Oh god I'm such an addict to this game.
You face a great dilemma... To patch or not to patch ?
If you install the latest patch (EP 5) it will fix a lot of bugs, however it makes the game 20 times tougher, your tactics get cracked after about a season (if you're lucky) and the dreaded super goalie opposition bug makes a return (1-0 scoreline to the opposition, with shots on target 12-1 in your favour >_<).
Players to look out for:
Alexander Farnerud - Midfielder, 17, in a couple of years he develops into a decent midfielder.
Freddy Adu - Midfielder, 13, nuff said.
Mancini - Great Brazilian DR.
Olisadebe - Half Polish/Half Nigerian striking machine (only 24 too, stats comparable to Thierry Henry).
Mido - People say he is great, but I don't rate him highly, however at 6 mil (pounds, what else!) he could be a bargain of sorts, and decent left footed strikers are as rare as hen's teeth.
Also people have been talking about Phillipe Mexes, 21 year old defender, appparently gets really good after a couple of seasons.
And if you're looking for a hot prospect goalkeeper get Andreas Isaksson, 20 years old, 16's for the important GK stats (Handling, Reflexes, On-on-Ones).
Wayne Rooney might also be a good signing, if you can tempt him away from Goodison Park, that is.
You also can't go wrong with the usual suspects: Henry, Van Nistlerooy, Nesta, Campbell, Kahn, Shevchenko, Inzaghi etc.
Now tactics, under this new EP5 patch good tactics win matches, and bad tactics make you lose 2-0 to Chelsea. My advice checkout some tactics forums such as the community forums on
www.sigames.com which are clean and fun (like this board), or the forums on
www.thedugout.net which seem to be filled with smartmouth teens.
For your first season you can probably get away with a 4-4-2 with some minute tweaks, imo.