Soccer Gaming Catch-All

Hah, 3-3 with Arsenal at Emirates and 1-0 at home, despite playing for last half an hour with 10-men side. This team really shows some spirit, they've gone behind three times and managed to make it level, despite Aguero not playing in that first game.
Same story with Barca at Camp Nou, in my second league game: 84 minutes of hard-fought battle to find myself only one down, and then Maxi Rodriguez puts a leveller out of a hat. I like this side already. Unlike Premiership, Spanish side are full of players with rare personalities like "Driven" or "Spirited", and that makes managing them quite different.

UCRC wrote:

Pred, any FCd reccomencations? I will have something like 5-8 millions to burn and right now can't find anyone who would be skilled and strong striker.

I'm a LLaMa dude. Currently i'm over at FC Eindhoven in the Dutch Lower leagues. I'm trying to find reasonably competent anythings.

I'm avoiding this game like the plague as I know once I install it that's like a good week of my life instantly gone. Have to finals on the 5th so sometime after that I'll get it on steam and lose myself.

For the guys playing it now how useless/annoying are the media stuff. I honestly thought I wanted that in the game but in the demo it just seemed like a pain in the ass.

Also I noticed in tactics you cant get guys to make runs sideways or was it diagonal? My favorite tactic use to be a 4-1-2-1-2 where the 2 CM's would have diagonal (or curves like in the last version) to each corner flag for width. Worked really well as the DM would play the classic DM role and the CAM would fall back and link up with the 2 CM or the DM if the CM was off making width.

Also was a big fan of the 4-2-3-1 with the 2 CM having arrows backwards towards the DM spots and the 2 outer AM's with arrows sideways making width and that wasn't working so hot either.

UCRC wrote:

http://www.fm-britain.co.uk/forums/i... Yep

Prederick wrote:

I'm still working on making a good tactic that works for my team. I find that, using their tactic builds, I get a unfortunately constant message from my Assistant saying that there's too much space between defense and midfield.

Does anyone else find the Assistant helpful at all? Does anyone else listen to him? Or am I best off trusting my gut and my brain as in previous titles?

Both. He could be very helpful with opposition instructions, analysing your team morale and blending (great feature, btw) and passing instructions. But generally his assumptions might not fit your style (for example: sometimes it's vital to leave gaps between defence and midfield if you rely on quick attacks) so don't bother.
I had "too much space" information when I was playing tight 4-1-3-2 (with Palombo as a DM, check him out!) so it's obviously rubbish, although I think that using RoO or similar tactics (that would be Authoritarian style in TTF) should help. I've started my first game with Atletico and use split mentalities (Wenger style in TTF), I'll check whether I get the same feedback as I had with Arsenal.

I've built my first 4-4-2 in this game, scored 19 in three games, everything works pretty well and then... I get Arsenal in CL Qualifier, Forlan, Maxi Rodriguez and Simao look to leave and Aguero is called up for Olympics. And game at Emirates is in four days. What a clusterf*ck that might be.
I'm okay with likes of Forlan and Simao leaving, but buying new players = more gelling problems.
Pred, any FCd reccomencations? I will have something like 5-8 millions to burn and right now can't find anyone who would be skilled and strong striker.

See if you can get Jesus Gil's equally corrupt successor to syphon more money from the Marbella City Council coffers, then buy a top striker.

jowner wrote:

Also I noticed in tactics you cant get guys to make runs sideways or was it diagonal? My favorite tactic use to be a 4-1-2-1-2 where the 2 CM's would have diagonal (or curves like in the last version) to each corner flag for width. Worked really well as the DM would play the classic DM role and the CAM would fall back and link up with the 2 CM or the DM if the CM was off making width.

Also was a big fan of the 4-2-3-1 with the 2 CM having arrows backwards towards the DM spots and the 2 outer AM's with arrows sideways making width and that wasn't working so hot either.

Arrows have changed completely. They now solely indicate whether or not a player makes forward runs rarely (backwards arrow), mixed (none) or often (forwards arrow).

Prederick wrote:
jowner wrote:

Also I noticed in tactics you cant get guys to make runs sideways or was it diagonal? My favorite tactic use to be a 4-1-2-1-2 where the 2 CM's would have diagonal (or curves like in the last version) to each corner flag for width. Worked really well as the DM would play the classic DM role and the CAM would fall back and link up with the 2 CM or the DM if the CM was off making width.

