Football Manager, Part I

[Bonji]

Ronaldinho has a 8.89 rating after 9 matches. :) I like. He's the man!

[odg78]

--I just realized that when I set my Barca game up I only selected the Spanish Segunda B and up because I wasn't sure what league I wanted play in. Of course, my B team barely got relegated at the end of the first season so they don't have any games scheduled. Are they going to be stuck in this limbo forever? Is there anyway I can get them some games?

[Bonji]

--I just realized that when I set my Barca game up I only selected the Spanish Segunda B and up because I wasn't sure what league I wanted play in. Of course, my B team barely got relegated at the end of the first season so they don't have any games scheduled. Are they going to be stuck in this limbo forever? Is there anyway I can get them some games?
I have the same problem. I haven't really done anything about it, but now that you mention it I realize my B team players aren't going to progress and I'll forever have to buy talent instead of home growing it. Hmm, problem. I imagine you can set up friendlies for them, but that would be a pain. Let me know if you figure something out.

Roni is now up to 9.00 average rating for me. :)

[johno]

I've done this in the past and my remedy was to schedule cups and leagues... friendly leagues about 2 or 3 times a season... its not that much work and you can usually get good competition to play against most times...

[eneste]

Started a new career with Heerenveen in the Dutch League. First season went well. Very streaky, mainly using a 4-1 (dm)-3 (m arrows forward)- 2, I finished 3rd. Got rid of some players with five figure salaries in the off season and signed quite a few top players. Especially non-EU players.

Now I'm nearing the end of my second season in the Dutch league it's a 3-way race to the title between me, PSV and Feyenoord. 5 games left (4 at home) and if I can win them all I'll take the title. The goal this year was Champions League qualification so really as long as I get second I'll be happy. UEFA Cup was fairly successful, made it to the final 8 where I lost to a Bayern team which was just too talented for me. Beating PSV and AZ on the way. I'm using a 4-4-2 attacking on the road and a 4-1-3-2 at home which is working wonders.

This summer looks to be tricky. I have lots of good young talent that top Euro clubs are drooling over but hopefully the fact that we'll probably be in the Champions League will convince some of them to stay. Already unloaded Huntelaar for $10m euro and Zidan for $12m euro during the winter transfer period so I have cash in the bank but I'm thin up front. I'll probably have to conceed that keeping Blondel isn't an option. 31 assists so far this season. And Fred's 38 goals in 35 games will attract major interest as well.

Greatest game ever.

[Bluto11]

yo people, there is a whole sub-forum for this game and yet there is really only one major thread, how about people start making more threads!!!

as for my Arsenal career I'm in 3rd right now facing a trip to St. James Park against the leading Magpies. It is going to be tough. Chelsea already beat me 2-1 at Stamford Bridge on two goals in like the first 5 minutes. Reyes put one back with 20 minutes left and Cech stopped everything for the last 20 minutes. Some of the big guns are tired so it'll be an interesting match.

[Bonji]

yo people, there is a whole sub-forum for this game and yet there is really only one major thread, how about people start making more threads!!!

as for my Arsenal career I'm in 3rd right now facing a trip to St. James Park against the leading Magpies. It is going to be tough. Chelsea already beat me 2-1 at Stamford Bridge on two goals in like the first 5 minutes. Reyes put one back with 20 minutes left and Cech stopped everything for the last 20 minutes. Some of the big guns are tired so it'll be an interesting match.
What is the benefit to multiple threads?

When I am traveling to a major oponent I usually change my tactic to a defensive attitude. It usually helps to calm the guys down and not let any easy holes open up. I've beaten many a higher ranked foe with this simple change. I'm not talking switching to total, bunkerball, defensive. Just a step in that direction.

[Bluto11]

What is the benefit to multiple threads?

When I am traveling to a major oponent I usually change my tactic to a defensive attitude. It usually helps to calm the guys down and not let any easy holes open up. I've beaten many a higher ranked foe with this simple change. I'm not talking switching to total, bunkerball, defensive. Just a step in that direction.
well, this thread has talked about many different topics all relating to FM/WSW 2005. There is a section on training and instead of wading through the thread to find it it would be easier if there was a thread about training and one on transfers, etc., etc.


and thanks for the tip, i'll try it out tonight!!

[Bluto11]

i tried to register for the forums at SI and it would not let me because my email address is banned for some reason. I've never even posted or looked at the boards there.

anyone got a link to the Llama that randomly generates lower league teams?

[TheImposter]

i tried to register for the forums at SI and it would not let me because my email address is banned for some reason. I've never even posted or looked at the boards there.

anyone got a link to the Llama that randomly generates lower league teams?
http://www.mitchellsclose.co.uk/fmteamselector/llfmteamgenerator.html

Try that. It gave me K Bocholter VV, in the Belgian 3rd division B. Too tired to go into it much now, but it's been an interesting game. I've completely remade the team, but everyone, including my own assman, tells me I've got no chance of avoiding relegation. Despite that, my first season we finished in the top half, and now in my third season we should make the playoffs for the second straight year. Can't quite get promoted, though, and can't get hired at a bigger club yet. Will keep plugging away.

