Football Manager Series Catch-All

Oh, also, is there anyway to go through 'inductions' that I chose to skip? I hit skip because the emails for them hadn't actually come in yet, I just clicked on the relevant section of the interface, but I didn't get a chance to run those inductions when the emails did come in. Those that I did run through seemed helpful to a complete neophyte like me, so I'll be sad if I'm missing useful information for skipping too quickly.

The MLS is a little complicated with its salary structure, right? We have a salary cap and yet designated players that are exceptions, which I'd think could get a little tricky to work with as a player learning the game.

I'm not sure on the 'inductions' piece, sorry.

Relegation and promotion is super fun in this game though. It generates a ton of drama at either end of the table.

In case it helps, the first time I played, after about two hours I was ready to throw my computer out the window. I HATED the game. It was overwhelming. At the time I didn't know soccer well. Most of what was going on I had no idea what to do or how to handle. I completely gave up. I was angry at the game.

Then about six months after that I came back to the game and gave it another shot. This time I just didn't worry at all about the things I didn't understand. Just took my best guesses at things, ignored stuff I didn't know, and kept moving forward. Our team was horrible for half a season, but little by little things started to click and I started having ideas about how to solve problems. Then we started winning a few games here and then, and I was hooked. It probably took me about four hours on the second career of largely saying, "Okay, no idea what that does, but whatever, drive on."

With that in mind, I'd be inclined to look at whatever first shot you take as a learning experience. Play it for a while, then start for real once things feel more comfortable.

I knew pretty much nothing about club soccer when I started playing aside from "Manchester United are evil" and "4-4-2 formation with a big, good in the air, man and little, fast, man up top should work" and FM was as much a part of me learning how things work as watching actual matches, reading the Guardian's football section, and listening to podcasts was.

I think Godzilla Biltz has it right, just do what you understand and manage the games as they come whether it's in MLS or a traditional league. You'll muddle through and pick things up as you go along and what you don't understand won't be that big of a deal at the end.

I'd probably focus on just managing the games and your tactics at first (at least that's what I did), so MLS actually isn't a bad place to start since the teams are fairly even. When you've got your feet under you there you could just keep going and figure out how MLS works or choose a team in a traditional league and get your head around the transfer system.

I would ordinarily say 'watch some Let's Plays', as that's how I've been doing the opposite journey trying to learn OOTP Baseball.

However, most of the LPs that I look at (Golden FM, Doctorbenjy, Work The Space) tend to run very long series which go light on explanations - for example Golden FM's latest series, with a constructed team called Regen Rovers, is on episode 116 and is currently in 2031. So I'm not sure whether they'll give you the sort of help that I get from watching OOTP streams where people go at a slower pace (ironically because they sim huge numbers of the actual games) but go slowly through the things I struggle with, like free agency, lineup settings and the draft.

That said, if you go to episode 1 of most FM series, there is a bit of explanation, because people will often review their existing squads and tactics, and say if/how they are planning to change them.

Thanks for the good advice.

I sort of feel like I understand the MLS rules better than I would understand the rules elsewhere. They are not completely out of place when compared to MLB/NBA/NFL rules, and without the expectations of a normal soccer fan coming it, they don't seem so strange to me.

I took that trade I mentioned, then realized that I had forgotten to check their expected placement. It was second, which made me much more skeptical of their value. Then I read that MLS superdraftee's tend to be busts for the first several years (it sounds like they improve once fictional players start taking over) ... so I cheated and started over. I followed the advice of moving even more things to AI management; I think I can already see them doing weird things, but thats ok for now (the best was a transfer they setup where the transfer fee exceeded my transfer budget).

I've tried to focus on the morale and PR related things, and managing the games themselves (I'm only three friendly matches in so far). Even in-game I'm mostly following the GM analysis and suggestions, though I've made a few changes of my own volition (with generally not-so-great results).

On a whim, yesterday I decided to find a challenging Football Manager 19 starting point in England, and then play them for a half hour to see what it was like. 8 hours later I was locked on to a career with Nuneaton Boro in the National League North. I like to take notes as I play, and I figured I'd post them here for fun. I tried saving a financially strapped team like this once before in a much older version of FM, but failed, so I'm not optimistic that I've got the chops to do this right. (As an aside, in real life Nuneaton Boro did get relegated.)

