Football Manager, Part I

[Cannon]

Is this true? I didn't know that. I usually only activate all of England, the Scottish 1st and 2nd, and MLS (only MLS with Extra Detail). Should I be activating Spain, Italy, Germany, France, Holland, etc too? And if so, to what league level? Part of my problem is I play on my laptop, which aren't the best systems to use when gaming.

If you run a few different games with different number of leagues active, you'll find that it has a big impact on the transfer market. When playing around the championship level, I try to make a few of the top level leagues active because they inject money into the market and are much more active. Compare a game with only the EPL active as a top league with money to one in which Italy and Spain are also active and you'll find more movement and selling players becomes significantly easier.

It also has an impact if you manage to get to europe because the teams you face will be more realistic. No longer will you always face teams with nearly no injuries or suspensions and 100% condition since the teams will be involved in their domestic competitions. Their activity on the transfer marktet will help a bit with turning over their squads something that barely happens if they aren't active which is important for longer term games.

If you are playing further down (below league 1 in england for example), you'll have trouble selling because there is not much of a market for players down there and adding the top leagues won't do much to help that. Activating some of the 2nd tier leagues (Belgium, France, etc.) and/or activating deeper levels of a few nations will help more. Hope that helps.

[br13]

If you are playing further down (below league 1 in england for example), you'll have trouble selling because there is not much of a market for players down there and adding the top leagues won't do much to help that. Activating some of the 2nd tier leagues (Belgium, France, etc.) and/or activating deeper levels of a few nations will help more. Hope that helps.

Good tips. I recently started a game with St. Pauli (German Regionaliga North) and was having a bit of trouble selling - maybe because I didn't have too many leagues active.

TheImposter: I think St. Pauli is a pretty good place to start among the lower leagues. It's German 3rd division, but they are a pretty decent sized club with a reasonable transfer kitty (I believe 350k), decent financial stability (although they do have debt), and good grounds/facilities. If your looking for a serious challenge (no money, cut wages, tiny club) this is not it, but this is my first time playing, and I've thought it was challenging yet has enough cushion to allow for success (hopefully - I'm just a handful of games into the first season). A pretty good place for a newbie to start...

[TheImposter]

Good tips. I recently started a game with St. Pauli (German Regionaliga North) and was having a bit of trouble selling - maybe because I didn't have too many leagues active.

TheImposter: I think St. Pauli is a pretty good place to start among the lower leagues. It's German 3rd division, but they are a pretty decent sized club with a reasonable transfer kitty (I believe 350k), decent financial stability (although they do have debt), and good grounds/facilities. If your looking for a serious challenge (no money, cut wages, tiny club) this is not it, but this is my first time playing, and I've thought it was challenging yet has enough cushion to allow for success (hopefully - I'm just a handful of games into the first season). A pretty good place for a newbie to start...
Sounds like another good possibility. I started my current game with MK Dons, with a $2k transfer budget and had them fairly high in L1 before I jumped ship -- they've got some decent players. I wanted to see if Serge Makofo was the rampaging stud he was in CM4 -- he's not.

[ibreak4coffee]

I decided to start a game with Dresden. Thanks for all the tips guys... talk to you all in a couple of months ;)

[scaryice]

If you only have one country active, let's say England, as you go along they will begin to dominate the Champions League and the UEFA Cup. If you go to the SI message boards, some people have played far into the future so you can see how that works.

[subbuteo]

I just got WSM. Does anyone know how to work the editor? I couldn't figure out how to confirm any changes or save anything. I wanted to increase the reputations of the MLS sides to see if it may impact what types of players they may attract (albeit they're limited anyhow due to small budgets).

Also wanted to see if I could change the name of a team or a player to "put myself into the game"

Thanks!

[BuffloSoldier]

Question, need some help.

My guys are getting tired way too quickly, and don't recover quickly enough between games to get back to 100% fitness.

Any advice would be appreciated.

[TheImposter]

Question, need some help.