Also was a big fan of the 4-2-3-1 with the 2 CM having arrows backwards towards the DM spots and the 2 outer AM's with arrows sideways making width and that wasn't working so hot either.

Arrows have changed completely. They now solely indicate whether or not a player makes forward runs rarely (backwards arrow), mixed (none) or often (forwards arrow).

Yep. If you want to play 4-1-2-1-2 with wide CMs you will need to use Free Role, set Cross Ball to often or set your team really wide (note: if you're playing tight formation like this, setting 'width' higher than usual is always recommended)

btw: What formation and tactics are you using Pred? My 4-4-2 still seems to work well, though playing wide wing players like Simao and Maxi Rodriguez sucks when you got no firepower in the air. (That's why I was asking for FCd).

I'm working a basic 4-4-2. At some point, i'd like to broaden my tactical abilities and try a 4-1-3-2 or a 4-3-2-1 but I can barely get my best striker, who is the total ponderous, slow-moving Target Man to even play a 6.0 (Tim Nelemans, if you're interested in seeing what i'm working with), much less the part of a competent link-up man dropping deep.

I'm a Rule of One kind of guy, but i'm getting slightly overwhelmed by some of the variables that can affect how you set out your team. Weather, your opposition's ability, the size of the pitch, so on and so forth. I almost (not quite) but almost wish there was a slightly easier mode to play. I'm just so stunned when people talk about taking over at, like, Forest Green and winning the Champions League within a decade. (That and scheduling friendlies against top-level teams with minnows isn't how you're going to get a great idea of your team's capabilities).

Although, if I could managed to figure out how to play both Jane's F/A-18 and Falcon 4.0 competently, there's really no reason I shouldn't be able to remember all the variables here. It's gotta be easier than dropping a JDAM on a bridge from 10 miles away.

Oh, as an aside, PES 2009 has been out for TWO WEEKS here stateside. Konami STILL has not released the patch that updates the rosters and adds a few new teams. Just total, utter failure.

GRAH!

I swear to god, how the f*ck do you get competence out of your team in this goddamn game? My team's cranking 20-yarders rather than work the ball into the box, my center-backs are making a MINIMUM of 6-8 mistakes a game. Jesus Christ, am I [i]that[/b] bad at this goddamn game? No wonder people cheat.

Pred

I'm guessing this depends upon which team you are using....do I remember correctly in that you play by LLM rules ?

Certainly Premiership centre backs don't make 6-8 mistakes a game (looks meaningfully at Richard Dunne, shotgun in hand....)

This is true. When you're a LLaMa, 11 cloggers tooling around the pitch screwing everything up is pretty much the norm.

I lied I got the game I couldn't wait.

Playing as Wolves. Started unemployed and waited for someone to get fired and now its my mission to get them promoted and to stay up before I start looking at other clubs.

That said morale seems to be fairly huge in this version or atleast when your playing at lower levels. I took Wolves over at 20th spot and could only drag them up to 13th. Was kinda handcuffed with my current team and not much funds to work with to turn the ship around faster.

Going into the 2nd year and I'm cruising to atleast a playoff spot. Spent/sold wisely to upgrade the average quality of the team while unloading whoever I could get a good deal for and wasn't happy at Molineux. Most importantly sunk 3.4m into Manucho who was listed by Man U and hes turning out to be a great buy terrorizing the Championship/League Cup. In 19(3) 15 gls 5 ast and 4 mom at a 7.34 rating. Not too shabby.

Not sure if its my settings but the scouting system seems to be better this time. Took me really the first 5months to get some decent scouts going but I have them now checking all the European regions and I'm finding good future prospects or immediate upgrades in their reports. Scouring the listed players though is still a great way to find affordable upgrades that are also willing to come to the club. How I found Manucho and Glauber. edit: actually how I got Amaury Bischoff off Arsenal also as he was listed at an affordable 950k and does well in the Championship.
edit2: me and my big mouth I come here to brag about how well Manucho is doing and he broke his foot for 4months.