Season 1: Nuneaton Boro Preseason 2018
Nowhere But Up

Nuneaton Boro FC starts the 2018 season in the National League North, the sixth level of English football. They are odds on favorites for relegation. Making things even more challenging, they are £80k in debt, have barely enough players to field a team, are already almost at their full wage bill, and come pre-loaded with some questionably expensive yet marginal players.

It is here where I start my football manager career, hoping to survive this first year and gradually right the ship both on the pitch and off. I start myself off with no experience and no licenses, so most of my managerial skills are rated a 1 out of 20.

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/VHZndJ2.jpg)
Our beautiful, modern stadium.

I take over at the end of June, 2018. The first order of business is to assess the roster. Looking at the quality of players, none strikes me as particularly outstanding for this level of play, but we do have some functional players at keeper, central defender, and midfield. We desperately need a striker of sorts. We have no one at all who can play left mid.

But perhaps more important than the quality is the quantity. As it stands right now, we've got a total of 16 players, and only half are signed. We'll need to either hope no one gets hurt or bring on more players. Signing more players could be a problem, as shortly before I took over, the club signed some dubious one-year player contracts that have eaten up most of our salary capacity. Our total roster wages can't exceed £3k per week, and we're already at £2.75k. That means I have roughly £250 per week of wiggle room to add players. We do have some potential to add players via loan, with three of our six long-term loan spots available. We'll have to do a good job of scouting and adding helpful players.

I start out by bringing on two scouts and a physio, and set the scouts to work looking for players to sign. Our first official match isn't until early August, so we have some time. Unfortunately, our scouts seem to be pretty dodgy at producing reports, or I don't quite understand how they work any more. We fritter away most of July without identifying any clear improvements over what we've got. On the rare occasion we identify someone helpful, their wage demands are beyond what we can pay. Most loan targets don't want anything to do with us.

We end the month of preseason friendlies and training with two of our 16 players hurt and only one central midfielder added via loan. As we head into the opening weekend, experts peg us for last place and we can't fill out all our substitution spots on the roster.

Season 1: Nuneaton Boro August 2018
The Faintest of Pulses

A month of hard work preparing for the season only left us in worse condition than before we started. We head into our opening match with 15 players eligible to play, meaning that we don’t have enough players to fill our substitution slots. For our starting 11, we have to backfill with a right midfielder at left midfield, and a midfielder at striker. The results, predictably, aren’t pretty.

We lose our first match 1-0, inexplicably erupt for three goals and win our second match 3-1, then drop the next four, only scoring one goal over the stretch. We end the month on a faint positive note, as we score a late penalty against a strong opponent to earn a 1-1 draw. On the month, we win one, draw one, and lose five. We end up in 18th place, just above the relegation line by virtue of goal differential.

There are some positives in this. Four teams are still below us in the standings, so even being as bad as we were, we didn’t end up the month in the relegation zone. Also, as we end the month we bring in two strikers on loan to try and shore up our offense, and get our two injured players back on the active roster. We still need a left midfielder, however.

As an aside, I’m finding it tricky so far to get scouting reports in for players. Over the course of the month, our two scouts only got a small number of players scouted (and to 15-30% per player), so I feel like I’m largely blind as to what sort of talent is out there. I’ll have to take a closer look at how scouting works in this year’s version, as I feel like my scouting settings must be throwing things off somehow.

Season 1: Nuneaton Boro - September 2018
Things in Our Rear View Mirror are Closer than They Appear

We start out the month with an inspiring 2-1 comeback win against a weaker opponent, then get thumped 3-1 against second-place York. We follow that with a hard fought 0-0 draw against another weak club. That’s the end of the good news for September, though, as we go on to lose against a much weaker opponent in an FA Cup Qualifying round, then end the month with a frustrating 1-0 loss to a mid-table team. All in all we have 1 win, 1 draw, and 2 losses in league play. We currently sit in 19th place with 8 points after 11 games, above the relegation zone by one goal over the 20th place team.