My guys are getting tired way too quickly, and don't recover quickly enough between games to get back to 100% fitness.

Any advice would be appreciated.
I've dealt with this in the past at the end of my first season in a job, with what seem to be good results. In the first season you can't do much except rotate the squad as much as you can -- though I've never tried doing fitness work (sprints, etc.) during the season. Beginning in my first close-season with the club (i.e., end of the first season) I start about the first week of June putting everybody on a fitness training schedule -- nothing but cross country, sprints and weight training (the latter 3 times per week, in an attempt at some realism), with an occasional technique session thrown in, for about 4 weeks. It's seems to help, as the next season everybody seems to get through matches without going below about 75%. Not sure if it's had any impact on injuries, though the game suggests that weight training should help in that regard.

Now in my current game I haven't done that the last couple of seasons, as I've seen it suggested that you need to give everybody at least 4-6 weeks rest. My guys are getting real tired, and it's only October. I've got good players who are playing a match, and only getting back to 85% by the next one, and it says "Very Tired" in the fitness space on their profile. So I'm not sure I buy the idea of giving them that rest. Anybody else got different experience?

[Eddie26]

I just got WSM. Does anyone know how to work the editor? I couldn't figure out how to confirm any changes or save anything. I wanted to increase the reputations of the MLS sides to see if it may impact what types of players they may attract (albeit they're limited anyhow due to small budgets).

Also wanted to see if I could change the name of a team or a player to "put myself into the game"

Thanks!

I was having problems too. It's a little confusing, something's I can't change and some I can but it doesn't matter because I can't find anything to save my changes. I was trying to make it so that Duff and Robben can play both L and R.

[WarrenAbao]

Question, need some help.

My guys are getting tired way too quickly, and don't recover quickly enough between games to get back to 100% fitness.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Short term solutions
1) Tactically, reduce the amount your tired players are performing "Closing Down"; sure, the pressure they apply defensively is good, but if it knackers 'em, then, in the big picture, that's not good.
2) In training during the season, reduce the amount of training sessions they do. Make sure none of the traning category bars cross the dotted line, or else you're "over-training" the players, which makes it more difficult for your players to recover between matches.
3) In "Manager Options", make sure "Train on Match Day" isn't checked and "Rest Players Day After Match" is checked.

Long term solution
Use training sessions during the off-season to increase Stamina attribute. Cross Country and Sprints do these best. But TheImposter is also right; after the end of the season, give your players a 4-6 week break prior to putting them through the off-season fitness training.

[Cannon]

You should also look at lowering the tempo to keep player's condition higher during the match. A common mistake is to think that you need a high tempo while attacking and this can wipe out squads with dodgy fitness.

How big is your squad? I've found that more squad rotation is necessary with FM than some previous games.

Have you added european competition? If so you'll almost certainly need to rethink your training and squad rotation from the previous season. This is especially a problem for teams that are lower in the european competitions since you'll be playing more often and earlier than other teams. The Intertoto is particularly nasty in this respect.

Most prematch condition issues are really training issues. Are you rotating training? Keeping players on high intensity training constantly is a really bad idea. I rotate between higher and low intensity training every couple of weeks. This keeps all my players at top condition (except injuries) while also increasing their stats much better than the default or even constant high intensity training.

[BuffloSoldier]

Using Reading with a pretty big squad...mid to high-20's, took three guys on loan and bought a couple w/o selling.

How do you change the "intensity" of training?

[TheImposter]

Most prematch condition issues are really training issues. Are you rotating training? Keeping players on high intensity training constantly is a really bad idea. I rotate between higher and low intensity training every couple of weeks. This keeps all my players at top condition (except injuries) while also increasing their stats much better than the default or even constant high intensity training.
This is something I'd never considered before, but sounds like a good idea. Do you just drop a few modules so that there's more rest time, or do you change the focus of training? Are you using different training regimens for defenders, midfielders and attackers?