[WarrenAbao]

BEWARE: This message is VERY long!!

I'm early into my second season as manager of the New England Revolution. (It seems I'm the only one playing MLS in this thread!)

My first season was tough. It was the first time for me playing FM (I played just about all of the CM versions). The thing that I still hadn't gotten the hang of since CM4 was all of the additional tactical options; I was still finding my way through FM, and doing it with a squad that was less-than-ideal. I initially put out a tactic that I was real familiar with: 4-4-2, wingers with runs set to the byline, one midfielder set with less Mentality than the other in order to protect the back four. However, I ran into several problems with my Revs squad that didn't work with my tactical choices:

1. I found out that my crosses into the area from my wingers were useless, because I had no dominant "big" forward (i.e., high Heading and Jumping attributes). There were no any non-MLS based big forwards that wanted to join my team, and I couldn't finagle any trades to get any big forwards away from other MLS clubs.

Actually, my forwards just stunk. Okay, Twellman was decent, but I couldn't find a way to provide him the ball consistently. He got tired of me being manager about one-third of the way through the season and requested to be transfer listed. Joe-Max was good off the bench; his age limited his effectiveness as a starter, but he showed some scintillating ball control as a 20-30 minute guy. Noonan and Belleh were crap. I ended up buying Armin Sistek, a speedy Norwegian forward, for only $100k, to complement Twellman, until he up and quit on me. (He eventually ended up transferring to Al Ittihad in Saudi Arabia.)

2. Unless your wingers have high Pace and Acceleration, it's tough to play my tactic. :o And Franchino/Kamler on one flank and Ralston on the other are not speedy wingers. I actually ended up using Brillant and Baker quite a bit by the end of the season because they could beat the fullbacks for pace.

3. I didn't have a quality attack-minded center mid to pair with my d-mid Shalrie Joseph. Cancela was inconsistent; Dempsey was okay, but didn't really do enough to displace Cancela as a starter. So almost all of my attacks either were generated from the flanks or balls over-the-top from my back four.

4. Adin Brown is inconsistent in goal. Unfortunately, so was his backup, Matt Reis.

I struggled finding the right combination of players and tactics. MLS sides didn't wanna trade with me. Quality players on non-MLS sides didn't wanna play for me. I was fighting with the Metro for fourth all season. Cancela asked to be transfer listed. It was late in the season that I finally figured out that Joe-Max was better as a supersub, Marshall Leonard plays better as a midfielder than a fullback, and playing the counter-attack with my solid back four of Heaps, Pierce, Howey, and Franchino enabled space to open up for my midfield when on the offensive, making my side be BETTER attack-wise.

I put on a "typical Revs end-of-season run", winning four of the last five (the only loss being the last game of the season, after having clinched the fourth spot, experimenting with a 4-5-1 with disasterous results). And then I got the ultimate insult -- my captain Franchino was disenchanted with my managing and request to be transfer listed. No respect, I tell ya! :mad:

I faced Supporters' Shield winners Chicago in the playoffs, who only lost three matches all season. I surprised everyone by drawing 1-1 in the first leg at Soldier Field and going up 1-0 in the second leg on a 22' goal by Noonan, but the quality of the Fire showed in the second half and two goals by Razov sealed my fate as they won the second leg 2-1 in Gillette.

But the off-season I pulled off a couple of major coups. I picked up Brian Ching, who was transfer listed after an injury-riddled first season, to partner Sistek up front in return for that jerk-off Franchino. And then for some inexplicable reason Ngwenya was transfer listed by the Galaxy (Sampson was already fired, so it had nothing to do with him this time :D ), so I picked him up for Kamler. Ngwenya is my dream center-forward, as he is great in the air and has incredible pace. Old man Daryl Powell was released by the Rapids despite a pretty good season, so I signed him to a one-year contract to be Joseph's midfield partner. I tried to sell off Cancela before the deadline date where teams are required to have max 3 SI's, but nobody was gullible enough to pick him up, so I had to let him go on a free. (And DC United signed him immediately.) I traded away Belleh to the Rapids for Ricky Lewis as my left back. I cut Noonan and a couple of dead weight center-mids and let go of Reis, whose contract expired.

The MLS Draft caught me by surprise. The Draft Combine took place only a couple of days before the Draft; not enough time for me to send a scout to watch the matches. The players in the draft weren't that great. I picked up a backup center mid and a backup GK to replace Reis, but cut the rest of my draftees who were crappy.

I did more experimenting during the preseason friendlies and found out that Ralston is a machine as a center mid; his Dribbling and Passing skills are a premium in the middle and hides his lack of pace. Avery John is pretty good at left back; both he and Lewis are interchangeable in that position.

