Tips for parts to Automate vs. Manage

[NaturalSelected]

Picked up FM12 game during the $5.99 sale to use when I'm on the road and away from FIFA. It's insanely deep and will take awhile to adjust to, but it seems like a natural evolution for me in terms of football gaming.

Question for anyone watching this forum - any tips on managing youth teams vs. letting an assistant do it, managing friendlies, doing all scouting and match preparation vs. the assistant, etc.?

Want to reduce some of the complexity to start so I can understand some of what's going on.

[Altimus]

Re: Tips for parts to Automate vs. Manage

Assistants usually do a solid job but it's more rewarding doing it yourself if the end result is your goal. Having a youth system develop under yourself can be a success while your assistants may fail. It may also be the other way around. It's kind of hard to say +/- between the two because in the end it's how you want to manage your team. I would let your assistants handle the youth system, development and training for now but slowly start peaking in that system. Start learning about it and start applying your own principles to it. Doing everything at once might be overwhelming so take it step by step. Also hiring the correct coaches in your system is as crucial as getting high potential youngsters.

Scouting I recommend let your scouts do there job and start exploring players for the system you want to build. See if they fit your mold by telling your scouts to track them. Also don't forget to chat to the media about them to see if the feeling is mutual but don't over do it as it can affect team morale.

I manage all my friendlies as it gives me a somewhat idea of where my team is after the offseason. It lets me experiment with different tactics and others things which is extremely useful. You don't want to have 3 or so changes to your 11, sim the friendlies and then go into the first game not sure of who to plug where and how will it all work.

[NaturalSelected]

Re: Tips for parts to Automate vs. Manage

Assistants usually do a solid job but it's more rewarding doing it yourself if the end result is your goal. Having a youth system develop under yourself can be a success while your assistants may fail. It may also be the other way around. It's kind of hard to say +/- between the two because in the end it's how you want to manage your team. I would let your assistants handle the youth system, development and training for now but slowly start peaking in that system. Start learning about it and start applying your own principles to it. Doing everything at once might be overwhelming so take it step by step. Also hiring the correct coaches in your system is as crucial as getting high potential youngsters.

Scouting I recommend let your scouts do there job and start exploring players for the system you want to build. See if they fit your mold by telling your scouts to track them. Also don't forget to chat to the media about them to see if the feeling is mutual but don't over do it as it can affect team morale.

I manage all my friendlies as it gives me a somewhat idea of where my team is after the offseason. It lets me experiment with different tactics and others things which is extremely useful. You don't want to have 3 or so changes to your 11, sim the friendlies and then go into the first game not sure of who to plug where and how will it all work.

Thanks, some helpful tips there I'll try this weekend.

[mctrees02]

Re: Tips for parts to Automate vs. Manage

I too made the leap into Football Manager a few months ago and it's been a wild ride to say the least. I chose to start at the bottom the FA system in Blue Square Bet South. I was able to take a middle of the road team (Dartford) and win the league in one season. I'm just getting ready to start my 2nd season in BSB Premier. I doubt I'll promote again but it will be fun to try and take the squad fully professional.

What I've learned so far:

- I let assistants handle youth and reserve games (though I dictate which first team guys are eligible for reserve games). The reason I did this on the youth side is because our facilities are so basic that their progression isn't going to be too grand anyways.

- I'm a hawk on the free transfer market. I am always looking for guys with a few strengths that have been cut by bigger clubs. A smart move is to offer them a trial just to take a look at all of their ratings and then decide if they are a fit for your squad. At the lower levels, I love finding strikers with pace, midfielders with great first touch and decision making, and backs that can pass well (helps to be able to throw a long ball to a striker with good pace).

- With assistant coaches, the only two ratings I really care about are "Judge player ability" and "judge player potential." I need to be able to rely on these guys to give me good reports on prospects abilities and how they'll mesh with my squad.

- At the lower levels, if you're too hard on your players in meetings or the media, you will destroy their morale and your team will crumble. You're going to go through ups and downs but younger your squad, the more you have to baby them along. Use the private chats to talk with them about their play. If you tell them they are doing well or need to pick it up, then you can get a morale boost for the proper motivation. Don't ever tell a winning side that they are getting complacent at a lower level. They will be utterly confused and a losing streak will surely follow.

[jesmith29]

Re: Tips for parts to Automate vs. Manage

When it comes to match preparation, what do some of you do for the focus and what info helps determine which focus to concentrate on for your upcoming match?

Or, do you just leave it to the assistant?

I would assume a high tactic rated assistant helps?

[Bruins]

Re: Tips for parts to Automate vs. Manage

I set it to 'very high' focus on 'teamwork' to get my team familiar with my tactics, and as soon as every rating reaches fluid, lower it down to 'low' to maintain their familiarity.

[doctorhay53]

Re: Tips for parts to Automate vs. Manage

I'll post a few suggestions for someone just starting out in the game.

Training:
The game will automatically assign all of your coaches, but you will get a higher training rating if you manually assign them. It is important that the workload is on 'light'. You achieve this by having multiple coaches in that category. The ratings of the 'filler' coaches don't matter, they're just there to reduce the workload of your 'star' coach.

I recommend downloading a set of training schedules, letting your coaches suggest the individual training for each player.

Tactics:
To just start off I'd recommend downloading tactics, unless you really know what you're doing.

Match Prep: In FM12 defensive positioning is the king. Set it to very high until your tactics are all at fluid, from there it's up to you. The workload of match prep takes away from your players training. DON'T let your Assistant manager handle this one.

'TEAM POLICY' screen: I let my assistant arrange and coach all my friendlies. But for someone just starting out you may want to at least coach the friendlies yourself. In years past the assistant would do a bad job of setting up matches and getting your players ready for the season, but in FM12 they actually do a very good job. Saves a ton of time so you can get through seasons much quicker.

Have your best coach in youth, man management, motivating, tactics, judging player ability/potential coach your reserves / youth teams.

Set your best scout in JPP and JPA to track agent offers.

Scouting: You want to send scouts to the regions they are familiar. I.E. a scout from Spain should be on a roaming assignment in central Europe, with a competition assignment for La Liga or Spanish u19. This will get you the best scouting outcome. Sending a Spanish scout into africa or something will usually not work. Hire a cheap african scout to send there and then follow up on any good individual players with your best scout.

squad management: I like to keep a first team squad of 25 players. a first 11, a second 11, and 3 young players, usually a GK and then the 2 best youngsters on my team. I set up 'selections' to rotate my team so that everyone stays happy and match fit. The way I do this is with 4 unique team selections, with different players rotated in/out. This means that every starting 11 player starts 75% of my matches and the backups start 25%. The 3 extra players get matches whenever I feel it's safe to play them. I WOULD NOT allow your assistant to select your team each game. He will tend to move players into different positions, and the player will not be familiar with the instructions in that position. That will lead to things such as 'so and so is not used to closing down as much as he is asked' on the assistant advice screen. The players will not be obeying the tactical instructions because they're used to playing something else. Every player has a specific position to play for me and unless there are injuries to mess that up, I try not to deviate from that.

Your assistant will also have a bad habit of not selecting subs intelligently, i.e. leaving you no center back or no true midfielder as a sub.

Those are my general tips for an enjoyable experience starting out. You will be able to be successful with that kind of setup, then you can decide which aspects you want to go deeper into. I.e. setting up your own training schedules, setting up your own tactics, analyzing opposing teams for weaknesses, adjusting during matches, etc. Those are just icing on the cake once you get the general flow of the game.

FM has literally stopped me from ever needing to play any other game. I don't play anything else. I play FM like 8 hours a day.