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Greyfriars Bobby · 01-21-2019, 03:56 PM

Clothes Make the Man, feat. The Trendsetters
You can now design your manager's appearance, too. Here's my Football Manager version of myself, awaiting the arrival of the team in our changing room at Marienlyst. I'm not sure if Norwegian managers tend to wear navy blazers and khakis, but this one will. That's the attire my darling daughters chose for me.

Tactical Talk
The more I watch real football (soccer), the more I'm convinced that one of the keys to success is a proper match between a manager's tactics and the players s/he has to implement it. Create-A-Club is giving me the chance to see if this is true in Football Manager, too.

The game now includes pre-set templates for several popular tactical styles. The feature is advertised as a starting point for gamers who either don't understand the nuances of creating sophisticated tactics themselves or who prefer not to do so. I'm somewhere in the middle. I can make a simple tactic work, but the more adventurous I try to be, the more I mess things up. And I don't have the time to devote to becoming a master of FM tactics. So, I decided to choose one of the templates and build my team with players who ought to fit that style of play.

I decided the Control Possession was the best match for the style I want my team to play. It's described as "a tactic that focuses on retaining possession and pressing high to win the ball back. Looks to play out of defence and create chances through patient, short-passing build-up play." Of the three formations that are suggested as good fits for the Control Possession style, I chose the 4-1-4-1 Wide with a defensive midfielder.

The abbreviations on the tactic screen might not be familiar to some of you who haven't played Football Manager, or who don't follow world football:

SK: Sweeper Keeper
WB: Wing Back
CD: Central Defender
BPD: Ball-Playing Defender
HB: Half Back
MEZ: Mezzala
AP: Advanced Playmaker
IF: Inside Forward
W: Winger
CF: Complete Forward

Each of these roles can be given a Defending (De), Support (Su), or Attacking (At) duty. As you might expect, the duties instruct a player to pay more attention to the corresponding phase of his game. I'll say more about what the more unique roles, like Mezzala, do, when I introduce you to my team.

Choosing Carefully
Now came the fun part: choosing the players who could bring my footballing vision to life. I took greater advantage of the scouting tools the game offers me this time. You can set your player search to identify guys with high ratings for the key attributes for each role, and that's how I chose the first Drammen team. The game even breaks the key attributes into two categories, and I set the search to find players with even higher scores for these.

Of course, since I had only about €5 million in my budget for drafting my team, I couldn't simply stack the roster with world-class players. A player good enough to make the first team at a top club in a big league would easily be worth three or four times that much himself. I seem to remember Harry Kane costs €98 million to "hire" at the beginning of the game. Needless to say, Harry won't be leading the Drammen line.

Who will be? You'll meet him, along with his teammates, in my next post.

01-21-2019, 03:56 PM	#2
Greyfriars Bobby College Prospect Join Date: Sep 2013	Clothes Make the Man, feat. The Trendsetters You can now design your manager's appearance, too. Here's my Football Manager version of myself, awaiting the arrival of the team in our changing room at Marienlyst. I'm not sure if Norwegian managers tend to wear navy blazers and khakis, but this one will. That's the attire my darling daughters chose for me. Tactical Talk The more I watch real football (soccer), the more I'm convinced that one of the keys to success is a proper match between a manager's tactics and the players s/he has to implement it. Create-A-Club is giving me the chance to see if this is true in Football Manager, too. The game now includes pre-set templates for several popular tactical styles. The feature is advertised as a starting point for gamers who either don't understand the nuances of creating sophisticated tactics themselves or who prefer not to do so. I'm somewhere in the middle. I can make a simple tactic work, but the more adventurous I try to be, the more I mess things up. And I don't have the time to devote to becoming a master of FM tactics. So, I decided to choose one of the templates and build my team with players who ought to fit that style of play. I decided the Control Possession was the best match for the style I want my team to play. It's described as "a tactic that focuses on retaining possession and pressing high to win the ball back. Looks to play out of defence and create chances through patient, short-passing build-up play." Of the three formations that are suggested as good fits for the Control Possession style, I chose the 4-1-4-1 Wide with a defensive midfielder. The abbreviations on the tactic screen might not be familiar to some of you who haven't played Football Manager, or who don't follow world football: SK: Sweeper Keeper WB: Wing Back CD: Central Defender BPD: Ball-Playing Defender HB: Half Back MEZ: Mezzala AP: Advanced Playmaker IF: Inside Forward W: Winger CF: Complete Forward Each of these roles can be given a Defending (De), Support (Su), or Attacking (At) duty. As you might expect, the duties instruct a player to pay more attention to the corresponding phase of his game. I'll say more about what the more unique roles, like Mezzala, do, when I introduce you to my team. Choosing Carefully Now came the fun part: choosing the players who could bring my footballing vision to life. I took greater advantage of the scouting tools the game offers me this time. You can set your player search to identify guys with high ratings for the key attributes for each role, and that's how I chose the first Drammen team. The game even breaks the key attributes into two categories, and I set the search to find players with even higher scores for these. Of course, since I had only about €5 million in my budget for drafting my team, I couldn't simply stack the roster with world-class players. A player good enough to make the first team at a top club in a big league would easily be worth three or four times that much himself. I seem to remember Harry Kane costs €98 million to "hire" at the beginning of the game. Needless to say, Harry won't be leading the Drammen line. Who will be? You'll meet him, along with his teammates, in my next post. Last edited by Greyfriars Bobby : 01-21-2019 at 03:57 PM.