Second season: so far, so good. I'm 4-1-1, my only loss coming to the defending MLS Cup champion (4-1 to Chicago) and my draw coming against the top team in the Western Conference (Colorado). I'm finally seeing my tactical choices come to fruition; I've moved my leading scorer from season one (Sistek) to right mid, taking advantage of his killer pace and great crossing skills, while pairing Ching (big slow forward) with Ngwenya up front (big quick forward) to knock all of Sistek's crosses into the net. Ching has one goal in three games (he's missed the last three through injury), and Ngwenya has five goals in five games (leading scorer in MLS so far has six). The introduction of Powell and Ralston in the middle of the park means offense can be generated from any of my midfielders. Powell and Ralston's passing skills enable them to thread through balls to the forwards or hit diagonal passes to my wingers making their runs down the flanks. Joseph is now rotated to play in either the center mid or center back positions, depending on who's in need of rest. With Howey, Powell, Joseph, Ching, and Ngwenya I now have five heading options on set pieces. I haven't scored on any direct or indirect free kicks yet, but I think I've scored three goals off throw-ins already, including one that occured 2:15 into second half injury time (ref had signaled only two minutes :D ). Six weeks into the season and I've already had injuries to Howey, Joseph, Ralston, Ngwenya, and Ching, but morale is riding so high on my team right now that even with players missing my squad thinks they can beat anyone. I still have two roster spots open, plenty of room under the salary cap, and $1.8m in transfer fee cash, which I'm saving just in case I need to bring in a replacement due to serious injury.

If you guys have any questions regarding how MLS plays in FM, let me know and I'll tell you all I know from one season's worth of experience.

I love FM! I love SI!!

[panicfc]

I'm playing on a Mac and I'm getting a strange error when I try to save a staff search. I get a button error and I can't save the search. Anyone having this problem?

[scottinkc]

I watched a show an BBC America this weekend called "Faking it". This particular episode had a professional chess player who was trying to pass for a soccer manager. He was "coached" by the manager of Brentford (whose name I have forgotten). It was interesting to watch both the real manager and the would-be manager during the matches; what they would yell and such. Later that day, I played a complete match on CM4, wondering what I would yell to the players. It was really quite enjoyable (albeit long). It made me wish there was something like that for FM/CM, where during the game you can shout out words of encouragement to a player, or tell another player to get his head out of his ass. It would give me something to do during the game, since the players never seem to follow my tactics anyway.

Oh well, just a thought

[panicfc]

I frequently yell at my players, and I celebrate when we score important goals. My wife thinks I'm crazy. I assured her I was.

Since I started my last game some time last week I have played over 48 hours. That's more than I've slept.

[Bonji]

I frequently yell at my players, and I celebrate when we score important goals. My wife thinks I'm crazy. I assured her I was.

Since I started my last game some time last week I have played over 48 hours. That's more than I've slept.
Your wife is much more understanding then mine. I get about an hour a day if she is around and I can get more if she isn't.

Unfortunatly my computer crashed last night. Right now it is in a vegitative state so I have to take it in for repair. A few hundred dollars later it should be ok, I'm hoping the hard drive didn't fry.

[scottinkc]

I frequently yell at my players, and I celebrate when we score important goals. My wife thinks I'm crazy. I assured her I was.




Oh I think we all do that, but what I meant is to make it part of the game. If a player shoots and misses badly, I can yell some encouragement to him so he won't balk at taking a shot next time. Or if the back line allows an opponent to just waltz into a 1on1 with the keeper, I can yell at them to tighten it up.

I guess I would just like more interaction with players in all facets of the game. I would like to be able to tell a player that he won't play much this year but is being groomed to take over playmaking roles when old player X retires next year.

[DutchFootballRulez]

I'd like that too. Private conversations with players.

When the Matches load in FM, I watch like a Supporter. Clapping for goals, exclaiming and missed sitters. I yell at the Referee for bad cards and fouls.

[panicfc]

Oh I think we all do that, but what I meant is to make it part of the game. If a player shoots and misses badly, I can yell some encouragement to him so he won't balk at taking a shot next time. Or if the back line allows an opponent to just waltz into a 1on1 with the keeper, I can yell at them to tighten it up.

I guess I would just like more interaction with players in all facets of the game. I would like to be able to tell a player that he won't play much this year but is being groomed to take over playmaking roles when old player X retires next year.

That would be a great addition. "Hey Smith, get your ass in gear or you'll grab some pine! You lump of crap!"

[Bonji]

EA's rival product Total Club Manager allows you to yell things like "Shoot", "Mark Him" and "pass the ball" from the bench while playing in a certain mode.

[ibreak4coffee]

Oh I think we all do that, but what I meant is to make it part of the game. If a player shoots and misses badly, I can yell some encouragement to him so he won't balk at taking a shot next time. Or if the back line allows an opponent to just waltz into a 1on1 with the keeper, I can yell at them to tighten it up.

I guess I would just like more interaction with players in all facets of the game. I would like to be able to tell a player that he won't play much this year but is being groomed to take over playmaking roles when old player X retires next year.

That's a great idea. I'd like to see more options for the manager when releasing comments in the press as well. I'm sick of saying "I'd enjoy the win" every week... can I get a Jose Mourinho style "these guys are cheaters and I'm filing a complaint" or a Sir Alex Ferguson "Everyone is watching us only, because we're so important"... Could we get interactive referrees too, with a dot with long blonde hair for Anders Frisk, and maybe even a bribe option for the Bundesliga ;)