FM: Newbie Tips?
 

I've tried starting a couple of games of this and keep getting smoked (playing in Conference North). Any ideas?

Have you checked out Marc V's tips yet?

http://www.sigames.com/downloads.php?type=view&id=358

Yeah, I've seen those, and they have helped a bit. But, I keep getting smoked in the games. Kettering is a decent enough team (lacking on defense though), but I can't seem to figure out how to get the ball in the net.

"Hit the back of the net!! We're gonna hit the back of the net!!"

blame setanta sports not me

How are you not scoring goals? Are you getting the chances and just blowing them or are you not getting any chances at all?

I am going to elborate a bit on my last post and try to explain it a bit more. I will give an example first. In one of my many FM games, my team was giving up way too many goals off crosses and corner kicks. I knew this was a problem, so I had to address it. I went out and signed a center-back who was good in the air. That stopped it some, but I still needed some help. I went out and got a keeper who could communicate and catch a cross in the air. I played him in the goal when we faced teams who focused their offense down the wings.

That is what FM is about. You need to find out why your team is not doing something well.

By the way, you should take a weekend and attend an 'E' coaching course in Memphis. They are free and you will learn so much about the game.

I may wind up taking the course, I have a son that is about to hit the age of soccer, I have a feeling I might wind up being the coach.

I have started a couple of games, one with Kettering and one with Lancaster. Kettering has some good offensive players, but I was unable to find a good formation to make use of their players. Since they had no transfer funds available, I couldn't afford to bring any decent players in to solidify any positions on the team. I had some shooting opportunities with them, but they never seemed to be on target, or if they were the goalies were making some nice saves. I was never able to really get any breakaways either.

On Lancaster, the defense is great. But, I can't seem to get many scoring chances, and my strikers are getting the ball far out on the wings, and cannot center worth a darn. Again, my transfer funds are limited, but at least this team is fairly young so it should develop.

I guess a good starting point is how do I determine what I need where? What should I look for in an AMR/L vs. an AMC, etc.?

Start scouting and looking for players you can bring in for cheap contracts. There are a whole slew of young players out there who are good enough to play at the level you are at. FM is very realistic and scouting is a critical part of your game just like it would be IRL. I form a scouting network in the british isles. I will go to wales, england, scotland, ireland and nothern ireland in search of youngsters (or older players) who can play at that level.

In the conference and below, I try to go two deep at each position. But you are not going to get any complete players. I like to have players have two different contrasting styles. That way, I can adjust my line-up depending on what my opponent does. Do not overthink this process. You rarely need an attacking defender in the conference (unless of course, that is your style!)

I also try to get every player on my roster on the pitch at some point in the lower leagues. His ratings might suck but you never know and he might be effective at that level. I had a guy who had like a 3 finishing skill but he managed to provide a niche and score goals against certain type of defenders. But since you are just now getting into the game try to relax and not worry about that stuff quite yet.

Within two or three months in the season, you will know what players you will want to keep and what players you will want to bring in. Keep a shortlist of contracted players who you think would fit your team. If you are planning on sticking with this team long-term, try to spend the first couple of years buidling pieces instead of gunning for instant promotion.

I hope this all makes some sort of sense.

I believe that offense comes from having all of your players have at least decent teamwork and passing ratings.

Hey can someone help me with a link for a free E coaching course?

In the Confrence the easiest route to success is just to get some brutes up front and at the back. Just have two strong, tall guys at DC who kick the crap out of everyone, then when you win it hoof it up as soon as you can to another two huge brutes up front who can win it in the air/muscle their players off the ball. It is far from pretty, but is very effective at the lower leves and it's easy to get the right type of players.

Along this line of thinking, it's also effective to find really fast strikers. Speed kills at the lower levels.

What are wingbacks good for? I understand pretty much all the other positions. Does a wingback play kind of like a man on the point in hockey?

They're like a more offensive minded fullback. So not so much a point man cause they are still located on the wings.