If there is any consolation, we’re not getting demolished in our losses. Five of our seven losses have been by one goal. If we can somehow find a way to start scoring some goals without compromising our defense, we might be okay. But tweaking our formation from a 4-4-2 to a 3-1-4-2 hasn’t helped, and the two new strikers we brought in at the beginning of the month have zero goals in five games.

Next month we’ll play two top-six teams, a mid-table team, and the last place team. The last place game is huge, as we simply must find a way to come out of it with three points. Given our two tough matches, four points for the month would be satisfying.

Season 1: Nuneaton Boro - October 2018
We are In the Zone

Uff. What an aggravating adventure this is turning out to be. We start out the month by losing an intended confidence-building friendly against a weaker team. That sets the tone for the month, where we manage to lose to the two top-table teams and pick up 0-0 draws to the last place team and a mid-table team. The two points for the month drops our season record to 2 wins, 4 draws, and 9 losses. Our 10 points isn’t enough to keep us clear of the relegation zone, as we drop to 21st place, two points away from safety.

The frustrating part of it all is that we’re right in most games. We’re generating shots now, and getting balls on frame. In our 2-1 loss to the 6th place team, we skimmed a shot over the bar right at the last minute, and were even with them on shots. We just can’t find the net yet. Defensively we’re not all that horrible. We’ve given up 21 goals on the year, enough to stand 15th out of 22 teams. But offensively, we’re abysmal. Our 10 goals on the year put us second worst in the league.

Part of the fault lies with me, as our two loaned-in strikers have one goal between them now in two months of play. And I haven’t had success in bringing in anything through free agency to help us out. We’ve been without a left mid for so long that our right mid playing on the left has now converted to a left mid and appears to be fine there. Having said that, I’ve found a half dozen solid players who ask for more money than our board will allow me to pay, and we end up losing them.

As the weather turns to fall, we have to stay positive. The season is only one-third done. There is much football to be played. If we keep scouting, hunting, and working, we might yet bring in one or two players who could swing our fortunes. I feel like we’re one effective striker and a better midfielder away from tilting these close matches in our favor. If I can just find these people and get them in…

Onward!

Are you using manager chats on the non-scoring Forwards?

After a number of games without scoring you can chat to them about their performances and tell them that even though they haven't scored recently, you believe in them. Then give them the "I have faith in you!" pre-game chat to back that up and you can shake someone out of the funk, if you are genuinely producing chances for them to score.

Mr Bismarck wrote:

Are you using manager chats on the non-scoring Forwards?

After a number of games without scoring you can chat to them about their performances and tell them that even though they haven't scored recently, you believe in them. Then give them the "I have faith in you!" pre-game chat to back that up and you can shake someone out of the funk, if you are genuinely producing chances for them to score.

Oh, that's a good idea. I'll have to keep this in mind going forward, thanks!

I've got one forward who was with the team from the start who can't convert anything. He was getting a breakaway or two per game and drilling them right at the keeper. It was sad, really. He probably would have benefitted from that conversation.

The strikers I brought are definitely less worse as far as attributes go, but I don't think we're generating many chances for them. They do miss the few chances they get, however.

Season 1: Nuneaton Boro November 2018
Attack!

Things can’t get worse than they are, so on a whim I decide to switch our tactics away from our predominantly defensive stance to playing on the front foot. In our first match with these tactics, we find ourselves as usual down 1-0 at 90 minutes. But then... we score in the 91st minute and again in the 92nd minute to miraculously get our first win in 7 games! The win pulls us out of the relegation zone!

Our next match is similar. Down 1-0 after 90 minutes, we thunder back to score in extra time again to salvage the draw. In both of these matches we’re starting to look competitive, as we’re generating more shots and getting the ball on target.

Our third and final match of the month turns against us in the last 20 minutes. We were tied 2-2, but one of our central midfielders goes down with strained ankle ligaments. We have to jury rig a formation, but it doesn’t work. We lose 4-2, largely due to the following painful lower league goal. We are in blue...

That goal aside, three matches and four points this month is progress. We may be onto something with our emphasis on offense, as our midfielders in particular are horrible defenders. Maybe our best defense is an offense?

