is a tough ask considering cup games are prone to upsets and you’ll have three other competitions to compete in.

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Continental success is a critical priority, with the board asking you to win the Champions League. Combined with the domestic objectives, it looks like you’ll have your work cut out if you want to satisfy all the objectives and win the treble.

Brand Exposure is a critical priority, with an objective of earning £180 million through shirt sales within the season. So long as your front three are firing, combined with a few new arrivals, you should achieve this objective with ease.

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Financial is has a rather ironic very low priority as there No Objectives in this domain.

Finally, Youth Development is of low priority. The first objective is play one youth player in five games that you signed in the same season. Secondly, you must sign one player in your youth academy to the midfielder position. Both objectives are easy enough ensuring you set up your youth system early on.

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The hunt for Champions League glory

With City’s quality and massive transfer budget, winning both the Premier League and Champions League in your first season isn’t too much of a stretch. You should prioritise these two competitions above anything else and go all out for them. Go as far as you can in the FA Cup, but remain focused on the big competitions.

If you fail to win both the Premier League and Champions League in your first season, then in your second season you should sign well and add even more depth to the squad. This will help you achieve the ultimate goal of becoming the best side in the world.

READ MORE: FIFA 20 - Liverpool Career Mode guide

Full Manchester City Player Ratings

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