Acceration is what to look for for speed, right? That was one thing I noticed, having some fast guys up front that can handle the ball.

So I take it that good wingbacks are extremely hard to find...

I'm tempted to agree with this. I tried hard to get Exeter to play finesse football, and it wasn't happening with enough consistency. My midfielders often seemed lost because the backs and forwards didn't want their support. After I got fired by Exeter, I moved up to Cheltenham, and my midfielders are actually part of the attack AND defense! It's amazing!

At lower levels, yes, you probably have to just bully people around. There's no shame in that. :)

Well pace is speed. Acceleration is more for quickness. So finding both is nice.

Probably in the lower levels yes. I play with fullbacks who have pretty decent offensive skills in the Premiership and it's a little harder to find those on that level, so I can only imagine what the pickins' are like down in the Conference.

Wingbacks in the lower levels are not a great option in my experience. You need to kind of combine the crossing/ball handling skills with the tackling/pace/anticipation of a defender. That's rare enough at upper levels, I certainly don't see it much at the bottom.

While we're on subject how do you guys set up your games, nations, leagues, etc.?

Pumpy,

What are the details on each of those leagues, and what size database? Thanks.

I don't think I turned full detail on for any of them. The database size is medium (or "normal" - I forget what it's called). I know I'm running a lot of leagues and a lot of divisions, so it'd probably be too slow for some people. I'm running a 2.6GHz CPU with 1GB of RAM, so I'm not top of the line, but I'm not down in the dumps either. It's a little on the slow side, especially during transfer windows. It's fine for me outside the transfer windows, though.

Thanks for the info Pumpy.

That is a setup I was debating whether or not to run. My machine is a 2.7 with 512 RAM, so I might give it a go with slighly fewer leagues, but not much. I think I would drop the US and Sweden, or maybe just Sweden since the US is only one league...

Hmmm...

I'm at the end of January 2015, and I've only managed two clubs, both in England. I didn't need all those different countries represented. You can probably kick out a few of those, depending on how you expect your career to go. :)

I like the idea of playing mainly W. European teams. I've been meaning to do it, but haven't had the balls to go ahead and add all the teams, but I always have Brazil and Argentina, I can always drop them. I thought the countries you had changed which players were in, but if you never scout them....

That's not necessarily true since I never have the leagues from Brazil in my game, yet my transfer list is filled with Brazilians year in and year out.

In my game, I have the top leagues from Spain, Italy, Germany, France, Holland & Scotland on basic detail and then Premier - League 2 in England on full since that's the league I'm managing in. My game runs just fine. I think the leagues you have activated really only determine whether or not you can take a manager's job there once the game gets going.

What do you guys think is the lowest professional league you can start in? I usually do Conference North/South, then try to work my way up. Is there a lower level league in a smaller nation that might have a lower reputation?

Also, Marc, I think you've said that when you start a new career unemployed, you have a little bit of a reputation -- enough, it seems, to land you a job at a League Two squad. Is it possible to get rid of that repuation somehow? Or if not, is there a certain length of time you should play where that initial reputation boost is wiped away, and replaced by your own achievements, or lack thereof?

I think wingbacks in the lower leagues could be effective. I always try to keep an offensvie fullback on my roster who can play both the left and right side. I will use that player when I know I can get away with it. I am an offensive coach by nature. I love when my team scores. It is funny because I played goalkeeper in college. But I favor a free-flowing attacking style. I like discipline in the back, but up front I will let my players be on there own.

I built a team once in the lower leagues of France with speed, speed, speed. Within two years we won promotion twice with no super tactics. Speedy players can get you results very quickly.

Go to your states soccer association website and you should be able to find all sorts of information on free soccer clinics.

I am not going to start a new career with FM until I get my new kick-ass computer. I am then going to start with some very small club in Central Europe or South America.

GoldenEagle,

What was this comment in reference too? Could you elaborate? Thanks.

If you look in post 10, cubbyroy asked me about the soccer clincs. My original point was to tell WarHammer to go take a course clinic in coaching soccer. I told him I knew they were free in Memphis.