We do end November in 20th place, two points away from safety, but the mood in the clubhouse has taken a turn for the positive with our results this month. As things head towards December, we hope to build on our our newfound confidence.

Season 1: Nuneaton Boro December 2018
Dark, Darker, Darkest

Well, that went south quickly.

We start the month off with a huge positive result, beating first-place Stockport 3-1 on the road in the FA Trophy Cup. It's a marvelous win. We follow that with a 1-1 draw against a mid-table team, and things are definitely turning in the right direction.

The next five matches, however, bring us thundering back to earth in a series of increasingly depressing performances. We only manage one draw against four losses, and are beaten by a combined 10-2 tally over our last two matches.

The mood in the locker room has fallen apart, resulting in two team meetings to help patch things up. The fans are calling for me to change tactics, which we’ll be doing anyways. So many things are going wrong in our matches, and it doesn’t matter what I try. Defensive, positive, different players, different tweaks, it just doesn’t matter. Opponents are pummeling us on defense and snuffing out our attacks on offense. It’s awful. We end the month in 21st place, a full four points from safety.

Going forward, I’m at a loss as to what to try, and I can’t imagine the board will be patient with me. I’ve switched up our formation for January, but I honestly feel like the 3-1-4-2 we’d been using suited our personnel well, and we don’t have a lot of depth to work with.

Dammit.

Between your updates Godzilla, watching the Amazon Prime series about Leeds ("Take Us Home") and my general love of underdog/phoenix from the ashes stories, I am firing up FM again and going to attempt to save Bolton. This should be fun.

Don't expect the frequency and quality of update that Godzilla gives though.

Awesome, good luck with Bolton Prederick! I’m liking this year’s version quite a bit.

Season 1: Nuneaton Boro January 2019
Nails in the Coffin

Motivational posters teach us that things are darkest before the dawn, but things are also darkest right before you die, and I know which of the two outcomes we’re heading for. I’ve started to drink heavily and take pain killers so I can sleep.

We lose 2-0 at home to start the month, then storm back for a 3-2 win on the road against a top-10 team to inject some hope into our season. Our next three matches are against the 17th place team, the 20th place team, and the 22nd place team. It’s our golden opportunity to pick up points and get ourselves back into this thing, and we’re primed to go with our unexpected victory right before the stretch.

We lose all three matches, getting outscored 7-2 in the process.

It’s over. We end the month in 21st place, 9 points back of the 19th place team, with 14 matches to go. I’m not sure why they haven’t fired me yet, and for whatever reason the team still respects my leadership.

But I’ve totally failed here. We can’t even get people to come have a trial with us now, as they are “concerned about our place in the table.” No one will sign, we haven’t got any money, the fans are yelling for my head, and no matter what I do, we lose and lose and lose.

So yeah, bring on the drugs and alcohol. And the open jobs listing. I can’t have much longer here.

IMAGE(https://media.giphy.com/media/3ohze25dDvJdI6ySvm/giphy.gif)

Season 1: Nuneaton Boro - February 2019
Life Support, Please Pull the Plug

Four matches: one draw, three losses. The draw is a thrilling comeback from 3 goals down, so there is a brief moment of excitement in yet another month of pain. We end the month stuck in 21st place, a full 12 points away from safety with 10 matches to go.

In all the agony of the last three months, I lost track of many things. One of these is that our offense has gotten respectable, but our defense is the worst in the league. We’ve given up 64 goals in 32 matches. By shifting our formation and tactics, we compromised our defense more than we helped our offense.

There is one individual bright spot in all this. I signed a young free agent striker at the beginning of the month, and he’s starting to look like a very nice signing for us. If we were able to continue managing this team past this year, it’d be fun to see how he develops.

Although we have two months left, I’ve already gone into analysis mode, trying to figure out what I did wrong here. I’ve taken some notes for my future self. I can see a lot of places where I made mistakes, some my fault and some due to not being familiar with this year’s version yet.

Season 1: Nuneaton Boro - February 2019
Things I’ve Learned

Just some random notes as I reflect on the disaster of this first season.