I had second group game with Man Utd yesterday and they've played Manucho up front. Wins 2-1 away, 2-0 at home with English Premiership leaders give me some confidence in this team. Meanwhile, I've won 5-1 with Valencia at Mestalla (in spite of Aguero being injured for few weeks now) and I'm second in league, two points behind Barca.
btw: I've just signed van der Vaart from Real for 7.5 mil. Whaddya think, is this a good move? Have I got a bit carried away and should have brought in some less-known but better player? VVV has amazing skills obviously, but his heading and teamwork worry me. Gah, shouldn't have bought him (Or maybe I'll try to play 4-2-3-1, cause he would be amazing AMC playmaker)

Meanwhile, roughly 210,000 levels lower than you all, i'm tooling around with Farsley Celtic after getting sacked from Paris FC and restarting. Five games in we're 2-2-1 and my collection of Cab Drivers, Plumbers, Postmen and other assorted part-timers are looking pretty solid and may make the promotion playoffs.

Prederick wrote:

Meanwhile, roughly 210,000 levels lower than you all, i'm tooling around with Farsley Celtic after getting sacked from Paris FC and restarting. Five games in we're 2-2-1 and my collection of Cab Drivers, Plumbers, Postmen and other assorted part-timers are looking pretty solid and may make the promotion playoffs.

No idea how you do it. That just sounds painful

Finished 12th in the Prem with Wolves in my 3rd full season. Sniped some great players out of Brazil. One by the name of Portela MC/AMC (not sure if he is generated or real) who cost me 13.5m and was forced sold on to Real for 30m after just 1 season after winning EPL young player of the year.

Alex Texeira who's a great striker but is also green in ML,MC,MR AR,AMC,AL which is just great for versatility. Him + Henok Goitom who was inexcusably transfer listed as I was being promoted by Murcia for 2.7m have made my attack force so potent theres no way I'm getting relegated but at the same time I'm shipping way to many goals to move up. So that's why after I cashed in 30m on Portela I turned around and got Ochoa as a goalie from America who at 27 seems to be maxed stars so even though I payed 18m for him I don't think I will need a goalie again for 8 season atleast and I will never last that long in this game let alone at Wolves.

Turned down an offer to coach Newcastle also.

0 luck in the FA cup and League cup so far which is a shame as if you can get to the final thats always a sure way to get a UEFA spot and your reputation much higher when trying to sign players.

So yea pretty much Brazil is an obvious goldmine. The prices aren't cheap but you get worldclass players who are actually interested in coming and on reasonable wages. My wheeling and dealing might be over though as it looks like this season I might just break even as my wage bill has skyrocketed up and I spent maybe too much (75m on 8 players :o). Might not be too bad though as my team is fairly deep and balanced that if I can just keep what I have I don't need anyone next year. Too bad this year I have 6 guys injured currently and 2 of them are the 5-6 month variety :/

oh yea the Stadium is expanded to 42k and Wolves have good enough support that 32k of that gets sold to season ticket holders.

I just picked up FM09, Started my first game - 55 leagues loaded in europe, started unemployed. Playing to strict LLM rules. My plan is to get what jobs I can and bounce around Europe from job to job each time i get sacked, after 4 months I'm still unemployed

@jowner
I don't get it. Three seasons? I'm in middle of my first. (But, like I said before; I've found out that playing games with 'full match' highlights on is the way to get the most out of this game. It makes me feel like I'm managing things actually).
I've always been wary of bringing in to much foreign players. With whole language barrier/adaptability thing it could always backfire. But hey, you're the man!
(btw: What budget did they gave you? In FM 2008 I had 1.2mil to spend as a whole for my two first seasons in Cardiff I've finished in playoffs in my second season and was third after 20 games into third season).
Five-six injuries? In my first six months at Atletico the only long term injury was Aguero, who's ruled for next two months. I'm not sure what I did right, maybe it's La Liga, but I keep my players pretty fit.

Prozac wrote:

I just picked up FM09, Started my first game - 55 leagues loaded in europe, started unemployed. Playing to strict LLM rules. My plan is to get what jobs I can and bounce around Europe from job to job each time i get sacked, after 4 months I'm still unemployed

55? Whoa there.
Maybe you picked 'no previous experience' and Aussie nationality? Then I wouldn't be too surprised. (Not to mention that waiting with 55 leagues running in background will be pretty painful experience, sir)

IGN botched FM 2009 review.

IGN US really dropped the ball on this: they reviewed WSM 2009 (aka FM 2009) comparing it to PES and FIFA :-O and gave it a 2/10 :-O. "Poor graphics", "Sound non-existent", ... where some of the comments. They pulled it down after outrage ensued.

