The Noob Guide to Pwning FM

[Jad]

With every Football Manager game, the moans about the difficulty and tactics get louder and more frequent. People unleashing a tirade of abuse on the SI forums, others claiming they will "never in a million years buy FM again", you know the sort of thing. This brief article aims to improve your Football Manager experience help you on your way to glory, and most importantly, prevent you from snapping your disc in half..

1. Set a realistic target. I've seen so many players aim for the title in their first season with a relegation fighting club and then fall flat on their face, when they realise their team was nowhere near good enough and as a result, are sacked. My general policy is to aim 6 places above the media's prediction for your team, as this is a reasonably easy target given you sign players of a decent calibre. There really is no point in putting your head on the line trying to impress the board or to get an extra 10-20% transfer budget, unless you are absolutely sure you can come close to your target.

2. Get your tactics right. Tactics are the essential ingredient in your FM success cake. If you are neither a tactical genius nor an experienced FMer, I recommend you download a tactic off one of the many FM fansites around. Of course, you need to adjust according to your pitch dimensions, players and opponents to get the best effect, and give your team a few games to have the chance to gel with the new tactic. Even if you've put the best players on the planet, if you're playing high up the field against quick strikers for example, you will get hammered. So don't be lazy and stick with the default (although it has been proven that it can be successful with some small tweaks), as you will be fighting a losing battle already.

3. Make doubly sure your signings are the best available. Before you sign any player, whether it's for £40m or £2k, get scout reports on him from as many scouts as possible, so you know if he's going to turn out to be a flop or your star man. Every team can do without a Bogarde-esque player sucking up the wages from the reserve team. I don't know about others but I'd prefer to wait an extra week or so before signing a player to make sure he is of a suitable quality rather than securing his signature immediately before finding out most of my youth team are better.

4. Arrange home friendlies against big clubs. This applies to all clubs, despite what people may think. Smaller clubs can benefit massively by the revenue generated by big teams coming to town and this is one of the easiest yet effective ways to get the finances out the red and into the black. On the other end of the scale, big teams like Manchester United and Chelsea can get a lot of big match practice from arranging friendlies against similar clubs as an old saying goes "you learn nothing from a 10-0 victory". Although the financial gain is not as needed at such clubs, extra money is still extra money and can help with debt repayments at Manchester United and Chelsea etc.

5. Don't pay over the odds. A lot of people pay more than they really need to on transfer fees and wages. When you have found a player who is good enough and wants to join, set a maximum fee that you are willing to pay for him and don't ever go over it. Start off at around half your maximum fee and bargain with the player's club. You'll often find that you can get up to a quarter 'discount' by simply using the clauses to your advantage. For example, if you are signing an ageing player (29+) and you know you are very unlikely to sell him on, put in a 50% percentage of next sale clause. Providing you will not sell the player, this can save you a lot of money. It is equally important to save on wages too, because this is the main source of controllable monthly expenditure. Some wise owl on the scene has found out through testing, that if you get a scout report of a player before signing him, your scout's estimated salary for the player is lower than what he asks for during negotiations, possibly agent fees. Offer the player the weekly pay estimated by your scout and more often than not, he will accept.

© This guide is the property of me and only me. Rip it or take it without my permission and I'll hunt you down.

[Walrus Rocker]

How good is your hunting ? haha

Great Great Guide, Agree with a lot of that although i dont think "Doubly" is a word :S, haha None the less amazing work XD

[Jad]

Originally Posted by Walrus Rocker

How good is your hunting ? haha

Great Great Guide, Agree with a lot of that although i dont think "Doubly" is a word :S, haha None the less amazing work XD

Apparently it is. If it wasn't, I would've started a campaign to make it one anyway

[wheelerdealer]

Great guide. Full of things you'd think would be obvious but many players completely ignore from the go. Hence why a lot of people end up getting the sack or losing the club loads of money. Just need to set your goals right and be sensible in the transfer market and you'll progress in the end..

[paine]

Some good tips here Jad, but I have to disagree with this:

Originally Posted by Jad

Even if you've put the best players on the planet, if you're playing high up the field against quick strikers for example, you will get hammered.

I know it's logical common sense, but my experience taught me that sometimes common sense could make you lose matches.

I'll try to explain better.

If you set a low defensive line playing vs. a big team (and you're an average, weaker side) and try to play a counterattacking football you could win, let's say 10% of these kind of games, but you will miserably fail the other 90%, the reason is that inviting a strong team to put pressure on your defensive line is nothing less than a suicide, they will have more chances, playing closer to your box and you'll have more problems to cope with.

So my advice here will be this one, notably if you're playing vs. a stronger side, try to be aggressive, start to defend with your attackers and use an high defensive line with high closing down (both more than 15).

These are not unproven theories, the evidences are that playing with a 442 and using such settings I won the double in my 2nd season and the treble in my 3rd with Stoke City, not the greatest team in the world.

Just think that sometimes I used a d-line set to 20....even for away games with great success.

You must realize that there's not a unique defensive line, every player has his d-line, this shows where he will start to defend and it's of course linked with closing down.