• I should have immediately used Non-Contract players to aggressively fill out our roster. Not bringing on those players was super dumb.
• I wish I understood how scouting worked better in this version of the game before I started playing. The first 2-3 months I scouted ineffectively. I think I’ve mostly solved that now, but the sluggish start in analyzing free agents and loan targets was a killer.
• I should have used free trials earlier and more often. I only realized I could use these as a form of scouting after 2-3 months of play.
• I should have started with improving my defense and worked forward, and I should have continued to emphasize defense, not offense. I got blinded by my fall offensive successes, and only too late realized that my abysmal and thin defense was my bigger problem. I did not bring in a single defender during the season. That was stupid. Also, our outside backs were terrible. Shifting to a 3-back defensive line to solve the problem just didn’t work with the marginal central defenders we have. I should have picked up better outside backs and stuck with a 4-back defensive line.
• I should have been quicker seeking loan players. I twiddled my thumbs until the end of July, which didn’t leave me with enough time to scout and pick up some good players, and my unfamiliarity with this year’s scouting systems slowed me down even more.
• I should have tweaked my coaching responsibilities for training. I forgot that this existed until March. D’oh.
• I probably should have hired one more coach. (I only had one other than me).
• I also have a sense that I was too flighty in my tactics, making too many changes to our style of play, and getting too complicated with what I was trying to do. I should have kept things simple and more consistent.

Things to Keep Learning
• Tactics and formations. I think my strength in Football Manager is acquiring good players and managing finances. With Nuneation Boro, both of these things were much harder to do because of the financial mess (and I screwed up the player acquisition part because I wasn’t familiar enough with this version yet). That left tactical skill as a big component of how to save the team, and I’m just not very good at that yet.
• Training, maybe? This seems super complicated compared to previous years. I’m not sure if I want to wade into it, but I feel like the coach who was handling this for me totally sucked at it.
• Team Cohesion. Ooops. I completely missed this. (It feels somewhat buried in the UI and messaging system, to be honest, for something so important). Our cohesion was abysmal. Switching formations, lineups, and players as much as I did must have been a killer. Now that I know where this information lies, I can pay attention to it more, and be more conscious of building it up rather than ignoring it.

At the very low levels there's not too much wrong with putting out the best players you have in a 4-4-2 with direct play and very few individual instructions and then just letting them get on with it.

Advice that has worked in FM(/CM) since about 1995.

Mr Bismarck wrote:

At the very low levels there's not too much wrong with putting out the best players you have in a 4-4-2 with direct play and very few individual instructions and then just letting them get on with it.

Advice that has worked in FM(/CM) since about 1995.

Yeah, I definitely got way too complicated and inconsistent for the level of my team.

I'm loving these GB, please keep them going.

tboon wrote:

I'm loving these GB, please keep them going.

Thanks much, tboon! I’m glad you’re enjoying them. I’m not quite sure what I’ll do when I lose my job. (Relegation drops the team out of the leagues I can simulate in the game, so I apparently will automatically lose my job.)

I’m tempted to start over with a new game, same team and see if I can do better the second time around. Or maybe I’ll just keep going and see if I can ever get a new job in this universe again. I was a total nobody when I started, and now I’m a total nobody who has failed.

I've been enjoying your write ups too. If you do restart with the same team it might be interesting to see what would happen if you're not a total nobody. One of my favourite ways to play is to set myself as an ex international player, start with a low team and see where I rise to. No guarantee it would make any difference with poor old Nuneaton though!

EARLY BOLTON UPDATE:

Downloading the most recent database update and disabling first transfer window changes was a mistake. Much like real-life Bolton, I am relying on teenagers to help us get through the first half of the season.

Prederick wrote:

EARLY BOLTON UPDATE:

Downloading the most recent database update and disabling first transfer window changes was a mistake. Much like real-life Bolton, I am relying on teenagers to help us get through the first half of the season.

So you shut down the first transfer window and pretty much left yourself just with the squad as it stands now? Yikes, that's got to have made the first half of the season really challenging!

Blackice wrote:

I've been enjoying your write ups too. If you do restart with the same team it might be interesting to see what would happen if you're not a total nobody. One of my favourite ways to play is to set myself as an ex international player, start with a low team and see where I rise to. No guarantee it would make any difference with poor old Nuneaton though!