[WarrenAbao]

Using Reading with a pretty big squad...mid to high-20's, took three guys on loan and bought a couple w/o selling.

How do you change the "intensity" of training?

Either

1) Change a high-intensity training session (e.g., 5-a-side large pitch, sprints) to a lower-intensity training session (e.g., 5-a-side small pitch, crosses), or

2) Remove a session completely (i.e., choose to rest).

[subbuteo]

I was having problems too. It's a little confusing, something's I can't change and some I can but it doesn't matter because I can't find anything to save my changes. I was trying to make it so that Duff and Robben can play both L and R.

Hey, I found the solution on the sigams discussion board.
My version is worldwide soccer manager. What I had to do in the editor was go to preferences, and change the langues from English (US) to simply English (no idea why there are two language options for English!

Anyway, once I did that and confirmed my preferences, all of the menus on the horizontal tool bar seemed to work (originally the Edit drop down menu was greyed out and not accessible), so I could save my database. Hope that helps somebody with similar problems.

[Eddie26]

Hey, I found the solution on the sigams discussion board.
My version is worldwide soccer manager. What I had to do in the editor was go to preferences, and change the langues from English (US) to simply English (no idea why there are two language options for English!

Anyway, once I did that and confirmed my preferences, all of the menus on the horizontal tool bar seemed to work (originally the Edit drop down menu was greyed out and not accessible), so I could save my database. Hope that helps somebody with similar problems.

AHA!! I have Worldwide Soccer Manager too! That's it then. I'll try it tonight. Thanks!

[ibreak4coffee]

I have been playing with Nottingham Forest for almost a full season. I started terribly but have played well enough recently that I'm going to surely not be relegated. Thanks to everyone on the tips for offseason training, and I plan to actively seek out transfers during that time.

However, I'm getting frustrated because for some reason I can't sell any of my players. I have been able to transfer in about 8 players, and the board has been pretty lenient with my transfer choices. However, I have transfer listed at least 20 players and only one has even gotten any interest. Some of the guys arent bad at all.

I've had to reduce my wage bill by letting several guys go on a free. Has anyone else experienced this problem? I'm playing with a large database, and am starting to wonder if I'm doing something wrong or whether most of the transfer action happens during the offseason.

Any tips on selling players and when to do so would be really helpful. Thanks.

[br13]

3) In "Manager Options", make sure "Train on Match Day" isn't checked and "Rest Players Day After Match" is checked.
Can someone give a detailed description of where you go to select these options? I've looked, but can't seem to find "manager options", so I'm left re-arranging my training every week to make sure I'm not training on match days.

This is something I'd never considered before, but sounds like a good idea. Do you just drop a few modules so that there's more rest time, or do you change the focus of training? Are you using different training regimens for defenders, midfielders and attackers?
I'm only at the winter-break of my first season, so take this with a grain of salt. For my in-season training, in addition to resting on match days and the day after, I give the first team squad rest in all afternoon sessions except two days a week. So in a 'normal' Saturday to Saturday match schedule, we'll:
Rest Sunday
Train early morning (em), mid morning (mm), and afternoon (an) on Monday
Train em and mm and rest an on Tuesday
Train em, mm, and an on Wednesday
Train em, mm and rest an on Thursday
Train em, mm and rest an on Friday
Rest Saturday

At this point (winter-break), I've had pretty good fitness and generally my starters are at 98/99 condition by the next match. I do have a bit of trouble with a couple of older players in my side that tend to get down to the low 50s if they play a full 90, and most of my squad finishes in the low 60s for a full 90. I think that is (at least partially) because I didn't get enough preseason conditioning in - taking over in July. As I said, this is my first run through the game, so things may go sour later in the season, but right now, I'm very happy with squad conditioning.
(Oh, and I'm currently sitting top of the table - tied for top on points, first on goal differential. :D)

[Cannon]

However, I'm getting frustrated because for some reason I can't sell any of my players. I have been able to transfer in about 8 players, and the board has been pretty lenient with my transfer choices. However, I have transfer listed at least 20 players and only one has even gotten any interest. Some of the guys arent bad at all.