The E Course goes over the fundamentals of the game. You would learn what first touch, technique, etc. meant. The D course (which is rarely free, but is in Memphis) is geared more toward tactics. Both would improve your knowledge of FM by leaps and bounds.

Ah thanks. I will have to look into something like that for Phoenix.

I looked at the azyouthsoccer.com and it appears you just missed one in the Phoenix area. But keep your eyes peeled as I am sure they offer several per year.

Is there a test-through bypass to these courses?

My main problem with getting into FM is not the rules of football. It has more to do with getting used to fishing through all these ratings of players on different screens, fumbling through the dark to try to find out who should start where and what my tactics should be like. I really don't want to have to get a notebook and have to take notes on players as I look through my roster...

The E course is a prerequiste to the D course. But if you played a certain level of soccer, you can get the E (or any other course except the A) waived. I never took an actual E course, I went straight to the D. Once you have held the E for a year (in may vary from state to state) then you can take the D. When you get to the D, it gets a little more complicated. There is a D state and a D national. You have to get your D national before you can get your C license.

That is the fun part to me. I remember I would use to type out in a word document everything I could remotely come up with about the players on my squad. It was a ton of work at first but well-worth it for immersion purposes. I should warn anyone that SI Games are not for fly-by-the-night simmers. It is going to take some time to get use to the game and learn how to go through all the information at hand. But it is worth the time, if you are in to being deeply involved in a sports sim.

In contract negotiation, what exactly is a non promotion release clause? Thanks.

If your team doesn't get promoted out of the division they are in, the clause becomes a minimum release clause of sorts. An ambitous, younger player might like that clause.

Personally, I stay away from release clauses of any kind. :) I like the power of transfer in MY hands. :P

I don't know about the reputation that you may have, but I started unemployed and had application after application turned down for a couple of years...then I got bored and just hired myself into a League 2 side ;).

You don't have to go 'in depth' in the game unless you want to - I try ensure that things are structured things so that people who want to be in depth can be while casual players can still have fun.

If you want to take a casual approach then ignore the player ratings for the vast extent and simply play as a big team and purchase players you know or those who have high valuations (as a rough guide in football as in life you will often get what you pay for ;) ).

As far as tactics go, stick to a 442 and make small limited changes as seems to make sense to you (for a relatively solid approach turn on hard tackling for instance, if you are worried about suspensions and injuries turn tackling down etc.).

A 442 is a nice balanced formation and as such should suit most teams without too many changes.

You might find as you play and become more used to things you want more information on players and are more comfortable with the UI and finding your way around or you might find you're happy playing at the 'higher level'. The more 'in-depth' you go the more effective you'll generally find your management is as you'll learn to appreciate your players as people and get the best out of them and their abilities - but I know many people who play a 'higher level' game and still do very well and most importantly enjoy themselves :D

Hope this helps,

Marc
PS> FM PSP is a nice 'easy' approach to soccer management games as its inherantly designed to be nice and easy to pick up and play ... (end plug ;) )

On the player screen, what do the different colors for the different attribute numbers mean? As in some are green, some are orange, some are white?

At first I thought they indicated attributes that were important to that position. Then I thought they indicated attributes that had improved or not done so. Now I'm just confused.

I think that just gives a glance at how high the number is. Depending on the skin, high numbers are one color, medium another, and low a third. I could be wrong, though.

Maybe I'm thinking more of FM05 -- in that game, I could start unemployed, and apply for League 2 sides and get jobs. In FM06, I know I can apply for any Conference North/South side and get it, but I might not have even tried League 2.

ok, i am embarrassed to even ask this, as it is the noob question of all noob questions, but how the hell do i delete old items from my inbox. i cant get rid of anything that i have already read.

[hangs head in embarrased shame]

This thread caused me to give up on my current game in 05 and start a new one with a low level team. Just as I'd gotten my Manchester City squad into the Champions League. So sad.

If that's an option I'm not seeing it.