Incredible

That's one job cut that has nothing to do with the crisis

Yea I've been fairly injury free until this season until the game gave me Arsenal level difficulty injuries.

Budgets? well everything depends on what goal your willing to set (avoid relegation vs mid table finish and so on) and Wolves are not exactly a dirt poor club. They start with a 26k stadium and usually average over 20k attendance even in the championship so once I got promoted that 29.5m of tv contract money and almost maxed out attendance and 0 debt makes them a fairly rich club fast.

I think in the championship my budget to contend was like 5m, first year promoted to avoid relegation was like 11m, 2nd year up mid table finish was like 15m around and then by the time it was my 4th full season the club had already upgraded the stadium to 42k so top half finish put me at a 25m transfer budget. Throw in flipping players to other Prem clubs who spend like drunken sailors, eg I made 16m selling 12 players my first year up, 2nd year another 15m like selling Glauber who cost me 700k rotting at Man City transfer listed for 5.5 to Portsmouth, 3rd year 21m sold flipping Ryan McGowan to promoted Ipswich for 6m when he cost me 400k and oh yea you will like this one Lukasz Piszczek I sniped when I was in the championship for 500k and after my 2nd Prem season he was my 3rd/4th striker and only played 25 games and 4 goals and I managed to sell him to newly re-promoted Hull for 5.5m. Hull got relegated and now hes off at PSG on the bench So yea plently of money to spend if your willing to flip players once they start becoming fringe or you know you can turn around and buy a better player cheaper.

Foreign players? Its the only way to move fast in the Prem as buying domestic is inflated pretty much like real life. I've honestly had no problems with my first team players adapting. Maybe its because I set my nationality to Canadian/Portuguese so my languages are English, Portuguese, French and apparently Spanish not sure where I picked that up from. Probably doesn't hurt that the Brazillians I'm bringing in are just so gross and that I already have 2 Portuguese players in the squad. Speaking of which the only guys left on my team from the Championship team I got promoted with are Amaury Bischoff who is looking like a major steal in the game as he cost me 950k and I still haven't been able to replace him and a guy named David Jones who starts at Wolves. Jones isn't quite as good but hes still a solid sub on my team.

Just double checked theres 1 more, Miguel Lopes my RB came in for 600k when I was in the Chamionship and hes now pretty much played 132 games for me without ever being missing with any major injuries. Same situation as the other 2 really hes at around 4 stars so good enough to cut it but I'll eventually have to replace them all if I'm going to Europe.

dejanzie wrote:

IGN botched FM 2009 review.

IGN US really dropped the ball on this: they reviewed WSM 2009 (aka FM 2009) comparing it to PES and FIFA :-O and gave it a 2/10 :-O. "Poor graphics", "Sound non-existent", ... where some of the comments. They pulled it down after outrage ensued.

Incredible

That's one job cut that has nothing to do with the crisis :-)

Hahahah thats just hilarious.

Yeah, I read the review while it was still up - Christ knows what the guy was on, he must have been drunk or something.

I thought it was some work experience kid, and was wondering why the sports editor hadn't chopped it, but apparently it was their chief sports editor...probably more used to 'extreme sports' and uses words like 'rad' a lot.

That's not even a botch, that's like slamming Europa Universalis III for not being like Age of Empires. That's just astonishingly, spectacularly dumb. He actually compared it to PES and FIFA.

davet010 wrote:

Yeah, I read the review while it was still up - Christ knows what the guy was on, he must have been drunk or something.

I thought it was some work experience kid, and was wondering why the sports editor hadn't chopped it, but apparently it was their chief sports editor...probably more used to 'extreme sports' and uses words like 'rad' a lot.

Unfortunately, it just seems he's an incredibly dumb American who is unfamiliar with the variety of sports games out there that don't require controllers to play. This is especially egregious when you consider that, worldwide, Championship/Football Manager is one of the best selling titles ever.

FOR f*ck'S SAKE.
(I can't seem to find proper words in English to describe my reaction. Nah, I can't even think of proper words in Polish neither.)

Prederick wrote:

This is especially egregious when you consider that, worldwide, Championship/Football Manager is one of the best selling titles ever.

I guess this made him feel like "See? I told you those British are dumb!".