Thanks, Blackice! I did have quite a bit of player skepticism to overcome when I first took over Nuneaton. For whatever reason, I seem to have won over the locker room though. The players seem to really like me, but I might be too easy on them. If I do start over though, I think I'd like to see if I could have success just based on what I learned this first season. It's been a super frustrating season to play, but from a learning perspective I feel like I've learned so much.

Season 1: Nuneaton Boro March 2019
Zombie Apocalypse?

Well well, hol’ up a minute... The dead may be rising!

I spend some time simplifying our tactics, putting us back into a 4-4-2, being consistent, and shifting our emphasis to a more cautious, counter-attacking style of play. The results are immediate. We thrash second place Kiddermeister 3-1 on the road, play a tight 0-0 tie to a weaker team, then pummel top half Blyth 4-0. Another 0-0 draw follows to a top-five team. We end the month with a 0-1 defeat to another top ten team. All in all, we tally 2 wins, 2 draws, and 1 loss in what is our best month of the season so far.

The 8 points are enough to pull us within 9 points of 19th place Bradford PA, who we’ll play next month as well. With only 5 games left, it’s nearly impossible to imagine that we could close the gap, but the winning ways have definitely shifted the mood in the locker room.

A big part of our recent success has been free agent striker Khius Metz, who has brought speed and goals to our attack. I’ve also (much too late) picked up a decent left mid and a versatile defender. And in yet another move way too late, I’ve hired a third coach. Why I didn’t do these things earlier I’ll never know.

On a negative note, another team poached one of our quality non-contract midfielders mid-month, and there was nothing I could do about it. His loss in the middle will be tough to overcome, and I’m sure is a further hit to our cohesion.

We head into the final month of the season with an ever so faint hope of surviving this. If we can beat 19th place Bradford PA, that would leave us with 6 points to make up over four games. We’ll lose the goal differential, so we’ll have to pick up at least two more wins and a tie and hope the wheels come off the Bradford PA bus. Almost impossible, for sure?

Godzilla Blitz wrote:
Prederick wrote:

EARLY BOLTON UPDATE:

Downloading the most recent database update and disabling first transfer window changes was a mistake. Much like real-life Bolton, I am relying on teenagers to help us get through the first half of the season.

So you shut down the first transfer window and pretty much left yourself just with the squad as it stands now? Yikes, that's got to have made the first half of the season really challenging!

We are five games in.

We are 0-1-4, with a goal differential of -10.

Basically, I'm just trying to see if I can hang on until January.

Prederick wrote:
Godzilla Blitz wrote:
Prederick wrote:

EARLY BOLTON UPDATE:

Downloading the most recent database update and disabling first transfer window changes was a mistake. Much like real-life Bolton, I am relying on teenagers to help us get through the first half of the season.

So you shut down the first transfer window and pretty much left yourself just with the squad as it stands now? Yikes, that's got to have made the first half of the season really challenging!

We are five games in.

We are 0-1-4, with a goal differential of -10.

Basically, I'm just trying to see if I can hang on until January.

Rough start, for sure! But that could become a great second half comeback.

Season 1: Nuneaton Boro - April 2019
Relegated, Fired, Unemployed

Our miracle push to safety fizzles out fairly quickly. Up 2-1 in the 86th minute of our first game in April, we give up a late goal to end up with a draw. We fall behind 2-0 in our critical match against Bradford PA, then storm back to pull even, but can’t get over the line for a win. Two draws are not nearly enough, and we get mathematically eliminated with a loss in our next match.

Almost immediately after the loss that seals our relegation, our press officer forwards me an email of a news article announcing that I’ve been fired. Our president didn’t even bother to tell me in person. I grab a few personal items from my office and leave the Nuneaton Boro locker room. No one says goodbye. The club will likely finish 21st out of 22 teams. I’ve failed.

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/4zjBo8p.jpg)

Although things turned out poorly, I take heart at how much I learned. I’m almost tempted to rewind time and try the same club again, but in the end I decide to push on and look for another job in this same universe.

With such an awful personal reputation, I don’t think I can afford to be picky, so I apply for any and every job that seems remotely possible to get. I’m hopeful I can latch on to another club in the National North or South, but we’ll have to see how things turn out...