I've had to reduce my wage bill by letting several guys go on a free. Has anyone else experienced this problem? I'm playing with a large database, and am starting to wonder if I'm doing something wrong or whether most of the transfer action happens during the offseason.

Any tips on selling players and when to do so would be really helpful. Thanks.

Have you set them as "not needed"? This seems to increase the number of offers and makes it more likely that your player will actually accept the other team's contract offer. Otherwise you can get the "player won't leave unless they are told that they are no longer needed" message.

Have you set a price for them in the transfer screen? Again this should increase the number of offers. You also will have to accept that unless you are selling a great player you should not expect to make a great deal over their listed value. Great players can be sold at a hefty premium (I've gotten up to 4-5 times their value for good players and more for superstars) but average players will go for about their value, lower quality players will never get bought for their listed value and have to be discounted, and completely unproven, old, young, or generally useless players won't get almost any interest above a price of 0-10k. You are probably overpricing the players. One good tactic is to lower the price a few times until you get a couple of interested clubs. You can then either accept their offers or slowly increase the price during negotiations. The latter option can work well or get them to cancel the whole deal so beware. You must also consider the type of club making offers. You can gouge the Chelsea and other rich clubs (use the job screen to get a feel for club's wealth) but many second level clubs have really limited funds and the bottom clubs have nothing.

Have you given the players a few run outs so that teams could see what they're buying? A player with zero appearances will usually get zero offers even if they are fairly good. I use reserves, friendlies, and some cup matches to give transfer listed players a few run outs. I find that the offers start coming in shortly after these games even if they don't do very well.

Finally you can also offer the players to clubs but this will hit their morale, can lower your loyalty rating, and anger other players so use this option with care. However, it is the quickest way to get a couple of offers for the player. Read the replies. Anyone that says something like, "Club X doesn't think that the deal represents a good value for the quality of player" means that the club is interested but your price just needs to be lowered.

[ibreak4coffee]

Have you set them as "not needed"? This seems to increase the number of offers and makes it more likely that your player will actually accept the other team's contract offer. Otherwise you can get the "player won't leave unless they are told that they are no longer needed" message.

Have you set a price for them in the transfer screen? Again this should increase the number of offers. You also will have to accept that unless you are selling a great player you should not expect to make a great deal over their listed value. Great players can be sold at a hefty premium (I've gotten up to 4-5 times their value for good players and more for superstars) but average players will go for about their value, lower quality players will never get bought for their listed value and have to be discounted, and completely unproven, old, young, or generally useless players won't get almost any interest above a price of 0-10k. You are probably overpricing the players. One good tactic is to lower the price a few times until you get a couple of interested clubs. You can then either accept their offers or slowly increase the price during negotiations. The latter option can work well or get them to cancel the whole deal so beware. You must also consider the type of club making offers. You can gouge the Chelsea and other rich clubs (use the job screen to get a feel for club's wealth) but many second level clubs have really limited funds and the bottom clubs have nothing.

Have you given the players a few run outs so that teams could see what they're buying? A player with zero appearances will usually get zero offers even if they are fairly good. I use reserves, friendlies, and some cup matches to give transfer listed players a few run outs. I find that the offers start coming in shortly after these games even if they don't do very well.

Finally you can also offer the players to clubs but this will hit their morale, can lower your loyalty rating, and anger other players so use this option with care. However, it is the quickest way to get a couple of offers for the player. Read the replies. Anyone that says something like, "Club X doesn't think that the deal represents a good value for the quality of player" means that the club is interested but your price just needs to be lowered.


Cannon thanks for this. I do have a lot of them playing in the reserves, and many come on as subs. Also, I have listed them "below price", some of them as much as 200K below what the game indicates is their value. What I need to change is the not needed. Thanks for the tips!