Aren't there American Football, or basketball, or any other patriotic sport management games out there? And if not, how did it not ring a "Hey, this is like Pizza Tycoon only with gay European commie wannabe athletes!" bell?

dejanzie wrote:

Aren't there American Football, or basketball, or any other patriotic sport management games out there?

Maybe they rate them all the same way? We shoul check, that would be priceless.

Yeah - some of them (like 'Front Office Football') are actually quite good.

I'm just wondering whether said person was expecting something more like the 'Head Coach 09' type game, that uses the Madden engine. The other possible one would be Out Of the Park 9 (OOTP), which for a couple of years was actually part of the SI stable, along with the hockey management sim EHL. I wonder if they actually reviewed OOTP, because that really is a real Marmite game.

davet010 wrote:

Yeah - some of them (like 'Front Office Football') are actually quite good.

I'm just wondering whether said person was expecting something more like the 'Head Coach 09' type game, that uses the Madden engine. The other possible one would be Out Of the Park 9 (OOTP), which for a couple of years was actually part of the SI stable, along with the hockey management sim EHL. I wonder if they actually reviewed OOTP, because that really is a real Marmite game.

That's the only reasonable expectation, that the reviewer was the kind of person who thinks Madden 09 qualifies as a "Sim" and therefore Head Coach 09 was the most recent evolution of the text-based game genre. Still, incomprehensibly lazy and dumb.

Meanwhile, i'm still fooling around with 9.2.0. Here's hoping it cuts down on crossbar hits and goalie clearances that turn into longballs over the top.

Prederick wrote:

Meanwhile, i'm still fooling around with 9.2.0. Here's hoping it cuts down on crossbar hits

Did it? I'm installing it right now, I've forgot about update for couple of days. I've been playing FM for my whole Christmas to the point where I really hate myself (but still keep on playing). How's your game?
I'm through second Atletico season. Game has been easier, cause their budget really gives you possibilities to go over the top, I've spent 140mil pounds (and still made profit with selling other players and revenues) and it's getting pretty boring. Barca is so overpowered that it's getting quite pointless to compete against them: in my second season I've lost to them in both CL final and league cup final. I'm pretty much in a point where I can't achieve more than I've already did so I guess I'll drop it there and start new game with some league one or two team, trying some Llama rules. I thought about going back to my Arsenal save from demo for a minute, but Gunners seem to be overpowered too ;]

I've been playing way to much also.

The year is 2016 :o.

Kinda getting frustrated with player development though. My board at one point allowed me to have 13 scouts and I have them all touring the world and I find a decent amount of prospect players to sign the problem though is I haven't been able to make a single one go from good/ok to excellent/star rating. The only excellent/star players in my squad are Alex Texeira who came in as excellent and has just maintained his rating and Calin Anghel who I think is a generated player who came in as a star at a whopping 35m cost. Worth every penny as hes a world class player and is getting player of the year nominations but its not like I had any hand in his development. He came in maxed out and has just maintained that.

Frustrating part is I've gone through maybe 5-6 players that could of been stars or excellent and instead they have maybe improved 1 star while losing 1-2 stars off their cap. This is with maxed out senior and youth facility and coaches that are maxing out stars at youth and senior schedules.

my strategy to win the Prem is to get to 2020 when Torres, Ronaldo and Cesc are old because I cant find enough great players to spend on and I cant develop any youngsters to bridge the gap. Best finish has been 4th and I got dumped out of the CL group stage very quickly to Barca/Bojan and Leverkusen.

jowner wrote:

Frustrating part is I've gone through maybe 5-6 players that could of been stars or excellent and instead they have maybe improved 1 star while losing 1-2 stars off their cap. This is with maxed out senior and youth facility and coaches that are maxing out stars at youth and senior schedules.

When looking for top-notch coaches, mind their mental atributes: you want them to have high tactical knowledge, motivating and all such. I never considered this to be any important, but I've just read game manual and it clearly indicates that they also work with players *by example*.

I've got to the gap you're talking about in 2010 already: there's no way to beat Barca, when I can't buy much stronger players that I already have, few youngsters show promise but that's still two-three year plan. I've beaten Arsenal, Man United (twice) and Chelsea during two years in Champions League, I've beaten Napoli 7-0 at home in knockout stage, and still, Barca handed my ass to me in final, where I got two down and still was happy that it wasn't more. Oh, and when I did draw with them (in league cup final), they just won penalties.
GAAAAH. I'm leaving that savegame for now and look up some nice League One team.